Barthos Computers Blog

Need of cleaning a computer monitor

Monitor is the most important and expensive part of a computer/ laptop. Proper care has to be taken for maintaining the glow and charm of your computer. If you want your computer to run efficiently for long, then you have to clean it every now and then and it should be well maintained. If you clean your computer regularly, it can save your computer from getting damaged and being dusty. It is bad practice to place the monitor or computer on the ground. It should be placed on a proper table. Be sure that when ever you clean your monitor or computer, you unplug the computer. Other than the monitor other parts of computer can be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, monitor is very delicate and as it is made of glass, it should be given separate care. Like all other parts of the computer, the monitor should also be cleaned.

Content

Make sure that your computer table is quiet clean, do not litter the place with all your food items or tea and coffee, as once if they fall on the monitor, it is completely spoiled and you will have you spend tremendous amount for buying a new monitor. Don’t press your monitor with fingers. Many people do not know how to clean the monitor of the computer. Never treat your monitor as a piece of empty box.

Even though many companies have come up with many liquid products for cleaning monitors, they are not so effective and some may perhaps ruin your monitor. Generally monitors are of two types, they are cathode ray tube (CRT) and Liquid crystal display (LCD), so depending upon the type of the monitor you can clean it. For cleaning the dust of a CRT monitor always use a cloth which is extremely soft or use an anti static cloth. Then spray a small amount of fluid liquid in the cloth and then gently rub the monitor in one direction throughout the monitor. After you’re done doing that then use a dry cloth to dry the monitor.

Cleaning a LCD monitor

The process of cleaning a LCD monitor is little different as the LCD monitor is little fragile. To start cleaning a LCD monitor take a soft cloth and first gently wipe the dust from the computer and then put cider vinegar or alcohol on the cloth and water as well upon the cloth and then rub the cloth tenderly on the LCD in the same direction for the entire LCD monitor. And finally use the other dry and soft cloth to dry the monitor.

Whether if you are cleaning a LCD monitor or CRT monitor, the first thing which you have to do is switch off your computers and unplug it. Don’t use a liquid which is very soapy. Always use a lint free cloth. If you do not have a soft or lint free cloth, then you can even clean the monitor with cotton swabs or foam swabs. All the above were few important points and tips for cleaning a monitor.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Optimize your Apple Macbook battery settings in Energy Saver preferences to increase battery life.

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Energy Saver.

Click Show Details.

Choose Battery or Battery Power from the “Settings for” pop-up menu.

Choose Longest or Better Battery Life from the Optimize Energy Settings pop-up menu.

These settings will put the hard disk to sleep whenever possible and reduce the computer’s microprocessor performance in order to maximize its battery life.

If you are using intensive mac applications, you may wish to modify or change the settings so the microprocessor performance is no longer reduced.

Set your screen brightness to the lowest comfortable level

Press the F1 (dimmer) and F2 (brighter) keys to dim the screen until the brightness is as low as possible and the screen is still comfortable to look at.

Turn off unused features and technologies.

Just as you would turn off the lights in an unoccupied room, turning off unused features and technologies can help maximize your battery life, too. Here are a few suggestions:

Eject CDs and DVDs you’re no longer using. Every so often, the optical drive spins up to read CDs or DVDs. This consumes a small amount of power.

Disconnect peripherals when you’re not using them. Connected peripherals, such as printers and digital cameras, can draw power from your battery even when you’re not using them.

If you’re not in a location where you need to use AirPort or Bluetooth, you can turn them off to save power.

To turn off AirPort:

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Network.

From the Show selection, choose Network Port Configuration.

Uncheck Airport from the list.

Click Apply Now.
To turn off Bluetooth in Mac OS X 10.2 or later:

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Bluetooth.

Click the Settings tab.

Click Turn Bluetooth Off.

Author: Courtland_Santos

What are fiber optic visual fault locators?

Fiber optic visual fault locators are also called visual fault finders. They are low cost, battery powered fiber test tools to find fiber imperfections, fiber breaks (fiber cutting), microbends and macrobends in fiber optic cable links. Visual fault locators come in a pen shape or handheld style with a fiber optic connector adapter to accept different connectors such as FC, ST, SC, LC or even MTRJ.

How do they work?

Visual fault locators inject a highly visual red color laser light into optical fiber cables. The red light can be switched between continuous mode (continuous wave) or pulse mode with a 1~2 Hz frequency and 60ms duration.

The light source is usually a high power, extra long life, class 2 laser diode at 635nm. Other available wavelengths are 650nm and 670nm.

The fault locater injects light into fiber cables through a built-in connector adapter. Two types of connector adapters are available: 2.5mm and 1.25mm in diameter. The 2.5mm version accepts FC, SC and ST connectors and the 1.25mm version accepts LC and MU connectors.

The fiber installation technician can then look at the length of the fiber cable and where glowing or blinking light is seen, a break, microbending or macrobending exists.

The tool can be used as a stand-alone first-line basic troubleshooting tool or in conjunction with an OTDR to pinpoint faults. It can also be used as a continuity tester.

The construction of a laser fault locater

Laser fault locater is a simple and reliable tool. It consists of laser light source, pulse modulation circuit board, light coupling lens and fiber optic connector adapter.

Applications

Fiber optic visual fault locators are regularly used for testing and finding breaks in LANs, FDDI, ATM, fiber data links and loops, telephones, ships and other vessels. Its industry applications include fiber optic networks, telecoms network and CATV network maintenance.

Manufacturer brand names and their corresponding quality

Wilcom, Fluke, Noyes, Greenlee, Ideal, Wavetek all supply high quality visual fault locators. Our preference is Wilcom’s products since they have been in this market the longest time and their products are generally very high quality.

Understanding the specifications

1. Fiber distance

The fiber distance spec tells the longest fiber length where you can still see the leakage light without difficulty. This spec is determined by the laser light power. The industry standard spec is 10km for multimode fibers and 5km for single mode fibers.

2. Wavelength

Wavelength is not a critical spec. 635nm, 650nm and 670nm will all work just fine.

3. Output power

Output power is an important spec for visual fault locators. The higher output power, the longer fiber distance it can support. This spec is usually 0.5mW coupled to single mode fibers and 2mW to free space (which means no fiber coupling, just the light output from the tester’s connector adapter).

4. Fiber mode

All visual fault locators can work with both single mode and multimode fibers. Since multimode fiber has a 50um or 62.5um core, which is much bigger than single mode fiber’s 9um core, more light power can be coupled in to multimode fibers. That translates to longer fiber distance for multimode fibers which is usually 10km. For single mode fiber, however, fiber distance is only 5km.

5. Modulation frequency: CW and 2Hz

Human eyes are much more sensitive to a blinking light than to a steady light. So visual fault locators provides two operating modes: continuous wave and pulse light.

In most cases, fiber optic installation technicians prefer the pulse light mode which turns the laser source on and off in 2Hz or 1Hz frequency.

6. Battery

Usually two AAA alkalescence batteries

Colin Yao