Taking your business higher with Document Management System ...

Internet and Technology | Computers and Technology | * Written by Caitlin Jones | Monday, 27 August 2012 01:26 | Word Count: 507

If you are one of those businessmen running a small enterprise, wondering how to take your business to greater heights, we?ll give you a start. Document Management System, also known as DMS, is a great way to save time by consolidating all your files and folders into a computer facilitated storage that will turn around your business more than you can imagine. Now if you are wondering how a computer based document management system can boost your business, let us start by giving you some wonderful benefits: ?? At the very outset, a DMS will enable you to get rid of all those folders, thereby clearing a lot of office space. Perhaps, even a whole room, if that?s the number of files and folders you stock.

?? With a DMS, all the time that you spend in flipping pages after pages of a file in order to find a particular document will be saved. With that additional time that you make for yourself, you can do more and more business dealings which you?ve always wanted to, but never could.

Using records management software, i.e. an alternative to a DMS, you can store all your data into a single software that has the capability to store your files, archive it for as long as you want, retrieve it for you when you enter search commands, and eventually destroy it when the time comes. This type of setting can benefit your company a lot by making sure that even if your employees are out of town, they can still work without having to worry about looking up for data in paper documents. All they will need is their laptop, and the records management which contains all your data.

When the documents you store require a lot of revision from time to time, it becomes very vital to keep a track of all the revisions that take place. With ordinary tools, it is not possible but with a document management version control, you can keep a check on what?s going on with multiple revisions. If the client calls you up for a piece of information on their new deal, you need to be sure that you open the latest revised document, and not the one that was revised a week or a month ago. With a document management version control, the task of upgrading a document becomes very simple.

As the clout of technology is growing, almost every businessman is adapting to changing technology in a lieu to improve and boost their business. Since saving space and time are two vital aspects of any business, they should be given prime importance. A new tool which can give you the advantage of time and money is an electronic document imaging software. It has the capability of storing all your documents in the form of PDF files, that you can access at any later point of time by just entering the keywords you had used to store that particular file. If you want to lead in this competitive race, we advise you go tech savvy!

Caitlin Jones writes on records management. She is associated with many renowned document management version control and electronic document imaging websites. She is an active member of many reputed social networks and works consistently to help people with his knowledge.

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PFT: Seahawks name Wilson Week 1 QB starter

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Jets fans were booing.

And they had every right. After paying full fare for tickets, and parking, and (hopefully) beer, they were forced to watch the Jets offense.

But at least the Jets are consistent.

Even after getting a turnover and a short field (taking over at the Panthers 12-yard line), the Jets starting offense continued to pitch a shutout in the preseason, failing to get into the end zone.

If you?re scoring at home (and they?re not, or on the road either), that?s 15 possessions for the starters in the preseason, and no touchdowns. The backups haven?t scored either, leaving no hope that personnel changes are going to fix things.

While it?s easy to rail on quarterback Mark Sanchez, it?s misguided as well, as he suffered through several dropped passes.?They actually looked competent early in the game running no-huddle, but that didn?t last long.

But Sanchez was unnecessarily glib on the sidelines, joking with Michelle Tafoya that they were saving all their touchdowns for the regular season.

For it to have been funny, there would have to be an expectation this wasn?t actually what they are.

The good news is the Jets defense was strong.

It better be.

Here are some other things we learned on Sunday Night Football.

1. There were cheers when Tim Tebow took the field.

I?m not sure anymore if they were sarcastic or sincere.

Of course, when he got a few plays under his belt, they were booing him too. Those were sincere.

The Jets night in a nutshell was when he jumped up to celebrate a surprising first-down scramble, and a few plays later, threw an ugly pick.

End well, this will not.

2. Cam Newton can make plays even without a gaudy stat line.

He was a positively Tebowian 6-of-15 passing for 60 yards and a touchdown, and ran twice for 16 yards.

But he makes the Panthers offense move.

They don?t want him to run as much on purpose this year, but the threat of him making a decision on a zone read is enough to freeze opponents for a second and buy time for him to do something else with it.

3. There should have been more cheers for Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis, playing his first preseason game since his surgery to repair his third torn ACL.

Davis has incredible gifts, or had them before his knee was shredded. He can still run well, and the Panthers are going to spot him in rather than try to ask him to play every snap.

As a blitzer and a guy who can drop back and cover tight ends, he?s still good.

But they?ll probably never stop holding their breath every time he hits the ground.

4. The Jets offense has problems, but they are not without players on that side.?Problem is, they?re all getting hurt.

Tight end Dustin Keller left the game early with a hamstring problem, and then backup Josh Baker was take off with a right knee injury.

Whether it?s Sanchez or Tebow, the Jets need safe passes. And without a solid tight end out there (or even his backup), they have issues.

They should sign Jeremy Shockey, for comic relief if nothing else.

5. Not a banner night for the Panthers highly paid stable of running backs.

DeAngelo Williams fumbled twice, Jonathan Stewart was hauled off on a cart with an ankle injury, and Mike Tolbert was on the bench with a bag of ice on his knee.

Armond Smith and Josh Vaughan are up for contract extensions next.

6. The Jets got consistent pressure up front from their starting defense.

Quinton Coples and Muhammad Wilkerson in particular got a good push on a Panthers line that?s at least above average and may be very good.

They?re going to be asked to carry a team, and they may be able to.

7. The Panthers have apparently elected to go with slow and steady over athletic ability at free safety.

Former Ravens backup Haruki Nakamura (who was stuck behind some guy named Ed Reed) got the start and took all the work with the first offense.

Former second-round pick Sherrod Martin, who unlike Nakamura has range, is now a bench warmer.

This was initially a competition, but it appears the Panthers have made their decision. Martin?s such a better athlete it?s comical, but he had a series of gaffes in coverage last year that even had the owner cracking on him.

Basically, they?re electing to go with a limitation they can plan on rather than guessing where the more talented Martin will be.

8. The Panthers offense wasn?t very good either. But unlike the Jets, they had a reason.

Without wide receiver Steve Smith, the Panthers offense is completely different. He?s the vertical threat that makes everything else work.

The good news is, he?s going to be OK after dealing with an infection in his foot.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/08/26/seahawks-name-russell-wilson-starting-quarterback/related

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Frankenstein programmers test a cybersecurity monster

ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2012) ? In order to catch a thief, you have to think like one.

UT Dallas computer scientists are trying to stay one step ahead of cyber attackers by creating their own monster. Their monster can cloak itself as it steals and reconfigures information in a computer program.

In part because of the potentially destructive nature of their technology, creators have named this software system Frankenstein, after the monster-creating scientist in author Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.

"Shelley's story is an example of a horror that can result from science, and similarly, we intend our creation as a warning that we need better detections for these types of intrusions," said Dr. Kevin Hamlen, associate professor of computer science at UT Dallas who created the software, along with his doctoral student Vishwath Mohan. "Criminals may already know how to create this kind of software, so we examined the science behind the danger this represents, in hopes of creating counter measures."

Frankenstein is not a computer virus, which is a program that can multiply and take over other machines. But, it could be used in cyber warfare to provide cover for a virus or another type of malware, or malicious software.

In order to avoid antivirus software, malware typically mutates every time it copies itself onto another machine. Antivirus software figures out the pattern of change and continues to scan for sequences of code that are known to be suspicious.

Frankenstein evades this scanning mechanism. It takes code from programs already on a computer and repurposes it, stringing it together to accomplish the malware's malicious task with new instructions.

"We wanted to build something that learns as it propagates," Hamlen said. "Frankenstein takes from what is already there and reinvents itself."

"Just as Shelley's monster was stitched from body parts, our Frankenstein also stitches software from original program parts, so no red flags are raised," he said. "It looks completely different, but its code is consistent with something normal."

Hamlen said Frankenstein could be used to aid government counter terrorism efforts by providing cover for infiltration of terrorist computer networks. Hamlen is part of the Cyber Security Research and Education Center in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.

The UT Dallas research is the first published example describing this type of stealth technology, Hamlen said.

"As a proof-of-concept, we tested Frankenstein on some simple algorithms that are completely benign," Hamlen said. "We did not create damage to anyone's systems."

The next step, Hamlen said, is to create more complex versions of the software.

Frankenstein was described in a paper published online (https://www.usenix.org/conference/woot12/frankenstein-stitching-malware-benign-binaries) in conjunction with a presentation at a recent USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/swLVcjDfX8A/120827175931.htm

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Laser beam as a '3-D painter' to grow biological tissue or to create micro sensors

ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2012) ? With laser beams, molecules can be fixed at exactly the right position in a three dimensional material. The new method developed at the Vienna University of Technology can be used to grow biological tissue or to create micro sensors.

There are many ways to create three dimensional objects on a micrometer scale. But how can the chemical properties of a material be tuned at micrometer precision? Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology developed a method to attach molecules at exactly the right place. When biological tissue is grown, this method can allow the positioning of chemical signals, telling living cells where to attach. The new technique also holds promise for sensor technology: A tiny three dimensional "lab on a chip" could be created, in which accurately positioned molecules react with substances from the environment.

Materials Science and Chemistry

"3-D-photografting" is the name of the new method. Two research teams from the Vienna University of Technology collaborated closely to develop it: Professor J?rgen Stampfl's materials science team and Professor Robert Liska's research group for macromolecular chemistry.

Both research groups have already attracted considerable attention in the past, developing new kinds of 3-D-printers. However, for the applications on which the scientists are working on now, 3-D-printing would not have been useful: "Putting together a material from tiny building blocks with different chemical properties would be extremely complicated," says Aleksandr Ovsianikov. "That is why we start from a three dimensional scaffold and then attach the desired molecules at exactly the right positions."

Molecules in the Hydrogel -- Locked into Position by the Laser

The scientists start with a so-called hydrogel -- a material made of macromolecules, arranged in a loose meshwork. Between those molecules, large pores remain, through which other molecules or even cells can migrate. Specially selected molecules are introduced into the hydrogel meshwork, then certain points are irradiated with a laser beam. At the positions where the focused laser beam is most intense, a photochemically labile bond is broken. That way, highly reactive intermediates are created which locally attach to the hydrogel very quickly. The precision depends on the laser's lens system, at the Vienna University of Technology a resolution of 4 ?m could be obtained. "Much like an artist, placing colors at certain points of the canvas, we can place molecules in the hydrogel -- but in three dimensions and with high precision," says Aleksandr Ovsianikov.

Chemical Signals for Cells

This method can be used to artificially grow biological tissue. Like a climbing plant clinging to a rack, cells need some scaffold at which they attach. In a natural tissue, the extracellular matrix does the trick by using specific amino acid sequences to signal the cells, where they are supposed to grow. In the lab, scientists are trying to use similar chemical signals. In various experiments, cell attachment could be guided on two dimensional surfaces, but in order to grow larger tissues with a specific inner structure (such as capillaries), a truly three dimensional technique is required.

Micro Sensors Detect Molecules

Depending on the application, different molecules can be used. 3-D photografting is not only useful for bio-engineering but also for other fields, such as photovoltaics or sensor technology. In a very small space, molecules can be positioned which attach to specific chemical substances and allow their detection. A microscopic three-dimensional "lab on a chip" becomes possible.

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Journal Reference:

1. Aleksandr Ovsianikov, Zhiquan Li, Jan Torgersen, J?rgen Stampfl, Robert Liska. 3D Photografting: Selective Functionalization of 3D Matrices Via Multiphoton Grafting and Subsequent Click Chemistry (Adv. Funct. Mater. 16/2012). Advanced Functional Materials, 2012; 22 (16): 3527 DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201290098

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/6B4AFgNjaVg/120827074144.htm

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Tips To Help You Improve Your Home | Buy & Sell Your Textbooks

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Storage projects are an excellent way to get your feet wet in the home improvement process. If you have a broom closet in your home, consider making it into a small pantry. It is easy to attach small racks to the inside of the door and create a place for canned goods and spices. If you are able to add a deeper shelf, you can also store boxes or kitchen appliances that don?t see much use.

If the snow on your roof melts very quickly, double check the insulation in your attic. Snow shouldn?t melt at all on a roof as long as the attic is keeping the heat in your house and the cold outside. Replacing the insulation will also decrease your heating bills as your heat is no longer being used to warm up the attic as well.

A great way to make your home look new again is to slap on a new coat of paint on the outside of your home. If you choose a brighter color, your house will glow like a new pearl and will be the envy of everyone on your neighborhood block.

To help improve your home, try installing a new kitchen. Some quick fixes include replacing or repainting your cupboard doors, units, or work surfaces. Also try installing new worktops for a new looking kitchen. All the furniture can be painted, glossed, or upholstered to help it look new or different.

There are many tutorials that can be found on any type of home improvement, probably more than you could possible imagine. Whether you find these tutorials online, in books, or from a friend, it is a great help to review these before and during the home improvement process. If you do not have the knowledge you need, you could be stuck with not very functional work.

A great home improvement tip that will give a great feel to your home is to place wooden panels all throughout your living room. This will give your living room an extra homey feel, and you?ll find yourself wanting to spend even more time in front of your television set.

If you?re considering a home improvement project, learn to perform some handiwork yourself. Your home improvement project will be more satisfying, and the overall cost will be much cheaper. However, do consider the complexity of jobs you might do. Will a major mistake require an expensive fix? If so, you might be better going with a professional. Have confidence in how difficult you judge a job to be, and go with your gut.

Prior to installing self-adhesive vinyl tiles, ensure that the floor or subfloor on which you are laying the floor is completely level. Bubbles or ridges in the floor could cause the edges of the tiles to lift, which can expose sharp edges that not only look unsightly, but may cause injury.

If you live in an older home with a wooden floor that is beyond sanding and staining, add a few coats of oil-based paint over the planks. Choose a paint that is intended for outdoor use on decks or porches; this ensures that it will be able to withstand the occasional wet spill and light traffic. It can also hold you over until you have the resources to replace the floor altogether.

Have space available for the trash. Renovation projects always involve lots of debris and if you do not have a special place for it, it will add up quickly. Planning in advance, by getting a dumpster or other debris storage area, will help to prevent any headaches that may come with removal.

If you have decided to start working on improving your home, but you want to do this alone, you should be sure to start with an easy project. Many people jump straight into something like adding on another room, and then they quickly find themselves overwhelmed and confused about what they are doing.

When doing any kind of flooring home improvements, it is of critical importance that the old floor be cleaned properly before applying any new flooring. If there is dirt or any residual old mortar or underlayment, your new flooring will not adhere properly to the sub-floor and will cause problems in the future.

Hide clutter to make each room look fresh and inviting. Over time, we tend to collect things ? photos, gadgets, plants, and little artifacts that turn into clutter in our home. Arrange these things into collections by color, put them into bookcases, or buy attractive boxes or chests with lids to contain them. This gives your rooms a clean, relaxed look.

If you are hiring a contractor to work on your home improvement project, it is important to check their license number. Do not just take what the contractor tells you at face value; you can check their credentials online to ensure that they are licensed to perform the type of work you require. Unfortunately, some people will attempt to scam you, so it is best to be certain that you know who you are hiring.

Whether you are improving your own personal residence or an investment property that you will use for resale or renting, the tips we have discussed in this article will set you well on your way to higher property values as well as hassle free and financially responsible remodeling projects.

Oralee Vantol does have a column on Jacksonville Roof Repair

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Refinery blast kills 26 in Venezuela, dozens hurt

Firefighters and rescue teams work at the Amuay oil refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. A huge explosion rocked Venezuela's biggest oil refinery and unleashed a ferocious fire Saturday, killing over 20 people and injuring dozens in the deadliest disaster in memory for the country's key oil industry. (AP Photo/Diario EL Amanecer)

Firefighters and rescue teams work at the Amuay oil refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. A huge explosion rocked Venezuela's biggest oil refinery and unleashed a ferocious fire Saturday, killing over 20 people and injuring dozens in the deadliest disaster in memory for the country's key oil industry. (AP Photo/Diario EL Amanecer)

Fire rises over the Amuay oil refinery near Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. A huge explosion rocked Venezuela's biggest oil refinery and unleashed a ferocious fire Saturday, killing over 20 people and injuring dozens in the deadliest disaster in memory for the country's key oil industry. (AP Photo/Diario EL Amanecer)

Fire rises over the Amuay oil refinery near Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. A huge explosion rocked Venezuela's biggest oil refinery and unleashed a ferocious fire Saturday, killing over 20 people and injuring dozens in the deadliest disaster in memory for the country's key oil industry. (AP Photo/Diario EL Amanecer)

Large plumes of smoke rise from the Amuay refinery as national guardsmen watch near Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. A huge explosion rocked Venezuela's biggest oil refinery, killing and injuring dozens, an official said. (AP Photo/Abisaid Cermeno)

Fire rises over the Amuay refinery near Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012. A huge explosion rocked Venezuela's biggest oil refinery, killing at least 24 people and injuring dozens, an official said. (AP Photo/Daniela Primera)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? A huge explosion rocked Venezuela's biggest oil refinery and unleashed a ferocious fire on Saturday, killing at least 26 people and injuring more than 80 others in one of the deadliest disasters ever to hit the country's key oil industry.

Balls of fire rose over the Amuay refinery, among the largest in the world, in video posted on the Internet by people who were nearby at the time. Government officials pledged to restart the refinery within two days and said the country has plenty of fuel supplies on hand to meet its domestic needs as well as its export commitments.

At least 86 people were injured, nine of them seriously, Health Minister Eugenia Sader said at a hospital where the wounded were taken. She said 77 people suffered light injuries and were released.

Officials said those killed included a 10-year-old boy, and that 17 of the 26 victims were National Guard troops stationed at a post next to the refinery.

President Hugo Chavez declared three days of mourning.

"This affects all of us," Chavez said by phone on state television. "It's very sad, very painful."

Chavez said he ordered a "deep investigation" to determine what caused the explosion.

Vice President Elias Jaua, who traveled to the area in western Venezuela, said the authorities tried "to save the greatest number of lives."

Officials said firefighters had controlled the flames at the refinery on the Paraguana Peninsula, where clouds of dark smoke still billowed in the afternoon.

The blast occurred about 1:15 a.m. when a gas leak created a cloud that ignited, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said. He said an adjacent National Guard post was severely damaged by the blast, along with nearby homes.

"That gas generated a cloud that later exploded and has caused fires in at least two tanks of the refinery and surrounding areas," Ramirez said. "The blast wave was of a significant magnitude."

Images in the early hours after the explosion showed the flames casting an orange glow against the night sky. One photograph showed an injured man being wheeled away on a stretcher.

Some people in surrounding areas were evacuated or fled, officials said.

Ramirez said a panel of investigators was being formed to probe the cause of the gas leak. A prosecutor was appointed to lead the investigation and troops were deployed to the area.

The explosion hit an area of storage tanks in the refinery, and nine of the tanks were damaged, Ramirez said.

"All of the events happened very quickly," Ramirez said. "When we got here in the middle of the night, at 3 or 3:30 in the morning, the fire was at its peak."

He said supplies of fuel had been cut off to part of the refinery, and that the fire had been brought under control, though the flames continued to burn up fuel in some of the tanks. Firefighters, he said, were using foam to extinguish the flames in one of the remaining tanks.

"This regrettable and sad event is controlled, is under control," Ramirez said on television, while plumes of smoke continued to billow.

Amuay is part of the Paraguana Refinery Complex, which also includes the adjacent Cardon refinery. Together, the two refineries process about 900,000 barrels of crude per day and 200,000 barrels of gasoline. Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the U.S. and a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Ramirez said the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA should be able to "restart operations in a maximum of two days."

"We want to tell the country that we have sufficient inventories of fuel. We have 10 days of inventory of fuel," Ramirez said. He said the country's other refineries were operating at full capacity and would be able to "deal with any situation in our domestic market. ... In that sense, we won't have major effects."

An official of the state oil company, known as PDVSA, said the country also has enough supplies on hand to guarantee its international supply commitments. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

In terms of international oil markets, the disaster is not likely to cause much of a ripple, said Jason Schenker, an energy analyst and president of Austin, Texas-based Prestige Economics LLC. Noting that other refinery accidents and shutdowns regularly occur around the world, he said: "There's likely to be relatively limited impact on global crude or product pricing."

"The real tragedy," he said, "is that these events continue to happen, not just in Venezuela but everywhere. It is a dangerous business."

While the cause of Saturday's disaster remains unclear, some oil workers and critics of Chavez's government have recently pointed to increasing numbers of smaller accidents and spills as an indication of problems within the state-run company.

"This tragedy is probably the worst one the oil industry has had in many years. Accidents happen, of course, although the problem with PDVSA is the inordinate amount of accidents that have taken place during the last years," said Gustavo Coronel, an energy consultant and former executive of PDVSA. Considering that record overall, Coronel said, "we are not talking about bad luck but about lack of maintenance and inept management."

Ivan Freites, a labor leader and employee who has worked at the refinery for 29 years, said workers had repeatedly alerted PDVSA officials to problems that they feared could lead to an accident.

"It's the first time that we see something like this in Venezuela, and it's not a coincidence because we've been complaining about problems and risks, including fires, broken pipes and a lack of spare parts," Freites said in a telephone interview on Saturday from an area located a few miles (kilometers) from the refinery.

"We warned that something was going to happen, a catastrophic event," said Freites, secretary general of a 1,200-member union of oil and natural gas industry workers in Falcon state.

Deadly explosions at pipelines and refineries have taken a toll over the years in various countries, in some instances claiming hundreds of lives.

In one deadly incident in Venezuela in 1993, a natural gas pipeline exploded beneath a highway in Las Tejerias, engulfing a passenger bus and cars. Officials said 36 people were killed.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who is challenging Chavez in the country's Oct. 7 presidential election, expressed condolences to the victims and their families.

"We Venezuelans are one, and we grow in the face of this type of situations," Capriles said.

____

Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda, Fabiola Sanchez and Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report.

____

Ian James on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ianjamesap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-08-25-Venezuela-Refinery%20Explosion/id-2bbacd656cae44f1b6d06bc5effbfdb2

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