Internet and Technology

Blogs are becoming more and more popular. In many quarters it now seems that having a blog is more normal than not having a blog. Blogs are a place where you can rant and rave about things that have effects on your daily life, keep a diary, or talk about your favorite hobby. Now many Web businesses are starting blogs to keep in contact with customers and give customers the heads up on new products and services being considered.

The blog has become a marketing tool. Internet promotion is no longer simply a matter of having a website and advertising its existence on every popular website and in every popular newsletter. Now you can promote your business products and services with blogs.

People who spend a lot of time using the Web have likely read many blog posts whether they realize it or not. Most of the younger generation either has blogs or spends a great deal of time reading friends’ blogs. The young adults of today spend a great deal of time reading blogs such as those put out by their favorite authors or blogs that have product reviews.

One of the most interesting recent developments is that people of all ages have started using blogs as a source for the latest news. Blogs provide up to the minute eye-witness accounts of major events within minutes of their occurrence. On the other hand, blogs don’t have to be approved by any fact-checkers or editors before they are posted. So the reliability of blogs as a news source is questionable.

The main idea is that blog reading is becoming a more and more normal activity, undertaken by average people. For a Web marketer, the prospect of having a blog means more Web traffic if the blog has many readers.

There are a lot of things you can do to improve your blog’s traffic. You can advertise it as a pay-per-click search listing in search engines. You can also swap links with other blogs and websites. But, it is even more important that you provide interesting content in your blog that will keep your blog’s readership levels high.The Importance of Blog Template Design

Most people know the information I’ve already given you. What most people don’t realize is how much the blog template design plays a roll in the success of a blog. Even whether or not people find your content amusing can be heavily impacted by the surrounding environment your blog provides to your content. Most blog software and blog hosts offer a basic set of templates that you can use to make sure your blog is organized. If you don’t do your own blog template design, you should at least customize one of these blog templates.Blog Template CustomizationAdvertisements

It may not seem like advertisements are a feature that enhances a blog, but the truth is that pertinent advertisements serve a purpose to those who are interested in your topic. Google AdSense is one of the top advertisement services currently being integrated into blog templates. However, it is also an excellent source of revenue for your blog.Audio Content

While not directly a piece of the template, seamlessly embedding audio into your blogs can make them much more interesting for site visitors. You can also include quick links to audio in your blog template navigation bar.Banner Customization

You should create your own banner for your blog, not use the placeholder banners provided with the basic blot templates. Make it relevant to your blog topic and suitable for your business image.Favicon for Personalization

Use a favicon to further brand your blog. This will give people a personalized feel for your site in their bookmarks and next to the blog address. It should be consistent with your blog and business image.Page Features

Take the time to customize your blog template skins. Make sure the layouts and backgrounds are consistent with the rest of your Web business site. You don’t want a generic blog design to hamper your branding.Photos for Personalization

You ought to not just include photos in your blog entries, but also place them wherever they will supplement your company image in the template. Use borders around your photos to give them a framed look.RSS Feeds

Make sure you enable the RSS feeds option on your blog template setup. Those with newsreaders or using Web RSS feed services will see the headlines and content of your blogs. They can click on headline links to read more from your blog site. This is one of the best ways to get exposure and a constant stream of dedicated readers to your blog.

Broadband Internet involves using a high speed modem. This allows you to access information on the internet very quickly, so it is commonly referred to as high speed Internet. Broadband Internet can be in the form of DSL, cable, or satellite. As the popularity of the internet exploded in the early 2000’s, Broadband Internet emerged, offering computer users something better. It was quite expensive at first but has become more affordable. Today it is featured around the world. If you are still using dial up Internet connections then you may be wondering what all the hype is about. After all, it does get you connected to the internet as well! Most people switch their home Internet service to Broadband after experiencing the difference between the two while accessing the internet on their office computer. You can go to a public library as well to try a computer with Broadband Internet for a couple of hours, and then decide which one you would rather have.DSL is the most common type of Broadband Internet connection. DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It allows high volumes of data to be transmitted quickly. Some rural areas have cable that offers Broadband connections. One downside of it is that all the customers share a certain amount of bandwidth so you can find your Broadband Internet functioning slowly at times. Cable companies try to avoid this by adding additional connections as the number of customer’s increases. A satellite Broadband connection works the same way. Broadband Internet has become very popular because it offers so many advantages over dial up Internet access. It is up to 10 times faster. This means you can access information on the Internet almost the instant you click on it. Since it doesn’t operate on your phone line, you can still take phone calls while being connected to the internet. This also means you won’t get disconnected in the middle of something or not be able to get online during peak hours. Many people choose to watch movies and videos on the internet. Having Broadband Internet allows you to download them or view them quickly as it doesn’t take long to buffer them. Listening and downloading music is another popular feature of the internet that works well with Broadband Internet service. Broadband Internet can be purchased from a variety of providers. It is becoming a popular feature of Internet service providers as well as cable providers. This is a great opportunity for you to get a package deal on cable services and Broadband Internet. You will save money over having them at two separate providers. Broadband Internet costs more than dial up internet service, but it is well worth the speed you get for accessing the internet. All three Broadband Internet connections work very well. You should make your choice after comparing what is available in your area. Next compare the prices and the installation charges. Many Broadband providers run periodic promotions where they will do the installation for free. This is a great way to save money. You should also ask your friends and family what Broadband Internet provider they use and their experiences. You want a Broadband Internet provider that offers great prices and excellent customer support. The newest wave of communication is the Voice Over Internet Protocol, known as VOIP, it allows you to speak to people all over the world with unbelievable clarity. It is used by businesses because it offers a great solution for conference calls. The charges are often billed as a local call rather than long distance. For anyone who makes a great deal of long distance calls for leisure or business, this is the perfect phone solution. However, VOIP requires a Broadband Internet connection to function.

Search engines: What are they?

A search engine is one of the most important tool that helps you find information on the web. Search engines are giant sized automated cataloguing & retrieval systems. They typically have large databases of web pages & other information found on the net. Upon specific query by the users these databases are scanned & the matching results displayed.

The utility of search engines in web search lies in the fact that they are the repositories of large amounts of information which can be searched very conveniently using certain keywords. This natural language searching & many advanced features now available with search engines makes the recipe tantalizingly attractive. Hence it is no wonder that 78% of the users start their search process for any information via a search engine.

Before we go any further lets clarify the difference between a search engine & a web directory. Search engines as we have learnt are automated software based systems which aid the web search. Directories are generally human based indexes in which the web sites are visited & catalogued by human beings. In the directories the web sites are included in the categories & sub categories . These categories or taxonomies are specific to specific directories.

Users can search for relevant sites in a directory by either mining on the subject they are looking for or searching through keywords. The most famous commercial directory is Yahoo. There are hundreds of directories available. We will be discussing them later. A point to note here is that most of the SE have now started to mix their web results with some kind of directory results.

Though there is a category of SE which are not crawler based. They accept money to list your web site. These paid listings search engines will be dealt in greater detail in subsequent section.

For the moment, lets look at search engine internals a little more closely:

What goes into making a search engine

To have a birds eye view of search engine functionality will help the searcher evaluate the relative search engine merits amongst themselves as also compared with other search resources.

Search engines as we know them, to put simply, are divided into three parts:

Crawler

Index

Search software

Lets take them one by one.

Search Engine Crawler: A traditional database is populated using conventional data entry methods. Not so on the web. Search engines send a software called spider or crawler to the wild web. This spider will visit a web site once it hears of it (through other links pointing to the web site, cataloguing in some directory or direct submission to the SE) & will start to crawl around. Based on links in the site it will digest as much information as it has been programmed to receive about the web site. Thus crawlers are search engines inventory(index) suppliers.

Search Engine Index: Index or the catalogue is that huge book which contains a copy of all the web pages that have been spidered. This in other words is the database of the search engine. Once the site has been crawled it is added to the index of the search engine. This database is refreshed & updated as per the settings done by specific search engines on a regular basis.

Search Engine Ranking Software: This is the sauce which is mostly instrumental in different crawler based search engines serving different platters on being queried about the same recipe. In other words, this is the area where most of the search engines differ in the way they handle queries & display results. This portion of the SE deals with scanning the database (index) according to specific user queries & then ranking the matches found.

This brings us to the variety found in search engines.

Types of search engines:

Search engines come in various flavors. There is as much variety in search engines as one wants. From a searchers angle it makes sense to have a handle on the major search engines in multiple categories as one important aspect of doing a good search is to be aware of specific tools to be applied in specified conditions. To illustrate, a good medical search could be done using medhunt.com as compared to say altavista.com.

Broadly the categories that the major search engine could be divided into are:

General search engines

Specialty search engines

Meta search engines

Paid search engines

Search utilities

All of these search engines have a specific utility & specific application. Lets take some examples to demonstrate.

The almost eponymous General search engine is google.

In specialty search engines we have search engines specially for multimedia, medicine, blogs, law, industry ,scientific papers…

The meta search engines are which use two or three other general search engines to generate results & then customize the format in which they are presented. Some prime examples are mamma.com, myway.com, metacrawler.com etc.

This category of search engines are really growing as a category. Starting with overture.com they come in multiple varieties as well. While some accept paid inclusions like inktomi to PPC( pay per click) engines like overture, espotting etc.

Search utilities are specialized tools utilized for special applications. One example of such utility is lexibot which scavenges the deep web for information.

Recently a computer security expert stated that the only way to keep a computer 100% safe was to never turn it on. It turns out this inaccurate and a little misleading. A computer used solely to type up and print out documents, never connected to the Internet and that never received files transferred from some other computer, could in fact be a useful 100% secure computer system. This brings us to the two main ways viruses and other malware get on a computer: through a network like the Internet and file transfers from other computers.

Users want to attach computers to the Internet and receive emails, instant messages; browse web pages, download music and fun software etc. The problem is that this puts not just millions but billions of people at their doorstep! Imagine that if billions of people could reach a home instantly – how many ill intentioned people would come by to see if the doors and windows were secured? How many con artists would knock on the door? An Internet connected computer is in just that predicament.

When a computer is connected to a network by design it starts listening for communications from the outside world. Things known as ports get created which are special “doors” to the computer. These doors are special because they each have a designated program that will answer the door if it is knocked on. Examples of programs that listen for traffic from the network include:

1. instant messaging programs2. Internet phone software3. software for connecting to the computer from remote locations4. Internet games

Even the operating system itself opens ports to share files or a printer or anything else on the computer. Each of those programs creates a “door” to a computer that it will answer if someone “knocks” on it. If that program is poorly designed then when it answers the “knocking” program could take advantage of it and thus compromise the computer.

In addition to people being able to come across the Internet and knock on one of the “doors” mentioned above – by using a web browser and surfing the Internet users are inviting people to access their computers. Every time a web site is browsed the web browser is downloading files to the computer and processing them. If that web browser is not programmed properly it is a huge security risk. For example on December 12 of 2008 Microsoft reported a big security hole in all versions of its Internet Explorer browser. The hole permitted data stealing software to be installed on the victim’s computer just by browsing an infected web page! Other examples of programs that invite access to your computer:

• Email programs• File sharing and music sharing programs (by far one of the largest security risks)• Instant messaging software

So aside from isolating a computer from the outside world, how can one protect a computer system? Here are some tips:

1. Don’t use Internet Explorer as your main browser. I am not bashing Microsoft or Internet Explorer particularly and something should be made clear: It is not necessarily that other browsers are programmed so much better but that 80% of people surfing the Internet are using Internet Explorer. Thus thieves interested in gaining access to the maximum amount of victims are going to spend most of their efforts exploiting the security holes of the browser that 80% of the people are using.2. Put a firewall between your internal network and the Internet. A firewall’s job is to keep out those billions of people who can be at your doorstep instantaneously. It will only allow those you invite to knock on your computer’s door.3. Use a Firewall on each individual computer. The network firewall mentioned above is a big step toward protecting the internal network. The problem is that it generally won’t protect users from themselves. A user browsing a website is telling the network firewall that it has given an invitation to that website and to permit files from that site to come through. If the user browses an infected website with a browser that has a security hole a virus will get into the network. If it is a certain type of virus it could start replicating itself within the local network. A computer firewall defends against this sort of problem.4. Update your operating system and browsers. Security holes are constantly found in all operating systems and all browsers. Software updates patch these holes.5. Use a good and up-to-date antivirus and spyware program. These programs help prevent damage from viruses that do make it to your system.6. Backup your data. Short of isolating a computer it is impossible to 100% secure a system. If you backup your data then should the worst occur having good backups will prevent disaster.

The above represents the basics and go a long way to protecting computer systems.

Computer errors can pop up when least expected, they can cause the entire system to suddenly shut down, and they can inadvertently corrupt data to the point where it can’t be deciphered. Although they can’t always be avoided, it’s important to remember that computer errors can be corrected. The key is to understand what computer errors are, understand what they mean when they show up, and understand how to minimize their occurrence in the first place.Basically, computer errors are the result of a number of things that may or may not have anything to do with the way the computer is used. They “operate” whenever there’s a conflict among commands. Remember that computers essentially run off of a series of commands and it’s usually a smooth process. But when one command conflicts with another command – or when one command asks for a process or information that isn’t available, the computer returns results that aren’t useable. That’s an error.A prime example of this kind of error is when users attempt to use software that isn’t applicable for their system. Almost all software accompanies a list of system requirements which dictates what a computer needs to have in order for the software to work properly. To minimize errors of this sort, always verify that your computer has the required components. A project management program that you’re interested in may require a specific operating system, like Windows XP for example. And although this program may install just fine on a Windows 98 machine, it will generate a multitude of errors once its started. Insufficient memory will cause errors as well. That’s why software programs include minimum memory requirements. A program that needs 14MB of memory will generate errors on a computer that only has 4MB of memory if it runs at all. The same goes for disk space, monitor color depth and resolution. In these situations, problems occur the moment that a piece of software attempts to access the things (hardware, memory, space, resolution, etc.) that it cannot find.Because some programs share common files, errors can also occur when these shared files are not up to date. For instance, let’s say that Program A is already installed on a computer and it’s working just fine. Then let’s say that the user of that computer downloads and installs Program B. Program B uses a file that Program A installed much earlier, but when Program B is run, errors popup. Those errors are the result of Program B attempting to use an outdated (shared) file that was installed by Program A. In order to fix that problem, the user would have to download an updated version of the shared file (which to say the least – is not an easy thing to find or do).Sometimes, errors occur because a system doesn’t have the required drivers or the drivers that are on the system are the incorrect version. Both errors in these cases can be resolved by updating the computer on a regular basis. Microsoft provides a section on its website that can automatically update a computer online and it does this at no cost in an effort to reduce errors like this. Always try to keep your computer updated so that should a program share a file, it will share a file that has been updated on hundreds of thousands of computers, like yours.This article doesn’t even begin to cover the entire gamut of computer errors – but additional information regarding how to get help with a computer issue (including computer errors) can be found in our article titled, “Computer Help” no matter what the problem is.

A wireless home security system is the new and latest thing to have in your home. Quickly taking over the conventional home security system, a wireless home security system takes the whole concept of a safe and secure home to whole different level. The peripherals that can be used in a wireless home security system are advanced and more reliable than their older counterparts.

Wireless Visuals

The keyword in all of this “wireless”; a wireless home security system means that you can set up most of your peripherals without the hassle of cables or wires. A wireless home security system means that you can also set up your cameras in every possible area of the room and not just at the corner of a ceiling. This gives more opportunity for you to hide the camera wherever you want. Of course, the wireless home security system will require that the signal is not lost or blocked or else you will not be able to record anything that the camera “sees”. A wireless home security system will help you operate your monitoring activities in complete stealth. It’s definitely a plus if you know exactly where to place the cameras so that they are not revealed to intruders or burglars. Wired security systems will only give away the locations of cameras once the cables are discovered.

Wireless Audible

If you feel that installing cameras is too intrusive, you may want to have microphones installed in your wireless home security system. Although this is not something as effective as a camera, recordings from a microphone can help in a wireless home security system. For example, you can set up your microphones so that they can trip an alarm when a noise reaches a certain volume level. This is especially useful to use at night to trace unexpected noises around the house. Again, the wireless home security system will give you endless possibilities as to where you can place the microphones.

Invisible Triggers

A simple wireless home security system usually consists of an alarm and probably some motion detection equipment. This is the easiest, most cost-efficient wireless home security system that you can have set up. All you will need is to have the motion detectors set up so that they will trip an alarm in your house. It’s even more efficient if you have a silent alarm set up that the police will be able to detect; the intruders themselves will not hear the alarm. This is one of the better options from installing a wireless home security system.

A wireless home security system is definitely the best option you have to protect your home, your valuables, and your family. It takes a lot less time to install because of the fact that it is wireless and most of the peripherals will work on batteries so you don’t have to hook anything up to your local electricity. This means that it works regardless of whether there is electricity or not, provided that your mother terminal that controls everything also works on its own power source. Are you still thinking of how to secure your home? Consider a wireless home security system to protect you 24/7.