ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
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Welcome to the 412th issue of the PC Improvement News. PCIN consists mainly of news and tips. There is something for everyone, and if this is your first issue, I'm sure there will be something for you. If you give me two or three issues, I know that you will come back for more!
You can reach me at editor@pcin.net with any suggestions or comments.
Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php
I had a nice birthday. I pooled the money I received and bought an HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One printer. I also looked at a Lexmark (didn't like only having 1 cartridge to do both colour and black) and an Epson (my previous experience with Epson was that they were slow) printer, but I decided that since I've had no issues at all with any HP device I've ever used, I'd stick with HP. I've only used it a bit, but so far, so good!
So Andrew goes in on Friday for his tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. He just started school this week, and then has to miss the first fill week recovering. Poor little guy. Both Lisa and I will be there all weekend to look after him. He's looking forward to all the ice cream :-)
Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net
Digital divide separates students
Many more white children use the Internet than do Hispanic and black students, a reminder that going online is hardly a way of life for everyone.
Two of every three white students -- 67 percent -- use the Internet, but less than half of blacks and Hispanics do, according to federal data released Tuesday. For Hispanics the figure is 44 percent; for blacks, it's 47 percent.
" This creates incredible barriers for minorities," said Mark Lloyd, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and an expert on how communications influence civil rights.
Wal-Mart and Apple Battle for Turf
The guy from Bentonville, Ark., surely isn't on any of Hollywood's leading man lists. A 23-year Wal-Mart Stores veteran, David Porter is the person at the retail giant who orders DVDs and slashes prices to move them. But this summer, Porter has been one of Hollywood's hottest acts, taking meetings with top studio brass like a producer with a hot script. His pitch: Wal-Mart isn't happy.
That prospect tends to send shivers through Hollywood's Gucci-toed corner offices. As the largest seller of DVDs, Wal-Mart accounts for roughly 40% of the $17 billion in DVDs that will be sold this year, a financial lifeline to big-spending studios. But now Wal-Mart's video business faces a potential threat by Steve Jobs and Apple Computer (AAPL), which in mid-September, sources tell BusinessWeek, plans to announce it will start offering movie downloads from its iTunes store.
WiFi Network Now Live in Toronto
Free Wi-Fi access is now available in the central Toronto downtown core, following the launch of One Zone, the wireless network from Toronto Hydro Telecom.
Available in a six-square kilometre area, bounded by Front St to the south, Bloor St to the north, stretching east/west from around Bathurst St to Parliament St, the network is free of charge during a six month introductory period.
" Hundreds and hundreds of megabits are now flowing around Toronto," enthused David Dobbin, Toronto Hydro Telecom president. "Our new WiFi network, combined with our 450-kilometre fibre network, is a powerful combination of leading edge technology."
Telephone telepathy? Researcher says it rings true
Many people have experienced the phenomenon of receiving a telephone call from someone shortly after thinking about them. Now a scientist says he has proof of what he calls telephone telepathy.
Rupert Sheldrake, whose research is funded by the respected Trinity College in Cambridge, England, said on Tuesday he has conducted experiments that proved such precognition exists for telephone calls and even e-mails.
Each person in the trials was asked to give researchers names and phone numbers of four relatives or friends. These were then called at random and told to ring the subject who had to identify the caller before answering the phone.
"The hit rate was 45 percent, well above the 25 percent you would have expected," he told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. "The odds against this being a chance effect are 1,000 billion to one."
He said he found the same result with people being asked to name one of four people sending them an e-mail before it had landed.
Take A Course - Digital Photography Tip of the Week
It has been a long road, but I hope everyone enjoyed my 4 part series on digital black and white photography. One thing that wasn't mentioned in my tips though, be sure you take your photographs in colour! Shooting in black and white mode on your camera will eliminate all of the colour information you can use to create dynamic black and white photos.
Black and White Digital Photography - Part 1This week's tip is a simple one featuring a few avenues with which you can improve your photography. With school starting and fall approaching, there are many continuing education courses in photography available at local high schools and colleges. The courses offered often have a wide range of skills that they build upon, and there are courses for photographers of all abilities. I have taken a few courses over the years at my local community college and found them rewarding. I have also mentioned camera and photography clubs in the past as a way to meet with other people who share a common interest as well as provide a forum for you to improve upon your own photography. Many clubs will be starting in the coming weeks so if that is something that interests you, look up your local club and attend a meeting.
Black and White Digital Photography - Part 2
Black and White Digital Photography - Part 3
Black and White Digital Photography - Part 4
There are always ways to improve you photography. From snapshooters to professionals,
everyone can benefit from interacting with other photographers.
Until next week, happy shooting.
Leave a comment about this week's Digital Photography Tip of the Week.
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.
Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:
Update PCIN.net home page with "Top 10 Most Popular..." features
http://PCIN.net/Microsoft Digital Image Suite Plus Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/msdimagesuiteplus.phpOmega One Software Battery Pack Pro 2.1 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/bpp2.phpMakayama Interactive DVD to Pocket PC 3.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/dvd2ppc3.phpAdobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/elements40.php
Office Letter: A Cheat Sheet For Word
Regular reader Pat sent me a great document of Microsoft Word shortcuts and tips. As I looked into it, I found it was originally referenced on the InformationWeek site in an article called Office Letter: A Cheat Sheet for Word:
Office Letter reader Lyn Hancock wrote to share her list of shortcuts for Word.
This is an aid that I began several years ago and several Word versions back. I add to it when I discover something new and try to update it when new Word versions are released, so it is very much a work in progress. Note: I don't guarantee that the information is absolutely correct and it is certainly not complete.
You can download this lengthy set of shortcuts and keyboard templates from http://www.officeletter.com/samples/v04/n52wordshortcuts.doc.
Box.net/lite
In the last year I've mentioned Box.net a couple of times (here and here). It is an online storage site. They provide you with 1GB of space for free and you pay if you want more than that. They just recently started a new service called Box.net/lite. It allows you to share files up to 10MB in size:
Add a photo, song, document, video, or file into your facebook notes, myspace, or blog.
They host the file for you. So essentially you can use this as a file hosting service similar to PutFile.com. I'm not sure what restrictions there are, but this could come in handy.
Google Debuts 200 Year News Archive Search
From SearchEngineWatch.com:
News and history junkies take heart: Google's new News Archive Search lets you search back over twenty decades worth of historical content, including scads of articles not previously available via the search engine.
"The goal of this service is to allow people to search and explore how history unfolded," said Anurag Acharya, Google distinguished engineer, who played a major role in shepherding the new product.
Google has partnered with news organizations including Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Guardian and the Washington Post, and aggregators including Factiva, LexisNexis, Thomson Gale and HighBeam Research, to index the full-text of content going back 200 years.
I've looked at the site a bit and it looks neat. I tried to think of something that would have a history, so I searched for "queen of england" (without the quotes). It brought up results from the New York Times that went back to 1854. Unfortunately, to actually view the article, you had to have a "subscription" to the Newspaper Archive. Overall the news archive search seems like a good idea, but I think they'll have a hard time actually getting people to pay.
Both of us have other sites other than PCIN.net. These are all sites that we are actively involved in (they aren't client sites). Don't forget to check them out from time to time for updates:
PCIN is brought to you by Graham Wing. The opinions expressed are those of the Editor, Graham Wing and the Assistant Editor, Chris Empey. Graham Wing and Chris Empey accept no responsibility for the results obtained from trying the tips in this newsletter.
Graham Wing can be reached at editor@pcin.net
Chris Empey can be reached at chris@pcin.net
Copyright 1998-2006, Graham Wing. All rights reserved.
This publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, as long as the author is notified and the newsletter is presented as is.
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