The North Shore Computer Society (NSCS) holds its monthly meetings on the second Thursday of every month from September to June. Recent meetings have featured Adobe demonstrating the latest releases of Photoshop, Acrobat, and Pagemaker, Microsoft demonstrating the Windows operating system, an on-line tour of the Internet and Apple demonstrating some of the Mac's leading edge technologies.
Meetings are held in the McCarthy Auditorium at the Peabody Municipal Light Plant, 201 Warren Street Extension, Peabody, MA (directions). Monthly meetings are free to all and run from 7:00PM to 9:30PM. Light refreshments (drinks and snacks) are available.
December 10, 1998 - Thursday
Help with Holiday Gifts!
As we were heading into the holiday season, we thought it would be fun and helpful to take a look at computer gifts for the holidays. A representative from CompUSA demonstrated a number of items which could have been great gifts for that hard to buy person on your list.In addition, we had an open discussion on current technology, with an emphasis on what kinds of bargains to look for now and after the holiday season.
November 12, 1998 - Thursday
A Look Inside Apple's iMac & Image Processing from Wright DESIGN!
Will the iMac be Apple's next success story? This revolutionary offering from Apple, like its first born on January 24th, 1984, may change the way some of us access the world of computing. A Macintosh expert from CompUSA demonstrated Apple's new entry-level system.With a price of $1299, the iMac offers leading-edge technology, breathtaking design, all-in-one convenience and easy Internet access. Inside its translucent case of "ice" and "Bondi blue" you'll find a 233MHz PowerPC G3 processor, 32MB of ram upgradable to 128MB, a 4GB hard drive, 56K modem, 10/100Base T Ethernet, 2 12Mbps USB ports, 24X CD-ROM, stereo sound, 3D graphics and a built-in 15-inch monitor.
Not to put our WinTel users on the defense, but according to recent BYTEmark tests, the iMac runs your favorite applications up to 40% faster than 400MHz Pentium II systems.
Also, a representative from Wright DESIGN, demonstrated two of their products, Design and Design Personal Edition for Windows 95. Wright DESIGN - a high speed imaging, illustration and page layout program, has been called by industry magazine editors "an alternative to Photoshop, that allows me to work at least 10 times faster". If you work in DTP, page layout or image processing, these may be of interest to you.
October 8, 1998 - Thursday
The Year 2000 Problem!
Do you know why December 31, 1999 is such an important date? It's when many in the computer industry, the business community and just plain consumers will see whether or not they have prepared for the great Year 2000 disaster.Don Orifice, NSCS Executive Director, spoke about the possible problems we will face as well as offering solutions for the Year 2000 dilemma. He also covered what you can do to minimize its impact on your own life. Here are some links that may be of help.
September 10, 1998 - Thursday
Inside Windows 98 and More!
What's all this talk about Windows 98 and why should you upgrade? What about Windows NT?Steve Carbone, a Technology Specialist from Microsoft discussed the ins and outs of Windows 98. He helped us to separate the hype from the facts and also explored why an upgrade might be in our future.
Do you have some ideas of your own for upcoming monthly meetings? Please, let us know!
August 13, 1998 - Thursday
SPECIAL EVENT
The Fourth Annual Non-Meeting MeetingContinuing the tradition we started three years ago, we held our Fourth Annual, Non-Meeting Meeting. No topic, no agenda, just a good time sitting around and socializing with each other.We enjoyed a summer evening with old and new friends alike, great refreshments and some very tasty home cooked goodies. Thanks to all of the volunteers and staff members who made this another sucessful annual event!
Do you have some ideas of your own for upcoming monthly meetings? Please, let us know!
June 11, 1998
Computer Games - Just for fun, or big Business?
What's your favorite computer game? Is it Quake, Duke Nukem, Quest, Doom, Myst, SimCity ? What about Mario, Battleship, Centipede, Monopoly, Tetris or PacMan ? Do you remember Pong ?It may seem like just good fun, but the computer game industry is more than a $5.5 billion dollar a year business. Did you know that one of the major players is headquartered right here on the North Shore? That's right Hasbro Interactive, from Beverly, helped us kick off our last Meeting before the summer break.
Kevin Gillespie, Hasbro Interactive's Vice President of Product Development Worldwide and David Walls, Principal Designer discussed computer game development and used the game of Centipede to demonstrate. They gav e us an insight into what goes on behind the scenes and answered a few "How do they do that?" questions!
June's Meeting came on the heels of E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the industry's most important trade show. Both Kevin and David shared some stories from the show regarding what new games might be on the horizon.
Do you have some ideas of your own for upcoming monthly meetings? Please, let us know!
May 14, 1998 - Thursday
Online News
How do you get your news -- print, online or word of mouth? Whatever your favorite, Brad Koltz, director of production and systems for Essex County Newspapers and webmaster for their three online newspaper sites, made a return visit to discuss online publishing and the overall issues around attempts to make money on the Internet.This was one of our more interesting meetings yet, evidenced by the wealth of questions for Brad from the floor. Brad also writes a regular column, Tech Notes, which appears in the Essex County Newspapers across the North shore.
April 9, 1998 - Thursday
Online Finances
As a follow up to last month's meeting on taxes and keeping with a theme of "money management", this month we took a look at the world of online finances.William "Skip" Carino, AVP of Internet Operations for Scudder Kemper Investments (formerly known as Scudder, Stevens, and Clark), is responsible for managing all of the architecture supporting Scudder's 7 Web sites - soon to be many more. He described the "behind the scenes" efforts which were required to create Scudder's current sites and how they dealt with the conflicting demands of security and access.
He also demonstrated how you can use Scudder's Web site for your personal and corporate investments.
Also joining us was Marc DeCastro, AVP MIS of Eastern Bank, demonstrating the new and easy way to manage your personal banking from the comfort of your home computer. Online banking can provide you with a convenient and time-saving alternative for paying bills, making payments and managing your personal finances.
March 12, 1998 - Thursday
Taxes and Computing
With tax season in full swing, it only seemed appropriate to take a look at Taxes and Computing. Arleen Mednick, president of TAX HELP, a local Peabody firm, spoke with us about the 1997 and 1998 tax law changes.Arleen brings with her 17 years of experience as a tax practitioner. During and after her talk, she fielded many of your questions about tax related issues.
February 12, 1998 - Thursday
Diagnostic Software & Utilities
The current collection of diagnostic software programs on the market let you fix up, tune up, clean up and speed up your system. These software tools help you prevent crashes, eliminate conflicts, fix damaged files, alert you to problems, diagnose your system, fix glitches and check program compatibility.Some programs even allow you to encrypt sensitive files for total security, shred sensitive files so they are absolutely, positively unrecoverable and create and manage compressed, industry standard ZIP files for quick e-mail and Internet transmission.
We invited Network Associates, the merging of McAfee - the most popular provider of anti-virus, security and help desk software - and Network General - the industry leader in network performance management solutions - to discuss the use of these tools and how they can make our computer experience more enjoyable.
Do you have some ideas of your own for upcoming monthly meetings? Please, let us know!
January 8, 1998 - Thursday
Disk Storage & Backup Technologies
Need more hard drive space to store those vacation photos you've been scanning with your new Xmas gift? Can't find enough space to load the latest version of your favorite application? You know you should be backing up your hard drive, but what's the best solution?Several speakers were scheduled to provide some answers to these and other important storage questions.
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