March 2010 Meeting Notes

Compiled by Dave Jaffe

Contributions from Kevin Appert and others


09:50

Coffee and a Chat

10:15

BitBlts and Mandelbrots - CH Ting
Ting will return to the Mandelbrot program to solicit help with its display code. He hopes one of the C experts in attendance can offer advice on the efficient handling and use of bitmaps. To get us started, Ting will talk briefly describe how F# uses the Graphic Display Interface (GDI) and other libraries in Windows and then he'll ask for help on GDI functions such as CreateBitmap and BitBlt.

"The Mandelbrot plotting routines are in this F# package. The key Windows GDI routine was SetBitmapBits. I could not get BitBlt to work."

11:48

Lunch
We will walk to The Treehouse by Tresidder Union. Here is the menu.

13:00

Technology Tryout & Quantum Computing Preview - Jack J. Woehr
We'll try out some netconferencing technology using Skype, and if all goes well, Jack will give us a preview of his upcoming talk on Quantum Computing.

Four Questions about Quantum Computing - 29.4 Kb pdf file

13:30

Extended Introductions, Rumors, and Gossip - All Assembled
We'll go around the room and talk about what we're doing at work and otherwise. Some discussion items might include:

What interests us as individuals
What projects we might work on together
Future of Forth and SVFIG
Interesting products we've seen or desire
Interesting websites
Some FIG-UK material, available for download
Area talks, trade shows, and lectures

14:00

Walkthrough of February HDLC Code - Samuel A. Falvo II
Sam will review the HDLC stack components he has implemented so far, giving us a concrete example in support of his talk last month.

15:00

Break

15:20

Finding Work in Tough Times - All Assembled
Some of us have a good track record, others have starved to death. We can discuss techniques and tips.

DICE - Job Search for Technology Professionals

15:50

Thumb Drive Linux - Kevin Appert
Kevin purchased a tiny thumb drive (Eagle Tech USB Nano Flash Drive) from usb.brando.com. These devices are great for a bootable rescue toolkit or a Linux Desktop! He'll discuss the easy process for making flash drives bootable or multi-bootable and the various software distributions and tools that can be carried around this way. If you want to get a head start on running Linux from a portable USB device, check out the Pendrivelinux.com website.

16:00

Adjourn


Other items:

Forth
Doug Neale's Personal Website - Forth
Kosmix Forth Programming Language
Software
PIET Programming Language
Hardware
Books
Other

Meeting Announcement

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