ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
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Welcome to the 415th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists mainly of news and tips. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!
You can reach me at editor@pcin.net with any suggestions or comments.
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php
My house is filled with craft supplies! For the last several years Lisa has held a craft show/sales out of our house in the Fall. She makes some beautiful Christmas decorations (along with some other things) and tries to make some money to help out with things. The products are great, but it is hard getting the word out and having people come. Each year is a little better than the rest, so hopefully this will continue this year.
We've had some gorgeous days recently. The weather has been sunny and not too cool. The leaves are just barely starting to change colours. Even though every passing day means we're closer to winter (boooo! hiss!), the next few weeks should be beautiful!
Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net
Click Fraud - The dark side of online advertising
Martin Fleischmann put his faith in online advertising. He used it to build his Atlanta company, MostChoice.com, which offers consumers rate quotes and other information on insurance and mortgages. Last year he paid Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO )and Google Inc. (GOOG ) a total of $2 million in advertising fees. The 40-year-old entrepreneur believed the celebrated promise of Internet marketing: You pay only when prospective customers click on your ads.
Now, Fleischmann's faith has been shaken. Over the past three years, he has noticed a growing number of puzzling clicks coming from such places as Botswana, Mongolia, and Syria. This seemed strange, since MostChoice steers customers to insurance and mortgage brokers only in the U.S. Fleischmann, who has an economics degree from Yale University and an MBA from Wharton, has used specially designed software to discover that the MostChoice ads being clicked from distant shores had appeared not on pages of Google or Yahoo but on curious Web sites with names like insurance1472.com and insurance060.com. He smelled a swindle, and he calculates it has cost his business more than $100,000 since 2003.
Home PCs under increased threat, say experts
In the cyber underworld's never-ending quest for weak spots, home computers are coming under increased attack as businesses tighten their defences, according to the latest Symantec Internet security threat report.
"What really surprises is the way that attackers are moving," says Dean Turner, Calgary-based editor of the twice-yearly threat report. "They're moving in a totally new direction."
In the past, he says, hackers focused mainly on vulnerabilities in computer networks and their components. But the advent of sophisticated firewalls and warning systems have made them harder targets.
"They're now starting to target home users quite heavily primarily because home users are the weakest link in the security chain," says Turner.
All Vista versions to ship on single disc
Microsoft has confirmed that all versions of Vista will be shipped on a single DVD, in a feature called Windows Anytime Upgrade.
The idea, said a company representative, is to let customers more easily and directly upgrade to a higher edition of Windows Vista from within their current edition. Vista is scheduled to reach consumers in January.
Be Prepared for the Unexpected Photograph - Digital Photography Tip of the Week
I have been writing these tips for over a year now, and sometime they come to me very easy, others I have a hard time finding a topic. If there is something about digital photography you would like to know about, please leave a comment and I can work at writing on that topic.
This week's tip is something that I have thought about on many occasions, but haven't written about. Be prepared for the unexpected photograph, that is, keep your camera with you, and ready. Digital media loaded, batteries loaded and charged. If you own a digital point and shoot camera, it is very easy to be ready to shoot. It is a very simple concept, but if you do not have your camera with you, you cannot take a photograph. You never know when a photographic opportunity will present itself.
I was out with a friend last night looking for a specific subject to photograph. We hadn't found it yet and were losing the light, so we settled on shooting the sunset. The sunset itself was brilliant, but I was still uninspired to photograph it as the foreground did not add to the photograph (remember, if an element does not add to the photo, it detracts). The sunset was almost over, I had packed up and Dave continued to shoot. Almost over. As I stood there talking to Dave, the last fading orange light just touched the horizon, and illuminated the water in front of it, the rest of the water was blue with the reflections off the final bits of dusk. There were slight clouds in the sky enveloping, but not obscuring the crescent moon, all of which was reflecting beautifully in the water. There was only about 30 seconds when everything fell into place for the photo. I had missed my opportunity.
Had I followed my own advice and been prepared with my camera, instead of having it packed away with my tripod folded up, I would have had a magnificent shot. Instead, I had nothing. Even though I had my camera with me, I didn't have it ready to use and missed a great opportunity.
Until next week, happy shooting.
Leave a comment about this week's Digital Photography Tip of the Week.
The digital photography tip of the week is written by the PCIN Assistant Editor, Chris Empey. Chris is a long time photographer and is currently the President of the Niagara Falls Camera Club. You can see more of his photography at his Photo of the Day website.
If you have a tip to send Chris, or a question about digital photography he can address in the newsletter, send it to chris@pcin.net.
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Update PCIN.net home page with "Top 10 Most Popular..." features
http://PCIN.net/Microsoft Digital Image Suite Plus Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/msdimagesuiteplus.phpOmega One Software Battery Pack Pro 2.1 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/bpp2.phpMakayama Interactive DVD to Pocket PC 3.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/dvd2ppc3.phpAdobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/elements40.php
Recovering files off removable media
There are lots of tools out there to help you recover files that you've deleted off of removable media (such as memory cards). Some are free and some are not. Today I accidentally came across something that may be helpful. I have a SanDisk card reader connected to my computer. It has 4 different card slots to read a dozen different card formats. When I first connected the card reader a year ago, it made all of the card slots a different drive letter. This was a problem for me, as I connect to many network drives, and didn't have 4 spare drive letters. So using Disk Manager, I setup each new slot (or drive) as a folder on my hard drive. This is done by going into Computer Management and under the Storage section, click on Disk Management. You see all of your drives that are connected. Right-click on the one you want to change, and choose Change Drive Letters and Paths. You can then follow the screens that appear and either setup your drive as a letter or "mount" it to a folder.
With that background, here's what happened today. I deleted a couple of files that I wasn't supposed. I immediately pressed Ctrl+Z by habit to try and undo what I had just done. The files returned. This seemed strange since when things are deleted off of removable drives, they are gone. I deleted them again, and sure enough they were in the Recycle Bin. I guess since they were mounted as a folder on my D: drive, when they were deleted from the D: drive (or so the system thought), they went to my Recycle Bin. Neat!
SimplyHeadlines - RSS News to Email
I first read about this at DownloadSquad...
RSS feeds (commonly called blog feeds) are a great way to get quick and current information. However, it normally requires another piece of software or another web site that you need to visit. SimpleHeadlines is a service that tries to simplify this, and send you an email with your requested feeds, and it all looks like a newspaper.
Really Need Your News? Really Busy (or Lazy)?
Hate (or confused by) RSS?SimplyHeadlines is a once a day email newspaper. You decide exactly what type of news you care about. You pick:
* Where your headlines come from
* How many there will be
* At what time of day they will arrive
* The order in which they will appearAnd for the RSS enlightened, you can add any valid RSS feed to your daily paper. No software to install - it's basically an email RSS reader.
I haven't tried it (I use an RSS reader/client instead), but it looks interesting and I thought I'd pass it along. Check it out!
Adobe releases Lightroom Beta 4 for both Mac and Windows
Adobe has released the next beta of the their new Lightroom product. It can be downloaded from the Adobe Labs site.
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/
Both of us have other sites other than PCIN.net. These are all sites that we are actively involved in (they aren't client sites). Don't forget to check them out from time to time for updates:
PCIN is brought to you by Graham Wing. The opinions expressed are those of the Editor, Graham Wing and the Assistant Editor, Chris Empey. Graham Wing and Chris Empey accept no responsibility for the results obtained from trying the tips in this newsletter.
Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Chris Empey can be reached at chris@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2006, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.
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