Have You Got Your Ear To The Ground Or Your Head I

Have You Got Your Ear To The Ground Or Your Head In The Sand?

by: Mike Cheney

What happened on your website yesterday? What about last week or last month? How about in the past hour? How many visitors come to your website as a result of using a search engine? How long do people stay on your website for on average? Which pages do your visitors go to?

If you don’t know the answer to some or all of these questions you are effectively operating a website blind.

This is like riding a bike blindfolded and expecting to arrive at the right destination. Itกs impossible and the likelihood is that you will crash, wreck the bike, lose pride and get left behind.

If you don’t know whatกs happening with your website or how people are using it and how they are finding it how can you hope to ever improve the site? Sure you can rely on secondguessing or asking the opinion of a handful of people but thatกs hardly going to give you accurate information on which to base a decision is it?

กMike I know what you’re saying. Itกs true that I need to track whatกs happening but I don’t have the Xก

X = Money?

X = Time?

X = Knowledge of where to start?

X = Need, as I already do this?

If you answered กMoneyก this would seem to be a valid reason but you can get your hands on the basic information about how your site is performing for nothing (ask your developer or web hosting company for starters and theyกll be able to point you in the right direction or check out the resources below)

If you answered ‘timeก Iกm sorry but if thatกs the case why do you even have a website if you don’t have the time to measure how itกs performing? Would you behave the same way with your business? Thought not..

If you answered กKnowledge of where to startก then this is fair enough. To get started try these resources that will help you:

http://www.cryer.co.uk/resources/websitetracking.htm

http://www.netiq.com/webtrends/default.asp

http://www.statcounter.com/

If you answered กI don’t have the need, as I already do thisก congratulations you get a weekกs free pass to the Smug Club. But seriously though you might already get all the statistics about how your website is performing but do you spend time viewing them, interpreting them and most importantly USING them? When was the last time you used the statistics about your websiteกs performance to implement a change on your site and then track the results on subsequent statistics to see what effect it had? Itกs all gone quiet in the Smug corner…

Feeling uncomfortable with all these questions yet? You should be. If you’re not happy with your website you need to dig a little deeper and ask what it is exactly that you’re not happy with. Did you set definite, timelinked and realistic expectations for the websiteกs performance prior to starting out? If you’re not getting the leads or sales you had hoped for you need to work out why this is the case scratching your head won’t do it. Tracking the performance of your site and viewing detailed statistics on how people use it won’t give you definitive answers either but it will propel you several miles in the right direction.

You are the doctor and your website is the patient you need to connect it to an ECG and start monitoring and recording everything. How else can you work out how to make the patient better? Or maybe you have the perfect patient who doesn’t actually have anything wrong with them?

Mike Cheney

www.magnet4web.com

About The Author

You can get free access to lots more articles that will help you to improve your websiteกs performance plus a Free Bonus Special Report กHow To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnetก worth a value of £47 ($85) here: http://www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=freeguide

This article was posted on August 07, 2004

by Mike Cheney

Website and Network Stress Monitoring

Website and Network Stress Monitoring

by: Vadim Mazo and David Leonhardt

In today’s world, organizations are fast accepting the web and related applications as part of their overall business strategies. They understand that the Internet provides them with the potential to target a very focused set of customers spread across a very diverse geography.

For a successful Internet presence, it is important that the web server and web applications are reliable, scalable and always available, irrespective of traffic volumes to the site.

To achieve this, you must test all your hardware and software using tools to check your website, usually called web stress tools. These tools should ideally be used even before the site is on the World Wide Web. They can provide a reasonably good estimate about the performance of your website and a company can identify issues before they arise.

Such issues might include slow response times while opening the website, a limited number of users able to simultaneously browse the website, or a cap on the number of requests that can be handled by a processing application. Based on the results, a webmaster can identify the bottlenecks and take corrective actions before they result in lost sales.

What does Website stress testing do?

Web stress testing provides performance reports for varying elements. For example, users might be complaining that your shopping site is taking ages to load and most search results are showing errors message. Using a web stress tool, you can check the performance of your web server. To your surprise, the CPU utilization on the Server may be just 20%. But if you are also monitoring the database application, you might find that it is already running at 100% and is the most likely reason for poor performance.

Stress tools can be deployed as software solutions where you can monitor the key components of your servers such as the CPU, memory and hard disk utilizations. They are built with userdefined alerts that can be triggered if a particular parameter crosses a threshold set by the user. As an example, you can configure an alert that must be generated whenever the CPU utilization crosses the 80% mark. Although this is helpful in identifying system bottlenecks, the results are limited to web servers that are connected to your internal network.

If the target audience is across the globe, or even across the country, a company needs to monitor its website and applications stress loads from different locations across the globe. The web server must provide reasonable performance from wherever customers are located. In such a situation the software solution is unlikely to meet the companyกs requirements.

Organizations must use external website stress monitoring tools, which provide detailed performance reports on servers that are tested from different locations. The outcome of these tests can help in finetuning the settings at their ISPs and in optimizing performance of the servers. Besides this, external stress testing also include monitoring of other network infrastructures that connect to the web server, such as routers, firewalls and leased lines that provide the backend connectivity.

This is why DotcomMonitorกs stress test tool (http://www.dotcommonitor.com/webloadstresstest.asp) offers its clients stress test agents located in various countries such as the USA, UK and Germany. This service provides performance data about the website from these and other locations spread across the globe.

So if you run a business on the Internet, it is important that your website and all associated web applications perform to their optimum levels. They handle transactions quickly and in turn offer faster response times to your user requests. Using web stress services you can get information you need to ensure superior throughputs and gain a reputation for highperformance dependability among your customers.

About The Author

Vadim Mazo is CTO of DotcomMonitor

http://www.dotcommonitor.com

http://www.dotcommonitor.com/websitemonitoring.asp

http://www.dotcommonitor.com/networkmonitoring.asp

David Leonhardt is a website marketing consultant:

http://www.seowriter.net/freelance/marketingconsultant.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 08

by Vadim Mazo and David Leonhardt

Three Things You Can Do to Keep Your Computer Runn

Three Things You Can Do to Keep Your Computer Running at Maximum Performance

by: Larry Andrew

Although there are many things that can affect the performance of your computer, there are a few simply things you can do each month to help keep your computer running at maximum performance. This article will focus on two problems that impact the performance of your computer and will then explain what you can do about it.

Problem #1: Computer Hard Disk Files

Your computer is always writing information to your hard disk, no matter what you do. Your computer attempts to keep all file information in the same location on your hard drive. As you add and delete files, blank spaces are left between your files. As you add new programs or files, your computer tries to use these blank spaces.

Over time, this reading and writing of files can affect the way your computer performs. The files eventually become scattered in multiple locations on your hard disk rather than in the same location.

Your computer will still find the information. However, the more scattered the information becomes on your hard drive, the more accesses your computer has to make to find (and gather) the information. This requires your hard disk to work harder and do more reading/writing than is necessary. It will slow down your computer by as much as 200% and causes increased wear and tear on your hard drive.

Problem #2: Spyware

If you use the Internet, at some point you will download a file or software program onto your computer. Sometimes you will know something is being downloaded to your computer. Other times you will have no idea. (Although this article will not talk about small files called ขcookiesข, you may want to look up information on this subject. Cookies are written onto your computer from the Internet.)

Free computer programs (often referred to as Freeware) are a big hit on the Internet. Every day thousands of users download these ขfree programsข. Although there are some great freeware programs, these programs often have advertisements or tracking code associated with their use. The term ขSpywareข refers to programs that gather information about your computer and (Internet) surfing habits without your knowledge. This information is then sold to a third party company as a means of generating revenue.

The problem with Spyware is that it also impacts the performance of your computer. It can make your computer very sluggish and unresponsive.

Three Steps to Improved Computer Performance

Now that we’ve discussed two problems that affect the performance of your computer, let’s discuss three things you can do to get your computer performance back to normal. You should do these three steps in the order presented. Ideally, you should repeat them about once a month or whenever you notice a change in your computer’s performance.

Step #1: Delete Spyware

The first thing you should do is to delete spyware files or programs from your computer. To do this, you can use a free software program such as AdAware SE Personal Edition from LavaSoft. To get the program, go to www.download.com and search for ขAdAware SEข (without the quotes). Select ขDownload Nowข and follow the installation instructions. Once the program is installed, you can scan your computer for spyware files. Then, you can select and delete them from your computer.

Note #1: Always be sure to use the ขCheck for updates nowข option to keep your program current.

Note #2: You need to be aware that when you delete spyware files, some of those ขfreeข programs you downloaded may not continue to work correctly. If you have a program you’ve downloaded and want to continue to use, check very carefully what you select to delete from the ขScanning resultsข once the scan has been completed.

Step #2: Clean up your Hard Disk

Once the spyware is removed, you need to clean up temporary and unwanted files from your hard disk. To do this on your windows PC, select the start option in the lower left hand corner of your computer screen. Then, select the program option. Under the program option, select ขAccessoriesข. Under the ขAccessoriesข option, select ขSystem Toolsข. From the System Tools option, select ขDisk Cleanupข.

Select the drive you want to clean from the pulldown menu and select OK. Usually, this is Drive C. If you have more than one hard drive, select one at a time. This program will then scan your computer for files that could be erased from your computer. You can safely erase all temporary and Recycle Bin files. You can also check the box of any other files you want the program to erase.

Step #3: Defrag your Hard Disk

Once all the spyware and temporary files are removed, you need to defrag your hard disk. This process simply rewrites your computer files so they are no longer scattered all over your hard disk, but are written in the same location for quick sequential access.

To defrag your hard disk on your windows PC, select the start option in the lower left hand corner of your computer screen. Then, select the program option. Under the program option, select ขAccessoriesข. Under the ขAccessoriesข option, select ขSystem Toolsข. From the System Tools option, select ขDisk Defragmenterข. First, select the hard drive from your computer. Usually, this is Drive C. However, many computers have multiple hard drives. Select one at a time.

You can select ขAnalyzeข to have the program check out the hard drive and see if it needs to be defragged. The program will prompt you at the completion of its analysis. Use the defragment option as prompted.

Note: If you’ve never used this option before, I would recommend that you select the defragment option.

Once, you’ve completed these three steps, your computer and hard disk should be able to operate at maximum performance. Don’t forget to repeat these steps at least once a month or whenever you notice a change in your computer’s performance.

About The Author

Larry Andrew is an educational consultant, author and publisher of www.ezsoftwarereview.com. Learn how to purchase cheap, reliable and quality software for your home, school and business.

This article was posted on March 23

by Larry Andrew

The most researched performance enhancing nutritio

The most researched performance enhancing nutritional supplement

by: Dr. Jeff Banas

Creatine – The most researched performance enhancing nutritional supplement
Does creatine supplementation work?
The February 2004 issue of the Strength and Conditioning Journal, the official publication of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, had an article about creatine loading. Why? Because it works!
How does it work?
I never really liked biochemistry, so I will give you the cliff notes version. Creatine is amino acid derivative that enables the body’s muscle to produce ATP quickly. ATP is the muscles main source of energy.
Is Creatine safe?
Yes. Creatine is the most researched supplement when it comes to increasing athletic performance. The only side affects believed are muscle cramps and water gain.
How does Creatine help athletic performance?
By increasing the concentration of creatine within the muscle cell, there will be an extended supply of ATP (the main energy source for muscle contraction). This allows the muscle to maintain muscle contraction for longer periods of time, thereby reducing muscular fatigue. By reducing muscular fatigue your can achieve higher athletic performance during shortduration, high intensity activities (e.g., weightlifting, sprinting, etc.).
How much Creatine supplementation is need?
There are numerous research studies that have show that 5 grams of creatine consumed 46 times daily for one week can substantially increase total muscle creatine concentration by 2040%. However, if time is not an issue, 24 grams daily should be sufficient to fully saturate skeletal muscles within a month.
To date creatine is by far the most effective supplement for enhancing athletic performance, I have personal used creatine to assist my training programs for years, and it is one of the few supplements I never want to run out of.

Please feel free to publish this article in your Newsletter or on your Website (with Resource Box included).

About The Author

Dr. Jeffrey Banas is a Chiropractic Sports Physician practicing in Mesa, AZ. If you would like to contact Dr. Banas, he can be reached at his office at 4806336837, or by visiting his web site at www.personalweightlosshelp.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 12, 2004

by Dr. Jeff Banas

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

Easy Guide to RAID Recovery

Easy Guide to RAID Recovery

by: Alexandria Haber

What is RAID RECOVERY?

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. It is a method of combining several hard drives into one unit. This method offers fault tolerance (the ability of a system to continue to perform functions even when one or more hard disk drives have failed) and higher protection against data loss than a single hard drive.

Why do I need RAID RECOVERY?

RAID provides realtime data recovery when a hard drive fails, increasing system uptime and network availability while protecting against loss of data. Another advantage of the system is that multiple disks working together increase overall system performance. Any individual or company could benefit from having a RAID RECOVERY system in place.

Different Levels

There are several different levels of RAID available. Each level offers various advantages in terms of data availability, cost and performance. Your best bet is to assess your needs in order to determine which level works best for you. The most popular RAID systems are the following:

RAID 0 Data striping (no data protection). The benefit of this system is that it offers the highest performance.

RAID 1 Disk Mirroring (provides data protection by duplicating all data from a primary drive on a secondary drive). The benefit of this system is it offers the highest data protection.

RAID 0/1 This combines both Raids 0 and 1. The benefit here is highest performance + highest data protection.

RAID 5 Data striping with distributed parity (a form of data protection that recreates the data of failed drive in a disk array). This system offers the best cost performance for multidrive environments.

Having a RAID system installed can provide peace of mind. With RAID installed you can rest assured that even in the event of a system failure your important data will be safe.

About The Author

Alexandria Haber writes both fiction and nonfiction for a variety of people and places. As a result, she has had the benefit of gaining a little bit of knowledge about a lot of different subjects she would otherwise remain totally ignorant of. While researching this article on RAID recovery she gained a new respect for computer technology. For more information on RAID RECOVERY you can visit: http://www.raidrecoveryguide.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 23, 2004

by Alexandria Haber

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Boot Camp

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Boot Camp

by: Andy Quick

Service Level Agreements, or กSLAกsก are tricky but useful mechanisms for managing the risk of an ongoing relationship with IT service providers. Unfortunately, most SLAกs that show up in service contracts as worthless, cosmetic paper additions. SLAกs can be extremely powerful tools to help you and your service provider get the most out of a relationship.

What is an SLA?

A service level agreement (SLA), in its most basic form, is a contractual commitment to meet specific goals. If, for example, you sign up for a hosting contract with a provider, you may desire an SLA that measures the uptime of your website. If you outsource your help desk, you may want an SLA that measures the time it takes to answer the phone. Usually, an SLA includes a penalty and/or reward framework. For example, many web hosting companies offer a refund based on the number of hours your website is unavailable. On the flipside, an SLA may include an extra bonus to your help desk provider if all calls are answered within 30 seconds. The following are typical examples of SLAกs:

กAll help desk call will be answered within 90 secondsก

ก95% of all bills will be printed and delivered on timeก

‘the website will be available 99.99%ก

กProject X will be delivered within 2 weeks of the planned scheduleก

What isn’t an SLA?

An SLA is not a way to cut your costs. Rather, SLAกs are mechanisms for managing risks, sharing pain, and benefiting from success. Many SLAกs are setup as กoutsก to contracts that allow customers to penalize technology providers for nonperformance. Although penalties do reduce costs and they do send a strong signal to service providers to improve their service, neither you nor the service provider กwinก if an SLA is missed. Think of an SLA as a shared goal.

SLA Philosophy

The best SLAs are setup to allow both you and your service provider to share in the success and failure of an agreement. If you intend to turn over the operation of your billing system to a service provider, getting the bills out on time is critical. Whether you do it yourself or partner with someone, if you fail to produce invoices, you delay incoming revenue. In this example, your SLA should inspire your vendor to deliver on performance levels that have an actual impact to your business. Letกs say your current billing accuracy is 90%. If you increase this accuracy to 95%, you have directly improved your companyกs bottom line. If you intend to outsource this function, your SLA should include a shared billing accuracy reward to the service provider if they help you improve revenues.

Make It Count

Some web hosting plans offer an uptime measure that, if not met, will result in a refund to you. Unfortunately, this ‘refundก may be calculated as a credit based on the time that your site was down and your monthly hosting fee. For example, if you pay $100 per month for hosting services, and your site is down for 1 hour, your credit may only be 14 cents! $100/720 (number of hours in a month) = $0.14. If, on average, you sell $50 worth of goods through your website each hour, 14 cents isn’t much of a blow to your hosting company. I recognize that my example is slightly exaggerated. Many hosting companies offer a more material penalty and most web sites do not generate $50 in sales per hour. But you can see how this penalty and SLA is misaligned with the business model. If you know you make $50 per hour in sales through your website, your hosting company should incur a much greater penalty for not keeping your website up and running! Whether you negotiate an SLA with a hosting company or a large IT company, create an SLA that is specific to your business and truly establishes risk sharing (i.e. we กwinก or กlooseก together).

Devil In The Details

A good SLA has four critical components: description, target, measurement, and penalty/reward. If you have an SLA that is missing one of these components, you run the risk of losing the benefit of having the SLA to begin with. In the web hosting example above, the SLA sounds good, but the actual measurement and penalty weigh heavily in the favor of the hosting company (they have little to loose!) Make sure your SLAกs are well defined and agreed upon before you ink the deal. Hereกs an example of a good SLA:

Description: Billing All bills will be rendered, printed, and mailed on a timely basis to ensure unbilled revenue is minimized.

Target: 90%

Measurement: Ratio of number of planned bills / number of bills actually produced. The calculation is based on the number of records in the billing input file compared against the billing output log file which lists the bills actually rendered.

Reward/Penalty: If billing accuracy is below 90%, penalty is calculated as 1% of the unbilled revenue for that billing run. If billing accuracy is above 90%, a bonus is calculated as 1% of the additional revenue billed.

In this SLA example, your service provider stands to loose or gain substantially based on their performance. Similarly, your company stands to loose or gain substantially based on the performance of the service provider. Depending upon your daily billings, 1% could be significant. Note the specificity of the SLA measurement and calculation in my example. If you are not very specific with the calculation methods, actual performance against service levels are open for debate.

Negotiate Up Front

Many businesses strike deals with IT companies and leave SLAกs as an open item. Many IT service providers will want to establish a กbase lineก period where SLAกs are measured and then negotiated. In many cases, this request is reasonable, especially if an IT company has little to no understanding of your environment and your current performance record. However, if you wait to negotiate service levels until after you ink a deal, you loose tremendous leverage with your provider unless you really think you can walk away from the deal. Ideally, choose a provider that is willing to negotiate a service level up front. In my experience, these SLA negotiations are much more difficult on the backend.

Raise the Bar

A service level agreement should be changed periodically. Letกs look back at my billing SLA example. Letกs assume that after 1 year of service, your provider is billing at an accuracy, on average, of 95%, and in turn, you are rewarding them consistently for beating the original service level. Itกs time to raise the bar! If your provider can increase your accuracy from 90% to 95%, maybe they can increase your accuracy from 95% to 99%. Raise the SLA bar (target) to 95%, and only reward them if they beat this new level of quality. By providing the right incentives to improve upon service levels, both you and your service provider can benefit.

The Shorter, The Better

I have seen service contracts with dozens and dozens of SLAกs. If you establish multiple SLAกs, you and your service provider will have broad visibility into performance levels. However, establishing many SLAกs can water down the overarching performance of a service provider. Put simply, a service provider can กmakeupก poor performance on one SLA by beating the performance target of another SLA. To keep things simple, pick the few critical success factors of your business and establish applicable service levels that your provider can truly focus on.

Service Level Agreements should be established as a กdashboardก for you and your service provider to share in the success and failure of your arrangement. SLAกs are less effective if they are established as contract กoutsก or as penalty frameworks, because they fail to drive a partnering relationship. Negotiate SLAกs which, if met or beaten, truly benefit your company and your service provider. Always define SLAกs to the lowest level of detail possible before you finalize the arrangement since negotiations become even more difficult after the deal is executed. And never commit to an SLA that could hurt you but not your provider.

About The Author

Andy Quick is cofounder of Findmyhosting.com (http://www.findmyhosting.com), a free web hosting directory offering businesses and consumers a hassle free way to find the right hosting plan for their needs. Feel free to contact Andy at [email protected] in case you have any questions or comments regarding this article.

This article was posted on May 15, 2002

by Andy Quick

Improving SQL Performance

Improving SQL Performance

by: Marisa Pellegrino

How do you know how much hardware is really needed by your applications? And what do you do when your applications are overloading your system? The answer lies with improving your SQL performance. You have to tune your hardware SQL server and monitor performance, all of which will be explained as clearly as possible on this page.

The first thing to do when you want to improve your SQL performance is you need to learn how to optimize your system by finding out how much hardware you really need to run your applications. The best way to tune your hardware and monitor performance is through the art of performance monitoring which takes experience, knowledge, and sometimes even luck.

Performance monitoring guidelines:

Make sure you’re running your typical processes and work loads during the monitoring.

Don’t only do a realtime monitoring of your servers; capture long running logs.

Always have the disk counters turned ON.

Set up the chart windows with an interval of 18 seconds for routine, daily desktop monitoring.

Know the tools you are working with.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Know the terminology (ขobjectsข are lists of individual stats available; ขcounterข is a single stat; ขinstanceข is further breakdown of a counter stat into duplicate components).

A bottleneck happens when the hardware resources can’t keep up with the demands of the software. This is usually fixed in one of two ways: first, you identify the limiting hardware and increase its potential (i.e. a faster hard drive or increase the speed of the computer); second, make the software processes use the hardware more efficiently.

Five areas to watch when improving SQL performance and identifying bottlenecks:

Memory usage

CPU processor utilization

Disk input/output performance

User connections

Blocking locks

About The Author

Marisa Pellegrino is a freelance writer from Montreal and is the head researcher and content manager for www.sqlrecovery.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 24, 2004

by Marisa Pellegrino

Streaming Media: Why It Works

Streaming Media: Why It Works

by: Lala C. Ballatan

Isn’t it more interesting to pay attention on a kind of medium that is complete with valuable data and presented on a creative way with audiovideo quality to match? That’s the kind of media we sometimes look for before becoming compelled enough on certain products or service offers. Content delivery over the Internet is really never guaranteed.

Given this, it is easy to understand why streaming media has worked enough to become part of our daily lives. Streaming media is the term for enabling the realtime distribution of digital media (audio, video and data) over a network that could be the internet or a corporate Intranet. Here, digital media are received as a continuous realtime stream.

Streaming audio and video demand that delivery is reliable and fast. It is advantageous since it allows the multimedia to be downloaded and viewed simultaneously without leaving behind physical files. It is easy to understand why streaming media works for almost everyone since everyone can benefit from it. From new parents wanting to share their child’s first birthday party with long distance relatives to corporations holding live shareholder meetings online – in fact, anything that can be captured, can be streamed.

How is streaming media distributed, then? A server transmits the streaming media data, presenting it in realtime to a client application running n a PC or other electronic device such as a cellular phone or Personal Digital Assistant. As soon as enough data has been transmitted and stored in the client’s buffer, the streaming media allows the devices to begin playback of the multimedia.

By using a live streaming media server, almost any multimedia content can be streamed, including audio and video assets obtained from nearly any source. Streaming does not choose any type of multimedia – whether it is stored on old 8mm film reels or already stored as an MPEG file on your computer.

However, though your streaming server is live, you can never be sure your audience can see and hear your content as you intended for them to view and hear it. It should be understood that performance of streaming media is more crucial than any other type of Internet traffic. Loss of performance will instantly mean a loss of audience. And once your audience can’t connect or lose service quality, then your efforts and investment may be wasted.

To make sure your streaming media work, along with other investments online like content creation, high performance web hosting and content delivery networks, make sure that your investment delivers results. By this, it means that you have to make sure that your audience can see and hear what you are broadcasting.

Work on streaming your chosen multimedia content for necessary purpose it may serve you. Choose a streaming server that’s reliable and has a wide range of services like Tier1 OC192 Content Delivery Network (CDN); professional and knowledgeable customer service staff; support for a wide array of Media Formats; network designed from the ground up for: scalability, performance, and redundancy. 30

About The Author

Lala C. Ballatan is a 26 yearold Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a nongovernment organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

Book reading has always been her greatest passion mysteries, horrors, psychothrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

Her writing prowess began as early as she was 10 years old in girlish diaries. With writing, she felt freedom – to express her viewpoints and assert it, to bring out all concerns imagined and observed, to bear witness.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 11

by Lala C. Ballatan

Proactive High Performance Teamwork

Proactive High Performance Teamwork

by: Livvie Matthews

Proactive High Performance Teamwork is made up of nine proactive components and will provide the growth you are seeking in your practice. Two of the nine components are Performance and Opportunities.

Performance=Profitability

High Performing Staff=High Performing Bottom Line!

Successful practices excel in the filed of Patient Services

**Itกs not about product…Itกs about Service!! ….your กAbsolutely outstanding serviceก!

Opportunities

New service options and availability can create tremendous opportunities for revenue and profit from existing (as well as new) patients. Seek to provide so many services and benefits that patients choose to keep returning.

**Every patient is an Opportunity looking for a place to happen!

Learn to look and listen for Opportunities!

Patients must be made to feel important, appreciated and valued.

Focus on making each patient feel they are the most important patient you have….because they are!!

Position your practice to do more cosmetic dentistry. Although insurance doesn’t cover cosmetic dentistry, more and more patients are choosing cosmetic procedures.

All too often we think the patient in the treatment room knows what cosmetic procedures are available to them, when 95% of the time the patient doesn’t have a clue! Many times it is just a matter of mentioning whatกs available.

Don’t speak in technical terms, speak in simple laymenกs terms so the patient will understand what you are saying. You’re the one who took dental terminology, not the patient.

Speak in terms like:

กHave you ever thought of closing the gap between your two front teeth?ก

กDid you know those two กpointedก teeth could be made to look as nice as the rest of your teeth?ก

กYou have such pretty teeth, you are a perfect candidate for making them whiter!ก

Remember: Every patient is an Opportunity looking for a place to happen! Look and Listen for Opportunities.

There are 72 + million Baby Boomers in their midfifties, whoกs children are now out of college (no more college education to pay for), who have more disposable income to spend, and who are extremely concerned about their appearance.

Strengthen and enhance your practiceกs image by building a reputation of excellence and becoming an office that provides so many measurable benefits in services to your patients that is reinforces their decision to keep returning.

Services so beneficial to your patients that receiving care in your office offsets any inconvenience the patients may have (กYou are not on my provider listก, กyour fees are too highก, or Your office is too far awayก).

Often your most creative ideas come from your employees and your patients. Learn to listen and understand both your employees and your patients.

You and your team are marketing a high quality service…and the patient defines quality. From their first telephone call through enrollment and treatment, make sure your practice presents an overall กAbsolutely outstanding serviceก experience for your valued patients as a benefit from your…. Proactive High Performance Team (work)!

About The Author

Livvie Matthews, Business Office and Patient Relationship Specialist helps you FOCUS on narrowing the gap between your practice your business. Visit http://www.LivvieMatthews.com Business Office News mailto:[email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 02, 2004

by Livvie Matthews

Do The Differences In CPUs Really Matter?

Do The Differences In CPUs Really Matter?

by: Ryan Larson

CPU manufacturing is one of the most competitive areas of computer world. In the end, the overall performance of your laptop or your desktop depends on your central processing unit. Parallel to the demands of the users, we can say that CPUs traveled a long way from 386s to P4s and AMDs.

The cache is generally the most decisive factor in the tradeoff equation between the price and performance. Considering the L2 cache on some of the chips, you can easily understand that Athlon, P4 and PIII, having 256K or more L2 cache are the once with higher performance, in other words power chips.

Looking at the budget chips, you immediately notice that Celeron has 128K and the Duron only has 64K. Celeron is actually almost like a PIII with half the cache disabled. These numbers shows that the main budget issue for CPU manufacturers is to put enough cash on the chip.

You should consider the difference between the bus speeds: in the case of Athlon and P4, the bus speed between the Cache and the CPU can be 200 or 400 MHz respectively. This can give your system a major boost when you are using cache intensive utilities. The new CPUs are coming out with quad speed pushes and base 200MHz which results with 800MHz FSB like the new P4.

The numbers you would see under the name ขMicronข in a CPU comparison table is basically the size of the transistors. As the number get smaller, the manufacturers can put more and more on the CPU die. The smaller transistors you have on your CPU, the smaller the CPU die becomes. The smaller the CPU die, less power is required and less heat is produced.

The CPU instruction set is the total code which tells your CPU how to process its data. The more sets you have on your CPU, the more efficient it is most likely to be. However, on this point Intel (Pentium) and AMD does not follow the same path. Intel made the first attempt to improve the basic instruction set by adding the MMX support for multimedia.

The differenceกs between the CPUกs are getting smaller as each company sees the advantages of their rivals technology and tries to either use or emulate it. It is really hard to choose which one is better. So a good advice would be let your wallet decide which CPU your system will use.

About The Author

Ryan Larson

This article provided courtesy of http://www.wifitechguide.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 06

by Ryan Larson