So what is M-Commerce?
It’s very simple, mobile / cell phone based sales. Usually relating to content such as games, wallpaper, ringtones etc. But there’s much more to it than that. Keep reading.

What’s the big deal?
More people own a mobile phone than a PC, they’re better integrated in to daily life. People are very comfortable using them. They are now in fact heavily relied upon, as the phone feature is only a small part of what can be perceived as a miniature multi-purpose multi-capable portable computer.

Mobile Growth
Mobile growth already outstrips all other communication channels. Half of all Americans are mobile phone subscribers. In the UK the ownership of a mobile phone is equivalent to 1.5 phones per head of population. According to research, mobile content services will be worth $121 Billion worldwide by 2008. White label distribution of ringtones, images, games and other promotions will drive up to 1/5th of the revenue generated. It’s estimated 1.5 Billion people worldwide own a mobile phone.

With more and more technology add-ons to tempt the consumer these devices are now Cameras, MP3 players, game consoles, voice notepads, picture albums, diary organiser, PDF readers etc etc.

In fact I’m writing this article on my PDA / Phone whilst sat in the sunshine in the garden. With two taps on the screen I can hook up to my home wireless network and check my emails, browse the net, update my Blog or edit and publish article submissions on one of my sites all via broadband.

We are not that far away from always on Net connections. Once this arrives it will allow anyone to do this almost wherever they are. Certainly in the major cities around the world. When this happens there will be a third Internet boom as Joe public try’s out the Net connection again that was always too shoddy to use in the past.

And what will they want? Content! ringtones, wallpaper, games, MP3’s etc

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The real money isn’t even going to be made via a Net sale. The real money will be made via SMS(Short Message Service), MMS(Multimedia Messaging System) and this ones a goldmine…Micro payments.

Recent research has shown a doubling of worldwide revenue from streaming TV and sports bulletin subscriptions. 380 million people worldwide are expected to subscribe to similar services in 2005. Including TV show bulletins particularly from ‘reality TV’ shows, News bulletins or Soap updates.

Big deal you’re not a TV network how can you make some money out of this boom?
I’ll go into that in a second but first I want to go back to those Micro payments I mentioned earlier. The real gold dust.

Micro Payment Profits
Micro payments have been around for a while here in the UK. A smaller land mass has allowed for a quicker rollout of mobile technologies here. Nationwide Network coverage is easier to achieve. I believe the first example in the US to take it mainstream was by the ‘American Idol’ show. Viewers voted for the acts on the show via their mobile phone. They where then charged a small premium for their vote on top of their networks regular SMS charge. Think of the millions of votes that the show attracted and the revenue generated.

That’s micro payments in action.

The beauty of this is that people don’t feel like they’re spending money because they don’t need to whip out their credit card, it’s an easier payment method, usually involving a simple text to a small number and the payment is small. They also trust their mobile for making payments unlike an online transaction.

Any payments made will appear on their next phone bill. People are already used to paying in this way, they’re comfortable with it. Whether it’s to vote for an act on a TV show, for a game download or to grab the latest ringtone.

What have you got that you could take micro payments for?
You should be considering how you can utilise your current website network to tap into this market. Do you offer subscriptions? Is there a service you offer that you could convert to subscriptions.

How Can You Make Some Money?
Here’s a quick example. Your newsletter. Would your subscribers be willing to pay a small premium to have your newsletter delivered directly to their mobile? Wherever they are, without the need to be sat in front of a PC. Thus bypassing the SPAM filter problem and guaranteeing they receive your valuable content. You could sell it as valuable service for your customers with added content not available on your site or via your regular newsletter.

Or offer them up to the minute breaking news in their industry, which they receive as it breaks and not when they check their email five hours later when it’s to late to take action.

Digital artists sell your wallpaper designs direct to the consumer via the mobile phone. New bands forget the record company contract sell your music via MP3’s direct to the consumer. Investment advisors get subscribers to your ‘Hot Tips’ bulletins. Store owners offer a sale bulletin service etc etc

The Future
The omnipresent Google are moving forward with major mobile initiatives. Spending vast amounts of money to stake a claim in this fledgling market. There’s the mobile version of Froogle for one and they’ve also developed mobile business listings specifically for the potentially huge ‘local search’ market. They also offer a free SMS based information service http://www.google.com/sms/ and http://www.google.co.uk/sms/

Another major company Real Networks, creators of Real media Player, recently bought Finnish mobile phone game developers Mr Goodliving for $15M. Essentially buying a back catalogue of high profile mobile games.

NTL a cable TV company here in the UK recently streamed the Grand National, the biggest race horse meet here in the UK, live to Nokia owning subscribers.

This is early days and that’s a small glimpse of the future.

The M-Commerce Market is very different from the online market in terms of what content consumers are currently paying for. The biggest revenue generators online, 70%, are porn and dating sites. A similar percentage via mobile is for games, music and video. Films, that’s another one, Nokia are now distributing Hollywood movies via memory card!

The technology specifically 3G, an always on network with transfer rates of 384kbs a second, is here and trickling into mainstream culture. These devices are in fact capable of 1920kbs. Compare that to GPRS at 56kbs. You don’t need these speeds to take advantage of this market but you should keep them in mind to realise the full potential of where mobile communication is going.

Here’s a brief, eye opening, wish list from consumers for future mobile phone payment abilities:-

10 Use your mobile as a key
9 Marketing communications
8 Retail checkout payments
7 Vending machine payments
6 Flight check in
5 Credit / debit cards
4 Season tickets
3 Loyalty cards
2 Parking Meter payments
1 Mobile Coupon redemption

Getting Started How do you Accept Payments?
Reverse SMS is very popular at the moment. It provides the ability for you to direct consumers to secret download links on your site whilst taking payment through a premium SMS message. Another method known as ‘WAP Push’ sends a link via SMS that automatically launches when the message is opened. You will need to set up your own WAP / SMS Gateway on your server which will require server administrator access to use both these solutions.

But there are other easier solutions a number of websites are springing up that allow you to upload your content available for download, games, video, wallpaper, MP3’s etc . A small fee is taken from each paid download by the SMS Gateway company..

I’ve compiled a list of useful links to a number of the above solutions and I’ve also thrown in a couple of links to ‘mobaphile’ websites were you will find some interesting predictions for the future development of mobile phones along with some real off the wall ideas for making money with mobiles. http://www.how-to-make-money-online.info/m-commerce-resources.php

To paraphrase a strap line ‘The future’s bright the future’s mobile’.

bio = How To Make Money
Online a site all about making money online and Internet Marketing.
Featuring, news, tips, resources, thousands of Internet marketing articles
and useful links.

This article comes with reprint rights. Feel free to reprint and distribute
as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes, that this
resource text is include, and that the link above is intact.

Popularity: 8% [?]

From “ignorance is bliss” to “surprise attack and disaster” - how many thousands of Internet users have experienced this frustration and grief?

This raises the obvious question: “Why haven’t they prepared to avoid it?”

The startling fact is that there are many long term Internet users who have never even considered updating their Operating Systems and protective Safe-ware.

Perhaps the complexity of it all contributes to what might be described as User apathy - or indifference and a lack of enthusiasm toward the following:

* The news of yet another vulnerability or patch process.

* The potential damage to computer, personal information and reputation - i.e. the “It can’t happen to me” attitude.

* Their own abilities - i.e. “I’m too old, too dumb, too whatever - to learn how to fix a computer without breaking something.”

* Updating - i.e. “My computer came with an anti-virus program, so why does it need to be updated now?”

The sad fact is that the lack of confidence people have in their ability to build a defense often leads to a reluctance to even accept the reality of Cyber Threats.

Some of the lesser-experienced Internet users rationalize their lack of action with pessimism, even defeatism. Human nature often supports these excuses with defensive attitudes and mis-beliefs like:

* False sense of disaster support - “My nephew, neighbor, son or whoever, is a computer whizz. They’ll be able to fix the problem if anything ever happens.”

* Scepticism - “All this talk about viruses is just so the “news people” will have information for publishing, and so the software manufactureres can scare people into buying more of their products.”

* Ignorance (of the extent of deception, skills and sophistication that the malicious hackers have attained).

* Disbelief (that personal computer might be infected and used by others to spread malicious viruses and worms). “My computer seems to be working ok - a little slow, maybe, but it is getting pretty old.”

* Overwhemed (too many choices with firewalls, anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware, Trojan removers). “Why do I need all of these and which ones should I use?” or “Do I really need to update my Operating System, my anti virus, spam, spyware stuff?”…I’ll just never learn how to do all of this.

* Expense (How much will all this cost and is it really necessary?)

* Fatalism - “Hey, if it’s going to happen, it will, and I’ll just junk my computer and get another one. Mine’s getting kind of old, anyway.”

Here, then, are the Shocking facts about updating PC Operating Systems.

There are many unaware Internet users who have been online for years, but lack in these ares:

* They don’t know what “Updating” really means.

* They have never responded to the popup message associated with the icon in the Task tray that announces new Windows Updates.

* They have never clicked on the Windows Update icon in the Program Start menu.

* They have never visited the Microsoft Windows Update web page at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.

* They have never updated their PC Operating Systems.

Even if they have been able to navigate to the Microsoft Update webpage, many just throw up their hands in despair at the overwhelming number of choices and unknowns, such as:

* Choosing what to update from the long list of options.

* Waiting for Windows to check the registry for available updates.

* Deciphering the Update descriptions (and instructions).

* Selecting or Removing the necessary options.

* Starting the download.

And oftentimes, many people have never even used the Windows Help information to find out how to update their computer Operating Systems.

How many self taught or untrained computer users are going to persevere through all of the hassle described above? Is it any wonder so many computers become infected? The criminal Hackers building their bot and zombie armies have nearly an open and undefended playing field; many are using it every day to steal money and identities.

So, what is the solution to this problem?

If individuals with computer “understanding” would help and assist others with less knowledge, there would probably be less of a problem.

Nearly everyone who has faithfully kept their PC Operating Systems and Safe-ware up to date surely has family members and friends who could benefit from an hour or so of basic instructions. This would make it much more difficult for the criminal Hackers to compromise another persons computer.

Hacker’s would eventually be faced with a growing number of adequately protected computers, educated Users and hopefully would finally give-up trying!

bio = Supportcave.com offers new and enhanced spyware removal Software. Not only will these programs effectively check and clean your computer from Spyware, once installed they will also shield your computer from future Spyware intrusions.

Popularity: 8% [?]

When it’s time to buy printer ink, some people naturally head back to their neighborhood office supply store while others log onto their favorite online ink supply source. Before you make your next printer ink purchase, consider the costs of your decision.

Purchasing ink at your neighborhood office supply store could be the most expensive way of getting ink for your printer. You may well be paying a higher price for your ink than is necessary. Often, the neighborhood store has little competition and their prices can be increased because of the high demand. Stores often have overhead that online companies don’t have - sales people, buildings, etc. The consumer will pay those expenses.

So does that mean that you should never shop your local office supply company for printer ink? Actually, buying ink from your local store may be the safest way to purchase printer ink. Many of the online ink sources are selling ink that is not approved for your printer. You may very well void your warranty if you use ink that isn’t brand specific.

Even if you don’t have a warranty, some say that off brand printer ink may very well damage your print head. You may significantly shorten the life of your printer. If you weigh that against the potential to save a few dollars on a printer ink cartridge, you’ll see that the long-term cost is probably too high.

Added to that is the reliability factor. If you’re buying printer ink from an online source and you have a problem with the ink cartridge, you may have little or no recourse. Your local store is likely going to stand behind their products.

This also doesn’t mean that all online printer ink sources are bad and not to be trusted. On the contrary, many of the online suppliers offer quality products at greatly reduced rates. You can often find printer ink that’s specifically for your printer and pay less than you’d expect.

The best way to find great deals on printer ink is to shop around. Check out the prices at your local stores and compare them to the online prices you find. If you’re considering off-brands, consider the potential cost of damaging your print head. You may decide it’s not worth it unless you’re using lots of ink and you’re making significant savings on each cartridge.

bio = Jeff Lakie is the founder of http://www.cheap-toner.info and http://www.cheap-laser-toner.info websites providing information on Printer Ink

Popularity: 9% [?]

After the dot com crash, expired domain names and expired domain name traffic have been a source of potential income. It is important to inexpensively obtain the automated tools required to track the thousands of domain name registration and abandoned websites that are removed from the domain registry and become available for purchase.

Expired domain registration and the expired domain name traffic associated with them have been only available to those who had an automated system and tools.

Now, automated tools and resources are available for identifying, appraising and even buying these domain names on autopilot.

Expired domain names are those that had previously been registered to another owner. These domain name registration are available to the open market because of non-payment of the domain name renewal fees. Such domain names are returned to the open market about forty-five days after the expiration date.

Many domain names even point to fully functioning websites while many are registered for speculation. These names are registered by speculators in the hope of obtaining a profit on the resale of the domain name.

Numerous other domain names are registered for website development, but do not appear online. In a number of these cases, the domain name owners do not follow through with respect to the website development and allow the domain registration to expire.

However, there are a number of expired domain names with fully functioning websites, receiving daily traffic from the search engines, links and banner ads. The expired domain names that get this daily traffic can earn revenues if these are redirected to another website or marketed with affiliate programs.

Earning Profit from Expired Domain Names & Expired Domain Name Traffic:

1. Buying for speculation - There is now a large and highly profitable market for reselling domain registration at present, and speculators are looking out for developing technologies and trends. Evolution is constantly taking place in technology and trends. There are markets, being watched closely right now, that are expected to grow exponentially within a short span of time. It should be a good idea to locate and register expiring domain registration that are related to new trends, technology and markets in order to earn substantial profits.

2. Buying expiring domain names and redirecting the targeted traffic - Targeted keyword domain names can help to get traffic from those simply typing in keyword rich domain names into the address bar and hitting the enter key.

3. Buying expired domain name registration and putting up generic websites - Using tools like easy website building software, third party payment processors, auto responders and other applications, even a novice could put generic websites online with keyword rich domain names that should appear in the search engine rankings. These websites can be built using expired domain names to drive traffic to them and the domain registration and the developed website could then be sold together with the domain name, as a value added commodity.

4. Buying expiring domain names of websites that are already online - A number of expiring domain names are, actually, already functioning websites. The owners of these websites either did not renew their domain registration for some reason or simply stopped operating the website. In fact, quite often, these websites already have traffic from links to other websites, search engine rankings and even directory listings.

5. Buying expired domain names and using them for marketing affiliate programs - Affiliate programs are a good way to acquire an online business without even having a product. Affiliate marketers redirect traffic from the affiliate website to the website of the actual product or service and charge a commission or a fee when any of the redirected traffic results in sales. Affiliate programs have become an automated turnkey solution for a number of entrepreneurs, especially novices.

One can locate and register expired domain names that closely target the market of the affiliate programs and then draw that targeted traffic into the website with expired keyword rich domain names with content that satisfies the informational needs. Then the users can be led onto the sales page of the product.

bio = Copyright c Active-Domain.com (http://www.active-domain.com). All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted freely as long as you provide an active link to our website at www.active-domain.com.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Today,on most internet user’s computers, we have the
ability to employ software, along with our
intelligence, to prevent viruses and spyware.
To put this article into proper perspective, we’ll use
Medieval defense tactics.

This is accomplished by 3 methods. First, a firewall…
‘The Castle Moat’ so to speak. A firewall can’t see
inside your computer beforehand though, so if any viruses
or spyware were present before the firewall was installed
then its of no use. Of course, its extremely good at preventing new
attacks.

Second, a anti-virus program…. ‘The Castle Drawbridge!
They will not provide much help with spyware, but good
virus protection is as desirable as one of Avaris’s
dreams! One drawback can be the updates, of course.If
you’ve just updated Wednesday night and a virus hits the
next day, then you may not be protected till next
Wednesday night, and by then it may be too late. If you’re
smart, you will have signed up for email alerts with
the provider, or even better, you’ll have a anti-virus
program that has a real time update feature. I get the
tingles when I see that little pop-up saying a update
is available and click here. Its downloaded ,installed,
and updated in about 20 seconds! A new virus or Trojan or
God forbid, a new keylogger can hit the internet and spread
in a matter of days, and I’m sure this must make the definition
writers lives a living hell. I have great admiration for
them as they could have been wealthy doctors, but they have
chosen to help us… the end users. (moment of silence here)

Last, we have anti-spyware programs,’The Flaming oil’! (my favorite).
Their update features are like the anti-virus programs,
so you have to be as vigilant with this method of defense
too as you would be with the others. I’ve heard there are
people out there that don’t even know when their
updates run, or even if its configured to do so! I
refuse to believe this sordid rumor!

So you’ve got your defenses set up, you’re looking good.
But the best defense is a good offense, attack!
That’s what some organizations do. They prowl the net
looking for websites that harbor drive-by downloads,
URL Re-Directing and such. When they find them, they
shut them down, or report them so effective protection
can be manufactured. These people have my sincere
thanks for what they do. With identity theft on the
rise and Websense reporting that the average computer
has 28 items of Spyware on it, we need all the help we
can get. Oh sure, you’re saying not my computer !
Well, lets discuss those little boxes that you click
“I Agree” to when you download something. Do you read
the entire statement? This is one way spyware has
become so rampant, because so many downloads have extra
software included in them. These can be harmful to
your computers well being. KeyLoggers, popups, adware, malware…
Need I go on?
So my idea is that we need these shining knights from the
castle to journey forth on a quest. They will be
little robots or spiders like the search engines use.
They will be given absolute power over harmful
programs they find. They will be like Gort in the
movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.
Dell recently reported that 12% of their calls were
for spyware damage, Microsoft says half of their
reports of system crashes are caused by spyware. These
calls cost these companies millions of dollars in
revenue, which they then pass the costs of onto us,
the consumers.
Who knows, if viruses and spyware ever get controlled,
the average computer may only cost a dollar!

bio = About the Author: Doug Woodall has a web site at http://www.spywarebiz.com
There he provides free information and recommended products to combat Spyware.
His Website is recognized by Learning Fountain and ISafe
Doug’s Articles have earned him Trusted Author Status at ImpactArticles.com
He is a member of the IWA (International Webmasters Association)
Article edited for proper content by Wendy McCallum
Permission to copy ok as long as about author info remains with article.
Copyright 2005 SpywareBiz

Popularity: 8% [?]

Stop intrusive pop-up ads and regain control of your online experience!

Stop intrusive pop-up ads and regain control of your online world! Intrusive and distracting pop-up windows are not an unavoidable part of being online. You don’t have to put up with offensive, time consuming and bandwidth stealing pop up ads. Visit Supportcave.com today to try out some of the most sophisticated pop-up blockers on the market - for free! Make screen cluttering pop-ups a thing of the past by installing a pop-up blocker right away.

- You enter a webpage, and suddenly your window is filled with a myriad of annoying new little windows, multiplying like amoebas and cluttering your entire screen. Every time you click on a window to shut it down five more windows are opened, ultimately making your computer freeze or even crash.

- You try to read a friends’ webpage located at a free web hotel, but every time you click on a new link the screen is smothered with commercials about mortgages, miraculous diet pills and MLM-marketing.

- You use a search engine to find information, but when you click on the top link you are suddenly faced with x-rated pictures and very graphical commercials for generic Viagra.

Do any of the above scenarios sound familiar? Unfortunately most of us can answer YES! to that question. While using the web we are constantly targeted by commercials, and a lot of them come in the form of intrusive and distracting pop-up windows. They are however not only annoying, they are also stealing valuable bandwidth and slowing down our browsing; thus making our time online less effective. In the long run, these pop-up ads are making the whole Internet much slower than necessary, costing the users time as well as money.

Fortunately pop-up ads are not at all an unavoidable part of the Internet. There are several programs available online that once installed will block all forms of pop-up ads. These programs are known by many names, including pop-up blockers, pop-up stoppers, ad window blockers and pop-up removers. They all work in a similar way, but are not identical.

Most of them offer you the ability to start of by using the general settings, and then later customize the program to flawlessly match you specific needs and preferences. Stopzilla, for example, is a very user friendly program constructed with the novice user in mind. Still, it offers you the ability to tailor the program for your self later when you have become more accustomed to it. Maybe you would like to have a visual or audible warning every time a pop-up is detected and blocked? Maybe there are some web pages where you wish to allow pop-ups? Other programs, like the Pop-Up Stopper Professional, have even more settings to choose from for the more advanced user.

The good thing about most pop-up blockers is that you can usually set the program on “auto enable”, which means that the pop-up blocker will start whenever the computer is started. You don’t have to worry about remembering to turn it on; it will always work in the background, protecting you while you’re online.

Before choosing a pop-up blocker make sure that it is of high quality in order to get the most out of you time online. A good pop-up blocker should be able to stop any undesired window that tries to open automatically, regardless to whether it is a pop-up or pop-under ad. It should also be able to block the kind of ads that open up after a page is loaded, or when you leave a site or close your browser.

In addition to this, a good pop-up blocker should have a user friendly interface that is easy to manage, and give you the opportunity to customize the settings. Based on you individual settings, a good pop-up blocker should be able to decide whether a launching window is good or bad. A good pop-up blocker can block ads and other undesired windows without interfering with your normal browsing.

Stop wasting your time on intrusive and offensive pop-ups and install a pop-up blocker today!
bio = Supportcave.com offers new and enhanced popup blocker software . Not only will these programs effectively prevent popups, once installed they will also shield your computer from future popup intrusions.

Popularity: 7% [?]

QArea mobile application development company starts Inly Essence J2ME game porting

Kharkiv, Ukraine -September 26, 2005 - QArea, the leading developer and tester of applications for PDA’s and smart phones also being the originator of the pioneering BugHuntress Test Suite for automated PDA applications testing, announces starting of its Inly Essence J2ME game porting for variety of mobile devices

The Inly Essence J2ME game will be available for Nokia Series 40 and 60; Siemens Series 55 and 65; SonyEricsson T610, 630, Z600; Motorola V Series; Samsung and Alcatel in the nearest future.

The Inly Essence J2ME game is a fighting arcade enhanced with RPG elements and non-linear scenario.

The idea of the game is quite close to Prince of Persia, yet, its distinctive feature is in a specific parameter of rage. It is this parameter that defines the striking power of the fighting characters, and it changes dependant on punches given or obtained.

The aim of the game is survive and destroy the Boss who is a dark and unnatural monster creature concealed in the dungeon deep under the earth and spreading the infectious rage disease. The player’s task is reach to his hiding place room-by-room and destroy the monster Boss and his aids. There are 15 levels to be passed to reach the Boss.

The aim of the game is to survive and destroy the Boss who is a dark and unnatural monster creature concealed in the dungeon deep under the earth and spreading the infectious rage disease. The player’s task is to reach to his hiding place room-by-room and destroy the monster Boss and his aids. There are 15 levels to be passed to reach the Boss.

The character has 7 aspects:
1. Speed
2. Vitality
3. Rage
4. Injury
5. Strength
6. Madness
7. Bloodiness

The same characters are attributable to Boss and Boss’s aids. Yet, they are a bit weaker which is compensated by their number.

The control is performed by standard key layout and also duplicate performed by joystick:
4 - backward
6 - forward
7,9 - hit
1,3 - kick
5 - affect environment (use), while affect opponent - superkick (if sufficient rage level)

About QArea: QArea is the largest Ukrainian mobile offshore outsourcing company since 2001. Its primary focus is brought upon software development for Palm, WinCE, RIM (Blackberry), Symbian, Brew, J2ME-enabled devices and related.

Company sites:

http://www.QArea.com
bio = Igor

Popularity: 7% [?]

Companies have long considered data collection and analysis to be fundamental activities for long term strategic planning. Before the rise of the Information Age, most decision making was based on guess-work or trial-and-error practices. Businesses seeking to achieve a sustainable advantage over their competition quickly turned to information management systems for detailed data analysis. These systems and methods have evolved to what is now known by the broader term “business intelligence” or “BI”.

Business intelligence refers to in-depth analysis of company data for better decision-making. The technology and processes that make this analysis possible take unwieldy collections of information and translate them into organized, readily-accessible, human-readable compilations of data. With an effective BI tool, companies can easily track their own operations, their customers’ activity patterns, and industry trends. These fact-based assessments help companies work toward specific goals with confidence.

The business intelligence process can be broken down into the following three stages:

1. Data
2. Information
3. Knowledge

Raw data is gathered and processed into information. The information must be filtered and arranged into meaningful patterns. The knowledge drawn from that data analysis helps to form the business intelligence of a corporation.

Business intelligence needs vary across industries. The functional area and particular processes under examination play a large role in the type of data gathered and the range of knowledge sought. Common functional areas include: Sales and Marketing, Human Resources, Operations, and Finance.

Sales and marketing departments track products, customers, demographics, promotions, sales force, order type, and other related fields. Human resources groups often look to measure employee, organizational, and departmental issues. Assembly speed, warehouse stock, manufacturer and supplier cost, and shift productivity are the domain of operations management. Finance departments will closely watch data on topics such as currency standards, account information, and industry trends.

In the field of business intelligence, staff organizational levels also come into play. Those in lower organizational levels are more likely to focus on measures of short-term, correctable performance while more senior employees may measure high-level trends instead of absolutes. Of course, both of these types of measures are important to gauging a company’s relative success.

Good business intelligence means balanced information. Too much or too little data is not useful. Corporations can focus on the most crucial improvements by setting reasonable limits on the information gathered, coordinating the efforts around a company-wide strategy, and employing business intelligence systems.

Intelligence support systems can improve day-to-day business decision-making. Once a company has decided to adopt a business intelligence strategy, the first step in the process is to decide on goals for the initiative. After a central goal has been agreed upon, such as providing shareholders with a return above the industry-average, it is important to assess where overall decision making can be improved and to target the most valuable areas.

To facilitate their efforts, businesses may choose from a variety of intelligence support products on the market. Common tools include: data warehouses, business performance management, data mining or KDD (knowledge-discovery in databases), document warehouses, text mining, data visualization, scorecarding, and OLAP (Online Analytical Processing). These products work to sort through raw data and contribute to informed decision making. Some of these tools can produce compelling results when applied in tandem. For example, data and document warehouses used in tracking a store’s inventory can be linked to show both company data on past sales trends and external articles containing consumer opinions, thus expanding the pool of information available for decision-support and providing a more complete understanding of the situation.

Software-oriented business intelligence is seen by some as the next phase in the movement. Companies with limited Information Technology (IT) resources or whose data is held in disparate data sources can rely on software such as DecisionCentricr or Decision Analyzerr. Both products are produced by Decision Technology, Inc.. They enable users to analyze data, create reports, and export files to other applications like Acrobat, Word, and Excel. DecisionCentricr, in particular, is a powerful business intelligence application for small to midsize companies. At its heart is an EII engine optimized for small and midsize organizations. This allows organizations to postpone data warehouse implementations or extend the power and reach of any existing data warehouse. Moreover, the software program offers a free-form reporting tool that does the heavy lifting of report design to make the end-user’s job easier.

Business intelligence is prevalent in virtually every level of corporate dealings, in every industry. Technological advances require companies to make `round-the-clock decisions at a moment’s notice. The companies that can develop winning strategies in the face of increased competition and mountains of data will triumph over their competitors.

Business intelligence products guarantee companies the confidence of knowing the current fact-based information they need will always be right at their fingertips.

About Decision Technology, Inc.
Decision Technology business intelligence software is the ideal solution for organizations with limited IT resources, and whose data are confined in disparate databases or operational systems. Since 1985, Decision Technology has provided organizations with intuitive, information retrieval software for decision support applications. Its newest business intelligence software product, DecisionCentric, provides Enterprise Information Integration with query and reporting tools optimized for small and medium size organizations. It enables users to integrate, publish and analyze enterprise data across disparate data sources - without expensive ETL technology.

bio = R.L. Fielding has been a freelance writer for 10 years, offering her expertise and skills to a variety of major organizations in the education, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing industries. She lives in New Jersey with her dog and two cats and enjoys rock climbing and ornamental gardening.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Google has become more than just a search engine as the result of their release of the Google API. Now developers can have seamless access many of Google’s functionality directly from within their applications to retrieve and integrate data which was formerly either unavailable or not readily accessible.

We recently had a client who is a multi-national retailer with both a physical and Internet presence. The client needed a way to acquire certain business intelligence (BI) data from the Internet on a daily basis. After several unsuccessful attempts to create this functionality themselves, they came to us for a solution.

On the surface the requirements seemed to be difficult and it was easy to see why their own IT team had failed to find a solution. They were thinking “inside the box”, however, and hadn’t considered third-party alternatives. The specifications required that the application perform all of these tasks:

Retrieve new product listings on competitor’s web sites.

Retrieve current pricing for all products listed on competitor’s web sites.

Retrieve full text of competitor’s Press Releases and public financial reports.

Track all inbound links pointing to competitor’s web sites from other web sites.

Once the data was acquired it needed to be processed for reporting purposes and then stored in the data warehouse for future access.

After reviewing current web-based data acquisition technology, including “spiders” which crawled the Internet and returned data which then had to be processed through HTML filters, we determined that the Google API and Web Services offered the best solution.

The Google API provides remote access to all of the search engine’s exposed functionality and provides a communication layer which is accessed via the “Simple Object Access Protocol” (SOAP), a web services standard. Since SOAP is an XML-based technology it is easily integrated into legacy web-enabled applications.

The API met all of the requirements of the application in that it:

Provided a methodology for querying the Web using non-HTML interfaces

Enabled us to schedule regular search requests designed to harvest new and updated information on the target subjects.

It provided data in a format which was able to be easily integrated with the client’s legacy systems.

Using the Google API, SOAP and WSDL, our developers were able to define messages that fetched cached pages, searched the Google document index and retrieve the responses without having to filter out HTML or reformat the data. The resulting data was then handed off to the client’s legacy systems for validation, reporting and further processing before reaching the data warehouse.

During the Proof of Concept phase we ran tests where we were able to reliably identify and retrieve updated public relations and investor relations information that exceeded the client’s expectations.

In our next test we retrieved the most currently available product pages which were listed in Google and then ran another query to retrieve the Google “cached page” versions. We ran these two data sets through difference filters and were able to produce accurate price increase and decrease reports as well as identify new products.

For our final test we used the Google API’s ability to access the “link:” feature to rapidly build lists of inbound links.

These limited tests demonstrated that the Google API was capable of producing the BI data that the client requested as well as demonstrating that the data could be returned in a pre-defined format which eliminated the need to apply post retrieval filters.

The client was pleased with the results of our Proof of Concept phase and authorized us to proceed with building the solution. The application is now in daily use and is exceeding the client’s performance expectations by a wide margin.

Any developer who is familiar with coding WSDL will have no problem using the Google API. Using the Google API requires a developer’s key which is available at no charge. Go to http://www.google.com/apis/ for an overview and to register for your own key.

The Google API is destined to change the way that developers retrieve data and it opens a whole new level of data mining that has never been available in the past.
bio = Chris Palau is CEO of a offshore software development company , which offers offshore software development services

Popularity: 6% [?]

Leading Web site design packages have a serious contender called XSitePro, a new software package geared toward the rapidly expanding world of Internet marketing.

XSitePro is a new web site design package that creates entire web sites, not just individual pages, with ease.

Unlike leading web design programs, XSitePro approaches the whole process of site design from an online marketer’s perspective, incorporating easy-to-use features that differentiate XSitePro from other site design software.

“We are confident that XSitePro offers the alternative to Microsoft’s FrontPage and Macromedia’s Dreamweaver that Internet marketers and other web designers are looking for,” says Paul Smithson, president and CEO, of Intellimon Ltd. “Our customers can create professional Web sites in a fraction of the time it would take them using other web design software.”

XSitePro users don’t need to know how to write code to create a professional quality web site. Anyone who has word processing skills can create web pages using the built-in “What you see is what you get” page editor.

Users will also find that XSitePro is a great program for keeping their web sites updated after they have been created. Using the page layout feature it is possible to change the whole style of a site in minutes rather than days. You no longer have to settle with existing designs, or be intimidated by the workload of redesigning your sites.

“It is refreshing to see the product designed from the ground up for marketers,” says Ed Keay-Smith of AdWords Marketing. “I love the built in automation of affiliate and Google AdWords links.I have now chosen to use XSite Pro over FrontPage as my major money making website builder.”

Here are just a few of the great features that this software offers:

-Add Google AdSense ads with just two clicks of the mouse, adding extra income streams with little effort.

-Hide unattractive page urls by creating redirect pages that automatically forward visitors to alternative locations.

-Include navigation menus that automatically update themselves whenever new pages are added.

- Use the 130,000 word built-in spell-checker to guarantee spelling mistakes do not occur on any pages.

-Split long documents into multiple pages that include complete page navigation menus.

-Keep track of all of the essential information regarding web hosting, which means users will never forget any important information such as usernames, passwords, mail server details, etc.

-Export sites into other Web design programs, such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver.

XSitePro also assists users with optimizing their Web sites for the search engines. Users can designate keywords that are automatically added to the meta tags of every new Web site or Web page created. They can also measure if they have used keywords the correct number of times on each page and quickly make corrections so that they maximize the chance of ranking well in search engines.

You don’t need to worry about backing up your data either as the software can back-up all your web site work to a single file in just one mouse click.

In my opinion XSitePro is definitely one of the most exciting software packages to have been released in recent years.

You can find out more XsitePro by visiting their web site at http://www.xsitepro.com

c Michael Jones. This article can be reprinted, used in newsletters or on web pages as long as it is credited to Michael Jones, it appears in its entirety and the resource box below is included.
bio = Michael Jones has been reviewing the latest releases for computer magazines since the early 1980s. His specialties are CAD, web design, and expert systems. Michael can be contacted by email on michael1jones@hotmail.com

Popularity: 5% [?]

Most homes these days have at least one printer hooked up to their personal computer. And a personal computer gets a fair amount of use through the day as an average family of four find a variety of uses to fill their time at the computer, including entertainment, information, to help with school work, to find recipes, to shop, to browse the Internet, etc.

So it is no surprise then that the printer gets a lot of use. With so many computers in North America running so many printers for so many people, it is no wonder that many printer manufacturers sell their printers at almost no profit because they make huge profits on ink refills.

Ink refill can be expensive, especially if you have a color printer, since you have to refill the black cartridge plus the three primary color cartridges as well. Filling a modern BubbleJet printer can cost well over $100!

It does not have to be that way. There are options available that are more affordable. Here is a review and evaluation of your cartridge refill options:

You can go out and buy the manufacturer’s ink cartridges. It is quick, easy, clean but can cost $100 or more if you have to replace all four ink cartridges. However, by staying loyal to the brand, you maintain the warranty on your printer.
Affordability factor: low — Cleanliness factor: high — Convenience factor: high

You can buy off-brand ink cartridges. These may void your warranty, but you can be sure that they will likely work in your printer since many other people are purchasing them as well and the off-brand ink cartridge manufacturing company does not want to lose customers by producing a product that does not work..
Affordability factor: medium — Cleanliness factor: high — Convenience factor: high

You can go to a printer refill kiosk in the mall and have then refill your cartridges. This will void your warranty as well, but for people who find the high cost of ink cartridges prohibitive, this is an excellent option. It’s also environmentally sound since there is little waste.
Affordability factor: medium — Cleanliness factor: high — Convenience factor: high

You can purchase a commercial ink refilling kit and do it yourself. This is the most affordable method but it can be messy, and take a long time if you have never done it before. And while it may only cost you a few dollars, you void your warranty by using any non-manufacturer-approved ink and equipment.
Affordability factor: high — Cleanliness factor: low — Convenience factor: low

For most people who are willing to risk the warranty and who don’t want the hassle of doing it themselves, buying off-brand cartridges or getting used cartridges refilled at a kiosk is the best option.

bio = Jeff Lakie is the founder of http://www.cheap-inkjet-cartridge.info and http://www.cheap-ink-cartridges.info websites providing information on Ink Cartridges

Popularity: 6% [?]

Most people who search on the internet have a favorite search engine. In fact, the majority of internet users choose Google.

Do you fall into this category? If so, are you taking advantage of everything Google offers?

If an internet search means you go to www.google.com and simply type 2 or 3 words into the search box, hoping to find what you’re looking for, you aren’t even scratching the surface.

How Can You Get Better Results?

Google is the number one search engine for good reason - their results are generally the most accurate. Even so, there are ways to pinpoint what you’re looking for even more effectively.

You have two options when it comes to fine-tuning your searches - you can use the Google Advanced Search screen or you can use “modifiers” in the main Google search.

Option 1: Google Advanced Search

When you go to www.google.com, there is a little “Advanced Search” link to the right of the main search box. If you click on that, you’ll get the much more detailed Google search, where you can make very specific requests.

The first four sections, highlighted in blue, are some of the most important. Here you can specify any of the following:

1. All of the words - this will give you results with all of your search words, but not in any particular order. They can also be anywhere on the page.

2. The exact phrase - this will give you results with exactly the phrase you enter. The phrase must appear on the page exactly the way you enter it.

3. At least one of the words - this will show results with any one or more of your search words on the page.

4. Without the words - this will give you results that don’t include your search terms at all.

These four sections can be used independently or combined to work together.

For example, you could search for the exact phrase ‘free virus software’ without the words ‘trial’ or ‘tryout’ if you’re looking for free virus software but don’t want trial versions that will expire after a short time.

As another example, you could use option #3 (at least one of the words) if you’re looking for something but don’t know exactly how to spell it. Put a few possible spellings in and it will find pages with any one or more of those spellings.

The rest of the sections on the Advanced Search page are pretty self-explanatory. One that I will point out is the Domain option. You can specify a website and either search for something only on that site, or anywhere but that site.

If you’ve found an interesting website that doesn’t have a search function of its own, you can use this to limit Google to searching that site for whatever you’re looking for. In fact, the Google search is often better even if the site does have its own search function.

You can also use it to find other references to something you might have read on a particular website. If you search for it and exclude the site you saw it on, you’ll find other references to it that you can cross-check.

Option 2: Using Modifiers

Modifiers will let you use all the advanced features without having to go to the Advanced Search page every time. These modifiers can just be entered in the standard Google search box to get the same results as the advanced options.

There are quite a few different modifiers that can be used, but some of the most useful are as follows:

Putting “” around a phrase will search for the exact phrase. Searching for free antivirus software will show you pages with those three words anywhere on the page. Searching for “free antivirus software” shows you pages that contain that exact phrase.

Putting a - before a word is the same as the advanced option “without the words.” So, to use the example used earlier, searching for “free virus software” -trial -tryout will show pages with that exact phrase, not including the other two words.

Using site: followed by the domain name of the website you want to search will only return results from that particular website. For example, searching for “virus protection” site:computer-help-squad.com will only return results from the www.computer-help-squad.com website.

Again, these can be combined so -site: will return results from any site except the one you specify.

How to Figure Out the Modifiers

The easiest way to see how to use modifiers in your searches is to try some searches with the Advanced Search page and see how Google formats them.

Using our example again, if you enter ‘free antivirus software’ in the “with the exact phrase” box and the words ‘trial’ and ‘tryout’ in the “without the words” box, the search that Google runs looks like this:

“free virus software” -trial -tryout

If you play around a bit with the advanced searches, you’ll see how Google formats them for you. Next time, you can just enter them yourself in the standard search box instead of going to the Advanced Search page.

Once you get the hang of these options in Google, you’ll find that your searches get even more accurate because you can filter out the stuff you don’t want.
bio = John Lenaghan offers easy-to-understand advice at the Computer Help Squad website. Sign up for our newsletter and receive your free report “5 Critical Steps to Protecting Your Computer on the Internet” at http://www.computer-help-squad.com/5steps

Popularity: 5% [?]

Convenience is something people constantly seek. That applies to everything - apparel, vehicles, and everyday working conditions. In search of new capabilities of everyday things we constantly experiment and try something new.

It happens the same way to software programs. A web browser is something that opens the Internet for us, and how comfortable web surfing is, directly depends on the feature-set and usability of your browser. So choosing a web browser to stick to is like purchasing a brand-new car - you have to consider numerous things before making a final decision - like the look and feel, usability and ease of use, speed and acceleration characteristics, etc.

It’s common knowledge that Internet Explorer is by far the most popular web browser on desktops worldwide. There are many reasons for that, various reasons. In the first place, the very marketing policy of Microsoft contributes a lot to the popularity of IE. The disputes around this matter are outside the scope of this article. One thing is clear - Internet Explorer is easy-to-use, familiar, and is most of the time the target development platform for the web masters. Which also means we have to use what we have available.

The situation has it upsides and downsides. On the one hand, we don’t have to bother to find something else, since all the main features are right at the fingertips. On the other though, these features are basic, and not in any way sufficient.

For those of you who don’t like to put up with the Spartan functionality of Internet Explorer I’m pleased to present a new program that belongs to the multibrowser type. That’s when you can open and operate with numerous web pages simultaneously. Please welcome - FineBrowser (http://www.finebrowser.com ).

This choice is not random. This multibrowser is interesting in at least two respects. On the one hand, it incorporates all the characteristic features one would usually expect to find in multibrowser. On the other hand - this is something one might call the next step in the multibrowser evolution. The thing is that many multibrowsers currently on the market, however useful and convenient as far as Internet surfing goes, have not in the recent year shown any degree of significant innovation. This results in a situation, when a great variety of today’s multibrowsers deliver essentially identical functionality, being very similar in their feature-set and operation. However, this similarity does not make the importance of multibrowsing functionality any smaller, and we’ll get deeper into the subject right now, taking FineBrowser as a specific example.

Let’s start the review with the discussion of those very characteristic features every multibrowser provides.

Typical Multibrowser Functionality

Working with multiple pages at a time.
So FineBrowser allows opening multiple web pages simultaneously. All of them are positioned within the main program window and can be switched between both using the window tabs and a special pane, which displays every single web page currently opened.

It’s remarkable, how easily FineBrowser opens more than a hundred of web documents simultaneously (you can open them and take a coffee break while they are loading), and how fast the whole thing happens. Therefore, such a pane comes in very handy. All the more useful when it displays a pop-up hint containing comprehensive information for a specific web page when you hover your mouse over a web page link. And yes, every window tab looks different when a page I loaded completely, which allows you to identify the loaded pages at a single glance.

Additionally, window tabs can be regrouped, renamed, positioned at the top or at the bottom of the main window, and locked out to protect from accidental close if they contain important information.

Usually a multibrowser should allow suspending your browsing session to start next time with exactly the same set of opened web pages you had last time. FineBrowser achieves this by providing the Desktops feature, which makes it easy to save and store a number of desktops `as is’, including all the settings and the opened windows. With this feature you can also group your opened windows by topic, save each topic to a separate desktop and then easily change your surfing direction and switch topics according to your liking without worrying about losing any important data.

Loading several web pages simultaneously.
Since multibrowsers allow working with multiple web pages at a time, opening, multiple pages with a single mouse-click is a must-have feature for any program of this kind. The most frequently used web pages can be `quick grouped’, so that loading a whole set of pages becomes just a mouse-click away.

Blocking the undesired pop-up windows.
Similar to most multibrowsers, FineBrowser enables you to block the unwanted pop-up windows with ease. This alone is a great advantage over a conventional browser. Most likely you already experienced a frustrating situation when some malicious web page virtually bombarded you with numerous pop-ups and ads. Sometimes only rebooting your machine may help the situation. So the pop-up-blocking feature has already become part and parcel of every multibrowser. As far as FineBrowser is concerned, this program features an enhanced mechanism of pop-up blocking. FineBrowser not just simply blocks all pop-ups using brute force. It acts the smart way and is capable of automatically distinguishing the unwanted pop-ups from those apparently invoked by the user. There is also an ignore list you can manually replenish to easily specify which web pages should not be processed by the pop-up blocking module.

Safeguarding your privacy.
When surfing the Net you most likely don’t want other people to be aware of the results of your work. FineBrowser makes it easy to wipe out all the information on the user activity automatically stored by Windows. With a single mouse-click you can delete cache files, clear cookies, wipe out typed-URL and web pages history.

Translating and voicing web pages for you.
When browsing through the intricate maze of the World Wide Web we sometimes find ourselves stuck with a web site written in a language other than your native tongue. To assist you in understanding the content of such sites FineBrowser - similar to other multibrowsers — allows you to translate the web page. To perform this task, simply click the appropriate command with your mouse and wait till the newly translated page loads. However, unlike other similar software, FineBrowser enables you to easily configure the view and number of the available translations, so that you can get a page translated quickly to the language of your preference.

In addition, FineBrowser enables you to voice the contents of the current web document. This feature utilizes a text-to-speech engine which should be installed on your computer, and which determines the quality of the speech generated. However, this feature still allows you to sit back, relax, and listen to your favorite news channel, for instance. Actually, I tested the usefulness of this capability by feeding one of this article’s samples to FineBrowser, which gave me an opportunity to `reread’ it without having to even look at the monitor. The voice was not without some metal touch, but generally, this piece was recited quite accurately, and with proper intonation. The accents were incorrect sometimes, as if it were a foreigner stumbling at every unknown word. These, however, are simply minor flaws of the voice engine architecture and FineBrowser has nothing to do with it.

The discussed features are characteristic of most popular multibrowsers currently on the market. However, FineBrowser incorporates a number of unique and innovative features, which make your work with multiple web pages all the more convenient.

Innovative Features of FineBrowser.

Web links archive for a accessing web pages faster.
I think everyone would agree, that a faster access to the necessary web resource has a great effect on the effectiveness of your web surfing. How quickly we finally find the required information depends on how quickly we find and type the required Internet address. To make this task easier, FineBrowser features a built-in bookmarks database, which can be manually replenished and can store any bookmarks you need. The database contains not only all the user-added bookmarks and URLs, but can also store additional data like the last view date, your page comments, and even the way it looks. Thanks to this feature you can easily add your personal notes to a web page when viewing it, set a page rating, include it into a rubric and take a web page snapshot. The user can access the previously saved information through the rubricator, where all the pages are grouped into different rubrics and subrubrics.

This feature provides many options when working with information. It’s possible not only to perform an advanced search by name, keywords in comments, rating or date, but also to work with lists of resources. With just a single mouse-click you can generate a list containing all the resources in a given rubric, sort them by comments, access date, or web address. FineBrowser can combine different lists (concatenate, compare, etc.) and export them to a standard html-file. Those heavy web users will certainly find it very handy. Now if you want to tell a friend about some groovy sites, you can send him/her a detailed report based on a resources list, containing small screenshots, ratings and your comments for the web pages.

Full web page description will allow you to easily remember what useful information it contains, and taking a quick look at the enlarged screenshot without having to load the actual page makes an excellent visual aid. Thanks to this, it’s possible to efficiently work with the already viewed pages offline with a possibility to select a number of pages and load them in new FineBrowser windows. So once visited, a web resource is safely stored in the database and we don’t have to memorize those lengthy Internet addresses. It’s like bookkeeping - safely in the records.

Additional features when opening multiple pages at a time.
FineBrowser, unlike other multibrowsers, provides some new options when opening many pages simultaneously. The first one, as mentioned above, is by using a list. Possibilities are limitless with this feature. On the other hand, you can utilize the rubricator to open all the pages within a given rubric.

Besides, FineBrowser makes it easy to open several hyperlinks just from within a web page. Simply select the necessary text segment, right-click it and voila! - you can open al the links it contains both in new Internet Explorer and FineBrowser windows. The application will exclude the duplicates the smart way and will let you specify which pages should not be loaded.

Accessing the already loaded web pages.
FineBrowser allows you to avoid loading the already opened web pages time and again. If, for instance, when exploring a web resource we encounter a link that leads to an already opened page, FineBrowser will detect it and simply switch to the that page without loading it anew. Additionally, FineBrowser automatically stores the page navigation history. This allows you to easily go to the next/previous web page by utilizing the special navigation buttons. This feature is helpful, especially when you usually view the available web page randomly.

Visited links highlighting and navigating within a domain.
However, the real power of FineBrowser comes from the program’s ability to utilize the data automatically stored in its internal database when navigating through the Web. Thanks to that feature FineBrowser can highlight the already visited web pages in a special way (strikeout by default). Hovering you mouse over such a link makes the program display a pop-up hint containing all the available information on a given web page, including a small snapshot. Often this helps avoid revisiting the unnecessary web [ages and understand where a link leads without having to click on it.

We often come to a website again to continue exploring the resource, or to simply remember what kind of information it provides. FineBrowser allows you to optimize this process thanks to its innovative `domain links’ feature. Once you visited a specific web site, next time you encounter some page of the site, FineBrowser will inform you about it by highlighting the “Domain links” button. Clicking the button with your mouse displays a list containing all visited site pages with detailed information attached. This helps you to easily decide whether a page is worth revisiting by taking a quick look at your own personal comments.

Summarizing this review I can say we have many options when choosing a browser. Chances are, everyone will find something for himself/herself. Just remember to dig for and explore new things - since what programs you have at the ready to a great extent determines your everyday success. And FineBrowser can make an excellent tool in your arsenal.
bio = SoftInform

Popularity: 4% [?]

Nowadays, most of us have so many email addresses, it’s hard jusy to keep track of our own, let alone manage those of our family and colleagues as well. Throw newsgroup sunscriptions and multiple storage folders into the mix as well, and it’s a management nightmare.

Mozilla Thunderbird, my email client of choice, solves this problem effectively and easily with Profiles.

How do Thunderbird Profiles work?

Thunderbird allows multiple users to set up the email client to suit their own specific needs and tastes, from Themes and Extensions to Email accounts, Inboxes and Newsgroup subscriptions.
Upon startup of Thunderbird, you are able to choose which user profile you would like to use.
So, you can now have a profile for yourself, one for your partner, and even one for the kids (allowing you to increase Thunderbirds’s spam and security measures).
Each profile is independent of the others, so it’s like having a new installation for each user.

How do I activate Thunderbird Profiles?

1. Firstly, find the Thunderbird shortcut on your desktop (or create one from the .exe file).
2. Right-click it, and select properties.
3. Lastly, in the Target box, add ‘ -p’ without the apostrophes to the end of the target line (so that it reads something like ‘C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe -p’), and click OK.

Now when you start Thunderbird through this shortcut you will be prompted with the Profiles Manager box (as long as you do not already have Thunderbird open). It’s all self-explanatory from thereon.

For faster start-up, I advise that you keep two shortcuts on your desktop - one to load up Thunderbird as normal, and this new one to execute only when you want to change profile.
bio = Rob Barrett is a professional web designer based in Dorset, England.
To read more free articles on Web Design and Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird, visit:
http://articles.rob-barrett.com

Popularity: 6% [?]

Computer games can be categorized mainly into PC games that are played in your computer after installation using the CDs that contain the software, downloadable pc games, and the online games. Many websites provide you with the downloadable version of the PC games.

Category based on permission to use

The games can be categorized based on licenses. Some of the games are free and they can be downloaded on the internet free. Some pc games are free downloadable games but are shareware. Shareware games have limitations in the features. Some of the shareware can be used for only 30 days time and some are limited by the number of times that software is used. Trial versions of the software are also available which are time limited or feature limited.

Online Games

Online games are those that are played online. The user who is playing the online games should have an internet connection in his PC. You should be aware that your internet bill is on the rise during the time you play the online games. Yahoo games are one among the popular online games. Many websites provide you online games. Some of the sites require you to become a member to play these online games. Some charge you on per game basis for playing.

PC Games

PC Games are those that require an installation through a CD to play the pc games. Some of the games even require the CD to be present in the CD drive to play the game. These software CDs are to be purchased by the user. There are many pc games available like Tomb Raider that requires you to purchase the CD. Most of the games that contain Car races and Motorbike races require the software to be installed through the CD bought by you.

Downloadable PC Games

These games can be downloaded from the internet and can be installed in your computer. Most of the free game downloads are small enough to be downloaded from the internet. There websites like www.download.com that can be searched for free game downloads. A good search engine would give you thousands of links to free downloadable games.

What you need in your PC to play these games?

Most of the games can be played without any additional hardware. If you are having the latest configuration of the PC, which has the software pre-installed in your computer, then you might not need any additional software to be installed. Some of the online games require you to install plug-ins to run the online games. Plug-in is additional software that is required to run an application in your computer. You will be provided appropriate links to download the plug-ins required by your browser or your computer. You need to check the system requirements for the computer games that is downloaded or installed in your system and install them before you start playing the game.

bio = For more information, visit www.ComputerGamesInfo.com

Popularity: 5% [?]

Profiles are one of the best kept secrets around regarding Mozilla Firefox (my browser of choice).

In the role of web site designer, I find it useful to have Firefox set up with various Extensions for helping test compliance, keep track of Google Adsense earnings, checking PageRank and Alexa rating, etc…

However, when I am simply surfing the internet, I don’t want to be weighed down by all these tools, cluttering up my status and toolbars. I like a slick, simple browser that looks good and works quickly.

Fortunately, I am able to have both of these scenarios in Firefox, through the wonder of Profiles.

How do Firefox Profiles work?

Firefox allows multiple users to set up the browser to suit their own specific needs and tastes, from Themes and Extensions to Bookmarks and Home Page.
Upon startup of Firefox, you are able to choose which user profile you would like to use.
So, you can now have a profile for your web development needs, one for your personal surfing, and even one for the kids (allowing you to increase Firefox’s security measures).
Each profile is independent of the others, so it’s like having a new installation for each user.

How do I activate Firefox Profiles?

1. Firstly, find the Firefox shortcut on your desktop (or create one from the .exe file).
2. Right-click it, and select properties.
3. Lastly, in the Target box, add ‘ -p’ without the apostrophes to the end of the target line (so that it reads something like ‘C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Firefox\firefox.exe -p’), and click OK.

Now when you start Firefox through this shortcut you will be prompted with the Profiles Manager box (as long as you do not already have an instance of Firefox open). It’s all self-explanatory from thereon.

For faster start-up, I advise that you keep two shortcuts on your desktop - one to load up Firefox as normal, and this new one to execute only when you want to change profile.
bio = Rob Barrett is a professional web designer based in Dorset, England.
To read more free articles on Web Design and Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird, visit:
http://articles.rob-barrett.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

Picture messaging is used by mobile phone owners to customize their mobile phone displays. I am sure many users saw the pictures on mobile displays used by friends and family before. These picture messages could be personalized pictures, just some fun pictures or even company logos.

Regardless of the nature of the pictures it surely have taken off in the industry and handset owners all love to have their own pictures on their phones.

Recently some companies published articles about the Wireless service providers that are easing the use of picture messages in an advance form called MMS. The article basically describes how inter-network agreements will allow mobile phone users to take pictures of nearly anything and send it to someone. Well, that is still to come. For the time being we will focus on the use of static images known as picture sms (normally black and white pictures) created by companies or individuals to customized mobile phones.

Yahoo mobile India offers a picture message generator where users are able to generate their own picture messages. During the process, a special code is generated which the user then send to a short code in order to download the SMS. The user’s mobile account is then charged with the download costs. Revenue share with the operator takes place in order to cover costs.

Several options are available for mobile phone users. One such product is PositiveSMS V2 - a free downloadable desktop application. This desktop application offers users a picture message generator with which users could generate their own pictures and send to friends and family at the cost of 3 credits per picture.

Users simply download the free desktop (pc to mobile) software and register online for a username and password (each user receives 10 free test sms).

Once registered the user could go to their desktop software and select the picture message icon. Users could then upload various file formats for editing (png, gif, jpeg, ico, jpg) or create their own new picture with the generator, which is available.

Advanced options such as saving the message in the history or scheduling the message are available to users. The software also contains a display, which shows users what the picture looks like while changing it.

This tool is a great feature for users just wanting to have fun with pictures - in particular picture messaging to friends and family. Networks and coverage, as well as payment options and pricing is available to users at the network coverage list.

The software is ideal for personal use or even creating company logos sending it to various clients. If you enjoy mobile fun this is surely an option to look at.

bio = Marinda Stuiver has been involved in online marketing and convergence of mobile and web technologies since 1998. Co-authored Print Release (www.printrelease.com) in 2005 an easy-to-use guide for non-PR persons publish press releases. She is an entrepreneur, online marketing consultant, web master providing text messaging services to the International market. FirefoxIE SMS powered by SMSwarehouse.com in partnership with FirefoxIE was launched in June 2005. Visit http://www.smswarehouse.com for more details about mobile messaging

Popularity: 6% [?]

With all of the latest technology of downloading songs to burn
onto CD’s, iPod’s, and more, the simple thought of music video
downloads often passes peoples minds anymore. With burning
songs onto CD’s, and listening to songs on your iPod, you’re
only retaining the audio portion of music and completely
overlooking the visual aspect of music.

Sure you can tune into MTV and VH1 and all of the other music
channels. However, anymore there are more TV and reality shows
on the music channels then there are actual music videos.

With music video downloads on your personal computer, you can
download a video of your favorite artist or favorite song in a
matter of minutes depending on your internet connection speed.
Once downloaded you can save it to a file or if you download
from one site, most contain a library in which all of your
favorite music videos will be saved to.

In this day and age nothing is legally free, so one might ask
themselves how much it will cost to actually watch music videos?
Is it really worth it to pay for music videos when you can
watch them on TV? Depending on the site you download from, it
is very much worth it to pay the low cost and have a much larger
selection than on TV and be able to watch them whenever you want.

There are millions of sites that offer music video downloads for
free, so what’s the catch. For a majority of the sites you can
only view 30 seconds of the song such as at music.lycos.com.
Other sites such as music.yahoo.com allow you to view one music
video, kind of like a teaser to see the quality of video. After
viewing the video if you attempt to watch another one, it takes
you to the sign in page where you can either log-in if already a
member, or you can learn the prices and register to get
unlimited access to millions of videos.

At music.yahoo.com they offer a deal where you can get unlimited
downloads of music videos and music in general to save to your
computer for just $4.99/mo. At music.yahoo.com there are over 1
million songs to choose from allowing you to never be left
unsatisfied. There are system requirements in order to download
the program that can be viewed at
http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/, but with music that cheap
it’s hard to pass up.

Another site worth checking out is www.imusicshare.com. At this
site you can purchase a 2 year membership for $1/mo. or a single
year membership for $1.57/mo. With a membership to this site
you receive unlimited access to billions of songs, no software
is required to download, and you can burn unlimited songs as
well. With this site you also are not limited to just music
video downloads, but you are also capable of downloading mp3s,
movies, TV and Radio shows, and much more.

Now that you have knowledge of how to download music videos and
why to download music videos, get out there and begin building
up a large library videos for a low cost.

bio = Best MP3 Music Downloads is a site that contains information, articles, and resources on all genres and styles of music. You can download music and videos, and find links to the best places to download music here:
http://www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com/music-video-downloads.html

Popularity: 6% [?]

ussian ILI Service Provider Recounted Two Events that Demonstrated the Endurance of E-Disk SSDs

Aviation Expo, China - September 21, 2005 - BiTMICRO Networks, pioneer in intelligent flash IDE/ATA, SCSI Narrow and Wide, VME, and Fibre Channel solid state disk storage solutions, today narrated at the Aviation Expo in Beijing, China a success story that highlighted the durability of the E-Diskr SSD in an extreme operating environment.

Russia-based in-line inspection (ILI) service provider Spetsneftegaz NPO uses E-Disk solid state flash disks to store information gathered during its pipeline inspections, also known as pigging. In one instance during an emergency situation with a pipeline, the instrumentation compartment in one of the pig units lost its air tightness. At that time, company engineers estimate the gas pressure inside the compartment at around 60 atm. After recovering the pig, engineers discovered that the battery was completely squeezed and the power supply module and other components were completely crushed. Moreover, the pig’s central computer failed to boot after the accident.

However, company engineers were amazed to find out that the installed E-Disk solid state flash disk (a 2.5-inch ATA model with 17.4GB capacity) remained operational. The drive booted normally after it was connected to a desktop PC. Only two bad sectors were found and, upon performing the BiTMICRO Specific Erase Command, the entire volume was restored. The drive was then returned back into commission and has worked flawlessly ever since.

In a separate incident, one of Spetsneftegaz’s experimental pigs featuring an active moving control function got stuck in the pipeline and was crashed into by another piston pig. The force of impact was so strong that all of the mechanical parts were broken despite the presence of shock absorbers. A 3.5-inch single board computer was dislodged from its mounting after all of its corners broke off.

The installed E-Disk drive (a 2.5-inch ATA model with 9 GB capacity) also tore off its fastenings, broke out of the surrounding aluminum frame and electronic assembly, slamming directly into the pig’s explosion-proof external steel casing. To the engineers’ surprise, the E-Disk drive survived the incident with just minor dents and scratches. All of the data stored in the drive are completely intact, and not a single bad sector was found.

“In both instances, the E-Disk drives that survived the accidents have been installed in another equipment and continue to remain in operation,” says Dr. Sergey Yartsev, officer-in-charge of Data Storage Solutions of Spetsneftegaz. “This just proves the first-rate, topnotch quality of BiTMICRO’s solid state flash disks.”

“E-Diskr flash drive solid state disk’s claim of being able to withstand harsh environments have been repeatedly tested by various industries including defense, aerospace, aviation and industrial applications, said Rudy Bruce, President of BiTMICROr Networks. “And each time - just like in the Spetsneftegaz case - the E-Diskr flash drive proved to be very beneficial in keeping vital information secured and systems going. Information is priceless and losing it is the worst that can happen in any storage application but with BiTMICRO solutions customers are freed from concerns in data security and reliability among others,” Bruce added.

Visit BiTMICRO Networks at Booth M-3 of Aviation Expo/China 2005. The event runs from September 21 - 24, 2005 at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing. China Aviation Expo features civil and military exhibits, including airport and ATC technology.

For E-Diskr solid-state disk drive technology information, pricing and availability, call +1 510-74E-DISK / +1 510-743-3475, visit http://www.e-disk.com.

About BiTMICRO Networks

BiTMICROr Networks, a privately held California corporation, is the leading provider of rugged and high performance non-volatile solid state disk, flash disk drive, and network storage and management solutions. E-Diskr storage solutions are offered with SCSI, IDE/ATA, Fibre Channel and VME interfaces in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard disk drive footprints, 6U board, and 19-inch rack mount configurations scalable up to several terabytes of pure solid state storage.

bio = Jun Alejo is a Marketing Communications Specialist for BiTMICRO Networks.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Dial up ISP service is the cheapest choice of any of the ISPs and may be a good option for that family on a tight budget. The software upgrades have definitely increased the speed of dial up ISPs, but their speed is still slower than some other options. Dial up ISP service can be purchased from several different companies including Earthlink, AOL, Juno, and others.

One of the major issues with dial up ISP service is how long it takes to connect to the internet and disruptions in your connection. Depending upon the time of day and your company, connection can take anywhere from 30 seconds to two to three minutes or longer. Disruptions occur when you lose contact with the provider because of phone line static, storms, or problems at the providers end. This can be very irritating if you are working online or researching and have to keep reconnecting to the internet.

When choosing dial up ISP service, choose a company with a long track record and software upgrades rather than the newest, cheapest service on the market. Cheaper does not necessarily translate into better, especially in an ISP service. Read the fine print of your policies. How long can you stay online before being cut off? How many email addresses are allowed per account? Is there a limit on the number of hours a month you can be online without additional charges?

Access numbers are a necessity for dial up ISP service since you use the phone line to connect to the internet. Ensure that there are local access numbers for your use so you will not have to pay long distance charges. If you travel, do they have access numbers in a wide variety of locations or, even better, a toll free number for connection?

What comes with your dial up ISP account? Do they offer SPAM blocker or virus protection? These are important tools for your internet experience and your computer. SPAM blocker helps to block some of the unsolicited email that you get from sellers and different companies. Although it does not block all of it, it will make a large difference in your email. Virus protection is something that no computer user should be without. It scans incoming email and downloads for viruses that may harm your computer.

Dial-up ISP service is a great choice for budget minded people. Although the connection is slow and websites may be slow to load, the cost difference may be more important to some consumers. Think of it like this, if you have dial up service, then while websites load you have time to clean the house and balance your checkbook!
bio = Learn the essential information for picking the right Internet Service Provider at High Speed Internet Provider

Popularity: 4% [?]

Dial up ISP service is the cheapest choice of any of the ISPs and may be a good option for that family on a tight budget. The software upgrades have definitely increased the speed of dial up ISPs, but their speed is still slower than some other options. Dial up ISP service can be purchased from several different companies including Earthlink, AOL, Juno, and others.

One of the major issues with dial up ISP service is how long it takes to connect to the internet and disruptions in your connection. Depending upon the time of day and your company, connection can take anywhere from 30 seconds to two to three minutes or longer. Disruptions occur when you lose contact with the provider because of phone line static, storms, or problems at the providers end. This can be very irritating if you are working online or researching and have to keep reconnecting to the internet.

When choosing dial up ISP service, choose a company with a long track record and software upgrades rather than the newest, cheapest service on the market. Cheaper does not necessarily translate into better, especially in an ISP service. Read the fine print of your policies. How long can you stay online before being cut off? How many email addresses are allowed per account? Is there a limit on the number of hours a month you can be online without additional charges?

Access numbers are a necessity for dial up ISP service since you use the phone line to connect to the internet. Ensure that there are local access numbers for your use so you will not have to pay long distance charges. If you travel, do they have access numbers in a wide variety of locations or, even better, a toll free number for connection?

What comes with your dial up ISP account? Do they offer SPAM blocker or virus protection? These are important tools for your internet experience and your computer. SPAM blocker helps to block some of the unsolicited email that you get from sellers and different companies. Although it does not block all of it, it will make a large difference in your email. Virus protection is something that no computer user should be without. It scans incoming email and downloads for viruses that may harm your computer.

Dial-up ISP service is a great choice for budget minded people. Although the connection is slow and websites may be slow to load, the cost difference may be more important to some consumers. Think of it like this, if you have dial up service, then while websites load you have time to clean the house and balance your checkbook!
bio = Learn the essential information for picking the right Internet Service Provider at High Speed Internet Provider

Popularity: 4% [?]

There are many fancy add-ons for computers, but the basic components of the computer are simple and universal. If 1 of these main components is missing, it’s not a computer.

The 4 essentials of every computer system are: a motherboard, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), memory, and a hard drive. These components are installed in a case to which are attached a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. That’s your basic computer.

Mother WHAT?

The motherboard (”mobo” for short) is the foundation. Everything attaches to the mobo — the CPU, memory, hard drive, monitor, mouse, keyboard, add-on cards, even additional peripherals like printers, scanners, and speakers. The motherboard is like the nervous system and skeleton of the human body — it provides support for the internal components and also passes information between the computer parts.

CPU

If the motherboard is the nervous system, then the CPU is the brain. Most of the mathematical manipulations that make computers operate are done by the CPU. Other components may also have their own processors, but their results still have to be passed through the CPU.

The speed of the computer is usually measured by the speed of the CPU. Even though other factors also affect overall speed, the CPU rating is generally seen as the single most important measure of performance.

Modern CPUs are usually rated between 2.0 GHz and 3.0 GHz, although each passing month will see increasing performance. This measurement refer to the number of calculations the processor can make in 1 second. The higher the number, the faster (better) the computer.

CPUs generate a lot of heat doing this work, so they need a heat sink and fan to keep them from overheating. Heat is a major enemy of the computer and directly affects its life span.

Computer Memory

RAM (Random Access Memory) is the part of the computer that stores information the computer needs while it is operating. It is Random Access because the computer can get the data in any order, not necessarily the order in which it is stored. Generally speaking, the more RAM the better. 512 to 1024 megabytes is common for memory.

The most common type of RAM these days is DDR-SDRAM, which stands for double-data-rate synchronous dynamic random access memory. We already know what the RAM part means. DDR means that the data is accessed twice as fast as ordinary RAM.

The latest type of RAM is DDR2. It offers even faster access rates and is quickly becoming the standard for computer memory.

Hard Drive

All the data contained in RAM is lost when the computer is turned off, so there has to be a place to store it permanently. This is what the hard disk is for.

It holds the computer’s operating system. An operating system like Windows uses around 4 gigabytes of hard drive space. The extra space is used to install computer programs and to store your personal data.

80 gigabyte hard drives are common, but 400 GB units are available. Furthermore, you can install more than 1 in a computer case for added security and convenience.

Peripherals

All you need to complete the basic computer system is a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Accessories like a printer or scanner are useful for office work, and gamers will probably want to add speakers and joystick controls.

So there you have it. The basic computer needs just 7 major components. For the best performance, these components must integrate well. The motherboard is the most important component for determining the type and specification of the other parts. Choosing an appropriate mobo for your computer needs is the first step and may require a quick call to your local geek.

Soon YOU will be considered the local geek!

bio = Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer. Visit http://www.build-computer-now.com to learn more about this fascinating subject.

Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact.

Popularity: 10% [?]