Top 10 Ways to Protect Yourself from Computer Viruses

by Jim Faller

As more and more people are becoming comfortable using their computers at school, home or in the office it's only a matter of time before they encounter a computer virus. Here are our top 10 steps to protect you from computer viruses.
Use a high quality anti-virus program. There are many different anti-virus computers programs on the market some of them are better than others. Look to reputable computer magazines or websites for ratings to help you find the one that matches your needs.
Always use your anti-virus software. Make sure your anti-virus software is always turned on and scanning, incoming and outgoing email messages, and any software programs you run.
Keep your antivirus programs up to date. Most programs come with a yearly subscription make sure you take advantage of the updates. More advanced programs allow you to schedule updates or full system scans for "off hours" like 2AM when you aren't likely to be using your computer.
Keep your computer up to date. From time to time operating systems fall victim to security holes or issue updates. Make sure you check periodically to make sure you are running stable up to date versions of your software.
Backup your data regularly. Most windows computer users keep their documents in the "My documents" folder. This makes it easy to back up all of your important documents. Make weekly or monthly copies CD or USB drives.
If you use floopy disks or USB drives on public computers like your school computer lab, Kinko's, or even digital photo printing store make sure you scan them for viruses. Public computers are notorious for not being up to date and properly protected.
Be wary of email attachments. Treat any email attachment as potentially dangerous. Never open attachments from people you weren't expecting. Also be careful of attachment from people you know but weren't expecting. Many computer viruses replicate themselves by reading the contacts from an infected computer.
Use text email if possible. While HTML email is prettier and allows you more control over formatting it also can carry computer viruses. If you use text based email the only way to get a virus is by opening an attachment.
Use downloaded freeware and shareware files or software with caution. Try to download them from popular reputable sources that scan the programs before they are uploaded. To make sure you are safe scan the program before you install it on your computer.
Be wary of links in IM or instant messaging software. Don't accept invitations from people you don't know and never click a link from someone you don't trust, they can easily redirect you to another website that will try to install a virus on your computer system.
© Computers.6ln.com, All Right Reserved.

About the Author
This article was written by Jim Faller of http://computers.6ln.com a website with information about viruses, spyware, adware, backups, data recovery and computer security.

Laptop's Hard Drives: Speed Also Matters

by Danijel Zivkovic

Buying a laptop? Want to upgrade your old one with a new hard drive? Besides hard drive's space size for storing your applications, documents, music, movies and other data, you should also pay attention to its speed performance. If you want fast access to stored data on your laptop's hard disk with SATA interface, higher rotation speed and larger buffer cache size.

Buy Laptop with SATA Drive
Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives use less power, so they save your laptop's battery. But, they also enchase your laptop's speed performance. Most hard drives usually support ATA/66 MB/sec), Ultra ATA/100 (100 MB/sec), or SATA (150 MB/sec) interfaces. The numbers refer to the macimum burst rate at which the drive can pass data to the system (66, 100, or 150 megabytes per second). SATA transmit data in a serially (in a single stream) as opposed to PATA or Parallel ATA which is commonly referred to as an IDE hard drive.

Check the Hard Drive's Rotational Spedd
Don't forget to check the hard drive rotational spedd! The hard drive rotational speed tells you how fast the drive spins its disks in revolutions per minute (rpm). A higher rpm means higher drive performance. A 7,200 rpm hard drive is faster than a 5,400 rpm or 4,200 rpm and gives better performance.

Large Buffer Cache Size - Better Performance
Buffer Cache Size is a temporary data storage are used to enhance drive performance. When the computer request data from the hard disk if that data is in the cache, there is a performance boost directly related to the speed of the cache. Large buffer cache size usually result in better hard drive performace. Buffer cache size on the most of laptop's hard drive is usually 2 MB, 4 MB or 8 MB.

About the Author
This article is provided by Laptop Computers Blog.

Link Page Sports > Weightlifting

1. Build massive arms, biceps,triceps, forearms, big muscles...
Discover the fastest way to build big arms and gain muscle mass!
How to build muscle mass and gain weight....

All about META Tags Part 1

by Afonso Ferreira Gomes

This article was first published at http://www.wise-designs.com where more than 200 useful articles and tutorials can be found.
In these articles i'll try to explain all there is to know about META tags and their important role in any website.
META tags are extremely useful for your site as they help it get listed in search engines, identify the creator of the page, what HTML specs the site has, ets ets ets. Meta tags can even help to avoid the page that has is being framed! These were just few examples of the wide range of uses meta tags can have. Their information most common uses are: by browsers to display the site correctly; and by search engines spiders to better list your site in their index. Read more to get to know them better one by one, how to use them and in what search engines they are recognized.

Where to put the META Tags?
Meta tags are always inserted within the container. To get a better perspective how it is done you can check the source code of any given web site! Usualy you can do this by right clicking your mouse on the site and chose "View Source Code".

Categories of META tags
You'll find two kinds of META tags available for use! The HTTP-EQUIV and the normal (usual) META tags.

Let's start with the normal ones and let the HTTP-EQUIV for later! Within the regular META tags let's start with the most important ones for Search Engines indexing... the ones that are considered the vital ones in order to achieve better results and better rankings.

- Description Tag
Syntax: (meta name="description" content="bla bla bla...">
(title) tag and the description is taken from this META tag! This tag is on the top most important for a site as it will assist search engine's robots to better index you. They'll just put in their index any sentence you write for that specific page. If you don't have this tag present on the page the robot will use the text from the first paragraph of the text within the body area of the page. It's recommended that you use less than 144 characters for this tag to Google and other major search engines only use about 60-80 to display!(/title) This tag is used to provide search engines with a description of the page they are indexing. If you analyse the results of any search at Google or Yahoo you'll notice that there's the title of the page in bold and a small description below! The title of the page is take ffrom the

- Keywords Tag
Syntax: (meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3, keyword50">
First of, Google don't use this tag for indexing... but Yahoo and more engines do! This tag is used for you to make the spider know the words that logically best describe your site and the content of the page! You can use a single word or a small phrase with 3 or 4 words separated by commas (avoid using "and", "for", "or"... these are known as stop words). The lengh of this meta tag can vary but it's advisable by many Search Engine Optimisation experts that this tag has less than 1024 characters, with no word repeated more than 7 times. Also it's recommended that keywords are listed by order of importance.

- Ditribution Tag
Syntax: (meta name="distribution" content="global">
This tag specifies how the document using it shall be index. "global" is a normal indexing directive that allows the document to be index by the major internet search engines. If you want to avoid this indexing just change the word "global" to "local" and the document will only be indexed by an intranet indexing engine.
These three (plus the title tag of your site) are the ones you need to be an expert at in order to get great results. Managing the keywords present in each of this tags gets you higher and higher on Search Engines Positioning and therefore lots and lots of visitor.
In the 2nd part of this article I'll explain all other tags that are not that important to Search Engines but sometimes useful for controling the performance of your site when being displayed to your precious visitors.
I sincerely hpe that you find this article useful to you and also that you feel ready to do that upgrade needed in your site! For more articles please check our webmaster's resources and templates site at http://www.wise-designs.com

About the Author

Afonso Ferreira Gomes is the webdesigner for Wise Designs Webmasters at http://www.wise-designs.com. The site's objective is to help any webdesigner in his work by providing templates, tutorials, articles, scripts, graphics and all the resources anyone can think of!
-=- Free reprints granted as long as all clickable links remain intact! -=-

Business and Industry --> Marketing

1. Business incentives, travel incentives and promotional incentives that work!
Business incentives, travel incentives and promotional incentives that work! Offers business incentive vacations,travel incentive vouchers,vacation incentive packages to businesses to increase sales, boost profits, generate leads and expand customer base

Business and Industry --> Jewelry

1. Diamond jewelry Center Rings
Diamond Engagement Rings, Diamond, Diamond Jewelry, Gemstone Jewelry, Jewelry, Pearl
Jewelry, Diamond Rings, Diamond Stud Earrings, Pearl Stud Earrings, Diamond Pendants,
Engagement Rings, Loose Diamonds, Diamonds, Gifts, Valentine Gifts, Gemstone Jewelry

Inside View On Printers

by Alan Jason Smith

Printers have certainly cme a along way since the inception of the character and dot matrix printers.
These ancient products (ancient in technical terms being as few as 10-15 years) were what are known as impact printers, simply because they needed to make a physical connection with the paper in order to achieve the ink-on-paper result.
Dot matrix printers came equipped with a group of pins that touched a ribbon which then connected with paper to produce the finished product. Character printers, which worked on the same principle as electric typewriters, used a bar or ball whose surface was embossed with all the characters you now see on any keyboard. These characters made contact with the ribbon, which in turn made contact with the paper.
Today we use non-impact printers - those that do not make physical contact with the paper to create the papered reproduction. The most prevalent for home or small office use is the inkjet printer - an economical for all but the most serious graphic arts requirements.
An inkjet printer produces the images and type it delivers from computer to paper by means of miniscule drops of ink. So miniscule, in fact, that a human hair would seem big by comparison. Standard ink drops of an inkjet printer have a diameter range of 50-60 microns. Arranged very precisely, these ink drops come in various resolutions (the higher the resolution, the clearer and more life like the output.) while 800x600 dpi (dots per inch) is a typical SOHO (small office home office) resolution producing quite adequate print quality, an inkjet printer can offer resolutions as high as 1440x720 dpi. Adding color to the mix can produce images nearly as high in quality as a laser printer product.
These are five basic parts to an inkjet printer: the print head assembly, the paper feed assembly, circuitry control, power supply, and printer ports.
The print head assembly is the heart of the printer workings. It's what brings the ink to paper by means of a row of nozzles. The print head may be part of the inner workings of a cartridge, or they may be separate parts. Cartridges are responsible for delivering color and shading. Most inkjet printers made nowadays offer color printing. Some may require as many as three distinct cartridges, but generally at least two -one black, one color. The motor is part of the print head assembly as well. It's the part that enables the ink and cartridges to move across the paper and produce the hard copy. It also keeps the cartridge stable when not in use.
The paper feed assembly includes the paper tray, which holds the paper ready for a printing request, and the rollers, which deliver the paper to the ink when a printing job is requested.
The power supply is simple -it''s what gets the electricity to your printer so that it can do its job. Printer circuitry controls take the message from your keyboard and mouse and deliver it to the printer so that the requested hard coyp can be procuded. Printer ports, also referred to as interface ports, much like a telephone jack, enable the peripheral (the printer) to talk to the computer. While in older models parallel ports were the norm, the newest printer models connect via USB ports, which require a special USB cord.

About the Author
Alan Jason Smith is the owner of http://www.printerspro.com which is a great place to find printers links, resources and articles. For more information go to: http://www.printerspro.com

The Benefit Of CD Duplication

by Sandy Baker

CD duplication is the means of making several duplicates of CD's of various types without doing a replication of many. Is it used to describe the need and use of short run quantity copying of various types of CDs. Most duplication is done for quantities under 500. The value of these duplications is high, in that the sound quality is very good and matches its original quality.

The Benefits:

There are many benefits to CD Duplication including the following:
* It is less expensive to do CD duplication than it is to do a full replication run especially when the need is much lower.
* Often times, in a replication run there will simply be a minimun amount that is more than is neede. Using CD duplication can help to eliminate this extra replication.
* And, believe it or not, it can be much faster to use CD duplication rather than a full CD replication run.

But, there are some things that can cause a second take as well. In many cases, CD duplication can cost more per CD that that of a full run. But, in the long run, this still may be much lower. Also, not all will look like an original either. Some will have blue or black burn marks on them that make them look as if they are duplicates.

Never the less, CD duplication is a commonly used system of replicating CD's effectively. Technology is always improving so look for updates in the quality of the CD duplication systems as well.

There are also many information portals now devoted to the subject and we recommend reading about it at one of these. Try googling for "CD duplication" and you will be surprised by the abundance of information on the subject. Alternatively you may try looking on Yahoo, MSN or even a decent directory site, all are good sources of this information.

About the Author
For more information plese see http://www.cd-duplication-shack.co.uk

Printer-A Dilemma

by George W. Cannata

My recent article did not flatter computer manufacturers norm will this one.

I'm a capitalist, and believe in free enterprise but I think the business philosophy of the rinter manufacturers has been outrageous and certainly not consumer friendly. The cost of ink is horrendous.

To an extent their practices have back fired on them. They've created a bootleg industry that they now have to compete with. The cost of OEM inkjet cartidges has sky-rocketed and the competitors have followed suit.

For ecample the price of a set of cartridges for a Lexmark Z51 Printer is $74.97 delivered from a leading online supplier. A set of refilled cartridges from eBay will cost $38.45. Refills are notoriously unreliable, and some printers just don't work well other than OEM ink.

This is a problem for me as I do a lot of printing. Besides the usual run of the mill printing I often print manuals and instructions that I can read somewhere other than on my screen.

One solution is to buy a printer that uses ink tanks instead of cartridges. They are much cheaper. The reaseon for this is the print head is built into the machine, not into the cartridge, so they not only are less expensive but if you get in to refilling, which I don't recommend, it's easier to do.

Here's the dilemma: There are two leading brands that use this system, and I've owned more than one of each, for some reason or other, that type of printer doesn't stand up well. Not that any of them do.

I'm talking about affordable printers in the under $150.00 range. I don't know about those five or six hundred dollar jobs. For one thing the print heads frequently fail. You can't replace them yourself and it's too costly to have them repaired.

I just had one of the leading brands that cost $100.00. It was replaced under warranty three times, the last time a week before my warranty expired. It's less than three months old and it prints half a page and quits.

My solution: I'm an intervetare shopper, vvisit my web site shopping guide: www.caveatemptorus.com. I buy bargain printers. The last three cost $!6.00, $21.00 and $29.00 brand new. When the ink runs out I'll throw them away.

Watch out for the ones with sample cartridges the ink doesn't last long. I bought one whitout knowing it. The seller didn't say, he did give the cartridge numbers, which I should have checked. So check before you buy.

Another thing I do is print in draft mode, and I have cut down on printing entirely.

About the Author

Written by: George W. Cannata, Author and Publisher of the web site: http://www.caveatemptorus.com You may copy this article in it's entirely so long as you include credit to the author and links to my web site.