How to Clean Your Computer Registry

by Marco Maseko

The origin of most of your computer problems or errors is the registry of your system, but since you are reading this article it’s likely that you already know that. Your PC’s performance is affected by two major causes of errors and before cleaning up your system you need to be aware of these.

An unclean registry happens if you delete a software manually without going through the process of uninstalling which is why you will often find unused files/data saturating your registry. You will notice how this affects your computer if it is something you perform regularly.

A hardware driver that is incompatible with the system could be a much greater problem and cause a Registry Crash. Forcing software to install despite an error message occurring during the installation could also be the problem. This might lead to a more serious problem, which we know as blue screen of death.

Your computer will still slow down gradually even if you always carry out the process of keeping your registry clean and safe and you should be aware of this. Not carrying out routine maintenance for months while using your PC/laptop makes this increasingly likely to take place. Windows has its own maintenance programs such as disk defragmenter or disk clean up, which can certainly help you keeping your computer registry organized. Your computer will be more organized and it should perform better if you perform maintenance regularly but that isn’t to say it is clean. A particular space of your disk has all of those unused files kept together on it when you carry out this routine maintenance regularly with windows tools. If maintenance of the system is never performed, these files will be spread all over it.

On the market there are many registry cleaning software packages available to help you clean this essential part of your computer system. You may perform the scanning every day to make sure your computer never runs slow nor will you become frustrated with the constant errors again. Registry software programs have many features provided within some versions.

Built-in scheduler, junk file cleaner and more are features given in order to make it more convenient for its users. You might end up buying registry software that is not the best quality and this can cause even more errors if you make a buying decision too early.

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Dreamweaver CS3 and Cascading Style Sheets

by Andrew Whiteman

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a W3C standard mark-up language for defining the appearance of web pages. The use of CSS allows developers to fully separate the content of the page from its presentation, speeding up the development process and also making the pages load more quickly in the browser. Whereas 20th century websites typically used tables to construct web pages and position elements, CSS now provides a cleaner and more efficient way of controlling all aspects of web page layout.

The range of computer users who have some involvement in building web pages and web sites is vast and a good many of these users choose Dreamweaver as the software tool that helps them create the web content they need without needing to become an expert on underlying technologies such as CSS. Dreamweaver CS3 includes better support for Cascading Style Sheets than previous versions. However, there is still room for improvement.

Previous versions of Dreamweaver assumed that most users would be using tables to control the layout of their web pages. Dreamweaver CS3 is the first version of the program which encourages users to create CSS-based web page layouts. When the users create a new web page, they are offered a series of CSS layouts, on which they can base the new page, consisting of single, double and three column designs.

Pages created using CSS rely heavily on the use of the HTML DIV element, a multipurpose container of web content. Choosing one of the Dreamweaver CSS presets creates a page containing a series of DIV elements complete with placeholder text and the CSS code necessary to control the position and dimension of the DIVs. The placeholder text and HTML code both contain brief explanations of the techniques used and advice on how to customise these basic pages for your own purposes.

The CSS generated by Dreamweaver when creating these preset layouts is embedded within the page itself. Updating a site where every page has embedded CSS code would be extremely inefficient. A far better arrangement is to keep all of the CSS in a single file. Luckily, Dreamweaver has a nifty feature for moving CSS definitions from an HTML page to an external CSS file. You just highlight all of the CSS you wish to export, right click the selection and choose “Move CSS Rules” from the “CSS Styles” context menu.

Although this ability to move CSS around is really great, it’s not something that beginners will necessarily think of doing. It points to the fact that Dreamweaver could still do with a few enhancements to its implementation of CSS.

Dreamweaver CS3 still has includes the automatic creation of CSS styles whenever the user applies font attributes to text. Simply removing the ability to select text and apply these basic attributes would prevent this from happening. From a beginner’s point of view, it would be far more useful to just have a “Style” menu with an option to create a new style if no styles already exist.

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What you need to know about collections.

by JR Rooney

The debt collection industry is a billion dollar »”>billion dollar industry. According to Rapid Recovery Solution, Inc. income from late fees and over-the-limit fees accounted for $14.8 billion dollars in the year 2004.

A collection account is defined as a delinquent account that has been forwarded to a debt collection agency, usually when it has become 90 to 120 days late. Creditors send accounts to collection agencies to remove them from their accounts receivables, then write-off the full debt owed as a loss. Creditors benefit in two ways: first, for writing off the debt as a loss on their taxes, and second, when the money is collected which can be recorded as a profit or accounts receivable. Many collection accounts are purchased from the original creditor for a fraction of the original amount owed but not always.

When you receive a letter from a debt collection agency, verify that the company contacting you has a legal right to collect money on your account. A debt collection agency may hold a collection account for just a few months, and if they are unsuccessful in collecting on the debt owed, the account is forwarded to another debt collection agency. This process continues until the account is paid or legal action is taken against you.

Collection agencies obtain the following information to develop a strategy to collect money owed: name, address, credit report, credit application, correspondence with the consumer, amount owed by the consumer and date of last payment. Many collection agencies also use illegal tactics to scare consumers such as: pretending they are one of your creditors asking to verify information, pretending they are an old friend or neighbor to catch you off guard, sending persistent follow-up calls or letters, sending threatening letters or leaving threatening voice mail messages, preying on your emotions, canceling credit card privileges, making the threat of litigation or pursuing litigation, and continuing to charge late and over-the-limit fees. Many of these tactics violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

A collection agency’s goal is to get the money owed paid as soon as possible. They will ask why you can’t make payment arrangements today. Another tactic that may be used is to transfer you to their supervisor, which by this time you may be angry or frustrated and could possibly agree to anything just to get off the phone with them. Don’t do it. Remain calm throughout the conversation. Don’t let the collection agency change your mind about what you can afford or scare you into doing something you don’t want to do. Be firm and stick to the terms agreed upon. Confirm your agreement in writing and send certified mail with a return receipt to ensure delivery and proof of delivery.

Debt Collection Agencies are slow to report that an account has been paid or transferred to another company, so it is critical that you obtain proof of payment. If you have missed one or two payments, contact the original creditor immediately to set up a payment plan. Stick to your payment arrangement to sustain your relationship with the creditor and retain your credit rating.

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Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection

by JR Rooney

Statute of Limitations on Debt Collection is the amount of time that lenders have to collect their debts by suing you in court and by other legal methods. Once the statute of limitations period is over, the lenders cannot sue you in court. However, the debt that you owe STILL REMAINS. Do not think that once the statute of limitations period is over, your debt will disappear. It will not! Lenders can collect their debts owed via other legal methods like a debt collection company.

We should point out that there are NO Statute of Limitations on the following types of debt owed: Child support due payments, Federal & Local state taxes Parking fines, illegal fines or Federal Student Loans.

Each US Statute has its own statute of limitations periods. Generally speaking, here is the statute of limitations on the following types of debt: Auto Loans: Debt owed on auto loans generally expires in 6 years. Unsecured Debt: 3-6 years after the last missed payment by a consumer, or last tracked activity.

The moment you sign that debt agreement, for example a car lease document, a personal loan or other types of loans, the Statute of Limitations period begins. However, this rule varies state by state. Some states also allow the ‘adjustment” of this period. For example, a person living in Alabama has credit card debt of $33000 and does not make a single payment for 3 years. Now in the state of Alabama, the statute of Limitations period is 6 years. If that person travels out of the state of Alabama (say to Mississippi) for 1 year, then his statute of limitations period STOPS up until he returns back to Alabama from Mississippi. Upon his return to Alabama, this period resumes again (3 more years).

Also note that after 3 years of having not made a single payment on your debt, you start making payments again. This new payment automatically resets the statute of limitations period to 0.

We will now abbreviate the word statute of limitations as SoL. Consider another example:

You sign an auto financing contract on January 1st, 2006 where the first payment of $300 is due on February 1st, 2006. In February, you never make a payment towards your debt. The SoL expires on February 1st, 2012 (assuming you live in Alabama where the SoL period is 6 years). Why Feb 1st? This is because Feb 1st was the last time you made a delinquent payment on your loan, or this was your last missed payment. The SoL period starts counting from your last missed payment.

Now assume you get a call from a debt collection company and instead of paying $300/month, they say you can pay just $150/month. You receive this call on July 30, 2008 (2 years have expired on the SoL period). This offer sounds pretty good to you and you indeed do make the payment! Hey! The SoL period at this point automatically resets to 0 and will run for another 6 years!

To recap, every single payment you make towards credit card or personal loan debt resets the SoL clock. This resetting of the SoL clock applies only to unsecured debt and NOT secured debt. This is because in Secured Debt, the lender will simply confiscate your collateral (a pledged home, your car, etc) and will not have to deal with collection issues.

If your lender harasses you after the SoL period of collecting the debts is legally over, you will not have to go to court. The court will probably call off the case as soon as the Judge finds out that the SoL period is over. You should write up an “Expired Statute of Limitations” letter to your creditor and inform him that the SoL period is over.

A lot of people confuse the Statute of Limitations Period of Debt Collection with the SoL period for Credit Reporting. For instance, consider you live in Arizona where the statute of limitations period is 3 years. After 4 years, you can absolutely refuse to pay that debt and the court will rule in your favor. However, according to the rules defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), your delinquent debt will be shown for up to 7 years (since your last delinquent or missed annuity payment).

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An internet business that has made us big money

by John Wallen

It’s time to get the boat off the water and pack the truck for the journey home in the morning. We’ve had a great time this past month, and we’d love to stay longer but we have to get back. Were going to throw on some steaks, crack open a bottle of our favorite wine, and fire up the candles for our last dinner here, and say farewell to the summer.

The signs of fall are starting to show up, and it’s time we get home for awhile to our family and friends. We need to get back to taking care of our business in a more structured sort of way. Start putting to work the ideas we were tossing around while hanging out having fun, taking it easy. This lake has so many perfect sandy places to park the boat and dive in, it is amazing.

We have this kind of time to be able to get away because of our internet business. We made up our minds at one time a while back, to control how much money we wanted to make, and not someone else. We have the ultimate online business with a system for marketing that is second to none, and if you can motivate you can make a great income.

We both had pain in the butt employers who could careless if we made ends meet or not. Deb had only one week vacation a year and no paid holidays, and mine wasn’t much better than that. We had the desire to find out just how the wealthy were being so successful. That’s when we discovered many were making a lot of money online, with very profitable products.

The biggest and fastest growing industry in the world, is the world wide web. Simply put, millions are online at any given moment, twenty four seven. We wanted to find how to tap into this by starting a low cost business that produces highly profitable monthly incomes. Find and learn what marketing system they were using to create this kind of success.

To get on this successful path, we started to take a more positive approach in our lives. We made it a practice not to talk about anything negative when we got home, and stopped spending so much time in front of the tv. The more we did this, the more time we could put in searching the web learning about affiliate opportunities, and taking note of the better ones.

It’s amazing to start finding all these avenues, and we became more and more curious, looking at everything. We found live training sessions we could sit in on, and got really good at spotting the get rich quick schemes. We were reading articles and seeking out the right people who we thought would give us the best chance to succeed as quick as possible.

That was awhile ago we did all that ground work, just about 2 years ago. We became part of a affiliate opportunity that has given us our financial freedom. We have never found a compensation plan like this. Everything is so perfectly in place, the product, the marketing system, and the training is done by the best minds on the web, this business is amazing!

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Making Good Money 25 Hours A Week Using Hybrid Business Model

by Branda Robinson

My husband and I, tired of working for someone else with no recognition decided to embark on a search for an internet based home business opportunity. Maybe this would offer the work satisfaction we needed. We started that very night hoping to find something exciting.

After several days of searching we had decided there just wasn’t anything out there that didn’t require a large amount of money up front, or had promises it couldn’t guarantee. We sadly gave up for the time being, grudgingly going back to our regular jobs working with our bosses over our shoulders.

One late night, I began a search for free home based business opportunity. This search proved to be a little more profitable then our first search. We ran across a title \”Working 25 Hours a Week Using a Hybrid Business Model\”.

The next morning I excitedly showed my husband the program, we both agreed this seemed to be something made just for us! We did a bit more research on it, and decided it really could be done, we could work from home with total freedom from bosses.

Finally we had found the information we needed to enable us to stay at home with our family, and still cover our finances! Our marriage grew stronger as we worked side by side to accomplish our goals, and the kids were happy we were able to spend lots more time with them.

Now we get the credit we deserve from our work, only take on as much as we know we can handle as a team, and have freedom from any boss but ourselves. We even set our own scheduals, working on our own time.

If your seeking this same kind of freedom I highly recommend trying a search for yourself! The life you can lead when you lead your own life is it’s own reward. I suggest using the terms free home internet based business opportunity.

You must search for the use a hybrid business model if you are seriously interested in being your own boss, saving money and enjoying your family as you originally anticipated. Life can be better if only you will step out.

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When Should I Call In a Credit Collection Agency?

by JR Rooney

You should call in a credit collection agency sooner rather than later. The longer you wait to begin the collection process on overdue accounts, the less of a chance you’ll have at recovering your money.

The day after an account becomes overdue, you should place a polite phone call to the customer who owes you money. If that doesn’t work, you may want to send a few reminder letters yourself, or you may want to go directly to a credit collection agency. Base your decision on how much money is owed to you and the history of your relationship with the customer. If it’s the first time you are doing business with them, you’ll want to call in a credit collection agency earlier than you would with a 10-year customer with a solid credit history.

Most companies call in a credit collection agency once a debt is 60 days to 90 days past due. If you wait much longer than 90 days to begin recovering unpaid receivables, your chance of collecting drops dramatically.

If you discover that your account has gone out of business, find out what type of business it was – a corporation, a partnership, or a proprietorship. If it was a corporation, don’t even bother calling for the help of a collection agency. It is doubtful that you, or any one else, will be able to squeeze the last few nickels out of that client. If the company is a partnership or a proprietorship, you may be able to get the individual owners of the company to pay you out of their own pockets.

If you try to recover an account and fail, consider that bad debt a tax-deductible item (Tax Code IRC 166, Reg. 1.166). You will be able to deduct the cost of the goods sold (but not paid for) as an ordinary business expense. You can’t deduct any lost profits from the sale, nor can you deduct the money owed for services rendered.

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Default Bad Credit Private Student Loans

by Mary Maseko

Defaulted student loans can be devastating to your credit as well as your current budget. It is important that a student loan debt is taken very seriously; it can affect your wages and whether you are eligible for income tax refunds. Defaulting on your student loan is avoidable if you just do a few simple things. Initially, try to let the lender know what’s happening and avoid defaulting on your student loan. Admitting to your lending institution that you are facing financial difficulties usually stops the need to default.

There was a time that the loans I had taken out while a student were becoming difficult to pay. This really isn’t the right way to deal with the situation and is often the reason students default on their loans. To avoid defaulting on your loan, contact your lender before it gets to this stage.

After everything, I just felt relief after the lender had agreed to a deferment. The Lending Company showed me the steps that would have to be taken in order to suspend payment until a time when I could start repaying them. It was a weight off my shoulders because it only took seven days for the payments to be deferred until I was back on my feet again.

I had other obligations which would not be so readily dealt with so it was so helpful when my student loan provider was so accommodating. I wish all my creditors had been as helpful as the student loan provider. Paying more for your loan in the long term is a consequence of deferment because interest is still adding up while it is left unpaid. Despite this, it is still worth it because there isn’t a defaulted student loan. Often, lenders will accept occasional small lump sum payments. It is worth checking with you bank to see if they will agree to accept interest only payments on a loan for a temporary period.

Although you can avoid the defaulted student loan, you can’t avoid the principle sum which still remains to be paid at the end of the process. One thing to remember about these debts is that many students applying for college depend on this kind of financial support. If too many people have defaulted student loans, the money is not available for new students. You should never just sit back and ignore the problem when your finance company can help you.

Alternative payment arrangements or a deferment on the loan are just two alternatives to avoid a poor credit record. This sort of action has other benefits in that the money available for new students is less likely to dry up.

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Three sure fire ways to get paid on a past due account.

by JR Rooney

No matter what you do to try and weed out potential deadbeat customers, sooner or later one or more accounts will become past due. When you find yourself with a past due account on your hands, the worst thing you can do is ignore the problem. The more time that passes between the payment due date and the time that the customer is contacted, the less likely you are to receive the full payment. After 6 months, you statistically collect only 50% of the amount due and after a year that amount drops to only 25% of the original debt. If you’re serious about making a profit, there are three ways to handle collection on past debt; in house efforts, hiring a collection agency, or taking legal action.

Collecting the debt yourself: If the debt is relatively fresh or small, you will most likely start by trying to collect the debt yourself before hiring a collection agency or a lawyer. The most effective way to start the process of collecting an outstanding debt is by calling the debtor. Be firm, yet polite when you call. Make sure to keep records of the time, date, and resolution of the phone call. You’ll want this information later should you decide to hire a collection agency or a lawyer.

Many past due customers can talk a great talk on the phone, but then never deliver. If you get the “I have the check right here and will send it in the mail” line from a business customer more than once, tell them you’ll send a courier service or someone from your office over to pick it up. If the business is local, try making an appointment with their finance manager to talk face to face.

Another effective way to motivate customers to make a payment is with a 10 day demand letter. Some collection agencies offer a free 10 day demand letter service that includes postage and mailing of a demand letter sent on official collection agency letterhead. Many times, this is enough to get your customer to part with their payment.

Hire a Collection Agency: Many small businesses do not initially think of hiring a debt collection agency to collect on past due accounts, but of the outsourced solutions, a debt collection agency is usually the most cost effective and will generate the best results. When you consider the in-house time spent trying to keep on top of delinquent customers, a debt collection agency is often more cost effective than trying to handle it with your own staff.

With a collection agency, you don’t pay until they collect the debt, meaning that the collection agency is highly motivated to find a way to get the customer to pay. Because they don’t get paid unless you do, a collection agency tends to work fast, They also “work at odd hours”, and use all of it’s professional resources to locate missing debtors.

Today’s collection agencies don’t use scare tactics or bully customers. That type of behavior is outdated and crosses the lines of legality. Besides, not all customers who are behind on payments are deadbeats. It’s never wise in business to make enemies and gain a reputation as a brute force knee breaker for any customer who has a tough month. When you choose a collection agency, make sure one of its goals is to maintain extreme professionalism.

Taking legal action: Another option to collecting a debt is to take legal action whether by taking the debtor to small claims court or by hiring a lawyer to pursue the debtor. This is by far the most costly of your options.

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How To Use Personal Computer Firewalls

by Marco Maseko

Given the rise in numbers of computer hackers, scammers and viruses around the Internet, you should install a firewall. Defense from malicious data harming your computer is provided by a firewall. Without one, your computer is prone to a dangerous attacks that can wipe out your data or steal personal information that can negatively impact you.

Determine the type of firewall required by your computer as there are a wide variety available. Chances are that your firewall is already set up and ready to be used if you have a computer that came installed with the Microsoft XP or Vista operating system. You must check that it is turned on and working properly.

However, it may not be turned on or working properly. If you do not have one of these later operating systems, then you need to purchase your own software. The XP version doesn’t get great reviews so you may still want to buy separate firewall software if you have Microsoft XP.

There are many products available, including as the most popular – Norton, AVG, and McAfee and you can either visit a store that sells computer software or download a firewall product through the Internet. Prices vary depending on sophistication of the software, but there are also plenty of low cost versions available, even from the big name companies.

You need to take a few things into consideration prior to installing your firewall. The program must not stop you using the functions that you need, such as file and printing sharing. This is normally done during installation but can also be done later by using the documentation provided to change the settings.

Access to certain parts of the Internet is limited by a firewall. It is important that you are familiar with how you connect because this can happen if you use a local area network or a router. It is difficult to access secured networks when you have installed a firewall. Installing a firewall to a pc linked to a company network may require a specific settings configuration to allow you to connect to them and this can be provided by a company’s IT department.

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