Photoshop has clearly become the industry standard software for graphic design and digital photography. Those of you who are Photoshop savvy will know that plug-ins and filters can extend Photoshop capabilities by providing new functions and effects. For those of you who aren’t, perhaps its time to explore Photoshop’s expandable features.

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Many are still hesitant to upgrade to the new Windows Vista, perhaps the negative buzz and the massive system requirements have made Vista less desirable than Microsoft had hoped. Vista promised to integrate not only a 3D-interface or other exciting technologies but also a new file system, called WinFS, as well as the communication subsystem Indigo. Unfortunately the release of the WinFS File system has been postponed and Indigo is now available for Windows XP, so some may be asking why they would want to upgrade to Vista at all? Well, Microsoft has promised that there will be huge steps toward a secure environment which is virtually impossible to integrate into today’s Windows XP.

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The performance of your WiFi home network is highly dependent on the signal strength of the router or the wireless access point (base station). This signal is greatly affected by distance, obstructions and interference.

There are several ways to boost your range and signal strength. There is a selection of different antenna enhancers available on the consumer market as well as some DIY hacks to create your own expander.

D.I.Y Boosters

You can boost your WiFi signal considerably well using kitchenware or even old cans.

Check out this video on how to create your own wireless enhancer.

1. Download and Print out a template of a parabola
2. Use it to score an outline onto a manila folder with a pen or pencil
3. Apply glue to the side of the folder that is not scored for the reflector (with the slots)
4. Apply aluminum foil with dull side down onto the glue
5. Don’t apply foil to the support part (with the tabs)
6. Turn the manila folder over and cut out the shiny new parabolic
7. reflector
8. Cut out the reflector part (with the slots) and the support part (with the tabs)
9. Bend the reflector - with the foil in back - and insert the tabs of the support part
10. Apply tape to keep two parts together
11. Poke the antenna through hole (about 1/2 way down pole) and pivot the reflector to point in desired direction

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Humans have a limited capacity to remember those insignificant streams of letters and digits often used as passwords; as a result, many people choose or change their passwords so they are easier to remember.

Memorable passwords, however, can easily be hacked when faced with dictionary attacks or logical guesses. Information based on birth dates, family members or place names are an easy target for most hacking software and the time it takes for these programs to ‘guess’ your password decreases considerably if it is simple and unsecured.

A recent meeting of the Computer and Communications Security interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery saw an improved description of a password security system called ‘Draw a Secret’.

This system is based on the fact the humans excel at image recognition and memory, for this reason passwords should be designed to leverage this ability. The Draw a Secret password method incorporates a touch screen and stylus for the user to sign freeform shapes as their password. This can be anything from pictures to graffiti style tags.

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Mac Users

Mac users have it easy as there is a simple user-friendly application called Instant Handbrake which not only rips DVD’s but also converts them into the video format the iPod uses, MPEG 4.

Windows Users

Unfortunately there isn’t an all-in-one application compatible with Windows. The process isn’t that technical but you will need two different applications plus iTunes to be watching your movies on the go. Here’s how:

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Forget trying to pry open your Xbox to solder on a modchip that allows you hack your classic machine. A new software modification lets you replace the Microsoft dashboard with the stunning open source Xbox Media Center Software, transforming your once discarded machine into a user friendly, and very accessible media center.

After the release of the Xbox 360 many classic Xbox’s have unfortunately been left to gather dust. With a powerful processor, a sizable hard drive and an Ethernet port your old Xbox is capable of a lot more than simply connecting to Xbox Live or playing Halo 2. With the new XBMC software installed on you Xbox, you will be able to:

• Access and play videos, music and photo slideshows located in any shared folders on your network.
• Transfer files to and from your Xbox hard drive.
• Rip DVD’s (or any file) to a shared folder for later use: burning, back up etc.
• Watch Apple movie trailers, YouTube videos, Launch.com videos and see RSS newsfeeds loaded from the internet.
• Watch DVDs “dongle” free (no more DVD Playback Kit required!)

First you will need to collect a list of software and hardware that enables the soft mod.

• Xbox Classic
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell must be the original un-copied version, Pandora’s Tomorrow or Chaos Theory versions won’t work
• Action Replay Kit - USB memory card that lets you load and save games, unlock games and store cheats.
• Ethernet Router - A connection to the internet through a standard network router must be established.

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Don’t throw away your dead laptop batteries, check out this video and see if this laptop battery hack works for you. Great way to save money on having to pay for new battery replacements for any notebook pc.

If you try this out, please remember we can’t be held responsible for your actions so please be fair leaving comments if anything goes wrong! It is for information purpose only!

Hackers are getting assistance from a female stripper by the name of Mellisa. She is a digital girl that is helping spammer hack a security measure that has helped slow the spamming community.

To help solve the mystery and security behind Captcha text images, the spammers enlisted the help of Mellisa. By inserting and deciphering the text, users get to see explicit images. Seems like a fair enough trade-off. In the past many viruses have tricked people into opening booby-trapped attachments with the false promise of seeing explicit images, but this was one of the first to actually show people more images if people respond.

This software by Trend Micro and Panda Security that is helping to defeat the anti-spam security check is a Windows game that arrives on machines that are already infected with malicious software. The program comes to life when the Internet Explorer browser is used on infected machines. The Captcha-busting program can run on Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, and Server 2003. You win (getting to see the explicit image) by correctly typing the text shown in an accompanying image. This seems like an easy enough game with great rewards. The creators of the game in turn take the deciphered text that stop spam robots from automatically signing up to create accounts that can be put to illegal use. By getting people to type in the text the spammers can are also able to take over the accounts and use them to send junk mail.

This online anti-spam security measure of using a image of text is known as Captchas or “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. Typically they feature a disfigured word or one overlaid with static that make it difficult for anyone but a human to decipher.

Since its fist arrival, many spammers and hackers have been vigorously working to defeat the system and regaining acess to net-based resources, such as e-mail accounts or blogging tools, they are designed to protect. Although this game seems like a bunch of fun and gaining popularity, it is likely to increase the annoyance of spam and weaken our hold in the War on Spam.

Quickly gaining popularity and taking back the web, Firefox is lighting up the internet with personalize browsing that is safer, faster and more powerful. When Firefox first emerged not many expected much since there were already other browsers, like Netscape, Opera, and Eudora, that had been out for a long time already and were no where near being as popular as Internet Explorer. This has caused Microsoft to start paying attention and listening to the users - but still falling short in keeping users loyal. Microsoft is synonymous with closed-code with only Microsoft add-ons at Microsoft prices.

For those of you who are not familiar with Firefox, prepared to be awaken to the revolution taking place on the web and quickly become converted to a Mozilla Firefox user.

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The release of Google Docs and Spreadsheets, the highly anticipated free office suite application available through the internet by download, threatens to topple Microsoft’s dominant position as the leader in desktop software offering services delivered over the Web supported by advertising and/or subscriptions. So much so that Microsoft set to the drawing board and immediately began developing a rival project.

Tip: Be sure to check out the link at the end of this article for a link to a listing of various free and open source software programs for download that is having the executives at Microsoft shaking in their boots and thinking about ways to counter this!

The aim is to offer a free version of Microsoft Works which will be pre installed in desktops and will display advertisements stored in cache, the advertisements that help support the application will be refreshed when the computer establishes an internet connection.

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The digital age is here and has been for some time now. The computer interface we have come to know has become boring and in my opinion out-dated. It no longer gives a sense of high tech or advanced. It is a 2-D mundane layout that has me missing the days of old when my desk was in a chaotic and cryptic mess that only I understood. Well, programmers feel the same and they are taking this boring interface to the next level!

This is a great idea and a fun interface. Some problems with it however is you do not see the file names that distinguish file types from one another and you are not able to see a thumbnail preview of a picture or document like in new Windows environment. I am sure these bugs can be worked out and the program will be much better once it gets to the serious stage.

If you remember the Photosync Technology and Microsoft Surface environment, this interface is quickly adapting and evolving. I am ready for the change now - hopefully it becomes mainstream soon.

If you spend alot of your time using the internet for work or pleasure, you’ll know computer virus’s and spyware are at constant battle with your anti-virus software, even downloading tool bars or add-ons can be a pain to get rid of if you decide not to keep them. Enter Sandboxie, a great piece of free software that not only protects your systems drive but allows you to completely delete anything you have installed or added to you PC with a click of the mouse.

In computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for safely running programs, hence the name sandboxie, a sandbox provides a tightly-controlled set of resources for guest programs to run in, such as scratchspace on disk and memory. Sandboxie incorporates this technology by creating a sandbox as a temporary drive for all data transferal.

When you run a program on your computer, data flows from the hard disk to the program via read operations. The data is then processed and displayed, and finally flows back from the program to the hard disk via write operations. With Sandboxie running all data is intercepted in the sandbox, data then flows in both directions between the program and the sand box, leaving your permanent drive free from read and write operations.

Sandboxie intercepts all changes to both your files and registry settings, making it virtually impossible for any software to reach outside the sandbox. Even browser items are intercepted, so when you throw away the sandbox, all the history records and other side-effects of your browsing disappear as well.

This great piece of software is free so trying it out should not be a problem, however if you find it makes your Web experience that much safer, you are encouraged to register the program for a small fee.

Time and time again your network administrator advises you to change your password and then further instructs you to use a minimum amount of characters made up of various letters, numbers and symbols. We all know this is annoying and causes a grief to remember a long list of passwords for each account. Well, if you have ever wondered what all this was about, here is an interesting table that shows how long it would take to hackers to crack an account from various hacks and attacks with easily found hacking tools. It may cause you to think again we deciding on a password for very important and private accounts.

Click Here To See How Long it Takes to Hack Passwords