Computers and Technology Articles

Dell D600 Laptop 16ghz 40gb DVDCDRW B Grade Includes Genuine XP Professional

2010-11-17T05:55:00.000-08:00

1.4 GHZ CPU, WIFI; 512 MB Ram
40 GB Hard Drive; DVD Drive
XP with Genuine Reinstall Cd

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Original :: Dell D600 Laptop 1.6ghz 40gb DVD/CDRW B Grade Includes Genuine XP Professional restore cd!

Frontlines Fuel of War

2010-11-13T10:55:00.000-08:00

Focused and intense system inherently promotes teamwork by creating a unified front of war. In both single player and multiplayer, players join the forces on the frontline that result in focused combat and increased intensity while allowing player choice.
Based upon actual locations in Central Asia, the player enters an epic campaign featuring 7 theaters of war with a climactic ending. Players can create their own path to victory with non-linear mission objectives and destructible environments.
Over 60 vehicles and weapons based off of real military designs of the near future. From futuristic tanks and jets to remote controlled drones and sentry guns, feel the adrenaline rush of utilizing next generation firepower on the battlefield.
Character customization allows you to represent your play style through character choices, weapon load out and role specialization.
Supports up to 64+ players on PC via LAN or Internet for large scale wars online

Rating: (out of reviews)

List Price: $ 39.99 Price: $ 0.09

Original :: Frontlines: Fuel of War

Call of Duty Black Ops

2010-11-10T00:55:00.000-08:00

Wide array of play modes including single player, local multiplayer versus and online co-op and multiplayer
Seventh installment of the Call of Duty series, based on the live fire conflicts of the Cold War era
Diverse variety of play setting ranging from urban air and ground combat in SE Asia, to snow combat in Soviet region and jungle combat
Blending of traditional COD, and new first-person character scenarios designed to both retain the essence of the COD gaming experience and ensure constantly flowing and varied action
New arsenal of weapons and vehicles tied to the Cold War era, including the SR-71 Blackbird and sighted explosive-tipped crossbows

Rating: (out of reviews)

List Price: $ 59.99 Price: $ 58.45

Original :: Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty Black Ops Full Game Download Xbox 360 Torrent DOWNLOAD

2010-11-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

DOWNLOAD: goo.gl Mirror: goo.gl or goo.gl Mirror: goo.gl HOW TO DOWNLOAD: scdownloads.za.pl Hey guys! Call of Duty Black Ops is done and finished and now the only thing Treyarch has to do is mass produce copies of it, but I have the actual game!!! I'm letting you guys play Black Ops for free so take advantage of this opportunity before it's too late! Happy gaming! ==EXTRA TAGS Experience Walkthrough Gametrailers posted a Xbox 360 Dashboard Walkthrough Hacking GamerTag Suspened PayPal Free Xbox Live Generator HALO 3 General Instantly Easy 50 boosting Service free money Recon Armor PS3 Microsoft ELITE Master Chief machinima THE NEW XBOX DASHBOARD COMING END OF SEPTEMBER. DEMO BY MAJOR NELSON. Call Xbox LIVE sims 2 Dash Board came early beta version cheatsboring program software demo major nelson blog free xbox live codes everydat prizerebel rewards1 hack generated generate online google virus unblock WII E3 2008 New Xbox 360 Dashboard Walkthrough Gametrailers posted penguin a Xbox 360 points coins change Dashboard armor halo 3 skulls Walkthrough Extra Tags] IGNORE [Extra Tags] E3 2008 New Xbox 360 Dashboard Hacking Club GamerTag Suspened PayPal reconFree Xbox Live Generator HALO 3 General mrwaterfalls Instantly Easy 50 boosting Service GWA Gator360 Supposed cp 1 Wwe Adam free money Recon Armor Master Chief PS3 Microsoft ELITE Master Chief machinima As Xbox 360ยฎ readies What is machinima for the next wave of audience gamertag change expansion, Microsoft today announced usa a ...

Video Rating: 0 / 5

Integrating Computer Technology into the Classroom Skills for the 21st Century

2010-11-03T00:56:00.000-07:00

Rating: (out of 3 reviews)

List Price: $ 107.60 Price: $ 70.39

Original :: Integrating Computer Technology into the Classroom: Skills for the 21st Century (4th Edition)

Toshiba Satellite L645DS4036 LED TruBrite 14Inch Laptop Black

2010-10-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

1.8 GHz AMD Phenom II P820 triple-core processor
4 GB DDR3 memory
320 GB SATA hard drive, DVD SuperMulti drive supporting 11 formats
14-inch widescreen HD TruBrite LED-Backlit display, ATI Radeon HD 4250 graphics card
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 3.8 hours of battery life

Rating: (out of 111 reviews)

List Price: $ 679.99 Price: $ 499.99

Original :: Toshiba Satellite L645D-S4036 LED TruBrite 14-Inch Laptop (Black)

Crucial Technology CT25664AC800 2GB 200pin SODIMM DDR2 PC26400 Memory Module

2010-10-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

200-pin SODIMM
Speed: DDR2-800
DDR2 PC2-6400 Unbuffered, NON-ECC, DDR2-800, 1.8V, 256Meg x 64
The only brand of memory upgrade available directly from a DRAM manufacturer, tested to meet the most stringent industry specifications
Install it yourself in about 15 minutes. The same top-quality memory that the worlds largest computer manufacturers install in the systems they sell

Rating: (out of 185 reviews)

List Price: $ 56.99 Price: $ 31.99

Original :: Crucial Technology CT25664AC800 2GB 200-pin SODIMM DDR2 PC2-6400 Memory Module

Sonic Colors Dr Eggmans Amusement Park Gameplay Trailer HD

2010-10-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

Click Here to Watch the Sonic Colors Mulitplayer Gameplay Trailer: www.youtube.com Sonic Colors Dr. Eggman's Amusement Park Gameplay Trailer [HD] Developer: Sega Release: 11/2010 Genre: Adventure Platform: Wii/DS Publisher: Sega Website: www.soniccolors.com The diabolical Dr. Eggman has hatched another plan for world domination! He has built an amazing interstellar amusement park, floating in space around Sonics home planet, bursting with incredible rides and attractions. However, all is not as it seems as Dr. Eggman has abducted an alien race called Wisps and is harnessing their colorful energy to fuel a sinister plot. However, before Dr. Eggman completes his evil plans, Sonic discovers his mysterious theme park in space. When he arrives, Sonic finds he is also able to use these alien powers and is ready to help! Sonic will need all his speed and skill as he faces this test, but, empowered by the alien energy, it's a test hell pass with flying colors! Follow Machinima on Twitter! Machinima twitter.com Inside Gaming twitter.com Machinima Respawn twitter.com Machinima Entertainment, Technology, Culture twitter.com FOR MORE MACHINIMA, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE SPORTS GAMEPLAY, GO TO: www.youtube.com FOR MORE TRAILERS, GO TO: www.youtube.com TAGS: Sonic Colors Dr. Eggman's Amusement Park Gameplay Trailer [HD] machinima video game videogame Nintendo ds wii dsi gameboy advance sp gamecube sega genesis Saturn playstation ps3 ps2 ...

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Computers Understanding Technology Introductory

2010-10-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

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List Price: Price: $ 100.00

Original :: Computers: Understanding Technology, Introductory

Compaq Presario CQ5600F Desktop PC Black

2010-10-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

AMD Athlon II 170u Processor (2.0 GHz; 1MB L2 Cache; 1000MHz System Bus); 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM (1x2GB expandable to 4GB); 500GB (7200 RPM) Serial ATA hard drive; Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE integrated graphics; SuperMulti DVD Burner with LightScribe Technology; Integrated audio, 6 speaker configurable with up to 5.1 surround sound capabilities
External Ports: Headphone, Microphone (Front), 2 USB 2.0 ports (Front), 4 USB 2.0 ports (Back), VGA-out (Back), Microphone/ Line-in/ Line-out (Back), LAN (Back)
10/100Base-T network interface
Compaq USB keyboard and optical mouse

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List Price: $ 329.99 Price: $ 329.99

Original :: Compaq Presario CQ5600F Desktop PC - Black

Technological Slavery

2010-10-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

Rating: (out of 2 reviews)

List Price: $ 22.95 Price:

Original :: Technological Slavery

Technological

2010-10-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

Kaleidoscope images to Daft Punk's wonderful Technological

Video Rating: 4 / 5

How Computers Work 9th Edition

2010-10-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

ISBN13: 9780789736130
Condition: New
Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Rating: (out of 94 reviews)

List Price: $ 34.99 Price: $ 19.99

Original :: How Computers Work (9th Edition)

Teachers Discovering Computers Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the

2010-10-04T18:56:00.000-07:00

Rating: (out of 3 reviews)

List Price: $ 117.95 Price: $ 87.49

Original :: Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (Shelly Cashman Series)

Timothy Leary Live At The Stone 1987 77

2010-10-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Think back to the Summer of 1987. Did you own a personal computer then? If so, you were in rare company. And in today's podcast we get to hear Dr. Timothy Leary explain why this new technology was going to revolutionize the world. But he doesn't confine himself to only talking about computers in this presentation that was given at The Stone in San Francisco. ... He also has some amazing stories to tell about the Summer of Love, Abbie Hoffmann, Hunter S. Thompson, and other fun people and events.

Video Rating: 0 / 5

HP computers are racist

2010-09-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

The face tracking feature of the HP web cam will not recognize or track black faces. You have to watch this video. It is hilarious!

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Age Of Empires Collectors Edition Limited Edition

2010-09-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

Limited Edition - 3 CDs in Jewel Case Packaging - Age of Empires and Age of Empires II Complete with all Expansions
Includes: Age of Empires; Age of Empires Rise of Rome Expansion;Age of Empires II : Age of Kings Gold Edition;Age of Empires II Conquerors Expansion

Rating: (out of 94 reviews)

List Price: $ 9.99 Price: $ 6.56

Original :: Age Of Empires Collector's Edition (Limited Edition)

Memorial Day Moment of Silence on YouTube

2010-09-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

ClipBandits find it ironic the US government has decided to cut off access to YouTube for military personnel stationed around the world. Yes, they can view YouTube from their own computers at home, but doesn't do a lot of good for soldiers on the battlefield who only have access to defense department issued computers. We believe if servicemen are sent out to fight war, they should at least have the choice to view what they want on the Internet.

Video Rating: 3 / 5

Computers Understanding Technology

2010-09-19T23:56:00.000-07:00

Rating: (out of 3 reviews)

List Price: $ 78.58 Price: $ 78.49

Original :: Computers: Understanding Technology

Computers The Life Story of a Technology

2010-09-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

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List Price: $ 46.95 Price:

Original :: Computers: The Life Story of a Technology

New Computer Technology

2010-09-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

This is totally wicked!

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Online Betting Sites For Sports activities Wagering

2010-09-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Revolution in technologies has positively set its benchmark on today's generation. With the aid of the latest hello there-tech improvement in technological innovation, all issues have been made much more handy to use and easily obtainable. Amongst all technical innovations 1 of the best and hi-tech improvements is the personal computer. Pcs are extremely valuable to do analysis work as nicely as for leisure also. With the assist of pc you can read and download books on the web. Looking for a work and extended distance communication is now significantly less complicated since of the net use. Not only this, pc is a resource of earning funds for some folks.

Among all use of computer systems one of the most common employs of the personal computer is on-line gaming. The internet provides distinct sites for folks to pay a visit to and take component to perform on the web games. People who are interested in sporting events wagering, regularly search and go to various on-line sportactivities making a bet websites for their bets.

Betting web sites offer opportunities in which an particular person bets on any sporting activities group in any sort of crew sport and deposits funds on that specific sports staff. If the team on which that person has wager the cash is the winning staff, then he will get his money return plus extra funds as earnings. But if the staff loses the sport, then the person loses his gambling hard cash and will also not get any additional bonus funds. This gaming process is very easy and has no issues.

Usually, public playing on sports goes to a betting home exactly where all bets are placed. But now, with the support of the pc and world wide web, there are quite a few respected on the web sports gambling web sites that are simply accessible. There are plenty of on the internet sporting activities wagering web sites such as ukash wagering websites, bet365 wagering web site which have gained the trust of people sporting events gambling buffs and are now counted as 1 of the greatest.

Although looking for on-line gambling websites, a single really should be patient and broad minded simply because a single making a bet internet site might existing comparable provides as one more web site and have far better payback hard cash on gambling games. Maintaining track of the internet sites that a single visited and found the offers there much better when in contrast to other on the web wagering websites and pondering about the valuable and unsafe aspect, can help to accumulate or to make a much better cope.

To help 1 although picking which on the web sports activities gambling web sites are reliable and secure to play, certain principles need to be checked whilst seeking them out. 1st concern that a single must check is that the web site is legal or not, most of the wagering web sites are authorized but there is no harm in checking yet again.

There are various on the web making a bet sites obtainable in cyber area which can absolutely assist playing lovers to wager on their preferred sports activities staff. These online beating sites can be accessed from anywhere with the aid of laptop or computer. Also these on the web making a bet web sites deal with nearly all type of sporting activities proper from the NBA, Method one, NFL, NASCAR, horse racing and of course the MLB or Main League Baseball, America's amount 1 sports activities recreation. Read more: Bet365 Bonus

Adminstrator

Original :: Online Betting Sites For Sports activities Wagering

Introduction To Gas Detection

2008-07-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

Gas detectors can be found in all walks of life, from food processing plants to parking garages, from airplanes to casinos. Any place that can have a potential lack of oxygen or presence of a toxic gas needs a gas detector present to monitor the safety of people. Some common uses during field projects are: confined space entry, well drilling, soil screening, area mintoring, worker safety, indoor air quality, and leak detection. Gas detectors have a variety designs; pager size units, handheld datalogging units, Stand alone area monitors, and wall mount fixed systems.

Here are some gas detection basics:

1ppm is one part in 1,000,000 parts.Generally ppm (parts per million) is the lowest unit of measurement 10,000ppm = 1% by Volume
LEL is the next unit of measurement. It is a percentage of the explosive %(vol) level of a compound.
100% LEL is the lowest concentration at which a flammable substance can produce a fire or explosion when ignited.
UEL (Upper Explosive Limit) is the maximum concentration of gas in air that will burn.
Each compound (gas) has a different LEL, or the point at which the compound will burn or become explosive.
Most flammable compounds become explosive at less than 5%(vol).
Each gas has a different LEL and UEL.
%Gas is the highest unit of measurement, which is the amount of pure gas.

How Do Gas Detection Sensors Work?
The Oxygen Sensor is an electochemical sensor. Any gas which can be oxidized or reduced electrochemically can be detected by means of a fuel based electrochemical sensor. The consumption of oxygen produces a current (ร�ยตA) which is linearly proportional to the concentration of gas in air. Since the oxygen sensor is constantly exposed to oxygen, the normal life of the sensor is between 1-2years.

The Combustible Sensor consists of two coils of fine platinum wire each embedded in a bead of alumina, connected electrically in a bridge circuit. One of the beads is impregnated with a special catalyst which promotes oxidation and the other is treated to inhibit oxidation. Current is passed through the coils so that they reach a temperature at which oxidation of a gas readily occurs at the catalyzed bead (about 500ร�ยฐC). This raises the temperature further which increases the resistance of the platinum coil in the catalyzed bead, leading to an imbalance of the bridge. This output change is linear, for most gases, up to and beyond 100% LEL and response time is only a few seconds to detect alarm levels (typically 20% LEL).

The Toxic Sensors are also electrochemical sensors which operate by the same basic principles as the oxygen sensor. Electrochemical sensors consume minute amounts of gas, the absorption of gas and electric output being controlled by a "diffusion barrier".

Christopher Miller

Equipco

Rentals, Sales, and Service of Environmental Equipment 1-888-234-5678

visit our forum to ask us questions about environmental technology.

EQUIPCO was established as a service and rentals company nine years ago, and we have since grown into a complete rentals, sales and service provider. We are a factory authorized/certified repair center for most of the major instrument manufacturers that you are familiar with.

Why Rent From EQUIPCO? Three Reasons... Best Price Guarantee! EQUIPCO will beat any competitor's legitimate rental rate or sales quote.

More Choices! EQUIPCO has the most varied pool of rental instruments in the industry, bar none.

All Maintenance Performed by Engineers! EQUIPCO employs only Electronics Engineers in our maintenance and repair departments.

Going Wireless with Your Headphones

2008-07-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for the latest in wireless headphones for your enjoyment and private listening, whether to TV, stereo, home entertainment such as theater, iTunes or Ipod, you might do well to look at the highly recommended Sennheiser RS 130 wireless headphones.

These state of the art wireless headphones provide an advanced communication via FM radio frequency. The result is clear sound with no background noise or static and nearly 500 feet of free movement. The headphones have terrific surround sound effects and weigh less than ten ounces. They are ergonomically designed to provide hours of comfort.

The features of the Sennheiser RS130 wireless headphones include a base station for the headphones that is attractive and stores the headphones whre they are not in use and also charges the batteries. Batteries are NiMH type, and their single charge keeps them going for 22 hours of your listening enjoyment. The wireless headphones base station has a 900 MHz high performance transmission, also wireless, that delivers a playback that is very impressive in its high fidelity capability. Its transmitters use Sennheiser's customized system of intelligent automated tuning. This seeks and then chooses the best of three channels from base to headset that are available for delivery of sound to the wireless headphones.

A music professional and online consumer music advocate reviewed the Sennheiser wireless headphones. He noted the worldwide acclaim of all Sennheiser audio products as well as its firm's state of the art designs and manufacture. He said that the Sennheiser RS 130 wireless headphones lived up to the Sennheiser quality reputation by delivering a high performance sound, as well as top notch value and ergonomically designed comfort.

He said that he tested the Sennheiser wireless headphones both inside and outside, in conjunction with his speaker system - a ZVOX 315 - and his iPod. The ZVOX 315, by the way, is a surround sound single box speaker system that uses a single cable to connect to an mp3, an iPos, portable music instrument or equipment, or a computer, TV, CD player, DVD, satellite or clock radio, game console or any other device that has a jack for headphones or an audio output of some sort.

He also used his iTunes from his laptop. What he found was that the Sennheiser RS 130 wireless headphones gave him unparalleled listening without any disruptive noise. His recommendation was that anyone who was looking for a set of wireless headphones for less than $200 to be used with their iPod, their iTunes, their TV, stereo, or home theater, didn't need to look anywhere else.

http://wirelessheadsetshq.com Wireless Head Phones to use.

3 Key Advantages of Buying iPod Products at a Discount Shopping Mall

2008-07-23T02:59:00.000-07:00

Finding the iPod of your dreams is much easier now thanks to online discount shopping malls. Online malls offer many choices of brands, colors, styles, sizes and features that you may not find at a local retailer. Whether you're buying an iPod Nano with an LCD screen, and iPod video or other related electronics, you can almost always find what you need at an online mall, and often at a great price! Here are three advantages of buying an iPod at a discount shopping mall on the Web.

1. iPod Features and Benefits

When searching through an online discount shopping mall for an iPod, you can take your time and shop from your own home computer. You have time to read all the features and benefits, compare iPod brands carefully and even look at various styles and colors to find exactly what you need. Features of IPods might include an LCD monitor, song memory capabilities, menu selections, compatibility with iPod accessories, and control features for play, rewind, fast-forward, pause, etc.

Benefits can vary from one brand to the next. Some iPods are very small, even pencil-thin, so you can carry them around anywhere. Some iPods have fabulous sound quality. Others may offer lots of memory for storing up to 1,000 songs!

2. Discount Electronics

Another benefit of searching for your iPod at a discount shopping mall is you can hunt for online bargains. You might be surprised at how affordable on-sale electronics can be when you're shopping online. It's like having your own discount electronic store at your fingertips. There are amazing online bargains on items such as iPods, iPod videos, iPods with LCD monitors, iPod Nanos, digital cameras, MP3 players and other great electronic products.

Some discount shopping malls will include items such as headphones, cables, adaptors and helpful software with your iPod. You may have to dig deep to find the online bargains, but they're well worth the effort!

3. Shop for iPod Accessories

You can also shop for additional iPod accessories such as an iPod sleeve or other related products while at a discount shopping mall. If you can buy all your electronics products or accessories at one website, you'll save on shipping charges as well. Most discount shopping malls offer combined shipping rates for multiple orders. While shopping for an iPod, look around for other items you might need before clicking the "Checkout" button.

Keep these advantages in mind as you search for iPods or related electronics products. You can save time and money by taking advantage of a discount shopping mall on the Web!

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about Buy iPods - Discount Shopping Malls or Majon's Electronics directory.

How to Use Windows XP "System Restore"

2008-07-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

Whether it's the word processor, spreadsheet, or financial package that isn't working, most people do not know that Microsoft Windows XP has a built in feature that just may come and save the day. That feature is called "System Restore."

Basically, System Restore is like a little hound that runs behind the scenes taking "snapshots" of various parts of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. So, if a part of Microsoft Windows XP stops working one day, the System Restore utility is able to reference one of the "snapshots" it took and restore your system from a previous day (a day when your computer worked). It's kind of like going back in time to a day when your computer worked. All your current data (Microsoft Word files, etc.) are still retained, so you don't have to worry about losing any present day files.

In order to restore your computer just follow these simple steps:

1. Close any open programs.

2. Click on the Windows "Start" button (normally located on the bottom of your computer desktop)

3. Click on "All Programs"

4. Click on "Accessories"

5. Click on "System Tools"

6. Then click on "System Restore"

7. At this point the System Restore wizard will launch. You will have two options:

a. "Restore my system from an earlier date"

b. "Create a system restore point"

If you just need to restore your system and get it working correctly again, just select option "a" and click "Next."

8. On this screen you can select a date from the calendar that you would like to try and restore from. So, if you knew that your computer worked fine two days ago, just pick that date on the calendar and click "Next."

9. The next screen is the confirmation window. Just verify the information on the screen and click "Next." Windows XP will then reboot and try to restore your system with the settings from the date you selected.

The System Restore process can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on how much reconfiguration Windows XP needs to do and how fast of a PC you have. When System Restore is done, a screen will popup with the results of the restore. If it was successful, you can then log into the system and start using the computer again. Any quirky issues that you were having are now hopefully gone.

Now, on step 7b above, I mentioned the "Create a system restore point" option. This option is for when you want to force Windows XP to take a snapshot of your system just before you install a program or alter any system settings that you are not sure of. It is like a safety net for when you install any internet programs (sometimes riddled with spyware) or system drivers (video, audio, etc). If you want to revert back to a virgin state just create a restore point "before" installing any software. This way, if your machine starts acting weird, you can just restore your settings from the selected point.

With a little practice, the System Restore utility is easy to use and a great way to help ensure the safety of your computer.

About The Author
George Whitecraft has been writing Ebook and Articles for the last 2 years. http://whitecraftshoppingmarketing.biz/info/l/iss

Making Wholesale Electronics a Family Affair

2008-07-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

These days, it seems that each person is helping himself or herself to a different slice of the digital pie. There's no doubt that the consumer electronics market is booming, and there's no end in sight. Yet, although it might seem that our lives revolve around various electronic gadgets, in my family, each person has a preference for a certain type of electronics - something that captures his or her imagination and simply won't let go. Luckily for our family budget, we've been able to find sources for wholesale electronics, so that we can indulge each person's preferences.

My youngest son, for example, would be hard-pressed to give up his video game consoles. Although he has other interests, his video games bring him an extraordinary amount of pleasure. Solving puzzles, creating new worlds, collecting objects, and defeating enemies give him such joy. He goes so far as to think up new characters and activities for game sequels, even sketching out what new realms might look like. For a school project last year, he designed and wrote a 24-page puzzle book (crosswords, anacrostics, word searches, and so forth) based on Pikmin, one of his favorite video games.

My older daughter, on the other hand, couldn't care less about video game consoles. Like most teenagers, music is her thing. She was enthralled with her mp3 player for about a year, but when she received an iPod for her birthday (purchased at wholesale, of course!), the mp3 player began collecting dust. Whether tucked into her pocket or her pocketbook, her iPod goes with her everywhere.

Although my husband enjoys video games, he prefers portable video game consoles. He especially favors his PSP, although his Nintendo DS also gets a workout. His true passion, however, is the digital camera. He was an early adopter of the technology, and his wholesale purchases have been keeping pace with the evolving technology. He's currently using a 7-megapixel digital camera, and is waiting for the prices to come down a bit before moving to a single lens reflex digital camera.

As for me, I've been enchanted with DVD players for years. My affections have turned to DVD player-recorders, and I delight in programming my DVR to record my favorite shows, to learn my viewing preferences, and to copy episodes onto DVD.

Wherever the future of electronics us, my family is ready. As long as we can continue to find wholesale electronics, we will delight in whatever devices come along.

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Visit this Electronics Website and Majon's Electronics directory.

Killer Applications for Virtual Reality Environments

2008-07-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Currently there are many uses for augmented and virtual reality environments, which are coming online due to the rapid advances in this technology. We started to see such uses coming online at the turn of the new millennium as researchers and entrepreneurs started collaborating on real market applications and looking for the "killer ap." I would like to discuss some of the early applications, which were brought forth and how they help with everyday uses in our civilization.

In 2001 The Federal Government and Colorado State start to come coming out with a Virtual Courtroom. Very interesting. I hope we can get some virtual lawyers too and lay off some organic models? That may actually be another good outcome of this technology, but the Virtual Jury is still out?

http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Tech/CTC/CTC6/CTC6ARTS.HTM

http://www.state.co.us/cjrtf/min/bc011300mi.htm

And California is also working on a cool system in Los Angeles, I happen to meet a Superior Court PhD assistant working on how to enlighten judges to deal with Drug Abusers in such a way, as to use empathy and fatherly type skills to get the abusers to want to come clean. This is an interesting report she was writing while on vacation in Billings, MT. She is working with the same court who put together this project:

http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org/court2000/hallway.htm

I believe that the government can cut its staff and save taxpayerรขโ�ฌโ�ขs money and change many offices into the virtual system, government can be a web site, unless it is absolutely necessary to put people at a counter. Some schools are thinking that simulator VR is the way to train attorneys. I agree

http://www.usd.edu/law/new_web_site/prospective_students/virtual_tour/virtual_tour.htm

Because most attorneys are Boilerplate Boondoggling Bandits quadruple billing clients while they sit behind books they have never read while their Paralegal interns pop in the CD ROM to look up case law or go online to Lexis Nexis to grab data since the actual attorney is busy. We do not need attorneys if we have VR courts because the cost is less and you can represent your own self? Actually the idea of a VR Courtroom came from down under; from Australia

http://www.auscript.com.au/151100.pdf

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11_2-525651.html

Now then lets discuss another subject; Virtual Reality Control Towers. This would be good so that Control Tower operators would not discuss the sightings of UFOs, etc as the reports from pilots come in. But besides that these VR Control towers right now are only simulators for training control tower operators, for instance you can have the busiest day at Laguardia, O'Hare, LAX or even the EAA show is Oshkosh just to give you a challenge.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0005471B-3E53-1C75-9B81809EC588EF21

Isn't this too cool. And just think once it gets really good, the operators can go on strike and stay there; although I should not say that since my Grandfather use to run the FAA Control Tower at Fresno International. This link shows you some cool Videos;

http://ffc.arc.nasa.gov/gallery/vr_panoramas/

You can also stay up on this information by subscribing the newsletter;

http://ffc.arc.nasa.gov/newsroom/newsletter/

Many believe that NASA Space Control Centers will use these things too and soon the public will be able to see the workings of a real control tower or almost real in the VR World. The two worlds are coming together faster than you think. Think about it.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

How to Get Rid of a Computer Virus

2008-07-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

Computer viruses often take innocent-looking forms, and operate on sneaky planes of your computer, often behind the scenes. You may know how to avoid computer viruses and yet still be struck with one. Because thereรขโ�ฌโ�ขs always the risk that it might happen to you, you may want to learn how to get rid of a computer virus.

You want to know how to get rid of a computer virus even if you donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt currently have one, because when a computer virus strikes you may not have the means to look up information on how to get rid of a computer virus. Learn how to treat them before you get them, so you wonรขโ�ฌโ�ขt have to worry about how to get rid of a computer virus at an inconvenient time.

If you want to know how to get rid of a computer virus, the answer lies in anti-virus software. You can find lots of free software (download it through a reputable source!) for anti-virus protection on the Internet. Anti-virus software is how to get rid of a computer virus, the safest and best way for your computer and your other software.

This anti-virus software not only takes care of existing viruses (in most cases), but also blocks incoming viruses from making their home of your hard drive. If you want to know how to get rid of a computer virus, get some free anti-virus software. This is the best way to deal with the problem, and will safeguard you against viruses.

Think about how to get rid of a computer virus, and download some software, before you have a problem with viruses. You want to protect the information on your computer, not to mention the software and components of the computer itself. When you know how to get rid of a computer virus, you wonรขโ�ฌโ�ขt have to worry about the information you may lose or the problems you may face that result from having a virus. When it comes to computer viruses, prevention is the key. When you know how to get rid of a computer virus, you can use your computer without fear.

Get Rid of a Trojan Horse Virus for Good!

Advancement in Computer Technology

2008-07-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

5 years ago we gathered around and marveled at the little specs moving at our commands, doing not much รขโ�ฌโ�� except moving off course, we called these things games. Today the hardware in computers and other devices has changed significantly; we went from having a "spacious" 1mb hard drive to 250 GB of space. The graphics have also taken a giant leap for our computers, no longer are we confined to little dots but our 256mb graphic cards allow us to explore a virtual world in 3d. The sound has also changed from 4bit to 32 and pretty soon 64bit; we went from beeps to actually words. Finally the speed of our beloved computers has also increased from mere kilobytes to gigabytes of rams.

In such a short period of time we went from what we used to call "advanced" technology to todayรขโ�ฌโ�ขs much superior devices. So if you guys are like I am, there is one question that strikes our mind, whatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs next? Well I would love to say that we will be able to put on our virtual glasses that will allow us to explore the virtual world as if we were in it, but this is not likely, sorry guys; however, these sorts of glasses are being constructed but its unlikely they will come out any time soon. What we can expect to see is an improvement in our Text-to-speech and vise versa programs after the 64bit sound card is released allowing the computer to understand our voices much clearly, also we should soon be seeing more "dept" in our computer as you may know that the most our computers can run on 32bit resolution, it is expected that Microsoft is like to bring out a 64bit resolution with there next version of windows. Also the speed and graphics are to increase a lot more, already some games look as they are almost real, and soon they will look real.

I am not certain exactly what marvel the computer hardwareรขโ�ฌโ�ขs will hold in the future, but one thing is certain it will be something to forward too, and once again the next generation will be mocking the so called advanced technology we have today.

For more buying guideรขโ�ฌโ�ขs visit buying guides To Learn more about computers and tips on buying a computer please visit buying a computer

Computer Consulting Services: Selling the Network as Security and Data Protection

2008-07-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Small business prospects and clients may view your computer consulting services as part of their insurance policy. You write up a service agreement that lists whatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs covered and whatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs not, as well as various parameters for coverage. Then each month, quarter, or year you collect some kind of retainer deposit, similar to an insurance premium.

Play Up the Value of your Computer Consulting Services

Part of the reason small business owners never miss a premium is because they want to make sure that your firm will be there in their time of need. So effectively, one of the reasons small businesses hire your firm is for "security". Rather than go kicking and screaming trying to vehemently deny this, play up the value of your computer consulting services and add security and data protection into your sales pitch - as major parts of your clientsรขโ�ฌโ�ข network investments.

Superior Security Foundation

Be sure to weave some of the following security and data protection points into your computer consulting services sales presentations. In sharp contrast to a client/server network like the one youรขโ�ฌโ�ขre proposing, a peer-to-peer "server" generally isnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt capable of maintaining its own user account security database.

As a result, a standalone peer-to-peer network is limited to "share-level" access control. This means everyone that connects to this peer-to-peer "server" share point has the same user name and password. Thereรขโ�ฌโ�ขs no way to differentiate between access levels of users and no way to terminate an individualรขโ�ฌโ�ขs password when he or she leaves the company.

Highlight Your Computer Consulting Services

A dedicated server OS, on the other hand, provides much better control over who has access to which shared resources. Each person can be assigned his or her own user name and password. Be sure to highlight how your proposed networking solution takes this into account.

Security with your proposed networking solution is also more flexible or granular. With most peer-to-peer "servers", security can only be controlled at the share level. When a share point is set up on a dedicated server with a true NOS security can be controlled all the way down to the file level.

The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting Services

Consider adapting this file cabinet analogy for your client presentations: Would you rather grant employees unrestricted access to an entire room full of file cabinets, or just a few select hanging folders in certain file drawers which are pertinent to their job?

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Joshua Feinberg has helped thousands of computer consultants around the World get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too get more steady, high-paying clients. Sign-up now for Joshua's free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training.

Why You Should Say NO To Flash

2008-07-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Flash is pretty popular these days, but many people (especially customers) seem not to realize its weak points, which result in low popularity and usually lower profit in the end.

Hereรขโ�ฌโ�ขs the list of main disadvantages of Flash technology :

* Flash plug-in is not built into browsers, so thereรขโ�ฌโ�ขs no guarantee that vistors will really see your website or its Flash elements

* visitors can't rely on browserรขโ�ฌโ�ขs "Back" button, in most cases pushing it results in coming back to first site and flash loading anew

* under mouseรขโ�ฌโ�ขs right click there are no standard options available like "Copy" or "Select All"

* itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs very diffcult to optimize Flash websites for search engines

* visitors using text browsers wonรขโ�ฌโ�ขt see website

* Flash devours a lot of system resources, it requires much and requires good computer to work properly

* Flash files are usually relatively big, so it takes pretty much time to download and open

* printing is inconvenient, and very often even impossible

* visitors canรขโ�ฌโ�ขt add any of subpages to their favourites, just main site

Obviously you can always make alternative non-FLASH version of your site, but do you (or your client) have really so much money and time to invest in two seperate sites with exactly same infomation? Personally I share following opinion "Flash programmers like to use Flash for web sites because they can, not because it adds very much to the user experience. (the sentence taken from "Why not Flash?" article at Integra Web Design - http://www.integrawebdesign.co.uk/flash.htm). And as I can understand Flash developers, I donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt understand customers who care whether website looks good for them and on their computers and donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt really care about their visitors.

Przemek Sobstel (aka Sopel) http://www.sopel.webd.pl

Why Information System Security Professionals Should Join the ISSA

2008-07-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขve finally stopped procrastinating and joined my local Information System Security Association, Colorado Springs Chapter (ISSA-COS). A few of my co-workers have been encouraging me to join since last year.

Over the past year many of the benefits that theyรขโ�ฌโ�ขve enjoyed as member of the ISSA have spilled over on to me. I encourage all serious Information security professional to join because the ISSA has their fingers on the pulse on all information security events, jobs and seminars at discount prices.

ISSA members are always up on the latest security events and seminars in town. Just two months ago, an ISSA member invited me to attend an Certified Ethical Hacking course. I actually had no idea that there was a "hacking certification" prior to her email. I attended a free seminar with mile2 and loved it so much I decided to attend the whole course. I was able to attend an Ethical Hacking Course which my company paid for. Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขll be going for that cert. soon.

As an ISSA member you will have access to many information security jobs in the area and around the world. Recently, one of my former co-workers (ISSA member) sent me information on an information security job in Baghdad. For fear of being apart of a hostage reality show on Al Jazeera TV, I declined. Would you decline a 300K/year job? I must admit I think about it every now and then. My co-worker actually took the job and is much braver than I am.

Discounts on events, seminars and training is another benefit of an ISSA member. For example, we are having a local Security+ training that will be held this Saturday at Colorado Technical University and in May there will is the SANS Rocky Mountain 2005 - Immersion Training which gives a price cut to all members.

In my opinion, the best thing about the ISSA is the ability to network with like minded Information Security professionals. In the local ISSA Chapter there is a meeting once a month with seminars and meetings that include speakers like Phil Zimmerman, creator of PGP and representatives from companies like 3Comรขโ�ฌโ�ขs, TippingPoint.

If you are an information security professional, you should definitely sign up. Membership is free for 90 days to give you feel for the association (attend a meeting with your 90-day membership). It is $99.00 a year for ISSA membership and an additional $25.00 for the Colorado Springs ISSA division (each local chapter has its own annual fee). Donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt be like me and wait a year to join. The networking is worth your weight in gold or at least 300K/year in an exotic location.

Join at www.ISSA.org

Rob Elam has a computer security blog at http://elamb.org. He has been doing security for the Department of Defense for ten years. He is currently a System Security Engineer in Colorado.

Types of Batteries

2008-07-13T16:59:00.000-07:00

Are you confused by the terms thrown around on batteries.such as Magnesium or Zinc-Carbon? We will walk you through a brief definition of each type of Alkalinee Batteries. Types of alkaline non-rechargeable batteries include:

Zinc-Carbon. Zinc-carbon cells, also known as "Leclanchร�ยฉ" cells, were the first widely used household batteries. Rated at 1.5 volts per cell, they are much lower in cost compared to alkalines, but also have a lower energy density. Available in AAA, AA, C, D and 9-volt sizes, common applications are toys, remote controls, flashlights and other household items. Zinc-carbon cells, also known as "Leclanchร�ยฉ" cells, were the first widely used household batteries. Rated at 1.5 volts per cell, they are much lower in cost compared to alkalines, but also have a lower energy density.

Zinc-Chloride: Heavy-duty zinc chloride batteries (ZnCl2) are the result of technological advances in zinc carbon battery manufacturing. A powdery mix serves as the cathode component of the zinc chloride battery. The mix is made of manganese dioxide (the active ingredient), carbon black (for electrical conductivity and moisture absorption), and zinc chloride electrolyte (which assists the chemical reaction).

Magnesium batteries - have twice the service life of a zinc cell of equivalent size. It is able to retain its capacity during storage due to a protective film that forms on the surface of the magnesium anode. The cost is competitive.

Alkaline-manganese Dioxide - These batteries were developed in the early 1960s and still hold a strong position in today's market. Alkalines are a very popular, multi-use premium battery. Rated at 1.5 volts per cell, they are available in the common AAA, AA, C, D and 9-volt sizes. They have a very good shelf life and are excellent for high drain rate applications, such as electronics applications. Alkaline batteries can deliver 50-100% more total energy than conventional carbon zinc batteries of the same size, making them popular for consumer applications.

Silver Oxide Cells: commonly found as button cells that power small electronic devices such as watches, calculators, hearing aids and other small specialty devices. Rated at 1.55 volts per cell, their advantage is small size, high energy density and long shelf life. Hope this summary helps.next time - you will be a battery expert!

About The Author
Jeff Anderson knows his batteries. He knows what to look for and what pitfalls to avoid. Let him guide you to finding out more about batteries. Contact him at or visit the blog at his site www.summitbatteries.com.

Specifics of Color Bullet Cameras

2008-07-13T01:59:00.000-07:00

Color Bullet Cameras for Spying. What are the Options?

If you want to protect your house or office buildings from unwanted thieves, then color bullet cameras can be your best shot.

Bullet cameras are called this way, because they look like a rifle bullet or ammo cartridge. Bullet cams usually have a shape of cylinder and are used in outdoor environment. Of course, they may also be used inside the building without any problems whatsoever.

Benefits of Bullet Cameras

First of all, bullet cameras are small in size. It is relatively easy to install them on walls or the ceiling.
Second, bullet cameras can be wired or wireless. Wireless, are much better, because you can use them almost anywhere.
Some bullet cameras are weatherproof. It means that they can be safely used outside even in all weathers.
Waterproof bullet cams allow you to use them outside in a bad weather or rain. Not only that. Itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs possible to install them on a submarine and dive into water. They can hold pressure up to 100 feet below water surface.
Infrared bullet cameras can capture video in complete darkness. Theyรขโ�ฌโ�ขre ideal for night vision. Such cams may turn on infrared regime when in gets dark, and get back to normal when itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs light.
Wireless cameras can connect to a transmitter and send signals to VCR, DVD or your PC.

Image Quality

Image quality may differ in different bullet cameras. More expensive ones will offer you a better image quality, while cheaper ones might give you not so good view. However, most bullet cameras come with 4mm lens that allows up to 70 degree angle of view.

This is the widest angle you may have without distorting the quality of picture. Color bullet cameras may also capture quality color view. For night view however, itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs best to opt for black-and-white bullet cameras. Resolutions for these cams can be up to 420 lines. This produces much better picture quality.

Prices of Bullet Cameras

Bullet cameras vary in price. You may get yourself relatively cheap bullet camera for less than $100 online. Some may cost less than $50, but quality wonรขโ�ฌโ�ขt be superb in many cases. You may also pay over $1500 for a whole bullet camera system, which includes remote controls, DVRรขโ�ฌโ�ขs with LCD monitors.

Basically it all depends on what you need. If you need one bullet camera to install near the front door of your house, then you may easily get away with one hundred dollars.

But if you need more bullet cameras with high quality video resolution, then you might want a more expensive, but quality product. Maybe a whole system of color bullet cameras. If you need to secure an office for example, then youรขโ�ฌโ�ขll probably need infrared cameras for night view and pretty high quality either.

Dan Crane specializes in spy camera industry and provides information and guides to consumers about hidden cameras and surveillance equipment.
If you'd like to learn more about hidden cameras or surveillance cam software, then check out Vedosoft website for more information at:
http://www.vedosoft.com

A Gentle Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

2008-07-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science, which tries to give "intelligence to machines". But the concept of intelligence itself is debatable, and making these machines without life "intelligent" is something near to impossible. But we can say safely that AI aims at producing intelligent behavior from machines. What is the difference between having intelligence and having intelligent behavior? You can exhibit intelligent behavior in a narrow field for some time without really being intelligent. For example a computer playing chess at the master level does not even know that it is playing chess. But for the outsider the view is that it is intelligent like a master. Also we need only this intelligent behavior for many practical purposes.

AI uses ideas from diverse branches of knowledge like computer science, economics, biology, social sciences, mathematics and even grammar. It has also diverse applications in many areas of life. That is, it is an interdisciplinary subject, which takes ideas from almost all fields of knowledge and has applications in many diverse areas of life. Some of the branches of AI are discussed below. This in no way is a complete list.

1. Game playing:
Playing a game like checkers, chess, or go, requires a lot of intelligence for a human being and so these tasks were one of the earliest attractions of AI. Samuel wrote a program playing checkers in the 60's and many people contributed to the theory of game playing. Finally when a computer could beat the then world champion in a chess game, that was considered a victory of machine over man even though it was not so. Currently there are well-known algorithms for game playing and game playing is considered falling into the domain of algorithms than AI.

2. Automatic theorem proving:
Mathematicians are believed to be super intelligent creatures, and so in its early childhood AI tried to show intelligence by creating machines capable of proving theorems by themselves. By having some basic assumptions and rules, they tried to prove theorems by combining these rules, getting new assumptions and so on. Gelernters program for geometry theorem proving was a typical example. Later it was realized that the intelligence of human experts in this area is not easily imitable, and the use of common sense and knowledge about mathematics was needed to prove theorems. Currently not many developments are taking place in this area.

3.Natural language processing (NLP)
Languages like English, French or Malayalam, which are used by men, are called natural languages. The language we speak is often context sensitive. "Did you shoot the tiger?" has different meanings when asked to a hunter and a photographer. Also our language is incomplete. Natural language processing deals with understanding this language using knowledge about the grammar rules and context. This has a wide variety of applications and is a field of active research. Also translation between these languages is studied in AI.

4. Vision, Speech recognition and similar areas.
Seeing an animal and recognizing it as a cat is child's play, but a difficult task for computers. Modern AI programs focuses on recognizing objects and persons and behavior based on vision. This has many applications in robot navigation, crime detection, military operations and so on.

5. Expert Systems
Human experts are rare, costly and perishing. If we spend a large sum and train a person as a neurologist, the maximum we can expect is 30-40 years of service. And we cannot take a copy of the neurologist! So if we can train a computer to have the same expertise or to be precise expert behaviour, at least in a narrow field, the utility is high. Expert systems deal with extracting expertise and porting it to computers. That is creating software that can exhibit expert behavior. This field has undergone explosive growth in the last few years.

6.Neural networks
Animal brain is composed of neurons and performs computations (thinking) by passing signals between these networks of neurons. Why not imitate this and evolve intelligence? Neural networks began from this foundation. They are capable of learning, adapting and predicting. Putting in simple language, a neural network is a collection of computation units (real or virtually created), which are interconnected and cooperates for computation. Neural networks have applications in control systems, speech and natural language processing, vision and many other fields.

There are various other areas in AI. It is a vast and emerging field. I will tell more about it in my next article.

Kannan Balakrishnan is a budding indian writer. He continuously writes on a variety of topics like website design, Computer science, self improvement etc. Now his thoughts are presented through celebrated blog http://www.kbwrites.blogspot.com.

Drawbacks of Technological Advancement

2008-07-08T00:59:00.000-07:00

Presently many individuals believe that the world is figuratively shrinking rather quickly on a global scale. The progression of technology towards a greater degree of interconnectedness is, in essence, bringing the world closer together. Large businesses can basically operate much more efficiently and can reach a more extensive market via the present trend towards globalization. This time-space divergence does have a remarkable upside yet it is not without its share of problems. Many argue that the process of globalization brought about by the progression of technology is not truly a "global" process and one can easily observe the inherent disparity.

Small businesses, which lack the capital and consequently the ability to expand rapidly, often suffer and meet their demise at the hands of larger monopolizing companies. While there are businesses in place at the present attempting to alleviate some of the stress placed of these small businesses via loans and the like, it is sometimes not enough. The larger corporations just have the upper hand when it comes to expanding their consumer base and essentially making themselves more marketable. Unfortunately for smaller businesses the ability of these transnational companies to use technology to their favor and capitalize on the degree of interconnectedness that is attainable at the present puts them at an inconvenience and makes it rather difficult for them to succeed.

Many places in the world simply do not have the financial stability with which to implement technological systems to allow for globalization. These developing countries, in many cases, have enough trouble just trying to feed their population and as such experiencing the level of interconnectedness shared amongst developed nations is out of the question. This unfortunate situation increases the gap between these richer and poorer nations and essentially creates this disparity, hence why many argue that globalization really is not a universal concept.

Interested in Technology? Do you have articles to distribute about Technology? We provide in depth Technology Articles. Free Article Distribution

How to Remove Computer Viruses For Free

2008-07-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

Viruses are everywhere and new viruses are being released daily. Maybe your computer is already infected? Maybe you are taking the proactive approach and you are thinking about how to prevent viruses from infecting your computer in the first place? Either way, this article can help so read on.

Let's begin with what a virus is and a few of the different types of viruses out there.

A virus is a program or piece of code that runs on a computer without the users knowledge. Viruses cannot install themselves, they must be run by a human, mostly likely from an executable file. Viruses can use up system resources, replicate themselves, allow a user remote access to the infected computer, as well as destroy personal data, hardware and software. Many viruses are spread via email. Viruses are different from spyware.

There are many different types of viruses.

Boot Virus - affects the boot sector of a floppy or hard disk (hard drive). The boot sector is a crucial part of the system since it holds information about how a computer boots (is started) up. A boot virus does not infect files, it infects the disks on which they reside.
Macro Virus - enter a system by exploiting vulnerabilities in macros. Microsoft Word (.doc file extension), Excel spreadsheets (.xls file extension) and many more...
Polymorphic Virus - changes itself (actually, encrypts, or encodes itself) so as to be hidden from scans. When it is going to deliver it's damage it decrypts, does what it is designed to do and goes back into hiding.
Resident Virus - hides in RAM memory, from where it can control all operations of the system.
Trojan Horse - is a master of deception. It usually hides in software that appears to be a legitimate application. Once opened by the user a Trojan can do anything from delete files, and destroying system information to less malicious things as making your cd rom open and close and changing your desktop icons around. Trojans are famous for creating a backdoor in the infected computer. This backdoor allows users remote access which can be used to control the computer for whatever use the controller wishes. Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files, which is one of the major differences between a trojan and a worm.
Worms - are a sub-class of viruses. They spread from computer to computer and have the ability to move from computer to computer across networks without the help of a human. A worm exploits vulnerabilities in software and operating systems using existing files and transport systems already in place on the infected machine. One of the most dangerous thing about worms is their ability to replicate. An infected system could be used to not only send one copy of the worm out onto the Internet but possibly thousands of copies. In the meantime, draining the infected computer of valuable system resources.

Download, install and update Anti-Virus Software.
- There are many 'free for personal use' versions of anti-virus software available. My personal favorite is AVG Anti-Virus. You can download AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition from here http://www.malwaresolutions.com/tool_anti_virus.html
  Download, install and update AVG or which ever anti-virus product you choose to use. Follow the program's instructions for updating the virus definitions. This way the software "know what to look for". It will have a much better chance at removing viruses if it the virus definitions are up-to-date!
If you are using Windows ME or Windows XP, disable System Restore.
- What is System Restore? System Restore is a feature built into Windows XP and Windows ME that allows users to 'roll-back' to specific restore points without affecting data files. A restore point is automatically created (as long as System Restore is turned on) when new software and/or drivers are installed. If there is a problem with the installation System Restore allows a user to select a restore point (a date) to revert back to. The problem here is this, if a computer is infected with viruses, spyware and/or adware when a restore point is created, rolling-back to that restore point will re-infect the computer. Follow these instructions to turn off System Restore in Windows XP
- click Start
- click Control Panel
- click System
- click the System Restore tab
- un-check the box that reads 'Turn off System Restore on all drives' (to turn System Restore on put a check back in the box)
Disconnect from the Internet.
Open Internet Explorer (or the browser of your choice) - clear your cookies and cache.
- To delete cookies in IE: Tools >> Internet Options >> on the General tab choose Delete Cookies. You will be asked 'Delete all cookies in the Temporary Internet Files folder? Click OK.
- To delete the cache in IE: Tools >> Internet Options >> on the General tab choose Delete Files. Be sure to place a check in the box that says 'Delete all offline content'. Click OK
Restart the computer in Safe Mode.
- What is Safe Mode? Safe Mode is a special troubleshooting option built into the most Windows based operating systems.
- To access Safe Mode click Start and then click Shut Down.
  In the drop-down list of the Shut Down Windows dialog box, click Restart, and then click OK.
  As your computer restarts but before Windows launches, press F8.
  Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate Safe Mode option, and then press ENTER.
While in Safe Mode run a full system scan on the computer using the anti-virus software. This might take some time depending on how much data the anti-virus software needs to sift through. Be patient, let the software do it's job.
After all viruses have been quarantined or removed, reboot the computer and connect to the Internet then run Windows Update (Windows XP go to Start, Programs, Windows Update - select all critical updates).
If you are not already running a software firewall, now is a good time to install one. A firewall helps protect your computer and personal data from online predators. I recommend Zone Alarm. It's free for personal use and can be found on this page http://www.malwaresolutions.com/tools_firewalls.html
There are many viruses designed specifically to exploit vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. If you use Internet Explorer you might want to consider an alternate web browser such as Mozilla Firefox.

Tips To Help Keep Viruses Off Your Computer:

Do not open email attachments - unless you can verify they are 100% safe.

Stay away from questionable websites. For example: pornography sites!

Be careful when downloading using P2P (Peer to Peer) file sharing software. Always scan your downloads with anti-virus software before you open them!

Keep Microsoft Windows up-to-date using Windows Update.

Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date and run scans periodically.

Do not install Free software unless the source can be verified. When in doubt search for the software title on Google.

Removing viruses from a computer can be a daunting task: remain calm, do your research and be persistant and you should be able to enjoy a virus-free computing experience once again.

Good luck!

Author: Michael McKennedy

Michael has personally removed over 30,000 spyware/virus infected files from client computers over the past few years using the techiques desribed in this article.

He is the owner of http://www.MalwareSolutions.com

Routing Protocols Explained

2008-07-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

Preface:

In this paper I will explain many different routing protocols and give some basic details and features about them. This paper in no way should be considered a source of full detail about any of the listed protocols. For detailed information about routing protocols I would suggest looking into the Request For Comments (RFC) for that protocol, goggling them, or maybe visiting different vendorรขโ�ฌโ�ขs websites such as Cisco, Juniper, or Bay networks. Most vendorsรขโ�ฌโ�ข web sites have detailed explanations about all the Protocols there equipments support features. Before you can understand routing protocol you will have to have a basic understanding or IP networks, Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM), Network Topologies (bus, star, Hub, ect..), and the OSI model. If you are not familiar with any of the above subjects you may want to read up and learn about them before moving into routing protocols. Routing protocols are what makes the internet work by moving traffic from network to network. With out routing protocols the internet could not work because networks would just be separate LANs with no connection to others LANs. The internet in basic terms is just a lot of LANs wired together to make a huge WAN.

Protocol types:

Distance Vector: distance vector routing is a type of routing protocol that discovers routes on interconnected networks. The Distance Vector routing algorithm is the based on the Bellman-Ford algorithm. Examples of distance-vector routing protocols include RIP (Routing Information Protocol), Cisco's IGRP (Internet Gateway Routing Protocol) try Google to see all the different protocols in the Distance Vector family. Distance Vector protocols are suitable for smaller networks as many of the protocols in this family aren't scaleable in lager complex networks as they are limited. The main limit to Distance Vector Protocols is there method that requires each router simply inform its neighbors of its routing table. This routing table update to other members is bandwidth intensive to lager networks.

RIP (Routing Information Protocol):

Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is one of the first protocols to be used in networking and is classified as a distance vector routing protocol. RIP uses broadcast User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data packets to exchange routing information. There are two versions RIP V1 & V2. RIP Version 1 is the original version and has many limitations. The metric that RIP uses to rate the value of different routes is hop count. The hop count metric works by assigning static routes with a value of 0 and all other routers values are set by the number of hops (up to 15) that the data must travel though to get to an end point. RIP Version 2 supports plain text and MD5 authentication, route summarization, classless inter-domain routing (CIDR), variable-length subnet masks (VLSMs), Multicast support. Some vendors support other non-standard features for RIP but be careful as many vendor centric features are not compatible in a mixed vendor network.

IGRP (Inter Gateway Routing Protocol):

Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) is a distance vector routing protocol which is a proprietary and invented by Cisco. It is used by routers to exchange routing data within an autonomous system (AS). IGRP supports multiple metrics for routes, including bandwidth, load, delay and MTU. This improves reliability over RIP because IGRP uses advanced metrics to compare two routes into a combined route. The two routes together are combined into a single metric, using a formula which can be adjusted via command line. The maximum hop count of IGRP is 255 which is an improvement over RIPs 15 hop max. Keep in mind that IGRP is a Cisco proprietary protocol and can not be used in a mixed vendor network.

Link State: Link State routing protocol requires each router (peer) to maintain at least a partial map of the network. When a network link changes state (up to down, or vice versa), a notification, called a link state advertisement (LSA) is flooded throughout the network. All the routers note the change, and recompute their routes accordingly. This method is more reliable, easier to debug and less bandwidth-intensive than Distance-Vector. It is also more complex and more compute- and memory-intensive. Link state routing protocols are found in many lager networks and provide Scalable solutions for more complex networks.

OSPF (Open Shortest Path First):

Open shortest path first (OSPF) is a link-state routing protocol that calls for the sending of link-state advertisements (LSAs) to all other routers within the same hierarchical area or autonomous system (AS). An AS can be divided into a number of areas, which are groups of contiguous networks and attached hosts. Information on attached interfaces, metrics used, and other variables are included in OSPF LSAs. As OSPF routers accumulate link-state information, they use the SPF algorithm to calculate the shortest path to each node.

(IS-IS) Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System:

Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) is a routing protocol developed by the ISO and is natively an ISO Connectionless Network Service or CLNS protocol so it does not use IP to carry routing information messages. It uses OSI protocols to deliver its packets and establish its adjacencies. IS-IS has been enhanced to carry IP (Internet Protocol) and this is called Integrated IS-IS. Integrated IS-IS supports VLSM and converges rapidly. It is also scalable to support very large networks and is the key protocol in many larger ISPรขโ�ฌโ�ขs.

Hybrid: Hybrid routing Protocols are a combination or both Distance Vector and Link state protocols and only one protocol fits into this field. EIGRP is Cisco Systems Proprietary protocol based on their original IGRP. For more information on Hybrid Protocols look below to the section on "EIGRP".

EIGRP (Enhanced Inter Gateway Routing Protocol):

Enhanced Inter Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is Cisco Systems Proprietary protocol based on their original IGRP. EIGRP is a balanced hybrid IP routing protocol, with optimizations to minimize both the routing instability incurred after topology changes, as well as the use of bandwidth and processing power in the router. EIGRP has Protocol-Dependent Modules that can deal with AppleTalk and IPX as well as IP. The advantage with this is that only one routing process need run instead of a routing process for each of the protocols. EIGRP provides loop-free operation and almost instant simultaneous synchronization of routers.

Inter-Autonomous System: Inter-Autonomous System routing protocols are designed to connect lager networks or Autonomous Systems (AS) together and allow for muitiple Autonomous Systems to network. One example for the need of an inter-autonomous system protocol is to connect two or more Internet Service Providers (ISP) together so there customer can connect to each other. Without getting in to too much detail both "Link State & Distance Vector" protocols are considered intra-autonomous system protocols as they are designed to just route traffic in a singal AS. Inter-Autonomous System protocols main goal is to propergate the intra-autonomous system information between different autonomous systems.

BGP4 (Border Gateway Protocol Version 4):

Border Gateway Protocol is the backbone routing protocol for most of the internet and allows for peering and carrier networks to connect. BGP is explained as a path vector protocol. With BGP the policy or attributes for making the actual route selections among the interconnected autonomous systems is based on Weight ,Local preference, Multi-exit discriminator, Origin, AS path, Next hop, & Community. BGP information is propagated through the network by exchanges of BGP messages (4 types: Open, Update, Notification, & Keep Alive) between peers. Another key feature to BGP is that is supports Classless Inter Domain Routing (CIDR) with the support of CIDR BGP can reduce the size of the Internet routing tables. BGP neighbors exchange full routing information when the TCP (port 179) connection between neighbors is first established. When changes to the routing table accrue, the BGP routers send to their neighbors only those routes that have changed. BGP routers do not send periodic routing updates and advertise only the optimal paths to a destination.

Brian Wilson
CCNA, CSE, CCAI, MCP, Network+
Slimjim100@gmail.com
http://www.middlegeorgia.org
http://www.slimjim100.com

How to Upgrade Computer Memory

2008-07-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

Computer memory, also known as Random Access Memory (RAM), is just like your short term memory in your brain. It stores everything you are currently working on and recently worked on. As you can see that makes it a very essential part of your PC because it stores vital information that you are using and need access too immediately. No matter what the data is, pictures, sounds or just text, if you get a good amount of memory your computer will load that data much faster and store it better.

Many people want to do a RAM upgrade there selves, but always run into the problem of figuring out which type of memory to buy and installing it. If you didnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt already know, there are many different types of RAM available on the market, and you need to get the type that corresponds with your motherboard. If you donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt know what a motherboard is, itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs the big circuit board inside of your computer that connects everything together.

First, letรขโ�ฌโ�ขs talk about the two main types of RAM that are in use today, SDRAM and DDR. SDRAM stands for Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory, and is the most common amongst PCรขโ�ฌโ�ขs today. Most likely your desktop computer uses this type of RAM. I use to have SDRAM, and I thought it was okay because it got the job done. I have switched though to DDR RAM, which is replacing SDRAM. The speed of DDR RAM is twice that of SDRAM, so you can imagine the difference. If your motherboard currently only has SDRAM slots, then you have no choice but to get that type of RAM. If you want to change to DDR RAM, then you have to buy a whole new motherboard and install it. To find out what RAM your computer uses just look at the instruction manual that came with it, or if it is custom built, look at the motherboardรขโ�ฌโ�ขs instruction manual.

For all you laptop and PDA owners out there, the type of RAM in your laptop or PDA is called SODIMM. Available at the same memory store you purchase your desktop computer RAM from, just a little more expensive and harder to install.

Now that you know the different types of RAM, you need to know where to buy it from and how to install it. To buy it, I suggest your local computer store because there will be a person there to help you and they will make sure that you buy the correct RAM. Hereรขโ�ฌโ�ขs a tip to, bring your computers instruction manual with you to the store and they will definitely know the correct type of memory you need. If you want to buy online, then NewEgg.com and TigerDirect.com are two great online computer stores that will deliver your RAM into your mail box.

And last but not least, you need to install your new RAM. Believe it or not this is the easy part. First shut down and unplug everything from your computer and then remove your computerรขโ�ฌโ�ขs case cover, to gain access to the motherboard inside. Once you can clearly see the motherboard, locate your RAM. You should know what it looks like since you just bought some and you can look at that. When you find it, you will notice a latch connected to the slot that holds it on each end. Push down both of the latches to unhook them, and then gently pull the RAM stick out. It should slide out with ease, but if it doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt, then wiggle it a little bit while pulling.

After that you just need to insert your new RAM. First count how many slots you have available for RAM and how many of them currently have RAM in it. Some times you will see 2 slots occupied and 1 open, or all three slots could be used. Either way, you have to insert your new RAM into an open slot, or if all are used then remove the oldest and least amount of RAM to clear a slot. Then gently insert your new RAM and pull the latches back up on both sides, securing your memory into place. After that just screw your case cover back on, hook your computer back up to everything and then power it back on. Your computer will automatically detect the new RAM and no further installation process is needed.

Well that is about it, I hope I have helped you. Just remember to keep your computer clean plus maintain properly, and it will live a long life.

If you need help upgrading other parts of your computer or portable devices, then Michael Cottier can help you. Go to his website at: http://www.computer-customizing-guide.com/

How Security Camera Systems Work

2008-06-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

Security camera systems work via closed-circuit television (CCTV). This CCTV differs from broadcast television because all of the components of the cameras and televisions are linked with cables or alternate direct means. CCTV can be viewed in real-time, and there is no need to broadcast a signal.

CCTV can be found in many places, including airports, casinos, banks, and the streets. Cameras can be placed in inconspicuous or obvious places. There is usually a security room that has individual televisions that are directly connected to a specific security camera. The amount of security personnel needed to monitor the cameras varies with respect to the amount of cameras needed. In casinos, there can be hundreds of cameras.

CCTV has been used extensively in the United Kingdom. Authorities place cameras in car parks and on the streets. These camera placements have significantly reduced car crimes. Authorities in the United Kingdom have been pushing for the introduction of even more cameras. CCTV is very good for crime detection and prosecution.

One draw back of security cameras is that many claim that they are an invasion of privacy. Another argument is that CCTV displaces crime instead of reducing it. CCTV has been accused of being an invasion of civil liberties.

The history of CCTV dates back to when the cameras used in public places were very simple and low quality. Todayรขโ�ฌโ�ขs cameras have high definition digital rendering and can even track object movement. When cameras are positioned correctly and synched, they can trace an objects movement over a long period of time. Cameras can also have the potential ability to have facial recognition. Currently, high-definition cameras are unable to distinguish faces completely which leads to a plethora of false positives. Critics of facial recognition technology site the potentiality for mass surveillance and the further loss of civil liberties.

Current CCTV technology being developed in the UK and the US aims at creating a computerized monitoring system that would allow security guards and CCTV operators to not have to look at all of the screens. This would allow an operator to run many more CCTV cameras, which could reduce security costs. This type of system does not look at people directly, but rather recognizes certain types of questionable behavior. A drawback of this could be that computers cannot distinguish between normal behavior, such as waiting for someone on a busy street, and suspicious behavior, such as loitering around a car.

Security cameras are very effective for crime conviction and identification, but not as effective for crime prevention. The idea is that security cameras help prevent crime because people are less willing to commit infractions if a camera is in plain sight. The down side to this is that some security cameras are hidden, so criminals have no deterrent. Security camera technology is constantly becoming more advanced, and so security cameras should be able to find criminals, and hopefully prevent more crimes in the future.

Derek Hanksworth is interested in security systems and related topics. See http://www.prosecuritys.com for more information.

Shooting Down a Mechanical Organic UAV

2008-06-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

We must understand in the future that our enemies will be using UAV Technologies against us. These UAVs will come in all sorts of sizes, in swarms and maybe cross-category technologies; half missile-half UAV, part balloon-part UAV, Organic models-part bird? When dealing with a UAV that flies like a bird, butterfly, bumble bee or bat and is that size or smaller, it may be nearly impossible to hit. This means as these UAV technologies get closer to reality and use in the future battlespace they will be very effective and dangerous. These UAVs may have bio-stingers, cameras giving away troop locations or even come in massive swarms and overwhelm our positions. We may even design these build them and use them in the United States Military, donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt think some of the brilliant DARPA engineers have not thought about it.

I propose we build and design guidance systems, which can track these flying organic look-alikes. Most birds, fish and other organic type species use similar patterns which are the most efficient to conserve their energy. Many follow the Strouhl number so we can use this to guestimate its future positions so we can hit them with bullets or anti-UAV mini units, which have optical flow sensors on-board, this will take a few years due to the need to have very small sensors and TinyOS which can process this kind of huge amount of information. Remember these intercept mini UAVs or Organic Model MAVs will also need to interface their own autonomous Tiny Operating Systems for autopilot and obstacle avoidance. We are talking about massive amounts of processing in a super small unit. But it can be done and we need to be thinking into the future of robotic and micro-robotic warfare, even Nano-MEMS operated robotic warfare. Think on this.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Abatement with NanoBots Thru Swarming Column Strategies

2008-06-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

In the future abatement with Nano Bots may be possible to take out clusters of bacteria, viruses or biological contaminants. How might this be done? Well, if each set of Nano Bots positions themselves inside of a grid and within each grid the Nano Bots worked together in swarming patterns or columns then such a strategy could actually work. Picture if you will the scene of a biological or virus breakout that must be controlled before humans can go back into the area.

Now then, a robotic team would go in and release the Nano Bots near the areas where the strongest clusters of biological contaminants were. Next, the Nano Bots would self organize into small grids and key off each other to stay in position, while they were to abate the problem. Such abatement procedures and protocols for Nano Bots through swarming column strategies may also be away to attack cancer cells in the human bile system.

Additionally consider the use of Nano Bots and these techniques to make sure that clean rooms were 100 percent contaminant free. Also consider if you will be possible space applications after a probe or a capsule full of astronauts came back from Mars or another world where they would be bringing back contaminants that we could not afford to let loose in our Earth's atmosphere as they quite possibly could cause a runaway of fact and or a biological ego disaster. Consider the movie; Andromeda Strain and you can see the point I am trying to make here. Think of this in 2006.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

IT Audits: How Long Do They Take?

2008-06-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

Keep IT audits to within a half a day as a starting point. If thereรขโ�ฌโ�ขs more exploratory work that needs to be done, that should be an added fee and done at a later time.

Keep IT Audits Short and Sweet

Generally within four hours on-site for IT audits, you usually figure out exactly whatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs going on, what should be done next, how to prioritize it, and what hardware and software and services, peripherals and other similar items they need to buy.

You'll obviously, know that youรขโ�ฌโ�ขre going to be proposing a bunch of follow-up tasks, so thereรขโ�ฌโ�ขs plenty of time to come back and go into more depth after IT audits. When the meter isnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt running, donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt sit down at keyboards and do something that could end up getting you in hot water!

Your Timing Checklist

The way to keep IT audits limited to 4 hours is by coming up with a dozen or so different areas that you will look at. In that four hours, thereรขโ�ฌโ�ขs no way that youรขโ�ฌโ�ขre going to be able to hit every PC or every issue. Here is how to allocate the timing.

o Half hour to an hour on a primary server.

o If they have a secondary server, maybe another 15 or 20 minutes,

o A few minutes on LAN hub infrastructure,

o Looking at routers, CSUs, DSUs, DSL routers, hub switches in blocks of 10 or 15 minutes, making some general notes as to how it looks on visual inspection and some things you may notice with LADs or surge protection

o Half hour to 45 minutes on a couple representative PCs

What are Representative PCs?

Who are the most important PC users in the company? Ask your main company contact. They will point you in the right direction. They might say something like, "Bob, heรขโ�ฌโ�ขs the one that takes care of all the billing and accounts payable. You should definitely look at him. And you should definitely look at mine because Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขm the owner of the company."

You should be able to look at two to four PCs and get a pretty good idea as to whatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs actually going on there with configurations, drive mappings, network protocols, whether theyรขโ�ฌโ�ขre in relatively good shape or whether theyรขโ�ฌโ�ขre a complete mess.

The Bottom Line about IT Audits

From IT audits, you should get a pretty good idea as to what the hottest priorities are, what should be addressed within the next week or two, what should be addressed in the next month or two and then what should go into more long-range planning.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Small Business Computer Consulting .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Joshua Feinberg has helped thousands of small business computer consulting firms get more steady, high-paying clients. Now you can too. Sign-up now for your free access a one-hour audio training program featuring field-tested, proven Small Business Computer Consulting Secrets.

Getting Wireless Set Up with Windows Operating System

2008-06-23T00:59:00.000-07:00

It was supposed to be so easy, wasn't it? Windows and easy in the same sentence !! Sometimes, for some reason, Windows just doesn't want to play ball. Here's a quick guide to what to do when you've plugged in all your wireless equipment but it's not connecting as it should.

Insert the CD

It's not enough to just plug in your wireless card the first time you use it -- you need to put in the CD it came with and install the drivers. If you've already done that and there's still nothing happening, then you might need to update your drivers by paying a visit to the manufacturer's website.

Note that the instructions below apply to Windows XP. If you're determined not to use Windows XP, then what you need to do next will be different depending on your wireless equipment's manufacturer -- you should take a look at your manual.

Use the Wireless Network Setup Wizard

While it's easy to use Windows to connect to an existing wireless network, you still need to create the wireless network to begin with. Don't worry -- once you've created it once, your whole network will be able to connect to and remember it, even if the computer you used to create the network is never switched on again.

The easiest way to open the Wireless Network Setup Wizard is through the Start Menu: go to All Programs, Accessories, then Communications, and you'll find it there. If you can't find it, you might need to visit Microsoft's Windows Update at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com to get it.

The first thing to do when the wizard appears is read the welcome message, and click Next. Type a name for your network -- anything will do, as long as it's relatively unique to you. You're allowed up to 32 letters to express yourself, but remember that your neighbours might get to see this name at some point! If you bought equipment with WPA (stronger encryption), tick that box. Click Next again.

Unless you have a USB flash drive (it's unlikely), choose the option for manual setup. Don't worry -- it's just a matter of printing out some settings and entering them into your other computers. If you don't use encryption, you can usually skip this step.

It Still Doesn't Connect

On one of your other computers, right-click on the wireless icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen -- it looks like a small computer with two lines on the right of it. On the menu that appears, click 'View Available Wireless Networks'. Now, you should see a list of the wireless networks your computer is in range of. Look for the name of your own network. This will be the name you typed in the setup wizard earlier or, if you use a router, it will probably be the name of your wireless equipment's manufacturer.

Note that this is the screen to come to if you ever want to connect to a wireless network other than your usual one -- just double click the one you want, wait a while, and it should work.

The most common problem is to find that your computer is trying to connect to another network near you, usually one belonging to your neighbours. If their wireless network has an unnecessarily wide range, it's not at all unusual for you to be able to receive their signal in your house -- I sometimes find as many as five networks in my area available to connect to. Fun as it would be, though, to go through all their shared files, your priority right now is getting their wireless network out of the way to let you connect to your own.

Getting on Your Network

To make sure Windows knows which network is yours, you need to click 'Change the order of preferred networks' on the left of the available networks screen. You should click the 'Add' button to add the name of your network to this list, and use 'Remove' to take away any that aren't yours.

When you've highlighted your network, click Properties, and then go to the Connection section. Make sure 'Connect when this network is in range' is ticked. If all else fails, you might have to take your printout from the Wireless Network Setup Wizard and enter that information on each computer.

Original Source: Articles-Galore.com

Information supplied and written by Jason Keno of Eclipse Domain Services
Domain Names, Hosting, Traffic and Email Solutions.

Trouble-shooting Hard Drive Problems - Part 2

2008-06-21T03:59:00.000-07:00

A common problem with hard drives is the error message "MISSING OPERATING SYSTEM."

Typically what this means is that critical data is missing or damaged in two possible locations. The first is the Master Boot Record (MBR). This data area contains error messages and pointer information that specifies the location of the second critical data area, the Volume Boot Record (VBR). The VBR contains the operating system specific data for the format of that particular partition on the drive. If either of these two critical data areas is damaged, by a virus, controller failure, etc., then the drive will not be accessible through the operating system.

The normal response to this error message is to boot to a floppy disk and to re-partition the drive (probably using FDISK) and thereby totally removing any possibility for recovery of the data on that drive, except by dedicated data recovery software or a data recovery facility. If applicable, the following technique will help save time, money, and frustration.

The first step to data recovery (covered in great detail in the first article of this series) is to verify the location of the existing partition information. For the purposes of this article, it will be assumed that the FAT structure and the root directory are intact, there is only one partition, and that only the MBR and the VBR were damaged. Using Micro-Scope, enter the Fixed Disk Editor menu and select the fixed disk that is being repaired. Using the Find menu option, locate all the sectors that contain the string "55 AA" (see Step Four of the first article in this series), and then verify that the FAT structures are intact (see Step Seven). Note on a scratch paper the values (in Cylinder, Head, Sector format) where this string appears. These values will be used later in the reconstruction process.

Rebuilding the MBR

Using the Fixed Disk Editor in Micro-Scope, locate and read Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1. This should be the location of the corrupt Master Boot Record. Press "M" to modify the sector and enter 0's for the entire sector, effectively wiping all the data from this sector. Press ESC, then "W" to write the data, and "Y" to confirm the write operation. Then exit the Fixed Disk Editor and select the Rebuild Master Boot Record menu option. Press "Y" to confirm this operation. The fixed drive now has a completely corruption-free MBR available for use during the reconstruction of the VBR.

Rebuilding the VBR

There is a simple method for rebuilding the VBR. Copy the data from a like fixed disk or a similar-sized fixed disk with the identical operating system (the versions must be the same.) There are two approaches for obtaining this data. The first is to install the second drive in the system, reboot Micro-Scope, and copy the sectors directly from the "healthy" drive to the drive being reconstructed. The second method is to copy the sectors from the "healthy" drive to a floppy diskette and transfer that diskette to the machine containing the drive being reconstructed. The data can be copied to any sector on the floppy disk. Just note where this data is stored on the floppy disk so that it may be easily retrieved when copying it back to the drive being reconstructed. In either case, the VBR is located at Cylinder 0, Head 1, Sector 1 on the "healthy" drive. Copy this data to the same location on the damaged drive. Exit the Fixed Disk Editor.

The drive now has a clean MBR and VBR, and with a few modifications to the values stored in these data areas, the drive will be fully reconstructed.

Access the VBR in the Partition Editor. Some of the values in this area will remain the same. These are: Bytes Per Sector, Reserved Sectors, Number of Copies of FAT, Max # of Root Dir. Entries, Media Description Byte, and Volume Boot Signature. Sectors Per Cluster may or may not need to be changed. Put the cursor over this value and press F1 for a formula that will help determine the proper value. Use this same F1 procedure for determining the Total Number of Sectors. This value should be the same as the value for Number of Sectors in the partition table.

The Sectors per FAT value equals the number of sectors from the beginning of the first FAT to the beginning of the second FAT (as described in the first article in this series.) The values for Sectors per Track and Number of Hidden Sectors should be identical to the values in the MBR. The Number of Heads is either the same as the value in the MBR or the same as the value of the Number of Heads in the partition table plus one (refer to the first article in the series for more information on this topic.) After completing this information, the drive should either be bootable or accessible via a bootable diskette. If this is not the case, e-mail the Technical Support department for further verification of the problem.

Reconstructing Multiple Partition Volumes

In some cases, the drive may have been partitioned into smaller, logical partitions. If this is the case, the chance of this data being corrupt is slim, and correct Head and Sector values are readily available from these areas. To find the second partition on the drive, use the Fixed Disk Editor in Micro-Scope to view the sector containing the "55 AA" string. This sector should appear after the first VBR, so don't confuse the two. The second MBR should start on Head 0, Sector 1 of a given cylinder. Accordingly, the second VBR will appear on Head 1, Sector 1, and the FAT on Head 1, Sector 2, etc. By adjusting the first MBR in Micro-Scope so that the value for Starting Cylinder, Head and Sector is equal to the location of the second MBR, the VBR is now accessible through the Micro-Scope partition editor. Use these values to reconstruct the second MBR. The only value that will need recalculating is the Start Absolute Sector in the second MBR.

As outlined in the first article in the series, the Start Absolute Sector is the same as the value for Ending Sector. This is not the case with a second partition. The Start Absolute Sector is the number of sectors prior to the VBR. The formula for the Start Absolute Sector is as follows: (Number of Sectors) + (the Start Absolute Sector of the previous partition) + (Sectors per Track). This formula will work for any additional logical partitions.

If, during partition reconstruction, there is something not understood, e-mail the Micro 2000 Tech Support Dept. before making changes to the drive.

Disclaimer - The Micro 2000 Tech Tip is a free service providing information only. While we use reasonable care to see that this information is correct, we do not guarantee it for accuracy, completeness or fitness for a particular purpose. Micro 2000, Inc. shall not be liable for damages of any kind in connection with the use or misuse of this information.

Micro 2000 Inc has been helping to solve the day-to-day challenges that IT departments face in order to keep their businesses operational as well as profitable for over 14 years. The company's primary goal is to put the customer first - through feature-rich, simple-to-use IT tools that can help IT administrators manage their jobs more effectively.

For more advice and free articles be sure to visit: http://www.micro2000.co.uk

New Apple Products 2006 - The Introduction of the Intel Macs

2008-06-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

In the past two months Apple has released a number of completely new products, and more importantly has started their transition to the Intel processor. In this article I will detail the new product offerings and options available on each.

The first new Intel product announced by Apple was the iMac Core Duo. The all-in-one enclosure featuring either a 17" or 20" LCD monitor looks exactly the same as the previous iMac G5 enclosure, and like the iMac G5, features a built-in iSight camera. Inside however itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs an entirely different story. The iMac Core Duo features the Intel Core Duo processor running at 1.83 or 2.0 GHz, the ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card, 512MB of built-in RAM upgradeable to 2GB, and a 160GB Serial ATA hard drive upgradeable to 500GB. The iMac Core Duo also features Front Row media software and the Apple Remote.

The second new Intel-based product that Apple introduced was the MacBook Pro. This is their brand new laptop, and their first completely new laptop in quite a while. The MacBook Pro features an Intel Core Duo processor running at 1.83, 2.0, or 2.16 GHZ, a 15.4" TFT display, 512MB of built-in RAM upgradeable to 2GB, an 80GB Serial ATA hard drive upgradeable to 120GB, and the ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card with 128MB or 256MB of RAM. Unlike any laptop in Apple history, the new MacBook Pro also features a built-in iSight camera, Front Row software, and the Apple Remote.

The latest Intel-based product announced by Apple is the Mac mini. Like the iMac, the new Mac mini looks exactly the same as the old Mac mini, but is completely different inside. The mini is the first Mac to offer either the Intel Core Solo or Core Duo processor. The base model Mac mini comes standard with the Intel Core Solo running at 1.5 GHz, 512MB of built-in RAM, a 60GB Serial ATA hard drive, and a built-in Intel GMA950 graphics chipset. New to the Mac mini is the Apple Remote, Front Row software, and the option of connecting the mini to your home television.

What I am most excited about with these new Intel-based Macs is that Apple finally offers a product line in which all of their offerings are comparable in processing power and performance. Previously there were the PowerPC G4-based products - the Mac mini, PowerBook, and iBook - and the PowerPC G5-based products รขโ�ฌโ�� the iMac G5 and Power Mac G5. While the PowerPC G4 is a viable and powerful processor, it is no match for the PowerPC G5, and left many purchasers of G4-based Macs stuck with substantially less processor power and overall performance. Now that the Intel-based Mac line is out, even buyers of lower end Macs still are offered processor power and performance comparable to buyers of top-of-the-line Macs. This is a great move for Apple, and is a win-win situation for consumers, shareholders, and for the company.

John Conanan is the owner of http://www.readandforget.com and http://www.7verse.net

Implementing Online Web Support with Knowledge Base Software

2008-06-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

Whether you are managing staff or simply attempting to keep up with increasing support demands, online Web support is proving to be a useful cost cutting avenue for resolving customer support issues.

On the market today are many affordable Knowledge Base Software solutions that easily integrate with your current website to provide online support to your clients. Knowledge Base Software is available in hosted and non-hosted versions and can be purchased according to the number of administrators needed to manage the articles.

Transitioning to an online support environment is not complicated; the most time consuming component is "placing" your content into the knowledge base. When considering products, look for software that allows for easy importing of word processing files, uploading images, as well as accommodating searchable file attachments. In no time and with little manpower, company documentation can be efficiently organized into the knowledge base tree.

Shifting the mindset of your customers to a self-help scenario need not be a scary endeavor. The following are a few of the recommendations highlighted in a report published by the "Association of Support Professionals".*

Encourage customers to search the Web first: Web support should be emphasized in company publications as the preferred method of support. Customers using telephone support can often be coaxed to try web support through "on-hold recordings" recommending the speed and simplicity of this Web service. Fine-tune your Web navigation: Often small changes in your current website navigation can result in huge gains for self service. For example, replace typical support contact email addresses with prominent links such as "Ask a Question" or "Find Answers" that link directly to the knowledge base. Duplicate the links in multiple locations throughout the site.

Post new knowledge base content quickly: When your telephone support staff gets issues that are not addressed in the knowledgebase, create a system where they promptly send an alert to knowledge base administrators. Some knowledge base systems allow end users and/or telephone support staff to create new articles on the fly, which get sent to admin for approval. This keeps the knowledge base constantly updated.

Look for new ways to leverage support site investments: The infrastructure of a Web support site can sometimes handle other customer-related tasks such as downloads and the distribution of beta information. The architecture is in place and the interface is already familiar to the customers. Security can be set by administrators as desired to manage permissions.

Soon your customers will be empowered to find answers to their own questions on your website, all-the-while saving your company money. * Doing More With Less, Published by The Association of Support Professionals, pgs. 2-3.

Written by: Anne Sych, Marketing Manager for Novo Solutions, Inc. Novo Solutions, Inc., is an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) in Virginia Beach, Virginia specializing in Customer Support Software. Free trial versions of the Novo Help Desk Software, Knowledge Base Software and suite of web-based Customer Support Solutions are available.

Computer Service Company Perks: Employee Extras

2008-06-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Computer service company perks are much different from company benefits. Perks are extras for employees that help remind them the computer service company cares about their job satisfaction and is giving them something for free. Perks can include items like company cars, childcare, coffee and snacks and flextime.

Cars

Company cars are common perks given to employees of a computer service company because the profession, particularly for those involved in sales and service involves so much travel time. If a company car is not feasible, a company gas card is a good way to cover fuel expenses.

Childcare

Childcare can be challenging for many employees, and there are options for both the small and large computer service company. Small companies can help with the expenses of a near-by childcare facility or pay in full. Large companies might consider opening a childcare facility on location.

Coffee/Snacks

These perks may seem tiny, but they are incredibly important. Most people look forward to coffee and breakfast in the morning, and many, strapped for time will pay to get it on the way to work. By offering breakfast and coffee in the morning, a computer service company is saving employees time and money.

Flextime

Flextime makes it possible for employees to set hourly schedules and gives them more control over their time. If this is a feasible option for you as a computer service business, think about letting sales people and others that travel all day start the workday at home, or allow technicians to come in later so they can offer evening hours to clients. When employees feel their time is valuable and that they have a say in how it is spent, they will be more productive.

There are many other perks available to a computer service company. Be creative and think about what will benefit the staff.

Copyright MMI-MMVII, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Joshua Feinberg helps computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for Joshua's free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training.

Computer's Data Security: Necessity and Myth

2008-06-16T03:59:00.000-07:00

There is no 100 % protection for your computer. But this doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt mean you cannot prevent you data to be unauthorized accessed.

Once I was chatting with my colleagues about the security issues and the ways the information can be protected. Our main goal was to understand if the Dekart family products can be used for assuring data access protection. We were talking about existing software, about the devices available for buyers and about the percentage of an assurance we can get from these tools available on the modern market so far. We also touched the other side of protection: itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs vulnerability. We came to the conclusion that it is not simple to get the information protected, as there are many well-established strategies and methods developers (to say nicely), whose target is to get to know what is valuable for you.

But anyway there are the directions we can work on in order to minimize the risks for unauthorized access to our data. Here are they.

1. If you want to protect your data it is important to assure the building (office, home), security access and protection. There are many security agencies available on the market, which can be of real help. They have different protection strategies and tools. But as this is not directly related to your computer we will let the specialists in the area to let us know about it and we will move forward.

2. Hardware protection. There are many tools available for computer protection, like physical computers locks, which may be locked through a hole in the desk/object, or can be locked to a mounting bracket affixed to the vertical surface. There are different kits, mostly consisting of security cables and locks. These anti-theft devices are designed for Notebook laptops and PCs, with special requirements adjusted for different models.

3. Computer data access limiting. There are tolls and software, which may be used for home and business computer access protection. The multifactor authentification (with password, pin code and biometric data) can be used with Dekart Logon software, which can be of real help for storing all passwords to Windows machines on one removable storage device and add the strong authentication and convenience to the standard Windows logon procedure.

4. Information encryption. While we were talking about these issues, we were able to note that there is a tool which can protect data, even if it is stolen, even if there will be the most brilliant software hackers working on getting to know it. It is amazing! We were surprised to get to know that any important data can be stored and encrypted with Dekart Private Disk, which an easy-to-use, reliable, user-friendly and smart program. It is of real help in creating encrypted disk partitions (drive letters) to keep private and confidential data secure. It uses 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard. So, here is a no risk solution to protect data!

5. E-mail protection.

6. And the last important thing to note is donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt forget to assure that you have the same plans for the part of the world, as God has in terms of earth cracks, tsunami, etc.

Together with our colleagues we came to conclusion that there is no perfect security environment, although it is not wise at all to stay unaware of the risks existed and to minimize the solutions to this issue available. At least we were satisfied with Dekart Products we were testing, so we decided to get Dekart Private Disk and Dekart Logon.

This is not so difficult topic to understand. We just wanted to encourage you to think of solutions existed. Just look for the information and act!

(More on Dekart Logon http://www.dekart.com/products/authentication_access/logon/) (More on Dekart Private Disk http://www.dekart.com/products/file_disk_encryption/private_disk/)

Ceban Liuba
Born in 1974 in Ukraine (former USSR)
Now lives in Moldova
Since 1998 works on Internet
Since 2004 works in the IT security Software Company as a Technical Writer

Scalability Testing: 7 Steps Towards Success

2008-06-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Systems that work well during development, deployed on a small scale, can fail to meet performance goals when the deployment is scaled up to support real levels of use.

An apposite example of this comes from a major blue chip company that recently outsourced the development of an innovative high technology platform. Though development was behind schedule this was deemed acceptable. The system gradually passed through functional elements of the user acceptance testing and eventually it looked like a deployment date could be set. But then the supplier started load testing and scalability testing. There followed a prolonged and costly period of architectural changes and changes to the system requirements. The supplier battled heroically to provide an acceptable system, until finally the project was mothballed.

This is not an isolated case. IT folklore abounds with similar tales. From ambulance dispatch systems to web-sites for the electronic submission of tax returns, systems fail as they scale and experience peak demands. All of these projects appear not to have identified and ordered the major risks they faced. This is a fundamental stage of risk based testing, and applies equally to scalability testing or load testing as it does to functionality testing or business continuity testing. With no risk assessment they did not recognise that scaling was amongst the biggest risks, far more so that delivering all the functionality

Recent trends towards Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) attempt to address the issue of scalability but also introduce new issues. Incorporating externally provided services into your overall solution means that your ability to scale now depends upon these external system operate under load. Assuring this is a demanding task and sadly the load testing and stress testing here is often overlooked.

Better practice is to start the development of a large scale software system with its performance clearly in mind, particularly scalability testing, volume testing and load testing. To create this performance testing focus:

Research and quantify the data volumes and transaction volumes the target market implies. Some of these figures can be eye openers and help the business users realise the full scale of the system. This alone can lead to reassessment of the priority of many features.

Determine the way features could be presented to users and the system structured in order to make scaling of the system easier. Do not try and have the same functionality you would have for a single user desktop solution provide an appropriate scalable alternative.

Recognise that an intrinsic part of the development process is load testing at representative scale on each incremental software release. This is continual testing, focusing on the biggest risk to the project: the ability to operate at full scale.

Ensure load testing is adequate both in scope and rigour. Load testing is not just about measuring response times with a performance test. The load testing programme needs to include other types of load testing including stress testing, reliability testing, and endurance testing.

Donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt forget that failures will occur. Large scale systems generally include server clusters with fail-over behaviour. Failure testing, fail-over testing and recovery testing carried out on representative scale systems operating under load should be included.

Donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt forget catastrophic failure could occur. For large scale problems, disaster testing and disaster recovery testing should be carried out at representative scale and loads. These activities can be considered the technical layers of business continuity testing.

Recognise external services if you use them. Where you are adopting an SOA approach and are dependent on external services you need to be certain that the throughput and turnaround time on these services will remain acceptable as your system scales and its demands increase. A smart system architecture will include a graceful response and fall-back operation should the external service behaviour deteriorate or fail.

Mark is an experienced consultant working in performance testing, scalability testing and load testing. For further information visit: http://www.acutest.co.uk

The ISO Network Management Model

2008-06-13T00:59:00.000-07:00

The rumor on how Disney uses Network Management. When the temperature rises on the park grounds at Disneyland all the prices of the beverage vending machines automatically goes up by 10% to fully capitalize on consumer demand. I believe that is an old Information Technology rumor to explain how network management works... at least I hope it is a rumor.

Why Network Management is important.
More and more organizations depend on their networks. Businessรขโ�ฌโ�ข the depend heavily on the status of their networks must have network management tools as they grow. If a network dependent business such as ebay, Google, Yahoo and many others go down for even a few minutes, they can loose literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales and even a small piece of their customerรขโ�ฌโ�ขs confidence which could in turn affect the value of their stock. When every second of network time counts the system must be monitored continuously. The most cost effective way to do this is to use an automated network management tool.

Network Management Standards
The International Organization for Standards (ISO) addresses the five major functional area of the Network Management Model as performance management, accounting management, configuration management, fault management and security management.

Performance Management
Performance management is monitoring, assessing, and adjusting the available bandwidth and network resource usage in order make a network run more efficiently. Performance management is a very important part of the network management model particularly to the business and/or organization that wants to streamline their network's performance. SolarWinds is a great tool for performance management.

Accounting Management
Accounting management monitors and assesses the usage of data and/or resources for the purpose of billing. This aspect of the network management is by Internet Service Providers to bill customers for the resources they use.

Configuration Management
The configuration side of network management is for tracking the hardware and software versions on the network to identify their effects on the network's operation. An example of this is Microsoftรขโ�ฌโ�ขs System Management Server (SMS) which has the capability to monitor, manage and track every piece of software and hardware on a given network.

Fault Management
Fault Management is what most people think of when they think of network management. The purpose of this area of network management is to detect, log and alert the system administrators of problems that might effect the systems operations.

Security Management
Security Management deals with controlling access to resources and even alerting the proper authorities when certain resources are accessed. In the same way that a network manager can be paged or emailed when a resource goes down, network management systems can be used to send messages when certain files, servers or routers is accesses. Intrusion detection systems such as Symantecรขโ�ฌโ�ขs Intruder Alert have this security management capability.

There are many products that support some or even all of these areas of network management. What most network management systems have in common is their use of protocols such as Simple Network Management Protocols (SNMP), SNMPv3, and Common Management Information Protocol (CMIP). There are a variety of Network Management tools ranging from Intuit's Network Management Software to IBM's Tivoli, Fidelia's Helix to AdventNet. Maybe your network management solution does not include a system that increases vending machine prices as the heat rises, but you can definitely find what you need among these and other excellent tools on the market.

References:

Cisco. Network Management Basics. Cisco.com. Feb 2002
http://www.cisco.com/

RFC 1157. Simple Network Management Protocol.
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1157.html

Wikipedia. Network Management. Wikipedia.org.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_management

ITPRC. Network Management. Itprc.com
http://www.itprc.com/nms.htm

Robert Elam is a System Security Engineer who works for the U.S. government.

You can find a more detailed version of this and other articles at his blog, http://elamb.org.

Handheld Devices: Client Security and Connectivity Issues

2008-06-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

Because many handheld devices or PDAs have the ability to connect to your clientsรขโ�ฌโ�ข LANs (either directly or indirectly), you need to consider PDA remote access, just as you would any other remote device, such as an employeeรขโ�ฌโ�ขs home computer or a company-owned notebook.

This also should include a thorough discussion of what sensitive data can be stored on a handheld device, given that the pocket-sized PDA devices are inherently vulnerable to theft.

Establish Backup Procedures

In the same context of data security, be sure to establish some kind of backup procedures. Weรขโ�ฌโ�ขve all heard the horror stories of handheld device users losing three years of appointments and 2,000 customer names that were stored on their PDA and not backed up anywhere else. Donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt let your clients become one of these statistics.

Desktop Connectivity

Also think about how your clientsรขโ�ฌโ�ข internal gurus or your consulting firm will assist users in connecting their handheld devices to their office PCs. Yes, your clients could adopt a policy banning PDAs from the office entirely, or making users responsible for their own PDA-related support issues, but these extreme approaches may not be practical.

After all, handheld devices are becoming a major competitive force that others in your clientsรขโ�ฌโ�ข industries may be rushing to integrate into their information technology toolkit.

Employees Can Cause Other Damage

In addition, your clients probably donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt want to leave employees to install and support their own PDA desktop connectivity, unless they are very PC savvy. All too often, a user inadvertently will break a multitude of key software configurations while accepting default installation settings.

If your clients are determined to have users tap the power and flexibility of handheld devices or PDAs, theyรขโ�ฌโ�ขll need someone PC savvy (your firm or an internal guru) managing these installations.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Joshua Feinberg, co-owner of Computer Consulting 101, gets computer consulting businesses more steady, high-paying consulting clients. Now you can too. Just sign-up now for your free access pass to these field-tested, proven computer consulting secrets at Computer Consulting 101.

Digital Photos Explained

2008-06-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

The Basics of Digital Images
An image, of course, is any visual representation. Still images, such as photographs and drawings, capture a single, visual moment in time; while moving and video images, such as television and movies, are able to capture entire periods of time.

A digital image is simply an image that can be represented in a computer's numeric, or digital, language. A digital image is composed of millions of tiny dots called pixels. If you look closely at a computer monitor, you can probably see these tiny dots at the edges of curved images, such as letters, for example. These pixels can be displayed as any one of several million colors, and when all of the pixels are placed in the right order, they form an image.

The proper ordering and coloring of these pixels is often stored in a file on a computer. Image file typesรขโ�ฌโ��such as GIF, JPG, BMP, EPS and othersรขโ�ฌโ��simply use a slightly different technique for describing the proper order and color of the pixels that comprise a given image. Videosรขโ�ฌโ��which are a series of still imagesรขโ�ฌโ��are stored in formats that can support information for a soundtrack that goes with the video.

Image files are saved using different formats. For still images alone there are nearly 100 different file formats. Each format offers its own compression technique and image quality for a variety of practical applications. Here are the most common file formats for still images and a brief description of their common use.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

TIFF (Tapped Image File Format)

BMP (Bitmap File)

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)

Al (Adobe Illustrator)

SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)

To enable the sharing of such a photo, one solution is to compress the photographic data (data that represents the photo), meaning rearranging the data and reducing the number of colors in the photo so that the data takes up less space. This technique is used by the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) file format. GIF Format is the most popular digital format used to display images on the Internet just because they are lower in file size and enable faster download.

Although the GIF image appears less detailed than the original raw photoรขโ�ฌโ��a result of the compression and reduction in colorรขโ�ฌโ��the GIF image takes up only 68,000 bytes of storage. This size is a reasonable size for sharing the photo. To enable file sharing of a more detailed image, the developers of the JPEG format came up with a more sophisticated way of compressing data. They realized that the human eye cannot distinguish every possible shade of color or every detail; thus, they developed a technique that reduces a photo's colors and complexity without the appearance of having done so. In other words, the only data eliminated in the JPEG technique is data that your eye would not process. The image below shows an example. As you can see, this photo is much more lifelike than the GIF version, and it takes up less storage space. Digital images play a very important role in designing websites, choosing right format enables users to view your website fast. Learn more about digital image formats and tips on how create a website without any programming knowledge or expensive software.

David Manson has worked in the Internet industry for over 8 years helping people realize their dream of working from home and setting up their own internet business. Tips on earning on the internet.

Voice Recognition Technology

2008-06-08T00:59:00.000-07:00

You probably have heard about voice recognition that allows you to "talk" to a computer, so that it can convert your speech into text. It has been around for more than fifty years now. Developments in voice recognition technology through the years has made it possible for a computer to recognize continuous speech, several voices and various speech patterns and even different languages.

There are three ways that voice recognition technology can meet your needs: command and control, dictation and text-to-speech capability.

In this kind of technology, your voice works as the input device. By uttering a command, you can navigate menus, toolbars and activate different applications. Likewise, you can also dictate words through a microphone and let the computer convert them into text instead of typing them through the keyboard.

Text-to-speech features in computers using voice recognition technology allow the computer to read the text that you have typed. The computer use "synthesizers" to produce sound similar to a humanรขโ�ฌโ�ขs speaking voice. It then uses filters to imitate sound variations resulting from differences in the position of the tongue, shape of the lips and length of the throat, among others.

Even when this technology allows a computer to recognize human speech, digitize it into phonemes and words, "analyze" the words based from their context and synthesize speech from text, the computer does not actually understand what you say. Understanding how human speaks would refer to a field of artificial intelligence that is called natural language processing.

While it is true that speech or voice recognition technology has y gone a long way since its conception in the 1920s, it has not yet achieved one hundred percent accuracy. Even the best-known software available in the market has not provided its users a very reliable and accurate solution to typing problems.

However, continuous efforts to develop this technology are being made, and this gives hope to a large number of people using this technologyรขโ�ฌโ��physically disabled and normal people alike. Who knows, just few years from now using the keyboard may just be a history in the world of computers.

Voice Recognition provides detailed information on Voice Recognition, Voice Recognition Software, Free Voice Recognition Software, Voice Recognition Technology and more. Voice Recognition is affiliated with Funny Voice Mail Messages.

Computer Training - Books vs Hands On

2008-06-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

There has been an ever growing battle among teaching professionals, businesses and even students as to what is more important, being book learned in a subject or having some practical hands on experience. We're not going to try to answer that question in this article, only present both sides and allow you, the reader to come to your own conclusions.

With computers, unlike many other subjects, such as accounting, where without theory you simply can't make the correct journal entries, there is a growing number of people without formal training who have very productive careers in the field of computers. In spite of this, there are those who argue that these workers will ultimately not be able to keep up with the ever-changing technology because they have not had formal training and don't know how to read and understand a technical training manual.

Those who believe that understanding the theories of computers, whatever the discipline, is more important than actual hands on use this as their argument. A student who simply gets a hold of a computer and begins working on it is working in the dark and only by trial and error and chance stumbles onto the correct procedure for whatever it is they are trying to do.

In some disciplines, like data entry, this may not be too difficult. After all, most data entry programs have menus to guide the user along, and specific text boxes for each form of input that is required. A person with basic reading skills could probably walk his way through a data entry screen and manage to perform simple data entry tasks.

But what happens when the student tries to tackle a more complex task like installing a hard drive in a computer. Without understanding the basic theories of electricity and grounding, it is quite likely that the student will end up shorting out the drive and possibly every component in the computer itself.

Those who argue the other side of this tricky coin, say that if a student were to try hands on without the aid of formal book knowledge, he would certainly have someone there to show them just how to install that hard drive. The overseer would explain to him along the way the main points that he would need to know in order to do the job correctly, without all the technical stuff that is usually 90% useless in most situations.

However, their more compelling argument for hands on over book knowledge is this. That same student, with all the book knowledge in the world, has still never physically handled a hard drive. In theory, he knows what's going on electronically and understands about grounding but until he actually gets his hands on a drive and tries to place it into that computer, he has no idea if he'll actually be able to handle the task. Maybe his hands will shake. Maybe he has poor eyesight and can't see well enough to make the right connections. Maybe he has trouble hooking up wires. Some people just aren't mechanically inclined.

Even in the field of programming a computer, a person may have complete knowledge of the language he is programming in, but without actually writing a program in a real business environment he has no idea of the complexities of a real life business application. That is why so many computer based products have patches upon patches of bug fixes, because many programmers working their first job simply aren't ready for what's involved.

No doubt the argument of book learning versus hands on will continue until time itself stops, and while no actual answers are given here, it is hoped that this article will give the reader something to think about when taking one side or the other.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Computer Training

An Art With A New Life Form: With Digital Music And MP3s!

2008-06-06T03:59:00.000-07:00

"Music that gentlier on the spirit lies than tired eyelids upon tired eyes"

The act of finding a recluse with your inner-self listening away to the tunes of your favorite maestro has evolved from the archaic vinyl record album to the compact disc and finally the ubiquitous iPods and mp3 players of today. Music is the opium of the listenerรขโ�ฌโ�ขs state of mind, thus the same tune could possibly be felt in a million different awe-inspiring ways to represent mindรขโ�ฌโ�ขs momentary fusion of the ambience. With the advent of digital music and effervescent mode of internet distribution, the mp3 players and the iPods have given us this freedom of choice - free from the constraints of listening to what the music industry chooses to limit within the bounds of the magnetic/optico-magnetic media. Itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs been a fascinating metamorphosis.

The mechanism of how people listen to music has evolved over the generations with the prevailing discoveries in the technology. In 1978, Sony introduced the portable, easy-to-carry along reliable Walkman, making it a hot-favorite trendy gadget for the younger people. CDs and CD players became a reality in 1983, with the advent of the capability of reading small discs by laser beams. Never before had the music aficionado access to such clarity and distortion-free listening experience.

The rapid adoption rate of CDs caused the disappearance of LPs and vinyl single records from the industry. The introduction of iPod and similar mp3 players in November 2001 revolutionized the archetypal distribution of digital music for the millions of music lovers. With the new audio compression technology and widespread acceptance of the world-wide-web, mp3 or WMA files could be created and archived in the virtual world, without the fear of wearing out a cassette or scratching a CD.

As these hi-tech gadgets have evolved over the years, you could carry along 100รขโ�ฌโ�ขs of CDs worth of music in a device slightly bigger than a deck of cards. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, CD sales fell 22.3 percent by January 2003, and internet music-downloading services such as Appleรขโ�ฌโ�ขs iTunes are expected to have 23 percent of the market by 2008. In October 2004, Apple announced that consumers had so far purchased 150 million songs from iTunes and the company sells about 4 million songs every week.

The advent of online music has been the music loverรขโ�ฌโ�ขs boon, but has caused a serious disruption of art-form in the creation of cover art and liner notes for the music industry. The popular art-form of composing an album is probably losing ground as individuals may pick and choose the songs to download and play from the internet.

Another significant devious impact of online digital music has been the explosion of illegal distribution of music resulting in loss of royalties for the musicians. If we, the music lovers, can join hands to protect the interests of the artists, digital music has caused the first sprout of music in an organic life-form, freeing this wonderful work of art from the bounds of human control!

Lopa Bhattacharya is a content writer/developer working on websites for overseas/Indian clientele. Has worked for various corporate website projects, CD-Rom presentations, brochures, flyers and other communication materials on varied themes ranging from travel, hotel industry, photography, web design and software development to US-based clubs and network communities. Was previously an editorial associate for a news, culture and entertainment portal based on the life and times of Kolkata.

Registry Bot Review

2008-06-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing that the average pleasure PC user and the average business PC user has in common it is the fact that they both hate it when their system crashes. There are few things on this great big green earth as frustrating as having your computer crash. It doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt matter if you are playing Pong or you are in the middle of an important Internet business meeting, when your computer crashes it makes you want to rip your hair out by the roots.

I used to have this problem all of the time and I would get those weird little error messages constantly and I never knew what the problem was. It was my registry and not only was this causing crashes and error messages it was why my computer was running so terribly slow all the time. It would take me hours just to do simple things, it was awful. So I talked to my IT guy and he mentioned a package called Registry Bot. I trusted him, he had been my go to guy for some time so I tried it out.

As soon as I started using Registry Bot I found out all kinds of things that were wrong and that had probably been wrong for some time. In mere seconds Registry Bot found the things I couldnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt find for what seemed like ages, it was great but you know what the best part was? It was free.

For exactly the cost of nothing I was informed what the problems were in my computer and what kinds of symptoms they were causing. This was great because I could then explain everything that had been happening. I am one of those literal kinds of people who have to understand it all before I can let it go. It is not enough for me that a problem gets fixed, I need to know why it happened in the first place and I got all of this from Registry Bot. I loved it.

One of my favorite things about Registry Bot is that it worked so quickly. In no time at all I was on my way to having a happy computer again. I could get back to work and I could play Pong until the cows came home, that is the good life.

Donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt be too freaked out when Registry Bot comes back telling you that there are hundreds of problems in your computer. This does happen often and there is a good chance that if you have been having a lot of trouble with your computer it will tell you exactly this. Registry Bot is a full service kind of program. It will not only tell you what all of the problems are, it will also fix them for you which it what we are all really looking for.

Anyone and everyone can get their computer scanned with Registry Bot for free and it will not take long at all and considering how it can find pretty much anything that is wrong with a computer I say it is well worth the little bit of time it takes. I have gotten my computer scanned and fixed up and from now on I will be using this when things go wrong on my computer. My IT guy is going to wish he never told me about this! Now he will be making a lot less money off of me from now on. So if you are sick and tired of a slow computer and you canรขโ�ฌโ�ขt seem to figure out what is wrong then you may want to give Registry Bot a try, it might be able to fix everything up for you.

Joseph Tierney protects his computer daily, to learn more check out Registry Bot Review.

Repairing A Damaged CD

2008-06-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

Why do compact discs get damaged? Compact discs are all plastic. Compact discs are even not sensitive to magnetic fields as in case floppy disks, which never used to retain data when even a slight magnetic field is crossed with floppies. Then what is the reason why CDs get corrupted?

CDs work on the principle of reflection of light. CD drives have a built in laser that is used to read data. When laser is focused on to the CD the beam get reflected to a point when there is some data on that are i.e. 0 or 1 the points where light beam lands back is different which symbolizes the bit value.

When something on the CD breaks the path of the laser light, something like dust particle or something else like a FINGER PRINT!!! Finger prints are nothing but natural oil from skin that sticks to the surface in contact with the skin in a pattern of skin cells. This oil or say fingerprint helps in refraction of light and loss of data to the reading source i.e. laser.

When CDs donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt run, the reason is because something is interrupting the laser to read the shinny side of the CD. But I have important data, so what should I do now?

Most of the times it is because of dust or fingerprints, so you will just need to clean the CD. You can clean your CDs with plain water or a bit soapy water. And it is better to clean the CDs after some time. But this doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt mean you should start putting your CDs in dishwasher or washing machine every week.

All you need to do is to wipe the shinny side of the CD with a clean moist cloth and try running it again make sure the CD is dry before you run it.

People say about using all different sorts of things to clean CDs like toothpastes, wax polish etc. but I would recommend you to buy some CD cleaning kit. But if you still want to go try, do let me know the results.

And one thing I must add is that DVDs work on the same principle and are more sensitive to dust and fingerprints. You can also use the above mentioned procedure for DVDs. But you need to be extremely careful with DVDs.

Edgar Lee is a VoIP consultant at Lantone Communications, VOIP division. A Singapore company that has extensive experiences in cutting-edge VoIP solutions, Lantone Communications is your trusted partner when your organization needs a specialized VoIP Provider in Singapore.

Educators Guide to Planning a Wireless Network - Part 1

2008-06-04T06:59:00.000-07:00

WIRELESS NETWORKING FOR THE EDUCATOR - PART 1

"PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE"

There are many things to think about when planning a wireless network for a school environment. Your wireless network must be secure, must be able to handle teachers and staff work loads, and finally provide wireless access for mobile laptop labs for students. Combining all the above could be seem very difficult considering most schools will have about 100 staff members and over 500 students.

The first stage of planning your network is to discuss with staff what a wireless network will and wonรขโ�ฌโ�ขt do. Find out exactly the areas where the staff will and wonรขโ�ฌโ�ขt need wireless access. Will the staff or students need access in the gym area? Will the students need wireless access outdoors? How many wireless laptops will be accessing the network? What applications do the staff intend to use while using the wireless network? What applications will the students be using on the wireless network? Keep asking questions until you feel everyone understands the capabilities of a wireless network. If you fail to ask many questions it could cost your district a lot of time and money on something that doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt fill the schools needs.

Wireless networks in schools will usually have to support the following missions. A common need is to provide access for mobile laptops labs for students. Students use the labs to surf the internet, access network servers and perform research. Your network will need to support over twenty students accessing your wireless network in one area at the same time.

Mission two,, outdoor wireless access. This can provide a great learning opportunity for students to take technology out of the class room and perform science experiments via wireless computers. Great for students, but a large potential headache to secure an outdoors wireless network.

Mission three, provide teachers and staff members wireless network access to move through out the schools with out having to reconfigure their laptop every time they switch rooms. Seamless wireless access is a must for educators who are usually strapped for time and have little technology training. Your network needs to flexible enough to handle staff training sessions and conference rooms.

Mission four, Security. Providing wireless access for schools is one thing, providing secure wireless access in a school environment can be very difficult. Security in schools is often the last concern so when planning for your network explain all the wireless security threats to your planning committee so they know you just canรขโ�ฌโ�ขt throw wireless access points around the network and expect things to go well. Students are very smart and often more computer savvy then teachers so if you have an open wireless network it will be exploited with in the first day.

Once you have performed your recon and asked every question you can think of, itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs now time to think about what hardware for your wireless network. In the next installment of this series we will talk about wireless adapters, wireless access points, different vendors and how to start your purchasing.

Eric R. Meyer is an expert in wireless networking. You can view other aricles like this at http://www.wirelessninja.com

An Introduction To Fuel Vapor Detectors Used In Arson Investigation

2008-06-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

Arson investigators face the challenge of determining the cause of a fire, sometimes with no more than charred remains of a structure to give them the evidence they need. One of the tools often used for gathering evidence is the fuel vapor detector, which can detect trace amounts of propellant in parts per million (ppm) concentrations. Even though the fire has seemingly consumed everything, the fuel vapor detector can "see" evidence which is invisible to the eye.

How Does a Fuel Vapor Detector Work?
The Combustible Sensor consists of two coils of fine platinum wire each embedded in a bead of alumina, connected electrically in a bridge circuit. One of the beads is impregnated with a special catalyst which promotes oxidation and the other is treated to inhibit oxidation. Current is passed through the coils so that they reach a temperature at which oxidation of a gas readily occurs at the catalyzed bead (about 500ร�ยฐC). This raises the temperature further which increases the resistance of the platinum coil in the catalyzed bead, leading to an imbalance of the bridge. This output change is linear, for most gases, up to and beyond 100% LEL and response time is only a few seconds to detect alarm levels (typically 20% LEL). Most fuel vapor monitors can detect concentrations as low as 10 or 20 ppm all the way up to 100%LEL and are typically calibrated with a Hexane gas standard.

Christopher Miller

Equipco

Rentals, Sales, and Service of Environmental Equipment

1-888-234-5678

Visit our forum to ask us questions about environmental equipment.

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Electronic Evidence Discovery

2008-06-03T00:59:00.000-07:00

Electronic discovery is the process of retrieving useful data and information from electronic sources. With the increasing use of electronic devices for data transfer and storage, obtaining valuable information from the millions of data pages is an arduous task. Moreover, electronic discovery is very important for dealing with litigations and government investigations. It is also required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Electronic evidence can be obtained from user files, backup media, spreadsheets, CAD/CAM/CAE and graphics, personnel records, policy and procedure manuals, software and source code, internet and intranet content, internet service providers, fax servers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), telephone /security / network activity systems, cell phones, pagers, voice/video mail and special databases such as CRM or ERP. The main aspects to be considered are the type of data to be collected, the potential sources of the required data, identification of the people who are likely to have access to the data, and the most likely places where high amounts of data can be found.

It is very important to understand an organizationรขโ�ฌโ�ขs structure, the main people involved in electronic data creation and transfer, the communication flows in the organization setup, the type of documents used, the kind of corporate archiving used, and even information about the end users of the data created. An understanding of common data errors and distortions in the data flow would also help in electronic evidence discovery. Electronic evidence discovery is used mostly in litigations and lawsuits.

Electronic evidence discovery is a very useful tool for attorneys. There are special software tools available today for electronic evidence discovery. Data mining software programs such as SPSS can also be used for evidence discovery. These tools not only extract data but also review it, thus minimizing costs and time. The data can also be shared across multiple locations over the Internet or a local network system. Some tools also have foreign language support. The minimum PC requirements for installing this software are: MS Windows, preferably 2000 Pro, MS .NET Framework, MS Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, MS SQL Server 2000 and MS IIS 5.0 or 6.0.

Electronic Discovery provides detailed information on Electronic Discovery, Electronic Evidence Discovery, Electronic Data Discovery, Electronic Discovery Software and more. Electronic Discovery is affiliated with Electronic Component Distributors.

Use Their Terminology -- Not Yours

2008-05-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was a speaker in front of a group of CIOs, discussing some of the issues facing IT organizations. One of the CIOs asked me what he could do to better communicate his problems to his business users, who seemed to have trouble understanding the difficulties associated with making changes to software. I suggested that he rephrase the problems in the usersรขโ�ฌโ�ข terms instead of using the traditional IT terminology. This is fairly common advice, but Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขm always amazed at how few people actually use this approach. As IT people we keep falling back on the language we use with our peers, instead of trying to understand the business userรขโ�ฌโ�ขs point of view, and explaining things in user terms.

In the last couple of months, Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขve seen two interesting examples of explaining IT in user terms. At Southern Company, CIO Becky Blalock had a breakthrough in communication when she explained IT in terms that are more understandable at a power generation company. She told her business users that just as Southern Company uses coal to generate power and then distribute the power to its customers, the Southern Company IT organization uses data to generate information and then distribute it to the business users. The business users got the point, and they began to understand some of the similarities between power distribution and the distribution of information.

At The Home Depot, Chief IT Architect Barbara Sanders uses a similar approach to define the stages that a new technology goes through before itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs implemented in a live production environment. Her architecture organization issues "building permits" to pilot projects for new technologies, and then delivers a "certificate of occupancy" when the pilot is proven and the technology is ready for general release. Everyone at Home Depot understands exactly what that means, and there are far fewer questions about why a new technology isnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt yet in use.

Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขve used similar approaches myself. At an architectural firm that specialized in designing college campuses and the buildings that go with them, I explained a plan for a future intranet by showing a campus metaphor for the intranet. Users enter the intranet through the "quad" in the middle of the campus, and then enter various "buildings" (subsystems), always coming back to the quad to navigate from building to building. I identified virtual classrooms for training, a "history department" that keeps records of the buildings the firm has designed in the past, a virtual library of white papers and presentations, an engineering library of details for Computer Aided Design (CAD), and even a transit station for "public transportation" to take the intranet user to selected areas of the Internet. By translating difficult technical concepts like home pages, databases, and gateways into terms with which the architects were familiar, I was able to help the firm understand the benefits of an intranet, as well as some of the issues they would encounter during construction.

For a lower level of explanation, Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขve often tried to relate IT issues to things that are familiar to the average person. For example, Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขve frequently used a plumbing analogy to help explain why a system change is so difficult. I describe a hypothetical house-building project, and ask why it might be a big problem if the homeowner changes the location of a bathroom after the wallboard is up. The answer is obvious to most people, yet the concept of a difficult system maintenance change (like expanding a purchase order number) is in no way intuitive to these same individuals. Using the plumbing analogy makes the issues clear.

Similarly, most people seem to be able to relate to an example of trying to add four additional floors to a house that has a foundation designed for a single floor; they know that such a change will necessitate some major foundation work. But itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs usually extremely difficult to directly explain why, for example, a system designed in Microsoft Access for a single user canรขโ�ฌโ�ขt be easily expanded to be available for hundreds of users on an intranet.

For additional perspective, think of the problems that doctors have in telling their patients about complex diseases and their treatment. The best doctors are able to get their message across using examples from cars, plumbing, electrical circuits, construction, and other generally understood processes. Other doctors just throw medical jargon at you and expect you to figure it out. Which kind of doctor inspires more trust? Which kind of doctor would you rather have do your surgery? Amazingly, we base our opinion of a surgeonรขโ�ฌโ�ขs competence not on his or her surgical abilities, but on the ability to communicate with the patient.

IT is the same kind of thing. Since business users canรขโ�ฌโ�ขt judge our technical ability, they base their judgments of us on our ability to communicate clearly. Communication is an important part of every project, but itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs especially important when your business users donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt understand what their IT organizations do for them. The next time you have to explain something, try using an analogy that your users can better understand. Youรขโ�ฌโ�ขll find that you communicate better, and youรขโ�ฌโ�ขll get a lot more support.

ร�ยฉ 2004 MakingITclear, Inc. This article was originally published in the November, 2004 issue of the MakingITclearร�ยฎ Newsletter, a free monthly email newsletter published by MakingITclear, Inc. MakingITclear is a registered trademark of MakingITclear, Inc.

Harwell Thrasher is an author, speaker, and coach specializing in the human side of Information Technology. His workshops show IT people and their non-IT customers how to work together to make more effective use of technology. See more on Harwellรขโ�ฌโ�ขs web site at http://www.makingITclear.com And join Harwell's free monthly email newsletter that's focused on making your IT organization more effective.

Virus Prevention and Removal

2008-05-27T03:59:00.000-07:00

A virus is a piece of code that gets loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. The first known occurrence of viruses goes back to 1987 when the ARPANET was infected by one.

One common misnomer among people is that you can infect your computer just by opening an email and reading its text. That is not possible; it is usually the files attached to the email that contain the virus. The most common file types are ".SCR" ".VBS" ", ".PIF"

Prevention is better than a cure: Here are some tips to make sure that your computer does not get infected.

* Get a good Anti-Virus software like Norton Anti-Virus, MacAfee, PC Cillin etc.
* Keep your anti virus software updated by downloading new virus definitions regularly. Most Anti-Virus software comes with the feature of updating virus definitions.
* Keep your windows operating system updated by regularly downloading new updates from the Internet. Windows O/S's have a lot of security loopholes and bugs that can be easily exploited by worms and viruses.
* Make sure the anti virus scans the file each time before its opened.
* Floppy disks and removable media are a good source of viruses; always scan them before accessing files on them.
* Never open email attachments from sources that are unknown or suspicious.
* Do not open emails that have questionable subject lines.
* When in doubt about a file, don't open it.
* Even with the best of precautions bad things can still happen. Backup all your data and important files.

Even after taking all these precautions if your computer does get infected, then here are a few things that you can do:

Online clearing tools - are a good source of trying to clean out the virus, there are many Anti-Virus websites that offer free online virus detection and removal services.

Removal tools - If you have an Anti-Virus software then you can go to the website of that software and download removal tools designed specifically for the virus. However, you must find out the name of the virus that infects your PC beforehand.

If you have a backup of all your important files, you can also consider formatting your hard disk.

Ashish Jain
http://www.m6.net
Ashish is an integral member of the M6.Net Web Helpers team

A Brief History of Computers

2008-05-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

The word รขโ�ฌห�computerรขโ�ฌโ�ข originally implied a person, who, under instructions from a mathematician, performed mechanical calculations. Mechanical calculating devices such as the abacus were often put to use to aid this process.

At the end of the Middle Ages, mathematics and engineering in Europe received a considerable boost, thus leading to the invention of numerous mechanical calculating devices. The technology for clockwork was developed by the early 17th century. The period between the early 19th century and early 20th century saw the development of a number of technologies which would be vital for the development of the digital computer later on. Some examples are the punched card and the valve. Charles Babbage was the first person to design a fully programmable computer as early as 1837. However, he was unable to actually construct his computer due to a variety of reasons.

Analog computers were increasingly used in the first half of the 20th century for a number of scientific computing needs. However, they became obsolete after the development of the digital computer.

The first digital computer was the Atanasoff Berry Computer . It used a binary system of arithmetic, parallel processing, a separation of memory and computing functions and regenerative memory. Binary math and electronic circuits รขโ�ฌโ�� both of which are used in todayรขโ�ฌโ�ขs computers รขโ�ฌโ�� were first used in the Atanasoff Berry Computer.

In the 1930รขโ�ฌโ�ขs and 1940รขโ�ฌโ�ขs, newer and more efficient computers were continuously developed. Gradually, they came to possess the key features which are present in modern day computers รขโ�ฌโ�� digital electronics and flexibility of programming.

Among the more important machines to be developed during this time, the American ENIAC was prominent. It was a general purpose machine, but had an inflexible architecture. Later a far superior technique known as the stored program architecture was developed. It is the foundation from which all modern computers are derived.

Throughout the 1950รขโ�ฌโ�ขs, computer design was primarily valve driven. This was later replaced by transistor-driven design in the 1960รขโ�ฌโ�ขs. Transistor-based computers were smaller, faster and cheaper, and hence commercially viable. Integrated circuit technology, adopted in the 1970รขโ�ฌโ�ขs enabled computer production costs to hit a new low, so that even individuals could afford them. That was the birth of the personal computer, as it is known today.

Logan writes about various topics. This article is free to re-print as long as all hyper links remain in tack and the rel="nofollow" tag isn't added to any links. Thank-You http://www.your-personal-pc.info

The Brain has the Same Problems that Databases Do

2008-05-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

What can the human brain learn from how a database works?

There is a battle going on in every database and the same battle in every human brain. The battle is simply Memory vs. CPU (processing). We either rely on indexes to recall data or we count on the CPU to calculate the resulting data.

Some basics regarding relational databases, they are not as complicated a concept as one might think. It's quite basic, if you have a telephone book, you have a database (or a table). If you then have another book (like a medical record list from the hospital) you can relate the two. Why is that important? If you relate the two, you can determine if a certain area code in the phone book has more allergy related illnesses. Finding out that more people who live next to high-power lines in your phone book have some form of cancer. Relating data is a very powerful thing, the human brain's incredible recall abilities are directly related to it's ability to "relate" data. We store color in one area, and shape in another. Smells in one area and happy thoughts in another! The details are obviously still very sketchy, but you get the idea.

A balance in the design of the tables that store the data in a database must be struck. The theory is that the human brain works in much the same way, the problem is Database Administrators and Developers alike constantly strive to increase the performance of the database. We humans do not make specific efforts to strike the same balance within the inner tables of our brains database. Databases are optimized in many, many ways. Two of the most common ways are:

รขโ�ฌยข Large tables are broken down to store data in multiple related tables.
รขโ�ฌยข Indexes are created and used to retrieve the vital links between these tables.

An index is just that. You've seen an index in you local phone book. In the front it tells you where in this massive book to find people in a certain city, or where to find businesses of certain types. Or where to find only those with the last name that starts with a Y. Databases do the same thing; internally the index is stored in memory for quick retrieval when a query for data retrieval is executed. Simply put, someone asked the database for data and the database used an index to help it find that information quicker.

We have indexes in our brains just as the databases do. Case in point, I don't know the words to a certain song (I mean I just don't know them) until someone starts the song; then suddenly I can continue to sing every word, that person that started the song "Hit an index" in my brain. I don't have to "Remember" the entire song, just the index. This means the entire song is not "In Memory" but rather "On Disk". The index is in memory and is readily available to me when needed. We all have indexes for many other items "On Disk" in our brains. Sometimes you lose the index, and the entire song is gone.

Where is the " Battle ", the battle is in Recalling or Figuring it out. I don't have to memorize my address, I know where I live. If I instead memorize my cities address scheme I can calculate my address (19 blocks west of Central is 19th Ave . etc.). This is where database administrators and developers alike are constantly running their technical balancing act. The decision to calculate the result, or recall the result! Should I memorize all the data and count on indexes, or should I memorize the formula and count on calculation to retrieve the data.

Can people benefit, I think we can! I find myself naturally counting more on "Calculating" the result then I do memorizing. It works ok because I'm a logical thinker and it comes naturally. I get left behind far too often though. The problem is in remembering to do many things, or remembering whether I did something at all. Important dates, even vacations go by the way side. My memory recall is all but shot because I count on logic as a crutch. In a pinch I can pull it off but it takes a lot more effort for me to Recall then it does to deduce. If I were to optimize my inner-indexes and work on utilizing my recall more often, just as DBA's do, it might very well be of great benefit to many.

Could I increase my ability to recall? In the database there is a concept called re-indexing. It's basically forcing the database to recreate it's index. The more often it does this the more current and fresh the index is. Should I be doing the same thing for myself? If I were to go over and over and over a specific item (Such as what I had to do in grade school for the Preamble to the Constitution) I will insure it is stored and it's index is strong. But do I need to go over the entire text over and over. If I already have the data (I've already experienced the vacation) and simply don't want to lose it, I should re-index weekly (maybe monthly). This should insure I do not lose the data and could increase my reliance on memory, in hopes of striking a balance.

There are others around me who count on recall as a crutch and have deductive reasoning fall by the way side. I think they are in the same boat on the opposite end. In the database we either increase the CPU (brain exercises) or we decrease the amount of CPU required by normalizing the data in a logical way (break down the tables). This simply forces the system to rely on memory instead of over burdening the processor. What could one do to decrease their reliance on memory? Coming soon... :-) What mountains could we move if even a small percentage of us had a balance of Memory and CPU.

Adam Yax is CTO of http://www.phoenixsynergy.com, which provides IT services in Phoenix, AZ.

A Buyer's Guide to Toshiba Laptops

2008-05-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

Toshiba holds a great reputation for building strong, reliable and fast business portable computers. Nowadays, Toshiba focuses not only on the manufacturing of business portable computers but also on the production of laptops (portable computers) oriented towards other types of usage. With a whole arsenal of laptop models under the common name of the Satellite series, Toshiba is making a dynamic move towards providing you with laptops that will fulfill your needs, whatever they might be. In this article you will be assisted towards making the right choice when it comes to getting a Toshiba laptop but what you first need to do is to think and decide what you want to mainly use your laptop for.

To begin with, if you are an average computer user, you need a laptop and your budget is limited then Toshiba has something great to offer to you; itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs the Toshiba Satellite A60. This laptop (although itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs a pretty cheap one) is a very high quality product for someone who is not seeking for sophisticated, cutting-edge features. The A60 can be a great laptop if you intend to use it for e-book reading, emailing, internet surfing etc. Toshiba does a great job at keeping the cost to a minimal when it comes to laptops that require no specific hi-tech capabilities and this is something that always favors categories such as students.

Following the A60, are the Satellite MX30 laptops. The MX30s come with a Centrino processor. Those laptops allow you to access wireless networks without having to plug in any extra hardware. Additionally, the Centrino processor consumes less energy and thus, your laptops battery duration is extended. If you have some extra money to spend then the MX30 provides many modification possibilities too. All in all, if you are continuously on the move then this is a very good laptop for you.

Are you seeking for a brutally powerful laptop? Is a wide display a must for you when you are watching DVDs? Do you need high computational power in order to fulfill your computing needs? If so, then the Satellite A70 laptops are definitely something you should have a look at. Those laptops are really powerful and will give you a great experience if you are running a heavy application such as a video game or a graphics design program. The only drawback is that the battery life becomes really short if you push the laptop to its limits; but then again, everything comes at a cost.

Finally, last on the list are the P30 laptops. Those laptops feature a 17" display which can provide a really great experience whatever you might be doing. Furthermore, P30s can come with a 100GB+ hard disc and they are equipped with graphic cards that can carry out brutal graphics processing tasks. The only drawback can be the relatively big size & weight as well as the price. Now that you hopefully have an idea of what Toshiba makes available on the market you will hopefully be able to do the correct choice for yourself and not only!

John Gibb is the owner of Toshiba Laptop resources. For more information on Toshoba Laptops check out http://www.Toshiba-Laptops-sources1k.info.

Who Knew that Modern Technology Would Eliminate Landlines on Campuses?

2008-05-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

Montclair State University is mandating freshmen have a cell phone. This gives the school the opportunity to determine where the student is at any time. When this process began, the students were not really happy but, now, the students realize that this voluntary tracking system provides more safety. This gives the school a better way to contact students and maintain a line of communication.

Some schools are eliminating lines and jacks from their dormitories. Previously the schools were making money on these services. Since more and more students donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt connect the phones, this effectively eliminated income and became a cost for initial installation.

The University of Cincinnati has a voluntary program offering all incoming freshmen a free mobile phone. The phone features the school mascot, Bearcat, on the welcome screen. Some colleges are sticking with traditional phone service. Perhaps they are worried that cellular service isnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt as reliable.

In the future VOIP technology could be a viable alternative. Many colleges now have broadband access which would make this a feasible way to go.

Richard Stockton College of New Jersey is expanding its housing. The new housing will be equipped with a computer network that is wireless.

While the choices are many, it appears that colleges are making use of modern technology and looking to the future to make more innovative changes.

Nan is an Accountant and Real Estate Professional with an interest in Technology. She writes business articles for clients and online sources.

Eight Reasons to Increase Backup Spending When the Economy Slows

2008-05-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

Eight Reasons to Increase Backup Spending When the Economy Slows

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by Bud Stoddard, President & CEO, AmeriVault Corp.

ร�ย

To say we have seen a significant downturn in the economy in the past twelve months would be hyperbole at its best.ร�ย As business and technology executives and professionals, it is incumbent upon each of us to go through the necessary belt-tightening and reassessment of the budget whenever the economic conditions and the stock market make a turn in a southerly direction.

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There are the obvious areas we turn to first with the scalpel in hand such as head count, marketing, accounting, human resources, legal, maybe even customer support and information technology (IT).ร�ย IT often seems like a logical choice because most of us have spent so much money on technology in the past several years.ร�ย Certainly with IT investments having risen by upwards of 15-20% at most companies in the recent past, this is an area that could stand to go on a fiscal version of the Slim-Fast Program, at least until we climb out of this economic malaise.ร�ย It is okay to buy less fancy laptops without all the bells and whistles, (Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขm writing on my less fancy one now on a Delta flight to Scottsdale, Arizona) defer the web initiative or stretch out the additional hires for a few months but I beg you, for the future health and welfare of your company, accelerate or at the very least, spare your backup expenses.

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Allow me to give you my eight best reasons why you should increase your backup budget during these slow economic times.ร�ย Hopefully, if I am successful, a few of you will suck it up and advocate within your company, the spending of more rather than less on backing up your companyรขโ�ฌโ�ขs mission-critical data.ร�ย But first, the central premise.ร�ย Electronic information or data, is one of the most critical assets in your business and loss of that data is irreplaceable period.ร�ย In fact, according to the Disaster Recovery Journal, 43% of all companies will go out of business within one year following a disaster.ร�ย Could you or anybody on your management team or staff, following a data loss or disaster tell you from memory: ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย

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ร�ยงร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย What your outstanding accounts receivables are and who owes your company what?

ร�ยงร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย Who all your customers and suppliers are?

ร�ยงร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย Whatรขโ�ฌโ�ขs in inventory?

ร�ยงร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย What the heck is in that Oracle or SQL database that you spent gazillions for?

ร�ย

You may argue, we have a special data processing rider on our insurance plan that covers data loss and destruction.ร�ย That is all well and good but getting a check will not replace the data you need for your business to thrive or at the least, survive. You can replace desks, computers, supplies, inventory and even people but data is irreplaceable and its loss could put you out of business.ร�ย The only viable insurance program for data is to have a fail-safe backup and recovery plan in place.

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So, back to those eight reasons to accelerate your backup spending during slow economic times:

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1.ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย During rough economic times, it is common to downsize staff and to have to do more with less.ร�ย Most often, backup will be what doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt get done because Joe gets busy with another project and doesnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt have time or forgets because he has too much on his plate.

2.ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย That long-term employee you had to let go after 12 years gets disgruntled and erases some backup tapes on his last day at the office as a little gesture of you hurt me, Iรขโ�ฌโ�ขll hurt you.ร�ย Do not be mistaken, this happens all the time!

3.ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย You get rid of the expensive courier service that transported your backup tapes off-site to save money and have Phil take the tape home instead.ร�ย But, did you know that Phil has been secretly planning on starting a company to compete with you and thanks to you, he know has everything he needs to do just that.

4.ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย You defer buying new tape drives and tapes and the equipment fails resulting in incomplete backups so that in the case of an outage or data loss, you have no backup to retrieve it from.ร�ย

5.ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย To save on the $75 per tape charge, your systems administrator buys fewer tapes.ร�ย Instead, they just recall the archive tapes sooner before the retention period is up and reuse them so now your backups only go back a day.ร�ย How often does data loss only go back a day?ร�ย Not often.

6.ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย Certainly, it is not uncommon for morale to suffer when you tighten the belt and employees tend to get careless and fail to do things by the book.ร�ย The margin of error as it relates to backup is huge so one slight mistake and your data could be gone.

7.ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย That recovery testing you used to do twice a year has been thrown out the window because there is not enough time or manpower to do it with a reduced staff.

8.ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย Often, when IT resources are limited, IT staff becomes firefighters rather than fire preventers and that can cause you to burn up.ร�ย

ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย ร�ย

There are very few things, fortunately, that can bring a company to its knees in less than 24 hours.ร�ย But data loss or destruction is most certainly one of them.ร�ย Data is your most important strategic asset, regardless of the business or industry you are in.ร�ย Whether your company is three years old or 103 years old, many talented people, you included, have worked hard to build a first class company.ร�ย Donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt put the whole company at risk because business is slow and the backup budget was cut, re-evaluate your backup strategy and increase spending as necessary.

Bud Stoddard has over 20 years of experience in the data protection and storage industry and is the founder of AmeriVault Corp., the pioneer of online server backup and recovery for business. For more information, visit www.amerivault.com.

WiMAX And How It May Become One Of The Greatest Technology Breakthrough Of The Decade

2008-05-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

If you have a chance to read my other article about the money movement strategy you will learn some reasons why I think this decade closely resembles the last decade with regards to the interest rates and stock market trends and why I believe that we are going to see a strong rally in the stock market over the next 2 years.

But now I found another reason. This is what I will call the technological reason. Well let's see:

In the later part of the 1990รขโ�ฌโ�ขs and beginning in 1995, we saw the beginning of the Internet as we know today. In 1995 Netscape introduced a tool which we call a browser and it became one of the most important inventions of the 90รขโ�ฌโ�ขs today. While the internet itself had been around for many years before. Until 1995 it was only used in text only modes. But then in 1995 Netscape and MS Internet Explorer began to give us the internet in a new way. This not only enabled ecommerce in the way we know it today, but so many other things that we take advantage of each day, including high speed internet. And just as the Personal Computer was the great invention of the late 80รขโ�ฌโ�ขs the internet browser became the greatest invention of the 90รขโ�ฌโ�ขs.

And if it were not for this great browser technology, then we would never have had such a big stock market rally in the late 90รขโ�ฌโ�ขs. This was one of the main reasons for all of those Dotcomรขโ�ฌโ�ขs and then we even had Y2k to top it off!

So now something that I read in an article about 3 years ago is beginning to make sense. They have already predicted that the next great invention for this decade will be Full WIFI access from everybody. And guess what it is beginning to happen. You will now see the term WiMAX. This is that new technology that will help fuel the stock market in the same way that PC did in the 80รขโ�ฌโ�ขs and the Internet Browser did in the 90รขโ�ฌโ�ขs So for 2000 it will be WiMax. WiMax is like taking WIFI which is an the home or small business level and now the range goes form under 300 feet to over 75 miles! If I am correct you will see this technology popup in the news like crazy over the next 5 years. So while we do have some other Geo Political problems. Technology always seems to be able to drive the market in a much stronger ways. They also predicted that certain companies that make this technology possible will be the winner in the NASDAQ So I am wondering what will happen to the technology stocks of the companies which are already working with this new technology. At least you can be sure that they will be part of the next rally.

BLOG SOMEBODY http://www.blogsomebody.com

10 Reasons Why I'm Glad I Switched from PCs to Macs

2008-05-14T01:59:00.000-07:00

Four years ago, I used to be known as "PC Mike."
That's because on TV and in newspapers, I wrote primarily about personal computers running the Windows operating system.
Then, prodded by reader e-maii, I decided to try a Macintosh computer for a review.
It rocked my world and turned PC Mike to Mac Mike.
Now in full disclosure, I should tell you that, for professional reasons as a technology columnist, I still have to sometimes use PCs. And NBC-TV segments that I do still sometimes call me "PC Mike."
But in my personal computing life, it's all Mac... pretty much all the time.
As I look back on those four years, I can identify 10 overwhelmingly positive experiences have kept me strongly in the Mac fold:
#1 No spam -There is no better spam filter than Spam Sieve. It's a Mac-only product and it catches 98 percent of my junk mail.
#2 No worms or viruses - None. Zip. Zero. Not a single one in four years now.
#3 No adware/spyware - Same thing. These are non-issues on my Macs.
#4 No crashes - It just doesn't happen with OS X. I had one crash in December 2002, but I was running OS 9 at the time and it was a very old program (from 1994-ish) and I was curious to see if it worked. It didn't.
#5 Total integration - Apple's iSync application keeps my calendar, address book, Web bookmarks and to-do list automatically and flawlessly synchronized on my desktop and laptops. And it backs it all up on my .Mac account, meaning I can access it from any computer with a Net connection.
#6 iTunes and the iPod - Need I say more? Granted, these also work with Windows. But on Macs, they work the best.
#7 Total freedom - Airport Express lets me set up a wi-fi network anywhere I want in seconds and it extends my wireless network at home as I need it. This summer, I'm using it up out back by the pool. I take it on business trips and vacation, instantly setting up wi-fi in hotel rooms and condos.
#8 Mac software - I mentioned SpamSieve and iTunes. But then there's other special Mac apps like the RSS-reader NetNewsWire, GarageBand, Safari and Final Cut Pro. I can not imagine computing without these apps.
#9 Compatability - I realize this is a PC world. So I use Microsoft's Office for the Mac. Truthfully, it's been my experience that it works better than Office for Windows. And Entourage makes Outlook look like a poor cousin. I use Word all the time and there are no issues with my PC-using pals. Same with Excel. Quicken comes for the Mac. So does QuickBooks. Then there's the MacBook Pro. Blazingly fast. I have Windows running via Boot Camp on one of thhem. Truthfully, other than the novelty of having Windows run on a Mac, I don't know why I installed it. But it's there if I need it. Which I haven't.
#10 Community - When I was all PC, I used to laugh at the Mac zealots. Now that I am one, I understand why they love their computers. I never heard a Windows user say that. The Mac community is for the large part caring, supportive, creative and amazingly well-informed. That's not to say that Windows people aren't the same. But I've never felt as connected to an affinity group as closely as I am to my fellow Macheads.
For me, Macs have made the last four years an adventure just waiting to be clicked.

Mike Wendland is a technology columnist with The Detroit Free Press and the Internet correspondent for NBC-TV Newschannel affiliates. His MacMikeNews Weblog is updated daily with Mac news, tips and trends and can be found at http://www.macmikenews.com.

Four Ways to Make Your Word File "Slim"

2008-05-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

We will talk about some related to your office daily work. Did you encounter the following situation? You want to send an email with a Word file attachment, but the email cannot be send out cause the Word file is too large. And you waste many efforts in making the file slim. You can try the following methods, which can reduce the size a lot.

1. Save as

In Menu, choose "File > Save As", and save the file with a new name. You can compare the new file with original one; you will find that the file size of new one is much smaller.

You can also work in this way. Select the whole content of the document, copy and paste it to a new blank document and save it. Again, you will that file size of two documents is different.

2. Delete old versions

If there are many old versions kept in the file, the file size will be larger. In Menu, choose "File > Version", check to see if there is any old version saved. You can delete those versions with no value to make the file slim.

3. Insert picture wisely

"Insert Picture" is one of the main reasons for the word file get fat. Try to insert a smaller picture. You can use graphic editor to reduce the size of picture before insert into the file. The file format should use GIF or JPG and do not use those high-resolution graphic, like BMP.

4. Don't "Embed True Type Font"

"Embed True Type Font" will increase the size of word file. In Menu, choose "Tools > Options", switch to "Save" tab page. Confirm that your word file have no true type font, and cancel the "Embed True Type Font" option. If you embed true type font, then choose "Embed characters in use only".

Try the above four methods, you will see your word file getting slim.

Isaac Chu is Project Director of Evinco Solutions Limited. Evinco provides innovative business softwares, include emarketing web solutions, email marketing software, e-catalog publishing software, invoicing software, and electronic cheque writer. Visit: http://www.evinco.com.hk

Floppies-The Portables of the Past - YRU Still Using Floppies?

2008-05-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

Floppy disks have been in use for decades and have served us well. They can hold 1.44 megabytes of information and are more or less infinitely re-writeable. (Till they inexplicably de-format themselves just when you need them most).

New computers today are usually sold without floppy drives. This can be annoying if you have been saving data on floppies. Why should you give it all up? Well, maybe you shouldn’t. It is nice to have that option. But these days you have many other ways to portate data. (I like the sound of that; “portate data“. I wonder if that phrase is copyrightable).

So, what are your options?

1. CDs. Cds hold 700 or more megabytes of stuff. If you buy them on sale in bulk you can pay less than 20 cents apiece. Of course you will want to have paper or plastic sleeves so that adds to the cost. Let’s say a total of 50 cents maximum. Cheaper than toothpaste at a dollar store.

2. DVDs. This is not really a useful portating option unless you want to load up gigantic amounts of data to take from home to the office or to home from the office. Then it certainly is worthwhile, but you should see a therapist if you are doing that.

3. Digital Card Drives. You can buy a small digital card drive (The kind cameras use) for a few dollars. It can hold at least 8 megabytes of data and is easy to lose in your pocket. Nifty for small needs and can even be sent by surface mail (I refuse to say “snail mail”) if you are too dumb (scratch ‘dumb’, replace with ‘techno-ignorant’ or ‘digitally-phobic‘) to email the data. You may also need to carry a card reader with you though most recent computers have them built in.

4. USB Flash Drive. The cost of these little key chain drives is so low now you can afford to give them out like peanuts. Well, maybe not peanuts, but, well, let’s say a dozen roses, the cheap kind at the supermarket. A USB Flash Drive is utterly rewritable and real handy. Just about every computer in the modern world has at least two USB ports so the drive is almost universally usable. This may be the single best replacement for the floppy.

5. Mini-hard drive. About the size of a small matchbox, this device can hold multi-gigabytes of data. Costs less than $200 and can store half your world in the palm of your hand. A far cry from a floppy but our needs do change in this fast growing world.

6. Storage on the web. You can easily find places to store your data on the web. If nothing else you can email yourself the data and have it sitting there when you want to retrieve it. You can even send it to several places in case of apocalyptic disaster on one or more of them.

So, you can still use floppies; who is to stop you, but you have lots of other choices which probably will serve you better. If you are looking for a pile of used ones, I can get ‘em for you wholesale. Formatability not guaranteed.

Happy transporting. (Make that ‘portating’)

Jack Wilson is a writer and artist from Los Angeles and Phoenix.

http://www.geocities.com/galimatio/jackwilson.html

How to Perform an Exchange Migration - Part 2

2008-05-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Developing a Migration Strategy

The typical site where Microsoft Exchange 2003 is installed has an existing mail system that provides messaging services to its users. Migration is the act of moving or copying the data for all users from the legacy (existing) system to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system. Migration is performed so that all customers can be serviced by the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system, not simply those new subscribers following the installation of Microsoft Exchange 2003.

Migration is the most complex facet of any deployment project. Even though this document provides a framework to follow for migration, no two migrations are exactly alike, due to the differences in each site's legacy mail system and its integrated systems and procedures. A successful migration depends upon accurately identifying all unique aspects of the system that are to be duplicated in Microsoft Exchange and then duplicating these conditions through development and testing prior to the actual physical migration.

The principal issues of concern in any migration to a new mail service are data integrity and transparent cutover to production. Data integrity guarantees that all mail accounts, stored messages, and associated personal information and preferences (for example, address books, passwords, and so forth) are accurately retained in the new mail system. Transparent cutover to production means that the transition is handled quickly, cleanly, and with no disruption to the end-user experience.

In typical migrations, the total amount of time required for a successful transition is a function of system complexity. Both the total number of mail accounts and the total number of stored messages are significant factors. In addition, migration time can be affected by system and site-specific issues.

Any migration strategy must address:

1. Migrating accounts

2. Migrating mailboxes

3. Migrating Accounts

This migration involves all of the information that uniquely identifies and describes a user, including class-of-service data that defines the service for which users are subscribed. Account data must be placed in the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system before message data. The first task is therefore to collect and transfer account data from the legacy system and then transfer it to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system.

If your legacy system has domains and organizational units, you must prepare to migrate these also.

Migrating Mailboxes This migration involves message data--the actual messages to be migrated that belong to the user. The mailbox is simply a collection of the messages belonging to a particular account.

Preparing the Migration Plan Migration involves significant planning, more so than any other deployment task. This planning is necessary because the activity is exposed to existing users and will, in most cases, be the initial experience that users have of the new system. It is very important to plan for every eventuality in order to avoid problems during the migration.

Migration is 95 percent planning and 5 percent execution. A multitude of factors that must be considered in order for a migration to succeed.

The Migration Plan provides a detailed, step-by-step procedure for migrating accounts and mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange 2003. The deployment team should make several dry runs of this plan, with each dry run resulting in a subsequent refinement of the plan.

Any migration plan should address these considerations:

1. Ensuring systems readiness

2. Coordinating with other groups and identifying dependencies

3. Verifying software installation and configuration

4. Setting up the test system

5. Providing provisioning connectivity

6. Testing the migration

7. Choosing full or limited migration

8. Resuming service

Ensuring Systems Readiness All systems to be tested must be ready and operational before testing begins. In addition networks must be implemented as defined in the architecture design (see Chapter 2).

For each original e-mail system, separate IP settings (each with unique "A" records in the DNS) must be established for the following:

Host Address This is the permanent IP assignment for the host. Service Address This is the address that is used by all e-mail clients for a service. The Service Address will be re-assigned to Microsoft Exchange at the time of account migration. Service Proxy Address There must be a Service Proxy Address for each Service Address. The IP number used for any Service Proxy Address will match its respective Service Address. The Service Proxy Address will be used for proxy targeting where proxy is used on the Microsoft Exchange system. These can be de-assigned after all migrations are complete and when it is determined that a revert procedure is not required.

Coordinating with Other Groups and Identifying Dependencies Since any migration touches upon many aspects of a company's operations, make sure you coordinate the migration with all affected groups and identify dependencies--that is, determining the order in which systems should be migrated.

Verifying Software Installation and Configuration In addition to installing Microsoft Exchange 2003 (see Chapter 3) and verifying that all components inter-operate, you must set correct Microsoft Exchange environment settings for the root user. These include the correct $PATH, $LD_LIBARARY_PATH, and $Microsoft Exchange settings in order to access the Microsoft Exchange migration tools.

Setting Up the Test System To validate a migration plan, the test system should have the capacity of production systems, including the proper storage volume configuration and failover configuration (service continuity). The test system must have Internet connectivity, as Proxy mode operations cannot be tested without this.

Aside from equipment that mimics the production system, test driver machines must also be available to power the migration and capacity tests. The test drivers must be configured with migration utilities as well as with mail clients or other test utilities for accessing and sending mail.

At least one test host is required for migration testing; this host acts as a surrogate for the actual online e-mail hosts and holds all mailbox data required for testing.

Providing Provisioning Connectivity The provisioning interface must be validated before migration can occur. C API procedures should be tested to ensure that modifications performed on the ISD are successful and are propagated to the provisioning database. The Perl API set for batch account migration also must be tested. Last, administrative routines in the provisioning system or ISD must be validated.

This testing is performed in a dual provisioning environment. The purpose of dual provisioning is to ensure the ability to revert to the legacy mail system in the event that the new mail system in not successful.

For provisioning, automatic mailbox creation must be tested. Zero-length mailboxes are typically not migrated; rather, they are turned on in Microsoft Exchange 2003. The first time mail is received or checked, the mailbox can be created. A large test database (representing the volume of anticipated accounts) must be test-migrated to ensure that the procedure works and that the destination ISD database can handle it.

If possible, you should identify a group of "friendly" users willing to assist in identifying any problems or errors

Testing the Migration Before the migration can occur, comprehensive testing on the production system must be completed. Migration test activities are "non-intrusive" to the existing mail system and are conducted from a separate system using actual user account information and a test copy of the production user data.

The procedures for extracting account data from the legacy system must be tested. The method and utilities to load these accounts into the ISD must be validated through testing. Each class of service must be included, as well as each combination of account attributes, such as forwarding, aliases, and vacation replies.

In addition, the process of moving mailboxes to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system must be tested. This process includes the method of suspending the account, the physical transfer of messages and attachments, and the return of the account to active status.

You should make any possible configuration changes to prevent network or system loading. In addition, you must establish any special network, host, or storage accommodations that may be required for testing. A special network configuration may be required to prevent traffic complications introduced by migration testing. Another solution may involve localization of the original mailbox storage to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system.

Choosing Full or Limited Migration Accounts to migrate can be defined based on business rules (for example, all mail accounts in good standing or priority accounts requiring early access to features not offered in the exiting mail system).

If you are not going to migrate the entire population at one time, there are certain considerations you need to plan for. For limited migration, you must configure the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system for POP proxy in order to retrieve mail from the legacy system for unmigrated accounts and mailboxes. The architecture must also account for SMTP relay during Proxy mode in order to deliver appropriate mail to the legacy system as well as to Microsoft Exchange 2003.

The method of migrating account data must be identified and tested. Before the limited account migration can occur, a back-out plan, migration quality assurance, and certification of migration must be resolved and validated by testing.

In many instances, new subscribers to mail service at the customer site are added to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system before migrated accounts from the legacy system. The benefits of handling new registrations in Microsoft Exchange 2003 are that you may be able to:

Offer differentiated service immediately.

Introduce Microsoft Exchange 2003 at a measured pace.

Ensure that no more users are added to an obsolete system.

Resuming Service Once migration is completed, accounts are automatically switched from Proxy mode to active status. Users regain access to their mailboxes and all messages that were deferred during migration are delivered to their intended recipients. In addition, you must move operations entirely to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system and deactivate the legacy system.

A burn-in period should be identified, over which the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system must be closely monitored for error conditions.

Using Migration Utilities There are multiple methods for the combined migration of accounts and mailboxes. One method is to transfer all accounts in a single migration. Then, mailboxes can be transferred in batches. Another method is to transfer a batch of accounts, then transfer a batch of corresponding mailboxes, and so on.

Utilities that support the chosen strategy must then be developed and tested. These tests should include timing of the execution of these utilities.

This phase involves the building of the migration utilities themselves and must include the design, development, and testing of the migration utilities that are to be used to migrate the mail from the existing system to the newly implemented Microsoft Exchange 2003 system. New tools have to be built very often because of the different source mail systems that can be in existence.

Microsoft Exchange 2003 offers automated migration tools designed to streamline the process of moving your service, including built-in tools for services using Sendmail and Software.com's Post.Office. These flexible, modular, and customizable tools are Perl scripts that handle the export of directory, mailbox, and user information from these other systems to files in Microsoft Exchange 2003-readable format (based on LDIF), which are then imported into Microsoft Exchange 2003. These tools enable you to migrate all accounts at once or as incremental blocks of users. When migrating from a different mail system such as Netscape Messaging Server or SIMS, Microsoft Exchange 2003's proxy features and robust export command set provide a solid foundation for rapid development of custom export scripts.

Tips for a Successful Migration With the completion of the migration tests, the only anticipated impact will be caused by the difference in functionality between mail systems. Once the migration of accounts has started, the target production environment becomes the production environment.

The migration procedure involves these discrete steps:

Setting up Microsoft Exchange 2003 in Proxy mode

Changing the MX record

Identifying accounts to be migrated

Extracting account information

Creating accounts in Microsoft Exchange 2003

Migrating messages

Setting Up Microsoft Exchange 2003 in Proxy Mode Microsoft Exchange must be configured for Proxy mode prior to activating the system. The proxy configuration permits the relay of message and service requests to the legacy system until the full migration has been achieved.

In Proxy mode, all incoming mail is directed to Microsoft Exchange 2003. If the mail is for a user that does not have an Microsoft Exchange account, the mail is relayed to the legacy system for delivery. If a user attempts to retrieve mail, but the user's mailbox is not yet located on the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system, the POP server will connect to the legacy system and will retrieve the mail from the legacy mailbox location.

Changing the MX Record In order for mail to reach the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system (instead of the legacy system), you must change the MX record in the DNS for the mail domain of the site, so that traffic is directed to Microsoft Exchange 2003.

With all of the mail directed to Microsoft Exchange, you can begin to burn-in the system with live loads and become accustomed to operations administration even if there is no account data in the system. However, as soon as the system is activated, accounts are provisioned directly into Microsoft Exchange 2003.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: This step can take a few hours to be propagated over the Internet.

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Identifying Accounts to Be Migrated The first step in migration is to determine which existing mail accounts will move to the Microsoft Exchange 2003 system. Accounts to migrate can be defined based on business rules (for example, all mail accounts in good standing, or priority accounts requiring early access to features not offered in the existing mail system).

Extracting Account Information After defining the accounts to migrate, the next step is to extract account information from the existing mail system. Using the target account list, account information is exported into a file in LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF). The standard LDIF format permits the importing of account information from any existing mail system to an Microsoft Exchange system. The scripts used here can be customized to handle any situation.

Creating Accounts in Microsoft Exchange 2003 Next, accounts are created in the Microsoft Exchange directory based on the account information described in the LDIF file. As accounts are created, they are placed in Proxy mode, causing mail delivery to and access from unmigrated accounts to be passed directly through to the old mail system, thus ensuring continuous service to end users. During this phase, if a user logs in and supplies an unknown username, the Microsoft Exchange POP server connects to the current e-mail system.

Migrating Messages The last phase of migration involves moving mail messages from the existing mail system to the Microsoft Exchange system. Message migration may occur either as separate files or as a single, concatenated file. However, some customization is typically required, since the way a message is stored in the Message Store Server (MSS) can differ from the standard mail format. This phase requires new accounts to run in Maintenance mode, during which time these mailboxes are unavailable. For this reason, message migration is typically performed in small increments during off-peak hours.

Exchange Migration plan for moving forward:

Perform Due Diligence on your network via Remote Terminal Service ( Next Week)
Identify existing components - users, groups, login variables
Document proposed AD structure
Project kickoff meeting (Friday)
Install Windows Server 2003 (Friday Night)
Install Active Directory (Friday Night)
Configure, Patch and Connect (Friday Night)
Review Event Log, resolve any errors (Friday Night)
Connect AD environment to existing Windows 2000 (Friday Night)
Identify existing printers (Saturday)
Identify existing components in Exchange (Saturday)
Build Exchange, configure, patch(Saturday)
Install and configure virus software,Spam solution and Fax
Software(Saturday)
Configure OWA in DMZ(Saturday)
Verify Installation (Saturday)
Perform Mailbox Move (Saturday)
Install Outlook 2003 on all desktops. (Saturday - Sunday)
Review Event Log, resolve any errors (Sunday)
Setup Test workstation/perform testing (Sunday)
On-Site to handle any issues with the migration (Monday)

The above steps are only an estimate of work needed to be perform a successful migration. After we perform the Due Diligence Intercore will have a more definite outline in MS Project to fully detail the breadth of work needed to perform the migration . This Due Diligence will identify issues that we can resolve before the migration is performed.

InterCore Technologies, LLC opened it's doors in May of 1996. Our mission: To Provide a high level of computer consulting services using the most experienced engineers at fair prices. We believe in using a Business Value approach to every aspect of computer consulting. This provides our clients with the most cost effective solutions. We help our clients get more with their current technology investment. Click here to see why Intercore is different from other firms

Exchange Migration Groupwise Lotus Notes conversion services

The Computer Hunt

2008-05-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

In this day and age, professionals, homemakers, and students alike want a computer that could do it all. Computers have taken over more and more primitive tasks over the years such as sending or receiving correspondence (email), storing huge loads of files or documents (archive), drawing blue prints and creating industrial plans (AutoCAD), accounting and organizing data (Microsoft Excel), and field research (world wide web). The convenience of it all only reinforces the need for it. However, not everyone is blessed with technological savvy. For most of us, we just want a computer that's reliable, more than anything. A functional monitor, an uncomplicated looking CPU, a decent keyboard, and an ice-age printer ought to do the trick. We don't really deem it necessary to understand every minute detail, like what kind we should buy, how to install the drivers, or what to do when it stops working. We are fine with it for as long as it is running and is not giving us a hard time. For the technologically challenged, specs, motherboards, mainframes, and RAM may be slightly too much information to handle. And for this reason, a number of consumer-friendly websites have been put up to showcase different kinds of computers sold with a wide range of prices to boot.

I recently bought a brand new LG 19" 8ms DVI LCD. I was very excited about this purchase even though I had no idea about LCD and monitors in general nor did I understand anything that came after LG 19". I didn't even have a clue what LCD meant, but that didn't matter because as soon as I saw it at the local entertainment store, I knew I had to have one. At that time the monitor was priced at around $200, but I got mine online for only $159.99! Digital treasure chests are available 24 hours 7 days a week at www.tigerdirect.com where bargains are an understatement. Unlike other popular shopping engines you may have encountered online, tigerdirect guarantees high-quality gadgets at rock-bottom prices you may not be able to find elsewhere. They are also known to have the best deals when it comes to computer hardware and software. When I ordered the LCD monitor online, I was prompted to review the specs which wasn't that hard to understand. The information was presented in a way that could be easily noted and compared with other available items in the market. If you go to the site now you will find that they are conducting a special once-a-year overstock clearance sale. Even though we're five months away, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Another venue for surprising tech deals and computer must-haves is www.techbargains.com. When you browse a category, it will automatically show important specs and added features of every product. For example, you can get an HP dv5000t 15.4 Widescreen Notebook for an unbelievable price of $709.99 plus tax. Aside from a $100 discount from the original price ($859.99) and getting a rebate of $50 as an HP promotion, you could also enjoy a few other added perks and feature upgrades such as a free 80GB upgrade from 60GB, and free shipping anywhere in the country. If that isn't enough, you can compare the product by clicking on the Similar Deals and Low Price Search. It's a liberating experience because shopping for computers has never been this easy.

Big names in computer hardware manufacturing such as Dell, *Apple Computer*, and Hewlett-Packard have also come up with online discount coupons that consumers may use during a specific period of time for them to get the latest and most-advanced technology at a reasonably lower price. Sites such as www.dailyedeals.com and www.couponcabin.com offer free online coupons and discount deals on featured products and packages. Armed with an online discount coupon, you could get crazy deals at crazy low prices. A dell4me coupon, for instance, could make you eligible for free upgrade to an 8X DVD Burner, memory upgrade to 1 GB, and TrueLife Display upgrade when you buy a specially configured Inspiron E1505 notebook from Dell Home. Similarly, HP coupon codes enable consumers to get cash rebates or free shipping upon purchasing customized desktops and notebooks. Shipping costs alone can start from $4.99 and as far as discounts are concerned, a dollar saved is a dollar earned.

For more valuable information on discount hotel, discount travel, please visit http://www.shoppersdiscount.com

IT Resource Planning

2008-05-09T01:59:00.000-07:00

The new buzz word for companies looking to the future

An oft-heard mantra these days is aligning IT with the business. Many IT departments are struggling to evaluate how well they service their customers' needs or even to demonstrate what value they provide.

To make matters worse, they have no clearly defined way of linking potential demand for IT services with available supply, because any such information is generally held in functional or project-based silos within the organization that are difficult to get at, let alone manage proactively. But there is a new embryonic market category that is attempting to tackle just such thorny issues.

Although this nascent sector currently goes under many different names ranging from Forrester Research's Integrated IT Management to Ovum's IT governance, a particularly descriptive moniker has been proffered by AMR Research in the form of IT resource planning (ITRP).

While there are no guarantees that this will become the industry's designation of choice, it is nonetheless evocative of what IT departments are trying to achieve.

The idea behind ITRP as a product suite is to provide CIOs with enterprise resource planning (ERP)-like applications to help them undertake such tasks as identifying relevant stakeholders, defining their requirements and objectives, and establishing and managing how much time, money and resources will be needed to fulfil them.

Yet another aim is to centralize information emanating from key IT processes and procedures so that IT departments can generate reports in business language for executive managers, spelling out exactly what they are delivering and the value they are providing.

The core of IT governance is about knowing how the IT architecture fits together, how to manage it and how to plan for change. If the business has a requirement, how does it communicate that to the IT department? And how will that requirement affect the IT infrastructure, processes, resources and assets because once you've understood how it plays in with the rest of your everyday or strategic requirements, you can see the choices that you have going forward.

People are really starting to focus on this because they're trying to find ways to help the business be more efficient. It's all tied up with the aftermath of an industry that overspent, didn't meet expectations and then went through bad times, which has left the business jaded. In a way, IT is having to prove itself and vendors and services providers are also trying to find ways to make their offerings more saleable and bypass the cynicism.

But another issue that many IT organisations are finding is that they are unable to exploit new concepts and technologies such as service-oriented architectures effectively because they simply don't have the right underlying foundations in place to do so.

Interest in ITRP has been sparked off by the fact that many enterprises have transformed the way they operate to deal with an increasingly globalized market so it's now a matter of IT creating a strategy to deliver against that.

Companies have spent the last 10 years implementing systems such as ERP to try and deliver global business processes and they're pretty far along the way. But this means that IT can't remain in a siloed and fragmented form and has to transform itself to the new global way of doing business.

This siloed approach has traditionally meant that IT shops have spent too much time trying to pull information together from disparate systems to try and gain consistent visibility across the different processes making up IT.

But because there are no end-to-end application suites such as ERP available at the moment to help them do this, some firms are starting to take point solutions such as portfolio management and helpdesk and integrate them together themselves to try and obtain a consolidated view of the demand side of things.

Key elements of IT include project and portfolio management, resource and asset management, performance and change management, business and IT service management and service delivery. While individual tools to undertake such tasks exist today, there is currently no one single vendor with all of the pieces of the jigsaw in place and none that are able to feed all of the necessary information from the different pieces into a single underlying database.

As a result, vendors of all stripes are jumping into the melee with varying degrees of success. Large players such as Compuware, IBM and Mercury Interactive, of which AMR believes the latter to be the most advanced, have already amassed many of the elements and are starting work on integrating them.

Suppliers such as Hewlett Packard, Computer Associates (CA), BMC Software and Peregrine have, to date, concentrated mainly on the supply side of the equation, but are likely to flesh out the demand management piece over time, perhaps by partnering with different point product vendors or alternatively by acquisition.

There is also a range of new start-ups starting to make their presence felt, however, the two highest profile of which are ITM Software and Troux Technologies, while traditional ERP vendors such as SAP and some of the large systems integrators are also starting to sniff around, despite having failed to clarify their intentions to date.

On the bright side, the recognition that work needs to be done in this area has always been there and the thinking around it is maturing.

It's on people's radars from a strategic point of view, but for many, it's a very daunting prospect. You can start at this from many angles, but it's about how to join up the dots and because very few people have a greenfield site, they have to look at how they can migrate to something that will work in the future, while maintaining what they have.

The best approach is for IT directors to ask themselves what they're trying to do now and what they're trying to achieve in the future and to match that against the IT architecture, people and processes that they already have in place.

The next step is to undertake gap and risk analyses and map the outcomes to the IT department's strategic aims, before starting on small scale process re-engineering and automation projects to fill the biggest holes, whether that means resourcing, project management or hitting service level agreements.

But there may be downsides to going with the forthcoming end-to-end application suite approach too. On the one hand, large suites are likely to be complex and lead to more complicated and longer product selection cycles.

On the other hand, unless IT organizations and vendors are careful to use their existing knowledge and expertise, there is always the danger that the long implementation times, which gave ERP a bad name a decade ago, could be repeated in a future ITRP world.

Computer Entertainment - 1.1 Billion Internet Users -Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Investment

2008-05-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

Did you know that... there is an estimated 1.1 billion internet users worldwide today. That is 200% more than what there was in 2000. And that the population of the world has only risen 2.5% from 6.06 billion to 6.5 billion people since 2000.

And with such a large percentage of people spending so much money on their computers and internet it is a very common thing that people are not getting the most out of their investments. Are you getting the most out of your valuable investment?

The first tip I got is to get some sort of Media download center. Or how some people say Best Entertainment Download center.

No not like Windows Media Player or iTunes? I mean some sort of legal, safe, downloading center. There are thousands around the internet today, but there are only a few elite top ones. These elite top ones have low one time fees, around $40. And for these one time fees you get amazing quality of product. Some you can have access to 15 billion files to choose from. Like numerous; MP3, Music, Movies, TV Shows, Road Maps, Software, Antivirus, Music Videos, Video Clips, I mean any possible thing you can think of. So for around $40 these days, if you find the right place, you will have endless entertainment on your PC.

Another way you can get the most out of your computer, if you have a iPod or PSP, is to get some sort of media converter for your favorite gadget.

If you have one of those gadgets my suggestion is to get some sort of compatibility center to transfer files on to it. There are centers like that around in the internet today and like the entertainment download centers they run around $40. And if you have a PSP these centers allow you to download unlimited games and media. Apple says around 60 million iPods have been bought worldwide. And Sony has sold around 17 million PSPs. And some people do not know how easy it is get get the most out of them.

The last tip I got is for just for your computer. It is the technology to watch satellite TV through your internet connection and on your computer. And not having to have any cable box or satellite dish.

This technology is truly amazing. The technology is only software that you download on to your computer. And this technology runs around $50. And there is no monthly subscriptions. It is just a one time fee. And the top software today on the internet allows you to view around 3000 channels. All you favorite sports games, other countries channels, favorite channels etc. And is you have a laptop you are able to have satellite tv where ever you go. Now that is truly amazing technology. Your computer will automatically feel like it's worth thousands of dollars more.

So back to the question are you getting the most out of your computer? And with 1.1 billion internet users worldwide, some people are and some people are not. And if you are one of those people that are not I have found the perfect site for you to help you, Here. This site will help you get the most out of your valuable investments.

Electronic Evolve is the most up to date site for Entertainment Downloads. This company is the one stop for computer entertainment and getting the most out of your valuable investments. Some One Time Fees that will blow your mind away for what you are getting. C'mon how much did you pay for your computer, iPod or PSP. And for around $40 - $50 you can take that investment to the limit. The site is called Electronic Evolve.

CISC vs. RISC: Suitablity for Pipelining

2008-05-04T01:59:00.000-07:00

RISC architectures lend themselves more towards pipelining than CISC architectures for many reasons. As RISC architectures have a smaller set of instructions than CISC architectures in a pipeline architecture the time required to fetch and decode for CISC architectures is unpredictable. The difference in instruction length with CISC will hinder the fetch decode sections of a pipeline, a single byte instruction following an 8 byte instruction will need to be handled so as not to slow down the whole pipeline. In RISC architectures the fetch and decode cycle is more predictable and most instructions have similar length.

CISC architectures by their very name also have more complex instructions with complex addressing modes. This makes the whole cycle of processing an instruction more complex. Pipelining requires that the whole fetch to execute cycle can be split into stages where each stage does not interfere with the next and each instruction can be doing something at each stage. RISC architectures because of their simplicity and small set of instructions are simple to split into stages. CISC with more complex instructions are harder to split into stages. Stages that are important for one instruction may be not be required for another instruction with CISC.

The rich set of addressing modes that are available in CISC architectures can cause data hazards when pipelining is introduced. Data hazards which are unlikely to occur in RISC architectures due to the smaller subset of instructions and the use of load store instruction to access memory become a problem in CISC architectures. CISC instructions that write results back to memory need to be handled carefully. Forwarding solutions used for allowing result written to registers to be available for input in the next instruction become more complex when memory locations which can be addressed in various modes can be accessed. Write after Read hazard must be taken care of where CISC instruction may auto increment a register early in the stages which may be used by the previous instruction at a later stage.

CISC added complexity makes for larger pipeline lengths to take into account more decoding and checking. Using the Larson and Davidson equation from their paper รขโ�ฌห�Cost-effective Design of Special-Purpose Processors: A Fast Fourier Transform Case Studyรขโ�ฌโ�ข for calculating the optimum number of pipeline stages for a processor it can be shown RISC architectures suite smaller pipelines. Keeping the values for instruction stream length and logic gates for stages static it can be shown that the optimum pipeline length increases with the size of the fetch execute cycle.

This is because with a large number of logic gates for a fetch execute cycle the additional gates required for stages have less impact. As RISC architectures have simpler instruction sets than CISC the number of gates involved in the fetch execute cycle compare will be far lower than this in CISC architecture. Therefore RISC architectures will tend to have smaller optimum pipeline lengths than more general processors.

RISC architectures do suite pipelining more than CISC architectures and do lend themselves to smaller pipelines. This does not mean however that CISC architecture can not gain from pipelining or that a large number of pipeline stages are bad (although the flushing of a pipeline would become of concern).

About the author: Simon Loader is a UNIX and email specialist who runs Surf, a free IT resource and downloads website, in his spare time . Many of the downloads and articles on Surf created by Simon are featured in technical websites all over the world. To access FREE downloads and information covering several diverse IT topics visit http://www.surf.org.uk.

Typography and the Internet

2008-05-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

At this point in time, decorative typography and the Internet are not completely in jive yet! There are still some kinks and restrictions in designing with decorative fonts for web pages. It may not seem like there is a problem on the surface, because much of the problems are masked. How so?

If a web designer wants to use decorative fonts other than the standard fonts used for text such as Verdana, Times, Arial, and other ordinary fonts like this, extra measures need to take place. When decorative fonts are used for the Internet, they need to be turned into artwork first. The software, Illustrator CS "outlines" fonts and Flash MX 2004 or "breaks a part" fonts in such a way that search engines read them as artwork and not as text. This is a great work-around for the time being and decorative fonts can be used online. But, it doesn't end there.

The other issue involved with fonts has to do with ownership and licenses of font families. Not all fonts are free for the taking. To find out more about the cost of fonts, type *fonts* into a search engine, and notice how some fonts are free and some have price tags attached to themรขโ�ฌโ��and this is just for the use of them!

As you can see, there are issues involved with online typography and the use of fonts. It will be interesting to see how this situation unfolds in the future. Today's graphic designers need to know which fonts are Internet friendly and when itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs appropriate to use them. The knowledge of technology and how to deal with todayรขโ�ฌโ�ขs online typography is important for anyone who is designing and communicating on the Internet. (revised 2/13/2006)

Debbie Jensen, Graphic Designer and Photographer http://www.debjensendesigns.com

ASL ITIL for Enhanced Application Management

2008-04-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

The emergence of ASL (Application Services Library) has spawned a potential compliment to the ITIL framework, and is catching the attention of ITSM professionals. Touted as another "standard" public domain framework sponsored by The ASL Foundation, it provides a collection of best practices for managing application development and maintenance. But how does it fit into the "big picture" of ITIL?

Although ASL is based on the processes and service concepts of ITIL, the two frameworks differ in their approach to controlling and supporting the technical infrastructure. ASL stresses different functional competencies and introduces additional processes that support the AM framework, in addition to providing more detail surrounding the ongoing management and support of business systems and services.

In order to alleviate some confusion, service managers should first review the overlap between ASL and the ITIL Application Management component. While ITILรขโ�ฌโ�ขs current Application Management publication provides a framework surrounding application development and service management, ASL adds more depth to the collaboration required between customers, systems and the service providers optimizing service provision. In effect, ASL more explicitly outlines the process interdependencies between the infrastructure, applications and the business.

However, specific to the application realm, ASL also adds some practical guidance for management of the lifecycle through its recognition of a paradigm shift in focus from application development to software maintenance. ASL sites the traditional focus on systems development efforts (e.g. SDLC) but acknowledges more recent attention to the management, maintenance and enhancement of information systems aligned with service and process perspectives. According to the ASL Foundation, "Current research has shown that on average, the majority of costs are incurred during the maintenance and enhancement stages."

So, just how much has the focus shifted? From the ASL perspective, quite a bit: roughly 80% of AM efforts may lie in the maintenance of systems. This is powerful insight into where the majority of value added activities should fit relative to the overall application lifecycle. Moreover, exacerbated by the trend of outsourcing non-core competencies (e.g. internal application development), ASL looks more realistically at the activities that focus on optimizing service to the customer and in direct support of overall business objectives.

While ASL does not replace the ITIL Application Management framework, it compliments the service manager through its broader perspective into the dependencies associated with the functional and technical aspects of optimized service provision. That being said, the evolution of ITIL and ASL as a partnership should continue, but the framework documentation itself could more collaborative, reduce redundancy and more clearly articulate AM best practices to the ITIL community.

Bottom line: ASL takes a deep dive into the management of the application lifecycle and integration with the ICT infrastructure. By providing additional processes that support the AM framework and stressing the shift from development to management, maintenance and enhancement, ASL advances the application services framework with additional detail to better serve the business.

Patrick Moore is a independent consultant and technology writer residing in Los Angeles, CA USA. Patrick can be reached at moorep@itilworx.com. ITILworx (http://www.itilworx.com) is an IT process improvement resource focusing on IT Service Management (ITSM), the ITIL framework and related information and software solutions. ProcessWorx (http://www.processworx.com) provides tools and software solutions for IT Service Management based on the ITIL framework.

Computer Printer Ink Getting More Affordable

2008-04-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

This is the third world where Computer is everything. For computer all of us may need Computer printer ink, which has become as much of a staple as flour and sugar in our society. According to the survey all most all have a computer, so there must be existence of computer related item to perform your computer. In fact this Computer printer ink is also big business along with other computer accessories. Everyone must need computer printer ink repeatedly to purchase.

If you can remember it wasnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt very long ago that we didnรขโ�ฌโ�ขt have the capability to print anything at home. However we now take it for granted. In that time had to pay per copy at the library or to a printer or copier service.

Although it is not much cheaper to print at home, but it surely a convenient one. Especially it is much needed when copy we want a copy something straight from a web page at home. At a cost of $30.00 we can get printer cartridge and that enables to print 400 sheets of paper will cost about 7 and half cents per copy. In fact it is not bad since copies out in the world run from 5 cents to 25 cents, 7.5 cents. You can do this at home at midnight in your pajamas especially when you consider you can do this.

There are many computer printer inks comes in cartridges and lasts for so many sheets. In fact there is no set time a cartridge will last unless you print the same amount all the time. However you will be able to gauge how long a cartridge will typically last. There are color and black printer ink cartridges are available in the market. This is depending upon you on what it is you are printing or you may want the both.

Any how some printer uses both cartridges although both cartridges have ink in them and are installed in the printer. For instance, you can replace the color cartridge when you want to print if you want to print something in black but the out put is in color cartridge out of ink, you can change them at once. In fact you can not get the same privilege in every printer, but you have to know when your printer requires this.

Computer printer ink can be very expensive depending upon the printer you have, so it is a good choice to shop around first and know what expenses you will have down the road.

HotDealShare.com - is free computer deals site with the best deals, promotional offers,accessories deals bargains, discount prices, free coupons, contests, electronics deals from hundreds of merchants. Updated daily!

The Many Uses Of The Versatile Magnet

2008-04-28T13:01:00.000-07:00

Magnets are available in various sizes and serve various purposes ranging from home to industrial uses. As magnets can stick to steel and iron, they are also used for promotional purposes.

Aside from their use in radio and television sets, magnets are also used in bulk loading and assembly line productions in the industrial world. Industrial magnets provide solutions to complex mechanized activities and come in all shapes and sizes รขโ�ฌโ�� round, bars, rods, U-shaped, rings etc. Magnets in the industrial sector range from pulleys and separators to magnetic sweepers, fabrication and welding devices. All these can be custom-built to suit the needs of any particular industry. Bulk purchases are always advantageous and cost beneficial than individual purchases.

Owing to the varied sizes in which they are available, magnets are increasingly being used for advertising purposes. Advertising magnets are usually custom-made. The name and logo of the company along with the services and products offered form the main theme of advertising magnets. Depending on your budget the magnets can be put up on billboards or distributed among prospective clients.

Business cards are another common way to promote your services or products. Since paper business cards often get lost or are forgotten about, business card magnets help keep that company's service or product fresh in people's minds, as they are very visible on the refrigerators or on other magnetic surfaces and never get lost.

Business, promotional or advertising magnets should be made attractive and colorful so that they stand out from the crowd. With their increasing popularity, people are bound to receive a lot of promotional magnets that all get stuck onto the same board. You would definitely want yours to stick out and attract all the attention. All kinds of custom magnets can be ordered online at the various websites that offer such services.

Magnets can be used in a lot of ways at home such as for school projects. Refrigerators and iron cabinets are often adorned with magnetic stickers or small motifs. Refrigerator magnets can be bought from your local departmental store or from home-dร�ยฉcor stores. Magnets with Disney or cartoon characters are popular with the kids. The ideal refrigerator magnets could be fruits and vegetables or cocktail magnetic stickers, which can also be made at home. Homemade refrigerator magnets are easy to make, requiring only a piece of cardboard, your favorite photo or design, glue and a small piece of magnet. Custom magnets can be a family photo, your favorite stars or the year's fixture of your favorite baseball team.

Drop by Susan's sites Fridge Magnet and Custom Magnet, and also at Home and Family.

IT Audits: Your Existing Customers

2008-04-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

Look among your existing customers to determine who are good candidates for IT audits. You can do this based on the number of PCs they have. Generally, businesses that have more than five systems are really good possibilities for IT audits.

You will be checking around for UPSs and data line protection, real surge protectors, the right number of antivirus software licenses, good, active, valid subscription for the licenses to keep their antivirus and firewall up to date. You'll also want to determine whether everything is updated, what theyรขโ�ฌโ�ขre doing with routers, firewalls, network adjust translations, and other items that keep them protected.

Your Customers May Need Some Motivation

To generate demand for IT Audits:

o Talk to your customers when theyรขโ�ฌโ�ขre in the store
o Do an outbound telemarketing campaign
o Include a flyer with your invoices
o Do a solo mailing, either a letter or a postcard or a brochure

Jump on the current events. If there are viruses, power outages, etc., in the news, piggyback on those to get your message across. Create a sense of urgency in the offer of IT audits.

Make your IT audits at least have the perception of being discounted and put some kind of deadline on it. If you say itรขโ�ฌโ�ขs regularly $350, but now through a certain date it is discounted to $199 and due to demand, is limited to only the first 25 customers.

The Bottom Line about IT Audits

The urgency and the scarcity in terms of marketing will make a world of difference.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Small Biz Tech Talk. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Joshua Feinberg can help you grow your computer consulting business, the RIGHT way! Sign-up now for your free audio training program that features field-tested, proven Computer Consultants Business Tools.

Documenting the Undocumented with RFID Chips or Cards

2008-04-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here is an idea which came out of one of our recent thinking groups meetings regarding border security, which seems to be appropriate. First we seal off the borders and only allow crossing thru certain border check points. Robots patrol, if they see you they warn you to stop and go back in Spanish, then warn one more time. Then shoot non-lethal shot. If the perpetrator continues to the next zone, they are warned to go back twice and then if they continue they are shot dead. Running persons in reverse direction and back the country can continue without hassle as long as they keep moving out of the zones.

Any person coming over the border into our country must go thru approved points of entry and must have an RFID enabled card or implanted Chip. Which has all their information on it, including name, dates of shots and last check up, job and regional location where they will be, basic humanly identifiers such as: Finger Prints, Facial Recognition, DNA sample, retina scan. Also encoded would be various other information as we see fit.

If someone who is undocumented is caught without their card anywhere in the country, they are deported. If they commit a crime they are deported. Upon deportation a sample of DNA, retina scan and finger prints are taken and logged in. This person can never come back to the US and is barred from lifetime re-entry. Anyone caught with an RFID Chip, which is forged is to be biometrically identified and then sent back. Anyone caught with someone else's card is sent out of the county and card confiscated and barred from lifetime re-entry after they work off their fees they were suppose to pay in the first place as listed below.

To get an RFID Card or chip, you must have shots against known diseases, no criminal record, a skill, and $500.00 on person if going to work. $100.00 on person if going to shop. You must also pay if you donot have shots $60.00 to get shots and $155.00 for the Card or $50.00 for the Chip which goes under the skin.

Card is good for 2 years. A new card must be attained and another fee of $155.00 or $50.00 (implant version RFID) is paid, with updated information.

These tags ping the satellite on Fri, Sat, Sun nights and on Wednesday, with random variations during the week days sometimes Mon, sometimes Thurs, sometimes Fri, sometimes Tuesdays.

Once a person has a card they may come and go as they please provided they have $100.00 on person, ATM Card or credit card balance with them when entering. The reason being if you have no money, then you might have to do something illegal on the way to where you are going to work. If you are going to shop you will need funds or you cannot come to the country. The fees can be paid by someone else, such as a sponsor. If paid by someone else that person is guarantee their will be no criminal activity for 3 months (90 Days) if there is a fine of $10,000 goes to that person which must be paid before any Government Services are rendered to them. This includes, health care, education, social security, etc.

Businesses can sponsor workers too, the company is then liable for the $10,000 catch and release across border fee, which must be paid. This way businesses will try to hire locals first, if not the cross border workforce will be considered second.

There are 35% Illegal aliens in CA and AZ prisons. For every year one of these people is there, we could send six young men or women to a University for that same year. Crime has a rippling effect on our economy and economic development.

This system satisfies the need for Mexicans shopping here and helps bring back the money flowing out of the country into Mexico for various things.

If a person makes it without any major law violations for 4 consecutive terms of RFID Tag 2 year programs or (8-years). They can become a US Citizen.

If they lose their job, they must replace it within 4 weeks and notify the system, join our military or surrender card and go back. Failure to do this means deportation. Deportation means lifetime exile from the greatest nation in the history of mankind.

IF...? We are really serious about Homeland Security then we must do something about the borders, if we are simply using this for another reason to create fear, spend money or control power base, then there is no reason for a border at all, because it leaks like a garden hose on full blast during a drought. With an estimated 15.7 million illegal aliens in this country now, something must be done if we are serious, if not simply open up the borders and stop the charade. The cost of illegal immigration is higher than we think along with the out of country money flows going back into Mexico, it spells economic disaster, increased debt, government bankruptcy and collapse of social services.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Computer Viruses

2008-04-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

Thereรขโ�ฌโ�ขre viruses that donรขโ�ฌโ�ขt affect human body but are still really painful for mankind. It is computer viruses. A computer virus itself is a program that diffuses into the computer files and cracks them. The first acknowledged virus dates back to 1987 called the "Brain". The "Brain" is a boot sector virus. A boot sector virus affects the boot sector which is a small program where information about the drive or disk structure is held. The boot sector is used when the operating system is started up. As a result of the virus attaching itself to the boot sector, every time the computer boots up, the virus is loaded to memory. This type of virus can spread very quickly in environments where computers are shared. A boot sector virus works as long as the computer is on and this guarantees that the virus gets executed because all computers need to boot up. Other types of viruses are the file or program infector viruses, the macro viruses and most recently, e-mail viruses. The file or program viruses connect themselves to executable programs and then once the programs are run, they load themselves onto memory and from there infect the rest of the computer.

Macro viruses attack programs with macros, which are programs that allow users to run a single input and be able to trigger a series of instructions which the computer automatically executes. Macro viruses infect such programs as spreadsheet and word processing files. They are dangerous because once the file is shared the virus is also shared. Also, these viruses can be spread to different platforms such as from Microsoft Windows to Macintosh operating systems which make these viruses more harmful. More recently, e-mail viruses have become popular. Worms such as the "Melissa virus" have been a threat in recent years where the worm would affix itself to a Word Document and then the virus would create an email and send it to the first fifty people of the userรขโ�ฌโ�ขs e-mail address book. This caused such a widespread infection that it forced Microsoft and other companies to shut down their email systems for a while. There are also the Trojan viruses that disguise themselves behind something valid and useful and then they would infect files once the disguises are opened. Trojans do not reproduce like worms but it can destroy files and cause harm like them. The general publicรขโ�ฌโ�ขs view of a virus writer is a misconception that he is a "dysfunctional, pasty-faced teenager with no girlfriend and no life". One reason that can be attributed to this generalization is the fact that the internet is able to hide the virus writerรขโ�ฌโ�ขs identity so the general public will take on a false impression of the writer. The realistic scenario is that most virus writers are normal people with normal lifestyles and they often do not write codes for malicious purposes. Virus writers come from different age groups, backgrounds, and countries. Many of them write viruses for different purposes. Most of the teenage virus writers code viruses for the excitement and the challenge that it brings.

Additionally, writing a new virus gives the writers credibility and status among their peers. Aside from the benign intentions of teenage virus writers, harm can be caused when they forget to "think about the effect their actions will have on other people". Most virus writers who were teenagers in the past have already grown out of the virus writing phase and consider virus writing an inferior type of coding. Since the unveiling of the internet to the public, anyone that has access to a computer and internet can now go on the web and search for virus source codes and put together a malicious program and send it off through the internet. Current virus coders who still continue to write viruses and post them (source codes, not executable virus programs) on the internet agree that they "intentionally create and distribute viruses" to harm others. They do note that posting of source codes will not prevent those that have destructive intentions from putting together the source codes into a program and sending it off. The source code writers argue that they should not be held responsible for their creations because the writing of the code does not cause any real harm, but the person who puts them into a program and sends it to others are the culprit. The writing of virus serves many purposes like enhancing a personรขโ�ฌโ�ขs knowledge of code and learning how a virus works. Learning about viruses is beneficial because it forces many companies to build better systems to prevent virus attacks.

Another view on virus writers is that they use viruses for harmful intentions. Those that are "motivated by financial gain" are likely to be working with internet companies in order to make a profit off their virus victims. Some of these companies are internet spammers who hire the best virus writers around the world to help them. These virus writers are writing viruses for the sole purpose of stealing personal information from the computers of the people they infect. There are those virus writers who do it to "claim territory, to make a mark in the internet that will be seen by many others". These types of writers are motivated by the feeling of the global damages they cause by sending their virus through the internet. Virus writers who write their code to do harm are like other criminals around the world. They have damaging intentions and they should be punished. Those that have outgrown the virus writing phase will eventually be replaced by new virus writers. However, in the United States, lawmakers are attempting to keep up with the quick changing technology and the problems that come with it. Although distribution of a virus with a malicious intent is considered a federal crime, the sole act of writing or providing easy access to virus code is not. The United States courts have come to establish original computer code as a form of intellectual property, putting it in the same category as music and artwork. Intellectual property is protected under the 1st Amendment of free speech. This was established in 1995 after a graduate student, Daniel Bernstein, filed a law suit against the government for violating his constitutional right because to post an encryption program, the government ruled that he would need to register as an international weapons dealer fearing that the program would mask illegal activity. States have also attempted to coin their own laws but they are limited to addressing unauthorized access to networks or sabotage. This is because other computer laws they try to address come up against the roadblock of the extraterritoriality of the crimes. Therefore, the best legislation enacted so far is the CFAA. Viruses will most likely begin to enter newer territory. For example, the Phage virus, was the first virus to be written for handheld devices (PC world) and it is likely that it is just the beginning of many to come which can be spread through รขโ�ฌห�beamingรขโ�ฌโ�ข features of handheld devices. There is also a more menacing fear that malicious code will be used in cyber-terrorism, much like an electronic weapon of mass destruction, and many experts are surprised this still has not occurred seeing that most systems are not well equipped to deal with this kind of attack.

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The Benefits of Personnel Recruiting Software

2008-04-28T05:55:00.000-07:00

Personnel recruiting software makes the process of finding and hiring qualified employees much quicker and easier. Personnel recruiting software is used by both professional staffing firms and by companies that do their own hiring. These software programs have several features that make it easier for companies to attract and hire the best possible employees. They can be used to create and manage sections of the companyรขโ�ฌโ�ขs website that advertise open positions, they can be used to create comprehensive databases that store, organize, and categorize applicantรขโ�ฌโ�ขs resumes, and can be used to schedule and keep track of interviews and appointments with applicants.

One major feature of personnel recruiting software is that it can be used to find applicants for any type of position, from entry level to executive. Personnel recruiting software can be utilized to make and update the part of a companyรขโ�ฌโ�ขs website that advertises job opportunities. These software programs can create job descriptions and even online applications that are completed and submitted to the company electronically.

Personnel recruiting software can be used to compile all applications and resumes into a database that recruiters can easily access to learn more about the applicants. Information about the applicants can be categorized in several ways. Recruiters can search the database by applicant name, city of residence, or a number of other ways. This allows recruiters to quickly search the database by their own criteria rather than having to wade through irrelevant information.

Personnel recruiting software is also good for scheduling interview and appointments with potential employees. Calendar features help recruiters know when they have appointments scheduled and whom the appointments are with.

Personnel recruiting software is perfect for both professional staffing companies and businesses that do their own hiring. Software programs exist for companies of all sizes, from small businesses to major corporations.

Recruiting Software Info provides detailed information about executive, physician, personnel, and call center recruiting software, as well as recruiting database software, recruiting tracking software, and recruiting software reviews. Recruiting Software Info is the sister site of Help Desk Software Web.