September 29, 2009
May 14, 2009
Snackr.net - Free RSS News ticker
How do you read your news? On news websites? How will you find out about the latest news stories as they are happening? RSS News tickers are the answer. The Snackr news ticker runs along the side of your computer screen showing the latest headlines about the subjects you care about. Snackr includes built-in news feeds, but you can add your own too.
Snackr runs on the Adobe AIR runtime which is free from Adobe.com . Just install Adobe AIR first, then go to Snackr.net to get the news ticker software. You can drag it to any side of your screen, and set it to temporarily hide, if you don't want to read the news at any given time. It can also be set to run only on the desktop, and run behind your currently running programs to be less distracting to your work.
Snackr runs on the Adobe AIR runtime which is free from Adobe.com . Just install Adobe AIR first, then go to Snackr.net to get the news ticker software. You can drag it to any side of your screen, and set it to temporarily hide, if you don't want to read the news at any given time. It can also be set to run only on the desktop, and run behind your currently running programs to be less distracting to your work.
Check the strength of your password
Are your computer login and important website login passwords strong enough? Check out this password strength website and test your passwords today. They should be at least 8 characters long at a minimum (preferably 14 characters long) and should include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Here is a site on how to create and use strong passwords, if you find that your current password is weak.
Here is a site on how to create and use strong passwords, if you find that your current password is weak.
February 27, 2009
January 23, 2009
Photography Podcasts
One great way to learn more about photography is to listen to Photography Podcasts. A Podcast is a free radio show that is available for download over the internet and playable through the podcast's website or through a program, like iTunes. These Podcasts (downloaded .mp3 files) can then be uploaded to a portable media player so that you can listen to them in your car, or when you are just going about your daily activities.
There are a few Photo Podcasts that I will recommend here, but this list is by no means all of them. There are new ones that become available all the time. These few that I will mention are the ones that have helped me to become a better photographer, and to expand the way that I look at the world around me.
The Candid Frame Podcast http://thecandidframe.blogspot.com/
Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor http://www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com/
Martin Bailey Photography Podcast http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/
Nikonians Podcast http://podcasts.nikonians.org/
The Photography Podcast http://www.photography.ca/blog/
Thoughts on Photography http://www.thoughtsonphotography.com/
I hope these podcasts will help you become a better photographer, just as they have been a great help to me.
-Jeremiah Kellogg
There are a few Photo Podcasts that I will recommend here, but this list is by no means all of them. There are new ones that become available all the time. These few that I will mention are the ones that have helped me to become a better photographer, and to expand the way that I look at the world around me.
The Candid Frame Podcast http://thecandidframe.blogspot.com/
Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor http://www.tipsfromthetopfloor.com/
Martin Bailey Photography Podcast http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/
Nikonians Podcast http://podcasts.nikonians.org/
The Photography Podcast http://www.photography.ca/blog/
Thoughts on Photography http://www.thoughtsonphotography.com/
I hope these podcasts will help you become a better photographer, just as they have been a great help to me.
-Jeremiah Kellogg
January 16, 2009
Panasonic DMC-TZ1 Review
This is a quick review of the Panasonic DMC-TZ1 pocket digital camera.
This camera has a 10x optical zoom lens made by Leica. This means it can zoom in quite far. Most cameras in this class only have a 3x or 4x zoom range. The Panasonic lens on this camera has optical image stabilization or O.I.S. as Panasonic calls it. This means it steadies all your photos with a built-in gyroscopic lens element and takes away all that hand-shaking blur that you can get with other cameras.
The photos it takes are quite sharp, and have great color. There is a natural, normal, and vivid color setting. I like the normal setting best, because it gives bright colors without being overwhelming. Vivid is a good setting for cloudy days, or when the color would otherwise be dull. The TZ1 is very fast as digital cameras go. There is very little delay after pressing the shutter and when the photo is taken. It's good for sports, kids, and pet photography. It even has a continuous focus mode for fast moving subjects.
I am very happy with the camera, and hope to take lots of pictures with it in the future. I highly recommend the Panasonic Lumix line of cameras for anyone looking to upgrade to a newer digital camera.
November 9, 2008
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 Review
Today I downloaded Microsoft's free Virtual PC 2007 program. Virtualization software will make your computer act like two, three, or more PC's. It allows you to install and run multiple instances of Microsoft Windows operating systems at the same time. It is useful to test new programs in virtual machines before you install them on your "real" computer, and also it's safer for web browsing inside Virtual PC, because it cannot infect your main computer install if you browse to an infected website.
Your Virtual Machine Windows install is saved in one single file that acts as a hard drive. When you save files on Virtual PC, this hard drive file slowly grows over time to the maximum size you allocated to it during setup. This makes it very easy to back up your virtual machine drives. Simply copy the Virtual Machine settings file and the virtual machine hard drive image file to a safe location. If you need to restore, simply drag and drop those two files from your backup drive back to your "My Virtual Machines" folder in "My Documents". If you ever get infected with a virus, now its easy to do a complete restore in only five minutes, and you don't have to re-install all your software again. No more hours spending on Windows re-installs when a program goes bad and crashes your system!
Running your web browser in a virtual machine is much safer as well. If your Virtual PC machine gets corrupted or infected, it cannot infect your main computer system. It is still important to run a good antivirus and firewall program in your virtual machine, because it still can get infected just as any computer can. I recommend downloading Comodo Internet Security because it now includes a free antivirus program along with its very powerful firewall.
I am Very impressed with Virtual PC's speed. It runs very quickly on my 2.13Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo cpu with 2Gb of RAM. I am typing this review from it, and Virtual PC feels like it runs just as quick as my native WinXP install runs. I recommend running it with a dual core processor and installing lots of memory to get the fastest response times. For example, if your computer only has 1Gb of RAM, and you allocate 512Mb to your virtual PC install, then your main computer system will only have 512Mb available as well, and may slow down a little. You can safely allocate 256Mb of ram to an XP VM if you don't have much memory, and it should run ok. Most systems sold recently have dual core CPU's with 1 to 2Gb of ram, so performance should not be an issue.
Virtual PC is now free, so I recommend everyone to go out and download a copy if you want to try it out. Check out the requirements first, because some Microsoft "Home" versions will not run with it.
Your Virtual Machine Windows install is saved in one single file that acts as a hard drive. When you save files on Virtual PC, this hard drive file slowly grows over time to the maximum size you allocated to it during setup. This makes it very easy to back up your virtual machine drives. Simply copy the Virtual Machine settings file and the virtual machine hard drive image file to a safe location. If you need to restore, simply drag and drop those two files from your backup drive back to your "My Virtual Machines" folder in "My Documents". If you ever get infected with a virus, now its easy to do a complete restore in only five minutes, and you don't have to re-install all your software again. No more hours spending on Windows re-installs when a program goes bad and crashes your system!
Running your web browser in a virtual machine is much safer as well. If your Virtual PC machine gets corrupted or infected, it cannot infect your main computer system. It is still important to run a good antivirus and firewall program in your virtual machine, because it still can get infected just as any computer can. I recommend downloading Comodo Internet Security because it now includes a free antivirus program along with its very powerful firewall.
I am Very impressed with Virtual PC's speed. It runs very quickly on my 2.13Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo cpu with 2Gb of RAM. I am typing this review from it, and Virtual PC feels like it runs just as quick as my native WinXP install runs. I recommend running it with a dual core processor and installing lots of memory to get the fastest response times. For example, if your computer only has 1Gb of RAM, and you allocate 512Mb to your virtual PC install, then your main computer system will only have 512Mb available as well, and may slow down a little. You can safely allocate 256Mb of ram to an XP VM if you don't have much memory, and it should run ok. Most systems sold recently have dual core CPU's with 1 to 2Gb of ram, so performance should not be an issue.
Virtual PC is now free, so I recommend everyone to go out and download a copy if you want to try it out. Check out the requirements first, because some Microsoft "Home" versions will not run with it.
August 17, 2008
Baltimore Maryland "Inner Harbor"
I took some of photos with my new Samsung L200 10 Megapixel digital camera. It's a small pocket camera that takes wonderful photos. I'm very happy with it.
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