In Depth: 10 technologies that really could change the world By Network-Facts

We're told that kinds of technologies changed the world - Popular Mechanics' list includes the stapler - but today's researchers are working on ideas even more ambitious than joining several bits of paper together.

New technologies could replace fossil fuels, turn your house into a power station, save thousands of lives - and maybe even create new lifeforms.

Here are 10 technologies that have the potential to change the worldover again.

1. Phones

In developing countries the phone is more important than the PC: mobiles are used for banking, and for forecasting the weather (a critical business when a farmer has to pick the best time to sow or reap a precious crop). But phones can do even more.

For example, in Africa cell phone tower data is used to map people's movements - and that mapping can help track diseases such as malaria and identify patterns of transmission.

Phone location data might also be useful in dealing with natural disasters, improving public transport or just helping retailers make shopping malls more profitable.

• Is Firefox OS the key to bringing smartphones to the world?

• 2. Digital imaging

  As imaging technology improves we'll see our worldnever before, both outside and inside. DARPA recently showed off a 1.8 gigapixel surveillance drone that can watch 25 square kilometres at a time, while advances in medical imaging tech enable doctors to look inside patients with unprecedented levels of detail.
  
• Sattelite broadband can speed things up too. Here's what you need to know

• 4. Mind-controlled prosthetics

  DARPA calls it Targeted Muscle Re-innervation, or TMR for short. We call it astonishing: TMR makes brain-controlled prosthetic limbs almost as responsive as real ones, providing sensory feedback that enables prosthetic users to riffle through a bag or grab an object without having to look at it.
  electronic eyes to entire exoskeletons, the combination of serious technical talent and enormous piles of cash is bringing us ever closer to a cybernetic future.
  YouTube : //youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=
• While you wait for your robot arm, the robots are working on their writing skills

5. 3D printing

3D-printed guns and drugs may get the headlines, but the real effect of 3D printing is likely to be less sensational and much more useful.

It's already helping to revolutionise manufacturing by slashing research and development costs, and in the longer term it might mean that instead of ordering online and waiting for couriers to deliver, we'll just print products at home - maybe even food.

That's good for the environment but could have disastrous consequences for many people's jobs.

• Just how scared of the Prism surveillance program should you be?

• 8. Serious solar

  Solar technology has been held back by several issues: solar panels are hefty, pricey, and of course they don't provide energy when it's dark. The biggest problem, though, is efficiency: as National Geographic reports, they only capture 10 to 20 percent of the sunlight that strikes them.
  The future? Nanotech that makes the panels much less reflective, much cheaper to produce and much more efficient. Other ideas include tiny antennae on devices that capture solar energy and instantly convert it to power, solar panels that can actually store energy, and nanotech paint that turns entire buildings into solar energy collectors.
  
• Need some more juice for your phone? Solar, wind-up and hydrogen cells battery boosters explored.

• 9. Biohacking

  There's a controversy brewing on Kickstarter: the Glowing Plant project plans to engineer glow-in-the-dark plants, and some experts are worried: they fear that this is the thin end of a very big and scary wedge.
  As Nature reports, "they fear that distributing the plants could set a precedent for unsupervised releases of synthetic organisms, and might foster a negative public perception of synthetic biology - an emerging experimental discipline that involves genetically engineering organisms to do useful tasks."
  Biohackers could engineer entirely new lifeforms, good or bad, and the emerging sector is almost entirely unregulated. Friends of the Earth has called for a global moratorium on the release of synthetic organisms "until the proper regulations and safety mechanisms have been put in place".
  YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6n6jJ9zhbBU
• Scientist give rats Terminator vision - didn't they read James Herbert?

10. Genetic scanning

The MyGenome iPad app is a glimpse of the future, enabling you to analyse the full genetic makeup of someone. For now that someone is the developers' CEO, but if DNA sequencing prices continue to plummet - the cost per person has dropped US$2.7 billion to US$5,000 in ten years - then full genome analysis could be in many of our futures.

That could have profound implications: we could discover if we're prone to particular kinds of cancer, or if we have higher than average risks of various unpleasant conditions, or if particular drugs could kill rather than cure us.

Angelina Jolie's recent preventive surgery was an example of DNA sequencing in action: Jolie has the BRCA1 gene, which means she has a high risk of developing the breast cancer that killed her mother.

As Carole Cadwalladr writes in The Guardian: "revealing our full DNA will revolutionise medicine - but it will also raise huge ethical questions about what we do with the information".

• You can't control your genes, but you can enhance your body with this wearable tech

10 Tips On To Pass the MCITP Certification First Time Round - Network-Facts

Microsoft is a well known certification vendor. Popular with employers and highly esteemed among the I.T community, Microsoft certifications are certainly not the easiest to pass. You really do have to know your stuff for these exams; otherwise you could end up failing over and over again. Here’s a few training methods that will hopefully help you pass.

Passing the MCITP or any Microsoft certification is about working extremely hard on your revision. Reading a book upon the subject alone works for some people, but not everyone. However, reading upon the subject can be part of your revision plan, rather than the only method.

Tip 1: You will need to devise a revision plan that suits you. Reading, writing, making diagrams, using computer based training and even recording yourself can be handy at learning the stuff. Always try to start by learning the basic concepts and then expanding upon them – this is useful for making links in your mind – enabling you to recall the information much easier.

Tip 2: Make sure you understand the information, rather than just remember it. This will help you answer tricky questions on the exam paper which may have been completely rephrased. Don’t just learn the facts either, try to understand the concepts behind them. It will give you a much wider understanding of why it happens, rather than just ‘the what’.

Tip 3: To further your study into the ‘what’s’ and ‘whys’ behind the concepts, go through them on your computer. Actually physically do the tasks, so that you not only understand it theoretically but in practice too.

Tip 4: Get firmly acquainted with the jargon and acronyms. No person taking a Microsoft exam can expect to pass without knowing the jargon or the acronyms. Failing to learn this is likely to lead to you failing the exam.

Tip 5: Test yourself over and over again using a revision guide, online tests or computer based training. Each time look at exactly what you got wrong and why. You can then move on to correcting your mistakes and improve your score each time.

Tip 6: In the actual exam read the questions twice through thoroughly. This is vital, as otherwise you could overlook a tiny detail which could have large effect on the outcome/answer.

Tip 7: Use what you know to determine the wrong answers in each question. Finding the wrong answer first can help you decipher which is the right one.

Tip 8: Look at the whole scenario in each question, as one small but seemingly insignificant detail could affect the answer.  Moreover, try to always have a clear picture in your mind of what works in the given scenario and what does not; it may help you find the answer.

Tip 9: Although a technical and knowledge based exam, Microsoft certifications do often look for the best solution practically, rather than technically. Always keep this in mind, as it may help not only your revision but may help you pass the exam.

Tip 10: Look at the language they use in the questions. Some questions often trick those being examined by using vaguer language. For instance, many I.T experts have found the ‘what meets the required’ question the most misread question by those taking Microsoft exams.

If you are interested in mcitp training or any other Microsoft training, have a look atwww.cvision.co.uk

Blue Screen during Computer Power up - Network Facts

   Blue Screen during Computer Power up

Observations

you receive a blank screen when you power up your computer. This can happen as soon as you press the power-on button or after the P.O.S.T (Power On Self Test) completes.

Possible Causes

The followings are the two common causes to this problem:

a.     Faulty or failed hardware component

b.     Master Boot Record is corrupted

c.     Corrupted BIOS 

Resolution

a.     Faulty or failed hardware component

The blank screen occurs as soon as you power up your computer. There is also a possibility that your hard disk has failed or unrecognized by the computer. See how to recover from faulty hardware.

b.     Master Boot Record corruption 

The blank screen occurs after the P.O.S.T (Power On Self Test) completes. See how to recover from corrupted master boot record.

c.     Corrupted BIOS

This can happen when you make incorrect modifications to your BIOS. See how to recover from corrupted BIOS.

Troubleshoot Faulty Hardware

Observations

You get a blank screen when you power up your computer.

Possible Causes

You have installed a faulty PCI card or hardware. Or a hardware component has failed.

Resolution

Here are a few methods to resolve the problem.

• Check and resit the graphic card, memory and cables
• If you have recently installed a new hardware, remove it and try to restart the computer
• If you do not hear the usual sound that emits from the hard drive when you power up your computer, check to see if the power box is fused or damaged
• Ensure that you have not over-taxed the power box. This happens when you have too many peripheral devices that are unable to draw sufficient power from the power box.

Troubleshoot Master Boot Record Corruption

Observations

You power up your computer and the receive a blank screen right after P.O.S.T (Power On Self Test) completes. You may also receive the following messages:

• Missing Operating System
• Error Loading Operating System

Possible Causes

The master boot record could be corrupted. The master boot record is stored in the first sector of your hard disk. It is an important data structure that contains the code instructions to the the system on how to boot up to an operable system. In this case, when you power up your computer, the BIOS identifies the boot device and detects invalid information in the master boot record. Some viruses also like to attack this record causing the computer to malfunction during boot up. Hence, your system halts and displays a blank screen.

Resolution

You can repair the MBR using Microsoft's standard utility - fixmbr or fdisk /mbr. Both methods rewrite the master boot code and leave the partition table intact.

For Windows XP/2000 users, follow these steps:

• Boot up with Windows Installation Disc as the boot up device.
• Enter Windows Recovery Console
• At the command prompt, type in: fixmbr

For Windows 98/ME users, follow these steps:

• Boot the computer with a Windows 98 boot floppy disk
• At the command prompt, type in: fdisk /mbr

Troubleshoot BIOS Error

Observations

You receive a blank screen when you power up your computer or right after the P.O.S.T (Power On Self Test) completes. Perhaps you may also have received the blue screen error messages while working in Windows.

Possible Causes

This is usually a result of incorrect settings in the BIOS. Perhaps, you have read from the Internet that by tweaking your BIOS settings such as the FSB to increase processor clock speed, you can boost computer performance. But ouch! You realized you have over-done it and Windows now refuses to start up.

Resolution

Depending on situations, it could be a fairly easy problem to solve. Some times you only need to revert the changes that you have made. If you can't remember the values you have tweaked, it's recommended to reset all settings to default value.

To do this, follow these steps:

• Restart the computer
• Hit DEL or any key that prompts to enter the BIOS
• In the BIOS menu, select the option to either
• Restore Previous Settings or Reset All Settings to Default
• Save changes and exit the BIOS
• Restart the computer

Further Recommendations

In certain cases when you receive a completely blank screen when you power up your computer, and therefore do not have the option to enter the BIOS, you may have to do so by manually resetting a jumper on the motherboard to revert the BIOS values to default. Jumpers are generally small plastic plugs that contain a metal bridge to join two or more connecting points on a printed circuit board. Before you start, ensure that you have your hardware manual ready with you. Alternatively, you can always search for instructions on your manufacturer's website. Lastly, be sure to observe all safety precautions!

What's next for Wi-Fi ? - Network Facts

Wi-Fi is blossoming in the enterprise as organizations find new ways to leverage the wireless infrastructure and workers, having benefited from mobility, demand increased range and better performance (and support for all those devices they are bringing in from home). The industry is responding in kind, introducing new products and technologies, including gigabit Wi-Fi, and it is up to IT to bring it orchestrate this new mobile symphony. Network Facts just published a Digital Spotlight, “What’s next for Wi-Fi?,” that provides an in-depth look at the Wi-Fi enabled world, including pieces examining the increasing role of Wi-Fi in the enterprise, what to expect from 802.11ac, which promises gigabit speeds, and Hotspot 2.0, which will change the way we use pubic hotspots. There is also a piece about how to wring more performance out of your existing infrastructure as you await these new developments.