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This year's ASCCA Conference at the Power House Museum (August 18-19) was nothing less than inspiring. As I begin to write this report, travelling home by train at the end of Day 1, I'm almost suffering from information overload.
Almost!
So that you don't feel the same way I'll keep it as brief as possible while still trying to be informative. There will be links to further information where that's appropriate. Since this is a personal report on the Conference, I will include my own observations and comments alongside those of the presenters. It's not intended to be a complete coverage—it's a smorgasbord of the talks that I found most interesting, and which I think would be of most interest to you.
I learned a great deal that has immediate practical application, and a lot more that, as useful background information, contributes to my overall understanding of computers and the Net. All this was done in a supportive, friendly environment where I was able to talk to lots of people from different backgrounds and even had lunch with one particularly interesting presenter who was happy to expand on her topic.
Did I say lunch? The food, supplied by the Powerhouse catering staff, was of gourmet standard. It was delicious and plentiful.
If you've never had the opportunity to attend such a conference I can heartily recommend next year's event.
Following a brief welcome by ASCCA National President, Nan Bosler, we launched straight into the first presentation. Here is Nan's message.
—David Evans,
Webmaster
 This interesting comment on our evolution was offered in The Gadget Guy's presentation. |
Presenter: Graham McFarland, NSW Area Manager, Next Byte.
No, Graham wasn't talking about those little round missiles that fell on Isaac Newton's head, or even those that help to keep the doctor away. His subject, in general, was Apple-Mac computers but, more specifically, a photo-managing program called iPhoto '09. This is not a photo editor like Paint Shop Pro, it's more like Google's Picasa but with some bells and whistles added. It is an interesting innovation in photo software.
One endearing characteristic is its face recognition ability. This means that as soon as you've identified a family member or friend, iPhoto '09 will scan your Mac for other photographs of that person and will then be able to group them in any manner you wish. You may print them in an album (virtual or actual), view them as a slide show, or even post them to Face Book—and all this at the touch of a single key.
Using another aspect of "face recognition", iPhoto '09 can gather your pics by location. It can identify photographs taken in the same place, whether that be something as exotic as the Eiffel Tower or as commonplace as Aunt Maude's living room. If your camera has GPS ability, the program is also able to display a map showing your exact location when the photograph was taken. Magic stuff.
There is an on-line tutorial on how to use iPhoto '09 HERE.
Presenter: Sarah Vaughan—Windows Client Business Group, Microsoft Australia
Windows 7 will be released in Australia on October 22 and comes with as much fanfare as the ill-fated Vista, which it replaces. Whether it performs better than Vista is yet to be seen, but its advance publicity suggests that Microsoft has addressed some of Vista's difficulties and, hopefully, corrected them.
One of Vista's problems was that all open windows made equal demands on active memory so that if you had too many windows open the computer slowed down significantly. Windows 7 solves this problem by channelling that memory mainly into the ACTIVE window. the result? Your PC will work at the speed you would expect.
Sarah pointed out that computers are evolving to meet our needs. First we had DOS—a very fussy operating system that demanded absolute accuracy for every keystroke, else it sat in the corner and sulked while you tore your hair out in frustration. In the early 1990s we made friends with Windows, and along came the mouse which at first had one active button, then two, then three. Windows 7 makes it possible for us to take the next step—touch pad computing. It is so simple that Sarah's three year-old son has taught himself how to use it.
As we have already seen with the iPhoto 09 (in the About Apples summary, Windows 7 has facial recognition ability and can do everything its Mac equivalent can do.
When Windows 7 is released you'll be able to upgrade from Vista but if you're using XP you'll need a clean installation.
Windows 7 has lifted troubleshooting into a whole new dimension. It has three options: you can get help from a friend, recover, or get on-line help. "Help from a friend" is a major leap into the future. On clicking this option you can e-mail a friend who is hopefully more knowledgeable than yourself. The e-mail contains a secure link which your friend can click to log into your computer and resolve your problem.
You can view a short video of Windows 7 in use with a touch screen by CLICKING HERE.
Presenter: Val French AM—Senior Lecturer in Journalism, QIT
Val said, "There is a need for seniors to move into the brave new world of technology and to help other people to do so. We need to help older friends to gain the confidence to face, and use, the changes."
Her point was that seniors need to be able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet—anything from shopping bargains, to banking, to information, to just staying in touch with friends and family—whether by cheap phone calls using Skype, e-mail, or social networking.
She also pointed out that while organisations like U3A and the computer clubs are needed to carry this information to the community, we need funding to publicise what we offer so that the people who need us will be able to find us.
Val spoke at some length about "elder abuse" which is defined as, "any act occurring within a relationship where there is an implication of trust, which results in harm to an older person. Abuse can include physical, sexual, financial, psychological and social abuse and/or neglect.
Presenter: Cheryl Langdon-Orr—Director auDa and ISOC-AU
Although the title of this segment sounds paradoxical, this proved to be one of the most interesting presentations of the convention. Don't skip reading it because "IPv6" sounds geeky or uninteresting—it's the most important thing that will happen to the Internet in the foreseeable future. It's the acronym for Internet Protocol version 6 and determines not only how future computers will connect to the Internet, but WHETHER they will be able to connect at all.
The main problem with the present IPv4 version is that it is limited to 4.5 billion addresses—insufficient even now to allocate one each for everybody on the planet.
Don't be confused—an IP address is not an URL. http://www.u3anepean.org is an URL, not an IP address. Every computer has its own IP address which is a series of numbers linked by periods. Mine is 60.240.67.581 and yours will be similar. (OK, that's not exactly my IP address, I don't want to publicise it, but it's awfully close.)
Perhaps as early as June 2010, just ten months away, those numbers will run out (the estimated run-out date varies from week to week) and very many people will become inconvenienced. Most of the IPv4 numbers inevitably went to the more technologically advanced countries—places like the USA, Japan, Europe and Australia, but much of Asia missed out.
Adopting IPv6 will open doors to technology we haven't even begun to imagine yet. One of the things that we know would be possible would be linking to household appliances. Not very useful? Then picture this. Aunt Maude is in ill health and lives alone. With IPv6 it would be possible to call up her kettle and see whether it had been boiled that morning. If not, if she hasn't come down for breakfast, then you start to worry about her and either contact her or, if she's injured and can't get to the phone, send help. This is not an invasion of her privacy, because it could only be done with Maude's agreement.
CLICK HERE to read Cheryl's full presentation in PDF format.
Presenter: Jackie Hickman—National Switchover Task Force
Analogue TV will be completely phased out in Australia by 2013. The advantages of digital TV are better pictures and sound, better accessibility, more available channels, captioning for the hard of hearing and, in the future, audio description can be made available for the blind.
The changeover will begin at Mildura in the first half of next year. Sydney will switch over in the second half of 2013.
Presenter: Raul Vera—Engineering Manager, Google Australia
Google is a lot more than a search engine, but there are lots of interesting wrinkles in Search that you may not have tried. Try entering some of these options in the Google search box for quick information. Time in New York; $50 AUS in euros; weather in Melbourne, and so on.
If your Google search doesn't find specifically what you want, you should always look at the bottom of the page where you will find a list of words or terms that are semantically close to your search term.
Did you know that Google Maps was developed in Sydney? True. It was created in a block of flats in Ryde Road, Hunters Hill. What Raul did with Maps was fascinating.
Having shown us the block of flats where it all started (he used Maps then Street View) he switched back to maps and asked for directions to get to Sydney's Botanical Gardens. The immediate result was to show the quickest route, via North Sydney. OK, you've seen that before, right? But Raul said, I might prefer to go via Victoria Road. He dragged part of the route onto Victoria Road and, immediately, the program re mapped the route via Gladesville and Rozelle. Not only that, it showed pictures of various places along the way.
Here's one you don't know about. He brought up a map of Balmain and in the search box typed "real estate value $0 to $500,000" and the map showed a conglomeration of large and small red dots. (The small ones are called, appropriately, measles.) Clicking on the large red dots showed real estate offices on the map; clicking on the measles showed properties listed for sale and the contact details of the vendor. Impressive stuff!
When you switch to the "satellite view" you're seeing pictures that were taken not from a space satellite, but from high-flying aircraft.
There was much more than this and it was all fascinating, but you had to be there. This was a presentation I won't forget.
Presenter: Peter Blasina—Channel 7's Sunrise Program
Peter spoke at some length about the way we interface with technology and covered things like Walkmans and portable music as well as computing.
He said that we are still far from the paperless office and the waste is enormous. In Australia, it has been estimated that every public servant uses 11000 sheets of paper each, every year.
California is near bankruptcy yet in that state, this year, every school child has been issued with a digital reader and digital textbooks. Interfaced with the Web, those books can be kept up to date and replaced at no additional cost.
He also pointed out that the keyboard and mouse are now antiquated methods of accessing a computer and that, so far, voice actuated systems have been only moderately successful.
The keynote of his talk was a video presentation by Professor Pattie Maes of MIT who has provided the the following enlightening view of the way ahead. This is when computers and the Internet will be so advanced that they will be as effective as a sixth sense and provide instant information about anything we can imagine. Yes, you're allowed to laugh, it's a spoof—but after this presentation Professor Maes went out and patented the idea. She's likely to become mega-rich in the very near future.
If your connection won't play the embedded video you can view it on You-Tube by CLICKING HERE.
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