When your personal computer eats up almost the entire space in your computer table, it’s time to have a little re-organizing. Desktop computers, especially those bulky CPU’s and monitors could eat up quite a space which could be a room for other essentials such as folder stackers, telephone or fax machine. Nowadays, bulky personal computers can be really heavy to the eyes, especially since in today’s technology, the adage, “bulk is out, thin is in” is the mainstream.
Let’s start with your computer table. Its size may vary depending on your design. It may be wide enough to accommodate two “bulky” PC sets, or it could barely hold one, and you don’t have enough space left for the keyboard or the mouse.
First things first, remove all unnecessary files, folders, papers, trash, coffee mugs and saucers, ashtrays, etc. on your desk. Clear the area. Your computer table should be just that, a computer table and not a hodgepodge of everything else. However, top designers say that there are some essential things that should be within reach (especially for an office desk). The telephone, for one should be within reach. Some very important and frequently used documents could be stacked inside an upright holder which can cover only a little space and is still within reach compared to when just piled up on top of the table.
However, if the area is already clear, but you can still barely fit a small pen holder on top of it, you should think of getting yourself a bigger desk or… a new set of personal computer.
Super space-saving computers have flooded the market nowadays. Try checking out flat monitors to replace your old, bulky one. Have your CPU re-designed or buy one of those small and slim tower CPUs. Small and compact keyboards are also available, reducing the size of a regular keyboard to almost a half. And, if you do not have a place to slide your mouse in, try using a trackball mouse. That way, it occupies just that small space and you don’t have to glide it across a wider area.
Or have all of those pieces in one super sleek laptop notebook. People on the go prefer to have a laptop which they can take along whenever and wherever they go. And nowadays, laptops are not at all far behind in terms of technical capabilities vis-à-vis PCs.
It is always a good thing to see a clear and organized computer table. It would compel one to work well, without the mess adding up to the already full and cluttered working brain. And, admit it, it’s nice not seeing those bulky gadgets anymore. It helps ease the heaviness in the mind as well.
Senin, 12 Januari 2009
Is Your PC Crowding Your Desk?
Optical Mouse: Smarter Way To Move Ahead
One of the most important tools of a computer is the mouse, which is indispensable for the operation of the computer. Yet, it is not a very complex item although modern technology has brought in many advances in its design in order to make it more convenient to use. Many options are now available, each with their own unique features.
Whenever you are using your computer your fingers are constantly on the mouse clicking away. You would naturally like to choose a mouse that would operate smoothly, be precise and easy to use and optical technology has just the answer for these requirements. The Optical Mouse is a far cry from the conventional ball/roller assembly of the earlier mechanical mice and operates with a beam of light and an optical sensor making its operation as smooth as silk. The movement of the mouse is tracked by the sensor using the light thrown by the light beam on the surface below the mouse.
Optical Mouse is now being preferred at homes and at offices by everybody. The prices have dropped to the level of $15 to $50 much in line with the earlier mechanical mouse. Installation is easy, as you just have to plug it in the computer. Optical mice with either PS/2 or USB plugs are available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.
How Does It Work?
A miniature camera inside the optical mouse takes about a thousand pictures per second and a small light emitting diode (LED) helps to highlight the small differences in the surface under the mouse by providing the necessary light. When these differences are beamed back into the camera, the pictures are compared with the help of digital technology to find out the speed and direction of the movement. In the earlier mechanical mouse, the movement was indicated by a round ball rolling against the mouse pad.
Benefits of Optical Mouse Over Traditional Mouse
• Increased precision and better control: There are no moving parts in the optical mouse – only a small optical sensor that gives the silky smooth under surface to the mouse. The accuracy and response of the mouse will continue to be present for a very long time due to its digital design.
• Lighter in weight: Due to the absence of the ball and roller mechanism, the weight of an optical mouse is much lesser than that of a mechanical mouse. In addition to its much higher precision, an optical mouse has a resolution from the low hundreds to the high hundreds (in dpi, dots per inch).
• No more cleaning: The earlier mechanical mouse was always very susceptible to dirt, dust or grime getting stuck in it thereby causing the pointer to move erratically. Now, you don’t have to disassemble your optical mouse every now and then as there is no question of any dirt accumulating in it as there are no moving parts.
• No need for a mouse pad: The optical mouse can work on any surface without the need of any special mouse pad. However, you should avoid using it on a highly reflective surface such as a glass or mirror. You should also not use it on surface with a solid color as all the pictures taken by the mouse are identical and as such it would be better to use it on a surface with pictures or patterns. So, the next time you find that your optical mouse is not working properly in spite of being installed correctly you should know where the problem lies. Just move it away from the solid color surface.
Kamis, 08 Januari 2009
What Do You Do When Your Printer Runs Out of Ink and You Have a Rush Printing Job?
It is always a pain in the neck when you run out of ink while printing a very important document – on a deadline. When everything fails, make sure you keep your cool and you know what to do next. Don’t worry! You’ll have that paper in your boss’ or professor’s desk in time – even if you run out of ink.
Undoubtedly, computer parts and accessories cost a lot. And you usually don’t realize when these parts would reach the end of their lifespan, so be sure you are prepared. Running out of ink is not a funny situation, not when you have a deadline for a paper. And buying a refill in the middle of the night is not exactly a fun thing to do. Now, you’d probably ask, “How do I keep my cool?” Here’s how: Know about ink refilling and do it yourself!
Ink refilling is popular nowadays, that it has even given birth to lots of ink-refilling stations. But that would mean another expense to you too, although it might be cheaper compared to buying a new ink cartridge. You can actually do the refilling yourself provided you have the materials and the knowledge how to do it.
Anybody who can read a manual would surely be able to get on with the task. Below is the list of what you should have and what you should do when refilling your own ink cartridge. Remember, keep your cool and don’t panic!
A place with a close access to running water is the best place to do the refilling. This is so as not to smear ink on furniture, other things most especially important documents.
The amount of ink to be refilled varies on the size of the cartridge. The cartridge states how many milliliters (ml.) of ink it can hold.
In your ink-refilling kit, a syringe is provided to draw the ink (of any color) to refill the empty (or near empty) cartridge. Along with it are bottles of ink of different colors, a bottle of cleaning solution especially designed for the sensitive parts of the cartridge and a user’s manual. Refer to the manual on how to properly inject the ink to the cartridge.
To transfer the ink from the syringe into the cartridge, there must be a very tiny hole (the size of the tip of a ball point pen) poked on top of the cartridge, near the label. Insert the needle of the syringe and slowly, very slowly inject the ink into the cartridge. It is necessary to do this process very slowly so that the ink would not form foam and the bubbles would prevent it from printing.
The newly created holes need not be sealed after refilling, as it would look like the other “breather” holes on top of the cartridge.
Left over ink inside the syringe can be returned to its original bottle. The syringe must be properly washed before using for another color. It is also preferable to use different syringes for different colors.
To make sure ink is not dripping out of the sponge, turn the cartridge upside down. Replace the cartridge back in the printer cradle, totally cleaned up. Run test print to see changes and to clear and clean any printing problems.
Few important things to remember:
It would be best to refill a near-empty cartridge than a totally empty one as dried up ink might cause clogging.
It would be best to let refilled ink cartridge stand overnight to let the newly injected ink even out.
It would be best to poke a tiny hole on top of the cartridge with UTMOST care so as not to cause a crack which will completely make it useless. Even a very thin crack might cause the newly refilled ink to dry up no sooner that when you put it in.
It would be best to inspect the cartridges to be refilled because there are some ink cartridges that say “Single Use Only”, and refilling it might cause damage to the printer especially when the ink injected is not the same with the previous content of the cartridge. Worse, when found out, the one who refilled it (you or some commercial refilling station) could face charges.
It would be best to check the cartridge (especially the newer models) for the green chip that keeps track of the levels of the ink. Its memory can be reset so as to be able to check the level of the cartridge with the newly-injected ink or when it is necessary to refill “again” before it has completely run out of ink.
Home Wireless Network Security Issues
Running a business from home has its advantages, including no commute, a more accommodating work schedule, fresh coffee and home-cooked meals at any time you want.
But running a business from home using a home wireless local area network (WLAN) with your computer may lead to thievery of confidential information and hacker or virus penetration unless proper actions are taken. As WLANs send information back and forth over radio waves, someone with the right type of receiver in your immediate area could be picking up the transmission, thus acquiring access to your computer.
Here is a list of things that you should consider as a result of implementing a home wireless network setup used your business:
Viruses could be loaded onto your laptop which could be transferred to the company's network when you go back to work.
Up to 75 per cent of home wireless network WLAN users do not have standard security features installed, and 20 per cent are left completely open as default configurations and are not secured, but are made for the users to have their network up and running ASAP.
It is recommended that home wireless network router/access point system setups be always done though a wired client.
Always change the default administrative password on your home wireless network router/access points to a secured password.
Enable at least 128-bit WEP encryption on both card and access point. Change your WEP keys periodically. If equipment does not support at least 128-bit WEP encryption, consider replacing it. Although there are security issues with WEP, it represents minimum level of security, and it should be enabled.
Change the default SSID on your router/access point to a hard to guess name. Setup your computer device to connect to this SSID by default.
Setup router/access points so as to not broadcast the SSID. The same SSID needs to be setup on the client side manually. This feature may not be available on all equipment.
Setup your home wireless network router to block anonymous internet requests or pings.
On each computer having a wireless network card, network connection properties should be configured to allow connection to Access Point Networks Only. Computer to computer (peer to peer) connections should not be allowed.
Enable MAC filtering. Deny connection to wireless network for unspecified MAC addresses. MAC or physical addresses are accessible through your computer device wireless network connection setup and they are physically written on network cards. When adding new wireless cards / computer to the network, their MAC addresses should be registered with the router /access point.
Your home wireless network router should have firewall features enabled and demilitarized zone (DMZ) feature disabled. Periodically test your hardware and personal firewalls using Shields Up test available at http://www.grc.com. All computers should have a properly configured personal firewall in addition to a hardware firewall.
Update router/access point firmware when new versions become available.
Locate router/access points away from strangers so they cannot reset the router/access point to default settings. Also, locate router/access points in the middle of the building rather than near windows to limit signal coverage outside the building.
You should know that nothing is 100%. While none of the actions suggested above will provide full 100% protection, countermeasures do exist that will help. The good collection of suggested preventative actions contained herein can help you deter an intruder trying to access your home wireless network. This deterrant then makes other insecure networks easier targets for the intruder to persue.
Inkjet Printers – The Benefits For You
There are several different types of printers on the market today, but the inkjet printer is the dominant force. This is largely to do with inkjet printers being the more affordable option while still being able to produce a good quality output.
It may interest you to know that printer manufacturers do not actually make any profit or sometimes very little profit on the printers they sell. At first this probably sounds crazy, but is a well used business model that can be seen in practice in many other industries. This type of business practice was first used by Gillette to sell its razor blades. The reason the printer companies sell you the printers at a loss is that they aim to make their profits by selling you the ink for the printer. The printer companies have a huge mark up on the ink cartridges. This also explains why they are so keen to discourage consumers from buying replica ink cartridges.
How they work
The vast majority of home inkjet printers will use a thermal inkjet. Inkjet ink cartridges are pretty ingenious examples of modern technology in action. Without getting too technical lets take a look at how they actually work. Within the ink cartridge will be a series of electrically heated chambers. Ink is dispelled from the ink cartridge as an electric current is passed through the heating elements. This process causes a droplet of ink to be forced from the ink cartridge and onto the paper, with any surplus ink being sucked back into the chamber. This process is replicated many times over at high speed in order to print your chosen documents.
The thermal inkjet method is not the only method used. There are two other designs of called piezoelectric ink jets and continuous ink jet. These designs tend to be seen in more industrial or commercial printers.
Advantages
Ink jet printers are a fantastic invention. They are able to provide consumers with high quality prints at a very reasonable price. Do you remember the old dot matrix and daisywheel printers? If you do you will surely remember the amount of noise they used to make and the standard of print. In comparison ink jet printers are much quieter and also produce much higher quality. You can buy an inkjet printer that will produce photo quality picture prints, something that would have been impossible with a dot matrix!
Disadvantages
As we previously mentioned one drawback of the ink jet printer is the cost of printer cartridges, which can be quite expensive. The design of the ink cartridges does also mean that they are prone to clogging. As the ink used is water soluble it is also important to avoid even small amounts of water coming into contact with your finished document, as this will easily cause smudging. Another disadvantage is the possibility of an affect called bleeding. This is when the ink is carried side ways and results in a smudged document.
Consumer Tips
Buy non-branded ink cartridges. These are often less than half the price of the printer manufacturers ink cartridges, but just as good.
Buy an ink refill kit. This is another cheap way of buying ink, although you should only refill your ink cartridges a few times.
Buy your ink over the internet as you will find some fantastic offers.
Selasa, 06 Januari 2009
ATA vs. SATA Hard Drives
The last few years have witnessed some exhilarating developments in the manufacturing of hard drives with the introduction of larger caches, quicker spindle speeds, greater data transmission speeds, and better reliability.
ATA hard drives (generally known an IDE drives) are the hard drive type mainly used by most end user computers. Introduced in 1986, the ATA standard has seen many modifications to improve the size and speed of the hard drive which it can support. ATA-7, unleashed in 2001, can maintain data transfer rates up 133MB/sec.ATA-7 is thought to be the last model for the parallel ATA standard.
In the year 2000, hard drive manufacturers came up with a new hard drive standard called Serial ATA, most popularly SATA. The SATA hard drives overcame all the limitation of ATA such as electromagnetic interference (EMI), signal timing, and other data integrity issues. Within no time, SATA has become the basic standard for most computer users.
The following description elaborates on the differences between ATA and SATA.
Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) is based on a 16 bit parallel interface and is generally used to control computer hard drives. Whereas, Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) is a single bit serial advancement of the Parallel ATA. SATA hard drives can easily be distinguished from ATA hard drives by the unique power and data connections used on the back of the hard drives.
When comparing ATA against SATA, SATA hard drives have performance benefits which set them apart from ATA hard drives. SATA drives are more suitable to install and draws less power. Another noted characteristic of SATA is the higher bandwidth that is possible. The latest models of ATA hard drives offer the highest data transfer rate of 133 MB/second. While the current SATA standard can provide data transfer of up to 150 MB/second.
According to Seagate, the performance of SATA drives over ATA drives can currently be expected to be about 5%. The developments in SATA technology will surely improve on that. The future of SATA bears great interest in computer users, the 600 MB/second SATA hard drives are expected around the year 2007, which will provide outstanding speed and performance.
When making a comparison of ATA hard drives and SATA hard drives, you may find SATA drives to cost more, but when considering the overall benefits of SATA drives over ATAs, it is worth spending a few extra dollars for SATA hard drives.
In short, the latest SATA hard drives provide noteworthy benefits over ATA hard drives when considering power consumption, convenience, and performance. Experts are in the process of creating more powerful SATA hard drives which will surely help hard drive developments to keep pace with other key system products to improve the overall performance of a computer system.
Check http://harddriveusa.com for additional resources on hard drives.
Computer Security – It’s Bigger Than Spyware And Viruses
Computer security, in basic terms means keeping your computer and the data that’s in it safe and secure. More of our personal data is stored in or accessed from our computer, now more than ever before. Yet most people lack even the basic understanding of how to keep their computers safe and secure. By following just a few simple rules you can dramatically improve the overall security of your computer.
The first thing to understand is what exactly it means to be connected to the internet. Your computer connected to the internet is similar to your house in many ways. There are many ways into your house. Windows, doors, etc. The more windows and doors you have, the more ways someone has into your house. An open door doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be robbed, but it does improve the chances. Complicating matters, the ones that you think are locked, may not be because the lock is faulty or even the door itself may have an as of yet undiscovered flaw that would allow an intruder easy access to your home.
Your computer has many windows and doors, not all of which are locked. New flaws are being found everyday, often with the fix not coming until days after. Just like you wouldn’t leave your front door unlocked, you shouldn’t leave your computer wide open either. The first two things we will discuss to help with this task are installation of a quality firewall and regularly updating your installed software.
Updating your software is becoming easier these days, especially your Operating System. We don’t have the time here to go into detail about the many ways to update the many software packages you may have or use, but generally speaking the software manufacturer will provide you a way to do this automatically via the internet. A good example of this is the Microsoft Windows Update feature. Be sure to get the updates for everything installed on your computer, nothing is too trivial.
There are two basic types of firewalls and both perform the same functions. One is hardware the other is software. A hardware firewall is probably included in your router if you are using one, while you may or may not have a software firewall installed. To continue our house analogy, a firewall is like building a wall and gate around your home and giving the guard at the gate instructions on who to let in and out. While this does give a great deal of protection, it is not all that is required. Someone may know a way around or under your wall, or even be able to coerce the guard into letting them in.
You yourself may unwittingly allow someone in. This could happen by simply opening an email or even simply surfing the net. Spyware, viruses, trojans and the like are ever more adept in their methods of fooling you and your guards. Emails may come from a trusted friend containing a dangerous virus without them even knowing it. This is where the next layer of protection comes in, anti-virus software.
Anti-virus software is a large category these days. Often these packages come as “suites” including a firewall and Spyware scanner. While most of these programs are very effective in their promised tasks, it is not wise to be lulled into a false sense of security by them. They are simply one layer in what should be a multi tiered protection plan for you and your computer. One last important note about anti virus software is to be sure that it updates on a regular basis. New threats come out daily so check its updates manually to be sure they have happened.
Back to our house analogy, we now have all of our windows, doors and other entry ways locked and fully updated. We have a wall around our house with a guard at the gate and we have software scanning everything that comes in past the gate. Sounds pretty good, but there’s one last security hole we need to address, you.
A large percentage of infections are caused by the computer user themselves. The internet is an ever changing place that requires it’s users to be educated about its use. I’m not suggesting that you need to be a computer expert to simply read your email. I am however suggesting that you take some time to educate yourself on some of the dangers that pop up everyday, and the precautions to take in order to avoid them.
In summary, your computer is a powerful machine connected to one of the greatest things ever invented, the internet. This vast resource can be a dangerous place if you are not properly prepared and informed. Regular software updates, a good firewall, anti virus software and a little education are the basics in computer security. Having and understanding these basics will make your computer safer, more secure and more enjoyable.