Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

If you are a Windows Live Messenger user – you’ll probably find this to be a fun feature to muck around with. I sure did!
So here’s how it works – step by step. Only took me a few minutes.
For this to work, you must have a webcam installed before putting the following steps into practice.

In your Live Messenger, if you click on your display picture you’ll see a box like this…

Select “Dynamic picture…” from the grey boxes on the right.

Then you’ll be looking at a box like this…

I don’t know why I seem to write massive link posts lately – maybe because i have been very busy with my three major priorities, family, work and photography. However this is a priority as well, so I need to allocate some time to write soon. In the mean time I am going to clear my browser of the tabs that are open there.

Here goes – and have a great weekend. Oh – and this photo was my favourite of the week. I took it in low light, no flash using the 70-200 2.8 IS L Lens.

Exposure 1/128, Aperture f2.8, focal length 170mm, ISO 2000

Photography Links

• A Beginner’s Guide to Flickr by Elizabeth Halford – I love flickr also – an awesome tool
• Helping Your Client Prepare for Their Shoot – Dress to Match the Sofa? by Elizabeth Halford
• 5 Tips for Photographing Children – some great tips here
• 3 Affordable E-books to Improve Your Photography by Darren Rowse – thinking of getting these
• How to Capture Motion Blur in Photography by Darren Rowse - learning this technique is going to be fun
• Jasmine Star – an awesome wedding photography blog
• I love this photo gypsy meets gangster
• Jakob Aungiers – this is an amazing portfolio

The following is the sample email that pops up in Windows Mail. Windows mail is being gradually replaced by Windows Live mail. This is a much better free email application than the old Outlook Express which technically wasn't free, you had to buy windows XP to get it. Windows live mail can be downloaded for free as part of the live suite.

I use it for a lot of clients as an easy way to manage their Hotmail or Gmail accounts on their PC.

Windows Mail is the successor to Outlook Express

Windows Mail builds on the foundation of Outlook Express, adding a variety of new features designed to make your e-mail experience more productive and fun, while helping to reduce risks and annoyances such as phishing and junk e-mail.

Back to work and back to an inbox full of things to do. I have spent a massive amount of time this last week working – the sailing holiday is now a dim and distant memory!

First some riding news. I got my bike back with the rear shock rebuilt (under warranty) and took it for a test ride with the MTB ride group yesterday. It held up just fine and the ride was an epic one - if a little long for my liking. The Saturday MTB group is back – meeting at the Wolves Bike Den every Saturday at midday for an epic ride like this. All ages and experiences welcome.

Map and terrain detail on bikely of the Ewen Maddock Dam Ride Click the pictures for more detail.

Microsoft

From LiveSide - New version of Outlook Live for Windows Mobile available – for some. As part of the upcoming release of Exchange Server 2010, a new version of Outlook Live for Windows Mobile became available today.  This new Outlook Live, formerly Exchange Labs and code named Skyline (not the Outlook Live that preceded Outlook Connector), is an installable client for any Windows Mobile 6.1 phone that uses Exchange Server 2010.

Two new Windows Live services coming soon: Documents and Devices

It seems like Windows Live Wave 4 is well underway, and the consolidation of Office Live and Live Mesh with Windows Live could only make it better.

Something I have had to do a lot of lately is install printers in home networks with 32bit and 64 bit machines running mixtures of Windows 7, Vista and XP. This article from Digital Inspiration succinctly explains how to get this to work. Share a Network Printer between x86 and x64 Windows Machines.

Outlook 2010 is going to be able to sync to the cloud and mobile devices so you can take it where ever you go. Thanks to Sarah for the tip.