We reviewed the Dell Vostro 3555′s close cousin, the Vostro 3550, and praised its durable design, large touchpad, HD-capable webcam, two USB 3.0 ports and loud speakers. The Vostro 3555 features an AMD A8 Quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. The laptop also boasts a fingerprint reader for added security, USB 3.0 ports for speedy file transfers and a backlit keyboard. The laptop comes preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Base specs: AMD A8 Quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, Backlit keyboard, Fingerprint reader, USB 3.0 ports, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Dell Vostro 3555 15.6-inch notebook, 16-inch laptop bag and wireless mouse for 9 through LogicBUY.

LAPTOP Magazine: The Pulse of Mobile Technology

US Auctions
Australian Auctions
Austrian Auctions
Belgian Auctions
Canadian Auctions
French Auctions
German Auctions
Indian Auctions
Irish Auctions
Italian Auctions
Dutch Auctions
Polish Auctions
Spanish Auctions
Swiss Auctions
UK Auctions

Best Match
Time: ending soonest
[...]
30Monitor.com

You’ll find a range of components for breakups but the moment they arise, then someone may want to get back together. But before you jump back into the relationship, you will have to know if the person is right for you. This book will help you to determine this information. The guidebook explains how to create healthy relationships while it goes into how to restore a relationship. These steps are further examined through the review site.

The actual guide also offers the agonizing reality if the romantic relationship can’t be saved in the event the partnership just isn’t meant to be. There’s lots of info that is extremely helpful. It’s full of fascinating recommendations on ways to transfer on through agonizing break-ups gracefully. Nonetheless, in the event you really feel deep in your heart that you simply are genuinely meant to be with one another, then the knowledge in this guide might help.

The writer gives quite a few quite a few strategies to improve relationships and to mend relationships that were broken up. There are many different strategies that are covered. The manual supplies you with distinct strategies you will need to stick to so as to suit your needs personally personally can complete your target. It will exhibit you that which you should say and do to win again yet again your ex. There are plenty of different conditions which might be presented.

The preliminary two chapters include the topics relating to why your romantic romantic partnership could have ended. These preliminary two chapters will even supply suggestions with regards to the best way to have a fantastic romantic connection. Furthermore, it teaches you the way you can break up in of a good way.

The next chapter goes over how to recognize what went wrong in the relationship. You will learn how to see certain patterns in your relationship. This is a significant section in the book because it deals with how to sustain a good relationship. There is a good deal of helpful information. You do not want to get back with your ex just to break up again.

The following section is for individuals who determined that there romantic relationship can truly be saved. This can be a most thrilling section because it provides you with measures regarding how to rekindle your own enthusiasm for the relationship. There are a number of techniques that are given. There is a guide that shows you how to increase the spark that was missing. It will show you how to reconnect with your significant other. The guide will also go over how to fall in love again and keep the relationship viable.

Magic Of Making Up Review: Once the time finally arrives that you have been able get back with your ex then you have to make sure to apply the principles in order to stay together. The guide is effective in outlining how to stay together. There are a number of exercises given to improve relationships. Many people have found great success with the program. More information regarding these methods and others like Get Him Back Forever can be researched through the review site.

Panasonic’s greatest technology, the Full HD 3D offers a movie-theater 3D experience while in the comforts of your home. Panasonic claims that it was the first to come out with the HD 3D Technology.

Before understanding, how this technology works, we must first understand how our brain processes 3D Images and how the HD 3D technology differs from the previous 3D technologies. When watching a 3D video, our brain creates the 3D image by processing two different images simultaneously – Each image coming from each eye. The brain then takes these two images and reconstructs the space, thereby allowing use to see images in front of us with three dimensional depths.

The data required for these 3D images requires twice as much data as compared to the standard 2D image. In previous 3D displays, the number of pixels was reduced by half in order to create left and right eye images.  Because of this reduced image resolution, the picture quality is also greatly reduced. However in the Panasonic’s full HD 3D, there is no such limitation. It is able to create 3D images without affecting the image resolution. This reduced image resolution and greatly reduced the picture quality.  Panasonic’s full HD 3D does not have this limitation.  It is able to create 3d images without affecting the image resolution.

The reason for this is that Panasonic uses a combination of their technologies. Plasma’s characteristic feature is self illumination and therefore plasma panels have a great moving image response. The 3D Drive system is able to display 60 frames per second for each eye, thereby summing to 120 frames per second.  This number is equivalent to the number of frames per second as shown in the movie theaters. Also the active shutter glasses by Panasonic are able to divide the total number of 120 frames and distribute the correct number of frames to each eye. Also, the 50GB disk by BluRay has the capacity to hold a complete 3D HD movie.

The 5 Viera Plasma Televisions (VT25 series) by Panasonic has this Full HD 3D technology. The Viera plasmas boast of the world’s highest contrast ration, beautiful color reproduction and clear sharp moving images. The following 3D Plasma Series by Panasonic will have this technology – TC-P54V24 (54-Inch), TC-P58VT25 (58-Inch), TC-P50VT20 (50-Inch), TC-P50V25 (50-Inch) and TC-965V25 (65-Inch). Each of these plasma sets comes with a pair of active shutter glasses.

The VT25 series also comes with PC connectivity option. It has a PC input and 2 USB Ports. You can connect your hard drive or Wi-Fi or keyboard through these USB ports. It also comes with 4 HDMI connections. If you are connected to Wi-Fi, you can connect to a host of applications on the internet such as Skype, Video streaming on YouTube and much more.

High Display

US Auctions
Australian Auctions
Austrian Auctions
Belgian Auctions
Canadian Auctions
French Auctions
German Auctions
Indian Auctions
Irish Auctions
Italian Auctions
Dutch Auctions
Polish Auctions
Spanish Auctions
Swiss Auctions
UK Auctions

Best Match
Time: ending soonest
[...]
30Monitor.com

Drug Addiction

If a person decides to start using drugs it is very possible that they will eventually develop a dependency. Drug addiction is an incredibly dangerous complication that arises from prolonged use of narcotics. There are countless negative consequences that a drug addiction will have. Loss of interest in hobbies, destruction of relationships, and decreased physical health are all possible effects that developing a dependency on drugs will have.

Young Athletes

In the world of steroid abuse, young athletes are very susceptible to becoming addicts. Young athletes become dependent on steroids to help optimize their level of play. Most young steroid abusers are male. Drug addiction treatment is paramount for all addicts, but it is especially important for young drug abusers. Steroid rehab is very important for those young athletes that do not know how to get off the drug on their own.

Physical Anomalies

Testosterone, the main component of steroids, is a male hormone that promotes increased strength. Known as roids, juice, or pumpers on the streets, anabolic steroids actually have many uses for people suffering from various disorders or diseases. However, it is those who use steroids for a competitive, athletic advantage that are taking a great health risk. Seeking to edge out the competition, these individuals are literally putting their lives in danger using steroids without the consultation of a doctor. Steroid abuse can have many, long-term side effects. In men, baldness, acne, a reduction in sperm count, and in some cases, infertility are all capable of occurring in users. For women there are also very serious implications associated with steroid abuse. Shrunken breasts and a more masculine appearance are some cosmetic effects steroids can have. Infertility is one of the more serious outcomes from prolonged abuse. These changes in women, research shows, are usually permanent.

Psychological Disorders

Psychological changes have been noted in people who abuse steroids: Mood swings, hostility and acts of extreme violence have been reported. Additionally, delusions and other mental illnesses have been attributed to steroid abuse. Because no one type of treatment is right for everyone, different types of rehabilitation programs are available to help substance abusers overcome their addiction. Inpatient rehabilitation programs in state-licensed facilities are highly successful. Teams of medical practitioners treat the patient’s mind and body in accordance with a detailed and personalized recovery plan. An intensive outpatient program involves residential treatment that allows for a return to daily life, with a focus on group therapy in the evenings. Residential rehabilitation is a transitional stage that prepares the individual for return to the community. Medical detoxification cleanses the body of drugs, and is paramount to recovery. Experienced doctors minimize the discomfort of withdrawal, and are supportive throughout the process.

Mental Changes

It is imperative for those who have a steroid problem to seek counseling. Be it in a group setting or one-on-one with a specialist, research has clearly shown that the success rate of getting off steroids is much higher with guidance. Individuals are motivated by peers and medical professionals that they are on the right track to getting rid of their drug dependence.

Continued Recovery

As with any medical detox program, counseling for a steroid addiction is essential. In a group setting, an abuser can get counsel from other addicts as well as clinical practitioners. They become encouraged to stay on a path of sobriety and learn of all the dangers that await them if they continue to abuse steroids. It is important for those who are overcoming an addiction that recovery is an on-going process that does not end with the completion of treatment. It is critical that an addict remain on the path to sobriety by employing the methods they used during their treatment. Meetings, newsletters, and sponsors are all great ways to stay on the right track.

Two weeks ago the Knight Foundation and OLPC Association launched a project at Holmes Elementary School in Miami. More than 500 XOs were handed out to pupils and teachers in what is OLPC’s latest effort to get a foothold in primary schools in the United States.

Reading through the press release I stumbled across a number of very interesting points:

The XO laptops, specially designed for primary school children, will be provided by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), with 5,000 in support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Seeing that 5,000 figure in combination with the earlier mention of 525 children having received laptops (and ignoring the teachers for second) makes for a per-seat TCO of ~7. Given that the XOs themselves only cost about 0 this was an encouraging indication that the project would go beyond the mere distribution of laptops. And indeed it does:

Along with the XO laptops, One Laptop Per Child is providing in-house training at the school for parents, teachers and students on how to use the computers to advance students’ learning. … OLPC is also assisting in creating a localized curriculum to help kids meet their academic benchmarks.

While it’s not entirely clear what exactly these in-house training and localized curriculum efforts entail it’s certainly a good sign that the importance of training and support for teachers and parents is recognized early on. Plus more than 0,000 worth of services from OLPC Association should be able to provide a reasonable amount of support to the project.

Especially when you consider that the project could possibly only run for 11 months as the school might be closed at the end of the year:

Holmes Elementary School, which serves the majority of Liberty City residents, is at risk of closing at the end of the year if its state test scores do not improve. In an effort to boost performance, a variety of tools and resources are being used to enhance teaching and learning, including the laptops and training.

In this situation it will be particularly important for OLPC to prove that an XO-based project can indeed significantly improve test scores. In a blog post SJ Klein (OLPC Foundation’s Director of Outreach) referred to this as:

…natural assessments built into the program, with a fairly short timeframe, thanks to existing conditions at the school and their risk of closure.

Since this is an area where OLPC has so far done very little work it’s going be fascinating to see what happens in this particularly challening project context.

So while I would say that the announcement itself and its mention of training and evaluation components are encouraging signs it remains to be seen how things will really work out in the coming months. After all the last thing OLPC needs is another initiative like the 15,000 XO project in Birmingham, Alabama which saw its funding being cut in mid-2010, two years after the project was originally launched.

An analysis of the project in an upcoming a recently published research paper called “One Laptop Per Child Birmingham: Case Study of a Radical Experiment” by Mark Warschauer, Shelia Cotten, and Morgan Ames is fairly critical of Birmingham’s OLPC project. Among other things it mentions:

Though the computers it used are the least expensive of any deployed in a U.S. laptop program, the benefits achieved at the time of our data collection appear to be minimal, thus resulting in a high cost-benefit ratio.

OLPC had better take note of such critical research efforts to improve and guide its ongoing efforts and counter with strong research evidence proving its effectiveness and efficiency compared to other educational interventions.

This seems to be particularly important when you consider the following quote by Rodrigo Arboleda (OLPC Association’s Chairman and CEO) which indicates that OLPC is eager to try and start similar projects in other cities around the United States:

“We believe that partnering with foundations, the private sector and the public sector is an excellent model that can be replicated across the country.”

So overall this is certainly an extremely interesting development and we’ll do our best to keep an eye on it over the coming months. For now I’ll leave you with a nice 3min video with some impressions from Holmes Elementary School.

Resumen en español: En enero Knight Foundation y OLPC Association lanzaron un proyecto con más de 500 XO en una escuela en Miami. Aparte de la distribución de los XO mismo OLPC Association tambien va a dar suporte a los maestros y padres. Además el proyecto viene con una componente de evaluación dado que la escuela esta corriendo el riesgo de ser cerrado al fin del año y por esto OLPC tendrá que mostrar que una iniciativa como esta puede mejorar los resultados academicos de los alumnos. En total parece que esto será un proyecto muy interesante y lo vamos a seguir en los próximos meses.

One Laptop Per Child News

Technology

Improved manufacturing methods that introduce synthetic compounds, such as methamphetamine, is also a factor that has vastly amplified individuals routine use, and subsequent abuse, of narcotics. People of any age, race or economic status can be crippled by a dependency to narcotics during their lives. Estimates of the total overall costs of substance abuse in the United States, including productivity, health, and crime-related costs, exceed 600 billion dollars annually.

Social Costs

While that is a staggering figure, it does not even begin to fully describe the breadth of destructive public health and safety implications that drug abuse and addiction has. Issues such as family disintegration, loss of employment, failure in school, domestic violence, and child abuse are all examples.

Uncontrollability

When addicted, individuals can develop an insatiable appetite, regardless of the harm they reap upon themselves. The need for their particular drug of choice becomes so over whelming that it takes over all thoughts and a person is unable to function. This is an addiction and required intervention and treatment in order to bring back any sort of normalcy.

Risk Factors

A person can develop a drug addiction due to many varying factors. Like other psychological disorders, an individual’s likelihood for developing a drug addiction can depend on many different environmental factors. For example, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and attention-deficit disorder can all be precursors for a drug addiction. The effects of family, peers, and genetics also play a large part into whether or not a person will develop a drug dependency during their lifetime.

Independent Studies

Research shows addiction may be greatly influenced by specific, inherited traits, and studies have determined men are twice as likely as women to develop an addiction to drugs. While surely a problem that seems to be at the forefront of our collective conscience, it has become increasingly unclear whether laws against drug use do anything substantial to stem usage or dependency. There are womens drug program to help.

Powering education in remote Papua New Guinea

(Editor’s note: This is second part of David Leeming’s overview of how the DC Power Share us used at the OLPC project on Papua New Guinea.)

The teachers in our project schools in PNG were initially a bit sceptical about the systems. However, on a recent visit to some of the schools, where some have been using the system for well over a year, we found that the practicality and reliability of the system has largely won them over. Compared with providing AC power to a class of 40 7-year olds, the DC system has far less impact on a teacher’s blood pressure and once the students are organised result in minimal addition to their workload – a key enabling factor that encourages maximum use of the technology.

Teacher’s server training at Tekin, Oksapmin, PNG

The 15W panels produced by Goldpeak have as an option additional regulators built in, to counter some voltage oscillations that were observed in some circumstances. The 60W output from four panels seems to be sufficient on a bright day to run sets of four XOs all day, leaving them with a good amount of charge. On cloudy days you can run fewer XOs per DC Share system, and we found that even on a quite gloomy day four panels could keep a single XO going. The teacher can work with one XO per 4 students and still benefit from the technology.

I don’t have any hard data but the teachers who have been using this system at Jim Taylor School for 18 months told us they have managed very well. The school is situated at Kisap in the Wahgi Valley of central PNG, and has an average highlands climate – sun and showers mostly, with variations either way. Certainly, there is very little sign of any of wear and tear – none of the thin film solar panels have failed, there is no sign of de-lamination or significant wear and tear.

Laptops powered by DC share in use

At this school they have adopted a variation on the OLPC principle of ownership in that the schools are guardians of the students laptops, as they and their board, who represent the community, have judged that it is a high risk area and allowing children to take the laptops home every day would be unwise. Also contributing to this decision is the fact that the homes do not have power in that area.

The downside of such a policy is that the amount of time the students use the laptops is controlled – and limited – and a lot more teacher training input is required to empower them, so that they are confident to plan for and manage the technology in class, with extra free time for students to use the laptops out of class. In response to this issue, the partners of the PNG SDP programme have been talking with OLPC Australia about the possibility to extend their XO-Certified distance training scheme to teacher at the PNG schools.

Another simple ploy is to build storage space in each classroom, so that there is as little extra workload for teachers in setting up and managing the power supply technology. Several of the PNG schools have built lockable storage cabinets, and organise the students to set the systems up in the mornings and replace them at the end of the day. Simple strategies like this can make a lot of difference.

Server resources being accessed in a class activity

The servers at the schools, which all have campus-wide wireless networks and XS school servers loaded with open educational resources (and increasingly) some curriculum resources from PNG and from regional organisations. These are powered by integrated kits by Sundaya, an Indonesian manufacturer. They are designed for rural lighting and the integrated design with battery, regulator and DC-only distribution with proprietary connectors makes it difficult to misuse them as described above. We modified them to power the server machines, which are fanless mini-PCs consuming less than 16W of power, and access points with PoE. These are also bearing up very well – at Kisap the server and wireless infrastructure operated 18 months with no servicing, continuously.

The PNG schools are currently using the XO-1. The systems should perform even better with the later versions, especially the XO 3.0 with their reduced power consumption.

David Leeming is an ICTD activist from the Solomon Islands

Resumen en español: Esta es la segunda parte del artículo de David Leeming sobre el uso del DC Share en el proyecto de OLPC en Papúa Nueva Guinea. Explica como los maestros y alumnos estan usando el sistema y da una impresión más amplia del proyecto allí.

One Laptop Per Child News

Devices in the PX Server Class Series boast a number of features designed to increase reliability and allow for continuous operations. Using EMC LifeLine software, Iomega’s new network storage devices offer users the ability to configure their backup and restore options, including the option to save system properties, users, groups, share names and permissions, making it particularly easy to clone configurations across multiple systems.

The software also offers a number of security features, such as the ability to secure data on an encrypted volume using an assigned password; Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), which allows users to securely transfer data between computers over a network; and video surveillance support, which allows users to store and encrypt video surveillance for 4 to 48 cameras and supports Axis, Panasonic, and Bosch IP cameras.

Other features include an energy-saving Wake-on-LAN feature, which powers on PX Server Class devices when a specific signal is sent over the network; a SMART Hard Drive Monitor that continually checks on the status of all the drives in the system; and Iomega Personal Cloud technology, which connects all of the servers in a company’s PX Server Class Series to other devices over the Internet.

The Iomega StorCenter PX Server Class Series are available for purchase now. The px4-300d servers start at 9, the px6-300d desktop servers start at 9, the px4-300d rackmount servers start at ,699 and the px12-350r rackmount servers start at ,999. All of the devices in the PX Server Class Series feature three-year limited warranty.

• Iomega eGo USB 3.0 (1TB) Storage Drive Review
• LaCie Rugged Mini (1TB) Storage Drive Review
• Buffalo MiniStation Extreme (1TB) Storage Drive Review

LAPTOP Magazine: The Pulse of Mobile Technology