Is there water on the Moon?

NASA has made an attempt to answer this question once again by sending an empty rocket part that weighed as much as a small SUV crashing into the moon. The target was a crater that they thought might contain some deposits of water that they hoped they could analyze the results to determine if there really is water located there.

While the picture to the right is not a image of where they dropped the rocket part, it could have looked like any one of these hundreds of craters that you see in the picture.

I am always interested in what NASA is doing because I grew up with Space as being our last primary frontier for Man to conquer. It has always captured my imagination. If this particular experiment shows that there really are water deposits that we could take advantage of. This will help make our going back to the moon even more viable.

It is going to take several weeks for them to analyze the images they captured. Hopefully we will get some good news.

I was printing in Photoshop and I got a Scratch Disk Full error.

Question: What is the Photoshop Scratch Disk? How Do You Fix "Scratch Disk Full" Errors?

Answer: The Photoshop Scratch Disk is referencing the virtual memory or memory swap space on your hard drive when your system does not have enough RAM to perform an operation. You can change drives that are being used for your scratch drive and if you use a second drive other than the one your operating system is on for your scratch drive it should run more efficiently.

If you have a problem and Photoshop crashes in the middle of an editing session this can leave some pretty large temporary file behind on your scratch disk. Photoshop’s temp files are typically named ~PST####.tmp on Windows, where #### is a series of numbers. These are safe to delete.

Other notes from http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/f/scratchdisk.htm gives these hints:

Clear Disk Space

If you're getting an error message that the scratch disk is full, it usually means you need to clear some space on whatever drive is defined as the scratch disk in Photoshop Preferences, or add additional drives for Photoshop to use as scratch space.

Defragment Your Hard Disk

It is also possible to get the "scratch disk is full" error, even if the scratch disk drive has free space. This is because Photoshop requires contiguous, unfragmented free space on the scratch disk drive. If you are getting the "scratch disk is full" error message and your scratch disk drive does show a good amount of free space, you may need to run a disk defragmentation utility.

Scratch Disk Errors When Cropping

If you are getting a "scratch disk full" error when attempting to crop an image, it's likely that you inadvertently have size and resolution values entered in the options bar for the crop tool, or you entered values in the wrong units. For instance, entering dimensions of 1200 x 1600 when your units are set to inches instead of pixels is going to create a huge file that could trigger the scratch disk full message. The solution is to press clear in the options bar after selecting the crop tool but before dragging a crop selection.

Windows 7 Taskbar Features

ZDNET is a great source for tech news and How To functions that help me learn how to use different features of applications that I use everyday. Ed Bott has been running a short series of Windows 7 functions that when you take them as a whole will give you some good reasons for wanting to move into and start using this new operating system. I know that I have fallen in love with it and I would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to go back to any of the earlier versions of Windows now. Watch the video above to get a feel for what the new taskbar features provide you in this new interface.

Microsoft plans monster Patch Tuesday next week

The magic number this time around is 13 patches. The first patch for Windows 7 is included in the group. What is being covered? All the Windows operating systems, Internet Explorer, Office, SQL Server and some developer tools and Forefront Security client software. Eight are listed as critical. For more details click on the link below.

Microsoft plans monster Patch Tuesday next week

Add a popup window to a PowerPoint slide | Microsoft Office | TechRepublic.com

Susan Harkins has an interesting blog entry in TechRepublic that you  might be able to use. Susan shows you how to embed a graphic that triggers a popup window when pressed. If you need this kind of function you will want to read this article you will want to jump to the link listed below and read how she does it.

Add a popup window to a PowerPoint slide | Microsoft Office | TechRepublic.com

Can you find me Hard Drive Encryption software that will protect the hard drives if my notebook is lost or stolen?

Here is a great free product that will allow you to encrypt a partition, drive or a storage device like a flash drive. If you want to protect your data from prying eyes this is a great product. Take a look at it at: http://www.truecrypt.org/

Windows 7 Now in Distribution

We finally are seeing product hitting our distribution points. SO… if you are interested let me know. Here are the different version with a cross reference of their features. Upgrades and Retail boxes only. OEM isn’t out yet, darn, so we aren’t building yet.

Windows 7 in action: A smarter way to manage windows | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

Here is a video segment put together by Ed Bott and ZDNet.com. This will give you some easy control techniques for working with window in Windows 7.

Windows 7 in action: A smarter way to manage windows | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

Here’s a scary Trojan Virus that steals your money and displays a fake bank balance

Dubbed URLZone, this Trojan horse targets your Bank Account, steals your log-in credentials, grabs your money and displays a fake balance when you are in the account. Reported by a chief tech officer at Finjan and is programmed to calculate on the fly how much money to steal from an account based on how much is available. It exploits a hole in Firefox, IE 6, 7 and 8, and Opera. It is only found on Windows based systems and can be delivered to your machine either through JavaScript or from and Adobe PDF file.

This Trojan is primarily targeting German Banks currently and was linked back to a server in the Ukraine. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at Finjan went on to state: “This is part of a new trend of more sophisticated Trojans designed to evade antifraud systems."

About 90,000 computers visited the sites housing the malware and 6,400 of them were infected, a 7.5 percent success rate, he said. Of those whose computers installed the Trojan, a few hundred had money stolen from their bank accounts, he said.

During the span of 22 days in mid-August, the criminals behind the Trojan stole the euro equivalent of nearly $438,000. (reported on CNET)

Digsby-You may have seen several messages come through saying that I am using this now

I have put the Digsby App onto both my main desktop at home and work to see if it gives me any new and hopefully faster access to all of my communication sources at the desktop. I even went so far as to put a Digsby Gadget on the website to allow IM communication directly from my blog to me if I am online. In a way this gives the ability to online support commenting a run as well. We’ll see how it works.

The Digsby desktop program reminds me a lot of Messenger and other Instant Messaging Apps that provide a buddy list display. You will notice that it lets you set several different types of accounts to track as well as your standard instant messaging. It only support eight different types of IM accounts as you see in the image to the right. Noticeably missing are instant messaging to Skype, which is an app I have up and running on most of my computers all of the time. It does allow reading your messages in Facebook and any email account that you would like to program in. If you have multiple accounts in any of these Social Networks you can put them all in as you have seen me do with Twitter.  Standard support for the three primary Social Networks is in place plus LinkedIn. That one surprised me.

Besides the standard online big name free email account providers, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and AOL/AIM Mail, there is support for any POP or IMAP email service as well. So you can easily keep up with all your different accounts with one application.

For a complete list of features take a look at their features page.

If you want to download the application, click on the image to the left and it will take you to the download page.

Dropbox Comes to the iPhone and iPod touch via Ziibii

Dropbox upgrade gives you hot key functions.

http://lifehacker.com/5370537/dropbox-comes-to-the-iphone-and-ipod-touch

Sent from my iPhoneBob ApplebyComputer Connections Incbappleby@paconnect.com

Groove 3.1 End of Life

We received the formal notification from Microsoft of the End of Life for Groove 3.1 software products.

Within the next year, Microsoft will release the next version of the Microsoft Office Suite and at that time support for Groove 3.1 Software products will end.

Our goal in this initial communication is to provide you with information that will help you understand the details regarding End of Life for Groove 3.1 software products and to outline the available options for upgrading to current supported products prior to Groove 3.1 End of Life.

The following information on Groove 3.1 End of Life has been posted under KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974478

If you have any questions on this information, please post them to the Groove Discussion Group: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.groove

Support information for Groove Virtual Office 3.1 and related products and services.

The upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2010 will include the second successor product to Groove Virtual Office 3.1 and the 3.1 Groove servers, which were acquired by Microsoft in 2005. In keeping with the support policy of the acquired company, Groove Networks, support for these products will be discontinued at that time.  Groove 3.1 products will not have the two years of Extended Support offered for Microsoft products after the second successor product release. Additionally, at the end of Mainstream Support, some services related to these products will no longer be available.

This article outlines the options that are available to you to transition to a supported product or to continue with your current product. As always, Microsoft recommends that you keep your software updated to the latest version. This ensures that you will have access to fixes and updates while you and your company benefit from the latest technologies.

You have 3 Options:

(from the KB 974478 article)

My Groove Account pages

You will be unable to use a My Groove Account page to access your previously purchased Groove 3.1 licenses or to manage users.

Hosted Management Services 3.1

Hosted Management Services subscriptions will not be renewed. Management Server Hosted Services will be migrated to a virtual server. However, these services will not be monitored, and software fixes to resolve any customer issues will not be considered or implemented.

Transition options

Groove Virtual Office 3.1

If you have a Groove Virtual Office installation that was never part of a managed Groove domain, you have the following migration options:

• Purchase Microsoft Office Groove 2007 or Microsoft Office Groove Enterprise 2007 now, and then upgrade to the successor product, Microsoft Office SharePoint Workspace 2010, when it becomes available.
• Purchase SharePoint Workspace 2010 when it becomes available, uninstall Groove Virtual Office 3.1, and then install SharePoint Workspace 2010. You will be unable to upgrade from Groove Virtual Office 3.1 to the Microsoft Office 2010 successor product. You can save your account from Groove Virtual Office 3.1, and then restore it to SharePoint Workspace 2010. However, you will lose all other Groove data. SharePoint Workspace 2010 does not support Groove 3.1 workspaces. For better preservation of data, consider upgrading to Groove 2007.
• Continue to use your installation of Groove Virtual Office 3.1. The product will continue to function, except as previously noted. You should be aware that this option will leave you without the ability to update the product. This includes security updates and updates to run on Windows 7. This option will also leave you without assisted support.

Hosted Management Services 3.1

If you use Hosted Management Services 3.1 to manage a Groove domain, you have the following migration options:

• Migrate from Hosted Management Services to Groove Server 2007 now, and then migrate to the successor product, Microsoft Office Groove Server 2010, when it becomes available. If you use this option, you have to maintain both Microsoft Office Groove Manager and Microsoft Office Groove Relay.
• Transition from Hosted Management Services to Groove Server 2010 when it becomes available. Then, re-create your Groove domain. If you use this option, you have to maintain both Groove Manager and Groove Relay.
• Continue to use Hosted Management Services 3.1 as an unsupported service. For more information, see the "

Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and Groove Enterprise Relay Server 3.1

If you use Groove Management Server 3.1 to manage a Groove domain, you have the following migration options:

• Transition from Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and Groove Enterprise Relay Server 3.1 to Groove Server 2007 now, and then migrate to Groove Server 2010 when it becomes available. If you use this option, you have to maintain both Groove Manager and Groove Relay.
• Transition from Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and Groove Enterprise Relay Server 3.1 to Groove Server 2010 when it becomes available. Then, re-create your Groove domain. If you use this option, you have to maintain both Groove Manager and Groove Relay.
• Continue to use Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and Groove Enterprise Relay Server 3.1. If you use this option, you will maintain access to all domain accounts, and you will continue to be able manage those accounts. You should be aware that this option will leave you without the ability to update the products. This includes security updates. This option will also leave you without assisted support.

Note You will be unable to migrate from Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 directly to Groove Server 2010. To migrate your Groove domain data, you must first install Groove Server 2007. If you uninstall Groove Enterprise Management Server 3.1 and then install Groove Server 2010 to replace it, you have to re-create your Groove domain.

Starbucks Ushering in High Tech Payment

Two new apps to help you buy your favorite brew from Starbucks using iPhone Apps. The first provides an app to find the closest Starbucks location, store your favorite coffee concoction or design one that meets your taste.

The Second app allows you to use a barcode that appears on your iPhone screen to pay for your coffee purchase. Both Apps are free and no you can’t use it to preorder.

Here's the list of stores testing the "Starbucks Card Mobile" payment trial. In Seattle, they are at Key Tower, Columbia Center, 1st Interstate / Wells Fargo, 40th Floor Columbia Tower; Seventh & Stewart; Seventh & Pike; University Village II; and Madison Park.

So while we don’t have the chance currently to try this out locally, if you have a chance to travel to any of the above areas you could stop by and try it out and let us know how well it works out.

Gizmodo Presentation on new Microsoft Tablet

Not “Real” product yet, here is another prototype product showing a new design type that is using a hinged dual screen system. I would be interested in looking at one to see how it works, but I am slightly skeptical about the usability, and ruggedness of such a product. Microsoft’s product has even been given a name “Courier” and when you think of it could be used for many different purposes beyond the obvious eBook reading function. It will be interesting to see if it ever reaches the light of day.

Water Found on the Moon

On a lighter note, Scientists have announced that there is water on the Moon. The problem is that it is in such minute amounts that we currently don’t have the technology to extract it. The greatest concentrations can be found at the Moon’s poles. The amount of water is about a quart per ton of soil and is like a film on the soil clumps .During last year’s Phoenix mission to Mars’ polar region, ice was discovered beneath the lander’s struts

Malware affiliate bounty: Infect a Mac, earn 43 cents | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

PC’s are not the only systems being targeted. A new report from  ZDNet states that there are affiliate programs rewarding $.43 per infected Mac. Also, part of this same report from Sophos discussing Russian Cyber Gangs Mac’s are now being targeted for malware attacks. It is getting worse for all of us.

Malware affiliate bounty: Infect a Mac, earn 43 cents | Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Russian Cybergangs Make the Web a Dangerous Place - Business Center - PC World

The bad side of the Net is changing rapidly for the worst. I have reported in the past the how the attacks are becoming more socially engineered to trick you into downloading viruses, trojans and other malware.  This article discusses new affiliate  networks are being setup to try to direct you to sites promoting fake products like: “antivirus software, pharmaceuticals and counterfeit luxury products”.

Another trick is called black hat SEO (search engine optimization). It involves creating a Web site, then using a variety of tricks mostly forbidden by search engines to get those Web sites high in search rankings. Methods include incorporating the most recently used search terms, often listed by search engines such as Google's Trends, into a Web site.

This article is worth a quick read to help you stay aware of what to look out for. “Be Careful Out There”.

Russian Cybergangs Make the Web a Dangerous Place - Business Center - PC World

Oh Boy! You can now send Pictures using MMS on your iPhone…

This is not to say that I have been hardly waiting for this but is finally here. All you need do is run your iTunes update and sync your iPhone. The updated 3.1 software will install automatically for you. If you don’t initially see the updates in your camera you will need to reboot your camera like I needed to before I could use the updates.

Rebooting: Hold down both your HOME and POWER buttons until the screen blanks.Then hold down the power button until the Apple symbol appears. The restating takes a few minutes so sit back, pour yourself a cup of coffee and wait until your iPhone comes back on. It takes about 2 minutes but it seems like ages.

This update gives you the ability to insert pictures on your iPhone into MMS messages that you send to your peeps. You can do it from three different points in the system.

If you are in messaging you will see a little camera icon in the lower left corner of your iPhone that when pressed will allow you to take a Photo or Video to send, or to choose an existing Photo or Video to send. If you decide to take the Photo or Video on the fly you will be transferred to the Camera application and it works just as it normally does. You are given a choice to retake the process if you don’t like the initial results, and if you pick use it will insert what you have take into the Message for you.

The camera application has added an MMS option to its menu. this allows you to take a photo or video and then attach it to a message to send it out.

The third method of sending out your images is to open your photo application, select your photo or video and then pick the Share option at the  bottom left of screen. Notice how the image is checked and your share and copy buttons show the number of images you will be working with. Press the Share Option and you will be dropped into a choice of sending the images to through Email, MMS or if you have a MobileMe account to the MobileMe file area. Press the MMS Option and you will be taken to the Message Screen.

Which ever method you choose to use to send along you favorite pics & vids to your friends and colleagues, you will find the process simple and fast.   

Advanced Batch Converter - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

If you are worried about jpeg degradation from resaving jpeg images over and over again you may want to convert your images to a lossless format. I took a quick look at www.download.com and here is my result. Try it out and let me know how well it works for you.

Use this highly rated image conversion software to convert batches of images from one format to another. CNET Downloads Review of this product. CNET has rated this with a five star rating and it has over 200K downloads.

Advanced Batch Converter - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Boswell Lumber – 100th Anniversary Celebration

This is  a company that is interesting enough to me that I am going to publish this on both of my blog sites. I was graciously invited to Boswell Lumber Company’s celebration of their 100th year anniversary. I am so happy that I took the time to visit with them during this special time.

The company began as a sawmill in 1909 and has today evolved into a full service planing mill located on the original mill site. They stock over 140 moulds in Oak and Poplar with half a million board feet of raw lumber in many different species, ready to be worked for you.

They can ship stock moulds, or produce custom moulds. They have the equipment to fill you needs. See an example of their products by clicking here.  Beside the clean and spacious environment for their 23 employees to work in, I was amazed at the racks of prepared product that they supply the surrounding lumber and home supply companies with. On show was a door that they carved using their equipment to show just what they are capable of doing for you and your specialized project.

You can contact their sales department by calling 814-629-5625 or by emailing them at sales@hortreeproducts.com.