Where to Find Wi-Fi Hotspots

The Wi-Fi hotspot is nothing short of a phenomenon forwireless computing. Since it made the internet publicly available, this technology enabled laptops to be truly mobile computers.

While not every country has picked up on this technology yet, there are several major cities and areas in the world where it has been adapted. Below is a list of some of the typical places where you can find Wi-Fi hotspots.

1. Coffee shops
- have gained popularity as places where people can meet and have a good cup of coffee. But today, coffee shops have now also become hubs for internet users. The good thing here is that, they offer free and unlimited internet connection to their patrons usually by just making a minimum purchase.

2. Hotels
- more and more hotels offer this service which is mainly geared towards business travellers. They can be accessed in hotel rooms and lobbies. The only downside here is that they are usually paid separately from the room rates and
can be quite expensive.

3. Airports
- Wi-Fi hotspots can now be found in major international airports. This is also mainly geared towards business travellers who may want to check their e-mail just before
boarding the plane.

While hotspots are great places to get free internet connection, people should also be aware that most of them are unsecure.

It means that the data that anyone sends through the network may be read by hackers and could be used for criminal activities such as identity theft. Users can protect themselves by not visiting websites that require sensitive information when connected to unsecure networks.

Read More

What You Need to Connect to Wi-Fi Hotspots

Most modern laptops, mobile phones and tablet are Wi-Fi enabled which makes them easier to use in Wi-Fi hotspots without modifying the software and hardware of their
gadget.

But for those that are not equipped with the needed tools to connect to a hotspot, here are some things that they should have in order to do so.

1. Wireless adapter

- this is the primary requirement in being able to connect to a hotspot. The wireless adapter is the one that transmits data to and from the computer.

Again, most modern laptops are equipped with this. But for those without an adapter, they can buy a wireless card or even a USB adapter as an add-on.

2. Have the same IEEE802.11 protocol as the hotspot

- IEEE802.11 is a standard used by Wi-Fi. Under this are different protocols that address specific wireless networking needs such as speed and range. Although modern wireless adapters are backward compatible, meaning they can handle new as well as old protocols, older ones may have problems connecting to hotspots using a protocol different from what they use.

Therefore one has to make sure that either his/her laptop is compatible to the one used by the hotspot, or get a laptop that supports different protocols to connect to different hotspots easily.

3. A good location in order to connect to a hotspot

- one also has to be within the hotspot’s range. The rule of thumb when connecting to a hotspot is that the closer one is to the source, the better. Laptops usually indicate the signal strength so finding a good range should be easy.

Read More

The History of Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is a relatively new type of technology that is just starting to attract a wide following worldwide. Some consider it to be one of the most significant innovations
in technology since the internet came to the mainstream.

Because of it, computers are now able to connect to the internet and to other computers wirelessly.

The precursor of today’s Wi-Fi was developed sometime in the early 1990s by the Netherlands-based company NCR Corporation/AT&T (which later became known as Lucent & Agere Systems). Called WaveLAN, it was originally intended to be used in cash registers.

Several competing standards prevented the immediate success of having wireless networks. However, with the development of the IEEE 802.11 standard and the release of its first protocol in 1997, this technology slowly but surely came
into the mainstream.

Since then, several protocols were released and several more will be released to address issues such as range and speed.

The first protocol released in 1997, now known as the Legacy mode, operated in the 2.4 GHz frequency. The throughput and data rate are slow by today’s standards, with only 0.9 and 2 Mbit/s, respectively. 802.11 a and b came two years later in 1999 with the a protocol offering faster speeds while the b provided a wider range.

The elements of the two were later merged in 2003 when the 802.11g protocol was released. The new protocol offered the speed of the a and the range of the b.

Newer protocols are currently under development. The n, set released by mid-2009 provides greater speeds and almost double the range of the a/b/g protocols. Another one, the 802.11y, is set to be released in mid-2008 has the same speed as the g protocol although the y has an outdoor range of as much as 5 kilometers.

Read More

What is Wi-Fi and What are Wi-Fi Hotspots?

Wi-Fi has been the buzzword among techies and the not-so-techie people alike for quite some time now. And while that is the case, not everyone knows exactly what it
means and what it stands for.

For starters, Wi-Fi is a brand of wireless technology that is owned by the group called the Wi-Fi Alliance.

The group’s aim is to improve the interoperability of wireless local area network (WLAN) products by following the IEEE 802.11 standards.

This technology is usually used by mobile computers although more and more mobile phones and tablet are designed to be Wi-Fi-enabled. As a wireless network, Wi-Fi does away with the Ethernet cables that used to connect one computer to another as well as one computer to the internet.

Another jargon in the wireless LAN community is called the Wi-Fi hotspot, simply known as hotspot. A hotspot is any public area that offers free or paid wireless internet connection.

Some of them cover only a small area (e.g. hotel lobbies), while there are those that cover an entire city (e.g. municipal hotspots).

While having hotspots has made cheap and even free internet connection possible, there are also security issues that accompany this technology.

Some hotspots are intentionally or unintentionally unsecured so that any data sent over the network is unencrypted. Because of this, malicious users can sniff (i.e. monitor) data sent by others who are in the same network.

But several solutions such as having a Virtual Private Network (VPN) are available, although they not widely used because of the costs of implementing them.

Read More

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO IMPROVE YOUR SELF?

Sometimes, when all our doubts, fears and insecurities wrap ourselves up, we always come up with the idea of “I wish I was somebody else.”  More often than not, we think and believe that someone or rather, most people are better than us.- when in reality, the fact is, most people are more scared than us.

You spot a totally eye-catching girl sitting by herself at a party, casually sipping on a glass of Asti Spumanti. You think to yourself, “she looks so perfectly calm and confident.” But if you could read thru her transparent mind, you would see a bunch of clouds of thoughts and you might just be amazed that she’s thinking “are people talking about why I am seated here alone?... Why don’t guys find me attractive? …I don’t like my ankles, they look too skinny… I wish I was as intelligent as my best friend.”

We look at a young business entrepreneur and say “Wooh… what else could he ask for?” He stares at himself at the mirror and murmur to himself, “I hate my big eyes… I wonder why my friends won’t talk to me… I hope mom and dad would still work things out.”

Isn’t it funny? We look at other people, envy them for looking so outrageously perfect and wish we could trade places with them, while they look at us and thinks of the same thing. We are insecure of other people who themselves are insecure of us. We suffer from low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and lose hope in self improvement because we are enveloped in quiet desperation.

Sometimes, you notice that you have an irritating habit like biting off your finger nails, having a foul mouth, and you – of all people, is the last to know.

I have a friend who never gets tired of talking. And in most conversations, she is the only one who seems to be interested in the things she has to say. So all of our other friends tend to avoid the circles whenever she’s  around, and she doesn’t notices how badly she became socially handicapped – gradually affecting the people in her environment.

One key to self improvement is to LISTEN and TALK to a trusted friend. Find someone who you find comfort in opening up with even the most gentle topics you want to discuss. Ask questions like “do you think I am ill-mannered?”,  “Do I always sound so argumentative?”,  “Do I talk too loud?”,  “Does my breath smell?”,  “Do I ever bore you when were together?”.  In this way, the other person will obviously know that you are interested in the process of self improvement. Lend her your ears for comments and criticisms and don’t give her answers like “Don’t exaggerate! That’s just the way I am!”  Open up your mind and heart as well. And in return, you may want to help your friend with constructive criticism that will also help her improve her self.

One of Whitney Houston’s songs says “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” True enough. In order to love others, you must love yourself too. Remember, you cannot give what you do not have.

Before telling other people some ways on how to improve themselves, let them see that you yourself is a representation and a product of self improvement. Self improvement makes us better people, we then inspire other people, and then the rest of the world will follow.

Stop thinking of yourselves as second-rate beings. Forget the repetitive thought of “If only I was richer… if only I was thinner” and so on.  Accepting your true self is the first step to self improvement. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others only to find out at the end that we’ve got  10 more reasons to envy them.

We all have our insecurities. Nobody is perfect. We always wish we had better things, better features, better body parts, etc. But life need not to be perfect for people to be happy about themselves.Self improvement and loving yourself is not a matter of shouting to the whole world that you are perfect and you are the best. It’s the virtue of acceptance and contentment. When we begin to improve ourselves, we then begin to feel contented and happy.

Read More

UNLOCK YOUR SELF IMPROVEMENT POWER

When we look at a certain object, a painting for example – we won’t be able to appreciate what’s in it, what is painted and what else goes with it  if the painting is just an inch away from our face. But if we try to take it a little further, we’ll have a clearer vision of the whole art work.

We reach a point in our life when we are ready for change and a whole bunch of information that will help us unlock our self improvement power. Until then, something can be staring us right under our nose but we don’t see it.  The only time we think of unlocking our self improvement power is when everything got worst. Take the frog principle for example –

Try placing Frog A in a pot of boiling water. What happens? He twerps! He jumps off! Why? Because he is not able to tolerate sudden change in his environment – the water’s temperature. Then try Frog B: place him in a luke warm water, then turn the gas stove on. Wait til the water reaches a certain boiling point. Frog B then thinks “Ooh… it’s a bit warm in here”.

People are like Frog B in general. Today, Anna thinks Carl hates her. Tomorrow, Patrick walks up to her and told her he hates her. Anna stays the same and doesn’t mind her what her friends says. The next day, she learned that Kim and John also abhors her. Anna doesn’t realize at once the importance and the need for self improvement until the entire community hates her.

We learn our lessons when we experience pain. We finally see the warning signs and signals when things get rough and tough. When do we realize that we need to change diets? When none of our jeans and shirts would fit us. When do we stop eating candies and chocolates? When all of our teeth has fallen off. When do we realize that we need to stop smoking? When our lungs have gone bad. When do we pray and ask for help? When we realize that we’re gonna die tomorrow.

The only time most of us ever learn about unlocking our self improvement power is when the whole world is crashing and falling apart. We think and feel this way because it is not easy to change. But change becomes more painful when we ignore it.

Change will happen, like it or hate it. At one point or another, we are all going to experience different turning points in our life – and we are all going to eventually unlock our self improvement power not because the world says so, not because our friends are nagging us, but because we realized its for our own good.

Happy people don’t just accept change, they embrace it. Now, you don’t have to feel a tremendous heat before realizing the need for self improvement.  Unlocking your self improvement power means unlocking yourself up in the cage of thought that “its just the way I am”. It is such a poor excuse for people who fear and resist change. Most of us program our minds like computers.

Jen repeatedly tells everyone that she doesn’t have the guts to be around groups of people. She heard her mom, her dad, her sister, her teacher tell the same things about her to other people. Over the years, that is what Jen believes. She believes its her story. And what happens? Every time a great crowd would troop over their house, in school, and in the community – she tends to step back, shy away and lock herself up in a room. Jen didn’t only believed in her story, she lived it.

Jen has to realize that she is not what she is in her story. Instead of having her story post around her face for everyone to remember, she has to have the spirit and show people “I am an important person and I should be treated accordingly!”

Self improvement may not be everybody’s favorite word, but if we look at things in a different point of view, we might have greater chances of enjoying the whole process instead of counting the days until we are fully improved. Three sessions in a week at the gym would result to a healthier life, reading books instead of looking at porns will shape up a more profound knowledge, going out with friends and peers will help you take a step back from work and unwind.  And just when you are enjoying the whole process of unlocking your self improvement power, you’ll realize that you’re beginning to take things light and become happy.

Read More

Life Mapping: A Vision of Success

Success is more than economic gains, titles, and degrees. Planning for success is about mapping out all the aspects of your life. Similar to a map, you need to define the following details: origin, destination, vehicle, backpack, landmarks, and route.

Origin:  Who you are

A map has a starting point. Your origin is who you are right now. Most people when asked to introduce themselves would say, “Hi, I’m Jean and I am a 17-year old, senior highschool student.” It does not tell you about who Jean is; it only tells you her present preoccupation. To gain insights about yourself, you need to look closely at your beliefs, values, and principles aside from your economic, professional, cultural, and civil status. Moreover, you can also reflect on your experiences to give you insights on your good and not-so-good traits, skills, knowledge, strengths, and weaknesses. Upon introspection, Jean realized that she was highly motivated, generous, service-oriented, but impatient. Her inclination was in the biological-medical field. Furthermore, she believed that life must serve a purpose, and that wars were destructive to human dignity.

Destination: A vision of who you want to be

“Who do want to be?” this is your vision. Now it is important that you know yourself so that you would have a clearer idea of who you want to be; and the things you want to change whether they are attitudes, habits, or points of view. If you hardly know yourself, then your vision and targets for the future would also be unclear. Your destination should cover all the aspects of your being: the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Continuing Jean’s story, after she defined her beliefs, values, and principles in life, she decided that she wanted to have a life dedicated in serving her fellowmen.

Vehicle: Your Mission

A vehicle is the means by which you can reach your destination. It can be analogized to your mission or vocation in life. To a great extent, your mission would depend on what you know about yourself. Bases on Jean’s self-assessment, she decided that she was suited to become a doctor, and that she wanted to become one. Her chosen vocation was a medical doctor. Describing her vision-mission fully: it was to live a life dedicated to serving her fellowmen as a doctor in conflict-areas.

Travel Bag: Your knowledge, skills, and attitude

Food, drinks, medicines, and other travelling necessities are contained in a bag. Applying this concept to your life map, you also bring with you certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These determine your competence and help you in attaining your vision. Given such, there is a need for you to assess what knowledge, skills, and attitudes you have at present and what you need to gain along the way. This two-fold assessment will give you insights on your landmarks or measures of success. Jean realized that she needed to gain professional knowledge and skills on medicine so that she could become a doctor. She knew that she was a bit impatient with people so she realized that this was something she wanted to change.

Landmarks and Route: S.M.A.R.T. objectives

Landmarks confirm if you are on the right track while the route determines the travel time. Thus, in planning out your life, you also need to have landmarks and a route. These landmarks are your measures of success. These measures must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. Thus you cannot set two major landmarks such as earning a master’s degree and a doctorate degree within a period of three years, since the minimum number of years to complete a master’s degree is two years. Going back to Jean as an example, she identified the following landmarks in her life map: completing a bachelor’s degree in biology by the age of 21; completing medicine by the age of 27; earning her specialization in infectious diseases by the age of 30; getting deployed in local public hospitals of their town by the age of 32; and serving as doctor in war-torn areas by the age of 35.

Anticipate Turns, Detours, and Potholes

The purpose of your life map is to minimize hasty and spur-of-the-moment decisions that can make you lose your way. But oftentimes our plans are modified along the way due to some inconveniences, delays, and other situations beyond our control. Like in any path, there are turns, detours, and potholes thus; we must anticipate them and adjust accordingly.

Read More