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Source: apc Magazine

Google recently confirmed in a blog posting that it had paid Codeweavers to help develop WINE to make Photoshop usable on the well-regarded but still somewhat unpredictable software package, which aims to replicate Windows libraries to enable popular Windows applications run in a Linux environment.

“Photoshop is one of those applications that Desktop linux users are constantly clamoring for, and we’re happy to say they work pretty well now,” Google engineer and Wine release manager Dan Kegel wrote. “About 200 patches were committed to winehq, and as of wine-0.9.54, Photoshop CS2 is quite usable,” Kegel noted in a separate post.

The sponsorship was also mentioned during a Google presentation at Linux.conf.au in Melbourne last month, focusing its Summer of Code student training program. “We have paid for a whole bunch of improvements to a whole bunch of stuff,” program manager Leslie Hawthorn said. “We haven’t actually talked about it, but we recently paid CodeWeavers to do some work on Wine so you can run Photoshop CS2 and 3″

As such, it’s not a big stretch to imagine that prospects for the 2008 program might want to propose further enhancements to the Adobe product line. Coming up with an update process that’s not a global embarrassment would be a good start. Patching Acrobat Reader is painful enough on a standard Windows machine; doing so under pseudo-emulation quite possibly violates international anti-torture laws.
Adobe certainly seems to be in Google’s sights. “Perhaps not coincidentally, apps like Flash 8 are now starting to work in Wine, too,” Kegel wrote. “We look forward to further improvements in this area.”

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Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Press Release: Berkeley, CA—February 6, 2008—For the fourth consecutive year, Peachpit author Scott Kelby has been recognized as the top-selling computer book author in the U.S. according to Nielsen BookScan data.

Kelby’s Peachpit titles continue to lead the pack with the number one iPod® book, The iPod Book: Doing Cool Stuff with the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, Fourth Edition; the number one digital photography book, The Digital Photography Book; and the number one Photoshop Lightroom book, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers.

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers was recently honored with a Hot One Award from Professional Photographer magazine, and was the #4 pick among Amazon customers for 2007 computer and Internet books. The iPhone Book was also honored by Amazon editors as their best computer book of the year.

Kelby published a total of six titles in 2007.

“I would challenge anyone to find an author in any discipline, not just computer books, who is more loyal and committed to their readers’ satisfaction than Scott Kelby,” said Nancy Aldrich-Ruenzel, vice president of Pearson Technology Group. “He delivers what readers need and want time and time again: fresh techniques, fresh imagery, and a down-to-earth, conversational teaching style. He is incredibly deserving of this top spot in computer book publishing for the fourth year in a row—an amazing feat, and we are immensely proud to be Scott’s publishing partner.”

To view more of Kelby’s best-selling work, go to www.peachpit.com/ScottKelby.

About Scott Kelby
Scott Kelby is president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, a trade organization for Adobe Photoshop users with more than 70,000 members in over 100 countries worldwide. Additionally, Scott is Editor-in-Chief of both Photoshop User and Layers magazines. Scott serves as training director for the Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour and is the technical chair of the Photoshop World Conference & Expo. In addition to the Down & Dirty Tricks and the Killer Tips book series, Scott is also the author of Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 and The Digital Photography Book. For more information, visit scottkelby.com and kelbytraining.com.

About Peachpit
Berkeley-based Peachpit has been publishing the industry’s best-selling books on the latest in graphic design, desktop publishing, multimedia, Web design and development, digital video and general Macintosh computing since 1986. Its award-winning books feature step-by-step explanations, time-saving techniques, savvy insider tips, and expert advice for computer users of all sorts. It is the home of the internationally recognized Visual QuickStart Guide series, the design imprint New Riders and its highly popular Voices That Matter series, and is the publishing partner for Adobe Press, lynda.com, NAPP, Apple Certified, AIGA Design Press and others. Peachpit is part of Pearson, the international media company. Pearson’s primary operations also include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group. Learn more at www.peachpit.com and www.pearson.com.

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Move allegedly designed to reduce risk of fires on aircraft

Source: ComputerWorld
Written by James Niccolai

New rules will go into effect on Jan. 1 that prohibit air passengers in the U.S. from carrying spare lithium batteries in their checked baggage.

The new rules, announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Transportation, are designed to reduce the risk of fires in aircraft. Lithium batteries have been identified as a possible cause of several aircraft fires.

Passengers will still be able to carry lithium batteries in checked bags if they are installed in a device like a laptop or digital camera. But loose batteries will need to be put in a plastic bag and carried on the plane as hand luggage, the DOT said.

The rules also limit each passenger to two “extended-life” lithium batteries. These are larger batteries with more than 8 grams of equivalent lithium content, examples of which are pictured in the DOT’s statement.

The rules are also described at the SafeTravel.dot.gov Web site.

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Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

The delayed start of winter hours may–but may not–confuse digital equipment; here’s where to update just in case.

Source: PCWorld
Written by Tom Spring

Daylight-saving time arrives late this year–we gain an hour on November 4. You already know this, but does your electronic gear?

Federal lawmakers voted two years ago to extend daylight-saving time (DST) one week to help conserve energy. Businesses have worked hard to patch their computers so time critical systems like electronic stock trading, billing, and airline schedules work without missing a beat. But for smaller companies and consumers, the time change may not be snag free.

“It’s the small stuff that people have to worry about,” says Andrea Protas, director of research for eEye Digital Security. “Any small electronics like VCRs, alarm clocks, and wrist watches are susceptible to error.”

It’s just the flip side of the concerns raised seven months ago when daylight-saving time kicked in earlier, by Congressional action.

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[Editor’s note: don’t forget to change the clock in your digital cameras because while you can alter the EXIF Date/Time captured EXIF metadata after the fact, it’s time consuming and not always easy to do–particularly on a lot of captures.]

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Source: ZDNet
Written by Dawn Kawamoto
A European court dealt a severe blow to Microsoft’s competitive ambitions in Europe Monday by siding with regulators in an antitrust case against the company.
In its ruling, the Luxembourg-based Court of First Instance upheld European Commission claims that Microsoft abused its dominant position in the operating system market. Microsoft’s allies and competitors have been closely following the case since the Commission imposed antitrust sanctions against the company in early 2004.
The court’s decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for consumers, computer makers, Microsoft competitors and, perhaps most pointedly, the Commission’s ability to regulate technology companies on antitrust matters, legal experts and industry observers say.
“The court ruling is…welcome for its confirmation of the Commission’s decision and its underlying policy, but nevertheless, it is bittersweet,” Neelie Kroes, the Commission’s Competition Commissioner, said during a press conference Monday. “Bittersweet because the court has confirmed the Commission’s view that […]

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

Efforts to curb software piracy in China are bearing fruit although the piracy rate remains high, costing vendors billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Source: PC World
Written by John Blau, IDG News Service
Efforts to curb software piracy in China are bearing fruit although the piracy rate remains high, costing vendors billions of dollars in lost revenue, according to a survey paid for by large vendors, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
That was one of several findings of a report published Tuesday by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in collaboration with IDC.
Industry observers generally agree that piracy rates are high, though some question the assumptions behind the BSA’s and IDC’s methodology.
The study is based on various data, including the number of new PC shipments, the installed base of PCs and software licenses, as well as estimates of the number of software applications installed on PCs. Open source, which is included, is handled […]

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff

SOFTWARE LAG LIKELY TO SPARK EVOLUTION IN PROGRAMMING
Source: SiliconValley.com
Written By Mark Boslet, Mercury News
Consumer research shows that when given a choice PC buyers opt for computer chips with multiple cores, or computing brains. More cores equal more power is an easy concept for them to understand.
They might want to think twice before snapping up the industry’s latest quad-core computers.
Quad-core computers began shipping in November and have been billed as the business’s next big thing - a crop of machines with a leap in performance over the dual- and single-core boxes that make up the bulk of today’s sales.
Instead of one or two tiny calculating engines, or cores, per chip, they have four, letting a PC multitask by assigning separate jobs to each core.
But most consumers won’t get the promised performance boost for many years to come - if at all. That’s because the software they run to roam the net, […]

Original post by PSN Editorial Staff