...

Often a small business can consolidate the Web services it needs into one or two Linux servers. It can meet its basic office computing needs with mature open source applications such as OpenOffice.org, GIMP, and a Firefox browser. But can a small business run entirely on open source software alone? When Jim Nanney started his Coast Grocery business (www.coastgrocery.com), where residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast can order groceries online for delivery, he set out to do just that. In part, he just wanted to see if he could rely solely on open source software. But he also figured that cost savings of at least $10,000 by not buying commercial software could help make his small business profitable a lot faster.

To allow customers to order groceries online, Jim selected the open source e-commerce software called osCommerce (www.oscommerce.com). The osCommerce software is built with the PHP Web scripting language and uses a MySQL database. Jim runs the software from a Linux system with an Apache Web server. On the office side of the business, Jim relies entirely on Fedora Linux systems. He uses OpenOffice.org Writer for documents, GIMP and Inkscape for logos and other artwork, and GnuCash for accounting....

Technology means fast evolution of parts and this includes introduction of new parts and peripherals that are far better than initially offered parts. Hence, the issue of knowing when to buy and when to wait is something most seasoned computer buyers normally get used to. Observe and you will see that people normally wait a month to a year before they consider buying a new computer part of an entire PC for that matter.

Why is that? For one, the value of a certain computer part depreciates fast. Unlike the traditional depreciation methods of assets, computers depreciate faster. For example, if a car depreciates according to the number of years, computers and parts may as well be seen to depreciate faster in a couple of months. You can see the price discrepancies and how the demand for them increases over time. There is simply a big difference.

PC parts come in all shapes and sizes and while that is true, you can bet that a new PC only retains its overall value for a couple of days. The next thing you know a new part like a video card or memory chip will be available in the market possessing higher

...

Under normal circumstances, it would be silly to give a new product with improved features and a strikingly new design the same product name as the previous version, but we’ve come to learn Microsoft’s marketing department is hardly normal. In short, consider this as the Wireless Laser Desktop 6500 if you may, Microsoft took an already awesome wireless keyboard and wireless laser mouse set and made it even better.

As a side note, it’s somewhat unfortunate that I had go through two sets of the Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 v2 to get to play with this - both of which suffered hardware malfunctions after 12 months of pretty intensive use (FPS gaming) - but I guess this is a good opportunity brag about the three-year warranty and no-questions-asked support reps at Microsoft.

With all the attention that’s placed on product packaging these days, Microsoft Hardware has really shined with their widespread adoption of clamshell packaging. Compared to the previous version where you could just fit a hand on the window, even ogre hands can get in there now. Sure you can read all the

...

One of the hardest things to decide on is when to format your computer. When you format your PC this means permanently erasing all files that are on the computer including system and program files. Of course, before that is done, it is presumed that the files have been properly backed up or burned so that they can be restored from a CD perhaps once the entire format process has been done.

Formatting a hard drive is perhaps the easiest way out when you encounter a lot of problems with your computer. Ordinarily, it is the last resort since having to re-install that usual operating system and the programs you use have to be done one by one. Overall it would seem like a lot of work but there are some cases where you just have to re-install everything from scratch. This results normally when:

1. You Have a Virus
2. You Encounter a System Crash
3. You change Hard Disk Drives
4. You bought a new PC

One thing you can look forward to though is that you have a completely new system to which you have done away with the crash and virus issues. For sure that is quite a load off. The process

...

If you haven't noticed...it has been very quiet here. It is because we have been fighting with a performance issue within the new Remote Control LAN edition beta. For almost three months we have been combing through the code and updating the most performance intensive sections. In some cases we used assembly language to eek out every bit of speed we could.

Many of you have signed up for the beta, and your input has been tremendously helpful. It has been almost a month since we posted a beta for download, and this was because we needed to re-write a major section of the agent to get the performance we were looking for. I will tell you right now...it was worth the trouble.

This one particular Vista machine would show about 15% constant CPU time...and sluggish response on the remote side. After our changes:



Yep. Zero. Now...this is a decent system. Our old laptop from 1999 with Windows XP...still shows about 8%, but still very snappy.

This means we can start moving forward. We have overshot our original release date by many months, so this means...