Physical training in indoor rowing machines have been popular in many rowing clubs. A new and motivating training form is to use training programs with rowing adapted music. In this article we will look at how to:

1. Select music suitable for rowing training
2. Get free tools for audio editing
3. Adapt music to your rowing training programs
4. Motivate and inspire your rowing club friends

The goal is to give you an understanding of how to make your very own rowing training programs with music of your personal taste. It is a fun and rewarding experience.

Energetic music with a clear and constant rhythm is perfect for your rowing program

Browse through your music library to find your favorite music that sounds energetic and motivating. Make a folder for the music on your computer and place copies of the music in it. A selection of slow, medium pace and fast music is needed. Ideally you should have about 10-20 songs of each pace.

We will only use music in 4/4 rhythm. To sort the songs pace you need to count the beats per minute (BPM) in the music rhythm. Music with a BPM within the range of 80 to 128 is suitable. On the internet you can find free software that can auto detect the BPM of your music. But the best and most accurate way is to count the BPM manually.

When training in a rowing machine we talk of rowing pace = strokes per minute. Therefore we divide the musics BPM by 4 to find which rowing pace (strokes per minute – SPM) the music rhythm equals. Add the SPM as a note to songs titles.

You can use a standard stopwatch to measure the BPM and divide it by 4 to get the SPM. There is a special stopwatch model called DIGI DT-320 which in a special mode can read out SPM directly, so you only need to push start and stop. Start the stopwatch when you start counting beats 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 and then stop the watch when reaching the following beat 1. Next step is to edit the music.

Audacity is a free software tool for editing your music

Audacity can freely be downloaded from the Internet. There are versions for both PC, Mac and Linux. There is documentation for the software. Another nice source for learning Audacity is to look for tutorials on YouTube. Audacity offers many advanced features, but we only need a few simple functions for our purpose.

You only need to learn how to:

1. Import your music into Audacity
2. Cut away unneeded parts of the song
3. Fadeout the last 2-3 seconds of the used part of the song
4. Connect the songs on the timeline
5. Export the edited songs as a new single music track (the final rowing music program)

The learning curve for using Audacity this way is reasonable short when using YouTube tutorials. Next step is to decide how you will build up your rowing program.

How to build your rowing training program with SPM and time intervals

A classic rowing program would consist of 24 SPM for 3 minutes then 26 SPM for 3 minutes and then 28 SPM for 2 minutes. This program equals approx. a standard 2,000 meter. You can mix the training music programs according to your personal training style and preference. The key to success is to use music that is easy to follow in rhythm. By counting the beats 1-2-3-4 you should end your rowing stroke at beat 1 and begin a new stroke at beat 3.

It is very important that the participating training partners rows synchronously according to the music beats. After a little practice you will find it easy, fun and very rewarding to exercise with music this way. Paces below 24 SPM and over 28 SPM are bit more demanding to follow for less experienced rowers. Remember to praise your training partners for their efforts. Training to rowing adapted music is growing very popular, because it is a lot more fun to train hard to good music. Have fun!

Source by Kim H Holm

Simply put, accounting is the lifeline of a business. Accounting deals with summarizing, analyzing and reporting the financial data and information about a business. An accounting software records and processes the accounting transactions of a business within its functional modules. Financial statements consisting of the balance sheet, profit and loss account, and statement of changes in financial position can be easily prepared with an accounting software.

An accounting software is all about the various functional modules that it has. Some of them are- General ledger which takes care of the company’s financial dealings; Accounts Payable where the company enters its bills and pays the money it owes; Accounts Receivable where money received is entered.

The different categories or types of accounting software are as follows:

a) Small business/personal accounting software which are mainly meant for home users. They are simple and inexpensive with simple functioning such as management of budgets.

b) Low end accounting software are for small business markets that are capable of serving a single national market. Such software are characterized by ‘single entry’ products.

c) Mid market accounting software are for companies with large businesses. These software are capable of serving the needs of multiple national accountancy standards and facilitate accounting in multiple currencies.

d) High end accounting software are complex and expensive business accounting software that are also known as Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software.

However, you have to keep certain things in mind before buying an accounting software, like the prices of the software, its different features, its after-sales support and alike. Most of the accounting software include all the important accounting modules. The more specialized features a software has, the more expensive it becomes. Your software features must be compatible with your business. Also, the after-sales support is important like FAQ package, local service center and others.

There are a lot of top accounting software available in every category. So, it is not easy to select the best ones. Below are top five accounting software in every category.

A. Small business/personal accounting software:

1.ePeachtree (Best Software)

2.MYOB Plus for Windows (MYOB Software)

3.Peachtree Complete Accounting (Best Software)

4.QuickBooks Online (Intuit)

5.Small Business Manager (Microsoft)

B. Low-End Accounting Software:

1.BusinessVision 32 (Best Software)

2.MAS 90 & MAS 200 (Best Software)

3.QuickBooks Pro 2003 (Intuit)

4.ACCPAC Pro Series (ACCPAC International)

5.Vision Point 2000 (Best Software)

C. Middle-Market Accounting Software:

1.ACCPAC Advantage Series Corporate Edition (Best Software)

2.Great Plains (Microsoft) MAS 90 & MAS 200 (Best Software)

3.Navision (Microsoft)

4.SouthWare Excellence Series (SouthWare)

5.SYSPRO (SysproUSA)

D. High-end accounting ERP Market:

1.Axapta (Microsoft Software)

2.e-Business Suite (Oracle)

3.MAS 500 (Best Software)

4.Solomon (Microsoft)

5.ACCPAC Advantage Series Enterprise Edition (Best Software)

In compiling the above list, a variety of factors such as feedbacks from customers, scalability of the software, and after-sales support are used. Also, the different attributes for different categories have been considered like for ERP software, attributes such as manufacturing solution, supply chain solution and database solution. The above compilation may not be all inclusive and some people might choose to differ with it but it is almost near to perfect list.

Source by Joann Grant

This article is aimed at giving you an overview of the various elements which make up an operating system. Now as you are probably aware, an Operating System, whether it be Windows, Linux Or Mac, serves the purpose of giving us, the human user, a means to interact with the computer in a meaningful way.

Imagine, if you can, that an operating system is broken down into five layers. in the following list I’ll start at the bottom most layer and work my way up to the very top.

Layer 1: The Kernel.

The kernel is the heart of the operating system. Amongst it’s responsibilities are ensuring that each running process is given a fair amount of time to execute while a controlling the amount of resources each process can use.

Layer 2: Memory Management.

The name of this layer gives you a good idea what it is all about. It is the responsibility of this layer to share your computers physical memory among the processes which want to use it. It also has to manage such situations where there may not be enough physical memory to share out.

Layer 3: Input/Output.

On this layer all the physical communication between your computers hardware, such as disk drives, keyboards, mouses, screens and so on, takes place.

Layer 4: File Management.

Again the name of this layer may give you a clue as to what it does. It is the job of this layer to control how the files on your computers hard drive are stored and accessed by any application seeking to use them.

Layer 5: The User Interface.

The last element, or layer as we have been calling them, of an operating system is the User Interface. This layer is probably the easiest of all to understand since it is the first thing you see when your operating system has logged you in. It is the job of this layer to provide a means for the user to actually interact with the rest of the layers and as such the system as a whole.

Keep in mind there are two different types of User interfaces. The first one is probably the one you are most familiar with, the graphical user interface, which is where you see windows and icons for each of your files and so on.

The second is a command line interface, or text based interface where a user would interact with the system using text based commands.

Well that is it for this article, if your an experienced IT pro or tech guru, before you go placing comments that I’ve skimmed on certain details please keep in mind that i have deliberately kept this article simple so the people new to computing in general fin dit easier to understand. With that said I hope you enjoyed this article.

– David

Source by David Gallie

Over the years QuickBook software has become pretty much synonymous with online accounting software. Initially released in the early 1980s, this software has become extremely popular among small business owners as well as accountants.

QuickBooks was launched by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx, the founders of Intuit, shortly after the runaway success of Quicken. The then new program was originally designed to offer an accounting system for small business owners who had little if any accounting experience.

Shortly after its release QuickBooks captured approximately 80% of the accounting software market for small businesses. The company still enjoys having the largest market share of this fiercely competitive market.

Because professional accountants were not initially satisfied with the first versions of the program, Intuit eventually bridged that gap by providing double entry accounting functions, full audit trail capabilities, and a number of other necessities that professional accountants deemed necessary. So, beginning in the year 2000, Intuit offered both a Basic as well as a Pro version of the software.

Then, in 2003, the company began to offer versions of QuickBook that were specific to a number of different industries. These versions included reports and workflow processes that were industry specific. The Intuit programs included any terminology that was associated with the various trades the software was designed for.

So, at the turn of the century, not only did professional accounting firms – those who serviced multiple clients in different small businesses – have the apropos software, it was also available to contractors, retailers, manufacturers, non-profit companies, professional service firms, and wholesalers.

Because QuickBooks was so successful, a product that was targeted for medium sized businesses was launched in May 2002.

As of March 2008, the company controlled 94.2% of the retail units that were sold in the business accounting category. Currently more than 50,000 independent business consultants, CPAs, and accountants are members of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program.

The products continued to evolve. QuickBooks now include electronic payment functions, remote outsourcing and payroll assistance, remote access capabilities, mapping features, marketing options, online banking and reconciliation, as well as improved email functionality.

By 2008 you could import Excel spreadsheets with the software.

Currently there are online versions of QuickBooks available that are supported by Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari for the Mac. It can also be accessed via BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Androids through the use of web apps. However the online versions don’t offer all of the features that the desktop versions offer. And quite a few of the online features work differently than they work in the desktop versions.

Source by Wendy Moyer

If you decide to buy your Apple product from a retailer instead of an Apple store, you have many options to choose from. Two of the most popular choices are Amazon and MacMall. Amazon is definitely a popular retail giant, but some people may hesitate to buy from MacMall. Obviously, they are not as popular. Continue reading to learn more about the two companies.

Amazon

When an Apple product launches, it takes some time before other retailers are granted the opportunity to sell copies. Nonetheless, whenever people decide to buy a newly launched product at a later date to get big savings, they are most likely going to buy from Amazon. Indeed, the company has been around for many years, and they do have a good reputation. You do not have to pay for the taxes, the shipping is free of charge, and you can get good customer service in case something wrong happens along the process.

Amazon sells a variety of Apple products. Their product list is incredibly huge, so if you want to purchase additional accessories, you can definitely do so. In fact, you can even purchase unrelated items and avoid the hassle of paying different online merchants.

MacMall

For those who have not heard of MacMall, it is a legitimate company and a subsidiary of PC Mall. It is one of the most trusted Apple product retailers. You can find some of the craziest and cheapest Apple product deals on their merchant website. The only negative comment you usually hear about the company is their customer service. If you encounter a problem with your purchase, call support and try to explain the issue without getting irate.

The company can offer very cheap prices on Apple items because they buy the products in bulk. They have an extensive list of other products on sale as well. They have external hard drives, speakers, phone accessories, laptop accessories, and many more. Therefore, if you want to save big on Apple products and accessories, visit their site. You can also save more money by using a MacMall coupon.

Final Word

Amazon and MacMall are trusted retailers of Apple products. If you can find a better deal on MacMall, then buy from MacMall. If you find a cheaper alternative on Amazon, then do not hesitate to buy from them as well. Just remember that you can always get better and cheaper deals when you use a MacMall coupon.

Source by Jonathan J. Smith

The XLR plug is the standard for pro audio and video applications. The plug itself is an electrical connector by design. Not unlike the more ubiquitous RCA plug , which used regularly with home audio and video electronics, the XLR connector is different in several important ways.

Originally designed and manufactured by James h. the connector was first called the “Cannon X,” and after the addition of a latch the “Cannon XL” and finally the “XLR” after having a rubber compound added to the connectors.

The 3-pin XLR is the most widely used, and is the standard as a balanced audio connector for professional microphones and connections between equipment. Other widely used configurations of the XLR plug is the 4-pin XLR4, used with Clear-Com and Telex intercom headsets and as DC power connectors for video and film cameras. XLR5 is the standard for DMX512 digital lighting control as well as dual element microphones and dual channel intercom headsets. XLR6 is the standard connection for dual channel intercom belt-packs.

There are several now obselete configurations with additional pins including the XLR-LNE mains power connector, which was identified by its red insulation and shrouded pins, and has now been replace by the Neutrik PowerCon connector. Until recently, XLR3 connectors were also widely used with 2-conductor loudspeaker cables, with either pin 2 or 3 as live (varies depending on the manufacturer) and pin 1 as the earthly return. However, this turned out to be dangerous to equipment and has since been replaced by the Neutrik Speakon connector.

XLRF connectors are made to connect the ground pin first, before the other pins make contact while the XLRM is being inserted. Due to the fact that the ground connection is made before the signal lines make contact, XLR’s can be plugged and unplugged without interference from external signals, a common problem with RCA connections. There is some discrepancy between various manufacturers between swapping pin 2 (normal input) and pin 3 (inverting input), but this reflects nothing more than their own pre-existing standards before any standards existed. Pin 1 is exclusively the earthly return or ground pin, and often soldered to the internal shell or case.

Lastly, the XLRM male connector is used for output and the XLRF plug is used for input. So, a microphone for example will have the XLRM connector. Signal cables will have XLRM at one end and an XLRF connector at the other. Mixing boards and various multi-track recording equipment pieces typically have XLRF inputs and XLRM returns which lead back to the stage, or to other components.

XLR connectors have been the standard in the professional recording and audio industry. XLR plugs are typically referred to as “balanced” and help reduce noise interference, especially over long spans. Quality in XLR cables varies greatly depending on the manufacturer, but for professional use please check out Canare, Mogami and Neutrik.

Recently, the advent of USB microphones that connect directly to a PC or MAC have gained popularity. So far, USB microphones are primarily intended to be used as studio microphones, and live stage vocal microphones continue to use the standard XLR connections.

Source by Evan Shaffhauser

BlueGriffon is a free WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor powered by Gecko, the rendering engine inside Firefox. It is cross-platform with versions for Windows XP and Windows 7, Mac OS X and popular Linux distros. There is also a portable version (for Windows only).

Like its predecessor, NVU, BlueGriffon provides an easy to use interface and includes all the most common options to build web pages that comply with the W3C’s web standards (HTML 4, XHTML 1.0, HTML 5 or XHTML 5 / CSS 2.1 and parts of CSS3 already implemented by Gecko).

A handy wizard guides users to set up their canvas, starting with selecting the document type, filling in data for the property, picking the colours, adding a background image, and deciding on the page layouts.

The interface is intuitive and almost basic at first, as it closely mimics a word processor toolbar layout. Icons to the most common options are clearly laid out: adding a table, a single image or a thumbnail linking to a large image, a link, a video, an audio file or a form to a web page is easy. Switching from WYSIWYG view (where you can arrange objects visually) to the web page source code (where you can manipulate the web page by editing the HTML code) is done by clicking on the two buttons at the bottom of the page. Several web pages can remain open in multiple tabs, which makes it easy to quickly switch from one document to another, copy and paste, etc

Adjusting styles can be done through the style properties panel, which would require some coding knowledge for most functions other than the most basic ones though. For example, it is easy enough to change a font colour or adjust the style of a border but, while the style properties organises the numerous style options quite neatly, most of the style options available would probably not be understood immediately by novices: this makes BlueGriffon more adapted to intermediate coders.

Another drawback of BlueGriffon if you start building your first website layout is the lack of proper (offline or online) documentation yet. If you have previously used any decent web building tool or if you want to build a fairly basic page, this should not be too much of a problem. However, if you’re a beginner in website coding, you may find yourself stuck at some point without much help available. Let’s hope that BlueGriffon documentation will improve with time, starting by offering a few walk-throughs on creating new pages and sites and developing its forum.

On the other hand, one of BlueGriffon strengths is the add-ons: the most obvious one is the free FireFTP add-on to easily publish your page from BlueGriffon. Most of the other add-ons need to be purchased for a small fee though to support future development, according to the BlueGriffon website. The CSS Pro Editor extension for example is much more powerful than the default CSS toolbox and provides web authors with full control over their stylesheets. Some popular paid extensions are the Mobile Viewer add-on (to test your pages with a large number of mobile devices), the Eye Dropper (a colour picker which allows web authors to pick a colour from sources that are not directly viewable or editable inside the editor), the Project Manager add-on (a sync tool between a local directory on your hard disks and a remote directory reachable through FTP), the Snippets add-on (useful when manipulating the exact same chunk of HTML code or text inside the documents) and the Toolkit Manager add-on. It is possible to buy all add-ons at once at a discount price on the publisher’s website.

Clicking on the Preview button will open the web page in any browser of your choice (as long as it’s already installed on their system of course) which is useful for cross-browser testing, to check what your page looks like in Internet Explorer or Google Chrome for example. This is also useful to check your scripts since these won’t run directly in BlueGriffon.

The Markup Cleaner which can be found at Tools menu can help you with cleaning your HTML code. You can also spell-check your pages and BlueGriffon even integrates a small SVG editor (svg-edit, originally distributed as an add-on to Firefox and adapted to BlueGriffon) for quick drawing jobs.

BlueGriffon is a very promising open-source and cross-platform web editor. At only version 1.31, it can’t of course compete directly with massive and expensive web development applications such as Adobe Dreamweaver, but this is already a very nice application to create web standard compliant pages without too much effort. It also makes a great tool for educational purposes, such as teaching design students the basics of HTML and CSS. Documentation and online forums need to be improved but, once it gets traction and support from the community, it could quickly become much more popular.

Source by Christophe Marceau

Types and Characteristics of WANs

What is a WAN?

There are two prevailing definitions of a Wide Area Network (WAN). The book definition of a WAN is a network that spans large geographical locations, usually to interconnect multiple Local Area Networks (LANs). The practical definition of a WAN is a network that traverses a public network or commercial carrier, using one of several WAN technologies

What are its Main Components?

The main components for a WAN are routers, switches and modems. These components are described below in the hardware section.

CPE – Devices on the subscriber premises are called customer premises equipment (CPE).

The subscriber owns the CPE or leases the CPE from the service provider. A copper or fiber cable connects the CPE to the service provider’s nearest exchange or central office. This cabling is often called the local loop, or “last-mile”.

DTE/DCE – Devices that put data on the local loop are called data circuit-terminating equipment, or data communications equipment (DCE). The customer devices that pass the data to the DCE are called data terminal equipment (DTE). The DCE primarily provides an interface for the DTE into the communication link on the WAN cloud.

Hardware

In a WAN you will need various types of hardware components for it to function. The typical items of hardware that you will need in a WAN are:

Router – An electronic device that connects a local area network (LAN) to a wide area network (WAN) and handles the task of routing messages between the two networks. Operates at layer 3, and makes decisions using IP addresses.

Switch – A switch is a network device that selects a path or circuit for sending a unit of data to its next destination. Operates at layer 2, and uses MAC addresses to send data to correct destination.

Modem – Short for modulator/demodulator, a modem enables a computer to communicate with other computers over telephone lines. Operates at layer 1, where signals are converted from digital to analogue and vice versa for transmission and receiving.

Wan Standards

WANs operate within the OSI model using layer 1 and layer 2 levels. The data link layer and the physical layer. The physical layer protocols describe how to provide electrical, mechanical and functional connections to the services provided by the ISP. The data link layer defines how data is encapsulated for transmission to remote sites.

Encapsulation

Encapsulation is the wrapping of data in a particular protocol header. Remember that WANs operate at the physical layer and the data link layer of the osi model and that higher layer protocols such as IP are encapsulated when sent across the WAN link. Serial interfaces support a wide range of WAN encapsulation types, which must be manually specified. These types include SDLC, PPP, Frame delay etc. Regardless of WAN encapsulation used it must be identical on both sides of the point to point link.

Packet and Circuit Switching

Circuit switching and packet switching are both used in high-capacity networks.

The majority of switched networks today get data across the network

through packet switching.

Circuit-switching is more reliable than packet-switching. Circuit switching is old and expensive, packet switching is more modern.

General Routing Issues

What is a Routing Protocol?

A routing protocol is a protocol that specifies how routers communicate and exchange information on a network. Each router has prior knowledge of its immediate neighbours and knows the structure of the network topology. The routers know this because the routing protocol shares this information.

Protocol

RIP (Routing Information Protocol) was one of the most commonly uses protocols on internal networks. Routers use RIP to dynamically adapt changes to the network connections and communicate information about which networks routers can reach and the distance between them. RIP is sometimes said to stand for Rest in Pieces in reference to the reputation that RIP has for breaking unexpectedly and rendering a network unable to function.

Routing Algorithms

Distance Vector

This type of routing protocol requires that each router simply inform its neighbours of its routing table. The distance vector protocol is also known as the bellman-ford algorithm.

Link State

This type of routing protocol requires that each router maintain a partial map of the network. The link state algorithm is also know as Dijkstra’s algorithm.

IGRP

IGRP is a type of distance vector routing protocol invented by cisco used to exchange routing data in a autonomous system. Distance vector protocols measure distances and compare routes. Routers that use distance vector must send all or a portion of their routing table in a routing update message at regular intervals to each neighbour router.

Addressing and Routing

What does routing mean?

Routing is the process of deciding how to move packets from one network to another.

The directions also known as routes can be learned by a router using a routing protocol then the information is passed from router to router along the route of the destination.

IP Address’s

Every machine connected to the internet is assigned an IP address. An example of an IP address would be 192.168.0.1. IP addresses are displayed in decimal format to make it easier for humans to understand but computers communicate in binary form. The four numbers that separate an IP address are called Octets. Each position consists of eight bits. When added to together you get 32 bit address. The purpose of each octet in an IP address is to create classes of IP addresses that can be assigned within a network. There are three main classes that we deal with Class A, B and C. The octets of an IP address are split into two parts Network and Host. In a class A address the first octet is the network portion, this determines which network the computer belongs to, the last octets of the address are the hosts that belong to the network.

Sub netting

Sub netting allows you to create multiple networks within a class A, B or C address. The subnet address is the address used by your LAN. In a Class C network address you would have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. A subnet mask identifies which portion is network and which is host. For example 192.168.6.15 the first octet three octets are the Network address and the last octet being the host(Workstation). It is important to subnet a network because gateways need to forward packets to other LANS. By giving each NIC on the gateway an IP address and a Subnet mask it allows the gateways to route packets from LAN to LAN. Once the packet arrives at its destination, the gateway then uses the bits of the subnet portion of the IP address to decide which LAN to send the packets.

Circuit Switched Leased Lines

A circuit switched network is one that establishes a dedicated circuit (or channel) between nodes and terminals before the users may communicate. Here are some terminologies associated with a Circuit switched network.

Frame relay is a telecommunication service designed for cost-efficient data transmission between local area networks (LANs)

Basic rate interference is a service used by small business for internet connectivity. An ISDN BRI provides two 64 Kbps digital channels to the user.

Primary rate interface (PRI) is a telecommunications standard for carrying voice and data transmissions between two locations

All data and voice channels are ISDN and operate at 64kbit/s

Packet Switching

http://www.raduniversity.com/networks/2004/PacketSwitching/main.htm – _Toc80455261

Packet switching refers to protocols in which messages are broken up into small packets before they are sent. Each packet is then transmitted over the Internet. At the destination the packets are reassembled into the original message. Packet switching main difference from Circuit Switching is that that the communication lines are not dedicated to passing messages from the source to the destination. In Packet Switching, different messages can use the same network resources within the same time period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_Transfer_Mode

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a cell relay, packet switching network and protocolwhich encodes data into small fixed-sized cells.

ISDN is used to carry voice, data, video and images across a telephone network. ISDN stands for integrated services Digital Network. Isdn also provides users with a 128kbps bandwidth. This is done through frame relay. Frame relay complements and provides a service between ISDN, which offers bandwidth at 128 Kbps and Asynchronous Transfer Mode which operates in somewhat similar fashion to frame relay but at speeds from 155.520 Mbps or 622.080 Mbps. Frame relay is based on the older X.25 packet switching technology and is used to transmit analogue signals such as telephone conversations.

PSDN stands for packet switched data network and is a data communication network. Packet switched networks do not establish a physical communication signal like the public telephone does (circuit switched network) Packets are sent on a fixed length basis and assigned with a source and a destination address. The packets then rely on the routers to read the address and route the packets through the network.

Mobile and Broadband Services

Digital Subscriber line(DSL) is mainly used to bring high bandwidth connections to homes and small business’s over a copper wire telephone line. This is can only be achieved if you stay within the range of the telephone exchange. DSL offers download rates of up to 6mbps allowing continuous transmission of video, audio and 3D effects. DSL is set to replace ISDN and compete with the cable modem in providing multimedia to homes. DSL works by connecting your telephone line to the telephone office over copper wires that are twisted together.

Asymmetric Digital Subscribers Line is most commonly used for home users. It provides a high download speed but a lower upload speed. Using ADSL, up to 6.1 megabits per second of data can be sent downstream and up to 640 Kbps upstream.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetric_Digital_Subscriber_Line

Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line is a digital subcriber line which runs over one pair of copper wires. The main difference between ADSL and SDSL is the difference in upload and download speeds. SDSL allows the same upstream data rate and downstream data rate as ADSL upstream can be very slow.

[http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0],,sid7_gci558545,00.html

HDSL High bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line, one of the earliest forms of DSL, is used for wideband digital transmission within a corporate site and between the telephone company and a customer. The main characteristic of HDSL is that provides equal bandwidth in both directions.

IDSL is a system in which data is transmitted at 128 Kbps on a regular copper telephone line from a user to a destination using digital transmission.

The Local Loop enables operators to connect directly to the consumer via copper local loops and then add their own equipment to offer broadband and other services. This process involves operators accessing local exchange buildings to connect to a network of copper lines which connect them to homes and businesses. BT is an Example of a Local Exchange. The local loop connecting the telephone exchange to most subscribers is capable of carrying frequencies well beyond the 3.4 kHz upper limit.

Benefits of using DSL

DSL can provide virtually instantaneous transmission of voice, data and video over ordinary copper phone lines. A DSL connection can eliminate delays when waiting to download information and graphics from the Internet. It provides users with a cost effective high speed Internet connection. Another benefit is that a DSL connection is always on-line (like a LAN connection) with no waiting time for dialling or connecting.

There are now more than 10 million broadband connections in the UK. By December 2005 there were 9.792 million broadband connections in the UK and the average broadband take up rate during the three months to December was more than 70,000 per week.

Source by Chris Michael Jones

Many people are confused as to the differences between branding, advertising, promotions, and public relations. For that matter, the actual process of “marketing’ is misunderstood just the same. To give you a basic understanding, marketing is not a one time event or activity, it is a process, a combination of things which blend together. By definition, marketing is the act of mixing product, price, place, and promotion. But first, on to…

Branding.

A great example of branding is Apple. iMac, iPod, iTouch, iPhone, iTunes. Get the point? Apple has created a massive brand strategy using the “i” element. Think of the Ritz-Carlton, LifeTime Family Fitness, Hilton Hotels, and what do you see? First class service, luxurious amenities, excellent service? Now, how about Best Western, 24-Hour Fitness, Motel 6? What kind of “Brand” is each of those? Can you see the contrast? What is your company brand? Are you sure? If you think you’re a high-end facility, do you show it? Would you see the front desk clerk at the Ritz-Carlton wearing a button promoting the frequent guest club? Would you see a front desk clerk at a Motel 6 wearing a $1000 suit? Does everything you do, say, print, write, and provide consistent with your brand message? If not, you may want to consider who your true target audience is, and work at ensuring you continue to provide services that directly relate to them.

Advertising

Advertising is the actual process of displaying your message. Advertising on the radio… Advertising on tv… The one act of making something happen. Tie your Advertising and your Branding together, you have the Marketing Process. If you are just “advertising” without any direction, any goal, any unity, then you’re just a lost puppy wandering aimlessly hoping someone will give you a good home.

Promotions

A promotion is typically a one-time event for a specific purpose or goal. Whereas marketing is ongoing, a promotion can be a one-day, one week, one-month, or even one-hour event. In retail, a “SALE” is typically a promotion. Car dealerships offering Zero percent interest is a limited time promotion. They typically have a specific start and end date, and have a very clear understanding of the R.O.I. (Return on Investment) any particular promotion should achieve to make it a success.

Public Relations

P.R., or Public Relations, typically revolves around un-paid news sources and focuses on your business as it relates to the community. If you see a positive, or hopefully positive, story on the news or an article in the newspaper, this is the type of press a Public Relations firm may help you get. They have strong relationships with the news media and often feed them stories about their clients, in hopes of some free press. You, too, can harness the power of free press and public relations, although it can be difficult at times to get noticed, which is the PR firm’s strongpoint.

Marketing

Marketing is the process that drives all the above elements. It directs the feel, image, and tone of the advertising, promotions and public relations. To each of these elements, there are experts in each of these fields. You can hire a company just to handle your branding, and another to handle your advertising, marketing, and yet another for your public relations. Of course, as a small business owner, you may not always have the budget for such companies. You can learn how to achieve the same results at http://TheMarketingWire.com and get the latest in marketing news, education and resources to help build and grow your business.

Source by Mark Tinge

Comparing with USB 1.1, USB 2.0 is much faster in data transfer between devices; USB 2.0 can support both USB 1.1 technology and USB 2.0 technology but the USB 1.1 only can support USB 1.1 technology. Today most computers configure with USB 2.0 ports. In Windows Device Manager, you can find the USB capabilities and whether your device is 2.0-capable. Here I will talk about how to speed up your USB 2.0 file transfer in Windows XP.

How can you know if it is a USB 2.0 port?

Step 1 Click Start and select Control Panel.

Step 2 In this list of icons for Windows settings, double-click System and then click Hardware in the new box.

Step 3 Click Device Manager and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.

Step 4 Locate the devices under the USB icon. If this device has “enhanced” in the description, which means it is the newer 2.0 version.

What if your USB 2.0 file transfer is very slow and how you can speed up your USB 2.0 file transfer?

To optimize your USB drive for performance:

Step 1 Right click your drive and select Properties.

Step 2 Select the Hardware tab.

Step 3 Under All Disk Drives, highlight your USB drive and select Properties.

Step 4 Select Policies and select Optimize for performance.

Step 5 Press OK twice, and your transfer speeds should increase dramatically.

Note that after your drive is optimized you must use the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the taskbar to eject the drive, or you’ll risk corrupting your data by just removing the drive from the port.

Besides, if your USB driver is corrupted or inappropriate, it also would make your file transfer slow, well then the best solution is to download a driver tool to help you locate your USB driver problem, uninstall the old driver, identify, install or update the perfect driver automatically and quickly just with several clicks.

Free download the best PC Helper tool to see what problems you have and how to fix driver problems so as to eliminate errors and speed up your computer instantly!

Source by Molly Smith