Sun Microsystems to cut off 15% of company’s global workforce
.S. computer service provider Sun Microsystems said Friday it will lay off up to 6,000 workers, about 15 percent of its global workforce, as the latest of a series of layoff decisions announced by high-tech companies amid the gloomy economic outlook.

Samsung Launched New Lightweight Laptop Computers
Samsung’s latest laptop computer released in the United States is a 14.1-inch system measuring just 0.80 inches thick and with a very light weight for ultra portability, in addition to a stylish design on the business users’ taste.

Ex-Con Returns to Jail for Hacking Prison Computers
It isn’t uncommon for people to go to prison for breaking into corporate computers and stealing data. It’s rare, though, for someone to be sent back to jail for breaking into a prison computer system while already serving time for another crime.

Researchers Take a Step Ahead in Quantum Computing
Researchers in the U.K. and the U.S. on Friday published a paper detailing discoveries that might bring a fully functional quantum computer one step closer to reality.

Workers Must Cope With Sluggish, Old Computers Thanks to Economy
Other than slowing down consumer spending, the economic downturn is deterring businesses from buying new computers for their workers.

Have you ever thought about networking your computers at home? If you have a small collection of computers around the house (and a small collection of computer users), you can connect each one of those computers to one another and share data, software, and hardware including a single Internet connection. There are many creative uses for home networking, however it’s an ideal situation when upgrading each computer to the same capability is financially out of the question. On a home network, each computer has access to the equipment of the better machine in the group as if that equipment were their own.

Connecting computers with either an Ethernet cable or a Wireless connection can create a home network. The easiest and cheapest method uses an Ethernet connection, which requires a series of network cards, a cable for each computer, and a router. The network card is similar to the old modems we used in the past to connect to the Internet, however in a home network, it’s used to communicate with every computer that’s connected to it.

You’ll want to first, select the computers that will connect to each other and then install the network cards inside each of them. Then you’ll connect a cable to each computer that will communicate with the server. These cables won’t connect to the server directly. Instead, they’ll connect to the router. To enable Internet access for each computer, this router will need to connect with a modem of the host machine.

Once the hardware is set up correctly (you’ll need to read the instruction manual of your equipment for details), you can then setup the network from Windows on each machine. Within Windows, you can set up a home network similar to the way that you set up an Internet connection. Only this time, you’ll set up a LAN (Local Area Network) connection.

Windows should walk you through setting up a LAN after starting the computer and once complete, you can begin to connect one of your machines to the network. You can do this through Internet Explorer by typing in the address and password required to access the router (the address and password required to access the router will be in the router manual).

Connected to the network, each computer can send files back and forth, open programs on a remote computer, play the sound files and videos located on another computer, and share a single Internet account to browse the web, download files, or chat with someone in an entirely different country. If a single printer is available on only one computer in the network, every connected PC can send documents to it and print them out. Kids will enjoy the ability to play multi-player games and adults will enjoy the ability to blast a single message to everyone at once or maintain a group schedule.

Since we’re describing a home network that will connect to the Internet, you’re strongly advised to install a protective firewall program to thwart Internet viruses, worms, or other damaging spyware code. Firewalls prevent - but they don’t repair. Only anti-virus and anti-spyware programs can reverse damage. So you should install a firewall on the computer that grants access to the computer, and then install an anti-virus and anti-spyware program on each of the remaining computers in the network.

If you have files that shouldn’t be shared (bank statements, credit card information, etc.), you can restrict their access in one of several ways. You can put them in a new folder and then remove the “read” permissions for that folder. Or you can specify who can (and who cannot) access specific files with a password from within Windows Control Panel.

Yesterday, we spent about three hours trying to convince a client of ours that brand new computers just don’t come equipped with the all things that most computers need in a PC. We tried to convince him that a fully functional computer is one that is personalized with specially selected hardware and software accessories - and that the computer purchased at the store doesn’t come with these things. Unfortunately, all of our convincing was to our avail. Our client insisted that he should never need more than what came with his boxed product and that we were just trying “bilk” more money out of him.

As computer consultants, it’s our job and mission to make sure our clients are 100% satisfied when they walk out our offices. But our job is unnecessarily made harder when people don’t take the time to learn about computer accessories and familiarize themselves with the limitations of store-bought computers. Hopefully by the time you finish reading this article, you’ll understand the lesson that we were trying to teach our client: “What comes out of the box is really just a starter kit.”

The typical computer package comes with a CPU unit, keyboard, mouse, and speaker set. That may be just fine for some, but most people require more than that especially in today’s “connected” society. Today’s users require full multimedia capabilities, a wide range of graphics tools, and accommodations for the various portables we now enjoy. These extras aren’t included with “what comes out of the box,” and the only way to get them is to accessorize.

To illustrate the importance of accessorizing, we like to use the “plain dough” analogy. Let’s say that a brand new computer is a batch of plain dough - waiting to be flavored and baked into something useful. If we want to use this dough to make a delicious batch of chocolate chip cookies, we would need to “accessorize” this dough with chocolate chips and a little brown sugar. If we want to use this dough into in a warm loaf of sesame seed bread on the other hand, we’d need to “accessorize” the dough with yeast and sesame seeds.

Like “plain dough,” the brand new computer isn’t very useful by itself. It needs accessorizing.

Depending on what’s needed, accessorizing doesn’t need to be expensive. In fact, you can get away with paying a minimal amount for extra software and hardware if these accessories are for children. It’s when these accessories are work requirements or when they’re needed to produce works of quality for any other reason that they can become rather expensive. And this expense applies to microphones, digital cameras, PDAs, scanners, video cams, and more.

Regardless of cost, it’s important to understand that accessories can become “necessities,” and that the best time to get them is the moment you buy a new computer. Waiting too long to accessorize can cause more problems than necessary because while you wait, manufacturers continuously develop new technologies - technologies that your computer won’t be able to accommodate in the future. Once you’re ready to accessorize, the new products on the market are too advanced for your computer and they just won’t work. This is a typical problem experienced by those who want to use hardware designed for Windows Vista on a Windows XP or Windows 2000 machine.

If you have been looking for web hosting on the internet, you have probably observed the abundance of ads for dedicated servers. If you are a novice when it comes to computers and website hosting, you may not understand what a dedicated server is.

A dedicated server hosts only your website. You are, in essence, hosting your own website. You have total control of the bandwidth, space and security of the server. In most cases, the provider will give you the equipment that you need as long as long as you continue to use their service.

You can usually get a better deal with a dedicated server if you pay annually for the service instead of monthly. Most service providers ask for a monthly fee. Monthly fees for a dedicated server usually run a couple of hundred dollars. If you pay annually, you may be able to save a bit of money.

There is a risk of paying annually, however. If the provider goes out of business and the equipment becomes obsolete, you may be out of luck. If you become unhappy with your service provider and their customer service, or the actual server, you may find yourself stuck with them for a year.

To get the best dedicated server, you need to shop around. Make sure that you find a service provider that will give you quality service. If your server goes down, it will be imperative that you can contact someone for help immediately. The longer your service remains down, the more money you lose.

A budget dedicated server provider may offer such attractive incentives such as no start up costs. In order to get your website going, you will have to upload it onto the server. Most server providers will charge a fee for this. The fee to get your server going and your website up and running may be substantial. This sometimes puts some people off, but it is a one time fee. Once your business is up and running, you only need to only pay the monthly fee to the service provider.

Although it may be seem prudent to reduce costs as much as possible when starting up your website on a dedicated server, this is one area where you do not want to sacrifice service for cost. The best dedicated servers are reliable, offer excellent customer service and have large bandwidth and space. While you may find some budget servers that offer a low monthly rate, take a look at the bandwidth and space that they are offering. In some cases, it may not even be as much as what you can get on a shared server.

To find the best quality dedicated servers, shop around on the internet. It may also help to talk to other website owners that you know to find out if they can recommend a provider. Remember that good customer service is as crucial to the maintenance of your business as is the expanded bandwidth and space afforded by a dedicated server.