[svfig-announce] Meeting – March 27, 2010 -- BUILDING CHANGE!!!

Thu Mar 25 12:01:04 GMT 2010

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

WE WILL BE IN A DIFFERENT BUILDING THIS MONTH!!!

The meeting will be held on the second floor of Building 550 (aka 
Peterson Building)in room 200.   Directions and map links are below.

The Official SVFIG Announcement Editor's Parking Lot Recommendation is
the lot near the intersection of Teresa St and Morris Way.  There are 
other, closer lots but this one is easiest to navigate to.

There is no public Wifi, for a one-day guest account email Dave Jaffe 
at: <dljaffe at stanford.edu>
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AGENDA
For late-breaking updates, check the web site:
<<<http://www.forth.org/svfig/next.html>>>

09:50 --- Coffee and a Chat

10:15 BitBlts and Mandelbrots --- C H Ting
      Ting will return to the Mandelbrot program to ask for help with 
his display code.  He hopes one of the C experts can offer advice on the 
handling of bitmaps and lead us in finding ways to do bitmaps 
efficiently.  To get us started, Ting will talk briefly on how F# uses 
GDI and other libraries in Windows and then he'll ask people to jump in 
and help on the GDI functions like CreateBitmap and BitBlt.  We'll all 
try to restrain ourselves from making snarky comments about Microsoft 
and Windows.

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>>

13:00 --- Technology Tryout & Quantum Computing Preview - Jack J. Woehr
      We'll try out Skype and if all goes well, Jack will give us a 
preview of his upcoming talk on Quantum Computing.

13:30 	Extended Introductions, Rumors, Gossip --- All Assembled
      We'll go around the room and talk about what we're doing at work 
and otherwise.  Some things we might discuss include:
	What interests us as an individuals
	What projects we might work on together
	Future of Forth and SVFIG
	What interesting products we've seen or desire
	Interesting websites
	Embedded Systems Conference
	Some FIG-UK material, available for download:
		http://www.dougneale.co.uk/Forth.html
	Area talks and lectures

14:00   Walkthrough of February HDLC Code --- Sam Falvo
      Sam will do a review of the HDLC stack components he has 
implemented to date, giving us a concrete example in support of his talk 
from February's meeting.

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.

15:50 Thumb Drive Linux	--- Kevin Appert
	Kevin has gotten a tiny thumb drive from these folks: 
<<<http://usb.brando.com/eagletec-usb-nano-flash-drive_p00892c041d15.html>>>
These devices are great for a bootable rescue toolkit or Linux Desktop! 
  We'll discuss the easy process for making flash drives bootable or 
multi-boot and the various distributions and tools that can be carried 
around this way.
If you want to get a head start, go here:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

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!
_______________________________________________

Public Wireless Internet access is NOT anticipated this month at
Stanford.  Email Dave Jaffe <dljaffe at stanford.edu> to request a one day 
guest account.
_______________________________________________

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.

Enter the building from Panama Mall. Walk up the stairs just inside the 
doorway. Room 200 is on the left at the top of the stairs. (In the event 
that the building door is locked, there will either be someone on duty 
to let you in or a cellphone number to call.)

Google Maps does NOT work very well on the Stanford campus, use this 
map:  http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/map/

Or the 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.

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.