Santa Cruz Mac Users

[mischief]

Hello All!

I'm compiling a list of SC Mac Users and Apple enthusiasts for a (ominous music) secret project.

Please take a few seconds to list any Mac User Groups in the Santa Cruz (CA) area that you know about or e-mail me if you, want to be on the resulting list yourself.

Disclosed groups and individuals will be in for a very cool surprise. Mac-run and other software-rich businesses (Mac or PC) are also on my list of folks who would want to know about this project.

Please only disclose groups, companies or personal contacts that you have a legal right to disclose. Please disclose business contacts only via e-mail.

Admins: If you feel this should be in Mac Scene, go ahead and move it but the project involves a localized Mac-Community support project so make up your own mind.

[mischief]

I'm also looking for central coast User groups, BLOG's etc.

vniow, glossybear, jefhatfield are all folks I'd love to hear from on this one... :cool:

You will LOVE what comes of this. I promise.;)

[jefhatfield]

hi,

in context of the international group of mac users on macrumors.com, i am pretty much a santa cruz area mac user even though i am just a small county away and 30 mi. from the santa cruz "area"

PM me and i hope there will be other area users here who see this thread

-jef

[mactastic]

SC is my home, even though I'm living in SLO town until my degrees are done. Hopefully will be moving back someday! I do spend a good deal of time up there, I don't know if that is what you are looking for, but let me know. I'd love to have an excuse to come up for a weekend, particularly if it involves other mac people.;)

Oh yeah, my dad is in the Aptos area with his eMac, producing gorgeous digital photography prints. He did Open Studios the last two years, and teaches digital photography at the HS level. He might be interested too.

[vniow]

Yo, I'm here. I'm sorry if I don't know of any users groups or anything but I'll contribute what I can. There is a local Mac store on Soquel just in case anyone knew or didn't, here's (http://mcsquared.org/nonindex.html) their site if anyone's intrested. Not to big but its locally owned and such so its al least sonewhere close to home to go to for Mac stuff.

I don't know if I'll be able to meet up with any of you in person since I'm rather busy but I'll try to help out any way I can.

Cheers,

-V

P.S. e-mail (vniow@macmail.com)

[mischief]

(steeples hands and revolves chair away from camera)

"Excellent."

As this evolves I'll continue teasing you guys with very little information. Suffice to say that you will be given an opertunity to meet me in person and have a lot of fun.;)

Erm.... with vniow on this thread, I should clarify: No it isn't kinky sex.;) ;) :D

[vniow]

Originally posted by mischief

Erm.... with vniow on this thread, I should clarify: No it isn't kinky sex.;) ;) :D

Aww...that means I'll have to return those leather panties I bought from Camouflage...

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by mactastic
SC is my home, even though I'm living in SLO town until my degrees are done. Hopefully will be moving back someday! I do spend a good deal of time up there, I don't know if that is what you are looking for, but let me know. I'd love to have an excuse to come up for a weekend, particularly if it involves other mac people.;)

Oh yeah, my dad is in the Aptos area with his eMac, producing gorgeous digital photography prints. He did Open Studios the last two years, and teaches digital photography at the HS level. He might be interested too.

hey how is the progress with school at poly?

i really miss SLO, (san luis obispo) for those not in the know, or that border town in california which separates northern california from southern california and sits inland several miles from the pacific ocean and has 300 days a year of sunshine...or that's what the brochure says

[mischief]

For those of you in the area.... Grab the latest Good Times when it comes out Thursday and look for an add in the first ten pages that's got it's groove on.

:D :cool: :rolleyes: ;)

If you can't find it ask me..... I'll tell you more once it's in circulation.

[mactastic]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
hey how is the progress with school at poly?

i really miss SLO, (san luis obispo) for those not in the know, or that border town in california which separates northern california from southern california and sits inland several miles from the pacific ocean and has 300 days a year of sunshine...or that's what the brochure says

Going well, my undergrad degree is finally finished and I'm looking for work in the area. My wife and I just moved to Grover Beach (a stones throw from Pismo Beach for those not in the know;) )from Morro Bay so she could be closer to her work (cause she makes the real money for now) while we both finish our masters degrees. I miss the Santa Cruz area quite a bit, particularly since they aren't saturated with architectural graduates willing to work for peanuts. And yes the weather here is freakin' awesome. Been a little rainy and cold lately, but we are just about due for one of those late year heat waves again. December is often quite a nice month for going to the beach, but shhhhhh, don't tell the tourists that!

[mischief]

I'm posting one of the two smaller ads below.

If this proves problematic to Arn or becomes an issue AT ALL please let me know and I'll arrange for other means of distribution.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by mactastic
Going well, my undergrad degree is finally finished and I'm looking for work in the area. My wife and I just moved to Grover Beach (a stones throw from Pismo Beach for those not in the know;) )from Morro Bay so she could be closer to her work (cause she makes the real money for now) while we both finish our masters degrees. I miss the Santa Cruz area quite a bit, particularly since they aren't saturated with architectural graduates willing to work for peanuts. And yes the weather here is freakin' awesome. Been a little rainy and cold lately, but we are just about due for one of those late year heat waves again. December is often quite a nice month for going to the beach, but shhhhhh, don't tell the tourists that!

the way cal poly used to do it was have a five year bachelor's program with the sixth year for a master's degree

one way to keep the student there an extra year was to have some master's level classes put in the first five years and put some bachelor's level classes in the sixth year...they gotcha and your money

my friend, who became a structural engineer for an architectural firm, got the heck out after five years, took his bachelor's degree, and got a job pronto...built his own house with the firm he worked for and saved a ton of money

cal poly used to also have an interweaved agricutural business degree where it would be hard to walk away with just a bachelor's becuase while the core requirements which would allow you to graduate took only four years, bad college administration and lack of college funding made the average stay five years...so by that time, what is an extra two semesters for a master's designation? but those are my gripes of the cal poly more than two decades ago...not against a one year master's program per se, but using tactics to retain students who have to fund the school and its overpaid administrators

i am starting to see that blending trend now with high schools where the advanced level classes count as first year college courses or colleges will let one enter into a three year bachelor's program based on high school achievement...maybe that is a good trend

but if cal poly is still integrating their architectural bachelor's with their master's with a one year master's degree, i hope that they make you do a thesis to protect the degree and reputation of a master's degree in general...over the past few years, the master's has been seen more as an advanced bachelor's degree as opposed to a junior doctorate degree and the key culprit has been in tossing the original work thesis all grad students were once required to produce

i haven't gone thru the thesis thing yet, and i have met a lot of people out there who got thru grad school but did not finish due to the thesis because i think the thesis was probably some tool of torture invented during the spanish inquisition:p

one tip: if you write the most perfect thesis in the world, you will still be asked to edit it heavily because while work is what some PhDs want you to do, it is suffering which they are after...a rite of initiation of sorts and old traditions like that die hard

[vniow]

Originally posted by mischief
I'm posting one of the two smaller ads below.


Awesome.

Although I didn't see it in the latest Good Times, what page is it on?

[Steradian]

Originally posted by vniow
Aww...that means I'll have to return those leather panties I bought from Camouflage... :eek:



I live in the Bay Area...don't sure what use a kid would be to you...however I will pass on this info to my friends at UCSC who are mac heads

[mischief]

Originally posted by vniow
Awesome.

Although I didn't see it in the latest Good Times, what page is it on?

You're correct. It turns out the ad runs in alternation for this month with the e-bay class ad. We're running the classes in parallel in different classrooms on the same night so if you can't get ahold of the PDF above you can call the number in the e-bay add and ask about the iPod/iTunes class.

Steradian: Yes, please DO spread this around to UCSC. In fact, please e-mail around that PDF! I'll be on campus plastering the place with full-page flyers today too.

To anyone who wants the full page add, please e-mail me and I'll send it to you directly (it's a bit bigger).

Thanx for humoring me Arn, and thanx to the rest of you for the interest!

[vniow]

It all sounds pretty cool and all but unforunately its on a Wednesday and I have class all day, how long is this running? School ends around the end of December so I may have some free time afterwards....

[mischief]

No problem. Classes all day have no conflict with a one-time class from 6 to 9 PM do they?;)

This is a class that will be running Wednesday nights for the forseeable future so pick a Wed. night.:cool:

[jefhatfield]

how much do they cost?

[mischief]

The iPod class is fifty bucks a head for three hours. Admittedly not as good a deal as a Movie but then again you'll get a whole lot more for your buck than a ninety minute diversion.

[jayb2000]

Just moved out of SC in June. :(
Oh well, I would have brought my 40gigger full :-D (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

Have a great class!

[vniow]

Originally posted by mischief
No problem. Classes all day have no conflict with a one-time class from 6 to 9 PM do they?;)

Eh, my day runs from like 5:00 in the morning to 12:00 at night on Wednesdays, its a real pain, it only goes on for a couple more weeks though so if I can strap up the cash I'll try to make it if its still going on by then.

[mischief]

My turn has come around for the GoodTimes ad. It's at the bottom-right corner of page seventeen.

vniow: Bummer that your "day" is all nights. No worries though, the idea is that we'll be doing this every wednesday night into the forseeable future.

BTW: Don't assume that if you don't have an iPod or a Mac that this class would have nothing to offer you. The class includes iTunes for Windows and covers the whole Apple Music Suite.

[Laslo Panaflex]

I live in SLO, lived here my whole life and don't plan on moving anytime soon, love it.

[vniow]

Originally posted by mischief
My turn has come around for the GoodTimes ad. It's at the bottom-right corner of page seventeen.

vniow: Bummer that your "day" is all nights. No worries though, the idea is that we'll be doing this every wednesday night into the forseeable future.

Shizz. I hope to have some time in January or February or so, just bought a new iBook a week ago so I hope to see you sometime then!

Also, are there any cute girls there that you know of? *giggle*

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by vniow
Shizz. I hope to have some time in January or February or so, just bought a new iBook a week ago so I hope to see you sometime then!

Also, are there any cute girls there that you know of? *giggle*

hey, did you get one of the new G4 ibooks? because i have seen some of the just discontinued G3 ibooks in the box new for $799 usd which is a great deal...but since the G4 ibook has altivec which helps with photoshop, i can't wait to try one of these machines out

of course, how often will anybody do photoshop on a laptop as opposed to doing email, word processing, and internet where the G4 won't really be able to be noticed that much...i am in that dilemna right now of wanting another ibook but don't know which way to go with it:p

[vniow]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
hey, did you get one of the new G4 ibooks?

Nah, its a 900Mhz G3 I got at Best Buy for $750 with tax. Kick ass.

[mischief]

Guys, people in general in the first class.

I played an empty room for lack of full advertising support. It was good in that I got the classroom pretty much set up but it always sux to throw a party nobody comes to.

Ah well..... it'll pick up. I hope.:rolleyes:

[vniow]

Aww, that sux man, I kind of expected it though, the first print ad I saw came out a day after the first class so maybe things will pick up next time. If I knew some Mac or computer loving people in general I'd spread the work but I'm the only closet geek that I know of.

I could paste some flyers up here at Cabrillo but the semester is just ending and not too many people come for Winter sessions, I'm thinking about going for Spring sessions so I'll put some up then if the class is still going on.

Good luck and hope to see you soon hopefully.

[mischief]

For more information on what The Spot and I can do for you please visit: www.thespotinc.com

I do onsite (housecall training) through them as well!

If you want to know more about your Mac please call The Spot or use the contact e-mail on their site.

Happy Holidays all! There'll be more to come from this one.;)

[mactastic]

Jef, my wife just got one of those G4 iBooks, and I have to say, it's a pretty slick machine. A little thicker than I imagined it, but than anything is compared to my TiBook. Anyway, if you are thinking about it, I give it two thumbs up. The only thing I really was wanting them to give it that it doesn't have is monitor spanning, but I just have to perform the hack to get that. USB 2.0, 1024x768, G4!, Bluetooth, AE, 60Gig HD... It's a beautiful thing. And you can't beat that polycarbonate exterior for durability.

Laslo, I like it here too. I'm a transplant from the SC area though, and I really miss parts of it. Specially that part up where Miss. V lives. Can't really complain about the Morro Bay area that I lived in for the last three years, nor the Grover Beach area I'm in now though!:D

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by mactastic
Jef, my wife just got one of those G4 iBooks, and I have to say, it's a pretty slick machine. A little thicker than I imagined it, but than anything is compared to my TiBook. Anyway, if you are thinking about it, I give it two thumbs up. The only thing I really was wanting them to give it that it doesn't have is monitor spanning, but I just have to perform the hack to get that. USB 2.0, 1024x768, G4!, Bluetooth, AE, 60Gig HD... It's a beautiful thing. And you can't beat that polycarbonate exterior for durability.

Laslo, I like it here too. I'm a transplant from the SC area though, and I really miss parts of it. Specially that part up where Miss. V lives. Can't really complain about the Morro Bay area that I lived in for the last three years, nor the Grover Beach area I'm in now though!:D

when my wife and i make our yearly treck to san luis obispo and cal poly, we usually stay in town but she wants to stay in pismo next time...plus there is a mcclintock's bbq nearby which is always good

i always get mixed up where grover beach, shell beach, and avila beach are...are all those beaches south of san luis obispo? and are there any beaches north of san luis obispo besides morro bay? i went to montana de oro for surfing once but i cannot recall where that was exactly

[mactastic]

Originally posted by jefhatfield
when my wife and i make our yearly treck to san luis obispo and cal poly, we usually stay in town but she wants to stay in pismo next time...plus there is a mcclintock's bbq nearby which is always good

i always get mixed up where grover beach, shell beach, and avila beach are...are all those beaches south of san luis obispo? and are there any beaches north of san luis obispo besides morro bay? i went to montana de oro for surfing once but i cannot recall where that was exactly

Hey if you want to go in style stay at The Cliffs (http://www.cliffsresort.com/) in Pismo beach. McClintocks is just across the freeway from you there. Don't know when you plan on coming, but they have good deals off-season. I'd much rather stay on the coast than in SLO proper.

Let's see, Morro Bay is north-west of SLO, Los Osos (and Montana de Oro) is south west of SLO. Avila, Shell, Pismo, and Grover Beachs are all south of SLO, but not too far south. I'm in Grover, just south of Pismo, and I'm about a 15min drive from SLO.

How come you make a yearly trip to Poly?

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by mactastic
Hey if you want to go in style stay at The Cliffs (http://www.cliffsresort.com/) in Pismo beach. McClintocks is just across the freeway from you there. Don't know when you plan on coming, but they have good deals off-season. I'd much rather stay on the coast than in SLO proper.

Let's see, Morro Bay is north-west of SLO, Los Osos (and Montana de Oro) is south west of SLO. Avila, Shell, Pismo, and Grover Beachs are all south of SLO, but not too far south. I'm in Grover, just south of Pismo, and I'm about a 15min drive from SLO.

How come you make a yearly trip to Poly?

i went to a series of schools nearly continuously since 1980 and still go to school...two california jcs, poly, ssu, ggu, and london u and even though i didn't graduate from poly, but from a jc and ggu, i still identify with poly since i got the most college units from that school and spent the most time there...poly is a community...ssu (sonoma state university) and ggu (golden gate university) are both in the bay area and the schools don't have a community per se since the bay area with all its distractions are where the students hang out and not so much on campus...london university is cool but london is the hangout naturally...and the two junior colleges are for only two years for most students

since cal poly is in a fairly isolated area, almost as isolated as monterey county where i am now, the students kind of hang around the area of the school, in the school, or very nearby where the town literally financially depends on the school for survival so there is a community built around the school instead of vice versa...the only other school nearby where i see a school as the center of the town and its heart and soul is uc santa cruz, in which santa cruz the city was basically a sleepy conservative farming town with no population before the advent of the school in the 1960s which was perfect for a second uc berkeley, politically and now uc santa cruz is more radical than berkeley in many ways...but cal is still probably and will always be one of the five most leftist campuses in the usa along with the uc snata cruz banana slugs, wisconsin, brandeis, and lewis and clark

basically, san luis obispo is old, but was not a major california presence before the school came about with its world famous architecture and agricultural schools...i also like the students at cal poly since money and competition is not the main value of the students there as one may find in los angeles or the bay area where the values may be tied in more closely with the rat race of the surrounding metropolitan areas

and like uc santa cruz, many people will stay behind long after graduation and take a very low paying job not in their major just to remain in town since, in california, outside of san luis obispo and santa cruz, there are very few towns that comfortable, near the ocean, big enough to be interesting, but basically safe from the urban crime that has flooded la, the bay area and the centrlal valley

and neither san luis obispo or santa cruz feel like boring suburban towns even though they both are basically suburbs and not big cities or completely ruralized to the point of isolation...he he...i know a lot of santa cruz and san luis obispo locals consider their cities boring and uneventful at times, but try living in moss landing, ca or templeton, ca:p

ps- what i like about the school the most is that it has not changed its basic intimate character from when i went there from 82-85 where i was a second semester freshman to a junior...i hope cal poly keeps it focus on the undergrads and not try and get a law school, medical school, pharmacy school, or dental school and switch its focus to older students or working professionals in their 30s or older...the youthful feeling of the school is what makes it so vibrant so the level of effort the school puts in its freshmen, mostly out of high school, is at its highest quality and most personal...ggu where i also went is 72% percent law students, post-doctorate, or mba students so the undergrads get second billing there and there are practically no activities for an 18 year old who decides to attend there

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by mischief
For more information on what The Spot and I can do for you please visit: www.thespotinc.com

I do onsite (housecall training) through them as well!

If you want to know more about your Mac please call The Spot or use the contact e-mail on their site.

Happy Holidays all! There'll be more to come from this one.;)

several years ago, i visited the spot and considered teaching for them...i think they even thought about having my wife and i start some spot classes here in monterey county...at that time, i was working for pacific technical institute which was a competitor to the spot and they didn't like the idea of me possibly going to work for the spot:p

but then again the school i was at was a startup during the height of dot.com and i didn't get paid and could have made a lot of money if the school expanded and i was in on it...but dot.com died but the school did end up continuing on even though there was not the great need for network techs like the dot.com explosion called for..oh well, things may come up for dot.com and networking techs again like pre 2000 days

i think tech schools could do a lot still with apps classes and classes like the one you are teaching...there are so many people (namely half of america) who know nothing about computing and they can learn a lot from a place like the spot

i think tech classes and basic how to classes have a strong future still and since the products on the software and hadware market change constantly, you will always have a job somewhere teaching as long as you like

right now, i have no classes to teach, as a volunteer, on networking and the gaming class at the computer club went to a couple of kids, who know how to do gaming since i really don't do that well at computer games or scoring:p

[mischief]

Originally posted by jefhatfield

i think tech schools could do a lot still with apps classes and classes like the one you are teaching...there are so many people (namely half of america) who know nothing about computing and they can learn a lot from a place like the spot

i think tech classes and basic how to classes have a strong future still and since the products on the software and hadware market change constantly, you will always have a job somewhere teaching as long as you like



That's it precisely. Give me a little time and I'll have more classes to list. Need to make the $$ to get a Mac lab together with these first ones.;)

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by mischief
That's it precisely. Give me a little time and I'll have more classes to list. Need to make the $$ to get a Mac lab together with these first ones.;)

i know a young professor who thought that the direction of computers TODAY or in the near future would be e-commerce, lans and wans, but i told him the issues concerning a single, non networked computer was STILL where the work was in teaching and in the real world as a whole...not too different actually than when the mac first came out

of course, i have been working in the real world legally, he he, for 24 years, and this kid never had a real job in his life outside of academia so he had all these strange, strange ideas about our field ;)

i think as the word gets out, you will find students and the real pain in the butt about that is that you have to always stump for students and be persistent like a jehovah witness or amway salesperson

the local jc where i go to every now and then are having a whale of a time trying to find students because most of the kids right out of high school don't want to major in computer engineering or computer science because they perceive that the industry died when dot.com went bust...but where we are in such close proximity to silicon valley it looks that way even now much of the time

hey, how do you get the dot.com president off your front porch?

answer: tip him for the pizza:p