Why Would You Want To Use Perl Scripts?

First let me tell you the history of Perl scripts and then I will go into why I think Perl is the best overall programming language that there is. Perl is a programming language created by Larry Wall in 1987. It is based mainly on the programming language C but also borrows features from many other languages. Many people new to this language think that it is written PERL and is an acronym but that is not the true name and is a way that “insiders” identify “outsiders” in this programming language’s world.

Perl was originally named “Pearl” after the parable of Jesus Christ in the Bible that talks about a man who found a pearl in a field and immediately went and sold all that he had in order to buy the pearl. Otherwise known as the story of “the Pearl of Great Price,” the pearl originally was a symbol for the kingdom of heaven something obviously of great value and it was this idea of great value that Larry named his language. Unfortunately Larry found that there was already a programming language named “pearl” and so he shortened the name to Perl. The original manual had a camel as the cover picture and the symbol of the camel has becomes Perl’s official symbol.

Although it is not an acronym it has become known as Perl – practical extraction and report language. This is a good description of the tasks that Perl scripts are good for that is data in the form of text that are found in lists, programs, etc. Because it is good at these things it has widely been used like glue in the programming world, that is it can be used as an interfacing language to run programs together that were not originally designed to be compatible. Its use on the popular LAMP platform for web development is an obvious application for these abilities to interface. This is a main reason why this should be of interest to you, the ultimate internet marketer. Other popular applications or in the informatics world where it can be used to manage large and complex databases.

Perl is either loved or hated. Those who hate on Perl scripts cite their ugly and “write only” format. This references the programming language’s complex use of punctuation and symbols, making its readability not the greatest and often such that you can’t go back and look at the code and easily understand what the programmer was intending. Those who love Perl talk of its ease of use and its wide range of application.

How to Find What You Want with Google

Most people who search on the internet have a favorite search engine. In fact, the majority of internet users choose Google.

Do you fall into this category? If so, are you taking advantage of everything Google offers?

If an internet search means you go to www.google.com and simply type 2 or 3 words into the search box, hoping to find what you're looking for, you aren't even scratching the surface.

How Can You Get Better Results?
Google is the number one search engine for good reason - their results are generally the most accurate. Even so, there are ways to pinpoint what you're looking for even more effectively.

You have two options when it comes to fine-tuning your searches - you can use the Google Advanced Search screen or you can use "modifiers" in the main Google search.

Option 1: Google Advanced Search
When you go to www.google.com, there is a little "Advanced Search" link to the right of the main search box. If you click on that, you'll get the much more detailed Google search, where you can make very specific requests.

The first four sections, highlighted in blue, are some of the most important. Here you can specify any of the following:

1. All of the words - this will give you results with all of your search words, but not in any particular order. They can also be anywhere on the page.
2. The exact phrase - this will give you results with exactly the phrase you enter. The phrase must appear on the page exactly the way you enter it.
3. At least one of the words - this will show results with any one or more of your search words on the page.
4. Without the words - this will give you results that don't include your search terms at all.

These four sections can be used independently or combined to work together.

For example, you could search for the exact phrase 'free virus software' without the words 'trial' or 'tryout' if you're looking for free virus software but don't want trial versions that will expire after a short time.

As another example, you could use option #3 (at least one of the words) if you're looking for something but don't know exactly how to spell it. Put a few possible spellings in and it will find pages with any one or more of those spellings.

The rest of the sections on the Advanced Search page are pretty self-explanatory. One that I will point out is the Domain option. You can specify a website and either search for something only on that site, or anywhere but that site.

If you've found an interesting website that doesn't have a search function of its own, you can use this to limit Google to searching that site for whatever you're looking for. In fact, the Google search is often better even if the site does have its own search function.

You can also use it to find other references to something you might have read on a particular website. If you search for it and exclude the site you saw it on, you'll find other references to it that you can cross-check.

Option 2: Using Modifiers
Modifiers will let you use all the advanced features without having to go to the Advanced Search page every time. These modifiers can just be entered in the standard Google search box to get the same results as the advanced options.

There are quite a few different modifiers that can be used, but some of the most useful are as follows:

Putting "" around a phrase will search for the exact phrase. Searching for free antivirus software will show you pages with those three words anywhere on the page. Searching for "free antivirus software" shows you pages that contain that exact phrase.

Putting a - before a word is the same as the advanced option "without the words." So, to use the example used earlier, searching for "free virus software" -trial -tryout will show pages with that exact phrase, not including the other two words.

Using site: followed by the domain name of the website you want to search will only return results from that particular website. For example, searching for "virus protection" site:computer-help-squad.com will only return results from the www.computer-help-squad.com website.

Again, these can be combined so -site: will return results from any site except the one you specify.

How to Figure Out the Modifiers
The easiest way to see how to use modifiers in your searches is to try some searches with the Advanced Search page and see how Google formats them.

Using our example again, if you enter 'free antivirus software' in the "with the exact phrase" box and the words 'trial' and 'tryout' in the "without the words" box, the search that Google runs looks like this:

"free virus software" -trial -tryout

If you play around a bit with the advanced searches, you'll see how Google formats them for you. Next time, you can just enter them yourself in the standard search box instead of going to the Advanced Search page.

Once you get the hang of these options in Google, you'll find that your searches get even more accurate because you can filter out the stuff you don't want.

Antennas - How They Work

It's probably not something many people are interested in unless they're some kind of an electrical engineer or just bored, but understanding how an antenna works can be useful when the one on your TV or radio goes south on you and the reason is beyond your comprehension.

Trying to explain how an antenna works in simple English is not an easy task as there are a lot of technical specifications that need to be explained. But a general understanding is possible without getting into tech speak that would make Einstein cringe.

In order for an antenna to work it has to radiate. Your antenna, whether TV or radio has what is called free electrons running through it. It is these free electrons that vibrate. The question becomes, how do these free electrons vibrate and what causes them to vibrate?

Well, in real life it takes an electric field to move an electron. If you take an isolated straight dipole, the power comes from the combined fields of all the charged particles, both positive and negative, in the antenna. We'll call this field the antenna's coulomb field.

In addition to this field, the antenna exhibits a magnetic field that is the sum of the magnetic fields of all the free moving electrons. The antenna also has a dynamic electric field that is the vector sum of the dynamic electric fields of all the free electrons. What we can do is separate the electric field of the antenna at any point in space into two components. One of the components will be in phase with the total magnetic field and the other will be 90 degrees out of phase. The in-phase component is the radiation field of the antenna and the out of phase component is the induction field. At the antenna, both fields are parallel to the metal surface.

What happens is that the coulomb field and the induction field fall off much more quickly than the radiation field as the distance increases from the antenna. When you reach distances greater than a few wavelengths from the antenna, you have what is called the antenna's far field. This field is pure radiation. As you get closer to the antenna you have what is called the antenna's near field. This field is a mixture of radiation, coulomb, and induction fields. Still with us? Great, we're getting to the good part.

What ultimately happens with all these fields that makes it so that your TV or radio picks up signals through your antenna is this. The free electrons moving through your antenna are moving at their maximum speed. The right hand half of your antenna accumulates electrons. The left hand half of your antenna is where the electrons depart and leave an excess of charged ions. The coulomb field produces an imbalance and opposes the electrons' rightward motion. The electrons then stop, coast for a bit and then head back towards the left. After they reach maximum speed they then stop and process is repeated, now heading back to the right. The result is a vibration of free electrons that heats the metal and in turn generates electromagnetic waves.

And that, in as simple English as possible, is how your antenna works.

ITIL: Understanding and Using IT Service Management

‘ITIL’ is a term that is fast gaining currency around the IT world. It is often wrongly described as ‘IT governance’ – in fact, on its own, it certainly isn’t this. ITIL is a collection of best practices that helps companies implement an IT Service Management culture. However, its growing popularity reflects the substantial impact it can make on a company’s IT and business performance and the fact that, in combination with other frameworks, it is a vital ingredient in creating true IT governance.

What is IT Service Management?
Today’s businesses are increasingly delivered or enabled using information technology. Business and IT management need guidance and support on how to manage the IT infrastructure in order to cost-effectively improve functionality and quality. IT Service Management is a concept that deals with how to define and deliver that guidance and support. In common with other modern management practice, it views things from the customer’s perspective, i.e. IT is a service that the customer or consumer receives. It can be made up of hardware, software and communications facilities, but the customer perceives it as a self-contained, coherent entity.

So what is ITIL?
Standing for ‘IT Infrastructure Library’, ITIL is a set of best practices that are at the heart of the IT Service Management approach. It provides guidance on how to manage IT infrastructure so as to streamline IT services in line with business expectations. ITIL is a best practice framework, presenting the consolidated experience of organisations worldwide on how best to manage IT services to meet business expectations.

ITIL was originally developed during the 1980s by the UK’s Central Computer and Technology Agency (CCTA), a government body, which created ITIL version 1 as an approach to incorporating various vendor technologies and serving organisations with differing technical and business needs. CCTA has now become part of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which, as official publisher of the ITIL library, updated it, published version 2 and continues to develop and support it.

ITIL has since become widely adopted across the world in both public and private sectors and is recognised as best practice, being deployed in organisations of all shapes and sizes.

What makes up the ITIL Library?
ITIL documentation consists of seven ‘sets’ or ‘volumes’: Service Support, Service Delivery, ICT Infrastructure Management, Security Management, Planning to Implement Service Management, The Business Perspective and Applications Management.

Of these, Service Support, Service Delivery and Security Management are considered the central components of the ITIL framework, covering vital issues such as Incident Management, Configuration Management, Change Management, IT Service Continuity Management, Availability Management and IT Security Management.

Learning about ITIL
The seven ITIL volumes are published by The Stationery Office, the official publisher of the UK government, and are available from http:// www.itgovernance.co.uk/catalog/23 . In addition, to gain an overview and a sense of how to navigate these, it is helpful to consult one of several recommended introductory texts. ‘Foundations of IT Service Management Based on ITIL – An Introduction’ is widely accepted as the best starting point and self-study guide. ‘Implementing Service and Support Management Processes – A Practical Guide’ is a thorough and comprehensive handbook on the subject, while the ‘itSMF Pocket Guides’ provide a good overview of each of the ITIL components. These supporting texts may be obtained at http:// www.itgovernance.co.uk/catalog/7.

Getting certified
Part of the reason for the recent growth in ITIL awareness is the publication in December 2005 of a new global standard to which businesses can become certified. ISO 20000 (or ISO/IEC 20000:2005, to give it its correct name) is closely based upon the pre-existing British standard BS15000 – in fact, it is virtually indistinguishable. The standard comprises two parts: ISO/IEC 20000-1 is the specification for IT Service Management against which an organisation’s practices can be certified; ISO/IEC 20000-2 is the 'code of practice’ that describes best practices and the requirements of Part 1.

BS15000 has become widely used around the world since it was published in 2003 and was adopted virtually unchanged as the national standard in Australia and South Africa. A number of companies across the USA, Europe and Asia have already become certified as BS 15000 compliant. We also recommend several excellent books that provide guidance on achieving BS15000/ISO 20000 compliance.

Upon the publication of ISO 20000, BS15000 was withdrawn and individual standards and certification bodies are drawing up their own formal transition programmes for conversion to the new standard. Companies already holding BS15000 should encounter no difficulty in converting their certification to the new standard, as this should be one of the considerations addressed by the individual certifying bodies.

Practitioners can also pursue a structured programme of ITIL examination and certification, comprising the ITIL Foundation Certificate, ITIL Practitioners Certificate and ITIL Managers Certificate. Examinations and certification in Europe are managed through two independent bodies: EXIN, the European Examination Institute for Information Science; and ISEB, the Information Systems Examination Board. Between them, these two organisations control the entire certification scheme. In the United States, HDI is a principal organiser of examination and certification, and it and similar organisations provide coverage elsewhere around the world. These organisations ensure that personal certification is fair, honest and independent of the organisations that provide the training, and accredit training suppliers to bring about a consistent quality of course delivery.

ITIL and IT Governance
When combined with certain other frameworks, ITIL makes a major contribution to the creation of effective IT governance. ITIL processes can be mapped to CobiT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) processes, and the two frameworks complement each other nicely: if the CobiT control framework tells the organisation ‘what’ to do in the delivery and support areas, ITIL best practices help the organisation define ‘how’ to deliver these requirements. Similarly, ITIL works very effectively with ISO 17799, the international code of best practice for information security, providing guidance on how to manage the various processes that ISO 17799 prescribes.

By drawing upon these three complementary frameworks as appropriate to its needs, an organisation can establish an IT governance regime that delivers real and lasting competitive advantage to its business.

Wireless Networks: How Do They Work?

Wireless networks use radio waves instead of wires to transmit data between computers. Here's how:

The Binary Code: 1s and 0s
It's well known that computers transmit information digitally, using binary code: ones and zeros. This translates well to radio waves, since those 1s and 0s can be represented by different kinds of beeps. These beeps are so fast that they're outside the hearing range of humans.

Morse Code: Dots And Dashes
It works like Morse code, which is a way to transmit the alphabet over radio waves using dots (short beeps) and dashes (long beeps). Morse code was used manually for years via telegraph to get information from 1 place to another very quickly. More importantly for this example, though, it is a binary system, just as a computer system is.

Wireless networking, then, can be thought of as a Morse code for computers. You plug in a combined radio receiver and transmitter, and the computer is able to send out its equivalent of dots and dashes (bits, in computer-speak) to get your data from here to there.

Wavelengths And Frequencies
You might wonder how the computer can send and receive data at high speed without becoming garbled nonsense. The key to wireless networking is how it gets around this problem.

First, wireless transmissions are sent at very high frequencies, which allows more data to be sent per second. Most wireless connections use a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (2.4 billion cycles per second) -- a frequency similar to mobile phones and microwave ovens. However, this high frequency produces a wavelength that is very short, which is why wireless networking is effective only over short distances.

Wireless networks also use a technique called "frequency hopping." They use dozens of frequencies, and constantly switch among them. This makes wireless networks more immune to interference from other radio signals than if they transmitted on a single frequency.

Internet Access Points
The final step for a wireless network is to provide internet access for every computer on the network. This is done by a special piece of wireless equipment called an access point. An access point is more expensive than a wireless card for 1 computer, because it contains radios capable of communicating with around 100 computers, sharing internet access among them. Dedicated access points are necessary only for larger networks. With only a few computers, it is possible to use 1 of them as the access point, or to use a wireless router.

Industry Standards
Wireless equipment from different manufacturers can work together to handle these complex communications because there are standards which guide the production of all wireless devices. These standards are technically called the 802.11. Because of industry compliance with these standards, wireless networking is both easy to use and affordable today.

Wireless Is Simple To Use
If all this talk of frequencies has you worried -- relax. Wireless networking hardware and software handle all of this automatically, without need for user intervention. Wireless networking, for all its complicated ability, is far simpler to use than you might expect.

4 Simple Tips To Fix A Scratched Cd Or Dvd

In this article I will be showing you four little known tips to fix scratched CD or DVD and recover the data within, Every user has had trouble with a scratched CD or DVD. The theory goes like this - A CD/DVD reader or player uses a laser beam to read the data on the disk. This laser beam crosses the protective plastic layer and reads the real recording metal layer. If the protective plastic layer is scratched, the laser will be unable to pass resulting in non-readable disc. In the case of data CDs the CD/DVD reader is unable to read the CD/DVD properly resulting in reading errors while in case of audio/video discs, the CD player skips when we play it.

If somehow we manage to re-smooth this protective layer then the laser will reach the data and read it, now there are many ways we can achieve this using common household item’s as discussed below:

1. Toothpaste - Yups! Toothpaste is our very first scratched CD/DVD fixer, you can use any non-gel based toothpaste for this, just put a very small amount of it on the scratched area and polish it gently using a cotton swab, sometimes the paste may cause new minor scratches but they are just superficial. Now just wash the cd using water.
2. If the above trick does not work try some metal polish like Brasso gently wiping with a soft cotton ball followed by application of Vaseline.
3. Baking Soda - make a small quantity of baking soda paste and apply using a soft cotton cloth buffing the bad scratch. Clean the baking soda before using the disc.
4. You can also try using some oil as a polishing agent this also works many times.

There are many daily use products that can be used to get the cd working just keep on experimenting, please note that you must take special care while using the above tips as

How Do Atomic Clocks Work?

If time is crucial to you or your office, consider investing in atomic clocks so that everyone knows exactly what time it is and everyone has the same time. These are the most accurate time keeping pieces you can get, and more and more businesses are using atomic wall clocks to make sure that accurate time sheets and appointments are kept.

But what are atomic clocks and why are they so much more accurate than regular clocks? A standard clock, whether wind-up, electric or battery operated, counts time by the number of “ticks” that a resonator makes. The resonator is the device that actually keeps track of time. In most clocks the resonator is either a swinging pendulum or (in digital clocks) oscillations in the power line (which is a bit different in the U.S. and in Europe).

Atomic clocks also use a resonator, but the resonator counts based on the resonance frequency of atoms. Resonance is the emission or absorption of microwave electromagnetic radiation by an atom. It is very regular, and no matter which atom of cesium used, the frequency of resonance is always exactly the same. This is why atomic clocks are so much more accurate than other clocks – the resonators in other clocks can be affected by lots of variables like temperature, moisture and atmospheric conditions. None of these affect the atoms, so the atomic clocks never lose or gain time.

Synchronization of Atomic Clocks
The reason all atomic clocks show the same time anywhere you go is because they don’t each have their own cesium atom – this would be impossible because it’s incredibly expensive and requires very precise conditions. Atomic clocks are actually receiving the time from a shared location where one of the world’s few of the world’s atomic clocks operates. A low –frequency radio signal broadcasts the time from that location to all atomic clocks within its range. There are currently approximately 200 atomic clocks world-wide in sixty countries.

In the United States, most atomic clocks used for home and offices are synchronized to the National Institutes of Standards and Technology atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado. The other official atomic clock is at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. and is the official time clock of the Department of Defense. Since both of these atomic clocks are within one second of each other over a million years of time, it is unlikely that time displayed on atomic wall clocks at the Pentagon will differ from the time displayed on an atomic clock in your home office!

How Do At-Home Clocks Get the Information from Master Atomic Clocks?
Global positioning satellites (GPS) in the skies above us transmit the signals from the official atomic clocks to individual receivers in atomic wall clocks and desk clocks all over the world. In other countries, the signal would come from whichever clock is the official atomic clock for that region, just as the one in Boulder, Colorado is the one for the United States.

These amazingly accurate atomic clocks are also responsible for the fact that all computers with built-in clocks are synchronized and accurate and keep time whether on or off. With such accurate time keeping and the use of GPS, you can be sure that your atomic clocks will let you know exactly what time it is, down to the nano-second!

Wireless Internet Terminology - Confusion Or Clarity?

Wireless Internet Terminology, like many things in life, especially those that have anything to do with computers is filled with terminology. But like most things, once you learn a few of the basic terms, understanding will come quickly. So don't be confused get informed and to help clarify, I've put together a basic wireless "internet-to-english" guide to help you along.

IEEE - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The IEEE is in charge of the wireless networking standard, as well as many other computer-related standards - including the Ethernet standard. They ensure that computer equipment made by different manufacturers can work together.

PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
Simply another standard for how to plug credit card size devices into a laptop computer to boost it's capabilities. It's been suggested by some that it should stand for "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms". PCMCIA is a great way of adding wireless networking to your laptop as easily as inserting a disk.

PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect
Used to install devices like graphics cards and network devices inside your computer. You would be using a PCI, if you wanted to install a wireless card inside your computer.

802.11
Set by the IEEE, it's the current wireless networking standard. It helps ensure that wireless devices can communicate with one another or in other words - they are interoperable.

Interoperable
Simply means that two different pieces of equipment have the ability to speak to each other or another way to put it - they are compatible. They can use them together because they were designed using the same standards. Because of the IEEE and the principle of interoperability, all wireless equipment you purchase should be compatible.

Driver
Not a piece of golf equipment but computer software that informs a computer how to talk to devices that plug into it. Most wireless networking drivers come on a CD-ROM. You then download the drivers from the CD onto your computer.

Ethernet
Currently, the most common way of connecting to a LAN or Local Area Network. Most wires connected to your computer today are ethernet and if you have a cable internet connection an ethernet wire is in all likely-hood, what is being used to connect to your modem.

USB - Universal Serial Bus
A port used for connecting all sorts of devices to a computer, including keyboards, a mouse, printers, external hard-drives and basically anything else you can think of. If you don't have a laptop or want to open up your computer you can get a USB wireless device.

WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy
No longer used because in 2001 it was found to have security issues. As a result, it is now the old standard for encrypting wireless networks.

WPA - WiFi Protected Access
The new standard for encrypting wireless networks. An upgrade of WEP to fix security issues. To avoid becoming vulnerable, a WPA encrypted network changes encryption methods often. In addition, if an attack is detected, it has the ability to shut itself down for thirty seconds.

PAN - Personal Area Network
A network of devices connected together in one small area. A simple example of a PAN would be your computer, USB keyboard and mouse. Using a technology called Bluetooth, a PAN can be wireless.

LAN - Local Area Network
Briefly mentioned above, LAN is a computer network that... generally speaking is confined to one building, such as a home or office. A wireless LAN is also known as a WLAN.

MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
A network that covers a larger area, like a city or town. They are expensive but a wireless MAN has the capacity to spread Internet access across a wide area. Many college universities set-up a MAN to connect the entire campus.

WAN - Wide Area Network
A network that covers or connects to more than one physical site. A simple example would be a business that has locations in different cities, states or countries and they need them each location connected on the same network. The Internet itself is a WAN... the biggest WAN in the world.

Mbps - Megabits Per Second
Not to be confused with MBps, megabytes per second. Mbps is measurement of connection speed. There are eight megabits in a megabyte.

GHz - Gigahertz
One gigahertz is one billion cycles per second... it's a measurement of frequency. If the term sounds familiar it's probably because it's also used to measure the processing speed of the CPU on your computer, which is also measured in gigahertz.

Linux
A popular and growing alternative operating system to Windows. Linux is a less bulky, more efficient operating system in many ways than Windows and not to mention - it's free. Many servers run Linux for this reason. Computers running Linux can run many programs and connect to the Internet without needing Windows. Many wireless devices run Linux or are compatible with it.

Category 6 Cable: A Category above the Rest!

Today's bandwidth expectations mean that Category 5 is strategically dead. The Category 5 Enhanced (5e) standards, which should have been ratified in August and may be finalized at November's committee meeting, specify new measurements that provide more margins for 100BaseTX and ATM-155 traffic. Critically, Category 5e standards make reliable Gigabit Ethernet connections possible. But many structured cabling suppliers argue that Category 5e is only an interim solution on the road to Category 6, which will support at least 200 MHz; in the interests of sufficient operating margin, the IEEE is requesting a 250-MHz Category 6 specification. Despite the fact that the Category 6 standards are only at draft stage, manufacturers are offering a host of products and claiming that these products comply with the draft proposals.

What is a category 6 cable? Out of the three cable categories (Cat-5, Cat-5e & Cat-6), Category 6 is the most advanced and provides the best performance. Just like Cat 5 and Cat 5e, Category 6 cable is typically made up of four twisted pairs of copper wire, but its capabilities far exceed those of other cable types because of one particular structural difference: a longitudinal separator. This separator isolates each of the four pairs of twisted wire from the others, which reduces crosstalk, allows for faster data transfer, and gives Category 6 cable twice the bandwidth of Cat 5! Cat 6 cable is ideal for supporting 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and is able to operate at up to 250 MHz. Since technology and standards are constantly evolving, Cat 6 is the wisest choice of cable when taking any possible future updates to your network into consideration. Not only is Category 6 cable future-safe, it is also backward-compatible with any previously-existing Cat 5 and Cat 5e cabling found in older installations.

Category 6, (ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-1) is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that is backward compatible with the Category 5, category 5e and Category 3 cable standards. Cat-6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise. The cable standard is suitable for 10BASE-T / 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) and is expected to suit the 10000BASE-T (10Gigabit Ethernet) standards. It provides performance of up to 250 MHz.

The cable contains four twisted copper wire pairs, just like earlier copper cable standards. Although Cat-6 is sometimes made with 23 gauge wire, this is not a requirement; the ANSI/TIA-568-B.2-1 specification states the cable may be made with 22 to 24 AWG gauge wire, so long as the cable meets the specified testing standards. When used as a patch cable, Cat-6 is normally terminated in 8P8C often incorrectly referred to as “RJ-45" electrical connectors. Some Cat-6 cables are too large and may be difficult to attach to 8P8C connectors without a special modular piece and are technically not standard compliant. If components of the various cable standards are intermixed, the performance of the signal path will be limited to that of the lowest category. As with all cables defined by TIA/EIA-568-B, the maximum allowed length of a Cat-6 horizontal cable is 90 meters (295 feet). A complete channel (horizontal cable plus cords on either end) is allowed to be up to 100 meters in length, depending upon the ratio of cord length: horizontal cable length.

The cable is terminated in either the T568A scheme or the T568B scheme. It doesn't make any difference which is used, as they are both straight through (pin 1 to 1, pin 2 to 2, etc). Mixed cable types should not be connected in serial, as the impedance per pair differs and would cause signal degradation. To connect two Ethernet units of the same type (PC to PC, or hub to hub, for example) a cross over cable should be used, though some modern hardware can use either type of cable automatically.

Return loss measures the ratio of reflected-to-transmitted signal strength and is the single most difficult test to repeat with consistent results; at Category 6 levels, the difference between a pass and a fail can be the amount of bend in a test cord. Return loss is also causing headaches for connector manufacturers, because the RJ-45 system isn't up to the job. The final stumbling block with Category 5e ratification concerns the RJ-45 hardware; Category 6 is committed to RJ-45 for backward compatibility, but the ISO's proposed Category 7 system will have a new and as-yet-unspecified connector to accompany its revised cabling. Today, the return loss problem explains why manufacturers of Category 6 hardware, which is supposed to be interoperable, claim Category 6 performance only if you use the manufacturers' matched parts throughout a channel link.

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is working to complete a new specification that will define enhanced performance standards for unshielded twisted pair cable systems. Draft specification ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-10 specifies cable systems, called "Augmented Category 6" or more frequently as "Category 6a", that operates at frequencies up to 500 MHz and will provide up to 10 Gbit/s bandwidth. The new specification has limits on alien crosstalk in cabling systems.

Augmented Category 6 specifies cable operating at minimum frequency of 500 MHz, for both shielded and unshielded. It can support future 10 Gb/s applications up to the maximum distance of 100 meters on a 4-connector channel.

GPS Systems

Are you one of those people who would rather drive around town for hours than stop and ask for directions? If so, a Global positioning system, or GPS, could be the perfect tool for you.

A GPS is an operational navigational system that employs the use of navigational satellites. In other words, it tracks an individual's location or provides direction, all by using an existing satellite system. GPS units are also capable of providing real time reference on earth, or within its orbit.

The satellite navigation system was implemented and first used by the United States of America's Department of the Defense. Later, the system was adopted for use by other countries including Europe (Galileo) and Russia (GLONASS). In the United States, any US citizen may use the navigational system, free of charge.

The satellite navigational system is primarily divided into three segments:

• Space: As the name suggests, the space segment works from outer space. It operates through a GPS satellite constellation, located in an Intermediate Circular Orbit.
• Control: The control segment of a satellite navigational system is comprised entirely of control stations that are located on earth. These terrestrial control stations are scattered at locations around the world. These control the flight paths of the various GPS satellites, and synchronize the atomic clocks in the satellite. Ground stations also monitor the uploading of data through the satellite transmissions.
• User: The satellite navigational system is mainly made up of civilian and military GPS receivers.

A GPS is technically comprised of 24 satellites, the minimum number of satellites in a constellation. These satellites orbit around six orbital planes, twice in every twenty-four hour period. Each satellite carries an atomic clock, which continuously transmits precise time to the ground observatories located in the Earth. Additionally, the satellites send electronic messages to the earth. These messages may include data on precise time based upon the onboard satellite clocks, or information on their own orbital systems.

It's not necessary for the user to be equipped with the precise clock, however a good short term clock may be required in order to receive the satellite transmissions best used in determining the exact location on earth. Different satellites employ various sequencing modes, allowing the transmission of messages to be received by the user from satellites using similar frequencies.

The primary GPS system was created to provide control over the military forces in the United States. This allowed for improved command capability, as well as the targeting and manipulation of missiles, smart bombs and other forms of ammunition. The satellites are also able to detect nuclear detonators.

Civilian users can also access the GPS system through their GPS receivers and GPS system software. Many cities in highly urbanized countries have improved the lives of their citizens where access is available to the free worldwide GPS Standard Positioning Service. The transportation sector has greatly benefited from the system, as many planes, ships and cars employ GPS systems for navigation. Hikers, glider pilots, mine truck drivers and everyday travelers enjoy access to the GPS system through low cost GPS receivers, ranging in price from $100 to $200. GPS receivers that are more precise are widely used by land surveyors for measuring land surface area, locating boundaries and surveying markers.

Time code generators also rely on the GPS system to acquire accurate time for precisely recording events in real time. Developers are also working on specially created GPS systems that will help visually impaired individuals.

Another, more trendy use of GPS receivers is the widely popular hobby of Geocaching. Children and adults use hand held GPS receivers to navigate designated sites and locate hidden objects. There are countless Geocaches hidden all over the world, with coordinates available on Geocaching websites.

The GPS system has brought both excitement and simplicity to the lives of countless people, all over the world. Despite the complexity of the system, anyone with a GPS receiver can use the service, free of charge. So now you'll have no excuse for getting lost.

Hard Drive Data Recovery Doesn't Need To Be Hard

Hard drive data recovery can be a difficult topic for many new computer users. No one wants to believe that their data is lost, and most people have no idea how to get it back. Fortunately, there are data recovery services available that can help you with the overwhelming task of recovering your lost data. This article is intended to help you learn more about hard drive data recovery and how you can learn more.

A hard drive is a "non-volatile" storage space designed to hold data. The data is stored on a magnetic surface which is called a hard disk platter. There are many reasons why data can be lost from the hard drive, including the mechanics of the hard drive itself, and external problems. Most hard drives today have several moving parts which need to be carefully synchronized in order to maintain a constant spin rate, called RPM, inside your computer.

Modern hard drives have "SMART" technology, which stands for "self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology." All that means is that the computer will diagnose itself and be able to solve the majority of its problems, also that it corrects the motors and fans when needed, and lets you deal with using the computer instead of trying to maintain it.

In order to understand hard drive data recovery, it is essential to understand how data is lost from a hard drive. Let's define data loss as an unforeseen loss of data or information previously stored on your hard drive. Murphy's Law demonstrates only when it's too late that we should have been backing up our hard drive better. The best way to recover data is to never lose it in the first place, but that is a topic for a different article.

Data can be lost during a power failure, because there is unsaved data in the memory which is not yet been saved to the hard drive. Data can also be lost through a disk failure which can happen for a number of reasons, usually mechanical such as a crash in the hard drive machinery itself. Software can also crash on your computer, especially if you are using Microsoft products, and could lead to a loss of data on your hard drive. Viruses or other malicious software can corrupt your data and is one of the biggest reasons for data loss. Fortunately, today's technology provides a pretty good track record on recovering data from your hard drive.

The best thing to do is to look in your phone book or on the Internet for a local hard drive data recovery specialist. These are people who have been trained or have experience in recovering lost data and can be your best friends-especially in an emergency situation. There are many who specialize in hard drive data recovery and are happy to help you with your data recovery problems. The price they charge is normally a small price to pay if the alternative is losing your data forever.

Starting a Web Ssite – Steps to Success

Starting a successful website isn’t an easy task and requires a fair amount of planning before beginning the project. Here are a few simple tips that will get you on your way!

What type of website?
There are many types of websites you can create; such as Blogs, forums, directories, and galleries! It’s best to create a website based around something you enjoy and know about.

If you are launching a business website it’s a good idea to speak with a web design specialist, a professional looking website is key to a business’s online success. Don’t be afraid to invest a little, you will reap the rewards.

Choosing a Web Host
A reliable web host is important no matter you websites purpose, downtime and technical issues turn away many visitors, and isn’t worth pain. Budget is important but don’t be fooled by the web hosts that are practically giving their services away, they are often oversold and will result in problems with out a doubt.

Choose a web host that offers what you need at a reasonable market price, you will find the support level is often much higher as they can afford to pay quality staff.

Many web hosts offer the automatic installation of many great scripts such as content management systems, forums, galleries and much more!

Selecting your Domain Name
Ensure you get a domain name that matches your website! Have a think before you purchase, your web host will usually offer domain registration services bundled with your web hosting plan.

Getting Started
If you are unfamiliar with web design it’s a good idea to start a website based on some popular content management systems, you should find these options and software packages available in your web hosting control panel.  Install and become familiar with their operation.

Adding Content
Fresh, relevant content is important to any websites success; it will keep visitors coming back. Starting a forum is hard so it’s a good idea to get your friends / associates in on the project to generate some discussion.

Promote your website
It’s a good idea to get your link out there, submit to the search engines, and link from websites you visit. Once you are listed in the search engines your quality content should naturally draw users. For business websites paid promotion is a great way to generate business leads.

Following these steps is a great way to ensure your websites success; no project is easy so with a little work you can have a popular (and profitable) website of your own!

How to Build a Cat 5 Cable

STEP 1 - Stripping
Start by pulling out about 12 feet of bulk network cable to making the process a little easier. Carefully remove the outer jacket of the cable exposing about 1 1/4" of the twisted pairs. Be careful when stripping the jacket as to not nick or cut the internal wiring. After removing the outer case you will notice 8 wires twisted in pairs and a rip cord (white thread).

STEP 2 - Inspecting
Inspect the newly revealed wires for any cuts or scrapes that expose the copper wire inside. If you have breached the protective sheath of any wire you will need to cut the entire segment of wires off and start over at step one. Exposed copper wire will lead to cross-talk, poor performance or no connectivity at all. It is important that the jacket for all network cables remains intact.

STEP 3 - Preparation
To prepare the wires and to make them easier to work with, you can untwist the pairs so they will lay flat between your fingers. The white piece of thread can be cut off even with the jacket and disposed.

STEP 4 - Layout
Now based on the wiring specifications you are following you will need arrange the wires in a certain pattern. There are two methods set by the TIA, 568A and 568B. 568B is the most common network cables, widely used for computer networks and digital phone systems. So for our demonstration we will use that. Starting from the left-top side of the RJ-45 plug, the wiring should be in the order shown at the right.

STEP 5 - Jack Preparation
Again, press all the wires flat between your thumb and forefinger as shown in step three. Verify the colors have remained in the correct order. Using a pair of scissors, cut the top of the wires even with one another so that they are 1/2" long from the base of the jacket. Ensure that the cut leaves the wires even and clean; failure to do so may cause the wire not to make contact inside the jack.

STEP 6 - Wire Insertion
Ensuring that the wires remain flat and in order, push them into the RJ-45 plug with the flat surface of the plug on top. The white / orange wire should be on the left looking down at the jack. You can tell if all the wires made it into the jack and maintain their positions by looking head-on at the plug. You should be able to see a wire located in each hole, as seen at the bottom right. You may have to use a little effort to push the pairs firmly into the plug. The cabling jacket should also enter the rear of the jack about 3/16" to help secure the cable once the plug is crimped.

STEP 7 - Crimping
Now place the wired plug into the crimping tool. Give the handle a firm squeeze, you should hear a ratcheting noise as you continue. Once you have completed the crimp, the handle will reset to the open position.

STEP 8 - Testing
Once your new cable is completed, it is not a bad idea to test the cable to ensure that it will function in the field. It is vital that all eight wires have connectivity and are in the correct order. Mis-wired network cables could lead to headaches down the road. In addition, with power-over-ethernet making its way into the market place, crossed wire pairs could lead to physical damage of computers or phone system equipment; making it even more crucial that the pairs are in the correct order. A simple cable tester can quickly verify that information for you.

So You Wanna Be a Sys Admin

So you wanna be a sys admin but you don’t have a clue what it entails. Well, don’t fret my pet, I will cover the basis with you and educate you so you will make an informed decision.
Most students start their college years off without a solid understanding of their course of study. Book knowledge is great, but the real world is hands-on and you need to know the hands-on more than the books. The books can guide you, give you information, and be a great resource or reference. But, the grit of it all is from the experience and the years of knowledge. I know you heard it all before.

So what does it take to be a systems administrator? Well, it actually takes years of experience, but from the start, it should take passion. You should enjoy the work of a sys admin. The day to day operation of a sys admin consists of problem-solving, troubleshooting, maintenance, installation, configuration, and management of a wide range of systems. Depending on your level of skill and the position which you have taken on, you may support multiple operating systems, such as: Linux, Unix, Windows, etc. The truth of the matter is you should always stay well within your comfort zone when seeking employment, you can always teach yourself more advanced technologies as you progress in your area of expertise. Staying within your comfort zone will make you a master of your domain and can expose you to new avenues of interest.

Problems which may arise on a day to day as a sys admin can include system failures, application errors, hardware issues, server maintenance, data or system recovery, etc. As a sys admin it is your job to keep all computer systems up and running at all times. It is also your responsibility to monitor the systems before its point of failure and therefore perform preventative maintenance for the software and hardware of each system. You are responsible for maintaining proper file structure, security permissions, systems upkeep, systems inventory, and systems functionality. As a sys admin you are the front-line defense and you should take initiative in recommending software and hardware purchases for your organization.

A sys admin job is not hard work as long as you have the right tools and you know how to use them. A good sys admin uses tools to assist and aid in the proper maintenance of systems. These tools can include remote administration tools, system/network monitoring tools, security tools, troubleshooting tools, disaster recovery tools, etc. A good sys admin is also very resourceful and can usually find help or answers to even the most complex issues. These resources include the internet, computer or technology books, peers, and developer support personnel. An experienced sys admin knows how to multi-task and has the ability to tackle multiple issues in a cordial manner. An experienced sys admin also knows how to handle stressful environments and situations, which is usually the nature of the business. The burnout rate and stress levels of sys admin work has greatly diminished over the years as technology has become more advanced and the availability of tools and resources increased, but the job of a sys admin still has its days and can still be stressful or overwhelming for the novice. The best way to alleviate or reduce stress in the workplace is to take a break and relax your thoughts. Let your mind go free and take a deep breathe. Come back into your work area with a fresh mind and prepared to tackle the problems one at a time. Always remember computers can only do what a human has told it to do! So, if there is a problem then logically thinking will possibly find the answer. A computer does not have a mind of its own, so something logical has caused it to fail.

A systems administrator job is never done, there is always room for improvement in any organization. Most companies are flying by the seat of their pants and are at the mercy of their sys admins. The sys admin is usually an unseen force in the company (in the eyes of the clients/customers), because a sys admin operates in the background, behind the scenes. Though, being an unseen force, the company’s success and overall existence depends greatly on the work of the sys admin. Without proper maintenance and management of a company’s computer systems there is no telling where that company would be!

Hang Up The Phone And Fix It Yourself

Information technology (IT) problems can be one of the most frustrating problems facing both homeowners and small business owners. For many, the source of this frustration is problems with the Internet connection. Both homeowners and small business owners rely on their Internet for their daily activities and when there is a problem with their connection it can delay business. They usually do not have a dedicated, onsite IT staff and often have nowhere to turn except the customer service department of their Internet service provider (ISP). Although the customer service department may be knowledgeable and helpful, they are also usually small in number compared to the customers with questions or problems. This can mean minutes or even hours spent on hold waiting to ask a question. Fortunately there is a better solution. With a little bit of education, these same homeowners and small business owners can learn to fix some of the simpler problems so they won’t be put in the position of being reliant on customer service. This article will illustrate some of the common Internet problems and offer suggested solutions for these common problems.
Homeowners and small business owners who depend on email for imperative communications may be troubled by difficulties when email functions aren’t working properly. Before picking up the phone and dialing customer service there are a few things the individual can try for themselves. Not being able to open attachments, receive or send emails are just a few of the common problems.
If an attachment is not opening properly it may mean the user is trying to open the application in an incorrect program. Try opening the document in a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad. If this doesn’t work contact the individual who sent the email and ask them the application used to create the attachment. If the correct application is available, try saving the attachment and attempting to open it with the, "Open with," option. This is available by right clicking on the file name. An alternative solution would be to set the correct application for the default for the particular file extension. This can be changed through the "File Types" tab of the folder options dialogue box.
Difficulty sending or receiving emails may involve more complex analysis. There are, however, still a few simple things to check before contacting customer service. If both sending and receiving emails are problematic, one of the most common errors is not actually being connected to the Internet. Verify the connection was made and if it is found to not be valid, attempt to reconnect. If sending is not an issue but receiving is, there may be an email with a large attachment attempting to come through. This can be difficult and may create delays in receiving emails. If this problem is suspected, accessing email through a web application may be helpful. The attachment can often be saved to the hard drive through the web application. There may also be problems with sending emails while there are no issues with receiving. If this is the case, it is often useful to verify the user name and password for SMTP authentication is correct. Both the user name and password can be case sensitive.
Viruses are another problem faced by homeowners and small business owners. If a virus is suspected or an email recipient had a virus transmitted from your account, it is possible the computer has been affected by a virus. This may be the result of non-existent virus detection software, virus detection software which has not been updated or a virus which was not recognized by the virus detection software was acquired. If the virus detection software is non-existent or not properly updated, it is time to install a program or update it. This may correct the problem. However, if it is not corrected by the installation or update of a virus detection program, contacting customer service may be required to ensure no further damage is done by the virus.
Not being able to access a particular website is another common problem. If this occurs and other websites are functioning correctly, verify the address is correct. If the correct address is being used, there may be problems with the host server. Wait an hour or so and attempt to access the website again. If no websites are accessible, there may be other problems. Try rebooting the computer and re-establishing the Internet connection. If this does not fix the problem, contact your ISP, they may be having problems which are affecting service for their customers. ISPs often update their voice message to indicate they are aware of the problem so it may not take long to find out if there is an existing problem.
Another common problem accessing websites may be the parental control settings. These settings may deny access to websites with adult or otherwise offensive content. The user can customize these settings to filter or allow access to any type of content they desire. If the user suspects this as the cause of the problem adjustments can be made to this setting in the "Content" tab of the Internet options dialogue box.
Although this list of common Internet problems is by no means conclusive, it does provide the reader with a few of the most common problems and possible fixes for these problems. This can give the homeowner or business owner a few tools for fixing their own problems before spending hours waiting for customer service.

Password Unification

Premise

“Just because you’re big doesn’t mean you have to be dumb.”

First let me point out I’m one of those life-long students. Not because if love college, but because I can never make up my mind on what I want to do. After making some big life changes I decided to take a full year away from school. Yesterday I attempted to register for this coming spring semester to get back on track. Interestingly enough my account has been disabled… sort of... This is where the fun starts.
I expected my account to be disabled, that isn’t the issue here. The problem is how it was disabled, and the messages which I received back from the University. First my account still worked to access class registration, and the University portal but my E-Mail had been completely locked out. This is the main point of my concern. If the university had a unified technology structure the login / password information would be centralized. An account disabled one place should be disabled across campus. Instead some departments disabled my account, and other left it running while I was gone. Worst some parts of the university left it partially running, but unusable.
Strange isn’t it? Why not completely disable my account rather then just PRETEND it works only to give me a nasty permissions error when I attempt to USE the portal which I am already logged into.


Rule #1

“Never let the user see the nasty error.”

Building an application or networked system on any level requires more then just getting the job done. A developer should take the additional time to build functionality for the unexpected. In my case there should have been two things.
A friendly message explaining why my account was disabled and directions on how to re-enable my account.


Rule #2

“Avoid the circle of death; take personal responsibility for the problem.”

First I talked to my counselor who said I should talk to computer services. Computer services told me to talk to the registration office. The registration office told me to talk to my counselor. FAIL, never ending loops are bad, not just in programming but in the real world.
This could have been avoided at each step, but instead the problem was passed onto someone else. All someone had to do was research the problem, and they would have known the problem has come up in the past. The eventually solution was to force someone to register my classes over the phone rather then using my account on the Internet.


Rule #3

“Record problems and make proactive steps to resolve known issues.”

I work in IT and I know how incredibility complicated things can get. But it’s important to always take steps to prevent the situation from coming up again. I am sure that I am not the first person to have their account disabled, and because no one is following rule three; I will likely not be the last. A few simple changes to the application would easily fix the problem, but no one cares enough to do anything about it. This means me, THE CUSTOMER, THE STUDENT, THE IDOIT, to run around trying to convenience people to do their job.

How To Set Up A Network In Your Home

Most modern homes have any number of computers, printers, faxes, music systems and devices. These are increasingly being integrated so that each device can 'talk' to all the others and interact with them. While many of the possibilities are still being explored, the best place to start for the average person is with a home computer network.

Basically, if you have more than one computer in your house you can connect them, with ethernet cables or wirelessly, so that you can share your internet connection, share files and operate peripherals such as printers from any terminal.

As well as more practical advantages, having a home network is also ideal for leisure activities like gaming. As the technology advances, it is now becoming possible to hook networks up to gaming consoles, music speakers and even televisions.

However, for the purpose of this article we will just start with the basics. The two main choices when setting up a home network are a cable network or a wireless network. These are fairly self explanatory. Wireless networks are increasingly becoming the norm these days and are very handy if you have a notebook so you can connect from anywhere in the house. Wireless also has the advantages of having no cables cluttering your home. However, if you want to simply connect two desktop computers, using an ethernet cable could be a cheap and easy option if you do not have wireless.

Connecting two computers
The most basic exercise in networking is simply connecting two computers. This is very simple if you do not have an internet connection. So long as the two computers have networking interfaces you can simply connect using an ethernet cable.

However, most computers produced within the last couple of years have Wi-Fi. If so, an ad-hoc wireless network can be created between the two computers by configuring both terminals to ad-hoc mode. This is pretty simple to do in both Windows and OSX.

Similarly, if the computers have Bluetooth or infrared capabilities you can create a basic network, although transfer speeds can be slow. Of all these options, the cable network will provide the best transfer speeds. However, Wi-Fi speeds are improving all the time.

While there is only a limited amount you can do with a basic two-computer network, it is good practice if you have never set up a network before.

Setting up a network router
If you wish to incorporate an internet connection into the network, as most of us do, you will need to set up your home network with a router. This will also allow you to add more computers to the network as well as peripherals.

However, this process is a good deal more complex. Nevertheless, it is doable and is a skill that is well worth having. Once you do this once it will be will be a breeze the next time.

While cable routers are still commonly used, wireless is the way of the future so we will concentrate on wireless routers for this article. Before you start, you should have a few things to hand. Your computer and your router, of course, instructions for your wireless router, an ethernet cable, and your ISP's contact details.

Your first steps are to plug in and turn on your router, connect it to your modem and to your computer (it is best to connect your computer and router by ethernet cable for the set-up process).

Now, you can use your browser to connect to your router's built-in installation software. The urls http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1 will usually open up your router's administration page. You do not need an internet connection for this. If this doesn't work, consult the router's instructions.

Log in to the administration page using the router's provided username and password, usually 'admin' and 'admin' by default. Now you will have to enter the following information:

• Internet connection information
• You may have to input PPPoE information
• You may possibly have to change the default MAC address

If you run into difficulty here consult your ISP's instructions or contact them. They will be able to guide you through this process.

When all the information has been inputted, save it. You should be ready to go now. All going well, your computer should have received an IP address from the router. Try opening your browser to see if you can address to some websites, any websites will do.

If you can access these websites you can unplug your cable and now connect wirelessly. Any other computers, notebooks and other wireless devices should also detect the signal and connect without any problems.

You now have a fully functional wireless home network. Be aware though that your network is most likely open and accessible from any computers in range of the signal so you should take steps to secure it. There is plenty of excellent information available on the internet on how to do this.

High Definition TV Resolutions: The Basics

What makes High Definition TV so great? Most HDTV watchers would tell you that it's simple: higher resolution. That's what sets HDTV apart from regular TV.

Regular television, or "standard definition" as it's also called, shows up to 480 pixels per line. It looks good if you've never experienced HDTV's higher resolution. With HDTV, the resolution depends on the source. There are two main source resolutions used in HDTV: 1080i and 720p.

1080i
1080i has a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. This is a major improvement over standard definition television. CBS, NBC, Discovery Channel's HD broadcasts, PBS and the Xbox 360 all use this resolution. Of course, you can watch these stations on a lower resolution TV set, but if you have a 1080i set, you'll get the better resolution.

Also, 1080i is in a widescreen format. This is another great feature of HDTV.

720p
720p has a lower resolution. It's 1,280 by 720 pixels. Even though it has a lower resolution than 1080i, the difference is not as noticeable as the difference between either one and a standard definition TV. 720p also has the widescreen format. ABC, Fox and ESPN's HD broadcasts all use this resolution.

720p's resolution is lower, but it has a feature called "progressive scan" that 1080i doesn't. Progressive scan makes the movement on screen more fluid and realistic. Progressive scan makes the image move more smoothly.

480p
There is also a 480p format, which Fox uses for its digital broadcasts, but it's technically not HDTV, although it can be viewed on HDTV's. It's 852 by 480 pixels, widescreen and has progressive scan. Fox is the only network that uses this resolution, but some DVD players use it because of the smoother movement of progressive scan.

1080p
There is a newer format called 1080p which has the high resolution of the 1080i with the progressive scan of the 720p, but no network uses it yet. It's mostly a resolution format that some HDTV's are made in. According to reviews, 1080p isn't very much different than 1080i. Unless you have a large TV, like something over 46 inches, there's no noticeable difference.

The 1080p might be good for serious HDTV nuts. It does enable manufacturers to add special features, like increased contrast or better color. Unless you have a really good eye, you might not notice these differences, though. And, the 1080p sets usually cost quite a bit more than the others. In the next few years, there will probably be more reasonably priced 1080p sets. It's expected that more networks will begin taking advantage of 1080p's resolution and possibilities and begin broadcasting in 1080p. If this happens, 1080p sets may become a better buy.

How to Install the Computer Network Efficiently.

For a computer network to give the best results, a lot of detailed planning and foresight is required before installation.

Firstly, an organisation needs to clearly define its requirements – how many people would use the network, how many would use it locally (within the office) and how many might require remote access (from a different location), how many computers and other devices (servers, printers, scanners) would be connected to the network, what are the needs of the various departments and who would be in charge of running/managing the network. It also helps if one can anticipate the direction the company would take in the near future so potential growth can be factored in during computer network installation.

The technology issues should also be ironed out in advance – hardware, software, servers, switches, back-up devices, cables and network operating systems. Make sure you have the required licenses to run the software on all your machines before installing a computer network. Alongside computer network installation should proceed ,the building of a dedicated technical support staff, either within your own organisation or outside consultants. Delegate responsibility clearly for network management. Before installing the network, you also need to choose the security mechanism to protect corporate data and keep viruses at bay.

The transition to a new or upgraded computer network can bring some teething problems. To minimise chances of confusion, the company might need to train its staff to make them familiar with the new system. Careful planning will to a large extent prevent crises like system downtime and network crashes.

How Plasma TVs And LCD TVs Differ

The buying of large-screen TVs has absolutely skyrocketed lately. It seems that everyone wants one – and with good reason. The large-screen TV has come a long way from those faded-out behemoths of old that took up half your living room and never really produced a picture of decent quality. Now, however, especially in combination with HDTV, you can get not only a nice, large picture, but a crisp, clean one too.

Once you decide that you’re ready for a large-screen TV, you quickly discover that you only really have two main options – a plasma TV or an LCD TV. Plasma TVs were first on the scene, but the recent mass production of LCD TVs by major manufactures has put LCD TVs pretty much on equal footing with plasmas. That said, you will still have to make a choice.

If you’re like most people, you not only have no idea how the two differ, you don’t even know the areas you should be considering in order to determine how they differ. But they do indeed differ, and knowing the difference is extremely important if you’re going to get the TV that’s right for you.

You can essentially boil the differences between plasmas and LCDs into twelve basic points. In some areas, plasmas will win out. In other areas, LCDs will win out. In yet other areas, it will depend on your own personal taste in order to decide who wins out.

The twelve ways plasma TVs and LCD TVs differ are the following:

1. The first is a technical issue, and may seem a little boring, but it really does affect other areas. Plasmas TVs are made of chemical compounds called phosphors. LCD TVs use millions of liquid crystals.
2. The next section is related to how big the TVs are and the availability of larger sizes. You have a wider selection of larger-size TVs with plasmas (though LCDs are catching up).
3. The next section is “small size,” which is also important. Plasmas don't come in smaller sizes, which you will need for places like the kitchen.
4. Next is viewing angle. Plasmas tend to have a wider viewing angle (though, again, LCDs are catching up).
5. Although the manufacturers may not like to admit it, each “can” suffer from certain problems. Plasmas can suffer from burn-in effect; LCDs don't.
6. Another problem area, but for LCDs, is “delay.” LCDs can produce a jagged figure when in motion. Plasmas tend to do better. HDTV improves this dramatically for both.
7. The next area is life span. You can replace the light source with an LCD, thereby bringing your original picture back. With plasmas you can't.
8. In the next few sections, the theme of “picture quality” is considered. First, color: LCDs produce sharp, lively colors. Plasmas produce warmer and more accurate colors.
9. Next is brightness levels and the TVs ability to handle different lighting. LCDs tend to do better in bright-light conditions.
10. Also related to picture quality is “black levels.” Plasmas tend to produce blacker blacks.
11. Another area to consider is contrast range. Plasmas, "technically," produce a higher contrast range.
12. Last, and certainly not least, is price. At the moment, plasmas tend to run a little cheaper, but this is changing rapidly as LCDs flood into the market. By the time you read this, in fact, there may be no difference at all

Essentially, which one is right for you will all comes down to taste: What potential negatives will you not really notice? What positives do you want more of? What do you really want the TV for – movies, sports, news, regular TV shows? Both plasmas and LCDs have strong advocates in their corners. Both have deliriously happy customers. But those happy customers are only happy because they knew what they wanted before they made their purchase. If you want to make the right choice, you’ll have to decide what it is you want and which of the two TVs can best give you that.

How To Secure Your Wireless Network

People have more flexible time due to wireless network. Thanks to the invention of wireless. People can now work from home while taking care of their kids or doing house works. No more stress from traffic jam anymore. Is this great?

Well, there is something you should realize. Working from home while using a wireless local area network (WLAN) may lead to theft of sensitive information and hacker or virus infiltration unless proper measures are taken. As WLANs send information over radio waves, someone with a receiver in your area could be picking up the transmission, thus gaining access to your computer. They could load viruses on to your laptop which could be transferred to the company's network when you go back to work.

Believe it or not! Up to 75 per cent of WLAN users do not have standard security features installed, while 20 per cent are left completely open as default configurations are not secured, but made for the users to have their network up and running ASAP. It is recommended that wireless router/access point setup be always done though a wired client.

You can setup your security by follow these steps:

1. Change default administrative password on wireless router/access point to a secured password.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Setup router/access point not to broadcast the SSID. The same SSID needs to be setup on the client side manually. This feature may not be available on all equipment.
5. Block anonymous Internet requests or pings. On each computer having wireless network card, network connection properties should be configured to allow connection to Access Point Networks Only. Computer to Computer (peer to peer) Connection should not be allowed.

Enable MAC filtering. Deny association to wireless network for unspecified MAC addresses. Mac or Physical addresses are available through your computer device 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. Network router should have firewall features enabled and demilitarized zone (DMZ) feature disabled.

All computers should have a properly configured personal firewall in addition to a hardware firewall. You should also update router/access point firmware when new versions become available. Locating router/access point away from strangers is also helpful so they cannot reset the router/access point to default settings. You can even try to locate router/access point in the middle of the building rather than near windows to limit signal coverage outside the building.

There is no guarantee of a full protection of your wireless network, but following these suggested tips can definitely lessen your risk of exposing to attackers aiming at insecure networks.

Your Information Technology Career: Beware The Comfort Zone

I've seen it happen time and again to programmers, network engineers and administrators, and other IT personnel. They get a solid IT position, a good-paying job, and they get comfortable. They stop keeping up with the latest technologies, they stop studying, they no longer keep their CCNA, MCSE, and other industry certifications up-to-date.... and then one day, their comfortable job is gone.

Maybe they get laid off, maybe the company moves and they don't want to move with it... but for one reason or another, they're in the worst position possible. They have no job, and they have allowed their IT skills to deteriorate to the point where they are no longer employable.

If you're in IT, you must be constantly learning. You must continually take the long view, and ask yourself three important questions. First, where do you want to be in three years? Second, what are you doing now in order to reach this goal? And finally, if you were laid off today, are your current skills sharp enough to quickly get another job?

That third question can be the hardest of all to answer honestly. I'm reminded of Microsoft announcing years ago that they would no longer be recognizing the MSCE 4.0 certification, since the network operating systems that certification was based upon would no longer be supported by MS. (Keep in mind that this change was announced months in advance, giving those holding the MCSE 4.0 plenty of time to earn the latest MS certification.)

Some MCSE 4.0s just went nuts. Microsoft's certification magazine printed letter after letter from angry MCSEs saying that their company would always run NT 4.0, and that there was no reason for them to ever upgrade their certification.

This wasn't just denial. This was career suicide. Let's say that their network never moved from NT 4.0. Let's also say that they got laid off yesterday. Would you want to go out into the current IT workplace and have your most recent network operating system experience be on NT 4.0 ? I sure wouldn't.

The fact is that you've got to continue studying, continue growing, and continue learning new things if you want to have a successful long-term IT career. If you plan on studying only one topic, getting into IT, and then never cracking a book again, you're entering the wrong field. And for those of us who have been in it for a while - again, ask yourself this question: "Am I prepared for what would happen if I were laid off today?" And if you're not, do something about it!

SSH tunneling in your application

This article is dedicated to the task of securing MySQL client-server connection using functionality provided by the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol. To be exact, the SSH tunneling concept is utilized. We will review the steps needed to build secure MySQL client applications and implement a sample one ourselves.

MySQL traffic is not the only kind of data that can be tunneled by the Secure Shell. SSH can be used to secure any application-layer TCP-based protocol, such as HTTP, SMTP and POP3. If your application needs to secure such a protocol by tunneling it through a protected SSH connection, this article will be useful to you.

Background
Let's imagine that we are developing an enterprise application that needs to send requests to a number of SQL servers all over the world and get responses from them (let's imagine that it's a super-powerful bank system that stores information about millions of accounts).

All the data between the application and SQL servers are transferred via the Internet "as is". As most protocols used by SQL servers do not provide data integrity and confidentiality (and those that do, do it in a quite nontransparent way), all the transferred requests and responses may (and be sure, they will!) become visible to a passive adversary. An active adversary can cause much more serious problems - he can alter the data and no one will detect it!

SSH (Secure Shell) is a protocol that may help in solving this problem. One of its outstanding features is its ability to tunnel different types of connections through a single, confident and integrity-protected connection.

Now you do not have to worry about securing the data transferred over the Internet - SSH will handle this for you. In particular, SSH will take care of the following security aspects:

• Strong data encryption according to the latest industry-standard algorithms (AES, Twofish)
• Authentication of both client and server computers
• Data integrity protection
• Stability with regard to different kinds of network attacks
• Compression of the data being tunneled
• Complete independence of the operating system and network specifics

Tunneling (or forwarding) works in the following way:

1. SSH client opens a listening port on some local network interface and tells the SSH server that he wishes to forward all connections accepted on this port to some remote host.
2. When another connection is accepted on the listening port, the SSH client informs the SSH server about this fact and they together establish a logical tunnel for it. At the same time, the SSH server establishes a new TCP connection to the remote host agreed upon in step 1.
3. The SSH client encrypts all the data it receives from the accepted connection and sends it to the SSH server. The SSH server decrypts the data received from the SSH client and sends it to the remote host.

Please note, that the SSH client acts as a TCP server for the connections it accepts, and the SSH server acts as a TCP client for the connections it establishes to the remote host.

A single SSH connection can tunnel as many application layer connections as needed. This means that you can defend your server by moving all the listening ports (e.g., database and application server ports) to a local network, leaving only the SSH port open. It is much easier to take care of a single port, rather than a dozen different listening ports.

Into the Fire!
Let's develop a small application that illustrates the use of SSH forwarding capabilities. We will consider an important task of securing a connection between a MySQL client application and a MySQL server. Imagine that we need to get information from the database server, which is located a thousand miles away from us, in a secure way.\

SecureMySQLClient is the application we are planning to implement. It includes the following modules:

• SSH client-side module with forwarding capabilities
• MySQL client-side module
• User interface for configuring application settings and displaying query results.

The SSH server runs in a remote network and is visible from the Internet. The database (MySQL) server runs in the same network as the SSH server and may not be visible from the Internet.

The process of performing secure data exchange between SecureMySQLClient and the Database server goes as follows:

1. The SSH client module negotiates a secure connection to the SSH server and establishes forwarding from some local port to the remote MySQL server.
2. The MySQL client module connects to the listening port opened by the SSH client module.
3. The SSH client and server set up a logical tunnel for the accepted connection.
4. The MySQL client sends SELECT to the port opened by the SSH client module, which encrypts it and sends it to the SSH server. The SSH server decrypts the request and sends it to the MySQL server.
5. The SSH server receives a response from the MySQL server, encrypts it and sends it back to the SSH client, which decrypts it and passes it to the MySQL client module.

Looks too complex? Implementing this is easier than you think.So, let's go and do it. We will need the following products installed on the computer before creating the application:

1. Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003, 2005 or 2008.
2. EldoS SecureBlackbox (.NET edition). Can be downloaded from http://www.eldos.com/sbbdev/download.php.
3. MySQL .NET Connector. Can be downloaded from http://www.mysql.com/products/connector/net/.

Let's now open Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (we will use the 2005 version) and try to build such an application from scratch.

After the GUI design has been finished, we can go on with the business logic code itself. First, adding references to the following assemblies to our project:

• SecureBlackbox
• SecureBlackbox.PKI (only in SecureBlackbox 5. SecureBlackbox 6 doesn't have this assembly)
• SecureBlackbox.SSHClient
• SecureBlackbox.SSHCommon
• MySql.Data

SSHForwarding notifies us about certain situations via its events, so we need to create handlers for some of them:

• OnAuthenticationSuccess - Is fired when the client authentication process has been completed.
• OnAuthenticationFailed - Is fired if the client was unable to authenticate using particular authentication method. In general, this does not mean that the authentication process completely failed – the client may try several authentication methods consequently and one of them may succeed.
• OnError - Is fired if some protocol error occurs during the session. Usually this leads to a connection closure. The exact error can be detected via the error code passed to it.
• OnKeyValidate - Is used to pass the received server key to the application. Please note that incorrect handling of this event may result in a serious security breach. The handler of this event should verify that the passed key corresponds to the remote server (and warn the user if it does not). If the key is valid, the handler should set the Validate parameter to true. The sample does not perform key checkup for the sake of simplicity.
• OnOpen - Is fired when the SSH connection is established and the component is ready to tunnel data. We will use the handler of this event to kick the MySQL client component.
• OnClose - Is fired when the SSH connection is closed.
• OnConnectionOpen - Is fired when a new tunnel is created. The corresponding tunneled connection object is passed as parameter.
• OnConnectionClose - Is fired when an existing tunnel is closed.

Implementing two core methods, SetupSSHConnection() and RunQuery(). The first one initializes the SSHForwarding object and establishes an SSH session to the remote server by calling its Open() method, and the second one sends the query to the MySQL server.

The code of the SetupSSHConnection() method is pretty simple:

private void SetupSSHConnection()
{
// Specifying address and port of SSH server
Forwarding.Address = tbSSHAddress.Text;
Forwarding.Port = Convert.ToInt32(tbSSHPort.Text);
// Setting credentials for authentication on SSH server
Forwarding.Username = tbUsername.Text;
Forwarding.Password = tbPassword.Text;
// Specifying network interface and port number to be opened locally
Forwarding.ForwardedHost = "";
Forwarding.ForwardedPort = Convert.ToInt32(tbFwdPort.Text);
// Specifying destination host where the server should forward the data to.
// Please note, that the destination should be specified according to
// SSH servers point of view. E.g., 127.0.0.1 will stand for
// SSH servers localhost, not SSH clients one.
Forwarding.DestHost = tbDBAddress.Text;
Forwarding.DestPort = Convert.ToInt32(tbDBPort.Text);
// Opening SSH connection
Forwarding.Open()
}

A bit more complex is the code of the RunQuery() method (to be exact, the code of RunQueryThreadFunc() method, which is invoked in a separate thread by the RunQuery() method):

private void RunQueryThreadFunc()
{
MySqlConnection MySQLConnection = new MySqlConnection();
// forming connection string
string connString = "database=" + tbDBName.Text + ";Connect Timeout=30;user id=" + tbDBUsername.Text + "; pwd=" + tbDBPassword.Text + ";";
if (cbUseTunnelling.Checked)
{
// specifying local destination if forwarding is enabled
connString = connString + "server=127.0.0.1; port=" + tbFwdPort.Text;
}
else
{
// specifying real MySQL server location if forwarding is not used
connString = connString + "server=" + tbDBAddress.Text + "; port=" + tbDBPort.Text;
}
MySQLConnection.ConnectionString = connString;
try
{
// opening MySQL connection
MySqlCommand cmd = new MySqlCommand(tbQuery.Text, MySQLConnection);
Log("Connecting to MySQL server...");
MySQLConnection.Open();
Log("Connection to MySQL server established. Version: " + MySQLConnection.ServerVersion + ".");
// reading query results
MySqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
try
{
for (int i = 0; i < reader.FieldCount; i++)
{
AddQueryColumn(reader.GetName(i));
}
while (reader.Read())
{
string[] values = new string[reader.FieldCount];
for (int i = 0; i < reader.FieldCount; i++)
{
values[i] = reader.GetString(i);
}
AddQueryValues(values);
}
}
finally
{
// closing both MySQL and SSH connections
Log("Closing MySQL connection");
reader.Close();
MySQLConnection.Close();
Forwarding.Close();
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Log("MySQL connection failed (" + ex.Message + ")");
}
}

And, that's all!

But there is one more thing I need to draw your attention to. As both SSH and MySQL protocols run in separate threads and access GUI controls from those threads, we need to handle the GUI access in a special way to prevent a cross-thread problems. I will illustrate this with the example of the Log() method:

delegate void LogFunc(string S);
private void Log(string S)
{
if (lvLog.InvokeRequired)
{
LogFunc d = new LogFunc(Log);
Invoke(d, new object[] { S });
}
else
{
ListViewItem item = new ListViewItem();
item.Text = DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString();
item.SubItems.Add(S);
lvLog.Items.Add(item);
}
}

Finally, the application is finished, and we may try it in work. So clicking F5 and specifying the following settings in the text fields of the application form:

• SSH server location, username and password used to authenticate to it.
• Database server address, port, username, password, database name and query. Remember that database server address should be specified as it is visible from the SSH server.
• Turning on the "Use tunneling" checkbox.

Now click the Start button and wait for the query results. If all the parameters have been specified correctly, we should get something like this:

Features and requirements
SSH protocol provides (and SecureBlackbox implements) the following features:

• Strong data encryption using AES, Twofish, Triple DES, Serpent and many other symmetric algorithms with key lengths up to 256 bits
• Client authentication using one or multiple authentication types (password-based, public key-based, X.509 certificate-based, interactive challenge-response authentication)
• Server authentication
• Strong key exchange based on DH or RSA public key algorithms
• Data integrity protection
• Compression of tunneled data
• Multiplexing several tunneled connections through a single SSH connection

SecureBlackbox provides the following functionality as well:

• Comprehensive standards-compliant implementation of the SSH protocol (both client and server sides)
• Support for cryptographic tokens as storage for keys and certificates
• Windows system certificate stores support
• Professional and fast customer support

SecureBlackbox is available in .NET, VCL and ActiveX editions. This means that you can use the components in projects implemented in C#, VB.NET, Object Pascal (Delphi and Kylix), FreePascal, VB6 and C++ languages.

SecureBlackbox (.NET edition) is available for Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5, and .NET Compact Framework.