Table of Contents
This is an old revision of the document!
This page https://LCTG.toku.us last changed 2023.08.09 09:34 Visits: [55 times today, 38 times yesterday, and 59140 total times]
Speaker schedule page . Potential Topics (for later scheduling)
Fast Links
- Info for Speakers including, how to make your cursor larger so it is more visible! * About our planning meetings ===== Lexington Computer and Technology Group =====
The Lexington Computer and Technology Group (LCTG) is a volunteer, no-cost, not-for-profit, just-for-fun-and-education organization that meets most Wednesdays from 10am to 11:30am to discuss a wide variety of technical issues. (Sometimes we meet at a different time, see this in the schedule below.) Meetings are open to anyone interested in the topic(s). The group has an email list (see how to join below) for announcements and discussions.
For further information contact the group coordinators by email at LCTG@toku.us. We look forward to have you join us!
===== ===== ==== Jump to view presentations by year ==== 2023 . 2022 . 2021 . 2020 . 2019 . 2018 <hiddenSwitch To keep this page manageable, some sections are hidden. Click here to show (and search) all sections that are hidden. Click again to hide them.>
=====Future Meetings Schedule===== jump to past meetingsReturn to main LCTG page
Presenting to the group with Zoomnot ready for prime time: [using ppt impress etc to present|Tips for using MS Powerpoint and LibreOffice Impress in your presentation]
This schedule last modified 2024.09.25 22:05recents
Recently produced meeting videos you can watch now:
::UPCOMING MEETINGS::
Date Topic confirmed Followups September 25, 2024 GASP Planning session (Gigantic Allhands Scheduling and Planning) chat messages Online only October 2, 2024 IgNoble 2024 (Peter) October 9, 2024 Inspiring the next generation: Women’s Technology Program in Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T. (Barbara Hughey)
[needs confirmation]DanK, PeterA October 16, 2024 Tech for Senior(s) Topic(s) Peter & Drew (finders), Steve(editor) October 23, 2024 Potpourri
TedK and his smart bowl of jelly
video: the genius of the quantum navigation breakthrough (20m; TedK)
Steve's research on Cell Services and/or Network Speed RequirementsOctober 30, 2024 Talks at Google (Peter lead) November 6, 2024 OBS Studio (Drew)
Secret topic (Harry)November 13, 2024 History and Practice of Heart Surgery and Medication (Geltman) John November 20, 2024 NAS (Network Attached Storage) and Docker Apps. Plex server. (Drew, maybe Seth Silverman) November 27, 2024 day before Thanksgiving December 4, 2024 Potpourri December 11, 2024 GASP Planning session (Gigantic Allhands Scheduling and Planning) December 18, 2024 Tuberculosis in the 1800s and how it applies to today (JerryS) December 25, 2024 Christmas day January 1, 2025 New Year's Day January 8, 2025 Dick Wagner on Sociobiology January 15, 2025 Practical Fusion Power update and Challenges: breeding and handling Tritium (TedK) January 22, 2025 Potpourri January 29, 2025 (tentative) Astronomy update (Gamota) JohnR February 5, 2025 Sabine Hossenfelder day Barry February 12, 2025 Brian Greene day John February 19, 2025 Curated interesting video shorts Steve with help February 26, 2025 March 5, 2025 March 12, 2025 March 19, 2025 March 26, 2025
—- ===== Past Meetings ===== ==== 2023 ==== <hidden initialState=“visible” onVisible=“Click to hide 2023 past meetings” onHidden=“click to show 2023 past meetings”>
</hidden>
==== 2022 ==== <hidden initialState=“invisible” onVisible=“Click to hide 2022's meetings” onHidden=“click to show 2022's meetings”>Date Topic and links Attaches # Jan 5, 2022 Best of Freakonomics, an interview with Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, moderated by Faith Salie. Recorded at the 92nd Street Y on May 2015. 26 Jan 12, 2022 Downdraft Radar Technology (Dr. Jim Evans) video shown as part of presentation Slides Downdraft Radar Presentation 35 Jan 19, 2022 Quantum Mechanics Part 1 (Charlie Holbrow) Quantum Mechanics presentation 39 Jan 26, 2022 Potpourri
* Meandering Rivers (John Rudy) Concord River is a good example. e.g., https://www.ausableriver.org/blog/why-do-streams-meander Mark Twain and Fenimore Cooper
* Sweet Summations in Short (Charlie Holbrow)
* Single Slit Interference Explained (Bob Melanson)Meandering Rivers presentation
Sweet Summations presentation
Slit Interference presentation36 Feb 2, 2022 Manufacturing Chips (Dan Gamota, son of our George, works for a chip manufacturer) Chip Manufacturer presentation 40 Feb 9, 2022 Virus package update; both real-time (e.g., Defender) and off-line (e.g., Malware Bytes). Consider Windows 10 & Windows 11(TPM), but also Mac/OSX.
presentation notes SE Labs tests
How a guy hacked a crypto wallet (32m)Virus Update Presentation 31 Feb 16, 2022 Potpourri
Charlie Holbrow explains Lagrangian points, especially L2.
Followup to Virus topic: Browser Guards (Drew King) slidesLagrangian Points presentation
Browser Guards presentation34 Feb 23, 2022 planning meeting no presentation 16 Mar 2, 2022 10am George Gamota Space Update Space Update presentation 30 Mar 2, 2022 7pm Managing File Size - for Photos, email, PDF documents, etc. (Allan Sherman)
Allan was the lead of this group in the past and is well respected by those who know, or meet, him. He also discusses his life in New Zealand for the past two years.Managing File Size presentation 27 Mar 9, 2022 The secret of Tuxedo Park (PBS American Experience) [53m]
Where did "Tuxedo" come from?[5m]25 Mar 16, 2022 Potpourri
Upgrading to Windows 11 and getting around the Windows 11 machine requirements (Drew)
Feynman: Fun to Imagine (Jiggling Atoms, Fire, and Rubber Bands)
How to build a tin can (12m)
The Physics of Curling (11m)
How Curling Stones are Made (6m)slides from Windows 11 presentation
Windows 11 presentation30 Mar 23, 2022 Women in Science: David Kahan presenting an overview of the history and accomplishments of women in science over the years. Women in Science presentation 25 Mar 30, 2022 Quantum Physics Part 2 (Charlie Holbrow)
Related presentations by Charlie: Quantum Mechanics I and Quantum PhysicsQuantum Physics presentation 33 Apr 6, 2022 John Snow and the Cholera Epidemic of 1854 (Jerry Slate)
John Snow (1813 – 1858) was a British physician who became interested in the transmission of cholera. At the time, airborne transmission of disease, miasma, was the accepted model for cholera. When Snow showed his data on the cholera epidemic of 1854 (in a manner not previously seen), there was much resistance in the scientific community to a paradigm shift.John Snow/Cholera presentation 27 Apr 13, 2022 Craig Fields on DARPA (not recorded at speaker's request) Honest remarks and a lively conversation with the person who ran DARPA from 1974-1990.
DARPA=Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencynot recorded 37 Apr 20, 2022 Potpourri
GPS Jamming (Bob Primak) slides
Bowling Balls, Lanes, and ScienceGPS Jamming presentation 34 Apr 27, 2022 How Air Traffic Control has been impacted by STARS (Mel Weinzimer)
STARS=Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System, developed by Raytheon and the FAA as part of the Terminal Automation Modernization and Replacement (TAMR) Program.ATC/STARS presentation 42 May 4, 2022 Michael Faraday: Student of the Natural World (Franklin Segall, M.D.) not recorded 34 May 11, 2022 James Clerk Maxwell: Scientist as Magician (Franklin Segall, M.D.) not recorded 38 May 18, 2022 Rumford – From Woburn Farmboy to Count of the Holy Roman Empire. (Howard Cohen)
From Wikipedia:
Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, was an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th-century revolution in thermodynamics. slidesRumford presentation 32 May 25, 2022 Scheduling meeting 29 June 1, 2022 Bitcoin and Web3 - Their Technology and Impact on the World; and NFT - Non Fungible Tokens (Jerry Harris [Lex])
Suggested video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g
presentation slidesBitcoin Web3 presentation 44 June 8, 2022 A. A. Michelson – The Prodigy of High Precision Measurements (Daniel Kleppner) High Precision presentation 27 June 15, 2022 Solar Panels and Energy Storage Devices (Mark Sandeen) – why or why not, and savings, pluses and minuses Solar Panel presentation 44 June 22, 2022 Internet fast lanes, stock trading, net neutrality. (Bob Primak) Internet Trading presentation 27 June 29, 2022 Scientific CCD Development at MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Christopher Leitz)
The Advanced Imager Technology group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory designs and fabricates detectors and readout circuits for imaging applications in support of National Security and scientific exploration. Dr. Leitz outlines their history in providing these devices for the scientific community and highlights future directions in CCD development, notably new detector materials, new fabrication processes, and new readout amplifiers for applications in astrophysics, astronomy, and particle physics.presentation slides, slide 19 has an embedded movieCCD Development Presentation 28 July 6, 2022 Basics of Fusion (Fusion part I) (Ted Kochanski) watch Fusion part I presentation 30 July 13, 2022 Potpouri
* Notetaking applications: Using and contrasting Obsidian, Evernote, OneNote, and others (Jerry Harris) slides
* Hybridization: How can we hold our meetings both online and in-person. Technology needed on-the-cheap and issues to consider. A status of current ideas and future investigations.watch the Notetaking presentation 30 July 20, 2022 The Code Breaker: A Conversation with Jennifer Doudna [50m] link 25 July 27, 2022 History of Missions to Mars (George Gamota)
Video from JPL/NASA Documentary Series, we saw episode #4, The Changing Face of Mars
We showed these “Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech” according to their Permission to use32 August 3, 2022 Quantum Basics part III (Charles Holbrow) watch the presentation 30 August 10, 2022 Ukraine: The Real Truth (George Gamota) watch the presentation 36 August 17, 2022 Weather Models (Matt Belk) slides watch the presentation 47 August 24, 2022 Potpourrri
The Mathematics of Weight Loss
25 Chemistry Experiments in 15 Minutes32 August 31, 2022 Fusion part II (Ted Kochanski) watch the presentation 29 Sept 7, 2022 Personal Stories, potentially including:
* Alan Millner
* Dan Kleppner28 Sept 14, 2022 Mega Planning Meeting 27 Sept 21, 2022 Gravitational Wave Astronomy (LIGO) – some future, and a little pedagogy about the field. Rainer Weiss (via Charlie Holbrow) watch the presentation 35 Sept 28, 2022 Prion Diseases: What They Are and How They're Caused (Dick Wagner) watch the presentation 35 Oct 5, 2022 Yom Kippur The Jewish Day of Fasting and Repentance. (No meeting) Oct 12, 2022 Windows 11: Is it time to move to Win 11? Feature Update. (Drew King)slides
Windows Must-Haves (important applications and tools) (Peter Albin) slideswatch the presentation 33 Oct 19, 2022 Potpourri – several videos shown
history and making m&ms
Secret Hiding Place Behind My Office
Beating Arcade Games with Science
Dropping a penny from Empire State Bldg26 Oct 26, 2022 The project to generate oxygen from Carbon Dioxide on Mars surface (Mike Hecht/Lincoln Labs Haystack Observatory) slides watch the presentation 43 Nov 2, 2022 IgNobel Awards 33 Nov 9, 2022 Facial Recognition (John Rudy) slides watch the presentation 37 Nov 16, 2022 John Belcher - Voyager Spacecraft Update, Lessons Learned
John Belcher is an MIT professor of physics emeritus. He received his PhD from CalTech in 1971 and as a postdoc at MIT, helped write the proposal to put a plasma experiment on the Voyager missions, launched in 1977, and is still sending back data. See: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ slideswatch the presentation 36 Nov 23, 2022 day before thanksgiving no meeting Nov 30, 2022 Planning Meeting. 23 Dec 7, 2022 Potpourri
Why Use Radians as Angular Measure? (Charles Holbrow)
Nuclear Energy Update (David Kahan) slides
World Record Domino Robot Setting up 100,000 dominoes in 24 hours
nuclear bomb effects on a city and about these nuclear maps37 Dec 14, 2022 Cognition, Affect, and Learning: The Role of Emotions in Learning – Barry Kort watch the presentation ?? Dec 21, 2022 Early Digital Computers from late 1930's to around 1950 (Carl Lazarus)
watch the presentation 39 Dec 28, 2022 between Christmas and New Years - no meeting </hidden>
==== 2021 ==== <hidden initialState=“invisible” onVisible=“Click to hide 2021's meetings” onHidden=“click to show 2021's meetings”>Date Topic and links Attaches # Jan 6, 2021 Dr. Peter Braun: A Covid-19 Primer A scientific look at the virus. Why is COVID-19 so “successful” from a pathogenic point of view. Where do viruses like this come from? How has treatment progressed? Vaccine development and technology. (The recording contains a follow-up on the Brevig Mission that was not covered in the live presentation; at approx. 1:37). COVID-19 presentation 53 Jan 13, 2021 Priestly and the Discovery of Oxygen (presented by Jerry Slate, M.D.) Joseph Priestly (1733 - 1804) is credited with the discovery of oxygen. His discovery was a part of a long term scientific effort to understand the nature of matter. His work as an untrained scientist showed analytical skill which illustrated the relevance of his finding. His discovery of oxygen represents the beginning of the understanding of the composition of the atmosphere and its role in respiration. watch the presentation 42 Jan 20, 2021 Quantum Biology (GeorgeG) (video and intro) with discussion
When Quantum Mechanics were first introduced widely, pioneers such as Heisenberg thought that quantum effects should play a role in biology, but for the next 50 years it was sort of forgotten. With today's computing power and instrumentation new insights are being given to explain biological phenomena by invoking quantum effects such as tunneling or entanglement. We will hear 3 experts (MIT, UC Irvine, & U Arizona) discussing the implications of quantum effects in biological entities
Video we watched:Quantum Biology: The Hidden Nature of Nature (1h35m) Other related and referenced videos:
Part 1: How Plants use Quantum Mechanics (12m) . Part 2: Enzymes, the Engines of Life (12m) . Part 3: How Birds (Might) Navigate with Quantum Mechanics (21m)George's introduction
slides42 Jan 27, 2021 Potpourri Peter Albin, your host
Y2K (John Rudy, 20min)
Drones in the UK, how they threaten aircraft safety, measures taken to address them. (The video is not widely available)Y2K Discussion 44 Feb 3, 2021 Plastics having a recycle number on them leads people to think they will be recycled and are perhaps more accepting of then using them. However, many thin plastic containers such as salad boxes or clear takeout containers are not in practice recycled. (George Burnell) This might be more than one session. Plastic bags biodegradability, manufacture, disposal, recycling.
also possibly of interest: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-plastic-problem (1hr video)
Recycling by the numbersWatch the presentation slides 35 Feb 10, 2021 Polaroid: Recently I learned about a Google talk on the history of Polaroid (Instant:The Story of Polaroid Christopher Bonanos Talks at Google, 2012). It might make an interesting meeting. The talk is about an hour and we could augment it with “actual folks” who worked for Polaroid? With 3-4 people worked there (Peter Albin)
I worked in photographic film product development at Polaroid for 23 years (1976 to 1998). It was there that out of necessity I became in involved in N-dimensional non-linear systems optimization computer tools. I could discuss the approaches that we used and the evolution of the software tools that were internally developed. Many of these tools and graphical visualization aids are now available in the commercial pack Design Expert by StatEase which I used in a final consulting gig at Polaroid in 2003. [Bob Eckert][presentation coming soon] 36 Feb 17, 2021 History relating to Rubber, what used for, how manufactured, WWI, WWII, rubber shortages (George Burnell)
WWI WWII Japan taking over, fire hoses & rain gearWatch the presentation 33 Feb 24, 2021 (GeorgeG) Mars landing, Perseverance landed 2/18/2021, George discusses this with several visuals Watch the presentation
Mars photos to music55 Mar 3, 2021 Potpourri
* Peter Mui and fixing your machine
Peter Mui's Free Fixit Clinic Participant Registration: http://bit.ly/fixitcheckin
Fixers/Observers: http://bit.ly/fixitcoachsignup
* Rober vid: 15 minutes of useless science factsWatch Peter Mui's presentation 48 Mar 10, 2021 Rubber Part 2 George Burnell presents the second part of his talk on Rubber: industrial products, recycling, synthetic, and more. watch the presentation 29 Mar 17, 2021 Why is Venus so bloody hot? The greenhouse effect. (Charlie Holbrow) Watch the presentation 39 Mar 24, 2021 I. I. Rabi, a story of scientific rags-to-riches (Dan Kleppner)
Rabi played a principal role in the transition of U. S. Physics from a backwater position to the international leader in the 1940’s and 50’s. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his own work, mentored eight laureates at Columbia University, triggered the founding of Brookhaven National Laboratory and CERN, and created the position of Science Advisor to the President. He invented the atomic clock, played a major role in the creation of the theory of relativistic quantum electrodynamics (QED) and mentored the inventors of nuclear magnetic resonance, the maser and the laser.Watch the presentation 36 Mar 31, 2021 Flying Cars presented by Bill Passman. An overview of what is currently called “Flying Cars”, which includes Terrafugia's “roadable aircraft”, designed to drive from home to an airport and then fly like a General Aviation Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA). Other flying car efforts are aimed at VTOL air taxi fleets, personal VTOL vehicles, electric airplanes and autonomous cargo-VTOLs.
Technologies being used are folding wings, tilt-wings, tilt-rotors, tail-sitters, and power sources using battery electric drive, hybrid-electric drive, hydrogen, and fuel-cell power.
Bill will also present market hurdles, such as: battery technology, charging infrastructure, safety, heliport infrastructure, noise reduction, and FAA regulatory capabilities.Watch the presentation 40 Apr 7, 2021 Venus 'n greenh'se — and Mars and Earth (Charles Holbrow)
What I learned from my Climate Science Study Group (Jerry Slate, Carl Lazarus, Mike Alexander)Watch the presentations 37 Apr 14, 2021 The Apollo Mission Presented by Fred Martin, ScD.; Dr. Martin served as the Apollo Software Project Manager while at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (now Draper Lab) and then pursued an industrial career in software analysis and management.
<font 11px>History will surely record the voyage to the moon as being the greatest adventure of the 20th century. We will first examine our fascination with our closest neighbor and early speculation of travel through the writings of Jules Verne. We will discuss the principles of how a rocket works, gain an understanding of JFK’s decision and confidence to place a man on the Moon, and experience the Apollo Moon Project “first hand:” its methods, triumphs and surprises. Our resources will include Dr. Martin’s experiences within the Apollo Program and videos of the exciting minute-by-minute landing on the Moon’s surface.</font>Watch the presentation 57 Apr 21, 2021 > Black Holes by Andrea Ghez (2020 Nobel Prize winner in Physics). link; 50min Presented at the World Science Festival
> About the Suez Stuck Ship link; 8minApr 28, 2021 > Cacelia Payne-Gaposhkin would have received a Nobel prize for figuring out what stars are made of, in a fairer world. link (1h4m John Rudy) from wikipedia:
<font 11px>a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist who proposed in her 1925 doctoral thesis that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected because it contradicted the scientific wisdom of the time, which held that there were no significant elemental differences between the Sun and Earth. Independent observations eventually proved she was correct.</font>32 May 5, 2021 Space Debris: A Big Problem (Georg Kirchner)
<font 11px>When the first satellites were launched some 60 years ago, space was more or less empty. However, the ever increasing launching activities since that now have created a rather crowded environment above our heads: More than 30.000 space debris objects – old / defunct satellites, upper stages of rockets, remaining parts after explosions of collisions etc. – are now orbiting in different altitudes, tracked by radar, laser and passive optical telescopes. The possibility of collisions is already rather high: Collision warning systems create already more than 1000 warnings per day (!) of close encounters between 2 objects – and sometimes this is TOO close – and a collision between two space debris objects, at velocities of 27.000 km/h, creates several 1000 new space debris parts…
Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) has demonstrated during the last years the capability of tracking such debris objects, helping to determine their accurate orbit, and also their tumbling motions – important features if you want to catch an old upper stage, and remove it from space.</font>
Dr. Georg Kirchner is a group leader at the Space Research Institute, Department of Satellite Geodesy, Austrian Academy of Sciences in Graz, Austria.watch the presentation 34 May 12, 2021 What Was It Like: I Lived In Antarctica Ivor Morgan lived in Antarctica from late 1961 to early 1964 and worked for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as a surveyor in topographic and hydrographic mapping of the Antarctic Peninsula. His most recent trip south was 5 years ago. The Antarctic Peninsula is still the primary focus of BAS bases. A major secondary area was the Base at Halley Bay on the south of the Weddell Sea—and today almost in it. Ivor will explain more during his talk. He'll also go over maps of Antarctica to help you become familiar with this interesting and unique continent. Watch the presentation 44 May 19, 2021 Potpourri
> Extraterrestrial. The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth (Ken Cutter discusses this book on 'Oumuamua. If you don't know what this is about, then you should join the meeting and find out.)
> Rober and Jello link (10m30s)
> 3-year effort to video two vortex rings colliding in super slow motion. link; 8min
> Synchronization link; 20minWatch the Oumuamua presentation 30 May 26, 2021 >Helicopter flight on Mars (George Gamota) Watch the presentation] 33 June 2, 2021 Telephone Switching Before Computers (Ken Pogran)
When we think about telephone switching today, we may think of all-digital, computer-based systems humming along quietly in shiny computer rooms. But go back 50, 80, or 120 years, and you'll find calls are handled by clattering behemoth electromechanical switching systems, some with racks and frames 14 feet tall, and some motor-driven, with clutches and commutators and rods with brushes that scamper up and down. In this talk Ken will take us through the evolution of telephone switching systems, from an undertaker's invention of the late 1880s through the Bell System's urban giant “panel” systems of the 1920s and '30s and on up to the No. 1 and No. 5 crossbar systems of the late '30s, '40s, and '50s. On the way we'll look at the overall architecture of telephone switching, problems of scalability, and the No 5 crossbar “marker”–the most complex relay-based computing machine ever produced.watch the presentation 37 June 9, 2021 Quantum Engineering of Superconducting Qubits. William Oliver, associate professor of EE and Computer Science at MIT and fellow at Lincoln Lab. (Rich Ralston). The abstract of his talk:
Superconducting qubits are coherent artificial atoms assembled from electrical circuit elements and microwave optical components. Their lithographic scalability, compatibility with microwave control, and operability at nanosecond time scales all converge to make the superconducting qubit a highly attractive candidate for the constituent logical elements of a quantum information processor. Over the past decade, spectacular improvements in the manufacturing and control of these devices have moved the superconducting qubit modality from the realm of scientific curiosity to the threshold of technical reality. In this talk, we present the progress, challenges, and opportunities ahead in engineering larger scale processors.Watch the presentation 31 June 16, 2021 The Buzz on Bees The biology, pollination, diseases and parasites, killer bees, and beekeeping. (Howard Cohen) slides Watch the presentation 29 June 23, 2021 * Iron Mountain: History. (Carl Lazarus; 45mins +/-)
* Stan Rose will talk about his experiences on 9/11. He will include his personal experiences that day and ongoing days. He can also show pictures of what happened to his office and the surrounding area.Watch the presentation 27 June 30, 2021 Dentistry (David Brother). Topics being considered: Dramatic changes that have occurred in dentristy in the past 50 years. Or dental radio graphic imaging and what it can do especially in regard to dental implants. Or History and development of dental implants. Or thehistory and development in the field of orthodontics and prostetic advances. Or Sixty years of Fluoride: what this has meant to our teeth and health. watch the presentation 35 July 7, 2021 Pluto Strikes Back! (After all of the suffering Pluto has suffered by the not-a-planet bullying by the International Astronomical Union, we will mount a degree of support for this picked-on planet or non-planet.). Speaker Scott Kenyon will talk about his recent work on the formation of Pluto and its small satellite system. Learn how Pluto came to be a binary planet and how its four tiny satellites grew out of the debris from a major collision. watch the presentation 29 July 14, 2021 9am: Discussing how our group can meet in Hybrid mode – both online in Zoom and in person at the same time.
10am: Cancer Therapy and the Scientific Process. The Discovery of the Platinum-Based Compound Used in Cancer Chemotherapy: An Example of the Scientific Process (Dick Wagner)watch the presentation 39 July 21, 2021 Potpourri. Drone Photography (Al Levin).
A demo of professional drone video of a Korean commercial.
Making of music video in one take (wow) Shows moving camera and use of greenscreen [4m]Watch the presentation 24 July 28, 2021 We showed and discussed these videos.
High performance world record paper airplane [11m]
Scientist Explains Sleep in 5 Levels of Difficulty [24m]
Backyard Squirrel Maze 2.0 [19m], a Mark Rober video
Wind driven vehicle a passive vehicle that goes faster than the wind that's driving it [22m]31 Aug 4, 2021 Seager exoplanet presentation (presented via Cary Liby and hosted by GeorgeBurnell) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye-UNXeMJC8. (1h5m) 38 Aug 6, 2021 1:30pm: Exploring in-person meeting options, trying out the Meeting Owl Pro product page 14 Aug 11, 2021 Planning meeting – we schedule upcoming meeting speakers and topics, using the in-the-works page. Meeting is open to everyone and the discussion is usually rather interesting.
Join us and help us choose our topics for future meetings.20 Aug 18, 2021 Potpourri 26 Aug 25, 2021 Some Arithmetic Pleasantries (Charles Holbrow) and the infinite hotel paradox
(The chat had a number of links to material. click to see)Watch the presentation 41 Sept 1, 2021 Security Update – Lex Liby presentation on security by Bruce Schneier link (1h7m) 36 Sept 8, 2021 Big Belly Recycling (Alex Gamota)
(From Alex:) “Have you wondered about the gray public waste bins located at Center Field, Lexington High School, or the Center? Or maybe you never noticed them?? They are Bigbelly smart waste stations! Since 2008, and some 65,000 smart waste stations in 55+ countries later, Bigbelly's smart waste solution has been helping cities and campuses transform public spaces and help reduce the carbon footprint associated with waste management by up to 80%. In this talk, you will learn about Bigbelly's patented solar powered compaction solution, its connected Cloud based operating system that streamline operations and collection efficiency, and about its recent offering, the Telebelly. The Telebelly expands the benefits of the ubiquitous Bigbelly platform to additionally host small cell and other information and communication technologies.
Alex Gamota is Senior Vice President & General Manager, Information & Communication Technologies21 Sept 15, 2021 Potpourri
* Adventures in Tiling the Plane (Ken Cutter) slides
* The Simplest Math Problem No one Can Solve – Collatz Conjecture video (22m)
* Rough Fractals video (17m)26 Sept 22, 2021 Margaret Geller: Caught in the Cosmic Web. Margaret made the first and several recent maps of the distribution of galaxies in the universe, showing that they are not distributed randomly in space but form interesting patterns that repeat on the largest scales. (not recorded at speaker's request) 30 Sept 29, 2021 What are Blockchains & How They work link (6m)(Larry Wittig)
What is a cryptographic hash function? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function
CryptoCurrency video (55m)30 Oct 6, 2021 Is There Intelligent Life Anywhere? (Howard Winkler) Watch the presentation
Slides28 Oct 13, 2021 Potpourri
tech gifts (by: cost, category, knowledge level)Slides with links
Watch the presentation22 Oct 20, 2021 CRISPR by Dick Wagner
The acronym “CRISPR” (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) has often been invoked when considering recent revolutionary genetic engineering advances. This presentation will be devoted to the origin of the term, its biological significance, and how further knowledge led to the expansion of the meaning of this term as well as its underlying processes in genetic engineering. Finally, Dick will discuss the potential of CRISPR for deriving further molecular biological information and uses from experimentation and analysis.Watch the presentation
Slides35 Oct 27, 2021 CRISPR part 2. Dick Wagner gives a brief review and then more detail. Watch the presentation
Slides24 Nov 3, 2021 The linked fates of Haber and Weitzmann by Bretislav Friedrich Two scientists who had a significant impact on technology and history
In the early 1930s, as Nazism was gaining strength in Germany, two renowned German-speaking Jewish scientists found themselves on converging paths: Fritz Haber (1868–1934), one of the most influential – and controversial – of 20th century chemists, and Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), a successful biochemist, leader of the world Zionist movement, and future founder of the State of Israel. In their meetings and correspondence, they reflect on the history, current events, and fate of science and scientists, and strive to create a place where learning and humanism would rise above racism and hatred.
Followup: a pretty amazing summary of the history of physical and theoretical chemistry: NIH linkWatch the presentation 34 Nov 10, 2021 Potpourri
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/decoding-da-vinci/ A NOVA on DaVinci
Bizarre Behavior of Nuts [15m]23 Nov 17, 2021 Covid (and Variants) Update. Jerry Slate.
Note: Should children be vaccinated? Video 32:40. What went wrong? Video 48:00Watch the presentation
slides32 Nov 24, 2021 No meeting (Day before Thanksgiving) Dec 1, 2021 The history of knee replacement and the technology behind it. Presented by Dr. Richard Scott watch the presentation 39 Dec 8, 2021 The first LASER of 2021 explores the relationship between humans, DNA, and data, featuring media artist and TED speaker Refik Anadol in conversation with Dr. Robert Grass from ETH Zurich, and Christine Choirat from Harvard and the Swiss Data Science Center. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCMaMEyYpdw (First 41 mins of 90 min) TED Talk
The Skill of Humor [19m]25 Dec 15, 2021 The Glide “no-code” Application Development Environment (Harry Forsdick)
Nearly codeless programming (AKA “No Code Programming”); the concepts that are done for you by the system. This is an illustrated talk about and demonstration of the Glide “no-code” application development environment. Glide is representative of the possible future for (some) software development activities presented by a survivor from the early days of computer programming. read abstractWatch the presentation 33 Dec 22, 2021 Windows 11 (Drew King); useful sites:
How to create Windows 11/10/8/7 To Go by using WinToUSB
Download Windows 11 ISO file for use with WinToUSB
Windows Speech commands
File sharing over a network in WindowsWatch the presentation 39 Dec 29, 2021 The Useful Information Meeting (Bob Primak):
» What do you do with an older PC? (paperweight alternatives)
» Windows 11 Upgrade Notification
» Installing Linux Mint on an old laptop (it's easy)
Notes from the presentation:
video of Linux installation notes for video
Mint Linux install
Win 11 upgrade icon
What to do with an old PCWatch the presentation 31 </hidden>
==== 2020 ==== <hidden initialState=“hidden” onVisible=“Click to hide past 2020 meetings” onHidden=“click to show 2020 past meetings”>Date Topic and links Jan 8, 2020 Ig Nobel 2019 Awards awards for dubious inventions (Peter Albin) link to Improbable Research page watch the presentation Jan 15, 2020 [1] How we accomplished the change from Yahoo Groups and using the new system (30min, Steve Isenberg) Slides
[2] Windows Security Settings and Windows 7 Anti-Malware (30min, Gary Patrick) Slides
[3] Alternatives to TV servers: new ways of getting programming (30min, Steve Isenberg) Slides . 2010 NY Times article . Spreadsheet shows service vs content[1] Watch the presentation
[2] Watch the presentation
[3] Watch the presentationJan 22, 2020 Tesla-Marconi conflict their radio-related patent war from 1900-1943 (Bob Primak) Presentation notes Watch the presentation Jan 29, 2020 Potpourri Ken Cutter spoke on UFO's slideset and the history behind speed of light measurements slideset.
John Rudy showed a video from Broad Institute (pronounced, bro-awd): Overall view of Broad Institute and the presentation we watched, human genome revolution past, present, and future.
John Rudy mentioned that there are some MOOC classes on introduction to biology, see info at this edx link (MOOC=Massive Open Online Course)Feb 5, 2020 Career Day Attendees discuss interesting things from their career. Watch the discussion Feb 12, 2020 Space Update (George Gamota) Feb 19, 2020 Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad AI This is a later presentation, and therefore improved over an earlier presentation.
(John Rudy will coordinate.)watch the video Feb 26, 2020 Patents – What they are, a brief history of patents, how to read them, and how to obtain them watch the presentation Mar 4, 2020 Patent Licensing from Universities (Lita Nelson) watch the presentation Mar 11, 2020 Geodesy, its properties and tools, presented by Mike Pearlman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Program on Geodesy
Geodesy is the science of accurately measuring and understanding three fundamental properties of the Earth: its geometric shape, its orientation in space, and its gravity field— as well as the changes of these properties with time.
Space Geodesy uses sources external to the Earth: artificial satellites (in satellite geodesy), quasars (in very-long-baseline interferometry, VLBI), and the retroreflectors on the Moon (in lunar laser ranging) to measure these static and time varying properties.
Of current interest are measurements to monitor geodetic parameters and their temporal variations in a global reference frame with a target relative accuracy of 10E-9 – 10E-10, for both scientific understanding of the Earth system and understanding their potential impact on society
Fundamental to these measurements is a reference frame that provides stability over space, time, and evolving technology.watch the presentation Mar 18, 2020 Tracking New Diseases: Medical issues incl Vaping (Jerry Slate) watch the presentation 45 Mar 25, 2020 Patents for high technology (and when not to have them) (Dick Wagner) watch the presentation 44 Apr 1, 2020 3D Printing and Robotics in Industry: An Update (George Burnell) 3D Printers fighting Coronavirus (link from PeterA) watch the presentation
chat messages45 Apr 8, 2020 Christine Muir, Community Librarian at Cary Library, will demonstrate how to access all the online resources offered by the library. There is no fee for any of these resources, which include ebooks, digital audiobooks, movies, music, TV shows, newspapers, and more. watch the presentation 41 Apr 15, 2020 Futurism We started with something different (Cute Brother and Sister); and then
a couple of videos by/with Amy Webb (a quantitative futurist, professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and founder of the Future Today Institute)
Ted Talk on hacking online dating (17 mins)
presenting the 2019 Emerging Tech Trends Report (60 minutes) at SXSW in March 2019
relevant links for your offline reference include https://amywebb.io/
There were several links shown during the videos: http://bit.ly/FTI2019TechTrends (this links to the 2020 report), http://bit.ly/SXSW2019TechTrends, and the “TWiT” program we watched at the end http://twit.tv/subscribe (and there's lots to subscribe to!!) and http://twit.tv/live41 Apr 22, 2020 Potpourri Gary Patrick with information on Encryption and some Utilities.
Charly Sestokas with computer buying tips, etc; HD vs SSD; SD Longevity; MS Surface;
plus Potential House Fires from Phone, Tablet, Laptop, other Electronic Charging setupswatch the presentation
the presentation with captions
slides
chat messages42 Apr 29, 2020 The Science behind Columbus (Bob Melanson)
Bob finishes this up on July 15watch the presentation
slides36 May 6, 2020 The Manhattan Project first part (Charles Holbrow) watch the presentation 58 May 13, 2020 Nuclear Power Generation (David Kahan) slides
watch the presentation47 May 20, 2020 Boost-Phase Defense against ICBMs presented by Dan Kleppner.
Because little was known publicly about the Bush proposal, the American Physical Society initiated a study. Our presenter was co-chair of the study group. Although the study is fifteen years old, little has changed.slides
watch the presentation46 May 27, 2020 George Burnell Part II
Continuation/conclusion of George Burnell's earlier presentation on 3D printingwatch the presentation 26 June 3, 2020 The Manhattan Project - part 2 (Charles Holbrow)slides watch the presentation 46 June 10, 2020 Potpourii NY Times article dealing with privacy (Peter Albin)
Phone tracking of people (Charlie Holbrow)
The Immortal (BBC program)(not recorded) 42 June 17, 2020 Sabermetrics The Statistical Analysis of Baseball (Andy Andres)
Andy Andres is a senior lecturer of natural science at the Boston University College of General Studies who is an expert in exercise physiology, nutritional biochemistry and baseball. In addition to the work listed above, Andres writes, lectures, and speaks to the media about the effects of steroids on baseball players, and he teaches a course at Tufts University in sabermetrics, the data-driven analysis of baseball performance. These pursuits allow the lifelong Red Sox fan and athlete to synthesize his twin loves: baseball and scientific inquiry. Andres is also an MLB datacaster at Fenway Park, a Data Analyst for BaseballHQ.com and Head Coach/Lead instructor for the MIT Science of Baseball Program. In the spring of 2014, Andres will teach a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) titled “Sabermetrics 101: Introduction to Baseball Analytics” on the edX platform.
SABR: Society of American Baseball Researchwatch the presentation 33 June 24, 2020 MOOC Massive Open Online Courses – What's there, what's new. (John Rudy, Charlie Holbrow)
Broken into three presentations: John's talk on available MOOCs, Charlie's talk on MOOCs, and Q&A discussion.
Slidesets to the right.slides/rudy
slides/holbrow
watch the presentation40 July 1, 2020 Variety Special with Bob Primak and John Rudy on SUMo updater, other topics presented by Steve Isenberg including: Getting loads of music files legally for free after inexpensive application purchase; Video on Deepfakes (how it's done), and a video on Virus Mobility (a haha). Here are links to what we presented and displayed:
Updater apps: SUMo Application Updater (Win) [SUMo Details] Ninite Windows Application Updater
Download/convert apps: Any Video Converter - Downloads YouTube vids and converts formats (Win, Mac) 4K Video Downloader
Listen/Watch/Record apps: RadioTracker - download music from Internet (Win) Audials, extension of RadioTracker, music and video download and more (Win)
Videos played: How Deepfakes Work A Virus Walks into a BarSUMo slides
watch the presentation38 July 8, 2020 5G and Internet of Things in the Age of Coronavirus (Bob Primak)
Slides References 5G Networks 5G Spectrum Bandswatch the presentation 41 July 15, 2020 Potpourri
last part of Bob Melanson's Columbus presentation started on 4/29
The Physics of Sailing
Q&A from Bob Primak's 5G talk last week, 7/8
Onboard automotive diagnostics (Bill Quinn) slideswatch the presentation 42 July 22, 2020 Video on Secrets of the lost Antikythera; A 2000 year old computer. (Jonathan Goode) link.
Brief intro to using Davinci Resolve to produce a slideshow video (Steve Isenberg)42 July 29, 2020 Frontline AI part 1 (AI for the Masses) Frontline: In the Age of AI
Related articles (thanks Peter) T-Shirt makes you invisible NIST looks into face mask effects on face recognition34 August 5, 2020 Back to the Basics – Office Tools
Interesting Excel Spreadsheet uses (Jonathan)
neat applications of functions (SteveI) Sample spreadsheet (Excel version) and LibreOffice (.ods) versionwatch the Presentation 44 August 12, 2020 More on AI. The Rise of Artificial Intelligence 27 August 19, 2020 How to Build a Time Machine
What Happens When You Respond to Spam (Peter Albin presented)26 August 26, 2020 Myths and Facts on Climate Change - a non-alarmist perspective Presented by Shelly Lowenthal who says: “I developed a class on climate change that I give to life long learning organizations. It’s part of my History Course that I present. … There is science involved.”
Shelly recommends that you watch Michael Moore's movie on YouTube, “Planet of the Humans” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE (1hr 40min) before the meeting. It is a documentary on wind and solar green energy.
Here's a 37 second teaser for the movie:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pXCftKF4uIwatch the presentation 42 Sept 2, 2020 Count Rumford and his 18th Century Technology Innovationns Dan Kleppner: Quite a few years ago I became interested in Benjamin Thompson (1752-1814) , aka Count Rumford. He was a great applied scientist and we owe much of our modern domestic technology to him: the kitchen range, double boiler, layered clothing and thermal underwear, steam heating,…. He was the first person to clearly understand all the modes of heat transfer. He was a public benefactor, initiated poor houses in many European cities, and he founded the Royal Institution in London which supported the research of Michael Faraday His career was a series of rags to riches. He would be better remembered if it were not for a character flaw: he antagonized everyone he dealt with to such a degree that he had to flee the country time and again. watch the presentation 41 Sept 9, 2020 Blind Bombing by Norman Fine
“I found this book spellbinding and with insight into the development of a new and advanced secret radar system that permitted the allies to penetrate through inclement weather and enable the allies to reverse the dominance of the Nazis at the onset of WWII. Blind Bombing has a warm sensitive side, in that Norman Fine’s uncle (Stanley) brought the first production model of the new airborne radar system to Europe permitting allied bombers to destroy factories supplying the German forces that were usually obscured by overcast weather”.watch the presentation slides 30 Sept 16, 2020 Potpourri
* What to do with your family during a pandemic? (George Gamota)
* Update of Elon Musk's Starlink Satellite Internet Project (Bob Primak)
» There were videos we could not include in this presentation. Here are links to them:
» Video of the launch, fairing recovery, and booster return, and landing on a ship: https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-11-satellites-launch-september-2020.html
» Launch and first stage separation and landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ei_Z_Xv3BM
» Deployment of satellites: https://videos.space.com/m/N9qB26JP/watch-spacex-deploy-60-starlink-satellites-in-amazing-view-from-space?list=9wzCTV4g
» Fairing recovery (previous launch in July): https://www.space.com/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-payload-fairing-catch-success.html
Starlink update slides various Starlink links
Another “filler” video we showed: harvesting spaghettiPresentation videos:
Pandemic What To Do
StarLink Update34 Sept 23, 2020 The future of music – production and delivery by Charles J Holbrow (CJH). What can we learn about the future or music and music technology by looking at the past? I will present examples that illustrate the evolution of musical ideas and technologies from their conception to how they have influenced and continue to influence popular music today. I will describe how popular music is created today and review some research-stage music production technologies that aim to influence the current music production paradigms. As part of my PhD studies at the MIT Media Lab, I am developing software to enable a new kind of online musical collaboration and distribution. I will conclude by showing you an early example of this software
Who is CJH? His early education was in Germany. His high school was the Sudbury Valley School, an alternative school in Sudbury, MA. After a year at Middlesex Community College, he transferred to UMass Lowell where he majored in sound recording technology and performance (piano). Following jobs developing software for games, he took up an internship at MIT's Opera of the Future program with noted composer Prof. Tod Machover. Subsequently, CJH was admitted into MIT's Media Arts and Sciences program from which he expects soon to receive a Ph.D. He is Charlie Holbrow's grandson.
The Media Timeline: Use mouse to zoom in/out; on Apple trackpad, two-finger up/down gesture to zoom; click and drag to pan the view.watch the presentation slides 40 Sept 30, 2020 Covid-19 Update (Jerry Slate) watch the presentation 50 Oct 7, 2020 Producing a TV Show using DaVinci Resolve (Steve Isenberg) watch the presentation 33 Oct 14, 2020 The CAC Ken Pogran tells about the Lexington Communications Advisory Committee. How did it start, what are its responsibilities, what are today's issues. watch the presentation 27 Oct 21, 2020 Harry Forsdick: ARPAnet & Internet Conferencing watch the presentation 39 Oct 28, 2020 Potpourri Slide Rules (remember them?) (Ken Schwarz)
The Saga of John Rudy's New TV
A bit on Zoom Webinars (John Rudy)\\Recycling electronics (John Rudy)
Nuclear R&D Progress Update (David Kahan)(unable to create video) 41 Nov 4, 2020 Atomic Clocks and, a brief history of Time (Dan Kleppner) watch the presentation 37 Nov 11, 2020 Atomic Clocks (part 2) by Dan Kleppner
followed by (and not in recorded presentation) mRNA: Transforming Medicinewatch the presentation 27 Nov 18, 2020 Speech Input and Translation. George Gamota on Google Translate. Peter Albin on history of translation and voice recognition. Jerry Slate discusses and demonstrates Naturally Speaking. Video on Amazon Transcribe Amazon Transcribe is Now Generally Available watch the presentation 44 Nov 25, 2020 Vacation/no meeting Dec 2, 2020 Potpourri
One man's attempt to build a squirrel-impervious bird feeder (from John Rudy/20 min)
Sand on the Table - Harmonics
Ted Talk: Is Translation Easy? (17 min)
How Trees Talk to Each Other (Suzanne Simard) (found by CharlieH) (18 min)(not recorded) 26 Dec 9, 2020 Sara Seager/Distinguished MIT Professor in Physics, Astronomy, Earth Science on Venus (the planet) 1hr
Scientific approach to, yes, defogging your car's windows (by the Squirrel guy)(not recorded) 34 Dec 16, 2020 Acoustic Detection & Localization of an Active Shooter or Sniper presented by Tony Galaitsis
Deranged shooters and terrorist or enemy snipers have been a concern for a long time. Technological advances over the past few decades have used gunfire acoustic information to detect and localize active shooters and snipers in order to prevent or minimize their deadly impact. This presentation reviews the general state of acoustic shooter/sniper detection and localization, based on publicly available information found on the internet (YouTube videos, Wikipedia, manufacturer brochures, and published papers/patents) and some basic geometry.watch the presentation 29 Dec 23, 2020 Vacation - Enjoy the holidays! Dec 30, 2020 Career stories (update). People with careers during which interesting (and now unclassified) things have happened. Mistakes made, lessons learned.
Learn from: Carl Laxarus, Bill Haley, Mike Alexander, Dick Wagner, George Burnell, David Kahan, and Dan Kleppnerwatch the presentation 37 </hidden>
==== 2019 ==== <hidden initialState=“hidden” onVisible=“Click to hide past 2019 meetings” onHidden=“click to show 2019 past meetings”>Date Link to Video(s) Slides/notes Dec 25, 2019 Christmas - no meeting
Your homework is to celebrate the good things in life.Dec 18, 2019 Potpourri John Rudy continues AI in Medicine; Steve Isenberg on Cloud File Storage Options Dec 11, 2019 AI in Medicine MIT Alum Newsletter AI in Medical Care Dec 4, 2019 Tech trends and holiday gift ideas (Peter Albin and Bob Primak) Watch the presentation Slides Nov 27, 2019 Happy Thanksgiving! No meeting. Nov 20, 2019 Dark Web. “The legitimate uses of TOR, which is the software on which the so-called Dark Web runs.
Or, if more interesting, a tour of the Dark Web“ https://darkwebtours.weebly.com/ Watch the presentationNov 13, 2019 Steering committee Nov 6, 2019 Backup Strategies (Peter Albin) Watch the presentation Slides Oct 30, 2019 Space colonies in Solar Orbit
The book describing our design study is available at:
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/martelaro2/docs/nasa-sp-413.pdf
Watch the PresentationCharlie's handout Oct 23, 2019 Tesla vs Edison (Bob Primak) Watch the presentation Bob's paper Oct 16, 2019 Potpourri:
Flying Saucers – from material written by George Adamski;
Deep Fakes video;
Windows 10 tips (askwoody.com, you may need to become a member with voluntary paid membership; Backing up your device drivers; Getting those old games back into Win10, like FreeCell, Hearts, Solitaire, Chess, Minesweeper; discussion on when to and not to update to “the latest” Win10 release (consider: consult askwoody.com which today advises NOT to patch MS patches.) Gary's slidesOct 9, 2019 Yom Kippur, no meeting Oct 2, 2019 Science/Technology Rivalries: Newton vs. Liebnitz vs. Hooke (Charlie Holbrow) Watch the presentation (note: video is missing for part of the presentation) handout Sept 25, 2019 Application of physics techniques to biology. Gene Surfing and Survival of the Luckiest, David Nelson, Professor of Physics, Harvard (friend of Harry Forsdick). Population waves have played a crucial role in evolutionary history, as in the “out of Africa” hypothesis for human ancestry. Population geneticists and physicists are now developing methods for understanding how mutations, number fluctuations and selective advantages play out in such situations watch the presentation Sept 18, 2019 Cogito. A few weeks ago Mitch Wolfe sent out two very thought provoking links regarding the new science of voice technology, including what can be gathered by voice analysis using AI. We are fortunate to have Ali Azarbayejani, Cogito's CTO, visit and speak with us about the technology used by this local company which makes software that analyzes phone conversations and provides real-time guidance to help service employees better engage and connect with customers. Watch the presentation Sept 11, 2019 Jonathan Goode discusses many interesting (and amazing) computer details including fonts
Bob Primak on the Laser Scanning of St Pauls Cathedral and an update on the cleanup of Notre Dame CathedralNotes on Bob's talk
High lead levels found in Notre Dame WSJ Article, Reconstruction work is on hold due to leadSept 4, 2019 AI for People in a Hurry (short) and Setting Rules for the AI Race, plus a pre and post view discussion. Meeting led by Larry Wittig. Aug 28, 2019 Dava Sobel’s Google talk on “The Glass Universe”, women in Science (a Google Talk video)
JohnR will introduce the subject and speaker, we'll watch the video, and discuss it and related topics afterwards
see also Constructing the Glass Universe by Dava Sobel. Additional info on and about this topic, by Gary Patrick–includes comments on the video and more.Aug 21, 2019 “UNIX, Linux - Origins, History, Ongoing Futures”, a talk presented by Charly Sestokas (note, talk will not be recorded)
plus a 30-minute video about SpaceX, presented by George GamotaAug 14, 2019 Potpourri.
Eli Brookner finishes his talk on Radar and Einstein
CharlyS on Storage (not recorded).
How to use LexMedia to view videos on demandAug 7, 2019 Eli Brookner "Snoopy on Radar & Phased Arrays & Einstein's Duality Theory – An Update." part 1 (90 min) July 31, 2019 Eight Days to the Moon and Back - focus on Apollo 11 [George Gamota] July 24, 2019 Breaking the WWII Enigma Machine (Material from the April 2019 Lexington Veteran’s meeting, search LexMedia On Demand for “Enigma”) [Rudy] July 17, 2019 Potpourri including Steve Isenberg on virtual credit cards, space elevators, and more (planningpage) recording of presentation July 10, 2019 Apple Computer, History and Devices, by Josh Turiel see the presentation July 3, 2019 No Meeting due to Holiday June 26, 2019 Update on 5G (Bob Primak) 5G Update slides China and 5G notes from CNN see the presentation June 19, 2019 Black Hole 60-minute video (Gamota) plus June 12, 2019 From talks at Google Frank Abagnale: "Catch Me If You Can"
and A new way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere (Jennifer Wilcox)June 5, 2019 3D Reconstruction. Used for churches and other buildings. (Bob Primak) May 29, 2019 Potpourri including Y2K. What was it, why did it happen, was it real? (John Rudy) and Gary Patrick on Windows Issues May 22, 2019 Potpourri. Showed several movies. Vaccines calling shots
The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can
The strange tale of the Norden bombsightMay 15, 2019 Career stories. Come prepared to tell us about your technical experiences.
(We have done this 2-3 times before; but not recently).https://www.pbs.org/video/nova-vaccinescalling-shots/ May 8, 2019 Ray Kurzweil + Disruptive Technologies and Dangerous Ideas Singularity University co-founder, Google AI Director and noted futurist Ray Kurzweil joined Peter H. Diamandis for a 90-minute Ask Me Anything, all aimed at providing you an unfair advantage for your business. https://youtu.be/SaOfLtoaKqw May 1, 2019 Potpourri and Steering Committee April 24, 2019 Documentary on Neil Armstrong Gamota April 17, 2019 History of the World in 100 Objects (continued). We listened to The mechanical galleon, Mexican codex map, Ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle, and Solar powered lamp and charger British Museum site
BBC siteApril 10, 2019 Madame Curie video about Madame Curie and the Curie family, presented by Charlie Holbrow. Madame Curie and the Curie family will focus on her and her daughter and their characters and discoveries and how they fit into the sequence of dramatic developments in physics between the discovery of radioactivity in 1897 and the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938. This will include some description of Lise Meitner's role in these developments and a brief mention of why she didn't get a Nobel for the discovery of nuclear fission.
For those interested, Amazon has the movie Radioactive about Marie Curie's work (free to Amazon Prime members)handout that wasn't handed out How the Curies' piezo device worked and measured small electric current April 3, 2019 Showing the 2014 AI movie Ex Machina: A young programmer is selected to participate
in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic (artificial) intelligence (AI) by evaluating
the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid. Very intriguing movie.FYI, the movie is available on NetFlix. March 27, 2019 Computer History Museum (Mountain View, CA) interview with Frank Heart (who in 1969 led the team of BBN engineers that created the ARPANET).
slightly shortened versionslides March 20, 2019 George Gamota shows video "Journey through the Milky Way"
And relating to the end of the program, info on Detecting Dark Matter
New: Milky Way BulgeMarch 13, 2019 Password Managers
Slides (with links) for the presentation
Will your password stand up to a cracker?
Is your password or account info out on the web?
Newsletter 4/15/2019 discussing password managersRelated info
About Keeper Password Manager
Keeper website screenshotsMarch 6, 2019 History of the World in 100 items. Presenting a representative sample of the 100-part series of 15 podcasts by Neil MacGregor during his time as Director of the British Museum that explores world history from 2 million years ago to the present. We listened to The Flood Tablet, Hebrew Astrolabe, and Ming Bank Note. British Museum site
BBC siteFebruary 27, 2019 George Gamota presents "2018 Space Events/Discoveries" plus 10 minute update on "Trump's Science Appointees" Space Update slides
Trump Science Appointees slidesFebruary 20, 2019 Charlie presents the first of 3 talks on quantum physics, today's subject is "why wave-particle duality makes such a disturbing theory necessary" Powerpoint slides
Wave Particle outline -- Why we need quantum mechanicsFebruary 13, 2019 Windows System Maintenance and Updating (Bob Primak) part 1 PDF of Bob's slides February 6, 2019 The Power Grid (presented by Jackie Zajac) PDF of Jackie's slides January 30, 2019 2019 lg Nobel awards ceremony (presenter Peter Albin)
Awards Ceremony Improbable Research home“Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK” January 23, 2019 Shown:
TED Talk String theory - Brian Greene
The greatest dance sequence ever
The best stats you've ever seen
The tyranny of the rocket equation
Not shown but of possible interest
TED Talk Why is our universe fine-tuned for life? - Brian Greene
10 Fascinating Examples of Unintended ConsequencesJanuary 16, 2019 Mathematics of Weight Loss
10 Times Michio Kaku Arguments Blew Our Minds
TED Talk The freakonomics of McDonalds vs Drugs by Steve LevittJanuary 9, 2019 Michael Rosenblatt, MD on "Ways That Wartime Injuries Have Influenced Civilian Medical Practice" link to slides on Yahoo </hidden>
==== 2018 ==== <hidden initialState=“hidden” onVisible=“Click to hide past 2018 meetings” onHidden=“click to show 2018 past meetings”></hidden>
==== Links to Interesting Stuff ==== * John Rudy Toll House Chocolate Chip Pie Recipe * Artificially mimicking people's voices and selfies. Fortune magazine has been publishing recent articles about “deepfakes” and combating them. Artificial intelligence algorithms put convincing speech into video and audio clips. For example, “revenge porn” has been constructed by pasting women's heads onto porn actress bodies. There is also potential for fraud by impostors. See: https://fortune.com/2019/07/24/fighting-deepfakes-gets-real/ and https://fortune.com/tag/deepfakes/ * Leap day. Leap year. Meridian. And more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJhgZBn-LHg * [humor] Buddy Hacket and the 3-legged chicken. Cows and horns. The duck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aww4HT5g7ig ==== Software Maybe of Interest ==== Neither the Lexington Computer and Technology Group nor the author of this Wiki page guarantee the application(s) listed here. While we have investigated and tried them ourselves, they come with no guarantee. * Downloading Videos from the Internet ==== Other items ==== New Email List
LCTG Management Team
LCTG announcement sending process The group meets weekly on Wednesdays, 10am online. (It has previously met at the Lexington Community Center, 39 Marrett Road, Lexington but has suspended these in-person meetings during the Covid-19 situation.)
LCTG Email List Joining Process <hidden page stats> This page has been visited 55 times today, 38 times yesterday, and 59140 total times since April 25, 2019. Thank you for your interest! </hidden>