What Is A DMA

What Is A DMA
DMA, or Direct Memory Access, are pathways provided by the hardware to allow the hardware direct access to the computer's memory. See DMA Listing:

CHANNELAVAILABILITY
00Available
01Sound device
02Standard floppy disk controller
03Available
04Direct memory access controller
05Available
06Available
07Available


Read: What is input output
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What is an Input Output

What is an Input Output
Input Output (I/O) represents the locations in memory that are designated by use of various devices to exchange information amongst themselves and the rest of the PC. See IRQ Listing for a list of IRQs and I/O ranges.
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What is an IRQ

What is an IRQ?
Short for Interrupt request, IRQ is a signal that has a direct line to the computer processor, allowing it to stop the processor momentarily and decide what to do next.

Every IBM compatible computer has a maximum of 15 IRQs and are prioritized in the computer according to the importance of the device. The below lists the standard IRQ configuration found in modern PC computers. The below IRQs that have the Card Type 8/16-BIT are configurable and possibly removable.

However, all others cannot be removed or shared. When listing the IRQs and encounter IRQs that are doubled, it could possibly indicate an IRQ confliction or that the IRQ is being shared. The exception to this are IRQs 14 and 15.

IRQ DEVICEI/O PORTBUS SLOTCARD TYPE
00System TimerNoneNONONE
01KeyboardNoneNONONE
02Cascade Controller
2nd PIC
NoneNONONE
03COM 2 and 4COM 2: 02F8h (02F8 or 2F8)
COM 4: 02E8h (02E8 or 2E8)
YES8 or 16-BIT
04COM 1 and 3COM 1: 03F8h (03F8 or 3F8)
COM 3: 03E8h (03E8 or 3E8)
YES8 or 16-BIT
05Sound
Parallel Port 2
PARALLEL PORT 2:
0278h - 0378h
YES8 or 16-BIT
06Floppy03F0 - 03F5YES8 or 16-BIT
07Parallel Port 10278h - 0378hYES8 or 16-BIT
08Real-time ClockNoneNONONE
09Redirected IRQ 2
Open
Network Available
NoneYES8 or 16-BIT
10OpenNoneYES8 or 16-BIT
11Open
SCSI
Video
VIDEO:
3B0-3DF
YES8 or 16-BIT
12Open
PS2
NoneYES8 or 16-BIT
13CoprocessorNoneNONONE
14Open
Primary hard drive (master)
Hard Drive Controller
1ST IDE: 1F0YES8 or 16-BIT
15Open
2nd hard drive (slave)
2ND IDE: 170YES8 or 16-BIT

Read: SDIO
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What Is Collective Intelligence?

What Is Collective Intelligence?
The central principle behind the success of the giants born in the Web 1.0 era who have survived to lead the Web 2.0 era appears to be this, that they have embraced the power of the web to harness collective intelligence:
  • Hyperlinking is the foundation of the web. As users add new content, and new sites, it is bound in to the structure of the web by other users discovering the content and linking to it. Much as synapses form in the brain, with associations becoming stronger through repetition or intensity, the web of connections grows organically as an output of the collective activity of all web users.
  • Yahoo!, the first great internet success story, was born as a catalog, or directory of links, an aggregation of the best work of thousands, then millions of web users. While Yahoo! has since moved into the business of creating many types of content, its role as a portal to the collective work of the net's users remains the core of its value.
  • Google's breakthrough in search, which quickly made it the undisputed search market leader, was PageRank, a method of using the link structure of the web rather than just the characteristics of documents to provide better search results.
  • eBay's product is the collective activity of all its users; like the web itself, eBay grows organically in response to user activity, and the company's role is as an enabler of a context in which that user activity can happen. What's more, eBay's competitive advantage comes almost entirely from the critical mass of buyers and sellers, which makes any new entrant offering similar services significantly less attractive.
  • Amazon sells the same products as competitors such as Barnesandnoble.com, and they receive the same product descriptions, cover images, and editorial content from their vendors. But Amazon has made a science of user engagement. They have an order of magnitude more user reviews, invitations to participate in varied ways on virtually every page--and even more importantly, they use user activity to produce better search results. While a Barnesandnoble.com search is likely to lead with the company's own products, or sponsored results, Amazon always leads with "most popular", a real-time computation based not only on sales but other factors that Amazon insiders call the "flow" around products. With an order of magnitude more user participation, it's no surprise that Amazon's sales also outpace competitors.
Now, innovative companies that pick up on this insight and perhaps extend it even further, are making their mark on the web:

Collective Intelligence: Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia based on the unlikely notion that an entry can be added by any web user, and edited by any other, is a radical experiment in trust, applying Eric Raymond's dictum (originally coined in the context of open source software) that "with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow," to content creation. Wikipedia is already in the top 100 websites, and many think it will be in the top ten before long. This is a profound change in the dynamics of content creation!

Sites like del.icio.us and Flickr, two companies that have received a great deal of attention of late, have pioneered a concept that some people call "folksonomy" (in contrast to taxonomy), a style of collaborative categorization of sites using freely chosen keywords, often referred to as tags. Tagging allows for the kind of multiple, overlapping associations that the brain itself uses, rather than rigid categories. In the canonical example, a Flickr photo of a puppy might be tagged both "puppy" and "cute"--allowing for retrieval along natural axes generated user activity.

Collective Intelligence: Collaborative spam filtering products like Cloudmark aggregate the individual decisions of email users about what is and is not spam, outperforming systems that rely on analysis of the messages themselves.

It is a truism that the greatest internet success stories don't advertise their products. Their adoption is driven by "viral marketing"--that is, recommendations propagating directly from one user to another. You can almost make the case that if a site or product relies on advertising to get the word out, it isn't Web 2.0.

Even much of the infrastructure of the web--including the Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl, PHP, or Python code involved in most web servers--relies on the peer-production methods of open source, in themselves an instance of collective, net-enabled intelligence. There are more than 100,000 open source software projects listed on SourceForge.net. Anyone can add a project, anyone can download and use the code, and new projects migrate from the edges to the center as a result of users putting them to work, an organic software adoption process relying almost entirely on viral marketing.
Read: SDIO
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What Is SDIO?

What Is SDIO?
SDIO is the secure digital input output form of device where both the input and the output aspects of the device are performed. Moreover it had been found out that the SDIO had been designed in the form of card that is of portable in nature and thus it can be carried at any place. It can also be used with the computers or some other devices but mainly the SDIO card had been designed in the form of card which is somewhat a collection of the SD card and the input output device.

Each of the devices are found to perform their own different functions. It had been found out that the electronic devices are the ones which are making use of the SDIO cards as this can be attached and detached from the device easily. Moreover it had been observed that the devices which are making use of the SDIO cards are the palm Treo or the PDA devices where the card can be inserted and then as a result the information and the data can be easily stored on that particular device.

The entire information which is stored on the device is safe and secure. They are used in the mobile phones that are used by people on regular basis and at the same time it can also be used in the computers too which are used for different purposes.

Mainly for the working of the SDIO, it had been seen that the user have to use the SD form factor. Moreover some of the benefits had been provided to people. Some of the SD cards are also made available to people and in that case each of the cards which are offered to people are providing different features and benefits. The main benefit which is provided by the SD card is the SD Plus along with the data capacity where mush of the information can be stored on a larger range.
Read: Hacker
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What Is Hacker?

What Is Hacker?
Hacker is a wider term which had been described in many different ways. Mostly it is the term which is associated with computing. In each and every field hacker have a different meaning. Hacker is a person who is able to gather all the entire information that is contained in the computer and hence is termed to be regarded as confidential.

All the confidential is not hidden by the hacker at all as he is the person who is very expert in it. For this the person needs to have some certain hacking skills such as the ways in which hacking of the computer system or some other programs can be incurred. Moreover the hacker is the person who is considered to be a part of the community rather than being considered to be separate from the entire society.

Moreover if hacker is looked from the computer perspective then it means a person who gathers all the internal and external data of the computer and the other networking systems. This type of activity is being used by the mass media people as they are the ones who are indulged into getting into all the information that can be gathered by the person in a less time period. Mostly for the hacking systems prescribed code had been allocated which needs to be entered by the hacker which as a result allows him to view all the information in the computer or systems.

Hacker are the people who are mainly referred to as the people who are computer criminals as they try their best to gather all the secured data of the company or some other industry at any cost but from all the perspective. Sometimes the hacking of the e-mail address also takes place and the hacker also changes the password. After some time the person at times gets his e-mail address back and thus can view it again. This type of service is not being appreciated as at all as the data of the secret data of the user remains no more secret.
Read: DSL
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What Is DSL? Digital Subscriber Lines

What Is DSL?
The term DSL is an acronym for Digital Subscriber Lines and this term is the name of the family that provide technology for digital data transmission through the network over the wires of the local telephone network, which are usually made up of copper wires. The best example of this technology is broadband, where the internet ability is provided to the user over these telephone lines.

The two main categories of this DSL are ADSL or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line and SDSL or Symmetric digital subscriber line. Apart from these two major categories, there are two other types of categories present in the market as well, named HDSL or High Data Rate DSL and VDSL or Very High DSL. These two types of the DSL are quite expensive and are installed only in the large sized enterprise, as they installation and the operational costs are both high. The most common type of the DSL that is used by many people throughout the world is ADSL, as it is cheaper and the operational costs are also low.

This DSL technology basically pack the data on to the copper wire by using a sophisticated modulation technique and schemes and this technology is only used for connection from the telephone lines to homes and offices but not for providing connections between the switching stations. This DSL technology is quite similar to the ISDN technology as they both operate on the copper wires and both require the short run to the telephone office. However, the major difference between these two lies in the matter of speed.

The DSL technology is capable of giving speed up to 32 Mbps for upstream traffic and max speed of 1 Mbps for the downstream traffic. This technology is currently undergoing revision and it is quite possible that the speed that this technology has to offer to the users might even increase drastically, after all the main thing is loading the cables with the data packets with the help of modulation schemes.
Read: VBR
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What Is VBR? Variable Bit Rate

What Is VBR?
The term VBR is quite a versatile term, that is, even in the computing world it stands for several things, and this term also has specific meaning attached to it even if it is used outside the networking world. This article will only deal with this term with respect to the networking and computing world.

The term VBR stands for variable bit rate in the networking world. VBR or variable bit rate is class B quality of service. This VBR is a ATM bandwidth allocation service which allows the users to specify a certain throughput capacity, that is, a peak rate at which the data is to be transmitted.

In this service the throughput rate is set according to the wishes of the user, however, the data through this service is not sent evenly, the way the data is sent depends entirely upon this service. The most common use of this service is seen in places where compressed packetized voice and video data has to be sent to the end user present in the network. The best example of the scenario where this service would be extensively used is videoconferencing, in it both, the voice and video data is sent to the end users who are present in this videoconferencing.

The main advantage of VBR is that it allows a higher bit rate to be allocated, hence allowing more storage space to be allocated. However, like having an advantage, this service also have some disadvantages. The first one is that, the time needed to encode the data with service is often more as compared to the other services used, because the process is more complex and some of the hardware might not be compatible with service.

VBR: Then over a dial up connection and internet broadband, the user have to face a problem with this service, and the third disadvantage is that the encoding process done provides very little security for the data as many could interpret what the encoded message is.
Read: HIJacker
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What Is HIJacker?

What Is HIJacker?
A hijacker is an attempt from a third party to take control of your web browser and use it for their own evil purposes. Some browser hijacks can be done to spread awareness of a particular website, but aren’t actually dangerous. In some cases, though, they can be malicious, and they can steal information like passwords you have saved into your browser automatically. Perhaps the most common type of browser hijack is done by a program that installs itself on your computer without you knowing. The program will add several favorites to your list without your knowledge, and it will change the start page of your browser and even some registry keys. When you attempt to reset your browser, you will be unable to do so.

The most obvious sign of a browser hijack is that your start page has been changed and you can’t change it back. You may notice a complete slowdown in the performance of your computer since many browser hijacks work as fully functional programs that run in the background of your computer from the time you turn it on to the time you turn it off. These programs are often resource hogs that cause everything else on your machine to run slower.

You may also notice that a whole new set of bookmarks have been added to your browser that you’ve never seen before. Some websites have been known to add one bookmark (usually one for that particular site), but if you see a whole new folder full of questionable bookmarks, you may have a browser hijacker installed on your machine.

The first step you should take if you feel that you have a hijacker installed on your computer is head to the Microsoft Update site to ensure that you have all the patches and updates you need. Microsoft does a great job of stopping many of these.

Once you’ve updated and restarted your computer, you need to install a reputable anti-spyware program on your computer to run in the background and monitor what bad programs you come into contact with. Two reputable programs are provided by Paretologic and PC Tools Software. Both not only remove browser hijackers they also provide the dynamic monitoring you need to protect you against future hijacks.

You can download and install either of their programs in minutes. Run a full scan of your machine immediately. Once you’ve removed any initial problems, you should run a full scan of your machine at least once per week to ensure that you haven’t come down with any browser hijackers or any other program that can affect your machine in a negative way.

Finally, make sure you keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs updated at all times.
Read: Dialer
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What Is Dialer?

What Is Dialer?
A dialer is a program that uses a computer’s modem to establish a dialup connection to the Internet. A connection is made by dialing a predetermined phone number. Malicious dialers are designed to use international or premium rate local phone numbers to make a connection bypassing the local Internet service provider. Their activity usually results in receiving high phone bills, as per-minute charges of most phone numbers used exceed 5 or 10 dollars.

Most dialers are parasitical programs. They work in the same manner as regular computer viruses and therefore change system’s essential dialup and networking settings without user knowledge and consent.

A typical dialer runs on every computer startup and attempts to hide its presence in the system. Its activity cannot be easily noticed, as a parasite usually doesn’t affect computer performance and doesn’t leave any clues like unexpected advertisements or third-party toolbars. Practically all dialers are designed for commercial purposes.

Their vendors strive to make money out of credulous and unaware users. Parasites deliberately do not offer fast and reliable Internet connection, as every minute that a user spends being online brings them quite a tangible income. A typical dialer’s victim loses hundreds of dollars every day and doesn’t even know about it until he receives an enormous phone bill from a local phone company.

Dialers complicate usual web surfing. Due to very low connection speed and throughput some web sites cannot be accessed or do not work as intended. Downloading software or music, watching online video or animation, browsing complex multimedia sites are almost impossible tasks for users whose computers are infected with dialers.

Moreover, some dialers provide access only to several predetermined web resources, and other sites and servers cannot be accessed at all. As it was said above, most dialers work in the same manner as the computer viruses and therefore can be found and removed with the help of effective antivirus products like Symantec Norton AntiVirus, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, McAfee VirusScan, eTrust EZ Antivirus, Panda Titanium Antivirus, AVG Anti-Virus.

Advanced spyware removers, which are able to scan the system in a similar way antivirus software does and have extensive parasite signature databases can also detect and remove dialers and related components. Powerful anti-spyware solutions such as Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta, Spyware Doctor, Ad-Aware SE, SpyHunter, eTrust PestPatrol or Spybot - Search & Destroy are well-known for perfect dialer detection and removal capabilities.

In some cases even an antivirus or spyware remover can fail to get rid of a particular dialer. That is why there are Internet resources such as 2-Spyware.com, which provide manual malware removal instructions. These instructions allow the user to manually delete all the files, directories, registry entries and other objects that belong to a parasite. However, manual removal requires fair system knowledge and therefore can be a quite difficult and tedious task for novices.

If you are one of the millions of people who have suffered a browser hijacking, you likely know it, and you clearly remember what you were doing when it happened. The best known form of browser hijacking is when a sudden flood of pop-ups, many of them obscene, explode over your screen and you are forced to use the CTRL-ATL-DEL sequence to close your browser and regain control of your computer. Here is a quick guide you can use to identify the different kinds of browser hijackings and how you can rid yourself of them once and for all.
Read: Wiki
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What Is Wiki?

What Is Wiki?
Wiki is a website where users can add, remove, and edit every page using a web browser. It's so terrifically easy for people to jump in and revise pages that wikis are becoming known as the tool of choice for large, multiple-participant projects.

Somewhere, in a dimly lit classroom, a library bench, or in a home study, some lucky so-and-so is writing an essay from beginning to end with no notes. This splendid individual is able to craft entire sections without forgetting by the end what the section was intended to include at the beginning, and can weave a carefully paced argument with thoughts and references collected over a period of months, all perfectly recollected. Neither of your authors is this person. Instead, we need help, and that help comes in the shape of a wiki.

A wiki is a website where every page can be edited in a web browser, by whomever happens to be reading it. It's so terrifically easy for people to jump in and revise pages that wikis are becoming known as the tool of choice for large, multiple-participant projects. This tutorial is about how to effectively use a wiki to keep notes and share ideas amongst a group of people, and how to organize that wiki to avoid lost thoughts and encourage serendipity.

This article was written using a wiki, as were most of the 100 hacks in our book, Mind Hacks. The prime example of a wiki in action is Wikipedia, the open source encyclopedia. Wikipedia is one of the best resources on the internet, and its quality and breadth lends credence to the wiki as a great tool. But it illustrates just one way of using the wiki.

Wikipedia builds on transparency, simple linking, and a low barrier to entry for crowds of people to be involved in editing and authoring. We can use these same qualities with just two or three people for a different outcome: a shared workspace and, in effect, a shared memory.

As with any large project, we found that a book was too big to hold in mind all at once, and definitely too big to guarantee remembering those many promising ideas that came up at times we were least able to pursue them. Some of these ideas would start as off-the-cuff thoughts and, when followed up, grow to change large parts of our major concept. So it was important to record them, and give them room.

A large number of recorded ideas means, of course, that it's easy to get out of sync with project partners, and that's where the wiki as shared memory comes in. Using a Wiki for your big projects keeps all participants on the same page.
Read: WEP
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What Is WEP? Wired Equivalent Privacy

What Is WEP?
WEP is a standard method for encrypting traffic over a wireless network. WEP was intended to give wireless users security equivalent to being on a wired network. With WEP turned on, each packet to be transmitted is first encrypted and then passed through a shredding machine called RC4.

128-bit encryption is preferred over 64-bit encryption, as it is lot more difficult to break. A major problem associated with WEP is key management. When we enable WEP according to the wireless standard, we need to visit each wireless device that we use and type in the proper WEP key.

If the key is compromised due to some reasons, either you have to change the key or lose all security.

Also, if you have hundreds of users on your network, changing the WEP key creates lots of difficulties. Thus, though WEP has several weaknesses, using WEP is better than not using it.
Read: SSID
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What Is SSID? Service Set Identifier

What Is SSID?
SSID (Service Set Identifier) is meant to differentiate one network from another. SSID is the identification string used by the wireless access points by which clients are able to initiate connections.

SSID settings on your network should be considered the first level of security, and should be treated as such. In its standards-adherent state, SSID may not offer any protection to who gains access to your network, but configuring your SSID to something not easily guessable can make it harder for intruders to know what exactly they are looking at.

For each wireless access point you deploy, it is very important to choose a unique and difficult-to-guess SSID. Also, by default, wireless gateways happily broadcast the SSID to be picked up by any wireless network device for easy configuration. Hiding the SSID by disabling the SSID broadcast makes the life of an intruder tough.
Read: Wireless Network
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What Is Wireless Network?

What Is Wireless Network?
The new standard in wireless network--802.11g--offers speed, security, and performance. It is also the most widely employed standard in corporate internal wireless LAN network. You can transfer data at up to 54Mbps using 802.11g (which is five times the speed of older 802.11b wireless network). And wireless LANs provide some obvious benefits: they always provide on-network connectivity, they do not require a network cable, and they actually prove less expensive than traditional network.

Wireless network have evolved into more affordable and logistically acceptable alternatives to wired LANs. But to take advantage of these benefits, your wireless LAN needs to be properly secured. Network security in a wireless LAN environment is a unique challenge.

Whereas wired network send electrical signals or pulses through cables, wireless signals propagate through the air. Because of this, it is much easier to intercept wireless signals. This extra level of security complexity adds to the challenges network administrators already face with traditional wired network. There are a number of extremely serious risks and dangers if wireless network are left open and exposed to the outside world.

This article covers the types of attacks wireless network encounter, preventive measures to reduce the chance of attack, guidelines administrators can follow to protect their company's wireless LAN, and an excellent supply of online resources for setting up a secure wireless network.
Read: Window Manager
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What Is Window Manager?

What Is Window Manager?
The window manager is the client application, with responsibility for managing client windows. There are a number of window managers to choose from, many with features that begin to approach those of a desktop. For information on many of the available window managers, see the Window Managers for X web site.

The window manager controls the general operation of the window system; in particular, it controls the geometry and aesthetics of your X display. With the window manager you can change the size and position of windows on the display, reshuffle windows in a window stack, and so on.

Figures 1 and 2 are screenshots from my fvwm-managed system. If you are using another window manager, the X display will have that window manager's appearance. In fact, because X is so customizable, even two users running the same window manager are likely to have screens that look very different.

fvwm is compliant with the Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual (ICCCM). The ICCCM is a standard that defines interactions between X clients, including client interactions with the window manager. It defines basic policy that is intentionally omitted from X itself, such as the rules for transferring data between applications and for transferring keyboard focus.

Window managers and other applications that follow the ICCCM should be able to coexist and work together on the same server, even if they were written using different toolkits. This capability explains why you can, for example, run KDE applications on a GNOME desktop or with fvwm.
Read: X Server
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What Is X Server?

What Is X Server?
The X server manages the display hardware. The server captures input events from the user via keyboard or mouse (or other input device) and passes the information to a client application that has requested it. It also receives requests from the application to perform some graphical action.

For example, if you use your mouse to move a window on the screen, the X server passes the information to the window manager, which responds by telling the server where to reposition the window, and the X server performs the action. If the client is a calculator, such as xcalc, it might request that digits be displayed into the window as the user clicks on buttons to enter a number.

In any case, it is always the server that interacts with the hardware. Thus only the server software has to be hardware-specific. In fact, only the parts of the server that actually interact with the hardware need to be rewritten for X to be ported to new systems or to be usable with a new terminal or a new type of input device, for example. As long as the X clients are written to use the X Protocol, they can run on any system and communicate with the X server.
Read: X Client

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What Is X Client?

What Is X Client?
The client, as it is implemented by X, may seem backward at first glance. Generally, we think of servers as remote machines like file servers, news servers, or mail servers, with local clients accessing the servers. For X, however, it's the server that runs on the local machine, providing its services to the display based on requests from client programs that may be running locally or remotely. The server also manages the input devices (usually a keyboard and mouse), and it manages the display of colors and fonts on the screen, all based on requests from a client.

One of the most significant features of X Client is that it was specifically designed to work across a network. The client and the server communicate via the X Protocol, a network protocol that can run locally or across a network. Regardless of whether a client program is local or remote, X Client communicates with the server through the X Protocol.
Read: X Window System
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What Is X Window System?

What Is X Window System?
The X Window System (commonly referred to as X or X11) is a network-transparent graphical windowing system based on a client/server model. Primarily used on Unix and Unix-like systems such as Linux, versions of X are also available for many other operating systems. Although it was developed in 1984, X is not only still viable but also is in fact the standard environment for Unix windowing systems.

The X Window System is a graphical windowing system that was developed at MIT in 1984. X was developed as part of Project Athena, a cooperative effort between MIT, IBM, and Digital Equipment Corporation to develop a network of heterogeneous engineering terminals that could be used for teaching purposes. The current version, X11, was released in 1987 and is now up to X11 release 6, known as X11R6.

One reason X Window System has had such staying power is that from the beginning it incorporated many of the windowing capabilities that we now take for granted. These capabilities include network transparency, graphical capability, the use of a mouse, and the ability to link together a heterogeneous network of workstations from different vendors.

In addition, X was intentionally designed to provide the low-level mechanism for managing the graphics display, but not to have any control over what is displayed. This means that X has never been locked into a single way of doing things; instead, it has the flexibility to be used in many different ways. Both the simplest window manager and the most complex desktop environment can, and do, use the X Window System to manage the display.

The responsibility and stewardship of X is currently in the hands of the X.Org Foundation; the X.Org implementation of the X Window System is included with most of the major Linux and free Unix distributions. Until 2004, the standard version of X was XFree86, developed by the XFree86 Project. New licensing restrictions imposed by XFree86 led to the switch to X.org.
Read: IP Address Lookup
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What Is IP Address Lookup?

What Is IP Address Lookup?
The IP Address Lookup tool also referred to as IP Lookup, Lookup IP, Lookup IP Address, IP Address Location, IP Location, and IP Locator is designed to give you an idea of where your IP Address or the IP Address you lookup is located. This tool is not 100% accurate due to many different factors.

Some of those factors include where the owner of the IP has it registered, where the agency that controls the IP is located, proxies, cellular IPs, etc. If you are in the US and the controlling agency of the IP is located in Canada, chances are the IP address lookup results will show as Canada. Showing a Canadian IP while in the US is very common among Blackberry users on the Verizon network.

The results of this IP Address Lookup utility include the IP Address, City, Host Name, Region / State, Postal / Zip Code, Country Name, Country Code, Time Zone, Longitude, Latitude, ISP, Domain Name, Net Speed, and IP Decimal.

Often, people think if they perform and IP address lookup, that they are going to find the physical mailing address of the user assigned the IP in question. This is simply not true. At this time, we are not aware of any IP address database that will give you the exact physical postal address of the IP address you lookup. At best, you'll get the exact city in which the user of the IP is located. For an exact physical address you would need to contact the ISP (Internet Service Provider) of the IP address in question.

IP Address Lookup: However, without a police warrant, or some sort of legal document forcing the ISP to turn over the information, don't expect them to give you the mailing address of the user that was assigned the IP at the time you received the offensive email, or other means of offensive / questionable communication from said IP. The best you can do in this case is to file a complaint with the ISP and forward them all of the information from the questionable / offensive communication regarding the complaint.
Read: VPN Protocol
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What Is VPN Protocol?

What Is VPN Protocol?
The number of protocol and available security features continue to grow with time. The most common protocol are:
  • PPTP - PPTP has been around since the days of Windows 95. The main selling point of PPTP is that it can be simply setup on every major OS. In short, PPTP tunnels a point-to-point connection over the GRE protocol. Unfortunately, the security of the PPTP protocol has been called into question in recent years. It is still strong, but not the most secure.
  • L2TP/IPsec - L2TP over IPsec is more secure than PPTP and offers more features. L2TP/IPsec is a way of implementing two protocol together in order to gain the best features of each. In this case, the L2TP protocol is used to create a tunnel and IPsec provides a secure channel. This makes for an impressively secure package. VPN Protocol.
  • Open VPN - OpenVPN is an SSL-based VPN that continues to gain popularity. The software used is open source and freely available. SSL is a mature encryption protocol, and OpenVPN can run on a single UDP or TCP port, making it extremely flexible.
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What Is VPN Security?

What Is VPN Security?
Security is the main reason why corporations have used VPNs for years. There are increasingly simple methods to intercept data traveling to a network. WiFi spoofing and Firesheep are two easy ways to hack information. A useful analogy is that a firewall protects your data while on the computer and a VPN protects your data on the web. VPNs use advanced encryption protocols and secure tunneling techniques to encapsulate all online data transfers.

Most savvy computer users wouldn't dream of connecting to the Internet without a firewall and up-to-date antivirus. Evolving security threats and ever increasing reliance on the Internet make a VPN an essential part of well-rounded security.

VPN Security: Integrity checks ensure that no data is lost and that the connection has not been hijacked. Since all traffic is protected, this method is preferred to proxies.
Read: VPN
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What Is VPN? Virtual Private Network

What Is VPN?
A VPN or Virtual Private Network is a method used to add security and privacy to private and public networks, like WiFi Hotspots and the Internet. VPNs are most often used by corporations to protect sensitive data. However, using a personal VPN is increasingly becoming more popular as more interactions that were previously face-to-face transition to the Internet.

Privacy is increased with a VPN because the user's initial IP address is replaced with one from the VPN provider. This method allows subscribers to attain an IP address from any gateway city the VPN service provides. For instance, you may live in San Francisco, but with a VPN, you can appear to live in Amsterdam, New York, or any number of gateway cities.
Read: DHCP Server
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What Is A DHCP Server? Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

What Is A DHCP Server?
In simple terms, DHCP determines if your IP is static or dynamic and the length of time an IP address is assigned.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is controlled by a DHCP server. Your router can be a DHCP server...and if you're on a home network, it most likely serves this purpose.

I know this might be confusing because the word dynamic is in the term, but just because you have DHCP enabled on your computer doesn't mean you can't be assigned a static IP. DHCP enabled on your computer simply means you're letting a DHCP server assign its IP. Having it enabled DOES NOT mean it's a DHCP server.

A true DHCP server (not your Linksys router) gives the LAN Admin a ton of control with IP assigning.

Ever print to a network printer? Ever wonder how that printer keeps its network assignment? Each network device has a MAC address. You can assign a static IP at the server to a specific MAC address. This allows the network printer to always get the same IP even after it reboots and without assigning the IP at the printer. If you print the network configuration at the printer, it will probably tell you that DHCP is enabled and no static IP is assigned. That's because the IP assignment is handled at the server.

Your ISP has a DHCP server. They can assign IPs by modem MAC addresses. When your modem comes online, it communicates to the network indicating it is looking for an IP address. The DHCP server listens to this communication and starts talking to the modem. The modem then transmits its MAC address to the DHCP server. At that point, either an IP has been reserved for the modem or one is assigned at that time. Hence cloning your MAC address to get a new IP from your ISP.

Routers and DHCP - Under the General Setup or LAN Setup tab in your router, you'll see a settings option for DHCP. You can control how many IPs are assigned or to enable/disable the DHCP server portion of the router. If you disable it, you'll have to statically assign IPs to each computer, or have a DHCP server or your network. This goes for wired and wireless. Any connection on your network has an IP address.

There's a lot more to DHCP than this, but this is a basic explanation. Read: Static IP
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What Is Static IP?

A static IP is one that will never change. A dynamic IP is exactly that, dynamic. It could change frequently, or not change for more than 1 year. It really depends on how the DHCP server that’s assigns the IPs is set up. What Is Static IP?
Read: IP Address
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What Is IP Address?

What Is IP Address?
This number is an exclusive number all information technology devices (printers, routers, modems, et al) use which identifies and allows them the ability to communicate with each other on a computer network. There is a standard of communication which is called an Internet Protocol standard. In laymans terms it is the same as your home address. In order for you to receive snail mail at home the sending party must have your correct mailing address (IP address) in your town (network) or you do not receive bills, pizza coupons or your tax refund. The same is true for all equipment on the internet.

Without this specific address, information cannot be received. IP addresses may either be assigned permanently for an Email server/Business server or a permanent home resident or temporarily, from a pool of available addresses (first come first serve) from your Internet Service Provider. A permanent number may not be available in all areas and may cost extra so be sure to ask your ISP.

Domain Name System (DNS): This allows the IP address to be translated to words. It is much easier for us to remember a word than a series of numbers. The same is true for email addresses.

For example, it is much easier for you to remember a web address name such as whatismyip.com than it is to remember 192.168.1.1 or in the case of email it is much easier to remember email@somedomain.com than email@192.168.1.1

Dynamic IP Address: One that is not static and could change at any time. This type is issued to you from a pool of addresses allocated by your ISP or DHCP Server. This is for a large number of customers that do not require the same address all the time for a variety of reasons.

Your computer will automatically get this number as it logs on to the network and saves you the trouble of having to know details regarding the specific network configurations. This number can be assigned to anyone using a dial-up connection, Wireless and High Speed Internet connections. If you need to run your own email server or web server, it would be best to have a static IP address.

Static IP Address: One that is fixed and never changes. This is in contrast to a dynamic IP address which may change at any time. Most ISP's can offer to assign a single static IP or a block of static IP's for a few extra bucks a month and may require you upgrading to a business account.

IPv4: Currently used by most network devices. However, with more and more computers accessing the internet, IPv4 IPs are running out quickly. Just like in a city, addresses have to be created for new neighborhoods but, if your neighborhood gets too large, you will have to come up with an entire new pool of addresses. IPv4 is limited to 4,294,967,296 IPs.

IPv5: This is an experimental protocol for UNIX based systems. In keeping with standard UNIX (a computer Operating System) release conventions, all odd-numbered versions are considered experimental. It was never intended to be used by the general public.

IPv6: The replacement for the aging IPv4. The estimated number of unique IPs for IPv6 is 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 or 2^128.

The old and current standard of IP Address was this: 192.168.100.100 the new way can be written different ways but means the same and are all valid:
  • 1080:0000:0000:0000:0000:0034:0000:417A
  • 1080:0:0:0:0:34:0:417A
  • 1080::34:0:417A
Read: Android Phones
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What Is Android Phones?

What Is Android Phones?
The new Android phones are phones that operate on the Linux Kernal mobile operating System. It was developed by Android Inc, and later purchased by Google. This system enables developers to write managed codes in the java language and control the device with Google developed Java libraries.

The Android Phones are the phones of the future because they combine the ultimate advances in mobile phones, video, cameras, PC's and Navigation systems with multiple applications. The Phase development of the Android Phones started with the first model that had bugs and poor documentation, this was first introduced with the Sake Game-Android Development Phone. Next came the Android SDK it had a debugger, libraries, documentation, and tutorials. The final droid was the Android OS-Donut which added supports like voice search, priced applications and Gmail freeze fixes.

The Android OS system is important in this new system because it allows third party developers to create their own screen widgets. This allows for more applications and more opportunities for the manufacturer. The new Android Phones are being made by Google, Motorola, and HTC, LG, Dell and others breaking into the Smartphone market.

The technology that it promises is ground breaking. The Android system acts like a robot, the user tells it what to do and it does it with supposed lightening speed.

The new Android Phones are basically bringing the desktop to the mobile phones. It allows for emailing, instant messaging, and web browsing all at the same time. It can run applications in the background while the user goes to a social network site. It also allows the user to listen to music and write an email at the same time, while talking on the phone. The possibilities are endless; the Android system allows several applications to run at the same time, just as a computer with windows does.

There are thousand of applications available for the Android phones and more are becoming available everyday. With the apps and the ability to multitask without having to shut down one act to do another is the new age of the mobile phones thanks to Goggles Android system. The new Android 2.0 is the latest in the line of Android systems to hit the market. The capabilities and promises are coming true very quickly as 2.0.1 stands ready for release.

Many people enjoy using the Android Phones already and sales have been phenomenal. Everyone wants a system that acts like a PC but is really a phone with all of the capabilities. The technology has just begun and there is more to come.
Read: Mobile Internet
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What Is Mobile Internet?

What Is Mobile Internet?
We can access the internet from (almost) anywhere these days. With our computers, laptops, phones and tablets. Can you believe that it was only the late 90s that mobile phones became popular? The fast moving mobile technology world is evolving faster than a lot of us can keep up with.

Now we can make video calls to the other side of the world with Skype on our iPads, we can download music onto our iPhones, we can take photos and paste them onto Facebook from the beach. We really have come a long way in the last decade.

How does it work? Telecom companies in Australia set up Wireless networks which span large portions of inhabited Australia. You have probably seen mobile towers around cities or on hills as you travel through the country. These towers traditionally used as voice hubs now also transmit and receive data, i.e your internet and emails to and from your mobile internet device and your computer.

You should not confuse mobile internet with a home wireless network. Mobile internet is where you are provided a SIM card for your device and can connect to the internet through a Telecom provider such as Optus or Telstra almost anywhere. A home wireless network is generally a router that sits in your house and creates a small wireless network for people in your house to connect to the internet.

You may have heard the term 3G or 4G before, this term refers to the groups of technology used to run the wireless network e.g. 3rd generation or 4th generation. 3G and 4G are essentially marketing terms which simplify groups of advanced technologies which most customers do not want or need to know about.

The difference between the 3G and 4G network is that the 4G network uses newer technologies. faster and a more robust connection.

At the moment, the only Telecom country to have an active 4G network is Telstra. Their LTE (Long term evolution) network is active and being used by the general population.

The LTE network is not true 4G however it does offer customers 4G speeds and that is all we need to worry about.

Telstra claim download speeds on their 4G network between 2Mbps and 40Mbps, although it appears to be rare to be getting speeds at the top end of that claim. Still, it is a significant increase on Telstra's 3G speeds which generally around an average of 2Mbps. These wireless network speeds can vary dramatically subject to changers in distance from tower, volume of use and your device configuration.

The coverage for the 4G wireless network is currently small, you will only get 4G speeds in capital city CBD's and selected regional areas. This is expected to expand dramatically as Telstra tests and rolls out the new network.

If you are not in a 4G enabled area, your device will automatically switch back to the 3G network.

With Telstra's 4G network, the quality and experience of mobile broadband has increased dramatically and will continue to do so as it's competitors launch their own 4G networks and Telstra improves it's own network.

Mobile Internet has come along way in a short amount of time. If you havn't used it in a while you will be impressed.
Read: Mobile Marketing
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What Is Mobile Marketing?

What Is Mobile Marketing?
Mobile marketing is essentially taking advantage of the popularity of cell phones (especially smartphones) to make money. It is a subset of internet marketing, which uses web-based advertising. Mobile marketing advertisements are also viewed over the internet, but on a phone browser rather than a computer.

There are many advantages to this. Primarily, there are many more people using cell phones to access the internet than there are using computers. This means any form of cell phone marketing will reach a higher number of people. In addition, getting your ads on smartphone apps, mobile sites, and cell phone browsers is far cheaper than doing the same on computers.

In addition to lower costs and a larger audience, marketing on smartphones also has virtually no competition for most of the highest paying terms. This means that you make more money in a shorter amount of time when compared to other methods.

If you have been looking to make money online, mobile marketing is one way to do it that will introduce you to all of the basic principles of internet marketing without the cost, complications, and competition. If you're someone who is already making money online, mobile marketing is a way to simplify and diversify what you are currently doing.

In short, mobile marketing provides a money making opportunity to the experienced and inexperienced alike. It involves utilizes the popularity of smartphones and other types of cell phones to make a profit. Because of the low cost and lack of competition, it is a good option for anyone looking for a new method to make money online.
Read: Mobile Learning
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What Is Mobile Learning?

What Is Mobile Learning?
The term ubiquitous often appears in conjunction with scholarly articles on mobile and communication devices and more specifically, mobile learning. This article will help us understand more about this term and why it has become so relevant in the field of mobile learning.

Wikipedia states that ubiquitous learning (or u-learning) is equivalent to a form of simple mobile learning, e.g. learning environments that can be accessed in various contexts and situations.

With mobile learning expanding globally, more and more people have begun to experience ubiquitous learning (learning that can happen whenever you need it, however you want it) using their mobile devices.

Features of Ubiquitous Learning
The main characteristics of ubiquitous learning are (Chen et al., 2002; Curtis et al., 2002):
  • Permanency: Learners can never lose their work unless it is purposefully deleted. In addition, all the learning processes are recorded continuously in everyday.
  • Accessibility: Learners have access to their documents, data, or videos from anywhere. That information is provided based on their requests. Therefore, the learning involved is self-directed.
  • Immediacy: Wherever learners are, they can get any information immediately. Therefore learners can solve problems quickly. Otherwise, the learner may record the questions and look for the answer later.
  • Interactivity: Learners can interact with experts, teachers, or peers in the form of synchronies or asynchronous communication. Hence, the experts are more reachable and the knowledge is more available.
  • Situating of instructional activities: The learning could be embedded in our daily life. The problems encountered as well as the knowledge required are all presented in the nature and authentic forms. It helps learners notice the features of problem situations that make particular actions relevant.
  • Adaptability: Learners can get the right information at the right place with the right way.
By looking at the features of ubiquitous learning, it's easier to understand why many consider mobile education to be a form ubiquitous learning.

With the development of mobile learning, the concept of ubiquitous education has become more tangible. While u-learning itself extends beyond known technologies like portable computers and mobile devices, this decade has ushered in the advent of mobile education, considered by many as a vital step towards a truly ubiquitous learning system.

Reference: Chen et al., Curtis et al., 2002, In Young Scientific Research(2) no. 15700516 from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
Read: Mobile Forensics
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What Is Computer Forensics?

What Is Computer Forensics?
Computer forensics is a division of overall forensic science specifically involved with exploring evidences that are hidden in various digital computing devices. This particular field of study basically retrieves unearthing hidden data from digital storage devices such as hard disks, CD-ROMS, flash memories and cell phones.

Throughout the years, this particular field of study has branched and spread its branch to other fields such as retrieving email files, processing systems and data packets traveling on a network. Generally, any information explaining a sequence of events that can be retrieved from a digital computing device can be used as court evidence.

Currently, technology has been widely exploited in order to commit serious crimes including ID thefts, phishing and other online fraudulent crimes. In order to keep a step ahead of these criminals, various detective and investigative agencies from different countries; have strengthened their forces and prepared them with the expertise to fight such crimes. Firewall forensics, database forensics and network & mobile device forensics are some of the many fields that have emerged out of computer forensics in the last decade.

Normally, an investigation of this area is divided into five broad sections:
  • Preparation of an investigation
  • Collection of data from digital computing devices
  • Examination of the data
  • Analysis of the data
  • Reporting
Much like any other forensic investigation, evidences based on this particular investigation can be used to charge the culprits in court. Computer forensic investigators normally work in the lab for hours - sometimes they have to stay overnight in the lab looking for important leads in some criminal cases.
Readmore: Mobile Broadband
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What Is Mobile Broadband?

What Is Mobile Broadband?
The road to mobile broadband - how the online world evolved
As we look back on the history of the internet, we can see a constant evolution. Things never stay the same, they move and evolve, fighting to set new standards, to become more than they once were. It really is like evolution, with advancements being made, and the best surviving. And in doing that, the internet has evolved from the lumbering beastie it used to be, into a swift, nimble-footed creature, running like the wind, and following us wherever we go (yep, I know how to stretch a metaphor well past the point where it ceases to be useful!)

It all started, for me, at least, with dialup, using a modem you had to actually take your computer to bits to install. Which was both annoying and painful, if you caught your fingers in the case (as I did EVERY time). Then along came broadband, and the internet got fast. And my god, wasn't it better! So, as broadband evolved, and got faster, we went from modems to wireless routers, and that opened the world's eyes to something cool: using the internet, on a laptop, whilst wireless and moving about was cool. But it was only this year, in 2008, that the idea reached its true potential. Not WiFi... fully mobile broadband.

Mobile Broadband - what we've all been waiting for:
2008 is a big year for the internet, because this is the year that mobile broadband goes big time. I'm talking full-on, no-holds-barred world domination. Imagine the wonder of it. No more wires, and going online wherever you want. Oh, it's going to be glorious!

So, why is mobile broadband so good? What makes it achieve a level of brilliance that no other broadband system can match? Well, in truth, there are a couple of factors.

First off is obviously the fact that it's completely mobile. With absolutely no need to go hunting down a WiFi hot spot, and no need to have a home landline, it frees up the internet, setting it free from boundaries, so you can carry it round with you wherever you go (probably not in your pocket, though, unles you've got pockets big enough to fit a laptop in...).

The second big factor is simply how easy it is to set up. You get the USB Modem, you plug it in, it installs itself, you go online. It's so easy it beggars belief. Compare mobile broadband to any other internet package, and I guarantee it will come off well!
Read: Grid Computing
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What is Grid Computing?

What is Grid Computing?
Grid computing is all about using the untapped resources of computers connected to a network. IBM perhaps defines it most succinctly: Grid computing is applying resources from many computers in a network-at the same time-to a single problem. The development of the World Wide Web revolutionized the way we think about and access information. We really don't think twice anymore about logging on to the web and pulling up information on almost any topic imaginable. What the Web did for information, Grid computing aims to do for computation. Grid computing is really the next logical evolution of the Internet.

The Internet began with TCP/IP and networking; then came communication with e-mail, followed by information sharing with the World Wide Web. Next will be the advent of grid computing, the sharing of actual computer resources, such as memory, storage, and processing power. It is almost mind boggling to imagine the types of applications that could be developed if access to distributed supercomputers, mass storage and vast memory were as straightforward as access to the web. So there are several ways of looking at Grid Computing: as a way to connect the computational power of all the big computers together and give access to companies and academia alike; as a way to connect ALL the computers both big and small and derive computational efficiencies (think peer-to-peer networks); as the next logical step in providing a computational platform for Web Services; as a business on demand or computing as a utility model which IBM and others are touting. All of the above are in effect true.

Through a variety of different means and technologies, computers will learn to share each other's processors, storage and memory, much as they share communications and information today, and applications will take advantage of these resources. While we are far from realizing the full effects that Grid computing will bring, it is upon us and there are both short-term and long-term ramifications for the enterprise.

The actual brains of the computers will be connected, not just the arteries. This means that users will begin to experience the Internet as a seamless computational universe. Software applications, database sessions, and video and audio streams will be reborn as services that live in cyberspace. Once plugged into the grid, a desktop machine will draw computational power from all the other machines in the grid. The Internet itself will become a computing platform. Grid computing is the next logical step for the Internet to take.
Read: Mobile Content

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What is Mobile Content?

What is Mobile Content?
The uses of mobile phones have grown in leaps and bounds since the early 90s and consequently its importance in daily life has developed too. The mobile phone is now used for various activities like making calendar appointments, sending and receiving messages, listening to music, watching or taking videos, cashing coupon codes for online purchases, connecting to the internet, the list is endless. The mobile content is any medium that is made use of in a mobile phone like their ring tones, graphics, games, etc.

At the same time mobile content can also mean the matter or the multimedia that is put up on the various websites. They can be regular pages on the internet or alternatively they can be mobile pages. Mobile content using text messaging is even now the most widely used means of sending messages to consumers and it is even today considered the most efficient method of attracting the targeted audience. But it is vital to utilize the correct providers to ensure proper functioning.

The new age phones have the Blue-tooth built into it enabling videos to be sent from mobile to mobile and the benefit is that there are no data charges for it. The leading marketers for mobile content are Japan and South Korea followed closely by Europe, but it is still catch up in Canada and the US. Some of the most popular mobile contents are Musical Ring tones, Poly Tones, Mobile Videos, Mobile Phone Games, Animations, and Wallpaper.

Mobile games are those that permit you to play a game on your hand held set and the major games in their order of preference include puzzles, arcade games, action or adventure games, cards, Word games and sports or racing. Many researches show that it is mostly women who buy and play mobile games.

Mobile images are typically used as wallpaper or screen savers and in many cell phones, you can set the phone such that images display the callers. Mobile music is an audio file that can be played on your mobile and is usually in MP3 format. Another form of mobile music is the full track download of a complete song that can be played on your mobile phone. You can buy these over the mobile network, but are exorbitantly priced. You could also download the song by first downloading it on to your computer and get it transferred on to your cell phone by means of Bluetooth technology.

Mobile videos are available in various formats like MPEG4, 3GPP, RTSP, and Flashlite. Another mobile phone content is the Mobishow which is a series that has been specifically got ready for mobile viewing. Some Mobishows are 'The Ashes' and 'The Paparazzi Show'. You can also see live video shows that can be streamed and sent to other mobile phones by making use of certain applications like Qik and the Wi-Fi.

Mobile content delivery systems are beginning to get patented with promises to improve the capability and speed of the use of application content. With the number of mobile phone users on the increase more and more people are utilizing their mobile phones to access online data and other correlated material, making the use of mobile phone content more indispensable.
Read: Cloud Computing
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What Is Cloud Computing?

What Is Cloud Computing?
The name cloud computing comes from the cloud symbol that is often used in flowcharts for representing Internet. Cloud computing defines delivering of the hosted services over the Internet. These services are divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

This technology is completely focused on providing efficient and centralized computing services. An internet connection along with a central remote server is required in cloud computing in order to maintain data.

Let's have a detailed look on this topic. A cloud can be of two types: Private or Public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. For example, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider. A private cloud, on the other hand, supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. Thus, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.

As the world is moving ahead towards the growing trend direction, it is very clear that cloud computing will soon be emerging as a big bang for software development companies and soon we will be able to see various providers of the service. This technology mainly covers various IT related services such as computing, storage, networking, system security, application and platform. These services are charged based on the usage.

Some of the future benefits of CC can be listed as:
  • Latest technologies will be provided in schools, colleges & universities at an affordable price.
  • Start-up business firms don't need to invest on IT infrastructure, instead they can run their business on the Cloud with an office at home.
  • Cloud computing even helps a small retailer to send SMS greetings to their customers.
  • Multimedia digital content can be distributed to various consumers through cloud at a lower price.
With the help of cloud computing many new areas will be discovered and your computing storage will be outsourced to a Cloud provider. Every Mobile application development company is also using these services to develop customized applications/products.

A simple example of cloud computing is Yahoo or Gmail web-based e-mail services. In order to use these services, we do not require any server or software. Just a simple requirement of internet connection is needed and we get access to our mailbox. We can read as well as send our messages and do many other activities depending upon the functionalities provided by the e-mail service provider. This clearly indicates that how reliable, robust, scalable the usage of cloud computing is.

A company can lead to increase in its business sales with reduced costs by using this consumption based model of cloud computing. Without having the need of getting a software license or server installation, merely an internet connection can help get a performance based secured way to fulfill your requirement.
Read: Mobile Advertising
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What Is Mobile Advertising?

What Is Mobile Advertising?
In the marketing world, mobile advertising is the way of the future. Advertising through this medium is similar to advertising online although the potential target is much greater. In 2009, the number of mobile phones in the world totaled over 4.6 billion. Computers totaled less than a quarter of that. Currently the amount spent on mobile advertising is only around 1% of total advertising budgets. Media for mobile phones is quickly evolving. Approximately 90% of the United States population owns a cell phone according to CTIA, the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry.

Mobile advertising has really taken off in countries like Spain, France and Japan. In Japan, 44% of mobile phone users click on ads they receive via their phones. The largest mobile advertising company in Japan, D2, announced in November of 2009 that the industry was worth 900 million dollars in their country alone. There are several forms of mobile ads from web banners to SMS advertising to advertising within applications and games. Other forms include audio or video recordings that play while interacting with different services. You can get free instant access to the best mobile marketing newsletter.

According to Mashable, an online guide to social media and one of the top ten blogs worldwide, trends to watch in mobile advertising include:
  • Innovations through SMS
  • Advancements with rich forms of media like sound, gaming and video
  • Mobile applications or mobile websites
  • Geo-location as an advertising tool
  • The role of mobile video
  • Innovations through SMS
Of the available mobile phone models, 98% are capable of short message service, or text messaging. This form of communication is one of the most popular methods in the world. Text messaging is easy to use with a low-cost. There are no applications needed to text another person. Service providers offer a range of options from unlimited plans to plans that give up to 250 messages per month. Even if a person opts out of a text message plan, he or she still is capable to receive a message.

Statistics show that in late 2008, the average American user sent 357 text messages per month. Experian reported that text messages are usually read within 15 minutes of being received and responded to within an hour while email messages might go unread for several days.

Advancements with Rich Media
With the number of smartphones saturating the market, rich media will begin to have a stronger foothold in the mobile advertising industry. Consumers prefer engaging, interactive ads, designed through rich media like gaming, sound and video. A drawback to this form of mobile advertising is that skills and time are necessary to create ads. Big companies have the advantage with this media as they are more likely to have the budget and staff capable of tackling this type of advertisement.

Mobile Applications or Mobile Websites In Advertising
Advertisers have to decide if they are going to create a mobile application or a mobile website. Some will opt to do both. Certain factors like operating systems, types of devices, and screen size all play a role in how they will present mobile marketing. Internet giant Google is taking the mobile web road while Apple is going the application route. At this time it is difficult to find out which type of platform consumers will prefer in the future. This causes many issues during the development stage.

In an April 2010 survey conducted by eROI, trends in mobile marketing, less than a third of marketers in the United States consider the mobile marketing experience important to their customers. Only 23% of the respondents reported having an optimized website for a mobile device. An internet trends report by Morgan Stanley estimated that by the year 2014, mobile devices will conduct half of the web browsing done by Americans.

Advertising with Geo-Location
Geo-Location is one of the newer trends in mobile advertising. Applications like Foursquare are place-based programs for smartphones that help consumers find new ways to explore their city. Although there is an interest in this type of marketing, a recent study by Foursquare indicated that only 4% of users have taken advantage of place-based services. Only 1% actually log in to a location once per week.

Some concerns with geo-location based mobile advertising centers around privacy issues. This is also the case for other forms that deal specifically with targeted marketing. When companies customize ads, they use personal behavioral data, user profiles, and other data mind information. Privacy advocates have warned the industry that this may result in privacy infringement. Generally users have to give consent when opening an account for an application. This consent will override many privacy issues. The Mobile Marketing Association has published guidelines to aid marketers but as this is a rapidly growing area, the Association has found it difficult to keep their guidelines current.

The Role of Mobile Video
Internet video consumption has experienced a huge growth with today's internet users. Because of this trend with internet video, marketers assume that mobile video will also experience a huge growth. Cisco, a worldwide leader in networking, believes that the use of video will occupy about 66% of mobile traffic by 2013.

Mobile advertising has definitely caught marketers attention and the amount spent on advertising is growing. Marketers can measure the effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns by the number of views and clicks as well as other interactive tools. Swedish analyst, Berg Insight predicts that by 2014, mobile marketing will represent 11.7% of the total digital advertising market.
READ MORE - What Is Mobile Advertising?

What is a Computer Chair?

What is a Computer Chair
According to certain reports, an average office worker sitting in a computer chair working at least 8 hours a day will move his chair at least 250 times. With this much movement, any flooring can sustain considerable damage in a year's time. Because repairing floors can be costly, the need for a cheaper alternative is needed. Thus the need for a chair mat. It is basically a mat that you place underneath you computer chair to help protect your flooring. Unlike traditional mats, they have anti-static properties than can also help protect your computer hardware.

Similar to any other mat, these mats provide a number of benefits. First of all it adds protection to your flooring. With the wear and tear your floors endure everyday, a mat will help reduce these damages. Comparing the cost of repairing your floors to buying a chair mat, your costs will definitely decrease.

The mats also provide you more movement. If you have tried moving your chair from one desk to another in a carpeted surface, you know how back breaking it can be. With it, you can easily glide from one place to another without hurting your back. Because of this increased mobility, a mat not only protects your carpet, it can also prevent injury to a person's joints and back. Also, this will ensure less fatigue while working in an office.

As mentioned earlier, an additional feature computer mats have is their ant-static properties. Whenever we move around in our computer chair, it creates static electricity that can transfer from the floor through our body and then to the computer. Static electricity can greatly damage computer hardware. Take for instance the RAM or memory module. Static electricity can "fry" it or make it unusable if it's not protected.

Aside from these benefits, it can come in any shape or design. This means that it will suite any office setting, or even home setting, one may have. Be it a small conference room or a long row of office cubicles, most manufacturers can adapt to any need. Although the price range of these computer chair mats can be a bit steep, the added protection to your flooring and computer equipment plus the other benefits like reduced risk of injury and fatigue, can make up for the cost of purchasing one.
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