[lug] Would the real mjh please stand up? :)

[Nate Duehr]

> On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 15:16, Nate Duehr wrote:
> > Nice job on the LJ article, Michael!
>
> Thanks.  I didn't know it was out yet.  I actually wrote it some time
> back and forgot when it was supposed to be published.

I took LJ up on their 100th edition "birthday" offer... 100 issues for $100
last year.
Couldn't resist... even when I wasn't working at the time.

Magazines have always been a downfall for me... I read them cover to cover
mostly as entertainment.
Their layout and choice of articles and what-not and the "behind the scenes"
stuff of the magazine biz has always held my curiosity.
Maybe it's from watching the rise and fall of the various computer mags over
the years.  There seems to be a well-defined magazine "lifecycle" that every
tech magazine seems to have... but at no particular common rate... some go
through it faster than others... usually dependant on the particular
technology they cover.
Quite interesting.

> As a side note, I'm also starting a series of tutorials on the GIMP in
> LinuxFocus, the UK magazine.  Kinda pricey over here in the US, but it
> will be a long running series (at least 12 issues).  I think the first
> one comes out this month as well.  Number 2 in the series came out
> pretty good - its on making cool textures.

That sounds really good.  I used to pick up copies of LinuxFocus at the
Newsstand at 92nd and Federal from time to time, and I always found their
magazine a bit higher quality than most of the U.S. publications for overall
content and layout.  LinuxFocus even had a DVD-ROM edition with tons of
software on the included DVD.  Not sure why the U.S. publications can't seem
to keep up with that level of quality... sure all that stuff was
downloadable, but it was cool to pop in the DVD and find all the stuff
talked about in the magazine... but this month they either sold out before I
stopped by or they didn't order any in.  The price is pretty nasty on a
copy-by-copy basis at the newsstand locally here... maybe I should just get
a real subscription one of these days to their fine publication.  (GRIN)

The electronics magazines are in a similar state.  Elektor is so much better
than the U.S. publications, with many more small projects and tutorials for
the "homebrewer" vs. Circuit Cellar or Nuts and Volts, which are the U.S.
equivalents.

Of course, many of the "mains powered" applications are screwy in the
overseas publications due to 220V/50Hz mains vs. our lower voltage and
higher cycle speed.  (GRIN)

> > I'm "graphics challenged" (to put it the politically correct way... to
put
> > it another way, my graphics always look like @(*#&^!@ )... but it's cool
to
> > read up on how people who have the
> > "I'm-not-an-idiot-when-making-computer-graphics gene" use tools like
GIMP!
>
> :-)
>
> Don't be put off by some less than perfect starts.  I started that way
> too.  Like code, you just play with it long enough till it all makes
> sense.  It's what we call the "Ahhhhh" moment.

Heh... I've had a few of those this week already, but it has to do with
expensive commercial database/reporting software that does really strange
things when it loses connectivity to it's object database from a webserver
or other client.  ;-)

> Thanks again for the kind words.

Figured it was the least I could do!  (And keep reading and buying the
magazines of course, you writer-types have to eat!)  Plus it's cool to have
a bona-fide graphics guru in our midst!

Nate Duehr, nate at natetech.com