I am writing this column while enjoying the beautiful summer weather outside on my deck and looking forward to my upcoming vacation. I am reminded of how tethered we are to our computers and the internet, even on vacations. Smartphones are ubiquitous and tablets are catching up. They are powerful computers that challenge the capabilities of notebook computers of not that long ago. Like notebooks, they are susceptible to many of the same online vulnerabilities as well as some new ones.
Protecting yourself, your computer, and your Identity are ever-increasing concerns today and they form the topic of our August 5th general meeting. You and your invited guests will learn what you can do to reduce your online vulnerability.
This month I will again ask each of you to download a poster for this event and find a place where it will be seen. We need to spread the word about DACS. We have some great presentations that many more people would enjoy and learn from if they only knew about us.
Virtual Technology Conference
The Association of PC User Groups (APCUG) will again be offering their Summer Virtual Technology Conference (VTC) to DACS members, on August 16th. You must pre-register at http://bit.ly/APCUG-2014-Summer-VTC-Register. You will receive more info during the registration process. The last quarterly VTC, on May 3rd, was packed with great presentations in the form of webcasts. Past presentations are freely available on the APCUG YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/apcugvideos.
Remember when
It’s been 45 years since Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon! Did you know that some smart phones today have 2 million times more memory than the navigation computer used on the lunar lander to get there!
Do you remember the IBM OS/2 vs Windows NT 3.1 “shoot-out” in 1993, sponsored by the HAL-PC user group? DACS held a special meeting at IBM’s auditorium in Southbury to watch this. You may want to take a trip down memory lane and follow this link to see this famous video: http://blog.chron.com/techblog/2014/06/hal-pc-once-the-nations-biggest-computer-user-group-is-no-more/#24655101=5.
A lot has changed since then. At a time when DACS membership was around 900, HAL-PC was the largest user group in the USA, sporting more than 6,500 members. HAL-PC ended its long history this month. According to sources, “HAL-PC failed to keep up with the times. Its members grew older and their interests didn’t expand“. Another symptom and reason given for its demise was apathy resulting in fewer volunteers. We are 100% volunteer driven. If we lose volunteers, we slow the engine that keeps us moving forward. Nobody wants DACS to suffer the same fate as HAL-PC. Your Board of Directors and I are committed to expanding the group and making it more relevant to more people. That’s why it is VERY IMPORTANT that you step forward and see what you can do to help out. We have open opportunities available. Please consider becoming more active by taking advantage of these opportunities. Contact us at opportunities@dacs.org if you want to participate in the DACS renaissance.
Open Opportunities – Urgently Needed
- DACS meeting ambassador and Greeter. Bob Green has been the smiling face behind the desk, faithfully keeping attendance and registering guests at our general meetings. He has been doing this for quite some time. He needs a break from it and would like someone else to step up to handle this. Please let Bob know you would be happy to do this or email me at Opportunities@dacs.org. Thanks.
- We need one or more individuals to work with our technical team to integrate the membership data housed in CiviCRM with our new web site using WordPress. This can be a great addition to your resume. The ideal person will be familiar with CiviCRM and WordPress or Drupal (our current CMS). Nice to have some exposure to MySQL, Linux web servers, Apache, PHP, and Bourne shell scripting. What’s most important is your desire to learn what you don’t know. If you or someone you know wants to learn more about this very important opportunity, please get in touch with me at Opportunities@dacs.org and attach your resume.
- If you are already using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Meetup, or LinkedIn, and have suggestions for how we can use social media to create word of mouth marketing for DACS events, please contact me at PR@dacs.org. We need to seize this opportunity to entice more potential members to experience DACS.
- We could be utilizing our Resource Center much more and there are many available time slots. If you would like to see a SIG started, please send a message to NewSIG@dacs.org.