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Issue 391 - April 12, 2006

ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
==== 1658 Subscribers in 53 Countries ====

Welcome to the 391st 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.

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Support PCIN at http://PCIN.net/donate.php

CONTENTS

Opening Thoughts

Do you have a pedometer? One of those devices that counts your steps? I did, but it was bright red (that my mother had gotten free in a Tylenol package), so I didn't really want to have that on my belt. Then someone at work was nice enough to trade with me. She had a black one that she gave me, and I wear it all the time. I'm almost obsessed with it :-) I walk a lot, and I make sure that I get at least 10,000 steps a day. The other day I made it to almost 20,000!

Last Thursday we had an opportunity to stay for free at the new Great Wolf Lodge that is opening in Niagara Falls this weekend. They had a "soft" opening, where you stayed for free. It's a way for the staff to practice. The hotel is great and has a fantastic indoor waterpark. We were there for about 15 minutes and Lisa said to me, "Let's live here!" The boys loved playing in the water, and there were lots of other things for kids as well. It was well worth the price :-)

Happy Easter!

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

The NEWS

Next cancer breakthrough from your home PC?

The key to unlocking a cure for cancer might be sitting in your den or home office.
Modeled after the groundbreaking and wildly popular SETI@home project, scientists have conceived Rosetta@home to harness the power of PCs to solve basic problems in medicine.
Rosetta@home plans to use the extensive number-crunching power of computer time donated by tens of thousands of individuals to hopefully unravel basic mysteries of proteins, the building blocks of life.

Read the MSNBC article...
Leave a comment...

Rush is on to register '.eu' domain name

Some 300,000 Europeans rushed to register their new ".eu" Internet domain names in the first hour of being able to sign up to the new Web site addresses, European Union officials said Friday.
Registrations for the new domain name opened up to those who reside in the 25-nation EU on a first-come, first served basis, the European Commission said.
EU Commissioner Viviane Reding said the Commission hopes the new ".eu" name will one day rival the ".com" name.

Read the CNN article...
Leave a comment...

Report: Users Pulling Plug on Landlines

Landline telephones may soon need a lifeline as more people cut the cord in favor of Voice over IP (VoIP) and wireless phone alternatives.
VoIP subscribers in the U.S. are expected to hit the 32.6 million mark by 2010, which means that roughly 40 percent of all broadband households in the country will be using VoIP systems from Vonage, AT&T and others in the field.
This compares with about 5.2 million VoIP subscribers with an expected 9.6 million by the end of this year, according to a report just released by eMarketer.
Sitting in the line of fire is the $190 billion fixed-line telephony industry, which is expected to lose users and revenues as cable companies, ISPs and others take a piece of the pie.

Read the InternetNews article...
Leave a comment...

Podcasting: Blip, not boom, researcher says

Podcasts are to bloggers what MySpace sites are to teens: All the cool kids have one. So Forrester probably expected a big reaction with a new report that claims podcasts are not exactly taking the wired world by storm.
The research firm's new study claims that only 1 percent of online households in North America regularly download and listen to podcasts.
Forrester analyst Charlene Li says on her blog that while there's definitely a business case for podcasts, companies "shouldn't be dashing out to create expensive original content for a small audience--unless they gain value from being seen as innovative."

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

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PCIN.net UPDATE

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.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

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Software Review
http://PCIN.net/help/software/elements40.php

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Digital Photography Tip of the Week

Read the Manual

One of the most basic tips that I can offer is also one that can really yield a lot of results, and one that is often forgotten. Read your manuals.

Today's digital cameras, even the simple point and shoot ones, have a lot of features that you may not even be aware of, let alone use. My mother recently purchased a Canon Rebel XT, a digital SLR, for my father. The most important thing I could tell him was to read his manual. If you camera has a few features, you may be able to go over the whole manual in one shot. If it has a lot of features, do it over a period of time, reading and learning each new feature one at a time. When you read the manual, have the camera beside you so that you can follow along with the instruction in the manual.

Is there something about digital photography you would like to know? Why don't you send me your questions and I will do what I can to answer them. Send a picture along and I might include in a future tip.

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 vice-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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THE TIPS and OTHER STUFF

Download or Order Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition for Free
Within the last week, Microsoft started offering their Virtual Server 2005 R2 software for free. This allows you to run multiple operating systems at the same time on one computer using virtualization. This is the same sort of technology that VMware uses.
You can "Download or Order Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition for Free" from the Microsoft site.

Leave a comment...

BackLinks Analyzer tool
If you run a web site, then you should definitely check out this web site. The BackLink Analyzer Tool gives you access to sites that link to you, who owns that site, the Google cache of these pages, and more...
Information The Backlinks Analyzer gives

Be sure to check out the BackLink Analyzer Tool!

Leave a comment...

eyespot - Video editing in your browser
As I mentioned before, Michael Robertson (of MP3.com fame) is backing development of online software tools using AJAX. He previously had announced ajaxWrite and ajaxSketch. You can get notification of new programs from the ajaxLaunch.com announcement site.

The latest title is eyespot:

Shoot, Mix, and Share your Video.
Use the eyespot Mixer to edit and combine your videos, music and photos online! Share your video and mixes with the world for Free.
I haven't tried it (I don't have any video to edit), but it sounds pretty cool to be able to edit simple video in your browser. If you've tried it, be sure to leave a comment.
Note: AJAX is a development process/technique. You can learn about it on Wikipedia.

Leave a comment...

New, Free, Graphical Partitioning Tool

The latest LangaList newsletter had the following:
2) New, Free, Graphical Partitioning Tool
Fred, This just came in Scott Spanbauer's weekly PCWorld newsletter "Software Report" (give credit where credit is due). http://partitionlogic.org.uk/index.html is the home of J. Andrew (Andy) McLaughlin's website devoted to "Partition Logic." Among it's other features:
- FREE! (GNU general public licence)
- It can create, delete, format, defragment, resize, and move partitions and modify their attributes. It can copy entire hard disks from one to another. - It's basically intended to duplicate the work of commercial programs such as Partition Magic, Ghost, Drive Image or BootItNG -- but for FREE. - It works from a bootable floppy or CD, under it's own operating system. - And did I mention that it's FREE?

I fear for the site's survival -- it might get hit with the dreaded "Langa effect." ---Bruce Fraser

Excellent, Bruce: Looks like a nice tool! A small caveat: Note the version number, which is below "1.0" While it's always smart to make a backup before using any partition tool, it's especially important when the tool is young, as this one is. But it looks super so far--- and a free self-contained partition tool with a graphical front end is a very nice addition to the toolbox.

I haven't tried it, but it sounds interesting. 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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