CyberCoyote -- November 3, 2005

NEWS

Wes Pack from Corel Corporation gave the AZacc Presentation today. Corel offers great consumer, and professional graphics software. He is both an artist and a technical expert so the session moved fast. Their software is powerful, but using it is highly intuitive. I was amazed at what "Painter Essentials" enables you to do, for example. You can take any photo and use Painter Essentials to turn it into a convincing "painting" that has your own personal touch.

Wes used a "Graphics Tablet" to demonstrate "painting" techniques. It is more accurate and much easer to use than a mouse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitizing_tablet -- definition
http://cybercoyote.org/url/140.html -- features
http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/web/graphics%2Btablet -- more

Wes gave everyone a CD that includes 30 day trial copies of Painter Essentials, Paint Shop Pro and Photo Album. If you are interested, I'm sure you could borrow one from someone in the club. Or, you could download them from the Corel website. You can also find tutorials at their website that show you how to use their software.
http://corel.com -- website
http://cybercoyote.org/url/141.html -- download the "Webinars"

NOTES and NOTICES

The class on the "Windows Registry", scheduled to start Dec 5 is full, but not everyone has paid so you might still be able to get in if some don't pay up before it starts. We will also have another session later if there is enough interest.

The new "Mr.-Modem!" column for November is now online.
http://cybercoyote.org/articles/modem.shtml [not a permanent page]

SECURITY

What is Phishing and Pharming?
"Phishing attacks use both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials. Social-engineering schemes use 'spoofed' e-mails to lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into divulging financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and social security numbers... Pharming crimeware misdirects users to fraudulent sites or proxy servers, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning."
http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html

Other examples that work more often than you'd expect.
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/f-secure-on-new-nasty.html
http://cybercoyote.org/url/139.html

DOWNLOADS

You'll find over 5000 (well organized) programs at Microsoft's Free Downloads Center. Lots of games there, but many other programs as well.
http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/content.aspx?ctid=119

If you're interested in new games to put on your computer you might find the new Windows Games Advisor useful. If you're not into murder and mayhem, you might want to start with the "Family Entertainment" category (left hand column). You will also find some nice free games at MSN.
http://cybercoyote.org/url/131.html -- requires Internet Explorer
http://zone.msn.com/en/root/freeonline.htm -- free online games

DIVERSION

Did you look up while you were out "Trick or Treating"? (Or was it "Drinks or Damage"?)
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/heapow/heapow.html

Many old time radio shows were more absorbing than most TV programs today. It's simple -- images supplied by your imagination can be more intense than those on "boob tube". It's easy to go back if you want to. You can now download a vast variety of the old shows for about a nickle each.
http://www.otr-ftp-server.com/

More Web 2.0 -- the New York City Subway System:
http://www.onnyturf.com/subwaymap.php