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Issue 464 - September 05, 2007

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2007
==== 1438 Subscribers in 46 Countries ====

Welcome to the 464th 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

My sister moved out to Calgary, Alberta on Saturday. She originally moved in for a few months, and ended up staying for 2 years. There were never any problems with her here, but it is nice to have the house back. I'm sure she's enjoying her new adventure! She'll be coming home for Christmas, and I'm sure the boys will be excited to see her.

My birthday was on Monday, and when we went out to the minivan to go out for dinner, we saw there was graffiti on the van. There were 5 small crude/rude drawings and words. 4 of them came off easily, but the 5th one (words only) hasn't come off. Thankfully the few words that are there are small and don't really make any sense. I'll try a bit more to get it off, but I'll probably have to paint over it.

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

News Highlights

Cellphones get the 'all clear' at some hospitals

Anyone who has been inside a hospital probably has been cut off from relatives and colleagues because of a common rule: no cellphones.
But some health care facilities are creating wireless networks to let patients, family members, physicians and staff members use their phones.
The concern about the phones, hospital officials say, is that their signals could create electromagnetic interference with sensitive medical devices, such as ventilators or external pacemakers. Opinion is divided; some experts say the risk has been overblown.
Some doctors even say cellphones promote better communication, which reduces medical errors. And people rely more heavily now on their wireless devices to stay connected to work and family.

Read the USA Today article...
Leave a comment...

China hosts nearly half of all malware sites

According to a report released Monday by antivirus company Sophos, China--including Hong Kong--hosted 44.8 percent of the world's infected sites in August. The U.S. ranked a distant second, hosting 20.8 percent of sites that contain malicious code.
The number of infected Web pages has also grown. Sophos said it detected an average of 5,000 new infected pages each day in the month of August.

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

RIM shares rise amid Microsoft takeover talk

Research in Motion Ltd moved higher on Thursday on renewed market speculation that Microsoft Corp could be interested in buying the BlackBerry maker.
"Microsoft has been mentioned as a possible buyer," said Frederic Ruffy, an analyst at options education firm Optionetics in California.
"According to speculation, the software giant might be interested in RIM in response to Google's recent announcement that it is interested in making its own mobile phone operating system, which would compete with Windows Mobile," he added.

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

Don't let your boss catch you reading this

If you are at work, chances are you are probably doing it right now.
Walk into any large office, and you will most likely hear the telltale computer bleeps of chat programs and online games, accompanied by furious mouse-clicking. Employees may seem busy, but many are wasting time on the Internet, or "cyberslacking."

Read the MSNBC article...
Leave a comment...

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Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Practice Makes Perfect - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Study and Practice

Today's tip could be applied to just about anything you wish to excel at. It is something I have mentioned in the past and is well clichéd: Practice makes perfect. If you aren't out practicing photography, you aren't out improving your photography.

Of course, you could take tens of thousands of photographs but if you aren't aware of potential problems with your images and cannot see them for yourself, there will be no improvement. To conquer this, you have to study. Study other people's photographs, look at the photos of the masters, and pay attention to images in magazines. Examine them and learn from them. With a little understanding of the principles of photography, many of which I have already discussed in the past, you can then begin to evaluate your own images.

To take it a step further, shoot with friends, and critique each others images. You can then start to get an unbiased opinion without your own emotional attachment to your photos as well as being able to drawn upon the knowledge of other people.

Practice and study often don't amount to a lot of fun. Fortunately for us, photography is different. We get to look at beautiful images as part of our studies, and get to go out and take photos for practice.

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

1970's future view of computers in the home

Shawn Bremner, a friend who used to provide the Thought of the Week, sent me a link to an image that is supposedly from a 1979 magazine that computers and other electronic gadgets in the home.

1979_computers_in_the_home.jpg

You can see the much larger, readable image on Flickr...

Leave a comment...

Top 100 Classic Web Sites

From PC Magazine:

Every year, the analysts and editors at PC Magazine excavate our browser bookmarks, poll our coworkers and friends, dig deep into the World Wide Web, and put our heads together to come up with PC Magazine's list of the Top 100 Classic Web Sites.

The following is our list of the top classic sites in 2007...

Leave a comment...

Fall is coming: the best season for photography?

This comes from David Kennedy's Ontario in Photos blog:

The fall is one of my favorite seasons to photograph Ontario's landscape, particularly those few weeks when the leaves have turned colour...

Two years ago, though, the colours were very dramatic with bright reds and yellows and this period seem to last a few weeks...

Even if the colours are not dramatic, there are still interesting fall elements that are worth photographing, leaves on the ground, close-ups of leaves, trees by rivers and lakes. One constant in the fall is the changing light as the days get shorter. For the photographer, the morning sunrise is later and the sunset is earlier. This makes it much easier for the photographer to capture the beauty of the light at these times of the day.

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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