HAL-PC Monthly eBulletin - February 2008

Welcome to the April 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: Spring General Meeting, HALNet ADSL, Online Questionnaire, Coming Events, Clear Lake, SIG News, Class Listing, Board Of Directors Election, Volunteer of the Month, Magazine.

SPRING GENERAL MEETING

General Meeting
Saturday, April 26 - 10:00 am
Join us for our Spring General Meeting - All About Email! For the morning presentations, Robert Gunn, HALNet Administrator will present 'Getting the Most From Your Postini Filters on HALNet'. Our featured speaker will be E. Adrian Hawkins, Special Agent with the Houston Division of the FBI, who is currently assigned to the Houston Area Cyber Crimes Task Force and serves as InfraGard Coordinator. Agent Hawkins' presentation will focus on 'Email Scams'. After lunch, Rick Archibald will show you 'Tips and Tricks With Webmail'. Suite doors open at 9:00 am for coffee and networking. Presentations begin at 10:00 am. Lunch will be brought in for anyone who places an order by 10:00. Public is welcome - door prizes for members only!

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! Upgrade your connection now - call 713-993-3300 and ask for the ADSL tech to see if your phone line qualifies for ADSL.

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, April 19, 9:30 am: Jim Evans, HAL-PC member, "All About Scanning Old 35 mm Slides"

General Computer SIG - Saturday, April 26 - 9:30 am: Sam Pearson, Accel Computers, "Windows Vista - New Ways to Do the Same Old Things "

Computer Investing SIG - Friday, April 4- 1:00 pm: Jerry Willman, HAL-PC Member, "Stock Investing Using Manifest Investing "

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

SIG NEWS

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!!!):
Our Friday AM investment sig will continue to meet Friday at 10am. Our goal continues to offer programs to help investors deal with a difficult market using and demonstrating programs designed for the individual to assess and make thoughtful decisions. We use four different programs to accomplish this and they are demonstrated on a regular basis. We also maintain a
refined market web site that is open to all.

SAMBA & OPEN NETWORKING SIG: 1st & 3rd SATURDAY -- 2:00 pm:
We will continue our exploration of connecting LAN's with VPN

MULTI MEDIA SIG: Saturday, April 5 -- 9:30 am :
We will discuss plans for entering the "48 Hour Film Project", coming to Houston in early June (http://www.48hourfilm.com/). Given a genre (comedy, horror, etc.), a line a dialogue and a prop, each team has 48 hours to submit a six minute film. Several of us have discussed the available resources: shooting locations, vehicle props, actors, cameras, lights, etc. At the meeting, we will discuss these further, plus additional items like stock elements (music, animations, video, sound effects, etc.), editing software, visual effects software, etc. Ideas are welcome from all. In years past, some of the entries were very well done, so we need all the help we can get.

BEGINNING ACCESS: Monday, April 7 -- 6:00 pm
Orientation to data modeling and VBA, SQL tables, queries, forms, reports using Access rapid development. Please email the SIG leader if you plan to attend.

BEGINNING VISUAL FOX PRO: Tuesday, April 8-- 6:30 pm
Rich Monroe: More on fors and application shortcuts

ADVANCED VISUAL FOX PRO: Tuesday, April 8 -- 7:30 pm
Ed Hardin: Tips & Tricks. As always, your questions are welcome. After the Advanced session, join us at Ninfa's on Post Oak for our Even More Advanced Session/Nervous System Recalibration.

TC USER GROUP: Thursday, April 10 -- 6:30 pm
At last we have an opportunity to learn about Blocks and qualify to obtain the current version! Michael Thompson from Worden Brothers, who spoke last at our November 2006 meeting, will be live and in person to show us the current version of Blocks. We'll be able to sign up for it at the meeting. Michael is coming to Houston specifically for HAL-PC. I'm very hopeful we'll show enough interest to have good attendance. For that reason, please RSVP via email to tcusergroup@hal-pc.org.

DATABASE & GUI DESIGN SIG: Saturday, April 12 -- 9:00 am
At the April meeting, we will begin going through one of the Microsoft books on web design. This will be a hands on class, so bring your computer with you. You will need to have VS 2005/2008, or Visual Web developer Express 2005/2008 already installed on your computer for this session.

STOCK MARKET: Saturday, April 12 -- 2:00 pm
Our current financial crisis has reduced many shares to attractive levels which offer long term potential not seen in several years. This class emhasizes fundamentals rather than technical trading. It is intended for long term investors. Ideal for age 20 and up. Covers personal finance, budgeting, intermarket analysis and equity securities analysis. Please email the SIG leader if you plan to attend.

BEGINNING C#: Tuesday, April 15 -- 6:00 pm
We will discuss how to create a desktop application project using the new Visual Studio 2008. We will create WinForm-based projects, and see how the FlowLayoutPanel and the TableLayoutPanel GUI objects allow you to create forms that can change size gracefully.

DIGITAL IMAGING SIG: Saturday, April 19 -- 1:00 pm
At the April meeting, we will go through the Adobe Lightroom software. This is a program that will allow you to process your photos without having to use programs such as Photoshop. It is powerful and can handle 90% of your needs as far as working with photos is concerned. For some of the high end editing, you will still need a tool like Photoshop.

WEB DESIGN: 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. You don't have to attend the meeting to come eat with us.

Upcoming Classes - HAL-PC Headquarters

Map To Facility

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.

APRIL VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH

April's HAL-PC Volunteer of the Month is Wes Leggett. Wes has been a member of HAL-PC for many years and has served on the HAL-PC Board of Directors where he currently holds the position of Recording Secretary. Wes is a valued volunteer member of the HALNet staff. Over the last few months, he has put in long, late hours assisting with the re-cabling of the server room and assisting with various projects. Thanks, Wes, for being there when we need you!

THIS MONTH'S MAGAZINE

Look for informative articles in the HAL-PC Magazine online
If you did receive your Winter edition of the printed magazine, please phone the office! You may need to update your address information, or renew your HAL-PC membership!