We encourage members to check out and make efficient use of the new IST Club computer. The computer has installed on it a full software suite for web design, database access, programming, and multimedia editing.

With the portion of Student Activity Funds that our club secured about a month ago, we purchased a workstation from Cyberpowerpc.com. Here are the specs:


- AMD Athlon™64 3800+ CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
- GigaByte GA-M55SLI-S4 nForce4 SLI Chipset DDR2/800 SATA 16x PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, IEEE1394, USB2.0, &7.1Audio
- 1GB PC6400 DDR2/800 Memory
- NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GS Graphics with TurboCache supporting 256MB 16X PCI Express VIDEO CARD
- Single Hard Drive (160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)

IST Club had its first LAN party of the year, which was held in the Chestnut Cottage Conference Room from 6pm-10pm. Eric Chen, James Tranguch, and Tyler Bartlett helped set up for the event, while the IT Department stopped by and secured the area to make it child-proof. According to Kevin Alshefski, some problems we should fix for the next event are: "everyone not having the same version of steam, people not having a rar file utility, and some networking glitches."

View more pictures at Savagebasher.
Thanks to Kevin Alshefski for the photos.

We received our first shipment of networking equipment, which includes the following:

Linksys WAP55AG Wireless Access Point

D-Link DES-1024D 24-Port Switch


We will be using the above to learn more about networking, computer security, and (of course) our LAN parties.

My first attempt at presenting "creating photoshop templates with css tables" did not go too well. I feel like I jumped into a topic without giving the members basic knowledge. I'm sure that a few members fully understood what I was saying, but for the rest of them it must have sounded like nonsense.

Also, I wasted a lot of the allocated club time troubleshooting my small errors in the CSS coding. And then, after the meeting, I found out that I was displaying the wrong file, only to find the layout working perfectly in a different sub-folder.

Next time, I will change my approach. Instead of an improptu presentation where I create a website on the spot, I should create a powerpoint presentation that explains step-by-step.

I like the idea of learning about new subjects at every one of our meetings. I wish that other members would step forward to teach the rest of the club some special skills, such as graphic design, PC repair, or even hacking. Meanwhile, I'll try to improve on my presentation skills for web design.

The IST Club is not all about computer games and cool field trips. Members should strive to learn new skills (something besides l33t headshot kills in CS).

At our general meetings, I will start HTML/CSS/Photoshop presentations to produce more web programmers in our club. We are in dire need of more manpower in the Web Design committee.

Anyone who wants to learn from the Hazleton campus should join the IST Club and attend these educational sessions.