ONLINE
SPAM Is Good For You?
Of course, it all depends on your definition of SPAM. For 12 weeks, volunteers at five large Canadian companies received weekly e-mails reminding them to eat healthful foods and keep active. These folks were already participating in a larger study about health and exercise. The report (in the American Journal of Health Promotion) stated that those who received e-mail reminders exercised more, reduced their body mass index (BMI), and knew more about the benefits than those who did not. The group that did not get the reminders gained weight.
Yes, It's (Sadly) True
Kodak has announced that it will discontinue manufacturing black-and-white photographic paper by the end of this year. They will continue to produce B&W chemicals and film. (In case you're interested, the paper is made in Brazil.) Many reasons are cited, including the huge move to digital, and Kodak's need to trim their workforce while trying to stay profitable. Ilford, another B&W paper maker, was rescued this year from bankruptcy (filed last year) by a management buyout, and AgfaPhoto (Germany) filed for bankruptcy this last May. So if you want to continue your fine-art B&W photography, consider stocking up on your favorite paper, especially if it's Kodak's.
Firefox Flaw
If you're using Firefox as your Microsoft Internet Explorer replacement browser, you may be vulnerable to a couple of severe security risks. These flaws could allow a malicious web page to make software installations appear to be from a trusted site, such as Mozilla's own update websites (update.mozilla.org and addons.mozilla.org), which are listed in the browser's whitelist. This has been mostly fixed by changes made to those websites that alters the installation process. You may still be at risk if you have added your own sites to the whitelist, however. So check out and verify the legitimacy of any other URLs in your Firefox whitelist. And it wouldn't hurt to get the latest version, either.
In Other News
Snapfish, the on-line photo services company, has been bought by Hewlett-Packard. Snapfish's website has over 350 million photos, posted by over13 million Snapfish members, who can organize their uploaded photos into digital albums, share photos with other members, print calendars and mouse pads, and (here is where HP comes in) can have photos printed for as little as twelve cents each. HP plans on targeting those 13 million members as a way to boost sales of HP printers and ink. Of course, there's the revenue from printing all those pictures, mouse pads, neckties, and whatever else they come up with. And they will also process your print film and upload the images to your Snapfish account. As an incentive to try their service, you'll get 20 free prints after your first upload.
Bill Hopkins
is the Webmaster of PhotoSourceFolio* (www.photosourcefolio.com) and a regular contributor to PhotoStockNotes. Send comments via e-mail to wh@photosourcefolio.com. Fax: 1 818 831-0916. For on-line questions, contact Bill on the Kracker Barrel at www.photosource.com/board.
*Display 6 of your own images for photobuyers to view, on your page on the PhotoSource website.
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Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes