Geek-of-All

MPEG stands for the Motion Picture Experts Group , part of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which creates and publishes standards for various areas of technology, respectively. MPEG standards address audio and video formats used online, in television broadcasts, and in DVD media. A number of MPEG standards are in current use, and more are sure to follow. Some well-known standards are explained briefly below. MPEG-1 : This first set of standards was developed for audio and video compression. Layer 3 is a codec within these standards, known simply as MP3, or the popular audio compression format for music. This video format was used to store movies on CDs, known as Video CD, or VCD. Quality is equal to that of a VHS tape, and compatibility playback on CD/DVD players is high. One drawback of this standard is that it only supports progressive footage, verses the inclusion of interlaced . ...

Gasoline(Petrol), diesel fuel and fuel oil are all petroleum products. Petroleum is a mixture found in the earth, composed of crude oil and natural gas. While the products that are derived from petroleum power the modern world, raw petroleum is of little use until it is refined. It is the refining process that converts crude oil into gasoline, fuel oil, and diesel fuel. Crude oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons that are chained together in different lengths. These chains have different characteristics and properties and form the basis for the individual products created out of raw petroleum. To be able to convert these hydrocarbon chains into gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil and other petroleum products, they have to be separated from other chains. Crude oil is separated into these different chains through distillation. During distillation, crude oil is heated in a distillation column. Collection trays are placed at differing heights in the col...

Double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory, or DDR SDRAM for short, is a type of computer memory used in Pentium III or higher computers. DDR RAM is the computer’s primary working memory, storing program instructions and data for use by the central processing unit (CPU) through the bus controller. DDR memory belongs to the dual in-line memory module (DIMM) architectural family and is a faster form of SDRAM. Each module of DDR memory has one notch on the connecting side and two notches on the side that attach to latches on the PC motherboard to hold it in place. DDR RAM can come in either single-sided or double-sided chip configurations. Desktop DDR has 184 pins, as compared to 168 pins on SDRAM. Laptop versions, called SO-DIMMs, contain 200 pins.                                  ...

So it's 11:45 p.m. and you're laying alone on your dust ridden bed watching fancy television series (GoT, maybe) and suddenly your phone lines up with a message from a friend who reminds you of a deadline to submit a copy of a very important document, to the administration, that is sitting in your closet dust covered. So you're going to take a picture of it with your phone but you realize your crappy built-in phone camera and the poor lighting from the dingy bare bulb hanging from the ceiling just aren't helping. So decisively you dash to your PC and use your flatbed scanner and as you sit there listening to the whirling of the scanning mechanism and pondering how your life got to this point you find yourself asking how the heck do these things work anyway. Great question, your typical scanner uses something called a charge-coupled device or CCD to determine what's on the page. The main idea here being that the CCD can convert light into an electrical cha...

A surge protective device, also known as a surge suppressor or a surge protector, is a device designed to protect electrical equipment from the harmful effects of electrical spikes and surges. The two most common methods that surge protection devices use to serve this function are diverting any excess electrical surge to a ground and blocking the surge. Most residential surge protection devices make use of the grounding method, which diverts excess voltage to a power outlet's ground wire. An electrical surge is classified based on the length of time it lasts. A spike lasts less than three nanoseconds, or three-billionths of a second. Any power flux that lasts longer than a spike is known as a power surge. Any electrical value higher than the standard voltage in an area — such as 240 volts in the India — qualifies as either a spike or a surge. Surge protection devices are designed to protect against the effects of both spikes and surges. When a surge protec...

The Internet is a worldwide network of unrelated computers that can only communicate successfully by agreeing to incorporate a set of rules or protocols. One of the most basic tenets of the Internet is the Internet Protocol (IP) address. An IP address refers to a unique number assigned to each computer on the Internet. The IP number is called an "address" because it serves the same purpose as a home address -- it allows each machine on the Internet to be located by a numerical scheme. A domain name, such as geekofall.blogspot.com , also maps to a numerical IP address. An IP address is analogous to a street address or telephone number in that it is used to uniquely identify an entity. Dotted Decimals : Your IP address at home will be different from the IP address at your work office. And that IP address will be different from the one you would have if you used the free wireless hotspot at a coffee shop or hotel. But they all have one thing in common: Th...

A Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is an electronic set of instructions that a Personal Computer (PC) uses to successfully start up. It is located on a chip on the motherboard inside of a computer and is designed to be protected from disk failure. While it can be updated, this should be done carefully to avoid damaging the computer or leaving it unable to start up. The Function of BIOS One of the main functions of the BIOS is to give instructions for the Power-On Self Test (POST). This self test ensures that the computer has all of the necessary parts and functionality needed to successfully start itself, such as use of memory and a keyboard and other components. If errors are detected during the test, the computer gives a code that reveals the problem. Error codes are typically presented as a series of beeps heard shortly after startup. The BIOS also works to give the computer basic information about how to interact with some critical components, such as hard dri...