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September 18, 2006

We met for the first time in the H2U backroom and the usual attendees plus Pam Bomar were encouraging. We first looked at some ideas for a refresh of the nameplate of our newsletter Coastal Computer News using CorelDRAW! Essentials, a slightly toned down version of Jack's CorelDRAW! 9.0. We were looking to encourage new blood for the club with certain goals in mind like the word FREE and a catchy layout, with perhaps our membership in various organizations displayed as logos. We used a current AdSack nameplate as an example.

I was quite embarrassed a couple of times during the evening. The first time I could not remember which cubbyhole contained my line drawing tool. The DRAW! Freehand tool was soon discovered and a whimsical Harbor Bridge was crafted. Comments that it looked like a dinosaur instead of a bridge were overlooked by the fearless leader who went on drawing anyway. Then the words Coastal Computer News were pinched as if going under the bridge with the Perspective tool. Downtown buildings were added and the construction engineers in attendance had the creator move and squish the buildings in various ways until a final rendering was achieved. With just a rough layout completed, Patty suggested this be an assignment.

An assignment sounds good to me, but there were only two in attendance besides me who own a draw program. Therefore, if the CAUG board goes along, we could make it a New Year's assignment for draw programs as well as photographers for any member wishing to participate. Develop some ideas and stay tuned.

My next embarrassment came when I closed CorelDRAW! and Photoshop would not load a raw 8MB file on which I chose to work. The lying program claimed I did not have enough RAM. I have 2GB recognized. No Anti-virus or Firewall software have ever been used or needed on this 3GB XP standalone computer. Patty said the Corel WordPerfect Suite 7 DAD was a memory hog. So a dumping of those running processes produced the same result. At this time, Patty, who speaks DOS by the way, offered to put the file in her notebook and run her new Photoshop for us. But alas, time flies when you're having fun, and it was time to break camp.

Just to be sure I was not really running a memory hog, I checked the boxtop system requirements for the Suite in question. You sitting down? Minimum for Windows 95: 8MB. Recommended: 16MB. Well, hmmm lessee.

If you don't know me by now, I don't speak DOS and I am the kind of computer user that thinks the machine should just work. And if it doesn't, then it is still in the dark ages of computing. This is one example. Now if the whole thing just works after its fall off the dolly post-meeting, I'll be thankful! Come join us for more hilarity and graphics fun through our new door location just behind the escalators upstairs by Burlington.

  - Bruce Switalla
 

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