Manchester City on verge of Premier League helm

 After defeating Tottenham, Manchester City get close to Premier League title

Erling Haaland's double strike puts Manchester City on verge of Premier League helm

Manchester City have defeated Tottenham with a 2-0 victory on Tuesday. Erling Haaland's team is going to clinch their fourth consecutive Premier League title.

Erling Haaland's double strike ensured City remain two points clear at the top

Arsenal had been hoping for a helping hand from their arch-rivals. However, their hopes were dashed when Erling Haaland scored from Kevin De Bruyne's cross early in the second half. Haaland then added a second goal from the penalty spot as the match moved into stoppage time.

The game could have taken a different turn when Heung-min Son had a clear run on goal following a mistake by Manuel Akanji in the closing stages of regular time. However, Stefan Ortega made a potentially title-winning save.

A win at home against West Ham on Sunday will secure a fourth consecutive title for City. Meanwhile, Arsenal, who will be hosting Everton, can only hope for an unlikely stumble from the relentless City.

City needed a win to reclaim the top spot ahead of the final day, and Phil Foden nearly gave them the lead. The England international took advantage of a poor clearance from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, but his volley was denied by Guglielmo Vicario.

City could not play their best game despite the win. Ruben Dias had a few sloppy possessions, Kevin De Bruyne was effectively marked out of the game, and a stray shot from Josko Gvardiol in the 39th minute was all they could muster since Foden's chance.

De Bruyne bounced back after the break, forcing another save from Vicario before setting up City's opening goal in the 51st minute. The midfielder found some space and picked out Haaland for an easy tap-in.

The goal was met with cheers and chants of "are you watching Arsenal" from the home fans, further denting the title hopes of Spurs' rivals.

Ederson was replaced by Ortega after a collision with Cristian Romero. The Brazilian goalkeeper, like Tottenham's Rodrigo Bentancur before him, showed his frustration on the touchline after being substituted. Ortega was soon called into action as Spurs increased the pressure.

Dejan Kulusevski's drilled effort was stopped by Ortega following a fortunate ricochet off Manuel Akanji, keeping City in the lead and at the top of the table.

Read More >>

Internet Marketing

What is Internet Marketing? This type of marketing is some times referred to as On-line marketing, or can also be known as e-marketing. An explanation for this is the marketing of products or services by using the big World Wide Web and that’s it in a nut shell.

People often see marketing as selling, and this can be some times confuse people. Look at it like this, the majority of people who make a living from home, network marketing on the internet are not physically selling anything.

To put it another way, they are actually trying to generate traffic to a product or service so that they gain prospects or email addresses to build up a list of prospects.
Whilst you are gathering information, they get lead to a service or product that actually does all of the selling by itself via the sales pages etc.

To do this, is quite simple and it can be done whilst you learn different, new, and improved ways to go about driving traffic to a website, sales page or destination using the up to date ways that some one else who is all ready doing this type of thing, and simply copy them. Having knowledge of the internet and computers is not something that can be over looked here, we are not talking about being a genius and knowing everything about the web, but a basic know how will let you get started and then you just build and build this knowledge whilst developing your business. The best advice I can give is to copy someone who is all ready very successful in the area you are looking to get into. i.e a mentor.

Having the internet has now exploded the work from home business opportunity. In the early days most internet users would generally use the net to search for items or research a topic etc, but now this has been pushed aside and people are seizing the chance to make serious incomes online whether it is their primary income, part time, a hobbie or what ever, there is money to be made and plenty of it. After all making money as your own boss and from your own home has got to attract even the cynical of people this world and plant that seed of doubt that maybe they need to open their mind to the potential of making a lot of money is definitely possible.

Having said all of this, there is research to be done here and by that I mean, taking time to search the net wisely and not jump into the first opportunity that you come across as there are pitfalls when searching for such products and that is SCAMS.

These are every where unfortunately but to get passed these, you need to do your home work and find out as much as possible on the particular product your interested in to make sure it is what it says it is. Try and get through all of the rubbish and find that one product will take time but it will be worth it. So good luck in finding the right one for you, if you really go for it then you will find that opportunity and then be up with the top earners for years to come.

Read More >>

Search Engine Optimization

Whenever you are having a website or an online business, it is very common that your first priority is to get the best page ranking you can get on all the leading search engines. The point behind this is that the better your ranking is the better is your chances of getting the maximum number of potential 

visitors. And there is also a reason behind this. Almost all of the Internet users have the tendency of visiting those sites that they can get on the top of the search engine result pages. They give their first priority to those sites that they can find on the top ten list of the search engine result pages. Therefore the webmasters are also eager to get their pages listed on the top ten ranking of the search engine result pages.
But because of the great competition in this field there are not that much chances of achieving this goal so easily. And here comes the need of Search Engine Optimization. The Search Engine Optimization is the process through which – if done in the proper manner – a website can get the highest ranking on the search engine result pages. The term ‘Search Engine Optimization’ in short SEO means a lot of things. And in itself it is a pretty wide concept as to get the SEO job done in the proper manner needs a lot of other things to be done in relation to that.

There are various other parts and sections of Search Engine Optimization that are to be done accordingly so that the whole Search Engine Optimization process can run smoothly. One of such very vital section of Search Engine Optimization is the link building. However, link building in itself is also a vast subject and has several other parts in itself. Now the question is what is link building. To get this question answered properly would take a long discussion. But if we need to explain it in a nutshell, link building is the process by which a website exchange links of their own site with other sites who are dealing with the same topic or subject.

To give an example of link building let us discuss a little about the reciprocal link building, which is a vital part of the total link building procedure. Simply speaking the reciprocal link building is the process in which two or more websites exchange links with each other in the manner of advertisement or reference. In a reciprocal link building the agreement between the two websites is that both would publish the link of each other so that they can share the visitors between themselves. As for example if you are having a website on hair straighteners or wedding rings and you have reciprocal links with another similar site working on the same project, the visitors of your site can also navigate through your site to the other one as you are publishing the link of that site on your pages. And similar would be in the case of the other website also.

Thus it is easily presumable how tough the Search Engine Optimization job is. And therefore if you are the owner of a website it would be better for you to get the SEO job done on your behalf by some expert SEO Company so that you can get the best results in the for of search engine ranking.

Read More >>

Your Website on Top in Search Engines Results

Webmasters always want their website to appear on top of Search Engine Results. However, it is not as easy as it seems. Getting ahead of your competitors and achieving top ranks in Google, Yahoo
or MSN required a lot of work. It is well known fact that top ranks in search engines results lot of organic traffic and in return more revenues. Therefore, website owners are always ready to do everything to attain their desired ranks.





In order to achieve top ranks in all major search engines you need to understand the search and indexing mechanism of all popular search engines. Always remember, that there are no defined criteria to make your website on top of any search engines. You need to follow the basic guidelines set by them for a search engine friendly website. However, search engines experts suggest several tricks and tweaks that may help you in easy indexing of your website by search engine robots/crawlers.

The contents of your websites, META tags (Description and Keywords appearing on all pages), inbound links (links appearing on other websites but pointing to your website), and alternate text given on your images play an important role in easy indexing of your website. You can expect better ranks only if your website is equipped with all the above described things.

One more thing that is very important for your website’s performance in search engines is selection of right keywords and contents based on those keywords. Remember, if you are not targeting proper keywords, you may not get desired results. Therefore, in order to fix this issue, you need to do a proper analysis of your business domain and niche market along with keywords research prior to making any plans for online promotion of your website.

Usually search engine tracks your website through two popular mechanisms:

Links based tracking 

The success of your website in top rankings is determined by the number of links point to your website. If your website has lots of incoming links from other top rated website in your niche, the possibility of success is more. Search Engine Submission, Affiliate Marketing, Directory Submission, Article Submission, Press Releases Distribution, and Blogs help a lot in achieving such quality inbound links.

Contents based tracking 

This is relatively a complex mechanism of tracking your website. It depends upon the relevance of META tags (keywords and description) with the contents of different web pages in your website. Freshness of contents on your website enhances your chances of getting indexed easily.

Apart from these two popular mechanisms, you can also adopt other modes of online advertising like banner ad placements, paid submission, contextual advertising and social media marketing. These strategies are of great help if you want a quick interaction with your potential customers.

Easy Submission simplifies the complex task of website submission to search engines, article submission, directory submission, and social bookmarking for optimizing websites

Read More >>

Install OS X Lion on your PC

Today, it’s possible to take a small chunk of that Apple experience and use it on your own, outside the confines of the expensive ecosystem built specifically for it.



The enjoyment won’t be the same, but the whole point is to expand users’ options and give them the choice. We’re referring, of course, to running Mac OS X on any ordinary PC, something that the Cupertino giant does not like, endorse or acknowledge in any way. Apple’s desktop OS is finely tuned to work with its own hardware, software and online services: an entire ecosystem.

Mac OS X has a lot of appeal: the graphics are rich, security is higher than Windows, it’s generally easier for beginners to get used to, and there’s some excellent software available for creative professionals. For most people though, just the “coolness” factor and thrill of getting it working without spending money on Apple hardware are reason enough to try. This is the “reality distortion field” effect that dozens of other companies have tried to emulate over the years, to varying degrees of success.

This has the disadvantage of limiting your choices (and budget range) when it comes to buying a new computer, but it has the advantage of eliminating the thousands of variables that tend to make Windows machines slow or unstable.

Apple has never expressly allowed other brands to sell machines with OS X preinstalled, so you’ll never find a Mac bogged down with “bloatware” added on by third-party manufacturers, and you won’t have to go hunting for a printer driver when you need one, because it’s already built in.

Be warned - Running OS X is a tricky proposition and it’s not endorsed by Apple in any way. You’ll be contravening their end-user license agreement and will not have access to any help or support from them. You also won’t have a Mac-specific keyboard, mouse or trackpad, which will make several shortcuts and gestures impossible to use. This process is not recommended for casual users, or anyone who isn’t familiar with the internal workings of a PC. You run the risk of erasing your hard drive and losing whatever’s on it, so make sure you have backups. Moreover, obtaining a legal copy of Lion, the latest version of OS X, is entirely your responsibility.

What you need

Installing an operating system on hardware not originally designed for it is a tricky process. Apple is famous for building experiences around tightly integrated hardware and software, so problems are bound to crop up when trying to run OS X on unfamiliar components. It's not impossible to run OS X on commodity PC hardware, but this isn't a project to undertake if you're not 100 percent comfortable with your computer's inner workings. As of now, OS X Lion is a bit more difficult to get running than previous versions, Leopard and Snow Leopard. With Lion only recently released, the driver database is understandably small, and it's quite likely that you'll run into compatibility issues and other odd problems. The most frustrating issue we faced was with an incompatible USB keyboard, which caused all sorts of input errors!

Before beginning any experiment, we must emphasize the importance of backing up everything on your computer. Make a list of all hardware and drivers and search online for known problems. Then, if you're sure you understand all the risks and liabilities, you're ready to proceed.

STEP 1 

Copy the Lion installation file (InstallESD.dmg) and Kakewalk to the desktop of the Macintosh. Run the Kakewalk utility, and on the main screen, click on ‘Install to a USB stick’.


Step 1

STEP 2 

On the next screen, select the location of the Lion DMG file and choose the USB stick as the destination. Make sure you choose the correct destination (the USB stick), or you'll end up installing it to the Mac you're working on. When you're sure, click the ‘Create’ button.

Step 2

STEP 3 

The Kakewalk utility will do the necessary work in the background. It involves formatting the USB stick, mounting the Lion DMG image, copying the installer files and packages to the USB stick and a lot more. All this is done in the background and may take a while depending on the speed of the pen drive. Your USB stick will also be renamed to ‘Kakewalk’.

Step 3

STEP 4 

After the process is complete, the utility will ask you to start the Kakewalk installation. Click OK to continue and the next screen will ask you to choose your motherboard model number. The exact version is preferable, but a close variant will also do. Make sure you have an Internet connection as Kakewalk will need to download the necessary drivers from its repository. If your motherboard is not listed, you'll have to choose the closest match. Then carefully select your destination as the USB drive (now renamed as Kakewalk). Click on ‘Start Installation’. After completion, you can safely eject the USB stick and return the Macintosh to its owner, unscathed.

Step 4

STEP 5 

Now plug the USB stick into your PC and turn it on. Go to the BIOS where a few changes need to be made. Change the boot priority to USB HDD. Next, make sure you make the following changes if you have the options in your BIOS: HPET: Enable (64-bit), ACPI Suspend type: S3 (STR) and Hard drive: AHCI enabled. Save and close the BIOS settings. Restart the PC and boot from the USB stick.

Step 5


STEP 6

When you boot from the USB stick, you will be greeted by Kakewalk's EFIbootloader. Select the USB stick (Kakewalk) on your screen and press [Enter].
Warning: The target hard drive will be reformatted and all data on it will be lost. If possible, install Lion on a new, blank hard drive.

Step 6

STEP 7

After a long process during which you'll see lines of text characters scrolling continuously, you will land at the Lion installation screen. If you have not reached here, it's possible that a compatibility issue has been discovered. Note the error lines displayed on screen and search the Internet for a specific solution. You should find specific help on the various forums dedicated to OS X fans. For example, the error ‘DSMOS has arrived’ means that the video card is not compatible.

Step 7

STEP 8

Follow the steps shown on screen till you arrive at the screen which asks you to choose the destination disk to install the OS to. At this screen, click on ‘Utilities’ and then ‘Disk Utility’. This will start the partition manager for Mac OS X.

STEP 9

STEP 9

Using Disk Utility, click on your target hard drive in the left pane and then click on ‘Partition’ on the right pane. From the Volume Scheme, select ‘1 Partition’ and in the ‘Options’ below, select ‘GUID Partition Table’. Then in the Volume Information, type a name for the partition, select the format type as ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and leave the rest untouched. Finally, click on ‘Apply’ and proceed to format the drive. Once done, exit Disk Utility and proceed with the installation of the OS. The installation will take around 30 minutes, at the end of which your computer will reboot. Leave the USB stick plugged in, as there is no bootloader yet.

Step 9

STEP 10

This time, when the system boots again, choose to boot from the hard drive instead of the USB stick. Once booted, you should be welcomed to the next steps of the installation. Continue with all the necessary details that are asked on the screen.

Step 10

STEP 11

Once done, you should arrive at the default Lion desktop. Congratulations, your installation has been successful! But you have still got to install the bootloader to your hard drive so that it can boot up on its own.

Step 11

STEP 12

Locate your USB stick in the OS X Finder and open it. You will find the application ‘Kakewalk’—double-click and run the utility. Click on the icon that reads ‘Install to Computer’.

Step 12

STEP 13

This screen will highlight the motherboard model you chose while making the USB stick on the Macintosh. You cannot change anything here, so simply click on ‘Start Installation’. After a few minutes, you will be asked to reboot the machine. Now your bootloader is installed on your system and you can safely boot your PC from the hard drive. Mac OS X Lion is ready to go!

Step 13

STEP 14

Installing drivers is the biggest headache, but you can do it in a few steps. First, using MultiBeast, you can install basic drivers for audio, network, graphics, and system components. Copy the Multibeast utility to your new desktop and run it. Follow the steps till you reach the ‘Installation Type’ screen. From the drop down list, carefully choose the drivers of your motherboard and graphics card by referring to their respective user manuals. If you are not sure of any of the drivers, simply don’t select it, or else you will cause errors known as Kernel panic, and might need to reinstall Lion all over again. When the process is complete, you'll need to reboot the PC.

Step 14

STEP 15

Additional drivers that are not available through Multibeast can be downloaded and installed separately using the KextBeast utility. The drivers are usually in the form of .KEXT files and need to be inserted into certain folders and their permissions set to a particular level. KextBeast does it for you automatically. All you need to do is copy the KEXT files and the KextBeast utility to the desktop and run the utility. It will automatically search for the drivers on the desktop and install them.

Read More >>

Create Light Painting

Light photography has become something of an art-form in recent times and there is a growing number of photographers dedicating their attention to painting with light.

Light painting or light graffiti involves taking photos in the dark or extremely low lighting by delaying the shutter speed of the camera and filling the frame with designs created by light. The effect can be used to created designs or text in the air or on a wall or even around a subject and all it requires is a decent camera, a simple light source like a torch or a camera strobe and a lot of creativity. Light photography can also be used if you wish to light up a subject in a unique or unorthodox manner, creating sharp shadows at odd angles or even lighting your subject differently when you cannot change or move the natural light.

One thing to keep in mind when taking light painting photos is that your primary subject, if any, will be required to stay still during the entire exposure time or he/she will appear blurry in the photo, which is why the best light painting photos either use inanimate stationary objects as the subject or have the models in a comfortable and often seated position.

What you will need

The camera, quite obviously, is the most important tool. You will need a mid to high range camera that offers manual mode in which you can adjust the shutter speed. The longer the exposure time, the longer you have to create vivid designs with your light source. Some cameras also have a feature called ‘bulb’ mode, which lets you keep the shutter open for as long as you have the capture button pressed so you can have a prolonged exposure time. Professionals also use remote shutter release cables or wireless remote controls so that they can open and close the shutter without any delay as soon as they are done with their light designing.

Apart from the camera, you will need a tripod or a mount to keep your camera steady, as shooting handheld with such long exposure periods will most definitely give you a blurry result. If you do not want to use a tripod, you can simply place your camera on a table or shelf, depending on where you are shooting, to keep it steady, but this will restrict your framing. Finally, for the graffiti itself, you will need a light source; something portable and bright. Torches, camera strobes, LED lights and glow-sticks have all been used to get good results. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even try and use a mobile phone’s bright display.

The camera settings

The camera settings for light photography will differ from camera to camera and depend on the location and situation you are shooting in. You will definitely have to take a few test shots with your camera in different light, ranging from pitch black to dimly lit, and also using different light sources for your light painting. The general rule when it comes to painting with light is to have a long exposure, with delayed shutter speed and a low ISO to avoid having any noise in your photo.

The aperture will vary based on the lighting and brightness of the light you are using. You can start at f5.6 and take a few test shots. If your image is too dark or underexposed, open up the aperture to f4, and if your image is overexposed, try closing the aperture further to f8. You will need to experiment with the aperture to get the ideal setting for your photo. You will also need to set the camera to manual focus as it will try to refocus in auto mode when you press the shutter button and it will struggle to get the focus correct as you will be shooting in little or no light.

Framing your shot

With the camera settings in place, you now have to set up your shot. Photographing light trails is not hard but framing your photo and creating the right setting can enhance your image a lot more. Although you will get best results for your drawing in pitch dark conditions, a dimly lit background can add texture and depth to your image. If you look at the best light graffiti shots, you will notice that they are taken from perspectives rather than normal standing height. Find a terrace with a view of a busy street or set up your camera close to the ground to get unique angles and patterns in your photos.

If you intend to do your own light painting, then you should have a fair idea of the confines of your frame so that you do not end up writing or doodling off the frame. You should also frame your shot in such a way that none of the light you intend to capture is blocked by any foreign object, yourself or your subject. So having a relatively clear space to work in is a plus.

Other tips to keep in mind

The timing of your shutter speed will vary depending on the amount of exposure you want and the amount of time you will need to capture the light patterns. Either way, it is best to time your shot so that the shutter opens as soon as the light source enters the frame or you begin drawing, and the shutter closes as soon as the light leaves the frame or you are done drawing. The longer there is no light while your shutter is open, the dimmer your photo will get.

You will also notice that at a low ISO, a subject that you are lighting up will have blurred edges. If you wish to get sharper edges on your subject, you can increase the ISO, but keep in mind that the higher your ISO setting, the more noise you will get. You can also try and add texture to your photo with varying the intensity of your light source. If you have a torch with different brightness settings, you can use the varying intensities to get brighter patches in your photo. If you are drawing using an LED light or a strobe, then the closer it is to the camera, the brighter it will appear. Similarly, the slower the light source moves, the brighter it will appear in the photo.

Read More >>

Relocate your applications

Well you partitioned your hard drive initially and loaded the operating system and now realize that your C drive is running low on space while your D drive is a huge empty playground? You are now left with two options—first one is uninstalling huge and space-hogging applications and reinstalling them on the other drive and the second one is to resize your existing partitions using a partition management utility.
The latter option is better in a way as you can allocate the space permanently to drive C, but the threat of losing all your data in one go is high in case you accidentally reset your PC or witness a power failure.

The first option is a faster one and would only affect the particular program it moves in case of any errors. No doubt, reinstalling the software on another location is the best option, but it is painstakingly slow, and what if you don’t find your installation disk? We shall show you a simple utility which can relocate the programs from one drive to another in a few minutes in three steps. Download the utility ‘Application mover’ from ‘http://www.funduc.com/app_mover.htm’ and install it. Run the program after installing.

Step 1
On the main screen, you need to specify the two paths to the programs which need to be moved. Choose the current and new path accordingly. Leave all other check boxes untouched. Click ‘OK’.

Setp 1

Step 2
The next screen will confirm the files that will be moved. Confirm with ‘OK’ and the file operations will begin.

Step 2

Step 3
A new window will open and you will be asked to finally confirm the replacement of the program locations. Confirm with the ‘Replace’ button for every file or simply check the ‘Do not ask me again’ box.

Step 3

Application Mover moves all files from the old path (and any subdirectories under that path) to the new path. The program then uses these strings to make changes to the Windows registry, Windows shortcuts, .ini and Install.log files in the program path. The application performs its operations in the following order: - Files are copied to the new path>Registry Changes are made>Shortcuts are changed>Files are deleted from the old path>.ini and Install.log files are changed. The utility is a shareware and can be purchased for around Rs. 750. Another alternative utility is 'Steammover', but the cons are—it runs under Windows Vista and 7 only, works on NTFS and not fat32, leaves shortcuts on C drive and if deleted then the relocated program won’t work.

Just sit back and let it all happen

Do’s and Don’tsDo not move main important directories (For e.g. C:Program Files to D:Program Files). The utility must be run with Administrator privileges. Do not move ‘My Documents’. Do not move ‘C:Program FilesCommon Files’. Programs must be shut down before moving. Backup must be done to avoid mishaps. Moving MS office is unsafe—Do it at your own risk. Do not move antivirus applications. Do not move programs from one PC to another. Do not move programs over the network unless the shared drives are mapped to the PC. Do not install a new hard drive or USB drive which tends to replace the drive letter of the drive where the applications are relocated.

Read More >>

DeFragging Hard Drive

We explain what is defragging, why you should do it to your PC or laptop, and how to defragment your hard drive in Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Who or what is a 'defrag', I hear you say? Defragging or defragmenting your hard drive is a way of speeding up your PC or laptop in Windows - in principle, at least. The idea is that as data is saved and resaved to the spinning disc in your hard drive, small packets of information are deposited in random places all over the platter. This then takes longer to read, when Windows calls upon your hard drive to find out information.

By defragmenting or compacting that data the operating system removes the gaps between packets of data, moving it all closer to the middle of the disc. This in turn makes each access of the hard drive quicker, by a tiny amount. It should improve the speed of your PC or laptop, even if it does so by only an imperceptible amount. And that should help the most when it comes to startup times.

Should I defrag?

If your PC or laptop has an SSD rather than a spinning hard drive, NO YOU SHOULD NOT. It won't help, and it will reduce the life of your SSD.
For those with PCs and laptops that have only spinning hard drives (also known as HDDs), it's worth doing. But don't expect a miracle. I've personally never noticed any difference after a defrag, but it definitely can't hurt your PC's performance. Windows 7 users will notice a bigger difference in terms of startup times, because Windows 8 is built to go to sleep rather than shut down. (And if startup times are a problem you are much better off following the advice in this article: Speed up your PC: stop programs starting up when Windows 8 boots.)
But defragging is probably a good thing, and definitely not a bad thing. Here's how to defrag Windows 7, and how to defrag Windows 8.

How to defrag Windows 7

Click the Start button. Select All Programs, then Accessories. Choose System Tools, and then select Disk Defragmenter.

You'll probably have to put in your administrator password. Then hit Defragment Now.

And that's it. Disk Defragmenter will take a while, possibly even hours, to run through, but you can use your PC throughout the process.

How to defrag Windows 8

If it has a hard drive your Windows 8 PC, laptop or tablet will defrag itself by default every week, thanks to the scheduled task: Optimize Drives. So if you haven't changed any settings, you shouldn't need to defrag. But if you aren't sure and you want to check the status of- or manually defrag your drive open Search (Windows+Q or swipe in from the right and open the Search Charm). Now type in 'Defragment'. One of the results will be 'Defragment and optimize your drives'. Select this.

You'll see a dialog featuring a list of the hard drives in your PC or laptop, their media type, when they were last defragged, and how fragmented they are. You really need to defrag only if the drive is more than 10 percent fragmented. (On my severa-years-old work desktop, the two drives were both at 0 percent due to the regular background defragging.)

If you can't see a figure in Current status, to find out if a particular drive needs to be optimized highlight it and hit Analyze. Then confirm your choice. This will update the Current status column.

If any of your drives is fragmented by 10 percent or more, highlight it and hit Optimize. Confirm your choice. Again this could take minutes or hours, and you can continue to use your PC throughout.

Read More >>

The Different Memory Cards And The Speed Of Some Of Them

The MMC and Secure digital cards are not the same but are interchangeable. The difference has to do with copy protections of the disk volume on the SD card. This extra feature makes the SD attractive for people who use them in MP3 players. No other cards are interchangeable. The Canon Power shot A510 you described comes with only 16MB, so it would be best to invest in more memory capacity. What I would recommend is getting one memory card that you will be able to use, even as your need for the amount of pictures you want to take changes.

For this use I would recommend the SanDisk 1 GB Secure Digital Memory Card. Usually running around $90 this card will allow you transfer large files, take hundreds of photos, handle large movie files, and take pictures on the highest resolution setting. If you are looking for something with less storage space, but with an equally reduced cost. I would recommend the Kingston 512 MB SD Memory Card running from around $44. This card holds a significantly less amount of pictures, but still performs well.

Actually the Kodak cards are probably made by SanDisk anyway as Kodak manufacturers very little these days and subs most everything out. I use both Compact Flash and Secure Disc memory cards and I'd be hard pressed to see any difference between the quality of the files stored on different types of cards or brands. And I have never heard of a problem of loss of quality because of a memory card.

What I have experienced is the corruption of the files on a memory card. I have several digital cameras of different brands and one day loaded a CF card from one camera into another. I am not sure but I think that the second camera tried to overwrite the first's directory and caused the loss of some information and a few files to be corrupted. I would suggest that you get yourself a program like RescuPro. It is a program that both finds and recovers lost and corrupted files and it wipes and deletes images files from a memory card.

Besides the price and fancy name, the difference between each generation of SanDisk cards is speed. A lot of people aren't aware of this, but the speed at which you can take pictures and speed of transferring them to you your computer really depends on the type of memory card you have. Overall, SanDisk has a great reputation for making fast cards. The Sony A-100 has a burst rate of three frames per second, which is similar to my camera.

With a slower card you only may be able to write five or six frames before the card has to stop the camera. If you're into sports I suggest the III or IV, especially since you have 10.2 megapixels which will eat up write time.

Another thing is the speed you can transfer your pictures to your computer. The best setup is a card reader and a 2.0 USB port. It also makes a huge difference what type of card your pictures are stored on. If you're transferring 200 10.2MP RAW images the difference between the original and IV can be minutes. The type of card is really important. Personally, since you'll be saving large files like 10.2MP, I'd go for the III or IV, but it is completely up to you.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for http://www.BuyRAM.info/ , a computer memory Super Store. BuyRAM.info carries an excellent selection of computer memory, notebook memory, and digital camera memory for every type of computer, notebook, and digital camera on the market. Click Here to Search for System Memory by selecting the make and model of your system.

Read More >>

Build a Computer

Building a computer is not like trying to break the bank at an online casino or a casino in Las Vegas, it is very simple, once you know
how.

To make a computer work you must have a mother board a processor some ram a CD ROM drive and a hard drive, with these key components you can build a computer than can easily be upgraded ever few years instead of having to get an entirely new PC.


The first step in building a computer is to find a nice sized clean workspace. The next thing you must do it to lay everything out on the table so that when it is needed it is close.


Before going any further open the box for the motherboard and remove the manual from the box. The manual will tell you everything you need to know about building the computer. Not reading the manual for the motherboard before starting to build your PC is like gambling in a casino at the craps table, without knowing the rules for craps, and you would not play a casino table game without knowing the Gambling Expressions or the rules for that game would you?


Take the computer case and open the side panel. This will open the space you will be building the computer in. before touching any of the actual computer components make sure you have attacked your anti static line to your workspace and your wrist, a shock from your hand to one of the computer components can damage them permanently.


With the computer case you will have a bag of screws. In this bag are some posts, place the mother board in the case just to see where the holes line up, and in each of the holes place a post screw. These posts are used as spacers so that the motherboard does not sit directly on the computer case.


After putting in the posts, the mother board can be placed on top of them and screwed into place. When screwing in the motherboard make sure to use the paper washers on each of the screws attaching the motherboard to the case.


Now you can carefully open the processor box and remove it, carefully line up the cutout in the processor with the one in the motherboard, and gently put the processor in place. Once the computers processor is on the motherboard, make sure to lock it, to stop it from moving.


Before you can put on the heat sink and fan you must put on a layer of thermal glue to the back of the processor, this glue makes sure the heat flows from the processor to the heat sink and fan. Without this glue the processor will over heat and burn out fast.


Most modern motherboards have a Nic card, video card and sound card as part of the mother board. This make is much easier to build the computer because that is 3 less things that have to be purchased or installed.


Now you can install the Ram. This is done by locating the cut out of the ram chip and lining it up with the slot for the ram on the mother board. If you are not sure where to install the ram make sure to check the motherboards manual it will show you exactly where to install the ram.


Now all that is left is the hard drive CD Rom drive and some wires connecting the computers on and off button to the motherboard.


The mother board will come with the cables you need to install your heard drive and your CD Rom drive. It is simple to do just plug one end of the cable into its place on the motherboard and the other end to the device you are attaching; it is as easy as playing Keno.


There will still be 4 or 5 wires that will need to be hooked up from the case to the motherboard. These wires are for the on and off button the reset button and the power lights on the computers case.


By reading the manual and following the directions you can build a computer in about an hour.


Trevor Green has a degree in computer science, but likes to write reviews for Online Casinos because of his passion for Craps and other online casino games.

Choosing your PC Hardware


This is a generic step by step guide to building a custom pc. The guide consists of the 14 steps below. To build a PC from scratch you need to follow each step. You can skip certain steps if you choose not to install those hardware. This guide assumes you have no previous knowlege of pc building but expects you to have some knowledge of pc componets.

If you want to learn more about pc components and need buying advice please read the buyers guide. If you are upgrading your pc you can jump to the required step by clicking on the appropriate link.
If you are feeling brave and up for a challenge then go ahead and start builing your own pc. You will have lots fun along the way.

• Step 1. Assemble PC – Put everything together.
• Step 2. How to install a Motherboard.
• Step 3. How to install a Processor – CPU.
• Step 4. How to install a Memory – SDRAM.
• Step 5. How to install a IDE Hard Disk Drive.
• Step 6. How to install a SATA Hard Disk Drive
• Step 7. How to install a Floppy Disk Drive.
• Step 8. How to install CD / DVD ROM.
• Step 9. How to install a CD Writer, CD-RW.
• Step 10. How to install a AGP Graphics Card.
• Step 11. How to install a Sound Card.
• Step 12. How to install a Modem.
• Step 13. How to install a TV Card.
• Step 14. Finalizing stage.

Choosing your PC Hardware


To build your PC from scratch you will need to purchase all the necessary hardware. The first thing you must consider before you start to shop around for your PC hardware is the specification of the hardware. You should think about what you are going to use your PC for, before buying fancy expensive hardware. Otherwise you will end up buying hardware which offers advance features that may not be necessary for your needs and end up wasting your money. For example, you may be using your PC for word-processing, spreadsheet
and browsing the web. You would not gain much benefit by purchasing an advance 3D graphics card or having a top of the range processor. A simple graphics card and a mid-range processor will satisfy your needs. Below is a list of all the hardware required to build your system except the obvious requirement, keyboard and mouse. The purpose of each is hardware is explained along with some guidance to help you choose your hardware. Select the required hardware for more information.

ATX Case

Motherboard

Processor

Memory

Graphics Card

Sound Card

Hard Drive

CD/DVD Rom

CD/DVD Writer

Blu-Ray Writer

PC Speakers

LCD Monitor

Modem

Floppy Drive

TV Card

Satellite Card

Cable TV Card

Assemble PC - Put everything together

If you have purchased all the necessary hardware your are ready assemble your PC. Before unpacking your components from its original anti-static bags you must put on your anti-static wrist strap, which will discharge your self. It is important that you discharge yourself or there is a danger that you can damage your components by anti-static shock by touching the components. If you don't have an anti-static wrist strap you can discharge your self by touching
the metal edges of your ATX case, although this is not recommended. Be careful not to cut yourself as some ATX cases have sharp edges. Have all the mounting screws that come with the motherboard and a philips screw driver handy as you would need them during the later stages.

How to install a Motherboard

The first thing you should do is unpack your ATX case. Take off the cover of your case so that you can access the inside. Place the case on a desk so that you are looking down towards the open case. Your case should come with motherboard mounting screws. If your ATX back plate it not already fitted you can fit it by placing your plate near the ATX back plate cut out and pushing the plate outwards, it should clip on.

Now place your motherboard on top of the mounting screw holes. Make sure your ATX devices on the motherboard such as PS/2 and parallel port are facing towards ATX back plate cut out. Gently push your motherboard towards the cut out, every devices should fit easily into its corresponding cut out, as shown below.





The screw holes on your motherboard should align with the screw holes on your case. Place your screws that came with the case into the appropriate holes and gently screw it on using a screw driver.
The motherboard is now securely mounted to the case. You can now place the ATX power connector to the motherboard. Your ATX case should come with a power supply unit (PSU) and should already be mounted to the case. The ATX power connector is shown on image below.

Place the ATX power connector on top of the power socket on the motherboard. Push down the power connector and it should clip onto the socket. If you try to fit the power connector the wrong way round, it won't fit, it will only fit one way. So, if the power connector does not go in, it should go in the other way round.

How to install a Processor - CPU

Locate the processor socket on your motherboard. I am installing an Intel PIII 866 processor on a socket 370 as shown on the following image. The installation would be slightly different if you have a different processor i.e. Slot1 PIII CPU, P4 Socket 478, Core 2 Duo Socket 775, AMD Slot A / Socket A, Socket AM2 CPU etc.

Raise the brown lever on the socket and slowly put the processor in place. You have to make sure the pin 1 of your CPU goes into the pin 1 of your CPU socket otherwise the CPU would not get into the socket, so don't try to force it in. It will go in gently if you fit it correctly. Now close the brown lever which will securely hold the CPU in place.



If you bought a retail boxed CPU it would include a heatsink + fan. If you bought an OEM CPU make sure you got a fan that is correct for the speed of your CPU, otherwise your CPU will overheat and behave abnormally or could be damaged. Take off the plastic cover from the bottom of the CPU fan that covers the heat transfer pad. Now place the CPU fan on top the CPU and push down the metal clips on the fan so that it clips onto the CPU socket.



CPU fan has a power connector which needs to be connected to CPU fan power socket on your motherboard as shown on the image above.
Finally, you have to specify what frequency (speed) your CPU is running at. This can be done using jumper settings, or on some modern motherboard it can be done in the BIOS, or your motherboard may have automatic detection for your CPU frequency. Please refer to your motherboard manual for more details. The motherboard I am using (Abit BX133) has a dip-stick jumper setting and it can be setup in the BIOS. I have left the jumper setting to default as I will use the BIOS to specify the CPU frequency. The CPU runs at the bus speed of 133Mhz therefore I will use the settings 133 * 6.5(multiplier) under the BIOS, which will the run the CPU at 866Mhz.

How to install a Memory - SDRAM

Installing memory is quite simple. Find the SDRAM banks on your motherboard, they should look similar to the banks below. Notice the memory banks has a white clip on each side. Make sure you release the clips so it bends to each side.

Hold each corner of the SDRAM placing it on top of the bank 1. You will notice that the SDRAM has a cut at the bottom side, it is there to prevent the memoy going in the wrong way round. If you are holding the SDRAM the incorrect way you will not be able insert it. Gently push down the SDRAM and it should clip on to the memory bank. The two white clips will now become straight holding each corner of the memory. If you have more that one SDRAM perform same steps as above but placing the SDRAM in memory bank 2 and so on.



How to install a Hard Disk Drive

Please choose the type of hard drive you will be using to build the system. If you have an IDE hard drive (also known as ATA or PATA) then choose IDE. If you have SATA ( Serial ATA) hard drive then choose SATA. If you don't know what type hard drive you have, then look at the image below and choose the one that matches your hard drive.

IDE Hard Disk Drive Installation



How to install a SATA Hard Disk Drive

If you look at the rear side of a SATA hard drive it should look similar to the image below.


Figure 1 - SATA Hard drive

The SATA cable connector is on the left hand side which consists of few pins. Next to the SATA connector on the right side is SATA power connector which consist of many pins. You will notice that SATA hard drives do not have any jumper settings for slave or master as each drive will connect to a dedicated SATA port on the motherboard.
Place your hard drive into the HDD mounting slot of your case, make sure the SATA connector is facing outwards. Screw the HDD to the case using screws provided with the HDD or the ATX case.



Now have a look at the SATA data cable as show on the image below. You need to connect one end of the SATA data cable to the SATA connector of the hard drive. Look at the top of the cable to see which way it should go in. It would only fit one way so you can not fit it the wrong way round. Gently push the cable into place.


Figure 2 - SATA Cable

The image below is a SATA power connector. This needs to be connected to the power socket of the SATA hard drive. Gently push it into place. It will only fit one way so there is no danger of fitting it wrong way round.


Figure 3 - SATA Power cable

If you have an old ATX power supply you will not have a SATA power connector as they only have 12V molex connector. In this case, if you do not want to replace your power supply unit then you can get a 'Molex to SATA' power cable converter as shown on figure 4.


Figure 4 - Molex to SATA Power cable converter

Finally you need to fit the other end of the SATA data cable to a SATA socket / port on the motherboard. Again it will only fit one way and gently fit into position. It does not matter which socket you plug it into as it will work on any SATA socket. But it is better to plug it into SATA socket 1 if you only have one hard drive. If you add another SATA device you can connect it to SATA socket 2 and so on.

Figure 5 - SATA Socket (port) on motherboard

How to install a Floppy Disk Drive

The rear side of a floppy drive looks similar to the following image.



The black connector on the left hand side is the floppy disk connector. It is different from the IDE connector and uses a different cable. The small white connector on the right hand side is the power connector for the floppy drive. Figure 1 and 2 below shows what a floppy drive cable and floppy drive power connector looks like.


Figure 1 - Floppy drive cable.

Figure 2 - Floppy drive power cable

Place the floppy drive into the FDD mounting slot as shown. Screw the drive securely into place.



Insert the floppy drive cable into the floppy drive connector. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable connects to the pin 1 on the floppy drive connector. As you already know by now that pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of the floppy drive cable. Most floppy drive cables are designed so that it will only go in on way, so you can not connect it incorrectly.


Push the floppy drive power cable to the power connector. This will only go in on way.


Finally connect the other end of the floppy drive cable to floppy drive connector on your motherboard. Make sure pin 1 on the cable connects to pin 1 on the connector.

How to install CD / DVD ROM

If you look at the rear side of your CD / DVD-ROM it should look similar to image shown on figure 1.
On the right hand side you have the power connector. Next to power connector you have the IDE connector. On the left hand side near the IDE connector you have the jumper settings for the DVD-ROM. The jumper is set to Master by default. I am connecting the DVD-ROM on a separate IDE cable therefore I will leave the jumper setting to Master. However if you are sharing an IDE cable with another device like HDD, then you would have to set jumper to Slave, as your HDD would be set to Master. Next to the jumpers you have the CD Audio-Out socket. One side of your audio cable connects to this socket and other side connects to the sound card cd-in socket. This would allow you to listen to Audio CD's on your computer.


Figure 1

Figure 2
Mount your CD/DVD-ROM drive into its mounting slot. Use the supplied screws to screw the drive into position.


Figure 3

Connect the IDE cable to the drives IDE connector. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable is connected to pin 1 on the drives IDE connector. Pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of an IDE cable. Connect the other end of the IDE cable to the IDE socket on your motherboard as shown in figure 4. Again, make sure you conncet the cable to pin 1. The IDE socket could be your primary or secondary socket depending which socket you choose. If your HDD is on the primary IDE socket and your secondary IDE socket is free, then it is better to use your secondary IDE socket for the CD/DVD-ROM.


Figure 4

Finally connect the power cable to power connector and connect the audio cable to the CD Audio-Out socket as shown on figure 3.

How to install a CD Writer, CD-RW

The rear end of your CD/DVD drive should look similar to the image below.
It contains all the usual connectors such an IDE connector, a power connector, audio connector, and a place to set the jumpers. Set the jumpers so the drive is configured to run as a Master device. It is best to connect your CD-RW on separate IDE cable. This would avoid problems while you copy CD's on-the-fly. This means copying a source CD from a CD/DVD-ROM drive
to a blank destination CD in your CD-RW drive without the source CD being copied to the hard disk first. Copying on-the-fly is less time consuming than copying the source CD to the hard disk first. However if you decide to connect your CD-RW drive and another device like a DVD-ROM on the same IDE cable, it would be fine providing you make an image of your source CD on a HDD first before copying to your blank CD. You may have problems such as "buffer under run" errors if you try to copy on-the-fly.



Place your CD-RW drive into a mounting slot as shown. Position the drive correctly and screw it onto the case.



Connect the IDE and the power cable to the drive. If you want to use the CD-RW drive for playing Audio CD's then you also need to connect an audio cable to the Audio-out socket of the drive. If you have a CD/DVD-ROM then the audio cable is usually connected that drive instead of the CD-RW, but there is no reason why you can't have both.



Finally the other end of the IDE cable should be connected to an IDE socket of the motherboard.

How to install a AGP Graphics Card

Before PCI Express graphics card became dominant, most modern graphics cards were AGP based and connected to the AGP bus of the motherboard. An AGP bus (slot) looks like the following image. The brown slot is where you connect your AGP graphics card.



Place your AGP card on top of the slot and gently push it down. The card should firmly sit into position.



All you need to do now is to screw the metal plate on the front of the card to the ATX case. Use the screws supplied with case and screw the card to the case.



How to install a Sound Card

Most modern sound cards are designed with the PCI interface and connects to the PCI slot of your motherboard. A PCI slot looks like the slots on the following image.



Place your sound card on top of a chosen slot. Gently push down the card so it sits into position. Once the card is seated correctly into position, screw the card on to the case.



Finally insert the audio cable into the CD-IN socket. The other end of the cable should be connected to Audio-out socket on your CD/DVD-ROM drive.



How to install a Modem

Find a free PCI slot on your motherboard (assuming your modem is a PCI modem). Place your modem card on top of the slot and gently push it down into position.




Once the card has seated correctly into position, screw the card to the case using the screws supplied with the case.

How to install a TV Card

Installing a TV card is no more difficult than installing any other PCI cards. Locate an unused PCI slot and place the card on top. Gently push card down into the slot.



When the card is correctly in position, screw the card securely on to the case.



Note that a TV card uses two IRQ (Interrupt Request) one for video and one for audio. It is best to place your TV card into a slot which does not conflict with an IRQ of another device. Although IRQ sharing is possible, some TV cards may behave abnormally if you are sharing IRQ's.

Finalizing stage

Now that you have installed all the necessary hardware there are still few more things you need to do before switching on your PC for the first time. Your ATX case has a power switch which turns the PC on, a reset switch for resetting the system, a power LED which comes on when the PC is switched on and a hard drive LED which flashes when data is being written or read from your hard drive. You also have an internal speaker.


Figure 1 - Power and Reset switch

The switches and LED's need to be connected to its corresponding connectors on the motherboard. Please refer to your motherboard manual to locate where the connectors are. Different motherboards place the connectors in different locations. The connectors for the switches and LED's are normally grouped together. They should look similar to the image below.


Figure 2 - Switch and LED connectors

Every cable is normally labeled, they are normally named as follows, but could be slightly different on your system.

Power switch Power / PWR-SW
Reset switch Reset
Power LED Power LED / PWR-LED
Hard drive LED HDD-LED / IDE LED
Speaker SPK / Speaker

The connectors on the motherboard are also labeled but may be too small to see. Instead refer to your motherboard manual which would provide details on which pins you should connect the cables to. The image below shows how the pins may be organised on your motherboard.



Once you have connected all the cables to the correct pins on the motherboard, you are ready to switch the PC on. At this point you can close the cover of your ATX case but don't screw it on just yet as you might have possible problems that needs rectifying. Connect all the cables to back of ATX case. These includes the main power cable that connects to the power supply. PS/2 mouse and keyboard that connects to the PS/2 ports. Monitor cable that connects to the graphics card port, etc. Finally the moment has arrived. Switch on your monitor first. Your ATX power supply might have a main power switch at the back so make sure that is switched on. Now switch the PC on by pressing the power switch on the front of the ATX case. If you have performed all the tasks without any mistakes and providing that none of the main components are faulty, the PC should boot. When the PC boots you should see the name of the BIOS manufacturer, such as AWARD BIOS displayed on your monitor. Your CPU type, speed and the amount of memory should be displayed as shown on image below.



If your motherboard has a plug and play BIOS and is set to automatic device detection by default, then you would see your IDE devices being detected followed by a prompt complaining about missing operating system. If your motherboard does not detect the hardware, then you need to proceed to the BIOS setup screen by pressing DEL or F1 or F2 depending on your motherboard. Congratulations you have completed building your own PC. You now need to proceed to the software section which explains how to setup the BIOS, Hard disk and install an operating system.
If things did not go smoothly and your PC does not switch on then go to the troubleshooting section for possible solutions.

Read More >>