DateTopic and links
Jan 8, 2020Ig Nobel 2019 Awards awards for dubious inventions (Peter Albin) link to Improbable Research pagewatch 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 presentation
Jan 22, 2020Tesla-Marconi conflict their radio-related patent war from 1900-1943 (Bob Primak) Presentation notes Watch the presentation
Jan 29, 2020Potpourri 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, 2020Career Day Attendees discuss interesting things from their career.Watch the discussion
Feb 12, 2020Space Update (George Gamota)
Feb 19, 2020Who’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, 2020Patents – What they are, a brief history of patents, how to read them, and how to obtain themwatch the presentation
Mar 4, 2020Patent Licensing from Universities (Lita Nelson)watch the presentation
Mar 11, 2020Geodesy, 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, 2020Tracking New Diseases: Medical issues incl Vaping (Jerry Slate)watch the presentation45
Mar 25, 2020Patents for high technology (and when not to have them) (Dick Wagner)watch the presentation44
Apr 1, 20203D Printing and Robotics in Industry: An Update (George Burnell) 3D Printers fighting Coronavirus (link from PeterA)watch the presentation
chat messages		45
Apr 8, 2020Christine 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 presentation41
Apr 15, 2020Futurism 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/live		 41
Apr 22, 2020Potpourri 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 setups		watch the presentation
the presentation with captions
slides
chat messages		42
Apr 29, 2020The Science behind Columbus (Bob Melanson)
Bob finishes this up on July 15		watch the presentation
slides 		36
May 6, 2020The Manhattan Project first part (Charles Holbrow)watch the presentation58
May 13, 2020Nuclear Power Generation (David Kahan)slides
watch the presentation		47
May 20, 2020Boost-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 presentation		46
May 27, 2020George Burnell Part II
Continuation/conclusion of George Burnell's earlier presentation on 3D printing		watch the presentation26
June 3, 2020The Manhattan Project - part 2 (Charles Holbrow)slides watch the presentation46
June 10, 2020Potpourii NY Times article dealing with privacy (Peter Albin)
Phone tracking of people (Charlie Holbrow)
The Immortal (BBC program)		(not recorded)42
June 17, 2020Sabermetrics 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 Research		watch the presentation33
June 24, 2020MOOC 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 presentation		40
July 1, 2020Variety 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 Bar		SUMo slides
watch the presentation		38
July 8, 20205G and Internet of Things in the Age of Coronavirus (Bob Primak)
Slides References 5G Networks 5G Spectrum Bands 		watch the presentation41
July 15, 2020Potpourri
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) slides 		watch the presentation42
July 22, 2020Video 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, 2020Frontline 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 recognition		 34
August 5, 2020Back to the Basics – Office Tools
Interesting Excel Spreadsheet uses (Jonathan)
neat applications of functions (SteveI) Sample spreadsheet (Excel version) and LibreOffice (.ods) version 		watch the Presentation44
August 12, 2020More on AI. The Rise of Artificial Intelligence 27
August 19, 2020How to Build a Time Machine
What Happens When You Respond to Spam (Peter Albin presented)		 26
August 26, 2020Myths 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=4pXCftKF4uI		watch the presentation42
Sept 2, 2020Count 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 presentation41
Sept 9, 2020Blind 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, 2020Potpourri
* 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 spaghetti		Presentation videos:
Pandemic What To Do
StarLink Update		34
Sept 23, 2020The 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, 2020Covid-19 Update (Jerry Slate)watch the presentation50
Oct 7, 2020Producing a TV Show using DaVinci Resolve (Steve Isenberg)watch the presentation33
Oct 14, 2020The 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 presentation27
Oct 21, 2020Harry Forsdick: ARPAnet & Internet Conferencingwatch the presentation39
Oct 28, 2020Potpourri 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, 2020Atomic Clocks and, a brief history of Time (Dan Kleppner)watch the presentation37
Nov 11, 2020Atomic Clocks (part 2) by Dan Kleppner
followed by (and not in recorded presentation) mRNA: Transforming Medicine		watch the presentation27
Nov 18, 2020Speech 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 Availablewatch the presentation44
Nov 25, 2020Vacation/no meeting
Dec 2, 2020Potpourri
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, 2020Sara 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, 2020Acoustic 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 presentation29
Dec 23, 2020Vacation - Enjoy the holidays!
Dec 30, 2020Career 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 Kleppner		watch the presentation37