Google’s gone “Glasnost”. It has revealed how it delivers data the FBI when presented with a demand. They wanted to make clear that government agents don’t show up and actually access their servers. Google apparently does that itself, and then delivers the Court Ordered (FISA) data (after review) themselves, in order to dispel any impression of the government physically doing it themselves: No additional data is provided. “…when Google is leg...
Adobe created Photoshop (first published one) in 1990. I think this was the first one. Anyway, image manipulation was around before that, and Jerry Uelsmann is perhaps the greatest of those manipulators. He did all his manipulation in the dark room after may years of developing (fair pun) his method. You can see how he did one of his surreal photo composites here: Photoshop keeps terms like ‘dodge’, ‘burn’ and ‘mask’ whose origins were in...
This isn’t strictly Personal Computing, but I use Windows Live Writer, and this is the one Forum I know will cross post to my second home: WC. IonMed’s (Israel) device is in the clinical testing stages for fast, safe and scarless surgical wound repair. It’s small and manageable and use doesn’t require complicated training. It has four components: A helium tank, the main unit, a hand piece and a disposable tip. It has been used on 6 volunteer subjects:...
Not using W8, but I trust Martin Brinkmann’s assessments of software. This is a free W8 tweaker. Apparently a good one as well. First things first: Note: The program includes adware offers, Delta toolbar for example, in the installer. If you do not want to install those, make sure you click on decline. You may receive multiple offers during installation. You can read his review here: http://www.ghacks.net/2013/06/12/8smoker-pro-is-a-com...
Just what it says. The critical patch is for IE to prevent a remote code execution vulnerability in IE 6-10. Make sure to get this one. The vulnerability is related to phishing bringing the victim to a website where the vulnerability would be exploited. The others are patches for Office 2003 and Office for Mac to patch vulnerabilities in them. Here’s what to expect: Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms13-jun
Many in our community as well as outside it have visual impairments from one cause or another. Among adults, diabetes is the most frequent cause, but there are others. This invention works for all causes and is completely noninvasive. Although it was designed for people with vision loss, it might help those with dyslexia and those with memory loss. OrCam will understand what information is wanted by the user just pointing his/her finger: A label, a street sign, newspaper articl...
Gifs were all the rage, once. Sometimes a child’s or a pet’s antics are caught on video, and you’d love to condense it down and maybe add a cute comment. You could certainly do it in the animation section of Photoshop (and add fades/pans/titles/text/music) but not everyone has CS5 or 6. Also, maybe you’d just like a cute little gif, and nota Pixar masterpiece. So, QGifer will import a vid and gives you very significant editing capabilities quite similar to Ph...
I wonder what on earth the NSA is doing. All phone records (not the content of the calls themselves, nor the caller’s identity) including numbers dialed, duration of calls, location data, unique identifiers all are being handed over on an ongoing basis to the NSA. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Miami ordered this in April 25th, for a three month period ending July 19th. This means that whether you are suspected of wrongdoing or not, your records are being analy...
Very recently, the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property released an interesting (if 84 page long) report on preventing theft of IP. You can read it here: http://ipcommission.org/report/IP_Commission_Report_052213.pdf It’s interesting because it proposes the use of malware to prevent theft. In other words, they suggested that malware (spyware, rootkits, ransomware and Trojans) can be deployed to test your computer for pirated software and lock it until you ...
Great. Yahoo has joined the Empire. Your “New” Yahoo Mail will now scan the contents to bring you “relevant” ads. Who knows what else it will do (check this out)? “When you upgrade, you will be accepting our Communications Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This includes the acceptance of automated content scanning and analyzing of your communications content, which Yahoo! uses to deliver product features, relevant advertising, and abuse prot...
Popular? Well, according to Neowin the free app has seized second place among the free apps the W8 Apps Store. Interesting as it only launched a few weeks ago. Anything with the name Photoshop is going to garner some interest, but this is a phenomenon. It might have something to do with the Photoshop meme, or getting something for “free”. So, I figured I’d give it a spin to see what the deal was. You can find it here: http://www.photoshop.com/tools/expresseditor
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The Justice Dep’t. filed a secret lawsuit against Google to try to force it to give up user data without a search warrant: This after a different court ruled the process unconstitutional. There’s nothing short of the First and Fourth Amendments at stake here. This is yet more fallout from the Patriot Act. The Federal prosecutors are truly determined to keep the “right” to warrantless searches of your data. Google is just as determined to prevent it, terming t...
This is especially for beginners. Unless you’re a Ps/Ai/Id/Ae/Dw etc. guru, you can profit from this free 5 days of totally awesome. Lesa Snider – Photoshop, Jack Davis – Graphic Design, Khara Plicanic – InDesign, and on and on. These are awesome teachers, and I learned my Ps from Lesa Snider on a program similar to this, only it was three days of intensive CS6 that left me eternally grateful to her and the wonderful folks at creativeLive who make these event...
Just saw this on The Chive, and found it fascinating. This artist merges science and art. Heather Dewey-Hagborg is her name, and she deserves a “Bravo!”. She picks up chewing gum, cigarette butts, hair, etc. (some of that etc. could be on the yucky side), and takes samples from them to a DIY biology lab. There she extracts the DNA, and prints out the result. About 30 parameters are then fed into a 3D printer from a program she customized, and a face is printed out.
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This one comes via my son. PhoneClean is a cool, free utility which should be used occasionally to clean up your iOS device and return it to its former peppiness. If you have an iOS device (as in the title), go to http://www.imobie.com/ and learn about this freebie here: http://www.imobie.com/phoneclean/ There’s a user guide here: http://www.imobie.com/phoneclean/guide.htm There are many other guides accessible from the homepage or, you can take a look at t...