Sydney PC User Group Incorporated Members helping Members for over 24 Years Visitors are always welcome
WEEKLY SIG MEETING UPDATE 10 - 15 October 2011
1st Floor Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts 280 Pitt Street, Sydney http://www.sydneypc.com Sydney PCUG's Blog UPCOMING SIGs 17 - 22 October 2011 Tuesday's Seniors SIG Genealogy SIG During the week PC Tech Authority reported that "there are few programs that can honestly be described as ‘must have’ tools, but for anyone who works with images, this is something that can be said of Paint.NET." More details can be seen here and here. Paint.NET 3.5.9 Download it from FileHippo here.	Hello and Welcome, Unfortunately, it has been necessary to cancel the Stocks and Shares SIG this month. Details of the other meetings being held next week are below: *Monday 10 October - The Stocks & Shares SIG has been cancelled.* *Tuesday 11 October - Programming - N. Hoffman - 5:30pm - 8:30pm* At the September meeting of this group Peter introduced us to Amforth, a Forth interpreter for Atmel microcontrollers. Paul demonstrated a toy tank he modified with a PIC controller to respond to commands and avoid obstacles. Christopher visited virtualvillage.com.au, and showed its large range of low cost electronic equipment. Bob showed a video of a robotic seagull on TED.com. Andrew described the PIC-based battery tester he developed and Peter downloaded for future use the PICaxe editor and the PICaxe manuals. At next week's meeting the group will look at some other new microprocessor applications and programming examples. Neville Hoffman *Friday 14 October - Seniors - 9:30am - 12:30pm* There will be a question and answer session at the beginning of this meeting and a wide ranging discussion of items of interest to the members. Please come prepared with your questions and some issues that might be of interest to the members of the group. *Friday 14 October - Communications - J. Lucke - 12:30pm - 3:30pm* The main event at this week's Communications SIG will be the first round of "The Battle of the Browsers". Two browsers will be chosen on the day and a driver and supporters will vie to display their browser's superiority. Each browser must perform some common tasks such web searches, adding a favourite link or displaying recent browsing history. Coaching by supporters on the side line will be encouraged. The main purpose of the contest is to discover each browser's best features and capabilities. This may lead the participants to try a different browser, add some new plug-ins or customize the one they are using now. Some online reviews may be looked at if time allows. As usual there will also be question and answer session and general discussion on communication topics. *Saturday 15 October - Web Design - R. Hume - 1:30pm - 4:30pm* At the last meeting the group discussed why the menu was not working in one of the member's web site when it was viewed in Mozilla Firefox. In the process of looking at the member's web pages, suggestions were offered that they would look better if the backgrounds were lighter. The group next looked at two code writing programs Alleycode and Bluegriffon. Peter also drew the group's attention to a program to look at colour blindness parameters to highlight the problems people have in reading web sites. At this month's meeting there will be a question and answer session before the group proceeds with some web page editing. You are welcome to come to the meeting. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 10 October - The Stocks & Shares SIG has been cancelled.

Tuesday 11 October - Programming - N. Hoffman - 5:30pm - 8:30pm

At the September meeting of this group Peter introduced us to Amforth, a Forth interpreter for Atmel microcontrollers.

Paul demonstrated a toy tank he modified with a PIC controller to respond to commands and avoid obstacles. Christopher visited virtualvillage.com.au, and showed its large range of low cost electronic equipment. Bob showed a video of a robotic seagull on TED.com.

Andrew described the PIC-based battery tester he developed and Peter downloaded for future use the PICaxe editor and the PICaxe manuals.

At next week's meeting the group will look at some other new microprocessor applications and programming examples.
Neville Hoffman

Friday 14 October - Seniors - 9:30am - 12:30pm

There will be a question and answer session at the beginning of this meeting and a wide ranging discussion of items of interest to the members.

Please come prepared with your questions and some issues that might be of interest to the members of the group.

Friday 14 October - Communications - J. Lucke - 12:30pm - 3:30pm

The main event at this week's Communications SIG will be the first round of "The Battle of the Browsers".

Two browsers will be chosen on the day and a driver and supporters will vie to display their browser's superiority. Each browser must perform some common tasks such web searches, adding a favourite link or displaying recent browsing history. Coaching by supporters on the side line will be encouraged.

The main purpose of the contest is to discover each browser's best features and capabilities. This may lead the participants to try a different browser, add some new plug-ins or customize the one they are using now. Some online reviews may be looked at if time allows.

As usual there will also be question and answer session and general discussion on communication topics.

Saturday 15 October - Web Design - R. Hume - 1:30pm - 4:30pm

At the last meeting the group discussed why the menu was not working in one of the member's web site when it was viewed in Mozilla Firefox. In the process of looking at the member's web pages, suggestions were offered that they would look better if the backgrounds were lighter.

The group next looked at two code writing programs Alleycode and Bluegriffon. Peter also drew the group's attention to a program to look at colour blindness parameters to highlight the problems people have in reading web sites.

At this month's meeting there will be a question and answer session before the group proceeds with some web page editing.

You are welcome to come to the meeting.

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

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