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Issue 454 - June 27, 2007

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2007
==== 1458 Subscribers in 49 Countries ====

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

Contents

Opening Thoughts

 

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

News Highlights

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...
Leave a comment...

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.

Read the Forbes article...
Leave a comment...

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.

Read the BBC article...
Leave a comment...

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Digital Photography Tip of the Week

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.

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PCIN.net Site 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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Tips and Other Stuff

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?).

Leave a comment...

IcebergFinder.com

iceberg_finder_logo.gif

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.

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 1998-2007, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.

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