Animoto (animoto.com) goes where no one has gone before  offering a simple, automated process for making professional-quality digital presentations.

Images, video clips, text and audio recordings (or a selected soundtrack from the site’s library) are uploaded to the web-based site. The platform combines the material to produce original shows  no two are alike. The shows not only are visually stunning, but they also include impeccable timing  transitioning with the pace and rhythm of the music. This type of production used to take hours to do by hand in a professional studio.

The final video, which is in widescreen format, can be emailed to everyone on your list or posted to YouTube, Facebook, blogs, Twitter or other social sites but not to company websites such as www.direct.tv and the like. The videos also can be burned on a DVD for showing on high definition computer monitors, televisions or projection screens.

A basic version of the program is available free to everyone. The professional version, which includes unlimited use and a white box to place a logo or business name, is available for a reasonable annual fee.

Animato has many real-world uses. It can be a teaching tool, a sales and promotional piece, a product used for real estate sales or photography studios. It also can be leveraged by nonprofit or advocacy groups to raise awareness about an issue or cause. And certainly, it’s a fun tool for personal use enabling you to create original movies and seasonal video cards to send to loved ones near and far.

The best videos are the result of planning and prep-work. Photo enhancement, like cropping, editing and retouching, helps the images to be more attractive and compelling. Adding a compelling message or narrative also contributes to the quality of the finished piece.

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There are so many great electronic gadgets out there that it can sometimes be hard to find stores that sell the best ones. However, you can use Canada 411 in order to find stores that sell electronic gadgets. Canada 411 will show you the best stores that sell these items, and they will be reputable stores. It is important that you find the right stores that sell electronic gadgets since they are always changing and improving with technology.

One thing to look for when buying the best electronic gadgets is getting the best deal for them that you can. Canada 411 can make this easy since they will have many stores that sell electronic gadgets and you can do some comparison-shopping in order to find the best deals out there. Whether you are looking for a new iPad or iPod or any other type of electronic gadget, Canada 411 can really help you out. If there are gadgets that are not easy to find, knowing which stores sell them is important information. No matter what you are looking for, Canada 411 can help you out.

With advancing technology, there are always new and improved electronic gadgets. You can find info on the stores and what gadgets are available by using Canada 411. The electronic gadget industry is a huge one. There are so many stores out there vying for your business. You can find great deals, but you must know the stores that sell these types of gadgets.

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Technology often baffles — its meanings too obscure, its distinctions too subtle. Circuits and software, source codes and tasks: these all blur together, resulting in confusion for users. It seems impossible to decipher the purpose of machines, even ones needed for daily tasks. And many refuse to even try, assuming there’s no value to gain in understanding how signals transfer.

There are rewards to earn with comprehension, however — with users able to finally take advantage of technology, wringing answers from every query. The guesswork is removed.

And fewer elements summon more guesses than Electronic Design Automation.

The name may frustrate: Electronic Design Automation is a concept that doesn’t readily present itself. Users may find themselves uncertain of what this does. The necessity of it, however, can’t be denied — even as it must be explained.

Simply defined, this form of technology ensures that all circuitry is maintained. It’s found in all electronic devices (rather than just the expected computers) and allows chip boards to send the necessary signals. It works to fulfill all commands and stimulates all functions — offering easy access to users. Electronic Design Automation is the secret to machines and their capabilities.

And this deserves recognition. Too often do users dismiss the collections of wires and software that composes technology. Without this integrated programming, however, no device would work — and this would cause endless complications to the modern world. Learning of automation is necessary, ensuring that it’s offered the respect it’s (fully) earned.

Deciding on a Plan

Many people who decide to go with a low end cellular phone also decide on a more affordable plan with less features, such as no data included. Using a prepaid plan is similar to using a prepaid debit card. Just like a prepaid card, you load money onto your phone and use it whenever necessary, whether it is for emergencies or your own convenience. You can even use your prepaid card to put money onto your phone over the Internet or telephone. Usually this money, or time, expires after 90 days, but that is longer than most contract plans allow. When deciding on a plan, you should consider how often you talk or text or if you simply need a cell phone for emergencies.

Buying a Phone

Low end mobile phones will provide you with multiple features, but you won’t find some of those that other phones include. If you don’t use a phone that often, buying an affordable phone rather than a fancy one is probably the best option. You will still be able to make quality phone calls, text, use a web browser, camera, and other tools on most of these phones. These phones are great for emergency devices as well as for your child’s first cell phone.

First, it is very important to decide the programming language for the software. Javascript is the best option for the simple software and C language is the best option for the software that are used for simulating high electric components.

Next step is to decide upon the electronic components that need to be installed on the circuit. Some of the most used components are resistors, diodes, and capacitors. The advanced circuit might contain waveform generators, microprocessors, and operational amplifiers.

Next basic step is to decide the input stimulus that should be used in the software. Most commonly used input stimulus are analog waveforms, batteries, current sources, and digital waveforms. Next step is to decide upon the electronic measurements. There are two options, it can be either voltage across the resistor or current through the resistor. Next, circuit components can be connected in different ways for different output.

Finally, it is very important to develop mathematical formula, graphical user interface, and a method to measure different output parameters. The code for this software should be written in modules such as code for input stimulus, code for GUI, code for output calculation, and code for component models.

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A smartphone is a type of advanced mobile phone that offers better features and applications than most common phones do. They combine the functions of several electronic devices into one such as a phone, camera, personal digital assistant, GPS, and they can even access the Internet.

The first smartphone, called the IBM Simon, was designed in 1992 and was sold by BellSouth in 1993. Besides just the feature of the phone, it also contained a calendar, calculator, address book, note pad, world clock, e-mail, games, and was capable of sending and receiving fax. It was a touch screen phone, had no camera, but was considered very advanced for its time.

In 2000, the Ericsson R380 Smartphone was the first phone to be marketed as a smartphone. Popular Science even said it was one of the most important advances in technology. In 2002 the Palm OS Treo was released and contained web browsing, email, contact organizer, and a calendar. Smartphones have continued to add features including cameras, GPS systems, and plenty of other popular features.

Released in 2008, the Android operating system became one of the most recent advances to smartphones. Android is an operating system run by Google that provides a variety of applications for smartphones. The demand for the Android operating system and smartphones is only increasing after they recently became more affordable and popular within the last few years. Since 2007, when Apple released their first iPhone, costing over $500, the price of smartphones have become more reasonable, now only costing around $200.

Manufacturers can only read the designed layout of a printed circuit board when it is in a special format known as gerber. This is because the equipment that creates a circuit board can only read Gerber files. Due to the equipment only reading Gerber files a print circuit board designer must take the time to covert the .pcb file to a Gerber file.

Here is a quick look at the process of how to convert a .pcb file to a Gerber file.

The conversion process is a very simple procedure. The only step that is required is the download of a program known as LinkCAD. LinkCAD will automatically run the conversion software programs so that a .pcb file will be in Gerber format.

Once the LinkCAD software has been downloaded the process is simple. In the export format section you choose Gerber and make sure that “Skip options” dialog is unchecked. From there you choose the file that you wish to convert to Gerber and then the process begins. The conversion process will take a few minutes depending upon how large the .pcb file is but after the conversion process is finished the Gerber file will be available on the computer hard drive and read to send to the print circuit board manufacturer.

Print circuit boards are specific types of computer chips that manage the communication of a technological device. The flow of energy is conducted through a print circuit board and allows the device that contains the print circuit board to work. There are many different components to a print circuit board from the way energy flows through it to the devices that are used to conduct the energy.

To ensure that the print circuit board will work properly the circuit board layout is put through a strict testing procedure to make sure that all energy flows from one point to another and does what it needs to.

While the concept of the print circuit board is fairly complex and hard to understand unless you have a lot of technological knowledge the devices that use a print circuit board are used in almost every person’s daily life. A few examples of devices that use print circuit boards include computers, laptops, cell phones, PDAs devices, iPods, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, stereo systems, video games, microwaves and TV sets. Almost every type of electronic device has some type of print circuit board in the device to make it run properly.

The first reason PCB designers use the gEDA is because it is free. Unlike other programs that require you to purchase the software the gEDA is free to use because it is available under the general public license program.

The second reason so many PCB designers use the gEDA program is because of the wide variety of computers that can use the program. The gEDA runs on any unix-like operating system so that means it runs on Windows, MAC and linux. The wide variety of computers that can use the gEDA makes it a very popular piece of software amongst PCB designers.

The last reason so many PCB designers recommend gEDA is because of the number of programs that comes with the software download. The gEDA comes with a complete design board program, a schematic program, testing, prototype and the ability to produce the circuit board through a manufacturer. There is also a layout editor that will show designers exactly where the flow of energy goes on their circuit board and where there needs to be corrections or pins placed.

Day/Night Light Control. This is a project that allows all lights in a vicinity to operate at lower power during the day and only turn on at night. There are multiple printed circuit board plans available online to show a person exactly how to program the circuit board so that the lights switch on at night and stay on low power during the day. All hardware that is required for this small project can either be created by hand if you have the knowledge or be purchased at the store in a packaged bunch. However, the plans are available online for free as an open source program which means if you know how to create the circuit board it would be very cost effective.

Gas Detector. There are many different types of gases that can be deadly if not caught in time. Whether it is butane, propane, methane, hydrogen or alcohol you will want to catch these gases as soon as they are released into the area. There is a printed circuit board program that will show you how to design a circuit board with a GH-312 sensor in it. The sensor will detect any type of gas that is in the area and alert the user when there is high levels of gas in the area. Many high level gas detection programs use a larger, more technical version of this type of printed circuit board in their products. However, a small at home device can be created with the right plans and technical knowledge.

Now, with the increase and subsequent boom of the internet and the larger need for web hosting services, the increase in positive web hosting reviews has been very obvious for all to see. The top web hosting websites have a number of them and they all proclaim high and far that the best web hosting is one that they happen to be affiliated with.

Because this is exactly what you are going to find from all positive web hosting reviews; that the website you are reading the review from is affiliated with the website that is being reviewed. This is not to say that websites that do not give off completely positive reviews are not affiliate websites; but it is more to say that websites that give off completely positive reviews are most definitely affiliate websites. They are trying to sell you a product with a promotional review that, while not being deceitful, at the same time is still only highlighting the positive aspects of whatever web hosting they are talking about. Even the worst web hosting in the world can be made to look fantastic in terms of the web hosting reviews if they only discuss the positive aspects of that website; so this begs the question as to whether or not positive web hosting reviews are useful.

Well, they are useful according to most experts but in order to realize where their usefulness lies, it is important to take a closer look at them. What you see with most promotional reviews is that they go well out of their way in order to make sure that you know about every positive aspect of the web hosting package, so in a way they are giving you everything you need to know about half of the picture. If you can find another half that discusses the negative sides of the product you are considering, then you might actually be able to use the two together as an impartial resource, since the partialities of both sources will cancel each other out. If you decide to use the positive review by itself, just keep in mind that there are potential negative aspects that you might need to investigate further and you can still use it as a good resource.

Background. Depending upon the type of job and what you will be doing for the company that is looking for a printed circuit board designer, the education and background needed will vary. Some companies will hire a printed circuit board designer straight out of high school, while others will require a Bachelor of Science degree. There are also various technical degrees that deal specifically with the printed circuit board design category. The level of education will certain benefit you when it comes to the level of income that you can earn.

Training. A lot of the companies that hire printed circuit board designers will go based off of the number of years of experience that a person has. This means someone who designed printed circuit boards in their spare time at home might stand a better chance than someone with a college degree.

Income Potential. The income potential for a printed circuit board designer is fairly high. Most beginning printed circuit board designers are making anywhere from $100,000 to $125,000 in their first year. This is because the level of experience that is required to create these circuit boards is fairly high that the income level needs to compensate for the experience that is required.

In order to create a circuit board that operates properly you will want to make sure that there is a decrease in crosstalk. Crosstalk is when there are multiple signals that are being crossed over a parallel board. To eliminate the amount of crosstalk that is on a circuit board a designer will create a circuit board that has layers. The layers eliminate the crossed signals and allows communication to run freely.

Another factor that goes into creating a decreased amount of crosstalk is the use of good quality return paths for the communication signals. When the communication is not at a good quality the signals can often cross over each other and create what is known as crosstalk.

If you keep this in mind when creating a printed circuit board will allow you to create a circuit board that is highly functional and has all the qualities that you are looking for in a printed circuit board.

If you are new to the circuit board designing process then you will be looking for a great program for beginners. The ExpressPCB program is ideal for beginner circuit board designers and allows anyone that is new to the circuit board designing process to learn while they build a circuit board.

The ExpressPCB program is ideal for those that are looking to design anywhere from a two to four layer circuit board. The limitation to the ExpressPCB is that is works better on a computer that is running on Microsoft Windows as the majority of the program uses a graphical user interface which works better on Windows PCs.

The layout of ExpressPCB is fairly simple. The whole program operates by using what is called a drop and dray design. A drop and drag design allows users to pick the components of the circuit board and drop it onto the circuit board in the software program. The designer can then place various pins in the circuit board to show where things need to be connected.

What makes ExpressPCB so great for beginners is the ability of the program to show the designer where there are flaws in their design. When the designer places pins and components onto the screen it will show a blue highlighted line where all the components should be connected to make sure that the power flow is right.

The only drawback of the ExpressPCB is that should you wish to create the actual circuit board that you designed you will have to pay for the circuit board to be manufactured by an outside company.

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When a beginner designer tries to develop a printed circuit board it can often times be overwhelming. There are hundreds of components that need to work together in order to achieve a goal. For the advanced designer they might be able to piece together a circuit board by eye and figure out what goes where, but the beginner designer will need a little help and guidance. Here is a look at a great program for the beginner designer that will walk any designer through the various steps of the circuit board creation process.

The EAGLE Layout Editor is a program that is developed by the CADSoft company. It is free for any computer designer that has access to the Internet. A great benefit of the EAGLE Layout Editor is that unlike other software programs this one is developed for use on a number of different operating systems. It doesn’t matter whether you have a Mac, Windows or Linux operating system the EAGLE Layout Editor can be used on all of those operating systems.

The biggest benefit of choosing the EAGLE Layout Editor over other circuit board software programs is that is has three different parts to the software program. Each part is beneficial to the circuit board creation process. The EAGLE Layout Editor contains a layout editor program, schematic editor and an autorouter. The layout editor is important because it allows users to create a circuit board directly on the screen and show all the various components of the circuit board. The schematic editor allows designers to see where the flow of power will be on the circuit board and whether there is a need to add or take away elements. The last piece of the software program the autorouter will actually physically show the designer the flow of power and direct it where to go.

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If you are new to the circuit board creation scene then you have probably noticed that there are computer files popping up that have an extension of .pcb. So what exactly is this new file extension code and what programs put it on the end of their files? Here is a look at the .pcb file extension, why it is used and what programs use it.

The .pcb file extension is a file extension that is used specifically for programs that run printed circuit board software tools. These programs are usually the program that you use to design a circuit board or to test the flow of the energy once the circuit board has been created. As with all file extensions the .pcb allows the computer to separate the printed circuit board file from any of the other files.

Files that do contain an extension of .pcb can be found in a variety of different types of files. The .pcb file can be either a data file, as is the case when the written data of a circuit board is created, a 3D graphics file, CAD-CAM-CAE file, document file or even a database file. It really depends on the program that you used to create the .pcb file and what you were creating at the time.

Programs that create the .pcb file extensions are print circuit board creation software programs as well as Microsoft Powerpoint and Print Shop. While Powerpoint and Paint Shop will create .pcb files the typical program that creates this type is a printed circuit board creation software program.

Gain Insight Into Your Customer’s Experience

By using online survey tools, you can keep your finger on the pulse of your customer’s current needs and desires. It will give you a good indication of customer satisfaction. Armed with this information, you can make changes or create targeted promotions that will increase customer demand. It will also give you insight into why certain things are happening, what your customers like or dislike, and whether your customer service group is doing their job. In some cases, you can make simple tweaks to your site that cost very little to increase the likelihood that a visitor to your site will actually place an order.

Using Survey Tools

When using survey tools, always respect your customer’s time. A good survey will only ask one or two very targeted questions and provide a simple way for the customer to close the window without answering. Without this, you run the risk of angering your customer and losing their business completely. In most cases, the survey will automatically pop-up when a user lands on your site. There are two approaches. With the first, you can ask them to answer questions right away. The second approach asks if they would like to take a survey before they leave the site. Including a special offer for a completed survey will usually result in a higher level of participation.

By taking the time to consider your customer’s thoughts and needs, you can increase your orders and grow your business. When will you create your next online survey?

Free PCB is a completely free printed circuit board design program. It is available to anyone that has an Internet connection. The only requirement to use Free PCB is that the computer user must be operating on the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The overall software program of Free PCB is an easy to use printed circuit board program. The program allows designers to create their own circuit board and then check the design to make sure that all the components will work together and in the proper order. The Free PCB software program is ideal for those that are just curious about whether or not their designed circuit board will work as intended.

Free PCB has a maximum circuit board size of 60 inches by 60 inches. It also only checks circuit boards that have anywhere from one to sixteen copper layers. If the circuit board that you are checking is outside of this range you will need to consider one of the larger programming software programs. Another great feature of the Free PCB program is that it allows users to use either the English measurement system or the metric system, so the programmer can design in their own measure system.

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When creating any type of product that has a circuit board in it you will want to make sure that all the circuits will do exactly as they are supposed to. While many people will just create a circuit board and hope for the best, others will use a computer software program known as an electronic design automation program. Electronic design automation programs allow the creator of the product to map out what the circuit board looks like and do a test run of it on the software to see if all the components of the circuit board will do as they are supposed to.

If you are considering creating a product that involves a circuit board here is a look at some of the electronic design automation software programs that might be available for you to use.

Free PCB. Free PCB is a downloadable program that is available for those that use a Windows PC. It is a very simple electronic design automation software program that allows those that are creating their own electronics to test out the circuit boards and see if everything will work together.

EAGLE Layout Editor. The EAGLE Layout Editor is an advanced electronic design automation program that allows any computer user with an access to the Internet the ability to do a number of things with their circuit board. They can design a complete layout, do an automatic test run and even troubleshoot any problems that might arise with the circuit board that is designed.

gEDA. The gEDA electronic design automation program is a software tool that is available for those that use a unix imitation software program. It features a layout editor that allows users to design a layout of a circuit board and it also has a trace optimizer that will show designers the best layout for their circuit board.

Kicad. Kicad is the most advanced electronic design automation program that is available for computer users. It has several different types of software programs that are used together to show the optimization of the circuit board that is being designed.

Electronic design automation is the technical term for a group of computer software that is used primarily to design and coordinate important parts of the computer system. These parts include the circuit boards and integrated circuits.

The average computer user has probably never heard of electronic design automation because it is primarily used by those that create system chips. The software will display an enlarged picture of the chip and show the designer exactly where the flow of circuits goes when it comes to how the chips and computer circuit boards are designed.

Before the development of electronic design automation software the computer designers would have to draft out all system flows on a piece of paper. This was a long lengthy process. It wasn’t until around 1981 that computer companies started taking the computer chip designing process to the computer and the electronic design automation software programs were born. The development of computer software programs that allow designers to visually see what is going on in the circuit boards allows the development of the computer chips to come quicker than when it was drafted by hand.

At the moment there are several major companies when it comes to creating the software that is used for electronic design automation. These companies include Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor Graphic, Magma Design Automation and Zuken. These companies create the initial software programs that are used by computer designers and builders. Almost all the major computer companies from Hewlett Packard to Dell use one or more of these companies’ programs to develop their circuit boards.

Pong was released again in 1975 only this time it entered homes as a video game.  Approximately 150,000 of them found their way into U.S. households. With this great success, Bushnell made $28 million by selling his company to Warner Communications. This 1976 purchase ended up being a bargain for Warner Communications since total sales for the Atari home video systems reached $415 million by 1980. They also released their first edition of Atari personal computer. To ensure continued success, Bushnell had stayed on as president of the company.

Unfortunately, by 1983 Warner Communications dealt with losses of $533 million despite Atari’s new computer. They made the decision to unload Atari to the ex-CEO of Commodore, Jack Tramiel. He released a new version of the home computer called Atari St. This turned things around as sales of the new computer rose to $25 million by 1986.

In 1992 Atari released a new video game system called Jaguar. It was in direct competition to Nintendo. Though the gaming system was impressive it ended up being twice as expensive as Nintendo. Atari also faced an anti-trust lawsuit with Nintendo that same year which they lost.

The end of Atari as a company began in 1994. Sega game systems purchased all patent rights from Atari for $40 million. By 1998 JTS, the new owner of Atari sold its assets. Its final trademarks, patents and copyrights were purchased for $5 million by Hasbro Interactive.

The man who is generally considered the father of the World Wide Web is Tim Berners-Lee. He led the development of important Internet innovations such as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) the language used to write web pages, Universal Resource Locators (URLs), and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Without these developments there would be no Internet as we know it today, and he developed them between 1989 and 1991.

In 1976 Tim Berners-Lee received a Physics degree from Oxford University. Today he is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium and plays a major role in setting technical standards for the Internet.  Another name worth noting as a founding father of the Internet is Vinton Cerf. In his case, 10 years after graduating from high school he was working on the protocols that would eventually create the structure of the Internet.

Though Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web along with HTML, HTTP and URLs in 1990, the basics that he used to do so were the results of the work of Vannevar Bush in 1945. His were the basics from which the foundation of HTML, URLs and HTTP emerged.

HTML is the acronym for HyperText Markup Language, which is what is used to created documents and pages on the Internet today. It defines the layout and structure of how a Web page should appear, including its look and the functions that will work on the page. HTML can do this because it uses makes use of “tags” which include attributes which can be manipulated. The language itself is not seen by the Web page viewer, but is translated by the browser which displays the page the way in which the author desired it to appear when he wrote the page code.

The earliest form of word processing was actually the programmers who used line editors – nothing more than a software-writing aid where programmers would work-out changes to programming codes. This first use of the line editor being used as a word processor started with Michael Shrayer, an Altair programmer, who realized he could write up the manuals for their computer programs they had created by using the same computers that ran the programs themselves. This led to his creating the first word processor called the Electric Pencil back in 1976.  Several other successful word processing programs emerged around this time, including: WordPerfect, Apple Write I, Scripsit and Samna III.

Seymour Rubenstein left IMSAI in 1978 deciding to start his own company, MicroPro International, with no more than $8,500. A software programmer from IMSAI named Rob Barnaby joined with him and wrote the first version of WordStar in 1979. It was originally scripted to work on CP/M. Barnaby’s assistant, Jim Fox, re-wrote the software so that it would work on a new operating system called MS/PC DOS. (This new operating system was introduced in 1981 by Bill Gates of MicroSoft)

In 1982 MicroPro International released version 3.0 of WordStar. This latest version of WordStar for the new DOS operating system quickly became the world’s more popular word processing program on the market. Then, in an incredible turn of fortunes, by the end of the 1980′s programs like WordPerfect surpassed WordStar in performance and completely knocked it out of the marketplace.

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The beginnings of the first Ethernet began in Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) with Robert Metcalf in 1973. PARC was one of the major locations creating personal computers at the time. Metcalf was part of the research staff working for Xerox at the time and was asked to create a network system that would connect all the computers at PARC. As it worked out, Xerox was working on the first laser printer and wanted all their computers to have access to this new device. Metcalf was assigned the duty of making that happen.

Metcalfe had his work cut out for him. He had to first build a network system that would be fast enough to function properly with the new, quicker laser printer. And on top of that the system had to connect hundreds of computers all in the same building. Hundreds of computers in the same building were unprecedented at the time. If a company had a computer there was either one perhaps as many as three operating on the same premises. This was a revolutionary concept he was undertaking to bring them all together into the same network.

This new Ethernet as he called it connected all these hundreds of computers in the same building making use of hardware that linked machine to machine. It was unlike the Internet in that it didn’t connect remote computers by telephone lines, but directly. It did, however, make use of some of the same software protocol and some hardware that was used by the new Internet system. It was the hardware that connected the computers that led to the new patent the Ethernet received as a new network system. It included chips and wiring with completely new designs.

It has been reported that Metcalfe invented the Ethernet when he wrote a note to his boss regarding the potential of his new Ethernet system. Metcalfe himself, however, has said that the invention of the Ethernet evolved gradually over a period of years. It was 1976 when Metcalfe and his assistant, David Boggs, published a paper on the completed new Ethernet system.

An important next step began back in 1975 when Steve Wozniak was working for a calculator manufacturing company called Hewlett Packard. After spending his day working for HP, he would return home at night and tinker with his Altair computer kit. In 1975, these first computers were not much more than boxes with switches that made little or no sense to the common man. This is how Wozniak saw them in any case. Fortunately he also noted that the components of the new computers, the memory chips and the microprocessors, were dropping in price, to the point that he could purchase them himself with as little as he might earn in a month. With this in mind he partnered up with a friend of his, Steve Jobs, who also tinkered with the new computers and decided that they could, and should, build their own.

By the first of April in 1976, Wozniak and Jobs started Apple Computers by releasing their first computer called the “Apple I.” It became the first computer with a single circuit board. They included a video interface with their new product, which also came with its own keyboard and 8 kilobytes of RAM. They put an affordable component in it as well, the 6502 processor, which could be purchased from MOS Technologies for $25. It also included the new dynamic RAM which held data within separate capacitors inside an integrated circuit.

Wozniak and Jobs demonstrated their new Apple I prototype at a local meeting of computer hobbyists. The new computer was mounted on wood with the components visible for all to see. A dealer for a local computer shop called the Byte Shop was there and was so impressed that he ordered 100 of them. Over the next 10 months Wozniak and Jobs assembled around two hundred of the Apple Is and sold them for a price many found religiously unsettling of $666.66.

By 1977 the new Apple Computers company became incorporated and then released their new computer model, the Apple II. This new version of the Apple computer was based on the same 6502 processor but included color graphics and utilized audio cassettes for data storage. A year later, they increased the RAM from 4KB to 45KB and replaced their cassette drive with a floppy disk unit. The new Apple II sold for $1,298.

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The history of the “floppy disk” is an interesting one. This part of the history began in 1971 when IBM introduced to the world the first “memory disk,” or what was to be called later on, a “floppy disk.”  This first floppy was 8 inches in size and created out of a flexible plastic material. The disk surface had to be covered in magnetic iron oxide which would allow data to be written and read from by the computer. The name “floppy” developed naturally from the flexible structure of the disk itself. The floppy disk ushered in the first device that could contain data and be physically moved from one computer to another.

Alan Shugart was the engineer at IBM who came up with the floppy disk concept. His original intent with the floppy was to be able to move data from one location into another holding device. This larger storage device was a whopping 100 megabytes in size. Nevertheless, it wasn’t long before other uses for the floppy emerged, and soon it became the premium medium for data storage.

The cassette tape in use at the time also used magnetic material to record data. The floppy used a similar idea on the structure was different being a circle of magnetic material instead of a moving stream of tape. The disk drive would attach itself to the center of the floppy and spin it like a record. The head of the drive could read and write data and resembled that of a tape deck head. It would make contact with the surface by permeating the envelope, or the hard plastic shell of the floppy, and could read and write to both sides of the diskette. The first floppy Shugart developed could only hold 100 KB of information.

Shugart refined his design in 1976 when he created the next level, the 5 1/4″ floppy diskette. He did this for Wang Laboratories who needed a smaller size floppy disk that could be used with their new desktop computers. The new 5 /14″ disks were in full manufacture by 1978 and could now hold 1.2 MB of information. Interestingly, the 5 1/4″ size came about during a discussion at a bar, where An Wang pointed to a napkin and suggested that the disk needed to be “about that size.”  The napkin she pointed at was 5 1/4″ in size.

Sony developed the first 3 1/2″ diskettes and drives in 1981. Instead of being actually floppy like their 5 1/4″ counterparts, these were encased in hard plastic. That, however, didn’t change the name as they too were referred to as “floppy disks.”  Their first storage capacity was only 400KB, but this later increased to 720KB and they were referred to as “double density.”  The last version was able to hold 1.44MB and was called the high density disk.

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November of 1971 the world witnessed the release of the first single chip microprocessor. This new electronic marvel was the Intel 4004, the brain child of Federico Faggin, Stan Mazor and Ted Hoff, engineers working for Intel at the time. With the breakthrough of integrated circuits changing the design of computers from that point forward the only way to improve the concept was to go smaller. This new single chip microprocessor accomplished that by taking all the parts that made up the complex circuitry of the computer (the parts that made it think) and put them all together onto a single tiny silicon chip. They had made it possible for the first time ever to place programmed intelligence into an object that could do the thinking for you.

Two engineers from the Fairchild Semiconductor Company left, as did many others in 1968, to start up their own company. These two geniuses were Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore. After putting together a one-page company plan that described what the company hoped to accomplish, Noyce forwarded this business outline to Art Rock, a venture capitalist living in San Francisco at the time. Rock was able to raise $2.5 million in short order to back their new business scheme.

A hotel corporation had already trademarked the name “Moore Noyce” which they wanted to use for their new company name. But with that off the table, the two entrepreneurs took the words “Integrated” and “Electronics” and put them together to come up with the name: “Intel.” That went on to become their new name. The first product they worked on that made money for the new startup company was the “3101 Schottky Bipolar 64-bit Static Random Access Memory,” better known as an SRAM chip.

After a request to create a multifunction chip by a Japanese company called Busicom, Ted Hoff of Intel figured they could built a single chip that would do the same thing as 12 chips combined. The result was that nine months later they created the 4004 chip, a general-purpose logic chip. This new chip had 2,300 transistors that fit on 1/8th of an inch by 1/6th of an inch of silicon yet had the same power as the old ENIAC computer which consisted of 18,000 vacuum tubes and took up three-thousand cubic feet of space.

During the cold war an organization called Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created. This branch of the military was in charge of developing top secret weapons and systems for Cold War activities. Charles M. Herzfeld, a former director of ARPA, suggested an differing view of how ARPAnet came about, claiming that it was not the result of a need in the military, but that it was an outgrowth of a frustration that needed to be addressed. There were only a limited number of powerful, large research computers in the U.S. and those who needed access to them were separated by a geographical distance. ARPAnet sought to address this concern.

The system was tested for a data exchange using this new network between the computers at UCLA and those at the Stanford Research Institute. They began by attempting to log in onto a Stanford computer, which was to be accomplished by typing in “log win.” By the time the letter “g” was typed, the UCLA computers crashed.

There wree four original computers connected in the ARPAnet’s original configuration. Each was located in its own research labs, one located in UCLA, a Honeywell DDP 516; another located at the Stanford Research Institute, a SDS-940; an IBM 360/75 located at UC Santa Barbara; and the final one, a DEC PDP-10 located at the University of Utah. As they expanded their network other types of computers were connected which resulted in compatibility issues. In 1982, in order to overcome these problems they developed a new and better set of protocols called “Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol” or simply: TCP/IP. This allowed the computers to send data to each other by breaking it down into packets (IP) which the TCP made sure were delivered to the server and then reassembled correctly.

While the system remained under ARPAnet innovations like email were created as was the first remote connection: telnet; and file transfer protocol (FTP) allowing bulk information to flow directly from one computer to another. However, soon non-military uses for ARPAnet increased to the point that it was no longer a secure military operation. To combat this, the MILnet, a military only network was created in 1983. Soon after, almost all computers were loading Internet Protocol software. Shortly thereafter Local Area Networks (LANs) were invented, local in-house networks, also using Internet Protocol software so that they groups of computers could interact as well as groups of LANs.

By 1986 a new network of LANs formed the National Science Foundation Network, or NSFnet. This new network linked together five supercomputer centers, followed by all the major universities, slowly replacing the ARPAnet. It was NSFnet which eventually became the substructure to what is now commonly called the Internet today.

The first computer mouse prototype was made in 1964 in order to work in tandem with a graphical user interface (GUI) called “Windows.” Engelbart’s first mouse was a wooden shell with metal wheels designed to run an “X-Y position indicator for a display system,” as per his patent application, which he was granted by 1970. It picked up the nickname “mouse” because of the tail that came out of the end of the device. At that time when he attempted to patent his version of “Windows,” it wasn’t possible because the patent office wasn’t issuing them for software at that time. Nevertheless he now has over 45 patents that bare his name.

He worked on his inventions during the sixties and seventies in a lab he established at the Augmentation Research Center, Stanford Research Institute. He was determined to create a hypermedia groupware system which he “oNLine System” or NLS. Most of his innovations, including the mouse and windows, were an outgrowth of his NLS research.

Believe it or not in 1968 he held a 90-minute public demonstration of networked computer systems at the Augmentation Research Center. It was there that the world was first introduced to windows, the mouse, and hypermedia (including object linking), as well as video teleconferencing. By 1997 he was awarded the Lemelson-MIT prize for invention and innovation, receiving $500,000, the largest single prize awarded in the world for this kind of contribution. The following year, 1998, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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It was 1962 when Steven Russell (“Slug” to his friends), an MIT computer programmer was inspired by some stories by E. E. Smith. This inspiration let him to form a team that came up with the first official computer game. They put in approximately 200 man-hours as they created the first version of the game they came to call “Spacewar.” Russell wrote the code for the game on an early Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) device called a PDP-1 – an interactive mini-computer, complete with an old cathode-ray tube display monitor and keyboard for input. The computer had been donated to MIT from DEC in the hopes that their impressive think-tank would create some new remarkable product with their hardware. The creation of a computer game was the last thing they had on their minds when they made their donation, even though they later distributed the game as a diagnostic program to those who purchased their products. Unfortunately for Russell, he never made any money from his clever invention.

Thanks to the PDP-1′s operating system, it was the first to allow more than a single user to share a computer at the same time. This became integral to the playing of the new game. Spacewar was a two-player game that featured spaceships in a war where they fired photon torpedoes at enemy craft. It allowed each player to maneuver their own spaceship and fire missiles at the opposing player while at the same time trying to avoid being sucked into the sun by its gravitational pull. Many still find it a fun game to play today.

By the mid-sixties, despite the expensive of computer time, the game was found on almost every research computer across the United States. In the meantime, Steve Russell took his computer game programming knowledge with him to Stanford University and introduced Spacewar and his programming skills to a student named Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell took his newly acquired knowledge and started “Atari Computers.”

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The invention of the integrated circuit – also known as microchip – heralded the beginning of the new computer-age. Without it all the tiny sophisticated internal circuitry of the integrated circuit there would be no home computers, cell phones and many of the devices in cars, homes, aircraft, etc., that we all enjoy today.

The integrated circuit is actually a set of transistors and resistors, (a series of interconnected electronic components) creatively etched onto a minute chip made of semiconducting materials like germanium or silicon.

A computer industry pioneer by the name of Robert Noyce is the individual credited as one of the co-inventors of the integrated circuit, or microchip.  Along with Jack Kilby they designed and created the first integrated circuit.

In order to make a microchip they began by using several layers placed across a wafer of semiconductor material – silicon in this case. The process of layering and building the circuitry in this fashion is called photolithography and was accomplished by using particular chemicals in conjunction with gases and light.

To begin with a layer of silicon dioxide was placed across the surface of the silicon wafer. This they covered with a layer of  “photoresist,” a chemical that is extremely sensitive to light.

By exposing the photoresist layer to ultraviolet light filtered through a carefully designed pattern, only the areas exposed to the ultraviolet light became hardened. The remaining soft areas were then etched using a gas. By repeating and modifying this process they were able to create the extremely small components of the circuitry across the surface of the silicon wafer.

By overlaying the chip with thin layers of aluminum they added conducting paths that passed between the components. Then the etching and photolithography processes were employed again to clean away the remaining aluminum leaving only the conducting pathways across the chip’s surface. Through this process the first integrated circuits were created and led to the revolution in computers and small electronics that continues today.

Universities, technical schools and community colleges continue to increase the number of online classes and degree programs they offer.

Online classes appeal to a broad segment of the population – from working adults who need the flexibility, to military personnel who can take college classes even while deployed (depending on the region and internet access), to traditional students who save money by living at home with their parents and taking classes on their computer.

However, people often have misconceptions about online coursework.

First, it isn’t like pressing the “easy button.” You still have to read your textbooks, participate in class discussions (albeit in chat rooms or posts), submit papers, take tests and meet deadlines. Although you normally don’t have to be in a classroom at a certain time, you do need to check in regularly.

Second, the student has to take more responsibility. You have to make sure you’re registered and in the system before you can gain access to the learning platform. You have to order your books and materials on time so they are shipped before class begins. You need to learn how to access electronic resources from the university’s online library. And you have to quickly learn the features and sections of the learning platform. The excuse, “I didn’t know where to find the class syllabus,” won’t fly.

Third, big brother is watching. Your instructor and the site administrator can track how much time you spend inside the learning system, how many times you’ve posted answers and replies on the discussion board, and if you’re meeting deadlines. In fact, your instructor can set up assignments so they lock students out after the due date – then you’ll have to plead for your teacher to reset it so you can submit a late project.

Fourth, even though you don’t see your teacher or classmates in person, a high level of respect and courtesy is expected in online communications.

Online College Classes Offer Teaching Opportunities for Moonlighters, Retired Folks

As an increasing number colleges offer online classes and degree programs, opportunities are blooming for adjuncts.

Full time faculty, already maxed out with traditional classes, grading, advising and research activities, often are reluctant to take on the responsibility of designing and facilitating online college classes as well. Unless it is required, they may decide the extra money is not worth the time and effort to maintain classes in cyberspace.

That’s great news for freelancers, moonlighters and retired people interested in sideline income. For those with expert knowledge in their field, a master’s degree or Ph.D. and some computing savvy, they are welcomed with open arms by most universities to design and/or teach online classes.

Before this can happen, however, they must go through a rigorous application and review process. Adjuncts typically have to order official transcripts from their degree programs be sent to the school where they are applying. They submit an online application, cover letter and resume. They consent to undergo an extensive background and reference check.

If they are accepted, adjuncts then go through a training and certification program to ensure their competency with the university’s learning platform.

Now, on to the good stuff.

The first type of class is one already developed and loaded into the university’s online learning system. An adjunct faculty member customizes the class by adding calendar dates, their bio and virtual office hours, and, if needed, setting up different teams among the students. The teacher follows the syllabus, monitors student activity, grades assignments, gives feedback to the students, and submits grades to the university.

The second type of class involves creating and submitting a proposal, then waiting for approval from an online curriculum committee. When the proposal is accepted, the adjunct then creates the syllabus and course content. These are then either submitted to the university webmaster for uploading, or the teacher loads them into the learning system themselves.

These are boom times for those conducting demographic, market and opinion research. No more long, lonely hours in the library stacks. No more handing out surveys in the public square. No more dialing random numbers from the phone book. The internet and social media sites have changed all that.

A treasure trove of credible data now is available from easy-to-locate websites, most notably, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government sites. More localized information can be found on various chambers of commerce and state sites, as well as health and advocacy sites, like the American Heart Association.

If you’re affiliated with a university, you can tap into their vast electronic resources, which may include newspaper and magazine archives and the latest business, academic, legal and health science journals and studies.

Obtaining feedback and opinions is a simple process with free or low- cost web-based survey tools like surveymonkey.com or zoomerang.com. You don’t have to install software or learn complicated processes. The surveys are quick and easy to take, which boosts the likelihood of response. Target your audiences through emails, websites, Facebook, Twitter, blogs or banner ads and pop-up invitations. The surveyor specifies the number of responses desired and a cut off date. The program collects real time data through the cut off date, which can be organized into reports, charts and graphs. The data also can be downloaded into Excel spreadsheets.

You also can conduct surveys with LinkedIn. By joining various special interest groups or creating your own group, you then are entitled to pose a question to your fellow members. Another approach is to ask the question of your own first-degree connections or set it up to enable anyone else on LinkedIn to participate.

Today’s tools have opened up vast opportunities for collecting statistics and data, feedback, opinion and new insights.

Have you read a vook yet? Vook  a company (vook.com), and a product.

The company was created and self-funded by entrepreneur Brad Inman. The product is a hybrid between a digital book, a movie and online interfaces. It’s a new phenomenon taking the publishing world and readers by storm.

Vook first rolled out in October 2009 with four titles. A year later, the company had forged partnerships with 25 publishing houses and lists more than a hundred multimedia selections in 18 different fiction and non-fiction categories. Some of the offerings are available for purchase no less than five different ways: as an iPhone or iPod mobile app, as a Kindle or an iPad book, or as an online version for a notebook, net-book or desktop computer. Other titles have more limited versions for sale.

Vook is to a standard ebook what a pen and paper are to a word processor a gigantic leap forward.

Like an ebook, the new product enables the reader to enlarge text, scroll up and down, turn pages, place bookmarks and skip to different chapters. The books are offered in full color and can include high-resolution photos.

However, these multimedia publications stray from the standard formula to include embedded videos, hyperlinks of key words and the ability to send comments about the book to the author, publisher and your Facebook and Twitter friends, as well as to connect with other readers of the book. While you’re engaged in clicking and linking, new windows open for exploration while your vook waits on your screen for your return to reading. Select an icon on the top right of the page to make the video full screen. Or click a different icon to minimize the video window and see more text on the page. By choosing the mixed view, the video window is smaller and you can watch while still browsing the text on the page.

The Skinny on SD Cards

For nearly every electronic device you purchase, you’ll need to spend a few more bucks on another essential component that’s not included a SD memory card. You may be tempted to grab one based on which one costs the least; that would be a huge mistake. The cards are made in a variety of sizes, capacities and speeds to meet different demands and performance outcomes, so select one that’s compatible with your gadget. Here’s a primer on those little plastic rectangles.

The SD card hit the market in 2000, and today it’s the most widely used removable media storage device in the world. The card not only affects how many shots you can take on your digital camera, it also affects the speed at which the image is transferred onto the card so you can take your next photo, or your ability to shoot continuous, high quality videos.

• Standard SD cards have up to 2GB of memory.
• SDHC (High Capacity) cards range from 2GB to 32GB of storage.
• SDXC (Extreme Capacity) cards offer from 32GB up to 2TB of storage capacity.
• SDHC and SDXC cards with UHS (Ultra High Speed) provide consistent high writing speeds necessary for recording video. This category is sub-divided by class. For example, Class 2 is fine for standard definition videotaping. However, for high definition recording, you’ll need Class 4, 6 or 10. Live broadcasts and professional-quality high definition footage requires Class UHS-1.
• MiniSD and microSD cards (also available in miniSDHC, microSDHC and microSDXC) are smaller versions of the SD card that fit into tinier devices, such as mobile phones.

Most digital cameras perform well with 4- to 8GB SDHC cards. High performance cameras require 16- to 32GB cards. High definition video cameras need cards 32GB or higher.

Look up the recommended memory card specifications in the literature that came with your device. The SD Card Association (sdcard.org) also provides helpful guidelines and information.

The school includes brief but information-packed lessons in eight different categories:

• Behind the Scenes  storyboarding, shot design, directing, etc.
• Do-It-Yourself  a hodge-podge of helpful lessons
• DSLR Cameras  all about digital single lens reflex cameras
• Gear
• Lighting
• Shooting
• Software
• Sound

In the Video 101 tab for beginning filmmakers you’ll find lessons on choosing a camera, shooting and editing basics, and making movies with a Mac or PC.

In the Featured Lessons tab you’ll find beginning and advanced classes on capturing good sound, creating a holiday video, a glossary of video terminology and slow motion effects.

The software section provides tips on using and maximizing various programs, such as Windows Live Movie Maker, Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Affects.

Users are encouraged to do a challenge project after watching a lesson to demonstrate their mastery of the topic.

In addition, the school posts tutorials that were created by other members. You can create and submit your own tutorial for consideration. If accepted, your tutorial will be included in the school, with your byline.

You don’t have to register to watch the lessons, but if you sign up you can join in on conversations, get advice or help, comment on others  work and post your own creations. Members can interact in the forum section of the site, where they participate in general discussions, swap stories, organize projects with other members, and share information about contests and festivals. The Wanted and Offered section includes requests for talent and products as well as promoting one’s expertise and ability.

Vimeo has strict codes of conduct for members, and only accepts original, noncommercial work created by members  no commercial work allowed.

A Tron Tribute

Many people of a certain age were greatly impacted by the original Tron movie, which was released in July 1982 by Disney. Conceived, written and directed by Steven Lisberger, it was one of the first movies to use computer animation along with live action, and it took audiences on an improbable but fascinating journey inside a computer game. This film pushed the envelope of special effects and asked us to suspend disbelief as the hero is teleported inside a mainframe computer and interacts with the strange characters that live there.

Tron (from the word electronic) opened up the world of computers and video games to the masses. Audiences learned such terms as user, hacker, programmer, program, and master control program.  It showed us imagery we had never seen before, and inspired designers, programmers, artists, musicians and animators.

Amazingly, the special effects were created with one computer that had only 2MB of memory, and the storage disk had a 330MB capacity. The movie didn’t receive an Oscar for technical achievement until 1996; apparently, in the year it was released academy members thought the use of computers was cheating.

The movie developed a loyal following, and continued to live on in pop culture when it became an arcade game, a video game, a comic book, and was released as a VHS tape and later a DVD. Tron now has its own wiki site with more than 3,000 pages.

Tron started a conversation about the role of machines in our lives, artificial intelligence, and of course, the little guy standing up to the system/powers that be.

The sequel movie, Tron Legacy, released Dec. 17, 2010, evoked buzz among ardent fans, as well as interest from new generations. The new movie benefits from all the technological and cinematic advances that have occurred since 1982, and brings back original cast members Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner.

Some originals deserve a sequel: Tron certainly does.

Net Neutrality Possibly At Risk

Turn on your PC, click your browser, type in your destination, and boom there you are.

Unobstructed internet access enables ordinary people to connect quickly and directly to their chosen websites, view online video programs, listen to music and use voice over IP devices and mediums like Skype to talk to others all around the world. The current internet environment also provides an even playing field for small start up companies to compete in the global marketplace, attract customers and grow their businesses.

What we take for granted, however, is being challenged. The Federal Communications Commission is stepping in to regulate how the internet operates. And giant telecommunication companies are pushing for a legal regulatory structure for the internet.

What are the implications? Should the government decide what’s appropriate for its citizens to see and do online? Will internet service providers act as gatekeepers, limiting access or charging extra fees for certain premium sites and activities, or provide faster connections for their preferred sites? Will there be fast lanes and slow lanes? Will regulations be different for plugged-in devices than for mobile devices?

On December 21, 2010, the FCC approved net neutrality rules to prevent providers from blocking or slowing down the delivery of competitive content or charging more for faster connections to certain sites. Sounds good, right?

The FCC chairman has said there currently are no policies about internet freedom and a framework is needed to create rules of the road.

However, net neutrality advocates say the language in the new rules isn’t clear enough, allowing too much room for interpretation. Politicians against the rules plan to overthrow them, saying the government has no right to meddle with online business practices and questioning whether the FCC has the authority to enforce the new rules.

Savetheinternet.com is a nonpartisan coalition of people and organizations committed to educating others and standing up for a free and open internet. Visit savetheinternet.com for loads of up-to-date information.

Are Your Company’s USB Ports Secure?

The Wikileaks release of secret diplomatic cables from the Pentagon has spotlighted the vulnerability of sensitive information to being downloaded from company computers onto a USB drive and walked out the door.

While businesses have adopted data security practices such as password protection, anti-virus software and firewalls, USB ports are often overlooked as a risk.

The ports can be used both for introducing viruses into a network and for extracting sensitive or proprietary data. Viruses introduced to one computer can quickly spread throughout an entire network and cripple operations for hours or days. Critical data that is stolen or lost via a flash drive can expose information to the wrong entities or open the company to lawsuits. Any of these scenarios can be potentially devastating to a business.

A number of software companies offer security solutions specifically for USB port protection. Some packages, like DeviceLock enable a manager to control all the computers in a network from a central console. The software enables different levels of access for groups or individuals in the system.

Other protective programs like HDGUARD provide write protection to prevent data from being loaded onto a memory stick, as well as lock out capability that ejects any kind of USB device.

Some software programs like USB Port Blocker monitor all activity performed on USB ports, generating logs as to the hardware name and identity, IP address and the date and time when data is transferred to the removable device. This type of program can be run discreetly in stealth mode so clients and external users aren’t aware of it.

Windows XP includes a feature that enables a user to set up password protection for files and drives. Data transferred to a storage device become encrypted, making it nearly impossible to access without the password.

As companies review their network security and protection protocols, USB port protection should be included in their plans.

Virtual Work: A Growing Trend

Skilled professionals are taking advantage of today’s technology to start home-based businesses. Some choose to become teleworkers for personal reasons, such as wanting more flexibility, more time with family, less time in the car or preferring more control over their workload. Some are budding entrepreneurs. Others are forced into self-employment because of layoffs.

Whatever the reason, virtual work enables workers to utilize their skills and earn a living from a home office. Programmers, educators, writers, web designers, graphic artists, photographers, clerks and financial professionals are some of the specialists finding an increasing number of opportunities for virtual work.

Here are some tips for those considering telework:

• Know thyself. Do you have the discipline and organizational skills to stay on task and meet deadlines without a boss standing over your shoulder? Are you a social person who needs a lot of interaction with co-workers?
• Know your financial situation. Have a realistic view of how much money you need to pay the bills. You may not make as much as you did from a corporate job, especially in the beginning. However, a study by the TeleWork Coalition found teleworkers save about $8,000 a year on job-related expenses.
• Set up an office and obtain the equipment and software you’ll need to work from home.
• Cooperation from others in the household is a must. You’ll need quiet time to talk on the phone with clients and complete your work. If you have young children at home, arrange for childcare during your work hours.
• Develop several versions of your resume to fit the different types of jobs you’re applying for.
• To assist in your personal job search online, type virtual + your job title. This will help specify your search.
• Apply for a lot of virtual jobs to increase your chances of being selected. You may also try juggling several and keeping the ones that are the best fit and pays well.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association (ce.org), the average American household now has 24 electronic devices.

Twenty-five years ago you’d find one or two TVs, perhaps a cable box, a VHS player, stereo system with a turntable and tape deck, a film camera, a radio or two, a boom box and maybe a tape recorder and VHS camera. That’s about 10 devices, more or less.

Today, the number and capabilities of electronic gadgets is astounding. A well-appointed family of the 21st century conceivably has 40-some devices, such as the following:

• 5 televisions, with two likely to be high definition flat screen models
• 1 home theater system
• 1 or 2 DVD/DVR devices
• 1 or 2 digital cable boxes or a satellite service
• Maybe an Apple TV device
• 1 or 2 portable DVD players
• 1 or 2 gaming systems, such as Xbox 360 and Wii
• 1 or 2 portable game systems like a Game Boy to take on the road
• 4 or 5 MP3 players (one for each member of the household)
• 4 or 5 mobile phones (again, one for each family member)
• 2 digital cameras
• 1 digital camcorder
• 1 main stereo system and 2 or 3 MP3 speaker systems
• 1 PC and 2 or 3 laptop computers with a modem and wireless router
• 1 or 2 printers
• 1 GPS device
• 1 tablet device like an iPad
• 1 ebook reader device, like a Kindle or Nook
• 2 or 3 digital photo frames
• 1 or 2 radar detectors
• 1 digital coffee maker and/or Expresso machine

Things we had never heard of a few years ago, like an iPod or an iPad or Kindle, now are in great demand we don’t think we can live without them.

Just for giggles, take an inventory of your household electronic gadgets and see how many you have.

In a world that’s becoming faster-paced and offering more to anyone who can access the Internet, what your website looks like can matter quite a lot. In theory, it really shouldn’t be a big deal. What should matter should be what you’re offering – not how pretty your site is. Realistically, though, what matters is the entire package. Looks, offerings, wording and everything else are all important to the people who are looking for whatever it is that you’re offering. Because of that, you want to make sure that you’re giving your all to your web design. If you’re not sure how to do it right, getting a professional is a good choice.

You can offer your customers eBooks, free ringtones, and all kinds of other things, but that generally won’t be enough to keep them coming back to you if your web design isn’t good. Bad web design is more than just unattractive. It can also make your site very difficult to navigate – and that will definitely keep people from coming back. No one likes to go to a site that’s hard to get around. If you have to hunt and search for what you’re looking for, you may get tired of that, give up, and go to a site where things are easier to locate.

Keep that in mind when you’re creating your web site, or when you make changes to it. What looks fancy and cool may make the site slow to load, confusing, or otherwise annoying to a lot of people. It’s better to keep things professional and simple, as opposed to trying to put too much into a site. Everything should be easy to find, all the links and pages should work and customers should be able to contact you with questions. If you offer those things, you’ll be well on your way to a good site design.

Like humans, computers are infected, and not by bacteria but by computer viruses. Viruses are very clever and can cause serious harm to your computer. These viruses also metamorphose themselves like bioviruses. Once your computer has been infected by a virus, the best thing to do is to use a software firewall and good antivirus. This can be used to free your computer from viruses that infect them.

When your computer has been under a virus attack, you should act immediately rather than leaving it for later, since it can cause many problems for you and your computer system. If your computer is connected to a network and the Internet, you must remove or disconnect the connection immediately. This is the first thing to do to avoid transmitting the virus and infecting others with it. You may need to remove the network cable too.

Once you have unplugged your system, you can run your antivirus software if you have one installed on your computer. It can clean your computer from viruses that have infected it. But if no antivirus software is installed, it is best to get one immediately. You can get it by downloading it from an uninfected computer, or you can get it from a network administrator. If it still does not work, then you can order one from a dealer through e-mail.

Anti-virus software needs to be installed on your computer, so there is no problem in protecting your computer from viruses. Once the Anti-virus has cleaned the system thoroughly, you could restart your computer. You should follow the instructions provided with the software. You should keep running antivirus software, until there is no trace of the virus remaining. When the computer is cleaned and is infection and virus-free, you could connect your computer to the Internet. You should also check and monitor anti-virus software publishers. This is to be certain that you have the latest updates. If updates are available, you should get one immediately.

Think about how far technology has advanced when it comes to the way that people view photography. Twenty years ago, people relied on 35mm film capsules and film developing centers. In recent years, 35mm film has started to be phased out and digital cameras and photography equipment have taken its place.

It’s amazing what advances have come to photography. While many photographers believe that these advances have in some ways downgraded the way that people take photographs and view photography, the majority of professional photographers view these advances as helpful and beneficial.

One of the major benefits that has come along with the advance in technology is speed. It used to be that photographers had to take hundreds of different shots, then wait as the film was processed to see if they got that one perfect shot. Now photographers can take photos and see the results instantly on a computer screen or on a small screen on the camera. As long as the computer the photographer is using has the latest driver update, then a person should be able to view the photos instantly and be able to see the results quickly. This has revolutionized photography.

Another major benefit of the technological advances of photography is that a minimal amount of equipment is required for amateur photographers. These people are now able to take photographs with very little equipment. All it takes is a small camera, batteries and a digital card and photographers are on their way. There isn’t the need to have rolls of film, capsules to store used film, and other items that were required in the past.

Technological advances in photography may seem small when compared to other technological advances, but in the grand scheme of things, they have changed the world of photography forever.

One of the most interesting notebook devices to hit the market is the MSI FX600. This new notebook device offers a range of interesting features. MSI has managed to bring a good midway stance between many features and entertainment functionality in the release of the FX600.

The MSI FX600 comes with a 500GB hard drive and a 4GB system memory. The memory space is sufficient enough and can be enhanced later if required. The notebook display screen is 15 inches. The most interesting feature of this system is its graphical performance, which is excellent. MSI has implemented the GPU boost technology. It has also demonstrated a latest NVIDIA GeForce GT 325M video card for discrete graphics capability that offers excellent graphics display. This notebook handles data quite efficiently because it comes with Intel’s Core i5 chip as well as other features such as an Intel Hyper-Threading technology and Intel Turbo Boost.

The MSI FX600 Notebook is an apt choice for those who are looking towards gaining good entertainment feature from their notebook as well as enhancing their productivity. It includes four internal speakers and the THX surround sound functionality ensures good sound effects and music entertainment. Additional features include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, and HD webcam.

The MSI FX600 Notebook provides innovative features that make it worth the buy. Users will find it to address their various performance issues and also matters on functionality and hi-end technology needs.

If you are one of the people who attends college to learn rather than goof off, likely you’re also the type who is irritated when such jokers slow down your classes by asking inane questions and making you wait to hear something you already know. If that sounds like you and if college in general feels too slow-paced, you should consider attending your courses online. Web sites such as earnmydegree.com have all-online versions of dozens of complete study courses to get all the same kinds of college degrees that you can get by attending school in person. Minus the hooligans.

Online college is not a social scene. It has no parties in dorm rooms, no social groups forming in the corners because they dress the same or enjoy the same sport, and they’re by far not the best place to pick up a date for Friday night. They are, however, an excellent place to learn the things your degrees agree to teach you, uninterrupted and often at a much faster pace than in-person colleges can. Many degrees that can take two years or more to acquire in traditional college take only 6 months to complete in an online classroom.

Online courses are made up of weekly packets; you simply do your work each week before the deadline and turn it in, and you’re a good student. No kissing up to the teacher required.

Careers in web design were once ubiquitous. There was high demand for people who knew how to create an attractive and professional website for a company or non-profit organization. However, most companies are moving beyond the web design professional. They want to hire someone who can not only update and maintain a website, but who can manage the company’s entire digital presence.

A company’s digital presence is multi-faceted. The website is the core component, and it’s the element over which the company has the most control. So, it’s not surprising that companies still need to hire someone who knows all about web design. Websites need to include a variety of features that will draw in visitors. This might include videos, podcasts, RSS feeds, and word clouds. However, companies also want someone who is savvy about social media and search engine optimization (SEO). Using good SEO common sense will allow companies to bring in even more traffic to their website by integrating search terms into the content of their site.

Being a part of the social media world is increasingly important as consumers want and essentially demand an interactive experience with companies. Companies need someone who knows how to navigate and finesse the social media landscape. You can control your message on Twitter and Facebook to an extent. But embracing customers who share honest feedback is a hallmark of social media. Companies need to give a timely response to public complaints on their Facebook page or Twitter accounts. By doing this, companies can actually win points with customers. Having a digital manager who understands this and can promote a culture that embraces social media throughout the company is essential.

Good web designers will pick up the new skills that are necessary to compete in a job market that’s changing to keep up with new technology. It’s really about knowing how people communicate and making it possible for a company to be a part of that dialogue.

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The Internet has opened up the world to people who are homebound. There are people of all ages who find it very difficult to leave home on a regular basis. They may have compromised immune systems, problems with mobility, chronic fatigue, or other health problems that prevent them from getting out. However, computers have given them an important outside link. With access to the Internet, they can experience some of the things that most people take for granted.  They can watch movies with open source media players and download and share the latest music files with software from ares.

Many people who are limited in their ability to get of the house are keenly aware of the things they’re missing out on doing. For example, they can’t get on a plane and fly to Europe. They can’t go snorkeling in the warm ocean water. They may not even be able to go grocery shopping. However, the Internet has allowed them to experience all of these things from the comfort of their home. There are video tours of places in Europe, underwater photos of colorful reefs, and it’s possible to purchase groceries with a few clicks of the mouse. Not only can you buy groceries online, you can purchase some of the most exquisite foods and products from around the world over the Internet.

Recreation and entertainment options are available through the computer. Like to gamble but can’t get to a casino? It’s possible to play almost any casino game imaginable online. You can choose whether you want to play with real money or virtual chips, a choice you wouldn’t have in an actual casino.  You can even enjoy new and older movies by downloading or streaming them and watching them with players like aresgalaxy.

For people who miss being out with friends, the Internet can give back a little of that social engagement. Chat rooms, Yahoo groups, and interactive online games create opportunities to get to know people who share your interests. While there’s no substitute for being able to experience things firsthand, the Internet provides more opportunities to individuals who are homebound.

If you have a blog, you’ll want to use the best web design possible. However, you may not know HTML code or any other aspects of web design. So, it’s wise to find a pre-made template that reinforces the theme of your blog.

Pre-made blog templates are available for free and for purchase. The most popular blog hosting sites, including Blogger and WordPress, offer free templates. You’re likely to find a variety of styles and colors from which to choose. However, your selection is limited. Chances are good that you may not find exactly what you want. So, in these cases, you can search the web for free templates and look for templates that are for sale. It’s easy to find websites that sell templates for specific kinds of blogs. For example, there’s no shortage of cutesy templates available for women and moms. You can even find web designers who will create a custom template for your blog, incorporating your family or business name and photographs. Short of learning how to create templates yourself, this option gives you the most control over how your blog will look. As you might have guessed, custom templates are the most expensive choice.

Many people enjoy changing their blog template with the seasons. You may want a red and green background in December or a heart-infused template around Valentine’s Day. You can find seasonal templates that will bring a festive feel to your blog.

To change the template on your blog, you’ll need to dabble in HTML, though you certainly don’t have to be a web design expert. Most sites that provide free or pay-for-use templates offer simple instructions for inserting the template. It usually involves locating the place in the blog’s HTML code where you’ll put the template code, copying the template code and pasting it into the place you identified. You can usually preview your new template before you take it live on your blog.

If you, your company, or your non-profit organization has a presence online (and you should!), you may be wondering what web design elements will make your site popular. Keep in mind that you don’t just want people to visit your site for a few seconds. You want to capture their attention and have them clicking through page after page on your site.

First, your site needs to have an attractive appearance. Too many flashy graphics, big blocks of text, and an unorganized appearance will prevent people from spending any significant time on your website. Having information that’s obviously outdated on your homepage is a big turn off for most people. A distracting background pattern can also cause people to turn away. Stick with a simple and clean appearance that presents your information in a professional way. The graphics, colors, and theme of your site will give people an immediate impression about you or your company before they have read one word of text.

Second, provide useful information. People don’t want to waste their time. Ask yourself why someone would visit your website. Are they looking for ways to contact you? Do they want to find a discount on your products, insider information on your event, or the latest information on what you’ve been doing? Provide relevant information to your audience on a regular basis. Not only will this keep your faithful followers coming back for more, but it will bring in new eyes as well.

Third, go beyond your website. Having a website is mandatory, but with the advent of social media, so is having a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Depending on the purpose of your website, you might also create a YouTube channel, RSS feeds, and podcasts. The same rules apply to these endeavors. Keep the information current and helpful. Use these tools to link back to your website. This will continue to build traffic and interest in your site.

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High-speed Internet access is not yet as ubiquitous as you might think. There are significant pockets of rural America that do not have broadband connections. Educators, politicians, business leaders, and citizens are raising concerns about what this means for these communities that are off the grid, so to speak.

One U.S. expert has drawn comparisons between the interstate highway system and the information superhighway. He notes that towns located far from an interstate suffer from a lack of commerce and generally do not thrive. He says that similarly, areas that do not have access to the information superhighway are suffering.

Efforts are underway in many states to expand the number of homes, businesses, and educational institutions that have access to high-speed Internet. Some federal stimulus dollars went into projects that are designed to get fast Internet access to people who live outside the urban and suburban landscapes. Small town elected officials are beginning to see the link between increasing commerce and having broadband in the local community. It’s also a quality of life consideration for many professionals. Lawyers and doctors may not want to work and live in a place that doesn’t offer what many people see as a basic service, almost on par with running water and electricity.

Besides being an economic issue, many people see access to broadband as a crucial component of offering a quality education in public schools. With high-speed Internet, students can do more research, collaborate with other students, share and swap information with free software like Ares Galaxy and acquire information that previously required a field trip to another city or state. It also makes it easier for teachers to create interactive lessons.

The cost of bringing high-speed Internet into rural areas can be very high. Often, the necessary infrastructure is lacking. Many companies are looking for innovative solutions to this problem such as using power lines to deliver broadband to rural communities.

A recent agreement between a for-profit electronic design corporation and a university will give students in Jordan a new option for learning about electronic design automation. The Jordan University of Science and Technology and Synopsys, Inc. have inked a deal to offer a joint program in this field of study.

Under the arrangement, Synopsys is giving students access to its software. Through the educational program, students will become very knowledgeable and adept at using Synopsys design tools and will gain experience in the field of microelectronics. Synopsys-developed curriculum will form the basis of classroom instruction, helping faculty teach students how to do system-on-chip design among other things. Members of the university faculty will receive help and input from Synopsys on implementing the curriculum. Synopsys is hardly a newcomer to the arena of providing software for student use. More than 450 institutions of higher learning use Synopsys tools for research and classroom instruction. The company began working with universities and other institutes back in 1986.

Students who emerge from this new program are expected to have strong engineering backgrounds. They’ll leave the university prepared and ready to work for companies that deal in semiconductors and other microelectronics. It’s not just students who will benefit from this agreement. Faculty at the Jordan University of Science and Technology will receive advanced training and technical support.

While the electronic design automation industry is well developed in some countries, it’s only beginning to emerge in Jordan. Government officials have said that they hope this new arrangement with Synopsys will spur on this lucrative industry in Jordan and other parts of the region.

Besides this recent agreement with the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Synopsys also signed a similar deal with Princess Sumaya University for Technology, also in Jordan. Students at PSUT will learn about integrated circuit design and other cutting edge technologies using Synopsys software.

The good news is, now with all the information available, you can easily do some of the research over the Internet before you go out to purchase your auto insurance. Companies such as 21st Century Insurance will not only help you get a quote in a timely manner but they will also review your student status and income and find you the best auto insurance that fits into your budget. These online insurance companies are there to help you save and they will inform you of all the benefits and cost savings that you can take advantage of.

Many students decide not to get auto insurance due to affordability, but what they do not realize is that the chance they are taking can cost a lot more than what they would pay on their premium. Auto insurance is important in terms of both safety and savings. All one has to do is find out the advantages and discounts you are eligible for and you will easily find the best insurance out there. Plan smartly, as it will affect your future and based on the circumstances, you only stand to gain from having proper insurance. It only takes a few minutes to get a quote so take the time and do your research.

Teaching children basic computer skills while they’re still young is an important part of their education, but you can also teach them basic web design skills. These skills will give them the tools for self expression, self confidence and may even spark an interest that may turn into a career.

There are a variety of online sites that will host your child’s website for free. Sourcing out these sites will get the child involved right from the beginning of the process. With easy to use website building tools, your child can have a personalized web page up in no time. You can use this opportunity to teach valuable navigation skills and let them practice their reading all at the same time.

Web design will teach your child the fundamentals of HTML and from there the sky is the limit. There are also a variety of online guides on how to teach your child HTML, and there are even free online tutorials geared toward children. Teaching HTML is important because its uses are wide spread. From blogging to web design, HTML basics are something every child should know.

Once your child has the basics of web design, they can tinker all they like with their website and tailor it to their own personalities. They can experiment with color, images, banners, sounds, movies and more. When they are fully comfortable with these basics, then they can begin learning about navigation, linking, scripting, flash, mouseovers and beginning Java.

Computers are becoming more and more a part of our lives, and our children will depend on them even more. Teaching them the basics of web design while still young will arm them with skills that they can use not only to express themselves and their creativity but these skills will also give them solid, practical knowledge.

These days, most homes have at least one computer in them. These family computers are being used more and more for entertainment purposes. As such, computers, internet and technology are racing to keep up with consumer demand for more and more entertainment options.

Video Games

Video games have come a long way since the early days of Atari and Colecovision. Widespread use of computers, internet and gaming platforms have pushed game makers to be constantly striving to release games that are better, faster and more life like than previous ones. Consumer demand for PC games is voracious, and the battle between console games and computer games continues. In addition to single player video games, there is the MMORPG. The massively multiplayer online role playing game has evolved as well and today’s MMORPG’s are better than ever.

Movies & Television

With the ability to stream movies and television to your computer and even on to your television, the traditional movie rental store is becoming obsolete. Technology has evolved to the point that even children can navigate to a site to watch missed episodes of their favorite show, or snuggle up on a big comfortable chair to watch a movie from an online site.

Social Networks

Computers, internet and technology have made social networking possible for people of all ages. From dating sites to Facebook, there is no end to the possibilities. Children are also using social network platforms to connect with their friends through sites that are geared toward children.

Computers, internet and technology have made the computer a very important part of any home. With myriad entertainment options, computers are being used for more than just email and spreadsheets. And, they will continue to evolve as technology evolves and produces things that once seemed impossible. Perhaps holodecks aren’t so impossible after all.

Electronic design automation, or EDA, is the name for software tools that are used in designing printed circuit boards, integrated circuits and other electronic systems. These tools are used together by chip designers to analyze and design semiconductor chips.

Technology has made use of EDA widespread, but in the very beginning, all integrated circuits were tediously designed by hand, and all work was done manually.  This was a labor intensive and expensive process. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that developers began working on automating the design process and the very first routing and placement tools were developed and extensively used.

In 1980, text was released to the industry that promoted the use of programming languages in order to help design the chips. Almost overnight, the complexity of chips increased and they were more accurate as well. They became easier to manufacture and they had fewer flaws because the design could be simulated prior to being built. Thus began the earliest days of using computer languages to design and build chips for integrated circuits.

Technology and computer languages have since evolved, but it was the group of fabricators and universities that formed MOSIS who really allowed the chip to evolve. MOSIS developed a training program for students in chip design to inexpensively produce real integrated circuits. They used low-cost but reliable technology to allow students to incorporate many projects onto one wafer. Each wafer would then be replicated a few times, allowing the student to analyze their work.
Once chip design students were given access to handle chips, they pushed the technology forward at a quick rate. These chips are getting more complex and cheaper to manufacture as new ways, processes and materials are used. This trend will not stop because these chips are an integral component of so very many technologies.

Web design is an integral part of the overall website building process and should not be overlooked or given less effort than the actual building of the site. The design of the site is the blueprint that dictates the overall function and appearance of the site. The website, if properly designed and built, can vastly increase exposure and profits for companies. The cost of web design can fluctuate greatly depending on several factors.

Complexity

The complexity of the website can vastly increase the cost of web design. A low budget website might just be a single page with some information or links to related sites, but a complicated site can include multiple pages, a shopping cart, online ordering, live help and many more. Each element can involve complicated coding and hours of effort.

Experience

Of course you’re going to pay more for a web designer with many projects and years of experience behind them. But larger projects will require their expertise as well as the teams of people that they often work with. A web design team may include graphic artists, photographers and other skilled individuals. It may be prudent to wait for the services of a skilled web designer rather than rush ahead with a less experienced person.

Demand

The demand for good web designers is increasing faster than skilled designers become available. If you’re in an area with a shortage of skilled web designers then you may want to consider hiring from another city and communicating via phone or computer to get the job finished.

Like with most things, you get what you pay for. If you cut corners with the initial web design then you’re likely to end up with a less than perfect website. Always source the best people for the job that your budget will allow, and remember that the initial web design is an integral part of your entire website.

No matter what purpose you intend for your website, proper web design is integral because the overall web design is the first thing a visitor will notice. You can certainly hire professionals to handle this for you, or you can choose to handle the web design all on your own. The following are some tips to help you do it yourself.

Color

The use of color in web design is very important. It should be handled in a way that doesn’t cause eye strain to the visitor, and garish colors or bright flashing images will only deter readers. Cool or natural colors are the most soothing and pleasant, and always be sure that your text is easy to read against a lighter background. Avoid the overuse of images; place images where they are an enhancement rather than a deterrent.

Text

Avoid, at all costs, large blocks of text. Most visitors will quickly skip on to the next website if yours presents them with a solid wall of text. Instead, condense your text into the most important details and make these easy to read using bullet points, or sub headings. Keep the text font in an easy to read format, with the font size large enough to be read comfortably.

Navigation

Your website should be laid out to be user friendly, with menus that are clearly presented and easy to use. Make sure that you don’t overuse embedded links because they can be distracting. Don’t make your landing page so huge that scrolling to the bottom takes a long time, rather divide your material into relevant categories and assign each one their own page. If your site is too difficult to navigate then the visitor will move on quickly.

Anybody who is armed with a few basic skills can create their own web design. Keeping the above mentioned tips will help you design a website that is an easy and pleasurable experience for visitors.

When the Internet went mainstream business analysts knew it was a revolutionary idea. Instant access to nearly all the information and entertainment that a person could handle had a market. Investment dollars rolled in and soon start-up companies with little more than a URL and a cute tagline became multi-million dollar properties. Then the bubble burst.

The Internet might have been “hip” and innovative, but it did not create profits. How could investors profit when so many people seemed intent on giving away things that people once paid dearly for. The newspaper industry could at one time count on an annual profit of at least 10 percent of revenues. There was no other way to reach an audience. Classified ads were untouchable, and the limited space in a newspaper meant that customers had to pay whatever rates the newspaper decided.

Craiglist destroyed the monopoly enjoyed by newspapers for so long. While Craiglist remains an altruistic experiment due to its founder’s philosophical beliefs, its model could not work for other sites. For people to produce informative and worthwhile information on the Internet there had to be a way to make their efforts worthwhile.

Advertising had been the answer for other forms of media. Newspaper print ads were the first. Radio and television ads followed. But were does Internet advertising sit on this sliding scale?

The Internet acts like print in many respects. Search engines base the majority of their searches on text. But unlike print, Internet ads do not last forever. Banner ads change with the screen. So perhaps Internet ads were more like radio or television and had to act like a quick burst that had to grab a viewer’s attention and be as memorable as possible.

These ads feel into the realm of annoying. Loud noises, dancing monkeys and dreaded pop-up ads flooded the Internet as  the World Wide Web took the leap from fad to cash cow.

Advertising is often annoying by nature. It interrupts television programs. It screams or produces irritating jingles meant to get stuck into the heads of consumers. As marketers attempted to grasp how to tap into the limitless revenue of the Internet, early attempts at reaching audiences proved to trend more annoying than effective.

Some of the most bothersome practices even fell under regulations. E-mail spamming has become a criminal activity. But at the height of the dotcom boom, the Internet was a wild west like haven for opportunists because regulators were not sure what the Internet was or would turn out to be.

Online marketers ignored targeting and produced stream of intrusive ads. Blinking banner ads with music or pop-up ads that blocked a website’s content were some of the worst violators. The ads were successful in that people noticed them. But some of the most “noticed” ads also receive the backlash of eroding consumer loyalty. It was difficult to take companies that would employ knowingly bothersome ads seriously.

As web marketers analyzed these tactics another fact emerged. They were not effective. Mass advertising campaigns were not as effective as they had been in the so-called “Golden Age of Advertising”. The days of Don Draper had passed. Mass marketing new products in old categories was becoming increasingly difficult due the proliferation of options in the marketplace. Niche was the new way. Appealing to a specific target audience and building a brand through them was the way to harness the power of the Internet to marketing.

The Internet has made niche marketing easier and allowed innovative ways for companies to reach consumers. Achieving this meant understanding how users viewed information on the Internet. This mean data gathering, and perhaps the largest source of data occurs through looking at what people were looking for. Google might have started out as a science project, but it has turned into one of the most powerful engines in the global economy.

When Stanford computer science doctoral candidates Sergey Brin and Larry Page launched Google there were not many ideas on how the company would produce profits. Yahoo had plans to lock users into the page, it was designed to be one-stop shopping. Brin and Page did not sell out early by seeking ways to monetize their site. They improved their technology and allowed positive word of mouth to spread.

The media took a positive view of Google. It was a company that seemingly went out of its way to not take part in “evil” corporate practices. Google used a clean page that produced rapid search results. By the summer of 2000, Yahoo had competition for the most viewed page of the Internet.

As Google grew in use, popularity and size it had all the features of a successful company, except profit. Many analysts thought that Google would make money by licensing technology. Others thought that Google would partner with sites that seemed more intent of taking care of the bottom line. Google at one time did have a partnership with Yahoo, which Yahoo terminated when it became clear how much of a threat Google was becoming.

Google went from useful tool to global power broker through the addition of Google AdWords. Google realized it had an asset in its enormous population of search engine users. Alienating this base was a concern as the company sought a way to balance profits with usability. The ads came slowly and attempted to appear as non-intrusively as possible.

The efforts were an instant success. The vast majority of Google’s profits now come from advertising on search results. Advertising on search engine results has become one of the fastest growing areas of online advertising. Direct mailers and telemarketers have not been rendered obsolete by Google AdWords yet, but with annual revenues in the billions Google has changed the scope of advertising and altered forever the way companies operate and consumers shop.

Will the Internet monopolize advertising dollars? The trend seems to be headed in that direction, and it is not a surprise to many. In 2004, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that all media dollars will be spent online because there will be no difference between televisions, mobile devices and personal computers. Ballmer’s vision has almost already come to full realization.

The growth of mobile devices as means to access the Internet has already had major implications on programming and how advertising dollars are spent. The huge Flash based ads are becoming less popular as users view the Internet increasing through mobile devises. Huge animations take time to load and are not as effect when viewed on the tinier screen of a handheld phone or an I-Touch. Due to this shift in market the use of Flash in ads has decreased. Reaching users on handheld devices means producing pages and ads that load faster. While this development might make customers happy since it means a decrease in the amount of intrusive ad, companies are already devising ways to adjust to this change in consumer behavior.

Microsoft realized that the Internet and television were going to become an almost singular entity in the future. Due to way that people viewed the Internet one type of advertising in particular became vital to advertisers – search marketing.

Search marketing is largely text based. It loads rapidly and is about as non-intrusive as online ads can be. Search ads appear next to results and might even be the desired destination for searchers. The profitability of this form of advertising allowed Google to become a powerhouse that first dwarfed Internet advertising company Doubleclick and then resulted in Google taking over the company. Doubleclick specialized in other forms of Internet advertising and was once considered a surer bet than Google. Microsoft realized the potential of search advertising long ago and continues to try to fight Google for a share of this market.

Google has become the symbol of a company that focuses on providing a superior product over focusing on producing a brand name. Google spend little on advertising itself or its features in the nascent stages of the company. It did not even have a plan for how to produce profits after it was founded. Rather than worry about making money, Google built a customer base and went from there.

By 2002, Google was in the advertising business. Just as when the company got its start, Google did not eagerly chase after advertising dollars. The company developed a product and let the customer decide if it met their standards. Many other companies went the opposite route. Some even had huge head starts over Google in the advertising game.

Overture had an advertising base of 21,000 in 1999, which was a significant number since the Internet was still in the nascent stages of growing into a business marketplace. Two years later Overture had 60,000 customers. Google AdWords had a customer base of more than 100,000 less than a year after its launch. By 2004 more than 280,000 customers were using AdWords. Overture was later acquired by Yahoo.

Google built its program through a combination of consulting with users and trial and error. Google staffers have a presence on web discussion boards frequented by programmers. Google representative asked for grassroots feedback on features of both search technology and the advertising platform. As a result AdWords transformed itself. What began as a flat rate service transformed into the recognizable pay-per-click advertising that has been successful for both small businesses and for Google. Google based AdWords on their study of demand for key words in the earlier version of their advertising program.

The Internet has leveled the playing field and forced businesses to adapt to the demands of consumers. Sites and services that were marketing successes have been overtaken by businesses that focused on superior products.

When a computer is essential to completing your work tasks, you should customize it to match your work habits to create a better work flow. For example, if you spend too much time searching through unorganized computer files for essential documents, then the computer needs to be organized. Once you organize the computer files to match the way you work, you will be amazed at how fast you can complete your work tasks. Additionally, you will likely feel less stress because all required files will be easily accessible instead of in disarray. Here are a few tips for organizing computer files to simplify your work process.

Determine Work Processes

A key factor in establishing an organized computer filing system is first determining how you work. Computer folders can be organized in several ways because programmers understand that not everyone works in the same manner. By first determining how the computer could be better customized to match your work flow, you can then rearrange the computer’s files and return to your work tasks.

Discard the Unused

Many people save more information than they need on their computers. This often results in unnecessary clutter and a reduction in computer speed. You should periodically sort through your computer’s files and determine which information can either be archived or deleted. You will likely find you were saving a large amount of unnecessary documents that were simply cluttering up the computer. After deleting the documents, you will also likely discover that the computer is running faster and, as a result, you are better able to complete your work.

Stick to it

After you have organized your computer’s files and customized the system to match your work flow, you then need to stick to the new process. Some people have good intentions to keep their computer’s information organized but then slip into old unorganized patterns. You don’t want to make this mistake because it will only create more unnecessary work. By developing a new system and sticking with it, you will feel more organized and can focus on your work instead of stressing about an unorganized computer system.

Having access to the Internet while trying to complete your freelance web design projects can act as a double edged sword. On one side, the Internet is a valuable tool that can provide vast tutorials and training materials on how to improve your web design skills. However, on the other side, the Internet can be a major distraction that keeps you from focusing on your design tasks. If you are stuck between using the Internet to increase your design skills and using it as a time waster for looking up irrelevant information, then you must decide how your usage habits should change to better utilize your time. Here are a few tips to help in this decision.

Delete Access

If you are constantly using the Internet for useless things during a time you should be completing web design projects for your clients, then you may need to unplug your Internet connection cord during working hours. Sometimes the lure of reading a new e-mail or updating your status on a social network can be too strong to resist when you should be designing. By unplugging your connection cord, you are also unplugging your access to know if any new e-mails have arrived. After working without access to the Internet, you may be surprised at how much faster you are able to complete projects.

Avoid Time Wasters

Of course, as a web designer, there are times when you require Internet access for client projects. During these times, be disciplined in how you use the Internet and strictly stick to the project you are completing. Then, when you are finished with work for the day, you can reward your disciplined working habits with some free time to go online and splurge on time wasters.

Hopefully by implementing a more disciplined routine of avoiding online time wasters during your working hours, you will be able to complete client projects faster than before. This new work process may even result in additional free time that you can then use to go online or to complete other projects you didn’t previously have time to work on.

There is much debate over when children should be allowed to use computers or the Internet. Some parents allow their children to use computers before they know how to write while others wait until they are older until the children are allowed to use the machines. While the decision on when you want your children to use computers or the Internet is largely a personal family decision, there are a few benefits to at least allowing them to use computers at an early age.

Better Skills

As with anything in life, the longer children use computers, the better their skills will be at using these machines. Computers are very much a part of life in school and the workplace now, so the sooner your children begin using them, the better they will be able to adapt when required to use them in school. Additionally, if the child grows up to be a web designer or some other type of graphics artist, they will be much more advanced in the field if they were allowed to begin developing their skills at a young age.

Use in Moderation

While it can be beneficial to let your children begin using computers when they are young, it’s best to only let them use the machines in moderation. Spending too much time at a computer can cause the children to avoid social contact with others and will decrease their daily physical activities. Children should be encouraged to play outside and to meet other children instead of being inside on a computer all day. How often you allow your child to use the computer will depend on your household rules but many people limit usage to an hour or less each day.

Monitor the Internet

Allowing a child to use the Internet and letting them use a computer are very different things. The Internet contains a wide variety of information that you likely don’t want your children to have access to. Therefore, if you let them use the Internet, it is always best to monitor their usage and limit the websites that they can visit.

The world of web design is always changing. As such, you have a large amount of responsibility to always stay up to date on the latest advances. If you begin slipping in the diligence to this responsibility, your clients will begin noticing and may begin turning to other web designers to complete their projects. Obviously this is a situation that you never want to occur because it would mean a loss of income and, ultimately, the failure of your freelance business. Therefore, here are a few ways to keep your web design skills sharp so that you will always have a steady flow of clients.

Use Online Resources

Since your business pertains completely to the Internet, it’s quite natural that you would turn to this outlet for information on the latest developments in the web design world. Countless blogs are dedicated to this specific topic so it can be beneficial to subscribe to the most innovative of these blogs. Additionally, if you have time to watch video tutorials, they can be a great way to acquire new skills. Many websites are dedicated specifically to design tutorials and are created by top web design professionals.

Join a Group

If you live in an urban area or a location that is packed with creative professionals, you should inquire if there are any web design groups that you can join. The purpose of these groups varies but often the main topic is simply sharing stories from design experiences as well as swapping skills. Some designers tend to stay away from other web designers because they view them as competition. While they are, in a way, your competition, there is plenty of business for everyone and meeting those professionals in your field will be more to your benefit than detriment. You may even find that you can pair up on some client projects with another web designer because they possess skills that you don’t have and vice versa.

Even if you absolutely love web design, there is still the risk that you will become burnt out on this type of work when you own a freelance web design business. Burn out is unfortunate, especially when it happens with a skill that you used to love. Therefore, you want to do everything possible to avoid this occurring with your freelance design career. The following are a few tips on how you can continue working happily as a freelance designer and avoid creative burn out.

Diversify your Business

Although you may at first want to spend day and night focused on your web design projects, this practice likely isn’t sustainable over the long term. Regardless of how much you may love this career, if you don’t take breaks then you will likely begin growing tired of it. Therefore, one of the best ways to avoid becoming tired of web design is to diversify your business.

If you also enjoy writing, you could try accumulating a few freelance writing projects. Of course, the side business doesn’t have to be writing but can be any other interest that you hold. Therefore, you will be able to occasionally take a break from the design aspect and focus on other things. This break will then allow you to return to your web design projects with a clear mind and a renewed focus.

Keep Learning

One of the best ways to always remain excited about the web design world is to continue learning. This career field is always changing, with new technologies that are always emerging. As such, there are always new skills to acquire and test out on your client projects. You should set aside a few hours each week to turn away from your client projects and instead focus on sharpening your skills. This will avoid you becoming burnt out on always designing projects the same way because you will continuously be developing new skills and tricks to try out.

As a freelance web designer, you rely on a steady flow of client work to pay the monthly bills and remain in business. As such, you aren’t just a web designer, but also are in charge of a variety of other tasks including advertising your business and meeting with potential clients to discuss the services you offer. If you are just starting your web design business, or you notice that projects have been slowing down lately, you need to ramp up your client accumulation efforts to generate the business you need.

Advertise Regularly

If no one knows about your business, you won’t generate any new clients. As such, you should regularly advertise in relevant locations to keep prospective client inquiries flowing. If you specialize in a certain type of web design or have a very niche client market, then you must decide how to best advertise to these clients. These advertisements can be placed in online outlets, magazines, newspapers, or a combination of each of these locations.

The best way to get the word out about your freelance web design services in your local community is to send personalized letters along with brochures to clients you would like to complete work for. These personalized letters often greatly impress potential clients and may be just the push they need if they have been putting off a design project that they need completed.

You could also try to partner with local design agencies that have an overflow of work. When these agencies have more web design work than they can handle, they often recruit freelancers like you to assist with the overflow. This can also be a great way to generate a steady flow of work if the agency remains busy.

Submit Quality Work

To ensure that clients keep returning to you to complete their projects and also to receive positive word of mouth, you should always submit quality work. Just one less than perfect project can mean a loss of future work from a certain client as well as a loss of work from everyone they talk to.

As a freelance web designer, you likely run your business from home. This both eliminates the expense of purchasing office space and cuts down your monthly car gas bill. However, many issues can begin arising when working from home, especially if you have other family members that are also home most of the day. As such, it is crucial that you find a balance between your web design work and your family life to avoid unnecessary stress.

Know When to Quit

As a business owner, it can be very difficult to pull yourself away from your work and spend time with your family. If you are like most web designers, the projects that you could be working on are always on the back of your mind whether you are playing with your children or eating a family supper. However, you must establish a routine to define your work time from your family time to avoid stresses within the household.

If you work better in the mornings, then tell your family members that you will be working a set number of hours from early morning until mid-afternoon and will be available for them after this time. You should then encourage your family to make you stick to this schedule and question you when you are working when you should be relaxing. This will act as a checking system to ensure you are taking the time to enjoy life instead of working around the clock.

Define Boundaries

One of the main reasons why it may seem like you are working around the clock is that clients are e-mailing or calling you at all hours and are expecting immediate responses. In these types of situations, you must bluntly tell the clients what your normal working hours are and that you will only be responding to them during these times. This will avoid confusion on both ends and will eliminate any guilt you felt about not responding immediately to their questions. In fact, you should state your hours at the beginning of a client relationship to keep this situation from ever occurring.

If you work as a web designer at a design agency but aren’t as happy with the work setting as you thought you would be, then a switch to freelance work may be the correct move for you. Becoming a freelance designer brings many more perks than are found within an agency setting but the switch also brings many more responsibilities. Here are a few of the things you can expect when becoming a freelance designer so you can decide if the switch will be the best move for you.

More Freedom

One of the main benefits that most people find after switching from working in an agency to completing freelance work is that they have more freedom to set their own schedules. If you work better in the mornings, then you can get up early and be done working in the early afternoon instead of sitting in an office until closing time.
Additionally, as a freelance web design professional, you also have the freedom to set your own income. While your project rate will have to remain in line with your skill level, you can take on as many client projects as you can handle and therefore have unlimited earning potential.

More Responsibilities

However, with the freedom of freelance work come more responsibilities and more pressures. Since you are solely responsible for the income that is generated, you can’t slack off or complete client projects at a low level. Additionally, you will be in charge of billing clients and being stern with those individuals who are late submitting payments to you. You will also be responsible for bringing in work and finding the best way to advertise to potential clients.

If you still aren’t sure if a switch to freelance work is the best move for you, then you could take on a few freelance client projects while you are still working for the agency to see how things go. If these projects go well, you can begin generating more freelance work until you reach a point where the freelance work is sustainable enough to quit the agency.

If you are a freelance designer, whether your specialty is graphics, web, or otherwise, you likely conduct most of your business online. While the online world has opened a vast number of possibilities for freelance business owners, it has also created a new type of client communication system. Meetings that used to be conducted in-person or over the phone are now often held via online channels or through back and forth e-mail messages. Since the only communication you will have with many clients is through e-mail, you must pay close attention to the messages you send. The emotions that are portrayed in-person are often lost through e-mail. Therefore, here are a few tips to help you communicate better online to avoid unnecessary problems with clients and co-workers.

Proofread Before Sending

One of the best things you can do to avoid problems of miscommunication when working with online clients is to proofread every message before sending. When you are proofreading your e-mail messages, don’t just spellcheck. You should also pay close attention to the tone that is portrayed in the message to ensure it’s consistent with the tone you intended. If possible, avoid emphasizing certain words with such things as boldface, italics, or underlining because this can portray a harsh or condescending tone.

Ask Questions

If you have any concerns about messages sent by your clients, whether on project specifications or project edit requests, always respond by asking questions to ensure you know exactly what they want from you. It’s far better to ensure you understand the client’s needs before beginning a project to avoid future complications.

Use Other Methods

If e-mail messages seem to be hindering rather than helping the project process with certain clients, you should switch to other modes of communication. While this will likely rarely happen, there are sometimes unique circumstances when a phone call or in-person meeting can quickly resolve unnecessary complications and get the project back on the right track. Overall, you will likely find that online modes of communication help speed up business processes, which ultimately means more money in your pocket.

If you are a designer or own a design business, you are likely used to balancing projects for several clients at one time. While, the more projects you have going at one time, the more money you will earn each month, you need to develop an organized system for handling those projects to avoid future issues. Problems that often arise due to unorganized design processes include loss of work, unsatisfactory designs, and insufficient paychecks. Here are a few tips to help you avoid such situations in your design business.

Organize Client Information

One of the best things you can do to stay on top of each project you work on is to develop an organized system for tracking client information. This process should begin with creating some type of filing system on your computer to separate the documents and project specifications for each client. Then, when you are working on each project, you can quickly locate each client’s folder to pull up the project information instead of spending unnecessary time sorting through disorganized documents. Keeping client information organized should also follow through to the billing process. Without an organized invoicing system, you will never remember which clients have paid and which ones are overdue.

Utilize Templates

Depending on the type of design work you complete, several projects may require the same, or similar dimensions. Therefore, you will greatly benefit from utilizing any template features that are offered in the design program you use. Templates are wonderful time savers because they automate the cumbersome process of keying in project dimensions. This means you will cut out the mundane tasks and can cut straight to the design process.

Know Your Client Needs

Of extreme importance to being a successful designer is knowing your client needs. You should never begin a project without knowing exactly what a client wants from you because this will only result in a frustrated client and a large deal of wasted time. By knowing your client needs up front, you will be much more likely to produce work that meets their requirements.

With so many people now turning to the Internet to fulfill a variety of needs, the demand for web designers has never been higher. However, the requirements of designers are always changing to meet changing technology and consumer demands. Therefore, to be successful in this business, you must always keep an ear to future developments and develop cutting edge designs. Here are a few recent trends that have impacted the world of web design so you can think of how these changes have altered your business.

Going Mobile

Most Internet users are on the go and demand that online information be accessible from a variety of mobile devices. With such a wide array of mobile devices now available, designers are forever facing new challenges to ensure the work they produce is accessible from as many venues as possible. This includes, among other things, knowing which devices are the most widely used, what specifications are required to ensure designs are accessible from those devices, and any major upcoming changes. Knowing these factors will help ensure that the designs you produce will satisfy client needs and will be accessible by the widest amount of people as possible.

Going Social

Online social networks are all the rage these days. Internet users of all ages are flocking to these networks to connect with friends and strangers and to stay up to date on the latest news regarding their favorite businesses. If you can find an opportunity in the world of social network development, you may just land a very lucrative career. However, you can benefit by simply embracing the power of social networks to get the word out about your design business.

There are many other online advances that have impacted the world of web design but mobile devices and social networks are two of the largest current changes. Only time will tell what future changes will occur but it seems that careers in web design will remain abundant and profitable.

The demand for professional web designers has exploded in recent years with the increasing popularity of the Internet. People are now using the Internet for anything from shopping to staying in touch with friends. This means there are nearly limitless possibilities for web design specializations. If you are just starting up a web design business, you will likely have a very profitable career. However, before you can begin making the money you deserve, you must first generate a client base. Therefore, here are a few tips on how to get the word out about your business to hopefully start bringing in more projects.

Go Social

Online social networks are now utilized by people of all ages as well as most businesses. If you want a quick way to spread the word about your new design business, you should join the trend and go social. To maximize the benefits of this free form of advertising, you should create a business page on several networks and then include links to your website and other online presences on each of these social network pages. However, simply establishing social network pages isn’t enough. You must generate a buzz about your work by always updating your pages with information that others will find valuable. Remember, the more people who find your pages informational, the more traffic you will generate.

Go Local

Apart from using the nearly limitless power of online venues, you also want to think small by focusing on local businesses. Many small businesses can’t afford to hire a big time design firm and need someone like you that has both professional design skills but charges a price they can afford. You could even send out advertisements to local businesses offering them a slight discount because you want to service the companies in your community.

No matter how you choose to generate a buzz about your design business and accumulate clients, you must always create high quality work and treat your clients fairly to stay in business. As long as you do these things, you will hopefully have a long and successful career as a web designer.

If you are thinking of pursuing a career in web design, you have made a great choice. The Internet is only continuing to grow which means the demand for web designers is growing with it. If you haven’t done much research yet on the best way to learn the business of web designers, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed on how to begin the process. Therefore, here are a few tips on how you can develop web design skills to start you on the path towards a successful design career.

Online Courses

You can find almost anything online these days, including online courses in web design. If you have a unique schedule that doesn’t allow you to attend a local college or you feel you would learn best by taking courses online, then this option may be the best one for you. One main benefit of taking online courses is you are generally free to complete the course at a time that works best for you instead of sitting in a prescheduled class several times each week. Although you will still need to meet assignment deadlines, the freedom to complete work when you want is a major asset to this learning method. Additionally, if you have children or work full time, you can now earn a degree that likely wouldn’t have been a possibility in the past when the only option was on-campus courses.

Attend a Local University

If you feel you learn best when surrounded by other students on a college campus, then you should attend a local university to earn a degree in web design. Nearly all colleges now offer web design programs or you could also opt to attend an arts based university. Many people prefer in-class settings versus online courses because they feel the in-class courses provide an additional dimension that is lacking in online degrees.

No matter which method you choose to earn a degree in web design, you are choosing to pursue an expanding career field. The possibilities as a web designer are nearly limitless and, as an added bonus, the pay isn’t bad either!

If you are just starting out as a web designer, you may not be sure whether you want to pursue a freelance career or if you want to work for a firm. There are benefits to both routes so it’s really a matter of personal preference on which way you want to go. Here are a few perks to both options to help you decide which path is best for you.

Working for a Firm

There are many perks to working for a web design firm. First, very talented designers usually work at these firms and they will likely be able to provide wonderful suggestions on how you can develop your skills. Second, you can work on a variety of client projects without having to generate the business. This will allow you to focus completely on the web design process instead of also dealing with the business matters that come along with owning a freelance business.

Going Freelance

Many designers pursue freelance careers because they long for the freedom of setting their own hours. If you work better in the mornings, you can get up early, design all morning and be finished with work by mid-afternoon. Additionally, your earning potential is nearly unlimited as a freelance designer and is basically determined by how many client projects you want to work on at one time. Keep in mind that you will also be in charge of finding clients when you own a freelance business and you will also need to stay on top of the billing processes to ensure you receive payment for every project you complete.

If you are still undecided on what you want to do or if you aren’t yet confident that your web design skill set is at a high enough level to start a freelance business, then you could always first work for a design firm to gain a little experience in this career field. After a few years of working for the firm and when you feel you are ready, you can then begin generating freelance clients until you are ready to pursue full time freelance work.

If you are finishing the last of your course work needed to earn a degree in web design, you are likely beginning to think about searching for jobs. The field of web design has expanded greatly in recent years in response to increased Internet usage and because more businesses want to develop an online presence. This means that many jobs are available in this career field, you just need to know how find them. The following are a few tips on finding web design job openings so you can find a job quickly after earning your degree.

Using Online Job Boards

Many online job boards are dedicated completely to web design job openings. These websites are wonderful resources to assist in your search for a job. However, these job boards are typically best used when you are searching for freelance clients because most are for individual clients needing a web designer. If you are pursuing a freelance career, find a few of these job boards you think are easy to use and save them in your Internet favorites list. Setting aside a few hours each week to scan the boards is a good habit because this will help you generate a steady client base.

Using Local Websites

If you want to work for a local agency, then the best way of finding a job may be to use local job posting websites or classified advertisements on the websites of local newspapers. If you are familiar with a few local design agencies, you could also scan their websites for job listings or contact them directly to inquire if they are hiring. If you are taking design classes through a college, you could also ask administrators if they offer any job placement services.

Hopefully by following the tips above, you will be able to either begin developing a client base quickly if you are pursuing a freelance career or find a high-paying job with a local agency. Even after you find a great job, you should still work at developing your skill set because web design is a career field that is always changing.

If you currently work as a web designer, you recognize the importance of professionals like you. Web design is in high demand not only because the Internet is rapidly expanding but also because the online world is always changing and web design must also change to meet new demands. With this constant change in the online world, it’s crucial for you to always keep your skill set fresh and up to date with the latest changes. The following are a resources you can use if you think your skills could use a refresher or you just want to find a few new outlets for learning new tricks.

Online Tutorials

Many websites are dedicated solely to providing high quality web design tutorials. These websites are wonderful resources because you can watch the tutorials at any time that is convenient for you and they are much like having a personal instructor show you the latest tips and tricks in this career field. Most tutorial websites require that you pay to access the videos, but some offer a portion of their tutorial libraries for free viewing. You may want to watch a few of these free tutorial videos on several websites to first determine which one matches your needs and then upgrade to a paid subscription.

Resource Books

Resource books remain some of the best resources to help you develop your design skill sets. You can find many of these books at discounted prices through online providers to help lower the purchasing cost. However, with the rapid changes in the online world, you want to consult a few resource books to verify that the information you are receiving is in line with the latest developments.

Follow the Professionals

In every career field, there are those few professionals who are at the forefront and are always pushing the limits. The same holds true with web design. You can learn a great deal from the top professionals in this career field and many offer blogs and e-mail newsletters so you can always receive new tips on best web design practices.

Many younger people have been using computers since before they knew how to write. As such, these machines are so much a part of their daily lives that they couldn’t imagine the world without them. However, many older people didn’t grow up with computers and, while many have used them for years through their workplaces and at home, some people in the retired generation rarely, if ever, use them.

This gap in technology is causing decreased communication between people in younger generations and their family members in older age groups. If you are a younger individual who has been encouraging an older family member to begin using a computer to stay in touch with others to no avail, you are likely becoming frustrated. Here are a few additional tips that you may not have yet tried that will hopefully persuade them to begin using and computer and communicating over the Internet.

Push the Benefits

As you are well aware, there are many benefits of using computers from simplified communication processes to the increased ability to stay in touch with friends and family. When trying to persuade an older family member to begin using e-mail and other methods of staying in touch with you and other family members, stress the benefits of computers. Tell them how more often you will be able to communicate with them via e-mail as well as how much information they can obtain from the Internet.

Start Small

Another method is to purchase a very basic computer for them and set it up to only include the most basic of programs. Since the family member as little, or no, experience with computers, they will become overwhelmed if they turn on the machine and are faced with countless icons. You can then show them how to access e-mail and can even set up their account for them. After a few test e-mail runs, they will hopefully become familiar to this form of communication and begin using it more often.

As a freelance web designer, you know how important a steady flow of clients is to your business. The best clients are those that return for repeat business and even become steady sources of income. However, what you may be prepared to deal with is how to deal with difficult clients who always seem to change their mind or are rude to you for no particular reason. It’s with these clients that your business is tested and you must make the difficult decision to either cut your losses and refuse to complete future projects for them or continue working with them and put up with the frustrations. The following are a few tips to help you decide when you should stay or when you should run.

Evaluate the Relationship

Client relationships are an interesting thing. Some go extremely smoothly, just as business transactions should go. However, some client relationships seem to hit multiple roadblocks and cause you nothing but endless frustrations. When you have a difficult client who has been causing you nothing but stress and frustration, take a step back and evaluate your relationship with them.

Think about where the stress is coming from and if the problem can be fixed through better communication. Also, evaluate just how much money you are earning from the client for your web designs. If the amount they are paying you isn’t sufficient for the amount of frustrations they are causing, then you might be better off telling them this is the last project you will be completing for them.

Think About Other Clients

When you have a client that is taking up your time by changing their mind several times on what they would like included with the web design project or are just rude to you every time you meet, you should think about how these things are affecting the work you are doing for your other clients. If the stress caused by the bad client is carrying over into the work you are completing for other well-paying clients then it may be time to end things after the current project is completed.

While you learn a lot when training to be a web designer, most instructors don’t teach you how to properly decline future work from clients who caused you more stress than anything else. Sure, keeping a steady flow of clients is crucial to the continued success of a freelance web design business but so is keeping your sanity. There will inevitably be some clients who cause multiple problems for you. While some of these frustrating projects will be tolerable and only cause minor issues in your workflow, others will simply be too difficult to deal with. The following are a few tips on how to refuse future work from a difficult client if you ever find yourself in such a situation.

Tell Them You’re Busy

A great way to decline work from a client who was impossible to work with in the past is simply to tell them your schedule is booked and you can’t complete their web design project. This is an easy way to decline work from them because you don’t have to directly state that you don’t want their business.

Try Again

If the client is persistent after your initial excuse of being too busy, you will need to decide to either take their project or simply tell them you don’t think you work well together. If you decide to give them one more try, you should lay everything out on the table and state that better communication must happen with the future project to ensure a simplified workflow. You can tell the client that you weren’t satisfied with the workflow you completed for them in the past and then state the changes in communication that need to happen with the future project to ensure things go smoother.

Regardless of which method you use to either decline future work from the client or tell them how the future project process must change, always communicate with the client in a professional and polite manner. Taking the high ride is always best because this will show clients that you are a professional business owner that takes your work seriously.

Owning a freelance web design business is a wonderful way to make a living. You can set your own hours and spend every day doing work you enjoy. Hopefully the business you develop will continue to expand each year and you will cultivate more and more clients. If the company ever reaches the point where more work is coming in than you have time to handle, you must make a decision to either expand the business or scale it back to a more manageable level. Here are a few things to think about regarding both decisions to help you make the right choice for your situation.

Expanding a Freelance Business

Deciding to expand a freelance business means you will have to either hire an employee or find a partner for the company. If you choose to hire an employee, this means you will now be a manager in addition to being a web designer. While expanding a business means you have the potential to make even more money, it also means you will spend more time completing administrative tasks and ensuring your employees are doing what they should. If you decide to bring a partner into the business, you then must deal with any clashing viewpoints that arise as well as typical power struggles.

Scaling Back Business

When you scale back a freelance business, this means you will be turning away clients who are willing to pay for your talent. This can be a difficult thing to do because you don’t want to burn any bridges with people. Additionally, turning away clients basically means you are losing potential income. However, if you determine that expanding the business isn’t the right choice for you, then turning away clients is the only other option. By bringing your client levels back down to a manageable amount, you will likely feel much less stress and can instead refocus on your love for web design. This can also provide more time to develop high quality work for clients instead of rushing to complete everything on schedule.

Electronic design automation allows for all sorts of technology and gadgetry ranging from circuit boards to integrated circuits to be created fluidly and in mass. This process completely changed the way we view modern day technology as a whole. It made computers and other technologies much more affordable to the masses and as a result, much more commonplace. Once production can be automated, it is much more cost effective.

Thanks to greater affordability, more and more people purchased home computers and got connected once the Internet began being piped into our homes and businesses. As a result we were able to completely change our lifestyles, allowing us to begin shopping and banking and telecommuting and taking classes from home. Our lives were revolutionized and continue to be each day as we grow along with technological advancements.

Nowadays, pretty much anything we want is just a click away making us all more tuned in and informed. For example, if we want Target promotional codes, all we need do is perform a quick search and voila, we have codes available for us to use to buy most anything we can dream of at a discount. It’s amazing how much the world has opened up to us thanks to little things like circuit boards and processes like electronic design automation. We will never live the way we did before it existed and more interestingly, it will be fun to discover how we will live going forward as more and more advancements and discoveries are made which help to simplify our lives.

Buying online has become a popular choice for the new generation; including online fraudsters who want your money. Online fraudsters do this using malware designed to steal personal information, or to reopen loopholes in computer systems so that criminals can gain access to personal records. Fortunately, most antivirus software are now able to prevent these criminal activities.

With online shopping, you can purchase the product somewhere far away, when in the bus or riding a car, or traveling to another place. Online shops don’t have a closing time. You can carefully select items and revise their specifications. You can compare the object to other products. You can read the testimonials for the product that can help you decide to buy or not. You can arrange shipping for the product. You can search for second hand goods. Online stores also have its drawbacks, but this creates a whole new convenience for consumers.

These online transactions involve the exchange of money online by real people. And since it is online, you may be afraid of security risks. If you use online bank accounts to pay for online transactions, it is likely that your account can be altered and used illegally, without your consent. Virus created by hackers are some of the things responsible for these crimes. The good news is that there are ways to keep online shopping safe and effective. First, make sure that you are a responsible user. Do not enter dangerous or unsecured sites. There are places that you think might be protected; but they are scams. Some things to check when you want to determine the validity of a site are the padlock symbol on the page of the site credit card information. Also you can check if a site has some online certifications ensuring that the site is safe.

Finally, make your computer use a proactive approach to keep their transactions safe by installing an antivirus software on your computer. These, together with the guidelines above, are some tips you can follow to ensure you are safe when shopping online.

Electronic design automation is a kind of software tool that is used to make circuit boards. This was a big step in the process of designing circuits because in the early days the circuits were designed in shops with special software and tailored by hand. Then in the early 1980’s the VLSI System came around and was able to translate the circuits into language that even computers could understand. This made it possible for designers to come up with increasingly complex chips.

Even though these chips were more complex in design they were actually more likely to work correctly. Companies started ordering these chips by the truckload. Through the 80’s businesses started employing companies that were used to making these circuit boards for them at a very high rate.

In today’s world the electronic design automation is as important as ever. With the increase in semiconductor technology the need for electronic design automation is growing. This is not a fad of the industry but rather one of the main components in what a lot of companies are doing. However, these companies are no longer hiring out in most cases but rather using in-house teams to work with the same ground breaking technology to save on the bigger cost for their own bottom line. This technology has become more than just a blip on the radar.

Open Internet Explorer.

Click the second menu option at the top of the Internet Explorer window, and then click Internet Options.

Click the General tab if it is not shown.

Click Delete Cookies … button.

Click OK when the popup appears.

Proceed to the next step:

Erase temporary Internet files.

Internet files are stored on your hard drive whenever you surf the Internet. They are called Temporary Internet Files, but they remain on your hard drive long after you have finished surfing the Internet. They are useful if you decide later to see the same page; it will open faster because your computer does not need to reload the page on the Internet. Computers are now very fast and have lots of memory, so you probably will not notice the difference if the temporary file is deleted. Temporary Internet Files are used by spyware to know what sites you visit.

If you do a lot of surfing, it is good to do this weekly or monthly. If others use your computer, and you do not want them to know the web sites you have visited, you could try the above steps as soon as you have finished using Internet Explorer.

After all, the automated processes of designing electronic components produce extremely efficient results. Long gone are the days when chip fabrication companies would actually donate boards to schools, so that chip design students could mess around with them and make their mistakes before those mistakes really mattered. We are no longer dealing with simple logic gates here – microprocessors do not leave a whole lot of things to chance, and neither can the designers who practice at making them work to their highest level.

Believe it or not, until about 40 years ago, the entire process was pretty much drawn out by hand. When a chip designer produced a prototype, there was a very real possibility that it simply would not work as it was intended to. While there was most likely a sense of excitement about the possibilities at that time, the fear of failure must have occasionally been palpable – especially when there was a major contract on the line. Fortunately, in this day and age, the entire flow of a chip’s design can be traced, tracked and optimized through the use of specialized software. No one draws designs, now.

E-mail is one of the most important ways for both businesses and individuals to communicate today. However, few take measures to backup emails to ensure that they are safe from viruses or other infections that may harm your computer. Computer failures, mechanical or software, cost businesses more than 12 billion dollars a year.

There are several tools available for individuals and businesses to help themselves back up their e-mail. Some of these tools are available for free, while others may require a small fee.

Outlook is installed on nearly all Windows PCs worldwide. Users with a valid login account for their SMTP server can download a copy of the entire email history to their computers. Users with a large email size may take several hours to copy all e-mails on their computer. These e-mails come with the attachments so that users can continue to reference them from any backup they take. This is a free way to back up files and store them locally on your computer. When the download is complete, external hard drives, memory sticks and a secure servers are available to store emails. The more copies of data and secure mail you have, the better.

70% of small businesses that use e-mail do not have a backup system in place yet. They either do not have a backup to restore their original emails or do not know how to backup emails correctly. It is very easy to use email backup services to backup your important emails. The cost of services like these is based on the number of accounts and volume of emails requiring backup. Check out a number of these types of services before you buy. Some may offer a better value for money than others. Check that you are getting the best value for money.

A website is your home away from home on the internet. If you want to have one, there are various ways to go about it.

Simplest thing to do is to use a blogging platform like WordPress and create your own little blog or CMS based website. Those sound like tough words, but WP is actually pretty simple. It needs very little expertise on your part; probably the only thing you need is to get rid of that fear of all things technical. The rest is easy with WordPress.

Then there are web hosting sites that offer free templates; all you have to do is write a few sentences, load a few pictures, follow some simple “do this, dont do that” instructions, and you have a ready made, somewhat silly looking website in minutes.

Want a little more sophisticated? Use Microsoft Frontpage. It is the simplest html editor out there, and although the stuff it produces is a little quirky, it often does the job well for a layperson.

More complex stuff wanted? Go for Dreamweaver; an Adobe software that is the last word in web designing. Although it is the last word, it is actually quite simple too, if you dont have too many ideas in mind. It can quickly create a simple, good looking website for you.

Photoshop is the next level of sophistication; use photoshop to create customized images for your website. Photoshop can be used with all the above (and below) options.

Not satisfied with images and want some action? Try Flash, a professional animation software that will produce fabulous website multimedia integrated with html, on the go. Needs a lot of learning, but so what, you are on the warpath now.

Next thing is e-commerce; it is still easy as long as you stick to templates acquired from big name e-commerce publishers. But can quickly get difficult with customizations.

Lastly, there’s fully customized CMS like Joomla and Drupal. If you want a very complex, elegant website for your business, get some professional joomla or drupal help.

EDA is a set of software tools used for the purpose of designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits. These tools can be used for the purpose of designing semiconductor chips. Induction of EDA on a large-scale basis began in 1981 and companies such as Mentor Graphics and Daisy System that opened around this time began to use EDA in their regular operations.

It is interesting to note that prior to the use of EDA, the design of integrated circuits was done by hand. These circuits were laid out manually and geometric software was used for the purpose of generating tapes for the photoplotter. The use of EDA software has revolutionized chip design. Tools such as rule checkers, synthesis tools, and verification tools have enabled designers to design a chip that has multi million gates in it. Other tools that help designers with the IC design process include layout, timing and verification tools.

There are many EDA tools available and among them, the most well-known is the Berkeley VLSI Tools Tarball. This is a set of UNIX utilities that is used for the purpose of designing VLSI systems. Other good EDA tools are Magic and Expresso Heuristic Logic Minimizer. The use of EDA has increased profoundly, with the enhancement in semiconductor technology. EDA is used for a variety of purposes. It can be used by design service companies for the purpose of evaluating incoming design. It can also be used for programming design functionality. EDA tools can be used for a variety of purposes such as simulation, electrical circuit design, prototyping, schematic capture and production.

Some of the interesting EDA software available in the market includes Falcon Framework, Physware, OpenAccess, Autotrax, Simulation Software and CATS (software). Each of this software is uniquely designed and offers a range of features that enable advanced circuit designing. Top EDA companies include Cadenc, Zuken, Magma Design Automation, and Synopsis.

EDA offers a suite of powerful tool through which you can perform electronic system designing with efficiency. There are many EDA software available in the market and one such software that offer versatile and flexible features is AutoTRAX EDA. While freeware is often quite good, free software can never match paid ones.

AutoTRAX EDA is a powerful EDA tool that enables you to carry out integrated circuit designing from the point of conception to that of actual production. The primary difference in using this EDA software is that it can help you design integrated circuits that are perfectly right. You can create circuits without any design rule violations. With its in-built project manager tool, you can carry out a top to bottom or reverse design of an integrated circuit or you can reuse design components and sub systems. The hierarchical project manager can be used to coordinate various project activities.

The difference between this software and other EDA software is that you can carry out schematic capture and PCB layout much more easily and thus have your circuit design completed in full. You can begin with the process of schematic capture, perform component placement and then carry out the routing for finishing the printed circuit board design.

This software enables you to create the full PCB Board design without quitting the program. Electrical wiring completion can be done through automatic or manual methods. The software

s internal data design enables you to maintain electrical integrity inside your schematic design. It’s has a schematic capture feature through which you can move pre-created parts to your design sheets, quickly and reliably.

You can connect various parts of the circuit through wires, buses and also through off-page connectors. Various virtual instrument like signal generators and oscilloscopes can be used for quickly simulating circuit analog performance. Once the complete circuit design has been done, other aspects of the design such as drilling holes, ordering parts from the Bill of Materials, placing parts using the pick and pace files options, can be performed. AutoTRAX’s helps you to maintain electrical integrity within the circuit’s schematic design.

Electronic Design Automation tools can be used for the purpose of designing various electronic systems. Different types of semiconductor chips can be developed using various EDA tools such as rule checkers, verifications tools and synthesis tools. EDA tools assist designers in the process of IC design using layout and timing verification tools. The design of an integrated circuit at the higher levels of design is a highly creative process, but at the lower level the task can be repetitive, and this is where using EDA software is necessary.

You can find different EDA software available, but there are also free EDA software that can be downloaded and installed.

KiCAD is free EDA software that can be used for designing electronic circuits. Free software is a great boon for all areas of computing development, especially in electronic design automation, because normally the paid software are prohibitively expensive. KiCAD was developed by Jean-Pierre Charras and can be used for carrying out electronic schematic diagrams and printed board artwork. KiCAD includes a project manager and four other tools, which include:

* Gerbview – This is the Gerbview tool for photoplotter documents
* Pchnew – This is the PCB layout program
* CVPCB – This is the footprint selector for circuit components
* Eeschema – This tool is serves as the schematic editor

KiCAD EDA is cross platform software and it can be used with operating systems Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac. It offers multi language support and is available in French, German, Czech, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese. This software has tools that allow import of various tools for components. KiCAD’s features make it to be software that’s very different from similar paid software that you can find in the market. Commercial EDA software can be very expensive and KiCAD’s features offer the solution by addressing the EDA functionality requirements for not just novice users but also professionals in the field. Its 3D viewer allows for a three-dimensional image projection of the designed circuit.