Tech Help Site

Cool Photo: record grooves under an electron microscope… – mike hayes’s posterous.

Here is a round up of Windows 7 features, tricks and tips. I have been using Win7 now for about 2 months exclusively and can say it is by far the best version of Windows, whichis to say any Operating System, I have ever used. I think it sets the bar out in front of the Linux world and makes the appeal of a switch to Mac diminished again.

Windows 7 Illustrated: 10 Cool Desktop Features – PC World

Windows & Keyboard Shortcuts – PC World

Six Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

Windows 7 adds some new keyboard shortcuts to the mix, all of them based on the Windows key. Here are my favorites:

Win-Home: Minimize all windows except the one that’s currently active. Hit it again to restore the windows.

Win-Space: Makes all windows transparent so you can see through to the desktop.

Win-Up Arrow: Maximizes the active window.

Win-Left/Right Arrow: Docks the active window to the left or ride side of the screen.

Win-[+/-]: Enables the magnifier and zooms in/out.

Win-P: Opens Windows’ presentation settings so you can quickly adjust display settings to include a second monitor or a projector.

Instantly Create Folders in Windows 7

Here’s one straight from the What-Took-Them-So-Long Department: A keyboard shortcut for creating new folders: Ctrl-Shift-N.

I know, I’m excited too. You can use this on the desktop or in an Explorer window: Just give a tap and presto, you’ve got a new folder ready for renaming.

The Best Windows 7 Feature: The Taskbar – MakeUseOf

More Windows XP & Vista Shortcuts – PC World

Keyboard Shortcuts You Need to Know

Regular readers know of my love for keyboard shortcuts. And who can blame me? When I’m typing along in, say, Word or a blog tool, the last thing I want to do is reach for the mouse. Totally interrupts my workflow. (We writer types are all about the workflow.)

Of course, there are times when I need to select, copy, cut, and/or paste text–all functions that would seem to mandate a little mouse action. But no: You can accomplish all those tasks with a few simple keyboard shortcuts. These may seem old and obvious to some users, but trust me: Not everybody knows them.

These shortcuts work in just about every text editor known to humanity, from Word to WordPad to WordPress.

Ctrl-Shift-Right Arrow: Selects the word immediately to the right of the cursor.

Ctrl-Shift-Left Arrow: Selects the word immediately to the left of the cursor.

Ctrl-Home: Selects all text from the cursor’s current position to the beginning of the line.

Ctrl-End: Selects all text from the cursor’s current position to the end of the line.

Ctrl-C: Copies selected text to the clipboard.

Ctrl-X: Cuts (i.e. temporarily deletes) selected text and copies it to the clipboard.

Ctrl-V: Pastes whatever text has been copied to the keyboard.

Once you master these shortcuts, I guarantee you’ll find yourself working much more quickly in Word and similar programs. So put down that mouse and keep your hands on the keys where they belong.

Launch Apps in a Flash With Windows-Key Shortcut (works in Vista too)

So help me, I’ll always be a fan of Windows’ Quick Launch toolbar. I showed you how to do endow it with a handy Windows Explorer icon, and I’ve also told you how to switch to big, Windows 7-style icons.

Today, one last Quick Launch tip–one that’s sure to appeal to keyboard-shortcut nuts like me. Once you’ve enabled the Quick Launch toolbar, a single click of any icon is all to takes to launch that program. But did you know that each icon is automatically assigned a number and corresponding Windows-key shortcut?

For example, the first icon in the toolbar (the one closest to the Start button) is linked to "1." So by pressing Windows-1, you can launch that program right from your keyboard. Pressing Windows-2 is like clicking the second icon, and so on.

This tip works for icons 1 to 9. If you already have Quick Launch enabled, give it a try. If not, see either of the aforementioned tips to find out how to do so.

Here is a quick update on my preferred method of imaging your computer – Acronis True Image. We have discussed this program many times before

For those of you who may have bought a previous version – I know some followed my lead and bought a discount copy – there are a few changes in the new one.

Mostly the changes are cosmetic except for the ability to back-up to a Zip file. Having a back-up as a zip means it is really easy to search through and find a particular document or picture you may have deleted and want to restore without running Acronis. In fact you could do this on a PC that didn’t have Acronis installed. But otherwise the ease of use and quality of the product make it the one to recommend.

Some might be curious how I use the program. I have Acronis set up with 2 regularly scheduled back-ups. The first backs up my C drive once per week. This safeguards my windows and my program installation. Once a week is regular enough for this drive but not my D Drive. All my documents, files, music, photos and other data is on the D drive and I have this set to back-up daily. All back-ups are to an external Hard drive and therefore separate to my actual computer. The scheduled back-ups are easy to create and once set you can just forget about them. This is the only way to go as anything that requires you to remember to do something, etc is prone to human error. Acronis is doing such a good job I have forgotten all about it most of the time.

So give the article below a read and if you haven’t already – think about how you back-up your machines and how to create a system that protects you without effort

Acronis True Image 2009, still a superb way to backup – Backup Software – Software – Reviews – PC Authority

Amazing Stars & Bubbles
Originally uploaded by Momba

Here is a really interesting photo I found on Flickr
If you follow this link to the original photo you can see the amount of work that was put in to creating the pic

Overall it’s a bit girly and pink for me but then the artist (Momba aka Trish) did create it for her 2 year old grand daughter

Does anyone else have any great photos they would like to share?
On the web is good or if you took it yourself even better!

I thought this was cool – especially if you are a Beatles fan MATT

An interactive version of the famous album cover lets you discover more about the famous faces.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has a nifty feature on the famous Beatles album cover for Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart’s Club Band.

Go here and move your mouse over the cover.

A tooltip will appear with the name and sometimes occupation of the person.

Click on the face to jump to a full biography in most cases –  but not all, poor old Stuart Sutcliffe (far left, above Sonny Liston) gets passed over yet again.

I could have done with that web page about 35 years ago when pouring over the cover to work out who they all where — could have won a few bets.

Sgt. Peppers revealed – Office Watch

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Seizing the Moment

By DAMON DARLIN

Published: May 10, 2007

DIGITAL cameras are amazing. Even compact digital cameras selling for less than $100 take photographs with great resolution.

 

Illustration by The New York Times

The point-and-shoot cameras are great, that is, as long as the subject of the photo is not moving very fast. But if the photographer is trying to catch the moment that the little soccer player kicks in his first goal or when the black Labrador leaps in the air to snag the Frisbee, then he may find a picture of an empty field or a blue sky. The compact digital camera can take so long to react after you snap the shutter release button that the moment has passed and the desired image is never captured.

The problem is called shutter lag. “It’s the No. 1 dissatisfier that we hear about,” said Bob Gann, Hewlett-Packard’s digital imaging systems architect. But avoiding it, or minimizing it in the next camera you buy — well, that is a tricky problem.

About 65 percent of camera buyers are buying their second or third digital camera, but this time they probably will not be focusing on the number of megapixels as they did in past purchases. (Anything over 5 megapixels is going to provide the resolution any amateur photographer needs.) Instead, they might want to think about how well that camera takes pictures, including the action shots.

The problem is, camera makers do not want to tell consumers too much about that. It is not that they have anything to hide; it is just that shutter lag is too difficult a concept to communicate in ads or marketing materials in stores. “No kidding, I am trying not to geek out,” said Jerry Magee, product manager at Kodak.

It still is much easier to sell consumers on a camera’s price, style, color, image-stabilization abilities, wireless ability or even its many preset shooting modes like fireworks, underwater or dining. “Our emphasis is on finishing their pictures and making them as good as possible right in the camera,” said Steve Heiner, a senior technical manger at Nikon.

That said, “there is a little bit of a war for a camera that can take a picture quicker,” Mr. Magee said.

The first problem is that shutter lag is not really shutter lag at all, but processor lag. (Feel your eyes glazing over already?) When the photographer begins to push down the button to snap the picture, sensors in the camera begin to take a series of measurements. The processor calculates the distance to the object, determines the amount of light needed and even does some balancing for color and whiteness. The processor may also have special software to focus on faces, so those calculations are run. In effect, the processor is analyzing a series of images as the button descends.

Then the image is captured on the processor and sent into memory.

That can take almost as long as one second. So any consumer who wants to buy a fast-acting camera merely has to look at the specification sheets, right?

Well, no. Many cameras’ spec sheets do not list any number that would help a consumer make a choice. The Nikon Coolpix S500, which the company said was one of its best performers for action shots, gave no clues. The Hewlett-Packard $230 Photo Smart R837, its best contestant, lists only “shot-to-shot time” of 1.5 seconds. (Some reviews said it had “shutter lag” of 0.37 second.) The Kodak EasyShare Z712 IS has a “click-to-capture” speed of 0.26 second.

The specifications surrounding lag are not standardized and can be interpreted in various ways. Indeed, there is not even one standard. For instance, one might measure shutter lag in auto focus and another with manual focus, which will be much less. For example, Nikon brags that its S500 has shutter lag, in “release priority mode” — that is, from the time the button is half-pressed down to the point it is completely depressed — of just 0.005 second.

A shopper might find shutter speed listed. But that alone is not very helpful. “Shutter speed is just one element,” said Chuck Westfall, a spokesman for Canon. “As long as it is reasonably fast, it doesn’t make much difference.”

Better proxies for estimating shutter lag are autofocus lag and shutter-release lag if you can find that data. A conscientious shopper may find the information in reviews in camera magazines or camera Web sites. (Hint: Google the camera name and the words “shutter lag.”)

(If you already have a camera, a rough do-it-yourself test is available at www.shooting-digital.com/columns/schwartz/shutter_release_test/default.asp. But it is influenced by how fast your reflexes are.)

Another measurement that plays into catching action shots is ISO. It is a term that was transported over from silver halide film, when it measured the fineness of the grains on the film, hence its sensitivity to light. A higher ISO could capture action better in low-light conditions.

So the higher a digital camera’s ISO settings, the more able it is to nail the action shot. The $300 Kodak Z712 IS, for example, goes up to 3200.

“It might not be shutter lag, but it could be the camera system may not be robust enough to capture it,” Mr. Magee said. If true, that presents an even bigger problem for consumers: they have to evaluate the quality of the chip inside the camera, a difficult job because information about the type and maker of the processor is not readily available.

Some camera magazines refer to the processor, but camera buffs who write for them tend not to be electronic engineers who can describe the advantages of a Texas Instrument chip over a Zoran chip. “I’m not sure the customer needs to know that much about the processor,” Mr. Heiner of Nikon said.

The shutter-lag problem is not true of all digital cameras. The digital single-lens-reflex (S.L.R.) cameras do not have a problem with shutter lag. Indeed, if someone takes a lot of action photos and is really bothered by shutter lag, the solution is to spring for a more expensive digital S.L.R. model.

The good news is that the lowest end of this category has touched the upper end of the compact camera category. The Nikon D40, that maker’s cheapest digital S.L.R., sells for about $530. A Sony DSCH9/B, a 7-megapixel point-and-shoot, albeit a pretty fancy one, goes for about $480.

Photographers offer a few tips on capturing action shots with point-and-shoot cameras. If you can anticipate a shot — for instance, the birthday cake candles about to be blown out — then push the shutter-release button down halfway. Priming the auto-focus gets the process started early. When you push the button down all the way, the camera can process the information more quickly.

Another trick is to point the camera to where the action will occur, push halfway, and when the action occurs, push it all the way. That means you do not follow the subject, you follow the event. In other words, if you are tracking a downhill skier slaloming through a series of flags, aim at the flags, not the skier.

Camera makers also suggested using the burst mode, which quick-fires a series of photos. Shoot the first one in advance of the event and then you probably will capture the significant moment.

Many cameras have a pets or children mode to capture those things that will not stand still when instructed. “It works pretty well when you have enough light,” Mr. Westfall said.

As cameras simultaneously drop in price and add more features, concerns about shutter lag will diminish. “Give us a few more years and you won’t be hearing about it,” Mr. Gann of Hewlett-Packard said. “But it adds costs. We know how to make it faster, but it would cost money.”

Source: Digital cameras that minimize shutter lag – New York Times

With Internet safety, be prepared, not paranoid

By Mark Joseph Edwards
Some parts of the Internet are incredibly dangerous, but there’s help along the way to protect you.
This week, I’ll tell you about a half-dozen excellent free security tools that help defend you against phishing scams, spyware, adware, and dangerous programs.

OpenDNS: free antiphishing for your network

A reader wrote to me recently about the nagging problem of managing phishing protection on several computers. The main problem was the issue of having to install and update the toolbars on the different desktops, which, of course, can take a lot of time.
A while ago, I learned about a good solution to this problem that offers antiphishing protection using DNS (Domain Name Service) instead of toolbars or custom desktop security applications. The solution, called OpenDNS, is freely available to anyone who wants to use it.
In order to understand how OpenDNS works, you first need to understand how DNS works. DNS is like a phone book for the Internet, mapping domain names to IP addresses. This means that when you type WindowsSecrets.com into your Web browser, for example, your operating system queries the DNS servers configured in your network settings. The DNS servers look up the IP address that matches the domain name and return that IP address to your browser. The same flow happens with any Internet-enabled application that needs to locate a system on the Internet, including e-mail, FTP, instant messaging clients, etc.
OpenDNS takes a unique approach to DNS queries by expanding the functionality of DNS itself. OpenDNS not only serves as a “phonebook” for the Internet, but also keeps track of known phishing sites. Thus, when you attempt to connect to such a site, OpenDNS will intercept the connection and prevent you from landing there, which in turn protects you by keeping you away from such sites.
Using OpenDNS is simple, easy to manage, and can protect one computer or your entire network, including mobile devices and dedicated game boxes, such as the Nintendo Wii.
To use OpenDNS, you simply configure your Internet-enabled devices to use it instead of the DNS servers provided by your ISP. Since configuring DNS servers into your network settings is usually a one-time operation, you don’t have to worry about installing and upgrading software on several different systems.
For any antiphishing tool to be effective, it must, of course, track sites that are known to be used for phishing activity. OpenDNS operates a sister project called PhishTank, which tracks known phishing Web sites, and uses its database to protect you.
PhishTank is an open community project that anyone can contribute to. Participants submit URLs for suspected phishing sites, and other participants can then inspect the sites and vote on whether or not they really are phishing sites. To give you an example of the level of community participation PhishTank has been able to achieve, the project detected and recorded well over 10,000 phishing sites in March 2007 alone!
Since OpenDNS is free to use, you might wonder how the company makes money to keep the operation online. According to the FAQ at the OpenDNS Web site, it makes money by “offering clearly labeled advertisements alongside organic search results.”
Basically, when you conduct a search using OpenDNS, you might see ads inserted into the results, not unlike what you see at Google, Yahoo, MSN, or AOL.
If you’re worried about your privacy and whether OpenDNS tracks your Internet use, the company says that it doesn’t track user information unless the user requests it. You can read more about the service in the FAQ.
If you’re interested in trying OpenDNS, go to the Get Started page and click on your operating system type (or click on Router, Mobile, or Gaming, for details on how to configure one of those device types). You can also select DNS Forwarding to configure your own in-house DNS servers to forward all requests to OpenDNS to protect your entire network. You’ll find step-by-step configuration instructions, including screenshots for all versions of Windows, OS X, and a few Linux platforms, plus many of the most common routers in use today.

Windows Secrets Newlsetter

Setting up blacklists and spam filters is a tricky business

Seems this lady was getting her email blocked because her name was Gay

I am sure this happens a lot

QUOTE: It seems NZ Telecom has an email filter in place to prevent abusive emails reaching their staff.  That’s fair enough, people sometimes write the most astonishing things in email (that they probably would not say on the phone or put in a letter) and it’s quite right for a company to refuse messages that go beyond polite discourse.

Whomever configured this filter went overboard in their definition of ‘bad’ or ‘inappropriate’ words and it’s a lesson to anyone who has such a filter.  You need to be especially careful with words that have multiple meanings like ‘gay’.

Link to When email filters go too far – Email Essentials – Office Watch

Where to start your own blog

Blogging is a super-hot trend that’s getting hotter every day. I regularly receive questions from people interested in starting a blog, and I’m amazed that so many people who have been using computers and the Internet for years — quite adeptly — have no idea how to get started.
A blog is basically a Web site that uses some sort of pre-designed interface that lets you quickly and easily enter new content without any need to learn HTML programming or Web-site design. The content you enter is typically either text or links to files, such as a podcast.
There are two basic ways to start your own blog: Install blogging software into your own Web hosting system, or sign up for a free blog at one of the many sites that offer free blog hosting. The latter choice is the easiest route for those who are new to blogging and for those who aren’t comfortable installing Web-based applications.
Over the years, I’ve used a number of different free blog-hosting services. The ones I found most useful are Wordpress.com, Blogsome, LiveJournal, and Blogger.
Wordpress.com and Blogsome.com are based on the hugely popular and highly functional Wordpress software, which is freely available to those who want to install it on their own Web sites. LiveJournal formerly used its own custom blog software, but when it joined with MoveableType, the two companies began merging technologies. Blogger is owned by Google, and it uses its own custom blogging software too.
Each of the above blog hosting sites lets you pick a ready-made layout for your blog. They also let you customize the layout and content to some extent.
Before making your final choice, consider signing up for a blog at each of the sites to test-drive their interfaces. Be sure to review their features as well as their add-on and customization offerings to see which one best suits your needs.

Source: How to get Windows software at half-price