Monthly Archive for July, 2006

Why employers are cracking down on e-mail

Published
by
Graham
on July 27, 2006
in Computer News
. 1 Comment

From TechRepublic:

Employers are quite concerned about the legal and financial risks caused by inappropriate employee electronic communications. In fact, they are firing employees who violate workplace computer policies.

I recently wrote about how employers face considerable challenges figuring out to handle employees’ electronic communications, such as blogging and instant messaging.

According to the 2006 Workplace E-Mail, Instant Messaging & Blog Survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, 26 percent of employers have fired employees for misuse of e-mail.

Spice up your Travel Photos - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Published
by
Chris
on July 26, 2006
in Digital Photography Tips & Info
. 0 Comments

Last week I discussed practicing using a single focal length to get a better understanding of how a given focal length can affect you photographs. This week, I discuss a few tips for improving your travel photography.

If you have ever had to sit through a slide show of someone’s travel photographs, you are well aware of how uninspiring they can be. How can you avoid the same feelings from others about your travel photos? Spice them up.

When you are vacation, there are a lot more photos than simply the ones of you and your family in front of a landmark. Create your travelogue as a journal of your trip. Include items such as photos of maps of the area, or maybe a brochure. Remember to capture the details of your trip, and the details of where you were. Include architectural elements of your destination, wide angle views of the cityscape, zoom in on elements such as detailed stone work on an old building. Photograph the people. Markets are great places to get photographs of locals. Remember that it is polite to ask permission before taking someone’s photograph, and in many locations where the economy is suffering, a small token of gratitude will go a long way.

Of course you want to capture the landmarks, but also get the photographs you don’t normally see. Try changing angle, get down low, or shoot it with a wide angle lens to help exaggerate the landmark’s scale.

As always, remember the important aspects of photography, lighting, exposure, composition. Poor quality photographs will quickly lose the interest of your viewers. And finally, shoot your travels home. Your vacation hasn’t ended as you leave your destination, there are often many more photographic opportunities on the trip home.

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.

Google Notebook

Published
by
Graham
on July 26, 2006
in Internet Tips
. 0 Comments

I remember hearing about this when it first came out, but I never tried it until yesterday. Google has a neat service called Google Notebook. They describe it this way:

Google Notebook makes web research of all kinds – from planning a vacation to researching a school paper to buying a car – easier and more efficient by enabling you to clip and gather information even while you’re browsing the web.

And since Google Notebook lives in your browser, you won’t be left with a scattered collection of notes, Word docs, and browser bookmarks to sort through; all your web findings will be gathering into one organized, easy accessible location that you can access from any computer.

I use Firefox as my browser, so I installed the extension (it also works with Internet Explorer). It shows up in the status bar at the bottom like this:

google_notebook_extension.gif

When I right-click on some text, I have an option to “Note this (Google Notebook)”. When I choose that the notebook opens up and adds the text snippet. You can also just add your own notes there as well. The small notebook pop-up looks like this:

google_notebook_open.gif

You can view and edit your notes on a web page, and choose to share your notes as well. Pretty neat!

Scratching the 25-year PC itch

Published
by
Graham
on July 24, 2006
in Computer News
. 1 Comment

From TechRepublic:

I was never particularly big on anniversaries. But in a couple of weeks, the computer industry will mark a milestone that deserves a moment of quiet celebration. On Aug. 12, 1981, the IBM Corporation debuted the PC.

It’s hardly hyperbole to suggest that this single announcement did more to change the world of technology than anything ever since–including the invention of the World Wide Web.

Google’s unknown artist has huge following

Published
by
Graham
on July 20, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From CNN:

Dennis Hwang may be the most famous unknown artist in the world — his work doesn’t hang in galleries or museums, but it’s been viewed hundreds of millions of times.

The 28-year-old webmaster designs the whimsical logos that decorate Google.com’s otherwise Spartan Web site on special occasions.

“It’s always a fun kind of challenge to incorporate the logo into the design. Over the years, just because I kind of push myself to use different types of design if I can,” Hwang said.

He has been manipulating the six letters in the Google name into shamrocks, fireworks, hearts and goblins since shortly after he got an internship there in 2000.

‘E-mail has become the new snail mail’ as younger set goes with text messaging

Published
by
Graham
on July 20, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From USA Today:

E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder — a parent, teacher or a boss — or to receive an attached file. But increasingly, the former darling of high-tech communication is losing favor to instant and text messaging, and to the chatter generated on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The shift is starting to creep into workplace communication, too.

“In this world of instant gratification, e-mail has become the new snail mail,” says 25-year-old Rachel Quizon from Norwalk, Calif. She became addicted to instant messaging in college, where many students are logged on 24/7.

Practice Makes Perfect - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Published
by
Chris
on July 19, 2006
in Digital Photography Tips & Info
. 0 Comments

The old adage about practice makes perfect applies to photography as well.

Very few cameras today have fixed focal length lenses but they are still available. Quality in zoom lenses has become much better with the passing of time and now super zooms (in the 10 and 12x range) allow consumers to get in even closer than ever before without sacrificing a lot of image quality. For the DSLR user, prime (fixed focal length) lenses will typically provide the best quality image albeit at the expense of having to change lenses for a wider or narrower angle of view.

Changes in focal length affect not only the image size, but the field of view captured in the image. A wide angle lens captures just that, a wide angle of view, up to 180 degrees with a fish eye lens. As the focal length increases through normal and telephoto ranges, the angle of view decreases. This leads to different ways to compose an image.

So how do you know when it is best to use a wide angle, normal or telephoto focal length? Practice. Of course, you could simply zoom through the different ranges to find what looks best, but understanding why it looks best will help you to set up better shots to begin with. To get a greater idea of how a lens reacts at a given focal length, pick one focal length, and stick with it for an entire shoot. One day, use only a wide angle lens or focal length and compose all of your photographs with that focal length. Moving closer to your subject to mimic the effect of a telephoto lens, or backing away to mimic the effect of a wide angle lens. Another day use only a normal lens, and another, a telephoto.
For a more controlled lesson, shoot a subject from the same location with each lens or focal length and compare the results. Next, shoot the same subject making it identical in size in your viewfinder (you will need to move closer or further for the subject for this) and again compare the results.

By using only one focal length in practice, when it comes time to apply that knowledge, you can do so without hesitation.

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.

Adobe Lightroom Beta 1.0 for Windows

Published
by
Chris
on July 19, 2006
in Computer News and Digital Photography Tips & Info
. 0 Comments

Adobe has released 3 betas for their new Lightroom product that is set to compete with Apple Aperture. I have been eagerly awaiting for them to release the windows beta. I just received the press release; Adobe Lightroom for Windows Beta 1.0 is now available for download. I will keep everyone up to date on my findings as soon as I get a chance to use the software.
—

Adobe Delivers Lightroom Beta for Windows

Digital Photography Workflow Solution Now Available for Windows® and Macintosh Platforms

SAN JOSE, Calif. — July 19, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the public beta of Adobe® Lightroom™ software for the Windows platform, a digital imaging workflow solution for professional photographers. Now available for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms, Adobe Lightroom beta is the efficient new way for professional photographers to import, select, develop and showcase large volumes of digital images. Windows-based photographers now have the opportunity to assist with the development of Lightroom by testing this new beta download and submitting feedback to the Adobe Labs forums at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom .

“A significant number of professional photographers operate on the Windows platform, and Adobe Lightroom beta is designed to support their workflow needs,” said Kevin Connor, senior director of product management for Digital Imaging at Adobe. “We have over 3,000 beta testers actively participating in our Lightroom beta for Macintosh forums and we’re looking forward to extending this invaluable dialogue to the Windows community. Cross-platform support gives us the unique opportunity to incorporate feedback from the entire photographic community, ensuring that everyone can participate in the beta process.”

Cross-Platform Support for Growing Lightroom Community

The Windows and Macintosh versions of Lightroom currently contain somewhat different feature sets, but the core of Lightroom remains consistent across platforms, focused on efficiency and quality from capture through output. As the beta for each platform evolves, the features will converge and the final released ersions will be the same.

Lightroom beta cross-platform support allows photographers to effortlessly work on projects from any Windows or Macintosh computer on-location, in the studio or in the office. When combined with the editing power in Adobe Photoshop® software, Lightroom provides one clear path for taking images all the way from processing to final presentation. This allows photographers to spend less time at the computer, and more time behind the lens.

“As a professional photographer, I have to submit photos to clients digitally, usually on a very tight deadline. I need the ability to quickly share a collection on a specific subject so that editors can promptly review my work,” said photographer Ann Purcell. “Lightroom beta for Windows is going to be an indispensable solution in this fast-paced world of digital photography.”

Radical New User Interface

Lightroom has a modular user interface designed to spotlight what photographers care about most: the image. Photographers can rapidly scroll through hundreds of images and use Quick One-to-One Zoom to instantly magnify the finer points within the image. The Lightroom beta addresses the varied needs of photographers, including the ability to view detailed before and after comparisons of non-destructive edits and dynamically preview print output of multiple images with flexible layouts.

High-Quality Raw Processing

Leveraging the latest Adobe Camera Raw technology, Lightroom supports over 120 native raw file formats, in addition to JPEG and TIFF, and incorporates raw conversion into a single workflow experience. Adobe continues to advance raw processing technology, as evidenced by the new split-toning controls that creates richer black and white images. This extends photographers’ creative control, providing new parameters for making adjustments and more freedom to deliver their photographic vision. The latest camera models supported by this beta now include Cannon EODS 30D, Epson R-D1s, Leaf Aptus 65 and Aptus 75, Olympus EVOLT E-330 and SP-320, Pentax *ist DL2 and Samsung GX-1S.

Pricing and Availability

Lightroom beta 1.0 for Windows is available for free download from the Adobe Labs Web site at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom . Recommended system requirements are Windows XP SP2, Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor, 768MB RAM and a 1024×768 resolution screen. The final shipping version for both Windows and Macintosh will be released in late 2006. Further details around pricing, system requirements and availability have yet to be determined.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .

Dot’s A Lot

Published
by
Graham
on July 19, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From Forbes:

Hewlett-Packard has invented a wireless data chip that can store 100 pages of text or 15 seconds of video on a dot about half the size of a rice grain, with potentially dramatic applications in everything from health care to photography and marketing.

The chip, called a Memory Spot, is at least two years away from widespread consumer use, but it could be deployed more quickly in specialized fields such as pharmaceuticals, said Howard Taub, vice president and associate director of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories.

AI Reaches the Golden Years

Published
by
Graham
on July 19, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From Wired News:

Artificial intelligence is 50 years old this summer, and while computers can beat the world’s best chess players, we still can’t get them to think like a 4-year-old.

This week in Boston, some of the field’s leading practitioners are gathering to examine this most ambitious of computer research fields, which at once has managed to exceed, and fall short of, our grandest expectations.