Suggestions: Software and Websites
Royal Van Horn · Phi Delta Kappan · 2000
IN EARLY January I took a few off to casually surf the Internet and just mess around with new software and hardware. Most of the time I use technology in a very focused way to get some sort of work done. I have a set of websites and software tools of various kinds that serve me well. But during these I decided to look for new websites and preview some software. As things turned out, I ran across some pretty interesting things to recommend and discuss here. In December, we had a little money left in a college account that was about to go away, so I purchased a megapixel Epson PhotoPC650 digital still camera for about $350. I have two Epson 1440 dpi inkjet printers (an 800 and a 740) that I have recommended before in this column, so I thought that a matching Epson camera might be a good idea. It was. The camera has a resolution of 1152 x 864 pixels. If you multiply these two numbers, you get about a million - hence the megapixel label. You can get cameras with even better resolution, but they cost twice as much. I also ordered a 32-MB compact flash card for the camera, for an additional $100. When I received the camera, I immediately read the manual and set the camera to take pictures with the highest possible resolution and to save them on the miniature flashcard without any compression. This setting produces an image file that is about 1.3 MB, so not many images will fit on the supplied 8-MB flash I was glad that I had ordered the additional 32-MB flash The camera came bundled with Hotshots software from PictureWorks. This software is also available over the Internet for $39.95 (http://pictureworks.com). Sometimes you just get lucky! As it turned out, the combination of camera, software, and printer performed beyond my wildest expectations. And the Hotshots software was a real find. Hotshots lets you work with images from the camera, from your computer's hard drive, and even from the Internet. One of the niftiest features of the software is that it lets you print pictures in a variety of layouts on one sheet of 81/2 x 11 paper. For example, when you print three 3 x 5-inch images, the software fills the remaining space on the paper with billfold-size images. In this way, you make the best possible use of a sheet of paper that costs 75[cent] to $1. I heartily recommend this software even if you don't have a camera and just want to make good use of expensive paper. The software also lets you manipulate images, print cards, and so on. The only downside of this whole setup is that the camera eats batteries. I'll probably have to invest in a set of rechargeable batteries. I also took some time during my play days to start learning to use Adobe After Effects. After Effects is an industrial strength 2-D animation and special-effects package that interfaces well with other Adobe software, such as Photoshop and Premier. I plan to use the software to create animated logos for my college. Who said logos should just sit on a page or a computer screen? After Affects is not for the faint-hearted, but I highly recommend it. As soon as I get our animated logo done, I'll post it on a website and put the URL in this column. In addition to playing, I also spent a few in January just getting organized. I took all the names, addresses, and other information in my pocket, desk, and home Rolodexes and address books and put them in a ClarisWorks database. I customized a Claris database stationery file that came with the software so that every person had a field or line for home, work, fax, pager, and mobile phone numbers. I added fields for e-mail addresses and websites. Unfortunately, most programs don't give you enough blanks or fields for your information. The real trick, however, was teaching my printer to print out the information on 3 x 5 index cards in color. Hint: you often have to use the customize feature on your printer software to define a new paper size; I labeled the setting card. …