Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox were prepared for the
May 2, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Trenton Computer Fest: At 26, Still Evolving
The Trenton Computer Festival is one of Central Jersey’s
pride and joys, and many say it is the nation’s oldest computer
festival.
It started out 26 years ago as a giant techie garage sale with a
strong
ham radio component. Then it was moved from the College of New Jersey
to Mercer County Community College. Now it is so huge that it is held
at the New Jersey Convention Center in Edison and has a professional
agency (KGP Productions) overseeing the details. This year, the TCF
is Saturday May 5, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, May 6, from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. The flea market opens at 9 a.m. Tickets are $12 ($10 if
you purchase them in advance on the website at www.TCF-nj.org or call
800-631-0062).
But the backbone of this hoary but youthful festival is still the
staff of volunteers, who determine the tone of the event each year.
In the 1980s the speakers were the hardware gurus from Intel and
Microsoft
(yes, Bill Gates was a keynoter). This year, as debate over copyright
laws roils the music industry, an expert on hackers, Emmanuel
Goldstein,
has been brought in to keynote.
Goldstein led the movement to free Kevin Mitnick, one of the more
notorious hackers. In his publication “2600: the Hacker
Quarterly”
he questioned whether Mitnick’s victims — Sun Microsystems, NEC,
Motorola, and Nokia — lost as much as they said they did and
pointed
out that the $300 million in alleged losses was not reported to
shareholders
or to the IRS.
Meanwhile, TCF has something for everyone, from newbies to experts,
from how to buy a basic computer to how to automate your house with
robots to whether there is intelligent life in space. The flea market
numbers nearly 1,000 cars, hawking anything and everything, and there
are 500 indoor exhibit spaces. You can park your purchases for free,
and use a free shuttle bus to get there from the 10,000-car lot.
One of the last workshops on Sunday, appropriately enough, will be
given by one of the two co-founders of the festival, Allen Katz,
who will talk about the intriguing subject of bouncing radio signals
off the moon.
Look for the complete schedule at www.tcf-nj.org and you will receive
one with your ticket. All sessions described below are on Saturday,
unless otherwise stated.
Room 1, the Internet
Sessions for Internet novices book-end Saturday’s presentations.Starting at 10:15, Brenda Bell , a veteran of the online-databaseproduction industry, explains the difference between a portal anda vortal, and how to find information quickly and efficiently. Sherepeats this session at the same time on Sunday.In “The Self-Incorporated System Consultant,” FredWehrhahn of Application Technologies gives advice on taxes andbookkeeping to consultants and would-be consultants. He has been outon his own for three years. It’s at 11:20 a.m. He repeats this onSunday at 2 p.m.At 12:25 p.m. Donald Egoff of the University of Pittsburghwill incorporate the principles of classical rhetoric in a workshopentitled “Designing Websites To Inform and Persuade.”At 1:30 p.m. Donald Hsu of Dominican College brings upthe delicate question of how to get a job in an Internet-relatedcompanyafter the dotcom crash. The answer, he says is to go after an IT/webjob. Critical knowledge areas include Cisco routers and firewalls;Oracle, Siebel, Sybase, and SAP databases; C/C++ and Java; Unix andLinux; and Asp, Cold Fusion, Perl, and XML. His remarks will be short,and he will spend the rest of the time giving free, one-minute reviewsof resumes. Hsu teaches advanced webmaster development tools in Room4 at 3:40 p.m.Rowan University’s Joseph Wetterling goes back to thebasics with an introduction to the Internet and a question-answersession ending the day’s Internet track at 3:40 p.m.Wetterling has also been tapped to discuss “Dynamic Planning forAutonomous Robotics,” geared for both computer scientists andanyone with an interest in robotics. He speaks both Saturday andSundayat 1:30 p.m.Room 2: Varied Themes.Palm Pilot aficionados gather at 10:15 a.m. so Cass Lewartcan tell them how to use their Palms as a computer. He wrote “TheUltimate Modem Handbook,” published by Prentice Hall.H. Paul Shuch , the aerospace engineer credited with thedesign of the world’s first commercial home satellite TV receiver,now uses microwave technology to search for intelligent life in space,the SETI Project Argus. 11:20 a.m.On a more mundane level, Gary Deckelnick of the Asbury ParkPress tells how to organize your hard drive at 12:25 p.m. RandallWhittle gives a similar seminar on Sunday in Room 2 at 10:30 a.m.Danielle and G. Arthur Mihram of the University of SouthernCalifornia share a lectern at 1:30 p.m. to make the case for anelectronicpost office that would provide digitally watermarked electronicpostmarks,digitally-watermarked copyright-registrations from the Library ofCongress, and digital tickler files to advise periodically everypersonwhose private data has been either requested or released.The Sarnoff Corporation’s Douglas Dixon, who also writeson technology subjects for U.S. 1 Newspaper, tells about”StreamingMedia on Your Desktop” at 3:40 p.m. Learn about the three majorstreaming formats — Apple QuickTime, RealNetworks RealMedia, andMicrosoft Windows Media — and their associated compressionalgorithms.”We will then discuss and demonstrate desktop tools for convertingand producing your own streaming media files,” says Dixon.Room 3: Fun and GamesPaint and Draw programs are explained at 10:15 a.m. by LeonardSragow , a character actor and club member from New York. “Evenif you can’t draw a wobble-free period, your pictures can be repletewith resplendent colors, perfect shapes,lines, dazzling typographyand calligraphy,” he promises. “You can also rearrange and/orre-size any components until the final depiction represents preciselywhat you had in mind. Those interested in establishing a personalweb page will find these programs an easy way to quickly getimpressiveimages up there while struggling to master the mysteries and esotericaof HTLMese.” He repeats this on Sunday at 2:50 p.m.All you ever wanted to know about digital photography andvideographywill be on the agenda at 11:20 a.m., led by Randall Whittle ,a well-known speaker with an MBA from the University of SouthernCalifornia.He repeats the seminar in Room 1 at 2 p.m. on Sunday.Doug Dixon returns at 12:25 p.m., this time with Sarnoff cohortJeff Posdamer , for a reprise of their popular Computer GraphicsTheater — commercial graphics for television and movies,scientificvisualization, and current computer graphics research.Scott Marshall , one of the tech gurus profiled by Dixon,speaks at 1:30 p.m. In a lecture entitled “The Theremin: Musicfrom the Ether, Analog, and now Digital Domains,” he will explainthat the Theremin was the first electronic musical instrument andis still the only instrument played without touching it. Inventedeighty years ago in Russia as vacuum tube radio circuits, it wastransistorizedin America and is now available as a digital MIDI device. Marshallwill perform on the “Etherwave” instrument currentlymanufacturedand marketed by electronic music pioneer Robert Moog.Roger Amidon , who is currently writing and designing newgames for the Nintendo Color Gameboy, will showcase the new AdvancedGameboy machine at 3:40 p.m. Last year he was the first to demonstratethe new PS2 Sony Playstation. He will also demonstrate some of thelatest generation of quality games and discuss Microsoft’s entry intothe field, the “X-Box”.Room 4: Software & Systems.Stephen Heffner of Pennington Systems Incorporated onIndependence Way starts off at 10:15 a.m. Heffner created XTRAN, aproprietary expert system for symbolic translation of computerlanguages.His subject: “Cable and DSL Internet Connections: Implementationand Security.” He repeats the seminar on Sunday at 10:30 a.m.Christopher Uriarte uncovers “The Real Story BehindOpening Up Shop Online: Understanding the Credit Card Industry andits Business Risks” in a 12:25 p.m. talk. He is the chieftechnicalarchitect at Retail Decisions, the London-based world leader inpaymentcard fraud detection and teaches at the Rutgers University InternetInstitute.Rebecca Mercuri of Bryn Mawr College tells why computersshouldn’t count votes at 1:30 p.m. Internet voting, said Mercuri inDoug Dixon’s November 15, 2000, story for U.S. 1, is “chilling.It will compromise voter anonymity and auditability. It would solvethe recount problem, because we won’t be able to do a recount.”Her website: mainline.brynmawr.edu/~rmercuri. See alsowww.princetoninfo.com/200011/01115c01.html.Room 5: Using TechnologyRick Elbanna , who works for Iselin-based Online MarketingNetwork, tells how to use the Internet as a marketing vehicle tosupplementyour existing marketing efforts at 10:15 a.m. in Room 5. He repeatsthis on Sunday in Room 3 at 10:30 a.m.”Control the World with Your PC,” admonishes PaulBergsman of the County College of Philadelphia at 11:20 a.m. Theauthor of a book by that name will use live demonstrations to showhow to control lights, stepping motors, and even the kitchen coffeepot. Also how to input temperature, motion, stress, and pressure,for data logging, and analysis. He repeats this on Sunday, in Room3 at 11:40 a.m.Bergsman then takes the 12:25 p.m. time slot to tell how highschoolers(and their parents) can incorporate computers in Science Fair andScience-Olympics projects. He repeats this on Sunday in Room 3 at2 p.m.At 1:30 p.m. Shabbir Moochalla will discuss digitalphotography.At 3:40 p.m. learn about “Neural Networks For Stock MarketTiming”from Donn Fishbein.Room 6: EducationThe very basic basics in getting started with word processingon microcomputers will be covered by Herman Hinitz of HBHAssociatesat 10:15 a.m.At 11:20 a.m. Eva Kaplan of the Pennington Computer Schoolcovers which websites and software are best for children fromkindergartenthrough eighth grade. Kaplan’s Computers and Kids Summer Camp is amongthe longest running in the region, and she consults to Microsoft forboth children’s software and for website design. E-mail:evalkaplan@cs.com.This repeats on Sunday in Room 3 at 12:50 p.m.Elizabeth Dunbar of Baltimore’s technical high schooltells how to supervise student technology teams at 12:25 p.m. Sherepeats this on Sunday in Room 2 at 11:40 a.m.Author Matthew Paris , who has been successful in publishing17 books online with X-libris, will give the inside view of this new”print on demand” industry at 3:40 p.m. He is with the BenWeber Foundation.Zelda Provenzano has another update on E-book technology onSunday at 12:25 p.m.Room 7: HardwareLearn how to buy a basic computer from Steven Orlandoat 10:15 a.m. Orlando used to be a retail salesperson for Comp-USAand a help desk agent for IBM and now teaches at a New York technologyhigh school. At 11:20 a.m. he tells how to buy the peripherals —the printer, the scanner, etc.”Digital Music on Personal Computers and the Internet”is the topic for Marty Fries of TeamCom at 12:25 p.m. Frieswrote “The MP3 and Internet Audio Handbook” and will sharehis views on copyright laws. A resident of Laurel, Maryland, hefoundedwww.imagimedia.net. He repeats this on Sunday at 12:50 p.m. in Room4.At 3:40 p.m. Ray Lazinski of Wyncote Instrumentation explainshow, with GPS (Global Positioning Systems), you may never get lostagain.Rooms 8 & 9: Networks, Databases, SystemsThe presentations include sessions on C++, home networks, DreamWeaver,Linux, knowledge management for small business owners, and theimportanceof metadata in the Digital Age.The last workshop, at 3:40 p.m., is by Dinkar Bhat ofTriveni Digital on Washington Road. His subject is metadata —large amounts of data that could be text-based or image-based, orany information that describes important features of data succinctly.He will address such issues as syntax, extraction, presentation, andarchiving metadata.Room 10: Amateur RadioA standard but unusual feature of every TCF is the amateur radiolicense testing area. Now is the chance for dozens of ham radiowanna-besto get tested.At 3:40 p.m. John DeGood of the David Sarnoff Radio Cluband Brian Boccardi of the ACGNJ will be on a panel discussingnew digital modes of transmission.Allen Katz , a professor at the College of New Jersey andthe founder of Linearizer Technology on Nami Road, will have the lastword at 2 p.m. He is co-founder of the Trenton Computer Festival,festival director for 20 years, and co-director this year. His topic:bouncing radio signal off the moon, and he will play tapes of radioechoes from the moon. It’s the latest up-to-date hobby andtechno-sport— Moonbounce.— Barbara FoxPrevious StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
