HAL-PC Monthly eBulletin - March 2008
    

Welcome to the March 2008 edition of the HAL-PC/HALNet monthly eBulletin. If you wish to stop receiving these bulletins, send an email to e-bulletin-off@hal-pc.org. This month: Membership Cards, Email Address Without a Hyphen?, Online Questionnaire, Coming Events, SIG News, Class Listing, Volunteer of the Year, Magazine.

BRING YOUR MEMBERSHIP CARD TO SIG MEETINGS!

Use your membership card in the card reader by the suite door between the hours of 6:00 - 9:00 to enter the suite for meetings. If you forget your card, the front desk personnel will admit you and verify your membership. To request a replacement card, contact member services at 713-341-8102. If you are not a member you will be admitted to conduct business (HALNet renewals etc). Remember - you can attend a SIG meeting once as a guest - you will be asked to sign the log. If the front desk person is not in sight - please knock on the door.

NEED A DOMAIN NAME WITHOUT THE '-'?

One of our users recently informed us that he was unable to set up an account with AARP using his email address because AARP would not recognize the '-' in hal-pc.org. WE CAN HELP! Now all hal-pc.org addresses will automatically be able to use aliased addresses with the following domains:

hal-pc.net
halnet.net
halnet.org
halnet.us
halnet.biz

If you're having this trouble, give your email address as 'username@halnet.net, for example, and you can avoid the problem! Any email sent to that address will come directly to your regular hal-pc.org mail box.

HALNet ADSL

Want the speed and convenience of an always-on broadband connection without the hassles of foreign call centers or notoriously poor customer service? HALNet has an ADSL plan for every user! You need to have ATT as your local telephone company. For information and pricing, and to see if your phone line qualifies for ADSL, call Doug at 713-993-3300. And remember there is no set-up fee for HAL-PC members!

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

Congratulations to Carla Cawlfield, HAL-PC Volunteer of the Year for 2007. She was honored at the annual Volunteer Luncheon on February 23. Carla has been a HAL volunteer for 20 years, serving on the Board of Directors, as President, Chair of the Election Committee, holiday decorator, picture hanger (she's responsible for the gallery of Magazine covers at HQ), party planner and much more. THANKS, Carla!!

HAL-PC QUESTIONNAIRE

We're looking for your input as we seek to grow HAL-PC. Please take a few minutes to fill out our brief online survey!

COMING EVENTS

Basics 101 -- Scanning Basics
Saturday, April 5 - 1:00 - 3:30 pm
Let's see what we can do with that scanner, legally of course. Learn your setup. Save the rebate documentation!!!

COMING AT CLEAR LAKE

Digital Photography SIG - Saturday, March 15, 9:30 am - Margaret Maes, HAL-PC member, "Review of Digital Image File Formats"

General Computer SIG - No meeting in March

Computer Investing SIG - Friday, March 7 - 1:00 pm: Carl Farley, HAL-PC member, "Using NAIC's New Online Tools"

Camcorder & Video SIG - Saturday, April 5 - 9:30 am: Carl Farley, HAL-PC member, "Open Video Forum"

SIG NEWS

NEW SIG -- ROBOTICS! This is a golden opportunity for those with an interest in robotics or many of its components such as electro-mechanical design and control, artificial intelligence, mapping, software design, and other specialties from a rather long list. One of the interesting aspects of robotics is the challenge of the many different disciplines required for a functional robot. Fourth Saturdays - 2:00 pm.


The following Special Interest Groups have specific programs posted for their upcoming meetings. Please refer to the SIG Calendar for a complete listing of HAL-PC SIG meeting dates and times. If you are interested in starting a Special Interest Group that is not currently on our calendar, contact the Vice President for SIGS

COMPUTER INVESTING SIG: Fridays -- 10:00 am (NOTE NEW TIME!!!):
See the SIG web page for up-to-the-minute program notes.

DATABASE & GUI DESIGN SIG: Saturday, March 8 -- 9:00 am
This month we will be doing some hands-on with Visual Studio 2008 and Expressions Blend. Using the two together will allow you to build WPF Windows and browser based forms that can go between the two very simply.

iPODS & MOBLIE DEVICES: Saturday, March 8 -- 1:00 pm
This month we will focus on running the MacOS on your Windows machine

ALPHA FIVE: Monday, March 10 - 6:30 pm
Alpha Five database software offers some powerful tools for web page development. At the March 10 meeting Wallace Honeywell will present his application for a student information system.

VISUAL FOX PRO: Tuesday, March 11 -- 7:30 pm
We will have an incredible meeting this month. Ed Hardin will be presenting "Woody's" Tips & Tricks" from Woody the owner of Active FoxPro Pages. Rich Monroe will present his "Entry Form Class" showing how to do a form class to make re-useable objects.

DIGITAL IMAGING SIG: Saturday, March 15 -- 1:00 pm
March is the last month of our "Shooting Children" series. We will be shooting outside and learning about outdoor lighting. Bring your cameras so you can learn how to use your own camera in outdoor situations. If you know someone that would like to bring their children for us to use as models, have them come. They will receive a CD with all the photos taken of them at the meeting. And last, if you have any ideas about what you would like to cover in April and May, email me about it. Right now, I am thinking about doing a presentation on Adobe Lightroom for the April meeting.

BEGINNING C#: Tuesday, March 18 -- 6:00 pm
This month the Beginning C# SIG will discuss how to create a desktop application project using Visual Studio 2008. We will create WinForm-based projects, and see how new GUI objects, the FlowLayoutPanel and the TableLayoutPanel, allow you to create forms that can change size gracefully.

MULTI MEDIA SIG: Saturday, April 5 -- 10:00 am :
John Dawson will demonstrate Steinberg's "Cubase SX", a widely used music production program. Cubase creates projects which allow the operator to edit MIDI files, raw audio tracks, and other associated information like lyrics, and to present them in a range of formats including musical scores, editing console, event lists, etc. The operator can also mix the various tracks down into a stereo .wav file ready to be burned onto a CD in Red Book format or .mp3 burnt to CD or DVD as files or to be published on the web.

WEB DESIGN: NEXT MEETING Tuesday, April 22 -- 7:00 pm
The Web Design SIG will continue our discussion on basic techniques for creating professional and captivating websites. We will discuss what constitutes "good design" and the design process by walking through the steps that professional designers use to develop great websites. Practical and artistic concerns of using imagery will be our focus. Learn how the use of images can effect the visual movement of a page.

LINUX WORKSHOP: Wednesdays -- 6:00 pm
Installations & hands-on problem solving every Wednesday except when HAL is closed. This is an informal meeting where knowledgable HLUG members help each other & beginners one on one. Dinner after at Biba's West Grey 9:30pm.

Upcoming Classes - HAL-PC Headquarters

Check the Class Calendar for the latest additions to the schedule

BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION

The annual election of HAL-PC's Board of Directors will be held in June. Any member interested in volunteering his or her time and talents to managing the affairs of HAL-PC should declare their intent to run as a Director by sending an e-mail message to election@hal-pc.org or a letter mailed to the attention of the Election Committee, HAL-PC, 4543 Post Oak Place #200, Houston, Texas 77027-3103 expressing said intent not later than 5 PM CDT, April 30, 2008. Full details will be available in the Spring edition of the HAL-PC Magazine.

MARCH VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH

March's HAL-PC Volunteer of the Month is the dynamic duo of Carla Cawlfield & Kelly Brown. Carla and Kelly are always on the spot when it comes to the real work behind putting on one of our club events such as the Christmas open house or Volunteer appreciation lunch. They set up, they clean up - they get things done. And after last month's Volunteer lunch, they went above and beyond by staying around to shampoo the SIG room carpets! THANKS, Carla and Kelly. What would we do without ya?!

THIS MONTH'S MAGAZINE

Look for informative articles in the HAL-PC Magazine online

read online at http://www.hal-pc.org/bulletin/march2008.html