Good Help is So Hard to Find

So you have a dilemma. Your computer is broken and, like the rest of us, you have come to depend very heavily on your computer so right about now you are probably about to totally freak out and hit panic overload mode. Am I right?

There are so many questions like "Why Me?" or "Why Now?" or "What am I going to do?" or .... OK so you get the idea. Once you calm down and get back to thinking clearly, the main pressing issue will become clear. "Where can I get this computer fixed?" That is the real question, isn't it?

Well, that's where the real problem actually begins. You see, good help is hard to find, or so they say. You could call the manufacturer of your machine. Usually they have a toll free number and are more than glad to assist you. The only problem with that is that every person I have ever talked to who has had this type of problem has called the experience a total nightmare. That is not to say that the manufacturer technical support isn't good and that there are people out there who have had a good experience going this route, I just don't happen to know any of them.

Usually one of two things happens; either the machine is out of warranty and that means you have to pay an arm and a leg to even get support or purchase an extended warranty (if the manufacturer offers it) or, the more common scenario, involves being on the phone for hours, usually on hold and going through multiple transfers to get to the "right department" and then spending more time on the phone listening to a "technician" trying to walk you through some troubleshooting. 9 times out of 10, you get someone from another country that you can't understand very well to begin with and then, even if you do get someone whose English you can understand, since you yourself are not technical, you still have problems understanding what it is they are trying to instruct you to do.

Now, let's say that the previous option feels somewhat daunting and you want to try something else. You could always try going to one of the major retailers. There are a few problems with this method as well. First of all, Circuit City has gone out of business. Not that they were all that great in this department either, from what I've heard, but at least you had that option. Best Buy and Geek Squad are still around but I've also heard some pretty scary stories about their services. In addition to the 50/50 chance that you're taking that you will get your machine back in good working order, with all of your data intact (if your hard drive hasn't totally died) and not be charged an arm and a leg and be upsold a slew of additional items that you really didn't need, there's the headache of unplugging your machine and all of it's components and lugging it down to the store. Once it's there, I hope you aren't in a hurry to get it back because chances are it's going to be there a while.
Thankfully, you do have a few other options. If your computer is not totally wrecked and you can get on the internet, you have two options. You can search via Yahoo, Google , or another search engine, for a computer repair company in your area. The benefits of calling a local company are:

Google Wave - Replacing Email

Vic Gundotra, Vice President, Engineering at Google began the proceedings of day 2 at Google I/O on an excited note - "Yesterday we promised you a surprise and this morning, Google would surprise you" The day ended with a continuous applause towards this product named Google Wave which is slated for a widely awaited release in one year. Google Wave is the brainchild of two brothers Lars Rasmussen and Jens Rasmussen along with Stephanie Hannon, who are the same people behind a widely acknowledged application known to all of us by the name of Google Maps.

What is the Google Wave Revolution?
Google Wave is all about objects called Waves and Wavelets. Google hopes that this technology would change the way people communicate and collaborate over the internet. Google believes that Google wave would be the next biggest thing after e-mail was founded forty years ago. What are all these objects named as waves and wavelets all about?

Is Wave going to become as synonymous as what Windows became in the 90's?
Waves are centralized communication objects that can be manipulated by any number of users from any location at the same time. The big buzz word that industry watchers predict would make Google Wave a success is its real-time capabilities. Done with the Definition, let us get into the intricate aspects of what has come to be known as the Google Wave Technology.

Email is by far the most popular way to communicate over the internet and was invented more than 40 years ago. There were no instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, project management solutions, in-browser communication clients, media sharing sites and collaborative editors back then. This led to e-mail becoming a separate entity, which happened to carry on for forty years. But now Google has decided to integrate every other technology that came later with what we call as e-mail in the best possible way, thereby making a giant leap ahead. Techies and evangelists say that is fine, but they instantaneously pop up a question- What is new with this?
How does wave differ from email?

Email essentially mimics snail mail where we write a message and send it to one or more recipients. Email can also relate messages into inter-conversations or threads. Wave by contrast starts out with a conversation as a lightweight tree structure of messages with a set of users participating in the conversation. Instead of individual messages sent back and forth, it consists of an entire conversation object as a shared object hosted somewhere. Users who participate can open up that wave (shared object) work with it, add something and exit. Every wave is stored in a centralized location and is accessible to all the users who have the permissions to use it and multiple users can update a wave at the same time concurrently and every user involved can observe the changes being made in real time.

How GIS Maps Are Used Today

GIS refers to technology known as geographic information systems. These systems capture, analyze, and present data based on location. The presentation is usually in the form of a map, but can also be output in other forms for analysis or to convey information. These systems are used by many industries, state and local government authorities, the Federal government and the military. Most of the systems are fairly similar, with the exception of the military which has different uses for the data. The use of GIS mapping has actually been around since the 1960's with the early computers. However, due to the massive amounts of data involved in these applications, there use did not become more widespread until the early 1980's.

This is when the computing resources became significantly faster at an affordable price. The earliest application of GIS technology was in Canada for a mapping project conducted by the federal Department of Forestry and Rural Development. The technology was used to develop detail mapping of rural land throughout Canada. The government was interested in determining where land was available for various purposes including agriculture, recreation and forestry. With the introduction of less costly and higher powered technology, the uses of GIS maps has grown significantly.

The applications have gone beyond simply presenting a map of land by type of use, to characteristics and demographics about the land. In the retail environment, companies will develop maps integrated with census and other data, to identify locations for building new stores or conducting various marketing activities. Governments can create maps to identify where services are needed, for example, locating areas where that are underserved by physicians or hospitals.

Law enforcement agencies have been using GIS to create maps identifying areas with criminal activity in order to increase patrols in that area. Events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have allowed emergency responders to identify escape routes and relocation facilities. The advantage of GIS mapping is that it produces output, in the forms of map and other data, in a single place. By linking this data, it provides an easy to understand representation of the information. As computing capabilities increase the available applications will also grow.

How GIS Data is Displayed

GIS mapping data displays typically employ symbols to represent geography or physical objects. These objects can be divided into two main categories: discrete objects, which are physical characteristics like buildings or lakes, and continuous fields that are not confined to a specific area, such as elevation and precipitation levels. GIS data shows information about the presence of both discrete and continuous values utilizing one of two methods: raster data and vector mapping. The raster data method produces a digital picture that is represented in grid form.

This does not result in an exact image of the reality of the geography, but rather a general abstract of it. A common method of raster data is aerial photography. Aerial photos generate images that show discrete objects, such as housing complexes or rivers, and can be subsequently digitized to provide continuous information, such as elevation or weather patterns. The second option for displaying GIS data, vector mapping, functions using a coding system that uses geometric shapes to denote discrete values on maps. There are generally three codes utilized by vector maps: lines, points, and polygons. Lines are used to represent rivers and roads and are particularly useful in conveying their lengths.

Points are used to display static geographical information, such as buildings and wells. Polygons can be used to represent other discrete values, such as lakes or territorial boundaries, but also continuous values. The perimeter of an area affected by drought for example, could be measured by a polygon on a vector map. In addition to lines, points, and polygonal features, vector maps can be color coded to represent varying levels of elevation, precipitation, depth, etc. GIS maps present discrete and continuous information in a straightforward manner, using either raster data or vector mapping, to make it easier to comprehend. In everyday life for example, people use GIS mapping data to locate how far a grocery store is from their homes.