Choosing the right notebooks sometimes can be a difficult task. Whether your need is for working, gaming, graphic designing, or simply satisfying your gadget fetish there are some factors that need to be considered and evaluated.

1. BudgetAlways, always, always glued your spending limit in your conscious and unconscious minds when buying notebooks. Manufacturers tend to offer their products with tons of optional features/equipments that seemed relatively cheap but expensive if you decide to put all of these options altogether.
2. See It to Believe ItGo to local computer stores, Best Buys, Apple Stores, etc that display your wanted notebooks. Viewing the laptop only from pictures can make you regret if they do not match your standard of dream computer (whether its color, size, built, weight, etc.)
3. Weight + Size = MobilityIf you in the market of finding a new notebook because you feel that you travel a lot and in the need of accessing all the information anywhere sure you do not want to carry 17″ with 6 pounds of weight notebook around right? “Ultraportable” keyword is your friend here.
4. Speed and GPUMost of the people do not need the newest and latest processor (CPU) which carries premium price tag. Unless you need your notebooks to do great deals of graphic manipulations or mathematical computations choose at least 2 or 3 lower processor clock (speed) than the just-released CPU/GPU which usually get the most bang for your bucks.
5. Dual Core, Dual Core Duo, Penryn, …Technology terms sometimes use a strange names that tend to confuse non techies. One advice that we can give you here is that the newest mobile CPU technology always improve your battery life. On performance wise, they usually only improves at the rate that human being cannot notice the differences. If it is economically wise always choose the newer one.
6. Memory MattersWe advice you to buy a laptop with minimum 2GB of RAM so you don’t have to upgrade it in the future. They’re cheaper if you buy them initially than to buy it for upgrade later. Also make sure that you opt for a pair of memory rather than 1 piece that disable Dual Channel feature that most of computers are running on now.
7. Built QualityYou need to consider a sturdy laptop if you are planning to carry it around. Not that we expect you to drop it but it is better safe than sorry later.
8. Other FactorsSure you do not want to carry a hello kitty themed notebooks to your office meeting or buy an Apple notebooks only to find out that all your software works only for Windows OS right?

Ultimately, it is you that make the final decision. Whether you’re buying new or used laptops please do your research first so you don’t have to spend extra money to ship back your new notebook for refund.

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Long live the mouse!

Being without a mouse can be frustrating. That’s when knowing some basic keyboard shortcuts comes in handy.

If your mouse is not working, the first thing you need to check is to see if it is plugged in. If it is plugged in and it still doesn’t work, reboot your computer. You will need to use your keyboard to turn off your computer.

This is the quickest and safest way to shutdown without using your mouse.

1. If you have any open programs use ALT-F4 to close them.

2. Use your arrow keys and the enter key to answer any pop up warnings.

3. Continue pressing ALT-F4 to close all open programs until the ‘Turn off computer’ display pops up.

4. Use your arrow keys and the enter key to select turn off or restart.

Another way to shutdown your computer is to use the Start menu.

If you are using Windows XP try this:

1. Press the Windows Logo key

2. Press the up arrow key once to select ‘Turn off computer’

3. Press the enter key to continue.

4. Press the right arrow key once to select ‘Turn off’ or twice to select ‘Restart’

5. Press the enter key to continue.

Using the Start menu also gives you access other programs you may want to use before shutting down your computer.

Now that your computer has been rebooted, your mouse should be working again.

If it is not, try connecting another mouse to your computer.

Here are some common keyboard shortcuts that you will want to keep taped to the back of your keyboard or laptop.

F1: Starts Windows Help

F5: Refresh your page in Explorer and Web browser windows

F10: Activates menu bar options

SHIFT+F10: this is the same as right-clicking on an object

ALT+F4: Closes the current windows

ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program

CTRL+ESC: Opens the START menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)

Windows Logo: Opens the START menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)

Windows Logo+C: Opens Control Panel

Windows Logo+E: Opens My Computer (aka: Windows Explorer)

Windows Logo+F: Find files or folders

Windows Logo+M: Minimize all open windows

Windows Logo+Break: System Properties dialog box

TAB: Move to the next control in the dialog box

SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous control in the dialog box

So the next time your mouse goes south, just keep this list handy.

Long live the mouse!!

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Displays. Screens. They shine at us and brightly shout at us from just about every contraption we touch or see as we travel through our day. The hyperactive super-sized displays on Times Square are an obvious example of our century’s obsession with bombarding the senses. We are indeed an audio-visual society with a voracious appetite!

We interact regularly with displays, buttons, and touch-screens without even thinking about it. They are a necessary and integral part of most every electronic device on the market today, from your cell phone to your car, to the cockpit of the plane that whisks you away on vacation. The human wants the machine to do something, and they must communicate. And somehow, they do. “But,” you ask, “who knows how to build this stuff?”

Only a relatively small cross-section of our society become the people that are the brains and brawn of the industry that understands the “how” of making such an electronic product, a “device,” work. The people that crank out these electronic goodies call their industry the “Embedded Product” industry. A funny name? Well, consider this. Each of these wonderful man-made marvels contains one, or many, microprocessors. You don’t see them, and therefore you just don’t think about them! For example, you probably do not call your cell phone a computer, but inside that sleek device there is, well…, a computer — a microprocessor. The microprocessor is therefore ‘embedded’ inside the device. It is a child of the “Embedded Product” industry.

In fact, every child in grade school today learns that a PC is a “computer” whose brain is a “microprocessor” which runs “software” on an “operating system. The human interacts with it through a “GUI” (pronounced “Gooey”) or Graphical User Interface. But do they, or do you, for that matter, question what is going on behind that now-familiar GUI, inside that cute ladybug cell phone? As my three year old son used to say, “How’s this thing work?” Does it contain an operating system or a microprocessor or software? “Survey says…YES!”

In fact, a variant of the “find the hidden Mickey” game can be played all day long. I challenge you to take a few moments and make a list of the number of things that you think have a “hidden” microprocessor inside. Are you done? You forgot to write down your microwave oven, didn’t you? Sorry, but you also forgot to list your television!

Embedded products, clearly, are everywhere. A fascinating group of engineers and product managers around the world collaborate to design, build and market these high technology products that our society demands, building on the shoulders of those that have come before them. No longer do we find devices with needles, gauges and switches. The intelligence of the microprocessors used in embedded products has eliminated most all of these clunky physical components and have replaced them, instead, with the familiar electronic display. Elegant embedded GUIs, such as one might find on an Apple iPhone or the dashboard of a new Mercedes, warmly reach out to us every day, begging for us to touch them or, at the very least, to just admire them.

So, the very next time that you find yourself flying down the highway in your car, listening to your “tunes,” looking at your dashboard graphical interface, with all its virtual meters and needles, answering your cell phone and telling the kids to turn down their DVD, please take a minute to think about the fact that your car alone has many more microprocessors than does the Space Shuttle. I think you’ll then agree with me that there is plenty of work yet left for our children to do!

Joseph Callaghan has over 25 years of experience in the Embedded Design and Product Development Industry.

http://www.persona.us.com

267.440.0333

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One question that we get a couple of times each week is “How can I watch live TV on my computer?” It’s a good question that we thought would be worth exploring in a quick article. Nowadays it is possible to watch just about any TV channel right from your PC.

It’s pretty impressive how much you can now find online. There are many benefits to watching TV on your computer compared to regular cable or satellite services.

With cable or satellite service there is always some restrictions on what channels you received. Usually there are extra fees you have to pay if you want certain specialty channels such as movie or sports packages.

It’s a lot different online. The TV services don’t have the same restrictions as the regular cable or satellite providers so they are able to offer far more channels than you can find elsewhere.

For watching TV online, there are two options that you have:

Option #1 - Live TV Online

You can find certain websites that claim to offer free TV - many people try this as their first choice. However, there’s a lot of downsides to using this type of service.

As you can probably guess the selection of channels on these sites is very limited. You can only get the most basic channels - any specialty channels aren’t available.

Another complaint about these websites is that the picture quality can be poor. Remember that since these websites are free there isn’t any money being invested in new technology or bandwidth. Because of this the video streams can be choppy and sometimes unclear.

These websites can be frustrating so we rarely recommend them. The second option is a lot better and eliminates the problems you find with this one.

Option #2 - Live TV Online

There are online TV services that let you choose from literally thousands of TV channels. This includes all of the major networks, movie channels, specialty channels and even sports packages. You can also find thousands of international channels in all sorts of languages.

There’s a fee for using these websites, but it isn’t very expensive. You will be asked to pay a one-time membership fee which will give you full access to all the TV channels and services. There are no monthly or additional charges.

We included a link at the bottom of this article that you can use to try a free trial at a couple of the top-ranked online TV services. We should warn you though - it’s easy to get addicted!

If you have a laptop, a great feature is that you can use this service no matter where you are. It works all over the world - you just need an internet connection and you can watch any channel you want.

The charge is about $50 for these services so you can see why many people go this route. That’s less than many monthly cable or satellite services and in this case you are only charged once.

Watching TV right on your computer is a great way to always be able to catch your favorite show, movie or sports team. It’s something that can be highly addicting once you start!

Click Here to find out how to start a free trial at the top-ranked online television service.

It’s the easiest way to watch live TV online right from your laptop or home computer!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_L._King

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The idea behind Nanotechnology is that by manipulating atoms and/or molecules to build materials and structures directly, as well as by exploiting the unique properties of matter at the nanoscale (0.1 nm to 100 nm) then we are at a distinctive level where the name of Nanotechnology has been put forward to describe this kind of human engineering activity.

Obviously, here we are dealing with what we call nanostructures - a nanometre is one thousand million times smaller than a metre, about 3 - 4 atoms in width. To give you an example how small this scale is, well just imagine we blew up an orange to the size of the earth, the atoms of the orange would become visible, and the size of each atom would be about the size of a single cherry.

Another definition I came across several times concerning Nanotechnology is that - it is the result of a marriage between chemistry and engineering. It has been likened to traditional chemistry but without chemical reactions. Here we can envisage building things one atom or molecule at a time, using programmed nanoscopic robotic arms or equivalent methods. The question therefore arises …. is it possible to move one atom (or one molecule) from one location and relocate it to the desired place without difficulty - simply using the present available technology?

The answer is “yes, but with difficulty”. At the same time, this process is limited at the present time. So transferring large numbers of atoms/molecules in a much faster way and on industrial scale is not yet possible - at least not with today’s technology.

Therefore, to understand the above process using more sophisticated technology, we may say that by treating atoms or molecules discretely in a way similar to the process of computers treating bits of information, it may become possible to build from the bottom up anything we desire - at very little cost.

This is of course is the theory. The practical task of how to apply it, to make nanoscale-based technology as common as any technical or engineering method used today for various products, is still largely in the realm of the future. But suppose we could apply this technology today! Then this could mean an automatic construction of consumer goods without traditional human labour, as we know it. Any number of copies could be produced at a very small cost. This is where self-assembly come into the picture.

A good example of self-assembly is what is taking place in nature itself around us, i.e., molecules in a vegetable cell manipulating the atoms of soil, air and water in order to produce more copies for the growth to continue.

Manufacturing, using the principles of Nanotechnology, is expected to undergo profound changes, in the not too distant future. Advances in miniaturization will reach the level of individual atoms, and it may become possible to design and build products to atomically precise specifications.

In the USA, the U.S. Department of Defence, the National Science Foundation and NASA have extensively funded research related to Nanotechnology. Though Nanotechnology is still largely within the domain of the research laboratory, such government funding for various researches in this field will pay off eventually and handsomely in various ways, sooner or later.

References

1. K. Eric Drexler “Nanosystems: molecular machinery, manufacturing, and computation”, Interscience, 1992,

2. K. Eric Drexler “Engines of Creation”, Anchor, 1986.

3. Drexler K. Eric; Peterson, Chris; and Pergamet, Gayle; “Unbounding the Future The Nanotechnology Revolution”, Quill Press, William Morrow and Company; 1991.

4. http://www.halcyon.com/nanojbl/NanoConProc/nanocon1.html 2 January 2008 18.20 hrs

5. Smalley, Richard E., Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics; and Cole, Roger; Rice University; “Initiatives in Nanotechnology” published on the World Wide Web by Rice University, 1995.

6. S. Wood, R. Jones and A. Geldart, “The Social and Economic Challenges of Nanotechnology” (A Report compiled for the UK Economic and Social Research Council, 2003).

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Najib_Altawell

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This day in age many churches are utilizing the resources the internet has to offer to spread the word and information on events to their partition, but they are unaware of the danger that their office computer is in from viruses and spyware attacks that are commonplace in the digital world.

If a church office computer contracts one of these viruses that data stored on your churches computer files can be compromised, stolen, or lost without virus protection in place. Statics show 80% of the time the church in question has not implemented any virus protection at all.

While these kind of attacks happen more often then most are aware of there are a few things that can be done to assure that your churches files and information is protected.

In order to help improve your church virus protection here are 10 ways to prevent hackers from infiltrating your system.

1. Install reliable anti-virus software (this is the best way to prevent viruses)
2. Never automatically open email attachments. Many times hackers will send a virus via email. All you have to do is open this email and your are infected
3. Scan all incoming email attachments before opening them. Anti-Virus protection will be able to alert you if any suspicious code exist within the attachment that could endanger your church data security
4. Configure anti-virus software to automatically boot when you start you computer. This works well because you will never forget to turn on the ant-virus software.
5. Update your anti-virus software frequently. By doing this church is assured protection from new viruses that arise.
6. Do not download programs from the Web from sites that you do not trust especially freeware or shareware sites, which are notorious for containing malicious scripts.
7. Do not boot with a disk in the drive. If the computer is booted with a disk in the drive it will automatically loads the disk. If the disk is infected it will load on to the computer without the option to scan it.
8. Do not share disk or usb memory drives. You do not know what or where the other person has been downloading from and you may get exposed.
9. You should always scan disks before using them. Anti-virus software will be able to determine whether or not a disk has been infected or not and in most cases remove the files that are corrupt.
10. Use common sense when using the internet. If you feel there is something wrong with a site or receive an email from someone you are not sure of their intent then chances are something is not right.

Following these 10 steps will substantially improve your church virus protection. By preventing a virus to infect your PC you protect your church and all your members. No church wants to find out that a malicious virus has wiped out all the office records. Utilizing these 10 steps will assure that this never happens.

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There is an interesting trend emerging among the younger generation. More and more people are turning away from those clunky old-fashioned television sets, and using a software program to watch TV on computer. As the “YouTube generation” grows up, they are carrying with them the habits of turning to the computer for entertainment, not just as a tool to use for school or work.

The Lines are becoming increasingly blurred between the television and Internet mediums, and younger users especially may choose to watch TV on computer more often than they actually sit down in front of the TV set.

Blame It on YouTube

The credit — or blame — for this emerging trend is largely the work of YouTube. The addictive streaming media community web site has become incredibly popular, with more and more teenagers and young adults using YouTube to keep abreast of current events, music and videos.

It’s little wonder then, that software programs to watch TV on computer are becoming more popular as well. Many people would now rather spend an evening watching video entertainment on the computer, than relying on cable or satellite TV.

The Screen Is the Thing

There’s another important reason why watching TV on computer is becoming more commonplace: computer monitors have advanced to the point where they are excellent for viewing TV and films on the computer. In fact, the larger screen sizes, and increased definition of modern flat-screen computer monitors result in TV image quality that is often as good as — or better than — standard television sets.

Still another reason for the trend toward using the computer to watch TV is that more people now have access to high speed broadband Internet connections. In the old days of dial-up Internet, a user would consider themselves lucky if they were able to successfully stream an audio file (like an MP3) online without “stuttering.”

But with the prevalence of high speed Internet connections these days, streaming video and online TV is a real option. Not only that, but the quality of online TV video is improving all the time. New MP4 video codecs and other improvements make it easy to watch TV on computer without stuttering, or experiencing that annoying “start and stop” buffering that used to be such a big problem online.

The Virtual Satellite Dish

A new breed of software to watch TV on computer has emerged in the last several years that allows users to access upwards of 4000 channels (yes, 4000!) of programming from all over the world. Channels are available in nearly any language you can think of, and even specialty events, like sports matches are plentiful.

One of the benefits of this software is the ability to watch local TV stations, from nearly any place in the world, as well as international stations and premium channels. The software also has the advantage of being a portable entertainment solution. In other words, you can take your laptop with the satellite TV software anywhere you go for access to thousands of entertainment, sports, news, special events and local channels.

But unlike traditional satellite dish set ups, the software to watch TV on computer requires only a one-time fee — no additional hardware is required — and there are no monthly premiums, as you would expect to find with a traditional satellite or cable TV provider.

The downside to using this type of software is that you must have a broadband Internet connection in order to watch TV on the computer. You’ll also have to be content to watch your favorite programs on your computer screen, so if you don’t have a very good monitor, you’ll definitely want to invest in one before you invest in any software to watch TV on the computer.

But if you have a relatively new monitor, and access to a high-speed Internet connection, software programs to watch TV on computer can be both convenient and cost effective.

Discover How to Watch TV on Computer
Without Extra Hardware or Recurring Fees!
Watch TV on Computer Now With Over 4000 Satellite Channels!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Mercer

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One of the biggest problems anyone faces online involves too much to do and not enough time to get it done! I’m not talking about the casual Internet user who jumps online as a form of entertainment to check email, use Skype, or watch YouTube videos. I’m referring to the ever-growing number of people who use the Internet for much of their business activities. If you fall into that category, the following tips will easily help you save considerable time online.

Filter Email - Filtering email rates #1 on your time-saving list. In virtually every survey ever done on the subject, email wins hands-down as the #1 most time-consuming activity. To save time, you should separate your personal and business email with separate accounts and check the personal account once a day (saves 10 minutes per day). You should also use a commercial spam filter such as Spamarrest.com to cut down on the spam you must wade through to find messages that do need your attention (saves 15 to 30 minutes per day).

Password Organizers - Using a password manager like Roboform.com or KeePass.info (free) cuts down on time spent searching your desk or email program looking for usernames and passwords for accounts you don’t use very often. Secure and immediate access to all your passwords will save you at least 10 to 15 minutes per day.

Unsubscribe - Get off the lists of publications you either don’t read or don’t get maximum value for time spent. Casual skimming of even one email newsletter or ezine eats up several minutes of your day each time you do it. Drop off 3 email lists and you’ll save yourself at least 15 minutes per day.

Track Your Time - Flitting from task to task like a rabbit with ADD robs you of any real chance to get things done. Increase your focus on specific tasks by using an egg timer to get yourself 100% focused for a specific chunk of time. Google the phrase “free egg timer software” to find a timer that runs on your desktop. While the egg timer ticks, nothing else but the current task at hand matters. This technique will net you at least 30 extra minutes of wasted time saved each day.

Pen and Paper - Always operate with a list of prioritized tasks so you know what you should work on at any given moment. A simple, prioritized list on a piece of “real” paper will reclaim at least 10 minutes per day in wasted time.

Just Say “No” - Distractions abound on the Internet. New products, new services, new videos, new jokes, new distractions come at us on a minute-by-minute basis. Yet those distractions rob us of the precious time we desperately need to accomplish our own objectives. If something new comes along, let it sit for a day, or even just an hour, and then make a decision whether or not to give it your time. This will easily save you at least 15 to 20 minutes a day in lost time.

My best advice involves operating with a strong purpose when doing anything online. I’ve shown you simple strategies here to save massive amounts of time every day. If you operate with a strong purpose, you’ll save even more. Why? Because a strong purpose helps you filter out any time-wasting activities that won’t get you where you want to go.

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A recent Redmond Magazine piece doesn’t give the date - it was August 2004 - that Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).

At that point the company committed what, according to the writer, many think was a mistake: The default switching on of the host-based Internet Connection Firewall (ICF). The problem, he says, is that getting the host-based firewall running within an organization is a “Herculean effort” involving high levels of application testing and configuration tuning. The complexity forced many administrators to simply disable ICF.

The position of this story is that ICF is potentially a helpful security tool, at least in one particular implementation. The writer says that it remains difficult to deploy ICF within the enterprise, but that the “standard profile” turns on when the device is connecting through outside networks. This can be a boon to security for machines connecting from dangerous environments such as coffee shops and airports. The piece goes on to provide a good amount of detail on why this is good and how it works.

Security folks love to compare security: Open source versus proprietary, Mac versus Windows, Vista versus XP, and so on. A recent piece at Jesper’s blog was stimulated by a post at Jeff Jones’ Security Blog - a link is provided - that suggests Vista security is better than that offered by XP and other operating systems.

In his post, Jesper Johansson observes that much of the comparison between Vista and XP security is based on each operating systems’ first year in the field. However, that is meaningless in terms of how XP works. To them, the important thing is a comparison of how each operating system performs now.

The long piece leads to several conclusions. It found that Vista had fewer vulnerabilities than XP and that open source Firefox had more “patching events” than Internet Explorer running on XP or Vista.

A recent InfoWorld piece indicated that Vista security is far better than previous Microsoft operating systems, but that the price is more user involvement and inconvenience. User Access Control (UAC) is a feature designed to cut down on malware by asking users for permission every time a piece of software is set for installation. While this clearly improves security, it can become burdensome. Indeed, some companies offer software that automates this process and only brings out-of-the-ordinary situations to the attention of users.

The story also discusses the BitLocker encryption feature. BitLocker either encrypts the entire C drive or nothing. Some issues have cropped up, such as encryption for organizations using a D partition, the piece says and difficulty in decrypting data on machines taken from terminated employees.

Though Vista is the immediate future of Microsoft operating systems, there is a huge installed base of XP users. The company is in the extended process of introducing Windows XP Service Pack 3, which is expected to be the last update to XP. WindowsSecurity.com details the release, which contains no drastic changes. There are, however, security-related tweaks. Network Access Protection (NAP) compatibility enables XP to use the NAP feature in Windows Server 2008. This is akin to Network Access Control (NAC) approaches in which devices requesting permission to join a network have their security assessed and, if necessary, are quarantined and their software cleaned and/or updated. This is particularly useful for mobile devices.

There also is additional cryptography on the kernel; added ability to detect routers that drop packets; easier rollout of IP Security (IPSec) virtual private networks; Digital Identity Management Service (DIMS) that enables seamless access to certificates; private keys for applications and services, and the addition of the more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2).

Last month, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced the first products that have achieved Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) certification. Network World reports that the products are from Gideon Technologies, Secure Elements and ThreatGuard. This is the fulfillment of an order from the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) last July that directed NIST to put a program in place to fulfill the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) standard overseeing security configurations for federal computers running Vista and XP.

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The National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) of Japan has engaged in a robotic project that fully mechanized rice production with a global positioning system (GPS) capability that can painstakingly transplant rice using sensors and computers which can be independent from human activities or the use of human labor. The transplanting machine can make an accurate plan and direction on where to transplant around a six inch long rice seedlings. The rice seedlings are grown over two weeks on a long mat, using hydro-phonics culture system.

The long mat containing the seedlings is unrolled from the machine, and each seedling is sown into the soil, six in a row each time. Twenty rolls of mats weighing a total of two hundred eighty kilograms (280 kg.) are needed to cover a one hectare area. The transplant robotic machine is estimated to cost a farmer for acquisition cost around sixty thousand US dollars (US$ 60,000).

However, the technology is still under evaluation at present. But once proven ready for commercialization, price of the equipment may decrease to accommodate especially the farmers in developing nations where the traditional old methods of rice production are still prevalent.

Mass production of the same can lower the price or cost of the technology. A Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is set up to oversea the activities of the rice transplanter through its Equipment Control Unit (ECU), where all the sensors, motors and a main computer are all connected.

Prior to the transplanting operation of the machine, the four corners of the field and the travel path have to be plotted. During transplanting, the main computer controls actions to minimize the deviation from the desired travel path in accordance to position and direction data. The travel speed of the transplant robotic machine can be revised from the main computer in order to make any adjustments from the deviations of transplanter’s path. The main computer commands the robotic to stop at the end o a field, lifts and turns it to the next path. As observed, deviations from the planned path is at ten centimeters.

To measure direction and inclination of the machine, an Inertia Measuring Unit (IMU) that has fiber optic gyro sensors and accelerator is used. The NARC is actually on a six row transplanter that already exists in Japan. Ninety nine percent of rice farms in Japan are already mechanized and even rice transplanting is reportedly in practice by one hundred percent of Japanese farms.

Apparently, Japan’s average rice yield is six metric tons per hectare compared to the developing countries of three and a half metric tons only per hectare. Transplanting maximizes land use and cuts weed presence. Japan has its own mechanized rice planter since 1966 yet, but it was dependent with human labor pushing the transplanter while the farm worker’s feet are on knee deep on the ground.

With the present GPS system, Japan’s rice production may be fully mechanized from land preparation to harvest time. The NARC has proposed that in order to be cost efficient in producing this farm equipment technology, it has to compact the system by combining the sensors and computer segments on a rice transplanter, combine harvester, fertilizer and a tractor segments are shared as the first stage of their plan.

In the next stage, they are planning to develop an autonomous combine harvester using the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus to share with GPS receiver, IMU and a main computer attached to the rice planter.

Arnold Cafe is an active internet marketer and author of Ideas Galore: http://www.affleap.com/blog/

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