I have long maintained that the NZPCA is not a bank, not that anyone else disagreed, but I have always been conscious that we have your money, (well some of your money), sitting in our bank account. We obviously need some money to keep the NZPCA going but I want to spend the rest. So I'm going Christmas shopping Yay!
No, the committee won't let me, (unless I take them along), and I have to pretend to be responsible. My husband and I - sorry the committee and I have been trying to work out what to spend it on to the benefit of the members. Some members would have us buy an astronomical telescope others a computer driven microscope and we have to work out what would suit most of the members.
About two meetings ago Win Brendgens gave a talk on scanning and as part of the evening he scanned a colour slide then printed it on the HP. It was very successful and got me thinking that many people have slides that could be copied and stored on a PC or written to CD. I know of several members, including me, who have many slides which they have not looked at for years and which are probably slowly deteriorating in a box or slide carrier. Even though I have not looked at them for years I know I would be upset if my slides were destroyed or deteriorated beyond saving. Viewing slides, and films, is a fiddly process especially if your slide projector has long disappeared and they would be much easier to see on a PC.
So, we want your opinion. Do we get a slide scanner for members to use or do we keep the money in the bank for some other project. I am not talking about a flat bed scanner that has facilities for slides rather a machine dedicated to copying slides and films. I have been investigating these scanners on the net and have been very impressed with the technology used in copying film.
We will have to choose between a very basic scanner which just scans the slide/ negative and relies on your skill with a graphics program to remove scratches and fungus marks or get one that will do this automatically. Personally I favour the latter but of course there is a price trade off. The cheaper machines are about US$200 while the machine I have in mind is about US$400. They all have USB interfaces. If you want to investigate yourself I am looking at a Minolta or a PrimeFilm PF3650. I enquired what it would cost to get my slides copied NZ$3.00 each.
Let me have your opinion please to rogerc@clear.net.nz. I know there are lots of other scanners out there but these seem the best choice within our price range. We will discuss it at our next meeting at St Giles'.
A long time ago I did a talk to the NZPCA called 'Gems of Public Domain' or something like that. I was demonstrating programs that I had found which were freely available and which were used regularly and with advantage on my machine. I recall I was very surprised at the number of members who wanted to know where they could get them or wanted a copy on a floppy. We are going to do it again at St Giles' next Wednesday, but this time we would like you to bring along your favourite little program, either on floppy or CD so we can share these gems. There is so much software out there that no one can try it all and I believe there are still gems which we all would find useful.
So, please, take a look at your machine and see what little programs you have. It may be something you have had for years, something that's an add-on to Word or Excel. A print macro or similar. Please share it with us - I know I have learned a lot from the little software packages and some have made my life easier or more manageable. Bring a floppy as well - you may just see something you like!
No Megabyte in January - time off for good behaviour - meetings and Megabyte start in February. Season's greetings to you all - may you get the silicon you deserve!
Rog
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