One statement I’ve made over and over in my writings, and every time I speak on the topic of computers, is that there are only 11 major parts in a PC. If you think you can connect just eleven items, then you can build your own.

Recently a gentleman who was interested in building a computer wrote to me. In his letter he said, "I opened up the side of my old machine just to see what it looked like in there. I wanted to get an idea of how complicated it was before I tried building one myself. There were cables going every which way. Are you sure there are only eleven items to connect?"

After a bit of questioning back and forth by email, we determined that my new friend had a very early Pentium that had served him well through the years. In the era of his computer, virtually every port on the back of the case had to connect to the motherboard by means of a ribbon cable. I was building computers back then, and it was a bit like wrestling a squid.

Now, all of those ports are hard-wired to the motherboard, as can be seen in my book "Building a PC for Beginners". There’s no more trying to plug in everything in a three square inch area. The inside of a computer is much less congested, making the assembly process way simpler than it was.

Another great step to simplify things took place when case and motherboard manufacturers agreed on standardizing screw hole locations. Now you can be sure that the holes for the standoffs that support the motherboard will match with the holes in the case. At one time this wasn’t so.

Michael Quarles is the publisher of Monkey See Monkey Do Books.

We live in an area that has begun to use Green
Bins for household waste. Our regular garbage
is picked up every other week and the only
weekly garbage collection is our green plastic
bins, to be filled with leftover food products
and other organic waste.

When the program first started, I was sure
we could never change our ways, but before
long, depositing bones and leftover food in
the bin became automatic.

Why am I telling you this? Because using the
computer will also become easy for you the
more you try. Sure, the learning curve is
steeper than remembering which container
to use for which type of garbage, but the
idea is the same. Every time you perform a
function or solve a problem on your computer,
it will be easier than the time before.

This week, I read a book written by Bill Gates
in 1996 titled ‘The Road Ahead’. Gates said,
"Computers frighten almost everyone
(everyone but children), before they learn to
use them. When people spend more time with
computers, they understand them better.
You can start by playing computer games or
doing other simple things. Once you start
using them, I think you’ll like them."

With the Internet, we can keep in touch with
old friends and make new ones; have virtual
experiences of flying an airplane, driving a
car, even dissecting a toad. Pilots and doctors
practice their work without worrying about
accidents. Every school can have a wonderful
library thanks to the Internet.

Gates saw then how much our world would
change because of computers. Banking and
shopping online, distance learning, the ability
to telecommute and work from home - all of
these grew as software became better and
more powerful.

Gates talked about his own futuristic house.
Anyone in the house wore an electronic pin that
told the house who and where you were. When
it got dark, the pin would turn on lights nearby
and turn them off when you went away. Music
would play near you and the phone ring nearby
only if the call was for you. A home control
console activated choices of lighting, music,
and temperature. That was in 1996, so who
knows what his home is like now!

The book ended with a cartoon showing a mutt
using a computer and saying "On the Internet,
nobody know’s you’re a dog." How true - on
the Internet, we are all on equal ground.

When in my 40’s, the university library where I worked was computerized. The thought of using those machines at my age was so intimidating that I moved to another department. I transferred back a year later, determined to learn.

To my surprise, computers were easier to use than I imagined, and so enjoyable that I went back to school full-time.

(c) Carol Bremner 2003
cabremner@creativehomecomputing.com
projects - hints - products
www.creativehomecomputing.com

There are a lot of remarkably cheap PCs on the market. Only a few hundred dollars will get you a basic model that will have you on the internet, download photos from your digital camera, and help you balance your checkbook. Since this is the case, why should you even consider building your computer yourself?

It would be very hard to build a low-end computer for less than it would cost to buy one ready made. Once, this wasn’t so. A plain-Jane PC just a few years ago could cost over a $1000. Techno geeks, like myself, could buy the parts for between $450 and $600. The savings were tremendous. An afternoon could be enjoyably spent putting one together, much as some people build model ships and such.

Now, if you search relentlessly for bargain parts, you may be able to meet the price of those low end store bought PCs. But price alone isn’t the only reason to build a computer.

The best reason for building a computer is the knowledge you’ll gain. If you ever need to install a bigger hard drive, or add more RAM, you’ll know how. You won’t be at the mercy of $40 technicians. Whatever need arises, you’ll be able to handle it.

High end computers, those sought by gamers, and graphics artists, can be built far cheaper than what you’ll pay in a retail setting. Wise parts shoppers who are willing to spend some time on the internet and at swap meets can save hundreds by building their dream PC themselves.

To learn how to build a computer, my guidebook, "Building A PC For Beginners" is available, as are several others.

Michael Quarles is the publisher at Monkey See Monkey Do Books

Offering secure public Internet access is not as easy as it may seem. As the IT manager for a mid-sized public library, it’s become apparent to me that creating a secure network of library workstations for use by the public is more important than ever before. System administrators have the responsibility of protecting the library’s networks and systems, while ensuring quality and speedy service to all patrons. Offering public Internet access requires a dynamic security plan that is constantly under revision, taking into account the technical changes of the times. Traditionally, the software options available for help in this regard come at a significant price, often forcing libraries to spend thousands of dollars securing their computer rooms.

Sold per module or license, many of these software solutions offer a variety of features, but often fall short of actually securing the workstation. Plagued with stability issues, it’s not uncommon for many of these security solutions to crash and leave an administrative-level desktop open for public use. After test-driving a seemingly endless amount of pro-active protection software packages, the PC’s I administrate were still accumulating spy ware, browser hijacks, and tracking cookies on a daily basis. That is, until I came across the completely free software solution that actually does what others claim to — tightly secure any and every Windows 2000/XP Pro workstation.

The Public Access Computer Security Tool is a complete software security system designed by, and offered freely through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Designed for any public access computer that runs Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional, it helps keep workstations secure by restricting public access to the machine, and creating customizable profile environments to meet patron needs, without compromising the ever-important administrative access to the terminal.

So how does the Public Access Computer Security Tool work? By utilizing three separate layers of pro-active security restrictions (system restrictions, profiles, and profile restrictions), patron access is limited to a desktop completely configurable by the Administrator, and locked down at the policy level. This results in a computer environment that performs flawlessly, despite the “heavy use” factor that’s become synonymous with the public access computing world.

After installing and configuring the Public Access Computer Security Tool on our library’s ten public access Internet machines, the days of spy ware, instant messengers, and search bars are now behind us. I’m confident our public access terminals are now properly secure. Stability is not an issue any more; the operating system itself is reconfigured to disable access to sensitive parts of the machine. There’s absolutely no way for patrons to intentionally or accidentally disrupt the functioning of the computer, as they are limited to the software we’ve given them access to.

Best of all, libraries on the tightest of budgets can use the Public Access Computer Security Tool for every public access terminal in the building, and not owe a single dollar. The software is completely free and requires no license/registrations. As an IT administrator, if you’re shopping around for public access solutions, I suggest you check out the Public Access Computer Security Tool. Further information and links to downloading the tool at available at: http://www.pacomputing.org/PACTool/pactoolhome.aspx.

Jim Frank is the Head of Computer Services for the Berwyn Public Library. He can be reached by emailing jiminberwyn@gmail.com. A support forum for the Public Access Security Tool can be found by visiting http://www.securepc.org. (NOTE TO EDITORS: This article may be edited for publication in your newsletter or on your website, but must include the author’s name, and the title of the article.)

The ability to easily move data from PC to PC with minimal inconvenience is just another benefit computers have brought to the current business world.

Over the past few years, the different options to save and move data have multiplied dramatically. Usually the floppy disk (with it’s 1.2 MB limitation), ZIP drives, CD-R’s & CD-RW’s, and even tape backups are the common ways to move data on non-networked PC’s.

The latest innovation, the USB Removable Flash Memory (Thumb Drive, Key Drive, Flash Drive, USB Drive, Micro Drive) brings a whole new meaning to easy transport of data. These USB compliant devices are small enough to fit on a key ring or carry in your shirt pocket.

As a way to protect sensitive information, the security of one of these drives can’t be beat. It’s in your pocket!

Their size belies a huge data storage volume; the current sizes start at 16MB and go up to 4GB. The pricing on these devices is steadily falling, making the purchase of one of these handy drives almost a must have item.

Check out the accessories at your local computer store or go online to get the best deal.

For very little cost you can now conveniently move data between PC’s just as easily as accessing the data on your internal hard drive.

© 2004 ODEC

Mike Burstein has been helping the SOHO and Small Business community grow & prosper for over 20 years by solving start up problems, creating best practices, automating their offices, getting free publicity and dramatically increasing traffic and sales.

Visit http://www.SOHOWiz.com for the latest FREE business tips.

Email the Wiz at: SOHOWiz@SOHOWiz.com

When it comes to sales of technology products over the Internet, there are now two factors that potential buyers must consider as possibly ‘too good to be true’. In the past, there was only price to worry about. If the price was too low, buyer beware. But now a second factor has emerged, in the form of a new kind of company for web surfers to consider as possibly also ‘too good to be true’. For if this company is ‘good’, then a new revolution on the web is about to occur. Because if this company is ‘true’, then the cleansing of the internet of corruption and lies has finally begun in earnest, with one company willing to police itself.

Enter TheHonestCompany.com, a website where its founder posts his experiences with internet fraud and his motives for fighting back against a corrupt web right on their home page. A trip to this companies ‘about us’ page serves to quickly establish their position as the anti-fraud internet company, numbering abusive tactics used by hoaxsters and detailing their humble beginnings from an LA area backyard garage to a B2B powerhouse that now offers almost 100,000 computer related items from a network of 23 distribution centers nationwide.

This may someday be ‘made for the movies’ stuff if it’s true. Move over Microsoft, Apple, and HP – here’s what could (hopefully) be the beginning of another rags to riches story with an ‘honest’ plot twist! An honest reseller bashes Internet scammers, preferring to do business the hard way – the honest way. Are we dreaming? Could this be real? Could the days when ‘The Customer is King’ be making a comeback in of all places, the web?

TheHonestCompany.com expects to earn a significant portion of the home and SMB computing technology markets web-based sales over the next few years.

“Top-tier technology resellers like CDW and CompUSA will not bother us as we will not impact them. They have decent reputations, loyal customers, and higher prices. It’s the second-tier, priced-based 90% of their smaller competitors that we are fighting,” says the founder of TheHonestCompany.com, David Johnston, “Those guys have corrupted the Internet and seriously hurt honest companies like ours. Every-time some scam web company rips off a customer, somewhere else a real person at a real company gets hurt too. By using honesty as a weapon, we intend bring the web consumer something they are starving for by making the web a better place to shop – it’s a dirty job that no other company was willing to be the first to start doing.”

According to David, Internet technology consumers have no idea of the great extent that fraud permeates the web. He says that if every web consumer knew what he knew about the extent of internet fraud, they’d pick one or two honest, technology web sales companies to do business with and lay low for awhile, because he says he’s got some serious mud to start slinging as his company gears up for an upcoming advertising and marketing blitz. ”There’s a massive pack of internet companies pretending to be real when they are not. Most other legitimate web companies have been acting rather sheepish. I intend to kill wolves by exposing them as what they really are to the Internet public.”

David is a man on a mission, passionate and articulate in his vision of his companies place on the web and their future. He leaves no doubt about this as he summarizes his company’s identity.

“TheHonestCompany.com is transforming the web purchasing experience by providing web shoppers with a trusted, reliable source of technology products along with prices far below those of most traditionally recognized web retailers. With a staff of top-notch industry professionals at its core, offering prompt and full service to each and every customer, The Company encourages phone calls from any customer with questions or comments before, during, and after a purchase. TheHonestCompany.com does not outsource, does not spam, and does not sell or share its customer’s personal information. The company operates as a safe-haven for the price conscious customer leery of unbelievable prices from no-name websites, restoring confidence in buying over the web. This is business done right.” Bravo, David. Honestly, it’s about time!

Derek Kadonaga has worked in the retail technology industry for over 10 years, first as an executive with CompUSA. In the past several years he has applied his industry knowledge to helping technology start-ups.

Business Consultants earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every year showing businesses how to improve their productivity. All business consultants in the Information Technology area agree that the biggest threat to business survival is data loss.

There are many different data backup solutions available on the Internet today. Unlike years past there are not only different providers but also many different methods of data backup. Some solutions are “on-site” based methods. These include tape drives or other magnetic storage media, DVD-R and CD-R based methods and NAS (network attached storage) methods of creating local (within the LAN) backups of critical data. These methods of data backup are definitely better than nothing, and can provide protection against user error, data corruption, and in some cases even computer theft (that is if the data backup equipment itself isn’t also stolen) and many of the other pitfalls associated with digital media.

But what about protection against the most powerful of all forces, Mother Nature?

Hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and other natural disasters are a serious potential threat to the crucial data you have stored within your computer network. Add into the equation the collateral damage of flooding and fire that often comes along with Mother Nature’s wrath and you have a recipe for some serious data loss in the unfortunate event that one of these uncommon, but critically devastating, events occur. In most cases your existing backup solution would be useless and would suffer the same peril as your original data.

The answer is simple: Have a complete, up-to-date copy of your data stored at a different location. You should back up your data using an offsite data backup service. Offsite data backups allow you to store mission critical digital files in a secure, remote location. When you store data in an offsite location you are doubling the protection of your most import data files and enabling a level of security that even the best on-premises data backup solutions can’t provide.

Your data is encrypted and backed up over your existing internet connection to a secure server. You can set it up to perform backups at any frequency you wish. You can even set up the system to schedule backups while the office is empty on weekends and evenings, or when the computers are idle for a certain period of time (great for those systems that need to be accessed 24/7 and cannot afford the potential downtime that may be incurred due to backup procedures being run at the time).

Mother Nature is a concern for the integrity of your critical data. All smart businesses understand this.

Your DATA is your LIFE. Protect it!

Harald Anderson is a freelance writer and webmaster for http://www.online-remote-data-backup.com an online backup service. Experience the Digital Peace of Mind that safe, secure, encrypted online data backups can offer. Online Backups

Keeping up with the latest spy gear is a great way to make sure that you are at the cutting edge of surveillance. As technology becomes more advanced, spy gear becomes better and easier to hide. Two of the most recent developments in high tech surveillance have to do with cell phones and with GPS tracking. Both of these technologies have been around for quite some time, but the latest incarnations, cell phone bugs and the Spy Matrix GPS, offer capabilities unparalleled to this date.

Cell phone spy gear has become very sophisticated. There are mini GPS trackers that you can put in cell phones and know where that phone is. That is great for keeping track of teenagers. Additionally, they are helpful in that you can find a loved one who might be in trouble simple by seeing where the cell phone is.

However, there are even more sophisticated possibilities with cell phones. You can purchase a phone that will allow you to listen in on other people’s conversations. Simply give the phone bug to whomever you want to listen in on, and whenever they make a call, or when someone calls her or him, the phone you carry rings. You can hear the whole conversation. Even better, the phone actually works as a regular cell phone, allowing you to make and receive calls.

The Spy Matrix GPS is the ultimate in global positioning tracking spy gear. It is the smallest real time tracker to date, and includes one of the best mapping systems on the market. This is technology that the spies in the CIA use. Spy Matrix is so small that it can even fit in a purse. Plus, it is more portable than traditional car tracking systems. It can be easily hidden in the car so that a thief won’t even know it is there (and thus won’t know to disable it).

Spy gear is constantly evolving to meet the needs of those who use it. Additionally, with technology advancing as it is, you will be able to do even more. But for now, cell phone bugs and the Spy Matrix GPS are top of the line products that everyone interested in surveillance should include in their spy gear.

(c) 2005 Copyright www.spyassociates.com. This article is about: Spy Gear.

To learn more about Spy and Surveillance Products visit http://www.spyassociates.com Read other related articles at http://spyassociates.blogspot.com/

In 1962, a group of brilliant engineers have postulated the RS232 serial communications protocol, and until 1998 everybody worked with this communications channel very well. It was present on all PCs, until recently. Today, if you will check the newest models of computers on sale, you are going to discover more than half of the tower/desktop PCs do not have the serial RS232 connector (DB 9), and for certain no laptops have it. This is due to a group of only seven companies: they have figured out they can easily milk more money from users and developers, if they force the implementation of a “better” alternative to the old RS232.

Things are this way. A communications channel should be just what it is: a simple hardware communications channel. Each software routine or hardware module should be capable of accessing the communications channel easily, just by configuring it, and this is exactly the case of the RS232 protocol. Since 1962 millions of applications have been written based on RS232 serial communications, and some of them are technical, unique and very expensive. According to the most basic rule in the digital world, which says “backwards compatibility”, it was logic and natural that RS232 was going to be upgraded to higher speeds, and smaller interface connectors. Unfortunately, logic does not sell very well these days.

The reverse of the good, decent logic says: “Why not make the serial communications channel very difficult to implement? Let’s make that communications channel driver so difficult to implement that people would be glad to pay money to have it already done. In addition, we could make this new serial communications channel strictly dependant, so that it will work only on one particular version of Operating System; for different OS versions, they will have to pay more money! Even more, if somebody is smart enough to develop this new serial communications channel driver, then that person or company will have to pay an annual subscription fee of, say, 10000 up to 20000 USD, in order to sell his or their products.”

“Wait a minute; we can also sell a unique code number with each new driver, named ‘Vendor’s Code’ so that only the big companies are going to afford getting one. The medium and small developers, and the public eventually, will have to pay for it!”

“Could we make it worse?”

“Yes, we can take out all ‘free of charge’ RS232 connectors, from all PCs, so that everybody will have to implement the ‘better’ communications channels. Ha, ha!”

“Can we make it even worse?”

“Yes, we do have many possibilities to make it worse, but we will implement them gradually, one at a time, so that our new source of wealth will never dry out!”

“Now, to add insult to the injury, I suggest naming the new communications protocol “universal”: the Universal Serial Bus!”

“Ha, ha, ha!”

A communications channel it is just like a necessary tool: you grab it and work with it, then you put it back where you took it from. You do not need to work for 3 or 4 months to develop a “driver” for that channel–nobody did it with RS232. Today, implementing USB communications in a small project it is more demanding that the project itself, for most applications, and it is so expensive that small and medium developers cannot afford doing it: they have to buy USB drivers from “qualified-vendors”!

Sure, the qualified-vendors are also selling RS232-to-USB adaptors, but this is still lots of extra costs added to the totally free RS232 interface we had. However, what is really alarming is, the trend is to eliminate any trace of free communications channels, from all PCs! With little efforts today, the international community of developers and IEEE could get together and reinstate the old RS232 serial communications channel, based on an upgraded and (easily) backwards compatible new RS232 protocol. This is not very difficult and I offer my help.

Please note; besides from being intentionally very difficult to implement and costly, the USB protocol it is a proprietary one. That group of seven companies I mentioned has a license on it! This is not right, because PC architecture it is public domain, and same is the old, reliable, RS232 serial communications channel. They belong to all of us, and it is our right and duty to protect public domain from being stolen. If we do not defend our rights, now, rest assured we are going to see more parts of our PCs becoming the property of few groups of companies, one by one.

O G POPA is Professional Engineer in BC, Canada. His home site is Corollary Theorems at http://www.corollarytheorems.com

TiVo will change your life… for the better. Plain and simple: record shows by telling TiVo to record them (not when, what channel, how long, etc.), record all new episodes of X, record all movies w/ so-and-so in them, etc.

High Points:

Most people know the basics of the concept. Here’s the low-down on the things I’m asked most…

1. You can record one thing and watch something else already recorded.

2. You can get a dual tuner TiVo, but you’ll need two SEPARATE feeds to the TiVo (i.e., two lines from your satellite dish). Then you can record 2 things at once or watch one/record another. These are more expensive, but you can get a DirecTiVo w/ dual tuner cheaper and then the monthly TiVo fee is about half normal.

3. Pause live TV - if you don’t realize the value of this, I can’t explain it.

TiVo has many different versions which all some slight variations. If you want to go beyond ‘average guy’ level, check out this forum.

Comparison to ReplayTV:

TiVo seems to have a better interface from what I’ve seen and what others have said. It’s easier to use. However, ReplayTV is more easily hackable - you can access it from the web and the PC easier to convert/archive shows, etc. I have a DVD recorder for this which is another post for another time.

Both can be made to do mostly the same things, but you get the idea.

My Suggestion

I recommend the DirecTiVo Hughes HDVR2 (dual tuner) w/ the Triple LNB dish (this is the oval dish w/ 4 lines from it and it’s HDTV ready). It’s got the satellite converter box built in so it’s only one box to deal w/, the TiVo monthly fee is less and it’s dual tuner.

This model isn’t as hackable as some TiVo’s, but it can do some and if you want to go beyond the basics than you probably haven’t read this far.

Sites:

http://www.dvrinfospot.com

http://www.TiVo.com

http://www.TiVoCommunity.com

http://www.WeaKnees.com

…and, of course, The Armchair Geek (see below).

Bear Cahill is a software engineer in the Dallas, TX area and runs a few websites: The Armchair Geek (thearmchairgeek.com), Webpage Hosting Info (webpagehostinginfo.com), Go To College Online (gotocollegeonline.com) and The Video Exchange Community (videoexchange.org)

Publish freely if this resource box is included and links maintained as links.