OSCON returns to Portland in 2018!

The best Open Source convention on the planet, OSCON, will be returning to Portland, Oregon in 2018, according to O’Reilly Media.

“This (coming) year marks OSCON’s 20th anniversary, making it the longest-running conference with open source as its central focus. We’re thrilled to be returning to Portland (July 16-19),” reports the OSCON staff. OSCON stretched its legs in 2015 when it took its show on the road to Austin, Texas.

Oregon and its vast technology communities across the state are glad to have OSCON back. It was, after all, Portland that was the host of this stellar Open Source event for more than 3/4 of its stretch to 20 years.

And your statewide Apple Users Group, the Oregon MacPioneers User Group (Omug), is hoping to be a part of the efforts once again, teaming up with O’Reilly’s User Group Program and the OSCON team — as we have in the past. Stay Tuned!

Be sure to check out the framework for next summer’s event:

https://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/oscon-or

Important dates

• Call for Participation closes on January 30, 2018
• Proposers notified by February 2018
• Registration opens in February 2018

Omug to select OSCON 2018 pass winner

The statewide Oregon MacPioneers User Group (Omug) — a registered Apple Users Group — will once again have the honor of sending one of Oregon’s MUGs members to the best Open Source event on the planet: O’Reilly Media’s OSCON.

With the return of OSCON to Portland this summer (July 16-19) for the 20th anniversary of the event, Omug has again partnered with the O’Reilly User Group Program and the OSCON staff to have the opportunity to offer a full, free conference pass to OSCON 2018.

Omug will soon ask all active, participating Oregon MUGs to send in their best single candidate for consideration. The deadline for submission will be announced soon, as will the selection date and announcement.

Eligible candidates must be able to attend the full conference, and will be required to submit a post-event recap of their OSCON experience (with optional photos). We also encourage to tweet from the event as deemed appropriate, if the attendee has a Twitter account.

Stay tuned for more details. Explore all things OSCON at its site.

 

 

April’s MacCamp moves for first time in over 30 years

The scenery was so iconic, so good, so beautifully characteristic of the Great Northwest at Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park that no returning MacCamper could ever envision moving PMUG’s famous twice-a-year, MUG-centric 3-day outdoor event anywhere else. Right?

Hold on to your backpacks. This year, MacCamp, from Friday, April 29-Sunday, May 1, will be held in Oral Hull Park, just outside of Sandy, Oregon. This is not an April Fools post.

What does Oral Hull Park have to offer?
Check out its website for details and photos:

http://www.oralhull.org

The landscape may be changing, but as anyone familiar with MacCamp knows all the other benefits remain strong gravitational pulls — like a black hole:

Included in your registration/camp fee are full, delicious, cooked meals all 3 days; Apple-or-tech centric classes on a variety of instructional, timely topics Saturday and Sunday; fellow MUG friends from other Oregon (or beyond) Apple User Groups; cozy, social-centric cabins to bunk in 2 nights; sometimes with a Special Guest speaker, sometimes with a raffle sprinkled in. And the occasional wildlife (if we are lucky).

Keep your bookmark pointed to PMUG’s MacCamp web page for updated details, a list of classes, and any other news:

http://www.pmug.org/blog/maccamp-2016/

O’Reilly Media to offer “Intro to Seed Financing for Startups” – a 6-hour online video course March 30

Our friends at O’Reilly Media (and their great User Group Program) are offering a March 30 online course that will surely interest a lot of MUG members (or their friends) … specifically the entrepreneurial types. Without further ado, here’s the info and the link — and spread the word!

Live Online Training: Intro to Seed Financing for Startups 

Everything you need to know to raise money for your startup–in just 6 hours 

Don’t waste time raising money the hard way. In this crash course in venture capital, serial entrepreneur and investor Katherine Hague will prepare you to raise money for your startup using real-life case studies and hands-on interactive exercises. 

You’ll learn best practices from seasoned entrepreneurs and investors. You’ll save hours of trial and error (and failed pitches) and hit the fundraising trail with confidence. 
In this course, you’ll learn:

• An effective plan to hit the fundraising trail for your company
• A solid understanding of core venture capital concepts
• The confidence to negotiate key terms in a funding deal
• A well-developed and expertly-honed investor pitch

Live Online Training with Katherine Hague 

March 30, 2016 | 9:00AM – 12:00PM PDT 

Course info, and to register:

http://www.oreilly.com/pub/cpc/5610

A free MUG Christmas gift from AppleUsers down under

(Originally posted in the Nov. 2015 Apple User Groups Leaders newsletter)

The holiday season is approaching and Nicholas Pyers and Australian-based AppleUsers.org has once again made it’s popular Festive Celebrations DVD available at no cost to user groups across the globe.

Festive Celebrations is a merger of two previous Disc of the Month titles: Festive Fun II and Celebrations Galore, both full of holiday-focused clipart, animated images, fonts, music & movies, coloring books, greeting cards, envelopes and much more.

Thanks again to Nicholas Pyers for all he does for our groups!

Beat the heat with 3-day MacCamp relief this October

Pack your bags, Apple lovers, the next MacCamp is coming soon October 23-25 and you’ll be glad you booked early.

Need an incentive to attend MacCamp? How about global warming?

Now, before you start digging your family survival shelter, what we imply is that one of the savory characteristics of PMUG’s famous 3-day Apple-flavored weekend camp is that it is held twice a year — and usually in the more weather-friendly months of April and October.

But with the no-joke reality of global warming (can any NWer really deny the heat indexes of recent years?) we can’t be sure how sweaty those 2 months might be in the future. However, the cozy, waterfalls-endowed, beautiful outdoors of Silver Falls State Park — where MacCamp pitches its tent, er, cabins — is a NW forest and the trees are at ready to provide plenty of shade when needed. Or just stand real close to or under one of the waterfalls on some beautiful trails.

Of course, anyone familiar with MacCamp knows all the other benefits remain strong gravitational pulls — like a black hole: Included in your registration/camp fee are full, delicious, cooked meals all 3 days; Apple-or-tech centric classes on a variety of instructional, timely topics Saturday and Sunday; fellow MUG friends from other Oregon (or beyond) MUGs; cozy, social-centric cabins to bunk in 2 nights; sometimes with a Special Guest speaker, sometimes with a raffle sprinkled in.

Keep your bookmark pointed to PMUG’s MacCamp web page for updated details, a list of classes, and any other news:

MacCamp Fall 2015 info page (with class listings!)

Apples Keep Falling From The Trees …

Apple fans, September and October are bringing new hardware and software from Apple … most certainly a primer for the upcoming holiday season of buying (yeah, that part).

We now have iOS 9*, WatchOS 2 for  Watch, and Mac OS X El Capi-Ten, er, Capitan. Hard rumors say we’ll have a 4k Retina 21.5” iMac this or next week. Then, in the next couple of weeks, the  TV arrives, and early November will bring the (drooling) iPad Pro, with its Smart Keyboard Cover and  Pencil.

*Footnote on iOS 9:

We love that Apple does not abandon legacy/older hardware too quickly. There are thousands and thousands, if not millions, of Apple users that use older hardware (like us) until we save up for the latest and greatest. Thus, we were thrilled our iPad 2 downloaded/installed just fine (over wi-fi, yet, on release day) iOS 9, and it immediately freed up 1.8 gig of space. It’s running smoothly, even snappier than 8.4, and brings some of the new features, to our delight. We miss out on the major stuff like Split View, Split Screen, etc. but iOS 9 also means we are running the latest Security features. Critical.