OpenCart is an open source PHP-based online shopping cart system. A robust e-commerce solution for Internet merchants with the ability to create their own online business and participate in e-commerce at a minimal cost.

The Proniit Group (a.k.a Proniit Online Media and Marketing)  has released a web site that is dedicated to promoting the open source project, Open Cart, which is an online PHP based e-commerce shopping cart released under the GPL. The site was created to garner further development and both community support and commercial support. The site caters to anyone and does not necessarily restrict its’ users to be based in South Africa although commercial support will only be available here.

The site has deployed an open source standard using various technologies including WordPress, OpenID and the like for configuration thereof. There is a need for clean and open source software that can and will generate the sort of user experience that is expected throughout the world and this site offers it.

Open Cart is clean, neat and very user-friendly on both the end-user side and the administration side. Because it is written in PHP, it uses rather simple techniques that most developers will be comfortable applying. Open Cart is definitely the choice for The Proniit Group to make use of when implementing online stores for clients.

You can visit www.opencart.co.za to download, test or find support and technical information like installation guides and upgrade tutorials.

Firewall – A firewall inspects all network traffic between your computer and the Internet in order to block unauthorized access to your machine. The firewall in AVG Internet Security is designed to be a more secure option to the way out bundled with Windows.

Spam Filter – The included Anti-Spam filter prevents unwanted e-mails from reaching your inbox while also defensive you against phishing attacks. The anti-spam feature in itself will be precious to most users; especially those that have no use for certain male oriented medical products.

Anti-Rootkit Scanner – A rootkit is a section of software designed to obscure the fact that a computer system has been compromised from both the user and anti-virus software. The purpose is that files can be changed and processes executed without triggering a conventional anti-virus scanner, including AVG free edition.

Identity Theft Protection – Following their conquest of Sana Security at the beginning of this year, AVG have started integrating their software algorithms designed to detect unusual malware prompted behavior designed to draw off passwords, bank account details, credit card numbers and so on. There are also a few other bits and pieces chucked in, including Instant Messaging protection, free technical support and a safe download manager making it a pretty ample package.

Key features of AVG Internet Security 8.5

* 100% virus detection – AVG’s scanning engine has received numerous awards for its excellent detection of “in the wild” viruses, including the VB100% award. Its unique combination of detection methods provides full protection against viruses, worms and trojans.

* Cutting-edge anti-spyware technology – Using the latest state-of-the-art detection technology, AVG detects spyware, adware, DLL-trojans, keyloggers, and much more. Malware hidden in data streams, archives, or the Windows registry is also detected.

* Full on-access protection – The powerful AVG Resident Shield provides maximum protection by scanning every file opened, executed, or saved. It also prevents the opening or executing of infected files.

* Flexible intelligent scanning – The AVG Resident Shield can include files from being scanned based on individual file extensions and can handle exceptions for potentially unwanted programs such as adware.

* Full e-mail protection – AVG checks every e-mail sent or received, providing full protection from e-mail-borne threats. AVG supports all leading e-mail clients, including MS Outlook, The bat!, Eudora, and all other SMTP/POP3-based e-mail clients, such as Outlook Express. Encrypted connections using SSL are also supported.

* E-mail spam and phishing filtering – AVG checks every e-mail received, using the latest technology and up-to-the-minute spam signatures to ensure maximum detection rates for spam and phishing attacks.

* Automatic threat handling – AVG can automatically heal or remove infected files and other threats such as trojans, worms and spyware.

* Control over all network access – The AVG Firewall monitors all communication to and from the computer, blocking external attacks and preventing trojans from exporting confidential data. The AVG Firewall configuration wizard automatically creates access rules for all popular software. In addition the firewall can switch profiles automatically, based upon the current connection type, ensure seamless changeover for notebooks.

* Powerful scheduling – AVG automatically provides recommended daily schedules for scanning and updating, and also allows you to create custom-scheduled events.

* Multiple language support – No need to buy a special language for more technology articles:http://www.technologyb2b.com

Guest Author

Technologyb2b introduce you with the latest buzz on new tech world. It is the right place to discover and shop tech stuff. The high tech stuff that we will cover here includes Desktop, laptops, software and hardware products, HDTV, home theater, and gadgets like (PDAs, cell phones, digital cameras, ipod) and even tech books also. It is the place to find hottest software and hardware and coolest gadgets. http://www.technologyb2b.com

Windows 7 is the new Operating System developed by Microsoft that will eventually take over XP, and eventually Vista, bringing us back to one unilateral operating system for home and business alike. As mentioned in a previous article Windows 7 is a powerful product by giving us all the stability of XP with all the glitz and glamour of Vista and then some, making it truly unique in its own rights. How it does this, is by simplifying tasks making it more user friendly in operation, and navigation, of system functions, and also by making multi-tasking easier than it’s ever been before with a PC based operating system. Microsoft has had Windows 7 in the development stages of three years, which is longer than any operating system Microsoft has produce to date.

And through their research in the development stage the message was clear from the consumer and business world, to deliver a product that is user friendly, a product that is stable with little to no down time, and finally a product that is secure and safe from harm. With that as a focus Microsoft then stripped down the Vista platform to the bare bones and started reconstructing, this way it would be easier to stay compliant with hardware and software products already in use today, instead of starting from scratch. So if you have a computer that is running Vista or XP machines that can run vista, you will have no trouble what so ever transferring over to Windows 7.

For XP and Windows 2000 users with older machines, you will require the following as a minimum to run Win 7. 1 gigahertz (GHZ) or faster 32-bit x86 or 64-bit x64 Processor 1 gigabyte (GB) Ram (32-Bit) or 2 GB (64-Bit) 16 GB available hard drive space (32-Bit) or 20 GB (64-Bit) DirectX 9 Graphics Device with WDDM 1.0 or Higher Driver Additional requirements to use certain features are as follows. Internet access (fees may apply) Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware For some Windows Media Center functionality a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required Windows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific hardware HomeGroup requires a network and PCs running Windows 7 DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive BitLocker requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on Music and sound require audio output Product functionality and graphics may vary based on your system configuration. Some features may require advanced or additional hardware. Microsoft has already conducted a prelaunch sale of Windows 7 that concluded July 11th both in the US and Canada that I was involved in, and Windows 7 will be in new computers and on store shelves October 22, 2009. I have heard there may be some special offer for Back to School, however not confirmed at this point. But when Windows 7 is launched it will be marketed in such a way as it will be broken down into five sku’s or product offerings. Basic, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, and finally Ultimate editions, each are an upgrade from the next and there will be no lost features from one upgrade to the next, just added features.

The key target sku’s or products for the PC of today is the Home Premium, and the Professional edition. The Home Premium offers everything you need in your home and offers greater flexibly with media, and networking with HomeGroup than Home Basic, or Basic, can. The Professional Edition is a step up from Home Premium, it is geared towards the Small Business Owner, or Business professional in general. This edition offers greater networking between office and home, and it also offers Windows XP mode, which will be explained further. With new computers with the Intel VT or AMD-V processors, or any processor capable of hardware virtualization, Windows XP mode as you will note above, is a feature that will be able to run old programs seamlessly. Simply put, say you have an accounting program, that doesn’t work with any OS system, it only works in XP. Windows 7 will switch to XP mode by means of virtual recognition to run that program then back again to Win 7 for the rest of your programs. Now don’t take this wrong! Windows 7 runs the most finicky programs effortlessly and better than its previous counterpart. I myself have constantly run full AutoCAD and VectorWorks programs with Windows 7 and have had no trouble what so ever in running these programs. Now, do to the complexity of these two programs; this would have been the first to have issues, I feel, and I even ran them both at the same time, to see if I could get them to crash.

Both programs have held their ground and continue to do so, as well as Windows 7 proving to me that the foundation and stability of the operating system is solid. Windows 7 Ultimate is an upgrade from the professional edition, and is geared towards Corporations, and Corporate executives, offering everything the Pro edition has, with greater detail to Information technology, and security. The Ultimate edition will offer a feature called BitLocker as mentioned above which will require a trusted platform module or (TPM)-1.2 to work. BitLocker is Data Encryption which scrambles data information, making it undetectable to non trusted sources. So if you are a corporate executive please check with your IT professional before you upgrade to Windows 7, if you are the guy who wants it all, and your computer has (TPM)-1.2 than this will be your obvious choice for the upgrade. Basic, and Home Basic, Editions are more geared for older computers, prior to two years old, that may not be able to meet the requirements of today, but still meet the minimum requirements to run Windows 7.

If this is the case, please feel free to contact me or any software professional to see what will be best suited for your computer. Still Windows 7 basic is a powerful product that will allow you to do many things, you would not dream possible before. Microsoft has really done their homework with this product and it shows! With great reviews, and endorsements, from IT professionals, Web designers, and professionals, alike, this operating system will be the best ever in the Microsoft line, with absolutely no need to wait for the release of the first, or second, service pack to insure compatibility, or stability. For more information on Windows 7 please feel free to visit http://www.msdn.com or contact me through my website at http://www.mhpenterprises.com

Windows and Linux are different in many ways.

1. Windows GUI is an integral component of the OS; speed, efficiency and reliability, while the Linux GUI is optional, are increased by running a server instance of Linux without a GUI, something that server versions of Windows simply can’t do. The nature of the Linux GUI makes remote administration of a Linux computer easier with a more natural feel than Windows computers.

2. The command prompts of the operating systems are very different. The command interpreters in the Windows 9x series are very similar to each other and the NT class versions of Windows also have similar command interpreters. There are, however differences between a Windows 9x command interpreter and one in an NT class flavor of Windows. Linux, like UNIX, also supports multiple command interpreters, but it usually uses BASH or “Bourne Again Shell”.

3. While you have to pay hundred’s of dollars for a new Windows version, you can just go download Linux. There’s no manuals or simple installers for the free version. Although there is quite a learning curve when utilizing the free package. There are some easy automated packages of Linux for low prices.

Microsoft’s “big con” is the supposed security issues with windows. Most spyware, adware and malicious files programs work with Windows just fine. In general you do not deal with these kinds of circumstances unless you are working with Windows. whereas Linux offers a strong protection, password protection for Windows can be bypassed with ease.

The software availability is the key to why Windows wins over Linux in this competition. Most software releases are already configured for Windows. If you chose to use Linux you must copy Windows with special software in order to use your windows based programs. You could always install Windows as a subsystem to Linux, this would take the administrative capabilities of Windows and allow them to funtion on Linux.

If Linux is ever to compete with Windows, it must become more user friendly and provide serious technical support.

Guest Author

Jake Ruston

Get great deals on Cheap Electronics.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym “SEO” can also refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or Spamdexing, use methods such as link farms and keyword stuffing that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. The industry peak body Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), also includes search engine optimization (SEO) within its reporting, but SEO is a separate discipline with most sources, including the New York Times defining SEM as ‘the practice of buying paid search listings’.

The explanations above have been taken from Wikipedia and clearly show the differences between one and the other. So, Search Engine Optimization is about increasing visibility to search engines and to generate traffic from search results and to increase the positioning of a web site in search engines, whereas, Search Engine Marketing involves paid listings in Search Engines such as Google’s Adwords, to ensure that you will come across highly in search results. I believe that Search Engine Optimization is more powerful and will be much more long lasting in continuing to generate quality traffic to a web site as long as quality content is kept a constant. There is no need to use paid listings although, budget permitting, it can be rather useful.

The question that remains though is – should I use various types of software and should I trust them? My simple answer to this question is NO. Automating things like the submission of a site or blog feed is okay and makes no negative difference to your rankings and or link building. But using software to ‘automatically’ rank you can prove to be a dangerous game. Search engines usually figure out the ‘black hat’ techniques that people use and by doing so they will immediately remove the sites that have used those techniques.

When using these pieces of software you can open yourself to a lot more damage than good and sometimes it can be almost impossible to fix the damage that’s done to your web site presence. There are a lot of ‘above board’ software programs that have very good sales pitches and can make you believe almost anything, however, I would still recommend that you stay away from these.

The software that I do recommend to help you keep up-to-date with everything that you need to know about your web site, it’s ranking and general yet helpful information is:

• WebCEO – Trail/Premium
• RSS Submit – Premium
• RSS Announcer – Open Source

Of you would like to keep up to date with the latest trends in Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimization I suggest that you use Google Web Master Channel on YouTube. This information is probably the most valuable that you will come across.

If you do decide to go ahead and get yourself software then you should ensure that you can monitor absolutely every aspect of what is being done with is. Sometimes all this does is increases your traffic, however, that traffic will not convert into anything – no sales, no revenue and not even leads. What’s the point then?

Adobe AIR enables you to have your favorite web applications with you all the time. Download it here and in stall. Once you have done that you will be able to run the following applications.

My personal favorite: TweetDeck

TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organised and up to date.

It’s still in beta but works like a beaut! Download here and try this one out!

Amazing interface: Adobe Media Player

Opens up new channels to view videos from online sources; except, it’s all on your desktop. Plus it supports your own media files and plays any .flv file immaculately. Download here.

Cute! Seedmic DESKTOP

ENJOY!

[video filename=http://www.proniit.com/videos/1.flv /]

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to keep the pace with technology and design – therefore many designers in particular fail. A good way to overcome this is to simply gather as much information as you can and start sifting through it until you can reach the likes of the more inspired web designers. It doesn’t heard to try new things and always remember that overwhelming amounts of information can be categorized, filed and learned in small bits and chunks until you get exactly what you are looking for.

In the near future I will be posting some tutorials on using photo galleries on your sites! Stick around, subscribe to my feed and stay updated with me.

Bear in mind that everyone requirements are different from the next person. you should ensure that your web design and development house can see your vision and goal and understands your market as much as you do, if not, better. Some people require simple web pages with just company information and contact details and in this case you can find a less reputable and/or established company and pay next to nothing to have your web presence available. However, there are companies that need online payments processed, large online stores and major graphics and or development tactics. In that case you should be prepared to pay the price or experience the negatives of amateurs.

Below are a six things to look for in a web design and development company:

1) Number of projects done. This is helpful to measure the amount of experience that a company has.

2) Will you be getting individual attention? This is important because you should a single point of contact so that you can have the necessities explain to you in language that you can understand and not technical jargon that would just confuse you more.

3) Don’t compromise on price. I cannot stress how important this is! Many people can design web sites, in fact, so can you. That said, how much do you actually know about design and implementation of a real, user friendly, dynamic website designed and implemented using PHP to allow for user interaction -  do you know how to implement analytics, on page optimization, search engine optimization – etc? Well, if you do then stop looking for a web host and start designing your site! However, what happens if you do not? Then I suggest that you leave it to the professionals as it can take literally years to learn all that there is to make your website stand out, stand up and stand proud.

4) Quality – chances are that if the companies site itself is horrible looking (like so many “web designers’ out there) then they aren’t going to magically make yours look stunning. Also try and ensure that the company isn’t using templates for your site as this will inevitable bring down the value of your site and tarnish the image of your company.

5) Latest Technology – Prod and probe the company in question to ensure that they have the latest available technology and KNOW how to make use of it. The internet and technology is growing daily and your site needs to be a level above the rest.

6) Knowledge base and resources - How much does the company know about web design and development? Well, if you ask a simple question and recieve a whole of complicated answers with various potential pitfalls and the solutions thereof then you are probably dealing with someone who knows exactly what they are talking about! You should also ensure that the company in question has many resiurces avaiable and knows how to make use of them. No one knows everything but the company you work should be able to find and offer you solutions to the project that you want done.

Web Design and Development - Dalesh Kowlesar

‘Ping’ is a computer network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network; it is also used to self test the network interface card of the computer, or as a speed test. It works by sending ICMP “echo request” packets to the target host and listening for ICMP “echo response” replies. Ping measures the round-trip time[1] and records any packet loss, and prints when finished a statistical summary of the echo response packets received, the minimum, mean, max and in some versions the standard deviation of the round trip time.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping

Well, that’s according to Wikipedia. As far as I know, when using blogging software you can automatically inform social networks like Technorati of your updates using a Ping. As soon as you hit the publish button the network (site) is pinged and notified of the updates and made available for others to see.

Here is the list that I have of updated ping services:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://1470.net/api/ping

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.feedster.com/ping.php

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://bitacoras.net/ping

http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast

http://ping.amagle.com/

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc

http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/

http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.myblog.jp

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2

http://pingqueue.com/rpc/

http://ping.blogg.de/

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://ping.weblogs.se/

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.britblog.com/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://rpc.wpkeys.com/

http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx

http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogoole.com/ping/

http://www.blogoon.net/ping/

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://www.imblogs.net/ping/

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://www.rssfwd.com/xmlrpc/api

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

Hope you find it useful. (“,)