[chris h]

DJ,

Have you managed to find any interesting groups on Usenet. I thought I'd mention it here as perhaps other people are not aware of the information available. I've yet to find a group with any specific retouching ethos though.

[DJ Dubovsky]

I couldn't get on the computer at all yesterday so I didn't get much of a chance to expand on the ones I already subscribed to. I did find a good one on airbrushing at alt.airbrush.art and some on bread recipies because I use my bread machine alot and there was one on business.home.pc which dealt with running a home based business with your pc that looked good also the scanner ones and one on windows 2000. That got me through the A's as I said. But considering there are some 20,000 to choose from this could take awhile even searching topics I like. You should post to everyone how to get at these things and remember to walk them through it because it isn't the easiest thing to do if you're a computer "illiterate". But the wealth of topics at your fingertips is great. Thanks Chris
DJ

[chris h]

I reloaded the list today and I think it's getting nearer 40,000 admittedly at least half being rubbish. But if anybody hasn't used/hasn't heard of newsgroups your missing out on a useful resource.
Enough of the boring computer stuff mention of the bread machine interested me. My father was given one which hasn't been used yet any tips ? ( In Salon)

[Doug Nelson]

Lets try this and see if it works. For those of you that have a default newsreader installed, this link should take you to one of my favorite usenet groups:

news://comp.graphics.apps.photoshop

[chris h]

Doug,

I'm afraid the link didn't work but I chased it up anyway. I use Agent as a news client instead of Microsoft Outlook. Vive la Difference !

[CJ Swartz]

In addition to subscribing to a few newsgroups (comp.graphics.apps.photoshop and pagemaker among others), I use Google's search of newsgroups when I have a specific question or problem. I can search for something specific among many newsgroups.

True, when you're searching for a Photoshop related answer and you get answers that include posts from recreational hunting or cooking groups, it takes a bit of sifting through to find the answers I want. :p But I do sometimes find answers in a newsgroup that I wouldn't have thought to visit myself. Now we can search for specific images on the net using Google also.... can come up with some strange matches though.

http://www.google.com/

[Doug Nelson]

Google bought deja.com, the leading web-based usenet interface. You can reach it either via deja.com or go to google and click on 'groups'.

On the plus side, its searchable and doesn't require any extra software, so its good for seeing if there's anything useful for you on usenet.

On the minus side, its slow and doesn't have any of the binary groups (most are trash, but there are some that post excellent examples of photo editing).

I do use google's (and altavista's) image search utility, but by its nature it can only find low-rez images. I like both site's 'family filters', though.

[jeaniesa]

I also use the dejanews/google search engine to search for info on a specific topic. I'm amazed at how much there is out there. You can limit your search to reduce the amount of "noise" from non-relevant groups in your search result.

I love the Photoshop newsgroup that Doug posted, but don't have the time to monitor it every day. It quickly becomes overwhelming for me, though often tons of good information. Luckily, Doug monitors it or I might have never found this forum!

I also follow the scanning newsgroups every so often - again when I have time. I always learn things, but can easily get "lost" in all of the information, so find that using the search engines is a better use of my time when I have something specific I'm looking for. Often, my question has already been answered a half a dozen times already, so not only do I not have to ask a question that's already been asked, I also don't have to wait for the answer since I've already found a bunch!

Jeanie