Everyone is now affected by the information age, and the extensive benefits seen through internet, cell phone, and other communication usage. Connectivity has allowed business to span the globe at an unprecidented rate. It has become increasingly easy for people to connect with one another on a whim. The connection is the easy part; why should language be a barrier?

Communicating with others that speak another language can be very cumbersome, unproductive, and increasingly frustrating. Although you may have information to share, or business to conduct, you are unable to clearly communicate.

The most effective tool in communication is language, and those able to speak to others in their native tongue are at a huge advantage. The amount of information that can be shared by people speaking the same language, and with communication tools at their disposal, is staggering.

Many individuals perceive learning a new language as a major task, but this belief is somewhat unfounded. With the correct tools, structure, and guidance learning a new language can be fun and rewarding.

Turbo Language LLC. has conquered the challenges presented when teaching a new language. After extensive testing, the method preferred by Turbo Language is a flashcard based learning style focusing primarily on vocabulary and phrase building. The unproductive and distracting animations and games associated with most language programs are a thing of the past.

For individuals or groups interested in enriching their lives and increasing their business worth, Turbo language is essential. The product benefits are many, including ease of use, concise teaching, portability, and affordability. Language software ranges from $30.00 to over $700.00, and Turbo Language being priced at $49.95 provides anyone interested in bettering themselves an opportunity impossible to ignore.

Having been in the industry for some time now, I am very impressed by this product’s ability to teach anyone interested in investing approximately 2 hours per week. Do yourself a favor, and visit Turbo Language to download your copy today!

Product download, free trial download, additional information and benefits can be found on: http://www.turbolanguage.com

Jeremy Brinker - Foriegn Language Specialist

This article will not attempt to advocate the use of Linux over Windows or vice versa. I will try to present the differences and similarities between Linux and Windows in a fair manner.

Overview:

Both Linux and Windows (2000, NT, XP, Vista) are operating systems. Linux was inspired from Unix, while Windows was inspired from VMS.

While no single company “owns” Linux, Windows is owned by Microsoft. Various distributions (often referred to as “distros”) of Linux come from different companies (e.g. Red Hat, Novell SuSE, Mandrake etc.), while all Windows flavors (95, 98, 2000, XP, Vista) come from Microsoft.

Both Linux and Windows come in Desktop and Server editions.

Cost:

As far as cost is concerned, Linux is very cheap or free. I used the word “very cheap” for enterprise users. While anybody can download, install and use Linux, the distribution companies usually charge for technical support. Windows is expensive. You first pay for the copy of the software and then again for the technical support if you ever want it. There is another catch though; Windows enforces you to use a single copy on a single computer. This is not the case with Linux though, once you purchase Linux, you can run it on an unlimited number of computers.

GUI:

Both Windows and Linux are GUI based operating systems. I’m afraid but, Windows has better GUI than Linux and it will get far better with the upcoming Windows Vista release. Linux has two GUIs: Gnome and KDE. Linux is fast catching up and is evolving from a server operating system to a desktop operating system.

Command Line:

Both Windows and Linux comes with command line interface. Windows calls it the “DOS prompt”, while Linux refers to it as the “shell”. Linux’s shell is far more superior than Window’s DOS prompt. It can do a whole lot of things that are not possible in Windows. Linux support various command line shells such as BASH, Bourne, Korn, C shell and many other.

Third Party Application Software Availability: Both Windows and Linux run third-party applications. Windows, compared to Linux, has far greater number of third party applications available for use. A program written for Windows will not run under Linux (although it can be made to emulate, but it will be very annoying and hence not recommened).

Linux’s application base is, however, increasing threefold. On a more close examination, the average computer user uses the following applications 90% of the time: Word Processor (Office suite), E-mail client, Web browser, Media software, and Instant Messenger. Linux has all these applications and in fact has many flavors for each.

Like Linux, all third party applications are very cheap or free. Whereas, Windows applications can cost a leg and a limb.

Security:

Simply put it this way, Windows is not secure. If you are using Windows and don’t have Antivirus, Anti Spyware, and firewall (memory and resource eating applications), your computer can get affected by a virus in less than 10 minutes. I remember restoring a fresh copy of Windows XP on my Toshiba A40 notebook. I was browsing the Internet with Microsoft Internet Explorer and my machine got infected with loads of spyware in less than 15 minutes!

Microsoft came up with Firewall and Anti Spyware products, but these programs run in the background and eat up your computer’s precious memory.

Linux, on the other hand, doesn’t have these issues. I’m not aware of any spywares for Linux. One can safely run a Linux distro without ever worrying about installing Anitvirus or Anti-Spywares.

Windows also has more security flaws than Linux. By security flaw, I mean a hacker can compromise the Windows operating system and break into your machine and destroy your files. But, flaws on Windows are quickly fixed and patches are often made available almost instantly after the flaw is reported.

Supported Hardware:

Windows was originally designed for Intel based machines. Earlier version of Windows NT also ran on RISC and Alpha architectures, but not anymore. Linux run on a wide variety of hardware. And can support some very old legacy hardware. I’ve seen a Linux distro running on a 486 based machine.

Diver Availability:

As one author once said, “Windows is a bag of drivers”. I think that is quite true. Installing a new hardware device is a piece of cake in Windows, whereas it can be a nuisance on Linux especially for average Joe. I can’t in my wildest dreams imagine my dad installing a sound card successfully in Linux.

Things however will not stay the same for long. Manufacturers are also offering Linux drivers for their hardware, which will simplify the process.

Network Support:

Linux beats Windows bad in this area. Windows was never designed for the Internet. Unix, on which Linux is based, was designed for Internet (or Network) and is far more efficient compared to Windows. A senior Network Administrator working for a Fortune-500 company, recently pointed to me that if we monitor the traffic between exchange Windows based Exchange Server and Client, we can see that hundreds of packets are going to and from even when both are idle. He said that such is not the case with Linux.

However, our average Joe will never see or feel any difference. Windows Internet is good enough for him.

File System:

Windows Vista will use a new file system called WinFS. Earlier version used FAT (FAT16 and FAT32) and NTFS file systems, with NTFS being the preferred choice. Linux supports ext2 and ext3 file systems.

FAT file systems were mediocre, but NTFS can be compared with the Linux file systems.

Both file systems allows us to create directories, sub directories and file. Linux file systems are case-sensitive whereas, NTFS is not.

Normally, Linux systems cannot access NTFS file systems, but with the help of add-on software, it can.

Help and Documentation: Linux help and documentation is quite good, accurate and to the point compared.

I’ve been using Windows for well over 8 years now. Frankly speaking, I hardly ever checked the accompanying documentation or the help file because everything is so simple that nobody needs to venture in the help file.

What should I buy?

OK. Truth hurts, but let it be. If you are average Joe, that extra $300 on Windows are worth spending. If you are looking an OS for your server, never even think about Windows. Buy Linux.

About the Author:
Umer Mansoor is a software engineering student. He is a mild-mannered, soft spoken and non-violent kind of guy. He is inspired by God, Dad and Mom. He has written an open source scripting language, an open source SSH implementation and an open source security audit tool for cisco routers. His projects are hosted at: http://www.pegsol.com/newdesign/development.htm

He can be reached at: umer.mansoor-at-gmail.com

The growing adoption of service-oriented architectures (SOAs) including SAP’s (NYSE: SAP) NetWeaver platform and its related applications are having a significant impact on the politics of integration between manufacturers and distributors. The balance of power has already shifted in a few industries to the channel over the manufacturer, and nowhere is this more visible than in retail, with a case in point being Wal-Mart.

There are many other examples, scattered through financial services, transportation, logistics, high tech and other verticals. The point is that service-oriented architectures are already redefining many business processes that distributors and manufacturers share, and will continue to redefine these trading partnerships into the future.

SOAs Take Over Where Standards Take Off

The acquisition of Viacore by IBM (NYSE: IBM) this month made me stop and think about RosettaNet, its high-energy, charismatic founder, Fadi Chehade, and how his vision of integrating supply chain processes really was ahead of its time. In research I’ve done on the adoption of RosettaNet in high-tech distribution channels, and whether it would eventually replace EDI, a couple of interesting insights emerged.

First, the majority of the high-tech distributors interviewed only implemented the order management Partner Interface Process (PIP). In other words, the majority of the 20 distributors interviewed all felt compelled to invest in RosettaNet just to the transaction level. Second, only one company, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) , completed an intensive RosettaNet integration strategy, including all PIPs that included product information and marketing information management. While Arrow, Nokia, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) are founding members and have extensive integration experience with RosettaNet, I didn’t get a chance to speak to them during my survey work.

What is so forward-thinking about RosettaNet’s standards is that they detail the processes by which the information is used, they are real-time, and they deal with much more complex processes than EDI is capable of. RosettaNet’s ability to deliver collaborative forecasting — as is evidenced by the firm’s work with STMicroelectronics and the replacement of EDI by Arrow with RosettaNet — foreshadows the level of change SOAs tailored to the high-tech distribution channels will be able to accomplish.

SOAs promise to do what RosettaNet is doing in high tech, only on a much broader and deeper scale. The initial research on SAP NetWeaver early adopters in the report, Users Speak Out About SAP NetWeaver, shows that selecting business processes that are focused on gaining a competitive advantage in selected channels and markets is a primary driver for many companies moving to service-oriented architectures. Where RosettaNet and standards like it left off, SOAs are taking over.

Channel Priorities for SOAs

With so much hinging on better order management, coordination of all aspects of a product during its introduction, and the many complexities of pricing, a high adoption rate for SOAs in channels is inevitable. In the redefining of these processes for better efficiency between channel partners and manufacturers, however, the balance of power in these relationships is being defined.

It starts with greater visibility and control through supply chains and progresses into classic pick-and-pack distribution operations synchronized with pricing and product content. When you consider even the best distribution organizations average less than 5 percent return on sales, it becomes clear that supply chain synchronization impacts the channels’ financials more than any series of demand generation activities. A lean supply chain is turning into a manufacturers’ greatest competitive advantage, especially if they are relying on indirect channels.

For the distributor, ability to plan for, shape and respond to demand is a competitive strength. In fact, a former student of mine who worked in Wal-Mart’s demand planning section says that demand monitoring is such a high priority that during December there are meetings every morning to review sales-out data network-wide for the previous day. Wal-Mart has that level of integration to monitor demand.

Insights gained from timely analysis is a major competitive advantage, especially for distributors. The following processes are just a few that SOAs including SAP NetWeaver will impact in the coming two years:

Supply chain integration. Integrating supply chain systems between manufacturers and distributors has in the past been greeted with lukewarm responses, especially in high tech. That’s because product close-outs and the inevitable strategy of dropping prices by 40 percent or more to move discontinued products through channels is easily spotted when supply chains’ visibility is improved. For many distributors, vendor-managed inventory is also a costly manual process. With supply chain integration and greater visibility, vendor-managed inventory processes would also be streamlined.

Pricing strategies will start happening in real-time. One high-tech distributor has a room of at least 50 people computing price tables, as this specific company generates well over 1,400 pricing tables every month. With an SOA supporting shared applications, the intensely manual processes of creating these pricing tables would become much more streamlined and efficient.

Product introductions synchronized globally. This is the holy grail for so many manufacturers, yet given the disconnects in their channel strategies, it’s very hard to achieve. With an SOA in place that includes a standardized portal and applications for managing product launches throughout the many layers and roles in channels, this goal becomes achievable. PLM vendors are no doubt thinking about this today. Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) becomes achievable for more companies. This refers to the sharing of forecasts, related supply chain and business information among partners throughout a supply chain in an effort to automate product replenishment. The purpose of CPFR is to improve in-stock performance for retailers by synchronizing supply chains with manufacturers so that excess inventory and out-of-stock conditions are alleviated. Admittedly a complex area, the sharing of forecasts and supply chain inventories is an area where service-oriented architectures are already making an impact.

Bottom Line: Service-oriented architectures matter more than ever in distribution-centric business, both from the channel and manufacturing side. Look for distributors to attack the most problematic areas including product introductions, pricing and vendor managed inventory first.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CVIL0I/qid=1136398691/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-9169731-9458232?s=ebooks&v=glance&n=551440

Need software to record your voice, streaming audio or musical instruments? There are dozens of great products on the market. Some cost up to five hundred dollars, but here are some of the low cost alternatives you might want to consider.

n-Track Studio

The program uses 24 bit (32 bit floats) resolution for mixing and effects processing. Various wave files formats are supported, mono & stereo tracks are can coexist in the same song and wave editing operations can be performed from within the program. MIDI tracks can be imported end exported to regular MIDI files, and edited using the built in piano-roll based MIDI editing. All the audio tracks are saved as standard wave files and mixed "on the fly" during playback. Volume and pan evolution can be programmed by drawing on the timeline window. When all the tracks have been recorded and all the settings are correct, it’s possible to mix-down all the tracks to a single wave file for recording it to a compact disk using a CD recorder or for distributing it through the Internet (using the built-in mp3 encoder).

More Information: http://www.deprice.com/ntrackstudio.htm

Audio Record Wizard 3

Audio Record Wizard is a real-time sound recorder, offering professional recording features with full mp3 support. The sound recorder program is designed to work directly with your sound card, so can record almost all audio from your sound card at near-perfect quality. You can record sound from a microphone, line-in, and just about any other programs (such as winamp, realplay, windows media player and others). Direct to disk feature allows you to record sound without running out of memory. Audio Record Wizard can also record directly to the mp3 format if you choose, saving you valuable disk space. You can select the different mp3 recording modes as required.

More Information: http://www.deprice.com/audiorecordwizard.htm

Cybercorder 2000

Cybercorder provides VCR-like recording for radio shows or any audio input. Recordings are stored on disk as WAV or MP3 files with optional audio compression to save disk space. Recordings can easily be played back by selecting the recording from the list of completed recordings. The customizable playback window allows to easily advance the recording forward and reverse various step sizes.

The program has a variety of features and options:

# Uses your own radio or stereo receiver. Connect the radio headphone or output jacks to the computer sound card line-in jack. Set to your favorite radio station, adjust the Windows mixer settings, and Cybercorder 2000 does the rest.

# Real-time audio compression - you can utilize any of the audio compression codecs installed on your system to save disk space.

# Record MP3 - you can record MP3 files with the MP3 file extension.

# Programmed or manual recording - you can schedule as many recordings as you like or instantly start a recording for the specified amount of time. The scheduled recordings can be scheduled for a single time or for selected days of the week such as Mon-Fri 9AM. Program descriptions can be given to the scheduled recordings to later identify the recordings.

# Program Internet Recordings - you can automatically launch an Internet URL prior to recording. You can set up Cybercorder 2000 to automatically hang up a modem connection and/or close the streaming player once the recording is complete.

# Automatically Run External Applications - you can automatically launch an external application prior to and/or after recording.

# Mixer Profiles Cybercorder can automatically activate a mixer profile containing preset Windows mixer settings prior to and/or after a recording. This ensures the recording will occur with the correct mixer settings every time.

# Supports long recordings - you can program a recording to be as long as 24 hours.

# Recordings list - all recordings made are shown in a list, and any recording can be played from this list. Recordings can be removed from the list or from disk, and can also be added back to the list if present on disk. Cybercorder 2000 supports saving and retrieving recording lists containing WAV and MP3 files.

# Player - allows you to easily advance the recording forward and reverse various step sizes, along with the slider control. The 6 sets of forward/reverse buttons can be customized to advance the recording the desired number of minutes or seconds.

More Information: http://www.deprice.com/cybercorder.htm

John Deprice is a music aficionado. His website is http://www.deprice.com/audio.htm

1. Creating business cards. If you’re self employed or run a small business, you know how expensive printing business cards can be. If someone leaves your employ, or the phone area code changes, all that money is down the drain. Most printers and stationers work to standard designs anyway, so your business card looks pretty much like all the rest. With your own DTP software you can really let your imagination rip, and design a unique and memorable card. You can then print it out on your colour printer and save a bundle - you can even get pre-cut card to print your design out on that can make your work indistinguishable from a professional job.

2. Designing letterheads. Just like business cards, really, only bigger. You can get them offset printed by the ream, or save the design as a file and print out the letterhead every time you print out a letter.

3. Custom DVD covers and labels. Making movies is fun (I know), but if you make home movies and videos, and burn them onto disk yourself, the label that comes with the disk looks pretty boring. It’s easy to design an insert to go inside the DVD case - and a matching label - using your DTP software. Now your epic can take pride of place on the shelf alongside the professional ones from the video store.

4. Making banners and posters. Throwing a party? Want to advertise your goods or services? Got an event you need to publicise? Banners and posters are a simple way to catch someone’s attention. The traditional way of creating them is by using markers and paints. A combination of your DTP software and colour printer is much quicker - and less messy!

5. Designing flyers. Scale that banner or poster down to half a page, and you’ve got a flyer to hand out.

6. Typesetting newsletters. A newsletter is the easiest way of letting customers, or members of your club or other organisation, know what’s going on. Typing them up on a word processor is fine, but use your DTP software to make them more eye-catching, and your newsletter is more likely to be read than trashed.

7. Magazine layout. Go one further and layout your own glossy magazine with pictures ad text put together in full colour. It’s easier (and cheaper) than you may think.

8. Product packaging. Think package design is the preserve of expensive design shops or advertising agencies? Think again! Most package design these days is done using computers. "Reverse engineer" a package by taking a similar sized one apart to get the dimensions, build your own template from the measurements, then let your imagination run wild. You’ll be surprised at what you can come up with - and how little it will cost.

9. Laying out a catalogue. If you sell multiple products, or just want to let customers know what’s in your shop or store, a catalogue can keep you uppermost in your customer’s mind. Designing it using your own DTP software means you can easily update it without having to pay a fortune to an agency.

10. Designing a yearbook. Don’t let precious memories fade away. A yearbook isn’t just for high school. Use your DTP software to organise pictures, facts and reminiscences into a document you’ll treasure forever.

Shaun Pearce is a writer and video maker. His latest production "DTP Master" shows you how to get to grips with desktop publishing, comes with free DTP software, and can be downloaded from http://www.learndtpfast.com.

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM data conversion deserves FAQ type of article, where IT people could get initial directions. Even if it seems as a trivial task, we would suggest you to think about these possible scenarios: objects mapping between your legacy CRM: GoldMine, ACT, Siebel, Lotus Notes Domino. When you think about MS CRM switch over – do you think just to transfer master records: Leads, Contacts, Accounts, or you are thinking about historical activities: emails, faxes, calls, appointments, etc?

• MS CRM Import tool. You can import contact and leads using MS CRM import, your source files should be text files and import tool doesn’t validate duplicates, dirty records and similar potential pitfalls. Well, Import wizard comes free with MS CRM purchase, but in our opinion, you should just continue reading and go to the next bullet.

• Scribe. This is the first professional level option you should consider. The nicety of scribe lays in the fact that it has mappings for ACT for example and you will need just select the destination. Again, please understand that each CRM solutions has its own master and activity objects categories. Scribe should resolve 85% of your conversion issues and if not you should check with scribe. Some issues are not resolvable in scribe: Siebel email attachments, records duplications and others.

• Microsoft CRM SDK. MS CRM SDK is the ultimate tool to migrate whatever is possible and impossible into MS CRM. However – we have to warn you that in this case we have to do custom data conversion and our programmers dedicate their time to help you out. We expect your participation in objects mapping. Plus you should be ready to allocate substantial time to test the conversion, prior to going live. So, the expectations should be set that your have to budget 50 hours or more

• Security Model Concerns. Microsoft CRM has advanced security model, and technically it can serve up to large corporation with regional and worldwide offices. In this case you usually deploy objects sharing technique and deploy teams and role (MS CRM Business Units and Sales Territories doesn’t allow your CRM users to be in multiple units or at the same time serve several territories). If initial data conversion requires security consideration – you should consider MS CRM SDK approach – even if you have to pay higher price for the conversion. Large business should consider the risk of exposing records to unauthorized employees

• MS CRM Integration. Using MS CRM SDK you can integrate CRM with your third party financial applications, such as Navision, Axapta, Solomon, Oracle Financials, SAP, PeopleSoft. Software Development Kit allows you to integrate your custom SQL, DB2, Oracle or other ODBC and OLEDB complaint application.

Currently we are confident in MS CRM ability to automate the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Advertising & Publishing, Distribution & Logistics, Beverages, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Pharmaceutical, Nonprofit, Healthcare/Hospitals, Wholesale/Retail, Manufacturing/Assembling, International Business/Multinational Corporation, Government.

You can always have us help you, give us a call: 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is consultant and CTO in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Business Solutions partner, serving clients in Illinois, New York, California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Virginia, Minnesota, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, Asia, Russia. He is Microsoft Great Plains certified master, Great Plains Dexterity, Microsoft CRM SDK C#.Net, Crystal Repots developer. You can reach Andrew: akarasev@albaspectrum.com

So you own the best digital camera? That is good news. However, did it come with ineffective photo software? Most cameras do. In order to ensure that you take your digital photography to the next level you should seriously think about photo software that makes it very easy to do photo editing, printing, organizing and emailing.

As an example, you may face many challenges after you have snapped a few photos. I think the most troublesome of them all is the red eye. Most photo software comes with a red-eye elimination or reduction method. The red eye reduction method should ensure that the eyes are left looking lifelike by not eliminating the pupil reflection. Using the red eye reduction should be easy. The most easy and useful photo software that I have come across is Photolightning. There are others like Adobe and Acdsystems which are also good. The most recommended features that photo software should include are:

1) Photo Editing: The ability to fix red eye, lighten dark photos, apply special effects to your photos and resize, modify, crop them. This may also include the ability to adjust brightness, saturation etc. and automatically/semi-automatically enhance the picture quality.

2) Email photos: The ability to automatically reduce photos (in size) for faster emailing and then attach them to an email, or better yet, embed the photos directly into the body of an email.

3) Photo printing: Easily print photos in standard sizes on single sheets of photo paper or on “micro-perf” templates for placement in picture frames. The software should also provide for a way to print entire album pages and index prints.

4) Batch Processing: Easily resize, rename, add captions/watermarks, change format, and change timestamp. This is a time saving feature that every photo software product should have nowadays.

5) The photo album – or organizer: This feature lets you organize your photos by date, keyword, or rating and add captions. A good photo organizer makes it easy for you to quickly find your photos.

6) Backup photos to CD: Burning photos to CD so that you can share them with friends or make backup copies is a very useful feature. It is even better if the photo software remembers which photos have been backed up so that you do not waste space/time backing up photos you have already archived.

7) Create Slideshows: This is an optional feature but very useful indeed. A great feature is the ability to email a slideshow that you have created to friends and family or post it to a website.

8) A photo uploader: This is another optional feature that can be very useful by allowing you to upload your photos to your favorite online photo printer.

9) A How To-Manual

10) …. There are so many possible features that the list may be never-ending.

Many of these features are common to many photo software products, but ultimately it is ease-of-use for your favorite features that is most important. Remember that each and every software package has its positives and negatives so you should look for the proper blend of ease-of-use and the functionality you require.

About the Author: Mahesh Mhatre is a SEO pioneer in India. Make Money Online with advice from Xpertcoders. Easy to use photo software photolightning.

Programming Help for Beginners

We write programs to instruct computers. When programming using a high level programming language like C++ or Java, we are using a syntax that is somewhat closer to human languages. However, we use these programs as inputs to either compilers or interpreters to be converted to computer understandable binary format. For this reason, as far as the program code adheres to the syntax of the used programming languages, the compilers and interpreters never bother about the layout or visual formatting of the program code. However, as human programmers, we ourselves need to bother about the aesthetics of the program code.

What is a Coding Standard?

A coding standard is a set of guidelines, rules and regulations on how to write code. Usually a coding standard includes guide lines on how to name variables, how to indent the code, how to place parenthesis and keywords etc. The idea is to be consistent in programming so that, in case of multiple people working on the same code, it becomes easier for one to understand what others have done. Even for individual programmers, and especially for beginners, it becomes very important to adhere to a standard when writing the code. The idea is, when we look at our own code after some time, if we have followed a coding standard, it takes less time to understand or remember what we meant when we wrote some piece of code.

Coding Standards Make a Difference

Look at the following example:

int volume(int i, int j, int k) {
int vol;
vol = i * j * k;
return vol;
}

Looking at this code at a glance, it takes some time for one to understand that this function calculates the volume. However if we adhere to a naming convention for variables and method names, we could make the code more readable.

Here are few sample conventions:

1. use meaningful variable names
2. use verbs in method names
3. use nouns for variables
4. use 4 spaces to indent

int calculateVolume(int height, int width, int length) {
int volume = 0;
volume = height * width * length;
return volume;
}

It takes more time to type this code, however this saves far more time. This code is far more readable than its original version. With a little bit of effort, we could make the code much more understandable.

The Benefits

It is not only the readability that we get through a coding standard in programming. Writing more secure code could also be encouraged through a coding convention. As an example, in C++ we could say that each pointer variable must be initialized to NULL.

char* myName = NULL;

This ensures that we would not corrupt memory while using this pointer variable.

Code readability is just one of the aspects of maintainability. Coding standards help a great deal with program maintainability, our ability to change programs with ease. Consistency imposed through a coding standard is a key factor to achieve success in maintaining prorams.

Defining Your Own Coding Standard

A programmer can define his or her own coding convention and adhere to that in writing programms. However there are many coding conventions available on the Internet. Those who program in Java should have a look into http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/html/CodeConvTOC.doc.html - Code Conventions for the Java Programming Language by Sun.

For C++ coding standards, I would recommend that you have a look into http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/webdev/AppB.Cpp_Coding_Standards.htm - C++ Coding Standards from BBC.

http://oopweb.com/CPP/Documents/CPPHOWTO/Volume/C++Programming-HOWTO-14.html - C++ Programming HOWTO has some C++ Coding Conventions and also a bunch of links that lead to several coding standards that you can pick from.

John Dirk
Programming Consultant
http://www.programminghelp4u.com/
Programming ( Assignment / Project ) Help

Outsourcing is the delegation of projects or jobs to a sub-contractor who could be based in the same country or outside the country. The word outsourcing has been used a lot nowadays. Lot of outsourcing in the IT sector has made this word a buzz. Outsourcing is not only done in the IT sector. Many other sectors like manufacturing, fashion designing etc are outsourced. Companies outsource mainly to cut costs. The salary of overseas staff is quite less compared to the current staff salary.

Nowadays, most of the software and other IT related work are outsourced to countries like India, Singapore and China. The hourly wages are low in these countries compared to UK and US wage rates. When a company can get the same quality at a lower price then it is very good for the company to outsource some of its operations. Out of the fortune 500 companies in US, nearly 400 companies outsource their work to countries like India and China. UK and other European countries also outsource their work to many Indian companies. Call centers have sprung up in India, Caribbean and Philippines. Telemarketing work has been outsourced by many US banks to many call centers in other countries. The main job of these call centers is to sell more credit cards, insurance and provide customer support services.

In manufacturing sector, components, textiles etc are outsourced to countries where the labor costs are very low. Most of the companies outsource around 50% of the work. For example: A car manufacturing company could outsource its gear parts to a company in India to cut down its costs. To manufacture the gears, the company has to invest a lot, so they outsource it to other companies, which has the competency to manufacture these products.

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Now that spyware is the single most dangerous threat to home computers connected to the internet today, getting your hands on some sort of spyware and adware protection is critical. Spyware has outpaced computer viruses in its prevalence, and in the kind of damage it can do to your system.

If you plan on using your home PC to do anything on the internet, even minor emailing or a little light surfing, this kind of protection is a must-have.

What is spyware? Spyware is basically any kind of software that gets installed on your machine without your knowing it, and tracks your actions on the internet for marketing purposes, or causes your computer to perform tasks that you didn’t request.

You can accidentally get this stuff installed on your computer, by downloading trials and demos of certain programs that have it “bundled”, like a lot of file sharing programs, (a lot, but not all of them) viewing email attachments, or even just visiting certain websites. Sometimes you get lucky and all it does is put a cookie or two on your machine and influence the types of banner ads you see (based on your web surfing habits) or give you a few pop-up ads.

Increasingly, though, companies are getting away with distributing spyware that hijacks your web browser home page, adds unsolicited desktop icons, and pollutes other parts of your web browser, like the screen you see when you hit “search”, and the page you get sent to if you misspell a web address. Instead, all you’ll see are pages of ads. There’s now a new breed of spyware that works like a Trojan Horse virus. Many log your keystrokes, passwords, logins, etc, typed in over a week or so and deliver them to the perpetrator. This is so serious that my antivirus program even catches this spyware. If you let this happen to you, you’re leaving yourself open to some serious, serious privacy violations, not to mention likely fraud or identity theft.

Probably the most serious kind of spyware of all, however, affects your email programs. Some will send out a solicitation email to every person in your address book and “sent” items folder. Some spyware just tacks an annoying advertisement onto every email you send out. And these aren’t the kinds of solicitations you would want any association with, either. This kind of stuff is the most serious of all, in my opinion. How would you like to have your boss get an email from you telling him to visit a distasteful porn site?

You can probably see by now that getting good spyware protection is more important than anything else. Viruses aren’t really a huge deal anymore, because most people have some kind of antivirus programs, and viruses just aren’t produced and distributed as much as they used to be. But the problem is, even the best antivirus software out there still doesn’t take care of spyware; it’s a different classification.

One of the main reasons spyware is so widespread is that it’s mainly all still legal. Viruses aren’t as much of a problem anymore because the people who start them almost always get tracked down, and sent to jail. But with spyware, most of what these components do isn’t really malicious. You’d have to prove some kind of harm. So you saw a few ads. The case could often be made that you initiated whatever process got it on your machine anyway.

Anyone who tries to commit fraud against you by using spyware also won’t really be doing it out in the open, so they probably won’t get caught. It makes more sense to just get some good spyware protection and keep this from happening in the first place.

Two of the better programs out there meant to deal with this are Adaware and Spysweeper. I use both, but from what I’ve seen, Spysweeper seems to detect more different pieces of spyware that get on my system.

Also, while they’re meant to complement one another, one feature Spysweeper has that Adaware doesn’t is that it watches specific components of Windows for you, like your “Startup” programs, web browser “favorites” and your browser homepage. All changes get reported to you. You decide right then and there if you want to let it happen.

Adaware has a similar system, but lets you set it to deal with, and prevent any such changes to your system, without even asking you. It’s like having your own digital bodyguard, watching your computer for you while you’re free to surf.

If you’re serious about your PC’s security and your privacy on the internet, spyware protection is not an option, it’s a must!

Phil Moyers, writer of Build Your Own Computer Plan shows computer novices how to save a ton of money by putting together fast, high performance PC’s of their own with handpicked, quality parts. Learn more about spyware protection