Cellphone Gadget and Technology News

We are all witnesses of how the Windows operating system has evolved since Windows 95. You have to admit, the Windows operating system has come a long way. From Windows 95, an OS that’s very buggy and often crashes to the current highly visual Windows Vista. So what happened in between?

Well, we have Windows 98, Windows Millenium, Windows 2000, and for enterprise level systems, we have Windows NT and Windows Server 2000. These different operating systems are created to suit the needs of the various market segments. A home user will choose the home edition, and a developer could choose the professional edition.

For most home users, Windows 98 second edition is already a rather stable OS, compared to Windows 95. However, it’s still lacking in features. There is no firewall, and networking features are almost non-existent. As home users grow more and more sophisticated, the demand for these features grow as well. For enterprise level users, they face similar problems as well. Windows 2000 server doesn’t come any form of protection, making the Internet Information System (IIS) prone to packet attacks. Packet attacks mean hackers are sending bogus packets of data to the server from computers that they hijacked all over the world. So the server administrator will experience the server slowing down to a crawl, till it’s almost non-functional. Since then, many software companies have sprung up to fill this gap by introducing protection software.

Meanwhile, the hardware side of the personal computer industry is heating up. CPU power is doubling almost every year, RAM is getting bigger in size as well, and hard disk cost have taken a nose dive. Improvements in hardware provides the fertilizer for improvements in software. No longer are software constrained by hardware specifications. Recognizing this trend, Microsoft knows that it’s high time that they get their act together, and surprise the market with a brand new software – the birth of Windows Vista.

The process of creating Windows Vista was a painstaking one. Microsoft took pains to really listen to customers. They talked to customers, did surveys, analyzed the results, and based their new OS on what the customers want. Everyone was talking about Windows Vista for many months before it was finally launched. The result?

Many users were tremendously pleased with the visual improvements in the OS. Windows 98, was a far cry from Mac’s OS in terms of visual effects. With the launch of Windows Vista, Microsoft has finally been able to close the gap. Many additional functions such as firewall, desktop personalization, etc. that were non-existent in previous versions of the OS are now made available. The new OS is definitely more stable, but as with all new software, there are some compatibility issues with other third party software and drivers. But none are too serious to matter much. Now, it’s time for the software vendors to play catching up. And many have already done their part by upgrading their software shortly after the launch of Windows Vista.

Today, Windows Vista is a formidable force. The additional powerful features sure make it very tempting to perform an OS upgrade. With online downloads so conveniently available, it’s no surprise that most will be downloading their own copy very soon.

There are many people who like to listen to music while they work and I am certainly one of them. I find it helps me focus more on the task at hand. Of course I can imagine that there are people who listen to music because it helps them NOT to focus on their job.

Whilst there may be many reasons for wishing to listen to music in the workplace, can it really improve your productivity?

We know that music can alter your mood. Films have been using musical scores for years to create the right mood for a scene. At times you hardly notice the music at all but you are very receptive to the mood being conveyed. So can we use music to put us in a “productive” mood?

Research seems to support such a claim. For example, a trial where 75 out of 256 workers at a large retail company were issued with personal stereos to wear at work for four weeks showed a 10% increase in productivity for the headphone wearers. Other similar research conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois found a 6.3% increase when compared with the no music control group.

So if we accept that music does increase productivity, does it matter what types of music we listen to? Does all music have the same effect or are certain types better in certain circumstances?

If your goal is to increase your concentration then music which has a constant, easy beat and light melodies are recommended. These are said to be good for those trying to study as they help you pace your reading to aid focus and memorising. Baroque music is reported as an excellent example, especially the works of Vivaldi, Bach and Handel.

Rock music can have a similar effect. According to a report in the journal Neuroscience of Behavior and Physiology, the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered that a person’s ability to recognize visual images, including letters and numbers, is faster when either rock or classical music is playing in the background.

If you are aiming to be more productive through being more relaxed, then you may be interested to learn that research has shown that music with an upbeat rhythm can reduce stress hormone levels by as much as 41%.

Some of the most publicised studies into whether listening to music increases productivity have centred on what has been termed the “Mozart effect”. The term got its name after a study showed that college students had performed better solving mathematical problems when listening to classical music. The effect of listening to Mozart does not appear to be limited to humans either. Apparently cows will produce more milk if Mozart is played.

Nobody likes to be limited by a budget, especially penny-pinchers like me. But hey, that’s a story for a later discussion. Let’s stick to talking exclusively about digital cameras here, and more importantly Nikon digital SLR cameras. It’s no secret, that Nikon creates many of the best digital SLRs out there, and there are plenty to choose from.

For such a discussion, we’re staying away from beginner entry level SLR models, and focusing on those cameras that allure to individuals with more photography skill, or simply a bigger budget that compensates for a lack of skill. I do not really fit into either of these categories at the moment, but hey, things are changing.

Lets start by dealing delving into the Nikon D90. A camera which just beats the $1,000 entry barrier, but comes amongst a generous 12.3 megapixels. Now I know you may have read other discussions in the past about how megapixels truly don’t matter, but that runs best for consumers who don’t own many cameras. The D90 comes with other nice appealing features like dust control, updated live view (all you purists out there just need to get over it), and outstanding detection abilities

For the more advanced photographer (not the same as the guy with the larger wallet), you will need to look at the D200. If your seeking out speed from a camera, this baby’s got it. By speed, I’m talking about a fast and versatile shutter speed, and the ability to take rapid fire pictures one right after the other. It’s been available for a while, since 2005, which explains why it’s at only 10 megapixels, but it is also a testament to how good a camera it really is. To still be a viable model, nearly four years after the initial launch.