The first group of tips, firewalls and other protective software, cannot truly be considered Windows XP tweaks, but they are so important that they must be included in any guide that talks about WinXP performance.

To guarantee WinXP performance, the most important thing you can do is to be positive that your computer does not have viruses, trojans, spyware, and other pieces of software that could hinder the functioning of your WinXP computer. A firewall should be installed first, especially if you have a broadband connection constantly running.

A firewall blocks the software entry points that applications use to communicate with your computer. A port is a number that, with the use of your IP address, identifies specific channels of communication with your computer. Some of these ports should always remain open. For example, the port that allows all HTTP communications should stay open. Others should be locked until called into use by a particular program by the user. If a WinXP machine is using the default settings, every port is open. Using a firewall will shut down some of these ports and allow the user to determine what should be open. Windows XP Service Pack 2 includes a firewall that will remain on unless the user turns it off.

The installation of an anti virus program and anti spyware software is in this class of Windows XP tweaks. Malicious software that can damage your WinXp machine’s performance or destroy your hard drive can be eliminated by using these programs. Once the above Windows XP tweaks have been implemented, it is time to look at other performance steps that you can use.

The WinXP registry is a centralized data structure that is used to store configuration data for many WinXP programs. In a short period of time, the registry can become quite crowded, which slows down search times. Unused programs that uninstall incorrectly may leave behind junk in the registry that can cause such slowing to occur. Cleaning up your WinXP registry can make your computer run much more smoothly.

Many shareware and free programs exist that can help you clean the WinXP registry. Make sure to back up your registry before making any changes you deem necessary; however, it is not advised to explore the registry yourself.

Keeping your hard drive de-fragmented is another important class of Windows XP tweaks. Be aware of how files are being stored on your computer. WinXP might decide to save part of your file in different places on the hard drive to maximize your available space. Fragmenting files this way makes it more difficult for the user to access them. Your hard drive can build up many fragmented files over time and become very cluttered. This accumulation of fragmented files can significantly slow down your computer’s system performance. It is easy to use WinXp utilities to de-fragment your hard drive. It can take hours to de-fragment your hard drive, so many people start the process before they go to bed.

Kris Mainieri is an accomplished Computer Tech focusing on innovative and unique ways to help people take their computing performance to a whole new level free. For a limited time, you can claim the “Secrets That Most People Will Never Know About Computers” e-book absolutely free by Clicking Here

Article Source: Basic Windows XP Tweaks That Boost Performance

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1. English and Spanish versions are available. You don’t need to have two systems, you rather have GP installed on one MS SQL Server and enable remote connection to you Mexican users, the best way to achieve this is to install GP Spanish Terminal Server in your San Diego or Southern California office, where internet bandwidth is cheaper and more reliable

2. International Reporting. We recommend you to consider either Crystal Reports of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SRS) to support bilingual reports. Typically such reports are non financials (P&L, BS, Cash Flow and consolidated reporting is typically the area of FRx reporting)

3. Dexterity customizations. If you need software development, modification, or custom programming for GP, then one of the key tools is Microsoft Dexterity. Dexterity has its own scripting language Sanscript.

4. Local support vs. web sessions. As we recommend, even for local consulting offices, it is not really required to drive out onsite to help you with daily support issues. Of course, we can do sales presentations and initially meet your intended GP users for first training sessions onsite, but then, we recommend you to accept web sessions as cost efficient and cool alternative

5. Industry expertise. In San Diego area we are comfortable to deal with the businesses, supported by venture capital, services, light manufacturing, international cargo and ports (especially in the area of Port of Los Angeles), jewelry, medical and hospitals, placement firms, high tech, non-profit and others

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving Great Plains USA and Canada nationwide. Local service in Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Diego. Please visit our information portal Pegas Planet: http://www.pegasplanet.com

Article Source: Great Plains Consulting in San Diego overview

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You might say that the root cause of data corruption is the hard disk. And of all the various parts of a computer, the hard disk is most prone to failure. There are only so many moving parts to a computer. These are usually either fans or the disk drives. And a hard disk spins much faster than a cooling fan. A slowest hard disk spins at 5,400 RPM, and some expensive high performance hard disks spin almost three times faster at 15,000 RPM.

Aside from the processor, the hard disk generates a large amount of heat. The faster it spins, the hotter the disk. Although the expected life span of a hard disk is five years, with the continuous spinning and the generated heat, disks start to fail after three years of use. Within the first three years of use, hard disk failure in one form or another is expected to occur.

Data corruption can occur due to any of a number of reasons. An electrical outage or a spike can cause data corruption. An improper shut down can also cause data corruption. In most instances the data corruption might not go unnoticed. Unless the file is hit and the computer does not work properly, only then will the problem show itself.

Worst case would be when the hard disk’s master boot record (MBR) is corrupted or a boot sector develops a bad sector. In which case the computer would not be able to boot up and the user is forced to do a data recovery as well as a hard disk recovery.

Any hard disk recovery effort would also be useless if it does not recover the latest data. Part of any data recovery tool kit would be a backup program and procedure. For data backup, the simplest tool is a file copy on a separate disk. This is especially useful for important files. Recovering from corrupted files on the computer is as easy as copying from the remote computer or hard disk.

It would be better however to have a data backup or a data recovery software. A data recovery software can schedule file backups to a tape backup device or a another drive. Windows has a backup software included called Backup.

Data recovery for corrupted files or folders should not be a problem if the data backup is up-to-date. Windows Backup also has the facility to restore data from backed up files.

When the computer fails to boot up, it might be because the master boot record or the operating system is corrupted, or the partition might be lost. For lost partitions or lost boot records, a simple file backup will not suffice. The computer has to boot up first before it can start any file backup.

Some data recovery tools have the facility to recover hard disk partition information. As with regular file backup, the recovery tool needs a backup. To recover a hard disk, either a hard disk as a whole is backed up (called a mirror) or just the partition. Commercial data recovery packages such as DriveClone and Ghost can backup a partition or a hard drive and recreate it to repair the failed hard drive, or to write it to another hard disk or computer altogether. These programs can boot from a recovery CD and proceed to do a hard disk and data recovery.

For larger installations, there are data recovery software from vendors like Acronis and Veritas which can backup multi-volume disks and RAIDs using disk backups and tape drives.

Hard disk failure and data corruption is a serious concern. In cases like these when the computer fails to boot up, or the data could not be read, it helps a lot if data recovery tools are ready, in use and allows easy recovery of data.

To learn even more about data recovery visit http://www.learndatarecovery.com where you will find more information about data recovery tools.

Article Source: Data Recovery Tools For Hard Disk Failure

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But still the concept of free software and open source software is not clear with many of us. We are confused at the basic level and interchanging the terms for each other. We use the terms Free Source and Open Source interchangeably and get them confused with the concept that they are available for free.

To some extent the concept gels with what we consider “available for free” but not in complete sense. The word “free” is basically the misnomer. We confuse it with “free burgers” but it should be considered for “free speech”. No doubt that some softwares from both the communities are available for free of cost and are offered as free downloads but not all utilities.

The two communities working with the aim of offering freedom to developers are working in the same direction but are literally and fundamentally different in their approaches. Till 1998, they were more or less same but after that the two movements separated with a different prospective, a different philosophy, and different motives.

The commonality in both the approaches is the open availability of source code to developers but the aim backing this approach is different with both the communities.

Where Free Software Community lays stress on providing source code to developers with the aim that user is free to do what he wish with the software’s source code. It is more philosophical in nature.

However, Open Source believes in offering source code to users with the aim that collaborative efforts can bring more subtle results. It has motivation that users can freely provide their suggestions for the source code and can append it to the existing one if results provided are efficient enough.

Both the communities lay stress on redistribution of code with no restrictions but the principles and motivations are different.

Where one seeks the liberty provided to users; the other targets the development of more efficient software programs with collaborative approach. Against the philosophical methodology of Free Software Community, the Open Source Community is driven by more practical reasons.

To some years the movements were working as a common alliance and Open Source was used as a marketing term for free software to reduce the ambiguity; but to worst it added more problems. So finally the two movements parted and started their own way.

Where the software developed by open source are more or less fits to zero-cost category, nothing like that can be defined for free software. To define it better, nothing which is free of cost can be a tailored fit for both the communities but cannot be turned off even.

Open Source is opposite to original context of Free Software. Free Software aims the freedom of users but Open Source aims the collaborative approach. The former stresses that users can freely see, modify and redistribute the code but latter has the approach that users can see the code but cannot modify it to suit its needs. In OSS, the liberty availed is in accordance of specific licensing agreements allowing one to fiddle with the code.

Free Software values freedom offered to users but Open Source believes in team development of software. Where one can be attached to social movement, the other is a development methodology. Both are against the patents and proprietary software, but cannot go hand in hand due to disagreement on certain principles.

To ask you, is GNU/ Linux is a free software or open source software? Cannot answer surely; Linux is not an open source software but a product of free software community (as you are free to make modifications).

At crux, it can be said that both are different movements with differing principles but are fighting against the common objective “Proprietary Software”.

Satinder Kaur, ITVoir Network
For Further Information Contact : www.itvoir.com

http://itvoir.com/portal/boxx/knowledgebase.asp?iid=842&Cat=23http://itvoir.com/portal

Article Source: Is Open Source a synonym for Free software ?

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1. When working on a colour image, you can use the Paint Brush tool to selectively “paint away” colour to black and white. It can make one portion of your image really stand out. In the Paint Brush Options palette, change the blend mode to Colour, and paint away the colour

2. When using your magic wand tool you can press your Shift to add more to the selection, or press your Alt to take away from the selection.

3. If you have a lot of images to display, use Photoshop’s image gallery to build a webpage of images that are thumbnailed for you. FILE > Automate > Web Images Gallery

4. Double click on the ‘T’ on a Type layer in the Layers Palette to automatically select the entire text layer.

There are at least two ways to switch between the various measurement units that Photoshop displays.

5. One is to change them in your Preferences by going to the Photoshop menu under Preferences and choosing Units & Rulers (in Photoshop 7 under Mac OS 9, Preferences is found under the Edit menu). From here you can change the ruler units and click OK.

6. The second way is to open the Info Palette (go to the Window menu and choose Info) and click on the small triangle next to the cross in the lower left quadrant. This will bring up a menu that will allow you to change units on the fly.

7. To cycle through different screen modes, simply press the F key

8. You can select only the pixels and not the transparency area of the layer by holding the Cmd/Ctrl key and clicking the mouse on that layer in the Layers palette.

9. Do you have a layer style you like to use a lot? You can save that layer style as a style that will show up in your styles palette. In the Blending Options, just under OK and Cancel you’ll see ‘Save Style’. Name it and save it. You’ll then find this new style in the Styles palette. Note: the style must be in its own layer.

10. Sometimes when you combine multiple images, there will be a bit of fringe around the edges of the composite images. Often you can hide this by going to Layers > Matting > Defringe. At the dialogue box, choose the default setting; it that doesn’t work, undo it, and try Defringe again at a setting of 2.

11. Got too many layers? Simply select the right layer by using the move tool ( V ) Right click the mouse over the layer and a drop down list will come up.

Alternatively, you can put your layers in layer sets. On the bottom of your layers palette, click the create new layers set (looks like a folder), name the new layer set, and just drag the layers you like in that set. Great for coping a set too. Highlight the set right click and copy.

12. If you want to toggle between Photoshop and ImageReady, press Shift-Command-M (Mac)/ Shift-Control-M (PC).

13. To access the Save for Web dialogue quickly, press Shift-Command-Option-S (Mac)/ Shift-Control-Alt-S (PC).

14. If you want to duplicate your current layer, press Cmd/Ctrl J.

15. To bring up the Extract dialogue box, press Command-Option-X (Mac)/ Control-Alt-X (PC). Within the Extract dialogue box, switch to the Extract Edge Highlighter tool by pressing the letter “b.”, the Fill tool by pressing the letter “k.”, and change the Edge Highlighter’s brush size by holding the ] key to make it larger and the [ to make it smaller.

Shaun Pearce is a writer, video maker, and Photoshop expert. Right now, he’s giving away a free report about the part of Photoshop that causes the most headaches to users: layers. You can access it by going to http://www.free-photoshop-report.com?=art08.

Article Source: 15 Photoshop Tips to Make Your Life Easier

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1. Offer a Photo Restoration Service. I’m sure just about everyone has a photo or two that hasn’t stood the test of time all that well, especially really old ones. Using the Healing Brush, Spot Healing Brush, and Patch tools, you can make old or damaged photos look like new again.

2. Become a Photograph Doctor. Whether it’s “red eye”, “pet eye”, poor exposure, or “finger over the lens syndrome” Photoshop can transform a ruined image into a pristine one. You can also use Photoshop to make a colour photograph look like a black and white one, or colour tint a black and white one to make it colour. Not everyone is a good photographer, so you need never be short of “patients”.

3. Design Greetings Cards. With the photo enhancement and graphic design qualities of Photoshop, designing greetings cards has never been easier. You can enhance photos, make them into drawings or paintings, combine photos for humorous cards, the possibilities are endless. Birthday cards, get well soon cards, condolence cards, Christmas cards or cards for other holidays like Mothers’ Day, the list goes on and on. You can easily find card blanks and envelopes from specialist suppliers.

4. Design T-shirts. Ever seen something and thought “that would look great on a T-shirt”? Well, you’re not the only one! With Photoshop you can make it a reality. You can get transfers from stationery shops, and plain, cotton T-shirts can be purchased from low cost suppliers and even some supermarkets.

5. Web Design. Whether it’s a full website, or just a few buttons or banners, web design is a skill that’s in demand right now. You could take commissions, or design some generic “boilerplate” designs that people can download from a website and customise themselves.

Of course, you may need to get some extra equipment — like a colour printer, scanner, and digital camera — but you can usually pick this type of equipment up inexpensively on eBay or other websites. A DVD of royalty free images is also a must — although check the terms and conditions to make sure you’re allowed to sell products derived from them.

Word of mouth is always the best form of advertising, so ask friends, relatives, work colleagues, and other acquaintances if the need (or know anyone who needs) your products or services. You could also approach retailers with a portfolio of your work, and offer them commissions on any work they send your way.

Shaun Pearce is a writer and video maker.His latest production, “Photoshop Master”, is an interactive video tutorial. It shows you how to get the most from Photoshop, and can be downloaded from http://www.learnphotoshopfast.com?=article6

Article Source: 5 Ways You Can Make Money with Adobe Photoshop

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If you are looking for an affordable solution to keep in touch with the relatives and friends staying abroad then chat sites are your best bet. It also helps the people who like meeting new people and are keen to make new friends. While chatting, one need not bother about long distance phone bills as the system uses the Internet for communication. This naturally makes it an easy tool for communication. You can talk for hours but not run huge phone bills.

The free chat rooms, are almost the same as the conventional chat rooms and are classified in themes and topics. One can also have the option of moving to a private room if he wants to talk in privacy with some one without allowing others to intrude. While the free chat rooms provide people with unmatched opportunity to meet exciting people from various parts of the world, one needs to be aware about the pitfalls of chatting.

People prefer using free chat for a number of reasons. The free chat sites enable the teenagers to keep in touch with their friends, without allowing others to eavesdrop on the conversation. The adolescents and college going crowd are seriously interested in using video chat rooms as these give them the option to see the person sitting on the other end. Apart from that, the elderly people can keep in touch with their sons and daughters through the free chat rooms. No matter how far two people are physically, using the chat services they can communicate in real time.

With the Internet communication has become faster and easier. Be it email or chat you can now talk instantly to any of your friend or relative at any part of the globe. Chartrooms are a great way to facilitate non-formal and real time communications. While email is typically exchanged between two individuals, a chat room can be simultaneously used by a number of users.

Make sure that you log on to a good site to chat. UsaNetworkNow is a great chatting room. This site not only provides better chatting experiences to its subscribers and users but also ensures that they have an entertaining time free of hassles. Since its inception in 2003, the free chat rooms of the site are registering growth in popularity and user number continuously. One can avail of music chat rooms as well as video chat rooms in this reputed site.

Signing up for the free chat services is a painless and foolproof affair. The free chat room sites require a person to give a valid e-mail id. Thereafter the registration process takes a few seconds to complete. However make sure that you use the correct chat site. All types of people use the Internet and some of them have malicious intentions.

Therefore, one should make sure that he is using the free chat service of a reputed site. One such instance is UsaNetworkNow. The free chat rooms of this site allow people to chat without worrying about the adverse repercussions. Here one can take the advantage of using webcam chat. This is a safer choice as the other person is kind of forced to show his face and cannot pretend to be another person. It also makes the chatting experience more interactive. The best part about this type of chatting is that one does not need to pay any extra cost for using a webcam and transmitting video clipping over the Internet.

free chat rooms is author of this article on free chat. Find more information about free chat here.

Article Source: What You Must Know About A Free Chat Room

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Beyond Keylogger
Another possible way in which cookies can negatively affect your computer is when they are stored on your hard drive for too long. Generally, the information there is safe because it is non-executable text files. However, if malware or spyware is installed on your computer, it may be possible for it to access those cookies and start retrieving your login, email, and personal information and sending it back to whomever installed the spyware. So, grab a copy of Winclear to ensure your online privacy. Advanced Spy will help you to monitor and record all activities on your computer. More about Winclear and how you can make use of Winclear to deter keyloggers.

Wrt54Gs Parental Control Service
Quick fix for ’some’ spyware problems - stop everyone using a computer from installing anything not approved by IT guys that know about the ever growing list of spyware. Remove all admin rights to install software today, some of these programs can even get the installer to load their spyware and then open up holes in your firewall or otherwise disable the protection setup on your computers. Stop others from installing bogus software today and you will thank yourself tomorrow. And that is why you need Winclear. Data loggers, key loggers are just a few programs which harvest info from your computer. Winclear is the only program created specially to auto remove such spywares. html. Therefore, make sure you have Winclear in order to protect your privacy. Spyware can eventually or sometimes immediately bring any computer to the point where you cannot even logon to your account or computer. That is why every computer owner needs winclear.

Diablo Keylogger
If you are one of the people who would want to keep an eye on the computer and Internet usage of your children, staff and spouses, what you need is computer spy software. This computer program, also known as keylogger, will provide you with all the information you will need to determine if your mate is cheating, if your children are in contact with dangerous individuals, or if your employees are sharing confidential information with outsiders or are wasting time playing games during office hours. Winclear is the only software which is capable of removing keylogger programs. This no. Winclear has been the industry leader in fighting keyloggers and cleaning internet history for the last 8 years.

Winclear: How To Bypass Windows Parental Control
We should acquire evidence eraser. Every computer owner needs Winclear for that one reason alone. At first phishing consisted only of a social engineering scam in which phishers spammed consumer e-mail accounts with letters ostensibly from banks. That is the reason why you need Winclear installed onto your computer. The Internet is a source of myriad information that can help us make our grueling existence easier and happier. Protect your computer security by using Winclear! Keyloggers as it is clear from the name of the program log keystrokes –but that’s not all. More about Winclear here: Winclear

Clinton is an expert in Winclear Reviews for over 10 years. Search more Winclear info at http://www.winclear.info

Article Source: Parental Controls For Tv

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What do you have to do for Linux Certification? You must pass one or more extensive tests that demonstrate your prowess in dealing with the typical and some atypical problems faced by Linux systems administrators. We’ll take a closer look at the CompTIA Linux+™ Certification, the one often recommended as the first certification for people new to Linux. This certification does not apply to any specific Linux version. The test is designed to validate the knowledge of individuals with a minimum of six to twelve months of practical Linux experience. According to the Computing Technology Industry Association, professionals achieving the CompTIA Linux+ certification can explain fundamental management of Linux systems from the command line, demonstrate knowledge of user administration, understand file permissions, software configurations, and management of Linux-based clients, server systems, and security. Many of these functions are available on Damn Small Linux.

The Linux+ certification is a basic, entry-level certification for Linux system administrators. It is intended for people with six-months experience installing, operating and maintaining Linux operating systems. To achieve Linux+ certification, candidates must pass the 98 question Linux+ exam which covers seven areas: Planning and Implementation; Installation; Configuration; Administration; System Maintenance; Troubleshooting; and Identify, Install and Maintain System Hardware. This multiple-choice exam costs about $232 and is a good starting point for those who want to continue with other Linux certifications including those from Novell and Red Hat.

Why would anybody want to start preparing Linux certification on a limited version of Linux? The answer is simple - certification is lengthy and somewhat difficult. Don’t make a major financial and time investment unless you know that you really want to be certified and that you possess the required skill set. You can easily find schools that promise you success in Linux certification and in any of their course offerings. But Linux certification may not be for you. Don’t invest heavily in certification only to find that it wasn’t what you had in mind. Work your way through my tutorials including the suggestions for going further. Get your hands on a variety of Linux books. I would start with books designed for learning Linux and for running Linux systems before working with Linux certification books.

Don’t be satisfied with running computer exercises in your mind, and nodding your head at the appropriate times. To succeed you must do the exercises on a computer running Linux. Since installation is a component of all Linux Certification exams don’t stint on installing several versions of Linux on your computer. An external USB hard drive is not very expensive. Try to make friends with someone who knows better than you how to do things. Ask a lot of questions. And good luck!

And while you’re working on your certifications take a look at some of Damn Small Linux’s other advantages in our final article in this series.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet. He loves the occasional glass of wine as exemplified by his wine websites including www.theworldwidewine.com. He teaches Linux and Windows operating systems plus other computer courses at an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his new website http://www.linux4windows.com which enables you to download and run Damn Small Linux on even outdated Windows computers.

Article Source: Yet Another Reason To Learn Linux - Linux Certifications

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Protection. First and foremost, you want to make sure that your laptop is well protected. This means that when it comes to a carrying case, you have to think about incidental contact, perhaps dropping, and exposure to the elements, including water, sun, and heat. For all of these protective concerns, it is a leather carrying case that will provide the most security for your expensive laptop computer. Considering the properties of leather, it has any type of cloth beaten by a country mile. Tough, resistant to soaking, and durable, leather provides the ideal barrier between your computer and any potentially damaging agents.

Durability. As we mentioned above, leather is one of the most durable materials around. It is guaranteed to outlast cloth over any period of time. What this means is that you can count on your leather case to last for as long as you need it for carrying your laptop, no matter how many times you use it. The same is not true for cloth, which will inevitably wear out within a year. Over the long run, then, the purchase of a leather case will save you money as you will likely only need to purchase one. In fact, a leather case may even outlast your laptop!

Fashion. You might not like to admit it, but there is a certain perception that goes along with having anything made of real leather, and a laptop carrying case is no exception. Leather is almost universally regarded as high fashion, with its pleasing aesthetic qualities and professional appearance. Moreover, it is the perfect complement to any type of clothing choice. You certainly would not be able to say the same thing for cloth.

When considering the ideal carrying case for your laptop, make sure that you keep the material the case is made from at the forefront of your mind. When it comes to most of the important factors, leather will beat cloth every time.

Double pocket leather saddle bags have many features such as a cellphone pocket and magnetic closures - a perfect addition to anyone’s handbag collection.

Article Source: Benefits of Leather versus Cloth Laptop Cases

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