"NEWS YOU CAN USE - SEPTEMBER 1999"

- IN THIS ISSUE: This issue is one of the best yet. E-Bible Teacher is releasing a 35 map Bible Class Atlas set in PowerPoint format for FREE! See below about how to download this set. We also have some great new graphics, and a review of SongShow Plus software.

- BIBLE MAP SET: Sooner or later most every teacher needs a Bible Map for the Sunday School. Although there are Bible Atlas programs most use fonts that are too small for video projection. Most have copyright limitations that prevent teachers from copying the images into their PowerPoint presentations. E-Bible Teacher’s set is free and has very liberal copying rights. Each image is designed specifically for using in your PowerPoint presentations. You can also print the maps out on paper or on color transparencies. You can edit the maps and set them up for your own use. 35 maps are included in the free set. Click on the link below to go straight to the download page:

http://www.ebibleteacher.com/batlas.html

- NEW GRAPHICS: This issue is a great one for new free graphics. More of Walt McIndoo’s photos have been added to our graphics page. This month, E-Bible Teacher is also pleased to present the photos of Morris Cromer. Morris has provided E-Bible Teacher with some excellent shots including those of the model of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem. We have taken the photos and edited out the modern scenery and changed it to a sky background to make the pictures more realistic. We think that you will be pleased with the results. Click here to see a sample:

http://www.ebibleteacher.com/tempang.jpg

There are other photos by Mr. Cromer scattered about on the graphics pages including: two more shots of the temple model, Egyptian Pyramids, Camel, Jordan River, Olive Tree, Palm Tree, Roman Soldier and Sinai Mountains. Walt McIndoo’s new photos this month include: “Jericho Road” (the road famous for the story of the Good Samaritan), Sycamore Tree (remember Zacheus!) as well as Garden of Gethsemane, Egyptian Sphinx, and the Temple Mount. We have been using Walt’s pictures for several months and are glad to bring these additional images out for your use. We have also added in a picture illustrating the “cubit” measurement from our upcoming “World of the Bible” series to be published in a few months.

SONGSHOW PLUS - A lot of churches use PowerPoint to project the words to worship songs on their projector screens. “SongShow Plus” is a software product specifically designed for worship song projection. It also has features for projecting announcements, scriptures, video clips and sermon material. The advanced version can control PowerPoint presentations, child care calls, etc. The basic version already includes the text of hundreds of songs and you only have to add in the songs that you want. The software supports the 6,000 CCLI songs that can purchased separately. I found the program fairly easy to use. You can quickly switch from verse to verse and even change what songs you are projecting in the middle of the service. The software comes with a wide selection of photo backgrounds that you can use for the songs and other projected material. It also includes a few sample video images. The software supports dual monitors so that an operator can see a control screen while the congregation sees the worship projection image. The program has quite a few features. I was surprised to see that the program even had some simple video editing tools. Overall, I was very impressed with this software. I give it five stars. If your church is committed to using video projection in worship then you should try this program. The publishers will give you a free evaluation copy. You can click on the link below to visit the site to get a trial version of this software:

http://www.fowlerinc.com/songshow/

GRAPHICS WANTED: Do you have photos that you think would be good for people to use in the Sunday School? Have you visited the Holyland and taken pictures? Click below to send us an email and let us know what you have. Sorry, we can’t pay for photos. but we will give you recognition and you can help support Sunday school teachers throughout the world.

VISITORS: We don’t know what happened, but on August 16th the number of daily visitors TRIPLED. The next day it DOUBLED again (that’s a 6X increase). We appreciate your interest in E-Bible Teacher. People from all of the continents except Antarctica have visited this site. People from over 33 countries have visited since we began in February including the United States, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Korea, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, South Africa, Brazil, Hong Kong, Ireland, Indonesia, Singapore, Sweden, New Zealand, Finland, Peru, Norway, Kenya, Argentina, Israel, Mexico, Belgium, Spain, Philippines, France, Mauritius, Turkey and more. The word is spreading! Thanks for your support.

MONEY: I have wavered back and forth on how to run this site. Should it run it as a business or non-profit? Should everything on the site be free or should I charge for some things? Should I sell advertising? At this point, although over 90% of the material on this site is free I am selling the full Sunday School sets as well as the games. Even though the site is being run as a business, the site is NOT a profit making venture! The little money I make on the sale of Bible games and such is put back into the operation of the site and the purchase of equipment. Right now, I am trying to make enough money to buy such things as a slide scanner, digital camera, etc. for making more Sunday School material. What is your opinion, should I run the site as totally free, ask for donations, continue as a business? Send me an E-mail of your opinion!

EMAIL VERSION OF MONTHLY “NEWS TO USE”: I know that it may be hard to remember when new issues come out. Are you interested in receiving the “News to Use” portion of this e-magazine as an e-mail? I am considering this. E-mail me if you are interested.

"NEWS YOU CAN USE - AUGUST 1999"

TABERNACLE PHOTOS: This month E-Bible Teacher is pleased to announce a whole new page of religious photos. The "Great Passion Play" of Eureka Springs, Arkansas has agreed to allow me to make digital photos available of their numerous Holyland displays including images from their full sized Tabernacle model. This model is fully to scale to the Tabernacle described in the Old Testament. You can visit their facility in Arkansas and actually walk through the Tabernacle. A tour guide explains all the features of this model. In addition to the Tabernacle, the "Great Passion Play" puts on the story of Jesus 5 nights a week beginning in April and going through October. They have a 4,000+ seat outdoor auditorium along with a Bible museum, recreated displays of important archaeological sites in the HolyLand and a host of other things. I was greatly impressed by their facility. You can visit their web site to learn more by clicking on the link below. Our new photo page has a variety of images taken of the Tabernacle and archaeological re-creations. They have allowed the images to be used provided that users give credit to them for the photos and leave the imbedded web site text in the picture. Basically, you get to use these images free and they get free advertising. However, all photos are copyrighted by the Elna M. Smith Foundation and should not be reproduced and sold without the written consent of the Elna M. Smith Foundation DBA The Great Passion Play. Be sure to check out the new page. I am sure that you will find these images very useful in the Sunday School. Click the link below to go directly to the page of the new photos:

http://www.ebibleteacher.com/passion.html

- NEW FOWLER CHURCH MULTIMEDIA GUIDE: Some years ago, Fowler produced a multimedia guide for churches wanting to use multimedia systems such as electronic projectors. Their guide was one of the best I had seen. The new guide is now out and Fowler sent E-Bible Teacher a copy for evaluation. Since this material is one of the few guides written specifically about this subject for churches I was interested to take a good look at it. I have finished my review and glad to say that the new handbook is the still the best. It’s hard to find technical information specifically targeted to churches and they have done a good job. This is not to say that the guide covers everything. It is only a 40 page handbook. An expert installer could easily write a guidebook of 40 pages about cabling alone and this guide covers not only cabling but systems, switches, screens, etc. Certainly, volumes could be written about any of these subjects but if your church is looking for a basic guide then they should consider this material. Even if you intend to have a company come in and design your whole system, reading this book will help you understand what is going on so that you can communicate effectively with your installer to get the features that you want. The new guide has updated technical specs and includes whole new sections about important topics such as cabling. The new guide is written in a lesson type format such that you can walk yourself through a planned learning program. A few things were left out that were in the old guide. I couldn’t find the budget worksheet, chart of expected uses or brightness chart. The only one I really missed was the budget worksheet. The brightness chart probably wasn’t really useful to most people and you can make up your own chart of expected uses from the chart on the first page of the E-Bible Class guide own E-Bible Teacher site. The bottom line is that Fowler’s new Church Multimedia Guide book is great. Any church considering the purchase of multimedia equipment should get this guide. Fowler sells a lot of multimedia equipment to churches. My impression is that Fowler feels that if you come to them for the guide that it provides them both good leads on possible sales and also hopefully reduces customer dissatisfaction due to poor installation. You don’t have to buy from Fowler to get the guide but you can at least see what they have to offer. Fowler is offering a free guide to all the readers of E-Bible Class Teacher. To get your free guide simply click on the link below to visit their web page and click on the link for receiving their catalog and guide.

http://www.fowlerinc.com/freecat.htm

SLIDE SCANNERS: In general, don’t plan on using your standard flatbed scanner for scanning in slides. Unless you have a really high quality scanner you will probably be disappointed in the output. If you need to scan in a lot of slides then you probably need to purchase a scanner designed specifically for slide scanning only. Slide scanning requires very high optical resolution and a quality light source. Some flatbed scanners allow you to add a second light source for slide scanning. The best thing to do is to get a scanner specifically designed only for scanning slides. These scanners are set up specifically for shining light through the slide, have color correction and a different focal point. If you don’t have a slide scanner and are in a pinch to get a slide converted into digital form for a presentation then try projecting the image on a screen with a standard carousel slide projector and taking a picture of the image with a good digital camera. This technique will probably not work well for photos that you want to print but can work in electronic presentations because projected images usually are only put out at about 800 by 600 resolution. You may have to do some color correction with your graphic software but with a little work you can come out with an image that will get you by in an emergency. I wouldn’t recommend this for quality work but it can get you by when you are in a hurry.

MORE PROJECTOR MANUFACTURERS: Marantz has joined the increasing number of electronic projector manufacturers. This year we have seen Kodak, Mustek and Compaq announce that they are now marketing video projectors. This means more competition and lower prices for us.

- MUSTEK PROJECTOR: A couple of months ago we reported that Mustek had announced their new electronic projector. This projector was given the retail price of $1999. Word is that this projector is selling on the Internet at prices as low as $1670 - (Try Buy.com as a possible source). The projector has a listed brightness of about 280 lumens. We noted that the spec page sent to us by Mustek didn’t list bulb stats. Upon contacting them we were told that bulbs last about 50 hours and probably run $15 to $25 for an EVD halogen bulb at various places on the Internet. This isn’t the best projector by far but is the least expensive new projector that we have yet to see. This may tell us something about the future of projector prices. Don’t hold your breath for a 500 lumen projector at $2000 anytime too soon, however. http://www.mustek.com/Imaging/index.htm - BOXLIGHT DEMO PROJECTORS: I understand that the sales people at Boxlight are given lists of used and demo equipment for sale.

http://www.boxlight.com

- SONG SHOW PLUS REVIEW : The “Song Show Plus” review has been moved to next month. “Song Show Plus” is a software product for displaying the words to your songs on a projection screen using a video projector. A lot of churches do this with PowerPoint. “Song Show Plus” is designed specifically for this purpose. We will review its features in the coming article.

- THE BEST SERMON AND DEVOTIONAL GRAPHICS: E-Bible Teacher has been working hard to get you graphics to use in teaching the Bible. There is one category of graphics that we have none of but we do know the absolute best source on the web. The place to find the best devotional and Sermon graphics on the Web is undoubtedly the “Heartlight” Christian e-magazine page. “Heartlight” is one of the best Christian electronic magazines in the world. They receive over 500,000 visits each month and send out over 48,000 devotional messages via e-mail over the Internet every day. “Heartlight” has probably won every major award given to Christian sites. One of the most acclaimed portions of their web site are the special graphics that they have produced. Heartlight now has over 200 high quality graphics illustrating scriptures. These graphics are awesome. They tend to have an emotional or devotional quality rather than pure instructional intent and are great for using in sermons or devotional messages. I have spoken with one of the main Heartlight ministers and they are glad for churches to use their images as long as the proper references are listed. Their official statement is: "Copyright © 1999, Heartlight, Inc., May be reprinted and reused for non-commercial purposes only if copyright credits are appropriately displayed." You can visit their images page by clicking on the link below:

http://www.heartlight.org/gallery/index.html

add to graphics page Be sure to read and follow their instructions for proper use of their images. I am sure that you will agree with me that there are none better on the web. Be sure to check out their new “flash” media which are moving graphics with sound. They are excellent motion Christian graphics that show the power of our new medium.

NEXT MONTH: More graphics! Review of SongShow Plus software for projecting your worship song text on the big screen.

"NEWS YOU CAN USE - JULY 1999"

- Graphics, graphics, graphics . . . Last month I started adding keywords and scriptures for graphics. This is setting up for ultimately having hundreds (thousands?) of images that are searchable by keywords and scripture references. The Internet is a slow medium for graphics distribution. I hope to eventually make the images available on CDRom at a budget price. This will make the images easier to use and would support higher resolution graphics.

- NEW PROJECTOR GUIDE FROM FOWLER: Fowler Productions, Inc has just produced another "How-To" video guide. Fowler sells a lot of multimedia equipment to churches. Their previous guide about how to select a video projector was one of the best that I have seen. I just got an early copy of their new guide and will review it this month for inclusion in next month’s news. Fowler can be reached at www.fowlerinc.com. Stay tuned!

- NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS: I get a lot of questions from people about which notebook computer they should purchase. I started using "portable" computers back when Osborne was selling one the size of a suitcase. Today, there are a lot to chose from. My personal preference are Toshiba’s, IBM and Gateways. All of the major manufacturers can provide you with just about any feature that you want. Several can even give you a TV out port. If they don’t then you can buy a credit card sized TV output card that slides into one of your computer’s PCMCIA slots. I think that one of the main things that notebook computer users need to consider when deciding on a computer is the type of built-in mouse that they want to use. I like the "eraser point" type cursor controls. Neither "eraser point" nor touch pads are very good for drawing but I feel that the Toshiba and IBM type pointers are much less likely to give you false movement of the cursor. As with anything like this, it is all a matter of opinion. Now you have mine!

REFURBISHED NOTEBOOK COMPUTERS: One way to save money on a notebook computer that is less risky than shopping on on-line auctions such as E-Bay is to buy manufacturer rebuilt computers. I have owned two different refurbished Toshiba notebooks. Each came with a Toshiba factory warranty. I have had few problems with either computer. Near the end of the warranty I did finally have to send one computer off for a minor repair. Everything was handled quickly and efficiently. Buying a manufacturer refurbished computer from an authorized dealer can save hundreds of dollars.

SCANNERS: If you haven’t bought a scanner yet then you ought to be thinking about it. Budget scanners are routinely selling for less than $50 after rebates. Although a scanner at this price isn’t really suitable for heavy duty work it is an inexpensive investment that provides you with lots of new capabilities. The inexpensive scanners have lower quality images and are usually a lot slower than the more expensive units. Even so, many scanners give you capabilities that you may not have thought of. In addition to allowing you to scan in an occasional photograph a lot of scanners come with software that allow you to copy a document or image and send it directly to your printer. This gives you a kind of "poor man’s copier." On inexpensive scanners the process may be slow and the quality mediocre but it might save you a trip to a regular copier. Some scanners also come with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities that allow your computer to scan in text and convert it to typewritten information instead of just a picture. Don’t get too excited about this feature. Unless you are willing to spend the money to get a high quality scanner and software then you may be disappointed with the output of such a device. Don’t get any ideas about scanning in handwritten text or old dot matrix printed material. If your original text is not nearly perfectly formed then you will likely have a hard time getting a good conversion. Overall, most Sunday School teachers will find good use for a scanner. Opportunities always arise when you would like to scan in some photo to use to illustrate your Bible lesson. One of the most difficult temptations however will be to resist scanning in some copyrighted photo or graphic to use in class. Next month we will talk about scanning in slides.

PRESENTATION TIP OF THE MONTH: Beginners often want to use black text on white screens for their PowerPoint type presentations. Black text on a white background is great for paper handouts and OK for computer screens and web pages but light colored text on a dark background is usually better for electronic projectors. There is some disagreement over this. The best thing to do is just to simply make up some sample slides and try them out for yourself. If you do pick light colored text on dark backgrounds then you may be wasting lots of ink when you try to print them. If you are going to print out such electronic slides as handouts for your class then its usally a good idea to pick the "Black and White only" option that comes up on your PowerPoint print menu. This will save you lots of ink and will make an image that is easier to photocopy.

NEXT MONTH: More graphics! Review of Fowler’s Video "How To" guide. Review of SongShow Plus software for projecting your worship song text on the big screen. Tips for scanning in slides.

"NEWS YOU CAN USE - June 1999

- Graphics, graphics, graphics  .  .  .  Last month the graphics pages were completely reorganized to prepare the way for the many more graphic images to be added.   About a dozen never before published images were added since May.  Over the next year, the graphics available should increase dramatically.  Free graphics are one of the main attractions of this monthly E-Magazine.  There are some very special things about the images on this website.   Not only are these images set up specifically for use by electronic based teacher but unless people copy these images from these pages and redistribute them you should NOT be able to find these images anywhere else.   Thanks go to Nadine Lucas and Walt McIndoo for releasing their photos for you to use.  More of their photos should be released in the next few weeks along with photos from another Christian from Indiana.   Unlike many image resources, these photos are being released from you copyrighted but royalty free.  You may use these images as long as you don’t re-release them in image pack.   We ask that you send people back to our page to get them.  This is done to encourage people to visit our site.  I have examined hundreds of photos to find just the right images and preparing the selected images for use takes MANY hours of my time.  If you have any questions about the distribution policy then just send us an email.   Keep checking back with this site for new images.   Eventually, there should be hundreds of such graphics. 

MAKE YOUR OWN -  Most beginners have lots of problems preparing photos for use in PowerPoint presentations.  Check our Q/A page for information about the most common mistakes made by beginners in working with photos and how to solve them.

- NEW PROJECTORS ANNOUNCED!   Compaq has announced that they are releasing an electronic projector, so has Kodak.  Mustek has just released their first electronic projector.  All these announcements mean more competition and lower costs for you.

- USED ELECTRONIC PROJECTORS:   Lately, we have been seeing used electronic projectors show up on Internet based auction sites such as EBAY.  You can save literally $1,000’s of dollars on used equipment.  But make sure that you do homework.  A projector that cost $10,000 three years ago may not perform as well as some of today’s $3,000 systems.   When reviewing information about projectors make sure that you take specs with a grain of salt.   There really is no substitute for trying out a projector in the place that you intend to use it.  You also have to be careful of who you buy your projector from.  Insist on proper packing for shipping, add insurance for shipping.  Electronic projectors are very susceptible to shipping damage.  Even so, there are a lot of opportunities to pick up projectors at good prices.   Visit the “links” page of this website to find your manufacturer from our list of over 40 sites to get the specs you are interested in and visit other listed links to see independent reviews.

- TRANSPARENCIES:  Sometimes you may need to use color transparencies instead of electronic projectors.  I occasionally run into this when I need a really large bright graphic with lots of detail.  If I just need a black transparency made on a photocopying machine I have found good prices at Sam’s Club (owned by Walmart).  You can get 50, photocopier type transparencies for about $8.  Color inkjet transparencies are a lot more expensive.  The transparencies sold by the major inkjet companies generally run about $1 per sheet!   You can spend a lot of money fast at that rate.  The best prices that I can find on color inkjet overhead transparencies are from MEI Micro.  Their web site is (www.mei-microcenter.com).

www.mei-microcenter.com

Their phone number is 1-800-634-3478.  The transparencies run about $10 for 20 transparencies thus about 50 cents each.   I don’t think that they are quite as good of quality of the major brands but the quality has been good enough for my purposes and the nearly 50% savings has been worth it.  Even though the transparencies are 50% less, don’t forget that you will have to pay for shipping, so you need to factor that into your calculations.  I have made a variety of orders from MEI-Micro over the years with no problems.  If you know of any more good deals, please e-mail me so that I can share that information with other readers of this e-magazine.   Let’s all help each other!

SCHOLAR’S CONFERENCE:  I will be giving a short talk at the Christian Scholar’s conference at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas on July 16th.  My subject will be about Technology in the Bible Class. Two other presenters will be talking about web pages.  Ed Barrels from Alabama will be talking about how to set up a church Web page.   His material is EXCELLENT.  Phil Ware of the electronic Heartlight magazine will be talking about lessons that they have learned.  Their magazine is one of the absolute best on the web.   The get hundreds of thousands of visits a month and send out over 60,000 devotional emails per day!  These guys are great!   Our presentations on technology are a small part of a large seminar.  Call Harding at 501-279-4449 for info.

- HIGH DOLLAR, HIGH QUALITY IMAGES:  Tired of low quality images? Try a company such as “EyeWire Studios” at www.eyewire.com. You will find some great images but you will pay some high dollars.  Sometimes, it is really worth it.

2ND GRADE PRESENTERS? - Our school sent all the second and third graders parents an offer to teach them various courses over the summer. I was surprised to see a class offering for PowerPoint for 2nd and 3rd graders! If our kids are taught this in the 2nd grade then what will they be doing when they get to be adults? What will they expect? We don't live in a particularly high tech area. Our little town has only 3600 people. I was greatly surprised to see this offer. It does tell us something about what kind of world our kids are growing up in. It is a lot different than when we were children.

NEXT MONTH: More graphics!  More maps!

"NEWS YOU CAN USE - May 1999

NEW POWERPOINT SERIES IN DEVELOPMENT:  I am working hard on a new PowerPoint series called “The World of the Bible.”  This series is a chronological overview of the entire Bible that keys on geography and timeline.  This is an important series because this material not only will provided detailed maps and chronologies that you can use when you teach this specific series but you can pull the material out and insert it in your own lessons.  Need a map showing the Exodus journey, Garden of Eden, Jesus’ or Paul's travels?  You will be able to pull it out of this lesson material.  One of the problems with graphics is trying to find images that are not copyrighted.  I am filling this series with NEW maps made from NASA satellite photos and will give you the authorization to reuse them in your material.  All I will require is that you donut just repackage my series and resell it.  I am also including LOTs of photos from the Holy lands.  Different photos will have different copyright restrictions based on where I obtain them but I think that you and your class will find all of them fascinating.  This PowerPoint series is the most ambitious ever.  I hope to have a free lesson out in June.  There will be a cost to buy the whole series (making these lessons is expensive!) but I will try to keep the cost low.

NEW THIS MONTH:  This month I have added a review of a “photobubble” type Holyland software.  “Photobubble” technology creates a kind of 3D type world by seamlessly stitching a series of digital photos together that you can interact with.  I also have a review of Charlton Heston’s “Voyage Thru The Bible” software.  This is a great series.  If you are teaching your Bible Class with an electronic projector and computer then you need to go out and buy this software.  It is a great way to show the advantages of computer aided Bible classes.  Just a few weeks ago, Walmart started selling both the Old and New Testament versions of the “Voyage” software along with 5 other religious software CD’s in a combined package for only $29.96 (US).  That is a great deal!  See my review page for details.

PRESENTATIONS MAGAZINE:  If you are really serious about electronic presentations then you need to get a subscription to this magazine.  Although this magazine is designed for businesses, the fact that each issue is full of information about effective presentations and presentation technology makes this a valuable resource for preachers and Sunday school teachers using technology.  Each issue gives presentation tips, articles, hardware and software reviews.  Check them out on-line at:  www.presentations.com

www.presentations.com

PRESENTATION TIP:  Want your presentations to be more professional?  Use the “5x5” rule.  The rule is to use no more than 5 bullets on a slide and no more than 5 words in a bullet.  One of the most common mistakes of beginners is to try to put to much information on slides.  Only list your most important points.  If you have a lot to say then use more slides.

THIS MONTH:  New items include review of photobubble, Voyage thru the Bible series, New “Do It Yourself Projects” page, new- faster loading graphics index with thumbnail previews, new graphics of Garden Tomb in Jerusalem and Golgotha.
 

      AD BANNER:  Repeat visitors will be pleased to note that we have eliminated the annoying ad banner that popped up last month as a separate window.   We had no control over what was being advertised and didn't like some of the material being promoted so it is gone.
      NEW GAME:  We have arranged to get a new software game to use in the Sunday School.  Currently, this E-Magazine is the ONLY place to get this game on the Web!   The game is a simple "tic-tac-toe" like program that allows the teacher to edit their own questions. .  This game is absolutely free!  Enjoy!
    ELECTRONIC PROJECTORS:  Prices of electronic projectors keep dropping.  Recently, InFocus has been selling their LP400 for just under $3,000 and Lightware (sometimes marketed as CTX) has been selling their 1,000 hour lamp life unit at about $3,000 and their 80 lamp life unit at about $2,000.   All are portable systems.  According to Presentations Magazine, Compaq and Mustek have announced that they are entering the market for Electronic projectors.  In a few weeks, it is anticipated that Proxima and Lightware are announcing more models soon at similar prices.  All of these units are in the 300-700 Lumen brightness range.  Lower prices means that more churches are likely to be able to afford this technology.  Be warned, however that often there are tradeoffs for buying the lower price models.  Make sure that to check lamp life and other specs.  We are finding that lumen ratings are not always consistent between manufacturers so buyer beware.  One company's 700 Lumen projector may not be as bright as another company's 500 Lumen projector!  Remember -  "there is no substitute for trying out the projector that you propose to buy in the facility in which it is going to be used".  If you came to my last seminar you heard this at least 20 times!
    PC/TV CONVERTERS:  TView has announced a $100 rebate on their PC Card (PCMCIA) Card that converts 640x480 VGA for notebook computers into a TV signal.  This is a great rebate since the card generally runs about $150 in street prices.  We haven't had a chance to try this device yet but it sure sounds like a good deal.  All this doesn't come without some tradeoffs.  Be careful to note that many notebooks that normally run at 800x600 or larger resolution won't give you dual screen display at 640x480 output.  At $50 however, this would be a nice device to have, even just for a backup.
    NEW IMAGES & REVIEWS:  New images from Rome are in this issue.  Check our graphics page.  We are securing more Holyland photos.  This April issue includes new reviews of illustration and Sunday school software.    Check back next month for more additions.  E-Mail us your comments!

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