Month: January 2019

I have often wondered what would happen to large corporate companies if they were to suddenly come across an incident whereby the building sustains a lot of damage meaning that all client data are lost and all of the expensive computing equipment are damaged. In instances whereby problems occur which are beyond the control of the staff or the company, there must always be a backup plan. In certain areas where there are natural disasters it goes without saying that this then is an imperative step for the companies located there to make.

Many companies and businesses will have heard of data centres and will be familiar with what they are used for. A data centre is quite literally a facility for holding data, computers, telecommunication equipment and storage systems. These can contain back-up power supplies, fire suppression, air conditioning for keeping the servers cool, environmental control and data communication. These fast became popular in use after the dotcom bubble. Companies became dependent on fast internet connectivity and continuous operation of the deployment of systems.

Some of the smaller companies began building their own facilities called Internet Data Centres (IDC) which helped with finding solutions for systems operation and deployment. Due to the positive practical results, these were soon migrated towards private centres.

The data centres hold the information through their own server machines. These run on a twenty four hour basis, therefore the quality of the server machines and its maintenance is essential for ensuring no problems occur within the machines, so as to hold all the information. The centres are also highly secured, which means that even staff members are made to go through a security procedure before entering into the building.

Data centres can take up a whole floor of a building, a room space or an entire building. Larger companies may have their own data centre facility, whereas other companies may have their own room in the same building. The centres can also act as a back-up power, security software information and security application. When it comes to data centres, those who are familiar with this term will know that this means holding masses of information in one building.

An example of a large company with a data centre is a bank. Practically all financial establishments have their own centre, which hold vital information about clients account details on the mainframe (large computers built to operate and perform complex applications). The mainframes are usually designed to run with minimal or no disruptions, which is why they are useful for a data centre. Another example are universities, which holds not only student information, but also building information, past building projects, intellectual history and planned construction projects.

A calling centre is an office where a companies inbound calls are received or outbound calls are made. In other words, these are centralised offices used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. An answering service is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, product services, and debt collection are also made. In today’s society, calling centres are popular where many companies have centralised customer service and support functions. These employ many staff in customer service, sales, and support functions.

Call centres large offices are often staffed with representatives who either make or receive phone calls. A single office could have anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of telephone staff – depending on the size of the call centre. Depending on the needs of the company, call centres can make either incoming or outgoing calls.

A contact centre is usually operated through an extensive open workspace for contact centre agents, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional locations, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Voice and data pathways into the centre are increasingly linked through a set of new technologies called Computer Telephony Integration(CTI).

Why would you want a media centre for your house? Well if you watch a lot of films online or watch YouTube then a media centre can really save you a lot of money in the long run.

All you need is a spare computer or laptop the smaller the better really, doesn’t have to be super fast just fast enough to play HD films like Blu-ray. You can buy a Blu-ray drive for half the price of a normal Blu-ray player! They are much cheaper, buy one and install it into your computer. A Blu-ray driver for a laptop might cost a bit more though.

DVD drives are really cheap for computers now and most laptops already have DVD drives installed in them.
If you want your media centre to play movies online or watch YouTube then you might see how close your TV and spare computer are to the router for the internet access. Keep in mind that if your router is wireless you can install a wireless card into your computer and most laptops come with wireless connection built in.

Once you’ve got your internet connection sorted and what type of disk drive you’re going to use you can check the connections on your computer or laptop, most laptops have VGA out which will give you the best out put unless you’ve got a HDMI port then you should use that. Every computer has a VGA port normally if not you can install a video card that will have one on, you can get these for less then £30.

If your television doesn’t support VGA input then check for an S-Video port, most Televisions have this type of port. Then check your spare computer or laptop to ensure they also have S-Video out put, if not then you’ll have to buy a converter VGA to S-Video or VGA to SCART, or VGA to HDMI any of these will allow for a connection to be made to your computer.

Once you’ve connected your computer or laptop to your television then you can start it up and on your television select the source from the list, VGA, SCART, S-Video or HDMI. You should now see the boot up screen from the spare computer or laptop.

If after the boot up the television screen goes blank then this normally means the computer or laptop is running at a resolution which the television doesn’t support try lowing it and see if that works.

Now that the spare computer or laptop is linked up to your television and you can see the desktop, you can check the connection to the network/Internet, once you’ve check that you might want to connect some other devices to your spare computer like external drives, data pens. You can also connect a NAS (network added storage) to your network, this can store all your films music and photos that then can be accessed from your computer or laptop and be shown on your television.

If you don’t have an operating system on your computer you can always download a free operation system like Bunt, which is a free Linux based operating system. This operating system is different from windows but you can still do almost the same things with it.

For the price you’d pay for a new media system this is can be a so much cheaper option and you can do much more on a spare computer then a standard media system.

Controlling your computer from the couch is half the challenge when building a media centre PC.

Last month we looked at setting up a media centre PC, but there’s still work to be done. The key to a great media centre is the ability to control it from your couch as easily as you control your other home entertainment gear.

The first thing you’ll want to do is set your media centre to automatically log in to Windows when it boots up. You might also want to configure the media centre interface to launch automatically, so you’re ready to go.

As for controlling the computer from afar, there’s more than one way to skin this cat. The obvious solution is to opt for a wireless keyboard and mouse, but these can be rather cumbersome to use while reclining on the couch. A wireless trackball makes life slightly easier, but you might be better served by a lounge room-friendly keyboard with a built-in pointing device. There are a few to choose from, such as Logitech’s Wireless Touch Keyboard K400. You’ll find also smaller keyboards which fit in the palm of your hand, such as Logitech’s diNovo Mini and Kogan’s Android Wireless Keyboard and Trackpad. As an added bonus, these tiny keyboards work with both a PC and a PlayStation 3.

Once your media centre is up and running smoothly you shouldn’t need to rely on a keyboard and mouse very often (unless you’re watching online video in a browser). Rather than invest in a physical keyboard to keep in the lounge room, a better option might be to install a remote control app on a smartphone or tablet.

Take a look at Hipporemote for iOS or mkRemote for Android, two apps which let you use your touchscreen device as a keyboard and mouse for your computer. These apps are much faster and less cumbersome than full desktop sharing. For the times when you do need to see the desktop remotely, it might be easier to control your media centre from a notebook using a service such as Logmein. You’ll also find a Logmein Ignition app for Android and iOS, offering desktop sharing from handheld devices.

Like I said, once everything is running smoothly, you should be able to drive the Media Centre interface using a standard remote control rather than a keyboard and mouse. You’ll pick up an MCE remote kit for around $50. The remote control might be cheap and nasty, but don’t worry because we’re more interested in the USB RF receiver that comes with it.

Plug the RF receiver into your media centre and you can now drive the MCE interface with the supplied remote or a universal remote control. Look for a universal remote which lets you execute multiple commands with one button press. For example you might want to fire up the media centre, turn on the television, change the channel and power up your surround sound with a single button press.