DIY PC Repair - Saving Money With Simple Maintenance

By Paul RJ Wilson

Interested in a DIY PC Repair? When we take our computers to the shop to get repaired, we pay too much. Usually the problem is very easy to solve. Due to our lack of experience we are required to bring our systems to the repair shop and ask them to "fix my computer!". The technicians are making great money as they charge through the roof to get the repairs done. Also they will be attempting to entice you to spend hundreds of dollars on a new computer. Some will even go so far as to tell you that the computer is not repairable and suggest that you spend thousands of dollars towards a new one.

We should not be so gullible to fall for it. A great deal of the repairs can be done at home for a fraction of the cost. You could even assemble a complete computer at home and save money. Regular maintenance on your computer will maximize its reliability and speed.

If it is freezes, crashes, shows boot errors, blue screens you can actually repair it yourself and save money on the repair.

These are the following things that you could do on a regular basis to keep your machine in working order;

Perform a disk defragmentation. Often your computer will put different parts of programs in different places on the hard drive. This forces your computer to have to search for bits and pieces the program which is an inefficient practice. Doing disk defragmentation helps keep your hard drive in order and your programs will load in a timely manner.

Clearing out hidden startup programs will cut down on the time that it takes for your computer to start up. These applications are not really necessary and you should keep them to a minimum. As more of these little programs that load, it makes loading the desktop take longer to finish.

If you use your computer on the internet, you should clean up the temporary internet files, history, and the cookies. By not keeping the internet browsing cache of you computer clean makes it easy for spyware and various viruses to reside on your machine and potentially perform harm.

You could ultimately save time by learning how to do the repair on your computer yourself. It is not that difficult to do.

For more information about DIY PC Repair visit my blog.

Guidelines on Choosing PA Systems

By James Gant

If you consider buying a simple PA system for your school, church or office, then you have to know what system will work best for you. PA systems only require minimum maintenance because it only consists of few devices especially if you are only vying for simple system. So here are few of the considerations when choosing your public address system:

1. Choose a microphone that is of good quality and lived up to its name. So many brands today are flooding the market but unfortunately, they do not last to live beyond their expected performance. A unidirectional microphone is ideal for schools, conference rooms and addressing small crowd but when the purpose of the system is for auditoriums, the omni-directional microphone is suitable. Test the microphone first before buying it.

2. The mixer which job is to route and mix different audio signals produced in the system will accommodate all the signals from your devices so better choose a mixer that can handle this job.

3. The amplifier's job is to amplify sound or give life to the sound so better pick the good one. Poor quality amplifier distort sound because they amplify signals relentlessly so better look for a non-distorting signal amplifier.

4. One of the most essential parts of the PA systems are the speakers or loudspeakers because without them your system is useless so always remember good speakers produce good sounds. Also always place speakers where they can define sounds faithfully.

5. Although cables are not really part of the PA systems, they are very important factors for transmitting audio sounds so if you have the perfect system always vie for the good cables.

Tannoy Systems PA System

PA Systems - Buying Expensive Or Cheap Ones

By James Gant

Effective speeches are best heard when you have an effective Public Address (PA) systems because every sound, intonation, volume and clarity of the speaker must reach the audience to make an impact. PA systems have helped us go with addressing large number of people in the delivery of messages and public announcements but today, almost every school, churches, malls and commercial establishments have their own public address systems. However, you noticed that sometimes the sound system does not work so well you cannot understand clearly what the speaker was saying. The usual problems of the PA systems are voice distortion, inadequate volume, booming sound without clarity and hissing sound. These problems usually arise when there is inadequacy in the mixture of signals, inappropriate capacity of the speakers in accordance to the space and low quality devices that are in the system. The first two problems are usually human errors but the problem of choosing low quality devices although is a human failure can best be address if you opt for a better quality sound system.

So if you are not sure on what to consider when choosing the right PA systems for your venues, you must have some tips to mull over. Think that there are so many PA systems manufactured by different companies but did you notice that only few of them lived up to their expectations and still hot on the market? This is because a pure and reliable PA system does not need to be expensive but reliable and efficient. Although sometimes the most expensive ones are the most reliable ones, it does not mean the rest are of low value. How can you know you are looking at an affordable system and it will not compromise your goals? You will know it by testing it. Don't hesitate to try for yourself every piece of the device. The microphone, speakers, mixers, router and cables must be carefully selected. Experts advise that you better not go for affordable PA system in one package but better hunt for each device individually. It maybe a bit expensive as compared to packaged systems but it is worth your money especially if the devices you choose fits and mix beautifully to one another.

Tannoy Systems PA System

Improve Computer Startup Time

By Daniel Sanderson

This article is going to tell you how to speed your computers start time up.

The first thing I always look at and ask myself when speeding someone's computer up is 'what programs are running at start-up?' and usually I find the answer to be 'LOTS!'

The easiest way to find out exactly what is running at start-up is by go to the start menu..
- In XP, select run and type msconfig
- In Vista and Windows 7, type msconfig in the search bar
Go to the start-up tab and unselect any programs not needed. Don't just un tick all the entries as you may find some of the programs you like will stop loading or bring up error messages. (A great tool is available called StartUpLite, which can be found at Malwarebytes.org. This will list all programs that start-up which are safe to disable.)

The next thing I would do is a full virus and spyware scan. There are many free tools out there to do this, one of my favourite being Malwarebytes and also SuperAntiSpyware. Some good free antivirus programs are:
- Avira
- AVG Free
- Avast

After this you should download a program called CCleaner , run the normal cleanup and also the registry cleanup. You might also want to run a program called Cleanup.

Lastly you should defrag your hard drive. This can be found by going to the start menu, all programs, going to accessories and system tools. This will put all data on your hard drive in order so its very easy to find and open.

A fully illustrated guide is available at the link provided below:

http://www.e-computing.info/speedupstartup.html Daniel M Sanderson - For More Free Computer Guides Please Visit: http://www.e-computing.info

 

Flash Charts - Interactivity Guaranteed

By Subhayu Mukherjee

In today's world, two very important keywords are data and interactivity. In an age defined by user needs and information, all solutions need to provide quick access to the user. Quick access means making available, the data demanded by the user in the earliest possible time and as clearly as possible.

Note the two parameters stated above. To actually allow the user to identify the data that she wants to access is a very crucial step. Also crucial is the way in which the data is presented, i.e. how easily understandable that data is. To combine these two parameters together and provide a complete solution should be the aim of all solution providers.

One of the easiest ways to display data is through the medium of charts and graphs. Replacing rows and rows of data by a chart is an easy way to clearly express the data and its implications to the user. A chart or a graph makes any aberrations, trends or changes in trend more apparent than the actual data ever could. Also as a diagrammatic representation, a chart is much more aesthetic than rows and rows of data.

But does a chart itself solve the problem of letting the user select what data she wants to view? It does only when the charts are interactive. Flash Charts offer the user a choice of different kinds of interactive charts. Not only do these chart provide interactivity, since they use the foremost medium on the web for animation, they are more often than not animated and very attractive to look at.

Interactivity in a chart means letting the user interact directly with the chart. Interactivity with a chart could be in several ways. A user could click on any data plot on the chart and get to see another chart with a break up of that data plot(data plot here refers to a column in a column chart or a bar in a bar chart). Or the user could move her mouse to any point on the chart and get to see as tool tips, the details of that point on the chart.

What interactivity in charts implies is that the data is made much more presentable to the user. The user can now actually select the data she wants to view and get that data directly. Both time, effort and money is saved in the process as a result. Also, it smooths out the whole process of data visualization and correspondingly data interpretation.

To know more about using Interactive Charts visit us as FusionCharts.

Eye Tracking Experiment - Can Regions of Visual Attention on a Web Page Be Predicted?

By Michelle Fox and Jia Tan

Researchers from the German DFKI research institute and Microsoft Research department conducted a study using pupil tracking technology to identify the most significant regions of a web page. The study had two objectives: 1) to identify the influence of tasks on the pattern of gaze across a variety of web pages, and 2) to create a predictive model of which elements are most likely to be looked at on a web page. Using a Tobii x50 gaze tracking device paired with an LCD monitor, the researchers logged gaze data of 20 participants on 361 different web pages. Three measures were computed using the visual tracking data: median fixation impact, viewing frequency, and median time of first fixation.

The first goal was to determine where web page viewers focus their visual attention and whether the task they were performing (either page recognition or information searching) effected how they viewed the web page. The outcome showed that for both tasks, page viewers fixate on the top left-hand side of the page. This suggests that web page viewers have been conditioned to believe that the right side of most pages has little relevant content or information, so they quickly scan the left side for clues about content.

Using the data from the original experiment, the researchers approached their second objective. A predictive method was created for finding the most important elements for recognizing a page; however, the model proved too simple to avoid bias for elements on the upper left side of the page. Nevertheless, this predictive model will be used to create compact representations of websites using the most salient regions of the page to aid in the task of page recognition or re-finding.

Using technology that tracks the eyes allows researchers to increase their understanding of users' web-viewing behavior. User interfaces that frustrates the user can easily be identified. It can either be removed or modified to make its function clearer to the user. This information helps web developers, advertisers, etc. to improve page design and create new types of web user interfaces that are pleasing and intuitive. The fundamental take away from the research is the understanding that predicting or expecting users to use an user interface as designed is a flawed approach in the development process. Testing user interactions with the user interface is a necessity in today's competitive business world.

Pupil Tracking Eyetracking Web Usability

Popular Cell Phone Signal Boosters

By Shawn Manaher

There are two types of cell phone signal boosters that are very popular these days, mobile and in-building. Nowaday's everyone has a cell and one of the most irritating things about a phone is dropped calls. No one likes to be taking an important call and all of a sudden the call just ends. Even if you have purchased the most expensive cell phone made, you still can have a weak signal and lost calls. If you travel often you will be smart to invest in a mobile cell phone booster. If you are working inside an office building or talk on your cell a lot in your home, then you would want an in-building cell signal booster. If your want better reception all the time, you may want to invest in both types of boosters. Phone signal boosters don't come cheap, but they are well worth the money in the long run.

Mobile phone boosters can be purchased in a kit and come with an antenna, booster, and amplifier. Most are wireless so there is not much installation required and the antenna doesn't have to be connected to your cell by a cable. You just mount the antenna on the top of your car, or car window and that's it. You will receive a stronger signal, better reception, and not have any more dropped calls. This type of cell signal booster runs around $500 for the kit.

In building cell phone signal boosters work along the same lines as the mobile boosters. They also make a wireless type of in-building booster. They installation is simple; just attach the antenna to the roof of your home or outside of a window and your set. You will receive a better quality of calls, better reception, a stronger signal, and have no more dropped calls. The in-building phone signal booster kits will run up to $1000 in cost.

One of the most popular types of phones on the market today is the new iPhone 3G and classic iPhone. Wilson Electronics, a leader in cell phone signal boosters has developed a signal booster specially made for an iPhone. This "iBooster" is a very powerful mobile signal amplifier. It comes with a holder, an antenna, and a power cord. The antenna mounts on the outside of your vehicle and the attached cord plugs into the cigarette lighter. Very easy installation and it works just like a regular booster by improving signal strength and call reception.

Many mobile phone accessories are not as need as the cell phone signal booster is, it's importance is seen everyday and if you are in need of one, then stop by a local phone retailer for assistance.