Does office computer work really make people sick? Well, I have read from HR Magazine issued August 2010 that men are four times more likely than women to phone in sick. The reason is no other than work-related stress. The study also showed that work-induced stress is also driving more men to drink after work to relieve stress than women.

Anyway, the literature have caught my attention because the top five work factors that triggers stress for men and women have listed computers as a reason. I’ll list here the things which makes office workers get stressed.

Top five work stress triggers for women

1. Dealing with difficult clients/customers
2. Heavy workload
3. Computer freezing in the middle of an important job
4. Boss demanding too much extra work
5. Computer taking too long to get going

Top five work stress triggers for men

1. Heavy workload
2. Boss demanding too much extra work
3. Dealing with difficult clients/customers
4. Computer freezing in the middle of an important job
5. Boss asking for work to be done that is outside job description

source: www.hrmagazine.co.uk

The study is based on 3,000 workers and it can be seen that computer related things have been a top five cause for stress of workers whether male or female. I work with computers everyday and outdoor break is one of the best way to fight work stress.

I went on a vacation last month to go outing with family. We went boating and snorkeling adventure. It’s a good experience as no calls from the office; just nature all around. Truly, the outdoor break relieved me of office computer work stress.

Oracle technologists, business users and partners should never miss the largest and most important Oracle conference of the year. Oracle OpenWorld 2010, which runs from August 19 to 23, 2010 at San Francisco, California is the best place to meet in person experts, enthusiasts, business leaders, and innovators from every industry around the globe.

This years event have approximately 1,800 sessions, 400 partner exhibits, almost 400 Oracle demos, keynotes from the world’s technology leaders, hands-on labs, several special networking events, and more. Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco is best place to find relevant, useful information about how to use technology to drive your business forward.

There are various Airline and Car Rental discounts. Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Housing provides the lowest hotel rates for official conference hotels. There are complimentary shuttle service to Moscone Center from most of the official hotels. So, everything is convenient. They even challenge that if you find a lower rate say, using an online hotel booking you could let them know to get a better deal.

The five days of educational conference and connections building could somehow surely transform both career and business.

For more information on Oracle OpenWorld 2010 kindly visit:

http://www.oracle.com/us/openworld/index.htm

Students are back to school and computer laptops are some of the basic things needed. Information technology facilities and resources are extensively required during the whole study. Thus, every student is expected to have a laptop computer.

How to find the best laptop computer for college and graduate student is a challenge when budget is limited. Getting the best computer deals for money’s worth is a main concern. They could buy online laptop computer with some vitacost coupons to get some good laptop deals. New students could also avail of provided laptop purchase schemes offered by some institutions or some student laptop financing. Other schools even offer laptop subsidy.

Computer vendors have normally tied up with schools to allow students to obtain special price laptop. A major university near us have offered Dell Vostro 3400 as a back to school student laptop offering.

Dell Vostro 3400 Student Laptop Deal Specification:
Processor: Intel Core i3 350M (2.26GHz, Dual Core, 4T, 3MB L3)
Display: 14.0” High Definition (1366x768) Wide LED Anti-glare Display
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM
Storage: 320GB Hard Drive 7200rpm
Optical Drive: 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD/-RW/R) with Dual-Layer
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 310M (512MB)
Wireless: Wireless Network Card 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth: Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Internal (2.1 + Enhanced Data Rate)
Webcam: Integrated 2.0MP camera
Ethernet: Gigabit Ethernet Network
OS: Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)
Battery: 6-cell Lithium Ion battery (1 year warranty)
Dimensions: 13.35 x 9.54 x 0.86-1.16 inches (WxDxH)
Weight: 2.16kg
Free: Carry Bag
Approximate Price: $700

The above features is just within budget for most students. With Dell Vostro 3400, students get the looks, durability and performance normally reserved for business laptops at a price that’s right. I guess, students will be happy with the back to school Dell Vostro 3400 student laptop.

A website that fails to choose proper keywords and phrases would not do well with search engine spiders. Both the search engine and the search engine user will have difficulty in finding your site. Targeting specific and precise keywords for a website is crucial. The consequence is that your web pages will end up as one of those millions of website which nobody will ever know or find.

There’s a misconception that newbies have on search engine optimization or SEO; like being number one in the search engine result pages or SERPs is the ultimate goal of SEO. In reality attracting potential users to a specific website content for the particular keywords or phrase that the user is searching is the goal of SEO. Getting to the right audience on the Internet is the main goal and that the search engine is just a tool to attain this. Reaching on the top of the SERPs is only the begriming.

I suggest using some SEO ready content management system software or CMS software. There are a number of which that are free to use with little customization done. Content management system like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and many more are freely available for download. The good thing about this CMS software is the availability of SEO plugins which could facilitate choosing of right keywords or phrases for the website.

If you are not satisfied with the performance of the SEO plugins you could manually choose and set keywords to your website. There are many available tools for keyword searching and it could be commercial like keywordspy or some free software like Google ad words keywords search tool. Discounts are also available through for commercial tools like a keywordspy coupon code and others.

A basic task of keyword optimization is to determine your web pages rank in search engines for keywords that targeted audience actually want to find. Having an optimized keywords is often overlooked keyword strategy in search engine marketing.

A sport-utility vehicle (SUV) packed with in-vehicle infotainment technology is for a many a dream. During my vacation, I get to have a comfortable ride with Toyota Fortuner that sports a modern stylish exterior design. The seating comfort is similar to that of a car. The ride over-all experience is great both off and on the road.

In one instance, the driver got an incoming call on a mobile phone, and everyone knows that safety regulations prohibit using of a mobile phone while driving. Even if you got your car covered with the full insurance service through cheap auto insurance rates and quotes; it would help only a little, if an accident occurs. Safety comes first for all and by pressing a button on the car console the call was transferred to hands-free mode through some bluetooth technology.

Newer cars have embedded operating system that serves as a platform for communication, entertainment, navigation and other connected services. I believe that embedded automotive technology has definitely brought drivers with a wide range of devices, services and technology. The list of features could include hands-free communication, mobile device integration, rich graphical content capabilities, high-fidelity digital entertainment and more.

Added bonus on installing these anti-theft, auto safety embedded operating system technology, and other safety devices on vehicles are discounts from auto insurance premiums. I think, it’s about time to upgrade standard car radio unit with a newer console that offers more features that cover both safety and entertainment.

I usually get questions about effective website monetization and Internet marketing. Last month, a cousin have created a niche website about guitar playing. As most new blogger always do, it was hosted on a popular free web hosting site like wordpress.com or blogger.com. In this case, it was on wordpress.com WordPress blog platform which is a preference I observer, most beginners choose. I guess this is because of the popularity and ease of using WordPress.

Putting the blog on a free webhosting service is practical for starters as cost is a big factor. This is a perfect choice for neophyte blogger. The issue with free hosted sites is limited flexibility in website monetization opportunities. Newbie blogger start to realize this after the excitement of owning a blog has subsided and business kicks in mind. This takes about a month of familiarizing on WordPress and tweaking on their blog when they start to try putting affiliate marketing banners or advertiser sponsor links.

On occasion, I have been contacted because of the several years of consulting on blog web hosting and search engine optimization experience. Search engine optimization and Internet marketing campaigns are essential aspects of a reaching mass audience for effective blog monetization. Getting the right message to the right person at the right time is a basic marketing strategy.

Knowing how the Internet user is searching, what they are searching, and where it is being searched using a search engine are key factors to the successful campaign. The user search experience and reading their minds is a critical aspect in a successful internet marketing campaign. Capturing the right terminology and keywords on the language of the user would make marketing campaigns successful.

Keywords forms part of the message composition in the formulation of the website content. Having the right keywords closely to what Internet users have on mind will make great monetization opportunities. The words should not necessarily with the highest search volume, but instead, keywords with the highest qualified search volume. The usual problem for Internet marketing experts is forecasting or knowing the latest trend search volume.

Having the right kind of tool to capture this could lead to a better understanding on the search keyword law of supply and demand. A best new search engine which shows relevant keywords with their search volume demands could lead to knowing better the target market which is important Internet marketing factor for success.

Sitting in front of a computer all day isn’t the most comfortable job. That’s what most computer specialist face at work. Being hunched for 8 hours or more does not make my back feel any better. A personal masseuse to give back and shoulder would be good. I don’t know if Google has this in their offices. A back rub can make me feel better to continue about the day.

Bad posture among office workers hunching over the keyboard and leaning towards the desktop computer monitor is a common problem. I was thinking of some remedy to the back pain and soreness caused by bad posture at work. I have read about OTO e-Bliss, which could ease the stress and relieve of the muscle spasms. This 17 inch long and 6 inches wide massager is a good solution for office relaxation.

The OTO e-Bliss device has some kneading balls that massages through the mesh. The pressure could be controlled from mild to hard. The kneading rotation of the balls could be clockwise or counter clockwise. The balls could be energized to produce heat. The warm massage will improve blood circulation and reduce muscle tension.

The overall experience of the device is good. It may act as a substitute for a human massage at work. What I want is to have some remote control on the OTO e-Bliss massage machine. Computer work office neck and shoulder relaxation is now possible with this massage device. I really hope our office will buy one of this machine for a limitless massager.

Web search engines have been a major force in providing relevant content. It’s been a dream of most web content provider to land on the top of search engine result pages. That’s investments on search engine submissions and SEO analytic as a marketing tool have grown. Tools that show the popularity of a website such as PageRank or Alexa has gained marketing impact on businesses. The higher the web site ranking most likely the better marketing opportunities are available.

Increase website visibility and traffic would most likely result to a search engine top placement. I have been employing, for example, keyword optimization on relevant content to gain more website visitors. The result is also better PageRank. I rely mostly on the search engine as a source of page visits. Bookmark and Share buttons are another way as well of promoting and spreading website content. Thereby increasing the website visibility.

It is noticeable on most websites the presence of this little fancy button which goes to Facebook, twitter, feeds, stumble upon, etc. One may wonder, due to the numbers they have. What’s all those buttons all about? Simply put those could actually help in website promotion by sharing it to some social networking group.

Talking of Bookmark Buttons, I have encountered this Pluz It buttons, which makes it easy to share web content directly from your webpages. You will surely get free traffic to you website when your webpages are circulated among the social networking sites or news groups. What’s special with this bookmark and sharing button is the analytic tool which helps you track trends on how the content is shared. It would give a good idea on how improve your website. The web traffic analytic tool will also give an idea how to best share the content.

It’s very easy to install the Pluz It buttons. The codes are generated automatically and can be placed immediately on the website or blogs. You can get further information by viewing the Pluz It Videotour. Don’t be left behind; increase your online website reach with the best bookmark and sharing tool on the web.

Web technologies are sprouting every now and then, which gains support across different browsers. In creating graphic inside the browser IE9 goes for SVG while Mozilla Firefox browser goes for HTML5 Canvas. It has become tough for web developers to decide which Web technology to use for say rendering 2D shapes and bitmap images in a browser.

There is a split between HTML5 Canvas and SVG, which are basically different. Having the knowledge of the differences will give effective and appropriate use of the Web technology. In new projects both Web technologies can render web graphics.

If interactivity on the graphic is required then SVG will be more appropriate such as maps where mouse events are necessary. But, SVG might not be effective on data driven charts due to the numerous DOM manipulations which HTML5 Canvas does better. Thus, canvas which is not on the DOM tree is best for pixel based drawings. Furthermore, in high animations canvas works well.

I’ve seen that most web developers recommend using Canvas over SVG on data driven graphics. Popularity might be due to the HTML5 adoption in many modern web browsers. Everything depends on which Web technology one is comfortable working with and how it is being used. The same result could be achieved, but there are many exciting developments with HTML5 canvas, which makes it the preference for data driven graphic manipulation.

Internet connectivity is one of the most important things in today’s world. People have smartphones such as iPhone or BlackBerry, which connects almost 24 hours a day to the Internet. The number of mobile devices including netbooks with productivity applications that rely on Internet has grown over the years.

I have bought a Nokia E72 series mobile phone because it has some wifi capability. What I need was some phone that supports VoIP calls when on a hotspot. There’s an option though that I could use the phone’s mobile broadband to connect when no WiFi hotspot is available.

Using the broadband services that came with the phone network carries a steep cost. I was surprised to get a call from the mobile phone network provider of huge bills due to mobile broadband usage. On the contrary, you’ll enjoy the freedom to connect to the Internet anywhere as long as there is a phone signal.

I prefer to use WiFi from mobile devices due to lesser cost, but I have to be contented being confined to the hotspot range. I have learned more from reading some Free Articles about broadband services, especially on topics about EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, HSUPA and the WIMAX 4G connection which is the trend. I observe that mobile broadband is becoming a better alternative to WiFi, whether using laptops, netbooks, mobile phones and PDAs. Mobile Internet through broadband services had become the future of Internet connectivity.

Computer hardware life span is approximately about 5 years only. After which most of the computer components fail for no reason at all. Thus, a schedule to replace aging computer part is very important. The computer part which easily gets obsolete or broken is the disk drives. Unreliable performance of the storage disk comes within 4 to 5 years of service.

We’ve experienced a degradation of our ERP server when a software RAID disk broke. The scary part was the management software for the RAID gives a segmentation fault error when run. This makes it impossible to have the software RAID be up again even the defective disk was replaced. The solution was the migration of the whole system to a virtual machine.

The new ERP server running on the virtual container run smoothly afterwards. The broken storage disk was set to be discard, but it contains sensitive information. Wiping the data to prevent data recovery from the disk is a challenge. We would like to wipe disk partition and the operating system.

I have seen a simple USB gadget which can shred all sensitive files forever. The device was called TotalShredder USB key. It is a self-bootable USB which is even US military compliant. No need to worry about exposing sensitive data when discarding old disk drives. It securely deletes all data on the hard drive. Further, it guarantees that no data recovery software could ever retrieve files for discarded storage drives. This plug and play USB key which is extremely easy to use is a good tool for those who intends to discard storage disk hardware.

A way of reaching a global customer base is through an online store. E-commerce is increasingly becoming a standard for every business. An online store software could easily create the Website which shows different products or services to choose. Online payments are done through major credit cards and payment solution like PayPal.

The backbone of every e-commerce business Website is the online payment processing. Aside from credit card payments, PayPal is an online payment solution provider that is widely accepted. The online payment is processed fast and easy. The only lacking part for PayPal is it requires people to have a PayPal account before they could use the services.

Website that accepts online credit card payments would be ahead of the competition as more prospective clients will be reached. I have inquired from a local bank of the possibility of using their payment gateway to accept credit card payments, but the requirements are tough. They somehow cater only to registered businesses. Thus, for a small entrepreneur, there is no chance to be able to set up an electronic commerce site.

Merchants should have a trusted online payment processing system that is having a good online fraud prevention solution. I could see that PayPal’s latest API release known as Website Payments Pro would allow a low-cost, all-in-one payment solution acting as a payment gateway. Thus, credit cards and PayPal payments could be directly accepted on a Website. It’s a very nice feature as the customers need not own a PayPal account to pay for the merchandise online.

Manual data reading and encoding are time consuming tasks in the library of a higher learning institution. This is the case of say reading data from id cards for a library system in tracking the books. The scanning system includes a software and bar code reader that are designed to quickly and accurately read the information from a student’s library card. The library id has a bar image, which has equivalent information stored on database, which is processed automatically by bar code readers. The scanning technology is very easy to implement because of the existence of various interfacing hardware and software.

Using some scanning technology like barcode readers that interprets barcodes would make data processing much easier. The bar code readers eliminate the need for manual data entry. Barcode readers are efficient in book inventory at the library. Handheld laser bar code readers like Symbol LS2208 is common sight in point of sale locations. The gun style laser scanner easy to use and facilitates effective book tracking. A bar code scanner is reliable yet affordable scanning technology that could maximize productivity.

Digital cameras are becoming daily gadgets that people use. The technology of capturing digital images has been available to almost everyone that even smartphones have digital cameras on it. If you are fond of taking digital pictures either with a smartphone or a digital camera off loading images to a computer is a daily task.

The task of removing the SD card from the digital camera to transfer photos is for some annoying. Eye-Fi has a solution for this dilemma. The regular looking SD card acts as storage and a full 802.11b/g wireless radio transmitter of data. The Eye-Fi storage card can wirelessly upload pictures from any camera to any Windows or Mac OSX computer.

The Eye-Fi card comes with its own small USB card reader which needs to be connected to a computer that receives the uploaded pictures. Some people don’t like the added complexity of managing setup and upload of images. Eye-Fi card for some though is a convenient gadget for uploading camera pictures to a computer.

Netbooks are very easy and convenient to bring around. A friend has some problem with Samsung N150 netbook as it only shows a blank screen during startup. Pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys didn’t even restart the computer. The netbook is somehow new at me that I have difficulty finding the on-off switch.

I remember having a similar blank screen problem with Acer Aspire One netbook. During startup everything is plain black screen and the keyboard didn’t even respond. I scoured through the Internet doing Google search, but haven’t been successful in finding a solution. I end up in the Acer Service Center with that particular issue resolved through a BIOS upgrade. At that time, I was considering of shopping online a cheap laptop computer replacement , if it was not fixed.

The Samsung N150 netbook was very new. Thus, I doubt about the glossy LCD screen was broken. I tried my luck with various function keys during boot. Well, F2 key got me the BIOS / CMOS setup screen. This means that the LCD screen is not broken after all. I restored the BIOS settings to the manufacturer’s default setting. I started it again and this time pressed F4 to go to restore mode.

It’s good that Samsung N150 has this built-in restore tool. I chose the restore option for Windows 7 installation, which would affect the data inside. After following through the prompts the Samsung N150 netbook computer restarted normally. The usual Windows 7 starter edition startup screen greeted me and the desktop appeared in a short while. Just to be sure I restarted once again the netbook, and it seems that the blank screen finally was resolved.

Modern smartphones comes with a variety of a wide multi-touch display screen. Apple’s iPhone 4 which was released recently sports a 3.5-inch diagonal widescreen. Usually, a phone protective film is placed on those glossy panels.

The iPhone 4 have a new technology specially engineered from aluminosilicate glass, which is 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic. This goes that even without a protective film the glass panel would be scratch resistant.

Buying an iPhone 4 would surely save you some bucks on protective films. This might not be the only reason why an iPhone 4 is so popular on the market. It sure helps to think that you’ve got a smartphone with a glossy glass panel that is ultra durable.

An Internet web presence is an important thing in today’s wired world. Everyone seems to have a foot print on the Internet. There are many social media websites like Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, tweeter, and many others that could be used to promote one’s self on the Internet. However, some courageous soul with a writing spirit uses a blog to express their thoughts on a particular topic.

I have started blogging about three years ago and have hosted immediately on a premium paid wordpress hosting service. Mentors in blogging have encouraged me to register my own domain and start writing anything about work and that’s how www.techxplore.net started. During the early stages, I have been cash strapped. Thus, I subscribed to some affordable web hosting service that offers minimum bandwidth and space requirement for a few visit.

Everything has changed though after a couple of months. The site traffic increased and the 3Gb bandwidth in a month is not enough. Thus, I searched for some paid hosting, which could accommodate the demand. I was looking for services, which have a free domain name, 24/7 technical support and easy to use control panel. I end up with some popular hosting service, but later found to have many problems regarding web reliability. The website is always down, I was even thinking of moving to the web hosting hub service which offers a much better deal.

The only thing that hinders me from immediate blog migration is the bulk of data to be transferred. Although the web hosting service providers assures of a worry-free transfer and no-downtime process, I still had my doubts. I was also thinking of the possibility of trying a b2evolution hosting to see whether it’s better than wordpress blog platform. Anyway, the biggest factor that I am considering is the reliability and affordability. It’s nice also to have unlimited disk space and bandwidth in a premium hosting as it offers the chance to start exploring other forms of the blog platform.

Usually, moving from a free blog hosting to a premium web hosting will be trouble free. I am positive also that there are many advantages with a new web hosting service. Moreover, at a price of less than 5$ a month, it’s worth a try with some 90-day money back guarantee. The risk is very minimum.

There are different computer servers in our working place. We have a mail server, proxy server, database server, web server, ERP application server, and many more. Monitoring each server is a very important aspect of the daily operation. Experiencing a downtime in a server will have the helpdesk hotline flooded with calls.

Thus, server uptime is very important and the goal of system administrators is to have minimal or no downtime at all. A particular downtime could lead to a loss of revenue or profit. There is some mechanism developed that will minimize the impact on the site visitors whenever a glitch is the computer system or computer network happens. System fail over, server load balancing, site redirection is just some of the techniques employed.

Monitoring server uptime in order to minimize downtime and maintain availability could be done by server monitoring software. This software could send an automatic alert through email, pager, and messengers when there is a problem with the computer system, service, device, switches, and more. Computer specialist will be notified immediately whenever the website or server is down or having an access problem.

We’ve use Nagios open source web monitoring solution software for creating a comprehensive IT infrastructure monitoring. Depending on service provided by the server the Nagios monitoring software can check different protocols like HTTPS, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, DNS, Telnet, SSL, TCP at regular intervals. Checking can be done for multiple servers with various operating systems like Linux, Windows and others. A small client application could be installed on the tracked server for detailed ports and services scanning

Having an automatic alert from a server monitoring software makes a difference in reducing downtimes. It also improves customer trust and reduces business loss.

It’s amazing how computer technology has made some impact on desktop publishing. Printing projects that were only possible with a printing shop could now be easily done on a desktop computer at home. So, how’s that for some home money making business? A 17 inch LED-backlit glossy wide screen display Apple MacBook Pro that is powered by 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory is more than is needed.

Things that are impossible a decade ago on a home computer could now be done with the computer power of latest computers. A MacBookPro notebook could do many things when it’s coupled HP Color LaserJet CP1215 Printer. You can start at home a door hanger printing project, envelop address labels, CD labels, and more with the use of a desktop computer and a color printer.

A label design software is as well needed for designing. An easy to use and straight forward printing software is all that matters creating professional quality labels. There are free label making software, but here’s some list of commercial products available on the market.

Some commercial label making software:

• ArcSoft CD & DVD label Maker
• Sure Thing
• Label Design Studio
• Visual Labels
• Label Factory

A criterion to look for in a labeling software is the simplicity. A very easy to use label making software that can be used by people with basic computer knowledge is all that matters. A good choice of a desktop computer a label making software would go a long way in a home start up business.

Controversy has plagued Apple’s iPad touch-screen tablet computer. There are complaints on the lack of features such as Adobe’s Flash technology support on iPad. Some have predicted its doom, but Apple Inc have proven many detractors wrong.

Nearly 3 months after its launch on 3 April 2010, there are already 3 million iPad’s sold on the market. The fast pace of iPad sales only suggests the demand for the device. There’s no monthly detailed report though from Apple, but it’s surely gaining sales.

There are currently few places where iPad is being sold like United States, Australia, Canada, France, German, Italy and Japan. The iPad’s will be rolled out in nine more markets in July, which will guarantee an increase in sales. There’s no doubt that Apple iPad will definitely take market leadership in touch-screen tablet computers. I think it would be high time to grab an iPad tablet computer.