Open Source Software

If you've spent any lengthy amount of time on the Internet, you've probably heard of open source software but might not have fully understood what it is and why it even exists.  This article will describe this recent phenomenon and describe some of its benefits for the software using community.

In a nutshell, open source software is software made by everyone - for everyone. The hopes behind its development is that through its open access, it will evolve into something that represents the true desires of computer users. Through a wide network of user involvement, the software in question is enhanced and debugged without costs or administrative politics.

Traditionally, software is developed behind closed doors. A team of professional coders build it but the community at large isn't part of its conception. It's costly to produce and as you can probably guess, that cost is passed on to the end user: the consumer. Open source software on the other hand is free. Free to download, free to install, free to use, free to modify, and free to share.

Started over twenty years ago, it's a phenomenon that is gaining in both popularity and exposure. In its first conception, open source gave birth to the World Wide Web as we know it today. The Internet as a whole is the result of free permission to access the web, use the web, contribute to the web, and share the web with others. But it certainly hasn't stopped there. In the not too distant past, Netscape converted its once commercial version of its Navigator web browser to open source. And today, open source is venturing into the commercial realm as well.

At first thought, the idea of open source may sound just plain crazy to those who earn a living from software development. But the facts point to a different prediction. Open source software puts companies in a terrific position to re-brand and re-position themselves in a market that they may have not been able to reach before. In the business world, open source is all about image and when consumers witness corporations contributing (instead of selling) to the buying public, they gain big favor in the eyes of their users (plus tremendous opportunities to sell other items).

Inviting the public inside a product's development builds community and trust. It also sets the platform for increased reliability. Fans of open source programs are adamant about reliable software and highly criticize commercialized versions for being buggy and error-prone. Avid fans even proclaim commercialism is the cause of shoddy software.

Another benefit that open source brings to light is the speed at which its products are developed, enhanced, supported and distributed. This is because the people who regularly contribute to an open source product do so for unmotivated reasons (other than perhaps to feed the ego.) They're highly talented, they're available, and they care. Bringing money into any project can almost mean instant death. It can kill motivation, desire, and a true willingness to create a good product. In a commercial setting, participants work for a paycheck rather than for the product. And this is what puts open source projects far ahead of its monetized competition.

As a software user, this means you can contribute to an open source project as well, and help to develop it into a product that reflects your direct preferences. You aren't "stuck" using open source software the way you would be stuck using an expensive word processor or database. You can take the open source software as its programmers have and in essence, you are your own customer!

Perhaps at this point you're wondering where you can get in on this wonderful opportunity. There are plenty of open source opportunities sprinkled across the Internet and they can be easily found though any search engine. Google "open source project" and you'll be sure to find more resources than you can shake a stick at!

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TV On Your Personal Computer

When you are looking for cheap and affordable cable service you might think that you have looked at all the possibilities there are out there for you to research. But I beg to differ. I wonder if you have ever heard of watching TV online. I'm talking about full blown television on your computer wherever you have internet access. This online television service allows you to have channels that you cannot get anywhere else because they are all truly exclusive and you can't get a lot of them anywhere at all even if you pay extra. Having television on the internet just makes your computer that much more important to you. It is truly amazing how modern technology can keep making things easier and easier and more condensed with just a little imagination and a lot of research. In fact, this system has taken seven years to develop and that includes three years of intense testing and changing the programming so that everything is now perfect for you so that you can have access to TV shows and movies right from your PC or laptop.

What's even more amazing is that since this has just been developed and released so recently you can get it for the cheapest price ever if you act now. And what's not to love here? You can have all your favorite things combined into one place. This does not require any kind of extra wires or systems -- just the internet, a computer, and your viewing attention. So what are you waiting for? Get online right now and start looking into this new TV system and cable service online, I guarantee you will love it and will want to tell all your friends about it. You might even find that some of your friends (especially if they are into technology) might already have discovered this internet system. If you are the first one to know about this among your family and friends then you can tell them all about it and they will be impressed that you found something so amazing and acted on it. They will be appreciative that you clued them in to the wonders of online television.

There are so many different channels that you can watch that you will never ever get bored. You can watch all of your favorites like football, local stations, and movie stations. In addition to all the normal stations there are specialty stations in other languages and from other countries so that you can have a cultural experience just by channel surfing. But this is not just regular channel surfing of course, because it is also on the web so you get the combined technology bringing you state of the art television in a comfortable and easy to use way. Once you discover how amazing this is you will never go back to regular TV and you will want to spread the word everywhere.

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Computer Accessory

The spare room or a quiet corner can be a perfect place for productivity. To outfit your workspace, you might need to invest in some new hardware like a second computer, a bigger monitor or a high-quality printer. Once you've got your home computer set-up, you'll need to connect it to the Internet or network it to other computers and peripherals in the house. With a good grasp of the facts and a firm idea of your work habits, you'll be ready to make sensible choices for your home-made office.

• The Computer. Not everyone needs the same level of performance in a home office computer. You might use your computer primarily for word processing and email which requires little processing power. On the other hand, you may want more power to run database analysis, large spreadsheets or graphics applications. The type of work you do and your work load will determine whether you need a computer with a lot of brawn or just a little.

• Processor. A computer's processor or central processing Unit (CPU) is the engine that powers the device. The speed of the processor is called the clock speed which measures how fast the processor can carry out instructions. Speed is measured in MegaHertz (MHz) and is one measure of a computer's power. A typical home office Windows PC should have at minimum a 500 MHz processor. A power user would probably prefer 800 MHz or higher. If you know your computing needs are modest, and you want to save some money, an older machine with a slower processor is worth considering. When looking at an Apple Macintosh, keep in mind that you can't simply compare processor speeds with Windows machines, as the two types of computers have different system designs. Macs generally have lower processor speeds in MHz but don't let that fool you. Newer Macs like the iMac can definitely keep pace with PCs.

• Random Access Memory (RAM). When the computer is turned on, RAM is used to hold the operating system, applications and data that you're currently running. Information in RAM is rapidly available to the processor. When RAM fills up, the computer slows down because it now has to retrieve information from the slower hard drive. Imagine documents on your desk in front of you, readily at hand when you need them. But when your desktop is full, you have to file and retrieve documents elsewhere, which takes more time. The amount of RAM you need is influenced by the type of applications you use. Graphics programs like Adobe PhotoShop or Illustrator use a fair bit of memory. Word processing and spreadsheet programs use somewhat less memory. Users who like to multi-task and prefer having multiple applications running simultaneously will definitely want plenty of memory. More memory gives you a larger "workspace" and makes your computer perform faster with fewer glitches. A typical user needs at least 64 MB of RAM with 128 MB becoming the norm. In virtually all computers, you can expand the memory as you need more.

• Hard Drive. This is the computer's filing cabinet where all your applications and data are permanently stored. Most users can fit many years of productivity into a 6 to 10 GB hard drive. If you need to store a lot of information like several years of business records or image catalogues, then you may want a more spacious hard drive. Luckily, a bigger hard drive won't cost you that much extra. Alternately, you could invest in a removable storage drive.

• Expansion. It never hurts to get a system with room to grow, especially if you foresee your home office needs evolving. Find out how many RAM slots a system has and what the maximum amount of RAM is. Adding expansion cards to your system for 3D graphics or ethernet will increase the functionality of your computer. Look for a system with two or three free expansion slots and room for additional disk drives.

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Maintain Your Computer For Your Good Job.

Maintaining your computer is extremely important – especially if you are an Internet Marketer.  As you know, without your computer, your business can come to a screeching halt. There are 4 important steps in which you can perform on a regular basis, to help protect your computer and your livelihood.

Invest in quality virus software

Be it Antivirus Software or another software program; protect yourself and your computer. I personally have set Antivirus to run every evening. It may seem like a hassle when you’re trying to get a project done, however, a 10 minute break in the action is far better than a one or two days of down time – and possible loss data, if your computer crashes.  And trust me; I’ve learned this from experience.

Invest in ad-aware software

I use Ad-Aware SE Personal – you can get the freeware version or the shareware version – the decision is yours. I’m currently using the freeware version, but will eventually be going to the paid version for added protection.  Anyway, Ad-Aware SE will protect your computer from such critters as, data-mining, scum ware, parasites, malwares, browser hijackers, to name just a few.

Always backup your data

Even though you don’t want to hear this, realize that your hard-drive can either go belly up or crash.  It is always better to have a backup – it shortens the down time.  Just a side note, when I was working in the corporate world, I had the misfortune of having a supervisor that was computer illiterate. My computer started to make sounds similar to that of a seagull.  I told my supervisor that I thought my hard-drive was going out. She did not want to believe me, and stated “We do not have the money in our budget for a hard-drive”. I found that to be a rather crass remark and waited nervously for my hard-drive to make its exit.  To make a long story short, two days later, I get a cryptic statement flashing on my screen that said “Back up your Hard-Drive - Error” -- than my hard-drive crashed and died.  Amazing, they did have $60 in their little old budget to get a new hard-drive.  Now, how much do you suppose my supervisor’s statement cost the company?

Maintenance

Always clean out your temporary Internet files.  It uses up memory! To clear out your temporary Internet files do the following:

1. Open up your Internet connection.
2. Click on Tools, then Internet Options.
3. Under the General Section you should see a section labeled “Temporary Internet Files”
4. Click on the button that says Delete Cookies, and then the button that says Delete Files. When you click on delete files, a box will open up and will ask you if you want to also delete off-line files – check that box, as well. Within the General Section you should also see a section called History.  I decrease the number of days that I hold on to the pages that I visited. Again, this helps to save memory.

These simple maintenance tips can keep your computer clean and protected, which is extremely important when you’re making your living on the Internet.

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You Got To Protect Your Computer

These days it is a must to have a good, reliable virus protection program. There happens to be a many good free virus protection software packages out on the internet today. The only way to protect our pc today is using software that acts like a antidote to the disease. By using this software you can take preventive measures of stopping the disease before it infects the system.

Removable media such as cds, floppy disks, usb keys that are infected and used in another system can carry the virus and infect the other machine. If you computer is infected with a virus you will need to remove the virus as soon as possible otherwise it can infect the system completely and spread to others. If a computer is infected by a computer virus the computer needs to be scanned by virus scanning software. When surfing the internet most likely you been infected with a Trojan, virus, or some type of spyware, according to many virus detection agencies, the unprotected PC is infected on average within 20 minutes of normal internet usage. Many systems get infected every day, you must take safety measures or your system might get infected, and the virus might corrupt your data on your system. A Computer Worm is a self replicating program, the first worm to gain wide attention was the Morris Worm this infected a large number of computers and earned its writer 400 hours of community service and over $10000 in fines. When a virus infects you computer it can replicate itself, use up system resources, allow a user remote access, record keystrokes to the infected computer, it also has the ability to destroy personal data.

You must take precautions because when you download it may contain spyware, adware or viruses, spyware and adware can collect personal data, record your browsing habits and no more about you. Ad and Spyware are programs that are automatically installed on your computer.

When your computer is infected with a virus they are designed to alter your normal computer functions and spyware infections are used to spy on you, one way they do this is by recording your personal information. Many times adware, viruses and spyware find what is called a “back door” to install and replicated itself you in your computer.

Downloading may sometimes cause error on the system or the entire computer system may crash. Many spyware or viruses are downloaded when downloading software and music. Many viruses can lay dormant without you knowing this, since you don’t know it is there it can attack at any moment when least expect it, it could attack when typing a report and downloading important. Whether you have learned your lesson from a past experience or not, try not to download unwanted files or open email messages sent to you by people you don’t know. Many people do all of this without any real understanding of just how vulnerable they are each time they are on the internet. Try to take precautions, find reputable software and install it to protect your system. There is free software on the web that will protect your system.

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Five Tips To Best Computer Buy

Buying a new computer can become difficult decide these days as many of us tend to get confused or simply don’t know how to choose the best computer from the wide range available. Here are five tips to best computer buy.

1. You need to know where you will be using your computer from. Do you plan to use it at home, or do you travel with business often? After you answer this question you know if you want a desktop computer or a notebook.

2. Now it’s time to determine what will you be using the computer for. Are you buying it for your kid to play video games, watch movies or do you plan to use it for work or internet surfing? Of course you can buy a computer and use it for all of those things but for example if you plan to use it just for business then you needn’t buy a computer with the best video card on the market.

3. The next thing to do is determine your budget. There is a wide range of both desktop and notebook computers to choose from so they can cover any budget. Desktop computers can cost anywhere between $400 and $2000 (Note that many sites don’t list the monitor in the cost, so read carefully before clicking the checkout button), while notebooks between $800 - $2000+. Decide on how much money are you willing to spend and continue to the next step.

4. Are you going to store photos, Microsoft Office documents, mp3 files, video files etc.? You need to think about this to determine what hard drive your computer needs. If you’ll be using it to store photos and Office files then you need something in the range of 60GB but no more. If you plan to store many video and audio files then a 220GB hard drive would be more appropriate.

5. Buy a ready made computer or create your new computer by selecting all the parts yourself? In my opinion, if you’re a person who changes their computer often then buying a ready made one is the perfect choice for you. If you don’t plan on changing the computer then it would be wise to create it yourself at a local store or even on some sites on the internet. This is because all the big computer or small computer companies use proprietary components and if you buy a ready made one it is usually harder to upgrade later.

Change new computer very important thing to consider, which many people overlook, is how often do you replace your computer? This is very important because most new computers you will waste big money If you change your computer often it.

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