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Issue 448 - May 16, 2007
ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2007
==== 1490 Subscribers in 50 Countries ====
Welcome to the 448th 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
I've mentioned a couple of times an (almost)
famous PCIN subscriber. My friend Alex is very gifted musically, and
he and his wife have created a music CD for kids to go along with the dance/motion
program she created for kids. I've
mentioned the CD before, but they now have an
official site where you can listen to some of the songs. They are quite
catchy!
As I seem to mention every year, the Victoria
Day and Memorial
Day holiday weekends are the unofficial start of Summer in Niagara Falls
(where I work). The weather looks like it will be good, so I'm sure lots
of people will be around. I'm off this weekend, but will be working next
weekend. This is also the time of year when you can start planting things,
so I'm sure I'll be out working my vegetable garden.
Graham editor@pcin.net and
Chris chris@pcin.net
News Highlights
Apple and Google - Faith and Heresy
True believers made the pilgrimage to Silicon Valley on May 10, as both
Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) held their annual meetings. The companies'
fervent supporters turned out en masse. It took Google CEO Eric Schmidt a
mere five seconds to get a round of applause as he opened his shareholder
meeting-and all he had to do was mention the lunch Google had served.
Heretics were in the crowd too, however. Some shareholders have become sharply
critical of Google and Apple for practices that have recently become public.
Apple and its CEO, Steve Jobs, have come under fire for the timing of stock
options awards, while Google and Schmidt have taken criticism for the company's
policies regarding censorship in China. Never mind that both CEOs have annual
base salaries of only $1.
The buzz among bloggers and others on the Web was over the rifts that surfaced
at the annual meetings.
Read the BusinessWeek
article...
Leave a comment...
Original Dell PC added to Smithsonian collection
Michael Dell never imagined his work would end up in a museum when he was
sitting in his college dorm room in 1984, dreaming of building and selling
his own personal computers.
Now, one of his original computers is going to the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of American History.
42-year-old chairman and chief executive of Texas-based Dell Inc. donated
a collection of materials Wednesday to the Smithsonian, including his employee
badge, one of the company's newest computers and a PC Limited computer from
1985.
Read the CNN article...
Leave a comment...
New domain names on tap for mid-2008
New Internet addresses for general use could start appearing in the summer
of 2008 under a timeline the Internet's key oversight agency announced Thursday.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers invited public comment
on procedures for creating new names, the first expansion for general use
since 2000. Names added since then have been limited to specific regions
or industries...
ICANN solicited additional applications in 2004 and has approved six regional
or industry-specific names, such as ".travel" and ".asia," while
rejecting ".xxx" for the adult entertainment industry.
Read the USA Today
article...
Leave a comment...
Battling an invisible enemy
In the back offices of the software firm Mailworkz, programmers are hard
at work developing technology to battle the fraudsters that plague Internet
advertising.
The invisible enemy is known as "click fraud," where a malicious
competitor or a bogus website operator is clicking on "pay-per-click" advertisements
and listings without any intention to buy or browse, costing the advertisers
money without generating results.
Mailworkz, a small firm with five employees, wrote its first software for
e-mail marketing campaigns more than five years ago, but found its customers
started to ask for monitoring of clicks of the website links they were buying
from search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN Sympatico.
"People realized they are spending all this money on pay-per-click advertisements
and it looks like I'm getting suspicious activity, and how do I know that legitimate
people are clicking on my ad?" says sales manager Lesley Fegerty...
Similar efforts to carefully monitor the use of Internet advertising are
under way at companies across the country.
Read the Globe and
Mail article...
Leave a comment...
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Digital Photography
Tip of the Week
Photographing Flowers - Digital Photography Tip of the Week
Today's tip is a simple one, yet effective one.
A bride and groom can be one of the hardest subjects to expose well. The bride
is usually dressed in a very white gown and the groom, a very black tuxedo.
Together it is an exposure nightmare. One trick to helping with this is to
place the bride furthest from the lightsource. Her gown will act as a reflector
and pop a little bit of light back into the groom's tuxedo, thereby helping
with the exposure dilemma.
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
Vista Remote Desktop Connection Authentication FAQ
The latest version of the Remote Desktop Connection software from Microsoft
supports Windows Vista. There are a few different features with it that my
be causing you some frustration. A good place to start is at the Terminal
Services Team Blog. They have a Vista
Remote Desktop Connection Authentication FAQ that answers some useful
questions about the new authentication features.
There has been a lot of feedback about the new authentication features
introduced in the latest version of the Remote Desktop Connection client.
These features are part of our efforts to improve security for Terminal
Services (TS) in Windows Vista and Windows Server code name "Longhorn",
however some users have run into a variety of problems that have caused
frustration. In order to alleviate some of the frustrations, below is an
FAQ on various symptoms users have run into, along with solutions and workarounds.
Leave a comment...
Paragon Hard Disk Manager 8.5
I've reviewed several products from Paragon in the past. They just recently
released Hard Disk Manager 8.5.
It is Windows Vista compatible, and allows you to perform various partition
operations (resize, remove, copy, etc) as well as perform backups and restores.
I haven't tried the product, but I've been impressed with their previous
products, so I wanted to pass this information along.
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.
- If any of the links are too long to fit on one line, you may have to cut
and paste.
- To subscribe another address or unsubscribe, please visit http://PCIN.net/ and
follow the appropriate links.
- The only way to become a subscriber is by asking. You have either filled
out the subscription form or asked me directly.
- If you have a web site or run your own newsletter, please email me at editor@pcin.net and
I will add it to the subscriber web pages that I have on my site.
- Support PCIN by visiting http://PCIN.net/donate.php or
by clicking on the PayPal link below:
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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.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author
is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.
Support PCIN by visiting http://PCIN.net/donate.php
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