Firefox has a CPU usage issue and, consequently, can cause overheating problems in some laptops, particularly ultraportables. That's what I've found over the last couple of years.
But don't take my word for it. This is documented on a Mozilla support page entitled "Firefox consumes a lot of CPU resources." The page states: "At times, Firefox may require significant CPU [central processing unit] resources in order to download, process, and display Web content." And forum postings like this one about a Dell Netbook are not uncommon: "Mini9 would get way too hot."
The Mozilla support page goes on to say that "you can review and monitor CPU usage through specific tools" and describes ways to limit CPU usage, such as: "A Firefox add-on, called Flashblock, allows you to selectively enable and disable Flash content on Web sites."
Let me describe my experience. I find that tab for tab, Firefox uses decidedly more resources than other browsers--Safari, for example. And in the past (when I was actively using a Windows Vista-based machine) Firefox also compared unfavorably with Microsoft's Internet Explorer for CPU usage.
More specifically, here's the behavior as I see it. When I'm accessing sites with multimedia content such as the CNET front door, Firefox CPU usage will bounce around between 30 and 60 percent, and sometimes spike higher (80 percent and above), as indicated by the Mac OS 10.6.2 Activity Monitor.
On the other hand, the Safari CPU usage with the same pages open is much lower--typically between 2 percent and 10 percent.
My theory is that most users don't notice this because in mainstream laptops, this isn't an issue. But it can become an issue in ultraportables--typically under an inch thick--which are more sensitive to heat because of the design constraints. The ultrathin Apple MacBook Air, which I use as my main machine, is a good example.
The fan is usually an audible indicator of CPU usage issues. When I'm using Firefox and I have tabs open on multimedia-rich sites (which is par for the course these days), the Air's fan will almost invariably kick on and stay on until I close the tabs. As I write this, the fan has finally shut down after I closed the Firefox tabs (e.g, CNET front door). Those same tabs in Safari are still open and not causing any significant spike in CPU usage or fan activity.
When I contacted Mozilla, a technical support person guessed that Safari is possibly better at optimizing Flash-based sites compared to Firefox. And that may be true. However, I had similar issues before when I was using a Hewlett-Packard business ultraportable (also very thin like the Air) that were not necessarily tied to Flash usage. In short, Firefox was less efficient with CPU usage compared to Microsoft's IE 8. And the behavior was similar. The HP laptop would quickly heat up and the fan would kick on.
Finally, let me reemphasize that I'm guessing that most users don't notice this because heat dissipation is not a big issue for mainstream laptops that are not necessarily thermally-challenged when accessing multimedia-rich Web pages. That said, this has been a steady problem for me because I use ultraportables almost exclusively and has forced me to limit my use of Firefox
With Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft showed Wednesday it's trying to retake the browser initiative.
IE remains the Net's dominant browser. But perversely, it became something of a technology underdog after Microsoft vanquished Netscape in the browser wars of the 1990s and scaled back its browser effort.
That left an opportunity for rivals to blossom--most notably Firefox, which now is used by a quarter of Web surfers, but also Apple's Safari, which now runs on Windows as well as Mac OS X, and Google's Chrome, which aims to make the Web faster and a better foundation for applications.
The acceleration feature takes advantage of hitherto untapped computing power in a way that's more useful than other browser-boosting technology--Google's Native Client to directly employ PC's processor and Mozilla's WebGL for accelerated 3D graphics, for example--according to Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet Explorer.
"This is a direct improvement to everybody's usage of the Web on a daily basis," Hachamovitch said in an interview after Sinofsky's speech. "Web developers are doing what they did before, only now they can tap directly into a PC's graphics hardware to make their text work better and graphics work better."
Why go to all this trouble? In short, to help keep the Windows business alive and kicking.
"Our goal in building a great browser for consumers and for everyone is that they are Windows customers. That's at the core of it," Hachamovitch said.
He didn't bring it up, but it should be noted that an increasing fraction of Microsoft's business is moving online, too, through its Bing, Live, and now online Office 2010 sites. "We want to build a better IE so all the Web sites have a better experience," Hachamovitch said.
Turning up the heat Microsoft began work on IE 9 just three weeks ago, Sinofsky said. But signs have been clear that the company has taken interest in its browser again.
When it arrived earlier this year IE 8 brought significant new security and privacy features, and in a significant departure Web developers appreciate, it attempts to follow various Web standards such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and Cascading Style Sheets.
"High-quality specifications that improve interoperability between browsers are important. Our goal is to help ensure these new standards work well for Web developers and will work well in future versions of IE," said Adrian Bateman, a Microsoft program manager who's involved in the standardization effort, describing the motivation. That point of view is music to the ears of programmers who struggle to make sure their Web sites work with the ever-wider variety of browsers on the Web today.
Hardware acceleration Under the covers, the IE 9 acceleration works by employing Microsoft's Direct2D interface rather than its GDI (Graphical Device Interface). Direct2D provides a general way for software to take advantage of hardware acceleration for graphics, and IE 9 will employ it.
"It's a remarkably different level of performance," said Hachmovitch, who's using the technology. "It's like the difference between watching Pixar or an Xbox vs. watching an old PC chug along."
Direct2D also facilitates a technology called sub-pixel positioning that can smooth the appearance of text on the screen. That cuts eyestrain, he said.
In a video touting the Direct2D browsing technology, Microsoft showed off the acceleration effect on a map-based Web site. While panning the view one way or the other, "The map literally keeps up with your mouse," said Microsoft graphics developer Christian Fortini in the video
Earlier in November, Firefox surpassed 25 percent usage share of Web browsers, according to Net Applications.
(Credit: Net Applications)
With the old technology, that chore can update the screen at a rate of about 5 to 10 frames per second while using 50 to 60 percent of the processor's horsepower, but using the Direct2D method, the frame rate jumps to a range of 40 to 60 per second while the CPU usage plunges, Hachamovitch said.
Compatibility sales pitch Hachamovitch touted Microsoft's approach as broadly relevant and compatible with the Web as it stands today. Unlike Native Client and WebGL, it doesn't require new programming skills for Web developers.
"Web sites didn't have to change behavior and code in a different way" to take advantage of the Direct2D technology, Hachamovitch said. "With a lot of other technologies, it takes a lot of work and a lot of time to figure out how to do something different. It isn't necessarily an interoperable, standards kind of thing--it's something from one particular vendor. We're taking interoperable implementations of things like CSS, things that developers are using and expect to work everywhere, and making them demonstrably better."
He didn't comment on whether Microsoft supports some Web standards for better graphics, including Canvas and Scalable Vector Graphics, but he did say the new display technology will broadly help whatever graphics technologies IE does support. "Once we're on top of this super-rich graphics infrastructure, all the graphics we do will have this," he said.
And although Microsoft certainly hasn't committed to it, Eliot Graff, an IE lead technical editor, is helping edit the Canvas interface at the W3C group.
Full standards support remains a sore point when dealing with IE. On one test, Acid3, IE 8 scores just 20 out of 100. IE 9 currently scores 32, and "the score will continue to go up," Hachamovitch wrote in the blog posting.
Faster JavaScript The acceleration is one aspect of performance Microsoft is focusing on. Another is the execution of JavaScript, a programming language used widely on the Web for everything from mundane tasks to full-on applications such as Gmail and Google Docs.
In another Microsoft video, John Montgomery, a leader of IE's browser compatibility and tools team, shows off the browser tackling all the components of the SunSpider JavaScript speed test.
"We're whipping through these faster than (IE) 8 was," Montgomery said. "We're pretty early in the development process. There's still some stuff we can still squeeze out of the engine, but we're doing a lot better than we were."
Hachamovitch, though, takes pains to point out JavaScript isn't the only bottleneck for browsers. Even though JavaScript engines are important enough to warrant brand names these days--Chrome's V8, Firefox's TraceMonkey, Safari's Nitro, Opera's Futhark and Caracan--Microsoft's prefers to shine a light on nine other aspects of browser performance.
Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection. •Adobe InDesign® CS4 •Adobe Photoshop® CS4 Extended •Adobe Illustrator® CS4 •Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro •Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional •Adobe Dreamweaver® CS4 •Adobe Fireworks® CS4 •Adobe Contribute® CS4 •Adobe After Effects® CS4 •Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4 •Adobe Soundbooth® CS4 •Adobe OnLocation™ CS4 •Adobe Encore® CS4 •Adobe Bridge CS4 (offers direct access to Version Cue® and Adobe® Device Central) •Adobe Dynamic Link •Adobe Media Player
Minimum system requirements: Windows® • 1.8GHz or faster processor • Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit Windows XP and 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista) • 512 MB RAM (1GB of RAM or more recommended)* • 1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices) • 1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended) with 16-bit or greater video card • DVD-ROM drive • Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0 • QuickTime 7.2 required for multimedia features • Broadband Internet connection required for online services
How to activate Adobe CS4 Master Collection: 1) Generate a serial using "Adobe CS4 Master Collection Keygen.exe". 2) Input the generated serial into the box when it asks for a serial. 3) Run "Activation Blocker.cmd" as an administrator by right-clicking it and selecting "Run As Administrator". 4) Go to wherever you installed Adobe CS4 Master Collection (default. C:\Program Files\Adobe) and open the folder "Adobe Photoshop CS4" 5) Rename the file "amtlib.dll" inside the "Adobe Photoshop CS4" folder to "amtlib.dll.mtc" 6) Copy the cracked "amtlib.dll" from the folder called "Photoshop Crack (inside the "CS4 Crack.rar" file). 7) Paste the cracked "amtlib.dll" into the "Adobe Photoshop CS4" folder.
Adobe CS4 Master Collection should now be completely activated.
DELETE cache.db IF YOU WHANT TO PUT ANOTHER SERIAL
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apache Software Foundation, which is being celebrated at the annual ApacheCon U.S. event. Microsoft is proud to be a platinum sponsor of both the ASF and ApacheCon 2009.
The Apache community is an important one for Microsoft and, as ASF President Justin Erenkrantz noted recently, Microsoft is now contributing to at least four Apache projects: HBase, Stonehenge, QPid, and POI.
"This really continues the significant sea change from within the organization - Microsoft now isn't afraid of having their employees contribute to Apache projects on Microsoft's time. Committers from Microsoft sign the same legal agreements that we require from all of our contributors. Microsoft's involvement in these specific communities range from having their employees being core contributors driving the project, to having folks contributing patches or ideas on our mailing lists, to even commissioning a third-party to contribute to our project as a work-for-hire. In other words, Microsoft is now actively participating within Apache projects in a broad range of way," Erenkrantz said.
A number of Microsoft folks representing the Interoperability, App Plat, DPE, Open Source Technology Center and Platform Strategy teams will be on-site and participating in a number of events.
In addition, Sandy Gupta, the Director of Platform Strategy, will participate in a Business Panel today, titled: "The Business of Open Source - Power, Prestige, and Propulsion," while Kent Brown and David Ingham will be giving a technical session on Project Stonehenge and Qpid.
Garrett Serack from the Open Source Technology Center gave two BarCamp sessions earlier this week ("How the heck do I get help from Microsoft?" and "The Road Less Travelled" about the new CoApp he has developed,) while David gave a BarCamp presentation on AMQP and Qpid and Kent did one on Stonehenge.
David also led a MeetUp about Qpid on Windows on Tuesday night; while Kent and the team will give a Lightening Talk on Thursday.
We look forward to meeting those of you attending ApacheCon, and please feel free to stop by the booth.
Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC), makers of Norton security software, announced today the worldwide release of Norton Ghost 15, one of the industry's most advanced PC backup and recovery solutions. Windows 7 compatible Norton Ghost 15 now offers 25G and 50G Blu-ray Disc support. This version also introduces a new cold imaging feature that images computers without installing the product. In addition, Norton Ghost uses Symantec's powerful ThreatCon indicator to automatically back up PCs in the event of a severe security threat. Norton Ghost 15 is a robust and professional-grade backup solution for both home users and small businesses. With Norton Ghost, lost or damaged files can be recovered and restored in the event of a system failure, even if the computer's operating system does not start. It also allows backup of an entire system or specific files and folders while saving recovery points to offsite locations using FTP. Norton Ghost is also flexible, allowing users to decide when to back up their system, either on a schedule or based on an event.
"Norton Ghost has been the essential imaging and recovery product since 1996," said Dave Cole, senior director of consumer products, Symantec. "Consumers' PCs have never been more central to people's lives, or more at risk due to cybercrime and critical failures. Ghost 15 not only is a powerful disaster recovery tool, but also it adds important features such as Windows 7 compatibility and Blu-ray Disc support to keep current with the way people are using their computers today."
In addition, Norton Ghost works with both 25G and 50G Blu-ray Discs and most storage drives, including external hard drives, networked drives, and recordable and rewritable CDs and DVDs. It also includes a hot backups feature, which lets users back up their computers without having to shut it down first. Norton Ghost is also supported by Windows 7 Bitlocker, providing enhanced data protection through drive encryption and integrity checking, keeping stored data safe and protected.
Norton Ghost 15 now also includes cold imaging technology, which backs up files without installing the product, saving users time and money. After purchasing a new computer, users can image the PC immediately before any software is loaded so that factory settings remain intact. Also, cold imaging allows easy back up of a system by simply booting to the recovery environment (a light version of the Windows operating system) from the Norton Ghost CD, and then initiating a backup.
Backing up isn't just about saving files from accidental data loss; these days computers can fall prey to damage from cybercriminals. That's why Norton Ghost 15 leverages Symantec's ThreatCon, which uses intelligence from Symantec Security Response to automatically backup files whenever the landscape reaches a specific threat level.
Key Technologies See all NEW! Cold imaging NEW! Blu-ray Disc support File and folder backups NEW! Windows® 7 Bitlocker™ support NEW! Symantec ThreatCon integration Advanced compression and encryption
Key Benefits See all Creates full system and file backups — Safeguards your system, settings, applications, and files with flexible, comprehensive backup protection. Restores from system failuress — Recovers your system and data even when you can’t restart your computer. Enables convenient, secure offsite backups — Saves recovery points to an FTP site for easier offsite management and even backs up your data to network-attached storage devices. Features See all NEW! Cold Imaging lets you back up files without installing Ghost. NEW! Blu-ray Disc allows you to back up large amounts of data to high-capacity Blu-ray Disc — up to 25 GB per disc (50 GB dual-layer). NEW! Windows® 7 support including support for Bitlocker™ provides enhanced data protection through drive encryption and integrity checking.
Norton Ghost 15.0 System Requirements Windows® 7 Starter/Home Basic/Home Premium/Professional/Enterprise/Ultimate Must meet minimum Windows 7 operating system requirements Windows Vista® Home Basic/Home Premium/Business/Ultimate Must meet minimum Windows Vista operating system requirements Windows® XP Home/Professional 300 MHz or faster processor 512 MB (1GB recommended) of RAM 430 MB of available hard disk space CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive for software distribution on media Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor Supported File Systems and Devices FAT16, FAT16X, FAT32, FAT32X NTFS, GUID Partition Table (GPT) Dynamic Disks Supported Hard Drives and Removable Media CDR/RW, DVD+-R/RW, Blu-Ray devices USB and FireWire® (IEEE 1394) devices Iomega® Zip® and Jaz® drives
Developer: Symantec Corp. License: Key Language: English OS: Microsoft Windows 2000, XP and Vista Size: 119.68 Mb
802.16 standard, called WirelessMAN, providing a new perspective in accessing high speed internet without depending on the network or modem cable. Year 2002 established a forum Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) which refers to the 802.16 standard and served menginterkoneksikan various technical standards that are global to a single unit. WiMAX technology is more expensive than other broadband technologies like Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
Security aspect is very important for broadband technology in accessing information from the Internet. Is discussed in the writing hand security systems found on WirelessMAN technology based on 802.16 standard specifications.
IEEE 802.16 standards provide internet access to the metropolitan area with only establish some base station (BS) is able to coverage of millions of subscribers (SS). WiMAX technology is the solution for the city or rural areas that have not developed in the provision of internet access. Encryption data used in the form of data encryption standard (DES) and authentication on each client / subscriber station (SS) is very good with X.509 certificates are unique, powerful and reliable toughness.
Urges users to block ports until a patch is ready, but workaround cripples browsers By Gregg Keizer in computer world news
Microsoft late on Friday confirmed that an unpatched vulnerability exists in Windows 7, but downplayed the problem, saying most users would be protected from attack by blocking two ports at the firewall.
In a security advisory, Microsoft acknowledged that a bug in SMB (Server Message Block), a Microsoft-made network file- and print-sharing protocol, could be used by attackers to cripple Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 machines.
The zero-day vulnerability was first reported by Canadian researcher Laurent Gaffie last Wednesday, when he revealed the bug and posted proof-of-concept attack code to the Full Disclosure security mailing list and his blog. According to Gaffie, exploiting the flaw crashes Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 systems so thoroughly that the only recourse is to manually power off the computers.
At the time, Microsoft only said it was investigating Gaffie's reports.
Then on Friday, it took the next step and issued the advisory. "Microsoft is aware of public, detailed exploit code that would cause a system to stop functioning or become unreliable," Dave Forstrom, a spokesman for Microsoft security group, said in an e-mail. "The company is not aware of attacks to exploit the reported vulnerability at this time."
Forstrom echoed Gaffie's comments earlier in the week that while an exploit could incapacitate a PC, the vulnerability could not be used by hackers to install malicious code on a Windows 7 system.
Both SMBv1 and its successor, SMBv2, contain the bug. "Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 are not affected," assured Forstrom.
Attacks could be aimed at any browser, not just Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft warned. After tricking users into visiting a malicious site or a previously-compromised domain, hackers could feed them specially-crafted URIs (uniform resource identifier), and then crash their PCs with malformed SMB packets.
Microsoft said it may patch the problem, but didn't spell out a timetable or commit to an out-of-cycle update before the next regularly-scheduled Patch Tuesday of Dec. 8. Instead, the company suggested users block TCP ports 139 and 445 at the firewall. Doing so, however, would disable browsers as well as a host of critical services, including network file-sharing and IT group policies.
Gaffie's vulnerability was the first zero-day reported and confirmed by Microsoft in Windows 7 since the new operating system went on sale Oct. 22.
As you've likely read and as was originally reported here, we've been investigating a report that the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, might contain GPLv2 code. The WUDT is a free tool that was offered by the Microsoft Store and which enabled customers to create bootable USB drives or DVD backup media from the electronic software (ESD) edition of Windows 7 that comes in an ISO format.
After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part. While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process. We have furthermore conducted a review of other code provided through the Microsoft Store and this was the only incident of this sort we could find.
When it comes to our attention that a Microsoft component contains third party code, our aim is to be respectful of the terms under which that code is being shared. As a result, we will be making the source code as well as binaries for this tool available next week under the terms of the General Public License v2 as described here, and are also taking measures to apply what we have learned from this experience for future code reviews we perform.
Cisco is placing bets on the future adoption of collaboration tools for businesses by unveiling later today a enhanced suite of offerings, including a new social networking software designed for a corporate setting and a new cloud-based e-mail hosting service, as well as video and voice integration into the collaboration platform.
The company said that the idea behind the new collaboration platform is to be less “document-centric” and more “people-centric” by working with voice, IM and video to create business-to-business communications - and meetings - more efficient. In part, that includes the ability to bring Facebook-like tools into the mix, but secure them in a way that meets the needs of a company. The company explains its social video system, called Show and Share, like this:
Cisco Show and Share is a social video system that helps organizations create and manage highly secure video communities to share ideas and expertise, optimize global video collaboration, and personalize the connection between customers, employees, and students with user-generated content. It allows organizations to record, edit and share video with comments, ratings,. tagging and RSS feeds, ans speech-to-text transcripts can be uploaded for easy video search and viewing.
The other announcement - Cisco WebEx Mail - stems from the company’s acquisition of PostPath and offers a cloud-based system that also has Outlook interoperability. Through its acquisition of Jabber, the company also said it has integrated the XMPP standard to give it a secure but widely available presence in the collaboration tools.
n some ways, Cisco - which has been competing with companies such as IBM, HP and Dell in the data center - is now adding Microsoft, which recently dropped the price of its hosted versions of Exchange, Sharepoint, and Office Communications Server, and Google to its lineup of competitors with these new services. For some time, Google has been pushing its cloud-based apps for businesses and even scored a major deal with city of Los Angeles recently to manage its email system. And now, it’s previewing Google Wave, a Web-based, real-time collaboration tool that allows users across the Web to communicate with each other in e-mail like message thread or instant chats and share documents, videos, images, charts and more.
Under the Google Wave approach, users can open the collaboration projects, or “Waves,” to anyone over the Internet, allowing collaboration with anyone via the Web. Cisco’s new offering also breaks down the walls of the traditional network, allowing users to work with customers, vendors and others who normally might have been locked out of the collaboration process
Cisco said that, upon rollout, its mail offerings - priced “somewhere south of $8 per mailbox per month” but still being finalized - will be cloud-based only while the collaboration platform will reside on-premise. Eventually, the company will offer the ability to split data between the two worlds - on-site and in the cloud - but still sees companies being more comfortable with e-mail in the cloud than they are with collaborative documents and correspondence in the cloud.
The company has been vocal about its visions for the future, notably its belief that video will be “the center of everything” in future communications. With this push into collaboration software, the company is subscribing to the idea that e-mail is losing some of its luster as a tool for conducting business. Anyone who’s ever exchanged two dozen emails with a half-dozen people just to set up a meeting knows how ineffective e-mail can be when working with teams.
Cisco has been transforming itself during the economic downturn to be more than just a networking company by the time the economy started to recover. As part of the movement, it’s been beefing up its offerings, largely through acquisitions. In October alone, it made three acquisition announcements - $3 billion for Tandberg, a video conferencing equipment maker, $2.9 billion for Starent, a provider of mobile Internet Protocol gear, and $183 million for ScanSafe, an Internet security company.
The YouTube Downloader software is a great solution for the folks who would like to download their favorite videos from the net onto their computers. Although it has a simplistic look and interface, it is loaded with numerous easy to control options for the user. You can even convert the saved FLV YouTube files for use on your iPod, Cell Phone and other digital devices.
Once you begin the installation, two options can be ticked or unselected based on your preferences. The first one will set Yahoo as the default search engine of your browser, while the second choice will install the Dealio toolbar. Uncheck both if you don't want these options.
The second load screen will ask if you’d like the downloader to check for automatic updates for the YouTube Downloader. It's up to you whether or not you want this.
As mentioned before, one of the greatest points about the YouTube Downloader is its simple working interface. There are three fields to work with to actually commence downloading your videos from the net. The first one is by manually entering the address of your favorite YouTube video file and then using the folder icon on the right to choose where the file will be saved to. Press the OK button and your file will begin downloading.
If you are interested in using the media conversion utilities, the YouTube Downloader can easily change the extensions of the videos downloaded to formats like iPhone, iPod, AVI and MPEG-4.
By clicking on the drop down menu, the listing of all supported files extensions can be shown, allowing you to chose which one suits your needs best.
By checking the download qualities options, you can easily select how you’d like your files to be saved onto your machine and at which visual quality. This does affect the overall sizes of the files, however.
You can download the YouTube Downloader software by visiting the URL below: http://download.cnet.com/YouTube-Downloader/3000-2071_4-10647340.html
Recently there were some updates to the Bravenet Mailing List Service. So we thought this would be a good opportunity to show you how to redesign your newsletter header to make it more custom.
Sending out newsletters is an excellent way to keep people up-to-date. The reasons for sending a newsletter are endless, so use your imagination and have fun!
First thing, do you have the Mailing List Service? If not, get it here.
Now get ready to start editing your newsletter. Log into Bravenet and get into the Mailing List Service Manager. From there, click 'Create an Email' and select the first method of creating a newsletter, 'Email Builder'.
Next we need a topic, it can be anything you like - I am going to make mine about my summer vacation at the beach.
Now that we have our topic picked, we can create a header. I am going to create my header using some of the free Bravenet Stock Photos. If you have Professional Hosting you can download free stock photos from the 'photos' tab that appears when you are logged in. Don't have Pro Hosting? Sign up here and start downloading free stock photos.
If you want your header image to fill the entire width of your newsletter you must first set the width of your newsletter. From the HTML Email Builder screen click 'edit layout', click the settings tab at the top. Here you can edit your width. I have made mine 650px - for the rest of this issue of Tips and Tricks I am going to assume you have done the same. The height of your header image is not important.
NOTE: you can change the layout of your newsletter using the 'Layout' tab that is found under the 'Edit Layout' link as well.
There are two different ways you can make your header. You can edit/create it yourself in an external third party program or you can upload a full size image and then crop it using the Bravenet Crop Tool.
Creating your Header:
1. From the Mailing List Service Manager click 'edit title'. 2. Under the 'Logo Image' section click 'Image Picker'. 3. Upload your image using the box at the top of the windows that pops open. 4. Once your image is uploaded, click the thumbnail for your image. 5. To crop your image, click the 'Crop this Image' link. 6. Now you can drag and expand the box on your image to crop it to size. Remember to make it 650px wide to fill the entire header. When you are finished, click 'Crop Image'. 7. A new thumbnail is then created for your cropped image, click the new thumbnail. Then click 'Use Image'. 8. Click Save.
If your header image is pre-made and already the correct width then skip steps 5, 6 and 7.
Multiply members no longer have to choose between sharing securely with the people they know and extending the audience for their media. Now you can have the best of both worlds, sharing your content all over the Internet without having to visit another service to do it.
Set-up is easy: simply check the "Twitter" or "Facebook" box when posting content to Multiply and we'll walk you through the process. Once you've done that, cross-posting to these services when sharing on Multiply is just a simple checkbox away. You can even cross-post a Multiply QuickNote to let people on these services know what you're doing!
Owing to these services' limitations, we made sure to include something sure to make even the most 140-character-limit-savvy sharer happy: our very own built-in URL shortener – http://mltp.ly/ – so that your posts always link back to the original content on Multiply. Don't worrying about accidentally going over these services' character limits, either... we're watching out for you.
If you happen to know anyone who uses those services, but doesn't use Multiply, let them know they can now take advantage of Multiply's full-service media solution (share safely, store permanently, create beautiful photo products) while still sharing with the contacts they already have on Facebook and Twitter.
Over the years, we've had great opportunities to get to know many Multiply members, both via our interactions with them though customer service, as well as through the content they share in groups.
Now, we'd like to get to know everyone, and have put together a survey to help us better understand the people using Multiply, including their interests and feelings on a wide range of subjects. If you'd take the survey, we'd greatly appreciate it... and will extend to you a coupon for 50% off the purchase of a Multiply Photo Book!
In last month's Tips and Tricks Newsletter we showed you how to greatly reduce your image sizes to save hosting space. We took a 2MB file right off our digital camera and got it down to 24KB by resizing and reducing quality - allowing you to upload 97 images in place of just one. If you missed or would like to re-read last month's Tips and Tricks you can do so here. Just a quick side note, did you know that you can find past issues of Tips and Tricks here?
This month we are going to talk about saving as a GIF. First, I want to clear up any confusion - an image you take with your digital camera should never be saved as a GIF (more on this below). This Tips and Tricks will teach you how and when to save as a GIF rather than a JPG.
What is a GIF?
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format.
"The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel, allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colors chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colors for each frame. The color limitation makes the GIF format unsuitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with continuous color, but it is well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color." Wikipedia
As you can see from the text above, there are limitations when savings as a GIF. A GIF only supports up to 256 colors - this is why you should never save photos from your digital camera as a GIF, or any color photograph for that matter. Not only would a color photograph saved as a GIF look worse but the file size could also be larger than if you had of saved as a JPG, yikes! It really is all about learning to use the right format for the right images. Just a note, while GIFs can only have 256 colors - it can be any colors, you are not restricted to web safe colors.
See the choppy lines in the sky on the GIF?
GIFs work awesome for stuff like logos/text/computer drawings - images with few and solid colors. For stuff like logos saving as a GIF will result in a cleaner looking image as well as giving you the smallest file size.
Spread spectrum communication is a technique that is characterized by wide bandwidth and low peak power. Spread spectrum communications using a variety of modulation techniques in wireless LAN and has many advantages when compared to its predecessor, the narrow band communications. The signals spread spectrum similar to the noise (noise), difficult to detect, and even more difficult to arrest or didemodulasi without using the right tool. Jamming and interference has a lesser effect on spread spectrum communication when compared to narrow band communication. Because of these reasons, spread spectrum technology has long been the leading technology in the military.
