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October 1999 Volume 10, Issue 10 Let your PC be Your Studio with PhotoSuite and VideoWave EGINNERS AND EXPERTS alike will appre- vides you with the practical electronic albums in addition ciate the power and capabilities of two products to powerful keyword search capabilities. You can also dis- Bto be demonstrated at the next DACS meeting play your photos in customized albums or multimedia slide on October 5 at the Danbury Hospital Auditorium. MGI shows, complete with transitions, sound effects, voiceovers, Software will present PhotoSuite III & VideoWave II. and music. With PhotoSuite you can use your photos on PhotoSuite III has many ca- business cards, stationary, newsletters, pabilities. Among them is the and in other business-related material. feature that enables photogra- Your pictures will always look great phers to create their own pan- since the product allows you to repair oramic images by stitching to- and restore your most treasured pho- gether up to five photos. With tos and to remove red eye, wrinkles, the resources of Photo Tapes- blemishes, and more. The intuitive in- try you can automatically cre- terface and helpful navigational guides ate one final, amazing compos- make it easy for the novice, while pow- ite picture. The software comes erful toolbars are a convenience to ex- with two CDs containing more perienced users. than 1,200 templates, 400 VideoWave has all the elements props, and dozens of fonts. that film professionals need but that Crop, cut, clone, collage, use beginners will enjoy such as text ani- special effects and editing pos- mation, special effects, video anima- sibilities endlessly. Capture tion, transitions effects, darkroom, au- photos with your scanner, digi- dio mixing, and file support. tal camera, CD, or from the VideoWave comes with an interactive Internet. tour that walks you through every fea- An added advantage of ture found in MGI VideoWave II and PhotoSuite III is that there is no guides you through the production pro- more hassle organizing and storing your pictures. It pro- Photo/Video Continued on page 6 Freedom of Xpression Talk to Your Computer By Jack Corcoran he DACS general meeting in September was all Chuck Runquist is Technical Project Manager at the about speech recognition software. Our presenter, Lernout & Hauspie branch office in Howell NJ. L&H is TChuck Runquist, was a good speaker with ex- a company of 1,700 employees worldwide that was cellent command of the technology-and his demo’s all founded in 1987 and headquartered in the Flanders re- worked. The middling-size audience was friendly and gion of Belgium. The company produces linguistic-based mildly receptive. And we all went home after a pleas- software products, language translation, speech recog- ant evening. nition, etc. They certainly have the location and creden- “...ay, there’s the rub.” tials for it. Voice recognition by the computer is man/machine The Big (and only) Four in voice recognition soft- bonding, a human expression media comparable to ware are L&H with Voice Xpress, Dragon Systems’ written language, and the entry to a machine participa- Naturally Speaking, IBM’s ViaVoice, and Phillips’ tory society we can’t even imagine. It should be the FreeSpeech. At the present time, Dragon Systems is most dramatic, exciting, and disruptive technology ever probably the most popular, but all are contenders. to hit the technology scene. But it isn’t. So let’s review Chuck opened his presentation with an overview of the September presentation and then get back to that L&H and the basic functions of a voice recognition sys- enigma. tem. He then gave us a frank assessment of the major Voice Express Continued on page 4 President’s File Membership Information s the PhotoSuite promises to be the best Dacs.doc, ISSN 1084-6573, is pub- A count- thing since 3D, offering users the abil- lished monthly by the Danbury Area down to ity to stitch their images together for Computer Society, 12 Noteworthy Drive, Danbury, CT 06810-7271. An- Year 2000 a panoramic view, or to perhaps even nual subscription rates: $25 to regular proceeds, rotate around an object photographed members, $20 to students (included in anticipation from all directions. It’s all part of a dues). is rife over technology that will make everyone a Postmaster Send address changes to Danbury what the studio director, but not necessarily an Area Computer Society, Inc., 4 Gregory millennium Emmy-winning one. Street, Danbury, CT 06810-4430. will bring. (Ok! I Windows road show Editorial Committee know some Another glimpse of what may be pedants are in the cards will come on October 20. Managing Editor: Frances J. Owles protesting That’s when Microsoft tips its hand Production Editor: Marc Cohen Technical Editor: that the Bruce Preston on Windows 2000 (your call on Public Relations: Marlene Gaberel millennium whether it’s a stacked deck). The pre- doesn’t really start until 2001, since sentation, to be held in Southbury’s Contributors Charles Bovaird Larry Buoy we only began counting at year one. Hilton Hotel, will give the latest tips Jacqueline Cohen Richard Corzo Perhaps we can call Y2K the beta ver- and tricks on the new operating sys- April Miller Cripliver Marlene Gaberel sion of the millennium.) tem that brings NT into the next cen- John Heckman Mike Kaltschnee However, for all the fears of digi- tury and promises to make business DACS, its officers, and directors assume no li- tal disaster when date codes roll over ability for damages arising out of the publication computing and the Internet just like or non-publication of any article, advertisement, to zero next January, a louder chorus bagels and cream cheese. While it’s or other item in this newsletter . is beginning to proclaim the techno- not certain how Win 98 will morph The editors welcome submissions from DACS members. Contact Frances Owles 860-868-0077 logical bounty that awaits us when we through the millennium or whether the ([email protected]) or Allan Ostergren at 860- get it all sorted out. True to its mis- Windows operating system itself will 210-0047 (dacseditor@ aol.com). Advertisers, sion of providing its members a por- survive the expected migration of PC contact Brad Altland at 203-790-8620; ([email protected] .westchester.ny.usa). tal to the digital future, DACS con- applications to the Internet, it is al- tinues to offer the very latest in bells most guaranteed that if you don’t get • • • © 1999 Danbury Area Computer Society. Per- and whistles. If past is prologue, these to the meeting early it will be stand- mission to reprint or publish granted to any non- will soon be overtaken by even greater ing-room only. profit group, provided credit is given and a copy rush of innovation. of the final publication is mailed to the copyright holder. All rights reserved. Recycle and reuse First pics Also in October, don’t forget the Technical Support At our next General Meeting on HRRA recycling fair, to be held on the Dacs.doc is prepared using an AMSYS October 5, we will get a snapshot of th 17 (Sunday) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pentium 133 and an HP LaserJet 4 Plus the future of video with a presentation the Danbury Green. A group of DACS printer. by MGI Software of their twin prod- volunteers will be on hand to evalu- ucts PhotoSuite III and VideoWave. ate used hardware and decide whether Software packages used to publish it is reused or refuse. Salvageable dacs.doc include: IN THIS ISSUE products will be donated to schools, Microsoft Windows 98, Office 7.0, charities or needy individuals. Bring TrueType fonts, Adobe PageMaker 6.5, CorelDRAW PHOTOSUITE/VIDEWAVE 1 your old stuff down and roll up your sleeves. 6.0, Calendar Creator+ for Windows VOIC XPRESS REVIEW 1 Internet services by MAGS.NET PRESIDENT’S FILE 2 Dacs.doc file transfer security Elections provided by AVP. DIRECTORS’ NOTES 3 The first Tuesday of December is HELPLINE 3 the annual business meeting and elec- Applications & Hardware to COMBAT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 5 tion of directors for two-year terms. enhance dacs.doc are welcome. About half the board turns over or is NEW MEMBERS 5 reelected each year. We will be form- SIG NOTER & NEWS 8 ing a nominating committee next CALENDAR 9 month and looking for candidates. ADOBE GOLIVE 11 Won’t you volunteer to serve on the JOINS THE OLD WAY 12 board, so that some of us can rest our tired old bones. Y2K PREP 13 Jeff Setaro RANDOM ACCESS 14 —ALLAN OSTERGREN APCUG Liaison [email protected] 748-6748 2 • October 1999 http://www.dacs.org Officers Directors’ Notes PRESIDENT: Allan Ostergren (860) 210-0047 VPs: Gene Minasi (860) 354-9380 • Frances Owles (860) 868-0077 Regular Meeting of the Board of Di Marlène Gaberel (203) 426-4846 • Jeff Setaro (203) 748-6748 Arectors was held at the Resource Cen- ter on September 13. Present were Messrs. SECRETARY: Larry Buoy (860) 355-0394 • TREASURER: Charles Bovaird (203) 792-7881 Bovaird, Buoy, Cohen, David, Gingras, Directors Ostergren and Setaro and Mrs. Gaberel. Also present was Mr. Paul Avery of the CHAIR: Wally David (203) 790-7286 Charles Bovaird (203) 792-7881 • Larry Buoy (860) 355-0394 Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority. Marc Cohen (203) 775-1102 • Dick Gingras (203) 426-0484 The minutes of the August meeting were read and approved Ed Heere (203) 431-1500 • Bruce Preston (203) 438-4263 Marlène Gaberel 203 426-4846 • Allan Ostergren (860) 210-0047 Finance and membership Frances Owles (860) 868-0077 • Jeff Setaro 203 748-6748 Treasurer Charles Bovaird reported Committees combined checking and postal account bal- EDUCATION::: Gene Minasi (860) 354-9380 • MEMBERSHIP: Don Ruffell (203) 797-8138 ances of $17,164.60 and postage on hand NEWSLETTER: Frances Owles::: (860) 868-0077 • PROGRAM: Jeff Setaro (203) 748-6748 of $60.56 for a total of $17,225.16.