XCOM Meeting 29 September 2008

From TMUG - The Triangle Macintosh Users Group

Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

meeting called to order

due to business travel by Stefan, XCom has opted to forego a physical meeting in Sept & take care of business by email via the XCom list & this page.
business discussions are underway between Thur, Sep 25 & ...
present & accounted for by email:

  • Stefan, president
  • Smythe, 1st VP
  • Chips, secretary
  • Fred, treasurer

virtual meeting agenda

posted by Stefan Sun, Sep 28, 1:23 pm. to be filled in w/ comments, etc.

a) We'll need a(nother) treasurer's report as of meeting time.

  • Fred reposted 2H08 TMUG Transactions spreadsheet with treasury & memberships through 9.22.08 (see Treasury & Membership Reports below).

b) Sounds like the program can continue with Smythe and Allen re iPhone. the big question is, how well can you use the screen to show everyone? If you can only show/discuss by having people look directly at your iPhone, it may not be such a good idea... but FWIW, I think we won't saturate people by doing iPhone 2 meetings in a row. To continue, I can do a bridge presentation of some kind if the iPhone presentation might lag.

  • [Smythe] We can now use the projection system of the church in the lobby area. I have a video camera we could use to project it. Using an autofocus camera is a bit tough on an iPhone, but it's the only way to project it.
  • [Chips] There was a good turnout for the Sep meeting (45), so I think iPhone as the topic isn't overplayed, yet.
  • [Chips] I also have access to a DV camera & tripod if it helps. For presenting something on an iPhone, it seems it would work better to have the iPhone flat on a table with a tripod mounted camera pointing down on it with fixed focus. Then the autofocus anomalies would be minimized. I didn't notice a ceiling mounted projector, but it sounds like there is one. Will it be simple to plug the video feed (AV or S-video or FW) into their system, or should we plan on plugging into ours?
  • [Chips] Stefan, re "a bridge presentation", are you thinking about one in Alaska? <-;
  • [Chips] Is Bob confirmed to moderate Q&A?

c) I presented my meeting venue concerns, and Smythe added some discussion. Looks like the upstairs "normal" areas are out for the foreseeable future (if I understand correctly), which to me is a noticeable degradation in the venue. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only reasonable choice we have for now is the main foyer location at the entrance, no?

  • [Smythe] No, they are fine with us using the upstairs area with the couches, and it should have WiFi coverage. I've not been back there to check, but was told it was covered, and that something was wrong when we were there last time. What we've lost is the cafe tables from the room we were in before. If we want a theatre-style seating area, we can use that room or the lounge. If we want cafe tables, we have only the lobby option. But it's always available as a fallback.
  • [Chips] Smythe, are you saying that the room we were originally using (w/ the tiki bar) is available except it now has chairs but no tables? It's nice to have tables for sure. I got the impression that we interrupted some people who were there before we arrived, & caused them to leave. There was also the issue of the inconveniently placed house light directly in front of the screen. If it can't be turned off, we should try to temporarily cover it.

d) Re the sound system, sounds like Smythe has permission for us to use the house system. Sounds good, but I think we still want to go ahead and return the one we got and think about another one. So Chips, for now you can just return the one, and we will have a continuing discussion on this.

  • [Chips] Will we want to plug our wireless mic into their sound system, or use their wireless mics? I am returning the karaoke PA.

e) informational only: I have written to MacHighway to talk about what is involved with moving to their hosting service. No answer yet. I will let xcom know as I find out.

f) Smythe was recorded as having a couple of action items at the last xcom. However, I don't seen them as critical at this point. See http://www.tmug.org/index.php/XCOM_Meeting_25_August_2008.

  • [Smythe] I see two items there: Asking Allen re Live blogging, asking Trish about serving as forum manager for an online chat session. Allen has live-blogged the last two meetings, and I think everyone has been responding positively to that.
  • [Chips] We should remind members of this & point them to the link, both at the meeting & via the list.
  • [Smythe] I also talked with Trish. Their weekly staff meeting is on Mondays (which is why she can't come to meetings) and is pretty intensive. While she has the chops, she's not available to because of this prior commitment. But if we have someone who would like to learn this skill, we have a ready coach/resource for them to use.
  • [Chips] I'd like to follow up on doing a chat / blog session during our meeting.

That's all I can think of for now, Any new or old business people would like to bring up?

  • [Smythe] I sent a note to Frances Shepherd about presenting. He's not available until December. He gave ideas for meeting topics he could cover as the following:
    • Podcasting techniques (using various Apple and 3rd party apps)
    • Look at Pro Apps (Aperture, Final Cut Studio, or Logic - choose one)
    • AppleTV and iTunes 8
    • MobileMe
    • Apple Tech Update (Year in review, or anything new that may pop up).
  • [Smythe] I think the Podcasting one could really be interesting. There is appeal on many levels ( tools, subjects, etc.) I also have a friend who has written a book about podcasting and will ask him about presenting as well, if we want.
  • [Smythe] If we're out to December for Frances, we may as well push out another month and get him to talk in January, since our meeting will be the week after MacWorld (5-8 Jan). He could do a "State of the MotherShip" talk.
  • [Smythe] Thoughts?
  • [Chips] Good idea about Frances doing a presentation. I like having him do a post Macworld preso at the Jan meeting. And a podcasting program is good idea, too.

[template]

  • some of the following info is incomplete &/or carried over from the Aug mtg notes. It is in place as a template prior to the Sept 29 mtg

TMUG server

  • Stefan reported on status of the server. It was up for ~60 days w/o going down or rebooting until Sept 11. Stefan performed various updates. It has been running continuously since.


  • Smythe suggested MacHighway as an alternative host for TMUG.org to RTMX & our G4 server, in case we need to replace the server Mac. The price is much less. Stefan has written them asking about what is involved to moving tmug.org to their hosting service, but has gotten no response as of 9.28.

Future Meeting Programs

October Meeting:

  • continue discussion of iPhone / iTouch by Allen & Smythe. We can set up a DV camera linked to the projector to show the iPhone display.
  •  ???
  • ComicLife, tentatively, by Stefan
  • Q & A – Bob Chandler (Stefan will double check?)

  • Smythe has talked w/ Trish Huffman about doing a chat room for Q&A & the meeting. She has a standing meeting on our meeting day, so would have to teach someone else to manage this. Allen live blogged the Aug & Sept meetings' Q&A. Hopefully he will continue this.
  • We will give time to Tim McBrayer to report on his ISP survey results, if he responds positively to Smythe. Tim responded that he doesn't have time to do this now, but maybe in Oct or Nov.

November Meeting:


  •  ???

future meeting suggestions:

  • Apple preso by Frances Shepherd - (Apple update, podcasting, pro apps, Apple TV / iTunes, MobileMe). He's available in Dec, but Jan may be better since our Jan 12 meeting is the week after Macworld.
  • no contact yet Mark Williams, founder of Modality
  • EyeTV

Treasury & Membership Reports

  • Members in good standing: 93, with 7 renewals due & 4 in grace.
  • There were 45 in attendance at the September meeting – 40 members & (apparently) 4 guests (including Rob Terrell, who said he will join); 5 renewed. 1 other has renewed & 3 have joined by mail this month, for a total of 9 memberships.
  • There are now 178 entries in the TiGA, including 49 renewals & new memberships since June 1.
  • Cash in bank: $6105.47
  • [reported by Chips & Fred, as of 9.23.08 & 9.29.08]

New Business

  • There has been an increase in spam posts to TMUG-list over the past month (~10 - 15 / day). Chips has been discarding (deleting) these posts individually. He suggests we undertake more robust anti-spam measures for TMUG's Mailman lists & @tmug.org addys.
  • A few weeks back we signed up to be an affiliate for MacUpdate's daily promo. A link to this is on the tmug.org main page. Do we want to be affiliates for other sites? Smythe, Allen, & Chips say yes. We don't need the money, but it's a good way to provide a service. But we should be tasteful & unobtrusive about how we present affiliates to the members & public; i.e. create an affiliate page linked from the main page. We should look into adding Amazon, iTunes, MobileMe, MacZOT, & others.
  • Chips reports some interesting data. As of 9.24, there were 254 subscribing addys to the tmug-list. (There are several subscribers sub'ed with 2 or more addys, & 18 subs are disabled for one reason or another.) There were 104 TMUG members (including 11 in grace or due to renew). 40 members were not sub'ed to the list (or at least with their membership addys). They were sent an invitation, extolling the benefits of the list. Since then, 6 have subscribed. Of course, we can't force a member to subscribe to the list, & one is certainly missing out by not.
  • At the past 3 meetings, there have been 4 people who have not signed the iMac give away book for a total of 5 times. We remind people at the meeting to sign in. But, again, we can't force them. Chips' opinion is that if they ask after the fact, he will add them. But if they do not, it's their loss. We've spoken of this before, but this note is to put it "on the record".

Old Business

  • Smythe has identified a Karaoki PA from Best Buy for ~$80. The Durham Best Buy did not have it in stock on 8.25.08, so Chips bought an alternate model w/ an iPod™ dock for $91. We will evaluate it at the September 8 meeting.
    • Update - The consensus is that this karaoke system is inadequate for our needs. It will be returned to Best Buy.

meeting adjourned

at : pm by


Bush countdown

as a proof of concept - will be removed

Retrieved from "http://tmug.org/index.php/XCOM_Meeting_29_September_2008"
Personal tools