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A screensaver is a kind of small software program or utility that protects your on-screen data from being viewed or accessed by any intruder; at the same time, it also enlivens your screen by displaying constantly changing, vivid, bright, and colorful images.

A screen saver appears on the display screen, if the screen is idle with no keystrokes or mouse movements for a specified duration. The original concept of the screensaver was created for the purpose of preventing the display screen from etching an image into the screen. With the modernization and updating of the computers and computer technology, the problem of etching of an image, also known as ghosting no longer exists. But the concept and popularity of the screensavers are still the same. Screensavers are used as a data protection utility, as a password-protected screensaver prevents helps you in preventing your data and information from any unauthorized user.

Downloading a screensaver on your computer screen is as easy as a child’s play. All you need to do is to choose your favorite theme from the countless screensavers available on the Internet, and click download. A few easy-to-follow steps will soon download your screensaver on your desktop without any hassle. You can set the time duration after which a screensaver should appear, in case the screen is ideal for the specified time. After downloading the screensaver, you can also make it password protected. This facility authenticates the user and restores the screen, only after the correct password is entered.

Whether it is Valentine’s day, Christmas or New Year’s, you can find and download a screensaver every day, reflecting the flavor of the day and the season.

Also available for downloads are screensavers depicting the theme of nature, lighthouse, automobiles, animals, motivational, sports, and so on. The countless themes and designs of screensavers make them available for all your moods and events. Download your favorite theme of screensaver now and watch your computer screen light up with vibrant colors and images to cheer up your mood and revitalize you in between your tight work schedules and deadlines.

Free Screensavers provides detailed information on Free Screensavers, Download Free Screensavers, Free Animated Screensavers, Free 3D Screensavers and more. Free Screensavers is affiliated with Free 3D Wallpaper.

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Outsourcing is the strategic use of outside resources to perform activities traditionally handled by internal staff and resources. Small business owners can outsource non-core functions to specialized and efficient service providers. It is required of businesses to hire special contractors for particular types of work or to meet the demands put forth by sudden spurts in the workload. Recently, the trend of partnering with firms whose capabilities complement their own giving them an access to resources that were beyond their individual reach has come up. The difference between simply subcontracting and outsourcing is that outsourcing involves the wholesale restructuring of the corporation around core competencies and outside relationships.

As a consequence, has emerged a new class of skilled entrepreneurs - the Virtual Assistants.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office. A VA completes your projects using his or her own equipment, and carries out the work through email, fax, telephone and postal service. Therefore, the location of your VA is not important. This gives you a liberty to look for professionals best suited to your needs located anywhere on the globe. Since they’re paid only for time-on-task, businesses can hire several VAs in dispersed locations and have 24-hour support — paying far less than an employee or temporary would cost for such comprehensive assistance.

The services offered by each VA differ according to his/her skills. The list of services includes general administration services, database and website development, graphic design, internet research, sales support, presentation preparation, telephone answering, bill payments, travel arrangements, bookkeeping, desktop publishing, computer training, medical/legal transcription… the list is endless! Not all VAs offer all of these services. However, by being part of VA Networks, your VA can guarantee client satisfaction by a qualified VA. If your VA cannot complete your task, he/she will find another VA who can.

Why to outsource the work to a VA?

1. The primary benefit of outsourcing is economizing since the VA can do it cheaper. VAs only charge for actual time worked.

2. By outsourcing to a VA rather than hiring an in-office assistant, you will never need to pay employment insurance, vacation pay, sick pay, or contribute to retirement plans and worker’s compensation.

3. A VA has his/her own hardware, software, training, etc. thereby reducing your capital investment. So there is no wear and tear on your office equipment or a need for special equipment.

4. Engaging a VA gives you time allowing you to do what you do best. You can focus on delivering the higher value and service to your customers.

5. As skilled VAs are chosen to perform particular tasks, they can do it better as they do it all the time. It is their business.

6. Like you, VAs are entrepreneurs and understand the needs of businesses today, ensuring the success of their clients. VAs value each and every client; it is because of these clients that VAs can ensure the success of their own businesses.

7. The resources of the VA can give your business access to technical advances you would not normally have access to.

With modern day communication, projects can be accomplished without ever having to meet the client face to face. With the growing ease of the Internet, finding a VA almost anywhere in the world is quite simple to accomplish. More so in the developed nations like USA, Canada, Australia, UK and many other European countries the VA industry is highly organized. The potential of developing countries like India can too be exploited to provide skilled VA services.

About The Author

Jagmohan Saluja is a Virtual Professional providing support services to small businesses. To know more about him visit http://www.internet-researcher.com; indianva@internet-researcher.com

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Anyone who has seen the movie’ Honey I shrunk the kids’ can imagine how useful compression can be. Compression, which has become anonymous with Zip files work
off the same idea only with a (add your joke here)’slightly’ different technology.
You will find a lot of data compression programs in use today and some are easier and have better features than others, so in this article I will talk about compression in general, but may through in a couple of examples for comparison.

The first thing you need to know is that there can be more than one compressed file; you can have an archive (a multiple of files). The main benefit of this is that the user can:
 Save valuable disk space
 Can send and receive files on the internet quicker
 Speeds up your processor
 Depending on the file compression program can reduce files as much as 90%

The user should also be aware that files can only be opened with the original compression program that compressed it. Think of this as a form of protection, if you will since this is like an encrypted file or archive. Adding a password is another way to insure files are safe from prying eyes and some compression programs let you do this at any level of compression or decompression with the associated commands (update,move,feshien,add). Only individual files can be password protected not whole archives.
Ever since the first personal computers (PC’s) came about people found how easy it is to load up there drives with programs and downloads that eat up much of there memory. That’s why developers created data compression programs in the first place, to free up hard drive space and increase processor speed.
There are a lot of data compression programs and they are not exactly alike because they use different data compression algorithms. One popular program, for example looks for repeating words or phrases and assigns them there own character or number value.

A lot of users don’t fully understand the more advanced features of their data compression programs so they are not really getting there full value. Syntax command lines are a good example of this confusion. There are four basic commands in syntax (the shape of a command line);
 Command: The task to be preformed like add, delete or update.
 Archive: the name of the archive.
 Switch or Option: lets user specify a file option like adding file directories for compression.
 File: name of file(s) to be processed.
A user can compress files four basic ways:
 Add files to archive - old files with same name are overwritten.
 Move files to archive - upon compression old files are deleted.
 Update files - makes sure you have the most recent file version.
 Freshen files - almost like update, seeks out the last modified file and adds it to archive.
The above commands have there basic functions but can do other things. Ex. the update & add commands can create and compress files and the Freshen command can create a new archive.
There are only a couple of data compression programs out there that give the user more than one compression method - PKZIP AND ARJ.
PKZIP has what they call an imploding method and a shrinking method; without going into great detail imploding uses less memory (90k), and is very through. This is the default setting. Shrinking is fast but uses a bit more memory (128k), works great for smaller files.
ARJ gives the user more options for data compression. It uses multiple settings (m1 to m4). This is a tradeoff of prosessing speed versus packing dentisy. There are 2 more options available here but test runs show no significant change in time or compression.
Even with experienced compression users, extracting compressed files with a newer version of a data compression program may prove difficult, so programmers created self extracting files (SFX) to enable beginners to easily use compressed files. This small program may be part of the original program or added after as a separate program.

I realize some of this may sound confusing and for that I apologize, and after all, people will compresses data using only the basic functions and be happy and content because it suits there present needs. In conclusion you can tell there are many options available when using any data compression program and it is well worth the time (got time on the week end?) and effort to learn some of the advanced features if you want to save some serious space on your hard drive.

Robert Hanania is a student of the internet, learning about home based businesses and computers. Robert is currently promoting his web sites. All are welcome to visit him at:
www.fileanddatarecovery.com
www.houseimprovementonline.net

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Nowadays, fax services are undeniable one of the most important communications among human. If doesn’t matter how big is your business, what’s your business nature and how you run your business - you just need a fax service to send out those documents. The recent survey that shows a bigger percentage of business phone bills are for faxing prove that the fax is still one of the ‘must-have services’ for your office.

However, faxing nowadays doesn’t rely only on conventional faxing machine. By utilizing the Internet, we can now easily send out ‘eFax’. Internet faxing, or sometimes known as email faxing or online fax, is one of the latest technologies that provides its users to send and receive faxes without a fax machine. Instead, Internet access and an email account is all that is required.

If you used a fax machine before then you can understand how frustrating it is when the fax machine jams, cuts off page text, stops in the middle of a transmission, or the receiving fax machine is constantly busy or out of paper. Further more, the extra cost of maintaining a fax machine become a heavy burden to the users.

Internet faxing is giving a much more convenient faxing service to the user compare to traditional fax machine. No more paper jamming, smooth transmission, 24 hours stand by with no more engage tone, and most of all, minimum cost for maintaining the service. Also, Internet faxing users don’t need to pay for the extra phone line, fax equipments and maintenance cost. All you need is to pay the subscribing fees to the faxing software and the cost per fax.

Seeing Internet fax as an effective answer to the old fax machine, several vendors have produced and are selling Internet faxing services nowadays. There are companies that offer software only solutions that allow you to fax directly from your computer to any fax machine; and there are services offer fax-to-IP Internet gateway products, which are hardware-based routers that emulate a fax machines.

Faxing services that use software (for example eFax or CallWave fax) require that you sign up with fax service provider. For eFax Internet faxing services, the monthly service charge is from $0-$19.95 depend on which package you go for; while limiting their users to only receive fax, CallWave fax charge their users less than 10 bucks per monthly. The advantages of using this method are that faxing becomes considerably cheaper because you are not making long distance connections over the phone lines, no hardware is required, you get faster transmission, you can send many faxes at once, no dedicated fax lines are needed, and a web interface is available if you wish to add fax-on-demand capability to a website.

Another type of Internet faxing is known as fax-to-IP. Fax-to-IP Internet gateway products needs hardware-based routers that emulate a fax machines. With these, faxing is done in the regular way using the fax machine, but the gateway device, which then dials the destination fax machine and sends the fax, interrupts the process. The fax-to-IP service is good if you don’t send a lot of faxes, but would still like to take advantage of the savings of using Internet delivery. It is also good if you do a lot of international fax calls. The disadvantages are that you won’t save much on either domestic faxing, or faxing to countries where the Internet infrastructure is less well developed.

Undeniable, faxing is one of the core communications in our daily life. With the rise of high speed Internet, Internet faxing had gave us a new option on faxing. As the monthly running cost of Internet faxing is relative low and you can always enjoy a free trial on the service, we believe you should give a try on this latest technology.

For more details on eFax services, we suggest
http://www.myinternetfax.biz.

For more details on CallWave fax services, we suggest http://www.mycallwave.com.

If you would like to know more about Internet faxing by eFax and CallWave, we suggest this page for comparisons guide: eFax vs CallWave Fax

The author, Claudia Walters, is one of the expert writter in office tools and technologies. View her latest writting assignments on Call Wave fax services at http://www.MyCallWave.com.

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What is a learning management system?

As a refresher from a previous article, learning management systems (LMSs) are web-based software application platforms used to plan, implement, and assess learning processes related to online and offline training administration and performance management. LMSs allow an instructor to create and deliver content, monitor learners’ participation, and assess student performance. LMSs also allow learners to use interactive features such as threaded discussions, web conferencing, discussion forums, and other methods of communication.

When learning management systems are SCORM/AICC compliant, what does that mean?

SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model, which is a set of specifications that, when applied to course content, produces small, reusable e-Learning objects. A result of the Department of Defense’s Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative, SCORM-compliant courseware elements are easily merged with other compliant elements to produce a highly modular repository of training materials.

AICC standards apply to the development, delivery, and evaluation of training courses that are delivered via technology, i.e., more often than not, through learning management systems. AICC stands for the Aviation Industry CBT [Computer-Based Training] Committee (AICC), which is an international association of technology-based training professionals that develops training guidelines for the aviation industry.

What is the Advance Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative?

ADL is a government-sponsored organization that was started to develop specifications and promote the adoption and spread of e-Learning. They are the group responsible for developing the ADL Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). SCORM parameters combine elements of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), AICC, and Information Management Standard (IMS) specifications into a consolidated document that can be easily implemented. SCORM-compliant courseware elements are easily merged with other compliant elements to produce a highly modular repository of training materials that allows suppliers and content developers to implement e-Learning specifications in a consistent and reusable way.
In upcoming articles, we will discuss more about the SCORM/AICC standard as it is related to your learning management systems selection and other issues surrounding the SCORM/AICC standards as associated to e-Learning.

More Information on the ADL and SCORM/AICC Standards

More information on the ADL and the SCORM/AICC standards can be found at their web site http://www.adlnet.org/

Dave Boggs is the founder and CEO of SyberWorks, Inc http://www.syberworks.com He has been involved with computer-based and web-based training for more than twelve years. Before founding SyberWorks, Dave was the VP of Sales and Business Development for Relational Courseware. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Union College in Schenectady, NY, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

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Small business/large business management and success is largely dependent upon customer acquisition, customer relationship enhancements, and customer retention, otherwise known as Customer Relationship Management, or CRM.

CRM is a combination of enterprise strategies, business processes and information technologies that are used to learn about customers’ needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships with them.

In the not-too-far past, CRM mainly consisted of a roll-a-deck index file and a telephone and answer machine. An enhanced CRM system would have included an Excel spreadsheet.

Today the Net offers businesses many software applications that simplifies and speeds up the 3 cornered processes of customer acquisition, relationship enhancements and retention. CRM software systems streamline CRM at each phase.

CRM systems generally consist of a contact manager program, snail mail and/or email marketing campaigns, a sales tracking program, and a voice mail system or a multi-media contact center.

On the downside, CRM systems are only as good as the information it contains. The old programmer’s motto “garbage in, garbage out” applies to CRM data quality.

One of the most common reasons cited for high failure rate of CRM systems is poor data quality, but this is easily avoided.

Make rules for creating new profiles. Double check data entries so that duplicates are avoided, email addresses are correct and that the data is inputted completely and correctly and isn’t out of date. Re-establish customer contact if their info isn’t correct or complete or is out of date….the extra contact can’t hurt and will make them feel special.

All aspects of CRM are now available on the Net. Some big name packaged CRM systems are ACT!, Goldmine, and Epiphany. You can do a Google search for more packaged CRM systems.

If you are looking for free CRM software, try Open Office, a free replacement for MS-Office with some enhancements. Or go to FreeCRM.com

Packaged CRM systems or free systems might meet the needs of a small business, but large businesses generally require a custom-built, integrated CRM system.

What will using CRM do for your business? Besides streamlining all the functions of running a business and saving tons of time, basically, it will make your customers feel special by understanding their needs and fulfilling those needs in a personal manner, which will keep them coming back for more.

Your alternative? Don’t use CRM and lose 50% of your customers every 5 years. Can you afford to do that?

Cynthia Macy has been a self-employed entrepreneur/consultant for 26 years and has found the software CRM systems to be time-saving and labor-saving and money-enhancing.

To learn more about CRM, please visit:
http://www.featureblog.com/blogs/customerrelationshipmanagementsite/

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Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology - Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations. There are several reporting tools available and you definitely need to know which one to use for different types of reports.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we create report for Microsoft Great Plains - read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Great Plains Report Writer (ReportWriter) - this is built-in reporting tool. All the original report in Great Plains are written in ReportWriter. ReportWriter itself is Dexterity module. You should use this tool if you would like to modify existing Great Plains reports, such as Blank Invoice Form - here you can place your company logo, change the positioning, fonts, colors, etc. ReportWriter will allow you also do new reports - simple option if you want to export all the records from one Great Plains table - use it. New report, however doesn’t have interface where you would enter parameters - so it is not useful for real custom reports. Another limitation of ReportWriter - you can not do cross-modules report - when you need sales and purchasing info on the same report for example.

2. FRx. This is excellent tool when deal with financial reporting - it works on the General Ledger level (Balance sheet, P&L, Cash Flow Statement, etc.). It also allows you to do multiple companies consolidation - when you do consolidated Balance Sheet (with inter-companies transactions elimination).

3. Smart List - Export to Excel - this is nice feature in Great Plains - you could create a list with simple criteria and then export it to Excel.

4. Crystal Reports. It gives you unlimited functionality. Obviously flexibility requires you to know Great Plains table structure: Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers - it should be RM00101 - customer master file. If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents - they are in SOP30200 - Sales History Header file, etc. Create ODBC connection to GP Company database. Use the same technique as when you create standard ODBC connection for GP workstation - but change default database to targeted company database. Create SQL Query to probe the data - we always recommend tuning your query and see that you are getting adequate results - in any case - Crystal Report is just a nice tool to show the results of your query.

5. Direct Web Publishing off Great Plains databases - yes - it is easy now with Visual Studio.Net and you can hire good programmers. This is good - Microsoft Business Solutions products: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta will be integrated into so called Microsoft Business Portal - which will have web interface - you can get the idea if you look at Microsoft CRM web client - so derecti web publishing is good taste.

6. SQL Queries. If you have SQL background - this is great field for you. You know - with properly formatted SQL query you can realize simple EDI export/import for the integration with legacy systems.

Happy designing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call!

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally www.albaspectrum.com, he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

akarasev@albaspectrum.com

1-866-528-0577 help@albaspectrum.com

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Sometimes your PC will start acting strange for no apparent reason or a program
which you use regularly will all of a sudden stop working as it should. This
can be a frustrating experience especially if you have no idea where to go for
help. If this happens to you, don’t panic! Here are some simple tips which may
turn your frown upside down.

1. Don’t assume that your problem is unique. The chances are that someone else
has had that problem and it has already been solved. Google is a great place
for getting technical support help believe it or not. You may have to
experiment with wording your problem and refining your search, but it’s worth a
try. For example my Outlook email client stopped showing me the ‘Subject’ field
when I was composing new email. As a result all of my email was going out
without a subject. After a bit of experimenting with wording the problem I
found the answer by searching on the phrase “Outlook subject field missing”.
Someone in an online discussion group had the same problem and the answer was
provided. When you find good discussions groups bookmark them for future use. I
have a bookmark I call Technical Support Help and it’s full of great web sites.

2. The Google trick is good for lots of software but you should always try the
web site of the program’s manufacturer as well. Sometimes your problem is
really a bug and there may be a new release or work around available. Many
software web sites have FAQs, discussion lists, and help desks available that
provide free support. Sometimes there is a telephone number that you can call
but you may have to pay for live help.

3. There are companies that offer free general help for simple questions and
then charge a sliding scale for more complicated ones. Support Freaks (www.supportfreaks.com) is a good one to try. Even if you have to pay, the rates are reasonable. Click on the “Freebies” link, under the “Quick Links” menu to see if your question is eligible for free help.

4. There are probably any number of local PC support groups that meet in
libraries and other locations near your home. Some of these groups are very
specific in nature and some are general. Try searching Google for “PC Support
Group” or “PC User group” and the name of your town. Also check with your local
librarian and computer stores. They often know of these groups.

5. Speaking of computer stores, you can often pick the brains of the more
knowledgeable salespeople if you are lucky enough to find any. Many times these
employees love computers so much that they will act as your big brother or
sister if you need some quick help. Sometimes they moonlight as consultants at
a good rate.

This ought to be enough information to get you started on the road to solving
your next PC or software problem. If you are having Internet connectivity
problems then your ISP is the first place to start. If you can’t get online at
all, and you don’t think you know their phone number, think again. I’ll bet
that it’s printed on every bill that they send you. You’ll also need your
account number and you can bet that it’s printed on the bill as well.

Remember — When it comes to getting technical support help, the first rule is:
Don’t Panic!

Copyright © 2004 Cavyl Stewart. Discover 52 Ways To Do More With Software by signing up for my exclusive Free ecourse. Get resources, tips, reviews and recommendations you can use right now to help you achieve more, easier, and cheaper! 100% Original content. Visit: http://www.find-small-business-software.com/52ways.html

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