DACS is organized like a corporation in that the membership elects a board of directors and then the directors elect the officers. At the April board meeting, all of the current DACS officers were re-elected which means that I get to be your president for another year. Now I dont want this to sound like an Academy Awards acceptance speech, but I would like to thank the directors, the SIG leaders, our general meeting speakers and everyone who worked this past year to make DACS successful. This years accomplishments include:
Some goals that are still on the to-do list:
Trenton Computer Festival One of my favorite computer-related events of the year happens the first weekend in May. The Trenton Computer Festival (www.tcf-nj.org) dates back to 1976 and the very beginning of the personal computer industry. It isnt even in Trenton anymore, but the outdoor flea market remains the most fun you can have shopping for computer bargains anywhere. Go early on Saturday for the most variety or go on Sunday and wait for the vendors to start giving stuff away rather than pack it up to take home. Either way youll have a blast. A couple of years ago the festival moved to the Raritan Convention Center in Edison, NJseveral exits closer and easier to get to. Heres my big hint to enjoying TCFI wear a backpack to carry my purchases. It leaves your hands free to play with more stuff! Oh yes, there is also a regular indoor computer fair like the one at West Conn and elsewhere around the state, but TCF is much larger. With more vendors there is more competition and hence lower prices. And if you have time, there are educational conferences running all weekend. The talks range from how to back up your hard drive to The Cognitive Question: Human and Computer Thought. Trenton is an experience you just cant miss. Hardware Hacking With the Microprocessor SIG off to a good start, is there interest in a SIG on hardware hacking? This would include such fun things as running Linux on a Microsoft X-box game machine, or adding a hard drive to an I-Opener to turn an Internet appliance into a complete PC. Ive been toying (no play on words here!) with both projects and Id like to hear from anyone with similar interests. If there is enough people respond this could become another SIG.. Rumors of Anti-VPN Laws During Random Access at the April general meeting there was some brief discussion about laws that would prohibit the use of VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology on the Internet. I did a little searching on Google as I could not believe that TPTB (the powers that be) would allow the primary security tool (millions of dollars in savings) to become outlawed. Well, it seems that could be the side effect of a law in Michigan that is intended to protect the interests of service providers like cable companies. This law and similar legislation in other states seems to be aimed at activities that could be interpreted as theft of services or activities that could endanger the national security take your pick. Some of these laws increase the penalties if encryption is used and thus apply to VPNs. It appears that plugging in a hardware router to protect your computer(s) from the bad guys may be a crime in some states that could put you in jail. How could this be when the FBI was just here telling us to protect ourselves and our families online? The increasingly broad language used in these bills (legislative attempts to stay ahead of new technology and the threat of terrorism) bans the use of NAT (network address translation) as a technique to conceal from any communication service provider ... the existence or place of origin or destination of any communication. (Additional legalese removed for the sake of brevity.) [quoted from SlashDot.org]. Ill include some links in the electronic version of this column on www.dacs.org. These laws are the product of over zealous state legislators who want to do something. Unfortunately they (like Congress?) often dont understand the ramifications of their actions when technology is involved. Unfortunately there is a group of interests who do understand the side effects of these laws and still encourage their enactmentHollywood and the Music Industry. So we (yes, us) need to remain vigilant and write to our legislators and Congress people when these issues arise. Legislators and their staffs dont take the time to understand the unintended effects these bills can have. We need to help them understand before the damage is done. Jim Scheef |
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