Gabe Goldberg

Gabe Goldberg
"Amazon Fire TV Stick, Google's Chromebook?
What's that? Do I care?"
MEETING DATE: August 19, 2016

=====Amazon Fire TV Stick

We're long past days of rabbit-ear TV antennas. After quite a while where cable and a few satellite companies were the alternatives to over-the-air reception, we're now seeing both a proliferation of choices (e.g., Verizon FiOS and many streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, Prime, Hulu) and consolidation (e.g., cable and telephone companies offering one-stop shopping for Internet/telephone/TV services and often home security/monitoring as well). This presentation will feature ONE relatively new arrival, Amazon's Fire TV Stick -- a simple and very inexpensive device which plugs into a TV set and receives streaming content over WiFi from one's own Internet connection. It can play many "channels" (each of which includes broad/deep material) such as Netflix and Amazon prime.

=====Google's Chromebook? What's that? Do I Care?

For decades, the big consumer PC names were essentially Wintel (Microsoft Windows on Intel) and Apple's Macintosh. More recently -- for several years -- Linux (first widely used on servers) has been in the game, initially for techies avoiding Wintel/Mac but increasingly for more normal people's use. Lately, Google's Chromebook also targets the consumer desktop, claiming economy, simplicity, and robustness. It's mildly controversial, attracting both fans and skeptics. This talk will describe Chromebook's architecture, ecosystem (hardware, software, applications, online operation), and intended user niche, and briefly demonstrate its use. It's an interestingly different web-based approach to computing also seen in other cloud services.

Gabe evangelizes for user groups, believing that user groups are an antidote to feeling alone with technical activities, challenges, problems, and triumphs. He's enjoyed being APCUG Region 2 Advisor for many years.

He supports many national and local user groups. He served as Director of (Meeting) Programs for Washington, DC-area CPCUG, one of the oldest and largest PC user groups, where he organized and chaired the Internet SIG. He served on User Support Team for CPCUG's domain and on CPCUG's Board Of Directors. He was founding member and director of several localuser groups, and held management jobs in a national IBM user group. He has given hundreds of presentations to these and other groups and conferences. He has facilitated and helped exploit donations of commercial hardware and software to user groups. He's presently Director and APCUG Representative for PATACS, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society http://patacs.org/.

Gabe is a technology writer, editor, and consultant targeting audiences from consumers to computer professionals.

He worked for a small software company as VP of Technology and Business Development, responsible for product planning, evolution, and development, along with documentation and customer support.

He also worked in the leading-edge data center of a federally chartered not-for-profit consulting organization where he developed widely used software tools aiding other installations' mainframe use; before that he designed and developed operating systems at IBM.

Gabe shared responsibility for AARP's online Computers and Technology Web site and forums; before that, he co-hosted America Online's advanced Internet forum.