Houstonist Tech Buzz - 070807

Local tech news in a compact, digital format.

Jay Lee's Helpline Helps
Jay Lee tackles reader questions over at The Chronicle in his HelpLine Blog. Here are some recent reader queries. A reader had problems with file associations and Jay put them back on track. Another reader had issues with kids accessing her files. Read how enabling log on passwords solved her problem. See how email auto-formatting helps avoid annoying links. Check out Jay's column every week over at chron.com.

RFID at UH
Here's a local website with a story about RFID advertisements on the UH campus. What could entice college kids more to get RFID chips implanted in them than pizza? Students were offered pizza if they came to this meeting, see the first photo on the link at the top right. I wonder if any left with chips too?

Mail Order DVD's Are Not Free
Unless you are Anthony Zuniga and you work for the USPS in Houston and you steal thousands of titles from mailboxes. How many is thousands? Try over 8,000 Netflix and Blockbuster mail order movies. This guy was caught on video stealing them from a postal return box and a judge convicted him to eighteen months in prison, three years of probation and a $4000 fine. Now that's a late fee!

BarCamp Houston
BarCamp Houston is coming but not for another month or so. August 25th is the scheduled date. Consider this your early reminder, mark it on your calendars, get your presentation together so you can get involved. Last years BarCamp was a success with many folks in attendance and it's time to make this one even better. Wait... did we just hear, "What is BarCamp?" Well, here's the definition according to Wikipedia: BarCamp is an international network of unconferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols. It's also a great place to meet people and make contacts. Mark your calendars to come out and experience BarCamp Houston.

Local groups and organizations
Here's a small sampling of Houston's technology groups. Lots of these groups offer classes and host various events throughout the year. Some of these groups include Houston Team Ubuntu, Houston Technology Center, Houston Linux Users Group, Houston Area Apple Users Group, Refresh Houston, Technology Bytes and HAL-PC. If you have an event or are involved in a group or organization and would like to see it covered in the Tech Buzz, send us an email or leave us a comment.