Snips

[susandennis]

We had rain last night - really nice heavy rain. It was amazing. And we still have some leaves on the trees so you could actually hear it. We're supposed to get more today but I don't want to get greedy. I'm just happy. Everything looks so freshly washed today. Hmmmm why didn't I go get my car out of the garage last night???

Last night I got a note from Mom that just barely made sense. She said 'all weather men are turns'. I could translate that to turds but the rest of her note was scattered and jumbled. It's not really unusual - she does that sometimes. Sometimes she knows it and will say it's because her glasses are in the other room... (this is not too convincing since her resolution is about 600x800 on a 21" monitor - I can just about read the stuff from here)... But, often, she just rambles stuff and hits send. At least I know she's alive.

Then this morning - not 10 hours later - I get this hugely hilarious, highly articulate, typo-free email from her. It includes insightful commentary about the Red Sox game, her plans for today, an upcoming 80th birthday bash for a friend of hers, etc. It's as if it were written by someone else.

If I were adopted I'd never get to know that my morning-person-itis is inherited.

Yesterday the Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9 came. And it's pretty amazing. Previous versions of Microsoft photo software have been pretty darned lame. But this one sure isn't.

I have used Photoshop but prefer not to. My image program of choice is Paint Shop Pro. But neither of these programs is for the guy who just wants to pretty up his photographs easily and quickly. I had heard that Digital Image was good and easy. And then tinman got it and said that was good and easy. So I got it and it is... good and easy. It's actually better than good. I had intended to send this copy on to my brother. But, I may keep it and use Paint Shop Pro for graphics and Digital Image for photographs. I'll get my brother his own copy.

I've already seen the on field Boston Red Sox collision of last night enough times. Thank you.

I need a tickler system for when my favorite authors have new books coming out. I have about 50 favorite authors and it's hard to keep track manually. I need a system.

The Treo 600 is being birthed this week and I'm in major decision mode. Some are reporting that they have ordered theirs and have a tracking number that says they will have it this week. Handspring's announcement is next Monday. It's way way way too expensive. And I will be able to get nothing for my current Treo 300. But, I really want it. Or some other phone that has a PALM PDA with a thumb keyboard and a camera - on the Sprint network. Sigh.

Comments

[geordie.livejournal.com]

I am green with envy. It was 85F as I drove up to SF yesterday evening, we probably still won't see rain for a couple of months, even then it will be the occasional passing "storm". I'd like to transport the entire population of SF to Fort William, Invernesshire in Scotland for a single winter gale then see if they can still call a few hours of light rain a "storm" with a straight face. Ignorance is bliss I suppose. I hope New Hampshire will yield some weather for Thanksgiving.

Ticklers

[(Anonymous)]

Does Amazon still have that Amazon Alerts feature? You could set it up for them to email you when new books by your favorite authors were available (and new CDs by your favorite musicians, etc). I signed up for alerts for all my favorite writers in the past, but I must have let them slide when I changed email addresses...

-Thom

[victory-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm looking to buy a digital image program. I had a very crappy one that came with my first crappy digital camera - but now I've given the camera, and the program away (it was appreciated by a co-worker's 8 year old step-grandchild), so I have no image program in my new computer.

I've downloaded a tryout version of Roxio PhotoSuite 5 (or something like that) at work, but I'm not too impressed with it - it is however very moderately priced. I checked out Adobe Photoshop 7, and believe it was listed at $609! - that's a tad more than I'm willing to spend on an image program. ;-)

It looks like this Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9 is very nice (tried out a video tour just now). The only thing I need to know, or rather have confirmed, does it give you control over the pixel size of the finished picture? If so, I think I might try to find where to buy this program.

Sorry for the long ramble.

[susandennis]

No problem on the ramble. I haven't installed it on my computer at home yet. I'm pretty sure the answer to your question is yes on the pixels but lemme triple check at work in the morning.

You are looking to size a photo, say, to 250 pixels wide while keeping the aspect ratio? I'll check.

Meanwhile you might check on Paint Shop Pro. I'm pretty sure you can download a 30 day fully functional trial. http://www.jasc.com/ I know you have total pixel control that way. It's way cheaper than Photoshop but gives you much of the same functionality.

[victory-rose.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I'm downloading the Paint Shop Pro trial version as I type this.

[susandennis]

Ok, yes, The Digital Image Pro does let you resize by pixel but it's kind of kludgy. I kind of think that if you know what a pixel is, you'd be better off with Paint Shop Pro.

My brother, for instance, wouldn't even understand your question. I think he's more the target audience for this.

[victory-rose.livejournal.com]

Thanks again. I think I'll be buying the PaintShop Pro program as soon as I can start charging to my Visa credit card again (i.e. after the 18th of this month).

I only downloaded the trial version of PSP after midnight last night, so have only played very little with it. I really like it that the program remembers the pixel size I most often use and automatically uses that size again for new pictures, so I don't have to compute it every time with a calculator in hand.