Phenom X3 With Three Cores

Phenom X3. When the Phenom processor was introduced, AMD chose not to use the "X4" extension as part of the model name. All Phenom models, without exception, had four processor cores and thus there was no need for the extension. Today’s introduction of the new Phenom processors with one CPU core less, makes it necessary to add an extension to the product name in order to ensure that they can be differentiated, thus AMD officially introduced the extensions X4 and X3 for all Phenom processors. According to AMD, many customers have expressed the desire for this change.



The Phenom X3 will only be available with B3 stepping without TLB error to end customers who purchase the processor as a tray or in the box pack.

For OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) who produce complete PCs, the Phenom X3 model is available with the older and faulty B2 stepping. AMD considers it important that end customers are only able to access a fault-free processor in future.



The tri-core Phenom X3 is technically identical to the quad-core Phenom X4. Each individual CPU core has a 512 kB L2 cache and all three cores are connected to a 2 MB L3 cache. Like all of the Phenom X4 processors, the X3 is made using 65 nm process technology.

The code name has simply been changed from Barcelona to Toliman.

AMD is introducing three new Phenom X3 models:

- Phenom X3 8750 (2.40 GHz)
- Phenom X3 8650 (2.30 GHz)
- Phenom X3 8450 (2.10 GHz)

Since the new models do not contain the TLB bug, they contain a 50 at the end of the product name.



AMD does not yet intend introducing a Black Edition with a freely selectable multiplier.

In order to run the Phenom X3, AMD suggests installing the latest Bios version on the board. The tests showed that the 790FX boards from Asus, Gigabyte and MSI started with no problems. All programs used in the course of benchmark testing were able to complete their work with the Phenom X3.





The one exception was Sandra by Sisoft. The program could be started, but showed no reaction when executing the benchmark tests. Since this is a synthetic benchmark utility, this can be ignored, particularly as this behavior occurs frequently when using Sandra on new processors from both Intel and AMD.

Testing the AMD Phenom X3 8750, 8650 and 8450

Phenom X3. Four core processors followed hot on the heels of the dual core, and now there are even three core models. For the uninitiated, this begs the question, how are the CPU units placed physically. The explanation: In principle, it is a Barcelona core with just three cores activated. The AMD 780G chip set is very popular for use in cheaper PCs, multimedia computers or HTPCs (Home Theater PC) because it is lower in price than the Intel CPUs, as well as being lower on power consumption and functions. This platform now finally has a cheaper Phenom processor with more performance as well as the Athlon 64 X2.


Many users wishing to put together a lower cost PC or to upgrade used the Athlon 64 X2 in the past. Extremely low prices for the fastest 6400+ model gave the Athlon 64 X2 an unbeatable cost/performance advantage over Intel’s CPUs. Anyone not satisfied with performance, was able to use a quad core processor, but the added costs of these were too high for many users.

Now AMD has introduced the first three core desktops CPUs, the Phenom X3 8750, 8650 and 8450. With the X3s, the company has undercut the price for quad core models significantly. And the costs compared to the dual core models are attractively low.


Only very few applications are able to really make good use of the performance capabilities of a quad core processor which means that, generally speaking, the performance benefits are definitely not doubled up. The vast majority of programs only support two processors cores and, when this is the case, the computer is simply overworked by the application. If additional performance is required by the operating system, for the numerous applications running in the background such as Messenger, audio chat, video output on a second monitor or SHH encrypted downloads, the dual core application (for example, a 3D game) loses performance and runs at a slower rate. The third core is ideal for handling these additional tasks. It reduces the load on the other two cores and allows the dual core application to continue operating without disruption.

The Phenom X3 with the three processor cores makes the system capable of multi-tasking, but is considerably cheaper than a quad core CPU from AMD or Intel. AMD, in conjunction with the Phenom X3, is now in a position to offer a considerably cheaper PC system with more functions than Intel.

SEO Training – How to Get the Most Out of It

by: Tracy Fredrychowski


Let’s set the stage…

You’ve just invested valuable time and money by completing your hands-on SEO Training. You are now sitting back in your office contemplating all the wonderful information you just gathered, but you’re really confused on where to start. You pick up your notes leafing through them hoping something will inspire you to know what to do next. You start to drift back to class wishing you where still there. You hated to leave, you didn’t want it to end, you silently wish your instructor was there telling you where to begin.

Good news! I am going to share with you a detailed search engine optimization and internet marketing plan to get the most out of your seo training and to get you started today.

Step #1 – Setting Goals

Before you can really get started you have to know what you want to achieve with your Web site. There could be a number of goals that you have in mind but your first step is get a clear picture of what you want the outcome to be. It could be:

• To gain higher rankings.
• To redesign your Web site to be more user friendly.
• To implement SEO basics throughout your site to make it search engine friendly.
• To increase your visitor response online.
• To open additional windows to your site through social media marketing.
• To launch an article marketing plan.
• Or all of the above.

What ever your goal is it is important to write it down and post it where you can see it every day. “Goals that are not written down are just wishes.”

Step #2 – Keyword Research

Any new project should always include this step. Keyword research is the basis for any successful page on your site. Let’s take the goals above and see how the keyword research you learned to perform in your seo training can be used.

• Higher rankings can be achieved by finding those keywords in your industry that have a high KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) and low competing pages. You should concentrate on finding five phrases that you can work on simultaneously.

• By redesigning your Web site you can be including your new found phrases and work them into your sales copy. If you are creating a new site this is the ideal time to make sure you are concentrating on your visitors experience while on your site.

o Include a call to action above the fold
o Contact information above the fold in straight html including area code and zip code.
o Only use Flash in small elements and not as the whole page.
o Include something that will grab your user’s attention. Something out of the normal that will make your visitor stop and take notice of your page.

• Implementing SEO basics can be a daunting task if your site is large or it is many years old. Tactics that where used years ago are no longer useful and most times are being flagged as spam. Depending on how many elements need to be addressed you need to determine if it would be better to start with a fresh page or redo the existing page. A determining factor would be if the current page is already indexed. If this is the case then it would be best to fix the existing page. If the page has too many errors and creating a new one would be wiser be sure to name the new page the same as the old one or do a 301 redirect to the new page. Include your keyword phrase when implementing your basic search engine optimization.

• Visitor response will increase if you are giving your visitors exactly what they are looking for. Only your keyword research will help you with this. We are in an instant gratification world and your visitor will only give you a few seconds to answer their search, so make sure it exactly what they are looking for.

• Open additional windows into your site by using your keyword phrases in your social media avenues. A couple great places to include your keyword researched phrases would be in your blog post and creating a lens in Squidoo around your researched phrase.

• Article marketing is not for everyone but it does allow you to open multiple windows into your site but writing articles around your phrase and submitting them to places like Scribd, ArtcileFactory.com and EzineArticles.com.

Step - # 3 – Which one to choose?

I know you want to implement each and everyone of those goals into your site and you still don’t know where to start.

Stop here and go find five phrases to work with and don’t even think about anything else at this point.

After you find those phrases refer back to your SEO training notes and refresh your memory on how to create a search engine friendly Web page and create content for each of the new keywords you found.

It is going to be hard not to get side tracked but stick to the project at hand. Your only concern is finding 5 phrases, creating content and designing five search engine friendly pages.

Once that is done go ahead and publish the five pages to your Web site. Include each page on your site map, link it from and to relevant pages on your site and include keyword rich link text within the body of the page.

Make a note of the day you added the new pages to your site for later use.

Now that you have the first three steps under your belt you are ready to move onto step four.

Step #4 – Addressing Existing Web Site Issues

Now that you have gotten a good start with the above steps, you can start working on bringing your current Web site up to par while you are actually waiting for indexing on your 5 optimized pages. Your next plan of attack would be working on existing pages within your site. You may not be able to change every issue with your site but remember every small change could result in increased ranking for your site. You may only be able to change your title and Meta tags and not be able to change your corporate sites navigation so tackle what you can and don’t worry about the rest. Each and every issue is just one of the over 200 factors so learn to pick your battles and fix what you can.

Step #5 – Social Media and Article Marketing

Your whole goal is to open as many windows into your site as possible. You have already started this by creating 5 new pages into your site now it is time to open the windows even further. Whether you decide to use article marketing or all the endless possibility of social media marketing now is the time to concentrate on one or both of these window opening wonders.

You can use the five phrases you found in your first step or you can find 5 new ones but at this stage you are creating content to be used in articles, on blogs or bookmaking pages within the many social media avenues. Your title is the most important element when tackling this step. Make your title keyword rich, compelling and deliver what your title describes in the article or blog post.

If you are not quite ready to dive into social media start at least with adding a blog to your Web site. Your best results will come from the blog residing on your server and not one that is hosted on a free blogging site. Make a commitment to blogging regularly and always about your industry so your site and your blog are industry related.

Step #6 – Tracking Your Progress

Web analytics can show you information about all of your optimization projects. Not only will it show you your results for the 5 keyword phrases you are working on but it will open your eyes to how your visitor is moving through your site. Record your results on a weekly or daily basis. This step will help you in testing each one of your projects and help you decide which one you should concentrate more on. Usually I find 2 or 3 phrases that are really performing and those are the ones I concentrate on blogging and adding it to the social media venues.

Step #7 – Keep Up With the Changes

There is no other step as important as this one. The internet changes its landscape on a daily basis so it is imperative that what you learn in your SEO Training is always the latest information. Your Web site and or clients are depending on your expertise so don’t let them down by applying out of date or useless techniques. There are many places you can turn to for guidance.

The first place would be Google, Yahoo! and MSN’s Webmasters guidelines. Each is posted on their site and is updates each and every time they have made changes to them.

Another place would be to subscribe to one of many search engine optimization and marketing blogs created by industry leaders. Your instructor should be able to point you in the right direction to their most trusted resources.

Continue learning by attending your favorite SEO Training provider’s courses on a yearly basis. Principles and techniques change often so always keep on top them.

Often students are overwhelmed with the amount of information they are given at class but if you learn to take them in small steps starting with setting your goals you will find that your seo training is working for you and your Web site.

Deploying Ruby on Rails Applications to Microsoft IIS and Windows Server

by: Rahoul Baruah

The process I've followed here has worked on IIS on Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP and now Windows Server 2003. I don't know which versions of IIS were involved but the same basic process has been used across all three. I've not quite managed to get web services working over IIS but I reckon I'm not far away - so follow the instructions below and I'll update you when we get there.

So where do we begin? First of all, collect all your bits and bobs together. In particular you will need

* the Ruby Installer http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/4174/ruby182-15.exe
* the Rails Framework http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/7655/rails-1.0.0.zip
* the Ruby DBI-ADO Interface http://ruby-dbi.rubyforge.org/ (if you are using SQL Server)
* Ruby for IIS http://rubyforiis.sosukodo.org/
* FastCGI for IIS http://www.caraveo.com/fastcgi/
* and the Ionic Rewriter http://cheeso.members.winisp.net/dl/IonicIsapiRewriter.zip

Ruby is for obvious reasons.

Rails is useful as I found that 2003 is so locked down that gem did not have access to download the framework from rubyforge.

The DBI-ADO interface is needed for a single file, ADO.rb, that allows the SQL Server adapter to connect to MS-SQL.

Ruby for IIS does some patching to Rails and Ruby to allow IIS to route its requests to FastCGI and eventually to Rails. In the interests of full disclosure I should say that I have not looked at the source of this and so do not know exactly how it works. I will get round to it, promise.

FastCGI keeps a number of Ruby/Rails processes running within IIS. This means that when a request comes in from a client you do not need to start a new Ruby process (and hence incur the not insignificant cost of loading all the libraries) every time. Instead FastCGI starts N processes and if all are busy will start more, upto a maximum of M processes and routes requests to whichever process is free.

The Ionic Rewriter takes a Rails-friendly url (controller/action/id) and rewrites it into a form that IIS understands. IIS then dispatches this new URL to FastCGI which in turn passes it to Ruby.

So, you've installed Rails (into C:Ruby) and copied your application files over (into D:MyApp). You've added the Rails framework into your application's vendor folder (D:MyAppvendor) - this is because we will be altering some of the framework files so we want to keep our changes (in D:MyAppvendor) separate from the main Rails installation (in C:rubylibrubygems1.8gems). You then need to extract ADO.rb from the DBI file and place it in C:rubylibrubysite_ruby1.8DBD - you will need to create an ADO folder and place the file into there.

Next up, edit your application's configuration file (either one of the environment specific ones, or your general one - you decide) and add the line:

ActionController::CgiRequest::DEFAULT_SESSION_OPTIONS[:tmpdir] = 'D:Temp'

You will need to create a Temp folder on D: or your application will silently fail to work. The point of this is to force Ruby to place its session files into a known folder - if you read back through this blog you will find that at one point I was having strange behaviour with sessions. It turns out that as you run under different configurations (CGI, FastCGI and WEBrick) Ruby sometimes places its files in different locations and you get unpredictable behaviour. Plus it also helps when you need to clean up your sessions (which you will need to do later).

Now run your application under WEBrick. This is vital. If it doesn't work here it definitely won't work under IIS. Don't say I didn't warn you. What? It didn't work under WEBrick. I bet you forgot to edit your database.yml file. Go and do it now and test it again. Still doesn't work? Seems to fail silently with no entries in your log file. I told you - create a D:Temp folder and you should be OK.

Copy your ISAPI files to a safe place - I tend to put them in C:InetPub - they are associated with IIS but not available to the public. This means copying your FastCGI.DLL and IsapiRewrite4.DLL and IsapiRewrite4.INI files to wherever. Watch out, the Ionic Rewriter DLL and INI file must live in the same folder.

Fire up the trusty pain-in-the-arse Internet Information Services configuration manager. The instructions here are for setting up one site on the "Default Web Site" - I don't think it will be too hard to set up multiple Rails sites on one IIS site and even easier to set up multiple IIS sites, each containing a single Rails site. But I've not done it so I won't go on about it here.

Right-click on your "Default Web Site" and select "Properties". Select ISAPI Filters. Click Add and enter a filter name of "Rewriter" and select the IsapiRewrite4 DLL.

Next, switch to the "Home Directory" tab. Make sure "a directory stored on this computer" is selected and set D:MyAppPublic as the local path. Put your application name into "Application Name" (if this is greyed out then click "Create" to set up the site as an application) and make sure "Scripts and Executables" is selected for "execute permissions". Next up, click "Configuration". Under "Mappings" click "Add" and select FastCGI.DLL as the executable, .fcgi as the extension (if you are going to have multiple Rails applications on a single server you need to vary this extension on a Rails-application-specific basis - for example .myapp1, .myapp2 etc), with "All Verbs", "Script Engine" and "Check that file exists" all selected.

If you're on Server 2003 there is an extra step. You have to allow IIS access to the executables you are going to be using. Create a new Web Server Extension in the IIS Configuration Manager, calling it "MyApp". Add FastCGI.DLL, IsapiRewriter4.DLL and RubyW.exe to this extension and make sure that it is enabled.

Phew - what have we done so far?

* We've installed Rails and our application and made sure it works OK under WEBrick
* We've told IIS that the default web site for this server is our application's public folder
* We've told IIS that any request to the default web site should be fed through the Ionic Rewriter
* We've told IIS that any request for a .fcgi file should be fed through FastCGI

What we've not done is tell Ionic or FastCGI how to behave.

Ionic first. Edit IsapiRewrite4.INI - get rid of the contents of the file and replace it with

# Ruby on Rails
IterationLimit 0
RewriteRule ^(/[^.]+)$ /dispatch.fcgi?$1

This takes the URL that IIS recieves and matches it against the given regular expression. I'm no grexpert but I'm reliably informed that it matches any string starting with a '/' that does not contain '.'s. If you are setting up a web-service then this has an implication - by default Rails makes the WSDL available via a URL ending in service.wsdl. You will need to edit D:MyAppconfigroutes.rb to change this to something like service_wsdl - otherwise the URL rewriter will spot the '.' and will not feed the request to Rails at all. (Of course, I haven't got web services working with these instructions yet). Anyway, so it matches any URL starting with a '/' and not containing a '.' - and rewrites it to /dispatch.fcgi?$1. So /controller/action/id will be matched to /dispatch.fcgi?/controller/action/id.

Hang on - our URL is being rewritten with a .fcgi in it - ring any bells? That's right, next up we configure FastCGI. Open RegEdit and open the Local Machine/Software key. Create a key (folder) called "FastCGI". Under here create another key (folder) called ".fcgi" - when FastCGI is invoked with a file extension of .fcgi it will use the settings in this key. This is why, when we have multiple applications on a single server, we need to vary the file extensions (.myapp1, .myapp2 as detailed above - likewise we need to rename dispatch.fcgi to dispatch.myapp1/dispatch.myapp2 for each respective application). The basic FastCGI setttings we need (we'll add some more later) are:

* AppPath - set this to C:rubybinrubyw.exe
* Args - set this to D:MyApppublicdispatch.fcgi
* BindPath - set this to MyAppRailsCGI

AppPath tells FastCGI that we want Ruby (the "windows" version that does not produce a command line output) to execute our scripts, passing it the Args (our dispatch.fcgi script) as the entry point to the application, using the Named Pipe "MyAppRailsCGI" to communicate.

Now, use the IIS Configuration thingy to restart IIS - right-click on the Server, select All Tasks and restart. This seems to take forever on Server 2003. Now open your favourite browser and point it at your application (http://myserver/controller/action/id or whatever). Now I'm betting that you get a "recognition failed for dispatch.fcgi".

Let's take a walk on the dark side. I'm not 100% sure what is going on here. It involves regular expressions and environment variables that I can't access in debug mode and it all seems to happen before Rails' logging is invoked. So this is guesswork that seems to be effective. Go to D:MyAppvendoractionpack-versionlibaction_controllerrequest.rb - this is the Ruby file that ActionPack uses to route URL requests. Under Apache and WEBrick, it returns the REQUEST_URI environment variable, and if it can't get at it, it manipulates PATH_INFO and SCRIPT_NAME to get the same result. Under IIS it doesn't work - what the method is expecting is a "SCRIPT_NAME" of "/dispatch.fcgi" (which is what we have) but a "PATH_INFO" of "/dispatch.fcgi/controller/action". In other words, instead of extracting the original URL and making it into a query string, it expects the original URL to be tacked onto the end of the dispatcher script. The problem with this is that if the URL looks l!
ike that, then the URL no longer ends with .fcgi so IIS does not know to ask FastCGI to process the request. Our PATH_INFO looks more like "/dispatch.fcgi?/controller/action" - note the all important question mark in the URL. However, if we modify the request_uri method in request.rb to look like:

# Returns the request URI correctly, taking into account the idiosyncracies
# of the various servers.

def request_uri
if uri = env['REQUEST_URI']
(%r{^w+://[^/]+(/.*|$)$} =~ uri) ? $1 : uri # Remove domain, which webrick puts into the request_uri.
else
# REQUEST_URI is blank under IIS - get this from PATH_INFO and SCRIPT_NAME
script_filename = env['SCRIPT_NAME'].to_s#.match(%r{[^/]+$})
uri = env['PATH_INFO']
uri = uri.sub("#{script_filename}", "") unless script_filename.nil?
uri
end
end

I'm 99% sure that this edit is what is making the web-services fall over. However, it does mean that traditional sites (that don't use query strings) are routed correctly.

Restart IIS (again .. yawn) and try connecting once more. After a long pause (as FastCGI invokes Ruby for the first time) you should see your application. Congratulations. Have a cup of tea.

Now to reconfigure FastCGI again ... reopen RegEdit and move to your .fcgi key. Add entries for StartServers (DWORD), IncrementServers (DWORD) and MaxServers (DWORD). This tells FastCGI how many copies of Ruby to start initially (I tend to use 5), how many to start at times of high load (I tend to use 3) and the maximum number of Ruby processes to have running at one time (15 if your server can handle it). I also tend to set the Timeout (DWORD) to 600 - if FastCGI needs to start extra Ruby processes it will keep them alive for ten minutes before shutting them down again. And your last one - add a BINARY key called Environment - and type in RAILS_ENV=PRODUCTION for the value. In Regedit you can directly enter the value for binaries by typing in the right hand side of the edit box - you don't need to convert each character into Hex, like I did the first time I was confronted with this editor!

And there you have it. Your Rails application (sans web-services) should be up and running on your IIS server. It should have 5 concurrent Ruby processes dealing with incoming requests, increasing to 15 processes under load.

Hope that helps ... enjoy.

Oops - almost forgot. Create a batch file (D:MyAppScriptscleanup.cmd) that contains the line del D:TempRuby_Sess*.*. Then add a scheduled task to run that batch file every night at some god-forsaken hour. This cleans up Ruby's session files and prevents too many from being created. Of course, ideally, you would examine the last-changed-time and only delete those that hadn't been touched in twenty minutes, or whatever, but, for my application at least, getting rid of all of yesterday's sessions is good enough. Your mileage may vary.

Rahoul Baruah, Ruby on Rails Development at http://www.3hv.co.uk/

Firefox Just Got Better

by: Burk Pendergrass

The safest most secure app for browsing the internet currently available just got better and has more improvements on the way. Are you ready for the latest Mozilla release? Firefox 3 Beta 4 is available for download, but before you go running off like some half cocked Microsoft groupie notice the "beta" tag.

Hello!! The internet is a dangerous place. The Remote Helpdesk 1 Team continues to be amused (we can no longer say amazed) at people who would not dare to venture into certain parts of a city but who seemingly rush into the internet's dark corners and dimly lighted streets ill prepared.

Before you sail into a storm baton down the hatches, and before you cruise into hacker, virus, trojan, and criminally infested areas of the world wide web at least darken the windows and arm yourself. Not to take appropriate precautions will assure your computer a visit to the infectious disease controls center if not the hard drive morgue.

Firefox developers have thus far proven themselves to the best at incorporating necessary safety features into their browser while preserving user options and cruise speeds. Online PC Repair folks feel they owe a lot of their success to getting their loyal users involved in the development and testing process. These folks, like The Tennessee Mountain Man, have helped keep the programs on track and the applications minimal. For instance, if a client wants twenty-five cents - give him a quarter like Mozilla tends to do rather that twenty-five pennies as Microsoft is famous for.

It takes a lot less resources to process one coin than it does to count twenty-five. Mozilla recognizing this has given the new "beta" release a lot of new features and improved compatibility while freeing up resources. The end result being a more nimble and faster overall browsing experience. At the same time they have enhanced Firefox's security.

Released to the public via the Mozilla website Monday, 10 March 2008, Firefox 3 Beta 4 is in the beta stage of any software's life cycle. Firefox 3 Beta 4 loudly proclaims that it is "for testing purposes only" therefore it is not for everyone. It you are a newbie or maybe even an intermediate internet user, the suggestion of the Computer Man would be that you use Firefox 2.0.0.12, the latest most stable full release until Firefox 3 is out of beta.

If you just can't wait for a better browsing experience Mozilla reports "the new release includes more than 900 enhancements from beta 3, including drastic improvements to performance and memory usage, as well as fixes for stability, platform enhancements and user interface".

But that is not the half of it... not by a long shot. "Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 31 months. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 12,000 updates including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers improvements.", according to Mozilla.

Enhancements like these reported on the Mozilla website:

"More Secure

* One-click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to. (Try it here!)
* Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. (Try it here!)
* New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. (Try it here!)
* New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate. (Try it here!)
* Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions.
* Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled.
* Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.
* Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.
* Effective top-level domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other restricted content to a single domain.
* Better protection against cross-site JSON data leaks.

Easier to Use

* Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login.
* Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. Your active downloads and time remaining are always shown in the status bar as your files download.
* Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images, or optionally only the text size. Your settings will be remembered whenever you return to the site.
* Podcasts and Videocasts can be associated with your media playback tools.
* Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu.
* Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit.
* Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting.
* Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item.
* Text selection improvements: multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; triple-clicking selects a paragraph.
* Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
* Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with Vista: Firefox now has Vista-specific icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and spell-checker in web forms and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.

More Personal

* Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.
* Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Location bar & auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for. Results are returned according to their frecency (a combination of frequency and recency of visits to that page) ensuring that you're seeing the most relevant matches. An adaptive learning algorithm further tunes the results to your patterns!
* Smart Bookmarks Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as your more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on your bookmark toolbar.
* Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches.
* Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox).
* Download & Install Add-ons: the Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of Add-ons available from our community add-ons website. When you first open the Add-ons Manager, a list of recommended Add-ons is shown.
* Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.

Improved Platform for Developers

* New graphics and font handling: new graphics and text rendering architectures in Gecko 1.9 provides rendering improvements in CSS, SVG as well as improved display of fonts with ligatures and complex scripts.
* Color management: (set gfx.color_management.enabled on in about:config and restart the browser to enable.) Firefox can now adjust images with embedded color profiles.
* Offline support: enables web applications to provide offline functionality (website authors must add support for offline
browsing to their site for this feature to be available to users).
* A more complete overview of Firefox 3 for developers is available for website and add-on developers.

Improved Performance

* [Improved in Beta 4!] Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in significant improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 4, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 Beta 4 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.
* Reliability: A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes."

Mozilla provides Firefox 3 Beta 4 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in forty different languages, and reports it can be removed without losing your bookmarks, web browsing history, extensions and other add-ons. Best of all - it is FREE ! Just download, install, and enjoy a whole new faster browsing experience if your computer meets one of the following system requirements.

Windows
Operating Systems

* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows Server 2003
* Windows Vista

Minimum Hardware

* Pentium 233 MHz (Recommended: Pentium 500MHz or greater)
* 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
* 52 MB hard drive space

Mac
Operating Systems

* Mac OS X 10.4 and later

Minimum Hardware

* Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
* 128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater)
* 200 MB hard drive space

Linux
Software Requirements
Please note that Linux distributors may provide packages for your distribution which have different requirements.

* Linux kernel - 2.2.14 or higher with the following libraries or packages:
o glibc 2.3.2 or higher
o XFree86-3.3.6 or higher
o gtk+2.0 or higher
o fontconfig (also known as xft)
o libstdc++5

Minimum Hardware

* Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-III+ 233 MHz CPU (Recommended: 500MHz or greater)
* 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
* 52 MB hard drive space

And, if you still have not tried Mozilla Thunderbird,

get ready to kick Outlook Express to the curb!

The Benefits Of CRM Software

by: Dave Roth

CRM software, often called customer relationship management software, is becoming much more popular today than it was in years past. One reason for this is that more people understand what the software is and are deciding to use it. Another reason is that the software is getting better and easier to use. It has more features and benefits than it did in the past, and it is also becoming more user-friendly, which is very important. More people today are using the Internet for their businesses. As this trend continues to grow, there will be a larger need for CRM software, but only if it is found to be useful and compatible with the needs that a business owner or manager has.

There are a lot of benefits to CRM software, as well. Managers can use this software to keep track of their customers and vendors and organize them in many different ways. It is unfortunate that so many people only think of CRM software as being a datebook or contact-recording type of software. It does handle these functions, but it does a great deal more than that, which is something that many business people fail to realize today when they are presented with CRM software. This CRM software can be used to record names and dates. However, it also keeps track of sales, returns, important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries. In addition, it can help to remind salespeople of their prior commitments. This keeps them from missing deadlines, meetings, the returning of phone calls, or anything else that will affect the perception of them that their clients have.

Naturally, not missing deadlines is vital to a good business relationship. In addition, the CRM software can help a client feel as though he or she matters to a business. When a client feels important and valued, repeat business is much more likely than it would otherwise be. This is great for the business, but it is also good for the clients, because everyone in the relationship benefits from the efficiency that CRM software helps to create. Without CRM software, there is a good chance that there will be more problems in the interactions that are needed between clients and businesspeople. This is not to say that CRM software eliminates all chance of problems, but it does reduce them.

Those who use CRM software can also be more organized, because it is easier for them to find what they need when it comes to their customers, their vendors, and anything else that they need to keep close track of. It allows them to return calls more promptly, send out birthday cards, and keep customer information stored in a database where it can easily be retrieved by anyone who has authorized access to it. The main benefit to customers is that almost anyone in the company can help them, at least to some degree, because they can get to their information. This benefit of CRM software is the most important one because of the ability to let customers know that they are important to the company.

Microsoft Server 2008 Certification: Routing's Not Just For Cisco Exams Anymore!

by: Chris Bryant,

Knowing routing theory and routing protocols has always been a big part of earning your CCNA and CCNP certifications. According to Microsoft's exam blueprints for the Server 2008 certification exams, that knowledge will also serve you well on your Microsoft exams.

The topic outline for the Configuring Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure exam (70-642) specifically mentions routing and routing protocols as exam topics. Specifically mentioned are RIP, OSPF, and static routing - three topics every CCNA and CCNP candidate will be well prepared to handle!

IPSec isn't part of the CCNA exam, but you'll see it on at least one CCNP exam, and it's also listed as a 70-642 exam topic. IPv6 and IPv4 addressing are both covered on the 70-642 as well.

Microsoft's website lists the following major skills you should expect to see on this exam:

Configuring IP addresses and Services (routing with RIP and OSPF, static routing, persistent routing, addressing, DHCP and DHCP options including relay agents, IPSec policies, Authentication Header and Encapsulating Security Payload, subnetting, supernetting)

Configuring Name Resolution (DNS configuration, zones, records, replication, and integration with Active Directory, and client computer name resolution techniques)

Configuring Network Access (includes NAT, VPNs, RADIUS, 802.1x authentication, MS-CHAP, firewalls, and remote authentication)

Configuring File And Print Services (self-explanatory)

Monitoring And Managing A Network Infrastructure (includes SNMP and Windows Server Update Services)

Your CCNA and CCNP preparation will not quite be enough to get you past this exam, but as you can see, it'll give you a great head start!

Radar Detectors: Some Things You Need To Know

by: Alex Baumm


Radar detectors are instruments with so many applications. Nowadays, such devices used by police officers especially those given the task to guard the streets against traffic violators. Radar detectors in this case are used to detect over speeding drivers.

Once the police officers detect through the device that you are over speeding, then, you have with you one big headache that no medicine can ever cure.

Radar detectors are new things brought to us by technology for many purposes and reasons. One of its purposes as already mentioned is to help traffic enforcers apprehend people who disregard traffic rules which oftentimes is a detriment to peace and order in the very community we live in.

Without detectors, traffic officers would have much difficulty in proving when somebody has just violated an ordinance or law. Radar detectors afford them solid and almost indisputable fact that will be effective in proving the commission of a violation.

Radar detectors work because of radio waves, electromagnetic waves and electricity. The atmosphere has so much radio wave which is the primary things necessary for the functioning of detectors, radios and televisions. Radio detectors have mechanisms like radio receiver and transmitter, amplifier and other sorts of things that are needed so that they will function properly.

When radio waves are transmitted by the apparatus they bounce back when they hit solid object like a car. When the waves bounce back they will be received by the detectors. The radio detector has a special mechanism that calculates the speed of the car by means of the transmission and reception of the radio waves. So, the officer gets solid evidence if indeed there is over speeding.

Radar detectors are of many types, too. There is what we call as radar gun. A radar gun is a kind of a device that detects speed of a specific moving target. This enables the police officer to pinpoint the offender with definite certainty because of the certainty that the moving object's speed is the one measured by the radar gun.

This and some other things are the foreseen and verified benefits of a radar gun and radar detectors in general. That's why many leaders believe that it would be a good investment for police forces to buy radar guns for their groups.

With the advantage offered by radar detectors, there is no doubt that it will help police officers in maintaining peace and order in the locality. But the cost of a unit of these devices is one reason why some places and many places in the world for that matter have not yet purchased radio detectors for their organizations.

There are however measures undertaken by governments to equip their police forces with radar guns. Radar guns and radar detectors are more likely to be considered as must-haves today for traffic law enforcers.

If you are looking for more technical details on how radar detectors work, you can easily access them from the Internet. Understanding how they work can be very helpful for people who will use them like police officers and students, as well.

Phenom vs. Athlon Core Scaling Compared

Patrick Schmid, Achim Roos

January 14, 2008 08:12
How Well Does Phenom Scale With Clock Speed?
When we compared AMD's Athlon 64 X2 and the new Phenom 9000 quad core processor last month, Compare Prices on AMD Phenom Processors we forced Windows to utilize only a single processing core, in an effort to understand the real performance differences between the AMD64 architecture and the Stars architecture of the Agena/Barcelona core. Depending on the particular benchmark, the results made clear that Phenom is indeed up to 20% faster than Athlon in a core to core comparison, thanks to its optimizations and the L3 cache. In addition to these performance gains, Phenom's unified quad core design and smart cache architecture should provide more benefits under heavily threaded conditions. We haven't looked at the performance difference using all processing cores, as you will find this information in our launch article "Phenom 9700, AMD's 1st Quad Core CPU". All benchmark results, including a comparison with all Core 2 processors, can be found in our Interactive CPU Charts.

While the core to core analysis provides interesting results about architecture performance across typical benchmarks, it does not answer the question that will eventually be crucial, once Phenom's TLB issues are fixed (B3 stepping) and the chip is available at higher clock speeds in quantities. The question is simply whether the quad core will scale well enough to attack Intel at the high end. In other words: Will clock speed increases translate into higher performance gains than just similar clock speed increases with an Athlon 64 X2? And at which clock speed will power consumption become an issue?

Of course we wanted to get some answers, so we grabbed our test system again: the Asus M3A32 MVP using AMD's 790FX chipset, an Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor, a Phenom 9000 engineering sample (unlocked) Compare Prices on AMD Phenom Processors , two 1 GB DDR2-800 DIMMs by Corsair, our Western Digital reference hard drive, and Gigabyte Radeon HD3850 reference graphics card. We ran both processors at 2.2, 2.4, 2.6 and 2.8 GHz clock speeds, to see how well the clock speed increase translates into additional performance.