A Review of HP Laser Toners

Hewlett-Packard is, along with Brother and Samsung, one of the most readily available brands of laser toner. This is due, in part, to the fact that HP was first to release a laser toner inexpensive enough to catch the attention of the average consumer, in 1984.

Prices on laser printers were much higher back then, sometimes costing $500. But the price on laser toner refill was a lot lower - about $30 a cartridge. Today, you can buy an HP laser printer for less than $200, but the toner replacements can cost as much as $80 if bought new from the manufacturer.

You can also buy remanufactured laser toner cartridges from HP. These are cartridges that were used up by the previous user and sent back to HP to be remade and refilled. These remanufactured cartridges cost about half as much as the new ones. These are almost exactly the same quality of new, and most people can’t even tell. You only really need to buy new cartridges if you are a professional businessperson who needs to create documents of completely reliable quality.

HP laser toner can range from 50 cents for an unrated third-party remanufactured cartridge, to several hundred thousand dollars for a bulk shipment of a few thousand new cartridges direct from the manufacturer. Your needs probably fall somewhere between these two extremes. One popular HP cartridge is the HP No. 56 Black Inkjet print cartridge. This well received toner refill starts at about $14 and can climb as high as $30 via PC World-approved third parties.

A popular color laser toner refill from HP is the HP 97 Tri-Color Inkjet Print cartridge, starting at $23.

You can also buy new from HP at their website.

Laser Toner Info provides detailed information about later toner cartridges and refills, as well as reviews of laser toner products. Laser Toner Info is the sister site of Brochure Printing Web.

Upgrading, Adding or Removing a Video Card, Sound Card, or Other AGP/PCI Card

For Video cards - Most PC video cards these days are AGP. But you COULD be working with PCI, or PCI express. If you’re not sure which you have (more then 75% of the time it will be AGP) consult your motherboard manual. If your video card is AGP, you should see a slot smaller then the other slots on your board, and it will be a different color. You can likely also tell your video card if it has a GPU (a processor with a fan on top of it) or a video card company printed on it like Nvidia or Geforce.

To take out your video card in order to switch it for a newer one, or if it simply is not working, remove the screw first that holds it to the case. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE CARD UNTIL YOU HAVE UNSCREWED IT. You will damage, maybe even destroy your card, and you may damage your AGP, PCI or PCI express slot as well. Your board may then have a simple switch that holds the socket down. Flick this switch up. After the scrue is removed, and the switch is flicked up, pull the card away from the board. Pull it on one side first so when it comes out it comes out on a slant, kind of like a car reversing. It should come out quite easily. To put in a new card, make sure the card you’re putting in is properly lined up in the slot, then press the card into the slot. If it dosen’t seem to be going in, you may be putting it in the wrong way. The pathways on the one side of the card should be the side that goes into the motherboard slot (these pathways looking like small lines going up one side of the card). Once the card sinks in with almost a click (like RAM), flick the switch down and scrue the card into the place you unscrued it. Start up your PC, make sure the card is working, then put your case back on.

Sound card - Sound cards are pretty easy, and the method for these can be used for any other card, such as network cards and the like (assuming they are all PCI. PCI are the black slots on your board). For installing/removing a PCI card, just unscrue it from the board, pull it out, then put the new one in, and scrue it in. Pretty easy. If you are having troubles, make sure the lines running up one side of the card is the side going into the slot. If you still have troubles, try turning the card around (but still make sure the pathways are facing the slot).

I am a young, aspiring computer engineer into Internet Marketing, hardware, software, web design, SEO and just about anything related to computers. Please come check out my growing PC forum at http://www.markspcforum.com

Dusting Your Computer - Keeping it Cool

My mother always told me to dust, but I never did, mostly because I was lazy, but also because I couldn’t find any tangible benefit to dusting. I just didn’t see how I’d benefit from my room or my things being less dusty. Well now I’ve gotten a bit older, and I finally found a reason to dust - a cooler running computer. I’m going to give some background on my own system and circumstances first, then run tests before and after dusting, as well as explain how and what I used to dust. Be sure to take a look at this article - with pictures and graphs - plus a whole lot more, at aworldofhelp.com.

I’ve had the computer in question for a little over two years, a dual AMD Athlon MP workstation that while no longer the top of the line, is still plenty fast enough for what I do. The computer is running at standard speeds and specifications, and has always been very stable - but not 100%. When the system was about a year old I had been getting by with the occasional, roughly once weekly lock up. At that point, I finally spent the time to try and diagnose the problem.

To be perfectly clear, I’m talking about a lock up, where everything stops responding, the screen freezes and I have to reboot, not simply an application crash, which I can usually just blame on Microsoft. My initial thought was that the computer was overheating, specifically the CPUs. I was a little hesitant though because I was running AMD retail processors at standard specifications with AMD retail heatsinks and fans, and I figured that should have been a fine setup. But I’ve had CPUs overheat before when I was sure that was the problem and this just felt like it now. I did some research online and it looked like the AMD cooling solutions were somewhat underwhelming performers, so I broke down and bought new heatsinks and fans. These still weren’t top of the line, but they reduced my CPU temperatures immediately by about 20%.

In unscientific testing I’d say my computer was absolutely more stable after the reduction in temperature. I estimate the weekly lockup became a monthly or even every other monthly lockup. This clearly isn’t perfect for a system that really should be 99.99% stable, but it was a big improvement, and I let the problem go for a while. I will note that as many of you many assume, this computer is always on, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Anyway now it’s another year later and my computer is increasingly unstable again. I’m not going to go out and get better heatsinks and fans again, as I’m sure the improvement would be less than before. My next though was about how dusty the whole system is. I know I should have dusted it once in the last two years, but I never got around to it. I’d say I live in an average environment in terms of dustiness, not especially better or worse, and I just never thought it would make a very significant difference in my CPU temperature. As you’ll see, I was completely wrong - which incidentally might make my mother right.

Almost all users should really consider the results of both tests, possibly giving more weight to the one which most closely matches your typical computing. Even if you run predominantly business applications, you’ll almost certainly occasionally do something that falls under this content creation test, editing pictures or an occasional home movie, for example. So consider all the tests, don’t just focus on one graph.

Should you dust your computer? Yes, why not, it can’t hurt. But really, there are tangible benefits of cleaning your computer, even if it seems stable right now.

Computers and electronics in general don’t like heat. Dust blocks fans in your case, which generally cool you CPU, video card and motherboard components. Dust also blocks fans and their airflow into and out of your case. Cool air needs to be brought into a case, and then the host air dispelled. If the airways are blocked, system temperature can rise quickly. If your computer is stable but the CPU is running too hot, you cut down on its lifespan, potentially quickly.

More important to many people though, may be the result of that first heat related computer lock up. Even if it’s never been a problem before, if your computer crashes at the wrong time it can be catastrophic. Usually mine just locks up when I’m away from it, or overnight, and I just turn it back on and restart Firefox and haven’t lost anything important. But last week it locked up with unsaved graphs for my last article and Excel chose no to auto save. I spent the hour it took to redo them considering ways to eliminate these lock ups.

Of course, reducing heat is also always a priority for people who overclock their CPU. For those that don’t know, overclocking is running a CPU at a higher frequency than it was sold to run at. For example, you could take your Intel Pentium 4 that is running at a “clock” rate of 2 GHz, and try to run it at 2.1 GHz, 2.5 GHz, faster speeds, or anywhere in between. I have an old dual CPU system that was supposed to run at 366 MHz. Instead I ran the chips at 500 MHz each, which was a huge performance gain. Overclocking is actually a great way to get more “free” performance out of a system, as long as you can maintain stability. Usually the single biggest factor for success is reducing heat as much as possible.

Another thing to note is that while it is very important to keep CPU heat to a minimum, hard drives, video cards, and other components all need to be kept cool as well. In fact, I don’t really know for sure that my CPUs are the current problem. I think they are, but my next guess (if I’m correct that it’s a heat problem) would be my video card, since I’ve checked, and it runs really hot.

Consider this as well, if my CPU were to actually stop working because it was too hot, it would probably be a gradual process, and I could fix the situation by purchasing a replacement. If my hard drive crashes and ultimately loses data, that could be a much more problematic situation. I could replace the drive, but recovering the data could be far more difficult than just replacing a CPU.

I opened up the system and saw more dust than computer. All the fans were covered in dust, and their airflow was totally blocked. I put the case back on and took temperature readings of my computer both idle and when working. The tests are all run are on the following system:

CPU - Dual AMD Athlon MP 2000+ (1.67 GHz)
Motherboard - AMD K7-D
RAM - 1024 MB RAM (2 x 512 MB registered DDR 2100)
Video Card - Matrox Parhelia AGP 128 MB
HD - Segate 5400 rpm- st320410a
Windows XP SP2

I picked that unexciting hard drive because it was the only one I had that reports temperature.

For the idle readings the computer was freshly booted into Windows. To get the computer running at full load I ran two instances of Prime95, a math application that will max out a CPU (2 copies running, one each for 2 CPUs), and copied 2 GB of Music on the hard drive to another folder on the same drive. The entire process took about half an hour.

Without anything to compare them to, those numbers for the most part aren’t terribly interesting. My only reaction was that 63 degrees Celsius seems pretty hot, and the idle CPU temperatures aren’t too wonderful either. Remember, each CPU type has a different recommended temperature range. 63 degrees may be too hot for mine, but could be either acceptable, or perhaps way too hot for your own. Regardless, you hopefully will notice a relative reduction in temperature after dusting.

Dusting the computer

As I said, I’ve never dusted a computer before, but I came up with what ended up being a reasonable plan. I bought compressed air and a small brush from staples for $7 total and used a rag I have here. I made sure to unplug my computer, grounded myself to discharge static electricity by touching something metal other than my computer, opened up the case and was ready to go.

As long as you make sure your computer is unplugged, don’t get anything wet, and are gentle while you have it opened, you really shouldn’t damage anything. For the most part, the inside of your computer is delicate, but it isn’t brittle. The most notable exception is your CPU. If you were to disconnect it and pull it out of the motherboard you would expose pins on the bottom that are in fact extremely delicate.

You could do a really thorough job by taking everything apart and getting all the dust out, but I didn’t want to spend that much time doing it and I figured if I left everything connected their was less chance I’d mess something up. So I used the air, brush and rag and got the dust off the computer, taking the most time to clean the fans and the holes they blow out of.

I ran the same tests again, and the results were dramatic.

Idle, CPU 1 saw an 18% reduction in temperature, while CPU 2 is 10% cooler. That’s very important, as all those hours my computer is sitting doing very little it’s going to be considerably cooler.

At full load, CPU 1 is 21% cooler and CPU 2 is 12% cooler. These are again very impressive results, and very important as well. I have had lock ups when video encoding and doing other CPU intensive tasks, and now the chips should be running cooler while doing those.

It’s interesting that originally CPU 1 was hotter than CPU 2, and after the cleaning they switched. An important fact is that the temperature reporting on this type of dual AMD Athlon system is generally uneven. That said, CPU 1 was easier to dust around because the DVD drives were in the way of CPU 2, so I probably did a better job cleaning the former and there is still likely room for improvement in cooling the latter.

One other note, I kept track of the fan speeds before and after cleaning, and I saw about a 2% increase in the CPU fan speeds after I dusted. I wasn’t expecting this at all, and certainly can’t be certain that this will always result from dusting, but it could be very interesting for overclockers trying to eak out every last bit of fan performance.

The hard drive temperature saw a 9% improvement while idle after dusting, and again a 9% improvement at full load. It’s a nice temperature reduction for a mechanical component that will be grinding away for thousands of hours over the life of your computer.

The case temperature stayed the same throughout all the tests.

Conclusion

All in all I was surprised the results were so dramatic. I expected few degrees for the CPUs and maybe one for the hard drive, but to see a 20% reduction in temperature is just great. There is defiantly room for improvement as well. The CPU fans have covers that I could have taken off and gotten more dust out, and as I mentioned reaching one of the CPUs was harder than the other. Further, I’d say I got most of the dust inside my computer, well over 90%, but I still saw some that proved more challenging to clean that I was willing to bother with. Taking all the cards out and thoroughly cleaning the whole system would have no doubt led to even better results.

My system has maintained the cooler temperatures so far, a week after the cleaning, and I haven’t had a lock up since. I can’t be certain I’ve solved the lock up problem, but it does appear I have for now. At the very least, I can be sure CPU heat is not the problem, as now they are running at very acceptable temperatures. Your own results will vary, and may not be as dramatic if your computer wasn’t as dusty as mine. Regardless, you should see some reduction in component temperature after cleaning your system.

All in all I recommend you take a look around and inside your computer to see how it looks. If it’s dusty, $7 and an hour of your time seems like a good investment to increase the life of your computer and prevent system lock ups. I suspect many people suffer the occasional heat caused lock up, it just isn’t obvious what the problem is, and they don’t occur often enough to be a serious concern. But remember, even if you only have one heat caused lock up in the entire life of your computer, it could come at the worst time, or cause permanent damage.

Steve Perlow is the founder of aworldofhelp.com, where you can find the aworldofhelp Top Picks in desktop and notebook systems. Visit aworldofhelp.com to get answers from real people to your questions about technology, travel and more.

LCD Monitors: A ‘Catching-On’ Technology

If you’ve been in the market for a new computer monitor fairly recently, you might have noticed just how many more LCD monitors you see in the stores now.

It’s obvious that the main benefit that’s being pushed about computer LCD monitors is that they’re flat, and you can put them almost anywhere, but you might be curious about just what you’re giving up by going LCD. To tell you the truth, an LCD monitor can be a worthwhile investment to your home computer system if you’re not hung up on the budget models, and if you can truly benefit from the added space.

Alright, first thing’s first. LCD monitors will never be as good as CRT’s (cathode ray tube monitors, the big box made like a TV), although when you get far up in the price range with LCD’s, you may have a hard time telling the difference. But 90% of the time, the graphics and animation that can be produced by a tube are far and away better than anything you’ll see from an LCD. You really notice this with moving pictures. This is because LCD’s are a chemical reaction technology. Pictures run and bleed across the screen because the reaction is only going to be so fast, and there’s no real way to speed it up.

You might notice, however, that more expensive models are smoother than budget models. That’s because the budget models do not reflect the full capability of the LCD reaction, even though it is limited.

Just for a little background, LCD monitors started making their way into the stores in the mid 90’s. Usually, they were black and white, and built-into part of those old pre-laptop portable computers.

The ones that then came out as standalones were never really able to grab a big part of the mass market, mainly because they weren’t any good for much other than word processing. The picture would bleed horribly across the screen no matter what you were doing. Forget moving graphics of any kind. Sure, they were flat, but this wasn’t really seen as a benefit at the time because people had been used to heavy, bulky monitors taking up the space.

Oh, not to mention the price. If you think some of the more high-end LCD monitors now are expensive, try back then. With all these factors put together, I’m a little surprised they caught on at all.

Of course, just walk into any major home electronics retailer and you’ll see just how far LCD monitors have come. Cutting edge companies like Sony continue to churn out more and more precise video reproduction from LCD. Today with the better LCD’s, you can get still images as sharp as CRT’s, and graphics animation nearly as smooth.

The 20″ Sony that I have is not made for you to sit with you face right in front of the screen. Like most of the larger ones, it’s meant to be viewed from a few feet back. And when you do that, you seriously cannot tell the difference between that and a CRT.

The true quality of CRT’s still cannot be questioned. You can get a sharp, crisp picture, that blows away the cheap LCD’s and is only a little better than the nice LCD’s, but you’ll always need a ton of desk space (and help carrying it in) if you want to go with a CRT.

Size and weight are another issue. There’s a screen size limit that CRT’s actually don’t get larger than solely because after you hit about 28″, they become ridiculously heavy. Of course, LCD’s, being light, and flat, now allow for computer monitors to be made in some interesting sizes.

As far as brands go, Dell’s “Ultrasharp” LCD monitors are great. Sony’s always been known as a prime quality name, and visual technology pioneer. 15″ and 17″ LCD’s will serve the purpose, but you really see what these monitors have to offer when you move up in the sizes, like 20″ and up. I’d stay away from the budget names. You’ll know them when you see them because you’ll see them at your major home electronics retailers, but you’ve never heard of them before.

Whether you’re looking for some extra desktop space, or looking for the high-end PC graphics experience from a larger monitor, it’s no doubt that the LCD monitors of today can more than meet your needs.

Phil Moyers, owner of Build-Your-Own-Computer-Plan.com shows computer novices how to save a ton of money by putting together fast, high performance PC’s of their own with handpicked, quality parts.

Computer LCD Monitors

Printer Ink Cartridges - The History

You are working at your computer and trying to print out important documents and all at once you find you are out of ink. Years ago that would have presented a big problem. Printers used ribbons or daisy wheels to print on paper. Let’s take a look at the evolution of printer ink cartridges.

In 1984 ink jet printers and printer cartridges were introduced. Printing documents was now easier and so was changing printer cartridges. After years of changing ribbons, adding toner ink to reservoirs within the computer.

The dot matrix method used a ribbon. The industry found new ways to make printing easier and more convenient. There is the drop on demand method where the ink squirts onto the paper through tiny nozzles. The amount of ink dropped the page is controlled by the software driver that controls which nozzle fires and when.

By 1990 ink jet print cartridges was widely accepted. Printer cartridges can now print in color as well as in black and white for document. Inkjet printer cartridges can print on just about any sized paper, on fabric and on film. Ink jet printers are used in a variety of settings worldwide and is a popular choice for printing.

Each brand of printer uses a specific type of cartridge. Ink jet cartridges are given an identification number and the models that can use this particular cartridge, is listed. There are a wide variety of cartridges available and you should check your printer’s manual to see exactly what cartridges are available to you.

If you are trying to save money, you can purchase refill kits that allow you to fill the cartridges yourself. Not everyone is a fan of these kits however, the quality of the printing isn’t as good, and in some cases the cartridges when re-installed can fail to operate.

You can get reconditioned and refilled cartridges from some retailers and sometimes from the manufacturer. Compatible cartridges are cartridges that are made according to the exact specs of the original manufacturer. The drawback here is that not every cartridge has a compatible one.

In choosing a printer check the type of cartridge it will use. You will need to determine if the cartridge is appropriate for the type of printing and the volume of printing you will be doing. You will have to do some research and you can find much of this information on the internet, through the manufacturer or through stores that deal in the particular printer you are looking at.

Discount ink cartridges are available online. All you have to do is type ink cartridges or printer cartridges into your search engine. Some sites offer amazing discounts. Again you are going to have to search for the deal that is best for you. Pay attention to the cartridge top when purchasing them. Check the sides of the box for a list of models the cartridge will work in.

There is a time line below that has some really interesting facts.
This would make a great list of answers for a trivia game. I cannot imagine the hard work that created the ink jet printer cartridge, as we know it. It is easy to understand why cartridges are expensive.

1452 - Gutenberg used oil-based ink, moveable type, and an old winepress to make the first printing press.
Martin Luther began the Protestant reformation making extensive use of the printing press.

1714 - The typewriter was born. Schematics that were done by Mills were discovered however, there is no proof that any typewriters were actually made.

1874 - Christopher Sholes, Samuel Soule, and Carlos Glidden made a keyboard that became known as the “qwerty” because of the first five keys on the top row of the keyboard.

1894 - Franz Wagner developed a typewriter that is very similar to the ones made today. He created a design that let the typists watch as they were typing. Previously, paper would go through a roller as you typed and you could not see what you typed until you were done.

1897 - Underwood (by John Underwood) was the prototypical typewriter of its day.

1939 - Charles Carlson developed electrography, which is the first dry writing technique developed in the United States.

1949 - Haloid Company began to commercially developed electrography for the first time.

1959 - Xerox 914 hit the market and forced other businesses to update their communication systems.

1969 - Xerox first introduced dry printing (laser printing) by Gary Starkweather.

1078 - Xerox put out the world’s first business laser printer the Xerox 9700. It copied documents at the speed of 120 ppm (pages per minute)

1979 - The IBM 3800 could print out 20,000 lines per minute.
1980’s - The use of toner cartridges became obsolete.

1984 - Hewlett-Packard released the first home-based desktop laser printer.

About the Author
Martin Smith is a successful freelance writer providing advice for consumers on purchasing a variety of
Discount ink cartridges which includes
Cheap ink cartridge, if you have time drop by his site for some tips and information.

Five Band Resistor Color Code-What Does The Last Band Of White Color Represent?

In electronic repair, most of the time i came across five band resistor color code. The purpose of using the five colour band resistor in a circuit is that it provide a more accurate value compare to the four color band. For example in order to get the value of 22.6kohm, with four colors band resistor you will not be able to find it. The most you can get is 22k
(red,red,orange and gold). If with the five color band you will be able to calculate it (red, red, blue, red, brown)the last color which is brown represent 1% tolerance. You may go to google search engine and type resistor color code, resistor color coding, resistor color code calculator, or resistor color code chart to know more about how to calculate a five band resistor values.

If you open up an analog multimeter you will understand what i mean. Most of the resistor circuit inside
the multimeter are using five color band. Why? Because the reading that you get whenever you measure current,
voltage or ohm, the panel will show the nearest value. For instance, if you measure a 9v battery
the needle will point to may be 8.9v,9v,or 9.1 volt. If that particular multimeter was designed
using four color band resistor the result that it gets may be 8.5v,9.5v or even 10 volt. In other
words the use of five color band resistor is to make a circuit more precise and output the desire
result as what the engineers want it to be.

There’s a interesting five color band resistor which is unique.
In fact i have already seen quite a number of them. I will reveal the calculation about this
unique five color band resistor. The colors are orange, orange, red, gold, white.
Actually it is a four color band resistor. Just ignore the white color and proceed to calculate
using the four color band formula. As to why the resistor manufacturers add this ‘extra’ white
band i really do not know. However, from forum someone said that it is for the military purposes.
If you know the answer i would like you to email me so that i can share with other fellow
electronic repairer thru this info repairing newsletter.

Jestine Yong is a electronic repairer and a writer. For more information on electronic repair please visit his website at
http://www.noahtec.com/electronic-repair-articles.htm

Does Size Really Matter In Our Digital Age?

Well, we’ve all seen the advert, but that’s not what I want to talk about, so get that out of your head straight away. No, let’s think about what many call the “Queen of Arts” - namely painting.

Have you ever wandered around a huge Art Gallery and marvelled at the works by Tintoretto, Raphael, Constable or any master painter who has produced huge canvasses? Then again, we have many fine examples of beautiful artwork in cameos and miniatures. In fact, in all sizes between these two extremes the evidence of creative genius can be found down through the ages.

However, it’s patently obvious that the correlation between size and creative genius is poor. Mere size on the premise, “never mind the quality feel the width” is not the prime element of a masterpiece. Yes we are fascinated by the Sistine Chapel, for example, by the sheer scale of the paintings, but it’s the genius of the painter that draws the eye. It’s also true though that the artist tugs at our heartstrings by the wealth of detail that working in a large format permits.

In the same way, large format and medium format cameras have traditionally been the working tools of professional photographers for many, many years. In a previous article, I suggested that there would always be room for film, especially for users of the larger formats.

Now, we get to the nub of the matter, because in digital parlance, the wealth of detail evident in the larger formats is expressed as the size of the file. Unlike physical dimensions which cannot be changed once the work has been committed to the recording medium, be it film or indeed canvas size, the digital file is not so restricted.

Of course, when image size is changed from the original during, say, image compression, there is generally a loss in quality e.g. jpeg Even the use of a lossless transformation doesn’t add anything to the image, it merely preserves what’s there.

However, there is a revolutionary item of image manipulation software that does totally “change the picture” It comes as a Photoshop plug-in with Photoshop 6.0 or higher and it’s called “Genuine Fractals” and here is what the originators claim,

By saving your digital image with this package as a very small stn file, you can create lossless files of up to 70Mb and beyond. After saving and re-opening this file in Photoshop, Genuine Fractal kicks in and you can easily produce files of a specified size

I was stunned by this software and began to wonder what the impact might be for both digital photographers and medium/large format professionals. Of course, as already stated, this increased size does NOT put extra information into the shot. There again, neither does making a 67 dupe of a 35mm slide improve image quality and many photographers still do that when submitting to libraries.

Digital photographers may get even more benefits by beefing up the file size using Genuine Fractals, before printing out enlargements. This could be very useful for Wedding Photographers who want the convenience of using a digital camera, but are unhappy about the quality of enlargements often requested. Using Genuine Fractals may save time effort and money by eliminating the need for a film backup camera.

On the other hand, it may be that Genuine Fractals may produce the best result with photos captured from film and then scanned, because noise in the original image is not removed when enlarged, in fact it will be more obvious. This means that mid-range digital camera shots are likely to fare worse on enlargment than film shots captured with 10 million pixels+

With a new version Genuine Fractals 3.5 just released, it could be worth a test and could be a worthwhile investment too. So, if you want to explore this a little more, get a copy of Amateur Photographer for 23 October 2004 and read their review of this exciting software.

You can get a free test copy of the software itself from this link: http://www.dcp-systems.co.uk

Why bother with a medium format camera if 35mm caressed by this Software will do instead? Oh I know I’ll get lectures from purists for even suggesting something so daft, given superior lenses and better optics, but for some people that may be just overkill. If this article has opened up the possibility of a better working method for some freelances, that’s all that matters.

So don’t please run around telling your mates that size does not matter and that I’ve assigned medium format cameras to the dustbin of history. No, I’m just shining the spotlight on that funny old coin digital/film and giving it a flick in the air. Who knows how it will land? At least I’ve got a 50-50 chance of being right!

About The Author

One of a series of articles by Robert Hartness, successful freelance and author of an hotlinked, flip-over, e-book, published on the web in October 2004. It offers a step-by-step guide to those on the threshold of freelance photography and is illustrated with 40+ published photographs. Acclaimed as a great reference source for serious freelancers. More information and order link - http://www.cashfromyourcamera.com Press Release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/10/prweb168698.php

Bluetooth Basics - Bluetooth Technology Tutorial

Bluetooth Basics

Bluetooth technology is nothing new, but in many respects it still seems to be more of a buzz word rather than a well understood, commonly accepted technology. You see advertisements for Bluetooth enabled cell phones, PDAs, and laptops, and a search of the Geeks.com website shows all sorts of different devices taking advantage of this wireless standard. But, what is it?

History

Before getting into the technology, the word Bluetooth is intriguing all on its own, and deserves a look. The term is far less high tech than you might imagine, and finds its roots in European history. The King of Denmark from 940 to 981 was renowned for his ability to help people communicate, his name (in English)… Harald Bluetooth. Perhaps a bit obscure, but the reference is appropriate for a wireless communications standard.

Another item worth investigating is the Bluetooth logo. Based on characters from the runic alphabet (used in ancient Denmark), it was chosen as it appears to be the combination of the English letter B and an asterisk.

Capabilities

The FAQ on the Bluetooth.org (https://www.bluetooth.org/) website offers a basic definition: “Bluetooth wireless technology is a worldwide specification for a small-form factor, low-cost radio solution that provides links between mobile computers, mobile phones, other portable handheld devices, and connectivity to the Internet.”

Just like 802.11 b/g wireless networking systems and many cordless telephones, Bluetooth devices operate on 2.4 GHz radio signals. That band seems to be getting a bit crowded, and interference between devices may be difficult to avoid. Telephones are now being offered on the 5.8 GHz band to help remedy this, and Bluetooth has taken its own steps to reduce interference and improve transmission quality. Version 1.1 of the Bluetooth standard greatly reduces interference issues, but requires completely different hardware from the original 1.0C standard, thus eliminating any chance of backwards compatibility.

The typical specifications of Bluetooth indicate a maximum transfer rate of 723 kbps and a range of 20-100 meters (65 to 328 feet - depending on the class of the device). This speed is a fraction of that offered by 802.11 b or g wireless standards, so it is obvious that Bluetooth doesn’t pose a threat to replace your wireless network. Although it is very similar to 802.11 in many ways, Bluetooth was never intended to be a networking standard, but does have many practical applications.

Practical Applications

There are a variety of products that take advantage of Bluetooth’s capabilities, from laptops and PDAs, to headphones and input devices, and even wireless printer adapters.

Many Laptops include an onboard Bluetooth adaptor to allow the system to connect to any Bluetooth device right out of the box. For laptop or desktop systems that do not have an adaptor built in, there are many USB Bluetooth adaptors available.

Bluetooth enabled PDAs allow for convenient wireless synchronization and data transfer.

Headphones can take advantage of Bluetooth for two purposes… audio playback and mobile phone communications. Using something a mobile headset with a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone allows anyone to go hands free, as well as wire free.

Logitech, and other manufacturers, also produce input devices that eliminate wires thanks to Bluetooth. You can add a Bluetooth mouse to your system, or both a mouse and keyboard. One advantage that Bluetooth wireless keyboard/mouse combinations have over the standard RF wireless keyboard/mouse combinations is range. Where most standard RF keyboard/mouse combinations have a range up to 6 feet; a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse combination will usually have a range of up to 30 feet.

Bluetooth printer adaptors make sharing a printer extremely convenient by eliminating the need for any wires or special configurations on a typical network. Printing to any compatible HP printer from a PC, PDA or mobile phone can now be done easily from anywhere in the office.

Final Words

At this point the popularity of Bluetooth might not be as large as some proponents would have hoped, but many devices are available for those interested. The cost and competition from other standards have hindered the widespread acceptance, but Bluetooth does offer a viable solution to many devices that might not have wireless connectivity without it.

Computer Geeks tech tips and computer advice

Introducing Be Genki at Scinboutique

Scinboutique stock only the highest quality natural and organic skincare and from November a new range will be joining the family; The Australian brand Be Genki comprises of simple, natural products made with only the best natural ingredients in four different blends to add a little essential oil goodness to your lifestyle and give you gorgeous glowing skin…

The Japanese word ‘Genki’ means ‘to be happy, healthy and in harmony with oneself’. Visit Scinboutique to choose your favourites from the gorgeous range of Be Genki products to holistically sooth your body and soul. These unique natural cosmetics and pick-me-ups for the mind, body and home, harness the healing qualities of pure essential oils to equally balance your physical, emotional and spiritual elements to create a tranquil self and provide a refreshing break from the fast paced contemporary lifestyle.

Here’s the good stuff about the Australian made products… Only the finest quality natural ingredients are used in Be Genki cosmetics to work with the body’s natural physiology and promote a healthy glowing complexion and feeling of content. Be Genki products are free of genetically modified ingredients, artificial colours and fragrances, fillers, parabens, sulphates, phlatates or petrochemicals. Each single ingredient in Be Genki product has an individual benefit.

The Australian made and owned products are kept in simple amber bottles and jars to protect them from heat, sunlight and air, and maximise the shelf life and effectiveness. The cosmetics are never tested on animals, are packaged in environmentally friendly recyclable bottles, jars, and boxes.

The Be Genki range consists of bath/shower oil, body oil, body cream, hand cream, perfume balm, lip balm, face mist, oil blends and herbal teas, each in four distinctly delicious blends with a unique scent and purpose…

The ‘Vitality’ range of products contain a blend of Peppermint, Eucalyptus and Rosemary essential oils and Lemon oil which is reputed to lift the spirits and overcome mental fatigue; to be used in the morning or to provide a little ‘pick me up’ when you’re feeling lethargic!

Products in the ‘Tranquillity’ range contain Sweet Orange, Lavender, Roman Chamomile and Sandalwood essential oils. They are designed to be used in the evening to unwind from the day and prepare for sleep. Lavender oil is used to treat insomnia as it acts as a sedative, calming calming the mind, comforting feelings and alleviating fears.

The ‘Serenity’ range of products contain a blend of Bergamot, Rosewood, Palmarosa, Neroli and Rose essential oils. They can be used at any time to bring about a sense of calm. Neroli oil is wonderful at relieving states of anxiety and depression. It is considered one of the best oils to calm and stabilise the heart and mind.

The ‘Sensuality’ range is made from a blend of Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Bergamot, Melissa, Jasmine and Rose essential oils. They products evoke feelings of love and desire. Rose oil can work as a gentle aphrodisiac or to sooth a sad heart.

Video Encryption

What is Video Encryption?

Video Encryption is an extremely useful method for the stopping unwanted interception and viewing of any transmitted video or other information, for example from a law enforcement video surveillance being relayed back to a central viewing centre.

The scrambling is the easy part. It is the un-encryption that’s hard, but there are several techniques that are available. However, the human eye is very good at, spotting distortions in pictures due to poor video decoding or poor choice of video scrambling hardware. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right hardware or else your video transmissions may be un-secure or your decoded video may not be watchable.

Some of the more popular techniques are detailed below:

Line Inversion:

Method: Whole or parts of the signal scan lines are inverted.
Advantages: Simple, cheap video encryption.
Disadvantages: Poor video decrypting quality, low obscurity, low security.

Sync Suppression:

Method: Hide/remove the horizontal/vertical line syncs.

Advantages: Provides a low cost solution to Encryption and provides good quality video decoding.

Disadvantages: This method is incompatible with some distribution equipment. Obscurity (i.e. how easy it is to visually decipher the image) is dependant on video content.

Line Shuffle:

Method: Each signal line is re-ordered on the screen.

Advantages: Provides a compatible video signal, a reasonable amount of obscurity, good decode quality.

Disadvantages: Requires a lot of digital storage space. There are potential issues with video stability. Less secure than the cut and rotate encryption method (see below)

Cut & Rotate:

Scrambling Method: Each scan line is cut into pieces and re-assembled in a different order.

Advantages: Provides a compatible video signal, gives an excellent amount of obscurity, as well as good decode quality and stability.

Disadvantages: Can have complex timing control and requires specialized scrambling equipment

The cut and rotate video encryption method is probably the best way of achieving reliable and good quality video encryption, an example of a good implementation of this system is in the Viewlock II

Implementing vice scrambling

The video scrambling hardware, in particular the decoder should function correctly even if there is a noisy (for example having what are commonly known as ’snow’ on the screen. ‘Snow’ is when there are flecks on your TV screen, often seen in poor reception areas) or unstable signal. If the link to the encrypted signal should stop working then this should not be a problem. The link between the video encoder and video decoder should be regained and the decryption quickly continued.

The very nature of security camera systems is that they are often outdoors as so must be able to withstand the rigours of the weather. The video encryption hardware should be stable under or protected from the effects of rain, sunlight, extreme heat and cold. It should not be damaged if there is a power spike in the supply. In these systems the video encoder emits a wireless signal to the video decoder unit before it is viewed, it obviously must be the case that the very act of broadcasting the signal does not effect the video encoding hardware and likewise the video encoding hardware should not effect the radio transmitter.

The most important item is that the video scrambling system should be secure, else why bother? It is amazing how some encryption methods can easily be cracked. For example certain cable television stations ‘encrypt’ their channel broadcasts via a relatively un complex method, which can easily be decoded using a number of cheap bits of electronics from radio shack. That would obviously be illegal! The cable TV’s method of encryption is very crude, they usually just dynamically alter the vertical sync signal so that your TV cannot get a proper lock on it and so it scrolls randomly.

The other extreme is to scramble the transmitted video signal too much so that it is costly both in equipment and time to the video at the receiver. Remember that this is a ‘live’ video scrambling broadcast followed by a ‘live’ video decryption display. ANY electronics can be copied, given enough money and time, but making this process as hard as possible is of benefit as it at least delays the time when illegal copies will be available.

Finally and most obviously each user must have a unique encryption key so that other users of the system cannot view the transmitted video by accident or purpose without the key owners knowledge. The total number of possible user keys must be such that it is highly unlikely for someone to guess the correct key.

Ovation Systems are specialists in the design and manufacture of high quality covert video surveillance equipment. Products include the Viewlock II video encryption system.