Q: I ve been approached by a young man who asked if I would be his mentor. I m flattered by his interest, but I m not sure I m cut out to be a mentor. In your opinion what makes a good mentor? – Kenneth P.
The mentor/mentee relationship is very much like that of a parent and child. The younger, less experienced child mentee will look to you, the older, more experienced parent mentor, for guidance, wisdom and advice. They will come to you with questions and expect you to have all the answers. They will bring to you their problems and expect you to solve them. And if you don t give them the attention they think they deserve they may pout and complain about you to all their friends.
In short, if kids get on your nerves, Kenneth, don t even think about being a mentor. Buy a goldfish or even better, a rubber plant. They require far less attention and everyone will be much happier in the long run.
Typically, there are three things every good mentor should have: time, patience, and a genuine desire to help another person succeed without expecting anything in return. If you have an abundance of those things, then being a mentor can be a highly rewarding experience. If not, please see the rubber plant reference above.
Why do some people make excellent mentors while others do not? It s all about motive. Are your reasons for being a mentor unselfish or are they self indulgent? Are you considering becoming a mentor because you truly feel that a mentee might benefit from your wisdom and experience or is it because you like being the center of someone else s adoration?
You should not become a mentor just to feed your own ego because you will be doing your mentee a great injustice because there will be no give and take to the relationship. I know many successful entrepreneurs who consider themselves mentors, but truth be told they simply revel in holding court and having younger entrepreneurs hang on their every word as if its gospel. They care less about hearing their mentee s questions than they do about hearing the sound of their own voice.
As my mama would say, If you talk just to hear your own head rattle, then mentoring is not for you.
One of the keys to a successful mentor/mentee relationship is to set some ground rules and stick to them. Sit down with your prospective mentee and discuss the expectations of both parties, i.e. what do you and the mentee expect to get out of the relationship? It s a given that the mentee is seeking your time, wisdom and advice, but if you as the mentor don t also get some kind of mental satisfaction your interest in the relationship will quickly wane.
Discuss how often you will get together. Will you meet for lunch once a week or for an hour in your office several times a month? It is important that you create an actual meeting schedule and stick to it. Without a set schedule life will get in the way and you will cancel more meetings than you attend.
Next, set some guidelines and limitations. How often can your mentee call? Is it OK for them to call your cellphone or should they go through your secretary? Can they drop by the office anytime? Can they call you at home after 5pm?
Set some goals for the mentee. Assign them homework, give them a task. The relationship must be more than just chewing the fat. The point is to help the mentee grow, personally and professionally. Give them a list of books to read. Recommend seminars they should attend. Have them outline their business goals in writing, then you set milestones and hold them accountable for reaching them.
From your side of the fence, don t be afraid to share your successes and failures. Let your experience be their guide. Help them identify opportunities and avoid pot holes that you may have hit along the way. Don t be embarrassed to tell the truth, especially if it can keep your mentee from making the same mistakes you did.
As a mentor you should also introduce your mentee into your circle of friends and associates. Sponsor them into Rotary, take them to luncheons, and introduce them to others who might also help their careers.
Being a good mentor also means that you are a confidant; your mentee will share not only his business problems and goals, but also his personal feelings, his secrets, his plans, and his angst. Respect the mentee s privacy. Your discussions should not be fodder for your next poker night. When something is told in confidence, respect that or get out of the mentor business.
One final point, a successful mentor/mentee relationship should not be a temporary relationship, but one that in ongoing, that grows and evolves until the day you are no long mentor and mentee, but peers.
My own mentor, who probably has no clue that he holds that spot in my life, started out as an investor in one of my companies. As our business relationship grew so did our friendship and I found myself calling on him many times for advice. We eventually became business partners and today we are peers.
I tell him he is the entrepreneur I want to be when I grow up.
He tells me to shut up and pay for lunch.
That s how the process should work.
Here s to your success!
Are You Mentor Material?
May 2, 2008 by melbajulehenriDisk Data Recovery
May 2, 2008 by melbajulehenriDisk data recovery factors, to recover data from hard disks, which are lost, and the corporate sector reading. Hard drive damage, broken or damaged hard drive, damaged or corrupted file systems, redundant array independent disk (RAID) system failures, viruses, Lightning, natural disasters, accidental deletion, interfere with the employees Resulting in a loss accidentally reformatted or corrupt important files on your hard drive and data recovery process, using the DETARIKABARIDISUKU tools.hard is one of the places that need to store data. . These data are more sectors to read format. These damaged areas, then you can not obtain the necessary information, please. In order to obtain the necessary information, we use the method tools.the disk data recovery, data recovery has been from the media, various steps. For example, Excel to recover the damaged files, this procedure is primarily to close down Excel, resume and attempting to open a file, please. If this method of recovery, Excel file does not exist, restart the computer, Excel and Access, please try to open. File corruption and respond to this task, however, this method does not work, delete the contents of the order, C: Windows directory of the EMP, and then restart, please try again. Another way is to open Excel in safe mode. This will disable the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and add-ins. Start by clicking on the run now and then and then enter (including quotes, / s extension): " c: program filesmicrosoft officeofficeexcel.exe " / s of [" C: program filesmicrosoft officeoffice10excel.exe " / s (Excel 2002, Office XP, click Cancel if MS Office, to start the installer, Excel in safe mode, still Start), and then try to open the file. None of the above methods work said, it is wise to scan files for viruses. Please check the macro HYURISUTIKKUSUKYANOPUSHON is enabled. Administrators can help to know how to do this. If the virus is not found in Windows Explorer to locate the file, rename it to the right-click on the exchange. xls extension. DOC extension and attempting to open a Word document. Such a disk data recovery is primarily the result of this is a life-saving for all administrations.data database recovery experts to provide detailed information and data recovery, data recovery experts, data recovery services, DETARIKABARISOFUTOUEA. Data recovery and data management software and related experts.
The Power and ROI of Open Source
May 2, 2008 by melbajulehenriSymposium was held in the open source Taj enclave, 17, 2007 in Bangalore, Oct. 18, 2006. The event, conducted in a red hat, is sponsored by AMD and research data, IDC research and based on a survey. Speaker of the trends in the industry, Red Hat& 39;s business model and profitability is an open source of how to apply the architecture, software, middleware and hardware. Now
right, open-source developer participation from the APAC region in particular and India is insignificant. They spread to increase awareness about some of Red Hat& 39;s open source and threw some light on how to participate in the open source community and how this model can all benefit from. .
according IDC& 39;s recent study on corporate growth of open source adoption manifold; investment to the world of open source technology is increasing. Today companies are beginning to benefit from the quality of the license cost savings and flexibility of open source. Adoption of open source beyond the margin, support was also discussion about open standards, open source contribution.
some an interesting topic in detail, given below:
the power choices: open-source architecture
the long-term vision to build an open-source architecture, open standards and interoperability. The open-source architecture may lead to the suite of standards-based technologies and services, so that he can OPUNSOSUSOFUTOUEAAPURIKESHON and Traditional Colorado – and present will be placed on reliability, safety, scalability and High-stage platform. The enterprise, it& 39;s power to assemble and cover architecture, software, middleware, hardware and applications to achieve business goals.
open Source Software (OSS) of:
with the OSS, the code is protected by a special license GNU General Public License (GPL) all guaranteed access to the code. In other words, one company is not completely his own. You can see the code, to learn to change. From a bug is found and fixed quickly. Customers and vendors one way if I do not like the delivery to another, you can choose to overhaul infrastructure. No more lock-in technology. No more monopolies.
the marriage between the SOA (service-oriented architecture and software as a service) and open-source revolution is not for the weight of that legacy is certainly evolving gradually. Chief Executive of the CIO is not satisfied with the vendor lock and close integration of architecture and to pay the award. This problem is very often the SOA and OSS in danger.
the the second day of Red Hat& 39;s developers; aimed to summarize it, Linux developers and users of open source technology to support growth. Red hat for providing a platform to enhance development, technology, tools, technical standards through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. These efforts are in India to encourage open source development. Red Hat is the start, Red Hat& 39;s developer program, the community development program through the Indian Red Hat 108. 108 red hat and an open-source developer community. Other topics cover
the:-n lbrn lbrvirtualization: n lbrn lbrvirtualization means the operating system, hardware can be isolated from running. Some operating systems running on one machine, and a variety of workload, can be easily moved. To virtualization you can:
server workloads.
hardware to software changes,
insulation failures and control access to data.
operations to maximize the capacity and ability
in safe, secure space to test.
virtualization help for low-cost technology to optimize the utilization of computing and increasing. They declined to comment, but about the operating system license. You can charge an operating system (3 instances of operating systems running on one machine, they have a license fee 3) or a hardware (which is independent of how many operating system installed on a PC ). Hat& 39;s JBoss acquisition
red:
this strategic move is to improve the present stance of Red Hat for the middleware. He wants to provide full SABAAPURIKESHONSUTAKKU. JBoss, will send the applications, it is very rich, J2EE servers, portals, development IDE, which allows transactions such as management MIDORUUEASUTAKKU to beat the red hat to thousands of dollars in the competition. JBoss sense, other things here, is a de facto application server. They have to do some really, as well as their customers and close integration AUTOOBUBOKKUSU really well on J2EE solution should be. JBoss is not yet known whether or not Red Hat is currently bundles.
systemtap
systemtap, red hat utility, for developers and administrators to write scripts depth examination of the dynamic activities of the Linux kernel. Data filtering, extraction, summary and to enable rapid diagnosis of complex problems.
jboss Operations Network (JBoss above)
jboss the advanced management console-based platform for inventorying, manage, monitor and update jems applications. JBoss is the agent-based platform to the local branch. JBoss on the module is the most important
the:
inventory, IT assets and to use the catalog across platforms (Linux, HP / UX is the case, Solaris is, Windows, AIX cases), servers (Apache Web server , Apache& 39;s Tomcat, JBoss as) and services (EJB is a message-driven beans, data sources). Assets are added manually or automatically enhanced visibility to provide discovery, we each have our own version, including critical business applications and dependencies.
administration 1 where one of the key features such as control in order to run start, stop and restart button jems across the platform. Administrative functions into a single cluster or application can be applied to the entire enterprise. You can also, to be released later, on demand, or a regular basis. This module also allows you to roll Back to the previous version, if necessary.
monitoring extensive monitoring capabilities with the support jems components such as the operating system platform (Windows, Linux, and on unix), Apache& 39;s Tomcat, Apache Web server and any jems-based applications. Module will continue to monitor the behavior of a model to build and update all of the measurements being collected. This will define the alerts related to infrastructure and actual behavior. Baseline and out-of-band use to identify the problem. This will prevent your infrastructure to quickly identify resource needs attention not only to get a sense of history at the time, and what is happening fault.
jboss portal:
jboss portal, BIJINESUFURENDORIOPUNSOSU license, and it is free to download, use, embedded, and distribution. JBoss portal to provide a framework to ensure access to centralized applications and information, foster collaboration, streamline business processes and reduce costs. Since the JBoss portal is based on open standards, it is possible to incorporate components of the portal as a portlet reusable and standardized. Included topics of the symposium
the red hat on the roadmap for the lower rate of return on investment, TCO cut jems (JBoss Enterprise Management Suite), ID management and security, the U.S. global REDDOHATTOKURASUTA suites and Red Hat File system.
Wedding Flowers Decorations With Style!
April 28, 2008 by melbajulehenriWhen we think of wedding flowers, we often think of the bride& 39;s bouquet, flowers, but can be excellent accessories in almost any neighborhood. Using wedding flowers, ornaments popular, especially in the summer wedding. Wedding flowers also provide a wonderful fresh scent, which will continue throughout the day. Flowers and
Wedding ceremony
The main role of wedding flowers, during the ceremony, is part of bridal bouquets side. Nevertheless, look a little farther and you& 39;ll see a whole range of opportunities for your wedding flowers.
Why not to use material from the bow of a flower in the center rather, on the back of each chair. Simple but effective. Wedding flowers can also be used as part of the ceremony place decorations. You can, for example, through the passage with flowers or bridesmaid ask for the scattering of petals on the road in front of the bride.
Wedding Flowers and reception
Wedding flowers are not traditionally part of the reception decorations. But there is no reason why flowers can not be a fundamental part of your decorative designs. Flowers can be used as a centre of pieces on tables, they may even be used as a fun way, telling the table at which they should be meeting. For example, you could table rose, lily and violet-table table.
Instead of contributes, it can be a great idea to use the wedding flowers such as a single rose, as a gift for every woman. Wedding flowers can also be used to decorate the place itself, for example, as part of decorations room – fresh and dynamic alternatives balls!
Wedding flowers, gifts
It is a traditional gift for those who assisted in the wedding events, such as the mother of the bride, bridesmaids and mother of the groom. Why not combine any other gift you have chosen some wedding flowers. How will you order in bulk, costing several bouquets will be much smaller than originally anticipated, so ask your florist what they can do for you.
Wedding flowers, often thrown away at the end of the day, try to think ahead as to what you can do with all shows that you have purchased, after the event. Like most couples leave the head directly to the honeymoon, they are unlikely to make the most of wedding flowers, so that there are friends in mind, which can assess the displays.
If you want to keep wedding flowers, why not get them dried or pressed flowers? In addition, you might consider planting flowers or even more long-living specimens such as decorative cacti.
When it comes to wedding flowers, there is really no limit to your imagination!
Cisco CCNP / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Leading Zero Compression
April 25, 2008 by melbajulehenriThe bsci Certificate examination ccnp requires that you have experienced in the basics of IP version 6 or IPv6. If you& 39;re new to IPv6, you can learn quickly that it is not exactly just two more octets slapped on the existence ipv4 address! IPv6 addresses long, but there are two ways to address the unacceptable failure IPv6 expression. Bsci for an exam, becoming ccnp, and access to all – it is important to understand IPv6, I had reached the understanding of these different methods of expressing the existence of the title of IPv6. I discussed my last tutorial IPv6 zero pressure; today we& 39;ll look at the zero compression.
leading zero pressure allows us to topple the leading zeroes in every field of the title. Since we can only use the pressure of zero once in the address IPv6 expression, resulting in zero pressure can be used as often as is appropriate. Leading with zero pressure is that there must be at least one number left in each field, even if that is the number remaining zero.
you sometimes see books or websites, leading to pressure " zero and dropping zeroes and replace By Colon with ", but this interpretation can be a bit confusing, since the pieces are separated with colon, first and foremost. You do not actually replace the zeroes, I was dropping them.
let Council, we look to the example from scratch, which led pressure. Taking the title 1234:0000:1234:0000:1234:0000:1234:0123, we have four different areas leading zeroes. Title which can be written out as it is, or drop the leading figure zeroes.
original: 1234:0000:1234:0000:1234:0000:0123:1234
with zero pressure: 1234:0:1234:0:1234:0: 123 : 1234
there no problem with the use of zero and zero pressure resulting pressure on the same title, as shown here:
original form: 1111:0000:0000:1234:0011:0022:0033:0044
with zero and zero resulting pressure: 1111:: 1234: 11:22:33:44
zero pressure of dual-use – Kowloon to replace the second and third block of numbers, which were all zeroes; zero pressure replaced " 00 " at the beginning of each of the last four pieces. Only Be careful and take your time with both zero and zero pressure resulting pressure, you can also do the exam in the real world. Keys to success here to remember that you can only use the pressure of zero once in one address, that despite the zero resulting pressure can be used as often as needed, at least one number must remain in every field, even if This is the number zero.
chris Bryant, ccie 12933, is the owner of Bryant for the feature, Home Free ccnp CCNA and models, CCNA final group study, and study ccnp final packages.
for free copy of his latest e-books, " how to pass CCNA " f & quot; how to pass ccnp ", just visit the site! You can also get free and CCNA ccnp exam questions every day! Examination bsci with Bryant advantage!
E! True ZX Games Story: Boulder Dash
April 23, 2008 by melbajulehenriBoulder Dash, published in 1984, is by no means Balderdash. Please do not take the " not as pun " high horse here and in terms of this article has to do with the history of invention.
Here is quick couple of facts about the history of Boulder Dash:
* Peter Liep, who is credited as the creator of the game, studied physics as well as Douglas Smith (http://www.zxgames.com/en/loderunnerstory. shtml).
* Unlike the Lode Runner creator, Peter did not become fast and super-rich.
So, here is the story
* Game Inventors: Peter Liep, Chris Gray
* occupation at the time of invention: Peter liepos – unemployed; Chris Gray – unknown
* ubica at the time of invention: Canada.
The game concept and its implementation seems to be simple (at least in terms of modern technologies). However Boulder Dash& 39;s cookbook consists of a man and another man versatile interests of the idea.
Fascination animated
Born in 1953 in Ottawa, as a child Peter aspires to be an animator and special effects designer on the one hand and a particle physicist, on the other. He had to drop the latter as it is too diffuse and practical and I thought it was vague future for particle physics. The incentive for the animation, on the other hand, lived with Pedro until it was time to quit.
Fascination with computers
When in high school, Peter was sent to the National Research Council of Canada for a week as part of an internship program. He had to work in a physics laboratory, Pedro has a brilliant new manager Wang Calculator and arrested the young intern attention. In the same week all trainees were taken on a tour of the Council& 39;s computer center. Amazed by what he saw, Peter asked to spend the rest of his time internship there. The computer center was an interactive terminal, which in those days was something akin to Teletype or IBM Selectric connected to a mainframe. Peter quickly learned to program, but after the weekend internship there was no opportunity to study computers for a long time. In those days, the concept of personal computers was unimaginable.
Peter began in physics in college, but soon switched to mathematics. Their summer jobs in computer programming, and spent much time playing at the beginning things like Conway & 39; s Game of Life, that the results printed on paper and there was no digital display that is.
Fascination with human nature
After graduating in mathematics, Peter ido looking around themes such as human memory and perception. He earned a master& 39;s degree in control theory. Both the Control Theory and knowledge of human nature are other key points in what was later to become the game of worship.
Another idea of man
When Peter was in his last twenty years, visited a friend of his who was deeply in electronic toys and had a large screen television and an Atari 400. Peter spent several evenings of games, then had a " I can do " flash. The went out and bought an Atari 800 to start writing games. But instead of merely writing from a game, Peter thought it would be prudent to contact a local game publisher to see what kind of game could be in demand.
The editor Peter contact Chris Gray, who has presented a game in Basic, but does not have the skills to turn it into machine language. The game was similar to an arcade game called the pit, but after further review, Peter discovered that the game had very few variants of the game – too much of it was predetermined.
The development
Not satisfied with Chris & 39; algorithm game, Pedro began to play with the basic elements of earth, stones and jewels and within a couple of days had built the base engine " physical & quot; of what would become Boulder Dash. He realized that using a random number generator may be generated at random caves, and that by controlling the density of rocks and jewels could get some interesting game. The game fascinated not only from a standpoint of the puzzle, but also appealed to the various units emotional – the most obvious psychotic as greed (collection of jewellery), destructive (rockslides and murder fireflies) and neurotic, like cleaning all the dirt out of a cave.
Chris and Peter lived far away, so that their meetings are infrequent and involved much drive. It turned out very quickly that their design goals and methods are quite incompatible. Peter was developing a game very different from Chris & 39; original, and did so almost entirely on their own. Peter designed all the elements, physics, caves, the game, graphics, music, and the title. Chris helped out with some odds and ends – suggested, for example, doing graphics for the title of the card game that make up outside the big character graphics Atari. At the end, there was a lot of debate about exactly how Chris can be shown and what percentage of your royalties should be.
The title game was long Cavern Raider, and several other variants such as the Cavern Crystals. Peter finally emerged under the name Boulder Dash, which is a takeoff on the word Balderdash. Coincidentally, a board game called Balderdash also was published in 1986.
The game main character – Rockford.
Originally, on the principles of physics engine stage, Rockford was only a way similar to a cross. When he moved the way, was dug through the soil absorbs and jewelry. In fact, the graphics are very simple, and all elements are characters in a 24×40 screen character. There was no displacement in the first versions of the game. It was Chris who suggested that the excavation should be a man " ", and together they came up with a simple human form. When Peter showed an early version of the game to a potential publisher, noted that " man " was too small and needed to be a more recognizable character. But it was not possible to make " the most prominent man " without larger do everything well. So this was where the hard work began to turn the game one that ran on a 24×40 screen character to one that deploy a much larger region.
Now the biggest game elements, Peter could add much more detail, including making " man " more recognizable. He built a character editor to produce the pixels and animation. It was at this point that the character Rockford took shape. Rockford is not supposed to any particular type of human or animal consumption, which has just become the editor pixel. Since Peter used to be interested in animation, worked with the character of Rockford do blinking eyes and touching their feet. This was an innovation that adds a great deal of depth to the character.
The result
Overall, Peter took about 6 months to complete the first version of Boulder Dash with no more than 2 hours of actual work per day.
Even although Boulder Dash was finished in six months, it took another six months to find a publisher and produce a publication agreement. At that time Peter was already full-time employees in a company that developed software for word processing.
And well, the rest is history – Boulder Dash was published for the first star in 1984 and was an instant bestseller.
Having survived for more than two decades on the market, the game is still here to fascinate us. You are always welcome to play our remake of Boulder Dash (http://www.zxgames.com/en/boulderdash.shtml), which is as close to the original as possible and does not need to run emulators.
Where Chris Gray is now?
We have no idea.
Where is Peter liepos now?
Peter works in software development to a company called Alias, which produces software for 3D design and entertainment.
Find Top Quality FREE Audiobooks
April 20, 2008 by melbajulehenriAudiobooks have, over the past few years, become an amazing success story, even though the recording of the spoken word, as opposed to music, has been around for over 100 years.
Indeed, it is fair to say that audiobooks have really brought the recorded spoken word into the public consciousness, even though a substantial portion of our cultural heritage from the last century is already recorded in enormous collections of spoken word materials.
Unfortunately, a large percentage of these historical audio tracts are hidden away in private collections, museums and so on, representing huge quantities of priceless historical artifacts that are currently unavailable to academics, scholars and the like.
Nevertheless, audiobooks have brought spoken word recordings to the attention of the audio loving public over the past few years, so, why have they become so popular, and why now?
Answering that, the wrong way around, why now can be answered with two simple words – mp3 s and the internet.
Mp3 recording technology is only 30 years old, but it began to revolutionize worldwide listening practices almost as soon as it was invented, simply because it reduced massive digital sound files down to manageable levels.
Generally, mp3 files are twelve times smaller than other audio and video file types, because they get rid of all the sounds from the original recording that are beyond human hearing.
The internet is a perfect tool for working with these mp3 s, allowing anyone with a connection to instantly download mp3 files, and then play them back on their PC, on a mobile mp3 player or on a standard CD, after the mp3 is burned on to it.
Of course, all of the above applies equally well to music or to audiobooks, so why the current boom in audiobooks?
Well, audiobooks have many in-built advantages over their written page counterparts. Some of these advantages are:
They take up no space on your shelves or in your home. Perhaps an important factor at a time when average living spaces are gradually becoming smaller.
They have no weight or bulk. An audiobook is nothing more than a digital file, so that you can conveniently carry it around with you on a mobile mp3 or CD player.
They are not easily damaged. There are no pages to be ripped or worn out.
They allow you to multi-task , which is becoming an ever more important requirement of every day life. You can dig the garden, walk the dog, and go to the mall, all whilst listening to an audiobook.
Effectively, an audiobook offers all of the advantages and benefits of a written word book such as being able to improve oneself through further education, or to catch up with literary classics that you somehow missed, all without the downsides of a large, bulky book
Another great advantage of audiobooks, and perhaps the best reason for the current audiobook explosion, is that there are lots of sources to find completely free books all over the internet.
Compare that to your local book store. When was the last time they gave you something for free?
By simply running a search through any of the major search engines, you would be able to turn up many, many sites giving away free audiobooks. Obviously, this ability to get free samples before deciding whether to invest you re hard earned cash in audiobooks is a major plus point.
There are, however, two points to draw to your attention about many of the free audiobook download sites.
First, many of the sites offer the audiobooks for free for one reason. The quality of the recording and (often) the reading is so poor that no-one would ever consider paying for it!
Second, many of the texts that are read to create these audiobooks are open source works, meaning that there either never was a copyright on the title, or that it has expired. In either case, we are talking about a very old works that are usually very average indeed (otherwise, they would have a value, and still be copyrighted!)!
Audiobooks are definitely something that you should try if you have not already done so, especially as you can get great quality titles for free.
But, just make sure to look for good quality audiobooks for your first taster of exactly what they have to offer, and you cannot go far wrong.
Download Computer Games – Before Deciding To Buy One
April 20, 2008 by melbajulehenriThe Internet is not only a good source of information on about every subject. You will also find many sites that allow you to download new programs and other useful software that you can copy directly to your computer. It also offers files that contain videos, music and games. Before you can use these files, they first have to be copied to your hard disk. This process is called downloading. Webpages usually have links to downloadable files.
If you click on one of these download links, your browser immediately copies the files onto your computer s hard disk drive.
Today, there is a very wide range of different kinds of computer games that you can download. Very often big gaming software companies allow you to download a trial version of a game that they have just released. They call these either trialware or shareware.
Typically, the companies provide shareware so you can download the games and try before buying it. The games usually are demo versions with limited features.
A shareware is accompanied by a request for payment that the person who downloaded the computer game is required to pay after a certain amount of time has past.
Free trial software is one of the main reasons for the rapid growth of the gaming industry. Today the industry is worth more than $10 billion. With games costing an average of $40, it s a wise decision to download computer games for trial first. Most new video games released have their own dedicated website, so players can be updated on latest news and sequels. Many of the computer games offering a free trial have a specific mission that the player can try out. In this way he can get a feeling for the scenarios and the overall design of the game.
If you want a new gaming software, there are thousands of downloadable games available on the internet including classic games that you may not find in a regular software store.
Nevertheless there are disadvantages downloading shareware. The main drawback when downloading computer games is that the bigger the file size, the longer it will take your computer to write the information on its hard disk drive. This often can be a tedious process that can tie up your phone line for a long time.
Another factor that may affect the time it takes your computer to download the game is when there are a lot of other users that are trying to download the same file as you.
Then there is the virus worry. Many users worry that downloading a file could result in their computer being infected by a virus. However, times have changed and what was a problem in 2004 is no longer a problem in 2006. Big companies have their websites scanned for viruses on a regular basis and files offered for download are also scanned.
CCNA Exam Tutorial: MAC Addressing Formats And Broadcasts
April 20, 2008 by melbajulehenriYour CCNA exam success depends on your mastery of networking, routing, and switching fundamentals. Those fundamentals have to include knowledge of MAC addresses, so let s take a close look at Media Access Control addressing.
A typical MAC address looks something like this:
af-14-b3-c2-14-45
You may be wondering why we ve got letters and numbers in this address. MAC addresses are expressed in hexadecimal, which gives us the ability to express more values with the same number of bits. Theoretically, every single NIC in the world should have a totally unique MAC address, and the only way to do this is to express MAC addresses in hexadecimal.
MAC addresses are actually made up of two parts, so let s take another look at the one I showed you earlier.
af-14-b3-c2-14-45
The first half of that address (af-14-b3) is the Organizationally Unique Identifier. This particular OUI would belong to one and only one vendor, making it “organizationally unique”. The second half of the address is a combination of hex characters that this particular vendor has not used before with this particular OUI, sometimes called the Device ID.
Breaking the example down into its two parts:
af-14-b3 is the OUI
c2-14-45 is the Device ID
In this way, the MAC address should be unique from any other MAC address in existence. (The use of hex means we can have 281,474,976,710,656 possible combinations.)
Note the highest hex value is f. If all values in a MAC address are set to f, that s the MAC broadcast address. Expressing a hex value in upper or lower case does not change the value, so both of the following are the same address. Watch out for any MAC address that contains a letter that comes after “F” in the alphabet – that s an invalid address. For example, both of the following MAC addresses are invalid. 11-22-33-44-55-hf Rf-12-34-45-56-67
MAC addresses can be expressed with hyphens, as we ve seen so far in this chapter, or with colons. They can also be expressed in a format similar to IP addresses. To illustrate, all of the following MAC addresses are the same address and are all valid ways of expressing a MAC address.
aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-34 aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:34 aabb.ccdd.ee34
While we spend most of our time working with IP addresses, data can t be transmitted from one point to another without the right MAC addresses. In tomorrow s CCNA exam tutorial, we ll take a look at how switches build a table of MAC addresses and the actions a switch can take with incoming frames. See you then!
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Solar power – Is Solar Power worth the money?
April 20, 2008 by melbajulehenriThe new Home Information Packs (HIPs) give energy-saving advice on many forms of energy saving including Solar Power. So what does the government backed information really tell us?.
Following this advice by installing solar heating is environmentally-friendly and will begin to save you money. However, it will take 208 years to break even.
And it s not just solar heating .
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) research found that it could take a while to break even on other energy-saving measures, too.
In an average three-bedroom terraced house payback times range from five years for cavity wall insulation to over 200 years for solar heating.
Double glazing, energy-efficient condensing boilers and even loft insulation could take years to cover the initial costs by savings in energy bills.
We spend an average of 16 years in one property so homeowners may consider these costly measures just too expensive.
RICS has been calling for a reduction in the level of VAT applied to all energy-saving measures and for an attractive grant program to aid real change.
Its head of policy and public affairs said that the Energy Performance Certificates should be applied flexibly to all residential property, not just those that are being bought and sold, thought to be 6.9% of homes. The idea behind these certificates is to encourage homeowners to implement energy-saving measures to help reduce carbon emissions.
Having a house s energy performance assessed costs between 100.00 and 150.00.
There is concern that HIPs have brought about a substantial decline in the number of family homes being put up for sale, resulting in a shortage. The property market is already fragile. It has also slowed down following higher borrowing costs.
This information was made public in the Daily Mail Oct 13 th 2007
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