Save money. Save 10-15% on utility bills per month. Work with products that have a good value now, but also save money throughout the ownership of the home. Get energy savings through lighting management, irrigation control, solar energy, and temperature control. Lower monthly bills-how can you say no to that?

Enjoy the comfort of your home. Avoid crowds, uncomfortable seats, and the rising cost of going to the movies. Design a dedicated home theater with rumbling chairs, kick-ass sound, and of course-sound proof! Or, utilize a multi- purpose room to enjoy movies with the whole family.

Rest assured. Know your family is safe while at work loging on via the web. Receive email messages when your kids get home from school and disarm the system. See video of who is at your door, or just use sensors to let you know when someone is trying to enter unannounced.

Getting a little soggy? Be warned when a leak is threatening to turn into a flood. Some systems can detecat as little as 1/8 inch of water and alert you by phone.

Baby it’s cold outside. Call from the airport and bring temperatures back up via cell phone call or your PDA. Never come home to a cold house again!

Having a party? One click of a button and you can have music, lighting, and temperature set just how you like it! Set similar scenes for dinner, movies, romantic evenings, and whatever else you can think of!

Bumps in the night. Immediately hit the “all lights on” button and illuminate your whole home!

Document it. Installation of wiring is essential to every project. Although the wiring is going to get closed up in the walls, it should also be prepared for future upgrades. Document what you do so you know exactly where the original wires begin, end, and how they connect to current components.

Holiday lights. Help control your utility bill by turning lights on at sunset, and off at a designated time.

Has it rained? Don’t waste water the lawn if it’s rained in the last 48 hours. Let your automation and irrigation systems work it out amongst themselves.

©2005 Architechtronics, Inc.

Did you enjoy this article? Receive other exclusive articles & stay on the cutting- edge of home automation & technology! Join “The EDGE” today-it’s free! http://www.architechtronics.com/edge.html

Jennifer Shatos holds a degree in Visual Communications Specializing in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Seattle. Jennifer frequently attends educational seminars to keep on the cutting-edge of business, along with trade shows and other events in the home automation and security industry.

Visit http://www.architechtronics.com for more information.

With technology advancing more every day, electronics have become smaller and more mobile. This includes computers. The laptop, or notebook computer is extremely popular these days and many people have them as backup or secondary computers or even as their main computers. The great thing about a laptop is that it uses a battery to power the unti when you are away from a power source so you can literally take your computer anywhere. But in addition to the batteries, there are other parts of the laptop computer that make it work.

You know that another important part of your laptop is the screen. There are many different types of screens and the screen is important since it is the display that will show whatever you are working gon with the computer and you may spend many hours looking at it. Early laptop screens were dim and dark with poor quality but they are very improved today and even come in wide screen and more.

However, you know that the display is not all there is to the laptop. There are many more important parts to the computer. The CPU is very important because it makes your computer work. There are mobile CPUs which keep the machine cooler and prevents overheating. These are great because they also use less power.

There are many great features to the laptop computer. Most of them come with modular (or swappable) drive bays which allow you to remove the floppy drive, the DVD drive and the hard drive. If you want to use different media for storing and saving your data, it is easier than ever to do this while you continue working. You don’t even have to shut your computer down.

The laptop is powered by AC power that plugs into the wall. This makes it easy to charge your laptop and charge the batteries. These typically plug into an ordinary wall outlet. The only downside is if you are in a confined space because many have power bricks that take up space. If you plan on using your laptop a lot in hotels and other close quarters, you might want to purchase a more compact device to make it easier.

Ultimately, the most important aspect of the laptop is it’s ability to be mobile. This is why the batteries are so important. Most laptops come with one or two batteries or you can purchase an extra battery later. Most laptops batteries last from 2-4 hours when fully charged. Depending on the type of laptop and battery you have, it may be more or less.

Melissa Knab is the owner of Batteries Pro which is a premier source of information about Pro. For more information, go to: http://batteriespro.com

Now we have accepted that VoIP is no longer just a phone service, it has become feature rich as it merges with computer configurations. The VoIP’s existence has changed considerably over the last few years, coupled with the availability of broadband connection to the Internet, plus leaps in multimedia technology in which virtual operations with remote sites becomes more enhanced, makes VoIP service a viable alternative to traditional communication offerings.

Cost savings is not the only driving force for VoIP implementations, enterprises have to consider some business aspects that VoIP can bring about. VoIP creates potentials for applications that could not have been done before. Collaboration, integration, and interactivity between employees and applications are one of the several business benefits that enterprises can derive from VoIP adoption. Nevertheless, amid euphoria of VoIP technology, there are three important aspects to look at before a company goes VoIP. In the following paragraphs I will summarize the aspect of security, stability, and interoperability that play a key role in the successful implementation of VoIP.

1. Security

VoIP implementations may expose new security risks and challenges that somehow become greater concern than quality and cost-efficiency among vendors and users. VoIP networks are vulnerable to all the same security risks as traditional IP data networks, including:

• Denial of Service (DoS), viruses, worms,
• Toll fraud and unauthorized access,
• Spoofing, and port scanning.

It is recommended that organizations should adopt a layered, defense-in-depth security strategy to address the issue with the increasing proliferation of new Internet-borne attacks and malicious activities in recent years. In this architecture, the network is segmented into secure zones protected by layers of firewall, intrusion prevention, and other security services. This strategy allows the organizations to logically split and secure voice and data networks in front of individual voice and data components and between interactive points in the network.

2. Stability

One of the main issues of VoIP is the amount of bandwidth required for each call. There must be adequate bandwidth reserved and the quality of the link must be well maintained throughout each call to ensure the users are not affected. As the very nature of VoIP call is real-time, any disruption during the call would be easily noticeable and unacceptable. The two issues that enterprises usually have to deal with here are bandwidth and quality of service (QoS).

VoIP calls need a data transmission speed of 64kb/s to produce the quality of voice comparable to that of a normal telephone call. That 64kb/s channel needs to remain open and unaffected for the duration of the call. Theoretically, VoIP installations would not allow such a huge bandwidth to be allocated for VoIP alone. Therefore, there needs to be a compression taking place to compact the voice data into a considerable size before it gets transmitted over a packet switching network. G.723 codec that is incorporated in VoIP standard protocol H.232 can take a 64kb/s stream of data and squash it down to a mere 5.5kb/s or so. Generally, for VoIP to work reliably over WAN links, there has to be low jitter, low packet loss, a considerably high-speed connection between the endpoints, and less than 200ms delay.

3. Interoperability

Compatibility between VoIP equipment from different vendors is a very important aspect to boost the use of VoIP products. Without standardized quality of service mechanisms businesses would need to buy all the equipment and the QoS server from the same manufacturer. The VoIP world seems to be divided between many vendors with reluctance to establish interoperability and some who are trying to be end-to-end supplier but at the same time worried about interoperability. The protocols used in VoIP communication are still considered fairly complex in comparison to most of the other protocols involved in Internet applications. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol - a signaling protocol for Internet conferencing, telephony, events notification, and instant messaging), that is regarded as simple and elegant the other protocols, is still not efficient.

On the bright side, however, SIP is approaching status as an IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard, after several years of work. With the recent version, it has achieved a greater amount of stability and changes are becoming smaller and smaller. Phone switch companies such as Nortel have recently begun supporting SIP, and now the manufacturers of handsets and related devices will soon ramp up their support. Motorola, Avaya, and Proxim have made collaboration on the creation and deployment of IP telephony solutions that will deliver new extents of communication mobility and network connectivity.

Finally, with these three VoIP aspects covered, businesses will be able to maximize their investment by applying it as the backbone of internal communication such as phone conversation, videoconferencing, instant messaging, faxing, etc. Another area that will widely make use of VoIP is call centers, in which Web contacts, virtual operations with outsourcers overseas, and remote sites, such as home agents, all could improve the customer experience. New VoIP applications that we have not thought about may also come into existence as the services generates more business and profits for companies.

Al Falaq Arsendatama is web entrepreneur specializing in technology and finance.
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Cellular phones are different from your land-line home phone in that you’ll need to determine in advance how many minutes you’ll use in any given month. Deciding how many minutes you’ll need and making sure you don’t go over your allotted minutes is one of the trickiest parts of using a cellular phone.

The most common arrangement for cellular phones is a block minute plan. With a block minute plan, you’ll pay a flat fee to purchase as set number of minutes each month. The disadvantage of this plan is that if you purchase 200 minutes per month, you’ll be billed the same amount whether you actually talked for 199 minutes or 60 minutes.

Something that many new cellular phone users don’t realize is that you’ll also be charged to receive calls. If you’re worried about going over your allotted minutes, it’s best not to give out your phone number to any more people than absolutely necessary.

Like a prepaid calling card, all calls made on a block minute plan are rounded up to the nearest minute. If you call a friend and listen to a 30-second answering machine message, you’ll be billed for one full minute. You’ll also be charged for one full minute if there’s a busy signal or no answer, although some block minute plans will only bill you if you let the phone ring more than three times.

With a block minute plan, going over your allotted minutes can quickly get expensive. You’ll be charge a penalty rate for every additional minute you use. If you’re not careful, this can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars a month in unnecessary charges. The best defense is to buy more minutes than you think you’ll actually need and reduce your plan at a later date if necessary.

Timothy Gorman is a successful webmaster and publisher of Cellular-Phone-Solutions.com. He provides cellular phone plans, service and free cellular phones on his website that you can research in your pajamas.

With the bewildering number of digital cameras on the market, it’s increasing difficult to know where to start for your first purchase. One of the major determining factors of the price of a digital camera is the number of pixels. Nowadays, even 5.0 megapixel cameras are affordable, even for casual snapshots.

But is bigger always better?

Higher megapixel cameras do have some drawback. The first, and most obvious, is price. A basic 5.0 megapixel camera currently runs between $200 and $300. A 1.2 megapixel camera can be had for less than $50. Storage for those large pictures will also cost you more. A 32 MByte memory card will hold around a hundred 1.2 megapixel pictures. This drops right down to around 60 pictures for 2.0 megapixels and to around 40 pictures for a 3.0 megapixel model. One other consideration, not often mentioned, is that a higher megapixel camera has to do more work to compress and store images, leading to longer waits between picture shots and viewing.

Before you rush off and spend $300 for a camera, consider what you will be doing with the pictures. Are you viewing them just on your computer? Sending them as email attachments? Printing them on an existing inkjet printer? Having them professionally printed?

The larger the number of pixels, the larger the file size. An important consideration if you are emailing them as attachments. The following chart shows sample file sizes, typical resolution and maximum print size for different pixel counts stored as high-quality JPEG files:

Pixels - - - File Size - - - Resolution - - - Print Size

1.2 - - - - - 480k - - - - - 1152 x 864 - - - - - 4 x 6 inches
2.0 - - - - - 980k - - - - - 1600 x 1200 - - - - 5 x 7 inches
3.0 - - - - - 1.2M - - - - - 2048 x 1536 - - - - 10 x 8 inches
5.0 - - - - - 2.3M - - - - - 2592 x 1944 - - - - 11 x 14 inches

Most computers will only display the 2.0 megapixel image (at most) without scrolling, so you may find yourself resizing all your pictures - or not using the maximum resolution of your camera - if you have a 5.0 megapixel camera.

Only ever print pictures at 5 x 7, or only view them on a computer? Then a 2 megapixel may be enough for now. The prices will be lower next year if you want to upgrade later.

Obviously, the higher pixel cameras do have some advantages, especially when it comes to cropping and editing - and you know the salesman will want to sell you the best camera in the store - but I hope this information will help in making an informed decision.

Marty is the editor of a number of websites including http://1PhotoProducts.com and http://discountgolfequipment.us

It’s most peoples worst computing nightmare. You wake up in the morning, flip on the computer, and it doesn’t boot. Sometimes the problem rears its ugly head as a horrific clacking noise. Other times it simply gives a read error.

At this point, most people panic. The first thing you wonder is whether or not the data is recoverable. There is no universal answer to this. In some cases, a simple scan with some data recovery software is all that it takes to retrieve the contents of the drive. In other cases, if you want it badly enough, it will take thousands of dollars and a shipment of the drive to a clean lab where they will pull the platters inside of the drive and access them that way.

Now you’re probably wondering if there’s a way to prevent this from happening. Well, you’re in luck. Getting a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) is the very best and most effective way to prevent your data from pulling a disappearing act.

While it is not fool-proof, having something that regulates the electricity flowing into your computer can reduce the risk of a drive failure by up to 70%. This figure goes up to around 90% if the computer is being used while in an electrical storm. (My computer repair business always gets a little boost after a thunderstorm, courtesy of the lightning wreaking havoc on people’s hard drives.)

Don’t just run out and get any UPS. You want to get an intelligent one. The ‘intelligent’ UPS will regulate the power without having to hit the battery every time the voltage takes a dip which greatly improves battery longevity. They also include options to hook the power supply up to your computer via a serial or USB port so you can monitor what the power is doing. This also gives the option to allow for a soft shut-down if the power goes out and you are away from your desk.

You can get an Uninterruptible Power Supply at most computer stores. Best Buy carries a fairly wide selection of them.

As for brands, I’ve personally used APC with much success. Opti-UPS is another excellent brand. In fact, I have an Opti that is 6 years old and still works fine, although the batteries now have no life to them. (That’s to be expected. Rechargeable batteries only last so long)

Now that you know of the importance of a UPS I would strongly encourage you to invest in one. It is far better to spend $100 now on some preventative maintenance than having to spend much more later on data recovery.

Kevin Souter is a full time computer technician. He also operates some free spyware removal and computer repair websites.

There are so many different webmail services on the internet, from the huge ones like Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, to the much smaller ones from private websites and ISPs. There is a lot to worry about with e-mail these days but some of these front line webmail services are really a great way of helping to protect your system.

Location and Applications

Two of the biggest benefits of using web based e-mail as your primary e-mail service is the fact that you can essentially use it from anywhere with any application. As long as you have an internet connection and a web browser you are probably good to go. Of course some organizations block certain websites (to keep people doing their jobs at work) you might find yourself unable to check your e-mail at work. But if you are on vacation or at home, or at a hotel on business then you should have no trouble getting at your e-mail.

Spam, Phishing, Worms, and Viruses

This is probably the single biggest reason you should consider switching to a webmail interface for your e-mail. Most good services screen or filter your e-mail to help keep you safe by deleting or quarantining dangerous, or potentially dangerous e-mails. G-Mail for instance has a really great spam blocker, will not open pictures or links be default unless you tell it to, and recognizes e-mails with possibly forged headers and warns you that the e-mail or sender my be fraudulent!

Online Storage

By using web based e-mail you also have the ability to have all your history of e-mails or important documents follow you wherever you roam. This is even more true recently since all the major providers of webmail are drastically increasing your storage capacity. Why bother deleting your e-mail when you can archive it and then pull it up later when you require it, possibly from the other side of the world, or on a beach in Mexico. If you do all your e-mail from one computer and store it in offline media then you are heavily restricted when you are away from home, unless you have someone to mail stuff to you upon request.

POP3 / SMTP

Most webmail services now offer you the ability to use your normal e-mail program at your computer if you don’t want to always go to the web to download your mail. I personally prefer the web based method because it’s one less program cluttering up my computer and with broadband internet access it’s just as quick as being on my computer anyway.

Notification Utilities

A lot of the bigger web based e-mail providers have applications that run in your task bar or system tray that will notify you when new e-mails arrive. This can be setup to check every few minutes or almost in real time. G-mail for instances gives you the “G-Mail notifier” which is a great little tool! Other e-mail servers are integrated in to various instant messenger applications such as ICQ and MSN Messenger.

–
Ken Dennis
http://KenDennis-RSS.homeip.net/

Mobile commerce is electronic commerce over wireless devices. Mobile commerce refers to transactions using a wireless device and data connection that result in the transfer of value in exchange for information, services, or goods. Mobile commerce, facilitated generally by mobile phones, includes services such as banking, payment, and ticketing. Analysts say that close to 50% of all e-commerce will be mobile and the projections are staggering.

There are three basic types of m-commerce transactions. The first is carrier-based; using a carrier’s billing system to purchase something with a wireless device. This method lets the user bill their purchase to their monthly carrier bill (or deduct it from their pre-paid deposit). The second type of mobile commerce transaction involves using a credit card over a wireless network connection. In this type of transaction, the user has securely stores their credit card data on their mobile phone, using their cell phone as a surrogate credit card. The third type of m-commerce transaction involves financial services. These transactions include activities such as transferring money between accounts or paying bills through a wireless transaction.

If these things are going to happen in Pakistan then the expectation of mobile users will be more to their service providers and then people will prefer to those service providers which are offering differentiated product and m-commerce facilities. There are a lot of benefits of m-commerce to conduct a financial transaction while mobile are considerable. As soon as phones and point-of-purchase systems are Bluetooth-enabled, almost everything and anything becomes possible. For example, a group of friends are having a drink and decide to take in a movie. They browse through the local entertainment service, decide which one they want to see, take a look at the seating plan, select the best free seats and purchase the tickets. The transaction is stored in the mobile, so when they arrive at the cinema there is no need to queue; the purchaser merely points his/her phone at the checkpoint and through they all go and enjoy their movie.

But when it will get hype then security will be the primary concern over public networks for the mobile users. There is an obvious security distinction between a short-range, Bluetooth transaction and one made over the public network. The former represents the wireless equivalent of swiping a credit- or bankcard; it is virtually impossible to monitor this type of transaction and the information content is worthless. Information sent over a public resource can be monitored, so the best way of ensuring that the transaction is totally secure is to make this type of content equally worthless. This can be done in various ways; in fact there are so many ways and so many acronyms (PKI, X.509, SSL, WTLS, RSA, etc.) that one can only conclude that a few of them simply must work. This perception will reinforce by the involvement of credit card companies, banks, and other financial institutions.

Many countries are experiencing m-commerce and generating decent revenue through m-commerce, in the list of these countries I want to share the success of m-commerce in Japan.

In Japan, however, m-commerce has been a huge success, accounting for over $400 million in revenues each year. Through NTT DoCoMo’s popular i-mode service, subscribers can buy sodas from vending machines, purchase food at fast food restaurants, and shop at Internet retailers like Amazon.com, buying all their good through DoCoMo’s billing system. Other companies, like Visa, also offer m-commerce services in Japan.

By the success of m-commerce in many developed countries in the world, I hope that Pakistan will also benefit from m-commerce and there are lots of expectations from m-commerce in Pakistan. So, if m-commerce will execute in Pakistan then it will create convince for the trade world because through m-commerce they can make transactions like banking, payments, ticketing & much much more.

Ahmed Saleem, Marketing Management Student, Currently Doing BBA from Mohammad Ali Jinnah University Islamabad Pakistan, One of the Leading Institue in Business Admininstration & Computer Sciences in Pakistan.

Wow- if you do it first time and have some asset of time in your disposition ? then go ahead and purchase motherboard, your favorite processor, memory, video card (probably it is better to purchase it external for advanced quality). You will also need computer case ? first computer should probably go to the cheap one ? with USB 2 ports from the front side ? the only question ? you might want to replace noisy cheap power supply with $50 dollars one. Processor fan ? nowadays you will see the variety for all the tastes ? get the one with adjustable spinning speed to regulate noise (if you could not place it into the basement of your house ? I guess you live in apartment or student dormitory). Let’s go to details:

? Ahead of Generation. It is not a secret that when you build your own computer ? you might overpay ? in considering to what is available in the stores.. However you usually get ahead of technology. For example ? it is still common when Dell/Compaq/IBM computers use PC2700 standard of memory. If you bought PC3200 ? you have two years of being ahead of the competition

? Processor. If you build your computer from scratches ? you should look into 64-bits processor from the beginning. Get AMD Athlon 64 3400+ at least

? Video Card. For $100 you can get maximum of memory and performance. This is why we recommend to get external videocard

? DVD Writer. RW+/- unfortunately Japanese manufacturers are in the process of decision making on winning standards plus DVD of high density. Get both supported.

? Hard Drive. Decent motherboards support IDE raid and you could experiment with striping (raid 0). Then if you purchase two IDE disks 400 GB each ? you will get 800 GB ? unbelievable for supercomputers ? but you are on your own and cosmopolitan individual ? step forward and be ahead of competition.

? Troubleshooting. Understood and respected. First listen your mother board beeps and refer to its documentation. It might not see memory, graphical card, etc. When you are installing memory ? be very careful to static electricity issue. When you are attaching your mother board to computer case ? the most typical issue is motherboard shorting ? so do not be surprised to try your motherboard first outside the case

Andrew is Lead Software Developer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Denver, UK, Australia, Canada, Europe and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com )

1. Before sitting down for coding, you must have formal or a paper-napkin design of the solution to be coded. Never start coding without any design unless the code is trivial one.

2. Good code documentation is as important as good knowledge of a programming language. Write brief logic for each major block of your code as comments in source code file itself. Its good to mention creation and modification dates of your program along-with why modification was required.

3. Maintaining versions of your program is another important task. Some present-day programming tools already have a built-in version management. Whenever you make any change to your program, they save its copy as .bak file.

My approach is to maintain 3 versions of a program. Say, I have a file program.c which is used by other project team members also. I copy this file as program.c.old as backup and make another copy as program.c.wrk where I do modifications. When modifications are successfully compiled, replace program.c with .wrk file.

You can also append a date or some explanation phrase to your program versions like program260505.c or programReadFnWrking.c .

4. If your project contains multiple source files then maintain a README file stating purpose of each source files, data files, intermediate and log files (if any). You may also mention the compilation and execution steps.

5. Ever wondered why your IF statement is not working as it should do. May be your are using single equal i.e. “=” instead of “==” in the condition check. A good approach is to write condition in reverse order. So, your condition should read something like this:

if ( 10==i) …. So, if you put single equal sign by mistake then it will be detected at compilation time only as an error.

6. While using loops and conditional statements, always first put closing braces corresponding opening braces and then write the inner statements i.e.

1) for(int i=0;i