20 Worst Roads in Ontario, Canada - Steeels Ave at the top!

Poorest Roads of Ontario

know before you get to them!

Beneath is a list of roads/streets in Ontario that have been ranked as worst in the province. Steeles Avenue, one of the longest streets, has been ranked as the worst one - Hamilton, Stone Church Road is at number 9, and at number 14 is Burlington Street. From my personal experience, I disagree with this list, but since I am not well-aware of the criteria according to which they rank the streets, this may as well be the most accurate ranking.

ONTARIO'S WORST ROADS

This year's Top 20 Worst Municipal Roads in Ontario are:

1. Steeles Ave., Toronto

2. Brock St., Kingston

3. Vermillion Lake Rd., Sudbury

4. Limebank Rd., Ottawa

5. Regent St., Sudbury

6. Anne St., Barrie

7. Erb St., Waterloo

8. Franklin Blvd., Cambridge/Waterloo

9. Stone Church Rd., Hamilton

10. Carling Ave., Ottawa

11. Dufferin St., Toronto

12. Hespeler Rd., Cambridge

13. Lawrence Ave., Toronto

14. Burlington St., Hamilton

15. Mornington Ave., London

16. Ritson Rd., Oshawa

17. 19th Ave., Richmond Hill

18. Johnson St., Kingston

19. Wonderland Rd., London

20. Tecumseh Rd., Windsor

Canadian Automobile Association

Source: http://www.thestar.com/article/527162

The World's Largest Windows Moblie Phone

Yes, the HTC Magnum you see above is actually a working Windows Mobile-powered Smartphone. No word yet on pricing and availability.

Keywords: strangest phone, biggest mobile, biggest cell phone, largest

First Production Tesla Roadster Gets Delivered, Driven (with VIDEO)

Last Friday, Tesla chairman Elon Musk took delivery of the first production Roadster, which carries the name P1 (Production vehicle 1). The black coupe was flown in from Hethel, England, where all Teslas are being built alongside the Roadster's cousin, the Lotus Elise. When the Roadster arrived at the start-up's R&D facility in San Carlos, California, it was pushed into the garage and had its Thailand-produced battery pack installed. After the battery was fitted and charged, Musk led a pack of four other Roadsters on a quick drive and AutoblogGreen was able to procure a video of the run. For those of you who wanted to hear how the Tesla Roadster sounds while accelerating, we've embedded the video after the jump.

Click Here to View The Picture Gallery: Tesla Roadster Test Drive



Keywords: cars, convertibles, hybrid-cars

Top 10 Lego Creations - Strangest Creations

It's time for our weekly Top 10 list and this week our editors bring you the "Top 10 Strangest (or Coolest...) Lego Creations". Leave us a comment with your own favorites. [PCMag]

10. Lego iPod Case

This interesting BrixPod Classic iPod Shuffle case gives your Shuffle the appearance of a full-sized iPod made of Lego bricks. [MacBlog]

9. Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite

Nathan Sawaya used over 10,000 Lego pieces and spent 3 months making this "Han Solo in Carbonite" masterpiece. [NathanBrickArtist]

8. Lego Volvo XC90

Built by Lego Master Model Builders, this Volvo XC90 is the official car of Legoland California. [car.kak.net]

7. Lego NES Case

If Nintendo came out with a Lego NES case, this would be it. Everything is 100% Lego - power/reset buttons, controller ports, LED light cover, and even the vents up top. One more picture here. [RetroNintendo]

6. Lego Harpsichord

This Harpsichord was constructed entirely from Lego parts (over 100,000!), including keyboard, jacks, jack rack, jack rail, plectra, soundboard, bridge, hitch pins, tuning pins, wrestplank, nut, case, legs, lid, lid stick, and music stand. It has a range of 61 notes and weighs 150 lb. [OddMusic]

5. Lego Pinhole Camera

This person took a Polaroid 95a, stripped it down, and than reassembled the camera with all Lego parts. Like a real mechanical 35mm camera, it includes a manual crank which takes 23 clicks to advance one frame. [FoundPhotography]

4. Lego Knitting Machine

Rarely do we come accross something so interesting yet odd, take a look at this fully functional knitting machine made entirely out of Lego pieces. [TRFJ]

3. Lego Difference Engine

One of the most imaginative Lego creations ever. Made by Andy Carroll, this difference engine is able to solve mathematical problems (2nd/3rd-order polynomials) and calculate the answers to 3 or 4 digits. [Gizmodo]

2. Lego Air Conditioner

Behold, a functional Lego replica of Carrier's latest air conditioner, complete with valves, compressor, and working fan. [Make]

1. Lego Pinball Machine

Created by Lego fanatics Gerrit Bronsveld and Martijn Boogaarts of the Netherlands, this fully functional pinball machine was made using over 20,000 of these colorful blocks. The Lego Pinball Machine features an operational coin slot, rotation bumpers, auto kickback, 5-digit mechanical display (for points), 13 RCX Mindstorms computers, and even a ramp. [PinballNews]

Honorable Mention - Lego gMac 475

If you liked the Lego PC, check out this Lego gMac 475 (constructed from a Macintosh LC 475 ), an oldie but goodie. (Thanks, Jeff)

Honorable Mention - Lego Brick USB Drive

Lego blocks can be used to build just about anything these days, including this USB drive. Its even got clear backing so you can view the innards. Instructions on how to build your own can be found here. [Brickshelf]

Keywords: lego products, lego electronics, things made out of lego, strangest legos, electronics with blocks, tiles, masty tech blog, lego usb driver, lego PC, funny pc, strangest invention, amazing inventions

Pair of venom producing glands are found in all the poisonous snakes, which are positioned below and behind the eyes. They are accompanied by a pair of maxillary teeth called fangs.

We can identify two types of venom producing glands.

1. True Venom

Elapids, Viperids and sea snakes have this type of venom glands. The fangs are situated anteriorly.

2. Duvernoy's glands

Found in some Colubrids. Relatively small gland situated posteriorly. Venom is ejected through a posterior fang. Colubrids with well developed Duvernoy's glands are mildly poisonous.

SAP says India is its fastest-growing market, sees no slowdown

The world's biggest business management software maker SAP said Wednesday that India is now its fastest growing market as competition forces companies to use technology to cut costs.

For the first time, India is among the German giant's top 10 markets, leapfrogging a "whole bunch of countries," Ranjan Das, head of SAP India, told a news confernce

The company's Indian unit had a record-breaking year in 2007 by more than doubling its number of customers to 3,000 from 1,350 at the end of 2006,

The company's license revenue in the country also more than doubled in the year while sales to small and medium companies jumped 2.3 times.

Overall revenue grew 68 percent -- the fastest pace for SAP worldwide, Das said, declining to provide precise figures.

"It's incredible," Das said. "Growth has become the name of the game for Indian companies, which are looking for operational efficiencies and are rapidly adopting technology solutions."

SAP has been focusing on emerging markets as it chases its goal of more than doubling customers worldwide to 100,000 by 2010. SAP announced in 2006 it would invest one billion dollars in India by 2010.

Das added he did not expect a reduction in spending by US technology firms as a result of a US economic slowdown to have a fallout on the Indian market because the South Asian country is a "self-sustaining economy."

© 2008 AFP

Apple Boosts IPhone, IPod Touch Capacity

(AP) -- Apple Inc. updated its iPhone and iPod Touch lineup Tuesday, doubling the memory and setting a new premium price for its high-end models. The latest iPhone features 16 gigabytes of memory and retails for $499. The previously released 8 GB version of the hybrid cell phone, multimedia player and wireless Internet device costs $399.

The new iPod Touch comes with 32 GB of memory and retails for $499. The older 16 GB and 8 GB versions of the combination multimedia player wireless Internet gadget cost $399 and $299, respectively.

The new devices are available through Apple's online and retail stores. The updated iPhone is also available through AT&T Inc.'s online and retail stores.

Apple said that all iPhone and iPod Touch models come with updated software that the company announced in January. It includes a new maps application and the ability to watch movies from the iTunes movie rental service.

Apple shares fell 34 cents to $130.31 in pre-market trading.

Keywords: mobile technology, buy iphone cheap, free iphone, iphone update, iphone news, cell phone updates, news on mobile phones

ESA presents Mars in 3D images - thanks to HRSC

This is a mosaic of Olympus Mons, the highest volcano on Mars, which towers 26 km above the surrounding plains. The image covers an area of approximately 600 000 sq km and is colour-coded according to height based on data from the Digital Terrain Model (DTM). The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express orbiter imaged the region over 18 orbits. Credits: ESA/ DLR/ FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Mars is about to come into 3D focus as never before, thanks to the data from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). A new high-resolution Digital Terrain Model data set that has just been released onto the Internet, will allow researchers to obtain new information about the Red Planet in 3D. Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) allow scientists to ‘stand’ on planetary surfaces. Although ordinary images can give spectacular bird’s-eye views, they can only convey part of the picture. They miss out on the topography, or the vertical elevation of the surroundings. That’s where Mars Express comes in.

The HRSC was especially designed to provide this information and, after years of specialised data processing, the first comprehensive release of 3D data of a large part of the martian surface is now ready. “Understanding the topography of Mars is essential to understanding its geology,” says Prof. Gerhard Neukum, Freie Universität (FU) Berlin, Germany, Principal Investigator for the HRSC.

The DTM can instantly tell researchers the slope of hillsides or the height of cliffs, the altitude and slope of lava flows or desert plains. “This data is essential for understanding how water or lava flowed across Mars,” says Neukum.

It also helps planetary scientists to better interpret other data sets, for example the results of the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS). “Once we know where the surface is, we can correctly interpret the radar echoes we get from below it,” says former ESA scientist Angelo Rossi, a member of the HRSC team.

The Mars Express DTM is the most detailed topographic data set ever released for Mars. Its release has been made possible by processing individual image swaths taken by the HRSC as Mars Express sweeps through its orbit. The individual swaths are then put together into mosaics that cover large regions. The high-resolution images used have a resolution of 10 m/pixel. The DTM elevation data derived from these images is provided in pixels of up to 50 m, with a height accuracy of 10 m.

The orbit of Mars Express determines the resolution of its pictures. When it is closest to the surface, it can take the most detailed pictures. “As the mission continues, we are gradually filling in the gaps and collecting high-resolution data whenever possible,” says Neukum.

The team plans to add more data to the DTMs to extend the surface coverage as Mars Express continues its mission until at least 2009 and HRSC continues its unique scrutiny of the planet.

New 3D Printer Churns Out Complex Prototypes

To show colleagues how a design for an accelerator component works, designer Gene Anzalone can now carry a lightweight plastic model to meetings. More tangible than a set of design drawings, and more totable than a 35-pound metal model, the working 3-D plastic model of a collimator took about five days to make with SLAC Mechanical Design Department's new rapid prototyping machine, also called a 3-D printer.

Since the Dimension Elite printer arrived in early January, its tea-box-sized printing head has been on the move day and night, whirring and clicking like a home inkjet printer while it automatically builds up models by depositing thin layers of melted plastic, layer by layer. Once engineer Kurt Vaillancourt sets up the printer, which takes very little time, he lets it work unattended, saving money on machinist costs and material costs.

"It's a service for engineers and designers across the lab to study the form, fit and function of their design before cutting them in metal," Vaillancourt said.

The SLAC arm of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Accelerator Research Program has eagerly taken advantage of the printer—which looks like a snack vending machine—to build models of a rotatable collimator that could be part of the upgrades to the LHC. Collimators block stray particles inside a beam pipe.

"The model is accurate enough to gain an understanding of how well the parts fit together into a working assemblage, and it gives us tangible results at an early phase of the project," said engineer Steve Lundgren.

The group can test and refine its designs before sending them to the Machine Shop to build parts from quality, expensive metals.

Anzalone and Lundgren electronically sent their CAD (computer-aided design) data to the printer. Several days later, they sandwiched ball bearings between two printer-made plastic rings, and screwed the rings together to form a functional bearing at the end of the prototype collimator. Very quickly, they determined that this design for the ball bearing race worked well. Eventually, when the LHC beam accidentally strikes and damages the collimator, operators will simply rotate it to present a fresh piece of metal without interrupting collider operations.

The printer is available for SLAC use, and can support pieces up to 8 inches square by 12 inches high, in layers as thin as 0.007 inches. Pieces can be glued together, and several parts can be fabricated in one run. The printer can also automatically enlarge or reduce parts.

Keywords: model printer, 3 dimensional printer, 3dimensional printer, 3d color printer, print 3d pictures, print animating pictures, new printers technology, pc printer, new inventions

With Mini in vivo Robots, Anyone Can do Surgery

Two in vivo camera robots used by the Aquanauts during the NEEMO mission. Image credit: Rentschler, et al. ©IEEE 2008.

By attaching a millimeter-sized camera robot to a tether, scientists have designed a way to allow individuals with non-medical backgrounds to perform minimally invasive surgery in almost any location. Unlike room-size and expensive surgical robots, mini in vivo robots are inexpensive and mobile enough to support emergency surgeries almost anywhere, from the battlefield to outer space.
The University of Nebraska researchers hope that the inexpensive version of the da Vinci surgical robot system will make the advantages of robotic-assisted surgery more widely available, and open the doors for telesurgeries that were previously impossible. In a recent study, the team evaluated the ease of use and time required to perform simple abdominal surgeries with the in vivo camera robots. Their results are published in a recent issue of IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.

“A new area of surgical robotics focuses on placing robots entirely inside the patient,” wrote Mark Rentschler et al. in their study. “In vivo robots are small, inexpensive, and easily transported, making it more likely that this technology can be more widely adopted. . . . The use of these robots can potentially reduce patient trauma in traditional medical centers, while the size of the robots makes them ideal for transportation to and use in remote or harsh environments.”

The researchers tested the mini robots on three NASA astronauts and one surgeon who were undergoing long-term training in an underwater habitat called the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), located 20 meters underwater off the coast of Key Largo, Florida. The four “Aquanauts” received brief training on how to perform two surgeries – bowel inspection and stretch-and-dissect – and were also evaluated on how well they could perform another surgery – an appendectomy – for which they received no training.

In the test, the Aquanauts performed the surgeries on synthetic materials inside an abdominal cavity simulator, and were telementored via videoconferencing by the University of Nebraska team in Omaha. The crew used two robots: one was 20 mm in diameter and 110 mm in length, and the other was 15 mm in diameter and 60 mm in length. Both robots were equipped with a CMOS camera and inserted into the abdominal cavity (which measures 20 x 15 x 8 cm when artificially inflated) through a trocar port. Controlling the robots with either a joystick or a switch, the crew members could see various angles and adjust the focus of the images, receiving feedback at 30 frames per second.

The crew members also performed the same surgeries using a standard laparoscope – a tube that’s inserted into the body in which a camera can be used. The results showed that the crew members achieved about equal levels of accuracy with both systems, but the camera robots enabled the crew members to work significantly faster at all three surgeries. Performing surgeries quicker could minimize patient trauma and the risk of infection.

Another notable result was that the crew members were able to successfully perform the appendectomy, even though they had not been trained on that procedure. This success demonstrates that telementoring can be used to enable individuals trained on basic skills to build upon their skills to complete more complex procedures.

“The telementoring results demonstrated that nonsurgeons having been trained with a specified skill set can be telementored to build on that skill set and perform a more complex laparoscopic procedure using in vivo robots,” the researcher concluded. “The combined results of these tests suggest that the use of miniature surgical robots could be used in place of standard laparoscopic surgical equipment without loss of performance.”

In the future, the team hopes to add further developments to the mini in vivo robot system, such as task assistance (where the robot can be used to manipulate tissue), telecontrol (where the robot is controlled remotely) and some autonomy (where the robot can make some decisions on its own). Thanks to these tiny robots, emergency surgery may one day be performed in extreme environments, and save lives where it would otherwise be impossible.

More information: Rentschler, Mark E., Platt, Stephen R., Berg, Kyle, Dumpert, Jason, Oleynikov, Dmitry, and Farritor, Shane M. “Miniature in vivo Robots for Remote and Harsh Environments.” IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, Vol. 12, No. 1, January 2008.

Copyright 2008 PhysOrg.com.

Create “Command Prompt” in Context or Popup Menu

If we want to access to a folder in DOS prompt, we normally run the cmd command and get to that folder. However, I have another way to access to it by right-clicking on folder and selecting Command Prompt in the menu. This is easy to create like creating “Copy to Folder” in context menu that I wrote long before. OK, let you follow the steps below.

• Open Registry Editor by running command regedit.
  
• Access to the path below,

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

• Right click on the shell folder and choose New > Key.
  new > key"> new > key">

• Name the new key Command Prompt.

• Right click on Command Prompt and choose New > Key.
  

• Name it Command.

• In the right page of the Registry Editor window, double click on the Default. See the picture below,
  

• Type Cmd.exe /k cd “%1″ then click OK.
  

• Now you obtain Command Prompt in Context Menu, try right-clicking on a folder you want to get in.
  

How to do your system Registry Backup?

All Windows stores its configuration information in a database called the registry. The registry is the central storage for all computer configuration data.

Although the registry appears to be in one file, it is actually placed on your computer in several files. Depending on your system configuration, registry files can be found in any of the following locations:

C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\ on Windows 2000, XP.
C:\Windows\System32\Config\ on Windows 2000, XP.
C:\Windows\ on Windows 95, 98, ME.
C:\Windows\Profiles\ on Windows 95, 98, ME.

How To Back Up Windows Registry ?

In windows NT, 2000 and XP not possible to back up registry files while the operating system is running. Registry files remain fully locked all the time while Windows is running, But here You can use an integrated Windows XP's System Restore feature for registry backup.

But using registry editor (regedit.exe) you can to export partial or complete copies of the registry, while the Windows is up, and the exported files can then be backed up with any other traditional file backup utility. You can follow these simple steps to back up the whole registry or any particular registry subkey:

• Click Start button and then type Regedit in Run option.

• Locate and then click the root subkey that contains all the child subkeys and values that you want to back up.

• On the File menu, click Export.

• In the Save box, you can select the location where you want to save the Registration Entries (.reg) file, type a file name in the File name box, and then click Save.

The exported registry file is about 10-50 MB in size on a typical Windows NT/2000/XP installation.

How to protect your computer with advanced backup and recovery?

A backup is a duplicate copy of a file, program or disk that can be used if the original copy is lost, damaged, or destroyed. Thus, if you regularly take backups of your sensitive data or programs and update them as and when needed, system failures can be covered easily through these backups. For example, in Norton Ghost, you can takes backup of your complete system within minute. Norton Ghost by Symantec provides us a complete solution of system backup. Norton Ghost has a very simple wizard base control panel to help the all level of users. Norton Ghost offerings with the full system backup and restore, partition backup, file and folders backup, backup using compression and encryption and incremental backups also.

Using Norton Ghost, you can create the image of full hard disk to another hard disk, or image of one partition to other partitions. You can store this image to almost any media CD/DVD, USB, external storage device, zip drive and network drive also. You can download this tool for any windows version using Symantec website. Download it and run the easy setup.

After installation launch Norton Ghost, the first screen will appear with title “Norton Ghost Year”. First click on “Backup” (Backup your computer to a Ghost image file) link and then click on Next button to start backup process.

Here you can select disk or partition to backup, If you want to create backup of your C drive (windows with all installed programs), then select only C drive under “Source” section. Now under destination section, select the option “File” (hard disk) or “Recordable CD or DVD” (if you have CD/DVD writer and empty writeable CD/ DVD) and click Next button.

Now click on Browse button to choose destination drive then enter image file name and click on “Save” button.

Again press the Next button to open Advance settings (optional setting), click on advance settings button, if want to choose compression, image password and others features.

Now click on Next button to view the summary. Press “Run Now” button to start process

Here a message will prompt you, save your data and close all open application.

When you pressed Ok button, your system will restart to run Norton Ghost (DOS base process).

In DOS mode, System will take time (depends upon your data size) to complete the process and then you view and verify backup file in normal mode.

Now you can use this backup files (using Restore option) to restore system backup when you will need or move to any other computer.

Tips about DSL Speed Test

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is basically 24-hours on internet connection and working with high speed up to 10 Mbps. DSL service provider offering different packages with speed 128 Kbps to 10 Mbps. But the actual speed at user end may be different from user to user due to the modem speed, telephone line condition and the distance between services provider to user home. If you want your DSL working with good speed and error free then make sure there is no any joint between telephone line tower and modem line. Your DSL modem may be heat up, hang and slow, if your DSL modem continually on for 24-hours, then restart it to solve this problem.

There are many DSL providers offers free speed test software with Internet connection package to check speed frequently. Many third parties software provider companies offer free speed check software on internet, download and use it to monitor speed constantly. Yon can test speed using any website for this purpose, search speed test tools websites using any search engine. DSL speed test result will be different in different times, may be fast during early morning and slow at peak hours. You should get the results in different hours then with the help of average decide about the actual speed.

Tips about ISP Glossary & Definitions

POP

POP stands for Post Office Protocol. POP is used to download email from the ISP provider's email server. Most ISPs offer either POP or the newer protocol, IMAP to subscribers. POP3 does not require the SMTP to send email from the subscriber's email client.

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Telnet

The Telnet protocol is a service for internet service providers that provides a means to connect into the ISP. It is sometimes used for updating Web sites, and frequently used as a method of connecting into a shell account. It is however extremely insecure with how it handles passwords. More modern protocols like SSH should be considered instead.

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FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is an ISP service that essentially just provides a way to connect to the ISP. It is frequently used as a means of updating Web sites. It is however extremely insecure with regards to how it handles passwords. More modern methods like WebDAV should be considered instead. When shopping for an ISP, ones that do not offer more secure alternatives to FTP should not even be considered.

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IMAP

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. This protocol works like POP except that it keeps your email on the ISP provider's mail server until you decide to move it. IMAP service can cost more than POP because your account may take up additional disk space as your email remains on the ISP's email server.

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Shell Account

Some ISPs offer shell accounts. A shell account is a special type of ISP service: it is essentially text-only access to the Internet. You may wonder why anyone would want such a thing. After all, while e-mail is mostly textual anyway, the Web is a different animal. Consider though that a blind user doesn't care about pictures on a Web site, but still may need its underlying information. Many blind users rely on shell accounts working in conjunction with special screen readers. Many users also enjoy the virus protection shell accounts provide.

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X-Face

X-Faces were devised to make both e-mail and Usenet news a little more human-friendly. They are ISP-neutral and will work with any ISP provider that provides an e-mail and/or a Usenet ISP service. They do require a savvy e-mail / Usenet application to create and display them properly, though. When an e-mail message or Usenet news item has an X-face attached, it will be displayed as a small monochromatic image (usually somewhere in the header) by applications that support them when viewing the owning message or item. Sometimes they feature miniature portraits of the author, but more often they're used just to give a little insight into the author's personality.

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APOP

The old POP3 protocol is probably the most popular ISP service for receiving e-mail. Unfortunately it is by default very insecure with regards to how it handles passwords. APOP is an option that fixes POP3's password insecurity, improving overall internet service provider safety and ISP security. Note though that it does nothing for e-mail privacy -- only e-mail security. Something like S/MIME or PGP is required to improve privacy, too. Note also that if SSL is being used, APOP isn't needed.

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SSL

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is a special type of ISP service used to encrypt communications between an ISP and a user. This is done not just for privacy, but also ISP safety. Unfortunately not all ISPs support SSL yet, so check with an ISP provider before making any commitments. Keep in mind that while e-mail sent and/or received via SSL will be encrypted for its trip to and/or from the ISP, it will not be encrypted for the remainder of its journey and will thus still be potentially open to snooping. To really protect e-mail one needs something like S/MIME or PGP.

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Internet Service Provider

There are many different types of ISPs (Internet Service Providers). There are local ISPs and national ISPs. There are ISPs that focus on different types of connections, like modem dial-in, ISDN, ADSL, DSL, or broadband. There are business ISPs and residential ISPs. There are even ISPs that offer different access methods, like graphical (PPP/SLIP) or text-only (shell). Be sure to compare ISPs before choosing one.

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WebDAV

Some ISPs provide WebDAV access to hosted Web pages. WebDAV (sometimes called DAV) is a type of ISP service that can be used to mount ISP resources as if they were installed locally. It provides all the benefits of FTP, but is significantly more secure. While a discount ISP will typically not offer WebDAV, a better ISP provider usually will. Remember that a free ISP offering only FTP access will end up costing you money if your account is cracked.

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Picons, AOL Buddy Icons, and .Mac Icons

PIcons, AOL Buddy Icons, and .Mac Icons are similar to X-faces, but there are a couple important differences. First, they're stored in a master database (in the case of PIcons this database can be mirrored by each individual ISP provider as a regular ISP service). Second, they're in color. Third, (in the case of PIcons only) they can represent companies and organizations in addition to individuals. Savvy programs can display PIcons, AOL Buddy Icons, or .Mac Icons with e-mail messages or Usenet news items instead of (or in addition to) X-faces. PIcons are an open standard while AOL Buddy Icons and .Mac Icons are proprietary and only available to certain ISP users.

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SSH

SSH stands for secure shell. It is an ISP service used for connecting into the ISP. It is often used for updating Web sites, and heavily used as a method of connecting into a shell account. When shopping for a shell account in this day and age, only ISP providers with SSH should be considered. A free ISP offering only Telnet access will end up costing you money if your account is cracked.

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SMTP

SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. SMTP is used to send email from one mail server to another. SMTP work in conjunction with POP to send and receive email. Some ISP providers do not use SMTP because of spam issues, which may overtax their servers.

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Syndication

Better ISPs provide an interesting ISP service: the ability to syndicate Web content. Calendar event type information can be syndicated through a technology called iCalendar. Journal entries or news event type information can be syndicated through either a technology called RSS (RDF Site Syndication) or a related technology called Atom. While traditional syndication is text-only, due to the popularity of the iPod music player more and more podcasts (RSS with attached audio files) are appearing. Many dynamic Web servers have the built-in capability to automatically syndicate appropriate content making the whole process effortless.

Wireless ISP Tips & Tricks

Paid Citywide Wireless Internet Access

Paid citywide wireless Internet access doesn't have the political resistance that free citywide Internet access does, but it's still not all that common. Most ISPs find that it is more cost effective to wire individual buildings for Internet access than it is to build a comprehensive wireless grid. It is more common for ISPs to provide a combination of wired and wireless ISP services than wireless access alone. Thus you may find that wireless Internet service is available all throughout a city's historic district, but only wired service is available elsewhere. It varies from place to place and ISP to ISP.

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Wireless Internet Access Speed

Modern wireless Internet access is actually quite fast, and is comparable to DSL, ISDN, or cable. There are three different standards currently in widespread use: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. The majority of sites use 802.11b; it's the least expensive but the slowest with a maximum theoretical speed of 11 Mbps. 802.11a was developed at the same time as 802.11b, but is significantly more expensive, has less range, and is less popular; it's faster with a maximum theoretical top speed of 54 Mbps, though. 802.11g is a newer standard that combines the best of both 802.11a and 802.11b. It's got a maximum theoretical speed of 54 Mbps, and is backwards compatible with 802.11b.

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Wireless Internet Access Security

It's so easy to set up a wireless Internet network with an off-the-shelf base station like the Linksys or AirPort that people often forget about ISP security considerations. When setting up a wireless base station, it is important for you to change the default password. You should also turn on encryption. The reach of these base stations is often farther than you expect, and it's pretty common for people to be able to see your network from the street or a neighboring apartment. Keychain wireless network detectors are on the market, and they enable crackers to discover wireless networks unobserved. If such a cracker gets into your wireless network, it could conceivably make it possible for her to see all of your private information. Using encryption and safe passwords will protect you.

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Wireless Internet Access

There are three related meanings of wireless Internet access in common use. The most frequent is when a home or business uses wireless access to share a single wired connection (like cable, DSL, or ISDN). Almost as common is the public-access wireless access provided in places like libraries, airports, and hotels so people can use their laptops and PDAs to access the Internet. Sometimes these are free, but more often than not they require a payment for a certain limited amount of usage. The least common is for large grids created by ISPs that offer wireless connectivity throughout a community. These can either be free (if sponsored by the local government) or require a monthly payment.

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Free Citywide Wireless Internet Access

Free municipal wireless Internet access is currently extremely rare. There have been several cities and towns in the United States that have created such grids that blanket their entire surface and it makes the Internet essentially free and fast for all their citizens (and visitors). The only thing that one needs to utilize such a community-wide wireless grid is a wireless card. Unfortunately, traditional ISPs and telephone companies don't like big free wireless grids. They see them as being competition, and they have been working hard to make them illegal. There are already several states in the U.S. that don't allow free municipal wireless Internet access.

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Travelers' Wireless Internet Access

These days there are many wireless Internet access options available for travelers. It is not uncommon for airports to offer wireless Internet connections (usually on a pay-per-usage basis, but sometimes free). It is now also quite common for hotels and motels to offer wireless Internet connectivity (usually on a pay-per-diem basis). Many libraries and parks also offer wireless Internet access, and usually for free. Internet access for road warriors is easier now than it has ever been. There are even portable wireless base stations available that'll enable you to use high speed wired connections with your wireless devices.

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Sharing Internet Connections Wirelessly

It's pretty trivial to use a wireless base station to share a single ISP's Internet connection with multiple computers, and the firewall facilities built into some wireless base stations can improve your ISP security, too. Base stations like the Linksys or AirPort will function like routers; you connect their uplink ports either directly to your Internet connection or through a hub or switch. Individual computers can either be assigned IP numbers on-the-fly by the base station, or be given pre-set ones. The former case is easier to set up, and the latter case results in faster Internet access. Computers set up in a wireless network like this can also directly share information with each other.

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Wireless Internet Access Hardware

If you want to have mobile Internet access by taking advantage of the public wireless Internet connections available in different places, you'll need some special hardware. Of course to be truly mobile you'll need a laptop, notebook, or PDA, but the key thing is the wireless card. Most public access points currently use a standard called 802.11b, although a few use 802.11g. The 802.11g standard is faster than 802.11b, but backwards compatible. That means that if you have an 802.11g card, you'll be able to utilize both 802.11b and 802.11g wireless Internet connections.

Tips about ISP Speed Test

Speeding Up Internet Access

Most of what makes the Internet slow for people in their day-to-day activities resides in people's own systems, not in their ISP. It's pointless searching for a high-speed ISP if you're connecting to it with a modem over a telephone line. To get a fast Internet experience start with your own hardware. Get a relatively high-speed, low-latency connection to the Internet like cable or DSL, and then ensure your computer is ready for the load. Connect to the modem via an Ethernet port, not serial, parallel, or USB. Finally, ensure your computer has enough memory; in most modern computers this is more a bottleneck than speed.

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ISP Speed

The overall perceived speed of an ISP is determined by four key factors: the ISP bandwidth, the ISP load, server delivery rate, and the latency. Bandwidth is usually pretty constant for a given ISP. Load will vary throughout the day. Server delivery rate is attached to the service being used. Latency is largely determined by how one is connected to the ISP. All four are important. For example, a high speed ISP may score very well in a bandwidth speed test one day but be slow the next day due to a heavy load.

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ISP Bandwidth

The bandwidth of an ISP determines how much data it can move. If you think of data as water, an ISP's bandwidth is based on the size of its pipes. The top speed of an ISP is set by its bandwidth, but other factors can affect its actual speed. In particular, load will impact its raw speed and latency will impact its perceived speed. ISP bandwidth is usually measured in Mbps (megabits per second), but is often advertised based on its connection type (T1, T2, T3, T4, etc.)

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T1 and T3

ISPs are often connected to the Internet at large via standard cables called (most frequently) T1 or T3 or (very rarely) T1C, T2, or T4. Each of these cables delivers a certain amount of bandwidth at a particular latency. For a quick comparison, a T1 can move 1.544 Mbps and a T1C 3.152. A T2 delivers 6.312 Mbps. A T3 is capable of 44.736 Mbps and the mighty T4 274.760 Mbps. Compare this with a 56K modem which can only handle 0.056 Mbps.

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ISP Speed Tests

Since effective ISP speed is based on bandwidth, load (both global and service-based), and latency, it's not the most easy thing to calculate. There is a special ISP technology for performing such measurements; it's basically a stress test. There are different tests for different ISP services. One popular one is called Apache Bench. It is used for measuring an ISP's speed for serving Web pages. Note though that these ISP speed tests are used by ISPs on themselves; using one on an unsuspecting ISP will probably be considered a denial-of-service attack and can potentially get one in legal trouble.

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ISP Latency

ISP speed is based in part on latency. In fact, it has an especially huge impact on perceived ISP speed. Latency is the minimum time it takes to perform any network operation, no matter how small. It is partly determined by the distance between one's computer and the ISP server (there are speed of light restrictions, after all). The actual hardware involved at each side of the connection though has a bigger impact. Most consumer hardware tends to have poor latency, and to the person browsing the Web pretty much all the perceived slowness comes from latency.

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ISP Load

The load on an ISP will have a direct impact on its speed. If you think of cars as data and street size as ISP bandwidth, load is the amount of traffic in the street. An ISP provider with a light load will be able to serve your data more quickly than one with a heavy load when all other factors are equal. An ISP's load will be mostly determined by the quantity and popularity of its customers. ISPs typically experience their heaviest loads during business hours. Note though that business hours vary around the world, and ISPs with truly international appeal may be under relatively heavy loads all the time.

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Server Delivery Rate

Even if an ISP has plenty of bandwidth for its load and low latency, it can still be slow serving Web pages (or e-mail, or whatever). The reason is that each ISP service is handled by a separate program (called a daemon) and an individual daemon can get overloaded. Each daemon can only handle so many requests per second regardless of bandwidth. Basically in addition to the ISP's global load, there's also individual service load. The number of requests an ISP service can handle per second is based primarily on its server software.

Clear History and Temporary Internet Files

When you are browsing the internet, the Internet browser cached some file on the system as temp files for later use. Specially if your are viewing some private but your web browser will store all your information (visited websites) as a history and your co-workers, family members can trace your activates on the internet with clicking of toolbar history button or with simply press Ctrl+H. If your are using internet at any public place like internet cafe then you should clear your temp file history to safe yourself from cyber crimes.

If your are using Internet Explorer and wants to delete the history, then first open your Internet Explorer.

Click on Tools Menu then go to Internet Options. Here in General tab you will find the Delete Cookies and Delete files tab in the center of the screen.

First click on Delete Cookies option to delete all the cookies in the temporary files folder and then click on Delete files option to delete all the offline temporary files.

Now click on the Clear History button to clear your recently visited sites. You can set days to keep pages in history here. Be default it is 20 days, but you can change it from 0 to 99 days. If you set it 1 days, the system will clear your browser history automatically after one day.

Click on Ok button to save your changes.

Mouse in Windows Environment

Mouse events are the actions that can be performed by using the mouse. Following are the most common events triggered with a mouse.

Left Click

This event occurs when you press the lift mouse button. Windows captures this event and performs different task. Normally this event is used to select a graphical object such as a file icon or to press a button such as the Start button and closing, opening or minimizing an application windows.

Right Click

This event occurs when you press the right mouse button. This event is usually used to display a shortcut menu. The shortcut menu contains frequently used commands that are associated with the selected item.

Up and down Dragging

This event occurs when you press the left mouse button and move the mouse while keeping the left mouse button pressed. This event is used to select more than one item at a time, or to drop and object into another application.

Take action to stop the Viruses

Computer virus program negatively affects the working of a computer by altering user data or information without the permission or knowledge of its actual user. But you can prevent your computer data and resources from viruses, if you follow the given tips and tricks.

• Never open unknown e-mail messages, and always scan first all email before downloading even if you know the sender of the message.

• You should minimize the data transfer between computers through use of USB drives and MP3 player, if it is necessary then always scan first before open it.

• While using the Internet, avoid downloading free ware software without first checking it for virus. Normally the key generator sites are the main source of virus.

• Always use antivirus program with latest version, to detect and remove viruses from your system. You should update antivirus program periodically, because older versions of antivirus may not remove the new viruses.

• Always keep backup your important data, because your can restore your data using backup if a virus deletes your data or modifies it.

What is a Web Accelerator ?

Today a special tip for those who are still using any slow dial-up internet connection due to unavailability of any broadband connection in their area. The Web Accelerator application designed to provide the full acceleration for your routine web sites browsing. With the help of Web Accelerator you can browse your internet 4 to 6 times faster than normal dial-up connection. Basically this services compressing the website text data, images and heavy graphics to open or download this data with high speed. This technique is more useful for static websites and for email applications but don't accelerate with secure and downloading audio or video files. Some good web accelerator retains your system cache to reuse websites with faster speed and can also block windows pop-up. If you are using FTP sites and downloading any program using dial-up, then web accelerator is not for you. There are various web accelerator software are free available on internet, visit and download it to enjoy your connection.

Searching Information tips using Search Engine

If you want to get some information about any topic using search engine, the search engine will search the given information and will provide a list of links of websites along brief description about each website. You should use the right search terms for relevant results.

The following points must be noted to search the information on the internet.

· You can type all word in lowercase and also in uppercase, search engine will return the same result. But the best practice is type search keywords always in lowercase.

• Use + sign between words if you want to search the all words. For example, to search history of Football in Europe, type as:

history+Football+Europe

• To search the exact match, write the words in double quotation marks. For example to search the map of Europe, then type as:

"Map of Europe"

• Always avoid to use "and", "or" with search keywords, because these words will affect the search result.

Run vs. Save When Download A Program

When you are downloading any program or file from the internet, for example any antivirus program or an email attachment from your friends. Here you will get a dialog box with three options to Run, Save or Cancel. Basically this is confirmation from a user "Do you want to run or save this file", even you can cancel it to abort the downloading.

Here if you select the Run option, only the setup file is downloaded as temp file in your computer temporary internet folder and your computer run this program setup automatically without your confirmation or virus scanning. This is unsafe for your computer if you are downloading this program from any new or unknown source.

But if you select other option Save, You can save this program on your computer in any location. Now you have the full source of program on your computer, you can scan the all program before open it.

Normally you should select the Save option, if you are downloading this program from any free software sites. You have extra security layer if you save the setup file before run it.

Print Pictures from Web Pages

If you are browsing the internet and wants to print a picture from any website. The simple way is first right click on image then chooses the option Print Picture, but the problem here you cannot edit the picture before printing for example color or size of image. The best technique is first save this image on your computer then prints it using any image editing application like Adobe Photoshop or ACDSee.

Move the Location of your Temporary Internet files.

When you are browsing your internet, the website you visit placed some temporary files on your computer. The main purpose of temporary files to save your preferences that you specify for future reference. Normally internet temporary files are saved on C drive in windows folder but you can change the location of temporary folder to hide your internet browsing history from others.

If you are using Internet Explorer then follow the given steps to change the location of temporary folder.

• Open Internet Explorer, click on the Tools then Internet Options.

• Go to General tab then Settings button under the Temporary Internet Files.

• Here click on Move folder button then select new location to save Temporary files on different drive or computer.

• Now restart your computer for this change.