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Are you thinking about taking the plunge into the world of web 2.0 with your library and creating a wiki? I recently put together a successful wiki for my college library and so I would like to share some success tips for how to do it successfully.

1. Which wiki platform are you going to use? This is crucial because there are hundreds of them out there and they all vary in terms of ease of use, price, and setup as well as the ability to control who can view your wiki as well as who can post to your wiki.

2. Do you want to use your wiki exclusively as a method of organizing and changing material on your website? Or do you want to use the wiki to allow your patrons to interact with each other?

3. What is the exact purpose for your wiki? To communicate between library employees? To communicate with your patrons? To let your patrons communicate with each other?

4. What content are you going to include on your wiki? Just links to other pages on your library web site, a searchable library catalog, information about library classes and events, popular books, news and announcements or other items?

5. Do you want to pay for a wiki service or do you want to use a free wiki?

6. Is there a tech support person available to help you install your wiki and to assist with some periodic maintenance? If not, do you have a librarian who can take charge of the wiki and its updates and the technological side of maintaining a wiki? A wiki is a lot easier to use and keep up with on a regular website, however, you can’t just put it up and never spend time working on it.

7. It also helps if you can develop some wiki specific content. In our case we created subject pages for each of the major subjects taught at our college and included links to databases, magazines, books, ebooks, specialized encyclopedias and websites for each subject. We also have our library news and policies amongst other items of interest to our patrons on our wiki. You need to give your patrons a reason to read the wiki and to use it.

8. Wikis are one of the technologies of the future and as more and more libraries and other businesses begin using them, it is to your advantage to learn how to use one and to decide if it is right for your library.

MS Word has a very powerful functionality hidden under its hood.

You can import text and images from any other document or web site into your current document without copying and pasting anything.

You can import external content into the body section of your document, as well as into your headers and footers.

NOTE: Whatever you import into headers and footers will be repeated automatically on every page.

WARNING 1: if you are importing from the Internet, make sure you are not trying to import the whole content of a mega web site like Amazon.com since that will certainly crash your system. Do not type the URL of the Index page of big web site since MS Word will attempt to download everything on that site! You have to be careful not to bite too much.

WARNING 2: you should also not import any copyrighted materials from the Internet unless you have the written permission of the site owner, or the material is clearly marked as “Public Domain” content, like the images you can find on Wikipedia. Downloading copyrighted materials for your own use is a violation of the copyright law.

A good practice is to import a single image that sits on its own page and can be reached through a specific URL.

This is how you do it:

1) Place your cursor where you want the new text or image to appear.

2) Then select Insert > Field from your main menu.

3) Select “Include Image” or “Include Text” field from the list-box.

4) In the “Filename or URL” field, type in the address of the file on your hard drive, or the web site URL.

If the text document you want to import is in the same local folder as your current document, then all you need to type in is the full name of that file.

For example, if you are trying to import the content of a local file named “File1.doc”, then all you need to do is type “File1.doc” into the “Filename or URL” field.

Let’s say, however, that your current document is saved in the My Documents folder but you are trying to import content from a file named “sample.doc” saved on the C drive, then this is what you would type:

C:[forward slash]sample.doc

5) Click OK and the content you want will appear in your document.

If you are familiar with any graphic design software, than the Free Transform Tool in Adobe Flash should seem fairly familiar. The tool is pretty universal and works the same way as it does in programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. However, if you’re new to Flash and the Free Transform Tool, it’s not hard at all to grasp. Simply put, the Free Transform Tool allows you to resize and skew drawings and symbols. This can be especially useful not only in resizing drawings, but doing simple animations as well.

One thing to be aware of when using the Free Transform Tool is the difference between resizing drawings and symbols, especially if you have lines in the object. When you resize a drawing with the Free Transform Tool, lets say for instance a rectangle with a 1 point line border, the line width stays the same. This isn’t the case with a symbol though. Take the same example, a rectangle with a 1 point border, except turn that rectangle into a symbol then resize it, the border width will actually change depending on how you resize it. If you make the symbol bigger, then the line will get thicker. If you shrink the symbol, the line will get skinnier. This is important to remember because sometimes you will want the line to remain the same size and if its a symbol, you may need to break the symbol apart, resize it as a drawing, then reapply it as a symbol.

The Free Transform Tool can allow for a simple, yet neat animation effect. Lets say you are tweening an object and want it to appear as if it’s approaching the screen. This can be easily done by putting the object on one frame then a few frames later enlarging it. Put a tween function between these frames and you have what appears to be an object coming towards the screen. Adjust the number of frames in between and frame rate to change the speed of the motion. And of course you can do the reverse effect by having the symbol enlarged on the first frame, than smaller a few frames later to create the effect of something going away from the screen. This may seem simple but it’s a great trick.

To summarize, the Free Transform Tool is great for resizing and skewing objects. And if you’re animating something, you can do some neat 3D-esq effects as well!

Server monitoring tools can capture such a wide variety of server metrics that many find it difficult to determine what metrics they should monitor.

Actually, actor Claude Rains gave us the answer back in 1942. In the movie “Casablanca”, Rains’s character “Captain Renault” announces “Round up the usual suspects” — and that’s exactly where your server monitoring should begin!

Who are the usual suspects? Simple enough — the main components of our server are the CPU, Memory, and the Disk. Applications can become CPU bound, Memory bound, or Disk bound — so we should collect metrics that reflect this.

Our CPU metric usual suspects should be:

Processor Queue Length — How many jobs are waiting to run? (Note: The CPU Load Average available on Unix boxes is a better metric since it’s time-weighted.)

Processor Utilization — On a multi-processor machine, is the work load evenly distributed? Or, is one processor pegged while the others a lightly used?

Context Switch Rate — My candidate for the single most useful “usual suspect”. Context Switch Rate offers a good measure on how “busy” your machine is — or, how much time is wasted on overhead rather than being used for application processing.

CPU Utilization — Not as useful as you might think, but can be useful if you can use it to identify what processes are running at the moment.

Memory usual suspects are:

Pages/Sec — Time spent paging is time wasted.

Pages Out/Sec (or Swaps Out/Sec) — Paging out (or swaps out) suggests desperation; active applications get swapped out because memory has become dear.

Memory Utilization — Paging is more critical, but Total Memory Utilization is useful for capacity planning and trending.

Disk usual suspects are:

Disk Queue Length — How many jobs are waiting to go to disk?

% Disk Time — How much time is spent accessing the disk

This small set of machine metrics make up a very effective group of usual suspects. Basically, you’re looking for situations where your machine is waiting for something. “Waiting” means work isn’t happening!

You can wait for CPU, you can wait for memory, and you can wait for disk access. When you’re waiting for a resource, your system overhead increases — which is reflected in spiking Context Switch rates (the reason I find it the most effective metric). It’s possible for a machine that’s only using 50 or 60 percent of the CPU to be completely hung because of system overhead.

Quite often, you’ll see symptoms ripple through these metrics when situations occurr.

For instance, suppose you have an application that’s spending a great amount of time writing to disk. This causes the disk queues to back up (because all requests can’t get through at once) and the Disk Time Percent to increase.

Because of the Disk backup, disk writes get posted to memory cache. This decreases the amount of free memory available — meaing paging increases. The system overhead involved in managing this situation means Context Switches go up.

The end result — no work gets out; everyone is waiting for something. Your CPU may not even being spiked — because you’re not waiting on CPU, you’re waiting on Disk or Memory! If you’re able to capture the processes running at this time, you can identify the jobs responsible for this situation.

Specific applications may require special monitoring — databases, daemons, numbers of users, etc. However, for general system monitoring, it’s hard to go wrong if you simply “Round up the usual suspects”!

You use a registry cleaner because the Windows Computer Registry is a central clearinghouse used by Windows to maintain and manage all of the data files needed to configure your system for multiple users, run applications, and operate hardware devices. The information contained in the Computer Registry is constantly referenced during operation. This could include the applications and drivers currently in use , user profiles , the types of documents each user creates, property sheet settings for folders, application icons, hardware drivers installed on the PC , and ports currently in use. By reading the list above, you should be able to see how any damage to the computer registry could have catastrophic results. Properly used, a good quality registry cleaner can protect your computer from catastrophic events.

The Computer Registry is a vital part of your Windows Operating System, no matter which version you run. If it is damaged, your entire system may be corrupt resulting in complete system crash. To prevent damage to the registry, it is very important for you to be mindful of what you install on your system. Your registry is active every time you use your PC and may be running applications that you are not even aware you still have, or worse malware that you didn’t know was installed. In addition to being selective about installing software, a good quality registry cleaner will go a long way towards protecting your system and repairing the computer registry if anything does get through.

Every time you install or attempt to install or uninstall a program on your computer, or visit a web page, your computer registry becomes more cluttered with invalid entries, missing shortcut links and install/uninstall errors left behind by software programs and their updates. As the level of clutter grows, it attracts obsolete and unnecessary information, and gradually becomes fragmented. Your computer’s performance gradually degrades and the processor speed slows significantly with this growing clutter in the Computer Registry. Because this degradation is gradual, you won’t even realize it’s happening unless the registry error windows start popping up. That’s generally a good sign that there is a problem and it’s time to look at repair options. If you have the knowledge, you can attempt to find the error manually or call in a professional. No, I don’t mean a repair shop. It’s time to invest in a high-quality registry cleaner. Fortunately, there are many registry cleaner programs available at your fingertips for immediate download.

Search through the available registry cleaner websites to find one that is suitable for your operating system and use it. Proper installation and use of your registry cleaner is vital to the optimal performance of your computer. In case of problems, registry cleaners can backup and restore the Computer Registry with ease because it is contains a program that allows seamless integration with the windows restore point. The registry cleaner uses the restore point to create snapshots of your Computer Registry before making changes or installing new applications. If anything goes wrong with the installation or repair, you can easily restore your previous system configuration. Your registry cleaner will perform a complete registry scan to identify unnecessary or malicious files and target them for removal. Before final deletion, the registry cleaner will re-scan the identified files to check for usability and verify code keys to ensure system integrity.

The Registry Cleaner will also check for missing or incomplete entries associated with COM and Active X controls, uninstall utilities, shared DLLs, and application paths. If necessary, the registry cleaner will correct these registry errors for you. It also contains a startup organizer that gives the user control over which programs to run at startup and which ones to stop, conserving valuable CPU space and speed.

In addition to the registry repair tools, your registry cleaner may come with an Internet Explorer BHO (Browser Helper Objects) organizer which allows users to manage browser plug-in. This simple program allows the user to remove unwanted browser ad-ons like smileys and search tools. In light of all of the issues and benefits discussed, I hope you now understand why a registry cleaner is vital to the function of your computer system.

As all computer users know, no matter what we do, or how careful we are, we all occasionally get windows computer registry errors. Many times we don’t even know where the error is coming from and just learn to live with the problem. A good quality registry cleaner will reduce the headaches associated with those errors you have decided to ignore. Regardless of your level of computer knowledge and even if you don’t know where the error originates, you can use a registry cleaner. If the registry cleaner does not correct the error, try your anti virus and anti spyware before calling in an IT Professional. Some of the most common errors we see on our windows based systems are:

Significant decrease in processing speed

Slow startup

the dreaded fatal Blue screen

Script errors
.ddl and Kernal32.dll error messages

Runtime and 404 errors

Microsoft vbscript error

Although you may not understand what each of those error codes mean, they are very common errors related specifically to the computer registry. When you see these computer registry errors, don’t ignore them or assume that you can fix it with a simple re-boot. To properly repair these errors, you need to remove the error causing entries from your registry. If you are computer savvy, you could try doing it manually but you run the risk of causing additional damage if you accidentally delete an important file. A good registry cleaner will scan the registry and find the errors for you. A comprehensive registry scan will not only identify which entries are causing the errors, it will also find the entries that are no longer needed and remove them to free up space and optimize your computer registry.

How does the computer registry affect the speed of the computer? The easy answer is that overtime you install software and hardware on your computer. Every time you add something new, the install process puts a entry into the computer registry, which is fine as long as you continue to use the program. The problem arises when you no longer need the program and uninstall it or simply stop using it, the uninstall process doesn’t delete the entry and it just sits idly in your computer registry waiting to be used again. Over time, these idle or abandoned files build up in the computer registry and clutter up the works. So now, your computer registry is full of unused files mixed in with the files you still use routinely. In order for the processor to find the right files for the applications you want it to run, it has to sort through all of the old stuff first. Depending on the size of your computer registry, this can take a long time. When you use a registry cleaner to remove the unused entries, your processor doesn’t have to waste time by looking for the right file in a pile of obsolete entries.

A high quality registry cleaner will fix all of your computer registry error and repair accidentally deleted files. My personal choice is is Regcure. I have used this registry cleaner successfully for quite some time. On first use, startup time was decreased by almost half. I recommend that you try a windows registry cleaner program to fix your errors before you take your computer to a shop and pay a large sum of money to a repair tech who will most likely just use his unlimited license for his favorite registry cleaner and do the same thing you could have for much less.

Spyware fix is not really a choice for us, but rather a requirement due to the number of cyber thieves injecting infectious files onto our computers. Some of the spyware is used to track our online behaviors and others are intended to be destructive and annoying. No matter what the intention, our only hope of keeping up with the threats is to consistently complete a spyware fix process on a continual basis. From surfing to free downloads, it does not take long before our computer performance is decreased and we are getting redirected to websites we did not request.

If you have slow computer problems, consistent pop-ups with ads, or crashing or freezing computer issues, you are in need of a solid spyware fix.

The steps below will guide you forward to get spyware removed and will help you get your computer operating at peak capacity again.

Step One: List any symptoms or problems you have observed on your computer

Some of the signs of the presence of spyware, adware, and malware include files opening randomly, annoying toolbars and pop-ups are loaded without your request, keyloggers tracking your personal details through your keystrokes (identity theft), your computer has browser hijackers and you are redirected to sites you did not want, your PC is no stable leading to crashes and freezes, or your system settings are being changed without your request.

The list above will get your started. Make sure to list when and how the problems occur (if you know). The purpose of this step is to give us a foundational list to compare to after the spyware fix is complete.

Step Two: Locate a Quality Spyware Fix Product and Do a Free Scan

The top spyware and adware software products will detect and remove spyware, adware, malware, keyloggers, browser hijackers, Trojans, worms, and pop-up generators. The key is locating one with these features, and most quality programs offer a free scan so you can check for errors without having to pay (until the repair phase).

Once errors are found, a scan display screen will come up that will show the threat name, severity level, a basic description of the threat, and will have a link to more information about the threat. You can choose which to keep and which to rid of. Be careful to save the files that have a familiar name (related to files you use often).

It is good decision to get your mindset off free software. Most free software programs get your permission to inject additional spyware and adware by your consent through the EULA (End User License Agreement). Many people do not take time to read EULA provisions and end up agreeing to have adware installed on their PC that can monitor their web behaviors. In other words, free is not always free.

Step Three: Invest in the Repair Function of the Same Software

To conduct the spyware fix, the only remaining main step is to run the repair function of the software that just did the scan. This is an easy process but does require payment. The payment will get you a one year license so you will have ongoing protection. The repair portion of the process is extremely fast since all of the hard work has already been done.

You can decide from the scan results whether or not you want to make the purchase, but as mentioned, ongoing protection is a must on computers as part of your annual operating plan. There are simply too many threats added daily to avoid ongoing spyware fix steps.

After completing the repair on your computer, ensure that you have your settings in the software set up to scan at regular intervals at times that work for you. In addition, be sure to limit your exposure to websites that may inject more spyware and adware into your system. Especially avoid free downloads that could compromise your system.

To complete the entire process, reboot your PC for the changes to be applied. After the repair and restart of your computer, compare your results to the list you originally created. If there are still symptoms, try another scan and repair round or get a quality registry repair software as another level of protection for your system as the Windows registry is like the brain center of your computer for files and user preferences and can become bloated and causes problems with performance. Spyware fix software and registry software together will create a great level of protection and is well worth the investment.

Abstract:The IBM Rational Unified Process® (RUP®) is a complete software-development process framework that comes with several out-of-the-box instances. Processes derived from RUP vary from lightweight addressing the needs of small projects with short product cycles-to more comprehensive processes addressing the broader needs of large, possibly distributed project teams. Projects of all types and sizes have successfully used RUP. This white paper describes how to apply RUP in a lightweight manner to small projects. We describe how to effectively apply extreme Programming (XP) techniques within the broader context of a complete project.InceptionInception is significant for new development efforts, where you must address important business and requirement risks before the project can proceed. For projects focused on enhancements to an existing system, the Inception phase is shorter, but is still focused on ensuring that the project is both worth doing and possible. During Inception, you make the business case for building the software. The Vision is a key artifact produced during Inception. It is a high-level description of the system. It tells everyone what the system is, and may also tell who will use it, why it will be used, what features must be present and what constraints 1 XP defines three phases: Exploration, Commitment, and Steering. These do not map well to RUP phases so we choose to use the four RUP phases to describe the process exist. The Vision may be very short, perhaps only a paragraph or two. Often the Vision contains the critical features the software must provide to the customer.Four essential Inception activities specified in RUP are:
• Formulate the scope of the project.
• Plan and prepare the business case.
• Synthesize candidate architecture.
• Prepare the project environment.ElaborationThe goal of the Elaboration phase is to baseline the architecture of the system to provide a stable basis for the bulk of the design and implementation effort in the Construction phase. The architecture evolves out of a consideration of the most significant requirements (those that have a great impact on the architecture of the system) and an assessment of risk. The stability of the architecture is evaluated through one or more architectural prototypes.In RUP, design activities focus on the notion of system architecture and, for software-intensive systems, software architecture. Using component architectures is one of the six best practices of software development embodied in RUP, which recommends spending time developing and maintaining the architecture. The time spent on this effort mitigates the risks associated with a brittle and inflexible system. XP replaces the notion of architecture by “metaphor.” The metaphor captures part of the architecture, whereas the rest of the architecture evolves as a natural result of code development. XP assumes that architecture emerges from producing the simplest design and continually refactoring the code.On any project, you should do at least these three activities during Elaboration:
• Define, validate, and baseline the architecture
• Refine the Vision.
• Create and baseline iteration plans for the Construction phase.ConstructionThe goal of Construction is to complete the development of the system. The Construction phase is, in some sense, a manufacturing process, where you emphasize managing resources and controlling operations to optimize costs, schedules, and quality. In this sense, the management mindset undergoes a transition from the development of intellectual property during Inception and Elaboration, to the development of deployable products during Construction and Transition.Each Construction iteration has three essential activities:
• Manage resources and control process.
• Develop and test components.
• Assess the iteration.TransitionThe focus of Transition is to ensure that software is available for its end users. The Transition phase includes testing the product in preparation for release and making minor adjustments based on user feedback. At this point in the lifecycle, user feedback needs to focus mainly on fine-tuning the product, configuring, installing, and usability issues.The essential Transition activities are the following:
• Finalize end-user support material.
• Test the product deliverable in a customer environment.
• Fine tune the product based upon customer feedback.
• Deliver the final product to the end user.You can produce several artifacts during the Transition phase. If your product is one that will have future releases (and how many do not?), you will have begun identifying features and defect fixes for the next release. The essential artifacts for any project are:
• Deployment Plan
• Release Notes
Training Materials and Documentation. DigestBuilding software is more than writing code. A software development process must focus on all activities necessary to deliver quality to your customers. A complete process does not have to be heavy. We have shown how you can have a small, yet complete, process by focusing on the essential activities and artifacts for your project. Perform an activity or produce an artifact if it helps mitigate risk on your project. Use as much, or as little, process and formality as you need for your project team and your organization. RUP and XP are not necessarily exclusive. By incorporating techniques from both methods, you can arrive at a process that helps you deliver better quality software quicker than you do today. Robert Martin describes a process called the dX process, which he claims to be RUP compliant.8 It is an instance of a process built from the RUP framework. A good software process incorporates industry-proven best practices. Best practices are those that have been tested over time, in real software development organizations. XP is a method that is the focus of much attention today. It is code-centric and offers a promise of minimal process overhead and maximal productivity. There are many techniques in XP that warrant consideration and adoption in the right situations.XP focuses on stories, tests, and code-it discusses planning at some length, but treats the capture of plans lightly. XP implies that you may produce other things such as “do a CRC design with a few cards, or sketch some UML…” or “Don’t produce documents or other artifacts that aren’t being used …”, but treats them in passing. RUP invites you to consider producing only what is useful and required as you formulate and update the development plan, and it identifies what these things might be.RUP is a process that addresses the complete software development lifecycle. It focuses on best practices that have evolved on thousands of projects. We encourage the investigation and invention of new techniques that lead to best practices. As new best practices emerge, we look forward to incorporating them into RUP.

Do you want to learn how you can watch television on the computer with Satellite TV on PC? When I first heard that this was possible, I became really curious and kept searching for information about this technology. At first I thought that it might be illegal, but I found many articles and sites that stated that watching network television channels on the internet is completely legal. I have now found a piece of software to watch TV channels online, and in this article I will tell you what you will need to do this too.

1. What Types of Television Channels Can You Watch?

With a piece of software called Satellite TV on PC, I am able to watch all the live sports games played by my favorite teams, as well as news, music videos, TV shows, movies, educational, adult and many other types of channels. All these channels are available for no recurring charges.

2. What Are the Requirements to Watch Television on your Computer

Firstly, you will want to ensure that you have a broadband internet connection. Anything slower than that may not result in the best possible quality of picture and sound. Along with a PC or laptop with a good video card, users can start watching TV channels within a few minutes of installing the software.

This software requires a low one-time fee for download, and has been good value for money for me.

3. Why You Should Avoid Buying Most Satellite TV Software

There are various websites offering software that have satellite TV on PC technology, but you should beware of some of the scams and always read the fine print carefully. Some users have been billed monthly fees when they did not understand that they would be. Other softwares have been known to crash every time they start and do not work at all.