Anti Glare Screens

Anti Glare Screens

You remember those old green screen computers? I remember being in elementary school and learning to program in logo on one. Even at that time, the green screen monochromatic was a little dated, but the teacher assured us that it was the best possible system for our eyes. The four color and sixteen color screens we were using at home, she assured us, would lead to the ruination of our vision. This was far before anyone had heard of anti glare screens, but even back then, there was awareness about the possible harmful effects of computer screens on people's eyes.

Well, whether or not my 4th grade teacher was right, no one but a complete fanatic uses monochromatic computer screens today. Anti glare screens have become a necessity for the modern computer for many reasons. Many of us use our computers for everything – for work, for email, for movies and video games.

The amount of ultraviolet and other dangerous emissions from our computer screens inevitably builds up and does damage to our eyes if we don't use a screen glare filter. The anti glare screen may not seem to make a big difference if you are just looking at your computer for an hour or two, but multiply that by several hours a day for years and years, and you will see just how much of a problem it can be. But anti glare screens aren't just useful for safety.

The number one use of anti glare screens is, well, for reducing glare. If daylight is coming through your window at a bad angle, you won't be able to see what is going on your screen at all. What would you rather do? Would you like to close the shades and stay in artificial light all day? Do you want to have to turn the computer at different angles as the sun makes its transversal across the sky?

Or do you use the easy and logical solution of anti glare screens which will eliminate glare, not only from sunlight, but from artificial lighting as well. To me, the choice seems simple. I have anti glare screens on every computer in my house, including my laptops. Although they can be temperamental and fragile, anti glare screens in general really are a great technology. I'm sure the day isn't far away when they are built into every computer monitor straight out of the factory.

Article Source: http://www.zafarcomputers.blogspot.com

Where To Get Great Deals On Computer Hardware, Etc.

Where To Get Great Deals On Computer Hardware, Etc.

So often we search for cheap printers for our homes or offices. Invariably we end up asking friends or colleagues where we can get the best prices in town. The time we spend on these activities can be enormous. However with online computer shops opening up our lives have been made much simpler.

From an Epson printer to an HP product or some obscure component, all are available online. The biggest benefits of buying online is the time saved as well as lower prices for quality products. Apart from ordering the product, there's nothing more we need to do. Within a matter of a day or so, the product is delivered to your door. Small items such as cartridges are delivered all over the world by online merchants.

With online sales increasing all the time, many reputable (and some not so reputable) computer shops are creating their own web interfaces with their customers. There are now many which operate online only. We do need to be careful with whom we trade however, particularly online, so look for reliability symbols such as membership of associations e.g. the PCA (Professional Computer Assoc.). These organisations hold their members accountable to certain standards and a disappointed consumer can often get help from that organisation if there is a problem with the vendor.

The range of products from online stores is amazing - from computers, laptops, components, printers, toners, adapters, batteries, to laptop bags, networking equipment, pen drives, memory cards and many, many more items. The best part of buying online is the way in which the items are displayed. Looking for a product could take hours or days walking up and down the High Street. Now however, one doesn't have to spend much time at all because everything a website sells is listed on that site and the search facilities on many websites makes it easier and easier to find exactly what you're looking for.

Shopping carts on the websites allow us to add the products we want, go to the checkout and pay with a credit card. It couldn't be easier, even children can do it. We recently heard about a three year old who wanted a particular toy. He went onto the website of his favourite toy store, found the toy, got his mother's credit card, went through the whole check out process but got stuck on what to do about accepting the terms and conditions. That's when his mother came back into the room. She was so impressed with what he had accomplished she completed the transaction and he got his toy!

One must be wondering how is it that the online stores are able to offer products so cheaply. One of the advantages for online shops is that competition within their supply chains helps them to buy cheaper and therefore they are able to sell cheaper.

For our home, or even office, printing we may not always want pay the price of original cartridges. Using online shops, we can find plenty of re-manufactured clones or compatible products from companies such as Print Rite, Alphajet and others. Often the "bricks and mortar" computer store simply can't offer us as many options as can be found online. The same is true for computers, monitors, printers, ac adapters, cameras, etc., etc., etc.

Quality can become an issue though, especially as we're not able to touch or physically check the goods before buying. So, it is even more necessary to read through the Terms and Conditions for their returns policy before buying any product. The exchange and return conditions can become very important if you are dissatisfied in any way with your purchase.

With the online marketplace becoming more and more crowded by computer hardware and software suppliers, you the consumer, are in a great position to choose. So the next time you want to buy a printer, laptop or even a cartridge, "Google" your requirement and see how wide the choice really is.

Article Source: http://www.zafarcomputers.blogspot.com

Graeme K. Ingram is the author of this article on Computer Hardware. Find more information relating to razer, andgaming here.

Computer enclosure protecting computers on factory floors

Computer enclosure protecting computers on factory floors

With the price of standard computers dropping, this puts computers in the reach of everyone, most homes have at least 1 computer and 1 laptop, with the low cost and availability businesses are now using them to monitor and control the production on factory floors.

However we all know that the standard computer is best suited in an air conditioned office, so as soon as they are introduced to factory floors that are dusty, grimey and full of grease, problems occur, with lost records and this can result in lost production time.

To combat this, some companies either build custom offices on the factory floor at a cost of thousands to have an area that is safe and free from relevant dust contamination or they purchase special PC enclosures that offer a safe protective environment for the computer to run without being effected by any dust, dirt or fluid that is in the surrounding area. The PC enclosure is a more affordable solution, as it can be relocated if the production line is increased or reduced, were as the office would have to be demolished and rebuilt!

Computer enclosures are cooled depending upon the application and the extreme temperatures, there are solutions to cool an enclosure to -30 degrees and there are solutions to heat the enclosure to +60 degrees Celsius. Air conditioning units are also available, however they have moving parts than do wear out over time, there are options to maintain a ambient temperature inside the cabinet even if the external temperature range is to variable.

One solution to use in large temperature ranges, is a cooling tube, these run on compressed air and once fitted to the computer enclosure, are set to the desired internal temperature, for example 20 degree Celsius and it does not effect the hardware if the external temperature drops to -20 degrees or 140 degrees Celsius, as the internal temperature is a regular 20 degree C. These cooling tubes have no moving parts, so there is nothing to wear out and they will certainly pay for themselves.

This is why many general manufacturers such as Ford Motors, Vauxhall, Paccar Trucks, and SCA Hygiene use computer enclosures, to protect their computer hardware and to help control production.

Article Source: http://www.zafarcomputers.blogspot.com

Computer Security & Solutions are specialist manufacturers of computer enclosures that are used on factory floors, these are also known as a industrial computer cabinets.. Visit PC enclosures protecting computers on factory floors.

Media Player Classic Home Cinema

One of the most common problems I experience when playing movies and videos on my home PC is poor lip syncing caused by the sound and video not marrying up perfectly. Rather than performing any degree of troubleshooting I always fall back to the trusty player ‘Media Player Classic Home Theatre’ which despite a complete lack of both bells and whistles always performs admirably.

The user interface for Media Player Classic looks just like the old Windows Media Player 6.4 which was bundled with Windows ME and early versions of Windows XP. I expect few users to know this specific version off the top of their heads so simply refer back to the version in your memory that could be described as looking ‘particularly primitive and dated’.

There are no fancy skins, no modern looking icons and no ribbon style interface; what you simply get is a blank screen along with play, stop, pause, rewind and fast forward buttons, a volume control and a series of options running along the top of the application in an old school grey drop-down menu.

The compensation for the primitive looking interface is that the 3mb application is capable of playing a huge number of audio and video files without the need for any additional software or codecs. Out of the box Media Player Classic Home Theatre includes support for MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, VCD, SVCD and DVD playback. It also has built-in codecs for LPCM, MP2, AC3 and DTS audio along with H.264 and VC-1 with DXVA support, DivX, Xvid, and Flash Video formats. Media Player Classic Home Theatre can also support Quicktime and Realtime formats with the use of additional software.

The player is based on the old Media Player Classic application which was being developed up until the original author ceased development back in 2006. In the last few years, asides from the name change, a number of new features have been integrated in to this new release including additional video decoders, several bug and vulnerability fixes and a 64-bit version for those with compatible versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The main appeal to me has to be the sheer simplicity of the application; it will load in literally a second and rarely skips a frame or misses a beat. If I ever find myself in a situation where a more ‘advanced’ player is struggling then immediately I’ll load up MPC Home Cinema and on the same PC with the same video file the problems cease. The low resource requirement means that it’s suitable for use on low specification machines making it especially tempting for those that can’t run the latest version of Windows Media Player.

Downloading a copy will take literally a few seconds from http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/ and as with all good software it is free of charge and doesn’t include any advertising.

Cooliris

Cooliris is a free add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer that enhances the way you view content on the hundreds of currently compatible sites. It is essentially a rather flash looking graphic user interface with a few nice features.

The main draw is the impressive way it presents you with an endless wall of images from your chosen page and allows you to browse them by dragging the page and then enlarging the picture/video of your choice. My description does not really do the effect justice, by comparison it is somewhere between Sci-Fi style smart boards found on CSI/Minority Report and the album selection method on iPod/iPhones. Although this may not seem particularly useful at first, once you begin to play around with the features including the add-on really begins to shine.

While hundreds of sites such as Facebook and Myspace are compatible, I would imagine most people would use Cooliris featured sites like Google image search or YouTube. Many other big sites are also featured in a handy drop down box towards the top right of the page such as Flickr, Deviant Art, Picasa and Bing. Additionally Cooliris can be used to search images in the same manner from designated folders on your PC but disappointing seems unable to do the same for video files.

Once installed Cooliris is never intrusive; the only sign of it being installed is a small logo that appears next to the search bar on your browser which acts as a shortcut to www.cooliris.com. When visiting a Cooliris supported site this logo changes to a blue and green logo that once clicked takes all content on the page and displays it in the dynamic endless wall format mentioned earlier.

Along with the browsing of images and videos, the add-on has the additional shopping feature that is fully integrated with the Amazon.co.uk for the browsing of their products. I would imagine this is where the revenue for the add-on comes from as there are no adverts to speak of apart from the featured videos which are simply an option available in the many categories available for browsing.

The program itself is extremely polished in appearance and really is a pleasure to use; my only real grumble is that some images do look a little grainy due to the resizing. When I consider that it was trying to display 104,000,000 image results for my search term ‘fish’ however, I find it impossible to hold a grudge.

I would hope more features will be added in the future as there would seem to be quite a lot of scope for expansion especially as I notice certain flash games also seem to be compatible with the add-on. While not an essential download or particularly revolutionary Cooliris is certainly worth the 2.9mb download to enhance your image/video browsing or even to get a bit of shopping done.

Long term data storage

I’ve had a few people ask me just recently what method I would recommend when planning a long term backup strategy. One elderly gentleman in particular was creating a family time capsule that he wanted his children and grandchildren to be able to view many decades from now.

The question isn’t as easy as you may think. You may imagine that the data could be burnt to CD, locked in a cupboard and that it would last forever however unfortunately this isn’t the case. There are literally hundreds of suitably stored but physically decayed CD’s from my teenage years which I could use as testament to that.

Therefore I’ve made a list of common formats one would usually consider for archiving a large amount of data so you can pick the most suitable one for your needs:

Hard Disk – When used on a regular basis a hard disk will typically last for around 5 years before it starts to decay and if it is being used as an infrequently accessed backup drive then we can assume that this can be at least doubled. Unfortunately degradation of the discs metallic surface, along with the inevitable seizing of parts would still occur over an extended period of disuse.

Optical – Standard optical media includes CD, DVD and BluRay. If choosing this media type ensure that you go for the highest grade money can buy you; a premium brand such as Taiyo Yuden may well last a decade but a more budget brand such as Memorex may only last half that time before the aluminium starts separating from the plastic.

Flash Media – Clearly you would expect that since Flash Media has no moving parts it would be ideal for a long term backup strategy. To an extent you would be right but the published data retention of a unused flash drive is only around 10 years and unfortunately once the device has reached the end of its life it is likely that it will go out in style, taking with it all of the information stored within.

Paper – Rather obvious this one – if left in a dark, dry place then paper will last for many decades; we recently recovered a number of newspapers from 1964 from below the flooring of a building we’re doing up and aside from being a little yellowed they’re in perfect condition. Primary problems do of course include having to find a safe place to store them along with the physical limitations relating to the amount and type of information that can be stored on sheets of paper.

Tape – This may come as a surprise, but Tape backup actually holds one of the best data retention rates hence its continued use in banking and government sectors. Typically a manufacturer will warranty a tape for 30 years with an expected life expectancy beyond that. Although the tapes themselves are affordable and the capacities typically high (between 72GB and 1TB compressed), the actual drives themselves are relatively expensive, starting at £250 for a basic model.

Unfortunately that’s it for this week; we’ll conclude next Friday by covering the remaining options, including a storage media that’s provided with a remarkable 100 year warranty.

Long term data storage – Part II

Last week I spoke about a gentleman I met who was creating a family time capsule and had come to me to ask the most effective way of achieving data that he wished to be available past beyond his lifetime.

The question is an interesting one as when you look in to the technology available you realise that many forms of media are simply incapable of storing important data for more than a couple of years. By way of example, a couple who videotape the early years of their child on to a DVD disc may be disappointed when ten years down the line the data has been destroyed by way of natural degradation of the media.

The last article already discussed the pros and cons of Hard Drives, Optical Media, Flash Drives, conventional Paper and Tape drives and so this week conclude with the remaining options I would consider:

Solid State Drive – An SSD uses solid-state memory (similar to that used in a flash drive) to store data and is most commonly used as a direct alternative to a hard drive, especially in notebooks where their small weight and size along with fast access times make them ideal. Unfortunately, they suffer the same major problems as flash drives in that JEDEC, the leading developer of standards for solid-state storage specify that data retention of an idle drive should only be considered to be around 10 years.

The Internet – The Internet is theoretically the most robust way of backing up data; an online server is typically backed up daily, monitored 24/7 and in the event of a problem with the hard drive housing your data, a redundant mirrored backup drive would immediately take over. If looking to store data that will be used in your lifetime this would be a suitable option however if the intention is to preserve data for future generations (such as the time capsule idea that inspired this article) then this method could be ill-advised. For example, if you backup data using a free online storage account then there’s nothing to say that the company won’t either go out of business or begin charging for the service in the future – these are both circumstances that would lead to the deletion of your data.

Magneto Optical – Although it is certainly a niche product, Magneto Optical might be your best solution if long term data storage is your goal. Originally introduced in the 1980’s, MO drives are slow and currently have a maximum capacity of just 9.1GB however with their slow speed comes a ruggedness that allows manufacturers to provide their discs with a 100 year data retention claim, often with a warranty to match. High end drives are expensive but you could enter the market with a 1.3GB drive for around £100.

Of course, when devising a long term archival strategy we assume that hardware will be available at the time that it needs to be played back. This is a serious consideration when we’re talking about storing the data for best part of a century but in our own lifetime it won’t necessarily be a problem – the first video camera my family owned used the 8mm Video8 cassette tapes and although 20 years down the line I don’t own a compatible reader, I could obtain one if necessary.

Along with choosing the most suitable format, ensure that you keep copies on several different media types and in several different locations, thereby increasing your chances that one media type in one location will survive the test of time. If possible, check on the media every couple of years and transfer it to newer and more suitable media types.