The usual perception is that VoIP is so cheap because everything costs less on the World Wide Web. There’s high competition, and very low overheads etc. However you need to understand the history of the telcos and their relationship with computer networks, and the way data actually gets around the web. An knowledge of this is necessary to fully comprehend the riddle behind the VoIP vs. POTS pricing riddle.

Long before computer networks became important telcos were using digital communication. At the start the very first digital voice circuit was used in Chicago in 1962 although ARPANET, the forerunner to today’s Internet, wasn’t up and running until 1969. The telecommunication companies used these digital circuits to make lots of voice connections over long distances something that analogue circuits were unable to do and they continue to use them for this purpose today.

Voice communication has a few unique characteristics. For one thing, it’s intrinsically real-time. You’d get frustrated if phone calls consisted of long periods of silence followed by several seconds of high-speed playback to catch up with the conversation on the other end. To prevent this from happening digital voice circuits provide guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). Once a connection is provisioned, you’ll always get exactly the amount of bandwidth you need. It’s not just bandwidth though; latency is also carefully controlled by using small, fixed sized data packets. The point is these networks were specially designed for voice communication.

When computer networks began emerging in the 1980s companies wanted in. They already had a lot of infrastructure there so they began looking at how they could send data over their existing trunk lines. They came up with numerous technologies with different levels of success. But there was (and still is) an issue: data networks are essentially different from voice networks.

Data is transferred in packets, which can arrive in any order sometime after they have been requested, without causing any issues. Internet Protocol (IP) was designed to provide best effort delivery. Telecoms companies had an expensive network in place, so there was a lot of incentive to use it. After a few misses Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) was created as a compromise technology that could carry both voice and data. But in reality it’s much less efficient than a network intended purely for data. The overhead for data transfers on ATM is more than 10link, compared to about one percent for an Ethernet running full-throttle.

I remember a time where gaming laptops were a specialist thing. Basically as I remember they were not actually the best selling laptop computers but being more significantly expensive they were the greatest profit generating units. Despite that everyone most likely wanted one. Everyone thought they were the best laptop computers and rightly so. They normally created a lot of excitement but I doubt lots of people would go out and buy laptop computers at high prices. As of late it looks likes bigger brands are all coming into the market extremely fast and things are shifting.

Just envisage how much profit these companies would be generating especially when using their economies of scale. These days the standard laptop margins are extremely small so it presents the chance for them to get back the gross margins. With their bottomless marketing resources I’m certain they can persuade anyone to buy laptop computers like these. Smaller resellers surely have a massive job ahead now. Now gaming laptops will no longer be seen as a niche market. Also the well known brand name will give consumers more confidence. In my opinion these brands are churning out the best laptop computers at this minute. I believe this would still be the ray of hope for local resellers though. Consumers like the ability to configure as they can select what’s most desirable to them. This kind of consumer is typically well versed in the technology and can compare the specifications. For consumers of this sort, what it can do typically is of greater importance than what it looks like.

For the prospect, this holds many benefits. In the end, the costs will be lowered even further causing top end technology to be an option that we will all be able to buy. Don’t forget that is just my view on the current conditions. Mobile technology is constantly evolving and the latest notebooks will usually be high priced on release. Strong Competition generally makes companies to do more and give increased value so that sounds hopeful.

According to new studies, more than of Americans now own cell phone. I have a cell phone and so does everyone I know. Modern life would be very inconvenient without cell phones- how could you ever find anyone (or a better question, how did we find anyone before cell phones)? I have used all the major phone service providers over the years and I’ve basically settled on one (different service providers work differently in different areas). However, lets take a look at how to find a cell phone deal no matter where you live.

1) Comparison shopping. Both online and offline. Brick and morter stores and online stores often have different prices for the same phones or phone plans. This is where comparison shopping comes in to play. Find a service provider and visit their store or mall booth. Then check their website. You might be surprised to learn that the prices are not identical. It only makes sense. There is no overhead involved in an online store and if the customer does everything himself, prices should only be lower.

2) Go for the free phone. Some cell phone service providers will give you a free phone if you sign up with their service. Some won’t. We’ve found that getting a free phone can be really cool due to the fact that sometimes the service provider will give you a state of the art phone for no upfront charge just to get you to become their lifetime customer.

3) Use Ebay. Some people sell their slightly used phones for great bargains online if you are willing to spend the time and wait for a good deal to popup. I’ve been in love with a Nokia phone for about 6 months now and am waiting for a real discounted phone to be put up for auction on Ebay. A lot of the service providers will activate your phone if you bring it in to their store (regardless of where you bought it).

There are ton of cool tricks to getting a cell phone deal. These are just 3 basic common sense ones, learn ‘em all today and get a killer cell phone deal.

Roger Wembley is author of “Get an Incredible www.thecellphonedeal.com“>Cell Phone Deal.” Pick up your copy at www.thecellphonedeal.com.

We probably all have about 8 “universal” remotes these days. Every new component you buy comes w/ one, but none of them are really “universal” because there’s always some feature on one device that the other remotes don’t have a button for. But wdn’t it be nice to really be able to use one remote for all your devices? I do!

There are so many different universals on the market these days that it’s impossible to go over them all here. So I’ll hit the high points and let you decide. I’ll pick a few popular types/models and go over a few points that helped me decided for or against them.

One thing you need to understand is what a ‘learning’ remote is. That means that you can set the remote to learn other remotes’ signals: you set it to be ready, aim another remote at it, press a button on that remote and the learning remote stores that signal.

Now whatever button you set up on the learning remote sends that same signal. This way even if your univeral remote doesn’t have a ‘Eject’ button, it can send that signal.

All of the remotes listed here are learning b/c that’s the only way to be truly universal.

Most universal remotes these days also allow you to run macros. That way when you want to watch a movie, w/ just a couple button clicks, you can have it turn the TV on, the stereo to DVD player, etc.

Also, the usually have timers so you can turn the TV on and off while you’re out of town for example.

Big LCD: Sony RM-AV3000

This remote was the ‘big boy’ on the block for a long time. It does it all and looks cool doing it. The two main draw backs to this model are size and buttons.

Because it’s so big, it’s hard to use w/ one hand - you can’t reach across the remote to press some buttons or parts of the LCD. Next time you’re watching TV, see how often you just use one hand on the remote and think about giving that up.

This model used to be pretty expensive, but it’s getting better.

Internet: Harmony SST-659

I haven’t actually tried this one, but I get the idea and I like it. You can program this remote to work w/ your devices and upload the configuration. That way others can use it. More directly, you can use other peoples’ configurations!

The point of this one is ease of use so I’m assuming it wd be relatively straight forward to hook it up and program it. Maybe a little intimidating, but I bet most people cd do it and it wd be worth it.

I’d say the main drawback here is price. Once it’s setup, you probably wdn’t need to go online w/ it again for months (until you bought a new component to control) so the hassle is limited.

Finally, setting up any universal remote is going to involve some learning and this one is probably worth it as much or more than the others if you’re willing to spend the money.

Basic: Sony RM-VL1000

This is the remote I have and I love it. It’s learning so it’s really universal. It’s the right size, weight and shape for either hand. It’s got all the normal buttons w/o being too crowded, but also 4 buttons beside the LCD. You can program these buttons to be whatever you want and lable them what you want too. You can scroll thru 3 “screens” for these buttons so each component can actually have 12 buttons programmed in the LCD buttons.

It’s preprogrammed w/ most common components and those settings use the LCD buttons when necessary, but you can change any buttons programming as you wish.

It can control up to 12 components which is plenty for most people, but you can have the volume set to always control the same device. I have my volume buttons always control the stereo even if the rest of the buttons are working the TiVo. Similarly, I have my power button set for my TV even when I’m working the TiVo.

It has a built in ‘power off’ macro that turns all Sony components off. You can define the rest of the macros yourself and even run them on a timer (I have it set my TiVo to standby every night).

It’s a bit of a pain to setup, but once it’s done you’re set and it’s so worth it.

And it’s so cheap!

Summary

Take all things into consideration when shopping for a universal remote: is it learning, macros, timer, size, shape, weight, cost, buttons, setup, etc. What’s important to you?

Recommendation

If you’re willing to spend the money, I wd get the Harmony. Otherwise, I wd get the Sony VL1000 - it’s (probably) harder to setup, but so much cheaper and a great remote.

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.

I just read an article about a lady whose computer was deluged by adware. It was such a problem that she spent thousands of dollars on computer repair fees to try to clean up her computer. The said thing is that she could have restored her computer by herself in less than a few hours and for free.

Somewhere down the line, there will be problems with your computer (adware, spyware, viruses, good software gone bad, etc,). Obviously, you should use protection software to prevent as much as possible. However, you will most likely eventually find yourself in a mess. Relax! Don’t worry.

Don’t spend thousands of dollars on a computer guy to fix your computer if it breaks down. The first rule of thumb is, don’t spend more than $300, which would buy you a new computer today. But don’t throw away your computer yet — there is another solution.

If you are unable to access programs like MS Office and Quicken you may have a hardware problem, or your data may be so corrupted that you may have to call in a computer expert to get to it - and he may not be able to access it in a cost effective way. Decide ahead of time how much your data is worth to you and find out how much you will pay the expert.

If you can still access your data, try the following:
First, back up all the saved data from programs like MS Office and Quicken. Make sure you have the original program discs because later you will need to reload these programs, and any backed up data. Then, just reload your Windows XP operating system (or upgrade to Windows XP). Bypass any warnings it gives you about your existing data. It will wipe your computer clean and you can start again. Go online and load the FREE security programs listed below. Then load the programs you wish to re-install and then their backed up data. Your computer will run like brand new (or better!). Warning! You will lose everything on your computer when you install Windows XP, and all the programs have to be re-loaded.

Here is the plan.

1) Starting now if it is not too late, you should be saving your important files and data to a disk or better yet to an online file folder. The online file folder sign-up can be found in the godaddy e-mail area. This way your files and data are safer. I enjoy accessing my files remotely from any computer as well. You should also neatly save and organize your important software so it is easy to reload.
2) Reload or load for the first time Windows XP Home edition or Professional.
3) Now download for FREE Microsoft Defender Anti-Spyware from microsoft.com.
4) Now download for FREE Avast Anti-virus.

These three work great together. You can find great information on in the free stuff forum at dealking.com. They list many of the above solutions.

I even suggest for older computers that are running sluggishly to load Windows XP right now to clean it up your system and make it work faster - before problems occur. Your computer will work like new. CAUTION: You will lose everything when you re-load the Windows XP on you computer, but that is good if you have a bunch of junk. SAVE YOUR IMPORTANT ITEMS FIRST.

I did the above on 2 older Dells. One was plagued by an overload of junk and adware that popped up constantly. The other was just old and slow. I loaded the new Windows XP and started from scratch, and they work even better than the brand new Dells at my office that are loaded with a paid McAfee security package. McAfee seems to try to trick you into paying twice for the subscription, but the above solution is free and does the same thing.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on any of the above, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night. For hardware problems or to restore data, you may need a computer guy (expert). Also, you may have a computer guy who is very cost effective and efficient (they are around), but there are just as many that spend to much time and money (yours) to fix something their way.

Russ Snapper works in marketing for Dealking.com. You can find free stuff, coupons, deals and a lot of other consumer news and information at Deal King.

Are Your Customers On-Line or On-Hold?

On-line business is now mainstream. Calendar year 2003 marked the point that more than half of every man woman and child in the US used the internet. Two-thirds of U.S. Internet users, or 83 million people, are online shoppers, according to research to be released this week.
About the Author

John Geiger owns and operates the local affiliate of WSI Internet Consulting and Education, a Toronto based global network of consultants, developers and production centers providing turn-key internet business solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. He can be reached at 828-320-5929 or www.webmasters-wsi.com

Someone has sent in their site to be reviewed as part of your awards
program. If you’ve done everything correctly, this should happen several
times per week or even per day. You could review them as they arrive, or you
could set them aside and do it once a week or on some other schedule. This
is completely up to you.

Okay, so you review the site and it meets all of the criteria for your
program. The site has good content, the links (at least those you checked)
seem to work, the HTML looks okay and, well, it’s just a pretty good site.
What do you do now?

This depends upon how you are running your program. I’ve seen some sites
which simply send a very quick email with the awards graphics and a simple
link - and that’s all. Not very satisfying, really.

Then again, I’ve received awards from other programs which go all out. I
remember receiving a long email which informed me I was a winner, went into
all of the exact criteria which I passed and failed, and left no doubt in my
mind as to why I received the award and rating that I got.
So what do you need to do at a minimum?

- You need to inform the winner that he has received your award.

- Congratulate him or her for their accomplishment.

- Attach their awards graphic or inform them as to it’s location.

- Request a link back if that’s something you desire from your program.

This is the bare minimum, and it will serve the purpose nicely.
Personally, I like to send an email which congratulates the winner and says
some good things about his site. For example, I might mention that the page
about their pet was especially cute, the article on how they survived some
disease was meaningful or the gardening tips were especially useful. The
point is simple - by including such details I’m showing that I did actually
look at the site, which makes the award more meaningful.

I prefer sending plain text messages as opposed to stationary or HTML. Yes,
I know that stationary looks great, but not everyone can read them. All
email clients can read text messages.

It’s a good idea to attach the graphic directly to email message, as well as
to include a link where it can be picked up if, for some reason, the image
is not received properly.

I’ve found an email similar to below hits upon all of the necessary points.

Hi Sally,

Thanks for applying for the Excellent Site award. Your site
has met the criteria for the award and has won! I found your
site is indeed excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit.
I especially liked your page about Sammy (your dog) - it made
me laugh. The photos of your children are a nice touch (cute
kids) and your choice of background images is good.

Your award image is attached. Please link it back to
http://www.internet-tips.net - this is not a requirement but
it would be appreciated.

Some URLs which you may find useful:
http://www.internet-tips.net/Winawards/Winanaward.htm

Description of our awards program in detail
http://www.internet-tips.net/Winawards/excellent.htm

Excellent site award home page.
http://www.internet-tips.net/Winawards/criteria.htm

The criteria common to all of our awards.
http://www.internet-tips.net/images/sample01.gif

You may also pick up the award image here if you wish.

One thing that I do NOT recommend is to inform your winners about any
negatives or give them ay criticism. I know from personal experience that
these kinds of comments detract from the thrill of winning an award. I
prefer to just tell my winners the good news and leave it at that.

Some sites use a scoring system to figure out who has won the award. In
those instance, I would also recommend that this score NOT be shared with
anyone - again, no need to take anything away from your winners victory.

That, in a nutshell, is a method which is useful for handling your winners.

About the Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This
website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet
profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net
Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm
Daily Tips: mailto:internet-tips@GetResponse.com

(ARA) - The next time you feel like chaos is invading your life, just be thankful that it is in the form of a demanding boss, an unwieldy schedule and too many responsibilities with too little time — and not a watery demon trying to drown you. Of such are the tales depicted in “The Hero and the Sea: Patterns of Chaos in Ancient Myth,” new from Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers.

“These ancient narratives of heroic struggle uniquely transcend time and culture to speak to the universal human condition,” says author Donald H. Mills, a professor of Classical Languages at Syracuse University. “They give expression to all those hopes, aspirations and fears that have defined, for ancient no less than modern thinkers, what it means to be human in a chaotic world.”

To the ancients, myths meant true stories, explains Mills. “Not literally true, but true as to what they say about human nature and important issues.” Many of these stories feature a hero who is wrestling with death. “Death and chaos are deeply connected. You might say that death is the ultimate expression of chaos,” he adds.

Chaos is frequently expressed symbolically by water, as exemplified by Gilgamesh, Achilles and Odysseus; Mills examines all of these stories in his book. He also examines the themes of creation, flood and exodus in the Old Testament — in all of which water is a medium of cosmic baptism, change, or rite of passage.

Water demons or water divinities often stand for primordial or precosmic chaos, and the hero’s victory over his watery adversary represents a cosmic creation or re-creation. For example, the hero of the Gilgamesh epic confronts the chaotic throughout the story, culminating in an inner spiritual struggle with death, exemplified in the story of Utnapishtim and the flood. In the Iliad, Achilles confronts the chaotic in his battle with the Scamander River. Similarly in the Odyssey, the battle with the chaotic comes to the fore in Odysseus’ encounter with Poseidon’s angry sea, his shipwreck and enforced stay with Calypso ‘the Concealer’. In the Old Testament, the patriarch Jacob meets potential annihilation at the river Jabbok, when he wrestles with God.

These mythic narratives give vivid expression to the terrifying experience of the chaotic while providing a framework for ancient poets to ritualize the hero’s movement from chaos to victory. “Because myth and ritual each serve to make intelligible social organization and to clarify a multitude of problematic human relationships, the riddle of the chaotic lies behind every ancient mythmaker’s struggle to express a sense of order in a world where chaos often seems to reign,” says Mills.

The final chapter of the book explores the points of contact between the ancient mythic patterns and the discoveries of modern scholars engaged in the theoretical study of chaos. For example, there is the mythic story that tells how the abduction of one woman, the beautiful Helen, leads to a great war, the killing of countless thousands, and the complete annihilation of a great city; this story reflects the modern concept of the Butterfly Effect, which posits that a small event, when magnified in time and space, produces huge consequences incommensurate with the original cause. Similarly, the temple priestess of the goddess Ishtar in the Gilgamesh epic, whose seduction of Enkidu humanizes his wild, chaotic life in the dessert, functions in ways similar to the feedback mechanisms of modern chaotics. So also the modern study of fluid dynamics, which endeavors to model the transitions from order to chaos and chaos to order, parallels the efforts of ancient myth-makers to use stories of watery chaos to set forth a meaningful account of human endeavor in a chaotic world. Myth is truth which shall make us free. The challenge is to de-mythologize it in order to unravel its truth for us.

“The Hero and the Sea” is available through Amazon.com, or you can order it directly from the publisher by contacting Bolchazy-Carducci at www.bolchazy.com. Bolchazy publishes a wide variety of books on classical mythology and epics, including “Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic,” “Art of the Odyssey,” “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” “Gilgamesh: A Reader,” and more. Visit the company’s Web site for a complete listing.

Courtesy of ARA

About the author:

Courtesy of ARA Content

When you’re preparing to pass the CCNA exam and earn this coveted Cisco certification, you’ve got to be totally prepared for the many kinds of binary and subnetting questions Cisco may throw at you. You also have to be familiar with the different manners in which a subnet mask can be expressed, and that’s where your knowledge of prefix notation comes in. Prefix notation is an alternate way to express the value of a subnet mask, as opposed to the more familiar dotted decimal format. Not only will you see prefix notation in Cisco documentation, but you’ll probably see it on your CCNA exam. Consider the following two values:

255.255.255.0

/24

Believe it or not, those two values are exactly the same. The first mask is written out in the more familiar dotted decimal format, and you know by looking at those first three octets that every bit is set to “1″, since the maximum value of such an octet is 255.

The second value represents the exact same mask, only this value is expressed in prefix notation. This particular value would be pronounced “slash twenty-four”, and the 24 represents the number of consecutive ones that are set in the subnet mask.

Those of us who hate to type numbers are particularly appreciative of this, since it means you’ll have to type a lot less numbers to represent a subnet mask. In addition, it’s a lot easier to discuss masks in prefix notation than dotted decimal. (”I thought about using a two-fifty-five two-fifty-five two-fifty-five zero mask ,but then decided to use a two-fifty-five two-fifty-five two-fifty-five one-twenty-eight mask…”)

Be sure you’re comfortable with prefix notation before taking your CCNA exam. As with Cisco documentation, you’ll most likely see masks expressed in both dotted decimal and prefix notation, and you’ve got to be ready to use the both as well!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!