TECHY DUMMY'S ARENA

Free download for dummys

2008-06-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

Before, we still have to find trusted technicians to put some programs in our computers to give it an extra boost, but now, more and more programs are made available through the internet. There are free Windows XP programs which can help you make your computer work in the most effective way possible. If you are looking for anti-virus or anti-spyware programs, or perhaps some games that you may play when you are ultimately bored during the weekend, the internet has everything for you.

Want to have a sneak peak on the latest Firefox browser? Mozilla Firefox offers free downloads on their developed browser, Firefox 3 Release Candidate 3. They are intentionally offering it for free for testing and community feedback. Since Firefox has oftentimes been labeled as one of the best browsers around, downloading this program will be a big opportunity for you to experience their quality performance once again.

More and more people are availing the services of YouTube so they could watch their favorite videos anytime. However, some may have a problem in downloading their favorite YouTube videos because of the numerous processes they have to do before downloading these videos. DVD Video Soft, however, now offers a free Windows XP program which will enable you to download YouTube videos straight to your computer. You may download any video that you want from YouTube and convert it to the suitable file that you need in order to have it played on various media players. People have hesitations before to download some files in YouTube because they cannot be easily converted to the desired files that they want. Now, by just downloading the free program in their site, you do not have to worry about this any longer.

If you are looking for an anti spyware utility, then it would be best to download the Windows Defender on your PC. Little do we know, some files are being downloaded in our computers once we surf the net. These programs can cause a considerable slow down in the processes of a computer, and the Windows Defender can remedy this anytime.

If you are a fan of movies and music and would want to have the latest media player to be installed in your computer, then you could download the Windows Media Player 11. This program will be able to store all of your digital files and play them anytime you want with added high definition quality audio and visuals. All you have to do is to download this program from their site and you are ready to go.

These are just some of the free Windows XP programs that you can easily download from the internet. All of these programs are meant for you to experience the best that you can ever get from your Windows XP operating system so you could get your money's worth. These free Windows XP programs can make the best out of the things you do, so do feel free to download them.

Source

Website building for dummys

2008-06-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Listing the steps to make a website can be a rather difficult task because there are so many ways to make a website. In this way, the steps one person uses to make a website may be completely different to those someone else uses.

I would therefore encourage you to look around and consider advice from a variety of sources but here in this article I will break down my own steps to making a simple yet attractive website. As I'm sure you can imagine, setting up a large shopping site or something as complicated as Ebay or Facebook is too much to cover here, but we can look quite reasonably at the smaller sites.

For me, there are 5 principle steps to make a simple website. They are:

1) Set up your website address and web hosting account
2) Gather the software necessary to make your site
3) Create a general website template into which you can put your text
4) Duplicate the template so you can set up your website navigation
5) Finally, add your text to the various pages before uploading them to your web hosting account

Let's take a closer look at each one of these now.

Set Up Your Website Address And Web Hosting

Once you have the original concept for your website, select a suitable website address and order it together with your web hosting. Consider getting your website address and web hosting from the same company which saves time and makes life a little easier when it comes to setting up your site.

Gather The Software Necessary To Make Your Site

There are hundreds of different pieces of software available to help to make a website quickly and easily. These range in price from free up to several hundred dollars and the best bet is to download some free trials and see what you like the look of best.

Examples of software you might like to check out are Joomla, FrontPage, Dreamweaver abd some of the online web builders like those available at Site Build It and Website Wizard.

Familiarize yourself with the software you've chosen so you can make a reasonable-looking website without too many problems.

Create A General Website Template

Now you want to make a single page of your website. Don't worry about the text and so on - but choose the colors and the layout so it looks just like you want. Make a logo if you want one, add pictures and navigation areas.

You can speed up this process when making a website by either generating ideas from other people's websites (I keep a stack of web design magazines on hand at all times that contain thousands of pictures of existing websites that I can flick through for ideas) or by using one of the existing free website templates.

These templates have been premade by graphic designers and there are sites which host vast numbers of them so when you want to make a website you just go over, spend a while looking at the options and download the one you like best.

Then simply open it up in your web design software and make any changes necessary to make it look "just right".

Duplicate The Template To Set Up Your Website Navigation

Next, make enough copies of the page as necessary so you have one for each page you require on your site. Name them all differently and ensure the navigation menu you put into place in the last step now leads effortlessly to your various pages.

Add Your Text

In the final stage, add the various text and photographs you have the relevant pages and then upload them to your webhosting account for a final test.

Once you're happy you've followed all these steps to make a website and your site works as expected, you're all done. Good job!

Source

Digital Information - A Very Easy Way to Store Data

2008-06-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Digital is a very broad term that refers to all digital information that is used in items related to computer usage such as digital audio recorders, digital cameras and any other computing item. This word is extensively used in the world of electronics and computing where it means the conversion of normal data to the binary numerical version of 0 (pulse is low or absent) and 1 (pulse is high or present). These information carrying signals include electronic signals and are used in the fields of digital photography like in digital cameras and digital audio in digital recorders, digital CD players and CD's.

Digital noise is also a very important part of this conversion, which can interrupt the transmission of these signals. This noise can arise due to several reasons: a wireless transmission of data as in a radio transmission where the digital noise leads to a faulty transmission of data. There can also be interference from wireless sources like televisions and mobile phones in a transmission, which can corrupt the signals. Background noise from the environment can also be a major cause of faulty transmission of digital data.

The faulty transmission can be quite particular in case of transmission of electric pulses through wires, which can be changed due to the capacitance of the wire and its resistance. Although slight alterations in the digital signals are not considerable because they can be neglected once the data is received. But in any analog system, variations can be quite bothersome and all care must be taken to avoid any distortions when transferring data via an analog system.

A digital system makes use of separate values to depict information for processing, input, storage and transmission. On the contrary, a recurring system of values is used by an analog or a non-digital system for the depiction of information. The information that is depicted in a digital system can be both continuous as in images or sounds or any other measurements that are taken up in continuous mechanisms or discrete like in numbers, icons and letters. Alphanumeric characters that are used for encoding digital information are not recurring and as a result conversion of information to digital data is pretty simple. There are also lesser chances of data loss unlike cases of analog to digital change. Instead of the complex techniques, if simpler techniques like encoding and polling are used in an analog-to-digital conversion.

A symbol input device that is used for conversion of an analog data to digital data includes a large number of switches that are put at frequent intervals to check if any one of them is pressed in a single polling interval. Data will be corrupted if two switches or a single switch gets pressed. This kind of checking or polling can be accomplished by an expert processor present in the symbol input device to avoid any hassling of the CPU. When a different symbol gets entered in the system, the device sends an automatic alert to the CPU to receive and decode it.

source

What to know about computer crashes

2008-06-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

Is your system crashing unexpectedly? Have you been suffering from PC crashes for as long as you can remember? Does your computer crash at least once every single day? If you have said yes to any one of these questions, you should listen up. Although a crash can occur at anytime and for virtually any reason, it doesn't mean you should just ignore the problem. Hitting that restart button may solve the problem for the time being, but what will you do when it no longer works and your computer fails to boot up? Hopefully, it won't ever come to that, as you will undoubtedly choose to take a more active role in your PC's long term health. Right?

You have to understand that your computer doesn't just "work". In order for your PC to operate and remain functional, all the little parts and systems inside of it must work together and in perfect harmony with one another. If that doesn't happen, well, the computer simply won't function correctly.

However, those are merely the two extremes -- perfect or broken. In reality, most computers are somewhere in the middle -- meaning that the systems and parts "usually" work together but occasionally conflict with each other. This "conflict" results in what you know to be a system crash.

With all the different parts and systems constantly running on your computer, it can be quite difficult to determine the root cause of a system crash; especially if there is more than one root cause and more than one crash. Having said that, the best thing for you to do is to come at the problem from every conceivable angle. Eliminate what isn't the problem until you find what is.

Hopefully, this short list can get you started in the right direction.

- Run your basic spyware, virus, & adware scans to determine if malicious software is the cause of the system crashing. Many people assume the worst when actually, the crashing is just the result of a virus that slipped through the defensive cracks.

- Determine if the PC is regularly overheating by checking it's internal temperature. The sheer number of computers that crash due to overheating is truly staggering. If it is the problem, add a few fans to the case and see if any improvements are made.

- Use your system tools to repair your computer. "Scan Disk" and "Disk Defragmenter" can be very useful for clearing up files and restoring valuable disk space -- both of which can increase performance and speed.

- Check the registry for errors. A corrupted registry is probably the number 1 cause of system crashing; not to mention, everything else that can go wrong with a computer. The registry is the central processing center for all PC related information. So, if a monkey wrench gets thrown in there, the whole system will likely suffer. Keeping a close eye on your registry is very important -- so be sure to run a thorough scan with reliable computer repair software at least once a week.

By Jason Bell

A Beginers Guide to Getting started on the Web (part 2)

2008-05-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

the first part of this article I looked at the basic necessities of getting your self started on the internet. In this second part I shall look at what you need to get your own site set up.

Hosting

If you want to develop your own site you will need to get a domain name, which is unique to you, the name you choose should ideally have a relationship with the key words that you use for the search engines to home in on, for example 2 of the key words that I use with this site are "Tips" and "Internet tips" so you can see that http ://tips4-u.com is tailored to the market that I want to attract. I have used several companies to host my sites in the past, but the best service for a paid host that I have found is Midphase they offer many different plans, and are full service hosting providers meaning you get all the facilities that you will need including cpanel,php,mysql and many others.

The best value that I have found, is doteasy, they give free 100 mb hosting for each name that is registered with them, but they are only basic accounts, for the facilities that I just listed they do charge.

Http: //doteasy.com

Editing software

The easiest type of editing software for creating your own site is often know as WYSIWYG or What you See is What you Get, with this type of editor you just type in what youwant and the sofeware converts it to the requires HTML language that browsers understand. I use one called Coffeecup they have a free version at www .coffeecup.com/free-editor

Ftp Software

Once you have your hosting account you will want to be able to upload your website, for this you will want a FTP client, the initials stand for File Transfer Protocol and while ther are 100's to choose from one of the easiest that I have used is Filezilla, http: //filezilla-project.org a free download.

Payment Proccessors

Having reached this stage, you are going to need to organize a way to pay and receive money on line, there are many ways to do this and I will give you my recommendations and explain why I would net use some companies. Paypal http: //paypal.com This is the largest online payment proccessor and it is owned by E-bay, It is a must have account and very secure. Paypal has very strict rules, and if you are selling using paypal make sure that you follow there tems and conditions to the letter to avoid having your account put on hold.

Alertpay http: //www.alertpay.com/?6thoqN0Bnkgy8lks1hOJ%2bA%3d%3d

Alertpay has a good reputation and is growing quickly,

Safepaysolutions http: //safepaysolutions.com

Another high reputation newcomer, well worth opening an account.

E-gold http: //e-gold.com

A slightly riskier payment processor, e-gold has had some problems with being used for money laundering, because of the way the company works once a payment has been made it is not possible to recall it so when buying on the internet make sure you know what you are getting when you pay with e-gold. It is worth having an account, as many paid to click sites use e-gold for instant payments.

In the next and final part of this article I shall look at traffic generation.

A Beginers Guide to Getting started on the Web (part 1)

2008-05-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

House keeping basics

This is intended to help anybody make money from the Internet, to make money and have time to enjoy it, so I recommend that if you haven't already, you should spend some time getting organized so that you do not have to waste time doing "housekeeping" that you can use productively.

Pick a Browser

The first tool that you should have is a good tabbed browser, I recommend Crazy Browser, with a pop up killer built in this is the best surfing browser I have tried, and while I try each new one that I find I keep coming back to this one crazybrowser.com Another good alternative is Firefox mozilla-europe.org/en/products/firefox which is better know, and works well with most programs. They are both very good, and while I do favor Crazy browser, I do also have Firefox on my machine.

Extra Email accounts

The next thing that you should consider, is do you want the email address that you use now to become loaded with adverts and other junk mail, if not I think its worth setting up free email accounts for use when signing up for traffic exchanges, safelists, or any offer that might get an auto responder reply. You can get free accounts from Mail.com Walla.com Yahoo.com Hotmail and many others. Because it is one of the newest walla has fewer subscribers so the chances of getting the name that you want is higher ( don't be put off that the site is in Hebrew, it works just like all the others).

Roboform

Another tool that saves me countless hours, is an automatic form filler and password utility called roboform, once you have filled in your profile, the utility can automatically fill application forms for you, it will also remember and fill in your login and password details for each site that you visit. You can download a free trial version here www.protrackerplus.com/1421/robo.html

Site Rotator

To make life a little simpler, I use a rotator, which is a program where you enter the sites you want to advertise, and then advertise that rotator site URL. every time you get a hit on the rotator URL it shows one of your site adverts This is great, because all you ever need to advertise is 1 URL and any changes you want to make to the sites you are advertising you only make once on the rotator site.

The downside of rotators is a lot of autotraffic exchanges don't allow them, because they cant control what sites are shown. One of the best rotators available is pageswirl, and you can get a free 5 URL rotator here www. protrackerplus.com/1421/swirl.html

I shall continue this in the next part, where I shall look at hosting, traffic generation and payment processors.

By Graham Andrew Taylor programs-

System case

2008-05-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

Today most motherboard fits into the standard- ATX case. This is the case that support an average Pentium III and Pentium IV ATX board. It is taller that the original that support the AT motherboard.

Expansion cards

2008-05-30T05:58:00.000-07:00

Expansion cards are the features that are used to complement the work of the motherboard. It is used for adding external features to the computer system.

Expansion cards and its extenal devices are:

VGA card Monitor,Video projector etc.

Sound cards Speakers,Earphone,microphone,MIDi etc.

Network card (NIC card) LAN switch,Routers etc

Modem (AMR/CNR) Telephone.wall jack,fax systems

TV/FM card Table antennae,External aerial

Digital satellite cards.

How to install printers without a CD

2008-05-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

Many people have went to install a printer but could not find the CD. This use to be a difficult and frustrating task, but it is no longer that way. If you follow the instructions listed below, you can install a printer without a CD.

1. To begin you are going to want to place the computer and the printer next to each other and make sure that the wires are connected to the printer and the computer but not connected to each other. Make sure that neither the printer nor the computer are on.

2. Next, you need to turn on the computer. Do not do anything else until you have booted up the computer.

3. Now, plug the printer into the wall and then connect the USB cord that is attached to the printer into the correct port on your computer. Now turn the printer on.

4. Click the "Start" button, typically located in the lower left corner of your computer, and click on the "Control Panel" button.

5. Once you are in the control panel you need to find the Printer button, which is either going to be found by clicking on the "Printers and Hardware" button or clicking the "Printer" button under the "Hardware and Sound" category.

6. Once you are in the Printer menu you need to click on the "Add printer" button. A message saying "Welcome to the add printer wizard." When that message appears you will need to hit the "Next" button.

7. When the next page appears you will need to click the "Automatically detect and install plug and play printer" button on the add printer wizard page. Continue by clicking the "Next" button.

8. If the computer can automatically detect the printer than it will begin to install that printer. However, if the printer is not being detect a message saying unable to detect will pop up, and you will have to install the printer manually. Again, click the "Next" button.

9. Now you will need to select the printer port. Choose the recommended port because it will give you the best set up options. Click the "Next" button.

10. You will now need to choose the manufacturer of the printer and the exact printer. Click the "Next" button.

11. You will have the option to either type a name or confirm the name that appears in the box and then set the printer as the default printer if you want. Click the "Next" button.

12. To ensure that the printer is set up and working you will need to print a test page. Click the "Next" button when the test page is printed.

13. You will now receive a successful completion of installation of printer message and all you have to do is click "Finish" and you have installed a printer without a CD.

It used to be extremely difficult to install a printer without a CD, but with the steps listed above you should be able to do it with no problems at all.

By Jeff Schuman

Antidotes to a slow PC

2008-05-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

Are you one of the many people who are complaining, "Why is my PC slow?" Unfortunately, many people share this predicament. Many people have probably cursed or shouted a curse or two directed at their computer. It can be frustrating especially if you are on a rush and your computer takes forever to loads or to process. You're probably wondering, "Why is my computer not as fast as it was when I first bought it?" Those are the good old days. So, why is your computer slow?

Packed Computer Registry
This is the most typical reason for a slow computer. Not all people who use a computer what a computer registry is, how to find and how to clear them up. Before they could even get around to clearing their registry, they probably have suffered slow processing computer for a significant length of time.

Basically, your computer's registry is that area where most of your files, programs and software are stored. It is important that you regularly clean and maintain this section of your Windows XP in order to ensure faster operation and processing. If you keep storing and storing files into your registry without cleaning it every now and then, your computer may likely crash from storing too many data. People may also hear you complaining, "Why is my PC slow?" when you store too many data in your registry because this makes it difficult for your computer to easily locate entries. So, it takes the computer quite a while to respond to your commands.

Spyware and Virus Attacks
Spyware and viruses are not only pests; they are also resource thieves! Although these malicious programs are not designed for Windows XP slow down, they can still cause your computer to lag or to even come to a screeching halt. This is why it can never be too emphasized that you need a good anti-spyware or anti-virus programs to clean your computer off of these pests. If you can afford buying the good ones, do so. Although there are software that are available for free, they do not really give the same protection that paid programs do. Also, make sure that you keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs updated. If you have to update every minute, do so. Set up the programs to regularly run automatically. Otherwise, you'd have a computer packed with spyware and adware; and you'd be complaining, "Why is my PC slow?!"

Constantly Running Background Operations

There are instances when your Windows XP slow processing can be blame to your background programs. You might be unconsciously running these programs. A good way to check on background operations is by looking at the bottom tray at the right side of your computer. You might have operations and programs running. They take up resources; although you are not actually using them. So, make sure that you close all these programs so they will not interfere with the speed of your computer. Change the settings of these programs if possible so they will not automatically run without you knowing.

By Author: Kris Mainieri

Increase Your System Performance with a Few Basic Windows XP Tweaks

2008-05-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

Windows XP is currently the most popular operating system for personal computers and comes in two broad categories--XP Home and XP Pro. XP home is designed for home users who do not need the more heavyweight corporate applications such as a web server but still require a scalable and reliable operating system. While Windows XP runs well out of the box, there are tricks that can be used to optimize your installation. There are great Windows XP tweaks that involve broadband settings, registry entries, and other under utilized components of WinXP.

While this first group of tips can not properly be considered Windows XP tweaks, they are so important that they should be included in any guide that discusses WinXP performance and efficiency. The single most important thing you can do to ensure to WinXP performance is to make sure that your computer is free from viruses, trojans, spyware, and other pieces of software that could serve to slow down or otherwise compromise the functioning of your WinXP computer.

The first thing that you should do, particularly if you have an always on broadband connection, is to install a firewall. A firewall locks down the software entry points (called ports) that applications use interact with your computer. Ports are simply numbers that, when combined with your internet protocol (IP) address, specify a single channel of network communication.

Some ports should usually be open, such as port 80 which allows web HTTP communication to occur, but others should be locked unless they are needed by a legitimate program. By default, the entire range of ports is open to the world on a WinXP machine.

A firewall blocks all unused ports and lets the WinXP user decide which ports to open. WinXP service pack 2 contains a firewall that is on by default. Another member of this class of Windows XP tweaks is to install anti virus and anti spyware software. These programs can clear up the malicious pieces of software that siphon of your WinXP machine's performance.

Once you have implemented the above vital Windows XP tweaks, it is time to look at other performance based steps that you can use. The WinXP registry is a centralized data structure that WinXP programs, including WinXP itself, use to store configuration data.

The registry can quickly become crowded and hence more slow to search. Particularly if you remove unused programs that do not uninstall properly, they may leave behind garbage in the registry that can cause registry searches to slow.

Since registry searches can occur at any time during program execution (particularly during start up), a clogged WinXP registry can cause the entire system to slow. There are numerous free and share ware programs out there that can help you clean your WinXP registry. It is not advisable to muck around the registry yourself, and always be sure to back up your registry before making any changes.

Another important class of Windows XP tweaks is to keep your hard drive defragmented. Hard drives become fragmented when application programs save different parts of files in different places on your hard drive. For example, in order to maximize available space, WinXP may decide to save part of your file in different places on the hard drive.

This means that access time for that file will become slow. Over time, your hard drive can accumulate many such fragmented files and generally become a mess. This can slow your computer down a great deal. Fortunately, it is easy to de-fragment your hard drive using built in WinXP utilities. The process can take a number of hours to complete, so many people choose to de-fragment their hard drive overnight.

Article by Kris Mainieri

How solar electric system work (1)

2008-05-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

If you aren't an electrician or electrical engineer, you may find terms for electricity a bit confusing and a little illogical at times. You will learn the basic terms associated with electricity and some general information related to residential solar electric systems. The bulk of this article will focus on the important terms, principles, and technical definitions related to the electricity flowing through your house.

The intent of this article is to help you to understand enough about electricity so that you can understand the technology used in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. You most likely will review a lot of information and learn many new solar energy terms when you begin the process of purchasing or renting a home solar power system.

When you start researching residential solar energy systems, or even taking a close look at your electric bill, you hear a lot about kilowatts and kilowatt hours. You may have used these terms mistakenly as the same thing in the past. They are pretty close in meaning. Both terms are just a measure of relative electricity sizes.

However, they are very different measurements, as you will learn through the electricity definitions included here. In order to understand what they mean, you also need to understand a few basic concepts about electricity.

When talking about electricity, you will be using terms like power and energy. The average person often uses these terms interchangeably in daily speech along with current, potential, charge, electrons, and even photons. You might have learned about all of these electricity terms way back in high school. In use as part of your daily life, you may have confused their meaning.

Common Residential Electricity Terms

Here are the most important electricity concepts you need to know when you begin the process of purchasing or renting a solar energy system for your home. It may be surprising to you that the actual meaning of a few of these is not quite what you expected.

Power: The rate at which work is performed or energy is provided. Power is the amount of energy required or expended for a given unit of time. It is measured in watts (W).

Energy: The actual work done by solar panels installed on your home. In other words, energy is power supplied over a period of time. It is typically measured in joules or watt hours (Wh).

Potential: The capacity of an electric field to do work (i.e. to provide energy). This is similar to the height of water behind a dam. It has capacity to do work. The higher the water, the more potential energy that is available. Potential is measured in volts (V).

Current: A movement or flow of electrically charged particles. This is not unlike the speed of water flow in a river. It is measured in amperes (I or in common terms amps).

Resistance: The property of a material, object, or circuit to resist the flow of electricity. Materials that allow electricity to flow easily (with low resistance) are called conductors while materials that resist the flow of electricity are called insulators. Resistance is measured in ohms (R).

Charge: A property of some subatomic particles, i.e. the charge on an electron (subatomic particle is negative). Charge determines how subatomic particles interact. Electrically charged matter is influenced by and produces electromagnetic fields. Charges are either negative or positive and have measurable strength.

Field: An effect produced by an electric charge that exerts a force on charged objects in its vicinity.

Electron: A negatively charged subatomic particle. The current is caused by the movement of electrons from different energy levels within its atomic structure.

Photon: An elementary particle that is the carrier of electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths. The photon is different from many other elementary particles, such as the electron, because it has no mass. That means that it travels at the speed of light across the vacuum of space. Trillions and trillions of photons are blasted out from the sun every second.

Upgrading Your Home to Solar Power

To understand solar electric systems and how they work, you first need to understand the basic principles of electricity. This means learning the language used to explain these principles. In our next article which is a ongoing series related to renewable energy, we will dive into understanding the language of residential solar electric systems.

Becoming comfortable with the electricity jargon and technical terms is an important step when considering purchasing or renting a solar energy system for your home. You should feel comfortable talking with solar industry experts about your home solar options. In future articles, we will dig deeper into the details and emerging options for home solar power systems.

Http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm

How solar electric system work (2)

2008-05-27T07:06:00.000-07:00

You are contributing to a cleaner environment by upgrading to solar generated electricity. You are also taking a step toward energy independence when you begin using solar power in your home.

To better understand solar electric systems and how they work, you first need to understand the technical components making up a residential solar energy system.

New solar rental services are emerging that offer solar power in new and simple ways. These new solar equipment rentals offer system wide efficiency and control and make a home's electric service more responsive, more reliable, and more renewable.

The remainder of this article will explain and further define many of the common components making up home solar energy system.

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Panels

The primary components of a home solar system are the Solar (PV) panels. These panels utilize solar cells to convert sunlight directly into home electricity. A number of cells strung together to make a panel that generates about 250 watts (w) of electrical current at peak sunlight capacity. The panels then route power through an inverter where a controller determines how to distribute the power throughout your home.

Solar Energy Controller and Inverter

The controller is the device that monitors and manages the distribution of electricity produced by a residential solar energy system. Its capability extends even further by monitoring and managing the flow of energy between the house, the solar (PV) panels & system, and the local utility company. Often these controllers also have the ability to manage secondary storage through the use of batteries for more flexibility and control.

Coupled with the controller is the brains of the operation; the inverter. An inverter is in essence an electronic circuit that converts direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). An inverter allows the 12 or 24 volt DC power produced from solar panels to supply AC power to operate all of the electrical needs around your house.

Solar Array Mounting and Connection Components

Connection components are made up of electrical wiring and the rail mounting structure. Several solar panels are arranged into a grid, secured by a rail mounting device, and connected together to make a solar (PV) array. Electrical wiring is needed to connect the solar panels to the controller, then to your meter box, and then to your utility company via the existing electricity grid. Little additional solar energy equipment is needed, other than the panels, controller and inverters, wiring, and the roof mounting system.

The mounting rail is another simple structure that secures your solar (PV) array to your roof with the little need to drill holes through your singles. It is designed with maximum strength and allows for easy assembly of the solar array.

Rental Options for Residential Solar Energy Systems

Homeowners now have the ability to generate electricity right at home in safe, simple, and environmentally conscious way. Residential solar energy systems convert sunlight (i.e. photons) directly into usable home electricity. Residential solar energy systems, now offered to homeowners on a rental basis, provide a new source of reliable electricity and they enhance electric services without expensive investments in solar purchases.

In a future article, we will continue this series related to residential solar energy systems. We will explain in common terms how to measure the power of the sun. One objection often voiced by homeowners researching home solar power relates to the quality of the sunlight.

Is too cloudy? Is it too foggy? How does snow effect solar cell output? We will explain how to determine whether your geographic location receives enough sunlight hours to make solar suitable.

Article by http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Daniel-Stouffer-3609/ Daniel Stouffer

How to improve browsing experience

2008-05-23T06:04:00.000-07:00

If your network desn't give the speed you want then follow these great tips to improve network settings

The speed of your network connection doesn't just depend on the speed of your hardware. Windows is an operating system that is designed to work on a variety of different hardware and network setups. Because of the abstract nature of the operating system, it cannot be optimized for user-specific hardware setups.

Depending on the type of network connection you have, you might be able to tweak your connection so that the speed of your Internet, as well as your local area network, will be faster. By hacking the System Registry and editing the TCP/IP parameters, you can fine-tune the values to take advantage of more reliable, faster Internet connections, such as DSL and cable.

These next sections will guide you through the steps of increasing both the speed of your local area network and your Internet connection.

Does your computer slow down when you browse your local area network and connect to other computers that are sharing data? One of the most common causes of this slowdown is a feature of Windows Explorer that looks for scheduled tasks on remote computers.

This effort can take some time on some computers and can really slow down your browsing. The window with which you are browsing the network may appear to freeze momentarily, as the system is waiting for a response from the remote computer.

Although this problem is a complex one, the solution is very simple. Instead of having to wait for the remote scheduled tasks, which is useless information to anyone who is not a system administrator remotely configuring scheduled tasks, you can disable this feature.

In order to do this, you will have to hack the System Registry and delete a reference to a key so that this feature will not be loaded. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open up the Registry Editor by clicking the Start Menu and selecting Run. Then type regedit in the text box and click the OK button.

2. Once the Registry Editor has loaded, expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.

3. Next, expand Software and then Microsoft.

4. Locate Windows and expand that as well.

5. You will want to be editing the main system files, so expand CurrentVersion.

6. Because this feature is a feature of the Windows component known as Explorer, expand the Explorer key.

7. Next, you will want to modify the remote computer settings, so expand the RemoteComputer key and then expand the NameSpace key to show all of the features that are enabled when you browse to a remote computer.

8. In the NameSpace folder you will find two entries. One is "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}" which tells Explorer to show printers shared on the remote machine. The other, "{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}," tells Explorer to show remote scheduled tasks. This is the one that you should delete. This can be done by right-clicking the name of the key and selecting Delete.

Tip:
If you have no use for viewing remote shared printers and are really only interested in shared files, consider deleting the printers key, "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}", as well. This will also boost your browsing speed

Drives

2008-05-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

Drives are the electromechanical devices for storage and retrieval of data in computer systems. They include:

Floppy Disk drive (EDD): This is used to retrieve or store data in diskette. It connects to the motherboard via a 34 pin interface otherwise known as the floppy drives connectors. it uses an adapter cable with one end twisted to connect to the motherboard. The twisted end is connected to the drive and the other end to the motherboard..

Hard Disk Drive (HDD): The hard disk drive is otherwise known as the fixed disk . It is the only storage device that offers the largest capacity for data storage. Since its development the the hard disk drive has adopted the following interfaces.

S.C.S.I : Small computer system interface and it is a 50 pin interface adopted by IBM and host of distributors long time ago.

I.D.E (Intelligent Drive Electronics): This is a 40 pin interface adopted by most manufacturers since the SCSI was faced out.

S.A.T.A ( Social manufaturers Interface): This interface is a new development found on Pentium IV motherboards today. It uses a connector that slot into a socket on the motherboard through a tape like adapter cable accessory - 150mb/secs.

Compact disk drive : This uses optical system for data access for both storage and retrieval purposes. We have the following types of CD-drives in practices. These are

CD-ROM, CD-RWdrive, DVD-ROM drive, DVD/CD-RW drive and DVD-RW drive.

MEMORY (RAM)

2008-05-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

This is a temporary storage location for data awaiting processing by the CPU. Memory have been designed in several packages today. Early design package include:

- Dual Inline Package (DIP)
- Single inline memory Module (SIMM) - handles 32 bits of data
- Dual inline memory module (DIMM)- handle 32 - 64 bits of data.

Today, most memory modules adopt the DIMM package. A typical DIMM package module is 168 - ping long in contrast to the length of a sIMM module whose length is 172 pin long.

The DIMM comes in two popular type:

SDRAM (Syncronous dynamic random Access memory and it has two cut out or notches at its commecting edge and it offeres a reliable access to the CPU.

DDR SDRAM(Double data Rate SDRAM)- It offers a faster and a more reliable data access to the CPU and it has a single cut out ot notch ast the connecting edges.

Recentlt, a new memory type was developed with a total length of 184 - pins and this came to be known as the RAMBUS. It offers the highest speed for data access than any of the existing type in history. It is characterised by by two notches like SDRAM, but at closer interval than the SDRAM notches.

Motherboards

2008-05-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

Motherboards are the main platform upon which the hardware components are connected. over the years, it has adapted two design profiles known as form factor.

AT form factor: In this profile, the CPU position, RAM slot and the expansion slot all lies parallel. The AT-board was a popular feature with the early computer designs e.g Pentium pro and Pentium I series. It has special keyboard connector known as the DIN - port and uses the DB-9 serial port for mouse.

ATX form factor - In this design/profile the RAM slot, CPU socket lie at right angles to the direction/positions of the expansion slot. The ATX board uses power two rows of 10-pins each as power connector as against row of 8 pins used as power connector in the AT board. The type of keyboard and mouse used on the motherboard is the mini - DIN otherwise known as PS/2.

The computer processor (CPU)

2008-05-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

This is a compound component that co-ordinate the entire arithmetic and logical process of data in the computer system. It is otherwise referred to as the brain of the computer.

The processor performs a limited set of calculations based on requests from the operating system and controls access to system memory. Processor speed is measured in several different ways, including clock cycles, Megahertz (MHz), or millions of instructions per second (MIPS).

Either of these measures will give you an estimate of the processor’s power. The speed of early processors ranged from 4–MHz, while today’s processors have broken the Gigahertz (GHz) mark.

The following are the different types of processor.

Pin grid Array (PGA) - This applies to to processor that fits into sockets .

Single edge contact cartridge (SECC) - This applies to processor that fits into slots on the motherboard e.g. slot 1 and clot 2 types of processor.

Processeors are designed to operate with specific speed raeted in MHZ(Megahertz). A typical CPU has also a model a model and make e.g Intel Pentium III (Intel manufacturer PIII medel) or Intel celeron.

Reknowned manufacturers of of processor include : INTEL,AMD,CYRIX and others on low scale include MOTOROLA, IBM etc.

Basic PC compoents

2008-05-07T02:44:00.000-07:00

System board— It contains the major structures that make up a computer system.

Power supply —The component in the system that converts the AC voltage from the commercial power outlet to the DC voltages required by the computer circuitry.

Disk drives — The system’s mass storage devices that hold data for an extended time, even when the power is removed from the system. Disk drives include floppy drives, hard drives, and CD-ROM drives.

Adapter cards — Interface cards used to enhance the basic system with additional functions. Examples of common adapter cards include video display adapters, modems, and Local Area Network cards.

Signal cables — Connecting cables, typically configured in a flat ribbon format, that pass control signals and data between system components such as the disk drives and the system board.