President's Message by Don Rima

I LIKE September. The heat starts to mellow out and you can start to smell fall in the air... And, we think you’re going to like September as well.

For the September WAM meetings, we have Pete Nash from Microsoft giving us an update on the latest Windows release - Windows 2003. For those that were lucky to attend the kickoff this summer, you know how popular this is as the Omni was packed with over 3500 folks from the metro area and the meeting rooms were standing room only, if you could find it. Pete’s going to give us the high level overview of the changes coming with the 2003 release and since each time we’ve brought Microsoft to WAM it’s been a standing room only presentation, it’s double important that you get your RSVP’s in ASAP. Those that straggle in the door without RSVP may not even have a place to stand for this very timely presentation.

The JAM ’03 schedule is looking bigger and better than ever. And, I’m looking forward to hearing what our Breakfast presenter, Mike Smith, has to say about the future of OS/400 and software products on the OS/400 environment. I think this opening session will be very enlightening. You can register now on the web for JAM ’03 on November 7 in College Park at www.wash-midrange.org/cgi/jam.pl. This year’s session schedule is the best I’ve seen since I’ve been a member of WAM.

I know that several of you have responded to the Linux Installfest in Vienna this weekend. I also got a notice from WAM’er Igor Birman that the NOVALUG is having an installfest on Septmber 27th at the Pimmit Run Regional Library from 10:00 - 16:45. Contact Igor for any further details.

By the way, there is an AIX/Linux Users Group organizing that’s primarily centric around what is currently called the RS/6000 or pSeries systems. I’ll pass along more details as I get them as some of our membership is either a heterogeneous environment or in the process of migrating.

Now I’m not intending that this newsletter become a Linux Newsletter, but it’s plain that Linux IS going to become a part of all of our futures. It’s becoming more important that we alert ourselves and become knowledgeable on Linux sooner rather than later. The NOVALUG group has a nice list server and meets you should consider getting on the email distribution for their newsletter.

Also, a reminder that COMMON is this month. For further info, click on www.common.org/info16.html.

See you on the 16th.

September 16th Meeting

Pete Nash is a Windows Platform Architect with Microsoft helping medium business customers leverage Microsoft based technologies.  Pete has 14+ years of IT consulting and oftware development experience working with large and small enterprise customers.  He holds a degree in Mechanical engineering and is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer, Systems Engineer and Database Administrator.

His presentation, "What’s new in Windows 2003" will cover the changes coming out with the Windows 2003 Server announcement and new product line. I expect that this meeting will run a little over time, so tell your baby sitter you’re going to be a little late.

Tuesday September 16th, 2003
Holiday Inn in College Park, MD
US 1 and The Beltway, College Park, MD
5:30 PM Networking/Cash Bar 6:00 PM Dinner 6:30 PM Presentation