Given a lot of hard work, time, and know-how, our PMUG website is easy to navigate, and is looking good, thanks to Mary Ann Clark. Note that on the home page www.pmug.us you can click RSS which takes you to NetNewsWire. Here you can select both this newsblog http://pmugnews.blogspot.com and the PMUG website so you can keep up with the latest additions. Try it, you'll like it.
Introducing Our Webmaster
Mary Ann Clark has used Apple computers since 1979 when she and her husband Art bought their first Apple II. Today she owns a Macbook Air, an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4 (or as she says, papa bear, mama bear and baby bear). Never having been a programmer Mary Ann uses her electronics in her work and various volunteer positions.
Early in her career, Mary Ann worked as a technical writer producing computer user manuals for everything from large mainframes to desktop computers. Most of those materials were printed, although just as she was leaving the field, embedded help files were beginning to replace dead tree books.
Early in her career, Mary Ann worked as a technical writer producing computer user manuals for everything from large mainframes to desktop computers. Most of those materials were printed, although just as she was leaving the field, embedded help files were beginning to replace dead tree books.
Leaving that work she went back to school to earn a PhD in Religious Studies. She claims it took her so long to earn an advanced degree because she had to wait until she could do her research and write her dissertation using her trusty Macintosh. Today she teaches face-to-face classes at Yavapai College and online classes at the University of Houston Clear Lake.
She also volunteers at Manzanita Village the local co-housing community, the Prescott Area Wildland-Urban Interface Commission (PAWUIC), and her local church where she often ends up doing computer work because she can.
When you see Mary Ann give her a good PMUG welcome. We love volunteers!
Welcome to Our New Webmaster
Today we welcome Mary Ann Clark as PMUG’s Webmaster. She has graciously agreed to take the on these duties for the website, www.pmug.us/. Officially, she’s Dr. Mary Ann, and she’s Prez Art Gorski’s spouse. You’ll see her bio posted here soon. Please welcome her when you see her!
Expressing Our Appreciation
Hard-working John Carter is stepping down from PMUG Webmaster. John remains as a Board member. John’s busy schedule also includes his many duties in the local Astronomy Club.
John is now taking on our PMUG MacHighway hosting "system administrator" and will handle the non-website portions of our relationship with our hosting provider such as email aliases, hosting renewals, and domain name renewals.
When you see John be sure to let him know how much you appreciate his work on creating and writing the PMUG website and for all he does for PMUG. Watch the website for changes.
Welcome Our PR Person
It was a happy announcement at a recent PMUG meeting, and here we introduce our new PR person, Amy Snyder. Let's get acquainted.
Amy grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from college in North Carolina. Eventually, she moved west to California before becoming a long time resident of Prescott.
Her professional background includes work in the medical field, real estate, and management. Currently, she works as a designer at Sun Pine Homes.
In her free time, Amy enjoys living a healthy lifestyle, traveling especially to New Zealand, and spending time with her family including her “precious spoiled cat.” She is an avid birder working on her “life list” and a member of the Prescott Audubon Society.
She also says, “I am a supporter of various nature, animal, and health oriented charitable organizations.”
So, Amy, tell us about your computer interest. "I bought my first Mac in 1992. Last year, I accompanied my stepfather, Harry, to the Prescott Mac Users Group. I was enthusiastically greeted and welcomed by members. As a life long learner, I find the PMUG to be a great environment to ask questions, share knowledge and skills, and discover new ways to enjoy the Mac."
A prior commitment will mean Amy's absence in May, but look forward to getting acquainted at our June meeting. You'll recognize her by her smile!
Welcome to Our New Ambassador
Stepping up to volunteer to serve as PMUG Ambassador is Ward Stanke. Let's get acquainted!
Ward's introduction to computers was a FORTRAN programming course using an IBM 360 with punch cards. This occurred during his undergraduate days at the University of New Mexico where he earned a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1969.
He spent nine years in the Air Force doing research and development in computer architecture while picking up his MS in Electrical Engineering. The personal computer bug bit him early and he played with Motorola 6800 and 6809-based home-brew systems in assembly language.
After leaving the Air Force, Ward moved into the aerospace industry and later into the application software development industry. He bought and programmed an Apple II (and even made some prototype add-in boards for it.) His first Mac was a 128K original Mac bought about two months after it was introduced in February of 1984. He wrote his first programs for the Mac on that 128K machine in Apple's BASIC and C.
Ward worked on a number of commercial Macintosh software applications in various roles ranging from developer (programmer) to technical lead to software architect to manager. Some of the products he has worked on include Roxio's Toast, Quicken for the Mac, and installers for a number of Adobe products as well as several other much more obscure products.
He officially retired in 2009 and moved from Silicon Valley to Prescott where he continues to program his Mac "just for the fun of it." His current machines include a dual processor quad-core Mac Pro, and a MacBook. His wife has an iMac and an iPad.
Ward fills the position held by Roger Lakner who asked us to let him retire. We appreciate all Roger has done, and look forward to working with Ward.
Congratulations to Officers Elected Last Week
The annual election for officers was held at last week's PMUG meeting. Congratulations and thanks for using your talents to make Prescott Mac User Group a vibrant, helpful, and friendly organization!
PRESIDENT ART GORSKI
Art steps up from the VP position to De Prez this year! Thanks, Art! He started with punch cards and FORTRAN programming in a freshman year college class in 1969. After getting his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering he became interested in the microcomputers that were just coming out in the late 1970's. He took a continuing education class at the local university and learned how to program the 6502 microprocessor in hexadecimal machine language. Since this was the same processor used in the new Apple II computer, Art ended up purchasing one in January of 1979. It's serial number 660, and he still owns it.
Joining the local computer club, he decided to change careers and go into programming for a living and wrote programs in assembly language and FORTRAN for real-time flight simulators. He bought an original Macintosh 128 in early 1985, and eventually upgraded it to a Mac Plus. Later Macs included a PowerBook 100, PowerBook 2300, PowerMac 7200/90, and a G4 Cube (still owns it).
Art retired and moved to Prescott in 2007 and spends his time running a couple of websites and programming Mac applications using Real Studio. He has a very sophisticated gigabit home network with a network attached storage server. He was Vice President for PMUG last year.
VICE PRESIDENT HOWARD LA PITTUS
Howard was De Prez last year for PMUG and moves to VP so he can use his PR talents in this position. He is semi-retired, doing consulting work for companies that have federal government contracts. Howard attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles, majoring in commercial photography. After leaving school he was a free-lance photographer doing fashion photography and covering the entertainment industry. Yes, he was a paparazzi, covering such Hollywood events as the Golden Globe Awards, movie premiers and various entertainment social events.
Howard has over 40 years (yes, he is old) of diversified business management experience in the commercial film processing, photographic equipment, consumer catalog, and educational supply industries.
One of the most exciting and rewarding experiences came when he had the responsibility of managing the JPL account in Pasadena. This involved the acquisitions, delivery and installation of photographic processing equipment that was used to process the first pictures from the moon.
Howard, his wife Carol and dog Oliver moved to Prescott in 2005 from PA. His first computer experience was running an IBM Tab Card installation which including writing computer programs in RPG in the 60’s. (Yes, he is old!) Howard switched from a PC to a Mac in 2005. His hobbies include photography, meteorology and stamp collecting. And, “long walks on the beach, smoking his favorite cigar,” he adds.
SECRETARY BOBBIE PASTOR
Continuing as Secretary Bobbie knows what she's doing . . . and she does it well.
After earning her Secretarial major in college Bobbie started at UniRoyal Rubber Company in Santa Ana, California where she did clerical work. From there she worked for Laura Scudders, then Kimberly Clark, retiring thirty-three years later. In 2003, Bobbie retired at 58 ½, sold her house in Placentia and headed to Prescott, AZ. Here she found the Mac User Group, and was “sentenced to being Secretary of PMUG” in 2006. She keeps the books, sends out notices, takes minutes, keeps attendance and has possession of the PMUG computer, projector and files for the club. Along with John Carter and Jim Hamm, she volunteers a Basic Mac SIG for PMUG members.
She loves gardening and has a high maintenance landscape. She is Vice-mum for the Diamond Chics Red Hat chapter. She uses a lot of computer techniques that she has learned from being a member of the club and hopes to get a newsletter and website up for the ladies. Home decorating and photography is of great interest, however, she doesn't seem to find the time for them.
Bobbie lives with her "special needs" fur child, Archie. He is not only blind, but he is socially challenged. He loves to help her in the yard, and one of these days she says she will actually find time to grow vegetables!
TREASURER DAVID PASSELL
Yes, David agreed to serve another term -- lucky for us! David’s degree is from USC in Telecommunications (TV and Radio production) W56 as broadcast engineer/DJ for KUTE in Glendale, CA, then Chief Engineer for FM station WNCN in NYC.
In 1961 he was telecommunications engineer at JPL (analyzing spacecraft data, writing reports, and writing FORTRAN programs). He did technical writing (IBM, Litton, Associated Writers, Conrac) retiring in 1996 from Ameritec, Duarte, CA.
Betty and David came to Prescott in 1996. His Mac history: Apple II - 1978, MAC portable - 1991, Mac TV - 1995. Currently he has a MINI, an iMAC, and a G3. In PMUG since 1997, he’s been President twice and continues as Treasurer.
PR Position Filled
De Prez Howard LaPittus announced to Saturday's PMUG meeting that Ann Schwab has volunteered for the PR position. Ann is now appointed to the Board and will specialize in public relations for our Mac group.
If you haven't already meet our smiling new gal, here's a little about Ann in her own words.
Ann Schwab is a new resident of 2 years to Prescott, moving from Orange County, Calif. Originally from a Naval family that moved often, Ann grew up in LA and attended college in the northwest. Working in Calif. as a speech therapist for the Anaheim High School district, she was a speech therapist at St. Jude in Fullerton for several years and at various rehab hospitals. Prior to that Ann had a banking career, but didn't find that it had enough verbal opportunities!!
"Moving to Prescott for semi-retirement, my current job is focused on school age clients and luckily I can do it in just half a week."
Ann has an adopted dog and cat who take a lot of energy. The dog is a Doberman who needs lots of walks, and luckily Prescott has wonderful trails and parks. She adds, "Bike riding is also favorite of mine and I am hoping to meet more people who ride."
She concludes, "The Mac users group was appealing because of networking opportunities, but also learning new ways to use and enjoy a computer. Most of my experience with computers was in my former life as a banker and more recently with assistive technologies for communicatively-handicapped persons. But, being at home in a beautiful place and using the computer to keep in touch with others is truly rewarding, and I am looking forward to learning more ways to do just that!"
New Officers for PMUG
Howard is semi-retired, doing consulting work for companies that have federal government contracts. Howard attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles, majoring in commercial photography. After leaving school he was a free-lance photographer doing fashion photography and covering the entertainment industry. Yes, he was a paparazzi, covering such Hollywood events as the Golden Globe Awards, movie premiers and various entertainment social events.
Howard has over 40 years (yes, he is old) of diversified business management experience in the commercial film processing, photographic equipment, consumer catalog, and educational supply industries.
One of the most exciting and rewarding experiences came when he had the responsibility of managing the JPL account in Pasadena. This involved the acquisitions, delivery and installation of photographic processing equipment that was used to process the first pictures from the moon.
Howard, his wife Carol and dog Oliver moved to Prescott in 2005 from PA. Howard’s first computer experience was running an IBM Tab Card installation which including writing computer programs in RPG in the 60’s. (Yes, he is old!) Howard switched from a PC to a Mac in 2005. His hobbies include photography, meteorology and stamp collecting. And, “long walks on the beach, smoking his favorite cigar,” he adds.
Art started with punch cards and FORTRAN programming in a freshman year college class in 1969. After getting his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering he became interested in the microcomputers that were just coming out in the late 1970's. He took a continuing education class at the local university and learned how to program the 6502 microprocessor in hexadecimal machine language. Since this was the same processor used in the new Apple II computer, Art ended up purchasing one in January of 1979. It's serial number 660, and he still owns it.
Joining the local computer club, he decided to change careers and go into programming for a living and wrote programs in assembly language and FORTRAN for real-time flight simulators. He bought an original Macintosh 128 in early 1985, and eventually upgraded it to a Mac Plus. Later Macs included a PowerBook 100, PowerBook 2300, PowerMac 7200/90, and a G4 Cube (still owns it).
He retired and moved to Prescott in 2007 and spends his time running a couple of websites and generally geeking out. He has a very sophisticated gigabit home network with a network attached storage server.
After earning her Secretarial major in college Bobbie started at UniRoyal Rubber Company in Santa Ana, California where she did clerical work. From there she worked for Laura Scudders, then Kimberly Clark, retiring thirty-three years later. In 2003, Bobbie retired at 58 ½, sold her house in Placentia and headed to Prescott, AZ. Here she found the Mac User Group, and was “sentenced to being Secretary of PMUG” in 2006. She keeps the books, sends out notices, takes minutes, keeps attendance and has possession of the PMUG computer, projector and files for the club. Along with John Carter and Jim Hamm, she volunteers a Basic Mac SIG for PMUG members.
She loves gardening and has a high maintenance landscape. She is Vice-mum for the Diamond Chics Red Hat chapter. She uses a lot of computer techniques that she has learned from being a member of the club and hopes to get a newsletter and website up for the ladies. Home decorating and photography is of great interest, however, she doesn't seem to find the time for them.
She lives with her "special needs" fur child, Archie. He is not only blind, but he is socially challenged. He loves to help her in the yard, and one of these days we will actually find time to grow vegetables!
David’s degree is from USC in Telecommunications (TV and Radio production) W56 as broadcast engineer/DJ for KUTE in Glendale, CA, then Chief Engineer for FM station WNCN in NYC.
In 1961 he was telecommunications engineer at JPL (analyzing spacecraft data, writing reports, and writing FORTRAN programs). He did technical writing (IBM, Litton, Associated Writers, Conrac) retiring in 1996 from Ameritec, Duarte, CA.
Betty and David came to Prescott in 1996. His Mac history: Apple II - 1978, MAC portable - 1991, Mac TV - 1995. Currently he has a MINI, an iMAC, and a G3. In PMUG since 1997, he’s been President twice and continues as Treasurer.
Thanks to Outgoing Officers
Today's meeting was the annual election. But, first, a big thanks to this year's leadership, Allen Laudenslager serving as De Prez, Bill Williamson as VP, David Passell our treasurer and Bobbie Pastor our secretary. We appreciate your time, talent, and good sense of humor!