Wednesday 29 April 2009

Why Screensavers Are Becoming More Popular Than Ever

Years ago, screensavers were popular even though they were static photos or pictures, normally of animals or landscapes, other wise known as Vista Screensavers. Today, thanks to the advances in computing, these popular screensavers are visual masterpieces - No longer static, I watch as birds fly across my screen, or dinosaurs romp through.

Some years ago I recall having to pay for a fish tank screensaver which did not deliver much in the way of comfort when watching it - I was really wanting a screensaver that I could watch to relax when the day became to hectic. Needless to say I did not spend too much time watching that screensaver.

The other day, a friend was using my PC and commented about my lack of screensavers. I didn't want to pay for another screensaver - I figured it would be easier to just download some holiday snaps from my camera and use those photos on my screen as a slide show. I then realised that this would probably depress me more than cheer me up - I didn't want to spend my spare time wishing the year away until I got leave again.

I ran several searches on Google and to my surprise found that there is one place where I was able to download a screensaver toolbar for free - no registration required, and no having to go back and search through a stack of titles - I could simply access them from my toolbar, changing the theme when ever I needed. I am glad that I went with this - I also noted that there were a number of web sites and Adsense advertising for sites that wanted payment for their screen savers.

I gather that there are people out there who expect to pay for any thing they get online, not understanding that there are sites that offer these incredible images at no cost. The best part is the huge advances made in screensavers since my old fish one - Popular Screensavers have animated screen savers, life like free vista screensavers - and a whole host featuring animals. So, if you are seeking some thing calming for those busy days, or some thing warming for those cold days (or some thing cold for those hot days then I strongly recommend that you go to Popular Screensavers and download the free screensaver toolbar - no fuss, no spyware and no registration required - And, more importantly - No money to outlay - all completely free!

To find the best screensavers online go to Popular Screensavers You will be surprised at the large range of Free Screensavers that they have.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gail_Burton

Monday 27 April 2009

Free Home Inventory Software – a Case For Use

Free Home Inventory Software - Itemizing what you own can save you time and money if you ever need to make a claim on your homeowners or renters insurance. As time passes, most of us acquire more things that have a sentimental value as well as monetary value. It’s a good idea to maintain an ongoing inventory of your personal property even after you’ve obtained homeowners or renters insurance.

Having a home inventory on file can help expedite any claims you may have to make on your homeowners or renters policy. The insurance company can resolve a claim faster if a homeowner has documentation of items that are damaged or stolen from your home or apartment. A home inventory checklist can help with filing accuracy and help you determine how much insurance to purchase, too.

Starting Your Home inventory.


If you purchase homeowners insurance for the first time, make it a goal to complete your inventory within a set period of time. Advice is to take an inventory of your home before you purchase your policy so you can get an idea of how much insurance to purchase.

Choosing The Type of Home Inventory To Use.


You can purchase a software program, download a free 30 day program from the internet, download a sheet from the internet, or a list provided by your insurance company. You want to first complete a paper inventory as you go through the rooms in your home, then transfer that information to your computer for filing, and save on a CD. Always keep the hand written copy in a file.

How and What to Inventory.


Go through each room of your home to photograph and video furnishings, jewelry, electronic items to include TVs, VCRs, CD players, DVDs. The photos should be specific of each item.

The photographed items should be saved on a disk if using a digital camera. When going through each room, it would be a good idea to have a family member with you to verify that you’ve covered everything.

Listing Items


Make sure every item is listed by the following: Item type, serial number and model number of TVs, VCRs, DVD player, speaker system and any other electronic items. Jewelry item type, cost, and size.

Updating Inventory on a Regular Basis.


Review the inventory on a yearly basis. Also items that you have acquired.

Saving your Home Inventory.


Make sure you keep a copy of your inventory in a safe place, on a CD disk, and a handwritten copy in a safe deposit box and with a close friend or relative. The goal is to make sure you have easy access to the inventory in case you need to make a claim with the insurance company.

Be sure to provide a copy of your inventory to your insurance company. This is obviously critical, because if you do not provide a copy and follow up on the process the whole idea of keeping your belongings itemized will be lost. Follow this whole process and you will better off.

Saturday 25 April 2009

LED Lights Vs. The Rest

LED lights can be found in everything from consumer electronics to toys and from power tools to automobiles. Early on, LED lights showed up in new products as sort of an additional flare to equipment - indicator lights on coffee makers and glowing eyes in battery operated toys. But as scientists started to harness the technology and improve upon it, they realized there were some staggering benefits LED lights had over traditional lights. The strength and brightness of these lights started to lend themselves for use in other applications. It became evident that certain products would be much improved upon with the addition of an LED bulb.

What Makes LED Lights Different
L.E.D. stands for light-emitting diode. In this technology, light is created when the semiconductor diode inside the bulb is forward biased, or, turned on; electrons recombine with holes in the diode to release energy in the form of light. The color of the light is determined by the semiconductor's energy gap. Using this type of science makes these bulbs more energy efficient, longer-lasting, smaller, and more durable than other lights.

These high-powered LEDs (HPLEDs) are become a major competitor to incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen bulbs in lamps and flashlights. For many applications, the LED bulb simply is the better solution.

Law Enforcement / Public Safety
HPLEDs are being used in flashlights and search lights to better aid police and fire crews when searching for criminals or victims of major disasters. The bright, narrow beams allow police and fire fighters to search from a greater distance, and the durability of the HPLED bulbs fit the type of demanding activity these occupations require.

Outdoor Recreation
HPLED lanterns are replacing gas and filament-bulb lanterns as the new standard in hiking, camping, and cave exploration. Because HPLED bulbs can last thousands of hours and utilize very little batteries, they are great additions to survival kits. Additionally, LED bulbs are very small and therefore the flashlights and other forms they take are also small and can be light-weight for easy packing and storing.

Video Displays / Televisions
Many television manufacturers are playing around with LED lights as the next generation light source for video displays and flat-panel televisions. Sony was the first to come out with an organic LED display last year. LEDs allow TV makers to create low-energy consumption TVs with bright, solid pictures. LEDs don't put off as much heat as other bulbs which means, TVs can be made to not get above a certain temperature, avoiding the need for major fans and heat sinks.

Displays / Event Lighting
LEDs and HPLEDs are being used consistently for stage and arena lighting because they can display so many different colors in such incredible brightness. Many of the buildings and events at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, for example, perfectly showcased the power and beauty of LED lights. These lights can easily be programmed to fade and contrast creating fast or slow moving visual effects. The small size of the bulbs helps light designers create much more intricate images than possible with traditional fluorescents as well.

From concerts to crime fighting, LEDs are changing the way we think about light sources and light design.

Ben Nystrom, 2009

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/led-lights-vs-the-rest-884827.html

Thursday 23 April 2009

Going Wireless - Setting Up an Efficient Office Network

Whether you're setting up an office for the first time or trying to reduce the amount of cables in the workplace, setting up a wireless office network could save you time, and money. Therefore, it is important to understand the benefits that a wireless office network can offer.

As such, a wireless network allows you to connect to a network such as the internet without the need for cables. Whilst it is true to a certain extent that wireless technology can initially prove more expensive than traditional cables, the long-term benefits it offers can work out cheaper, both financially and perhaps more importantly, in terms of efficiency and productivity.

What's more, a wireless network means that there is no need to rewire your office, should you decide a change is required to the layout. In addition, new employees can be given instant access to the network, eliminating the need for any cable to be set-up to their computer, compared to that of a wired network.

Another benefit that a wireless network can offer is that it eliminates any potential problems that can arise when external employees or clients come to visit your office. A wireless network allows clients and external employees to easily access the network, improving efficiency by taking unnecessary strain and workload away from your IT department.

As it goes, one of the most overlooked benefits of wireless technology is the safety aspect. Office falls prove to be one of the major causes of accidents within the workplace, and having large amount of cable within the office will not help. But by simply switching to a wireless network this could save you any unnecessary stress that can arise should any claims be made against you and your company.

When deciding how to provide internet and intranet access within the office, it can be all too easy to choose the traditional wired option for its initial financial benefits. Although initially less expensive, this method can prove more expensive in the long run. Furthermore, it can be easy to forget the time factor involved from wiring an entire office, or perhaps more importantly how inadaptable this method is to a changing workplace environment.

Of course, in a busy office mobility can prove a major issue and it often becomes necessary to have the flexibility to move around within the office. This is especially important if you are training new staff, or regularly moving between rooms within the office for meetings and presentations. However, a wireless office network offers ease and mobility within the office, allowing you to focus on the things that matter most.

Overall, there are many benefits to be had from switching to a wireless office network. Indeed, with an improvement in office safety, increased productivity and proving to be more financially viable in the run, a wireless network can offer very attractive benefits to any business.

Victoria Cochrane writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victoria_Cochrane

Tuesday 21 April 2009

4 Reasons Why Netbooks Are the Choice of the Future

Ever thought about a really small, portable PC, not like a PDA, but a computer on which you could easily blog, surf the net, maybe play a small MMORPG from time to time? If so, a netbook is the right choice for you. This article will review four big reasons on why a netbook (or a cheap laptop if you prefer) is the choice of the future.

1. The price is low, while the machine isn't too slow!
You can get a netbook like acer's aspire or asus' eeepc for 300 bucks. You can get other laptops starting from about 400 USD if they are used, and if that's the case, they probably have no warranty.

2. The battery runs out in about eight(!!) hours.
You can surf the net forever on your netbook. Although the Intel Atom processor, that most netbooks have in them, is working like a 900mhz Celeron despite the fact that its frequency is 1800mhz, you can use web based applications.

3. Web-based applications are the future!
The servers will do the processing work. Most of the applications will be accessible directly through the internet, you'll just have to pay or watch commercials for them. On the other hand, there are speculations that servers will more often reduce the load of large JavaScript actions and make the users' computer to compute them. Bad for you, future netbook user.

4. A netbook is a stylish accessory.
It actually is. How does this go with netbooks being the choice of the future? You can interest the opposite sex with a clever looking netbook! Most of the users who put an emphasis on the style of their gadgets prefer pink netbooks or laptops if they can find ones.

With that said, you can list the pros and cons, choose between a laptop or a netbook. Although the differences aren't too big, the main advice is this: if you want to play games and use a lot of multimedia (films, music) on your new computer, try to score a bargain laptop, if you want a good internet computer, get a netbook.

Hello, we are a company helping people find Bargain Laptops and other discounted things on the internet. Pay us a visit!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Iann_Curtis

Tuesday 14 April 2009

Why Your Microsoft Vista Is Running Slow

Users using Windows Vista finds their operating system running slowly usually. There are certain reasons why this is happening.

The windows vista operating system is immensely popular amongst users. With developing technology more and more facilities are available with a windows vista system. One can listen to music, chat, upload pictures and endless other things. In return more resources are needed for carrying out these tasks and these resources used in huge amounts are slowing down the speed of the machines performance.

All PC users have only one main area of concern and that is the speed at which they can run their operating system or the speed of accessing any particular data from their computer. Windows Vista if not properly scanned through the registry cleaner and used are always showing a decrease in performance speed. Any user when opens a number of softwares or programs at one time faces that the performance of the hard disk is affected. In turn the speed of the machine slows down. Hence A Windows Vista Registry Cleaner can be the possible solution to solve all these problems.

The following are the list of reasons why your windows Vista PC is running slow and how can a windows vista registry cleaner solve your problem.

We all know that spyware is very risky and it usually hampers your privacy in a certain way. While the user surfs internet the spyware keeps collecting a lot of confidential details of your machine and passes those useful informations to someone who installs it in the owners personal computer. This makes the windows vista run slower than before. If a genuine windows vista registry cleaner is used it will ensure that the windows vista is free from all hidden dangerous programs like this.

The windows Vista registry Cleaning equipment is usually attached with more than 15 various kinds of cleaning tools. These cleaning tools helps vista search and fix issues related to registry problems thus increasing the speed of your personal computers operating system. There a wide variety of keys such as search & repair stuck or damaged key, invalid key, obsolete key and other keys. Registry cleaner compatible or specially designed for Windows vista can help to repair the registry files, which is unable to reload.

An extensive search for a windows vista registry cleaner can give the user a number of available registry cleaners. Many websites provide registry cleaners free of cost. But would you like your computer to completely crash and burn just because you wanted to save a few bucks instead of choosing the best

About the Author

Your PC registry needs urgently a cleanup? Read more here registry cleaner reviews and discover which are the best registry cleaners in the market

Article Directory: http://www.articlerich.com

Friday 10 April 2009

Clean Your Registry to Optimize Your PC

So when does someone know if it has become time to repair, clean and optimize the windows registry? The registry is actually one of the most important components of your entire computer. The registry is the place where your system stores all of it's setting for all the different software applications that you have ever installed onto your computer. It also hold the data for your personal preferences and those of each computer user.

Over a period of time, usually several months, excessive software installs and incorrectly un-installed programs can clutter the system registry making it extremely large in size and therefore it takes the computer longer to perform it's functions. This cluttering can also cause your computer to have numerous errors and random and unexpected crashes. Normally someone might take their computer in for repairs thinking that the problem was hardware based or maybe caused by a virus or spyware. The truth is, it may have only been a simple problem with the registry that would only take a few minutes to fix.

A quality registry optimizer and cleaner is able to automatically scan your system for errors and then fix them. They will either fix them all or give you the option to pick and choose. Regardless of which option you choose, almost all registry repair programs come with a backup or restore feature so that you can always reverse what changes you make.

With all the different software programs to choose from, it can be a challenge finding which one is best and will do the best job. One thing to keep in mind are the awards the software has received. Can these be verified on their websites or are they just faked? Also are these awards given from authority sites that are reputable and respectable?

By the time you decide to download a registry cleaner, it may seem as though your computer is ready to die. You might know the feeling that it seems to take forever just for your computer to startup or do simple tasks that once took mere seconds. It can become quite frustrating while watching online movies to notice it glitch every few seconds.

After a recommendation from an IT friend, I downloaded a free software program and then performed a scan on my system. I waited a few minutes and the software actually came up with 639 different errors. I promptly chose to delete them all as I am not very tech-savvy and have no idea what it had found, but I always knew I could restore my old registry if I needed to for any reason.

What was truly amazing, was that my computer now operated similarly to how it did when I first purchased it over a year ago. It can also handle having several software applications running at the same time that it wasn't able to do recently.


All you then need to do is to perform a regular once-a-month or even weekly scan to keep the performance of your PC at it's best.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Basic Computer Skills Knowledge For Beginners - 3 Simple Tips to Boost Your Beginners Knowledge Fast

The need for each and everyone in our society today to acquire basic computer knowledge skills cannot be overlooked by anyone in this present day. Every computer beginner is now feeling the need to learn how to use a computer as faster as he or she can possibly afford to. Read on to discover three simple facts to speed up and boost your learning and gaining computer science knowledge skills faster from home.

1) Avoid using beginners' computer training books to learn about computers.

The use of computer basics training books to learn how to use computers by beginners in this modern world is one of the main reasons why so many people still spend months and even years, just to gain simple PC knowledge skills faster on their own. This system still works but certainly not for any beginner who wants to learn PC skills faster from home without attending beginners training classes.

2) Make use of beginners' video computer training lessons for learning about computers faster.

The use of PC training videos specifically designed for new computer users to learn how to use a computer is by far, the best way to gain computer knowledge skills faster from home. We all love to watch interesting movies, and we all keep good memories of any particular movie that interests us. So also will the memories of whatever computer science topic we learn while watching our video lessons will ever remain fresh in our minds till a long time to come.

3) Whenever Possible, use only beginners video lessons on DVDs and not on CDs for your studies.

Most people never care to give importance to the use of beginners PC training tutorials recorded on simple DVDs to learn computer basic skills from home. If you truly understand the great impact this simple trick could play with your learning about computers faster on your own, you'll never have to overlook this particular point. If you choose to use training lessons on DVDs instead of CDs, you can as well watch and learn your basic PC knowledge skills from your home DVD player, while practicing at the same time on your computer (if you have one at home). This is a hidden aspect of learning any new skills faster on your own which most people fail to give much importance.

So in conclusion, if you want to move from a computer beginners training class faster and master all your beginners computer basic knowledge skills in a matter of day, make use of video tutorials preferably on DVDs and not on CDs to learn about computers faster from home. You can easily master all your PC basics in just a matter of days and soonest be the envy of your friends. Good luck with your burning desire to learn and move from your computer beginner class to a semi-professional PC user faster!

Click this Link now for your Beginners Computer Knowledge training video lessons to learn basic computer skills faster from home. Click here for your Free Computer Beginners Lessons Online when you sign up for your PC basic skills tutorials.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fredrick_Ituma

Friday 3 April 2009

Computer Infection Warning Signs - What Are Virus Infection Signs?

If you are one of many people who are getting virus infection signs then you should be careful. Some signs are true while many are actually fake! How can you distinguish them? I will tell you how exactly you can determine whether yours is a fake or real one.

The most common fake infection sign are pop ups from windows taskbar. However not all of them are fake. To determine whether an infection warning is a real or not, you need to check the warning pop up and see what it tells you to do. If the pop up is telling you to download an antispyware then it is fake. Do not download those antispyware because they are actually fake antispywares or rogue antispywares. They will not help you remove virus, contrary they will infect your PC further.

Here are some examples of possible false pop ups:

• Warning Spyware Threat detected on your PC!
• Windows detected Spyware infection!
• Your System is in Danger!
• Your Computer has Security Problem!

There are also some other signs you should be wary of. For example if your desktop settings or browser home page is altered without your consent. In some cases you will not be able to change them back. Other cases redirect the user to malicious websites. Malicious websites are often made to infect PCs when visited.

The other obvious sign of virus infection is slow computer. If your computer is significantly slower than before you should be careful. Spyware and virus usually take up major processes in the system and make your computer slow.

If you keep seeing signs of virus warnings, try to check your antispyware. Is it protecting you properly? Most free antispyware will have trouble in detecting new threats since they are not properly updated and maintained. Cyber crime is rising rapidly these days; do not let yourself be the next victim!

Need to eliminate virus threats instantly and surely? Check if you are really being protected here.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daly_Coleman