President's File
August 2010

(The President's message will occasionally be writen by editor Patrick Libert)

From the Editor:
“There’s Trouble in River City”

By Patrick Libert

Cyber War

Yes, folks. There is trouble brewing in this great land. After attending Jim Scheef’s eye opening presentation earlier this month and, researching the topic, I think that we “ain’t seen nothing yet” when it comes to potential terrorist attacks. We take too many daily activities for granted, in my opinion, and we are not protecting ourselves as a country to the best of our ability.

OK. That’s the pessimistic side of the story.

Conversely, there is much we do not know (as we should not) about how we are protecting ourselves. Referring to a recent article in Wired Magazine, “Geeks Versus Spies.” The NSA is most likely monitoring many infrastructure systems to protect them against malicious infiltration. According to this article, the NSA is actually two agencies; the “Geeks” who are the cyber security nerds who protect the systems, and, the “Spies” who can tap into any electronic communication. The premise of the article is that the “Geeks” should be split from the “Spies” as a separate entity called the CSA (Cyber Security Agency). The latter, not being associated with “spying” would have greater acceptance by the government and private sectors and be much more effective.

Think about it; would you not want the very best to protect us from any of the potential “disasters” mentioned in Jim’s presentation?

The Office

I am looking forward to seeing Jay Ferron’s August 3 presentation on Microsoft’s Office 2010.

I presently use Word in Office for Mac 2008 for most of my editing and composing for this newsletter. The Mac version is very well adapted to the platform and it offers tons of flexibility. I have used individual components of Office as far back as 1992 when our operation was entirely dependent Excel. We would design our spreadsheets in the wee hours of the night when we were not out calling on customers. Excel allowed us to intertwine multiple spreadsheets so that when a value was added to one, all the others would sync automatically. In the early days of the snail-like Mac processors, this was an accomplishment.

I digress. Jay’s presentation will be about the latest Office 2010 Suite for Windows. I do read that a Mac version will follow. I have used the open source NeoOffice, Apple’s iWork and tried some of the other contenders, but in the end I revert to the Microsoft software because of its compatibility with so many different document formats.

Don’t miss the August 3 general meeting with this captivating presentation from an expert.

New and Notable

Summer responsibilities, such as trying to keep one step ahead of the weed kingdom in my garden, have put some of my previously mentioned technical projects on hold until we have a rainy day.

Here in the Litchfield Hills, it looks as if that’s not going to happen any time soon. But, the weeds are suffering from the lack of rain as much as the lawn so I am a happy camper.

Last Summer: the Deluge! This Summer: The Sahara!