Presidential
RamblingsPresidential
Ramblings
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It was my pleasure to announce last month that Jeff Setaro will become DACS President when my term is up at the end of March. Over the last year I’ve made a big deal about succession. Rest assured, I hope to remain active in DACS for some time to come; but I want to see more people have the chance to leave their mark. Many clubs—computer user groups, in particular—seem to allow one group of people to run the organization for too many years. At some point they wonder why things seem so stale. I don’t want that to happen here at DACS. I have truly enjoyed serving as DACS presiden, but it’s time to pass this opportunity on and I’m glad Jeff has accepted the challenge. This club and its membership have tremendous potential. The general meeting programs that we produce are top notch and we have some really cool stuff lined up for the coming months. Our newsletter wins award after award because of the articles written by our own membership. Every month I find that I learn something new from the content we generate. You can and should be a part of the newsletter, the web site, and the special interest groups. The best part of being DACS president is that I get to write this column. Believe me when I say that finding topics has been difficult. The entertainment industry wants to take away your right to fair use of the digital entertainment products you buy—music and movies are the big items—but now this extends even to the ringtones on your cell phone. And far more serious is how we have allowed our civil liberties to slip through our fingers. It is no longer possible to travel anonymously and your privacy, online and off, is rapidly disappearing. Heck, these days you can’t even get sick without telling the world! The health insurance claim is recorded by several entities, and when you pay for the prescription with your credit card, the whole thing becomes searchable by an ever expanding number of organizations for purposes that have little to do with your sniffles. Someone smarter than me said, “Those who give up liberty in the pursuit of security will have neither.” The sixties mantra of “power to the people” has become “power to the moneyed interests”. Just today, our Congress people passed a law restricting your right to sue in state courts. Why, you ask? Because the corporations that poison, injure and defraud you feel that they will be treated better in the Federal courts. If you care about any of this, the people who need to know represent you in Congress. We elected them; they should be doing things in our best interests, not what some lobbyist wants! Trenton in the SpringEnough of this doom and gloom. In my very first official column as DACS president (Version 0.0 in May, 2002), I wrote about the Trenton Computer Festival. TCF traces its lineage to the very first personal computer show ever: the East Coast Computer Fair held in Atlantic City in 1976. This year, the festival moves back to The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College) and it will be earlier than past years. Save the weekend of April 16-17. The best part of TCF is the outdoor flea market. Every year I find “priceless” items for mere pennies. Some years the bargains are incredible. The weather can play a big role. Good weather brings out big crowds and the traffic keeps prices high. Bad weather and the vendors drop prices because they don’t want to have to take the stuff back. On the other hand, good weather brings out more vendors which increases competition. “Vendor” is a relative term at TCF. Some are hobbyists whose wives have forced a basement cleanup. At the other end of the spectrum are the large electronics surplus dealers who look to empty out their warehouse. Of course there are all sorts in between these extremes. Keep in mind that “high” prices at the flea market are still better than what you might see at one of the local computer fairs and there is far more variety. Brian Kernigan is the keynote speaker this year. Brian, along with Dennis Ritchie, “wrote the book” on the C programming language. In his talk, Brian “will explore some of the central ideas of computing and communications, and discuss why it is important that everyone should have some basic understanding of them.” Here is a chance to meet a true industry pioneer. I like to buy my ticket in advance to save standing in line, and then drive down on the day with the best weather. Check out the web site at www.tcf-nj.org. Help judge the Science FairElsewhere in this issue is an ad for Science Horizons (www.sciencehorizons.org), the group that produces a science fair for local junior high and high school kids. This fair has produced some spectacular results. A couple years ago, the winner (from New Milford High School) went on to win the Intel Scholarship. Her project was a new way to find asteroids and project their path. Naturally, not all of the projects are on this level, but there is no way to know unless you help judge the entries. There is a form on the Science Horizons web site to volunteer as a judge. Naturally, some knowledge of science or engineering will be helpful. For some reason I still get to write one more Presidential Ramblings column (version 2.11 – zero based) even though Jeff takes over in April. See you all then. |
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