Archive for April, 2008

Resource Management using Microsoft Project

Management of resources is a key aspect of project management. Microsoft Project is able to assist in the complex issue of managing resources by tracking their progress, highlighting allocation issues and relating all this information to the overall status of the project.

Defining resources

In simple terms, resources can be separated into three groups: work, material and cost. A work resource is anyone or anything that works on a task and is tracked according to time spent. A material resource refers to things that are consumed by a task. Microsoft Project assumes that material resources are available in unlimited supplies. Cost resources refer to ancillary costs that are not directly associated with work and materials, such as expenses.

When inputting resource data into Microsoft Project, there are several other resource categories to consider. Enterprise resources refer to those resources at the disposal of an organisation and can therefore be used in multiple projects. Non-enterprise resources, or local resources, are only available for use within a specific project. Generic resources are used to identify specific skills that are required for a project when the specific details of the resource are as yet unknown.

Assigning Resources

Microsoft Project offers two methods for entering resource data directly: the Resource Sheet or the Resource Information dialog box. The next step is to assign resources to a specific task. The benefit of this step is that it is possible to see how long it will take to complete a task, how much it will cost and who is responsible for completing that task. One resource can be assigned to several different tasks and one task can be assigned several different resources.

Microsoft Project is able to estimate the duration of a task based on the availability of each resource. If additional resources are assigned to a particular task, Microsoft Project can calculate how much less time is required for task completion. This is referred to as effort-driven scheduling and is the default option. There are occasions where it is not appropriate to use effort-driven scheduling for a task. For example, a meeting will take the same amount of time to complete (as long as it stays focussed) regardless of the number of individuals attending.

Resource Allocation Problems

It is important to ensure that all resources have been appropriately assigned to tasks to ensure a successful outcome. Microsoft Project provides several ways of doing this. By looking at the Resource Sheet it is possible to identify whether resources have been under allocated or over allocated for a specific time period. An alternative way of seeing the same information but in a graphical format is to select the Resource Graph option.

By attending Microsoft Project training it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of resource allocation and how best to use this software to achieve successful outcomes.

Author is a trainer with a Microsoft Office Training company, the UK industry leader in its sector. For more information on MS-Project-training, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net/project-training-london.php


The Benefits You Can Get From Security Camera Cards For PC

The security camera cards for PC enable you to view the area placed under surveillance from anywhere in the world. Isn’t technology amazing? This is how you would be benefited by the installation and use of such cards for your security needs.

The Security Camera Cards For PC Offer You Complete Freedom From Worries

The camera installed would be able to send images to any PC via Internet. This means that you could monitor your home or office from anywhere you would go. This gives you extreme freedom to move where you want because no matter the distance, you would be aware of what is going on.

The best applications of the security camera cards for PC would be for watching the baby sitter or nanny who is taking care of your children when you leave for office. The majority of people are worried that their children are not treated well in their absence causing stress and anxiety problems, not to mention the terrible repercussion when their fears come true.

Another excellent application is ensuring that your home or office stays safe when you are on as well as after you leave the premises. With crime rate rising, many people are exposed to the danger of burglaries, rape and even murder. The security camera cards for PC can be programmed to sound alarm at the police station and friends or relatives whenever something untoward happens in the area placed under surveillance. This would be sufficient to save your property and possibly your life.

The security camera cards for PC can help you watch over your employees at the office or factory. This would deter theft, gossip and low productivity as the employees would not want to be caught goofing on camera.

You would be able to save all the footage in MPEG4, AVI or similar format right on your computer which means you are saving space sparing you the trouble of storing voluminous cassettes with the data shot. This in turn would mean safer custody of video shot as well as cost effectiveness. It would also mean fewer chances to have the shot footage stolen or sabotaged.

On a lighter vein, the security camera cards for PC could provide you with the opportunity to capture some very poignant and candid shots of your children (or full family) in your absence such as preparations for a surprise party, a prayer said for you, your spouse doing something special for you, etc. Such memories recorded would be totally priceless.

For more information about security cameras please visit my website http://www.whoiswatchingu.com/


Do You Backup All of the Digital Pictures You Keep On Your Computer?

I met a young man last April who came to Maui for the summer and ended up extending his break for another semester. He was having a great time, exploring the island, sailing, snorkeling and scuba diving, hiking in the crater of Haleakala, our dormant volcano, camping and hiking in the rainforests of Hana, and of course, enjoying the beach and the spectacular Pacific sunsets. To top it off, he lived in a house with 4 house-mates from his school that was right on the ocean side of Front Street in Lahaina. Needless to say, this is a popular place for barbecues, beach volleyball and parties!

He had an “awesome” digital camera and recorded all of his adventures in pictures, which he stored on his state-of-the-art laptop computer. He had literally hundreds of pictures and videos of beautiful sunsets, friends enjoying good times, spectacular pools and waterfalls, you know, just all of the great things that a vacation on one of the most beautiful places in the world has to offer.

Near the end of his 8 months here on the island, after a party that went well into the early hours of the morning, he woke to discover that his laptop had been stolen from his living room. He was really ticked about the violation of his personal space, and aggravated by the loss of his personal property.

But, he was ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATED from the loss of ALL of his photographs and videos of his stay on the island. You see, he had no backup system, be it flash card, CD, DVD, whatever. He didn’t have them stored anywhere else but on his computer. They were all just GONE in an instant.

That got me to thinking about how I’d feel if I lost all of my photos: family, my son at the various stages between 0 and 20 years of age, places I’ve traveled on and off of Maui, before-and-after home project photos, etc. I realized that I should back up my photos, at least, not to mention all the other valuable information I keep on my computer.

I looked into some of the methods out there, and discovered online digital backup. There are many advantages to this method because it will protect you against loss whether it’s human, as in error, stupidity, laziness or crime. But, in addition, there are forces of nature that can threaten the security of your computer documents. Storms, causing flooding and power outages, electric company blunders or problems that cause power surges, earthquakes and …I’m sure you get the idea. Another thing is that these natural disasters can threaten even backup media if they’re stored in the same vicinity as your computer.

If you want to gain the peace of mind that your precious photos and documents are protected against loss using Remote data backup, read the following for more information on the best option out there at my blog: http://dreamsinmocean.blogspot.com.


Inkjet Printer Buying Guide – Pros and Cons for the Consumer

Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Epson and Lexmark are responsible for the majority of inkjet printer sales and printer supplies in the global consumer market. If you have plans to buy an inkjet printer, this article will definitely help you in arriving at the right choice.

What are the different types of inkjet cheap printers available in the market?

Basic Inkjet Printers:

If you need to print web pages, spreadsheets and text documents, a basic inkjet printer that uses CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and key) or black ink will best suit your needs.

Inkjet Photo Printers:

To create higher-quality photo prints, use six-color inkjet photo printers with CMYK ink as well as light cyan and light magenta. Do you want to print photos directly from your digital camera? Go for inkjet photo printers with an LCD preview screen, PictBridge to transfer images directly from your digital camera over USB and media card slots compatible with the memory cards you use in your digital camera.

Portable Inkjet Printers:

You should select a printer that weighs less than 5 pounds if you travel a lot on business.

Inkjet Multifunction Printers:

This printer allows you to print, scan and copy, all at the touch of a button. However, you will you have to compromise a little on quality. Printers with faxing capabilities are also available.

What is the maximum printing speed of an inkjet printer?

The speed of an inkjet printer is measured by the number of pages it can print per minute (ppm). A standard inkjet printer has three levels of quality settings: draft, normal and best. The speed decreases if you want high quality outputs. Manufacturers test the speed of a printer by printing basic text at the lowest quality setting, If you plan to print at normal quality settings, the real speed is likely to be about half the speed stated by the manufacturer.

If you often print graphics with your inkjet printer, speed is an important factor. Based on your printers system configurations, print mode, page coverage, document complexity and software, print speeds vary. In a standard inkjet printer, print speed for black text differs between 1 to 28 ppm. For color photos and graphics, speeds range from 1 to 20 ppm.

What resolution is good for quality printing?

Another area you have to concentrate on is print resolution. Printers are identified as being of good quality if they feature print resolutions in excess of 1440 dots per inch (dpi). The maximum color resolution that an inkjet printer generally has is 2400 x 1200 dpi. Some high-end models have up to 4800 x 1200 dpi. Look for a resolution of least 600 x 600 dpi for text printing and a minimum of 1200 x 600 dpi for graphics and photos. It is important to remember that the quality of output does not depend upon the resolution alone. It also depends upon the inkjet system used by the manufacturer and the colour management system.

In what way can memory capacity and memory card slots assist you?

Memory capacity should be a major factor when buying an inkjet printer because the built-in RAM cannot be expanded. You should check how much RAM is included with the printer you intend to buy. Basic models have 768 KB of RAM while the standard photo model comes with at least 8 MB of RAM for printing high-quality images.

Several inkjet printers feature memory card slots that support CompactFlash, Smart Media, Memory Stick, Secure Digital/MultiMedia Card and XD-Picture Card as well as other more advanced memory cards. Before buying a printer, confirm that it can read the memory cards that you already own.

Are you looking for a printer to share?

If you want to share a printer with other computers over a home or business network, you should check to see whether it has a wired or wireless connection. Inkjet printers connect to your computer through a USB or FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. Today, many printers use Wi-Fi technology to print wirelessly. Some models of inkjet printers are network-ready right out of the box, while others come in standalone and network-ready versions. The most expensive option is an inject printer that support a network add-on. However, this model may be more economical in the long run if you want to share the printer with other people.

What is the paper handling capacity of the printer?

The paper handling capacity should be of great concern to you if you print frequently or in bulk. In such cases, search for a printer that can hold a large quantity of paper at a time. Many inkjet printers have paper trays that take up to 250 sheets. Inkjet printers with ship paper trays can handle only 100 or 150 sheets and envelopes. Few business-oriented models feature option of additional paper trays.

Which type of printer cartridge is better?

Every standard inkjet printer comes with four ink colors based on the CMYK color method. Normally, the cyan, magenta and yellow inks are packaged in individual containers within a single cartridge. A separate cartridge with black ink is also included.

Today, most professionals use three types of inks for their inkjet printers. Solvent inks are low in price and used for producing vehicle graphics, billboards and banners. UV-curable inks dry quickly and are mainly used for good images. For better color and durability, dye sublimation inks are preferred.

While purchasing an inkjet printer, find out which type of ink cartridges it takes and ensure that replacement of these cartridges is easy. Also check whether you can replace individual ink cartridges or you have to replace the entire bunch at once.

Which are the inexpensive head designs for inkjet printers?

Every inkjet printer has either a fixed or a disposable head design. The fixed head design is built-in and lasts for the entire life of the printer. Most inkjet heads feature micropiezo technology for precise dot placement. With this fixed design, you do not have to replace the head every time the ink runs out. The disposable head design comes with ink cartridges. You will have to replace both the cartridges and print head once the ink is exhausted.

What are the consumables in an inkjet printer?

Many models of inkjet printers have detachable drums, printer ink cartridges, developer units, fusers and a few other components which need occasional replacement. Combining all these consumables into one cartridge is the best approach. Replacing an integrated cartridge is less expensive when compared to the expense of replacing individual consumables at a time. But if one component fails in an integrated cartridge, then you have to replace the cartridge itself. Also, find out the cost for per-page printing as it differs among cheap printers. The per-page printing cost can be calculated by dividing the price by the evaluated output of a cartridge.

If inkjet is not for you, consider laser printers.

Bob Shanty has been researching and writing articles that help shoppers shop online and make more educated buying decisions on cheap printers for online mega store BIGshop for years. For more articles by Bob please visit http://www.bigshop.com.au.


Fix Corrupt Registry the Easy Way

Computer speed has always been a major concern with PC owners, and even more so with new technology constantly demanding more out of people’s computers. If you don’t regularly clean and fix your registry, your computer will start to become bogged down and become very slow. Eventually, it may slow down to a halt!

This isn’t an ideal situation because people use computers for everything, and if your computer starts to get really slow when working on an important project, it can be frustrating. One reason cleaning the registry is so important is because a corrupt registry increases the stress on the hard drive because it must look through several possible operations just to find the right one it needs to executing.

Free registry cleaners

There are several programs you can buy and download that can fix your registry. Many people look for free registry-fixing programs in a quest to save money. However, free registry scanners aren’t really free. They will repair some problems and then they will ask if you want to continue to repair your registry.

If you say yes, the program will ask for your credit card number. In short, free ones end up being more expensive than regular repair programs that are more upfront about not being free. All registry cleaners will scan for free and then need to be bought before they will actually do a repair to your registry. However, this is normal operating procedure.

Supercharge your computer with an optimizer

When searching for a good registry-fixing program, it’s important to know what features to look for. One of the most important features you should look for is one that will also optimize your registry. This is important because an optimizer will give your computer even more speed than a regular registry repair program will.

Also, you should make sure the cleaner/optimizer is a reputable one. The best way to find out this information is by recommendation. Advertisements are one thing, but if someone has actually used it and is able tell you how it worked, it would be a big plus!
Another little sidebar is this fact.

There are a lot of registry programs that were good at one time but now, they are yesterday’s news. So, when you are getting recommendations, make sure someone isn’t telling you about one they used a few years ago, as this one may no longer be a top tier cleaner. Of course, if you are getting a cleaner/optimizer, you know you’ll be getting the latest thing.

We all love our computers, and hate them when they don’t act the way we want them to. One of the best ways to keep your computer in tip-top shape is to regularly scan the registry for errors and then let the program repair any it may find.

Remember, a computer should be scanned for viruses and spyware, as well. However, once removed these things leave false entries in the registry. So, to finish the job, use a good registry repair program and if it includes an optimizer, your computer will be back up to speed and then some!

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.


Ragnarok MMORPG Explained

Ragnarok Online or widely known as RO, is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) by Gravity Co., Ltd. The game is based on the comic book Ragnarok by a Korean autor, Lee Myung-Jin. The game was first released on 2002 in its home base, South Korea.

The game is mainly based on a Norse mythology but the storyline has been modified and has a Christian and Asian culture influence. There is also an animated series created called Ragnarok the Animation. Some servers are pay-to-play while others are free-to-play. There are also free private servers which have a higher experience and drop rate rather than the official server.

The base of Ragnarok Online is on its job system. Each character starts with a novice character. When they reach level 10, they are able to choose their first job class. They can choose classes such as swordman, mage, thief and many more. The next job class would be the second job class. The class that the player has chosen on the first job change would be upgraded to the secondary level.

After getting a base level of 99, they would then rebirth back to level 1 and would then upgrade themselves to the transcendent class. This class is the final class available to the character.

The Player vs. Player or PvP in this game is different from other games. Instead of being able to kill at anytime in any map, the players will have to go on a PvP map to be able to do so. They would have to talk to the PvP master and then warped to a mock town map for PvP. There are two types of PvP available.

Players are also able to join guilds and every guild is permitted to join the guild wars or the War of Emperium (WoE). WoE could happen in any two hours of the week which depends on the configuration of the server. The guilds would fight for a number of castles available in the game.

To gain control of the castle, the guild would have to reach their way on the fourth floor of the castle and destroy the Emperium. The War of Emperium is probably the most famous feature in the game and could also be one of the reasons on how the game still stands till today. Most players take place in it at least once a week while addicts join every one of them.

The graphic of the game might be a little to childish for a hardcore gamer but for some casual gamers, the graphic might be the least on what is on their mind. It is the gameplay and the WoE which unites the players and members on the guild to do their best in the game. Online games are always one of the best ways to get new friends but be careful not to make a lot of enemies in the virtual world. You might have too much of them already.

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Everything You Need To Know About Fibre Optic Cables

Fibre optic technology has done a great deal to change the world as we know it. It can be said that fibre optic cables have revolutionised the communications industry and made the internet the tool that it is today. In short the fibre optic cables guide light along the length of a cable and this light is converted into information that can be interpreted quickly into something that we can use.

The transformation of these light signals into information that we can see is converted with a complex use of applied science and engineering. Scientists have developed the theories that govern the data transfer and engineers have applied it to a tangible situation.

The fibre optic cable is utilised in thousands of different situations and the cable has a number of benefits over conventional cabling. The primary benefit associated with fibre optic cables is that they make the transfer of information extremely quick and they can also transfer enormous amounts of data.

The cables can also be made to transfer data over extremely long distances without a loss in the quality of the information that is transferred. Another fundamental benefit of the fibre optic cable is that they do not experience electrical interference. Metal wires often experience loss as a result of electromagnetic interference whereas the fibre optic cable does not suffer.

Fibre optic cables have thousands of different uses and are used in communication systems such as sensors. The word optic refers to the presence of light in the cable and it makes reference to the fact that at the core of the cable there is a system that allows light to pass through. The process that the light passes through the cable is called total internal reflection and involves a number of tiny mirror like pieces that bounce the light rapidly down the length of the cable. It does this in such a way that the light signal can be read. The cable guides the light along and is referred to as a ‘waveguide’. The way in which the cable transfers the light makes a difference to how the signal is transferred in the end and the message that it delivers.

There are a number of different types of fibre optic cable that are supported by different optical fibres and the different types support what is known as different propagation paths. Multimode fibres (MMF) are fibres those that support a number of different paths. These allow for many different types of messages to be sent. Single mode fibres (SMF) on the other hand are generally more limited and are used in systems that extend up to 200 metres. Multimode cables can be used when more power is required.

The major downfall of fibre optic cables is that it is difficult to connect them to one another or to communications devices. The cables have to be cut and connected with great precision so that they can be reconnected accurately. Unlike metal cables which are very easy to connect. The fibre optic cables need to be fused together effectively so that the ends meet correctly. The process is done using an electrical arc. The fibre optic cables require special connectors so that they can be joined with one another easily.

Shaun Parker has been involved in the fibre optic, networking equipment and server cabinets industry for several years. For more information visit Comms Express http://www.comms-express.com/pi1079107847.htm



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