When it comes to the environment do you want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem? If you don’t want to be part of the problem avoid tossing that supposedly outdated computer onto a landfill. Did you know that your outcast computer remains will take decades to biodegrade and leach scads of poisonous chemicals into the environment during the process?

Several years ago the Utah Department of Environmental Quality estimated that by 2004 more than 300 million computers would be considered obsolete, generating well over 1 billion pounds of lead, 2 million pounds of cadmium, 1 million pounds of chromium, and 400,000 pounds of mercury. Municipal incineration is the largest point source of dioxins into the US and Canadian environments and among the largest sources of heavy metal contamination of the atmosphere. Of course the year 2004 is long gone, and these horrible numbers have undoubtedly been far surpassed in spite of efforts such as corporate trade-in programs.

Why do people toss their computers? That’s simple; given the computer industry’s unending performance advances there is a widespread perception that you can no longer DO anything worthwhile with your old computers. This dangerous assumption is simply not true.

Do you really need Giga-everythings to get your work done and have your fun? Microsoft seems to think so. I remember when 128 Megabytes was a lot of memory. Of course I also remember when “Why would anyone ever need more than 640 Kilobytes of memory?” was the official party line expressed by none other than William Gates III himself.

I’m told that Damn Small Linux requires only 50 Megabytes of disk space, a 486 processor (do you remember what that is?) and 8 Megabytes of RAM. If you want to browse the Internet, you’ll have to move up to 16 Megabytes of RAM and use the Dillo browser. The popular Firefox browser requires additional memory. Frankly, I wouldn’t use such an underpowered computer for moderate or heavy Internet usage. But you can run Linux commands and learn how operating systems work on such computers. And you can play a multitude of games.

For every individual trying to resuscitate a 486 computer there are dozens trying to know what to do with an old Pentium such as my Pentium III 450 Megahertz computers with 128 Megabytes of memory purchased in 1999 or more powerful computers purchased several years later. Without extensive upgrades many of these computers won’t run Windows Vista and may not run Windows XP. But they will run Damn Small Linux or other Linux versions alongside a full range of today’s applications. Let’s put them to work, learn Linux, and do our bit saving the environment.

We next see how Linux lets you control the computer, “obsolete” or not.

Author: Levi Reiss
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Pressure Cooker

Linux web hosting refers to web hosting services that are based on a server that is running the Linux operating system. It is probably the most widely used type of web hosting, especially for individuals and small to medium sized businesses, simply because Linux web hosting is cheaper than other options like Windows based hosting. The reason for this is that Linux is an open source software product and as such does not incur the high licensing fees that other operating systems do; you can freely download and use it at no cost. On the other hand, a web hosting service that offers Windows based hosting has to pay for the software and maintenance fees.

Some of the advantages of Linux web hosting are: cheaper than Windows, support for PHP scripts and MySQL databases and some hosts may offer telnet accounts at no or little additional cost. In many circles Linux is believed to be more secure than Windows, and for that reason it is also the more popular choice for web designers and programmers. Linux web hosting also offers users many configuration and customization options.

The Linux operating system is also very stable, so you can expect high uptime from a Linux web hosting service. Linux supports most scripting languages and types of web files, and you can use files with all the following extensions: .html, .htm, .pl, .php, .shtml, .asp, .xml and others. The biggest disadvantage of a Linux based web hosting solution is that it is not compatible with Microsoft technologies, like ASP scripts.

On the other side of the coin is Windows based hosting, which is generally more expensive, but it does support ASP and, usually for an extra fee, can support Cold Fusion, Access databases and SQL Server databases.

In conclusion, if you are new to building websites and web design, Linux web hosting is the better, and cheaper, option. However, if you need specialized services that are Windows specific, then you will have to use a Windows web hosting service.

Author: Evert Du Toit
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: US Dollar credit card

Many companies, especially the large ones, have their very own websites. Why do they have websites? That is because there are many advantages of having a website for a business. One advantage is that many people can browse your latest products and services easily. Consumers can also communicate with you faster if your website can provide contact information. You can give any information a customer would need from your company to help them decide to avail of the products and services that your company offers. A website truly is an important part of businesses these days.

So if you are planning to have a website, then the first thing that you should do is to look for a web hosting company. The web hosting company that you choose must be reliable. It must have an almost perfect uptime so that your website will be accessible anytime. You need to carefully search for a good web hosting company that can offer you the features that you need and can secure your data from hackers.

While you search for a hosting company, you might find some offering Windows Hosting and Linux Hosting. For many people, there really is not much of a difference between these two. While it is true that the performance and features that the two offer are almost the same, the question is the security. Many people are asking, “Is Linux web hosting secure?” As you probably already know, there are many malwares on the Windows Platform. Malware such as viruses, Trojan, worms and spyware threaten a system. A web server using Windows is open to these threats. A good Windows Hosting can protect their servers from this. What about Linux?

With so many people asking the question “is Linux web hosting secure?” many people have began to doubt Linux web hosting. The Linux platform is also open to different malwares, but there are only a few malwares that can harm Linux. Still, these malware can potentially harm a server hosting your website, which will lead to downtime. If you do not want this to happen, then you must know the answer to the question, “Is Linux web hosting secure?”

So when the developers of Linux was asked the same question, they answered by showing all the security features of Linux web hosting. What are these features? Here are some:

IP (Internet Protocol) Addresses – IP addresses of the visitors of the website are logged. This is used to identify the problems of the server and to prevent fraud.

Data Integrity – Linux ensures that the information on the websites of the customers remains accurate. Their hosting service can prevent unauthorized access, guarantee the correct use of information and preserve data accuracy.

Data Security – Linux also protects the information collected from their customers. They use industry-standard security measures like the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and Encryption of vital information using Hosting VentureOS web sites.

Data Access – Linux also offers a 24/7 customer support. With it, customers can have access to identifiable information and correct errors regarding this information. Linux takes steps to identify the customer before giving access to the said information.

With all these features, you should now know the answer to the question, “Is Linux web hosting secure?” Looking at all these features, you can say that Linux can do an excellent job at not only providing you with an accessible website, but also one that is secured enough to protect information from leaking out as well as other cyber crimes that can threaten your business. So if you asked me the question, “Is Linux web hosting secure?”, then I shall answer it with a “Yes.”

Author: Mark Andrews S
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Credit card currency-exchange fees

Ubuntu, a user-friendly version of Linux, has been running so nicely on my home PC that I decided to do an experiment. I wrote down a list of tasks I normally do with Windows XP and decided to see how many of them I could do on Linux.

Heres what my list looked like: 1) Write this column; 2) Browse the Web; 3) Get new software and install it; 4) Download files; 5) Play music and video files; 6) Burn CDs; and 7) Print my documents.

Of all these, the first was the easiest. Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice.org 2.0, an excellent personal productivity suite that works much like Microsoft Office, with its own word processor, spreadsheet, database and presentation programs. It reads and writes files in MS Word, RTF and a variety of other formats, so sharing your files with colleagues who use Windows or Mac PCs wont be a problem. Unlike earlier versions, too, the program seems to load and run much faster.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 seems to run much faster now. I open up XMMS to listen to some music while I work.

Browsing was just as easy. Ubuntu lets you take your pick from several Web browsers, including Firefox. I experienced some glitches initially with YouTube the videos were playing without sound but that worked itself out after I rebooted the system.

For Windows users, downloading and installing new software on Linux can be rather daunting. Wheres the .EXE file? What do you do with the downloaded file (called a package, in Linux)? What file do you run? Fortunately, Ubuntu takes care of most of these problems for you. A program called Synaptic Package Manager takes care of finding new programs and installing them for you. These are sorted by program types, but the sheer number may be overwhelming. When I ran Synaptic Package Manager, it happily reported that there were more than 18,808 programs available, only 1,221 of which I had installed.

Downloading music and videos? Check. My favorite BitTorrent client, uTorrent, isnt available on Linux but KTorrent, which works much the same way, already comes with Ubuntu. I put the program through its paces and found it held up quite nicely against my trusted file-sharing utility.

To play music and videos, Ubuntu comes with a number of multimedia players. For MP3 files, I like XMMS, which looks like WinAmp. Downloaded AVI files wont play properly on the default Movie Player, but installing VLC Media Player (using Synaptic) will take care of that.

Burning CDs proved to be trickier.

Ubuntu is smart enough to detect a blank CD when its inserted and will ask if youd like to burn a data or an audio CD. If you choose data, it will open a window into which you can drag files youd like burned. Burning a data CD in this manner is simplicity itself, but it might be a bit too simple. The program, Nautilus, doesnt even tell you how much disc space youre using.

If you choose to burn an audio CD, Ubuntu will start a program called Serpentine, which enables you to add audio files to an audio CD compilation. The puzzling thing is, Serpentine will not accept MP3 files by default! All is not lost, however. You need to install the LAME encoder for the Gstreamer package (gstreamer0.8-lame), again using Synaptic. Once youve done that, Serpentine will burn your MP3 files into an audio CD without a hitch.

Serpentine burns an audio CD.

Burning a VCD from AVI files is even trickier. In very broad strokes, youll need to install K3b, a CD burning program, and a package called VCDimager, and tell K3b where its located. Youll also need a command-line program called FFmpeg to convert AVI files to MPG, which is the format that K3b uses. Sounds complicated? It is, but its doable.

Finally, I wanted to print documents on my Epson Stylus C50 inkjet printer. Simple as it sounds, this last task almost stumped me. Even though Ubuntu detected my printer and said it was using the correct printer driver from a program called Gimp-print, my C50 kept spewing out garbled, unreadable text. Hours of online research about Gimp-print only confused me further with what seemed to be gobbledygook. Many sheets of wasted paper later, I remembered a snippet of information from a mailing list. It was written before the C50 driver was available and suggested that the driver for an earlier Epson model, the C44UX might work. I went to Ubuntus printer setup utility and told it to use that driver and voila!I was finally able to print. Frustration faded away and a sense of satisfaction set in. I had survived the weekend without Windows.

Author: Chin Wong
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty