Next Meeting: February 19, 2010

I've been very busy since the last meeting, and haven't had a chance to post the last meeting's minutes yet, so here's a combined post....

Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on February 19, 2010, at HobbyTown. Topics to discuss will include a report on a big pile of recently donated supplies and equipment, which I hope to be able to bring to the meeting for some hands-on inventory and testing. I've also picked up some screwdrivers and such for the workbench, so we can do a little junk salvaging during meetings from now on.

At our previous meeting, my son helped me demonstrate two "kid's programming languages": Scratch and Alice. Each of these serves as a friendly-for-any-age introduction to modern object-oriented, event-driven, multi-threaded programming, and can be used to create simple demos and games, talk to other networked computers, talk to an Arduino, and much more. We compared those two languages to Lego Mindstorms NXT-G, Java, Arduino, C++, and others.

We also discussed upcoming robot-related public events, and one reason why I've been so busy lately: my son's FIRST Lego League robotics team won their local qualifying tournament, and have been meeting often to prepare for the big regional tournament at the end of this month. I had been planning to have enough free time to prepare for our club to set up a robot-demo and member-sign-up table at the upcoming Rockland Youth Fest, but I can't do it myself this year - next time, with the club better organized, we'll be there.

Upcoming events of interest:

• Hudson Valley FIRST Tech Challenge - February 21 at PACE University
• NYC FIRST Robotics competition - March 12-14 at the Jacob Javits Center
• Make Magazine's Maker Faire NYC - September 25-26 in the New York Hall of Science in Queens

Next Meeting: January 22, 2010

Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on January 22, 2010, at HobbyTown.

Topics to discuss will include: upcoming robotics competitions in the New York area (I plan to go see a few myself), and our possible participation in the Youth Fest event at RCC this spring (RPCUG may want to share a booth). And, of course, whatever everyone else has been up to lately (Frank? Rahul?)....

Happy Holidays everyone, see you next year!

Next Meeting: December 4, 2009

Our next meeting will be held at 7:00pm on December 4, 2009, at HobbyTown.

This meeting, we'll start building something: the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 set which Alex (our gracious host) donated at the last meeting. I'll demonstrate the Lego programming tools, and see if we can get something driving around bumping into things before the evening's done! I'll also bring along my Arduino stuff for those who'd like to try that out.

The Rockland PC Users Group (of which we are a small part) has provided us with a little start-up money. My plan is to buy some tools (a good soldering iron, etc.) and materials (Arduinos, small parts, solder, etc.) to stock our supply cabinet (which RPCUG is also providing). Of course, anything we can get donated leaves us more money for cool stuff! So, if you have anything suitable you'd be willing to contribute (or you're wondering what's "suitable"), please email me.

We will be getting a PC (or two) for our workbench, but in the meanwhile, I recommend bringing your own laptop to meetings if you have one. (Wireless Internet access will also be available, once I locate a spare wireless router - donations welcome!)

Please feel free to bring your questions, half-finished projects, and wannabe-geek friends to come join in the fun! Come get your geek on! :)