Build a New Computer or Buy One Pre-Built
The holiday season is here again, and after Black Friday and the sales to follow, there will be a good number of people shopping for desktop computers. The decision for the general population will be which brand of pre-built ready out of the box computer to get. For the more tech savvy, the question can be, “Should I get an already made computer, or make one myself?” There are pros and cons to either choice, but ultimately it will come down to budget and personal preferences.
With already made computers, the work is already done for you. The computer is ready to go out of the box. Programs and hardware are pre-loaded for you. The decisions are made for you as to what parts make up the computer. You can select the type of CPU and amount of RAM, but the other components are decided by the manufacturing company. Product support is also easier to locate than if you built the computer yourself, as you can easily look up the model of computer to find the drivers and software upgrades all in one place.
For those of you that want to control every aspect that goes into your PC, you can opt to buy the components and assemble it on your own. Or you could hire someone to put it together for you. There can be a great deal of prep work and planning, as you have to research components to make sure that everything will be compatible in your new computer. You will also have to provide the operating system and software as an additional cost, which is one area in which pre-made computers are a little cheaper.
So to wrap up, here is a list of the pros and cons of building your own computer.
PROS:
- More stylish computer case options.
- You choose the components that are going into your machine.
- Computer can be easier to modify and upgrade in the future.
- You decide what operating system is going to be on the computer.
- Customizable Motherboards offer more options than stock motherboards.
CONS:
- Takes more time to get a working computer. Parts must be researched, bought, and assembled. Versus just opening a box and plugging in cords.
- Buying an Operating System separately can be more expensive than buying a computer where it is pre-loaded.
- Software updates will have to be found at their respective manufacturer’s website. This is more work than finding all available updates for a particular model of computer.
- Often more expensive overall.
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People looking into getting a new computer ask me what kind they should get. And while for most the answer is just pick one, I can be pretty methodical and put more thought into it. The first question is always, “What do you want to do with it?”
Computers are still getting relatively cheaper in price everyday. As soon as you buy one, it will be considered outdated in a few weeks. But you can’t think that way. A good computer can last you for years. Now back to the big question. Determining the main tasks you want to accomplish with this computer, will influence how fancy of a machine you need.
If the uses will just be general tasks, such as reading e-mail, surfing the web, word processing , or playing music to list a few, then you should be fine with one of the many affordable computers out there. I think 4 GB of RAM is still a good basic amount, but the current standards are always rising. Now I see machines with 6, 8, and 12. Hard drive sizes have maxed out at 1 or 2 terabytes for the time being, but they will eventually go beyond that. For the most part, you should be fine with a 500 GB hard drive. If you plan to store a lot of music and video files, then a larger drive may be in order.
If you are planning to do a lot of intensive tasks, then a fast computer with lots of RAM and a large hard drive is recommended. By intensive tasks, I mean photo editing, video editing, and heavy video gaming. Doing any of these activities can be resource demanding, so in addition to lots of RAM and storage, you need a fast processor, and a good video card. Most motherboards already have and integrated video card, but many gamers opt to install high end secondary video cards.
Make sure to do lots of research on the computers you may want to get. Many of the brand name computers tend not to have much room for expansion, so adding extra drives and such may be difficult or not possible.
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Today it was announced that Congress is launching a bill that would be intended to block foreign and domestic websites that host and distribute copyrighted movies, music, and software. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, sets out to finish the job the United States’ current anti-piracy restrictions started. Counterfeit items have been a nuisance for decades if not centuries. Fake items have been made to impersonate designer shoes, clothing, artwork, and especially currency.
The bill would entail a registration of all offending websites and a requirement that the ISP’s block those domains from U.S. viewers. And any payment services utilized by that site would also be suspended, in an effort stop the sale of pirated goods. The bill must now work its way through congress and the president before passage. So we will have to wait and see how it turns out.
But as comments made on other sites bring up, “Should the government be spending our tax dollars on this?” And “Will it just be a Witch Hunt used to get rid of websites our government may not want around?” As well as the fact that websites can easily be put up and moved around, blocking a site at one address doesn’t mean that it will not just pop up again the next day. Some serious cost benefit analyses will need to be performed.
And the main issue is people themselves. While there may be small percentages who do not know they are buying counterfeit goods, the vast majority do know. The problem has become that everybody wants something for nothing. While modern piracy has been around transferrable mediums like VHS and music cassette tapes, the copying used to just be one local guy in town selling copies at the swap meet. It is now a global sharing system that has gotten way out of hand. Copyright laws are not universal, so there is no law breaking in many of the countries notorious for file sharing. And there is this mentality that if they aren’t physically taking something from store, it isn’t stealing. But people always make up such excuses to justify their improper actions.
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Wal-Mart does currently sell mobile phones, but now it seems that they are now planning to also carry their own self-branded line of cell phone service plans. This new plan will operate on the U.S. T-Mobile network and cost $45 a month for unlimited talk and texting for one line. Additional phone lines will run another $25 a month each.
The new plan will be aimed towards families as is aptly named “Wal-Mart Family Plan”. It will work as a mixture of contract and pay-as-you go plans. You will be billed at the end of the month, as you are with a contract phone, but there is no contract. It is said that there will be no termination fees or credit checks. The pay-as-you-go aspect will come from the addition of data plans and international calling to your phone service. This will be an additional $40 a month that you pay in advance, if you choose to have it. It will be combined amongst the phones tied to the account. This data plan cost more than the competitors, but unlike the other plans, the Wal-Mart data allowances will roll-over to the following months.
Five initial phones will be available for the family plan and will range from the inexpensive to the very expensive. While there are no contracts on the service plan, the phones will be exclusively locked in to the Wal-Mart Mobile service. This lockout will make the phones unusable on other cell phone networks, even the T-Mobile network it is apart of.
Do we need another phone service provider? Sure, if it keeps the others competitive. In my opinion, pay-as-you go plans are the way to go. But it is all dependent on what you need to do with your phone.
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Embedding files into your web page.
Before streaming media was a viable medium, if you wanted to add some music or a video file to your web page you had to embed the file onto your page with HTML code. The issue with embedded files is that you have to wait for that file to load when going to the web site, so if it was a big file you could be waiting a long time for the page to load. Which was really annoying and painful in the dial up Internet days. If the web page designers were considerate they would give the user controls to the file, so that it could be stopped or played at the user’s discretion. But some designers would not leave any controls, making it impossible to stop the music. So every time you went onto that page, you had to listen to the music or see the video..
Embedding was done by the use of the embed tag. Such a tag would look like the following.
<embed src= “files\music.wav” autostart=“true” loop= “true” hidden= “false” height=“15” width = “155”></embed>
SRC—Is the location of the file you are embedding.
Autostart—Is the condition of whether or not the file starts playing on the page load. Set accordingly with the true or false statement.
Loop—Determines whether or not he file plays through once and stops or repeats. Set accordingly with the true or false statement.
Hidden—Determines whether or not the user will be able to see the control. Set accordingly with the true or false statement.
Height—The height of the control
Width—The width of the control
With streaming content now common place, embedding files has lost some of its appeal. Embed tags are now widely used to embed links to streaming content.
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If you want to add a few small interactive effects to your web page, one quick way is by using Javascript. Today you will see the basic animation effect with the mouse over, mouse out methods that are already built into the javascript language. Used in moderation, Javascript can add some nice touches to your web design.
- onMouseOver- This event will trigger when the mouse moves over the element with the onMouseOver call.
- onMouseOut-This event is the opposite of onMouseOver. It triggers an event when the mouse pointer leaves an element’s area.
These two are usually combined to create animation effects with picture rollovers and text changes.
An example of using onMouseOver and onMouseOut
<script type="text/javascript"></script>
<a href=""onMouseOver="document.image1.src='picture2.jpg;" onMouseOut="document.image1.src='picture1.jpg’;"> <img src="picture1.jpg" name="image1"/></a>
onMouseOver sets the alternate picture that will show when the mouse pointer enters the element area, onMouse out sets the picture back to the default picture that is originally on the page.
To refer to the picture it must be given and id tag, in this case "image1".
An example of using onMouseOver and onMouseOut for a rollover effect.
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Bad Web Design Practices you need to Avoid.
Creating websites is fun and you can easily get addicted adding pictures and features, but if you go overboard, your website will lose its focus and the user’s attention. Or you may want to get your page up online before it is fully complete and operational. This is another practice to avoid.
When creating your websites, avoid these practices:
- Excessive Pop-Up Messages- It is nice that you picked up a little JavaScript, but over use of prompt boxes quickly gets on the nerves of your sites visitors.
- Large Files-Large pictures take up a lot of screen space and can take too much time to load. Music or other files can also take a good deal of time to load and should be used lightly, if at all. Users want a page that loads quickly.
- Busy Backgrounds—Your site should focus on the content of your pages, so you do not want a background that will overwhelm the user from that goal. Avoid the flashing and blinking images.
- Confusing Site Navigation—Your web site should have a clear and intuitive path for getting to each page. A confused user will get frustrated and leave your web page.
- Inconsistent Theme—Don’t make your visitors guess if they are still on your page or not. Keep a consistent theme across your web pages, as this will also help you create clear site navigation. Avoid having different fonts, sizes, and colors across your pages.
- Broken Links—Nobody likes seeing the broken image icon in place of the picture they wanted to see. Or not being able to go visit the page you posted a link to. Perform your own quality assurance on your page; make sure all images and links work when putting them into your website.
- Underlining Regular Text—Be careful when underlining and coloring text, as users may confuse this with the links on your page. Make sure all of your page links are clearly visible.
- ActiveX Controls—In my opinion, I don’t trust random websites enough to install anything from them.
- Scrolling—Automatically scrolling content can annoy the user.
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Basic Web Design Guidelines to keep in mind when making a web page.
Making a basic website is fairly easy, especially now considering all of the software suites and web design tools available. But it is easy to get carried away with sounds, pictures, and features. While added features are nice, if over used, they can overwhelm the user and detract from the purpose of your website. So while you are designing your website, keep the following guidelines in mind.
- Keep the link navigation clean and intuitive. When a user clicks the “About Us” link, the website should navigate to the “About Us” page.
- Keep a uniform design across the pages, so the user doesn’t get confused or wonder if they are on the same site.
- Minimize the amount of images, flash, and scripts on your page to keep the load times fast.
- Make sure your pages focus on content, rather than pictures and other flashy imagery.
- Blinking and flashing pictures are distracting to the user and should be used very sparingly, if at all. Hold back on your animated gif collection.
- Not all web browsers are the same, view your website in multiple web browsers for compatibility issues and appearance. Your page may look fine in Internet Explorer, but be slightly off in Firefox.
- Try to optimize your page for different screen sizes and resolutions. You want the appearance of your page to be as standard as it can across various types and shapes of monitors.
- Be mindful of the color combinations you choose. Overly bright colors can only be looked at for so long, so avoid the bright pink or lime green backgrounds.
- As for choosing color combinations, select those with a high contrast ratio. The most basic example being black and white.
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An interesting game that people have come to play is to search their name on Google and other search engines to see what results come up. There can be little to nothing in the results, maybe a facebook or MySpace page, if you have them. Perhaps something of note you did that was written about on the net somewhere. If you have your resume floating around online, it may come up on sites other than the ones you submitted it to.
The goal of most websites out there is to collect your information in addition to your business. And once they have your information, they store it for their own market research or some places sell it to their partners. Their intentions are usually laid out in the company’s “Privacy Policy” and sometimes the “Terms of Use”. And even if they say they don’t sell or share your personal information, you never really know. I still get random mail on occasion and wonder whose list I got on.
The great fear of course is potential identity theft. Thieves can get a good amount of information on someone from just their online presence. And if they do not have much of a presence, information can still be obtained from the few websites that do have it. This is why you always hear about user account information being compromised by attacks on the websites. Thieves are seeking the company database to get names, account numbers, social security numbers, etc. And with all of the services out there trying to merge with other services, the problems will probably just increase. It shouldn’t stop you from living your life normally, but just be mindful of what information you share on the internet. As private and secure you may think it is, it isn’t always.
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Popup Windows Are Not Always Evil
As with most technology, it can be used for good or for evil. The name popup has synonymous with spam, spyware, malware, viruses, and the other negative attributes of the internet. But before its use was corrupted by spammers and other malicious individuals it was used for convenience.
The original use of pop up windows:
- The ideal main use of a popup window was to let a user on the page visit another webpage or page within the page, without leaving the current page. This was convenient for viewing larger images by themselves, filling out forms, or visiting partner sites of the page you were currently on.
- Even today, many websites offer virtual help that appears in the form of popup boxes. The virtual or real technicians will assist you with the questions you type into their chat window boxes.
The downfall of popup boxes:
- The annoyance factor began when web developers started to use them for advertising. When going to a webpage, a user would see the page and in addition multiple other windows advertising different products and services.
- And while most of these pop-ups were just ads, others were scripts and links to malicious software.
All major browsers feature Pop-Up blockers to counteract the abuse of pop-up boxes and windows.
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