“bulk” mail

today has been a little interesting. one of my clients has a medium sized client base, but it can be grouped into categories of clientele. he wants to send “bulk” messages to his clients, offering special services based on those categories.

well, that’s not really hard, is it? sending a copy of one e-mail to multiple recipients is possible from nearly every e-mail client available. the trick is to do it in an efficient manner and to follow a good e-mail etiquette. what complicated this little tutorial is that he uses eudora, on a mac.

i haven’t used eudora for several years. which means i’ve never used it on a mac. fortunately, eudora can be downloaded and used for free, with only a few limitations.

i imported my settings and contact info from apple mail, and set to work looking around the eudora interface. upon opening the address book, i discovered i had to enable showing of the OS X address book. once done, i created a few alternate address books. i seem to remember there’s a way to create “groups” in eudora, but this way was a little easier.

doing bulk mail this way forces the user to select the addresses in the address book. you can select multiple addresses by holding the command key as you select addresses. at the bottom of the address book panel, just click on the [Bcc:] button. Bcc:, of course, because you don’t want everyone to see all the other recipients’ addresses (that’s the e-mail etiquette i was talking about).

NOTE: duplicate addresses will only get one copy. eudora is pretty smart about that, but it confused my client, as he was trying it out by sending copies to himself. i think we’ve got it working for him, now.

new client activity

one thing can lead to another.

the minutos have been clients for nearly ten years. mostly, i keep there ‘puter running. they started with a packard bell (a cursed machine) that would completely quit working every couple of months. after rebuilding that machine several times, we finally built a new machine. from there we kept moving up, finally switching to a 24″ iMac (alum) early this year.

Frank is a professional artist — very prolific. he also teaches for the Palos verdes Art Center. Debs is a photographer, and she specializes in artist’s portfolios – photographing the originals and printing quality giclees. every once in awhile she calls for help with a project in photoshop. her call this week was to create a CD of one of Frank’ss series to present to galleries. it was an excellent time to introduce her to lightroom.

we used lightroom to adjust the images of a few of the photos and to create a screensaver of the series. we also experimented with how it would create a webpage presentation of the series. they liked the result so much, we’re finally going to put Frank’s work online! as i’ve been pushing for this for a couple years, i’m absolutely delighted.

we’re now figuring out just exactly how we’re going to upload the files. one new aspect we’re going to try is embedded videos of Frank’s “gallery statements”. we’re going to give him approximately 10 minutes to record a short description of the series, as though he were presenting it in a class lesson. we’ll probably use viddler, but (just in case) i’m going to try a few things with garageband. after showing the screensaver to another client, there’s even a possibility of having some original music for the site as well.

i guess i’m branching out into “production”.

busy, busy week

or two? i’ve been finishing up all the loose ends with taxes and such. the grandboy celebrated his 6th (!!!) birthday on friday and saturday. and i’m getting ready to go see the endocrinologist in the morning. that was a surprise; i thought the appt. was next month. thank the powers that be – one of my clients wanted a training session this week. there’s the appointment – plain as day…

i usually have my blood work done a week in advance. here’s hoping the test results arrive in time.

getting ready for the meetup with my client was fun, too. now that i have the iMac, i don’t use the laptop every day. i guess i’ve been neglecting it this month – there were TEN updates to be installed. i also wanted to be sure to install the adobe lightroom 2.0 (beta) as that’s one of the programs we’ll be working with. charged the battery and discovered the two spares i have are definitely deader than doornails. so i ordered a new battery, photoshop elements 6.0 and the print shop! i had no idea that was available for macs. i don’t use it often, but when i want to use it…

i spent a few extra minutes last night trying to trim some of the many many podcasts down to “manageable”. sigh, i don’t think it’s going to happen. iTunes reports i have 862 podcast episodes currently in the queue. granted, some of those are stories i haven’t yet transferred to CD, but many of them are tutorials. i’m going to have to get brutal over the next couple of weeks.

lists

i love lists. lists of things i need to do, things i should do, things i want to do.

i write lists of things i need to order. grocery lists. menus. books i want to look up; the next ones to read. patterns i want to try, fibers i want to use.

i list my goals, my accomplishments, my blessings.

i even write lists of lists!

one of the nicest things on a mac is the stickies app. i have stickies all over the 6th space on my iMac. every one of them is a different list. there’s a list of podcasts, a list of software. there’s a list of dates that my family might be getting together. i have a list of phone numbers, and email addies i haven’t yet added to the address book, and another list of websites to check.

every so often i check the lists – delete items, add others. i love the stickies…

creating a logo

well, actually not. what i’m doing is cutting a logo from a photo using CS3. this could be really tricky, depending on the photo. but photoshop has some cool tools that really help.

the photo in use is one i took at the Star Trek Tour. over the entry was a huge and beautiful panel and the picture i took shows it very clearly. the Queen Mary Dome is white on top, but the entrance is dark. selecting just the logo should be fairly easy.

the quick select tool is really a bonus. with a little patience, i was able to select the entire border and not the doorframe. but there are a few blurs along the edge where the contrast fades away. not too bad, really, but the edges look a little choppy at first.

copied it onto a new layer, hid the background and now i’ve got a very sharp contrast. i also have a great cintiq 20WSX monitor. can easily zoom in, and move around the edges. can expand and contract the eraser easily, too. so now i’m just smoothing out the edges a little…

i’ll be using it in a newsletteer reviewing the Tour for the O*W*C.

little reminders

listening and watching leo during “the techguy” broadcast, today, i was reminded about being prepared. his video stream went down after just two hours because he forgot to bring his power supply cable for his macbook pro.

it’s such a little thing; a simple cable can ruin a session with a client. same thing for card readers, backup drives, e-manuals… i’ve done it myself.

a couple years ago, i had the opportunity to create a DB for a client on a new eMac (new then!). “the DB is ready!” i proclaimed over the phone, and set up a time for delivery. to my chagrin, I had loaded it on a floppy disk, completely forgetting his new ‘puter did not have a floppy drive… completely wasted my afternoon (not a “close” drive), and disappointed my client, terribly.

keep up with your clients’ requirements! double check your travel kit for cables, necessary peripherals, etc. and back up! back up! back up!

newsletter

i write a monthly newsletter called “Digital Papyrus” for the Other Worlds Cafe SF chat group (there’s lots more than just chat). this week, i’ve been working on a supplement – a mini-review of LOSCON 34, which i attended Thanksgiving weekend in 2007.

i am totally enthralled by adobe lightroom. i’ve used adobe photoshop for many years, but lightroom puts some “speed” into my work process. having recently convrted to a dSLR camera, i now have some huge photos to work with. lightroom simplifies cataloguing and some of the early editing, without damaging the files.

even though the pics i took at LOSCON were .jpgs from a “point and shoot” camera, lightroom helped me adjust the tones and details immensly. and the CS3 “quickselect” tool helped me create smart objects in a number of photos in less than a third of time it would have taken just 6 months ago (before i upgraded).

should be able to finish this issue in just an afternoon, now

bill-pay

so i’ve neglected my inbox for almost 3 weeks. my bad… good news; only one bill was late, and only 1 day late at that! i do love managing my finances online. instant payments can really save your bacon

another really cool advantage to online banking is the ability to find up-to-the-minute account information. i was able to balance my checkbook and three credit accounts to the penny as of 2:20pm this afternoon. there’s nothing better than knowing exactly how much you owe and what funds you have to rely on.

i just wish Quicken home & business was available for the mac…

iPod Touch

i succumbed! 16GB version on order! it’s the perfect solution. everything i liked about the iPhone without having to switch to ATT or paying the $60/month data charges. i really like that. my current iTunes library is around 12GB; the whole thing will fit on the iPod Touch with room to spare for a lot of my photos. whee!

a side word, here. lots of people have complained about the HUGE price drop on the iPhone. it’s only logical. with the new iPod line out, there’s a huge conflict whether to buy the iPod or the iPhone. and it’s moot, now; Apple is splitting the difference with early adopters – $100 credit in the Apple store. Yeah, they could have priced it lower in the first place, but there IS a risk when you ruch out to buy the newest tech. it wasn’t the price that made me wait – it was ATT. with the iPod Touch, now i’m really happy i waited. maybe down the line i’ll buy the iPhone, but ATT’s got to get better, or the contract does, or the market’s got to open up (no exclusivity). have you noticed the ones yelling the loudest about the price drop are NOT the ones who bought it?

about the rest of the iPod lineup. 160GBs is really cool. i have a 60GB iPod video that i use primarily as a backup drive for my macbook. the new nano does look kinda fat, but it’s almost cute that way. and i love that the shuffle is now available in {product} red. might even get one, just because.

resolutions

in august?!!!

yeah, i’m a little early (or a lot late).

1. switching to mac is really paying off. so much so, that i practically have to force myself to use the monstro. not that the monstro is a bad thing, although it only runs vista right now. i will be adding suse to it, eventually. but i’ve decided to invest in one of the new iMacs. not willing to wait for the mac pro – i have the money for the iMac, now! and it cuts the cost enough that i can afford to get the software i want, and/or the cintiq monitor.

2. blogging is nice, but i really need to do it more consistently. i also need to start adding some more useful/interesting content. so i’m going to be scheduling myself “blog time” on a calendar. i’m also reviewing my archives, and trying to add some pictures, links, etc. this will make it worth running back thru the archives to see updated posts.

3. speaking of schedules… i’m always saying i want to learn some programming, a new language, etc. so that’s become a daily scedule, of sorts. almost like a “class schedule at a regular school. i just might put some of my “progress” into my blog.

i think that’s enough resolutions for the time being. pretty big goals i’ve set for myself; don’t you think so, too?