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Issue 384 - February 22, 2006

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
==== 2010 Subscribers in 55 Countries ====

Welcome to the 384th 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.

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Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php

CONTENTS

Opening Thoughts

I'm on vacation this week and so that's why you are probably getting the newsletter out a little early. We didn't go anywhere, but we've gotten a fair amount of work done in and around the house, so it's been good. ANd of course it's always good playing with Andrew and Matthew. I don't want to sound too old, but they sure do grow up fast!

When I sent out the newsletter last week I forgot to put the new Digital Photography Tip of the Week in so it was a repeat of the week before. Sorry about that. The new tip is in this issue, and concludes Chris' series on night photography.

Remember that I'm looking for items that I can include in the Tips and Other Stuff section. This has always been the hardest section to fill. Feel free to email us with some sites to recommend and useful tips. It will help us put together a more complete newsletter, and it will help your fellow readers. We'd be happy to provide you with the credit and link back to you for anything that we use.

Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net

The NEWS

Rumsfeld: U.S. propaganda needs to enter digital age

The United States lags dangerously behind al-Qaida and other enemies in getting out information in the digital media age and must update its old-fashioned methods, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday. Modernization is crucial to winning the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide who are bombarded with negative images of the West, Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign Relations. The Pentagon chief said today's weapons of war include e-mail, BlackBerries, instant messaging, digital cameras and blogs. "Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but...our country has not adapted," Rumsfeld said.

Read the CNet News article...
Leave a comment...

Survey: Canadian students log in, get turned on

Call it a sexual revolution of the virtual kind -- young Canadians are practicing a new style of safe sex and the only touching required involves a keyboard.
Of more than 2,500 university and college students polled across Canada, 87 percent of them are having sex over instant messenger, Webcams or the telephone, according to results of a national survey released on Monday.
"We were very surprised," Noah Gurza, a founder of Toronto-based CampusKiss.com, an online dating community for students, which commissioned the first annual Canadian CampusKiss & Tell Survey.
"We did realize that new technologies are always embraced by younger individuals, but we didn't think it would've reached such a high number."

Read the CNN article...
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Gizmos Trump Gowns at Nerd Oscars

Attendees at the 2006 Scientific and Technical Academy Awards ceremonies in Beverly Hills saw more pocket protectors Saturday than Harry Winston diamonds.
The annual film-industry tech honors recognize devices, formulas and discoveries that change the way movies are made. The ceremony took place at the Beverly Hilton, the same ballroom where the Oscars will unfold in two weeks.

Read the Wired News article...
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AOL to Charge Same for Dial-Up, Broadband

America Online Inc., seeking to encourage its subscribers to sign up for high-speed connections, is raising the price of its main dial-up plan to equal that of its new broadband offerings. That means most subscribers will pay $25.90 a month for either dial-up or broadband beginning March 9, although AOL is offering discounts to dial-up subscribers who commit to a year. AOL currently charges $23.90 a month for unlimited dial-up access. "We're doing this because a majority of AOL members will be able to get high-speed connections and access the AOL service for this new price," spokeswoman Anne Bentley said Tuesday. "Hopefully it's an encouragement for them to get high-speed connections."

Read the TBO.com article...
Leave a comment...

Other News postings from the PCIN.net Update blog

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PCIN.net UPDATE

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.php

Omega One Software Battery Pack Pro 2.1 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/bpp2.php

Makayama Interactive DVD to Pocket PC 3.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/dvd2ppc3.php

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/elements40.php

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Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Shooting at Night, Part 3

I have been discussing night photography in the past few tips, including helpful equipment and shooting techniques for great night shots. I will finish up the series today with some tips about when to shoot, using flash, a technique called dragging the shutter, and 2nd curtain sync.

Using flash for night photography can be helpful, but usually only for illuminating near subjects. The built in flash on cameras are only powerful enough to effectively light a subject up to 20 feet away at best. Using flash on automatic mode, you will end up with photos that exhibit 'deer in the headlights' syndrome. The subject will be illuminated nicely, but the rest of the photo will be black. So, how do you compensate for that? This is where manual mode pays off. But first, let me explain the two exposures that are happening in your photo.

The first exposure is a product of your flash and aperture. It is an almost instantaneous exposure (the length of the flash burst). The aperture controls how much light is being recorded on film. The second exposure is a product of your shutter speed. So long as you stay at or below your camera's sync speed, usually 1/90th of a second or slower (more on that another time), the foreground will always be illuminated by the flash (up to the point when the shutter speed/aperture combination provide enough exposure for the main subject) while the shutter speed will affect the background. A longer shutter speed will allow more of the ambient light to be recorded, bringing detail out of the background shadows.

Dragging the shutter or slow shutter sync is simply using a longer shutter speed than the camera recommends when using flash to illuminate a night scene. Your photo will then have proper exposure for the foreground (because of the flash exposure) and the background will start to have more detail in it (because of the longer shutter speed). If you want the background brighter, use a longer shutter speed, and if you want it darker, use a faster shutter speed. If your camera features a night mode setting, that will also drag the shutter (though for a fixed time.)

Night photography example 1

This photo shows what can happen when you combine moving objects, flash and night photography.

Another feature many cameras have is called 2nd curtain sync or also referred to as rear curtain sync. This basically controls when the flash fires, either at the beginning of the exposure or at the end. For a static subject, it does not really matter, but for a subject that will move during the exposure, 2nd curtain sync has an advantage. When the subject moves, it will leave a trail in the image. If the flash goes off at the beginning of the exposure, the subject will appear to be moving into the streaks, whereas if the flash occurs at the end of the exposure, it will appear as though the subject is moving away from the streaks (which is what we would normally expect to see.)

When is the ideal time to photograph at night? Well, that depends on what you are shooting and what you want to accomplish. However, two times do stand out as worth noting. Just after dusk and just before dawn, often referred to as the magic hour. During this time, there is some light in the sky though not enough to provide enough to expose your subjects. Shooting at this time can yield some spectacular results. The shot below was taken within this timeframe.

Night photography example 2

Last week I also promised some links to some nice night photography. I'll start with some of my own. The series of 7 shots (the first image and 6 days prior) was taken in Toronto, ON between 1:00 and 2:00 am, with exposures ranging from 1/8 second to 3.2 seconds. Lostamerica.com features many night photographs of abandoned places along roadways in the US. TheNocturnes.com features a gallery of night time images as well as resources for night time photography.

I hope this series on night time photography has been helpful. Next week I will discuss keeping straight lines straight.

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.

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Sometimes Deleting Can Be Good: The Concept of Culling in Digital Photography

From Digital Media Thoughts:

Answer me this my fellow digital photographers: when you come back from shooting a bunch of photos with your camera, do you keep them all? Or do you delete some of them? I'm not talking about the blurry ones, or the ones that are too dark to be rescued. I'm asking if you delete photos that turned out well. Does the thought of that scare you? Do you believe that the real benefit of digital photography is the ability to shoot as many pictures as you want of the same thing, and keep them all? Then this article is for you.

Not everyone will agree with this, but it is an interesting article.

Leave a comment...

Gmail Skins

Gmail Skins is a Firefox extension that lets you change the look of your Gmail inbox (amongst some other things).
It adds the following features:

I just installed it and it seems to work fine. Of course there are the normal warnings that if you have problems with Gmail afterwards, uninstall the skin rather than contacting Google. Check it out...

Leave a comment...

DelinvFile - Delete Invalid Files and Folders

I recently received an email from Jim Lawler, the programmer behind PurgeIE:

I am the author of PurgeIE which you reviewed for one of your newsletter articles.
Please take a look at "DelinvFile" and consider mentioning it in your "Tips..." section.
Although I recently converted "DelinvFile" to a commercial version, the basic functionality is available without having to register (pay a fee).
The webpage is - http://www.purgeie.com/delinv/index.htm
Basically, "DelinvFile" is an easy-to-use utility that one can use to delete data files that they are not able to delete with the normal Windows Delete function.

Check it out...

Leave a comment...

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PCIN.net AFFILIATED SITES

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:

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DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF

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.

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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.

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