As the water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it, so a wise man adapts himself to circumstances.
— Confucius
As I write this, circumstances here in North Idaho and the USA as a whole
have certainly been better. The government has just handed down yet another
“high alert” telling us to watch out for more terrorist activities, the economy is in
the dumpster, and right now our electricity is out again from a winter storm.
Our power has been on and off (mostly off) for the last week or so. I’d like
to say right here and now that I’m a big fan of electricity and indoor
plumbing. When you go 74 hours without power or water, you start to really appreciate
the “little” things (not to mention a gas generator). Here’s something else I really
appreciate: Computor Companion authors and readers.
At this point, many of you probably feel like you know some of our
long-time regular writers. Good writers put something of themselves into everything
they produce. Well, let me tell you, it’s not just an act. These folks are a
pleasure to work with and are genuinely committed to helping people get more out of
their computers. I appreciate CC readers too. When I get happy e-mail from
people who enjoy the magazine, all the effort we put into producing it seems worthwhile.
This issue focuses on design-related issues and was largely inspired by the
horse photos Dian Chapman sent me. Sure PITA (the horse) is a fine looking
animal, but I thought the effects she added were so cool, I asked her to describe some
of her favorite image editing tips. (You horse lovers out there can see more
horse photos at http://www.mousetrax.com/applewood/.) If you just got a digital camera
and don’t know what to do with all those photos, Dian’s article will give you
some great ideas. If you plan to put your images on the Web, check out the article
by James Byrd, which contains more tips to help keep your site visitors happy.
As a final note, circumstances have dictated that we change
Computor Companion to a quarterly. So this issue is the Winter 2001/2002 issue and covers a
few months. However, the Computor Companion Web site is updated every week
with an article feed from our Computor Companion
Tips weekly e-zine. If you want to get these tips in your mailbox every week, just click the Subscribe link.
See you in the Spring!