A common law enforcement practice known as "speed traps" or "speed trapping" is based on one universal factor: Almost everyone speeds. Everyone has their reasons but most people speed on occasion just because they can. While this excessive acceleration is usually harmless as drivers have enough time to slow down during emergencies, many fatal car accidents are caused by everyday people who just didn't bother to slow down. Law enforcement personnel struggle to combat this crime but most people slow down when they see a police officer in the area. Read More

The Unix/Linux `traceroute` command and the Microsoft Windows `tracert` commands both accomplish the task of tracing network paths, but they do it in slightly different ways. Both of these tools for tracing network routes send out a packet wth TTL (Time To Live) set to 1 and report it's destnation. Then, they send out a packet with TTL=2 and report it's destination. They continue until the packets reach their final destination or the TTL limit is exceeded. The difference is that Unix/Linux `traceroute` uses UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets to Read More

The PDF (Portable Document Format) was originally created by Adobe Systems in the early 1990’s in order to create a document exchange format supported across multiple operating systems. Since then, Adobe has released the format definition as an international standard and is supported across a wider-range of applications. PDF files are now used to represent two-dimensional documents that can combine embedded 3D, 2D imagery, and vector graphics. A common task that arises for end-users is having to convert from PDF to text to use the information contained in a PDF Read More

Users of popular instant messaging services such as MSN messenger or the Microsoft Live services may run into the dilemma of one or more of their contacts blocking them. This curiosity can really cause issues, especially if the person on the other end is of some importance to the user. The ability to check the person’s status is really dependent on a variety of factors. In essence, users are not supposed to know who blocked or deleted them unless they are told. The program was designed to help ensure the Read More

Having a glossy logo is common with today’s sleek website interfaces. Creating one yourself is simple with the right software and a set of instructions to walk you through the basics. You will need to open your version of Adobe Photoshop (This tutorial uses 7.0, but all versions carry the same tools and can produce similar results). Once Photoshop has opened, create a new document using the dimensions you are comfortable using for your logo. For this example, we are using a custom document size of 500 pixels wide and Read More

DirecTV Phase I Satellite Dish The DirecTV Phase I Satellite Dish was the original DirecTV dish. This is an 18" satellite dish with one LNB. This dish can only receive signal from DirecTV satellites at 101 degrees. DirecTV Phase II Satellite Dish DirecTV introduced the Phase II Satellite Dish in 1998. The Phase II dish can receive signals from the DirecTV satellites at 110 and 119 degrees. DirecTV Phase II Plus Satellite Dish The DirecTV Phase II Plus Satellite Dish is very similar to the Phase II dish, except that Read More

An HBA (Host Bus Adapter) is the interface card that connects a host to a SAN (Storage Area Network). It is an electronic circuit board and/or integrated circuit adapter that offers input/output (I/O) operations and physical connectivity among a server and a storage device. Presently, the phrase Host Bus Adapter (HBA) is frequently used for Fibre Channel interface cards. Fibre Channel HBAs are obtainable for all key open systems, computer architectures, and buses. Every HBA has a distinctive World Wide Name (WWN), which is analogous to an Ethernet MAC address Read More

Lotus 123 was a spreadsheet software that the Lotus Development Corporation, now a subsidiary of IBM, created. It was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Lotus 123 was originally developed for DOS, but eventually became available for the Windows Operating System. However, Microsoft Excel quickly rivaled and outperformed Lotus 123, causing Lotus 123 to lose its place as the leading spreadsheet software. Lotus 123 itself was discontinued in 2002, but Lotus SmartSuite (2008) and Lotus Symphony (2010) are still available and match Microsoft Excel’s capabilities.   What is Microsoft Excel? Read More

The Not a valid Win32 application error message may occur in a number of different scenarios. This indicates that an executable file, application, or program is not able to communicate correctly with the Windows API. The error may occur during or after the installation of an application, program, or in certain cases – hardware. The factors that lead to this error are as follows: Corrupt Files You may encounter this error message, when the file or program you are trying to access is missing or damaged. Windows may not be Read More

A smart card contains an integrated circuit (IC) chip containing a central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM) and non-volatile data storage. Data stored in the smart card’s microchip can be accessed only through the chip operating system (COS). Smart cards provide a secure, portable platform for “any time, anywhere” computing that can contain and manipulate substantial amounts of data, especially an individual’s personal digital identity. Smart cards are a type of mini computer with an operating system capable of running a variety of applications. JavaCard is a multi-application Read More