The Individual Guide

Not so long a go it looked like gaming notebooks were only available from special system builders and they were normally built to order. The sales figures were never very amazing but they did bring in great mark up’s on each laptop than others. They were the notebook computers you constantly thought of but were out of your grasp. Obviously being so state of the art they were the best laptops in relation to performance. I would get seriously excited by them but I knew I couldn’t go out and buy laptops at the price points they were at. As the big computer companies spot the potential revenues in gaming notebooks, the business is evolving.

In my view they can get away by selling them at a higher price if they wanted. These days the standard notebook margins are so tiny so it presents the opportunity for them to regain the gross profits. I’m quite confident that numerous people would buy laptops if marketed to everyone by these massive companies. What could local companies possibly do if their prices are undercut? Plainly what I see happening here is that the larger companies reducing prices initially to get rid of the competition from littler resellers. In my view if anyone’s prepared to part with a lot of money the well known brand always comes out on top.

The notebook computers are surprisingly very good as well. In my point of view the local retailers essentially act on this if they are to be profitable. Being able to buy exactly what parts they want is a big bonus for most potential prospects who are considering purchasing a gaming laptop computer. Educated in the technology, these types of consumers are savvy to what specifications to look for. For this market niche, the tech specs are usually more sought after than the styling.

As a likely purchaser myself this is actually all a positive development for me. This would act to make the newest technology greatly obtainable for the customer. I’m not actually sure any of that would occur however. New product releases should sustain high prices. I think we will have to watch if this saturation produces any major benefits for us.

There has been a major craze for laptops recently. It looks like the demand is outstripping the supply as manufacturers are failing to meet deadlines for shipments. In fact if anything has dented demand or sales of laptops then its been limited supplies of components. I think what makes it difficult is that the technology changes all the time.

Notebooks are becoming more acceptable for gaming due to continuing performance increases. These laptops are also increasing in value because of the fierce competition faced from low priced laptops. I play games on my notebook on a frequent basis and must say I’m surprised how playable some of the intense games are. Further positives to come from evolved manufacturing processes is compact, cooler components that allow for sleeker, slick cases. Desktop Pc’s are bigger and eat greater amounts power so no matter how much better gaming laptops have become desktops will always operate better. Gaming laptops are always pushing the performance boundaries of laptop compputers so its always a good benchmark of how far the technology has come in that relation.

Numerous small system builders provide custom built laptops to niche sectors. I think the components are more respectable and operate more stable. You can normally save money on specs you don’t need by configuring the laptop to your requirements. Premade laptops are targeted at consumers who have like minded requirements and that may not be you right? So hence this is why you require a custom notebook. There are plenty of resellers selling custom laptops, with exceptional customer care. Numerous small markets recognise they are catered for better because of this.

Ample amounts of cool notebooks are coming out in the coming months. Tiny internet laptops are the latest product to get mass market desire. I don’t think anyone thought they would be so trendy. I really think that we are likely to see ultra light 15 inch laptops soon as well. I’m sure that companies already have their designs made up. Judging from what is going on it looks like we’ll start seeing ultra light gaming laptops. Laptops get released every 12 months and these umpc’s more than likely made numerous companies change their forecasts.

In my opinion Rizeon have the best laptops in terms of performance.

Have you ever accidentally deleted a file on your computer? Was it important? Did you suffer? Well, imagine if your whole website got deleted! This could happen in any number of ways:

• You accidentally delete the files on your web server
• Your host’s server crashes
• The hard drive on your web server fails
• A hacker gets into your system and deletes all your files
• Your web server gets a virus
• Someone accidentally overwrites your web files with an older version

These sorts of things happen to thousands of web masters every day! Even experienced webmasters who should know better lose their files on their web server.

What to do?
Can you imagine having to build your website from scratch again? Quite a daunting task. Imagine having to remember everything that was on your old website and recreating it. It is very near impossible. The longer your site is up and the more you have added to it the more difficult it will be. However, with a bit of foresight and planning, losing your website files will be just a blip in a normal day, with minimum disruption.

The most important thing to do is to back up your website. In fact, if you haven’t done it before, you should suspend reading this article and go and back it up now. If you used FTP to upload your site you will be able to use the same program to download your site. If you have a small site you may be able to use your browser’s ‘Save Web Page’ feature to save each individual page. Work out whichever is the best way to get the webfiles onto YOUR computer, and do it!

Ideally you will need 2 backups of your site, one to save at home, and another to store offsite in case something happens to the first backup. Make sure you label your backups clearly and put them in a safe place where you can find them later. I have to emphasize this last point as I once backed up a website but later couldn’t find where I put the backup when I needed it! Disastrous.

If you update your site on a regular basis you will need to backup on a regular basis too. It is essential that you label each backup correctly with the website name as well as the date. The date is necessary so that you don’t copy an older version of a website if something happens to the newer one.

For larger websites which are constantly changing you will need to install a RAID disk on your web server. RAID disks are basically two disks writing the same information so that 2 copies are created on the fly. Very useful. Ask your web host if he uses RAID disks. It is important to note however that you will still need to do regular backups.

One experienced webmaster relied on RAID disks alone for his backup, however the web server had a virus on it so the backup had to roll back by a month. He lost a month’s worth of work he had done on his website, which was quite an amount as he was changing the design and adding a lot of content. If he had only backed up it would have been no problem instead of becoming the huge headache it did for him.

Remember, there are 3 words you need to remember to protect yourself from a mountain of work if your web files are compromised - BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!

Edward Sodor has been a part of the webmaster community for nearly 10 years and is always happy to give advice to budding webmasters. For great tutorials on creating, maintaing and improving your website and traffic visit his Website Design and SEO pages.

It seems like everywhere a person goes there is at least one person in view with a cell phone to their ear whether it is on the road, in a store, in a parking lot, walking down the street, etc. Even in places where cell phone usage is banned such as concert halls or movie theaters there is the occasional offender, or more likely, at least a few people using the text messaging feature on their phone.

Cell phone usage has exploded over the past decade and continues to rise. Nearly two hundred million people in the United States have cell phones and there are well over one billion users worldwide. That means there are a lot of phones sending their frequencies over the airwaves at any given time.

Concern has arisen over whether or not cell phone usage can harm a person’s health. Brain cancer rates in the United States have risen since cell phones were introduced, leading some people to wonder if cell phone usage is the reason for the increase.

There have been reports of people developing brain tumors in the exact same spot where they held their cell phone. Some studies have expressed concern over long-term cell phone use, believing it can lead to a person to develop cancer. That is not to say a person who uses a cell phone is going to get cancer, but some studies suggest long-term use increases a person’s risk.

Things may not be all gloom and doom however. A large study done in Denmark with almost a half million cell phone users showed no increase in cancer for cell phone users.

Yet, other studies have concluded there is a greater risk of cancer but only with analog phone users. Some other studies conclude that any type of cell phone usage can raise a person’s risk for developing cancer. There are a lot of varying opinions on the subject. According to the FDA, available data does not show there are definitely health problems associated with using wireless phones, but the information goes on to say that there is also no proof that wireless phones are completely safe either.

What about cell phone usage is causing the concerns and the numerous studies to be done? Cell phones emit radiation when they are used. The levels are low and are the same type of radiation as a microwave oven emits but in much smaller amounts.

It has been suggested that using hands free sets can alleviate the problem of the head being exposed to the radiation. Again opinions vary. Some studies say it does not decrease the amount of radiation exposure at all. Other studies say it significantly decreases the amount of radiation exposure.

Some people say the biggest danger with cell phones isn’t from the either real or perceived potential to develop cancer, but from inattentiveness while using the cell phone. How many of us have seen vehicles driving somewhat erratically down the road and then see when we get near the vehicle that the driver is talking on a cell phone. It is a proven fact that a driver on a cell phone is less attentive and more likely to get in an accident. And, hands free sets aren’t the answer that some people may believe. Yes, they free up both hands for driving and prevent a person from getting a sore arm, but the driver’s mind is still occupied with the conversation and therefore less attentive to what is going on around him or her on the road.

Even people who are walking and talking on a cell phone at the same time can put themselves in more danger because they are not as aware of what is going on around them.

All the conflicting reports make a person wonder what they should do. The good news is that more comprehensive studies are being done to see if cell phone usage does or does not cause cancer. At the same time, manufacturers are working on new processes that will decrease or even possibly eliminate a person’s radiation exposure. Until more definitive answers are given, a person may want to avoid talking on a cell phone for several hours every single day, but a person probably does not need to feel like they should have to give their cell phone up. It is still a great tool.

The advice about driving and talking on a cell phone is the same as it has been though. A person should pull over in a safe area out of traffic before engaging in a cell phone conversation.

D Ruplinger is a featured writer for www.cellphoneshome.com. For more information about cell phones visit www.cellphoneshome.com.

“But there are other difficulties with the Ark of the Covenant that have to do with the possibility that it could have been part of the treasure of Rome brought by Visigoths to Rennes-le-Chteau. According to the Old Testament, Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant was constructed soon after the Israelites had escaped across the Red Sea from bondage in Egypt.

Modern engineers have been intrigued by the specification of the Ark because, if the directions are followed precisely, one ends up making a fairly powerful electrical condenser. It was a box of very specific dimensions made of acacia wood (an insulator). It was covered, inside and out, with gold (an excellent conductor). If the two surfaces of the gold were separated from each other, then a very powerful condenser of electricity is the result. In the dry air of the Middle East, it would accumulate a very powerful charge. (15)

But the Ark was more than just a condenser, it was a ’spark transmitter’ roughly tuned to a specific frequency by the very precise dimensions given to Moses for the basic acacia-wood box. In this matter, the Ark was similar to early ‘cavity tubes’ in 1930s radar research where the desired radar frequency was obtained by actually machining cavities of various volumes into metal blocks. {So we can see how electricity aided the gold merchants who were plating silver or lead from archaeology, perhaps. We know there are other galvanic and electrical sources for such power as well.} The Ark was a ‘cavity’ of precise dimensions, and one in a gold-sheathed box.

The Ark also had a top, of the same general construction as the basic box. This lid of the box had golden ‘cherubim’ at each end {Imagine if they were able to induce separate polar charges in the ‘high- spin’ atomic state per the writings of Gardner from ’science’; into each of these ‘cherubim’.} and a ‘Mercy Seat.’ {Mercy might then be like ‘devoted ones’ or a form of capital punishment to be used in conjunction with energizing the soul be ritual into the tubes we hear were receptacles for souls and which may tie in with the jade tubes on the head of the Prince of Palenque from the ’science’ segment.} The Bible doesn’t tell” us exactly how these components were arranged, or how they were attached to the Ark’s top. It is well to remember that although Moses is supposed to be the author of Exodus, according to Hebrew tradition, the earliest known written account dates from almost one thousand years later {And there is uncertainty about who Moses was and when he was around as we have shown. But, his sister was one of the most adept alchemists, I think.}. Moses might not have described everything about the Ark in the first place, but even if he had, it seems probable that some details would have become fuzzy in the one thousand years of oral transmission before the story was written down.

Without assuming any ’secret’ or ‘unknown’ components at all, but working only with the Ark as described, only two assumptions are necessary in order to construct a fairly powerful spark transmitter. One assumption is that an ancient, pliable insulating material was available so that the parts of the Ark could be attached in ways that both insulated them from, and conducted them to, the basic box condenser-cavity-frequency- modulator in order to produce a ‘circuit’. Such an insulating material was widely available to the ancient Israelites and Egyptians–bitumen, tar. {For example Sodom and Gomorrah and what is now Iraq is populated with tar pits. Pitch fires of a continual nature existed in places like the La Brea Tar Pits for eons and would have provided early man with fire, too.} And we don’t need to assume that artisans and priests in the ancient Middle East used bitumen to insulate and to seal simple electrical devices.

Wet-cell electric batteries, using acidic citrus juice as an electrolyte, were discovered in a Baghdad museum. (16) They were sealed with bitumen, and the internal electrodes were insulated from each other with bitumen. These primitive batteries have been dated to about A.D. 700. But fundamental electric devices were used much earlier than that. Tiny golden beads from XVIII Dynasty Egypt (c.1550 B.C.) were found to have only a thin coating of gold over some base metal {We showed Ashkelon had a calf of Ba’al with silver plating from Phoenicians and the National Geographic in ’science’. The Phocaeans had mass produced electrum plated coinage first according to Michael Grant, etc., etc.}. The beads are so small, and also without any sort of seam or hammered edge to the gold layer, that the gold could have been applied only by electroplating. (17) Given a citrus-juice battery like those of Baghdad {Where a printed circuit in a museum was thought to be embroidery by archaeologists until a computer expert saw it.}, electroplating of gold would not have been difficult. So we don’t have to assume an electrical insulating material, and we don’t have to assume basic knowledge of electricity in Middle Eastern antiquity. We know it.

The second assumption is that there were instructions, or a model, indicating what was to be insulated with bitumen, and what was to be solidly attached with the ubiquitous gold. {They had superconductive knowledge according to Gardner and calcium is useful in these regards.}

Let us consider one ‘cherub’ at one end of the Ark. These ‘cherubim’ seem to have been the Egyptian idea of a ‘griffon’–an animal with claws and long pointed wings {Important in the gargoyle genre of gothic architecture and alchemy.}, a sort of cross between a lion and a hawk. Let us suppose that our cherub at one end of the box had one gold claw connected to the inner sheet of gold on the acacia-wood box, and the other claw attached to the gold sheath on the exterior of the acacia box. Further, suppose that this separation was maintained up to the long wings, which were of gold. Suppose that the wings were hinged or pivoted to be able to ‘flap’ like a proper cherub. Maybe they were just mounted in a glob of bitumen with bars, wires, or much more flexible leather-sheathed chain-links {Or ultra strong human hair.} of gold maintaining the required connections.

Assembled like this, there would be a very formidable spark between the cherub’s pointed gold wings each time they were pushed close together. The Ark would arc–because of the electric charge that had accumulated in the condenser. And it would arc according to a rough frequency dictated by the dimensions of the Ark’s basic cavity. Touching the wings at once with bare hands would have resulted in instant death or burn depending on the strength of the charge that had been accumulated. Operating the Ark, or even touching it, would have been a potentially fatal business for anyone not thoroughly initiated into necessary procedures. The Bible mentions at least one instance in which a non-priest fell dead trying to save the Ark–the man grabbed it when it was in danger of falling off a wagon. This was in the early days of Israelite struggles in Canaan.

A priest could move the wings with sticks of wood as insulation, {Thales invented (?) a small steam engine.} or perhaps some fancier arrangement of moving the cherub’s wings was contrived. Maybe there was a simple lever system insulated appropriately with wood, leather and bitumen–pull the cherub’s tail (or head) and the wings would approach each other to make an arc, for example. Simple ‘wooden’ linkages.

Making such an electric arc in a dark place like a tent or a central Temple crypt without windows (i.e., the ‘Holy of Holies’) would have been hard on the priest’s eyes {and impressive to the great unwashed}. If the ’stones’ in the Urim and Thummim were sheets of mica, common in the Middle East, then The Bible’s ’silver bows’ in which they were mounted would have resulted in granny-style welder’s glasses. These would have saved the High Priest’s eyesight when communicating with the ‘Lord’.

This sort of ‘arc-spark’ transmitter would have sent bursts of what we call static out into the atmosphere. {And for uninitiated artists or journalistic historians they might describe it as forces such as waft and whirl in the Spielberg movie.}

What about the ‘receiver’? Let’s consider the other cherub at the other end of the arc. It would need to be completely separated from the structure of the Ark by a layer of bitumen. Its wings were supposedly golden, too, and if they were balanced and supported well, an ‘electroscope’ results. When this cherub was engulfed in a burst of electromagnetic radiation, its wings would repel each other and flap apart. This would naturally happen whenever the cherub at the other end of the Ark was manipulated to produce a spark-arc. If the receiving cherub’s wings were delicately counterbalanced, they would close again as the charge on the open wings dissipated.

There would be a charming and satisfying symmetry to the antics of these cherubim wings–a spark made by moving the transmitting cherub’s wings closer together would cause the receiving cherub’s wings to open.

{Do you think anyone sought to identify one as male and the other female and justify why men are entitled to ’spark’ females who must ‘open’ to them’?}

But the receiving cherub’s wings would sometimes open when the spark-cherub was not being operated. This electroscope would also respond to natural bursts of electromagnetic energy–lightning. A nearby storm would cause very definite wing movements indeed {If you can refer to the entry under divining-rod you will see they may have been able to track such natural energy as the Nazca lines which are over tectonic rifts deep in the earth.}, while a lightning strike hundreds of miles away might cause barely a twitch of the wings.

But if a one time there were a number of Arks, all made the same way, the receiving cherub would also respond to electromagnetic energy purpose full caused by a High Priest operating some distant Ark. If the transmitting Ark was many miles distant, the repelling movement of the receiving cherub’s wings might be very small–too minute to be detected, {There could be specified times to transmit and re-transmit back to a central area where a person was involved in the king’s chamber that accentuated their psychic sensitivity.} with certainty, by a priestly observer. But this problem could be easily solved. With a small light source, like a candle or an oil lamp {Or the pendulums covered in the Divining-rod entry with the psychic.}, ‘religiously’ positioned at specific places near the receiving cherub, even tiny wing movements could be greatly amplified by jewels on the wings. The jewels would reflect the light onto some surface–a wall of a Temple sanctum or the dark cloth of a bedouin canopy–so that, in a dark chamber, the reception could be clearly perceived.

The technology described above was well within the resources and capabilities of the Ancient Egyptian and Israelite artisans. The idea for it is the problem {He wrote this before the Mungo Man discovery.}.

More than one modern radio engineer has noted that the Ark of the Covenant was a primitive sort of ’spark transmitter’ that could send, and receive, strong electromagnetic impulses–in fact, the Ark seems quite similar to the transmitter with which Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-94) was able to demonstrate the existence of ‘Hertzian’ (radio) waves in 1888. With his slightly more evolved spark transmitter, Guglielmo Marchese Marconi (1874-1937) first sent long-distance electromagnetic waves in 1895 {He did not invent the radio and 25 years after Tesla died the U. S. Patent Office awarded the patent to Tesla, or at least acknowledged he discovered it. For those who know the origin of Tesla’s knowledge and ‘vision’ you will understand my suggestions about sensitive people or the akashic are mild in comparison.}, and then sent them across the Atlantic in 1901.

The Ark of the Covenant could have been used, and at one time must have been used, to send and receive messages over long distances. If the spark-arc could be generated in a sequence by manipulating the wings effectively {It should also be clear the codes and symbols used to send info would be important alphabet or language ingredients.}, then the bursts of static would radiate into the atmosphere in the same purposeful sequence. In the Marconi ‘wireless’ system, Morse code was mostly used. In the Morse system, for example, three short bursts ‘dot-dot-dot’, {Perhaps I should add this to my support for Ogham as an original language because Ogham adapts to this as well as sign language quite well.) represent the letter ‘S’, three longer arcs ‘dash-dash-dash’ represent the letter ‘O’. Therefore S-O-S could be sparked into the air. This is the international code for ‘Help!’

But every letter and every number can be represented by some combination of dots and dashes {The Mayan numerical system is a combination of these.}. That’s Morse code. If you have enough electricity to generate a lot of sparks, and if you have a lot of patience, {If they had chemicals in the cavity of the Ark such as phosphorus would this add to the spooky effects as well as the usefulness?} messages of any desired length and complexity can be sent. And much patience would have been required because, with a transmitter-receiver as primitive as the Ark, purposeful messages would frequently have been confused or completely drowned out by static from distant electrical storms. {Clearly the technology would be less useful if others were on the air at the same time, and the need for secrecy would be immense.} Our own early ‘wireless’ had the same problem, frustration, and inefficiency.”

About the Author

Author of Diverse Druids
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine
World-Mysteries.com guest ‘expert’

Here are 9 retail technologies that I believe will give
retailers the biggest benefit and maximum return on their
technology investments. Your small retail operation can be just
like the Big Box stores when it comes to being efficient and
productive. Every retail operation must have technology in place
to manage it s pricing, sales and inventory.

1) Point of Sale (POS) and Inventory Control Software A POS /
Retail Management System are mandatory. A good POS system will
track all your sales. It replaces your cash register and allows
a multitude of features that will save you time and help you
manage your inventory. Immediate benefits include: 
Simplify and improve inventory management.  Improve the
effectiveness of your marketing efforts.  Show where
you’re making and losing money so you can make adjustments and
increase profits.

2) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Building a
successful retail business is to build relationships with your
customers. CRM software is a critical tool for the retail
business. A CRM system will help you improve your customer
loyalty it will help you market to potential prospects and
generate new business. CRM software allows you to track your
customers, identify market segments and then easily communicate
with them via email, telephone, and direct mail. It can also
track your customer buying patterns and manage information.

CRM software can also be integrated within a contact centre
system or your POS system.

3) Bar Code Scanning and UPC Codes Bar Code and UPC Code
scanning allows you to check products at the point of sale much
faster and more accurately than can be done on the keyboard. It
can also maintain your inventory system to be up to date.

The technology is very robust and can easily be implemented
using hand held scanner devices.

4) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) EDI technology allows you
to send purchase orders, created in your POS software (based on
order levels and sales history) to your suppliers electronically
via the internet. This can ensure your inventory is never
oversold and there is ample stock for your customers to
purchase. No stock on fast moving items means lost sales.

5) Retail Accounting Software Accounting software can be
purchased stand alone or can be integrated with your POS
software. This allows a small business owner to manage their
accounting in a very timely manner. This is not to replace your
Accountant but to provide reports in between your meetings with
your accountant. The most important modules are the Accounts
Receivable, Inventory and Cash Flow Analysis.

6) Store Traffic Counters These valuable devices will help you
improve sales ratios, tally store traffic, and manage your
advertising campaigns. You need an accurate measure of your
store traffic so you can better schedule your sales staff
because they identify actual foot traffic in your store during
certain time periods. You can also determine if traffic goes up
or down during marketing promotions so you can figure out what
works the best.

7) Web Presence Websites can be powerful tools to promote your
retail business. For example, you could link to your website
from business cards and newspaper ads. This gives you an
opportunity to tell your story, show what you sell, and convince
them to stop by your store. Many Bricks and Mortars operation
use web presence to either advertise their business or generate
traffic to their physical store.

You can also utilize a website shopping cart so customers can
place orders and pay you right from the website.
Portable Data Terminals and Hand Held Computers Portable data
terminals are great tools that allow you to quickly count your
inventory and easily update your POS system. You can simply
carry around this portable terminal, scan your merchandise, and
then enter your quantities. This allows you to more easily and
accurately count your inventory. They are also invaluable as
price checkers.

Hand held computers have become very popular and cost effective.
They allow you to create orders and complete various tasks on a
computer that fits in the palm of your hand. They can perform
various tasks especially if linked to your POS system using WiFi
or be used as a way to manage customer contacts and selling
information.

9) Digital Video Recorders Digital Video recorders have become
the tool for loss prevention. Video cameras capture activity in
real time and can record to a digital device for storage and
later recall. They can integrate with POS systems and can
include powerful tracking software. Simple installations can be
a few cameras with a monitor and DVR to large installations that
include traffic counters and 2 way audio.