The Evolution of Technology

Archive for March, 2010

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:
1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox
When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.
2) Start a web log (blog)
Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.
3) Carry out polls or surveys
Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.
4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games
Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.
5) Update frequently with fresh content
Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.
1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. In fact, they are just that — pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements
Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
3) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site.
4) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”!
5) Avoid using audio on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it — volume or muting controls would work fine.

The Quiet Explosion of Cell Phone Limitation Technologies
It is no secret that the explosion of functionality the world of cellular communications is nothing short of phenomenal.  Scarcely a month goes by when something new is added what people can do with their cell phones.  Now cell phones can take pictures, keep your calendar, let you send text messages or emails, surf the internet and do virtually everything except make the toast and burp the baby.  But along with the technological revolution in what cell phones can do, there is another quieter revolution that has as its objective the opposite goal, to stop cell phones from doing what they can do.
It stands to reason when a technology as pervasive as cell phone communications enables virtually every man, woman and child to communicate to virtually anyone virtually anywhere that at some point there would be a need for some controls.  That need has become more and more compelling when it comes to certain types of facilities where it is not only undesirable for cell phones to be operative but in some cases downright dangerous.  Some outstanding examples of where you do NOT want cell phones operational are…
§ Prisons where inmates can use them to plan illegal activities.§ Federal buildings to protect classified areas and to restrict terrorist activity.§ Religious buildings such as mosques where cell phones can disrupt the ceremonies.§ Banks and financial institutions where cell phones could be used for robberies or for terrorism.§ Theaters and music halls where you want cell phones turned off during the performance.§ Hospitals or airplanes where the operation of cell phones can disrupt machinery.
The problem with securing a building from cell phone operation is that putting up a sign that cell phones should be in use is not getting the job done.  The phones can still be on and used as a homing device or create disruption to sensitive equipment.  So to be effective, the facility needs to have cell phone blocking technology in place to stop the operation of every cell phone that comes inside that facility for the time it is there and then returns operation to that device as soon as it passes out of the facility area.
This is a tough challenge and the technologies that have been developed for the most part bring as many problems as they solve.  There are basically three solutions to the problem.
1. Alarming.  A device is put in place that can detect the signals coming from user’s cell phones.  When the signal is detected, alarms go off to alert the user that the cell phone should be disabled.  The problem is that this is not that much better than a sign on the wall informing people that cell phones are not allowed.  It depends on compliance and the user can easily turn the phone right back on once inside.
2. Disruption.  Otherwise known as jamming simply sends out a disruptive signal to jam the cell phone while in the facility.  Jamming is destructive to machinery, dangerous to people and animals and in many countries, illegal to use.
3. Distraction.  This approach detects the signal that the cell phone is sending to the tower to be recognized and sends a false signal back to the phone so it is distracted and thinks it is in communication with the tower when it is in fact off line.  No calls can come to the phone because the tower doesn’t know its there and no calls can be made because the phone isn’t actually on line.
Of the three, distraction has the best chance of solving the problem permanently.  The business trend to look out for is the rapid expansion of any company that uses the distraction method for cell phone management.  That will be the business that thrives in this market.

Emergency Services personnel receive extensive training in their respective academy.  In the initial phase of training, the subject matter is mainly academic.  Law enforcement personnel, for one, cover topics such as state law, drug recognition, hazardous materials recognition, and more through hours of classroom instruction.  The remainder of the training cycle is hands-on training.  In a portion of the hands-on training, computers play a major role.  For instance, for law enforcement there are ’shoot or don’t shoot’ scenarios:  These are played out on a video game like system, in which the officer stands on a padded surface that detects every movement (ducking, kneeling, shifting side-to-side).  While standing on the surface, the officer has a weapon ‘holstered’ and is provided scenarios in which he or she must decide whether or not to shoot a subject.  During this training, the officers every action or inaction is monitored up to and including verbal commands given to the ’subject’.  This type of computer training has proven vital over the years in terms of evaluating prospective law enforcement officials.
In the world of Emergency Services, certification is imperative.  Included in the definition of Emergency Services personnel are police, fire, and EMS.  In most states these personnel are required to maintain certification through a points system.  Personnel earn points through course completion; annual certification in different subject matter and annual re-certifications.  In addition to the points earned for required academic subjects, there are points awarded for similar training courses.  These ‘extra’ subject matter are often considered an acceptable substitution for required subjects.
In the past fifteen years, due to budget constraints and other factors, annual academic subject matter is being rearranged to accommodate computer training.  This has proven cost effective to state and local agencies:  budgets aren’t stretched thin, leaving funds available for special projects and such.
There are many examples of computer training received by Emergency Services personnel.  Of the many important classes, for example, are Hazardous Material recognition courses.  The benefit of completing a course such as this is twofold:  the materials can be covered easily during a shift, and instant results are generated.  The fact that a computer training course can be completed during a shift makes it cost effective for a small department in terms of travel expense, wear and tear on a vehicle, and time lost to training.
For policemen desiring to obtain training on subject matter that would normally require their attendance at a far off training conference, this is a boon.  Computer training courses covering topics such as drug recognition are relatively easy to find.  These courses are generally recognized by the respective law enforcement training division of the given state.  While a policemen may be discouraged from taking such a course during duty hours, it is entirely possible to complete such a course during off-duty hours.  Again, this type of computer training course benefits not only the officer, but the Department.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of computer training for Emergency Services personnel is the one aspect of their lives that become the most neglected:  family time.

What does encryption do for me?

Encryption and cryptographic software has been used in many different ways to make systems more secure.  This article discusses only a few ways that such software can make your system more secure, including:

1) Encrypting your email

2) Encrypting your files

To programs are mentioned that will help encrypt information. There are many more programs out there that will help, but these programs are good and a good place to start as any. They have the added benefit of both being free with source code available.

Will encryption stop people from accessing my information?

Encryption simply makes it harder for people to gain access to important information, like passwords or sensitive information in a file. The first thing you should know about encryption is that the algorithm that is used to encrypt can be simple or more complex and that affects how securely what you have encrypted is protected.  Encryption systems have been broken when the method of encryption is understood by hackers and is easy to break.

Why bother to encrypt my email?

Taxes are among the most important personal issues that a person will have to take care of in life. After all, not handling taxes properly can be against in the law. Computer software for taxes can be used to help make it easier to take care of filing taxes. There are different programs that can be used for people who have different concerns about taxes.
The most popular type of computer software for taxes is TurboTax. This is considered to be one of the best programs to use because it can electronically gather 1099 or W-2 data from financial groups and businesses. It is also easy to electronically file a tax return and to get updates for forms that need to be filled out through easy to use online upgrade systems.
One of the best benefits of computer software for taxes is that it can be used to help find deductions that a user can take advantage of for saving money. More than three hundred different deductions are listed in the TurboTax program. This can be used to increase one’s tax refund. TurboTax also helps to alert people of information entered that may cause an audit to take place.
TurboTax is a program for people who have had a few things happen to them in the previous year. People who have education expenses and people who either own or have sold a home in the past year should use it. It is also useful for people with a great amount of medical expenses. Since there are many different deductions that can be found in this program, it will definitely be used by people who have made a huge charitable donation in the past year.
H&R Block TaxCut is another type of computer software for taxes. This can be used for filing taxes for the country and for the state that one lives in. This program is supported by the country’s top tax filing group and this computer software for taxes will be released with new editions every year that reflect all of the many changes in the tax code. Past versions dating back to 1992 are also available for those who have taxes from the past that are due.
TaxCut can be used to gather financial data from programs like Quicken and Microsoft Money to help make it easier to read financial data that is needed for filing taxes. It also has an error check feature that is used to make it easier to find difficulties in a tax return so that an audit can be prevented and trouble with the government is avoided.
For those who are looking for deductions in taxes ItsDeductible can be used. Made by the makers of TurboTax, ItsDeductible records charitable donations made throughout the year and can be imported onto another tax software program like TurboTax or TaxCut. It also produces accurate values for items that have been donated when items instead of money is donated to charities.
With the greater amount of accuracy that is used to track deductions, hundreds or even thousands of dollars can be saved through additional information for deductions. ItsDeductible can even automatically handle IRS Tax Form 8283, which is a form that is needed for non-cash donations that are worth more than five hundred dollars in value.
These are all important programs for computer software for taxes. Many of these programs can be used to help with assisting users in getting full information on tax code updates and forms that are going to be needed for filing taxes. Computer software for taxes can be used to find deductions, handle deductible services and even take care of taxes that have been owed for years. These programs are indeed useful and can be used to help make it easier to take care of taxes and even earn more money on a return. This is the most important thing that keeps the software in high demand.

Bluetooth is a high speed, low powered wireless link technology that’s designed to connect phones or other
portable equipment together with little to no work required by the user.  Unlike infrared, Bluetooth doesn’t require line of site positioning to work.

Current prototype circuits are contained on a board that is 0.9 cm square, with a much smaller circuit board being developed.

When one Bluetooth device comes in contact with another, they will automatically exchange addresses and details of capability.  Then, they can establish a 1 MB link with security that they will use as required.  The protocols involved with handle both data and voice, with a very flexible topography.

The technology achieves its goal by embedding tiny, non expensive short range tranceivers into the devices available today.  The radio operates on the 2.45 GHz frequency band, and supports up to 721 KBps, along with three voice channels.

Each devices offers a unique 48 bit address from the IEEE 802 standard, with the connections being point to point or multipoint. The max range is 10 meters, although it can be extended to 100 meters by increasing the power.  The devices are also protected from radio interference by changing their frequencies, also known as frequency hopping.