Month: February 2008

If you’re like me and you’ve recently acquired a new camera, you’re probably playing around with it a lot and still learning about all its different settings. What I really like about digital photography though is the wealth of applications there are to work with your pics.

Mac users are lucky to be blessed with a wide set of Photshop plugins, filters, effects and full fledged applications that range from RAW editors to advanced viewers, printing solutions or uploaders for the web. Whether you’re a pro photographer or just an amateur getting into photography, here is a run down of the best applications you can find on Mac to work with your digital snaps:

• LightZone – A great retouching alternative to Photoshop.
• Capture One – Handle and edit many RAW files at once.
• PicLens – A Safari extension to enjoy your pics in full screen.
• Genuine Fractals – Blowup any picture to a size you couldn’t attain normally.
• Apple Aperture – The ultimate application to work with RAW files.
• Flexify -A Photoshop plugin to create panoramic images.
• Hydra – Easily make your own HDR images.
• Snapshot – Lets you print pictures in different formats.
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom – Manage, adjust and edit lots of photos with this essential toolbox.
• Picasa Web Albums or Flickr Uploadr – Whether you use Picasa or Flickr to showcase your pics on the web, you’ll need to upload them first.

Windows users: check out Nick’s post on top software for professional photographers.

If you’re on the the move a lot, then file security is always a concern. There’s not much you can do to protect your laptop from security breaches other than making sure that you’ve password protected your log-on screen and disguised your most confidential folders as well as possible. However, this is neither very secure or convenient and if you’re like me, you’ll only end up confusing yourself by hiding private folders in your Windows folders. It’s far better and often very simple, to encrypt your hard drive so that it’s only accessible via passkeys or by running a certain program. The good thing too is that there’s several portable solutions that you can carry around on a USB drive which can encrypt your hard drive periodically or on-the-fly. Here’s 5 of the best:

TrueCrypt – Codes and decodes your hard drive and data in real time

Steganos Secure Traveller – Powerful encryption for everything from disks to WiFi connections

PowerKey – Ultra powerful encryption for highly confidential data

HandyCrypto – Uses strong AES encryption for protection on the fly

Cryptic Disk – Also provides tools to partition and then encrypt divided drives

I love the film Jaws, so I was particularly saddened to hear today that its star Roy Scheider has died. I always wished I could go head-to-head with an aquatic killing machine like Roy’s character Martin Brody. Imagine my delight then when I discovered that there are actually a whole bevy of Windows games where you can assume the role of a daredevil shark hunter, taking to the seas to protect people. So, sharpen your harpoon and get a load of these thrilling marine adventures:

• Laser Dolphin – Save the prime minister from evil robotic sharks
• Scrambled Submarine – Guide your sub through the dangerous murky depths
• Feeding Frenzy – Eat your way up the food chain then take on the Shark King
• Crazy Fishing – Hook a big one in this fun-filled angling adventure
• Fish Tales – Steer Sunny the fish through the perilous waters and past sharks

So what really is ActiveX and is it really an endangered species? ActiveX is a technology developed by Microsoft and which you often find in the form of Internet Explorer browser plugins or ActiveX controls. Now the thing is, ActiveX is not renowned for its security and is often named as the cause of vulnerabilities on PCs. What usually happens is that, by accepting any ActiveX plugin on your PC, you can open it up to any attack. According to Johannes Ullrich, CTO of the SANS Internet Storm Center, the real issue with ActiveX is that it gives “full access to your system”.

So in theory, anyone who manages to get you to install their ActiveX control on your PC could control it. It’s a bit more complex than that though, but you can quickly see how much damage could be done to your PC, notwithstanding the private information that could easily be stolen.

Last week, Symantec found six new vulnerabilities having to do with ActiveX controls in Facebook, MySpace and Yahoo among others. Another site, Milw0rm.com, lists over 80 ActiveX vulnerabilities it found in 2007. 80 alone in a year!

If ActiveX is so unsafe, why isn’t it abandoned altogether then? One of the reasons is how practical it is for developers. The great thing with ActiveX components is that you can control an application without actually using it. Any object can be queried via a list of pointers that the developer creates himself. All in all, this means the developer can easily make an ActiveX control designed for a specific function. Built specifically for Windows, ActiveX controls can yield a lot of control over the Windows operating system.

Another good thing about ActiveX components is how easy they are for anyone to install. They literally take seconds to set up and work immediately.

The frequency with which PC vulnerabilities related to ActiveX appear really do bring into question whether or not the technology should still be around. If you worry about your PC’s security one of the best recommendations you can still get nowadays is to disable your ActiveX. Until the technology is officially abandoned, it’s probably the best thing to do.

[Via: InformationWeek]

If you’re bored this weekend and the weather is wet and wild why not sit down and have a blast at a classic video game? Forget going out and buying a game for your console though, because some of the greatest titles new and old are available to download for free on your PC. Some are available as officially-licenced abandonware, while others are out-and-out copies, but I’ve put together a collection of top games that will keep you amused for the whole weekend. In fact, you’ll probably end up calling in sick the whole of next week too.

• Guitar Zero – Yep, you read it right. The same riff-rocking game with a different name
• Halo Zero – 2D version of the mighty Xbox classic
• Grand Theft Audio – Original version of the game that got me into car crime
• Super Mario World – Recreate that beautiful day your got your SNES
• Neo-Sonic Godspeed – Cool new twist on the blue racing hedgehog theme
• Blockfall – Play Tetris as a Firefox plugin
• Zelda Classic – Exact replica of the NES game we could never put down
• Classic Doom 3 – Experience the gameplay of the original with updated graphics
• Half-Life 2: Revolt – Multiplayer version of one of the all-time greats

If there’s one thing PC users know it’s that nothing works forever. Files get corrupted, drivers stop working and programs that have worked perfectly sometimes suddenly stop doing so for no apparent reason. Sometimes there’s no other solution but to reinstall the software but that can be a long drawn out and messy affair.

Depending on which program or application has stopped working, there are repair tools out there that can fix some of those common software problems. If you’re experiencing a problem that seems to be affecting several applications at the same time, Computer Repair Free scans your entire system for possible problems including Spyware and corrupted files. Once completed, it presents the possible reasons for your problems and leaving you to decide whether to repair it or not. You can also try using PC Repair System which gathers together 30 solid repair tools including CCleaner, HDDScan and Filemon. Registry problems are often the number one culprit for program errors and it’s worth running Free Window Registry Repair to see if it’s the stability of your registry that’s the problem.

One of the most common problems for PC owners is the eventual deterioration of Windows Autoplay function. This is the function that automatically kick-starts a CD or DVD as soon as you insert it. Microsoft AutoPlay Repair may be able to solve the problem if it’s software related although if it’s your hardware that’s broken, there isn’t much it can do. Note you can also try AutoPlay Repair if the former doesn’t work.

Finally, Microsoft Office, as one of the most widely used pieces of software, is also one of the most prone to bugs and mysterious failures. Advanced Office Repair is an excellent solution allowing you to recover everything from corrupted Excel worksheets to Outlook data files. It does also repair Word documents – one of the most frequent victims of corruption in my experience – but if it doesn’t work, try the more dedicated Advanced Word Repair.

Battlezone, Space Invaders or Asteroids: you name it, the arcade shooter genre is still one of the best when it comes to gaming. One reason is probably that games that you played 20 years back are still as fun and exciting today on your Mac as they were in the 80s on your Amstrad or in a classic arcade room.

I’ve recently noticed that the Mac is packed with excellent futuristic shoot ’em up titles filled with bursting explosions, arsenals of lasers, missiles and machine guns and gigantic bosses trying to turn you into space dust. If you think you’re up to the task of saving the galaxy, give a go at one of the following excellent titles:

• Neon Tango – Glowing wired graphics and original powerups in 50 exciting levels.
• Alien Abduction – Three game modes and a tactical aspect in this outer space thriller.
• Pangea Arcade – A collection of three classics: Nucleus, Warheads and Firefall.
• SketchFighter – Space battles in sketchbook style.
• Atomic Cannon – A strategic artillery tank duel in 25 different landscapes.
• Arcadrome – Protect Planet Earth from the vile Aliens in 100 gripping levels.
• JETS’N’GUNS GOLD – A side scrolling shooter with 270 different enemies and 16 bosses.
• WingNuts – Play through time, defeating enemies from the 1920s to the future with your battleship.
• Jack of All Trades – Go bounty hunting in space and become rich.
• Galcon – Send swarms of ships to gain control of the galaxy.