Monthly Archive for August, 2006

Your Life as an Open Book

Published
by
Graham
on August 15, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From the New York Times:

Privacy advocates and search industry watchers have long warned that the vast and valuable stores of data collected by search engine companies could be vulnerable to thieves, rogue employees, mishaps or even government subpoenas.

Four major search companies were served with government subpoenas for their search data last year, and now once again, privacy advocates can say, “We told you so.”

AOL’s misstep last week in briefly posting some 19 million Internet search queries made by more than 600,000 of its unwitting customers has reminded many Americans that their private searches - for solutions to debt or bunions or loneliness - are not entirely their own.

So, as one privacy group has asserted, is AOL’s blunder likely to be the search industry’s “Data Valdez,” like the 1989 Exxon oil spill that became the rallying cry for the environmental movement?

Users still not wiping data from unwanted PCs

Published
by
Graham
on August 15, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From ComputerWeekly.com:

Research by BT, the University of Glamorgan in Wales and Edith Cowan University in Australia, has found that while 41% of the disks were unreadable, 20% contained sufficient information to identify individuals.

The research, based on the acquisition of 300 PCs from auctions, computer fairs and on-line purchases, also found that 5% of the machines held commercial information on organisations, and that 5% held “illicit data”.

Black and White from Colour Images - Part 1 - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Published
by
Chris
on August 9, 2006
in Digital Photography Tips & Info
. 0 Comments

I may have mentioned in the past that I began my journey into photography by working with black and white images and film, from start to finish, including loading my own film cassettes, developing and printing my own photos. Still to this day, black and white has a special spot for me.

With digital photography, I am really limited to a single type of film in my camera. I don’t have different sensors (digital film) I can replace as I would have with film, but I can manipulate the images my camera creates in order to mimic how a traditional film behaved.

Most digital camera’s only record a full colour image*, so how do we get black and white photographs from a colour image. There are a few ways to do this. The first, and probably easiest, though not necessarily the one that will produce the best results, is to take you image to your local lab and ask them to print your photograph as a black and white image. The resulting image may be pleasing to many people, but will most likely lack the drama that many black and white images have.

Your other option is to manipulate the image yourself using a photo editor such as Adobe Photoshop CS2 , Adobe Elements 4 or Microsoft Digital Imaging Suite . There are many methods to convert a colour image to black and white. Over the next couple of weeks, I will provide instruction on a few of them.

If you camera has the option to record your images in black and white, I recommend that you don’t use and stick to shooting in colour it if you want the most options available to you in post processing. Depending on the camera, it may either convert the image to grayscale or desaturate, both of which will yield a less than ideal image. I will discuss both of them in an upcoming digital photography tip of the week. I know of a few photographers you like to shoot in black and white mode to help previsualize the scene before their final capture, but make that in colour to preserve the full amount of data in the image to work with.

* Digital image sensors really capture values of black and white, then use an algorithm to translate those to a colour image. Unless you are shooting RAW, though, the image recorded is full colour. If you are shooting RAW, you then use a RAW processor such as those that come with camera that have a RAW function, Adobe Camera Raw or Phase One Capture One LE .

Next week, I will discuss the grayscale and desaturate methods of converting a colour image to black and white.

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.

A complete guide to digital cameras, digital photography, and digital video

Published
by
Graham
on August 9, 2006
in Digital Photography Tips & Info
. 0 Comments

Regular reader Pat sent along some information on ShortCourses.com. They have several online books

Welcome to ShortCourses.com,
Famous for its books on digital cameras and digital photography.
THE digital photography resource for over 6,000,000 visitors a year

I quickly glanced over a couple of the “courses”. As of the time of this writing, there seems to be 9 courses, along with several other useful resources. Check it out!

Lights! Camera! Incision!

Published
by
Graham
on August 8, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From MSNBC:

It looks like a taping of “ER.” A surgeon stands over a patient, scalpel in hand, ready to perform a high-tech spinal operation. He has a team of professionals supporting him—two anesthesiologists, four nurses and an X-ray technician. Meanwhile, three men with broadcast video cameras dot the room, listening through earpieces as a producer barks orders. When the producer says “cut” the cameras don’t stop. Instead, the doctor raises his scalpel—and makes a real-life incision.

This surgery was filmed last month for OR-Live.com, a Web site that was launched six years ago as a way for doctors to bone up on new techniques by logging on to watch their peers perform surgeries. But recently the site’s been attracting a completely different audience: patients who are curious about new procedures.

Prolific Canadian is king of Wikipedia

Published
by
Graham
on August 4, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From the Globe and Mail:

Simon Pulsifer has never really blended in with the crowd. In kindergarten, he began building elaborate, fantastical buildings out of Lego, already bored by the construction plans on the back of the box.

In Grade 8, he, attired as Stalin, and other friends re-enacted the Yalta conference on the balcony of a friend’s house. In university, he became the Trivial Pursuit champion at his college, and even won when the whole residence took him on.

Today Mr. Pulsifer, 24, is known internationally as the world’s most prolific author on the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia, with 78,000 entries edited and 2,000 to 3,000 new articles to his name. He can’t remember the exact number.

Digital cameras ‘not backed up’

Published
by
Graham
on August 4, 2006
in Computer News, Digital Entertainment and Digital Photography Tips & Info
. 0 Comments

From BBC News:

About one-third of digital camera users in the UK are not backing up their photographs, reveals research.

But at the same time, the survey of 2,227 consumers revealed 89% of those quizzed now own a digital camera or camera-phone.

And just under half are taking more than 10 snaps each month.

Free RealPlayer Enterprise

Published
by
Graham
on August 3, 2006
in Digital Entertainment and Software Tips
. 3 Comments

I read about this on the Google Operating System blog…

realplayer_enterprise_logo.gif

Apparently RealNetworks has a simple version of RealPlayer that business can install. But the thing that makes it appear to businesses, will probably make it appeal to consumers as well:

RealPlayer Enterprise gives you the best of RealPlayer you know and use at home, but without advertising, without requiring registration, and without consumer features that don’t belong in the workplace.

You can read more about it on the RealPlayer Enterprise section of the RealNetworks site. Follow the Free RealPlayer Enterprise link.

Huge wireless computer vulnerability exposed

Published
by
Graham
on August 3, 2006
in Computer News
. 0 Comments

From the Globe and Mail:

Some computers with wireless Internet capabilities are vulnerable to attacks that could expose passwords, bank account details and other sensitive information, even if the machines aren’t actually on-line, researchers said.

The researchers demonstrated the vulnerability at a computer-security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, showing how to take complete control of a MacBook from Apple Computer Inc. But the two researchers, David Maynor, 28, and Jon Ellch, a 24-year-old who prefers to go by his hacker handle Johnny Cache, said the technique will work on an array of machines, including those that run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows and the free Linux operating system.

“The problem itself isn’t really an Apple problem,” said Mr. Maynor, a researcher at SecureWorks Inc., a network-monitoring company.

“This is a systemic problem across the industry.”

Was It Done With a Lens, or a Brush?

Published
by
Graham
on August 3, 2006
in Computer News and Digital Photography Tips & Info
. 0 Comments

From the New York Times:

Like many amateur photographers, Joe Dejesus posts his photos online and compares them to the work of others on the photo-sharing site Flickr. At some point last year, a number of landscape photos caught his eye with their vibrant tones and colors.

Their secret was a software technology known as H.D.R., for high dynamic range photography. And Mr. Dejesus quickly became one of its practitioners.

“You can get different combinations of colors you cannot achieve with photos,” said Mr. Dejesus, who lives in Granada Hills, Calif., and posts his work under the pseudonym Kris Kros at www.flickr.com/photos/kros. “You can easily come up with something that looks like a painting.”