Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Free, Legal Music Online

Almost everyone has heard about the massive crack down on Internet music piracy that has been occurring over the past few years. Napster was taken down (although it has now returned as a pay service), other file sharing programs now require users to pay for a license and the RIAA and other similar organizations are doing their best to hunt down copyright offenders and put an end to their crime . . .

Elements of Web Hosting

When you first start out trying to get a site on the Internet everything seems so confusing. Obtuse acronyms flow freely through the 'Beginner Friendly' information sites and definitions can be hard to come across. The main reason for this is that the Internet and the process of getting a website online is really very simple, and once people get past the first stumbling steps they rarely rememb. . .

Create Your Own Webcomic

Syndicated comic authors have been complaining about newspaper size restrictions, content censoring and similar issues for a long time. Comic enthusiasts have been increasingly irritated by the treatment their entertainment medium receives as well. Then along came the Internet, providing unlimited and unrestricted distribution possibilities. Thus the webcomic was born.There are millions of webc. . .

Tips For Getting Technical Support Help Online

Sometimes your PC will start acting strange for no apparent reason or a program which you use regularly will all of a sudden stop working as it should. This can be a frustrating experience especially if you have no idea where to go for help. If this happens to you, don't panic! Here are some simple tips which may turn your frown upside down. 1. Don't assume that your problem is unique. The chan. . .

Burning Bridges is Bad, But Firewalls are Good

When you signed up for that ultra-fast DSL or Cable connection there was probably one very important piece of information that your ISP failed to mention. By accessing the Internet via a high-speed connection, you have tremendously increased your chances of being victimized by a computer hacker.Dial-up may not have seemed like it could have held any advantages, but it actually did have one upsi. . .

Eight Quick Tips For Stopping SPAM

If you are buried in SPAM then you're not alone. It's been suggested that as much as 50% to 75% of the e-mail traffic on any given day is SPAM. Reading through SPAM is a waste of your time and it subjects you to potential viruses, trojan horses, and sexual material which can be quite offensive. Here are some tips on how to win the SPAM war: 1. Use a throwaway email address when posting to publi. . .

10 Steps To Secure And Manage Your Passwords

Passwords protect your most sensitive personal, financial and business information. They are the key to accessing membership, financial, and other web sites that you are a member of. All sorts of havoc can occur in your life if some unauthorized person discovers your password. Here are some tips for making that event less likely: 1. Don't use easily guess passwords like a date of birth, spouse,. . .

How To Avoid Getting Hooked By Pfishing

"Pfishing", sometimes spelled "Phishing", is a word that's used to describe a method of identity theft where con men use fake e-mail that looks like it comes from legitimate sources. This e-mail is designed to hoodwink you into giving out personal and financial information. Once the scammers receive your information they use it to either clone your identity or to empty out your bank accounts an. . .

Fight 1337 Speak... Please Help Save Our Language

"OMFG! W00+!!! Dat s0000000 Kewl!!!!1! Dat is teh LOL!!!!"It's happening. The Internet is invading our lives and our minds and corrupting as it progresses. Shorthand is destroying our youths' spelling and grammar. In the worst cases these Internet phrases even are spilling over into every day life. I still shudder with horror remembering the day that someone actually said 'LOL' to me.I'm not so. . .

Working With the Registry

The Registry is the central database for everything about your computer. It stores configuration information about the operating system, hardware, software, and types of files on the computer.The registry database consists of "keys" and "values". A key is a "place" to store a value. A key may store many values, or it may have subkeys, each which store values. The Windows 2000 registry has five . . .

Spyware - The Internet Devil Of Our Times!

Spyware and Adware infest over 90 percent of computers in use today. Internet linked computers has made it easy for spybots, adware, and trojans to infiltrate and compromise online privacy. Installed toolbars can also contribute to browser hijacking and spyware related problems.Spyware, malware, scumware, and trojans gather information about people and online activities. It is important to deny. . .

Modern Scams Online

Scams on the InternetTaking a look at common Frauds and Scams effecting the InternetThere are a variety of modern scams effecting individuals who use the internet for honest purposes. The internet has become one of the most valuable resources to modern civilization. Unfortunately, there are new crimes being committed, new scams to become familiar with, and little resources for a beginner or com. . .

Handling Your Email Addresses

--Company Email Addresses--Web hosting companies should provide company email accounts for each person in your company. Email addresses should appear like this:yourname@domain.comlester@definiteweb.commyname@companyname.com--Web Mails--Most websites work with web mails. Web-based email enable you to access email via a web browser such as Internet Explorer. You log into your email account via th. . .

Is It Easy to Build An E-commerce Web Site?

--Online Commerce--E-Commerce website is all about selling products and services over the Internet. Amateurs may think that it is easy to build your own e-commerce system and our advice to you is to stay away from these amateurs. Building an e-commerce system is a complicated process and it requires web professionals who know the intricacies of building secure systems. Building an e-commerce sy. . .

Look out PDA, here comes TDA!

First it was the Smart-phone that threatened to oust PDA. Now, the PDA is all set to take on the heat from next generation PDA the TDAWhats it all about?Novinit a French company has developed the worlds first TDA or Tactile Digital Assistant. The TDA is based on touch-screen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input, which are harder to lose than a stylus. The TDA is named Jackito. . .

Get Identified Under Your Skin!

There are movies that entertain you, frighten you, and enlighten you. There are movies that trigger your brain of a possible invention that might take shape. This happens every time you watch a Science-fiction movie you wonder, THIS is something that can be explored! There have been movies in the past that have shown the possibilities of planting a gadget inside a human to track his/her daily a. . .

Navision Database access via C/ODBC WebService/ASP.NET Ap...

Navision (former Navision Attain) together with Microsoft Great Plains, Axapta, Solomon, Microsoft CRM and Microsoft RMS are now supported by Microsoft Business Solutions. Navision has various customization options. Today we will describe simple case of using C/ODBC driver. This driver and technology allows you to work with Native or C/SIDE Navision database. Navision is also available on M. . .

Microsoft Great Plains Multicurrency – overview for imple...

Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package for the US market, where multicurrency issues are rare. However even US companies may have branches in foreign countries where they use Great Plains. Microsoft Great Plains is also in use in Spanish speaking Latin America, UK, Australia, Canada and South Africa. When you first think about multicurrency – you proba. . .

Navision Attain Database access via C/ODBC in ASP.NET App...

Navision Software was purchased by Microsoft and now it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions together with Microsoft Great Plains, Axapta, Solomon, Microsoft Retail Management System and Microsoft CRM. Navision has extremely strong position on mid-size European and US markets, plus it has excellent manufacturing solution. Our goal is to help IT departments to support and tune Navision w. . .

Data Recovery 1-on-1

For this weeks report we are talking with Greg Duffield of ACS Data Recovery http://www.acsdata.comQ: Greg, since the late '90's there has been tremendous growth within the data recovery industry, why is that and what does it mean to the consumer?A: Well, in the last 10 years the amount of data stored digitally has increased tremendously. With this trend towards simplification of file storage,. . .

Stakeholder Analysis and Stakeholder Management

What is a Stakeholder?Try “define: Stakeholder” in Google and you will be surprised by the huge differences in the way this simple word is defined. It perhaps proves - in a way - just how confused people get about Stakeholder Management and how inconsistent the different approaches to it can be!My simple definition is “anyone affected by a decision and interested in its outcome”. This can inclu. . .

How to Backup Your Computer Files

As I write this, it’s early December, and try as I might, I can’t remember what my new year’s resolution was last time around. One thing I can say with near hundred percent certainty is that whatever it was, I failed to keep it. Maybe you’re the same. Maybe you resolved to quit smoking, lose weight, or read more. We all make promises with ourselves, then fail to keep those promises. Worst of al. . .

How To Stop Spyware From Infecting Your System

Spyware is becoming more and more of a problem. When I visit a cusomters site and inspect the computers I always find some kind of spyware on the system. I know that many people have been unaware of spyware, but hopefully now that the word is spreading that people will be more aware of the problem and setup a good defense. I get a get calls or questions to the effect of "Why is my computer r. . .

Microsoft Great Plains Manufacturing – before you jump th...

In this small article we would like to try to save your company software and services money. As the result of recent economic recession, many companies here in the USA have now outsourced or in process of outsourcing manufacturing routines abroad and are still using manufacturing applications for data entry. Some of our clients had strange situation when they had more people for manufacturing. . .

Choosing A Domain Name

--About Domain Names--Choosing a domain name for your web site is a major step for any individual or organization. You need domain names that are sticky, short, meaningful, easy to remember and at the roll of your tongue!It is very easy to choose a domain name but difficult to find a good name, simply because of the fact that most of the good domain names are taken up by organisations. These do. . .

Choosing Your Web Hosting Package

General rule of thumb is not to sign up for yearly web hosting plans. Instead, get monthly plan where you can unsubscribe from on the second month when you are not happy with the service. That is, if you ended up with an unreliable web hosting company in the first place.Here is a simple guide that can be easily applied to typical web sites:--Web Space--Expect a small website to take up 10 and 1. . .

Microsoft CRM Custom Development

Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions to traditional CRM vendors, such as Siebel, Onyx. Microsoft CRM customization techniques are very diversified and based on the whole spectrum of recent Microsoft technologies. The main terms you should know are: Microsoft CRM SDK 1.2 and Visual Studio.Net 2003. And of course you should be familiar with all the legacy internet tech. . .

The Vanishing Mail

Am I Just Being Paranoid Or Are The Robots Out To Get Me?It all started in the early part of the twenty-first century. In the early days of email we were thrilled with its speed and reliability, far superior to "snail mail" but there's always somebody who has to go and spoil things for everyone else. In the case of email it was the purveyors of the namesake of a certain pork-based substance. . . .

Media Player Shootout

Whether you call them media players, jukeboxes, mp3 apps, music managers, or whatever - we all need a proggy to listen to our digital music with, so we figured it was time for the Online Music Blog media shootout. For the sake of this article I am only going to discuss players you can get for free and I am not going to go into p2p apps. So with that, lets dive right in. For my money there a. . .

AOL Browser BETA - A Major Contender?

To me, AOL Browser .68 Beta is what a browser should be. Relatively lightweight, easy to install, and most of all, it works how I want it to. I've been using for one day, and I'm already converted.Based on Internet Explorer 6 technology, the new AOL Browser has taken what is good with browsers such as Firefox and Opera, and incorporated it all into one browser. With features such as tabbed brow. . .

Preventing Spyware by Locking Down Your Browser

Leaving your browser (Intenet Exployer) set to the default settings will allow websites to put spyware and browser hi-jacks on your computer via cookies. When your computer becomes filled with popups and slows to a halt, it is usually spyware at the backend causing your problem. One way to eliminate this is to lock down your browser. Since most people use Internet exployer we are going to tell . . .

The Calling Card Alternative

How many times have you complained about high long distance costs and phone companies overcharging you? Did you try to do anything about it? Did you search for alternate solutions? Calling cards might be the answer. Their low rates to any destination make them the perfect buy for domestic and international callsFor a few years now, the calling cards business is booming. Everywhere you go, every. . .

Lotus Domino Implementation and Development: Infrastructu...

Domino server is a buffer between the operation system and the application. On the other hand Domino server – consists of the services which support development processing and executing of dynamic, secure applications for Internet, Intranet, or Extranet. Domino server role is to provide functionality both: within and between Domino-applications. Domino services interpret codes and elements of a. . .

Keywords Are For Humans Not Search Engines

It seems keywords are making the top of SEO list time and time again. The problem is that some optimizers do not understand the rightful purpose of keywords. Keywords should not be solely embedded for the purpose of reaching the top of search engines. Search Engine Optimization should not be the primary focus of any website. The primary and number 1 focus should always be the visitors. If you c. . .

Serving Up The Spam

Spam.....Notice how you cringe up just a tad when you read that word? I sure do. For our purposes here this week, we’re not talking about the well known food product known as Spam. I know that kind of Spam gets made fun of sometimes, but I actually like eating it. Some thinly cut slices slapped between two pieces of bread with some mayo worked into it is not a bad sandwich. Not a bad sandwich a. . .

Cell Phone - Why Should I Upgrade

We hear from friends or just general chat by people wanting to upgrade their cell phones. There are a number of very good reasons to upgrade but unfortunately the main reason people upgrade and without thinking is because the cell phone manufacturers are blitzing us with advertising on a daily basis with new features. I bet you can pinpoint a few friends who have new cell phones and have no ide. . .

Consultant Selection for Microsoft Great Plains

Microsoft Great Plains is a software package designed to integrate different processes of a business entity. Its numerous capabilities made it more popular than ever before for small to mid-sized companies. Some of the areas that Great Plains cover include Customer Relationship Management, Inventory Management and Retail Management. Almost all of your critical business data will reside in this . . .

Cell Phone - Helping You Choose

When the first cell phone arrived onto the market it was very basic but in those days it was classed as the best invention since electricity. Would we dispute that now? The cell phone manufacturers today are in constant battle to win over your dollars with the latest cellular phones science has to offer. You are as the consumer need to aware of what is best for you. Many people receive their fi. . .

Cell Phone Reviews – Why Do Them?

Well let’s be honest some people just don’t bother doing cell phone reviews, and why should they? Well let’s keep things simple, would you just walk into a car showroom and drive away within 5 minutes, not many would unless you have done your homework first. Cell phones can be complex, you need to know what you what before you jump and buy, and then there are the cell phone carriers, who to cho. . .

Web Hosting Help – What’s Bandwidth

Bandwidth can make all the difference when choosing where to host your websiteA common mistake made by so many people when looking to choose a web host company is not asking about bandwidth. After spending so long designing or with a developer designing your web site you do not want to see a good web site ruined and only viewed by a handful of people at a time. A web site is generally your shop. . .

Graphic Designer: Four Color Postcard Making

Being a graphic designer is not an easy job. You cannot just enter the scene and do the job instantly. It needs a lot of positive characteristics to fit for the said endeavor. But you may ask, what is a graphic designer? What do graphic designers actually do? I'm pretty sure that most people can name at least a few things, but the graphic design spectrum is perhaps broader than you think. “Grap. . .

Can RAID Systems Fail?

Technology, how we love it until something goes wrong and we end up yelling at our computer screens. If you’ve ever lost data, you know how much time, money, and headaches it can cost you to retrieve it, especially if you are a company. Data recovery doesn’t have to be worrisome. The acronym RAID, first used in 1988, stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks. RAID is an a. . .

RSS Feeds Have Revolutionized the Internet

RSS feeds have revolutionized the Internet for one very good reason: they have provided and end to Spam. With RSS feeds, you can say good-bye to mass emails and distributions that do not meet your news needs and clog up your mailbox and hard drive. RSS technology provides a way to sort through the vast amount of information available via the Internet and to select only that information that w. . .

5 Basic Rules on Typography

Whenever you get projects for designing graphics for different media materials, there are certain rules you need to know before venturing to the complexities and elaborate world of graphic design.One of the elements considered in graphic design is typography. This is how you utilize and create your text to come out with a result that complements your images and design of the whole media materia. . .

Starting Your Desktop Publishing Project At The End

The only place where you can find the beginning to start at the end is during a typical desktop publishing project. As one designer would relate, for all practical purposes, the process of culling information starts at the end in the printing process.These are technical aspects of design for desktop publishing. Let's remember and review them: Step 1 Gather information from the printer.This par. . .

Print and Modern Thought

The scientific revolution that would later challenge the entrenched "truths" espoused by the Church was also largely a consequence of print technology. The scientific principle of repeatability--the impartial verification of experimental results-- grew out of the rapid and broad dissemination of scientific insights and discoveries that print allowed. The production of scientific knowledge accel. . .

Don’t Scratch the Top of a CD!

That’s right! Scratching the top of a CD (the screen printed side) can be damaging to the integrity of the CD. Most people try to avoid scratches and blemishes from occurring on the bottom side of the CD. But in reality, the top is the more vulnerable side. Here’s how it works: When a CD is manufactured plastic is formed through a injection molding process that creates tiny pits and lands wh. . .

Anti-Aliasing for Great-Looking Text Graphics

Macromedia has a wonderful software application that helps users create great-looking text graphics by using anti-aliasing capabilities. In Fireworks MX 2004, artists and designers can create readable and attractive text graphics by substituting shades of the font color around the lines and curves, which otherwise can be broken and craggy in appearance. Fireworks Anti-Aliasing CapabilitiesAnti-. . .

Spyware, What Is It?

Spyware, what it is and what it does. Basically, spyware is a program put on your computer usually after you have downloaded some kind of program or went to a certain site. Once this program is on your computer, depending on what kind was put on, has the potential to monitor what you’re doing without you knowing it.Besides having the ability to track your Internet surfing, it can also change th. . .

Microsoft Great Plains version 8.5: upgrade, customizatio...

Microsoft Great Plains is one of the Microsoft Business Solutions family ERP products: Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon, Small Business Manager. MBS also has Microsoft CRM - Client Relation Management software and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS)Microsoft Great Plains 8.5 is scheduled to be released in the second quarter of 2005. It is usual practice when you here ann. . .