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Issue 430 - January 10, 2007

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
==== 1508 Subscribers in 48 Countries ====

Welcome to the 430th 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

CONTENTS

Opening Thoughts

I've been on vacation this week, so I haven't been at the computer too much. I did read a bit about Apple changing its name and their announcement of the iPhone. It's quite amazing how the iPod has developed into such a status symbol. There are dozens of music players that are just as good, but they don't have the "name". If they can carry that success with them then I'm sure the iPhone will do great.

My sister and I have been playing around with DVD copying (would you believe me if I told you that it was all non-copyrighted material?) and those tips I gave a couple of weeks ago appear to be working great.

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

The NEWS

Attack of the Zombie Computers Is Growing Threat

In their persistent quest to breach the Internet's defenses, the bad guys are honing their weapons and increasing their firepower.
With growing sophistication, they are taking advantage of programs that secretly install themselves on thousands or even millions of personal computers, band these computers together into an unwitting army of zombies, and use the collective power of the dragooned network to commit Internet crimes.
These systems, called botnets, are being blamed for the huge spike in spam that bedeviled the Internet in recent months, as well as fraud and data theft.
Security researchers have been concerned about botnets for some time because they automate and amplify the effects of viruses and other malicious programs.
What is new is the vastly escalating scale of the problem...

Read the New York Times article...
Leave a comment...

Amazon's Secret Price Guarantee

Of the many responsibilities shouldered by this column, none is more solemn than its mandate to compel Web-based retailers to take phone calls from the public. But suppose you finally get one of these reclusive customer-service reps on the horn and become so flustered that you forget what it is you wanted to say? If the retailer is Amazon.com - customer-service number: 1-800-2 1-7575; to get a human right away, dial extension 7 - ask him about that 30-day price guarantee.

Read the Slate article...
Leave a comment...

PCs Get Set to Scream in 2007

Flash-memory-aided hard drives and software that harnesses the full power of multi-core CPUs will make PCs speedier and more convenient in 2007.
Next-gen computers will boot up and load applications more quickly as speedy flash memory helps alleviate the bottleneck caused by the slower rotations of a traditional hard disk's components.
"You take all of that stuff from the hard drive and put it in high-speed memory, and the applications just pop," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, who is testing hybrid flash/hard-drive memory system from an undisclosed manufacturer. "Not only does the system come up faster, but the applications within the system come up a lot faster."

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

Here comes the terabyte hard drive

Last year, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies predicted hard-drive companies would announce 1 terabyte drives by the end of 2006. Hitachi was only off by a few days.
The company said on Thursday that it will come out with a 3.5-inch-diameter 1 terabyte drive for desktops in the first quarter, then follow up in the second quarter with 3.5-inch terabyte drives for digital video recorders, bundled with software called Audio-Visual Storage Manager for easier retrieval of data, and corporate storage systems...
A terabyte is a trillion bytes, or a million megabytes, or 1,000 gigabytes, as measured by the hard-drive industry. (There are actually two conventions for calculating megabytes, but this is how the drive industry counts it.) As a reference, the print collection in the Library of Congress comes to about 10 terabytes of information, according to the How Much Information study from U.C. Berkeley.

Read the TechRepublic article...
Leave a comment...

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Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Reduce Shutter Lag with Digital Point and Shoot Cameras - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Digital camera are wonderful tools, and the technology gets better all the time. Still, one of the biggest complaints I here is of shutter lag. That is the time between when you press the shutter button down to take the picture and when the camera actually does take the picture. This is of course most prevalent with point and shoot digital cameras as digital SLR's have pretty much eliminated shutter lag altogether.

One way to eliminate this is to prefocus. Much of the delay occurs when the camera is trying to focus on the subject. To prefocus, compose the photo as you want it, and press the shutter button down half way. Hold the button in this position until you are ready to shoot, then, without releasing the button, press the shutter button down all the way and the shot should occur much quicker.

Your camera may also feature a continuous focus mode. If you are photographing a moving subject, this is the mode you want to use. Again, you will be composing the shot, and pressing the shutter button half way down to lock focus, but in continuous mode, the camera will continue to refocus as the subject moves closer to or further away from you. As the camera is continually focusing, again, your shot should happen faster. Your manual will have complete details for your particular camera.

Minimizing the shutter lag time could mean the difference between a great shot and a missed shot.

Until next time, Happy Shooting.

Leave a 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 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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PCIN.net UPDATE

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.php

ExpoDisc White Balance Filter Review
http://PCIN.net/help/hardware/expodisc.php

Paragon Software Group Partition Manager 8.0 Professional Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/ppm8.php

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

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Install multiple versions of IE on your PC

multiple_ie.png

Ever wanted to test your website in various versions of Internet Explorer?

It is possible to run Internet Explorer in standalone mode without having to over-write previous versions thanks to Joe Maddalone who came up with a way of achieving that in November 2003. Basically, Internet Explorer is run by exploiting a known workaround to DLL hell - which was introduced in Windows 2000 and later versions - called DLL redirection.

I haven't tried it, but it sounds very interesting. Apparently you can run IE 3, 4, 5, and 6 on the same computer. Check out...

Leave a comment...

1956 to 1960 Juke Box

drivein.jpg

The Briarcliff Manor High School had a reunion for their class of 1960. They put together a sort of web-based jukebox with songs from 1956-1960. If you like music from that era, then check out their page. There are over 450 songs!

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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