There will come a time in your life when the pictures you've taken of friends and family will suddenly be irreplaceable. Just this past year all my grandparents passed away. I had never considered that I had very few photographs of my family members; now there's no way to go back and get better shots.      I recently found a great little six-photo wood frame for family pictures. But, when I tried to put the photo of my Grandma and Grandpa into the frame, it was immediately apparent that they were too far apart in the picture. (They were standing arms-length away.)      So, I went to work on editing the photograph.      Typically, manipulating an image digitally requires the following: a scanner; a moderately fast processor (68040 or better for Macintosh, 80486 or better for IBM clones and Windows 95); at least 16 MB of RAM (the more, the better); a printer that will print photographic quality images.      You'll want software that performs a number of specific tasks. It should cut out images and paste them elsewhere; adjust colors; modify image brightness and contrast; touch up those dreaded red eyes; remove scratches, blemishes and tears; and fill in backgrounds to cover up anything you may not have wanted in a particular photograph.

     Adobe Photoshop is the program experts would use, but this computer geek prefers the easier-to-use, less-expensive Kai's Photo Soap and Adobe Photo Deluxe. (Microsoft makes Picture It, which is an acceptable substitute for Photo Deluxe.)

     First, I scanned the photograph. Next, I loaded it into Photo Deluxe. There I zoomed in on Grandpa, ever-so-carefully cutting him out. After marking his outline , I was able to move him closer to Grandma.

     Unfortunately, moving him left a big, Grandpa-shaped black spot where he used to be.

     So I used Photo Deluxe to export the photograph in a Windows bitmap (.BMP) format, loading the newly-created image into Kai's Photo Soap. With Photo Soap I was able to carefully adjust brightness, contrast and color for different areas of the photograph (a great way to get rid of annoying flash reflections). I then used the "Clone" feature to copy sections of the paneling behind my grandparents. I then "painted" it in with a variety of different paintbrush sizes - literally (well, virtually) painting wood paneling with each brush stroke.

     After I finished with the photograph in Photo Soap, I saved it. Then I sized and printed it on my Epson Color Stylus 600. Using the "photographic quality" mode on coated inkjet paper produced a picture of such quality that it is difficult to tell the difference between the original and the copy without getting very, very close to the picture.

     In all of this, I have come up with the following observations:

o You do not have to be a rocket scientist to do these things.
o You do not have to be an artist to do these things.
o You do not have to spend a lot of money on software to do these things.

     The best thing is this image now fits in my new picture frame along with the rest of my family.

Index
New Faces Brighten Store
Celeste Lewis
Richard Peterson
Andrea Garrison
Edgars Klepers

Scan, Man!

Bill's Byte
Bill's Picks
Bill's Little Warning
Speaking of 3-D Cards...

Customer Reviews

Gift Ideas

Browse On-Line

What's Used

New, Hot, & In Stock!
Calendar & Schedule
Classes
Coupon Specials

Quid'nunc Information

New Faces Brighten Store

Celeste Richard Andrea Edgars

Quid'nunc continues to grow, and just in the last month we've added three new employees. Make it a point to stop by and say hello.      Celeste Lewis is a graduate of South Seattle Community College's accounting program, a degree she earned after returning to school. She came in to help Bill with the bookkeeping, and had so much fun she jumped at the chance to do some part-time work.      She has a Pentium computer at home that was custom-built by a Quid'nunc customer and vendor, Bill Konertz (of the Friendly Computer). Aside from her schoolwork, she finds she uses it primarily to surf the Web. She really loved word processing, because, as a self-proclaimed horrible typist, "I can type as badly as I want and the spellcheck will catch most of my errors." Last Christmas, she used Photoshop to put her brother and her nephew on Santa Claus's lap. Trick, Kind of. While both appeared to be around three, her brother is now 41 and her nephew is now 14. Pretty cool, huh?      Celeste says that she thinks of working here as more fun than work. (Maybe that means she'll work for free. I'll have to ask.-Bill)      Celeste was born and bred in West Seattle. "I walk down the street or into a store," she says, "and almost always somebody knows me."      If you want to talk about something besides computers with Celeste, try mystery novels. Her favorite author is JA Jance, whose stories are set here in Seattle. Perhaps that's why she's investigating her family tree. Her mother's maiden name is Borden; she's surfing the Web to see if she's related to Lizzie Borden.      Look for Celeste on Saturdays, and late afternoons during the week.      Richard Peterson has also just started.      Richard dates his interest in computers back to the original Pong game. Over the years, he's had Commodores, an 8088 and he now has six computers in his home, which he's working on networking. So far, three are.      Networking computers isn't a surprising thing for him to do, since he's working toward a degree as a Computer LAN Technician at South Seattle Community College. (He'll graduate in June.) Computers will be his second career; he had been a salesman for a wholesale florist for years.      He really enjoys building and fixing computers. He finds parts and puts machines together. About a year and a half ago, he built his first, a SX86. And, like most of us, he enjoys getting on-line, surfing the Web and trading E-mail.      Richard's married, and has four kids, ages 8 to 19. His favorite thing aside from computers is soccer: He coaches two girls' soccer teams here in West Seattle, and he also referees.      Also new to Quid'nunc in time to help with the holiday rush is Andrea Gamson. She's a former business analyst for Chase Manhattan who is studying at South Seattle Community College (23 credits' worth), and she expects to be either a LAN engineer or work in MIS management. Like everyone else at Quid'nunc, she likes working with computers, but she's not as much a fan of games as she is a user. She visits the Internet, where she downloads recipes and finds cool things for her daughter (aged three and a half), and she wants to get more knowledgeable about C++ or dBase.      She spends her spare time doing fun, family activities with her daughter and her husband. They make the most of the Seattle area, by hiking, hunting, fishing, skiing and visiting parks. Her daughter especially likes Bellevue's Kelsey Creek Park, where she can play with the animals there.      Because of her daughter, Andrea is familiar with a lot of children's software; ask her about preschool, Jump Start Toddlers or Disney especially.      Originally from Arizona (from a town called Happy Jack), she jokes that you'll be able to figure out who she is immediately because she'll always be dressed warmly. You can see her Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 until close, and maybe weekends if things get really busy.      Edgars Klepers has been working here a short while. He's age 18, a student at South Seattle Community College. He's a big Mac fan, but versed on both systems and a game phreak. To underscore his expertise, he recently boasted about how often he crashed his computer...just to crash it. Well, maybe you don't want him to work on your machine. But he does know his way around them.

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Scan, Man!      Quid'nunc is now your store for scanners! If you really want to start playing with images, you've got to get them into your computer. If you don't have a lot of desktop real estate, check out our Mitek sheet-feed scanners (which will give you 300 x 600 dpi resolution, more than adequate for most home or small business needs). Or, if you want a flatbed, Quid'nunc now also stocks the highly regarded Umax scanners.      Buy a scanner. Then put Bob Dole's face on Hillary Clinton's body. Or do something silly, if you prefer.

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Bill's Byte

Bill's little Warning
     It used to be that computers were easily upgradeable and virtually interchangeable. That's not so true today. You'd be wise to bear that in mind when you buy, because sometimes it makes adding on-and you will add on-a bit more of a bother and a bit more expensive.

     This can be a problem in two ways.

     The first way is because the computer is designed cosmetically in such a way that generic -parts-floppy drives and the like-won't fit. So beware of that spiffy design. It could mean double the cost of your next repair or upgrade.

     The second way is to design a computer with proprietary components-video, memory, etc.-that are difficult (and sometimes nearly impossible) to expand or upgrade. For example, many new games require 3-D cards, but just a couple of years ago, nobody even thought about 3-D. And some of the big names don't easily accept video upgrades. Frankly, if you play a lot of computer games, you've got to plan on upgrading every two years, so you'll want to be thinking about all of this.

Speaking Of 3-D Cards...
     If you thought the 3-D Blaster 4MB was great, you should see the Intergraph 6MB Voodoo Rush! At $229 this is a must-have for true 3-D gaming. For the Macintosh, Power3-D from Techworks should be in the store by the time you read this. Ask John. . . but be prepared for glowing superlatives.

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Customer Reviews
Math Advantage
by Jim & Brandon Arnesen

     Here is a quick note to let you know what I think of the mathematics software that my son Brandon and I have been trying out. Math Advantage is just what I've been looking for. When you select a math topic you have the choice of going to a full lecture on the topic or going into a math lab that allows you to work the problems out on the computer. (You can even change the variables in the problem and the computer will show you how it changes the answer.) There are on-line quizzes in each area and the program keeps track of your grades as you progress through the topics. It also rewards you for completing the lessons by giving you more and more pieces to a computer game built into the program. This is a good middle-school math program.

Note from Bill-There are other CD sets in this series, such as Middle School Advantage, with lessons in math, history, science, literature and geography.

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Gift Ideas      Having trouble thinking of a gift for the computer owner you love? We've got ideas!      How about a Zip drive? These have becomes practically the standard, and we carry internals and externals for both Macintosh and Intel machines. And if they've already got the drive, consider buying a multi-pack Zip cartridges.      For really big storage, consider a new hard drive. The days when a few hundred megabytes will hold everything your family needs are gone. Ask about our 2-gigabyte, 4-gigabyte, and, yes, 6-gigabyte drives. Great if you work with graphics at all.      And, of course, everybody needs a mouse pad. We've got tons of 'em - with your favorite characters, with psychedelic designs, even with wrist rests built in. (Bill likes the Fellowes Wrist Gel himself.)      By the way, you might try this: Leave this newsletter out where someone special might see it - but remember to conveniently circle items you want.

Browse On-Line

     If you haven't sampled the Quid'nunc Web site, put this newsletter down right now, fire up your computer's browser, and punch in www.quidnunc.net. While we're still tweaking the site-and we'll probably always be working on it-you'll still find a lot to excite and entertain you.

     To start with, if kids are important in your life (or if you're a kid yourself), the Quid'nunc Web site features links to many publishers of software for children, including Humongous, Edmark, and Purple Moon. It's a great place to see demos, get game patches and more.

     We also feature customer reviews of games and other software. In fact, click on in and add your own two bits (bytes?). Ga-ga over Civilization II? Say so. Shaking over Quake; Say so. Got a tip for Zork? Share it. In fact, if we like your review and use it in this newsletter, we'll give you a coupon good for $5 off any Quid'nunc purchase. Just send it to review@quidnunc.net.

     Want another way to earn a fiver? Submit your favorite computer funny to funny@quidnunc.net. We'll sort through them and publish the best ones on line. If we use it, you'll get the coupon.

     And, of course, if you're not hooked up to the Web yet, we can do it. Just call us. It's just $18.95 per month and a one-time $20 setup charge. And you can reach us on the phone, too.

What's Used

     Compton's Encyclopedia - $9; NBA Live - $14.95; War Craft - $ 19.95; Reader Rabbit Interactive Reading Journey - $39.95.

     For the Mac...Gallery Effects - $69.95; Canvas 3.0 - $49.95; A11ied General - $19.95; Reader Rabbit 2- $14.95.

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New, Hot, & In Stock!

What's New      Quake 2. . . the tremors continue. Shadow Warrior. . . test your skill against these amazing adversaries. . . The World Wide Web for Busy People and The Internet Yellow Pages are essential references for people using (or just discovering) the Web. . . Java Pro and Boot magazines. What's Hot      Riven, of course. It's white-hot! And it plays really well on a Pentium 100 with Windows 95, or a PowerMac. The Miller brothers should be proud. . . Jedi Knight (Dark Forces) . . . Ultima On-Line . . .Complete National Geographic. ...or...      Try our special Quid'nunc packages. You get everything in one package. Want to buy a game for someone special who wants a flight or driving game, but only has a keyboard to operate his virtual vehicle? Try this offer: Buy any joystick and take 10% off any flight or driving simulation.      In a similar vein, we've got the Quid'nunc Internet All-In-One Set: Buy a modem and take 20% off any Internet book and/or $10 off the setup fee when you sign up for Quid'nunc as your Internet Service Provider. Or do it this way: Buy 3 months of Internet service from Quid'nunc and take 10% off any modem and/or 20% off any Internet book. There'll be even more in our One-Box Gift Section. We're sure you'll find something that special someone will like. More Gift Bundles: Buy Any Scanner. . . and take 10% off any imaging software (Picture It, Kai's Photo Goo, Adobe Photo Deluxe or mgi Photo Suite) Buy Any Two Children's Software Packages. . . & take 10% off any other item Buy Any Game With Its Strategy Guide. . . and get 20% off the book!

CALENDAR Have a great holiday, check the West Seattle Junction's Web Site for Holiday Activities. Here's a special tree for all of you who are receiving this newsletter electronically!

CLASSES Classes resume after the holidays Enjoy your winter break

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What Now? The Official Quid'nunc Newsletter Published by Quid'nunc....... Your Neighborhood Software Store 4306 SW Oregon Street - Seattle, WA USA 98116 One block north of California Avenue SW and SW Alaska Street Tel: 932-8795. Fax: 932-8183     quidnunc@quidnunc.net Hours Mon-Fri: 10-7 Saturday: 10-6 Sunday: 11-5

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