I’ve arranged a special vacation offer just for my readers. You’ll stay at no nightly cost, have food prepared to your taste and never bother with packing and unpacking.
It’s exactly what I plan for myself: A stay-at-home vacation with activities for the whole family. You’ll have plenty of time to read and take naps — important parts of any vacation.
And it will leave you with a little extra money in your pocket. I have plans for some of those dollars, but even so you’ll end up spending a fraction of what a conventional vacation would cost.
Think of me as counselor at your high-tech summer camp. There are a wide range of fun and educational activities offered. You can tailor what you do to all age groups.
I’ll direct you to some high-tech family projects you can order using the Web. Most of these sites offer dozens of projects. I’ll suggest a few types, and then you can find kits to suit your family.
Build-a-computer
One of the best ways to learn about computing is to build your own computer. Everyone in the family can help.
The first option is to build a powerful computer that can join the family arsenal. Simply pick up all the components from power supply to case at any good computer store. Most stores will help you find what you need and have books that explain the process.
You can also get Web help here: http://www.mysuperpc.com/
The project requires no soldering and is surprisingly easy. Depending on the components you select, you’ll spend about $800. The site above offers links to sites of various parts vendors. You can also shop locally or at other Web sites.
For a more sophisticated project where you literally work at the circuitboard level, try this Web site: http://tinyurl.com/5vwrnq
This isn’t for the faint-hearted. But for those of you who want to mount tiny components, it’s a great experience. You’ll get a book and all the components you need for $125.
You will not end up with a PC. Instead, this computer is mostly for learning. But it can be used as the brains for another project, including a robot. This is definitely a project for the hobbyist, but enough help is offered to make it suitable for motivated beginners.
Some kid stuff
Many families — especially those with young children who want to get involved — would be better off starting with much easier projects. Try this Web page for a wide range of scientific kits geared toward kids: http://www.hobbyengineering.com.
A child of 11 or 12 can easily navigate kits such as these.
One of my first boyhood projects was building a radio. I did it from scratch, but there are easier ways today. A Tennessee company called Ten-Tec (it also makes outstanding ham radio products) offers a $39 kit that lets you make a shortwave radio.
You get everything you need, along with instructions. This project is suitable for kids, but soldering is required so supervision is a good idea. Check it out at the top of this page: http://radio.tentec.com/kits
That radio won’t be fancy. But the same Web page offers increasingly difficult radio kits. You can wind up with a very nice homebuilt radio for about $200. Ten-Tec is known for its willingness to help when you’re stumped. That’s a nice plus.
Heat things up
If you are interested in some of the kits that involve soldering, why not get a kit that specifically teaches soldering? It just costs $12 and — for your efforts — you end up with a robot with blinking eyes. You can see it here: http://www.kitsusa.net/phpstore/index.php.
For those who want to build a real robot, here’s a good site: http://www.lynxmotion.com
I’ve geared a lot of this to kids, but tech-minded adults shouldn’t ignore the fun these electronics projects offer. I still get great joy in building something. There’s a real thrill in hitting the power switch on something you made yourself.
So now you have a starting point for what could be a really terrific family vacation. Even if you took on two of the more expensive projects, the cost will be a fraction of what you’d spend on a conventional vacation. And you you have the potential for educational fun that can bind a family tighter than the most elegant solder joint.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Walk on the weird side
Today let’s take a walk -- a walk on the wild, scary side of computing.
We’ll leave hackers, ordinary computer viruses and scammers for another time. Let’s examine some real, but mostly hidden, dangers of computer use that can do real harm to your equipment, or even your body.
These threats don’t just come from the internet, but also from other gadgets that connect to your computer or allow you to use it. An example is the digital picture frame, one in a series of digital appliances that can come with an added and unwelcome feature at times — viruses, worms and password stealing programs implanted at the manufacturing source.
So far, the list of infected gadgets includes iPods, other music players and GPS devices. But it could widen to any gadget that contains computerized circuitry.
Most of these devices seem to be infected by accident at the factory — for instance, a worker might use a music player for his own use, connecting it to an infected computer. But there’s also evidence that some of these programs are added on purpose.
Not to pick on digital frames, but one giant U.S. retailer yanked them off its shelves when it discovered they contained a virus programmed to steal passwords and disable anti-virus software.
How does this sinister threat work? All these gadgets end up connected to your computer — either to transfer photos, music or navigation maps. When they are connected, the virus can migrate from the device to your machine. The safeguard? Keep your anti-virus software updated so that if a virus tries to sneak in the backdoor, the program catches it.
Another potential hidden danger is toner, the stuff used in a laser printer. Some researchers think the dust-like particles can be as dangerous as cigarette smoke. A study published in Environmental Science and Technology magazine suggested that changing toner cartridges on a laser printer sometimes subjected people to the high-tech version of black lung disease. The only difference is that, instead of coal dust harming the lungs of miners, the tiny particles of toner dust attacked the lungs of office workers.
There isn’t universal agreement on the harm. But it’s another example of an unexpected risk that may be lurking. If you’d like to read more, here’s a link to a 2007 article in Time magazine: http://tinyurl.com/3jb7qu
There are other risks to your body when you use a computer. One that is well-documented is carpal tunnel syndrome. Spending long hours at the keyboard can create serious and permanent problems when the median nerve, which runs from the forearm into the hand and can become squeezed at the wrist.
Other, lesser aliments, can also be caused by long hours at the keyboard too. So take a break.
Another, equally frightening medical problem, isn’t as well known. New Zealand researchers say extended sessions at a computer can cause fatal blood clots. The risk seems similar to what can happen if you spend a lot of time in a confined position — on long drives, or long airline flights. That adds to the risk of deep vein thrombosis. The veins become compressed and can form blood clots.
Between carpal tunnel system and fatal blood clots — well, that’s reason enough for anyone to take frequent breaks from the computer. Just get up and walk around.
In fact, I think I’ll do that right now. I never knew writing a column could be such a risky oc
We’ll leave hackers, ordinary computer viruses and scammers for another time. Let’s examine some real, but mostly hidden, dangers of computer use that can do real harm to your equipment, or even your body.
These threats don’t just come from the internet, but also from other gadgets that connect to your computer or allow you to use it. An example is the digital picture frame, one in a series of digital appliances that can come with an added and unwelcome feature at times — viruses, worms and password stealing programs implanted at the manufacturing source.
So far, the list of infected gadgets includes iPods, other music players and GPS devices. But it could widen to any gadget that contains computerized circuitry.
Most of these devices seem to be infected by accident at the factory — for instance, a worker might use a music player for his own use, connecting it to an infected computer. But there’s also evidence that some of these programs are added on purpose.
Not to pick on digital frames, but one giant U.S. retailer yanked them off its shelves when it discovered they contained a virus programmed to steal passwords and disable anti-virus software.
How does this sinister threat work? All these gadgets end up connected to your computer — either to transfer photos, music or navigation maps. When they are connected, the virus can migrate from the device to your machine. The safeguard? Keep your anti-virus software updated so that if a virus tries to sneak in the backdoor, the program catches it.
Another potential hidden danger is toner, the stuff used in a laser printer. Some researchers think the dust-like particles can be as dangerous as cigarette smoke. A study published in Environmental Science and Technology magazine suggested that changing toner cartridges on a laser printer sometimes subjected people to the high-tech version of black lung disease. The only difference is that, instead of coal dust harming the lungs of miners, the tiny particles of toner dust attacked the lungs of office workers.
There isn’t universal agreement on the harm. But it’s another example of an unexpected risk that may be lurking. If you’d like to read more, here’s a link to a 2007 article in Time magazine: http://tinyurl.com/3jb7qu
There are other risks to your body when you use a computer. One that is well-documented is carpal tunnel syndrome. Spending long hours at the keyboard can create serious and permanent problems when the median nerve, which runs from the forearm into the hand and can become squeezed at the wrist.
Other, lesser aliments, can also be caused by long hours at the keyboard too. So take a break.
Another, equally frightening medical problem, isn’t as well known. New Zealand researchers say extended sessions at a computer can cause fatal blood clots. The risk seems similar to what can happen if you spend a lot of time in a confined position — on long drives, or long airline flights. That adds to the risk of deep vein thrombosis. The veins become compressed and can form blood clots.
Between carpal tunnel system and fatal blood clots — well, that’s reason enough for anyone to take frequent breaks from the computer. Just get up and walk around.
In fact, I think I’ll do that right now. I never knew writing a column could be such a risky oc
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
A basement rescue
Last weekend I rescued an old friend. She was once popular and even trendy, but for the past couple of years she had been living alone in a basement. She looked good despite a growing collection of dust.
The rescue made both of us feel good, especially since I was able to put her to work.
You may have an old computer or two, stored away in a closet, basement or attic. I understand since I often do the same thing myself but — in truth — it’s sort of dumb. Most often it’s just a computer purgatory, a stop on the way to the final destination of the junk heap.
There are better ways and we’ll talk about that today.
For one thing, you can always give the computer away. Here in Atlanta, there’s an outfit called Computers for Youth. If you go to this Web page —- http://www.cfy.org/donate-computers.php — you’ll see the kind of computers it accepts. You can also read about the goals of the group. A quick search with Google with the search terms “donate computer” will help you find other groups no matter where you live.
If you decide to donate a computer, that’s a fine and generous thing. Over the years I’ve donated — either to groups or to individuals — at least six computers.
But in some cases, you may also be able to put one of those old computers to work right in your home. That’s what I did with my basement rescue. It now serves as a helper in my ham radio room, keeping track of contacts I’ve made and looking up locations of the other radio operators I visit with on the air. Taking a wild guess here most of you won’t be doing that.
But there are plenty of more ordinary uses for an aging and underpowered computer. I’ll give you some examples.
In my home, both my wife and I love to cook. Most of our recipes are scrawled on slips of paper. My chili recipe, for instance, is gradually disappearing under a coating of chili powder and cumin. Any working computer — no matter how old — would do a great job as a kitchen computer. Besides storing recipes it could also help when you need to pare down a recipe meant to serve four when you need to prepare it for six. Or, it could keep inventories of what you have on hand and then create shopping lists. With wireless access to the Internet, it can send those lists to a printer on your network, or roam the Net to hunt up new recipes.
The kitchen — with its steam, water and grease — isn’t the most hospitable location for a computer so you should locate it well out of the line of fire and also make sure that it’s connected to a outlet with ground fault protection (nowadays most bathroom and kitchen outlets have that protection, just be sure). Most office supply stores also sell plastic dust covers for computers and that’s an excellent idea for a kitchen computer.
If the computer eventually breaks down because of the environment, well you haven’t lost much — especially if you’re able to connect it to a network so that your recipes are stored away in another location.
Another great use for an aging computer is as a guest and kid machine. That way your own information is safe from prying eyes or careless use. If it breaks, well — again — you haven’t lost much.
My uncle, an electrical engineeer who spent part of his career working on operating systems, keeps one computer isolated from his home network. Information stored there is completely safe from hackers. And if a destructive virus or worm slips by his protection, the computer in isolation hums on with no problem. So it becomes a storage point for financial records and sensitive material. Properly backed up, it does a great job. In most cases, your old computer can do that just fine.
A more recent computer with a large hard disk could even sure as an online backup server. In many cases, that’s asking too much from an antique. It all depends on what you have on hand.
The great thing about all this is that — by letting an old machine share part of the computer load in your home — you are freeing up your best computers for the most important work like killing space aliens and playing online canasta.
The rescue made both of us feel good, especially since I was able to put her to work.
You may have an old computer or two, stored away in a closet, basement or attic. I understand since I often do the same thing myself but — in truth — it’s sort of dumb. Most often it’s just a computer purgatory, a stop on the way to the final destination of the junk heap.
There are better ways and we’ll talk about that today.
For one thing, you can always give the computer away. Here in Atlanta, there’s an outfit called Computers for Youth. If you go to this Web page —- http://www.cfy.org/donate-computers.php — you’ll see the kind of computers it accepts. You can also read about the goals of the group. A quick search with Google with the search terms “donate computer” will help you find other groups no matter where you live.
If you decide to donate a computer, that’s a fine and generous thing. Over the years I’ve donated — either to groups or to individuals — at least six computers.
But in some cases, you may also be able to put one of those old computers to work right in your home. That’s what I did with my basement rescue. It now serves as a helper in my ham radio room, keeping track of contacts I’ve made and looking up locations of the other radio operators I visit with on the air. Taking a wild guess here most of you won’t be doing that.
But there are plenty of more ordinary uses for an aging and underpowered computer. I’ll give you some examples.
In my home, both my wife and I love to cook. Most of our recipes are scrawled on slips of paper. My chili recipe, for instance, is gradually disappearing under a coating of chili powder and cumin. Any working computer — no matter how old — would do a great job as a kitchen computer. Besides storing recipes it could also help when you need to pare down a recipe meant to serve four when you need to prepare it for six. Or, it could keep inventories of what you have on hand and then create shopping lists. With wireless access to the Internet, it can send those lists to a printer on your network, or roam the Net to hunt up new recipes.
The kitchen — with its steam, water and grease — isn’t the most hospitable location for a computer so you should locate it well out of the line of fire and also make sure that it’s connected to a outlet with ground fault protection (nowadays most bathroom and kitchen outlets have that protection, just be sure). Most office supply stores also sell plastic dust covers for computers and that’s an excellent idea for a kitchen computer.
If the computer eventually breaks down because of the environment, well you haven’t lost much — especially if you’re able to connect it to a network so that your recipes are stored away in another location.
Another great use for an aging computer is as a guest and kid machine. That way your own information is safe from prying eyes or careless use. If it breaks, well — again — you haven’t lost much.
My uncle, an electrical engineeer who spent part of his career working on operating systems, keeps one computer isolated from his home network. Information stored there is completely safe from hackers. And if a destructive virus or worm slips by his protection, the computer in isolation hums on with no problem. So it becomes a storage point for financial records and sensitive material. Properly backed up, it does a great job. In most cases, your old computer can do that just fine.
A more recent computer with a large hard disk could even sure as an online backup server. In many cases, that’s asking too much from an antique. It all depends on what you have on hand.
The great thing about all this is that — by letting an old machine share part of the computer load in your home — you are freeing up your best computers for the most important work like killing space aliens and playing online canasta.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Some of you are coming into some money - $600 to $1,200 that you'll get from the IRS as part of what the newspapers are calling an economic stimulus package.
The idea is that many folks will spend that money. The added spurt of spending will trickle through the economy and make things OK again in theory.
I'm a patrotic guy. So today I'll help you spend your government windfall on high tech gadgets and gizmos.
The easy way out would be to buy a new computer. These days you can get a nice one for $1,200 or an completely adequate one for $600. But, unless your home computer no longer can do what needs doing, I'd advise against it. There are better ways to spend your money.
For instance, it would be smarter to spend part of that money on a black and white laser printer. Ink jet printers consume those expensive cartridges so fast that it's possible to spend an amount equivalent to the cost of the printer in just two or three months of
ink purchases.
Laser printers produce a black and white page at a fraction of the cost. Even with heavy use, cartridges often last months. At the cost of gas these days, eliminating extra trips to the office supply store can add to the savings.
C-net, a site I really trust, lists its top five black and white laser printers at this address: http://reviews.cnet.com/4370-3155_7-146-105.html?tag=lnav. Many of you will recoup the cost of the laser in just a few months. Once you own a laser, you can reserve your ink
jet printer for printing photographs and documents that need to be in color and use the laser for everything else.
You can spend as little as $100 to $200 on a very nice laser printer. That means we have money left. So lets keep shopping.
One of the most satisfactory purchases I've made in the past few years was for a wide-screen LCD monitor. The wide screen lets me put two documents side-by-side on the screen. And the text is easy to read on a large screen. Unlike old CRT monitors, these screens are lighter and - as a bonus - use just a fraction of the electricity.
I've had good luck with screens made by View Sonic, Dell, Sony and HP. Get a screen that's 20-inches or even larger to reap the full benefits. Even in the 21- to 22-inch range, you'll just pay $200 to $300. I promise, switching to a nice screen is like sending your eyeballs on vacation.
You'll notice that even if you followed my advice and purchased a $200 laser printer and a $300 monitor, there's still money left to spend.
So lets be a little crazy and buy something fun. Many of you have HDTV sets now. But not all of you have sound systems to match. Adding a five-speaker sound system makes an enormous difference, especially when watching movies.
Consider a system that uses wireless speakers. In many homes, it's hard to run speaker wires invisibly.
Many systems add a DVD player to the system. If you already own a DVD player, look for a system without one. Here's my thinking on that. The standard for DVD movies is shifting to high definition discs using the Blu-ray format. But I think prices for Blu-ray players will dive over the next year. So you can save money by avoiding that expense.
You'll pay anywhere from $200 to $600 or more for a system that includes speakers, a separate sub-woofer for movie theater-like bass, and a amplifier. Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Denon and Bose all make systems that sound great. Spend some time listening and then decide
how much you'd like to spend.
I'm going to run of space before you run out of money. And there's still so much shopping left to do. So have fun looking at GPS systems for your car, digital cameras, game consoles, fancy cellphones and the like.
And hold your head proud while you spend your money - you're a high tech patriot.
The idea is that many folks will spend that money. The added spurt of spending will trickle through the economy and make things OK again in theory.
I'm a patrotic guy. So today I'll help you spend your government windfall on high tech gadgets and gizmos.
The easy way out would be to buy a new computer. These days you can get a nice one for $1,200 or an completely adequate one for $600. But, unless your home computer no longer can do what needs doing, I'd advise against it. There are better ways to spend your money.
For instance, it would be smarter to spend part of that money on a black and white laser printer. Ink jet printers consume those expensive cartridges so fast that it's possible to spend an amount equivalent to the cost of the printer in just two or three months of
ink purchases.
Laser printers produce a black and white page at a fraction of the cost. Even with heavy use, cartridges often last months. At the cost of gas these days, eliminating extra trips to the office supply store can add to the savings.
C-net, a site I really trust, lists its top five black and white laser printers at this address: http://reviews.cnet.com/4370-3155_7-146-105.html?tag=lnav. Many of you will recoup the cost of the laser in just a few months. Once you own a laser, you can reserve your ink
jet printer for printing photographs and documents that need to be in color and use the laser for everything else.
You can spend as little as $100 to $200 on a very nice laser printer. That means we have money left. So lets keep shopping.
One of the most satisfactory purchases I've made in the past few years was for a wide-screen LCD monitor. The wide screen lets me put two documents side-by-side on the screen. And the text is easy to read on a large screen. Unlike old CRT monitors, these screens are lighter and - as a bonus - use just a fraction of the electricity.
I've had good luck with screens made by View Sonic, Dell, Sony and HP. Get a screen that's 20-inches or even larger to reap the full benefits. Even in the 21- to 22-inch range, you'll just pay $200 to $300. I promise, switching to a nice screen is like sending your eyeballs on vacation.
You'll notice that even if you followed my advice and purchased a $200 laser printer and a $300 monitor, there's still money left to spend.
So lets be a little crazy and buy something fun. Many of you have HDTV sets now. But not all of you have sound systems to match. Adding a five-speaker sound system makes an enormous difference, especially when watching movies.
Consider a system that uses wireless speakers. In many homes, it's hard to run speaker wires invisibly.
Many systems add a DVD player to the system. If you already own a DVD player, look for a system without one. Here's my thinking on that. The standard for DVD movies is shifting to high definition discs using the Blu-ray format. But I think prices for Blu-ray players will dive over the next year. So you can save money by avoiding that expense.
You'll pay anywhere from $200 to $600 or more for a system that includes speakers, a separate sub-woofer for movie theater-like bass, and a amplifier. Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Denon and Bose all make systems that sound great. Spend some time listening and then decide
how much you'd like to spend.
I'm going to run of space before you run out of money. And there's still so much shopping left to do. So have fun looking at GPS systems for your car, digital cameras, game consoles, fancy cellphones and the like.
And hold your head proud while you spend your money - you're a high tech patriot.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Go ahead, adjust your set
The start of baseball season, for me, is the start of a new year. Things that were once important get less important. Things I didn’t bother with before become big deals.
For most of the year, a decent picture on my HDTV set is good enough. If Paula Deen’s crawfish etoufee looks a little fuzzy, it’s no big deal to me. But now that it’s baseball time, it would be a sin to get less than the best. So today, we’ll tune up your TV and cover some ground we haven’t bothered with before.
Your TV has some basic controls that can make a big difference in picture quality. Adjusting these controls can turn an acceptable picture into a great one.
In the showroom, these controls are often tweaked to make the picture catch the eye. But what catches the eye doesn’t always please it. It’s the same at home, often our picture is adjusted to be too bright and the colors are set so intensely that every the picture almost vibrates.
We can fix that. As my old flight instructor used to say, follow me through at the controls.
Brightness: My guess is that you have this control cranked up too much. Instead of brightness, think of this control as “blackness.” Tune the set to an image that contains pure blacks, or simply pop in your best DVD, find the right image and freeze the picture. Now adjust brightness so blacks are deep and no longer grey. If you go too black, you’ll lose detail in the shadows. So find the best compromise. We’ll come back to this after the other adjustments to tweak the setting.
Contrast: This control ought to be labeled “white level.” That’s what it really adjusts. This time we want to put an image on the screen that has intense whites. A person wearing a white shirt is a good candidate for this one. Set the contrast so the whites don’t turn grey but details aren’t lost. For instance, creases and buttons should be easy to see. If contrast is set too high, the whites will “bloom” and you lose all detail.
Tweak: Go back and readjust brightness a bit, then check contrast again. You may need to go back and forth a few times to balance these settings.
Color: Out of the box, most sets make green grass — the kind you’d find at any great baseball stadium — glow as if it was radioactive. Faces take on a reddish-orange glow. If your set allows you to set color temperature, first select the “warm” option before proceding. Now experiment with the color control until both faces and bright primary colors — like grass — have a natural look.
Hue: Your set may call this tint or hue. Use the image of a face. Play with this control to see how it works. At one end of the scale, faces are green; at the other end they become reddish blue. Try for a setting between the two extremes — no green, no red.
Sharpness: Think of this as the edge control. It adds definition to images by creating artificial outlines. Intuitively it’s hard to be against sharpness. But nature doesn’t outline images. With a good crisp picture on your screen, move the control until there’s no visible outline and things look more as they do in your front yard and less like a cartoon.
Once you’ve gone through these steps, repeat them at least once. This time you will make small adjustments.
When done, you should have a picture that gets the most from your TV. If you’ve become accustomed to a picture that shouts instead of whispers give yourself a few days to get used to the new look.
Those who want to take an extra step can buy a DVD that guides you through the process of adjusting your digital set. Frankly, I don’t think most folks need it. But it’s fine for the purist, or if it gives you more assurance. It also will help you adjust the sound system you use with your TV. It’s called Digital Video Essentials. You should be able to find it at most large consumer electronics stores. If you can’t, Google and you’ll find numerous online merchants that sell it.
Now take a look at what you’ve done. Even the crawfish etoufee looks better.
For most of the year, a decent picture on my HDTV set is good enough. If Paula Deen’s crawfish etoufee looks a little fuzzy, it’s no big deal to me. But now that it’s baseball time, it would be a sin to get less than the best. So today, we’ll tune up your TV and cover some ground we haven’t bothered with before.
Your TV has some basic controls that can make a big difference in picture quality. Adjusting these controls can turn an acceptable picture into a great one.
In the showroom, these controls are often tweaked to make the picture catch the eye. But what catches the eye doesn’t always please it. It’s the same at home, often our picture is adjusted to be too bright and the colors are set so intensely that every the picture almost vibrates.
We can fix that. As my old flight instructor used to say, follow me through at the controls.
Brightness: My guess is that you have this control cranked up too much. Instead of brightness, think of this control as “blackness.” Tune the set to an image that contains pure blacks, or simply pop in your best DVD, find the right image and freeze the picture. Now adjust brightness so blacks are deep and no longer grey. If you go too black, you’ll lose detail in the shadows. So find the best compromise. We’ll come back to this after the other adjustments to tweak the setting.
Contrast: This control ought to be labeled “white level.” That’s what it really adjusts. This time we want to put an image on the screen that has intense whites. A person wearing a white shirt is a good candidate for this one. Set the contrast so the whites don’t turn grey but details aren’t lost. For instance, creases and buttons should be easy to see. If contrast is set too high, the whites will “bloom” and you lose all detail.
Tweak: Go back and readjust brightness a bit, then check contrast again. You may need to go back and forth a few times to balance these settings.
Color: Out of the box, most sets make green grass — the kind you’d find at any great baseball stadium — glow as if it was radioactive. Faces take on a reddish-orange glow. If your set allows you to set color temperature, first select the “warm” option before proceding. Now experiment with the color control until both faces and bright primary colors — like grass — have a natural look.
Hue: Your set may call this tint or hue. Use the image of a face. Play with this control to see how it works. At one end of the scale, faces are green; at the other end they become reddish blue. Try for a setting between the two extremes — no green, no red.
Sharpness: Think of this as the edge control. It adds definition to images by creating artificial outlines. Intuitively it’s hard to be against sharpness. But nature doesn’t outline images. With a good crisp picture on your screen, move the control until there’s no visible outline and things look more as they do in your front yard and less like a cartoon.
Once you’ve gone through these steps, repeat them at least once. This time you will make small adjustments.
When done, you should have a picture that gets the most from your TV. If you’ve become accustomed to a picture that shouts instead of whispers give yourself a few days to get used to the new look.
Those who want to take an extra step can buy a DVD that guides you through the process of adjusting your digital set. Frankly, I don’t think most folks need it. But it’s fine for the purist, or if it gives you more assurance. It also will help you adjust the sound system you use with your TV. It’s called Digital Video Essentials. You should be able to find it at most large consumer electronics stores. If you can’t, Google and you’ll find numerous online merchants that sell it.
Now take a look at what you’ve done. Even the crawfish etoufee looks better.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Take a stand against torture
In my youth there was a form of torture inflicted on both child and adult. Worse yet, it was perfectly legal.
The torture device plugged into an ordinary power outlet. A humming fan kept a high-watt bulb cool so it can be used for hours against innocent people.
Thankfully, slide projectors are now mostly found in closets and basements. You can thank the digital camera.
But even the digital camera can cause pain and embarrassment. These days, perfectly decent humans — perhaps you’re among them — distribute digital photographs by e-mail. We can’t stop that, but maybe we can reduce the pain inflicted by poor photos.
We’ll limit today’s discussion to the point-and-shoot digital cameras most people use. Owners of high-end digital cameras either understand photography or think they do. They are beyond my reach.
Get the advantage
So let’s look at how the common shooter can use the advantages of digital photography while avoiding its disadvantages.
Advantage: You can take as many pictures of a scene as you like without added expense. And you can immediately look at the results. Many folks who grew up in the film generation have a hard time breaking the habit of shooting one or two frames and hoping it comes out well. So it bears repeating: If it’s a shot you want, take it a bunch of times, at different angles or settings. That also allows for the factor known as dumb luck. The more pictures you take, the more likely you’ll catch an especially nice shot.
Disadvantage: The camera’s tiny viewing screen isn’t big enough to show flaws that will be painfully obvious when the photo is shown on a large computer screen. With digital on a computer screen, you’re showing what amounts to a giant enlargement. Tiny flaws become giant problems. So it’s important to learn how to fix photo flaws, and we’ll deal with that next.
Advantage: In the days of film photography, most amateurs relied on the drugstore or photo shop for processing. That usually involved an automated process that produced barely adequate prints. With digital photography, you have the ability to fix mistakes the drugstore wouldn’t have bothered with.
So get comfortable with photo editing software. You’ll be able to adjust for bad exposure or even do minor surgery. What do I mean by surgery? Imagine that a particularly ugly dog wandered into the frame of little Susy’s outdoor wedding reception. Simply clone a patch of grass and — like a great magician — you’ve made a dog disappear. A great all-purpose program: PhotoShop Elements. It can be found at most computer stores or ordered directly at http://www.adobe.com/products/psprelements/.
Advantage: Even inexpensive digital cameras use a computerized exposure technology that’s beyond what was available to most professionals 15 or 20 years ago. Most cameras have settings that let you take pictures in low light, or when most of the pictured area is in strong sunlight but important parts are shaded.
Disadvantage: It’s easy to lean on those automated controls and forget the old-fashioned techniques that film amateurs used to compensate. For instance, when taking a picture of people in the sun, many cameras will think things are just fine. But using the camera’s built-in strobe (flash) will fill in ugly shadows on a face. I promise your subjects will thank you for this one.
This is just a start. You’ll need to experiment with your camera, and I suggest you do so before that big June wedding or July vacation. Then go forth and shoot it up. When you get home you can show your photos without torture.
The torture device plugged into an ordinary power outlet. A humming fan kept a high-watt bulb cool so it can be used for hours against innocent people.
Thankfully, slide projectors are now mostly found in closets and basements. You can thank the digital camera.
But even the digital camera can cause pain and embarrassment. These days, perfectly decent humans — perhaps you’re among them — distribute digital photographs by e-mail. We can’t stop that, but maybe we can reduce the pain inflicted by poor photos.
We’ll limit today’s discussion to the point-and-shoot digital cameras most people use. Owners of high-end digital cameras either understand photography or think they do. They are beyond my reach.
Get the advantage
So let’s look at how the common shooter can use the advantages of digital photography while avoiding its disadvantages.
Advantage: You can take as many pictures of a scene as you like without added expense. And you can immediately look at the results. Many folks who grew up in the film generation have a hard time breaking the habit of shooting one or two frames and hoping it comes out well. So it bears repeating: If it’s a shot you want, take it a bunch of times, at different angles or settings. That also allows for the factor known as dumb luck. The more pictures you take, the more likely you’ll catch an especially nice shot.
Disadvantage: The camera’s tiny viewing screen isn’t big enough to show flaws that will be painfully obvious when the photo is shown on a large computer screen. With digital on a computer screen, you’re showing what amounts to a giant enlargement. Tiny flaws become giant problems. So it’s important to learn how to fix photo flaws, and we’ll deal with that next.
Advantage: In the days of film photography, most amateurs relied on the drugstore or photo shop for processing. That usually involved an automated process that produced barely adequate prints. With digital photography, you have the ability to fix mistakes the drugstore wouldn’t have bothered with.
So get comfortable with photo editing software. You’ll be able to adjust for bad exposure or even do minor surgery. What do I mean by surgery? Imagine that a particularly ugly dog wandered into the frame of little Susy’s outdoor wedding reception. Simply clone a patch of grass and — like a great magician — you’ve made a dog disappear. A great all-purpose program: PhotoShop Elements. It can be found at most computer stores or ordered directly at http://www.adobe.com/products/psprelements/.
Advantage: Even inexpensive digital cameras use a computerized exposure technology that’s beyond what was available to most professionals 15 or 20 years ago. Most cameras have settings that let you take pictures in low light, or when most of the pictured area is in strong sunlight but important parts are shaded.
Disadvantage: It’s easy to lean on those automated controls and forget the old-fashioned techniques that film amateurs used to compensate. For instance, when taking a picture of people in the sun, many cameras will think things are just fine. But using the camera’s built-in strobe (flash) will fill in ugly shadows on a face. I promise your subjects will thank you for this one.
This is just a start. You’ll need to experiment with your camera, and I suggest you do so before that big June wedding or July vacation. Then go forth and shoot it up. When you get home you can show your photos without torture.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Help yourself
I can be fairly helpless at times. I misplace my wallet and car keys, have trouble finding the big yellow mustard container in the refrigerator and had to get my stepdaughter’s help to assemble a radio-controlled airplane I got for Christmas.
So I understand how frustrating it can be to be faced with a problem with an HDTV, computer or other gadget you don’t understand. I try to help with my weekly Q&A column, but I can only take a couple of questions a week.
Today we’ll talk about various ways to ease those high-tech frustrations on your own. Keep in mind that — despite what I tell my buddies — I run into all sorts of tech questions that baffle me. These resources have saved my neck many a time.
Google
Google is like having a tireless research assistant with access to mountains of reference books. It’s a good place to start on almost any question. The trick is to be as exact as you can in your query. Let’s say you have an ATI videocard. You’ve tried to use the software that came with the card to load the driver (the tiny piece of software that communicates between the card and your computer) and failed. Use a search like this:
+driver +“won’t load” +ATI
That tells Google with the + sign that the word must be in the results. If I did the same search without the plus signs, I’d get some pages that contained the word “driver” but that didn’t mention the other terms at all. Next, by putting quote marks around the “won’t load” statement, I’ve told Google that the page must include those words in that order. Using a search engine correctly can make a huge difference in the results you get.
Manufacturers
Often I hear from readers who have spent weeks trying to puzzle out a problem. I’ll ask them if they contacted the manufacturer. Too often, they hadn’t.
Even a tech genius knows less about a gadget than the folks who built it.
If a feature of the gadget, or software, is hard to figure out, they’ve heard about it from customers and often have come up with a better explanation. If something doesn’t work right, they’ve probably heard about it and designed a fix.
Most manufacturers have a Web page that includes a link to answers to support questions that they’ve received. You’ll also find a link to a download section — that’s especially handy when you need to download drivers and other support software. You’ll often find “bug fix” programs that will fix a defect in software.
Web forums
Sometimes called user groups, these are Web pages that are not sponsored by the manufacturer. They draw people who are interested in a specific software program or hardware device.
There are lots of these places. You’ll be able to post a message asking a question of others who are interested in the program or device you own.
The upside? You’ll often hear critical comments that would be off-limits from a manufacturer site. And since these people are enthusiastic enough about the product to gather together to talk about it, there are plenty of experts available.
The downside? I’d guess that at least 70 percent of the posters are coming there to get help, not offer advice. And some of those who offer help will be flat wrong. So if you get a suggested fix, try to check it out with others. If it involves doing anything radical to the device or software — something that could cause more damage — don’t just think twice. Think four or five times.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll help you when I can. But there’s something really satisfying about figuring out a problem for yourself. And, along the way, you learn more about the product, and that prepares you for the inevitable new problems.
So I understand how frustrating it can be to be faced with a problem with an HDTV, computer or other gadget you don’t understand. I try to help with my weekly Q&A column, but I can only take a couple of questions a week.
Today we’ll talk about various ways to ease those high-tech frustrations on your own. Keep in mind that — despite what I tell my buddies — I run into all sorts of tech questions that baffle me. These resources have saved my neck many a time.
Google is like having a tireless research assistant with access to mountains of reference books. It’s a good place to start on almost any question. The trick is to be as exact as you can in your query. Let’s say you have an ATI videocard. You’ve tried to use the software that came with the card to load the driver (the tiny piece of software that communicates between the card and your computer) and failed. Use a search like this:
+driver +“won’t load” +ATI
That tells Google with the + sign that the word must be in the results. If I did the same search without the plus signs, I’d get some pages that contained the word “driver” but that didn’t mention the other terms at all. Next, by putting quote marks around the “won’t load” statement, I’ve told Google that the page must include those words in that order. Using a search engine correctly can make a huge difference in the results you get.
Manufacturers
Often I hear from readers who have spent weeks trying to puzzle out a problem. I’ll ask them if they contacted the manufacturer. Too often, they hadn’t.
Even a tech genius knows less about a gadget than the folks who built it.
If a feature of the gadget, or software, is hard to figure out, they’ve heard about it from customers and often have come up with a better explanation. If something doesn’t work right, they’ve probably heard about it and designed a fix.
Most manufacturers have a Web page that includes a link to answers to support questions that they’ve received. You’ll also find a link to a download section — that’s especially handy when you need to download drivers and other support software. You’ll often find “bug fix” programs that will fix a defect in software.
Web forums
Sometimes called user groups, these are Web pages that are not sponsored by the manufacturer. They draw people who are interested in a specific software program or hardware device.
There are lots of these places. You’ll be able to post a message asking a question of others who are interested in the program or device you own.
The upside? You’ll often hear critical comments that would be off-limits from a manufacturer site. And since these people are enthusiastic enough about the product to gather together to talk about it, there are plenty of experts available.
The downside? I’d guess that at least 70 percent of the posters are coming there to get help, not offer advice. And some of those who offer help will be flat wrong. So if you get a suggested fix, try to check it out with others. If it involves doing anything radical to the device or software — something that could cause more damage — don’t just think twice. Think four or five times.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll help you when I can. But there’s something really satisfying about figuring out a problem for yourself. And, along the way, you learn more about the product, and that prepares you for the inevitable new problems.
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