TCS - What Is A Sig and What Do They Do?
What Is A Sig
and What Do They Do?
by Don Singleton
Tulsa Computer Society
From the January 1998 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter
We have new people joining the Tulsa Computer Society all the time, and sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what happens at each of our meetings. We have a number of SIGs, or Special Interest Groups, each of which has its own meeting each month (and in a few cases, more than one meeting each month). Each SIG could be a separate group all by itself, but in TCS the sigs all operate under the mantle of the Tulsa Computer Society, which publishes one newsletter, with information about each Sig (if the sig makes the information available), as well as information of interest to everyone.
When one joins the Tulsa Computer Society they pay one fee, $20 a year, that entitles them to an I/O Port Newsletter mailed to them, and they can also check that they wish to be considered members of as many sigs as they wish. They select one sig, the sig that is most important to them, i.e. that is the reason they joined, and list that sig as their Primary Sig, which means that Sig can count the member in determining representation in our Representative Council.
Current Sigs are:
Access
Access is an intermediate to advanced level meeting to help people who implement systems using the Microsoft Access DataBase program. Members will bring a disk with their database and describe the problem they are having, and then all members of the audience will pool their collective experiences to see if we can come up with a solution to the member's problem.
Daytimers
Daytimers has nothing to do with the pocket scheduling system by the same name; this is a Question and Answer meeting focusing on beginner to intermediate level users, covering just about any topic related to personal computers, but it occurs from 10am to noon, i.e. in the Day Time, where it serves members who must work second shift or who have difficulty driving in the evening, and hence are not able to attend any or many of our evening meetings.
Educator's
Held at the Fulton Teachers Resource Center, our Educator's Sig is focused on helping teachers, not just from the Tulsa Public Schools, but also from other public schools in the area and private school teachers learn how to use computers in the classroom.
Getting Started
Beginners are welcome at any of our meetings, and we attempt to answer their questions at any meeting, but we have scheduled our Getting Started meetings to have a place specifically for beginners. We meet twice a month, on the first Wednesday of each month we meet at the Owasso Community Center, where we have a program from 3pm to 5pm primarilly for the Senior Citizens that opearte out of the center (although anyone is welcome to come), and then we do the same program again from 7pm to 9pm the same night, and we have a second meeting, on the third Wednesday of each month, in Keplinger Hall on the TU Campus. We have a series of six programs, on Hardware, Windows, Communication and the Internet, Word Processing, Spreadsheets and Databases, and Graphics, and we rotate through the series at each of the locations, doing one program each month. The series are shifted three months between the two locations, so someone coming to both locations could see all six in three months time, or one could go to just one location, and it would take six months to make it through the series.
Graphics
Our graphics group is led by a lady who is primarilly an artist and chose a few years ago to express herself on the computer. There are two main components to any piece of art - the technical and the aesthetic. While she hope to be able to discuss both, she realize that the majority of people want to know how to manipulate tools, get effects, use different programs, etc. She will be emphasizing the latter with the hope that some people will want to address the artistic element as well. She will not be showing people how to put images on the web or create brochures. For that we have Internet and desktop publishing sigs. She will, however, be discussing the tools necessary to manipulate the objects in an image and create that image.
Investment
The Investment group focuses some of its efforts on computer programs that track prices of stocks (or other investments) and analyze companies using either technical or fundamental analysis techniques. The also focus on some investment opportunities where those programs may be used. The group meets weekly for lunch, and has one evening meeting each month.
Internet
The Internet is such a big subject that we have two meetings each month covering various aspects of it, including Building a Web Page, Preparing Graphics for Use on Web Pages, Sending Email, Using Search Engines, Interesting New Web Sites, Finding Financial (or other) Information on the Net, etc.
Linux
Linux is a free (on the Internet) or very inexpensive version of the Unix operating system, and this Sig meeting is dedicated to people who are trying to install and use Linux on their computers.
Local Area Networking
Our LAN Sig merged its meetings with the Netware Professional Organization so these meetings are for the intermediate to advanced user.
Midi Music and Multimedia
Our Midi Music group focuses on computer generation of Music, usually in the Midi format (*.MID), but occasionally in other formats such as *.WAV or *.MOD. Occasionally the group will cover various other Multimedia topics like digital cameras, making CDs, etc.
NT/Back Office
Windows NT is an operating system used primarilly by businesses, and this SIG, led by a representative from Microsoft, focuses on that operating system and various Back Office products that run on it.
OnLine Communication
OnLine Communication is the name of the two hour Question and Answer session from 10am to noon on Super Saturday (which also has one of the two Internet meetings each month from 1pm to 3pm). This sig is a combination of three former SIGs in TCS: Modem, CompuServe, and OnLine Services. It focuses on all questions regarding modems or services that one would access via a modem, including BBSs, Online Services like AoL or CompuServe, and the Internet.
OS/2 - Java
The OS/2 Operating System has a Java Engine built into it, and when we were running out of things to cover in our OS/2 Sig we decided to expand to cover Java as well. Right now most meetings are focused on how to use the Java programming language, but we will attempt to answer OS/2 questions to the best of our ability.
Quicken / QuickBooks
Quicken is a financial system for individuals (balance checkbook, maintain a budget, capture data for taxes, etc) and QuickBooks is focused primarilly on small businesses. This Sig covers both of these products from Intuit.
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is a programming language. This would be a good SIG for one to come to to learn how to program in VB, and to get your questions answered, and while it would be of interest to the beginner VB programmer, it is not the sort of Sig that most beginners would be interested in. You don't need to know how to build a car to drive one, and you don't need to know how to program a computer to use one.
Windows
The Windows Sig covers both the Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 operating systems, showing how to use features in both operating systems, and showing various programs that are run in them.
Word Processing / DTP
Word Processing / Desktop Publishing covers just about any Word Processor or Desktop Publishing program. Usually meetings are of a Question and Answer format, where we cover what the audience wants us to cover that night, but occasionally we will be asked to put together a program on some aspect of WP or DTP, in which case some of the meeting will be devoted to that presentation, but we will still respond to questions during the rest of the meeting.
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Tulsa Computer Society 12/08/97
Don Singleton, President
tcs@galstar.com