Software Tips

Many people have it installed on their computer, but only a few of them know what a firewall actually is and how it works. The expression "firewall" is in itself relatively meaningless, especially when considering that it is one of the most important components in every computer network, and especially on the internet. What is striking is that the expression "firewall" does not even slightly indicate what kind of machine or program in a computer network one is referring to.

The firewall actually is, as already mentioned, a computer network security component. It usually serves as a kind of gatekeeper between two networks and regulates the traffic between these networks. It basically says which data packages are allowed to pass the network borders and which one's are not. There are several types of firewalls. The bigger one is the hardware firewall, which is a physical network component that is usually connected between two or more network plugs. In contrast to the dedicated firewall, there is the so-called software firewall. It is basically a program that is installed on a normal PC, and that acts like a hardware firewall by blocking the internet connection for all unknown programs. As this kind of firewall can only protect a single PC, it is often also called personal firewall.

Setting up a personal firewall is relatively easy. One has to install a program, and that's it. Setting up a hardware firewall for a big computer network, for example a company-wide network, is a very complex matter. It should in principle be done by somebody who has detailed knowledge about the technology.

Most people know 3-dimensional (3D) effects mainly from ambitious special effects in movies, or from computer animation movies like Shrek. Also the marketing industry, architects and scientists are using 3D effects to visualize complex matters. These 3D effects are usually not only very appealing, but also relatively easy to create. Contrary to 2D pictures, 3D pictures can be used to visualize spatial objects. Programs that allow the creation of 3D pictures primarily use two kinds of techniques for that: Modeling and rendering. Both techniques are very difficult to explain, but very easy to apply with the right computer programs.

3D pictures can be created from many so-called polygons that are basically surfaces that can be placed in a certain space. Many of these polygons attached to each other then serve as the basis for a 3D model. Within this 3D model, the polygons can either be colored, or be filled with 2D pictures. Instead of polygons, Voxels can be used. Voxels are basically little spots, as big as a cubic pixel that can be used to create objects without real surfaces, such as clouds. Voxels also serve when creating volume models that are for instance used in medical appliances and for simulating car crashes. Thus, they do only help creating nice pictures, but also reducing costs.

This introduction was supposed to give a first taste of what 3D programs can do. More information can be obtained at www.fairclick.de.

Immigration is and has been a big topic throughout the history of mankind. Especially the history of the United States of America is a history of immigration. Usually, single persons or families are the one's that leave their country to start a new life in another place. In some rare cases, there have been mass-immigration due to natural catastrophes and wars.

Some people leave their country voluntarily; some people are forced to leave the country. 2 factors play an important role for the decision to emigrate:

1. The situation in the current country.
2. The expected situation in the host country.

Many people emigrate to improve their work- or living conditions. Other would like to escape the tax authorities, or would just like to reduce their tax burden. Especially pensioners that have a secure and stable stream of income in the form of a pension emigrate to low-wage countries in order to save on every-day living costs. Other popular emigration reasons are friends and family abroad and welfare state tourism. This last reason is especially problematic as the welfare state tourists are usually stigmatized by the local population in the host country.

Many people also underestimate the kinds of problems they might encounter in the host country. Especially problems in handling the local language can lead to huge integration problems, which in turn lead to stigma and unemployment. This is why one should invest into getting information about the home country and its culture, and especially into language courses. If language courses are too expensive, computer programs that can teach the basics of a language will do.

Panorama is a word that originates in the Greek language. Translated into English, it would probably mean something like "see everything", which basically also gives a rough idea of what a Panorama picture is, namely a picture that shows much more than just a normal picture. Usually, the viewing angle on panorama pictures is significantly larger than that of normal pictures. This is why they are usually also not in the standard picture format, but much wider. This is why panorama pictures are so popular when it comes to photographing landscapes and cities. One can distinguish here between the rather unspectacular panorama pictures that basically differ from normal pictures because they have a much wider viewing-angle, and the very spectacular 360 degrees pictures. Especially in the early days, the production of these kinds of pictures was extremely laborious.

At the beginning of the 19th centuries, 360 degree panorama pictures where a special form of the so-called trompe d'oiel painting technique. The most extravagant pictures had up to 20 meters in height and amplitudes of up to 100 meters. They where that costly and valuable, that there where special kinds of museums that where dealing only with this kind of art. Nowadays, digital photography and digital printing has made the creation of such pictures reasonably easy. There are special programs that can create big panorama pictures out of a collection of many small pictures. Those programs and many more information about them are, among others, available on the internet.