SparkleXP
SparkleXP is an application designed to tweak Windows XP and improve its performance. It helps freeing up computer resources resulting in a faster and responsive computer.
This tool creates a second Hardware Profile and a correlative new User to get a lightweight desktop. You can choose to boot into your regular or SparkleXP configuration at startup.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Free FLV Converter 1.2.1
Free FLV Converter 1.2.1
This free software will let you search youTube and dailyMotion videos without opening your browser and you can even watch the videos using the built-in video player. Free FLV Converter allows you to easily grab and save desired video. This software can convert the videos to Avi (xvid), Ipod, iphone and psp format (MPEG4 and H.264). This software can also convert all your videos (divx, xvid, mpeg, dvd, avi) to FLV video (Flash video) with an automatic HTML page creation.
This free software will let you search youTube and dailyMotion videos without opening your browser and you can even watch the videos using the built-in video player. Free FLV Converter allows you to easily grab and save desired video. This software can convert the videos to Avi (xvid), Ipod, iphone and psp format (MPEG4 and H.264). This software can also convert all your videos (divx, xvid, mpeg, dvd, avi) to FLV video (Flash video) with an automatic HTML page creation.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Process Explorer v11.04
Process Explorer v11.04
Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.
The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.
Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.
The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
FinePrint Software
FinePrint saves ink, paper, time and money by controlling and enhancing printed output.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A blog from "mint.com"
Three Principles of Personal Finance: All You Need to Know for Financial Success
- Spend less than you earn
- Make the money you have work for you
- Be prepared for the unexpected
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Things to Never Say to a Dealer
by Bengt Halvorson
Monday, October 29, 2007
provided by ForbesAutos.com
The dealership experience can be extremely stressful, but it doesn't have to be. You could know everything there is to know about the cars you're considering, but that's only a fraction of the buying process. If you want that seductive new sedan at a good price, you're probably going to need to know what to say — and more importantly, what not to say.
Some people loathe the whole car-buying experience simply because they anticipate getting conned. A few hundred dollars isn't a big deal on the price of a luxury car, but it's the idea of smart shopping and that sense of getting a good deal that's especially important. For luxury car buyers — notoriously labeled the shrewd shoppers — a good deal is icing on the cake.
Ready, Set, Go!
1. "I'm ready to buy now."
This is an admission of weakness and an invitation for the dealer to throw out a price that's slightly below the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) to see if you'll take the bait. It shows that you're too eager and willing to consider an offer, and it also gives salespeople the advantage by allowing them to talk you up as opposed to you talking them down. But by adding some very precise parameters, you'll sound confident and strong from the start.
"Don't let them know that you're ready to buy without being very particular. If you're ready, say that you'll buy, but only under these particular conditions," says Gentile.
There are two schools on negotiating. Going into the process, Gentile reminds consumers to be wary of the dealer cost. Consumer Reports has something called wholesale price, which is the normal dealer invoice price minus all relevant rebates and incentives. Similarly, most longstanding price-information services advise buyers to research the dealer invoice, along with any relevant incentives, then make a lowball offer that's maybe just a few hundred dollars above invoice. The dealer will follow your figure with a counteroffer that then allows you to go back and forth until there is a compromise.
Conversely, a second school believes that making the first offer puts the buyer in a weak position. "When you make an offer on a car, you're digging yourself into a hole," says James "Spike" Bragg, a consumer advocate and founder of Fighting Chance, an information service for new-car buyers. "That offer will be as good as it gets. There's so much today in 'under the radar' sales incentives to dealers, you don't want to limit yourself."
According to Bragg, many of the dealer incentives today are awarded on a dealer-by-dealer basis, often handed out for meeting sales targets. Because of this, you can't pin down these incentives on a particular vehicle, and you never know which dealership might be able to provide the better price at a given time.
Bragg's method involves faxing quote requests from several different dealerships and asking them for their best bottom-line price on a particular model. His clients sometimes manage to negotiate prices well below invoice, even considering all published incentives. In this day of increased under-the-radar incentives, this method doesn't limit you to a bottom line and certainly has its merits if you're willing to put in the effort.
On ForbesAutos.com you can pursue both options. On each of our Reviews pages there is a link to detailed MSRP and invoice pricing. Also, if you go to our "Buy a Car" section, you can select a model, configure it how you like and then request a free dealer price quote.
Monthly Payment
2. "I can afford this much per month."
"Don't tell the dealer what you're willing to pay per month. This is the biggest mistake a shopper can make. Often the dealer will focus on a monthly payment scheme, insisting you are receiving a great deal, but at the end of the day you won't really know what you paid, advises Gentile.
If the dealer can get a number out of you, a common trick is to ask if you can squeeze out a slightly higher monthly payment, then raise the bottom-line price accordingly by hundreds or even thousands. Avoid this by insisting that you focus only on the purchase price. Walk away if the salesperson only wants to talk in monthly payments. Trade-in
Trade-in
3. "Yes, I have a trade-in."
Don't tell salespeople you have a trade-in until a final transaction price is set. If you do and the deal hasn't been made yet, they may try to distract you with the "great" deal they're giving you on your trade-in as they skimp on the real deal. And if you catch that, they may try writing your trade-up for less.
"You'll see games being played — they'll play one off on the other," Gentile says. Once you've decided on a sale price, then you can see what they'll give you for your old car.
Cash-Only Please
4. "I'm only buying the car with cash."
Car dealers make a significant chunk of added profit when they sell you financing. If you don't at least leave the dealer with the possibility that he or she might sell you financing, you simply won't be getting the best deal. Bragg recommends saying something like "I haven't really thought that through yet. Maybe we'll see what you have after we agree on a price."
But be truly noncommittal with financing, even though it's a good idea to line up tentative financing with your lender before you go car shopping.
Still Debating
5. "I'm not sure…which model do you think I need?"
If you're this undecided, you may end up driving away in a vehicle you neither wanted nor needed. Do the research in advance, and make your first shopping trip a short one. Use this opportunity to gather information and take your spec vehicle for a short test drive. If your uncertainty is apparent, you may end up buying the model with the most add-on equipment, the highest sticker price and, of course, the most profit for the dealer. Before you go shopping, narrow your choices down to three or four vehicles that fit your needs.
My Dream Car
6. "Oh, I've wanted one of these all my life."
As soon as you've lost yourself in the dreamy vision of that gleaming convertible, the salesperson has you hooked, and your chances of getting a great deal are over. "Don't get caught heavy breathing," says Bragg. "Certainly don't admit to your spouse — with the salesman listening in the backseat — that you're in love with the car." Here's where you need to have a communication plan. Try to sound objective and rational. Point out some pros and cons and be observant and calm. Just don't say that you have to have this car.
What Everyone Wants
7. "I'll take whatever the popular options are."
Don't ever ask for the "popular options" especially on a luxury model that already comes loaded. It's an open invitation for overpriced dealer add-ons such as interior protectant, window etching or undercoating. They're all things you can come back for later. Instead, go through the equipment list at home after your first visit to the dealership and then decide exactly what you need.
Lowest You Can Go
8. "What's the lowest price you can give me?"
Most likely, this question won't be taken seriously, and you will be met with a predictable performance. The salesperson will wince, maybe talk to the manager, fiddle with numbers and eventually come back with a price that probably isn't a very good deal for you. But there may be so much apparent effort in this performance that you'll be pressured into settling for that final number. Don't. To avoid this, make an informed and reasonable low offer, then wait for a counteroffer. Don't be afraid of silence. Conversely, don't be surprised if there's even a little drama.
Doing The Math
9. "Sure, I'll look at the numbers with you."
Perhaps quite early in your visit, the salesperson will most likely make an offer to "just go look at the numbers." Dealers do this when they sense you're undecided, but they want to be in the position of control. Getting you in the office makes it harder for you to back out. Wait until you can call the shots of what you want at what price.
The Haggle Factor
10. "I think you can do a lot better than that."
Never scold or accuse the salespeople. Be polite. Compliment them, and show respect. You'll never get the best price if you talk down to them. At least for the moment, you want them to be your friends. Let the scene play out, but leave when the deal's not good enough by quietly suggesting that the competition across town might be more willing to work with you.
Monday, October 29, 2007
provided by ForbesAutos.com
The dealership experience can be extremely stressful, but it doesn't have to be. You could know everything there is to know about the cars you're considering, but that's only a fraction of the buying process. If you want that seductive new sedan at a good price, you're probably going to need to know what to say — and more importantly, what not to say.
Some people loathe the whole car-buying experience simply because they anticipate getting conned. A few hundred dollars isn't a big deal on the price of a luxury car, but it's the idea of smart shopping and that sense of getting a good deal that's especially important. For luxury car buyers — notoriously labeled the shrewd shoppers — a good deal is icing on the cake.
Ready, Set, Go!
1. "I'm ready to buy now."
This is an admission of weakness and an invitation for the dealer to throw out a price that's slightly below the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) to see if you'll take the bait. It shows that you're too eager and willing to consider an offer, and it also gives salespeople the advantage by allowing them to talk you up as opposed to you talking them down. But by adding some very precise parameters, you'll sound confident and strong from the start.
"Don't let them know that you're ready to buy without being very particular. If you're ready, say that you'll buy, but only under these particular conditions," says Gentile.
There are two schools on negotiating. Going into the process, Gentile reminds consumers to be wary of the dealer cost. Consumer Reports has something called wholesale price, which is the normal dealer invoice price minus all relevant rebates and incentives. Similarly, most longstanding price-information services advise buyers to research the dealer invoice, along with any relevant incentives, then make a lowball offer that's maybe just a few hundred dollars above invoice. The dealer will follow your figure with a counteroffer that then allows you to go back and forth until there is a compromise.
Conversely, a second school believes that making the first offer puts the buyer in a weak position. "When you make an offer on a car, you're digging yourself into a hole," says James "Spike" Bragg, a consumer advocate and founder of Fighting Chance, an information service for new-car buyers. "That offer will be as good as it gets. There's so much today in 'under the radar' sales incentives to dealers, you don't want to limit yourself."
According to Bragg, many of the dealer incentives today are awarded on a dealer-by-dealer basis, often handed out for meeting sales targets. Because of this, you can't pin down these incentives on a particular vehicle, and you never know which dealership might be able to provide the better price at a given time.
Bragg's method involves faxing quote requests from several different dealerships and asking them for their best bottom-line price on a particular model. His clients sometimes manage to negotiate prices well below invoice, even considering all published incentives. In this day of increased under-the-radar incentives, this method doesn't limit you to a bottom line and certainly has its merits if you're willing to put in the effort.
On ForbesAutos.com you can pursue both options. On each of our Reviews pages there is a link to detailed MSRP and invoice pricing. Also, if you go to our "Buy a Car" section, you can select a model, configure it how you like and then request a free dealer price quote.
Monthly Payment
2. "I can afford this much per month."
"Don't tell the dealer what you're willing to pay per month. This is the biggest mistake a shopper can make. Often the dealer will focus on a monthly payment scheme, insisting you are receiving a great deal, but at the end of the day you won't really know what you paid, advises Gentile.
If the dealer can get a number out of you, a common trick is to ask if you can squeeze out a slightly higher monthly payment, then raise the bottom-line price accordingly by hundreds or even thousands. Avoid this by insisting that you focus only on the purchase price. Walk away if the salesperson only wants to talk in monthly payments. Trade-in
Trade-in
3. "Yes, I have a trade-in."
Don't tell salespeople you have a trade-in until a final transaction price is set. If you do and the deal hasn't been made yet, they may try to distract you with the "great" deal they're giving you on your trade-in as they skimp on the real deal. And if you catch that, they may try writing your trade-up for less.
"You'll see games being played — they'll play one off on the other," Gentile says. Once you've decided on a sale price, then you can see what they'll give you for your old car.
Cash-Only Please
4. "I'm only buying the car with cash."
Car dealers make a significant chunk of added profit when they sell you financing. If you don't at least leave the dealer with the possibility that he or she might sell you financing, you simply won't be getting the best deal. Bragg recommends saying something like "I haven't really thought that through yet. Maybe we'll see what you have after we agree on a price."
But be truly noncommittal with financing, even though it's a good idea to line up tentative financing with your lender before you go car shopping.
Still Debating
5. "I'm not sure…which model do you think I need?"
If you're this undecided, you may end up driving away in a vehicle you neither wanted nor needed. Do the research in advance, and make your first shopping trip a short one. Use this opportunity to gather information and take your spec vehicle for a short test drive. If your uncertainty is apparent, you may end up buying the model with the most add-on equipment, the highest sticker price and, of course, the most profit for the dealer. Before you go shopping, narrow your choices down to three or four vehicles that fit your needs.
My Dream Car
6. "Oh, I've wanted one of these all my life."
As soon as you've lost yourself in the dreamy vision of that gleaming convertible, the salesperson has you hooked, and your chances of getting a great deal are over. "Don't get caught heavy breathing," says Bragg. "Certainly don't admit to your spouse — with the salesman listening in the backseat — that you're in love with the car." Here's where you need to have a communication plan. Try to sound objective and rational. Point out some pros and cons and be observant and calm. Just don't say that you have to have this car.
What Everyone Wants
7. "I'll take whatever the popular options are."
Don't ever ask for the "popular options" especially on a luxury model that already comes loaded. It's an open invitation for overpriced dealer add-ons such as interior protectant, window etching or undercoating. They're all things you can come back for later. Instead, go through the equipment list at home after your first visit to the dealership and then decide exactly what you need.
Lowest You Can Go
8. "What's the lowest price you can give me?"
Most likely, this question won't be taken seriously, and you will be met with a predictable performance. The salesperson will wince, maybe talk to the manager, fiddle with numbers and eventually come back with a price that probably isn't a very good deal for you. But there may be so much apparent effort in this performance that you'll be pressured into settling for that final number. Don't. To avoid this, make an informed and reasonable low offer, then wait for a counteroffer. Don't be afraid of silence. Conversely, don't be surprised if there's even a little drama.
Doing The Math
9. "Sure, I'll look at the numbers with you."
Perhaps quite early in your visit, the salesperson will most likely make an offer to "just go look at the numbers." Dealers do this when they sense you're undecided, but they want to be in the position of control. Getting you in the office makes it harder for you to back out. Wait until you can call the shots of what you want at what price.
The Haggle Factor
10. "I think you can do a lot better than that."
Never scold or accuse the salespeople. Be polite. Compliment them, and show respect. You'll never get the best price if you talk down to them. At least for the moment, you want them to be your friends. Let the scene play out, but leave when the deal's not good enough by quietly suggesting that the competition across town might be more willing to work with you.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Did not check this stuff yet, but it looks pretty cool...
klipfolio4 personal dashboard
"With KlipFolio you don't have to give up your desktop to stay on top of what matters to you. And with over 4000 Klips available for download---all small, resizable, customizable and skinnable---you're sure to find exactly what you need to stay ahead of, well, everyone."
~~
Vista Visual Styles Pack 6.0
"Vista Visual Styles Pack description
Free Vista theme for Windows XP
Change your old Windows XP theme to look like Vista using MSStyles! Plus you don't need to download any software to do it either (so your computer won't get messed up!). You can do it all by yourself and when you are done it is surely going to look like Windows Vista and move like Windows XP ;)"
klipfolio4 personal dashboard
"With KlipFolio you don't have to give up your desktop to stay on top of what matters to you. And with over 4000 Klips available for download---all small, resizable, customizable and skinnable---you're sure to find exactly what you need to stay ahead of, well, everyone."
~~
Vista Visual Styles Pack 6.0
"Vista Visual Styles Pack description
Free Vista theme for Windows XP
Change your old Windows XP theme to look like Vista using MSStyles! Plus you don't need to download any software to do it either (so your computer won't get messed up!). You can do it all by yourself and when you are done it is surely going to look like Windows Vista and move like Windows XP ;)"
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Digital Cameras Record Baby's Every Move
Sep 16, 3:03 PM (ET)
By ANICK JESDANUN
NEW YORK (AP) - For her 30th birthday, while she was still pregnant, Lindsay Nie received from Mom an album filled with her baby and childhood photos.
She enjoyed the trip down memory lane - recalling, for instance, the wooden slide she had in her room and the way she used to play on it. But she also noticed many gaps in the collection, in some cases months or even a year in length.
So after Nie gave birth to Amber last December, she was determined to leave a better record, a daily diary through imagery. She slips her Canon PowerShot SD450 digital camera into a diaper bag anywhere she goes and has snapped more than 6,500 photos in nine months.
"I grab it all the time, if she's just doing something really cute, maybe playing with a toy or grabbing a shoe in a shoe store," Nie said. "I don't really delete any. Years from now, I want to remember the bad face she made" - not just the smiles.
Thanks to cheap and easy-to-use recording devices - digital cameras, camcorders, camera phones - today's kids are forming the most documented generation ever, as parents, relatives and friends capture forever the first, second and hundredth smile.
The challenge will come in managing all the data and making sure they get migrated and cared for along the way.
"There's going to be little escaping the embarrassment that comes with having that many baby photos and videos," said Steve Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "On the other hand, what a great thing for this generation to have."
The research company InfoTrends estimates that 67 percent of U.S. households had digital cameras last year, up from 42 percent in 2004.
Today's children will get a glimpse tomorrow of what everyday life was like - how their parents dressed, what furniture and paintings were in their homes - not just during birthdays and special occasions when past generations were more apt to pull out their film cameras and pose in their best outfits.
"With digital you can just keep on taking to get the one you want," said Amy Short, a nurse in East Alton, Ill. "I definitely take a lot more of my son of just everyday, laying around or sleeping or just little things."
Virginia Merritt of Newnan, Ga., laments that she has few records from her life past 8 months, including when she started walking.
"I just have what my mom remembers," she said.
So for Evan, who turns 1 on Sept. 25, Merritt made sure to keep a list of firsts on the Web site TotSites, including first use of a sippy cup (Aug. 8), first fever (April 8) and first passing of a toy from one hand to the other (Feb. 12) - categories generally not found in traditional, printed baby books.
She also posted sonograms from her pregnancy at Baby Crowd, a Web site for expecting parents.
But all this documentation may carry a price if parents, in spending so much energy creating and preserving a digital archive, fail to enjoy living the moment.
And will future generations even have time to look through stacks of CDs containing tens or hundreds of thousands of photos, and even if they do will individual memories become less precious because there are so many?
What if disk drives fail or software formats change, rendering photos unreadable by tomorrow's computers? Will CDs even work? Think of those reels of 8 mm home movies with no projectors for viewing them.
"If you look at your parents' or grandparents' belongings, you can find old negatives, ... and negatives are still reproducible," said Greg Miele, a Bethesda, Md., father of two, ages 9 and 17. "Yet if you have a hard drive fail on your computer, it's all over. It's a huge risk to maintain your photographs in a digital medium."
After two years of shooting digital, Heidi Grunwald has started returning to film, overwhelmed by the prospect of cataloging all the photos too easily snapped.
"It's taking a lot of enjoyment out of photography," said the mother of a 9-year-old. "I find myself not even using the camera, thinking that if I take photographs of this school event, I'm now going to have to spend a whole week processing them. Why do you need all those pictures? Who's going to look at them all at the end of the day?"
Many parents acknowledge their kids may never want all the photos, but they say they'd like to have them available just in case they want them - particularly as they become parents themselves.
"Now that I have children of my own, I would love to see baby pictures of me to see if my daughter looks like I did, what characteristics I share," said Thea Jankowski of Saint Charles, Ill.
Until that day comes, many of the photos are being distributed to family and friends via e-mail and photo-sharing Web sites - in some cases exposing their child's most private moments to the entire world.
Some parents buy additional disk drives to archive photos, burn them on CDs or keep copies online - not always mindful that photo sites often make it difficult to retrieve the original, high-resolution versions necessary for quality prints.
Brian Gilbreth of Louisa, Va., simply buys new memory cards for his camera. He has four already, each holding 2,000 shots of newborn Ava, including "every outfit she's in, every facial expression, every hairdo she comes out with."
Nie, who lives in New York, has been taking monthly shots of her child in the same armchair, each with a birthday cake. It's today's equivalent of the formal portraits past generations took at J.C. Penney or Sears.
Alexa Schmid, mother of twins in Plymouth, N.H., snaps shots of her daughters "recognizing each other, playing with each other."
She stores the images on the computer with separate subfolders for each month, and she renames some files - as in "Isabella Playing" with the date - in hopes of remembering the context years from now.
Jennifer Lucas, of Frankfort, Ill., makes prints of the best photos and keeps them in a traditional album. She keeps the rest by month on CDs.
"Looking back at what my parents have of me, there might be 20 to 30 pictures from my entire first year," Lucas said. With Jack, born four months ago, "we already have hundreds documenting everything he's already done. Chances are those discs are never going to be looked at again when he gets older, but they will be there in case."
By ANICK JESDANUN
NEW YORK (AP) - For her 30th birthday, while she was still pregnant, Lindsay Nie received from Mom an album filled with her baby and childhood photos.
She enjoyed the trip down memory lane - recalling, for instance, the wooden slide she had in her room and the way she used to play on it. But she also noticed many gaps in the collection, in some cases months or even a year in length.
So after Nie gave birth to Amber last December, she was determined to leave a better record, a daily diary through imagery. She slips her Canon PowerShot SD450 digital camera into a diaper bag anywhere she goes and has snapped more than 6,500 photos in nine months.
"I grab it all the time, if she's just doing something really cute, maybe playing with a toy or grabbing a shoe in a shoe store," Nie said. "I don't really delete any. Years from now, I want to remember the bad face she made" - not just the smiles.
Thanks to cheap and easy-to-use recording devices - digital cameras, camcorders, camera phones - today's kids are forming the most documented generation ever, as parents, relatives and friends capture forever the first, second and hundredth smile.
The challenge will come in managing all the data and making sure they get migrated and cared for along the way.
"There's going to be little escaping the embarrassment that comes with having that many baby photos and videos," said Steve Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "On the other hand, what a great thing for this generation to have."
The research company InfoTrends estimates that 67 percent of U.S. households had digital cameras last year, up from 42 percent in 2004.
Today's children will get a glimpse tomorrow of what everyday life was like - how their parents dressed, what furniture and paintings were in their homes - not just during birthdays and special occasions when past generations were more apt to pull out their film cameras and pose in their best outfits.
"With digital you can just keep on taking to get the one you want," said Amy Short, a nurse in East Alton, Ill. "I definitely take a lot more of my son of just everyday, laying around or sleeping or just little things."
Virginia Merritt of Newnan, Ga., laments that she has few records from her life past 8 months, including when she started walking.
"I just have what my mom remembers," she said.
So for Evan, who turns 1 on Sept. 25, Merritt made sure to keep a list of firsts on the Web site TotSites, including first use of a sippy cup (Aug. 8), first fever (April 8) and first passing of a toy from one hand to the other (Feb. 12) - categories generally not found in traditional, printed baby books.
She also posted sonograms from her pregnancy at Baby Crowd, a Web site for expecting parents.
But all this documentation may carry a price if parents, in spending so much energy creating and preserving a digital archive, fail to enjoy living the moment.
And will future generations even have time to look through stacks of CDs containing tens or hundreds of thousands of photos, and even if they do will individual memories become less precious because there are so many?
What if disk drives fail or software formats change, rendering photos unreadable by tomorrow's computers? Will CDs even work? Think of those reels of 8 mm home movies with no projectors for viewing them.
"If you look at your parents' or grandparents' belongings, you can find old negatives, ... and negatives are still reproducible," said Greg Miele, a Bethesda, Md., father of two, ages 9 and 17. "Yet if you have a hard drive fail on your computer, it's all over. It's a huge risk to maintain your photographs in a digital medium."
After two years of shooting digital, Heidi Grunwald has started returning to film, overwhelmed by the prospect of cataloging all the photos too easily snapped.
"It's taking a lot of enjoyment out of photography," said the mother of a 9-year-old. "I find myself not even using the camera, thinking that if I take photographs of this school event, I'm now going to have to spend a whole week processing them. Why do you need all those pictures? Who's going to look at them all at the end of the day?"
Many parents acknowledge their kids may never want all the photos, but they say they'd like to have them available just in case they want them - particularly as they become parents themselves.
"Now that I have children of my own, I would love to see baby pictures of me to see if my daughter looks like I did, what characteristics I share," said Thea Jankowski of Saint Charles, Ill.
Until that day comes, many of the photos are being distributed to family and friends via e-mail and photo-sharing Web sites - in some cases exposing their child's most private moments to the entire world.
Some parents buy additional disk drives to archive photos, burn them on CDs or keep copies online - not always mindful that photo sites often make it difficult to retrieve the original, high-resolution versions necessary for quality prints.
Brian Gilbreth of Louisa, Va., simply buys new memory cards for his camera. He has four already, each holding 2,000 shots of newborn Ava, including "every outfit she's in, every facial expression, every hairdo she comes out with."
Nie, who lives in New York, has been taking monthly shots of her child in the same armchair, each with a birthday cake. It's today's equivalent of the formal portraits past generations took at J.C. Penney or Sears.
Alexa Schmid, mother of twins in Plymouth, N.H., snaps shots of her daughters "recognizing each other, playing with each other."
She stores the images on the computer with separate subfolders for each month, and she renames some files - as in "Isabella Playing" with the date - in hopes of remembering the context years from now.
Jennifer Lucas, of Frankfort, Ill., makes prints of the best photos and keeps them in a traditional album. She keeps the rest by month on CDs.
"Looking back at what my parents have of me, there might be 20 to 30 pictures from my entire first year," Lucas said. With Jack, born four months ago, "we already have hundreds documenting everything he's already done. Chances are those discs are never going to be looked at again when he gets older, but they will be there in case."
Saturday, September 15, 2007
TD Ameritrade Says Contact Info Stolen
Sep 15, 5:48 AM (ET)
By JOSH FUNK
By JOSH FUNK
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD) (AMTD) said Friday one of its databases was hacked and contact information for its more than 6.3 million customers was stolen. A spokeswoman for the Omaha-based company said more sensitive information in the same database, including Social Security numbers and account numbers, does not appear to have been taken.
The company would not share many details of its investigation, including when the hack took place, because it is still looking into the theft and cooperating with investigators from the FBI, Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and local authorities.
But Ameritrade has known about the problem at least since late May when two of its customers sued the brokerage in federal court because they were receiving unwanted e-mail ads on accounts used only for Ameritrade.
The data on Ameritrade's servers may have been vulnerable for an extended period of time dating back at least to last October, according to the lawsuit filed by lawyer Scott A. Kamber. The company said Friday the problem had recently been fixed.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit had wanted the court to order Ameritrade to tell its customers about the data problem, but Ameritrade issued its release before a hearing could be held. The plaintiffs are also seeking damages and are trying to qualify as a class-action lawsuit.
"They preferred putting out a press release with their own language in it rather than have the court order them to put out a release with our language," Kamber said.
Ameritrade officials did not immediately respond to a message left Friday afternoon with questions about the lawsuit.
Earlier in the day, Ameritrade spokeswoman Kim Hillyer said the company discovered the breach in its system during a routine review of complaints about e-mail ads.
"As soon as we found the issue and were able to stop it, we made plans to notify clients," Hillyer said.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit say all the unwanted e-mail ads they received appeared to be designed to manipulate the value of thinly traded stocks.
This breach is smaller than the biggest known data breach at a company, which was the theft of at least 45 million credit card numbers of TJX Cos. (TJX) retail customers that was reported earlier this year. But the Ameritrade problem is still significantly larger than many data breaches that involve hundreds or thousands but not millions of records.
Ameritrade spokeswoman Katrina Becker said there is no evidence that any customer suffered financial losses or had been a victim of identity theft.
Becker would not say why the company was confident Social Security numbers had not been taken even though they were kept in the same database as customer contact information, trading data and demographic information.
Other Ameritrade databases where information such as passwords, user IDs and personal identification numbers are kept were not violated, the company said.
Ameritrade hired ID Analytics Inc., which has expertise in identity theft, to help with the investigation, and it plans to continue using the company to monitor its servers for potential identity theft.
ID Analytics will continue checking Ameritrade customer data against other databases to watch for identity theft because it could emerge later, said Mike Cook, chief operating officer for the San Diego company.
"Just because a breached file is not misused today, it doesn't mean that it won't be misused in the future," Cook said.
If all the thieves obtained was basic contact information, Cook said that might not be enough to steal an identity and apply for credit in another person's name. But he said the thieves might try to obtain additional information from a victim by posing as a legitimate business in an e-mail.
Ameritrade started notifying its customers about the data theft Friday, and the brokerage posted information about it on its Web site.
"While the financial assets our clients hold with us were never touched, and there is no evidence that our clients' Social Security Numbers were taken, we understand that this issue has increased unwanted SPAM, which is annoying and inconvenient for them," Chief Executive Joe Moglia said in a statement. "We sincerely apologize for that and any added concern this may have caused."
Ameritrade is telling customers they don't need to do anything with their accounts except "remain alert in guarding their personal information." The company's asset-protection guarantee would cover any losses in Ameritrade accounts because of identity theft or fraud.
Ameritrade said it is confident that it identified how the information was stolen and has changed its computer code enough to prevent the theft from recurring. It said any new client who opened an account after July 18 was not affected.
Hillyer said the company's investigation was able to determine that the database had not been hacked after July 18.
Ameritrade's 6.34 million accounts as of July make it one of the nation's biggest discount brokers after leader Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW), which has 6.9 million brokerage accounts.
--- On the Net: TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.: http://www.amtd.com Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: http://privacyrights.org
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
EssentialPIM
http://www.essentialpim.com
All your data in one place, so you can find it easily—and just the information you need without the clutter. EssentialPIM is powerfully simple.
All your data in one place, so you can find it easily—and just the information you need without the clutter. EssentialPIM is powerfully simple.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Thursday, September 06, 2007
TV Shows to check...
Moonlight on CBS starting September 28th (Fridays 9PM)
- check Shannyn Sossamon
Cavemen on ABC starting October 2nd (Tuesdays 8PM)
- check Shannyn Sossamon
Cavemen on ABC starting October 2nd (Tuesdays 8PM)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
antivirus software
AVG Anti-Virus and Internet Security
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool.
HijackThis is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan.
Foxit software
Foxit
PDF Tools Family
PDF Tools Family
- Foxit Reader 2.1 for Windows
- Foxit Reader for Windows Mobile
- Foxit Reader for Embedded Linux
- Foxit Reader for Desktop Linux
- Foxit Reader 2.0 for U3
- Foxit PDF Creator
- Foxit PDF Editor
- Foxit PDF IFilter
- Foxit PDF Page Organizer
- Foxit Reader SDK (DLL)
- Foxit Reader SDK (ActiveX)
- Foxit Embedded PDF SDK
Friday, August 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
10 Free Plug-ins to Enhance Photoshop
10 Free Plug-ins to Enhance Photoshop
rest of the story...
- L'amico Perro Luce (Light Effects) (b-)
- Flaming Pear (c-)
- Dust and Scratch Removal Utility (c+)
rest of the story...
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
[den4b] - software
[den4b]
ReNamer 5.00
ReNamer is a very powerful and flexible file renaming tool...
Shutter 2.85
Shutter is a multifunctional shutdown utility...
+ 3 other programs
ReNamer 5.00
ReNamer is a very powerful and flexible file renaming tool...
Shutter 2.85
Shutter is a multifunctional shutdown utility...
+ 3 other programs
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Skype and the outage...
It is pretty possible according to mathaba.net:
Is it considerable coincidence, or a sign of modifications which would inevitably be difficult to execute without significant disruption?
Around 2 weeks ago the Bush administration pushed through Congress a law to bolster the government’s ability to intercept electronic communications without a court order.
The so-called Protect America Act, which passed both the House and Senate by wide margins just before Congress went on its August recess, allows the government to intercept the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who communicate with people overseas, and for the first time, allows the government to intercept communications between foreigners which are merely routed through the United States, as well as conversations of Americans traveling abroad.
The new law expanding the government's spying powers gives the Bush Administration a six-month window to install possibly permanent back doors in the nation's communication networks.
Prior to the law's passage, the nation's spy agencies, such as the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, didn't need any court approval to spy on foreigners so long as the wiretaps were outside the United States.
Now, those agencies are free to order services like Skype, cell phone companies and arguably even search engines to comply with secret spy orders to create back doors in domestic communication networks for the nation's spooks. Other nations like Australia have similar legislation in place already or on the books.
Skype presents a challenge to spooks, not so much because of its alleged encryption which could possibly be broken by backdoor access or weaknesses in a system that has not received much independent review and is updated almost daily, but because of its essential peer-to-peer (P2P) nature which makes monitoring of communications more difficult.
To enable compliance with the new U.S. laws, which also include that the service providers such as Skype are not allowed to report these activities and are to be immune from prosecution claims for example for violation of the U.S. constitutional or legal rights to privacy, it would be necessary to ensure that the Skype super-nodes are upgraded with software modifications to ensure more centralised routing and easier access to monitoring.
The fact that Skype has not had a serious outage in many years of operation until just two weeks after the passage of this new law could be mere coincidence, but otherwise could point to just such upgrades and modifications having been performed, and gone wrong. Messing with the Skype super nodes is no light matter, and the Skype P2P technology developed in Estonia was a closely guarded secret. U.S. company eBay, which owns also PayPal, faces allegations of compromise on security and privacy issues. It purchased Skype for some 5 billion dollars last year.
Most of the original Skype programmers have since left the company and changing the P2P algorithms to allow compromise could be a tricky and risky business whilst around 8 million users are online, and may have simply gone wrong. The choice of words by Skype in revealing its problems - software and "algorithms" - also lends credence to this theory: algorithms are typically used in automated encryption systems.
The original Skype protocol which had received an independent review and generally received the thumbs up for security implementation has long since been modified hundreds of times with automatic updates to most clients now being in force, thus there would be nothing to guarantee that those systems had not since been hopelessly compromised.
Skype's C.E.O. had promised an interview with Kurt Sauer for Mathaba News last year, but the interview never materialised. Several attempts were made to establish communication, but were ignored. When it was brought to his direct attention that a company with significant Israeli involvement was compromising the security of Skype users passwords, no response to the concerns was given and the company in question progressed to be an integral part of the Skype extras included for download.
Is it considerable coincidence, or a sign of modifications which would inevitably be difficult to execute without significant disruption?
Around 2 weeks ago the Bush administration pushed through Congress a law to bolster the government’s ability to intercept electronic communications without a court order.
The so-called Protect America Act, which passed both the House and Senate by wide margins just before Congress went on its August recess, allows the government to intercept the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who communicate with people overseas, and for the first time, allows the government to intercept communications between foreigners which are merely routed through the United States, as well as conversations of Americans traveling abroad.
The new law expanding the government's spying powers gives the Bush Administration a six-month window to install possibly permanent back doors in the nation's communication networks.
Prior to the law's passage, the nation's spy agencies, such as the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, didn't need any court approval to spy on foreigners so long as the wiretaps were outside the United States.
Now, those agencies are free to order services like Skype, cell phone companies and arguably even search engines to comply with secret spy orders to create back doors in domestic communication networks for the nation's spooks. Other nations like Australia have similar legislation in place already or on the books.
Skype presents a challenge to spooks, not so much because of its alleged encryption which could possibly be broken by backdoor access or weaknesses in a system that has not received much independent review and is updated almost daily, but because of its essential peer-to-peer (P2P) nature which makes monitoring of communications more difficult.
To enable compliance with the new U.S. laws, which also include that the service providers such as Skype are not allowed to report these activities and are to be immune from prosecution claims for example for violation of the U.S. constitutional or legal rights to privacy, it would be necessary to ensure that the Skype super-nodes are upgraded with software modifications to ensure more centralised routing and easier access to monitoring.
The fact that Skype has not had a serious outage in many years of operation until just two weeks after the passage of this new law could be mere coincidence, but otherwise could point to just such upgrades and modifications having been performed, and gone wrong. Messing with the Skype super nodes is no light matter, and the Skype P2P technology developed in Estonia was a closely guarded secret. U.S. company eBay, which owns also PayPal, faces allegations of compromise on security and privacy issues. It purchased Skype for some 5 billion dollars last year.
Most of the original Skype programmers have since left the company and changing the P2P algorithms to allow compromise could be a tricky and risky business whilst around 8 million users are online, and may have simply gone wrong. The choice of words by Skype in revealing its problems - software and "algorithms" - also lends credence to this theory: algorithms are typically used in automated encryption systems.
The original Skype protocol which had received an independent review and generally received the thumbs up for security implementation has long since been modified hundreds of times with automatic updates to most clients now being in force, thus there would be nothing to guarantee that those systems had not since been hopelessly compromised.
Skype's C.E.O. had promised an interview with Kurt Sauer for Mathaba News last year, but the interview never materialised. Several attempts were made to establish communication, but were ignored. When it was brought to his direct attention that a company with significant Israeli involvement was compromising the security of Skype users passwords, no response to the concerns was given and the company in question progressed to be an integral part of the Skype extras included for download.
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