If you've been bored, you haven't been in the NorthWest. There have been three major events, and a lot of smaller ones within the last month.
To many times, the smaller events get overlooked, so I'll put them at the top of the list, because they're just as important as those that usually get all the attention!
WhatMUG is coming to life! Mac Carter & his wife recently relocated to Bellingham WA from the SF Bay area (prior members of NCMUG), and they're pouring their energy into the Whatcom MUG. They're making the transition from a monthly lecture to a living, breathing organization. Stay tuned as they grow over the next few months. Their website is coming to life shortly.
Also, a new MUG is in the process of being born. Ronald Gastineau & the Redwood Coast MUG have their main headquarters in Crescent City CA, but they're reaching up into Brookings OR & northward for members, so both Lynn & I are sharing the interest at the moment. They're having their first meeting Nov 20, so stay tuned for more from the northern coast of CA.
The northwest region for the Apple UG Program now has it's own website. While still in it's infancy, it will become a great place to find out what's happening in the NW.
There's also a slew of "Panther Citings" from MUGs around the NW.
Brett Jungbluth, KOMOMUG Ambassador shares that KOMOMUG in Seattle (WA) has ushered in the coming of Panther with a couple of members upgrading and showing off the beautiful screen shots on our forum. "We also had an impromptu discussion looking into new Analog to Digital devices out nowadays. We looked at the Canopus and the Dazzle in particular. Working in television as many of us do in the KOMOMUG, we need to keep up on these things. We also found a host of new, high-end type converters too. Most were out of our consumer range."
"The local radio station moved into our building a couple of months ago, and we were noticing a lot of Macs down there. We're hoping to recruit some more people to the KOMOMUG soon. They have some very nice audio production booths down there, we're getting a tour soon."
"Otherwise, we're trying to keep up on the forum. We love that thing. Also always trying to stay with whatever the latest Apple news there is. The G4 iBooks look great. Although, many of the KOMOMUG members would not give up their PowerBooks for anything in the world."
Linda Cameron, editor of Mid-Columbia Macintosh Users Group (Richland WA) has this report for us:
:A few members of our group talked about carpooling to the Seattle area for the Apple Panther Party. It is a 4 hour drive and through the mountains. I am not sure if anyone made it there or not. We did show most of the video of Steve Jobs at the WWDC Conference introducing Panther features (at last month's meeting)."
Dick Lennox, EMUG Ambassador recently brought me up to date not only on Panther Citings, but their latest meetings. EMUG had our September meeting at the Knight Library on the UO campus featuring a demo of iChat and iSight with real-time video conferencing with the official UO Apple Campus Representative, Ben Moore.
Eugene (OR) had 2 rollouts of Panther on October 24th! The University of Oregon had a rollout at the Digital Duck in their Bookstore and The Mac Store had theirs at the same time at 8th & Olive (downtown). While it was difficult to be in two places at the same time, they both were well attended- people were clawing to get their copy (ouch)!
October 12th brings EMUG back to South Eugene High School meeting space, featuring personal Security issues with a local Police Department representative (and Panther's encryption, of course)
Bob Moffat from the NW Apple Pickers (Tacoma area) shares the old & the new! "We devoted time at both of this week's (Nov 9 thru 15) meetings to looks at Panther and a demo of some of the new features. For those of us on the trailing edge of technology the gap does seem more apparent...except lots of favorite legacy Mac OS features seem to be creeping back in (like labels!) and the new G5s take memory chips in pairs. Everything old is new again. Our newest member has just started using a computer, a Performa 575 running OS 7.6--she is thrilled at sending e-mail and surfing the Internet on dial-up 33.6 modem."
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And, from JoMacs (OR). we did "Panther on the Prowl" on November 13. We shared bits & pieces of the WWDC keynote by Steve Jobs
Now, last, but not least, we've had three major events take place in the last month!
October 10 thru 12 saw Raincoast, a very successful northwest user group conference happen in Tacoma Wa. Kathryn Whitacre from NW Apple Pickers MUG invited me up to share a couple of presentations on user groups. The conference is cross platform, but anyone from a gardening club to a MUG faces the same issues, so any possible pc/mac wars were left outside while we shared solutions to common problems. You can find a full report & photo's of the event:
You can also pick up more info about Raincoast at: http://raincoast.info/
The following weekend (October 17 thru 19), MacCamp Fall 2003 took place at Silver Falls State Park. This event is put on by PMUG (Portland Mac User Group) twice a year. It's a time where folks can enjoy the best of two worlds - take your computer out to a beautiful state park, surrounded by Oregon's best. I wasn't able to attend this time around since I was recouping from Raincoast & preparing for YDKM, but Charles had a great turn out with folks who haven't missed a single event & others who where newbies. There's a full report & photos at:
And, while you're catching your breath from those two events, "You Don't Know Mac!" (YDKM) happened November 1. This year the event was held in southern Oregon, hosted by three of the four MUGs in the area. JoMacs (Grants Pass), ABCC (Winston/Roseburg), & RMMUG (Medford) put together a great event. By magic, the teams meshed into a solid working unit, and were on hand to welcome Andy Ihnakto Friday night. (I'll keep the secret of who took the trophy home - you'll have to go to the site to get that!) You can get the full report from the JoMacs website. Also, some photo's of the event:
