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President Frank Leonard opened the meeting by greeting quite a few newcomers. He then passed on a tip about a new Web browser called Neoplanet, which he downloaded from the Internet. It downloads quickly. The browser takes about 4 megs to load and needs Internet Explorer 4 or 5 to operate. Frank tried the program because his IE5 browser keeps crashing on him, but this one doesn't seem to. If you have a similar problem, you may want to consider trying this new browser.
One of the benefits of membership is that we can exchange information about software such as Neoplanet. SPCUG is fortunate to get many different kinds of software for members to review to let other members know whether the products are worthwhile. Our Product Review Coordinator, Chuck Sinclair, has assigned software to several members who have volunteered to write reviews for the newsletter. Unfortunately, we've noted that a number of members have not turned in their reviews. If members simply take the software and do not write the reviews, software companies will no longer be willing to send us software. Frank asked those who have taken software, but are unable to complete their reviews, to please return the software to Chuck. [Next month we will have a list of upcoming reviews.-Ed.]
Following this discussion, member Dick Towle spoke to members about some new developments in photo CDs from Kodak. This summer, the company released two new options customers can choose from for digital versions of their photos. One is called "Picture Disk," and is a diskette you can get for about $4 extra with every roll of film you develop. The photos are JPEG files with 600 x 400 dpi resolution, and they come with a very limited copy of Photoshop that allows you to crop your photos, title them or print them. You can also save them as e-mail files, compressed and ready to send out to friends and family. Picture Disk is considerably easier on the person who doesn't have a scanner and is quite adequate for 4" x 6" pictures.
The second option is a little more expensive, but more versatile. Kodak will put all your photos on a CD for $8 or $9. The CD gives you five different resolutions of every picture. To give you an idea of what you can do with these images, using 1500 x 1200 resolution, you can print nice 8" x 10" photos. You get very good resolution at a very good price. A slightly more elaborate version of Photoshop comes with this disk, as do thumbnail versions of all of your photos. Either option makes it easy for those of us with simple cameras or no scanner to have more versatility with the photos we take.
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In response to a question from the audience, Dick told members the CD will hold up to 100 rolls of film. If you return the CD (a standard 9660 ISO) to Kodak, it will save you a little money. Dick also noted that you can get either the disk or the CD from stores that do Kodak developing. It's pretty impressive and much cheaper than a digital camera that would give you comparable options but cost in the $900 range.
Dick showed the audience some photos he printed on an Epson Stylus 800. One photo was printed on HP PhotoJet paper and the other was done on the lowest quality Epson paper. The HP paper was more expensive, about 25 cents per sheet, while the lower-quality paper was 7 or 8 cents per sheet. For just 25 cents per sheet, you can get a good quality printout.
Dick turned the podium back to Frank, who mentioned that Milt Hull received several how-to books on Adobe products and on Internet Explorer 5. If anyone is interested in these books, please contact "Hardcopy" editor Tom Anderson. If you take one of the books, we ask that you write a review of the book for the newsletter.
Frank also brought members up-to-date on our Training Media Library. A dozen Novell 4 training tapes recently joined the library. Frank noted that some of the information is applicable to version 5 as well. If you want to know more about Novell, you are free to check them out. Members should take a look at the materials in the library during the General Meeting.
Frank ended the business portion of the meeting with a suggestion for members to take a look at eBlue. Webmaster Brian Smither is working on some changes to the online newsletter that will appeal to members. We will talk more about the changes at the next General Meeting.
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