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WEEKLY SIG MEETING UPDATE 13 - 18 December 2010
1st Floor Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts 280 Pitt Street, Sydney http://www.sydneypc.com Sydney PCUG's Blog UPCOMING SIGs 20 - 25 December 2010 Tuesday's Senior SIG Genealogy SIG Wanted A presenter is wanted for January's Senior SIG. No previous experience is required! Non-monetary rewards are great! Apply here: newsletter@sydneypc.com Picasa UPDATE download	Hello and Welcome, Here are the details of next week's meetings: *Monday 13 December -Stocks & Shares -M. Robertson -5:30pm - 8:30pm* At this meeting, Malcolm will look at a very recent talk about China and its property, infrastructure and commodity boom. The whole world is wondering how long this boom will last. Malcolm will discuss this too! Investment analysts often look at a company's cash flow along with the return on equity and debt to equity ratios when considering the merits of a particular share.However, cash flow can mean different things to different people. Malcolm will discuss the different ways the term is used and tell the group where to find the "numbers". As usual, the group will look at a selection of interesting Australian shares. This meeting promises to give members much to think about when they sit down to plan the year ahead. You are welcome to attend. *Tuesday 14 December - Programming - N. Hoffman - 5:30pm - 8:30pm* At the November meeting Andrew visited the Dontronics webpage and looked at the ARM Astrobe development system that uses the programming language Oberon-07. He also showed us Microchip's extreme low power XLP chip. David compared ARM microprocessors with the PIC and ATMEL products. He also introduced us to MBED, a tool developed by ARM for rapid prototyping with microcontrollers. It uses two innovations; a USB disk based programmer on the hardware, and compiler tools from a cloud-computing based web-application that runs in a web browser. It supports many interfaces, so can be connected to many input and output circuits and modules. Peter showed us the DIOS GPS Logger at kronosrobotics.com/. Chris described the Sparkfun USB weather board that graphs the weather over time through a USB-connected board of sensors. Come and see some new projects on Tuesday. Everyone is welcome. *Friday 17 december - Digital Photography- P. Collard - 9:30am - 12:30pm* Peter plans to discuss some of the methods that can be used to catalogue photo collections at this meeting. He will consider the pros and cons of: - manually entering details of photos in a database; - utilizing filenames and exif data to sort photos; and - using the features in programs like Picasa to store photos. The photographic exercise this month was "portraits" and members will once again enjoy looking at the photographs taken for this exercise. A question and answer session will also keep minds active and provide some lessons for everyone. *Saturday 18 December - Web Design - R. Hume - 1:30pm - 4:30pm* Peter Collard will lead the group this month. The group will start by taking a closer look at Netobjects Fusion 10 after last month's preview of the program. Then, the real action will commence. The group will start changing their web site (developed with version 9) into to one that runs under the newer Netobjects Fusion 10. The group will also try inserting maps and a "customer" feedback facility into a web page. This will be another excellent meeting for anyone interested in web page development. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cheers,< John Please remember if your e-mail address is changed for any reason at all, unless you tell me your new address you will not receive these weekly updates! Any change of address should be notified to changedetails@sydneypc.com
Information for Members and Visitors: Sydney PC User Group's FREE newsletter: Subscribe Send to Friend Un-subscribe Go to Sydney PC User Group's: Website Events Calendar Please note that all Meetings, except where specifically stated, are held on the 1st Floor, Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney. DISCLAIMER: This Newsletter is provided “As Is” without warranty of any kind. Each user or reader of this Newsletter assumes complete risk as to the accuracy and subsequent use of its contents.

Monday 13 December -Stocks & Shares -M. Robertson -5:30pm - 8:30pm

At this meeting, Malcolm will look at a very recent talk about China and its property, infrastructure and commodity boom. The whole world is wondering how long this boom will last. Malcolm will discuss this too!

Investment analysts often look at a company's cash flow along with the return on equity and debt to equity ratios when considering the merits of a particular share.However, cash flow can mean different things to different people. Malcolm will discuss the different ways the term is used and tell the group where to find the "numbers".

As usual, the group will look at a selection of interesting Australian shares.

This meeting promises to give members much to think about when they sit down to plan the year ahead. You are welcome to attend.

Tuesday 14 December - Programming - N. Hoffman - 5:30pm - 8:30pm

At the November meeting Andrew visited the Dontronics webpage and looked at the ARM Astrobe development system that uses the programming language Oberon-07. He also showed us Microchip's extreme low power XLP chip.

David compared ARM microprocessors with the PIC and ATMEL products. He also introduced us to MBED, a tool developed by ARM for rapid prototyping with microcontrollers. It uses two innovations; a USB disk based programmer on the hardware, and compiler tools from a cloud-computing based web-application that runs in a web browser. It supports many interfaces, so can be connected to many input and output circuits and modules.

Peter showed us the DIOS GPS Logger at kronosrobotics.com/.
Chris described the Sparkfun USB weather board that graphs the weather over time through a USB-connected board of sensors.

Come and see some new projects on Tuesday. Everyone is welcome.

Friday 17 december - Digital Photography- P. Collard - 9:30am - 12:30pm

Peter plans to discuss some of the methods that can be used to catalogue photo collections at this meeting.

He will consider the pros and cons of:

- manually entering details of photos in a database;

- utilizing filenames and exif data to sort photos; and

- using the features in programs like Picasa to store photos.

The photographic exercise this month was "portraits" and members will once again enjoy looking at the photographs taken for this exercise.

A question and answer session will also keep minds active and provide some lessons for everyone.

Saturday 18 December - Web Design - R. Hume - 1:30pm - 4:30pm

Peter Collard will lead the group this month.

The group will start by taking a closer look at Netobjects Fusion 10 after last month's preview of the program.

Then, the real action will commence. The group will start changing their web site (developed with version 9) into to one that runs under the newer Netobjects Fusion 10.

The group will also try inserting maps and a "customer" feedback facility into a web page.

This will be another excellent meeting for anyone interested in web page development.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheers,<

John

Please remember if your e-mail address is changed for any reason at all, unless you tell me your new address you will not receive these weekly updates! Any change of address should be notified to changedetails@sydneypc.com