COMPUTOPICS

Volume XLX Issue 6 March 2010

FEATURED ACTIVITY: IN THIS ISSUE

Professional Development Seminars
• Upcoming Events ................... 1
• Quick Updates ..................... 2
The PDS dates back to 1968, when DC ACM first launched the • In Depth ......................... 3
series. This Spring, we have been working jointly with DC • Scribus and the GIMP .............. 3
• Past Events ....................... 4
SIGGRAPH to bring you a three track seminar with three talented • Calendar at a Glance .............. 5
instructors.
Richard Harrington is a practiced expert in motion graphic design and digital video. He is a member of the National
Association of Photoshop Professionals Instructor Dream Team. Harrington also authored Photoshop for Video and is a
contributing author for a number of Apple’s products. Jason Van Gumster has produced animations and visual effects for
television, film, and video games. Jason wrote "Blender For Dummies" and he worked with the Blender Foundation on the
formation of the Blender Foundation Certified Trainer (BFCT) program. Ingrid Mihai possesses extensive experience
developing mobile applications for non-profits in Washington DC. Notably, she has developed a number of apps in support
of innovative teaching and learning. Ms. Mihai is a doctoral candidate at The George Washington University in the field of
Computer Science. Please see the brochure at the following URL for more: http://www.dcacm.org/pd/

Cancelled

Cancelled

Upcoming DC ACM Events Upcoming DC area Events

Wednesday March 24 Thursday March 25

DC ACM Executive Council Capitol Science Happy Hour
Meeting
Saturday March 27 -
Monday April 5 Sunday March 28
George W. Arnold, NIST Capitol Science 2010
"Smart Grid Interoperability"

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QUICK UPDATES
Finances
Balance Sheet as of February 11, 2010
Checking Account $ 2,843.54
Money Market $36,007.31
Certificates of Deposit $10,273.70
Other Assets $ 551.19
Total Liabilities $ 0.00
NET WORTH $49,124.55
Membership Count
As of Feb 24th, 2010, the DC ACM had 166 registered
members. This total number includes 89 Members and
77 Associate Members.
Membership Renewal In Progress
by Isaac Christoffersen
DC ACM Membership Chair
The annual membership renewal drive is underway and
we would first like to kick it off by thanking you for
your support in 2009. It is because of members like you
that the DC Chapter of the ACM has reestablished itself
as one of the premier professional chapters within the
local DC Metropolitan area.
By now, you should have received an email with
instructions on how to renew your membership before
March 31st. As you consider your continued support of
your local ACM Chapter, we'd like to make you aware of
some of the activities that your support has made
possible. Over the past year, DC ACM has continued its
community outreach in the DC Metropolitan area.
Because of your grassroots-based, word-of-mouth
marketing, your Chapter has:
• Increased our total membership by a healthy 70%
• Created a new partnership with the New America
Foundation that allows us to host and record our
Professional Lectures as well as stream them over
the Internet
Did You Know?
The DC ACM Website has the following
information on the Archives tab
• Materials from events in 2007-2009
• Photos
• Videos
• Meeting Minutes
• CompuTopics Sept. 2008 to present
• Provided two speakers for the Washington Academy
of Sciences' Capital Science 2010 conference
• Established new relationships with local ACM
Special Interest Groups including SIGCHI and DC
SIGGRAPH
In addition, your DC ACM Chapter has continued its
mission within the community by offering several local
educational and networking activities, such as:
• Hosted 2 Professional Development Seminar Series
covering topics such as Web Application Security,
Hardening and Securing Linux, Agile Software
Development and Project Management
• Offered several lectures from such distinguished
speakers as Daniel Solove, Dr. Radia Perlman and Dr.
Donald Gotterbarn
• Provided judges and awarded ACM memberships to
the next generation of Computer Scientists at local
school science fairs
There has never been a better time to renew, or an easier
way to do it with our online renewal process. With your
continued support, we look forward to a future of continued
growth, and we hope that you will continue to support us
by renewing your membership. Details about the
respective benefits of our two membership levels can be
found on our web site at http://www.dcacm.org/join.
We are passionate about carrying out ACM's objectives at
the community level and providing opportunities for
meaningful connections between the area's academics,
professionals and policymakers in the computer science and
information technology fields. We hope that you share our
passion and encourage your friends and peers to become a
member and join us in our combined efforts.
Register to attend CapSci 2010
The DC ACM is an Affiliate of the Washington Academy
of Sciences. On March 27-28 2010, The Washington
Academy of Sciences and its Affiliated Societies will hold
the fourth in a series of biennial pan-Affiliate Conferences,
Capital Science 2010. With over 20 Affiliates participating,
the conference will serve as an umbrella for scientific
presentations, seminars, tutorials, and talks. The event will
feature two DC ACM speakers:
Li Chen, Associate Professor, Department of Computer
Science and Information Technology, University of the
District of Columbia, "Digital-Discrete Method For
Smooth-Continuous Data Reconstruction."
Bill Spees, University of Phoenix Online and Don C.
Berndt, Mapletech Productions, LLC, "Introducing state
machines in everyday devices."
http://www.washacadsci.org/capsci10/Index.htm
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IN DEPTH Scribus and the GIMP
with George Arnold by Andrew Conklin
CompuTopics Acting Editor
The upcoming lecture
on April 5th will focus The title of this piece may come across a
on standards to improve bit misleading to some. This is not a good
the electric grid of the Samaritan story. This is an article about open-source
United States. The software and the tools used for this edition of CompuTopics.
speaker, George Arnold, If you are involved in a project with desktop publishing
needs, would like to become involved in this newsletter, or
just so happens to be leading that effort within the
simply enjoy reading about open source software, continue
federal agency NIST. The following text is a bio on Mr.
on, and I hope you learn something new.
Arnold:
I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to desktop
George Arnold was appointed National Coordinator for
publishing, so I turned to my search engine to discover the
Smart Grid Interoperability at the National Institute of
tools that were at my disposal. I discovered three programs
Standards and Technology (NIST) in April 2009. He is
that proved most useful: OpenOffice.org suite (OOo),
responsible for leading the development of standards
Scribus, and the GIMP. All three software programs are
underpinning the nation’s Smart Grid. Dr. Arnold joined
multi-platform and can be installed on Windows, Linux, or
NIST in September 2006 as Deputy Director,
Mac.
Technology Services, after a 33-year career in the
OOo works well for word processing and open
telecommunications and information technology
collaboration with other contributors, writers, and editors.
industry.
The same document can be passed around to a series of
Dr. Arnold served as Chairman of the Board of the
contributors and OOo provides an efficient way to combine
American National Standards Institute (ANSI), a private,
those changes in its built-in document merging tool. OOo
non-profit organization that coordinates the U.S.
provides additional features for tracking changes, adding
voluntary standardization and conformity assessment
comments to those changes, and providing the editors and
system, from 2003 to 2005. He served as President of
original writers the option to reject or accept those changes.
the IEEE Standards Association in 2007-2008 and Vice
Scribus is a handy program for editors. Unlike Microsoft
President-Policy for the International Organization for
Word and Publisher, Scribus does not save images and text
Standardization (ISO) in 2006-2009.
documents within a working file. An editor can produce a 2
Dr. Arnold previously served as a Vice-President at
Megabyte PDF newsletter but still only have a 200 Kilobyte
Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories where he directed
Scribus document. The caveat is that the editor will run into
the company’s global standards efforts. His organization
pointer issues if those external files are moved to another
played a leading role in the development of international
location of the file system.
standards for Intelligent Networks and IP-based Next
Scribus turned out to be fairly easy to use after I got my
Generation Networks. In previous assignments at AT&T
feet wet. I mainly stuck to the basics for this editon. I
Bell Laboratories he had responsibilities in network
created text boxes, image boxes, a few shapes, and some
planning, systems engineering, and application of
lines. Powerful editing features emerged when I started
information technology to automate operations and
editing the properties of those object types. Scribus
maintenance of the nationwide telecommunications
provides a template feature to make it easy to reuse page
network.
layouts and transition from one edition of your newsletter to
Dr. Arnold received a Doctor of Engineering Science
the next. Unfortunately, I did not explore this as well as I
degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
would have liked. The last step before the newsletter can be
from Columbia University in 1978. He is a Senior
considered complete is to click on the PDF export feature.
Member of the IEEE.
The GIMP stands for the GNU Image Manipulation
Program. The GIMP is well-integrated with Scribus and
makes it easy to edit images that you are manipulating
within the Scribus application. Once the image is saved in
Additional Info on Scribus:
the GIMP, it is automatically refreshed in Scribus.
http://docs.scribus.net/ Newsletters of all sizes can be completed on the cheap
http://www.o3magazine.com/pastissues/
regardless of platform with the use of these applications.

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PAST EVENTS

DC ACM Resume Workshop

March 1st, 2010

DC ACM Spring Lecture Series: Joey Ponthieux

"3D Animation and Modeling for Aerospace"
February 18th, 2010

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 ·

DC ACM CALENDAR AT A GLANCE

March 24th - Executive Council Meeting (open to all members)
March 25th - CapSec Happy Hour
March 27th - The Washington Academy of Sciences: Capitol Science 2010
April 5th - Dr. George W. Arnold, "Re-powering the Nation: Setting Standards for the Smart Grid"

Sponsorship Opportunities DC ACM Executive Council

Chair Benjamin Schultz
Renewable Annual DC ACM Sponsorships: Vice-Chair Kent Miller
Bronze $500
Treasurer Teresa Hone
Silver $1,000
Secretary Andrew Conklin
Gold $3,500 (one per year)
Member-At-Large Mackenzie Morgan
All sponsors will be prominently recognized for one Communications Andrew Conklin
year on the DC ACM website, on the membership Membership Isaac Christoffersen
pamphlet, and at major events. Please email PDC Eric Noriega
fundraising@dcacm.org if your company is interested. Programs William Fielder
Special corporate sponsor benefits for the Fall 2009 Awards Mark Nolan
and Spring 2010 Professional Development Seminars:
Executive Council Meetings are held once a month. They
Bronze 5 employee discounts
are open to all interested parties, though only EC Members
Silver 10 employee discounts
Gold unlimited employee discounts have voting power on any motions raised in the meeting.

Note: The discount is equivalent to the DC ACM Location:

Member Discount and will apply to one seminar. An
employee may use multiple discounts if authorized by
the sponsor's management. All sponsors/donors will
receive a letter from the DC ACM Chair verifying the
receipt of their donation.
About DC ACM
http://www.dcacm.org
The Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Association for
Computing Machinery (DC ACM) was formally
established on November 1, 1958. We are a local
professional chapter of the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), which was founded in 1947.
Currently there are more than 2,200 ACM members in
the Washington Metropolitan Area.
The DC ACM is a non-profit 501(c)(3) association
(EIN 526066536) that supports educational activities
and career development for the local IT professional
community, as well as nurturing future generations of
computer scientists, network engineers, and tech
policy specialists in the Washington, D.C. area.
Among other activities, we give awards to junior and
senior high school students for exceptional science
fair projects in the computer science field and we
sponsor educational lectures for the general public.
Radio Free Asia
2025 M Street NW
Between 20th and 21st Streets
Ground Floor Conference Room
Closest Metro Stations:
Dupont Circle and Farragut North, Red Line
Parking: There is metered parking until 10pm and a
garage next door to the meeting room that charges $5.00.
Another garage on 19th Street is open until midnight and
costs only $7.00 after 5pm.
Become an Active Chapter Member
Volunteer Opportunities:
• Website - We have two ongoing
projects. The first is maintaining
the current site. The second is
developing a new one based on a more
open platform.
• Newsletter - Editors, content
contributors, and photographers
desired.
• Professional Development Classes -
Volunteers are able to sit in during
the paid classes for free after
handling check-in and other
miscellaneous duties.
• Archives - Organizers and archivers
desired for compiling historical
records of the chapter.