Finding High Quality Wallpapers For Your Desktop Computer

§ September 3rd, 2010 § Filed under Using Technology § No Comments

If you have ever wanted to ditch your computers plain looking background, there are plenty of options available online for you to download wallpapers. Wallpapers are images of just about anything imaginable that can be used as the background on your computer screen. While wallpapers are a lot of fun and can add some personality to your desktop computer, they are often cheap looking and potentially dangerous. In this article, well give you simple tips for finding high quality wallpapers for your desktop computer.

You are probably wondering how simple wallpapers could possibly be dangerous. Well, the fact is that many sites offer free wallpapers, but do not have the proper tools to fight against computer viruses. When people download these wallpapers to their desktop computer, they can have their whole system compromised by these nasty worms. So, how can you find high quality wallpapers for your desktop computer that wont cause you trouble? Lets take a closer look.

The first thing you should do to safeguard both yourself and your computer is install pop-up blockers and spam blockers. In addition, you should also install a reputable virus scan program (such as McAfee) that can alert you to any potential dangers before they infect your computer. The next thing to do is to only download wallpapers from sites that you know and trust. While the internet is a fun place to be, it is filled with a lot of garbage web sites that exist only to wreak havoc on peoples computer systems. If you are unfamiliar with a site, or immediately become bombarded with pop-up ads after visiting, it is best to try another wallpaper service.

Another tip in finding high quality wallpapers for your desktop computer is to download directly from your favorite fan sites. For example, say you are a huge sports fan or you absolutely love a TV show. By going to the official web site of your team or program, you will have a variety of wallpaper choices to select from. This is an advantage over other sites for many reasons. First, you are able to download exactly the image you want without searching all over the internet. Second, the wallpapers provided on these sites will be much better quality than those offered on free sites.

One last way to find high quality wallpapers is to pay for them. While this may sound outrageous to pay for something you can get for free (water anyone?), there are advantages to paying for a desktop wallpaper. Pay wallpapers are the absolute best quality in both picture and selection. Another benefit to paying for wallpaper is that the site will probably have virus protection, meaning that you can download with confidence.

As you can see, finding high quality wallpapers for your desktop computer doesnt have to be a hassle. Just be sure to use common sense and trusted providers, and you will be able to download many exciting wallpapers for your computer!

How to repair the E18 error on Canon digital cameras

§ September 2nd, 2010 § Filed under Digital Cameras § No Comments

How to repair the E18 error on Canon digital cameras

There seems to be a relatively large population of Canon owners who are affected by the E18 error. In this article I will teach you a few simple methods you can try to repair the error yourself.

This article is intended for people whose cameras are out of warranty. If your camera is still under warranty, go to your nearest Canon repair shop and let them fix it. If its not, you can either choose to pay around 150$ for the repair or try one of these simple techniques.

First I should explain what exactly an E18 is. According to Canons web site, it is an error that involves the lens unit or lens cover. The lens gets stuck in the extended position, and refuses to move either to focus the lens or to retract when powered off. It can happen if you apply pressure to the area surrounding the lens while it is in the recording mode (this includes dropping the camera), or if sand or dirt get into the lens area. The lens gets stuck, you get a black screen with a small “E18″ sign in the lower-left corner, the camera beeps a few times and turns off.

Lately, I noticed a number of people online who are having troubles with this error. It happened to my Power Shot A520 as well a couple of weeks ago, but fortunately, the camera was still under warranty so Canon fixed it free of charge. In order to help the unlucky ones whose cameras are out of warranty, I decided to write this article.

Basically, there are a couple of simple things you can try. I cant guarantee they will work for you, but I know these methods have helped some people get rid of their E18 problems:

1) One method is to tap the padded USB cover part on a hard surface, for example, a desk. I know it sounds to simple to work, but this can get some of the dirt out of the lens.

2) Try compressed air. With a fine tip blow off gun and dry compressed air set the tip between the lens turret and the camera body and turn on the air while moving the tip around the lens. It should remove all of the dust and sand. Turn the camera on and it should function fine.

3) Another solution is to try and push the lens back into place. This is the least preferable method. Try it only if the camera is out of warranty and DONT apply too much pressure! If the lens can be set back into place with a light push, great! If not, dont force it!

4) If nothing else works, there are a couple of online guides in different languages for dismantling the camera and cleaning the lens thoroughly. Try this only if your camera is out of warranty! Some of them are:

- http://www.ixus-world.de/tips/repair_guide/e18_01en.htm – a guide in English
- http://menthol.hit.bg/E18.html – a guide in Bulgarian
- http://www.artecdesign.ee/~jan/Kaamerad/PowerShotA70/index.html – Estonian guide

The last two are not in English, but they have a lot of pictures which should help with the whole process.

So youve learned how you can try and rescue your camera. Try out the methods for yourself, and contact me with good news.

If you want more information about the E18 error, or would like to read other peoples experiences with it, stop by my site at http://www.e18error.com. Feel free to drop me an email.

Download free ipod music-the legal way

§ September 1st, 2010 § Filed under Free Downloads § No Comments

A lot of people know where they can download free Ipod music, but the problem is that it is not legal. The world governments are becoming ever more efficient with tracing illegal downloads, so to avoid potentially serious consequences you will need to find out how to download free ipod music-the legal way!

Download Free Ipod Legal Music-Tip 1-
Use a download site that is genuine. Don’t use a P2P site which is full of popups etc, Use a reliable site that gives you unlimited downloads at high speed. It is not easy to find a genuine site like this, so if you do come across one, make sure you stick with it! Later on in this article I will give you some help with finding reputable sites..

Download Free Ipod Legal Music Tip 2-
Never get sucked in by hype. Whenever a site seems too good to be true, you can be sure that it is too good to be true. You will find a lot of P2P sites which claim to offer a lot of free downloads, but when you actually go to download something, the site will be very slow, and the chances are the download won’t be what you wanted. P2P sites are used by a lot of computer hackers who try and spread viruses. What they do is upload any file, put the spyware or virus in it, and pretend that it is something in high demand, so that people download it. On top of this, some of them will still ask you to pay for a download, despite claiming that they were supposed to be free!

Download Free Ipod Legal Music Tip 3-
Never do anything illegal. It is getting easier all the time for law enforcement officers to trace exactly what people are downloading. Everybody likes to receive stuff for free, but you have to consider what is worth risking, just to get the last episode of the OC?

The good news is that we are starting to see sites appear which give you a fast, safe way to download a lot of films and videos, directly to your computer, so that you can transfer them to your Ipod.

The only small downside is that you will probably need to pay a small administration fee to access a site like this. It is only a small downside, as I think $20 to $50 is a reasonable amount to pay for unlimited downloads for the rest of your life. They need to charge this as it goes toward the upkeep of their servers, and this allows them to offer this range of high speed downloads in the first place.

I mentioned that I have done some research for you, and I’ve sourced a few of these amazing sites for you. You can see how to get to them from the blue links below. Pretty soon you’ll realise that downloading free Ipod legal music is a lot easier than you might have thought!

Ipod Mp3 Music Review of Unlimited Music Download Sites

§ August 30th, 2010 § Filed under MP3 Players § No Comments

Ipod Mp3 Music Review of Unlimited Music Download Sites

If you are searching for a site with unlimited music downloads for ipod, there are many things to consider. IPOD mp3 music is an excellent choice for getting the latest songs quickly and without the hassles of traveling to the music store. There are many locations right on the web that can provide you with the best of the best for much less. There are several locations that do offer a wide range of choice when it comes to IPOD mp3 music. Some offer more than others or they offer a better quality product. It will take a little looking to find the most affordable choice that is also the one that has what you would like to download.

Once you find the right location for your IPOD mp3 music, you can easily and quickly (it seems almost instantly) download them to your PC, your notebook, or you can check out iPod mp3 music downloads as well. There are specific services that are available to provide you with the ability to get great quality songs on your iPod. If you choose iPod mp3 music, you can find the right location to download from on the web to your iPod, take the music with you wherever you decide to go and, if you like them; you can even burn them to CD.

No matter if you choose iPod mp3 music or find a few great songs to download to your PC, there are many services that are providing this ability to you. If you are skilled, you can even find a few iPod mp3 music downloads. Of course, to get the best products available, you may want to go with a paid service. It also pays for you to take your time in checking out a few of the services for their fees and their membership details. With so much competition out there, you are sure to find a great deal being offered to new members. Music downloads are fast becoming the best way to get the songs you want to see quickly.

You may want to stop back to look for new reviews and tips on unlimited download sites.

Please visit some of my sites Ipod Mp3 Downloads and Ipod Mp3 Music

False Failures: Worse Than Real Failures

§ August 27th, 2010 § Filed under Using Technology § No Comments

Better to fail for real than fail to really fail. Huh?
We know you’ve experienced this. Let’s say you just added some new functionality into your software, and you run a new build. And let’s say that 50% of your test cases fail. What is the first thing you assume?

We’ve asked this same question as our “teaser pitch” last winter to 100 developers and QA professionals who walked up to our booth at a recent conference, and 95 of them had the same answer! The tests must be broken!

This creates a cascading set of bad assumptions that will make your manager recite the adage about “ASS out of U and ME” on the whiteboard at the next project meeting. Here’s why.

* You assume that the problem is not with your application, it is with the test cases themselves being broken or no longer valid.
* So you spend time comparing the test cases with whatever changed in your new build.
* Then you dig into the test scripts to try to figure out why the test case is no longer passing, and rework them until they pass.
* Or you just give up and try validating by clicking through your old Word document test cases. Fun busy work.

How can you possibly call this testing? Rather than using the test to validate the application, you are using the application to test the test case – which is a program you coded!

Yes, unit tests are important for finding structural bugs in your code. But once a unit test tries to get beyond that granular level of testing, it becomes another fragile program in your development environment.

It is outrageous to assume that relying on coded unit test cases alone offers you any value in functional testing. In fact, the whole process is so manual and highly inefficient, that you wonder if you are doing anything more than making busy work for your own team.

Unit testing has its limits. There are methods people have tried to get beyond these limits, but it is like challenging the theory of gravity.

* Attempting to code for reuse – may seem possible but can only get you to the edge of Unit testing’s limits.
* Attempting to test the UI with your QA group, doesn’t really work if you can’t see those middle and back-end layers.

What makes false failures so dangerous? Besides the fact that they are a morale vampire that will make the team give up on testing, false failures impact the overall effectiveness of testing. If you don’t know if a failing test case is even valid, what do you really learn from testing? It is like a detective that never gathers evidence.

Time to declare war on false failures.

Fujifilm FinePix A303 Digital Camera

§ August 27th, 2010 § Filed under Digital Cameras § No Comments

Two years ago I purchased my first digital camera. At that time, prices for a 3.0 and higher mega pixel camera were around $350. Since then, as with all electronic gadgets, prices have dropped significantly while the mega pixels have gone up. I chose the Fujifilm’s A303 digital camera, which has fared well for me, so permit me the opportunity to tell you why.

I desperately needed a digital camera when my web business took off. On many different occasions I found myself wanting to take a picture of a person, place or thing and having to rely on a 35mm camera. Trouble was I wasn’t very good at taking pictures. Usually my subject came out blurry or the picture needed cropping. Yes, getting pictures developed on disk would have resolved the latter problem, but it was the former problem — blurry pictures — that was causing me the most grief. If only I could see “on the spot” how my picture turned out. If it turned out poorly, I could reshoot. Naturally, a digital camera presented to me something that no 35mm camera could offer; I made the purchase of a 3.2 mega pixel camera by Fujifilm after considerable shopping around and reading product reviews online.

Packed within a tough grey shell, the A303 is lightweight and can fit easily into your pant pockets. The camera’s controls are simple to figure out and include a Menu/OK button, Back button, viewfinder, viewfinder lamp, a display buttion and LCD monitor to preview pictures without looking through the viewfinder or to review pictures already taken. A round dial in the back of the camera features a self timer mode where you can set the camera and ten seconds later have the picture go off. Great for when you want to get the entire family’s picture and no one is around to take it. There are also close up modes, still image, playback and movie modes. The movie mode results in a fairly choppy and short film, but it is a neat feature to have nevertheless.

The standard camera comes equipped with a 16mb picture card. Most people will find that inadequate, so I paid a little bit extra and bought the 64mb upgrade. I also purchased rechargeable AA batteries — it takes two — and a recharger. You will sap your batteries quickly if you take 30-40 or more pictures at a time, so the recharger makes sense. I purchased the accompanying Fujifilm carrying case to house my other supplies.

Pictures come out clear and in two years of picture taking I have not experienced a single problem with the camera. At 3.2 mega pixels the pictures are more than adequate as virtually everything I do gets posted to the internet. Supposedly you do not need more mega pixels when posting/viewing pictures online. With the included USB cable and HP software, you will be uploading pictures to the internet in no time.

If there are any drawbacks with the A303 there is just one and it is a glaring problem: the time between shots can seem endless! I suppose the elapsed time is only about ten seconds, but it seems like an eternity especially compared to 35mm cameras. Technological improvements have closed the gap considerably with newer models, but if you need this camera to take a group of shots quickly you will be disappointed.

All in all, the A303 is a very good camera. I give it a 4-star rating for ease of use, price, and dependability.

Download Free Iphone Movies

§ August 26th, 2010 § Filed under Free Downloads § No Comments

If you are among the thousands of people looking to download free Iphone movies, hopefully this article will be of some use to you. The Iphone’s popularity already seems set to eclipse that of the Ipod. Apple cemented their place in history with the Ipod, and by all indications look like they will be even more popular due to their latest breakthrough, the Iphone.

For reasons as yet unknown, it’s not currently possible to download movies or anything else directly onto the Iphone itself, instead, you will first need to download them to a computer and then transfer them across. This means you will of course need to have the use of a computer, and also an internet connection. Any fairly modern computer should be fine, and as far as the internet connections goes, the usual rule still applies the faster the better!

The toughest thing about downloading Iphone movies is knowing where to get them from. True, you could get them from Itunes, and Apple are rumoured to be working on a native version of Itunes which will work on the Iphone itself and allow download of media while on the move. This will be pretty cool, but just like regular Itunes will probably cost you a fortune.

To combat this cost issue, many people currently use the file sharing or bit torrent sites to get their downloads from. This can seem good, as it’s very cost effective, but unfortunately you are breaking the law when you use these sites. That’s not even the worst part, torrent sites like this have no way of monitoring who uploads what, which makes them a real hacker’s playground. This is bad news as it means that sites like this are often the first places to begin the spread of new viruses and malware etc the hackers simply upload their latest virus and name it as something currently popular. The downloader has no way of knowing what they are getting until it’s too late.

Not all sites are like this though, over the last year or so a far more healthy alternative has made itself known. There are now a few sites around where you can join their membership for a small fee and then get unlimited access to their downloads. These sites prove far safer and offer excellent value, and would definitely be recommended for their high speed and wide range.

This article should help you stay a little safer when looking for movie downloads for your new Iphone. Happy downloading!

Ipod Mp3 Downloads Review of Unlimited Downloads Sites

§ August 25th, 2010 § Filed under MP3 Players § No Comments

I will be reviewing many sites and post the review here at this site. IPOD mp3 downloads is an excellent choice for getting the latest songs quickly and without the hassles of traveling to the music store. There are many locations right on the web that can provide you with the best of the best for much less. There are several locations that do offer a wide range of choice when it comes to IPOD mp3 downloads. Some offer more than others or they offer a better quality product. It will take a little looking to find the most affordable choice that is also the one that has what you would like to download.

Once you find the right location for your IPOD mp3 downloads, you can easily and quickly (it seems almost instantly) download them to your PC, your notebook, or you can check out iPod mp3 downloads as well. There are specific services that are available to provide you with the ability to get great quality songs on your iPod. If you choose iPod mp3 music, you can find the right location to download from on the web to your iPod, take the music with you wherever you decide to go and, if you like them; you can even burn them to CD.

No matter if you choose iPod mp3 downloads or find a few great songs to download to your PC, there are many services that are providing this ability to you. If you are skilled, you can even find a few iPod mp3 downloads. Of course, to get the best products available, you may want to go with a paid service. It also pays for you to take your time in checking out a few of the services for their fees and their membership details. With so much competition out there, you are sure to find a great deal being offered to new members. Music downloads are fast becoming the best way to get the songs you want to see quickly.

Please come back to visit for new reviews and updates.

Please visit some of my other sites Ipod Music and Ipod Mp3

Download Free Games & Movies For Iphone

§ August 22nd, 2010 § Filed under Free Downloads § No Comments

Yes, you really can get free downloads of games and movies for your Iphone. If you’re one of the lucky folks that has got in early and nabbed an Iphone already, you are definitely going to want to know how to get your hands on some of this free media.

Before you can download anything at all for your Iphone however, there are a few things you will need. You can’t currently download directly to the Iphone, for one reason or another, so these items are a must.

The most obvious is a computer. It’s pretty hard to access the internet without one and also you will need to store the downloaded stuff somewhere before you transfer it to the Iphone, right?

Secondly, you guessed it, some form of internet connection. This is probably the easiest part, as if you have a notebook or a laptop you can probably just sit in your local Starbucks and piggyback their wireless connection or something. As always, the faster the connection you can get, the better.

Lastly, and this is the thing most people forget about you need to have the space to store all the stuff. The iphone may be pretty advanced but it’s not bottomless and it sure fills up fast once you have access to some free downloads.

Once you have all this stuff, (and let’s face it if you are reading this article the chances are you already do) you’ll need to find somewhere to download the free games and movies from. Most people at one point or another have used a file sharing or bit torrent site to get downloads, but it may surprise you to know that this is against the law it’s illegal to download things from websites like that in the most case, unless you already own a copy of whatever you download. Odd but true. Always check the laws and regulations in your own area.

There are a whole host of download sites for you to choose from these days, and they mainly work by charging you a one-off admin fee which then gives you lifetime access to their download libraries. The libraries are huge, with some having over 100 million files for you to look through. This makes it very easy to find your favourite TV show, or pretty much anything else you may be looking for. These sites are definitely recommended to get your free game and movie downloads from.

This article should give you a great idea of how to safely go about download free stuff for your Iphone.

Digital Cameras: Another Kickin’ New Feature: Video Capture

§ August 20th, 2010 § Filed under Digital Cameras § No Comments

Digital cameras have come a long ways in the past few years. They are now more affordable and feature rich than ever. A comprehensive list of features and advice for choosing a digital camera is beyond the scope of this article, but this article will highlight one of the most popular features, video capture capability.

With a video capture feature on your camera, you can take low to medium quality video footage using your digital camera. All cameras with video capture are not created equal, though. Here are some things to check on before buying a camera with video capture:

1 Sound

Does the camera support sound? If so, does it capture it through a built in microphone, or does it have an input for you to plug in an external microphone?

2- Video Quality

There are two main factors that determine video quality resolution and frames per second. The higher the resolution, and the higher the number of frames per second, the higher quality the video.

3- Video format

What format is the video in? Ideally, it will be in a standard, easy to edit format, such as MPEG. Some cameras use proprietary video formats, which means that you can’t edit your videos with most editors. Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with Windows, is a great editor to use for most generic video formats.

4- Video length

Some cameras limit the length of video clips you can take, often to 30 seconds. This can be a great aggravation. The better cameras allow you to take as long of a video clip as your camera’s memory can hold. Of course, you can add a larger memory stick to take a longer video clip. You can now get memory sticks up to 2 GB or larger.

5- Zoom

On most digital cameras, you can use the zoom when taking video footage. However, you can generally only use your optical zoom, not your digital zoom.

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