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Announcing The Next Edition of V8SHO Screensaver

9/10/2006, updated 12/18/2006


It has been over a year since the 2005 edition of the screensaver was released so it’s about time to start working on the next version. That being said, get your SHO pictures ready and begin to send them in! The new edition of the screensaver will include the past images and add any new ones which are submitted. (With some possible exceptions, see below about the new program!)

Here are some guidelines for submitting pictures for the screensaver:

· .jpg file format is preferred, but I can convert just about any other format out there.

· Send me the largest highest quality pictures you have, they will be reduced to keep the screensaver size down, but it’s best to start with the biggest available images.

· Obviously, don’t send any pictures to me if you don’t want them to be included in the screensaver and made available for free download from the web site. If you have a picture you didn’t take yourself, make sure we’d be allowed to use it.

· Pick a few of your favorite pictures to send, don’t send hundreds of them, but don’t feel limited to only 1 or 2, especially if you aren’t in the past editions of the screensaver. There is no official limit on the number of pictures.

· If you would like to have your name and location included as a caption for your pictures in the screensaver, please include this information in the e-mail when you send pictures to me.

· It would help me a lot if you could include your name and location info in the title of the picture files you send me.

· If you are in the screensaver already and you want your information changed, you moved, or you want to be removed from the screensaver, send me an e-mail and let me know.

· You may use Photoshop or another graphic editing package to enhance your pictures, but don’t send pictures if your car with Photoshopped mods.

· If you would like your license plates blurred, please do that before sending me your pictures if you can. if you have no means of doing so, just let me know in your e-mail and I’ll take care of it.

Where to send your pictures

The best way to get pictures to me is to e-mail them. My e-mail address is



I have some alternative addresses, but unless anything goes wrong, just send pics to that one.

I am also on aim and you can IM me and transfer pictures if you wish, my screenname is


Deadline for pictures

As before the deadline is going to be fuzzy, even if pictures are sent to me after the official end of the picture collection period I’ll do whatever I can to get them into the screensaver while it’s under construction. I’m going to set the fuzzy deadline for the end of October. That should give everyone plenty of time to find their favorite pictures or to go out and take a few more. So for now let’s say October 31, 2006.

Best SHO picture contest

I mentioned towards the end of the last edition of the screensaver that I wanted to have a small contest for this edition. I will pick a favorite SHO picture from the new entries for this edition, and feature that picture as the title page/splash screen for the new screensaver! The photographer will be given credit (unless you don’t want it) on the title page. This picture will also be featured in the screensaver without the title watermarks. During the last screensaver there were about 2-3 excellent pictures sent in, the best picture will be one with a perfect balance of the pose of your SHO, lighting, color, background, etc.. So look through your collection from the convention or elsewhere and pick your best shot to send in!

The new screensaver package

One important part of this edition of the screensaver is that I have finally found a screensaver package which I can switch over to and stop using image carousel. Image carousel is built on very old technology, it doesn’t like to run on newer operating systems like XP, and it has some nasty bugs in it, one of which likes to corrupt the screensaver files and ruin hours of work. I have also had problems with image carousel screensavers failing to display certain images for no reason whatsoever. For many reasons, it’s time for a change. Along with that change comes some very nice new features of the screensaver which will be included in this new version:

· Multi monitor support – this was requested recently by a member of the mailing list, the new screensaver program supports multi-monitor computers and will utilize all screens. The way it works is very nice, you see a different picture on each screen, which picture changes as the picture rotation happens switches from one screen to the other. There is a bug in this new software which causes some minor problems if you’re monitors are not all running the same resolution. I hope there will be a fix for it, but even with this bug, its multi-monitor capability is great! It can be disabled if you want to though.

· Improved installation process, no longer do you get a single box with an OK button, followed by an empty screen while installation occurs, this one allows you to change the installation location (probably don’t want to though) and gives you a progress indicator.

· A menu item will be added to your startàprograms menu for the screensaver! It includes a shortcut directly to preview mode so if you just want to start it up and enjoy the SHOs, you don’t have to do it through screensaver properties or create your own shortcut.

· This screensaver will support uninstall if you want to take if off your computer.

· The splash screen will now be the screensaver’s title screen, no longer will the screensaver advertise for the program which created it.

· The new program has more great looking transition effects than the old one did

· The new screensaver will perform better than the old one, the transitions are smoother than before, although individual computer capabilities will affect the screensaver’s performance.

· The new screensaver will still allow you to customize many properties. You can set the display duration for the images, select which transitions you want to see, select how fast the transitions should take place, enable or disable multi-monitor support….etc.

There are some problems with going to a new screensaver program however, they aren’t that major, I think it is well worth it for the benefits.

· This version does not have a sequential mode where it remembers the last image, and picks up where it left off on the next run. I was disappointed to find that not an option, and I asked the company if they could add it in the next version (if they do, I’ll put out a new version of the screensaver at that point) this is not such a big deal however, since it does support a randomization mode. Image carousel’s random picture mode didn’t work too well, it just picked a picture at random to show, so sometimes you would see a pic, then see another one, then see the first one again. This new program will not do that, it makes sure you have seen all of the other pictures before showing a picture twice.

· I am not sure if I can save the old pictures from the earlier editions of the screensaver. I have all of the image files from the screensaver since I took over from Troy a few years ago; however he did not still have the original .jpg files from before that point. I may be able to get to them by undertaking the tedious process of calling them up one by one and taking screenshots, but I can’t say for certain that it will work, or that I’ll be able to save the very old pictures. I’ll certainly try though. This may be a mixed blessing though, if I can’t save them, it would help to clear out old pictures and replace them with new ones to keep the screensaver up to date without the file size growing too large.

Due to this transition, it is likely to take longer than usual to get this whole process done, especially while trying to recover the oldest images. I was going to wait until closer to the end of the year to make the next edition because that worked well before, however since this may take some time, I thought we could get started early.

So everyone break out the digital camera, look through our SHO picture library, find your favorite images of your SHO and send them to me!



Mike

97 ES
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I hope everybody can appreciate the amount of time and energy Mike is going to put in this project once again. He spends countless hours reviewing all the submissions, editing, and assembling the screensaver into the final product.

I want to make sure that he and everyone else, be they active on the list, or lurker, understands and appreciates his individual contribution.

On another note, Of course we want to see the cars, but we also want to put a face to an email sig line. Try sending more than one picture that includes you, the owner. I'm not much interested in your dog, cat, parrot or other animal companion. 

Adhere to his guidelines, and if you have individual questions, drop Mike a quick email. Bear in mind he's still studying in College so keep your pants on if you don't get an instant response. 

Now, Lets get busy!!

U.L.
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12/18/2006

IT'S HERE!!!! The 2007 Screensaver will knock your sox off. Mike has outdone himself with this one. There are over 100 new shots in here and it's a high quality presentation.

A special thanks once again goes out to Mike who authored, edited, and compiled it. To Scott K who allowed us temporary hosting to test the beta.

Here it is: images/screensaver/V8SHOSSeB1setup.exe

Enjoy!!


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