Ladies, please! The right way to send me pics

It seems that not everyone saw my earlier article on the proper way to send me those pictures of yourselves, so I will repeat myself for the sake of being perfectly clear. I will start with an example of what NOT to do.

As this screenshot of my Inbox shows, when you send me your photograph using Facebook, or similar social networking or photosharing site, it looks to me like a phishing scam.. very similar to the phony Hallmark e-Card spams that try to install malware (virus, worm, spyware, etc.).

I very much appreciate the time and trouble you took to send me your photo, but I don’t touch these– except to delete! (So, if that was you Dear Reader, I’m sorry. You’ll have to try again.)

The proper way to send:
1) Write a short note as an e-mail from a legit-looking e-mail address (acd490y663A@badguys.ru is NOT legit-looking. Use your m.jones@real_ISP.com account), and put something rational in the Subject field.

2) Attach your .jpg*. Do NOT send me GIFF’s or PNG’s or PDF’s. I won’t open them.

That’s it. Sending by this method will ensure that I will see you. Tech Paul fans and loyal readers of Tech–for Everyone will know that I will treat your mailings with the utmost respect and privacy.

* More on sending images: Because digital images like .jpg’s (aka JPEG file) can be quite large, you may have trouble e-mailing them. Please see How to send big files (updated). The section specific to digital images is about halfway down.
(Short version: use an image editor – like Paint (found in the Accessories folder) and find the option labeled “resize”; and, “Save As” a JPEG.)

[note: for those of you new to my style of humor, this is an article about cyber-crime. As an Extra Added Bonus, I threw in a troubleshooting tip. To date, no fan has sent me any photos. (please make sympathetic noise here.) ]

For more on cybercrime in your Inbox, see In These Tough Times, Could You Use Some Extra $$$’s ?

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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How To Remove Metadata From Your Files

Hidden Attributes and Tags Might Reveal More Than You Would Like

You may not be aware that the documents you generate, and the photos you edit on your computer are “stamped” (if you will) with little bits and pieces of information that the computer thinks are useful — called “metadata“. This metadata is not out in plain site for you to notice, but it’s there. Fortunately, it is not difficult to remove.

Metadata is essentially there to help the computers do their jobs better and faster, and can be helpful to us as well.

Metadata for a photograph would typically include the date and time at which it was taken and details of the camera settings, such as focal length, aperture, exposure. It would also contain any titles or keyword “tags” we’ve added to help us organize our albums.

Metadata for a document would typically include the date and time at which it was created, title, author, subject, number of pages, and the language of the text.

But the metadata will also contain the number of revisions, how long you spent working on it, (possibly) hidden markups/edits, who it is “shared” with, who else it’s been sent to, the Save path (which usually reveals your User Name), computer name, and more.
This can open you up to embarrassment (What? They took 4 hours and 6 revisions to write this ??? And why did they show it Joe?) and/or provide info a hacker might use to gain control of your PC.

Tip of the day: Before you e-mail off your file as an attachment, or turn it in to the boss, it might be a good idea to strip it of the metadata. To do this:
1) right-click of the file and select “Properties” from the context menu. In my example, I’ll use a Word document named BarbaraInvoice.doc.

2) Click on the “Details” tab, and look to the bottom area. Click on “Remove Properties and Personal Information”.

3) A new window will open. Here you will see two choices represented by radio buttons. ‘Remove it all’ is the default, but you can be selective by clicking the second button, and using the window scroll, and remove just certain tags.

4) Click “OK”, and the metadata is gone.

Today’s free link: Amazon’s Game Downloads area lets you try every title – including new releases – before you buy. There are games for all ages and interests.

Today’s free download: Recently, I was asked “what program will fix my computer ?” Well, that sort of depends on what the problem is, now doesn’t it? It’s a nice idea though, isn’t it? One program that fixes everything. (I’d be out of a job!) Advanced SystemCare Free from IObit comes pretty close to fitting that bill. One click will help restore your computer to its youthful vigor, and keep it running smoothly.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Photoshop online– use the Web to edit pictures*

“Made You Look” is the marketing catchphrase for the new online Photoshop Website, and yes– I did take a look. Adobe Photoshop Express (Beta) is a Web 2.0 application for editing and sharing your digital images, and is seen to be a replacement for a program you buy and load onto your computer. It is — at this time, anyway — a free service (and surprisingly, has no ads).

I would be very surprised if you haven’t heard of Photoshop; it has been around so long, it has become a verb in today’s language (meaning “to create a fake image”). Photoshop is the tool which allows you to put your head on someone else’s body.. or make it look like you’re standing on the moon.. or remove your Ex from your old vacation pictures. (With the right starting photos, there’s almost nothing I can’t fake in Photoshop.)

Photoshop has long been considered the premier digital image manipulation program. As I discussed in this article, “Web 2.0” is all about us regular folks being able to ‘upload’ to the Web (and “share”/collaborate) instead of simply viewing (‘downloading’) content. And frankly, Adobe is not the first to the market of online photo sharing Websites, nor sites that let you edit your pictures once you’ve loaded them.. Picassa and Photobucket have been around for a while now (to name a few).

Considering Photoshop’s reputation, I wanted to know if Adobe’s online service had superior editing capabilities. To use Express, you must “join” the club, by providing an e-mail address and creating a user account. While you do that, you create a personalized URL (like, http://yourname.photoshop.com) where you can post your pictures in “galleries”, if you want to share them (which is not required). Once you’re a member, you “upload” your pictures, and you can now edit them, and organize them into galleries, e-mail them, or use them as images on (other) Websites.

The screenshot above shows the image editing screen. Those of you who have ever used Photoshop Elements will be very familiar with this interface. The editing options (left column) provide a thumbnail range above your original so you can see, and select from, adjustments. This makes ‘tweaking’ your image quite easy and straight-forward, and allows you to experiment without ruining your original.

Is this for you? Well, as it stands, I find that there are some basic image editing features which are missing (it is possible I just couldn’t find the menu..) such as image resizing and dots-per-inch adjustment. You can crop, but not shrink.. nor adjust file type or size. I am an advanced Photoshop user, and so I find the tools in Photoshop Elements overly simplified, and these even more so– which is precisely what many people want.

While this (at least, in its current state) tool will not let you paste your head onto a super-model’s body, or pose on the moon, it will let you smoothly and easily tweak your images, remove the red-eye effect, and share your pictures with far away friends and relatives. If you are not already using a similar service.. or are not satisfied with the one you’re using.. you should give this a tryout. It is very slick and easy to use. Click the link in the second sentence, and get started.

*Original posting: 4/14/08

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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