Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Computer Recycling For Environmental Issues

The IT production industry has a Large Carbon footprint, which can be reduced through the re-use and re-deployment of redundant IT equipment namely Computer Recycling.

We're all aware of the impact our use of scarce resources is having on the environment.
Two years ago saw a sudden and prolonged increase in the price of steel, copper and gold. These were brought about mainly by the rapid and somewhat unexpected growth in the Chinese economy. Why should this have any effect upon the recycling of computers you might ask? Depletion of non re-newable resources leaves only two options, find a new material (very expensive) or find a way to recycle and extract the old. With the Price of gold hitting 0 per troy ounce, it suddenly became extremely viable for recyclers, such as our selves to market our services. There's been a very big boom in computer recycling over the past year.

Most of the environmental concerns with computers lie with the monitor, specifically its cathode ray tube (CRT). Each color monitor contains, on average, four to five pounds of lead, considered hazardous waste when disposed of. Computers also contain other hazardous materials, including mercury, cadmium (a known carcinogen), and hexavalent chromium (shown to cause high blood pressure, iron-poor blood, liver disease, and nerve and brain damage in animals). Over 314 million computers were thrown away at the end of 2007, containing 1.2 billion pounds of lead, 2 million pounds of cadmium, 1.2 million pounds of hexavalent chromium, and 400,000 pounds of mercury.

Computer Recycling For Environmental Issues

Part of the problem computer recycling has is, after upgrading computer systems, most organizations store their old computers, which serve as backup equipment in case newer computers break down. These old computers often sit in storage well beyond their potential useful life. At some point, a decision must be made about disposal of this equipment. Continuing to store it is often not a viable option, it eventually takes up a considerable amount of space. The least desirable option is to throw old computers into the bin. Computer recycling comes to the fore in every scenario possible, not just the effect it has upon the environment, there is also the possibility of someone removing hard drives and recovering sensitive data.

A number of factors have led to an upsurge of interest in people wanting to recycle old computer kit, including growing awareness around environmental issues, as well as the recent introduction in the UK of the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive. (1 - June - 2006)

At the time of first writing this article the BBC News website had an excellent article about identity theft and the disposal / recycling of old computers and I quote from that article "Bank account details belonging to thousands of Britons are being sold in West Africa for less than £20 each, the BBC's Real Story program has found.

It discovered that fraudsters in Nigeria were able to find internet banking data stored on recycled PCs sent from the UK to Africa."

This drives home the point that you should destroy the data on your hard disk - before getting rid of the computer or hard disk in it. Computer recycling, isn't always about the environment, but of company and national safety importance too.

From an environmental point of view it is far better to recycle your computer at an official recycling center than to dispose of it. It may even be illegal in some countries to dispose of electrical equipment by any other method other than by taking it to an approved computer recycling center or sending it back to the original manufacturer.

Computer Recycling For Environmental Issues
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

John Pettifer is managing director of a computer recycling company Recycling-IT. Due to his concern in environmental issues. [http://recycling-it.co.uk]

mobile phone watches Cuisinart Food Processor 10 Cup Cheap Cuisinart Food Processor 12 Cup Cheap Cuisinart Elite Mini Prep Cheap Prices

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

How To Backup Access Databases: Learn My 5 Different Methods To Backing Up Your Access Database File

With the release of Microsoft Access XP/2003 users were able to back up your databases via the tools and utilities section of the software application. Prior versions meant having to take a manual file copy via either Windows Explorer or some other file management systems.

Since these database files are singular files (stored as either .MDB or .ACCDB), taking a copy is very straight forward indeed and the first method quickly covers this option.

How often have you had to rely on restoring a corrupted file or lost data from tables that without such a 'plan B' contingency, you were in trouble? The answer to this question is that if you had bothered to back up your files then the 'law of averages' suggest you would never have to rely on it in the first place - image if you hadn't bothered taking a back up, what the law of averages would be saying to you right now!

How To Backup Access Databases: Learn My 5 Different Methods To Backing Up Your Access Database File

In this article, I'm going to show you 5 different ways on how to backup Access database files starting with the simple conventional route:

1. Normal feature - In the later versions, you simply call the backup command. Depending which version you use, this will vary in terms of where you need to navigate. With versions prior to 2007, you will need to go to the Tools menu and under Database Utilities choose the Back Database command and follow the simple steps.

Later versions including the current 2010 version is managed via the backstage (File tab or Office button) under Save & Publish. Again, the steps are simple to follow.

2. Exporting objects - In the Navigation Pane or Database Window, you can select and right mouse click on any object type and choose the 'Export... ' option and complete the prompts and file formats as you output.

In the later versions, this can be done on multiple selections too saving some extra time. The tables containing real data will give you the most flexible of output types compared to say a module or macro which in that case you will want to export to another pre-defined database file first.

3. Action queries - There are four Action queries at your disposal and using two types here will deposit data and remove data. The two types are called a 'Make-Table' and 'Delete' queries where the first will create a new table on the fly (ideally in another pre-defined database file) appending the data to it followed by the second query removing the data from its original source (if required).

The second Action query may not be required if you intend to only copy and not move the data which is what a back should really designed to do in the first place. You could always consider using the 'Append' query instead; another Action query.

4. Macros - If you know anything about macros then you can automate selective backups by wrapping the above Action queries into one procedure call.

There are other macro commands like transferring and exporting data and different versions of this application will have some distinctive actions too. Access 2010 has a better interface making it more user-friendly.

5. VBA code - In an ideal world, programming with VBA (Visual Basic for Application) your database application will give you the full power and control over how to backup and be selective too.

Clever coding allows users to interact and be very selective and attach these routines to various events as well and add other enhancements like compacting and repairing the database along the way.

The above choices will give you total control on how and what to back up if you do not want take a full copy all the time. You will need to be familiar with VBA in order to apply the last item here and I can always provide some sample code for you when you visit my website (below).

How To Backup Access Databases: Learn My 5 Different Methods To Backing Up Your Access Database File
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Another Tip for you! If you decide to apply the other ways to back your database objects up with then remember that you are being selective on which items you choose. I would also take a full backup periodically just as a way to keep archives especially when developing your Access database.

I invite you to keep up to date with my articles and eBooks which covers a lot of details and can be found at http://AccessDatabaseTutorial.com.

From Ben Beitler - "Your Access Database Expert"

watches cell phone Cuisinart Food Processor 11 Cup Cheap Cuisinart Elite Mini Prep Cheap Prices

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Cloud Storage: A Complete Data Backup and Restore Solution

Most of us work day and night on computers and keep saving our work by simultaneously pressing the Ctrl + S keys. Since we do not want our work or other data to be lost due to sudden power outage, hard drive failure, or virus infection, we continue to save it.

Over a period of time, our computers becomes more like a storage house that has saved documents, screenshots, family photos, videos, banking details, emails, contacts, presentations, and downloads among other things.

The point is that if we care so much about our data then why most of us miss out on backing it up. Why most of us remain in dilemma over regularly backing up our data when our digital life (and also real life) is always at risk of being ruined due to cyber threats, hardware problems, catastrophes like floods, thefts etc.

Cloud Storage: A Complete Data Backup and Restore Solution

Since computers are susceptible to these critical situations and problems that may occur and recur during their normal course of operation, data backup is absolutely vital. It will not only keep data safe and intact but also help restore it in the time of need.

Today there are more data backup and storage options including cloud storage available to customers as compared to a few years back when there were only low-capacity floppy disks, tapes, and CDs available in the name of storage devices. Since than storage devices have come a long way. There are now large-capacity hard drives, CDs, thumb drives, and pen drives etc. available for data storage.

Some of the users have been relying on these external storage devices from a long time to back up and restore data. However, with the arrival of cloud storage, external storage devices have taken a back seat. Cloud storage has completely changed the way users backup and restore their data. The solution has given users extra reasons to safely back up data and restore as many times as they want. Let's take a dig at the differences between cloud storage and local storage (external devices):

Cloud Storage vs. Local Storage:

Compared to external storage devices, cloud storage, a.k.a. online storage offers a complete data backup and restore solution to customers. Just like computers, external storage devices are also susceptible to catastrophic damages, hardware problems, and virus infections.

Users have to take utmost care of them to protect them from catastrophic damages, accidents, moist, and unauthorized users. You can't even share your hard drive data with anyone else because there are chances that the person you share it with may have a virus on his computer. If plugged into an infected computer, your hard drive will also get infected and all the date on it will be erased.

Backing up data on hard drive is a major concern today due to aforementioned problems. Moreover, it's cumbersome, time-consuming, and still vulnerable to data loss. Facts collected from miscellaneous sources confirm the at least one out of four hard drives get crashed, causing irrecoverable data loss.

Facts also confirm that users spend around ,000 on recovering data from hard drives. It is a 1,000 times greater than what is spent on storing your files on a cloud server. Cloud storage subtracts all these possibilities from users' lives. With cloud storage, the data is backed up on a cloud server, which is connected to an online network or a data center.

Unlike external storage devices, you can back up and restore unlimited times and with complete freedom with cloud storage. To back up on external storage device, you will have to connect it to your computer. You will also need to spare a great deal of time regularly to update your database on the hard drive.

However, with cloud storage, you simply have to install an application on your computer and start backing up as much data as you want on the cloud server. Just like you schedule your Outlook emails to be sent later, same way you can schedule automatic backups. The cloud storage application installed on your computer will automatically back up and sync data stored on it without your manual intervention.

Thus you need not regularly spare time for data backups. It's only done once and forever. Cloud storage don't require maintenance like external storage devices. With SSL and FTP encryption technologies, you need not worry about data safety. It's always safe and protected from data thefts, catastrophic damages, and hardware problems.

Even if your computer has crashed, you can safely recover all your data stored on the cloud server to your new computer or mobile phone. Yes, only cloud storage gives you the option to upload and recover your data from your mobile device.

Besides, if you have multiple computer users in your home or office, you can create sub-accounts for them. They all can back up their data in their individual accounts and restore them to their computers or mobile devices. With cloud storage, you have round-the-clock access to your data. In fact your data remains with you forever.

However, you won't find this flexibility with external storage devices. You can't always carry them along. You may even drop them accidentally or forget to pick them up from the place you drop by. However, with cloud storage, you won't have to go through this pain as your data always remains accessible to you.

Cloud storage also allows you to share your data including multiple large-capacity files easily with your friends, family or colleagues. You will never have to sit back and wait for the transfer to complete. Cloud storage is fast and user-friendly. You may need not even send a file to your friends or family, simply send them its link (URL) and you are done.

Compared to local storage, cloud storage is convenient, handy, lightening fast, affordable, secured, and safe. That's why cloud storage is a completed data backup and restore solution as compared to the local storage. It's the best, contemporary data backup and restore method available to users.

Cloud Storage: A Complete Data Backup and Restore Solution
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

The Author of this article is associated with V tech-squad Inc, V tech-squad Inc. is a cloud based technical support provider to consumers and small businesses. if you have any problem while performing the above steps and need technical assistance for online backup support, You can reach V tech-squad online technical support at their Toll Free No +1-877-452-9201.

About V tech-squad Inc.

V tech-squad Inc. is a cloud based online technical support provider to consumers and small businesses. V tech-squad provides support to users for issues with their PCs, Mac's, Tablets, Phones such as iPhone and BlackBerry and devices such as MP3 players, Printers, Scanners, Fax, Wireless networking gear, Netflix, Roku boxes and TVs. With an obsessive focus on quality and building technical expertise, V tech-squad continues to maintain an issue resolution rate of more than 90%. V tech-squad's credibility has been tested by more than 10,000 customers. Currently V tech-squad provides support services to consumers and small businesses in United States. For more information on V tech-squad, Inc. visit vtechsquad.com.

watches cell phone Cuisinart Elite Mini Prep Chopper Cheap

Friday, December 7, 2012

What are MP4 Files - and What Do They Do?

MP4 is short for 'MPEG-4'. The official file extension for MPEG-4 is .mp4 - hence the shortened name MP4.

MPEG-4 technology has been developed to provide DVD quality audio and pictures in an extremely small file size - ideal for playing on portable MP4 players such as the iPod Video.

MP4 is here to stay. The Apple Corporation themselves describes MP4 as "the global multimedia standard, delivering professional-quality audio and video streams over a wide range of bandwidths, from cell phone to broadband and beyond". Thy go on to say that "hundreds of researchers around the world contributed to MPEG-4, which was finalized in 1998 and became an international standard in 2000".

What are MP4 Files - and What Do They Do?

The BBC confirms that MPEG-4 is used to compress video and is the successor to MPEG-2. They also explain that the version that can turn massive movie files into a handier size has escaped on to the Internet thanks to Microsoft. Microsoft developed the software to compress and decompress video, which is called a called a codec. (A codec is a device or program capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal. The word codec means Compression/Decompression algorithm)

The codec helps the Windows Media Player program handle moving pictures sent over the web. Other web based media players such as the Real Player will also play the MP4 file format as long as you have the latest version downloaded. You have to download the latest MP4 Codec to your own digital media player to ensure MP4 file playback compatibility.

However, an MP4 file doesn't only refer to video content - an MP4 file can also be an audio file. Many people think that the MP4 format will be both the visual and audio standard file format of the future.

The iPod Video is by far the most popular MP4 Player on the market. But iPod don't want us to call it an MP4 Player even though it plays MP4 file. Why? It might be because you might then choose another MP4 Player instead!

Another high-profile recent MP4 Player launch is the Zune Player by Microsoft. Surprisingly though, ZDnet.com discovered that at the time of the launch, Zune devices only play protected files from the Zune marketplace.

This is where Microsoft and Apple are both arguably guilty. Both companies are dubiously controlling certain markets. However, this can give the advantage to the MP4 Player consumer. If you take the time to convert your video files to MP4 (for which there is free software available) then you can play them on your cheaper MP4 Player, which probably has more functions than the Video iPod. Even if you choose to move to the Video iPod in the future, you can still transfer your old MP4 files.

The MP4 file format will be integral to the future of web based videos and portable media player videos. It is a global multimedia standard, every increasing in popularity. It is the file format that best insures the mass acceptance of your own media files on various types of media players.

What are MP4 Files - and What Do They Do?
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

David Bain is founder of the MP4 Player resource, http://www.MP4PlayerGuide.com. The MP4 Player Guide provides information on MP4 players, MP4 player accessories and MP4 technology.

watch cell phone Cuisinart Food Processor 11 Cup Sale Cuisinart Food Processor 11 Cup Cheap Akribos XXIV Excaliber Chronograph Cheap

Sunday, December 2, 2012

How to Recover Data From Failed Hard Drives

There are two main methods of recovering data from failed hard drives.

First of all, you can run specialized data recovery software that could retrieve all of your important data files. In the majority of cases, you will be able to recover the data from your failed hard drives without too much trouble using data recovery freeware, or purchase fully supported software if you prefer.

Please note hat data recovery is not always possible if the actual problem is due to aging or faulty hard drive component such as a broken head arm. In those extra-ordinary cases you would have the hardware fixed by an expert technician before being able to access any of the precious data on the hard drive.

How to Recover Data From Failed Hard Drives

As far as data recovery in concerned, there are no limitations to the physical size of your hard drive. Whether you are trying to recover data from a 1 MB pen drive or a 300 GB Ultra-SCSI drive, you should still be able to recover the data.

Additionally, there are no limitations to the different types of operating systems which you may be trying to recover data from, such as Microsoft Windows to Linux systems. This also extends to include different file formats such as FAT32 and NTFS which are very common file formats for Windows systems, or the Mac OS file system used by Apple Macs.

Information can be retrieved from all sectors of the hard drive - even files that you may have deleted in the past which had ended up in recycle bin prior to your hard drive failing would be recoverable.

Secondly, data recovery experts will be able to recover lost data from most damaged hard drives. It's not surprising that most common damage is attributable to drop damage and spill damage, especially in the case of laptops.

At the corporate level, most companies use RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) configurations to protect their data and to negate the impact of a single hard disk drive failing. There would be no loss of data if one of the disks in a RAID 5 disk-set failed as you would be able to re-construct the data for the failed member from the remaining disks. However, if the entire RAID volume failed, then that would be a cause for concern.

In the case of a RAID volume failing you would have little alternative but to send your hard drives to a data recovery expert to restore the RAID configuration as well as the data. This would also be the case if your disk partition failed and you were unable to access the data held on that particular partition or disk.

The recovery of your important data and files from failed hard drives is possible using data recovery software. If your hard drives are badly damaged, or the RAID volume-set has failed and the data on the hard disks is inaccessible, requesting professional assistance from data recovery experts would be a better option.

How to Recover Data From Failed Hard Drives
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

For practical advice and information on data recovery freeware, software programs, tools and utilities to help you safely recover your data, please visit our website, http://www.datarecoveryfreeware.net

watch cell phone Akribos XXIV Excaliber Chronograph Cheap Cuisinart Food Processor 10 Cup Cheap