Jim Ryan, the Information Systems Officer for the US Embassy gave us a complete overview of what it takes to make your systems secure, from a individual PC through a server environment. The knowledgeable and informal chat was well received by the audience, who peppered Jim with questions throughout the presentation. Jim also showed us an elegant and simple 15 minute video clip that demonstrated how packets of data are created and routed through the internet. A must see for anyone.  The clip is available at http://www.warriorsofthe.net/movie.html

Mike Kato, the TPC Disk Librarian did a brisk trade in a data and software rich CD that was loaded with interesting and useful applications. At Y500 each, it’s a steal. Lucky winners of the raffles took home a CD of the Japanese version of PestPatrol, and a $25.00 Amazon.com certificate. The certificate replaced book we normally raffle off, because we’ve been having difficulty getting the books in time for the meetings.

We also announced a new membership plan with two payment options. Pay Y8,000 up front and get into the meetings and SIG’s free or pay Y5,000 and pay Y500 at the door for meetings and SIG’s. There are more benefits as well, explained in the Chit Chat and Club Biz newsgroups.

The results of last month’s TPC elections confirmed the officers from 2002 for the 2003~04 year.