Third party solutions to the Internet Explorer

Third party solutions to the Internet Explorer CreateTextRange vulnerability

by Andrew Brandt

Windows users who have been at risk of falling victim to a newly-revealed security loophole in the Internet Explorer browser can fix their computers, courtesy of "unofficial" patches being offered for free download by two security companies.

Both eEye Digital Security and Determina released patches that shut off a feature in IE that hackers have figured out how to exploit for malicious ends. The patches were released when Microsoft announced that it would not fix the problem itself until April 11, the next "Patch Tuesday" in its cycle of regular monthly updates.

The vulnerability went from a theoretical to a real risk last weekend when security folks began seeing Web sites where malware authors were using the exploit to break into fully-patched Windows PCs. The quantity of sites hosting the malicious code now number in the hundreds.

But should you bother loading these third party patches? Surprisingly, analysts at the Internet Storm Center say no: You can thwart the vulnerability by not using Internet Explorer, or, failing that, by turning off Active Scripting support in IE (click Tools, Internet Options; click the Security tab, then the Custom Level button; scroll down to the Active Scripting option, and fill in the radio button next to Disable, and click OK twice).

Microsoft is, at least, providing an interim fix for people who think they may have already fallen victim to the new exploit: Head to the safety.live.com Web page, and you can scan your computer for malicious programs, including ones that use this unpatched bug to sneak into your PC.

source:pcworld

Giant Jellyfish Invade Japan

January 19, 2006—Pitting two hands against thousands of stinging tentacles, a diver attaches a tracking device to a giant Nomura's jellyfish off the coast of Japan on October 4, 2005.

Since last summer, Japanese waters have been inundated with the massive sea creatures, which can grow 6.5 feet (2 meters) wide and weigh up to 450 pounds (220 kilograms). Though the jellyfish are more common in Chinese and Korean waters, their numbers have grown a hundredfold in some areas off Japan, causing a crisis in the local fishing industry.

The invertebrates are choking fishing nets and poisoning the catch with their toxic stingers, fishers say. And although reports of serious human injury are rare, there are records of people dying from the creature's noxious sting. The invasion has prompted a series of studies by the Japanese government to research the animal, whose mating and migration habits are poorly understood.

Last month, Japanese scientists speculated that the jellyfish are drifting from China's Yangtze River Delta, where unusually heavy rains may have created a flow that is pushing the jellyfish flotilla to Japan.

Another theory suggests that seas heated by global warming are better suited for breeding, turning the Nomura's otherwise modest numbers into an armada.

As the research continues, Japanese fishers continue to grapple with another issue: What to do with all the jellyfish they've caught? So far, resourceful anglers have turned their unwanted catch into crab food, fertilizer, and novelty snacks—served dried and salted.
—Blake de Pastino

The Art of Business: Design on a Shoestring

The Art of Business: Design on a Shoestring

The mark of a good designer is not what can be done with a large budget, but what can be done with a small one. Here are tricks for closing the deal, managing your low-budget client, and creating a winning design

Small budgets are a fact of life in the graphic arts world, particularly since the Internet and outsourcing has increased the number of designers willing to sell their souls to bargain-hunting clients.
While a small budget may make your job as a designer harder, it does not make it impossible, and in many ways it frees you to tap your imagination and come up with something truly creative.
When potential clients make it clear that their budget is low, ask, "Do you understand that a small budget means you may have to sacrifice bells and whistles, such as color, paper, complexity, and animation?"
If clients can't grasp this fundamental, you have two alternatives: Educate them quickly; or run. It's one thing for a client to ask you to work with a budget smaller than it should be, and quite another to tack on unrealistic expectations. The latter is your greatest enemy in any situation, but particularly in the low-budget scenario. You won't be able to spend your way out of the dilemma and you'll wind up with a grumbling, unsatisfied client -- a result that's never in your best interest, even when it comes with a stack of cash.

Selling Creativity
You can provide something else to replace expensive design elements: original, compelling design. Once you've vetted a client and his or her expectations, it's time to pitch your value-added proposition -- your creativity.
Explain to your prospect that a low budget precludes a shotgun approach. Because they have a small amount of cash, they have to make doubly sure their campaign hits the target with a marksman's accuracy. Only an effective design can do that. Their budget may restrict how much money they can spend, but it doesn't affect the quality of the design, and it's exactly because they have a small budget that they need a good designer. That good designer, of course, is you.
Show them samples of your own work but also samples of other designers who have succeeded in using low-budget elements. If the potential job is a Web site, pull up examples of sites that tell the story with simplicity and grace. Talk about your plans to build a campaign that uses dollars well, not just uses dollars.

Managing Efficiency
Once you've sold your client, the real work begins. The only way to make a low-budget job profitable is through efficient management and excellent communication. Ensure that you're working directly with the person who wields approval authority. You don't have the time and money to waste on miscommunications, up-the-ladder reviews, office politics, and indecision.
Review the design process and build a schedule that's reasonable for both you and the client. Have the client sign off on this "process building" every step of the way, either contractually or informally through emails.

Next, be sure the client shares real budget figures with you. You don't have time to dilly dally with false budget information only to learn later that there really aren't the funds to take your design to completion. Explain that every dollar has to be tightly managed in order to get the best bang for the buck, and you can't manage those dollars unless you know how they stack up.
Ask your client to rough out ideas or to select from your very early mock ups, so you don't spend a lot of time on design directions ultimately abandoned. Get approval every step of the way so that you avoid costly design retreats. And strongly resist major design changes from the client unless they truly improve the work.

Finally, recruit your client to be your partner by supplying you with photos, logos, and other existing artwork to be incorporated into the project. Most companies have a plethora of marketing and sales material just waiting to be mined and repurposed in your piece. And make sure they deliver clean, copy-edited copy; you don't have time to rework their text as well.

Creativity for Peanuts
Your primary job is to squeeze the most design possible out of your client's design dollar. To do so, you'll have to be inventive. In print, many great designs have been executed in black and white and with typography alone.
As Don Sparkman suggests in his book, Selling Graphic Design, you can imitate a two-color look with only one ink by selecting a dark PMS color that looks black but also screens back for a second color. Or use colored paper with black or another ink to give the impression of multiple colors.
You can substitute charts and graphs for expensive illustrations and select royalty-free stock photos or photos taken by a professional within the company instead of expensive location or studio shot or using pricier photos from a stock house.
Finally, do your research and save money in the big-budget areas such printing, which can account for a significant percentage of a project's cost. It's here that you can make up the profit you lost when you accepted the low-budget job in the first place.
Put together a detailed request for proposal (RFP) and follow through by submitting it to several vendors. This is a time-consuming process, especially if you've already found a few vendors who provide great pricing and service. But vendors are competitive, and if they believe they're competing for each job, they'll work harder to come up with a better price.
When you draw up an RFP, break it down fairly extensively (or ask the vendor for a breakdown). This will help avoid miscommunication and give you the opportunity to negotiate on a line-by-line basis. If you like Vendor A, but Vendor B is offering a better price on line 18, you've just found the leverage to ask Vendor A for a better price.

Efficiency and Creativity
The only way to make low-budget jobs pay is to efficiently manage your client and effectively use your creative skills. If you fail in either capacity, you'll lose money, a client, or a campaign. Do it right and you've got a day's wage, a client for life, and a great sample for your portfolio to show the next person who shows up on your doorstep with a shoestring.

By Eric J. Adams, creativepro.com contributing editor.

Audi & VW Drop XM, Sign Up Sirius

The Volkswagen Group gets cozy with Sirius

The Volkswagen Group has announced plans to drop XM Satellite Radio in their new VW and Audi vehicles starting with the 2007 model year. The company had previously offered both XM and Sirius, but has now signed an exclusive contract with Sirius through 2012. VW-Audi expect to install Sirius receivers in 80% of its models.
Chance Patteron, a spokesman for XM, downplayed the switch saying that furthering its relationship with VW-Audi wasn't cost-effective to them and that they already have backing from heavy-hitters in the industry. "XM has long-term agreements with Toyota, General Motors, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai Corp. We evaluated the VW-Audi deal and determined the significant cost didn't justify the limited volume of vehicles produced."
In other Audi news, the company's first diesel-powered prototype racer driven by Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. This was the R10's first outing and it will be a force to be reckoned with at Le Mans.

source:dailytech

Your Creative Power Unleashed.

Microsoft® Expression® takes the many sides of your creative personality to all new levels. Professional design tools give you greater flexibility to create sophisticated applications and content. Innovative technologies enable faster and richer interface development for Windows applications or the Web. Compatibility between products increases all levels of your personal productivity.
See it in action!

Announcing the new...

Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer .

Vector? Bitmap?It doesn't care.
Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer brings together the best of vector- and pixel-based capabilities, letting you explore new creative and cutting edge possibilities.

Goodbye Microsoft Office, Hello Web Apps

by Harry McCracken

Time for an experiment. I've enjoyed fooling around with browser-based productivity apps like Writely (now a part of Google) and ZohoWriter. Now I'm going to try to put them to work--by ditching Microsoft Office for a couple of weeks and doing as much work as possible with Web-based alternatives. (Actually, I'll be ditching both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org; these days, I use the latter almost as much as I do the former.)

Okay, full disclosure: I know I'm not going to eliminate Office entirely--for one thing, I'll use it when I'm on a plane (which I plan to be four times in the next two weeks) or otherwise disconnected from the Web. And there are rumors of a new beta of the upcoming Office 2007; if I can get my hands on it, I'll use it. But even if I only switch to Web apps for most of my work, I'll learn a lot. Question one: Which apps to use? I'll spend a few days figuring that out. I'm going to check out ThinkFree Office Online, which is a true suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation package.

I'll also investigate some of the online spreadsheets, including iRows and ZohoSheet. And I'll investigate some online calendars such as 30Boxes, although truth to tell, I'm pretty much wedded to Lotus Notes for both calendaring and e-mail, since it's what we use here at PC World. As I try out these and other offerings--there are a zillion of them, it seems, with more popping up every day--I'll report back here.

Meanwhile, anybody out there have any browser-based Office alternatives to recommend? Anybody using these as a primary way of getting work done yet, or are they still in the technically-cool-and-a-possible-preview-of-where-the-world-is-going phase? Suggestions and tips welcome. (And if you have your doubts about the viability or intelligence of this experiment, feel free to express 'em...)

source: pcworld.

Adobe Press: Adobe After Effects 6.5 Studio Techniques

Book Description
Ready to learn the visual effects secrets used at such leading-edge studios as Industrial Light + Magic and The Orphanage? Adobe After Effects 6.5 Studio Techniques inspires you to take your work to the next level with realworld examples and insider techniques. Get blockbuster results without the big budget as you delve deep into the essence of visual effects. This book goes beyond conventional step-by-step instruction, teaching you bread-and-butter effects that you can adapt and combine for countless projects.

For more detail:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321316207/002-8265587-9676805

Download

Size - 27.5 Mb

How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors....

Color Psychology
How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors

What Is Color?

In 1666, English scientist Sir Isaac Newton discovered that when pure white light is passed through a prism, it separates into all of the visible colors. Newton also found that each color is comprised of a single wavelength and cannot be separated any further into other colors. Further experiments demonstrated that light could be combined to form other colors. For example, red light mixed with yellow light creates an orange color. A color resulting from a mix of two other colors is known as a metamer.

Some colors, such as yellow and purple, cancel each other out when mixed and result in a white light. These competing colors are known as complements.
Color Psychology - The Psychological Effects of ColorWhile perceptions of color are somewhat subjective, there are some color effects that have universal meaning. Colors in the red area of the color spectrum are known as warm colors and include red, orange, and yellow. These warm colors evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility. Colors on the blue side of the spectrum are known as cool colors and include blue, purple, and green. These colors are often described as calm, but can also call to mind feelings of sadness or indifference. Color Psychology as TherapySeveral ancient cultures, including the Egyptians and Chinese, practiced chromotherapy, or using colors to heal. Chromotherapy is sometimes referred to as light therapy or colourology and is still used today as a holistic or alternative treatment.

In this treatment:
Red was used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.
Yellow was thought to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.
Orange was used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels.
Blue was believed to soothe illnesses and treat pain.

Indigo shades were thought to alleviate skin problems.Most psychologists view color therapy with skepticism and point out that the supposed effects of color have been exaggerated and that colors have different meanings in other cultures. Research has demonstrated in many cases that the mood-altering effects of color may only be temporary. A blue room may cause people to feel calm initially, but the effect will be lessened once they regain their equilibrium.

>> Check your color here <<

my fav... color is blue & u ?

Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu [MP3] Songs | Music: Harris Jeyaraj

Music: Harris Jeyaraj
Direction: Gowtham Menon
Stars: Kamal Hassan, Prakash raj,Jothika & Kamalinee mugarji
Producer: Seventh Channel - Manicam Narayan

Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now

Ten Essential Tools
Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now

This article discusses:
Tools for unit testing
Tools for code and documentation management and generation
Tools for modifying the development environment
Tools for working with data

Click & check

Meltdown : The ALPS under pressure

Long a social hot spot, Europe's winter playground is now warming up for real.
Get a taste of what awaits you in print from this compelling excerpt.

This month the Winter Olympics will unfold in the ranges outside Turin, Italy, and television will replay the old Alpine themes—Heidi, yodeling, cheese with holes in it—while focusing on vistas in which nature still appears omnipotent and largely undisturbed.

That is an illusion. Arrayed across the heart of Europe, the Alps have been intensely used for centuries, and even today only 17 percent of their 74,000 square miles (190,000 square kilometers) are protected as parks. Their usable space is so limited that the average Alpine valley is an orgy of multitasking: factories, train tracks, hotels, houses, churches, ski lifts, farms, parking lots, lumberyards, stores, restaurants, and boutiques, all bundled together by swooping concrete parabolas of roads. And while the Alps may look empty on television, nearly 14 million people live there, two-thirds of them in urban areas and some in areas with a greater population density than the Netherlands.

But the sentimental stereotypes are hard to give up, and people almost instinctively blot out the lumber mills, construction cranes, and power lines. Andreas Goetz, executive director of the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps, recognizes this. "A lot of people come to the Alps looking for the old man with the beard, content with himself, smoking a pipe," he told me, a little ironically, in his solar-heated house in Switzerland. "We produce our chocolate and cheese and are happy all day long."

The old man is nowhere to be found. In another era Hans Gisler might have grown into the part. Instead this young Swiss sculptor left his farm in the remote mountain hamlet of Riemenstalden five years ago to seek his fortune in the prosperous small town of Altdorf, ten miles (16 kilometers) away down the valley, where he makes his living out of wood, metal, and his own talent.

Altdorf has a lot to offer: legend (it was where William Tell shot the apple off his son's head), industry (Merck pharmaceuticals), and a steady tourist business that attracts thousands of visitors a year. A number of them buy gallery pieces from local artists who, like Gisler, draw inspiration from the Alps overlooking Altdorf—blinding mountain bulwarks that seem to have been hacked out of the firmament with axes.

When I met him, Hans was preparing to carve a sculpture from the 23-foot-high (seven-meter-high) trunk of a century-old sequoia, which the city had recently cut down because its spreading roots were threatening nearby houses. We stood on a hillside overlooking the town, where he had placed this gigantic piece of raw material.

"I moved to Altdorf to be closer to my customers," he explained, "but I couldn't live without the high country." If he had been born 50 years earlier, he would almost certainly have had to remain on the family farm, satisfying his artistic drive by producing utensils, souvenirs, perhaps the occasional crucifix. Today, the prosperity that tourism has brought to the Alps has given him a chance to pursue his talent and make real money, rather than merely survive at the subsistence level his ancestors had to accept. But it doesn't mean he's become a city boy in one stroke. He goes back to help his brothers when he can, especially at hay-cutting time. The sound of the scythe, he said, is "music to my body and soul."

Source:http://www7.nationalgeographic.com

AVID buys Medéa

launches VideoRAID family of high-performance, low cost storage solutions

New product line expands company's leadership in real-time storage systems for professional content creators

Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID) today unveiled the Avid® VideoRAID™ family of storage systems that deliver up to 5 terabytes (TB) of high-efficiency storage with guaranteed real-time access for multi-stream, high-bandwidth standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) workflows. Unlike other competitive RAID products that suspend performance in the event of a drive failure, the new Avid VideoRAID line delivers uninterrupted real-time performance, even during a drive rebuild. The new systems - the Avid VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X - are the first in a series of low-cost parity RAID storage products that Avid plans to introduce as a result of acquiring Medea Corporation in January of 2006. While terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, the deal further expands Avid's position as a leading provider of high-performance storage solutions for content creators in film, video, audio, broadcast, and animation.

"Avid's storage products are recognized industry-wide for their guaranteed real-time performance capabilities. With Medea's low-cost RAID offerings in our portfolio, we now have a tremendously compelling entry point to the Avid family of storage solutions," said Chas Smith, vice president and general manager of Avid's Video division. "Avid has an extremely diverse mix of customers, all of whom work within different production environments and have unique storage demands. Now, Avid can meet the needs of virtually any professional in the industry - with cost-effective RAID storage for standalone editing and finishing systems, facility-class Ethernet or Fibre Channel shared-storage systems for networked collaboration, and enterprise-class shared-storage with distributed intelligence and unlimited scalability."

Martin Bock, former president of Medea and recently appointed vice president of business development for the Medea product family at Avid, said, "Our VideoRAID products have had great success in the market because of the unmatched resiliency of our parity RAID technology and the real-time, high-bandwidth performance that enables completion of multi-stream SD and HD projects in record time. When compared to competitive RAID solutions, customers will find that Avid VideoRAID systems deliver superior performance at a lower price per gigabyte."

The Avid VideoRAID product line leverages the combined bandwidth of multiple drives - with capacity of either 250GB or 500GB per drive - in storage arrays that provide real-time access to SD and HD media assets. The VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X systems are built around five-drive and 10-drive storage arrays, respectively, with one of every five drives functioning as a parity drive to deliver extremely robust data protection without interrupting performance during drive rebuilds. The line, which comes in a range of configurations at low-cost price points, is qualified on the following Avid editing systems: Avid Liquid(TM) Chrome HD; Avid Liquid Pro; Avid Xpress(R) Pro; Avid Xpress Studio; NewsCutter(R) XP (with or without Avid Mojo(R)); Media Composer(R) Adrenaline(TM) and Media Composer Adrenaline HD; NewsCutter Adrenaline; Avid DS Nitris(R); and Avid Symphony(TM) Nitris.

Specific features of the VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X systems include:
-- Guaranteed real-time performance and availability (even during
drive rebuild);
-- Scalable storage capacity ranging from 1.25TB to 5TB;
-- An Ultra320 LVD SCSI, 68-pin VHDCI connection (dual channel
for RTR320X);
-- Single or dual Ultra320 SCSI RAID controller(s);
-- Single or dual 250-watt power supply module(s);
-- Hot swappable drive modules; and
-- Support for up to four RTR320 or two RTR320X units for a
maximum 10 TB of raw storage per Avid-qualified workstation.

Pricing & Availability

The following chart includes pricing for the new Avid VideoRAID systems. All prices are USMSRP and based on specific configurations that range in drive capacity (250 GB or 500 GB) and storage array size (5 or 10 drives):
Avid VideoRAID Avid VideoRAID
Configuration RTR320 RTR320X
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.25 TB total storage (5-250 GB drives) $3,929 $4,839(a)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5 TB total storage (5-500 GB drives) $6,669 $7,559(a)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5 TB total storage (10-250 GB drives) -- $7,999
----------------------------------------------------------------------
5 TB total storage (10-500 GB drives) -- $13,499
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(a) 10-drive array with 5 storage drives and 5 open bays for future
expansion.


Avid is currently accepting orders for the new Avid VideoRAID systems. The new products can be ordered through either the Avid or Medea worldwide reseller channels, or through Avid directly. For complete information about Avid VideoRAID storage products, please visit www.avid.com/videoRAID.

Avid will continue to offer its existing local storage solutions, including its Avid MediaDock and Avid MediaDrive systems - as well as all other Medea storage products - through both Avid's and Medea's worldwide reseller channels. For more information about Medea's RAID product line, please visit www.medea.com.

About Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid Technology, Inc. is the world leader in digital nonlinear media creation, management, and distribution solutions, enabling film, video, audio, animation, games, and broadcast professionals to work more efficiently, productively, and creatively. For more information about the company's Oscar(R), Grammy(R), and Emmy(R) award-winning products and services, please visit: www.avid.com.

(C) 2006 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. All prices are USMSRP for the U.S. and Canada only and are subject to change without notice. Contact your local Avid office or reseller for prices outside the U.S. and Canada. Avid, Digidesign, Film Composer, Media Composer, Pro Tools, Avid Liquid, Avid Xpress, Newscutter, Avid Mojo, Adrenaline, Nitris, Symphony, and VideoRAID are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. Avid received an Oscar statuette representing the 1998 Scientific and Technical Award for the concept, design, and engineering of the Avid Film Composer(R) system for motion picture editing. Digidesign, Avid's audio division, received an Oscar statuette representing the 2003 Scientific and Technical Award for the design, development, and implementation of its Pro Tools(R) digital audio workstation. Oscar is a trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Emmy is a registered trademark of ATAS/NATAS. Grammy is a trademark of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
source:creativecow

Giant Ancient Egyptian Sun Temple Discovered in Cairo

Stefan Lovgren for
National Geographic News

Archaeologists announced Sunday that they have discovered an ancient sun temple containing large statues of the pharaoh Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt.
The temple was found in a suburb of Cairo called Ain Shams. The site was once part of the ancient city of Heliopolis, which served as the center of sun worship in ancient Egypt. The chief sun god, Re, was the patron sun god of Heliopolis.

Ramses II, who is believed to have ruled Egypt from around 1279 to 1213 B.C., is known for his military exploits and monumental building projects. To celebrate his victories, he erected statues and temples to himself all over Egypt.
"The area where we are excavating now is where Ramses II of the 19th dynasty [1320 to 1200 B.C.] built an enormous temple for Re, the largest temple of Ramses II ever found," said Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo.
Hawass is also a National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence.
An Egyptian team has been cooperating with a team from the German Archaeological Institute on the excavations in the Ain Shams and Matariya neighborhoods of Cairo.
Egyptologists not involved with the discovery said it confirms suspicions that much of ancient Egypt has been buried under modern cities and still remains to be found.

Pink Granite Statue
The temple was built of limestone, and the archaeologists have uncovered the remains of one pillar bearing inscriptions of Ramses II.
The researchers are currently excavating the entrance area and the west side of the temple site.
They have found chambers for the storage of wheat, a kiln for making amulets, part of a large statue—the head of which weighs 5 tons (4.5 metric tons) and would have stood almost 20 feet (6 meters) tall—and another head of granite, weighing 2 tons (1.8 metric tons).
"Perhaps the most exciting [find] is an unusual seated statue that shows Ramses II in the leopard skin of a priest, showing that he built this temple as the high priest of Re," Hawass said.

This statue is in the style of dynasty 12 [1991 to 1786 B.C.] and may have been usurped by Ramses II," he added, meaning that it may have been altered to resemble Ramses II.

Ramses II, who made a name for himself by battling the Hittites and the Syrians, is traditionally believed to have been the Pharaoh of Exodus, the biblical figure from whom Moses demanded that his people be released.
Ramses II erected monuments to himself up and down the Nile with records of his achievements. His most famous temple is Abu Simbel, which was carved into a sandstone mountain on the banks of the Nile, near what is now Egypt's southern border.

(See photo gallery: "Towering Treasures of Ramses.")
Heliopolis
Numerous temples to Egypt's many sun gods—particularly the chief god Re—were also built in ancient Heliopolis.
"This was the center for the worship of the sun god Re," Hawass said.
"A number of important remains have been discovered here, and there is evidence that this cult went back at least to the Old Kingdom [from about 2700 to 2200 B.C.] if not before and was active to the end of Egyptian history."
The German excavations show that lakes or swamps dominated the area in ancient times.
Most of the temples of ancient Heliopolis were later plundered, and the area is now covered with residential buildings.

The discovery of the sun temple may shed light on the status of Heliopolis in ancient Egypt.
"We do not know enough about Heliopolis, which was one of the main cities in Egypt and moreover a religious and, let us say, intellectual center," said French archaeologist Alain Zivie, leader of a team that has been excavating Saqqara, the cemetery of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, for more than two decades.
Zivie says the discovery also shows that much of ancient Egypt's treasures are still buried under modern cities, particularly Cairo and its suburbs.

"Cairo is the child of three cities: Memphis, [the Roman fortress of] Babylon of Egypt, and Heliopolis," Zivie said. "Expanding more and more, it swallows now its three mothers, especially Babylon and Heliopolis. But these [ancient cities] are not completely lost. They continue to exist in the underground Cairo."

Leo Depuydt, an Egyptologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, agrees.
"The recent find of a giant temple built by Ramses II, ancient Egypt's greatest builder pharaoh, in Cairo again reminds us of how archaeological discovery would increase exponentially—almost beyond imagination—if digging under urban centers and dismantling buildings of later date ever becomes, technically and politically, even more feasible," he said.

source:National Geographic

Pantone ColorVantage Inks Expand Support forEpson K3 Printers

Pantone Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries for over 40 years, today announced the availability of PANTONE ColorVANTAGE pigment-based inks for EPSON K3 printers, including the EPSON Stylus® Photo 2400, the EPSON Stylus Pro 4800, the EPSON Stylus Pro 7800 and the EPSON Stylus Pro 9800. The new ColorVANTAGE inks for EPSON K3 printers deliver superior color quality without performance loss and are priced approximately 20 percent less than Epson inks.

In addition to the black and light black inks found in ColorVANTAGE inks for Ultrachrome printers, the new ColorVANTAGE inks for EPSON K3 printers also include light, light black ink, for a total of three black inks. The added shade of black ink significantly improves gray balance while eliminating color casts and delivers higher quality output for glossy and matte papers.

"PANTONE ColorVANTAGE inkjet inks are specially formulated for high-performance results on the industry's most popular new wide-format inkjet printers," said Andy Hatkoff, vice president, Electronic Color Systems, Pantone, Inc. "ColorVANTAGE inks for EPSON K3 printers offer an excellent alternative to OEM inks with a high price/performance ratio. With this release, Pantone continues its tradition of offering cutting-edge inkjet ink solutions." "The PANTONE ColorVANTAGE inks give me a consistency and quality I haven't found with any other ink. All of my exhibition prints are done with ColorVANTAGE," said photographer and Pantone Innovator Jon Canfield. "I am confident the PANTONE ColorVANTAGE inks for the new EPSON K3 printers will deliver excellent saturation and the improved blacks will add depth to my digital prints. Pantone continues to serve the photography industry by offering a high quality product and adding support for the newest printer models."

PANTONE ColorVANTAGE is a family of premium pigmented inkjet inks and specially developed printer profiles to ensure optimal color performance. The inks are designed for applications that require the most accurate color reproduction and the widest possible range of color such as color photography, fine art reproduction and prepress proofing. A wide variety of profiles for fine art, proofing and photographic papers including Arches™ Infinity™, Seiko Epson Corporation, Hawk Mountain Papers, Kodak, Mitsubishi, Moab Paper Company™, Premier Art™ and Red River Paper are available free-of-charge for registered users at www.pantone.com. New media and profiles are added regularly. While profiles are not required with ColorVANTAGE Inks, using them will result in better color output.

he new formulation and composition of ColorVANTAGE inks are made to Pantone's exacting specifications to deliver superior imaging properties. The inks are engineered with an extremely small pigment particle size and compatibility with OEM inks, ensuring that they do not clog print head nozzles. The new ColorVANTAGE inks for EPSON K3 printers expand the list of EPSON printers compatible with PANTONE ColorVANTAGE inks, which already includes the EPSON Stylus Photo 1270/1280 and the 2200 and the EPSON Stylus Pro and Ultrachrome line including the 4000, 5000, 5500, 7000, 7500, 7600, 9000, 9500 and 9600.

PANTONE ColorVANTAGE

The PANTONE ColorVANTAGE ink formulations result in inks that have richer, deeper colors than other inks. PANTONE ColorVANTAGE inks have been designed to produce a large gamut of colors that offer vibrant, true-to-life reproduction while eliminating color casts and improving color reproduction in the midtones and three-quarter tones. In addition, the inks provide excellent color quality, dry quickly and are lightfast and less prone to color shifts over time.

Availability

PANTONE ColorVANTAGE pigment-based inks are available as single cartridges and as Starter Kits, which include a complete set of inks required for a specific supported printer. The ColorVANTAGE products are available from online and mail order catalogs such as B & H Photo, ColorMall, and PC, Digital Graphics Resources and Mac Mall. PANTONE ColorVANTAGE inks for the EPSON Pro line of printers are available in 110 ml. and 220 ml. cartridges. For more information, visit www.pantone.com.

About Pantone Inc.

Pantone, Inc., developer of the globally accepted PANTONE Color Systems, is the leading source of traditional and electronic products for the selection and accurate communication of color. With over 40 years of experience, Pantone is recognized as the worldwide market leader in color communication and color technology for the graphic design, printing, publishing, textile and plastics industries. More information is available at www.pantone.com.

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Jim DiVitale Tonal Control in Digital Photography

Format MOV 800x600 Duration 08:17

Jim DiVitale Tonal Control in Digital Photography WinMac Lesson

Format MOV 800x600 Duration 08:17

Gain an understanding of tonal range and how to adjust lighting and exposures using techniques like Luminosity Masking, Light Painting and creative ways of combining multiple exposures.

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