CD Cleaning Solution – Making Your Own

I see the kids were eating ice cream sandwiches while they dug through the DVD collection again. With kids in the house, it’s inevitable that whenever I want to listen to a CD or watch a DVD, I have to clean the discs before they will play. Luckily, I spent several years working in a CD manufacturing support group and learned the easiest way to clean discs and get them working again. Here, as simple as it may be, is my favorite solution for cleaning discs.

- Mix a large am...

I see the kids were eating ice cream sandwiches while they dug through the DVD collection again. With kids in the house, it’s inevitable that whenever I want to listen to a CD or watch a DVD, I have to clean the discs before they will play. Luckily, I spent several years working in a CD manufacturing support group and learned the easiest way to clean discs and get them working again. Here, as simple as it may be, is my favorite solution for cleaning discs.

- Mix a large amount of water with a few drops of dishwashing soap.

That’s it. No expensive commercial cleaning solutions and no plastic washing devices for my discs. I know it doesn’t sound complicated enough or mysterious enough, but it works. This solution works most of the time if you:

- Use a soft cloth and wipe the solution on the disc starting from the inside hub and wiping to the outside edge of the disc. Never rub hard or in a circular motion. Don’t rub around the disc because you might scratch the disc creating an un-repairable problem.

- Dry the disc with a soft dry cloth. Again, wipe the disc from the inside to the outside. Straight out. Don’t go around the disc at all because you might create scratches that are parallel with the tracks.

Why does this solution work most of the time? On most CDs, and especially rented DVDs, playability problems are caused by fingerprints. Fingerprints are oil-based and the dishwasher detergent is designed to cut through and remove oil. If this method doesn’t work, you might have a disc with sever scratch or even a scratch on the label side of the disc. Scratched discs can sometimes be repaired with CD scratch removal solutions or CD repair services.

Dishwasher soap and water won’t fix scratches but will make many discs playable.

Copyright © 2006

Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook

The new designed Inspiron^TM Mini 10 is a lightweight mobile netbook that goes anywhere with you, so it’s always easy to check your e-mail or connect to the Internet. It’s everything you need to stay in touch and entertained on the road.

• Get more done with up to 7 hours, 18 minutes of battery life
• Go anywhere effortlessly with a compact under 1.33kg design
• Store your movies, music and photos with the standard 250GB HDD
• Be productive with an easy-to-use 92% full size keyboard

Lightweight and Compact

The Inspiron Mini 10 goes anywhere you go — and with ease. With a slim profile for computing in compact spaces and a starting at weight of less than 1.33kg, you’ll want to bring the ultra-portable Inspiron Mini® 10 with you everywhere you go.

Uncompromising

The Inspiron Mini 10 is an affordable and lightweight netbook that doesn’t sacrifice any of the features you desire. In addition to long battery life, Genuine Windows^® 7 and powerful Intel^® processing, the new Inspiron Mini 10 boasts new options such as Wireless-N, DDR3 memory, a generous 250GB³ hard drive.

Entertainment on the Go

The Inspiron Mini 10 lets you watch movies, listen to music, edit videos and upload to the web to share your life with family and friends from almost anywhere.

Powerful performer
With long-lasting battery life (up to 7 hours, 18 minutes), you’ll be able to do more of what you want and stay connected longer.

Beautiful view
The Inspiron Mini 10 boasts a seamless 25.7cm (10.1 inch)  WLED display featuring a 16:9 aspect ratio that brings all your entertainment to life in stunning bright colors.

Maximum Connectivity

The Inspiron Mini 10 is built for today and tomorrow. Stay connected wherever you go with the new internal 802.11n WiFi connection, as well as Bluetooth^® 3.0. Its lightweight design, including built-in webcam and microphone, will let you travel light while keeping up with your video chat, instant messenger and e-mail so you never lose touch with family and friends.

Smart Design

The Inspiron Mini 10 is the perfect travel companion that brings you sophisticated elegance in addition to processing power.

Keyboard
The Inspiron Mini 10 features a keyboard 92% the size of a traditional laptop keyboard. And a touchpad design with discrete buttons means you don’t have to sacrifice comfort or productivity.

Hard drive
Store all your photos, music and videos and easily access them anytime you want with the standard 250GB hard drive.

Style
Premium design features sleek styling with soft curves, rounded edges and high-gloss black finish.

Fun Features

Take advantage of all the fun the Inspiron Mini 10 has to offer.

• Support today’s bandwidth-hungry applications with Wireless-N, which lets you browse the Internet faster than Wireless-G, the networking standard most laptops are still using.
• Get the most out of your Inspiron Mini 10 with up to 7 hours, 18 minutes of battery life.
• Hold on to more of your content with the 250GB hard drive.

Dell™ XPS 14 Laptop

1 Year XPS Premier service

Movies, games, music and web chat come to life with leading edge graphics, 3D capabilities, HD video chat and sound that can fill a room.

• Leading edge NVIDIA^® performance graphics bring your media to life
• High-fidelity JBL speakers with Waves MaxxAudio^®
• First Skype™ -certified laptop — video chat with HD webcam
• Enjoy 3D on the big screen with integrated NVIDIA 3DTV Play software

Feel the rush

Powerful graphics. Powerfully smart. The XPS™ 14 laptop has what it takes to take you to new levels of performance.

Razor-sharp graphics come standard
Standard leading edge NVIDIA^® performance graphics (available up to 2 GB) for powerful photo and video editing and high-resolution gaming with breathtaking detail.

Smart power management
Long media marathons are no problem with smart power management that helps extend battery life when you need it. NVIDIA Optimus™ technology automatically optimizes your battery life while maintaining the graphics performance you expect — completely seamlessly and transparently — whether you’re watching an HD movie, surfing the Web or playing a 3D game.

Mind-blowing audio

XPS laptops are designed to be the loudest, clearest and cleanest laptops on the planet with built-in high-fidelity JBL speakers and Waves MaxxAudio^® technology. Together they produce rich, full sound that delivers booming bass and razor-sharp clarity to your favorite movies, music and games. Treat your ears to peak audio performance with the XPS 6W JBL speakers. Then, layer in the Waves algorithms, designed to deliver better dynamic range, frequency response and imaging, with maximum transparency, clarity and natural sound. Together, these technologies enable you to take the surround-sound experience of your home theater with you wherever you go.

Your Life in Hi-Def

XPS laptops have the tools that bring your world to you, wherever you are.

Ultra-Clear. Ultra-Flexible. Connect with your loved ones across the globe in stunning high definition using the internet and XPS 14’s HD Webcam. It’s the first Webcam to offer HD video streaming for ultra-clear 720p resolution. The extreme flexibility of the new XPS also enables you to record video using different bit rates, depending on the application you use.

Connect to the World Video conferencing is now even easier with Dell and Skype™. The new XPS 14 is one of the first laptops to be certified by Skype and offers preinstalled Skype software standard on every XPS 14.

Movies, games and 3D videos come to life

XPS laptops are the first Dell laptops to offer integrated NVIDIA 3DTV Play technology. This enables you to leverage the 3D processing power of GeForce^® graphics to create an immersive 3D experience in your own home, on the big screen. Simply connect your laptop to your 3D-enabled TV and effortlessly project your favorite Blu-ray 3D movies and 3D photo slideshows for a real-life theater experience. Then, bring your best games to life. Using the power of your laptop and your 3D TV, you can step into an eye-popping 3D gaming experience right in your living room. All you need to harness the 3D power of your XPS 14 is an HDMI cable, optional Blu-ray Disc™ drive, approved 3D-enabled TV and 3D media.

Simple and Smart Support

Dell DataSafe Online Our online backup service offers data protection by enabling customers to back up data to a safe, remote storage site using a broadband connection. Dell DataSafe Online Backup is easy, flexible and secure. After setup, it will automatically back up data to help protect your data from software, hardware and catastrophic failure.

Dell Support Center Our centrally located, easy-to-use application provides personalized support resources. Conveniently located on your PC’s desktop with quick links to service, support and system resources. Helps keep your system up-to-date and running efficiently through automated fixes for common configuration issues.

Killer Apps

The only reason that HP (or Samsung, Motorola, Nokia/Microsoft, and the others) has a chance in this market is that those incompatible mobile OSes nevertheless all run the two greatest killer apps of them all, aka web browsers and GPS navigation. Most of the other apps (mail, social networks, etc.) that users need are web or cloud-based and can be accessed via the browser if an alternative is not provided. In this sense, there is only one OS and it is the one supported by HTML and other established web formats. Apple may be at a slight disadvantage because it does not support Adobe's Flash standard.

What those companies may need to do is identify a handful of the top killer apps in the existing market and spend the right amount of money to make sure that those apps migrate to their own platforms. Providing powerful tools that can facilitate app migration should probably be at the top of their to-do list. After that, the market will become very much like the car industry, a matter of status, gadgetry, trend and fashion. Eventually, there will only be one basic OS, preferably a user-customizable OS