From Network Computer (TechWeb):
With Vista at least seven months away, we’ll all be using Windows XP for some time to come. TechWeb proudly presents our all-time favorite Win XP hacks, tips, tricks, and fixes.
Monthly Archive for May, 2006
I virtually never use my Yahoo! account for anything. However, yesterday I logged in for the first time in months and was prompted to try the new Yahoo! Mail Beta. Wow! It’s very impressive. It’s much better looking then the Windows Live Mail Beta, and seems to have more features.
If you have a Yahoo! Mail account, then you’ve probably already been asked to try the new version. I’m not aware of any “invitations” available.
Last week I talked about how to shoot a sunrise or sunset. This week, I will get into something a little more technical, a brief discussion about digital image sensor size.
Many people coming from a film background with an SLR are already familiar with the issue of sensor size. Most digital SLR’s have a sensor that is smaller than that of a standard piece of film and the results of that have both advantages and disadvantages for the photographer.
If we look at any given 35 mm lens, we can see that it produces an image circle large enough to fully cover a 35 mm image. This image circle also covers film sizes smaller than 35 mm, though that is where the confusion sets in.
The image below is a representation of the differences between the image circle for a lens on a 35mm camera or a full frame (24mm x 26mm) digital camera, and APS-C sized digital image sensor and for comparison, a 1/1.8 sized digital image sensor. The lens is made to cover the entire image area of the full frame image, and the resulting image is shown outlined red. If we were to use the same lens (and therefor the same image circle) on a camera with and APS-C sized sensor (22.7 mm x 15.1 mm), shot from the same location, we would see the image that is outlined in blue. The image outlined in green is what we would see if we used the same lens on a camera with a 1/1.8 (7.2 mm x 5.3 mm) sized sensor, commonly used in digital point and shoot cameras.
As you can see, the image is the same size in each instance, what changes is the amount of the sensor the image occupies in relation to the 35mm, full frame size, or our benchmark. This is referred to as the crop factor, and commonly mistakenly referred to as the focal length multiplier. Because the image takes up proportionately more of the film size, the image appears to have been magnified. For the APS-C sized image, the crop factor is between 1.5 or 1.6.
This illusion of magnification works great for photographers using telephoto lenses. They are now able to bring their subjects in closer without having to purchase new, heavier, more expensive lenses. For instance, a Canon 200mm f2.8 L series lens retails for $899.95 CDN. With a 1.5 crop, it provides the same field of view as a 300mm (Canon 300 f2.8 IS USM L) which retails for $5199 CDN.
What is great for photographers using long, telephoto lenses is a thorn for photographers who like wide angle lenses. With a full frame sensor, 28 mm was a wide angle lens, and 20mm was considered ultra-wide. With an APS-C sized sensor, 31mm is considered normal. 18mm is equivalent to a 28 mm full frame view and it is becoming more common to find lenses in the 10 mm and 12 mm range for ultra-wide angle images.
There is a perceived change in depth of field due to crop factor as well. Depth of field changes as the distance between the subject and camera change. For the image above, depth of field would stay essentially the same for each image because distance between the subject and the image is not changing. However, in order to get the entire butterfly in the image, the photographer would need to back away from the subject. In doing so, the subject to camera distance would grow, as would the depth of field. There is a lot of science involved in depth of field that I will not get into here, but if you are interested, you can search Google.
Next week I will continue my discussion about sensor size and it’s impact on image quality in both digital SLR’s and digital point and shoot cameras.
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.
From CNN:
Rather than reach for the television remote control when she wants to be entertained, Karalyn Valente goes online to play “EverQuest,” “Ultima Online” and other video games — a gaming habit shared by millions in the United States.
Valente, a 29-year-old graphic artist from York, Pennsylvania, said she devotes about 30 hours a week in vast online worlds and spent more than $1,500 on games last year.
“I watch less and less TV. I turn it on and the shows are just idiotic,” Valente said. “When I play the games, I actually look through the character’s eyes. I actually become the character.”
According to a new AP-AOL Games poll, 40 percent of American adults play games on a computer or a console. Men, younger adults and minorities were most likely to play those games.
From TechRepublic:
A 20-year-old who prosecutors say highjacked computers to damage computer networks and send waves of spam across the Internet was sentenced on Monday to nearly five years in prison.
Jeanson James Ancheta, a well-known member of the “Botmaster Underground” who pleaded guilty in January to federal charges of conspiracy, fraud and damaging U.S. government computers, was given the longest sentence for spreading computer viruses, federal prosecutors said.
He was sentenced to 57 months in prison and three years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay $15,000 in restitution to the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif., and forfeit to the government some $60,000 in illicit gains.
From CNN:
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday he wished he were not the world’s richest man.
“I wish I wasn’t. There is nothing good that comes out of that,” said Gates, whose personal fortune sank by billions since last week when the software giant disappointed investors by saying new investments would crimp earnings.
The corporate leader who made Microsoft into the world’s largest software maker - and who is also one of the biggest philanthropists - is seen as a man who does not like publicity. He explained that he did not like the attention of being the world’s richest person.
From Wired News:
When technology serves its owners, it is liberating. When it is designed to serve others, over the owner’s objection, it is oppressive. There’s a battle raging on your computer right now — one that pits you against worms and viruses, Trojans, spyware, automatic update features and digital rights management technologies. It’s the battle to determine who owns your computer.
You own your computer, of course. You bought it. You paid for it. But how much control do you really have over what happens on your machine? Technically you might have bought the hardware and software, but you have less control over what it’s doing behind the scenes.
Using the hacker sense of the term, your computer is “owned” by other people.
Creating a dramatic sunrise or sunset photograph is not that difficult, though there are a few steps to take to be sure it is done well.
Ultimately, there is little difference between a sunrise and a sunset photo. However, you may have better luck with sunrise photos because there are fewer people up at the crack of dawn compared to when the sun is going down. That being said, silhouettes against a sunset are very nice as well. My most recent sunrise photos were shot at 5:45 AM, which means I was up at 4:30 AM in order to get ready and drive out to my location. The time alone may decide which you shoot.
Metering for a sunrise/sunset is quite easy. If the sun is not included in the photograph, simply take an average light reading of the scene and be sure to bracket one stop both up and down.This will help ensure you are getting a properly exposed shot. If the sun is included in your photo, then take a spot meter or center weighted meter reading to one of the sides of the sun in a neutral area of the photograph. Again. be sure to bracket.
I often find that the light in the sky is far brighter than that on the ground, so using a gradual neutral density filter can help to even out these areas of brightness, allowing your camera to capture all the detail in both the sky and the foreground. Be sure to use a tripod as well. Exposures, especially at the beginning of the sunrise or the end of the sunset, could be quite long.
If you are planning on photographing a sunrise or sunset, it will be a good idea to scope out the area you would like to shoot from first to be sure there are not obstructions in your way of a beautiful photograph. Of course, knowing where the sun will rise or set and when it will do so helps as well.
Of course, don’t forget some of the compositional elements that we have already discussed, such as including curves and diagonals, rule of thirds, framing for printing. Most of all, remember to enjoy what you are watching, if even for a brief second. The dramatic results of a sunset or sunrise can disappear very quickly.
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.
I get the Microsoft TechNet magazine, and the latest issue had a good article on Deconstructing Common Security Myths:
In our book Protect Your Windows Network, we wrote about “security myths”—things that many people believe are true about security, but which really are not…
Our version of these myths is, of course, just our opinion. People are welcome to disagree with us, and sometimes do. Naturally, we will proceed to explain why we are right and they are wrong, but all in all this type of dialectic is crucial to advancing the state of the art in security. Unless we question the commonly held wisdom, we are not only doomed to repeat past mistakes, but also to keep building on them. We would then fail to do all we can to protect our networks and the information that resides on them.
Therefore, because we think it is fun and we never seem to run out of myths (or opinions, as some refer to them), we decided to revisit the topic with a new batch.
Several of these are specific to enterprise/business customers, but there are still good suggestions for password strength, firewalls, and more. Check it out on the TechNet site…
Cobian Backup is a multi-threaded program that can be used to schedule and backup your files and directories from their original location to other directories/drives in the same computer or other computer in your network. FTP backup is also supported in both directions (download and upload).
It’s that last part that I think is interesting. It appears that you can schedule backups and copy it to an FTP site. I haven’t tried it yet, but I wanted to share it with you. Check it out!
Recent Comments