The title says it all.  We covered the computer developments that occurred or at least started in the 1960s and 1970s.  Really, it was only a glimpse into what was going on in this period that laid the foundation for much of the computing we know today.  If you would like to see the slides, click here.

We covered the history of computers up to the end of the 1950's. There is so much information on this topic that I had to restrict myself to significant milestones.   I intend to cover the period 1960 on across the next two meetings.  You can see the presentation by clicking here.

The topic of this month's meeting was the use of computing in medicine.  It is an absolutely huge topic and we could only really skim the surface, dipping in a few areas.  What I found fascinating in researching the topic was the degree to which advanced computing techniques are very much in use today. ​If you would like to see the slides used please click here.

This month we looked at Smart Homes.   What is generally meant by a Smart Home; what sort of functionality and capabilities are available on the market; who sells what; integration and problems.  ​If you would like to see the slides used please click here.

This month's topic centred on NFC, the technology used in bank cards, passports and mobile phone payment systems.  We started with the more general Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), looking at its development and capabilities before diving into NFC and its applications. If you would like to see the slides used please click here.

We reviewed the main threats involved in connecting to and making use of the internet, together with ways of defending against the risks.  I have attached the presentation used.  If you need further clarification or more detail, the last couple of slides of the presentation give an overview of recommendations and a couple of excellent websites that provide advice.
To see a pdf file of the slides, click here.

Although the original question was "how do they design integrated circuits", in order to explain the design process the presentation covers what ICs are and the building blocks that go together to make them, followed by a description of the IC fabrication process.  The slides can be seen here.

The questions covered were "If you only want to buy a laptop or a tablet, which should you choose?"  (assumption that everyone needs a phone - but not necessarily a smartphone. Although….), and "If you have both a desktop and a tablet, what would you use each for?"
We had a look at the technical characteristics of both and then discussed how you would decide.  You can see the slides backing up the discussion here.

The question giving rise to this topic was "Before I pick a language to learn, how do they compare, ease of use vs. functionality".  The presentation starts by considering why we have computing languages in the first place, then we cover some concepts and a few of the early programming languages developed and still going strong.  The presentation finishes off by looking at a few of the most popular languages today.
Click here to view a pdf of the presentation.

Given that we had just completed the first and main part of our Beacon implementation, we talked through the system selection and implementation, and also gave a demonstration of Beacon using the demo system as well as seeing the way we have linked the website to the operational Beacon system.  You can see a pdf of the presentation by clicking cc_20231207_beacon.pdf.