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WEEKLY SIG MEETING UPDATE 11 - 16 April 2011
1st Floor Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts 280 Pitt Street, Sydney http://www.sydneypc.com Sydney PCUG's Blog UPCOMING SIGs 18 - 23 April 2011 Tuesday's Senior SIG Genealogy Digital Photography SIG BitMeter OS download... *Are web Cookies dangerous?* John Lucke's presentation to this week's Communication SIG is now on the Club's Web page. You can see it here.	Hello and Welcome, Next week the stock exchange watchers, the programmers and the web designers are meeting. Here are the details: *Monday 11 April - Stocks & Shares - M. Robertson- 5:30pm - 8:30pm* Malcolm will start the meeting with a review the current state of the share market with the ASX All Ords ended at 5036 today, Friday 8 April, in an economic climate where: - German exports to China have begun to outstrip those to the US. - China has become the world's largest car maker. - the US dollar Index continues to fall, helping US exports. - Gold has hit US$ 1,460 and is expected to rise to US$ 1,500 soon. - the US$ /AUD$ has hit $1.05 and will probably rise to $1.10 and even higher. Malcolm will also complete Part 2 of his discussion of Roger Montgomery's share valuing techniques before looking at some interesting web sites and the latest news on the science of climate/weather change. *Tuesday 12 April - Programming - N. Hoffman - 5:30pm - 8:30pm* At the March meeting Alex demonstrated the Picaxe Virtual System Modelling program, a software circuit simulator that combines a virtual Picaxe chip with animated components and SPICE circuit analysis to produce a simulation of a complete Picaxe project. He showed it working on two pulse width modulation circuits he designed. He drew the circuits using simulations of a Picaxe, a 555, a FET, a transistor, resistors, capacitors, and switches. Then he altered various component values and observed the results using simulated instruments: voltmeters, ammeters, oscilloscopes. For more Picaxe VSM information see http://www.picaxevsm.com. Martin showed us his STM32F103 ARM development board from Futurlec. Geoff wrote a small Picaxe program to show the advantages of using layers in programming. Neville Hoffman *Saturday 16 April - Web Design - R. Hume - 1:30pm - 4:30pm* At the March meeting the group finished the Monthly Newsletter linking page on their Web page so that the newsletters are now located by reference to their year and month of publication. A topic index will be made later. The Archived Reports page was also simplified and broken up into years so that they are not all on one long page. At the end of this year the current Reports page will be copied onto the 2011 archive. The group also had time for a quick look at a couple of “colour pickers”. Pixie Color by NattyWare and CPick by Sam Francke looked nice. At this month's meeting the group will fill the gaps in Brent’s newsletters and tidy up the formatting of the monthly reports. You are welcome to join them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 11 April - Stocks & Shares - M. Robertson- 5:30pm - 8:30pm

Malcolm will start the meeting with a review the current state of the share market with the ASX All Ords ended at 5036 today, Friday 8 April, in an economic climate where:
- German exports to China have begun to outstrip those to the US.
- China has become the world's largest car maker.
- the US dollar Index continues to fall, helping US exports.
- Gold has hit US$ 1,460 and is expected to rise to US$ 1,500 soon.
- the US$ /AUD$ has hit $1.05 and will probably rise to $1.10 and even higher.

Malcolm will also complete Part 2 of his discussion of Roger Montgomery's share valuing techniques before looking at some interesting web sites and the latest news on the science of climate/weather change.

Tuesday 12 April - Programming - N. Hoffman - 5:30pm - 8:30pm

At the March meeting Alex demonstrated the Picaxe Virtual System Modelling program, a software circuit simulator that combines a virtual Picaxe chip with animated components and SPICE circuit analysis to produce a simulation of a complete Picaxe project. He showed it working on two pulse width modulation circuits he designed. He drew the circuits using simulations of a Picaxe, a 555, a FET, a transistor, resistors, capacitors, and switches. Then he altered various component values and observed the results using simulated instruments: voltmeters, ammeters, oscilloscopes. For more Picaxe VSM information see http://www.picaxevsm.com.

Martin showed us his STM32F103 ARM development board from Futurlec.

Geoff wrote a small Picaxe program to show the advantages of using layers in programming. Neville Hoffman

Saturday 16 April - Web Design - R. Hume - 1:30pm - 4:30pm

At the March meeting the group finished the Monthly Newsletter linking page on their Web page so that the newsletters are now located by reference to their year and month of publication. A topic index will be made later.

The Archived Reports page was also simplified and broken up into years so that they are not all on one long page. At the end of this year the current Reports page will be copied onto the 2011 archive.

The group also had time for a quick look at a couple of “colour pickers”. Pixie Color by NattyWare and CPick by Sam Francke looked nice.

At this month's meeting the group will fill the gaps in Brent’s newsletters and tidy up the formatting of the monthly reports. You are welcome to join them.

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

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