17 Ways to Get Faster Answers and Save Clicks

By: Catherine Franz

You have already been using the Google search field, or maybe it’s Yahoo’s search field, for years now. And generally you probably have it open ready to go while using other programs. Here are ways you can reduce your number of clicks, and of course, save you time in the process just by using the search field more efficiently.

1. If you are want to find out more information about a particular book, just type in the book’s title in the search field. Ex: Joe Vitale. You don’t need to go to a book stores web site. Now you have every where the book is talked about, including reviews. And most like the competitive pricing.

2. If you need to calculate something, simply enter the calculation you’d like done into the search box. Ex: 5*9(sqrt 10)^3=. Or even simple addition. Ex: 5863+91/3= Always end with the equal sign.

3. One of my favorites is to convert between different units of measurement of height, weight, and volume. Just enter your desired conversion into the search box. Ex: 10.5 cm in inches. My favorite conversion is pixels to inches.

4. Public data is another fast find. Let’s say you want to find the population figure for your city. Since I live in Arlington, Virginia. I would type into the search field, “population ArlingtonVA.”

5. As a write, many times I need to find a synonym or dictionary definition fast. Now, there are a lot of places online to find them but they are just too many clicks. Use the search field for this. To find a synonym, you type in the “~” in front of the word. Ex: ~abundance. For the definition, type in the word “define” and then add your word or phrase you want defined. Ex: "Define abundance.”

6. Spell checker is fast too! Just type in the way you thought it should be spelled into the field. Wha-la, you have the most common spelling information.

This works if you get on the Internet with your iPhone or cell. Now these are really great click savers on a cell phone but can also be used on the desktop.

7. Let’s say you’re out and you want to know where the closet restaurant is. Type in the type of food followed by the zip code. The last time I was in a unfamiliar place in West Virginia. I didn’t know the zip code, so I walked into a store and asked. Then type “Italian food” + zip code and I had my list. Another time, I typed in the street name, city and state with zip code words after it and I had the zip code. And then I asked for the nearest Pizza Hut.

8. Using the same style in number 7 above, you can find movies. Type in “movies 22201.”

9. What if you out looking at homes for sales. You find a street you really like. Input “homes sales, name of street, city and state, or leave out the city and state and just add the zip code if you have it. This is a great time saver if the real estate market moves as fast as it does in New York City.

10. Is your mother’s plane going to be on time? Type in the airlines, flight number and the airport name. Ex: american airlines 3110 dulles airport.

11. What if you’re in a foreign country or filling out your reimbursement form at work and you need to know how much one currency equals another. Ex: How many rubbles equal $5.55 or the reverse. To use the built-in currency converter, Simply enter the conversion you’d like done into the search box. Ex: 150 GBP in USD. Or the reverse: Ex: $5.55 USD in GBP. If this is something you need from time to time. Practice it ahead of time so it becomes familiar and you aren’t stressed when you’re in some flea market in Rome trying the conversion.

12. Another one of my favorites is using the “fill in the blank” feature. The best way to ask a question is to use this feature. You do so by adding an asterisk (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want finished. Ex: Isaac Newton discovered *. Show your child how to use this so they can do their homework easier.

When I was standing at a statute in Rome and I wanted to know who the guy was. I typed in his name and added the asterisk (*). When I returned to the group and they asked what I had learned, I filled them in. Their mouths dropped. After this, every where I went they wanted to go. Later I gave up my secret and showed them how to use this feature. After that they did all the research which saved me even more time — talk about delegating (chuckle).

Last week, I used this feature for a sculpture I was sitting next. I had stopped to eat a sandwich outside the building I was going to speak. I used the artist information I learned in less than five minutes as a part of my opening remarks to my speech. I also explained how they could use this. They ate it up.

13. Before I learned this feature, I would search for the USP web site and locate the tracking number field and then type it in. Now, in the Google search field just type in the package number. This works whether its for UPS, FedEx or USPS.

14. Need to find a patent information fast. Just type in “patent” + the number.

15. Need to know what state and/or city an area code belongs to? Just type in the three digit number. And it’s there fast.

16. To search for web pages with similar content to a given site, type “related:” (notice there’s a colon after the word) followed by the website address. Example: related:www.abundancecenter.com

17. To know the time in another city, type in “time” and the city.

Now you’ve learned 17 new ways to find more information faster. You are saving many clicks and a lot of time during your day.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4738.shtml

Send PowerPoint Presentations in Video or DVD Movie

By: Paula Cheung

You may get crabby by this experience. You made a presentation with MS PowerPoint, perhaps 2003, perhaps 2007. You sent it to a friend or a client. However, it fails to work with the recipient. A couple of reasons may explain why he/she cannot view the presentation of your great efforts:

• Version difference or viewer absence - The recipient has neither PowerPoint 2003/2007 installed, nor is he/she bothered to install a viewer for the source PowerPoint program.

• Cross-platform incompatibility - Your presentation was made on a Windows operating system while he/she uses a Mac.

Another problem is, you don’t want your PowerPoint stuff to be modified by others, simply to show it in full look to someone.

Is it possible of that? Virtually, it is very simple. The secret lies in a slight change in format, i.e. convert your PowerPoint presentation to video or DVD movie using Moyea PPT to DVD Burner (Or Moyea PPT to Video Converter for a sole video presentation). While video and DVD movie are made in a format independent of any software, hardware, and operating systems, any recipient with a computer or a DVD player can open and read the your video or movie slideshow.

The next is, how to burn the PowerPoint presentation to DVD or convert the PPT to video?

* If you want to take your presentation to someone, then you’d better burn it onto a DVD disc with the mentioned PowerPoint to DVD burner.

a. Download and install Moyea PPT to DVD Burner. Make sure there is a blank DVD disc in your PC.

b. When it is running, import your presentation. Select the output to Standard or HD DVD. Customize the output DVD options like menus and logos if necessary.

c. Click Burn to start converting PowerPoint to DVD.

Now you can draw out the DVD disc writing with your PowerPoint content. The PowerPoint movie can go with you to any person of a visit, and play independently on any computer or TV with a DVD player.

* If you are to email the presentation or share on YouTube, MySpace or likewise, simply convert it to video using the dedicated Moyea PPT to Video Converter. Do the following:

a. First, download and install Moyea PPT to Video Converter.

b. Second, click Import to add in your presentation. Adjust the video output to a proper one in accordance with the end-device, e.g. AVI, FLV, WMV, 3GP, etc. Make custom settings of the output video options if possible.

c. Click Convert to start converting PowerPoint to video.

OK. Email the PowerPoint video as an attachment, post it to a supported website like YouTube, or connect to a portable device like Blackberry, iPod, iPhone, etc. The video presentation of your wit can reach anyone on the Internet or Intranet, or anyone you meet on the go.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4662.shtml

Preventing The Loss Of Valuable Data

By: Johnny Wilkinson

PREVENTING THE LOSS OF VALUABLE DATA

It’s a known fact that computer system data is the livelihood of any organization. No company can continue business in the event of total loss of data. The loss of data may also affect private individuals to a large extent. Imagine taking photographs while on holiday at an international destination costing you thousands of dollars or losing photographs of a wedding that cannot be repeated.

Therefore preventing the loss of your valuable data should become a major priority. As Imperative Technology, we are experts in the field of recovering lost computer data and have been involved in almost all data loss situations. Although after losing your data, we are able to assist you to recover your lost data. But unfortunately it’s not always possible to help all our clients, as there are situations where storage media may be damaged beyond the level of repair or successful recovery. We trust this article will assist you to prevent losing your data in the first place. We all understand by making backups will prevent you from losing data, but there are many key factors and different options to prevent the loss of data.

This document may be distributed freely. All our services are listed at the end of this document.

KEY POINTS

Ensure that your data is duplicated on at least one other device that is not connected to your computer / server that’s been backed up in any way.

By making a backup of your data is not enough, you need to ensure the data that’s been backed up IS WORKING!

Do not trust ANY software that reports a backup has been done successfully. The only way to ensure that data has been backed up effectively is to test the data. This is usually done by Test Restore Procedures.

Use an effective Anti-virus solution.

Connect a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to all critical computers/servers for protection against lightning and power surges.

Install & configure your computer hardware correctly as described later in this document.

Protect your data from theft by means of Firewall configuration.

Ensure minimum Disaster Recovery Policies & Procedures are in place.

I trust the information in this document will assist you in preventing the loss of data.

Yours truly,

JOHNNY WILKINSON

Data Recovery Specialist

BACKUP SOLUTIONS

—————-

With so many backup solutions to choose from, we’ll highlight some of the problem areas and solutions when using various backup options.

BACKUP SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS

When choosing a backup software application, the following considerations are necessary:

The best solution is to rather have a completely accessible copy of your data, as in the complete file and folder structure with individual files being accessible in relevant software applications. This is without needing to restore your data from single backup files, before using the data. For clarity sake, after a backup, the backup files should be immediately accessible as if you were using the files from your local hard drive.

Although the above solution is not always practical, due to data capacity, automation requirements, time frame of backup completion requirements etc. The risk of using backup software applications that create a single backup file, has to be considered:

A large single compressed backup file may become corrupt resulting in no data accessible. This will require specialist data recovery services to repair/re-corrupt the file. Major Research and Development goes into repairing corrupt files. It is obvious that Data Recovery companies develop recovery processes for well-known industry standard type software applications. Therefore choose an acceptable industry standard type software solution for your backups such as normal Windows backup or Veritas Backup Exec etc. where scalable network backup solutions are required. If you choose a proprietary backup solution not commonly known in the industry, chances are no Data Recovery companies have developed recovery and file repair processes for such an application, resulting in huge data recovery costs.

The same software package will be necessary to restore the data, this aspect is sometimes overseen when archiving data, without realizing that software becomes outdated and might not be available at the time a data restore is required. We recommend keeping a copy of all backup software safeguarded when a restore of archived data may be required.

DVD/CD BACKUPS

Burning files to DVD or CD may be a risk, provided that each and every file is tested afterwards by opening the files from the DVD/CD with the relevant software applications. Although this seems to be a tedious task, CD miss-burns is a reality that occurs very often. We recommend the following when storing data on DVD/CD:

Compress the files using a compression utility such as Winzip and burn the ZIP file to CD; the following advantages will be applicable:

Once the ZIP file is written to CD, test the file from CD as if you need to extract the file. If the ZIP file displays the content of compressed files, all files will automatically be accessible.

The CD File System has many limitations such as; long file names, depth of directory path etc. By burning a single ZIP file, all limitations will be ignored.

Time, capacity and number of CD’s, will also be advantageous.

Using DVD/CD’s as an archiving solution is not recommended as the media only lasts for a number of years depending on manufacturer etc. The most effective solution for archiving data is explained under “Archiving Data”.

MEMORY STICKS / FLASH DRIVES

Please note, this storage device was designed mostly for transporting data from one computer to another, using it as a mobile device. A USB memory stick should not be used for data backups and is not regarded as a reliable storage device. Ensure after using this device to safely unplug/remove the device prior to disconnecting the device. (Usually an icon with a green arrow bottom right on your screen)

It’s also recommended not to store files on a memory stick by means of saving it to memory stick directly from within a software application. Rather save files on your local disk and afterwards copy the files to the device using Windows Explorer etc.

EXTERNAL DRIVES

External drives use different interfaces of connectivity such as USB, Firewire, SATA, ESATA etc. USB is the slowest of them all. Although all computers have a standard USB interface, to use most of the other interfaces, an interface card is required for connectivity. External drives are devices with standard desktop and notebook computer drives within the external casing. These drives are acceptable to use for data backups but should only be used as an additional copy of your data.

In the event of electronic failure of the external case, there is a chance that the internal drive might be in perfect working order. This may be tested by removing the internal drive from the case, connecting the drive to a standard desktop computer, as a secondary drive. Please note by removing the drive from the case might affect your warrantee, but as we know the cost of the external device is hardly a comparison to the value of the data.

When using these drives for backup purposes, it is recommended not to use a proprietary software application that is shipped with some of the external drives. Rather use standard Windows backup if that is your Operating System of choice. Even better, create backup folder names by date and manually copy required backup files as separate files & folders to the disk. Although much discipline is required for backups if no automated processes are in place. By having readily accessible files as a backup is a far smaller risk than compressed single backup files.

NETWORK DATA BACKUP SOLUTIONS

——————————

Use well-known Industry standard Backup Solutions only. When using a network backup solution to backup multiple servers, a fully automated solution is a critical requirement. Network backup software and hardware depends on very specific requirements. It is necessary to employ the services of a company that specialize in Backup Solutions to suit specific needs as all organizations have different requirements.

When choosing a reliable Software Backup Solution for a Network, the following components and considerations are necessary:

Planning regarding capacity of data vs. capacity of Backup Media / hardware platform

Implementation of suitable network backup software which includes the following backup agents:

Ensure to implement various agents to backup multiple Operating systems in a cross-platform network environment.

SQL Agent – To backup SQL Databases

MS Exchange Agent – To backup all e-mail configurations

Open Files Agent – To backup files that are open while accessed by network users

Accelerator Agent – While doing backups, it’s not recommended to run backups while the servers are being accessed by network users because of utilization of the backup process, which puts an additional load on the server. When backups cannot be completed overnight, an accelerator agent may be added to speed up the process.

Autoloader Agent – Used when more than one backup tape is required during a single backup process.

Disaster Recovery Agent – Various commercial network backup software solutions offer additional components for disaster recovery, these agents allow the booting from diskette to restore directly from backup media without the need to install and configure Operating systems and backup software. This reduces down time.

ARCHIVING DATA

—————

Using DVD/CD’s, as an archiving solution is not recommended as the media only lasts for a number of years depending on manufacturer etc. The most effective solution for archiving data is to store data on a normal desktop type hard drive, preferably multiple copies. Data on these hard drives should be stored in a readily accessible format with separate file and folder structures, in uncompressed format and should be kept in a fire-proof strong room. Off-site storage of data is also recommended. A copy of every software application used to create all data including all serial numbers, access codes to operate the software should be stored on the same disk. This is in the event where software programs become outdated and are no longer in use, at the time where access to old data may be required.

In the event of loose separate hard drives, data should not be spanned across disks where more than one disk is required to restore even a single file.

When using backup tapes for archiving, only tapes with full backups should be considered. Incremental backups of data spanned across multiple tapes are a risk, as all tapes in the backup set are required to do a full restore. Rather store data in chunks as a full backup on a tape-by-tape basis. With damage to one of the tapes, only a partial data loss will be applicable.

The above only applies to environments of small data capacity requirements. There are many scalable Data Archiving Architectures available where large amounts of data archiving are required. Companies that specialize in off-site storage and business continuity will assist you with these requirements.

Example Requirements of most Government Regulations

Records must be stored in their original form without risk of alteration or deletion.

Records must be accurate and complete from the time they are created.

Records should be easily retrievable.

Disaster recovery plans should be in place, such as storing duplicate records off-site.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4758.shtml

How to Create an Audio or Video

By: Matt Bacak

If you get to a point in your internet marketing career where you need or want to learn how to create professional audio or video presentations I would strongly recommend using Power Point, Sony Sound Forge and Sony Vegas Movie Studio. I use all of these and I would have to say Sony’s got the best editing software out there. It is easy to use and it has a large, organized workspace from which to work.

Adobe Audition which is Sound Forge’s closest competitor is not very easy to use and looks like a cluttered mess. Sadie, another editing software is also hard to use and is extremely expensive.

If you are looking for a free option, I have in the past recommended Audacity. Now it’s not anywhere near the quality of Sony Sound Forge, but if you aren’t looking for anything fancy and don’t mind working in a confined editing window this could work for you. You can create a pretty good quality file without the cost of using high-end audio software.

Sound Forge comes in two different versions. There is the less expensive Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio, which will probably take care of most of the stuff you want to do and the more expensive Sony Sound Forge 8, which gives you better sound quality among other features.

Sony’s Vegas Movie Studio is outstanding also because it allows you to easily edit, capture and create DVD’s, CD’s and VCD’s. It is also very inexpensive compared to Adobe’s Video Collection Professional – although Adobe’s software is more geared towards the professional movie maker whereas Sony’s software is more entry level editing software.

If you already know how to use Sony Sound Forge then it will be fairly easy for you to figure out Sony Vegas Movie Studio. Basically, all you have to do is drop in the audio, import the audio into Sony Vegas Movie Studio and then you’ll simply need to import the PowerPoint in there. Then all you’ll have to do is render it as either an MP4, MPEC, .mov or .avi. Once you do that you’ll be able to create your video fairly quickly.

All of these options are an excellent choice if you’re venturing out into the web audio/video sphere. You really can’t go wrong and highly recommend you check any of the above mentioned software out.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4703.shtml

Is Barracuda the Best Solution for Eliminating Spam?

By: Mark Oetken

So you realize that you need a better solution to eliminate spam and provide virus protection for your organization. If you have done any research at all you are probably thinking that Barracuda Networks or some other spam blocking appliance is probably your best solution. Let's investigate this further.

One issue you will have with any appliance that you install is the cost of on-going licensing fees. This is in addition to the initial capital expense you will incur for the appliance itself. Although Barracuda does do a good job of blocking spam you will always need to manage the appliance with on-going updates and patches.

Then there is the backscatter issue. Barracuda Spam Firewalls are often configured to auto respond to spam emails by letting the sender know that their email has been blocked. The problem is that usually spammers use legitimate email addresses by forging the "From" address in a spam email. When Barrcuda auto responds to the innocent person's forged email address this is called backscatter. As Barracuda sends out an auto response to each of these forged email addresses the innocent person receiving these auto responses, several times a day, will naturally mark this as spam. If you are using Barracuda's auto response to spam feature this could possibly get your company block-listed. This would eventually prevent some of your company's regular emails from being delivered since our domain would be labeled as a spammer. Not good.

Yes, you could configure the Barracuda Spam Firewall to not auto reply to the blocked spam emails but that can cause problems as well. What happens if there is a false positive, meaning a legitimate person sends an email that is incorrectly blocked as spam, and there is no reply to inform him that his email was blocked? This could cause frustration for the person that sent the email or potentially lead to a loss sale if the sender was inquiring on purchasing from your business and thought you were just being non-responsive.

Let's say you have a workaround for the backscatter issue and you have plenty of time to spend managing the appliance with updates and tweaks. How would you deal with hard drive lock ups? In July of 2008 Seagate Barracuda released it's largest hard drive the, the Barracuda 7200.11 which was plagued with lockups from the get go. Seagate has since issued firmware updates to help fix the problem but it appears that some customers are still experiencing problems with lockups and at times actual failures.

More than likely Seagate Barracuda will get this hard drive problem fixed but that is not the point. The point is that appliance hardware used to stop spam can fail and does require ongoing maintenance and monitoring. As effective as Barracuda is in blocking spam and preventing viruses from infiltrating your company's network there is a better and more cost effective solution to consider.

If you are a small or medium sized business you should seriously consider a managed service by MX Logic. When you figure all of the costs associated of purchasing, installing, administrating and updating a hardware appliance, MX Logic begins to make the most economic sense. In addition, MX Logic also has one of the best track records for blocking spam. In fact it has been independently tested to block 99% of all spam with one of the lowest false positive rates in the industry.

How the service works is pretty straightforward. You simply redirect your mail exchange record (aka your MX record) to the MX Logic Email Defense Service. This way all of your emails are filtered before it even reaches your network firewall. The Email Defense Service then uses a unique multilayered system of more than 20 separate filters to protect against email threats. When the service finds a suspect email it quarantines it so that you or your administrator can review it and decide if the email is legitimate or not.

The engineers at MX Logic are constantly updating their filters and monitoring the service 24×7 so you never have to worry about updating anything yourself. Free technical support is also available 24×7. By utilizing this service you essentially get to tap into the skills of highly trained technicians that eat and breath this stuff.

So now for the best part… the cost. Would you believe that the Email Defense Service only costs $2.25 per user, per month? Now you compare that to the capital expense to purchase a hardware appliance from Barracuda Networks, add the ongoing licensing fees, depreciation costs and the time it takes to manage the system the case against Barracuda becomes pretty clear. Think this all sounds too good to be true? Well then try it out for 60 days. It won't cost you anything to evaluate it for a month or two and you can see for yourself just how effective the MX Logic solution truly is.

Barracuda Networks has proven to be an effective tool to eliminate spam enterprise wide. However, as more and more organizations look to managed services to help reduce IT related costs MX Logic also stands out to be just as effective but at an overall lower cost. To sign up to evaluate the Email Defense Service at no cost, or to see an online demonstration you can go to www.ConnectITGroup.com, an MX Logic reseller.

© 2009 The ConnectIT Group, LLC

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4700.shtml

HTML-Based CD Menus And Front-Ends: How Make Them Look Really Professional!

By: mirabyte GmbH & Co. KG

Creating CD menus for CD-ROM's, DVD's or even USB sticks is a typical task you will encounter when working on projects such as cover mount CD-ROM's, digital business cards, auto start menus and front ends for software CD-ROM's, E-Learning publications, electronic catalogues, manuals, digital business cards or company and product presentations.

Basically you have two choices: You can either use a menu generator application which creates a Windows executable file (of course you can also program your own menu application if you have programming knowledge) or you can create an HTML-based menu. Creating an executable is a lot of work or you will be limited by the functionality that menu generator you are using offers (most results created with this kind application look highly unprofessional). Anyway you have to learn how to use a proprietary tool or you have to program and test your own application. Therefore the advantage of a HTML-based menu is clear: You can use the same technology and the same authoring tools as for creating Web sites. By integrating pictures, hyperlinks or even Flash media you can create a rich and interactive user interface with ease. The only problem with HTML-based CD menus is that these are run in a normal Web browser. Surfing Web sites in a browser is fine but a CD menu which is the first thing a user will see when starting your CD is awful. Even the nicest menu looks ugly in a normal browser window that typically has interaction elements such as menus, toolbars, an address field and a status bar. Also links to executable files (EXE) cause problems because disturbing warning or download prompts are shown. If you use popup windows in your menu, you will also have to fight with popup blockers that might corrupt your user interface.

A much approved solution for giving HTML-based CD menus a professional look and feel is a handy application called Discstarter from mirabyte (http://www.discstarter.com). Discstarter allows you to create professional looking auto run menus, front-ends and many other kinds of applications based on easy to create HTML pages (including multimedia elements such as videos, Flash, Java etc.). With Discstarter you can fully customize the look and feel as well as the behavior of the browser window to your individual requirements. You can for example define the style and size of the display window (simple border, no border, sizable or a themed window with a bitmap skin). Another good thing is the way how links to executable files (EXE) or other special files types (e.g. DOC, PDF, CHM, etc.) are handled: Discstarter executes these files directly when a user clicks on a link referring to such a file. You can even add more functionally to a normal hyperlink, e.g. functionality to copy the referenced file on the local computer. This is perfect for installation tasks of software menus.

With Discstarter you can customize any part of the browser window and its behavior. Configuring a project with Discstarter is quite simple because Discstarter comes with a special tool called Discstarter Designer. This tool allows you setup any aspect of your HTML-based menu. You can configure also things like title text, window icon, context menu, background music, additional GUI effects such as a smooth fade in, etc. A full list of all supported features is available on the Discstarter Web site: http://www.mirabyte.com/en/products/discstarter/features.html

Another interesting feature only Discstarter offers is the integration of Server2Go, a lightweight web server which allows you to not only use static HTML pages for your menu but also dynamic web applications that use server-side languages such as PHP or Perl and databases like MySQL or SQLite. Server2Go and Discstarter can be run directly from CD-ROM without requiring any installation on the target computer. This is a great solution for database applications like catalogs or directories since it allows you to create a Web version and an offline version based on exactly the same code! To find out more on Server2Go, take a look into the Discstarter online manual (http://onlinehelp.mirabyte.com/DSDS/5/en/Onlinehelp.htm?UsingServer2Go.html).

Another reason why many companies around the world have chosen Discstarter for their CD menu projects is that fact that Discstarter is absolutely reliable! It is used by many magazine publishers in Europe for cover mount CD-ROMs and millions of copies have been distributed over the years - trouble free! Discstarter works fine on prehistoric Windows 95 machines as well as on today's Windows Vista / Windows 7 high-end computers.

But most important is that Discstarter saves you money! If you know how to create web pages you can also create menus and front ends with Discstarter - use the same technology, the same tools and get a professional look & feel that can otherwise only be achieved by using a self-programmed front end made with an expensive authoring tool.

One more thing: Discstarter can not only be used for CD menus but also as a flexible user interface for kiosk computer terminals (e.g. on trade fairs, hotel lobbies or Internet cafes). This gives you the full control over the look and feel and protects the host system from unauthorized access. You can create any kind of front end using HTML and related technologies (CSS, JavaScript, Java, Flash, etc.) which is shown by Discstarter in a full screen window without borders on the kiosk terminal computer.

More information on Discstarter can be found at the vendor's Web site: http://www.mirabyte.com/en/products/discstarter.html

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4672.shtml

Hijacking Google Maps: It\'s Easier Than You Think

By: John Sylvester

Over the past week I have seen results for localised keywords return a Google map for organic search. As a test, I entered property searches and found from the list of "property companies", item B on Google's map showing MBK, which as their website's title shows, is a "Center of Fashion Mall & Shopping Plaza in Bangkok Thailand: MBK Center". This is a shopping mall and has nothing whatsoever to do with real estate or property in Bangkok. Except, of course, their premises is a property.

So how could a shopping mall in Bangkok be displayed in the listings of real estate? And why are organic search results being listed in the form of Google Maps? That is for Google to reason and us to find out. So I did.

One of the real estate companies at the top of these lists has deftly registering their website on Google maps for a myriad of related search terms and they now appear in the #1 position for all, even though in organic search they are at the bottom of the page. Tip: change the address.

This process has therefore leapfrogged them to the top of Google search. I also assume that as the other real estate actors begin to notice what is happening, all will soon register their sites with Google maps in order to gain placement. And the quicker they do it (if my assumption is correct that it's first come, first served) the higher they will be listed.

The first thing to be clear about is that Google will initially check your phone number and reference with your registration, but companies that are cheating the system use different addresses thereafter to circumnavigate all verification. They do not check that a company does not have six to ten offices, all with different search terms, next door to one another.

Then I read blumenthals.com. What a lark they've had with Google.

The author had spoken with one of the florists in San Francisco that had been hijacked in Google Maps and the first thing he noted about this site was that the site owner estimated that his business was off 30% for the weeks of the hijacking. He commented: "That is a significant number that demonstrates the power that Google has conferred on local search."

He continued: "Every small business thinks that if they could only operate like the IBMs, Microsofts or Apples of the world, they would have their act together on these new marketing angles. If like, IBM et al, Podesta Baldocchi were on top of these details they could have prevented this hijacking.

"I wondered if that was in fact the case so I decided to see if some of the major Fortune 500 companies had in fact claimed their records and avoided the possibility of hijackings. Microsoft came to mind first. I grabbed one of their listings in Redmond and was able to change the location, url and their business name. Microsoft even managed to gather a spammy review in its short life as an escort service. Out of a sense of fair play, I changed it back although Google has not yet done so. I wasn't sure that that Microsoft or Google would appreciate my sense of humor."

On the blog he has screenshots of "Microsoft Escort Service", "Microsoft Corporation" registered at 1 Microsoft Way and last, to my delight, "Google Inc" as he discovered in the course of his investigation that "many of Google's local listing had been claimed and locked down, but not all had."

It appears that most businesses had better register and claim their very own Google Map, else someone is going to get in before you them and be at the top of organic search. That is if Google aren't embarrassed enough to end this crazy practice and put Google Maps on Google Maps, not at the top of organic search. That or get the title deeds or rental agreements faxed to them to verify.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4704.shtml

Stock Army Icons for Shooting Games and Web Sites

By: Victor Ivlichev

Developing a great new military game? Making a Web site for military fans? You'll need images for toolbars, application images, navigation images and logotypes. Get military icons from a design studio, and you'll have to spend hours specifying images, wait days and weeks for the images to arrive, and spend hundreds of dollars for just a few icons.

Or you can skip the design studio and order an instantly available set of army icons. Over a hundred icons of various military and army icons are available from http://www.vista-style-icons.com/libs/military-icons.htm in Military Icon Set for less than thirty dollars. With images such as Aim icon, Arrow icon, Maps icon, Dragon icon and Alert icons, the library of military icons can enhance any war game, weapon collector Web site or army portal. Using stock images from the Military Icon Set saves the worry of ordering custom-made images, reduces total expenses and speeds up project development.

Military Icon Set offers over a hundred images in a variety of resolutions and formats. Raster images are provided in 16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48, 128×128, and 256×256 pixel resolutions, with vector images in 3DS Max format available for a fee. 256-color and 32-bit versions are supplied with every order. All True Color military icons are offered with and without a shadow, and include semi-transparency mask for smooth edges. All military icons are provided in GIF, PNG, BMP, and ICO formats for quick integration with Web sites and software.

All military images from the Military Icon Set are designed to match Windows Vista style, and drawn in strict accordance with current Microsoft guidelines. Army icons such as Soldier icon, Army icon, Maps icon, Fire icon, Star Wars icon, Radar and Helmet icons are included. Small resolution images can be instantly used in toolbars and dialogs, while the largest size of 256×256 pixels is perfect for logotypes and Web headboards.

Army icons from the Military Icon Set can be previewed online at http://www.vista-style-icons.com/libs/military-icons.htm. After ordering military icons, you'll get exactly what you see almost immediately. All images from the Military Icon Set are royalty-free, which means that you can use the images in as many applications and Web sites as you with without asking for permissions or ordering extra licenses.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4680.shtml

Freelancers – A New Breed of Online Independent Workers

By: Anil Vij

A freelancer is someone who earns money by selling his or her services to several different organizations rather than being employed by any particular concern. The term was iconized by Alexander Dumas in his classic “The three Musketeers.”

The IT era has opened up a haven of opportunities to freelancers to work from the comfort of their homes. The idea is catching up like a wild fire and more and more business houses are outsourcing jobs to freelancers. Any desk job can be got finished by freelancers. There are no limitations to the quantum of jobs that can be entrusted to a freelancer. The pre-requisites for awarding a job can be decided by the employer and the employee can also put in reasonable norms.

Just like any professional, the fees of freelancers also vary depending on their qualification, work experience, references and the quality of completed assignments. However, the modes of payments can be worked out by both the parties through mutual consent. Well established freelancers may demand for an upfront for fixed price assignments. Sometimes there may be a contract detailing out all the specifications of the job including deadlines, payment modes and even submitting progress reports.

Free lancers are also referred to by the term ‘independent contractors.’ The availability of talent has made more organizations to seek freelancers to get their jobs finished in time. The fierce competition and the absence of a trade union umbrella compel freelancers to turn out quality output meeting with deadlines. However, there are groups of freelancers who form a team of their own to complete jobs that involve large volumes. Such association only improves the quality and turnaround time and is in fact a boon to buyers who are forced to spend time searching for providers. Being associated with a team benefits the vendor also to a great extent. Other team members who are better at finding jobs can do the job search part while the remaining can concentrate on assignments.

The advance of the internet has opened up a whole new arena of opportunities to both the provider and the buyer. Many sites have come up that specialize in providing freelancer services. Job seekers as well as prospective employers flock to such reputed directories to find better results. A good website that acts as a rendezvous for the buyers of services and the providers is in much demand and millions of bucks are generated through the system.

The freelancing system has revolutionized the labor norms for skilled jobs while standardizing many accepted rules of developed nations.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4709.shtml

10 Tips for Capturing e-Learning Audio

By: Al Lemieux

Using audio in your online course is an extremely important factor in engaging your audience. Studies have shown that courses without audio are less compelling and memorable than courses with audio. Either used as a narration or for directions, audio – done the right way – can greatly enhance your e-learning materials.

Help with Audio for Online Course Developers

Audio engineering and the knowledge it takes to adequately capture, edit, and clean up audio to achieve a quality output is a task that is typically beyond the skill set of most online course developers. The average course developer has little if any knowledge of sampling rates, frequencies, modulation, compression schemes and other audio engineering concepts.

The goal of this article is to provide you information on how to get the audio in a format suitable for an e-learning course-authoring tool. The article will focus on capturing and editing audio at the basic level and certainly, the 10 tips listed below should help get you moving in the right direction.

1. Microphones

For narration, you’ll need to use a microphone to capture the voiceover. Sure, your laptop or PC might have a built-in microphone, but you probably don’t want to end up sounding like the broken drive-thru speaker at your local fast food restaurant. There are several microphones to choose from and they are made specifically for different purposes.

Dynamic Microphones are the ones you commonly see being used by rock stars in concerts. They have a ball-like shape as the head. These mics are omni-directional, meaning that they can pick up sound from a wide area. The Shure SM-58 microphone is an example of a dynamic microphone and has a consistent quality and dynamic range that makes it useful for all types of applications.

Condenser Microphones, unlike dynamic microphones, have a capacitor inside that requires them to be powered by a source – either battery or A/C. These microphones are often found in recording studios, used in live concerts, and are commonly found in lavalier mics (the kind you attach to a shirt or lapel). These mics are uni-directional, meaning that they capture a more narrow area of sound. Because of their power requirements, their voltage output can vary. The Neumann KMS-105 is an example of a condenser mic.

You may also find a Headset Microphone, which plugs directly into your computer’s input source and output source, so you can hear what you say as you are recording. Most of the microphones on these headsets have a noise cancellation function built into them. This causes unnatural sounding silences between phrases. The audio quality from these types of microphones tends also to sound blown out as the microphone position is very close to the mouth. That makes higher frequencies tend to sound noisy and lower frequencies sound poorly.

Built-In Microphones have the tendency to pick up any noise generated by your computer during use. This means any hard-drive motion, cooling fans, operating system sounds, and room ambience. These microphones are usually engineered to pick up the widest area of sound for situations like web conferencing and chat room sessions. The audio quality is usually poor and the microphones do not have sophisticated features like noise canceling or balancing. If at all possible, you should avoid using the built-in microphone for your audio input source.

2. Distance from Microphone

I’m sure you’ve all seen the rock videos or American Idol, where the rock stars have the microphone jammed up against their mouths as they are singing. So most people feel they need to do the same when recording narration. What the rock stars have to their advantage is a sound limiter that cuts off frequencies above a certain range. The maximum output is policed by this device to prevent any unwanted feedback or squelch, because the frequency is automatically limited. Most likely, your simple setup won’t have this capability.

One thing you can do to prevent any unwanted sounds in your narration, is to position your mouth about 6 to 12 inches away from the microphone and speak directly into the microphone, not away from it, to either side, nor in front of it. The best audio signal will be a direct path from your mouth to the microphone. If you start speaking into the microphone and then tilt your head downwards to read from a script, you’ll be able to notice the drop in the audio signal. If needed, hold your script up next to the microphone. Another tip: when reading from a script, don’t read across pages that you are turning or moving from one hand to another. Most microphones are sensitive enough to pick up all of that paper moving. If possible, have each page of the script segmented and keep them separated, not stapled or kept together with paper clips.

3. Use a Windscreen

A consistent frequency helps to produce the best audio. If you are looking at an audio waveform for the first time, you won’t be able to decipher it, but the peaks and valleys of each frequency can visually tell a lot about that sound. One thing that often happens, especially during narration recording, are pops that occur when saying words that begin with P or B. These pops go above the dynamic range and therefore, don’t sound anything like a P or a B but more like a popping sound.

A simple solution to this problem is a windscreen. Some engineers will wrap a wire clothes hanger with nylon stockings and place them in front of the mics in order to act as a low budget windscreen, but you can also buy them for less than ten dollars at your local music store. These are constructed out of a foam material and fit over your microphone.

4. Interfaces

So far, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about microphones but a majority of the mics recommended here won’t even plug in to your computers without adapters. Professional mics have an XLR connector, which has three pins. Most computers are made with eighth inch connectors. You can use Dynamic Microphones with an adapter connected to your computer without much of a problem. Condenser Mics, since they require power, won’t work even with an adapter.

There are interfaces specifically built for this purpose and they come in two flavors: USB and Firewire (IEEE 1394). Most PC manufacturers are including either USB 1.0 or 2.0 ports on their hardware. Firewire is more commonly found on Apple computers however, you can purchase Firewire cards for PCs. Firewire is faster than USB in certain applications and therefore is more desirable for audio input. There’s less latency on a Firewire connection than on a USB connection because of the performance speed.

Firewire comes in two flavors, there’s Firewire 400, which can transfer data at a rate of 400 MB per second, and Firewire 800, which doubles the speed to 800 MB per second. There are a wide range of musical digital interfaces out on the market today, and you can use either of these technologies to interface with a computer. M‐Audio has a line of both types including the ProFire 610 and the FastTrack USB.

These devices can run off of their intended connections and act as an audio input/output source for your computer to provide a professional recording result. At SyberWorks, we use an M-Audio Firewire 410 audio interface connected to two Shure-SM 58s for all of our narration. The 410 is a powerful choice because it offers multiple inputs and all of the audio controls necessary for level/gain and limiter/compressor. It also has XLR inputs and quarter inch inputs for microphones and instruments, and two headphone outputs. Connected to the 410 are two M-Audio BX8a monitors, which offer a much higher quality output sound than any built-in computer speaker.

5. Software

There are so many options for audio editing software, from the simple shareware/freeware to the professional level, that the determination of what to use might lie somewhere within your budget constraints. The basic audio recording tools that come with any Windows-based machine do not generate quality audio. Any Apple computer comes with GarageBand which is an excellent mid-level audio recording application. GarageBand is the step child of Apple’s Logic Studio and offers some pretty sophisticated tools for recording, editing, and delivering audio recordings on any platform.

Adobe has an audio recording/editing application called SoundBooth, which offers a variety of tools for cleaning up audio files and saving them in different formats. SoundBooth comes with the Creative Suite Production Premium or Master Collection. I recently used SoundBooth to record old cassette tape tracks as MP3 files so that I can burn the files to CD. I was able to use SoundBooth to clean up all of hissing sound on tapes and the audio quality was excellent.

Bias, Inc. has been in the audio production area for over a decade now and their flagship audio editing software, Peak Pro, is an award winning application. With a simple interface and a variety of effects and controls, Peak makes audio editing simple. I’m a long time user of Peak Pro and can say that it’s a stable, professional application that offers all of the tools that I need to edit the audio that I record. Combined with SoundSoap Pro, an audio cleaning application, Peak Pro can reduce noise, hiss, rumble, cracks and pops, and other unwanted sounds from any audio recording.

Here at SyberWorks, we use Peak Pro to record any narration for podcasts or courses and GarageBand to stitch together podcasts and teasers. GarageBand comes with some preset stingers and effects which are great for podcasts. It’s ridiculously easy to use. Once the file has been put together, it’s output as an AIFF file to iTunes. I then use iTunes to convert the sound to the MP3 format for delivery.

6. Normalize

During recording, audio levels can be mismatched creating undesirable results during playback. For example, recording from two different sources might produce two different volume levels. When played back, one source sounds softer and the other might sound louder, even though they were recorded in the same room on the same computer with the same hardware. This can be attributed to vocal style or audio input levels not being properly monitored.

To adjust audio levels across the board so that the volume is relatively consistent, most audio editing software offers some normalization option in which the audio levels are examined and a maximum and minimum range are then determined. Softer sounds are increased and louder sounds are decreased so that the overall sound level is more consistent.

If there is a stark contrast between the two input sources, then sound normalization might work against you. Softer sounds might have more sound introduced in them when the gain is increased. Be sure to check your audio input levels before recording. Try to get both sources to come up to the same decibel level prior to recording. If possible, show the input meter in your audio software to the speakers and try to get them to speak at a gain level about ‐5 decibels.

7. Ahh’s and Uhm’s

For some people, speaking into a microphone can be a little intimidating. You might hear a lot of Ahhh’s and Uhmm’s during a recording session. Some people naturally put these in their phrases because they are thinking about what they are going to say next. Others put them in out of nervousness. Others have lisp’s or emphasize S’s and Z’s. Still others smack their lips or breath heavy before talking.

When editing audio, the tendency might be to remove all instances of Ahh’s and Uhm’s. When separated from the rest of a passage, this is easy to do and is an effective way to make the entire sound file shorter. However, there are times when the Ahh’s and Uhm’s are rolled into other phrases and are difficult to separate.

The rule of thumb when editing audio is to remove whatever is bothersome, but keep the tempo of the original sound source and make it sound as natural as possible. Some people also take deep breaths between passages or have nasal sounds that are picked up by the microphones. Sometimes these can be removed and other times they can’t. Remove what you can, but try as much as possible to make the overall recording natural.

8. Cleaning Audio

Depending on how clean your input source is, you may have an audio track that is laced with hum or noise coming from a variety of sources, like an overhead fluorescent light, A/C noise, and other ambient sounds. SoundBooth and Peak Pro both have tools for eliminating these types of sounds from your audio input sources. As mentioned above, the rule of thumb still applies.

Some of these tools can end up making your audio sound very metallic and unnatural, more like a computerized version of the original. When using SoundSoap Pro, for example, the default settings for removing noise keeps all of the highs recognizable, while the mids and lows suffer from a dense computerized sounding quality. SoundBooth’s noise correction tools have the same issue, so if too much is applied, the result isn’t worth the effort.

There’s a balance to how much correction is applied to a sound versus the quality of the output. Sometimes, here at SyberWorks, we have to record voices over the phone. Sound quality from a phone line is always problematic, so invariably that sound will need to be cleaned up. Too much correction though, and the integrity of the voice is compromised. On the other hand, no correction will keep a lot of hiss and noise in the sound, which is undesirable.

9. Audio Formats

Depending on which authoring tools you are using and which platform you are on, you’ll need to know which audio formats to use. The major audio format for the PC platform is .wav, on the Mac platform it’s .aiff. Adobe Captivate and Microsoft PowerPoint both use the .wav format.

The most popular internet audio format now is .mp3, which has greater compression and better sound quality than other internet formats. Captivate uses MP3 compression in sound files for the final output. This makes the files smaller but they can suffer in quality, depending on the settings in Captivate. Native .wav files embedded in PowerPoint files can make those files enormous. Using iSpring, a PowerPoint to Flash converter, you can significantly reduce the file size of presentations and course materials intended for internet delivery.

SyberWorks Web Author has an additional tool called SyberWorks Web Audio which allows you to add streaming audio to courses that anyone can hear using just a web browser. Playback is accomplished through a small Sun Java applet that downloads automatically and quickly. It requires no additional plug-ins or server software. It has no firewall issues and can play in the background, without any visible controls on course pages, or with a small set of basic audio controls displayed.

SyberWorks Web Audio tool takes an audio file of the format .wav and compresses it into the SyberWorks audio format (.sa). It is then easily inserted into the word document by using the Add SyberWorks Audio template.

10. Compression

Depending on which tool you used during recording, you probably have an original audio source with a near CD quality (44 KHz) output. That quality is diminished as soon as the file is compressed. Too much compression and the sound quality is something like R2-D2 behind a large, metal door. Too little compression and the sound files become too large to transfer and play.

The factors involved in compression include bit rate and quality. The bit rate is the data stream target for your intended audience. The typical internet connection these days is at least DSL speed (128 KBps), but there still may be users at modem speeds of 56 KBps. Tools like Captivate will allow you to set the bit rate and quality for all the audio in your course. Therefore, when you save your files out of SoundBooth or Peak Pro, never add any compression. Let Captivate or your other e‐Learning tool do the compression for you.

Quality settings can also alter the file size. Lower quality files have higher compression and therefore are smaller, but sound worse. Higher quality files have less compression, sound better, but are larger in file size.

One tip is to try different compression levels and settings and listen to each output to find the one that is just right. It may be time consuming, but in the end, your e-learning product will be better for it.

Summary

We touched on a number of technical concepts in this article and there’s a lot more. Whatever tools you decide to use, incorporating better-sounding audio in your e-learning development is a great way to take them to the next level. Recording high quality audio can be challenging and fun. It may take some time to get used to, but it’s a skill that’s worth looking into.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/computers_and_internet/article_4776.shtml