Creating Your Own E-Book Is Easy With MS Office Word

You’re probably aware of e-books and e-book readers. An e-book is nothing but an electronic form of a regular book. You can read e-books on your PC, notebook or handheld—you purchase them online and download them to your PC (or handheld), and read them at your leisure. There’s also a large number of free e-books you can find on the Internet. E-books are available in a variety of file formats, and you require some kind of reading software to open the e-book.
The software you need depends upon the format of the e-book.
A popular reader is Microsoft Reader, which can be downloaded for free from www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/default.asp for the desktop, Tablet PC and Pocket PC platforms.(Pocket PCs are handhelds running the Microsoft Windows Mobile OS.) E-books compatible with Microsoft Reader have the .lit extension, and can be purchased online from vendors such as Amazon.com. Microsoft’s catalogue of e-books can be found at www.mslit.com, where you can also find links to loads of free e-books! Here, we describe how to create your own e-books in Microsoft Reader format to distribute them over the Web or read them on your own desktop or handheld.

This is also useful if you want to view a large Word document on your Pocket PC. Though most Pocket PCs can view and edit MS Word files,they’re easier to read while on the move if they’ve been converted to Reader format. You also get additional features such as bookmarks.
Note here that the conversion to Reader format can only be done on your desktop PC or laptop, not on your handheld. You can, of course, transfer the converted file to your handheld. Also, you
cannot edit the files on your handheld.
To create your own e-book in Microsoft Reader format, you need to download and install a free add-in for Microsoft Word from www.microsoft.com/reader/developers/downloads/rmr.asp. The Read in Microsoft Reader (RMR) add-in works with Microsoft Word 2002 or Microsoft Word 2003.
Follow the instructions on the above Web page to download and install the add-in on your computer. When you launch Microsoft Word, you will notice a new Microsoft Reader icon on the toolbar, and a new Read command on the File menu.
Open the Word file you want to convert to Reader format, or create one if you haven’t already done so. Save the file somewhere on your computer.
When you have the Word file ready for conversion, click on the Reader icon on the toolbar. In the
Window that comes up, you can set various options for your e-book, such as title, author name, file name, etc. You can also choose where to save the file on your computer.
The same window also lets you choose formatting options for your e-book. If you check the "Convert to Microsoft Reader Formatting” checkbox, Word will remove formatting that conflicts with Reader defaults. If your Word file has a table of contents, you can also check “Reformat Table of Contents” to convert it and make it compatible with the Reader format.
Microsoft Reader displays cover graphics for e-books. If you wish, you can customise these cover graphics. If you don’t, your e-book will be created with the default cover graphics. To have your own graphics displayed, click on ‘Customize Covers’.
You can now choose an image, depending
on the type of device you wish to read the e-book on. Click ‘Browse’ to select a different cover image, and click ‘OK’ when you’re done.Click ‘OK’ to begin the conversion process. Your e-book will be created and saved to the specified folder. You’re now ready to distribute it over the Web, share it with friends, or transfer it to your Pocket PC for reading while on the move!

How To Securing An Internet Kiosk Or A Public Net Connected PC

It is difficult to maintain a PC that is used many different users—for example, a PC at an internet cafe. People can easily mess with important system files, download too many files, install unneeded software, and so on.You could choose to add a Limited access user account for general users, but that may not be sufficient.
If you want to tighten the screws a bit, you’ll need to depend on thirdparty software such as Public PC Desktop by Ixis Research Inc. Let’s check out how to configure a machine for limited access at an Internet cafe or cyber cafe using this software.

STEP 1 : Download And Install Public PC Desktop Software:
Download the software from www.softheap.com/pubpcd.html. This is shareware, which means you can try it for free, for a limited period. Doubleclick on the setup.exe file to install the software. The Wizard will guide you through the installation.

STEP 2 : How To Choosing The Right Options: The first screen displays the
main set of options: Access Control, Password, Users, and Time Codes. In our example here, we’ll use these to set up a public Internet access terminal. The other options can be viewed by
clicking the ‘More options’ button.Here, you can set certain shortcuts for a user to use, block certain sites, and also change certain Internet Explorer properties for security reasons. The most important option here is the proxy settings. However, the proxy settings only gives the option of portsfor HTTP and HTTPS traffic, which is somewhat restrictive, but just about enough for regular connections. Let’s use the first set of options to lock a workstation.

STEP 3 : Settings in Access Control: Under ‘Access Control’, you have three options to choose from. These are essentially the modes by which you control access:
(a) Username and password
(b) Time-limited lock
(c) Let the user choose

The first choice is ideal when there is a stable flow of users, that is, when there are almost never any new users.In this case, the administrator has to maintain a database of users that can be used in all the workstations.‘Time-limited lock’ allows the administrator to generate a time key
code for a certain number of minutes.This key is given to the user so he can log on to a workstation. The user is allowed to use the workstation only for that time interval; the workstation gets locked as soon as the time limit expires. The third option allows the user to
choose to unlock the workstation using the username and password, or by giving a time code. For a cyber cafe, where it is difficult to set up a database of users with passwords, it is ideal to choose time codes.

STEP 4 : Setting A Limited-Access Workstation: In this step, you’ll be actually setting up the workstation for limited access. Click on ‘More options’ and create a list of shortcuts of all the
applications you want a user to have access to. An ideal list of applications would contain Internet Explorer, MS Office, Notepad, and a few more. The next step is to set the proxy. Only you, as administrator, knows the port numbers; add them to the settings.
Now, get back to Access Control. Set a master password and a time encoding keyword. The master password is for the administrator, and the keyword is used to generate time codes, which can be done by clicking
on ‘Passwords’. Jump to ‘Time codes’ and specify the time for which you want the user to use the workstation, and then click on ‘Generate’.
This will give an encrypted code. A user can use this code to unlock the workstation and use it for the specified time limit. He or she may choose to log off before the time limit, but the workstation will get locked anyway when the limit is reached.
A locked workstation looks something like the
screenshot below. When accessing the hard disk of a computer from a restricted workstation, an error message pops up, reminding the user of the applied restrictions.

Google Stepped In To Music Search

Google is tailoring its search engine to better address music search. A search for an artist will now bring up song titles, album art, links to lyrics and reviews, and advertisements for places where the music can be purchased. Items that can be purchased will have links to merchants for
online ordering or downloading.
The online sources include Apple, RealNetworks and eMusic, and retailers selling CDs including Amazon, WalMart and others. For the CD retailers, Google
receives data feeds of the inventory and only returns a link to a store if the item is available.
Search results will include links to supplemental Google Web pages with more information about the music, including names of tracks on a CD and other CDs a band or artist has released. Google also will provide snippets of reviews from sites on the Web, as well as links to those sites. The company has, ofcourse, constantly been improving its search service to match user needs. Marissa Mayer, the company’s vice president for search products and user experience, admitted “one of the things Google wasn't good at” and that consumers wanted was music.
There’s more to the move than just better search results: Google’s current focus on music comes at a time then more companies are selling and distributing music online. Mike McGuire, research director
for Gartner Inc., said Google would be a natural place for consumers to look when they’re trying to think of songs or shop for music. “It gets people to move from CDs to online.” Google’s improvement of its music search capabilities is part of the always-on war with its rivals. Yahoo! launched its Yahoo! Music service earlier this year, and tied it with its blogs and other communication tools. And with the proliferation of online music content, more companies are enhancing their search capabilities: Apple’s iTunes, for example, allows users to search its database by artist or title, or within various genres.
Online libraries such as Rhapsody and Napster also offer searches of their databases. And services such as 411 Song sell song identification: you can hold a cell phone up to a speaker playing a tune, and you get the name of the song you played!

PC Security and Stability tips

If your office has an always-on Internet connection, use ZoneAlarm’s Internet Lock feature to protect your machine in your absence. To enable this, rightclick on the ZoneAlarm icon in the system tray and choose ‘Restore ZoneAlarm Control Centre’. Then click on the Lock tab. The Internet Lock is disabled by default. Click on Enable. Now specify a delay time of 20 minutes.
Next, check the High Security option.
This will stop all Internet activity if the machine remains idle for more than 20 minutes. E-mail protection with Norton Antivirus If you are using an e-mail client to access your POP mail account(s), then you could set up Norton AntiVirus to scan all incoming mail. To do this, start Norton AntiVirus and open the Options window.
In the left pane, browse down to the E-Mail Protection sub-menu under the Internet menu.Next, select the e-mail accounts you want scanned before the mail is downloaded on to your hard disk. Finally,from the Action tab, specify the action to be taken in case a mail is infected by a virus and press OK to complete the configuration.
If you have Norton Personal Firewall, then you can also block ActiveX controls and other cookies. A unique feature of Norton is that it can also block advertisements and HTTP referrers (wherein a site comes to know where you are coming from).
Importance of Live Updates By default, Live Update is configured to look for updates every time you connect to the Internet irrespective of whether or not updates have been released. This can
be very annoying. You can change the default setting to download updates only when a newer version is available.
To do this, browse to the LiveUpdate menu under Internet in the Norton AntiVirus Options dialog box.By default, the ‘Apply updates without interrupting me’ option is checked. Change the default option by ticking the check box against ‘Notify me when updates are available’ and press OK. Scanning all downloads in FlashGet You can set up your download manager to scan files before they are downloaded.
To configure FlashGet, start FlashGet and open the Options window from the Tools Menu.Once there, click on the File Manager tab and tick the check box against the ‘Use virus scanner to scan the downloaded files’ and browse to the folder where your antivirus program is stored.

Things Behind SMS Web Services In a Short Story

Short Message Service (SMS) is defined as the transmission of short text messages to and from a mobile phone, fax machine, or an IP address. These plain text messages have a maximum limit of 160 alphanumeric characters, and cannot have images or graphics. Let’s consider that a message has been sent from a Web site or application that offers SMS services.
The message is routed by the service to the user’s cellular network. It is received by a Short Message Service Centre (SMSC), which directs the message to the recipient’s cell phone.
The SMSC sends an SMS request to the Home Location Register (HLR) to find the roaming customer.
Once the request is received by HLR, it responds to the SMSC with the subscriber’s status (active or inactive) and roaming location. If the status is inactive, SMSC stores the message for a specified period of time. When the device is active, the HLR sends an SMS notification to the SMSC, which then tries to deliver the message.
SMSC uses a Short Message Delivery Point to Point format for transmission of the message to the serving system. The system contacts the mobile and if it responds, SMSC tries to deliver the message.
When the message is received by the user, it is categorised as ‘sent’ and is not sent again. And if you have a mobile, the moment you receive an SMS message, you get two short beeps (or any other sound that you may have pre-configured), to indicate that you have received an SMS message. So, go ahead and read that message.

AMD Going for Mobiles

Early reports on AMD’s latest processor (code-named Palomino) are out. This processor, which has a 37-mil-lion transistor core, will be called the Athlon 4 and marks AMD’s first serious perform-ance product for mobile com-puting products. Athlon 4 will initially come in four speeds: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 950 MHz and 1 GHz for mobile computers. According to AMD, Com-paq will probably become the first PC manufacturer to offer the Athlon 4, in its Presario notebook.The mobile version of the Athlon 4 will feature AMD’s PowerNow! technology, which allows the processor to dynamically change its clock speed and operating voltage depending on the applications and demands on the CPU. The 1 GHz Athlon 4 will make use of the PowerNow! technology to scale from 500 MHz to 1 GHz and run at voltages of 1.2 V to 1.4 V.This technolgy is AMD’s answer to Intel’s SpeedStep technology, which made the Pentium III processors extremely popular with laptop and notebook manufacturers. Also being launched is the mobile Duron, which is based on the Morgan core. This will constitute AMD’s value solution for mobile computers.The desktop version of the Athlon 4 is expected go up against the Pentium 4 sometime later this year.