What Can You Do with an Intranet?

An intranet adds Internet-like services to your LAN. Many organizations, especially those with large existing computer systems, have lots of information that is hard to get at. The intranet can change all that, by using Internet tools. Here are some ideas for ways that your organization-large or small-ean use an intranet.

E-mail within the organization and to and from the Internet People can use one e-mail program to exchange mail both with other intranet users and with the Internet.

• Private discussion groups Using a mailing list manager or a news server accessible only to people in your organization, you can set up mailing lists or newsgroups to encourage people to share information within departments or across the organization. Alternatively, you can use web-based message boards,
• Private web sites Each department in your organization can create a web site that is accessible only to people on the intranet. Instead of circulating memos and handbooks, information can go on these web sites. For example, the marketing department can post information about products, including upcoming release dates, how products are targeted, and other information that isn't appropriate for a public site on the Internet-based web. By using the intranet instead of printing on paper, it's economical to publish large documents and documents that change frequently.
• Access to databases If your organization has information in databases, you can convert the data to web pages so that everyone on the intranet can see it. For example, a nonprofit organization might have a database containing all of its fundraising and membership information. By using a program that can display database information as web pages and enter information from web page forms into the database, all the people at the organization can see, and even update, selected information from the database by using only a web browser. Naturally, the program would need to limit who could see and change particular information in the database.
• Teleconferencing Rather than spend big bucks on video teleconferencing systems, think about using your intranet (and the Internet), instead. If your organization has offices in several locations, you can use the Internet for online chats with text, voice, shared whiteboards, and even limited video

About DSL Connections

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a family of all-digital, high-speed lines that use your normal phone wires with special modems on either end. Most DSL lines are actually ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). ADSL is optimized for the way many people use the Internet: more downloads than uploads. The line is asymmetric, because it has more capacity for data received by your computer (such as graphics, video, audio, and software upgrades) than for data that you send (such as e-mail and browser commands).

About Dial-Up Connections

A dial-up connection to the Internet works over an ordinary phone line. Dial-up connections use the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) and are also called PPP accounts. Early dial-up connections used older protocols (SLIP and CSLIP), but these protocols are no longer used.
To use a dial-up account, you need a modem. (To distinguish dial-up modems from newer, high-speed modems, they are also called analog modems or dial-up modems.) Most computers come with an internal modem-eheck the back of the computer for a phone jack (RJ-ll jack). Most ISPs support modems at speeds of 28.8 kilobits per second (Kbps) and 56 Kbps. You connect only when you want to use Internet services and disconnect (hang up) when you are done.

To connect, you need a PPP-compatible communications program, such as Dial-Up Networking, which comes with all versions of Windows since Windows 95. This program dials the phone by using your modem, connects to your ISP, logs into your account by using your user name and password, and then establishes a PPP connection, thus connecting your computer to the Internet. While connected, you can use a variety of programs to read your e-mail, browse the Web, and access other information from the Internet. When you are done, you use your communications program to disconnect from your Internet account.

How Filtering Works?

When you set up a filter in your e-mail program, the program moves messages from inbox to a designated folder as Soon they are received. This process enables you focus on the mail in your inbox when time is tight and to leave the filtered mail in Cler folders for when you have more time. Alternatively, you may choose to target -priority e-mail and filter it into another folder, which you attend to first. Filtering works by looking at the contents of the message. Normally, you tell your e-mail application to look at the contents of the message and to do something with the message based on what it finds. You may choose to look at the headers, such as who - message is to or from, or what the subject line is. Alternatively, you may want to at specific words in the message. For instance, you may want to filter all messages at least put the message in a folder that you specify.

Devising a rule to sort messages that always come from the same place or that are always addressed to the same address usually is easy. For instance, you can easily sort messages from a mailing list or from a small group of people (say, the eight colleagues rking with you on a particular project). However, sorting junk mail (unsolicited marketing messages) out of your inbox is considerably more difficult because you have devise a rule that sorts only junk mail and not the mail that you actually want to read.

What Are Databases?

A database is a collection of pieces of related information that is organized so its various informational items can be located and retrieved when needed. Billions of electronic databases exist, but only some of them can be accessed on the Web. Your health insurer, for example, probably has a searchable database that contains information about your recent health history, but that database is not available on the Web.

On the other hand, many databases are indeed available on the Web. Some databases on the Web can be used by anyone at no charge, and others require that users belong to a particular organization or pay a fee. Web-accessible databases are part of what is sometimes referred to as the hidden Web, the deep Web, or the invisible Web: information that cannot be directly located with today's general-purpose search engines because it is "hidden" behind query forms. To locate information in most web-accessible databases, you need to be able to find the database itself and make your query. Databases on the Web include library catalogs, telephone books, public records, and news and magazine archives. For example, if you use a web search engine to look for a specific book, you probably won't find Amazon.corn's page about the book because Amazon's book information is stored in a database that isn't indexed by search engines.

Some databases are fully indexed, meaning that you can search the entire database for the occurrence of any word. Other databases are indexed only by fields. For example, to find someone in a white pages database, you need to search for information for a particular field. If you type "Mckinley" into the last name field of a white pages search, you see only people with the last name of McKinley rather than people who live on McKinley Avenue.

Histroy of Linux

Linux is a multiuser - multitasking operating system. This was developed by Linus Bendedict Torralds a second year computer science student of Helsinki University. This operating system is a colone of unix operating system. This was designed and developed mainly to incorporate all the functionalities of unix for PC users.

The first version of Linux 0.01 was released in mid September 1991 over the internet. Linus holds the copy right, but allowed other users to use the software freely. The users can modify and resell the modified versions. Many interested programmers added many applications and features such as windows manager, networking tools, program development utilities such as C, C++ compilers and debuggers.

Although Linux is free and open environment in the internet, it follows the official standard of unix called POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments) given by IEEE.

How Do Search Engines Work?

Dozens of search engines are available on the Web. Each search engine gathers information a little differently. Some engines scan the entire web page; others focus on the page title; some analyze the references from one web page to another; still others read keywords and information included in meta tags (tags that include keywords about the page) on the web page. These different methods are the reason you can get different results from different search engines.

Popular search engines include Google (www.google.com), MSN Search (search.msn.com), AltaVista (www.aItavista.com), and Yahoo (www.yahoo.com).
Most search engines go beyond just searching for web pages. Some search engines allow you to search for information from Usenet newsgroups.

What Are Search Engines?

Back in the old days (the 1980s), the Internet was primarily a research medium. Files were stored separately, with no way to go from one file to another easily. A few systems appeared (Copher and WAIS) to make it easier to find things on the Internet. In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee developed a network of files connected by hypertext links and dubbed it the World Wide Web. The popularity of the Web exploded after the creati of user-friendly browser applications that enabled people to view text and graphics and to jump quickly from page to page. The next thing that was needed was a way for users to find what they wanted, and that's why search engines were created.

A search engine is a database application that retrieves information, based on words or a phrase you enter. How do web-based search engines work? A web search engine employs a program called a search agent (or a spider) that goes out and looks for information on web pages. This information is indexed and stored in a huge database. When you conduct a search, the search engine looks through its database to find entries that match the information you entered. Then the search engine displays a list of the web pages it determines are most relevant to your search criteria.

What are Internet Cookies?

The popular rumors about web cookies describe them as programs that can scan your hard drive and gather information about you including: passwords, credit card numbers, and a list of the software on your computer. None of this is close to the truth. A cookie is a short piece of data, not code, which is sent from a web server to a web browser when that browser visits the server's site. The cookie is stored on the user's machine, but it is not an executable program and cannot do anything to your machine.

Whenever a web browser requests a file from the web server that sent it a
cookie, the browser sends a copy of that cookie back to the server along with
the request. Thus a server sends you a cookie and you send it back whenever
you request another file from the same server. In this way, the server knows
you have visited before and can coordinate your access to different pages on
its web site. For example, an Internet shopping site uses a cookie to keep
track of which shopping basket belongs to you. A server cannot find out your
name or e-mail address, or anything about your computer using cookies.

Normally, cookies are only sent back to the server that originally sent them
to the browser and to no one else. A server can set the domain attribute for a
cookie so that any server in the same Internet subdomain as the computer that
sent the cookie will have the cookie sent along with a file request. This is
so those larger sites that utilize multiple servers can coordinate their
cookies across all the servers. The domain path can not be set to send cookies
to a subdomain outside of the subdomain where the server resides.

A cookie is sent to a browser by including a line with the following syntax in
the header of an HTML document. Note that the header is removed from the
document before the browser displays it. Thus, you will not see the header
lines if you execute the View, Source or View, Document Source commands in
your browser.

VBScript and ActiveX Control

VBScript and ActiveX Control are Microsoft systems that work with Internet Explorer. VBScript, a language that resembles Microsoft's Visual Basic can be used to add scripts to pages that are displayed by Internet Explorer. Anything that VBScript can do, Javascript (which Microsoft calls JScript) can do, too, and vice versa.

ActiveX Controls (AXCs), like Java, are used to embed executable programs into a web page. When Internet Explorer encounters a web page that uses ActiveX Controls, it checks whether that particular control is already installed on your computer and if it isn't, IE installs it. Netscape Navigator cant run plug-ins, ignoring the content that the plug-ins provides. Except for the Microsoft web site, few sites use ActiveX controls for anything other than cute animations.

Improve your Communication Skills

Here are 6 great tips you can use!

1. Awareness of your own interaction with other people is the first step in improving your communication skills.

Learn to identify which types of situations make you uncomfortable and then modify your behavior to achieve positive results is a critical step in improving your communication skills.
You can learn to become aware of behaviors in other people that prompt you to respond in negative ways and modify your own behavior to turn the situation into a positive experience.

2. You must accept responsibility for your own behavior and do not fear apologizing for errors in judgment or insensitive actions.
Asking others for honest feedback about the way you interact with others can be very helpful. Accept the negative feedback along with the positive and make changes accordingly.

3. Your non-verbal communication is equally as important as the things that you say. Positive body language is extremely important in your interactions with other people.If your words and your actions do not match, you will have a difficult time succeeding in social situations.

4. In order to learn how to improve your communication skills, you must become a great listener. You must fight the urge to respond immediately and really listen to what the other person is trying to communicate.Offering suggestions or criticism before you are certain of the other person's intent can only lead to frustration for both parties.

5. Improving your communication skills is a process and cannot be accomplished overnight. Trying to improve or change too many things at once will be counter-productive. You will become discouraged and overwhelmed if you attempt to change your entire personality all at once. Choose one or two traits at a time and work on those over a period of time. Learn to take advantage of your personal strengths and make a positive impact on others.

6. Maximize your positive personality traits and use them in your interactions with others. Good communication and great listening skills are the most important tools you can use in improving your communication skills.You can learn how to improve your communication skills by developing excellent listening skills, learning to resolve problems and conflicts, understanding body language, and accepting responsibility for your own negative behavior.

Determination and self-awareness will make your desire to improve your communication skills a reality.
You can change your life and now is the time to start.
Exceptional communication skills can be Learned...and Mastered!!!

Humor for Kids and Grown Ups

What is the most slippery country in the world?
Greece
What is the best hand to write with?
Neither - it's best to write with a pen
What kind of fish can't swim?
Dead ones
What sort of animal is a slug?
A snail with a housing problem
If two's company and three a crowd, what are four and five?
Nine PUNS

The pharaohs of Egypt worked out the first pyramid scheme.
A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted "Doctor! I thinkI'm shrinking!!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down.You'll just have to be a little patient."
High jumpers do well at the Olympics because it's always on a leap year.
I like European food so I decided to Russia over there because I wasHungary. After Czech'ing the menu I ordered Turkey. When I wasfinnished and told the waiter "Spain good but there is Norway I couldeat another bite." (Mike Bull)
California is the land of earthquakes and suntans, in short, shake andbake.
MISSOURI asked me to borrow MISSISSIPPI's NEW JERSEY. I said "I don'tknow, ALASKA."

A husband and his wife had an appointment with their eye doctor. Whenthey arrived at his new office it was obvious that he was still in theprocess of moving in. A large picture of a very pretty woman wasconspicuously displayed in the reception room. The husband pointed tothe picture and asked the doctor, "Is that your wife?" He repliedwith, "No, that's her picture."