The Technology Tether In A Virtual World

Over the last quarter century, no industry has seen more dramatic change-and has had a bigger impact on consumers and businesses-than technology!

Define technology...

We used to describe technology as...

"the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts,engineering, applied science, and pure science."

Now... it's defined as...

"the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization."

Do you find yourself constantly checking email, text messages or social media? Is your smartphone or tablet the first thing you reach for in the morning, or the last thing you put down at night? If this sounds like you, then you are tethered to technology and probably missing out on what is actually going on around you.

Below are some tips on how to disconnect - so you can connect with your family, friends and with your kids from Working Mother Magazine.

Customize your notifications. Give important contacts (your husband, boss, nanny, etc.) their own ringtones and text tones. Only respond to key contacts when you're trying to have uninterrupted time with your kids, family or friends. Everyone else can wait.

Create tech-free zones. Make a pact that you'll stay off your phone during key "connect times". Those should include meal times, when you're in the car with your husband, wife or kids, and an hour or so before your child's bedtime. Kids feel more valued when you actually look at them and listen to them without any distractions.

Set specific "check in" times. If you have to be on call for work issues at night or on weekends, let co-workers know you'll check for messages once an hour, or at specified times. That way, there's no need to glance constantly at your phone. Tell your family or friends about your check-in policy so they know ahead of time what to expect.

Remind yourself that you're setting an example. If you create some tech boundaries for yourself, your child is more likely to follow your family's rules with his or her electronics.

There are always exceptions to technology rules, but do yourself a favor and disconnect every once in a while. Time goes by so fast, and you don't want to miss out on amazing things that are going on around you in the physical world.

As we enter the era of even more ubiquitous computing, with sensors on our bodies, in our homes and offices and all over our cities. What ways do you untether yourself from technology? We would love for you to comment on this post with your ideas.

Virtual Assistance is a fast growing industry. At Virtual Assistant Quickstart (VAQ), we strive to keep you up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies by providing effective tools, training opportunities and resources that will help you grow and be successful as a virtual assistant.

What You Need To Know About VPNs

VPNs make it possible for businesses and individuals to communicate and transmit data over a wide area network. The cool thing with VPNs is that you are able to send private information over public channels. Since VPN relies on WAN connections, computers connected to the network don't need to be physically nearby-they can be countries or even continents apart and they will communicate perfectly.

Types of VPNs

There are many types of VPNs with the main ones being:

Virtual private dial-up network (VPDN). This is a user-to-LAN connection where users have to connect to the company LAN. As a company owner, you need to set up a NAS (network access server) and then provide your users with software that will enable them to reach the NAS from their computers.

You should note that this type of VPN requires a third party to provide encryption services.

Site-to-site VPN: as a company owner you have to invest in dedicated hardware that will make it possible for your multiple sites to connect to your LAN through the public network. It's good to note that most of the site-to-site VPNs are extranet or intranet-based.

Benefits of VPN

There are a good number of benefits that come with VPNs. These benefits include:

Business application: if you have a business you are able to maximize the businesses efficiency courtesy of VPN. Using VPN your employees are able to connect to the computers in the office network using their personal computers at home. The employees are able to access messages, documents and other information. This ensures that the employees don't have to wait to report to the office to start working-they can work from home.

In addition to employees being able to access information from home, different office branches can connect to the VPN and share confidential information securely.

Protection: as a regular consumer you can use VPN to access Wi-fi or other loosely secured network. The cool thing with accessing Wi-fi using VPN is that you add a layer of protection against information theft.

Conclusion

This is what you need to know about VPN. You should note that while the network is great to use, it tends to reduce your transfer speeds due to the additional network overhead involved. It's also challenging to set it up for the first time as a novice. For ideal results, you should hire a professional to do the work for you.

VPNs have been around for a long time. The unfortunate thing is that you need to pay to use them. We have a free VPN that allows you to encrypt your data free of charge.

Intuition: A Different Dimension of Computing

Ever walked into a room and had that nagging feeling that something is wrong? Or have you ever found it near impossible to stop thinking about someone, only to receive an unexpected phone call from them? Can you predict the weather better than your local news team? Or do you have a knack for languages that defies all logic and reason?

Each one of us- as humans and as an individual- is fascinating and creative, ever in discovery of our own potential and capabilities. We exercise and stretch ourselves to break new ground and boundaries; every once in a while however we defy our own imaginations, encountering and experiencing what we might term as super-human. But our intuition is anything but unusual or superhuman; infact it is at the very core of our makeup as human beings.

So what really is intuition? Essentially, intuition is our capacity to process information outside our waking consciousness. Our mind works like a supercomputer, with our intuition running in the backdrop- constantly picking up on clues, stimuli and information usually too subtle for our attention and awareness. This information, just like the information we process consciously, allows us to better grasp and respond to our environment, a situation or a person. Because this occurs outside our conscious awareness, we may not always be able to pinpoint exactly how we arrived at our conclusions, knowledge and understanding, but the process is as natural to us as breathing itself.

For long science has debated the validity of intuition and related phenomenon. But with there being so man interesting accounts and observations, the questions are not as much about whether intuition exists as about how it works. Here too, research has come to show our brain's capacity to process information outside waking awareness, opening the field wide open to debate, theories and ideas. Whether or not science ever finds a satisfactory answer, our intuition continues to enlighten our choices, feelings, responses and impressions of people and the world around us. From gut instincts to remarkable insights, we continue to bring new dimensions to our comprehension and experience of our environment through our intuition.

But like every other muscle in the body and every aspect of our being, the more attention we give our intuition and the more we exercise it, the sharper it gets. Instead of brushing it away as mere pointless ramblings of an unengaged mind, paying attention to the whispers of our intuition can help clear and clean out our intuitive channels. Whether focusing on your gut feelings or listening to your intuition for advice on decisions, the more you practice connecting with your intuition, the better you get at bringing its gifts into your life.

Meditation is a fabulous way to fine tune our intuition. Taking time out to clear and calm the mind, helps hear our intuition and its voice- even over the initial protests of our own reasoning and logic who cannot satisfactorily explain our own intuitive awareness and its findings.

e-Idea magazine is your premier resource for reliable, accurate and valuable information that you can put to use every single day. We understand that in today's internet intensive world, there is immense information available with just a single click of the mouse.

Travel To Deep Space By Sitting At Your Computer

For many generations various human cultures have had great knowledge about the star constellations. However, these days most of the so-called modernized breed of human couldn’t tell you much about what’s around us in the infinite Universe. The funny thing is, technically we now know more about what’s there than ever before, we’ve even got photos. With the Hubble Telescope we now have access to the most unbelievable pictures imaginable: galaxies, nebulae and millions of stars close up. You don’t need to buy a book or DVD to see this stuff, just sit down at your computer and let the Internet take you on a galactic journey.

A lot of the images can be accessed for free just by finding the right sites. At [http://wires.news.com.au/special/mm/030811-hubble.htm#panup2] you can watch a stream of beautiful visuals that are literally out of this world. The beauty of the photos, the fact that they are moving, and the musical accompaniment makes the whole trip quite ethereal. The other great aspect is the information the scientists have uncovered, mind-blowing ideas like the fact that some stars are 60 times brighter than our own sun, or the idea that there are thousands of stars in one tiny spot in the sky. The concept that galaxies are 150 million light years away-do you know how fast light travels?

For the average human who spends their existence in one place working hard everyday to make ends meet, life can become somewhat monotonous and insulated. You forget that there’s a whole world out there. The Universe however might be a random thought that only appears once in a month or even a year. The stars seem so disconnected to our everyday reality, but the fact is that we are part of a much bigger picture-the biggest picture of all, infinite space. Maybe if we did focus a bit more ‘outside the box’ of our familiar routines we could grasp onto the magic and perfection that surrounds us all the time, the real neighborhood that we belong to.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16616

http://www.spaceweather.com/

http://www.sec.noaa.gov/

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

These are a few more sites I discovered that give us more insight or ‘outsight’ into what is going on around us. Again I find the Internet has become a medium for discovering knowledge about life. Without leaving the office or my house I can travel to the most beautiful places-real places, we’re not talking Star Trek here people! I’ve seen many magical things in my life thus far: snow –capped mountains, rainbows over waterfalls, sunsets on tropical beaches. I’ve seen art, heard music, watched films; I’ve lived a very fortunate life indeed. But, to see these pictures and to learn about the incredible worlds outside our own…on a computer at home…it has taken me to a new level of understanding, a new level of reverence for what it is we are part of. The only way to describe these galaxies, stars, and giant gas clouds close up is to softly and humbly speak the word ‘magic’. You will never see real paintings like this, beauty that stretches for millions of miles.

My computer screen has become a looking glass portal.

Jesse S. Somer

An Online Store for Desktops - Necessities Simplified

An online store for desktops - the idea may sound new, but the need is vintage...

The average age to play with computers and other technical gadgets was once above 15 or 20, which has considerably reduced to merely 2 to 3 years. It seems like the new generation is born techie. Generations back when Pier Giorgio Pretto invented the first commercial desktop personal computer, no body could predict that the time would come when papers will be replaced by desktops in the offices so largely. Since, the desktops have their own utility and plus points of usage it is still a household necessity as well as a commercial utility.

A few months back my boss asked a simple, yet important question from me, "Because it seems like laptops have taken over desktops and tablets have taken over laptops, do you think that the market or utility of desktops is going to vanish someday around?"

Well! I spontaneously answered that could not happen. Advanced technology may produce more advanced desktops with revolutionary features but their utility can never dissolve.

Now when the usage of desktops is so common, the complexities of issues is also quite common. Reason being, its usage is no more limited to a few experts or officials. Certain threats have taken over the nerves of users like cyber insecurity, data theft, personal information theft, data management, applications management and much more.

Though the desktop technology seems like racing at an unimaginable speed, there pops up the need of several desktop applications just like any other gadget. The irony is no techie has still planned or understood the dire need of an online store for desktop applications so far.

So the next big question is, "How far we need an online store/ single market place/one stop destination for desktop applications?"

Not every desktop user is so tech savvy that he/she can actually delete the confidential data permanently. Such users delete the file they are supposed to delete and believe that no one can recover it. Not all know that after deleting the file goes to the recycle bin and can be recovered anytime. Needless to mention, not all of my readers would be aware of the fact I have shared here.

Well! What a user needs in that case? Though, there are many players in the market that offer such desktop utilities that can ease the task of deleting the files or unnecessary data, the users have to search rigorously for it. In this case if there is a reliable market place just like Google play store, the users can install the utility in moments and use it, saving a lot on time and money.

Then, in another case, there is a considerable possibility that the hard drive of your desktop is bulking up with redundant data, duplicate files etc. causing fragmentation and slow speed.

Fragmented data sucks up more space just like the haphazardly piled up stuff in your room. So, what needs to be done is to defragment it timely and remove the duplicate files. But the task of searching duplicate files is quite gruelling as well as stodgy.

What is required here is a utility to intelligently clean up the duplicate files on a click. As mentioned above, the users find themselves in a confusing state and wonder which duplicate file finder they need to install and from where they should get it. Again, if there is an online store for desktop applications the users can easily read the reviews and download one they like.

In short there can be profuse instances where a novice desktop user finds himself in a topsy-turvy state and needs different desktop utilities.

This is where we need to accept as well as understand the significance of an online store for desktop applications.

Just surmise the presence of as worth an online store for endless desktop applications as Google Play Store or iTunes. How handy the desktop utilities will be? How easy to get an application would be? How hassle free the desktop usage would be?

I really feel that the next big gift from technocrats should be a reliable and free to download App store for Desktops.

Punit Insa is an expert author, who loves to write about technical, agricultural and social articles. Nowadays, she is working with iN Technologies as a senior Content Manager

Avail Premium Online PC Support to Fix Error 0x80070035 on a Windows PC

Sometimes, you may feel that uncertain PC problems and errors interrupt your entire computing experience. It is absolutely true, but the online support services offer instant computer solutions to get your device back to a normal working state. Read below to know how you can avail services from online computer support companies.

Unfortunately, PCs are prone to numerous threats and problems that can make you sit idle for long hours. Some uncertain system errors may occur anytime and stop you from continuing your regular computing operations. It is agreeable that you can take your problematic system to the computer service centre, but it might take hours or even days to repair the same. In the cyber world, where every task gets completed within a few minutes, it becomes highly difficult for users to wait for so long. One of the best solutions to get instant desktop repair services is by contacting an online PC support technician who can resolve such annoying issues within a few hours only. Error 0x80070035 is one of the common Windows errors that you may experience on Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP PCs.

What is Error 0x80070035?

Error 0x80070035 or "Network path not found" error occurs whenever a user tries to open a company file on a Windows Vista workstation. Since Microsoft has ended offering support for Windows XP, users operating on this OS may experience the error while accessing a company file from a Windows XP host machine. Whenever, the device is unable to find the location of a particular file that a user wishes to open, he may get the following message:

"Error 0x80070035: Unable to open company file, network path not found."

What are the Causes of the Error?

One of the possible causes of the error is a network configuration issue. Users may also confront the error if the Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder component isn't installed in the Windows Vista workstation/server.

What are the Possible Solutions to Fix Error 0x80070035?

Solution 1: Ensure QBCF Monitor Service is Running

Firstly, you will need to ensure while fixing the "Network path not found" error is to confirm that the QBCF Monitor service is running on both Windows workstations.

Follow the tips to confirm the same:

• Click 'Start' button and go to Search field

• Type 'Services.msc' and press Enter

• Right-click on 'QBCFMonitor Services' option and click 'Properties'

• Select the 'Automatic in the Startup Type' from the drop-down menu and click the 'Start' button

• Click 'OK' to bring the changes into effect.

Solution 2: Check for Network Configuration Problems

If you've confirmed that the QBCF Monitor service is running on both the systems, you will need to check your network configuration to resolve the error. Browse to the installing and configuring QuickBooks for a multi-user section or simply check the network environment to verify that everything has been setup correctly.

Solution 3: Install Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder component

If nothing helps, visit Microsoft's official website and look for the Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) file. Since you must have tried all the possible ways to fix the error, installing the Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) is the only thing you can do now to remove the error from your device.

Follow these tips to install the solution from Microsoft's official website:

• Visit Microsoft's official website and proceed towards the Microsoft Download Center

• Download the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder package

• Scan the file for security purposes and then run the file on your system to fix the issue

• You must restart your device after applying the package to ensure that the problem gets fixed.

Conclusion

You can also use the hotfix package to install the LLTD Responder component on Windows XP-based computers. Undoubtedly, you may need to take help from an online computer support firm if you're unable to fix your PC problems by following the tips mentioned above. To prevent serious damages, ensure that you conduct regular PC maintenance sessions and install the latest updates from Microsoft's website. Sometimes, the tech solutions provided by technicians aren't capable of fixing the issue so take your device to the nearest computer service centre to get it fixed.

Russell Winters is an ardent technician associated with Qresolve online computer support with wide experience of fixing issues with PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphone. With a strong track record of devising effective ways of online tech support and system security, she has so far helped thousands of users across the globe. Her writings on tech issues are the reflection of her in-depth interest and command she carries as a tech support technician. Her blogs and articles have been rated high for their lucid style and easy to understand language.