Posts Tagged ‘computer hardware’

How About Recycling Old Computers?

Numerous progressive towns and cities are either already recycling or are thinking of recycling old computers. Many municipalities already do this with TV sets, but not so many do it with computers.

There are quite a few reusable parts in a computer when you think of it, but most people just throw their old computers away when they stop working or get ‘too slow’.

Then they go out and purchase a new one which has exactly the same DVD player as they just put in the bin. That goes for the net card, the hard drive and the modem and other bits and items too, I am sure. There may even be noxious substances in the chips that could pollute the soil at the landfill site.

It will almost certainly become normal practice in the not too distant future to recycle computers and other items of electronic apparatus. In fact there are already some places that willingly accept ‘old’ computers, although there are not many that recycle the components out of broken ones.

Some churches and most charity stores will take working computers to redistribute (or sell) to children, whose parents cannot afford to buy them or to be sent to Third World countries, where there is a dire need for computer hardware so that children are not left behind in the technological advances being made in communication and workplace apparatus.

However, there do not seem to be enough people cannibalizing old computers to make ones that work. After all, any computer is better than no computer at all and it does not take an advanced machine to go on the Internet, particularly if you do not insist on running Windows 7. Older versions of Windows are more that capable or running Internet software. We used them for years, didn’t we?

Monitors and printers are also reusable or even recyclable, although these things are not usually thrown out as frequently as computers. Monitors can be taken care of in the same fashion as televisions, anyway it is always handy to have a spare monitor.

Ink cartridges should be refilled rather than replaced. All you need is a bottle of the correct sort of ink. Indian ink will do for the black cartridge which is the one most people replace the most often.

Take a syringe with a needle, suck up a couple of millilitres and squirt it through the hole in the side – NOT through the hole in the bottom, or you will damage the cartridge. This hole is normally concealed with sticky tape or a label, but it is easy to find if you are searching for it. you can refill cartridges a dozen or more times, before they are clogged and that can save hundreds of dollars (here a black cartridge costs $10-15).

Colour cartridges are refillable in the same fashion and you ought to be able to get hold of the three inks necessary for colour printing at a printers. Colour cartridges are even more expensive to replace. Another advantage of refilling yourself is that you will not run out of ink part way through a print job.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with the Internet router. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Best Router For Gaming Online

Computer Viruses

Everybody who has been on line for over a few weeks has heard about computer viruses. Many surfers have had them and loads of surfers have them but do not realize it. Not all computer viruses are meant to do damage to the infected computer. Some viruses are intended to steal valuable data such as account numbers and passwords and other viruses are meant to record where you go and what you are interested in.

This information, once garnered, is sent back to the virus’ master who will use it to either steal from you or spam you to death with deals based on the words that you have typed into your keyboard. These viruses are also known as tracking cookies. There are also Trojans (Trojan horse), worms and bombs.

There are firms that provide )free of charge) or sell anti-virus software which is intended to protect your computer from these computer viruses. However, because up to several dozen of these viruses are released on a daily basis, you have to have the virus database of your anti-virus software up-dated on a daily basis too. The anti-virus (AV) software virus database is full of all the virus patterns available so far.

It has been estimated that 80% of viruses are intended to destroy data on the computers they infect. That is, they will destroy the file allocation table of your hard disk drive making it unreadable, but different viruses do different things. I had a virus in December that wiped out my Outlook address book. Two weeks later as I was refilling the address book, and it cleaned it out again.

There are a few jobs you can do to minimize your danger of picking up computer viruses. The first thing you have to do is install an AV programme and adjust its settings. Some of the free AV software is as powerful as some of the purchased AV software, but if you want the best, you will have to buy it. It is not costly – less than $50 a year – especially when you compare it with the cost of repairing a damaged computer.

Once you have chosen and loaded your AV software, check the options and instruct it to check all incoming and out-going files – that is downloads, uploads and emails. If it will not check emails, it is no use, buy another one. Then set it to update the pattern files (database) automatically or daily.

Update your patterns and then perform a complete system scan – it can take hours. Then, set the AV software to scan your computer once a week at some time while it will be on, but not in use. I do mine at 2 AM on Monday.

Be suspicious. Be as wary of downloading as you are of strangers prowling about at dusk. Never download from porn sites. Become wary of small files. Most viruses, like their living counterparts are tiny. Therefore if you would like to download a film or some music and it is much shorter that usual, be careful or do not do it. Be wary of attachments to emails from senders you do not know.

Acquire anti-spyware software and run it regularly or / and set your browser to dump all cookies at the end of a session (clearing out privacy). If you regularly run into difficulties after dumping the cookies of a site you go to frequently (like Google), then add them to your ‘Trusted Zone’. Computer viruses are out there and can have costly consequences, but you do not have to get them, if you take a few (free) precautions.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with the wireless broadband router. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Best Router For Gaming Online

Downloading Computer Software Off The Net

Everybody likes a freebie and that goes for users of computers as well. Getting hold of these free programs normally means copying them from a disk given away with a computer magazine or downloading computer software off the Net. Just what kind of computer software you would like is up to you naturally but you can acquire working versions of most types of software from the Internet, if you look about hard enough.

Most surfers who want to download free computer software from the Net are looking for utilities – utilities such as anti-virus software, anti-spyware utilities, firewalls, back-up programs and word processing utilities.

You can find several thousands of programs like these to download from the Internet by typing ‘free software’ into Google or by going to download sites like download.com, tucows.com and majorgeeks.com, but there are dozens more of them as well.

These free software downloads come in a couple of different forms. These are: freeware, shareware, time-limited usage and limited functionality programs. Freeware is literally free; the writer has put the software into the public domain for anyone to use free of charge.

Shareware is comparable, but you are expected to make a contribution if you like the software or use it regularly. Sometimes shareware is time-bombed so that it stops working after a month or a pop-up shows itself each hour after a month and sometimes nothing happens at all or a couple of features will cease to work (like ’save’ or ’send’).

Time-limited usage software is usually a trial. In other words, you can use the full program, but it will switch itself off until you pay after a predetermined length of time. This is quite common with costly software. Some free software comes with limited functionality from day one, but you can use it for as long as you like. The complete version is available on payment.

There is another type of freeware which is an on-going worldwide product. Into this category falls such software as Firefox, OpenOffice, Wordpress and Opera. These are excellent top-grade products and are completely free of charge.

There are also free gaming web sites, although most of the better games are time-bombed for limited functionality or only work in demo mode, which means that you can just watch, you cannot take part. This is extremely annoying. If you spend an hour downloading a game merely to find that it is a demo version, so strive to find out first.

The other foremost category of free software on the Internet is tutorials. You can find a free tutorial for virtually anything that you want to learn. The majority of free tutorials seem to be on aspects of using a computer like programming or editing HTML, but there are also free tutorials on using major-brand software; passing exams; needlework, gardening, and just about anything else too.

If you would like to start downloading computer software from the Internet free of charge, try some of the names I suggested or do a free search on Google.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with the wireless broadband router. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Best Router For Gaming Online

Working With Computers

These days most individuals and their grandmothers are using computers on a daily basis to access the Net and even the so-called computer illiterate operate computers in items that they have not yet realized contain them. We are all working with computers all the time whether we realize it or not.

Equipment at work, the car, the mobile telephone and the ATM all have computers built-in to make them more efficient or indeed to make them operate at all. Everyone ought to strive to take that small leap to learning how to make use of a computer with a keyboard, particularly if they are under fifty.

Not only are we all working with computers, but we are all working with mainframes – the type of computers that NASA uses for its calculations. Where?, you might ask. Well, when you go to the self-service garage and punch in what you want and how you are going to pay for it, the computer on the petrol pump checks its stock to see whether it can supply that amount

Then it tells HQ that it has delivered that amount and that stock levels have to be decreased by that amount; then it checks you credit card details with the banks’ mainframes and then you are free to have your card back and go on your way. And not before. If you do attempt to get away early, it will already have taken a snapshot of your face and probably your car’s registration plate as well.

Do you have a security tag to get into work? That will be an RFID (radio frequency ID) tag, which will be communicating with the company’s mainframe computer to tell it that ‘employee xxx’ has turned up for work and it will almost certainly keep tabs on where you are at every other moment of the day as well.

Some people used to enjoy doing a little automobile maintenance once a week or once a month (OK, lots did not too), but that is now a thing of the past. Before anyone knows what is wrong with a vehicle, they have to plug it in.

If you go to a main dealer, that knowledge will go into the company’s database to help it create a better car next time (or maybe they will use the data to make certain that it breaks down earlier next time – planned obsolescence).

The point here is that if you do not have an inkling of what computers can do or indeed are doing, you will be left behind, standing in disbelief in the past asking yourself what happened to your old life. The easiest way to find out what computers can do is to begin working with computers on a conscious level.

There is just one problem with this piece though and that is that because you are reading it on line, I am talking to someone who is already working with computers. Never mind, I tried.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now involved with the wireless broadband router. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Best Router For Gaming Online

Your Guide to PC Microphones

There is a large range of PC Microphones, each of which is best matched to diverse purposes. This means that you have no lack of option when searching for the right microphone. Different types of microphones work well for a variety of uses, such as office use, gaming, or chatting online. I will show you what the best types of mics for each of these uses are.

Headset Microphones

Headset mics work extremely well for an amazing array of purposes. Whether you are chatting, speaking with business contacts, dictating to voice recognition software, recording a video or audio clip, or playing online games there is a headset for you. Most microphone headsets have stereo headphones built-in, so everybody else doesn’t have to listen to your conversation or your game. Be sure to get a microphone that features noise cancellation technology, which is almost standard these days.

Avid gamers will generally want to get a headset with earphones that fully enclose the ears so that they can gag out other sounds in the area, particularly if the Television or some music can be going while they are playing. There are high end microphone headsets available so avid gamers can be fully immersed in the action with high quality sound.

Desktop Microphones

If multiple people will be involved in a conversation or recording desktop mics work well. There are no headphones so the audio can clearly be heard by all, and anyone can speak into the mic to be heard. This is ideal for meetings, classroom settings, or group chatting.

Wireless Microphones

Wireless microphones can be available in the form of a lapel mic or an ear piece, just like a Bluetooth headset, or they could simply be a wireless version of a headset. These mics allow you to move around freely while chatting with friends, speaking with contacts, or recording audio and video. Gamers also use wireless microphones so they do not have to worry about getting caught up in the cords.

Learn all about different styles of PC microphones, or you can buy PC microphones here.

Computer Programming – A Brief History

If a description of a computer is that it is a machine that needs to follow various directions in order to carry out the tasks required of it, then the history of computers can be traced back to Charles Babbage’s ‘analytical engine’ of 1837. The directions that these machines or computers, as we call them, follow are written as lines of programming in a programme (UK) or program (USA).

In fact there were several ‘programmable’ devices before the ‘analytical engine’. The was the Al-Jazari castle clock of 1206, which recounted the times of the year, the seasons, the phases of the moon and much more besides and the sequences could be altered – a kind of early programming.

Another instance was the Jacquard loom of 1801, which permitted intricate patterns to be woven automatically by a loom following instructions in the form of holes punched in a series of cards. This kind of programming, using punched cards, was still being used in computing in the Nineteen Sixties and early Seventies.

If these engines can be known as computers, it is fair to call them ’single purpose computers’. What most people think of as a computer these days is a ‘general purpose’ machine which can be programmed to perform a wide range of tasks from calculating a spreadsheet to displaying a film.

The difficulty with early computers (first quarter of the Twentieth Century) was how to change the programme and how to input the data quickly. Alan Turing took the first important steps in this direction in 1936 with his formalization of the concepts of the algorithm and computation with the Turing Machine. This device supplied a blueprint for the first digital computer.

The creator of the first programmable and therefore multi purpose computer was Konrad Zuse. The Zuse Z3 of 1941 is thought to have been the first programmable fully automatic computer.

The Atasanoff-Berry Computer of 1937 was an early, partially programmable computer and formed the basis of ENIAC (1946). ENIAC was the first general purpose electronic computer.

Two crucial concepts were introduced by John von Neuman in 1945. These concepts fundamentally influenced the writing of programming languages. The first was the ’shared program method’, which dictated that programs should not be hard-wired into the machine making it multi-functional and the second was the concept of the ‘conditional code transfer’ or subroutine, which could be called from any juncture in the program to carry out a function.

Short Code Language came out in 1949 which required programmers to code in binary and Grace Hopper brought out the A-0 compiler in 1951 which hugely speeded up the process of composing code.

FORTRAN was developed for scientific use in 1957 and COBOL in 1959 for office use. LISP is a language that was designed to handle lists in 1958 and is still being used for this reason today. 1958 also saw the release of ALGOL, which was the launch pad from where Pascal, C, C++ and Java emerged. PERL came along in 1987, Java in 1994.

Microsoft is having a great deal of success with its Visual Basic, which makes use of widgets, but who knows what other languages will be invented in the future and what we will be able to do with them?

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with the wireless broadband router. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Best Router For Gaming Online

Owen Jones, the article of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now involved with the wireless broadband router. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Best Router For Gaming Online

Computer Parts And Why You Should Consider Buying Them Online

Spare parts are something that you are going to need if you have decided to upgrade the computer that you are currently using or if you have decided to build one from scratch. In most towns you should be able to find a shop selling computer parts but it might be better for you to buy these online.

Below are a few of the reasons why you might like to choose the internet when it comes to buying computer parts.

The internet has so much more choice these days. Even large computer part retailers can only hold so much stock. This means that the item you want might not be something they keep or they could have sold out. When you go online you have a much better selection than any real world shop, and you will almost certainly find what you are looking for no matter how obscure your requirements.

It is much easier to get good deals on computer parts when you buy them online. With so much competition online it is no wonder that it is easier to get better prices when buying online. Not having as many overheads as offline sellers is another reason why online sellers can afford to sell their products cheaper.

It is just a lot more convenient to buy things online. Even if you like visiting computer shops it can be a real hassle to go hunting down the item you need; it can take a lot of time if you have to visit more than one outlet. However, when you shop online, you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home and you can search a number of places in a really short space of time.

Another great benefit to shopping online is that you can shop at any hour of the day because online stores never close.

For a lot more information on things such as R4 just follow the link.

Suggestions for Building a Computer

When you come across any computer hardware, you want to be sure that it is good stuff. Some only look good, but are not worth your buck. If you have to do a little research on them first, so be it. But it’s just not smart to buy it first and then regret it later.

There is a lot you can learn from about computer hardware from a computer specialist. It does not take a lot, just a single simple chat with the neighborhood computer man and you can be versed enough to get just what you need for your home.

Here’s the thing about computers: they often come fully packaged in a single bundle. The problem with that is that if you needed spare parts you might have to wait several days for the delivery from the manufacturer. However, if you cloned a system, you could have any damaged parts replaced from a computer store nearby.

Computers are only as good as you can make them; never better. If you get the worst of hardware to put together a system, you can build a system only just so good. For that reason, you need to seek out the best; otherwise you would make a mess of it.

What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Getting computer hardware is not too difficult, but it is only easy when you know what you are looking for. You need to know a little something about them, or your attempt at building a system would be futile.

Hugo has been writing articles online for nearly 4 years now. This author specialize even in dog training, you can also check out his latest website to read something about Training Great Danes , Training Jack Russell Terrier

What Does A Gaming Computer Require?

In order for any article of equipment to function it needs to have certain requirements met. For example, most pieces of equipment require electricity, but there are other, more delicate devices that have more specific requirements. Computer programs are a good example of these. All computer programs require a minimum amount of memory and a certain minimum speed processor to run in.

Computer games are just computer programs, albeit very specialized ones and they have very precise requirements as well. Computer games generally need speed, which just means lots of processing power to read the game/program itself and read the directions from peripherals such as the gaming console.

Therefore, in order to play the faster games, you really require a high spec machine – a much faster machine than you need to run an office and you can browse the Net on a computer that is ten years old.

Another factor in the gaming industry is that the games designers all use the latest and greatest apparatus on the market in order create and test their concepts. Therefore, the end user will have to use comparable equipment in order to get the most from their games.

The minimum needs for playing a game are normally written on the box. Pay attention to the minimum speed of processor; minimum graphics card; minimum RAM; minimum monitor resolution.

The CPU or processor’s speed is normally the stumbling block for gamers. A computer is soon out of date. You can usually upgrade the processor for two or three years, but after that you might require a new motherboard or even a new computer. Units of speed are measured in MHz and GHz (1,000 MHz is equal to 1 GHz). An office computer will happily run most office programs at 2 GHz – 2.5GHz, but you will require 3+ GHz to run most games.

RAM is also terribly critical for games because this is the region within a computer that holds the information that has to get processed most frequently or simply next. Everything else gets written to disk even if it is only for a few seconds. Therefore, the larger the RAM, the less saving to and reading from disk, which takes comparatively a lot more time. Office machines are happy with 2 GB, games machines may need 3-4 GB. Four or five years ago, most people were glad with 500 MB or even 1,000 MB (or 1 GB).

Video RAM (VRAM) used to get borrowed from RAM, which was a bit of a con, actually. Nowadays, high-spec machines have their own VRAM. Get as much as you can, but minimum 500-1,000 MB. VRAM is used by the video card to control the graphics.

Hard Disk capacity used to be a worry but rarely is nowadays. Games are usually loaded from a CD drive or a flash card, but you need a minimum amount of free HD space to write back and fore to (see RAM above). One note here though, if you are buying a new HD or CD drive, go for the fastest you can afford, but most of them are decent enough nowadays. The same with monitors.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with the wireless broadband router. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Best Router For Gaming Online

Safety Tools For The Internet Users In Your Family

Do you want to make sure that people, especially children, in your family are protected whilst they are surfing the Net? If you regard this as one of your responsibilities, then there are a couple of steps that you ought to think about taking.

The problem for young kids surfing is the danger of meeting, or worse still trusting, a bad person. Insults and email bullying are bad enough, but there is much worse that can take place. Therefore, you ought to educate the children in your care about the dangers of the Internet. It is simple to get these dangers out of proportion. They are very rare occurrences in fact, but they do happen despite all that.

There are safety measures that each surfer should take, no matter what age the folks concerned are. The sickos who prey on users of the Net are known as predators by the majority of surfers.

Besides common sense, there are also Internet safety tools that you can make use of to keep your friends and family safe. These tools can be nebulous, as in software, or material, as in hardware.

The first line of defence should be provided before the signal gets into your house. In other words, your Internet Service Provider ought to be jamming known junk and problem emails from arriving at your inbox. If they are not providing this very basic degree of service, then enquire of them why they do not or swap your ISP.

You should never see any ads about Viagra, Cialis, penis or breast enlargement unless you type the query into a search engine. Those days have gone and good riddance.

The next degree of security should be your firewall. If you are using a router, then there will usually be a firewall built into it. If there is not, do not buy it. However, there should be a firewall built into your browser. MS Windows XP and Windows 7 have efficient firewalls, but you can also purchase one.

The third degree is that of parental control switches. However, children learn how to turn these off. Windows has such controls or you can purchase even stronger controls. If you remain with Windows, check your kids’ computer settings at least each and every week when they are at school.

Next, you can block web sites and email addresses one by one. This is accomplished by ‘black listing’ web sites. This is also to be found in the communication software like Outlook, Outlook Express and Explorer, but do not be complacent, kids know how to reverse these blocks as well.

You can also install a ‘Keyword Tracker’. this unit of software will tell you, upon request, which are the main keywords used on that computer. This can be a real eye-opener and can be a very effective manner of knowing what your computer is being used for.

However, maybe the safest method of regulating what your kids are using the Internet for is to have the computer situated in your living room. You might think that it is a shame that it has to come to that, but, hey!, better safe than sorry, or not?

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on [several|several] [topics|topics], but is now [involved|involved] with the wireless broadband router. If you [want|would like] to know more, please visit our [website|web site] at Best Router For Gaming Online