Are you looking to get better performance out of your computer but can’t afford the cost of hardware upgrades? You are in the right place as we will explain methods to overclock your CPU to get the most out of your computer.

Overclock Your CPU – The Warning Stuff

Just a little warning. Modifying the components needed to overclock your CPU may void your warrenty. Keep in mind that no vendor will accept returns for CPU’s that have been damaged from overclocking. Also, it is important to use specific PC monitoring tools to keep track of your tweaks and see which ones work best. Overclocking your CPU will push your PC over the specified limits and increase power consumption and generate more heat. It is not a bad idea to add extra cooling to your PC when you are overclocking your CPU.

How to Overclock Your CPU

The initial speed of your CPU is determined by 2 factors, the clock rate base and the multiplier. If you want to overclock your CPU, you are going to want to increase those variables. It is also best to have a unlocked processor so you have more flexibility over the changes. CPU’s change all the time so just do a Google search for unlocked processors if you are looking to install a new one to mess with. Most of the time, you are able to overclock your CPU via your computers BIOS.

So, here is what you do. Reboot your PC and go into the BIOS settings. Getting into the BIOS may be different on some computers. Sometimes you hit escape or delete right as the computer boots. If that does not work for you, you should see something right when you computer boots that says “Hit <KEY> for BIOS settings”.

Once in the BIOS, you should see a “Performance” section. This is the main section to overclock your CPU. Under the performance section, increase the multiplier by 1 then reboot your PC. If you reboot your PC and do not get an error or a reboot loop, you are in good standing. Let your computer boot up and download CPU-Z. If you do not have it, download it here. CPU-Z is a monitoring tool that will show you results as you make changes to overclock your CPU. Open the CPU tab in the CPU-Z program and take a look at the “Core Speed” and “Multiplier”. You will notice that they will change depending on the processes running on your system. Now its time to run a benchmark test to ensure your PC can handle a load after you overclock your CPU.

Now we need to run a benchmark stress test. One of the best tools for this is PRIME95. After you run the program, you will see a “Stress Test” button. Click that button to put your PC under a full load. When you overclock your CPU, you want to make sure it will run smoothly under a heavy load. If the stress test does not cause reboots or bluescreens and you want to try for more speed, go back into your BIOS and bump up that multiplier again then run the same tests.

If you live with back pain, you’ll most likely easily understand why it is the leading cause
of disability in Americans under 45 years old — and this isn’t only due to the physical toll it
takes. Living with chronic pain is a heavy emotional burden to bear, and as such those with low
back pain are nearly five times as likely to suffer from serious psychological distress compared
to those without it.
It goes without saying that pain relief is, therefore, literally a lifeline for those with chronic back
pain, and many opt for back pain cream to help soothe and relieve their discomfort.

BEWARE: One of the most common compounds found in these popular creams is Methyl
Salicylate which can be incredibly dangerous and even deadly in certain circumstances.

What is Methyl Salicylate

Methyl salicylate is a compound similar to aspirin that’s added to many deep-heating creams
used to relieve sore muscles and back pain. Also known as oil of wintergreen, the chemical can
be deadly if consumed orally, especially by small children, but can also be toxic when applied
topically to your skin.

When used in excess, methyl salicylate may lead to convulsions and can cause brain regions that
control breathing to become overstimulated, leading to hyperventilation and nervous-system
problems. If you have any of these products around your home, be sure to keep them out of the
reach of children. Just one teaspoon of 98% methyl salicylate contains as much salicylate as
nearly 90 baby aspirins; which is more than four times the toxic dose for a 22-pound child.
Incidentally, methyl salicylate was actually first registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) in 1972 — as a pesticide.
Is this really an ingredient you feel good about rubbing into your skin?

Increase Your Website Backlinks and Rank High On Google

Why Increase Your Website Backlinks?

If you are new to search engine marketing, you may not know why it is important to increase your website backlinks. So, let me go into a little detail.

Most major search engines give more importance to a website that has more sites linking back to it. If you increase your website backlinks, Google, Bing and most other major search engines assume that your site is more important that other sites that do not have many backlinks. When you come across a good website that you like, what do you do? You normally share that website with others via posts, Facebook, feedback forms, online forums, etc. When search engines crawl these sites, they will see the backlinks that have been posted to other websites which will in turn cause the search engines to give the site a higher ranking because it knows that if others are sharing a link, the site must have useful content. When you work to increase your website backlinks, its one of the best things you can do to get your site to rank higher on all major search engines.

How to Increase Your Website Backlinks

You can manually increase your website backlinks with a variety of methods. This is a good start if you are on a low budget. There is a really great automated backlink tool that I will discuss later, but for now, lets focus on the manual methods.

• Participate in online forums – Most forums allow you to create a personal profile that will show up in the signature block on your posts. Create your signature block with a link to your website. Don’t just go into the forums and post your link in the content. That is a bad way to increase your website backlinks. Not only is it bad practice, but it could get you in trouble for posting SPAM. Make sure you find a forum that is related to your product or service and post a useful form entry about the topic being discussed. Don’t use something like “this is a great site” just to get your signature out there. Chances are that the form admin will remove those anyway.

• Write Articles or Press Releases About Your Product – There are a number of E-Zine sites out there that will allow you to post articles. You can post articles to these sites to increase your website backlinks. Make sure to write quality articles or they will get rejected. Most only allow one link in the body and one link in your signature block. Take a look at this site with recommended Ezines you can use to increase your website backlinks. Here are a few examples:

1. Ezine-Universe
2. eZINESearch
3. BestEzines.com
4. John Labovitz’s e-zine-list
5. Suite 101.com
6. Zinos.com
7. Ezined
8. EzineArticles
9. ListChannel
10. Jogena’s Ezine Directory

• Buy Backlinks on high PR related websites – There is a great website to use to increase your website backnlinks. You can buy one way links from high PR sites. Most are around $30 year and some even give a lifetime blog entry. The site I use is Warrior Marketing Forum. You will see a section on the forum that says “Buy, sell, trade”. You can find many posts in that area where people are willing to sell backlinks. You can also list a “Want to Buy” post that explains that you want to buy a backlink related to your product or service.

• Post Comments on Blogs – You can find many blogs out there related to your product or service. Posting comments to those Blogs is a great way to increase your website backlinks. Don’t SPAM the comments. Most comments are moderated and if you just put some crappy comment on there, the moderator will reject it. That will NOT increase your website backlinks and could get you on a SPAM list. Put some info in there that contributes to the blog and put your website link under your profile and not in the main body of your comment.

Automated Backlinking Software

There is some great software out there that can automate your backlink posting and increase your website backlinks in minutes. They do cost a little money but think about this. How much time is it going to take you to go through all methods I discussed above to post a few backlinks a day? How much is your time worth? Also, if you use one of these tools, you can get your page to the 1st page of Google with little effort which will result in more sales. That being said, I came across a great tool that is worth taking a look at:

DO NOT SPAM!

Before I go into the last method of increasing your website backlinks, I need to caution you about SPAM! Many people who are excited to get their link out there just go out and post their link to sites, forums, etc. without providing any useful content. BAD IDEA. This can get your website blacklisted for SPAM and may also get you fined for posting SPAM links. Your hosting provider may also cancel your website hosting account if they get complaints. When increasing your website backlinks, DO NOT SPAM WHAT SO EVER!!

Do You Have a Low Quality Score in Google Adwords?
You Are Not Alone! Improve Your Adwords Quality Score Today

About Adwords Quality Scores

Do you use Google Adwords to advertise your business or product? If so, you may already know what a quality score is and what it means. Many people who have issues getting traffic from their Adwords campaigns do not realize that the root cause of this is due to a low quality score. Using the tips in this blog, you can improve your adwords quality score with a few simple changes.

Adwords gives keywords and campaigns a quality score based on a number of factors. The quality score is an estimate on how relevant your ads, keywords and landing pages are to the person who is seeing your ad. If you have a high quality score, you are in a good position as Google thinks that your ad, keyword and landing page are relevant and useful to users. It also means that you will get lower CPC costs on your keywords, more visibility and more traffic. Lets go a little deeper learn how to view and improve your adwords quality score.

If you do not know how to see your quality score, there are a couple ways to do so.

1. Click on your campaigns tab and select the campaign containing your keywords
2. Select the Keywords tab
3. Hover over the little speech bubble next to the keyword to view quality score details

You can also add a quality score column to your keyword page.

1. Click your campaigns tab and select the campaign containing your keywords
2. Select the Keywords tab
3. Check to see if you have the quality score column. If not, add the column by clicking on the Columns dropdown in the toolbar above the statistics table, select Attributes, click Add next to Qual. Score then click save

Adwords quality scores are on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. The higher your score, the more your ad will show and the more traffic you will get. Keep an eye on your quality score every couple days and remove bad keywords to help improve your adwords quality score.

How Quality Score is Calculated

The Adwords Quality score is determined based on a number of factors. I will go over the factors then discuss how to improve your quality score. Every time a search is performed and your ad is displayed, your quality score is re-calculated based on the following factors:

• Your Account History with Adwords: The overall CTR (click through ratio) of all ads and keywords in your account).
• Your display URL’s past CTR: How often clicks were received on ads with your display URL
• Landing Page Quality: How relevant and easy to navigate your landing page is
• Keywords past CTR: How often the keyword led to clicks on your ad
• Keyword and Ad Relevance: How relevant your keyword is to your ads

Got a Poor Quality Score? Lets Fix It!!

Improve Your Adwords Quality Score

If you have created your campaigns, hopefully you know what your customers are looking for. You need to focus on making your campaigns, keywords, ads and landing pages relevant to your keywords so customers are more likely to click on them.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Choose Keywords Carefully: When most people start out using Adwords, they are excited to get traffic to their site and add hundreds of keywords to an ad group. Not a good idea unless all these keywords are very specific to you ad and landing page. Be sure to pick keywords that closely relate to the theme and content of your ad group and landing page. Be sure to use specific keywords that are 2-3 words long instead of generic keywords. Say you are selling shoes. DO NOT use “shoes” as a keyword. Make the keyword specific to the type of shoes you sale. Ex. “Red high heeled shoes”. Using more specific keywords will help improve your adwords quality score

• Create Specific Ad Groups: Make sure each ad group you create focuses on a single product or service so your ads are more relevant. Relevance leads to higher quality, hence better traffic and higher quality rating. Specific ad groups will help you improve your adwords quality score.

• Include Keyword in Your Ad Text: Use the keywords in your ad’s headline to show that your ad is relevant to the customers search. Not only will people see their term in your ad, but that term will be bold in your ad headline making it stick out more. Including keywords in your ads will help improve your adwords quality score

• Make your Ads Simple and Enticing: What sets you apart from your competition. Do you offer discounts or free services? Make sure you describe those unique features that set you apart. Setting yourself apart with unique ads and content will help improve your adwords quality score.

• Create Multiple Ad Variations: Set up multiple ads with different headlines and body text in your ad group. Find out which perform the best and remove the poor ones. Filtering out your ads and focusing on the ones with higher CTR will help improve your adwords quality score.

• Review Your Performance on a Regular Basis: Test and change your campaigns to get the results you are looking for. Review the performance, CTR, CPC, etc. Remove or pause any keywords that are generating a low CTR. It is best to keep your CTR above 2%. Keeping a high CTR will help improve your adwords quality score.

Still Stuck With A Low Quality Score?

If you have changed everything you can think of and still have a poor quality score, I recommend taking a look at this Ebook. This book explains everything you need to know about Adwords in great detail and tells you how to fix quality scores, beat your competition and maintain a low CPC:

The Google / Search redirect virus is one of the most common viruses of 2010, 2011 & 2012, infecting millions of computers around the World. Designed by expert hackers, it is highly annoying and will continually redirect your web searches to fake websites. The worst part is that most traditional antivirus programs will not detect or remove this virus.

The Google Redirect Virus is a “browser hijack” virus which will send your computer to fake websites when you are redirected online. In normal circumstances, Windows will be able to send you to the correct website when it is redirected, but if you have the Google Redirect Virus, the virus will “inject” its own websites into the redirect process, leading your PC to send you to random ones. This will happen for all redirects, not just search engine results… however, as most search engine results will redirect you, that’s where most people see the issue.

Not many people know this, but when you click on a link on the search engine, it won’t take you to the page you’re looking for straight away. In fact, Google, Yahoo & Bing will all take you to a special link on Google.com / Yahoo.com / Bing.com in order to track your searches and other metrics. All search engines redirect your results, meaning that if you have the redirect virus, it’s going to show when you search for something online.

The reason why this virus is difficult to remove is because it doesn’t leave any “footprint” or “trace” on your system. Unlike typical virus infections (which will place a fake file / application onto your PC), the search redirect virus will just change the redirect settings for Windows and then disappear. This means that most antivirus programs are powerless to remove it.

Previously, you had to make all kinds of registry edits, download special tools and more to get rid of the re-direct virus. I recently came across this great tool that will remove the virus and keep it from coming back. It works great and I recommend giving it a try if you have the redirect virus symptoms.

Download The Tool Here

Here is how it works. A user submits a search query and clicks on one of the Google sponsored ads.  The clicks are then re-routed to merchant or publisher sites and the hackers are getting paid by directing traffic to these sites. This prevents a problem for both Google and PPC advertisers as both are loosing revenue or sales as a result of the re-direct. Google never receives the indented click and the  advertiser does not get the traffic generated from that click.

Apple has released a software update designed to purge the flashback virus from infected computers. If the update is installed and the virus is found, users will receive a message indicating that the virus was removed. They have also indicated that a patch has been released to fix the vulnerability that allowed the virus to infect their PC’s. The vulnerability took advantage of a weakness in Java.

Apple is currently working with internet service providers to disable the control network used by the virus. Security specialists have estimated that this virus has affected some 600,000 machines across the globe.

The virus get installed by an “update” pretending to be an Adobe Flash update. If you are a MAC user and are behind on your updates, install these updates ASAP to ensure you are not infected.

The settlement was reached between the Ramsey school district and the family of Sawyer Rosenstien. Sawyer had complained to the district in the past about being bullied and the lawsuit alleges that the district took little to no action against the complaints. It alleges that the school officials should have known that the bully had violent tendencies based on previous complaints submitted by the student who was attacked. The bully had punched another student in the face on a school bus a year earlier, but the school kept no record of the attack and did not subject the attacker to discipline.

Three months before being punched, Sawyer emailed the school officials asking for help and to report that he was being bullied:

“I would like to let you know that the bullying has increased,” he wrote to his guidance counselor at the Eric Smith Middle School. “I would like to figure out some coping mechanisms to deal with these situations, and I would just like to put this on file so if something happens again, we can show that there was past bullying situations.”

Sawyer was punched by the bully on May 16th, 2006 and the punch dropped him to his knees. When he came home from school, he complained of pain in his back. Two days later, his father heard a scream from his bedroom and they called an ambulance. Sawyer has not walked since.

The punch had caused a clot in a major artery that supplies blood to the spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

The school district denied any wrong doing and stated that it was the district’s insurance carriers that decided to enter into the settlement and will pay it out.

GMAIL Issues Today 4/17

So, I attempted to log into my GMAIL today and received the following error:

We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes.

If the issue persists, please visit the Gmail Help Center »

Try Again Sign Out

If you have received a recent email from the Better Business Bureau, be on the lookout as it is most likely a bogus email that contains a virus. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has issued an alert for businesses to be on the lookout. The email contains asks you to click on a link to view the BBB complaint details. This link contains a virus that steals passwords and banking information from the infected PC.

The email will be similar to this:

From: alert@bbb.org

Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 6:26 AM

To: xxxxx@gmail.com

Subject: Complaint # 22101311

Importance: High

The Better Business Bureau has received the above-referenced complaint from one of your customers regarding their dealings with you.

The details of the consumer’s concern are included on the reverse.

Please review this matter and advise us of your position.

As a neutral third party, the Better Business Bureau can help to resolve the matter. Often complaints are a result of misunderstandings a company wants to know about and correct.

We encourage you to use our ONLINE COMPLAINT system to respond this complaint.

The following URL (website address) below will take you directly to this complaint and you will be able to enter your response directly on our website:

http://www.bbb.org

Notice how the from address seems to indicate that it was sent from bbb.org. There are different variants of the from address but most are either alert@bbb.org or risk.manager@bbb.org.

If you receive this type of e-mail, DO NOT click on any of the links or open any attachments. The link usually points to a site that has been hacked and will install the virus on your PC as soon as you enter the site!

The answer is yes, yes.

Let me address the two issues in reverse order.

The Hoax

The biggest hoax is the hysteria over the notorious black mold that grows on sheetrock. This black mold is formally known as Stachybotrys chartarum or Stachybotrys atra. The horror stories related to items such as infant deaths in Cleveland in 1993 and 1994 are not true. The statements of CDC related to possible cause have been retracted by that Organization. With extremely rare exceptions (possibly only one documented case) there is no association between inhalation of Stachybotrys chartarum and any identifiable disease.

It is true that Stachybotrys chartarum, as part of its metabolic processes, produces a chemical by-product called a mycotoxin. But there are hundreds, thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of other molds that produce mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are large molecules that do not easily become airborne, thus the only real possible exposure is ingestion such as eating grains or other foodstuff with a large growth of Stachybotrys or direct infection through an open wound.

The possibility that a person who is not severely ill, or whose immune system is not compromised from disease or suppressant medicines, exhibiting any reaction to a mycotoxin is practically nonexistent as shown by the total lack of scientific evidence showing a direct link between a specific mycotoxin and any disease or symptom.

The large and numerous claims paid to homeowners, tenants, and building occupants have little, if any scientific basis.

Why hasn’t the scientific community created a storm of protest? Why hasn’t the scientific community published scientific evidence to the contrary?

Unfortunately, science does not respond well to hysteria and news coverage. Just as in medical testing, the process takes years – 5 or 10 or more years, to develop clear scientific evidence. Further the process is expensive and there are no marketable “wonder drugs” to offer to the marketplace to offset the cost. Thus the government is usually the primary source of funds. But Stachybotrys must compete with AIDS, cancer, heart disease, TB and a thousand other priorities for the research funds.

Of late, the insurance companies have had to pay the mold claims and may be a source of funds except that the fact that their current response is to exclude mold from their insurance coverages.

Why have so many claims been successful? Because the courts recognize “proving a negative”, that is, “it isn’t anything else so it must be Stachybotrys”! There is no such thing in science. You have to prove there is no direct link between Stachybotrys, the mycotoxin, and a specific effect on a human being. This may take years and studies costing millions of dollars. Further, one study showing a link is not sufficient, it must be proven by additional studies confirming the first test used proper and scientific methodology and reached appropriate conclusions.

The Hazard

Are molds a hazard? Yes, they are! Mold can adversely affect humans. Its clear from information, as summarized by the Institutes of Medicine in a 2003 report that 1 in 5 humans has some allergic response to their environment and 1 in 10 are allergic to some form of mold/fungus and likely some smaller number do react to chemical by-products of mold growth but probably less than one in a hundred (and in most cases due to some special situation such as infection, ingestion, or a compromised immune system). Creating the proper environment of food, temperature and moisture is all that is needed to start the rapid propagation of these microbes. Molds can create or aggravate allergies, asthma or other respiratory ailments to lessen quality of our lives.

Molds do not magically incarnate themselves when the right conditions are present, but are everywhere – in small numbers- waiting for the right conditions so they can rapidly multiply. Our primary goal must be to prevent these optimum conditions.

The easiest and most successful control is to eliminate moisture. Most molds, especially those that adversely affect us, require high moisture i.e. 70, 80, 90 or 100% humidity. Controlling moisture in our homes, offices, and other dwellings is the most successful prevention strategy.

Further, even after a mold infestation, is it rarely, if ever, necessary to knock the building down and start over. Mold can be washed off most solid surfaces and generally cleaned off semi-porous surfaces. Use of biocides and fungicidal paints can suppress mold growth even where moisture control is not feasible (such as in damp humid climates). Laundering of porous materials such as clothes and curtains will wash off most molds – just remember that we can’t truly eliminate them since they are ubiquitous. In fact, in most cases the determination to demolish or discard a material or object is generally based on the water damage or whether the cleaning will destroy it sufficiently that it cannot maintain its normal use, integrity or appearance.

In conclusion, in our modern controlled environments in home, office and public buildings, and the proper combination of heat, moisture and a food source will spark rapid growth of mold creating a possible allergic reaction in some individuals but rarely creating any toxic hazard.

Article Written By:
Robert E. Sheriff, CIH, CSP
Atlantic Environmental, Inc.
Dover, NJ
http://www.atlenv.com/