Get The Most Out Of Your Digital Camera Today!

Get The Most Out Of Your Digital Camera Today!

by: Kevin Rockwell

Point and click. The new life of digital cameras gives us all the opportunity to capture images as we go. Whether you simply hit the shutter button to take pictures of your friends and family or if you want to have your camera with you at all times in order to capture the beauty of life wherever you find it, getting the most out of your digital camera can be easy.

Letกs imagine ourselves with the perfect set up of digital camera and a few accessories to make things just right. My personal and professional recommendation is that we start with memory. Get more today. If you only have one memory card for your camera it is time to add to the collection. If you have more than one then good job! The more memory you have for your digital camera the less likely it will be that you get stuck wanting to take more pictures and have no more room on the storage. Memory is relatively cheap, takes up no space in your kit and gives you total control over creativity.

Your camera comes with a variety of quality settings to work with when taking images. Don’t use TIFF, leave it on one of the medium quality level settings and your camera will take fine images for you and not eat up all your memory. If you use the highest setting you will get very few images onto your card. They will for the most part be of very high quality but you would only want to shoot at that level of quality if you are intending to make high quality large format prints of your images.

Now if that child of yours is just so incredibly cute and your wall is aching for a portrait of his or her shining face then by all means do it on the highest quality. The key will be to use good software to process the image and then a printer that can make a large format, high quality print of your image. They exist and for not unreasonable prices I might add.

I was stunned at a recent art show in my neighborhood to be looking at a photographerกs exhibit of large size prints (18×24 and up in size) to find out that he shoots exclusively in digital now. He was a former film photographer who switched over in recent years and now makes stunning prints from his digital images. His landscape images were simply amazing and to find out that he shot them on a good digital camera made me very curious about the process, but that is fodder for another article.

Juice is the answer to your next question. Always have more juice. I spent 20 years in the TV news business and my mantra was always have extra batteries ready to go and an extra tape under the back seat in case of emergency. For TV cameras the batteries were always big and heavy rechargeable NiCads. Lithium batteries are the rage nowadays as they are lighter in weight, have no memory problems, and run longer. Digital still cameras can take advantage of Lithium batteries but the cost is often slightly prohibitive for most of us. Some camera systems use proprietary battery systems. I would recommend not buying into that sort of system. Try to buy a camera that uses universal types of batteries such as AAกs. I use a camera that takes AAกs and I have three sets of rechargeable batteries so I can rotate through them and never be caught short. Total cost for three sets of batteries is about $30, and they will last you several years if you treat them right. If you just buy regular AA batteries and shoot a lot of images your battery cost might triple that over a like period of time.

Edison did it and now we consider him a genius. Experimentation is the name of the game. Digital images cost you nothing but time and a little battery life. Play around and take lots of shots of things, people, events, you name it. Look at magazines, newspapers and notice what images look cool to you. Try to take shots like that yourself so you can see how it is done. This will get you thinking about how to make your everyday shots better. Look for new and different ways to frame things, take both a vertical and a horizontal shot of the same thing and see how it changes perspective. Get closer to your subject, or get farther away to see which looks better. Find something unique about your subject and look for a way to exploit that for a better image. Here is and example, say for instance you have a great looking car you want a picture of, well don’t stand across the street from it and zoom in on the car, get right up close with the sun behind you so the car is sparkling shiny and fills the whole frame of the image. Find itกs best feature and center that in the shot say the awesome lines of front of the car or snazzy wheels.

Print something from your camera every week to remind you of the beauty of everyday things. Take shots all the time, pick one and print it out and then put it in front of you for a day or a week. Live life as though you want beauty around you all the time. If you are madly in love then surround yourself with pictures of that love. If you live in a beautiful place then take pictures of it all the time to make sure you never forget how special it is to be there in your life. Don’t let those images hide away and not be seen. Wallpaper on your computer can be another place to put your weekly image, change it regularly with images from your family, work, life, hobby and you will get more smiles and more joy out of your camera than you know what to do with. My current wallpaper takes me back to a wonderful day on a mountain lake this past summer paddling kayaks in the afternoon breeze. What about yours?

About The Author

Kevin Rockwell worked as a network TV cameraman for 20 years shooting news. Now a devoted fan of digital photography and video he works to gather information and news for digital camera users. Free reports >http://greatdigitalcameras.com/gdcj.html

This article was posted on September 14

by Kevin Rockwell

Virtual Memory What is it?

Virtual Memory What is it?

by: Michael Arcand

I recently got an email asking about virtual memory. The person who sent me the question was getting an error on random occasions from their Windows operating system stating กYour computer is low on virtual memoryก. They wanted to know what is virtual memory, and if this error does occur, what can I do to fix it? Here is the answer that I sent out:

กVirtual memory is when your computer uses the hard drive as a memory relay once your real memory has been used up. This usually starts happening when someone has installed new programs or is using multiple large programs at one time. Have you installed something new recently, or changed how many programs you are using at one time? Does it seem to occur when you are using a specific program, or perhaps after running a specific program for a longer than usual period of time?

To check your virtual memory settings, follow these steps:

1. Click on Start

2. Select Control Panel

3. Click on System

NOTE: When you first click on System, it will show you the กGeneralก information tab. This tab will indicate how much RAM (physical memory) your system has installed (usually towards the bottom, should be something like ก128 MB of RAMก. Make a note of this number.

4. Click on the Advanced tab

5. Click on the Settings button under the top box, labeled Performance

6. Click on the Advanced tab, and this will show your current setting for virtual memory.

NOTE: Windows usually manages this number automatically, and usually doesn’t require any adjustment. Optimally, this number should be somewhere between 2X and 3X the number noted earlier for the amount of system RAM. You can change the setting by clicking on the Change button located at the bottom of this section. You can then set the minimum to 2X (put in the actual number) and the maximum to 3X of the physical RAM.

If you answered กyesก to any of the questions I posed at the beginning, you may need to reevaluate the system requirements of any programs involved and consider an actual physical RAM upgrade, if your motherboard will support additional RAM. That can have a big impact on whatกs happening.

About The Author

Michael Arcand is a CompTIA A+ Certified computer technician and entrepreneur specializing in computer tips and tricks for home users. His latest venture is online at www.techsupporthelpdesk.com, providing costeffective tech support for home and small business users.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 11

by Michael Arcand

Plug and Play Resource Allocation

Plug and Play Resource Allocation

by: Stephen Bucaro

Your computer has many devices connected to it. Your key board is a device. Your mouse is a device. Your modem is a device. Even a port, like a USB port, is a device. You can add a device to your computer by installing it into an expansion connector on the the motherboard of the computer. In order to operate, resources need to be allocated to the device.

One of the most important resources a device needs is an Interrupt Request (IRQ) line. An IRQ signals the processor that the device needs attention. For example, each time you press a key on your keyboard, an IRQ is sent to let the processor know that the keyboard needs attention. A device also needs to be allocated a set of memory addresses where commands can be sent to it and it can send responses.

Many devices need to be allocated an area of memory to store data and/or a Direct Memory Access (DMA) channel. A DMA channel allows a device to create a data stream directly between it and the computers memory without passing through the processor.

One of the most important structures in a computer is the system bus located on the motherbord. The processor, chipset, memory, and expansion slot devices communicate over the bus. Early PCs used a bus called Industry Standard Architecture (ISA). When you installed an expansion card into the ISA bus, you had to set IRQs and other resources with jumpers and/or DIP switches on the card. ISA devices cannot share resources, each ISA device must have its own IRQ.

You can have more than one ISA device configured for the same IRQ, as long as only one of the device drivers is loaded at any one time; otherwise, youกll get an IRQ conflict.

Since a computer has only a limited amount of resources, the number of devices that a computer could support is limited. One of the most limited resources is IRQ lines. A PC has only 16 IRQs. Common devices such as the keyboard, mouse, floppy drive, and hard drive use a standard set of resources.

Standard IRQ aassignments

IRQ DEVICE

0 System Timer

1 Keyboard

2 IRQ Controller 2

3 COM2

4 COM1

5 LPT2

6 Floppy Drive

7 LPT1

8 RealTime Clock

9 ACPI

10 unallocated

11 IRQ Holder

12 Mouse

13 Math Coprocessor

14 Primary IDE

15 Secondary IDE

In 1993, Microsoft and Intel developed Plug and Play (PnP) to solve this problem. One of the main structures supporting PnP is the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. Along with a PCI bus, the computers BIOS, operating system, and hardware devices must be PnP compliant. One of the key features of PnP is that when installing a PCI card, you do not need to use jumpers of DIP switches to set the IRQ or I/O address for the card, the PCI bus controller does this for you.

The Windows 2000/XP operating system component responsible for PnP is the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). ACPI allows devices to be controlled by the operating system to perform power management. ACPI may put a device in a power saving state such as Standby, Suspend or Off. ACPI also allows dynamic handling of events like the addition or removal of a USB device.

During the boot process, the BIOS builds a table to record which IRQs have been used by legacy ISA devices and then assigns the unused ones to the PCI bus controller. The PCI bus controller, which is part of the motherboard chip set, manages the PCI bus and the expansion slots.

Each PCI device communicates its resource requirements to ACPI. Based on the resource requests that each device makes, ACPI assigns resources such as IRQs, I/O addresses, and memory locations, and DMA channels. ACPI can reconfigure resource assignments when needed, for example, when a device is added to the system.

The PCI bus overcomes the limitation in available IRQกs with a feature called กPCI steeringก. PCI steering makes it possible for several devices to use the same IRQ. PCI steering allocates an IRQ called the กIRQ Holderก for PCI steering. The PCI controller steers that IRQ to its own interrupt systems on the PCI bus. These interrupts are called A, B, C, D, and so on to avoid confusion with the numbered system IRQs. One interrupt is assigned to each PCI expansion slot.

To see which IRQ has been assigned to the IRQ Holder for PCI steering, open the Control Panel กSystemก utility. In the กSystem Propertiesก dialog box, select the กHardwareก tab and click on the กDevice Manager…ก button. In Device Managerกs กViewก menu select ‘resources by typeก, then open the กInterrupt request IRQก branch.

pcirq.bmp

Note that Windows 2000 uses IRQ 9 for PCI Steering, so never set a device to IRQ 9.

PnP resource allocation removes the need to use jumpers of DIP switches to set the IRQ and other resources for devices. But PnP involves a complex interaction between the computers BIOS, chipset, PCI bus, operating system, and PnP devices.

Copyright(C)2004 Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

Stephen Bucaro

To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp.

This article was posted on December 21, 2004

by Stephen Bucaro

Digital Camera Memory An Introduction

Digital Camera Memory An Introduction

by: Jakob Jelling

The digital camera is essentially a computerbased device, whose core is controlled by the computer. And as a result the photographs are stored in a location called memory. Now, this concept is or paramount importance in discussing digital camera. Strictly speaking, digital camera memory is where digital pictures are stored inside the camera. The digital camera memory is an essential and often a very neglected and overlooked section of equipments for digital photography and camera. There are many types of memory available for digital cameras, and it is a good practice to mull over what type of memory a camera uses before buying a digital camera. This discussing is aimed in revealing some of this relevant information!

Knowledge of the digital camera memory is very essential for using such a camera and capturing photographs. The most common form of such memory is a memory card. These are reusable, have a limited capacity and can always be installed when required in excess. A person needs to be well informed about enough memory available for taking photographs. And accordingly make arrangements. Generally, digital cameras come available with low capacity memory cards, and it is a wise purchase to acquire higher capacity memory cards in order to budget for an additional card for later use.

With the increment of a camera mega pixel counts, it becomes essential to use higher capacity memory cards. Some of the small sized cards are for example the 64 megabyte cards and larger ones are like 1gigabyte cards or combinations of megabyte cards.

Digital camera memory is available in many shapes and facade depending on the type of digital camera that is being used and even and the number of pictures that are required to be stored in the digital camera memory. These different types of memory are solely dependant upon the requirements of the digital camera, like for example a camera using compact flash type 1, requires the use of compact flash type 1 digital camera memory. Other examples of types of digital camera memory are Compact Flash Digital Camera Memory. It is suitable for rugged and rough handling and is also resilient for incessant usage. This is also small in size to assist better handling and flexibility. What more, it is cheap and anyone can afford it!

Generally, the sizes of a digital camera memory are as follows, 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1 GIG. Again, the digital camera memory depends upon the file format used to store photographs upon and the compression used by the manufacturer when storing digital images into memory.

Coming to the concluding portion, it is recommended to get hold of one 256 megabyte or two 128 megabyte cards for a 35 mega pixel compact digital camera. For higher resolution photographs, 512 megabyte and 1 gigabyte cards are also available. These are some of the guidelines for revealing the true facts about the different digital camera memories and their secrets. Summing up in a few words, with such a powerful tool as the digital camera, a proper selection of memory can help a person achieve the glorious tasks of freezing a precious moment from life for eternity!

By Jakob Jelling

http://www.snapjunky.com

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

This article was posted on October 20, 2004

by Jakob Jelling

Computer Performance Tips

Computer Performance Tips

by: David Mahler

Introduction

In this article I will clearly spell out the most effective steps you can take in order to increase the performance of your computer and enhance your computing experience.

More Memory (RAM)

If your computer has less then 256 MB of memory you may want to consider adding more. If you don’t know how much memory you have: right click my computer, go to properties and look towards the bottom of the dialog box.

Memory is where the computer stores open files or programs in order to give the processor quick access. To put it simply more memory means more speed and stability. You can buy memory online or visit your local Best Buy where they can install it for you if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself.

Defrag your computer

Imagine a filing cabinet that is out of order, you would have to look harder for your files just as a computer would when it is fragmented. Over time your computer will become fragmented. When your computer is fragmented it has to work harder to do just about anything a computer can do. Defragging your computer is essential for computer performance and stability.

Diskeeper is by far the most effective and efficient defrag program I have ever used. With Diskeeper you can defrag your computer without having to close other programs. You also have a ขset it and forget itข feature that enables you to set your computer to defrag any time without having to think about defragging ever again. Most notably this defrag program gives your computer a clear performance boost.

Remove adware & spyware

If you frequently receive popups while not surfing the Web you may have excessive amounts of adware or spyware on your computer. By removing the adware and spyware you will not only receive a performance boost but you will enhance your computing experience by removing bothersome ads.

AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy are both free programs that will scan your computer for adware and spyware and allow you to remove it with ease.

Surf the Web faster

Firefox (getfirefox.com) is a new browser that is faster and more secure then Internet Explorer. With Firefox you can download and install extensions which ขplug inข and give the browser more functions. For example I currently have extensions that tell me the weather and block online advertisements. Download and install this program today and replace your current browser which most likely is Internet Explorer.

Copyright 2005 Capehostpro.com

About The Author

David Mahler started his business (http://www.capehostpro.com) designing websites in 2002 and has since extended his business to include such services as Intranet design, database design and website copywriting.

This article was posted on April 16

by David Mahler

Digital Camera Disc Formats

Digital Camera Disc Formats

by: Jakob Jelling

As it is a fact that digital cameras are comprised of miniature computers that have storage discs for retrieving the images as digital information, so a certain amount of knowledge is necessary regarding the digital camera disc formats. A proper understanding of the disc formats of the digital camera memory can help the photographer or user make efficient use of the device in a correct and useful fashion. This discussion is aimed at revealing these little details!

At present in among the common users of digital cameras there are two main types of storage medium available nowadays. Some cameras use 1.44MB floppy disks, which are available almost everywhere in the present market trends, and some digital cameras use assorted forms of flash memory having a range of capacities covering from several megabytes to a gigabyte. The difference lies between these two types of disc formats in their capacity. Floppy disks have a fixed memory capacity that cannot be altered, and the flash memory devices have capacities that keep increasing everyday. This is a kind of boon because of the fact that picturesizes are also increasing constantly with the invention of higher resolution cameras that become available in the markets with daily technical advancements.

The major and the most popular file format available for digital cameras are TIFF and JPEG formats respectively. Looking in a little detail into these two formats, the TIFF format is an uncompressed format without any alteration of image sizes and JPEG is a compressed format that does alter the image size for economic use of memory for storage. Certainly, from common sense, majority of the digital cameras use the JPEG file format for storing images and photographs, and they even offer quality settings such as medium or high and accordingly the size is altered thus providing both memory management as well as quality management of the pictures.

Again looking at the disc formats from a different angle, it is apparent that a 1.44MB disk cannot clutch many photographs or images. Sometimes, in fact, they can’t even fit one picture on one disk, due to high quality and subsequent seize and memory requirements. However, the floppy disks have their own advantages. In todayกs world of Internet publishing and email a picture size larger than 640×480 is hardly required, and more or less always they are saved in JPEG formats. During such times it is possible to accommodate about 15 pictures on every disk. Thus making situations more economic and flexible for the users. However for storing bigger and greater quality pictures higher capacity media are required such as a 128MB flash memory card that can store more than 1,500 small compressed images or 20 of the uncompressed 1600×1200 images.

Thus so far a handsome amount of information regarding the disc formats has come into light from the above discussion. It is a humble effort to bring out the rudimentary knowledge for such a wide field of study as digital camera disc formats, which includes photography as well as computers all in one. What a fantastic combination!

By Jakob Jelling

http://www.snapjunky.com

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

This article was posted on October 20, 2004

by Jakob Jelling

Pay Only for the Digital Camera Features You Need

Pay Only for the Digital Camera Features You Need

by: Gareth Lenzy

Focus on Features When Buying a Digital Camera

Being well informed about the main digital camera features before shopping means you will know which are worth the extra cost. Reading reviews and talking cameras with friends will be helpful, but here are the key points to consider.

The first thing you will notice when looking at digital cameras is the term megapixel is used often. Pixels are the colored dots that make up a digital image. The term megapixel means one million pixels. Most models are between two and five megapixels.

The more megapixels the sharper the image, generally, but the size of enlargement is the important issue. You will be okay with three megapixels for enlargements up to an 8×10, but for larger photos youกll want more. If you plan to go big, the extra expense for a five megapixel is worth it. But save your money if you will use the photos for emailing friends or to make small enlargements.

The lens, as with any camera, is a prime consideration. Cheaper digital models normally feature fixed lenses, which limits your scope considerably. Zoom lenses, with their greater flexibility to frame and bring images close, are worth the extra expense unless your use will be very basic. A 3x zoom will give you reasonable range for typical shots, but wildlife shots would benefit from a 10x. Be sure that you’re getting an optical rather than a digital zoom, which merely enlarges the pixels and gives poorer image quality.

For even greater flexibility, you would need the interchangeable lenses that come with professional cameras. While you would have the potential for magnificent photos, the jump in price is huge.

Consider how you will use your camera. Some models have the capability to take both video and still pictures. A combination model is more expensive, but you won’t have to purchase a separate video camera.

Size is a key factor. Will you want to carry around the camera if it is large? Or will you make better use of a compact model that fits easily into a pocket? While image quality is typically better in the larger models, the smaller cameras do very well and likely get more use.

Virtually all digital models use a memory card or stick for storing images, but usually you will need more memory than is provided with the camera so budget for buying extra. The amount of memory you need depends on how many pictures you will take. In general, look for memory that will hold between fifty and one hundred pictures. When making a photography purchase, make sure you can get replacement memory easily and inexpensively for your model.

Heavy use of batteries is typical of digital cameras, especially when the LED screen is turned on. Some major manufacturers use a proprietary battery thatกs expensive to replace. Most useful is a battery thatกs widely available and easy to recharge.

You will be given software with your purchase to download images onto your home computer. This software allows you to store pictures on your computer, email them to family or edit pictures for a variety of projects.

To correct serious problems with images, or for more professional projects, additional software will likely be required. Be sure your computer supports the software that comes with your camera.

About The Author

Gareth Lenzy contributes to the Camera site YO Camera, which offers a free newsletter at http://www.yocamera.com.

This article was posted on September 10

by Gareth Lenzy

Get The Most Out Of Your Digital Camera Today!

Get The Most Out Of Your Digital Camera Today!

by: Kevin Rockwell

Point and click. The new life of digital cameras gives us all the opportunity to capture images as we go. Whether you simply hit the shutter button to take pictures of your friends and family or if you want to have your camera with you at all times in order to capture the beauty of life wherever you find it, getting the most out of your digital camera can be easy.

Let’s imagine ourselves with the perfect set up of digital camera and a few accessories to make things just right. My personal and professional recommendation is that we start with memory. Get more today. If you only have one memory card for your camera it is time to add to the collection. If you have more than one then good job! The more memory you have for your digital camera the less likely it will be that you get stuck wanting to take more pictures and have no more room on the storage. Memory is relatively cheap, takes up no space in your kit and gives you total control over creativity.

Your camera comes with a variety of quality settings to work with when taking images. Don’t use TIFF, leave it on one of the medium quality level settings and your camera will take fine images for you and not eat up all your memory. If you use the highest setting you will get very few images onto your card. They will for the most part be of very high quality but you would only want to shoot at that level of quality if you are intending to make high quality large format prints of your images.

Now if that child of yours is just so incredibly cute and your wall is aching for a portrait of his or her shining face then by all means do it on the highest quality. The key will be to use good software to process the image and then a printer that can make a large format, high quality print of your image. They exist and for not unreasonable prices I might add.

I was stunned at a recent art show in my neighborhood to be looking at a photographer’s exhibit of large size prints (18×24 and up in size) to find out that he shoots exclusively in digital now. He was a former film photographer who switched over in recent years and now makes stunning prints from his digital images. His landscape images were simply amazing and to find out that he shot them on a good digital camera made me very curious about the process, but that is fodder for another article.

Juice is the answer to your next question. Always have more juice. I spent 20 years in the TV news business and my mantra was always have extra batteries ready to go and an extra tape under the back seat in case of emergency. For TV cameras the batteries were always big and heavy rechargeable NiCads. Lithium batteries are the rage nowadays as they are lighter in weight, have no memory problems, and run longer. Digital still cameras can take advantage of Lithium batteries but the cost is often slightly prohibitive for most of us. Some camera systems use proprietary battery systems. I would recommend not buying into that sort of system. Try to buy a camera that uses universal types of batteries such as AA’s. I use a camera that takes AA’s and I have three sets of rechargeable batteries so I can rotate through them and never be caught short. Total cost for three sets of batteries is about $30, and they will last you several years if you treat them right. If you just buy regular AA batteries and shoot a lot of images your battery cost might triple that over a like period of time.

Edison did it and now we consider him a genius. Experimentation is the name of the game. Digital images cost you nothing but time and a little battery life. Play around and take lots of shots of things, people, events, you name it. Look at magazines, newspapers and notice what images look cool to you. Try to take shots like that yourself so you can see how it is done. This will get you thinking about how to make your everyday shots better. Look for new and different ways to frame things, take both a vertical and a horizontal shot of the same thing and see how it changes perspective. Get closer to your subject, or get farther away to see which looks better. Find something unique about your subject and look for a way to exploit that for a better image. Here is and example, say for instance you have a great looking car you want a picture of, well don’t stand across the street from it and zoom in on the car, get right up close with the sun behind you so the car is sparkling shiny and fills the whole frame of the image. Find it’s best feature and center that in the shot say the awesome lines of front of the car or snazzy wheels.

Print something from your camera every week to remind you of the beauty of everyday things. Take shots all the time, pick one and print it out and then put it in front of you for a day or a week. Live life as though you want beauty around you all the time. If you are madly in love then surround yourself with pictures of that love. If you live in a beautiful place then take pictures of it all the time to make sure you never forget how special it is to be there in your life. Don’t let those images hide away and not be seen. Wallpaper on your computer can be another place to put your weekly image, change it regularly with images from your family, work, life, hobby and you will get more smiles and more joy out of your camera than you know what to do with. My current wallpaper takes me back to a wonderful day on a mountain lake this past summer paddling kayaks in the afternoon breeze. What about yours?

About The Author

Kevin Rockwell is a life long photographer and digital camera convert. He has spent his whole adult life taking pictures and now spends his time shooting sports images, training soccer players, and writing about digital cameras. The Flash Times is filled with tips, news, and information about digital cameras. Visit www.greatdigitalcameras.com/signup.html to sign up today for this monthly newsletter.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 02, 2004

by Kevin Rockwell

Bios Term

Bios Term

by: John Gibb

BIOS Basic Input Output System
The central processing unit of a computer needs to communicate with the many hardware devices installed in your computer.
The BIOS of a computer contains a piece of software that enables the CPU to communicate with the many devices a computer has installed. The BIOS is normally installed in a ROM and is normally stored on a chip located on the motherboard of a computer.
When you turn on your computer, the bios is the firs thing to load up, you can enter this program by pressing a certain key on your computer keyboard. The BIOS uses the CMOS memory to store all set configuration for your computer. You can change and alter settings in the BIOS and then save it to the CMOS memory.
There is now the flash bios, which enables you to update the bios information with updates etc. Many manufactures provide bios updates on their websites. This can help your computer stay updated and keep performance running smoothly.
Http://www.computerandprinterreviews.com helps new users come to their own decesions.

About The Author

John Gibb is the webmaster of several guide and review websites. http://www.computerandprinterreviews.com is his latest addition.

This article was posted on July 29, 2004

by John Gibb

The Cheapest Way To Speed Up Your PC

The Cheapest Way To Speed Up Your PC

by: Matt Feichtenbiner

Is your computer running slowly but don’t have much cash? Windows XP telling you that you have low memory? Then don’t panic, adding memory to your current computer is one of the cheapest, easiest upgrades that you can do yourself! Don’t start ripping apart your PC just yet though.

Thereกs a few things you can do to make sure your getting the most out of your current hardware. For Windows XP go to control panel, system, advancded, performance settings, advancded, and then change under virtual memory. In this screen click the radio button that says Custom Size and put in the biggest number under Maximum Size that Windows will alow. Itกs based on the free space on your hard drive, mine is set at 4,096MB with an 80GB hard drive. Another thing you can do is shut off all those little programs sucking up your resources. Go to start menu and click run. Type in msconfig then click the startup tab. This is a list of all the programs that start when you turn on your PC. A few may have icons in your task bar by the clock. If you reconize any you don’t need just unselect them click apply and ok. Then youกll be prompted to restart your PC.

If your are running XP you can turn off some of those visual themes to save some memory. Simply right click any where on your desktop and select properties. Then under appearance you can change your theme to the classic sytle which will speed things up a bit if you can still stand the look of your new กoldก desktop. Speaking of extra progrmas taking your resources you will want to have a good spyware program (if you don’t already) since your computer is probably infected because your using the internet to read this! To see more on this go to: yourfreepcguide.com/security.html

Finally, the reason I wrote this article, getting the memory installed. Any new computer these days should have at least 256MB of memory. If your running an older system chances are your running on 128MB or possibly much less. Iกve still seen a few using as little as 32MB! There are many different speeds of memory to choose from but the basics are PC2100, PC2700, and P3200. PC3200 being the fastest listed here, is the best to get. To find a good price on some memory go to yourfreepcguide.com/upgrades/categories.html Be sure that the memory you purchase is compaitable with your current motherboard, check with the manufacturer to find out what you need. For instance if your motherboard only supports PC2100 (266MHz bus speed) then anything over is a wasted!

Installing your new memory is pretty straight forward. Remove your PCกs case. Locate an empty slot, or remove the older memory if there are none. To install and remove memory there are two small กhandlesก on each end that secure it into the slot, these must be lifted and then synched back down onto the new memory. Also, the memory can only go in one way, look at the grooves on it to see. Be sure to wear a antistatic strap during any procedure. The small static charges can damage the delicate electronics in your computer! To see a complete illustrated guide visit the link to my site below and go to กupgradeก in the menu.

About The Author

Matt is the Webmaster at www.yourfreepcguide.com Your Free PC Guide offers free computer info. on many computer tasks icluding building, buying, upgrading, maintaining, cleaning, and more. You can also check out the free strictly PC classifieds at yourfreepcguide.adpost.com

This article was posted on February 11

by Matt Feichtenbiner

Transfer The Digital Camera Images To Your Compute

Transfer The Digital Camera Images To Your Computer

by: Jakob Jelling

There are a few very important tasks associated with using the digital camera. The most important is of course capturing a beautiful photograph. The next most important task is that of transferring this image somewhere from where it can be printed. The most suitable place is hence the computer. Now, here comes another area of importance that needs to be analyzed and sufficient knowledge is required to be imparted to the users to make ample use of such an important feature. This discussion is thus generally focused upon this mechanism to transfer the digital camera images to the computer, and the various types of such a transfer. Looking from a very simple point of view, there are two methods for transferring the digital camera images to the computer; they are firstly by attaching the digital camera directly to the computer (a process that is popularly called tethering) and secondly by the use of a memory card reader.

In the present world most digital cameras are endowed with arrangements for a comparatively nippy USB connection. USB is basically an interface between a computer and peripheral devices like keyboards, telephones, scanners, and printers. In the current case this peripheral device is the digital camera. This USB feature enables the computer to be directly connected to the digital camera and transfer the images via the USB port present in the computer itself also. Many of the computer operating systems (like the Windows XP) have features for inbuilt tethering support for this purpose solely. One major problem of this feature of tethering is that it consumes a huge amount of power from the batteries. For this reason, many of the digital cameras are provided with AC adapter that powers the camera. The appropriate software installed within the computer and the digital cameras provides the entire task for making a successful transfer of the images from the digital camera to the computer.

Regarding the software associated with such a digital image transfer from a digital camera to a computer, it is important to state that digital cameras come equipped with CDs containing driver files, image viewers and photo editing software. It connects to the computer via a USB or other port. Some digital cameras come with a PCMCIA interface also.

The next feature for making a successful transfer of image from the digital camera to the computer is via memory card readers. These memory card readers make image transfers without consuming a lot of the precious digital camera batteries; this is the best part of this method. Two important points define the memory card readers; the first is the type of memory card the digital camera uses for storing images. Secondly, the type of connection the digital camera has with the computer. USB is the most predominant kind of card reader available in todayกs world. In some cases, many computers are equipped with certain slots that take in cards directly inside the computer or may be with the help of a PC card adapter too. Then the transfers of images are made appropriately from the digital camera into the computer memory efficiently.

All the features and the technology discussed in the above lines are focused towards uncovering the various efficient and suitable methods for a better transfer method of the images and photographs from the digital camera into the computer memory. As technology advances with years, these would get further improved and the popularity and flexibility of this fantastic device, the digital camera, would get even more all the rage!

By Jakob Jelling

http://www.snapjunky.com

About The Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visit his digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictures with your digicam.

This article was posted on October 20, 2004

by Jakob Jelling