Archive for February, 2008

Safari browser does not get PayPal’s stamp of approval

Safari browser does not get PayPal's stamp of approval It’s not uncommon to see Mac users living and dying by Apple’s Safari browser that comes built in OS X, but in a surprising bit of news today, PayPal is warning users that they are better off using an alternative if they want to avoid fraud. Just like the average Windows user usually doesn’t bother to download a browser different than Internet Explorer, Safari is commonly the browser of choice for Mac users.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean Safari is a bad option, not even an insecure browser, but in the eyes of PayPal it is lacking two important anti-phishing security features that “Internet Explorer 7 or 8 when it comes out, Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, and indeed Opera” already pack in. The two features mentioned by Michael Barrett, PayPal’s chief information security officer, are a built-in phishing filter and an anti-phishing technology, called Extended Validation certificates.

PayPal happens to be in a very unique position for making an educated assessment regarding web security, but we don’t see either of those two technologies making miracles for saving users from fraudsters. That said, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple implemented them on its browser in a matter of weeks or months, depending on how badly they are demanded by its users. At the end of the day, there is no better anti-phishing filter than yourself, being aware that scammers are out there and they are trying to get you. Just make sure you browse the right sites and follow links where you can trust them.

Extra Tech

Enjoy photography…Learn To Edit Your Photos

Presentation effects - want to place your image inside a glass sphere? You can find Photo Shop effects tutorials to do precisely that on the internet. You can find different ways to manipulate your images. You can put an object in space, traveling at light speed. You can place yourself in field of flowers. You can turn your picture into an oil painting. A Photo Shop effects tutorial will teach you how to do these things and more. With Photo Shop, your imagination is the limit. Photography - many photographers today resort to using special filters and customizing their cameras to get different effects. They take pictures in ultra-red, monochrome, and other styles to give people a whole new perspective of the world. Some Photo Shop effects tutorials can teach you how to make it seem like you took a picture using the same techniques as professionals do. This is certainly something every person wants, right?

If you’ve always wanted to learn how to watermark, add a realistic magnifying glass effect, create a paint-by-numbers drawing, this site will teach you how. Photoshop tips and techniques are added daily, so you’ll need to check the site often for updates.Photoshopcafe.com is one of dozens of sites dedicated to nothing but Photoshop. You not only get tutorials online, you also get textual tips, reviews of new tools, sneak peeks at Photoshop books and new releases and info on video tutorials as well. If you have a special Photoshop conundrum, you can even join a forum to post your question. Tutorial categories include: effects, text, photo, using texture, using Photoshop for the web and a miscellaneous link for those Photoshop tricks you can’t put a name on. There are also 9 video tutorials from Photoshop expert Colin Smith, all for free.

Photoshop CS tutorials will definitely be of good use to people who have long purchased the program and have not yet maximized its use. Taking the lessons and tutorials will definitely help you become more productive and creative. Photoshop CS Tutorials - There are many things to learn with your Photoshop CS. You can explore them and utilize each for your own use. Here are some of the aspects you can look forward to from basic Photoshop CS tutorials. Learn the Basics - The basics of Photoshop CS tutorials will dwell on getting you familiar with the different aspects to manage Photoshop. This includes screen areas, layers and styles, droplets, actions and even the creation of new images. This will also expose you in understanding images. This must show you how you can explore the blend modes and distinguish the vector from the bitmap graphics.

Blur - Faded patches in a photo are interesting, and you can intentionally make such patches on your photo if there are none to begin with. Under the same category of tools - Filter - in which you’ll also find other effect options like Mosaic and Pointillize, you can use the Blur option and apply it to a selected part of your photo or all of it. Keep pressing the Blur button until you reach your preferred degree of blurriness.Color Pencil - Have you ever imagined what your photo would look like if it had been drawn using colored pencils? Imagine no more with the help of Adobe Photo Shop. Under the colored pencil function (still in the Filter category), you can also choose the degree of stroke pressure, paper brightness, and pencil width applied to your photo.

The best thing about Photoshop is not only the integrated tools and devices you can use to tweak images and create your own, but because of the flawless interaction of its commands and tools. Given one image, you can do virtually anything you want with the confidence that Photoshop tools will follow your command and produce an edited picture the way you want it to appear. Export-ready - When it comes to exporting its images, Photoshop allows seamless program shifts among other Adobe software used in image editing, authoring and animation such as Adobe Illustrator, ImageReady and After Effects. Photoshop files (.PSD or Photoshop document format) may be manipulated to produce special effects such as adding textures and changing backgrounds. Non-linear editing is also a breeze.

Choosing the Quality Level - When you use Photo Shop to edit a photo, you might be asked in the end to choose the level of quality for your photo before saving it. The ideal level to choose is 60 because it allows you to enjoy superior quality while reducing the file size of your photo. Anything more can be particularly heavy and consume much disk space while the anything less can compromise the appearance of your photo. Going Retro - To make your photos black and white, simply go to the Image Toolbar then click grayscale and your photos would immediately look decades older.

The interface is clear and well laid out, a great feature for the digital photo editing beginner is the use of descriptive icons, where you hang your mouse over an icon and it shows a description of its function. Organising your photos is a snap, Elements allows you to manage, sort, delete and view your picture collection in many different ways including face tagging and keyword tagging. It also displays an exhaustive list of file properties for each of your images so you’ll never misplace a photo on your hard drive again. Also, a partnership between Adobe and Kodak gives you the opportunity to share photos online, print greetings cards, custom calendars or photo books. Before you eject the install cd, make sure you copy the Goodies folder to your hard drive - it contains loads of frames, backgrounds and extras to play around with.

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Dell Inspiron B130 - Information and Features

Dell sells two budget models, the Inspiron B120 and B130. Starting at approximately $500, the B120 is the least expensive laptop in Dell’s portfolio and features a 14.1-inch wide-screen display, a low-end Intel Celeron processor, either 256MB or 512MB of RAM (we recommend shelling out for the 512MB), and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive. With such anemic components, the B120 is strictly for basic tasks such as e-mail, Web surfing, word processing, and other lightweight apps.

One of the big surprises with the Inspiron B130 is the hard drive. The system comes with a very high performance 60GB 5400rpm model that is faster than many found on competing notebook computers. On the down side, the system comes standard with a 24x CD-RW/DVD combo. This lets users create music or data CDs or playback DVD movies.

The screen for the Inspiron B130 is a bit of a disappointment. The 15.4” wide screen LCD is nice while the system is plugged in, but when running on batteries it dims the screen to the point where it can be hard to operate. It is driven by the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics that share 128MB of system memory. Don’t expect any significant 3D graphics performance from this solution.

The B130 and for that reason you can expect to get the usual rather poor sounding notebook speakers. The speakers are located on the right and left front sides, which is good placement since they fire forward to where you are sitting. If only the audio they pumped out was good. The speakers are good enough for system sounds and the likes, but playing audio music or listening to DVDs is pretty painful. You need external speakers or headphones via the lineout to get any type of decent audio.

Also missing from the B130 is a FireWire port. Not that you’ll need it anyway, since video editing will be a chore on this laptop. All three USB ports sit on the left side, which is a sign of future peripheral cluttering. The optical drive on the laptop is a basic DVD/CD-RW that lets you burn CDs, but not DVDs. Obviously, Dell wants you to make these upgrades and tack on more dollars to the price tag. For those wondering about wireless, even the cheapest laptops come with it. In this case, the built-in Dell Wireless 1370 gets you access to all 802.11g access points.

Dell Inspiron B130 Features:-

# Intel Pentium M 735 (1.7GHz) Processor
# 512MB DDR2 Memory
# 60GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
# 24x CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
# 15.4″ WXGA (1280×800) Wide Screen LCD
# Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics with 128MB Shared Memory
# V.90 56Kbps Modem, 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11b/g Wireless
# Three USB 2.0 Ports and Express Card/54 Slot
# Windows XP Home, Word Prefect 12 Word Processor1370 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g)

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Information and Features about Sony DSC-H50

Sony has announced a successor to its DSC-H9 ’super zoom’ digital camera in the form of the 9.0 megapixel Cyber-Shot DSC-H50. As well as the inevitable rise in pixel count the H50 has several improvements over its predecessor, including an ED lens element, user-selectable noise reduction, white balance and color mode bracketing, and an upgraded DRO function. It also has an improved sports mode and, last but by no means least, Sony’s unique ’smile shutter’ and adult- or child-priority face detection.

Stylistically, the new camera is much in keeping with other recent offerings in the H line, presenting a mini-DSLR look with an offset lens barrel and prominent hand grip.

The H50 comes equipped with Sony’s Advanced Sports Shooting mode that we’ve seen recently on other higher-end cameras from the manufacturer. Using the expected high shutter speeds in addition to a predictive auto focus system, previous implementations of the mode have made for easier action shooting than is normally the case for a non-DSLR.

The camera also features a large, 3-inch tilting LCD screen so you can shoot comfortably from nearly any position, at low and high angles. Its scratch-resistant, UV hard-coat finish adds a premium look and feel that mirrors the performance of the model.

The DSC-H50 also features Super Steady Shot, Night Shot, D-Range Optimizer, smile recognition, faces detection and has an advanced sports shooting mode that will offer shutter speeds up to 1/4000 of a second with continuous auto-focusing.

Its improved “advanced sports” shooting mode now employs a system to apply higher shutter speeds, up to 1/4000 of a second, more frequently than on previous models. This mode combines high shutter speeds with predictive continuous auto-focusing so you can quickly focus and capture fast-moving subjects with minimal shutter lag basically the time it takes for the camera to focus and shoot.

The camera also incorporates intelligent features that help you take better pictures more easily. They include improved smile shutter and face detection technologies with child or adult priority recognition, as well as, intelligent scene recognition with standard and advanced modes to analyze shooting conditions and select the optimal setting automatically.

Sony DSC-H50 Features:-

* Carl Zeiss 15x optical zoom lens
* Super Steady shot optical image stabilization
* 3″ tilting LCD display
* Scratch-resistant, UV hard-coat finish
* Advanced Sports Shooting Mode (up to 1/4000 of a second)
* Versatile, long-distance flash
* Extensive manual controls
* Smile shutter and face detection technologies with child or adult priority recognition
* Night Shot technology

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How To Safely Use A Laser Pointer

As a portable, pen-sized high tech laser designed to be held in the hand, and most commonly used to project a point of light to highlight items, laser pointer is the most popular handy gadgets which also need certain concerns.

Safety with high powered laser pointers is a critical issue that cannot be overlooked. Despite their brilliant beams and ability to burn, high power laser pointers and portable lasers are only a danger to your eyes. The danger that laser pointers represent to your eyes though is very serious. The visual receptors in your eyes are part of your central nervous system which means if our eyes are damaged, they do not heal or recover. Ever.

Safety methods including:
1.Never point your laser at another person, especially their face.

2.Never under any circumstances look directly into the laser beam. Even if it is a low powered laser pointer, you don’t want to take chances with your eyes

3.Always be conscious of and aware of reflective surfaces such as mirrors, polished metal or glass. A reflected beam can also harm your eyes.

4.Only use laser pointers in a controlled environment

5.Do not let other people use your laser pointer unless they are fully aware of the dangers of laser pointers

6.Laser pointer beams can go for miles so never randomly use your laser pointer outside

7.When in doubt, use safety glasses.

Another good use of laser pointer is wireless laser presenter.Mostly, it is a kind of computer USB accessory mounted by a laser pointer and wirelessly connected to computer via RF or Bluetooth. Laser presenter offers a very nice alternative to remaining tethered to a PC while cranking through the PowerPoints. In fact, as the product name so ably illustrates, the laser presenter not only gives presenters the ability to walk away from the PC, it lets them highlight key information items an intense spot of bright light.

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Norway from XIX Century

New image gallery “Norway from XIX Century” was added. Do not miss this amazing pictures.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault’s mission is to provide a safety net against accidental loss of diversity in traditional genebanks. While the popular press has emphasized its possible utility in the event of a major regional or global catastrophe, it will certainly be more frequently accessed when genebanks lose samples due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts and natural disasters. Such events occur with some regularity. In recent years, some national genebanks have also been destroyed by war and civil strife. There are some 1,400 crop diversity collections around the world, but many are in politically unstable or environmentally threatened nations.

More about Svalbard Global Seed Vault

T-Shirt Store Blog

I’m pleased to announce our new blog T-Shirt Store Blog. As described this blog will show you the best t-shirts available in the internet with a links to the stores where you can by them. We are watching the web to give you the coolest t-shirts links and best deals.

Don’t miss your nice T-Shirt and check it regularily or subscribe to RSS Feed

Tags: t-shirt, blog, t-shirt+store, t-shirt+blog

Funny T-Shirts Gallery. Part 1

By this Gallery i decided to open the collection of funny and attractive T-shirt images all over the world. All images has links where you can immediately order them. I selected only those i liked and will keep going in research. Don’t miss the selection.