January meeting in Berkeley a success, in spite of the iPhone announcement...
...Of course, if anyone had actually _had_ an iPhone, things might have been different. ;-)
Thanks to all who came to Berkeley for our most recent meeting -- we had quite a turnout! I wasn't doing a head count, but there were upwards of 20 (30?) people at CheathamLane's digs. Next time, I'll make sure to find a reputable pizza delivery...
We had many new faces (Gene & Devlin stand up!) at this get together, along with some out of towners (Thanks to the Mackenzies for the sweets, and to Bob Fisher for the beverage run!)... Hopefully Bob Shindel (New Jersey) will share with us his digital video from the meeting (hint, hint).
My only complaint, and it's the usual one, is that there were few cameras on panheads taking pictures. I may make it mandatory, for entrance next time. :-)
Ian Wood was very gracious to get up at (or stay up until) 3:30AM his time (UK), and video conference with us about his LEGO motorized/software-controlled panhead. After an initial hiccup with the network here, we had a mostly uninterrupted floorshow -- nice work Ian, and I do not agree with whomever said "supergenius" is synonymous with "person with too much time on his hands". :-P
Folks interested in following up on Ian's travails can go to his blog and/or Web site linked below. You should be able to contact him from either place, and can follow parts 1 through 6 of his LEGO series (with video). Also worth noting (and bothering Ian about) are forthcoming updates to his application Pano2Mov... And the fact that he has taken many, many spectacular landscape panoramas around his countryside.
Thanks too, to Kat and Landis who not only help out with picking up wayfaring photographers from BART & in general support our fair photo/VR community (and are my ad hoc A/V team), but also finagled the IVRPA into helping out with snack funds. Kat, I hope you remain treasurer of the IVRPA! :-) ...That, along with this week's generous donations by attendees will prove our next meeting to be very, very snackalicious.
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Next time? We're thinking of April -- if anyone has specific travel plans or days we should avoid, let me know. Otherwise you might miss out on the snacks (of course), and also a presentation from iShell (multimedia software) backed up with a review/demo of the 360 Precision Adjuste pano head by yours truly, aaaand maybe some tidbits and teasers regarding Photoshop CS3 from our resident guru and all around likeable guy Kevin O'Connor.
On that note -- if anyone has any topics they'd like to see covered in the future, or interesting things to share, please let me know! I'm ever on the lookout...
Thanks again everyone, and
Cheers,
Patrick Cheatham
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CheathamLane | spinControl:VR
Berkeley, California
VR Photography
Web, Flash & QuickTime Development
-- links --
Ian Wood:
IVRPA Blog: http://beta.ivrpa.org/blog/1833
Personal Web site: http://www.azurevision.co.uk