Cleaning Your Camera

Below are a few tips you can use to get your digital camera squeaky clean. Let's check them out!

Lenses

Basic lens cleaning tools are a blower, a microfiber cloth and lens cleaning fluid (such as Zeiss). Try to blast dust off the lens with the blower or canned air. Finger prints can be removed with a circular wipe of the microfiber cloth. Persistent dirt should be removed with lens cleaning fluid as well. Always drip the fluid onto the cloth and then wipe the lens. Don't ever put the fluid directly on the lens.

SLR Mirrors

Don't even think about cleaning the mirror on your SLR camera. You could use a handheld blower to remove any dust particles, but canned air is too powerful. Technicians clean mirrors with some kind of special fluid and they often do it for free at camera clinics run by shops or conventions. Mirrors have very fragile surfaces and you shouldn't even think about cleaning them with a standard lens cleaning solution or cloth.

Flash Contacts

Modern TTL flash systems have numerous contacts and if you don't clean them every now and then with a pencil eraser or something similar, you may end up with several intermittent failures.

Camera Body Sensor

One of the great things about digital SLRs is you can change the lenses as necessary for different projects. However, during those lens changes, there is a risk of dust falling "onto the sensor." In fact, the CMOS or CCD sensor is covered by a color filter or a clear glass plate, so the dust actually falls on the sensor's covering. Nonetheless, you want to be careful and non-aggressive, because if anything near the sensor is scratched, the camera will have to go in for professional service.

Now's the time to get out the owner's manual for your camera. Make sure the battery is fully charged and then follow the instructions to flip up the mirror for the "sensor cleaning mode." If you can't dislodge dust using a simple hand-squeezed blower, consider visiting a camera repair shop.

Camera Body Exterior

Camera and lens bodies are fairly well sealed against dust and moisture, so you don't really ever have to clean the exteriors of your equipment. On the other hand, if you don't want the dirt on the camera body to work its way into your camera bag and onto an optical surface, it's probably worth wiping off the body with a soft cloth.

Just a few things to think about. Happy cleaning!

~ Ramachandran Kumaraswami

Managing Vista Wireless Networks

Have you ever experienced any of the following problems with wireless Internet in Windows Vista?

• Being repeatedly disconnected from a hotspot.
  
  
• Automatically connecting to a hotspot you didn’t want to connect to.
  
  
• Not being able to connect to the wireless hotspot you would like.

If so, I can say that I have experienced those problems too. The good news is Vista includes a tool to solve the problems for you. And I’m going to show you how to use it right now!

1.) To begin, go to Start, Control Panel.

2.) In the search box in the upper right hand corner, type "manage wireless."

3.) From the search results, select Manage wireless networks.

4.) A window similar to this will appear, with all of your hotspots listed:

5.) Now, if any of your hotspots are missing, here's how you can add them to the list.

6.) You need to be in range of the hotspot and then press Add.

7.) Next, select "Add a network that is in range of this computer."

8.) Now, connect to the network like you normally would and it will be added to the list.

9.) Next, you're going to set the order of the hotspots. That will indicate in which order Windows will try to connect to the hotspots. Organizing the list is as easy as dragging and dropping!

10.) I want to show you one last thing. Right click on any hotspot and choose Properties.

11.) You'll see two options there: "Connect automatically when this network is in range" and "Connect to a more preferred network if available."

12.) Those allow you to toggle on and off whether Vista should automatically connect to them or not. I like to enable them both, because that means if Vista can’t find my main hotspot, it will connect to the next one on the list.

There you have it. Vista wireless networks made easy!

~ Neil Patel

Fix It with a Click, Click

Do you frequently use MS Excel charts? If so, do you ever find yourself in a situation where you've gone completely through the charting process, had a beautiful graph made and realized you spelled a word wrong?

What now?

Do you have to start all over?

Oh, I hope not! There must be a quick and easy solution somewhere.

Well, breathe easy, because there sure is!

Mistakes in an Excel chart are often fixed with just a click, click.

Did you know that the chart and the data are connected? (A change in the data will automatically change the chart).

Well, that also works with the data labels you highlighted to create the chart. If there's a misspelled word, you can correct it right in the worksheet and just like magic, the chart is fixed too!

But what about all the other titles you put in the graph?

Don't worry. There's an easy fix for that too!

Simply click twice on the title that needs to be changed.

That's right! All you have to do is click, wait a second and then click again.

You'll get a cursor in the text, so you can make any necessary changes.

When you're finished, simply click somewhere else in the graph.

All the mistakes are gone!

~ April

Google Chrome Pros & Cons

Q:
Can you maybe give us a list of pros and cons for Google Chrome? Thanks!

A:
Great idea! I know there has been a lot of hype the past couple of weeks about the new Web browser from Google called Google Chrome. Yes, it's great to finally have a browser from Google, but along with the excitement, people are having some reservations. So, yes, the best thing to do is put together a list of pros and cons for the browser and you all can decide for yourselves. We're going to start with the pros today and we'll then go over the cons in tomorrow's newsletter. Okay, let's get busy!

Pros

1.) Google Chrome will not crash. Everything within the browser runs on its own, so you won't have to deal with bad Web sites or browser crashes. That also adds a little more security, because it isolates everything into its own environment.

2.) Google Chrome is really fast. Again, since everything works on its own, one slow Web site won't drag the rest of your work down. You can just go to another tab or window and be on your way!

3.) Google Chrome is unnoticeable (in a good way!) The interface for Google Chrome is perfectly streamlined, so you won't even know you're in a Web browser. Most of your window space is devoted to the Web site you're visiting, so there are no big buttons, etc. taking up all your room.

4.) Google Chrome makes searching easier. One of the main features in Google Chrome is Omnibox, which is basically an all-purpose bar located at the top of the browser that you can use to search for something or to find a Web site. All you have to do is type in a URL or a search term and it will do the rest of the work for you. Omnibox also remembers the sites you've visited and suggests others you might like.

5.) Google Chrome gives you more tab control. Tabbed browsing is taken to the next level with Google Chrome. You can drag and drop your tabs, you can combine them together, you can set up your own configurations and so much more!

6.) Google Chrome livens up your homepage. The Google Chrome homepage is very dynamic and like I said before about the Omnibox feature, it will remember the Web sites you've been to so that you can revisit them with ease. It also compiles a list of your favorite top nine sites and displays them on the homepage. Of course, you can change your top nine at any time, but that's just another example of how Google Chrome makes your life easier!

7.) Google Chrome keeps you private. Along with everything else, Google Chrome also offers a private browsing option. It's called Incognito and it basically sets up a browsing area for you that is away from everything else on your computer. You get your own private window to search with, which keeps your information as private as possible.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?! I know we haven't gotten into the cons for Google Chrome yet, but the seven pros above will give you something to think about before tomorrow's edition of the newsletter. We'll delve right into the cons first thing tomorrow, so be sure to stay tuned!

~ Erin

New SiteMeter Windows Vista Gadget

As many of you are aware SiteMeter has developed a Yahoo Widget that allows you to view your sites daily page views and visit totals “live”, on your computer’s desktop, as they happen.

A few months back we were introduced to Rajesh Lal. He was interested in making a similar tool for SiteMeter members using Windows Vista Gadgets. Rajesh Lal is an author, technology evangelist, and solutions engineer specializing in web technologies. Rajesh has completed the new Widget and has also written a book on how to construct you own gadgets.

We have arranged with Rajesh to provide anyone wanting to have a SiteMeter Vista gadget on their desktop with a full working version available through download. Just download the gadget, enter your SiteMeter codename and password and track your sites stats, live on your computer desktop. You will of course need to be using Windows Vista.

The download is available here.

For those interested in learning how to create your own Vista Gadgets the book is titled - Creating Vista Gadgets - Using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with Examples in RSS, Ajax, ActiveX (COM), and Silverlight.

The book is oriented towards beginner to intermediate users and teaches how to –
• Build a blog tracking Gadget
• Create an Information Gadget with Ajax
• Develop Utility Gadgets using ActiveX (COM)
• Incorporate Internet Radio and YouTube Videos in Gadgets

The book’s cover price is $34.99 and can be found at Borders, Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com and other online retailers. The book is published under the SAMS label and is also “Safari Books Online Enabled”. For more information you can go to www.innovatewithgadgets.com.

Source:- http://weblog.sitemeter.com/2008/06/18/new-sitemeter-windows-vista-gadget/

PC take so long to shut down?

Why does my PC take so long to shut down?

Dear CNET members,

Happy Friday! Sorry I missed you folks last week, I had some troubles with both my wrists and was decommissioned for a while. However, I'm back in the saddle again. So have you folks had a chance to check out the all-new CNET? I hope you have and I really hope you enjoy it, our entire staff has put countless hours and energy into bring you this new experience. If you haven't done so already, after you've soaked into our new site experience for a while, tell us what you think--hate it or love it, go to the top of any CNET page and click the "Send feedback" link and tell us about it, we are all ears. Now let's get right into Victoria's question on why her PC takes so long to shut down.

Well Victoria, after reading many of our member suggestions for you, there can be many factors that could be causing your Windows system to shut down so slowly. It can range from your PC being infected with viruses/spyware and having an overly defragmented drive, to an excessive amount of programs running in the background, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The major reasons why PCs will eventually take longer to shut down is simply because more programs in the background need to be ended before the operating system can completely shut down. And one quick solution for that is to minimize clutter and unnecessary programs on your PC, but it may not be as simple as that. So give all the answers a read, start with the simple recommended tasks, and see if there are any improvements. If not, go forward from there. I have selected a few answers to get you started in the Q&A section.

For those of you who suggested completely wiping your hard drive clean and reinstalling Windows, I would keep this option as a last resort. While this is a completely valid method of ridding yourself of many Windows problems, unless you are up to the task and know exactly what you are doing, it can be a daunting task. If you have any more suggestions or advice for Victoria, please swing on by and post your suggestions in the discussion thread. Thanks everyone and have a great weekend!

Cheers!
- Lee

Got suggestions? Send me an e-mail: messageboards@cnet.com