Beacon 2nd June 2016

short words

Last Sunday was a very good day for our Markets and a surprising result for an almost-winter market!!

Later that evening Radar and I had dinner, in Wagga, with Wagga’s current exchange student Jess who hails from Taipei . She is a fun loving student who delighted with her enthusiasm and Radar enjoyed talking with her in his native tongue.  I’m sure they’ll catch up and exchange notes when they return home to Taiwan.

 

SONY DSC

 

Thursday night was a great information session by our computer expert Frank (he hates computers…lol…) who not only showed us how to use the Club’s website but did it in a way which made sense…. well at least for this computer non-expert…. who has a long way to go. Frank also showed how small some of the computers are and I was amazed by the size and power of them.

This Thursday night Charmaine will be giving us a run down on her work in Cambodia. Should be a great insight into a whole world that we know very little about. Bring friends, they won’t be disappointed.

Every Rotary meeting starts with an affirmation of our respect for the organisation of which we are a part, and for the four way test which is the moral foundation that guides the things we think and do. So on Thursday, Bob Aston will bring a new draft version of the Invocation (acknowledgement / thanks) that he and Laurelle have worked on. I’m looking forward to the discussion.

Have a magical week

Cheers
Bob

 

The Website Cookbook

Some basic instructions on how to add content to the website can be found in a link towards the bottom of the “Members only”page.

Resizing Pictures

When sending pictures to the newsletter editor, it is very helpful to make them a smaller size.  If you have a PC, install this software:  “Image Resizer for Windows”, https://imageresizer.codeplex.com/releases/view/82827

After installation, you will find that you can right mouse click on your picture in Windows Explorer,  and find an option “Resize Pictures”

A width of 500 pixels is small enough without being too small.  Make sure you select  “Only shrink “ to retain the aspect ratio.

Open Source Software

Open source software is usually free, and can be better quality than commercial software, simply because many eyes examining the code make light work.  It is also often available cross-platform, which means it can run on non-Windows platforms.  The most popular free non-Windows alternative is Ubuntu, which itself is open source.  An alternative to Microsoft Office is Libre Office (Writer,  Impress, Calc), while GIMP is as functional as Photoshop and vastly cheaper.  VLCplayer, Image Resizer, 7zip, are all worth taking a look at.  Interested in Music? Musescore is a great alternative to both Finale and Sibelius, while Audacity is a great free recording and studio tool that is so easy to use it is excellent even for simple things like removing clicks and pops after digitizing your record collection.

Hah Hah

Marriage is like playing the trombone. It looks easy until you try it.