New Ways of Paying

Gauging from this week’s news stories, change is in the air for payment systems. Google unveiled its mobile payment system named Google Wallet. The software will run on Google Android handsets and allow users to tap their phone on a pad at check out counters to pay for merchandise. Google Wallet can store credit cards, offer discounts, link to loyalty rewards, and eventually even hold tickets and keys. Shortly after Google’s announcement, PayPal filed a lawsuit against Google for stealing its electronic wallet trade secrets. Meanwhile, a joint venture between Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo will soon allow many bank customers to transfer funds to others through email and mobile phones. If the new service, called clearXchange, is well received, it’s likely to put PayPal out of business. The young tech company, Square, made its mark in the commerce industry when it introduced software and a card reader that allows anyone to process credit card purchases on a smart phone. Now Square is taking the next step with iPad software that replaces a cash register. Square’s new point-of-sale iPad software manages inventory, automates checkout, and creates digital receipts. Customers either pay by swiping a credit card or transfer payment information from their smart phone. The smart phone software named Card Case, allows customers to pay by simply saying their name. The wireless connection between the smartphone and iPad take care of the rest.

• Google Wallet Could Transform Mobile Payments [NewsFactor]
• PayPal Says Google Wallet Steals Trade Secrets [NewsFactor]
• Banks Offer Cash Transfers to Cell Number, E-Mail [NewsFactor]
• Square Releases iPad-Based Cash Register [NewsFactor]
• Square Will Let Shoppers Say Their Names to Pay [NYTimes]

Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s9wYEkRAgs

Lunapic

The good thing about Lunapic is that it offers impressive set of effects and editing tools. The unique thing about Lunapic is that it provides a plethora of animations for your photos. The discouraging thing about Lunapic is that it looks dated. However, its old-fashioned interface should not discourage you from trying its features and have fun with your photos.

Advantages

• large set of customizable animated effects
• many photo effects/filters
• supports many file formats

Disadvantages

• dated feel and look

Editing Features

In addition to basic adjustment tools, Lunapic has paint and design features, as well as wide array of photo effects and filters that are not found anywhere else. There is no layer system for advanced photo editing, but compared to many "red-eye reduction" sites for casual editing, Lunapic stands out from the crowd with its additional features.

You should definitely take a look and the animated effects, which will give you a joyful experience.

In terms of supported file formats, Lunapic is outstanding, accepting GIF, JPG, BMP, PNG, AVI, MPG, FLV, RM and other image and video formats.

Ease of Use

Lunapic is not a flash-based application, so you can edit your photos straight on the webpage. Interface is straightforward but the drop-down menus are not very user-friendly. Editing process is easy and a history bar below displays all the effects you applied earlier, so you can undo what you want. One of the disadvantages is that there is no real-time preview for photo adjustment tools like Contrast and Brightness. In other words, you can see the changes only after you applied them, not while you are moving the adjustment sliders.

Help/Support

The website provides comprehensive instructional and information resources, including Help section, FAQ, Help forum, tutorials, and feedback/bug report options. The Help section, however, which describes the application's features, is incomplete and untidy.

Edit Operations

	Undo Last Operation: Most file operations, including effects and animations can be undone. Undo will only remember the last operation, so don't select undo immediately if you don't like the outcome. Save often if your working on a hard image.
	Drawing Tool: Draw directly on your image. Current tools include free hand pencil, straight line, rectangle, filled rectangle, ellipse and filled ellipse.
	Paint Bucket Tool: Fill in a color or a pattern on your image.
	Add Text: Add text to your image. Our tool lets you immediately preview how the text will look and lets you move around the text on the image. You may also select the text color and transparency!
	Add Border: Choose the border color and width of the border. Example color is red, size is 2.
	Paste Image: Paste an image from the clipboard.
	Crop Image: Use our Flash based tool to select the area of the image you want to keep. Use the corner tabs to resize this area. Press space on your keyboard when you are done.
	Auto Crop Image: Automatically trims off whitespace around image.
	Rotate 90 Degrees: Rotate image CW
	Rotate 180 Degrees: Rotate image CW
	Rotate 270 Degrees: Rotate image CW
	Resize Image: Three ways to resize your image. 1. Select from the standard size list, and click go. 2. Enter the new dimensions of your image and click "Resize Image". 3. Press your "Shift" key while dragging the image to your desired size. Then click "Resize Image" above to convert your image. Note: The preview image is not as good quality as the actual resized image. For a full preview, resize the image then "undo" if you don't like it.
	Make Transparent: Select a part of the image you would like to make transparent. In the example, the white background is selected.
	Advanced Image Effects
	Polaroid Picture Make your image look like a photograph with shadow.
	Andy Warhol Effect: - Clones your image and does various tints for an Andy Warhol effect.
	Thermal Effect - Changes image colors to rainbow colors based on heat signature (lightness / darkness) of image.
	Lightning Effect - Overlays image of lightning on your image. Also available in the animation menu.
	Fire Effect - Overlays image of fire on your image. Also available in the animation menu.
	Abstract Line Effect - Replaces your image with an abstract line drawing.
	Vignette: Make your picture look older with a fuzzy white border.
	Black and White: Grayscale the image into a black and white image.
	Censor: Add a censor box to your image!
	Glitter-ize: Turn all the non white parts of the image to glitter. Does not work on animated images. For best results, start with a black and white image.
	Cutout - Heart: Cut out a heart shape from your image. Does not work on animated graphics. (bug was pre tinted to show example better)
	Tint color: Tint the color of your image any color you want. Example is tinted green.
	Charcoal:
	Emboss:
	Painted:
	Blur:
	Sharpen:
	Mirror:
	Flip:
	Darken:
	Lighten:
	Negative:
	Equalize:
	Normalize:
	Buttonize: Raise the image to create a 3D effect. Works even better with transparent graphics.
	Drop Shadow: Add a shadow of the image to create a 3D effect. Works even better with transparent graphics.
	Add Gradient: Colors chosen were black to white (reverse of defaults)

Images: www.freeimages.co.uk

Free security software to protect your PC from malware

With identity theft on the rise, you know that computer security is important. So, if you don't have security software or if your security programs are outdated, take action!

I know what you're thinking: Buying a computer security suite is costly. But you don't need to spend a dime. I have links to all the free security software you need.

Antivirus programs

There are tens of thousands of pieces of malware circulating on the Internet. These include viruses, worms, Trojans, dialers and other monsters. This stuff poses a terrific threat to your security.

To counter malware, use antivirus software. You should only run one antivirus program on your computer. If you run multiple antivirus programs, they'll conflict. Make sure to keep it updated, as virus definitions are constantly being added.

Free antivirus software:
• AVG AntiVirus
• avast!
• Avira AntiVir Personal
• Microsoft Security Essentials
• Panda Cloud Antivirus

Firewalls

A good firewall will also make your computer more secure. Firewall programs render your computer invisible to hackers' probes. Hackers run scanning programs over the Internet, looking for computers with electronic openings, called ports. Good firewalls make your computer invisible to the scanners. As with antivirus software, don't run multiple firewalls. They will conflict.

Free firewall:
• Zone Alarm

Anti-spyware software

Spyware and adware are other big threats to computer security. Spyware tracks your Web surfing and reports your interests to a computer on the Internet. Adware sits on your computer and feeds you ads. Both spyware and adware will slow your machine.

You need programs to keep spyware and adware from taking root. And you need other programs to annihilate spyware and adware that collects on your computer. You should use multiple anti-spyware programs on your computer. Unlike antivirus software and firewalls, they won't conflict.

Free anti-spyware programs:
• Ad-Aware
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Microsoft Windows Defender
• SpywareBlaster

Safe Browsing

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is rife with security holes. Over the years, many of these security problems have been patched through Windows updates. But new ones continue to appear. I recommend that you switch to the Firefox browser. It's free. I think it is inherently safer.
• Firefox Web Browser

Mac Security :
• Sophos Anti-Virus Home Edition for Mac
• With ClamXav

http://www.komando.com/securitycenter/

Make your passwords unbreakable but memorable

Criminals are very good at cracking simple passwords. Take the recent case at Twitter.

A number of high-profile accounts were hacked. These accounts belonged to various public figures, including Barack Obama. Some embarrassing posts were made in their names. But none of these people were at fault.

A Twitter employee’s account was hacked. This gave the criminal full access to administrative tools. It wasn’t hard to do. The employee’s account had a simple password, “happiness.”

This password is a great example of what not to do. It’s fairly short. It only uses lowercase letters. And, worst of all, it’s a dictionary word. Passwords out of the dictionary can be cracked in minutes. They are the first passwords criminals try.

Create a better password

So, what makes a password strong? There are a couple key features you should remember.

• Avoid names and dictionary words
• Use at least eight characters; the more the better
• Include upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols

A strong password should look like random characters. In fact, a truly random password is the strongest available. Unfortunately, you probably won’t remember a randomly generated string of characters.

Such a password could look like this: IwIhl@M$bi86. So, how do you make this memorable?

The answer is surprisingly simple. And it’s a trick that you can use for all of your passwords.

Start by thinking of a meaningful sentence. It can be anything you want. It could be a favorite song lyric, famous quote or catchphrase. Or it could just be something you made up. Here’s my example:

I wish I had looked at Microsoft stock back in 1986.

From here, building a random looking password is easy. Simply take the first character from each word. In my case, this results in “IwIhlaMsbi1.” Not bad. It has enough letters, mixed cases and a number.

But to make it stronger you’ll also want to add symbols. That’s easy, too. Just swap out a few letters for similar symbols. Now, my password looks like this, “IwIhl@M$bi1.” And I’ll change around some numbers for good measure. And we get my final password:
IwIhl@M$bi86

Use multiple passwords
This password is very strong. It’s doubtful that criminals could crack it. Or at least, it would take way too long. And it wouldn’t be worth their time.

But nothing is foolproof. You don’t want to use the same password for everything. If you do, once one account is compromised, all are compromised. So, use different passwords. But again, remembering all of those passwords isn’t easy. Luckily, there are several simple solutions.

You could try a password manager. These programs store all of your passwords in an encrypted file. You only need to remember one password to access them. Try KeePass, LastPass or Pageonce.

You could also modify your one strong password. Add or change a few characthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifers for each account. Say, you have a Gmail account and Amazon account. You’ll use the original password as the root. And then, you’ll add characters related to the service.

For Gmail, I’d use IwIhl@M$bi86Gm
For Amazon, I’d use AmZIwIhl@M$bi86

Obviously, these are not really my passwords. But using a system makes it easy to remember all of your passwords.

http://www.komando.com/tips/index.aspx?id=1503&page=1

Love Me Tender

Download Free Full Songs!

Encrypt your online searches

Nobody wants to be monitored online. After all, you use the Internet to look up health conditions, legal matters and more. Of course, some countries don't enjoy the same Internet freedoms as we do. One wrong online move can land citizens in jail. That's why Google launched its encrypted search site. Your connection to Google's servers is scrambled. No one can intercept your search terms.

This can be a handy tool to protect your privacy. Just remember that most Websites don't use encryption. So, if you click a search result, others may see that you visited the site.

encrypted.google.com

Any Video Converter

Any Video Converter 3.23 AVC - 22.02MB (Freeware)

Any Video Converter is an All-in-One video converting tool with easy-to-use graphical interface, fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It allows you to effortlessly convert video files between every format! It can convert almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-4 movie format for iPod/PSP or other portable video device, MP4 player or smart phone. It also supports any user defined video file formats as the output. Any Video Converter makes it easy for anyone to enjoy the any format video with your iPod, PSP, mobile phone or MP4 player.

User-friendly interface that is easy to use.
Converts all video formats to Apple iPod Video, Sony PSP and more
Batch convert any video formats including avi, wmv, asf, mpg, mp4, etc.
Support DivX and Xvid avi format as importing and exporting video
Support default video/audio settings or user customized parameters for video and audio.
Has the option to preview the video in real-time before conversion .
World's fastest video conversion speed with stunning video and audio quality.
Supports adjust many video/audio options for MP4 files. For example, video/audio sample rate, bit rate, video size...

http://filehippo.com/download_any_video_converter/