President's Message

 

May 2000

 

When it was announced several months ago that Danbury Hospital would turn over to DACS 300+ CPUs to be donated to charitable and civic groups, it was only the beginning of a long process. Each CPU would have to be stripped of its software, loaded with a new operating system and basic applications, and matched with a working monitor. All this would have to be accomplished by volunteers who typically log 10-12 hours a day making a living or just going about their busy lives.

It seemed the impossible mission.Through business contacts at Raytheon Corporation, Ed Heere got commitments for monitors to match the PCs already donated. In the meantime, Microsoft regional director, Bob Jones offered 300+ licenses for Windows 98, along with MS Works. Then, after a brief harangue by Ed at our April General meeting, 33 volunteers stepped forward to offer their time in processing the systems.

We are working to find temporary storage space for the systems, and in the next month the following volunteers will start the process of matching systems, stripping old resources and loading new software:

Lawrence P. Allen, Bob A. Baron, Larry F. Buoy, John Cochran, Marc Cohen, Phil Dilloway, Joe Domber, Bob East, Elina Feliu, Ronald C. Geck, Norman Geril, Tom Gray, Ernest Harrington, John Jacocks Dzintra Liepkalns, Carol Mandel, Jim Menousek, John Muller, Don Neary, Gene Orlowski, Francis Pennarola, Bruce J. Preston, Sylvia A. Reppin, Ted Rowland, Isabel Sabal, Luke Schneider, Ron Scribner, Tom Shulman, Michael W. Shyman, Sherman Tao, Randol Webb, Henry B. White, David J. Wilkinson.

We thank all these volunteers in advance for their help, and welcome others who would like to join in this worthwhile project.

We’re Moving

Our current Resource Center lease has run for five years at a dollar a year. We were able to obtain these favorable terms because of DACS’ continuing volunteer activities on behalf of civic organizations and other regional non profit groups. As the lease came up for renewal, the Danbury Housing Authority which manages Ives Manor informed us that they needed to obtain more “realistic” rates for their rental spaces and intended to negotiate a rent closer to market levels. We have settled on new rate, but have been told we will have to move to an alternative space across the hall from our existing center. Although smaller than before, this space should be adequate to the needs of our SIGs, and of the Board.

We will need volunteers over the next 4-6 weeks to help in relocating. Please contact Charlie Bovaird at 203 792-7881 or aam@mags.net if you can help.

Graff on Graphics

Ken Graff, a photographer, renowned graphic artist and head of the DACS Graphics SIG, has offered to host a class on computer graphics for DACS members. The class will outline some of the basic tools for photo editing and manipulation found in Adobe PhotoShop and other well-known applications. A special feature of the class will be to explore solutions for some of the real-world problems in graphics editing encountered by the dacs.doc editorial staff, who after profound soul-searching were the first to sign up for this informative course.

If you have some graphics problems to share or would just like to learn a trick or two, let me know, and we will add you to the course. Tuition, time, and dates to be determined.

--Allan Ostergren
dacsprez@aol.com


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