Laptop For College: Best Laptops For College Students

As a college student, it's impossible to survive without a laptop. This is because you need to write essays, do homework, and sometimes take online tests. Due to the importance of the device, it's paramount that you get the right one. If you are planning of buying a laptop, here are some of the best to go for:

Toshiba chromebook

The device starts at $279; therefore, ideal for a student who is operating on a tight budget. The laptop will allow you to easily complete your school assignments without any problems.

It also has a long battery life; therefore, you won't have to buy a new battery every now and then. It comes with two USB 3.0 ports; therefore, you can use your flash disk and charge your phone at the same time.

Although, the gadget has the above great features, it's not ideal for multitasking purposes. This is because it does not have a powerful processor. As a result of this, you should not be surprised when your professor's online class fails to load on your device.

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite

The device has great features such as a stylish design, comfortable keyboard, and a decent battery life. It's available with a touch screen.

The 13.3-inch ultrabook packs 1,3x768 resolution, 4GB RAM, and quad-core 1GHz AMD A6 APU. These specifications will allow you to handle your school work without any problems; however, you will have problems playing games. This is because the specifications don't allow the device to play games.

As a student, it's wise to go for the non-touch screen device as it's cheaper.

HP G62t series

The series features a 15.6-inch display, standard intel graphics card, dual core processor, and over 350 Gigabytes of hard drive space. Just like the other units, the specifications in the device are enough for intense lectures and take-home projects.

It weighs 5.5 pounds; therefore, you will carry it easily around college. The 51/2 hour battery life means that you have ample time to complete your work even if there is no power.

To ensure that it's long lasting, the laptop comes with a one year warrant. If you are interested in buying the device, the prices start from $449.

Netbooks

These are newer breeds of laptops that are quickly growing in popularity. The good side with the devices is that they are portable and easy to use. The laptops come with a 7-12 inch screen and allow you to run programs such as Microsoft word, email, and even Photoshop.

Best Features to Look For in a Bluetooth Speaker

Sometimes, we are not sure about what we like. At other times, the things we have, are ridden with wires. Think about your gaming devices or your smart phones. They come with a lot of wires. So, what do you do if you need a good Bluetooth speaker? Here is a look at some of the best features that you need to look out for.

Size: One of the most important factors when it comes to picking your device is its size. The very point of using a Bluetooth speaker is that it minimizes the fuss- no wires required, runs completely on battery (you just need to charge it up once in a while) and takes up very little space, no matter where inside or outside the house you want to place it, leaving you with enough room to manoeuvre while it plays your chosen music. Most customers, therefore, are advised to look for a compact model when it comes to a Bluetooth speaker, since portability also becomes an additional decisive factor when one has to buy a Bluetooth speaker.

Sound quality: The primary need of a the device is, of course, the music you wish to play on it. It makes sense, thus, to buy only a speaker which provides you with the best sound quality imaginable. While size is an important factor, many manufacturers choose to compromise on size rather than sound quality, for obvious reasons. It is always a good idea to check on the sound quality of the speaker you pick, in case the small and convenient portability comes with a tinny sound instead of the full, round sound that you desire.

Weatherproof/ Waterproof: Since these devices are often aimed at use in the great outdoors for parties, barbecues, brunches, or even camping trips, one of the most important qualities they must possess is ruggedness. Battery operated devices as they are, users of Bluetooth speakers often remain worried about their exposure to the elements. Therefore, when buying your speakers, make sure that they can withstand drops of water up to at least six feet- these are the most rugged ones, suited to your outdoor needs.

Functionality: All buyers of these devices are required to check their purchases for some essential add-ons and features, such as song playback, and/or answer calls, and so on, which provide the user with the maximum amount of control. When it comes to this, the more control, the better.

Choosing The Best Electronic Data Destruction Service Provider

Getting secure document or data destruction services is very important for any company. At a time when consequences of security breaches are severe, it is important to hire a firm that will provide the services you need. When you know the importance of proper data destruction, you know that it is worth your while to take the time to choose a good service provider. Following are some qualities to look for.

Enhanced Security

Make sure that you find a firm that takes security very seriously. Make sure that the company is certified, and it meets the set standards. Find out the types of bins or containers that they use and how they are secured. You also need to find out the control measures that are in place to make sure that, the data is destroyed and that your documents are not stolen during transit or storage.

Customer Service

Apart from finding out about response times and schedules, you also need to know that the process is efficient and that all your needs are met. Find out about the services offered. Some companies have a range of services including storage and data assessment. Getting good customer service is essential when dealing with any electronic data destruction service provider. Do you get a prompt response and how easy is it to call and get the help that you need?

Find out the price

Price is a very important factor when choosing the service provider. It is a good idea to get quotes from several companies before you make the final decision. Remember that there are many options out there and you do not have to settle for the most expensive service when you can get an alternative. When you receive a quote, find out what it covers and ask if there are any additional charges.

Environmentally friendly

It is important to find a green company so that you know that you are doing your part in saving the environment. Find out how the company controls its carbon footprint and how they dispose of the waste. A good company will not hesitate to give you the facts and information you need.

It is a good idea to do some research when looking for a company to handle your data destruction. Talk to other businesses in your industry and find out their experiences with the firms that they use. Remember that price should not be the final basis when looking for the best service. Sometimes, cheap can be very costly!

Plugins and Themes to Supercharge SEO of WordPress Blog

Blogging is an easy way for college students and retired people to make money online. Anybody having good knowledge and experience about something can be a blogger, because he/she can share his/her personal experience with people searching solutions for their problems on internet. In return, the blogger can earn money via different ads platforms like Google AdSense and amazon affiliates.

Mostly used blogging platform is WordPress, because it's handy and free for everyone. Today I am going to share information of some excellent WordPress plugins and themes that you probably don't know about.

WordPress Themes

It's usual for newbie bloggers to search for WordPress themes with better SEO. The best frameworks in my opinion are thesis and genesis. Both have built-in options to enhance SEO of your blog.

Genesis

Genesis framework has options for adding meta tags for posts, categories and tags; these options are embedded in genesis while in other frameworks you have to install any third party SEO plugin to do this task. Also, hundreds of different skins are available on internet that are supported by genesis. Genesis's skins are minimal and considered as clean skins with visible text and images. Moreover, almost all SEO rules are followed in genesis framework; some of them are listed below.

    Using H1 tag for blog's title or tagline, it's upon you where you use it.
    No HTML and CSS errors are there in genesis.
    It automatically tells you about your article's SEO. Is it good or bad?

Also Google's spam head matt cutts also uses this framework for his own blog.

Thesis

Thesis also has features like genesis but it can't compete with genesis in terms of quality. Bloggers can consider it a good option to start their blog. But because of some admin panel bugs this theme isn't that much popular in bloggers. It also has eye-catching skins for every niche comprising wonderful colors and designs.

WordPress Plugins

Here I shall only discuss about three awesome plugins that can enhance your blog's SEO.

WordPress SEO by Yoast

It's an all in one SEO plugin for newbies. With the help of this plugin you can add meta titles, descriptions and tags anywhere in your blog. Furthermore, it provides built-in option to generate sitemap for your blog, so there is no need to install any other sitemap plugin. Breadcrumb navigation is important in any website, because it helps visitors to find their current place on blog; WordPress SEO by yoast also provides the option to trigger breadcrumbs on the blog.

WP External Links

After Google's algorithm penalizations (Penguin and Panda) it is essential for bloggers to optimize their blogs according to webmaster guidelines. If you have lots of dofollow external links, then your blog incorporates high risk of penalization by Google panda because it will consider your blog a "spam blog". WP external links plugin helps you to nofollow all external links available in your blog in articles, footer and sidebar.

SEO Friendly Images

If you want your blog's images to be searched in search engines, you should use image alt tag. This tag describes that what your image has, it's essential for all images because crawlers can't read the text available in images. It's difficult for bloggers to add alt tags to their blog's images, if the blog consists of images in huge amount. SEO friendly images adds image alt tag automatically to all images according to the page content, at which image is placed.

One Day Everyone Will Have a 3D Printer

#1: NEED

Every man-made thing in the world is born out of need. I reckon the most basic way to question the future of the industry is:

Will every household have a need for a 3D printer?

The most commonly used anecdote when looking at the future of 3D printing is the comparison to the 2D paper printing industry. It's quite commonly reported that 3D printers will be as omnipresent as the familiar objects that the word printer used to represent. I suppose to compare the two, you need to look at why people started buying paper printers in the first place. The predecessors of computer-based image & word processing (leading to document printing) came in the forms of film photography and typewriters. Both were thriving industries in the years before the personal computer; there was an obvious and consistent need for hard copy documents and images. This more or less guaranteed the usefulness of paper printers for the home computer.

It's difficult right now to speculate as to the need for 3D printers, but I think it's fair to say that as there is no real necessity to print or create our own 3D parts, components, toys etc., the requirement may be lower than the hype suggests. As Dale Dougherty at Make: Magazine suggests, their use in the everyday home will, for the foreseeable future, most likely be limited to making toys etc.; or at least until there's a marked change in the creative productivity of Joe Bloggs.

The specifications of the machines that are within the price range of everyday household budgets are relatively limited. They are more or less entirely limited to polymeric materials (ABS, PLA, PS, Nylon). Although multi-extruder printers are starting to appear (see this), most of the printed components will be one or two colours/materials. Given the complexity of today's toys (I know some people who might put tablet computers in this category), kids don't seem to have as much imagination with rudimentary plastic toys (especially of one colour). This doesn't bode well for the utilisation of 3D printers for toy production.

Another popular use for 3D printers is for making decorative objects and furniture. I personally feel that with the limited choice in materials, decorative objects can sometimes feel cheap and tacky when printed in garish bold-coloured plastic (a good example of this). Having said that, there can be certain exceptions to this, especially when playing with lighting and adding other components to the 3D printed part.

#2: WANT

I reckon the bulk of purchases of desktop/plug and play 3D printers will be made by people who want one rather than need one. Some printers will be treated as trophies; never used, always polished. As soon as they approach price points which put them in the reach of most domestic households, and as designs become more contained and unobtrusive, dads all over the world will start buying them for the home office. The new Micro 3D is a good example of this.

When any new technology opens itself up to a new market, there's almost always a wave of early adopters and (perhaps overly) eager beavers with romantic sci-fi notions of 3D printing your own iPhone 6.

People will want to have the ability to 3D print anything they want, whenever they want. They want to have the option. But after the first 3 attempts going wrong due to lack of experience, temperature or material problems, or just poor 3D modelling, people will begin to become aware of how much preparation, thought and finishing goes into a single print. In the long run, people will generally become less and less bothered about putting in the hours just for a replacement power plug, when they can just click "1 Click Buy" on Amazon and get back about their business. The "want" is likely to diminish.

#3: REALITY

Since we started, and since becoming daily users of desktop 3D printers (namely Makerbot Replicator 2Xs), we quickly came to the realisation that the portrayal of quick, high quality prints on demand was fairly rose-tinted.

Through my time and experience as a 3D printer, it's become apparent that a lot of the people who are supposed to know how to model in 3D (design, architecture and engineer students), still struggle to model for 3D printing. The first step to creating your own 3D objects is being able to convert them from an idea to a virtual (mathematical) model. This generally takes years of experience to get quite good at, though a lot of companies - particularly Autodesk - are trying now to create more and more simplified 3D modelling software. It won't be long before everyone is printing out their own "custom" sphere overlayed onto their own "custom" cube. Of course, you could just get your 3D model from somewhere else.

The next step is to develop an understanding of material properties and the systems that the printer uses to create the part. Knowledge of support angles, densities, overhangs, infills, shells and G-Code (the generic programming language for a lot of FDM printers) all come into play here. Then there's the print and bed temperatures and ensuring a level print bed. These are standard issues that need to be considered for every print. I won't get into the frequent maintenance routines.

What comes next, naturally, is a big pile of fails. It takes a certain level of experience to know how to get prints right first time. After a couple of late nights and prints failing 7 hours in, people will begin to feel less inclined to use their printers. And how many fails will it take before the user just gives up and uploads there STL file for printing somewhere online.

It won't be too long before the reality of owning and using desktop 3D printers becomes widely discussed, the hourly challenges start to grate and DIY workarounds become a huge creator of internet traffic.

Maybe the hardware and software will develop to fast that truly "plug & play" type machines are on the not-too-distant horizon, and 2 year old children will be successfully printing their own bibs. But, given the fact that we're all still struggling with our inkjet printers 40 years later, I somehow doubt it.

Computer Recycling: Things To Do Before Recycling Your Devices

Computer data is very sensitive; therefore, you should be very careful when recycling your device.To guide you through here are steps that you should follow to ensure that you safely recycle your computer.

Backup your files

To avoid losing your information, you should backup your files. In addition to transferring your files to your computer, you should make a completely different and independent backup.

One of the best places to store the files is in an external hard drive. You can use a 100-500 GB hard drive. If you have many files, you can use a one or two terabyte hard drive. The good side is that hard drives are inexpensive. For example, you can find a high quality backup drive for $50.

If you don't have many files, you don't have to buy an external hard drive; you can simply backup the files in a DVD.

De-authorize the programs

Many software programs allow you to use them in only a few computers and they track this information through authorizations.

For you to use the programs in different computers, you should de-authorize the programs before you remove them from your old computer. The good side is that de-authorization takes very little time and it's a very easy process.

Wipe the drive

Many people tend to delete the files that they don't want and think that they are safe; however, this is not the case. To be safe you need to wipe your hard drive. The good thing is that there are many programs that you can use to do the work.

Some of the most effective programs that you can use are: Wipe Boot, Nuke, and Eraser. Before you recycle your device, you should take a look at the hard drive and confirm that all the data has been wiped.This is because some programs fail to wipe all the information.

Check e-cycling requirements

If you are planning of donating the computer to a nonprofit organization you should take a look at the e-cycling requirements and ensure that your device meets the requirements.

You should note that nonprofit organizations usually don't have funds or staff to repair or purchase broken or missing computer parts; therefore, you should ensure that your device has all the necessary parts.

Conclusion

These are the things that you should do before you recycle your device. To ensure that your device is in the right hands, you should research and identify the best recycling company.