Copyright © 2014 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2014 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2014 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2013 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2012 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2012 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2010 Criss-AC.net. All rights reserved.
I am a big fan of Symantec products. I have been using Norton Internet Security ever since I got my first computer. But never actually bought a license for it. Recently I was considering buying one for NIS 2010 (which is an amazing product), to use on my new computer, and mostly out of curiosity, I went searching for it on eBay. To my surprise, I was able to find it for sale on auctions starting at $0,01!! And there are several sellers who offer it for sale, and if you look at the feedback these people received from the others who bought it already, you will see that they have sold VALID licenses! See a screenshot I’ve made below, in case the auction will not be available anymore at the moment you read this post:
...and now I am wondering. A license for NIS 2010 is somewhere around €79,99 on Symantec.com. Why would Symantec agree to provide a valid license on eBay for as little as $10 or even under?
What's the trick? Would I be getting a good deal if I go on and purchase if from eBay? Would Symantec recognize it as a valid license?
___________________
Later edit: I won the auction on eBay and I paid for it. Seller sent it to my PayPal email address, and I used it to activate. It worked. I have put the screens with activation and its status in my Norton account here: http://www.criss-ac.net/2009/09/so-it-works-nis-2010-bought-from-ebay.html
32 months ago… at that time, I used to love her. Used to love her silently, never spoke my heart to anyone. At the moment I am writing this, the memories of her are still strong. And I miss…
“I did love you. I loved you almost since the first moment you revealed yourself to me. I loved you more and more as the days were passing, as much as I was realizing how special and different you were.
Loved you because you were representing the future itself, so full of dreams, plans and hopes. I loved you because you were something I thought I could never become, I loved you for your open mind and spirit… for your pure freedom that I do (can’t afford myself) not have.
Because you were doing so well on your own… but not me. I have been always relating to someone, always wanting something which wasn't up to me to get. Too much hand of fortune in my life, until I reached the point of my self-awakening. I almost forgot about my power to build what I want.
I continuously loved you... loved you until I realized I am just... just exactly as you are. Either I am what I used to call "different and special" when it came about you, either you... you lost that thing which made you so special to me, that thing that made me fall for you. We are simply too much alike, I want you... just... just to surprise me. Do not allow me to get to know you... be my friend, but also be a "stranger".
___________________
Have thought a lot, during the last 2 months about what I just posted. I just wanted to see how sincerely I allow myself to be with myself, and how hard could it be to deal with my actual feelings. It’s hard, almost a burden, to have the feelings. I am Cris. Sincere as much as I could be.
_____________________________________________
It will all get its meaning into the right eyes, at the right time…”
News, news, news! Iran’s IRGC (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) hunted down a shinning flying object over the Persian Gulf, and the news is still hot! The unidentified flying object was part of a group, and it was the only one hit after IRGC targeted them. It sank into the waters of the Persian Gulf and at the moment I am writing this post, its remains have not yet been located. Read the whole article here.
If this is your dream job… if you ever consider becoming an attorney, there are couple of things you must read before you become one. Don’t follow their example!
So apparently, these things happened for real in Court. Sad… sad… story below:
ATTORNEY: Your present condition, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in which ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: Now Doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: …did you actually pass the bar exam?
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20 year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ.
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me? Of course not. [LoL 
]
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid!
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The alive ones put up too much fight.
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
-------------------------------------------
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
-------------------------------------------
And the best for last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
Not that I have something against these people – I just find it funny… ridiculously funny.
Browsing the internet I found these “rules” to help make a household more happy. Don’t know if it will work for most of you, but I am definitely going to give it a try 
So here they are:
1. Men are NOT mind readers.
2. Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.
3. Sunday sports: it’s like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.
4. Crying is blackmail.
5. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!
6. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.
7. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That’s what we do.
8. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.
9. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
10. In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.
11. If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask our opinion.
12. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.
13. You can either ask us to do something, or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.
14. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.
15. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.
16. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. 
17. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what a mauve is.
18. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.
19. If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing”, we will act like nothing’s wrong.
20. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.
21. If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, expect an answer you don’t want to hear.
22. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine… Really.
23. Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, football, cars, computer, or… women.
24. You have enough clothes.
25. You have enough shoes.
26. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!
27. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight…
28. …but did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping.
29. Pass this to as many men as you can – to give them a laugh.
30. Pass this to as many women as you can – to give them a bigger laugh.
I’ve always had this dilemma, and haven’t had a good answer so far… Why the italic style, which bends to the right, is called ITALIC? Which is the connection between bending over to the right and Italic? And… is there any connection between italic and Italy?
Unfortunately for me, a PC user, this game will be released for xBox 360 only and exclusively. This is it. This is HALO 3 ODST. Amazing soundtrack, and see trailer below:
Source: GameTrailers.com
…my new baby! She is a member of the Nikon family, and her name is Nikon Coolpix P6000. There are a couple of things that make her so special. One of the most 
interesting things about it is the fact that it has integrated GPS. And what does it exactly? It just tags your photo with the latitude and longitude and embeds that data into the EXIF headers of the picture, so later when you upload it to Flickr for instance, it will be automatically placed on the map. Details about what the camera can do you can find here, the official site. Also, please find a couple of pictures that I have taken with this camera on my Flickr page.
– “Ahh, can’t believe how stupid she is!”
– “Why do you call her stupid?”
– “Of course she is stupid! She doesn’t even have Facebook!”
…and I think to myself: now that’s one heck of a reason to be stupid nowadays.
A “green” decision was recently adopted by the European Union Council, and this decision is pointing out towards the popular old-fashioned light bulbs. They have decided to ban them from the EU, and instead they’re promoting a different alternative: the more eco-friendly compact fluorescent bulbs.
In order to pursue this decision, the EU is not allowing the retailers to sell anymore these bulbs. However, they are still allowed to sell, only until they deplete their existing stocks. As EU is moving forward towards this new direction, the US is watching in background, and if everything will turn out well, this ban against the incandescent bulbs will be implemented in the US during 2012 too.
Source: http://cleantechnica.com/2009/09/10/european-union-begins-ban-of-incandescent-light-bulbs/
This post is for those of you who use Windows 7. Still unreleased though, but at this point is very stable and cool. Below you’ll find a list of shortcuts that are quite useful. Some of them will run on other versions of Windows, such as XP and Vista. Hope you’ll find them useful!
| Win + Up Arrow | Maximize the current window |
| Win + Down Arrow | Restore down or minimize current windows |
| Win + Left Arrow | Dock the current window to the left half of the screen |
| Win + Right Arrow | Dock the current window to the right half of the screen |
| Win + [number] | Activate and run the program pinned on Windows 7 Taskbar, running program won’t be affected |
| Win + Home | Minimize all but the current window |
| Win + Space | Makes all windows transparent so you can see through to the desktop |
| Win + Pause/Break | Open System Properties |
| Win + Tab | Flip Aero 3D [press Tab to cycle through windows] |
| Win + B | Move focus to notification tray (the right-most portion of the taskbar) |
| Win + D | Show/ Hide desktop |
| Win + E | Windows Explorer is launched |
| Win + F | Search |
| Win + G | Bring all gadgets on top and foreground |
| Win + L | Lock Computer |
| Win + M | Minimize all windows |
| Win + P | Open the projection menu (generally used for laptops connected to projectors) |
| Win + R | Run Command is launched. |
| Win + S | OneNote Screen Clipping Tool |
| Win + T | Show preview thumbnail of running applications in Windows Taskbar one by one without mouse over |
| Win + X | Mobility Center |
| Win + # | Quick launch |
| Win + = | Magnifier |
| Win + [+/ –] | Enables the magnifier and zooms in/ out |
| Win + Shift + Up Arrow | Maximize vertical size |
| Win + Shift + Down Arrow | Restore vertical size |
| Win + Shift + Left Arrow | Jump to left monitor |
| Win + Shift + Right Arrow | Jump to right monitor |
| Win + Shift + M | Undo all window minimization |
| Win + Shift + T | Cycles backwards |
| Win + CTRL + F | Opens the Active Directory Find Computers dialog |
| CTRL + Right Arrow | Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word |
| CTRL + Left Arrow | Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word |
| CTRL + Up Arrow | Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph |
| CTRL + Down Arrow | Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph |
| CTRL + Click | A pinned taskbar icon to cycle through the program’s open windows (e.g. IE) |
| CTRL + Win + Tab | Persistent flip 3D |
| CTRL + Shift + an arrow key | Select a block of text |
| CTRL + any arrow key + Spacebar | Select multiple individual items in a window or on the desktop |
| CTRL + Shift + ESC | Open Task Manager directly |
| CTRL + Shift + N | Create new folder |
So I went to their forums to inquire about this. Is it normal, or maybe there are some glitches in their system? I’ve started a new thread on this topic and some moderator answered and did also something else. He banned the girl. For which reason you may ask? Because she had 2,000 contacts in her friend list!!! So what is wrong with that???You gotta see his description from his personal profile: “For the record: I do have a tendency to step on toes. Sometimes by accident, and sometimes on purpose.
The same moderator explained that this (aka Last.FM) is not MySpace where everybody is in the race to beat the friend count of Tom (the MySpace founder). What kind of lame reason is that? How could somebody get banned only because they have 2000 people as contacts?
Last night I couldn't fall asleep at all, I spent ~ 2 h trying to get some rest... last night I felt so strange, when I thought of her... of her... it made me seek companion in something else, not in a material being - at least for the moment... so I fell asleep. I had a dream about HER, SHE again...
She used to haunt my dreams, […]
This girl is haunting my dreams... Remember I told you I dreamt about her several times, and the topic of each single dream was the same: she was missing me and she was hoping for me to forgive her and come back. Several days ago, I had this dream: I accidentally found her in a waiting room in Vienna. I see her, she sees me, I look into her eyes, but… but I do not approach. I keep on going. I passed that room without showing attention to her, but I knew she was there, watching me from behind… and I returned. When I shut the door behind me, I stopped... for some reason I stopped…
Without being too much aware of what I was doing, I opened the door to come back to that room where she was, and SHE was opening it from the inside... The crying angel jumped into my arms, crying and telling me to forgive, to come back... and I gave her the most sensitive hug I have ever gave to someone... Last night I could physically feel her tears on my face when she was hugging me crying... telling me the same thing...
Why am I having these dreams? Why does she come into my dreams when I am deeply fallen into depression and sadness? Which is the meaning of these dreams with her? Could it be me MY OWN WISH to have her back... unconscious wish? What is she feeling about this? Does SHE… ever know…?
…and I miss. The night comes on again, and so she will. In the night she comes to haunt… As of now, I miss her, like I never missed anyone.
What is going on with me? Why is she still messing with my wrecked life?
_____________________________
Peace has slowly descended into my soul… feeling detached of everything right now, I close myself inside me and I wait the day of tomorrow. I wish I was free… free, just like her. I have no doubt one day I will see her again… Eye to eye…
...to me, to what I was, to what I am being caught into, for so long...
Wanted to fly... but I've been held down. When I dared to raise my wings to get away... of you, of myself, there has always been something someone one dragging me down... to suck away my strength to move on... God, how... mortal, could I be??
This is me, the same student of life, the same day-dreamer, who hopes in finding an escape, in a moment of extreme self-criticism.
Will simply explain how I did create this picture: (the picture is clickable, it will take you to my Flickr page)
During the last weekend, I took my girl out for a walk. We’ve been walking through the center of Prague, and at some point, we stopped taking some pictures. In her glasses there was a great reflection of the towers, and I am crazy about shooting such things. So I decided I should give it a go. In this tutorial I will show you how you can turn a rather usual and boring picture into something that will look way better.
The camera I am using is a Nikon Coolpix P6000, the best camera in the Coolpix series, and Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, also the best graphic editing software.
This is the initial shot, untouched:
Now, the first thing I did was to apply a couple of photo filters. I have applied them as new layers, and I’ve used two. First one is a deep brown, applied as normal (hex code #663300), second is a deep blue (hex #000033), applied as overlay. If you’re familiar with Photoshop, you should know what these codes are.
Second thing to do is to smooth the face tones and texture. I have used the quick mask mode to paint the area that needs to be smoothed, and after I’ve got the selection I wanted, I have created a new layer as a copy. Now, remember to always have a background duplicate when working, always! If something goes wrong and you’re out of UNDO-es, you can always revert to the initial background.
So, as I said, I have created a new layer with the area that needs to be smoothened, and the way I did it was using a great blur filter called Surface blur. It has been implemented firstly in the CS2 version if I am not mistaken, and what it does? It blurs in such way that most of the details or edges are preserved, and it is the best blur technique if you’re going to smooth some textures in your own photographs.
After I’ve applied that filter I had to adjust the opacity in top of the initial layer, to make sure that no textures are being lost due to blurring. Also, you can adjust the fill ratio as well, the result will be the same.
As soon as I got that and I’ve been happy with the result, I’ve applied a black border frame, and this was all. This is the result!
Later edit: I have found a couple of tutorials/ applications, and I must add before you click on them, that they are for purchasing only. There are other free tutorials on the web, but these helped me the most.
Enjoy!
A gunshot to the neck of the condemned at the prison entrance, while the doctors are waiting for the body in an ambulance to remove the heart, kidneys and liver once the death is certified. This is how 2 out of 3 organ transplants are done in China. After years of suspicion, Deputy Minister of Health Huang Jiefu announced in China Daily newspaper a new national organ donation that contrasts the black market, while respecting the rights of prisoners on death row.
In a country whose people are culturally rejecting the idea of being buried without having the body is intact, only 130 people in 7 years have authorized their organs to be used after their death. To bridge the gap between demand and supply, the government - that kills the largest number of prisoners in the world, 1718 in 2008 only, according to Amnesty International - is therefore used in the 65% of those sentenced to death. Officially, the prisoners should give their written consent, but the opaque Chinese legal system has left ample room for abuse. But these are not enough: about 1 million Chinese are in the queue lists for a transplant, but only 1% per year can get it.
In this context a flourishing black market began to rise. It also attracted many foreigners, the so-called "transplant tourists". Here it is a market not so obscure: Listings of organ traffickers are easily found on the Internet. Just go to the site daifumd.com (daifu in Chinese means doctor) to find the announcement of a 35 year-old who sells his kidney for 200,000 - 300,000 yuan, approx. €20,000 - €30,000. Not even the law that since 2007 does require that living donors are a spouse or a blood relative has stopped the illegal transplants: they are indeed increased from 15% of the total in 2006 to 49% in 2008. To circumvent the law, moreover, is enough to falsify documents or to buy the complicity of officials. While selling a body can bring in thousands of euros, it is increasingly difficult to find willing donors.
Source: Descopera.ro
!! From my “long” digital photographer experience, I just created my first panoramic photo! Do not expect to find an actual panorama… why I call it so it is because I have successfully managed to stitch two pictures together… and the result came out quite nice. (Or at least… this is what I like to think.) I will show you how it started, how I went through, how I got to the final result. But first, let me tell you its story:
I was walking with my girlfriend and two of her friends (a very nice couple) that came to visit us from Russia on Charles Bridge (Karluv Most – as they call it in Czech) across Vltava, in Prague Czech Rep. Well, it is an old bridge and at each 10 meters there is at least one statue, made of either bronze, either rock. There is the saying that if you rub your hand against one of the bronze statue and you make a wish, that wish will turn reality.
So as we were passing through, Julia decided to make a wish so she placed her hand on the statue. Her boyfriend Pash was right behind her, and he thought he could go on and make a… 
…a wish 
. A big wish I’d say! So I took the shot, and unfortunately I was not quick enough to take a one shot only. I needed two: one for Julia’s wish, second for Pasha’s. After one year… more than a year, I found out that you can put together two pictures, and to create a picture from two “halves”. The software I used is Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended. Enjoy the “tutorial”:
I shall start by showing you the initial pics I took, untouched, exactly the same way I shot them (now they are resized for publishing purposes):
This is the first one, with Julia making the wish. I have also published them on my Flickr page, so you can click on them and you’ll see them in large size:
Second is Pasha, making his “wish” now:
So I have used Photoshop to stitch them together, in an attempt to create a “panoramic” photo. First I had to load them both in Photoshop, then from the File menu –> Automate –> Photomerge… and this is the result I got:
As you observe, the top right corner is stretched all the way up (which is normal in the original picture). The black areas need either to be cropped (which will not make a good picture after all – try to see it in your mind if black was cropped) or… either be constructed. I decided to do a little of both.
First thing to do was to use the amazing Vanishing Point from the Filter menu to get rid of the distorted top-right corner. After playing a bit with Vanishing Point, the picture looked like this:
So far so good. The corner does not look distorted anymore, so I can say now that I can move on to the next step: constructing the areas under black or cropping them.
I will start with the black area in the bottom-right corner. As you notice, there is pattern that can be easily copied and multiplied. You can create ground, cracks, corners, using the existing background. The tool I’ve used is called Clone stamp tool, and you can access it from the toolbar in the Essentials display mode, or simpler, by pressing S on your keyboard. After I’ve reconstructed that corner, the picture looked like this:
The corner is now built totally. I have used nothing but pattern already existing in the picture itself. And the great Clone stamp tool, of course.
Now only one step remains: the black area at the top. For an easy to understand reason, I have decided to crop it (there are trees and bricks from the house, very hard to construct without creating a repeated pattern). So I will simply crop that. Doing so it will just save me some extra time + work, and besides, the pic will get a more widescreen aspect ratio.
We are here so far. Everything looks more or less OK. Now it is time to work a bit on the enhancing. I’ve decided to go for a B&W treatment, and to add a nice 12 pixel black frame, each side bordered by a 2 pixel thin white border. This is the final result!
Hope you’ll find this tutorial helpful when creating your own panoramic photos. Photoshop will help you the same way it helped me. So… gotta end this…
… Please share your own work too, and if you’re a Flickr member, keep up with me on there!
Later edit: I have found a couple of tutorials/ applications, and I must add before you click on them, that they are for purchasing only. There are other free tutorials on the web, but these helped me the most.
Enjoy!
