Free Software: How Not To Get More Than You Bargained For!
May 31, 2007
I completed an experiment recently. I wanted to find out exactly what software I could get free on the Internet. My main focus was for software to include utilities and useful home business applications.
I completed various searches for free software and related keywords on the leading search engines.
What I found were thousands of web sites, proclaiming for you to be able to download software for free. Or at least a “try before you buy” basis.
What I found was stunning.
It seems once I downloaded a few of these free programs, my focus quickly changed from what I could get free to “How do I rid myself of the new problems that came with those free programs.”
WELCOME TO THE SPYWARE AGE!
Once I downloaded some of these free programs. I noticed strange things happening to my computer. Pop-up windows were appearing out of nowhere. My browser was running slower than usual. And applications seemed to open and close a little slower than usual.
Now when I would go to google to do a simple search, a popup window appeared advertising free minutes when I switch to Verizon Mobile.
Five Steps to Rapid Development with TierDeveloper 4.0
May 30, 2007
Follow the steps below to quickly design, generate, and deploy a great portion of your real-life N-Tier application.
STEP 1: HAVE YOUR DATABASE READY
1. Create your database in Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or DB2. You can design and create your own database. Or, you can use the sample database provided with TierDeveloper. Or, you can use one of the databases/schemas already provided with your database. They are:
a.Microsoft SQL Server: Northwind database. Just create a new TierDeveloper project against this database.
b.Oracle: DEMO schema with EMP, DEPT, BONUS, SALGRADE, and other tables. Just create a new TierDeveloper project against this schema.
c.DB2: SAMPLE schema provided with DB2. Just create a new TierDeveloper project against this schema.
2. Populate database with data. This would ensure that you have a fully working database ready to be used by a web application.
STEP 2: KNOW YOUR APPLICATION’S DATABASE INTERACTION
1. Identify table-columns your app will access: Before you do anything, you must know which tables and which columns in these tables is your application going to access.
2. Identify transactional operations: Identify where in your application you need to do insert, update, delete, or single-row select operations.
Understanding Document Management
May 30, 2007
The term “document management” and “paperless office” is the subject of countless articles and books. Everyone wants to achieve this lofty goal but not everyone understands what the terms really mean. Before you can embark on the journey of achieving total document management, it’s important that you have a good basic knowledge of the terms and concepts that go with it.
Once you start investigating the various software solutions that are available you’re going to run into some document management abbreviations, acronyms, and general terms that you might not be familiar with. Here is a “cheat sheet” that will help you to understand the material that you’ll encounter as well as the conversations that you’ll be having with document management solution providers.
Electronic Document Capture (EDC)
This is the generic term that refers to the entire process of converting paper documents into their electronic equivalents. It covers concepts such as scanning, text recognition, image conversion and indexing for later retrieval. In other words, it is a catchall phrase for the entire document management process.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
OCR is a process that recognizes the printed words that are present on a physical document. OCR is generally used when processing documents that are printed in “normal” printer or typewriter fonts.
Run Your Own Search Engine
May 29, 2007
Our hosted solution allow you to run your own search engine.You can have your own special search engine such as travel, games,animals, medical, software, sports, music, cars or any other category you like.We can create and host custom search engine for you by indexing only those sites which meets your selected category. You can also select to index the whole web instead of some specific category.
To create a good-sized search engine that can handle moderate traffic requires a fair amount of hardware and bandwidth.It also require full time programmers to maintain and keep the index fresh.Regular operation include fetching pages, indexing, updating and more.With our plan customers don’t have to worry about the hard part of running a search engine.
We are offering search engine software , hardware, bandwidth, and maintenance support, so you can only focus on bussiness development and not technical.
Not to mention that it’s a search engine that will grow with you, allowing you to easily add software components , plugins or build applications on it.So you get one powerful search engine.
Intranet Deployments (SiteSearch) This hosting plan also apply for companies who want to index their websites.
Features
How to Evaluate Staffing Software
May 28, 2007
If you are in the market for new staffing software, I suspect that one of the most daunting of tasks will be to sift through the many vendors that are now servicing the staffing industry.
You will find many very qualified companies with good staffing software products. These products will utilize different technologies and different approaches to how they implement and train your company. The choices will be many, the approaches varied, and the results in some cases may be very good and in other cases you may find yourself with a staffing software solution that was over hyped and under delivered.
What can you do to insure the best possible result? Below are our six suggestions for evaluating staffing software and the companies that are providing those solutions:
1. Know what you want.
Spend time with the different players in your company and solicit their input on what your new solution should contain. Develop a decision matrix that you can use to evaluate the different staffing software solutions. Understand that no solution will match all of the requirements, at some point you will find that you may have to make a decision to exclude some desired features for the benefit of the total solution.
Linux Secrets
May 27, 2007
The first thing that you will notice about Linux Red Hat (using the Gnome Interface) is that it looks a lot like Windows 95/98/NT. But that’s where the similarity ends. Linux requires a whole new set of commands as well as a new way of thinking about things.
For instance, in Windows 95/98 you can adjust monitor or screen properties by just a few key strokes. With Linux, however, in order to adjust the monitor settings, you have to run a program called Xconfigurator. And there is no information anywhere as to how to do this. It is one of these secret things that Linux users don’t worry about because “everyone knows how to do it”. Those of us changing from Windows to Linux have a need to know these things.
Basic Tips and tricks for Windows XP
May 26, 2007
Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can run programs as if though they were being run under a different operating system. (This is known as “emulation”.) Simply right-click a shortcut, select “Properties” and then check “Run in compatibility mode” and select the operating system you wish to make the program believe it is being run under. This fools or tricks the program into thinking you are really using a previous version of Windows, such as NT, 2000, 98, or 95. This is especially useful for certain games that won’t run properly. Be careful *not* to use this with certain system utilities, such as antivirus, defrag, registry, and disk tool applications.
Customizing the Start Menu Right click on the “Start” button and left click “Properties”. From here, you can select the new Windows XP style Start Menu, or return to the Windows 2000/Millennium style one. You can also customize the two possible choices using their corresponding “Customize” buttons. This also allows you to turn on or disable cascading menus and other options that are useful, such as large or small icons and more.
Why Java RDBMS?
May 25, 2007
It is a well known fact that Java as a programming language set off a new paradigm in the software industry. Suddenly, every software programmer worth his salt was amidst software jargons like ‘Platform-Independence’, ‘Cross-Platform-Deployment’ and ‘The Java Virtual Machine’. In fact, it did not take long for Java to usurp the ‘most sought after status’ from many software languages, and become the most preferred tool for creating software; especially software for the web. As the recent trends in the industry show, Java is set to achieve an undeniable position as the most preferred software programming language for a long time to come. It is indeed Java’s credit that many prominent vendors who tried to emulate the capacities of Java, failed miserably in the endeavor.
Does Microsoft have any real competition?
May 25, 2007
Does Microsoft Have any Real Competition? Copyright (c) 2003 Gregory S. Diehl In a word, yes.
And I think they are about to get more.
Microsoft primarily dominates in operating systems and office productivity software.
Windows is going to be the dominant OS for some time. But I think things will get much more interesting with the Novell/SuSE merger. The giant IBM was already behind Linux. (People forget that if IBM’s software division were a separate company, it would be number two only to Microsoft.) Now, they face the challenge from a company that knows how to market to the enterprise, which Red Hat does not. SuSE gets the channels and business partners it needs worldwide; Novell can assure its survival beyond NetWare as a competitor to the hated Microsoft. (Novell feels about as strongly about the folks from the Northwest as Sun does.)
And speaking of Sun, they are aggressively pushing StarOffice as an alternative to Microsoft Office. It offers file compatibility, so anyone on a budget may want to at least consider it. Corel is also hanging in there with WordPerfect and other products, and Novell has GroupWise. So there is at least a little competition in office productivity, although admittedly not much. StarOffice is now available in the retail channel, so that may change.
Looking for an Alternative to Microsoft Office? You Should Be!
May 24, 2007
Now is the time to look at an alternative to Microsoft Office.
Are you locked into using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint? Are you spending extra because you need a database, and Access does not come with the basic Office package?
Well, the time has come to look at alternatives, or at least the one I¡¦ll discuss here in a few moments. Whether you are a writer on a tight budget, but need to send your submittals in Word format or an employee wanting to do work at home without either paying hundreds of dollars for Office or installing an illegal copy at home, there are inexpensive options.
(Just as an aside, do NOT ever install or use unlicensed software from Microsoft or anyone else. It is simply not worth the headaches, including huge fines and possible jail time. And if you take a copy home from the office, you may lose your job.)
How much would you pay for office productivity software with these features?
o runs on Windows (R), just like Microsoft Office
o all files can be saved in Microsoft Office formats
o a word processor
o a spreadsheet
