[svfig-announce] Meeting – February 27, 2010

[Kevin Appert]

--- SVFIG Meeting, Fourth Saturday, February 27, 2010  ---
_______________________________________________

We'll be on the fifth floor of Terman Engineering Center --- Room 556 
Directions and map links are below.

There are two buildings named Terman on campus so be careful. The 
Searchable Map has the one you want as "TERMAN (FREDERICK E) ENGRG 
CENTER  (04-700)  380 PANAMA MALL"

The Official SVFIG Announcement Editor's Parking Lot Recommendation is 
the lot near the intersection of Teresa St and Morris Way.

______________________________________________
Notes from the Editor:
1) This looks like it's going to be a great meeting!  I'm very grateful 
to the speakers,
B) Drop me a line and let me know what day you'd like this announcement 
to come out. (forther_at_comcast_dot_net)**
_______________________________________________

AGENDA
For late-breaking updates, check the web site:
<<<http://www.forth.org/svfig/next.html>>>


09:50 --- Coffee and a Chat

10:00 --- REVISITING MANDELBROT --- C H Ting
"I started doing Mandelbrot plots 20 years ago. At that time, the 
computer took a long time, about 30 seconds, to render an image. It was 
nice, but not very interesting. Now computers are fast enough to do one 
plot a second. This now becomes more interesting, because I can interact 
with the plots. I like to use a mouse to navigate the plots, but I need 
help in adding a mouse interface to F#. I have put all the computation 
into FPU, and am quite proud of it. However, Windows steals the FPU from 
me and I am not sure that I have the FPU all to myself. Anyway, I will 
demonstrate almost interactive Mandelbrot plots."

11:48:18 --- Lunch
We will walk to The Treehouse by Tressider Union.
Here is a review: <<< http://collegerestaurant.net/default.aspx>>>
Here is the menu:  
<<http://library.stanford.edu/depts/physics/related/treehousemenu.html>>

(note that lunch may end a little early this month so we can get started 
with Sam)

13:00 --- FORTH CODING BEST PRACTICES --- Samuel A. Falvo II
Sam will share his learning experiences with Forth coding best-practices 
for his High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) network stack supporting his 
optical communications experiments.
"The HDLC stack I'm writing is far from complete, and has not yet been 
tested over wire links. But, the current set of unit tests suggests that 
it can now handle SABM, UA, and DM messages -- meaning that I can now 
initiate a connection request and handle success and failure, 
respectively."

14:00 --- ANNOUNCEMENTS, INTRODUCTIONS, RUMORS, GOSSIP
ABL (A Big Laser), Embedded Systems Conference, Announcement day choice, 
and whatever else comes up.

14:30 --- BREAK

14:54 --- 3D PRINTERS AND MAKERBOT --- Eric Smith
It's the latest trend in technology (setting aside SmartPhone apps with 
jiggly body parts).  Stepper motors hum, plastic squirts and before you 
know it a gimcrack or thingamabob emerges.  Freshman-year engineering 
students are fabricating wind-turbine blades.  Makerbots are replicating 
themselves (mostly) to make more Makerbots.  Here all about it from a 
guy who owns one!
Makerbot HQ http://www.makerbot.com/
Makerbot video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQvCcGUIEBk&feature=related
(note that gimcrack and thingamabob were in the spelling checker)

16:00 --- Adjourn
_______________________________________________
Please note that the times listed above are precise but not
accurate.  We might go a little long or short on any agenda
item or shuffle things on the fly with abandon.  If you're
desperate to see something at a particular time, please let
us know!  Remember that there are bugs in any non-trivial
SVFIG meeting announcement.
_______________________________________________

The schedule above may be reformatted or line-justified but
please transmit verbatim or not at all.   Any font you like is
alright with me.

No Newsgroup posts or other media distribution this month please!
_______________________________________________

Wireless Internet access is anticipated (though not guaranteed) at
Stanford, so bring your wifi-enabled laptop.
_______________________________________________

Coming to SVFIG:
* FORTH DAY in November 2010!

* Bring speaker suggestions TO EVERY MEETING!

* Mitch Bradley's Forth in C (somebody needs to volunteer)

* Blast from the past - a discussion of John James' CRC from his Xmodem
implementation as enunciated in "Forth Dimensions".

* Furthering the Cause of Forth - John Rible
IntellaSys has imploded, or something.  We'd be pleased to hear about
John's new outreach project when formulated.

* Engineering TV
http://engineeringtv.com/
Fifty engineering topic channels. Four new episodes per week.

* BOTBASH 2000 --- Video
A cheepie video of  a May 2000 robot rumble in Mesa Arizona from these
guys:   http://www.battlebots.com/
Is it a hollow threat or emergency backup filler material?

_______________________________________________

Check the SVFIG web site at http://www.forth.org/svfig/
for last minute changes to this schedule.
The most up-to-date meeting information is at
http://www.forth.org/svfig/next.html

Many thanks to our wonderful Webmaster, Dave Jaffe.

Preliminary agenda along with schedule updates and
discussion may frequently be found on the SVFIG email list.
To subscribe send email to geoperry_at_gmail.com

Please let us know if this isn't your preferred email address for the
SVFIG-Announce mailing list.  Thanks for your patience.

Please suggest a speaker or present at a SVFIG meeting.

Please do not attempt to reply to svfig-announce at ...
send instead to forther_at_comcast.net
_______________________________________________

NAVIGATIONAL ADVICE

The Official SVFIG Announcement Editor's Parking Lot recommendation is
the lot near the intersection of Teresa St and Morris Way.

Terman Engineering Center can be found on these maps - just search for
Terman: (going to maps.google.com gives an erroneous result)

http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/map/

Searchable Stanford Campus Map:  http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/map/

There is open parking on weekends. Park in any A or C or metered space,
no coins needed even if there's a meter there.The Official SVFIG
Announcement Editor's Parking Lot recommendation is the lot near the
intersection of Teresa St and Morris Way.

Go to the Stanford links, GOOGLE MAPS HAS NO IDEA where Terman is!

The building's door may be locked, there will be a number to call posted
after the meeting starts and we will come down and check once in a while.

Once you reach Terman, take the elevator to the 5th floor. Walk across
the foyer and up the ramp just to the left of the glassed-in office.
Room 556 is at the top of the ramp - entrance on the left.