Technology Explained: Understanding The Internet Speed

Cool tip via makuseof.com

 

 

Have you ever done a speed test on your Internet connection? A lot of people have, and they see Internet speed numbers like 500 kbps or 2 Mbps or sometimes even higher numbers. Then they turn around try to watch a streaming video on YouTube and the video stutters or stops for seconds at a time. More often than not, an average computer use will blame the Internet connection speed with a question, such as "Why does the speed test tell me I can download this 3 Mb video in 2 secs, yet it keeps stopping?" Or, "My speed test tells me my upload and download speeds are 512kBps. Why won't my Skype work better?" Hopefully, I'll be able to shed some light on this issue for you and help with understanding Internet speeds.  Your Internet speed test only tells you part of the picture. What a speed test measures is how long a certain amount of data takes to travel to the test server and back to your computer. Based on the size of the file and the time from which it leaves their server to get to your computer, the test calculates your download speed. The size of the file and the time it takes to leave your computer and get to their server determines your upload speed. Usually your download speed is greater than your upload speed. Why is that? Well, with average web usage, you typically send a few letters here, a click there. That's your upload overhead. The website or video that you watch as a result of those clicks and letters is the download over head. It's like you sending a Smart Car to request that they send you a fleet of tractor trailers. You only need one lane for the Smart Car, but you might need 14 lanes for the tractor trailers. This is known as asynchronous communications. This is why your upload speed is usually less than your download speed. So, what does that have to do with your 3mbps connection resulting in jittery video? Exactly that, those speed tests don't measure jitter! Yes, jitter is a real technical term. Imagine a train coming into the station. Each car on that train arrives at the station at the same intervals, because each car is the same distance apart. However, if each car came in with different distances between the cars, well, you can imagine what a mess that would make! It's the same thing for packets of information on the Internet.  The fluctuation of the time between those packets, even if ALL the packets are traveling at 3Mbps causes jitter.  Significantly high jitter levels can cause your VoIP to not work. When we talk our voice is a continuous stream of information, so the data needs to be continuous too!  Same with video! Another cause of Internet speed not being what it seems, is the number of hops a communication needs to make to get to the final server. Let's say you test your speed against server XYZ. Let's also say that there are no hops between your computer and server XYZ. Then you are told your download speed is 3Mbps. Awesome! Now you try to download something from server DFG. Yet, there are 14 hops, or servers, that your communications have to go to, to hit server DFG. Well, whichever one of those hops is the slowest to respond sets the maximum speed of your communication. We like to call that a bottleneck. You can have a Ferrari, but if you're on a dirt road, you can still only go so fast. You never get to go the full speed you are capable of. There are many different points for bottlenecks to show up, between the server you're connecting to, and seeing the final event on your monitor. Your Internet router may be capable of less speed than your Internet connection. That's a bottleneck. Your Network Interface Card may be capable of less speed than your router. That's a bottleneck. Your video card may only be capable of processing the information at a lower speed than your NIC card can deliver it to your computer. There's another bottleneck. One more point to consider is that your bandwidth may be getting divided amongst a number of computers in your home. If my Internet modem is capable of 3Mbps but I have 4 computers downloading things at the same time through the same modem via a router, that 3Mbps resources is now shared amongst those computers. At any point in time, any one of those 4 computers is going to have an Internet access speed less than that of the modem. Well, what can we do about this then? That depends. What do you want to do about it?  What can you deal with? Me, I'm patient enough to download the whole video to my computer and watch it that way. You might not like that. Maybe you'll want to upgrade those computer components that are causing bottlenecks. A new video card with greater processing power. A better wireless router – maybe something in the N class. A different Internet service provider or a higher speed package might be in order. My opinion is to kick back and relax and enjoy the fact that we have this amazing technology. Only 5 minutes to download a song instead of driving to the record store and waiting in line for the latest Rush album. But then again, that's just me! Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

14 Great Cheat Sheets & Posters to Make You a Software Wizard

Great tips via makuseof.com

 

It is a known fact that if you want to commit something to memory, continuous revision is the key. You read something every time you are at your desk and within days it becomes second nature. To be able to revise quickly and often, it helps if the information is terse and to the point highlighting only the important aspects. Something like an application cheat sheet or a poster that you can print and pin to a board or keep on your desk. Here are some application cheat sheets for commonly used software that will hopefully make you more productive. Microsoft Office Need to get that report typed and formatted quickly? Can't find your way around the ribbon interface? Check these out: Explains the ribbon interface, smart shapes, which format to choose and how to do things like adding a digital signature, protecting the document and other little tips. (Download)   Excel 2007 (Download) Word 2007 (Download) PowerPoint 2007 (Download) Outlook 2007 (Download) If you are interested in other Office applications or different version of Microsoft Office, Customguide is a great resource. Browsers Browsers are among most commonly used software these days. You may be using Firefox or Chrome or Opera or even Internet Explorer, the bottomline is you need to get online and browsers help you in doing so. It is always nice to know your browser inside out and have some tricks up your sleeves, here are some cheat sheets that should get you started: Google Chrome Contains keyboard shortcuts, command line switches and the about:urls (Go there) (PDF) Firefox Contains keyboard shortcuts, highlights important directories related to Firefox, and presents a trick or two. It has not been updated for a long time but the information still stands good for Firefox 3.5 (Go there) ( PDF ) Linux This is a huge 18 x 18 in poster that presents you – "The Anatomy of a Linux System". It has a plethora of information about Linux, top Linux magazines, top Linux sites. In addition, it lists the popular software on Linux systems along with the sites and useful books (it's from O'Reilly after all) on each of them. (More) (Download)   Lists commonly used commands, switches and what they do. Good for beginners. (Download)   Looking for something a little more advanced? Linux Administrator's Quick Reference card has you covered with the important files and commands you need to know for system administration. (Download) Credit: Jialong He Vi/Vim One of my personal favorites, I actually learned Vim way back using this. It is a complete tutorial and apart from the all inclusive version, there are ones for individual chapters. You can download the SVG versions and scale them to make a wallpaper if you like! (Download) Photoshop Concisely lists all the common Photoshop shortcuts you should know to make your work easier and faster. (Download for CS4) (Other Photoshop Versions) Twitter Twitter finds its way into everything these days, how could we not have a reference sheet for Twitter? Packed with all kinds of information about Twitter including important pages, desktop clients, widgets and apps, a definition of various Twitter buzzwords and ethics! (Download) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) It has tons of information on what to include in tags, redirects, sitemap syntax, robots.txt syntax and much more. Presents lots of useful information in a tiny little booklet. A must for anyone working with SEO. (Download) Looking for more? I bet you are. Didn't find the one you were looking for? Well there were too many of them to fit in one post. If you are looking for a specific application cheat sheet fire up the request in the comments section, someone might drop you a link. There are two great resources for posters and cheat sheets here and here. If you ever created one for yourself we would love to see them too!

What Is Blackberry Technology? A simple explanation

Blackberry technology and the concept of "push" email e.g Nokia Email explained

Via makeuseof

Many years ago, before there were "internet enabled" mobile devices, I remember shopping the various cellular providers in search of any gadgets that might have the ability to transmit Internet pages over the cellular lines. I was desperate for a way to research eBay prices while sitting at antique auctions. Only a few years later, this technology was realized in the form of the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with Windows Mobile software connecting to the Internet through the "new" 2G data network…the predecessor to today's 3G network and beyond. Not long after PDA's became Internet ready, a company named Research in Motion (RIM) developed a new device, and more importantly a new, groundbreaking technology, that would change the world of mobile Internet access forever. Today I'm going to answer the question, what is Blackberry technology, and I'm also going to describe why it still remains the most effective methods of doing business (or having fun) over the Internet while you're mobile. What Is Blackberry Technology? In all honesty, there's nothing overwhelmingly terrific about the Blackberry device itself. PDA devices had cellphone and Internet capabilities integrated into them long before the Blackberry became a household name. The first versions of the Blackberry weren't leaps and bounds ahead of the leading hand-held mobile devices of the day. With that said, the Blackberry technology itself was a major advancement in mobile technologies, and it's the Blackberry service that ultimately led to the popularity of this device. It's the ability of this service to keep you instantly connected to your home or office network that made it into the leading mobile devices today – with its own cult following of avid enthusiasts and users. So what exactly is Blackberry Technology, and what makes it so special? It's called Push Technology. Push Technology Compared to the PDA "Pull" Method There are different configurations of the Blackberry service, but the most common enterprise setup is with the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES). The entire purpose of this server is to keep all Blackberry users instantly updated the moment any "data event" occurs (my own terminology). To understand blackberry technology, it's important to first understand how the PDAs operated before the Blackberry came along. While most of the discussion centers around email, I like to refer to "data events" as anything that requires an update on your mobile. In the days before PDA became Internet enabled, you would basically do your work while mobile and then when you get back home or to the office, you connect a cable between the device and your PC and do a "sync." During a sync, changes on your device get uploaded to your email or calendar accounts and any new emails or calendar changes at the accounts get loaded onto your PDA. Updates would take place once a day – or whenever you have time to sync the device. However, once PDA devices came integrated with Internet access via cellular data networks, you could sync certain "data events" with your various accounts without having to physically connect to the server. This is illustrated in the figure above. When you want to retrieve new emails on your POP3 or IMAP email account, you tell the PDA to go out and retrieve new emails. The path of data transfer starts with the PDA (the red arrow), and through the Internet-enabled mobile email software which connects with and talks to the email server over the Internet. After retrieving all new emails, the connection to the server is disconnected and new emails are displayed. If you want to reply to one of the emails, you type your reply on the PDA and click send. The cycle starts all over again, with the PDA always initiating communication and requesting updates. Because of this, if you haven't configured your mobile device to automatically retrieve emails, you could go hours without receiving an important email. Push Technology Keeps You Instantly Updated All The Time Now, let's take a look at how synchronization takes place with Blackberry Technology. When you're using a Blackberry device, you can picture your handheld unit as a network device, like a PC on a LAN, that's always connected to your data account through the redirector software. Instead of residing on your mobile device, the software (whether it's BES or desktop redirector software) is installed on the Blackberry Enterprise Server. Communication between the software and the server, as well as the software and your Blackberry, is always a two-way street. Whenever there's a change in your email account, calendar or any other monitored account on either the Blackberry (if you create and send an email) or on the office network (your secretary updates your calendar with a new appointment), the BES immediately updates either the mobile device or the email or calendar account. In other words, Blackberry push technology keeps the device constantly and instantly in "synch" without any effort on your part. What Is So Special About Blackberry Technology? In all honesty, a PDA running Windows Mobile could be configured in much the same way as the BES service. There are new "sync" options being offered every day that can help you to keep your Internet-enabled Windows mobile device instantly up to date. For example, Aibek mentioned a few great sync tools such as ShifD, Mobical or OggSync that will do just that. Another cool method is Karl's use of Mail2Web to sync up his device with email. Or, it could be as simple as using GoogleSync to stay synched up. The fact is, Blackberry Technology was novel when it first came out, however the subsequent lawsuit with NTP, that claimed RIM used its technology already in use for PDAs, was only the first indication that while the technology is certainly effective and valuable – it isn't rocket science. The device is now little more than a status symbol – a way for someone to feel like they're on the cutting-edge of cellular technology. But in a few years, everyone will be instantly connected to their email, calendar and social networks – and it will be on to the next great thing. What's your opinion of Blackberry Technology? Do you think it stands up to all of the hype? Share your own point of view in the comments section below. Image Credit : Edan

 

Cool tip on how To Save Time In Excel By Using The Fill Handle

 

Very cool tip via makeuseof

 

I want to help you get a handle on the handle. Excel has, for quite a few versions now, had a number of shortcuts for using the mouse rather than the keyboard. I want to clarify how some of them work, so you can make the most of the tools at your disposal. Cell handles First off, let me tell you about the various cell handles that Excel makes use of. You use a cell handle by hovering the mouse on various parts of the screen. Fire up Excel and try this for yourself. Nothing beats a little practice. I'm going to show you this in Excel 2007, but only the most advanced options are version-specific. You'll be fine. One thing though. If you don't use the default Windows mouse cursors you might see different sorts of shapes. Change it back to the defaults until you get the hang of this. Select You already use this one, if you use a mouse at all. Hold the mouse anywhere within the confines of a cell in a spreadsheet, and the mouse cursor becomes a small white cross. Hold the left button down and drag the mouse to select all the cells you slide over, in a rectangular shape. That's it. Move If you hold the mouse over the edge of a cell, then it behaves differently. It's quite common for people to do this by mistake, but it's easy to avoid if you take a look at the cursor. It should be a thin black cross with arrow-heads on it. The move handle does exactly what you would think. It moves the current cell, or the current block of cells if you have more than one selected. It's smart though. If the cell you are moving is referenced by formulae in other cells, each formula is automatically adjusted so everything still works. One safety tip. Make sure the cursor isn't over the small black square in the bottom right corner of the cell. You'll be doing something completely different. I'll explain that soon. Copy To copy cells instead of moving them, put the mouse in the same place, and hold down the Control (Ctrl) key. The cursor changes back to a white arrow, with a small black cross beside it. The behaviour is a little different now. If you drag the mouse to another location, the cell or cells you have selected will be copied and pasted there. If the cell contains a formula, it will change its references just the same as it would if you have used copy and paste. The contents of the cell you are copying from will not be changed. Fill Now this is the interesting one – the Excel fill handle. If you hold the mouse over the bottom right corner of the cell or cells selected, the cursor will change to a simple black cross. That's the Excel fill handle, and it does some cool stuff. First off, if you have a formula in the cell, and you want to copy it to some adjacent cells, you can do that. Hold the left button… …and drag the mouse down (or to the right). Release the mouse. What happens in this case is the same thing as you would have achieved with the copy example further up. However, if the cells don't contain formulae then the behaviour is different. If the cells involved have a discernable pattern, then Excel will attempt to extend that pattern as best it can. So imagine the above example again, but pretend, just for fun, that it contains 500 rows, instead of the four shown. You're suddenly required to apply numeric codes to the items… Create the first two, or however many are needed to establish a pattern. Hover over the fill handle… … and drag the cursor down over the next two (or 500) cells. Note the indicator to the right of what the final number will be. Release the mouse. That's it. The series of numbers is extended down over the other cells. Note that all the cells contain the actual values, not a formula. You can use this for much more complex operations, none of which I have room for in this post, including complex lists, custom lists, and copying a formatting pattern along with the value pattern. So tell me, do you use the handles? Did you already know what they do? Have you ever used the Excel fill handle by mistake? I certainly have. What else could I cover in Excel that might be useful? Share your thoughts in the comments.

 

Why corporate IT should unchain our office computers. - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

Why corporate IT should unchain our office computers. - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine
This is a very insightful look and the other side of the common place practice of blocking no work related sites in most corporate offices

6 Reasons Why Mozilla Firefox Is Safe Compared To Internet Explorer

While statistics put Internet Explorer clearly ahead as the most widely used web browser, it's clear to many people that it is not due to the excellent programming. Subject to more than one official inquiry in Europe, and numerous columns, both online and in print, the practice of 'bundling' the infamous browser with the every copy of the operating system represents the primary reason behind its crushing dominance. Alternative web browsers are aplenty and have a low barrier of entry even for less technically savvy computer users, but people are generally not keen to change their habits or spending time researching, downloading and installing another application – especially when the one that comes preloaded appears to be working just fine. 1. Firefox is not perfect software, but its vulnerabilities are fixed in a considerably shorter amount of time. Many new users are curious – is Mozilla Firefox safe? Updates are released immediately, not on a monthly schedule, and clock in at fewer than 10 MB. Users are notified automatically and prompted to install the update with a single click. The update process doesn't take more than a minute on a modern computer. 2. Since Firefox is open source, anyone can look at the source code, anyone can spot a problem and contribute a fix. Would you leave your car keys with a guy that says "trust me" or at a car lot with video surveillance and a logbook? 3. ActiveX applets, the way IE extends the functionality of the browser, are a known highway for malware and viruses. Firefox works with verified and signed add-ons. Even if you choose to install a malicious add-on – and the browser warns you – the damage is limited to the information in the browser whereas ActiveX exploits could be used to take over the whole computer. 4. Conscious users can install NoScript, an add-on that takes care of vulnerabilities that are not yet patched, either in Firefox or other plug-ins such as Java, JavaScript and Adobe's Flash. It achieves this goal by allowing the user to selectively enable interactive objects that the user decides to trust, automatically blocking the rest. 5. Security through obscurity; malicious programmers will always target the browser with the largest user base, especially if that user base is less tech savvy. 6. Firefox uses a service provided by Google that notifies the user before entering a potentially malicious web site. These websites ask for your financial data under false pretenses or contain malicious software often posing as something useful such as codecs or registry fixes. We check the radiator on the car when the temperature indicator turns red; by the time the computer starts acting up or not starting at all, and by all chances appearing to work just fine, your documents, passwords and financial data might already siphoned half a world away. Most people don't realize this, there are no clear warnings, but using Internet Explorer is in itself a security threat. I substantiate that statement by citing the Google Analytics on my blog – there are still people using old, un-patched and therefore vulnerable versions of Internet Explorer. The reasons behind this range from the hassle of dealing with Windows Update, millions of machines without a valid license which cannot access updates and users not realizing the importance of having up to date software. This is not news, yet there are people unaware of the danger posed. Washington Post's Brian Krebs reports on the Security Fix blog "Internet Explorer Unsafe for 284 Days in 2006". Even a fully patched and up-to-date version of IE 6 contains at least 22 discovered vulnerabilities; IE 7 stands at 9 and IE 8 at 2. By comparison, the latest version of Firefox (3.5.1), a free and open source browser, has zero un-patched vulnerabilities; the previous version (3.0.x) also stands at zero. Via makeuseof

Use OfficeTab To Give Microsoft Office Firefox-Like Tabs

 

 

I got a hot tip today on a piece of Chinese software that will make my life MUCH easier by adding Microsoft Office tabs to your installed MS applications. Have you heard of OfficeTab? Well if you are not into finding the latest and greatest software you have probably never heard of it. But I am here to show you what it is, how it works and how to grab it. Interested? Good, I thought that would spark some interest! Feel free to download OfficeTab from this link. BUT WAIT – the catch is that the site is NOT in English. So the direct download link lives here which, if you scroll down to the bottom of the product page, is the only link there. So no need for Google Translations today. The actual application IS multilingual so there are no issues there. Let's take a look at how it works. After downloading the application you have to install it. You will see a screen that looks like this after the initial start… Simply check the Microsoft Office Applications you want OfficeTab to add Microsoft Office tabs to. I left the only three that showed up checked. I guess you wouldn't have a real need for it in Access or Outlook (or would you?) Finish your install and then check out the settings. These are the Excel settings which start with the check box to enable the Microsoft Office Tabs inside Excel. I left the rest of the settings alone until I really get into using the application. The other tabs include WordTab and PowerPoint Tab – they are essentially identical. But peruse them and see if there is something that tickles your fancy like enabling custom colors, changing the hot key to switch labels and more. If you find a particularly helpful option, let us know in the comments. Hit apply if you change anything and let's see how it looks in Word: Wow just like Firefox! Very cool and a lot handier than having to hit the task bar to switch between windows. All you need to do is open multiple files and they will each have their very own tab. Sweet! Let's see how it works in Excel: It works the exact same way in Excel as it does in Word. And guess what? It works the same exact way in PowerPoint as well. It could not be easier and this really helps my work flow. Now here is a little hint that you Firefoxers will love – you can open a new tab the same way you would in Firefox by simply double-clicking the area where the new tab would appear. Go ahead and try it – we will wait. See I told you we would wait. Wasn't that worth it? For me this is going on all my systems where I use Microsoft Office. What do you think? Will this help you work faster? Do you know of other free MS Office plugins? We would love to give them a try. Go ahead and leave them in the comments – I dare you Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

Via makeuseof