Monthly Archives: September 2022
Computer Courses: Do We Really Need Them?
Computer Courses: Do We Really Need Them?
For Seniors This Does Compute
Probably the most prevalent, and perhaps least costly of any training anywhere are computer courses. In fact, computer courses are about the most important courses offered, as they provide skills needed for personal as well as business acumen.
Community colleges, senior centers, community centers, non-profit organizations, high schools, colleges, universities and private for-profit firms all offer computer courses. Many retails and office supply stores, as well as e-merchants, offer computer courses by e-book, POD (print on demand), Web-based training and CD or DVD.
For seniors especially the choice in computer courses is diverse, plentiful and generally low cost. One of the perks of growing old is the right to become part of what is fast becoming a commonplace college affiliated organization – Creative Retirement centers. These are typically cropping up on the campuses of community colleges and state universities and offer computer courses, discounts on standard college courses, senior computer centers, events, trips and get togethers such as meetings, dances and dinners.
The impetus behind these creative retirement facilities and organizations and their computer centers and computer courses was the University of North Carolina and its Asheville campus. The home of the Center for Creative Retirement, UNC Ashville each Memorial Weekend hosts a weekend get-together for seniors or about-to-be-retirees, with a look at the various facilities and housing available locally, the various courses including computer courses offered at the UNC campus club, and a tour of the local area.
The College for Seniors is a program of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement, established in 1988. With full access to the resources of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, College for Seniors members keep mentally and physically fit through participation in classes and possibly even teaching a class or two.
College for Seniors draws from members’ experiences and professional expertise as well as from the UNCA faculty to offer four terms each year. Courses range from Chaucer to computers, foreign affairs to opera, yoga to history. Held on the UNCA campus and at community locations, courses are non-credit, with no tests or grades, open to all interested adults. Members collaborate with staff to teach, learn, design curricula and arrange special events. Educational travel opportunities are available. Term-renewable registration entitles members to as many courses as schedules permit.
All College for Seniors students are required to be members of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement. This membership allows participation in all Center for Creative Retirement programs and provides a UNCA parking permit, a UNCA identification card, and UNCA library privileges. There are no age limits for College for Seniors courses or Center for Creative Retirement membership.
Examples of computer courses offered as part of College for Seniors include a basic Getting Started with Computers course, Advanced Home Computer, Basic e-mail and Internet access, MS Word training, Excel Spreadsheet basics, and Power Point basics. The only prerequisites for the more advanced of these computer courses are knowledge of the keyboard and mouse, and comfort with the use of both. A basic knowledge of either Windows or Macintosh jargon and menu bar items such as filing, editing, viewing and inserting functions. You should also know commands such as copying, cutting and pasting, and standard and formatting toolbars.
For the beginning computer courses, you don’t even need these rudimentary understandings, though. The computer starter course assumed you’ve never used a computer before, and teaches the senior student how to navigate around the Internet, and how to conduct searches. Windows applications are taught as well in these basic courses. Here the retirees learn how to use word processing to save files, and to create folders. They also learn the basics of sending and receiving e-mail.
Gaming captures the hearts of gamers, alleviates loneliness, and creates a new market for businesses.
Gaming captures the hearts of gamers, alleviates loneliness, and creates a new market for businesses.
Gaming is popular with teenagers, women, children, as well as men. Older people say they play games as it alleviates loneliness and puts them in contact with others. Statistics reveal that 41% of gamers are women and more than 43 % gamers are aged 25-49. And, research predicts that the games market in 2005 will be US$ 29 billion.
Players can choose between stored games and online games. Stored games are played on consoles while online games are played on a computer using either a broadband or dial up Internet connection. The growth in online gaming according to IDC, a research firm, is set to touch 256 million users by 2008. And, that gaming is serious business is conformed by the hosting of international conferences devoted to gaming and the formation of “Casual Games Special Interest Group.”
Gaming captures the imagination of the players and uses the senses: sight, sound, as well as touch. Many need the use of intelligence as well as strategy. Complex graphics, colors, high quality virtual realities are all set to grab as well as hold the attention of players. Multi-player gaming takes the interest to the next level –offers challenges as well as new horizons to be conquered.
Games played on the Internet are such that clever participants find ways to push the game beyond its visible limits, one can even device cheats to circumvent problems posed by the game. Games test the skills, intelligence, concentration ability as well as techie know how.
Online gaming architecture has six business aspects: the subscriber; the advertiser; the gaming platform provider; the broadband service provider; the network service provider; and the gaming content provider. It is big business—hardware revenues in 2005 are expected to be: US$ 9.4 billion with software and content revenue touching US.9 billion.
However, there is a downside, gaming can become addicted and affect normal life—kids stop studying, housewives neglect their daily routine, and people are tempted to play games even at work. It can lead to suicides, mental imbalance as well as destroy marriages and careers. Gamers become recluses and rarely make social contact outside their gaming groups.
Addiction studies indicate that gaming can result in: obsession, neglect, lying, socially unacceptable behaviors, carpal tunnel syndrome, dry eyes, neglect of personal hygiene, as well as sleep disorders.
Popular gaming sites include: MSN games which has 3.4 million monthly registered users ; Pogo which has 8.6 million monthly registered users; and Yahoo games which has 10.1 million registered monthly users.
Analysts predict that by 2007 online gaming will be at least 285 petabits a month, the revenue generated by online subscriptions for gaming is expected to reach US$ 650 million annually.
The future according to Peter Molyneux, is in developing games that “reward a player for “out of the box” thinking and creativity. Games must encourage players to be interactive and decide the direction the game will take.
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Keeping Yourself Business Oriented
Keeping Yourself Business Oriented
For most home businesses, the computer and the
Internet are an integral part of the success or
failure of the business.
However, just like when you are at work, there’s
always the temptation to check your email, talk to
friends online, or play a game when you are not busy.
However, just like at a job that you commute to, this
should be something that should be avoided when you
are working at your home based business.
One way to help avoid doing this is to set up an
account on your computer that is just for your home
based business.
Set up an email that is just business, set up an
instant messenger that is just business, and use the
web browser to just do things that are part of the
business.
The temptation is still there, of course, but if you
start doing this right away you will find that it’s
not so difficult.
The other reason that setting up an account that is
separate for your business is good is because when you
are doing things that are personal on the computer you
will be less likely to work during your ‘off’ hours.
One of the biggest mistakes that people who work from
home make is that they are ‘always’ working. They
never allow themselves time to be ‘off the clock’.
This isn’t something that is healthy, and it’s
something that should be avoided. Having a separate
account on your computer helps to prevent this from
happening.
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Explore Your Creativity With A Degree In Video Game Design
Explore Your Creativity With A Degree In Video Game Design
Video games have exploded in popularity, thanks to our high paced and pressurized world crunching down on individuals. People need a break from reality and video games provide that venue of escapism, and businesses have definitely gotten the message loud and clear. Developing new games is a fierce industry and companies need people who can always bring on better games that stimulate all the senses at once. But how can you get into this rising segment and turn your interests in computers into something that’s a lucrative, fun career full of opportunity?
A degree in video game design is the training you need to break into a market where you can create fantastical worlds or develop settings that are so realistic, you can almost touch them. Individuals are demanding more and more from software companies, and only the top quality games will succeed in today’s competitive world. Investing your talents in a solid education that will give you the skills and know how to create high tech video games is a wise choice. The job opportunities will never peter out or become saturated, thanks to new technology that’s always being put into the market, and you can get into the gaming craze by getting the best training possible to send you into an amazing career.
You’ll have the chance to use your own imagination to create great characters that become popular household names. Remember Mario and Luigi? Well, those two characters were created by people with video game design skills and they earned their makers millions of dollars. What about Yoshi? The little dinosaur is another character created by someone with video game design skills that has made someone rich and famous. Why can’t that person who develops the next popular, fun character be you? Online gaming is another venue that has become a multi-million dollar industry and all you have to do is look up World of Warcraft to see how many people are hooked on video games, making the market a rich one for job opportunities.
So what’s involved in video game design? Educational facilities will provide you with artistic training to help you create visual images that snag people’s interest and keep them gaming, as well as the know how to apply that to animation and 3D modelling. Story development is a must, and you’ll be able to think up new ways of challenging people with tricks and traps or enemies to battle to become heroes and earn glorious rewards and treasures. Not only that, those who offer degrees in video game design will help you to put together a profile that will make you an attractive asset to software companies looking for talented 3D artists and gaming developers.
One thing is for sure: Without a degree in video game design, the competition to break into the industry is so stiff that you’ll never be able to get ahead. Great ideas and a creative imagination isn’t all it takes to open fantastic opportunities and set you into an amazing career. Top quality skills and training that keep you on top of the game and get you that perfect job are the only way to go about finding your place in the lucrative industry of video games. You’ll learn the practical side of design and animation to be able to develop games that bring in sales for businesses and earn the skills you need to be head hunted by companies. More than that, obtaining your degree in video game design won’t just be an important investment and career choice, it’ll also be a blast of fun as you expand your horizons and creativity, learning to think outside the box and come up with new, exciting worlds and characters.
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PC Power Supply
PC Power Supply
There comes a day in the life of every pc owner when you must make a decision. Do I fix it, or do I buy a new one? Many people just go out and buy a new one, but I’m not sure that’s a cost effective way to deal with the problem. In other words, you can call me cheap. Last year, my computer started making a disturbing whirling noise, and I was afraid it was on its last leg. We did a little research and figured out it was the power supply. The pc power supply on my computer not only handles the incoming power, it has a fan to keep the computer cool. At times, the fan would stop working, and I knew that wasn’t good.
Once the fan started giving out, I knew I had to either get a new computer or I had to get a new pc power supply. My husband is somewhat good with things like this, but he’s just guessing when he takes something apart. As nervous as I was, I allowed him to open the computer and he cleaned out the fan. While doing this, we noticed the pc power supply was exceptionally easy to remove and replace. The fan worked again for a while, but started to conk out again.
I got on the Internet and looked up pc power supply, and saw that I could find one for under a hundred dollars that could be shipped to my home. Sometimes, the parts to fix a computer cost more than a new one, so I wasn’t sure what the price would be. As you can imagine, I was immensely relieved. We ordered the part and it came three days later. My husband easily installed the new pc power supply, and it has worked like a dream ever since. Best of all, because I work online, the replacement part was a tax write off.
If you hear the fan in your computer acting up, don’t panic too much. It might just be your pc power supply. These are easy to replace, and won’t cost you a lot of money. Just make sure you find out the model number and that you are ordering the correct pc power supply unit for your particular computer. If you don’t think you can replace it, find someone to do it for you. However, let them know you know it is an easy procedure and don’t let them charge you too much to do it. A new pc power supply will give your computer a few more years of life before you have to replace it.