Pony Of Prey Blog

Selling new and used merchandise has its battles. Whether you are in the business of selling entertainment systems, construction, or medical equipment the rule remains the same. There are useful items that can be used so long as the right customer is found to purchase them. At first glance entertainment systems seem to be the most marketable item in that most everyone wants a television in their home. But what becomes of the items that are specific to certain industries?

Function is by and large the most important factor. It doesn’t matter if the construction equipment has had five previous owners or if it is refurbished ultrasound equipment. The purpose is that it performs as is expected. Medical equipment performance is vital to patient care and finding the best and most trusted equipment without the proper business connections could be difficult.

Whether you’re in the market for a Philips, Sony, or GE equipment, medical systems are available in all brands. What is most important is that when purchasing these items you make informed decisions and understand that quality and cost can actually go together because the demand is so strong. Hospitals need to obtain the best equipment that is also the most cost-effective.

Just a time ago it seemed like powerful notebooks were only being produced by a few certain resellers and were built to order, not produced in large numbers. In the past the lack of sales alleviated by the profit margins. I guess numerous people would concur they always wanted a gaming notebook but it was just out of reach for the masses. They were pretty much desktop rivals and the most powerful, best laptop you could buy. I would get seriously excited by them but I knew I could not go out and buy laptops at the high prices they were going for. In the present things are very contrasting with global brands also producing gaming laptops.

These notebook computers have a particular price range and these companies know they don’t have to be price aggressively in this sector. This could be a crucial way to produce sound margins for them. In addition they know they can persuade us to buy laptops like these better than small outfits. What would small manufacturers possibly do if they are priced out of the market? In my point of view the large players will command the market direction. In addition customers just seem to trust larger companies more.

I reckon its some what laughable that as it comes with the brand name they are automatically perceived as the best laptops. Still however, for the local resellers this should turn out to be good. I don’t believe consumers would prefer to have the same specification as everyone else in this type of niche. Such purchasers are usually tech savvy and can liken all the technical details. For this kind of niche, the configurations are typically more valued rather than the looks.

As a possible purchaser myself this is in fact all a beneficial state of the market for me. I could imagine some price wars going on in this nichelater on. Who can say what will take place. I’m actually not sure anymore. Different notebook computers are constantly coming out and these latest models normally ask for premium prices. I think we’ll have to see whether this overcrowding creates any significant positives for gamers.

In the quantum vacuum there are many transient acceleration vectors of mean magnitude a randomly oriented. If the vacuum is viewed from an accelerated frame, the vectors going with the frame appear diminished, and the vectors going against the frame appear enhanced, resulting in a net polarization of the vacuum. If the frame’s acceleration g is small, the effect is linear, and if the vacuum is filled with vectors the coefficient of the polarization will be unity. The standard exponential term for suppressing high-energy fluctuations must also be applied. Hence the vacuum polarization is g exp (g/a). The terms of the exponent when multiplied by the dipole moment have the dimensions of energy.

The rest frame of the galaxy, for example, is accelerated with respect to local inertial frames that fall into the center. In this rest frame the vacuum appears polarized and enhances the galaxy’s gravitational field g. So we have

g= -GM/r2 + g exp (g/a)

where g is understood to be negative. For g much greater than a, the exponential is negligible and Newton’s law results. But for g less than a, the exponential can be expanded to 1 + g/a and we get

g2 = aGM/r2

This is precisely the formula found empirically by Milgrom to explain the motion of stars and galaxies in the weak-field region, except the law of gravity is altered, not the law of motion. (Scientific American, August 2002). He finds that a is about one Angstrom per second squared, which is near the “surface gravity” of an electron, the field of a one-kilogram mass at one meter, or the field of a galaxy in its outer parts. Also, the square of a is not far from the value of the cosmological constant, in units where c=1. In this model, a may be viewed as the saturated field strength of the quantum vacuum.

By using the correct quantum law of gravity, there is no need to postulate the existence of dark matter to produce the observed gravity.

geocities.com/quantumgravitydarkmatter/

Distribution streamlines physical process such as the picking
and packing of goods as well as the movement of goods internally
(warehousing) and externally (shipping and transportation
logistics). This process also allows for the extended supply
chain through the transmission and receipt of electronic
messages.

Distribution manages all stock related operations across the
extended enterprise. It enables dramatic reductions in receiving
and delivery times and, with PRONTO’s open architecture and
powerful collaborative applications, manages the information
flow both upstream and downstream through the entire supply
chain.

According to Mike Ligudzinski, CEO of PRONTO North America,
“Distribution brings a new level of efficiency to the supply
chain processes through superior integration of product,
information, and finance flows. Business agility is dramatically
increased with rapid sales order entry and outstanding warehouse
throughput.”

Pronto North America, Inc. based in Eden Prairie, MN, is widely
recognized as the authority in technologically driven business
solutions and process management. Utilizing innovative
implementation techniques and tools, Pronto North America
generates increased performance, service, efficiency, and
accountability. Through PEER (Process Evaluation Executive
Review), Pronto North America captures the values of Lean
Manufacturing throughout the enterprise. This functionality is
accomplished utilizing a highly-trained world-class staff and an
innovative process modeling and automation toolset unmatched in
the industry, ensuring the realization of continuous process
improvement and profitability. This expertise segues to PRONTO
BPM powered by XSol.

Pronto North America is the North American Master Distributor of
PRONTO-Xi, a comprehensive software system allowing
manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to effectively manage
all phases of their business. Far beyond just another Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) System, PRONTO-Xi’s financial and
distribution applications are unique and have provided maximum
return on investment for a wide variety of organizations since
1976. From PRONTO Production to PRONTO Advanced Warehousing;
from PRONTO Planning to PRONTO Quality Management System (QMS);
from PRONTO Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) to PRONTO
Forecasting Management, the cross-section and breadth of
integrated elements addressed by PRONTO-Xi is unmatched in the
marketplace and justifies its natural leadership role as the
best fully integrated business software solution.

# # #

In your BCMSN / CCNP exam study, it’s easy to overlook some of the details of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). After all, you learned all of that in your CCNA studies, right? Not necessarily! While some of the BCMSN material will be a review for you, there are some details regarding familiar topics that you need to learn. That includes the timers for STP - Hello Time, MaxAge, and Forward Delay.

You may remember these timers from your CCNA studies as well, and you should also remember that these timers should not be changed lightly. What you might not have known is that if you decide to change any and all of these timers, that change must be configured on the root bridge! The root bridge will inform the nonroot switches of the change via BPDUs.

Hello Time is the interval between BPDUs, two seconds by default.

Forward Delay is the length of both the listening and learning STP stages, with a default value of 15 seconds.

Maximum Age, referred to by the switch as MaxAge, is the amount of time a switch will retain a BPDU’s contents before discarding it. The default is 20 seconds.

The value of these timers can be changed with the spanning-tree vlan command shown below. Verify the changes with the show spanning-tree command.

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 ?

forward-time Set the forward delay for the spanning tree

hello-time Set the hello interval for the spanning tree

max-age Set the max age interval for the spanning tree

priority Set the bridge priority for the spanning tree

root Configure switch as root

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 hello-time 5

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 max-age 30

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 forward-time 20

SW1(config)#^Z

SW1#show spanning-tree vlan 1

VLAN0001

Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee

Root ID Priority 32769

Address 000f.90e1.c240

This bridge is the root

Hello Time 5 sec Max Age 30 sec Forward Delay 20 sec

Bridge ID Priority 32769 (priority 32768 sys-id-ext 1)

Address 000f.90e1.c240

Hello Time 5 sec Max Age 30 sec Forward Delay 20 sec

Aging Time 300

Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type

—————- —- — ——— ——– ——————————–

Fa0/11 Desg FWD 19 128.11 P2p

Fa0/12 Desg FWD 19 128.12 P2p

Again, you should always take great care in changing these timers. Those defaults are set for a reason - helping to prevent switching loops!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP and CCNA tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNP exam with The Bryant Advantage!

As far as marketing goes I guess this article may one day bring
me some hate for teaching some dumbass to build online
infomercials, but I assure you my motives are far less
industrious.

If you live outside North America, like me, you might think
watching your favorite TV provider back home was impossible. In
fact for years I figured I was just stuck with crap TV and
limewire downloads. Trailerpark Boys, Battlestar Gallactica, and
Family Guy had become pleasures I relied on friends to send me
in the mail, years after they aired. Until now…

I have been fiddling with this all day and I will say VLC
(www.videolan.org) is one of the coolest open source programs I
have come across in some time. Platform support is universal
from Win32, *Nix to even long dead BeOS. These are also the
people behind Google Video if that is any indication. VLC allows
you to stream video online, multicast, save incoming streams,
and do all sorts of cool things only people with lots of money
should be able to do - like open your own TV station. The
quality is really amazing and of course endlessly tweakable. Oh
and ya did I mention it is completely free? Ok I did, onwards…

I tested VLC by getting a friend to stream DISH Network to me
from the US and it was VERY watchable. Keep in mind this was
streaming from Seattle, WA to Bangkok, TH. 18 hops.

Streaming using a Video Capture Card

What you will need:

- Operating System - 1 Video Capture Card - Drivers for Video
Capture card (go to driversguide.com to find software drivers
for video capture cards) - DirectX 9.0c - VLC (please get the
nightly CVS version, a lot of good folks work really hard on
this software, and PLEASE donate to them if you can) - A network
connection - Windows Media Player - A WHOLE LOT of patience

Step 1

- Install Capture Card (I use all ATI Wonder Cards and have no
problem) - Install or Update your DirectX (windowsupdate.com) -
Install VLC

Step 2 FOR NAT(using DHCP for home networks)/DSL/CABLE
Routers

- Go to your router and click on Port Forwarding - Enter your
VLC server’s IP address and the desired port for forwarding. -
Your router should accept the setting and tell you everything is
ok

Step 3

- Fire up VLC - Go to File > Open Captue Device > Video Device
Name > Refresh.. (wait a moment) click on the default bar and
then click on your capture device driver (the one that came with
your card) - Now click Stream/Save > Settings - Click on Play
Locally and MMSH. Insert YOUR LOCAL IP ADDRESS and DESIRED port
(for folks using NAT thats 192.X.X.X that you forwarded on your
router earlier) - Click on Video Codec and select your Video
Codec format (I use WMV since I am using WMP), then select a
good bit rate like 192 or 128, then select the size of the
picture in your player (1 - 2) - Repeat the instructions above
for audio - One VERY IMPORTANT quality setting is TTL - Type 10
at a minimum. This tells VLC the number of routers your stream
will probably go across. - Click Ok and Click Ok again to start
your stream

Step 4

- Open WMP and click on File > Open URL - Type http://:9494 -
Your video will take a bit to buffer but then you should see
your pictures.

I would love to hear results from anyone else working with VLC.
My next step is to setup a remote control with an external IRD
box, so I can change channels - yes people ARE doing this! Check
my official Vide
oLan Tutorial thread for updates on this project.

RFID technology is used frequently today and has been around
since the 1920s, but not many people know about, or understand
it. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and is used
to store and retrieve information. This information is stored
and retrieved using RFID tags or transponders. RFID tags are
small and can be incorporated into many products. The tags have
antennas that allow them to receive and respond to
radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver.

Two Types of RFID Tags

There are two types of RFID tags; active tags, and passive tags.
Passive tags do not have their own power supply, but rather
receive their power from a tiny electrical current present in
the antenna that is induced by an incoming radio frequency scan.
Because of the small power present in the system, passive RFID
tags are used only in short distances (such as an ID card).

Active RFID tags have a power source and therefore are much
stronger and can be used over larger distances and are therefore
more highly effective. Active RFID tags also have the potential
to store more information than their passive counterparts. Some
active RFID tags have a battery life of up to ten years.

The System of RFID

RFID works off of a system that relies on tags, tag readers, tag
programming stations, sorting equipment, circulation readers,
and tag inventory wands. RFID is generally used in security,
because security gates are programmed to read the RFID tags and
then either open or close accordingly. The system helps the
information be easily transmitted via an RFID device. Systems
have evolved over the years along with RFID chips. The hope is
that RFID will one day be available to everyone (meaning
consumers) because it will be more efficient and cost effective
to implement RFID processes.

Where is RFID Used?

RFID can be found almost everywhere. RFID can be found in
bookstores and CD stores. The little alarm that sounds if a CD
has not been scanned is made possible by an RFID chip. RFID
chips are found on animal tags, on books in libraries, in car
alarms and car lock systems. RFID can also be used to detect
motion. This could be very useful in the coming years in terms
of prisons. In 2004 the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction (ODRH) approved a $415,000 contract to test RFID
technology in prisons. The idea is that the prisoners will ware
wristbands that will watch their movement. If there is any
movement, which is out of the ordinary, security will be
alerted. This technology will be employed in many states in the
coming years.

Conclusion

RFID technology seems to have endless possibilities. Some
critics of RFID technology say that it violates the privacy of
citizens. This is based on the fact that RFID can be used to
track whereabouts of people and obtain personal information.
Putting all of this power into a little chip makes it
undetectable. However, RFID can also possibly be used in
driver’s licenses for faster police scanners, and as a way to
monitor hospital patients. With every potentially harmful
application of RFID, there are several wonderful applications.
It will be interesting to see all of the wonderful applications
of RFID in the future.

The format and difficulty of computer certification exams is constantly changing. When I took my first certification exam (Novell NetWare 3.1x CNA, January 1997), there was no such thing as a simulator question, and my practical skills really were not tested. The exams then were much heavier on memorization.

One factor that helped make up for that was that the Novell exams were adaptive. If you missed a question on a particular topic, you would continue to be asked questions about that topic until you got it right. You couldn’t afford to be weak in any topic, because the exam would most likely find that out and keep hitting you with questions on that topic until you failed.

Adding to the stress, after a certain number of questions your exam could end at any time. You had no idea how many questions you would get, just that you would get at least 15. Every time you hit the “next” button after question 15, you didn’t know if you’d get another question or if the exam would suddenly end and give you a pass or fail response.

Times have changed. Cisco has led the way in introducing simulator questions to their exams, where the candidate is presented with a simulation of a router or network and asked to perform tasks that someone who is ready to earn that certification should be able to perform. This is a much better test of competency than the exams were eight years ago.

What will be the next “big jump” in computer certification exams? To earn the world’s most difficult technical certification, the CCIE, the candidate must first pass a rigorous 100-question qualification exam, and must then pass a practical lab exam. The candidate is presented with an exacting set of network requirements and must build that network on a pod of Cisco routers and switches in less than eight hours.

This is just personal opinion and not “insider information”, but I believe the day will come when the CCNA, CCNP, and other Cisco certifications will require some kind of hands-on practical lab to earn the certification. What better way to test competency than to have to perform tasks on real Cisco equipment? There would be more overhead for Cisco with this kind of testing, since lab equipment and lab proctors would be needed, but the already-prized CCNA and CCNP would become that much more valuable in the workplace if employers knew that to earn that certification, the job candidate had to pass a hands-on exam.

This would benefit the candidates as well, since it would do an even better job in protecting their investment in time and money. This could also be the next step in ferretting out candidates who try to get past the CCNA and CCNP exams via braindumps. As I always tell my students and customers, when you’re standing in front of that router or switch, there is no multiple choice … you either know it or you don’t!

Chris Bryant

CCIE #12933

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (www.thebryantadvantage.com), home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. Video courses and training, binary and subnetting help, and corporate training are also available.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” or “How To Pass The CCNP”, send a request to chris@thebryantadvantage.com today !