ISSN 1488-3163; PC Improvements © 2006
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Welcome to the 424th 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
Over the last few days we've put up our Christmas tree and other decorations around the house (both inside and outside) and while I'm typing this up, I'm listening to Frosty the Snowman (for the second time because Andrew wanted me to play it again). Christmas is a great time of year, and it's even more fun with the kids!
I'll have my review of Paragon Partition Manager 8.0 ready next week. I've used the product for a bunch of different operations and it is very impressive.
Graham editor@pcin.net and Chris chris@pcin.net
'Yours Truly,' the E-Variations
Chad Troutwine, an entrepreneur in Malibu, Calif., was negotiating a commercial lease earlier this year for a building he owns in the Midwest. Though talks began well, they soon grew rocky. The telltale sign that things had truly devolved? The sign-offs on the e-mail exchanges with his prospective tenant.
"As negotiations started to break down, the sign-offs started to get decidedly shorter and cooler," Mr. Troutwine recalled. "In the beginning it was like, 'I look forward to speaking with you soon' and 'Warmest regards,' and by the end it was just 'Best.'" The deal was eventually completed, but Mr. Troutwine still felt as if he had been snubbed.
What's in an e-mail sign-off? A lot, apparently. Those final few words above your name are where relationships and hierarchies are established, and where what is written in the body of the message can be clarified or undermined.
New Flights of Fancy
The sky over San Francisco is cerulean blue as you begin your descent into the city from 2,000 feet. As you pass over the southern hills, the skyline of the Financial District rises into view. On the descent into downtown, familiar skyscrapers form an urban canyon around you; you can even see the trolley tracks running down the valley formed by Market Street. But then a little pop-up box next to the Bay Bridge explains that an accident has just occurred on the western span, and a thick red line indicates the resulting traffic jam along the highway. A banner ad for Emeryville, Calif., firm ZipRealty hangs incongruously in the air over the Transamerica Pyramid. You are actually staring at your PC screen, not out an airplane window.
Women still under-represented in IT
The number of women working in IT has fallen dramatically over the past five years to a low of 16%, a DTI sponsored study shows.
The research, published by Intellect, shows that many of the women employed in the IT sector are in the lower skilled, lower paid areas of the industry rather than more professional and technical positions.
Essential Filters for Digital Photography - Digital Photography Tip of the Week
Filters have been used throughout photographic history to manipulate the light entering the camera before exposing your film. There is an expansive array of filters available for color correction, adding mood to an image, and special effects. Black and white photographers traditionally have used a number of colored filters to change the way colors are represented in their images. With digital photography, many of the effects that we used filters for previously can be duplicated in our editing, rendering the filters themselves useless, however there are few filters that are still indispensable.
The three filters that I continue to use are a polarizer (circular polarizer), neutral density and a split neutral density.
Polarizer
The polarizing filter is used for saturating color and removing glare and reflections from objects. A polarizer has two rings, one used to mount the filter to your lens, the second to rotate the polarizer to modify the degree of polarization. There are two types of polarizers, linear and circular. They both do the same function, however, many autofocus/autoexposure cameras require a circular polarizer to function correctly. Polarization is most prevalent 90 degrees from the sun and will decrease as the angle to the sun approached 0 (or 180 degrees). One of the most common uses of a polarizer is to create rich, blue skies. One word of caution with polarizers though, as the angle of the light changes, the degree of polarization changes. When using a wide angle lens, you will see a falloff in polarization as the angle of the light changes across your field of view. This is most likely to be seen on lenses wider than 28mm as you can see in the second shot below, photographed at 18mm..
These two images were both shot with a polarizer. Without the polarizer, the sky would have been a less dramatic blue and the clouds would have blended in more with the sky in the first photo.
Neutral Density
Neutral Density (ND) filters really have only one purpose, that is to decrease the amount of light entering the lens. ND filters come in various densities, with the most common being 1, 2 and 3 stops of filtration, usually expressed as either 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 or 2x, 4x, 8x. They should be neutral in color and should not alter the colours in an image at all though some of the lower cost filters may. ND filters are useful for either achieving a slower shutter speed for a given aperture, or for using a larger aperture for a given shutter speed. For example: for this photograph taken in Letchworth State Park, NY I used a shutter speed of 1/6 second while using and an aperture of f22, ISO 100. I also used a combination of a 2x ND filter (1 stop) and my polarizer (1.5 stops). Without the filters, I would have had to shoot the falls at 1/30 second which would have been fast enough that the water would not look as soft and flowing as it does. I would have preferred to have had a 4x ND filter which would have allowed me to use a 1/3 second exposure and added more 'flow' to the water. If I had not been using a lens that allowed me to stop down to f22 though, I would have had a much faster shutter speed. Many digital point and shoot camera's have a minimum aperture of only f8, which in this case would have resulted in a shutter speed of 1/250 second, more than sufficient to stop the flow of water in the image.
Split Neutral Density
Split Neutral Density filters are similar to neutral density filters
in that they reduce the light coming into the lens, but differ in that the entire
filter is not coated evenly. They most common split neutral density filters are
are graduated and they gradually change from clear to translucent gray. There
are also available with a hard edge which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
The hard edge split neutral density filters are useful when you are photographing
a subject with a bright area that suddenly changes to a dark area, and graduated
filter is best used when you have a bright area gradually merging into a dark
area. These filters are used because in difficult lighting situations (such as
photographing the morning sun) the difference in light between the lightest and
darkest areas of your image may be substantial enough that you film or sensor
cannot capture the entire range of values. Using a split neutral density filter
masks some of the light in a darker area of your image so that the exposure between
extremes are closer.
As you can see in the illustration above, the image on the left (simulated to show the effect of not using a split neutral density filter) does not show the colour of the first light peaking over the horizon that the second does.
Filters are available at most retail camera stores and come in different sizes, shapes and qualities. B+W, Lee, Singh-Ray and Cokin all make filters of varying qualities. Round filters are sized according to your filter ring on your lens, and you can also purchase rectangular or square one similar to the diagram of the split neutral density filters above. This type uses a filter holder and is the best way to go for split neutral density filters as the holder lets you adjust what parts of the image are receiving filtration by moving the filter up or down in the holder. For digital point and shoot cameras, Cokin makes a filter holder that can be used when you lens does not have a filter thread.
There are many more filters available, but these are the three I filters I keep with me all of the time, and each produces results not easily achievable in an image editing program.
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.
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
Hacking Email: 99 Email Security and Productivity Tips
From IT Security:
When people read out a phone number, they use "phone rhythm." No one has to explain "phone rhythm," we all just seem to do it automatically, "...713...555...12...34". Similarly, when we answer a phone call we all say, "Hello." No one taught us to do that, but somehow we all seemed to pick it up.
So why is it that when it comes to emails, there are no accepted standards? Even though 6 billion emails are sent every day, almost no one agrees about simple things like email etiquette, how to organize a note, or whether emails are considered private or not.
The 99 tips in this article make up the best in email practices. From how to ethically use the 'BCC:' to what attachments will make your mobile emailing compatible with everyone else's, this list covers everything you need to know about emailing.
As mentioned above, there are 99 different tips about email, broken out into several categories: Etiquette, Communicating & Effectiveness, Mobile Email, Productivity, Folders, and Filtering, Email Attachments, Tricks, Hacks, Backup, System-Specific Mail, and Last but not Least: Privacy and Security. There aren't any tips for specific software packages. These are general suggestions on what to do.
Lyrics Plugin
I read about this on the Google Operating System blog:
Good things are simple and come in small packages. If you wanted a plugin for your music player that finds and displays lyrics for your songs, Lyrics Plugin is a good answer. It's free, small (around 60 KB) and available for Winamp and Windows Media Player. You don't have to configure anything, the plugin works well out of the box.
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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