The Anarcho Geek Info Center

I’ve been considering switching to mobile broadband for some time now and I think this Christmas is the time to do it. If all the hype is to be believed, then quite a few of us may find we get a laptop for Christmas. A popular broadband comparison site has said that for many families looking for technology gifts the “must have” gift for Christmas will be the free laptop bundles.

It’s not difficult to find deals offering a free laptop, I found quite a few. The major retailers such as PC World are pushing the Asus EEEpc with mobile broadband contracts. If an Asus is not what you want then a wide range of laptop with broadband deals with prices of around £25 per month with laptops such as Toshiba, Acer and Sony are being offered by Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U.

I wouldn’t mind finding an Apple in my stocking; not of the fruit variety. A shiny new Apple Mac laptop would be my ultimate Christmas pressie. Three mobile broadband are offering discounts against Apple Mac laptops, but as with all these offers you looking at signing up to 18-month or even 24-month contracts. I think I’m ready to take on that commitment and be tied into a mobile broadband contract, so the offer of a free laptop makes sense. Mobile broadband is going to be big this Christmas so I won’t be short for choice.

Have a Happy Mobile Broadband Christmas!

Everyone requires laptop computers it seems. How did we exist without them? It looks like the unfortunate manufacturers are also tackling problems that could cause delays. Laptop computers have just been an incredible business to keep tabs on. There has been no let up on sales. It’s an industry which is also difficult to keep up with it respect of of technology because its shifting all the time.

More manufacturers are appreciating that gaming notebooks is becoming large enough sector to enter. These notebooks are also increasing in value because of the difficult competition faced from value laptops. With the advancement of dual core cpus, notebooks are worthy of gaming. With the new found speed also came along more streamlined designs. Gaming performance between notebooks and desktop PC’s should forever be partial to desktops though, simply because desktops are always going to be bigger and more faster. Everyone always wishes to squeeze crazy amounts of juice from compact packages so I would think thats where gaming notebooks are headed.

Talking of gaming notebooks, the greater options are attainable when they are custom built. Memory and disk drives are typically high performance branded parts in custom notebooks which hardcore consumers like. In my view point being able to choose the processor, memory and storage is ideally suited the more demanding users out there. Those notebooks seen in shops are for ordinary tasks. Hardcore users require custom notebooks for this reason. Brands who trade custom notebooks traditionally provide a more personalised and local support too. To me this is a great positive.

We’re observing some fairly cool things at the moment and I question what will hit the market next. A unique thing I haven’t spoken off is the development of cheap ultramobiles. Its funny how a popular notebook has created a new sector. Consumers need sleek, amazingly weightless notebooks but they also want them to have enormous screens. I reckon forming an attractive price point is a big barrier in all this. Surely the technology is available. By Analysing the trends it looks like gaming notebooks will get slimmer and more powerful. We geeks will see something excellent in the next couple of months that’s for sure.

For the price these are the best laptop computers.

Transversely Excited Atmospheric (T.E.A.) lasers have been in general industrial use for laser marking operations starting approximately in the early 1970s and late 1960’s. The T.E.A. Co2 laser has been used extensively for laser marking and laser etching in many industries and on many different types of products. The T.E.A. Co2 laser has been used extensively in the dry food and pharmaceutical industries for laser marking and laser etching of buy dates, product expiration dates, lot numbers and serial numbers.

T.E.A. Co2 laser marking is achieved via the use of a mask or stencil. As the laser beam passes through the stencil, the outline of the mask or stencil is laser marked or laser etched onto the product. Changing the laser mark requires changing of the mask or stencil. In the past this was accomplished by an operator who manually changed the mask or stencil. This process continued until the introduction of automatic mask changers or time clocks several years after the introduction of the T.E.A. Co2 laser. Generally speaking, the use of T.E.A. Co2 mask lasers is limited to applications where the laser mark does not require frequent changes and the laser mark can be altered infrequently. Examples include, once at the end each shift, once a day, or after a long batch processing run of products. Automatic time clock modules are available but generally increment the time only every 15 or 30 minutes.

The T.E.A. Co2 laser requires the use of an external laser gas bottle generally consisting of the following components and approximate % combinations:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2) (around 10-20 %)
• Nitrogen (N2) (around 10-20%)
• Hydrogen (H2)
• Helium (He) (The remainder of the gas mixture)

The gas mixture flows though the laser by use of an internal fan assembly inside the laser head. The medium is combined with an electrical discharge that excites the atmosphere and generates the laser beam. This gas mixture is a consumable of the T.E.A Co2 laser marking or laser etching process. For spark gap driven T.E.A. Co2 lasers a dry air or nitrogen supply to the spark gap is also required.

T.E.A. Co2 lasers employed for laser marking and laser etching are generally air cooled except for the highest speed operations where water cooling may be required. T.E.A. Co2 lasers generally used in industrial laser marking and laser etching applications are capable of laser marking or laser etching up to 90,000 parts per hour. Generally T.E.A. Co2 lasers used in industrial laser marking or laser etching applications produce power levels from 2.0 joules to 5.5 joules depending on the internal configuration of the main capacitor size and rating coupled with the reflectivity of the laser font optic.

T.E.A. Co2 laser produce a very high peak power, up to 10x the peak power of continuous wave Co2 lasers and therefore are extremely useful for Co2 laser marking and laser etching of products that can be difficult for Co2 lasers such as some plastics and resins. With some materials, laser marking and laser etching with T.E.A. Co2 lasers will produce a visible color change to the product. Laser marking and laser etching sealed beam RF excited Co2 lasers will only produce an etch with no color change. The T.E.A. Co2 lasers can produce the change in color for some products along with a laser etch due to the high peak power produced by the T.E.A. Co2 laser pulse.

T.E.A. Co2 lasers have been used extensively up till now for laser marking and laser etching of discrete electronic components such as T0220’s and SOT23’s. The T.E.A. lasers produce a white or blue appearing laser mark on the component when the laser beam interacts with a ‘laser friendly’ ink on the surface of the component. In many of these applications the T.E.A. Co2 laser is coupled with a component tester. If the component passes the test a laser mark is applied. If the component fails the test the part is rejected from the line.

The newest generation of T.E.A. Co2 lasers has very high repetition rates and are used extensive in the Kapton industry for laser drilling purposes.

T.E.A. Co2 lasers generally operate in the infrared light spectrum at 10.6 and 9.4 micrometers. Generally rear optics in the laser cavity are 100% reflective to an extent causing self generated laser beams inside the electrode gap and laser head. The front optics in industrial applications vary between 40% to 70% reflective based on the material being Co2 laser marked, laser etched or laser drilled.

An important advantage of the T.E.A. Co2 laser is that laser light wavelength can be changed from 10.6 micrometers to 9.4 micrometers. This is achieved with the change of the font optic coating. The use of laser light at 9.4 micrometers is very important for Co2 laser marking of certain plastics such as PET or PETE and producing readable color changed Co2 laser marks on bottles. Generally speaking T.E.A. Co2 laser front optics in industrial applications are geranium coated though sometimes zinc selenide is used. Mirrors for turning the laser beam are gold coated and the laser beam profile can approach sizes of approximately 1″ x 1″ depending on the gap of the electrode set.

Jim Morin writes for Worldwide Laser Service Corporation a company that specializes in T.E.A. Co2 lasers. For more information visit http://www.wlsc.com

Making 3D imagery more lifelike/realistic in Photoshop need custom brushes that, as much as possible, conjure up skin texture like the look of body hair, the skin’s surface and it’s structure. Thanks to the continuous creations of custom brushes collection in Adobe Photoshop, this purpose will be achieved.

In the article by Dave Nagel at http://photoshop.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=27156-0, a new series of custom brushes that focus on the creation of textures to be used in 3D imagery has been launched. The first selections were several brushes designed to simulate the appearance of body hair. Such brushes would definitely give the imagery more lifelike in appearance. They have aptly termed it as texture brushes.

Skin texture brushes may not only end with having body hair simulation but also with other elements that may create the effect of other skin textures like smooth skin or rough skin that vary from that with pock marks, pimples, scars and blemishes.

It is then, exciting to note further development and expansion in the custom brushes focusing on the creation of right skin texture for more realistic imagery in Photoshop. Twenty (20) new texture brushes, covering skin textures called NagelSeries 20 are launched for generating a variety of skin textures. There is a custom brush for somewhat smooth skin to skin with freckles, blemishes and pock marks. According to Nagel, the collection is fairly large, consisting of some pretty complex elements that allow you to build up skin textures rather than simply applying them as you might a pattern overlay.

This variety allows for much more skin texture modifications and is very helpful specially when you’re painting on UV maps. In the site, Nagel gave several examples of skin textures created using the custom brushes using several different colors and blending modes. The examples were built up with deep blue base and a secondary deep red layer. Lighter skin tones were then, painted over to achieve desired effect on each. To strengthen the details, color and linear dodges were used in the brushes. Color and linear burns are also added.

You can also tone down the results of the examples given after painting the skin texture and adjusting brightness and contrast. If smoother skins are needed, harsh blending modes should not be used as applied in the examples. This only proves the variety and innovativeness of the new brush collection on skin texture.

You only have to understand that these brushes support Photoshop CS and will not work in Photoshop 7 and below. They are compressed in a Zip archive and you can use any Zip utility to decompress them. The brush file is NagelSeries 20.zip. to decompress it, you have to double-click the file. After decompressing the file, to become NagelSeries20.abr, you could already move it into the Brushes directory of your Photoshop Cs folder (/Adobe Photoshop CS/Presets/Brushes/).

After this download process, you can now use your new custom brush collection! Launch Photoshop, open the Brushes palette and click on the flyaway menu at the top right. Here, you will find the new brush collection and install by simply selecting it. By selecting, the new brushes will appear at the bottom of the list of available brushes.

Surely, you’ll be very eager to start now. Start downloading these new custom brushes and create the appropriate skin texture for your image!-30-

Plan to write an article every 2 weeks or so. You will see a dramatic increase in web site traffic each time you submit yourarticle.. all without spending a dime.
In my previous article (Part 1 - www.isitebuild.com/writearticles) we discussed the 7 ways to benefit from writing an ezine article.

Part 2 will cover the formula and format you can use to write your own article as well as provide valuable resources where to publish your articles for maximum exposure.

How to write your own ezine article

1. Research a topic you are very familiar with or have a passion about. This makes it easier to write and will show through in your writing.

2. Take out a sheet of notebook paper and create an outline of your article. Write down all the points you wish to include. Don’t worry yet about the order because you just want to let your mind flow in the beginning.

3. Write down a number of headings and sub headings that concisely describe your topic. You will probably edit these a number of times before you have finished your article.

4. Write a catchy introductory paragraph that will immediately get the readers attention. If you are writing a “how-to” article, you could first explain the problems people are having “how to do this task”. You then provide the solution to their problems.

5. Offer clear solutions in succeeding paragraphs. These should expand and support the heading, introduction and sub headings.

Write four or five sentences for each paragraph. Your sentences should be formatted to 60-65 characters per line. This ensures your article can be read by all types of email software.

Most ezine publishers prefer short articles under 500 words, others prefer longer copy under 1000 words.

6. Write your conclusion - this paragraph should give a brief summary of what you have just written, emphasizing the main benefits.

7. Include a 5-7 line resource box at the end of the article - give a brief description of who you are, what product or service you are selling, your web site and email address. See the resource box at the end of this article for an example.

8. Revise your article - read through it a number of times so you are sure all the ideas build upon one another, support and expand on your main topic.

Use your spell checker but don’t rely on it (i.e. it won’t pick up the difference between there and their). Use the dictionary for words you are not sure of.

After editing it a number of times, leave it for a few hours or sleep on it then edit it again (or have someone else read it). This gives you a fresh perspective and you will often refine it until it’s near perfect:-)

9. Submit your article to online publishers and article banks - this will potentially give your article exposure to thousands of people.

Article submission resources:

http://www.ezinearticles.com http://www.ideamarketers.com http://www.makingprofit.com http://www.allwebarticles.com http://www.goarticles.com http://www.ezadsuccess.com/articles/submit.shtml http://www.netterweb.com/articles

Article announcement lists

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PublishInYours http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aainet

Directories of ezine publishers

http://www.directoryofezines.com http://www.ezinelocater.com http://www.ezinehub.com http://www.ezineuniverse.com http://www.ezinesearch.com

Software to send out your articles.

Ezineannouncer (Ezineannouncer.com)

Automatically sends your articles to 1000s of ezine publishers, saving you a lot of time and money.

Tips:

Keep it simple - write to appeal to a large audience, so don’t use large words or jargon that people won’t understand.

If you are planning on creating a web page from your article for the search engines, then weave your keywords throughout your text.

Send a thank you note to all people who publish your article. This will help you build long term relationships for your business.

Plan to write an article every 2 weeks or so. You will see a dramatic increase in web site traffic each time you submit your article.. all without spending a dime.

About the Author

Herman Drost is the author of the new ebook “101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site” a powerful guide for attracting 1000s of visitors to your web site. http://www.isitebuild.com/web-site-promotion Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com. You can read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles

I’m passionate about meditation and its benefits, anyone who knows me can attest to that. It’s so much part of my makeup that I really can’t imagine living my life without it and I give it a plug whenever an opportunity arises.

Some of the greatest benefits for me have been my ability to tap into ‘my well of inner peace’ whenever I need to, my connection with, and to, spirit, achievement of greater clarity and balance at the end of each session, and overall wellbeing.

Meditation also gave me something else.
The meditation journey for me involved profound inner change as I stepped into enlightenment. Once that door opened for me, well that was it! No turning back…ever - something which no-one ever told me.

Enlightenment, for me, is such a strange thing, and of course is many things to many people. When I stepped into this state of being, I waited for the whiz bang fireworks to begin, hear the blaring trumpets and the voice of God (which I imagined would be kind of booming and earth shattering!). I’m not sure what else I expected but what I experienced was a deep sense of stillness. The door opened, I stepped through the doorway, and how I perceived life changed forever. The clarity with which I saw things in that moment almost blinded me - yet it was so gentle.

This didn’t mean to say I ceased doing mundane things such as housework, cooking and cleaning. No - unfortunately that continued and continues to this day and will in the future also. Nope, for me enlightenment meant that I simply knew things and accepted; some possibly call this ‘Truth’.

I believe that Truth or Enlightenment is knowing absolutely everything about all things at the exact same time without pinpointing one solitary thing.

Truth is much like acknowledging anything really, in a passive way. Words are grossly inadequate in describing this sense of being. All I can say is it’s simply too HUGE to explain with words but it’s something I experience whenever I meditate, or zone out.

I’m not immune to daily issues however I’m not impacted to the same degree as before either. I can say that whilst chaos reigns around me I can easily tap into my well of inner peace. It’s helped me through the many trials and tribulations I call life and thank my lucky stars that I started practising meditation when I did.

Of course this practise is open to anyone who’s willing to put in the time and practise (it took me five months to really get going). Once you begin this journey you’ll notice how much more peaceful, centred and balanced you become.

I’ve often heard say “I’d love to meditate because of my anxiety and stress levels, however I have absolutely no time…”

If you have next to no time - many don’t and sometimes I don’t - however you’d really love to begin meditating because you believe there are benefits for doing so, consider this. Three minutes is a passing conversation with a work colleague at the elevator door, three minutes flicking through a magazine at the newsagency or news stand, or three minutes admiring a merchandise display outside your favourite store window. You could do a three minute breath meditation, three minute journal writing, three minute focus on an object, or even take a three minute walk. See! In next to no time at all you could be meditating and accessing your own well of inner peace!

Meditation could bring about profound changes for you too, as well as achieve overall wellbeing, peacefulness, clarity and balance, and connection to spirit and yourself. There are six billion people on this planet so your experience will be different to mine.

If you’ve never tried it before why not try it sometime soon, you might just get to thoroughly enjoy the benefits it can bring.

My full story can be found at http://www.michaelascherr.com/

About the Author

Michaela is a Transformational Coach, certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), writer and Metaphysician who is totally committed to helping others create positive and action oriented changes to their lives (see http://www.michaelascherr.com)

Michaela is the author of several e-books including Book of 10 Colour Meditation Scripts and publisher of a monthly newsletter called From My Desk.

Rizeon in the UK seem to be getting some positive feedback on the net yet I had never even heard of them until crawling through the notebook forums. Their whole laptop range seems to be focused on the high end of the performance scale, featuring Intel centrino technology and targeted towards speed freaks and gamers. Buying a Rizeon laptop is not cheap. As they are all performance focused the starting prices are in the region of £600 up but after comparing some other prices I think it’s fair to say they are some of the best value laptops around. Specification for specification they usually work out cheaper and they don’t even skimp on the quality of parts. According to their site they include brands like Seagate, Kingston and Intel. They do pride themselves on providing highly reliable, quality laptops.

Rizeon’s website is rather easy to use and it’s good to see the large range of upgrade options available. I always prefer custom built laptops because the standard laptops you see in retail stores just lack performance parts. Rizeon’s current range varies from 13.3inch up to 17inch systems with the latter being primarily positioned as a gaming laptop because it features the Nvidia 8800m GTX graphics chip, the fastest available today. I must say I’m very impressed on first glance. It’s refreshing to see that you can buy very high specification notebook computers without having to pay the premium prices like when buying from the larger companies. Sure there are other companies doing similar things but they seem to be targeting other markets or trying to battle with the big boys in the market place which is generally a losing battle. You do get a lot of bangs for your buck when buying Rizeon laptops so I would recommend checking out what’s on offer.

If you were advised that you can’t learn Linux using your Windows XP computer,you were given wrong information.

My friend: Do you have one or two computer home?
Do you want to learn linux in both cases?

For the longest time, most computer users who wanted to learn Linux, were always told that they have to take In-class courses. They were also advised to register with special training programs that cost at least $2500 for 4 days.

It sounded like learning Linux would cost thousands of dollars, and the worst part, the programs were so condensed in 4 days.

It is very difficult to comprehend the information that fast. That is if you can afford it.

There is another misunderstanding about learning Linux. Most computer users thing they need another computer devoted for linux, because they have one computer running Windows XP.

Most users who have Windows XP are used to many microsoft application that are widely used at work and at home.

How do I know about the above situations? I was in the same position in the last couple years. I wanted to learn Linux, I don’t have two computers home, and I can’t afford to
pay $2500 for a very condensed 4 day class.

The above problems urged me to work hard a go through lots of trial and error to figure out how to install both operating systems: Windows XP and Linux on the same computer, using
one hard disk.

That above statement is correct. I installed Windows XP and Linux on the same computer. Now, I can run Windows XP or Linux.

All what I need to do to switch between both operating
systems, is rebooting my computer and picking the one I want to use.

In summary, learning linux from heme can be fun, useful, beneficial, and saves you thousands of dollars. Also, you never have to get rid of Windows XP. You can keep both on the same computer.

Thanks

George Chamoun

Finally! A Quick and Easy instructional guide For YOU that consists of (part 1) and (part 2). Part 1, shows you how to remove one Operating System from your dual boot windows Xp, and Part 2 shows you how to install another operating system on your Windows Xp computer without spending outrageous fees for computer technical support. Click the link: http://www.dualbootguide.com

Self-Acceptance, Growth and Learning

Robert Elias Najemy

Many people believe that they must be dissatisfied with themselves, or that they must reject themselves, or feel guilt or shame in order to have a motive for self-improvement or growth. They wonder, If I accept and love myself as I am, what motive will I have for continuing to change, grow or improve? “

Accepting ourselves, as we are, is not a deterrent to continuing our efforts to learn, grow and improve ourselves. We can easily accept ourselves and still continue to improve our character and increase our knowledge.

The First Grader

Perhaps the example of children in grade school will help us to understand this. These children in the first grades of grade school do not reject themselves because they are not in a higher grade, or because they do not know as much, or are not as capable as those children in the higher grades. They accept themselves as they are, and are happy with themselves with their present level of abilities and knowledge.

Yet, no child would accept remaining in the same grade the next year or year after year.

In the same way, there is no conflict between accepting and feeling comfortable with our temporarily limited abilities and lower level of conscious, and our need to continue growing. It is natural to accept and love ourselves at his present stage of growth and simultaneously to attend to learning, evolving and improving ourselves

Growth is a natural instinctual need. Scientists have discovered that when a person learns something new, this creates the excretion of endomorphines and other positively reinforcing chemicals in the brain. Learning brings pleasure, when it is natural and not connected to fear of rejection and failure.

But there are yet other motives for action and growth, and these are love and the need for creativity. We need to love and to create, just as we need to sleep and eat. These are basic needs, even if they are higher on the need-hierarchy scale.

Thus, even if we do not have self-rejection or dissatisfaction as a motivating force, we will always have love and creativity as motivating forces to grow, create and produce.

Let us grow naturally without fear or self-doubt.

We are all in the first grade of the school of spiritual growth.

But we need to prepare ourselves to be in the second grade next year, and the third the year after and ?..

(Adapted from the “The Psychology of Happiness” by Robert Najemy available at http://www.Amazon.com and http://www.HolisticHarmony.com. This book and other writings can be viewed at http://www.HolisticHarmony.com where you can also download FREE articles and e-books.)

About the Author

Robert Elias Najemy is the author of over 600 articles, 400 lecture cassettes on Human Harmony and 20 books, which have sold over 100,000 copies.
He is the Founder and director of the Center for Harmonious Living in Greece with 3700 members.
His book The Psychology of Happiness; ISBN 0-9710116-0-5 is available at www.amazon.com and http://www.HolisticHarmony.com. where you can view and download FREE articles and e-books.

Passing the BSCI exam and earning your CCNP certification demands that you add greatly to the networking skills foundation you created when you studied for your CCNA certification. You learned quite a bit about static routing and default static routing when you passed the CCNA test, and it does seem like that should be all you need to know about static routing, right?

One thing you’ll learn as you continue to earn Cisco certifications is that there’s always something else to learn! You may have heard the term “floating static route”, which does suggest some interesting mental pictures. “Floating”? Floating on what?

In a way, a floating static route is “floating” in your routing table. A floating static route is a route that will be used only if routes for the same destination but with a lower administrative distance are removed from the table. For example, you could be using an OSPF-discovered route as your primary route to a given destination, and the floating static route would serve as a backup route that would be used only if the OSPF route leaves the routing table.

Now, how can that happen? After all, OSPF has an administrative distance of 110 and static routes have ADs of one or zero, depending on whether it’s configured with a next-hop IP address or a local exit interface. One way or the other, 1 and 0 are still less than 110!

When you want to configure a floating static route, you must assign the route an AD higher than that of the primary route. In this case, we’ve got to create a static route with an AD higher than 110. We do this by using the “distance” option at the end of the “ip route” command.

R1(config)#ip route 110.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 172.12.123.1 ?

<1-255> Distance metric for this route

name Specify name of the next hop

permanent permanent route

tag Set tag for this route

R1(config)#ip route 110.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 172.12.123.1 111

The number entered at the very end of the “ip route” command is the AD of that route. If there is an OSPF route for 110.1.1.0 /24, that will be the primary route, and the floating static route will not be used unless the OSPF route is taken out of the routing table.

Floating static routes aren’t just a good thing to know for the BSCI exam and your CCNP certification pursuit - they’re very practical in the real world as well.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP and CCNA tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the www.thebryantadvantage.com/CCNPStoreBSCI.htm “>CCNP exam with The Bryant Advantage!