By Any Name They Make Good Music

Now, about music: here's the latest from De Prez Jim Hamm:

"Just for kicks, our Monday Night Bluegrass Band entered the Old Time Country Band contest at the Wickenburg Bluegrass festival this past weekend. We renamed our group the Prairie Rose String Band for this performance. Can't believe we came in second place, which paid $200! Wow! We'll eat good this week...(grin)...

The guy in the middle with the black hat, Bill Breen, was the Master of Ceremonies and not part of our band. Thanks to Bill Williamson, our consummate banjo player, who put this collage of pictures together.

"I just returned home today, Monday, from a month-long sojourn in our motorhome. I attended a variety of bluegrass festivals and music campouts, and had a nice time, but it's good to be home again. Zee joined me a couple of times, either to be sure I was eating okay, or to check up on me—and I'm not sure which it was...(grin)... I'll now put the motorhome in storage till January when Zee and I head out again for more adventures." Jim Hamm

Now, With Stars in Our Eyes . . .

With stars in our eyes, those of us who attended this morning's PMUG are still marveling at the sights we saw. John Carter gave a presentation on two Mac programs for Astronomy. Talk about interesting and informative! Lively questions and answers gave us more information. Now, John fills us in on some additional details in the report below:

I bought the Meade DS2114 ATS-TC 4.5" Newtonian telescope with Autostar #494 and a color USB camera at Sam's Club for $199.00. It's a great beginner's telescope.

At power on, this telescope performs a self diagnostic setup. It requires 8 AA batteries (not provided) and one CR2032 (provided). The CR2032 maintains current date and time once it is updated. I find that I have to re-enter my location (by Zip code) and telescope model each time I turn it on, but that takes only a few seconds. I can alternately choose to enter location by state and nearest city (Prescott is available). There is no provision to plug in an external power source.

The DS2114 ATS-TC is also an excellent telescope to be taking to public star parties and introducing people to Astronomy with.

I find that the tripod is very sturdy and easy to adjust and lock into place.

This telescope does have some minor drawbacks along with its major features.

The drives are very noisy. It's like they didn't bother to grease the gears or make them fit very well together.

It doesn't track perfectly, but good enough to get a decent image and the drift isn't so bad that you will lose the object in a 25mm eyepiece even after 20 minutes or more.

The focal length of 1000 with an f/8 ratio means that you won't see the entire Coat Hanger using a 25mm eyepiece without a focal reducer.

To get the 1000mm focal length in such a short tube, they installed a barlow lens in the focuser. This also reduces the amount of light at the eyepiece. When compared with a 4" Celestron, I couldn't tell difference.

The telescope was slightly out of collimation when I tested it with my laser collimator. The adjustment screws require a spline wrench, which I don't have. The big problem with using a laser collimator is that the built in barlow lens in the focuser causes the laser beam to blow up - you no longer have a dot to work with. But since I couldn't make any adjustments, I can't say for sure what it will finally look like.

The red dot pointer is an excellent choice for a finder, but the dot is fairly large and not at all round. Still, it gets you where you need to be quickly and with no fuss. It has a two position slide switch for adjusting the brightness. This pointer is not very secure in its mount and easily be knocked out of alignment. It also completely disappears when the Moon is in the sight even at the highest intensity.

The 1.25" focuser offers a near press fit to my 1.25" eyepieces - very hard to get them in, so you don't even need to use the set screws. But the eyepieces that come with the telescope slip right in. 

I haven't bothered to use the 9mm and 25mm eyepieces that came with the telescope because they don't offer a very wide aperture at the eye. It would be worth replacing those eyepieces at the earliest opportunity, and that increases the cost of the telescope to at least another $150.00 (but honestly, you will do that with any telescope you buy anyway).

The focuser really needs a 10:1 dual speed control. To focus on any object requires an extremely touchy adjustment. This is bad news for taking photos with a camera. I don't think there's any hope of getting a dual speed focuser for this scope due to the fact that it has to have that barlow lens built in.

The Autostar Suite that comes with the DS2114 is not the full program. You have to pay extra for that. The feature that is missing is the interface to Envisage, which gives you the ability to view the output of the camera. There is a separate program for viewing the camera image, but it doesn't interface with Autostar Suite.

The USB camera comes with a shutter release button for taking still photos with. The instructions read: "Hold the shutter release cable until the image is steady on you PC screen, then press the shutter button." Due to the jitter of the image, this may take several tries before you get a decent photo. I would think you really need to upgrade to the full version of Autostar Suite to take advantage of Envisage.

That being said, I do have the full version Autostar Suite with Envisage, and Envisage would not detect the USB camera even after installing the driver for it.

I didn't bother using the Autostar program simply because I have Starry Night Pro and prefer to use that planetarium program.

The setup and alignment is the same as with any Meade Autostar. After the simplest setup (align the tube North and level), the scope would train close enough to an object to make me smile. After a two star alignment, objects still would not center exactly, but close enough to re-center and re-sync the control. Once there, the drift, although noticeable, was minimal.

When I first targeted Andromeda, the scope first trained on Mirach, asked me to center on that star, and then slewed to exactly center on Andromeda. What a pleasant experience that was! The next time I targeted Andromeda, it went straight to it.

The Andromeda galaxy is easily identified as a large, but not too bright glob. You can only make out the central bulge. That's really not much different than what you can see with a 6" Newtonian.

Overall, I would say that Autostar on the DS2114 performs very well. And for $199, it's a bargain!

What most people will object to is the light gathering capability. Hey! It's a 114mm aperture! What do you expect?

I was able to use my own Meade DS-II color camera on the DS2114. The result was somewhat disappointing for direct viewing because of the jitter caused by the drives. Nevertheless, decent photos can still be taken.

Here's an untouched, stacked image (15 images, 1 sec each, all handled by Envisage) that I took of the Moon on November 6 with the DS-II camera and a .5x focal reducer.

(See the photo of the moon at the start of this entry.)

You may notice that the upper edge of the Moon appears to have lost its "roundness". I have yet to discover what causes this. My first guess is that it is the Barlow lens in the focuser. It may just be an optical illusion on my part due to the aspect ratio of the image.

At last! My original quest to be able to do astrophotography has finally been realized!

Let's face it. Once you get bit by the astronomy bug, when you're through buying all the eyepieces and other accessories for any telescope, you will add up to $3,000.00 to the cost. But this telescope will get you started at the lowest possible cost and all the eyepieces and accessories you buy for this telescope will work with any other. How similar is that to buying software and accessories for your Mac?

I do not recommend buying this scope anywhere except at Sam's Club for two very good reasons: 1) the price of $199 is the lowest you will find it anywhere, even online, and 2) you may not get one out of the box that works, so taking it back for an exchange is never a problem at Sam's Club.

Costco also has a Meade telescope for $199, but it is a 90mm refractor (Galilean telescope), and instead of a USB camera it has an extended 6 piece eyepiece set. Other than that, the Autostar, tripod, and mount are identical. A reflector telescope provides a brighter image than a reflector (Newtonian telescope) for the same size diameter of the primary lens of the refractor vs the primary mirror of a reflector. It has been said that a Newtonian mirror would have to be about 1.5 times larger than a Galilean lens to provide the same brightness of an image. Hence, the 90mm refractor will give as good or better an image as the 114mm reflector. Some refractor enthusiasts say the image in a refractor is sharper.

But if you have $39,999.00 to spare, I recommend the Meade 20" LX400-ACF.

Now, if you want to know about the Astronomy Club's meeting this next Saturday, or anything else about the Mac programs John uses be sure to connect with him: mailto:John@jrcarter.com  and his web site: http://www.jrcarter.com

Thanks again, John, for a good presentation for PMUG. 

Jim & Zee Are Heading Home

Our traveling Prez, Jim Hamm and wife Zee are heading home on Monday. Here's his latest installment of the Elderhostel tours.

"Hi...We've finished our Elderhostel tours, ending at the old, historic Brandon Inn in Brandon, CT. The Inn built in 1787, is filled with antique furniture, is a large, elegant structure in very nice shape. The owners, who have owned it for 25 years, say it is a labor of love to own an old building such as this. Any excess cash flow they have goes right back into the building. Maintenance is a perpetual chore. I can believe it. The husband is a chef by training and prepares the meals for their large dining room, and the wife tends to the administrative side. All four children help out—those that are left at home. They were booked solid when we were there, and had a another tour bus coming in the day we left. There is very little industry in Connecticut, and most places survive on the tourist trade.

"One of the interesting places we toured was a water buffalo farm—Bufala di Vermont. They have a large herd of water buffalos, which they milk twice a day, just like cows. The yield per buffalo, though, is only about 10-20 lbs. per day vs 50-75 lbs. for a cow. The milk is twice as high in fat content, and is used on the farm to make a variety of cheeses and yogurt—all very tasty, I might add. The yogurt is almost as thick as cheesecake, and darned good. The water buffalo are quite docile and friendly. About the same length and height as a cow, but they're much more stocky. They were eating in their stalls as we walked along, and they would stop and stare at us, let us rub their head, and seemed to listen intently as we talked to them. The farm gets male semen from Italy to impregnate the females, and Italy is developing water buffalo which will yield more milk. An interesting tour, and this is probably more than you ever wanted to know about water buffalo...(grin)...so I'll go on to something else.

"We toured a sugar maple farm, got to see how they harvest the sap, make maple syrup and, of course, got to sample some. There are four grades of maple syrup, from a pale, light color to a dark color. As the temperature warms up in March, the sap tends to run darker. They heated some syrup up to above boiling for a short while to thicken it up. Then they poured some in a cup and set a dish of crushed ice alongside it. We took a small stick, dipped it in the syrup, then rolled it in the ice. The cold ice turns the thick syrup into maple candy, which is quite delicious. They call this 'sugar on snow.' In the winter they would use snow instead of the crushed ice.

"We toured a cider mill, and learned all about how they make cider. Again, samples for all. We also toured yet again another winery, with, of course, samples of their wine and with a souvenir glass to keep. We're going to leave all these wine glasses in our room—too much of a hassle to bring them home.

"Other stops along our journey included McDuff's micro brewery, Wilbur's Chocolate Store, the L. L. Bean home store in Freeport, Maine, a couple of more lobster dinners, another farm where they make cheese, and other 'big' attractions...ha! Altogether, a very nice tour.

"Zee took many pictures as we 'puttered' along, and when we get home she will select some pictures, put captions on them and we'll post them to a website. Much easier to do this at home, when she has more time to do it.

"The weather continues beautiful, and we've returned to Newport, RI to tour some of the mansions. We'll do that this weekend, and return home Monday, October 13. Thanks for reading my blog, and hope this gives you a flavor of an Elderhostel tour.....Jim."

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Hello From Maine

Sure enough, De Prez Jim Hamm and Zee have sent us another installment of "eating their way" through the Northeast. He writes:

"Hi....Here's another trip report, as we continue eating our way up the east coast...(grin)... Isn't technology wonderful? Here I sit, on the 'mobile munchmobile' (aka the bus), cruising down the highway, listening to Nora Jones (a sultry-voiced jazz singer) on music streaming into Pandora radio on my iPod Touch, surfing the net and checking emails on my MacBook Air. This bus has wifi! Signals are sent and received from satellite as we motor along. Simply amazing. The speed is good, and I suspect more tour busses will adopt this technology.

"Now we're in chilly Ogunquit, ME, right on the coast and around the corner from Kennebunkport, home of G. Bush, senior, and wife, Barbara. Both were in the same restaurant when we had lunch yesterday. I didn't see them, but other people did. They motor over occasionally in their boat for lunch, followed by five secret service agents in another boat.

"Yesterday morning we toured, and sampled, goodies from the 'Lollipop Tree'—a manufacturer of natural jams, jellies, breads, cakes, cookies, etc. They have 100 employees and sell under their own label as well as private label for Williams-Sonoma, et al. Interesting operation.

"Then, yesterday afternoon, we went out on a lobster boat and collected lobsters from traps. We got several. Lobstering is a tough way to make a living. It's expensive to buy the traps, labor-intensive, and the storms they get up here wreak havoc on the traps. Each person with a license can set out up to 750 traps, and must 'run' the traps every four days to collect the lobsters. To protect their livelihood, they have strict regulations on size, etc. For example, if they trap a female with eggs, they cut a small notch in her tail, and release her. If someone else should catch her later, they see the notch and release her, even if she isn't carrying eggs at the time. They know she is a fertile female, and they want her out there mating and propagating future lobsters.

"The leaves are turning on the trees, and splashes of brilliant color catch our eyes as we motor along. It's been awhile since I've seen woods this dense, and the various colors—from bright red to pale yellow—bring back memories of when we lived in Ohio and Indiana. This morning the weather is clear, crisp and chilly. A high of 60 degrees, but no rain in sight. We are at the tail-end of the season, and most motels will shut down in another couple of weeks. A few B&B's remain open, but the motels drain the water from the lines and close up.

"The coast here is picturesque and very rocky. As we toured around on the lobster boat they showed us how high the water can get when the big storms hit the area. The restaurant we had lunch in yesterday had two feet of water in it last year during one of the storms—and we were quite a ways up from the water. The tide goes up and down nine feet every 12 hours, and add to this surges from storms and one can see why living on the coast can be dangerous. I asked various people, as I talked to them, how they liked living in this area. Most loved it, although one guy had only been here two years, and said 'he was getting used to it.'

"Time to board the bus and continue our sojourn. We're off to see a fish auction, where the fishermen bring their catch to sell. This should be interesting. Then, we tour a vodka factory—I guess this is yet another way to use up excess Maine potatoes!...(grin)...Jim"

Thanks, Jim. But I should note we're hoping for some photos soon.

There's More, Already

How's this for being prompt! De Prez Jim Hamm and wife Zee have just e-mailed the latest installment of their east coast trip. Here is is:

"Hi again...If you're so inclined to read more about our first Elderhostel trip, here we go. This time we're in Newport, RI, and we finished the first Elderhostel tour last evening in Boston. We rented a car, drove about 60 miles to a motel in Newport, where we start our second Elderhostel tour tonight.

"Yesterday morning we toured 'Old Italy,' an enclave of small shops, condos and apartments in northeast Boston. Our tour guide was an enthusiastic lady who taught Italian cooking for 25 years. She has a condo in 'Old Italy,' has an upbeat, funny attitude, and really enjoys all things Italian. A very enjoyable tour guide.

"Off to the shops we go. They are all small and cater to the people living in 'Old Italy.' Quite an experience. For example, into a small butcher shop a customer goes. One sits down, the butcher comes over and asks want you want. You tell him. He goes into the cooler, brings out the meat, cuts it the way you want, wraps it up, you pay for it, and off you go. No prices shown. You 'know' the butcher, he is honest, the prices fair, and the meat fresh.

"Hi ho, hi ho, into a small grocery store we go (well, okay, it is so small, we just peek in the window as we stand in the street). Michelle goes in, grabs a couple of items, brings them out, tells us all about them. For example, did you know there are male and female eggplant—and how to tell them apart? I didn't either—but now I do. Ha! Why would one want to know that? Well, one tastes better, and she tells us why, so there...(grin)... Then, she goes back in, grabs something else, and another story commences. The owner, just that morning, has driven to a central farmers' market, picked up fresh produce, eggs, etc., and has them on display for you. Nothing is priced or has prices shown. You pick out what you want, he rings up the sale, and off you go.

"We go into a local wine store and Michelle tells us what Italians drink before, during and after dinner. Then, she pours a sample of her favorite for us—Lemoncello liqueur. It was very tasty, and I'll get some when we return home. And so it goes, small shop after small shop. A very interesting area to live in. Once or twice each year Michelle leads a cooking tour to Italy for a week or so. Zee is already expressing interest in that tour.

"After lunch, we head to Sam Adams Brewery for a tour. A young tour guide (most of them are college students) shows and tells us how Jim Cook, the owner, used a recipe his great-great grandfather used to make beer in Germany many years ago. In 1984 he decided to start making beer, using the same recipe. He was successful from the start, and now sells a huge quantity of 21 different Sam Adams beers. After the tour, we got to sample three of the different types of beer. They do make good beer.

"To finish our tour, we went to Glocouster, a small fishing village on the coast, where we had a very nice lobster dinner. The owner came into the dining room, told us tales about the village, people in the area and the fishing fleet. He then showed us how to easily breakup a lobster for dining. We put on our big, plastic bibs, and dig in. Lobster, corn on the cob, potato, some wine, and strawberry shortcake for desert. Burp! Excuse me...(grin)...

"We're at a Best Western motel now, and again have free wifi. I'll take a break now to rest up for awhile before going in to meet the new group of Elderhostelers. Touring is tough, but someone needs to help the economy, and we sure are!"

Stay tuned for Jim's next installment.

On the Road, Again

Enjoying beautiful fall weather and a full schedule of sightseeing De Prez Jim Hamm and wife Zee are on the road, again.  Jim sends us this report:  

"Hi, and hope all is well with you. Here's a brief update on our Elderhostel tour to the East Coast. We're now in Braintree, MA, right next to Boston, arriving late this afternoon—about 6:30 pm—from NYC.

"We spent the last two days touring around New York City, visiting ethnic areas and dining at a variety of restaurants. We stayed at the Hotel Edison, which is at 47th St and Broadway, right next to many Broadway theaters. We didn't make it to a play because by the time we got back to our room after dinner each day we were too tired to venture out. The hotel was conveniently located, but old and kinda 'seedy.' Okay, but nothing special. Everything in NYC is expensive! For example, two glasses of red wine with dinner was $22! Ouch. No free wifi either. The hotel wanted $25/day for wifi access. It was free at the Holiday Inn in Philadelphia, and free here at the Sheraton.

"We spent the first two days of our tour in Philadelphia, and had a nice time visiting around. The Elderhostel group we're with are all easy to get along with, and our tour guide (who owns the tour company) is great, and we've got a great bus driver, too. Both stay with us for the entire trip.

"Today we visited Newport, Rhode Island and had a nice seafood lunch in this quaint town. Newport is a neat town, and the homes along the waterfront—wow! Big, beautiful and impressive. Lots of money here. After lunch, and enroute to here we toured Newport Vineyard, and got to sample several of their wines. To me, all their wines taste 'weak,' and not something I'd want to buy. But since they are on a tourist route they can sell all their wines at full, high retail. No discounting of prices here.

"Tomorrow morning we go for a tour of Boston, which includes a visit to the Sam Adams beer brewery. Zee and our friend Jo Ann are visiting Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, walking around and shopping, while my friend Jim (Jo Ann's husband) and I will go on the brewery tour.

"Our weather on the trip has been nice, but cooled down today. It will get colder as we head on up into Maine and Vermont...It's time to relax awhile, and the VP debate is going on as I type this. Maybe I'll listen for awhile."

As we're reading your letter a lot of your friends at PMUG are probably wishing they were there!

Thanks for keeping us posted. Can we expect some photos, too?

What's Happening with SIG?

For the next few months Dan and Erica Simpson are taking a little time off from hosting and presenting the topics of the monthly SIG (Special Interest Group).  As Dan announced to PMUG at our September meeting Apple's new sales focus now prevents Dan from making sales as a business agent. 

With our regular SIG on temporary hold De Prez, Jim Hamm is looking for ideas.  Here's where PMUG members can help. 
John Carter has been asked to do a SIG event, but he needs to know if there is any interest in hearing about the Unix commands in Terminal mode.  What, you ask?  Well, if you are curious about this mode of using the Mac, please let John know.  
He explains, "There are many useful commands that can be helpful to the average Mac user and there are some applications that are only available from the command line (terminal mode). Most of the Unix commands are really intended for programmers and administrators."
Contact John at mailto:john@jrcarter.com:?Subject= "PMUG: Using Unix commands." 

Mark Your Calendar

Time to plan for Christmas? Yes, and PMUG celebrates with good food and friendship. Mark your calendar for Saturday, December 13, for the PMUG Christmas Party. We'll gather at 11 a.m. for a pot-luck luncheon, and everyone brings a dish to share. PMUG will furnish ham, turkey breast, rolls, soft drinks, bottled water, wine, paper plates and utensils.

The party will be held at the Manzanita Village Common House, 258 Benjamin Dr., Prescott. To get to the clubhouse, from the corner of Bradshaw and East Gurley (Compass Bank is on the corner), go south on Bradshaw as it winds up the hill a half-mile or so. Turn right on Benjamin at the Manzanita Village sign and go past the carports to the Common House. You can go to the front door to unload your food, then return to the parking lot to park your car. Carport spaces are reserved, all others are open. There are stairs and an elevator to go down one floor where the party will be held. Here's a map to the Village: (Open in new window) Thanks to Art Gorski for recommending this place.

We will have some nice prizes to give away, so everyone please come. RSVP by December 1 to Bobbie mailto:pmugbobbie@cableone.net  Note: there won't be a PMUG General Meeting on December 20.

On behalf of the Officers and Activity Chairs of PMUG, we'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, thank everyone for participating in our meetings this past year, and hope that Santa Claus puts a new Mac in your stocking Christmas morning...."De Prez"

Answers to Your Internet Questions

Our October 18 PMUG meeting will feature Bob Simpson. It promises to be an interesting and informative meeting, answering your Internet protocol questions. If a person clicks an URL for, say, Google News, on their computer, what actually happens? There's all kinds of acronyms and terms such as DNS, open DNS, dynamic IP address, static IP address, DHCP, MAC address, router, subnet mask, default gateway, et al. What does all this mean?

How does the signal get from a computer to the Internet, to the web, get an address, and return to the computer? And I want to know more about cookies. (Not the ones Ginger Carlson brings; those are good and good for you, I'm sure.) Plan now to attend the October meeting at the Prescott Public Library.

Laugh and Learn

Today's PMUG meeting was a time to laugh and learn at the same time, thanks to our speaker of the day, Jeffrey Ian. Not only did we learn about kinds and qualities of ink and paper, he detailed rip-offs by various companies making computer printers and the outrageous prices we've had to pay for ink. He likes Canon ink jet printers and Brother laser printers.

His company has been in Prescott for years, helping schools, real estate and other companies, as well as individuals get the best deals possible. Friendly staff will answer your questions, even examine your misbehaving printer if you bring it in. He cleans print heads free. To top it off we found out that Ian was one of 4 people who got together and started the original PMUG. He has stores both in Prescott and Prescott Valley, so stop in for paper, ink, get acquainted and save some money.

Check out their site: Think4Inc.com

More About Emmett

New PMUG Member Emmett Buell held a book-signing Saturday (8-23) at Barnes & Noble. CSPAN was there to shoot video which should air on Book TV in a few days. Watch for it on TV listings.

Emmett is a political science professional, and his book is Attack Politics: Negativity in Presidential Campaigns since 1960.

Dan Simpson had helped him last summer to email his book manuscript drafts with his portable Mac from Prescott Public Library, before he had officially become a PMUG Member or Prescott resident! Bob Hale fills us in on some details:

Of special interest to PMUG is how he effectively used his Mac remotely in writing and editing his manuscript, despite his traveling and arranging for his Prescott relocation from Ohio. (He's also an avid hiker and outdoorsman, which was a key reason for his move to Prescott upon his recent retirement from Dennison University. He joined PMUG last July at Dan and Erica's Summer BBQ at their home.)

Watch for Dan and Erica’s Spotlighter feature on Emmett to come a little later.

View Emmett's book at http://www.amazon.com/Attack-Politics-Negativity-Presidential-Government/dp/070061561X?&camp=212361&linkCode=wsw&tag=miracconsu-20&creative=380609

Thanks to Sue and Bob Hale for the photo.

Mac Helps Elaine Write & Speak

Since her first Mac in 1984 Elaine Hardt has appreciated her computer. Starting off with writing for her class of third graders, then writing for parents, her college students, and teachers the Mac has been a great help. That first ImageWriter printer is long gone, a HP LaserJet 4050N sits on the desk. Her Mac is now a G5 with a 23” Cinema Display. With eight published books and 949 published articles, stories, and poems Elaine encourages others to write, too. Her blog is http://encouragingU.blogspot.com She heads the Prescott Valley Writers’ Networking which has met weekly for five years, currently meeting in the Parlor of the Windsong Villas. It’s open to both men and women.

Don has picked up computer skills, using his G4 PowerBook. Dan Simpson recently added more memory to both busy computers. Mac does help the Hardts.

Emmett Will Speak at Bookstore

Next Saturday (August 23) at 11 a.m. PMUG member Emmett Buell will speak at the local Barnes & Noble Book Store. He will be discussing his recently published book, Attack Politics: Negativity in Presidential Campaigns Since 1960. Emmett didn't return from Washington, D.C. in time to attend yesterday's PMUG meeting. You'll be hearing more about Emmett in our newsletter, so stay tuned for further exciting developments.

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Art Takes Good Pictures

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New PMUG member Art Gorski takes good pictures. He’s just published 143 photos from his iPhoto picture albums and 2 iMovie videos to his MobileMe gallery directly from those iLife applications. http://gallery.me.com/agorski He’s got good looking relatives shown on still photos (those are all your relatives, Art?) but do not miss the narrated movie of his trip to the Grand Canyon. Thanks, Art, for the e-mail informing us of your latest fun with Mac.

Connie is Smiling

Connie (Kramer) Johnson had a big smile this morning as she showed us her new book, "Mr. Bunny's Secret Party." This delightful children's book has splashy bold art by local artist Clareen Barrett, and was published by Prescott's EMI PrintWorks. Their graphic designer, Nealy, spoke at length with me this afternoon about the services they offer. They use Mac computers for prepress and technical communication with the printers, and offer commercial design services, digital color press, and book binding. I invited them to attend PMUG, and hope to see them. Their site is www.emiprintworks.com.

But back to Connie. She is excited about opportunities to promote this new book, along with her first book, Farm Kids. and we'll be seeing more of this busy gal soon. Find my earlier item about Connie in the June 2 newsletter, headed "Starting Off June." Connie attends my Writers' Networking group which meets weekly in Prescott Valley. You can contact her at clotheslinepress@earthlink.net.

Ginger Appreciates Her Mac

Our Cookie Break gal, Ginger Carlson appreciates her Mac. I've prodded her to tell how she uses Mac, and this is her report:

My Mac creds go back to sometime in the 80s (Jobs was barely out of his garage) when a friend let me use an extra Mac he had. I don't remember what it was called but the monitor had to be maybe 6 x 6 inches or so, (David probably still has one) and, to me, that was the most magical thing I'd ever got my hot little hands on! Way better than the typewriter I had at the time that let me see the the first two lines of type in a little window that I actually could make corrections on before committing it to paper. And for me, not being a typist, and having a very close relationship with Whiteout (remember Whiteout?) when I did have to type something that, too, was magical. But being able to scroll up and down on that first little Mac and see a WHOLE PAGE, well, it couldn't get any better than that!

Fast forward to 2008, and I still think my Mac is magical. It allows me to do what it took several people many days to do BC (before computers). In those days everything had to be designed by sitting down at a drawing board and actually drawing it out (that's what I did) whether it was an ad, a billboard, a booklet, a sign, whatever. There were copy writers, type setters, printers (for whom color percentages had to be specified), artists, paste up people, go-fers, etc. and then someone (me) had to coordinate it all. Today I can just sit down at my magical Mac (an iMac G5 with Leopard) and zip something out!

So what do I do now on the computer besides email and surfing the Web? Well, I do a volunteer newsletter for YRMC that goes out to over 900 people (and other hospitals). And with Dan's help and iWeb, about a third of those folks now get their newsletter on line, which saves the hospital a ton on paper, postage and printing. We publish a newsletter approximately every quarter and they range from 12 to 16 pages. I use Adobe's InDesign and now that Photoshop Elements has come out with a decent Mac version, I'll be buying and using that, too.

Doing the newsletter is interesting and fun to do, and allows me, in a small way, to keep my hand in the print business which I still find enormously satisfying.