BMUG Meetings

Next meeting will be on July 12 at 3.00 pm at the Leopold Library. Why not join us?

A new series for our meetings

In July, 2022, we are starting a series for our meetings in which we investigate the lives, and contributions to the world, of some famous people. We are planning to start with Tesla - he is not famous, perhaps, but the car named after him is. What did he do and why and what has been learnt will be the focus of our session. Tesla's story is not the story of a boring person conducting scientific experiments - in fact it is full of intrigue and surprises.

The 80+ files that Tesla said he had just before he died are missing. Why, and what might have been in them, is still not known. The 'Tesla Files' is the story of work to rediscover the files and Tesla's theories. We will introduce and follow some of this story. Our coverage will not expect you to understand technical complexities - we will focus on the historic and crime detection activities.

Wikipedia says:

Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree, gaining practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His alternating current (AC) induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.

Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wireless-controlled boat, one of the first-ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.

After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943. Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.

New Macs

Every now and then we need to lash out and buy a new computer. This can be a tricky time - especially if, as is the case with Apple computers, new computers are not mere updates of old ones.

If you are going to make the investment for at least the next five years, it is good to know what you are buying and what you need to do in order to operate as suits you best - whatever Apple and others want you to do.

We will have a discussion about the new Macs, especially welcoming back some past members of BMUG!

and a challenge

- why has my computer decided to give me a new name - particularly, why has it given me a name I don't want? Can I correct it please?