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Since it's the holidays, this week I decided to take a
break and asked our Insiders to write a "Guest Column" for me. We had
some great submissions from Forum posters like David Orban, Hobz, Zoic,
Peter van der Linden, and more. Ultimately, I picked a holiday-themed piece written by
guest columnist Patrick Green, AKA "Captain Tux." Thanks Patrick!
We've put all of the submissions from our Insiders in this week's Michael's Minute
discussion Forum for your enjoyment. You can read them here.
Christmas morning found me surrounded by family. For many of
us, this is the one day in the year we actually see each other face to
face. In a few short hours, we all try to cram a whole year of life
experience. It is a daunting and fascinating
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Patrick Green,
guest columnist
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dance that occurs while
surrounded by gleeful children and a whole lot of food.
Our
lives were of interest to many aunts, uncles and cousins. I recently
left a VP of sales and marketing position to become a stay-at-home
dad. It was refreshing to see how many people embraced the concept.
They were curious about many things. How do we budget for one income
and what occurs during the day? Interestingly enough, Linspire
entered the conversation many times.
Saving money on some "odd" operating system did not really speak to them. It was when
they received their stocking stuffers that they got curious. Everyone
received a VCD containing a video slide show of my daughter's year in
pictures set to Martina McBride's Happy Girl. The video contained
captions, special effects, and moments at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo,
Navy Pier, Field Museum, as well as nearby botanical gardens, arboretum and
parks throughout the area. Pictures of her playing
with jugglers and entertainers, holding fossils in her little
hands, standing in speedboats, showed them our daughter has had quite the year that could not
be had at a local daycare facility.
Cousins, uncles, aunts,
and grandparents - all wanted to know how to make such a thing. Now
they were ready to listen. Using my laptop running Linspire, I showed
them that when my daughter and I go on our weekly outings I bring a
digital camera and my laptop bag. We always end our weekly outings
with a lunch and load the pictures into the laptop using a USB cable
and Lphoto.
Using Lphoto, we decide which pictures are keepers and
which are not. We then create a slide show and using a selection of
short kids songs and whimsical classical pieces stored in Lsongs, we
choose a song to accompany the slide show. Using MainActor, we merge
the two together, add effects and captions and show mommy the slide
show when she gets home from work.
These outings have taken care of
most of the pre-edit work. All we have to do is take the pictures
that made it past the tough editing eye of a four year old and some
of the captions we already created, re-edit to a longer song and add
more dazzling effects.
They were amazed. They further could
not believe the cost of Linspire 4.5 and the wealth of software
available in CNR. It was fortuitous that I happened to have several
copies of LinspireLive! in my Laptop bag. Christmas is about sharing,
isn't it? ;-)
You too can participate in programs like this, contests, beta testing, parties, and more by becoming a Linspire Insider. For
more information, visit the Insiders
page.
-- Michael
The Michael's Minute Meter
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