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Barack Obama is campaigning on the theme of being the candidate for change. That’s a message which is resonating with many. And then there is Mike Huckabee who is promoting the fair Tax (not the flat tax). That’s one concrete measure, which if implemented, would cause a dramatic change in the United States. It would eliminate the IRS and more importantly put an end to tax code manipulation by Congress. One drawback to the fair tax is that the transition would be painful.

Although people may say they want change, its human nature to resist it. We’re creatures of habit. We like ease and comfort. Many people stay in jobs they hate because of fear of the unknown and fear of change. How many do not stop smoking or shed excess pounds because the process of getting to the goal is uncomfortable, painful, or downright scary.

My good friend, Rev. Angela Harrington Rice, just announced “Life Designs 2008″ which facilitates change and self actualization on a personal level. Angela’s announcement included the statement “Change is good and inevitable”. I think all would agree with the inevitable part, but there may be some debate about how good it is. And, most would agree that there are many things that other people, our country, and the world should change. I love the saying by Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see”. It puts the onus back on us.

Companies putting in new technology, software or systems would do well to incorporate change management programs. People like to feel like they’re an expert in their jobs. A change in new systems and technology will inevitably require employees to learn new skills or to do things in a different way. So, another consideration when implementing software is business process re- engineering / improvement / management. New systems may have great potential benefits. But if it is not used, circumvented or resisted, companies have wasted time and money to implement.

The cure for most of what I call “post implementation distress” is an assessment, diagnosis, and remediation service. Key parts of the cure and healing process are change management, process improvement, documentation and training.

You may be a high achieving senior manager or executive, leading your company through uncharted waters. And you probably are very good at what you do. But on a personal level, how well do you adjust to significant change? Change is not easy even for a superstar. If you’re voting for change, you want it to be as effective, successful and stress-free as possible. Ideally you had good project management and governance (Independent Verification and Validation -IV&V) on the front end. And ideally you have budgeted for resolving people issues at the beginning of the project. If you’ve already implemented, wouldn’t it be prudent for your organization to get the cure for Post Implementation Distress? Or, at least incorporate a change management program?

Noble & Associates Consulting specializes in IT Strategy, Needs Assessments, Software Evaluation & Selection, SAP, Oracle and other ERP solutions, and the cure for Post Implementation Distress. Visit http://www.CurePostImplementationDistress.com for a *FREE* report: “12 Sins of ERP Implementations”.

For those who aren’t in the know with the acronym, OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. For the hardware sellers in the retail world, this would be in the same vein as buying directly from the manufacturer. You’re not buying from Circuit City, you are buying from Samsung — such is a general idea. This can be really nice because it reduces cost considerably. These offers often come from the cable supplier as well when referring to cable hardware.

Buying OEM products has been hot, even more recently for the average consumer. It was made known more so, not really by the cable industry, but by the software one — where you would see offers for operating systems go for half price you would see sold retail. So with all great deals there is generally a catch. The following will have a bit of the advantages and some of the disadvantages of buying typical cables and custom cables alike.

OEM Advantages and Disadvantages

The slang term for OEM products is often termed as the “white box” version. An apt name, since it’s devoid of most consumer package marketing. But the advantage of going white box for cables is that they are pretty cheap. Anyone that knows when setting up a sound room, putting together a patch bay or the like will run a pretty price tag for cabling. That’s why finding OEM sourced products are so valuable.

For instance if you were running a business selling high-definition digital equipment, a good mark up cable to use would be an HDMI T.V. cable. So if you were negotiating with the cable supplier, getting a good OEM cable shipment in bulk you can take those cables and sell them retail for a considerable markup, as you would see being done in many retail locations.

In addition, if you are dealing with the supplier in such a manner, you can often have them make custom cables made for special projects.

Since OEM is geared for the reseller, sometimes it’s not necessarily good for the average consumer. If you don’t know what you are doing, what you are getting into then buying a cable for the wrong reason may leave you hung out to dry. In other words, there is not much for support. It’s like buying a car without warranty.

The private consumer who just wants one item may want to get the cables that are prepackaged rather than sold by themselves. Warranties are usually put in the bundled product rather than individually.

The bottom line is that if you are a legitimate business person who is in the know verses someone who just wants to go cheap then buying OEM could be either a blessing or a curse.

Professional Cable (http://www.professionalcable.com) is a cable supplier company who has almost every cable for every occasion. Every cable from custom cables to your typical patch cable comes with quality assurance backing at Professional Cable. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.

While listening to the stock reports you may hear about how tech companies are faring in the stock market verses other industries. They seem to be in a separate business sector to provide as a talking point to gauge the economy they’re in. Well the deal is that most companies are actually intertwined with being “tech” but might not be in the business of selling tech. Wal-Mart is probably more tech than most businesses since the sheer size of it’s systems and network could keep the Czech republic’s economy wired.

While Wal-Mart probably has some of the finest IT solutions, most smaller businesses that don’t make technology their main objective will often fall behind in keeping their network and telephony systems up to date. This article will give a little case-in-point example scenario and how consulting with an IT and network agency will prevent potential disasters.

Law Office and IT Probs

One industry that one does not really think involves much technology solutions is a law firm. But in fact they do, just as explained above, to stay in business a certain level of tech needs to be there. One big factor that a law office needs to stay up on with tech is the telephone systems. A means to constantly be on line and in touch with clients in a law office is imperative. A case where this can be a problem is making the transition to analog to digital telephone systems.

When a phone system is analog it’s simply taking more space along wires. It’s basically electric pulses that are translated into audio. A digital on the other hand, will break the audio into binary representation — ones and zeros are interpreted and assembled into audio wave. So more memory is needed, more backup storage for voice mail, more adaptors for new computers are needed, more of everything needs to update when you run analog. And in fact if business picks up, as we all expect this to happen, then the law office will have a serious situation.

It’s not unheard of computer servers being overtaxed and crashing simply due to analog telecom data overloading or the email server system shutting down. These are the peculiarities that can occur. So when phone systems are shut down in a law office, business pretty much comes to a halt.

An IT solutions group that is private can surely come in to fix the matters at hand when fires occur. The law office will probably keep them on retainer (a little industry switcheroo) so they stay safe. But the best bet is to have them help overhaul an antiquated system, something that will be a money and possible company life saver.

Revere Group (http://www.reveregroup.com) is a business consulting group that offers IT solutions to streamline your hardware and communication systems. Tech systems will be cutting edge and deliver more efficiency with Revere Group’s leadership. The author, Art Gib, is a freelance writer.

A company that offers commercial printing services, like typesetting and book-binding, is called a printing company. It also refers to the people who work in printing firms. After the invention of the portable printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1450, the art of printing gained popularity throughout Europe. Today there is no dearth of newspaper, magazine and book printers in the market. From its rudimentary form the printer today has become compact, accurate and more efficient. With the advancement of technology, new makes with enhanced capacity are being marketed.

Hewlett-Packard manufactures the inkjet printers under the brand name Deskjet. The range and capacity of both the personal and professional printers vary. The biggest model in the range is generally called DesignJet.

In the year 1984 HP introduced their ThinkJetprinter. Soon, in 1987, the colorful Paintjet followed. The next year saw the first mackintosh compatible ones called Deskjet printers, whose capacity surpassed laser printers. This inexpensive printer came with colored ink in 1991.

Gradually, with the increase in production, prices fell considerably. By 1993, Deskjets in the market had not only black but also a three colour variety. HP further produced the new range of printers, namely, DesignJet, PhotoSmart and Professional Series. Based on the same thermal inkjet technology, their latest photo printers have a wide shade range. The consumer market today offers mind boggling array of Deskjet printers. Among them the HP S450Ci Mobile Deskjet deserves special mention.

Hewlett-Packard`s 450Ci Mobile Deskjet is an ideal printer for the road. Extremely convenient, this lightweight portable printer contains USB and parallel connection facility, infrared, and Bluetooth, for instant production of documents from the laptop, digital camera or the cell phone. The HP Deskjet 450ci mobile printer also has parallel printer cable, power cord, an AC adapter, black inkjet print cartridge, a tri-color inkjet print cartridge and printer software on CD-ROM.

The printing cartridge can produce up to 400 color sheets. This high-speed gadget can print nine pages per minute in black ink and eight in color, every minute. A durable lithium battery empowers it to print 350 pages per charge. The installation of the battery, make it weigh just 4.5 pounds. A one-year warranty and online technical consultation support is provided.

This HP Deskjet portable printer serves as the complete office printing solution for professionals who require super-quality performance every time they are on the move. This compact printer is specially designed for rough use. Among the other reputed brands like Cannon, Epson, HP seems to have monopolized the market. The HP Deskjet F4180 all in one printer, for example, is even faster producing up to 20 papers per minute in black and 14 of them in color.

This consistent and durable printer brings out pages and photos in vibrant colors. Ensure laser-quality text and bright photos, when you use this Deskjet with HP inks and papers. It is no longer difficult to preserve documents and photos, with the help of 48-bit color scanner. Another interesting feature of this printer is that it can produce borderless 4“ x 6“ photographs. The six ink color option offers the scope to enhance the color quality of one`s snaps. To delete unnecessary printouts the touch of a button is enough thereby saving ink and paper. Equipped with similar buttons editing and printing is a breeze.

Other Deskjet varieties also have a PictBridge, which makes it possible to print directly from digital cameras. Their input trays hold a minimum of 150-sheets. The output tray can accommodate up to 50 letter size sheets. The ink-level indicator forewarns when ink store is running low. Thus with a host of features up its sleeves, Deskjet printers make a great printer to have around you.

This article can be accessed in portuguese from the Article section of page http://www.polomercantil.com.br/impressora.php

Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for http://www.polomercantil.com.br

Do you have an Xbox? If so, which model? There is the original model and then more recently released was the 360 version.

Whichever model you have, the Xbox is one of the more popular gaming consoles available today even though it was Microsoft’s first attempt at entering the gaming console business when it was released in 2001. Its director competitors are the Sony Playstation and the Nintendo Gamecube.

Why Create the Xbox?

It might seem strange to ask why anyone would create such a gaming console, looking back on the success of this product and those like it. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20. It’s very easy to look back on the success of this product and just assume that Microsoft created the Xbox for the money it would bring in. However, the reality is that as more and more gaming consoles were being created in the mid to late 1990′s, these were actually cutting into Microsoft’s dominance in the computer industry. People were turning off their PCs in exchange for turning on their gaming consoles, hooked up to the larger screens of their televisions and allowing more than one person to play. Creating the Xbox was not so much a move for commercialism as it was a move for financial survival. Any successful business will tell you that as the market goes, so should the development.

Using the Xbox Today

No matter what the product or system there will always be competition and the Xbox is no different. Every month there are new systems and new games that can be used only on its competition, but despite all of this, like so many other Microsoft products, it still seems to lead the market share in sales and overall popularity. Of course the consistent price drop it has experienced since its first model was released also helps; when first released just before Christmas in 2001, the average retail price was $299 USD; the most recent figures list average retail price as around $79 USD.

In 1995 the Xbox 360 was introduced and this essentially rendered the original model obsolete. Through emulation the 360 is able to support a limited number of games designed for the original model. The newer games for the 360 are what really set this model apart; in 2004, Halo 2 set records as the highest-grossing release in entertainment history making over $125 million in its first day.

Upgrading

So are you considering upgrading your Xbox? If you don’t have a 360, it’s time to get one. The older model isn’t made anymore and whatever games you have for it are all you’re going to get. You see how there’s been good reason for the Xbox to be developed in the first place, and there’s good reason to get the latest model there is. So stop waiting; get your newer model today!

For a comprehensive guide to the xBox visit http://www.xBoxInfoOnline.com

Computers are an essential part of everyday life. It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t used a computer and doesn’t use one regularly. It is such an essential tool because it is used everyday, therefore it’s important to keep it in tiptop shape. However, because it is used so often, the computer can start to run slow. There are several reasons as to why this problem occurs.

Corrupt registry

The first thing to look for when dealing with a slow computer speed is the registry. The registry holds all the system, hardware and software preferences. The registry can become corrupt if it isn’t cleaned often. Cleaning it not only frees up space, but also solves some system errors that can give you trouble in the future.

If you are looking to get your registry cleaned, there is an easy solution. Commercial software developed for cleaning registries are plentiful today. Just make sure you get one that is up to date and top rated.

Also, another tip is to get one that is also an optimizer. Cleaning your registry will do wonders for your computer‘s performance, optimizing it will get your speed running on overdrive!

Spyware

The second thing you should look into if you want to speed up your computer is checking to see if there is spyware and/or trojans infecting it. Surfing the Internet can be harmful to your operating system because there are so many harmful things out there waiting to damage it.

Of course, I’m not advocating you stay off the “Net.” I would never be able to go a day without surfing the Internet. I don’t even know how I survived 15 years ago!

What I am saying is this, you should make sure you have a virus and spyware scanner installed on your computer and set up to run daily. Any decent spyware cleaner is also geared to clean your computer of known viruses, as well.

On top of this, it will also scan for adware, malware, trojans and the like and it will delete these parasites after it finds them. So, this why it is important to have a quality spyware, or more accurately stated, a quality anti-spyware program installed on your computer.

Remember, even though it is not spyware’s intent to slow down your computer, it does. Sometimes it will slow a computer down to an absolute halt!

Automatically running a spyware scan, automatically will make sure you won’t run into problems with this type of garbage slowing down your computer‘s speed, especially if you are using a highly rated spyware cleaner.

Too little memory

Another thing you should look for when your computer is running slow is the amount of memory or computer ram you have. As technology progresses, more and more programs are requiring more ram to run smoothly.

Having adequate ram is essential to keeping the computer fast, especially if you plan on running multiple programs at once, which of course, we all do.
A computer running Windows XP can usually run well with 512MB of memory, unless it is a super gamer. In this case it may require twice as much RAM. A computer running Windows Vista needs 1024MB or 1Gig of memory in order to assure it will not run slowly.

Recently I’ve seen computers sold that were originally designed to run Windows XP. At the last minute, the manufacturers loaded them with the newly released Windows Vista. So, these computers were unbearably slow right out of the box because they only had 512MB of memory.

So, if you have a new computer with Vista and it has been slow right from the very start, see if it is one of these computers. It will be easy enough to have another memory stick added and your computer will be off and running.

There are other things that could be slowing down a computer but these things are not too common unless the computer is really old. Corrupt registry, spyware and insufficient ram are, by far and away the most common reasons why a computer loses speed.

The author is a comp TIA A+/Network+ certified computer technician familiar with the operation, repair and upkeep of today’s PC’s. Get free computer tips at his free sites: http://registryrepaircompare.com and http://registryrepairtools.net.

With the explosive growth of online degree programs, it is only natural that certain degrees would prove to be more popular than others. By comparing Internet search terms, keyword analysis and student enrollment it is easy to determine which online degrees are the trendiest. Universities and colleges can then use this information to market their online degree programs to potential students.

While there are literally hundreds of different online degrees from which to choose, there are particular fields of interest that continue to remain at the top of everyone’s list. These include:

Healthcare Online Degrees:

Information and technologies concerning healthcare are continually evolving and specializing. This demand for healthcare professionals, particularly nurses, with specialized training makes online degrees a perfect option for continuing education. Nursing degree programs seem to have the most online degree program options with a long list of degrees ranging from Associates through PhD’s. With the number of baby boomers entering their golden years, this group of online degrees is only expected to rise in demand.

Education Online Degrees:

Students seeking online degrees in education are primarily looking for graduate or post-graduate degrees. Certified teachers looking to increase their salary potential or those making the switch to administration often choose the convenience of an online degree program. Undergraduate degrees continue to be earned primarily on a traditional campus, simply because so much of the coursework requires internships and hands-one learning.

Criminal Justice Online Degrees:

Earning an online criminal justice degree has never been easier. This online degree program earns its popularity simply because it has so many career applications. An online degree in criminal justice can lead to a career in local, state or federal law enforcement or private sector law enforcement. With specialization, a student can pursue a career as a crime scene technologist or terrorist specialist.

Close behind in popularity is a paralegal degree. Paralegals and legal assistants are in high demand by corporations and law firms. Choosing an online degree program focused on paralegal studies means the student will almost surely have job security upon graduation.

Business Online Degrees:

The reigning favorite among online degrees continues to be business degrees. This fact is not surprising when you consider business degrees are the most popular set of degrees issued from traditional colleges and universities as well! Available online business degrees include Associates, Bachelors, Masters and PhD’s, but according to many sources, the Bachelors and Masters degrees remain most popular.

The Masters in Business Administration degree has become an industry standard and continues to be the most popular of the online degree business programs. Some online MBA programs have even started to offer specialization options such as Human Resources or Finance to give graduating students an edge in the marketplace.

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on online degrees or online degree programs, please visit http://www.petersons.com