For our second meeting, there were fewer attendees than expected, but it was another great success! We had new members join us this month, as well as several who came to our first meeting.

(All images are linked to larger versions of themselves.)

Greg Martz started setting up the meeting early, so even the early-birds arrived to a fully arranged conference room, and a big note on the screen about where to snag free drinks. Greg Gaub set out the new clip-on name tags he made on the sign in table, and members continued to trickle in for the meeting. We had 18 (I think) people attending this month.

Introduction:

Greg Gaub did the introduction again, and didn't forget to embarrass everyone by making them share their name and occupation with the group. Not only did we have a bunch of techies, but we also had a doctor, house-call veterinarian, and a mother and son pair show up. With intros out of the way, we got right down to business... old business.

SeaPUG Organization:

Again, we decided to leave SeaPUG "as is" (no formal organization) until we get bigger and have a need for it.

Member Privacy:

A suggestion was made to allow members to "opt in" to making their bio page public or not. Greg Gaub will be looking into ways to provide this functionality, or maybe even a different membership database all together. If anyone has extensive PERL (or other CGI) skills and is will to offer help or suggestions, please do!

Presentation: Wireless!

Peter Bohac gave a great presentation on wireless options which was enormously informative. Starting off by defining some common acronyms for the group, he moved through all the different kinds of wireless options. He showed us devices ranging from those with built in wireless support, through add-ons and plug-ins, to IR and cable enabled wireless combinations. He was also able to show off some interesting combinations of wireless devices. He deftly answered a ton of questions from the group, and even learned a couple new things himself! ;-) His presentation was very professional, with informative projections (PowerPoint slides) which included the topics he was discussing, as well as images of some of the devices. He was also able to pass around a couple of the items he referred to during his presentation: a PalmIII series device with a Minstrel III; and a PalmIIIc connected to a wireless phone via a cable. He gave a quick demonstration of the PalmIII with Minstrel-III, but was hampered without a way to make it easy for the entire group to see the demo. At the end of the meeting, he was able to allow a few people to play with a couple device combinations and answer more specific questions. Just for the fun of it, I accessed the SeaPUG web site through my home page using Peter's PalmV and mobile phone connected via IR. That was cool. :) You can also view Peter's somewhat cryptic yet equally informative presentation notes if you'd like.

Presentation: Primer, a PDF converter and viewer from Ansyr.

Bill Hagsten and his team from Ansyr (pronounced "answer") gave a great presentation on their PDF viewer/converter for the PalmOS that is "pre-Beta." Essentially, there is a desktop application that converts PDF files into images that are compressed for viewing on the Palm with their viewer. The desktop software allows for page selection, zoom settings, and other "tweaking" to conserve file size on the palm, while retaining readability. Although the conversion software for the desktop is not free, the viewer will be free, allowing people to share the viewer and their documents without licensing worries (other than any involved with the document) for consumer use. For people who need on-the-road access to information/images currently contained only in PDF files, this will be invaluable. They showed us how their software can take a complete PDF document, preview the image before conversion, and convert all the pages, or those selected, into a format viewable on the Palm device.

Show and Tell:

Greg Gaub did a quick show-and-tell of The Pocket Vineyard software that was on the giveaway table. Pocket Vineyard is a nifty program for wine lovers and novices alike, providing a tasting notes database, glossary of terms (VERY helpful), a vintage chart giving "verdicts" on wines from all over the world for the last couple decades, and a food and wine pairing application that helps you decide what wines would be good with a meal you're having or preparing. SeaPUG's own wine connoisseur, Greg Martz, had his eye on one of the copies of this program, and was excited to be a winner during the giveaway.

Giveaways:

We gave away Boxed copies of software, courtesy of Power Media: Pocket Flash; Pocket Games; Dragon Bane; Everyday Everywhere; and Multi Task. Check out their site for details on each title, and keep an eye on the reviews page for reviews of these titles. We also got rid of two "press evaluation unit" copies of Amy Reiley's Pocket Vineyard for PalmOS handhelds from neohand. Greg Martz has promised to do a review of this application, so keep an eye out for it.

Open Discussion:

We were a little limited on free time this meeting because we had two, full length presentations that seemed to hold most people's attention fairly well. Pretty much after the giveaways were over, people started heading home. Some stayed for some more answers and chatting, but by the time 9 rolled around, we were flipping the lights off and leaving the room empty.

Great Meeting!

If I missed anything, please send me an e-mail and I'll slap it up here.