What is Spyware And Protect Your Computer Always

Writen by Carmen Paden

It can be any software that can gather information through a user’s internet connection without his or her knowledge. Once the software is installed, the spyware software usually monitors a user’s activity on the internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also pick up information on a user’s email address, credit card numbers or even a user’s passwords.

Sometimes when a user unwittingly installs some kind of product, a trojan horse can be added because spyware is similar to a trojan horse.

Spyware can steal from a user by using the computer’s memory resources and can also eat up one’s bandwidth. Since spyware is using one’s computer memory and system resources, the spyware software application that is running in the background can lead your system to cash.

Spyware has the ability to scan files on one’s hard-drive, read cookies or even change your default home page. It is a malicious software that can just literally take over one’s computer. This software watches what you do from your computer and then can send this information over the internet. Spyware can collect many different types of information about you, the user.

Do you get any of those annoying pop-ups? That would be consider as advertising spyware.

Spyware can collect your personal information easily and can even change the configuration of your computer without your consent. There are so many resources available to help you protect your computer. Start now if you have not done anything about this.

eConnect: eCommerce Development for Microsoft Great Plains

Writen by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has several options to enable web ordering. Traditionally Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise had eOrder – this is ASP pages based ordering application, enabling you to place or retrieve your Sales Order Processing (SOP) Sales Orders over the web. There were several drawbacks however with eOrder. You should be the customer in Great Plains company database to be able placing the orders. Also if you were planning to customize eOrder – you could only do cosmetic style changes only – if you wanted to alter scripts on the ASP pages – then you would have very serious eOrder upgrade issues. Upgrade simply wipes out your custom scripts and you had to reapply your customization to new version enriched ASP pages. Instead of following the way to move eOrder to ASPX or .Net platform – MBS introduced eConnect, enabling web designer to “connect” eCommerce site to Great Plains backend. This is very elegant module and solution, however we are hearing a lot of complaints from developers on eConnect restrictions.

SOP Invoice posting. It is not enabled in eConnect. However you should probably first understand the architecture of Microsoft Great Plains. Order takers supposed to enter Sales Order and submit it (place in the batch and save) to the manager for approval (taking off transfer/print/post holds). eConnect enables you to create or update Great Plains objects, but it doesn’t allow you to process them (post) – this would open a gap in the security/approval cycle.

Order Transfer. Again – this is similar problem to the invoice posting. Both Order and Invoice could be subject to holds and approvals. eCommerce logic might need partial or full order transfer to invoice or even backorder, based on the item availability status. Why would you then need to purchase eConnect? Maybe just go ahead and program the connection in SQL stored procedures? The answer is – eConnect allows you to allocate items in Great Plains Inventory Control module. It would take you a lot of time (if you are new to Great Plains tables structure and never coded in Great Plains Dexterity). Plus eConnect allows you to create and update customer record in Great Plains – this is however relatively simple to imitate in the stored procedure.

Then what is the solution?

Do not allow order transfer and posting through eCommerce. This is probably the best advise we could give you – just create orders, or invoices, leave them to the Great Plains user to approve and post. However in some cases it is absolutely critical and required

Look for Invoice posting stored proc on the market. You are not the first and not the last one to face this dilemma – somebody already has it implemented (SOP10200, SOP10100, SOP30200, SOP30300 tables)

Microsoft Small Business Financials or former Microsoft Small Business Manager. In your case – you need the whole set of stored procedures to enable eCommerce

Great Plains version: more likely you are using eConnect for Great Plains Standard or Great Plains Professional 7.5, 8.0 and in the future 8.5 or 9.0

Good luck in e-Commerce developing and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com

Download Free Screensavers

Writen by Damian Sofsian

A screensaver is a kind of small software program or utility that protects your on-screen data from being viewed or accessed by any intruder; at the same time, it also enlivens your screen by displaying constantly changing, vivid, bright, and colorful images.

A screen saver appears on the display screen, if the screen is idle with no keystrokes or mouse movements for a specified duration. The original concept of the screensaver was created for the purpose of preventing the display screen from etching an image into the screen. With the modernization and updating of the computers and computer technology, the problem of etching of an image, also known as ghosting no longer exists. But the concept and popularity of the screensavers are still the same. Screensavers are used as a data protection utility, as a password-protected screensaver prevents helps you in preventing your data and information from any unauthorized user.

Downloading a screensaver on your computer screen is as easy as a child’s play. All you need to do is to choose your favorite theme from the countless screensavers available on the Internet, and click download. A few easy-to-follow steps will soon download your screensaver on your desktop without any hassle. You can set the time duration after which a screensaver should appear, in case the screen is ideal for the specified time. After downloading the screensaver, you can also make it password protected. This facility authenticates the user and restores the screen, only after the correct password is entered.

Whether it is Valentine’s day, Christmas or New Year’s, you can find and download a screensaver every day, reflecting the flavor of the day and the season.

Also available for downloads are screensavers depicting the theme of nature, lighthouse, automobiles, animals, motivational, sports, and so on. The countless themes and designs of screensavers make them available for all your moods and events. Download your favorite theme of screensaver now and watch your computer screen light up with vibrant colors and images to cheer up your mood and revitalize you in between your tight work schedules and deadlines.

Free Screensavers provides detailed information on Free Screensavers, Download Free Screensavers, Free Animated Screensavers, Free 3D Screensavers and more. Free Screensavers is affiliated with Free 3D Wallpaper.

Foreign Language Software – Learning Method Breakthrough

Writen by Jeremy Brinker

Everyone is now affected by the information age, and the extensive benefits seen through internet, cell phone, and other communication usage. Connectivity has allowed business to span the globe at an unprecidented rate. It has become increasingly easy for people to connect with one another on a whim. The connection is the easy part; why should language be a barrier?

Communicating with others that speak another language can be very cumbersome, unproductive, and increasingly frustrating. Although you may have information to share, or business to conduct, you are unable to clearly communicate.

The most effective tool in communication is language, and those able to speak to others in their native tongue are at a huge advantage. The amount of information that can be shared by people speaking the same language, and with communication tools at their disposal, is staggering.

Many individuals perceive learning a new language as a major task, but this belief is somewhat unfounded. With the correct tools, structure, and guidance learning a new language can be fun and rewarding.

Turbo Language LLC. has conquered the challenges presented when teaching a new language. After extensive testing, the method preferred by Turbo Language is a flashcard based learning style focusing primarily on vocabulary and phrase building. The unproductive and distracting animations and games associated with most language programs are a thing of the past.

For individuals or groups interested in enriching their lives and increasing their business worth, Turbo language is essential. The product benefits are many, including ease of use, concise teaching, portability, and affordability. Language software ranges from $30.00 to over $700.00, and Turbo Language being priced at $49.95 provides anyone interested in bettering themselves an opportunity impossible to ignore.

Having been in the industry for some time now, I am very impressed by this product’s ability to teach anyone interested in investing approximately 2 hours per week. Do yourself a favor, and visit Turbo Language to download your copy today!

Product download, free trial download, additional information and benefits can be found on: http://www.turbolanguage.com

Jeremy Brinker – Foriegn Language Specialist

Microsoft CRM Lotus Notes Domino Connector FAQ

Writen by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino, being two groupware products from competing software development leaders, however could coexist within one organization computer network and even work together in collaboration. There maybe multiple reason why corporation would use both products: licensing, commitment to IBM Lotus Notes as legacy product, risk balancing – staking on both Microsoft and Java/EJB/J2EE platforms, deploying Lotus advanced workflow to automate document management, etc. The need to synchronize MS CRM and Lotus Notes Domino databases is dictated by the ERP market and the connector is available. In this small article we’ll answer on the frequently asked questions.

Messaging. Can MS CRM use Lotus Domino instead of Microsoft Exchange? Yes. MS CRM Lotus Domino connector allows you send messages from MS CRM objects: Lead, Account, Contact and all the future object, including Sales and Service modules

Outgoing Messaging. When Microsoft CRM send email from Account, Contact, Lead – connector takes control over and sends email through Lotus Domino server. It has Java Agent at the Lotus side and MS CRM SDK custom piece at the MS CRM side. If you compare outgoing messaging with standard MS CRM Exchange connector, then mechanism is slightly different. Microsoft CRM Exchange connector places GUID in the message header and uses this GUID to identify the object in the responding email to push it back to CRM and attach. MS CRM Lotus connector doesn’t use GUID – instead it scans MS CRM objects (Accounts, Contacts, Leads) in smart cached way

Incoming Messages. When Lotus Domino server receives email – Java Agent side of the connector triggers checking with MS CRM if addressor email matches with any Contact, Lead or Account email. In the case of the match – email is transferred into MS CRM in the form of activity of email type. Again – please note that connector doesn’t use GUID mechanism. We found that matching is better approach and we have Microsoft CRM Exchange advanced connector – which works with matching, without standard GUID mechanism.

Microsoft CRM & Lotus Notes Events synchronization. Future version of the connector will synchronize MS CRM and Lotus Notes objects: Calendar, Appointment, Fax, Phone Call, etc. Please, note that Lotus has different objects – we have the matching table, please check with us.

Lotus & MS CRM Versions. Lotus should be version 6.0 or higher. The reason for this is simple – version 6.0 supports Java Agent technology. MS CRM should be 1.2 or 3.0. Lotus could work in multiple hardware & OS platforms, such as Windows Server, AS/400, etc.

Product Pricing. It is US$3k basic pack, including 30 users and then $75 each additional user. In Europe price is proportional in Euro.

Support. Product is installed Worldwide and supported in Europe from German office, in the USA and Canada from Houston and Chicago, in South America, Africa, Australia, Asia, New Zealand from office in Sao Paulo Brazil.

Please give us a call if you have additional questions 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia. Alba Spectrum serves corporate clients in Aerospace & Defense, Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Manufacturing, Transportation & Logistics, Pharmaceutical, Food Processing, Placement, Healthcare & Medicine, Beverages, Agriculture, Non-profit, Distribution & Supply Chain Management, Financial Services, Furniture, Textile, Apparels, Conglomerates, Wholesale & Retail.

Voice Recognition – Switch from Pounding the Keyboard to Speaking to the Computer

Writen by John V. W. Howe

When you develop a website you must transfer a considerable amount of information from the mental form to the written form. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could speak to your computer, and it would type your words into your word processor for you?

Well, if you are using Windows XP, voice recognition software (VR) is included in the operating system. If you are not using XP, there are several software packages that will do the job. From the reviews, it appears that Dragon Naturally Speaking is a front runner.

The accuracy of the voice recognition software is very dependent on the microphone and the sound card so consider this before you attempt to use voice recognition. An earphone/boom microphone combo works well and one of good quality can be purchased for approximately $60 – $80 plus shipping.

When you first start, the system requires that you read from text that it displays so that you train the system to understand your voice. This takes approximately 10 minutes.

To make the VR software perform to its best efficiency, you must spend time training it to understand your voice. The more time that you spend doing this, the better the accuracy of the translation.

On Windosws XP, when you click the Tools option on the VR Toolbar, Training is one of the options. When you click on Training, you will be given a list of 8 selections from which to read. These include Aesop’s Fables, Bill Gates The Road Ahead, excerpts from The War of the Worlds, The Wizard of Oz, The Fall of the House of Usher, among others. The text is displayed and as you read and the software understands what you read, the background behind the text read turns blue so you know where you are. Allow 10 minutes per training session.

After reading several training sessions, go back and read the first one that you read and see how much the accuracy of your transcription has improved. VR is not 100% accurate and you will have to make your decision if it is faster to enter the data using voice and edit the document, or to enter the data using the keyboard.

The good news is that if you are using Windows XP, the software is free and you can experiment with it for the price of a quality microphone.

Copyright 2006 John Howe, Inc.

Secure Delete Programs

Writen by Gordon Ansell

There was a recent news item on the BBC about how criminal gangs are paying $15 for old hard disks with the express purpose of ’stealing’ the data on it, even if the hard drive has had a reformat.

Windows, in its infinite wisdom, doesn’t actually delete anything. We’re not talking about the Recycle Bin here – where data is stored just in case you really so wish to restore it – but we’re talking about a pukka delete or reformat which, in all probability, you would have thought was final.

All windows actually does is delete the directory pointers and flag the space the files took up as now being ‘available’, so that when a new file needs to be written it could use that space.

There seems to be a lot of emphasis (and software) on making sure we don’t accidentally delete something and that, when we do, we’re given multiple opportunities to get it back again. Yet if we’re dealing with sensitive data we may actually want to permanently delete a file and ensure it can’t be recovered. To do this, we usually have to find some sort of third party secure delete utility.

This is particularly pertinent when we’re disposing of our PCs. The report from the BBC was demonstrating how PCs were being recovered from rubbish tips and the hard drives were being sent to Nigeria. The data was then being recovered and sold to gangs interested in fraud or identity theft. One guy had done a reformat of his hard disk and thought he’d deleted all his data, yet the reporter was able to tell him all his bank account details from the stolen hard disk. The poor guy was astounded.

Of course, this is also relevant if you get your PC stolen: not only will a technician have access to your current data, but they’ll also have access to data you thought you’d delete.

A secure delete program works by overwriting the data many times with garbage before deleting it, so if someone was to recover the sectors of data, they would only actually see garbage. This sort of utility is mandatory in military installations or places where a high importance is placed on security, but personal identity theft or bank account fraud is no joke either.

It’s certainly worth considering a secure delete program of some sort.

Professional Software Icons For Your Standalone Application

Writen by Juan Pablo Sarmiento

User interfaces and accessibility are some of the most important aspect of an application. It can have a million features, it can do a thousand things once, but if it doesn’t look quite right then it will be a disaster. Take Linux for example. This open source (free) operating system has been around for quite a while, and it has been very appreciated for its stability and speed. However, in its earlier days it lacked a user interface, which made it very unattractive to the general public. While a few years back Linux was used only by system administrator and computer freaks, Microsoft’s Windows was all over the place, pumped up by its friendly user interface, even though it had a lot of bugs and was very unstable. Today’s things are quite different. People have learned from their mistakes and now, most operating systems, including Linux, use a graphical interface and are very user-friendly – things that in the past you could do by writing lines and lines of instructions, you can now do with a few clicks. This major improvement has brought in a whole new class of users, and the popularity of this operating system has increased considerably.

This is why the user interface matters a lot to the average computer user, and icons are one of the most important issues at matter. But why use icons and not plain text? Well, icons are visual mnemonics, that is, they are easier to remember. We see an icon a few times (or maybe once) and we “learn” it, and afterwords we associate the image with a certain action. The same thing happens with text, but it’s a lot faster to “read” an icon than it is to read a text, which makes icons a lot more recommended. Furthermore, adding icons to the important components of your application will sometimes save you from the frustration of answering the users who are not very familiar with the application and have trouble finding out how to use a certain feature. For example adding a question mark icon next inside the help button will make it easier for users to figure out where they can get help.

Today’s developers know that users will learn how to use a certain application a lot faster if its interface looks like the applications they are already familiar with. Take for example a Mac: can you see how all applications look pretty much the same? So it’s really easy to start using new applications, and you don’t have to read the manual to see what each button does, because most likely you’ll figure out that on your own. But there are two sides to this: if all applications look more or less the same, where is the uniqueness? Then again, if the application is totally unique, users might find it difficult to get acquainted with. So the best way to go is to use an interface that combines both these rules – not an “average” looking user interface, but also not a totally unique one. It’s easy to get stuck with this idea, but this is where icons come in.

Icons are the easiest way to differentiate your application, while still keeping a note of familiarity. Most developers have found it very efficient to replace the operating system’s stock icons with their own custom-made icons. How? Well, start with the little things. Try adding shadows to icons, or maybe apply different effects (emboss, blur, add a border, etc.) using a graphics editor. Another approach is to change the icon’s colors. Make them all blue, yellow, or some other color you might think it would look great with the rest of the interface. A toolbar with enhanced, yet similar buttons (for example replacing the New, Open, Save, Print, Cut, Copy, Paste icons) really improves the overall interface. After replacing the icons, it’s a lot easier to make the next step and start changing colors.

But what to do with these old-fashioned users that like to keep it simple? How about people with special needs, who might have problems reading small texts or seeing some colors. Also, there must be a way for all the people – and it’s really a mystery here – who like the same old icons and colors on all their applications. Fortunately, the answer is simple: different application skins! It’s a good idea to have a “standard” skin for the users who like to keep it simple, offering the basic features in a really easy to use manner, and then to create a few more enhanced skins for the people that like different interfaces – big fat buttons with shiny icons for the main applications features, or perhaps lots of toolbars with many buttons for advanced users. Again, the easiest way to creating new skins is changing the icons and colors. You don’t really have to change the layout of the application and move all the toolbars/buttons/windows around, for it might require sometimes too much work. But replacing icons is really easy. Voila! You have a new skin!

Today’s computer applications are focusing more and more on graphics, and especially icons, while text interfaces are becoming less popular. The modern applications’ interfaces use icons and text as well, but paying a special attention to icons. This way it’s a lot easier for users to learn how the application works, so therefore they will accomplish their tasks quickly. An intuitive interface and standard behaviors don’t require much explanation, and a well-designed application must not get into the user’s way, but must provide fast access to its most important features. This is the general rule which brought Microsoft millions and millions of dollars for it’s main product – the Windows operating system – so why shouldn’t we follow their example?

If you are looking for professional icons please go to http: http://www.iconshock.com – icon design

Medical Billing – Solving the Problems Part II – Patient Billing

Writen by Lori A Anderson

Medical billing in the United States is fraught with many challenges and problems. The primary goal of medical billing is to receive fair compensation for the work that was performed in a timely manner. However, this is rarely the case. This series will explain those challenges and suggest possible solutions to these problems.

Patient Billing

Most practices today find it more time consuming and more costly to attempt collection of fees from patients then insurance carriers. For those practices that do take patient collection seriously, they may underestimate the toll on resources to complete the task.

Have you ever wondered how long it takes your staff to complete the print and mail function of sending out patient statements? Some practices choose to do weekly, biweekly or monthly patient statement processing. Manually processing a patient statement mailing dramatically affects your practice operations and revenue streams. Processing times can be lengthy, and delays are quite common due to lack of time and resources at most physician’s practices.

A careful analysis of the costs reveals some surprising numbers.

• $0.39 first-class stamp
• $0.08 envelope with window or label
• $0.08 return envelope
• $0.02 paper
• $0.10 printer ink or toner
• $0.25 labor (assuming $15/hour and 60 statements/hour)
• $0.92 Total

At $0.92 per statement to perform this operation in house, there may be a better solution for you.

Potential Solution

There is a solution; electronic patient statements. The process of sending patient statements can be as easy as sending electronic insurance claims. Electronic patient statements allow your staff more time to focus on your patients. When it comes time to print, fold, stuff, stamp, seal and bundle the statements, you can outsource this menial labor task. With electronic patient statements any patient that has a balance and is eligible to be billed, will automatically be sent a patient statement on time. With this automation, you will improve your accounts receivables timeline. Electronic patient statements also allow you to minimize mis-labeling errors and delays inherent with the in-house print and mailing functions which impacts your ability to bring your money in.

Your practice management software solution provider should have this valuable service available. Additionally, this service usually costs less than the postage and supplies outlined above. Usual automated patient billing service costs for electronic patient statements are $0.62-0.75 per statement.

Lori Anderson is an independent consultant with LAtech working with AntekHealthware on their DAQbilling Medical Billing Software and LabDAQ Laboratory Information System projects.