Welcome From The Chief Editor

Surprise! Welcome to the unveiling of the magazine’s new layout. It is, after all, Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and a time of rebirth and renewal. It seemed only fitting to reveal the new layout with an edition of the magazine appearing in the Spring.

To be perfectly honest, it’s something that I’ve been toying with for the past six months or so. I’d work on it a bit, then step away, then come back to it, then step away, then come back to it … until it was finally finished. At various stages, I’d run ideas and proposals past Meemaw, for her input. We’d discuss each item, making sure I hadn’t forgotten anything along the various steps of creating the templates that she and I use to lay out the magazine.

The result is a layout that maximizes the amount of space we can utilize on the page, while still appearing stylish and attractive. One key theme in my thought process throughout making this new layout was to eliminate any unnecessary use of large blocks of color, to help those who may print pages from the magazine from having to bleed their color inkjet cartridges dry. Another idea in creating the layout templates was to streamline the magazine layout process as much as possible. I can tell you that after laying out articles this month, and putting everything together into the final copy of the PDF for the April, 2012 issue, that I think I’ve managed to achieve that latter goal.

My father-in-law shot this picture of me working on the magazine, March 10, 2012, during a visit to my in-laws house.

On another note, I recently had to accompany one of my patients at the hospital to the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanner in a different part of the building. While I was waiting for my patient’s scan to be completed, I was looking over the shoulder of the MRI technician who was administering the scan. Lo and behold, if that screen didn’t look familiar. Yep! That’s it! The MRI scanner was being controlled by software … running on Linux! The screen was neatly laid out, using the Motif Window Manager. This MRI scanner – and the software to run it – are just slightly over one year old. So no, this isn’t any old setup. Rather, this scanner and the special building built to hold it, was a multi-million dollar expenditure by the hospital I work for. I guess when you have mission-critical data, Linux is what you turn to, huh? Of course, all of us using PCLinuxOS already knew that.

This month’s cover was created by one of Timeth’s students in Japan. Due to laws and customs over there, I do not know the identity of the young lady who created the wonderful anime drawing we are using for our cover this month. So I’d like to express my sincere thanks to her, whomever she may be. I hope Timeth will convey my gratitude to her.

Until next month, I wish each and every one of you peace, happiness, prosperity and serenity.