Surge Supressors - Why You Need One, What They Do and How To Choose One

April 30th, 2008

There is an important tool for protecting your computer that is often overlooked. You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m talking about the Surge Suppressor. The title of this darn article spoiled my surprise. Before we discuss surge suppressors though, we need to talk about surges.

What is a surge, and why must we suppress it? I’m vastly oversimplifying, but electricity runs through the power lines and into the outlets in your home much like water in a hose. The water in a hose moves from an area of high pressure to an area of lower pressure. That’s why it flows down the hose. Voltage is like the measurement of the amount of pressure in the electric lines. Standard power in North America flows at 120 volts. A surge is like forcing too much water down the hose at once.

Things can occur that affect the voltage. The one that most people think of first is a lightning strike on or near a power line. That can cause a surge of millions of volts. No surge suppressor can withstand that kind of force. In the event of a lightning storm, your best bet is simply to unplug your computer from the power outlet.

There are other, more common things that lead to power surges. Big pieces of electrical equipment like elevators, air conditioners, and refrigerators can draw large amounts of power as they turn motors on and off. This causes the power level to surge. It can happen over and over throughout the course of the day.

The system of electrical distribution, from generators through power-lines and switch-boxes and transformers and eventually to the wall outlets in your home, is very complex, and there are many opportunities along the way for power surges to occur.

If the voltage increase lasts for three nanoseconds (billionths of a second) or more, it is called a surge. If it lasts less than three nanoseconds, it is called a spike. Spikes and surges can be very damaging to your computer equipment. In extreme cases, they can fry your power cord and even start a fire. Smaller surges can damage or destroy the delicate electronic components and microprocessors in your computer. If a surge doesn’t destroy the equipment outright, it can still significantly reduce the life-span of the computer.

So far, we’ve learned what a surge is and why we would prefer not to have it anywhere near our computers. That’s where surge suppressors come in. They are also commonly called surge protectors. A more official name is Transient Voltage Suppressor. I’m not going to get into a technical explanation of how they work. There are a variety of different methods used, but they all boil down to the same thing: suppress the extra voltage and keep it from harming your computer. Some suppressors divert the extra electricity to ground, some reduce it by absorbing it and letting it out at a more controlled rate. Some have fuses or circuit breakers built in that cut the connection altogether if the voltage gets too high. Most devices will use a combination of techniques.

There is a bewildering variety of surge protectors, with different features and prices, and levels of reliability and effectiveness. I’ll give you an overview of your choices, tell you what to look for in a surge suppressor, and finally, give you a step by step checklist to help you rate a particular model you’re considering.

Here are the main types of surge protectors:

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This Short Page Tells A Story Of How I Turned My Pc Into A TV

April 29th, 2008

This Short Page Tells A Story Of How I Turned My Pc Into A TV

This short page tells a story of How I Turned my PC into a TV, and started watching Satellite TV programs directly on my computer, without any TV Tuner cards or Satellite Tuner cards, cables, analog antennas, cable TV subscriptions (eliminating monthly fees), and no digital cable or satellite TV subscriptions.

I travel and work around the world, and move house a lot, so out of pure frustration of always needing to hook up with a new local cable company every time I moved, I got fed up, but ended up finding something better. On top of all the re-connections and hassles, monthly fees like $40, $60, $90 each and every month, don’t seem like much at first, but really added up over a year, and frankly I’d rather spend that money on a very fast Internet connection.

I’m not a technically inclined person. Especially when it comes to trying to make your PC or laptop into a TV, so basically I was looking for a quick and easy solution. After days of Web searches, and trawling through tons of forum posts and information sites (have you done this before? …its a nightmare) on how to make your PC into a TV, all the information I found mostly went along the same old lines of…

Most of them said to get TV on your PC you would have to… Subscribe to a good cable or satellite TV provider (and pay monthly fees) >> Search around for and buy a TV Tuner card (and make sure it has the capability to do what you need) >> Install the card, buy more cables and hook up your cable or sattelite TV >> Search around again for good software to manage channels… configure the software… etc etc etc… and on and on…. and all I want to do is watch freekin TV on my PC !

So I searched for a better way that I can watch my favorite TV shows, Sports, and movies all on my laptop computer. My laptop is like my third arm, and I do pretty much everything on it…. so why not watch TV on my laptop as well?

Now don’t get me wrong, I like big TV screens and nice home theater setups just like everyone else, but when your traveling around the place, and moving all the time its a pain in [you know what] transporting massive TVs around… or should I say pain in the foot… literally… I nearly broke my foot moving one >>>

But I didn’t give up, and glad I didn’t either because the easy way to get Satellite TV on my PC was just around the corner, much easier than carting Real TVs around the place. If I had of given up, I would not have found this easy solution and ended up crushing more feet

I also wanted to watch overseas TV shows, Sports, and Movies in any country (and different languages), and not pay ongoing monthly fees for various services. I’m sure everyone has experienced trying to watch the big game, and then missing it because your cable or satellite company doesn’t carry it. As you’ve probably seen, there are many different ways of getting TV on your PC, especially when you go and search for Satellite TV. I’ve looked at most of them, but nothing really satisfied me until I found a unique Software.

What made me interested in this site is their software allows you to view Satellite TV directly on your computer almost instantly, through a special software application that you can download straight away - I didn’t have to signup to long-winded forms or wait for CDs in the mail. And the other thing which was very attractive to me is that it was a once off payment!

The site did look a little strange to me at first, because I have been scammed on the Internet before, and I didn’t want to lose my time and cash to somebody who was just stealing peoples money. So I emailed their support department to ask a few questions. I didn’t want to deal with somebody who never answered their e-mail. That’s the problem I had last time when I got scammed before.

But this service answered the 3 e-mails I sent within hours. All 3 times the support responses were friendly and helpful, and so this reassured me that I would get what they had claimed on their Web site (more recently though, their software has become so popular that they do not answer support emails directly at their info email, because of the huge demand for this service. However after you purchase the product they have a special technical support department email address that you can ask questions with). I thought I would try it out, So I decided to go ahead and order Satellite TV for PC, then downloaded the software… And it was one of the best decisions I could have made…

The download files were about 13MB in size total. I also needed to get the very latest version of Windows Media Player (this software is completely free, and can be downloaded from Microsoft’s download Web site).

After downloading and installing all the software, I was then able to easily run the main program which looked something like this… The one with the black screen is the Software and the download Web site is the one in the background. Then I did some tests… and I accessed some of my favorite programs…

From left to right: ESPN Sports Channels, Basketball, Football, Fox News, Music Video Clips, Ministry of Sound

There’s a lot more than this, but would be too much to put up on this Web site. Everything that the Satellite TV for PC Web site stated was 100% true. I could access Live TV programs for many countries around the world. I downloaded the software instantly, and accessed Satellite TV instantly, all with a once off cost to me - and I did not need to buy anything more (no video cards, tuner cards, subscriptions etc). It was also good to find that the software did not come with any nasty adware or spyware.

I couldn’t believe that I actually got access to Satellite TV without paying any monthly fees. But I did.

With the money I’m saving by not having to pay monthly fees to Satellite TV and cable companies, I now spend on getting a bigger and better Internet connection.

I have no problem in recommending Software for anyone who wants instant access to Satellite TV worldwide all on your PC.

Happy Channel Surfing!

Victor is a successful webmaster, author and fan of TV shows. Discover how you can instantly watch satellite TV on PC, tuning into hundreds of LIVE world channels of news, movies, music and kids program at http://bestofthewebs.blogspot.com/

Saving Money On Epson Stylus Printer Ink

April 28th, 2008

Saving Money On Epson Stylus Printer Ink

The Popularity Of Epson Printers

Epson is a particularly popular brand of printers with various different lines aimed to meet different requirements and situations. They are renowned for being affordable, well built, and with lots of beneficial features. However, one of the biggest problems most commonly associated with Epson printers, like other inkjet printers, is the ongoing cost of replacing ink cartridges. Epson Stylus printers do attempt to redress this financial balance by using separate colour ink cartridges instead of just a black and tricolour cartridge. However, the cost can soon mount up for regular and heavy printer users.

Epson Cartridge Requirements

The majority of Epson Stylus printers use four different colour cartridges