Google Bring Deskbar Search To Windows Desktop. Now Any Website Can Take Advantage Of This Search Technology

Google's premier of desktop search proves that the desktop is an extremely valuable marketing real estate. Google, which holds about 75% of the Internet search market, just introduced "Deskbar" a small desktop application that allows users to search Google directly from their desktops. Google currently rules the Internet, but positioning themselves on the desktop gives them the power to rule not only the Internet, but also the entire personal computer.

Unlike other interactive marketing avenues, such as website and email, the desktop is virtually free of advertisements and promotional materials. The desktop is competitor free and just waiting to be claimed.

The advantages of desktop search are not limited to Google and their major search engine competitors though. Any website with search technology can take advantage of this new marketing channel including e-commerce and shopping websites, reference sites, online magazines and news sites, and more.

So, if you have content on your site that visitors or clients are interested in searching through on a regular basis, what better way to keep them coming back for more than offering them a desktop search tool? If you could offer them a useful downloadable desktop search application, you could ensure that they will remember you and search your site before your competitors.

Developing a desktop search tool yourself would be quite costly. Luckily, there is a ready-made desktop search tool that can be customized to work with any website's search.

PromoClock has developed a new desktop search technology that turns your one-time visitors into steady traffic by allowing them to search your site directly from their desktops. To search your site, users simply type their search terms in the desktop search box and click on the "search" button. Users keep the search box running in the background at all times giving them constant reminders and opportunities to search and patronize your site.

PromoClock's desktop search box is not just a simple search tool. It is a full marketing application that brands and promotes your website directly on desktops. Each Search Box can be custom designed based on your logo, website images or even Flash presentations. Further enhance your desktop search box with custom menu entries, banner ads and even your own desktop icons. You may also send time-sensitive alerts for added usefulness and advertising exposure. Alerts can include site related tips, product coupons, company news, event notifications and more. For sites looking to entice users with more than just a desktop search, PromoClock is also a useful desktop alarm clock that tells time and activates personal alarms.

The Subconscious Link To Our Computer Desktop

If you are a Windows user then you probably have some kind of a desktop theme or wallpaper on your desktop. They are fun, and you can download some very cool ones from the Internet. I personally have a beautiful Celtic one that I downloaded, and I love it.

Recently, however, it came to my attention that our desktop themes and/or wallpaper can have a very subtle yet strong effect on us!

My husband went to Penn State University when he graduated from high school. He went in the early 70s, at the height of the hippie, sex-drugs-rock and roll era, when the Vietnam War was in full swing and protesting it was what college students did.
He was very much into the whole genre, and he got quite heavily into the drug and alcohol scene. He looked back on this time as fun and exciting, but also the beginnings of a long-term problem with substance abuse.

Recently he wanted to change his desktop, so he picked a fun Penn State theme. It had the fight song and the Nittany Lion, Penn States mascot.

After about a month of having this desktop theme on his computer he began having disturbing dreams. He dreamed repeatedly that he was back at Penn State. He had no money, had to sleep on park benches and he was constantly in search of drugs and a liquor store! He was quite confused by these dreams, and found them to be distressing.

When he finally discussed this with me, I heard right away that these dreams were being caused by the desktop theme. Even though he was looking back at the fun times when he viewed it, it was triggering memories in his subconscious that were not so fun. When we changed the theme of his desktop, the dreams stopped.

The subconscious is an interesting thing. It can take over and drive our cars for us when we are daydreaming while driving, but it has no ability to discern between fantasy and reality or between truth and lies. Our subconscious has no sense of good or bad, evil or angelic. It just IS. And when it is triggered by something, it can take over our dreams in ways that we do not understand.

So, what is your desktop theme saying to your subconscious? This is not unlike what that bumper sticker on your car is saying to strangers. You need to take a look at this and evaluate what your theme is saying to you and about you.

Try to pick a desktop theme that shows something soothing, or some goal that you have. Make it be uplifting! Consider it as a tool that can work for you or against you. It is a lot easier to have a theme that is going to trigger only the highest and best in your subconscious, than it is to deal with bad dreams or why your thinking may be negative.

Desktop Themes One Way To Brighten Your Workspace

I don't know if you have noticed the new trend lately of customization mania. I say mania because it seems like you can make anything that you own your very own by customizing it with a little personal flair. The place that I have noticed the most customizing frenzy at the personal/office computing market. Themes galore including desktop themes, radio station themes, search themes, etc. "Skins" or the internet browsers version of the theme is another great example of this trend.

So what is behind this? And what kinds of options are we talking about that are offered to the computer users. Well lets take desktop themes as our example. You can go on the internet and purchase downloads for the cost of typical computer game let's say. You actually purchase a long list of menus of different options that you can go through and choose according to your preferences. These options affect things like the general look of the wall paper on the desktop. Or the appearance of the icons, windows, tool buttons, mouse cursor, lettering, menu forms, and on and on. It can also assign sounds that you like to different actions performed such as minimizing windows, to clicking on menus, or deleting, saving, etc.

So you might be wondering why they are called themes? And the answer to that question is that each of the different choices you have are grouped into larger groups called themes. Back to our example of desktop themes, say you chose a space theme. You may then for your wallpaper get to choose between pictures of a supernova, mars, Saturn, or the moon. You may also choose that you want to have an animated part of the wallpaper like Saturn spinning, or an astronaut walking on the moon. You then have the choice of sounds for different common operations which could be a rocket sound or a sound from a popular space show like star trek. You get the picture.

Why are these themes so popular? Well this is America isn't it and individualism is glorified right? So you wouldn't be being true to yourself if you and your coworkers didn't all have your own personalized desktop themes would you? On a more serious note, they add some flair which might say be easier on the eyes, or more interesting to stare at for your whole work day. They also fit into the gadget genre and therefore are popular just because people are curious and want to play. So what are you waiting for? Start making your workspace a little more "you". You can easily find what you are looking for and I am talking about on the internet for download. Just google for desktop themes, and off you go.

How To Turn Your Favorite Photos Into Desktop Wallpaper

Since digital cameras have become popular, more and more people are learning how to upload photos to their computer. Many of these photos are cherished memories such as pictures of our children, grandchildren, pets, or vacation shots. Most of us want to be able to display our favorite pictures as the background wallpaper on our computer screens, but not everyone is aware of how easy it is to accomplish this. The following instructions will show you how to turn your favorite photos into desktop wallpaper.

For Windows Users:

Windows XP: Right click on the photo name or icon. Click on the option that says, "Set as desktop background". That's all there is to it!

Windows 98, 95 or NT: Right click on the photo name or icon. Click on the option that says, "Set as Background". That's all there is to it!

For Mac Users:

If you've got System 8.5 or higher: Go to the Apple menu and select the Appearance Control Panel. Click on the Desktop tab. If you already have wallpaper on your desktop, click on the Remove Picture button to remove your old wallpaper. Now use the Select Picture button to select the image you want to use. Then, press the Set Desktop button and close the window.

If you've got System 8: Go to the Apple menu and select the Desktop Pictures Control Panel. Click on the Picture tab. If you already have wallpaper on your desktop, click on the Remove Picture button to remove your old wallpaper. Now use the Select Picture button to select the image you want to use. Then, press the Set Desktop button and close the window.

Your Computer Is A Gold Mine On A Desktop

Digging a ton of dirt to get an ounce of gold is hard
work but it is easy with your computer on autopilot.

Your computer is the most fantastic money making
machine ever invented. It is used in almost every
business to make money. Yes your computer
is a word processor, a spell checker, a typesetter, a
printer, an Email message sender, a data storage unit,
a document composer and much more. It can do the
work that once took a big staff of expert craftsmen.
Today the computer does it all automatically. You have
only to put it to work to pour money into your home
office.

Let me tell you a little story. I have four sons who each
make money with their computers. My oldest son sells
insurance to pilots all over the world. My second son
does over a million dollars of business a month doing
publications on his Macintosh computer. My third son
does the color flyers that are inserted in the newspapers.
The youngest son sells courses on the Internet and earned
$10,000 dolllars last week. Each son is in a different
business making money with computers.

Gold is where you find it and the computer is a great
search engine to dig out the veins of pure gold. In the
old days of the Gold Rush of 1849 you needed a pick
and shovel and a donkey to carry your supplies to a
location out in the mountains.

The computer on the Internet is the modern gold strike
of the millennium. When you have the right tools you can
mine gold on your desktop computer. What the computer
does best is publish information. Almost everyone needs
information to survive in this modern world. Millions of
computer owners want to know how to get rich with their
own computers.

Writing has always been a way to make big money. William
Shakespeare became wealthy writing plays and acting
on the stage in England. Old Ben Franklin became
independently wealthy printing his Poor Richard's Almanac.
Writers like Charles Dickens, Alexander Dumas, Mark
Twain, Zane Grey, Louis Lamour and other writers published
millions of copies of their books. A book can be printed and
sold to hundreds of thousands of buyers who are eager to
read the latest best seller.

The computer has made this even easier because
publishing can be done electronically. No storage costs, no
printing costs, no postage, no packages to wrap, no
trips to the post office. The computer can have a website
that sells round the clock, night and day while you sleep
or go on vacation. Ebooks are electronic digits that can
easily be downloaded from a website and sent anywhere
in the world in a few minutes. This modern miracle can
make you rich and famous. Williams Shakespeare with
his crow quill feather pen never had it so good as you do
with your desktop publishing system.

Finding High Quality Wallpapers For Your Desktop Computer

If you have ever wanted to ditch your computers plain looking background, there are plenty of options available online for you to download wallpapers. Wallpapers are images of just about anything imaginable that can be used as the background on your computer screen. While wallpapers are a lot of fun and can add some personality to your desktop computer, they are often cheap looking and potentially dangerous. In this article, well give you simple tips for finding high quality wallpapers for your desktop computer.

You are probably wondering how simple wallpapers could possibly be dangerous. Well, the fact is that many sites offer free wallpapers, but do not have the proper tools to fight against computer viruses. When people download these wallpapers to their desktop computer, they can have their whole system compromised by these nasty worms. So, how can you find high quality wallpapers for your desktop computer that wont cause you trouble? Lets take a closer look.

The first thing you should do to safeguard both yourself and your computer is install pop-up blockers and spam blockers. In addition, you should also install a reputable virus scan program (such as McAfee) that can alert you to any potential dangers before they infect your computer. The next thing to do is to only download wallpapers from sites that you know and trust. While the internet is a fun place to be, it is filled with a lot of garbage web sites that exist only to wreak havoc on peoples computer systems. If you are unfamiliar with a site, or immediately become bombarded with pop-up ads after visiting, it is best to try another wallpaper service.

Another tip in finding high quality wallpapers for your desktop computer is to download directly from your favorite fan sites. For example, say you are a huge sports fan or you absolutely love a TV show. By going to the official web site of your team or program, you will have a variety of wallpaper choices to select from. This is an advantage over other sites for many reasons. First, you are able to download exactly the image you want without searching all over the internet. Second, the wallpapers provided on these sites will be much better quality than those offered on free sites.

One last way to find high quality wallpapers is to pay for them. While this may sound outrageous to pay for something you can get for free (water anyone?), there are advantages to paying for a desktop wallpaper. Pay wallpapers are the absolute best quality in both picture and selection. Another benefit to paying for wallpaper is that the site will probably have virus protection, meaning that you can download with confidence.

As you can see, finding high quality wallpapers for your desktop computer doesnt have to be a hassle. Just be sure to use common sense and trusted providers, and you will be able to download many exciting wallpapers for your computer!

Which is which Cheap Laptop or Cheap Desktop

Should you buy a cheap laptop or a cheap desktop?

You may find yourself asking that question many times while shopping for a computer. This guide offers you the pros and cons of owning a laptop versus a desktop pc.

1. Processing speed

Comparing processing speeds, laptops usually lag behind their desktop counterparts. With the rapid advance in microchip technology, the gap between them will become smaller.

2. Wireless.

Most laptops especially those with Intel mobile chips come with wireless capability out of the box. This means you can get online from any location at home easily without ugly wires if you have a wireless network setup at home.

Desktop pcs do not typically provide this capability out of the box although that may change in the near future.

3. Memory.

Memory chip tends to be more expensive in Laptop than desktop pcs. If you buy a laptop with less than 512MB ram, be prepare to pay more for memory upgrades than you have to with a desktop pc.

4. Graphics Display

Because of the size of a laptop, most business or entry level laptop use integrated graphics with limited ram. This means most laptops even some expensive ones cannot run graphics intensive applications or 3d games as well as a desktop pc.

With a desktop pc, you can buy a dedicated graphics card just to serve a graphics intensive application.

5. Portability.

Portability is why everyone wants a laptop these days. Because of their size and weight, it is easier to carry a laptop around as opposed to a desktop pc.

6. Screen Display.

Everyone buy laptop for their portability so laptops usually do not come with screens as big as their desktop counterparts. The screen technology used is usually not as good as those used by desktop pc.

Furthermore with a desktop pc, you can always upgrade to a bigger and better screen whereas for laptop you are stuck with the same screen display for the whole lifespan of the laptop.

So whether you should buy a cheap laptop or a cheap desktop, ask yourself what are your needs? If you want to be able to use a computer wherever you go, then you are looking at a laptop to fulfill your needs.

However if you do not require the portability of a laptop, play a lot of 3D games, graphic intensive applications, if you care about upgradeability to prolong the lifespan of your investment, then desktop pc is a smarter choice for you.

THE COMPUTER MONEY MACHINE

What the computer does best
is make money. The computer is a writing
machine and much more. It is a complete
publishing system on a desktop. The
computer can do what once took and entire
publishing plant of expert craftsmen to
produce.

Now the computer on a desktop can
create documents, books, articles and
tons of information products. It is these
information products that are big sellers
on the internet. Millions of people
around the world are searching for answers
and solutions. Many want to make big money
with their home office computers.

This is a huge market for writers.
Yes he secret of the computer is writing.
Writing ebook, articles, manuals and sales
letters that sell products.

My background is in the ad agency
business. Years ago I learned to write
ad copy that sells from Claude Hopkin's
book "Scientific Advertising." My ad copy
sold millions of dollars of products for
many companies large and small.

The reason so many ads fail is that
the writers never read this book and do
not know how to write selling ad copy.
The sad result is that over 90% of all
advertising goes right to the waste
basket without being read or acted upon.

This huge waste is your big
opportunity because you can join me in
this multi-billion dollar ad business. Yes,
you can become rich and famous in the
lucrative ad agency business with your own
ad agency in your area.

Guide To Choosing A Custom Built Desktop Computer

You are probably familiar with the saying different strokes for different folks. Well, this phrase rings especially true when it comes to computers and their uses. While a computer may be perfect for one person, it may be useless to somebody else. This is because there are so many variations of whats actually inside a computer. For this reason, many people are opting to have their computer systems custom built. If you are one of the many people contemplating a similar idea, you may be unsure as to where to start. In this article, well present you with a guide to choosing a custom built desktop computer.

The number one appeal for people in choosing a custom built computer is price. It is often far cheaper to build a computer than it is to buy one new from a company. To get the most out of your custom built computer, you will first have to identify the key components that you absolutely need. This will help save you time and money. So, lets take a look at the perfect custom built desktop computer for a variety of users.

In todays world, many people use a desktop computer for only two reasons word processing and internet surfing. If you fall into this category of user, you will have no problem choosing a custom built desktop computer. When deciding on a processor you basically have two choices; Intel and AMD. It is important to note that for simple web browsing and word processing, there is virtually no difference between the two processors. It is recommended that you go with an Intel Pentium 4 or an AMD Athlon. This is strictly a matter of preference, and you may want to do additional research to determine which is right for you. You will also want to determine the amount of memory you make available in your desktop computer. Again, for simple tasks such as these, anything more than 512MB will be more than sufficient. The rest of your system can be built with average secondary components, such as sound and graphic cards, and a CD/DVD drive.

If you happen to be a big-time gamer, you will need a computer with more RAM as well as better graphics capability. It is recommended that you upgrade to 1MB or 2MB of RAM. It will also enhance your game-play experience if you install a faster processor, perhaps even a dual core processor. These processors make it much easier to multitask while providing the ultimate gaming experience. Lastly, dont forget to add a nice monitor and speaker system if you are building a computer geared towards gaming. This will also add to your overall enjoyment of your system.

The final type of user we would like to cover in this guide is the person who does a lot of work on the computer. This person will need a high-quality motherboard, which is always the most crucial element of any good computer. A motherboard helps your computer run at its optimum level, while ensuring all secondary components work properly. Somebody who stores a lot of data on their desktop computer will need to invest in a high-end motherboard. In addition, this type of user will also benefit from extra RAM, which will help in storing files.

This guide to choosing a custom built desktop computer should only serve as your first step in making a more informed buying decision. In addition to the aid of this guide, you should also perform thorough research and work with a trusted builder. It is important to remember that what you are putting into your custom built desktop computer will allow you to get the most out of it. Good luck!

The Nuts and Bolts of Commercial Printing

There are instances when you can print your materials effectively with the use of your desktop printer. But when you need to go beyond the services of your desktop printer you will need the help of commercial printing companies. These companies have commercial printing techniques that can promote your products, communicate your message and enhance your image to attract attention at an affordable price. You would also want to consider a commercial printer when you have special color considerations in your material. But before ordering your print job, check with your commercial printing company and ask how they would go about your project. Ask also how much it will cost you to print the material with them.

It is perhaps a better idea to consider commercial printing when you need the highest quality of printing for your project, when you need large number of copies, when your materials needs to be folded, stapled and bounded, when it needs foil stamping, embossing or die cutting and when you need special paper. Today, commercial printing technology includes tradition offset printing and digital printing. Although digital technology is gaining more popularity these days, lithography is still widely used in most print shops. Advantages of traditional offset printing include quality, flexibility, cost and speed. Unit costs with this type of printing are much lower than digital printing even though there are significant set-up costs. By comparison, digital printing also offers flexibility, lower prices and fast turnaround times. Which ever printing method you choose will depend on your print job and your budget. Hence, you need to carefully evaluate your options.

Most companies also have hundreds of print jobs each month and most has critical deadlines, some of which needs quick turnaround times. A large percentage of these print jobs go through print shops without issue and delivered on time. There are many things that can and should be done before you give your documents to the printer to avoid slowing down the production process.

The bottom line is the more you communicate with the designer and the printer, the better your chance of meeting your printing needs and your deadline. With the speed at which the business industry is moving, everything needs to be done as fast as possible but at good quality and competitive price. With the technology and equipment available at commercial printers today, fast turnaround times are possible to meet every individual or business printing need.

Very Important Update on Severe Windows Security Flaw What To Do Right Now To Secure Your Data

Earlier we warned you about a serious security flaw, so-called "WMF flow." Several days later nearly one hundred different instances of exploitation of this newly discovered vulnerability had been found.

"Desktop users that suffered the effects of the IMF exploit describe it as a devastating experience to find their desktop computers completely taken over by an attacker.

"When it hit, the screen suddenly said, 'Congratulations, you're infected!'" said Brad Dinerman, vice president of information technology at MIS Alliance, a professional services outsourcing firm in Newton, Mass. It was clear that the computer running XP was no longer in his control.

"It had root access, it wouldn't let me log off or do anything," Dinerman said. He said he ended up having to re-build the machine from scratch. He noted that his machine had been up-to-date in terms of software patches, anti-virus and anti-spyware software. "

"...exploit has so many variants that anti-virus firms are having a difficult time keeping up with the exploit's changes in attack code."

Be More In Control of Time With Atomic Alarm Clock

A skinnable desktop clock shows time for any time zone, displays system uptime, notifies the user at preset time with a sound, message, application launch and more...

Drive Software Company today announces the release of Atomic Alarm Clock 3.81. Designed as a more informative substitution for a standard tray clock in Windows, Atomic Alarm Clock integrates into the taskbar and shows current time (hours, minutes, seconds) in the 12/24-hour format. It also shows day, date and system uptime. Time can be displayed for any time zone, which is especially convenient for people doing business with partners in other countries. The clock can be customized with over 100 skins included into the installation package. With their help you can make the PC clock the ultimate expression of your style.

As an alarm clock, Atomic Alarm Clock can be scheduled to wake the user up in the morning or remind of important events or things to do during the day. Notification can be scheduled to run once at a particular time or at preset times repetitively. When a preset time is reached, the clock may display a popup message and play a sound, which can be any MP3 file you have selected previously. The clock is also able to run a program, open a document, play a movie, log the user off, reboot OS and simply shutdown the computer. You can always be sure in the accuracy of your clock thanks to its synchronization with Atomic Clock Servers. Additional convenience comes with an ability to backup configuration settings to restore them later.

Read more about the clock at http://www.drive-software.com/atomicalarmclock.html

Download and try it free from http://www.drive-software.com/download/ataclock.zip

Screenshot: http://www.drive-software.com/shots/clock_b.gif


Main Clock Benefits at a Glance
� Get notified at a preset time with a popup message, sound;
� Start an application, open a document, play a movie, shutdown a PC at a preset time;
� An easy-to-use calendar;
� Configuration settings backup;
� Time synchronization with Atomic Clock Servers;
� 100 beautiful skins to please your eye;
� Support for Longhorn clock style.

What Customers Say
The program has been adopted by many users worldwide and here's what one of them says. "I downloaded this program when I was on vacation and I didn't have an alarm clock. I really like the different styles the program offers for your time interface. There are a lot of stylish interfaces to choose from. I also like the variety of alarm sounds and I really enjoyed the fact that you could have your computer "ding" every hour with a grandfather clock kind of sound."

History of Internet Explorer Second stage

Version 4, released in October 1997, was shipped with Windows 98 and was modified to integrate more closely with Microsoft Windows. It included an option to enable "Active Desktop" which displayed World Wide Web content on the desktop itself and was updated automatically as the content changed. The user could select other pages for use as Active Desktops as well. "Active Channel" technology was also introduced to automatically obtain information updates from websites. The technology was based on an XML standard known as Channel Definition Format (CDF), which predated the currently used web syndication formats like RSS. This version was designed to work on Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT, and could be downloaded from the Internet, free of charge. It supported Dynamic HTML (DHTML). Outlook Express 4.0 also came integrated into the browser and replaced the aging Microsoft Internet Mail & News product that was released with previous versions.

In September 1998, Microsoft released version 5 of Internet Explorer. Bi-directional text, ruby text and direct XML/XSL support were included in this release, along with enhanced support for CSS Level 1 and 2. The actual release of Internet Explorer 5 happened in three stages. Firstly, a Developer Preview was released in June 1998 (5.0B1), and then a Public Preview was released in November 1998 (5.0B2). Then in March 1999 the final release was released (5.0). In September it was released with Windows 98. Version 5.0 was the last one to be released for Windows 3.1x or Windows NT 3.x. Internet Explorer 5.5 was later released for Windows Me in July 2000, and included many bug fixes and security patches.

Upgrading a Notebook

Desktops have been long known to be upgrade-able in terms of memory and hard drive space but little is known about upgrading notebooks.

The first thing to consider is the notebook itself. It must have expansion slots for extra sticks of RAM if you wish to upgrade memory. This can also be done by replacing the current stick of RAM but this method is not cost effective.

To upgrade a notebook the bottom cover must be removed. When doing this any warranty the notebook has will become void so if you choose to upgrade your notebook, you must be prepared to forfeit the warranty.

Upgrading RAM on a notebook is no different to upgrading RAM on a desktop. If your notebook has additional RAM slots you simply need to purchase some more RAM and install it in the empty slots. If your notebook doesn't have expansion slots you will need to replace the existing stick of RAM. If you had a 256mb stick of RAM, you would replace it with a 1GB or 512mb stick.

Replacing the hard drive is a lot easier but complicated at the same time. Replacing the actual drive is quite simple. You simply disconnect the existing drive and replace with the new one. The complicated part is recovering all your drivers and so forth from the drive. Without your drivers the hardware in your notebook will not function correctly. It is important to make sure you have all the original driver CD's that came with the notebook.

In the case of data files you have on your notebook, you can simply back up to DVD's and CD's, but if you do not have a burner, you can simply buy an external case for a notebook drive and use that to store your files.

How to Choose The Best Laptop Accessories

The notebook computer is coming of age. For the first
time in history, notebooks or laptops are out-selling
their bigger cousins, desktop computers.

The rise in popularity of the notebook computer can be
contributed to many factors: drop in prices, stiff
competition, aggressive marketing, but perhaps the
biggest factor - increased performance.

With each new generation of notebooks, we are seeing some
novel breakthroughs: dual core notebooks, PCI Express,
Sonoma Chipset, increased storage, increased RAM,
faster CPUs, better battery life and better wireless
access including a Cellular Modem Connection. All these
new innovations are making for a more powerful
computer embodied in a sleeker smaller package that
consumers want.

However, as most notebook enthusiasts know, to get full
enjoyment from your laptop or notebook computer - you must
have certain essential accessories. These laptop accessories
will greatly enhance your notebook experience and make
for a much more satisfying all-around 'complete laptop'.

Here's a wish list of laptop accessories you may want to
consider purchasing:

1. Carrying Bag or Backpack - This is essential if
you will be doing a lot of traveling. You might even
want to consider a wheeled bag for those heavier laptops.
Try to purchase a laptop carrying bag that has plenty of
compartments for all those notebook peripherals. Always
check to see if your laptop or notebook will fit!


2. Extra Battery - Since most batteries last less
than 5 hours you will need an extra battery or two. You
should also check out bringing along an external battery
for your laptop.


3. Port Replicator - This is one essential you should
consider buying for your laptop or notebook computer. It's a
real hassle dealing with all those wires and connections on
your laptop - that's where your port replicator or docking
station solves your problem. Plug all your peripherals into
the docking station or port replicator - connect and disconnect
your laptop with ease without having to deal with all those
wires and connections. A must have!


4. Auto and Airplane ac adapter - Another essential
laptop accessory if you do a lot traveling, battery life on
most notebooks is not great so having a handy source of ac
power from your auto or from an airplane is a 'no-brainer'!


5. USB Hub - Some older model notebooks come with only
one or two USB ports; if you need more - try a handy USB hub.
It will give you more options.


6. Wireless Card - Most laptops and notebooks now come
with a wireless card. Many top brands have 802.11a, 802.11b,
802.11g or all three! If your notebook doesn't have a wireless
card, you can get a rather inexpensive 802.11b Linksys PC Card
adapter for under $50.

You may also want to check out the new Sony VAIO VGN-T350P
- it has the world's first 'Cellular Modem Built In' - access
the Internet thru your cell phone. It has an Integrated EDGE,
Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth for the ultimate in wireless networking.

EDGE stands for 'Enhanced Data for Global Evolution' thru
the Cingular Wireless national network.


7. Optional External Hard Drive - Most notebooks or
laptops now come with a 40 to 100 gig hard drives, but still
if you download and save a lot of movies or songs you will take
up that storage space quicker than you ever thought possible.
If you need an extra hard drive for storage or back-up, try
an external hard drive.


8. Optional External DVD Burner - Many laptops now come
with a built in DVD drive but in case you need this extra for
or DVD burning (movies, songs, videos, etc.) try an external
DVD burner for your notebook. For maximum compatibility, try
to get one that supports both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW formats.


9. Optional Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - Might sound
strange suggesting this option since most laptops already come
with a keyboard! But depending on your notebook make and model,
the keyboards on most notebooks are not the greatest to type with.
It all has to do with the wrong angles and the shape of the
laptop, so if you want a wireless desktop style keyboard and
mouse, it is relatively cheap to buy.


10. Insurance! If you do a lot of traveling, you may
want to invest in some laptop insurance. Laptop theft is
still a big problem and it's better to be safe than sorry.


Acquiring any of these laptop accessories will greatly improve
your notebook computer, making for a hassle-free computing
experience that you will appreciate and enjoy much more. So
don't skimp, instead, bring your laptop enjoyment up to its
highest level by purchasing some of these much needed laptop
accessories.

Mac Parts A great inventory on Apple Parts

une 27, 2006 Apple introduced the Macintosh family in 1984 and today makes consumer, professional, and educational computers.

IMac: The iMac is a consumer desktop computer that was first introduced by Apple in 1998, and its popularity helped save the company. Now iMac is similar in concept to the original Macintosh in that the monitor and computer are housed in a single unit.

Power Mac G5: The Power Mac G5, Apple's desktop computer for the professional and creative market, is a member of the Power Macintosh series.

X Serve: X serve is the name of Apple Computer's Macintosh 1U rack mount line of server computers. It was introduced in 2002; Apple's first designated server hardware. It initially featured one or two PowerPC G4 processors, but was later switched over to the new PowerPC G5. The Xserve can be used for a variety of applications, including file server, web server or even high performance computing applications. If additional hard disk space is needed, its companion external RAID array Xserve RAID can be connected to it via Fiber Channel.

It includes�

Xserve G4: it had one or two PowerPC G4 processors running at 1.0 GHz and supported up to 2 GB of PC-2100 memory on a 64-bit memory bus.

Xserve G5: The higher memory capacity and bandwidth of the Xserve G5 as well as the stronger floating-point performance of the PowerPC 970 made it more suitable for High Performance Computing (HPC) applications.

I Book:

It is a consumer portable computer as a companion to the iMac; it is Apple's lowest-cost portable computer. The iBook brand was replaced with the Mac Book featuring the Intel Core Duo processor, 13 inch widescreen, and available black color on the high-end model.
iPod: Apple introduced the iPod digital music player and currently sells the iPod (with video), available in 30 and 60 GB models.

iPod nano : It is Apple's fourth digital audio player combining features of the iPod shuffle and iPod. The iPod nano has more flash memory storage than is used in the iPod shuffle and has a miniaturized version of the color screen and click wheel found on the full-sized iPods. The screen also has a higher resolution and allowing one more line of text than the mini's screen. The battery and other internal parts were also reduced in size.

iSight: It is a webcam developed and marketed by Apple Computer. It has a USD as an external unit which connects to a computer via FireWire and comes with a set of mounts to place it atop any current Apple display, laptop computer, or all-in-one desktop computer. It has a small green LED that illuminates when the camera is in use. It also has a lens cap for privacy.

Mighty Mouse: is the first multi-button USB mouse ever manufactured and sold by Apple Computer. The mouse actually has four functional button actions:

Left button (when top surface is pressed, regardless of contact points)

Right button (when top surface is pressed and contact is made only on the right side)

Scroll ball (acts as a button when ball and top surface are both pressed down, and may scroll in any direction)

Side squeeze buttons (function as a single button)

Apple Wireless Keyboard: is a wireless keyboard built for Macintosh computers. It interacts over Bluetooth wireless technology. The device takes 4 AA batteries, and has an ON/OFF switch on the bottom.

Apple USB modem: It was introduced after the 56k modem was dropped on the iMac G5. The Apple USB Modem is a combined 56 kbit/s data modem and 14.4 kbit/s fax modem which supports V.92, caller ID, wake-on-ring, telephone answering, and modem on hold. Apple USB Modem for Internet dial-up and faxing, it is also being suggested as a low cost line interface for telephony applications, such as for telephone systems and answering machine software.

Plants And Trees Wallpapers Get Greenery On Your Desktop

Let us go to a deep forest and watch the thick tress growing there. The small plants dancing with joy near the small waterfalls. In a forest we find the earth smelling fresh and the birds chirping happily. Wild animals begin hunting as taught by nature and the ecology always remains in balance.

Now visit a busy city. What does a big city have? It has tall concrete buildings with no soul. It has automobiles running on the roads polluting the air with abandon with all types of poisonous gases being released in the air. You will also find lot many humans running around under stress trying to reach somewhere to finish their work. Can you think about the contrast between these two lifestyles?

How can city dwellers enjoy the sights of jungle in their office and homes? Download free wallpapers that depict plants and trees. That is the easiest method to live in a city but still enjoy the peace and serenity of forest.

Static desktop wallpapers with plants and tress photographs look beautiful. They can help us reduce lot of stress. Download as many as you can on your desktop. Keep on changing as your mood changes. You will get many with text that is inspiring. You will also get many with romantic text. They will help you forget your tensions and stresses. a great treat to the eyes, such wallpapers are a therapy to fight depression.

New Laptop Technology You Need To Know

New Laptop Technology You Need To Know
(Before Buying Your Next Laptop)
Copyright � 2005 Titus Hoskins

Laptop or notebook computer technology is advancing at
a blistering speed. Ferrari fast. So fast that by the time
you purchase your new laptop - it's probably already
obsolete or out of date. A sobering thought considering
the hefty prices you have to pay for a high-end laptop.

But laptop technology is changing so fast new innovations
are coming on stream as you read this article. There is a
whole new generation of notebook technology every two years
or less. Therefore, unless you buy or upgrade your laptop
each year you're falling behind what these sleek little
powerhouses can now deliver.

And unless you're already in Geek Heaven, keeping track
of all these new technologies and innovations can be
quite a chore. Figuring out the right Graphics chipset
that works best with the right CPU and the best Data buses
is a major feat. And now that everything is being
Doubled - dual core, dual graphics - it's entering
the realm where Einstein would be amused, even on a
bad hair day!

What's the ordinary laptop buyer to do?

What you really have to keep in mind are the outcomes
of all this new technology. Basically, these new
technologies have made laptops smaller, faster and more
powerful. With every new improvement the laptop is closing
the gap between its main rival - the desktop computer.

Notebook computers are now out-selling desktops for
the first time in history. Laptops are replacing the
old desktop computer, whose days may just be numbered.
It won't be long before laptops are also out-performing
them as well.

Some major computer makers are taking note of this
trend towards more powerful, smaller computers.
Even the desktop computer is morphing! Just look at
the sleek design of the new Apple iMac G5 - gone is the
bulky tower - in its place is a well designed desktop
computer that's almost a laptop!

For the ordinary computer user keeping abreast of
all these new technologies and inventions can be a
major chore if you're considering buying a laptop
in the next little while. As you approach the smiling
salesperson in your favorite tech store - here's a
few bits of new notebook technology you might want
to have in your possession so you won't look like a
complete neophyte. Hey, where technology is concerned,
we have all been there, done that.

In order for you to tech-proof your next laptop
purchase, here's a quick run down of some recent
Notebook Developments:


Sonoma Chipset

The new Sonoma Platform, Intel's next-generation Centrino
Chipset is already on the market. Members of the Sonoma
club are growing daily - Sony, IBM/Lenovo, BenQ, Dell,
Samsung, Acer, and Toshiba... another 80 or 90
'Sonoma-endowed' products will be released very shortly.

No doubt, it will become the Platform standard for many
high-end notebooks. Actually, it won't make or mean that
much difference to the ordinary Joe/Jane who just want a
notebook or laptop for web surfing, word processing and
e-mail. Notebooks with the Sonoma Platform will be just
a little bit faster and have a little better battery life.

But for Mobile Professionals and Notebook Fanatics (they
do exist)... there's a lot of good things delivered or
capable of being delivered with this new Centrino Chipset.
First, wireless connections will be easier with the integrated
tri-mode 802.11a/b/g, already dubbed by some as the
'wireless trinity'! This will make it easier to stay
connected no matter where you are.

Improved performance will be experienced because the
new Pentium M's have a 533MHz frontside bus, supported
with up to 2GB of DDR2 DRAM, Serial ATA Hard Drive, and
PCI Express, plus improved integrated graphics - including
Intel's Hi-Def Audio. All are possible with the Sonoma
Platform.


PCI Express

PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express is a new
standard for expansion cards that comes in different
versions. Presently, we have the x16 and x1 lanes, which
will be followed by x4 and x8 versions. It offers increased
bandwidth for example, x1 lane offers 500MB/sec instead of
just 133MB/sec for PCI.

All computers, including laptops have different buses,
(collection of wires) that transmit data from one component
to another.

Of course, in an ideal world, all the data in your computer
should move thru just one BUS - however, most experts agree
it's not likely to happen unless we start over and build a
computer system from scratch. For now we have to rely on
different internal buses to move the data around - the
PCI Express is a great improvement and will make your
laptop faster.


Graphics Card

These are always improving. A Graphics Card handles the
graphics or visuals on your notebook. If 3D graphics and
games is a pastime - you will want to buy the highest
quality system. Some of the higher end products are:
ATi Mobility Radeon 9800, X800, and FireGL V3200 or
Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator 900.

If you can, go with a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 graphics
card or for the real game diehards - wait for the debut
of NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 that features NVIDIA's TurboCache
technology.

Gamers will be aware of NVIDIA SLI technology, ATI's
CrossFire and Hyperthreading. All new stuff that's
bringing the gaming experience up to a higher level of
perfection that would even be worthy of a Spielberg or
a Lucas Production. Not really, but it's getting there.


64 Bit Laptops

Most systems today run on the 32 Bit System. Keep in mind,
the major difference between a 32-bit and a 64-bit system
is the amount of memory that they support. Around 4 GB for
32-bit and 8 GB and up for the 64-bit. Right now - Intel,
Apple, and AMD all offer 64-bit systems.

Do you need all this memory? No, for the average laptop
user it amounts to overkill. However, if you're interested
in gaming, desktop publishing, or the graphic arts you will
benefit from 64-bit technology.


Dual Core Notebooks

Two is better than one!

Dual core laptops are now on the market. The gaming industry
is the starting point for many of these advanced systems.
For example, the British Laptop maker Rockdirect now produces
Xtreme 64, a gaming laptop with AMD's new dual core Athlon 64
X2 processor. This same laptop also sports the ATI Mobility
Radeon X800 XT graphics card that features 16 pixel pipelines,
an industry first for notebooks.

The major producers of dual-core chips are Intel and AMD.
The Intel dual-core processor has hyperthreading (HT) - the
two cores are divided into four virtual CPU units. Is all this
needed? Again, if you're into heavy graphics or gaming - it's
something you should consider and explore further.


Built-in Cellular Modem

Most high-end laptops now come with an integrated
tri-mode 802.11a/b/g for wireless WI-FI connections.

Some recent models, like the Sony's New Ultra-Portable
VAIO VGN-T350P, are raising the bar - it has the world's
first 'Built-in Cellular Modem'. You can use your cell phone
to connect to the Internet. This may be a great advantage
since finding a 'Hot Spot' in some parts of the world can
still be difficult.


The Avant-Garde: LumiLED Display

Be on the look-out for LED monitors in the near future.
The brightness, colors and backlighting technology in LED
monitors will be quite different from LCD displays.

The Forerunner in this field is NEC's SpectraView LumiLED,
and will offer a much better image and color.
Keep your eyes peeled.


On the Horizon:

19 or 20 Inch Laptop Screens

There is a rumor, only a rumor, that Dell is coming out
with a 19-inch laptop in early 2006. There is also buzz
that LG-Philips has a 20-inch LCD panel which could easily
be used by laptop makers if they want to explore this
market area. Andre the giant will be pleased!

Halloween Wallpapers Getting The Best Of The Net

Halloween is a festival of innocent joy and fun. Halloween has the spirit of enjoyment that is incomparable. Bring this spirit of Halloween on your boring desktop. Bring some joy in your life that gets hammered by deadlines, stress and relationship and financial issues all the time. Get out of the stress for sometime by downloading the best the net offers of Halloween wallpapers.

Halloween wallpapers- what to look for?

Look for real dark and threatening images. Look for images with connect with you in some way. Images that remind you of your earlier Halloween are the best bet. They will always make you feel nostalgic. Whenever you get bored banging your keyboard, watch the wallpapers and go back into time. You have aright to have fun and enjoyment. Claim it. Here are some Halloween wallpapers, screensavers and ecards. Download few and find out if you like them- Free Halloween Wallpapers, Free Halloween Screensavers and Free Halloween Ecards.

Halloween wallpapers- from which website

Every good website offers wallpapers on Halloween. You will have problem to decide about the website from where you should download. Here is a quick tip. Download one or two wallpapers and look at them. Are they good in design and layout? Will you feel happy keeping them on your desktop? If yes, go ahead and download more. Download as many as you want. JPG wallpapers do not weigh much. Keep on changing the wallpaper everyday and have fun.

Desktop Wallpapers With Flowers Feel Good With Them

Desktop wallpapers with flowers look beautiful. The flowers look lovely and the colors change the mood of the observer. How these wallpapers change our mood to good? Let us find out.

The Innocence Of Flowers - Flowers are one of the most beautiful creations of god. Some flowers are so soft, that we fear handling them, fearing they will break. The colors that nature has painted the flowers with are equally brilliant. We get to see beautiful color combinations, impossible for us human beings to think of. Flowers are beautiful and lovely. That is why when we look at them, we feel good. We feel very energetic and optimistic. When we look at a flower, the innocence of the flowers touches us and we feel that lot of good is still left in this world. Flowers have that magical quality in them.

Why Flower wallpapers make us feel good? It is human nature to feel good by watching anything that is good. Whenever you watch anything dirty, you feel very bad. The reverse is equally true. When you watch anything good, you will feel good. Flower wallpapers look full of colors, designs and lovely. They make us feel good.

How to Chose Flower Wallpapers? Avoid all exe. files. Download JPG files. Never download from any suspicious website. Chose low weight files. Select designs that are not cluttered on the left side where you keep your icons. Observe these small cares and you can do wonderful things with Flower Desktop wallpapers.

The Weather Forecast on Your Computer

I use the Internet to find just about every type of information. Even the weather.

Sure, I could just stick my head out the window and call out, "Hello. What's the weather forecast today?" But if the response is "hurricanes, hail and meteor storms", I don't want my head to be on the wrong side of the window when the answer comes down.

Plus, that won't help me fine-tune my last minute travel plans.

So I turn to the Internet. There are three really easy ways to get a good weather forecast over the Internet:

Weather forecast websites:

There are some good weather forecast websites. The one I use most often, because I am in Canada, is The Weather Network, and I also like CNN.

CNN gives current conditions and a five day forecast. The Weather Network provides more detail, with a short term forecast ( this evening, tonight, tomorrow morning, etc.) and a longer term forecast over the next six days. The Weather Network provides the most detail of all the options, but it takes longer to download than the progress of climate change (so don't do it on a 26K modem!) Both offer forecasts for cities worldwide.

Weather forecast software:

A second way, which does not even require going to a website, is to get current conditions right on your desktop. There are free weather forecast software downloads that display key data right on your desktop, and even provide a text summary one click away.

Weather forecasts on the desktop are probably the fastest way to get local weather information, and the data is updated every five minutes. The display can be set up for local weather, but a couple clicks allows for a quick check of conditions form almost every weather monitoring station in the world � ideal for making last minute travel plans

Weather forecasts by Google:

A third way to access the weather forecast is through Google. Yes, the find-everything search engine has added weather to its repertoire. For instance, search Google for "weather Orlando", without the quotation marks, and see what you get.

At the time of writing, this service is available only to cities in the USA (I presume Americans get more weather than other people.). However, it will hopefully be available everywhere by the time you read this article.

Google's is the least precise weather forecast of the options, but fairly quick and simple to reach if you are looking for information on a city in the USA.

All three options are worthwhile, whether preparing for the daily commute or making travel and vacation plans. So pull in your head, close that window and log on. Why stick your neck out when there is weather on your computer.

Online Resume Writing Software vs Desktop Resume Creating Tools What Should You Choose

Currently, you can choose from a large number of resume writing services and software on the Internet, including online applications and desktop tools. The choices can be confusing and overwhelming. What kind of service or software would you benefit most from? How do you decide? The following article describes a brief survey of professional resume builders, software that is popular among job seekers who don’t like to draft a resume from scratch.

Up-to-date resume makers like Resume for All (http://www.resumeforall.com), Resume Builder (http://www.sarmsoft.com) and Easy Resume Creator Pro (http://www.winresume.com), provide a variety of advanced features for creating personalized professional resumes and cover letters that reflect an applicant’s career level and experience. Both desktop and online resume writing programs can create an outstanding resume and greatly enhance your competitiveness in current job market. However, new computer users still retain unfounded prejudices about resume writing software.

Newbie users commonly believe that modern resume services and software can’t create the right resume for the right position or describe an applicant’s abilities and skills in the most advantageous way. These users believe that the resumes created by software or online services are generic and inflexible, almost guaranteeing that an employer will reject the resume. That is simply not the case. Let’s summarize the main advantages of resume software and examine the differences between the most popular tools.

First, all these tools, including Resume for All, Resume Builder and Easy Resume Creator Pro, don’t limit an applicant to a particular format. The most common format is a chronological resume. However, some creative, energetic applicants might want to express their personality, abilities and work experience through a specific style, emphasizing talents and skills over work history. All the programs previously mentioned allow you to create resumes for all different types of resumes: chronological, functional, combined, or targeted.

Secondly, both online and desktop applications provide all the options you need to express your own unique style and personality. Using a resume builder, you can easily stand out from the mass of skilled and ambitious competitors. If you are at a loss for words, Resume for All, Resume Builder, and Easy Resume Creator Pro offer a list of action words that you can choose from. These applications also feature high-speed spellchecking for resume sections and a cover letter editor that automatically corrects common mistakes. Resume Builder is a multilingual program, offering sample resumes and examples in French, German, and English languages. However, Easy Resume Creator and Resume for All do not offer all these languages.

Thirdly, cutting-edge resume builders, like Resume for All, Resume Builder and Easy Resume Creator Pro, provide all the tools you need to handle your resume as a familiar document, printed on high-quality paper. You can format, print, edit, and save the resume many times. You can also use photos in your resume with these popular resume builders. All these applications contain a great collection of templates, sample cover letters, and other career-related letters for job search correspondence. In addition, as you apply for different positions, you can adjust your resume and save different versions of it for as many different positions as you want.

Lastly, resume writing software gives you a quick, easy and effective way to write and publish your unique resume. For example, Easy Resume Creator Pro has an integrated ftp (file transfer protocol) publishing wizard, an excellent solution for Web publishers or people who distribute their resumes over the Internet. Resume for All allows you to create resumes and publish them as a web page (HTML) or Word document. The software provides two URLs for each format. Resume Builder generates an HTML-based resume, which can include hyperlinks and other web-specific functionality. The FTP clients loads resumes to your web site right after you create the document. Keep in mind that only Resume for All offers both publishing and hosting facilities.

New resume software can be your personal career manager: the software acts as your personal organizer, finds suitable job positions and posts a resume automatically. For example, Easy Resume Creator Pro features Contact organizer, which organizes a prospective employer’s contact information, an applicant’s to-do list, and a personal calendar. You can also track the addressees, to whom the resume has been sent, networking contacts, and when an applicant is going to follow up. The software is also equipped with Job Crawler—a powerful tool for searching throughout online employment databases. As a job seeker, all you do is select your career field and keywords that you want. Resume Builder even delivers a database of recruitment companies and employers contacts, allowing you to create, modify or remove contact records easily. After providing all this power, Resume for All even gives job seekers a reliable mailing service, which sends the resume immediately and receives a delivery report.

As you can see, Resume for All, Resume Builder and Easy Resume Creator Pro provide a range of essential tools to create a professional resume tailored to specific positions. These applications make job-hunting much easier and allow you to manage the entire job-seeking process. All these programs are equipped with various wizards, guiding even an inexperienced user through the process of a resume or cover letter writing and more—e-mailing, uploading the resume to the Internet, and so forth.

On a last note, with online Resume Builder, you can access your resumes from any Internet connection, any place in the world, and customize the document in seconds—you are always able to compete for the job positions you want on a moment’s notice. You can ultimately choose advanced, powerful writing tools, such as templates, multilingual resume samples , and more—and instant access to your resume from any place in the world and any Internet connection. Moreover, an online writing application, such as Resume Builder, gives you the added advantage of enhanced web searches in various job vacancies databases, e-mailing, and web publishing facilities.

iCal The Elegant Desktop Calendar of Apple

iCal is a personal calendar application made by Apple Computer that runs on the Mac OS X operating system. iCal can also refer to iCalendar, the standard calendar format used by the iCal calendar application. iCal was the first calendar application to offer support for multiple calendars and the ability to publish/subscribe calendars to WebDAV server.

Apple's new calendar application, iCal, is available for Mac OS X. iCal makes it easy to publish and share your calendar data online, either through Apple or third-party services. Perhaps of more interest to developers, iCal stores its data in the standard calendar (.ics) file format, which is used by other calendar programs, like Mozilla Calendar. This means you can take advantage of existing libraries to develop your own applications for sharing and publishing iCal files.

Special Features:

Keeps track of events and appointments, allows multiple calendar views (such as calendars for "home", "work", and "kids") to quickly identify conflicts and free time.

Is integrated with .apple, so calendars can be shared over the Internet. You can also share calendars via the WebDAV protocol.

Allows notification of upcoming events either on screen, by e-mail, SMS, or pager. There is also a third-party Dashboard widget called iCal Events that allows notification of upcoming events using Dashboard.

An elegant personal calendar application that helps you manages your life and your time better than ever before. iCal lets you keep track of your appointments and events with multiple calendars featuring at-a-glance views of upcoming activities by day, week or month.

With iCal, you can:
- Keep track of your schedules, events and appointments, with at-a-glance views of upcoming activities by day, week or month
- Manage and view more than one calendar at a time from within a single unified window to quickly identify schedule conflicts and pockets of free time
- Share your calendars online with your colleagues, family and friends, using your .Apple account
- Subscribe to other calendars to keep up with work schedules, family and school events, and more

With so many events demanding your attention, you need to expand or narrow your calendar view at the click of a button. iCal allows you to choose between viewing your schedule by day, week or month. And it's easy to find things on your calendar using iCal's powerful search feature. Just type in what you're looking for in the search field, and the matching results appear as they're found. Go to any event simply by clicking on the event name in the search results list. Or use Spotlight to search for calendar events and To Dos by summary, location, organizer, attendees and more right from your Desktop.

You can download a roundup of calendars you can use with iCal to stay on top of everything from TV shows to ball games and concerts to major holidays to movie openings and DVD release dates to Apple store openings.

Creating a Wireless Desktop

We live in an age of technology and as such we are always looking for ways to make life easier or ways to make things look better. In the home or office (or even the home office) making things look better involves getting rid of clutter. This is where the wireless desktop comes into play. No wires means less clutter and because when using Bluetooth wireless devices line of sight is not needed, you can use your desk space to its optimum with no worries.

There is more to the wireless desktop than you might think as well. You will all be aware that you can get a wireless keyboard and mouse. But wireless technology and Bluetooth in particular stretches much further than that. Your mobile phone if a recent one will probably have Bluetooth technology built into it. This means that you can easily connect it to your PC. Companies such as Logitech offer software that really gets your mobile phone and your PC working together. Synchronization is just one aspect of this, but how about being able to type an SMS text message on your keyboard and send it without having to touch your phone. This is all possible with the power of Bluetooth. Communication with your mobile phone is not the only method of contact with Bluetooth. You can also get Bluetooth headsets that work with Microsoft Messenger so you can add an easy chat functionality to your desktop. As new products come on the market Bluetooth becomes more and more popular. Peripheral devices such as Printers and Scanners can now be found.

The Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

This is the first device that you will probably buy for your wireless desktop. This is the basic starting point and probably the most effective. The keyboard and mouse wires cannot be hidden away from sight as they have to be straight in front of you. plus limiting the mouse wire can mean limiting the mouse movement as well. So A wireless keyboard and mouse will give you a better looking desktop as well as freedom to move your keyboard where you want it. You can have it on your lap or anywhere else in range. Having a wireless mouse will also help in gaming. Most wireless mice are just as responsive as corded ones and your wire wont snag at that vital moment when online gaming.

Wireless Printers

While printers are not being produced as wireless as yet. The idea is very much being worked on. Currently what you can by for your USB connected printers is a two small connecters that plug into your printer and USB port which connect together like a wireless network. Its almost a wireless USB connection if you like. I doubt that is how it will be described though. The advantages of the wireless printer as well as the lack of wires behind your PC is the range can be increased as well as you being able to place your printer in a place where a USB cable would be unsuitable to travel. A second advantage would be that connecting your printer to a wireless network for sharing will be much easier.

Wireless Networking

I think the biggest advantage of wireless technology has to be Wireless Networking. While Bluetooth technology is does not have the range in which to be affective at networking computers together. RF technology is still used however and is very easy to setup. For a simple network (peer to peer) on two computers all you need is two wireless networking cards setup to the same channel. More complex networks can also be setup using a server and workstations. Anything you can do with a wired network you can do with wireless technology.

While we keep saying that the main advantage of wireless technology is that you don't have wires lying around everywhere, this is more true than ever when we are talking about wireless networking. When your computers are likely to be located in different room, the last thing you want is for wires to be laid around your home or office being an eyesore. Plus should you wish to move your computer at anytime, you don't have to re-route the wires connecting your network together.
Security on Wireless networks is set by adding a name for your network which all computers on that network must be assigned to connect to, plus then you can add a password to keep unwanted intruders out from your files. Software firewalls are also recommended on wireless connections (as well as wired) just for added security against unwanted virus' or Adware/Spyware.

Wireless Headphones / Microphone

Wireless headphones are readily available from many manufacturers. These are really one of the most practical uses of wireless technology behind the networking. Wireless headphones allow you to freely listen to your music, game or whatever noise your PC is making anywhere in your room without the restriction of wires. Even if your wires are long enough they will still be a little dangerous stretched across the room. And we all know you like to dance around your room listening to your favourite tracks. A set of wireless headphones could save you a few quid on broken items that your headphone wires have snagged on and brought crashing down to the floor :).

Wireless Speakers

Wireless speakers are poking out of the woodwork and those of you that have a 5.1 or above sound system will just how many wires are involved in that setup. Not only do you have connection to the computer but each speaker is connected to the sub / power box and and you also have the volume control to deal with. At time of writing this the US seem to have a decent supply of wireless speakers where as only a few can be found in the UK. I am very sure that wireless speakers will become a lot more popular in the UK over the next couple of months. Wireless speakers will remove loads of wires from the back of your computer. Using a 5.1 wireless system will allow you to place your speakers in the perfect position without any restrictions or ugly wires running along your walls or floor.

Computer Parts No More a Hidden Business

Computer parts are an important peripheral for any business houses today. Computer hardware is the physical part of a computer, including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software that executes within the hardware.

The use of computer is endless you can use a computer for printing reports, documents, publishing newsletters or for just printing photos. The hardware of a computer is infrequently changed, in comparison with software and data, which are "soft" in the sense that they are readily created, modified or erased on the computer.

Most computer hardware is not seen by normal users. It is in embedded systems in automobiles, microwave ovens, electrocardiograph machines, compact disc players, and other devices.

PC hardware:


A typical personal computer consists of a case or chassis in desktop or tower shape and the following parts:

Motherboard: The Motherboard is possibly the most important part of the computer. The motherboard is the foundation of any PC. All the critical subsystems, including the CPU, system chipset, memory, system I/O, expansion bus, and other critical components run directly off the motherboard. Likewise, the interconnections among these components are laid into the motherboard itself.It slots for expansion cards and holding parts including :

- Central Processing Unit(C P U): It is the core of computer, it control the main processing process.

- Random Access Memory (RAM): It is for Program execution and short term data storage.

- Basic Input-Output System (BIOS): All computer hardware has to work with software through an interface. The BIOS gives the computer a little built-in starter kit to run the rest of software's from floppy disks (FDD) and hard disks (HDD). The BIOS is responsible for booting the computer by providing a basic set of instructions.

- Keyboard: The keyboard is one of the simplest parts of the computer to understand. This chapter goes beyond the keyboard basics, however, to show you how to do tasks such as inserting special characters or typing in another language. This chapter also looks at how to take care of your keyboard and how to take care of yourself when using it.

- Power supply - A case that holds a transformer, voltage control and fan.

- Storage controllers : It is of IDE, SATA, SCSI or other type, that control hard disk, floppy disk, CD-ROM and other drives; the controllers sit directly on the motherboard (on-board) or on expansion cards

- Video display controller: It produces the output for the computer display.

- CD - the most common type of removable media, cheap but fragile.

- CD-ROM Drive

- CD Writer

- DVD � DVD- ROM Drive, DVD-RAM Drive, DVD Writer.

- Tape drive - mainly for backup and long-term storage.

- Internal storage - keeps data inside the computer for later use.

- Sound card - It translates signals from the system board into analog voltage levels, and has terminals to plug in speakers.

- Networking - to connect the computer to the Internet and/or other computers, to connect one to other computers you required the following thing:

- Modem - for dial-up connections

- Network card - for DSL/Cable internet, and/or connecting to other computers.

- Other peripherals

- Hot Hardware - Popular forums for those interested in learning or exchanging info on graphics cards, motherboards, processors, drives and cases, or shoot the breeze in The Lounge.

The internet is the best place to buy cheap computer parts. Due to increase in demand for many parts in many suppliers find it profitable to sell their products online. The online dealers have their websites, which offer information on the various types of computer parts available for purchase. Whether you want to reviews computer hardware on water-cooling, flat screens, memory modules, video cards, and the latest in gaming and technology news, just go to http://www.dvwarehouse.com they have something you'll enjoy. Shop by our busy computer hardware forum, where thousands of hardware enthusiasts participate in active discussion. Also try searching our hardware forum database, as well as our full network of sites, for answers to any computer questions.

Boost Your Computer Speed Valuable Tips

When you first buy your computer, it seems to be quite fast. But with the passage of time and advancement in technology most PC users complain that the performance of these machines keep on deteriorating slowly. So, if you're one of them, you needn't worry anymore because we're here to give you information on how to not only increases the speed of your computer but also how to improve the life of your desktop. There are basically two low cost solutions that can effectively speed up your machine. And the best part about these two methods is that you can do them yourself.

The first method is to add more RAM to your computer. RAM stands for Random Access Memory. Increasing the RAM could increase the speed of your computer. But this is dependant on your system's motherboard. For example, upgrading your computer from 128 megabytes to 256 megabytes or more can substantially increase its performance. The second solution to your problem would be to switch from IDE hard drives to SCSI. One of the reasons for slow functioning of a computer is the communications speed to and from your hard drives. And SCSI can help reduce this problem considerably.

However, if you don't want to spend any more money on your old computer and don't feel the need to upgrade it, then there are some other ways to increasing the speed of your computer at no cost. One method to a faster computer without spending any money would be to clean up your registry.

The registry is a main part of your computer's Operating System. With time, as you use Windows and install and uninstall programs, your registry will get congested. This is one of the reasons why your computer could slow down. So, if you can clean it up this problem can be solved. However, cleaning your registry off some software could do it more harm than good. If you're trying to clean up your registry for the first time, you could seriously damage it in the process. So, before you venture out to do this, you need to do some research on the Internet and visit some online forums that can help you out.

Another way to considerably speed up your computer is by disabling unnecessary applications. The Windows software in your computer would have installed many applications, most of them you normally wouldn't need. Sometimes too many active processes can reduce your computer's speed. So, when you disable some of them you increase your computer's speed. Also, disable unnecessary services that are used by Windows. Some of these services are set to automatically load on startup. Sometimes there are services that you don't even use. However, for this you'll need to do some research on which service you are going to disable, before you try and do it. Also, though you might not realize it, fonts can slow down your computer. So, getting rid of excess fonts can also be a solution. But to do it you'll need to download a freeware that will make the task easy. And also take care not to delete any system fonts in the process.

And last but not the least you could delete your history, temporary files and cookies. It's a very simple process. Go to Internet explorer and click on Tools Menu and then Internet Options. But, all these solutions come with a cautionary statement: when you delete or disable anything that you're not clear about, it's best to do a little background research or seek the advice of an expert before you do so.

Online Book Publishing Boost Your Sales With Online Publishing

This is the first in my series of articles that explain the Online Publishing Model and how small-time authors and/or self-publishers can use the OPM as a viable alternative to the often archaic and dysfunctional traditional book publishing model.

Typically, you will create your book/ebook in a source word processing program such as MS-Word or WordPerfect. Once you have converted it into PDF format you'll be ready to start selling it via the three primary channels that make up the Online Publishing Model: 1. Sales-Mini-Sites, 2. Digital Download Distributors, 3. Print-On-Demand (POD) Distributors.

This article explains the three primary channels of the Online Publishing Model (OPM).

After a number of disappointing experiences using the traditional book publishing model I decided to see if I could find a way that would eliminate all or most of the downsides of that conventional approach to publishing. After almost three years of trial-and-error experimentation (not to mention a few thousand dollars), I did manage to come up with a real, viable alternative to the old way.

It's called the Online Publishing Model and it's pretty exciting!

Based on my experience using the OPM since that time, I am truly convinced that it is the KEY to publishing success for small time authors and/or self publishers in the Internet age.

THE ONLINE PUBLISHING MODEL - THE NEW WAY
The Online Publishing Model is a combination of online digital download delivery and print-on-demand (POD) paper book publishing that sidesteps most of the pitfalls of the traditional book publishing model.

It offers small-time authors/publishers an excellent alternative that will give them more control, and will increase their sales and profits by using little known online channels when publishing their books/ebooks. Here's how it works...

OPM: THREE MAIN DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
Using this model, once your book/ebook is written, there are a number of online channels through which you can distribute and sell your book/ebook, as follows:

1. Dedicated Sales-Mini-Site
First and foremost, once your book/ebook is written you need to create what's called a "mini-Website" (i.e. sales-mini-site) for the sole purpose of selling your product. Trust me, this is the only way to go. You MUST have a site dedicated to the sale of that one book/ebook. Search engines will send targeted traffic to your site and your site copy will make the sales online.

2. Digital Download Distributors
The second online channel for your book/ebook will be through digital fulfillment companies that distribute downloadable ebooks to the largest online bookstores such as amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and many others. These distribution companies are happy to put your ebook in front of thousands of traditional book buyers who normally wouldn't see it. Listing your digital download ebook with one or more of these distributors is essential.

3. Print-On-Demand Distributors
These are distributors that use a relatively new technology called print-on-demand (or POD). You provide the company with a digital copy of your book, plus some cover art work in digital form, and they will set up your book so that single book orders can be printed and drop-shipped directly to the buyer. This allows you to provide a hard copy version (of your ebook) to those customers who insist on it, while you only pay the cost of printing a single copy. (No more printing 2,000+ copies up-front just to get a reasonable cost per copy!).

Remotely Accessing Your Home Computer

Windows XP operating system contains the software needed to remotely access your home computer from any Internet connection. This is a powerful tool when you are traveling and need to have full access to your home computer to keep your business running efficiently

If you are going to be an online entrepreneur, you always need to have access to your computer when you are away from home. Some people use laptops for home and travel, but many prefer to have use a desktop or tower model PC.

When we retire and are using the Internet for our retirement job, it is very important that we can access the Internet since working on the Internet is our life blood. There are several software packages on the market that will enable you to access your computer as though you were sitting in front of your own monitor. Some of the better known ones are www.GoToMyPC.com and LogMeIn.com. GoToMyPC.com costs $49.95 for the initial setup and between $18.95 and $24.95 per month depending on the plan you choose. LogMeIn.com has a limited feature free version which you might investigate. The full version costs $12.95 per month for a single PC.

The great news is that Microsoft has created a package that is included in the XP Windows operating system. It can also be downloaded from the XP System CD to other operating systems. This will allow the computer to access the remote computer. This software uses the Terminal Server package which only transmits mouse, keyboard, and display information so it is fairly effective over a slow bandwidth connection.

You can install this on your home computer and access the home computer from a laptop that you might carry or from any Internet connection when you are on the road.
My road laptop is running Windows 2000 Professional so I loaded the software on it from my Windows XP system disk and it works very well. When you are traveling, you will be able to use any computer running Windows XP if the Remote Desktop software is installed on it. Most of the hotel business centers and Internet cafes have this set up. All you will need is the IP address of your home computer.
If you want to set this up, click the Start button and select Help and Support. Search on "remote desktop". You will get the information that you need to set up the connection. NOTE: You need a fixed IP address to which to connect. Some Internet Service Providers (ISP's) do not assign a fixed IP, but rather give you a variable IP address. Most will issue you a fixed IP address for a one time fee or for an additional monthly fee. My fixed IP address cost a one time fee of $25. You need the fixed IP so you can always connect to the same address when the connection is configured. Check with your IP to see what your situation is.

If you have a firewall/router on your system and have a home network, you will also need to make your own computer IP address fixed within your network. This is done by clicking Start/Control Panel/Network Connections. Right click on the icon of the connection that takes you to the Internet and select Properties. In the scroll down window, highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click the properties button below the scroll down window. Click the radio button. "Use the Following IP Address". Enter the IP address to be assigned to the computer. Most computers on Windows are in the 192.168.1.NNN number range. Usually, the lower numbers are assigned first by the software so skip to 101 for the rightmost address in the IP string (192.168.1.101). The subnet mask is 255.255.255.0. The default gateway is usually 192.168.1.1. Leave the DNS server information alone. Click OK twice. Now try to access the Internet to make certain that nothing has been changed that will prevent you from operating your computer. If you cannot access the Internet, go back through the process above and turn on the radio button that says "Obtain an IP Address Automatically" and it will reset back to your old processes. At that point, I suggest you use your software support guru to help you do the job.
If you have a router, you will need to direct the input from port 3389 to your fixed IP address (192.168.1.101). This is done by logging onto your router and setting up the port routing settings. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Read the router instructions and you can do it. As a precaution, write down the router settings before you change them so you can reset to the original values if something does not work properly.

To log on, go to Start/Programs/Accessories/Communications/Remote Desktop Connection. Enter your Internet IP address in the box and click Connect. If all is well, you should see the logon box for your user and password. Caution: If you have someone sharing your computer at home, warn them that the display may suddenly show the login screen. When you are on the remote connection, no one can use the home computer until you finish.
Sometimes we are careless about passwords on our home computers. Since you will be accessing your computer over the Internet, create a strong password for your login. Make it at least eight characters long and make it a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.

When you log in, your job will be a window on the computer you are using for the access. There is a job bar at the top of the screen of the remote software. It has the IP address of the computer being accessed and the standard Windows Minimize, Reduce, and Close. While you are working on the computer, you can minimize the remote window and work locally and the connection will remain active. This will allow you to look up data on your home computer, copy it to the clipboard, minimize the remote window, and paste the information into an application running on the local computer.

I have used this feature for over six months now and it has worked very well for me.
One other consideration is to make certain that your home computer does not shut down while you are away. If a family member is there to restart it if you call and ask for help, this is not a problem, but if you are on vacation and no one is there to help, you have a problem.
Purchase a UPS (not the brown truck) but an uninterruptible power supply and install it on your computer. This will keep your computer running if there is a short power outage. There are bargains on good refurbished UPS units on the Internet. Buy one large enough to keep your computer running for twenty to thirty minutes if your power fails. Most of the time the power will be restored in less time than that.
Try it and see how it works. Good computing.

Refurbished Laptops A Great Second Computer

The vast majority of people who own a single computer own a desktop system. That is great. With that you can do homework, business, get on the internet and a whole bunch of other applications. The problem is only one person can do that at a time. That presents a serious issue if several household members need to use it at one time. Now a cheap and inexpensive way to get rid of that problem is refurbished laptops.

Refurbished laptops are considerably less than a new notebook computer and the best part is it is easier than ever to hook up a home network. Imagine if you are online and somebody else has things to do too. You can either try and work out a schedule, or simply purchase a cheap laptop computer and save yourself the hassle. Through wireless technology you can have one internet connection (via cable or DSL broadband) and even share one printer. That is awesome!

Now you and whomever else can do what they have to do and no one has to wait. Your time is precious and most of us do not have a lot of it to spare. Easily add another computer and you will not have to worry about space. A laptop computer unit will not clutter up your room. In fact they are no larger than an average three ring binder. Stores anywhere and you can take them anywhere you go because most of them weigh between four and eight pounds.

Right now we have learned that notebook computers save space, time, and easily connect to a network. Now let us get to the best part. The cost. Refurbished laptops are about half the cost of a new one. They are proven reliable, otherwise they are put in the trash. Great for the kids, spouse, or anyone that wants added convenience in his or her life.

Here is how a refurbished notebook computer is born:

1) Customer buys new laptop computer
2) Customer returns it for any number of reasons usually within 90 days
3) The unit cannot be sold as new and it is sent back to the manufacturer
4) They then repair and replace anything that is necessary after testing it
5) The laptop is tested again to make sure it works like new and it is resold

Not all retailers sell factory reconditioned laptops though. They decide to do it themselves. Better performance is proven when a highly skilled professional does the refurbishing. They are more up to date and have current software and hardware applications, so you are basically getting a notebook with only a few miles on it.

Everyone can benefit from an added computer in the house. You can take your time and do what you need without having to squeeze time in. Thanks to modern technology refurbished laptops are just as good as new, but with one good twist- they are cheaper. Refurbished notebook computers are here to stay because they are proven reliable and a great alternative to the high cost of new equipment.

Computer Consulting Find Paying Clients during Start Up

Even if you are just starting out your computer consulting practice with rather basic desktop support level technical skills, make sure that your computer consulting firm gets some paying clients who are at your current technical skills comfort level. In this article, you'll learn which types of clients to pursue first.

Start out by working with home offices and very small stand-alone businesses and companies with really, really small peer-to-peer simple networks. At least you're getting some paying clients and some reference accounts.

Make The One-Shot Deals a Stepping Stone

Recognize however, that you need to move beyond that. You want to be able to have a successful small business computer consulting practice that's built on recurring revenue retainer agreements and sophisticated kinds of dedicated server solutions. When you're first getting started with your computer consulting business, there's certainly no reason why you can't take on some of these smaller, one-shot deal accounts. Just recognize that you need to be moving towards more sophisticated, more profitable, long-term client accounts.

Continue Learning

If you feel that your lack of technical training is holding you back from clients that need more sophisticated solutions, put aside some time each week for training (even if its just two or three hours). Go through tutorials and resource kits. And install your not-for-resale (NFR) software. Then, break the installation and troubleshoot the setup process. Then, reinstall the applications until you get more and more comfortable with setup and troubleshooting.

Desktop Customization Tidying your computers desktop

There are heaps of beautiful wallpaper designs available on the
web, many of them are the work of some very clever and
imaginative digital artists.

But when it comes to photo wallpaper, even though the choice is
still huge, the vast majority of images cover your desktop with
a beautiful image, only for you to then go and clutter up the
image with all your desktop icons.

If, like me you frequently drop useful shortcuts on the desktop
whilst you are surfing, or you like to organise your work space
with all your favourite and most often used program icons easily
to hand, you are likely to end up with the effect of that
stunning landscape photo completely destroyed with a messy
colection of shortcuts which you can't see very well because
they are lost against the backgrond image. Sounds familiar?

Well, I'm going to show you how you can overcome this problem by
making your own customized desktop wallpaper, that will give you
both a pretty image to grace your computer, as well as areas
where you can neatly keep your icons together, easily visible
and identifiable.

First of all you will need two things: your favourite (digital
or scanned) photo, and some sort of photo editing software.

Start your photo editing program and locate and open your chosen
photograph file. What size (in pixels) is the image? Look at the
file info, or the status bar, or image heading, of your editing
program to find this. For the purpose of this excercise we'll
assume that your PC desktop is set at a resolution (screen size)
of 1024 x 768, which is probably the most common choice at the
moment. (To change the size of your desktop/screen resolution:
right click on your desktop - choose properties - then the
"settings" tab, which will present you with the available size
choices for your monitor).

So, with a screen size of 1024 x 768 pixels, alter the
dimensions of your image to exactly match these dimensions.
Warning: don't change both height and width, or you may end up
with a distorted image unless the original size is proportionate
to 1024 x 768. What you should do is to alter the image width,
OR, the height, until you have an image which is the same on one
edge, and either the same, or larger on the other edge. Then
using the crop tool in your image editor, carefully select
enough of the image to match exactly 1024 x 768 pixels.

OK. So now you have your basic background image. Here's the
important part: Look at your chosen image and decide which area,
or areas, are the least important visually. It may be that the
bottom of the image doesn't contain any important detail, or
vital part of the scene. Or maybe a part of one side, or the
other could be sacrificed without spoiling the overall impact?

Keep in mind that you're not going to completely lose this part
of the image - just "ghost" it. What this entails is lowering
the image contrast, while raising the brightness, a little at a
time until you have a ghosted image in which you can still see
the picture but more "dimly" than before. These "ghosted" panels
are where you are going to place your icons, so that they stand
out much better than before. With careful choice of image and
where you place the "ghosted" panels, you can create a very
attractive and functional desktop wallpaper.

Back to the actual process: use the selection tool to create a
panel, or indeed more than one, at the part(s) of the image you
have chosen to "ghost". Now, for each panel at a time, use the
contrast and brightness tools, as described above, to alter just
the selected area(s). When you are satisfied with the degree of
ghosting, you can further enhance your design by adding an
outline to the panel, and/or a drop shadow.

When you are happy with the overall design. Save the image as a
JPEG file with a bit of compression but not too much if you want
to keep the quality reasonably high (a quality setting of about
85%, or level 10 in Photoshop, will do).

Now you are ready to add this wallpaper to your PC's library of
wallpapers: to do this right click on your desktop -> choose
properties -> then the "Desktop" tab -> then click "Browse" and
locate the file you just saved, and finally click OK. Your
editing software may have a command for setting the image as
your wallpaper more quickly, but keep in mind you might have
trouble finding it again if you subsequently change to a
different wallpaper.

With your new design loaded on your desktop, you now have to
arrange your icons within the panel(s) you made. To make this
easier, what I do is to right-click the desktop and then ->
"arrange icons by"-> "align to grid" first, then drag and drop
the icons to approximately where you want them, leaving "align
to grid" to tidy up your rows and columns, then, if your
collection of icons doesn't quite align with the panel(s),
deselect "align to grid", use the mouse pointer to select a box
all around the icons you want to move, then drag the whole tidy
pile to where you want them to sit.