If you want to add multiple banners to your WordPress Blog you should try Max Banner Ads.

This amazing free plug-in for WordPress lets you place banners on your blog absolutely anywhere.

For example, we only use a few of the options in this plug-in so only feature banners at the top of each post and also in the sidebar.

The banners rotate and if one is clicked the statistics are recorded immediately. These stats include impressions, clicks and the click through rate of each individual banner. So not only do you have complete control over the positioning of all your banners, you also get live tracking to find out how well your banner advertising is really doing.

It’s really easy to insert, manage and track multiple banners. And you can even use javascript to create an affiliate banner – copy and paste your code fragment into a designated text area and just let the plug-in fill in all the details like banner image URL and banner link.

You can even change your banner into a widget. The widget can then be displayed as you like in your blogs sidebar.

If you want to place banners on your blog easily and in any way you like, visit MaxBlogPress and check out the Free Max Banner Ads WordPress plugin for yourself.

Microsoft on Thursday reported net income of $6.66bn, or 74 cents a share, on revenue of $19.02bn. The results include $1.71bn in Windows 7 deferred revenue.

That added 14 cents a share to Microsoft’s bottom line.

The view of the quarter depends on whether the deferred revenue impact is discounted. The company was expected to report second-quarter earnings of 59 cents a share on revenue of $17.9bn (£11bn). If the deferred revenue is factored out, Microsoft’s earnings beat projections, but revenue could be seen as light.

In a statement, Microsoft said Windows 7 demand was “exceptional”. Microsoft said it sold more than 60 million Windows 7 licences.

At QBS PC Help we use Windows 7 on a daily basis and find it far more stable than Vista ever was!

Source: ZDNet News

It is fairly easy to build a wireless network as nearly all of the broadband providers throw in a free wireless router with their installation packages. All you need is a wireless network adapter in your computer. If you have a fairly recent computer, especially a laptop, you will already have wireless networking built in. If not, you will have to buy a USB wireless network adapter. With this plugged in, a wireless connection can be established with your wireless router.

While they are fairly easy to install, wireless networks often have performance problems that are not always easy to solve. For example, your PC may indicate that you have a very weak or intermittent signal strength.

So here are a few suggestions on what to look for and what to do.

Move it away from other wireless equipment

Older cordless telephones and other communication devices can interfere with your router’s signals. You can try moving your router away from such equipment (or the equipment away from the router).

Move the router to a different location

The biggest culprit for weak signals is the location of routers. Many routers are installed at less than ideal locations – under tables, in closets, in corners on the floor, and even in basements.

Many routers are installed near the outer wall of a building which often leads to weak signals at the other end of the building.

It is often difficult to move a router too far away once it is installed. But it may be possible to move it by a couple of feet. Try moving it off the floor and away from the walls. If it is inside a closet, you may be able to get it out simply by drilling a hole in the wall for the cable.

Get a high-gain antenna for your router

If you can’t move the router, you can try replacing your router’s antenna with a high-gain antenna.

Antennas on most routers have 360 degree coverage. If your router is located in one corner of the building, a good part of its coverage area will lie outside the building. In such cases, you can get unidirectional high-gain antennas which transmit signals in 180 or even 90 degrees.

You can’t replace antennas on all the different makes and models of routers, but you can do so on many of the newer models.

Install a repeater

A repeater is a device for boosting wireless signals across a far greater distance.

If your wireless router’s signal is weak in a certain location of your building, you can place a repeater half way between the router and that ‘weak signal location’ to boost the signal strength. For example, you may have one access point in a home or small office that doesn’t quite cover the entire area where connectivity is needed, such as a basement or patio. The placement of a repeater between the covered and uncovered areas will provide connectivity throughout the entire space. The wireless repeater fills holes in coverage, enabling seamless Internet roaming.

One downside of wireless repeaters is that they slightly reduce throughput over the wireless local area network. A repeater must receive and retransmit each frame on the same RF channel, which doubles the number of frames that are sent. This problem gets even worse if you use multiple repeaters because each repeater will duplicate the number of frames sent. This increasing speed hit will be lessoned if you limit the number repeaters you use in your home or business.

Try changing your router’s broadcast channel

You may be experiencing weak or noisy signals simply because your router broadcasts on a channel that doesn’t’t work well at your location. Try changing the channel. You should find an option to change the channel in your router’s online administration interface.

Upgrade your router’s firmware

Most people install routers and forget about them. You may be surprised to find that your router has several firmware upgrades that you haven’t applied. So Log in to your router’s online administration interface and check to see if there are any upgrades you can apply.

Update the network adapter on your computer

If you have a desktop computer with an internal network card, try using a USB network adapter instead. These adapters usually have an antenna of their own to better capture signals. Laptops with on-board network adapters are usually fine and you won’t have to replace them. But if you use a plug in card adapter with your laptop, try getting one that has an external antenna.

Update your PC’s network adapter drivers

Just as a router has firmware upgrades, the network adapter in your computer will have driver updates. You can find driver updates at the adapter manufacturer’s website or at the Windows Update web site.

Software Problems

Another reason for a poor connections, or none at all, is buggy or incompatible network adapter software that will not run on your version of Windows. For example, you might find that all is well under Windows XP but as soon as you upgrade to Windows Vista or Windows 7 problems begin to appear.

If any 3rd party software is used to control the network adapter inside your computer try disabling or uninstalling it so we can use the drivers built into Windows to see if these improve matters. Once the 3rd party divers are disabled or removed, open Windows Network Connections, right click your wireless adaptor, click Properties and select the the Wireless Networks Tab. If it is not already selected, tick ‘Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings’, then click OK.

On the General Tab ensure that the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is present and ticked. Click Configure, select the Advanced Tab and check that the various property settings for the adaptor correspond with the settings on the online configuration page of your wireless router. If in doubt, you should be safe setting everything to the defaults.

Also, while you are looking at the router’s wireless configuration internet page ensure that SSID Broadcast is enabled, and that the wireless mode matches the selection on the laptop. And check that the wireless security option matches the laptops capabilities. All wireless adaptors should support WEP; some may not yet support WPA or WPA2.

Get a new router

If the signal strength of your wireless connection still doesn’t improve, you could try replacing your wireless router and network cards. If you have an older router which is based on the 802.11b networking standard the move to the newer 802.11i standard could be a good idea, because the newer standard is several times faster than the old. (802.11b devices operate an 11Mbps while 802.11i devices operate at 54 Mbps.) 802.11i devices are also backward compatible with 802.11b devices. In other words, if you buy a new 802.11i router, it will still work with the 802.11b network adapters in your computer. However, if you do upgrade your router to 802.11i, you should certainly consider upgrading the network adapter in your computer to 802.11i as well, because this will provide the best overall results.

To find out more about WEP, WPA and WPA2 read the rest of this article now – www.qbs-pchelp.co.uk/wirelessnetwork_problems.html

Apple has finally unveiled the iPad, its much-anticipated tablet computer.

On Wednesday, Apple chief Steve Jobs went on stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco to introduce the device, which handles e-books and email, as well as images, music, video, games and web browsing.

In his presentation, Jobs described the iPad as “so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone”. He also derided the netbook phenomenon, saying the cheap mini-laptops “aren’t better than anything”.

Closely resembling a larger iPhone, the device is fully compatible with existing iPhone applications and is based on Apple’s own custom ARM-based processor, the A4, which runs at 1GHz.

The iPad has a high-definition, 9.7-inch in-plane switching (IPS) LCD touchscreen, which allows for a 178-degree viewing angle – wider than rival screen types – and has 1024×768 pixels resolution. It also supports multitouch input, and optional extras include a keyboard dock.

Two types of iPad will be available: one with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and one with just Wi-Fi, Jobs said. The Wi-Fi-only model will ship globally in two months’ time. In the US, its price will range from $499 (£309) to $699, depending on the storage capacity, which ranges from 16GB to 64GB. Versions with added 3G will cost an extra $130 and will ship in 90 days’ time, Jobs said.

“We want to put this in the hands of lots of people,” Jobs said, referring to the pricing for the device.

For the launch, Apple has made a number of partnership deals for content applications. It has drafted in media firms who have created newspaper and magazine apps that can run in-page videos on their virtual pages for the iPad.

The device is also an e-reader, through a new application called iBooks. A new iBookstore lets users download e-books to their iPad, in much the same way as Amazon customers can do with the Kindle Reading Device.

In addition, Apple has introduced a version of its iWork productivity suite tailored to the iPad. Users can create presentations, spreadsheets and documents using a redesigned, gesture-based user interface.

So the iPad can be used for personal information management, virtual painting and for mapping services.

Source: ZDNet News

Firefox 3.6 is the dream Internet browser you’ve always been looking for.

It displays an elegant simplicity and makes your web experience better, much faster and thoroughly enjoyable.

Firefox currently accounts for about 25% of all browsers used worldwide, according to the most recent data from Web metrics company NetApplications.com. With a quarter of the browser market, Firefox is a distant second to IE’s 63%, but enjoys a huge cushion over the current No. 3 browser, Chrome, which has a 5% share.

Performance

Firefox 3.6 is about 15% faster than its predecessor, Firefox 3.5. And with JavaScript that’s more than three times as fast as Firefox 3 and 20% faster than Firefox 3.5, you’ll easily be able to see the improvement in overall speed.

Persona’s

New in Firefox 3.6 are Personas. These are easy-to-install themes that help you personalise the overall look and feel of your browser.

There are thousands of Personas to choose from, with more added every day. You can even create your own and share it with others.

Visit the Personas gallery and start looking for designs that fit your style.

Security

Firefox 3.6 also includes many built-in security-related features, such as the best-of-breed anti-phishing protection, making it the most secure browser on the market today.

This upgraded Phishing Protection takes Firefox’s security to a new level, helping to safeguard your financial information and protect you from identity theft.

Additional security features include Malware protection and enhancements to the password manager. There is also far greater security for add-ons and downloads.

To keep Firefox current with any security fixes, the browser is designed to check for updates automatically and pops up a box on your desktop to inform you when these are available for download.

Usability

Firefox 3.6 has many core features such as sessions restore, built in spell checking, integrated search, pop-up blocker, clear private data and automated ‘behind the scenes’ updates.

The browser interface looks a lot like Firefox 3.5 but there are a few additional add ons that can make your Firefox browser look unique, especially the new Persona’s.

The placement of the main navigation buttons has not changed, they are still on the left.

A company logo will appear before the URL (if ones available from the website you visit).

Immediately after the URL and just before the RSS icon is the Star icon. Click it once to store the page’s URL as a bookmark; click it twice to assign the bookmark to a new or existing folder. You can also give it tags: short keywords to help when searching through your bookmarks.

When you type a URL a blue tick appears at the end of the address bar. If you click this it will take you to the address you’ve typed.

The drop down list after the new Star icon is a list of recently accessed pages.

The Smart Location Bar

The Smart Location Bar was first introduced in Firefox 3. It is also known as the ‘Awesome Bar’.

As you type in a URL, the Smart Location Bar searches through your history and bookmarks and presents a drop-down list of recently accessed pages with that same keyword. It works even if you already know the URL.

Built in Web Search

For searches across the entire Web, a box at the top right provides a shortcut to Google and a drop down menu listing 9 other sites, including Yahoo!, Live Search, Amazon, eBay, Answers.com and Wikipedia.

RSS Support

Firefox 3.6 also supports a built-in RSS (Really Simple Syndication) newsreader to fetch updates from websites that publish their content using this standard.

Firefox gives you full control over Web feeds, showing you a preview and letting you choose how you want to subscribe.

Find Bar

In the file menu click edit – find and a “Find” bar appears at the bottom of Firefox’s window which lets you search for words on a page without blocking your view of the page itself.

As you type a query, the first matching item is highlighted in green. “Find Next” and “Find Previous” buttons jump to other matches, and the “Highlight” button paints all of them in purple.

Customising Firefox 3.6

Web addicts can customize Firefox3.6 with browser extensions that add functions, themes and persona’s that alter the browsers look and feel. To customize Firefox even more type about:config into the address bar and you’ll see hundreds of preferences to tweak! But be careful what you change as you could accidentally prevent Firefox from starting up.

Downloading programs, files and images

The Download Manager lets you easily start, stop and resume downloads.

Downloading Firefox 3.6

With greatly improved performance, really useful features and first class security Firefox 3.6 stands out as one of the best internet browser available today.

Firefox 3.6 is free to download and is available on a variety of operating systems : Windows, Mac and Linux. There are also a wide variety of localised language versions to choose from.

If you haven’t already tried Firefox, what are you waiting for?

The traditional link building process comes in three primary flavours: direct links to your website (inbound links), cross linking content on the Internet (reciprocal and 3 way links), and deep linking to specific pages within your website.

This linking to specific pages of your website can be greatly enhanced by link baiting. So what does link baiting include from the SEO viewpoint?

Link Baiting means to create something that naturally attracts inbound links for your website. Just one successful link baiting campaign can be worth far more than any amount of PPC advertising you undertake. It can also be far more effective than the thousands of emails you could send out trying to get inbound links for your website.

Just getting your link bait featured on Digg will yield tens of thousands of visitors in a very short period of time and potentially many more inbound links within just a few weeks.

The clear goal of link baiting is to naturally increase the number of links pointing to your website. And the more links you have pointing back to your site the more popular your website is considered to be by all the major search engines, and so the higher your search engine ranking will turn out to be.

Some Common Link Baiting Techniques

• Become an expert in your particular niche and write valuable and newsworthy information.
• Write an interesting and informative article about your products or services.
• Write useful comments on something that is currently happening in your field of activity.
• Interview (by e-mail or phone) prominent people and publish the results to your site and/or blog.
• Write something outrageous or controversial to spark an interest.
• Run an event, such as a contest or free giveaway.
• Make a blog theme, plug in or a piece of software to give away as an incentive.
• Make or design something that others can put on their website’s but that links back to your own site.
• Write something funny or controversial.
• Be the first to expose a scam or the scammer.
• Be the first to research and document something completely new and interesting.
• Provide people with a way to feel important about themselves, someone they care about, or something they feel should be important, and watch people flock to your site.
• Take recent news and events and push them out to others who form part of your online community.

By getting people to talk about your link bait, blog about it, discuss it on forums and post it on their social networks and link to it from their website’s, you can attract tons of visitors to your own site.

Mozilla debuted Firefox 3.6 on Thursday, introducing significant under-the-hood changes that make it faster and help it render content better, as well as adding a few visual tweaks.

Available for Windows, Mac and Linux, the most apparent changes in Firefox 3.6 are improvements made to the TraceMonkey JavaScript rendering engine, making it about 20 percent faster than when it debuted in Firefox 3.5, according to Mozilla.

Although this makes it more competitive with Google Chrome, but not faster, there is more to Firefox 3.6 than speed.

The update sees Firefox maintain its reputation as the most customisable browser around, introducing default support for the next generation of Themes, called Personas. Users will no longer have to download the Personas add-on to get its on-the-fly skinning power.

However, Windows 7 interface support, including tab previews using the Ctrl+Tab hot key, jump lists, and multiple tab previews in Aero Peek will have to wait for another revision. Currently, these can only be activated by changing settings in about:config.

Unlike Firefox 3.5, which was more about keeping the browser current rather than blazing new trails, Firefox 3.6 is once again taking some small but innovative steps. Expect more new features to debut in minor-point updates as the browser works towards Firefox 3.7.

Dowload Firefox 3.6 now.

Source: ZDNet News

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it will release on Thursday (21/01) a patch to fix the latest hole in Internet Explorer that was used in the China-based attack on Google and for which an exploit has been released on the Internet since last week.

The company plans to release the patch as close to 10 a.m. PST on Thursday as possible and host a public Webcast at 1 p.m. PST, according to the security advisory.

Microsoft continues to see limited attacks and has only seen evidence of successful attacks against Internet Explorer 6, according to Jerry Bryant, senior security program manager at Microsoft.

“This is a standard cumulative update, accelerated from our regularly scheduled February release, for Internet Explorer with an aggregate severity rating of Critical,” he said in a statement. “It addresses the vulnerability related to recent attacks against Google and a small subset of corporations, as well as several other vulnerabilities. Once applied, customers are protected against the known attacks that have been widely publicized,” Bryant said. “We recommend that customers install the update as soon as it is available. For customers using automatic updates, this update will automatically be applied once it is released.”

Vulnerable software is IE 6 on Microsoft Windows 2000 and IE 6, 7, and 8 on supported editions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft said.

Outright motherboard failure is fairly rare in a new system, and extremely rare in a system that is already up and running.

Most problems with motherboards result from a bad initial set up or a failure of one or more of the components that are connected to it. For example, getting a system delivered through the post that has a loose component or a disconnected cable is quite common.

There are a surprisingly large number of possible causes for what may appear to be a motherboard failure.

When trying to track down a possible motherboard problem it’s best to avoid the very difficult diagnostic steps, especially replacing the motherboard, until you have exhausted all the other possibilities that can appear, at first, to be motherboard problems.

Before you carry out any work on your computer make sure you protect your PC’s delicate circuits from static electric charges on your body by properly grounding yourself. If you don’t have a grounding strap at least ground your body by touching the metal part on the outside of your PC’s case before touching the inside of your PC or any component, including the motherboard.

First of all, if you have just recently installed this motherboard, or performed upgrades or additions to the PC of any sort, or you have just built your own PC, you should read this section, which contains things for you to check, which may cause problems after you have been working on your computer.

1. If the PC isn’t booting at all, make sure you have at least the minimum hardware in the machine to make it work i.e. a processor, a full bank of memory, a video card (or video built into the Motherboard) and a hard drive. Make sure that all of these components are inserted correctly into the motherboard, especially the memory modules. Also connect a monitor so you can see any on screen messages.

2. Try removing all the optional devices from the motherboard, including expansion cards, external peripherals, etc. and see if the problem is resolved.

3. Double-check all the motherboard jumper settings, carefully. Make sure they are all correct. Happily, most modern boards do not have jumper settings, which makes things a bit easier.

4. If you can, check the processor type, bus speed, clock multiplier and voltage jumpers.

5. Reset all BIOS settings to default. These conservative settings make sure an overly aggressive BIOS setting isn’t causing the problem. Set all cache, memory and hard disk timing as slow as possible. Turn off BIOS shadowing and see if the problem goes away.

6. Double-check all the connections to the motherboard.

7. Check the inside of the PC’s case to see if any components seem to be overheating. Check that all the fans are working.

8. Inspect the motherboard physically. Check to make sure the board itself isn’t cracked. Make sure there are no broken pins or components on the board. If there are, you will have problems with any component that uses that connection. Check for any components that may be loose in their sockets, and push them gently but firmly back into the socket.

To read about other PC problems, that can be mistakenly put down to a motherboard error, see the rest of this article – Motherboard problems.

“Tens of millions” of tablet computers will be sold in 2010, according to technology analysts at Deloitte. The keyboard and mouse-free devices are likely to be a top trend among consumers, they anticipate.

Deloitte’s prediction fuels rumours that Apple is set to unveil a tablet-style computer at a press event it is hosting on 27th January.

The company’s report, which forecasts the tech trends for 2010, describes tablets as “the Goldilocks of devices (not too big, not too small)”. It said that previous attempts to launch tablet PCs – notably by Microsoft – had been largely unsuccessful for many reasons. “The graphics, software, and user interface were underwhelming, not well connected to cellular or WiFi networks, and, most important, they have largely served as work-oriented data-entry devices.”

“By contrast, an easy-to-use, consumer-focused device used primarily for media and web browsing is much more likely to be widely accepted by the market.”

Source: BBC Tech News

Web hosting is a way of uploading your website to the Internet. This is done by looking for a web hosting company and having your website uploaded to their web server.

You could set up your own computer to host your website but getting another company to host it for you is usually the most practical way to do it.

A web hosting company allows you to rent space on a web server. Your web pages are then stored on their server and other people connected to the Internet can view them.

Across the planet, there are literally hundreds of web hosting companies so how do you choose the right one? As with trying out any new product or service, you won’t really know how good a web hosting company is until you try it. Therefore, ask around and see whether you can get any good recommendations from those who already use a web hosting company. Another good idea is to search the Internet for reviews of hosting companies.

When you finally narrow down your list of prospective hosting companies you should consider how long each company has been in business, how reliable it is known to be, and how expensive it would be if you wanted to upgrade your plan at sometime in the future.

Other key areas to consider are:

How much disk space do you need?

If your website has less than 10 pages you’ll only need a small amount of hosting space and this is often very cheap to buy. If you have a large site that has hundreds or thousands of pages you’ll be needing a lot of disk space. Most web hosting plans limit how much space you will have, so make sure the web hosting plan you choose meets your initial and future needs.

How many email accounts do you need?

You’ll probably need at least one email account for each employee and one for each department (sales, accounts, marketing, support etc). Even each member of a family may want a separate email account. So make sure you purchase a hosting plan that has enough of these. Also, do you want full POP3 or IMAP access, Web-based email, or both? Fortunately, the number of email accounts offered by the big hosting providers are generally in the hundreds, so this requirement is usually well covered.

How much data do you need to transfer?

Most hosting plans limit how much data transfer you are allotted each month. If you expect a lot of people to visit your site and you host stuff that can be downloaded or you have online video’s people can watch, you’ll need a plan that allows for plenty of data transfer.

Do your need E-commerce Options?

Will you be selling goods or services through your site? If not, there’s no need to sign up for an e-commerce web hosting service. If you are, e-commerce web hosting services such as shopping cart software, SSL support and a payment system will be vital. Virtually all the hosting companies will be able to supply these e-commerce tools.

Database, script and extension support

Some hosts will try to blind you with all the features they provide: MySQL, MS Access, MS SQL, Perl, PHP, ASP.NET and SSI support. Do you really need all these features? If not, make sure you are not paying for extras that you’ll never use.

Operating systems

Do you want a Linux hosting plan or a Windows hosting plan? Linux is the most commonly used operating system among Web servers. It is known for its flexibility, reliability and stability. It is the only choice for sites that use PHP, MySQL and the Apache Server. Windows hosting plans are often used for sites utilising ASP, MS Access databases, MS SQL Servers and other Microsoft applications.

Customer Support

Is customer and technical support available 24/7? Can you easily get through on the customer support hotline or are you kept on hold for hours? Is there a good technical help section as part of the hosting providers website? These are important considerations as you never know when you might need the help of a good tech support area.

Hosting Awards

See if the hosting company have industry awards or special mentions in web design or pc based magazines.

Reliability

Check the reliability promises of each web hosting company you check out, and look for 99.9% uptime promises. This more or less guarantees that your website will be viewable all the time.

Web Hosting Control Panel

Look for a simple, user-friendly interface which makes web hosting simple for you. It should be as easy as possible to set up domains, e-mail addresses, design your own website, or access a database – all with a few mouse clicks. So ask if you can have a demo.

Apple is inviting reporters to an event next week to see what it calls “our latest creation,” which is thought to be a tablet-style touch-screen computer.

The company email offered no specifics about what it would display at the invitation-only January 27th event in San Francisco.

But it comes amid speculation that Apple is close to unveiling the gadget that is bigger than an iPhone but smaller than a standard laptop.

Tablets are one-piece computers with big screens and no keyboards. Such devices have been around since the early 1990s, but haven’t seen much success in the mainstream.

As mobile phones get more sophisticated, hi-tech criminals are dusting off some old tricks and scams.

Security companies have noticed a rise in trojans known as diallers that used to be popular during the days of dial-up net access.

On a smartphone the diallers are being used to call premium rate lines leaving victims with a big bill!

Experts say the diallers are proving popular as a quick way for criminals to cash in.

Diallers were widely used during the days of dial-up net access when most people connected via modem.

Many diallers lurked on porn sites and, once they snared a victim, disconnected their modem and then placed a long distance call. Many victims were left with huge phone bills.

The economics of international calls meant that some of the cash spent on the call would be shared with the criminals. Some diallers were very sneaky in that they muted the speaker on a modem so victims could not spot when the overseas call was being placed.

Now, the security wing of software firm CA has said it is seeing a rise in diallers for smartphones. This time, instead of calling international numbers, the diallers call premium rate lines and land victims with the bill.

Source: BBC Tech News

Video game Modern Warfare 2 has become one of only a handful of entertainment franchises to take more than $1bn (£625m)in revenue, its publishers say.

It went on sale in November and made an estimated $550m in its first five days.

The sales put it alongside other $1bn titles such as Guitar Hero III and World of Warcraft also owned by publisher Activision.

It also puts it alongside other entertainment franchises such as the recent 3D science fiction smash Avatar. The film’s takings as of 4th January make it the fourth-biggest film ever made.

Ahead of it are Titanic ($1.8bn; £1.1bn), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12bn; £695m) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($1.07bn; £664m).

However, direct comparisons between films and video games are difficult as games typically retail for between three and five times the cost of a cinema ticket.

The first-person-shooter game is the sixth instalment in the Call of Duty series.

See our top ten list of PC Games.

Source: BBC Tech News

Google Docs users will soon be able to upload any file type to a new online storage facility, the company announced on Tuesday.

It is already possible to keep certain file types in Google’s cloud for collaboration purposes, including text documents, forms, spreadsheets and presentations. The new facility -to be rolled out over the next few weeks – will make it possible to store and share ZIP archives, large graphics files and any other file type.

Each user will get a gigabyte of storage, and the maximum supported file size is 250MB, which is 10 times the maximum size limit for email attachments on Gmail.

Enterprises and organisations that subscribe to Google Apps Premier Edition will also be able to use the Google Documents List Data API for batch uploading, and third-party applications are available for the migration and synchronisation of files to Google Docs.

According to a blog post by Google Docs product manager Vijay Bangaru, Google Apps Premier Edition customers will also, at some point in the coming months, be able to purchase additional storage for €3 (£2.70) per gigabyte, per year. Bangaru described the new storage facility as a “great way to collaborate on files with co-workers and external parties”. “Instead of using cumbersome email attachments, you can upload files to a folder and share it with co-workers, who can then access and edit the files from a single place,” Bangaru wrote. “You can even have your sales team securely share contracts with external clients for review.”

Under EU data-protection legislation, European companies have to keep their sensitive and personal data on EU servers. At the time of writing, Google represenatives were unable to confirm that European business customers taking advantage of the new storage facility will not have their data stored elsewhere.

Lets see what Google come up with to fall in line with this ridiculous section of the EU data-protection rules.

Google is being inundated with complaints about its Nexus One phone.

The touchscreen smartphone was launched on 5 January and can be bought directly from Google and used on almost any phone network.

But confusion over who should answer customer queries has led many to file complaints on support forums.

Many people are unhappy with Google only responding to questions by e-mail and are calling for it to set up phone-based support.

Americans can buy the Nexus One directly from Google for $529 (£331) or on a contract with T-Mobile for $179 (£112). In the UK the phone will be available via Vodafone but prices and launch dates have yet to be released.

The support forums that Google has set up for the Nexus One are filling up with complaints from many of the first to buy the phone who need help.

The top query, with more than 500 responses, is about how much people should pay for the phone and whether existing customers of T-Mobile can get the device at a reduced rate. Only new customers of T-Mobile will be able to pay $179.

Almost 500 people have logged problems with the Nexus One’s support for 3G wireless networks. Others reported bugs when synchronising contacts or getting the handset to work with existing Google accounts.

Source: BBC Tech News

Google and all the other major search engines love blog’s.

But to grab and keep the attention of the search engines you need to add posts to your blog on a regular basis, weekly if possible. So what can you blog about?

Here are a few ideas you can use to help you create a regular stream of interesting posts.

1. The Latest Trends in your Business or Service

Sign up to a few emails, blogs, forums, RSS feeds about your type of business or service and look to for what the latest trends seem to be. When you blog about the latest trend, put your unique perspective on it. If you disagree with the latest trend why no write about that. Different views can develop into ‘debates’ that can come up with new suggestions/ideas.

2. Current World or Local Events

Open up your daily newspaper, online news or your RSS news reader and see what’s happening. Give your opinion about an interesting news story that mentions a common problem and, if possible, provide a workable solution and relate that answer to your business in some way.

3. Frequently Asked Questions

If you’ve been in business for quite a while, you know the questions that clients ask you to answer over and over again. Instead of repeatedly responding to the same questions, write a series of blog posts that answer your target market’s most frequently asked questions.

4. How you helped a client Solve a Problem

If clients hire you to solve a specific problem they’re having, write a blog entry about the solution you came up with.

It’s quite a good idea to list all the recent problems that you have helped your clients solve. By doing this you will have plenty of material for future blog entries. It’s best not to use your clients name, address, email etc. Make the blog entry generic enough to hide your client’s identity.

5. Review Something

Blog about your experience with a product, book or service, highlighting both the high points and low points. Make a personal recommendation if the product is good and worth buying. This may even be an opportunity to earn some affiliate commission for the products you recommend.

6. Get up Close and Personal

Tell a story about what’s happening in your life or in your business that would be useful or instructive for your blog readers. Chronicle both your highs and lows, your wins and your struggles.

One key to successful blogging is getting personal with your readers. The more “real” you are with your readers, the better your reader gets to know you and begins to like and trust you.

7. Interview an Expert

What people do you know and admire in your industry? If you admire them, chances are that members of your target market do as well.

Contact these experts and ask if they can provide answers to three to five questions about their lives, their businesses, industry trends or how to solve a particular problem. Publish the interviews as blog posts, adding audio and graphics if you have them. Make sure you have the experts permission to publish what they’ve said.

8. Read other Blogs

Go to Google’s Blog Search or Technorati and find other blogs related to your industry, service or your target market. Add those to your blog reader and take an hour or two each week to read the posts on those blogs. Reading other blogs is a great way to generate ideas for your own blog.

9. Keep an Ideas File

Sometimes a blogging idea or concept will strike you when you don’t need (or want) to blog. Begin a ‘blog ideas file’ by creating a document or spreadsheet to track your ideas and thoughts.

10. Create a Tutorial

There’s always something you can tell your target market. For example QBS PC Help publish articles based on the computer repairs we have undertaken. We also design the occasional website and provide SEO services to a few companies, so we also write about these subjects. We announce these new articles in our blog. This in turn directs people back to the main QBS PC Help website.

To liven up a tutorial you could use audio or video to explain a process. The tutorial may need to created in multiple parts, like Part 1, Part 2, etc., which would make for multiple posts to your blog.

11. Take a Tour of your Competitors

Take an in-person or virtual tour of something useful to your readers. For example, if you’re a beauty consultant, tour the top five online beauty related sites and report your experiences as a client in each. If you’re a restaurant owner, visit three or four local restaurants and evaluate what’s often overlooked in staff training based on your experience as a customer.

12. Write about a Twitter or Facebook update

You only get 140 characters in Twitter to write about something. If you need more space, or want to respond in greater length to someone’s Tweet or Facebook status update, do so in your blog. Thought-provoking questions are often asked on Twitter, and the answers may inspire you to blog about them.

13. Create a “Best of” List

What are the top five blogs to read in your industry? How about the top five people to watch? What about the ten most useful online tools you use? Nothing attracts attention on a blog quicker than a list, so create one yourself or ask your readers to help you in the process.

14. Report from an Event

Try attending a professional trade show, conference or networking event? You can then report about your experiences at the event on your blog. Talk about the workshops you attended, the vendors you met and the speakers you heard.

15. Debunk a Common Myth

Each industry is plagued with myths and fallacies about success/failure or what does/doesn’t work in that industry.

Use your blog to debunk some of the most common myths/preconceptions/notions in your industry and set the record straight. This sort of post can often result in a lively discussion, with many comments on your blog entry.

16. Write about a Client Conversation

Typically the strategy/idea/technique you’ve discussed with a client will benefit your blog readers as well. The blog post should focus on the topic of the conversation, not the conversation itself.

Final Thoughts

These blogging tips will hopefully generate a few ideas for your blog entries. Take a look around your life, your business, your conversations with clients and colleagues and what’s happening in the world around you. You’ll soon begin to see plenty of opportunities that can be turned into successful blog posts.

If you want games, graphics, and other multimedia programs to run faster, upgrading to a more powerful graphics card should be one of your first priorities.

And the demands of Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Windows 7 with their 3D-accelerated Aero interface, gives you another reason to upgrade. To run Aero you’ll need at least a DirectX 9 capable graphics chip with 128MB of dedicated memory onboard. With a DirectX 10 or 11 capable graphics chip you will need at least 256MB or 512MB of dedicated memory to make your computer perform well.

Make sure you know what kind of graphic card will work in your PC before you go shopping for a new one. Unfortunately there are two main types of graphics card currently on sale and if you choose the wrong one it will not plug into your PC’s motherboard. The two types currently available are those that fit into an AGP slot and those made for the newer PCI Express slot. Your motherboard will have a slot for one or the other, but PCI Express only appeared in 2004, so many people could still have an AGP based graphics system, especially if they are still using Windows XP.

If your motherboard has a PCI Express graphics slot make sure that the power supply in your PC will support your new card. Today’s powerful graphics cards often need 17 amps or more on the 12 volt line of the power supply unit (PSU). If your existing power supply is underpowered you will have to upgrade to a more powerful one. To check your power supply’s rating open your PC and check the description that should be printed on its side.

Depending on how old your computer is, you might have to replace the entire motherboard, and even the CPU, memory, and other components, just to replace the graphics card. If this is your situation, then it’s probably better just to buy a new computer.

If you are still unsure what graphic card slot your motherboard has, check your motherboard or system manual or look on the website of your motherboard’s manufacturer.

Buying your Graphics Card

Once you have decided what graphic cards are compatible with your motherboard, choosing the right graphic card boils down to checking out each one’s performance, features and price.

The best way to judge performance is to read the monthly reviews in computer magazines like PC Pro, PC Advisor and Computer Shopper. These magazines (and their website’s) measure graphic card performance using 3D benchmarks and some of the most demanding games. This will help you work out which is the right card for you and your budget.

Some motherboards can accommodate two PCI Express graphics cards at once, which greatly increases your computers 3D performance. There are two dual graphics cards standards: SLI for Nvidia based cards and CrossFire for ATi based cards. If your motherboard doesn’t support the kind of card you want, it may be worth considering a motherboard upgrade.

Getting Ready to Install the Graphics Card

In addition to the new graphics card, you will need a small, nonmagnetic Phillips screwdriver and a simple anti-static grounding strap that attaches to your wrist. We recommend the Belkin Anti – Static Wristband.

Rather than using the supplied driver CD it’s a good idea to download the latest version of the drivers, for your particular graphics chip, from the card manufacturer’s website. This option is better because graphics cards nearly always ship with drivers that are not up to date. Two of the biggest card manufacturers are nvidia and ati – www.nvidia.com or www.ati.com.

Uninstall the old Drivers

Start by uninstalling your old graphic card’s drivers. In Windows right click My Computer, select Properties, and under the Hardware tab (or, at the top of the left hand list in Win 7) click on Device Manager. Double-click the name of your current graphics card, listed under Display Adapter, and under the Driver tab, click the Uninstall button.

If your PC has integrated graphics on the motherboard (i.e. there’s no separate graphics card), you’ll likely have to disable it before installing your new card. This will involve a trip to the BIOS. Pressing the delete or esc key repeatedly as your computer starts up will usually take you into the BIOS settings. Check your motherboard or system manual for details on what to disable. Then make the change and Save and Exit the BIOS so your PC reboots.

Now uninstall any other software used to manage your current card by running Add or Remove Programs, or Programs and Features in Windows 7 (both links can be found in the Windows Control Panel). Typically these programs will be listed under Nvidia, ATi or the model name of your graphics card.

Your screen might change to a lower resolution and colour depth during or after the uninstall process. When it’s done, the computer will prompt you to reboot. Say no! Instead, shut down the computer, unplug the AC cord, open the case, and prepare to remove the old card physically.

Remove the old Graphic Card

Check the cable that runs from you monitor to the card at the back of your PC. That’s your computer’s graphics card.

Now unplug your PC and position it so that you can comfortably reach into the case’s interior. If you have a tower case, you’ll find it easier to install a graphic card if you lay the case on its side. Remove the computers side panel, usually held in by screws or clips.

Ground yourself. Protect your PC’s delicate circuits from static electric charges on your body by properly grounding yourself. If you don’t have a grounding strap, at least ground your body by touching a metal faucet, pipe, or even a metal part on the outside of your PC’s case before touching the inside of your PC or any component.

If you haven’t already done so, unplug the monitor cable. Now remove the screw or screws holding the graphic card in place and remove the card by grabbing its edges and pulling it upward with an even force while opening the small clip at the end of the card slot. If the card seems stuck, try gently rocking it lengthwise but don’t use too much force as you may damage the AGP or PCI Express slot.

Place the card into an anti static bag. If you don’t have one handy, lay the card flat on a clean surface and later, when you’ve freed up the anti static bag that your new card came in, use it to store your old card. It may prove useful some day or perhaps can you can even sell it.

Install the new Graphics Card

Remove the new card from its packaging. Avoid touching the chips or circuits on the face of the card; hold the card by the edges only. Align the card’s gold connectors with the expansion slot and gently but firmly push down on the top edge with even pressure until the card is securely seated.

Secure the card to the PC’s chassis with the existing screw or another clamping mechanism. Connect any power connectors. Reassemble your PC’s case and plug back in your monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. Reconnect your PC’s power cord and turn your computer on.

Cancel any Windows attempts to find new hardware drivers. Find the drivers that you downloaded and double click the .exe file to install them.

You’ll need to reboot when the driver installation is finished. After the computer re-boots the graphic card installation should be complete and your monitors screen should look normal.

The final step is to adjust the graphic settings to your preferences. You can do this by right clicking on your PC’s desktop and selecting Properties and the Settings tab

If you are using Windows 7 right click on your desktop and select Personalize or Screen Resolution.

The ‘Settings’ tab should state your graphic cards details and give you the opportunity to change the screen resolution and colour quality. You can usually use the software tools provided by Nvidia or ATi to achieve even better results.

If you cannot adjust your windows display properties try restarting your computer and trying again. If you still cannot adjust these settings you will have to reinstall the drivers.

Also visually check that your new graphics card is properly seated in its PCI Express or AGP slot and that the driver is displayed in Device Manager.

If problems persist, checkout our article – Solving Graphic Card Problems.