Techno-World

Satellite Radio Services: What you get for your money.

2009-04-25T12:52:00.001+05:30

Satellite Radio Service is provided by two agencies namely Sirius and XM. Sirius was previously known as CD Radio, and has headquarters in New York City and offers its satellite radio services in Canada and Unites States of America. Sirius offers over 120 channels of programming, including 60 different music channels of rock, jazz, rap, county, classical, and Latin etc. World-class sports, news, and entertainment channels are around fifty in number. The satellite radio service is totally commercial free. Also the listener can enjoy live performances of their favorite artists. The satellite radio provides a variety of high quality programming through a subscription based service for low-cost portable radios which receive signals via satellites. The repeaters used in the circuit are used to connect multiple radio receivers to one antenna using technology that is wire free or wireless. Repeaters have a transmitter, an antenna, and a power adapter.

All these equipments are easy to setup. By usage of repeater user can enjoy XM programming even in the interior environments without any direct reception of signals through satellites. The signal repeater system has two parts namely a repeater which is placed in a location with satellite access, and the repeater antenna which is plugged into tuner of the satellite receiver equipment. The antenna of the repeater can be placed up to seventy five feet from the repeater. Another benefit is that it does not require any power supply. All the antennas which are placed within its range are fed by the repeater. The repeater which is wireless operates in the frequency range of nine hundred mega hertz. The signal is received by the transmitter in one room and then transmitted to the antenna which is placed in another room which connects to satellite radio. A tuner which is totally dedicated to satellite radio is considered as all in one solution and is widely used to listen to the favorite satellite radio programs when moving in a vehicle. Radio tuner is compatible with both the SIRIUS and XM satellite radios.

The tuner receives the satellite signal from an antenna mounted on the vehicles roof or outside home, and then sends stereo placed in home or inside the vehicle. Easy to use and install satellite radios are used as there are no wires or docking stations/cradles involved and these tuners can be used in cars and homes. A user can access full services of commercial-free music channels, sports coverage including NBA, NFL, NHL, news, uncensored talks, weather, and many more by buying a dedicated satellite radio. A satellite radio features liquid crystal display to show channel-name, artist information, song title, sports teams and scores, and other related information. A signal strength indicator is also present which helps in positioning the antenna at the right place that is in the right direction.

Satellite Radio Care Tips

2009-04-25T12:51:00.001+05:30

The satellite radio is quickly garnering market share from old standbys, FM and AM. Only two service providers, XM and Sirius, the only real choice you have to make is which model to purchase and how much to pay. Road to XM and Sirius can have a few potholes, aggravating problems that may cause you to toss your Roadies out of the car window. We have few tips to help pave that road.

Always try refreshing the activation of your radio by going to the XM or Sirius websites and hitting refresh signal. Do check with customer service to make sure the radio has been properly activated. Sometimes the request doesn't get processed right away.
Always check your antenna and make sure it's connected to the proper input on the radio and can get a clear signal. Try to check the cable and connector for damage. Your radio won't receive a signal if you're in a garage or other area where the signal is blocked.

Do set your radio, in most cases to Channel 1, so it can acquire the stations from the satellite. Try to check to see if there's fringe interference from a nearby radio station, in this case, you'll hear either static from the station or voices and music will be heard faintly in the background. Numerous satellite radios are equipped with RF modulators, which use FM frequencies to deliver sound through your car's speakers. Always test the radio with several unused FM frequencies to find the clearest channel. If you get a weak signal and you're sure there's no interference, try relocating the antenna. Do use the car's cassette player to connect to your sound system. Unluckily not all brands of satellite radio come with a cassette adapter, but they're pretty easy to get. Only plug it into the audio out jack of your radio and pop the end with the cassette into the player. Always test your receiver with a home kit. When all of your stations come through loud and clear, there could be a problem with the RF modulator. Therein that case exchange the radio for a new one. Do check to see if your radio is locked, this may be the case if you can't change stations and a "lock" signal is displayed on the radio. We can turn this off on some radios by pressing the Mute/Pause/Lock button. When your radio doesn't have this, or it doesn't solve the problem, unlock it by inserting the end of a paper clip into the radio's reset hole.
Always reset the radio by inserting the end of a paper clip into the radio's reset hole to alleviate problems if the back light of the radio doesn't turn off or on or the radio's display doesn't change.

Microwaves And Satellite Communication

2009-04-25T12:50:00.002+05:30

Micro is a unit for measurement of length. As the name suggests microwaves are the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum where the wavelength falls between about one millimeter and thirty centimeters that is micrometers. Frequency of microwave bands extends from about one gigahertz to three hundred gigahertz and is useful for short range, high reliability radio and television links. Systems which use microwave frequencies are radar, mobile radio, satellite communications, terrestrial line of sight and troposphere links.

An essential property of microwaves is that they travel in straight lines through the atmosphere, are not affected by the ionized layers. Also these waves are very less affected by temperature inversions and scattering. But these weather effects limit the distance between the transmitter and the receiver to a few miles. This problem is over come by usage of repeater stations placed along the propagation path that extend the distance over which communication can occur. Basically a microwave repeater is a receiver/amplifier/transmitter combination used for relaying microwave signals in long distance and overland communication links. As frequencies of the signals increase thereby distance between repeaters decrease.

Main mode of propagation in the microwave range is line of sight. Line of sight means that the transmitter and receiver need to see each other. Thus range of line of sight communication depends upon the height of the communicating antennas and the nature of the terrain between them. Radio horizon limits the distance over which signals can be sent. Microwave repeaters i.e. radio link systems carry large quantizes of voice and data traffic and are subject to transmission impairments thus limiting the distance between relay points. Majority of the radio link systems carry analog signals which are frequency modulated, while a few carry digital signals. Radio link systems which are terrestrial are highly directional and send point to point voice and data signals.

Like television broadcast systems, satellite radio link systems also offer multiple path transmission for various signals. Waveguides are main transmission media for transmission of frequencies in the microwave spectrum. The walls of waveguides are highly polished and sometimes specially plated to reduce resistance and consequently power losses. These devices are constructed of brass, copper or aluminum and are made in sections of various lengths. The sections are straight, bent, twisted or flexible. The most common form of waveguide is rectangular in cross section although round waveguides may be used.

Microwaves can be transmitted by co axial cable, micro strip, strip line and optical fibers as well within certain range. Among these transmission of light modulated signals through optical fibers is the model method. As the waveguides provide excellent shielding and low loss so they can transmit greater amounts of power with less energy loss than co axial cables.

Tv is dead: long live web tv

2009-04-25T12:50:00.001+05:30

Yep, the net.

Indeed, you probably already have. Like millions of others, you've likely followed links on alluc.org, say, installed and used a bit-torrent client, or searched the likes of veoh, Stage6, or Dailymotion for the latest episode of your favourite programmes. And chances are you also realised that in doing so you were entering the legal equivalent of Luton (i.e the kind of grey area that might best be avoided). Even if that didn't leave you feeling slightly uneasy, you more than likely found that it was less than ideal.

For one thing, when you're faced with so much choice, how do you know what programmes are worth watching? Well, you could try signing up to TIOTI, essentially a social network for TV fans with a wiki type encyclopaedia of TV programmes and links to downloads. Or there are applications like Miro that allow you to view programmes from anywhere on the net and create and share your own channels.

While TIOTI, say, makes every effort to direct you to legal downloads, you can still find yourself in Luton, though. So, what definitely entirely legal options exist? Thankfully, plenty. And they seem to be increasing.

In an effort to retain both ad revenue and control of their own content, traditional broadcasters are beginning to adapt to the demands of the internet viewer. For instance, the BBC iPlayer now offers its programmes as time-limited downloads. Channel 4 has it's 4oD on-demand service. And in the US NBC and FOX offer their content on Hulu. You can also find plenty of programmes on iTunes, if you don't mind paying.

Programme makers and broadcasters are also beginning to offer content to the likes of Joost, a free site, supported by ads, with a few social media type features.

But there are also places where you can find new programming of a professional quality made especially for the web.

Thanks to the rise of Facebook, other social networking sites are trying to find new ways to attract and retain users. One way they seem to have hit on is to offer exclusive TV programmes. Bebo now has its own soap, KateModern, which received over 3 million hits within its first three weeks. And now MySpaceTV has Quarterlife, another soap, originally a pilot for TV made by the creators of My So-Called Life.

However, there are also services offering something much closer to traditional TV channel experience, i.e. programming with a consistency of style, content and quality, aimed at a certain niche or demographic. In Britain, the latest launch is CNETTV, offering programmes about games, gadgets, TV, film and music. If you fancy a bit of Al Gore backed bite-sized citizen journalism, there's Current TV. And if you fancy being "rescued from TV's deathlike grip" there's Vice magazine offshoot VBS.tv.

Legal or otherwise, chances are your TV fix is out there somewhere. And thankfully not all of it's in Luton.

Anti-virus software moving foward

2009-04-25T12:46:00.001+05:30

The first antivirus software agent was the Reaper virus which was launched in 1973. It was developed to hunt down and kill a harmless network virus called Creeper. Reaper was not antivirus software as we now know it, but it performed a similar function.

Modern antivirus software first made an appearance in the mid to late 1980s. Viruses had started to become an unpleasant threat by then and there were a number at loose. Famous examples are Elk Cloner which infected Apple systems, Brain and Vienna which infected PCs, and a host of others. Before the internet became ubiquitous viruses were spread mostly by floppy discs. The first virus to be tamed was the Vienna. The first company to market antivirus software was Certus which later became part of Symantec.

The first thing antivirus software must do is detect the presence of a virus. There are several methods, but the most common one is analogous to searching for a bit of DNA coding in a chromosome. Viruses generally attach themselves to existing code just as biological viruses attach themselves to chromosomes. The antivirus software seeks for this snippet of malicious code by examining the full string and comparing it with a database of known virus codes.

When a virus code is unknown, the software will monitor the activity of the computer looking for unusual events that could be related to a virus infection. Another way is to examine the functionality of a file to see if it codes for virus like activity.

Once the software has identified a virus, its second job is to heal the computer. Depending on the virus it is generally possible to choose from a number of actions. These are to delete, quarantine, or repair the file.

More sophisticated virus attempt to hide from antivirus software by using various disguises. To counter this antivirus software will only allow files to be executed once they have been proven to be clean. It is an ongoing war. At present it seems that the virus makers are a little ahead of the game, though that could easily change.

Preventing Viruses

2009-04-25T12:45:00.000+05:30

This day in age, people rely heavily on their computers. Home computers serve as a form of entertainment, a means of taking work home, offer convenient shopping, and make it easy for consumers to pay bills or access account information with a few clicks of a mouse. It has never been easier to have access to a plethora of information in one place at one time. With increased power, comes increased responsibility–like many other things, people in today’s society have to be extra careful when putting their information into cyberspace. Even just a daily account check could have hackers stealing an identity or draining a bank account. Because of the accessibility of so much information, it is important for consumers to be sure their home computers contain some kind of antivirus software. Anti spyware software can be worth every penny spent on it. Antivirus software will update automatically, for the most part, and it is designed to alert consumers when there is some form of breach in the computer’s security. This breach could be something as simple as a tracking cookie, or as serious as a virus. Antivirus software is designed to eliminate most threats to your computer’s security.

If run at regular intervals, it will allow a user safe access to personal information, without having to worry about fraud or identity theft. It can also help keep your computer running quickly and efficiently–the way it is meant to run. As a computer becomes laden with tracking cookies and spyware, its programs tend to lag. When anti-virus software is run, and the foreign objects are removed, the computer is free to run at a faster processing speed. People rely more and more on their home computers to access daily information. It is a means of communication, shopping, and paying bills. Many people can no longer get by without a computer in their homes because of the reliance on the wealth of information available at the touch of a button. Since there is so much information readily available in one place, people need to be certain their personal data is secure. Anti spyware software will be certain people can live their lives without worrying about theft or fraud.

Charge your phone in ten seconds

2009-04-25T12:44:00.001+05:30

You are off out for the evening. Everybody is waiting for you. Your mobile is essential; there is no way you can leave home without it. How would you meet up with everybody or order that taxi? You might miss an important text or email message and you need to check a few things on-line. This is the modern age. We can no longer afford to be distanced from our mobile phones.

You check it and the battery is nearly flat. You check your spare battery. It is flat also. Now what do you do? It will take at least 30 minutes to get sufficient charge to last the evening. You should have checked earlier.

This will soon be a scenario from the past. In the future you will plug your mobile phone into the charger and 10 seconds later it will be fully charged. How can that be?

The answer concerns that new buzzword nanotechnology. Your phone will currently be using what is called a lithium ion battery. They are great batteries to use because they are very light and will hold a lot of charge. The problem is that they can only be charged quite slowly. The reason for this is that all those lithium ions that have been made while releasing electrons to power your phone have to be converted back to their original state and this takes quite a time.

Now a new type of lithium ion battery has been invented that uses nanotechnology. The battery cathode (that’s the negative end) is made of nano-sized balls of a chemical called lithium iron phosphate coated in another chemical called lithium phosphate. These balls are only 50 nanometres in diameter, which is just about the size of a virus. It turns out that these nanospheres are super efficient at absorbing the lithium ions during the battery recharging cycle. The inventors who work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe that if they made a phone battery out of this it would charge in ten seconds.

They still have a few little problems to iron out but it is probably not that far away.

Education via Live Satellite Webcasts

2009-04-25T12:35:00.000+05:30

Streaming media is basically technology that enables you to listen to music and view video in real-time over the Internet without lengthy downloads.
There are many things to consider when participating in or offering an interactive course live via satellite using streaming media webcasts. Here are the main concerns:

The students should have access to a classroom setting that has the proper resources to support participation in live streaming media broadcasts and distance learning in general. Communication between the students, instructor and support staff is extremely important as well. Contact information for technical support, including the broadcasting site’s technical support group, and the technical support for the remote sites, should be readily available to students as well as instructors. It cannot be stressed enough that technical support is absolutely necessary on both ends of the spectrum for live satellite webcasts to be successful. Should there be an issue with the webcast, a means to fix the issue should be readily available.

Once the correct setting, for receiving the live satellite webcasts as well as the broadcasting site itself is ready, there are a few more things to consider. It is imperative that archives of the streaming media broadcasts; copies of the presentation, lecture notes, and worksheets should be available and accessible. Course broadcasts should be accessible to those people with disabilities. For example, a person who is hearing impaired would have difficulties participating in the course if the type of course delivery relied heavily on audio materials.

Schools are not the only groups who choose to use live satellite webcasts for educational purposes. More and more hospitals and health education centers are also using live satellite webcasts to reach the general public. Often times parents and health officials are invited to watch a webcast regarding the latest in research and technology regarding a particular health issue.
In some cases, those who participate in viewing a webcast will receive continuing education credits.

The advancement of technology has made it easier for many people to either state their cause to a large audience, educate those who want to learn as well as allow those who are physically unable to leave their home a way to participate.
If you take all of the above into consideration and prepare everything according to what needs to be done, live streaming media webcasts can be effective and viable alternatives for participating in or delivering many different types of courses.

Blogging Tips - How to Make Money Online With Blogs

2009-04-17T10:41:00.002+05:30

Blogging is a platform for people to discuss personal things and share ideas, pictures, opinions and information with other internet surfers who have the same interest. However, it is not the only thing you can do with the blogs. Instead, you can make money with blogging. Many people are making money online with blogging; some of them even earn their livings solely from their blogs. There are many ways for blogger to make money and we will discuss a few of the common ways used by bloggers to generate income online.

Blogging for money #1: Affiliate Marketing

Bloggers can earn money through affiliate marketing. When you sign up with an affiliate program, you will be given a unique affiliate link that you can use to promote your selected affiliate products, if any sale made, you earn the commission.

Affiliate marketing is one of popular option for bloggers to earn money from internet. There are various affiliate products available for different types of niche market. You just need to find the products that are related to your blog and promote them through your affiliate link. Whenever there is sale made through the link, you earn the commission.

Blogging for money #2: Pay-per-click Ads

Bloggers can also generate income from pay-per-click advertisements provided by the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. It is simple and easy to apply an account and then integrate a simple code to the blog’s template. The contextual ads that are related to the blog themes will automatically generate and deliver to the blog. Whenever, the visitors click on the ads, bloggers will earn the money which may range from a penny to a few dollars per click.

Blogging for money #3: Product Reviews

Many merchants are looking for bloggers to review their products. A blogger can make money by just providing reviews on these products. You can search for merchants who are looking for bloggers to review their products individually from the internet, or to make think simple, you can just register at portals that link both merchants and reviewers, then looking for merchants that match your blog content. Depending on the blog popularity, you may earn from $25 to $200 per review for average blogs, to a few thousands per review for famous high traffic blogs.

Blogging for money #4: Memberships

Membership is a way to generate repeated income online. But, it is not practical to charge visitors to view a blog unless the blog is very famous and wanted on the internet. Then, how bloggers generate money from memberships?

Generally, bloggers who earn money by charging membership fee do have a membership website. They use their blog to generate traffic and monetize their visitors before they channel the traffic to their membership website. By integrating a membership website with blogs that work as the gate to a membership site will increase the conversion rate from visitors to members that help bloggers to make repeated income online.

Blogging for a Small Business

2009-04-17T10:40:00.002+05:30

Blogs are easy way to communicate with the customers, and employees. From past few years, blogs are continuing as one of the effective channels of communication when compared to other advertising channels. Blogs for business can help to strengthen relationships with targeted audiences. A blog can help in as many ways, from a business perceptive.

Reasons why a small business needs blogging
Small businesses need to be more effective in building a potential and loyal customer base when compared to large businesses. Blogs helps in increasing the consumer base.
• Building customer relationships: Blogs are very helpful to increase the brand loyalty in customers by engaging with them through blogging on their favorite topics. Regularly updated blogs can help businesses in making readers to visit the website on regular basis. This may steadily enhance the business opportunities of the organization. Blogs became easy and effective medium to make the customers to join in discussions, providing tips, insights, etc., about the products and services of many businesses.
• Blogs at workplace: Employees can write their opinions, views, and recommendations for any developments in the business. Blogs helps small businesses for effective cross-functional communication with employees. Companies can create internal blogs within organizations where project members and employees update project information along with reports without having to waste time for interaction and responses for minor updates.
• For brand awareness: Small businesses can easily update their recent achievements in products and services in blogs and can create awareness to the customers about them. With regular reading of blogs, customers can know the latest developments in the business. Blogs help small businesses to create brand awareness for the products or services they offer.
• Better communication: Blogging for small businesses facilitate to increase the integrity in the organization with the easy communication process between the employees and the management. Blogs are also created to attract the readers of targeted markets. Companies update their respective blogs frequently with opinions and reviews of customers along with their new achievements in their products and services, and make them visible to almost everyone online.

Blogging enables the small businesses to stay in business, to connect with its customers, clients. This can indirectly help to increase their sales. Blogging can make your customers relate better to company on a personal level. Blogging is a great way to set your company apart from the group of small, and home based businesses through Internet.

Getting quality content for your blog

2009-04-17T10:36:00.000+05:30

All Internet marketing guides stress the importance of using only quality content for the blog pages, yet, the question remains: how can one decide which is good content and which not? I simply suggest that we start from the very nature of the blog: a highly informational and personal site which tackles with subjects in a specific domain. Hence, when designing the blog, don’t make it too complex, stick to the simple structures that allow users to perform actions easily on the page. The frame should also be very simple and the eventual ads and links need to naturally blend in the content of the blog as such. Web design provides the great advantage of using similar fonts and formats, so that only some elements on the page should stand out.

Furthermore, you may have learned by now that you need to create the site content around some high-in-demand keywords that users type in the search box of the engine. The more the keywords, the higher the chances to have your blog appear in the first result pages. However, many bloggers understand keyword density the wrong way. The blog content should naturally include the keywords in an easy-to-read kind of way; a keyword density that goes higher than 2 or 3% could make the articles less appealing to the reader.

There are some tips you may consider when creating quality content for a blog. First of all, regardless of the domain and the target audience, it should be reader-friendly and even reader-oriented if it be the case. This means that even when you deal with a scientific topic, you can still keep the reader’s attention vivid since not everybody who visits your blog has a professional cultural background. Write everything in short or medium-sized paragraphs so that the information naturally flows without being hard to track in case of an interruption.

Statistics show that blogs that include links in the very article content are more successful than those who present links at the bottom of the page for instance. Inserted links allow the reader to get a puzzle-explanation of a concept or provide the opportunity to show interest for specific products or services. Furthermore, the blogs that make a happy combination of written content, pictures and videos are considered a lot more appealing to the average Internet user, and thus receive a lot more traffic. The key to being successful within the blogging system is definitely the continuous adaptation to the requests of the market.

Automobile Security

2009-04-17T10:29:00.001+05:30

Making your car secure is much more important than making it luxurious. There are a variety of devices which are installed in a car to maintain security. The most common of them is a burglar alarm which is installed to prevent theft. The process of a burglar alarm is simple, if someone tries to open the car door without the key the alarm buzzes up. Now this device other than the key can be any pointed device like a knife. Such pointed devices can damage the locking system of the car. Burglar alarms vary from one car model to the other and also differ in terms of the sound frequency which varies in terms of the burglar alarm. For instance a burglar alarm can be heard at a distance of hundred meters while the other can be heard at a distance of two hundred kilometers. The kits which are installed in cars also vary in terms of the configuration which they have. The installation methodologies which are implemented also differ as well. The burglar alarm kit can also be customized according to the requirements of the client. For instance if a client wants to customize his car by having a differently designed burglar alarm, then he can get the kit designed in a different manner. Apart from the burglar alarm, key password is a terminology which is used to improve the security in automobiles. Let us see the way in which in this mechanism works. When the key is inserted in the ignition, a password is required to operate the ignition. Once the correct password is entered, the car can be started. A complete software system has to be installed in the car. Car tracking is a technology which has been emerging in the recent times. This works with the help of a satellite. On every car in which the tracking kit is installed has an applied constraint in the form of a distance limit. For instance of a car goes beyond the prescribed distance limit, the tracking circuit is activated by the tracking satellite and the car comes to stationary position immediately. Hence a tracking system causes immediate reduction in the rate of thefts and automobile crimes as well. Another device which is being used is the hand print recognition which is designed in the manner that a car can recognize the hand prints of the user. Here, it is crucial to mention that along with paying attention to your car's security system you have to take some initiatives in order to make it run better. That’s exactly the point where you will have to install new Brake Kits with cold Air Intake other such like spare parts. The fact of the matter is that the security of the vehicle is very important and one has to ensure that the vehicle which is owned is properly protected as well. But, you need to make sure that you car is in the best condition to provide you with utmost comfort while driving.

Winxp Tips And Tricks, Winsock 2 repair

2009-04-11T23:56:00.001+05:30

WinXP Tips & Trix - Winsock 2 Repair

——————————————————————————–
Repairing Damaged Winsock2

The symptoms when Winsock2 is damaged show when you try to release and renew the IP address using IPCONFIG…

And you get the following error message:

An error occurred while renewing interface 'Internet': An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.

Also Internet Explorer may give the following error message:
The page cannot be displayed Additionally, you may have no IP address or no Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address, and you may be receiving IP packets but not sending them.

There are two easy ways to determine if Winsock2 is damaged:

From the XP source files, go to the Support / Tools directory

Winsock Test Method 1
Run netdiag /test:winsock

The end should say Winsock test ….. passed

Winsock Test Method 2

Run Msinfo32
Click on the + by Components
Click on the by Network
Click on Protocol
There should be 10 sections if the Winsock2 key is ok
MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]
MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP]
RSVP UDP Service Provider
RSVP TCP Service Provider
MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip…
MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip…

If the names are anything different from those in this list, then likely Winsock2 is corrupted and needs to be repaired.
If you have any 3rd party software installed, the name MSAFD may be changed.
There should be no fewer than 10 sections.

To repair Winsock2

Run Regedit
Delete the following two registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesWinsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesWinsock2

Restart the computer
Go to Network Connections
Right click and select Properties
Click on the Install button
Select Protocol
Click on the Add button
Click on the Have Disk button
Browse to the Windowsinf directory
Click on the Open button
Click on the OK button
Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Click on the OK button
Reboot

Nine-year-old whiz kid writes iPhone app

2009-04-11T23:53:00.001+05:30

While most children his age sketch on paper with crayons, 9-year-old Lim Ding Wen from Singapore, has a very different canvas–his iPhone.

Lim, who is in fourth grade, writes applications for Apple’s popular iPhone. His latest, a painting program called Doodle Kids, has been downloaded over 4,000 times from Apple’s iTunes store in two weeks, the New Paper reported on Thursday.

The program lets iPhone users draw with their fingers by touching the iPhone’s touch screen and then clear the screen by shaking the phone.

“I wrote the program for my younger sisters, who like to draw,” Lim said. His sisters are aged 3 and 5.

Lim, who is fluent in six programming languages, started using the computer at the age of 2. He has since completed about 20 programming projects.

His father, Lim Thye Chean, a chief technology officer at a local technology firm, also writes iPhone applications.

“Every evening we check the statistics e-mailed to us (by iTunes) to see who has more downloads,” the older Lim said.

The boy, who enjoys reading books on programming, is in the process of writing another iPhone application–a science fiction game called “Invader Wars.”

Source: ZDNET NEWS

Discovering hidden secrets of Microsoft Notepad

2009-04-08T06:03:00.002+05:30

Notepad is a brain child of Bill Gates of Microsoft and is the cornerstone of Windows Architecture. Developed by the Gate himself, it took him fifteen years to write a new GUI... From Uncyclopedia

Notepad is plain simple tool, which can be easily replaced by a wide range of free text utilities. But it has its own advantages:

* It is a commodity - it is installed by default in any computer and any Windows Operating System.
* It is portable, small, fast, and does not use much of computer resources.
* It is so simple, that sometimes it is the only tool you need to open small text files.

To my surprise, even Notepad has its hidden secrets. Today, we’ll discuss two of them.

Making Notes With Notepad

This is real cool for people who use notepad to write down any info on a day to day basis.
* Create a blank text file with .LOG (in caps) as the first line of the file, followed by a carriage return (Enter) and save this file.
* Double-click the file to open it and notice that Notepad appends the current date and time to the end of the file and places the cursor on the line after.
* Type your notes and then save and close the file.
Each time you open the file, Notepad repeats the process, appending the time and date to the end of the file and placing the cursor below it!

Creating Hidden Text Files

This is an interesting trick to hide the files with no third-party software in three easy steps.
* Launch Windows command prompt from Start Menu -> Run -> Type cmd and press Enter.
* Using DOS commands navigate to the desired folder.
* Now type in notepad VisibleFile.txt:HiddenFile.txt and hit Enter, you can change VisibleFile.txt and HiddenFile.txt to names of your choice (notice the sign “:” between both file-names). You will be prompted to Create a New file click Yes as shown below.

Note, that this little "trick" requires NTFS partition. It’s a feature in NTFS that was designed primarily for compatibility with other operating systems, such as Apple’s HFS.

Is Technology Making People Lazier?

2009-04-06T16:17:00.002+05:30

Technology Can Have Positive and Negative Effects on People

Technology is no doubt the most important thing in the world. Although we could all live without some of the major innovations that we have these days, but they definitely make life a lot easier. Some of these innovations include the cell phone, the television, and safer, faster, and
cleaner vehicles. While all of these things make life so much easier, it doesn't mean that we couldn't live without them. Technology also has a downside, which is that fact that as it progress; people have become and will continue to be more and more lazy.

Like I said technology are the best thing that can happen to the world as we know it, but it also has negatives. With laziness come many different problems one of which being obesity. Now maybe if we had everything done for us obesity wouldn't be a big deal because we would only have to move when we wanted to. However that is not the way the world is right now, and we are no where close to that point.

Vehicles are pretty much a necessity in today's world, but they are one of the things that makes the world so lazy. What happened to taking a walk around the block to your destination? Now a days everyone has a car that they can and do take everywhere, even if it is just down the street. While the technology in cars may have made people a little lazier, it has no doubt made them much safer. All you ever hear about new vehicles is that they have a certain crash test rating, and have a lot of different air bags. So while the new innovations in cars may make people lazier, there is no way around the fact that cars will always be used, so maybe the innovations in safety are more important then the lazy factor.

Cars are obviously not the only piece of technology that makes people lazier. In fact cell phones have led people to be lazier. The reason being that no matter where you are you can make a call. While that may be more convenient it make people lazier as in the past one would actually have to go and meet with people for conversation.

Another form of technology that adds to laziness is the televisions for obvious reasons. The television takes away from many other activities, such as just plain going outside. With the rise in different stations, and the many different things you can do with your television including video games, more and more people are watching more and more television.

While some people may argue that technology has made people a lot lazier then in the past, one cannot look past the fact that one technology has made life somewhat simpler, and two it has made life safer. In vehicles the different crash tests and air bags make traveling a lot safer, and cell phones and other things make like a lot easier. The truth is that technology has made people lazier, but it only becomes a real problem when people let it.

Cell Phone Tower Radiation. Is It Dangerous?

2009-04-04T13:29:00.000+05:30

The sound of a guitar, an x-ray taken in a doctor's office, the warmth of the sun and energy generated in a nuclear power plant all have one thing in common they are forms of radiation. Radiation is the movement, or propagation of energy from one place to another. From a human perspective, some radiation are directly useful, and some destructive. Imagine your cell phone. Cell phones have transformed communications all over the world. However, would you believe that this very reliable gadget is killing you slowly?

Well, you have to attribute it to the fact that most people are unaware of the Radio frequency (RF) radiation that they're exposed to another word referring to radiation itself, in measured form. It's an invisible form of pollution. Probably the most dangerous and common source of radiation these days are cell phones and cell phone towers.

Cell phone towers operate at power levels of about ten watts for each antenna on the tower. These directional antennas divide a geographical area into cells of service. The closer you are to a radiating antenna, the higher the health risk there is. When a cell phone is turned on, the cell phone company carrier or provider uses a computer network connected to all the cell towers to invisibly command the phone to an available frequency. Moreover, a cell phone transmits frequently to notify the phone company that it is actually on. Wherever you go, the cell system determines signal strength and switches your connection to another tower near you. When you talk to someone on your phone, the antenna is very close to the brain and recent studies show that it can induce tumor formation with prolonged exposure.

The phone can still radiate energy even when you are not talking. If you have it in your pants or shirt pocket, or on your belt, body tissues around the antenna on the phone are being exposed to radiation. The human body is an electrical system. It is affected by outside RF electromagnetic fields that can promote unwanted neurological effects, nerve stimulation, cancer, heating effects and even cause DNA strand breakage and cell mutation/death cell mutation being the primary process of tumor formation or cancer. Studies also show that cell phone use is associated with other kinds of tumors like the parotid/salivary gland tumors and even male infertility. Increased radiation exposure will inevitably lead to more illness from compromised immune systems, brain disorders and organ problems.

So how can we protect ourselves from all these threats to our health? There are no other options to keep the cell network operating because of the limited nature of cell phone technology. We just can't forsake our cell phones because let's face it, communicating has been much easier. Cell phones are our lifelines. Fortunately, there are cell phone radiation protection products available in the market which can help us safeguard our health. There are products like headset radiation shields, RFS belt clip shields, EMF protectors, and the Anti-Radiation Air-tube Headset which is a safe alternative compared to conventional headsets that use wire to deliver sound to the earpiece and may also deliver radiation directly to the head.

These products reduce the possibility of radiation reaching the head. Another popular product is the QLink pendant which is worn around the neck and powered by the wearer. QLink is encoded with a technology called Sympathetic Resonance Technology or SRT, which is a branch of quantum physics. This acts as a tuning fork that resonates with the ideal note at which the body's energy system should hum. It basically protects against stress from a variety of types of stressors including electromagnetic fields.

There are more products out there that could really help us protect our body from the harmful radiation produced by cell phones. It's up to us to protect ourselves, let's face the fact. Would we still remain ignorant? We don't want our lives to end untimely just because we want to make things easier right? So it's to a greater advantage that we use cell phone protection products. Steer clear of radiation! Take it from the experts.

Business Applications for iPhone – a brief

2009-04-04T13:23:00.000+05:30

iPhone applications enhance the phone’s capabilities in a completely new way. A user can add own programs to the phone because it has its own OS (just like a computer). Currently, there are over 23,000 applications for Apple iPhone. A year ago, applications were downloaded more than 10 million times in a single month of July.
An Apple iPhone application allows users to get the best out of the iPhone. With the advent of custom applications, the phone is capable to perform various functions. With so many applications to select and newer and newer applications being developed, iPhone applications have achieved a huge success.
Business applications for iPhone have flooded the Apple’s online application store. It has transformed your iPhone into a virtual portable office. An application developer creates the best iPhone applications for the corporate world. Here are some great applications for iPhone that is used by corporate gurus worldwide.
Business Indicators:
Business indicators are one of the best apple iphone applications that allow a user to access the performance of day-to-day business. There are various types of biz indicators with features distinct from one another. Most developers allow users to download it for free.
Applications for Accessing Emails and Contacts:
There are some good programs available in the apple online store that provides secure access to contacts and emails without muddling with the company’s messaging system. The software is usually based on Microsoft Exchange Platforms and is also described as “virtual inboxes”.
Applications that Help users to Access CRM Records:
Developers have also focused on applications that connect users to access CRM records. This ensures important tasks; contacts, accounts and other information get easily reachable.
Web based Business Applications:
There are various non-native iPhone applications that get launched through the phone’s web browser. Major iPhone applications development companies have launched their own versions of word editor, email programs and spreadsheets. Although one cannot create or edit news ones with such programs, one can surely view existing documents.

4 Simple Steps To Blogging For Business

2009-04-04T06:03:00.001+05:30

Blogging is a practice that has been around for at least 5 years. It began with average, but opinionated people with something to say, who wanted to share their opinions with anyone who would read them. While it has been popular with the general public, it hasn't caught on with many businesses until recently. Blogging can be a powerful tool for marketing and exposure for any business if done properly. This article will cover the first steps businesses will need to take to set themselves up for successful blogging.

1. Select the Appropriate Hosting for Your Business Blog

You first step is to select an appropriate host for your blog. There are a couple of solutions that you can use to host your blog. You can:

1) Host it on your own server
2) Host it at a blogging hosting server, such as livejournal.com or blogger.com

If you host your own blog on your own web site, you will need to find blogging software that you can use on your web site. You will need to determine what your web site server capabilities are, and then determine what blogging software will work within your server environment. You will then need to install the software and configure it in order to begin blogging.

If you host your blog on a blog hosting system, then everything is already set up for you. All you have to do is sign up for, and configure your account. Some of these blogging services are free and some of them will have a monthly hosting charge.

2. Configure Your Business Blog

Once you have determined how you want to host your blog, and have installed it, or signed up for your blog service, you will need to configure your blog.

Configuring your blog includes, what template you want to use with your blog. Most blogs whether they are on a blog hosting service, or software that you have installed, will come with several templates. If you are new to the Internet, and don't have a lot of programming experience, it is probably best to stick with one of the templates that has come with the software or service. It is however, better if you have some programming background, or have the funds to hire someone, then you can get your blog to look like your business web site. Even if your blog is hosted elsewhere, you can do amazing things with the templates to get your blog to look very similar to your business web site. Most services will allow you to modify the templates that come with their subscription.

Other things that will need to be configured are settings such as the name and description of your business blog, the email address you want messages from your blog to be sent to, how you want your blog archived (posts saved for future access), what ping services you want to notify when you update your blog, and other settings too numerous to mention in this article.

3. Determine the Content of Your Business Blog

This next step can be done before you actually install your blog, but you will need to determine the topic of your business blog, and how you want to convey your information to your target market. The content and topics of your blog should relate to your industry. You can focus as narrow or as wide as you choose think is appropriate. In general, it is a good idea to cover many areas within your industry and then separate the different areas of your industry into different categories within your blog.

For example, if you are blogging about your real estate business, the big topics would be commercial real estate, residential real estate, and investing in real estate, etc.

However, it would be better to specifically focus in your main category/industry. For example, if your main industry is residential real estate, you could have topics such as renting out your home, buying a home, and selling a home. Each of these would be a separate category within your blog.

Lastly but most importantly, you should choose topics and categories that will be of interest to your visitors. You will need to research the keywords that your customers would use to find you. There are many keyword research tools available on the web today that will tell you what exact phrases, and how often, your target market is using to find you. These keywords will determine the topics of your blog entries. You should also use some of the phrases you have found in your research in your business blog posts.

4. Begin Blogging for Your Business

The last step is to start blogging. You can choose from a number of different formats to add entries to your blog, as blog entries can take on any format. Some formats that you may want to consider include:

1) Writing articles and posting them to your blog.
2) Finding related news items in your industry and posting them with comments as to what you think of the news item.
3) Answering frequently asked questions you get from your clients.
4) Writing reviews of products/services in your industry
5) Writing "how to" posts
6) Using a free-style posting of anything you feel would be of interest to your potential clients and/or customers.

Your style of posting should match what your target market would find interesting.

Now that you know the basic steps of what needs to be done to begin business blogging, you can choose how you want to host your blog, what keywords your target market uses to find you, and what format would make the most sense to begin blogging. There are many web sites that have more articles and in-depth information about business blogging. You can use these resource sites to help guide you through the process from making your first post, to getting your first customer from your business blog.

Useful Google Chrome Shortcuts

2009-04-03T14:43:00.001+05:30

Google Chrome is fast and minimalistic Browser, using the similar concept of the oversimplified interface and strong functionality. For many people, however, this browser is too basic, lacking useful features and convenience of operation of its rivals. The list of shortcuts below will help you to access browser features faster and more efficient.

Useful Google Chrome Shortcut Keys:

CTRL + SHIFT + N: Automatically opens up a Chrome ‘incognito’ window, which allows you to surf on a PC without leaving behind any digital footprints.

SHIFT + Escape: Allows for fast access to Chrome’s task Manager Utility to stop the browser processes that have gone bad.

CTRL + SHIFT + T: Will open recently closed browser tabs.

Window and Tab Shortcuts:

Ctrl+N - Open a new window

Ctrl+Shift+N - Open a new window in incognito mode

Press Ctrl, and click a link - Open link in a new tab

Press Shift, and click a link - Open link in a new window

Alt+F4 - Close current window

Ctrl+T - Open a new tab

Ctrl+Shift+T - Reopen the last tab you’ve closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you’ve closed.

Drag link to tab - Open link in specified tab

Drag link to space between tabs - Open link in a new tab in the specified position on the tab strip

Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8 - Switch to the tab at the specified position number. The number you press represents a position on the tab strip.

Ctrl+9 - Switch to the last tab

Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown - Switch to the next tab

Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp - Switch to the previous tab

Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4 - Close current tab or pop-up

Alt+Home - Open your homepage

Ctrl+O, then select file - Open a file from your computer in Google Chrome

Shortcuts to Open Google Chrome Features:

Ctrl+B - Toggle bookmarks bar on and off

Ctrl+H - View the History page

Ctrl+J - View the Downloads page

Free Portable Uninstaller

2009-04-03T14:29:00.003+05:30

Free Uninstaller is the freeware software un-installation utility - advanced replacement for standard Windows Add/Remove program option. It is faster than system applet and contains advanced features and capabilities. The main task is smooth removal of the applications, installed on your PC, and cleaning of all invalid entries from the uninstall list.

The Free Uninstaller interface is a very simple and user-friendly. It consists of 3 main elements: toolbar with the most frequently used functions, list of the installed applications, and bottom panel with additional information about the selected application. To uninstall program, select it on the list and click Uninstall. To remove program from list, select it and click Remove.

Invalid elements are highlighted with red. System components are highlighted with dark blue. Since removing system components can damage the operating system , they are hidden by default.

Main Features:

Removing/uninstalling multiple programs at once. Just select desired applications on the list and click Uninstall or Remove button. (To select multiple programs use Ctrl key.)
Removing invalid entries from the system uninstall list.
Saving and loading uninstall lists to/from FUN_LIST files.
Highlighting invalid elements and/or system components.
Displaying detailed information on every installed program (name and version, size, producer name, producer web page, comments, uninstall command etc.)
Sorting list. Ascending or descending.
"Clickable" registry and www links.
Large number of options.
Advanced search option.
Searching program name and program producer with Google , Yahoo! Search , Live.com (MSN) .
Displaying registry entries created by selected program’s installer. (Details window).
Exporting displayed list to the HTML file and copying selected elements to the Clipboard.
Generating backup of the system uninstall list to a REG file.
Saving and restoring user settings.
Supported languages: English, Polish.
Software is portable and does not require installation on your Hard Drive.
100% freeware - for commercial and non-commercial use. No adware. No spyware.

Website: http://www.pazera-software.com/products/free-uninstaller/