ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2007
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Welcome to the 454th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists mainly of news highlights 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
Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net
Email Gets Constitutional Protection
The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls -- the first circuit court ever to make that finding.
Over the last 20 years, the government has routinely used the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA) to secretly obtain stored email from email service providers without a warrant. But today's ruling -- closely following the reasoning in an amicus brief filed the by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other civil liberties groups -- found that the SCA violates the Fourth Amendment.Read the Technology News Daily article...
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Dell Thinks Pink
If Jonathan Ive were dead, which he's not, he'd be spinning in his grave. Instead, Apple's chief designer is probably vomiting in his wastebasket.
In an effort by the staid, slumping computer maker to break its bland streak, Dell rolled out new laptops Tuesday cloaked in eight different colors, including "sunshine yellow" and "flamingo pink."
But while Dell may or may not impress design snobs with its pink and yellow machines, the computer maker is reading its market right, if a little late.
Half of Britons 'e-mail addicts'
Half of Britons could not exist without e-mail - with 30 or 40-somethings more addicted than teens, a survey finds.
Fifty per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds told ICM researchers they would not be able to carry on without e-mail.
Forty one per cent of teenagers said they relied on e-mail, while 44% of 35 to 44-year-olds said e-mail was vital.
The Best of the Digital Photography Tip of the Week
Another one of Chris' compositional tips was regarding curves and diagonals. Chris explained that, "photographs are static images. To add life to them, we need to make use of compositional elements." He said that "diagonals are used to lead your eye into the photo or out of it" and that curves "provide a path for the viewer to follow allowing them to travel through the image, rather than simply looking at it." He provided some wonderful examples, and you can definitely see the differences.
His tip obviously has a lot more detail, and a few more example photos.
You can view all of Chris' previous tips by visiting the Digital Photography Tips category.
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 and Adobe Premier Elements 3.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/photoshopEL5_Premiere3.phpExpoDisc White Balance Filter Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/expodisc.phpParagon Software Group Partition Manager 8.0 Professional Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/ppm8.phpUpdate 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
Our 15 Favorite Celebrity Websites
PC Magazine has a fun article about good celebrity websites:
We see their pictures in glossy magazines. We watch their movies, games, or TV shows. We obsess over their relationships. But in this modern age, there's an even better way to learn about your favorite celebs: Just read their blogs or visit their Web sites.
We spent the last week looking at celebrity Web sites (as did roughly half of the cubicle workers in America) and came up with 15 that are worth following. Some, like JeffBridges.com, are obviously the product of the celeb's own imagination; others, like DaughtryOfficial.com, are slickly designed and have loads of great content. And some, like PatSajak.com, are just surprising (who knew Pat Sajak was a good writer?).
IcebergFinder.com
From the beauty and majesty of their sheer size to the heart-wrenching memories of ill-fated ships, nothing evokes such a combination of awe, curiosity and caution quite like an iceberg. So if you're looking for icebergs, you've come to the right place.Newfoundland and Labrador is the greatest iceberg theatre in the world. From the east coast of Labrador to Newfoundland's southern shore, you are in Iceberg Alley, the only place in the world where you can see two or three story icebergs making their way down the Atlantic Ocean from Greenland.
IcebergFinder.com is a cool site that lets you locate icebergs in Eastern Canada, and has a gallery with some beautiful pictures.
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 1998-2007, 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