ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
==== 2078 Subscribers in 59 Countries ====
Welcome to the 377th 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.
Recommend PCIN at http://PCIN.net/recommend.php
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php
We hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas and New Year! Now back to the regular routine...
Since everyone else is making lists, I figured I'd give you a few stats for PCIN.net for the year 2005:
Total visits: 293,093
Total page views: 1,969,728
Total hits: 6,982,367
Most visited page: PCIN.net Update blog main page (599864 hits)
Most visited non-blog page: Norton Ghost 2003 review (14827 hits)
All versions of Windows accounted for 90% of the operating systems
All versions of Internet Explorer accounted for 63.5% of browsers
All versions of Firefox accounted for 24.9% of browsers
Top key phrases: goggle earth (9889 searches), show desktop shortcut (7404 searches), earth goggle (1040 searches) Note: a visitor spelled Google wrong (goggle), and I've had thousands of people find the site because of it!)
Best new feature: Chris' Digital Photography Tip of the Week
We'll keep working hard to give you even more of the friendly, useful, and relevant PC information through 2006!
Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net
Apple juggernaut shows no sign of waning
Five years ago, Apple Computer Inc. was barely an afterthought in the halls of electronics companies.
Not anymore. With its best-selling iPods and landmark licensing deals with music and television moguls propelling new ways of consuming digital media, Apple now is the pacesetter.
'E-cycling' puts new life in electronic junk
Arcane PCs, printers, monitors and other obsolete gizmos are stacked high along the walls of the dusty suburban Atlanta warehouse, awaiting reincarnation before a line of grisly industrial shredders.
"To us, they're plastic, copper, aluminum and steel," said Nader Nejad, who runs Molam International, Georgia's largest electronics recycling depot.
Working at the PC Isn't So Lonely Anymore
In the beginning, personal computers were for loners. You sat at the desk and stared at the screen. To involve anyone else in what you were doing, you had to pull up an extra chair at that same desk, or carry a printout or floppy disk containing your work to a friend's or a workmate's machine.
Working with computers became interesting, as opposed to merely useful, when it became a social activity. E-mail was the first big step, and the Internet the second. Now, with the BlackBerry and Skype and municipal WiFi and the omnipresent cellphone, it is tempting to think that technology has given us too many ways to stay in touch.
But if the history of communications shows anything, it is that the demand for connectedness is limitless. (And round-the-clock communication makes the occasional disconnected interlude, whether a vacation or a mere two-hour airline flight, all the more precious.) So the most promising tech developments are often those that offer yet another way to satisfy the primeval human urge for contact.
Pew: Online Gender Gap Shrinks, But Sexes Use Web Differently
These days, women and men go online in almost equal proportions, but what they do on the Web is another matter entirely. Men are more likely than women to check weather and news, download music, and get financial information; women are more likely to look for health and medical information, use e-mail, and--clichéd though it may be--seek out maps and directions online than are men. Those are some of the findings of a new study that examines gender and Internet use, by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The report, "How Women and Men Use the Internet," found that 68 percent of men were Internet users as of September, compared with 66 percent of women. Those figures represent gains for women from March of 2000, when a previous Pew study found that 49 percent of men and 44 percent of women used the Web. For the report, Pew looked at several separate telephone surveys it conducted between March 2000 and September 2005; the total number of respondents in 2005 alone was 6,403.
| Return to the top | Recommend PCIN |
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
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.phpNorris Family Industry ActiveEarth 2.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/activeearth2.php
| Return to the top | Recommend PCIN |
Microsoft Digital Image Suite Plus Review
I recently had the opportunity to review Microsoft Digital Image Suite Plus. This is Microsoft's digital image editing product, digital image library and Pinnacle System's Studio 10. The image editor provides advanced image editing capabilities including curves support, channel controls for high quality black and white images and support for Canon and Nikon RAW images. However, the interface is cumbersome to use and the RAW support does not provide any additional controls for adjusting colour temperature, exposure, sharpness or tint of the RAW image as is found in most RAW processors. The Library however is very nice and supports tagging and rating photos.
Pinnacle Studio 10 is also very nice and even when struggling for processing power (the software is power hungry) imports video and exports movies without dropping frames.
Comment on 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 vice-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.
| Return to the top | Recommend PCIN |
10 things you should do to improve every new Windows PC
This is from the latest Windows 2000 Pro newsletter from TechRepublic:
This document lists 10 enhancements you should make to every new Windows PC, no matter whether it is a workstation or the family media computer.Download the 10 things you should do to improve every new Windows PC
Leave a comment...
Upload and crop your photos
Upload and crop your photos, images, web graphics, Skype / MSN / Yahoo avatars and more. Forget Photoshop! No registration, no hassle and it is totally FREE!Every page has ads on it, so it is cluttered, but the service does work. You can work with JPGs, GIFs, and PNGs. Check out ImageCrop.com
SEO Analyzer
I heard about this at Google Blogoscoped:The SEO Analyzer uses a sophisticated algorithm that detects how optimized your web page is for search engines. The SEO Analyzer focuses on:Check out the SEO Analyzer!
* web standards
* semantic structure
* obsolete and deprecated HTML
* improper use of table elements
* inline styles
* download size and time
* outgoing links
* top keywords
| Return to the top | Recommend PCIN |
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:
| Return to the top | Recommend PCIN |
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.
Support PCIN by visiting http://PCIN.net/donate.php