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DPReview.com posts Canon S5 IS Review

The Canon S* IS series is my favorite line of high zoom digital cameras. Canon just came out with the S5 IS – an 8 megapixel version of the 12x, image stabilized camera that has become a best seller.

DPReview.com is the best site for in depth reviews of the most popular cameras to hit the market, they just posted their review of the S5 IS. If you are an S1, S2, or S3 IS user, you will want to check it out and see if it’s worth the upgrade.

Ubuntu – Day 3

One knock that I read about Ubuntu is the poor wireless support for laptops/wireless Internet. I took this laptop (a Compaq Presario 2100) on a short family vacation in June and had no problems connecting to wireless networks all along the way. I will say that the procedure wasn’t as smooth as the wireless utility built into Windows XP (which I also like better than Vista’s utility). It did work, however.

Ubuntu – Day 2

I’m still smarting from not having my great spam filter on my PC, but I’m giving the spam filter in Evolution a chance to work. It turns out that in order to get the spam filter working properly in Ubuntu’s Evolution, you have to do the following:

Mozilla Firefox Revisited

By Rick Castellini 2002. Revised by Adam Cochran 2007

Earlier this summer, my co-host, Adam, decided to do an 'on air' review of a product. The product he chose is Mozilla Firefox, an alternative web browser. Being on the radio and downloading, installing and reviewing software was a new experience for us, but the impression was instant and impressive for both of us.

Mozilla loads most web pages much faster than Internet Explorer and makes a dial-up connection seem snappier. Because Mozilla does not use any code from Internet Explorer, it is inherently less likely to be plagued by the various security holes that Internet Explorer fights against on a daily basis. The software is free and I've put together a list of features and tips that I like about this great little browser:

Photoshop Elements 5

Adobe Photoshop Elements is the standard photo editing software for consumers and many professionals. The latest edition offers many new features, but are those features worth upgrading from previous versions of the program?

First, there is no upgrade version but since the program can easily be found online for under $70, it won't hurt too bad if you do want to upgrade.

Photoshop Elements has been a solid program since its introduction. Previous consumer photo editing programs only allowed you to make alterations in steps, any fine tuning was out of the question. Elements changed all of that by offering so many professional level tools that many professionals made the switch.

Banking online

My family has been Internet banking since early 2000. We moved to an Internet only bank (no physical banks anywhere that we can walk in to) because we were ready to start paying bills online and get our account information online. At the time, our large overhead bank, Wells Fargo, actually charged customers $9.95 per month to have the privilege of online banking. After some research, we settled on an Internet only bank with no physical banks, just a web site, great customer service, high interest rates, and free online banking. Their site has changed only slightly over the years and we have never regretted the decision.

Bocaza Nachos – a fair and balanced VIDEO review

Every Saturday between the first and second hour of the show we grab an order of barbacoa nachos to go from Bocaza. Bocaza is a Mexican grill. We have tried the nachos to go from almost everywhere else in town, but Bocaza is the best for sloppy spicy nachos.

The nachos are made up in several layers beginning with the bottom layer…

1. Jack Cheese

2. Frijoles Negros (beans that are black)

3. Spicy, slow simmered, shredded barbacoa (beef)

4. Inferno (Habanero, Jalapeno) salsa

5. Queso (Nacho cheese sauce)

6. Guac and sour cream

They put it all in a to-go carton with the chips on the side.

Email Preview Button in Outlook Express – Video Tip

This tip evaded me for many years, but now you can benefit from its use. The tip works in any versions of Windows including Windows Vista's Windows Mail.

When asked how to delete a message without opening it in Microsoft Outlook Express, I traditionally answered by directing the computer user to the View menu (See Tip #156). This works, but if you want to turn the Preview back on you have to go through the same number of steps.

Why would you want to delete emails without opening them? A couple of reasons include not wanting to open an email that advertises how to enlarge certain private parts or see an ad of Jolene's sorority web site and you may not want to open a potentially dangerous email that might have a virus.

Barbaro’s leg x-rays and something related to computers

Today I ran across Barbaro's leg x-rays while reading the news.

Here's one of the images released by Barbaro's doctors. Is it any wonder that the poor horse was still in pain after surgery?barbaroxray

On a more computer related note. I have received three great items for review that I discovered at CES. I will be posting those reviews shortly.

The items are a Huey monitor calibrator, ProShow Gold slideshow software and an Emerson Karaoke microphone (It was a surprise).

 

Adam beat me to the punch

I knew I should have written my article yesterday! Actually, it was fun to read Adam's post today about Vista. We were obviously studying the big box store prices on the "new" Vista machines using the same calculator. Since he did a great job explaining the pricing, I just want to echo his final statements; DO NOT buy a Vista machine with less than 1 GB of RAM and you really should consider 2 GB of RAM (or more) for better Vista performance.

Lastly, I wanted to share this great quote from a CNET newsletter I received today: "That $200 Windows XP service pack called Vista" . WOW! Pun intended.