There are many business people who are faced with making a very important decision that will affect their companies for years to come. Should one choose off-the-shelf software like Microsoft Office, Intuit Quickbooks or an industry specific canned package for running the company? Or would it be better to have a customized software solution built from the ground up? This is a very real challenge for management, because it can affect how efficiently the business can handle its day-to-day operations.

In general, off-the-shelf software is very good for a company as long as it’s for dealing with general business chores such as bookkeeping, customers, contacts, inventory, etc. If it’s something that is very narrow and industry specific, then a customized solution will usually be the better choice. This is because the custom program will generally do a much better job of economizing time and labor in comparison to what a canned software package will likely do for the specialized process at hand.

Using myself as an example, I have made a number of custom software solutions for small and medium size companies in my local area. While I can design software for most any industry per the customer’s guidelines, I have typically done it for “manufacturing businesses”. Industrial companies are typically running very specialized processes to facilitate what they do. I have made customized programming solutions such as these:

I made a job card program for an electroplating job shop. This is basically a “recipe rolodex” for a large number of electroplating processes. It details what part numbers are involved, type of metal used to plate as well as the various steps involved along with their corresponding times.

I also created software for a tool and die shop that scanned a lengthy text file. This file detailed the physical layout for a 2 dimensional side view of a piece of metal with circles and arcs in it. My program automatically removed the concentric arcs and circles from the text file that the CAD/CAM software they were using wouldn’t get out. This saved them enormous amounts of time and work.

I have worked for an industrial pattern shop for a long time. I created a job costing  application that costs out pattern making jobs using labor, purchases and special materials from their data tables. This collective data is then “black boxed” through their proprietary job costing formula in their customized software. They can see how much money they are either making or losing on each job. In addition to all the time and work saved, this gives management a close up look at what is really happening in the business.

These are just a few examples from my own experience that make the case for customized software. Trying to replicate the efficiency in the above mentioned examples with canned software would create so much hassle and wasted time that it wouldn’t even be worth it. Doing all the work by hand with pen and paper would be a nightmare to be sure. But it wouldn’t be much worse than trying to do it with off-the-shelf software that isn’t really made to cater to a highly specialized process that is occurring multiple times throughout the day in a fast paced business environment.

In addition to my software development services, I also offer PC troubleshooting in my local area. To learn more about my computer repair services, please visit my website.

In today’s computing industry, virtual is the name of the game. Anything that is virtual is typically what’s popular. This is no more evident than in the wide use of various cloud applications. Cloud computing, from cloud storage networks to cloud hosting, is quickly becoming the standard operating procedure for computing applications. One very popular method of cloud server hosting is VMWare cloud hosting. Basically, this is an abbreviation for virtual machine applications used specifically for website hosting.

What is the Benefit of Cloud Hosting

One of the benefits to VMWare cloud hosting in particular is that this type of cloud application is growing more popular as the days go by. With its popularity, there many different options, and having so many options means that you can find very competitive prices when it comes to VMWare applications.

If you’re looking for dedicated web hosting, you’re going to find more than your fair share of different cloud server hosting options. This will allow you to compare a wide variety of different services and choose the one which best meets your needs in terms of the performance and the features of a hosting plan as well as the cost.

Your Choice of Operating Systems

As with most standard website hosting plans, VMWare hosting offers a wide choice of different operating systems to use with your virtual cloud server. Regardless if you prefer a Windows operating system, a Free BSD system or the many different options for a Linux operating system, these cloud applications offer the user a wide variety of different choices not just to facilitate a better website hosting experience, but to follow online with a website owners preference of operating systems.

Security and Scalability

Saving money is something that virtually any individual or business wants to do and saving money on website hosting is no exception. That is why many people choose virtual cloud hosting as a way to save money. The savings come in by avoiding having to buy services that you don’t need.

Cloud hosting as well as other cloud applications offer a higher level of scalability. This means that you will only pay for the services that you use and the services can be easily scaled up or down as necessary.

Lastly, security is a major issue for anyone doing business on the Internet. Important information that can be easily accessed by outside sources can cause you or your business a great deal of difficulty. Fortunately, VMWare cloud applications employ some of the highest levels of security in order to keep any information, whether it’s through web hosting or data storage, safe and secure from any outside sources that would look to access that information.

As you can see, there are many benefits and upsides to using cloud applications for website hosting. If you are interested in these types of services, you can contact a cloud hosting provider like Virtual Internet or look for hosting services that specialize in cloud hosting applications.

About the Author: 

Tom Warsop is the Marketing Manager for business hosting veteran VI.NET, who have been offering enterprise-class hosting solutions since 1996. With a keen interest in new technology and media, Tom has been an early adopter and advocate of new trends throughout his ten year Marketing career. You can find out more about VMWare cloud hosting by visiting VI.net.

The main priority of each business is to provide excellent services to the customers. Establishing a fast and advanced network is necessary to make transactions become effortless. A reliable networking system delivers quick and accurate results. If you manage a particular business, then you must consider establishing a useful and dependable set of connections to be used for business operations. A lot of business proprietors are finding ways to improve the sales and profits of their firms. To effectively improve and protect your system is to install used Cisco equipment.

Government agencies, large enterprises, and private companies greatly benefit from using refurbished Cisco devices. They choose to use these devices to back up their networks since they definitely depend on their advanced and useful systems. Managing an enterprise is not easy but if you know how to make use of serviceable equipment, then the complexity will effectively lessen.

Since there is an economic downturn globally, your best solution is to be practical in anyways. Most companies today are affected by the global recession that is the main reason why businessmen prefer to buy secondhand sets of equipment to be used for the enhancement of their business operations. The used Cisco devices are very useful in safeguarding large systems.

Constructing a firm connection is the key to have a successful venture. When it comes to marketing your products and services, you need to use Cisco products to successfully carry out advertisements. These equipment support low-end Linksys products that is why they are very beneficial to companies. The purpose of these stuff is to provide extensive commerce-focused routing and secured networking.

Since a lot of consumers shop over the web, you must learn how to maximize the use of the internet. Online marketing is the fastest means to promote one’s products and services. Therefore, you need to be familiar with the latest and most effective marketing approach. You must establish a professional and functional website in order for the consumers to easily discover your company.

In order to have convenience in day-to-day business transactions, you must establish an efficient system to support and maintain the processes being done in your company. By using powerful and reliable software, it is guaranteed to get amazing results and also to have a safe venture. When it comes to buying serviceable devices, it is sometimes wise to buy used machineries as long as you know how to check them up to determine if their performance is still as good as with the new ones.

All in all, the most important factor that entrepreneurs should look for is the performance of a certain product before buying something for the development of their undertakings. It doesn’t really matter if you choose to procure refurbished Cisco switch for as long as it amazes you with its performance.

Getting someone to design your website is expensive. The money you pay them doesn’t guarantee your satisfaction with the site, either. In all honesty, it is nearly impossible for someone other than yourself to completely visualize what you have in mind for your website. You are the only person who knows exactly what you want. Keeping this web design advice in mind, you are sure to make something you can be proud of.

Making sure to proofread may be obvious, but it’s vital to the success of your website. Never upload a page on your server prior to reading every single word first to ensure you don’t discover any spelling or grammatical errors. If you publish content that is filled with obvious errors, your site will appear unprofessional. You are likely to lose visitors fast when your website appears unprofessional.

It does not matter how much money you have invested into the website, being a site host is not a great idea. Design your website as much as you can by yourself, but have someone else host it, so that you do not have to worry about its security and safety.

Realize that every step of web design will take a lot longer than you anticipated. Trying to meet an unrealistic deadline will only cause the work quality to suffer and in turn facilitate a need for more work to be put in at a later time. It is better that you give yourself ample time to work carefully.

To help you design your site to attract more visitors, you need to include good meta tags on each page. Using relevant meta tags on each page of your site will help search engines categorize the page and show it to people who want to know about your page’s topic. If you use meta tags that do not correspond to your content or to your target audience, do not expect to get a lot of visitors.

Put sharing links for social sites on every page of your site to encourage satisfied customers to promote your business. These links make it easy for customers to spread the word about your site and products, simultaneously expanding both your customer base and your site traffic.

For some people, their bandwidth is very low, and you need to consider this when putting videos up on your site. You may feel that your videos look their best when you stream them out at 5,000 kb/s, but a user with a much slower connection is not going to enjoy the experience. Videos with extremely high speeds like this will load slowly and buffer frequently for visitors on slow connections.

For every page you design, make sure you validate it. Easy-to-use WYSIWYG web editing programs tend to burden your pages with junk code that is extraneous or even harmful. If you use those programs, take an extra step to validate your code with a validation service. W3C provides a free service, which you can use to validate your web pages.

Run tests on different browser applications to make sure your site works on all of them. A given web browser will interpret a website differently than another one will, and sometimes the differences are quite drastic. It is easy to discover the most popular browsers. Make sure your website works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and the major mobile browsers.

One of the best aspects of web design is how you can make your page however you want. The advice in this article are suggestions that can help you create the wonderful website that you want. Follow these suggestions closely.

Many people are interested in green energy, but do not know where to begin. Several solutions exist to use green energy and protect the environment. Keep reading to find out how you can do your part and make the right choices.

Turn off appliances if you are not using them. When you leave the room you should think about what is not in use, like the lights, a television or your home theater. Try using a power strip so you can turn off all of your electronics at once, instead of letting power be wasted in standby mode.

Going green doesn’t have to mean massive home renovations. Even using energy-efficient light bulbs is a great way to get started. Some DIY projects can reduce energy costs and save money! Start with one small project.

Saving energy and money is as simple as closing your curtains. Additionally, curtains and blinds can enhance the energy-saving effect you achieve. If you do both of these it will cool your house down so you won’t have to use as much air conditioning in the summer. You will save energy and money.

Avoid buying bottled water. Most bottled water comes from the tap of another city. If you aren’t comfortable using your area’s tap water, you can get a water bottle that is metal and reusable and replace the filter every few months.

Reduce your electricity use by taking the battery out of your laptop when you are plugged into an outlet. The batteries in mobile devices use energy even when they are fully powered. Taking out the device’s battery when you are using it at home not only saves money, but it extends the battery’s lifespan as well.

Try using renewable energy for only part of your home, when you know that you cannot use renewable energy to supplement the entire house. For example, you can use a solar water heater.

When doing any updates to your home, look for energy-efficient products. Look into different green products like eco-friendly doors, double glazed windows, or anything of the sort as they can help reduce the required amount of energy it takes to operate your home. When using these types of products you cut down on your heating and cooling costs.

Keep an eye out for Energy Star labels when shopping for energy-efficient appliances. When you see any appliance that has ENERGY STAR on it, then that means it meets guidelines approved by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. These appliances are usually the only ones that can be used for tax rebates.

If green energy is a concept which you embrace, minimize the use of electrical heaters during the winter months. Instead, invest in some warm clothing and slippers for family members and use a fireplace or pellet stove to heat living areas. Remember, cooler air during sleep is better for breathing, and keeps the airways from drying out.

As mentioned, green energy is widely talked about in politics, and is becoming more important as oil becomes more expensive. If you have good information, it becomes simpler to include green energy technology into your life. Take this article’s tips to begin your green life right away!

Ars Electronica “Golden Nica” winner (2002)

Carnivore is a surveillance tool for data networks. At the heart of the project is CarnivorePE, a software application that listens to all Internet traffic (email, web surfing, etc.) on a specific local network. Next, CarnivorePE serves this data stream to interfaces called “clients.” These clients are designed to animate, diagnose, or interpret the network traffic in various ways. Use CarnivorePE to run Carnivore clients from your own desktop, or use it to make your own clients.

"WINOTFI"—A CARNIVORE CLIENT BY ANYA STAFFORD, AUDREY HANLEY, AND JOHANNA BOLTON

Diagram

Open Carnivore Diagram

This diagram shows, at a basic level, how the Open Carnivore system worked. It positions itself on a network segment and monitors the traffic of certain designated users, looking for specific keywords or phrases. If it finds a matching data string in the monitored traffic, it will intercept and store that transmission for later analysis by the Carnivore administrator.

Schedule

Installations with multiple Carnivore clients:
Villette Numerique, Paris, 9.21.04-10.3.04
New York Digital Salon, New York, 2003
Ateneo Art Gallery, Philippines, 6.25.03-8.30.03
University of Michigan Gallery, Mount Pleasant, MI, 1.15.03-2.15.03
Eyebeam, New York, 10.15.02-12.1.02
Ars Electronica Center, Linz, 2002-2003
Art Futura, Barcelona, 10.31.02-11.3.02
The Watson Institute, Providence, 9.8.02-9.20.02
NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo, 6.21.02-8.11.02
White Columns, New York, 6.14.02-7.21.02
New Museum, New York, 5.2.02-6.30.02
Kontrollfelder, Germany, 4.5.02-5.5.02
Illinois State University Galleries, US, 2.26.02-4.3.02
Transmediale, Berlin, 2.5.02-2.10.02
Princeton Art Museum, US, 1.19.02-4.1.02

Additional installations of “Out of the Ordinary”:
computerfinearts.org (permanent collection)
Electrohype, Malmö, Sweden, 10.23.02-10.27.02

Additional installations of “Police State”:
DETOX, 3.26.04-4.18.04, Oslo/Trondheim, Norway.
ElectroFringe, October 2-6, 2003, Newcastle, Australia.
SuperSonic, July 12, 2003, Birmingham, UK.
Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF), 2.25.03-3.9.03, Rotterdam.
Darklight Film Festival, Sept 20-22, 2002, Dublin, Ireland.

Additional installations of “History of Art for the Intelligence Community”:
Neue Galerie, Graz, 10.27.02-11.25.02
Chelsea Art Museum, New York, 9.14.04-10.16.04

Additional installation of “ActiveMetaphore”:
BananaRAM Net.Festival, Ancona, Italy, 18/21 September 2002

Additional installation of “Order and Chaos”:
Techne02_Spazio Oberdan_Milan_Italy ? Oct. 30/02 > Feb. 02/03

Permanent installation of “Network is Speaking”:
XYZ, Milan, February 2004

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News Archive

The following news announcements documented the first two years of Carnivore’s development (June 2001 – May 2003)

05/05/03—Carnivore is covered today in The New York Times
03/02/03—View a film or another film of Jonah Brucker-Cohen’s “Police State” client. The footage is from DEAF 2003 in Rotterdam.
01/17/03—RSG documents numbered 000320, 000321, and 000322 have been declassified for public review.
12/29/02—The very first Carnivore Client, called RSG-CPE0C-1, is now web-accessable thanks to a nice Flash port by Todd Holoubek. Doron Golan of Computer Fine Arts has included RSG-CPE0C-1 in his new group project called dialoque.ws.
11/11/02-Carnivore begins talks with online gaming companies with a view to increasing the security of their networks. In particular, online poker networks are interested in using Carnivore to detect users who seek to exploit poker bonus offers and manipulate them for financial gain through multi player collaboration.
10/25/02—Vuk Cosic opens his “History of Art for the Intelligence Community” at the Neue Galerie in Graz.
10/15/02—”Beta Launch” opens today at Eyebeam. This is the largest Carnivore exhibition to date.
09/24/02—SF Camerawork puts Carnivore in their “net.narrative” show
09/07/02—Carnivore opens at the Ars Electronica Center for the 2002-2003 season.
09/05/02—Area3 made a dandy new client called World Wall Painters for the artFutura exhibition in Barcelona.
08/28/02—Check out Stats, a new client by the Witness.
08/16/02—Jonah Brucker-Cohen announces the first physical client. “Police State” is a Carnivore client involving twenty radio-controlled cars. See its premier in Dublin on 9/21, or catch a sneak preview at Ars Electronica.
06/17/02—RSG speaks: How We Made Our Own Carnivore.
06/14/02—Carnivore opens at White Columns in New York featuring a new client by Golan Levin.
06/03/02—Limiteazero releases Active Metaphore, a new Carnivore client.
05/20/02—Carnivore wins Golden Nica at Ars Electronica.
05/02/02—Carnivore opens at the New Museum (NYC). New work from Lisa Jevbratt, Paul Johnson, and others.
04/23/02—There is now an email list for folks making clients using CarnivorePE. To subscribe email majordomo@rhizome.org with ‘subscribe carni_dev’
04/19/02—CarnivorePE version 1.3.3 is now available! CarnivorePE turns your computer into a personal data surveillance tool. Download info below…
01/30/02—Carnivore surveys data from RTMark, BIT and other hacktivists demonstrating at the World Economic Forum in New York.
01/18/02—Carnivore premiers at the Princeton Art Museum
12/01/01—Carnivore Clients are released by Mark Daggett, Entropy8Zuper!, Mark Napier and Praystation.
12/18/01—Mark Napier releases Black and White
12/11/01—The Guernica client is released by Entropy8Zuper!
11/19/01—Praystation releases amalgamatmosphere, the first public Carnivore Client
11/16/01—Paul Johnson joins the RSG to build Carnivore Server #2
10/26/01—Discussants on Slashdot are “terribly afraid of this falling into the wrong hands.”
10/26/01—Carnivore covered in Memepool and Metafilter
10/24/01—Eyebeam Atelier awards Artist-in-Residence to Carnivore
10/09/01—Make your own Carnivore using this schematic
10/01/01—”Food for thought,” writes The New York Times
09/15/01—Carnivore goes public
06/08/01—Carnivore is covered in Wired News

About Carnivore

ABOUT CARNIVORE:

CarnivorePE is inspired by DCS1000, a piece of software used by the FBI to perform electronic wiretaps. (Until recently, DCS1000 was known by its nickname “Carnivore.”) Improving on the FBI software, CarnivorePE features new functionality including: artist-made diagnosic clients, remote access, full subject targetting, full data targetting, volume buffering, transport protocol filtering, and an open source software license. Carnivore is created by RSG.

History Of Carnivore

In 2000, an independent group of network security specialists offered to perform an independent review of Carnivore, which had previously caused controversy among those with privacy concerns.

Previously, various privacy groups had claimed that Carnivore might potentially be set up to intercept and store more traffic than it should, when installed at an Internet service provider (ISP).

They also claimed that even if Carnivore intercepts massive amounts of data and successfully discards anything that is not relevant, it could (potentially) still violate the prohibition on “unreasonable searches and seizures” as specified in the Fourth Amendment.