Visual Basic is the best software programming language for developing technical applications, and it is the easiest one to learn. Sure, you can also use it to design fancy Internet sites, business applications, the most advanced database systems, and distributed transactions. For industrial and technical applications, however, Visual Basic is better than anything else. In this article I will try presenting few of the reasons behind my affirmations.

First of all, Visual Basic comes with an exceptional graphic interface, which is definitely the easiest one to work with. For those who know how to do it, Visual Basic does everything Visual C++ does, only ten to twenty times faster and easier. It takes just few minutes to insert a label or a red line to display the dynamic value of a technical parameter. Of course, some graphic controls are very complex, but you do not necessarily need them. The most important controls in technical applications are: labels, text-boxes, buttons, MSFlexGrid, then lines, rectangles and circles. This is all! You do not need fancy graphics. Using only the few basic controls I summarized you can design the most powerful technical applications today, in the entire World.

When we control hardware the most important is to process data as bytes and bits. In C and C++ we use pointers to break integers into bytes, or to concatenate bytes into integers and doubles. In Visual Basic we use mathematical operations on bytes, and results are exactly the same. In order to process individual bits we use “masks” and bit-shifting in C and C++. In visual Basic we also use masks, and we replace bit-shifting with mathematical operations. Few are aware Visual Basic has incredibly rich libraries of mathematical functions, and they are optimized for very fast calculations. You can easily discover logic and statistical functions, “sine”, “log”, “exp”, and all other mathematical goodies that bring happiness and sunshine in our lives.

Now, many readers will object saying Visual Basic is limited to Windows PC OS (Operating System). No doubts about that, but we are talking here about 80% of the World market! What more would you expect? The next step in PC development is what we name today “Tablet PC”, and Windows has a good grip on that one with Windows Mobile OS. Even on the PDA market (Peripheral Device Adaptors) Windows CE is one of the best OS available. Besides, all software applications are written for Windows PC first of all, and before everything else.

Right! Now, let’s detail a little this issue of controlling hardware using Visual Basic. The first thing to do is, design your intelligent hardware module using, say dsPIC30F3011 or even dsPIC30F4011. If you have no idea how to do it, this is perfect, and you do not have to worry about it. Once you have your nice little piece of hardware working, you will have to write an intelligent firmware program to give it “life”. Again, I suspect you do not know how to write firmware in C for Microchip dsPIC microcontrollers, but this is just fine–trust me with this one. I can guarantee you will become an expert in hardware and firmware in about 60 days–this is, considering you want to, and you do invest little, minimal efforts for this.

Next, it should take you a couple of weeks to learn how to write a Visual Basic application to “talk” to your hardware module. Hardware and firmware working together collect field data from peripherals, and they send it to your Visual Basic application. Wow! Your intelligent Visual Basic application is going to display analog field data dynamically, on a Graph Trace control–and you will know how to design this one–just like on an oscilloscope screen. You can store your processed data in binary files on PC; you can send commands to and from your hardware module; and you process field data as bits and bytes, mathematically, the way it pleases you most! To end, you can send the entire binary file to hardware and back, or even to an Internet site.

You are asking, probably, how you are going to do all those wonders. This is truly easy! Just visit my home website, and discover there a tutorial book about learning hardware, firmware, and software design. This is no joke, and the book I refer to is the best one you can find in the entire World today. It is just beyond belief! Find and read Table of Contents and the introductory chapters, and you will learn everything you want to know about it. Next, it is up to you, but my advice is, do not toss away precious, useful information, because you are going to need it one day. Knowledge it is never sufficient or too much.

O G POPA is Professional Engineer in BC, Canada. His home site is Corollary Theorems at http://www.corollarytheorems.com

As we could imagine, if you are reading this article – you are in the decision making mode, probably replacing legacy system with the new one or abandoning either Unix/Mainframe or Apple direction for your corporation. In any case, nobody should make an outside influence on your decision – you should be maximally objective. Let us give you our estimates and the parameters to check on the pool of the possible ERPs/MRPs.

• Lifecycle. Each application has its lifecycle: from inception and initial fighting for the “place under the sun”, to maturing and then slowly or rapidly declining. Great Plains Software Dynamics, which is prototype of our days Microsoft Great Plains was released in 1994-95 as the first Graphical Accounting/MRP application, working on the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Plus Great Plains Dexterity – Dynamics platform was designed as both computer graphical platform as well as database platform independent (to some extent of course, especially when we talk about tuning it to the database platform for performance reason). So, technically Microsoft Great Plains has 10 years of history and is currently in the maturity phase.

• Database Platform. Current trends in the IT applied science are biased toward reliable and standard database platform. If you look at such product as SAP (Abap) or Navision (C/Side native database). This is probably reflection of the future multiple OS harmony: Linux, Windows, Unix systems will coexist communicating via XML (pure text) inbound and outbound streams. We’d say you should be looking for ERP which sits in the standard database: Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DBII, Ingress, Sybase, Unidata. SQL is the survivor and it will stay for a very long time. It should be possible to query your data via SQL queries – this will make your life easier when you face integration, customization and reporting needs. Microsoft Great Plains uses MS SQL Sever.

• Positions in your country. If you are in the USA – you should know these facts about Microsoft Business Solutions. First jewel, that was bought by Microsoft was Great Plains Software, in fact Doug Burgum, GPS leader was old friend of Bill Gates. Few years before acquisition by Microsoft GPS bought Solomon Software, its old and major competitor. Currently Microsoft Solomon is targeted to Project Oriented Business – Construction, Consulting, etc. Few years after Great Plains acquisition, Microsoft Business Solutions purchased Denmark based Navision Software. Navision had long presence in the USA, especially in the manufacturing ERP market. But, as we believe – and this is our private opinion – Navision acquisition allowed Microsoft to gain substantial portion of the European ERP market. We think that if you are in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Latin America and your are not a construction company – then Great Plains is good choice for you.

• Industry specifics. Microsoft Great Plains should be considered as ERP platform ready for tuning to your business needs and so, you should make your decision if you would prefer customization or purchasing so-called rich-functionality ERP. Great Plains is the platform for the customization. It fits to all the spectrum of industries: apparel, medical, pharmaceutical, distribution, logistics, aerospace, defense, wholesale, metals, chemicals, retail to name a few.

Good luck with selection, implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia

To understand the utility of the Accounts Receivable Software, you need to first understand the concept of Accounts Receivable funding. Invoice factoring, as Account Receivable funding is also called, is a financial service that allows a business to sell its invoices and outstanding receivables to financing or funding companies who purchase these at a discount, or less than the face value of the receivable. The advantage of this deal is that you, as the owner of the company, get instant cash; and to the financing company is that it collects the receivables on your behalf at the full face value. This means that the entire responsibility of collecting the cash is now on the financing company.

Free of the need to collect funds, you can now concentrate on the more pressing needs of the business. Also, you get the opportunity to extend services to a larger number of customers without asking for cash on delivery.

Given that the advantages are many, Accounts Receivable need proper and effective management. While one way is to outsource the work to another company, the other is to use Software to maintain a record of the transactions and the clients involved.

The Software allows you to maintain a master record of customer information, and separate files also. You can locate the information by fields such as customer number, phone number, or even company name. You can assign credit limits, make extensive notes, and also provide notes and statements to customers.

Apart from this, the Software can be used to keep a record of the transactions, charges, and payments. Depending on the requirements, you can use the Software to apply the same payment to any number of records. In addition, you can prepare reports on collections, write-offs, and control policies. Besides, you can print any messages for promotional campaigns, greetings, and sales.

Accounts Receivable Factoring provides detailed information about accounts receivable factoring, accounts receivable collection, accounts receivable factoring companies, accounts receivable financing and more. Accounts Receivable Factoring is the sister site of Accounts Receivable Collection.

If you use Microsoft Outlook (or similar applications) for e-mailing, then you are familiar with the fields at the top of a new mail message, right? Of course, in the "To…" field, you enter the name of one or more persons you intend to receive your message. Use the field labeled "Cc…" (for Carbon Copy - remember how they did it back in 1978 BC, "before computers"?) for anyone who needs to view your e-mail but is not the addressee.

But there’s an additional field that you should know about, labeled "Bcc…," which stands for "Blind carbon copy," or the updated version, "Blind courtesy copy." This field is for the names of anyone that needs a copy of your e-mail without the other people (in the "To…" and "Cc…" fields) knowing about it. That’s why it’s called "Blind."

"But wait a minute," you might be saying. "I don’t have a "Bcc" field just after the "Cc" field in my version of Outlook." When you launch a new mail message, you might have "To…," "Cc…," and "Subject…"–nothing more. That’s because "Bcc" is on a toggle; you can turn it on and off from your "View" menu. If your "Bcc…" is not showing, you can turn it on when you are in a mail message by going to the "View Menu" and selecting "Bcc Field." A checkmark will appear and the field will become visible at the top of your mail message, just above "Subject…". (Similar applications should also give you the option to turn "Bcc" on if it is not continuously visible.)

You should know about and carefully use "Bcc" for a number of reasons. I’m going to cover some of the most important.

Use Bcc to protect privacy – When an e-mail is sent to a whole group of people with all of their names in the "To…" or "CC…" fields, each one of them has access to the e-mail address of all the others. Normally this would not be a problem internally, but if you are sending an e-mail to employees as well as some outside of your company, use the Bcc field to hide all of those internal addresses. You will be preventing your company’s people from getting spam and other unwanted e-mails.

Use Bcc to keep upper management informed – Sometimes you are sending an e-mail message at a manager’s request, and you want to let the manager know that you complied. It may not be helpful, however, to make the manager’s name visible in "Cc," because this may add stress or cause unnecessary concern for the addressee. If you consider that to be the circumstances, use Bcc for the manager’s copy. But this is always a judgment call, because sometimes it is important for addressees to know the manager is looking over their shoulder, especially if you have a tight deadline.

Use Bcc to make your message more personal – Do you feel differently about a message addressed solely to you versus one sent to all of your company’s employees? The same principle works in the opposite direction, as well. If you place everyone’s name in the Bcc field, then each will have the impression that you wrote your e-mail just for them. Be careful in your wording, however, because this tactic will backfire if your letter contains second-person plurals, such as "All of you may be wondering…".

Use Bcc to keep an archive of your correspondence – This nifty trick depends of having or obtaining a separate e-mail address from your conventional business address. Place that address in the Bcc field, e.g., "yourname@freemail.com," and Outlook will send a copy of your e-mail to that address. This can be helpful if you are wanting a quick way to keep track of all of the e-mail you send out regarding a particular project or issue.

Caution: When Bcc can backfire – There are times, however, when you should think twice before entering a person’s name in Bcc. If your addressee hits "Reply to all," the reply will not go back to the BCC addressee(s). But still, that reply might not be worded as carefully as it would be if the sender knew everyone listed in Bcc. To put it bluntly, this is how people get insulted and feelings get hurt. If you are dealing with an issue that is the least bit touchy or even volatile, you would do well to steer clear of Bcc.

Copyright ©2005 Steve Singleton, All rights reserved.

Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles on subjects of interest to Bible students. He has been a book editor, newspaper reporter, news editor, and public relations consultant. He has taught Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses Bible college, university, and adult education programs. He has taught seminars and workshops in 11 states and the Caribbean.

Go to his DeeperStudy.org for Bible study resources, no matter what your level of expertise. Explore "The Shallows," plumb "The Depths," or use the well-organized "Study Links" for original sources in English translation. Sign up for Steve’s free "DeeperStudy Newsletter."

While running Windows and common applications, your computer is also silently operating a vast number of tasks, in the background and behind the scenes. These "invisible" tasks or processes often reduce the processing power of your computer consuming large amounts of memory. Booting time becomes longer and performance degrades to the point where your computer becomes extremely sluggish. Other background processes pose a direct security threat that will disrupt or cause critical damage to your system. Reports show that these harmful background processes like spyware, viruses and worms infect 90% of computers with an internet connection.

Based on years of research, the award-winning WinTasks 5 Professional is now one of the most popular tools in the war against malicious software, and the perfect complement to your firewall and anti-virus software. Whether you are new to Windows, a business professional, or a systems administrator, you can rely on WinTasks to quickly improve your computer’s security and speed.

WinTasks 5.0 Professional provides you with a wealth of information and a powerful set of tools that will help you enhance the protection against system security threats while dramatically increasing computer performance. WinTasks 5.0 Professional gives you detailed information about each and every process that is running. It provides you with the tools to terminate and eliminate any program that may disrupt, damage, slowdown or crash your system..

WinTasks 5.0 Benefits:

- Stop ALL security threats to your PC! - Completely protect your privacy and security! - Locate and stop all unwanted processes dead in their tracks! - Increase the speed of your computer! - Enjoy the highest performance and stability of your PC! - Get up and running quickly with WinTasks! Software so friendly, anyone can use it! - Supports Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

You can download from:
http://www.downloadsplaza.com/pd-WinTasks-5-Professional.html
http://www.downloadsplaza.com/pd-Spyware-Doctor.html

Adobe Photoshop is one of the world’s leading graphics editing programs, developed by Adobe Systems. Available on Mac OS or PC, Photoshop is used as one of the leading image design programs for the World Wide Web. The most recent version of Photoshop, or Photoshop CS2, "bridges" between other Adobe products such as Image Ready, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, and Encore DVD to produce professional videos and DVDs. Photoshop uses a file format called a .PSD or .PDD to store multiple layers of an image. Recently Adobe released a program called Photoshop Elements in order to give a less expensive version of Photoshop with many of the same features. Although Adobe Photoshop is used primarily in doing touch-up for digital photos, it is also used for creating designs for web pages and professional companies.

Adobe Photoshop was originally created as a convenient and powerful way to retouch photos. Its most basic features include easily cropping and straightening photos that were either scanned ore taken with a digital camera. Under- or overexposed photos can be easily rescued with the retouch power of the Camera RAW and other plug-ins. Photos taken in difficult lighting situations can be perfected by a few clicks of a mouse. Filters and plug-ins can be used to make the picture seem old or change to black and white.

Many web and graphics designers use Photoshop to create and design company logos and advertisements. Built in Photoshop effects and filters can make designing professional logos or advertisements a quick and simple process. With the power of layers and opacity, pictures can be blended together and effects such as shadows, blurs, etc. are made possible. And, for those who desire to return to the finger painting days of their youth, Photoshop has a paintbrush tool with countless brush shapes and textures for anyone who just needs to let out their creativity.

Text editing has also become easily accessible because of Photoshop. Perspectives, shapes, and type on a path are just a few examples of the tons of amazing text effects that are available. Slimy, dripping letters or cloud-writing in the sky are made easy from filters and text effects built into Photoshop.

Web designers thrive on Photoshop for making animations using Photoshop with other Adobe products. The things that can be done with Photoshop are literally endless. This is truly and amazing program.

For a tutorial on Adobe Photoshop, visit the photoshop tutorial website.

Managing funds is a tedious task for both the profitable and non profitable organizations. In the absence of any church software priests and pastors experienced a hard time in managing the church funds and records. But it’s not like that anymore. A well-managed church is a result of integration of a church management accounting software that addresses all its needs with ease and accuracy. With the emergence of church management softwares in the market, the church accounting system has revolutionized. The communication gap between the donors and the pastors has been eliminated.

Essentials Features of good church management softwares With so many softwares to manage different facets of church in the market, finding the best out of them is very difficult. The points which must be kept in mind while buying a CMS can be enumerated as under:

 Integrated data – Seamless integration of the data is a must for church management softwares.

 Scalability of the church management softwares – Software must be scalable according to the needs of the church.

 Fund accounting security – Security of the system is must as unauthorized access to the system can lead to malfunctioning.

 Database technology – Database technology must be latest and should have high security features incorporated in it.

Price of church management softwares All these softwares are available to you at different prices according to your subscription plans. To check out the subscription plans against the prices browse through our price listings. The prices can be scaled according to your church needs as well.

Icon System’s church management softwares Icon Systems is a prime supplier of church management software. It has provided pastors and parishioners with one of the best easiest cms which can be used from anywhere in the world. Our premier product listing:

• IconCMO – It is web enabled application software which is capable of managing unlimited users simultaneously. It is an amalgamation of three distinct modules namely fund accounting, membership tracking and parishioner access.

• Revelations church software– It is windows based, network enabled software capable of managing multiple churches. It aims at automating the tasks of the church to enhance communication and fellowship.

At the end of XX century, in the late 1990th Great Plains Software eEnterprise was recognized as one of the leader on the midsize to large corporate ERP market. Due to the nature of eEnterprise architecture - it is Great Plains Dexterity based application and Dexterity imposes some specific to the database access and table structure – eEnterprise was subject to relatively inexpensive customization. During the recession time a lot of former Great Plains Software and then Microsoft Business Solutions partners either went out of business or merged with Auditing firms and their Great Plains clients saw this instability and simply stopped annual enhancement program payments and become so-called orphan clients. Today, in 2005 – it is time to upgrade from eEnterprise 6.0 to Microsoft Great Plains Professional 8.0. If you have major customization for eEnterprise – you need to understand your options before you find your new Microsoft Business Solutions VAR of record. In this small article we will describe you the main steps and options to upgrade Dexterity customization:

• DYNAMICS.DIC with the source code. This is where your customization script should be originated from. The nature of Dexterity makes the developer to produce so-called Dexterity chunk from this DYNAMICS.DIC with the source code, in the chunk itself the code is stripped off. You should have this dictionary, if you don’t – contact your old VAR and see if somebody could give it t you. If you can not find the source code, then customization should be understood and recoded – yes – how sad it might sound.

• VBA / Modifier code. Alternative to Dexterity customization could be light (or heavy) VBA scripting. Modifier allows you to place new button on the Great Plains screens and address new and existing fields in the VBA code. VBA scripts are located in DYNAMICS.VBA dictionary. This dictionary should be present on each workstation, using the modification. Usually this code is not encrypted and programmer could analyze and upgrade the code. Modified forms could be also upgraded. Sometimes we see heavy VBA coding, using element of Continuum, where it switched Dexterity dictionaries and then uses inline Dexterity sacscript scripting. These customizations, probably considered as very high-skills programming in the past should be redone.

• Stored Procedures. In eEnterprise, beginning with version 5.0 Dexterity cursors were recommended to rewrite in the form of stored procedures, and so offload Dexterity logic into MS SQL Server scripting. Usually you need Dexterity programmer to take a look at your Company or Dynamics databases and tell you which stored procedures are deployed by Dexterity customization. And you are lucky if they are not encrypted.

• Other custom elements. You may have ReportWriter reports: SOP Long Invoice Form, for example. These is a list of upgradeable and no-upgradeable, the last ones should be redone.

Good luck with customization upgrade and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia

If you’re a teacher or parent, you may be interested in creating some fun digital photography related projects for children. I sometimes plan fun and interesting photo projects for my daughter so that she can learn about photography and have a whale of a time too.

In this article, we’ll explore 3 interesting photo project ideas we can prepare for children, so read on!

Idea 1: Make a Flash Photo Album

One interesting photo project is to let the child create a personal photo journal. Ask the child to hang on to the digital camera for a few days, snapping anything that captures his or her fancy.

At the end of that period, help him or her to upload the pictures to a computer, then add some good captions or funny quotes, even animated cliparts. A simple, easy activity to do, which is also rewarding for the family too.

You can use a program like Wondershare Flash SlideShow Builder to maintain the photo album and turn them into a compelling Flash gallery.

Idea 2: Create a Nice Photo Collage

Here’s a good project to undertake if your child likes digital scrapbooking. Print out some nice, small format pictures, then stick them onto a large cardboard.

Another way to do this is to use a cool software I found called Photo Collage Studio. This program allows you to turn your favorite photos into an artistic compilation with beautiful photo frame and mask effects, which you can solve on the computer. Neat, huh?

Idea 3: What Could This Be?

Another interesting photo project is to snap a picture of a common, everyday object - using a very odd angle or close-up view.

Entrust the digital camera to the kids, then ask them to sniff out ordinary objects to take photos of. Ask them to take the photos at weird, unusual, and otherworldly angles.

When they’re done, upload the pictures to the PC and start playing a guessing game. Ask the kids to guess what subject is being photographed in each mystery photo. You’ll be amazed at the answers you get! Snap a whole slew of such pictures and you’ll occupy the kids for the whole afternoon!

Sticky Notes

http://www.deprice.com/stickynote.htm

With StickyNote 9.0, you can create beautiful 3D notes on your desktop or send them instantly over the Internet.

StickyNote also enables you to adhere notes to documents or windows AND to attach documents to your note.

StickyNote eliminates the clutter and confusion of keeping up with the reminders and phone numbers that never seem to be where you left them. Forget jotting down messages and let StickyNote deliver them for you. You can even customize a note’s texture, color and priority with a few simple clicks, and you can set an alarm to have notes appear at a certain time or at regular intervals.

Cute Reminder

http://www.deprice.com/cutereminder.htm

With the help of Cute Reminder software you can easily create desktop sticky notes and make reminders for an appointment, birthday, phone call, bill payment, meeting, oil change, TV show and other events or tasks. Take a pill reminder, break reminder, gift reminder, etc., and you will never miss anything important. The program automatically tracks the history of related events and stores the information into archive. Individually colored skins, support for audio files in various formats, schedule, linking files and Web pages to reminders and printing. The user-friendly interface provides comfort at your workplace whether at the office or at home.

Ideal Calendar

http://www.deprice.com/idealcalendar.htm

The IDEAL Calendar allows the user to insert an unlimited amount of occasions. The program displays a dialog and plays a sound on the selected occasions. The program runs in the system tray and contains enough options to satisfy any user. The excellent options and user-interface make this program truly ideal.

Features:

* Print calendar exactly as you see it (WYSIWYG)

* Select any image for your background (JPG/GIF/BMP)

* Share occasions over the network (Private and Public entries)

* Create multiple calendars

* Backup/Restore capabilities

* Various types of recurring events

* Plug-ins to add more features. (PDA Export/Import, HTML Calendar, etc…)

SpeedUpMyPC

http://www.deprice.com/speedupmypc.htm

SpeedUpMyPC makes it easier than ever before to optimize your settings, free up resources, and remove resource hogs. With simple explanations and real-time graphs for all vital system resources, SpeedUpMyPC identifies performance bottlenecks in minutes. With a heavy-duty arsenal of optimization tools, such as RAM recovery, CPU optimization, startup management, and automatic crash recovery, SpeedUpMyPC is THE must-have utility for both beginner and power users.

John loves discovering software "jewels" - computer applications that actually make the life easier. His small but proven collection is publically available at http://www.deprice.com/desktop.htm