February 8th is the night to learn about rumors from MacWorld! Come share your thoughts, learn about what might be coming from Apple during the show!

Also covered will be the launch of the much talked about iPad.  What does it mean for us Mac users?

Most people log on to The Electric Sheep by using the FirstClass software. However if you want to check your Sheep email from a public computer, you can access the Sheep server through a web link.

From your web browser go to this link http://cafe.pmug.org/Login/

Enter your Electric Sheep login and password in the dropdown window. Please note, this access can be much slower than directly through FirstClass.

We received this letter from James H. Lee, Jr., President, Tropical Software, Inc.:

Hi,

When I presented TopXNotes to the MUG a while back some of your members bought copies. I wanted each TopXNotes owner to know they should have received an email on how to obtain the discounted price on the upgrade they are entitled to receive.

This is the first paid update we have ever done in over three years of working on TopXNotes. Our apologies if you were not notified of the upgrade. We are trying to notify out thousands of customers as fast as possible, process stale and mistyped, email addresses, and get the word out as fast as possible.

You should have received an email on upgrading. If anyone has not received the information, please use our contact form on the website (www.topxnotes.com) to let us know you need upgrade information. Direct link to the contact page follows:

http://www.tropic4.com/support/index.html#contact

All the download buttons, from anywhere on our site, download 1.5.

We hope you enjoy TopXNotes1.5.

Again, out sincere apologies for the notice delay.

Cheers, James H. Lee, Jr. President Tropical Software, Inc.

jim@tropic4.com

Tropical Software, Inc. Home of TopXNotes, the ultimate personal note manager

www.tropic4.com

“Man in harmony with Nature” vs. “man and what he has done to Nature”

by Gary Pool

I used an original blue & white G3 Macintosh running Photoshop 5.0 to create these digital compositions. This work, which ultimately became two individual images by printing at various stages of creation, began as many images scanned into Photoshop at 300 ppi and then inserted into individual layers. Then the images were cleaned up and strategically placed for best visual effect. Next, I used Photoshop Layer Blending Options to compose the “Man in harmony with Nature” image.

Using the “Man in harmony with Nature” image I added a black color over-lay, once again using Layer Blending Options. Next I applied the Twirl and Spherize filters (both resident in Photoshop) to specific layers, creating “man and what he has done to Nature.”

This is a good illustration how one idea can become two entirely different compositions.

Welcome to the new PMUG.org website!

Thanks to the hard work of members such as Marty Crouch, Connie Wynn, Joan Pinkert, Allen Watson, Peren Bjork and others, we now have a brand new WordPress based home.

The new site affords features such as:

1. Information about PMUG will be updated more often
2. You can track PMUG information via popular RSS feeds (That little RSS icon in your Safari address bar)
3. Better organization of website content

and much more coming in the future, such as connecting PMUG.org to social networks like Twitter or Facebook.

Not all of the information on the old PMUG.org site is available yet, so if you’re looking for something that you can’t find here, try this link to the old site.

Please let us know what you think!

– Steve

Our January 11th, 2010 General Meeting will feature guest speakers will be Bob Heinson and Gabe Salo from Adeline Music and Sound!