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Riding Shotgun with Adam

Outdoor Photography 101

Outdoor Photography 101:
 

Composition:
Outdoor photography is traditionally considered more of a "fine art" than other types of photography. This means that an outdoor photo is evaluated more like a painting than a snapshot. Here are some rules to keep in mind for composing an outdoor photo:

1. Start with a foreground – While the background may be the draw of the photo, the foreground leads the viewers eye into the photo. The foreground should not be distracting, but it should grab the attention of the viewer.

Free & Pay WiFi Hot Spots in Grand Junction, CO

I thought it might be a good idea to make a complete list of open WiFi hotspots in Grand Junction, CO.

A WiFi Hotspot is a place where anyone can access wireless Internet for free and without setting up an account or through the use of a pay account. I also added a few pay sites as well. I certainly don’t know all the spots in town, so please help me make this list more complete with your additions by leaving a comment below.Read More »Free & Pay WiFi Hot Spots in Grand Junction, CO

Firefox 3.0 is ready for download – go ahead and do it

Firefox 3.0 is now available for full download for the masses.

It is reported to be the fastest version of firefox yet, and possibly one of the fastest browsers period.

We have tested it for a while and it appears to be ready for use. Be careful if you run a lot of extensions, you will want to research and make sure that your extensions are compatible with 3.0.

There are several new features to Firefox 3.0 which we will write about later and talk about on the show.

Warning: Your computer may be infected with viruses, spyware and exortionware

Extortionware? What is extortionware.

I have seen at least 10 computers in the past two weeks that have recently been infected with extortionware – viruses and spyware that infect your system by pretending to be an antivirus or other security program.

With names like Windows Antivirus, WinAntivirus, XP Antivirus 20008, etc. these programs appear to look and feel official. However, they are some of the worst virus or virus-like programs I have ever dealt with.

These viruses often come onto a computer via a pop-up advertisement that says looks like a Windows security or antivirus warning that reads something like, “Your computer is infected with one or more viruses and spyware programs. Click here to run a full scan.”

Defrag, scan disk, and deleting cookies don’t do much

In the computer world, there are hot rodders – people who will tweak their computers to get every last bit of horse power out of their systems.

Just as with automobiles, techniques used by hot rodders were once necessary in the early days when horse power was hard to come by.

Today, most computers come with all the horsepower most people need. Important tasks like defragmenting the hard drive, running scan disk and deleting cookies no longer do anything spectacular to the performance of the average computer.

Cookies are harmless – even the shady ones. Defragging does little on a 250 gig hard drive and scandisk is take care of by utility features in Windows that run every time you boot up or shut down.

Understanding exposure

Theory and Practice of Photography

Aperture:

Aperture is the setting of the iris of the camera lens. Just as your pupils in your eyes expand and contract to let in more or less light, you can do the same with your camera by setting the Aperture.

The Aperture measurement is called F-stop. The higher the F-stop number, the smaller the iris is set in your camera.

The trade-off: Each concept of photography seems to have a trade-off that prevents you from wanting to use it all the time.

I have Wii Fit in hand

I made an early trip to Sam’s Club today and picked up three Wii Fits to resell on eBay. It has been month’s since there has been an item worth scalping on eBay. It will be interesting to see whether or not I can actually make a profit or just break even.

eBay raised their rates by about two percent earlier this year. At the moment the $90 Wii Fit device is selling for around $150 on eBay even though they are fairly easy to find on store shelves. Shelves are supposed to be dry of them by next week.

Nintendo has already said that supply will be limited for a while. So far the reviews are mixed as far as using the device as a full exercise program, but everyone seems to agree that the Fit is well made and works as intended.

Widescreen and the intel 8286g graphics chip – don’t bother

I have faced this problem several times now. I have read every post on the Internet and there are no fixes.

The Intel 85865g integrated graphics chip does not support wide screen resolutions. There is no update to the drivers, there is not working hack and there is no hope.

The only solution is to either buy a standard (square) monitor or a different graphics card. Any graphics card on the shelf will handle widescreen resolutions.

Before you post questions and comments on possible fixes, I repeat, I have tried everything and read everything. There is no fix for this problem.

Perhaps someone will find a testimonial of someone who found a fix or a workaround. I have tried it and it doesn’t work.

Red Fish and Hero Machine – fun for French and American kids!

Poisson rouge means red fish in French. Poissonrouge.com is one of the greatest web sites for kids that I have ever been to. Chances are it will keep about 75 percent of adults entertained for an hour or two as well. The site is simple, visit and click on anything to discover new areas. The site will seem endless as you or your children click through feature after feature. No keyboard skills are required and the site is so well designed that it will hardly seem like you are on a website at all.

Another great web site is Hero Machine. This one may at first seem like it is just for boys, but my 9-year-old daughter has spent her share of hours on it as well.