A lot of Beepen and Tooten But No Booten?Written by Stephen Bucaro
---------------------------------------------------------- Permission is granted for below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and byline, copyright, and resource box below is included. ----------------------------------------------------------A lot of Beepen and Tooten But No Booten? By Stephen Bucaro You start your computer and all you get is a blank screen and some beeping noise. You panic because you think you have some very serious computer problems. Actually, your concern is justified. The reason your computer is beeping is because it has a serious problem that prevents it from communicating via its standard output, screen. But don't lose hope, here are some troubleshooting steps you can take. The beeps coming from your computer are most likely not coming from your sound board or on-board sound circuitry. They are coming from a tiny PC speaker mounted inside computer case for specific purpose of communicating with humans when it can't communicate via screen. You may have noticed that every time you start your computer beeps come in same pattern. They are not random beeps. The computer is sending a special beep code. Beep codes are programmed into computers BIOS (Basic Input Output System). Unfortunately, there is no standard for beep codes. Each BIOS manufacturer has their own patterns. They are not even standard by manufacturer. They vary by BIOS version, motherboard, and computer manufacturer. Your first step is to look in information that came with your computer for meaning of beep codes or for identity of your BIOS. If you didn't get that information, try to find it at web site of manufacturer of your computer. If you can't find it at there, you'll need to open case of your computer and read manufacturer's name and BIOS version off BIOS chip. Although there are thousands of different computer and motherboard manufacturers, fortunately there are only a few BIOS manufacturers. Below is a list of major BIOS manufacturers websites. AMI (American Megatrends, Inc.) www.megatrends.com Phoenix Technologies www.ptltd.com IBM www.us.pc.ibm.com If you can't find useful information about your computer's beep codes at computer manufacturer's or BIOS manufacturer's web site, you'll need to troubleshoot by process of elimination.
| | DIGITAL vs. FILMWritten by Jelaine Macaraeg
As anyone might expect, birth of digital photography, moreover, all hype about it brought forth controversy. Does its birth mean end for film? Are digital cameras better as they are “technologically more advanced”? Is digital photography simply film photography gone hi-tech? As I found out, digital is not better than film – and film, is not better than digital. Instead, it’s like comparing apples with oranges – they’re two entirely different fruits with different properties, having their own advantages and disadvantages.One perfect article to read is one by Darwin Wiggett, an advertising stock photographer who had his share of working with both film and digital cameras. As he have learned, and I’m sure a lot of people will agree, digital images are smoother and has a lot less noise, while film images are usually grainy. However, colors seem sharper with film, while digital photos tend to be flat and pale. You might say, “That’s what Photoshop is for! To enhance color and fix everything there is to be fixed!” Well, this brings Wiggett, as well as other professional photographers to another observation. Digital has made people a lot lazier. When you use film, you always seem to aim for that perfect shot. With digital, you get instant feedback from LCD screen. This may have an advantage as it also gives you instant opportunity to improve your next shot by adjusting your technique, Of course, you don’t have that luxury with film and that’s exactly what drives you to be focused – so you would get best shot. With digital, people tend to be “trigger happy,” you’re always thinking, “That’s good enough… I can always fix it with image editor.”
|
