david pratt

When it comes to finding funding for college the answer may be as close as your back yard. Everyone considers federal government sources of aid to make their college dreams come true but overlook what their state has to offer. State financial aid sources exist to help students who are reaching for a higher level of education. Here is some information to point you in this possibly lucrative direction.

Start with your high school guidance counselor. Any information about grants, scholarships, loans, and other programs offered by the state will be funneled through their office. Make an appointment to talk with them and gather as much information as you can on the options available.

Contact your state educational office. Every state has one. If they have a website, visit and see what they can tell you. States are ready to help students, especially if they plan on attending a state school.

Ask the state educational office for a financial aid handbook. Any scholarships, loans, and grants that are provided by the state can be found in the pages of that book. Study it carefully. Apply for all of the programs that even remotely apply to you, your situation, and your skills.

Scholarship monies are available for attending a state school. A state college or university may not be your first choice, but don’t count them out. One distinct advantage of a state-supported school is the cost. The average cost per year could be half that of a private college or university in another state.

States set aside money for students pursuing certain fields of study at college. The funds encourage students to stay within state to receive their education. This doesn’t mean that you have to attend the same college for all four years. If you truly want to study elsewhere, you can transfer after the first year or two, but understand that these funds more than likely will not follow you to your new school.

Counties issue grants based on their need for graduates to pursue a specific discipline. Teachers and nurses are in high demand. Areas where there is a significant shortage offer students the chance to go to college for little or nothing in return for a certain number of years of service in the needy area.

States provide grant money for minority students. These grants give money to qualified students based on race, religion, and sex. If you fall into one of these categories, apply for the grant and get the money you need for college.

The best thing about grant money is that it does not have to be paid back. It is important to check with the grant foundation on the renewal particulars of the grant. You don’t want to miss out on money in subsequent years because of a failure to renew the grant.

Local businesses and civic organizations offer scholarships for students planning on attending college. For some of these scholarships, students are chosen based on their academic record in high school. Other ones require an application to be filled out for consideration.

Banks in your state may offer college loans for parents and/or students. The loans supplement any costs that are not covered from other financial aid sources. Loans should always be a last resort when considering all forms of aid, but they are available if you need them.

Another avenue of inquiry is the financial aid office of a state college. After deciding to attend a state school visit or call their financial aid office to learn about any state grants or scholarships that are available on their campus. The state government or corporations may partner with state-funded schools or private colleges to offer money to students in need.

With all of the state sources that you find, be mindful of application deadlines. Many of the deadlines will be around the same time so staying organized is a must to get all of the information in on time. Late applications will not be considered.

State financial aid sources do exist. Check with state educational offices and your high school guidance counselor for more information.

Find out where to locate money for college in the form of scholarships, grants, fellowships, and student loans. Mark B. Allen knows where to get money for college he is an expert writing a regular column for Financial Aid Finder. The topics Allen covers include state government aid programs, 529 College Savings Plans and fellowships, and federal student loans. Financial Aid Finder is an expert source of information for high school and college students who need help filling out forms, advice on using their financial aid counselors, and assistance locating money for tuition and books.

When looking for a web cam or digital camera in order to produce a good quality video product, you will need one that is USB based or has firewire capabilities (preferred). That is, one which can be connected to your desktop or notebook computer. Then you have the ability to run different software applications that you wish to use, for example, video conferencing, and surveillance monitoring or even just for your own entertainment.

When looking for a good web cam, you may want to take a closer look at those produced by Creative Web Cam or Logitech Quick Cam. These companies offer a variety of different types of cameras, all of which are readily available. They offer low resolution instant messaging ones through higher resolution devices. They start at around $30 and can go up to as much as $150 for those with a pan and tilt control. However, there are some things which you should consider before you purchase your web cam.

Basic Design

These web cams are specifically designed for use with your desktop or notebook computer. They can either sit on the table or rest on a monitor. There are even some which can clamp on to your portable notebook screen, while others offer an adjustable base so that they can be used with both kinds of cameras.

Image and Resolution

The more simple types of web cam have a resolution of 352 x 288. This is good enough for basic video conferencing. Also, most web cams offer the user basic live video and still image capture at up to VGA resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. But there are some which use 1.3 megapixel image sensors, which offers higher quality and sharpness (this is extremely useful for still image grabs).

There are also others which are “software enhanced” in order to provide you with the highest resolution possible. However, most web cams offer full rate video capture at 30 frames per second. So this should be no problem for many computers today which come with a USB 2.0 interface. While there are others which offer you better sensitivity in low light and these are particularly good for video conferencing when sitting in a dark room or for use as a surveillance tool in the evening.

Lens and Focus

There are some web cams which come with fixed focus, while others will offer the user a manual focus ring. These are particularly good for focusing on a person’s face, for video conferencing or to focus on something in the distance. There are others which can offer the user a wider angle lens (around about 76o). This is great if you want to get a large group of people in to the frame or you want to see the full vista of the scenery outside your window.

Audio Capture

There are some web cams which come with a built in microphone (so you will need no other equipment).

USB Interface

In order to produce higher quality video, you will need to purchase a camera which supports the faster USB 2.0 high speed interface. Most web cams and digital cameras today will also support the much slower USB 1.1 interface, but the resolution provided by this is much lower.

Motorized Pan and Tilt

Normally the more expensive types of web cam which cost around $130 come with a motorized pan and tilt.

Digital Zoom

Unfortunately consumer web cams do not have an optical zoom lens, but they do offer digital zoom (up to 4x) in order for you to enlarge an area of the captured frames. This is especially useful for remote viewing. Say, for example, when the video being transmitted over the internet is actually of a lower resolution than the captured video frames.

Web Cam Software

You will often find that most web cams will include a Windows driver that supports the standard Windows video interface. These are compatible with most Windows applications. But apart from the driver software, these cameras will also be provided with other software bundles. They may well include video monitoring and capture, video instant messaging, video e-mail, video editing, video conferencing and video surveillance.

For info, go here.

Olivier Glaudy is a specialist of offline and online direct marketing whose articles has helped thousands of business owners and online marketers.For more on this topic, go to http://www.getinfoproduct.com/instantvideorder.html

The internet is full of technical articles, many of which are way too complicated for the average computer user who just wants to solve a simple problem. If you pay close attention, the internet is also a place where the “gurus” spend a lot of time yelling for help in discussion boards and forums. So don’t feel bad, nobody has all the answers.

So you want to dual boot Windows and Linux on the same computer—it is really quite easy. I only have enough room here to tell you the most common way to do this on a single hard drive or using multiple hard drives. Obviously then, there are many ways to get the job done, but there are some critical things you should know. Let’s start with some critical information.

Windows and Linux: Same Hard Drive The windows operating system MUST occupy the master boot record (MBR). Linux, on the other hand does not have to. In this scenario, you must install windows first! After Windows has been successfully installed, then you can install Linux. This is critical! The Linux “boot loader” is called GRUB. When you install Linux—MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT INSTALL THE LINUX BOOT LOADER TO THE MBR.

Configure the Windows Boot Loader: A Two Step Process It is also possible to use GRUB to dual boot Windows and Linux on the same drive but this is a bit more complex—the Windows boot loader will get the job done. In the following commands, you will create a copy of the Linux boot sector and then save it in a file in the top level directory under Windows (C:).

Step 1: Linux From the shell in your Linux installation (boot from your installation disks): Execute the following shell command, replacing /dev/hda3 with the location of your Linux boot partition.

shell# dd if=/dev/hda3 of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

Copy the new file—bootsect.lnx—to a floppy disk and reboot to Windows.

Step 2: Windows Copy bootsect.lnx to C: in Windows. Then execute the following command at the DOS prompt.

C:> attrib -H -R -S boot.ini

Edit boot.ini so that the first two lines are:

[boot loader] timeout=30

After the last line, add:

c:bootsect.lnx=”Start Linux”

That’s it, you are done! Reboot your machine and you will see a menu allowing you to select either Windows or Linux. Congratulations.

Windows and Linux: Two Hard Drives This is also quite easy. In this case, you will boot to the Linux drive. We will add Windows to the Linux boot loader (i.e., GRUB). GRUB is my favorite boot loader.

Edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf file. One of the very first lines should contain:

timeout=30

After the last line add:

title Start Windows map (hd1) (hd0) map (hd0) (hd1) rootnoverify (hd1,0) makeactive chainloader +1

Reboot your machine to the Linux drive and you will see a menu allowing you to select between Linux or Windows. Nice work!

This article is obviously short and does not include any explanations of how these commands work. There are variations on what I have shown here depending on your hardware setup, but I believe that these are the most common and should get the job done nicely. I would be happy to direct you to additional resources if this does not work for you.

Copyright 2005 Majella.us

David Picella is a Family Nurse Practitioner and PhD Student at UW Milwaukee. You can find additional technichal resources for this article in the technology section at: http://www.majella.us

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