February 5, 2012

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Can the Dell UltraSharp U2711 Satisfy?

It seems that, fairly recently, computers have begun replacing the mainstays of the American household. Cell phones are making landlines irrelevant; e-readers are gaining popularity over physical books; and personal computers are being used for watching movies and television almost as much as the traditional TV set. There are a lot of websites like direct.tv that even replaced books, pamphlets and having to call customer service. The possibilities for visual entertainment on the Internet have been steadily increasing for several years. Many networks provide full episodes of their shows online for free and services like Netflix and Hulu make watching movies instantly on your computer a snap.

With the substantial expansion of computers into the realm of the visual comes an increase in demand for better monitors. A high quality monitor, such as the Dell UltraSharp U2711, could be the answer to this demand. What follows is an analysis of this particular product.

At nearly $1100, the 27-inch U2711 is not for the casual computer user. With such a high price, though, comes superior performance and design. Features of the monitor include:

  • An astounding 2560 x 1440 screen resolution
  • More than one billion colors
  • Customizable color options
  • 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio
  • Multiple connection ports, such as HDMI, DVI-D, VGA and USB
  • A design centered on the comfort and enjoyment of the viewer

If you think about it, lesser televisions can be purchased for the price of the U2711. The monitor can be used for anything a television can be used for but has the bonus advantage of being connected to the Internet. Those who love their high-definition TVs will be more than satisfied with the HD aptitude of the U2711, too. Imagine if you used two U2711s to create a dual-screen monitor. Your home office could almost be transformed into an IMAX movie theater.

Switching from television set to computer screen isn’t an obvious move for everyone, but the market is rife with great monitors like the Dell UltraSharp U2711 that are just begging for the chance to amaze.

Filed Under: Advancements, Computers Tagged With: ,

Learning about Healthy Diets

Dry fruit

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Choosing healthy options when dining in or eating out is important to maintaining good health throughout a person’s lifespan. Those who indulge frequently in junk or processed foods can suffer from problems such as heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity. Some cultures place a lot of emphasis on food, and many social gatherings revolve around the cuisine that will be served. Adjusting the mindset and behaviors from a young age is important in learning how to eat properly for life.

The first way parents can teach their children about good eating habits is by example. Keeping plenty of fresh fruits and veggies in the refrigerator, munching on nuts or dried fruit for snacks, and serving produce alongside meats and starches at mealtime can help children learn what constitutes a balanced meal. Some foods might be advertised as healthy options, but when reading the nutritional facts, it might become apparent that this is simply untrue. Understanding the food pyramid and what kind of fuel bodies need in order to work properly will help children to make better choices.

Favorite treats shouldn’t be avoided completely, as this can lead to feelings of deprivation or binging when no one is watching. Special occasions are certainly cause for desserts and other tasty treats. Yo-yo dieting and other unsafe eating trends should be avoided as well, as they can cause rapid changes in weight and rob the body of vitamins and nutrients. This can lead to malnourishment or dehydration.

As long as all culinary items are enjoyed in moderation, and combined with plenty of outdoor activity and exercise, children and parents alike will enjoy long lives of healthy eating.

Filed Under: Advancements, Computers Tagged With: , ,

File Sharing: How to do it Safely

Rising AntiVirus 

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No matter what kind of files you’re sharing, you’re probably always wondering, “Is this safe? Is this download going to be the one that introduces the killer virus into my operating system?” You don’t have to be a constant worrier over your file sharing. Just use some sound techniques to protect yourself.

Regardless of how secure you think your information is, you’re still file sharing. It’s possible that a virus could get tangled up in a file you’re sending or a file you’re downloading from a site. Make sure your computer’s anti-virus software and malware detector are up to date.

When you’re in doubt about the safety of a particular file, don’t download it. Even if it’s something you’ve really wanted for a long time, don’t introduce it to your computer. The risk is just not worth the possible reward. Remember that peer-to-peer file sharing is a risky venture in and of itself so if you notice any red flags, steer clear of that file. It could be a vehicle for allowing hackers to access your personal information or send harmful code to your computer.

Be sure to think twice before you lower your fire wall. Some file sharing sites may tell you that your fire wall is preventing you from downloading a file. The fire wall is there to halt potentially dangerous data from entering your computer. Don’t be so quick to open fire wall ports just because a site asked you to do it.

Finally, avoid uploading or downloading material that’s protected by copyright laws. While you may not run the risk of getting a virus, you could face prosecution.

Filed Under: Computers, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Protecting Your Digital Front

Malware logo Crystal 128. 

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Stories of computer viruses, hackers, and identity theft can make anyone on edge about the security of their computer. Hackers are constantly finding new ways to gather personal information through computers and viruses are always being made that can break through software. Luckily, the brightest of computer scientists and engineers are also always making new and more secure ways to protect your digital databases. All you have to do is keep yourself updated on the newest and best ways of protecting yourself.

The Internet can give you all the information you need about which security softwares you need. It is usually a simple task to get first-person accounts of how well certain firewalls and antivirus softwares work by simply looking for online forums about computers. These forums can usually give you all the information about software programs you will need, from the effectiveness of software to how customizable a program is, so you can decide what kinds of sites are allowed through your firewall.

Security software is also available in every price range, from professional grade, multi-thousand dollar programs to simple, free programs. Many free security systems actually work very well for a personal computer, though you may need a more thorough program if you keep very important documents on your computer or if you have reason to believe your computer might be targeted specifically.

Computers have become very important in our lives today. Just like everyone likes to know that their house and car are safe, you should also want to know that your computer is safe.

Filed Under: Computers, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Ways to Gather Personal Information

Data logger Cube storing technical and sensor data

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With each new and improved aspect of Internet surfing and online privacy, comes new and improved ways to steal information. Learning what to share and when or when not to share, is the key.

How information is collected

Cookies – for Internet users, cookies help users gain access to websites not attainable unless users accept them. These cookies consist of data stored on the user’s computer. Developers can use these tracking cookies to track a user’s activity on the Internet, connecting them to a user’s social networking site profile. A profile can give clues to a member’s browsing history. Ads targeted for that user, based on their internet activity, will appear alongside their social networking profile.

Even though the majority of businesses use cookies for legitimate purposes, others will use them for malicious reasons.

Uploaded Photographs

With so many technological and scientific advancements in the area of crime solving, digital photography is no exception. Studies showed that people could use profile pictures on social networking sites to locate and track an individual. Pictures taken by iPhones include the latitude and longitude, a feature that owners do not always disable manually.

Search Engines

Users may reveal personal information while utilizing search engines. Search engines can use the terms entered or even the time a user performed a search to gather information. Ironically, search engine developers admit to retaining information in order to prove a better service or to protect users from fraud.

Log-Ins

To protect information obtained by sites requiring a user to log in, users should always log out and either clear history and cookies, or set your browser to automatically clear all passwords, log ins, and Internet history each time a user closes the browser.

Filed Under: Computers, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Do Computers have Minds of their Own?

The "standard interpretation" of the...

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Dozens of movies and television shows depict computers and robots taking over the world, and attempting to destroy humanity. Could that ever really happen? The debate rages on and probably will for a long time to come.

After all, a computer is merely the sum of information fed to it by a human, right. When something goes wrong with a computer, we blame the program created by a human. Some will argue that a super fast computer can calculate mathematical operations, or play chess, against a human and win. Others will answer that the person who programmed the game and the math program is the one who is super smart and super fast.

Unfortunately, one man who thrived to answer that question, died over 50 years ago. His name was Alan Turing, a mathematician, logician, and a computer scientist, born on June 23, 1912, in London, England.

Alan Turing developed a test, called The Turing Test, which tested a machine’s ability to display intelligence. A text-only test between a human and a computer engaging in a conversation, another human had to guess which one is the human, and which one is the computer.

Turing first mentioned this test in a paper he wrote in 1950 titled, Computing Machinery and Intelligence. The first line of the writing was “I propose to consider the question, Can machines think? Turing goes on to explain that the term, thinking, is hard to define, and therefore he rewords the original question, asking if a computer is able to fare better in the Turing test than a human.

Although highly criticized since its introduction, philosophers use The Turing Test to argue on the side of the possibility of artificial intelligence.

Filed Under: Computers, Technology Tagged With: , ,

The First Internet Worm

The first Internet worm to gain widespread attention was the Morris Worm. Robert Tappan Morris created and then distributed, the Morris Worm on November 2, 1988, by the Internet. According to the creator of the very first computer virus, the intention of the worm was to count the number of computers connected to the Internet.

The Morris Worm’s design flaw, which its creator claimed he did not know about. Morris designed the worm to verify the existence of the infection on each computer it found. Believing that computer users trying to defeat the Morris Worm would instruct the computer to give a false positive, Morris directed the worm to copy itself anyhow, no matter the status of the infection.

By doing so, the worm replicated itself one out of seven times, and it spread rapidly, infecting many computers a number of times over. When Robert Morris heard about this, he admitted he should have tried it out on a simulator first.

The Morris Worm took advantage of numerous vulnerabilities to gain access to its targets in several ways:

  • Weak passwords
  • A bug Unix Sendmail Program
  • Flaws in trusted hosts’ features

The worm spread quickly from computer to computer, and infected several thousand computers. The loss of productivity because of the Morris worm was believed to be somewhere between twenty and five-hundred thousand dollars worth of damage.

The Morris Worm resulted in the first conviction under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, an act intended to reduce the cracking of computer systems. In the US v. Morris case, the court charged Morris March 7, 1991, of causing damage and gaining unauthorized access to federal interest computers.

Filed Under: Computers, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Decades of Sharing Information on the Internet

Logo

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Fifty years ago:

1961

MIT’s Computation Center demonstrated the first time-sharing operating systems in 1961. The Compatible Time-Sharing System allowed users to log onto an IBM computer from remote terminals. It also enabled users to store files online on a disk. It presaged electronic mail, which began in 1965, as a way for multiple users to communicate using time-sharing mainframe computers.

Forty years ago:

1971

Using a File Transfer Protocol, or FTP, users can copy a file from one host to another using Transmission Control Protocol-based network, such as the Internet. It uses separate data connections and control between the client and the server. The first FTP applications implemented standard commands and syntax.

1971

Michael S. Hart founded Project Gutenberg, the oldest digital library. It started as an effort to archive and digitize cultural works, encouraging the creation and the distribution of eBooks. By November of 2010, Project Gutenberg claimed to have more than 34,000 items in the collection.

Thirty years ago:

1981

Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical, and Manufacturers Hanover began to offer home-banking services by telephone, using a touch-tone keypad to give instructions to the bank. In the late 1980′s, banks began offering online services using the videotex system that delivered pages of text to a user in a computer-like format.

Twenty years ago:

1991

A Network Working Group from the University of Minnesota released The Gopher protocol in 1981. They designed it to retrieve, distribute, and search for documents over the Internet. It was a precursor to the World Wide Web, although some enthusiasts still use the Gopher protocol today.

Ten years ago:

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia and Stumble-Upon, a search engine using sites recommended by users, began.

Today:

The sky’s the limit.

Filed Under: Computers, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Computer Technology that Saves Lives

Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan of a head

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Among the many benefits of space travel, perhaps the most important are the advances in medicine and the diagnosis and treatment of many disorders.

A few of the computer technologies NASA developed during the early decades of the space program are:

Computer-Aided Technology (CAT scan) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

NASA used this technology to enhance pictures taken of the moon for the Apollo Program. Hospitals, clinics, and doctors now use this computer technology to detect tumors and other abnormalities in the human body.

LED (Light-Emitting Diode)

NASA used LED technology in plant growth experiments aboard the Space Shuttle. Oncologists use this technology as a form of chemotherapy to treat brain tumors in children. This treatment helps ease discomfort and pain normally associated with cancer treatments.

Cardiovascular Treatments

NASA scientists and engineers monitored the astronauts and their spacecraft using telemetry systems. Cardiologists used this technology to develop pacemakers. Hospitals’ Intensive Care Units use this technology to monitor the vitals of patients. Doctors monitor the function of pacemakers with the communication technology NASA used to observe the gap between orbiting satellites and Earth situations.

NASA developed fuel pump technology for the Space Shuttle that cardiologists used to make a mini-ventricular-assist pump used in artificial heart implants.

Breast Cancer Detection

The Hubble Space Telescope contains silicon chips used to convert light from a star into digital images. Doctors use this technology to detect spots in breast tissue. Doctors can use a needle to analyze the tissue by locating the exact spot. This procedure is less evasive since it is non-surgical, and primarily, it reduces the amount of pain and scarring involved in breast biopsies. Secondary benefits include less exposure to radiation, time, and money.

The benefits of space computer technology applied to medical advancements benefits everyone, as anyone who has been through these medical procedures can tell us.

Filed Under: Computers, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Personal Internet Use in the Workplace

According to many studies, Facebook is the number one out of ten most blocked sites by employers. Other sites on surveys include the usual suspects, YouTube and MySpace. The top sites are easy to understand because people spend the majority of their online, on these sites. Some on the list, while they may be understandable, can be disturbing, such as pornographic sites and pornographic magazine sites.

While most people are not prudish enough to believe that people still like to look at the pictures and occasionally read the stories in adult magazines, they are shocked to find out that employees would actually spend a portion of their workday on these sites. If they did not do that, employers would not feel the need to block them.

Unless you work for one of the adult magazines or you are doing research at work regarding social networking sites, you really have no business being on any of these top ten blocked sites. Companies should ban employees from using the Internet for anything that is not work-related.

To avoid employees from using their computer at work for personal time, employers must use Newton’s First Law of Motion:

  • ·       An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.
  • ·       An object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.

If employers allow their employees to use the computer for personal reasons, they will continue to do so until the employer prevents it. Employers should block or prevent their employees from using the Internet altogether, unless it is on work-related websites.

If there is a large enough compilation of information to produce a survey such as the top ten blocked sites, then that means there are far too many employees not working during work hours.

Filed Under: Computers, Technology Tagged With: , ,
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