Jonnyabc

In photography, modeling for a camera is a dangerous profession. The process can be summarized that you will shot, blown up, framed, and if ultimately successful: hung... Some people love to take photos of their experiences and care not about how good the result looks, so long as it helps them capture the moment. Others are pickier; they expect perfection-no blur, perfect lighting and no closed eyelids. But most of us are not that lucky to get picture perfect photos. So how can we improve ourselves? The first and foremost thing you need to do is find the dusty old photography book on the shelf and read it, regardless as to whether or not it is "out-of-date". Most of the technical aspects remain the same, only the method by which we now get it to paper, plus any additional features apply with new cameras. You may also find searching the web is an invaluable way to get some information as well. Undoubtedly you can learn a lot on the web, but even so, it never hurts to make sure that you find a trustworthy site that will give you accurate information. But what really is the best method to taking digital photos like a pro? Here are the requirements: A (decent) camera. It does not have to be digital, although in this day and age, it is the best way to go. And if you still are learning the basics, you should not be using a complex and expensive camera until you at least get the basics down. A steady hand (and/or a tripod). If you cannot hold your camera still, you will not have sharp crisp photos. Something to shoot at. Rapidly taking photos at random for no reason likely won't gain you any fame, but you still may learn from it. With film, or very limited media drive capacity, you need to learn to cut back on how much you take at a given time. There are, of course, advanced techniques to taking picture perfect photos, but the basic concepts are enough to suffice for this article. Let us begin. Focusing. In order for an image to have any quality, it needs to be focused. Moving before a shot is done may result in a misfire, which of course means that you will either have to start over, or you find out when it is too late. Learning to time how long you must hold still before and after snapping that cute puppy or the child's first flip-flop is critical. Every camera's initial and final delay is different, and so is every situation's length time that is necessary for it to capture the image. The another big cause of unfocused shots is due to bad posture; when you hold the camera, use both hands and be sure to keep your arms against your chest whenever possible. Even standing as still as possible can be a challenge, particularly if you are in a dark setting. Lastly, allowing the camera to auto-focus for you may result in it making the calculated decision and focusing on something entirely different than what you had anticipated. Targeting. Some people are natural born photographers, while others are not. Learning to eye what is a great shot is not without its flaws, but you can greatly increase your productivity by learning how to spot the "moments". Still photography, as it is called, is perhaps the easier of the two to do, although this too may depend on who you are. With still photography, you want to find serene scenes, such as (a field of) flowers, a mountain, a city skyline. People and animals may fit in this category if they are not moving very much, such as when they are asleep or sitting/standing for a portrait. If you truly are interested in still photography, you need to get a camera that can handle macro shots. "Macro" means big, and that is precisely the action you want: taking small objects, and blowing them in huge proportions. If you are not one for taking the time to smell the roses, you may want to try your luck at action photography. Whether it is the Super Bowl or race day, a barbecue or a time to swing on the playground bars, you can bet where there are lots of people; everyone is most likely doing some form of an activity. Take, for instance, race day. If you are lucky and can get a clear shot of the cars on a straight part of the track, you can try panning on the car during the shot; this will keep the car in focus, but blur everything else around it. If you are attempting to take pictures in the barbecue, remember that many people are hostile to cameras, so getting a good shot of their faces may become a challenge, but nevertheless a fun experiment to see how persuasive (or deceptive) you really can be. Always keep in mind that people may not wish for their photograph to be taken without their explicit permission. Therefore, it is always best to avoid taking shots of people that would allow someone to recognize them. Once again, do not sell a photo if this is the case without their (written) permission. The same is also true about anything of ownership: works of art (logos, statues, paintings), paid attractions (zoos, theme parks, museums), etc. Doing so may end in a court case where you are sued to kingdom come. Functioning. In order for you to take that just-right picture, there is no replacement for knowing how your camera works. As mentioned earlier, you need to know how much delay time your camera has. However, there are many other functions to a camera that you need to learn. SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras have the best setup available (although digital cameras now come with a display screen, which pretty much gives you that functionality). The difference, is that instead of looking through a separate view finder, you know exactly what the camera is going to snap (useful if you are one for putting your finger(s) in the way of the lens). This article is not meant to explain everything about SLRs, so go find that dusty book on your shelf if you want to know more. The other learning curve is the use of the film type and shutter speed versus aperture ratio. Both of these are significant, although you may do not have a camera to experiment the latter with. Shutter speed is the length of time that the camera will expose the light to film (this is also true for digital as well). The aperture (or also known as F-stop) is the size of the hole that the light is able to penetrate. The larger the hole, the less time the film is needed to be exposed to the light; the smaller the hole, the longer the film is needed to be exposed. When you run into a camera with these settings, you will generally see a dial on the camera for its shutter speed, and a ring on the lens to adjust the aperture (F-stop). Keep in mind that the the numbers on the shutter speed represent fractions of seconds, such as 1/30, 1/60, 1/120, etc. Be forewarned about the aperture: the number may be deceiving at first; the larger the number, the smaller the hole becomes. But this is where the ratio comes in. Suppose you have your aperture set to 4.0 and your shutter speed to 1/30 of a second. If you wanted to take the picture quicker, you will want to shorten the shutter speed, so set it to 1/60 of a second. To compensate, you will need to widen you aperture, which means using a smaller number, so lower the F-stop number from 4.0 to 2.6. Therefore, the conclusion is: if you lower the number on the shutter speed or aperture, you must also do the same on the other to maintain the same lighting effects. The film type (based off of ISO, International Organization for Standardization) that you get also helps determine this; 800 is great for very dark, or very quick shots, while 100 is great for still, or well lit areas. This too is a ratio, except this time it is about quality; the higher the number, the less time is required, but it will look grainier (or pixelated); the lower the number, the more time is required, but will have excellent quality. As you grow and develop in the art, you will undoubtedly learn special techniques (some from a book, some on your own) and use more advanced equipment. NOTE: Always remember that the most important part of a skill is not the equipment itself, but the knowledge behind using it. You can do anything you set your mind to.

The internet dishes out one after another of tools to make your life "simpler". Someone once said that computers will make our lives easier, but how much of that is true, and what is offered? The Philosophical Fight. Each person's brain is wired slightly different. This causes all of us to have various opinions and methodologies. While it is human nature to make our lives better and less work, it is also our tendency to always try something new, "improved" and different. The problem is when we forget that what may work for one person does not work for another, which leads to the other side of the coin where there are so many products, that what I use is a completely different set than yours, so you and I are not compatible (I suppose in more than one way by that definition). I cite Microsoft (actually, make that a citation for internet littering). Consider how many products they use for communication and storage: Hotmail, Spaces, Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft Office Live Workspace, Microsoft Office Groove, Live Mesh, SkyDrive, Windows Live Sync--these are only some of the redundant applications they offer. Even Microsoft's website system is ridiculous: MSN, Live, Bing, Mesh, and many others. If they kept them all together, they might find where all their money is running off to. However, the goal of this is not for me to judge Microsoft, but to make a simple point. Even within a single company, there are many products, and we know that some of them are bought for the product (Groove) or advanced services/features (Hotmail). Therefore, we can also say without much doubt some of the people use all the services all of the time, all of the people use some of the services some of the time, but not all of the people are going to use all of the services all of the time. Now that I have mangled and broken the philosophical point in question, let's get down to some of the techie tools of the trade. I'm curious to see if you'll have read the entire post, as I will know by your comments below how much you were paying attention. Let's talk about email, IM, social communities (media sharing), file sharing (syncing) and remote desktop applications, and other tools of the trade. For the most part, I don't plan to compare one product's features versus another in great detail, but rather to compile a summary of what the internet can do for you, and what is ahead of us in technology. Email. Perhaps the oldest and yet the most popular form of digital communication still to this today. Even people who only know how to do a few minor functions on a computer are now, in this day and age, pretty much able to check their email. The idea is simple, and unless you've lived in a country where you don't receive mail in a physical mailbox, it's all fairly intuitive. Most email systems work the same these days...one pane to select messages, another to read/write messages. Yahoo! has incorporated into their system unlimited email storage, which is great for most people who never delete messages. Gmail, on the other hand, while it does not have free "unlimited" capacities, your storage constantly increases as Google makes room in their servers. Speaking of Gmail, they also have a unique system to indexing emails. Unlike the conventional system when each time you send or receive a message you get an entirely new email in your inbox, Google has become smart enough to compress forwards and replies into a single page. This does take some time to adjust to, but overall it is a cleaner method. Instant Messaging (IM). Also nothing completely new, and is a great alternative to a phone conversation and email. While you are typing over the internet, it appears instantaneously for both users. Ironically, even though technology has evolved and advanced so far that we can now format and stream media across the internet such as webcams, texting is a step back for that end. No doubt smart phones have enabled us to have almost unlimited control, but the general standard is unformatted text with a limit to the number of characters that can be sent in each message. There are so many instant messengers out there, so I refuse to even try and name them all. Instead, I want to concentrate on the clients that bring them all together. From personal use, I recommend Digsby and Meebo. Digsby is a desktop application that will bring the commonly used IMs together (if Digsby does not offer what you need, try Pidgin after installing some add-ons). Digsby also includes email notifiers and updates to your favorite social community sites. Meebo is strictly an online client that allows you to access it from anywhere that has a browser and internet connection. The largest advantage that Meebo generates is its compatibility with almost every IM protocall out there. Social Communities. A relatively new birth in the industry, since Web 2.0. It is common knowledge that Facebook, Twitter and MySpace "rule" the world's communications when it comes to personal networking. Facebook, by far, is the most developed website of the three, although there is much stirring whenever Facebook changes their formatting (hence my point at the beginning of this article). By a general definition, social community sites would be defined as a virtual place where people from all over the world can meet and join in on each others' activities. Most typically include a short status update or blog and may include an instant messenger, email client, games, etc. Some are more or less considered to be for specific content or uses such as blogs (Bloglines / WordPress), videos (YouTube), music/podcasts (Jango / Last.FM / MyPodcast), images (Flickr / Photobucket), alumni (Classmates.com), or dating (eHarmony). Most of the big companies are trying to follow suit, such as Yahoo! (Yahoo! Profiles), Microsoft (Windows Live Spaces), Google (Orkut). Google has just released Google Buzz into Gmail as a media pool. It is doubtful any of these will ever become greatly successful though. File Sharing and Remote Desktop Support. Indeed the largest topic yet. The climaxing need in this day and age is the ability to have anything and everything you need at the flick of a finger on one's phone (iPhone or Blackberry), MP3 player, laptop, desktop or work computer. Today, technology has made great leaps and bounds when appealing to this need. Speed, security, and compatibility are the three primary concerns when it comes to sharing anything. Our society has become less and less patient with slower technology, so that is a must. Privacy can be a huge issue if not addressed properly. Last, and certainly not least, compatibility is vital to various technologies (operating systems / programs). As noted earlier, Microsoft offers several choices to both file synchronization and remote support. Before I delve into these two, there area few points to mention. First, remote desktop can mean one of two ideas: one, accessing the computer from a remote location, and two, allowing someone else from a remote location view (and not interact with) your PC. File sharing can also be split in two ways: one, private synchronization between your personal computers and phone(s) for access anywhere, and two, sharing amongst friends and coworkers. To make it easier to explain, I will divide this section by how "sharable" these free services are. For personal use, Microsoft offers SkyDrive, which benefits users with 25 GB of free storage. Windows Live Mesh is both a great syncing tool between computers (with 5 GB of online storage) and remote desktop for your personal computers. For very secure remote desktop experience, try LogMeIn. Although most of their features are not free, what is free and the ability to operate completely in a browser setting from the remote computer is fantastic. You can implement up to at least four security checkpoints before access to a particular computer is granted. Although SkyDrive does offer a public folder, and LogMeIn allows you to send a link via email to other users, these are not great or secure sharing practices beyond personal use. Microsoft Office Live Workspace also offers a program to "share" your desktop with other users by sending an invitation via an email, but I would only recommend this under last resort if you are demonstrating remotely and you cannot install anything on the remote PC (or iPhone / iPod Touch). If you have the option to run and/or install TeamViewer, this is a fantastic program. TeamViewer almost rivals LogMeIn, except that you are limited to basic remote desktop features in the browser, or you must download and run (or install) the program on the client side. However, its free features far outweigh LogMeIn. In addition to remote support, it offers presentation (non-interaction) mode, and a couple of file sharing tools (FTP and VPN); nevertheless, this is will not sync files. However, to counter that, LogMeIn also offers Hamachi (a VPN service). The other fairly unique advantage that TeamViewer offers is the ability to share the computer with more than one user. All the other users need are the two sets of digits / passwords, and it can be securely accessed. If you have Microsoft Office Groove (and you're friends are "fortunate" to own the program or you have it on multiple computers), I would recommend Microsoft Groove for file sharing. The program acts more like an instant messenger, however. Advantages include sharing as many separate folders as you please, to whom you please, and as large as you please. You change a file at one location, it syncs, and your other PCs or friends' PCs are notified. However, this is only a dream for most, and it does not offer online storage. Similar to the 5 GB of online storage offered by Microsoft Live Mesh, and sharing options and notifications of updates of Microsoft Office Groove, I offer you DropBox. For free, you start off with 2 GB, but as you invite friends this is a nifty file sharing website will add 250 MB for each friend you add (to a total limit of 5 GB). Start by signing up, installing the program and sharing a folder. There's nothing real "fancy" about it, which is great because it is practically seamless. When a friend updates a file, a pop-up will notify you on your desktop, and the website's notification "wall" is very much like Facebook's news feed. Dropbox also offers the chance to undelete files and find previous versions of the original file. Other Tools of the Trade. Never thought I'd stop on that, did you? Well, I promise if you managed to read all of it thus far, you're doing well. As technology advances, we have more and more flexibilities. Web browsing is a must for the internet, and therefore the browser you use is just as important. Talking about sharing desktops and files means that you also want your bookmarks and passwords synced too. First and foremost, use Mozilla Firefox as your default browser. Bookmarks are very important, but it is very difficult to keep them maintained, especially if you often use two or more computers. For this I recommend the Xmarks add-on (formerly Foxmarks). It can be installed for most browsers and, just like DropBox, will allow access to them online as well. Passwords are by far important to remember and keep stored in a secure location. Think storing your passwords in a text file is safe? Not a chance! And when you really need to access a password quickly, will you always have your flash drive on you with a portable program when you need it most? Probably not! However, they are important too. I will forewarn you that it is imperative to keepi your secret phrases in multiple, secure files/locations. This means both on and offline. KeePass is a fantastic program to use offline and I would recommend it to anyone who needs a program that will store anything you want (websites, keypads, security codes, etc.). However, sometimes that's just not enough. Browsers have built-in password managers, but these are lousy, to put it bluntly. I myself have used them, but they aren't very secure (even with a *ahem* SINGLE master password), and you can't easily sync (although I will note that Xmarks does let you do this). LastPass is a great online alternative to KeePass (and no, I do not believe that they are related in any way). LastPass replaces the browser's password manager and stores your keys online, so while you may cringe at the though, don't...it's very encrypted (certainly more than your built-in password manager), and you can access it remotely as well! The only disadvantage I found was that it is not easy to store browser information like you can in KeePass. So there we have it! End of story? Nope! As technology advances, diversity and unity will both continue to increase. I may not be one who would normally punch someone in the nose, but if ever I meet the fellow who said that the computer would make our lives easier (and not different or more complicated)...well, I'll let you fill in the blank.

I am a tumbleweed Play with off-beat casual country/western style on guitar...Not a fast song. Dm.............C --------------------- ...G7........C.........F C ----------------- C...................................C7 Oh how a tumbleweed, ....................F...................Dm Rolls 'round with its seed, .....................C From desert plain to plain, .......................G7 Never ceasing to refrain. .....................C...............C7 What sort of life is this? ..................F...............Dm It seems so full of bliss. .............C And so it is indeed, ...G7.......C........F C A tumbleweed. C............................C7 I am a tumbleweed, .......................F................Dm Never staying long to see, ......................C What one like me can do; ..............G7 I like to rush on through. .............C.........................C7 I roam around the towns, .................F.................Dm To gather only frowns, .............C For I'm without a doubt, ...G7.........C.........F C...........A7 A tumbleweed. D...................................D7 Don't be a tumbleweed, .....................G...........Em They are too hurried, ....................D They rarely, stop to rest, ......................A7 A ghost town is their best. ...................D...................D7 No wisdom will they gain, .........................G................Em Their wants will ne'er attain, ....................D Don't be like this, I plead: ...A7........D.........G...Gm......D... A tumbleweed.

Folks, I feel like you are all under the impression that this is Google Buzz...it is not!

The time has come to Wave in the new future. For some of you guru's out there, you may have already heard rumors of the new Google Wave. Will it be the newest, biggest form of communication, or is it a tangent off the graph? Google Wave ( https://support.google.com/answer/1083134?hl=en ) is a mix between email, instant messenger, forums, and blogging. This is not including the other novelty features, such as live chat, where you can see the letters appear on your screen instead of waiting for the other person to type their paragraph and click Send. Or how about collaboration tools? I'm not even including their real-time translator that near borderlines to Star Trek technology. If you haven't heard of it, watch the entire Google Wave video...I'm sure you'll be amazed as I was. Locate the sign-up link on the home page to request an invitation to their Beta version and invite your friends! If you have heard of it, or you have now followed the steps in the previous paragraph, what do you think? When you see me online next time, don't forget to "Wave me"!

(X)HTML, although I would also love to learn PHP. PHP would be my language if I could only have a chance to learn it (if anyone can clearly explain how to install Apache and PHP on an XP Home PC so that I don?t have to have a server to test my code on, I would be very pleased). PHP is such a dynamically amazing language to learn to use! I?m just venting my irritation that there?s no easy way to learn it! And even though I?m going to college to obtain my Associate?s in Database Management (plan to transfer to a four-year college soon enough), they don?t even teach PHP in any of their courses!

Obviously, PHP (or ASPx) is the best way to go for dynamic server-side web pages. However, if you are only a beginner, it is recommended to learn CSS, then add on to that via JavaScript, and finally something like PHP. Currently, I'm in the second to third stage; if I ever get the opportunity to learn PHP in a realworld environment, I'll start immediately. Also, because you are using scripting programs such as PHP, make sure that you are using XHTML, which is slightly more refined for programming purposes. Sincerely, Jonnyabc

Red eye is a fascinating problem that is hard to fix. Something that sticks in my mind is when my aunt did something about it with her SLR flash; add a small piece of white paper with a piece of tape onto the top (just above the flash) so that it covers the light. This will dissipate the light considerably. And about photo editing...ever tried the GIMP? It's a free alternative to Photoshop; about as many features and very reliable.

Hello everyone. I do not know if this post counts for points or not--or even if I will get any as of yet since it says it take approximately 4-5 hours before the two accounts are linked (at least that is from what I understood here). I'm Jonny (anonymous). I just found this site today, and hope that it comes to be a good result. I was really hoping to setup my own web server at home--it may come eventually, but until then, I need some other system. Besides, this really does not seem to be a bad way to go; post a comment here, post a comment there and soon you will be a millionaire, just by spending time writing in a forum! Not bad, tu shay, and a whole lot of luck with this! I am not one who is meant for a constant amount of writing, but I do have an skill that most people do not utilize--I write in proper English. True, I may make a lot of mistakes, and not be very good with words all of the time, but it is tons better than "i dont no wat u r talkin bout." So ends that discussion. Personally: I am a one of those computer "geeks", I know the lingo-jingo, and all that other greek. It was what I was born to speak. Ok, so I am no fantastic poet, unless you give me the time to sit down to write it better. I am currently a college student obtaining my Associate's in Database Design, but while Web Management is my passion. I love writing XHTML, and if all goes well, I should soon see http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ operational.