More Than A Number

With the current state of the economy being a contributing cause as well, more and more people are looking for online jobs which would act as a supplementary income or even become their primary jobs. These jobs look very attractive as most of them are very flexible and offer decent if not great returns on investment. The fact that you can stay at home and work in your pajamas is the thing that seals the deal.

Whatever you do, when it comes to internet-based jobs, just follow the old adage “all that glitters is not gold”. There are many predators out there that will just take your money and run. The following are three common scams which you should watch out for.

The Fake Investigator - When you are out looking for an online job you might suddenly encounter a website with a long list of potential jobs. This site will claim to have investigated all of them for legitimacy and offer recommendations as well. To appear trustworthy it might even have some sob stories where it has got scammed by people as well. Do not buy this story. Usually they are running a scam where you will have to pay to buy this list or e-book only to find that it contains bogus leads or even garbage.

Payment processing - This is a common email scam as well. The site will ask you to process some of their checks due to some inability or technical problem that is hindering them. You will be asked to collect the money and wire it back to the company after retaining a small amount (5% to 10%) for yourself as a payment. Do not fall for this. This is a money laundering scheme and you will only find yourself in deep trouble with the law.

Package forwarding and re-shipping - This may seem innocuous but is again a criminal activity. The scam involves you receiving goods which are shipped to your address in bulk. Once you receive the goods and a list of shipping addresses you are required to re-ship individual items to addresses on that list. What is happening here is that the scammer has stolen credit card details and is using you as a drop-off location for items he has purchased. You are unwittingly acting as an accessory and re-shipping the goods to another party who will not be traceable.

As mentioned earlier in this article, be careful with your choices. Research as much as you can before you engage in any online jobs. Otherwise you may find yourself in more trouble than you can handle.

Almost everyone has digital Still or Video camera. In this digital era, users face the common problem of accidentally deleting photos and videos from their cameras. Unlike a PC with a recycle bin, there is no undelete option that you can activate to recover the pictures.

The solution is to pick up some Photo recovery software that can help you do just that. The following six software are free and will assist you in numerous ways.

1. Geeksnerds Digital Photo Recovery Software - Is adept at recovering image files from hard disk drives, flash drives, and other storage devices which support the FAT file system. The software recognizes BMP, PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF and Tif images. It has the ability to search within sub-folders. If you are pressed for time the search facility can be interrupted at anytime and the files displayed up to that point can be recovered.

2. AnyFound Photo Recovery - Supports recovery of many image types from Windows hard disk partitions and removable storage devices, but does not possess the ability to recover video files.

3. ArtPlus Digital Photo Recovery - This tool can recover images lost accidently or due to corruption of the memory card or even if the memory card was formatted. It can also read all memory cards available in the market.

4. Smart Image Recovery - This software supports OS Windows NT/XP/Vista/Windows® 7 and performs the common image recovery functions, including recovery from formatted media.

5. PicaJet Photo Recovery - Recovers deleted images from all media cards that digital cameras use.

6. MjM Free photo data recovery software - Recovers images from corrupted or formatted memory cards. However, it does not work if Windows does not recognize the memory card or the camera as a device.
Along with these, there are other free and paid softwares that cater to your needs of photo recovery. If you do choose to buy some software, always try before you buy to maximize your returns.

Etiquette has transcended from the real world to the online world effectively. We already know what we should and should not to do in e-mails, virtual worlds, IM’s, etc. Now the latest entrant to the etiquette world is Twitter.
Joel Comm, author of Twitter Power has some great tips with which you can use to make sure you are not offending anyone accidentally with your tweeting habits.

1. Do not Spam - This should be obvious to most of us but surprisingly people do not realize it. Do not just follow people; make sure your tweets are interesting enough so people will follow you.

2. Follow style rules - Always keep your tweets in letterform. Spell everything out and avoid abbreviations. With an increase in Twitter access on mobile phones, there is an alarming move towards condensing almost every word.

3. Give credit for retweets - Do not steal other people’s ideas and post it as your own. Give credit where credit is due and your follower base will grow. An example of a retweet would be RT @Username of person: original tweet

4. Stick to 140 characters - You will annoy people if your message spans two tweets. Write out your thoughts including a TinyUrl within the 140 characters and your followers will not cut you out.

5. Follow people who follow you - Unless you have many followers, try to stick to this rule. It is a common courtesy but not considered a cardinal sin if you do not do it. This one is up to you.

This seems to be a trend with Sony, releasing ‘new’ versions of their consoles that do little to nothing else but be compact. They do not add any functionality or performance enhancements and if they do the changes are not worth buying a whole new console. Maybe if there was a trade in option with a small shipping and handling/upgrade fee to cover Sony’s expense, then maybe these ‘new’ versions would be worth the money. But for the time being they are nothing more than expensive collector’s items that will only gather dust and be forgotten.

This trend started with the PS One, Sony’s first CD home gaming system. Exceptionally ugly and bulky, a compact would have been nice to have when the system first came out but after a while people forgot about the PS One’s looks and focused on its performance. Which, given the times, was exceptional. Sony really paved the way for console gaming as it is today with the PS One and that may be what they are trying to preserve by re-releasing old consoles with new looks but they should really be working on pushing the envelope with their next console (and maybe change the name) so they can regain their place at the top instead of repainting their old works and reselling them.

But repaint them they have and as a result, Sony is still losing money with the PS3 slim. Some people will buy them but not in the numbers that Sony needs to get ahead of the competition. They not out of the game yet, but if they continue down this path Sony may lose the console war.

The long dominance of the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI on Flicker is over. As of August 19, 2009, the Apple iPhone has become the most used camera on Flickr.

Although many traditional digital cameras maintain a large edge over the iPhone in quality (the aforementioned Canon camera features a 10.1 megapixel lens verses the iPhone’s 2 megapixel), the overall availability of quality cameras within mobile smart phones has long led to their popularity among online social networking and photo sharing sites. The ubiquity of the Apple iPhone means that a digital camera is only as far away as a user’s mobile device.

Another thing leading to the popularity of the Apple iPhone on Flickr is the built-in application that allows users to instantly upload images from their mobile phone to their computer. As opposed to digital cameras that require users to interface with a computer, once an individual has downloaded the Flickr application from the iPhone Apps Store, users can instantly upload all of the photos on their mobile wherever they are, maintaining high quality speeds in both EDGE and Wi-Fi environments. The versatility of being able to search photos by tag and to maintain a Flickr account on the go has added to this mobile phone’s picture sharing popularity.

Though the recent statistics include all three versions of the iPhone while only including the latest version of each of the digital cameras, this poll shows a trend towards the use of mobile smart phones as portable image servers.

Marking its introduction to the motion comic field, Marvel Comics (noted for characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men) will debut the first episode of their first motion comic, Spider-Woman, on iTunes this Wednesday.

Motion comics notably began with DC’s Watchmen motions comic and Stan Lee’s original series Time Jumper. However, the Spider-Woman serial will mark the first time that the Marvel Comics Studio has entered this field. The story by Brian Bendis with art by Alex Maleev will explore the return of Spider-Woman altar ego Jessica Drew to Earth where she will have to go about finding the life that she lost when she has been previously kidnapped during the “Secret Invasion” event.

The story, occurring within continuity, will have a new episode released every week. Right now, Marvel has slated five different episodes to premier approximately a day before the print version of Spider-Woman (also headed by Bendis and Maleev) hits the shelves. The online version will have a teaser price of $1 on iTunes for the first two weeks. All subsequent episodes will carry a $2 price tag.

Also in the works for the Marvel Motion Comics is a six- part series entitled “Gifted” from the continuity of Astonishing X-Men headed by Joss Whedon (of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer fame) and John Cassady. Marvel expresses excitement over making comics that are meant for the motion comic style. Whether this format is here to stay, though, will depend on the popularity and overall profitability of these two offerings.

Advances in telecommunications have been a boon for businesses of all sizes. Thanks to web conferencing, many companies have been able to reduce travel costs, save time, and minimize their carbon footprint by hosting important meetings over the web rather than in person. But it isn’t just business who can benefit from these advances in technology. There are a wide range of applications for instant communication and sharing of information. We have only just begun to take advantage of the potential of video conferencing and related technologies.

Education is, at its core, the imparting of information from one party to another. While the classroom or lecture hall is the setting that comes to mind for most people, teleconferencing technology has opened new doors for those who might not be able to get the training or attend the courses they want due to logistical reasons. Distance learning is now an option for many. Schools have also found that video conferencing with satellite campuses allows them to maintain the high level of quality they need to give their students the education they deserve.