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Issue 458 - July 25, 2007

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2007
==== 1440 Subscribers in 47 Countries ====

Welcome to the 458th 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

Andrew is turning 5 on Friday. I can't believe our first baby is going to be 5! We're going mini-putting on Friday, and then on Saturday he is having his first friend birthday party (with a mini-putt theme of course... he loves miniputt!). He's obviously very excited.

Last Saturday there was a special 30-minute long fireworks display in Niagara Falls. I took some pictures and posted a video if you are interested in seeing some of it.

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

News Highlights

FBI ducks questions about its remotely installed spyware

There are plenty of unanswered questions about the FBI spyware that, as we reported earlier this week, can be delivered over the Internet and implanted in a suspect's computer remotely.
Many of the questions hearken back to the old debate over the FBI's Carnivore wiretapping system, which technical luminaries Steve Bellovin, Matt Blaze, David Farber, Peter Neumann, and Eugene Spafford raised in a December 2000 paper...
And of course there are issues more specific to the FBI's use of the Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier, or CIPAV, including whether the bureau believes it can install it on Americans' computers willy-nilly in the wake of a wacky 9th U.S. Circuit Court decision this month.

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

Wasting Time Online Could Be A Thing Of The Past

Does your company monitor how much time you spend on YouTube and eBay? Perhaps it should.
Employees waste more than 81 minutes of work time in personal computer activity on average and 13% squander more than two hours a day on recreational computer activities, according to an old AOL/Salary.com survey.
And, those considered top employees can be the worst offenders.

Read the InformationWeek article...
Leave a comment...

Computer plays "perfect" game of checkers

The perfect game of checkers ends as a draw, Canadian computer scientists reported on Thursday.
The team at the University of Alberta said they had "solved" checkers, the 5,000-year-old popular board game also known as draughts. Their computer program, Chinook, spent more than 18 years playing out the 500 billion possible positions, they report in the journal Science.

Read the Reuters article...
Leave a comment...

Africa, Offline: Waiting for the Web

On a muggy day in Kigali in 2003, some of the highest-ranking officials in the Rwandan government, including President Paul Kagame, flanked an American businessman, Greg Wyler, as he boldly described how he could help turn their small country into a hub of Internet activity.
Mr. Wyler, an executive based in Boston who made his fortune during the tech boom, said he would lace Rwanda with fiber optic cables, connecting schools, government institutions and homes with low-cost, high-speed Internet service. Until that point, Mr. Wyler, 37, had never set foot in Africa - he was invited by a Rwandan government official he had met at a wedding. Mr. Wyler never expected to start a business there; he simply wanted to try to help the war-torn country.
Even so, Mr. Wyler's company, Terracom, was granted a contract to connect 300 schools to the Internet. Later, the company would buy 99 percent of the shares in Rwandatel, the country's national telecommunications company, for $20 million.
But after nearly four years, most of the benefits hailed by him and his company have failed to materialize, Rwandan officials say. "The bottom line is that he promised many things and didn't deliver," said Albert Butare, the country's telecommunications minister.

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

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Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Colour Relationships - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Today's tip is a quick one regarding the relationship of colour models. You are most likely most familiar with the RGB colour model as this is used in most computer applications, your digital cameras, monitors, etc. Another very common colour model comes from the print industry, CMYK. If you are using Adobe Photoshop Elements, you only have access to the RGB colour model. If you are using the full version of Adobe Photoshop (any recent version) you will have access to many different colour models including RGB and CMYK.

They both get their names by using the first letter of each of the colours needed to represent all of the other supported colours in the model. RGB uses Red, Green and Blue to make up the other 16.7 million colours this model can represent, while CMYK uses Cyan, Magenta and Yellow to make it's colour gamut. CMYK also need to add in a fourth colour - black - to fully achieve the depth needed for some of it's colours though that is not important today.

If you are unfamiliar working with CMYK, it can be a bit confusing. However, there is a little bit of correlation between the two that becomes especially useful to know when you are performing colour corrections.

R - G - B
C - M - Y

When you are colour correcting an image, if you know what colour the colour cast of the image is, you can correct it by adding the corresponding colour from the other colour model. For example, if you image has a cyan cast to it, adding red will help eliminate it. On the other hand, if your image is on the green side, slowly adding magenta will compensate for that green.

People are very sensitive to variations in colour when they see it. Keeping colours correct can help ensure you photos look as they should.

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 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

Icon War

I saw this in Windows Secrets...

Ever wonder what happens when you leave your computer on overnight? Does it just sit idle until the screen saver kicks in?

That's what you want to believe. But now MASO Digital Studio has captured proof of the secret life of your desktop icons in a hilarious Flash clip. View the animation

icon_war.jpg

Leave a comment...

Dissecting electronic gadgetry

take_it_apart_logo.gif

The short description on the site says it all:

This site shows how to take apart electronic devices and gadgets.

If you like to take things apart and would like to see what others have done, then you should check out TakeItApart.net.

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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