Blackbody radiation refers to the electromagnetic radiation that a blackbody material expels. Blackbody materials are substances that absorb all electromagnetic radiation that comes in contact with it, including light and heat. While a perfect blackbody material does not exist in nature, substances such as ash, soot, and granite come close. When a blackbody material is irradiated with light or radio frequencies, it circulates the energy and releases it as heat. Alternatively, when the blackbody material is irradiated with heat, it dispenses the energy as a radio frequency. In this way, Read More

A sector is a small area on the surface of a hard drive or floppy disk. Hard drives usually have several platters. The platters are the discs that are covered with magnetic material, which is used to hold data. Floppy disk drives contain only one platter. Platters are divided into a set of concentric rings called tracks. A 1.44MB floppy disk has 160 tracks. Hard drives have thousands of tracks. Each of these tracks is divided into smaller storage areas called sectors. A sector is the smallest storage area on Read More

A dual core processor is part of a category called multi-core processors. These computer processors have more than one independent processor on the chip or package. In the case of a dual core processor, the entire chip has two independent computer processors that can work together to increase total computer performance. For non-technical consumers, dual core processors can be thought of as having two separate computer chips combined. One of the biggest advantages of having a dual core processor is the computer’s ability to perform thread level parallelism. A thread Read More

The term "net neutrality" or "network neutrality" arose from a set of concerns regarding the role of telecommunication and cable companies or Internet service providers (ISPs) in the delivery of data over the internet. It generally refers to the idea of equal access to content delivered over the Internet and non-discrimination of Internet content providers, types of content (text, video or audio) or methods of their transfer (HTTP, FTP, bittorrent). Advocates of net neutrality typically call for a legal mandate that would ensure net neutrality by restricting ISP's from practices Read More

Configuring VPN Connectivity Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) provide secure and advanced connections through a non-secure network by providing data privacy. Private data is secure in a public environment. Remote access VPNs provides a common environment where many different sources such as intermediaries, clients and off-site employees can access information via web browsers or email. Many companies supply their own VPN connections via the Internet. Through their Internet Service Providers (ISPs), remote users running VPN client software are assured private access in a publicly shared environment. By using analog, ISDN, DSL, Read More

The decibel is a standard unit for measuring relative levels of current, voltage, or power. The decibel shows the ratio between the input and the output. Decibel is abbreviated dB. A minus sign before the dB indicates a loss and a plus sign or no sign at all before the dB indicates a gain. The Decibel Formula The decibel value of a change between input and output can be expressed utilizing the following algorithm: db = log10 Input / Output A Decibel Table Decibel Gain Ratio of Gain 1 1.3 Read More

Adobe Flash Player is a software that must be installed on any machine that attempts to access Flash based content. Since Flash can be used for so many diverse things, not having Adobe Flash Player installed may prevent a user from accessing many different types of webpages and entire services. For example, the popular video sharing tycoon, YouTube, runs entirely on Flash, allowing it to include clickable links directly within a video and display similar videos when a video is over. Essentially, Flash is used to provide interactivity within media Read More

Token Ring is a local area networking system originally conceived in the late 1960s by IBM and patented in 1981, with IBM promoting its use throughout most of the 1980s. Although initially very successful, it was eventually displaced by Ethernet as the favored technology and architecture for local area networks (LAN); although IBM undertook a valiant effort to compete, this was not successful and IBM itself eventually stopped using token ring as its LAN standard. How Token Ring Works The token ring network is simple in design and conceptual operation. Read More

Active X is the name for a selection of object-oriented tools and programming technologies that were developed by Microsoft. From time to time, new versions of Active X have been released to provide support to the ever widening array of applications that are used in the home and the workplace. Active X can have an impact on applications that run quietly in the background, as well as applications that are used for online communications. What are the basic components of Active X? The single key tool within Active X is Read More

During World War II, there was a significant amount of research put into developing rocket-powered aircraft and missiles on both sides. The principles of rocket propulsion developed in this time period have served as the basis for the advancements seen in the field. These principles have taken man to the moon and are used on modern day military aircraft. Rocket propulsion systems, much like other types, rely on Newton’s third law of motion in order to generate thrust to create lift for both aircraft, rocket boosters, and missiles. Rocket Propulsion Read More