Business, economic development - the unofficial Chamber of Commerce

Radware (NASDAQ: RDWR) the leading provider of Intelligent
Application Switching (IAS) solutions ensuring the availability,
performance and security of networked applications across the
enterprise announced that Continental Airlines uses Radware’s href="http://www.radware.com/content/products/apsolute_os/default
.asp" rel="nofollow"> Intrusion Prevention Switch to protect applications
running on the airline’s B2B web servers.

Continental offers an array of Web services that provide
operational information such as flight schedules, flight status,
departure and arrival details, and frequent flyer special
services to Continental partners, distributors and other
businesses that rely on real-time information. Continental
Airlines’ B2B presence increasingly relies on web-based and
mission critical distributed applications. These are accessed
remotely from partner sites and hosting facilities over wide
area networks. Radware DefensePro protects these applications
from viruses, intrusions, worms, and DoS attacks.

“Radware’s Intrusion Prevention solution has been protecting our
B2B sites for over a year, with bi-directional, deep packet
inspection and accelerated signature matching to block hidden
worms, viruses, Trojans and intrusions,” said Andrew N. Dana,
Senior Manager of Information Technology at Continental Airlines.

Securing the networked applications running Web services
requires the ability to perform deep packet inspection of
traffic to block attacks in real-time and prevent attacks from
entering the network. By deploying Radware’s DefensePro in front
of Continental’s B2B sites, it intercepts malicious signatures
and viruses, blocking application attacks at multi-Gigabit
speeds. Identifying and mitigating protocol and traffic
anomalies in real-time, DefensePro prevents DoS/DDoS and SYN
floods, safeguarding against all illicit traffic patterns and
hacking.

“Continental’s deployment of DefensePro demonstrates an industry
wide progression towards solutions that provide end-to-end
application delivery and security,” said Bob Simpson, VP sales
at Radware. “Continental is a long-standing Radware customer,
and their implementation of our Intrusion Prevention solution
ensures site wide availability and security to their B2B web
servers.”

Radware (NASDAQ:RDWR) is the Global Leader in Intelligent
Application Switching, enabling the full availability, maximum
performance and complete security of all mission critical
networked applications while dramatically cutting operating and
scaling costs.

Radware’s integrated href="http://www.radware.com/content/solutions/application-securi
ty/Default.asp" rel="nofollow"> Application Security , Application
Infrastructure and End-to-End Connectivity solutions are
deployed by over 2,500 enterprises and carriers worldwide.
Radware offers the broadest product line in the industry meeting
application needs at every critical point across the network
including Web and Application Servers, Firewalls, VPNs, ISP
links, Anti-Virus Gateways and Cache.

Continental Airlines is the world’s sixth-largest airline with
more than 3,000 daily departures throughout the Americas, Europe
and Asia. Continental serves 151 domestic and 120 international
destinations — more than any other airline in the world — and
nearly 400 additional points are served via SkyTeam alliance
airlines. With 41,000 employees, the airline has hubs serving
New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and carries approximately
51 million passengers per year. In 2004, Continental has earned
awards and critical acclaim for both its operation and its
corporate culture. FORTUNE ranks Continental one of the 100 Best
Companies to Work For in America, an honor it has earned for six
consecutive years, and also ranks Continental as the top airline
in its Most Admired Global Companies in 2004. The carrier won
major awards at the 2004 OAG Airline of the Year Awards
including “Airline of the Year,” “Best Airline Based in North
America” and “Best Executive/Business Class.”

Divx Movies

Everyone in the Online Movie world is talking about DivX Movies, you may have heard of this term before, but what does it really mean?

Well, If we would ask a techie:

“DivX is a digital video compression format based on the MPEG-4 technology. DivX files can be downloaded over high-speed lines in a relatively short time without sacrificing the quality of the digital video. Often used on the Internet to exchange video files.”

But for the rest of the world, what does this mean (in english please)? And even more important, how does this benefit us when we download divx movies?

Here’s how it works… You have a 2 hour Movie that you want to download. You have a regular DVD file which is about 4.7 GB, if you wanted to download it that would take as long as 3 days to download!

Fortunately, a Codec was developed by a company called DivXNetworks. What DivX does is that it takes that old DVD dinosaur of a file and it compresses it into something 7 to 10 times smaller, and it maintains the high quality of the visuals and the audio on the DivX Movies.

What this means for us is that instead of a download taking 3 days or 72 hours, this process is reduced around 3 to 6 hours depending on your conection speed.

If you want to Burn the file onto a Cd and watch it on your DVD, first make sure your DVD-player supports DivX/XviD playback, then all you need to do is Burn it onto a Cd or two, depending on the size of the movie, and you got yourself a Ready to Rumble movie. Just make sure you keep the copies to yourself and not distribute them illegally or sell them and you’re all set.

Charles Cruz
Download Movies
Central Educating people on how to legally download movies online.

Frozen Food Age magazine reaches a critical subset of the
grocery market consisting of frozen food retailers, wholesalers,
brokers, manufacturers and managers of public refrigerated
warehouses and refrigerated rail/truck lines. Frozen Food Age
targets decision-makers and buyers within the vital $22 billion
frozen food industry and holds a dominant leadership position
within its category. The current issue includes an import
profile of Home Run Inn Pizza’s selection of PRONTO North
America’s ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) System. The author
of the article, Thomas R. Cutler, looks at how the mobility
functionality in the ERP system allowed Home Run Inn to be one
of the most success frozen pizza manufacturers.

Pronto North America, Inc. is widely recognized as the authority
in technologically driven business solutions and process
management. Utilizing innovative implementation techniques and
tools, Pronto North America generates increased performance,
service, efficiency, and accountability.

Pronto North America is the North American Master Distributor of
PRONTO-Xi™, a comprehensive software system allowing
manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to effectively manage
all phases of their business. Far beyond just another Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) System, PRONTO-Xi’s financial and
distribution applications are unique and have provided maximum
return on investment for a wide variety of organizations since
1976. From PRONTO Production to PRONTO Advanced Warehousing;
from PRONTO Planning to PRONTO Quality Management System (QMS);
from PRONTO Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) to PRONTO
Forecasting Management, the cross-section and breadth of
integrated elements addressed by PRONTO-Xi is unmatched in the
marketplace and justifies its natural leadership role as the
best fully integrated business software solution.

Pronto North America www.prontoerp.com Tom Verzi 952-942-5858

# # #

For many of us, the DVD’s we use have far become the only type we will buy. Do you remember the days of the VHS? Sure you do, but who wants to when you can enjoy the many benefits of the DVD, right? These small, compact disks offer enough space to store more than just a movie. In fact, many of them have features and features on them to keep the consumer busy for a good few hours.

The DVD has far surpassed the VHS recordings. It is similar in shape to the compact disc, actually it is quite similar. Through the use of a DVD player, you can watch some of the best looking movies and films that you have ever seen. The images are stored on the disk the same as a song is stored on a CD. What makes it even more convenient is that you can easily skip from scene to scene within seconds. Or, you can rewind to the very beginning with a touch of the button. There is no waiting for the rewind or the fast forward button to buzz through the tape rewinding it all the way. Instead, things are just easier with the DVD.

More and more the DVD is overtaking the entertainment industry. Not only can you use them to watch movies, but family movies can be burnt onto them as well. You can use them to store hours of fun this way. They can easily be stored, easily be copied, and even sent in the mail without a problem. Anything the VHS can do, the DVD can do better. The images are crisper and more flowing. The sound is perfect even more in stereo than the VHS. Not to worry about how hard it is to use this new technology. If you are a first timer, there is nothing more to it than popping the disk into the drive and pressing play. It will even save you the time of having to rewind before you return it! Is there any reason not to love the DVD?

When it comes to cost, the DVD is about the same as a compact disc or slightly more. In some cases it is a little more expensive than the VHS but only because it is harder to sell those tapes these days. Even the DVD players have come down in price considerably. If you haven’t purchased one yet, there is no better time than the present to do so. It will not be long before the VHS is a thing of the past. It will be to our grandkids what the 8 track is to our kids. Nothing more than a memory!

Rober Brand
DVD Directory

Learning HTML is like learning another language, but it can be attained fairly quickly right from your computer. There are many tutorial programs that will teach you everything. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it is all about making your letter, list, or document readable, and positioned in a certain manner, by the computer. HTML created little “tags” that are attached to the written text, and is necessary if you want to design your own web page because the markup tags tell the Web browser how to display the page. It positions the text where you want it on the page. Without this markup language to “explain” the locations of text, it would simply appear in wrap style. An HTML file must have an htm. Extension on the file when it is created, to identify it and a file can be created by using a simple text editor. HTML is the universal markup language for the web, and it allows you to format text, add graphics, create links, input forms, frames and tables, etc., and save it so that any browser can read and display. The key is learning the tags which are used and this is what the tutorials will teach you - all the tags and their applications.

The tags are important and are used to markup the HTML elements which are surrounded by two characters which direct it. The surrounding characters are called angle brackets, and would look like, ‘< and >’. These usually come in pairs, one at the beginning of the “element content” or the text, and one at the end, like ‘< b >’ the house is on a hill ‘< /b >’ This is a small glimpse into HTML. But the funny thing is, just like every other part of the computer world, there is now a “new” HTML called XHTML. So, just when you think you’ve got it – they come up with a better one! Doesn’t it figure? Not to worry, there are tutorials for both types now on the web, so you can take your choice. The noticeable difference is that XHTML is somewhat cleaner and stricter than the HTML, but still very similar.

This article was written by T. Potter. You can visit Learn HTML Guide for further information and html resources.

Maximizing the life of your hard drive

If I asked you the question: which part of your computer is the
most fragile, what would you say? What if I asked: which part is
most important to you? Often, the answer to both of these
questions is your Hard Drive.

Your hard drive is likely one the most important things you
own. It contains work data, school data, emails, photos, music,
movies, tax information, etc… Incidentally, the hard drive is
also one of only two moving components in your computer (the
other being your optical drive). The following is a list of
important maintenance and monitoring techniques you can use to
maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data loss.

Hard drives are physically fragile - handle with care
Statistics show that 25% of lost data is due to a failure of a
portable drive. (Source: 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results)
Contrary to its seemingly rugged appearance, your hard disk is a
very delicate device that writes and reads data using
microscopic magnetic particles. Any vibration, shock, and other
careless operation may damage your drive and cause or contribute
to the possibility of a failure. This is especially relevant for
notebook users, as they are most at risk of drive failure due to
physical damage, theft, and other causes beyond their control.
That’s why we recommend regular backup of notebook hard drives,
as often as possible. Possible solutions include external USB or
Firewire drives (although these are prone to the same risks),
desktop synchronization, or backup at a data center through the
web.

Hard drives write data in a non-linear way forcing it to
become fragmented.

When files accumulate on your hard drive, they do not just get
written in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes files in small
pieces and scatters them over the surface. The fuller your hard
drive becomes and the more files you save and delete the worse
file fragmentation can be. Hard drive access times increase with
fragmentation since your drive must work harder to find all the
pieces of the files. The more fragmented your data is, the
harder the actuator arm has to work to find each piece of a
file. A case in point: Disk fragmentation is a common
problem for users of Outlook Express and database software. Each
time outlook saves new mail, it does so in a different physical
location from the previous time. This results in extreme
fragmentation, causing longer hard drive access times and
forcing more strain on the heads. This strain can eventually
lead to a head crash, and often that means a virtually
unrecoverable drive.Finally, in the event of a total crash, a
fragmented drive is much more difficult to recover then a
healthy defragged drive. Luckily, Windows makes it remarkably
easy to defrag your hard drive, simply launch the Disk
Defragmenter utility (Start > Programs > Accessories > System
Tools), choose which disk or partition you’d like to
defragment and set it to work overnight or while you are not
actively using your computer. Defragmentation will speed up your
computer and ensure a longer life for your hard drive.

A very small power surge can fry a hard drive - use a UPS and
turn off your computer when you can Another little-known
fact about the fragility of your hard drive is its
susceptibility to electrical failure. An electrical failure can
be caused by a power surge, lightening strikes, power
brown-outs, incorrect wiring, a faulty or old power supply, and
many other factors. If a power surge enters your computer, it
may do an unpredictable amount of damage, including destroying
your hard drive’s electronics or crashing the heads and possibly
resulting in total data loss. The best way to protect your
computer from such dangers is to use a highly rated protected
power bar or an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although
these devices won’t eliminate the chances of a crash, they will
serve as effective protection in most cases. Also, you can
minimize the danger of an electrical problem and reduce wear of
your hard drive by turning off your computer or using power-save
modes whenever possible. It’s a known fact that 100% of drives
fail, the question is when will it happen and will you be
prepared? Make sure to check out the knowledgebase section of
our website for more detailed information on how electrical
power affects your computer.

Be SMART, monitor the health of your drive to prevent
unexpected crashes All modern hard drives have a
self-monitoring technology called SMART (Self Monitoring
Analysis & Reporting Technology). What most people don’t realize
is that the majority of hard drive failures do not have to be
unexpected. Most failures occur as a result of long-term
problems which can be predicted. By regularly monitoring disk
health and performance, you can know about potential hard drive
problems before you lose any of your data. Several excellent
utilities are available, including DiskView and Stellar SMART
for standard IDE and SATA desktop drives. Also available are
tools that monitor the health of SCSI drives and full RAID Array
systems. Ariolic Software offers a great utility called
ActiveSMART.

The only fool-proof way to prevent data loss is… Backup!

If you only take one of the suggestions here to heart, let it be
this one: always back up your important data. After all the
monitoring and all the prevention measures are in place, one
fact still remains: all hard drives fail. Backing up regularly
will ensure that you’re never caught without your critical data.
For individuals, the simplest solutions include external
portable hard drives, dvd’s, and online storage. For businesses,
we recommend renting space at a secure data centre and
implementing a disaster recovery plan, regardless of the size of
your business.

I hope that the above techniques give you some idea of the
importance of hard drive maintenance and provide some insights
in how you can protect yourself from data loss.

Why do people love MAC computers? Are they really the best choice for your home business? To answer that question you need to understand the basic difference between MACs and PCs. A P.C., the acronym for “Personal Computer”, is the machine that most of the computing world owns. That actually should be the acronym for “Popular Computer”. You’re likely reading this from a PC.

How can you tell? Well MAC computers, manufactured by Apple, run on their own operating system, versus the PC which all run on the Microsoft Windows operating system, i.e. Windows 98, 2000, etc. That’s it…that’s the defining difference between the two types of computers. If you’re running a computer with a Microsoft operating system, then you have a PC.

Bill Gates actually ripped off the original Apple operating system, but that’s a whole other article.

Most media and creative professionals, who work in design or in the film and music industries, only use these computers. That’s the foundation of their business. But other than that, you don’t find them too much in many business settings.

Now I’ve never owned one, but I’ve worked with other business owners who have and I actually fiddled around with one a few times. Here’s what I can tell you….

MAC users LOVE MACs!!!!!! They’re generally like cult followers, they worship them and would drink a vial of arsenic before switching to a PC.

That in itself does say a lot! You don’t generally see PC users feeling the same way. I admit they are really hot machines, but since I’ve worked with PC’s for over 15 years I am admittedly biased. It’s really just a “comfort”, “familiarity”, “feels like a good ol’ shoe” kind of thing.

The truth is MACs are essentially better-made. Apple tends to “over-engineer” their computers, so that you can get by without an upgrade for a much longer time. It’s about eight to ten years, as opposed to the PC’s three to five year span.

Their operating system is superior to Windows and they have far fewer technical issues, especially relating to viruses. Macs only make up about 2% of all computers out there, so hackers don’t think it’s worthwhile to develop viruses that affect their operating system; hence computer viruses on MACs are virtually non-existent.

Not to mention computer hackers hate the fact that Microsoft has created a monopoly. Viruses are their way of creating a massive migraine for them…and unfortunately us as well.

Now on the other side, since there are fewer Macs in the world, not all software, especially specialty software, is available to run on their operating system. So you have to look into that before you decide to purchase one.

So if they’re so great, then why doesn’t everyone own one?
Simple…they are more expensive than PC’s. That’s the main reason why PC’s are more “popular”…period! You see “Popular Computer”…oh never mind!

Most businesses, especially small businesses, don’t need to spend the extra bucks on a computer just to run simple word processing and database programs…it’s really not a necessary cost. That’s an important concern when starting a small business.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider one. They’re really great machines and will certainly keep your business running at peek efficiency. And the upfront price may be worth the cost, because it may actually save you money on the back-end. The savings from not having to upgrade hardware every couple of years or having to update virus protection software will save you lots over the long-term.

© 2006 A Covert Operations, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
http://www.starting-a-home-business.org

Duh Idiot’s Home Biz Start-Up Guide - The “Idiot’s” on-line resource for starting a home business.
http://www.starting-a-home-business.org

If you have never faced the loss of data, you still need to take precautions that your server, hard disk or RAID stay in good health. Also, you need to have some sort of plan in mind to help you in case there is any problem. Data losses, if and when they happen, take time to amend and may be expensive
The primary symptoms of data losses are:

• Error messages telling you that the device is not recognized

• Previously accessible data is suddenly nowhere to be seen.

• Scraping or rattling sound in the drives especially hard disks.

• Hard drive may not spin and may be still.

• Computer or hard drive does not function at all, like no booting is possible.

Mostly data loss is due to drive failure. Most hard drives rotate at very high frequency and that causes physical wear and tear. Sometimes the corrupted Master Boot record may be the culprit also.

Data recovery is in fact the science of putting the file system back together so that data files can be accessed again. Every operating system has a file system, which nothing but a unique method of indexing and keeping track of the files.In case of lost data, file systems can be very complex, and that’s why it can be so difficult to locate missing files.

The best data recovery companies have developed proprietary tools to work with all of the main file systems in use today. Recovery engineers are internally trained to work on data recovery, working with computer hardware for a number of years and learning the low-level specifics of every type of file system.

Data recovery can either be worked out with help of software and some simple steps. This is usually the case when the drives are not physically damaged. In case they are damaged, you need to send the drives to the specialists who will take care of the data and work it out for you.

To recover hard drive data, lost due to physical damage, you need to decide the optimality as the costs of data recovered need to be balanced with the cost of data involved. In case, the data lost is not critical, just take a lesson from this failure. Replace the faulty drives and start backing up. There should be adequate drives and a schedule so that regularly you create copies of your data.

Data recovery is possible using softwares also. In case you detect any data loss, try to first locate some data recovery softwares from your technically inclined friends. They may have some disk recovery softwares that may actually be used to get your data back. Log on to the site, http://www.recoverdatafiles.com and see what data recovery softwares are ranked best and suit you. These softwares usually will not be free but they may access the data and recover it for you.
Some other data recovery techniques are listed below:

• Loss of Database files: In case of MICROSFT EXCHANGE and SQL data failure, you should never used for direct operations. Keep a copy of the database files and then start the work on the copies not on main files.

• The health of drive: If you have by any means determined that drive is healthy, you still might recover that data all by yourself. Try using the recovery softwares or using the drives as slaves etc.

• Locate logical corruption: This can be easily found by booting from the floppy or using the F disk and then viewing the partitioning information.

• Server Crash: In case you had been working on server and it has crashed, never try data recovery on the same server.

• RAID Drive Crash: Replace the RAID data drive that failed, never ever reuse it.

• RAID Drives: Label the multiple drives in RAID array.

• Utilities: Do not try to run Volume Defragmenters and Volume Repair Utilities on the suspect drives.

• Other utilities: Also avoid the use of Volume Repair utilities if there has been power outrage and or your file system looks corrupted. This must be done only by people who are extremely confidant and are technically wise.

• Keep information: Always keep the following information at hand:

• Size of the drive

• Operating system (i.e. Windows 98, Windows XP etc.)

• Situation of failure (what happened just before the drive stopped working)

• Is the drive recognized by the computer or not

• Boot Drive malfunction: In case the drive that has crashed also had the OS, things are tricky. In this case try to get the Recovery Software with boot functions that ways the computer will boot from the software and then you will be able to see your data files and copy it to safe drives.

• Avoid physical cleaning of drives: Never attempt shaking, cleaning the data drive on your own. This may cause more physical harm.

• Do not remove drive covers: Hard drive cover are best left to specialists. Never try taking them off yourself. This requires special equipment and is nest left to technicians in labs.

Jeffrey Meier offers these Computer Hard Drive Recovery Tips and more tips at http://www.harddriverecoveryinfo.com This is just part of the information library loacted at Jam727 Enterprises at http://www.Jam727.com

For so many people the computer world is a seeming unsolvable jungle filled with mysterious words. Here is a guide to help you understand the personal computer and to give you the information needed to make a shopping decision you can live with so you can enjoy your PC for years to come.

Not long ago the average ‘cheaper’ personal computer cost was about $1500. - $2000. And this price did not necessarily include the power to edit videos, pictures, or play games. For that you would have had to spend more on upgrades. Now things such as video editing are standard on the newest personal computers. PC’s have become less expensive than ever before and they come with more capabilities than ever.

The personal computer (PC) you purchase will depend upon what it will be used for. So will you surf the Internet and email, working in spreadsheets, playing video games? Who is using the PC and what are there interests? More than likely you will have to accommodate a combination of these or maybe even all of them.

Many personal computers (PC) today offer very similar capabilities so your main decision will be based upon which specialties your personal needs present. For instance if you are mainly interested in gaming than you will be sure to spend more for a good 3D graphics card. If you want to make music you will need a good sound card. If you work all day on your computer or use it for photo editing you will want to invest in a better monitor. Also, make sure your PC has enough memory to quickly work the tasks you have planed.

For the best value for your dollar spend your money on the personal computer components that will best suit your needs.

http://www.a1-computers.net/buying a personal computer.html

About the author:

About The Author
B. Archer is a successful author and publisher of http://www.A1-computers.net.A great source of information about computers and computer accessories.

Data security is a very important part of a successful computer involved business. It is essential to keep vital data secured in order to have piece of mind. Backing up data and having dedicated computers running just to store data are great ways to maintain data security.

Computer systems are subject to failures or accidents. Such failures and accidents affect the availability of data. Many businesses depend on their data for per second decision-making, and cannot afford a downtime of 5 or 10 minutes, which might result into losses of millions.

Another problem with data security is malicious computer viruses. The ideal data security for any business would be to have separate computers that constantly get updated with new back ups, but are never connected to any internet network.

For any business that could simply not afford to have its vital data be wiped clean from the face of the earth, backing up in other parts of the world can be a great way to avoid things like theft, natural disasters and human error. As long as you have absolutely topnotch network security, your data will be safe on a server in a different part of the world.

If you happen to wipe a hard disk clean, there are ways to recover that lost data. Many times damaged hard drives can be recovered, many times they cant, and often data recovery costs massive amounts of money.

How a hard drive works is a complicated process, but if you know that when you delete data off a hard drive, it doesn’t disappear, its still there, but it is ready to be written over. If you make a boob, delete something, as long as you don’t go filling up those same disk sectors you can probably retrieve that data. Mind you, this process is not easy, and a regular computer chump probably couldn’t do it, this is why data recovery is often left to professionals, and often costs you big bucks.

As you can see, data security is vital for the smooth operation of any business. If you practice good data security then you don’t ever need to worry about data recovery.

Bart Samuri enjoys writing about all kinds of great topics. Feel free to re-print this article as long as nothing is changed, all links remained intact, and the bio remains the same. Thank-you - Please visit my data recovery and data security website @ data-security-center