by Lee Schmidt and Paul Schmidt
at LMU Campus, Malone Hall, Room 306 (see map and directions)
Date: 2010 January 30, Saturday Time: 1 p.m. to NLT 3 p.m.
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 7,8,9 and 10, 2010. Lee and Paul have been regular attendees to CES for many years. They will give a report on the show as well as highlight many of the interesting products they saw.
Publications from the show and literature from some manufacturers will be on display.
If you are wondering which HDTV to buy or which BlueRay player is the best, Lee & Paul will try to answer your questions. They will report some new trends like 3D TV, what’s new in home theater, home automation, and home networking.
Attendees at this meeting will receive a free T-Shirt from CES or other conferences from years past. Who knows, some may be collectors items. Reserve the date and we will see you there.
Paul Schmidt is a consultant with Mark70 and a technology instructor for the Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Bakersfield. He has been a Member of the LA-Chapter of the ACM since the 90’s and is also a member of ACM. He has served as Chapter Chair and is currently the DATA-LINK Editor.
Lee Schmidt is one of the Chapter Compusauri. If he remembers, he will bring some 15-inch disk platters to go with the T-shirts. (Everyone should have a memento from the 70’s.) Lee has served in various Chapter offices and is the current Records Controller.
............................ and now ................ the directions ...........................
See this LMU Campus map http://i.lmu.edu/imap/lmumap_production/index.html and find the Faculty parking near the center, that should be open on Saturday. Malone is the second building (after Foley) to the left (north) from parking. Once at Malone, enter the hallway through the double glass doors at the center on the side of the building that faces Foley and the palm trees, walk to the end of the hall, make a left, there will be a staircase leading upstairs behind a door on the left (step down will be on your right). Go up one flight to 3rd floor, make a left, 306 will be on your left.
The LMU pdf map is here: http://www.lmu.edu/Assets/WEBADMIN+ONLY+-+Special+Content/Campus+Map+Full+Color.pdf
With any luck, chips & beverages will also appear.
Abstract
Yukihiro Matsumoto introduced Ruby in 1995 as a language that, among other things, makes programming fun. Ruby is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, interpreted, introspective language, with a clean syntax and an elegant module system. Ruby programmers can make use of exceptions, mixins, continuations, singleton methods, closures and iterators to write very sophisticated scripts with little actual code. This talk will present and demonstrate much of the Ruby language, focusing on some of the more advanced features and comparisons with other languages. Plenty of time will be reserved for audience questions.
About the Presenter
Ray Toal is Professor of Computer Science at Loyola Marymount University where he has taught since 1986. His current research interests center around programming language design and specification.
Meeting Details
Location: Loyola Marymount University (LMU)
One LMU Drive
Los Angeles CA, 90045-2659
Doolan Hall, Room 222
Bring your own lunch.
Bring your own laptop.
From the 405: Exit the 405 on Jefferson Blvd, and turn west (left if coming from the south, right if coming from the north). Head west and turn left onto Lincoln Blvd. Head south and turn left into the campus on LMU Drive. You can ask the guard at the gate for directions to Doolan Hall.
Hope to see you there!!
Last meeting of this year. We will have the council meeting at LMU (what, again?!?), yes, in the Doolan Hall Faculty Conference Room. We'll then move to Fishco for a (probably rowdy) wrap-up for the year.
Meeting Details:
-------------------
Location — Loyola Marymount University, Doolan Hall, Faculty Conference Room upstairs
Most everyone should know where that is and how to get there, but please feel free to contact B.J. Johnson if you need assistance.
5:30 to 6:30 — Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to 7:00 — Dinner time; Move to Fishco for Professional Mixer.
ALL ARE WELCOME!!!
We are having our fun at the El Segundo Fish Company for food and an exchange of ideas. The restaurant has a wide assortment of sea food and other meals at reasonable prices. It is located at 210 E. Grand Avenue, El Segundo, CA 90245.
LA ACM holds its Council Business meeting starting at 5:30 PM, which you are welcome to attend. The Council meeting will be held in the faculty conference room in Doolan Hall on the Loyal Marymount University (LMU) campus. Council meeting attendees will move on to the restaurant for the networking event, scheduled to begin at 6:30 P.M. You are especially welcome to come to the 6:30 meeting and mix with those who are present. If the LA ACM Council is not there when you arrive, rest assured we will get there ASAP, so grab a table and start "mixing" with other arrivals. No reservations are required; we just gather around tables and mix conversation with food and drink. Our group has been receiving a 10% discount on previous months, which the restaurant seems to be ready to continue. Identify yourselves as LA ACM meeting attendees.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact: Mike Walsh at MP_Walsh@acm.org or at (818) 785-5056; email contact is preferred. You can also email B.J. Johnson at bjohnson05@gmail.com with questions or fo more information.
This month we are again doing something new. We will hold an extended council meeting to discuss several issues which were raised at last month's meeting. All members are welcome to attend and provide their inputs.
Meeting Details:
-------------------
Location — Loyola Marymount University, Doolan Hall, Faculty Conference Room upstairs
Most everyone should know where that is and how to get there, but please feel free to contact B.J. Johnson if you need assistance.
5:30 to 6:30 — Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to 7:00 — Dinner time; food may be procured at the LMU Lair or we may order in if it suits everyone
7:00 to 9:00 — Continuation of council business discussion.
Note, there is NO PRESENTATION this month. The council business issues to be discussed are listed on the programs page in the ACM Wiki pages.
]]>This month we are trying something new. We will meet at the Chef Hannes Restaurant in El Segundo for a talk by the current chapter chair, about Configuration Management. This dodgy subject will be treated from the programmer's perspective, covering such things as why CM is important to programmers, issues of scaling CM plans for different size projects, a bit of SQA/CMMI processes and involvement, and will encompass some concepts and methodologies as well.
Meeting Details:
-------------------
Location -- Chef Hannes Restaurant, 411 ½ Main Street, El Segundo, CA. 90245 310.640.0164
Meeting is in the downstairs room, through the restaurant, past the serving area / bar.
5:30 to 6:30 -- Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to 7:00 -- Dinner time
7:00 to 9:00 -- CM Presentation.
Directions:
-------------
The restaurant is on Main Street in El Segundo, on the west side of the street, between E. Pine and E. Holly Avenues. If you are coming by freeway, take the 105 westbound past LAX. The freeway turns into W. Imperial Hwy. There is a stoplight at Main Street, where you will turn left. Once on Main, you will continue past the high school on your left into the business district. The restaurant will be on your right. There are tables outside so look for those.
Here is a link to the website so you can see what it looks like. Also, here is a link to a google map of the location.
Also, here's a picture for easy reference.
We'll be at a different location than last month! Don't go to McIntosh Center, Doolan Hall or to Fishco — You'll miss out!
]]>This month we are back at LMU for another interesting talk. Attempting to branch out, we will be enjoying another speaker from a different area of expertise this month. Mr. Thomas Ousterhout, a senior Psychology student at Loyola Marymount University, will explain the realism behind the imagination behind the popular film "The Matrix". This presentation should spark some stimulating discussion!!
Abstract
The current state and future development potential of various fields of military technology can and will establish dominance over humans with machines and autonomous vehicles programmed with strong intelligence exponentially superior to humans. Today there are robots and machines everywhere. They are increasingly given more capabilities to take care of responsibilities originally designed for humans. Autonomous vehicles have been designed to cross the Mojave desert by coordinating direction and movement all by themselves and have even proven able to navigate through open traffic by changing lanes, following the rules of the road, and parking. Such technology has proven useful for the Military, providing autonomous ground, air, underwater, and surface vehicles, some of which have even been equipped with weapons effectively rendering them autonomous combat vehicles that make navigation and hostile engagement decisions on their own. Instead of trying to program advanced forms of artificial intelligence into the machines, researchers have found ways for machines to problem solve and learn about the world in a manner similar function to human children. Theoretically, machines will soon become smarter and faster than humans and potentially will be able to control themselves to establish global dominance.
Meeting Details:
-------------------
Location -- McIntosh Center, Room UH3999, in University Hall on Loyola Marymount University campus. Free parking is available under the building.
Address is 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA., 90045.
5:30 to 6:30 -- Council meeting; council business is discussed, but chapter members are welcome to attend.
6:30 to 7:00 -- Dinner time, with attendees being responsible for their own meals, available at two locations in University Hall (see below).
7:00 to 9:00 -- CMSI seniors' presentation.
Meals may be bought from:
--------------------------------
Lion's Corner Cafe: A cozy, cafe serving salads, sandwiches, microwavable entrees, juices, and coffee/tea. Open on Monday until 8:30 PM. University Hall, rm 1982. See the U-hall map.
Directions:
-------------
Here is a link to a campus map in PDF format. University Hall is the big blue box in the lower left, marked "UNH".
LMU campus is in Westchester, on the bluff overlooking Playa Vista and Marina Del Rey, just off Lincoln Blvd. Here is a page of driving instructions to get to LMU campus from several directions.
Enter the LMU Campus from Lincoln Blvd., either northbound or southbound. After entering the campus on LMU Drive, University Hall is on your right. Parking is underground, under the building. Look for the Student/Visitor parking entrance, labeled "P2/P3". The McIntosh Center is on the third floor of the building, on the northwest side.
When you park, take the elevator from the parking garage to the first floor. When you exit the elevator lobby, turn left and go to the end of the atrium where the escalators are located. Take the escalators to the third floor. Turn left when you step off the escalator, turn left again at the end of the aisle, and continue back toward the big windows overlooking the city. When you get to the windows, turn left again and continue down the aisle with the windows on your right. When you get to a covered hallway at the end of the windows, McIntosh center is the first room on your left.
We'll be at a different location than last month! Don't go to Doolan Hall or to Fishco — You'll miss out!
]]>First, Tuesday night is the second annual Software and Systems Chapters Congress meeting at the the Northrop Grumman "S-Cafe" off Marine Ave, between Aviation Blvd and Redondo Beach Ave in Redondo Beach, CA. Details are elsewhere on this blog at this link.
Second, Wednesday night we have the pleasure of a joint meeting with the IEEE-CCC at which our speaker will be Mr. Peter Coffee. We'll be meeting at the Chef Hannes Restaurant, 411 1/2 Main Street, El Segundo, CA 90245, (310) 640 - 0164, meeting at the Train Room. Hopefully you have already RSVP'd — this is a reminder so you don't forget!! All the information is at this link.
See you there!!
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~pkc09/index.html
Everyone who is interested in cryptography and information security is very much encouraged to attend!
Also, if any IT-security/cryptography organization in the area would be interested in contributing some modest sponsorship to the conference, and gaining visibility this way within the cryptographic R&D community, we'd appreciate any extra help, and we can be contacted at pkc09@ics.uci.edu.
PKC'09 will be hosted by the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), in Irvine, California. The meetings will take place at CalIT2, a research center and a conference facility located next door to the Bren School of ICS. UCI is located in Southern California, a mere 10-minute drive from the beach, 10-minute drive from the Santa Ana Airport (SNA) and a 50-minute drive from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Conference attendees can stay at numerous hotels in the Irvine area; however, two nearby hotels offer discount rates to conference attendees: Atrium Hotel ($104/day) and Crowne Plaza ($116/day).
For more information about the venue and accommodations, see:
www.ics.uci.edu/~pkc09/local.html.
For more information about travel to Irvine and UCI, see:
www.ics.uci.edu/~pkc09/travel.html.
For general information about Irvine area, see:
www.ics.uci.edu/~pkc09/attractions.html.
Where:
City of Hope
Platt Conference Center
1500 East Duarte Road
Duarte, CA 91010
Time and Schedule:
+ Events start at 9 AM
+ Presentations by panelists who work in various statistical fields followed by a Career Fair
+ This is the place to be to find out which statistical career is right for you!
Panelists:
John Adams, RAND Corporation
Gary Aras, Amgen
Nancy Gordon, US Census Bureau
Mark Hansen, UCLA
Keiko Powers, JD Power
Jessica Utts, UCI
Ted Younglove, Antelope Valley College
For more information, or if you are interested in being a sponsor or presenter, please contact Marika Suttorp. Also check the website at this location and the official flyer here.
When:
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Where:
UCLA
Tthis is all the information we currently have. Check their website frequently for more information. As things develop, we'll post an update for March.
This will be our second meeting of the 2008–2009 year at which Mr. Peter Coffee, Director of Platform Research for salesforce.com, will be the featured speaker. It is also our second collaborative meeting this year, this time with the IEEE-CCC group.
Abstract and Bio:
Ted Nelson once wrote, "If computers are the wave of the future, displays are the surfboards" ‐‐ twenty years before people talked about "surfing the Web." There's just something that appeals to people about the image of finding a source of energy and riding it to new places. Join us for an evening of exploring compelling visualizations, global wireless connections, ubiquitous sensor networks, and other candidates for the role of your personal surfboard on the high‐tech waves that are breaking today.
Peter Coffee has been with salesforce.com for two years, following 18 years as Technology Editor of the enterprise IT journals PC Week and eWEEK. He was previously the first manager of PC planning at The Aerospace Corporation, where he also worked in space asset management applications of AI techniques. Before that, he was a Senior Engineer in arctic project management, chemical facility construction, and synthetic fuels project planning for several divisions of Exxon.
He holds an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Pepperdine University; he has been a faculty member in IT management at Pepperdine and also at UCLA (computer science) and Chapman College (business analytics). He is the author of two books, How to Program Java and Peter Coffee Teaches PCs.
Meeting Details:
Place: Chef Hannes, 411 1/2 Main Street, El Segundo, CA 90245, (310) 640 - 0164 meeting at the Train Room
RSVP: By Feb 13 to Ms. Irena Kageorgis, irenakageorgis@ieee.org
Information: Dr. Antonio Mendez, mendezRDA@aol.com
Dinner: $20/IEEE & ACM Members, $25/Non-members, $10/Student Members
6:00 — Chef Hannes Dinner and Professional Networking
7:30 — Presentation (no fee for the presentation)
A complete flier, in PDF format, with a map and picture of the restaurant for easy reference, is posted here.
Many thanks to Dr. Antonio Mendez for setting this up and including us!
The SSCC gathering is for general members, event coordinators, and officers of local chapters of professional or technical societies in the greater Los Angeles and Orange County area. The congress will feature various local chapters of professional and technical societies presenting their groups, events, and opportunities for involvement. The event will consist of refreshments, social and networking time, short (5 minute) presentations by various local chapters about their events, and tables for the chapters to distribute information about their group and events.
Prelim list of of invited chapters:
+ Southern California Software Process Improvement Network
+ Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Coastal Los Angeles Section
+ IEEE Computer Society's Coastal Los Angeles Section
+ Los Angeles Chapters of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
+ Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
+ Society for Women Engineers (SWE)
+ Data Management Association (DAMA)
+ American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
+ Southern Salifornia Quality Assurance Association of San Fernando Valley
+ Project Management Institute (PMI )
Participating groups will be presenting their calendar of upcoming events and looking to partner up to host larger events in the local area.
When:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Where:
Northrop Grumman
"S-Cafe" (building R6)
2050 Marine Ave.
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
Time and Schedule:
5:00 PM — Chapter table setup
5:30 — Refreshment & visit society tables & network
6:30 – 8:00 — Chapter society presentations (5 - 10 minutes)
8:00 – 9:00 — Chapter coordination meetings and cleanup
Speaker:
John Cornell, currently Director, Agile / Distributed Product Development at Kofax, has over 15 years experience in hands on coding and managing software development teams. Mr. Cornell's current role is to lead a corporate wide initiative to transition development practices from a waterfall methodology to a more iterative framework. Mr. Cornell also works to reduce or eliminate the overhead associated with distributed software development teams. Mr. Cornell is a Certified ScrumMaster and Product Owner and is an active participant in the global Scrum community.
All events are and most presentations are (or will be) posted to the SPIN website, http://www.uces.csulb.edu/spin/ so check there for updated information.
The SoCal SPIN is sponsored by Northrop Grumman and
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)
University and College Extension Services (UCES).
When:
Friday, February 13, 2009
Where:
Northrop Grumman E2 Presentation Center
(in tall building off of Entrance 2)
Redondo Beach, CA (formerly TRW)
2299 Marine Ave.
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
Directions:
Take the 405 Inglewood exit.
+ (Southbound it's the exit after Rosecrans East. Turn left at the end of the ramp onto Inglewood Ave. heading north)
+ (Northbound it's the exit just after Hawthorne. Turn right at the end of the ramp onto Inglewood Ave. heading north)
Turn left at Marine. Go west under the freeway past the railroad tracks and Redondo Beach Ave. to Simon Ramo Dr. (the signal near the tall building). Turn left into the parking lot. E2 is the tall building to your left.
(See page 733 A5 of the Thomas Brothers Guide.)
Time and Schedule:
9:00 AM – noon —
Sam Stokes, academic developer/evangelist at Microsoft Corporation and Kevin Hoyt, platform evangelist at Adobe will represent the two sides. The free event is sponsored by the Interactive Web Development Student Association and the Computer Information Systems department in the College of Business Administration and will be streamed live over the Internet. Pizza, refreshments and a free drawing for multimedia software will be provided.
If you can't make it in person, you can watch it live or afterwards at this link.
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Hello everyone. At the February meeting, it was brought to my attention that the blog announcements are somewhat less than useful, due to the way I've been entering things. For example, a couple of people were unable to locate the information for the Peter Coffee meeting next week.
This is, shall we say, "sub-optimal". . .
This blog is supposed to be the place for announcements of our meetings, and we are also using it to announce meetings and events from computing-related or technology-related sister organizations in the Southern California area, whenever we can. However, if people can't find the information easily, it's not very effective, is it??
There's a handy feature on this blog, in the navigation pane on the left of the page, called "Archives". In this little area is a reverse chronological list of every month for which there is any blog entry. As I write this, "January" is at the top, but when I finish and post this, "February" will appear. When you click on the month name, a page appears that contains links to each individual post page that has been posted for that month, with a synopsis of what appears on that page. It's similar to the way Google and other search engines display results. The links to the entries also appear in reverse chronological order (latest at the top of the page), but the important thing is that each link is to a single page for each post. It's a bit like a "table of contents" of the entries for the month.
The old process was for me to put multiple announcements for one entry on one blog page, with a set of hyperlinks to the different entries. These hyperlinks would appear in the synopsis for the entry, although they weren't very well deliniated. That didn't seem to be effective to our members.
So, the new process is to have a separate posting for every announcement, so that each announcement will show up individually on the synopsis page.
I hope this is a better method, and that it makes the announcements easier to navigate. I'm constantly trying to improve our information dissemination methods. If anyone has more suggestions, I'd welcome your input and/or your comments. You can post them as comments here, or you can email me directly at bjohnson05@gmail.com.
. . . And that's what's happening now . . .
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