COBOL stands for Common Business Oriented Language and is a very popular language still in use in the financial and administrative systems of various organizations. COBOL was first specified by a group of three government agencies and six computer manufacturers in the United States. COBOL has been in use since the late fifties and is still evolving, owing to its popularity among the user community.

Over the next 10 years following the definition of COBOL, several versions of COBOL were put out on the market by various makers of software and compatibility between these versions became an issue. The American National Standard Institute (ANSI) stepped in to introduce a standard version of COBOL in 1968 and has periodically released further versions of the standard ever since.

COBOL was adopted by the business community for its operations largely due to the natural language construct used in COBOL programming. Just before the year 2000 changeover, it was estimated that around 80% of business all over the globe ran on COBOL - a fact that caused a tremendous amount of effort to be expended on making these systems compatible for year 2000. This effort was initiated because most businesses indexed their operations using dates and hitherto, COBOL had been using a two-digit date field that needed to be modified into a four-digit one to accommodate the new millennium.

COBOL compilers exist for several platforms and it is common to see COBOL applications running on IBM’s z/OS, Windows, Unix and Linux Operating Systems.

COBOL has evolved to include the object oriented paradigm and support Unicode and XML. The latest versions of COBOL can seamlessly interface with programs written in languages like C on .NET and Java frameworks. COBOL incorporates techniques such as recursion and can be used for scientific computing as well as for business applications.

The detailed syntax and statements in COBOL programs make it easy even for a layperson to understand what the program is doing. The very same characteristic that made COBOL popular among the business community has come under attack by some in the programming community. Critics of COBOL have cited the wordiness of programs written in COBOL as a negative aspect of programs written in this language.

We’ve all heard the saying “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people!” So, with this statement extrapolated can we also apply it to other technology advances that kill people? For instance; Landmines do not kill people. Atomic Bombs do not kill people. Automobiles do not kill people. Is it the technology which is bad or the human element we have to watch out for?

Not long ago a gentleman emailed into a think tank after reading an article about Conflict and Technology which essentially pointed a finger at mankind and their inherent problems and let technology off the hook for the deaths that it happened to cause. This gentleman asked three simple questions. Indeed, perhaps we might discuss them;

1. Would you say the splitting of the atom had a good impact on society rather than a bad one?
2. Would you say that the discovery of fossil fuel and the advent of the combustible engine were worth “it”?
3. Also, do you think we could have still had the advancements in the surgical fields without any of the aforementioned?

Okay, let me share with you some thoughts from my perspective. First, I am pro-nuclear power. And I am pro-microwave ovens, even if I wouldn’t want to cook a secret Cheese Cake recipe in one, they are great for many things. I also like communicating on this little human invention we call the Internet, ARPA predecessor to DARPA. I like Jet Aircraft Travel too.

So, I’d say splitting of the Atom has led to many great innovations (energy as an example) and understanding of how things are. Of course, my grandfather was a nuclear physicist, so, I am good on that. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were unfortunate, but history agrees that it ended the war and actually saved lives. And yes, I know the victorious army always re-writes history, but it is a good point.

The invention of the reciprocating engine is a great way to get lots of power in a small motor. Coal, Kerosene, Oil, yes, all good, and it sure beats burning wood to boil water to make steam to have an energy form you can use to do work, right? Are there better ways to do things, more efficient means of converting energy to the proper form to do work, sure there are and as mankind progresses and learns more, they’ll figure it out.

There would be innovation in the surgical fields without all the other technologies, yes, I believe this to be true, but, I would submit to you that the combination is what really makes things fly. Perhaps, this is why it is worthy to discuss Ray Kurzweil and his theories on the “Singularity” as when you take computer science, bio-science, new materials, nano-technology, alternative energy, and combine them all, well, wow!

You have a bunch of different areas of innovation coming together at once, thus Moore’s Law seems almost indefinite. The future comes, technology is good. Now with that said will some of this new technology be used to for war? Unfortunately, we know it will, but we must look back at history and note that technology built for conflict has considerably advanced the human species in so many ways. So think on this.

You turn your computer on. Your boss is making you finish a report for him. You start writing your report, and you want to turn in for the night. Oh no! Your computer is frozen, and all your work is going to be lost! You’re infuriated!

The fact is, Spyware and Adware viruses infect computers that surf the internet. To make things short, Spyware is a virus that spies on your computer activities, whether it be watching videos on Youtube, or, doing some online banking. The people who send the Spyware out into the internet have one thing in mind, invading your privacy. They use a certain tracking technology that helps them track where and when Spyware infects a computer. Don’t get too discouraged though, there are programs that help protect you from infection, and even gets rid of them if you ever get Spyware or Adware on your computer.

There are many different types of programs out there that claim to clean your computer, and wipe all the viruses out of your hard drive. Not all of them are effective though. Many of them are the cheap, free kind that just does a basic run through of your computer, and if it seems like there are no Spyware or Adware viruses, they say your computer is clean. The better ones thoroughly search your computer, and track down all of the potential threats in your computer. They do this a couple times to make sure your computer is safe, and that there is no possibility of Spyware or Adware viruses left unchecked.

There is one that really caught my attention, the Adware Alert! Wow, even the name is exciting! Well, I don’t want to get into too much detail, but the product that they are offering is one of the best in the business. It uses cutting edge technology that helps it find Adware and Spyware viruses, and kill them to ensure a clean, and running computer.

So, to be frank, Spyware is bad. It ruins your computer, and it costs you a lot of money. If I were you, I would make that investment, and buy an effective Spyware remover.

If I told you that there was one fairly simple thing you could do, that once set up you’d rarely even have to think about it and that it could save you from almost any computer related disaster, would you be interested?

Such a thing does exist: it’s called backing up.

If there were anything close to a magic silver bullet for recovering from almost any computer related problem, backing up religiously would be it.

Consider, for example:

• your computer becomes infected with a virus you can’t get rid of. Recover by simply restoring your machine to the most recent backup before the infection.
• you accidentally delete a file. Recover by restoring it from a backup.
• your computer’s hard drive fails and must be replaced. Recover by restoring your most recent backup to the replacement hard drive.
• you install some new software that, as far as you can tell, completely messes up your system and won’t uninstall properly. Recover by restoring your system from its most recent backup.

Think of any computer-related disaster and there’s a good chance that a reliable backup makes recovery not only possible, but even easy.

Backing up does not have to be hard.

It’s been said that the “best” back up, like exercise, is whatever you’ll actually do — any backup is better than none at all.

But it’s not that difficult to create a backup process that regularly makes sure your precious documents, photos, files and even system changes have been squirreled away for safekeeping.

Yes, backing up can get complicated, but it doesn’t have to be, particularly for home and small business computer users. There are two basic and easy approaches that can provide the security you need.

The first is to purchase an external hard drive and dedicated backup software. Set up the backup software to take full backups of your system every week or every month, and then also take incremental backups perhaps as often as every day. Nothing older than a day can be lost since you can restore any file or even the entire system to its state as of any day on which the backup ran.

The second option that’s growing in popularity is to sign up for an on-line backup service. For a low monthly fee, these services install a small application on your computer that monitors for changed files and automatically uploads them to a secure location. You can then access those backed up files anywhere and restore them to any machine. While full-machine backups are typically impractical due to the massive amount data involved, if you have an always-on high-speed internet connection, online services may be a convenient and practical way to backup your most important data.

Remember, if your data is stored in only one place - be it on your hard disk or even in online service such as an web based email account - it’s not backed up and you risk losing it all. Resolve now to get a backup solution in place as soon as possible so that when, not if, disaster strikes you’ll be prepared to recover quickly.

Have you ever come across a message on your computer saying that a particular feature or software that you are attempting to use is not supported? You have a resident anti-virus program scanning and protecting your computer and yet, people you know complain about receiving viruses in emails sent by you? If this is frequently the case, have you been updating all the software and the Operating System installed on your computer regularly?

Many computer users do not pay attention to regular update notices issued by makers of software, and prefer to give the updates a go-by and continue with what they are doing. This is not a very wise move as regular updates can make your computer more efficient and improve your productivity by giving you more efficient use of installed software.

Here’s why you should make it a practice to periodically update your software

1. Eliminate Bugs - Most makers of software regularly release patches and updates correcting the bugs that have been brought to their attention. By updating, you eliminate potential errors.

2. Improve Security - Software inevitably has many weak points that can be exploited by unscrupulous hackers to attack your computer if you happen to use that software. Updates usually improve the security aspect of the software by removing these vulnerabilities.

3. Added Features - Throughout the lifecycle of a product, market demand drives the inclusion of added features such as multilingual support and expansion of file formats supported. Updating software ensures that you benefit from these improvements.

4. Using Third-Party Software - After software is released into the market, several third-party programs may be released for working with the software installed on your computer. The manufacturer may also release updates with plug-ins for seamless data interchange between the packages. You may not be in a position to get the most out of the third-party software without installing updates on your computer.

5. Fading Technical Support - The older a software release gets, fewer resources are expended on technical support by the makers. In order to ensure availability of technical support, updating software is essential.

6. Incompatibility with Newer Software - With the fast-pace in technology advancement, older versions may not function correctly or efficiently with later software whereas updated versions keep pace with technology changes.

7. Enhanced Device Connectivity - The makers of the software attempt to increase the range of hardware devices that their software can interact with in their updates and installing updates can help you extend the range of the hardware that can be used with your computer.

Did your computer just come to a grinding halt and freeze at a blue screen showing a lot of messages in white? You’ve just encountered the famous Blue Screen resulting from a Windows Stop error - more colorfully known among the Windows Operating System user community as the Blue Screen of Death or BSOD. If this has just happened to you don’t despair, help is at hand!

Most Blue Screen situations come up after some kind of Software or Hardware install or uninstall resulting in a hardware or software error from which Windows cannot gracefully recover.

A careful perusal of the screen shows you the error number associated with the crash, a recommendation from Windows on the action you should take, and in the end, the name of the file that caused the crash.

In case you just saw the Blue Screen, here are a few steps you could follow to fix it:

1. Restart the Computer - Most of the errors related to the Blue Screen can be solved with a simple reboot. If the error persists, you may need to follow the steps given below.

2. Restart in Safe Mode - Windows loads only a minimal set of drivers in safe mode and it is easy to isolate any software-related problem. When you restart the computer and the Power-On Self-test (POST) screen is displayed, hit F8 and choose Safe Mode in the Advanced Options Menu that appears and hit Enter. Once Windows is loaded, you can uninstall and reinstall the software that caused the error.

3. Use Last Known Good Configuration - If starting Windows in safe mode doesn’t work, you can reboot and choose the Advanced Options menu as before, to boot into the last known good configuration. This causes a System Restore to the point just before the installation or uninstall.

4. Disconnect New/Faulty Hardware - If you are unable to use the last known good configuration, the probability of a hardware error is very high and you may need to disconnect any hardware installed just prior to the crash or check if any of your hardware is faulty. Once the offending hardware device is removed or replaced, the problem should be fixed.

5. Repair/Reinstall Windows - If none of the steps above are able to get rid of the Blue Screen, it is possible that the Windows system files are irreparably corrupt and you should consider repairing the Windows installation. Insert the Windows CD-ROM into the drive and boot from CD-ROM drive. You will be led to the Windows Recovery console using which you can repair windows and attempt to reboot. If this fails too, then you may have to reinstall the entire Windows Operating System using the CD-ROM.

Windows registry needs to be periodically checked for errors and these inconsistencies need to be resolved for improving the performance of your computer. Additionally, registry entries also take up space on your hard disk and an unchecked registry can lead to large files occupying hard disk space.

Before seeing how to fix errors let us first see what affects registry entries and causes inconsistencies. Every time you install or uninstall a program, or update a program or your operating system, your computer keeps track of it by logging the information in the registry. This information is available in the form of keys. The factors that can cause inconsistencies in the registry are numerous.

For viewing the information in the registry, click the Windows Start button, choose Run and type in regedit in the window that appears and hit Enter. A Registry Editor window should pop up. You may not understand the entries immediately - modifying the registry using regedit is an option best left to advanced users.

1. A computer that takes too long to start up or shut down may be displaying the symptoms of errors in the registry. Try defragmenting the hard disk - if it does not solve the problem, you need to check for errors.

2. If you understand the registry entries, check for applications that are no longer in your computer, these need to be removed.

3. If you feel that there are too many entries in the registry or are not sure about the various options, there are several freeware, shareware and commercial software packages available that can scan a registry and report errors.

4. Once you have ascertained that errors do exist in the registry, it is really important to backup the current contents of the registry. If you modify the registry there is a chance that you may not able to boot up windows so use the File->Export option in the registry editor to store the current registry file in a suitable location as backup in case the Error Fixing goes wrong.

5. You can also use Start->Run->Ntbackup and follow instructions to create a backup before fixing error registry.

6. Once you have taken the backup, keep the backed up registry file on removable media like a floppy drive or CD-ROM. If you run into related problems, you can fix it by importing the backed up file and bringing your system back to a known state.

7. Create a System Restore point so that you can restore the system to a known state in case of errors.

8. If you are a novice or even an intermediate user, editing the registry entries yourself is NOT recommended. Make sure you have someone from Technical Support to walk you through it.

9. Get a freeware, shareware or commercial cleaning software to fix the errors and inconsistencies in the registry.

10. Before you commence fixing errors make sure you are logged in as Administrator otherwise, you may not have privilege to modify the registry.

As a general rule, gaming laptops are not cheap, they are usually the most expensive laptops you can purchase. If you go with a fully-loaded high-end gaming machine from the popular brand-name makers you will likely have to dish out 4 to 6 grand for the top rigs.

However, since all laptop prices have been falling at a steady rate in recent years, if you shop around you can find a half-decent gaming laptop at a reasonable price. Here we’re still talking about $1500 to $2500 for a good quality gaming laptop. Although there are probably cheaper ones to be found if you look in the right places.

Now, the main reason gaming laptops are so expensive is because of the high-end components and high-end specs that’s needed to produce a superior gaming machine. In a gaming laptop you need top-level Graphics (CPUs), High Processor Speeds, tons of RAM, high-end HD Displays and high-end Optical Drives featuring Blu-ray and the like.

Of course, if you’re buying a flashy brand-name gaming laptop like those produced by Alienware or Rock, you will be paying extra for all that style and flash. Now, if money is no object, going with these top brand-names could probably be your best bet if you’re playing the name game. Also keep in mind, you don’t always have to buy the really expensive “flag-ship” models; going with an entry-level gaming laptop from Alienware or Rock can make them more affordable for the average gamer.

However, if you’re on a really tight budget (and who isn’t these days) then you have other options when buying a completely good quality gaming laptop. You might not get all the “bells and whistles” but you will get a fast, high-performance gaming machine that will let you play the latest 3D video games on your laptop.

Before you even begin your search, you will have to decide whether or not you’re ruling out the possibility of purchasing a refurbished or even a used gaming laptop. If you know what
you’re doing, some excellent bargains can be had with online auction sites like eBay. Just make sure you thoroughly check out the seller and product before you buy.

Refurbished laptops is another option you can take, just make sure you have some iron-clad guarantees or warranties if you’re buying a refurbished gaming laptop. Also remember, check around in your own local area… in hard economic times many perfectly good gaming laptops may be offered for sale so check your local newspaper ads and online places like Craigslist to see if you can pick up a quality gaming rig at a very reasonable price.

Next, if you’re in the market for new gaming laptop, there are several lower price models you could consider.

Gateway P-7811FX ($1,449)

The Gateway P-7811FX is one rather inexpensive laptop you should check out if you’re searching for good gaming laptop at a reasonable price. It sports a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor with 4GB, 667MHz DDR3 memory, 200GB 7200rpm, Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS and a HD-friendly 1920×1200 17.1 inch display.

Which is great value for your money and if you’re on a tight budget, you should consider
this one.

Qosmio X305 ($1,500 - $2000)

Toshiba has recently launched its Qosmio X305 series of gaming laptops featuring two NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS SLI graphics cards. With Intel Core2 Duo Processor P8400 and 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM memory. These beauties can handle the most demanding Direct X 10 games and applications.

Throw in Toshiba great 17″ Diagonal TruBrite Widescreen Display for full 1680 x 1050 (WSXGA+) resolution and 4 Harman/Kardon speakers with a Subwoofer and you have a good quality gaming machine at a reasonable price.

Know Your Clevo

Furthermore, experienced gamers know their “Clevo” - this is the Taiwan-based notebook maker ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) who supplies many of the Brand-name Boutique OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) like Falcon, M-TECH, Sager, Rock… with the necessary components and models. By comparing the prices on these Clevo models offered by the different OEMs, you can find the cheapest price that’s offered. You can save hundreds, if not thousands off by shopping around and finding the best priced Clevo.

These are just but a few examples of finding a relatively cheap gaming laptop, if you’re on the hunt for a good quality gaming rig. But there are many more out there, so shop around
and cover all your bases.

Happy hunting!

If your computer is running slowly, there are many things you can do to make it run faster and this article would show you some of them.

The first way to do this is to make sure that your computer is protected and that there is nothing harmful on your computer that you do not know about. The easiest way to do is to get a good anti-virus and anti-spyware to do a scan of your computer and the reason why you should do this is because your computer might have something in it and you might not know about it. Viruses and spywares are not only harmful but they can also affect the speed of your computer, just ensure that you update them regularly. There are many anti-spyware and anti-virus programs available online and you can even get some of them for free.

Another thing you can do to make your laptop run faster is to free up disk space in your hard disk and the simplest way to do this is just to delete programs, files and software which are on your system and which you no longer need or which you no longer use. The reason why this helps is because it helps to free up space in the hard disk of your computer and can help improve the performance of your system. You should also empty your recycle bin and delete your internet temporary files and cookies on a regularly basis as this also helps to free up space that can help the performance of your computer.

You should also make sure you back up all the important things you have on your system to ensure that if your computer crashes you do not lose any of your valuable files.