Posts filed under 'House Of Hardware'
Nowadays it is essential for any company to have a web site, IT equipment has become an enormous expense for every company. As well as the original expense, IT equipment requires maintenance and updating and this frequently has to be outsourced. And everybody understands having a computer systems off-line whether for scheduled upgrades or emergency repairs is bound to mean a significant profit loss
Continue Reading February 28th, 2010
Networking equipment is a tremendous investment for nearly all companies, especially if it needs networked computers and the Internet to do business. some exceedingly costly external IT professional services outfit. Then there’s the unwelcome lost income caused by that down time and hassle involved…
Continue Reading January 11th, 2010
These sites were critical to my safety and energy starting a little while ago. Let me know if these are useful for you - if yes, I’ll keep sharing. I hope these are good finds for you as they were for me.
Is it going to rain?
A couple days ago we got back from camping. We were going to meet some friends up at a trail in the mountains and hike in to camp. Bought a durable heavy duty camping tent online for the weeklong outing. Camping with the right tent is essential. We barely got the right tent on time. It sure was a relief to see that we had the right product tent shipped direct to our house. This website was awesome - check it out. If you ever get the chance to hike into a camp, take it. It’s so worthwhile. Time for another round?
Safety
My wife told me that I absolutely had to get a home security system installed before we left. There’s always that time where you think - oh crap, what if my photos are taken? If we had our computer stolen, it would take a lot from us. Installing a security system didn’t take long at all. In fact, it took us longer to get the right info online. It only took four hours to get it in. Turns out we didn’t have to worry but we felt safer while traveling.
Energy
Camping is exhasutive sometimes - especially if it’s for a few days or more. Do you have any idea how grateful I am for packing efusjon energy drinks? Everything we did while camping was so draining. I know I need to hit the gym when I get back but these drinks helped a lot. Energy is something I take seriously so the ‘a’ team at efusjon is awesome. The opportunity is great. Learn to love the energy drink - order some today.
Hope to see you on the ‘A’ Team. Check out the links!
August 16th, 2009
Is your computer a monster? Is it a fire-breathing dragon that can go howling through the latest games, the most intense video, and the heaviest of heavy duty number crunching?
If so, the analogy of fire-breathing dragon to computer may be particularly apt, because the inside of its case can run as hot as blazes. To prevent this, I favor a five step approach.
The first step is perhaps the easiest to deal with. Answer this: what is the room temperature where your computer is located? Cool, perhaps uncomfortably cool for some people, is best. This brings to mind a friend, a skinny, asthetic fellow, who spends hours running a demanding 3-D animation program on his PC.
He liked a room temperature near 80 degrees, while his computer would have prefered something in the range of 68 or so. Actually, he was shortening the life of his machine by running it under these conditions. Finally, he was persuaded to wear a pullover, and turn the thermostat down. My friend is reasonably content with the compromise, and his computer lives on.
Now, the second step: have you noticed the design of computer desks? How there’s a cubby hole set aside for the computer itself? Usually, a PC will just barely fit into the things.
If you get such a desk, use the cubby hole for instruction manuals, textbooks, put a vase there, anything but a computer. The walls of the cubby hole block air vents, restricting the airflow inside your computer’s case. Hot air pools up, letting the temperature climb higher, like the inside of a oven.
No matter how strong the exhaust fans are in your PC, it has to be able to pull some air in through the vents to breathe, you might say. Give it a chance. Keep it out of the cubby hole.
Also, keep it out of direct sunlight. That is the third step. Ask yourself this: why does a cat like to sleep in the shaft of sunlight that comes through a window? The answer is obvious. It’s warm there.
Now, imagine a computer, with a dark colored case sitting before that same window. It will get hot without even running!
When your cat gets hot, it can get up and walk away. Your computer can’t. So, keep it out of sunlight.
The next step is one of the most practical, and addresses the problem directly. The surest way to lower the temperature inside your PC’s case is to add another fan.
This is a much simpler operation than it may sound like to the beginner. All you have to do is open up the case, mount the fan with four screws, and either connect it to a lead coming from the case’s power supply, or plug it into a 5V receptacle on the motherboard.
The rub comes when you don’t have a place to mount another fan. This is often a problem with smaller size cases.
Modification, cutting a new fan port, is a job best left to an experienced hand. I have done this sort of thing, but only on a completely empty case. Everything, motherboard, hard drive, and all, comes out first. No metal shavings, or metal dust should be allowed to reach your PC’s components.
The fifth step, if the others fail, is liquid cooling. At one time, this was viewed as a drastic option, and I can well remember how leery many of us were when this new technology came on the market. Yet its fascination drew me to try it, on a PC I put together from scratch.
The effectiveness surprised me. It tamed what could have been an otherwise insurmountable cooling problem, and has performed admirably in the many months since.
By the way, the unit I purchased has come down in price by at least 30% since I bought it.
July 3rd, 2008
Wireless internet access is truly the wave of the future and depending on where you live the future could be now. Wireless “hotspots” really are popping up somewhere on a daily basis. Not that I’m complaining, because having the ability to access the internet via a wireless connection is a great convenience and allows you to “Take Your Laptop For a Walk on Wireless Side”.
On the other hand, even though there are thousands of “hotspots”, they don’t always get a whole bunch of publicity. However, if you were to do a search for “hotspots” in your town you may be pleasantly surprised. You may have thought that there weren’t any in your area but if you live in even an average-size city then it would be more of a surprise if you didn’t find a few “hotspots”.
Another alternative would, of course, to do a search for “hotspots” or “wireless hotspots”. There are a ton of websites you can go to and find “hotspots”. One “hotspot” that is generally considered to be on the most comprehensive is www.jiwire.com. You can search for local “hotspots” from the JiWire website or could simply type your zip code into Yahoo Maps and choose ‘WiFi Hotspots’ from the menu located on the right side of the screen.
Another option would be to check out the nearest Starbucks. They are literally everywhere and almost all of them offer wireless internet access in at some part of the store. Borders and Kinko’s are also pretty good bets and if all else fails… keep a watchful eye out for a local cafe or simply ask around a little bit and someone should be able to point you in the right direction.
Small Wireless ISP Fee
You may find that some of the larger hotspot networks with multiple, convenient locations require that you pay a small fee to a wireless ISP to access through them. In many instances, you can simply purchase a prepaid card at the place where the access is offered so it’s really not a big deal. However, if you want to free access your best bet would be to stick to the smaller independent locations.
Why Would a Cafe Offer Free Wireless Internet?
Actually, if you think about it, it’s really nothing more than good business. Rather than pay to access the internet in some dingy Internet cafe, you can access the Internet for free in their place of business and while there buy their food and drinks. Cafes are willing to pay the minimal cost of providing wireless Internet access in exchange for the new customers it brings into their business. Especially, in areas where Internet access is hard to come by, any other way. The same goes for hotels and airports: customers see wireless access as an added value and in many instances; they will choose a particular hotel based on this feature alone.
Actually, the real growth area in wireless “hotspots” is in the private sector. Businesses are falling all over themselves to provide free Internet access to their business customers - cafes, hotels and airports are all starting to offer wireless access to anyone who happens to be around. All you need to do is bring in your laptop with Centrino technology or a wireless PCMCIA card.
We’ve already covered a number of potential public hotspots to take your laptop and go searching for but one that hasn’t been mentioned is in reality may be one of first places to check out is your local public library. Public and university campus libraries are increasingly offering wireless access and if you’re a student there’s a good chance that your whole university campus is wireless enabled - or will be soon.
Hotspot Locator Software
Hotspot Locator Software allows you to create a database of known “hotspots” on your computer that you can search at any time, whether you are online or offline. Simple type in a zip code or the name of a city and the software will come back with the nearest “hotspots”… all sorted by distance from your location. And to make sure that your database doesn’t get out of date, each time you access the Internet the software automatically connects to its servers and checks the latest hotspot to your list and if your list if out of date it will download and update your list with the latest information.
If hotspot locator software sounds like something you’d like to take for spin, you’re in luck because it’s offered for free from many of hotspot providers’ websites. T-Mobile Hotspot is currently the largest provider and offers a free download at: http://www.tmobile.com/hotspot.
Laramie Cahill is a contributing writer to: Wifi, VoIP and Trade Show Booth. This article may be reproduced only in its entirety.
June 24th, 2008
In this next part of our series on the history of the telephone we pick up with Bell’s meeting with the director of the Smithsonian Institute, Joseph Henry.
Up until March of 1875 Bell and his assistant Thomas Watson continued their work on the harmonic telegraph at the urging of Hubbard and a number of other backers. Bell certainly had plenty of support in his endeavor. In spite of this, in March of 1875 he met with Joseph Henry who was the director of the Smithsonian Institute. Henry listened to what Bell had to say about his idea and gave him some very encouraging words. It was actually Henry’s encouragement that gave Bell the confidence he needed to go on with his experiments. Bell then returned home to Watson and they continued their work.
Finally, in June of 1875 a device that could transmit speech electrically was about to be completed and tested. Bell had already proven that different tones, when transmitted, would vary the strength of an electric current in a wire. The only thing they needed to make sure this was successful was to build a working transmitter with a membrane that was capable of varying electric currents and a receiver that would reproduce these varying currents in frequencies that were audible to the human ear.
On June 2, 1875, Bell had one of this major breakthroughs and discoveries. He discovered, while experimenting with a technique he called his “harmonic telegraph,” that he could hear sound over a wire when he heard the sound of a clock spring.
Bell’s greatest accomplishment wasn’t realized until March 10, 1876, when the telephone itself was born and the multiple telegraph was put to rest for good. Bell’s demonstration of what this device could do, the ability to talk with electricity, was greater than anything that simply increased the capability of a dot and dash system. Thoughts of a multiple telegraph system were totally destroyed.
On March 10, 1876, Bell made a notebook entry that describes this most successful moment with the telephone. He picked up the phone and spoke to his assistant Watson with these famous first words, “Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you” .
Bell himself is probably one of the most famous inventors in our history. He was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the son and grandson of people who were very knowledgeable about speech, which is probably part of the reason for his interest in this area. He therefore educated himself to pursue a career in this area. His knowledge of sound not only led him to teach the deaf but also to invent the telephone.
His knowledge didn’t stop there. Bell’s unstoppable curiosity led him to also invent the photophone, which Bell actually believed to be his most important invention. Unlike the telephone, which used electricity, the photophone used light to transmit messages.
Little did anyone know at the time that from these humble beginnings of the telephone, an industry would emerge that would become one of the most important in all of civilization.
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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Telephones
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May 21st, 2008
