New, tips, and more
I normally don’t pass along stuff like this, but this is simply amazing. Someone has made a flash animation of a cursor drawing a stick figure in an image editing program. The stick figure comes to live and fights the cursor. It’s very well done! I won’t give away who wins. Check out Animator vs. Animation for yourself!
From Vnunet.com:
Several manufacturers are showing large capacity hard drives based on Flash memory technology at the Computex trade show in Taipei.
The drives are lighter, less power-hungry and far more durable than traditional hard disk drives based on a rotating magnetic platter.
The largest on display were PQI’s 64GB drives, and another company has a 32GB drive.
I read about this at CNet. Deathforecast.com has a several questions you need to answer and it then tells you when you will die:
Find out when you will die. Our death forecast estaimes your date of death based on questions that we ask you.
I tried it and it says I will live until I’m 76. Not bad, but I’d like to live longer than that. You can read my personal death forecast here.
This week’s tip is a little misleading as I am not talking about shooting what is around you, but shooting your subject in their environment. A portrait should be more than simply a photo of a person, it should tell a story about them. While a studio shot may look very nice, they are quite static. That is, they don’t say much. Shoot your subject in their element, in an environment they are happy and comfortable with.
For example, if you were to photograph a photographer, give him a camera to hold. Put someone who plays piano for a hobby sitting at one. Maybe they are involved in model trains, gardening or work in a lab. Each of those can be incorporated into your portrait to help tell the story about your subject.
As always, if you have any comments or questions about any of the tips here, or if you have a photography question of your own, please feel free to send them to chris@pcin.net.
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.
In the latest issue of Scot’s Newsletter, Scot Finnie explains his quest for the perfect antivirus solution. He has done major research into several different products, and has some preliminary observations. He also links to AV Comparatives, a site that test antivirus software:
On this site you will find independent comparatives of Anti-Virus software. All products listed in our comparatives are already a selection of some very good anti-virus engines. In order to get tested by us, companies must fulfill various conditions. Various AV products are presented in our forum.
From CNN (Reuters):
Big Brother is not only watching but he is also reading your e-mail.
According to a new study, about a third of big companies in the United States and Britain hire employees to read and analyze outbound e-mail as they seek to guard against legal, financial or regulatory risk.
More than a third of U.S. companies surveyed also said their business was hurt by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the past 12 months, according to the annual study from a company specializing in protecting corporate e-mail at large businesses.
By now many of you have heard that Google has a new web-based spreadsheet product called Google Spreadsheets. I heard about it yesterday, and immediately went to sign-up. It is a closed beta, so I filled in my email address to ask for an invitation, and a few hours later I had one:
Thanks for signing up to use Google Spreadsheets! Your Google account associated with this email address (XXXXXXXX@gmail.com) has been activated, so you can begin sharing spreadsheets on the web!
Please access Google Spreadsheets at this link (you may need to sign on): https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=wise&
passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fspreadsheets.google.com&
ltmpl=invited-googleTo learn more before you start, please visit this link: http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/tour1.html
I’ve logged in and played with it a bit, and it seems quite impressive. It doesn’t have all the same advanced features of Excel, but for basic functionality it is excellent.
To request an invitation, visit the Google Spreadsheets page…
From TechRepublic:
As Google and Microsoft battle for the hearts and minds of Internet users, a new question has cropped up: Which one can better save planet Earth?
Being portals and search engines, the companies are likely among the worst energy users because of the cooling and energy their data centers need to operate. When asked, company representatives did not say what, if anything, the data centers are doing to improve efficiency and reduce energy.
No doubt, Google and Microsoft, two of the top Internet sites in the world, use massive amounts of electricity to power and cool their data centers. But outside of the electricity that makes the businesses run, they are among the leading adopters of so-called green policies in corporate America.
From EETimes.com:
New biometric technology developed here can identify individuals by sensing unique electronics signals generated by a beating heart, brain function or breathing.
The developer, IDesia (Caesarea, Israel), claims that unlike existing biometric solutions its electronic signature sensor can capture human biometric signals with relative ease. It also claims its system is cheaper than other biometric sensors, making it suitable for mass production.
From the New York Times:
Chris DiBona’s work as manager of open-source programs for Google takes him on the road, where laptops grow heavier with every gate he passes in the airport. So he has been experimenting with piecing together the ultimate lightweight PC.
At the core of his ensemble is the OQO-01, a full-featured PC running Windows XP that is not much bigger than a pack of 3-by-5 index cards. It’s measured in ounces (14), not pounds.
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