adslmontemarciano

2008-05-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

Biography
Biography (from the Greek words bios meaning "life", and graphein meaning "write") is a type of literature and further forms of media such as film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is frequently in reference to non-fiction. Pat Shipman however, says "I think a good biographer has to write fiction some of the time to make apparent a significant event in someone's life." This is sometimes debated. As opposed to a profile or curriculum vitae, a biography develops a complex analysis of personality, highlighting different aspects of it and including intimate details of experiences. A biography is more than a list of distant facts like birth, education, work, relationships and death. It also delves into the emotions of experiencing such events.

Ancient Greeks developed the biographical tradition which we have inherited, although until the 5th century AD, when the word 'biographia' first appears, in Damascius' Life of Isodorus, biographical pieces were called simply "lives" ("bioi"). It is quite likely that the Greeks were drawing on a pre-existing eastern tradition; certainly Herodotus' Histories contains more exhaustive biographical information on Persian kings and subjects than on anyone else, implying he had a Persian source for it.

2008-05-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

Aberrations

A lens is a device for either concentrating or diverging light, usually produced from a piece of shaped glass. Lenses do not form perfect images, and there is always some degree of distortion or aberration introduced by the lens which causes the image to be an defective replica of the object. Careful design of the lens system for a exacting application ensures that the aberration is minimized. There are several different types of aberration which can influence image quality.

2008-05-02T04:48:00.000-07:00

Abstract art

Abstract art is now usually understood to mean art that does not depict objects in the natural world, but instead uses colour and form in a nonfigurative way.In the very early 20th century, the term was more often used to describe art, such as Cubist and Futurist art, that depicts real forms in a easy or rather reduced way—keeping only an allusion of the original natural subject. Such paintings were often claimed to capture amazing of the depicted objects' absolute intrinsic qualities rather than its external appearance. The more precise terms, "non-figurative art," "non-objective art," and "non-representational art" keep away from any possible ambiguity.

2008-04-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

Deadheading

Deadheading is the act of removing spent flowers or flowerheads for aesthetics, to extend bloom for up to several weeks or endorse rebloom, or to put off seeding.Deadheading is valuable to most herbaceous ornamental plants. It can get improved overall look of a plant, give a fresh new look to an otherwise finished or even distracting item, and can promote vegetative and root increase rather than seed production and help retain the plant's healthy appearance.

2008-04-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

Apple Computer

Apple Computer, Inc. NASDAQ: AAPL is a Silicon Valley company based in Cupertino, California, whose nucleus business is computer technologies. Apple helped originate the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II microcomputer and has since further shaped it with the Macintosh. Apple is known for its original, well-designed hardware, such as the iPod and iMac, as well as software offerings exemplified through iTunes as part of the iLife suite and Mac OS X, its flagship operating system.

2008-03-27T03:26:00.000-07:00

Sand dunes

In physical geography, a dune is a mount of sand built by eolian (wind-related) processes. Bare dunes are subject to changing location and size based on their interaction with the wind. The "valley" or furrow between dunes is called a slack.

Some coastal areas have one or more sets of dunes running parallel to the shoreline straight inland from the beach. In most such cases the dunes are important in caring the land against potential ravages by storm waves from the sea. Although the most broadly distributed dunes are those associated with coastal regions, the largest complexes of dunes are found inland in dry regions and associated with ancient lake or sea beds.Dunes also form below the action of water flow (Alluvial processes), on sand or gravel beds of rivers, estuaries and the sea-bed.

2008-03-19T03:37:00.000-07:00

Personal computer
A personal computer or PC is usually a microcomputer intended to be used by one person at a time, and appropriate for general purpose tasks such as word processing, programming, sending messages or digital documents to other computers on the network (email), multimedia editing or game play, usually used to run software not written by the user. Unlike minicomputers, a personal computer is often owned by the person using it, indicating a low cost of purchase and ease of operation. The user of a modern personal computer may have significant knowledge of the operating environment and application programs, but is not inevitably interested in programming nor even able to write programs for the computer.

2008-03-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

Operating System

An operating system (OS) is a colection of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer.An operating system processes unprocessed system and user input and responds by allocating and managing tasks and interior system resources as a service to users and programs of the system. At the establishment of all system software, an operating system performs basic tasks such as controlling and allocating memory, prioritizing system requests, controlling input and output devices, facilitating networking and managing file systems. mainly operating systems come with an application that provides an interface to the OS managed resources. These applications have been command line interpreter as a basic user interface, but more recently have been implemented as a graphical user interface (GUI) for easiness of operation. Operating Systems themselves have no user interfaces, and the user of an OS is an application, not a person. The operating system forms a platform for other system software and for application software. Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS are some of the most popular OS's

2008-02-27T21:43:00.000-08:00

Neural networks

Neural network, also known as a parallel dispersed processing network, is a computing paradigm that is freely modeled after cortical structures of the brain. It consists of consistent processing elements called nodes or neurons that work together to create an output function. The output of a neural network relies on the collaboration of the individual neurons within the network to operate. Processing of information by neural networks is typically done in parallel rather than in series (or sequentially) as in earlier binary computers or Von Neumann machines. Since it relies on its member neurons together to perform its function, a unique property of a neural network is that it can still achieve its overall function even if some of the neurons are not functioning. In other words it is robust to tolerate error or failure. (see fault tolerant) Additionally, neural networks are more readily adaptable to fuzzy logic computing tasks than are Von Neumann machines.

Traditionally, the term neural network has been used to refer to a network of biological neurons. In modern usage, the term is often used to refer to artificial neural networks, which are collected artificial neurons or nodes. Thus the term 'Neural Network' has two distinct connotations:

* Biological neural networks are made up of actual biological neurons that are associated or functionally-related in the peripheral nervous system or the central nervous system

* Artificial neural networks are made up of interconnecting artificial neurons (usually simplified neurons) designed to model (or mimic) some properties of biological neural networks.

2008-02-19T22:06:00.000-08:00

Metal

In chemistry, a metal is an constituent that readily loses electrons to form positive ions and has metallic bonds between metal atoms. Metals form ionic bonds with non-metals. They are sometimes described as a web of positive ions surrounded by a cloud of delocalized electrons. The metals are one of the three groups of elements as eminent by their ionization and bonding properties, along with the metalloids and nonmetals. On the periodic table, a diagonal line drawn from boron separates the metals from the nonmetals. Most elements on this line are metalloids, sometimes called semi-metals; elements to the lower left are metals; elements to the upper right are nonmetals.

A modern definition of metals is that they have overlapping conveyance bands and valence bands in their electronic structure. This definition opens up the category for metallic polymers and other organic metals, which have been prepared by researchers and employed in high-tech devices. These synthetic materials often have the characteristic silvery-grey reflectiveness of elemental metals.

2008-02-11T23:18:00.000-08:00

Lithography

Lithography is a technique for printing on a smooth surface. It can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or another appropriate material. It can also refer to photolithography, a microfabrication method used to construct integrated circuits and microelectromechanical systems. Lithography works because of the revulsion of oil and water.Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in 1798.

Lithography is a printing method that uses chemical processes to make an image. For instance, the positive part of an image would be a hydrophobic chemical, while the negative image would be water. Thus, when the plate is introduced to a companionable ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image and the water will clean the negative image. This allows for a comparatively flat print plate which allows for much longer runs than the older physical methods of imaging (e.g., embossing or engraving).

current high-volume lithography is used to make posters, books, newspapers, packaging, credit cards, decorated CDs – just about any smooth, mass-produced item with print on it.

2008-02-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

Information Technology

Information technology (IT), is the study, design, development, implementation, support or administration of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.In short, IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to transfer, store, protect, process, transmit and get back information, securely.

In this definition, the term "information" can frequently be replaced by "data" without loss of meaning. Recently it has become popular to widen the term to explicitly consist of the field of electronic communication so that people tend to use the abbreviation ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Strictly speaking, this name contains some redundancy.

Today, the term Information Technology has distended to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term is more identifiable than ever before. The Information Technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals achieve a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases.

2008-01-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

Hard Disk

A hard disk is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally programmed data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Strictly speaking, "drive" refers to a device that drives (removable) media, such as a tape drive or (floppy) disk drive, although a hard disk contains fixed (non-removable) media. Recently the hard disk has become more commonly known as the "hard drive".

Hard disks were initially developed for use with computers. In the 21st century, applications for hard disks have extended beyond computers to consist of digital video recorders, digital audio players, personal digital assistants, digital cameras, and video game consoles. In 2005 the first mobile phones to contain hard disks were introduced by Samsung Group and Nokia. The need for large-scale, reliable storage, independent of a particular device, led to the beginning of configurations such as RAID, hardware such as network attached storage (NAS) devices, and systems such as storage area networks (SANs) for efficient access to large volumes of data.

2008-01-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

Geography

Geography is the study of the earth and its features and of the circulation of life on the Earth. A literal transformation would be "to describe the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes (275-195 B.C.). Four historical civilization in geographical research are the spatial analysis of natural and human phenomena, area studies, study of man-land relationship, and investigate in earth sciences. Nonetheless, modern geography is an all-inclusive discipline that foremost seeks to understand the world and all of its human and natural complexities-- not merely where things are, but how they have changed and come to be. It is said to be the "mother of all math" and "the synthesizer of information." Geography is mainly divided into two main branches - human geography and physical geography.

Conventionally, geography as well as geographers has been viewed as the same as cartography and people who study place names. Although many geographers are capable in toponymy and cartography, this is not their main preoccupation. Geographers study the spatial and temporal allotment of phenomena, processes and feature as well as the interaction of humans and their environment. As space and place persuade a variety of topics such as economics, health, climate, plants and animals, geography is highly interdisciplinary.

2008-01-09T01:05:00.000-08:00

Dot matrix printer

Unlike a typewriter or daisy wheel printer, letters are tired out of a dot matrix, and thus, varied fonts and random graphics can be produced. Because the printing involves mechanical pressure, these printers can create carbon copies and carbonless copies. A dot matrix printer or impact matrix printer refers to a type of computer printer with a print head that runs back and forth on the page and prints by impact, outstanding an ink-soaked cloth ribbon beside the paper, much like a typewriter.

Each dot is formed by a tiny metal rod, also called a "wire" or "pin", which uses the power of a tiny electromagnet or solenoid to drive it forward, either directly or through small levers .Facing the ribbon and the paper is a small guide plate (often made of an artificial jewel such as sapphire or garnet) pierced with hole to provide as guides for the pins. The moving portion of the printer is called the print head, and prints one line of text at a time.The majority dot matrix printers have a single vertical line of dot-making apparatus on their print heads; others have a few interleaved rows in order to improve dot density.

These machines can be highly durable, but eventually wear out. Ink invades the direct plate of the print head, causing grit to adhere to it; this grit slowly causes the channels in the guide plate to wear from circles into ovals or slots, providing less and less correct guidance to the printing wires. After about a million characters, even with tungsten blocks and titanium pawls, the printing becomes too unclear to read.

2008-01-02T01:51:00.000-08:00

Bean

Bean is a frequent name for large plant seeds of several genera of Fabaceae used for food or feed. Bean is also known as legumes.The term Bean at first referred to the seed of the broad bean, but was later broadened to consist of members of the genus Phaseolus such as the common bean or haricot and the runner bean and the connected genus Vigna. The term is now applied in a common way to many other related plants such as soybeans, peas, lentils, kidney beans, vetches and lupins.

2007-11-28T22:38:00.000-08:00

Aberrations

2007-11-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

Fresh skin-care tips

Select fresh, organically grown fruit and vegetables for the highest benefits. Avoid making more than you require for a single application.Clean and sanitize all countertops and mixing utensils ahead of making any of the recipes. Clean all fruit and vegetables before using as ingredients. Leave all ingredients out of the fridge for up to an hour before integration. Don't let fruit acquire any warmer than room temperature.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are especially high in acids. If you apply anything to your skin and encounter a burning sensation, take out immediately and apply cool water.If you are in the care of a dermatologist and on acne medications, please consult with your physician first.

2007-11-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

Education System

Schooling occurs when group or a society or an individual sets up a curriculum to educate people, usually the young. Schooling can become systematic. Sometimes education systems can be used to promote doctrine or ethics as well as knowledge, and this can lead to abuse of the system.

Life-long or adult educations have become extensive in many countries. However, education is still seen by many as something aimed at children, and adult education is often branded as adult learning or ultimate learning.

Adult education takes on several forms, from formal class-based learning to self-directed learning. Lending libraries provide cheap informal access to books and other self-instructional materials. Many adults have also taken advantage of the rise in computer ownership and internet access to further their casual education.

2007-11-07T01:10:00.000-08:00

Cache Memory

A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to decrease the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most often used main memory locations. As long as most memory accesses are to cached memory locations, the average latency of memory accesses will be closer to the cache latency than to the latency of main memory.

When the processor needs to read or write a location in main memory, it first checks whether that memory location is in the cache. This is accomplished by comparing the address of the memory location to all tags in the cache that may contain that address. If the processor finds that the memory location is in the cache, we say that a cache hit has occurred; otherwise we talk of a cache miss. In the case of a cache hit, the processor immediately reads or writes the information in the cache line. The proportion of accesses that result in a cache hit is known as the hit rate, and is a measure of the effectiveness of the cache.

In the case of a cache miss, most caches assign a new entry, which comprises the tag just missed and a copy of the data from memory. The reference can then be applied to the new entry just as in the case of a hit. Misses are relatively slow because they require the data to be transferred from main memory. This transfer incurs a delay since main memory is much slower than cache memory, and also incurs the overhead for recording the new data in the cache before it is delivered to the processor.

2007-10-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

Coin

A coin is normally a piece of hard material, generally metal, usually in the shape of a disc, and most often issued by a government, to be used as a form of money in transactions of various kinds,from the everyday circulation of the US quarter, to the storage of vast amounts of bullion coins.In modern times coins along with banknotes, coins construct the cash forms of all modern money systems. Coins made for circulation (general monetized use) are usually used for lower-valued units, and banknotes are usually used for the higher values; also, in most money systems, the highest value coin is worth less than the lowest-value note. The face value of circulation coins is usually higher than the gross value of the metal used in manufacturing them.

Exceptions to these rules take place for non-monetized "bullion coins" made of silver or gold (and, rarely, other metals, such as platinum or palladium), intended for collectors or investors in precious metals.Historically, a enormous number of coinage metals (including alloys) and other materials have been used practically, impractically (i.e., rarely), artistically, and experimentally in the construction of coins for both circulation, assortment, and metal investment

2007-10-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

Sugarcane

Sugarcane or Sugar cane (Saccharum) is a genre of between 6–37 species (depending on taxonomic interpretation) of tall grasses (family Poaceae, tribe Andropogoneae), native to warm temperate to steamy regions of the Old World. They have heavy, jointed fibrous stalks 2–6 m tall and sap rich in sugar. All the species interbreed, and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids.

Saccharum officinarum grown-up in Hawaii.There are 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of sugar cane plantations worldwide, with over 100 countries growing the crop. The peak twenty producing countries harvested 1200 million metric tons of sugar cane in 2002 , more than 6 times the amount of sugar beet produced. The major producers are Brazil, India, and China..

2007-10-08T07:39:00.000-07:00

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents that runs over the Internet. With a Web browser, a user views Web pages that may include text, images, and other multimedia and navigates between them using hyperlinks. The World Wide Web is the combination of four basic ideas:Hypertext,Resource Identifiers,The Client-server model of computing,Markup language.On the World Wide Web, a client program called a client agent retrieves information resources, such as Web pages and other computer files, from Web servers using their URLs. If the user agent is a kind of Web browser, it displays the resources on a user's computer. The user can then follow hyperlinks in each web page to other World Wide Web resources, whose position is embedded in the hyperlinks.Web pages are often set in collections of related material called Web sites.The act of following hyperlinks from one Web site to another is referred to as browsing or sometimes as surfing the Web.

2007-09-26T02:56:00.000-07:00

Railway

A railroad or railway is a guided means of land transport, designed to be used by trains, for transporting both passengers and goods. It consists of two parallel rails, usually made of steel, and wooden or concrete sleepers or ties that hold the rails accurately at the proper distance from each other. Rail transport is one of the most energy well-organized means of mechanised land transport known. The rails offer very smooth and hard surfaces on which the wheels of the train may roll with a minimum of friction. This is added comfortable and saves energy. Trains also have a tiny frontal area in relation to the load they are carrying, which cuts down on air resistance and thus energy usage. In all, under the right situation, a train needs 50-70% less energy to transport a given tonnage of freight (or given number of passengers), than by road.

2007-08-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

Internet marketing

Internet marketing is the use of the Internet to advertise and sell goods and services. Internet Marketing includes pay per click advertising, banner ads, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, blog marketing, article marketing, etc. Some of the benefits associated with Internet marketing include the availability of information. Consumers can log onto the Internet and learn about products, as well as purchase them, at any hour.