Discount Computers

Right now, someone could be using your identity to start a new
credit card, to get a loan, to drain your checking or savings
account. In some cases, you might not find out about the theft
for weeks, sometimes even months. Unfortunately, the longer it
takes to discover the crime, the more damage will be done and
the harder it will be to rectify that damage.

Thankfully, there are some ways for you to detect identity theft
before the problems progress too far. Below are some of those
methods.

1. Errors on your credit report – By checking your credit report
yearly, you’ll be able to determine if anyone is opening up
accounts in your name without your permission. Otherwise, you
may not learn there is a problem until you need to take out
credit.

2. Mail problems – One of the least-technological ways to commit
identity theft is stealing mail. If you aren’t receiving mail or
if you aren’t getting items in the mail that you are expecting,
such as credit card bills, then you may be a victim of identity
theft.

3. Being rejected for credit you didn’t request – As you may
already know, if a creditor rejects your request for credit, he
or she must send you a letter in the mail explaining the reason
for the rejection. If you begin getting these letters, but you
haven’t been requesting credit, then that’s a good sign someone
is using your identity.

4. Being the victim of pretexting – Pretexting is a scheme
involving the Internet or the telephone. Someone contacts you
claiming to be a legitimate organization’s representative, then
they’ll ask for your personal information, possibly a PIN number
or a checking account number. If that has happened to you and
you’ve given out that information, then there’s a good chance
you’ll be a victim in the near future.

5. Changes in your credit balances or checking account amounts -
Unexplained changes in any of your financial accounts should be
a big signal to you that something is not right. That’s why it’s
a good idea to check all of your balances weekly and compare
them to your estimates. As soon as you spot a discrepancy, you
need to follow up with your financial institution.

6. Being denied credit – Sadly, some people don’t discover they
have been identity theft victims until they go to buy a car, get
a second mortgage, or open a new credit card. If you thought you
had good credit but are getting denied, then it’s a good time to
check your credit reports, even if you’ve already done your
yearly check.

7. Being contacted by debt collectors – When you start getting
calls or letters about unpaid debts, which you don’t recall
having, you should never automatically pay them. Instead, send a
written request for more information about the debt. By law, the
creditor must supply you with this information.

8. Having some types of spyware on your computer – While not all
spyware leads to identity theft, you need to realize that it can
pose a serious threat to your privacy. Your passwords, credit
card information, and online activities could have been
monitored by unknown third parties, which leave you vulnerable
to an attack.

If you want to learn more about how to detect and prevent
identity theft or if you have been an identity theft victim, you
need to read Identity Theft: A Resource Guide from
PCSecurityNews.com. The ebook is available at
http://www.PCSecurityNews.com.

About the author:
Author Howard Goff teaches how to reduce the risk of Identity
Theft in his e-Book “Identity Theft, A Resource Guide”. He also
has more than 15 years of Internet involvement and 3 years of
specialize experience in the security industry. He founded
http://www.pcsecuritynews.com/ in 2003 where he offers advice
and Spyware Removal
(http://www.PCSecurityNews.com/spywareremover.html?ht=xgaa03)
tools to hundreds of thousands of people.

‘Broadband’ is the general term used to refer to high-speed
information transmission over networks, and nowadays is used
increasingly to mean a fast Internet connection.

The term has more to do with the electrical waveform (’signal’)
being transmitted. The signal can come to you through a variety
of physical arrangements: a DSL line, a T1 line, a TV cable, a
wireless link and even your utility power line.

Which physical arrangement is best for you depends a great deal
on what is available in your geographical area and the price of
each arrangement. You should do a comparison of speeds and costs
and choose what is optimal for you. Just be sure you do not
choose an ISDN line (because it is getting obsolete) or power
line (because the technology is not mature, and it will be some
years before the bugs are ironed out).

Live in a large city and want free wireless broadband Internet?
Your wish is or will be granted! Almighty Google is busy fixing
antennae to lampposts in major cities so that your computer can
access the Internet much in the same way your mobile phone
accesses your cellular network: almost anywhere in any city. Not
only will you get driving directions to that restaurant you are
going to, the maitre d’ will appear on a small screen and take
your order as you drive.

~ Broadband’s Bag of Goodies ~

Broadband has brought a slew of valuable capabilities to the
Internet:

1. Good Video

First of all, you can download smooth, non-jerky video.
Consequently an increasing number of sites are including rich
graphics, Flash and video to enhance the appeal of their
messages. You can now download feature films from over 200,000
Web TV stations and watch them as they stream into your computer
(”stream them”). No more trips to the video library and no more
renting DVDs!

You can share your screen and talk with co-workers located at
far-flung locations (or just relax and play Xbox or PS2 games
with them). You can interact with them from the convenience of
your home computer, and the need for a physical office can be
dispensed with. This implies less travel in your car, less
gasoline consumption and less pollution of the atmosphere by
engine exhaust gases.

You can search online video archives with specialized search
engines. This means you can download video that matches your
chosen phrases. Examples would be “Nick Lachey singing ‘My
Everything’ to Jessica Simpson”, “Oprah visiting Katrina
victims” or “how to toss a thin pizza shell”. There is no longer
a need to wait for your subject to be broadcast.

2. Cheap Long Distance

Broadband has enabled miracle of low-cost long-distance Internet
telephony. This application is based on the renowned technology,
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). You can now speak to your
loved ones or business associates in most other parts of the
world for 2 cents a minute!

No more waiting for late nights or weekends to get those “free
minutes”… you can afford to call anytime. Additionally, the
sound clarity is several times better than that of a
conventional phone call… voices are loud and clear with little
or no background noise.

This means you can stay in touch more often. You can get news
faster and offer advice without delay. For instance, a timely
observation about a certain medical treatment could very well
save the life of the person at the other end!

3. Always On

With Broadband, you are always connected to the Internet. No
more dialing up and waiting to connect. The dialing time is
freed up for you to use for other things.

In most cases, you get a telephone connection with the broadband
connection, so you can simultaneously speak on the phone and
surf the Internet. Your phone line will not be busy when you
surf so that people can reach you even if you are online.

One important user of this constant connectivity is security.
You can have inexpensive webcams mounted in various locations of
your home or office and connect them to the Internet. Since your
broadband connection is always ‘live’, you can monitor your
house from anywhere, anytime. No more worrying when away from
your desk or living room!

~ Conclusion ~

The day is not far when dial-up connections will be a rarity. If
you have not yet upgraded to broadband, start working at doing
so NOW. You will definitely not regret it.

About the author:
John J Stockwell is an engineer with considerable experience in
Internet technologies. Get even more information on broadband
from his website at http://broadband-aa.info

The worst thing about Christmas has to be listening to Top Of
The Pops and the Christmas Number 1 – Girls Aloud, Robbie
Williams, Westlife and Mr Blobby for goodness sake! Surely
anyone can produce a better Christmas Hit than those. After all,
a computer does all the work, doesn’t it – all you do is press a
few buttons and jiggle a few drum and bass lines around.

So what do you need? You need a PC with a reasonable amount of
processing power under the hood – a Pentium III at least,
preferably a P4 – in order to run the music software.

Audio files are quite large – forget MP3s, we’re talking the
real thing here – and for each track of audio you record you’ll
need around 10.6Mb of hard disk space per minute. Every track
won’t be filled with audio so you won’t need quite that much in
a multi-track recording but for a four-minute 16-track song it
would be wise to allocate around 500Mb of hard disk space.

Playing cards

You need a soundcard. All modern PCs have one of these but if
you don’t want your song to sound like it was recorded in a back
bedroom – even it if was – get a decent card.

At Christmas-stocking prices are a range of SoundBlaster cards
such as the Audigy 2 ZS (for under £70/$100) with a good set of
built-in sounds. But more than that, they support SoundFonts.
These are samples the card uses to produce realistic instrument
sounds and better beefy bass lines than yer average sound card.

If you’ve a rich Mummy and Daddy they’ll be pleased to buy you a
more expensive card such as E-Mu’s Emulator X (around
£220/$380), a desktop sampling system that also supports
SoundFonts. If you own a nightclub you’ll be able to afford one
of CreamWare’s high-end systems with on-board synthesisers that
can do everything but sober up the drummer – not that you need a
drummer ’cause the cards have all the drum sounds you need.

Key move

You’ll also need a MIDI keyboard to record your masterpiece.
There’s a vast choice here from E-Mu’s XBoard 25, XBoard 49, and
Swissonic’s CK490 (all running around £100/$150 give or take) to
the Fatar range running from the TMK61 (£130/$225) up to the VMK
188 Plus (£599/$1000) with several models inbeween.

These keyboards don’t have any on-board sounds like synthesisers
but they’re much cheaper than synths and there are sounds in the
soundcard anyway. If you’ve seen an Elton John concert and can’t
face the thought of touching a keyboard, don’t worry – you can
use pre-recorded loops and samples and cleverly arrange them in
stunning combinations without a keyboard.

Listen ‘ere

A decent pair of speakers is essential. The ten quid jobbies
that were bundled with your PC may be fine for playing MP3s but
they simply won’t do for mixing music.

The Big Boys use dedicated monitor speakers which can cost as
much as a holiday in Barbados but if you leave the other half at
home you could easily afford Behringer’s MS16s (£46/$79), or
Edirol’s MA7A (£80/$135) or MA150 (£120/$200).

If your PC is near your hi fi you can run the audio through that
but switch off any bass boost or EQ settings. The idea is to get
a flat, uncoloured response so if it sounds good on those
speakers it should sounds good on any speakers. So the theory
goes.

Good arrangement

The Big Boys can fiddle with high-end music sequencers but the
new and incredibly modestly-priced Cubase SE 3 (less than a
ton/$170) lets you record and assemble audio and MIDI parts with
almost as much aplomb. It shows both types of recording on the
same arrange page making it easy to see how they fit together.

And finally, you need a CD recorder so you can burn your
finished hit to CD and send it to lucky record companies. If
you’ve a modern PC you’ll have one already. But do use a
labeller and create a CD inlay, too, to give the CD a pro
finish. In the music biz, looks, fashion and style are far more
important than content so spend at least as much time on the
outside as on the music. Put your contact details on the CD
label as well as the inlay.

Hook and line

Now let’s make a song. You need a hook. This is the bit everyone
sings so it has to be catchy. It’s usually the chorus but you
can have a catchy bass line, drum line or even a vocal hook such
as shout or a catch phrase like “Eh Oh”. Well it worked for the
Teletubbies – are you old enough to remember them with
embarrassment?

Let’s say you’ve come up with a stonking chorus. Build a verse
around it. It doesn’t have to be memorable; few verses are. You
can meander around in a relatively tuneless way until it’s time
to unleash the chorus on the world.

When building a song, start with the rhythm section. Grab some
groovy drum loops, string them together then add the bass line.
You can play this on your new MIDI keyboard or drop in bass
samples – jolly useful things, samples.

Next you’ll want to add some keyboard parts which can be clever
rhythmic figures or you can play pads by holding down some
chords using a broad-texture sound such as strings.

Very vocal

Then add the vocals. If you can’t sing – but remember that never
stopped anyone making a record – you might like to nip down the
pub and ask the winner of this week’s karaoke contest to do the
chanting for you. Play your cards right and they may even pay
you for the privilege.

If you’ve too much musical nous to be in the same room as a
karaoke singer, you can always fall back on your old friend, the
sample.

The final step is the mixing. This is where you balance all the
parts you recorded, add a dash of reverb and generally tart the
thing up.

Then save the entire song as an audio file ready for burning to
CD. This means recording the MIDI parts as audio tracks. You
need to mix all the tracks into one stereo track so the final
file will be 10.6Mb x the length in minutes.

Looks good

Now you have to interest the A&R men in your CD. It’s all about
image so if you’re dull and ugly – name three ugly pop stars,
apart from Madonna and Mick Hucknall – you may have to get one
of your beautiful friends to pose for the publicity photos.

Write a one-page biog – they don’t want to know that you have a
GCSE in music, they want to know what gigs you’ve done and any
Big Name bands you’ve supported. Drop a few names such as Bruce,
Robbie and Tina. You don’t have to mention surnames… If you do
catch the ear of an A&R person, be prepared to throw your ego
out the window – you can’t afford one at the moment and when
you’re rich and famous you can buy a much better one anyway.

You’ll see the months of blood, sweat and Pils which you poured
into your song pouring straight down the drain as the record
company drafts in a 14-year-old DJ to remix your song using the
latest Dance breakbeats and crap – sorry, rap – vocals.

But don’t worry – you can laugh all the way to the bank when it
reaches Number One!

About the author:
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