When I was young, and that wasn't very long ago (I'm just about to reach my thirtieth birthday), information wasn't easy to get. When it came to education and research about specific issues and ideas one would usually go to the library or possibly to see a professional in the area of interest for a chat. If you go back further to tribal times, (still only a quick blink of the Universal Eye) one would go and see the wise elders whose knowledge was perceived as paramount. These missions or searches for truth usually meant long hours of waiting for books to be found (if they were available) and waiting in queues. In the case of talking to people in the know it meant organizing a time to meet that fit into both of your schedules (if they were willing to spare you any of their valuable time). With the advent of the Internet times have now changed remarkably and this enigmatic tool for information sharing has circumnavigated the knowledge searches of old. We are now entering into an era where knowledge is literally at our fingertips. No more books, queues, or in-person interviews will even be necessary. 

The amount of time saved and the massive deposit of information that we now have access to could lead to a whole new way of humanity living life and sharing knowledge. The Internet is new, and some people are pessimistic about the huge amounts of false, misleading, and unproven ideas that we have to sift through to get to the right stuff. Some even think that the amount of information available is causing the modern person's mind to be an over stimulated mass-confusion of ideas both true and false and often irrelevant to one's personal life. The massive proportion of the Internet that has been subsequently taken over and filled with sites of pornography shocks me greatly. Nonetheless, I do believe these to be the natural 'bugs' that appear with any new contributing element of human society, and in time the true role of the Internet will shine through as its purpose starts to gain momentum and fruition. 

First of all, the wide range of sources available on any one specific area is astounding. You can get multiple viewpoints from experts from all over the world. If you want to make sure that the information is correct or properly founded, you can read others' views on the subject in question as well as researching into the researcher themselves, finding out if their studies are based on reputable means and processes. 

If you are interested in information from varied areas E.g.: philosophy and astrophysics, you no longer need to spend time traveling from one library to another, or having to tote your bags from the third floor to the fifth. In the space of fifteen minutes one can read on guitar, skateboarding, African dancing, and the politics of Marx. If you do go to university, libraries are now on-line with most of the texts available to download. No more late fees for not returning a book because your car skidded and hit a tree trying to bring it back it in a blizzard! 

We still need to talk with the ones 'in the know', the perceived wise people of our now global community. The chiefs and shamans of old have now dwindled in rank but there are more people than ever before that specialize in particular fields of knowledge. With email, MSN Messenger, and Skype types of on-line communication we can now get in touch with people instantly. Web-cams mean you can have a conversation with a fellow brain surgeon from the other side of the world face-to-face, just before that operation where the right information might make or break the outcome. You can communicate with groups of people that otherwise you may have never come into physical contact with. In medieval times it was rare to ever leave the local village and meet the people who lived only ten miles away. Now there are chat rooms and forums where people who are interested in the same things as you can get together and have informative discussions on relevant issues and topics. Political and national boundaries dissolve under the need and want to share knowledge with those of like mind. 

What does all this truly mean for humanity? It could mean we save time, meaning more time to spend doing the things in life which are really important to us like being with loved ones and following dreams and aspirations. It could mean the ability to solve problems in areas that minutes before you could have been steeped in ignorance. Possibly it spells the beginning for a whole society to evolve into a more informed species whose knowledge is widespread and varied. Whatever the outcome from the coming of this great medium, one fact remains: People are more prone to find the answers to their quests when the ultimate source of our collective understanding is close at hand and easily accessible.

Computer microphones are a valuable addition to any PC and they greatly increase interactivity and communication levels. You can use a microphone for performing various tasks, both business and fun related. For example, you can hold a conference with your business partners, over the Internet, or you can chat with your friends online, instead of doing that on the phone. Of course, in order to enjoy accurate and high quality communication, you have to choose a good PC microphone. There is a huge variety of models on the market, ranging from microphones that you can buy for a few dollars and going all the way to expensive, high tech desktop microphones. So which PC microphone is right for you? 

Price Vs Quality 

You can pay $5 for a microphone, or you can pay $50. So where’s the difference, apart from the price? Well, cheap microphones have low prices for some good reasons: they offer average to low quality sound, they break down more easily and you can’t use them successfully in all applications that support a microphone. The materials they are manufactured from have to be cheap, which eliminates the idea of high quality, so the end product is of lower reliability. And at this price, you can be sure bulk manufacturing is present and quality tests are quick and far from rigorous. Microphones that come for a higher price have, in most cases, better sound quality and more features. Such microphones will have noise canceling filters, which help diminish background noise. Distortion filters and integrated circuits also help keep voice sounds clear and accurate. The materials used for more expensive microphones also last longer – plastic doesn’t crack so easily and if you drop it on the floor you know that the internal components are well protected. 

Choosing the right computer microphone 

Determining what price range you are in and what model to purchase depends heavily on the purpose you have in mind for the microphone. Are you going to use it just to chat with friends online? In that case, spending a lot of money on a professional computer microphone is not justified. Do you plan to hold business conferences over the Internet? Then maybe you should get a better microphone that will allow the discussion to be continuous and clear, without noise distortion. Giving vocal commands to your computer or dictating to word processing software with speech recognition capabilities is another use for desktop microphones. Quality should be first here – speech recognition software is very sensitive and demands a high quality microphone and sound card. Recording your voice and inserting it into music tracks is possible, but a high quality microphone is absolutely essential in this case.

New computer viruses threaten the unwary user everyday. Hackers 
jeopardize your online security with invasive computer techniques to 
steal your passwords, personal information, even identity. 

Unscrupulous marketers bait you with free software that unleashes 
spyware, trojans, or worms, on your system. 

While other marketers bombard you with popups at every turn. And 
others send unsolicited spy emails asking you to click links to unsafe websites that install threating software on your computer, or try to download your private information. 

These are only a few of the security issues involved while online. 

Read through the following list to arm your computer and protect yourself against these vicious and often malicious online attacks. 


1. Install a good anti-virus software. 
Here's a good free anti-virus software... 
Fr** AVG Anti-Virus...... 
New - AVG Fr** Edition is now available for all single home users 
worldwide! More detailed information can be found in the AVG Free 
Edition License Agreement. 
Click Here To Download: 
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php 


2. Install a personal firewall. 
This personal firewall is one of the best online.... 
http://www.zonealarm.com 

3. Install a good pop up blocker. 
Google has a free pop up blocker so does Yahoo. The only drawback 
is you will have to download and install their toolbar. 

4. Know Privacy Policy. 
Read the websites privacy policy before releasing personal information. 
Note do they share or sell your information with third parties. If they do you might reconsider releasing your personal information. 

5. Passwords. 
Never use easy to guess passwords like your favorite color, your social security number, your birthdate, words less than six characters. Mix up passwords with combinations of numbers and symbols. 

6.Virus Warnings. 
Don't forward virus warnings you receive in emails. It's not your 
job to warn others. And you might be circulating a fake warning 
designed to scare receivers into downloading trojans or removing 
important files on their computer. 

7. Keep It Secret. 
Don't give your password to anyone. Be wary of emails asking you to give out your personal passwords for accounts online. Or emails asking you to click a link and enter your password on the site. This site might be a fake sent by hackers "phishing" for victims. 

8. Primary Email Address. 
Don't divulge your primary email address on unfamiliar sites. You 
might be bombarded with unsolicited emails by marketers who 
sell your address to third parties online. 

9. Free Accounts 
Set up several free email accounts with a psuedo name to handle 
spam, when you register with unfamiliar sites, or to use on chat and message boards. 

10. Chat Line And Message Board Warnings. 
Don't release personal information on chat lines or 
message boards. This is one way many identity thefts occur.

Web Conferencing is, very simply, a meeting, conference or seminar that is held over the World Wide Web. Web conferencing can refer to audio, video or text-based conversations and are conducted in real-time. 

Web conferencing is an incredibly useful resource for anyone who trades within a global market place. It literally allows you to be in two places at once - sitting at home or in your office whilst conducting a meeting with someone one the other side of the world. 

In its simplest form web conferencing can take the form of free downloads such as Microsoft NetMeeting or Yahoo Messenger. Subscribers can participate in text-based 'chats', inviting others into their conversations and being able to communication in real-time. Add a simple digital camera to this equation and you have the beginnings of an elementary web conferencing application. 

At the other end of the scale, the most sophisticated applications allow seminars and presentations to be made to hundreds of delegates at the same time. Meetings can be fully interactive, allowing question and answer sessions, the sharing of files and documents and slide show presentations to be broadcast. 

What Can I Do With Web Conferencing? 

How you choose to use web conferencing will very much depend upon your line of work. A webinar (an online seminar) is less interactive than a web meeting, but is a very effective means of presenting sales pitches, performance reviews and delivering staff training. 

A web meeting on the other hand, can be fully interactive not only in terms of audio and video but also by allowing the sharing of documents and files and viewing them online. 

What is Online Collaboration? 

Online collaboration is an excellent resource for project management, especially when team members are located in different geographical locations. Online collaboration provides an advanced level of document management and file sharing. Documents and files can be viewed, modified and updated online and in real time. 

What Are The Benefits Of Web Conferencing? 

The main benefits of web conferencing are to be found in terms of time and money savings. The need for travel is greatly reduced, and therefore so are the associated costs of travel - tickets, accommodation, subsistence, to name but a few. Employees spend less time waiting for flights, travel or just generally being away from their desk and therefore have more time to spend productively. 

Enhanced communication is another benefit of web conferencing. Where colleagues could perhaps only meet face to face a few times a year, for example, web conferencing allows them to meet on a daily basis, if required. With people talking more, work gets done more efficiently and more accurately. 

How Much Does It Cost? 

The cost of web conferencing depends on how sophisticated an application you need. Low-level, one-to-one systems can be set up these days for virtually nothing. The most advanced systems, unsurprisingly, can run into thousands of dollars. Careful research, however, and thoughtful analysis of what you need from a web conferencing system can allow you to budget accordingly and match a system to your needs. The chances are, if you are spending money on travel then you will recoup the cost of your web conferencing software over time.