Northern Vermont Macintosh
User Group
|
Northern Vermont Macintosh
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bill Amos (William H. Amos). Retired biologist/ecologist, specializing in marine and freshwater ecosystems. I grew up in the Far East (Philippines & Japan) and was a Naval Intelligence officer (cryptanalyst) at Pearl Harbor for most of WWII. Thereafter I pursued a life of biological research, teaching, and being an author of a dozen-plus books and numerous natural history magazine articles (National Geographic, Scientific American, Readers Digest, etc). Retired in 1984 to what had been our summer home in the Stark District of St. Johnsbury, where we've lived ever since. I continue to write books, articles, and newspaper columns, and we travel whenever possible. I am the only computer user in this household of two--my wife thinks computers are spawn of the devil, but she appreciates email and the fact I write more easily than in past years with a typewriter. All my five children and grandchildren, some of whom live nearby, are active computer users. Unfortunately only two are Mac families; the rest wrestle with that other unmentionable machine. 2. Describe your computer experience, when you first started using computers, the computer(s) you have now and their operating system(s). Include any comments such as what you think about Mac OS X. I began in 1984 with an Apple IIe with a specially configured system, CP/M and WordStar, a highly unusual and heretical arrangement for Apple users, and a challenge to the dealer. I bought one of the first hard drives available for the IIe, a heavy, noisy monster with 10MG capacity. My first Mac was a Plus about 1988, and since then I've had about a dozen others, constantly upgrading to a more useful no-frills writing machine. I don't use Macs for much other than writing, except Internet research and email and, recently, work in digital photography. Until getting into the latter, I've found a PowerMac 7500, OS 8.6, completely adequate. It supports two monitors, has ample memory, two internal hard drives and several external drives. Digital photographic manipulation puts a bit of a strain on this setup, but I'm delaying getting a G3 of G4 until I know it's essential. Two printers and three different kinds of scanners (flatbed, office-letter, and 35mm transparency) complete the picture. Two PowerBook 230s with dock and all accessories sit on the shelf, no longer used. Writing in the field is done much more conveniently and effectively with an AlphaSmart portable keyboard, after which stored text is instantly transferred to the Mac's word processor. (This was demonstrated at NVMUG earlier in the year.) 3. List the things you do with your computer and related equipment, why you do them, and what programs you use. What programs do you use the most or like the most? Do you use any unusual programs?> I (a) write, (b) use the Internet for email and research, (c) edit, store, and transmit digital photographs. My word processor is Word 5.1a, which remains very popular with other authors, editors, and publishing houses, in preference to newer inflated versions of Word. I also have almost every other word processor available, but am so comfortable with this early version of Word, they are used only infrequently. I sometimes write with AppleWorks 5, which with its many translators is useful if someone else has a problem reading a Word document. (If anyone has a chance to get the discontinued WriteNow 4.0, do so--it's a great little full-featured word processor that is extremely economical in memory requirements.) My most useful dictionary is the big American Heritage, and most effective thesaurus is a wonderful long-extinct WordFinder Plus. I use SpellChecker and/or Spellswell for email and occasional manuscript work, but prefer Word's own spell-checker for major texts. Internet software consists of Eudora 4.2 for email, Netscape 4.0 and Internet Explorer 4.5 for research. I've used Netscape for years, but find myself using Explorer increasingly--it has some very attractive features. I use quite a few small utilities, obtained mostly from CDs accompanying MacAddict (I have all their CDs, from Issue #1 to the present) and MacHome Journal (also all). Just about anything can be found in the collection, but I try to keep the number and variety installed within bounds, for having too many small apps means it's a mess to sort out if there is an extensions conflict (fortunately rare). TechTool Pro, Norton Utilities, and Virex are my safety tools. Photo editing software consists of PhotoShop 5.0 LE, PhotoDeluxe, and Great Photo. I was considering PhotoShop Elements, but find LE good enough for my purposes. My most recent interest is with digicams, especially the Nikon Coolpix 950 and a host of accessories, primarily consistig of a diversity of different lenses to extend the camera's own optical and digital zoom, several kinds of external flashes, highly specialized close-up equipment, extreme telephoto, and photomicrography with a Leitz Labolux research phase contrast microscope. I chose the CP 950 camera because of certain features (serial connectivity, and a variety of highly specialized custom accesssories made for it alone by manufacturers of lab equipment) over the newer CP 990. The newest CP 995 will not do at all for my purposes. 4. Are there any presentations you would like to see or read about, or any you would like to make? I'm interested in almost anything in the Mac world, and subscribe to three Mac magazines to keep up with trends. As an author, however, I am a specialized user and have little use for other major applications. I can discuss manuscript preparation, editorial necessities, book and magazine publishers, and so on. Few of these are specifically Mac-related, although the Mac is the machine of choice throughout the publishing business. I'm learning more about digital photography and am exploring the image-capturing side in great detail, but as a biophotographer, I don't do much manipulation after acquiring a picture. Either an image is right at the time of capture, or it's not and is quickly discarded. As suggested in an earlier NVMUG newsletter, I'll be glad to offer a program on digital photography and the many opportunities it provides, plus innovative accessories anyone can make or modify from something else. This could be followed by a field trip to allow experimentation. 5. If you appear to be the most informed NVMUG member related to a Macintosh userÃs question, may we e-mail question to you? Yes, by all means. As a member of an international group of nature and science photographers and authors, I get questions from all over the world almost on a daily basis. 6. May we share your response in an NVMUG eNewsletter on post it on a members page on the NVMUG web site? Yes. |
Click here to return to eNews01-10-20
Home eNews Different Archives Links Members Reviews
