Laptop computer rental prices vary by length of time, location, specification and product availability. Monthly computer rentals cost less per day than daily rentals. Typically desktop computers rent for less money than notebook or laptop computers.

Period of Time – Daily, Weekly and Monthly Rates

“Monthly rentals typically are around $225, but still dependent upon specification, availability and delivery location.”

In most places, computer rental rates are based on daily, weekly and or a monthly rates. Tech Travel Agents, who book computer rental reservations worldwide, report that Pentium 4 desktop computer rentals start at approximately $149 per week in most markets in the United States and Canada. Based upon computer specification, availability and location required, prices can be 20% to 35% lower or higher.

Delivery Location: Office Building or Convention Center

Business address deliveries are generally less expensive than delivering to a convention center. Often business addresses have close-in parking and easy access to the delivery / install area. A convention center complex requires a concerted effort from both the rental company and the company receiving the equipment at the convention center. Often convention center deliveries are more time consuming and costly to deliver, install and pickup afterwards.

Computer Rental Unit Specification

Normally a laptop computer rental consists of an Intel Pentium 4, Computer running Windows XP. Standard RAM is 256 to 512mb, 30gb or larger hard drives. Higher computer specifications cost more to rent. For example: if you require advanced graphic cards, more ram, a different operating system or software installed, computer rental rates will increase.

Be sure to include your computer specification, delivery location and date/time:

Intel Centrino Wi-Fi Wireless Laptop with Microsoft Windows
Intel Pentium 4 High Value Desktop Computer Rental

Technology Rental Equipment is a Commodity subject to Market Forces

Supply and demand issues come into play in the computer rental business too. Supply can be affected by the number of competitors and total computer rental units (known as a rental pool) in a given market area. Having a Tech Travel Agent book your technology rental needs means you will always get the equipment you need. You are not dependent on one single equipment vendor. Tech Travel Agents obtain equipment via large technology pools from multiple sources across the US, Canada and Europe.

Upgrade to Large Plasma Display Rentals

This century, the rental industry is more complex and dynamic than last. New product innovations such as 82” plasma flat screen displays, and dual core processors, are available for rent. More complex products mean better corporate events. If you are still using an old notebook to run your PowerPoint presentation, consider stepping up to the most modern technology with products from computer rental firms.

Rent for Projects and Save

Renting is perfect for companies hiring temporary employees, attending conferences, tradeshows, providing computer training and engaged in accounting/finance projects. These companies realize lower costs, less use of capital, and no maintenance and write-off expenses.

Relax, let your Tech Travel Agent handle it!

Enjoy your trade show, conference or training program.

About Tech Travel Agents: Tech Travel Agents coordinate both computer rentals and audio visual installations for events worldwide. Tech Travel Agent on the web at Rentacomputer.com 800-736-8772

Do you own an inkjet printer? Has the printhead ever clogged up on you, creating streaks or missing colors from your printing?

Clogs can be incredibly frustrating. Normally when you find out you have a clogged printhead, it’s because you’re right in the middle of printing something important. It’s one of those problems that you never ask for. It just seems to throw itself in your lap without warning, and then taunts you in your efforts to fix it.

The printhead is the mechanism of your printer (or inkjet cartridge), where the ink actually comes out.

For the most part, printhead clogs can be normally be flushed out with a couple of “head cleaning” cycles. A head cleaning cycle is a built-in function of your printer. It’s a specialized routine meant to address this type of problem.

This “cleaning cycle” works by sending a strong ‘print signal’ to your printer, while at the same time drawing a small vacuum from underneath. The combination of these two steps works in an attempt to suck out clogged ink from the printhead. From my experience, you’ll probably need to run between 3 and 5 cycles to fully clear a clog.

The location of the head cleaning cycle proceedure varies for each printer brand, so refer to your printer owner’s manual for specific instructions to find yours. Check the index first.

If you don’t have your owner’s manual anymore, you can check our your printer manufacturers website. Most likely, they will have your printer manual online.

There are times however, when a few standard head cleaning routines don’t seem to solve the problem. A stubborn printhead clog like this can be persistant enough to make you want to rip out your hair.

For times like these, you’ll need to pull out the big guns!

For stubborn inkjet printhead clogs, there are various cleaners out there specifically for this purpose. These cleaners are formulated to disolve dried or “gummy” ink which may have accumulated from infrequent printer use, or even just a general build-up over time.

I personally brought an old printer “back from the dead” using a product called ‘Clog Buster’. It was a printer I had purchased off of eBay which apparently hadn’t been used in awhile. I spent a few hours trying to revive the printer, and ‘Clog Buster’ was the only thing that worked when nothing else did.

The only downside with using a cleaning product like this however, is that you usually don’t have it in your immediate possession when the clog hits. Unless you have some already on hand, you’ll have to wait for it to be shipped to you. In the meantime, your printing project will have to remain on pause until it arrives.

(But maybe I can help…)

The good news is that you MAY be able to solve the problem using some basic household products. In fact, Windex glass cleaner can actually work well for dissolving dried ink. What’s the secret ingredient?

Ammonia.

Tough printhead clogs can usually be brought into submission by soaking the printhead in a solution of 50/50% ammonia and distilled water.

A important word of warning… Ammonia is potent and powerful stuff. When working with ammonia, always make sure you’ve got adequate ventilation, and avoid mixing it with other chemicals. Very important.

So, if your printhead is located on the inkjet cartridge itself, you’ll want to soak the printhead in the 50/50 solution for an hour or two.

If the printhead unit is located inside your inkjet printer itself, then you’ll first need to remove the inkjet cartridges. After those are removed, put some of the solution into the top of the printhead (directly into the nozzle holes) and let it sit a few hours. Go ahead and put a little more into the printhead resting seat. (This is the rubber rectangle part that seals off the printhead unit while the carriage is in it’s resting position.)

If this initial soaking doesn’t work, then repeat another time using 100% ammonia for up to one hour. Afterward, make sure to rinse completely with distilled water.

If the clog doesn’t immediately clear, go ahead and let the printer sit overnight and try it again the next day. Sometimes the clog will breakdown slowly and release later as the ammonia takes it’s toll.

Finally, for those of you wondering about the effectiveness of using alcohol to unclog cartridges and printhead — here’s a quick note…

Alcohol won’t work as well as ammonia, but may work better than a few cleaning cycles. The downside is that alcohol may actually dry out the plastics and metals in the printhead. This could actually increase the chances of clogging later on down the road. So try to avoid alcohol if possible.

 

Eli Fry is president of ASAP Inkjets. ASAP Inkjets offers inkjet cartridges and laser toner at up to 80% below retail. Signup for their free newsletter for tips & discount coupons at www.asapinkjets.com/ or email: subscribe@asapinkjets.com 

If you have used a Windows machine for a while, whether it’s Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows 98, you’re sure to have noticed desktop icons appearing from out of nowhere. How can icons mysteriously emerge on your Windows desktop?

1. When you buy a computer, many vendors place icons to selected products and services on your desktop, such as links to high-speed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or add-on services vendors think you may need.

2. As you install software on your Windows machine, icons may appear, either to start the application or link to the manufacturer’s website. Installing just one program could add three or more icons to your desktop!

3. It’s easy to accidentally drag a Favorite, bookmark, text file, or other icon to your desktop, creating an icon.

Normally, it’s easy to delete Windows desktop icons. Just place your mouse pointer on the offending icon, then right-click it and choose “Delete”, clicking “Yes” to confirm if prompted.

However, what if the rogue icons are for adult websites, unfamiliar search engines, or other websites you don’t recall visiting? You may try removing these icons but get an error, or after removal they still reappear again and again and again!

If so, then more than likely spyware, adware, or other malware has infected your machine. It may have been through file trading software, an inadvertent “yes” click when a popup window asked you to install software, ‘freeware’ that included adware, or other means. To remove the rogue icons, you need to remove the malware creating these icons.

Removing spyware and adware can be a time-consuming process, fraught with potential disaster as it is possible to accidentally remove files that render your operating system unusable. However, the following software products can help with this process as long as you read the instructions carefully, make backups, and get expert advice if you’re not completely sure about removing what they ask you to do:

* Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/

* Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/

* Pest Patrol: http://www.pestpatrol.com/

* Spybot Search and Destroy: http://safer-networking.org/

* Spy Sweeper: http://www.webroot.com/

So, how can you prevent these icons from appearing in the first place? Practice safe computing.

* Backup your machine. If it does get infected to the point of being unusable, at least you won’t lose all your important files.

* Install security-related operating system updates so spyware and adware cannot enter your system through well-known exploits.

* Download or buy a virus scanner, and keep it updated! Virus scanners cannot detect all spyware, but it doesn’t hurt to have one. Check online or visit your local computer software store.

* Purchase a hardware or software firewall, and keep it updated! Firewalls help protect your computer from common exploits that spyware or adware can use to infect your machine.

* Consider using a different web browser. Though it is not perfect, Mozilla Firefox at http://www.mozilla.org is currently less susceptible to spyware than Internet Explorer, mainly because it lacks certain technology (such as ActiveX) that is often exploited by malware writers. Note that depending on your web use, certain websites may not work correctly with other web browsers.

By practicing safe computing and using spyware-removal software, you can help remove rogue desktop icons from your desktop and keep others from appearing.

Andrew Malek is the owner of the MalekTips computer and technology help site at http://www.malektips.com . Visit his anti-spyware page at http://malektips.com/spyware/ for more advice on removing adware, spyware, and other malware.

In November of 2005, I read that a Roman Catholic high school in Sparta had ordered its students to remove personal blogs from the Internet, in the name of protecting them from cyberpredators. Which brings me to an important question, just how can you keep your child safe online?

The Internet is a “gateway” which leads the adult predator to your child. Parents need to recognize the need to better monitor their children’s online activity. I believe that websites like xanga, myspace, and livejournal, make it all too easy for sexual predators to prey on our children.

Children are vulnerable and they don’t realize that anyone can and most likely is reading their blog entries. Both my children have blogs, however they are under moderation by both my husband and I. Frankly, as a parent of two teenagers I believe that it is up to us as parents to educate our children about the online dangers.

Children’s blogs are a pedophile’s playground, because of the easy ability to look into a child’s world. As parents we can help our children stay safe while using a blog. For information about blogging safety please visit http://BlogSafety.com and http://SafeTeens.com

Regarding sites like hi5: I’ve received several invitations from hi5, but I never signed up until November 2005. It wasn’t long before I was removing my account. I should have read the privacy policy before I registered.

It reads: hi5 collects personal information when you register, when you use hi5, when you visit hi5 pages or the pages of certain hi5 partners. hi5 may combine information about you that we have with information we obtain from business partners or other companies. Once you register with hi5 and sign in to our services, you are not anonymous to us. hi5 collects information about your transactions with us and with some of our business partners. hi5 automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser.

Basically, they have spyware.

Hi5 collects your Hotmail or yahoo address lists and contacts. Once you register there is an e-mail that is sent to everyone in your address book. This e-mail is sent without your permission.

The website also requests, your hotmail and yahoo password. I never gave my password, I was not that gullible. However hi5 was still able to gather my information and contact those listed in my address book. I finally was able to delete my account, through the instructions in their help file.

In my opinion, hi5 is even worse than xanga and myspace.

I encourage all parents, whose children have an account on hi5, to log into hi5 and delete their children’s account.

Too much personal information is being revealed on these websites, making it a haven for sexual predators. Parents need to wake up.

I for one, am very concerned with websites like hi5, MySpace, Xanga, DeadJournal, Blurty, etc that encourage children to post their photos and personal information.

I strongly suggest that if your child uses the computer and you have not been monitoring their activity, it is time that you found out just what they are doing.

A report aired Dateline Friday, Jan. 27, at 9 p.m. by Rob Stafford, a Correspondent of NBC News, tells parents why they should mind MySpace. If you have not seen this report, I suggest you take a moment to view it at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11064451/

You owe it to your children.

Which brings me to my next concern, the Internet is a scary place, filled with all kind of strange people. I believe that when you post your child’s picture on the net, you put them at risk.

Did you know that your personal information, such as your home phone number and address can easily be found on the internet?

If this isn’t one reason to make you reconsider posting your child’s picture on the internet, how about that in this day and age, photos can be digitally altered and appear on porn sites.

According to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the internet every week.

Donna Rice Hughes of http://Protectkids.com states, “… the demand for pornographic images of babies and toddlers on the internet is soaring.” (Prof. Max Taylor, Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe, March 2003). More babies and toddlers are appearing on the net and the abuse is getting worse. Images are more torturous and sadistic than they were was before.

The typical age of children found on pornography sites is between 6 and 12, but the profile is getting younger (Prof. Max Taylor, Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe, March 2003).

The U.S. Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 web sites offering child pornography – which is illegal worldwide. Red Herring Magazine, 1/18/02)”

I don’t consider myself paranoid, but I don’t post my children’s pictures on the internet and I believe that you shouldn’t either. We all have cute children and are proud of them. But parents, please use some common sense. Keep your child safe and out of the arms of child predators. A good website to check out is: http://members.tripod.com/~Seadooer/sayno-contests.html

Say no to children’s pictures on the web and for goodness sake, monitor your child’s internet activity. Our children are our most valuable asset, love them and protect them.

Rose DesRochers is a published poet and freelance writer. Rose has been writing poetry for more than 20 years. She is also the founder of www.todays-woman.net, a supportive online writing community for men and women over 18. She is also the Assistant Administrator of www.invision-graphics.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

The Internet, is magnificent in its resources for families. Educational resources abound. Kids can easily find help for their homework blues without venturing to the library. Kids can chat with friends from far away for free; friends who, probably just a few years ago, they would never hear from again. And, of course, there’s plenty of entertainment to satisfy the whole family once the chores and homework are complete.

However, the Internet can often be an inappropriate place for kids to surf unsupervised. Plenty of content is only appropriate for mature audiences. And, sadly, there are ‘bad seeds’, those who the children never should talk to.

Help keep your children away from these unsuitable materials. Many search engines and directories have filters and options that only return pages that have passed a particular profanity or “kid-safe� filter. These types of filters vary from web site to web site, but may do one of the following:

* Only allow you to search a selection of links picked by the site’s editors to be “kid-safe� or free of profanity.

* Not show links containing profane words, these being words designated by a site to be profane. This list may not contain all possible profane words or combinations.

* Show links containing profane words but block out the profane words with asterisks, dollar signs, or other symbols. Again, the blocked-out words are those the site deems profane and might not include all such words.

Unfortunately, no filter can be 100% accurate.

Here are some search engines that have filters you can enable to try to weed out inappropriate content.

AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/

Above and to the right of the search query box you can find the link labeled “Family Filter�. Turn on this filter to cause AltaVista to filter out inappropriate content. Be sure to read the linked-to FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) before using this filter. Again, no family filter is 100% accurate, but it’s better than nothing.

Ask Jeeves For Kids http://www.ajkids.com/

You can provide kids with their very own search butler. Ask Jeeves for Kids is a special version of the popular Ask Jeeves web site geared towards the younger set. It is used the same way as the normal Ask Jeeves – just ask a question and click the “Ask� button.

You will notice the site design is quite different from the main Ask Jeeves. The page is colorful and includes fonts more suited for kids. There are links to games, study tools, news resources, and message boards. Be sure to check out Jeeves’ hat as you move your mouse over each resource

According to the “Parents� page, Ask Jeeves For Kids only searches for “G-Rated� information. However, they do warn that since web sites change, there is no guarantee that adult content cannot slip through the cracks. Still, they do a good job at trying to filter out information, so if you have children surfing the net, you may want to point them over to this popular resource.

Google http://www.google.com/

Visit the “Advanced Search� link and take a look at the “SafeSearch� section. Click the “Filter using SafeSearch� radio button to cause Google to only returns sites that match Google’s “SafeSearch� filter. This filter attempts to remove material containing pornography or sexual content, but it is not and cannot be 100% accurate. Click the link “SafeSearch� on this page for more information about this filter.

You can also click the “Preferences� link from the front page to set preferences on how you want Google to search through documents. From here you can enable the “SafeSearch� setting by default. These preferences are placed in the form of a cookie stored on your browser, so if you disable cookies your preference choices will not stick. Be sure to press the “Save Preferences� button when you are done with your choices or they will not stick.

Lycos http://www.lycos.com/

Click on the “Parental Controls� link on the front page (located under the search bar), or turn on the “Adult Filter� from the advanced search page to enable the “Lycos SearchGuard�. This feature attempts to filter out sites containing inappropriate or offensive material such as “adult, violent, hate and weapons-related content�. Note that while no filter can be 100% effective this is a good start.

You may also want to visit the following family and kid-friendly Lycos sites:

Lycos Family Zone http://familyzone.lycos.com/

Lycos Zone (For Kids) http://lycoszone.lycos.com/

No matter which site you use, realize that no filter can be 100% accurate. All it takes is a little web browser knowledge to defeat cookie-based filters. Inappropriate sites can and sometimes will “slip through the cracks�. Thus, I recommend that you always supervise your kids’ Internet usage whenever possible. These filters, however, may make your supervision easier and your entire family’s Internet experience more enjoyable without any surprises.

This article was written by Andrew Malek, Internet Search Guru and author of Find Stuff On the Net, an e-book that can show even beginning computer users how to navigate the Internet without fear. Catch-up with your kids’ knowledge when it comes to using the net. For further information and free snippets of the book, visit http://www.findstuffonthenet.com/

These days it’s not easy to make money online. But I will talk about one of the easiest way to make money online is to start selling on eBay. eBay makes getting your new business started a snap. You can literally have your first moneymaking auction listed in the space of an hour. Absolutely ANYONE can start listing items for sale on eBay today. No initial starting costs, very low running costs and massive automatic visitors. Do you know that more than 2 Million people visit eBay every day ? eBay is — by far — the busiest and most visited e-commerce site on the entire Internet, and more than 33% of ALL Internet users in the U.S. visit eBay! People spend an average of 2 hours shopping on eBay every time they visit! And they’ve got cash to spend, since 72% of eBay users make more than $50,000 per year! eBay processes over $1,000 in sales every second! In other words, people spend a TON of money on eBay. That $1,000 per second adds up to $86,000,000 a day — every single day of the year!

So, having these numbers in mind everyone should have success selling on eBay. But do you know that many eBay sellers struggle to make a profit. I mean a REL profit. eBay fees and paypal fees are higher than ever and the competition offering the same products as you do for a fraction of the price is massive. So how do you survive in the jungle called eBay ?

Let me introduce you to a regular guy (from Fremont, Nebraska, population 25,188) who is currently making $153,846.17 each and every week… by selling “everyday” stuff on eBay. Just to save you the math, that adds up to a little over $8,000,000 a year. Or just under $22,000 a day. Can you imagine that …? $22,000 A DAY (!) ?? In other words, it’s a truckload of money — no matter how you look at it! In fact, since he first got started on eBay back in 1999, Brandon has sold more than $20,000,000 worth of goods on eBay. Yep, you read that right… more than TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS.Unlike so many of the so-called eBay “success stories” — Brandon’s income does NOT come from selling super high-priced items on eBay — like cars or satellites! (It’s EASY to say you’re making a MILLION DOLLARS if you’re selling *cars* on eBay!

Brandon has put his knowledge into one amazing course so everyone can duplicate his entire system to start their own highly profitable eBay businesses!

This story is so amazing:

* Which products are “hot sellers,” and guarantee the BIGGEST profits!

* Where to find in-demand products that you can buy for cheap and resell for massive profits!

* How to attract TONS of bids and make HUGE profits on every single auction you list!

* How to CREATE stunning ads that grab the eyeballs of eager bidders!

* How to easily rake in even MORE cash by establishing a glowing feedback rating!

* Techniques for driving 1,000s of qualified bidders to ANY auction listings!

… and much, MUCH more!

Thomas Haselhorst promotes http://www.auction-design-for-free.com/make-money-with-ebay/make-22000-a-day-with-ebay.html and is the webmaster of http://www.auction-design-for-free.com and http://www.monster-ebook-sale.com/html/ebay.html