clipped from www.pcmag.com Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 CHECK PRICES $900 - $1500 Amazon $899.95 Amazon Marketplace $1499.99 EditorVery Good By�PJ Jacobowitz With image quality that rivals capable D-SLRs and a body not much larger than a super-zoom camera, the 12.1-megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 ($899.95 direct, with lens) is the most compact model in Panasonic's line-up of Micro Four Thirds cameras. Panasonic's first two entries into the space, the $799 Lumix DMC-G1 and the $1,499 GH1, weren't much smaller than traditional D-SLRs. The GF1 is more comparable in size to the $800 Olympus E-P1, which features great image quality but a painfully slow autofocus. The GF1 doesn't perform as well as the E-P1 or D-SLR competitors in low-light conditions (ISO 1600 and higher), but in brighter shooting situations, image quality is top-notch.

Been clearing out my hard drive again.  I don't know what to do with all my early work.  I never look at it and when I looked closer, a lot of it was made for Flickr (a couple of years ago) and at a size that is not conducive to print.  First, I reorganized all my images in folders labeled by category.  IE: people; portraits; landscapes; skies; animals, etc. and WIP (work in process).  They were originally categorized by date (the way the camera uploaded to the computer).  Then I went through some 7000+ pictures and art and deleted EVERYTHING that looked like crap and anything that I felt I would have no need for.   I've already noticed how much easier it is to find an image by categories than by date!  Holy shit.  Just wish I had something to tag my images with, without installing another piece of software.

After everything was nice and neat, I said, "Now what?"  So I've been archiving my older work as contact sheets that I can create with FastStone's Image Viewer.  I can also archive them to .pdf format but not sure of the quality once the images are extracted from the .pdf.  So I decided since most of the images that I'm archiving this way are older works, a contact sheet might be best and I can always create a photo book with them that would look like a proof book.  In this situation, since most of these images are no larger than 1024 x 768, I probably won't be printing them and IF I were to use them as part of a portfolio, these contact sheet styles should be good enough to get my style and imaginative creations across to the viewer.

It's a lot of work cleaning off a hard drive.  I have a 250 gig hard drive and 1/2 of it is full.  The ironic part of it, is that a good part of that 1/2 is Microsoft patches and updates.  You need a hard drive just for that bullshit.  Really ticks me off.  I'm beginning to lean towards a Linux OS.  Been asking questions of some folks that are using Linux and husband and Alex use it.  For me, I would need another background program that is free, that will read some of my graphics software.  Other than that, I could run a dual boot system (upon boot up, computer asks if you want to boot up to Microsoft OS or Linux) or not.  I think I would like to see how the Linux will work before deciding.

So I guess you could say that I'm scaling back on the garbage and getting myself ready for the professional.  But had to start with the hard drive before it gets hairier.  LOL  Would really like a new computer but unless I win the lottery, or win a contest, it's hard to justify as an option on our current budget.

Tomorrow is PhaseOne day.  Need to sign up for the seminar even though a $20+k camera is DEFINITELY outside the budget.

clipped from blogs.pcmag.com Measuring Identity Theft at Top Banks Chris Hoofnagle at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California has attempted to measure the main institutional targets of identity theft. The data in this report comes from a complaint form the FTC provides for consumers. Because of the source there are gaps in the data which Hoofnagle recognizes, such as a focus on account takeovers as opposed to "synthetic identity theft" in which a new account is fraudulently created. And many cases of ID theft are resolved by consumers working with the institution, not involving authorities at all. Bank of America was by far the biggest target of theft in the study, but this is not surprising considering its size. It was followed, perhaps more surprisingly, by two telecom companies, AT&T and Sprint. When looking at the number of incidents per billion dollars of deposit, Bank of America was second to HSBC, followed by Washington Mutual; this metric doesn't apply to the telecoms.

ALZip file compression utility?  No time limits and 100% full functional - free for home users.  Does quite a bit so check it out. They have a few other programs that are beta and free.

Did you know that you might qualify for a free Vista upgrade?  If you purchased a new computer between Oct 2006 and March 15, 2007 (that's tomorrow by the way), you can get it free.  So check it out.

Ever heard of Moon Software?  They have some helpful utilities for bookmarking, organizing fonts and a few other goodies.

Artweaver is a cool free graphics program.  Has a tutorial that you can watch and after, you can make up your mind whether you think you'd be interested in downloading it.

I love the Logitech products but I hate that a wireless optical mouse eats roughly 4 to 6 AA batteries per month! (That's 2 batteries changed 2 to 3 x per month). I have yet to test whether longevity might be preserved with the removal of the batteries when the mouse is not in use.  Stands to reason that it would be better but the key is remembering to remove them at the day's end.  On the other hand, it might be a wise financial move to invest in the world of Energizer stock.

The other reason I am here today is to post something that I learned via the Logitech support page.  I was there to look for driver updates and noticed an FAQ for erratic mouse behavior, so out of curiosity I read it.

There is a feature in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 called "enhance pointer precision" that was added to SP2 only.  So if you don't have SP2, you shouldn't have this feature.  Apparently, it tends to conflict with some mouse and trackball devices.  Maybe the mouse doesn't track as smoothly (assuming you enabled the feature).  Or drawing lines in graphics programs are a problem.  Sometimes when quirks like this happen, I write it off to the optics of the mouse.  Here I found that this isn't necessarily so.  I never would have thought to check out the following....

Here's how to tell whether you have the "enhance pointer precision" enabled:

Click Start
Click Run
Type:  control mouse
Click OK

Tab to "Pointer Options"
Under the header "motion" you will see a box for the enhance pointer precision.  If it is checked on and you are experiencing erratic behavior, uncheck it and see if it helps your situation.  Make sure you click Apply before exiting the Mouse Properties.

Next....
Before exiting the Mouse Properties window, check out the tab called "Buttons."  The very last section on that tab's window is called "ClickLock."  Now I'm assuming here that this option is part of Windows XP SP2 as well and not necessarily an elite option of Logitech products.

I decided to turn this feature on today to give it a try; see what it does and so far I'm liking it.  However, I can see where it might be a headache at times too.  So the ability to quickly turn it off on a whim would be nice.  ie a desktop shortcut to the mouse properties.

What I like:

1. The ability to drag and highlight without holding down the left mouse button.
2. The ability to have more control over the speed and accuracy of my highlighting efforts.
3. The fact that it works with open windows on my desktop as well.  Hold down the left mouse button for a couple of seconds, anywhere on the frame of the window you want to move; let go of the button and move your window.  It will 'stick' to the cursor until you click the button again to release the window to its new position on your desktop.
   

You can set the length of time you need to hold down the left button before the ClickLock option kicks in.  I have mine set in the middle (medium) and am finding that for some things, I'd rather have it set faster and for moving windows on my desktop, I'd rather it was set slower.  However, there is no way to pick and choose actions vs speed.  It's one size fits all. 

The real trick is getting use to the fact that it is implemented and working!  I still find myself wanting to highlight and edit the usual way and suddenly find myself highlighting a lot more than I intended once I've released the button where I thought I wanted to end my edit. ;)  Takes a bit of getting use to but I can't express enough how useful this option can be if you highlight and edit often.  I'm impressed with the accuracy, meaning it's easier to manipulate the highlight right to the point you want it to end vs playing with the mouse (manually) to get it to end precisely where you want it to.  Maybe it's just me, but I sometimes find myself re-highlighting or re-typing words / letters that I didn't intend to remove in my edit.  Less of that happening with the ClickLock feature.

I have not yet worked in my PSP8 or PS programs since turning on ClickLock.  I am hoping that it doesn't cause me grief, which is why I plan to put a shortcut on the desktop for quick access to turn it off if / when necessary.

powered by performancing firefox

Technorati Tags: technology, tips, mouse, editing

Say, I forgot to link up those other blogging tools.  So here's the scoop:

Performancing (for Firefox)

Qumana
Ooooh, and it looks like it's time to do an update!  They added s'more goodies.  :)

One more for safety's sake:  McAfee Site Advisor.
This one is sweet.  In Firefox, it's an extension and in Microsoft, it's considered an 'add-on.'  The SiteAdvisor sits in the bottom bar of the Firefox window and in Microsoft IE7, near the top tabs.  When you do a Google search, Site Advisor informs you which of the results are a safe visit and which ones might carry high risk by color coding the results.  It's not an alert for 'phishing sites' like IE7 has built in to their new browser, but it will offer some good feedback on sites you might want to use caution at and why.

I use it and I've put it on our boy's computer and taught them how to use it.  Really, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.  It's more a matter of 'paying attention' to the warnings. ;)

The link I posted above for Site Advisor is for the Firefox extension.  However, on that same page in the top right corner is a box where it will link you up with a version for Microsoft and another browser type.

I wanted to check in, change my blog theme and post a few goodies that I found.  Spam free, Spyware free, etc.

Lektora - RSS for bloggers

CCleaner

I haven't tried Lektora but heard about it through LifeHacker.com   If you use Firefox, they have an extension called Performancing.  It allows you to compose your blog and then post to your blog directly through Performancing.  You can also set up Technorati tags with it and it will ping your Technorati account.  However, it doesn't have an RSS feed reader.  And we all know that there are no outside programs as of yet that will post to Vox.  Some of these blogging tools however, do post to Typepad, Wordpress and Livejournal as well as Blogger.

Qumana is another blogging tool much like Performancing.  However, Qumana is a stand alone product not an extension.  I tend to like it better than Performancing, but because Performancing is an extension, it's quicker to call up.  It also does not have an RSS feed reader.

What interests me with Lektora is the fact that it is not only a blogging tool but an RSS feeder as well.  If I didn't like Sage for Firefox so much, as my feed reader, I'd try Lektora in a heartbeat.  I may still try it and when I do, I'll have to unload my choice of the other tools I use.  I tend to want to keep them around 'just in case.'  I like variety and we all know that variety is the spice of life.  But variety also causes conflict on computers.  ;)  So when I want to try something new and different, I'll make the switch.

CCleaner is thought of highly in the tech world.  Again, I haven't tried it yet but am nearing a need to.  If you do, let me know your thoughts.  You can also check out lifehacker.com for info on these and other "Download of the Day" reviews and download links.

ciao!

I consider myself somewhat internet and computer savvy but there are times when I forget the simplest of things after pouring hours into learning the latest and greatest the web has to offer. 

I've been on a search and seize of the latest in Web 2.0, looking for a place to park (backup) my bookmarks amongst other things.  While preparing my hard drive for a back up, I opened up my "recent documents" folder and was a little surprised by the fact that shortcuts had been accumulating there because I was certain I had turned the feature off.  *sigh*  As I said, there are times when I forget the simplest.  Anyhow, I saw a shortcut for a backup file of my bookmarks.  "Hmmm...."  I thought.  I clicked on the shortcut to open it and already knew it was my exported backup file from my browser.  I recently found out via the use of another program that I have over 3,000 bookmarks.  So backing them up is extremely important to me since many of them are a lifeline to a few research projects, many craft projects and of course financing projects.  God forbid we should loose the lifeline to crafts!  LOL

When the file opened, it opened in my browser.  Oh yes!  What a wonderful way to view some 3,000 bookmarks at a glance.  I may be an organizational freak when it comes to my bookmarks.... don't bother asking my husband how organized (uhum) our computer office is.  I could give a crap about filing in a drawer but me bookmarks and me puter must be organized and I must know where everything is on it and what it all does.  Geeky?  

And so this is just a friendly reminder that ye doesn't have to put all your bookmarks on some Web 2.0 website (whether you're into sharing them or not).  Just export them from your browser into .htm format and save the file somewhere so you always have it.  Anytime you want to view or search for something (assuming you're not sure what bookmark folder you stuffed it in), you can view the links and descriptions like a web page from your browser.  Viola!  Grant it, it's not the same as sharing them with the www, but you could if you transformed it into a webpage and uploaded it to your own website. :)

Directions for exporting bookmarks for backup - from Internet Explorer: 

• Click on File (from your browser)
• Locate and click on "Import / Export" (a wizard window will pop up)
• Locate and click on "Export Favorites" and click Next
• Make sure you have the root folder "Favorites" highlighted and click Next
• Decide where you want to export the file to (browse option is available).  Click Next when you've chosen a path. And then click Finish.
  

To rename this file (which I highly recommend), go to the folder where you saved the exported Favorites.
Highlight and right click on the file and rename it.  I recommend keeping the original name but adding the date at the end, just prior to the extension break.  For example: bookmark.htm becomes bookmark_072606.htm   This way you always know the last date you backed them up.  This file can easily be imported as well, to other browsers such as Firefox.

Directions for exporting bookmarks for backup - from Firefox:

• Click on Bookmarks (from your FF browser)
• Locate and click on "Manage Bookmarks"
• On the new management window, click on File and locate "Export"
• Decide where you want to export the file to (browse option is available).
• After you've decided on location and BEFORE you click on save, please consider renaming the file at this point as noted in my comments above, and for the same reasons. 
  
• That's all folks.
  

ciao!