QWERTY keyboard

The “QWERTY” keyboard layout first appeared in the 1860s. The design was patented by Christian Sholes, creator of the first modern typewriter, and a newspaper editor who lived in Milwaukee, United States. The first layout had the characters arranged alphabetically, set on the end of a metal bar that struck the paper when its key was pressed. However, fast typists had a problem with this layout because the letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another. By using a study of letter pair frequency, Sholes was able to determine which letters would tend to clash into each other when typed in succession. He made sure that the type bars were hung at safe distances, so that the common letter pairs such as “TH” would not cause jamming when the letters were typed in succession. The “QWERTY” keyboard layout was the result of this study. And it's been more than 130 years since its design and invention.

The “QWERTY” has had some competition from other keyboard layouts. One is the Dvorak keyboard, created by Dr. August Dvorak, and educational psychologist at the University of Washington in the US. However, the Dvorak has failed to prove itself superior to “QWERTY”. Perhaps it doesn't really matter what keyboard we use. In the end, typing fast is but a skill that takes a lot of practice to master.

Dvorak keyboard

In a nutshell, the issue of computer speed can be summarized in two words - system resources. What the system boasts as hardware in terms of memory capacity (Random Access Memory) and CPU clock-rate (processor speed), and what demands you are making of these resources in terms of usage.

First, examining matters relating to usage as I feel this is best to be looked at before hardware. If your computer is running slow, chances are you making big demands of it. Your hard-drive and system tray might be overly full. Check your hard-drive capacity to see how much free space you have. Ideally, you should have at least 25%. If you don't, then remove unused applications to make the space available. This is important as when memory demands are great, the RAM often falls back on the hard-drive for additional memory space.

Next, you might wish to check how many programs you are loading on start-up. To do this, I recommend you look at the bottom right of your screen in the system tray area (for MS operating system). If there are lots of icons on display, go through them and close those that you don't need or wish to run. To stop them loading in the first place, consider downloading the quick-start utility that will enable you to stop them loading at start-up. Or, you can usually just manually configure the programs not to.

Don't forget to clean and defrag the registry once in a while. Again, you can find good free downloads for cleaning the registry. And to defrag, simply use the available tool within the Microsoft operating systems (systems tool, defrag).

Also contemplate your computer's configurations. What graphics mode are you using? If running in a very high resolution and color scheme, you are placing high demands on the system resources. Remember the formula: better graphics equals slower speeds. Consider lowering your graphical configurations and your computer will become faster.

System utility applications will tweak the system for you. Consider purchasing one, or maybe obtaining a free down-loadable application. The one I use, Advanced Windows Care, will go through a system performance checklist at the click of a button. Likewise it comes with a memory cleaner, which can free-up hundreds of megabytes of memory when used.

If still unhappy with the performance after doing these things, then I would recommend hardware changes. Check your memory specifications, more RAM is usually the answer. Buy an appropriate memory stick of say 32MB, and slot it in to an available port (assuming you have one). This will boost your available memory and allow for greater system demands. Likewise you might want to consider purchasing a new hard-drive if you need to store more files, and don't have enough space on your current one.

Follow these recommendations (be it with MS operating systems or other) and your computer will start running faster. You will see a noticeable improvement in system performance, and will be able to work and play more productively.

First Things First

The first step is to pledge allegiance to the Republican Party. This type of technology in the hands of a Democrat could significantly alter mankind as we now know it. You must also acknowledge that if your relationships suffer due to continued use of this program as karaoke - defined as uttering sounds that may or may not sound like the words of the songs - I am not liable. And last, but not least, you must promise that occasionally you will leave a nickel or a dime in the coin return chute of any vending machine so that it will create a small sense of joy to some random person who will find it at some point in the future! Who doesn't smile when they find extra change in the return? And the world could use more smiles.

Let's Get To Work

The following steps will show you how to manually add lyrics to your songs. Before we head off to the internet, open your Windows Media Player (WMP). Right click next to the "Now Playing" tab at the top of the player and enable the "show classic menu" option. You can uncheck it later if you prefer not seeing it but we are going to use the menus often enough to keep it visible for now. These instructions I am giving you assumes that you have the latest version of WMP installed. (Version 11) If you are not sure, click the help button and click on "About Windows Media Player". This will tell you what version you have installed. If it is an earlier version, I suggest that you upgrade to WMP 11. It is so much better than the earlier versions.
Now click the "Play" option at the top and go down to the "Lyrics, Captions, and Subtitles" option and click "On if Available".

1. Find a Web site that catalogues song lyrics. Most will let you copy their lyrics without jumping through any hoops. Highlight the text of the lyrics and then either right click and select "copy", or use Control+C. Make sure that no other parts of the page get highlighted accidentally. You only want the text. Here are four Web sites where you should be able to find your songs and they are user friendly.
   
   
   • http://www.elyrics.net/
   • http://www.lyricsmode.com/
   • http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/
   • http://www.oldielyrics.com/
   
   Here is a cool little known secret: If you take the main word of a ".com" website such as "oldielyrics" in the fourth website I listed above, and type it into your address search bar and then hit Cntrl+Enter, your computer will add the http://www. before your word and .com after your word.}
   
2. Open your WMP and click on the Library tab. Find the song you just copied the lyrics for and right click on it. (Fig. 1) Highlight the "Advanced Tag Editor" and hit enter. This will open the "Advanced Tag Editor". (Fig. 2)
   
3. Select the "lyrics" tab, choose a language, select the "add" tab, click in the blank text box and paste your lyrics by either right click and select "paste" or Control+V. (Fig. 3) If you stop at this point, you will have "static" text that does not scroll as the song plays. If you want the scrolling text, click on the "Synchronized Lyrics" button just below the text box. You will see that the lyrics are now loaded with each line having a time value next to it. This value represents exactly when each line of lyrics will be visible on the WMP.
   
4. Below this, you will see the same information graphically. Sometimes the WMP errs on the exact time to display each line. If this is the case click the value in the time column, select "edit" and then type the new time value. (Fig. 4) You can check how accurate it is by hitting play and watching when the red lyric bar crosses over the time bar. You can also edit the lyrics to add or change words in each line. If you need to add a whole line, hit add, type in the new line of lyrics and then assign it a time value. When you hit enter, it will insert itself in the correct place.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Virtually every program code has inputs and outputs. Before compiling a source code, programs generally request an input from the user and then output it to the screen after compiling if the program is well designed and there is no error inside it. Usually, as the program becomes more complicated, error possibility increases. A good software expert easily realizes where the code has faults and corrects it. Since our first code will be very small and very simple, we will not face with any error.

Before starting to write code, we initially have a compiler which is going to evaluate our code. I use Dev C for this. There are many other compilers which run on different platforms like Unix, Linux and Windows.

In this project, we will output the names of the subprograms of Triond on to C terminal screen. This is the simplest algorithm since there is no input in this example. Let's start writing our code step by step.

Step 1: Open the File from the menu bar of C software and save as the blank page Project1. This yields a file with an extension of cpp.

Step 2: Describe the name and aim of the programs. To do so, we use comments. Comments are ignored by the compiler. For commenting, we use some special scripts like double slash or slash-asterisk character .

If we use a single line comment, double slash is enough. However, if our comment is placed more than one line, we use double slash for each line or take the commented part between slash-asterisk and asterisk-slash characters .

Step 3: C needs library files which define what the input and output functions are and what they do when they are used in a code. Iostream is the library file of input and output function.

Before the name of library files, we use a special character, preprocessor directive character. Include is used before the name of every library file and such file names are placed mathematical comparison characters.

Step 4: Every C code uses functions. The default function is main. Main function is the first function compiled by the programs. This function usually calls other functions. Before the name of function, we specify which type of output our code returns. In our program, we think that it returns to integer and use int. After the function name, we use parantheses. In this example, there will be nothing between parantheses but in more complicated programs, there may be parameter names and it's types or definitions. We place our statements between left brace and right brace.

Step 5: To print on to the screen,we use cout function. We simply place our string inside double quote characters. Every statement inside the functions ends with a special semicolon character.

Step 6: To check the validity, we use return function.In this simple example, it returns to 0.

Click here for the code

So when I finally got the opportunity to get a new faster computer I decided to get a laptop. All I can say I am impressed! It rarely causes me any trouble and runs Windows Vista fine. It shuts down fine and I can easily waken it up from sleep mode without crashing or having to completely restart.

It is nothing fancy just a Gateway Intel Centrino Duo with Wireless and Bluetooth which cost me under £600 with a printer thrown in free which works ok.

I love my laptop and would not now go back ever again to a Desktop. It will last me a few years and eventually once it slows down and I have the money to invest in a faster one it will definitely be a laptop.

Great that I have the portability to be able to have the option to take it away with me when I go away visiting family. I miss being without it for very long and I have invested in a computer backback so I can take away with me safely.

Hurrah to Laptops! It has been virtually hassle free computing for me.

It's a whole lot easier to play games online with a desktop and mouse, atleast in my personal opinion it is.I will admit that laptops are very convenient and fun to use. Also my favorite laptop brand would have to be Apple. And my favorite deskop brand is definately dell. And right now I'm typing this article on a desktop and its a little bit harder to type on a desktop.

It's alot easier for me to type up articles on a laptop sitting in my favorite chair. When I'm typing log articles It's hard to sit in a chair and desk for up to hours. Also I spend hours starting discussions and commenting on My Lot. It takes up alot of my time. But it does benefit me quite alot.

Also if you want you can post a comment on which you have, and if you like or you would prefer something else.

Thank you for reading my article.

Final Words

All these programs can make your life that little bit easier, and hopefull you will give them a shot, and see just how good these programs are. After all their all free, and they are all easy to uninstall should you decide that their just not right for you.

So what can you do with a closet full of old Macs, PC's or even Commodore's? You could use them for paper-weights or doorstops, but they tend to be a bit unwieldy. They can have uses, however.

Working Computers

1. Save or download vintage games playable by the junior members of the household
2. If it has a serviceable word processor and printer, it can still be used as a smart type-writer
3. Keep text files of minor importance on it-such as recipes or household schedules
4. Let the preschoolers fool around with the paint program
5. Make a cat happy-let it sleep on the monitor

Non-Working Computers

1. Donate them to an electronics class to take apart
2. Use them as display models for computer history class
3. Let your favorite junior scientist take it apart (under supervision, of course.).
4. Take three or four of them apart yourself, and see if you can get one working computer out of the lot
5. Hot glue the parts in strange ways to create art works

These 10 activities can help keep older computers from becoming a part of our over-flowing landfills. While computers do wear out, some of the older models were unbelievably sturdy; although technology has passed them by, they still work quite well. During a recent visit, my littlest grand-daughter spent several hours creating “houses” and “roads” with the paint program on an old Mac. Just a short step up from that, and aging hybrid pc (one drive windows ME, the other linux) allowed her to play Pajama Sam. Since there is nothing important stored on that computer, she could click around on it without endangering my files.

And the cat on the monitor? Those old, clunky monitors that are slowly giving way to flat-screens, are nice and toasty warm on a cats tummy.

The template should include heading and exterior coding and should look something like this:

Coding in Hypertext Markup Language

"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/transitional.dtd"

Computer programming is done by using number combinations. All computer functions are writing using binary which uses "00" and "01" to ask the computer "no" or "yes" about each bit of information. That was tedious, so programmers developed a system called machine language to make telling computers what to do easier. That was still pretty hard for people who do not like numbers. There needed to be an easier way for ordinary people to tell computers how to do easy things--like make web pages.

Hypertext Markup Language is a code using letters that lets a computer turn our commands into binary and back into something we humans can easily read. HTML is one of the easiest kinds of computer coding to learn. It has many uses, but the way it is used most often is to create personal web pages. There are software packages such as "Dreamweaver" that let people do this without even knowing HTML code. There are books and websites that give directions for people who want to write their own code.

Today we are going to look at three simple code commands: "bgcolor" , "Paragraph", and "un-numbered list". With these three commands, you can create a very simple web-page. If you like doing this, the attached list has a book and two webpages that tell more about how to make a webpage.

• Sams Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 21 Days
• HTML Goodies
• Bare Bone

At first glance, this seems like a lot of information. But presented to the student on portable medium (floppies, when I first started teaching this, more recently, on flash drives or down loadable from a central file on a server), this provides a basic framework into which students can place their own paragraphs. It also provides information (once they have saved it as a web page rather than a text document) about resources for finding additional coding.

Try it out for yourself. Copy the coding, paste it into a simple text editor such as notepad (word processing programs add too much extra coding to be efficient), and save the results as an html document. To save a text document as a webpage, in the save bar type “name.html”. When you save the document, it will acquire the icon of your favorite browser. Click on it, and it will come up as a webpage. Pretty cool, huh?

The kids love it! The AHA moment when their coding turns into a bonifide webpage is my favorite part of teaching web design. The next part is even better-this is when they start to substitute their words for mine, change the page color, work with different backgrounds. Some students approach the whole process as a teacher-imposed nonsense, but most take off and run with it. Providing web-pages with added lessons and alternative coding allows the ambitious ones to take off on their own.

For those students who are having more difficulty with the process, my next official additions to their abilities are tables, adding a picture, and adding links to existing webpages and finally, links between three pages of their own. If the school provides email for students, being able to post their email address becomes part of the assignment.

Since middle-school students usually range from ages 11 through 14, security is certainly an issue. Therefore, the students' pages are not published on the internet as such, but rather on the school intranet. If this is not an option, their work is saved to portable medium so that they can take it home with them.