As found on Floopy: Spy ware removers NOT to use:
Ad-Eliminator http://www.ad-eliminator.com
AdProtector http://www.adprotector.com
AdwareSpy http://www.adwarespy.com
Easy Spyware Killer http://easyspywarekiller.com
InternetAntiSpy http://internetantispy.com
NoAdware http://noadware.com
pcOrion http://www.pcorion.com
PurityScan http://www.purityscan.com
PuritySweep http://www.puritysweep.com
SpyAssault http://www.spyassault.com
SpyBan http://www.spyban.net
SpyBlast http://www.spyblast.com
SpyFerret http://www.onlinepcfix.com
SpyKiller 2004 http://spykiller.com
Spyware This http://www.spywarethis.com
TZ Spyware Adware Remover http://trackzapper.com
ZeroSpyware http://zerospyware.com
-------------------------------------
I still recomend a combination of:
Ad-Aware
SpyBot
and
BHO Demon
2004-10-26
2004-10-25
Digital Camera Insights
I had a friend tell me that they just got a digital camera, and they were still learning how to use it. As I was writing a reply, and for the second time today, realized that what I was saying could be useful to others. So I knew it was time to make it into a post I also found myself helping two different people lately get pictures with the timer trick I talk about below.
So what I talk about can be useful to someone just getting started with a digital camera, or even to someone who has used one of a little while.
I learned a bunch of tricks trying different things and reading things online. I also got some great tips from TechChatter's other author: Chirstopher.
Digital cameras can be so much fun! This can be very freeing. I had the urge to take a lot of artistic pictures before I had a digital camera. But I almost never took 'artistic' pictures, because I didn't want to waste film and prints.
But I got a digital camera a little more than 3 years ago. It has been a fantastic experience. I love that I can just take picture after picture. I figure even if I take some bad one, I can always delete them. Most of the time I don't even delete them, I just back them up to CD or DVD. And considering the low cost of putting stuff on CDs and DVD-Roms, I just take a lot of pictures.
A digital camera can be so much fun. I've even used it for pictures for web sites, or just to have a backup of a document. It has been great to have a picture archive of what I've done over the last 3+ years.
There are definitely some tricks to using a digital camera. One of the hardest things is getting used to how long most of the take to get a picture. So many times I've missing getting the picture I want because of how long it takes to start, and focus. Even when I leave it on, the time from first pressing the button to getting the picture can seem an eternity. So I've learned to try to anticipate pictures when I can. I've gotten pretty good at holding the button halfway down, pre-focused, catching the picture I want by pressing a miniscule time before the moment I want to capture. I've managed to get the ball being hit at kids baseball games with some practice.
I've found getting a good focus can be hard with a digital camera. I've had a lot of pictures come out focused on the wrong thing more often with a digital camera. And I've found that the depth of focus can be more critical with a digital. Of course, some 'soft-focus' pictures look good, or can be somewhat fixed on the computer. Of course fixing pictures on the computer is a whole big thing in it's own right, and while I've done some neat things, I don't think I'm all that advanced at 'photoshopping' :) There are usually a few different modes for how a camera focuses, that are not obvious.
Sunlight can be a major help with getting good pictures with a digital camera. I've been disappointed with cloudy pictures. Some of the most disappointing pictures is a cloudy, snowy day. It looks so bright when you are outside. But digital pictures of snowy days can come out so muted. This is where playing with white balance might help. I've done better playing with white balance in places that have things like fluorescent lighting.
One of the things that is the hardest with the digital camera is dark location. My camera has a very, very hard time getting a focus in the dark, or taking a good picture in the dark. I've gotten the best results with a combination of factors. I will try to lock the focus on something at a similar distance, or use infinity and ignore that lack of focus lock. Also I've been trying spot focus to help. I will turn off the flash. Sometimes I will use the 'night' mode. But the best thing I've found is the self-timer. My camera has 10 second or 2 second delay. I'll use the 2 second delay. The reason for this is that when you are taking a picture in the dark, the camera keeps the sensor on longer. This means that if you shake the camera, that means a shaky pictures. And the amount of vibration when you press the trigger is enough to make most every picture shaky. But if you use the timer, you have already pressed the trigger, and can concentrate on holding the camera steady. This works very well.
Battery life is another concern with digital cameras. Usually my batteries give out before my storage card. Okay, I've got a *lot* of room on my cards, but there are some techniques I use to get the best from my battery life. First thing was I stopped buying disposable batteries for my camera. My camera takes 4 AA batteries. And while alkaline batteries can last a while, that can add up to some real expense. So I went out and bought some rechargeable batteries. I got NiMH, with about 1800 MaH life. I found that I got more life in my camera from the recharagables that the disposables. I also bought two sets, and I usually leave the second set in the recharger.
There were a number of other techniques I've used to extend battery life. I turned off the option where the camera creates web pages on the storage card. This means it shuts off faster too. I've learned to use the optical finder, so I can leave the [backlight] of the LCD off. Unluckily my camera's optical finder is above the lens (not single reflex) so I've tried to adjust for it, but occasionally I've had pictures come out badly framed. Also with the LCD off, I don't know if I've got a really badly focused picture. An LCD usually doesn't have enough quality to see slightly out-of-focus pictures. Most cameras have a zoom option when reviewing pictures, so I've used that a few times to make sure I got the quality picture I wanted.
I also have the camera with time-out battery savings mode. The LCD is set to turn off after 30 seconds of inactivity. But I've gone from 2 minute to 5 minute for shutdown. I realized that with the LCD off, the power used by 5 minutes is so little more than 2 minutes that it is worth it. Plus I found that If I haven't turned off the camera, usually I'll want to take more pictures. So much so that I will press the shutter button halfway every now and then to keep it from going to sleep, if I'm on a hike or something.
Another mode my camera has is multiple drive mode. This allows me to take about 4 pictures in about 3 seconds. This is great when taking an action shot. I've used it when taking pictures of a train engine as it is just about to pass me. But it will not work with the flash on, so it isn't good indoors.
It also has a video mode, that takes smaller sized silent video for up to 30 seconds. On my camera it can take more than twice as long to save afterwards, so it isn't very good for capturing continuous sequences. I also wish it had sound sometimes. But there have been a few times I was glad I was able to take a small video even if it wasn't all the high a quality or the fact it was silent. But it turns out the video my camera takes has a proprietary codec. That means the CD that came with my camera lets me watch the videos in media player, it means I can't send it to anyone else. But I've found that tmpgenc is great for converting them to mpeg1 so I can share my silent videos.
Another feature to look for with a digital camera is a 'raw' mode. Most digital camera will compress pictures in jpeg format. Most of the time, the high quality setting is fine for what you are using. But every now and then, I want the highest quality picture I can get. Most cameras have a non-compressed mode saved to TIFF. Newer cameras make the raw/tiff mode easily available. On my camera it is a hidden, unsupported option. And it makes proprietary TIFFs, so once again I have to convert them if I want to used them in anything else or share them.
Just lately I've tried using one of the services to print my digital pictures on photo paper. It is cheaper than trying to print at home. And with 3.3 megapixel (2048x1536) picture printed on 4x6 inch paper I was amazed by the quality. Only when I took a picture that I cropped to 1024x768 and had printed to 4x6 did I start to see a bit of digital fuzziness. I even had some of them made in 8x10s as part of a calendar, and most of them look photo-quality. I was very happy with the results. I did notice something interesting when using Wal-Mart's photo service: the pictures I uploaded online were printed glossy and looked a little better than those I brought in to the store on the data card and had done in the one hour process.
So my advice is - take lots of pictures. Experiment with the different options. Develop you eye for pictures. Don't be too critical about the ones that don't come out as well.
So what I talk about can be useful to someone just getting started with a digital camera, or even to someone who has used one of a little while.
I learned a bunch of tricks trying different things and reading things online. I also got some great tips from TechChatter's other author: Chirstopher.
Digital cameras can be so much fun! This can be very freeing. I had the urge to take a lot of artistic pictures before I had a digital camera. But I almost never took 'artistic' pictures, because I didn't want to waste film and prints.
But I got a digital camera a little more than 3 years ago. It has been a fantastic experience. I love that I can just take picture after picture. I figure even if I take some bad one, I can always delete them. Most of the time I don't even delete them, I just back them up to CD or DVD. And considering the low cost of putting stuff on CDs and DVD-Roms, I just take a lot of pictures.
A digital camera can be so much fun. I've even used it for pictures for web sites, or just to have a backup of a document. It has been great to have a picture archive of what I've done over the last 3+ years.
There are definitely some tricks to using a digital camera. One of the hardest things is getting used to how long most of the take to get a picture. So many times I've missing getting the picture I want because of how long it takes to start, and focus. Even when I leave it on, the time from first pressing the button to getting the picture can seem an eternity. So I've learned to try to anticipate pictures when I can. I've gotten pretty good at holding the button halfway down, pre-focused, catching the picture I want by pressing a miniscule time before the moment I want to capture. I've managed to get the ball being hit at kids baseball games with some practice.
I've found getting a good focus can be hard with a digital camera. I've had a lot of pictures come out focused on the wrong thing more often with a digital camera. And I've found that the depth of focus can be more critical with a digital. Of course, some 'soft-focus' pictures look good, or can be somewhat fixed on the computer. Of course fixing pictures on the computer is a whole big thing in it's own right, and while I've done some neat things, I don't think I'm all that advanced at 'photoshopping' :) There are usually a few different modes for how a camera focuses, that are not obvious.
Sunlight can be a major help with getting good pictures with a digital camera. I've been disappointed with cloudy pictures. Some of the most disappointing pictures is a cloudy, snowy day. It looks so bright when you are outside. But digital pictures of snowy days can come out so muted. This is where playing with white balance might help. I've done better playing with white balance in places that have things like fluorescent lighting.
One of the things that is the hardest with the digital camera is dark location. My camera has a very, very hard time getting a focus in the dark, or taking a good picture in the dark. I've gotten the best results with a combination of factors. I will try to lock the focus on something at a similar distance, or use infinity and ignore that lack of focus lock. Also I've been trying spot focus to help. I will turn off the flash. Sometimes I will use the 'night' mode. But the best thing I've found is the self-timer. My camera has 10 second or 2 second delay. I'll use the 2 second delay. The reason for this is that when you are taking a picture in the dark, the camera keeps the sensor on longer. This means that if you shake the camera, that means a shaky pictures. And the amount of vibration when you press the trigger is enough to make most every picture shaky. But if you use the timer, you have already pressed the trigger, and can concentrate on holding the camera steady. This works very well.
Battery life is another concern with digital cameras. Usually my batteries give out before my storage card. Okay, I've got a *lot* of room on my cards, but there are some techniques I use to get the best from my battery life. First thing was I stopped buying disposable batteries for my camera. My camera takes 4 AA batteries. And while alkaline batteries can last a while, that can add up to some real expense. So I went out and bought some rechargeable batteries. I got NiMH, with about 1800 MaH life. I found that I got more life in my camera from the recharagables that the disposables. I also bought two sets, and I usually leave the second set in the recharger.
There were a number of other techniques I've used to extend battery life. I turned off the option where the camera creates web pages on the storage card. This means it shuts off faster too. I've learned to use the optical finder, so I can leave the [backlight] of the LCD off. Unluckily my camera's optical finder is above the lens (not single reflex) so I've tried to adjust for it, but occasionally I've had pictures come out badly framed. Also with the LCD off, I don't know if I've got a really badly focused picture. An LCD usually doesn't have enough quality to see slightly out-of-focus pictures. Most cameras have a zoom option when reviewing pictures, so I've used that a few times to make sure I got the quality picture I wanted.
I also have the camera with time-out battery savings mode. The LCD is set to turn off after 30 seconds of inactivity. But I've gone from 2 minute to 5 minute for shutdown. I realized that with the LCD off, the power used by 5 minutes is so little more than 2 minutes that it is worth it. Plus I found that If I haven't turned off the camera, usually I'll want to take more pictures. So much so that I will press the shutter button halfway every now and then to keep it from going to sleep, if I'm on a hike or something.
Another mode my camera has is multiple drive mode. This allows me to take about 4 pictures in about 3 seconds. This is great when taking an action shot. I've used it when taking pictures of a train engine as it is just about to pass me. But it will not work with the flash on, so it isn't good indoors.
It also has a video mode, that takes smaller sized silent video for up to 30 seconds. On my camera it can take more than twice as long to save afterwards, so it isn't very good for capturing continuous sequences. I also wish it had sound sometimes. But there have been a few times I was glad I was able to take a small video even if it wasn't all the high a quality or the fact it was silent. But it turns out the video my camera takes has a proprietary codec. That means the CD that came with my camera lets me watch the videos in media player, it means I can't send it to anyone else. But I've found that tmpgenc is great for converting them to mpeg1 so I can share my silent videos.
Another feature to look for with a digital camera is a 'raw' mode. Most digital camera will compress pictures in jpeg format. Most of the time, the high quality setting is fine for what you are using. But every now and then, I want the highest quality picture I can get. Most cameras have a non-compressed mode saved to TIFF. Newer cameras make the raw/tiff mode easily available. On my camera it is a hidden, unsupported option. And it makes proprietary TIFFs, so once again I have to convert them if I want to used them in anything else or share them.
Just lately I've tried using one of the services to print my digital pictures on photo paper. It is cheaper than trying to print at home. And with 3.3 megapixel (2048x1536) picture printed on 4x6 inch paper I was amazed by the quality. Only when I took a picture that I cropped to 1024x768 and had printed to 4x6 did I start to see a bit of digital fuzziness. I even had some of them made in 8x10s as part of a calendar, and most of them look photo-quality. I was very happy with the results. I did notice something interesting when using Wal-Mart's photo service: the pictures I uploaded online were printed glossy and looked a little better than those I brought in to the store on the data card and had done in the one hour process.
So my advice is - take lots of pictures. Experiment with the different options. Develop you eye for pictures. Don't be too critical about the ones that don't come out as well.
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