So, I've been going on different computer forums, and every single day I see at least one post, saying something like "$1500 budget. Need help with Build". So I go in the thread, type out my opinions and personal experiences, some suggestions, and wallah, I try to help them.

Now, what bugs me is when there's a thread that says something with an outrageous budget, like "$5000 Budget. Need Build suggestions". So, I go in there, and they have all of these super-expensive computer parts, just beyond high-end, to the point where it's a completely enthusiast machine.

If you know anything about computers, how to build them, and how to select parts, you know that some things are out of your reach. But just going all out on a computer seems somewhat absurd to me. For example, say you have $1200 to spend on a computer, and you spend it on a 22" monitor, and quality computer parts for a good mid-range gaming computer. Now, I would be very happy with that; overall, it will give some very nice performance.

Now, compare that to a $3000 dollar machine equipped with the most expensive CPU, 2 of the most expensive GPU's, the most expensive motherboard that allows dual-GPU configurations, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a ridiculously large, expensive case with flashy appearances, water cooling, a 1KW PSU, and a 24" monitor. Will you see much of a difference? Maybe in numbers, but maybe not quite in physical performance. Sure, you have a larger monitor, more graphics power, and I guess more of everything. But does that really justify the cost difference of $1800? Sure, you can play all the games at max settings, you can multi-task a lot, and all that good stuff. But in my opinion, there isn't that much physical performance difference that will justify the ridiculous cost difference between the solid and enthusiast machine. You can have the bragging right of having the largest 3D Mark score in your group of friends, but you will also be the one with all the extras you do not need. I don't think it's much of "what you want" issue anymore, now it's the issue of "what you need".

Today, anyone who is planning to get songs, pictures or other information transferred from disc to disc can take comfort in knowing they can have CD duplication done on their media discs. CD duplication is a process which involves copying data to a blank disc from another disc. If you happen to be using an outside service to do the job, what they will do is take two discs which you provide – an original disc containing the information you want transferred, and a blank disc – and process the info transfer. These services will even put any artwork you want to see onto the disc by printing it out on paper, then pressing it onto the finished duplicate disc.

On the other hand, there is another process that’s known as replication. In this process – which is much like the professional work done on any CD that you might see sold in a store – a company will take a disc which you provide to them and place it on another disc. This is similar to CD duplication – except that for replication to take place, the company must create a stamper, as well as a glass mater disc on which your information is placed. The replication process takes longer than duplication, since time must be taken to create these items before your transfer can begin. By contrast, CD duplication can be started as soon as you present a duplication company with an original master disc. Always be certain you know whether the company you choose is going to duplicate your discs or replicate them. One other thing you’ll want to do is to select an outfit who will utilize the option called “compare and verify”, which confirms that the copying was successful, and the exact duplicate of the original master. If you decide to have this option used, note that the copy process will take perhaps up to three times longer than if you didn’t make use of the option.

Among the many CD duplication services available are Media Technics, which uses a cutting-edge system known as the FUSION system to process your media at rates that are among the industry’s quickest. Then you have Triple Disc, a service that gives clients quality work, completing some tasks in as little as 24 hours. These are certainly options you’ll wish to consider if you should need such businesses. CD duplication is the preferable option for those who are getting less han 500 discs copied – but so many discs will still likely leave you wishing to use some sort of service rather than trying to do it yourself...

And in fact...you can actually do it yourself. Consider that today’s computers most likely already have CD burning capabilities installed. Anyone who has some knowledge as to how CD burning is done can have media copied in the privacy of their own home. Imagine the ability to have pictures, music, or whatever copied in little time on your PC or burner source without having to pay huge sums of money to companies to do the job for you. How sweet would that be??

So choose from the many options CD duplication has to offer – and great luck in discovering the best path for your needs.

Home Computing is a completely different type of computing, where a PC is used extensively by all kind of users including geeks, experts, and novice users. In such cases the problems caused in home computing are also typical example of technical problems. Troubleshooting of such problems is not as easy as people think.

Home Users

In case of home computing there are three types of users having different choices and reasons of using computer. A Home PC has to bear work load of earning person at home, who take help of computers in their daily work or business, and they need Internet and some office packages for normal day to day work. Second segment of home pc users are kids, they use PC's to play several online and offline games, for them PC is not an electronic device to be handled carefully. They treat Home PC as another set of toys. Third segment of home pc users are housewives who use computers for browsing for new recipes or new ways of decorating homes as well as for being in touch with friends and family in leisure time. Most of these Home PC users are either novice or having less knowledge of computers, Internet and its functioning.

Common Problems: Common problems in home computing are:

1. Problem with Internet Connection - Sometimes due to some reasons Internet Connection can stop working. It can be due to weak strength of internet connection or some cable fault or simply due to a problem with your network interface card.

2. Problem with Sound - Due to incorrect sound setting or bad placement of speakers the output quality of sound may reduce, to modify those settings is not that much tough, you can learn through a little effort

3. Normal working problems - Home users also face normal working problems at the time of work that is due to lack of knowledge in computing.

4. Computer Problems due to mishandling - Mishandling of PC's can cause hardware related issues, and which can affect overall PC functioning.

Among all the above said problems the worst thing is problems caused by mishandling, because that results expensive solutions otherwise rest category of problems are very simple and less time and money consuming. To avoid all these problems caused in Home Computing, you should consult an IT troubleshooting service provider for regular checkup of your computer, just like your regular health checkups. That'll ensure smooth functioning of your PC.

PBR can be used to match a specific flow and then apply some QOS policies on it, for example you can mark the packets or route the traffic to special optimized or dedicated connections to handle this traffic type.

For example you may have two internet connections, one for normal internet traffic [FTP, HTTP, downloads] and another one for critical applications (stock tickers) or to be dedicated only for use by the managers and critical departments.

In short PBR can be used to classify traffic based on extended ACLs, set IP precedence value or route traffic to dedicated traffic engineered connections.

Route maps can be used as follows:

Route-map QOS permit 10

Match [ ip address | length ]

Set [ip precedence | ip next-hop | set interface]

In the match statement you can match any standard or extended access-list, or match packets with an exact or ranged length.

Extended access-lists allows you to match specific flows, for example you can match only email traffic sourced from customer service department and give them some priority over normal emails from other departments.

The set statements can be used to set the IP precedence value to mark packets for use by other QOS tools and/or within your ISP's core to implement a contracted policy. Set interface and next-hop statements can be used to override normal forwarding for this specific flow.

Finally, apply the route-map under the input interface using the command ip policy route-map QOS.

Hope that was useful for all of you and thanks for reading.

The technology used to read barcodes is relatively simple, but there is little information available for the novice. This is intended to be an introduction to the scanning, processing and presentation of barcode information.

Scanners

A scanner is a device that converts the image of a barcode into electrical pulses. There are four basic ways of doing this: contact wands, active non-contact (AKA laser scanners), and passive non-contact, which can be cameras or linear CCDs (charge coupled devices). All of these devices have similar outputs, strings of electrical pulses that mimic the white/dark and width of the bars. With the exception of cameras, a scanner will always include a light source, either LED or laser.

Wands are the simplest, but have the most limitations. A wand has a light source, focusing lens and a light detector. It has no moving parts, which makes it the most rugged of scanners, but it also means the operator must move the wand over the code. This takes some practice. The second major limitation: the wand must touch the barcode. A barcode under a plastic case or an overly-thick wrapper cannot be read by a wand.


Laser scanners have moving parts that are easily damaged. They consist of a laser light, a set of mirrors and a detector. At least one of the mirrors moves, which allows the laser beam to scan a code. Multiple mirrors can redirect the beam in many directions. A laser beam is very thin and this allows the scanner to read barcodes at long distances. They can also make multiple scans of the same code in very short periods. These properties make them ideal for retail stores and factory use where the distance between the barcode and the scanner can very from scan to scan.


CCD scan engines will contain a light source (most often LED), lenses and a linear CCD. The barcode is illuminated and the lenses focus the image on the CCD. Scanning is performed by reading the reading the charge levels on each of the CCD elements. CCD detectors can have 1024, 2048 or even more elements. Like a wand, a CCD scanner has no moving parts. These scanners do not make contact with the barcode, so they can work at a distance. Because of the need to focus the barcode's image on the CCD strip, the distances within which a CCD scanner works is much more limited than for a laser scanner.


Camera scanners use an array of CCDs and lenses, and some them include a light source. They have lower-resolution detectors, which limits their use to special 2D matrix barcodes, unless close-up focusing is an option on the camera. Webcams and cellphones can be used in this way.


Light to data

The output of a scanner is a string of electrical pulses. Generally two voltages are used for the pulses, a high-state and zero. If viewed with the right equipment, the high & low states would map directly to the black & white bars of a code. The conversion is done by part of the reader, or in some applications by a keyboard wedge.

The pulse string is processed in several ways. The first is a look at the lengths of the pulses. Many barcodes use constant width bars and spaces, but the most common barcode, the UCC/EAN code, uses four widths. Each barcode type has a font. Most of them also have guard bars, which indicate where the code starts and stops. The guard bars may also give a clue as to the direction of the scan. The UPC barcode uses three bars at the ends and five in the middle. The guard bar patterns are not used for numbers or characters. So by noting the locations of the guard bars, the scanner can actually combine scans of the left and right sections to make a complete code.

Once the type of barcode has been identified, the pulse string is broken into groups of bars that form characters. When decoding a UPC, each character is four bars: 2 black, 2 white.

Once each character has been identified, there might be a check sum calculation to verify the complete code is valid. The UPC barcode performs a calculation determined by each digit's position and compares that to the last digit of the code.


Data to information

The converted data is now in a digital form. This may be a coding pattern like ASCII or it might be keyboard codes. The former is standard for stand-alone readers, the latter more common in point-of-sale or office use.

Keyboard wedges that connect scanners to computers will use keyboard codes, so the computer accepts the input as if someone were typing the code.

A wireless reader can either store the digital codes or transmit them to a central system. Many handheld, portable readers contain small amounts of memory that can store 100-150 barcodes before they need to be connected to a computer to download. Connections can be via USB or a serial port. In almost all cases, specialized software is required to read the data. Wireless readers that transmit to a central system do not need data storage, but they are limited in their range. This is most useful within a warehouse or a factory.


Making use of the data

If a barcode is not routed to a central computer, it needs to be displayed in a human-readable format. Devices that can do this are called portable data terminals (PDT).This is a bad term, because only the portable part is true. A portable data terminal is a free-standing barcode-reading system.

A PDT will contain a scanner, a processor, memory, storage and a display. Often, they are actually laptop or palm computers to which a scanner has been added. A few are purpose-built and optimized to read barcodes and translate that to useful, human-readable form. A PDT can contain tables or databases which allow it to look up scanned codes and tell the user what they represent and how many there are.

A PDT tends to be very expensive, because it has so many capabilities. Those based on laptops can cost several thousand dollars. Even palm devices can be $600-$1000 dollars once the scanner has been added. Businesses can integrate PDTs into their inventory systems, and some of the lower-cost devices can be placed in the hands of all of their field personnel. Items used while servicing customers' equipment can be scanned on site and the information loaded into the main inventory system later for billing and inventory management.

Some purpose-built PDTs are small enough and inexpensive enough to be used as consumer devices. Given a scanner, storage and a display, consumers can use these devices to inventory their music, movie and book collections.

The inventories can be stored on their home computers or stored remotely, or both. Websites that cater to collectors can frequently convert barcodes to more useful information like titles, authors and composers. Small, pocket-sized devices designed for portability can actually be carried at all times, and used to check new purchases against items already collected, just by scanning codes.