Customizing your desktop is easy and fun to do. You can change everything from the sounds that your computer makes, to the screensaver that shows up during inactivity. But that’s not all that you can customize. Everything from the colors of your windows to the font that displays a program name can also be changed. Your toolbar and icons can even be organized and personalized to your liking. It can truly do wonders for your computer experience.

Before you continue customizing your desktop, make sure that you backup any files that you are going to change, just in case it doesn’t work out and you want your old sound(s), wallpaper, icon, and whatever else you decide to change.

Setting your Desktop’s Theme

Customizing your desktop theme will liven up your computer, and provide a unique experience every time you use it. It just all depends on how much time and effort they put into making the desktop theme. I have seen some themes so detailed that everything from the icons, to the text are perfectly designed to match the theme. To begin customizing your desktop computer’s theme, read below.

1. First, right click on your desktop, and click properties.

2. You should now be under the Themes tab.

3. Now you can choose what Theme you want to use. If you have never added any themes before, then the default Themes should be the only ones there. If you search on the web for “free desktop themes” then you can find more for free. If you really want to get fancy, you should purchase Microsoft Plus! , which has a ton of themes specially made for Windows.

Customizing your Wallpaper

Customizing your desktop’s wallpaper is pretty important. Your wallpaper is the color or picture that is currently showing on your desktop right now. Certain operating systems even allow live web content to show up on your desktop, so you can have streaming news, entertainment and whatever else you want. There are tons of free wallpaper’s available on the Internet, or you make your own using digital camera photos of your friends and family members. Learn how to change your wallpaper below.

1. First, close all programs and windows that you have open before you begin customizing your desktop wallpaper.

2. Then right-click on your desktop.

3. Select properties from the bottom of the pop-up menu. Then this will bring up the “Display Properties” window.

4. Click on the “Desktop” tab

5. Then you can choose a background already available on the list, or you can click the “Browse” button and choose an image that you have made or imported from a digital camera.

6. Now, click the position drop down menu, and choose the appropriate setting. Stretch is the best option since it will fit the image to the size of your screen.

7. Then you can click “Ok” if all is well.

Organizing and Customizing your Toolbar

When you install programs, they choose where they go in your start menu. If you are like me, you want your start menu organized and in separate categories so your programs will be easy to find. Well, to do this all you have to do is right-click on your toolbar and click on “Properties”. The properties menu will allow you to do whatever you want with your toolbar, and organize it how you like.

Your programs also have toolbars which can be customized, so you will have instant access to your most important options. When you open the program, select the “View” or “Tools” option from the programs toolbar, and look for something that says customize, options, or anything else along those line. It should be easy to figure it out from there on. Some programs are so easy to customize that you just have to drag and drop the options to the position and menu you want.

Changing Event Sounds

Whenever you click on something, delete something, refresh your desktop, or whatever with your mouse and keyboard, it can/will make a sound. Like I said before, every event possible can have any sound clip play when done. Keeping your original sounds like a clicking noise, beeps, and so on is kind of dumb since you really have an unlimited choice. Also, if your computer needs to accommodate the blind, when an error message comes up you can have a voice that says “Error Message” or something like that. So here is how you can begin customizing your desktop’s sounds to what YOU want.

1. Go to your Control Panel in the toolbar.

2. Once you are in the control panel, click on “Sounds and Audio devices”.

3. Now click the “Sounds” tab in the window that pops up.

4. You will see sound entries like exclamation, default beep, asterisk, start windows, exit windows and other events that can happen on your computer.

5. Here is the fun part now. Using your sound recorder or browsing the web you can create or find sound files that you want to use. If you have some computer sound recording experience, you should know how to create your own sound files. The sound recorder can usually be found in your start menu, under the “Entertainment” section.

6. With your new sounds that you have created or found, you can return to the Sound and Audio device properties window.

7. Select a sound you would like to change from the list.

8. Click the Browse button, and find the sound file that you want to use for the corresponding event you have chosen.

9. Then just click “Ok” and continue changing the other sounds you want too. You are now done customizing your desktop computer’s sounds.

Display Properties

Customizing your desktop computer’s display properties can change the look and feel of all your computer programs and desktop. Plus, customizing your desktop computer’s display properties is just as easy as changing your wallpaper.

1. Right click on your desktop, and click “Properties”.

2. From here, you can change your Theme, Desktop, Screensaver, Appearance, and graphic settings. A theme is the overall look and feel of your computer and its programs. The desktop is the image or color that is displaying on your desktop. Your screensaver can be changed and be configured to come on when you want it to. The Appearance tab allows you to change the color and size of folder/program windows, and the font that displays there title.

3. The Settings tab is the most important in my opinion. You can change your screens resolution, color quality, and all of the options related to your graphics card. Setting the appropriate resolution is very important, and can determine how clear you see your PC’s text and graphics.

Customize your Folder Options

Another way of customizing your desktop is by changing your folder options. Your folder options range from the way that your videos and pictures appear, to whether or not hidden files or shown. It is very easy to do, so anyone can.

1. Open you’re My documents folder, or any other folder that you want too.

2. Now click on tools.

3. Then go down and click on “Folder Options”.

4. In the “Folder Options” box, you will see it is separated into tabs and is easy to navigate through. Change the options that you want too.

Startup Applications

When your computer starts, you might want programs to open and start running right away. This can be good for email programs, anti-virus scanners, sound applications and so forth. So how do you do it? If you click the start button, then go to programs, you will see a folder labeled “Startup”. All you have to do is place the programs shortcut in that folder, and it will be started whenever your computer does. Customizing your desktop computer’s startup programs will help you get things done faster.

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Preface:

In this paper I will explain many different routing protocols and give some
basic details and features about them. This paper in no way should be considered
a source of full detail about any of the listed protocols. For detailed
information about routing protocols I would suggest looking into the Request For
Comments (RFC) for that protocol, goggling them, or maybe visiting different
vendor’s websites such as Cisco, Juniper, or Bay networks. Most vendors’ web
sites have detailed explanations about all the Protocols there equipments
support features. Before you can understand routing protocol you will have to
have a basic understanding or IP networks, Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM),
Network Topologies (bus, star, Hub, ect..), and the OSI model. If you are not
familiar with any of the above subjects you may want to read up and learn about
them before moving into routing protocols. Routing protocols are what makes the
internet work by moving traffic from network to network. With out routing
protocols the internet could not work because networks would just be separate
LANs with no connection to others LANs. The internet in basic terms is just a
lot of LANs wired together to make a huge WAN.

Protocol types:

Distance Vector: distance vector routing is a type of
routing protocol that discovers routes on interconnected networks. The Distance
Vector routing algorithm is the based on the Bellman-Ford algorithm. Examples of
distance-vector routing protocols include RIP (Routing Information Protocol),
Cisco’s IGRP (Internet Gateway Routing Protocol) try Google to see all the
different protocols in the Distance Vector family. Distance Vector protocols are
suitable for smaller networks as many of the protocols in this family aren’t
scaleable in lager complex networks as they are limited. The main limit to
Distance Vector Protocols is there method that requires each router simply
inform its neighbors of its routing table. This routing table update to other
members is bandwidth intensive to lager networks.

RIP (Routing Information Protocol):

Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is one of the first protocols to be used in
networking and is classified as a distance vector routing protocol. RIP uses
broadcast User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data packets to exchange routing
information. There are two versions RIP V1 & V2. RIP Version 1 is the original
version and has many limitations. The metric that RIP uses to rate the value of
different routes is hop count. The hop count metric works by assigning static
routes with a value of 0 and all other routers values are set by the number of
hops (up to 15) that the data must travel though to get to an end point. RIP
Version 2 supports plain text and MD5 authentication, route summarization,
classless inter-domain routing (CIDR), variable-length subnet masks (VLSMs),
Multicast support. Some vendors support other non-standard features for RIP but
be careful as many vendor centric features are not compatible in a mixed vendor
network.

IGRP (Inter Gateway Routing Protocol):

Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP) is a distance vector routing protocol
which is a proprietary and invented by Cisco. It is used by routers to exchange
routing data within an autonomous system (AS). IGRP supports multiple metrics
for routes, including bandwidth, load, delay and MTU. This improves reliability
over RIP because IGRP uses advanced metrics to compare two routes into a
combined route. The two routes together are combined into a single metric, using
a formula which can be adjusted via command line. The maximum hop count of IGRP
is 255 which is an improvement over RIPs 15 hop max. Keep in mind that IGRP is a
Cisco proprietary protocol and can not be used in a mixed vendor network.

Link State: Link State routing protocol requires each
router (peer) to maintain at least a partial map of the network. When a network
link changes state (up to down, or vice versa), a notification, called a link
state advertisement (LSA) is flooded throughout the network. All the routers
note the change, and recompute their routes accordingly. This method is more
reliable, easier to debug and less bandwidth-intensive than Distance-Vector. It
is also more complex and more compute- and memory-intensive. Link state routing
protocols are found in many lager networks and provide Scalable solutions for
more complex networks.

OSPF (Open Shortest Path First):

Open shortest path first (OSPF) is a link-state routing protocol that calls for
the sending of link-state advertisements (LSAs) to all other routers within the
same hierarchical area or autonomous system (AS). An AS can be divided into a
number of areas, which are groups of contiguous networks and attached hosts.
Information on attached interfaces, metrics used, and other variables are
included in OSPF LSAs. As OSPF routers accumulate link-state information, they
use the SPF algorithm to calculate the shortest path to each node.

(IS-IS) Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System:

Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) is a routing protocol
developed by the ISO and is natively an ISO Connectionless Network Service or
CLNS protocol so it does not use IP to carry routing information messages. It
uses OSI protocols to deliver its packets and establish its adjacencies. IS-IS
has been enhanced to carry IP (Internet Protocol) and this is called Integrated
IS-IS. Integrated IS-IS supports VLSM and converges rapidly. It is also scalable
to support very large networks and is the key protocol in many larger ISP’s.

Hybrid: Hybrid routing Protocols are a combination or
both Distance Vector and Link state protocols and only one protocol fits into
this field. EIGRP is Cisco Systems Proprietary protocol based on their original
IGRP. For more information on Hybrid Protocols look below to the section on “EIGRP”.

EIGRP (Enhanced Inter Gateway Routing Protocol):

Enhanced Inter Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is Cisco Systems Proprietary
protocol based on their original IGRP. EIGRP is a balanced hybrid IP routing
protocol, with optimizations to minimize both the routing instability incurred
after topology changes, as well as the use of bandwidth and processing power in
the router. EIGRP has Protocol-Dependent Modules that can deal with AppleTalk
and IPX as well as IP. The advantage with this is that only one routing process
need run instead of a routing process for each of the protocols. EIGRP provides
loop-free operation and almost instant simultaneous synchronization of routers.

Inter-Autonomous System: Inter-Autonomous System routing protocols are designed
to connect lager networks or Autonomous Systems (AS) together and allow for
muitiple Autonomous Systems to network. One example for the need of an
inter-autonomous system protocol is to connect two or more Internet Service
Providers (ISP) together so there customer can connect to each other. Without
getting in to too much detail both “Link State & Distance Vector” protocols are
considered intra-autonomous system protocols as they are designed to just route
traffic in a singal AS. Inter-Autonomous System protocols main goal is to
propergate the intra-autonomous system information between different autonomous
systems.

BGP4 (Border Gateway Protocol Version 4):

Border Gateway Protocol is the backbone routing protocol for most of the
internet and allows for peering and carrier networks to connect. BGP is
explained as a path vector protocol. With BGP the policy or attributes for
making the actual route selections among the interconnected autonomous systems
is based on Weight ,Local preference, Multi-exit discriminator, Origin, AS path,
Next hop, & Community. BGP information is propagated through the network by
exchanges of BGP messages (4 types: Open, Update, Notification, & Keep Alive)
between peers. Another key feature to BGP is that is supports Classless Inter
Domain Routing (CIDR) with the support of CIDR BGP can reduce the size of the
Internet routing tables. BGP neighbors exchange full routing information when
the TCP (port 179) connection between neighbors is first established. When
changes to the routing table accrue, the BGP routers send to their neighbors
only those routes that have changed. BGP routers do not send periodic routing
updates and advertise only the optimal paths to a destination.

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Getting back to our core memory, so far we have seven cores to represent one character. The character could be a number or letter or a special character such as a ‘?’ or ‘$’. There are standard codes for these characters, such as ASCII or EBCDIC, more on this in another article. We are going to need a lot more than 1 character for our memory, we need to load a program into the memory plus some data to work on! At the time, early digital computers would have had a memory capacity of perhaps 28K bits. This means 28,000 cores are used in a 7-bit ’stack’ of core planes, one for each bit. Each plane would be made up of a matrix of 64×64 cores, giving 4,096 separate addresses. You could visualise a stack as being like a square multilayer cake, each layer representing all the addresses for one bit. You may have heard the term ’stack’ today, used interchangeably with ‘core’ to mean the main storage, or memory, as opposed to ‘mass storage’ which we mentioned above.

As you are probably aware, we ‘write’ data to memory, and ‘read’ from memory. In order to write data to core memory, we must set the magnetic field in the core to be in a certain direction. To do this we have wires passing through the core through which we can pass a current. The action is similar to that in an electric motor, where the current in the coil induces a magnetic field, which causes the motor to turn. We are not going into electromagnetism in detail here, just to say that a magnetic field will occur when we pass a pulse of electricity through the wire.

Following from this, we will need another wire through the core to provide a means of reading what the data stored in the core is. You will, of course, have realised that, once more, we have a classic case of ‘binary’. The core can be in one of two states, switched one way or the other, which we can identify as 1 or 0.

We are not finished yet! As mentioned above, a core plane represents 4K (4,096) addresses for one bit of the 7-bit character. Looking at, say, the plane for bit 0, we have a matrix of 64×64 cores arranged in 64 rows for each of 64 columns.. In order to select a particular core, or address, we can run a wire through each of 64 cores in the first row, another wire through the 64 cores in the second row, and so on, until we have 64 wires, one for each row. We can call these the X-address lines. Also we can run a further 64 wires through the 64 columns of cores in the matrix, and call these the Y-address lines. Now we can use one X-line, and one Y-line to select a particular core.

If you are still with me, now remember we were looking at the core plane for one bit. The other 6 bits in the stack are connected up in the same way. The X and Y address lines are continued through each plane, so that the same core location is selected in each plane. This gives a 7-bit (core) selection for each of the 4K addresses.

Another point we have discovered here, is how an address works. In this case of a core memory of 4K, we will need 128 address lines. These form the X- and Y-address lines, and are decoded from a 12-bit binary address. For example, address 0 would have all bits at 0, or 0000 0000 0000. An address of 1000 0000 0001 would be decimal 2048 + 1=2049. The range is 0000 0000 0000 to 1111 1111 1111, equivalent to 0 to 4,096 decimal. Bit values 1 to 32 would form the X-address (0-63) and bit values 64 to 2048 would form the Y-address. The address lines are decoded by logic from the 12 bits. From our previous look at AND gates and inverters, you could work out what the logic would look like to decode an address of, say, 64. This is not a compulsory exercise!

In Part 3 we will look at how we read and write in core memory.

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