January 23, 2009

Picasa 3

When it comes to an easy way to share, edit and organize your photos, Picasa is the only way to go! We have written about Picasa here at WorldStart before, because it's a great free program made by Google that packs in a lot of power.

And not too long ago, Google announced the arrival of Picasa 3. The new version offers even more features than the previous one, so there's plenty of new stuff to try out. Or, if you've never used Picasa before, you surely don't cialis mg dosage want to miss out on the new version 3!

Here are some of the great things you can do with Picasa 3:

Retouch Images: In Picasa 3, you can fix little problems with your pictures using the Retouch tool. Simply click on the problem area and the program will handle it from there.

Share Images with Web Albums: Picasa 3 offers a new feature that allows you to automatically upload your images to the Web so that others can see them. You can even choose the option of Sync Pictures so that any changes made on the album will automatically update to the Web.

Make Movies: With Picasa 3, you can take your pictures and turn them into movies. It's a great feature and it's one I use with my own photos all the time.

Watermarks: You can add a custom watermark to your pictures to mark them as your own. If you have images that are unique, that's a great feature for you.

The above list is short in comparison to the full list of capabilities Picasa 3 has. So, if you want to learn more about Picasa 3 and get it for yourself, you can download it right here. Enjoy!

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Windows Vista – Drivers

Computers 101

Q:
I just recently started using Windows Vista and I've been having trouble with some of the drivers associated with my hardware. I know I should be able to use the Device Manager to fix those things, but I'm not quite sure where to start. Can you please help? Thank you so much!

A:
Excellent question! First, I'd like to welcome you to the world of Windows Vista. I know it was probably a big step to make the upgrade, but you did it and now you're on your way to learning all there is to know about your new operating system. How exciting is that?! Plus, I know you're not the only one who has recently made the switch over to Vista, so today's question will really help you and a lot of other new users. Below, you will find a simple explanation on how to actually find the Device Manager, along with a few troubleshooting techniques for some common issues you may run into. Okay, here we go!

To begin, let's open up the Device Manager. In Windows Vista, go to Start, Control Panel and click on the System and Maintenance link. Next, click on the System link and then on the left hand side under the Tasks pane, click on Device Manager. That will open a window that lists all of your computer's hardware. You'll see all of your computer's adapters, ROM drives, your keyboard, your mouse, the controllers, the USB ports, etc. Anything that has to do with your computer's hardware will be listed there. In short, it will look something like this:

Now, let's get back to the question at hand. If you've been having trouble with the drivers for some of your computer's hardware, there are three common issues that come into play. Chances are, your problem lies within one of them, so let's get down to it!

1.) Certain Hardware is Not Listed – The first problem arises when hardware you expected to find is not listed. If something is left off the list, it's likely the hardware was not installed correctly. In that case, you should power down your computer and find the actual hardware device. Take some time to make sure it's hooked up correctly and then restart your computer. Once you do that, Vista should automatically recognize the hardware and it will go through the installation process again. You may be asked for the hardware's drivers during the new installation, so just make sure you have those ready to go as well. When the installation is done, you should now see the hardware listed under the Device Manager.

2.) You See a Yellow Exclamation Point – It's possible that when you get the Device Manager open, you'll see a few entries that have yellow exclamation points next to them. When that happens, it means the hardware is installed correctly and Windows recognizes it, but it's still not working properly. That type of thing usually involves a driver error, so you just need to update your drivers. To do that, right click on the hardware (the one that has the exclamation cialis medicine point next to it) and choose Properties. Next, click on the Driver tab and then the Update Driver button. From there, click on the option that says "Search automatically for updated driver software." Vista will then look for the correct updated drivers for your hardware device and install them for you. If Windows can't find any, you will need to go to the manufacturer's Web site and download them there.

3.) The Dreaded Red X Appears – If you have a hardware device with a red X next to it, you're dealing with a disabled piece of hardware. To fix that, simply right click on the hardware and choose Enable. That will start up the hardware and you can begin using it like normal once again.

That's it! Working through all of those troubleshooting techniques should fix your hardware issues within your Device Manager. Luckily, they're all fairly easy to do and they deliver results. Give them a try today!

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Adobe Flash Player (IE, AOL) 10.0.12.36

Publisher: Adobe
Last updated: October 15, 2008
File Size: 1.8 MB
OS Support: Windows (all)
License: Freeware
Downloads: 30859
User Rating:   (133 votes)
Click here to begin download

Publisher's Description

Gain unprecedented creative control with expressive new features and visual performance improvements in Adobe Flash Player 10

Adobe® Flash® Player software is a cross-platform browser plug-in that delivers breakthrough web experiences and is installed on more than 98% of Internet-connected desktops.

Top features

3D effects

Create more intuitive, engaging interfaces using built-in support for 3D effects. Get started quickly without being a 3D master by designing in 2D and easily transforming and animating in 3D. Fast, extremely lightweight, and simple-to-use APIs, along with 3D tools in Adobe® Flash® CS4 Professional software, make motion that was previously accessible only to expert users via ActionScript® language or custom third-party libraries available to everyone.

Custom filters and effects

Create high-performance, real-time effects for cinematic experiences cialis mail order that quickly engage users. With new Adobe Pixel Bender™, the same technology behind many filters and effects in Adobe After Effects® software, these dynamic and interactive effects can be used both in production with After Effects CS4 and live with Flash Player 10. The Pixel Bender just-in- time (JIT) compiler can also be used to process other types of data, such as sound or mathematical functions, asynchronously in a separate thread.

Advanced text support

Take advantage of a new, flexible text layout engine that brings print-quality publishing to the web, building on more than 25 years of Adobe expertise in typography. Gain more control over text layout using an extensible library of ActionScript 3.0 text components to flow text and sophisticated typographic elements such as ligatures across multiple columns, around inline images, bidirectionally, vertically, or chained together. Create multilingual rich Internet applications (RIAs) using device fonts that can now be anti-aliased, rotated, and styled, or build your own unique text components.

Dynamic sound generation

Use enhanced sound APIs to dynamically generate audio and create new types of audio applications such as music mixers and sequencers, real-time audio for games, and even audio visualizers. Work with loaded MP3 audio at a lower level by extracting audio data and supplying it to the sound buffer. Process, filter, and mix audio in real time through the Pixel Bender JIT compiler to extend creative freedom beyond the visual experience.

Drawing API Enhanced

Perform runtime drawing more easily with restyleable properties, 3D APIs, and a new way of drawing sophisticated shapes without having to code them line by line. Developers can tweak parts of curves, change styling, replace parts, and use custom filters and effects, delivering improved throughput, creative control, and greater productivity. Enhancements to the Drawing API add the z dimension, real perspective, textured meshes in 3D space, a retained graphics model, read/write rendering, and triangle drawing with UV coordinates, while adding memory and improving performance.

Hardware acceleration Enhanced

Use the hardware processing power of the graphics card to paint SWF files into the browser and accelerate compositing calculations of bitmaps, filters, blend modes, and video overlays faster than would be performed in software.

Vector data type

Use the new typed array class for better performance, efficiency, and error checking of data.

Dynamic Streaming

Show exceptional video with streams that automatically adjust to changing network conditions. Leverage new quality-of-service metrics to provide a better streaming experience.

Speex audio codec

Take advantage of the new, high-fidelity and open source Speex voice codec, which offers a low-latency alternative for voice encoding. Flash Player also supports ADPCM, HE-AAC, MP3, and Nellymoser audio.

File upload and download APIs

Bring users into the experience by letting them load and save files from your web application. New file reference runtime access allows local processing of data without roundtripping to the server.

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