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1021 lines
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HTML
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<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
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<html>
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.5 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.0.36 i686) [Netscape]">
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<meta name="Author" content="Michael J. Hammel">
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<meta name="Description" content="The Monthly Column of Computer Graphics for Linux Systems.">
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<title>Graphics Muse</title>
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</head>
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<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#660000" vlink="#666666" alink="#FF6600">
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<!--endcut ============================================================-->
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<!-- =============================================================
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These pages are designed by Michael J. Hammel. Permission to
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use all graphics and other content is granted provided you give
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me (or the original authors/artists) credit for the work and this
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copyright notice is not removed.
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(c)1997, 1998 Michael J. Hammel (mjhammel@graphics-muse.org)
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============================================================= !--><!-- The Button box as a client side imagemap --><map NAME="nav-main"><area SHAPE="rect" HREF="#mews" coords="10,10 170,40"><area SHAPE="rect" HREF="#webwonderings" coords="0,55 175,85"><area SHAPE="rect" HREF="#musings" coords="75,115 170,145"><area SHAPE="rect" HREF="#resources" coords="5,170 110,195"></map>
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<table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 COLS=2 NOSAVE >
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP NOSAVE><img SRC="../gx/hammel/gm-logo-3.jpg" height=169 width=400></td>
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<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=CENTER NOSAVE>
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<br><b><font size=+1>muse:</font></b>
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<ol>
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<li>
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<i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>v; to become absorbed in
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thought </font></font></i></li>
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<li>
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<i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>n; [ fr. Any of the nine
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sister goddesses of learning and the arts in Greek Mythology ]: a source
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of inspiration</font></font></i></li>
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</ol>
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<center><font size=-2>© 1999 by <a href="mailto:mjhammel@graphics-muse.org">mjh</a></font></center>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
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<table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 COLS=2 WIDTH="100%" NOSAVE >
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td WIDTH="187" NOSAVE><img SRC="../gx/hammel/muse-image-map.jpg" ALT="Button Bar" USEMAP="#nav-main" height=200 width=185 align=LEFT></td>
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<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="65%" NOSAVE>
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<br><img SRC="../gx/hammel/w.gif" ALT="W" height=28 width=36 align=BOTTOM><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>elcome
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to the Graphics Muse! Why a "muse"? Well, except for the sisters aspect,
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the above definitions are pretty much the way I'd describe my own interest
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in computer graphics: it keeps me deep in thought and it is a daily source
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of inspiration. </font></font>
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<center>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>[<a href="#mews">Graphics
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Mews</a>][<a href="#webwonderings">WebWonderings</a>][<a href="#musings">Musings</a>][<a href="#rsrc">Resources</a>]</font></font></center>
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<p><img SRC="../gx/hammel/t.gif" ALT="T" height=28 width=26><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>his
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column is dedicated to the use, creation, distribution, and discussion
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of computer graphics tools for Linux systems.</font></font></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<table BORDER=0 COLS=2 WIDTH="100%" NOSAVE >
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP NOSAVE><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>You'll
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notice a few minor changes to this months column. First, I've got
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a sponsor: <a href="http://www.softpro.com">SoftPro Books</a> is
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providing books for me to do book reviews. In exchange, I'll be linking
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the book covers to their site so you can order them. Their sponsorship
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allows me to do more book reviews than normal since otherwise I'd have
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to purchase the books. And that gets expensive. So if you think
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the book being reviewed is for you, please consider purchasing it from
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SoftPro Books.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Second, I've signed up for
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Associate/Affiliate programs with <b><font color="#CC6600">Amazon.com</font></b>
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and <b><font color="#CC6600">fatbrain.com</font></b>, respectively.
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If you're considering buying some other books online, I'd appreciate it
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if you visited their site via these links. If you buy books via these
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links I get a small stipend, which over the long term I can use to buy
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equipement. Right now I'm trying to get some cash together to get
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a TV card so I can do an article on software for those beasts.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>In this months column you'll
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find:</font></font>
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<ul>
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<li>
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A review of Jennifer Niederst's book Web Design In A Nutshell</li>
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<li>
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Information on accessing non-keyboard characters in X</li>
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</ul>
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<center><table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=5 COLS=2 WIDTH="100%" NOSAVE >
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td ALIGN=CENTER NOSAVE><a href="http://www.clbooks.com/home.html?from=CJK692"><img SRC="./gx/hammel/cla_small.gif" HSPACE=10 BORDER=0 height=22 width=100 align=CENTER></a></td>
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<td ALIGN=CENTER NOSAVE><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thegraphicsmuse"><img SRC="./gx/hammel/amazon-logo.gif" BORDER=0 height=29 width=90></a>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-2>Associate</font></font></td>
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</tr>
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</table></center>
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</td>
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<td ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="220" NOSAVE>
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<table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 COLS=1 NOSAVE >
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=CENTER WIDTH="219" NOSAVE><img SRC="./gx/hammel/artistsguide.jpg" height=140 width=110></td>
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</tr>
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td NOSAVE><b><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica">The Artists' Guide to the
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Gimp</font></i></b>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Available online from <a href="http://www1.clbooks.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=1578310113&from=CJK692"
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>
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fatbrain.com</a>, <a href="http://www.softpro.com/softpro/1-57831-011-3.html">SoftPro
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Books</a> and <a href="http://search.borders.com/fcgi-bin/db2www/search/search.d2w/Details?&mediaType=Book&prodID=51315727">Borders
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Books</a>.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>In Denver, try the <a href="http://www.tatteredcover.com/cgi-bin/bookfind.pl?lit_ttl=Gimp&Id=733947.13300&refer=list&page=book&isbn=1-57831-011-3&str=1">Tattered
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Cover </a>bookstore.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Also, check out the associated
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web site, <a href="http://www.thegimp.com">TheGimp.com</a>, sponsored by
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SSC, Inc. and edited by The Graphics Muse - <b><font color="#993300">Michael
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J. Hammel</font></b>.</font></font></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
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<br><a NAME="mews"></a><img SRC="../gx/hammel/mews.jpg" height=50 width=245>
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<table BORDER=0 COLS=3 WIDTH="100%" NOSAVE >
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="140" NOSAVE>
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<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=2 COLS=1 WIDTH="100%" HEIGHT="100%" BGCOLOR="#FE992B" NOSAVE >
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<tr>
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<td><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Other Announcements:</font></font></b></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#metro-x">Metro
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Link support for Rendition / Nvidia cards</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#clickable-imagemap-release">Release
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0.3 of a clickable imagemap plug-in for the Gimp</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td NOSAVE><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#giram">Giram
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0.0.6</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP NOSAVE><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#tgif">tgif
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4.0.13</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td NOSAVE><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#sketch">Sketch
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0.5.3</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#kuickshow">KuickShow
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0.6.3</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#wmtune">wmtune
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for bttv 1.0</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#freedraft">FREEdraft
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0.3.6</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#grass">GRASS
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5.0 beta</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#w3c-vector-graphics">W3C
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aims to streamline vector graphics</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#netscape-flash-plugin">Netscape
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Flash Plugin 0.4.3</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#video-server">Video
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Server 0.5.4</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#poorman-cam">Poor
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Man's Cam 1.1</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#gilt">GILT
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0.1.0</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#zope">Zope
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1.10pr1</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mews.html#gview">gView
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0.1.0</a></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td ALIGN=CENTER NOSAVE><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><
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<a href="mews.html">More
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Mews</a> ></font></font></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</td>
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<td WIDTH="1" NOSAVE></td>
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<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP NOSAVE>
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<table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=3 COLS=1 WIDTH="100%" NOSAVE >
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<tr NOSAVE>
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<td NOSAVE><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b>Disclaimer</b>:
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Before I get too far into this I should note that any of the news items
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I post in this section are just that - news. Either I happened to run across
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them via some mailing list I was on, via some Usenet newsgroup, or via
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email from someone. I'm not necessarily endorsing these products (some
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of which may be commercial), I'm just letting you know I'd heard about
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them in the past month.</font></font></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>
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<hr NOSHADE WIDTH="100%"></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>XawTV 2.34</font></font></b>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Gerd Knorr </font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>XawTV is a simple Xaw-based
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TV program which uses the bttv driver or video4linux. It contains various
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command-line utilities for grabbing images and avi movies, for tuning in
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TV stations, etc. A grabber driver for vic and a radio application (needs
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KDE) for the boards with radio support are included as well. Changes:
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15 bpp problems fixed, NTSC-HRC support added, driver updates (sync up
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with bttv 0.6.1, msp3400 nicam changes).</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.in-berlin.de/User/kraxel/xawtv.html">http://www.in-berlin.de/User/kraxel/xawtv.html</a></font></font>
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<br>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
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<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>Random Quotes:</font></font></b>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Seen on the <a href="http://www.mostang.com/sane/">SANE</a>
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web site (in the legend explaining the supported scanner list):</font></font>
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<blockquote><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>"<b>stable</b>"
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means someone is pulling your leg.</font></font></blockquote>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="65%">
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<br><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>"When I read a book about
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computers, they're written by Martians, for Martians. They don't
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know how to spell out a word. Everything has to be three letters.
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This drives me batty. In fact, when I rule the world, there will
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be a glossary at the bottom of every page and every photograph in every
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computer publication that says exactly what these abbreviations are."</font></font></i>
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<blockquote><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Harold Feinstein,
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as quoted from the February 1999 issue of <a href="http://www.peimag.com">PEI
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Magazine.</a></font></font></blockquote>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
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<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>Tech Soft America Announces
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support for Linux Operating System in HOOPS 3D Graphics System v4.41</font></font></b>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Tech Soft America (TSA),
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developer of the popular HOOPS 3D Graphics System today announced support
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for the Linux Operating System in their 4.41 release. This announcement
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further expands HOOPS' already extensive platform coverage and will enable
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high-end 3D applications to be built for Linux using HOOPS - a robust graphics
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development component with a proven track record in the CAD/CAM/CAE GIS
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and Geophysical application markets.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.newsalert.com/bin/story?StoryId=CnTohubKbytaYnZy&FQ=Linux&SymHdl=1&Nav=na-search-&StoryTitle=Linux">Complete
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announcement.</a></font></font>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.hoops3d.com/">Hoops3D
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Web site.</a></font></font>
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<br>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
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<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>FreeWRL 0.1.8</font></font></b>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>John A. Stewart (CRC Canada)</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>FreeWRL is a free VRML browser
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for Linux. It aims to be fully VRML97 compliant, complete with scripting
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in Perl, Java and Javascript, and EAI. It is written mostly in Perl, with
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some C for library interfaces & rendering and uses OpenGL (Mesa) for
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graphics. The current versions are still alpha-stage and there are
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several pieces missing (especially certain field types in EAI etc) but
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it is quite usable in various types of worlds. Changes: Some bugs
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fixed. New maintainer - John Stewart - CRC Canada</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://debra.dgbt.crc.ca/~luigi/FreeWRL/">http://debra.dgbt.crc.ca/~luigi/FreeWRL/</a></font></font>
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<br>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
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<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>ttmkfdir current</font></font></b>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>jpo</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>ttmkfdir is a tool to create
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valid and complete fonts.dir files from TrueType fonts. It is very useful
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when you plan to use a TrueType enabled font server that is based on the
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X11R6 sample implementation (xfsft for instance). Great care has been taken
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to correctly identify the encodings that a given TrueType font supports.</font></font>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Changes: First freshmeat
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announcement.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/~pommnitz/ttmkfdir.tar.gz">http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/~pommnitz/ttmkfdir.tar.gz</a></font></font>
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<br>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
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<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>xfsft 1.0.3</font></font></b>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>jpo</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>The Xfsft patches to X11R6
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enable X11 servers (including XFree86) to use TrueType fonts and improves
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on the way X11 handles international scalable fonts.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Changes: New in version 1.0.3
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is support for international Type 1 and Speedo</font></font>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>fonts.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Download: <a href="ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/xfsft-1.0.3.tar.gz">ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/xfsft-1.0.3.tar.gz</a></font></font>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Red Hat Packages: <a href="http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/~pommnitz/XF86-xfsft/index.html">http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/~pommnitz/XF86-xfsft/index.html</a></font></font>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Homepage: <a href="http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/programs/xfsft/">http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/programs/xfsft/</a></font></font>
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<br>
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<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>Retardotracer 1.0.0</font></font></b>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Michael Leibowitz</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Retardotracer is a raytracer
|
|
written in C++ that raytraces both reverse and forwards for each polygon.
|
|
This allows it to accurately model some (and only some) things. It
|
|
works in parallel, which is kinda neat. Foo, Bar, and Baz are included.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Changes: This is the first
|
|
release.</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~leibowit/retardotracer/">http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~leibowit/retardotracer/</a>
|
|
(only provides access to tarball)</font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>Dave Gnukem 0.4</font></font></b>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>David Joffe</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Dave Gnukem is a GPL'ed 2D
|
|
Scrolling platform game, similar to Duke Nukem 1. It includes a sprite
|
|
and level editor. The game and editor use GGI, and thus runs on the console
|
|
as well as in a window under X.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Changes: Added teleporters,
|
|
bananas, title screen image; Some cosmetic additions, bugfixes, structural
|
|
game-flow improvements, menu improvements, new sprite editor features,
|
|
full-screen mode in X.</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/2018/djgame.html">http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/2018/djgame.html</a></font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>TexturePaint 1.1</font></font></b>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Uwe Maurer</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>TexturePaint is a Gimp plugin
|
|
which displays a Quake I/II model in an openGL window and shows a texture
|
|
image mapped on the model. You can modify the texture image with GIMP and
|
|
view the result in the 3d window. You can also paint in the 3d view and
|
|
TexturePaint calculates the texture for you.</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Changes: Autoconf , Support
|
|
for Quake I models</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://home.t-online.de/home/uwe_maurer/texpaint.htm">http://home.t-online.de/home/uwe_maurer/texpaint.htm</a></font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>SGI announces the Open
|
|
Source release of GLX</font></font></b>
|
|
<blockquote><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>"GLX provides the
|
|
glue connecting OpenGL® and the X Window System<sup>TM</sup> and is
|
|
required by any OpenGL implementation using X."</font></font></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>For the complete announcement,
|
|
go to <a href="http://www.sgi.com/software/opensource/glx/">http://www.sgi.com/software/opensource/glx/</a>.</font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=+1>Linux and 3D Graphics
|
|
BoF @ LinuxWorld</font></font></b>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>John Leech is organizing
|
|
a BOF (Birds-of-a-Feather) session on Linux and 3D graphics at Linux World
|
|
Expo in March. The details:</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Linux/3D BOF</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Wednesday, March 3, 1999</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>San Jose Convention Center</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Room A4 5:30-7 PM</font></font></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>If you have a topic to discuss,
|
|
please contact me about it in advance (email to <a href="mailto:lwbof@oddhack.engr.sgi.com">lwbof@oddhack.engr.sgi.com</a>).
|
|
Items already on the list:</font></font>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Current status of OpenGL, and
|
|
GLX source code release (Jon Leech, Silicon Graphics)</font></font></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Direct rendering architecture
|
|
status (Frank LaMonica, Precision Insight)</font></font></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Darryll Strauss will be giving
|
|
a conference talk with an overview of the various OpenGL and Mesa projects
|
|
touching Linux at 2:30, and he will join us at the BOF to follow up.</font></font></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Jon Leech</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>OpenGL Group</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Silicon Graphics</font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<p><!--
|
|
-- Did You Know Section
|
|
-->
|
|
<h2>
|
|
Did You Know?</h2>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>...the Gimp was
|
|
mentioned in an article discussing alternatives to Photoshop in the February
|
|
1999 issue of <a href="http://www.peimag.com">PEI (Photo Electronic Imaging)
|
|
</a>magazine?</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>...holding the Control [CTRL]
|
|
key down while rotating [Gimp images and layers] locks it to 15 degree
|
|
increments.</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Seth Burgess <sjburges@gimp.org></font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>...the relatively new <a href="http://www.wacom.com">Wacom
|
|
Intuos</a> drawing tablets are reported to work with the Gimp now.
|
|
Take a look at <a href="http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/xinput/">http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/xinput/</a>
|
|
for help on setting up X Input (required for using tablets under the X
|
|
Window System) and <a href="http://levien.com/free/linux_intuos.html">http://levien.com/free/linux_intuos.html</a>
|
|
for information on the Intuos driver status. Seth Burgess says "Support
|
|
for tablets is improved in Gimp 1.1.x with a new "Ink" tool that is just
|
|
too much fun to play with. Of course 1.1.x is development, and crashes
|
|
semi-regularly, so use at your own risk."</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>...there is a TrueType for
|
|
XFree86 Mini-Howto at <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/~yzhang/linux/truetype/">http://www.sfu.ca/~yzhang/linux/truetype/</a>.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>...there is an interesting
|
|
article by Cecil Adams on the history of the ratios for TV and movie screens
|
|
at <a href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/981120.html">http://www.straightdope.com/columns/981120.html</a>.</font></font>
|
|
<br> </blockquote>
|
|
<!--
|
|
-- Q and A Section
|
|
-->
|
|
<h2>
|
|
Q and A</h2>
|
|
<i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Q: Can I restore the
|
|
default values on a [Gimp plug-in] easily? If I experiment with various
|
|
bump map settings, for example, and I want to get back to defaults, how
|
|
do I do that without shutting GIMP down?</font></font></i>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A: Some plug-ins have
|
|
Reset or Defaults buttons but many do not. There is no standard for
|
|
how plug-ins should behave for resetting to default values.</font></font>
|
|
<p><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Q: Can I have more
|
|
than 1 layers dialog open simultaneously, rather than switching from image
|
|
to image. This is annoying when I'm working on several multi-layer
|
|
images together.</font></font></i>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A: No, its not possible.
|
|
But when you press Ctrl-L in an image the layers dialog shows the layers
|
|
of this image. So you can switch faster to other images than to use the
|
|
mouse.</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Jens Finke <<a href="mailto:pearl@darkride.net">pearl@darkride.net</a>></font></font>
|
|
<p><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Q: Someone mentioned
|
|
this recently, saying what map projection is required to get a map of Earth
|
|
correctly image mapped on to a sphere in POV-Ray, and even mentioning a
|
|
web site where such a map can be found.</font></font></i>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A1: There is a collection
|
|
of bitmapped planet surfaces at the IMP website:</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.imp.org/members/scene/test_a/scripta.html">http://www.imp.org/members/scene/test_a/scripta.html</a></font></font></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>There are also links to sources
|
|
and methods of projection. The maps here are not necessarily 'correct',
|
|
but I would be interested in knowing how to do the correction.</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Nigel Stewart (<a href="mailto:nigels@eisa.net.au">nigels@eisa.net.au</a>)</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A2: The maps at that
|
|
site [listed in A1 above] are certainly much nicer than the others I have
|
|
found, and they also appear to be the correct projection for POV's map_type
|
|
1.</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Robert Sorenson</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mailto:zephyr@nerc.com">zephyr@nerc.com</a></font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A3: For the most part
|
|
(+95% of maps) you should map them cyllindricly onto a sphere, and they
|
|
look great.</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Simon de Vet</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet">http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet</a></font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A4: <a href="http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/">http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/ </a>
|
|
(yes, Nasa, the space agency)</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Scott McDonald</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mailto:scott@urbandragons.com">scott@urbandragons.com</a></font></font>
|
|
<p><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Q: I am an "end user"
|
|
of my own Linux-based system, having recently graduated from that "other"
|
|
OS. I miss having the font selection I have on the other side of
|
|
my hard drive (my computer has a split personality). I have the new
|
|
WordPerfect 8 for Linux and the fonts are boring! I would like at
|
|
least one good blackletter, script, or classic type face (Goudy, Caslon,etc.)
|
|
but I don't know where to look or even if they are available for Linux.
|
|
Any ideas? Kinene Barzin <<a href="mailto:KBarzin@compuserve.com">KBarzin@compuserve.com</a>></font></font></i>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A: Linux, actually
|
|
the X Window System, uses Adobe Type 1 fonts by default. You're probably
|
|
used to True Type fonts. You <i>can</i> use both on your system,
|
|
but there are a few tricks to getting things to work.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>The easiest method is to
|
|
find Type 1 versions of the fonts you already have. I have found
|
|
that many of the font collections on CDs available from the local software
|
|
stores come with both True Type and Type 1 fonts. I just copy the
|
|
Type 1 fonts to a local directory and then tell the X server to include
|
|
this new directory. Take a look at the <b><font color="#006600">xset</font></b>
|
|
command, in particular the "fp" option. You'll also want to take
|
|
a look at the <a href="http://goblet.anu.edu.au/~m9305357/type1inst.html">Type1Inst</a>
|
|
script, which will configure the new directory so WordPerfect, the Gimp
|
|
and other tools can use the common Font name instead of the longer XLFD,
|
|
X Logical Font Description (that long name with all the dashes in it).</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Alternatively, you can use
|
|
the True Type fonts through the use of a Font Server. A Font server
|
|
is a separate program that talks to the X server and manages fonts for
|
|
the server. There are two fonts servers available that handle True
|
|
Type fonts: <b><font color="#006600">xfstt</font></b> and <b><font color="#006600">xfsft</font></b>
|
|
(similar names, but different programs). Look on <a href="http://www.freshmeat.net">freshmeat</a>
|
|
for where these can be downloaded. Font servers should be able to handle
|
|
both True Type and Type 1 fonts, but I've not tried to do mix them.
|
|
Using xset it should also be possible to mix local Type 1 fonts with those
|
|
managed using a font server.</font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<hr SIZE=1 NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<h2>
|
|
Reader Mail</h2>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Cecile Hebert-Souche <<a href="mailto:souche@atp6000.tuwien.ac.at">souche@atp6000.tuwien.ac.at</a>>
|
|
wrote to the Gimp-User mailing list:</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>I see a lot of
|
|
posts regarding problems with font installation, I had a tip for those
|
|
who have bought applix : it comes with a wonderful fontmanager (applix/axdatas/fontmetrics/gallium/fontfm)
|
|
just start it as root and you can manage your fonts in a very easy way,
|
|
create subdirectories and activate them only on need, test fonts before
|
|
installing etc...</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
I tried this with my installation of Applix and sure enough, its a fine
|
|
font previewer. Certainly better than most of the other tools I have
|
|
for previewing fonts. I didn't try it for managing font directories
|
|
but it does appear to permit this.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mailto:whitenoise@fishnet.com">whitenoise@fishnet.com</a>
|
|
wrote:</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A Linux freak
|
|
of mine sent me your URL. Cool graphics (esp. like Angel). I do some
|
|
designing/putzing as well - mostly Photoshop - and I was curious where
|
|
you get the initial images of the women? The graphics I do are ok but I
|
|
always seem to get stuck finding GOOD images of women that I can reproduce
|
|
without spending money or getting sued for infringement. By GOOD pictures
|
|
of women, I mean head shots, eyes, lips, necklines, that type of thing.
|
|
Stock photography is one out (like Digital Stock) but I'd be curious
|
|
to hear your response.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse:</font></i></b>
|
|
Angel (and some of the others) were taken from one of <b><font color="#006600">Corel's
|
|
Super Ten Packs.</font></b> I did a short review of these in my November
|
|
1998 issue of my Graphics Muse colum. These are royalty free images
|
|
in fairly high resolutions. Maybe not quite good enough for print
|
|
media, but pretty close. And certainly less expensive (about $40)
|
|
than other stock image collections.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>However, I have the same
|
|
problem as you - its hard to find good photos of faces. The only
|
|
thing I can think of other than the stock photo collections is to hook
|
|
up with a decent photographer, perhaps a friend, acquaintance or maybe
|
|
a student at a local university who is looking for some way to showcase
|
|
their work.</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Also, where did
|
|
you get the design pattern for a subject like Angel - you know, all those
|
|
brick like things? It almost looks like you selected a range and did a
|
|
lighting effect to get one side "sunny" and the other hidden in shadow.
|
|
Anyway, what you'd care to share I'd appreciate.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse:</font></i></b>
|
|
Its actually a combination of effects. I can't remember how I started
|
|
it but I think it was with a brick pattern that I fiddled with in the Gimp
|
|
plug-in called Gimpressionist. I think I used it as both a layer
|
|
and a layer mask, and I used it multiple times. This much I do remember:
|
|
it took quite some time to get that image just right.</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>If you find time,
|
|
I'd appreciate your feedback. There aren't too many people who's
|
|
work I go ga-ga over but you stuff rocks pretty well.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
Thanks.</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>You ever heard
|
|
of Peter Lessing? He's a designer/photographer who's big on the female
|
|
form - not like www.gogogirls.com but more subdued and flattering. I think
|
|
you'd like his work.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i>:
|
|
Send me a URL if you have one. I do like looking at art work online.
|
|
It helps motivate me to do more work. I don't know if you like the
|
|
style, but you might take a look at http://www.sirius.com/~fenster/.
|
|
I don't know what this style is called - maybe Modern Gothic? - but I like
|
|
it. She's also done a fairly nice job in displaying the gallery.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Another guy I like is <b><font color="#006600">Tim
|
|
Umney</font></b>. He was featured in Issue #37 of <a href="http://www.designgraphics.com.au">Design
|
|
Graphics </a>(an Australian graphics design magazine focused on the use
|
|
of computers to do the artwork). He's a HR Giger fan and his work
|
|
shows it. Sort of has an X Files feel to it, too. It took some
|
|
searching, but I found his website at <a href="http://homepages.tig.com.au/~umney/">http://homepages.tig.com.au/~umney/</a>.</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>I don't ask much,
|
|
do I? If what I've requested above isn't enough, could you toss in
|
|
a million dollars? Just throw that in as an attachment.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
I use text based mail readers on Linux. So I don't do attachments.
|
|
:-)</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Corel's a huge
|
|
outfit but they're not really the market leader in anything, maybe that's
|
|
why I never considered their photos/images before. Didn't even know they
|
|
offered them.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
Corel is actually quite well known for their stock photo collection.
|
|
I learned about them by reading Design Graphics. You can get it at
|
|
most Barnes and Nobles or Borders bookstores.</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>I'm surprised
|
|
some vendor (such as corel) hasn't come out with a "women only" photo collection,
|
|
or something similar. I would think there would be a market for such an
|
|
animal.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
There is at least one SuperTen collection from Corel called "Women".
|
|
You can also order individual shots from their web site of stock photos.
|
|
There are a lot of photos of womens faces there. Check that issue
|
|
of the Graphics Muse column that I did the Corel SuperTen write up on -
|
|
I think it was somewhere between August and November of last year (but
|
|
I'm too lazy to go look for it right now).</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Anything worth
|
|
doing always seems to take a long time. Have you looked into doing prints
|
|
or otherwise reselling them?</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
In the future, perhaps. I was thinking of making a series of images
|
|
for a calendar, but there are business problems with calendars: low
|
|
margins, high production costs, etc. None of the images (well, except
|
|
for the Linux Journal covers I did) are large enough to transfer to print
|
|
media very well. You need to make <i>very</i> large images if you
|
|
plan on printing them out in high quality gloss prints.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Jason Thomas Murray <<a href="mailto:lather@electrografix.com">lather@electrografix.com</a>></font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Erm, I have been
|
|
wanting to make some basic CD jackets.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|
<blockquote><tt><font size=-1>+----+----+</font></tt>
|
|
<br><tt><font size=-1>| | |</font></tt>
|
|
<br><tt><font size=-1>| | |</font></tt>
|
|
<br><tt><font size=-1>+----+----+</font></tt>
|
|
<p><tt><font size=-1> ^-- the fold.</font></tt></blockquote>
|
|
<i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>I was able to convert the
|
|
size into points fer LaTeX, but I wanna use the GIMP. Does anyone know
|
|
what dimensions I need to use for the image? It looks like the new GIMP
|
|
is going to have inches as an option for new image sizes, but not sure
|
|
I want to wait that long for the next stable.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse:</font></i></b>
|
|
Short answer: Measure the jacket you want to print on. Multiply
|
|
by the DPI your printer will be printing at and that gives you the dimensions
|
|
for the image you want to make.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Long answer: Go to
|
|
my Muse back issues and look for the discussion on DPI/LPI. Its not
|
|
hard to do the conversion from paper inches to pixels if you have the right
|
|
information, you just have to know what information to gather to do the
|
|
conversion.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.graphics-muse.org/linux.html">http://www.graphics-muse.org/linux.html</a>
|
|
- click on the "muse" button.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Nancy Mazur wrote to the
|
|
Gimp-User list:</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>I've got a drawing
|
|
with a bit of text here and there, yet I'm not glad about the font I've
|
|
chosen initially, and now I'd like to set all of my text into another font.
|
|
How can I do this without having to delete my previous text, create new
|
|
text in new font, and reposition that new text as the old one used to be?</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
Well, it actually can be done, but its not easy.</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Is there an easy
|
|
solution to this? Perhaps I keep on understanding Gimp's philosophy
|
|
in a wrong way.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Christopher Curtis replied:</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>The GIMP is a
|
|
bitmap tool. Once something is "done", it cannot be "undone" or "modified"
|
|
(Undo/Redo excepting). The text will have to be recreated.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse:</font></i></b>
|
|
This is true if the text has already been merged with other layers in the
|
|
image. If the image is one you just scanned in, then the text is
|
|
already part of the single layer you scanned in. In any case, the
|
|
text is a bitmap image, not a vector image. That means you just can't
|
|
edit the text. In a bitmapped image, its not really text - its just
|
|
a bunch of pixels that happened to be shaped like letters.</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Some things you
|
|
may want to consider in the future is to put text on its own layer so that
|
|
it does not corrupt existing image data. This makes things slower
|
|
because it uses more memory, but is generally a good idea, especially for
|
|
things like text where lines are important. It is always possible
|
|
to have layers smaller than the image as well, and this may help speed-wise.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
This is correct, and part of the solution to saving the old text.
|
|
What you can do to save the old text is to make a selection of that text,
|
|
float the selection and make that floating layer a new layer. Then
|
|
add two new layers: one "patch" layer that fills in the background
|
|
where the old text used to be and another that is the new text. Position
|
|
the layers so the original is at the bottom, the patch is right above it
|
|
and the new text above that. The old text layer can be anywhere -
|
|
just make sure its visibility has been turned off (click on the eye icon
|
|
in the layers dialog).</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>The most difficult part of
|
|
this technique is creating the patch. This is due to the fact that
|
|
the original image probably was not a solid color so creating the patch
|
|
requires multiple steps:</font></font>
|
|
<ol>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>create a solid patch that is
|
|
very near the original image background colors.</font></font></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>select a region of background
|
|
off the original image</font></font></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>paste into the patch</font></font></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>use the clone tool to copy from
|
|
the pasted region to the edges of the patch.</font></font></li>
|
|
</ol>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Its tricky, but you can do it
|
|
if the background was not too complex of a design. The more solid
|
|
the original background the better.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>All of this simply replaces
|
|
the old text with new text, but both "texts" end up as new layers in the
|
|
Gimp image. You need to save the file as an .xcf format file in order
|
|
to preserve the layers. Once you "flatten" the layers or "merge visible
|
|
layers" then the layer information is gone and you have a single bitmap
|
|
image (and if the old text layers visibility is turned off then the old
|
|
text goes away in the flattened image).</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><i><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Another thing
|
|
to look at is the gDynText plugin. I don't know the URL offhand,
|
|
but you can find references to it from <a href="http://news.gimp.org">news.gimp.org
|
|
</a>and
|
|
from <a href="http://registry.gimp.org">registry.gimp.org</a>. Simply
|
|
download and untar the file, then type "gimptool --install gdyntext.c"
|
|
(if that's the source file name). You may want to read the README
|
|
that comes with it.</font></font></i></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><b><i><font color="#993300">'Muse</font></i></b>:
|
|
You can also, as a short cut, create a text file using vi (or some other
|
|
editor) and then copy/paste from that window into the stock Text Tool window.
|
|
Pasting this way will get you multi-line text, which you can't get if you
|
|
simply try to type newlines in the Text Tool's text input window.
|
|
Thats just an additional trick for getting multiline text into your image.</font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<hr NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<br><a NAME="webwonderings"></a><img SRC="../gx/hammel/webwonderings.jpg" height=57 width=246>
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica">Book Review: Web Design In a Nutshell</font></h2>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Author: Jennifer Niederst</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Publisher: O'Reilly</font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Price: $24.95 from SoftPro
|
|
Books</font></font>
|
|
<p><a href="http://www.softpro.com/softpro/1-56592-515-7.html"><img SRC="./gx/hammel/web-design-cover.jpg" HSPACE=10 VSPACE=5 BORDER=0 height=208 width=140 align=RIGHT></a>
|
|
<br>Although I do a fair amount of web design, it has been quite some time
|
|
since I've picked up any references on HTML , JavaScript or general
|
|
web page layout. When it came time for this months Muse column I
|
|
find, as usual, I couldn't find something new to write up. It
|
|
then hit me that its been quite some time since I'd done any book reviews.
|
|
<p>So off I went to visit SoftPro Books, my favorite local haunt here in
|
|
Denver for technical-oriented texts. I browsed the shelves for
|
|
a solid hour (it had, after all, been over a year since I'd last visited
|
|
them - I'd been Dallas all that time) for something new on graphics but
|
|
applicable to Linux. A few items looked promising but nothing stood
|
|
out as particularly motivating. I then moved over to the Web-based
|
|
texts. <b>Web Design In A Nutshell </b>by Jennifer Niederst caught
|
|
my eye, partly because of its familiar O'Reilly cover. Since I had
|
|
never done a review for Web Wonderings I thought this would be a good choice.
|
|
<p>The first problem I have when doing book reviews is to find one that
|
|
is applicable to Linux users. Keep in mind that although there are
|
|
plenty of administrative texts for Linux, there are relatively few that
|
|
are specific to Linux in other areas of computing. I scanned
|
|
the table of contents of Jennifer's text looking to see if there were any
|
|
glaring OS issues. There is mention of Shockwave and Flash under
|
|
one chapter heading, but other than that the five part, 27 chapter text
|
|
looked fairly platform inspecific. Thats a good sign for a text on
|
|
a subject that isn't supposed to care much about which platform its running
|
|
on. A quick chat with the SoftPro crew and I headed home with
|
|
the text.
|
|
<p>Once home I did a little deeper research. First, the 27 chapters
|
|
are broken into 5 parts (not including the appendices): The Web Environment,
|
|
HTML, Graphics, Mutlimedia and Interactivity, and Emerging Technologies.
|
|
Each chapter within these parts is fairly short and to the point - exactly
|
|
what you'd expect and need from a Nutshell reference. The opening
|
|
chapter, Designing for a Variety of Web Browsers, is a good lead in.
|
|
It talks about the various browsers out there, some less well known than
|
|
others, and includes a very helpful table showing feature support for many
|
|
of the different versions of Netscape, IE, and other browers. This
|
|
is followed in the next chapter with information on designing for various
|
|
display issues and includes graphical descriptions of the maximum and minimum
|
|
screen space available to both Netscape and IE users. A brief
|
|
list on making sites accessible (such as to speech synthesis software)
|
|
rounds out this chapter.
|
|
<p>The next chapter unveiled hidden platform specifics that I'd missed
|
|
on first glance - throughout the text there sprinkled pointers to tools
|
|
that can be used to deal with the current chapters topics. Unfortunately,
|
|
these pointers are decidedly MS and Mac oriented. The third chapter
|
|
goes beyond this by offering an introduction to accessing Unix systems
|
|
(as if they were so foriegn!). Despite these hidden annoyances, most
|
|
of the text is still platform inspecific. So you can just skip those
|
|
short tools sections.
|
|
<p>Through out the text there are tables and graphical descriptions mixed
|
|
in with the text. The tables are especially good. For example,
|
|
chapter 5 has a table showing relationships between common color names
|
|
(as defined by the X Window System), their RGB and Hex equivalents
|
|
<b>AND</b> the nearest Web safe color. This last bit is a new twist
|
|
on other tables like this that I've seen and is a nice bonus. Later
|
|
in the same chapter is a table showing the character codes used for displaying
|
|
various uncommon characters in HTML.
|
|
<p>Jennifer uses a nice guide when defining specific HTML tags - she shows
|
|
which of 5 browsers (with their various releases included) support that
|
|
tag. For example, the horizontal rule tag definition opens like this:
|
|
<br><img SRC="./gx/hammel/hr-example.jpg" VSPACE=10 height=82 width=580>
|
|
<br>In this case all the browsers support the <hr> tag. If any
|
|
of them didn't, they would be grayed out. This makes it easy to find
|
|
which tags are browser specific and, therefore, which tags to avoid.
|
|
<p>Along with the tables, the graphical descriptions used in many parts
|
|
of the text are very useful. In one table in chapter 12, the appearance
|
|
of form elements is shown for 4 different browsers (2 versions each from
|
|
Netscape and IE). This visual explanation of the differences in implementations
|
|
is very helpful to anyone who has muddled through trying to create forms
|
|
that are usable to users of any browser.
|
|
<p>The section on graphics is disappointingly biased to MS and Mac platforms.
|
|
Although much of the information can be applied to the Gimp and other Linux
|
|
graphics tools, its an excersize for the reader to make the translation
|
|
from the tools Jennifer describes to their Linux counterparts.
|
|
<p>Unlike the graphics section, the audio and video chapters are less biased
|
|
in the fact that Jennifer talks more about file formats than specific applications
|
|
that use them. For the most part, Linux has tools that support most
|
|
of the common audio and video formats. At least for playing these
|
|
files, if not for creating them. And even then, the creation tools
|
|
are slowly coming to public availability.
|
|
<p>Two areas that are covered that I find quite useful are DHTML and
|
|
XML. I've looked at DHTML a little but have not yet begun to read
|
|
up on XML. The two short chapters on these subjects are good introductions
|
|
for someone who is familiar with HTML in general.
|
|
<p>This nice thing about O'Reilly's Nutshell series is that the are more
|
|
than a straight reference guide but not so boring as a full blown collegiate
|
|
text on the subject. Jennifer Niederst's text <b>Web Design In A
|
|
Nutshell i</b>s a fine example of this series and, despite some of the
|
|
biases toward MS and Mac applications, is well worth the price.
|
|
<br>
|
|
<hr NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<p><a NAME="musings"></a>
|
|
<table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=3 COLS=2 NOSAVE >
|
|
<tr NOSAVE>
|
|
<td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="245" NOSAVE><img SRC="../gx/hammel/musings.jpg" height=50 width=245></td>
|
|
|
|
<td NOSAVE></td>
|
|
</tr>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
<h2>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica">Accessing non-keyboard characters in X</font></h2>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>A question came up recently
|
|
on the Gimp-User mailing list that I found interesting, mostly since I
|
|
didn't know the answer: How do you access characters that are available
|
|
in a certain font but do not have a key stroke assigned to them?
|
|
For example, how do you get to the Copyright character if there is no Copyright
|
|
key?</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>It turns out you can configure
|
|
your X server to understand new keystrokes for these unattached characters.
|
|
The key, if you'll parden the pun , is to learn about xmodmap, the program
|
|
that maps of keys to characters for the X server. This program, which
|
|
should be available on every Linux distribution under /usr/X11R6/bin, allows
|
|
you to specify the keystroke to use to access extended characters in a
|
|
font.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Let's say you want to map
|
|
the copyright character to the 2 key with the Shift key held down.
|
|
Currently, this is mapped to the familiar "at" (@) character. If
|
|
you make a short text file with the following line in it(<a href="#alan">1</a>):</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><tt><font size=-1>keysym 2 = 2 copyright</font></tt></blockquote>
|
|
<font size=-1><font face="Arial,Helvetica">and save the file, say named
|
|
</font><tt>temp.map</tt><font face="Arial,Helvetica">,
|
|
and then run</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><tt><font size=-1>% xmodmap temp.map</font></tt></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>this will map the copyright
|
|
character to the shifted 2-key. Now fire up the GIMP and you will be able
|
|
to generate the copyright character when using a font which supports it.
|
|
To get your keyboard back to normal, edit the temp.map file:</font></font>
|
|
<blockquote><tt><font size=-1>keysym 2 = 2 at</font></tt></blockquote>
|
|
<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>and again run xmodmap.</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Alternatively, you can use
|
|
a graphical interface to map lots of keys all at once. The <a href="http://www.jwz.org/xkeycaps/">xkeycaps</a>
|
|
tool, written by Jamie Zawinski of Mozilla/Netscape fame, gives you a graphical
|
|
display of your keyboard and allows you to map multiple characters to single
|
|
keys when those keys are used with various modifiers (such as CTRL or ALT).</font></font>
|
|
<center>
|
|
<p><a href="./gx/hammel/xkeycaps.jpg"><img SRC="./gx/hammel/xkeycaps-tn.jpg" BORDER=0 height=176 width=400></a>
|
|
<br><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>xkeycaps - click on image
|
|
for full size version</font></font></b></center>
|
|
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>If you make one of your keys
|
|
be a <i>Mode_switch</i> key, you can add two more characters to pretty
|
|
much every key that produces a character. For people that use international
|
|
characters, but want to use the US keyboard layout, you can make a key
|
|
a <i>Multi_key</i> and do sequences like <i>Multi_key-`-e</i> to get an
|
|
e with a grave accent on it<a href="#lyle">(2</a>).</font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Xkeycaps has to know about
|
|
your keyboards physical configuration, but fortunately its been around
|
|
for so long (since about 1991) and so many people have provided configurations
|
|
for so many keyboards that there is a good chance your keyboard will be
|
|
available. Even if its not, you can edit a configuration file in
|
|
order to add your keyboard to the list of keyboards.</font></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1></font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>I didn't have time to explore
|
|
this very useful application any further than this but plan when time permits.
|
|
For the most part I don't have a need to access any keys outside of those
|
|
available from my Dell keyboard. Still, occassionaly it would be
|
|
nice to have access to accent marks, copyright symbols and other symbols
|
|
for use in both my word processor as well as in the Gimp.</font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<a NAME="alan"></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>This information
|
|
comes from <a href="mailto:a@alanho.student.princeton.edu">Alan</a> on
|
|
the Gimp-User mailing list.</font></font></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>
|
|
<a NAME="lyle"></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>This information
|
|
comes from <a href="mailto:lyle@ltaylor.users.xmission.com">Lyle</a> on
|
|
the Gimp-User mailing list.</font></font></li>
|
|
|
|
<br>
|
|
<hr NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
|
|
<br><a NAME="rsrc"></a><img SRC="../gx/hammel/resources.jpg" height=50 width=245>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>The following links are
|
|
just starting points for finding more information about computer graphics
|
|
and multimedia in general for Linux systems. If you have some application
|
|
specific information for me, I'll add them to my other pages or you can
|
|
contact the maintainer of some other web site. I'll consider adding other
|
|
general references here, but application or site specific information needs
|
|
to go into one of the following general references and not listed here.</font></font>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<table BORDER=0 COLS=2 WIDTH="100%" NOSAVE >
|
|
<tr NOSAVE>
|
|
<td NOSAVE><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Online Magazines
|
|
and News sources </font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.news.com/">C|Net
|
|
Tech News</a></font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.eklektix.com/lwn/">Linux
|
|
Weekly News</a></font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot.org</a></font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>General Web Sites </font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.graphics-muse.org/linux.html">Linux
|
|
Graphics</a></font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linux_soundapps.html">Linux
|
|
Sound/Midi Page</a></font></font>
|
|
<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Some of the Mailing Lists
|
|
and Newsgroups I keep an eye on and where I get much of the information
|
|
in this column </font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.gimp.org">The
|
|
Gimp User and Gimp Developer Mailing Lists</a>. </font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="http://www.irtc.org">The
|
|
IRTC-L discussion list</a></font></font>
|
|
<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="news:comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing">comp.graphics.rendering.raytracing</a></font></font>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="news:comp.graphics.rendering.renderman">comp.graphics.rendering.renderman</a></font></font>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="news:comp.graphics.api.opengl">comp.graphics.api.opengl</a></font></font>
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<br><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="news:comp.os.linux.announce">comp.os.linux.announce</a></font></font></td>
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<td><img SRC="../gx/hammel/gmuse-2.jpg" HSPACE=10 BORDER=2 height=248 width=200></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<a NAME="future"></a>
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<h2>
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Future Directions</h2>
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<font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>Next month: No Muse since
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I'll be out of contact for a while. But the Muse will be back in
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May with, I hope, the first of a two parter on the X Windows System and
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Themes. Maybe.</font></font>
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<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1><a href="mailto:mjhammel@graphics-muse.org">Let
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me know what you'd like to hear about!</a></font></font>
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<br>
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<hr NOSHADE WIDTH="100%">
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<div align=right><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font size=-1>© 1999
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<a href="mailto:mjhammel@graphics-muse.org">Michael
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J. Hammel</a></font></font></div>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><H4>Previous ``Graphics Muse'' Columns</H4></center>
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<p>
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|
<A HREF="../issue11/gm.html">Graphics Muse #1, November 1996</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue12/gm.html">Graphics Muse #2, December 1996</A><BR>
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|
<A HREF="../issue13/gm.html">Graphics Muse #3, January 1997</A><BR>
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|
<A HREF="../issue14/gm.html">Graphics Muse #4, February 1997</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue15/gm.html">Graphics Muse #5, March 1997</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue16/gm.html">Graphics Muse #6, April 1997</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue17/gm.html">Graphics Muse #7, May 1997</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue18/gm.html">Graphics Muse #8, June 1997</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue19/gm.html">Graphics Muse #9, July 1997</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue20/gm.html">Graphics Muse #10, August 1997</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue22/gm.html">Graphics Muse #11, October 1997</A><BR>
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|
<A HREF="../issue23/gm.html">Graphics Muse #12, December 1997</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue25/gm.html">Graphics Muse #13, February 1998</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue26/gm.html">Graphics Muse #14, March 1998</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue27/gm.html">Graphics Muse #15, April 1998</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue31/gm.html">Graphics Muse #16, August 1998</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue32/gm.html">Graphics Muse #17, September 1998</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue33/gm.html">Graphics Muse #18, October 1998</A><BR>
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<A HREF="../issue34/gm.html">Graphics Muse #19, November 1998</A><BR>
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|
<A HREF="../issue37/gm.html">Graphics Muse #20, February 1999</A><BR>
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|
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1999, Michael J. Hammel <BR>
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Published in Issue 38 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, March 1999</H5></center>
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