A Peek Into the Near Future of Electronics Technology

Writen by Terry Mitchell

How long do you think DVDs have around? 20 years? 10 years? Actually, they have only been around for about seven years, but it seems like they have been around much longer. Many of us can hardly remember life before DVDs. That can be attributed to how rapidly we can become acclimated to some innovations in electronics technology. I believe there are other electronics technologies, either just getting ready to take off, not widely available yet, or just around the corner, that are going to become adopted just as quickly in the near future.

Once such item is Voice over Internet Protocol, also known as VoIP. This innovation renders the whole concept of long distance virtually obsolete. It bypasses the traditional telephone company infrastructure and delivers phone service over a broadband internet connection to a regular phone. Similar to cell phones, this service is purchased based on a fixed and/or unlimited number of minutes. However, geographical divisions are generally made by country or continent, rather than by local calling areas or area codes. For example, a typical VoIP contract in the U.S. would stipulate unlimited calling to North America and 300 monthly minutes for calls to everywhere else. Unlike cell phone service, you are not charged for incoming calls. With VoIP service, area codes are not much of an issue, although you still must have one. However, some providers offer plans in which you can select any area code in your country or continent! The area code you choose mainly comes into play for those with traditional phone service who make calls to you. If you pick a California area code, for example, someone calling you from a traditional phone line would be billed as if they called California, even if they lived next door to you in New York.

One of the major advantages of VoIP is that it is less expensive than traditional phone service. Since it bypasses most of the phone companies’ infrastructure, it also bypasses many of the taxes associated with it. So far, Congress has maintained a hands-off approach when it comes to taxing VoIP services. Most of the major phone companies are either now offering VoIP or plan to start by mid-2005. However, there are some smaller companies that are offering it at a much lower cost. Vonage (www.vonage.com) is a small company that was one of the pioneers of VoIP. Lingo (www.lingo.com) and Packet8 (www.packet8.com) are two other small companies offering VoIP at a cut-rate price.

Another such technology is Broadband over Power Line, or BPL. Already in wide use in many other countries and currently being tested in the U.S., BPL is the delivery of broadband internet service over traditional power lines. A computer is connected to a special modem which is simply plugged into an electrical outlet. This kind of service could prove useful for those who cannot get traditional broadband services like cable modem or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), as almost everyone has access to electricity now. Once refined, BPL could eventually prove to be cheaper and faster than these more established services and attract away some of their customers. By the way, be careful when you’re discussing BPL and make sure people don’t think you’re saying, “VPL.” Otherwise, you might encounter quite a bit of snickering!

While we’re on the subject of broadband internet services, several technologies just around the corner are going to make them much faster than they are today. The typical download speeds for broadband ranges from 1.5 to 10 megabits per second (mbps) today. Within the next year, speeds of 15-20 mbps will be available to the average consumer. Then, shortly thereafter, speeds of up to 25, 50, 75, and even 100 mbps will be available in some places. In the not-so-distant future, speeds of 25-100 mbps is will be quite common. “Fast TCP”, which is currently being tested, has the potential to turbo-charge all forms of currently available broadband internet connections without requiring any infrastructure upgrades. It will better utilize the way in which data is broken down and put back together within traditional internet protocols.

All the major phone companies are currently in the process of replacing their copper wires with high capacity fiber optic lines. One example is Verizon’s Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) initiative. Fiber optic lines will greatly increase the amount of bandwidth that can be delivered. Fiber optics will allow phone companies to deliver video, either via a cable TV-type platform or a TV over Internet Protocol (TVIP) platform (see my October 7 column), and faster DSL speeds. At the same time, the phone companies are working with Texas Instruments to develop a new, more technically efficient form of DSL, called Uni-DSL. Eventually, the current internet as we know it will be scrapped and completely replaced with a whole new internet called “Internet 2.” This new internet is expected to provide speeds of up to 6000 times faster than current broadband connections!

Another technology item that you’ve probably heard a lot about recently is digital television. Digital TV uses a different wavelength than traditional analog TV and has a much wider bandwidth. It also has a picture that never gets “snowy” or “fuzzy.” If the signal is not strong enough, you get no picture at all, rather than the fuzzy picture you sometimes get with analog. In order to receive digital signals over the airwaves, you must have a digital TV set (one with a digital tuner inside) or an analog TV with a set-top converter. Cable and satellite TV also use digital formats, but unlike broadcaster signals, their non-High Definition digital signals are automatically converted to a format an analog TV can process, so a digital TV or converter is not needed. High Definition Television formats, even on cable to satellite, require a digital TV or a converter (more on High Definition later).

All broadcasters are now doing some broadcasts on their digital channels in addition to their normal broadcasts on their analog channels, but they were originally supposed to completely convert over from analog signals to digital signals by the end of 2006. However, there is an exception that allows them to wait until 85% of the television sets in their market are digital. This could take 10 years or more to happen. Congress and the FCC are now looking at imposing a hard deadline on all broadcasters to convert to digital signals by 2009. Once they all convert to digital signals, their analog channels will taken back by the FCC and used for other purposes like emergency signals.

High Definition Television (HDTV) is one possible use of digital signals. HDTV uses the entire digital bandwidth and is the crystal clear format you’ve probably seen on TVs in electronics stores. It has no visible lines on the screen. Someone once described it as being like “watching a movie in the theater.” Keep in mind that all HDTV is digital, but not all digital is HDTV. Along those same lines, not all digital TVs are HDTVs. Since digital TVs are very expensive and those with HDTV capability are even more expensive, consumers really need to keep this in mind.

The other possible use of digital signals is channel compression, often referred to as “multicasting.” Non-HDTV programming does not utilize the entire width of a digital signal. Therefore, it is possible to compress two or more channels of programming into one digital signal. Satellite and cable operators do this all the time with their non-HDTV digital channels, but this process is transparent so many people don’t realize it. Many broadcasters plan to use their digital signals this way during times when they are not being used for HDTV programming. For example, some plan to air all news and all weather channels in addition to their regular channels of programming.

TV recording and playback technology is changing as well. DVD recorders, which debuted about four years ago, have now become affordable to the average family. A couple of years ago, they were priced above $1000, but now you can get them for around $250, in many cases. The main sticking point now with DVD recorders is that not all of them will record/play all three of the competing formats: DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW. They will have difficulty gaining wide acceptance from the public until one format is settled on or all recorders can record and play all three formats.

One the other hand, digital video recorders (DVRs) and personal video recorders (PVRs), just two names for something that is really the same thing, seem to be gaining quickly in popularity. DVRs/PVRs utilize a hard drive to record programs, without the need for discs or tapes. DVRs/PVRs with larger hard drives are becoming available and less expensive all the time. These devices can record one show while you are watching another. They can record more than one show at a time. They allow you to watch the part of a show that has already been recorded while the remainder of that show is still being recorded. They allow for easy scanning, searching, and skipping through recorded programs and even allow you to skip commercials with one touch of a button. They allow you to pause live programs while you answer the door or go to the restroom and then pick up where you left off when you get back. With these devices, recording can be automatic, i.e., you can program them to automatically record every episode of your favorite shows, no matter when they air. You can also have them automatically find and record programs that match your interests. In addition, video can be automatically downloaded to the device via a phone connection. TiVo, the leading brand in the industry, has announced that it will be teaming up with Netflix next year to allow downloading of movies on demand via a broadband internet connection (see my October 7 column for more details).

DVRs/PVRs are becoming so popular that cable and satellite TV providers have begun including them as add-ons to their receivers, either at no extra cost or for a small additional monthly fee. About the only shortcoming of DVRs/PVRs is the fact that they can’t play pre-recorded DVDs or tapes, so you would still need your DVD player or VCR if you rent or purchase movies. However, hybrid devices which combine DVRs/PVRs with a DVD player/recorder and/or VCR are now hitting the market. Those devices would not only get rid of that problem but would also give you the option of permanently transferring a recorded show/movie from a hard drive to a recordable DVD.

Flat screen and flat panel TV technology is also starting to boom. Many people are confused about the difference between flat screen TVs and flat panel TVs. Flat screen TVs use the old cathode ray tube (CRT) technology for their picture tubes and are therefore bulky like traditional TV sets. However, they are different from traditional TV sets in that they have a flat screen. They deliver a picture that doesn’t have as much glare as traditional, more round screens. Also, the picture will look the same to everyone in the room, no matter where they are sitting. The picture on a traditional screen looks distorted when viewing it from an angle.

Flat panel TVs, on the other hand, utilize either liquid crystal display (LCD) or plasma technology instead of the old CRT technology and are generally just a few inches thick. Many of them can be hung on a wall. In fact, flat panel TVs that are flatter than a credit card will be coming soon! What’s the difference between LCD and plasma? LCD is generally used for flat panel TVs with a display of less than 30 inches and usually has a brighter picture and better contrast than plasma. LCD is used for flat panel computer monitors as well. Plasma is generally used for flat panel TVs with a display of more than 30 inches and has a better color range than LCD. Plasma is becoming more common as TVs get bigger and flatter.

Although I’m not so sure about this one, I will include “entertainment PCs” because of their tremendous potential to revolutionize home entertainment. The concept of “entertainment PCs” is being hailed right now by both Microsoft and Intel. In fact, Microsoft has developed a special operating system for them. They could be used as the hub for all home entertainment and could enhance a family’s experience of television, radio/music, and internet and actually help to combine all of these into one. They could be used to download content from the internet and play it on a TV. They could provide such sophisticated TV recording interfaces that VCRs, DVDs, and DVRs/PVRs could all eventually become obsolete. In addition, they could be a better source for photograph and home video editing and processing than regular PCs. With that being said, I’m not so sure that people will be willing to accept PCs as a source of home entertainment. Bill Gates begs to differ and is willing to put his money where his mouth is.

Obviously, not all of the cutting edge electronics technologies mentioned above will meet with great success. Some of them might actually go the way of Betamax, digital audio tape (DAT), and DIVX. However, many of them are sure to catch fire and become such an intricate part of our everyday lives that we’ll wonder how we ever got along without them. Which ones will they be? Only time will tell.

Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, and trivia buff from Virginia, USA. He operates a website – http://www.commenterry.com – on which he posts commentaries on various subjects such as politics, technology, religion, health and well-being, personal finance, and sports. His commentaries offer a unique point of view that is not often found in meanstream media.

How to Back Up Your Files Using XP’s backup utility – Step by Step

Writen by Carlos Cabezas

To determine how important it is for you to back up your files, you can simply ask yourself the following question: “How bad would it be if I turned on my computer tomorrow and all my files were gone?” If the answer is “It wouldn’t be that bad, there’s really nothing important on my computer anyway” then you don’t really need to be backing up. On the other hand if your answer is like mine and you say “I would be dead in the water, and I would probably go out of business” then you need to make sure you are backing up your data to a separate location than the usual one.

In this tutorial I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to do in order to set up a back up for your files. This tutorial applies to the Windows XP operating system. If you have an older version of Windows there are still plenty of options, but those are not covered here.

The first thing you are going to need to do is make sure you have a working USB port on your machine. Test it out by attaching some kind of USB device to the machine. A good item to test with is a portable USB flash drive. If Windows recognizes the device then you are set.

Next you are going to need an external hard drive. This is where your files will be backed up. My favorite external hard drive is the Western Digital Portable 40GB external drive. It’s small, unobtrusive and needs no additional power supply as it gets its power from the USB port. I like to avoid extra cords if I can. Western Digital has been a good name in hard drives for many years. Another nice thing about this drive is there is no software to install. You just plug one cable in and Windows XP recognizes it. You can purchase this drive from Buy.com by clicking on the picture of the item below. If you think you need more than 40 gigs for your backup they make a 100 gig version of the same drive, but 40 gigs should cover most people’s important files.

Before plugging in the new external hard drive go to “My Computer” (Start, My Computer) and take a look at what is under “Hard Disk Drives”. You may see a drive labeled (C:) or a (D:) , in any case just take note of the drives you see there. After plugging in your new drive give Windows XP a few seconds to recognize it. You should get a pop up saying something like “Your new hardware is ready to use”. Go back to My Computer and again look at what is under “hard drives”. You should now see a new drive that was not there before. This new drive is the external drive you just plugged in. Take note of its letter (D: or E: etc).

Now that your new drive is hooked up and recognized by Windows XP, it’s time to set up the Windows XP backup utility. If you have Windows XP Professional edition this is already on your computer. You can check to make sure it is there by going to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools and you should see “Backup”. Windows XP Home edition does not ship with the XP Backup Utility. If you follow the above path in Windows and you don’t see the back up utility this means you do not have it. In that case you will need to download it (can be downloaded from my site). Once you have downloaded the file it is fairly simple to install. Just double click on the file and follow the directions.

If it is installed correctly you will see the “Back Up” file when you follow the above path in windows. Click on “Back Up”. The utility starts in Wizard mode by default, so you will probably see a screen that says “Welcome to the Backup Wizard”. Click the Next Button.

The Next screen is called “What to Back Up”, choose the one that says Back up selected files, drives or network data.”

Here you have a screen that looks a lot like Windows Explorer, and you can see a layout of your folders. Most people keep their important documents in the “My Documents” folder, so go ahead and put a check mark by that folder. Put check marks by any other files you think you need to back up. Expand the folders as need be by clicking the check marks by the folders. When you are done click Next.

Now you need to decide where to back up to. Click the “Browse” button. If a window with “please insert a disk into disk A: comes up just hit cancel. Use the drop down menu to find the external hard drive you just plugged in (remember you took note of what drive letter it was) Click on the drive letter. This window will show that there is nothing on the drive, since you just added it. Right click anywhere in the white empty space and left click “New” and then “folder”. Name the folder something like “backup”. Once you’ve created this new folder double click on it to go inside the folder. Once inside click on the “save” button.

Now you should be back at the Backup Wizard again at the window called Backup type, destination and name”. Under “choose a place to save your backup” you should see the name of your new hard drive as well as the folder you created. Click Next.

You are taken to a window that says “Completing the Backup Wizard”. Click “Finish”. Watch it back up. If it went well it says “back up complete”. Click Close. You should now be back at the ‘Welcome to the backup utility advanced mode” screen.

Click the button again for “back up wizard (advanced)”. Click Next, choose “Back up selected files,or network data” again and click next. Again choose the folders you want to back up. Click next.

Again you are at the Backup type, destination and name screen. Under “Type a name for this back up” enter “backupincrement” . Click browse and find your hard drive and the folder you made earlier. When are again inside the folder you made, click in the text field to the right of “File Name”. There is probably something in there that says backup.bkf. Whatever is in there, rename it to “backupincr” or just “increment” if you prefer. Click “save”.

Now you are back at the Backup type, destination and name screen again. Click “Next”. Now you are at the “Completing the Backup Wizard” screen again. This time click the “advanced” button.

Hit the drop down menu and choose “Incremental”. Click Next. Check the box that says “Verify Data after backup”. Click Next. Check the radio button that says “Replace the existing backups”. Click Next. It asks “When do you want to run the back up?” Choose “later”. For the Job Name put in anything you want then click on “Set Schedule”. Choose when you want the back up to run. I would recommend daily at night, say 9 pm. After you choose the schedule, click “Ok” Click “next”.

Choose a password for the backup. This can be anything though I would make it easy to remember; “password” should do fine. Click ‘Finish”.

That’s it. You have set your back up to run on a set schedule. It should run automatically without you having to do anything.

Carlos Cabezas writes regularly about home technology at http://www.HighTechHomes.tv/blog. His business, High Tech Homes, helps work at home professionals, families and small businesses with their technology issues.

What is a Firewall ?

Writen by Benjamin Hargis

Simply put it acts as a barrier between your computer and the internet. To protect you from crackers, hackers and malware.

If your running DSL or a cable modem you should employ a firewall, as having a direct connection to the Internet can make you a target to attack.

Firewalls can be hardware or software based. With firewalls you set up ACL’s or Access Control lists to allow or deny traffic.

There are three different ways a firewall can block traffic.

1. Packet Filtering- Packets are analyzed against filters in the firewall rulesets. Firewalls will drop packets that are not allowed in the firewall rulesets.

2. Proxy Service- Information from the Internet is grabbed by the firewall and delivered to the requesting service thru the proxy.

3. Statefull packet inspection- looks up criteria against a database of trusted information. To see if the packet contains anything that would allow

or deny it into the network.

Firewalls are customizable allowing you to create your own rulesets you can block IP addresses, specific protocols such as Telnet, FTP, ICMP, UDP, SMTP and many others.

Firewalls can be customized to block specific ports, or even keywords.

There are many software firewalls availiable such as Tiny Firewall http://www.tinysoftware.com/home/tiny2?la=EN That is designed to keep hackers out of your network and block Spyware.

Zone Labs makes ZoneAlarm I like it bcause it has a simple interface allowing home users to configure it easily. http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

For hardware firewalls there is:

Cisco www.cisco.com There brand is called PIX firewall.

From home users I like D-Link DI-604 this is a inexpensive firewall that works well. Best of all it fits into almost any budget.

Linksys (now part of Cisco) offers a router/firewall that supports VPN and DMZ. www.linksys.com

There are many hardware solutions including setting up a firewall on a *nix box. I like this the best as it gives you the firewall administrator the most control. I personally like OpenBSD for any security applications I would run with Unix, as it is secure. There have been very few exploits against this platform.

I will be writing more articles about firewalls shortly.

Benjamin Hargis CEO

Phuture Networks

http://www.phuturenetworks.com

email: ceo@phuturenetworks.com

Firms See iPods as Security Risks!

Writen by Brian Lupichuk

Firms see iPods as security risk! The iPod ,once thought to be a threat just to your own hearing. Is now a very serious threat to firms and companies and businesses of all sizes. The iPod and all the various MP3 Players that can be very easily hooked up to the back of the computer are now banned in about 30% of the workplace in small and large businesses across Canada.

The personal laptops and the tiny USB memory keys that can carry huge amounts of data are also banned actually forbidden by half of all buinesses according to a survey done in Canada. By Sun Micro systems of Canada INC.

You or somebody else out there could easily have millions of customers names and addresses on some of these small devices that can be carried around in your pocket. There are lots of people out there that have done a good job of locking and barring the front door to , but they don`t understand there is still a huge back door they are not aware of or they just have’t figured it out yet.

There is a gaping back door to an increasing mobile workforce with employess carrying around potential data goldmines in their pockets or brief cases on everthing from wafer thin memory cards to Blackberry’s personal digital assistants, cellphones, and notebook computers (laptops).

The data can very easily go astray when a device is lost or stolen, or it can be deliberately be put in the wrong hands by a or some disillusioned employee or employees. who have access to the confidental corporate files.

Companies that find out that customer information has gone missing face a credibilty crisis and it can severly damage their name. Some 28 percent of customers would be prepared to immediately terminate their relationship with a company if their private information was discovered to get into the wrong hands. Or the company compromised it in any way.

Where we see this most is from consumers is things like the basic name , credit card number,the expiry date, and their home address. I the hands of identiy thieves, they can and will wreck havoc.

On iPods and MP3 Players MP3 Players, you can put numberous photographs, videos, data with vast amounts of information.

Here’s a great example an eight-gigabyte compact flash memory , the size of an after-dinner mint wafer, can hold approximately a half-million pages of text or 800,000 emails. iPods can hold up to 60 gigabytes.

Although companies are taking the right measures to protect the risk of loss data, only about 32 percent of executives surveyed believe that the optimum level to prevent and manage potential attacks is being done.

Mounting Wireless Antennas: How High and Why?

Writen by Eric Meyer

Most wireless antenna and wireless access point manufactures usually say the higher the better went mounting. This is true but you must take in account: coverage area, height of the building, type of antenna and weather.

Wireless Antenna – First you need to decide what type of antenna you are going to use. If you are going to use a directional antenna then you will be able to tilt it downward if needed to cover you needed area. But if you mount the antenna two high you will have a dead zone between the building or ceiling to the ground level. You will not want to tilt a omni directional antenna downward because you will be sending half of your signal up in the sky.

Another common scenario is to use a Omni directional antenna in conjunction with your directional antenna to avoid dead spots. When choosing a directional antenna make sure it’s radiation pattern suits your needs. If you need to give a long hallway wireless coverage then you will need to ensure it’s radiation pattern doesn’t leave dead spots.

One 8dbi directional antenna could have a signal pattern of 60 degrees horizontal and vertical and a 14dbi could have a 30 degree signal pattern. If you used 14dbi directional antenna the room closest to the wireless access point could end up being dead spots.

Coverage Area – The most important thing is that you can provide a constant secure signal with out it costing too much money. That is really how you decide how to place your access points. Usually the higher the better because the height lets gives more options. Just take in account that you are not leaving dead spots close to the access point / antenna.

Join the most popular wireless networking news letter on the internet at http://www.wirelessninja.com

Advantages and Guidelines of Automated Testing

Writen by Vamseedhar Sane

“Automated Testing” is automating the manual testing process currently in use. This requires that a formalized “manual testing process”, currently exists in the company or organization.

Automation is the use of strategies, tools and artifacts that augment or reduce the need of manual or human involvement or interaction in unskilled, repetitive or redundant tasks.

Minimally, such a process includes:

Detailed test cases, including predictable “expected results”, which have been developed from Business Functional Specifications and Design documentation

A standalone Test Environment, including a Test Database that is restorable to a known constant, such that the test cases are able to be repeated each time there are modifications made to the application.

The following types of testing can be automated

Functional – testing that operations perform as expected.

Regression – testing that the behavior of the system has not changed.

Exception or Negative – forcing error conditions in the system.

Stress – determining the absolute capacities of the application and operational infrastructure.

Performance – providing assurance that the performance of the system will be adequate for both batch runs and online transactions in relation to business projections and requirements.

Load – determining the points at which the capacity and performance of the system become degraded to the situation that hardware or software upgrades would be required.

Benefits of Automated Testing

Reliable: Tests perform precisely the same operations each time they are run, thereby eliminating human error

Repeatable: You can test how the software reacts under repeated execution of the same operations.

Programmable: You can program sophisticated tests that bring out hidden information from the application.

Comprehensive: You can build a suite of tests that covers every feature in your application.

Reusable: You can reuse tests on different versions of an application, even if the user interface changes.

Better Quality Software: Because you can run more tests in less time with fewer resources

Fast: Automated Tools run tests significantly faster than human users.

Cost Reduction: As the number of resources for regression test are reduced.

Choosing the right tools for the job and targeting the right areas of the organization to deploy them can only realize these benefits. The right areas where the automation fit must be chosen.

The following areas must be automated first

1. Highly redundant tasks or scenarios

2. Repetitive tasks that are boring or tend to cause human error

3. Well-developed and well-understood use cases or scenarios first

4. Relatively stable areas of the application over volatile ones must be automated.

Automated testers must follow the following guidelines to get the benefits of automation:

Concise: As simple as possible and no simpler.

Self-Checking: Test reports its own results; needs no human interpretation.

Repeatable: Test can be run many times in a row without human intervention.

Robust: Test produces same result now and forever. Tests are not affected by changes in the external environment.

Sufficient: Tests verify all the requirements of the software being tested.

Necessary: Everything in each test contributes to the specification of desired behavior.

Clear: Every statement is easy to understand.

Efficient: Tests run in a reasonable amount of time.

Specific: Each test failure points to a specific piece of broken functionality; unit test failures provide “defect triangulation”.

Independent: Each test can be run by itself or in a suite with an arbitrary set of other tests in any order.

Maintainable: Tests should be easy to understand and modify and extend.

Traceable: To and from the code it tests and to and from the requirements.

For more visualization of this article and free training tutorials on Testing: http://www.exforsys.com/content/category/17/259/340/

Exforsys offers free training and career help specializing in C, C++, C#, Java, J2EE, .NET, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel, Oracle Apps, Data warehousing, Oracle/SQL Server/DB2 and Testing. Please visit http://www.exforsys.com for more Training Tutorials, for IT Interview questions visit http://www.geekinterview.com, for articles and resources visit http://www.itquestionbank.com

Using your iPod in your Car

Writen by Mark Shead

Using an iPod in your car can be difficult if you aren’t familiar with the different options. Here are six ways to listen to your iPod inside your car.

• Use Headphones – I have seen many people do this. It is not a safe way to listen to your iPod in your car. If you do this, you should make sure you always leave one ear free to listen to traffic.
• Cassette Adapter – For $10 to $15 you can find a cassette adapter that plugs into your car stereo tape player. While these work fairly well, the sound quality is not very good.
• Radio Transmitter – There are devices that plug into your iPod and transmit to your car stereo. The quality isn’t particularly great, but it is a simple way to play your iPod through your car stereo without dealing with wires or complicated setup. Not all vehicles have stereo’s that can receive these type of transmissions, so you will have to test it to make sure it will work for you.
• Auxiliary Input – Many car stereo’s have an input jack that you can plug the iPod’s headphone connector into. This gives good sound, but still requires you to use the iPod controls to change songs.
• Stereo Integration – Some car stereos can talk directly to your iPod. With this type of integration, you can control the iPod just like the radio.
• Stereo Integration Add-on Box – Some stereos are compatible with third-party add-on boxes that connect between the iPod and your stereo. Usually these boxes plug into the CD changer input and allow you to treat your iPod as if it were a CD changer.

How To Watch Movies On Your Pocket PC And Other Handheld Secrets

Writen by John Deprice

Handhelds, like PocketPC and Palm are incredible pieces of hardware. With appropriate software you can turn them into TVs, DVD players and much more. Curious? Read On.

PocketDVDStudio (PQDVD)

With PocketDVDStudio you can watch DVD movies on a wide variety of mobile devices, like Pocket PC, Smartphone, Portable Media Center, Palm. Yep, it’s true, you can have fun when you are on the go (just make sure you don’t drive, would you?). Basically, with PocketDVDStudio you can take your favorite movies, TV show in your pocket and watch them anywhere, anytime.

PocketDVDStudio comes with an easy to use interface to record video files(wmv, avi, mpg, mpeg, rm, rmvb, Tivo2go, etc) and DVDs into portable format(wmv, avi) playable on your device. The software can compress any DVD movie less than 3 hours long into a 128MB/256MB or larger memory card. Now you’ve found another good reason to justify the purchase of your favorite Palm, PocketPC or Smartphone before your friends or family.

PocketDVDWizard (The Coding Workshop Limited)

PocketDVDWizard is perferct for the owners of Windows Mobile Pocket PC, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Windows Portable Media Center, Windows Smartphone, Windows CE handheld devices, Archos Media Player, Gizmondo ane Palms.

PocketDVDWizard allows you to make backup copies of your personal DVDs, Mpeg, Avi and DivX

Make Windows XP Run Faster!

Writen by Bob Rankin

A friend told me: “My computer startup seems to be taking a long time. And when the hard disk finally stops churning, everything just seems slower than when it was new. Can you suggest any maintenance tips to reduce the startup time and make Windows run faster?”

I have this theory that sludge builds up inside a computer over time, much like an automobile engine. After a while, it doesn’t start right up like when it was new, it stalls unexpectedly, and performance is sluggish on the (information) highway. Is there something like engine cleaner we can pour into our personal computer to restore that “like new” performance? Actually, yes!

Cyber Sludge Remover

Here’s my special recipe to clean that icky goo out of your computer’s pipes, so Windows will start quicker, run more reliably, and go faster on the info-superhighway.

INGREDIENTS:

Safe Computers For Teens: Linux Might Be The Answer

Writen by Aaron Davis

Recently my daughter’s old Pentium III Compaq laptop completely died. This happened near Christmas so her gift list was an easy one. The problem was that I did not want to spend a lot of money. The other problem was that I hated her having a computer.

I hated it because I constantly had to work on it. She used the computer for homework, instant messaging, and browsing. Every couple of months, I found myself removing spyware and other junk from the computer. Occasionally it was easier just to re-build the computer by re-installing ALL the software, including the operating system. I track her internet usage through my router so I know that she has not been to “questionable” sites but these things continue to work their way into her computer.

I decided to consider something that I had never before considered. LINUX! I picked up another Pentium III (this one was a bit more powerful than her old laptop) desktop for under $100.00. I added some old memory that I had sitting on a shelf. I downloaded SUSE Linux and went to work.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the installation was! There was very little interaction and my choices were very simple. In about 30 minutes, I had a working computer connected to the internet.

There are a few things with which I was very pleased. It was running very well with the old hardware. If I had used Windows XP I would have been forced to get a newer computer and spend hundreds of dollars. The operating system came with a browser (Firefox) and complete office software (OpenOffice – which is compatible with Microsoft Office products). There was also a very nice instant messaging tool that allows her to use many different IM clients in one piece of software. It had CD ripping and burning software as well as several audio programs. On top of that, the operating system and all the software were FREE!

Now I know most of the people reading this are thinking, “Ok, we have another anti Microsoft guy here”. That is absolutely not true. I am a Windows and web developer by trade and use Microsoft products exclusively (except for using Firefox as a browser when testing). I am a huge believer in the products that Microsoft produces simply because they work and in most cases work VERY well together.

The best thing about this change of operating system is that my daughter’s computer is now free of spyware and is not targeted by most viruses. The fact is that most viruses and spyware target Microsoft Windows only. Now I can rest easy knowing that I won’t be rebuilding a computer every few months.

Aaron Davis is a freelance web/application developer. He has been a web/application developer for more than 12 years. His specialty is .NET development with C# and SQL Server.

http://www.davis-webs.com