Smileys or Emoticons are patterns of text when typed in a particular sequence, can be used to convey an emotion or feeling. Usually the simple text based Smileys are viewed by turning your head sideways to the left. For example, the 🙂 emoticon when viewed sideways, is used to convey happiness or to smile at someone. Another example, the 🙁 emoticon can be used to convey sadness or to frown at someone. Instead of text based emoticons that many people use in their email messages, Yahoo Inc. has created 3-D Read More

A Zune is a portable media player that is essentially the Microsoft version of the Apple iPod. Like the Apple iPod, Zunes are available in many different models that have varying specifications. However, all Zunes include a screen, a clickwheel, a power button, a pause/play button, and an earphones port. Some models also include an SD slot, a built-in camera, and a variety of attachments such as speaker docking systems. However, the Zune brand also includes media player software, a music subscription service, and an application for Windows Phone 7. Read More

Google is an incredibly large corporation that has at least a dozen different departments to contact. Therefore, contacting them is not as simple as picking up the phone and calling. For the most part, contacting Google requires sending an e-mail to which they’ll reply. While they do have a phone number, it isn’t specific to each department; therefore, it could take some time to get patched through. Contacting Google by Department Google has a central contact us page at http://www.google.com/contact/. This page has links that pertain to contact information for Read More

When a document or other item is printed to a file instead of a local or networked printer, it allows the file to be saved in a format that can be used by a different printer. Information such as page and line breaks, font spacing, and other layout information is saved when printing a document to a file. This allows the printer to reproduce the version of the file that the end-user sees on the screen without having to have access to the software application or computer that created the Read More

Erasing browser history clears the record of what web sites the user visited over a period of time. This can help to protect privacy by preventing others from monitoring what web sites the user has been visiting. Erasing Internet Explorer’s Browser History By default, Internet Explorer keeps browser history for 20 days. To erase browser history in Internet Explorer, follow these steps: Open the Tools menu from the toolbar. Select Internet Options from the Tools Menu. Click the Clear History button. Click the Yes button on confirmation.   Erasing Firefox’s Read More

A NetBIOS node type is a method that a computer uses to resolve a NetBIOS name into an IP address. A NetBIOS node type allows an administrator to configure the order and method that a client uses when resolving NetBIOS names to IP addresses. Understanding how the various node types function will help users to properly configure their WINS solution. Windows Server supports the following node types: B-node (broadcast): it uses broadcasts for name resolution and registration. In a large network, a broadcast increases the network’s load. In addition, routers Read More

NetBIOS, broadcasts names to listening nodes on the network. NetBIOS utilizes a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) query to broadcast names. NetBIOS names identified computers on the network before the introduction of Windows 2000. The NetBIOS name is resolved to an IP address through Windows Internet Name Service (WINS), broadcasting, or the LMHOSTS file. If the LAN is a NetBIOS LAN, the NetBIOS name is then the network address. The NetBIOS name is assigned by an administrator when the operating system is installed. To enable communication, the following requirements exist: NetBIOS Read More

On Unix systems, people will sometimes create directories with strange characters in the names. These characters can make it more difficult to access the directories, providing a small amount of “security through obscurity.” This technique is used to try to hide information, most often warez (commercial software) or hacking tools. There are several things you can do to determine what these strange characters are. One is to use the arguments to the `ls` command that cause `ls` to give you more information:     From the man page for `ls`: -F Causes Read More

Java source code is code that you write in the Java programming language. Java source code is converted to Java bytecode by the Java compiler. Java source code files usually have the .java extension. Sun recommends that Java source code files be no longer than two thousand lines. Larger source code files should be split up into multiple smaller files.

Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) is a type of mobile telephone service that depends on portable terrestrial satellites rather than fixed terrestrial satellites that are also known as cell phone towers. Portable terrestrial satellites are similar to cell phone towers, but can be mounted on moving vehicles such as cars, ships, and airplanes, and individual users can even carry them. Mobile Satellite Service is not as common as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), but is frequently used for its global reception.   How Mobile Satellite Service Works Mobile Satellite Service Read More