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Touching Up Digital Photos

Even if you're not an expert photographer, you can make your digital pictures look better. Plus, Digital Dave, Wally, a look at what's going on inside your Windows computer, and 3D humor.

Magazine Summary

List of ComputorEdge Sponsors

Digital Dave

by Digital Dave

Digital Dave answers your tech questions.

Graph Question about Piriform Defraggler; Viruses and Malware; Vista Died, Can I Salvage My Inbox?

Simple Tips for Improving Digital Photos

by Jack Dunning

These Easy Steps Will Make Your Pictures Better for Posting and Printing

Too many people don't even take the time to remove red-eye from pics before exposing them to the world. Don't be a photo geek! Follow these simple steps.

Windows Tips and Tricks: Windows Resource Monitor

by Jack Dunning

Resource Monitor Uncovers CPU, Memory, Disks and Networks Activity

First introduced in Windows Vista and greatly improved in Windows 7 and Windows 8, Resource Monitor is a troubleshooting tool for viewing hardware activity for the CPU, memory, disks, and networks.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

by Wally Wang

Blaming Apple

Blaming Apple; Following the Developers; Developing Characters; Urban Outfitters Trading Cash Registers for iPads; Try, Try Again; The iPad Mini Rumor; OS/2 All Over Again; Customize the Finder Window.

Beyond Personal Computing

by Marilyn K. Martin

The Many Mysteries of 3D

Marilyn shares 3D anecdotes, as well as some innovative 3D products.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

by ComputorEdge Staff

Computer and Internet tips, plus comments on the articles and columns.

"Digital Cameras for the Neophyte," "Photo Orientation is Wrong," "Slow Connection Time," "Videos Won't Play from Internet," "Disabling AutoHotkeys?"

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Digital Dave

“Digital Dave answers your tech questions.”
by Digital Dave

Graph Question about Piriform Defraggler; Viruses and Malware; Vista Died, Can I Salvage My Inbox?

Graph Question about Piriform Defraggler

Dear Digital Dave,

I use Windows 7, 32-bit and Piriform's Defraggler (Windows defrag is shut off). The Piriform Defraggler pie chart shows status of both "used" and "unused" portion of my hard drive. The "used" portion continues to climb (now almost 1/2 of the pie chart) while the "unused" portion continues to get smaller. Does this continue until there is no more "unused" and then start over or does something else happen? I haven't found anything in their Help that gives any explanation of the pie chart and what it means.

Thanks,

Pat

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Dear Pat,

It sounds like that pie chart is very similar to the pie chart found when you right-click on the Local Disk (C:) drive in Windows Explorer and select Properties from the menu (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Local Disk (C:) Properties window.

The used space is in blue and the free space is violet or magenta (depending upon your monitor). This is merely a calculation of how much of your hard drive is currently occupied and how much is available for use.

One reason the used portion of the drive grows is that every time you use the computer, temporary files are created by various programs. For example, when you browse the Web, temporary copies of the pages and images are saved in a cache to load them faster when you return. Plus, even when you delete files, they are merely sent to the Recycle Bin rather than actually deleted. You must "Empty the Recycle Bin" to actually remove the deleted files from the hard drive. That doesn't count the files that you add to your hard drive when downloading programs, copying photos from your camera, adding music, or receiving e-mail (including Spam). It would be very unusual for the used space on a hard drive not to grow.

As to what happens when there is no more "unused," you just run out of space. There are warnings built into Windows for when a drive is getting close to running out of room. The only reasonable solution is to remove files from the drive. (In the old days we used to compress drives to free up space, but this can actually cause more problems than it solves. I once lost everything when a friend tried to defragment a compress drives. With the size of today's hard drives, the need to compress drives has become moot.)

In Figure 1, note the button Disk Cleanup. If you click that button a program will be launched which will analyze the drive to determine which files can be removed, then allow you to select what you would like removed. Piriform also has a free download, CCleaner, which does an excellent job of analyzing and removing unneeded files.

Eventually, you may be forced to move some of your photos, music, or other documents to another drive or medium to prevent your drive from becoming too full. The hard drive is used for many activities that are not strictly storage related such as memory caching. If the drive gets too full, many system functions can become severely hampered, causing system slow downs and possible crashes. A good solution is to buy an external hard drive to add to your system. Then you can move the space consuming videos, music and photos to that drive, thereby freeing up space on your main drive for programs and system activity.

Digital Dave

Viruses and Malware

Dear Digital Dave,

I recently started up my computer and after leaving Windows Live Mail (e-mail), I clicked on Firefox. Up popped a new search screen.

I have no recollection of allowing the installation of mywebsearch.com and promptly tried to reset the search screen to the front page of a newspaper I frequently read. I was greeted with a partially grayed out message that stated in so many words that it just wasn't so easy.

I have since gotten rid of it, but am wondering about what it left behind in my computer. As I read about the security breaches and sophisticated software to insert hidden code I wonder what is the likelihood keystrokes are being counted or confidential data is being stolen when I'm using my computer? Now that I've gotten back to my usual screen, what should I do to clean these obnoxious intrusions.

Dave Stang

San Diego, CA

Dear Digital Dave,

That annoying add-on, MyWebSearch.com, is from a company called Mindspark who specializes in toolbars and other browser extensions that sell advertising and, yes, collect data—although it is only data from your Web travels, not your computer. It is adware designed to direct targeted advertising at you.

The way they infect your browser is by adding the toolbars/search screens when you download another product from a location such as IWON, Vimeo, Life123 , Girlsense, Kazulah, Excite, Vicinio, or Zwinky. It's a pretty sleazy way to do business, but apparently there is no nefarious intent other than to present you with advertising.

It can be difficult to completely remove all of the pieces of the software. The first step is to use "Add and Remove Programs" to uninstall "My Web Search" plus anything else you see which starts with "My." Then you will want to remove the folders. The last step is to delete the associated Registry entries.

There are a number sites which detail the appropriate removal instructions.

Digital Dave

Vista Died, Can I Salvage My Inbox?

Dear Digital Dave,

My HP Laptop recently refused to boot. Windows Vista on board. After investigation, declared the computer "dead" and bought a Toshiba with Windows 7 on board. The HP hard drive was removed and I was able to salvage the files on that drive. Actually, I converted the HD to an external drive and am using it.

My Problem: the Windows e-mail application had extensive Inbox content that I want to move into the Windows 7 system, where I am using Thunderbird. My contact list was moved over under program control into Thunderbird, but I don't know what to look for to find my inbox content. What can I do? What do I look for and where? Can I solve this problem?

John Duffield

Elizabeth, Colorado

Dear John,

Starting with Windows Mail, each e-mail is saved as an individual EML file. This has relieved many of the problems associated with keeping all the e-mail in one database (database corruption). You should find all the saved e-mail files at C: => Users => (Your account) => AppData => Local => Microsoft => Windows Mail => Local Folders on the saved drive.

Thunderbird uses mbox files. The best way to import the messages is with the ImportExportTools Thunderbird extension. Although, if you only have a few messages, you should be able to drag and drop the EML files into Thunderbird.

For more complete information see "Importing and exporting your mail" at the MozillaZine site.

Digital Dave

Simple Tips for Improving Digital Photos

“These Easy Step Will Make Your Pictures Better for Posting and Printing”
by Jack Dunning

Too many people don't even take the time to remove red-eye from pics before exposing them to the world. Don't be a photo geek! Follow these simple steps.

As I indicated two weeks ago in the article "A Casual Photographer Takes a Look at Digital Cameras" there are a few simple tricks that anyone can take to improve your digital photos. These tips will not get you to the level of professional photography, but they will make your images worth posting on the Web or printing for an album. It takes less than a minute to touch up each photo, although, if you are processing over 100 pictures, you will be sitting at your computer for a little while.

Remove Red Eye

In low light photo situations, it is often necessary to use an electronic flash. However, when a flash is used (especially with point-and-click or smartphone cameras) the light may reflect off the inside of the eye causing the red-eye effect. Eerily the people in the photos glare back with red eyes. It's common to see Facebook posting loaded with people who have red-eye.

Fortunately, this ailment is readily treatable. Virtually all image editing programs have a tool for removing red-eye. In most cases the technique involves dragging a little square around the red spot in the eye and releasing (see Figure 1). (If you zoom in on the image, it's easier to target the red-eye.)

Figure 1. With the Fix Red Eye feature of Windows Photo Gallery in Vista a box is dragged around the offending red-eye.

The red changes to a more innocuous color (See Figure 2). Using this technique alone makes a huge improvement in your Facebook postings.

Figure 2. After using the Fix Red Eye feature of Windows Photo Gallery in Vista the eye looks much closer to normal.

There are a number of ways to avoid red-eye while taking the pictures, but it's much harder to do with the less expensive cameras which have a built-in flash. Most of the techniques involve providing extra lighting or making sure that the flash is not aimed into the eye at the same angle as the camera. In other words, you must offset the lighting of flash from the camera angle to avoid direct reflection from the eye.

Adjust Exposure (Brightness and Contrast)

One of the great features of digital photos is that you can alter the light exposure after the photo is captured. While it is preferable to get it right when you take the picture, that may not always be an option—especially if it was a particularly unique shot. That's where exposure adjustments come in. Again these settings can be found in almost all image editing programs.

There are two primary functions in exposure setting, brightness and contrast. Brightness is for adding more light to the situation and contrast can add richness to your photos by bringing out the darker colors. I adjust these on almost every photo I take—if only to see if it helps. Often, I leave the settings in about the same place, but just a small change can make a real difference.

Figure 3 is a great candidate for adjusting exposure. The picture was taken in a low-light situation without a flash. It's important to note that you can only work with the image you shot. There is a limit on how much you can improve an image. If the lighting in the room or the exposure settings on the camera had been better for Figure 4, there would have been much more detail to work with. Maybe a flash should have been used, but there is no undoing what's already done.

Figure 3. An example of a photo captured in a low-light situation without a flash. This is a strong candidate for the Adjust Exposure features.

Note: As you can see in Figure 3, there is an Auto Adjust feature at the top of the right-hand column. My experience with most of these auto adjust features is that they rarely make a photo better. Usually when I try this type of automatic feature, I either can't tell the difference or it makes the picture worse. You are better off making your changes by eye, rather than depending upon the software to do it for you. I also turn off any auto adjust features offered by the photo printing sites. You don't know what they will do until you get the prints back.

It may not take much adjustment to improve the picture (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. While the photo may never be as good as one taken with the proper lighting conditions, a low-light exposure can be improved enough to warrant putting it in an album.

When adjusting either brightness or contrast, you will note that the more you increase either option, the more detail you lose from washing out the lighter colors. You are looking for a balance where you have a lighter (brightness), richer (contrast) photo without losing too much detail. You want the optimum settings. In this situation, you're trusting your eyes to tell you when you have it right. You can jump back and forth between the options, but don't save it until you know it's what you want.

Enhance Colors

The last adjustment I use is enhancing the color. The primary color feature that helps is saturation, which makes colors more vivid. With many point-and-shoot cameras in automatic mode, the colors captured are not quite as bright as the actual scene colors. (How true the colors appear in a digital image is heavily depended upon camera quality and light gathering power—size of lens.) Adding a bit of saturation helps to bring out those original colors. In Figure 5, the colors do not appear as bright as they did in person.

Figure 5. This photo could use a little color enhancement by increasing saturation.

After increasing color saturation, the tones appear more natural, especially when comparing the little girl's hair (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. The color enhancement (saturation) brings out the highlights in her hair and brightens her dinosaurs.

The color adjustment may seem subtle, but it makes a difference in the final picture.

I rarely make adjustments to color temperature (warmer red or cooler blue) or tint (adding or removing green). I've found that the camera generally captures an optimum mix of colors and changing these settings usually only make things worse.

All of these adjustments (red-eye removal, exposure settings, and color settings) are found in most image editing programs. Also, many of them are found at some of the online photo Web sites. I suspect that there are even more powerful features in programs, such as Photoshop, for improving your photos even more. But if you're using a point-and-click or smartphone camera, Photoshop could be overkill. You might be better off with the less expensive Adobe Photoshop Elements. There are plenty of free image editing programs—notably the one that came with your computer (Windows Photo Galley, iPhoto for the Mac) or free downloads (Irfanview, GIMP). The techniques offered here are quick and dirty ways to improve your photos without spending too much time. The more you do it, the faster you will get.

The last thing I do to improve my photos is crop them.

Cropping for Enlarging Images and Removing Unwanted Background

When printing digital photos I usually upload them to Costco (when holding a nine cent per photo coupon). It gives me another excuse to go to Costco, plus it's a pretty good deal. Cropping the images to the proper dimensions must happen before completing the online order. Cropping is another opportunity to improve photos by removing unwanted background or people while enlarging the key focus of the picture.

Note: I always upload maximum resolution images to the photo printing Web site. That gives me more options to enlarge even small cropped sections of the original photo. If the resolution is too low, the enlarged printed photo will lose quality.

In the process of cropping photos for printing, I choose the orientation and area of the photo I want printed (see Figure 7). The final print will be the image enclosed in the yellow crop box.

Figure 7. Extraneous background is removed while enlarging the final printed image by changing the orientation and isolating the desired image with the crop feature.

These are my steps for improving digital photos. I learned them through trial and error. I recommend that you do the same when you experiment with touching up your pics. If you're afraid that you may destroy an original, make copies to work on. (Many image editors automatically save changes, although you can usually revert to the original—at least until you move on to the next photo.) Remember, always remove red-eye. Increase brightness to add light and increase contrast to add richness. Use color saturation to bring out vivid colors. Then, crop the images to enlarge prints and/or remove unwanted background/people.

Jack is the publisher of ComputorEdge Magazine. He's been with the magazine since first issue on May 16, 1983. Back then, it was called The Byte Buyer. His Web site is www.computoredge.com. He can be reached at ceeditor@computoredge.com. Jack is now in the process of updating and compiling his hundreds of articles and columns into e-books. Currently available:

Currently only at Amazon.com, Jack's Favorite Free Windows Programs: What They Are, What They Do, and How to Get Started!.

Just released and available from Amazon, Misunderstanding Windows 8: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Windows 8! Also available at Barnes and Noble and ComputorEdge E-Books.

Available exclusively from Amazon, Windows 7 Secrets Four-in-One E-Book Bundle,

Getting Started with Windows 7: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Using Windows 7,

Sticking with Windows XP—or Not? Why You Should or Why You Should Not Upgrade to Windows 7,

and That Does Not Compute!, brilliantly drawn cartoons by Jim Whiting for really stupid gags by Jack about computers and the people who use them.

Windows Tips and Tricks: Windows Resource Monitor

“Resource Monitor Uncovers CPU, Memory, Disks and Networks Activity”
by Jack Dunning

First introduced in Windows Vista and greatly improved in Windows 7 and Windows 8, Resource Monitor is a troubleshooting tool for viewing hardware activity for the CPU, memory, disks, and networks.

Joe Piluso made the following comment about last week's column on Task Manager:

Thanks for the article on Task Manager. While I appreciate the explanations of what it provides and how to view various categories of information, how do we actually use this information? Your article described all the parts of the dog, without telling us how to make it hunt. It's called "Task Manager," but how do we actually use it to "manage tasks," or do anything? I know we can turn applications, processes and services on and off, but is that it?

I get your point, Joe. Hopefully, you won't use Task Manager very much. It is more a diagnostic tool than a daily working feature. Task Manager is there for those times when you need it to determine what's slowing down your computer or you want a closer look at an unresponsive program—possibly to close it down. I only occasionally open Task Manager to see what's currently running. As Microsoft moves more features into Task Manager (for example, in Windows 8 Startup moved from System Configuration into Task Manager), there are more reasons to use it. However, if your computer is running well, you may never need to bother with Task Manager.

The same thing can be said for Resource Monitor. Where Task Manager is oriented toward software processes, Resource Monitor is all about hardware activity—specifically of the CPU, memory, disk drives and networks.

Windows Resource Monitor

From Windows Help: "Windows Resource Monitor is a powerful tool for understanding how your system resources are used by processes and services. In addition to monitoring resource usage in real-time, Resource Monitor can help you analyze unresponsive processes, identify which applications are using files, and control processes and services."

While Task Manager gives an inside look at software processes including those running in the background and loading upon startup (Services and for Windows 8 Startup), we can dig a little deeper into hardware activity with Resource Monitor. First introduced in Windows Vista, Resource Monitor answers some of those questions that eat at us, such as, "Why don't I get four gigs of memory in my four gig 32-bit computer?" (Windows XP has a feature called Performance which is opened with Run "perfmon.exe", the same program name used for Resource Monitor in the other versions of Windows, but it is severely limited by comparison. See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Performance window in Windows XP was the forerunner to the current Resource Monitor.

To open the Resource Monitor in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, click the "Resource Monitor..." button in the Performance tab of Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC), or Run "prefmon.exe /res" (without quotes). In Windows Vista, Resource Monitor displays graphs of the current activity of the CPU, Disk, Network, and Memory at the top of the window with more detailed information available in the associated category below (see Figure 2). Note that the information in the CPU section is similar to the Processes found in Task Manager.

Figure 2. In Windows Vista, Resource Monitor displays the current activity of the CPU, Disk, Network, and Memory at the top of the window.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 Resource Monitor

With the transition to Windows 7 the graphs are moved to the right and there is expanded information available. There is now a tab for each category: CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network (see Figure 3). (Resource Monitor in Windows 7 and Windows 8 appears to be identical.)

The CPU Tab in Windows 7 and Windows 8 Resource Monitor

By moving to a tabular format, Resource Monitor now offers much more real-time information. The CPU tab is more that merely a list of active processes (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. In Windows 7 and Windows 8 Resource Monitor includes a tab for each major category which allows the display of much more information. The CPU tab is shown selected.

In the CPU tab there are now Services, Associated Handlers, and Associated Modules. The Services listing is similar to what is found in the Windows Services window (Administrative Tools => Services), although much more cryptic. The stopping and restarting of the service is available with a right-click. Only actively running services are listed as opposed to all available services. Associated Handles and Associated Modules can be seen by checking the box on the left of a Process. The use of these last two options is beyond the scope of this column—mostly because my work has not taken me to these depths.

The Memory Tab in Windows 7 and Windows 8 Resource Monitor

While the Overview tab (not pictured) shows activity graphs of the four main areas (CPU, Disk, Network, and Memory), each successive tab displays alternate graphs specific to the tab. When selecting the Memory tab Resource Monitor displays a bar graph showing memory usage (see Figure 4). Processes shown are those now in memory.

Figure 4. In Windows 7 and Windows 8, Resource Monitor with the Memory tab selected.

Figure 4 was taken from a Windows 7 32-bit system. Note the Hardware Reserved section on the left end of the bar graph. This demonstrates why a 32-bit Windows system has less memory available than is actually installed. Going back to the days of MS-DOS, the first part of memory was always reserved for hardware purposes such as memory on a video card. This makes the set-aside unusable for other memory operations. This problem has been resolved in 64-bit Windows where all memory is available for use.

The Disk Tab in Windows 7 and Windows 8 Resource Monitor

When looking at the Disk tab in Resource Monitor, all Disk Activity is displayed (see Figure 5). There is so much going on that it can be overwhelming. However, specific processes (programs) can be isolated by checking one or more of them in any of the tabs. (Processes with Disk Activity only displays processes with actual disk activity, which includes pagefiles, temporary files, program utilities, and other disk reading or writing operations.) Checking a process filters Disk Activity to only display events related to the selected processes. If you want to investigate a process for disk activity, check it in the CPU (or other) tab then switch back to the Disk tab. If nothing appears in the Disk Activity section, then there is no current activity. An orange bar will pop up just below the Disk Activity bar when there are process filters in place (pictured in Figure 6 for Network activity).

Figure 5. In Windows 7 and Windows 8 Resource Monitor with the Disk tab selected.

The Storage section of Resource Monitor should display all attached logical drives along with the available space and total space. Note that drive D: (used for backup) is down to 5MB of available space. It is time to delete some old backups.

The Network Tab in Windows 7 and Windows 8 Resource Monitor

If you're trying to resolve network issues or want to determine if an unwanted process is using the Internet, the Network tab of Resource Monitor can give you some insight (see Figure 6). There is a list of Processes with Network Activity. Many of these process names are cryptic, so it may not be clear what they do. One of the easiest ways to find their function is to Google them.

For example, I didn't recognize "wlcomm.exe" as one of my programs. A search determined that it was the communications program necessary for accessing Microsoft Windows Live.

Figure 6. In Windows 7 and Windows 8 Resource Monitor with the Network tab selected.

To get more specific network information about "wlcomm.exe", check the box to the left of it in Processes. The remaining sections are filtered by the selected process. The information available for "wlcomm.exe" (Network Activity, TCP Connections, Listening Ports) includes addresses, protocol, ports and other details which can aid in diagnostics.

Introducing the new Resource Monitor in Windows 7 (and continuing with Windows 8), Microsoft enhanced the user's ability to monitor and troubleshoot hardware activity. It is now possible to track a running program through the CPU activity, memory use, disk reading and writing, plus network or Internet access.

Jack is the publisher of ComputorEdge Magazine. He's been with the magazine since first issue on May 16, 1983. Back then, it was called The Byte Buyer. His Web site is www.computoredge.com. He can be reached at ceeditor@computoredge.com. Jack is now in the process of updating and compiling his hundreds of articles and columns into e-books. Currently available:

Currently only at Amazon.com, Jack's Favorite Free Windows Programs: What They Are, What They Do, and How to Get Started!.

Just released and available from Amazon, Misunderstanding Windows 8: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Windows 8! Also available at Barnes and Noble and ComputorEdge E-Books.

Available exclusively from Amazon, Windows 7 Secrets Four-in-One E-Book Bundle,

Getting Started with Windows 7: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Using Windows 7,

Sticking with Windows XP—or Not? Why You Should or Why You Should Not Upgrade to Windows 7,

and That Does Not Compute!, brilliantly drawn cartoons by Jim Whiting for really stupid gags by Jack about computers and the people who use them.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

“Blaming Apple”
by Wally Wang

Blaming Apple; Following the Developers; Developing Characters; Urban Outfitters Trading Cash Registers for iPads; Try, Try Again; The iPad Mini Rumor; OS/2 All Over Again; Customize the Finder Window.

For years, Android users trumpeted the fact that Android had turn-by-turn directions long before Apple added it to the iPhone. Now it turns out that the reason the iPhone didn't have turn-by-turn directions any sooner was because Google's Maps app wouldn't support it. So people are blaming Apple for something out of their control that their rival, Google, deliberately held back.

Since it was unlikely that Google would ever add turn-by-turn directions to their iPhone app, Apple really had no choice but to dump Google's Maps and create one of their own. By relying on another company to provide crucial information, Apple would have remained a hostage while getting all of the blame. When the culprit turns out to be a fierce competitor to the iPhone, it's easy to see that Google could have dragged their feet on adding any new features to the iPhone version of Google Maps and just kept promoting the new features in Android's Google Maps to give themselves a competitive advantage.

Apple's Maps isn't as polished as Google's Maps, but it's better to cut ties with Google now since they'll have to do it eventually anyway. Blaming Apple for the iPhone 5's maps problems is partially correct because they released their Maps app without proper testing and partially because Apple made the mistake of trusting and relying on Google in the first place.

For those unhappy with Apple's Maps app, just visit the App Store and you can find and download many free alternatives, such as Mapquest.You might like these alternatives or you might find they actually look and work even worse than Apple's Maps, but you'll never know until you give them a try. Just don't blame Apple for any flaws you find in rival mapping apps.

Figure 1. The App Store offers plenty of mapping alternatives.

Apple got the blame years ago when they first blocked Flash from running on iOS. At that time, everyone who didn't bother to take the time to learn the facts surrounding Flash immediately criticized Apple for not offering the full Web experience. Only after Adobe finally gave up trying to shoehorn Flash on to mobile devices because the technical problems were impossible to solve, did people finally understand the reason why Apple wouldn't let Flash run on iOS.

Besides not working reliably (a huge problem that Flash supporters never admitted), early versions of mobile Flash also failed to recognize touch gestures. Putting Flash on the first iPhones would have resulted in people seeing Flash-based Web sites but not being able to touch the menus to control anything. Under those circumstances, people would have immediately blamed Apple even though the entire fault lay solely with Adobe's Flash.

Likewise, Apple's mapping fiasco has its roots directly on another company. Apple has a contract with Google to provide mapping information, but what if Google simply refused to sign another contract for mapping information once the original contract expired? Then Apple would have been left with no mapping solution at all, which would have put the iPhone at a serious disadvantage compared to Google's own Android-based phones.

When you take the time to learn the facts behind any situation, you can better understand what might really be going on. Or you can make snap decisions to support your own bias, spout out unsubstantiated myths to show your hatred of Apple for no reason, and demonstrate to the world that the thinking process of the average human can often be lower than the intelligence of the average house cat.

Following the Developers

For years, Microsoft got it right when they courted developers. The idea was that with more people creating programs for Windows, the more attractive Windows would be to others, which would help sell more Windows PCs. By following the developers, you can see where the money and future is going to be.

InfoWorld now reports that many developers are flocking to iOS to create apps for the iPhone (attracting 85 percent of developers) and the iPad (attracting 83 percent of developers).

Second to interest in iOS was Android with 76 percent of developers interested in Android smartphone apps and 66 percent of developers interested in Android tablet apps. Michael King, Appcelerator's head of developer relations, says that Android fragmentation (which Android users consistently deny) "has forced developers to focus on the iPad as the leading tablet platform and on the iPhone first for smartphone apps."

Developer interest in Windows 8 smartphones and tablets was only 50 percent. King said, "It's obvious that Microsoft has a lot of work to do to convince developers that Windows 8 will be a successful platform."

In the meantime, interest in Blackberry smartphone apps dropped to 9 percent of developers and 8 percent for Blackberry tablet apps. To help developers, Research in Motion is even guaranteeing developers will make at least $10,000 as long as they have a minimum of $1,000 sales. If you don't make at least $10,000, Research in Motion will make up the difference.

Judging by developer interest, it's clear that no matter what happens with Android and Windows 8, iOS will remain popular because that's where the money is. There may be money in Android apps, but given the ease that Android apps can be pirated and booby-trapped with malware, developers are seeing much fewer sales through Android. Windows 8 is still an unknown market, so developers are taking a wait-and-see approach.

To get a preview of Windows 8 tablets, browse through this photo gallery of different tablet designs coming this fall. While browsing through these different tablet designs, you can reminisce about the times when people adamantly claimed that tablets (specifically the iPad) were useless and netbooks were far superior. Then you can ask yourself why nobody's promoting netbooks any more and why everyone suddenly realizes that tablets can be useful after all.

If developers see profit in the iOS market, then you can bet they'll keep developing for iOS and increase the appeal of iOS just like developers used to do to increase the appeal of Windows. That doesn't mean that developers can't make money creating apps for Android or Windows 8, but that they can clearly see that iOS is where the money is right now and in the future.

Anyone want to bet their future on iOS or Blackberry 10? Uncertainty doesn't just kill much of the appeal of Blackberry 10 but also taints Android as well, especially with this list from CNN that describes all the Microsoft and Apple patents that Android allegedly infringes upon. With Blackberry 10 struggling and Android under attack for possible patent infringement, iOS is a sure bet and Windows 8 just might have a chance to steal market share against Android after all.

Developing Characters

If you write fiction (or "news" that's based on fiction), you might be interested in Mariner Software's new $49.95 Persona software. The basic idea behind this program is to help you develop the characters in your story by starting with common character archetypes.

Archetypes are similar to stereotypes such as the playboy character (think of Tony Stark in Iron Man), the evil genius (think of any villain in a James Bond movie), or the femme fatale (think of the villain in Fatal Attraction). To help you visualize the varieties of archetypes, Persona displays a color coded chart that can help trigger ideas.

Figure 2. Persona lets you visualize the different archetypes.

Choose a specific archetype and the program provides a detailed explanation of how that particular archetype thinks and behaves. Knowing this, you can create variations to fit your particular story.

Figure 3. Persona describes each archetype in detail.

When it's time to create your characters, you can pick an archetype and then fill in additional details to flesh out your character. By starting with an archetype and adding details for your story, Persona helps you create fully fleshed out characters. While Persona won't help you plot your story or write your novel or screenplay, it can give you a head start by developing your characters so they seem real rather than simple two-dimensional cardboard figures.

Figure 4. Persona can help you define the characters in your story.

Persona only runs on the Macintosh and comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. Download a trial version along with its user guide and see if Persona helps you create better characters. At the very least, you can use Persona to identify all the people in your life so you can see which archetype they fit into. Now you can either understand them better or just make fun of them behind their backs.

Urban Outfitters Trading Cash Registers for iPads

Many businesses rely on Windows PCs simply because everyone else seems to rely on Windows PCs. While corporate bring-your-own-device policies have allowed many workers to use Macintosh computers instead of a Windows PCs, many retail stores relied on Windows PCs to run their cash registers.

That may soon change with the iPad encroaching on this territory by replacing Windows PCs as cash registers. Urban Outfitters recently announced that they're be using iPod touches and iPads instead of cash registers from now on.

Figure 5. Urban Outfitters plans to replace cash registers with iPads.

Not only can iPads save space, but they can be swiveled towards the customer to verify information while costing 1/5th the cost of a cash register. With iPads taking over the cash register market, it's hard to believe that a little over three years ago, critics were claiming that the iPad had no purpose. Yet today, companies such as Urban Outfitters have found that the iPad can save money replacing dedicated cash registers.

The next time you go shopping, you might find yourself paying through an iPad. For those who absolutely refuse to touch anything made by Apple, your choices for avoiding the iPad and Apple products keep getting less and less every day.

Try, Try Again

Every time Apple comes out with a hit product, rivals try to copy that product and often fall flat on their face. Rather than innovate and develop their own unique solutions to problems, they keep chasing after Apple while their legion of supporters urge them on by claiming that everything Apple creates is useless but anything rivals copy from Apple is magically useful and productive.

The first casualty of this copycat thinking has been tablets. Before Apple could announce the iPad, Hewlett-Packard along with Steve Ballmer (Microsoft's CEO) proudly demonstrated the HP Slate PC, which essentially crammed Windows 7 on a tablet and called that innovation.

When the Slate PC flopped against the iPad, Hewlett-Packard spent $1.2 billion to acquire Palm Computing and their webOS operating system. For a brief moment, Hewlett-Packard offered their HP TouchPad running webOS. Then that flopped against the iPad as well.

Now Hewlett-Packard is trying once more with their new Windows 8 tablet dubbed the ElitePad 900, which is geared towards businesses. After announcing this product, Hewlett-Packard also announced that it won't be available until January when they'll also reveal the final price. Can the ElitePad 900 succeed against the iPad when the Slate PC and the TouchPad failed before? Wait for Hewlett-Packard to reveal the price and then see if companies find a reason to buy ElitePad 900 tablets.

The other product that rivals copy is the MacBook Air. Intel heavily promoted the ultrabook category of thin, light laptops, yet sales of ultrabooks have failed to match early expectations. Research firm IHS cites high pricing and poor marketing for the shortfall, but at least nobody's blaming slow ultrabook sales on the floods in Taiwan that created a hard disk shortage and were supposedly to blame for declining PC sales.

Rather than copy Apple, why don't companies just offer a dramatically better product instead? Apple took Microsoft's original Tablet PC idea and turned it into the smaller, lighter, and more capable iPad. Apple took the typical laptop design, slimmed it down, and came out with the MacBook Air. Why don't other companies work on innovation like Palm Computing did when their PalmPilot personal digital assistant took the basic design of Apple's Newton handheld computer and made it better?

Most likely innovation won't come from an entrenched dinosaur company like Hewlett-Packard, but from a startup like Palm Computing. If you want to find the next company that will topple Apple, look for a small company right now that nobody has ever heard about. If you want to see which companies are going to shrink in the coming shift to mobile computing, just look at all the companies that made their fortune on regular PCs and can't adapt fast enough to survive in the mobile computing era.

The iPad Mini Rumor

According to rumors, Apple will release a 7-inch iPad on October 17. Supposedly the price will be $249 to help grab the 7-inch tablet market and further position the iPad as the tablet standard.

If Apple reveals a 7-inch tablet, you can expect interest in Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus tablets to dip. After all, why bother buying a rival 7-inch tablet when you can get an iPad mini for a little more and run all the thousands of iPad apps available?

If the iPad mini arrives, expect sales of rival 7-inch tablets to drop. If Apple can dominate the high-end tablet market and the smaller 7-inch tablet market while also selling the redesigned iPod touch, rivals will have little room to sell their own copycat products. Just look at all the companies that tried to sell MP3 players against the iPod. The iPad could dominate the tablet market like the iPod dominated the music player market, and that will just leave the crumbs for other tablet manufacturers to fight over.

OS/2 All Over Again

When IBM and Microsoft introduced OS/2, they decided that OS/2 should be able to run Windows programs to increase its appeal and make up for the fact that native OS/2 programs might not be available right away. On the surface, this strategy appears to make sense, but it also backfired on OS/2.

The problem was that developers figured they could tap into both the Windows market and the OS/2 market if they just wrote Windows programs. With more people relying on Windows programs, few people thought about using OS/2 even though at that time, OS/2 was considered the better operating system.

When Research in Motion introduced their Playbook tablet, they got the bright idea of letting it run Android apps. That way Playbook users could have plenty of Android and Playbook apps to run. Of course, developers quickly figured out that if they just developed Android apps, they could sell them to the handful of Playbook tablet users out there rather than take time developing native Playbook apps.

Now AMD is promising the ability for Windows 8 tablets to run Android apps. This will solve the short-term problem that Windows 8 tablets won't have enough tablet apps available compared to iOS and Android, but it also risks causing developers to forget about creating native Windows 8 apps and just create Android apps instead.

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then there's a good chance that the technology industry hasn't learned their lesson yet and will keep making the same mistakes every time.

If a Windows 8 tablet can run Android apps, why not just get an Android tablet instead that will likely be much cheaper, smaller, and lighter? If you're a developer, you could risk wasting time learning to create Windows 8 apps, or just focus on creating Android apps to sell to the Android, Windows 8, and Playbook markets.

The reason the iPad app market took off was because it was relatively easy to convert an iPhone app into an iPad app and the iPad could already run almost every iPhone app available. Windows 8 can run Windows Phone 7 apps, but the number of Windows Phone 7 apps still pales compared to the number of iOS or Android apps.

Watch how well Windows 8 tablets sell during the holiday season. Then look to see how many businesses adopt Windows 8 tablets to perform critical work like running a cash register. Nobody knows for sure how Windows 8 will fare in the market, so wait and see. You may be surprised at what happens to Windows 8 and Microsoft in general.

*                    *                    *

In case you don't like the typical way the Finder window looks, take a moment to customize it. Just open any folder and right-click on a file inside that folder. When a pop-up menu appears, choose "Show View Options." Now a little window pops up letting you choose options for how that particular folder will appear in the Finder window.

Figure 6. Configuring the Finder window.

In the early days, before Wally became an Internationally renowned comedian, computer book writer, and generally cool guy, Wally Wang used to hang around The Byte Buyer dangling participles with Jack Dunning and go to the gym to pump iron with Dan Gookin.

Wally is responsible for the following books:

My New Mac, Lion Edition

My New iPad 2

Steal This Computer Book

Microsoft Office 2010 For Dummies

Beginning Programming for Dummies

Beginning Programming All-in-One Reference for Dummies

Breaking Into Acting for Dummies with Larry Garrison

Strategic Entrepreneurism with Jon and Gerald Fisher

How to Live with a Cat (When You Really Don't Want To)

The Secrets of the Wall Street Stock Traders

Mac Programming For Absolute Beginners

99% Fairy Tales (Children's Stories the 1% Tell About the Rest of Us)

The Zen of Effortless Selling with Moe Abdou

The 15-Minute Movie Method

In his spare time, Wally likes blogging about movies and writing screenplays at his site "The 15 Minute Movie Method." Wally can be reached at wally@computoredge.com.

Beyond Personal Computing

“The Many Mysteries of 3D”
by Marilyn K. Martin

Marilyn shares 3D anecdotes, as well as some innovative 3D products.

3D stands for three-dimensional. For those of us non-scientists, Carl Sagan explained that in FlatLand (which has only two dimensions, going right/left and up/down) if you can stand up, you now have a third-dimension. (OK, I went to public schools long before STEM programs, so give me a break here.) Although much of what is called 3D today is more along the lines of optical illusion, the term adds a dash of mystery and miraculous expectation for us consumers.

3D actually started out as Stereoscopy, a term created by the Ancient Greeks that translates as "dizzy-eyeballs." After cameras had been invented, the term came to mean views of the same thing photographed from slightly different angles. When shown through a binocular viewer, the combined scene had an illusion of depth, and seemed much more life-like.

3D movies had a rocky start around 1900. A movie inventor in 1922, Laurens Hammond (who later went on to invent the famous organ. The one you play on. Oh never mind...) tried a bizarre system with two interlocking projectors, which flashed alternate left/right frames on the screen in rapid succession. There were also synchronized viewers attached to the arm-rests of the theater seats. For some unfathomable reason, the flashy-frames never caught on, and eventually the red/green dual-strip anaglyph form of 3D movies caught on.

When computers came in, 3D graphics quickly found an audience as a way to mathematically display complex data in a more visually understandable, free-floating format. CGI (Computer Generated Imagery for movie special effects) has moved computerized 3D back into the realm of entertainment. And now 3D printing, or additive printing, can recreate computerized objects or drawings into solid objects one layer at a time.

3D Printer Joke

Q: How many 3D printer operators does it take to change a light bulb?

A: A whole team, since they first need to redesign the light bulb, then the light bulb socket. Then they have to design a prototype light bulb changing tool, and run it all through an analytics software program. Then they have to form a start-up, do a video, and go looking for investor money.

Converting 2D to 3D

How about turning a favorite 2D photo into 3D? An online company called LifeMaskPhoto offers to do just that, calling their process "3D images without glasses." They add a little back/forth motion to a clear 2D photo, to mimic a 3D effect. Start3d.com and hypr3D.com have similar processes.

Axara offers a 2D-to-3D converter for ordinary video, for purposes including "DVD ripping." (Is this similar to bodice-ripping romance novels? Only with "DVD Destruction!" 3D animation shorts?) Similar products are offered by aiseesoft.com and movavi.com.

Did You Hear the One about the 3D Printers Who Walked into a Bar...

A RepRap, an Ultimaker and a Makerbot walk into a bar. The RepRap says, "I'll print the shot glasses, but hold on since I need to get level." The Ultimaker says "I'll sit at the end of the bar and look really sexy." Then they both convince the Makerbot to talk nice to the bartender to give them free drinks and a power socket.

3D in the Military

From 3D high-resolution, ground penetrating Radar, to a DARPA designed UPSD (Urban Phototonic Sandtable Display) for 3D holographic battle planning, the U.S. military has embraced 3D. Another DARPA project is called HALOE (High Altitude LIDAR Operations Experiment), which collects high-resolution 3D map data faster than traditional methods.

One-liners for 3D Artists

It's so cold today, my "texture" has good-bumps!

If you don't shut-up, your head will be my next "morph-target!"

I'm hiding today since I forgot my makeup, and I look terrible without "post-work!"

I know she's lying about her age. Just look at her facial "bump map!"

Why are you following me? You're not "parented" to me!

What a cute kid. Is this "low poly mesh" yours?

Ricky Gervais' Joke while Hosting the Golden Globes

"It was a big year for 3D movies: Toy Story, Despicable Me, Tron. It seemed like everything this year was three-dimensional, except for the acting."

3D Audio (Binaural)

Binaural recordings take surround-sound a step further. Played back through superior headphones, different sounds seem to come at you from above, below, behind, close or far away. Vimeo has even released a video game, Papa Sangre, which only uses binaural sound—no video. It is billed as a first-person audio thriller, and is naturally a big hit with the blind.

April Fools with 3D

In 2009, TechCrunch suggested Google Chrome come out with a 3D version. "Since 81% of households have red/blue 3D glasses lying around."

3D Gift Ideas

So you want to impress family and friends with a cutting edge 3D gift this holiday season? Maybe a Laser Pegs 3D Lite Board would do the trick. It comes with 115 Laser Pegs to play five board games, and three light settings (including flash and strobe). Only $81 from Amazon.

Or how about a 2D photo immortalized in a 3D laser-etched crystal, for your more sentimental family and friends? For younger, more raucous giftees, Nintendo seems in the lead with 3DS game systems and video games. They even insist that all their DS games can be played on their new 3DS systems through something called backwards compatibility. (Has a Time Travelish sound to it: "Niles left his girlfriend in the last century, but they have an excellent backwards compatibility." It would also be a spiffy motto for anti-aging makeup.)

3D in the Near Future

Microsoft filed a patent application in September 2012 for a new XBox immersive display experience, which sounds like someone finally got around to figuring out how to make a holodeck like on Star Trek. Their system will project a peripheral image around a room, "providing a 360-degree view of a virtual scene." It involves a separate projector from the console TV, integrated with a depth-sensing system, to extend the gaming environment all around the room. The idea is to add more realism to the gaming experience, like spinning around to catch an enemy sneaking up from behind.

A company called Planar has developed a Clarity Matrix 3D Video Wall. Being advertised now for professional 3D applications. probably due to cost and complexity, it may become a must-have feature in homes of the future. (Remember the wall beside the breakfast table at the beginning of the original Total Recall? It could switch from newscasts to a soothing live environmental scene at the touch of a button.)

Possibly Someday...

3D glasses that can see through clothes—on-screen, and in person.

3D glasses that can see through fur, so you can tell if your dog has fleas, ticks or your toddler's missing suckers.

3D Printing will require a license and a clean criminal record, with special permits to create androids, weapons and existential food items.

University studies into 3D High Energy will require students to sign iron-clad Non-Disclosure Agreements, to never mention the creation of black holes or cloned people—however briefly.

(Special thanks to forums.reprap.org and posetteforever.com.)

Marilyn is a freelance writer and humorist, with a special interest (besides computers and technology) in Science Fiction. A SF Horror story appeared in July 2011 in Deadman's Tome. And in January 2012 she had a SF Police Procedural appearing in Cosmic Crime magazine, and a SF Dystopian Romance appearing in the Strange Valentines anthology. She also has almost seventy articles on Helium.com, and is writing a humorous Young Adult SF series, Chronicles of Mathias. Volumes One and Two have received a "Gold Star for Excellence" from TeensReadToo.com, and are available from most on-line bookstores.

ComputorEdge E-Books has converted many of Marilyn's computer humor columns into four e-books.

* Computer Confusion in Paradise: Lo! And in the Beginning There Was Total Befuddlement!, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* Computer Hardware: "Parts Is Parts", in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* Computerholics Anonymous: PC Users, Abusers and Confusioners, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* My Computer, My Nemesis: Bravely into the Smiley-Face Virtual Void!, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* All four e-books can be found at our E-Book Store.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

“Computer and Internet tips, plus comments on the articles and columns.”
by ComputorEdge Staff

"Digital Cameras for the Neophyte," "Photo Orientation is Wrong," "Slow Connection Time," "Videos Won't Play from Internet," "Disabling AutoHotkeys?"

Digital Cameras for the Neophyte

[Regarding Jack Dunning's September 21 article, "Digital Cameras for the Neophyte Photographer":]

Nice Article. It did not mentioned Bridge cameras, which are really more affordable than a single reflex camera, but much better that a point and shoot.

Thanks,

-Carlos Casana, Santee

I left the bridge cameras out because as a casual photographer I didn't know about them. Apparently the primary difference between them (and why they are less expensive) and the SLR cameras is that the view finder does not look directly through the lens. Bridge cameras still have all the complicated settings and sophisticated lenses.

-Jack

Photo Orientation is Wrong

[Regarding the September 7 Digital Dave column:]

Dear Digital Dave,

A few columns ago Howard commented; "When importing iPhone 4S photos to my PC (Windows 7), the orientation is wrong for many of the images." What works for me is once the pictures are downloaded to a folder I open Windows Explorer, browse to the picture folder, click on the view menu item and select thumbnails. I then select the picture thumbnails needing a change in orientation, then I right-click and select rotate clockwise or counter clockwise. This works well.

-Don Rader, Poway, CA

Slow Connection Time

[Regarding the September 14 Digital Dave column:]

Dear Dave:

My thanks to you for your excellent response to my conundrum. I queried Panda IS to inquire whether their service might be the culprit. They denied the same and connected me with Guruaid.com. I accepted a one-time repair service. Paid by credit card. I spent 1.5 hrs with the tech who met my needs, i.e. installed Firefox as a second browser along with IS 8. I observed as he removed scores of "dead files." From whence did they come?

How did so many park themselves on my HD? My security settings may be set too high. I will lower these. The result at last is a reasonably fast connection time, at least with Firefox. IE 8 remains slow. One tech advised that IE 8 is more secure when transacting money online (exchanged mutual fund via IE 8, in reliance on this counsel).

Again my profound thanks,

-Joe Mcguire, San Diego, CA

Videos Won't Play from Internet

[Regarding the September 7 Editors Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers column:]

There have been several letters and suggestions about videos not playing from the Internet; i.e. the video looks like it's about to work, but all you ever get is a black screen. I had this problem and tore my hair out for a year plus trying to figure it out. I tried IE and Firefox, changed security settings temporarily, changed Flash settings, uninstalled browser plug-ins, etc.; all to no avail. I eventually suspected that the problem had something to do with Flash; but changing Flash settings, upgrading, uninstall/reinstall of Flash did not help. What eventually worked for me is a suggestion I found by Googling:

1. Run %appdata%\Adobe;

2. Delete the Flash Player folder

3. Run %appdata%\Macromedia;

4. Delete the Flash Player folder.

I'm not sure why this worked or what the root cause of the problem was; but I suspect that there were file compatibility issues after upgrades, or installing a new app, or something. Uninstalling/reinstalling Flash should have solved the problem; but Adobe uninstall apparently doesn't do a good job of removing everything. BTW, in desperation I had run uninstall, then spent a long time searching for, and manually deleting anything titled "Adobe"—including in the Registry. But I only searched for "Adobe," and not "Macromedia," so my suspicion is that something about Macromedia was the problem.

-Dan Jacobs, San Diego, CA

Disabling AutoHotkeys?

[Regarding the September 14 Windows Tips and Tricks: Disabling Annoying Windows Hotkeys:]

Hello,

I constantly hit the wrong buttons on my keyboard and "poof" all my typing is erased. I assume this is because I unintentionally hit some "hot key" on the keyboard. Is there a way I can disable all hot keys so the keyboard acts like, just a regular keyboard?

Thank you!

Check out the link above! —Editor

-Jerry Hughes, San Diego, CA

ComputorEdge always wants to hear from you, our readers. If you have specific comments about one of our articles, please click the "Tell us what you think about this article!" link at the top or bottom of the specific article/column at ComputorEdge.com. Your comments will be attached to the column and may appear at a later time in the "Editor's Letters" section.If you want to submit a short "ComputorQuick Review", or yell at us, please e-mail us at ceeditor@computoredge.com. If you would like to review our recent e-books, please visit ComputorEdge E-Books.

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