Author: George Rooyen Jnr
If you want to be sure of your decision to buy a certain digital camera, then you need to take sometime to read this article that will provide you with all the information you need to access this gadget before buying it.
The challenging thing about buying a digital camera is that as soon as you buy the latest brand new one, another better one is introduced in the market. It was not always like this, I mean back in the day the process of evolution was dreadfully slow due to the film processing system used.
A normal consumer who prefers owning a product for a little while before exchanging it for a newer version cannot match the speed with which improvements are made to digital cameras. Today we have the optical zoom being improving with every new release, the size of the cameras is becoming smaller and smaller and the storage capacity is increasing drastically.
So to buy a digital camera can be daunting task. Most South African buyers can hardly make a best choice because of the variations and continuous improvements of digital cameras. So let us look at a few things you can do before you set foot in a store of click the to check out button an online store.
There are a number of electronic websites that provide feedback on equipment bought by consumers. In these sites, you will find posts from people who have bought the same products you are interested in and be in a position to ascertain how it has worked for others and if it delivers on your expectation. There are other review sites that are based on feedback posted by experts and not necessarily ordinary consumers. In these technical review sites, you will often find reports that you can download at no cost.
Know why you need the camera
Every camera company tries to improve its line of digital cameras by providing new features, better functionality in terms of some specific features and of course they are selling these gadgets at discounted prices. Access your photography needs so you will not feel overwhelmed by the many features on offer. You may not need some add-on features that will make you pay a higher amount than necessary. I hope I have made it clear why it is important to know why you need to determine your need before buying the next big thing.
DSLRs vs point and shoot
Digital SLR cameras are highly quality, normally expensive cameras used by professionals and hobbyist. You should consider buying one it your photography needs are at an advanced level i.e. you want to take action photos, macro images etc.. With these SLRs you have to focus the shots yourself because nothing is automatic and can be attached to a microscope and telescope as well.
If you are not at all a professional, the point and shoot digital camera is for you. The point and shoot is very easy to use and most of its functions are done automatically e.g. auto focus. You also do not have to worry about color settings or lighting. The point and shoot cameras also hook up easily to PCs, even without software in most cases.
There is more I can share with you but let me end with the following summary. Consider the camera resolution, which is denoted in pixels if it is big, then it is good but it can become uselessly bigger for other users, the optical zoom the more you are able to zoom in and out the better, check out the storage capacity ask about how many images you can store.
Although it might look easy, it is a major financial decision to buy a digital camera, so you take your time and check all the recommended sources and features.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/tips-to-buying-a-digital-camera-567679.html
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Slow Computer? - Learn How to Speed it Up!
Author: John Dow
Slow computers are very irritating and counter productive. Waiting up to five minutes for a computer to boot up, over 60 seconds to bring up a software program, or waiting 2-3 minutes to connect to the Internet is frustrating. Considering that most people use their computers more and more every day this wasted time can add up too.
Two very specific problem areas can cause a slow computer. One is hardware issues, the other is software configuration. And one big area that we have no control over is software bloat. When windows first came out in 1995, there were around a million lines of code, and it took up a few megabytes of hard drive space.
The latest version of windows, Vista, can take up to several gigabytes. The most popular office suite, Microsoft Office, is the same story. As software enhancements occur, more and more code and hard drive space is eaten up. Any files created become larger and hardware demands become greater.
Another huge factor with computers that run any windows OS is the registry bloat. Every single aspect about the user, software, hardware, and operation is recorded in a database call the registry. So as you use your computer and software more and more (adding software) this database swells in size. And the more settings, the more time it takes for this database to be loaded and executed.
Let's take the easy path first in speeding up your computer. Most people are running either Windows XP or Windows Vista. Each have recommended hardware requirements for efficient operation. We'll ignore the manufacturer's recommendation since they under estimate based on my experience.
Since you already own the equipment, we'll skip the processor upgrades since they are not for normal user upgrades. Although the chipset is important, upgrading can be a very technical and are a user-unfriendly situation. If you are buying a new machine, go for the fastest chip and RAM available in your budget range. Right now that's at least Duo Channel RAM with a chipset of four-digit number of 2000 and above (my last purchase was a Quad processor with a 9500 designation).
You want to add the fastest RAM your motherboard will allow. You will need to check with the memory supplier (or computer/motherboard manufacturer) to find out what that might be, but the higher the number the better. DDR is the most cost effective and compatible RAM and will really speed up the response of most computers.
Video cards come in all sorts of flavors, some cost as much as the computer itself. But you can get a pretty decent PCI (check to make sure you have an open PCI slot) video card for around $70 online. The GeForce 9500 with 512 DDR3 RAM is a good choice for most business users.
Windows XP computers should have a minimum of 512 megabytes of RAM, and a video card (or shared video chipset on the motherboard) with dedicated RAM of 128 megabytes. Windows uses resources for both areas of RAM in almost every operation. Better would be 1 gigabyte of RAM and a dedicated video card with 256 megabytes of RAM.
Windows Vista (32 bit) computers should have a minimum of 2 gigabytes of RAM and a shared or video card with 256 megabytes of RAM, the 64 bit version minimum would be 4 gigabytes of RAM and a video card with 512 megabytes of RAM. Since there is very little 64 bit software out there, I'm not even sure the 64 bit is necessary yet.
Now comes the software configuration part, which can get a little more complicated. When your computer first boots up, there are certain software programs that start up due to whatever operating system you may be using. Some of these programs are necessary for basic operations, some are used to help with other applications that are installed. Then you can have another group that are installed by the user for a special purpose.
The three most common user installed programs are instant messaging, news alerts, and weather status. Each one of these can be a tremendous resource hog. All three together can really slow down the boot process since they mount huge amounts of real time information as they start up.
So if you want to have those boot up with your system, then you need to have the resources. More RAM, faster chipset, and a dedicated video card with RAM or expect a wait. No way to avoid the slow down although you might find ways to optimize each if you do a little research. That may help some but the bottom line is they require quite a bit of power.
There are what we call services (processes that run to help common programs to work faster) that are automatically started when you install some software programs. Depending on your activity, you may want to eliminate these.
You can see the different programs, services, and processes that are running and starting in automatic mode with a utility called Msconfig that comes with Windows. Msconfig can be started by going to the run command and entering the name, and then pressing enter. You can access the Windows help file to get more information on Msconfig.
Once Msconfig starts you'll see a panel with several tabs. Each tap represents the services, boot information, and processes currently running. Unfortunately the naming conventions don't always allow you to see what service or process belongs to what application. This makes it a challenge to decide what you might want to remove or not load upon boot.
And if you get a little carried away, you can definitely shoot yourself in the foot and stop a necessary function of Windows or other software. And now you have a real problem since Windows may not boot again without this service or process running. So I advise extreme caution whenever you make any adjustments.
Another easy solution to speeding up your computer is to reboot every once in awhile. Theoretically Windows loads files in RAM when you start up a new program, then unloads the necessary files when you close down the application. But that's not always true and sometimes you can have RAM areas cluttered up with software that you no longer need.
A reboot every once in awhile ensures you have as much RAM available as possible. Having too many programs open at one time can impact the speed of your computer too. Depending on your resources available, having 5 or 6 large applications (like MS Office, Photoshop, accounting software, etc.) open can be a real slow down too. They all are very RAM and video intensive programs.
Windows Vista has a new feature called Aero that allows transparent windows (you can see through each window to the underlying window) and this is a very big resource hog. You can turn it off, by doing this:
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Appearance and Personalization.
3. Under Personalization, click Change the color scheme.
4. In the Appearance Settings dialog, click Windows Vista Basic, and then click OK. Or, you can click Windows Standard, and then click OK.
That takes a big load off of your video card and resources. But great looking graphics is part of the reason to have Vista so for many that may not be an option. But it can speed up operations in Vista computers. Vista also comes with auto indexing turned on (this is where the OS keeps track of any file for faster retrieval).
Vista users often complain about the hard drive churning all the time, even when the computer is sitting idle. This can be caused by the Windows Search service. Vista has an indexing scheme that constantly keeps track of files and locations. This can be a never-ending battle with so many files in the OS alone.
The best way is to stop Windows Search is to disable the service. Run Services (just type "Services" at the Start Search bar), right click on the Windows Search service and select "Properties". Then click on "Disabled" for the start type, then you can stop this service by right clicking on it and selecting "Stop".
The last recommendation I can make to speed up a slow computer, and the most radical, is to back up all your data and do a system restore once a year. That's right, clean out all those cobwebs, remnants of activities, and software installs. You do get to sit and watch all the system updates of the OS, re-install all your software, and then restore your data.
But you will have a very clean registry and a fast computer. Be prepared, it will probably take at least a few hours to do the whole routine. But for many people, it is well worth the time and effort to speed that computer back up and save time everyday.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/slow-computer-learn-how-to-speed-it-up-567383.html
Slow computers are very irritating and counter productive. Waiting up to five minutes for a computer to boot up, over 60 seconds to bring up a software program, or waiting 2-3 minutes to connect to the Internet is frustrating. Considering that most people use their computers more and more every day this wasted time can add up too.
Two very specific problem areas can cause a slow computer. One is hardware issues, the other is software configuration. And one big area that we have no control over is software bloat. When windows first came out in 1995, there were around a million lines of code, and it took up a few megabytes of hard drive space.
The latest version of windows, Vista, can take up to several gigabytes. The most popular office suite, Microsoft Office, is the same story. As software enhancements occur, more and more code and hard drive space is eaten up. Any files created become larger and hardware demands become greater.
Another huge factor with computers that run any windows OS is the registry bloat. Every single aspect about the user, software, hardware, and operation is recorded in a database call the registry. So as you use your computer and software more and more (adding software) this database swells in size. And the more settings, the more time it takes for this database to be loaded and executed.
Let's take the easy path first in speeding up your computer. Most people are running either Windows XP or Windows Vista. Each have recommended hardware requirements for efficient operation. We'll ignore the manufacturer's recommendation since they under estimate based on my experience.
Since you already own the equipment, we'll skip the processor upgrades since they are not for normal user upgrades. Although the chipset is important, upgrading can be a very technical and are a user-unfriendly situation. If you are buying a new machine, go for the fastest chip and RAM available in your budget range. Right now that's at least Duo Channel RAM with a chipset of four-digit number of 2000 and above (my last purchase was a Quad processor with a 9500 designation).
You want to add the fastest RAM your motherboard will allow. You will need to check with the memory supplier (or computer/motherboard manufacturer) to find out what that might be, but the higher the number the better. DDR is the most cost effective and compatible RAM and will really speed up the response of most computers.
Video cards come in all sorts of flavors, some cost as much as the computer itself. But you can get a pretty decent PCI (check to make sure you have an open PCI slot) video card for around $70 online. The GeForce 9500 with 512 DDR3 RAM is a good choice for most business users.
Windows XP computers should have a minimum of 512 megabytes of RAM, and a video card (or shared video chipset on the motherboard) with dedicated RAM of 128 megabytes. Windows uses resources for both areas of RAM in almost every operation. Better would be 1 gigabyte of RAM and a dedicated video card with 256 megabytes of RAM.
Windows Vista (32 bit) computers should have a minimum of 2 gigabytes of RAM and a shared or video card with 256 megabytes of RAM, the 64 bit version minimum would be 4 gigabytes of RAM and a video card with 512 megabytes of RAM. Since there is very little 64 bit software out there, I'm not even sure the 64 bit is necessary yet.
Now comes the software configuration part, which can get a little more complicated. When your computer first boots up, there are certain software programs that start up due to whatever operating system you may be using. Some of these programs are necessary for basic operations, some are used to help with other applications that are installed. Then you can have another group that are installed by the user for a special purpose.
The three most common user installed programs are instant messaging, news alerts, and weather status. Each one of these can be a tremendous resource hog. All three together can really slow down the boot process since they mount huge amounts of real time information as they start up.
So if you want to have those boot up with your system, then you need to have the resources. More RAM, faster chipset, and a dedicated video card with RAM or expect a wait. No way to avoid the slow down although you might find ways to optimize each if you do a little research. That may help some but the bottom line is they require quite a bit of power.
There are what we call services (processes that run to help common programs to work faster) that are automatically started when you install some software programs. Depending on your activity, you may want to eliminate these.
You can see the different programs, services, and processes that are running and starting in automatic mode with a utility called Msconfig that comes with Windows. Msconfig can be started by going to the run command and entering the name, and then pressing enter. You can access the Windows help file to get more information on Msconfig.
Once Msconfig starts you'll see a panel with several tabs. Each tap represents the services, boot information, and processes currently running. Unfortunately the naming conventions don't always allow you to see what service or process belongs to what application. This makes it a challenge to decide what you might want to remove or not load upon boot.
And if you get a little carried away, you can definitely shoot yourself in the foot and stop a necessary function of Windows or other software. And now you have a real problem since Windows may not boot again without this service or process running. So I advise extreme caution whenever you make any adjustments.
Another easy solution to speeding up your computer is to reboot every once in awhile. Theoretically Windows loads files in RAM when you start up a new program, then unloads the necessary files when you close down the application. But that's not always true and sometimes you can have RAM areas cluttered up with software that you no longer need.
A reboot every once in awhile ensures you have as much RAM available as possible. Having too many programs open at one time can impact the speed of your computer too. Depending on your resources available, having 5 or 6 large applications (like MS Office, Photoshop, accounting software, etc.) open can be a real slow down too. They all are very RAM and video intensive programs.
Windows Vista has a new feature called Aero that allows transparent windows (you can see through each window to the underlying window) and this is a very big resource hog. You can turn it off, by doing this:
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Appearance and Personalization.
3. Under Personalization, click Change the color scheme.
4. In the Appearance Settings dialog, click Windows Vista Basic, and then click OK. Or, you can click Windows Standard, and then click OK.
That takes a big load off of your video card and resources. But great looking graphics is part of the reason to have Vista so for many that may not be an option. But it can speed up operations in Vista computers. Vista also comes with auto indexing turned on (this is where the OS keeps track of any file for faster retrieval).
Vista users often complain about the hard drive churning all the time, even when the computer is sitting idle. This can be caused by the Windows Search service. Vista has an indexing scheme that constantly keeps track of files and locations. This can be a never-ending battle with so many files in the OS alone.
The best way is to stop Windows Search is to disable the service. Run Services (just type "Services" at the Start Search bar), right click on the Windows Search service and select "Properties". Then click on "Disabled" for the start type, then you can stop this service by right clicking on it and selecting "Stop".
The last recommendation I can make to speed up a slow computer, and the most radical, is to back up all your data and do a system restore once a year. That's right, clean out all those cobwebs, remnants of activities, and software installs. You do get to sit and watch all the system updates of the OS, re-install all your software, and then restore your data.
But you will have a very clean registry and a fast computer. Be prepared, it will probably take at least a few hours to do the whole routine. But for many people, it is well worth the time and effort to speed that computer back up and save time everyday.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/slow-computer-learn-how-to-speed-it-up-567383.html
Website Analysis Capabilities
Author: James Schramko
A lot of people think the work is done once they have built their site and added all the content. Not so for the successful site owners. They know that the website needs to be analyzed before the job is done.
Getting caught up in the building of your website is easy to do, and when you do this it is possibly to lose objectivity. The makers quality website building software realize this and build-in a series of Analysis tools designed to determine what needs to be done to your site in order to make it the best it can possibly be.
Accessibility Analysis
The entire point of creating a website is that you want people to see it. You want your visitors to look beyond the landing page and search deep into your site, and then keep returning. A good software's Accessibility Analysis Tool will scan your entire website project in order to determine any content accessibility problems.
Readability Analysis
The Readability Analysis featured in this software applies the Flesch Kincaid test to the page text on your website. This test is a method by which you can determine the ease with which people will be able to read your website. It uses a formula that takes into account the total number of words, the number of syllables used in words, and sentence length to determine just how difficult it would be to comprehend your text.
This test is by no means perfect, but it does provide a good indicator of your site's overall readability, and readability is a key factor in reaching the widest possible audience.
SEO Analysis
A vital feature to anyone looking to boost the viewership of their website, an SEO Analysis tool will scan through your website and suggest ways to improve your search engine positioning. This feature was completely redesigned for version 2 of XSitePro as one of a range of improvements that will help you gain search engine rankings immediately.
Preview Tools
Even when using a program that provides a What You See Is What You Get interface, its still handy to be able to immediately load up your web page in a browser in order to see exactly what it will look like when your visitors view it. This software's designers recognized this convenience, so they built in a Site Preview Tool that will load your web pages in a matter of seconds so that you can inspect them.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/website-analysis-capabilities-566634.html
A lot of people think the work is done once they have built their site and added all the content. Not so for the successful site owners. They know that the website needs to be analyzed before the job is done.
Getting caught up in the building of your website is easy to do, and when you do this it is possibly to lose objectivity. The makers quality website building software realize this and build-in a series of Analysis tools designed to determine what needs to be done to your site in order to make it the best it can possibly be.
Accessibility Analysis
The entire point of creating a website is that you want people to see it. You want your visitors to look beyond the landing page and search deep into your site, and then keep returning. A good software's Accessibility Analysis Tool will scan your entire website project in order to determine any content accessibility problems.
Readability Analysis
The Readability Analysis featured in this software applies the Flesch Kincaid test to the page text on your website. This test is a method by which you can determine the ease with which people will be able to read your website. It uses a formula that takes into account the total number of words, the number of syllables used in words, and sentence length to determine just how difficult it would be to comprehend your text.
This test is by no means perfect, but it does provide a good indicator of your site's overall readability, and readability is a key factor in reaching the widest possible audience.
SEO Analysis
A vital feature to anyone looking to boost the viewership of their website, an SEO Analysis tool will scan through your website and suggest ways to improve your search engine positioning. This feature was completely redesigned for version 2 of XSitePro as one of a range of improvements that will help you gain search engine rankings immediately.
Preview Tools
Even when using a program that provides a What You See Is What You Get interface, its still handy to be able to immediately load up your web page in a browser in order to see exactly what it will look like when your visitors view it. This software's designers recognized this convenience, so they built in a Site Preview Tool that will load your web pages in a matter of seconds so that you can inspect them.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/website-analysis-capabilities-566634.html
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