Emoticon - You Should Know

A small text-based or graphics-based picture or icon used in a message in order to convey an emotion is known as an “Emoticon”. Emoticons have been in vogue since the days of the Morse code. Back then, they were used more as a code rather than a graphical symbol. Only people familiar with the code could interpret them.

Emoticons gained popularity in the middle of the last century. During the mid-seventies, they were popular among users of the Plato system. By the end of that decade, these symbols started appearing on the Internet. Like their earlier usage, these symbols represented a specific meaning and were less graphical in nature.

Scott Fahlman is the inventor of the original ASCII smiley emoticons : - ) and : - (

These symbols have to be viewed by tilting ones head ninety degrees to the left. The colon represents the eyes, the hyphen represents the nose and the braces represent the mouth. A huge number of variations have been developed to represent a myriad of emotions. For instance, ; - ) denotes a wink, : - D represents a wide grin : - O shows a surprised face, and so on.

Since western text is read from left to right, all these emoticons are tilted to the left. Some users from Asia developed a series of emoticons that could be viewed straight. These used a pair of braces to outline the face, an underscore for the mouth and a pair of asterisks for the eyes like this (*_*) Most of the emotions in this type of emoticons are expressed through the eyes, whereas the western emoticons use the mouth for the same purpose.

Since the advent of the graphical user interface like Windows, the emoticons have been replaced by cute pictures that depict the same emotion. Instant Messengers and forums automatically display these icons when they encounter a character string that depicts an emoticon.

Recycling computers in the US

It's a logistical nightmare. Trying to balance cost against environmental consideration. The recycling industry has exploded onto the scene throughout the western world. With dwindling resources and high raw materials prices, we're being forced to recycle more, but in the world of Computers, this means a lot of transportation to get obsolete household computers recycled.

We were recently contacted by a Company based in India with a view to the logistical issues associated with recycling computer hardware. The idea was to transport computers from householders back to a central location for processing. The problem? Balancing the cost of recycling a computer system against the cost of transporting the old hardware.

In America, many recycling companies have implemented a 'ship to' service for old or obsolete hardware. It's a great way of cutting down on costs. If you can off-set the cost of employees and overheads against the cash value of old computers and their constituent component value, then you're at least breaking even. You can then offer a service free of charge on the basis that the old hardware is shipped to you at cost to the consumer.

The logistical nightmare starts when you try to collect the computers using in-house employees. The costs of drivers and vehicles can add up quickly and result in negative equity. Off-setting these costs means that the recycling company has to charge the people wanting to dispose of their old hardware. Government run schemes use local municipal waste collection points to containerize the old computers, which the recycler then collects, but with some being 400 miles from the municipal waste collection point, the cost of driving that distance can quickly mount up. In effect, the costs associated with these collections have to be passed onto the government run authorities running the waste collection centers. With America being so large, there's also the carbon cost, where driving such a distance results in what is known as a 'carbon footprint' being put on the old computers, before they've even been recycled. This footprint remains with the constituent materials when they're used to manufacture something else. So even before the new product ends up in the shops, its' got a pretty large carbon footprint associated with it.

In America and it's constituent states, it's the author's belief that recycling of computers really has to be considered state wide rather than Country wide. If a recycler is in New York, then his or her business shouldn't stray over the state line. That way, costs and energy consumption are kept low and the carbon produced by the business will remain low.

Facts Why Inkjet Printing Is Very Appealing Compared To Ordinary Printing

If you are looking for a new way to promote your business that won’t cost you more money, maybe printing is one of the options you won’t resist. Printing is a widely use process in making printed materials that are used for advertising. Brochure, catalogs, flyers, banners, posters, and booklets are some of several examples of printed materials.

Nowadays, making printed materials have become fast, easy and simple. If you want your promotional material to be an eye-catching object, you should make it colored. By way of using inkjet printer this is not hard to make. An inkjet printer is any printer that places extremely small droplets of ink onto paper to create an image.

Since the introduction of inkjet printing is in the latter half of the 1980s, inkjet printers have grown in popularity and performance while dropping significantly in price.

Inkjet printers are a type of printer that works by impelling tiny droplets of liquid ink onto paper. They are the most common type of printer for the general consumer due to its  low cost, high quality of output, capability of printing in vivid color, and easy of use, as I mentioned earlier.

A particular advantage of inkjet printing is that the process does not expose the material to heat or pressure. Accordingly it can be used on materials that could be damaged in lithographic or xerographic processes. For example, data or images can be added by inkjet printing to material produced on a laser printer whereas reprocessing the material in another laser printer could damage both the printer and the material.

The design and services that Inkjet Printing can do for you is an important factor that makes your advertisement really-really appealing.
•    Inkjet Printing is the place where you can find almost all kinds of posters like movie posters, music posters, event posters and product posters.
•    The printing outputs that are being produced by Inkjet Printing can be used as an innovative tool in your advertising activities.
•    Inkjet Printing have mailing services that is only applicable to large volume printing quantity that also provides an increased flexibility in set quantities on a lower cost print run. If you need materials to be used in presentations, point of purchase store displays, courtroom graphics and advertising
•    Inkjet Printing will be able to develop them for you. Digital poster printing is just like having the Inkjet Printing

Aside of being very economical, inkjet printers are easily repair or reconfigure because of their modular design. You do not need to understand the technology behind the workings of the machines for you to be able to repair it; you yourself can be able to make even major repairs. Even inkjet printing systems is reliable; the goodness of it is that if you need to replace or change some parts of it, if it is necessary, it can only take you perhaps more or less five minutes to change its parts.

Easy Ways To Secure Your Computer

Just follow these simple tips; your computer will be free from virus and spyware.

1. Stop and think before opening any attachment you receive.

If you don't know the sender, don't open the attachment - just delete it. It doesn't matter if the subject promises you'll see Britney Spears dancing nude on the kitchen table, just delete it.

Most of the devastating worms and viruses of recent times were distributed via email. These viruses feed on the curiosity and also the ignorance of a huge number of email users. People will get an email from fakename@weirdsuspiciousdomain and they'll just open whatever file is attached to it.

If the email is from someone you know, always scan any attachments first before downloading or opening them.

If every email user in the world followed these simple guidelines the distribution of viruses via email will grind to a halt.

2. Protect yourself

Good protection on the Internet these days consists of 3 components: anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and a firewall.

Anti-Virus Software:

Good virus protection doesn't need to cost you a fortune. You can get excellent free anti-virus software on the Internet. Even the professional version of their software is very affordable.

Anti-Spyware Software:

For spyware protection, you can get it for free on the Internet as well.

A Firewall:

As for a firewall, Windows XP ships with a decent enough firewall. Just make sure it is always enabled. Alternatively you can visit a site like http://www.download.com and search for Zone Alarm, which has an excellent free version.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you need to keep your anti-virus software up to date. It is recommended that you update your anti-virus and anti-spyware software at least once a week. An anti-virus program that uses definitions that are months old is just about useless.

3. Watch out what you download

Spyware is embedded in a lot of software on the Internet - especially those related to ripping, converting and playing music and videos. That free MP3 player or DVD Ripper you just downloaded may have installed a bunch of harmful spyware without you even knowing about it.

4. Keep yourself informed

Major anti-virus software developers like Symantec and Grisoft updates their sites regularly with the latest virus alerts. Visit these sites frequently to keep yourself aware of what threats are doing the rounds and how to avoid them.

Using these simple and software I have kept my computer virus-free for the past 3 years. It's not rocket science. Just stay alert, use some common sense and you too can stay bug free while still enjoying your Internet experience.

5. Stay clear of pornographic and illegal software sites

If you want to pick up viruses and spyware quickly, visit some pornographic web sites. One wrong click on a subtle little pop-up or security warning window (which you'll run into often on these type of sites) and you'll have infested yourself with trojan horses, spyware, dialers and other unfavorable software that could leave your computer wide open to further attacks.

Follow all these useful tips and your computer will be kept secure and virus free.