Monthly Archive for November, 2005

Your stories: How the Net changed us

From CNN:

When CNN.com asked readers how the Internet has changed their lives, the e-mail inbox filled with stories from people who have used technology to keep in touch or find new ways to do business.

Some of these tales are by now very familiar: Millions of people use the Internet to e-mail family photos or use the Web to find customers around the world. Others are more surprising: One woman shared a story of adopting a child over the Web. A jazz musician explained how he paid off his house with earnings from 9-cent downloads of his songs.

‘Literary’ texts no more?

From CNN:

“Romeo, Romeo — wher4 Rt thou Romeo?”

It could be the future of Shakespeare.

Dot mobile, a British mobile phone service aimed at students, says it plans to condense classic works of literature into SMS text messages. The company claims the service will be a valuable resource for studying for exams.

Academic purists will be horrified. Hamlet’s famous query, “To be or not to be, that is the question,” becomes “2b? Nt2b? ???”

The Digital Photography Weblog

Chris does a great job with his Digital Photography Tip of the Week. He also has a Photo of the Day that you can see on his own site. But there are lots of other resources out there.

The Digital Photography Weblog logo

A good one is the The Digital Photography Weblog. This is part of the Weblogs Inc. network. It covers digital cameras, useful websites, books, and more.

Check it out at http://digitalphotography.weblogsinc.com/

Microsoft releases Firefox Genuine Advantage Plugin

Microsoft released a pluging to be used in Mozilla Firefox that will allow validation of your Windows operating system in order to download updates from the Microsoft.com website. It may be downloaded from the Microsoft website.

Microsoft Live

Microsoft announced a couple of weeks ago their “Live” product line. They are trying to get more into the web services market, by providing a better email experience online, as well as some form of Microsoft Office online. As of now, here are a few of the betas that you can try or sign up for:

Windows Live
http://www.live.com/

There is no description on the Windows Live site that I can quote from. It is essentially a browser home page. You can view blog entries, Hotmail, horoscopes, and few other things.

Windows Live Safety
http://safety.live.com/

Get full service for your PC

Windows Live Safety Center is a new, free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC.

Check for and remove viruses
Learn about threats
Improve your PC’s performance
Get rid of junk on your hard disk

Use the full service scan to check everything, or turn to the scanners and information in the service centers to meet your specific needs.

Microsoft Office Live
http://www.microsoft.com/office/officelive/default.mspx

Microsoft Office Live will provide your company with its own domain name, Web site, and e-mail accounts for free.
Additionally, Microsoft Office Live will offer you and your employees expert business management applications, such as customer, project, and document management tools, and a security-enhanced private Web site—affordably managed and maintained by Microsoft—where you can work together and share information with your employees, customers, suppliers, and contractors.

Office Tools for Hopeless Fools

Stooples Logo

I read about this in the November 10, 2005 issue of Computing Canada (althought I can’t find it posted on their site.
Stooples is a site that has imaginary office supplies that we may wish we had. There’s the Pocket Shredder (”let’s you destroy sensitive documents even when lawyers are present”), the Back Patter (I guess to praise you when your boss won’t), and more.
Check it out at http://www.stooples.com/

External Flash - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Last week I discussed two of the more advanced camera modes available on some camera’s. This week, I will discuss the advantages to using an off camera flash.

Flash photography is made relatively easy by today’s cameras, but there are several reasons for using an off camera (external) flash. There are now several digital point and shoot cameras on the market that will allow you to use and external flash when shooting, as will most prosumer and digital SLR’s. Even if yours is not meant to be used with one, if you have a manual mode, you may still be able to.

Using an off camera flash can:

  • help reduce red eye in photos by changing the angle at which the light is entering the eye and reflecting off the retina (the cause of red eye).
  • eliminate distracting shadows around the subject by casting them down behind the subject (place the flash higher up above the camera lens)
  • provide depth to subject by creating modeling (highlights and shadows outlining shape)
  • external flashes are typically more powerful than on camera flashes resulting in greater illumination and a wider beam of light
  • may be moved for more dramatic effects
  • will provide a softer, nicer light in your images.

Not all cameras can use external flashes automatically though. You will likely need to use a manual setting and find the correct combination of settings using trial and error (which is very easy to do with a digital camera). If you camera does not have a direct connection for a flash, one may be added using a device called a slave unit. This unit connects to the flash and when it sees another flash (your on camera flash) go off, it fires as well. They can be purchased fairly inexpensively with prices starting around $20. Some include a built in slave unit as well and are manufactured specifically for digital point and shoot cameras.

Next week I will talk about some of the exciting projects you can use your photographs for this Christmas

 

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 vice-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.

Cool DHTML site

DHTML “refers to web pages that use a combination of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to create features such as letting the user drag items around on the web page, some simple kinds of animation, and many more.”

DHTML is very cool. The site http://dhteumeuleu.com/ by Gerard Ferrandez is a great example of what can be done.

The creation of visual effects using dynamic html animation only, is a passion I have developed through the last few years, since 1999. It is a creative, spare time hobby, one I can share; This is the purpose of showing the demos you will find in my website.
Enjoy!

Check it out at http://dhteumeuleu.com/

Users suffering password overload

From IT World Canada:

The average corporate IT user is being asked to remember an increasing number of passwords and is resorting to insecure ways to remember them, thus opening the IT infrastructure to risk and placing a heavy burden on help desks, according to a recent survey.

Conducted for Bedford, Mass.-based authentication and encryption company RSA Security by research group Current Analysis, the survey of 1,700 enterprise technology end users in the U.S. showed 30 per cent of users are required to remember six to 12 passwords at work, and 23 per cent need to remember 15 or more. And to remember them, 25 per cent store a master list on their computer, 22 per cent on a PDA or handheld, and 15 per cent keep a paper list by their desk.

Microsoft eyes making desktop apps free

From TechRepublic:

Even as Microsoft readies a host of new ad-supported online services to battle rivals, the software maker has been mulling a plan to offer free, ad-supported versions of some of its desktop products, CNET News.com has learned.

Although no specific plans have been made, executives within Microsoft are examining whether it makes sense to release ad-supported versions of products such as Works, Money, or even the Windows operating system itself, according to internal documents seen by CNET News.com.