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Technology
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By: Steven Smith
More than just a pretty game face.
Has your kid told you they wanted a Nintendo DS game console? Then you said ..a what? That was my reaction when my son said he had purchased one. It’s basically a handheld device for playing video games, although there is nothing basic about it. It has impressive 3D rendered graphics and ultra-bright screens. The little console delivers cutting-edge portable games for fans of any genre and kids of any age. I happen to be a fan of online gaming, I play Socom 3 which I think has great graphics, but this little handheld has graphics that are incredible for its size. Plus, you can connect wirelessly to Nintendo Wi-Fi connection and challenge players around the world. Yes you are reading correctly, it has wireless built in. So you can take it with you to your local coffee shop and play online, I mean your child can. Also a group of gamers can sit around the same room and play wirelessly against each other without special network equipment. The wireless capability extends from 30 to 100 feet depending on the game. Another great feature is that if your kids are playing together with friends only one person needs the game card. The person with the game card hosts the game for all the others playing. What this means is that if you have 3 kids they don’t all need a copy of the game to play. There are two screens with touch screen capabilities, so you can use the stylus or touch the screen to access your games and other information. You get stereo sound with the dual speakers built into the case top. Don’t want to wake the kids while you are playing their games, plug your headphones into the built in jack. An onboard microphone port gives you more ways to interact with your favorite game. In addition they also included a separate media port for Game Boy Advance cartridges. This will save a few bucks by not having those older Game Boy games go to waste so they will still have some useful game life left. There you have it, now when your kid asks you about a Nintendo DS you will know what they are talking about. That alone is guaranteed to get you a “You’re cool” comment from them. Amazing how technology has progressed in the last 30 years. When I was growing up if someone had said they got a new handheld game we would have thought they got a new yo-yo…..
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When a tablet is not a pill
If the local computer doctor says “take this tablet and call me in the morning”. They probably would not be asking the client to take a pill to correct a computer problem. In the personal computer world a “tablet PC” is a special type of computer. In most cases it looks much like a laptop computer, but with some functionality that isn’t found in the average laptop. The major difference is the fact that a tablet computer can accept input on the screen. This is accomplished by the touching the screen and that touch being recognized as input. This can be done with a finger similar to an automatic teller machine or through the use of a digitizing pen. The specialized software installed on the tablet PC allows the digitizing pen to interact directly with the screen. This gives the tablet PC user the ability to fill out and even sign electronic forms instead of using paper. In the real estate business there are numerous forms which can require multiple signatures of both the buyer and seller of a home. Using a tablet PC can allow a real estate agent to get those signatures electronically on the tablet screen. The signed forms can then be sent via email to the other agent for more signatures. This would normally be done with paper forms which were generally faxed to the other agent. Using electronic forms saves time and also money by reducing the printing and faxing costs associated with paper forms. In addition to using a digitizing pen as an input device, a tablet PC can use handwriting recognition software so that email to Grandma can actually be handwritten instead of typed for that personal touch.
There are also other input methods such as an onscreen keyboard, an actual keyboard and even speech recognition. There is also specialized software that allows the user to use a “shorthand” type of writing instead of writing everything out completely. The input capabilities of a tablet PC can also come in handy to business people and college students. Whether in a business meeting or a class lecture, notes taken on the screen can then be converted to an electronic document or easily saved to memory for later reference. In addition to written notes, drawings and diagrams can also be captured and saved which can increase retention and productivity. Bottom line is the average person writing email, surfing the web and creating normal documents probably doesn’t need the capabilities of a tablet PC. But if your industry is moving toward electronic document sharing or just want the technology and functionality, the added expense of a tablet PC may be just what the doctor ordered.
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Do you use VoIP?
Don’t know what VoIP is? Those letters stand for Voice over Internet Protocol.
VoIP is basically making phone calls over the internet instead of your normal telephone company connection. To use VoIP you need a high speed internet connection like Broadband or DSL. You just need your regular home telephone and a special adapter for your phone that will change your voice to an internet transmittable format. You can hook your regular telephone up to your cable modem or through the adapter and make calls just like normal. When you dial the number is it the same as if you were calling from a normal phone. The call will sound the same too. So if VoIP is the same as a regular phone what is the advantage? Most of the advantage will be in the cost. If you spend more that 50 dollars a month you could see substantial savings. Because of the way that the VoIP phone service company’s rate their calls, it is much cheaper to talk to people from around the world as long as they have an Internet connection. You can also talk to more than one person at the same time with VoIP phone services at no extra cost. Also VoIP service providers do not pay all the taxes and access fees paid by regular phone service companies. So the VoIP service providers costs are lower which make your costs lower.
You will also realize more of a savings if you already have a high speed Internet connection. With VoIP phone services you can have voice mail, call waiting, caller ID, 3-way calling, call forwarding, call return and caller ID block just as with regular service.
So what about disadvantages of using VoIP? The biggest disadvantage is the currently VoIP providers do not support encryption of your voice transmission.
And with calls being routed over the internet it would be easy to eavesdrop in on a phone call or even change the content of the call. As VoIP technology continues to develop so will the security of calls and data. But for the average person just making calls to friends and family the security issues would be a small. Another disadvantage is getting disconnected if your internet connection is unreliable. If you are using a Broadband service like Cox or a DSL connection for your internet service there should be no problem. Another issue is making 911 calls and that is the calls cannot be traced geographically like they can with standard phone lines.
So someone making a 911 call would have to know exactly where they are. VoIP is available anywhere there is high speed internet connection but most providers focus on the U.S. Although you can use VoIP in other developed parts of the world and make long distance calls without long distance fees. So what’s next for VoIP? Probably in the near future we will see mobile VoIP cells phones using Wi-Fi technology. We should see costs continue to go down as more people switch to VoIP. So if you have multiple phone lines at your home you should at least take a look at VoIP, you could save hundreds of dollars over the regular phone company service.
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Got network?
Remember when it was a big deal to have a single computer in your home? And if you had a printer also you were really on the cutting edge. Having a network in the home was not even something most people considered. These days many new homes come pre-wired for computer networks and even audio/video networks. Today many households have multiple computers and various peripheral devices. So having home network today is more necessity than luxury. In our case we have four computers and two printers, so having a network is actually a way to save money. Because we can share printers, we saved money by not having to purchase printers for every computer. By setting up a home network you can possibly even stop the kids from having arguments over who uses the computer with the printer or internet connection…ok maybe you won’t stop the arguments. With a network everyone can print or access the internet at the same time. Not only can you share devices you can also share documents or other data between your computers. So there is no need to use outdated floppies or other hardware methods of transferring data between computers. So how do you setup a home network? One way is to run network cables to every room you want connected to your network. This can be a lot of work if you don’t have attic access in you home. It’s a lot of work even if you do have access…plus you have to deal with the dust and worse yet, spiders in the attic. So to avoid having the surprise of a big spider walking on you I would suggest using a wireless network. The wireless systems designed for home use are very simple to setup. For a basic wireless network you will only need a few parts to get it going. The first and probably most important piece will be a wireless router. I would select one that is both wireless and also has four wired ports. This will save a few bucks and some work since you can just connect an adjacent computer directly to the router without a wireless network card. Each computer you want connected will need a wireless network card installed. Most new laptops come with wireless capabilities built in so you may not need a card. You can also add wireless adapters to your printer, this way any computer in the house can print without being connected via cable to the printer. If you have game systems like PS2 or Xbox you can also add those to your network to play games online. With game consoles you can add network adapters to each console or add a wireless bridge which will connect multiple devices to a network. This all may sound complicated but in reality it is fairly simple. Most of the hardware is almost plug and play so most non-computer geeks will be able to set it up on their own. Happy networking!!
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Just what is a blog?
The term “blog” is actually a shortened version of “Web log” some sites also call them forums. These are basically websites where either the owner of the blog or others make entries to the site in a diary or journal style of writing. These are usually in reverse chronological order, meaning the newest entry will be listed first. The subjects in blogs are as diverse as you can get. There are blogs discussing everything under the sun. Some blogs are simply people ranting about their pet peeve or they are actually intelligent and thoughtful conversation. A typical blog can combine text, images, and links to other blogs. They can also be linked to other web pages and electronic media related to its particular subject. The primary reason for blogs is to provide the ability for readers (bloggers) to leave comments in an interactive format. Being interactive means blogs are almost real time discussion. When you are registered on a blog you can receive email updates when any comments have been posted on that blog. What this gives you is the ability to read the comments of other bloggers almost as it happens. This one of the reasons blogs have become so popular. In a world of instant communication blogs give users the continuation of that instant communication. Blogs just carry the conversation to a different medium being the internet. The big difference being that the discussions in a blog are usually a “one to many” format. This means you can post your comments on a blog and there is a possibility that hundreds of thousands of people could read your post.
Which when you think about it is pretty cool. Where else can you get that kind of exposure to your thoughts? This is exactly why some news travels around the planet before you see it in the news or your local paper. They also provide a wide range of views and opinions being posted while people all over the world can read those views and opinions and post their comments. Blogs can be very specific, meaning the discussion line can have a very narrow subject line like discussions on auto repair. They can also be very broad discussing subjects like politics, Iraq and Al Gore’s favorite global warming. In the last few years blogs have had a greater affect on shaping and discussing news stories. As an example blogs created by soldiers in Iraq have shown that the situation in Iraq is not nearly as bad as the mainstream media portrays it. To keep the blog on subject most blogs have moderators that watch over the blog and delete posts that are either off subject or inappropriate for the site. So in a nutshell that is what blogs are all about. If you want to see how a blog works I had a website created called www.myramona.com. You can go there and register, and you will have access to the Forums link. There is even a practice blog to just enter your comments for fun! So get out there and release that inner blogger in you.
The technology articles were written for a monthly magazine section called Tech Talk
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