*CyberCoyote - February 28, 2008*

NEWS, NOTES and NOTICES

*Next week*
Dave Whittle will be here for the AZacc presentation. He will be demonstrating muvee autoProducer 5, a movie editor. There will be prizes and product for sale at special discounts.
http://www.whats4me.com/picks/Muvee.aspx

*Resizing photos for emailing*
Today, George explained why you need to resize (reduce file size) photos before emailing them, and demonstrated some free, quick-and-easy programs to resize them with. And don't forget Picasa.
http://www.faststone.org/ -- Image Viewer and Photo Resizer
http://tinyurl.com/2meyw -- Image Resizer
http://picasa.google.com/ -- Picasa

TIPS, TOPICS and TWEAKS

*Whoops*
Update on dual-booting Windows: I learned there is more to running Windows XP and Vista on the same machine than I knew about last week (even more geek fun).
http://cybercoyote.org/news/080221.shtml#dual

*Everything Google*
There are so many Google services that it's not always easy to find the ones you use occasionally. Bookmark these two spots and they'll only be a click or two away. If nothing else, you can see what you're missing.
http://tinyurl.com/29k7yz -- "Everything Google" (well, almost)
http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ -- more Google

*Vista SP1 Roundup*
Service Pack 1 for Vista is coming via Windows Update -- almost certainly in March. Most people have had no problems installing it, and that's good. Just what should you expect from SP1? The short answer is "not much." :^) You may notice that Vista is slower the first few times you use it after SP1 is installed, but Vista will quickly retrain itself.
http://tinyurl.com/3ydbpm -- installing SP1
http://tinyurl.com/yu468q -- progress vs promises
http://tinyurl.com/3ymgu3 -- the official answers [PDF]
http://tinyurl.com/3bdfpo -- the definitive answers

WEB PICKS

*Online Storage*
Microsoft just announced their "SkyDrive" online storage, which has a generous 5 GB limit. Use SkyDrive for online backup, access to your files from multiple computers, and to share files with friends. SkyDrive offers both private and public folders. I'm trying SkyDrive and it works well.
http://skydrive.live.com/

*Montage of the eclipse*
Did you miss the total eclipse on the 20th? I went out several times to look, but all I saw was clouds. Bryson went out just when there was a cloud break and saw it fine. This montage of the event is nicely done, and gives you a bit to think about too.
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=pod&id=186

*Worlds in collision*
What if a trillion ton black hole were to hit the earth? Interestingly, the event might not be as exciting as you'd expect. [This article is readable, but could be hazardous to your mental health. ;-) ]
http://tinyurl.com/2zsxlm

SECURITY

*Internet security on the road*
Conducting sensitive business at public venues, including WiFi hotspots and ethernet connections at hotels, is risky business. There is a way to connect securely though. It will cost a few dollars, but you can rent a VPN (virtual private network) that creates an encryption-protected tunnel right through unsecure connections.
http://tinyurl.com/yqupd8

ODDS and ENDS

*Classical Music*
Music created by using sounds from Windows XP and 98.
http://www.flixxy.com/windows-music.htm

*That's all, folks.*