Here are seven photo stores you want to avoid ordering from. As we have consistently reiterated on this site, getting the lowest price on a product is not always the best course of action. In fact, if a price is too good to be true, chances are it’s part of a “bait-and-switch” tactic used to lure unsuspecting consumers out for a bargain into ordering online (or by phone). The scam goes like this and if you ever find yourself in this position, run:

1. You place your order for merchandise (say, a digital camera) that seems like an incredible deal.
2. The salesperson takes your order, then tries to sell you accessories such as filters, battery chargers, etc.
3. You politely refuse. They insist. You refuse. Suddenly, your item is either not available anymore or you simply do not receive it when promised.
4. You call again to follow through and they try to sell you accessories again. If you give in, you receive the accessories (sometimes the wrong ones), but no digital camera.
5. You call again to return or exchange the merchandise, are put on hold forever then cut off.
6. You call again and promised your camera is on back order.
7. You give up, and learn a valuable lesson about always ordering from a trusted vendor.

It’s just not worth the aggravation and it’s all a scam anyway: the vendor never intended to sell you the merchandise at that incredible price!

Related link:
- List of scammers

Paris Katherine Jackson says it best.

Michael Jackson, today you are in a better place.

Jackson’s “Heal the World” — beautifully sung by Judith Hill.

Related Links:

- RollingStone Rock & Roll Daily
- Judith Hill Official Site
- Judith Hill on MySpace

There is probably no better open sourced media player than the VLC. It is a cross-platform open-source multimedia framework, player and server all in one. It reads most audio and video formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac …) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols. Use it also as a media converter or a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks.

Download VLC Media player

Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburg Penguins

How the mighty has fallen! The mighty Detroit Red Wings bowed to the come back kids. Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Stanley Cup Champion! Changing coach midway, a team in disarray straightening the ship, battling their way into the Playoffs, and coming back from a two game loss, the Penguins believed they could win. Sidney Crosby, at 21, becomes the youngest captain in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup. Evgeni Malkin is series’ MVP and wins the Conn Smythe Trophy. Marc-André Fleury was superb in goal. How tragic and ironic for Marion Hossa, ex-Penguins, who did not believe in his old team and made the choice to look out for himself — jumped to the Red Wings because he wanted so much to win the Stanley Cup. Talbot — drafted 234th overall in 2002 — scored the two goals (1:13, 10:07) during the second period to the Red Wings’ one goal to give the Penguins the cup. Dan Bylsma, at the age of 38, is the youngest head coach in the NHL. In 2003, Bylsma was a player with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, coached by current Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. Two great teams, great players from both sides, one winner!

PhotographyBLOG editor Mark Goldstein joined the elite club June 8, 2009 of photographers stopped by Police for taking photos of iconic landmarks. Funny thing was that a few meters away, two officers were getting their photos taken by tourists!

Now, that always gets you a bit hesitant to take pictures for the next review. It pays to have alternate locations, skipping the patrolled ones for a while. Or, pretend to be a tourist.

D-Day

Photography played a big part in recording the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 when Allied troops crossed the English Channel in ships (with aerial protection) and attacked the beaches of Normandy to start the liberation of Europe. Five Normandy beaches were stormed by British, Canadian and American troops. The beaches were codenamed Sword (British troops), Juno (Canadian troops), Gold (British troops), Omaha (US troops) and Utah (US troops). It took three months to capture Normandy and approximately 215,000 Allied soldiers, and roughly as many Germans, were killed or wounded during the battles that ensued.

The Normandy Landings were also known under the code names Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord. It started with an air assault landing of American, British and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight, followed by an amphibious landing at 6:30am on the beaches of Normandy.

- Wikipedia

Microsoft bing Decision Engine

When you are searching for something, your friends and work colleagues will often say, “Just Google it!” Now that Microsoft is planning to replace its Live Search engine with [wait for it]… “bing” [yes, with a lower case "b"],  I just can’t for the life of me imagine “Just Bing it!” taking off.

“bing” is being promoted as not just a search engine. No, it is a “decision engine.” On a more serious note, the demo video does look very interesting. Instead of just returning the links, it also gives you right underneath sublinks to where you might really want to go, related links, etc. — though I have not seen anything different than what Google returns in its searches. The lofty goal of bing is to help you make a decision right there while you are searching for something.

I just don’t get the name, though. Is “Bing!” supposed to be the sound that echoes back when your search hits the right results in Internet space?