by Chris Adams

When it comes to iPods you have many choices available to you from Apple. The newest of which, will be the iTouch. Now you may or may not already own an iPod. Regardless, you should check out this in-depth review from iLounge.

The review covers many topics like Hardware, New Technologies, Battery Life, Capacity, Transfer Rates, Audio/Video Performance, Settings, and ultimately, price. The review also compares them to one another so you will see how it stacks up to the many other editions of the iPod that have been released in the past.

Before you buy that first iPod, upgrade to a new one, or if you just don’t know what you want read the review and see if it’s really the right one for you and if it’s worth the money you’ll have to lay down to get it.

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/r ... gb-16gb/P0

Just last week Virgin Mobile in Australia is being sued over the use of a photograph in one of their ad campaigns. This photo, published on Flickr under a creative commons license, is now in dispute by the under-aged girl in the photo, her family, and camp counselor who took the picture. Her uncle, by the way, posted the picture on Flickr.

What exactly is a creative commons license? It is basically a copyright free work--meaning it can be used without charges. [http://creativecommons.org/]

Is this really all that new? No. Software developers have had GNU (free operating systems) and "open sources" codes forever.

So, if the picture was posted as copyright free as long as where the photo came from was credited--and it was on the ad--is this really a violation by Virgin Mobile or Flickr? Is this merely a money issue or was she really embarrassed? Does her being embarrassed matter if the photo release was signed away? Should creative commons licenses include photos of others who didn't give their permission, especially if under-aged?

Lots of questions but not a lot of answers yet. Could be a real slam for Web 2.0 and user generated content but we'll see.

Remember: Don't put your pictures online without changing or morphing it somehow or worse could happen! NOTHING you post online is safe from anyone....folks much worse than some Madison Avenue type. I promise.

http://support.resnet.eku.edu/phishing.php

by Adam Conner

In this article, you can explore how gates work by building a small scale integrated circuit (SSI IC). To know more about gates, refer to the article from this website, link at bottom, that talks about Boolean logic and gates. One way to implement gates involves relays. However, computers today use chips.

If you would like to experiment with one of these gates yourself, the easiest way is to purchase something called TTL chips and wire circuits together on a device called a solderless breadboard.

First a little history lesson to help you understand just how gates came to be. You will find that all computers are designed around Boolean gates. The very first electronic gates were created using relays. These gates were slow and bulky. Vacuum tubes replaced relays. They were much faster but were just as bulky and were plagued by the problemthat tubes burn out. Once transistors were perfected, computers started using gates made from discrete transistors. These transistors had many advantages: high reliability, low power consumption, and small size. They were discrete devices meaning that each transistor was a separate device.

In the early 1960s, integrated circuits (ICs) wre invented. Transistors, resistors, and diodes could be manufactured together on silicon chips. This discovery gave ris to SSI ICs. An SSI IC consists of a 3 mm square silicon chip on which 20 transistors and various other components have been etched. A typical chip might contain 4 or 6 individual gates and 20 million transistors. The chips you will use to build your circuit are the common TTL series, called the 7400 series.

The 7400 series chips are housed in DIPs (dual inline packages). A DIP is a small plastic package with 14, 16, 20, or 24 little metal leads protruding from it to provide connections to the gates inside. Place the chips on the breadboard. The breadboard allows you to wire things by plugging pieces of wire into connection holes on the board.

Here is a list of the materials you will need to build your board:

A regulated 5volt power supply (available at a Dollar General store)
A breadboard
A volt-ohm meter (multimeter)
A logic probe
A collection of TTL chips
Several LEDs to see outputs of gates
Several resistors for the LEDs
Some wire (20-28 gauge) to hook things together

A volt-ohm meter measures voltage and current easily. A logic probe tests the state (1 or 0) of the wire. A LED (light emitting diode) is a mini light bulb. You use LEDs to see the output of a gate. You will use the resistors to protect the LEDs. If you fail to use the resistors, the LEDs will burn out immediately. A lot of this equipment can be purchased at electronic stores like Radio Shack or ordered online by such places as Jameco. You will also need a pair of wire cutters and wire strippers. A pair of needle nose pliers are helpful at times.

With using a multimeter, it has 2 leads (wire), one black and one red. Take the black test lead and insert it into the hole marked ground or negative or minus on your 5 volt power supply. Turn the dial to the "DC Volts" section. Hold the black lead to the negative terminal of the battery and the red lead to the positive terminal. Stay in the habit of hooking it up like this.

On the outer edges of the breadboard are two lines of terminals running the length of the board. All of these terminals are internally connected. On either side of the channel are sets of five interconnected terminals. Using the ohm setting on your meter, you can measure resistance. Resistance will be 0 if there is a connection between 2 points and infinite if there is no connection. Another way to see the connections is to pull back the sticker on the back of the breadboard a bit and see the metal connectors.

Next, you will need to connect a LED and a resistor in series. A good value for the resistor is 330 ohms. On the chart on the website link provided at the bottom, you should have 6 different chips containing 6 different gates: 7400, 7402, 7404, 7408, 7432, and 7486. You will use the 7408 chip.

Push the chip into the breadboard so it straddles the center channel. Pin 7, from the diagram of the chip, must connect to the ground and pin 14 must connect to +5 volts. Now connect a LED and resistor to Pin 3. The LED should light. Connect wires from +5 and ground to the gates A and B inputs to exercise the gate.

In TTL, +5 represents a binary "1" and ground represents a binary "0." If an input pin to a gate is not connected to anything, it "floats high," meaning the gate maeks an assumption the there is a 1 on the pin. So the AND gate should be seeing 1s on both the A and B inputs, meaning that the output at pin 3 is delivering 5 volts. So the LED lights. If you ground either pin 1 or 2 or both on the chip, the LED wil extinguish. This the standard behavior for an AND gate.

Link to website: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/di ... onics1.htm

If you get rid of your old computer and leave the hard drive in it...you could be giving away or selling your information!

Your old computer could end up on Ebay, at a recycling center, or a computer show. This leaves you completely open to identify theft if you don't wipe your hard drive before disposing of it properly.

Find an effective erasure program and use it next time you get rid of a computer. Do a Google search for one or pay to have it done, if you must, or you could end up paying for it later!

Extremists and terrorists beware...especially if you're on the Internet!

The National Science Foundation's "Dark Web" Project aims to collect and analyze all terrorist-generated content on the Web using such techniques as Web spidering, link analysis, content analysis, authorship analysis, sentiment analysis, and multimedia analysis.

One of the tools they developed is called Writeprint, a technique "which automatically extracts thousands of multilingual, structural, and semantic features to determine who is creating 'anonymous' content online."

Also used is a tracking software called Web spiders. These "search discussion threads and other content to find the corners of the Internet where terrorists activities are taking place."

For more information:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?c ... mp;org=NSF

http://ai.arizona.edu/research/terror/p ... ission.pdf

by Brady Begley

After all your books are bought and parking passes paid for, what's a student to do with their excess residual funds? Well, video games and flat panel displays are most people’s dreams, but let’s keep it realistic and buy an item or two that will keep you productive for at least a few years after graduation. Knowing an operating system or production software suite can make you more valuable in the business world. So, why not get them at a cheap discount now and jump on the fast track to employment. With valid student identification and a print-out of your current schedule the EKU computer store offers the following software at the listed prices.

Office Professional 2007 $65.00
Vista Business Upgrade $65.00
Office Mac 2004 $65.00
SPSS Gradpack $199.00
WordPerfect X3 $90.00
Mathematica 6 $129.98

There are many other great deals such as headphones, earbuds, calculators, jump drives, cables, and more. The EKU Computer store is located in the SSB on the first floor or online at:

http://www.computerstore.eku.edu/

by Ashley Johnson

Microsoft Word 2007 was released in January 2007. Its aim is to allow users to create documents quickly and easily, however, many first time users find it hard to switch from an older version of Word to the 2007 edition.

Some of the features in Microsoft Word 2007 include:

Office Button: By clicking on the Office button in the top left corner of the screen users can access the following commands: New, Print, Save As, and Open just to name a few. This is similar to the File menu located in previous versions of Microsoft Word.

Mini Toolbars: If words are highlighted in your document MS Word displays a small box with commonly used commands such as Bold and Underline features to allow the user to modify their document quickly.

Quick Access Toolbar: This toolbar contains commands that are used over and over again by users. Users are capable of customizing this toolbar and placing their own commands on it. These commands can also be removed by right clicking on the command button and selecting “Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.”

SmartArt: A new feature offered in Word 2007 is known as SmartArt. This is a group of easily formatted and editable diagrams. This can be used to create organizational charts. When SmartArt is inserted a text pane appears to guide the user on entering text.

Word 2007 is designed to open documents created in any version of MS Word through the 2003 version. Word will also open older documents in Compatibility Mode and will display the words '[Compatibility Mode]' in the document title, after the name of the file.

Unlike earlier versions of MS Word, Word 2007 can now search for the incorrect usage of correctly spelled words.

Users who have an earlier version of MS Word at home should remember to save their documents as a Word 97-2003 to allow the document to be opened on their personal computer at a later time.

If you are attempting to create a Word Template create it as you normally would in another version of MS Word. When it is time to save your template click on the Office Button>Save As>Word Template.

To learn more about MS Word 2007 and to use tutorials on this product visit the following site: http://www.word07.com/quick-access-toolbar.htm.

by Adam Conner

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing has become a great tool for people to communicate between each other and share music, video, audio images, etc. Programs such as Limewire and Kazaa allow a person to download music and video to a certain location to their computer and share this information with the people who have the same software, but there are risks.

Risk #1: As with anything you download from the internet, there is always the risk of being infected with a virus, spyware, or other malicious programs such as rogue programs, programs that take up space on your computer and are really nothing more than a nuisance. Malware is the other name used for these type of programs. The best defense is to have antivirus software and spyware software, like Spybot, to scan these items to see if they are legitimate or possible infections on your computer.

Risk #2: Be careful not to download copyrighted materials. Overall, file sharing is legal to use but when in doubt, do not download the software, image, song, or video.
Here are some other tips to think about when it comes to using this feature:

*Monitor family peer-to-peer sharing. Do not assume that internet filters can block most P2P files that you receive. Guidelines should be set between family members so that no one downloads a virus or spyware. Be careful who you share these programs with because it may contain either one of these. Also, be careful not to download any copyrighted material.

*Treat all downloaded files with suspicion. Scan each new file with an industry- standard antivirus software before you download it. Set your antivirus to scan your hard-drive on a regular basis or perform these scans yourself.

*Delete any pirated material you find on a family computer, digital audio players, CD-R discs, and other storage devices and consider disabling the P2P’s software downloading option or block outside access to the program by changing your computer’s Internet firewall settings.

*Learn all you can about P2P software and be careful what files you make available to others. Most P2P files are stored in a folder or “My Shared file” or something similar

*Do not store copies of copyrighted files that you have legally purchased, such as a CD from a retail store, into your P2P file-sharing folder.

*Back-up important files on an external device before downloading any shared files

Source:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourse ... aring.mspx

Most logged into Cisco Clean Access-August 29--3,443

ResNet was open 13 days in August and these are our support numbers:

Total PCs worked on: 574
Drop offs: 148
Walk ins: 249
Install fairs: 177

Highest number of PCs worked on during any August to date!
Second highest August was Fall 2002--276 PCs worked on.

Phone Support Tickets: 60
Wiring Tickets: 33
Password Changes: 20
Email Support Tickets: 21
Cluster Tickets: 14
Lab Tickets: 2

Support Web Site Data
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Most popular pages: (1) Download Page (2) Default Page (3) Knowledgebase

(LM)

By: Scott Roberts

Have you ever been working on your computer doing something memory intensive and wished you could slap an extra 2GB in. With the release of Microsoft Windows Vista memory has become prime real-estate in the PC world. Vista may have the solution.
It is called ReadyBoost. It’s a disk caching utility built into Vista. The general idea is instead of using the somewhat slow Virtual Memory on your hard disk you use a relatively faster flash memory. Vista has some minimum requirements for the flash drive you use. It must be a USB 2.0 drive inserted into a USB 2.0 port. There needs to be at least 500MB of free space on the drive. Most importantly not all flash drives will work, so Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware).

How to:
1. Insert your flash drive of choice into your computer
2. Cancel the Auto Play pop-up
3. Navigate to “Computer”
4. Right-click on the flash drive you just inserted
5. Select the ReadyBoost tab
6. Select “Use this device.”
7. Use the slide tool to set how much space you wish to allocate for memory (When allocating space on your flash drive please remember that you cannot use this space for files)
8. Click OK and enjoy!

Notes:
• Vista will remember that you used that drive in the past for ReadyBoost and will enable it the next time you insert it into your computer. If it is a onetime thing you will need to disable it.
• Enabling ReadyBoost on a flash drive will only be remembered on that computer, if you plug it into another computer you will have to enable it for that computer.
• ReadyBoost is found only on Vista, but like most good things in the world of computers it will most likely be copied by everyone.

Source Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost