How a Color Laser Printing Works

A laser printer is a type of electrophotographic printer that can range from a small, personal desktop model to a large, network printer capable of handling and printing large volumes continuously.

Laser printers require the interaction of mechanical, electrical, and optical technologies to work. Laser printers work by placing toner on an electrically charged rotating drum (sometimes called the image drum) and then depositing the toner on paper as the paper moves through the system at the same speed the drum is turning.

The video below demonstrates a how Laser Printer works

Reference

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining Your PC, Seventh Edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB0HnXcW8qQ

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage is a service model in which data is maintained, managed and backed up remotely and made available to users over a network (typically the Internet).

There are three main cloud storage models:

Public cloud storage services, such as Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3), provide a multi-tenant storage environment that’s most suitable for unstructured data.

Private cloud storage services provide a dedicated environment protected behind an organization’s firewall. Private clouds are appropriate for users who need customization and more control over their data.

Hybrid cloud storage is a combination of the other two models that includes at least one private cloud and one public cloud infrastructure. An organization might, for example, store actively used and structured data in a private cloud and unstructured and archival data in a public cloud. 

An enterprise-level cloud storage system should be scalable to suit current needs, accessible from anywhere and application-agnostic.

reference 

http://searchcloudstorage.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-storage

Wireless Charging

Inductive charging (also known as "wireless charging") uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects. This is usually done with a charging station. Energy is sent through an inductive coupling to an electrical device, which can then use that energy to charge batteries or run the device.

Induction chargers use an induction coil to create an alternating electromagnetic field from within a charging base station, and a second induction coil in the portable device takes power from the electromagnetic field and converts it into electrical current to charge the battery. The two induction coils in proximity combine to form an electrical transformer. Greater distances between sender and receiver coils can be achieved when the inductive charging system uses resonant inductive coupling. Recent improvements to this resonant system include using a movable transmission coil i.e. mounted on an elevating platform or arm, and the use of advanced materials for the receiver coil made of silver plated copper or sometimes aluminum to minimize weight and decrease resistance due to the skin effect.

Advantages

• Protected connections – no corrosion when the electronics are all enclosed, away from water or oxygen in the atmosphere.

• Safer for medical implants – for embedded medical devices, allows recharging/powering through the skin rather than having wires penetrate the skin, which would increase the risk of infection.

• Durability – Without the need to constantly plug and unplug the device, there is significantly less wear and tear on the socket of the device and the attaching cable.

• No e-waste

• Non-radiative energy transfer

Disadvantages

• Lower efficiency, waste heat – The main disadvantages of inductive charging are its lower efficiency and increased resistive heating in comparison to direct contact. Implementations using lower frequencies or older drive technologies charge more slowly and generate heat within most portable electronics.

• Slower charging – due to the lower efficiency, devices can take longer to charge when supplied power is the same amount.

• More expensive – Inductive charging also requires drive electronics and coils in both device and charger, increasing the complexity and cost of manufacturing.

Inkjet (new Epson Inkjet) vs. Laser Printer

Inkjet printers spray controlled dots of ink onto the paper to form characters and graphics. 

Laser Printers

• Involve heating the elements in a print-head to a particular temperature to transfer the image 
• Thermal transfer 
• Direct thermal 
• Dye sublimation

 NB: The transition between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b43_Or-mbNY

How Geolocation Services Work

Geolocation refers to the process of determining an object's position on a real-world map, based on its latitude and longitude. The rise of smartphones has been instrumental in putting geolocation services on the map, so to speak; most now including a Global Positioning System (GPS) chip to facilitate location services.

The GPS chip enables a device to run apps that use a person's physical location to provide specific information or services. For example, Google Maps provides driving directions from where you are to where you want to go, and Uber knows where your driver should pick you up.

Geolocation services are not reliant on GPS alone, however. They can also use Wi-Fi network proximity, cell-tower triangulation and even IP addresses although GPS remains the most accurate method. When a GPS signal is weak or unavailable, the geolocation service can turn to one or more of the other methods, often in conjunction with GPS itself.

Geolocation capabilities have become standard fare in MDM products. A lost or stolen device can represent a serious security concern, but as long as it's turned on and the tracking mechanism is enabled, an IT administrator can usually pinpoint its location. IT can also use geolocation to track corporate-owned mobile assets and push documents or apps to devices. Administrators might, for example, stagger releases based on location.

Geolocation services can also track workers suspected of questionable behavior, such as entering a restricted area or visiting a competitor's headquarters, or it can be used for multifactor user authentication. If a worker is supposed to be in Kansas, but the connection attempt is coming from Asia, something is likely wrong.

All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2011 - 2015, TechTarget

Intel Curie

Intel’s Curie module is a tiny system-on a-chip (SoC) based on the Intel Quark SE.

The SoC is the size of a shirt button but includes everything required to provide compute power for wearable devices. The Curie module is designed to enable even inexperienced makers of wearable tech to make smart products.

Curie is equipped with a 32-bit Intel Quark SoC with 384kB of flash memory and 80kB SRAM. It comes in an easy-to-integrate package with a six-axis combo accelerometer and gyroscope sensor to enable movement tracking and gesture recognition. Curie also features a digital sensor hub with a pattern-matching accelerator, battery charging circuits. The device uses Bluetooth low energy for communications.

Curie could, in fact, be built into performance-wear buttons. Intel has announced a partnership with Oakley so it is likely that some of their products will feature it. Some other interesting products are in development, such as Nixie, a wearable drone that can take pictures and video of you as you go about your activities and iWinks, a lucid dreaming aid that uses sleep monitoring and lights to help users become aware of dream states and improve their ability to control dreams.

The SOC is named for Marie Skłodowska-Curie, a Nobel Prize-winning pioneer in the study of radioactivity. Use of the name is somewhat ironic, given that Curie died of radiation poisoning: Some experts have expressed concern about the potential radiation exposure from these small devices, which are worn on or close to the body for long periods.


Intel's Mike Bell discusses Curie and wearable tech at CES 2015:

video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnlHXDnbwAw

This was last updated in January 2015

Contributor(s): Matthew Haughn

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Leaky Bucket

The leaky bucket is an analogy for describing how inputs and outputs work in a wide variety of business and technology systems.

The analogy is to a physical bucket with a hole in it: The bucket can hold water up to its maximum capacity and it loses water at a rate determined by the size of the hole.

Here are some examples of the leaky bucket analogy in various contexts:

Employee security awareness training investments can yield an immediate and dramatic improvement in security practices. However, the bucket doesn’t stay full – over time, awareness dissipates (leaks). The lesson is that security awareness training must be ongoing to keep up with the rate of loss.

In customer relationship management (CRM), the leaky bucket is used to describe the churn rate: customer acquisition numbers compared to the numbers for customer attrition. The analogy is used in a similar way to model employee retention vs. employee attrition.

The leaky bucket algorithm is a method of temporarily storing a variable number of requests and organizing them into a set-rate output of packets in an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network.

 

This was last updated in April 2015

Contributor(s): Ivy Wigmore

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

NTFS VS FAT File System

A file system is the method by which an OS stores, organizes files and manages access to files on a storage device, such as a hard drive. File systems differ in how they allocate space for files, how files are located on a disk, what level of fault tolerance is built into the system, and how access to files is secured. Regardless of how these tasks are accomplished, contemporary file systems have the following objectives:

Provide a convenient interface for users and applications to open and save files.

Provide an efficient method to organize space on a drive.

Provide a hierarchical filing method to store files.

Provide an indexing system for fast retrieval of files.

Provide secure access to files for authorized users.

·

When a user double-clicks a file to open it, the user interface calls the file system with a request to open the file. The file type determines exactly how the file is opened. If the file is an application, the application is loaded into memory and run by the CPU. If the file is a document, the application associated with the document type is loaded into memory and opened by the application. For example, if you double-click the Budget.xls file, the Excel application is loaded into memory and then opens the Budget.xls document file. If a user creates a new file or changes an existing file and wants to save it, the application calls the file system to store the new or changed file on the disk. Most users of an OS interact with the file system by using Windows Explorer or a similar file manager program on another OS, but as a future computer or network professional, you need to have a deeper understanding of how a file system works so that you can make informed choices when you need to install a file system or troubleshoot file system-related problems.

There are two types of file systems used on Windows operating systems today.

•  FAT32(File Allocation Table  
• NTFS (New Technology File System).

FAT32 is the older of the two file formats. FAT32 is the most common version of the FAT (File Allocation Table) file system created back in 1977 by Microsoft. It eventually found its way on the IBM PC's PC-DOS in 1981 and carried over to MS-DOS when that became a standalone product. FAT had been the standard format for floppy disks and hard drives all through the DOS years, and versions of Windows up to and including Windows 8. FAT-16 or FAT-32 was used on these systems MS-DOS and Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP

NTFS (New Technology Files System) is the newer drive format. Microsoft introduced NTFS in 1993, as a component of the corporate-oriented Windows NT 3.1 and then Windows 2000, though it didn't become common on consumer PCs until Windows XP in 2001. Windows 7 and 8 default to NTFS format on new PCs.

Compatibility

FAT32 is read/write compatible with a majority of recent and recently obsolete operating systems, including DOS, most flavors of Windows (up to and including 8), Mac OS X, and many flavors of UNIX-descended operating systems, including Linux and FreeBSD.

NTFS, on the other hand, is fully read/write compatible with Windows from Windows NT 3.1 and Windows XP up to and including Windows 8. Mac OS X 10.3 and beyond have NFTS read capabilities, but writing to  NTFS volume requires a third party software utility like Paragon NTFS for Mac. There are other hacks and workarounds for NTFS on the Mac, but in any case NTFS is only semi-compatible with OS X. NTFS on Linux systems is spotty for both read and write operations. Look for NTFS-3G driver support on your Linux support page to see if it's built in.

File Size Matters

FAT32 file size support tops out at 4GB and volume size tops out at 2TB. This means that you're limited to 2TB FAT32 partitions if you want to use a 4TB drive. It also means that you are limited to 4GB files. This is a concern with uncompressed high-definition movie files, where 30GB files are not unheard of. Theoretically, NTFS is limited by design to 16EB (Exabytes). One Exabyte is the equivalent of one billion Gigabytes, so we're quite a ways away from maxing out NTFS. In practice, 2 to 4TB volumes are the limit at this time. Larger volumes will require a 64-bit OS and compatible hardware.

Mac OSX VS Windows 10 Desktop

As predicted Windows 10 will be free to all users of Windows 8 and Windows 7, and to most users of Windows Phone 8.  Microsoft has nominally given those users only a year to upgrade for free, as it seems now Windows user may not have to pay to upgrade.

Apple, having made the decision to release OS X 10.9 for free, will continue to do the same with 10.10. Yosemite is free to upgraders and won't be seen to add to the price of a new hardware. So when it comes to price there is no difference to be seen.

OS X Yosemite vs Windows 10: Desktop

Mac OS X Yosemite’s desktop was visually overhauled with a new flat look but functionally is mostly identical to earlier releases of OS X. You get the Dock, from which you can launch apps, or open files and folders via Stacks. Mission Control lets you see what apps and documents are open, and switch between them. Spaces let you switch between apps running in full-screen mode and also create or switch to additional desktops.

Windows 10 brings back the Start menu that’s been around since 1995 but was removed from Windows 8, this is news that will please some (its removal didn't go down well). The Start menu features some updated graphics that can go full-screen, but it is as functional as ever, if a little click-heavy – to get to your apps you need to click through to actual apps listing.

However, Microsoft isn’t about to give-up the Live Tile concept that irked so many. For desktop users the Start menu has transmuted into a genuine hybrid – half is a traditional app/files listing, similar to that in Windows 7 while half is Live Tiles. On the test setup, this included a News tile, showing constantly scrolling headlines, and tiles for the Calendar and Mail app, amongst others.

OS X Yosemite vs Windows 10: Notifications

Significantly boosted in Yosemite, the Notification Area lets your apps and OS X tell you important stuff, and also provides a home for widgets that show information about weather, or that let you perform quick and dirty tasks. The whole caboodle works harmoniously while scratching every itch a user might have.

Looking at the original beta in 2014, Window's Live Tiles appeared not to have evolved since Windows 8. With a little thought, the Live Tile area of the Start menu could be an information hub as well as an app launcher, just like Yosemite’s Notification Area. Sadly, most Tiles appear to be dumb icons. For example, the Mail tile shows the number of unread messages, rather than their subject fields or excerpts. The Calendar tile shows nothing more than the day and date. The Skype tile is simply an app icon, rather than a chance to quickly jump into or respond to a text or voice chat with a contact.  

Further to the consumer preview, Windows Phone's Action Center will be coming to the desktop in Windows 10. It will offer notifications, quick actions and more, similar to the Notification Center in OS X Yosemite. In this, Notifications and Action Area apps and the system will be able to communicate with the user. It pops-up when you click an icon in the system tray near the clock, and notifications also pop-out in their own windows at the bottom right of the desktop. Clicking entries in the notifications list either clears them, if there’s no action associated or launches the relevant app/system tool. However, there’s no way to disable notifications for a short while, as with Yosemite’s Do Not Disturb mode.

DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN TABLETS AND LAPTOPS

Differences between Tablets and Laptops

It’s vital to acknowledge a portion of the contrasts between tablets and what’s more laptops. A standout amongst the enormous distinctions is that absence of field serviceable parts in tablets and other versatile apparatuses. In turn, variety will be the reality that tablets and other comparable gadgets would normally not be upgradable. Some mobile devices, for example, smartphones, might bring upgraded memory cards or batteries, yet that’s around it. Also, these are normally not serviceable in the field on it is challenging ensure your safety from “Electrostatic Discharge” (ESD) when working with respect to these units. Some associations propose you achieve that gadget back of the lab to upgrades or parts swaps. Other units, for example, those iPad2 are not user-serviceable whatsoever, furthermore any endeavor in completing along these lines will void the warranty. Some associations use the guarantees that need aid built into these results through repair, upgrade, alternately reinstatement may be necessary, As opposed to attempting to do any worth of effort in-house.

With just a taught a laptop (or notebook) is really just a smaller, portable version of a desktop computer. Like the desktop computer, it contains a similar processor, similar volatile DDR RAM, and a hard drive that could possibly be solid-state, but regardless will most likely be plugged into an SATA port. It also has a keyboard, and a touchpad that is similar to a mouse. All this hardware is designed to make the best use of operating systems (such as Windows) that you would normally find on a desktop computer. Tablets, on the other hand, use ARM-based processors and use nonvolatile flash memory that is hard wired to the system instead of a magnetic or solid-state hard drive. So, as you can imagine, the tablet has a loss of performance when compared to a laptop. In addition, the tablet utilizes an onscreen keyboard and doesn’t require any type of mouse due to the touch screen capability. All this hardware is designed to run mobile device software such as Android or iOS.

Tablet and Laptop Similarities

Although there are many differences, there are also a few similarities between laptops and tablets. For example, some laptops can be purchased with touch screen displays that work in the same manner as with a tablet. Also, the laptop uses a lithium-ion battery, and the tablet uses a lithium-ion polymer battery, smaller and customizable, but similar to their recharging techniques. Additionally, you can add on devices such as keyboards to your tablet. Both devices make use of various wireless communications such as WLAN, Bluetooth, and GSM.

Reference

CompTIA A+ 220-801 and 220-802 Authorized Cert Guide, Deluxe Edition

Mobile Devices Operating System

Mobile Devices Operating systems (OSes)

An ever increasing amount individuals are replacing starting with desktops what’s more laptops with smaller lightweight versatile apparatus for example, tablets and cell phones. They are discovered everywhere: on the train, on buses, on airplanes, on boats etc.

Versatile apparatuses use different hardware over PCs and laptops. Keeping in mind that they are still computers, however, little ones; they contain a CPU, RAM, Storage device, color display, outer ports, et cetera.

Mobile devices also use different software than PCs and laptops. The two main operating systems in use, today are Android and iOS, open-sourced and the other vendor specific (closed source) respectively. A mobile operating system (OS) is a software that allows smartphones, tablet PCs and other devices to run applications and programs (Rouse, 2015). Open source OS means, allowing developers to modify the OS and freely create applications for it. Vendor Specific or Closed sourced not available for download to developers. Only specific hardware uses this operating system.

Which is the best OS and why? The List below shows the four most popular mobile OS on the market:

• Android OS
• IOS
• Blackberry OS
• Windows OS

Users of mobile devices select them base on the categories which are;

• Cognitive load (how easy is it to use the OS when you first encounter it)
• Efficiency and integration (how well all the OS's main features work together, such as multitasking, notifications, etc.)
• Customization being able to manipulate through the created features and settings
• User experience friction (how well the user interact with the phone using senses)
• Affordability the ability to purchase the device
• User Preferences what the user likes
• Architecture the way in which the phone was designed, both hardware and software, drivers support etc.

Which is the best mobile operating system created?

In order to answer this question, Scientists finds a way to break down the functions of a mobile OS into components that highlight a particular use case and rate the OS on its ability to handle that task

 The table below shows the areas the operating system were tested

Score Sheet
OS	Android 4.4.4	iOS 7.1.2	BlackBerry 10.2	Windows Phone 8.1
Browser	66.28	61.8	40	50.47
E-mail	53.07	46.6	83.2	44.93
Messaging	36.6	43.2	34.2	60.2
Settings and Customization	55.48	40.09	53.21	45.13
Contacts and dialler	51.25	40.33	62.33	58.28
Photography	43.9	47.24	55.13	54.05
Notifications	29.4	69	36.7	29.2
Lock Screen	55.8	51.2	48.78	37.2
Search	35	75.3	85.3	54.7
Video	32.72	38.6	46.76	22.56
Final Overall Score	48.44	52.1	56.91	46.68

See more at http://www.digit.in/mobile-phones/the-worlds-best-mobile-os-23575.html#sthash.FG8LSBDI.nFGLL22R.dpuf.

 Results

The BlackBerry 10.2 OS is undoubtedly the best designed mobile OS out of the box that’s currently available on the market BlackBerry OS 10.2 boasts of the most feature-rich search engine, an e-mail and contact management system that’s second to none, and is also surprisingly more customizable, and also offers a good photography and video capture experience.