Business Computing Blog

Even if your PC is slow, you no longer have to go in search of a technical support person to fix it. With a little guidance, you can now get rid of most PC problems on your own. There are 7 common reasons why your PC is slow.

Overheating processor

Modern processors generate more heat and when the temperature rises above the level specified via the BIOS, it can be why your PC is slow. Cleaning your PC fan can help. You should also check the fan motor to see if any bearings are loose. Setting the BIOS temperature level to a slightly higher figure than the current one can help when your PC is slow.

Malfunctioning RAM

If the installed RAM is not compatible with your PC or is slower than the optimal level specified in the machine, that can be a reason why your PC is slow. A slow PC is also a sign of defective RAM chips, so you should just check if they are from a reliable manufacturer. An extra fan will help your RAM cool down.

Failing hard disk

Slow access times, irregular boot failures and unexplained blue screens are definite signs of hard disk failure, which can be why your PC is slow. You should run the Error Check utility and then the Disk Defragmenter provided with Windows. The Error Check utility will prompt you to try to repair faulty sectors, while the defragmenter will skip the bad sectors and organize your files appropriately.

Incompatible BIOS settings

If your computer’s BIOS settings are different to the recommended optimal machine configuration, it can be the leading cause why your PC is slow. Run an online search with your motherboard name to find out what the appropriate settings are, and change them accordingly.

Unsupported new drive

If you experience difficulty with accessing a drive you installed recently and your PC is slow, check the IDE interface type on your motherboard. The solution for an incompatible hard drive is a PCI add-on card .

Multiple activated Windows Services

The Windows system does not need most of the applications that start running at start-up. But, since they are automatically enabled, it can affect the performance of your system, in turn becoming a cause for why your PC is slow. Right-click on My Computer and click on Manage, Services and Applications. You can use the Disable button to stop any services you don’t need.

Full hard disk

Whenever you add, modify or delete files in a computer, the hard disk stores the file contents in an unorganized manner. If your PC is slow, then you will need to defragment the hard disk to achieve optimal performance. Defragmenting will organize all the scattered bits and pieces of memory according to relevancy, which means, the data belonging to one file will be located next to each other, rather than all over the disk.

A cluttered registry could also be the reason why your PC is slow. To avoid problems with the Windows Registry, use a registry tool, such as RegCure, to scan, repair and optimize your PC for long-term peak performance.

A slow computer can be really frustrating. Visit Speed up Computer to find out tips and tricks on how to speed up your computer in just 2 minutes!

Rewind a couple of years and the media was awash with stories of property investment successes and buy-to-let miracles. Mum and Dad investors throughout the country, and indeed the world, were becoming millionaires with the help of unprecedented capital gains on their often small property portfolios.

Those who were lucky enough to buy properties before the boom were watching their money grow as the headlines reported double digit year on year gains almost every month for several years. Buy-to-let property owners had good reason to feel smug as the rents rolled in and their portfolios doubled and tripled in value with very little effort from their owners.

Banks and non-bank lenders throughout the Western world scrambled to secure their buy-to-let mortgage products on almost any property they could find while surveyors seemly valued these same properties with little thought of potential future capital declines. Buy-to-let mortgages were offered to almost anyone who could put a half decent case forward to a lender while loan-to-value ratios reached almost 100% for some products. This meant that anyone with their heart set on building a property empire – regardless of their financial status or background – could buy almost any property they desired without having to put in much of a deposit at all, if any.

In amongst the action were so-called property gurus peddling their courses, books, and money making systems that were snapped up by property-hungry individuals from all walks of life. It would be interesting to know exactly how many people handed over thousands of pounds of their hard earned money to these gurus without ever checking their credentials. It wouldn’t be surprising if many of the gurus had never made a penny out of property before setting up a course and writing a book about their alleged experiences in the investment property game.

It’s no wonder this scenario didn’t last. The investment property bubble of the early 2000s eventually had to burst. There are only so many houses and apartments in the UK and they can’t all be rentals. Several million cashed up investors with more money than sense piling in on a barely growing total number of properties in the UK was always going to drive prices up to an extreme level. It was a matter of time before it all came to an end, and that end began in 2007.

Almost over night the once generous lenders began to reel in their home loan products by the hundreds. Buy-to-let mortgages did not escape the cull and the majority of the products on offer across the entire market shrank to a tiny percentage of its bloated size. Hundreds of buy-to-let mortgage products disappeared and those that remained were difficult to secure. The mortgage market would never be the same again and the investment property market changed with it.

Suddenly hundreds of thousands of would-be millionaires were left high and dry as they were unable to complete the purchases of off-plan properties or were unable to refinance properties they already owned. This was due to the fact that there were simply no finance products available to utilise.

Contact a mortgage broker today for your Buy-to-Let Mortgage needs and receive independent advice with http://www.buytoletmortgagesource.co.uk http://www.buytoletmortgagesource.co.uk

Culver City, Movie Studio Central

Culver City, in western Los Angeles County, California, is surrounded by Los Angeles and is home to MGM Studios (now commonly known as Sony Pictures Studios) where countless famous motion pictures have been filmed over the years. Given not just the wealth and fame of the people living and working in and near Culver City, but the number of people traveling there as tourists, it’s no wonder that a valet parking service in Culver City is as important to most residents as local water and electricity services.

You’ve seen Culver City’s streets in hundreds of films and television shows like “Grease,” “The Hogan Family,” “The Wonder Years,” “Matchstick Men” and the movie “Bewitched.” So stars like Nicolas Cage, Will Ferrell, John Travolta and Nicole Kidman have spent time working and filming in the studios and streets of Culver City. Our wealthy movie stars are used to five-star treatment, so a valet parking service is something they expect and count as part and parcel of their daily lives.

While the studios are of less importance to Culver City today than they were in their heyday, downtown Culver City has undergone major growth in the last 20 years, with major shopping centers and art galleries available for residents and tourists. Restaurants operated by nationally famous chefs, wine bars and clubs pull people from all over the Los Angeles area. Downtown Culver City has become so popular, in fact, that traffic and parking have become a real cause for concern among city government.

Just three months ago, local officials instituted a valet parking service for downtown Culver City that’s available from 6 pm to 2 am, 7 night a week. The Downtown Business Association is reportedly thrilled to offer the service, which consists of a 20-person valet team that’s spread out over 3 stations in the downtown area. The valet parking service isn’t free, however the charge is minimal at five dollars and fifty cents.

The new valet parking service for downtown Culver City is in addition to any valet services already offered by specific restaurants and attractions, and most of them already had those services in place for their patrons. Given the population, that a valet service wasn’t readily available there before this year is a surprise, though the individual establishments have provided well for their clientéle. Culver City is a wealthy area, one that requires car travel or public transportation to navigate with any efficiency at all, so most of the residents there are used to services and amenities most Americans couldn’t even dream about.

A valet parking service almost everywhere they go is one of those amenities. Stars and wealthy movie moguls are used to having doors opened, as well as having their cars parked, so in Culver City and the surrounding areas a valet parking service is just another part of an ordinary day for residents because of their place in society. And it’s all but a necessity for almost anyone living and working near Los Angeles.

Chucks Parking is a Los Angeles valet parking service with over 40 years of experience offering Calabasas Valet Parking as well as valet services in all of Los Angeles’ surrounding areas.

Having your book on Amazon is a very exciting prospect. You can tell all your friends “you can buy my book on Amazon.” But what about all the people who don’t know you and who are on Amazon looking for books to buy?

Published and self-published authors can optimize their exposure on Amazon thanks to many author-friendly features. And if you don’t know about these opportunities, you’re wasting free book marketing resources.

In this article we’ll be looking at optimizing your profile on Amazon. (One word of caution: It is very difficult to connect with a real person on Amazon concerning author activities, so you may encounter problems that you are unable to resolve.)

Step 1: Have your own account on Amazon. Sounds basic but it is necessary. All this requires is buying one product on Amazon with a credit card in your name. (If you share an account with your spouse or family, set up a separate account.)

Step 2: Sign-in to your account. You’ll see at the top left-hand corner of your computer screen the words “Hello, Your Name.” Right below that click on “Your Name’s Amazon.com.” Then slide your eyes over to the right and look under the shopping cart icon and to the left and you’ll see “Your Profile.” (Make sure you’re wearing your glasses because the wording is small.) Click on this.

Step 3: Now you’re at your profile, which every person with an account on Amazon has. But this is definitely an author-opportunity page. And, yes, there are privacy controls here too (as on Facebook) so you can choose which information is seen by whom. Click on the button in the top right-hand corner that sees “Edit Profile.” (You will again be asked to sign-in as extra protection that other people aren’t editing your Amazon profile.)

Step 4: Start filling out the bio information. For an author, the most important line may be the “Name” because that is the name that will appear on any reviews and other activities you do on Amazon. Make sure that this is the same name as used for your book. For example, your credit card (used to set up your Amazon account) may only have a first and last name. But if you use three names for your author identification, put all three names here.

(And be sure to upload a photo – people want to know what the author looks like. If you’re on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, it’s a good idea to use the same photo across all platforms to increase your recognition factor.)

Step 5: All important “Signature” line. This is the signature line that appears after your name for the reviews that you do on Amazon. You can include the names of your books or your brand’s tagline. (When you change the signature line in your profile, your signature is changed throughout Amazon on all the previous reviews, etc. you have done on the site.)

Step 6: Do share personal information with which you are comfortable on this profile. Readers like to know about an author – sharing information gives a more three-dimensional feeling to who you are. And include the URL of your book’s website if you have one.

Step 7: Go through the process of having your own books approved for your Amazon bibliography. This requires an outside representative to confirm to Amazon that you are indeed you.

Step 8: If you have a blog, have your blog posts automatically feed into your profile. (Carefully read the “Add RSS Feeds” information.)

Step 9: Recommend tags for your book. And write brief reasons for each tag as to why that tag is appropriate for this book. These tags must then be approved by Amazon.

Step 10: Check the privacy settings you have used on each of the elements of your profile. You may choose to have different settings on different types of information.

BONUS STEP: Make sure that you or your publisher have requested the “Look Inside” the book feature. This feature is NOT automatic. You want potential book buyers to be able to look inside the book as they could at a bookstore.

For the titles of books that teach how to sell your book on Amazon and on the internet plus the free report ?7 DYNAMIC REASONS FOR TAKING A VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR, visit book author Phyllis Zimbler Miller?s site http://www.queensofbookmarketing.com. To read for free online her book MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL, go to Mrs. Lieutenant online.

Entrepreneurs are individuals who are inspirations; idolized and idealized because of the unique characteristics they bring to the table. They are on the outer edge of the standard business world. What makes a successful entrepreneur? Initiative, originality, creativity, and intelligence, all summed up in the often used clich?, “thinking outside the box.” In truth, nothing is more important to the success of the entrepreneur than his or her confidence.

Confidence is a strange thing to describe. It is an intangible thing. You can’t see confidence, can’t smell or hear confidence itself. And yet in every human interaction it quickly becomes apparent to an alert audience if a person is confident or not. In the narrow margins of the business world, confidence will frequently be the difference between success and failure. Success breeds confidence, and confidence leads to success. It is a benefit to one who has experienced success, but a cruel paradox for those left out in the cold; those who lack confidence or possess a limited track record of success in the given field.

So how does the new entrepreneur develop the confidence to build a successful business? Find your core; find that which you have had past success or satisfaction with and work from there. Obviously you would want to start conceptually as near as possible to your given field. Places you’ve seen past success are a great place to start. For example, if you are just starting out in the mortgage industry but you’ve had success in real estate or in rehabbing homes and flipping them, you would take that past success and connect the relationship between your successes in the past and how you can make that accomplishment happen in the new scenario.

If you are in a completely unrelated industry to your past, you can still apply this theory. Instead of looking at literally connected past successes, look at conceptual successes. Any places you received accolades or acknowledgment for past efforts can be core to your success on this new endeavor. Maybe you never bought or sold a property in your life. Does that make you predestined to failure when working with foreclosures? Not at all.

Were you successful in prior efforts or do you see a road to success in the future? Perhaps you have tremendous ingenuity or an ability to problem solve. Maybe it is the way you can evaluate a business deal and make it work for all sides. Remember, the reason for entrepreneurial confidence doesn’t have to be a majestic or even business related. Maybe your last job was just “passing time” and you always felt you had more in you that you could do and eventually become. That feeling of knowing and trusting your abilities, and the compelling urge to make “more” happen for yourself– that is the confidence in your core that you can build off! Remember it doesn’t matter where you generate your confidence, as long as you are fully committed to building upon your confidence to find success in your new field.

In 1995, Russ Dalbey founded DEI (the Dalbey Education Institute) to provide customers access to the highest quality of wealth-building products, services and networking resources for buyers and sellers of real estate notes.

Starting your own business can be an immensely rewarding experience. The potential upsides are huge since, as a business owner, you will be in control of all aspects of your financial destiny that can make your life so much more fulfilling. But where do people find the motivation to get started? Where does the drive come from to make a business idea move from just a dream to a full blown reality?

Most people would agree that you can’t get rich working for someone else. It just isn’t a common thing. The frustration with working under someone else can lead to dissatisfaction in the workplace, thus motivating you to start out on your own. However, using your current job to help provide stability while you are working on the business is a great idea. The notion to just up and leave your currently stable income is a bad idea. Getting your new business of the ground will require a level of effort beyond your current job, but the rewards will be worth it. The bottom line is that there is no need to do an all or nothing approach. Gradually starting your business in a small way while working at your job can help you stay passionate about the idea without having to go out on a limb all at once.

One of the best ways to uncover your motivation is to write down what it is you want in life. Taking the time to be honest about what you want in all areas of your life will help to clarify whether or not starting a business is really for you. Once you have written a clear idea of your business needs, you can start to refine it by setting some goals. This exercise is vital because it will force you to get clear on what you are truly interested in. Your motivation will become quite apparent when it’s down in writing!

Having written ideas will help you with your short and long term goals. Although one of your goals may be to completely support your family with the income from the business, you’ll need to get customers first. It will show you what you can do today to get started. You could begin by getting one customer and see how it goes. In this case, you haven’t gone too far out on a limb, and you haven’t broken the bank on your savings. And, you got some business experience.

One thing that can get overlooked when starting a business is that you need to do things that are both effective for the business and for you! If you start off biting off more than you can chew, it can crush your motivation. The mantra of the budding business owner is, “Do one thing every day!” Now that sounds small, but if you are new to being your own boss, doing that one thing will create a great amount of momentum in a short period of time. Doing just one thing is pretty easy and straight forward. Taking daily action in your business will make a huge impact on both your business and your motivation as you are getting up and running.

Now, the main thing about motivation is staying positive. There is nothing that will keep you moving in the right direction quite like having a positive attitude. Not only that, but surrounding yourself with positive influences like people who can support you will definitely keep your spirits up! There will be times when you hit walls but having a support system will keep you focused.

Motivation can be pretty simple and straight forward. The main thing to start with is being honest with yourself about what you want by getting it down in writing. Then start small by keeping your job while working on the side to start your new business. Lastly, surrounding yourself with supportive people and things will help you keep your eye on the ball!

Russ Dalbey founded the Dalbey Education Institute in 1995 to provide customers with the highest quality of wealth-building products, services and networking resources for buyers and sellers of real estate and all other cash flows.

Just because you’re purchasing resin wicker outdoor furniture, doesn’t translate to you needing to settle for whatever is on sale at the garden shop or discount department store.

It’s possible to find high-quality, well-designed, outdoor wicker furniture, and there are three global companies that are doing it - Agio International from Australia, Ficks Reed from Chicago and Gloster from Indonesia and the UK. To find out more about each of these unique furniture companies, keep reading.

Agio Wicker Furniture

Wicker furniture by Agio International is well-known for its high-quality construction and durability, even in poor weather conditions. The wicker is hand woven and treated with a durable resin that’s resistant to UV rays, meaning the furniture won’t fade or crack in the sun. Their line of products include dining sets, bar sets and lounge settings.

However, the downfall of buying resin wicker outdoor furniture made by Agio International is the price. Because it’s hand woven and fully treated, Agio products can cost thousands of dollars, making them out of reach for the casual consumer who’s simply looking for basic, outdoor patio furniture.

Wicker by Ficks Reed

For over 120 years, Ficks Reed has been making furniture from rattan, wicker, bamboo and other exotic hardwoods. The company does the majority of its sales through custom orders and subsequently offers customers their choice of 300 styles and over 30 colors or stains. There are four colors available in their outdoor resin line - these include Java, Sequoia, Espresso and Natural.

Ficks Reed is a popular and well-known name because of its high-quality, American produced wicker furniture. Due to this, they’re extremely susceptible to counterfeits and copies, so buyers should beware. If you suspect a shady retailer or seller is attempting to pass off a copy, contact Ficks Reed directly to make sure they are a certified reseller. Alternatively, you can order a catalog or custom-made product from Ficks Reed directly.

Wicker by Gloster Furniture

Gloster Furniture got their start making teak outdoor furniture for the UK market in 1981. In 1992, the company eventually moved their factory and manufacturing headquarters to Indonesia and started also making resin wicker, metal and woven products. Their wicker products are high-quality and are all finished with a special resin designed to keep out moisture and the sun’s fading rays.

Though Gloster is known for being a high-end producer of quality resin wicker outdoor furniture, they’re primarily known as a teak furniture manufacturer, which was the company’s first business. Because wicker isn’t the focus of their business, customers can expect a small product selection and the threat of their product lines disappearing or being replaced by teak alternatives.

Furniture that you use outside of your home on a patio, deck or scattered about in your backyard can be both attractive and useful for family and guests. However, since it is continually exposed to the outdoor elements, it is important you select items that are also durable.

For insightful information on home furniture options - see furniturehometips.com - a popular site about handy furnishing pieces - such as a discount bar stools - a fire proof file cabinet - and many more!

After decades of TV, Radio, Magazines and now Internet, we find ourselves in a society overwhelmed by information begging for attention. As a result of that we have a world with an attention span now shorter than a goldfish’s. How is the media and specially the web facing that? And how can we take advantage on way the human mind works?

By the time that there was no PCs, Internet or cell phones, the kids had just the Street and Atari to compete for their attention. The only thing that matters was trading cartridges and getting lots of video games to play. Then, with the internet, they started having access to thousands of games to play. That’s when the things started to get boring.

We live in era of too much information, and our attention span (the amount of time a person can concentrate on a single activity) is getting lower. The TV is the mostly blamed for the beginning of that, 30 years ago. To show how our attention span is getting shorter, see these examples: Radio and TV advertising air time. These ads used to be 60 seconds long, and today we have even 5 seconds ads and 2 seconds blinks. They are trying to get our attention in smaller chunks.

Attention span of a goldfish

If television is to blame for being addictive and diminish our attention span, what can we say about the Internet? When we are on the Internet, our attention span is shorter because we have too many options. As a result it is pretty difficult for a web user to keep focus on one single thing; we get quickly bored and just jump to another site.

The addictive nature of the Internet and the long hours we spent on it can leave us with an attention span of nine to five seconds –a goldfish have nine.

Five seconds to make your web Sticky

The average time an online viewer spends on a page is less than 60 seconds. But, “If a website has stickiness, it will keep your attention glued to that site rather than let you click on another one as your competitor is just one click away” explains psychiatrist Pam Briggs, of Nottingham University in the UK.

How we measure that so called stickiness?

There’s a method that measures where the user clicks or looks: the heatmap. feng-gui.com is free heatmap service where you upload a image, website, ad, photo and it simulates human vision during the first 5 seconds of exposure to an image. The algorithm that predicts the human eye reaches a 70% of accuracy compared with Eye and Mouse Tracking.

What are the benefits?

In plain English, it tells you “What people is looking at” and it’s an invaluable tool to determine:

* Product Placements and Branding Effectiveness

* Hotspots Fixations

* Hotspots Order

* Gaze Saccades

* Which areas are being ignored

Which are features that are analyzed in the images?

The basic features the algorithms analyze, to predict the what humans will look at, are:

* Color

* Orientation

* Density, Contrast

* Intensity

* Size, Weight

* Intersection

* Closure

* Length, Width

* Curve

The user jumps from one interesting spot to another following a hierarchy. The bigger ones, with more contrast elements will sure call our attention first, for example. And here is where it is important to determine the hierarchy of the information and translate it on the design. The primary task of graphic design is to create a strong, consistent visual hierarchy in which important elements are emphasized and content is organized logically and predictably.

Graphic design is visual information management, using the tools of page layout, typography, and illustration to lead the reader’s eye through the page. Readers first see pages as large masses of shape and color, foreground elements and a background field. Secondarily they begin to pick out specific information, first from graphics if they are present, and only then do they start parsing the harder medium of text and begin to read individual words and phrases. We scan images, unconsciously looking for things that drag our attention. It means that through the use of images, shapes, colors, fonts and illustrations we guide the readers, showing them were to look and what to look first, drawing a reading flow.

How to take advantage of that?

We can make the most of it, following some design principles:

* How To Improve Direction in Your Designs at snap2objects.com

* Typographic Contrast and Flow at webdesignerwall.com

* Visual hierarchy at webstyleguide.com

* Color Theory at valcasey.com

Conclusion

In the ever increasing world of media screaming for attention, is crucial to understand how our body and mind reacts to a visual stimuli. That way we can take advantage of the primitive human impulses as well as the new behavioral scenarios that media and technology bring along.

mao is charge of snap2objects a design blog filled with tips, freebies and inspirtation. Read the complete article at Is your website ready for the 5-seconds-attention-span challenge?

Say Goodbye to Collectors

Credit repair is not hard. Take the time to learn your legal rights and you will see how easy it can be. Have you ever been bothered by a collector? Are there collections on your credit report? Let’s take a look at some powerful credit repair tools that can help you get collectors out of your life and off of your credit report. For real and forever.

Educate Yourself

The collection industry thrives on consumer ignorance. The less you know, the more money collectors make. A little credit repair education can save you thousands of dollars and free you from the fear of dealing with collectors. If you want to take control you need to know two things: 1) How statutes of limitation really work, and how you can use them to get collectors off of the phone and out of your life, and 2) How reporting period limits are so often violated, and what you can do to protect yourself and clean up your credit report. Let’s do some credit repair!

Credit Repair and Statutes of Limitation

Statutes of limitation (SOL) define the time limit legal action can be taken. In the case of a collection it defines the time limit that a collector can collect through the court system. Once the SOL has expired for a debt the collector cannot sue you or get a judgment. The SOL has nothing whatsoever to do with the reporting period limit for the derogatory information. And in most cases the SOL is significantly shorter than the reporting period limit. SOLs are state and debt type specific and can be easily located on the web. By the way, you need to check both the state in which you entered into the obligation and your current state of residence and apply the longer SOL. Let’s turn this info into credit repair gold.

Using Your Statute of Limitation

There are two credit repair advantages to be gained from understanding the SOL. If a collector contacts you about a debt after the SOL has expired you can tell them to stop bothering you with no fear of repercussion. Per the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act you can send a Cease Communication Letter and they are not allowed to contact you again. As a point of fact, you can send a Cease Communication Letter prior to the expiration of the SOL, but there is some risk that you would trigger a lawsuit, so do your homework before taking action. In addition, should you decide to negotiate the balance, you will be in the driver’s seat; once the collector understands you know your rights they should be grateful that you are offering them anything!

Credit Repair, Collections, and Your Credit Report

Let’s move on to the next phase of your credit repair assault against collections, understanding credit reporting limits. This is interesting and can pay quick dividends. Collectors regularly buy and sell debt; it’s the way the industry works. Most people are not aware that collectors are supposed to withdraw reporting as soon as they sell a debt. Unfortunately, they rarely do, and the darn collections linger for years dragging down your scores. Fortunately, a little credit repair will do the trick. If you dispute a collection that has been sold to another collector it will be removed.

The Credit Reporting Clock

But there is more to know about reporting period limits and collections. Many people are under the impression that derogatory information can stay on their credit report for seven years from the initial reporting date. This is not accurate and can needlessly depress your credit scores for many years. The reporting period clock starts on date of the original default with the original creditor. Collectors cannot reset the reporting period start date. Collectors have nothing to do with setting reporting periods. Don’t make the mistake of thinking a collection can report for seven years from the date the it showed up! Figure out the original default date, which was the first time you missed a scheduled payment in the sequence that led to the charge-off or collection status, and count forward seven years and 180 days. This is the date it should fall off.

Get Credit Repair Help

There is credit repair help available. If you don’t have the time or inclination to figure all of this out for yourself just hire a reputable credit repair professional. It’s your credit and it’s important. Take the time to do it right and you will get the results you desire. Good luck!

Copyright ? 2008 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.

Jim Kemish, a nationally recognized consumer advocate, is the president and founder of Sky Blue Credit Repair, a leading credit repair service since 1989. Jim is also a regular contributor to The Credit Repair Blog, a prominent consumer credit repair resource.

Generic lamps are compatible or copy lamps not manufactured by the OEM lamp manufacturing company. These lamps include brands like Osram and DNGO, and Arclite. A generic lamp will usually cost significantly less than an OEM product because of:

* Inferior workmanship quality

* Lower manufacturing costs

* Poor and inconsistent product lifespan

* Poor luminosity and premature implosions

If you’re buying a generic high performance lamp, be prepared to eat the cost of its usage. An OEM product may last 3 times as long for only a few extra dollars. There is risk of premature explosion and loss of lumens associated with purchasing an off-brand, or generic lamp product. This means that the lamp may not be as bright, or consistently as bright as the original manufacturer.

For example, if you buy an OEM Philips lamp for your television, it may cost about $150, but last you 3 years. If you purchase an off-brand, generic product, or even a third-party lamp made by Osram, for between $100-120, you will have saved a bit of money, but the lamp may only last about 6 months to 1 year. The cost-benefit analysis maintains you’d be better off purchasing the OEM lamp.

An original lamp is engineered to work more efficiently and last longer. The lighting element inside a UHP lamp is built to withstand consistent use—ignition from the ballast at 20,000 volts at a time. By contrast, generic lamps are just manufactured to work with original lamp drivers, not taking into consideration the life span or consistent arc of the ballast. The arc gap for an OEM lamp is typically 1 mm, and the electrical arc must be aligned accordingly. Generic manufacturers try to get to this level of engineering, but often fall way short, delivering a product that works, but with shorter life spans. Often times, these products will also prematurely implode or lose luminosity over time.

Original equipment products are better for all concerned. With an original product, such as Philips UHP lamps, you won’t have to worry about such things like defects. The defect rate for a Philips UHP lamp is 0.03%. This means that only 3 in 10,000 lamps fail the initial ignition. Philips lamps also have a history of long lasting use. Google it for yourself! Philips lamps have been known to last up to 20,000 hours—which is unheard of in the industry of digital projection lighting systems.

If you’re concerned about purchasing generic products, or have purchased a generic product by mistake, call the merchant you purchased the product from. It is your right to ask them if they sell an original product for your television–anything else is misleading. You should also find out which brands is OEM for your television—most DLP and LCD projection systems use Philips as their OEM. Philips has worked in tandem with multiple television manufacturers to develop the best lamp drivers with the best lamps. Lamps must not only be compatible with the lamp driver, but work as one unit, something you won’t get with off-brands, or third-party manufacturers.

In essence, you get what you pay for. An OEM lamp will never fail prematurely, and will always be the best choice because it’s designed to be 100% compatible with your lamp driver, or ballast. In some cases, the better lamp manufacturer such as Philips will work better than the OEM as well, but talk with your dealer to find out more.

Eddie Phanichkul is a writer from southern California. He writes film reviews and offers analytical content on his website www.TakingStuffApart.com. Get paid to blog on TakingStuffApart.com, and research UHP lamps on www.lampresearch.com