ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2008
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Welcome to the 496th 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
I asked my Lisa if she had any suggestions for me for my opening thoughts. She said, "Life is good, the weather is awesome." Hopefully life is as awesome as the weather is good :-)
I mentioned last week that I bought a new laptop. It was funny this week reading the retrospective that I link to in the Tips section and seeing what these things used to look like. The laptop were the size of concrete blocks! We have come a long way. Imagine where we'll be in another 10 years...
Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net
Where Did All the Girl Geeks Go?
A professor says he has only one girl in a computer science major class in 2008, down from 40 percent in 2000. What happened? eWEEK gets field experts to weigh in.
While women hold 51 percent of professional jobs in the United States, they make up only 26 percent of the IT work force, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Furthermore, fewer women worked in IT in 2008 than in 2000.
But the loss of women in the technology field begins long before they reach the professional level. The proportion of CS (computer science) bachelor's degrees awarded to women has fallen from 36 to 21 percent between 1983 and 2006.
Say 'cheese': New tech measures a smile's breadth
The breadth of a smile can be measured by new technology from Japanese electronics and health care company Omron Corp.
The software technology, shown to reporters Thursday, scans a video image to detect faces. It can find up to 100 faces in an image, according to Yasushi Kawamoto of Omron.
"Okao Catch," which means "face catch," then analyzes the curves of the lips, eye movement and other facial characteristics to decide how much a person is smiling using data collected from a million people and their smiles, he said.
In a demonstration, a camcorder took videos of journalists covering the announcement. Percentage numbers indicating how much each person was smiling popped up in bold blue letters next to their faces on a monitor, flashing higher or lower as their expressions changed.
The numbers ranged as high as 89% for a person who was grinning, while a somber face registered 0%.
U.S. Adults Wary Of Web-Use Tracking
A majority of U.S. adults are uncomfortable with Web sites using a person's online activity to deliver customized content, a study released Thursday showed.
However, Harris Interactive found that people became more comfortable after they were presented with Web-site privacy and security policies recommended by the Federal Trade Commission.
Based on a nationwide survey of more than 2,500 U.S. adults, the study found that six in 10 respondents were skeptical when Web sites like those from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft used visitors' online activity to tailor advertisements or content based on their hobbies or interests. A quarter of the respondents were "not at all comfortable," and 34% were "not very comfortable."
Study Gives High Marks to U.S. Internet
Contradicting earlier studies, conventional wisdom and politicians' rhetoric, European researchers say that the Internet infrastructure of the United States is one of the world's best and getting better.
The Global Information Technology Report issued on Wednesday found that the United States now ranked fourth in the world behind just three European nations: Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. Last year the United States was ranked seventh.
The study, which has been issued annually for the last seven years, is an effort to draw a more complete picture of national network readiness.
... will return next 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:
Paragon Software Group Hard Disk Manager 2008
http://PCIN.net/help/software/paragonhdm2008.phpAdobe 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/
Now vs. then: 1988 and 2008, A Tech Retrospective
I wasn't sure if this was more a news item or a tip, but I'll consider it a tip (actually, a recommended web site). PC World recently had an article comparing technology from 10 years ago with today.
Ever wax nostalgic about your first PC or cell phone? It's easy to forgive your Tandy desktop or your Motorola portable for their limitations--after all, they were technological infants.
What we often forget, though, is how $%#@! expensive that crude neolithic junk was! So join us on a trip two decades back in technology's history--and we bet that the next time you're charged $895 for a small square of plastic and transistors, you'll smile and say, "Wow, what a bargain!"
The article compares personal computers and components. It's quite interesting!
geoGreeting
I was reading an article in the paper the other day about the Webby Awards, and one of the highlighted sites was geoGreeting. This is a site that let's you write a message using pictures of buildings that look like letters (the PCIN.net image above for example). The creator of the site describes it in this way:
While working on a different Google Maps project, I noticed that a number of buildings looked like letters of the alphabet when viewed from above. This is the point where I should have just said 'hmmm, good observation' and gone on with my life. But I didn't and that's why this website is here.
Clean Install Windows XP
There have been quite a bit of news recently about the Windows Vista upgrade DVD not really needing anything to upgrade from. You can do a clean install of Vista without putting in the product key, and then upgrade that installation. That talk has led to some talk about doing a clean install of XP, which led me to the website of Michael Stevens. He is a Microsoft MVP and has a good article about doing a clean install of Windows XP. The article is very through and has links to other resources that you might find helpful.
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 1998-2008, 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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