Having a Google Account allows you access to many free (and some paid) services that can greatly improve your business as well as make things easier for you. In order to setup a Google account and get access to all of Google's applications and services, you need to sign up for a Gmail account (which is free).

Once you have signed up for a gmail account, login and go to the Google home page, at the top right click on "My Acccount". On your account page it will show you any Google products you have already setup which usually includes: gmail, talk, web history. Below that is a short list of some products to try out and a link at the bottom for "More". Click the "more" link to get a full list of Google's products that you can get setup.

Some of the big or most useful products that I have personally used and have also heard lots of positive results from include:

* Google Alerts - Get updates on a specific keyword or phrase for a specific time frame

* Blogger - Google's blog platform

* Google Calendar - Schedule dates and quickly add events

* Google Docs - Free web-based word processor and spreadsheet

* Google Groups - Easy way to find other people that are interested and discussing in the same topic

* Google Picasa - Software that makes it easy to view, organize, edit and share photos on your PC

* Google Reader - Constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content.

* Google Notebook - Browse, clip, and organize info from the web in one spot be easily accessible

* Google Sites - Easily create web pages and share info on a free website or group wiki.

* Google Video & YouTube - Watch or upload videos and share across the web

Plus many more, you can also check out Google Labs for more products their working on or have been released from beta. Some other more popular products from Google are Google Adsense and Google AdWords.

Take a look around and see how you can take advantage of Google's products in order to improve your business.

It's so easy to refill the majority of laser or ink-jet toner cartridges - this can ultimately be very rewarding on several levels. Who could possibly not be shocked at having to dispose of complicated plastic toner cartridges after a few hundred prints? All that metal and plastic used in manufacturing being wasted because there is no more powder left in them - the problem is that the printer manufacturers simply don't want you to refill toner cartridges.

Has anyone seen a photocopier being opened and ink poured in - they all used to be refilled like this - businesses used to buy big bottles of toner ink and simply top up their cartridges. Laser printers where exactly the same - you'd buy a big bottle of ink powder and top up the cartridge when needed. All the laser toner cartridges had little screw openers so you could refill them easily from ink bought from any
printer supplier.

Alas those days are gone - the printer manufacturers realized that it was much more profitable to keep reselling you a new cartridge rather than allowing you to easily refill the laser toner cartridges.
Gone went the removable stoppers as they sealed the unit and many manufacturers even started adding a small chip disabling the toner cartridge when it had printed so many pages. They are in fact actively artificially reducing the life of the cartridges in order to sell more replacements.

We have all have been brought up with capitalism so we know how the markets work and the profit motives of these companies. The environmental effect of this is less apparent though.

To produce a new toner cartridge from scratch takes approximately 1-2 liters of oil - so if we you refill a toner cartridge you are instantly saving nearly 2 liters of a limited resource.

Two Liters Doesn't sound too much ?

Well possibly it isn't but there are approximately 44 million new laser toner cartridges used every year in Europe - the majority of these can be refilled and used again. Over 73% of these cartridges are used once only ! The environmental impact of this is huge especially as we are discarding cartridges that are easily reused - every time we refill a cartridge we save the environmental impact of producing another
one and also save ourselves the cost of buying it!

So how to refill a toner cartridge ?

Well its extremely easy - it varies from cartridge to toner cartridge but generally takes no more than a few minutes and certainly doesn't require any special skills. It's important to get the right instructions for a specific printer as this makes it refilling the toner extremely straightforward.

Go to an expert who can sell you the exact kit for your printer and also who will answer any queries you may have about How to refill a toner cartridge.

Apart from the environmental impact - refilling your toner cartridge yourself also save a lot of money - sometimes up to 87% of the cost of a brand new cartridge. The beauty of refilling as opposed to re-manufacturing is you're actually not physically tampering with the working parts in the cartridge - all you're doing is pouring in new ink toner into the cartridge.

If you have a Laser printer and want to save money and help the environment - check this out it really does work so easily.

There are so many ways people try to improve their BASIC COMPUTER SKILLS FAST. In this Article, we are going to look into the best method to learn BASIC COMPUTER SCIENCE SKILLS FASTER. It is very important that you learn the basics of a computer to be able to advance and improve your "Computer Knowledge" with ease. If you don't understand how a computer works, you would not be able to enhance your Computer Skills.

Surprisingly, many people still try to improve their Computer Knowledge Skills faster, through learning new skills, the Old Fashion way. This group of people certainly will learn Computer Science, but it will take them too long to learn Basic Computer Skills.

Fortunately, many people these days have discovered that the best way to learn new skills fast, is through the use of Video Lessons (whenever possible). By using new and improved Video Lessons, you will be able to Master Basic Computer Skills fast. You'll be able to see every step necessary to perform every task you need on your computer.

You will drastically improve your learning ability by a hundred folds, if you use video tutorials
to learn new skills, compared to someone who still insist on learning new skills from books only (the old fashion way). So many people who have already try learning new skills or learning Basic Computer Skills fast from books only, always end up not acquiring basic Computer Knowledge fast. This is because, the more you read, the more confused you'll become, as you try to understand so many things and terms at the same time. So many things or terms that you probably never heard of before.

So one should always try learning new skills faster from Video Lessons / Video Tutorials. It will no doubt help you to master new skills fast. Learning Computer Science or Basic Computer Skills is no exemption to this idea. In fact, it is the best way to master "How To Use A Computer"

If you want to ensure that you or your friend will learn every basic steps and skills you'll need to improve your Basic Computer Skills faster, it is advisable that you start your learning with Video Lessons / Video Tutorials. This will definitely help you to master and improve your Computer Science Skills Fast.

Geographic Information System or GIS is technology that offers a radically different way to produce and use the maps required to manage our communities and industries. GIS helps create intelligent super maps through which sophisticated planning and analysis can be performed at the mere touch of a button.GIS aerial maps can greatly enhance a GIS mapping project. Aerial imagery is a powerful visual aid and serves as a source of derivative information such as land cover, terrain, change detection, or vegetation.

Today there are perhaps thousands of geospatial applications in use. Organizations, agencies and companies throughout the world use the technology to transform manually produced maps and associated descriptive records into digital databases. Once a tool that was affordable only to the largest organizations, geospatial systems and GIS aerial maps have become a cost effective option for even the smallest organizations.

Geographic information system technology is widely used for scientific investigations, natural resource management such as forestry, agriculture, mining, oil and gas exploration, environmental impact assessment, and urban planning.

GIS and GIS Aerial Maps can be used in a wide range of activities, such as: GIS base mapping, corridor mapping, land cover classification, urban development, pre and post 2D/3D seismic surveys, Environmental Impact Studies (EIS), environmental monitoring, coastal erosion studies, property and tax mapping, and flood analysis. You likely can even think of other uses for GIS not listed here, although it sounds cliche; the possibilities truly are almost endless.

Some GIS projects are hindered by coordinate problems of different image and vector data layers, which are caused by one or a combination of the following: Improper orthorectification of satellite or aerial image mosaics. Poor quality GPS derived ground control points (GCPs). Improper rectification of digital source raster maps. Importation of vector data or shape files for source data with incorrect coordinates. Improper use of units or unit convergence factors for source data. Utilization of source data from a corrupt coordinate database.

The key advantage to GIS is the ability to share maps, such as GIS aerial mapping. State and federal agencies, along with utility companies, which typically create their own respective maps, can share maps with each other. This not only saves money, but provides the ability to create hundreds of new maps, many of which may have never existed before, for minimal cost. With such widely available and easy to use tools available to make GIS aerial maps, there really is no reason you should not be using this technology with your aerial photographs.

You've got firewalls and you've got antivirus software, so why is your computer back with IT having its hard drive wiped and everything re-installed? The simple answer is because the risk to security wasn't taken seriously enough!

This time you were lucky, a simple virus or Trojan can be sorted. Next time though, it could be a hacker. Before you have time to say 'annual bonus' your entire database is floating around in cyber space and you've got some serious explaining to do to your customers. Not the most ideal way to start your Monday morning. However, armed with a little research and common sense you can make sure your database isn't quite as vulnerable.

In a nutshell, security is all about managing risk, whether that risk is to your ongoing profitability or your organisational climate, if it could happen, what can you do to minimise the risk of it becoming likelihood? Your database may never be hacked or pick up any lethal viruses; but if it does, do you really want to be explaining to your client why you've lost all their confidential information?

With every Tom Dick and Harry out there offering so many different security products how do you know what will best suit your business? Vendor A seems to be selling the same product as Vendor B, their packaging is similar; they both appear to be offering the same things and the only really obvious difference is vendor A is charging a lot more money. The most common explanation for this is vendor A is investing a lot more money in the research which goes into his security. Vendor B can promise to protect you from every potential risk out there today, but vendor A is making sure they are pre-empting what may well come at you tomorrow too.

It's not just what may attack you 'out there' which you need to be vigilant about. In fact, your security is more likely to be breached by one of your own employees. Simple steps can make sure your business doesn't scream 'easy mark' to every passing hacker or disgruntled employee. Obvious passwords need to be banned; it is far too easy to find out what Sarah in accounts cat is called, or the registration plate of Luke in sales, especially in this social networking age. You should also make sure that old accounts are removed, especially if an old employee didn't leave on the best of terms, you leaving their account open is just asking for them to extract a little revenge. It's also important to make sure security access is used wisely. Does your intern really need the same level of access as your account directors? It may be easier just to give them all administration clearance, but is it an acceptable risk? One last really simple thing you can do to improve your security is 'Patching', when vendors discover a potential weak spot in the security package the patch will remedy that potential flaw, ignoring theses patches means ignoring a recognised risk.

So you've taken a good objective look at your business from the point of view of a hacker and decided that losing your computer to IT for the day (and that's at the very least) isn't a viable option. You also know that the cheapest option out there isn't necessarily going to cost you less in the long run. So now you need to work out how much is acceptable to spend on any potential risks. The simplest way to do this is, to put a value on what it would cost you if anything happened, then times it by how often this risk could occur. From this you should be able to work out what is acceptable to spend on your security.

Isn't it amazing how many people are concerned about you on the Internet?

You create a new email address and in no time at all, perfect strangers are suddenly very concerned about you having the best credit card, the best home loan, and especially the best "bedroom performance" possible. All of these "kind" people are sending you email every day in order to be sure you are up to date with the latest in electronics, the prettiest of Russian mail-order brides, and the most "exciting" websites you could ever want to visit.

We have all been a victim of it. This thing called "email spam." Unsolicited emails that clog your inbasket and make it very hard for you to find the emails that you actually care about. Congress has finally made some attempt to control spam, but there are still far too many loopholes for the unscrupulous to dive through in order to assault your inbox with junk email.

There are various tools you can use to try to cut down on the amount of spam that reaches you. If your email software allows for it, you can use a spam filter as well as a black list or white list. Unfortunately, each of these tools has their own drawbacks.

One of the best ways to deal with spam email is to avoid the online behaviors that cause your email address to be picked up by spammers and added to their lists. What follows is a set of rules to help reduce the chances that your inbox will fall prey to a spammer's unwanted attentions:

Rule #1: Never allow your email address to be displayed on a website. This means that if you are active in online forums, or if you maintain your own website, or are involved in any other online activity where you might possibly post your email address, it is best to use a modified email address that a human would understand but a computer program might not. For example, instead of posting "myaddress@gmail.com", you could post "myaddressDeleteThis@gmail.com". A human reader will know to remove the letters "DeleteThis" but a computer program designed to harvest email addresses from web pages would find it much more difficult. However, be warned that spammers are using other tricks these days that make even this technique not as safe as it used to be.

Rule #2: When you receive spam email, NEVER click on the line that says something like "click here to be removed from our list." In some emails, clicking such a line will in fact remove you from their list. Unfortunately, in other emails clicking on that link tells the spammer that your email address is "valid" (because someone clicked on the link). The spammer may or may not take your name off of their list, but what they WILL do is turn around and sell your email address to other spammers. Because they now have verification that the email address is a good one (because you clicked on the link), your email address brings them more money when they sell it.

Rule #3: Set up a "junk email" account and use it when you make one-time purchases or any other time a website that you must use requires an email address. Most internet service providers give you the option of creating multiple email addresses. If yours does not, you can always create a "throw away" email address on Gmail, Yahoo, or any of a number of other free email services. Once you have this account set up, always use this email address when you need to supply an email address to a company or website that you do not expect to visit more than once. This goes doubly true for taking advantage of "free offers" online that first require you to enter your email address. Many of these "free" online offers are getting paid through the selling of your email address!

Rule #4: Avoid becoming part of those large chains of emails that get forwarded to tons of people. You know the kind. Someone gets a funny story, a spiritual thought, or some other interesting bit of news and then forwards it to everyone in their address book. The problem is that every time someone forwards such an email, all of the email addresses belonging to the other people "in the chain" also get transmitted with the message (unless the sender is savvy enough to remove them...which most people are not). All it then takes is for a spammer to get a hold of any ONE of these messages (which is now serving as a traveling email address collector) and suddenly you are on a spammer's list again. If you ever have an email that you wish to send to lots of people in your address book, do them all a favor and do not expose their email address to the spammers as well. Address the email TO YOURSELF, and then include all of the desired recipients on the "bcc" line (the "blind carbon copy" line). Doing so will allow you to send a "mass email" without exposing anyone else's email address (because "bcc" email addresses are not included as part of the message, which is not the case if you "cc" the recipients or put them on the "to" line).

Rule #5: Never give your email address to anyone who does not need it. I cannot count the number of times this has happened to me. You are in a "brick and mortar" store and a clerk casually asks for your email address as if it is required to complete the transaction. If it is a store I know and trust and I actually want to receive emails from them, I might give them my email address. More often, however, I tell them "you do not need that information to complete the transaction." This rule leads to a very good rule to follow in all of your life's dealings: NEVER GIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION OUT TO PEOPLE WHO DO NOT NEED IT!

These are just a few behaviors that can help you avoid getting your email address on a spammer's list. The most important thing to remember is that your email address represents money to unscrupulous email spammers. Armed with this information, you will be able to go quite a long while before having to change your email address due to a clogged inbox.

New technology and software solutions, especially large-scale solutions, generally mean changes to operations, business processes, employee learning, reporting, and even how a business engages its client-base.

If your organization is faced with significant change, you might want to consider undertaking a change facilitation process to help ensure that everyone affected can play a role in making change happen effectively and efficiently.

Effective change facilitation requires optimal involvement of users, especially regarding how their particular roles and responsibilities will be affected by a new application or business process. Our facilitation of change begins with ensuring the right people are at the table reviewing business requirements and working together to determine appropriate user Interfaces, reporting requirements, help screen requirements, and learning needs.

We believe as well that line users require appropriate involvement in adjusting business processes, where required, to best utilize the new system.

Executive leadership is paramount Employees look to executive management for leadership and inspiration when faced with major change in the business environment. While the CEO and other key management staff do not necessarily have to be leading the facilitated change process, they should be clear with their employees and other stakeholders about the objectives and intended benefits of the changes. The role of executive leadership should include articulating the vision, leading group meetings at key milestones, ensuring that ongoing communication channels are in place, and providing clear guidance to those who carry responsibilities for the design of change.

Identify concerns and aspirations up front When we engage a client in this work, we stress the importance of working with all stakeholders up front to identify the worries, concerns, resistances, as well as aspirations they have with respect to the many changes coming at them. Such an analysis helps to create an appropriate change strategy.

The stages of a change project A change project occurs over stages, from the identification of business needs all the way through project implementation. For those affected by the change, they need to be "helped" along the change path, first by increasing their awareness of the need to change, which is typically best accomplished by involving them appropriately in the initial stages of the project or initiative.

This involvement builds their desire to find solutions to their needs and challenges. As the project moves through its conceptual stage, their knowledge grows in terms of needs and solutions. They begin learning about what new abilities they will have, which require regular reinforcement well past implementation. An appropriate change process will address these stages effectively and in a timely manner.

The change team Given that the software applications are often implemented in concert with business model changes, we recommend striking a change team that involves key vendors/suppliers and relevant representation from the organization's staff. This central team is responsible for working with all affected employees and often key customers in order to ensure optimal issues management and to solicit important feedback throughout the project.

For large-scale initiatives, it can be helpful to contract with an external consultant to coordinate, if not lead change management activities.

Communication is key Part and parcel of a stellar change process is regular, informative, and clear communication throughout all phases of the initiative. If a technology initiative is affecting many employees in various locations, it might be prudent to create a website exclusively devoted to the project, where staff and other stakeholders can go to glean the latest news about progress, provide input as required, download pertinent materials as they are developed, and communicate with one another in functional groupings.

Windows is an excellent environment for gaming. The flexibility of a PC offers so many ways to play games that consoles just cannot match. The only problem with a PC is with regular use your system will overtime become sluggish making the games you play run not as well as they first did. Here are some tips to get your Windows PC running up to speed.

Choose the Right Driver

Too many people make sure they have the latest driver from their hardware vendor. When doing so you risk using software that may conflict with your favorite game. It is best to go to the vendor's site and see what they recommend for that particular game. Also do a Google search and find out what other people are suggesting. Why do the work when someone else has done it for you.

Remove Start up Items

The more programs you have running in the background the less resources your game has to use to run as smooth as possible. Go to the start menu then select run. In the run dialog box type "msconfig". Select the Startup tab. In this tab uncheck the items that you know you don't need to startup every time you boot your computer. Once done click on OK and restart your computer. If you have an undesired result just go back to run command in the start menu and type "msconfig". In the startup tab put a check mark back on the program that is having problems.

Clean up the Junk

Make sure that you only have the programs that you will use installed on your computer. Remove the unwanted programs through Add/Remove programs.

Defragment

Sounds pretty basic huh? Well the faster your game can access the data it needs the better the game will perform.

Check the Network

If you are playing a network based game like World of Warcraft. Make sure you are using the fastest connection possible. If you are on a wireless network, consider a wired network. Also make sure that other computers in the home are not running network intensive applications as you are all sharing the same connection.

All of this is really simple and there is a whole lot more you can do. These are a few simple ways to make your gaming that much better.

We all would agree that with the advent of computers, our lives have changed. We all love to sit on our PC's and laptops for long hours for various individualistic reasons. But what happens when your Computer or Laptop breaks down and is need of a repair? Computer Repair can be a headache for most of us who are unsure of whom to trust.

If you are located in and around the North London and Herts area, there are many computer repair, laptop repair, PC maintenance, Wired and Wireless Networking solutions, and several other IT enabled services-offering companies that can help you out! Many of these companies have thorough professionals employed and have been offering their services for over a decade now.

These companies offer the services of computer repair, networking-related etc. services at affordable prices and onsite repair facilities are also available, depending upon the feasibility. Many residential, commercial, learning and government bodies employ their services. There is also a facility of replying to the inquiries made by a customer within a day.

The professionals from these companies located in and around Herts are efficient and have loads of experience in diagnosing all types of computer problems. They are willing to help you in case your computer has troubles with upgrading, is running slowly or has stopped working altogether! Services like Removing Viruses, Spy Wares, Installation of Broadband, Wireless and Wired Network set-up, Upgrading the PC's/laptops; Computer Setup, Laptop Data Recovery, File Transfers, Laptop servicing, Made-to-order computers, Network maintenance and many more related Computer Services are on offer.

Apart from the basic PC and Laptop Repair, here is a detailed list on what all you can avail from these companies:

Trouble Shooting, Fault finding, Ad ware & Mail ware Removal, PC Running Slow, Blue Screen Errors, Dead Computers, Registry Repair, Hardware Installation, Hardware Diagnostics, Software Diagnostics, Computer Maintenance, System Valet, Driver Errors, DLL Errors etc.

Facility of Remote Access

How about a facility by which one is able to get instant access to their computers at their home or office even when on the move! What if one can access their main office server machines as well!

Well, with the Remote Access Facilities that these companies offer, one can access and/or control their computers remotely. Even the people working under you have the option of sending and sharing files, folders, emails, programs etc. Even when on the move. Your customers and co-workers can also get connected. The list is never ending and benefits are manifold.