After nearly two months of having the hard drive in the box, I finally got around to installing the hard drive in the PC computer yesterday.

The hard drive I purchased is the Hitachi Deskstar 3.5 Inch 1 TB 7200 RPM SATA II 32 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive 0S02860

Using my SATA and PATA to USB internal hard drive desktop adapter, I was able to do a complete clone of my old 400 GB internal HD with the new drive hooked up to the adapter and a USB port. Prior to cloning the HD using the backup software Acronis, I first formatted the new drive using the administrative tools, in the control panel, and navigated to the computer management, disk management area to format the hard drive. Note that the hard drive is a virgin drive and will not be seen properly by the operating system until it is mounted and formatted.

Once the hard drive is completely formatted (which I think took more than an hour and a half),I  then used Acronis backup and cloning software to make a complete image backup. When doing a clone of a HD, everything is exactly the same as the original, expect for an increase in the storage capacity from the old to the new.

The version of the cloning and backup software I am using is: True Image Home 2011 Plus

Acronis Product Features Include:

• PC Backup and Recovery of Systems, Applications, and Files – Have you ever accidentally deleted a file, had a virus corrupt your files, or had a disk fail?
• Fast and Easy Backup and Recovery – Acronis True Image Home 2011 provides complete system image backup and recovery of your home PC’s operating system, applications, settings, and personal files.
• New Windows 7 Integration – True Image Home 2011 scales to the needs of novices and advanced users alike
• New Graphical User Interface – We have redesigned our recognized user-friendly interface with new features like Drag and Drop for faster navigation.
• Continuous Data Protection – Acronis Nonstop Backup automatically creates incremental backups every five minutes allowing users to roll back their systems, files, and folders to any point in time in the past.

After the cloning process was finished, I then shut down the computer, pulled the old drive out and installed the new, turned the computer back on, and voila, the computer had 1 TB of HD storage space instead of the 400 GB and all my programs were as they should be.

It is interesting to note that the old hard drive was a IDE cable parallel ATA “PATA” type, and the new HD is a serial ATA “SATA” type. Since my motherboard on the computer had the capabilities of running either the old PATA or SATA HD, this was the first time since I had last built the computer that I was installing a larger hard drive. The old drive was actually out of my old last generation computer. Once the new hard drive was installed, I definitely noticed speed improvements to the system. I plan on using the 400 GB PATA drive in the old external HD case which has a USB port on it.

Speaking of computers, it is somewhat difficult to tell what generation of computer I am using at any given time. Here I am typing away using Windows Live Writer (which only runs on Windows operating system software), on my MacBook Pro, running VMware Fusion, running Windows 7 Ultimate, on the MAC OS X Snow Leopard operating system software, with 8 GB of RAM (which I just upgraded from 4GB to 8GB).

I am very impressed with VMware Fusion 3 for being able to run all the PC based programs that you can imagine. It is actually cool to be able to run both the Apple OS side and the Microsoft Windows side at the same time. I tend to run these programs in different spaces (Apple OS feature that lets you have multiple desktops in four different quadrants, with different programs and files open in each space). It can get a bit confusing when trying to remember which system I am using at any given moment. Windows updates just like on a PC, and Apple updates on the other side too. In fact, Windows 7 just came out with a major update in the form of “Service Pack 1.” This took a bit of time to download and install. It required turning off the virtual computer and then virtually rebooting. I did not have to reboot the whole MacBook Pro.

Once I had performed the updates on my MacBook Pro on the Windows side of the coin, I felt it was important to do a Time Machine backup on the Apple side of the coin. Any case, it is like having the best of both worlds on this computer.

OK, that is the computer story of the day. Now is the time to get your website found online. Professional Web Services provides Internet marketing services and SEO services for all types of B2B and B2C businesses on the web. Visit us today for your business solution.

Jim Warholic

My PC friends probably think I am crazy, but the weight of the decision of why I purchased an Apple MacBook Pro fell on five key points of comparisons to other laptop computers.

Apple MacBook Pro vs. Netbook PCs

1. Ease of Use
2. Quality
3. Versatility
4. Form Factor
5. Value (Price divided by the first four points)

My notebook story begins with searching for a good quality, fast speed, good display screen, a comfortable track pad, good software, ease of use, long life battery, ability to do videos and pictures well, but low priced netbook or small laptop for mobile/portable/travel use. I quickly found that there is no such creature like this.

I stopped in over at Fry’s and started playing with the various new Windows 7 Netbooks from Acer and MSI. At first glance I wanted to really like these netbooks, but it was only a short lived infatuation. There were more than a few barriers to taking these netbooks from a foolish liking to an in-depth affection. For one, they were small. Now, that may be good in one aspect for portability, but for another aspect of screen size, it was very difficult to get comfortable with the small screen size. Those of us that are requiring reading glasses are sure to find these screens are much too small. Sure, the price was low at around $350.00, but look at what you are getting for that.

With these netbooks, this really is a case of getting what you pay for. Slow processor speeds, low memory, no dvd/cd drive, and a new operating system with Windows 7 that is all déjà vu. The Windows 7 operating system loaded on these netbooks feels like an upgraded version of Windows XP, with things moved around a bit and other things very difficult to find. Of course, this is the dominate format for these netbooks. Simple things like how to change the icon sizes on the desktop took me 10 minutes to find. And, that was after I spoke with the sales people, though that brings up the topic of the sales people may not have the best of training either. That’s another story. In any case, three of the sales people that I spoke with could not figure it out. It wasn’t located in the Windows 7 control panel area, as one would think. Finally I did what would be a right click with a mouse on the desktop, though I am not sure how I did it with the netbook trackpad, but I was able to change the default icon size to a smaller size.

Speaking of touchpads or trackpads, I have grown up on a mouse in the house for both PCs and Macs. So, this really was my first time investigating and comparing track pads. The trackpads on these netbooks and mini laptops seemed to be engineering afterthoughts. Actually, they lacked quality engineering and no consumer testing. The one that bugged the heck out of me the most was the trackpad on the MSI mini laptop. It felt like sandpaper on the tips of my fingers after playing with it for 10 minutes. Actually, I ended up pulling another customer over and asking him what he thought of the touchpad. His thoughts were exactly the same as mine. The trackpad had a very textured finish that was not comfortable to the touch. I can only imagine what it would be like after navigating with this trackpad for an hour or so. I would have to put Band-Aids on my fingers. Definitely not a very good touchy-feely experience.

So, I decide that maybe I needed to move up in price and screen size. I moved up to the mid range for laptops. However, there seemed to be a void in the size from the 8.9 inch – 11 inch version mini laptops to the 15 inch larger laptops. Price started going up significantly as I wanted a more powerful laptop that could do various types of mult-tasking, and still stay with a useful but compact size. Next thing I knew, I was up around the $700.00 price tag. But, still I had issues with trackpads, and the lack of ease of use.

So, I ventured over to the Mac table. Being an equal opportunity user of both Windows PCs and Macs and am well versed in both the PC and Mac land, having owned many versions of Windows PCs and an iMac G5 for a number of years. I have also had the opportunity to have hands on experience by having friends allowing me to play with their MacBooks for various applications. When I went over to the Mac table, it was a breath of heaven to feel and touch the new MacBooks.

My First Thoughts on the MacBook and MacBook Pro

The first thing that stood out to me was the ease of use. The trackpads are very very easy to use. Having a Multi-Touch Trackpad that is large, smooth, extremely powerful, two finger scroll capable, two finger pinch zoom capable, two finger rotate, and even two finger right click or secondary click capable with the full complement of right click commands available. Additional trackpad features include three finger swipe navigation to go forward or back in browser history, four finger swipe left to right to switch applications, or four finger swipe up down for exposing the open applications. You can even set the one finger to tap to click, dragging, drag lock, and secondary click to bottom left or bottom right corner. Track speed, double-click speed, and scrolling speed can all be individually adjusted to just the way you want them.

With this MacBook Trackpad, you will quickly find out that a person can go from using a mouse to very easily using the Multi-Touch Trackpad in no time flat.

Another aspect of the MacBook that makes it a joy to work with, is the ease of use of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard. While any new software will take time getting use to, the learning curve for the Mac OS X is very fast. I think part of the reason for this is the intuitiveness of how the things are laid out. Apple also has some very good quick training videos that are quite helpful. Take a look at some of the Mac tutorials on how to do things.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system is a pleasure to work with. It is very intuitive, which makes for a very easy transition to go from working with a Windows based machines to a Mac based operating systems. Of course, I am a bit biased in this area, since I have been using both Windows and Mac machines for quite some time. Never the less, some friends of mine who had been with Windows their whole lives, recently made the switch to Mac, and the operating system switch proved to be a very easy transition for them.

The high quality of the Apple MacBooks can not be overstated. Everything fits together like a form fitting glove. The opening of the screen display has just the right amount of hinge tightness. As I stated before, the trackpad is very smooth, and seems to just fit perfectly for your hands and fingers on the keyboard area. The keyboard has automatic backlighting, which in dim environments is great for quick reference. The MacBook Pro comes in a very sleek, 1.08 inches thin, aluminum unibody construction.

I bought the 13.3 inch MacBook Pro with the glossy widescreen display. This for me was the perfect fit for size and portability, but has plenty of desktop space with a screen of 1280-by-800 pixel resolution, made this one the ideal laptop solution for viewing documents, web sites, videos, and pictures.

The weight of the MacBook Pro 13 inch at 4.7 pounds is very manageable. It easily fits into a briefcase or backpack. I also suggest a carrying case to protect your MacBook. I decided to go with the Incase Nylon Sleeve Case for the Apple 13 inch MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro fits perfectly in this padded case and provides extra storage areas on both sides for accessories. The case and the MacBook Pro worked out perfectly for a recent vacation trip from California to Florida with several layovers. The case added the extra protection and allowed me to quickly place the MacBook in my carryon suitcase, and quickly remove it for airport security checks. The case also comes with a removable shoulder strap and is available in three colors, black, graphite, and mustard.

The MacBook Pro is such a pleasure to use for all aspects of computing. For example, when it comes to viewing video on the screen, it is second to none. The display is rich in color, bright, and vivid to look at. Movies are cool to watch and when it comes to catching up on your television shows like Flash Forward episodes, it is incredible to watch it on the MacBook. It’s as though watching it on the MacBook Pro is better than on the TV screen. The stereo sound quality from the computer is great too. The audio level has decibels of sound to spare. You can actually make the sound too loud for others in the room. Forget trying that with any other netbook.

With the built-in iSight camera and microphone, doing a Google Video Chat was simply amazing. The camera and built-in microphone worked great together. I was able to use the camera in both low light and regular lighting conditions. The chat session was perfect. There was no audio feedback and the person on the other end said the audio and video were perfect too.

The battery life is rated at 7 hours, but that is under somewhat controlled conditions. Apple quotes the following from their website:

Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 using preproduction 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based MacBook Pro units. Battery life depends on configuration and use. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. The wireless productivity test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to 50%.

I typically like my screen brighter than 50%, and was able to generally get about 5+ hours of battery usage on three battery cycles. However, I was playing videos, browsing the Internet through wireless connections, and searching for other wireless Internet connections during this time.

The charging plug is held in place with a super strong magnet, which if someone catches the cord will simply pull the connector off the MacBook without pulling the MacBook down to the floor. Definitely a great safety feature. the charger is very compact, and fits nice and flat inside one of the Incase pockets I bought for the MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro 13 inch that I purchased has the 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; which supports up to 8GB of memory, 250GB Serial ATA; 5400 rpm hard drive, and 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW).

MacBook Pro Features

Left Side View of MacBook Pro 13 Inch Model

Connections and Expansion Ports

• MagSafe power port
• Gigabit Ethernet port
• One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps)
• Mini DisplayPort
• Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
• SD card slot
• Audio in/out
• Kensington lock slot

Communications

• Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi wireless networking (based on IEEE 802.11n draft specification); IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible
• Built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
• Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)

Audio

• Built-in stereo speakers
• Built-in omnidirectional microphone
• Combined optical digital output/headphone out (user-selectable analog audio line in)
• Supports Apple Stereo Headset with microphone

Read more about all the MacBook Pro features today.

By the way, if a person really wants to have their cake and eat it too, in the form of Windows 7 on their MacBook, there is another feature that lets a person load any operating system they wish. Boot Camp is a utility included with Apple Inc.’s Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" and v10.6 "Snow Leopard" operating systems that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows XP, Vista or 7 on Intel-based Macintosh computers. Boot Camp guides users through non-destructive re-partitioning (including resizing of an existing HFS+ partition, if necessary) of their hard disk drive and using the Mac OS X Leopard disc to install Windows drivers. In addition to device drivers for the hardware, the disc includes an applet for the Windows control panel for selecting the boot operating system.

In addition to Boot Camp, there are other avenues that are also available such as, VMware Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop that provide the means of loading Microsoft Windows and other non Windows operating systems such as Linux OS onto the MacBook computers. Both VMware Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop are helpful software applications that allow folks to run Windows applications directly and concurrently on their MacBooks and quickly switch between the two.

VMware Fusion 3

Parallels Desktop

VirtualBox

There is also an open source software, VirtualBox, available from Sun. VirtualBox is an x86 virtualization software package, originally created by German software company Innotek, now developed by Sun Microsystems as part of its Sun xVM virtualization platform. It is installed on an existing host operating system; within this application, additional operating systems, each known as a Guest OS, can be loaded and run, each with its own virtual environment.

“Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.”

I have to say that the MacBook Pro is really a great all purpose laptop computer for business, school, and personal use. With ease of use, superb quality, immense versatility, and an awesome form factor, the value of this MacBook Pro computer is outstanding. You won’t want to leave home without it! Checkout the online Amazon Apple Store deals today.

Jim Warholic

Jim Warholic is President of Professional Web Services, Inc., an Internet Marketing Services firm specializing in B2B and B2C Internet marketing, SEO services, online advertising, and online branding strategies. Contact Professional Web Services today.

Sarah Scrafford of Web Design Schools Guide has put together a list of the top 20 iPhone Applications for Entrepreneurs and Consumers too. Learn how you can make the iPhone even a more powerful sales and marketing tool for your business, with applications such as voice recorder, language translations, expense trackers, maps, package tracking, personal budgets, news readers, calendars, events, and tasks. This is quite a collection that you need to checkout today. Go to Top 20 iPhone Apps for Entrepreneurs now.

Get your business found online today with Internet marketing services by Professional Web Services, Inc.

Best regards,

Jim

The Mozilla Forums have been talking about a weird Firefox 3 bug when trying to open an Adobe Acrobat PDF file within the browser window environment for some folks. I am one of those folks that is having a problem reading PDF files in Firefox. I feel like I’m hitting a brick wall on this one problem.

For some reason, when a pdf file is clicked on from the Web, Firefox 3 crashes and closes all windows abruptly and issues a crash report. This is also the case when trying to open a pdf file with the new Firefox 3 beta versions of the browser on my computer. However, the older Firefox 2.0 latest release runs fine and opens pdf files inside the browser window with no problems.

Some have said that this is no big deal, and just simply download the pdf files to your downloads folder, and then open it up with Acrobat Reader or some other PDF Reader program. I do have to say though, it is a big deal for me. I need to view PDF files regularly online, and I don’t want to clutter my downloads folder with pdf files that I don’t need. For example let’s take an online catalog that might have hundreds of individual parts sections, broken down by pdf file sections, that need to be quickly viewed to see which parts are the ones I am looking for online. If I have to download each section of the parts catalog before I know which one I really need, this can take much longer than simply clicking on the links and opening the pdf files in the browser window.

I have tried numerous things over the past month or two. I tried reloading Firefox 3, tried reloading Acrobat Reader 9, and tried disabling all the Firefox Add-ons with absolutely no success. I even tried going back to an older version of Acrobat Reader 8, but I still have the same exact problem with Firefox crashing and closing all the windows. In addition to all of those items, I also ran a registry cleaner program that fixes various problems with the computer software registries. None of this made any difference in the problem.

On top of this, I verified that PDF files will open in Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, SeaMonkey, and Safari web browsers all work with pdf files on the computer.

There is one way I can get Firefox to open a PDF file, and that is through the IE Tab add-on. The Firefox IE Tab add-on mimics Internet Explorer so a person can open pages within Firefox as though they are Internet Explorer pages. Actually, this add-on is extremely useful for websites that require Internet Explorer to view properly or to edit the pages for an IE only editor. So, when I click the PDF file and open it in a new IE tab, the file is opened properly using the latest version of Firefox.

I am using Windows XP Professional 32-bit operating system software with 4 GB of RAM and Service Pack 3 installed. along with all the latest Windows XP software updates. Note that the memory is only addressable to approximately 3.37 GB of the total 4 GB RAM because of the Windows 32-bit OS software limitations.  The processor is an AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor operating at 2.50 GHz.

If anyone has any suggestions I’d appreciate it. Jim

By-the-way, are you hitting a brick wall online with your business website? Get your business found in the search engine results today. Internet marketing by Professional Web Services.

Microsoft Windows Live Writer Multi Platform Blog Writer & Blog Editor Review
Five Star Recommendation

Table of contents posting was done with Microsoft Windows Live Writer to Jim’s Blogger account. See some of the cool features and read about Windows Live Writer blog editor software review below.

Jim’s Online Table of Contents For Internet Review

This is my year end table of contents for Internet Jim. Actually this TOC goes back a couple of years. I figured it was about time to have a quick review of some of the postings at this website. I created this template using Microsoft Windows Live Writer beta addition. Windows Live Writer is a cross platform, free desktop blog editor that allows you to quickly add tables to your blog postings. You can quickly and easily switch between multiple servers and blog platforms such as: Blogger, Windows Live, WordPress, SharePoint, LiveJournal, TypePad, Community Server accounts, and others. A number of features include quickly adding images, videos, maps, and tables.

The advanced tables feature was exactly the main feature I was searching for online, when I happen to stumble onto the Microsoft Live Writer software table solution. Tables, like a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet, are very useful when it comes to posting things in a logical order of columns and rows, with headings and descriptions included. Columns and rows can be quickly added and changed in size in a WYSISWYG, What You See Is What You Get, writing environment even if the cell, column, or row already has text or other information inside of it. Simply drag the columns or rows to increase their sizes and quickly set centering parameters for both the table and cells (horizontal and vertical parameters), and applying these horizontal and vertical parameters to entire columns and rows too.

Adding pictures into the middle of a blog posting is easy. Place your cursor where you want the image to be included in the posting, and click add image and have the text wrap too. There are some other cool features for images that makes if fun to just play around with the look and feel of what you intend to post online.

For example, you can quickly rotate an image and add watermarks to pictures that are on your computer to begin with, as the source picture, before uploading the image online. Add custom margins, borders, drop shadow borders, photo paper looks, reflections, rounded corners, and solid borders to images. Text wrap right (as the walking penny above), text wrap left (as the image is on the right), inline images, and image centering as the free form image below are just a click away. Linking to an image source or other url is easy without having to know any html coding. Images can also be added from an online source location such as Picasa Albums, Photobucket, ImageShack, Flickr, and other image hosting websites just by selecting the url of the image and adding it to the image prompt. You can also quickly size the image to any image size you need with customizable pre-assigned thumbnail sizes.

Additionally there are some really cool, fascinating, and advanced features for image editing. Contrast and brightness are easy to slide adjust, once again in a WYSISWYG view. A very powerful, yet intuitive cropping feature is also available for your image. As I said before, you can rotate the image, but also the image can be quickly tilted in the posting itself. See below.

Free Form Image With Tilt and Reflection Advanced Effects Features

This cool free-form picture certainly adds another image reflection and a completely new dimension to what you can do with a free-form picture image. Note the optical illusion along the left and right side of the image which makes it look like the posting is tilted.

Before the posting is ever published on the Internet, Windows Live Writer has the option to display the post in a preview form of the template you are using on the Web. This feature will show the full affect of how it will look when it is published online. You can also edit the source html code too. You can post to your blog in draft mode or publish live. Once the blog posting is published online, then you can use Microsoft Windows Live Writer to do future edits directly from your computer desktop and then re-publish your posting to view it online live.

Of course, Windows Live Writer features include a real time spell checker, save as draft mode, automatically save drafts at a fully customizable set period of time (every one, two, or three minutes, or more), plus it also includes word count, characters counter (with and without spaces counts), and paragraphs counts too. Links, font sizes, font styles, colors, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, headings, block quotes, bullets, numbered lists, left align, center align, right align, and justified text is easy with a quick click from the icons at the top of the editor. Right click on the mouse to display most used features such as link building, alignment, numbering, and bullets. Auto linking is another feature. Simply type in the url address like http://wow.jimwarholic.com or predefine keyword hyperlinks and the software program turns it into a hyperlink for you. Sidebar can be switched off or on which will display recently posted and open drafts, along with insert hyperlinks, pictures, tables, maps, video, and add plug-ins too. Download the Windows Writer Beta now with new features.

Wow! I have to say, I really am quite impressed on what Microsoft Windows Live Writer Blog Editor can do. There are more features to this blog editor software program then meets the eye. With over a hundred add-on plug-ins available to download online, with more being added, Windows Live Writer is likely to become a very powerful and useful online/desktop software blog editor tool. And, did I tell you the best of all, Windows Live Writer is available free of charge.

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It is possible to install an extra monitor on an iMac G5 computer and have what is known as “screen spanning” which is an extended desktop mode of operation.

Screen spanning is where your screen desktop area is extended to include the extra monitor (not a duplicate of your existing display). There is a small Apple mini VGA to regular VGA plug short adapter cable that is required to go from the small VGA port on the back side of the iMac computer and plug the other end into the monitor cable.

The original Apple OS X software for the iMac G5s did not provide screen spanning capabilities. The hardware can handle it, but Apple chose not to enable it in the software. Not sure the reason behind Apple’s decision on that. Apple only supported dual monitors with both monitors displaying the same information on the screens at the same time. However, there is a free software modification that can make use of the hardware capabilities of the internal video card on the motherboard in the iMac G5 computers. The video card on the iMac G5 20 is a built-in nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 directly mounted on the motherboard. The iMac motherboard essentially provides the means to have two monitors using the Apple Mini-VGA to VGA Display Adapter for a Mac. The mini-VGA adapter will cost you somewhere around $20.00, including shipping charges, to purchase from Amazon. You might be able to buy one for a little bit less.

You can download the latest version of the Screen Spanning Doctor (v0.3.3) software. Screen Spanning Doctor (0.3.3) supports Tiger. Click on the link to be sure your Apple computer is compatible and able to make use of this software mod. The software patch was for the iBook, eMac, and iMac computers. You can view which models are supported. Please note, the site has the following disclaimer that I would also have to echo too:

“Please note that I cannot be responsible for any damage that you might do to your computer. This site is for educational purposes only and you are responsible for everything you do with the given information. …”

The cool part about this addon monitor screen spanning mode of operation, is it can have its own separate monitor configurations for screen resolutions, and even the background picture for the desktop can be different too. The screen saver program can display different designs on each monitor. It doesn’t mean you can have different screen savers running at the same time, it just means that a Screen Saver like Cosmos, which has different images from the universe, each monitor will display a different image at the same time. I personally have installed the screen spanning software on my iMac G5 and it works terrific for me.

If you are thinking to use an extra monitor because your Apple iMac G5 20 or iMac G5 17 inch is having main display problems, your problem might actually be a bad motherboard. The capacitors for the video display unit located on the iMac G5 Mainboard go bad (burst open, leak electrolytic fluid, and dry up) along with additional filtering capacitors that blow up on other areas of the motherboard. Refer to the article I wrote about How to Repair Apple iMac G5 Motherboards and replace those bad capacitors. Or, the problem may be with your Apple Power Supply Unit.

When an extra monitor is plugged in to the port on the back of the iMac G5, the Apple software senses a new monitor is installed and provides the available screen resolutions for each, on each monitor. So, when you go to System Preferences, and click on Displays, the configuration settings appear on each of the monitors’ screens with each specific configuration particular to each monitor. Arrangement of the monitors can be on the left, right, top, or bottom by simply dragging the monitor to the position you would like. If you decide to have your monitors stacked on a shelf, one above the other, you can place the monitors under one another on the setup screen. If you wish to have them on your desktop, side-by-side, then place the setup screen on the left or right. When your monitors are set up the way you want, the mouse will track accordingly. For example, if you have your monitors side-by-side, then when you move your mouse to the right, you will then go over to the other screen. This is handy if you regularly have lots of windows open and wish to expand your Mac desktop area. Or, you can have one application on display on one screen and have another running on the other. Just drag the open software application screen to the other monitor. Colors can also be calibrated between each of the screen monitors too.

With the price on large screen LCD monitors having dropped significantly over the years, now is the time to add more real estate graphic exposure to your desktop area today.

Speaking of more graphic exposure, get your business discovered online with Professional Web Services, Internet marketing services. Learn how we can help grow your business on the Internet. Start earning more sales and gaining qualified leads from your website today. Find out how your website can work for your business as a super online sales and marketing tool.

Apricorn DriveWire – Universal Hard Drive Adapter

SATA 2.5″ or 3.5″ Hard Drives and Parallel HDs, IDE 44 Pin Adapter, or IDE 40 Pin Adapter for Laptop Drives & Desktop Drives to USB Interface

Have you ever wanted to get information off an old Windows PC internal hard drive or just a dead computer? Maybe you have a dead Apple iMac G5, G4, or G3 and need to recover the data off the hard drive. Have you ever wanted to be able to install a new larger hard drive in your notebook computer, MacBook, MacBook Pro, or other Intel-based iMacs, or a desktop PC and do it quickly, with all the drivers, and software intact? Well, I’ve got the answer for you.

Here is a cool device from Apricorn that makes it easy to plug in any new or used internal hard drive from a laptop or desktop (Mac or PC), to any external USB port on another Apple MAC or a Microsoft OS PC.

Apricorn includes both the DriveWire hard drive adapter hardware, with AC power adapter, cables, and USB cable, and software to be able to clone virtually any PATA/IDE or SATA, 2.5 or 3.5 inch, hard disk drives.

The DriveWire provides a hi-speed USB 2.0 interface to: SATA, 40 pin PATA/IDE, and 44 pin PATA/IDE.

DriveWire is bundled with Apricorn’s “Upgrade Suite” which features the award winning “EZ Gig II” cloning software for Windows and “Shirt Pocket’s SuperDuper!” for Mac

System Requirements

PC
Pentium CPU II or later, 64 MB RAM or more
Available USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 port
CD ROM or CD-RW drive
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows XP Home and Professional
Windows Vista

Mac
Apple G3 or later, 64 MB RAM or more
Available USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 port
CD ROM or CD-RW drive
Mac OS 9.2 or later, Mac OS X 10.2 or later

Five Star Recommendation * * * * *

I have used this universal hard drive plug-in adapter quite extensively myself for all types of applications. I have cloned Apple hard drives, tested old parallel IDE disk drives, used it to backup old computer systems, recovered files off a bad PC, and used it as an external connection for a spare hard drive for both PC and Mac computers. People have used it to quickly backup their system on an old hard drive and then placed that backup into a secure fire safe, not to be touched unless all else fails. The HD adapter has been a lifesaver for me. I don’t like to touch a computer system unless I have a backup to begin with. You do not need to install any backup software or other special device drivers if you are just plugging in various hard drives.

Follow the simple instructions and make sure to set your IDE PATA hard drives only, to “Master mode” (not cable select) with the jumper setting on the hard drive, and you are set to go. Note, master mode is a jumper setting that only applies to 3.5″ PATA hard drives and determines which hard drive is the main device on the ATA bus. Most newer PC Bios systems and motherboards utilized cable select mode jumper settings on the hard drives to automatically identify which drive is the primary and which drive is the secondary based on cable hookup. In “Cable Select” mode, the black cable connector plugs into the primary master drive, gray cable connector plugs into the secondary slave drive, and the blue connector attaches to the computer motherboard or host IDE controller.

Once you have confirmed this important “master” jumper setting on the HD, then simply plug in one hard drive at a time to the DriveWire adapter and plug the USB cable into your USB port, and it shows up on your “My Computer” on a PC, or your desktop on a Apple Mac. You can copy and retrieve information from an old HD drive. That is the beauty of this plug-in device. Fast, easy to use, reliable, and really really handy too.

Pictured below, from left to right is the Apricorn adapter, USB cable, AC cable which plugs into AC adapter, AC adapter with drive plug, and software disk with both PC and MAC software included.

This device is great for IT departments, techies, and even the ordinary person that simply wants to easily plug in a hard drive to see what is on it. Check out the video on how easy it is to use.

Apricorn DriveWire – Universal Hard Drive Adapter How To Use Video

How To Instructions For Cloning or Copying Old Laptop Hard Drives to Large Hard Drives – Article Addendum 12/15/08

Here is a question from a reader in Internet land about his laptop hard drive.

I have a question. I have a small laptop hard drive (dara-206000), 6GB ATA/IDE IBM Travelstar. I want to transfer all the data from this small hard drive to another hard drive with the same features. Does this universal hard drive adapter would work for me?

Here is the answer.

It depends on how you intend to use it. First off, if the hard drive is still in the laptop, then you need to have a USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 port available on your laptop to clone directly with the adapter to the computer’s internal hard drive. Then once you’ve done that, simply pull out the internal HD and replace it with the new higher capacity laptop drive.

If you have the hard drive in your hands, then you can copy the entire drive onto another computer then copy the the contents back directly onto your new hard drive and then install the new hard drive into your old laptop with all the software intact. You will probably need to use the included backup software to get all the system files transfered. You can also use backup software such as Acronis. See: Upgrading Computer Hard Drive and Backup Software

It’s important to note that the adapter is designed to only hook up one drive at a time to the output port of the adapter and then hook up the input to a USB port of a computer. The hard drive will show up as an external hard drive on the computer’s “My Computer” page for a Microsoft Windows OS PC or display on the desktop for an Apple Mac OS computer.

The Adapter is for SATA 2.5″ or 3.5″ Hard Drives and Parallel HDs, IDE 44 Pin Adapter, or IDE 40 Pin Adapter for Laptop Drives & Desktop Drives to USB 1.1 and 2.0 Interface.

Buy it Now: Apricorn Drivewire Universal HDD Adapter USB To 2.5IN & 3.5IN Sata & Pata

Hope that helps explain the details of how to go about transferring the HD information from one HD to the other. By-the-way, you could even use the Apricorn DriveWire adapter to clone to a solid state hard drive – SSD HD too.

Best regards,

Jim

PS Learn more about quickly retrofitting to a SSD, Solid State Diskdrive in a laptop, notebook, and Apple & PC desktops too.

Don’t make the mistake, before it is too late; backup your system now. And don’t forget to get your business discovered online with Internet marketing services from Professional Web Services today.

Last week, my Internet marketing PC ABIT motherboard died.
Time for a new ASUS AMD Motherboard.

The prognosis was not good for the old PC computer system, but in the end I guess it means I am helping support the economy with some electronic equipment purchases. Check out what is involved in building a new computer at a bargain base price. The computer is build to higher end specs without going overboard in the price/performance ratio. The price was right, and considering that a number of hours was spent upfront, it saved time on the back end. Read more for the complete PC details.

I was in the middle of using my PC for doing some online copywriting and editing for a customer, when all of a sudden the screen went blank, all the computer LED lights on the DVD and CD drives, as well as the power LED started flashing, and the the system started beeping at the same beat as the LED flashings.

Why Get Serious About Building a Powerful PC Computer System?

This was a computer PC headache I did not need. At first I thought it was the power supply. I promptly tried a spare power supply, with no luck. It had the same symptoms. Then I unplugged all the peripheral devices while using the spare power supply, including the AGP video card, memory, DVD, CD, and floppy drive and even installed different memory; still the computer was beeping at me when turned on. Upon closer inspection, I found a small fan was frozen solid on the mother board’s Northbridge chip. These small fans, throughout all the computer systems in the field, are in my opinion problems waiting to happen. I have come round circle in my thinking on having these small internal fans. While fans do help cool things down, they are never-the-less moving parts, and all moving parts are destined to failure. Bearings seize, dirt accumulates, and then the fan stops turning and actually adds more heat due to thermal fan motor overheating and reduced air flow to the particular area.

The Old AMD Motherboard

This old ABIT NF7 mother board with an AMD Athlon XP processor took a nose dive because of the frozen fan situation. The fan was hot. Now, I don’t exactly have the time to trouble shoot this motherboard down to component level, and besides, this motherboard is over five years old, and that is considered computer old age in my book, especially when it comes to a PC. So, it was down to the local Frys store.

Software Compatibility Issues With New Computer Systems

In the back of my mind, I was thinking, while I have multiple backups for all the files, I was not looking forward to having to reload all the business programs from scratch. I had two options; either I buy a brand new computer, and spend countless hours getting the software just right, along with having to deal with Microsoft Vista OS interoperability with old software and driver compatibility issues, or spending the time building a new PC while still maintaining the same hard drives, same software, and the same Windows XP Professional operating system. Both choices had their pros and cons. Actually, there was a third option; buy a new Apple, but I was just down that road a few months ago.

Shopping for a New PC – Intel vs AMD Processors And Computers

I first stopped by the rows of desktop computer systems being showcased at Frys, taking a close look at the various pre-configured Intel and AMD PC options from HP, Sony, Gateway, Acer, Lenovo, Compaq, and eMachines. While there are many good quality Intel and AMD pre-configured Microsoft Vista desktop computer systems available for the high end models, they are not exactly what I was looking for. I had other desktop PC ideas in mind. Cost for performance was a factor. Additionally it is important to note that most of the mid to low end desktop computers are built all nice on the outside, but are severely lacking quality engineering and options on the inside. When shopping for a new PC, I’m the kind of guy that looks on the inside of every computer I see on display. I get out my trusty Leatherman, with the phillips screwdriver, and take off the covers. I want to know what the power supply ratings are, how many extra slots are available, what type of cooling fans are used, extra internal USB ports on the mother board, extra SATA connectors for more hard drives, front panel audio ports, and how many memory slots are left open for later expansion.

Selecting the New ASUS M3N78-VM Motherboard

After taking a trip down the computer display side of the store, I then ventured over to the motherboard, hardware, and components section. Frys typically has some good packaged deals on sale for motherboards and boxed processors (includes processor, heatsink, and fan) and that day was a good Frys sales day. The sales guy asked if I wanted Intel or an AMD microprocessor. I mentioned It really didn’t matter to me which system, I was just looking for the best deal possible on the higher end computers and motherboards. He suggested the AMD processor based ASUS M3N78-VM Motherboard which includes a built in nVidia GeForce 8200-based chipset and also install the AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black, Quad Core 2.5GHZ processor for a solid performing computer. Additionally, the salesman mentioned that the AMD was really a “‘true’ quad-core processor” as compared to Intel’s processors. By-the-way, click on any of the main graphic images throughout this article for more information related to each specific computer hardware component.

PC Memory System Requirements

Of course, I needed new memory for the new motherboard which takes DDR2 instead of the slower DDR, plus there are different pin configurations on the new motherboards vs the old ones. I picked up two 2GB PC2-6400 800MHz Dual PAT memory sticks for a total of 4GB memory (DDR2 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400). It was the Patriot brand, P/N PDC22G6400ELK. I could have gone to the 1066MHz memory modules, but I felt that would have been overkill for my PC system requirements.

Patriot Extreme Performance (EP) Enhanced Latency line is engineered to provide PC enthusiasts and gamers enhanced memory performance without breaking the bank. Capable of operating at 800MHz with a latency of 5-5-5-12, it is equipped with Patriot’s own bladed heat shields to ensure system stability while running under extreme overclocking conditions. Available in 1GB to 4GB kits, these memory modules are capable of performing with the latest AMD, NVIDIA and Intel DDR2 platforms allowing users to speed up their system instantly. Ref. Patriot Memory

OS note: If you are using Windows XP 32 bit and Vista 32 bit edition operating system software, the maximum physical memory limits that are able to be accessed are somewhere around 3.37GB, not the 4GB that Microsoft states. “XP and Vista can only truly manage ~3GB of Physical RAM.” Reference: Memory Limits for Windows Releases (Windows). Windows XP 64-bit OS could theoretically address 128 GB of RAM. I should note, even though I have not tried this myself, there is a software switch setting for the Boot.ini file to increase the Physical Address Extension – PAE Memory and Windows. I think I would do more research into PAE before attempting it on an Intel computer. Microsoft states the following is required, “The PAE mode kernel requires an Intel Architecture processor, Pentium Pro or later, more than 4 GB of RAM, and Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003.” One other point when deciding if you are going to go with Windows Vista 32 bit or Vista 64-bit OS, is that there might not be drivers available for certain hardware and software needs. Check closely for software and hardware compatibility issues before taking the 64-bit OS plunge.

The Power Supply is a Computer’s Heart – Give it a Big Wattage One

One of the requirements that often gets overlooked in building a new computer or even buying a prefab one, is to have a good power supply installed. If the Motherboard is the soul of the computer, then the Power Supply is the heart of the PC. It keeps the current flowing and maintains the proper voltages throughout the motherboard, memory, and the peripheral devices. In my case, I also needed to update my 350 watt power supply. Since I tend to plug in a lot of items into my computer systems, I decided to go with a 700 watt power supply. By-the-way, there are a number of power supply calculators available online for calculating your particular power requirements. The model number of the power supply I bought is, ABS Tagan ITZ Series ITZ700 700W ATX12V / EPS12V. I don’t think this power supply is available any more. I believe the new Tagan Tg700-U88 Bz Series 700W Pc Power Supply that has replaced this one.

Selecting a Quality Computer Case. What Are The Requirements?

In my opinion, the case of my old computer was just fine. It has good fans, good air flow, and extra slots for other devices. Let’s be frank here; most people place their computers under their desk, out-of-sight and out-of-mind. It’s not like the case is a showcase for most users. If you want to showcase yours then go for it. Get wild with your system. There are all types of see-through, or psychedelic LED fans, front panel temperature monitors, or any colored case to your taste. For me, I already had a good quality case. So out came the old MOB and the old 350 Watt PS. Everything else remained. I have two hard drives, one floppy drive, one CD recorder, one DVD recorder, and a number of cooling fans in the case. I installed the new MOB with the built in nVidea GeForce 8200 video, new memory, and new 700 Watt power supply. I plugged the computer system in, pushed the power on button, and it came to life in the BIOS setup mode. This was a good sign. It is also interesting to note at this point about what type of hard drives I am using. The two hard drives, CD, and DVD drives are all IDE parallel type connectors. The ASUS mother board had one location for an IDE cable for a total of two drives. Having an IDE connector plug was an important feature I liked about the ASUS MOB.

Comparing The Different Types of Hard Drives – IDE PATA vs SATA

A note about the hard drives. Most motherboard manufacturers are not installing the wider IDE PATA plugs anymore. I am sure this is a way of saving space and money for items that will not be used that much in the future. I selected Cable-Select mode for the two IDE hard drives I was using. There was also a MOB standard floppy disk drive (FDD) signal connector for the ribbon cable type floppy drives. Note, most pre-configured computers generally do not even have the FDD connectors on the MOB, nor do manufacturers even supply a floppy disk drive unit with the PC. If you want to have a floppy disk drive on new computers today, you would need to purchase an external or internal USB 2.0 Floppy Disk Drive unit. When was the last time you used a floppy disk? Now, with the old IDE hard drives attached to the new MOB, this allowed me to power up the new computer, but I was now missing a number of new software drivers that I needed to get installed from the DVD install disk for the ASUS motherboard. Additionally, because I was not sure what I was going to do about hooking up the old PATA CD and PATA DVD to the motherboard, I picked up a $32.00 DVD writer unit that had the new SATA, Serial ATA connectors. The majority of computers being sold today are using the faster speed SATA connectors. They are also much smaller. The ASUS mother board has 5 SATA connectors on the inside and also an external SATA connector. These internal SATAs can be configured for RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 0+1, and JBOD configurations through the onboard controller. RAID, Redundant Array of Independent Disks is a technology that employs the simultaneous use of two or more hard disk drives to achieve greater levels of performance, reliability, and/or larger data volume sizes. JBOD stands for Just a Bunch Of Disks (Just a Box Of Drives).

How to Install the Software Drivers Properly

It was now time to install the rest of the drivers. I plopped in the ASUS DVD driver and utility disk and started installing the drivers one at a time. I should point out that at this time, the computer kept telling me after each reboot required after every driver installation, because of the major changes that took place with the hardware, Microsoft Windows XP software was requiring activation again, and was informing me that I needed to re-register within the next three days or else. But, since I did not have the driver installed for the Ethernet controller yet, thus did not have Internet hookup, I had to ignore the Microsoft message at this time. Besides, I needed to install all the drivers and get a solid computer system before re-registering the Microsoft software. Talk about a real pain. Everything must be done in the proper order, even to the point of not allowing Windows XP software to automatically search and install the new hardware drivers itself. You need to close out the windows as they pop up. I finally got through all the drivers that needed to be installed but I still did not have my old CD and DVD recorders hooked up. I remembered that I had a few extra Maxtor IDE Ultra ATA133 PCI cards available. These cards provide extra IDE slots to install more hard drives or other IDE devices. I installed one of these cards in one of the PCI slots on the MOB and hooked up the CD and the DVD to it in cable-select mode. I used one IDE PATA cable attached to both the CD and DVD (primary and secondary). I needed to download Windows XP software drivers for this card. It took me awhile to find the driver source online for these addon IDE cards. If you need the software drivers, click the link to download the zip file for the WinXP, WIN2000, WIN2004, Win9x-Me, and NT4 operating systems for the Maxtor IDE Ultra ATA133 Drivers. To load the driver for this card I needed to allow Windows XP “Found New Hardware” wizard handle the assignment. I browsed to the correct location where the driver was located on the hard drive and the system automatically installed it. Once this was installed, I rebooted and now all my hard drives, CD, and DVD drives were displayed in My Computer.

Once I got everything installed, there really was no need to keep the new SATA DVD disk recorder unit. I returned it back to the store. I could have gotten around the need of having to use the SATA DVD recorder/player in the first place by using the existing parallel IDE DVD as a secondary hookup on the main IDE cable of the mother board.

Tying Up Computer Loose Ends

There were a few other items that needed to be taken care of. First off, I have a 24 inch Gateway Widescreen Monitor, model FPD2485W TFT LCD Monitor that I am using on this computer. The Gateway Widescreen Monitor comes with a driver and software to auto-rotate the screen when rotating the screen from Landscape mode to Portrait mode and back again. The software drivers appeared to be conflicting between the Gateway EzTune software and the nVidia software. It took some playing, trial-and-error, and downloading of the new EzTune software from www.gateway.com to get this functioning properly again. I had to completely remove the old EzTune software before installing the newest version of the EzTune software. I also stopped using the nVidia software within the preferences area from loading on boot up. By-the-way, the Gateway Monitor is a great monitor for all types of usage and applications for video, television hook ups (includes multiple types of video inputs), and computer high resolution activities. The native resolution is 1900 by 1200 pixels. You can have two full Web pages side by side. Having multiple programs open at the same time with this monitor, allows you to quickly go from one program to the other just by clicking the window behind or off to the side of the other ones. The Gateway Monitor has VGA input, DVI-D Digital input, S-Video input, composite video in jack, two component video jacks, and four USB 2.0 plugs are available; 2 USBs on the left side and 2 USBs are located on the back bottom surface of the monitor (“USB in” “B” type connector cable on one end is required from the PC to the monitor to use these extra USB 2.0 ports). There is an optional powered by the monitor, speaker bar with microphone and headphone plugs, and left and right auxiliary input jacks available too.

More High Definition Video Talk About the ASUS M3N78-VM Motherboard

The ASUS M3N78-VM also provides VGA, DVI-D Digital, and HDMI which is High-Definition Multimedia Interface output ports. The manual says that it can actually drive two monitors with dual-VGA output. “If you connect 2 monitors to both VGA and DVID / HDMI out ports, each controller can drive same or different display contents to different resolutions and refresh rates.” However the manual also notes, “Due to the chipset limitation, simultaneous output for DVI and HDMI is not supported.” And one more note for those interested in BLU-RAY Disc DVD players, the manual states, “To play HD DVD or BLU-Ray Disc, ensure to use an HDCP compliant monitor.”

Re-activating Microsoft Windows XP Pro and Microsoft Office

Now was the time, after the majority of the work was completed on the new PC, I then allowed Microsoft Windows XP to automatically activate the XP Pro software which I had previously loaded on my old computer system, that is now on my new computer via the old hard drive. I also had to re-activate Microsoft Office 2003 software too. The re-activation process took place through the online Internet connection. It’s important to note that technically and legally speaking, each Microsoft Operating System license and Microsoft Office software license is tied to one PC only. That is why, when a major change takes place to a computer, such as a new motherboard, the software automatically senses this major system change and requires re-activation. Minor system changes to a PC, such as adding a new USB device, does not typically trigger the automatic Microsoft Windows OS re-activation process.

Here are the PC technical specifications on what I installed.

M3N78-VM Work Smartly! AMD® AM2+ Quad-Core CPU/AM2 CPU Support NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Chipset Hybrid SLI Support HyperTransport 3.0 and PCIe 2.0 Ready HDMI/Full HD Support Smooth Blu-ray / HD DVD Playback Multi Displays Support DX10 Support Instant Internet Access with Express Gate™ Supports AMD Socket AM2+/AM2 for Phenom/ Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 / Sempron / AM2+ This motherboard supports AMD AMD® Socket AM2+ multi-core processors with unique L3 cache and delivers better overclocking capabilities with less power consumption. It features dual-channel DDR2 1066 memory support and accelerates data transfer rate up to 5200MT/s via HyperTransport™ 3.0 based system bus. AMD Socket AM2 Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64/ Sempron Support This motherboard supports AMD® Socket AM2 single-core Athlon™ 64 / Sempron™ and dual-core Athlon™ 64 X2 / Athlon™ 64 FX processors with 2MB / 1MB / 512KB L2 cache based on 64-bit architecture. It features 2000 / 1600 MT/s HyperTransport™-based system bus, dual-channel un-buffered DDR2 800 memory support, and AMD® Cool ‘n’ Quiet™ Technology. HyperTransport 3.0 Support Provides 2.6 times more bandwidth than HT1.0 that radically improves system efficiency for a smoother, faster computing environment. Dual channel DDR2 1066 Support DDR2 1066 memory provides great performance for 3D graphics and other memory demanding applications on next generation memory technology. AMD Cool ´n´ Quiet! Technology M3N78-EMH HDMI supports AMD Cool ´n´ Quiet! Technology, which monitors system operation and automatically adjusts CPU voltage and frequency for a cool and quiet environment. NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8200 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 offers the latest support of Hybrid SLI Technology, DirectX10 graphics features, HD video playback with HDMI/DVI output. It also supports HyperTransport™ 3.0 interface, PCI Express™ 2.0 bus architecture, Serial ATA 3 Gb/s devices and is optimized with AMD’s latest AM2+ and multi-core CPUs to provide excellent system performance. ASUS Express Gate Surf the Internet in 5-second-boot time without entering Windows With a fast bootup speed of only 5 seconds, the ASUS Express Gate offers an optional Linux OS bootup that allows you to enjoy instant access to commonly used functions like accessing the Internet, VoIP, and Web emailing without entering the OS. * File downloading and uploading on USB drives only ** The actual boot time is subject to hardware configurations and product models Hybrid SLI Support Hybrid SLI™ technology is a unique hybrid multi-GPU technology. It includes two primary features: GeForce Boost and HybridPower™. GeForce Boost turbo-charges performance of discrete graphics cards when combined with the motherboard GPUs. HybridPower™ unleashes graphics performance for demanding 3D applications and enables low-power operation for everyday computing needs. * GeForce®(R) Boost and HybridPower™ are on select GeForce®(R) GPUs. Visit www.nvidia.com/hybridsli for more information. NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD Technology PureVideo HD technology is the core of a complete Blu-ray or HD DVD movie solution, featuring hardware acceleration, post-processing, HDCP circuitry, and integration with leading HD movie software players. HDMI Support Enjoy Full HD 1080p Multimedia Home-Theater Entertainment High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a set of digital video standards that delivers multi-channel audio and uncompressed digital video for full HD 1080p visuals through a single cable. Supporting HDCP copy protection such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs, HDMI provides you with the highest-quality home theater experience. Serial ATA 3Gb/s This motherboard supports next-generation SATA hard drives based on the new SATA 3Gb/s storage specification, allowing RAID 0, RAID 1,RAID 0+1,RAID 5 and JBOD configurations for five SATA connectors. PCIe 2.0 support This motherboard supports the latest PCIe 2.0 devices for double speed and bandwidth which enhances system performance. Dual VGA output This motherboard supports Dual-VGA output (RGB & HDMI/DVI). HDMI/DVI interface is compliant with HDCP. ASUS EZ Flash2 With ASUS EZ Flash, you can update BIOS before entering operating system. No more DOS-based flash utility and bootable diskette required. ASUS CrashFree BIOS3 The ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 allows users to restore corrupted BIOS data from a USB flash disk containing the BIOS file. This utility saves users the cost and hassle of buying a replacement BIOS chip. ASUS Q-Fan ASUS Q-Fan technology intelligently adjusts CPU fan speeds according to system loading to ensure quiet, cool and efficient operation. AI NET2 Diagnose LAN connection before entering OS! AI NET2 remotely detects cable connection the second you turn on the system, and any faulty connections are reported back up to 100 meters at 1 meter accuracy. MyLogo2 Personalize your system with customizable boot logo You can convert your favorite photo into a 256-color boot logo for a more colorful and vivid image on your screen. GreenASUS The motherboard and its packaging comply with the European Union´s Restriction on the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). This is in line with the ASUS vision of creating environment-friendly and recyclable products and packaging to safeguard consumers´ health while minimizing the impact on the environment. The product (electrical , electronic equipment, Mercury-containing button cell battery) should not be placed in municipal waste. Check local regulations for disposal of electronic products. * All specifications are subject to change without notice. Please check with your supplier for exact offers. Products may not be available in all markets. * PCB color and bundled software versions are subject to change without notice. * Brand and product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies.

Key Architectural Features of AMD Phenom™ X4 Quad-Core Processors

The industry’s first true Quad core x86 processor True quad-core designed from the ground up for better communication between cores. BENEFIT : Cores can communicate on die rather than on package for better performance AMD64 with Direct Connect Architecture Helps improve system performance and efficiency by directly connecting the memory controller and I/O to the CPU. Designed to enable simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing Integrated DDR2 Memory Controller BENEFITS : Increases application performance by reducing memory latency Scales memory bandwidth and performance to match compute needs HyperTransport™ Technology provides up to 16.0GB/s peak bandwidth per processor—reducing I/O bottlenecks Up to 33.1GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth (HyperTransport bus + memory bus) AMD Balanced Smart Cache Shared L3 cache In addition to the 512K L2 cache per core, up to 2MB of L3 cache shared by up to 4 cores. BENEFIT : Shortened access times to highly accessed data for better performance. AMD Wide Floating Point Accelerator 128-bit floating point unit (FPU) High performance (128bit internal data path) floating point unit per core. BENEFIT : Larger data paths for quicker floating point calculations and better performance. HyperTransport™ technology One 16-bit link up to 4000MT/s Up to 8.0 GB/s HyperTransport™ I/O bandwidth; Up to 16.0GB/s in HyperTransport Generation 3.0 mode Up to 33.1GB/s total delivered processor-to-system bandwidth (HyperTransport bus + memory bus) BENEFIT : Quick access times to system resources for better performance. Integrated DDR2 DRAM Controller with AMD Memory Optimizer Technology A high-bandwidth, low-latency integrated DDR2 memory controller Supports PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066); PC2-6400 (DDR2-800), PC2-5300 (DDR2-667), PC2-4200 (DDR2-533) or PC2-3200 (DDR2-400) SDRAM unbuffered DIMMs Support for 64-bit DDR2 SDRAM memory Up to 17.1GB/s memory bandwidth BENEFIT : Quick access to system memory for better performance. AMD Virtualization™ (AMD-V™) With Rapid Virtualization Indexing Silicon feature-set enhancements designed to improve the performance, reliability, and security of existing and future virtualization environments by allowing virtualized applications with direct and rapid access to their allocated memory. BENEFIT : Helps virtualization software to run more securely and efficiently enabling a better experience when dealing with virtual systems AMD Cool’n'Quiet™ 2.0 technology Enhanced power management features which automatically and instantaneously adjusts performance states and features based on processor performance requirements For quieter operation and reduced power requirements BENEFIT : Enables platform designs providing less heat and noise efficient performance and energy usage. AMD CoolCore™ Technology Reduces processor energy consumption by turning off unused parts of the processor. For example, the memory controller can turn off the write logic when reading from memory, helping reduce system power. Works automatically without the need for drivers or BIOS enablement. Power can be switched on or off within a single clock cycle, saving energy without comprimised performance. BENEFIT: Helps users get more efficient performance by dynamically activating or turning off parts of the processor. Dual Dynamic Power Management™ Enables more granular power management capabilities to reduce processor energy consumption. Separate power planes for cores and memory controller, for optimum power consumption and performance, creating more opportunities for power savings within the cores and memory controller. BENEFIT Helps improve platform efficiency by providing on demand memory performance while still allowing for decreased system power consumption Learn more about AMD Phenom™ processors

Custom Built PC – Summary, Cost, and Conclusions

I am very impressed with this PC setup. There are many good things to say about this computer, the motherboard, and the AMD Phenom Processor. I will tell you that when I have multiple windows open, multiple programs running, online video playing, a USB television tuner playing and even a backup program running in the background, I never experience jumpy sound, or video that doesn’t sync with the audio. It is very smooth and a seemingly fast PC machine. I know there are overclockers out there that might be interested in maximizing the speed, especially the online gamers. But for me, the speeds are fine right out of the box. Believe it or not, I built this thing for $400.00. That included one rebate of $25.00 for the memory.

Another point is the fact that this AMD computer operates at much lower temperatures compared to that of the Intel processors. After doing some research online, I discovered that AMD processors typically operate at a lower temperature than their Intel counterparts. The ASUS utility disk provided a cool software monitoring program for temperatures, voltages, and fan speeds. The CPU typically is at 42°C (110°F) and the Motherboard operates at 34°C (94°F). That’s even cooler than my Apple iMac G5.

Now I can get back to my Internet marketing work. This was a little bit more of an Internet detour than I was planning. I knew at some point in time that I was going to have to upgrade my computer system. It’s just that it came sooner than expected.

Always expect the unexpected when doing work online. Get your business discovered today with Internet marketing services from Professional Web Services.

For the past four years or so, Comcast has offered free PC Internet security software if you are a Comcast customer it really is a great deal and highly advisable to take advantage of the free software for all your computers. Protect your email and Web browsing from infecting your computer today. Article update: 10/31/2011

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• Includes Secure Backup & Share, and now IDENTITY GUARD^®.

Install Internet Security Software For Your PC

The importance of installing Internet security software on your PC can not be overstated. In my case, our family has six computers that are used by various family members. The Comcast Internet Security Suite by McAfee is a great value. With the proliferation of viruses, worms, malware, and intrusive cookies, a computer will become corrupted in no time flat when surfing the Web even if you don’t download anything online. Just simply hooking up your computer to the Internet and navigating to a few hazardous websites that you might not be aware of, will attack and download software in the background which will corrupt your computer and the worst part about it is you won’t even know your computer has become infected until it’s too late.

Internet Security Issues

Intrusive software that are security hazards such as PC key loggers can automatically track your key strokes when you type in your user names and passwords into online banking websites or even when you log in to your online email is just an online mouse click away. Many times this software gets loaded on your computer when you click on a window that pops up, and the popup makes it look like you have a virus on your computer. By simply clicking on the scan button of this pop up window, you are actually installing another malware program in the background. Don’t fall for this scam. It occurs so easily, even when users are aware that this can happen; it is easy to click the close button by thinking that the “X” close box closes the window with nothing else to worry about. However, don’t assume the close X button on a pop up window is the actual close button for that window. I suggest right clicking on the tab at the bottom of the Windows screen, and select the button that says “Close” on the pop up that you actually wish to close. Also it is wise to have a pop up blocker for your browser. I particularly like Firefox and even the new Google Chrome browser for the excellent popup blocking features.

Spyware, Malware, Adware, and Computer Virus Definitions

• Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s informed consent.
• Malware, is a blended word from the words malicious and software, which is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.
• Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used. Some types of adware are also spyware and can be classified as privacy-invasive software.
• A Computer Virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. The term “virus” is also commonly used, albeit erroneously, to refer to many different types of malware and adware programs.

Source Wikipedia

Comcast Has Done It Right

I am really impressed with the marketing strategy from Comcast to their customers. With Comcast keeping their customers’ PC computers running free of viruses, with a free Internet security software tool, enables their customers to operate at a higher level of Internet protection than most of their competitors. Most ISPs simply provide you online Web access, with an attitude of “you’re on your own now,” which simply leaves way too much room for PC problems down the line. Computers are the tool to navigate the Web. If your computer is giving you grief, you are not going to have a very good user experience online. Likewise, if your computer runs trouble free, your life online will be like a breath of fresh air.

What if I am not a Comcast customer? Google Pack comes to the rescue.

Google provides a couple of free basic programs as part of their Google Pack for detecting and removing viruses and spyware.

Google Pack includes a special edition of Norton Security Scan to help you evaluate your computer’s vulnerability to security risks. Norton™ Security Scan is a free, easy-to-use tool that scans your PC for viruses, spyware, and other threats. » Download Google Pack.

Key Features of Norton Security Scan

* Scans for threats residing on your PC
* Detects and removes viruses, worms, and Trojan horses
* Warns you of spyware and unwanted adware
* Schedules regular scans
* Automatically receives updates**

Take the next step and prevent infections before they happen. Protect your system 24 X 7 with our award-winning Norton Internet Security™ 2009, designed to automatically block hackers, viruses, spyware and prevent online identity theft.

The other software tool from Google is Spyware Doctor Starter Edition which detects PC threats and removes spyware, adware, trojans and keyloggers. Spware Doctor Starter Edition includes Smart Updates and scheduling to protect your PC.

Both Norton Internet Security and Spyware Doctor can be downloaded directly from the Google Pack software installer page.

There are other free antivirus software programs available online. I have not tried very many of the free software programs that are available, so I can’t give you my recommendations. I would however suggest reading closely the reviews of what others have to say about the various free programs available for download. Be careful from where you download too. I believe a good place to get started is at CNET download.com for Antivirus Software. Note that the sponsored matches are displayed first. Two software programs that I have used in the past for detecting adware, spyware, and malware are Spybot – Search & Destroy^©® and Ad-Aware by Lavasoft.

A general rule that should always be followed when installing antivirus software, is always use some form of threat protection software, but don’t use more than one type in automatic detection mode. The reason is the software programs will be fighting each other in the Windows Operating Systems and will be identifying the other software as a virus, spyware, adware, or malware program.

The best antivirus software programs will constantly update their database of spyware signatures and virus definitions and provide automatic PC updates for your local signature database. This is an extremely important point to be aware of because the virus threats are constantly morphing from computer terrorists all over the world, that are looking for ways of creating online havoc for everyone. You need both real time PC protection and automated deep scan protection. If you have an old copy of a PC anti-virus software, that has not had your local computer database updated to current virus signature threats, you are driving a computer on borrowed time, with no brakes, headed down a steep grade, just waiting for the head-on computer crash. Given the severity of the online PC virus threats (through both emails and web surfing), along with spyware, adware, and malware programs lurking on websites, your computer could very well end up with the blue screen of death. At the very least, your computer will become corrupted, slowed down to a crawl, performance will continue to suffer when trying to do anything, system resources will be tied up with running background programs that you are not aware of, memory usage will skyrocket, your hard drive will constantly be ca-chunking away, and you will think you need a brand new computer. I would venture to say that the majority of people that think they need a new computer are probably facing years worth of unsafe computer practices. Even if you buy a new computer and do not set up “best computer practices”, you are very likely to start the downward spiral all over again, because you invariably will want to copy your corrupted files, pictures, and programs over to the new computer. And, you will once again get on the PC merry-go-round, where you will certainly end up visiting the same websites, surfing new Internet sites where the online threats reside, and downloading and installing new virus infected software programs which will ultimately affect your PC’s health.

From a consumer standpoint trust me when I say, take the small amount of time now to get your online computer house in order. If you don’t take computer protection preventative measures now, you will surely be taking extensive time measures and creating PC headaches for yourself in the future just by surfing the web unprotected.

Get your business website in order today. Get your website found on the Internet now with Internet marketing services from Professional Web Services. Contact Professional Web Services for the online website solution.

Obfuscation is the concealment of meaning in communication, making it confusing and harder to interpret.

In cryptography, obfuscation refers to encoding the input data before it is sent to a hash function or other encryption scheme. This technique helps to make brute force attacks unfeasible, as it is difficult to determine the correct cleartext.

In network security, obfuscation refers to methods used to obscure an attack payload from inspection by network protection systems. See Wikipedia for more obfuscation information.

There are many applications both online and offline for encoding HTML code or JavaScript from prying eyes. The online programs work with any computer system including Apple Macs and Linux. In the case of HTML code; converting HTML code to some form of encryption can help conceal information from robot eyes. For example, email addresses that are simply displayed or set as a email link on websites will get significant spam if the email addresses are not concealed from the email harvesting robots. Even form mail is susceptible to spam bots. By using some form of encryption within the form mail itself, can help alleviate the spam gathering robots from being able to gather information automatically online. Here is a free online html Obfuscation and Email Encryption tool that hides the email address or any html from robots.

One of the best free online HTML encryption and JavaScript obfuscation programs can be found at iFrame.in (Not sure what the status is with the current website at the moment). This tool was great because it allows you to obfuscate/encode your HTML or JavaScript. The way it works, is you simply copy your HTML or JavaScript code into the form window, then click the obfuscate button, and it outputs the code in four different formats.

As I find more websites that do a good job encoding html and javascript, I will list them here. Feel free to suggest any online tools or software programs that can be downloaded for free, or are affordable, that do a good job obfuscating HTML and Javascript code. Here is a free and easy to use HTML Encoder and Decoder, plus the Text Escape tool for escaping extended characters. HTML Encoder – Encode URL, Text and Decoder This online application converts HTML or text to javascript. You can use it for small or larger amounts of text in the web page to be converted to javascript. Note: No encoder will fully hide the information if someone really wants to figure it out. However, this encoder makes it much harder to see from quick prying eyes and the online robots.

Do you feel like your website is obfuscated from the search engine results pages? Well, you might be doing things that are making it difficult for the search engine robots to find your business website online. Professional Web Services can help your business today. For a free Internet marketing evaluation contact us. Professional marketing, advertising, and more sales for your business with Professional Web Services.

For those of us that have older Intel Pentium I, Intel Pentium II, Apple PowerPC, and AMD microprocessor computers just lying around, collecting dust, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to put those computers to good use using new easy to use graphical interface desktops with free Linux operating systems such as Ubuntu and Xubuntu, especially for Internet browsing and free online word processing and spread sheet use or even as a business server application?

The following question was asked by a reader.

Would it be alright to install Ubuntu on a 3 GB Intel Pentium II 333 MHz processor?

Installation of Ubuntu Linux Software all depends on what you want to do with it. Do you want it for desktop use with graphical installation, or as a server (non-graphical installation)?

www.ubuntu.com

Minimum System Requirement

Though, the minimum system requirement is: 256 MB of Ram and 3 GB of available hard drive space for Ubuntu, my gut feeling is you are tight on your available hard drive space. Here are some more system requirements information on the bare minimum requirements and the recommended minimum requirements for installation in order to be able to run well.

Note: The minimum requirements are only likely to allow a server (non-graphical) installation to run well. The recommended minimum requirements should allow you to run a graphical installation of Ubuntu well.

FYI, I have Ubuntu installed on an AMD Athlon 40 GB machine for testing purposes. This is actually a dual boot machine between Windows 2000 Professional and Ubuntu; with an 80GB hard drive partitioned down the middle.

I have a number of Open Source programs like Open Office, and even powerful graphics, photo organization, and picture editing programs such as Google Picasa installed on the Linux Ubuntu system and am using a little over 6 GB of storage on the Ubuntu installed side.

However, with that being said, you could install Xubutu, which is designed for installation on older computers with less disk storage and slower processors. Xubutu is designed to use less system resources.

www.xubuntu.org

For Xubuntu: To run the Desktop CD (LiveCD + Install CD), you need 128 MB RAM to run or 192 MB RAM to install. The Alternate Install CD only required you to have 64 MB RAM. To install Xubuntu, you need 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk.

Once installed, Xubuntu can run with 64 MB RAM, but it is strongly recommended to use at least 128 MB RAM.

Xubuntu on Wikipedia

For those with an Apple PowerPC you can download version Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon or Xubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft. Turn your old Apple laptop into a new useful word processor and Internet browser.

Best regards, Jim Warholic

PS – Installation of Ubuntu is easy.

This is a how-to procedure for recovering data from CF Memory Cards, CompactFlash Memory and other Memory Sticks, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Micro, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Reduced Size MMC (RS-MMC), Secure Digital (SD), miniSD, microSD (TransFlash), SmartMedia, and xD-Picture Cards. See: Memory cards: All your questions answered.

Some but not all of my pictures on a CF card for my digital camera are corrupted.

Know of any free software to try and recover the corrupted ones?

That was a question a friend sent me the other day.

Well, as is typically the case with technology issues today, it is called trial by fire learning.

Started off with finding the following page:
Recover Lost Digital Photos from Corrupt Memory Cards

This lead to ZAR Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery

ZAR 8.3 now includes the (freely available) mode to recover digital images. Generally, the program should work with any media type (e.g. CompactFlash, MemoryStick, SmartMedia and so on) accessible by means of the operating system. You need to use your camera or the appropriate card reader you normally use to transfer images from the camera to the PC.

Current version (ZAR 8.3) supports digital photo recovery for the following file formats:

• GIF
• JPEG
• TIFF
• CRW – Canon RAW data
• MOV, AVI movie
• WAV – Waveform audio
• CR2 – Canon CR2 RAW format (see notes below).
• ORF – Olympus RAW format

I also found the following open source software. The free digital file data recovery software is available for Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, and even DOS operating systems.

PhotoRec is a file data recovery software designed to recover lost files; including video, documents, and archives from Hard Disks and CDRoms, and lost pictures (thus, its ‘Photo Recovery’ name) from digital camera memory cards. PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media’s filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.

PhotoRec is free. This open source multi-platform application is distributed under GNU Public License. PhotoRec is a companion program to TestDisk, an app for recovering lost partitions on a wide variety of filesystems and making non-bootable disks bootable again. You can download TestDisk & PhotoRec here.

For more safety, PhotoRec uses read-only access to handle the drive or memory support of the storage device you are about to recover lost data from. Important: As soon as a pic or file is accidentally deleted, or you discover any missing pictures, do NOT save any more pictures or files to that memory device or hard disk drive; otherwise you may overwrite your lost data. This means that even using PhotoRec, you must not choose to write the recovered files to the same partition they were stored on.

Good Luck on your data recovery.

Note: There may be something worse than corrupted images on a camera memory card when it comes to your business. You could be loosing a lot more sales for your business than you think, by not having a website that is search engine friendly. Is your business-to-business or business-to-consumer website search engine friendly? Find out today with a free Internet marketing and search engine optimization evaluation.

Wow, What a Way to bring in the New Year!

Needed to help a buddy hookup a network between two Windows XP computers (one a Toshiba laptop, and the other a new Dell Vostro desktop), two old Dell Windows 95 computers, a System 2000 computer, and a networked Brother MFC FAX/Printer/Scanner/Copier. Well, he had a network working with NetBeui, using a network HUB, and a strange Bridge setting on the Toshiba laptop XP system, but when the new Dell Vostro desktop was installed, the network stopped working.

After my buddy had spent four hours on the phone with Dell Tech Support, they decided to send out a repair guy to try a new motherboard. This was after Tech Support tried everything under the sun software wise to get the system to function. My friend is still in the stone-ages for Internet connectivity. He is on a Dial-Up Modem. No high speed service is available where he is located. To far away for DSL from the phone company, and no high speed cable service in his area. Satellite communications is still questionable as far as he is concerned. So, can you image when the Dell Tech support person got online and tried to control his new computer? Slow as molasses for the mouse movement. Got to hand it to Dell, the person went none stop for four hours straight, even though the problem was not fixed.

The Network Problem

Sometimes the Dell Vostro would show up on the network and sometimes it would not. This was the case with even looking at itself on the network. Sometimes it was there and sometimes it was not. Dell tried turning off Windows firewall protection and Norton Internet Firewall Security but that did not seem to change anything. So, that is when they decided to go to the next level, and try the hardware. Because of the holiday season, it was going to take a couple of days to get the motherboard. So, we put our heads together and tried tackling the network issue ourselves.

Since the network was on an old network HUB (read about: The difference between Hubs, Switches, and Routers), I decided to try a couple of spare routers, using DHCP to supply IP addresses to the computers and the network printer. Low and behold, we thought the problem was fixed, but such was not the case. The network still bombed out. Back to the original problem after trying it for some time. The problem was still the disappearing computers on the network. Funny though, the old Windows 95 computers could talk to the Dell Vostro with Windows XP operating system, but not the other way around. Also tried swapping network cables with no change in the problem. FYI, my buddy ordered the Dell Vostro with Windows XP operating system instead of Windows Vista by choice just before the holidays. It arrived a couple of days after Christmas.

I decided to call it a night. My buddy however, started digging through the documentation. Apparently when he turned off Norton Internet Security it started working much more reliably. The network was stable for a couple of hours and he thought that was it. However, after leaving it on overnight, it was discovered that the network was nonoperational again in the morning. So, the service call was still scheduled. Dell contracts out to independents in the local areas for service. The guy came out with a new motherboard and swapped it out a day latter.

Finally, everything seemed to stabilize, but we also tried a different router and setting Norton Internet Security Zones for trusted sources (the other computers’ IP addresses) and everything was talking with each other.

Microsoft I figured probably had Windows Updates available for the XP system, even though it was a week old. This was indeed the case. On a dial-up modem it only took four hours to download and install!

Computer Lessons Learned

Technology is changing so fast, that even the customer service techs have trouble keeping up with the new software. The support people are not fully aware of the full spectrum of protection that Norton Internet Security software was doing on the computer from a network standpoint.

Computers are supposed to save time. Ha Ha. Think about all the problems you have had with your computers over the years. Do they really save time? I think not, but in some ways the computers have filled our times with other activities. Internet browsing, searching for products and services, comparing prices, shopping for the new car, and even to the point of replacing TV for online videos.

Just like anything purchased anymore, the customer needs to become more of an expert and pay particular close attention to details.

By-the-way: Networking Mac OS X and Windows XP and Windows 2000

I decided that I would hook up a Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Mac OS X computers that I had together. Took a bit of research online about sharing between the software platforms, but after finding out how to do the settings, everything seemed to function. For advice on how to: Networking Mac and PC, do a Google Search. Good information is available online.

Welcome to the New Internet World

Internet marketing by Professional Web Services

Skitch, Cool Picture Annotating and Image Editing Software for Apple Computers

This Skitch Video shows you some of the cool things you can do with the program. I’m still waiting for an invite but based on what I see, it allows you to do so many things with ease. Can’t wait to take it for a test drive on my Mac.

For those that would like to see some actual examples of how the program has been used check out the posting: Repairing Apple iMac G5 Motherboards. You can do all types of things with this program such as screen shots with comments, arrows, highlights, and graphics added. Really cool.

If you are reading this and have an invite for Skitch; how about sending me one at my Fridays e-mail contact. I would be eternally grateful. Thanks.

Update: I’d like to personally thank the Plasq Crew for an invite to Skitch.

Oh by-the-way, here are a couple of examples of what you can do with Skitch. See the Tumblr posting: This is the Whopper! 300 Ounces of Gold. And also, check out: My What Big Pipes You Have!

Learn more about developing your business website to gain new customers from the Internet now.

Do you work from home? Do you have a business email account? Do you have a personal email account? Would you like to keep your business and personal emails separate, but easily read and respond to both at the same time, and with the same software email client program? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the following will give you a quick overview of what you need to do on your home office computer.

Many options are available for just about any email address today. Most free online service providers of email have the option to be able to write and respond to emails online and on a home office computer using POP. POP is a type of protocol for sending and receiving email. Don’t worry what POP exactly means, but any email client can be used to set up POP email. Email clients are software email programs such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, Mozilla, Netscape, Eudora, Apple Mail, and others. If you have a free Google Gmail account, which I highly recommend, you can use POP mail to send and receive on your local computer, in addition to also being able to send and receive email online.

For some excellent examples of how to configure POP for Gmail, take a look at the following:

Mail Clients

• Outlook Express (Windows)
• Outlook 2002 (Windows)
• Outlook 2003
  (also available: Gmail POP Service animated demo)
• Entourage 2004
• Entourage X
• Eudora 5.1 ^{(and higher)} (Sponsored & Paid Mode)
• Eudora 5.1 ^{(and higher)} (Light Mode)
• Eudora for Macs
• Netscape Mail 7.x
• Netscape Mail 6.2
• Netscape Mail 4.5, 4.6, or 4.7
• Apple Mail
• Mozilla 1.7
• Thunderbird 0.x
• Thunderbird 1.5
• Other

If I am using one of these email clients, how do I respond using my business account when it’s a business email, and how do I respond using my personal account when it’s a personal email?

Once again, there are many options on each specific email client. Depending on the email client, you can have separate identities, and have separate accounts under each identity. Typically separate identities as in Outlook Express are completely different viewable login areas within the the email client program. This means that you would have to switch identities to be able to read and send emails from each specific identity. Each identity can have more than one account, with multiple email addresses being imported to the specific identity, but this requires quite a bit of filtering and sending a message will not necessarily be the email address that you really want to use to send a specific email from a specific address. For example, if you use one identity only to receive all your emails from both a personal and a business account, into one inbox, then it is most likely that the header of the email, (the part that shows the “Send From:” and “Sent To:” information) will not be exactly the correct addresses that you want to show for a business account response or vice versa.

Thunderbird e-mail client, which is free and highly customizable, with multiple identities and multiple accounts, does things slightly differently when talking about identities and accounts.

Idenitities

An identity in Thunderbird is a collection of settings for sending mail. An identity is defined by:

• A name.
• An e-mail address.
• The account that the identity belongs to.

Note: Technically, an identity in Thunderbird is a collection of preference settings in your profile.

Thunderbird allows you to create identities that look exactly the same, but if you do that you might find them confusing to use.

Use more than one identity when you want to send mail using more than one From name or e-mail address, or more than one SMTP server, or more than one signature, or more than one choice for any of the settings that Thunderbird provides in identities.

Thunderbird e-mail client requires you to create a separate default identity for each account, but you can make these identities look exactly the same if you want to. For example, you receive some of your mail from Gmail and some of your mail from the company you work for, but you always want to send mail using your company From address. In your Thunderbird Gmail account, change the default identity to specify exactly the same details as in your work account.

If you receive mail that was originally sent to more than one e-mail address, then you might find it convenient to create identities for all those e-mail addresses. Then you can reply to a message from the same address that it was originally sent to.

Do not use more than one identity when one of your accounts already has an identity that you can use. This is because when you write a message you can change the From address to any identity from any account. There is usually no point in having duplicate identities in different accounts (unless they are default identities).

An identity specifies:

• Settings used when you start composing a message
• Settings used when you send a message

Read more about Mail Concepts.

If you want to create an automatic forward, using a business email address, and having emails forwarded to your personal email address, you can do that, but be aware that if you respond from your personal email address on a forwarded message from the business address, the Send From will be the personal e-mail address and that is what the person will see on the other end when the e-mail is received.

A solution to this situation, is to have two accounts, one for business, and one for personal information messages, and make sure you are using the correct one for business, and for personal use.

If you have multiple email accounts online, and don’t want to have to login to each specific account, you can set up forwards to one account, and just note where the email came from. Then respond using the appropriate e-mail identity or account.

Gmail Notifier is a notification program that runs locally on your computer that lets you know when you have a message at one specific account. Use this to monitor the main e-mail account, where all your emails arrive. Another option for automatic notification is to use ePrompter which runs automatically in the background, and can be configured to allow up to 16 e-mail accounts to be monitored at the same time, and will let you know with a small color coded circle (and/or sound) showing when an email arrives, and display the number of e-mails that arrived inside the circle. Both ePrompter and Gmail Notifier are very easy to set up and use. ePrompter’s wizard allows you to very easily create additional color coded account dots that will monitor all your different e-mail accounts.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask your questions.

Marketing and Advertising Solutions for getting your business discovered online with Internet marketing services by Professional Web Services. Contact us for a free Internet marketing evaluation today. Start gaining new customers and increase your business sales.

I like Blogger

I just wish Blogger had a simple way of creating static pages, that did not necessarily show up as a blog posted page.

Anyone that has been blogging for sometime will tell you, that there is certain information that a person or company would like to have readily available through a link on the blog itself to a separate page with the same branded template image as the main home page. Other times, it would really be cool if a person could have a unique page or pages that have a different template style. For example: maybe all the blogs posted under a particular label; a person would like to have a different image at the top of the page header to separate and visually identify the postings. There are Blogger workarounds and hacks that place in different pictures or images depending on certain parameters, but it would be nice to have maybe a different customizable template area for the static pages and/or labeled categories.

Additionally it would be cool if a person could easily blog to a different subdirectory area of the website when using Custom Domain Name Blogger publishing on another hosted account. While FTP publishing does allow multiple separate blogs under one domain name, custom domain name publishing does not provide the ability to create separate blogs under the main area of the website. Which means you can not have mondays.ws and mondays.ws/coolwidgets as a place to blog directly about coolwidgets. This would be a very handy feature to be able to easily add another subdirectory area under the current blog as a person would have with a unique category area and static pages on a regular website. You can however have other sub domain names with the same custom domain name using Blogger Custom Domain Name option. For example: backflag.com is the domain where I post short snippets using Tumblr as the free online publisher engine. But I use marketingstrategies.backflag.com as the custom domain name publishing option with Blogger to the sub domain marketingstrategies, for information about marketing strategies. Keep in mind that subdomains are typically viewed as separate websites and it is important to note from a search standpoint (see note below about having different websites).

Static Page Workaround for Blogger

Probably the simplest static page workaround for Blogger at this time is to go to the earliest blog posting date and post a new page with backdating it to this earliest time. Turn off comments and backlinks under post options for this posting if you want, and set the date to the oldest date. Then simply link to it.

The Strength of the Free Blogger Service

The strength of the free Blogger service is the ability to customize the html and css (cascading style sheets) code in order to create your own unique branded image. Other blog hosting services that offer free hosting such as WordPress, provide some of the features such as static pages but have severe limitations on what can be altered and customized with the css and the html.

The ability to use hundreds, if not thousands of free templates set up for the Blogger service is one of the features that I have come to love. Just about any webpage or website template can be converted to a Blogger template with having an understanding of the Blogger drive engine and placing the proper coding from Blogger into the template design area. This feature really makes it much easier to brand the blog to the current site design. Read about Blogging with Professional Web Services.

Additional Blogger Wishes

I love the new Blogger with XML. I wish we could use the XML features on the non Google hosting services. For example: currently one of the Blogger options is in the classic design template mode for ftp publishing to a paid hosted provider with full customization. We have our website at www.pwebs.net for Internet marketing services. We publish a blog using Blogger at: www.pwebs.net/internet-marketing.htm about the Internet marketing industry, in which we write about various aspects of Internet marketing. Currently we are using ftp publishing for the blog, and a customized classic template design. There are some pretty cool features that XML has, as compared to the standard ftp classic design template. If the XML new Blogger templates could be used for other than the free Blogspot account hosting or the Custom Domain option (see below), then it would make it much easier to customize and manage the information for publishing.

I know I said this before but it bares repeating. Blogger currently allows you to use the Custom Domain name option, but hosting still takes place on Blogger servers, and only allows one blog per main domain name without subdirectories as compared to ftp publishing (see above). A person can create Sub Domains for different blogs using the custom domain name option, but these are considered separate websites, and if information was substantially the same between these Sub Domains, the Search Engines would more than likely not look too favorably to having created additional subdomains. For example: www.jimwarholic.com could have a subdomain as info.jimwarholic.com with unique information at both areas and this would be OK. This is no different than Blogger hosted services with millions of subdomains at blogspot.com, such as eclectic-marketing.blogspot.com and professionalwebservices.blogspot.com.

One of the reasons I have come to really like using the Blogger service is because Google allows you to use javascripts in the templates themselves. WordPress free blog hosting restricts javascript from being added for additional features. WordPress states it’s because of security issues. I am not convinced that javascript is the problem as opposed to simply WordPress engineers taking the time to allow javascript to be used securely in the first place. Listen, I am not bashing WordPress, because I too have a WordPress blog with Jim West as the blog name, and I like posting there from time to time, but I am simply stating the main differences that I see between Blogger and WordPress.

One reason to choose Custom Domain Name Blogger publishing over FTP publishing is the speed at which a page publishes using the custom domain name option. Whereas on an ftp account, hosted somewhere else, it can involve quite a delay with ftp publishing timeouts on very large blogs. Custom Domain Name publishing is also easier to add widgets and other items for the novice blogger. Expert bloggers can also customize the templates quite extensively.

In this world, nothing is ever perfect as it is. Everything man-made can always be improved. Not everyone will have everything they want. What are some of your thoughts on the Blogger wish list? What features would you like to see added? One last thing that I forgot to mention is I would like the labels to be able to automatically show up when using classic template de
signs for ftp publishing, just like in the XML template designs provides the sidebar widget to display the labels. Currently for classic templates you have to create the list manually for the sidebar areas.

Internet Marketing Strategies and Services for businesses on the web.

Important: Backup Your Computer Now, Before It is Too Late!

Is your computer hard drive running out of capacity? Are you wondering what you are going to do when it maxes out? Are you worried about loosing all your pictures and files when your hard drive crashes? Have you ever performed a computer HD backup? Well, I’ve got the solution for you.

No one really wants to go through and delete information from the past. Installing a second add on drive is a possibility. Another option is to install a brand new C drive, with all your existing programs and data intact.

There are a couple of programs that I am aware of that make it easy to clone a hard drive completely. The program that I have used for backing up information and cloning a hard drive is Acronis True Image. Acronis True Image is a program that once installed on your existing hard drive can be used for daily backups to another hard drive or to install a brand new C drive with all the existing files intact.

For example: I had a computer with a 180 Gbyte disk drive that was getting to the point, with pictures, videos, files, and programs installed, that the days were numbered until I was going to be forced into doing something about it. I decided to take the initiative and replace the disk drive with a new 400 GB disk drive. Using Acronis True Image, the new one is Acronis True Image Home 2009 backup and disk image recover software, I first did a fresh backup on the second disk drive I have installed in the computer. Once that was complete, I disconnected the second drive and hooked up the brand new Seagate 400 GB disk drive that I picked up from Fry’s Electronics for $89.00. I can’t believe these prices on hard drives keep dropping as much as they have over the years.

Once the second drive was hooked up, I ran the True Image software again, and cloned the primary drive, but expanded it to include the total available space to be used on the new drive. Once the cloning process was done, I then removed the first drive, and made the new drive the C drive, then re-attached the other backup drive, and the computer was up and running on the new hard drive.

It is interesting to note that even though most drive manufactures state a certain size hard drive, they usually overstate what the drive actually holds. It seems as though there is a 5 to 10% fudge factor. The Seagate 400 Gbyte drive turned out to be 367 Gbytes formated. But still, it is hard to pass up a deal when you need it.

My recommendation for anyone looking for a new hard drive, try to estimate what you will be using it for. If it is going to be used for pictures and video storage, then by all means up the storage capacity. However, if a standard 500 GB hard drive is substantially more than enough room for what you are currently doing, save your money for the future. As the price on these hard drives has dropped over the years, it is likely that the price of hard drives will continue to plummet, and the capacities will continue to increase. Then, the price per gigabyte will be less in the future, when you really need the storage. As of this update date: 2/20/08 – there are external 1 Terabyte hard drives available for sale around 100 dollars. See: 1 TB External Hard Drives

Jim Warholic is President of Professional Web Services, Inc., an Internet marketing and SEO company.

Convert Microsoft Documents to PDF Files On Windows OS and Apple Mac

The following are a couple of ways to convert and combine your Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Publisher, Bitmap, GIF, JPEG, PNG, Plain Text, Rich Text, XML and HTM/HTML files and documents, to PDF file format.

There are actually many PDF writer programs available that can convert documents through a print emulation program for both PCs and Apple computers. What these types of programs do when loaded on your computer is act like a virtual printer. Instead of selecting your normal printer for printing the documents, you select the PDF Writer program from the printer select area. One of these types of virtual printer programs that I have used is the pdf 995 program that allows you to create PDF documents easily for free. The cool thing about this type of program is the ability to select the print to PDF from virtually any program that you are running. That means, if you can print from a regular application, you can select the print to a PDF file, which converts the output to a PDF file and saves it anywhere you would like. The free version does display some advertising when used, but this really is no big deal. If you want the paid version, you can get it for as little as $9.95 or get the whole powerful suite for $19.95 to provide all the bells and whistles imaginable.

By-the-way, you can also use this as a network selectable printer. That means, anyone that has access to the network can select the pdf 995 printer option and convert their documents to a PDF file. You can also combine multiple documents to form one PDF file.

The latest Apple computer operating systems provide a built in writer version of a PDF conversion type program. Simply select the print menu from any Mac application, and then select the PDF drop-down menu item. Select: Save as PDF, Save PDF as PostScript, Fax PDF, Compress PDF, Encrypt PDF, Mail PDF, Save as PDF-X, Save PDF to iPhoto, or Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder. This is quite handy for all types of document sharing across Mac OS X and Windows operating systems.

There are some other free online conversion places available, however some of these websites require you to give them your email address so they can send you the file. I have not taken the time to investigate if these sites are trustworthy to secure your information from online spammers or other types of privacy issues. In my opinion, there are other options available for free PDF conversions, that are secure with your email address and files.

Drawloop Technologies

Another way to convert all types of Microsoft documents to PDF files is using the LOOP software available for free as an add-on to the Firefox browser, and they are a trusted source in my opinion. They provide a privacy policy in which you can opt-out at the very beginning of items related to sharing of your email address for purposes of marketing materials being sent to you.

What is LOOP?

LOOP is a free web-based application that allows you to upload, convert and combine files to PDF. You do not need to install software or be working from your desktop computer. LOOP is delivered on-demand and available for use 24/7 through a web browser.

LOOP works with these documents:

Microsoft Word	Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint	PDF

LOOP also accepts:

Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Publisher, Bitmap, GIF, JPEG, PNG, Plain Text, Rich Text, XML and HTM/HTML files

You can read more about LOOP at Drawloop Technologies An import note about the use of LOOP with a browser based system is the great versatility that this brings to all software platforms. The software works on Windows XP or Vista just as easily as it does on Apple MAC OS X because it is Web based through the Firefox Web Browser.

You can get the LOOP add-on and the Firefox browser from the Mozilla website.

PDF files are becoming the standard for document sharing today. Having a file in the form of a PDF can make it easier for customers to be able to read and save sales literature, technical documents, manuals, and various other forms of publicity materials. Give these programs a try. I think you will like them.

Jim Warholic
Internet marketing and SEO specialist.

I gave Apple a second chance with Safari for Microsoft Windows environment.

Check out the screen shot of Safari with our Professional Web Services website.

Read the previous posting: Apple Safari For Windows Partial Menus For Many

I am pleased to report, that the partial menus problem is not the case anymore.

After seeing a notice that an update to fix the font issue in Safari for Windows was available to download from Apple, I downloaded the new installer program.

But, just to be on the safe side of getting this to work properly, I read on Grupenet to “please make sure the read-only option on your Fonts.plist file is unset.”

I believe this is if you have previously installed Safari and used his fix on the previous version. See the comments below from Jared. His instruction is as follows: ‘unset read-only on the “Fonts.plist” which is located in “C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\Safari” on Windows XP and “C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\Safari” on Windows Vista.’ See comments.

I personally like to have the status bar on at the bottom of the Safari program when running. The user can turn this on or off depending on their preferences. Go to the View menu and select Show Status Bar to have the bottom of the browser display information such as when your cursor is placed over a link, the status bar will display the link location. If you want to have the Tab bar always displayed, simply select view Tab. The tab bar is nice to have because you can right click on the existing tab and open a new tab for another website or a fresh Search Engine search.

I know Apple has a thing with their Silver Surfer brand image, but I would like to see some colors for the Safari browser. However, with that being said, the Safari browser is kind of cool looking, with their elegant rounded slide scroll bars on both the bottom and right side.

From a web developer’s standpoint, it’s always a good idea to know how your website displays on other browsers. Also, from an Internet marketing standpoint, you will want to know how your business website shows up on other computers, operating systems, and the various browsers online. Quite a number of browsers are available besides IE such as: Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, Camino, SeaMonkey, Flock, and others.

Jim Warholic, President Professional Web Services, Inc.