Why game?

• Gaming is a great way to motivate kids to use computers. (Steve started learning computers by programming his own basic games in 1980.)
• Gaming teaches teamwork. (MPRPG are a metaphor for teamwork, according to Joi Ito [chair 6apart Japan, International VP technorati].)
• Gaming is a great way to learn about computers. (Gamers need bleeding edge hardware and drivers, and just to get their games running well end up with a sysadmin's knowledge, ready to go to work building and maintaining other's PCs.)
• Think of the children! (Even if you don't game, you'll need to learn enough to buy games for your children and other kids in your life.)
• Gaming is better than TV. (Gaming uses your brain, unlike mindless TV.)

How to pick gaming hardware: Read online reviews. Especially video cards can be hard to understand just from reading the model number off the box: Research them very carefully. When building a PC, Jeff made an excel spreadsheet to track the model, cost, resolution, and speed of his candidate cards. Video card brands: Buy nVidia or Radeon; avoid the other crap.

How to pick game software:

• Read reviews. Alex recommends gameFAQ's imdb-like reviews.
• Try demo first. (Personal preference is huge.)
• Half Life is a great FPS engine. Its downloadable "steam" games require no atoms (CDs, boxes). Download and use for free for two weeks, then use your email and password as a purchase key.
• WoW with 8m users, is the most popular MMOG

Robert enumerated blogging software, recommending wordpress. He explained how to tag your blog at technorati, so that your entries would appear in google. Robert also warned of "splogs" (spam blogs); e.g., Coke's blog repeats "coke is great."

Alex collected Robert's references:

http://wordpress.com/
http://www.blogger.com/start
http://www.japan-hopper.com/
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home
http://www.technorati.com/
http://www.technorati.jp/
http://www.box.net/
http://www.youtube.com/
http://del.icio.us/
http://slideshare.net/yizmo/10-ways-to-a-killer-blog/
http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/
http://www.netvibes.com/
http://pageflakes.com/
http://www.list4all.com/
http://www.squeet.com/home.aspx
http://www.grazr.com/
http://www.google.com/reader/view/
http://www.mychingo.com/

Graphic Converter (GC) is a $30 photo-editing shareware for MacOS 8+. GC's competitors (Apeture, Elements, iPhoto) are all excellent. But GC may offer the best bang for the buck. With its native intel code, GC runs on the latest Macs much faster than the $650 Photoshop. Photoshop's additional features (masks, layers) suit it to carefully tweaking an image. (Ernie uses Photoshop when restoring a 1920s snapshot.) GC's ergonomic interface suits it to quickly editing dozens of images. (Alex uses GC to crop and thumbnail 10-30 photos each day.)

Alex demoed GC's ergonomic, iPhoto-like thumbnail browser and editing screen sporting photo-browsing next/previous buttons and 7 quick adjustment sliders. GC's batch "convert and modify" wizard leads you through picking multiple source files, a destination folder, and a program (a sequence of parameterized image-edited commands). Alex showed us how he makes thumbnails by automatically shrinking and sharpening images. Alex also demo'ed GC's selection, filters, and extensive print-layout features. Tip: Use "levels" to lighten, "gamma" to darken images.

Alex also showed PhotoBooth, which distorts your webcam's image, making funny faces. PhotoBooth is bundled on the newest Macs, which finally can't run Classic.