Category: Technology

LCD Price Fixing Admission Leads to Nokia Lawsuit

LCD Price Fixing Admission Leads to Nokia Lawsuit

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On the heels of a Department of Justice investigation into LCD manufacturers comes a lawsuit that will hurt them even further. Nokia has launched a case aimed at making the LCD manufacturers pay after they admitted to price fixing efforts.

Nokia has alleged federal violations as well as antitrust violations and is looking at trebled damages for the federal violations. The case seems to carry a lot weight as the LCD manufacturers have been documented to having agreed on production allocations and market shares between each other at regular meetings over the past decade. The companies involved are not small fry either, the big boys of production like Samsung, Hitachi, Epson, LG, Sharp and Toshiba are names implicated by the DOJ investigation.

Nokia is undoubtedly looking to gain some financial buffering from this payout when it happens, as it most undoubtedly will, to prop up their tottering bottom lines. But who can really blame them? The inflated prices pushed on Nokia by the manufacturers would have hurt them anyway during the decade long period and this is merely payback. The problem for the LCD manufacturers is that they have already admitted to their guilt and this has the effect of dropping a pint of blood in shark infested waters. Nokia is actually the second company to files lawsuits (the first was AT&T), and that too in the U.S. and U.K., depending on the outcome, the other “sharks” will seek blood.

The only thing certain about the outcome of this lawsuit is that the LCD manufacturing cartel is about to take the biggest hit in their collective manufacturing history.

The Pros and Cons of Laptop versus Desktop Computers

The Pros and Cons of Laptop versus Desktop Computers

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When choosing a PC the eternally confusing question is – Laptop or Desktop? This can keep you wondering for a long time, at which point prices tend to change and you have another dilemma on your hands.

In reality the question should be – What is the purpose of this computer? If the answer or answers are email, chat, social networking or something similar, then it does not really matter what you get. Then the issue just boils down to the space you have to place the PC, Cost and aesthetics. But if you come with more specific answers like taking notes in college, drawing architectural diagrams, working while you travel, graphic design, etc then your choices are more clear cut.

A desktop PC is bulky, but it offers more in terms of power, hardware expansion and much bigger displays. People involved in any type of design or graphical work and even gamers should only consider this type of PC. For those who are familiar in tinkering with the innards of a desktop, customizing and upgrading it is a piece of cake. It is also less likely to suffer from overheating problems and problems stemming from vibration, etc.

Laptops have the ultimate advantage over a desktop – Mobility. It goes, where you go. This fact alone makes it the only choice for busy executives, students, researchers, etc. Laptops are portable and get smaller everyday; this coupled with the mobility and the aesthetics is a powerful package. However, a limited screen size, heating and fragility are problems when using a laptop.

In the end there is no clear winner and quite rightly so. The competition really is between the manufacturers and not between the differing architectures of the Laptop and Desktop. They are two forms of the same technology designed to suit different purposes. Therefore, when you do decide, make the decision with the purpose in mind and you will not regret it later.

Backing Up Your Files

Backing Up Your Files

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Article written by FrgNews

We tend to realize the importance of backing up our files only after a hard disk crashes. By this time of course it is too late and the recovery of those files can be a very expensive proposition.

Creating a backup is basically the act of creating a copy of the file on another medium. This can be another hard disk on the same computer or onto a CD or DVD depending on the size of the backup. Never create a backup on the same hard disk you are backing up from, because this defeats the whole reason for the backup. Once you do take a back up, if it is portable, store in a safe location.

In the case of businesses, backups become very important. At the most basic level, financial records must be backed up. Usually companies tend to do three different backups – Daily, Weekly and Monthly. The daily backup stores only the files that have been updated from the previous day, and the weekly back up stores files that been updated compared to the previous week. The monthly back up, however, takes a back up of the all the data files regardless of whether they were updated or not.

This also differs to the others in that it is stored offsite in a secure location unlike the other two which remain onsite in a secure location.
With the amount of Virus, Trojan and Worm attacks that are prevalent today, performing a backup becomes all the more important for everyone who uses a computer.

Hard Disk Maintenance – Correct Methods to Maintain a Hard Disk

Hard Disk Maintenance – Correct Methods to Maintain a Hard Disk

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Article written by Nyc Z

Although you may not realize it, your computer’s hard disk is a very important part of your computer. This is the component that stores all your data and is the only thing that will restore your data should you decide to upgrade to a newer computer. As a result the hard disk must be protected in certain ways so as to not lose any data.

Never ever physically shut down power when the hard disk light is on or blinking. This means that the hard disk is working and transferring data. Any power loss at this point not only results in data loss but also in physical damage to the platters within the hard disk. Please note that shutting down in this instance refers to a loss in power and not the shut down process offered by the operating system which is the proper way to power down your computer.

Ensure that the environment you work in is as dust free as possible. Hard disks are capable of absorbing minute granules of dust which in turn cause physical damage within the hard disk. You must also keep your computer free of any excessive vibration or physical movement when the computer is in use. This will also lead to the hard disk developing problems.

You should regularly perform disk defragmentation if you have frequent creation and deletion of files. The defragmentation process will clear the hard disk of fragmented files and to put it bluntly “put all the files in a neat order”. This enables faster seek times in a hard disk which will result in faster data retrieval for you.

If you follow the above guidelines you should be able to keep your hard disk running in good health for a long time to come.