The Beetle is famous for its longevity, the longest-running and most manufactured car with a single design platform. For those who have owned or kept a keen eye on the Volkswagen over the years, it is one car design that can be quickly picked out from a collection of cars in the city streets or on a highway. Known for its brilliant workmanship the Volkswagen Beetle has not failed to upscale its much needed effort to remain competitive among its peers. The much anticipated third generation design of the Beetle 2012 is already in the bid for launch and I must say it is a much more sophisticated coupe than its predecessor, the New Beetle, that debuted in the US markets in 1998.

The Three variants

The third generation Beetle comes with a wider (3.3 inches wider and 6 inches longer), lower clearance, with a flatter roof and more horse power than its predecessors. Variants - what the Volkswagen calls trim levels of the 2012 Volkswagen beetle are also much in the offing with the Base Beetle, Beetle 2.5 and the Beetle Turbo available for the customers’ preferences.

1.0 Base Beetle

The Base Beetle will sell for a starting price of $18,995 for its five-speed manual transmission. Being launched this year (2012) the base Beetle will come with 17-inch and 18-inch alloy wheels, power windows with one-touch up and down, cloth seats, cruise control, 50/50 folding rear seats, a computer monitor and an eight-speaker surround stereo system. A Beetle L version will also be on sales later in the summer season in Europe, with additional features such as: heated front seats, a second glove box, Bluetooth and a media interface for digital accessories for mobile devices like iPods and smart phones.

1.1 Beetle turbo

For power junkies, the Turbo version is the ideal choice and a good investment for a fun driving experience. For an extra $3,600 compared to the 2.5L, the turbo charged 2.0 liter four cylinder offers better acceleration, faster wheel response in steering and an overall wholesome sporty feel.

In theory, the 200-horse power turbo looks like an upgrade from the Beetle 2.5 L but its performance has to be coupled with a dual-clutch six speed automatic transmission to experience the distinct difference. This engine is however recommended for those who can compromise on loud sound engines because the Beetle Turbo can be very loud for a non-turbo enthusiast.

1.2 Beetle 2012 2.5 L

With style and sophistication comes compromise of higher prices. But with the Beetle 2012 2.5 L, style can be provided with much affordability. The 2.5 liter five – cylinder engine will launch in a starting price of $20,895 for its six speed automatic transmission version. Added features to the 2.5 L such as with Sunroof will go for $22.295 with the manual and $23,395 for the automatic. Like other variants of the Volkswagen, the 2012 Beetle also has the disadvantage of engine buzzing even with the modest of accelerations.

Old and Modern design cues

Volkswagen has managed to combine old and modern design cues in styling the 2012 Beetle. The front exterior represents an evolution of prior generations while the rear borrows slightly on the original Beetle with its flattened roofline and C-pillars that form an arc extending to the rear bumper.

The Volkswagen Beetle 2012 is marginally larger than its predecessor measuring 3.3 inches wider and 6 inches longer than the Beetle. This enhances more space, stability and a more ‘manly look’ (giving credit to a flatter roof, a straighter chopped windshield and less rounded body edges).My take on the 2012 Beetle, it is closer to becoming a unisex car model and will certainly lure more men into purchase, pushing the Volkswagen company higher in its bid to gain market share.

The Smart UPS 1500 is an uninterpretable power supply device built by the American company APC and hails in status among award – winning Smart-UPS models. Like any other UPS, it is used to protect data from networks or servers, by providing a regulated amount of power for a certain period of time during power outages. The smart UPS 1500 has earned it stripes by merit in its ability to be efficient even in fluctuating power load levels. It is ideal especially for the latest types of virtualized server systems which have the tendency of fluctuating power consumption load levels.

The smart UPS 1500 variants

The smart UPS 1500 comes in various designs: the rack design, the tower design and the convertible design which can convert to both tower and rack. These variant models also merit its ‘popular’ nature by having its design compatible to every application that requires UPS enabled services. For instance by customer review and usage, the rack design is suitable for virtue (density optimized servers) that are utilized in environments that require large power distributions.

Product upgrade enhancements

By product enhancement the APC Company has managed to give its loyal customers an upgrade from previous versions of the smart UPS (such as the smart 1000 and 700 UPS).The smart 1500 UPS comes with longer battery performance which allows almost half an hour back-up time threshold when it is half loaded and seven minutes back-up time when fully loaded.

In terms of improved monitoring and alert capabilities, the smart 1500 UPS has inbuilt software known as the Power Chute software where a user can connect through its serial or USB port to a local or remote internet access. The software has up to forty events that execute useful capabilities such as setting the internal buzz system to warn of a potential error or pop-up a dialog window for an email alert. Its most useful feature is the shutdown sequence. If a user for instance experiences a power dropout when using their PC, the smart 1500 shutdown sequence activates and after the battery attains its critical power level it gives priority to the Operating System safe log off before a complete system shutdown.

Upgrade enhancements done to the smart UPC 1500 also feature a fan system which is not found in older models like the 1000 smart UPS. The fan helps to emit heat when the system gets hot while its inbuilt thermostat helps to turn on the fan when required, thus offering a quiet atmosphere under normal temperature conditions.

The limitations

Apart from its heavier weight compared to previous models (largely due to its larger batteries) and its unpleasant noise from the fan, the smart 1500 UPS weaknesses merely overshadows its strengths. It is efficiently capable of providing service to units as small as retail outlets and homes to massive companies dealing with data and voice networks.For large networks,the Smart-UPS XL version is most suitable with an extension capability of increasing run time.By its configuration, this model can be fitted with external battery packs, which translates to more power input. The start up businesses and mid-size enterprises can benefit from the basic smart UPS that is economical and can protect small equipment and network gadgets.

A PC user may onetime need to recover data when the computer has ‘crashed’ or when it is required to trouble shoot a piece of hardware or software. This is where a boot disk comes in handy. It is that digital data storage medium designed for use by a computer to load and run an operating system or any other utility program.

The PC however must have a pre-installed program which will load and execute a program from the boot disk that is compatible with the PC’s BIOS (set of instructions that tell the computer where to look for a hardware or software such as a mouse or an operating system)

The most prevalent boot disk used by the PC community is the bootable CD-Rom from which your PC can boot from. It is important for any PC user to distinguish the difference between a bootable CD- Rom and a CD –Rom which can be inserted in a CD-Rom drive for an operating system to execute when the “auto play” dialog window pops-up. The bootable CD –Rom on the other hand will load in a CD-Rom drive and a boot image is presented which then gives instructions.

With modern PC’s configurations have been made in the attempt to boot from various devices in a certain order. If the PC in question is not booting from the device desired by the user, tinkering of the order can be done by entering the BIOS setup function. This process involves pressing a special key when the PC is first powered on (such as F1, F2, F3 or F12) depending on the model of the PC and then a change of the order can be done. Most BIOS versions these days can prematurely stop the booting process by pressing a special key F11 which results in the view of a list of bootable devices from which a selection can be made. If your PC is a modern macintosh computer the booting process will take place from an appropriate disk if the user presses the C key when the computer is powered on.

The Ultimate Boot CD for both Windows users and other operating system users has been designed to cater for that PC user who may have a hard time finding various tools to run a diagnostic on his or her PC. It is a consolidation of diagnostic tools ranging from CD- ROMs that can run floppy-based diagnostic tools, to the latest booting method using a USB memory stick.

 The Ultimate Boot CD provides all the tools required for various diagnostics in a single CD version. So the next time you need to boot from a bootable disk to run a clean virus scan or repair a corrupted Windows operating system, set your BIOS boot order to allow CD –Rom booting and all consolidated tools in the Ultimate Boot CD will be just a click away.

Ever wondered how a file or email document is transferred from your local desktop to a remote ‘destination’. This ‘destination’ is known as a remote host, a server that can be accessed by a user directly or indirectly. For this communication of devices to occur a standard was enlisted to allow a small unit of computers to communicate locally.In 1971 a small group of developers came up with the File Transport Protocol standard(FTP) which defined  basic protocol commands that set-up how their small network of devices will communicate.

The concept of FTP transfer involves a client-server model, where a user through an FTP client must have a connection to an FTP server, where files will be sent and retrieved from the server side. For the process to be tenable for commercial usage during its inception, files had to be sent and retrieved with no data loss deeming them corrupted. A reliable Transmission Control Protocol was initiated to offer a logical connection on formatting rules when FTP commands are passed.

An establishing connection and authentication has to be made to execute the two basic commands needed for sending and receiving files. Hence with an interface between an FTP user and the Transport File Protocol, interaction can be enhanced. Recent improvements of the interface, allows transfer of files a mouse click away, an action previously done through memorizing commands.

The RFC standards for FTP

The year 1971 saw the development of the first mechanism to support file transfers. The RFC 114 was created to deal with the implementation of hosts on the server model. Slight improvements were then enhanced on the file transfer protocol allowing a client-level orientation, meaning host computers could transfer files to each other. A review was then made to introduce a ‘uniform style of data’ in the RFC 294 of 1982.But a significant touch of improvement that gave the FTP mechanism a way to transfer files efficiently and reliably among hosts was defined by the RFC 354 FTP standard. This improvement enhanced convenient capabilities of remote file storage. Subsequent reviews were undertaken and published in the RFC 414,RFC 430,RFC 454 FTP standards ,where an emphasis on errors, protocol additions and the working process of the server and user FTPs was highlighted.

Over the years FTP developers revised on comments made on prior publications, the subject between the old and new designs being a significant highlight to their discussions. But what made a mark in the FTP standard transitions was the stipulation of the RFC 765 standard which specified the use of FTP with the TCP protocol, a standard still in use to date.

FTP servers’ risk potential

FTP was initially designed for a selected group of trustees either from government or a learning institution such as a University. It was not invented for modern day internet since the data being transferred cannot be encrypted, leaving it vulnerable to cyber crime. Hackers can easily use packet sniffers to access user names and passwords in most insecure network configurations.FTP servers are also not secure and are often an access point to cyber crime activity.

Installation of FTP servers is a complex operation which requires special skill sets to install, manage error eventualities and most important configure the servers to the organization’s set-up. This sometimes has a negative drive to FTP developers who are reluctant to set-up FTP servers to non-technical enterprises that are incapable of performing complex trouble shooting and maintenance required.

An FTP delivery does not offer a guarantee of file delivery hence there is no mechanism to notify a successful delivery. Users have to communicate with the file recipient to confirm delivery or dictate a re-sending of the file. If a situation that warrants a retrieval of lost password or usernames, this complex application does not offer user management and a user has to result to data recovery process.