Locally, Human Resource Management alone does the job of monitoring overtime, leave and change shift. This setting is indeed a false one. Most of the companies in the Philippines are owned by the Japanese and the American. Certainly, Filipinos encompass ¾'s of the population. Unfortunately, it is proven that most of the Filipinos relate themselves to common local connotation that is “Mamaya Na!”

Likewise, Ibiden Philippines, Inc. monitors overtime, leave and change shift through HR Department. Other departments just like QA monitors overtime, leave and change shift but not as serious as HR's monitoring. Some departments even rely with HR's update by the end of the month. Sadly, there was a delay in HR updates.

Hence, Automated OT, Leave & Change Shift Monitoring® was developed to alleviate the scenario.

Productivity

In the first place, IPI employees are unconscious of their productivity since there was no monitoring at all. This allows them to work without direction in the sense that they will just work in manner of just working.

Quality

Some departments have monitoring of overtime, leave and change shift. However, their monitoring is manual. Manual monitoring is susceptible to human errors. Thus, the quality and accuracy of computation is being sacrificed.

Cost

Since there was no monitoring of overtime, employees can render overtime on the basis of their “wants” not on the “needs of the company” for their service. This fact incurs cost.

Morale

No recognition is given to employees who were not able to file leave and change shifts per month. This hampers appreciation and employee satisfaction.

What's a Bug?

The first computer literally had a bug on the circuit board. You know what today's computer bugs are right? It's where your computer program is not working like it should. Sometimes it crashes the computer program, or the results do not come out correctly. Sometimes it's just a situation where it sometimes works right, but then sometimes messes up. It's not literally a bug (That can happen though). It's a result of some computer code not written correctly.

Search And Locate

The first thing to do is find where the problem is. To do that we need feed back. Just for example, I will talk like we are writing a console program. In C and C++ we have printf, and also cout in libraries. We can use one of those two functions to locate or problem. Look at the following code example with comments.

int main(int argc,char** argv)//You do not need to understand engines to see my point.

{

while(EngineRunning())//do loop, while engine running.

{

RunEngine();//do engine runnning logic.

TurnPower();//alternator or generator.

UseFuel ();//Takes fuel to run an engine.

}

return 0;//leave with a good code.

}

This program crashes, and that is all the feed back I have right now. So What I need to do is find the location of the crash. Using cout I will locate the problem. Take a look at the same source code, but with debugging symbols.

int main(int argc,char** argv)//You do not need to understand engines to see my point.

{

cout<<<"Program Started";

cout<<<"Enter While Loop";

while(EngineRunning())//do loop, while engine running.

{

cout<<<"While Loop Pass";

RunEngine();//do engine runnning logic.

cout<<<"After Run Engine";

TurnPower();//alternator or generator.

cout<<<"After Turn Power";

UseFuel ();//Takes fuel to run an engine.

cout<<<"After using fuel";

}

return 0;//leave with a good code.

}

The way this type of debugging works, is as the program advances in the code, it will print out information. When the program crashes, all the output stops. The output just before the error message, or the crash message, will show us the location of the problem. Lets say the console output looked like the following;

Program Stated

Enter While Loop

While Loop Pass

After Run Engine

After Turn Power

Segment Fault: Program terminated, core dump.

That tells me there is a problem with the "UseFuel()" function call. I know that because UseFuel() comes right after "cout<<"After Turn Power";" After printing that message the computer then crashes without another output. That points to the location of the crash.

The next step that follows, is to debug the function "UseFuel()" like I did the main program. The following code output shows the exact location, take a look:

void UseFuel()//gets fuel from the gas tank.

{

cout<<<"UseFuel() Entered";

FuelTank.fuel-=10;//take away 10 fuel units. (gas hogg)

cout<<<"After fuel level down 10";

*Engine.fuelintake+=10;//it's a ten cylindor.

cout<<<"After Fuel given to engine";

cout<<<"Out Function UseFuel";

}

The output on the console with the new added debugging symbols would make the console look like this:

Program Stated

Enter While Loop

While Loop Pass One

After Run Engine

After Turn Power

UseFuel() Entered

After fuel level down 10

Segment Fault: Program terminated, core dump.

That output tells me that the problem is the line *Engine.fuelintake+=10;. The member fuelintake of *Engine is the bug.

Examining The Data

We know where the problem is, but we do not know why it crashes. This part of the article will show you a way to find why the program crashes. Let me explain what the fuelintake variable is. It's a member of Engine that is an int*. What I will do is check it's value, and because it's a pointer I will look at it's address. See the source code:

void UseFuel()//gets fuel from the gas tank.

{

cout<<<"UseFuel() Entered";

FuelTank.fuel-=10;//take away 10 fuel units. (gas hogg)

cout<<<"After fuel level down 10";

cout<<<"Address fuelintake == ("<<<")";//The Variable Watch.

cout<<<"Value holding == ("<<*Engine.fuelintake"<<")";//The Variable Watch.

*Engine.fuelintake+=10;//it's a ten cylindor.

cout<<<"After Fuel given to engine";

cout<<<"Out Function UseFuel";

}

The output on the console with the new added debugging symbols makes the console look like this:

Program Stated

Enter While Loop

While Loop Pass One

After Run Engine

After Turn Power

UseFuel() Entered

After fuel level down 10

0

Segment Fault: Program terminated, core dump.

After looking at those variables I have found the problem. The fuelintake pointer had an allocation error. When the program did an allocation call, it gave the address zero (0). That means NULL, and it's an allocation error code. The pointer fuelintake is pointing at nothing, and to read or write at that address causes a segment fault, or access violation. That is why it crashed just after checking the address with cout.

What I do after that is look at the allocation program, and also put in some error checking there. The error checking should have been added there already, but for some reason I missed it. This bug has made my program better. (Not a real program.)

No More Bugs

For a C or C++ console program I used cout or printf(). If I was programming with the Windows API I would have used MessageBox() to locate the problem, and get information about the variables. Another example I will use is the allegro programming library, I use allegro_message() for my debugger. What you use to locate and examine with depends on what your programming with.

Something that can be use other then console output, is buffer files. It depends on the language, but you have to close the file right after writing your debug output. Other wise you will end up with a empty file after the crash.

That shows you the general idea, I hope this article will help people out there with the debugging of their buggy software.

None of these services is an alternative to a virus protection program on your PC but it is always good to check and double check your system using sites like these if you have any concerns over the health of your computer.

After you entered the text, press Save As... Save your program entered name of that file and .bat, It'll look like this shutdown.bat and save. Now, to 100% fake your friend's, press that file properties and change icon  and choose any icon you want, when you chosen an icon press save. That's all, you have a PC shut down program, you can send it to your friend's or fake you family, by leaving that item on the bacground. Remember, the better name you choose, the better thing, that people gonna open it.

Image source: Michael Tan

At the first glance, I mistakenly took it as the sound card, network interface card, TV tuner card or any sort of cards. I could hardly guess what this thing was, and finally someone told me that this is a masterpiece of a Japanese company. It is known as PCI Disk Card which is inserted into the PCI slot of a computer or a laptop. It is indeed a magical imagination. Such invention really makes me wondering the unique as well as the creativity of the Japanese imagination.

Isn't it strange from its aluminum appearance? It looks like mosquito spray.

(Image source: Michael Tan)

What's this? Can you guess? Perhaps you will think that it's a mosquito spray as what I've thought of while looking at this bizarre stuff. I'm sure that you haven't seen something like this so-called USB anti-mosquito spray elsewhere. Now, something makes you doubt about this. Where got USB anti-mosquito spray, never heard of it before. If not, is this an USB exploding device? No, impossible, its line is too short to have even burnt your hand when you light it up. Then, what on earth is this crazy thing?

(Image source: Michael Tan)

Well, this is actually called USB sound card with its external appearance fully coated in aluminum. It was a product of Hercules Audio which is named as USB External Soundcard. This is cool, right?

Is this a blue hoop or a life buoy? What's its connection to IT?

(Image source: Michael Tan)

Crazy! What's this? Is this a blue hoop or a life buoy? Impossible, a hoop or a life buoy will not have two-legs attached at its bottom. Instead of saying it's a two-leg appliance; it seems more like two wooden rods. You will never know what this thing is by just judging from its external appearance. I'm certain that you'll have problem to guess for this thing if I decide not to tell you the answer. Well, this is a stereo headphones launched by a company called Tube. Though it may look small, it has 5.1-channel audio capability to enhance its performance. It's indeed shocking to know that it has 6 built-in speakers. Due to its extraordinary audio capability, it will cause you about 150 Euros.

Is this a product from an alien planet?

(Image source: Michael Tan)

I'm sure that every one of you may have watched science fiction movie of Minority Report 2002 directed by Steven Spielberg and starring by Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow, and Lois Smith. You would come across with numerous technologically advanced gadgets in this movie, but this gadget with a blue semi-translucent cap attached on its top is somewhat looks like the film projector in the science fiction films. Now, you will be amazed to learn that this is a high-tech product of a Caller Display invented by Olympia InfoGlobe, and it is a model of OL 3000 caller display device. Whenever there is an incoming call, the caller ID (or calling number identification) will be automatically displayed on its screen.

What're you saying? A golden ladybird is used for a computer?

(Image source: Michael Tan)

This golden ladybird gives me a good feel to look at it. Though it's not made of the pure gold, it's manufactured with an excellent artwork to give you a delicate and sophisticated sensation.

(Image source: Michael Tan)

It's not for MP3 as you couldn't find a headphone slot to fit its plug into your laptop or computer. If not, what's this? Please guess, dear friend! Hmm, this is a U-beetle or in a simple word, U-dish. It's attractive and yet strange, right?

What's this stuff then? Its transparent body is packed with many “top secrets.”

(Image source: Michael Tan)

A first touch on this stuff made me thinking that it's a USB hub. However, this couldn't be a USB hub as its circuit is designed to be more complicated than the USB hub. As this gadget has a D-Sub interface, then it must be a graphic card. However, this guess is not true. The graphic card is an important part of the computer, it couldn't be connected externally. Even for a modern computer nowadays, there isn't any standard I/O interface that could meet the data transmission speed in this manner. The next possibility guess is that it's a screen. Again, it's incorrect as the screen will require more than one D-Sub interface but this device only has one. In fact, this is an external graphic card designed by the Japanese. A bit incredible …….Well, this stuff is not manufactured for you to play games; rather it's a dual mode, enabling multiple displays with different contents via a computer or a laptop. I don't think it could meet the requirement for 3D data processing speed, as it uses USB 2.0 interface so its speed is far behind the former mentioned earlier.

Besides showing time, what can this stuff do?

(Image source: Michael Tan)

You need no my answer and you'll tell me that this is a watch. You're right! This is a simple designed watch judging from its external appearance. Of course, its function is to show time. But, wait, my friend; don't make this as your final conclusion. Let me telling you that this is not just a watch, it's a product resulted from a micro-electronic technology. Not only it's a watch, but it has a close link to a computer. Now, at this point, you may challenge me for talking rubbish here.

(Image source: Michael Tan)

This thing is not hard to guess instead. If you keep yourself abreast with the IT news, I'm certain that you'll know that this is a U-watch. Again, this is a U-disk which is cleverly made convenient and portable for you to bring along elsewhere but it has a limited capacity for data storage.

Is this an insect of Y2K?

Image source

I can't imagine that this gigantic insect got to do with a computer. It's amazing to find that it's a computer's mouse. When you lift up its wings, it doesn't show you that it's a mouse. Instead, it looks like a housefly or any types of insects with a typically known six legs.

(Image source: InTozgc.com)

It's regarded as an insect of Y2K. Because of this invention, I've to accept the fact that human thinking is complicated and beyond the imagination. Needless to say about this Y2K's insect, could you imagine that your computer hardware is invented as the smelly toilet ball as listed in Desmonrock21's article entitled Gizmo: Cool Computer Case Mods 2. Gosh, stink, it gets me vomiting to look at those disgustingly designed computer products!

Oops, something totally unknown!

(Image source: InTozgc.com)

Now, my brain is poor enough to guess what this device is. It's not appearing to me as a computer's mouse. If I was not told that it's a mouse, probably I'll mad at guessing at it. And, I may never be guessed it right, I believe.

(Image source: InTozgc.com)

As shown in the above picture, its usage is very easy.

Is this a UFO?

Image source

This pumpkin-like computer product is designed to make it looks attractive as well as delicate to indirectly show the beauty in the art of the modern computer technology. The wooden treasure box which is attached with the pumpkin part looks very antique indeed! This product was on display in the exhibition of the Pentium 4 E3 in 2002.

Run, run! It's going to explode!

(Image source: InTozgc.com)

Wow, this explosive looks grand and elegant! Is this going to explore, I doubt of it. It's so beautiful. Incredibly, you couldn't imagine that it's a computer's mouse. I couldn't figure it out what's the feel when touching on it to move the cursor around the computer's screen.

Yuck, a strange human hand!

(Image source: InTozgc.com)

Yuck, a strange human hand to be your computer's mouse?! I hope this is just a nightmare but it happened to be a real fact that I've to accept while sitting in front of the computer. This hand looks so disgusting and I'm not going to touch on it. I believe that it'll bring a bad luck for me. Could you examine it closely? This strange human hand even comes with a look-real fingernail and some hair on top of its surface. Now, what do you feel? It's hilarious and bizarre though!

Yuck, another scary human body part!

(Image source: InTozgc.com)

The scary story about the designs on the mouse not only stops on a human's hand, but it also extends to the human's mouth. Look, the mouth is attached with two rows of teeth; one is located on the upper jaw, while the other one is located on its lower jaw. Whoever will want this to become his or her mouse? It's so disgusting to look at!

This is a computer and not a Christmas house. Can you believe your eyes?

Image source

Oh, I'm confusing with this device. I couldn't believe my eyes that this is a computer. Its design looks very attractive, but you can't eat the butter spreading over its top roof. While looking at this computer, it reminds me that the Christmas is around the corner.

Hey, are you kidding with me? This is a computer, you said?

Image source

This is a WMD computer, an abbreviation of its name: Weapon of Mass Destruction. From its name, you might judge that its killing power must be very scary and destructive. Why the inventor wanted to design the computer in this manner? Perhaps, the inventor just wants to show its greatest ability in terms of speed, capacity, and its operating systems. Anyway, this design is indeed hilarious!

Wow, what an odd-looking computer!

Image source

Hey, is this really a computer? Where's its CPU (processors)? Its main MOD systems are all attached to the surface of the wall, can't you see? Its motherboard, drivers, hard drives, graphic cards, and even its power cords are all hung to the side wall of the cupboard. I guess this inventor do this to avoid removing out parts of the components too often from his computer. Or else, he must be the weirdest person who feels comfortable to look at the computer in this crazy and illogical manner. See, the label pasted onto the side wall “Intel Outside!” Such a cool and ridiculous bastard!

Wow, what a good idea to have a microwave oven bake your programmes.

Image source

Do you want a microwave oven to bake your “programs?” Interesting stuff indeed! You'll get interested with this cool stuff, I'm sure. It's completely a perfect microwave oven ever designed to become a computer. This computer was displayed in CES Exhibition in 2003. This microwave oven is equipped with a liquid crystal display door. To operate this computer, you just press either its button located from the right side of this image. Its main operating system is “grilling” inside once the power button is pressed. Cool stuff though!

Do you want some cute animals running around your computer?

(Image source: Michael Tan)

Pets such as dogs, cats, hamsters, and etc. no longer will they sit on your lap, palm, or sleep beside or under your table. They are now active enough to run around parts of your computer.

(Image source: Michael Tan)

It must be enjoyable watching these cute animals or pets crawling along the cables, USB flash drive, power cords, external disks, U-disks and other computer's components. The addition of these computer by-products will definitely refresh your feeling while sitting in front of a computer or a laptop.

These are very creative designs!

(Image source: InTozgc.com)

This luxurious car designed mouse will definitely add in a sense of fashion while contributing a constructive design to the IT world. It's so nice and beautiful that I'm going to have one as my new computer's mouse. It can move just as smooth as the sport car could move along its track.

Is anyone hungry here? Would you like some fast food or Japanese delicacies?

In the past, a USB flash drive was shaped into either a rectangular or a square shape. Its shape was limited to a fundamental pattern and design. But, nowadays, the USB flash drive has shaped into a strange, wield and extraordinary pattern to increase its sale in the market. The design of USB flash drive has appeared as a fast food menu that will definitely capture the computer user's attentions worldwide.

Hamburger, Pizza, and Hotdog Menu

(Image source: Korean Monthly Technology Magazine, March 2007)

These USB flash drives take a theme of a fast food menu. They can be ranged from hamburgers, pizzas and hotdogs that you are familiar at any fast food outlets. As their appearance are manufactured in a framework resembles to hamburger, pizza, hotdog and sandwich, and thus they sometimes tempt people to eat them. Presently, these types of USB flash drives have a capacity up to one gigabyte.

A strange Menu of KFC

(Image source: Korean Monthly Technology Magazine, September 2007)

This is not a real set of KFC menu, it is a strange design of USB flash drive. If you examine it closely, you will find that the rice is actually a USB 2.0 Hub with four openings. Each opening is connected to a chicken, pudding and prawns. They are furnished with a ready boost facility with their capacities up to one gigabyte.

Octopus Sushi Menu

(Image source: Japanese Monthly Technology Magazine, January 2006)

The main design of these USB flash drives is an octopus (or tako in Japanese). If you do not examine them closely, probably you will be perceived to believe that they are real octopus. The manufacturer made them so real to give people a convenience feel of their completeness. When you pull out the head of the octopus, you can see the body of the USB flash drive. Of course, the other part of its body is a protective casing for the USB flash drive. When you insert this USB flash drive into the slot of the computer, the body of the octopus will shine or glister in blue light. It is fun and interesting to look at, isn't it?

Sushi Menu

(Image source: Japanese Monthly Technology Magazine, January 2006)

These USB flash drives are shaped into a Japanese cuisine or Sushi menu. Sometimes, you may come across a variety type of Sushi found in a Japanese restaurant which includes kappa(cucumber), California Roll, makizushi (rolls), inarizushi(toppings stuffed into a small pouch of fried tofu), Chirashizushi(scattered sushi), temarizushi (ball-shaped sushi with a filling of fish) and omelette. These USB flash drives have a capacity as big as one gigabyte.

Hmmm, this one looks rather odd!

(Image source: Jackson)

Not everyone will prefer to have their computer designed in a conventional manner, some computer enthusiasts may prefer to have their computers looking weirder than others to show that theirs stand out to be more striking and extraordinary. Despite of this perception, they started modifying their computers in this weird manner as what you see in the above picture is one of the examples. What's your opinion? Do you like this skeleton's computer? Tell me your idea, perhaps someone is going to modify his or her computer in a rather odd manner than all the stuffs I've managed to list here.

Image source

Here is the list, my personal review of some computer software programs that made our life easy.

Firefox

The Firefox Web Browser is the faster, more secure, and fully customizable way to surf the web than others.

Features:

• One-Click Bookmarking - you can search and organize Web sites quickly and easily
• Instant Web Site ID - You can avoid online scams, and suspicious transaction
• Improved Performance - You can view Web Pages faster and less memory for your computer

Yahoo Messenger

Chit Chat with your buddies and find friends in Yahoo! Yahoo Messenger is the most widely used instant messenger in the world wide web.

Features:

• Send text messages in real-time to your buddies on Yahoo or Windows Live Messenger
• Join a chat room to meet new friends while you discuss your favorite topics
• Photo Sharing - Share photos from your desktop or Flickr, then discuss them over IM while you and a friend view them together
• PC to PC calls - Make a voice call to another Yahoo! Messenger user for free
• Send text messages from Messenger to your friends mobile phones for free

Skype

No money for calls? With Skype you can chat and make free calls over the internet to other people on Skype for as long as you like, to wherever you like. You can call to mobiles using your computer. And it is absolutely free to download.

Adobe Reader

Adobe is a free software to download. This simplest of Adobe's PDF programs lets you do just about anything PDF-related (besides create new ones), including online collaboration. It includes a host of features to aid users with disabilities. Use Adobe Reader to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on Adobe PDF files.

Features:

• Leverage a simplified user interface - You can view information more precisely and efficiently with the redesigned, easier to use Reader 8 interface
• More secure document workflows - Better protect documents, forms, and drawings
• Automate digital certificate administration
• Leverage existing security infrastructure

Audacity

Audacity is a free to download software you can do recording and editing of your audio interest. Audacity available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems.

Features:

• Record Live Audio
• Convert tape copies and records into digital recordings or Cds
• You can Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files
• Do can copying, cutting, splicing or mixing sounds together
• Change the beat or speed tempo of your Audio files

GIMP

The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is the most widely used bitmap editor in the printing industries. GIMP is a graphics, photo images, logos editor. Cropping, resizing, altering color, brightness adjusting, combing multiple images, and converting into different format files. It is often used as a free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop. But it is not designed to be Photoshop clone.

Features:

• Customizable Interface
• Photo Enhancement
• Digital Retouching

iTunes

iTunes is a software free to download. A digital music or media player introduced by Apple Inc. The program used for playing and organizing mp3, digital music, and video files. This software can connect to the iTune store via internet to purchase download music, videos, TV shows, iPod games, audio books, movie trailers, ring tones, and more.

Features:

• iPod music downloader
• Media player

AIM

Advanced Information Management (AIM). It is one of the most widely used free Instant Messenger program.

Features:

• AIM Plug-ins
  • Whimsicals - They're web applications that let you interact with your Buddies, send & receive IMs, & more all from a web browser.
  • IM fight - Fight your buddy.
  • AIM share - Blast your buddy list.
  • AIM WIMZI - Put a chat window anywhere.
  • QQ games - Fun and play with your buddies.

WinAmp

WinAmp the most famous media player after WPM. Play music, video, movie files, DVDs. Lots of Skin to choose for their new version. WinAmp offers 50 free mp3 download for downloading the software. You can also search for skins and plug-ins, access thousands of shout cast Radio stations, get free Music and Videos and search the Web using Winamp Search.

Feature:

• Offers free download of music and videos in their toolbar
• Remote Music and Video Playback and Sharing
• Play list the Best Music on the Web with Media Monitor
• Winamp Toolbar enables browser control of Winamp
• Album Art Support for Portable Devices

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is an ultimate open source desktop mail app support by mozilla. Its pluggable interface lets developers freely build extensions to make it ever more useful.

Features:

• Message tagging - Thunderbird 2 allows you to tag messages with descriptors such as to Do or Done
• Advanced Folder Views - offers a variety of ways for you to organize and display your folders, whether by favorites, recently viewed or folders containing unread messages
• Message history navigation - Show toolbar allows you to click forward and back much like in your Web browser
• Saved Research - Thunderbird has a “saved” folder allows you to store your file searched

I can't stress this enough. A computer without Anti-Virus Protection is just plain insane. Not only do you have to install it, but you must keep it updated and scan regularly.

Paid Programs:

I use Zone Alarm Anti-Virus (ZoneAlarm) and I am very pleased with its performance. It, like many other anti-virus programs, checks every new file, if it from the internet, from a USB Drive, or from any other source. This is called "Real-Time Scanning", and it is very useful. Especially if you're lazy like me and don't have much time to scan!

Also, for a more "lightweight" program, try ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus (Eset) This is also a very good program, which updates itself whenever you turn your PC on.

Free Programs:

Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus (Grisoft). A good free alternative that I used before I got Zone Alarm. It is efficient, if you don't use the internet heavily. Otherwise, use a paid alternative.

Best in Test:

ZoneAlarm Anti-Virus. This program meets all expectations, and found all of the viruses that I tested it with. As the saying goes, You get what you pay for. www.ZoneAlarm.com

Install A Firewall

Why you need a Firewall:

Connecting to the Internet is like opening a door to your computer. If hackers see that door, they can easily gain access to your PC. Once inside, hackers can steal your valuable personal data, such as bank account details and passwords to many different things. Your PC can be used without your knowledge to launch attacks on other computers, even on entire networks. A hacker can even completely "kill" your computer! But, you can stop this all with a decent firewall. It is necessary to install a good firewall, keep it on, and only disable it if it is absolutely required.

Paid Programs:

ZoneAlarm Firewall: (ZoneAlarm). This program is one of the best out there. It "learns" your Internet Habits, and makes them secure. There is also a "free version" of this.

Comodo Firewall Pro Plus: (Comodo). I found this program to be quite restrictive. It didn't give you as much detail about the program the need access to certain things, and therefore I blocked a few things that were needed.

Free Programs:

ZoneAlarm Basic Firewall (ZoneAlarm). This is the "free" alternative of the other version. This is very good if you don't want to pay.

Best in Test:

ZoneAlarm Firewall. As with the Anti-Virus, ZoneAlarm takes it out. www.ZoneAlarm.com

Regularly run Anti-Adware/Anti-Spyware/Anti-Malware

Every time you visit a website, you may, without even knowing, have downloaded content onto your machine. This content includes key loggers, dialers, spying programs, advertising material, spam bots and much, much more.

Paid Programs:

SpyFerret (here). Paid programs don't give you much more than free programs when it comes to Anti-Spyware. I would recommend that you don't get paid programs, but it is YOUR choice when it comes to security.

Free Programs:

Ad-Aware 2007. (Lavasoft USA). This program performs a "deep search". This means that it checks each and every file, and "quarantines" them.

Spybot Search & Destroy (Safer-Networking). This program checks your computer for all these "nasties" and easily removes them.

Best in Test:

"Ad-Aware 2007" & "Spybot Search & Destroy". (Lavasoft USA & Safer-Networking) I give these products both the award, as they in conjunction with each other, keep your computer clean. I recommend that you run Spybot S&D after every internet session, and Ad-Aware once a week.

Have Spam & Email protection

Don't open unknown emails, don't open unknown attachments. Even if you know who it is from, do not open them if you are not expecting them.

Paid Programs:

Kaspersky Anti-Spam (Kaspersky). This program was as good as the MailWasher, but the interface was a bit harder to get around. If you would rather use a paid program, use this, or go for a free alternative.

Free Programs:

MailWasher (MailWasher). Before you download your email into Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc, you run this tool, and choose all the emails that are of spam. Then, you open up your email client and download your emails. The emails that you "marked" as spam in MailWasher, are now "blacklisted" from your account.

Best in Test:

MailWasher is an excellent program, that I found got rid of my spam problem after a few weeks. I recommend this to anyone who wants to get rid of the spam in their email accounts. 

5) Popup Protection:

Some pop-up's can download virus's and spyware to your machine. Get protection from them, and you won't have to deal with the consequences.

Paid Programs:

Winguard Popup Remover. (here). This program, along with many other paid programs, doesn't give you much more protection from Pop-up's than the free ones. But, if you would rather buy a program, then go for it.

Free Programs:

Firefox Browser (Mozilla). The award winning browser, Firefox, has a built in pop-up blocker. I highly recommend you give Firefox a try. It speeds up your internet browsing, and is overall safer than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which by default, is installed with all Windows Computers.

Google Toolbar (Google). This is a great toolbar for your browser. It not only has a pop-up blocker, but it can be incorporated into Gmail (Google's answer to Free Email), and of course a Google Search Box, right at your fingertips.

Best in Test:

Firefox with Google Toolbar. Firefox comes with a Pop-Up blocker already built in, and with the added extension of Google Toolbar, you have twice the power of blocking these annoyances. 

Patch

It is important to keep your computer patched and up-to-date. This protects your computer from new vulnerabilities, which may allow hackers to gain access to your computer. Your firewall should stop this, but if it is new, it might not. So be on the safe side, Patch regularly. If you have limited allowance on your internet, don't subscribe to “Automatic Updates” Change this to “Notify me if there are any updates, but don't download or install them”. Then, go to Microsoft Update and download the “Critical Updates”.

Backup

Unfortunately, there is no 100% way to keep your computer secure. Therefore, you should back-up all your important data, and keep it stored on a DVD or CD in a safe place. I backup at least once a month. And I keep all my information in a case, stored away securely.

Watch out for scams

“You have just won $1,000,000! Give us your bank details!”

“You are the 999,999 person to view this site, click here to claim your prize.”

“I have a large amount of money, and I need you to help me transfer it……”

You may have seen these types of messages before. But, as you may already be aware, these are scams. Don't click these ads, or open any emails with this content, as it may install spyware, virus's or other "nasties". “If it sounds too good to be true, then it is most likely that it is.” Remember to trust your Instinct. If it seems a bit weird, delete that email or close that site and run Anti-Spyware & Anti-Virus ASAP.

These are 8 ways to keep your PC secure. I take no responsibility for any problems that may occur with these products. They shouldn't cause any problems, but if they do, it is not my fault!

Procedural programming is preferred than simple sequential programming because of its easy maintainability. These are the advantages of procedural programming:

• Reusing the same code at different places in the program without copying it is possible
• Easier to keep track of program flow than the GOTO or JUMP commands
• Its modular or structured compared to other programming language

For a programming language to be called procedural, it has to support procedural programming by a clear concept of a procedure and a syntax that define the procedure. The universally accepted example of procedural programming is the ALGOL. Other examples are: Ada, ASP, BASIC, C C++, ColdFusion, COBOL, PHP, PL/C and others.

Object-Oriented Programming

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that makes use of “objects” to design programs and applications. The techniques used for this program is varied such as inheritance, modularity, polymorphism and encapsulation. Object-oriented programming came about as a method to tackle the perceived software crisis where hardware and software became more and more complex. OOP emphasizes modularity or the discrete units of programming logic.

Simula programming language was the first to use the concepts behind OOP such as objects, classes, subclasses, virtual methods, coroutines, garbage collection and discrete event simulation. Smalltalk was the first programming language classified as “object-oriented”.

Object-oriented programming is a collection of cooperating objects instead of using instructions. Each object is capable of receiving and sending messages and processing data. This enables greater maintainability and flexibility in programming.

Functional Programming

Functional programming is a programming paradigm that uses computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions. It does not encourage the use of state and mutable data. Its main emphasis is the application of functions.

“Purely” functional programming languages are mostly used in academia not in commercial software. There are, however, functional programming languages used in commercial applications such as Erlang, R (statistics), Mathematica, Haskell, ML, J and K (financial analysis) and programming languages specifically for domains such as XDLT. Lambda calculus is the foundation of majority of the models of functional programming.

Logic Programming

Logic programming or the logical programming is employing mathematical logic for computer programs. This view originated from John McCarthy's advice-taker proposal. Logic is entirely a declarative representative language using a theorem-prover or model-generator to solve problems. The job of solving problems is carried out by the programmer who can asses the truth of the programs and the theorem-prover or model-generator that can solve problems capably.

Parallel Programming

Parallel programming or parallel computing is carrying out in real-time some combination of multiple programming instructions and data on multiple processors to reach quicker results. This is based on the method of problem solving divided into smaller tasks executed with coordination.

In a parallel computing system, there is more than one processor to carry out parallel processing. Flynn's taxonomy is considered one of the most accepted taxonomies of parallel computing. It divides parallel computers into: whether all processors carry out similar instructions at the same time (single instruction/multiple data- SIMD) or each processor could carry out different instructions (multiple instruction/multiple data- MIMD).

try { Robot screenshotRobot = new Robot(); BufferedImage screenshot = createScreenCapture(new Rectangle(x, y, width, height));} catch (Exception e) {}

Obviously in this case, "x" and "y" refer to the coordinates on the screen where the picture starts, and "width" and "height" refer to the width and height of the image to be taken. "screenShot" is where the image is stored and you can save or manipulate it from there. Both the Robot declaration and the screen capture have to be written inside of a "try" statement because either could fail and some operating systems don't allow them. That's pretty much all you need to know to take a picture of the screen with Java.

ScreenCapture Program

Using the above code, you could build a program to take a picture of the screen. Below, I've written a very simple sample program in Java that demonstrates how you could incorporate taking a screenshot into a program. This program takes a picture of the whole screen and the saves the image to a file called "Screenshot.png". Here's the code:

import java.awt.*;import java.awt.image.*;import java.awt.event.*;import javax.swing.*;import javax.imageio.*;import java.io.*; class ScreenCapture extends JFrame{ BufferedImage screenImage;
Dimension screenSize;
File savedImageFile;
Robot screenshotRobot;
JLabel statusLabel; public static void main(String args[]){
new ScreenCapture();
} ScreenCapture(){
setTitle("Java Screen Capturer");
setSize(300, 80);
savedImageFile = new File("Screenshot.png");
screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
try{
screenshotRobot = new Robot();
screenImage = screenshotRobot.createScreenCapture(new Rectangle(0, 0, screenSize.width, screenSize.height));
ImageIO.write(screenImage, "PNG", savedImageFile);
statusLabel=new JLabel("Screenshot was successfully taken and saved.");
}
catch(Exception e){
statusLabel=new JLabel("Error: " + e);
}
add(statusLabel);
setVisible(true); this.addWindowListener(
new WindowAdapter(){
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we){
System.exit(0);
}
}
);
}
}

Understanding the Code

The above code may seem complex and somewhat scary, but the ideas are really quite simple and it doesn't take much to understand them. For those of you confused or interested in what a certain portion of code does, let's break it down.

import java.awt.*;import java.awt.image.*;import java.awt.event.*;import javax.swing.*;import javax.imageio.*;import java.io.*;

These are simply all the packages needed to run the program. "Java.awt" is the user interface toolkit. "Java.awt.image" let's us deal with images. "Java.awt.event" allows us to detect when the close button of the program or alt+f4 is pressed. "Javax.swing" allows us to use JFrames and Jlabels. "Javax.imageio" lets us write image files. And finally, "Java.io" allows us to deal with files.

class ScreenCapture extends JFrame{ ...}

This is the main program. All the code for the program goes in here.

BufferedImage screenImage;Dimension screenSize;File savedImageFile;Robot screenshotRobot;JLabel statusLabel;

Here's where we define the things we'll be using in our program. "screenImage" refers to the image we take of the screen. "screenSize" is where we store the dimensions of the screen. "savedImageFile" is the file in which the screenshot is saved. "screenshotRobot" is the Robot we use to take the screenshot. And lastly, "statusLabel" is what we use to display whether or not our program ran successfully.

public static void main(String args[]){
new ScreenCapture();
} This piece of code is our main method and it build the window. setTitle("Java Screen Capturer");
setSize(300, 80);
savedImageFile = new File("Screenshot.png");
screenSize = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize(); Here we set the text in the title bar of the program to "Java Screen Capture" and set the size of the window to 300 by 80. After that we give the name of the file where the screenshot is to be saved. And finally, we get the dimensions of the screen.

try{ screenshotRobot = new Robot(); screenImage = screenshotRobot.createScreenCapture(new Rectangle(0, 0, screenSize.width, screenSize.height)); ImageIO.write(screenImage, "PNG", savedImageFile); statusLabel=new JLabel("Screenshot was successfully taken and saved.");}

Next, we attempt to create a Robot and then take a picture of the screen starting at the coordinates 0, 0 and extending across the entire screen. The third line of code in this section saves the image to a "PNG" file. And, if everything went okay, the text in the "statusLabel" is set to "Screenshot was successfully taken and saved."

catch(Exception e){ statusLabel=new JLabel("Error: " + e);}

If something went wrong in our program, the text in the "statusLabel" is set to "Error: " and it displays the problem.

add(statusLabel);
setVisible(true); Here, we add a label to the program which displays whether the program was able to run properly or not. Then using "setVisible(true)" we make our program show up on the screen. this.addWindowListener( new WindowAdapter(){ public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we){ System.exit(0); } });

This last section of code closes the program when either the close button of the program is pressed or the user closes the program some other way (i.e. alt+f4).

Other Uses for Taking a Screenshot

Taking a screenshot can be very useful for many things. For example, if you're making a drawing program, you could allow the user to take a picture of the screen and manipulate the image. You could also make your program take a picture of the screen when an error occurs so you have a better idea of how to fix the problem. I'm even currently developing a program that can beat certain computer games by itself by constantly taking pictures of the screen and scanning the colors. Whatever the use, taking a picture of the screen is incredibly simple and it's a great way to start programming in Java.

Hopefully you were able to get something out of this article and I apologize for it being so long. If there's anything I forgot to add, feel free to leave a message. Have fun coding in Java!

Erase the Program Completely

It is easy to use "Add/ Remove Programs" to delete some installed programs in the computer. However, it does not help you to remove the registry and fix missing files and entries of the programs, which may also affect the speed of your computer. This is because your computer needs time to look for them. This will definitely cause your computer to become slow. You can use a trust computer booster/ optimizer program to clear out these files in order to stop the computer from wasting time looking for them. "Nortonuninstall", a product developed by Symantec, is good to get this job done. However, this product has been banned from use as it was claimed to destruct some copyrighted software. Due to this issue, Symantec has come out with a new product, Cleansweep, which has a similar function. If you are unable to get this software, you may use some other trusted software with a similar function. Make sure you clean the registry and other unwanted files once a week to keep your computer running smoothly. The more you run this, the more it will fix the errors and problems which will secure good performance of your computer. From this explanation, you will understand that you do not always have to spend money buying RAM because it will not have the function of cleaning these unwanted files.

Check Your Application Software

Some installed programs can make your computer run very slow. In order to check whether these are the reasons that your computer is becoming slow, run Windows in "Safe Mode". Of course, "Safe Mode" should operate slower than when you run in "Normal Mode". Nevertheless, if you realize that your computer runs in "Safe Mode " faster than when you run in "Normal Mode", then the start-up procedures are possible likely reasons for your computer running slow.

Reduce Icons on Your Desktop

If there are too many icons on your desktop, the speed of your computer can also become very slow. This is because the system needs to launch these icons individually while loading them onto the desktop. Similarly, if there is an anti-virus software icon, it will always start by scanning these, which will further reduce the speed of your computer. Try placing as few icons as possible on your desktop. It is recommended to place any other icons in another folder or to simply delete them altogether from your desktop.

Reduce the Storage of Fonts

Though Microsoft Window Operating System enables you to install from between 1000 to 1500 fonts, you will probably face problems once you install more than 500 fonts. Some of the common problems include installed fonts disappearing suddenly and at the same time causing the Windows start-up performance to drop sharply. It is always better to only keep the fonts you want while deleting all unnecessary fonts that may reduce the speed of your computer. To delete the unwanted fonts, you should take note to perform it with care so that you will not delete certain fonts that are required by Windows. Those fonts include Verdana, Arial, Trebuchet, Tahoma, Times New Roman, MS Sans Serif, and Courier New and they should not be touched on your system. To delete any other fonts, go to My Computer and then to your local disk C, double clicking on a window folder, and then double clicking on the font's folder. Highlight the fonts you want to remove, then right click your mouse to select Delete.

Eliminate Background Setting

Are you aware that the beautiful background that you chose for your desktop is indeed a waste of resources? Not only that, but also it reduces the speed of your computer considerably. Therefore, you should disable this setting by right-clicking the cursor on the desktop. You will see a dialog box of the "background"; choose "no" when its window appears. In the "appearance" box, change the dark green color to black or any plain color.

To Accelerate the Operating System

Windows XP

1. Perform a disk clean up from time to time. Click Start which appears in the bottom left corner of your computer. Next, click Run. In the dialog box of Run, type in "cleaning.exe" and then press OK. This will take you between a few minutes to a few hours depending on how frequent you do a disk cleanup task, but it is definitely recommended.
   
   
   
   
2. To load Windows faster, click Start, and then Run. Next, you should type "msconfig" in the text field and press Enter. Click on the BOOT.INI tab at the top. You will see a box labeled Timeout with 30 over to the right. Change the 30 to 3.
   
   
3. To speed up the processing time, simply go to Start, Control Panel and System. Next, click on the Advanced tab and click the setting button under the performance. Now, select the "Adjust for best performance" button, then click Apply and lastly the OK button.
   
   
4. Go to Start, then click Control Panel. Next, click Add/ Remove programs. Browse through the software and highlight the unwanted software to perform a task by clicking "remove".
   
   
5. Download a free copy of AVG's Anti-Virus and Windows Defender to perform the task of removing spyware and viruses. Always update and run your spyware and virus software weekly.
   
   
6. Remember to disable any unwanted programs which will prevent Windows from loading faster. To do this, click on Control Panel, then open Administrative Tools, and select Services. If you are not sure which to disable, consult your dealer for further information.
   
   
   
   
7. Always perform the defragment task to improve load speeds. To do this, go to Start, and then click Run. In the Run dialog box, type in "dfrg.msc" carefully in its text field. Lastly, click Defragment to start performing the task.
   
   
   
   
8. Convert the hard drive from FAT16 or FAT32 into NTFS to enable faster access time. To perform this operation, go to Start, and then Run. In the Run dialog box, type in "cmd" and then press OK. When the command prompt window opens, type "CONVERT C:/FS:NTFS"(do not include quotes). Then, you follow the instructions to get your drive to convert into NTFS. NTFS drives are only compatible with Windows 2000/NT/XP and Vista.
   
   
9. To speed up the loading of the menus, simply go to Start and click on Run. Next, type in "regedit" (without quotes) and hit enter. Search for "HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop", choose MenuShowDelay and right-click on it. Next, select Modify to reduce the number to 100 but not too less than that.
   

Windows Vista

1. Perform disk clean up and defragment your hard drive routinely.
   
   
2. Do not open too many programs at the same time as this will decrease the loading speed.
   
   
3. Use built-in tools such as Task Manager and the Reliability and Performance Monitor to examine which processes utilize more RAM and CPU.
   
   
4. Delete any programs you never want to use in order to free up space on your hard disk. To do this, go to Start button, and then click on Control Panel. Next, click on Programs and then click on Programs and Features. Select the program you wish to remove by clicking Uninstall.
   
   
5. Make sure you always choose as few as possible programs to load at start-up as possible.
   
   
   
   
6. Some programs may be loaded automatically at start-up. You should find them and disable them using the Windows Defender. To do this, go to the Start button, click on Control Panel and then click on Windows Defender. Next, click on Tools, and then click Software Explorer. Click Startup Programs that appears in the Category box. Highlight the program you wish to stop from running by clicking Disable. Last, click Yes to confirm this task.
   
   
   
   
7. Boost your computer by upgrading its RAM to 2GB or more.
   
   
8. Restart your PC regularly at least once a week to clear out its memory for a better performance. The longer you keep your PC running, the lower its memory will be. So, try to restart your PC after opening many programs, e-mail messages or websites.
   
   
9. Cut down on the visual effects which may cause your PC to run extremely slow. To adjust the visual effects, go to the Start button, click on Control Panel, and then System and Maintenance. Next, click on Performance Information and Tools. This is followed by clicking Adjust Visual Effects. You should type in your password if you are prompted to do so. In the tab of Visual effects, check the box of "Adjust for best performance" and click OK.