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Issue 425 - December 06, 2006

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
==== 1529 Subscribers in 48 Countries ====

Welcome to the 425th 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

CONTENTS

Opening Thoughts

I finally completed the Partition Manager 8.0 Professional review. You can preview it and find links in the Tips and Other Stuff section below.

Well, December is finally here, and with it came the snow! We've had a few inches fall a couple of days ago and it actually stayed until today when it warmed up a bit. I'm generally not a big fan of winter, but nothing beats the combination of snow and lights around Christmas.

Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net

The NEWS

Computer-challenged elves need not apply

Hammers and nails are gathering dust in the elves' workshop this season.
That's because two hot gifts--PlayStation 3 and Tickle Me Extreme Elmo--are almost entirely dependent on software inside. These new toys are just the latest evidence that software platforms have become one of the most important economic and technological developments of the early 21st century. They are the invisible engines behind not just toys, but the businesses of the future.

Read the TechRepublic article...
Leave a comment...

For $150, Third-World Laptop Stirs Big Debate

When computer industry executives heard about a plan to build a $100 laptop for the developing world's children, they generally ridiculed the idea. How could you build such a computer, they asked, when screens alone cost about $100?
Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technologist for the project, likes to refer to the insight that transformed the machine from utopian dream to working prototype as "a really wacky idea."
Ms. Jepsen, a former Intel chip designer, found a way to modify conventional laptop displays, cutting the screen's manufacturing cost to $40 while reducing its power consumption by more than 80 percent. As a bonus, the display is clearly visible in sunlight.
That advance and others have allowed the nonprofit project, One Laptop Per Child, to win over many skeptics over the last two and a half years.

Read the New York Times article...
Leave a comment...

UN warns on password 'explosion'

Growing use of the web is stripping people of their personal privacy, warns a UN agency report.
The number of passwords and logins web users need makes it inevitable they will re-use phrases, warned the International Telecommunications Union.
Re-using these identifiers puts people at serious risk of falling victim to identity theft, said the ITU report.
It called on regulators and businesses to find better ways for people to identify themselves to websites.

Read the BBC News article...
Leave a comment...

Spam doubles, finding new ways to deliver itself

Hearing from a lot of new friends lately? You know, the ones that write "It's me, Esmeralda," and tip you off to an obscure stock that is "poised to explode" or a great deal on prescription drugs.
You're not the only one. Spam is back - in e-mail in-boxes and on everyone's minds. In the last six months, the problem has gotten measurably worse. Worldwide spam volumes have doubled from last year, according to Ironport, a spam filtering firm, and unsolicited junk mail now accounts for more than 9 of every 10 e-mail messages sent over the Internet.

Read the New York Times (via CNet) article...
Leave a comment...

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Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Show Texture in Your Photographs - Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Showing texture in photographs is not that difficult when you know how to capture it. Photographs are a two dimensional medium, so to show texture, we need to light our subject in such a way that we present the illusion of depth in the image.

To maximize texture in a photograph, side lighting is key. That is the direction of light comes across the face of the subject from one side to the other. This directional light will highlight the ridges of the texture and cast shadows into the valleys. These highlights and shadows are what is needed to emphasize texture in your photograph. On the other hand, front lighting is very flat and can be used to minimize texture in a photograph.

Below is an example comparing side lighting against front lighting. This is a 100% crop from two photographs taken from the same location, with the camera setup on a tripod. The only difference between the two is the lighting used to illuminate the wall I used as a subject. This is obviously an extreme example, but it illustrates the point well.

Front lighting example

Side lighting example

The first image is shot using frontlighting. As you can see, frontlighting illuminates the wall evenly and shows very few ridges or depressions in the wall, while side lighting emphasizes the ridges and depressions.

To use this in your photography, when you want to emphasize texture in your subject, turn it to so that the light falls across your subject. If you want to minimize texture in your photograph, turn your subject into the light. A word of caution though, if your subject is a person, apart from removing any modeling (sculpting of the face through the use of light) turning them into the light may cause them to squint.

Knowing how to properly light your photos to achieve the look you want will help you create stronger, more dynamic photographs.

Next week I review the ExpoDisc white balance filter for more accurate colour rendition in your photographs.

Until next time, happy shooting.

Leave a comment on 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.

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PCIN.net UPDATE

Check out these new or updated pages on the PCIN.net site:

Paragon Software Group Partition Manager 8.0 Professional Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/ppm8.php

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.php

Omega One Software Battery Pack Pro 2.1 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/bpp2.php

Makayama Interactive DVD to Pocket PC 3.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/dvd2ppc3.php

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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Partition Manager 8.0 Professional Software Review

Partition Manager 8.0 Professional boxshot

I just finished reviewing Partition Manager 8.0 Professional from Paragon Software Group:

When a product has been around for many different versions, it is often hard for the programmers to come up with enough new features to make the upgrades worthwhile. I've reviewed several Paragon Software Group products in the past, and have always been impressed with them, but I wondered how the new Paragon Partition Manager 8 could be any better than the last version. I was quite impressed by Partition Manager 7 and still use the recover CD whenever I need to do some tweaking. After using Partition Manager 8 for a while, and testing both the installed version as well as the recovery CD, I can say that it is definitely a worthy upgrade.

Read the rest of the review...

Leave a comment...

PDFCreator

pdfforge.org logo

Our printer at church died the other day and we won't have a replacement for a time. A piece of software that we use has to print reports before moving on to other functions. Someone suggested we download a PDF writer so that we could at least print the information to file. I assumed that he was going to download PDF995, but he downloaded and installed PDFCreator by pdfforge. I had never heard of it before, but it seems to be an excellent tool.

For those who aren't familiar with this sort of software, a PDF writer is software that acts as a printer. If you have a web page open, instead of printing it to the printer, you would print it to a file, in this case, a PDF. PDFCreator has a lot of options, and in my brief time using it I haven't experienced any errors. You should definitely check it out!

Leave a comment...

QuickThumbnail - online photo resizer

Another Download Squad find...

QuickThumbnail is an extremely pared-down online service offering the ability to upload an image and resize, then download the resulting file. Uploaded photos and their resulting copies are kept on the server for only 10 minutes as a security precaution. Resizing options include resizing based on a percentage of the original image's size, using one of a set of fixed sizes, or resizing my a set of "standard" sizes, for example 100x75 for an avatar, or 468x60 for a web banner.

Check it out!

Leave a comment...

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PCIN.net AFFILIATED SITES

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:

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DISCLAIMER and OTHER STUFF

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.

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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.

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