Do you need to find out how to speed up your computer which slowed remarkably over the past little while? I know how exasperating it can feel when your personal computer starts processing much slower than it should. This article will observe the reasons why that will occur, and what I did to optimize my computer speed again.

1. Why Do PCs Slow Down?

The more software you install and run on your personal computer, the less complicated it is for your personal computer to start slowing down. You could have known this already, but did you know that there are many cases where Computers slow down even when there aren’t many programs installed into it?

2. Registry Errors

A majority of computers, including my very own, will slow down due to blunders or bad and missing entries in the registry.

3. Downloading A Cleaner Software

If you wish to download the top rated software that I personally used to hurry up my slow PC, you can visit my website link at the end of this article to discover more.

4. Uninstall The Unused Programs

You possibly also have several programs on your computer that you actually don’t need any more. Unless you have large RAM space, try not to keep these programs around because they seem to be a large responsibility on your PC memory.

You can simply remove undesired programs from your personal computer by trying the Add/Remove Programs function in your Control Panel. Removing them should free up memory space. But if you find this doesn’t help much in speeding up your computer, then your registry might be the main culprit.

Billpoint was the name of a credit card processing service purchased by online auctioneer eBay in 1998. Billpoint’s website was taken offline while eBay integrated Billpoint into their auction service, and it did not debut again until Spring 2000 when it was relaunched as a joint-venture with Wells Fargo bank. In the meantime, online payment service PayPal debuted and became very popular with eBay’s customers. eBay and Billpoint spent the majority of the next two years trying to overtake the upstart PayPal but with little success.

In July 2002, eBay CEO Meg Whitman struck a deal with PayPal CEO Peter Thiel to acquire PayPal, and when the acquisition was finalized that October eBay began the process of phasing out Billpoint.

Interac LogoInterac Association is a Canadian organization linking enterprises that have proprietary networks so that they may communicate with each other for the purpose of exchanging electronic financial transactions. The Association was founded in 1984 by five financial institutions. As of December, 2004 there are over 90 member organizations. In Canada, the word Interac is often used as an eponym for debit card.

Services

Interac Association is the organization responsible for the development of a national network of two shared electronic financial services:

Interac Direct Payment
Interac Direct Payment (IDP): Canada’s national debit service for purchasing of goods and services. Customers enter their personal identification number (PIN) and the amount paid is deducted from either their chequing or savings accounts. Since its national launch in 1994, Interac Direct Payment has become so widespread that, since 2001, more transactions in Canada were completed using debit cards than cash. Beginning in 2004, IDP purchases could also be made in the United States at merchants on the NYCE network. IDP is similar in nature to the EFTPOS systems in use in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

IDP purchases can be made at all retailers participating in the program, regardless of the financial institution issuing the debit card being used, and no fees are charged for using the program (although banks themselves may levy a charge for withdrawing funds from the account used to fund the purchase, these fees are not associated with Interac Direct Payment itself). There are just under 550,000 IDP terminals in use throughout Canada, and 124 billion Canadian dollars worth of transactions took place in 2004.

Interac Direct Payment is a PIN-based system where the information entered on the PIN pad is encrypted and verified at a central server, rather than being stored on the card itself. Because of this, it is significantly more secure than traditional signature or card-based transactions. Despite these security features, there are ongoing fraud concerns, particularly when debit cards are duped or skimmed – a compromised automated teller machine or point-of-sale terminal will record the account information contained in the magnetic strip of the card, allowing for duplicate cards to be created at a later time. The owner of the card is then unknowingly video taped or observed entering their PIN, allowing a criminal to use duplicate cards to make fraudulent purchases.

Shared Cash Dispensing
Shared Cash Dispensing (SCD): cash withdrawals from any ABM not belonging to a cardholder’s financial institution. This Canada-specific service is similar to international systems like PLUS or Cirrus. Virtually every ABM in Canada is on the Interac system.

E-mail Money Transfer
You can use e-mail to transfer money between banks offering that Interac service.

Services Not Offered on the Interac Network

It is currently not possible to transfer money internationally (except to the US) using the Interac network; however, most Canadian ABM cards are also linked to the Plus Network or Cirrus Network, or other networks with more global reach.

The Octopus card is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used for electronic payment in on-line or off-line systems in Hong Kong. Originally launched in September 1997 as a fare collection system for the city’s mass transit systems, the Octopus card system has grown into a widely used electronic cash system used not only for virtually all public transport in Hong Kong, but also for making payment at convenience stores, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, on-street parking meters, car parks and many other point-of-sale applications (eg. service stations and vending machines). In addition the system is used for control access to offices, schools and apartments. Using a card involves simply holding the card in close proximity above, or on, an Octopus reader, and cards can be recharged with cash at add-value machines or over the counter in shops (notably 7-Eleven), or directly through credit cards and bank accounts.

Octopus has become one of the world’s most successful electronic cash systems, with over 12 million Octopus cards in circulation (nearly twice that of Hong Kong’s population) and over eight million transactions per day, with nearly 300 service vendors (as of January 2005). The operator of the Octopus system, Octopus Cards Limited, a joint venture between MTR Corporation and other transport companies in Hong Kong, has won a number of contracts to extend Octopus-style systems to the Netherlands and Changsha.

Name and Logo

The Chinese name for the Octopus card literally means “eight places pass.” Eight is a significant number in Chinese which is often used to indicate “many.” For instance, the Chinese phrase ???? (”four sides eight directions”) is a common expression meaning “in all directions.” Eight is also considered a lucky number in Chinese culture. The English name “Octopus card” is derived from the use of the number eight since an octopus has eight tentacles. The name is also particularly appropriate since “octopus” has the connotation of being able to grab many things at the same time and this ability is conferred upon its cardholders who can use it in many different transactions.

The logo used on the card also features a Möbius strip twisted into the shape of the number 8 in order to indicate the card’s “infinite” possiblities. The mathematical symbol for infinity ? looks like a sideways 8 and is commonly thought to be derived from a Möbius strip (although the real origin of the symbol is unclear).
The Chinese name was selected by the head of the MTR Corporation, the parent company of Octopus Cards Limited, in a naming competition held in 1996.

Obtaining and Using an Octopus card

An on-loan Octopus card can be purchased at Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and Kowloon Canton Railway (KCR) stations. No identification is required. If an owner loses a card, only the stored value of the card is lost. This type of Octopus card is anonymous; no personal information, bank account or credit card details are stored on the card.

Making or recording a payment using the card (eg. by passing through a MTR or ferry ticket gate, boarding a bus, alighting from a tram, or purchasing items from various outlets) is done by holding the card against or in close proximity to an Octopus card reader (which usually bears a yellow and orange colour scheme or logo similar to the card itself). After a brief moment (about 0.3 seconds per transaction) the reader will acknowledge payment by emitting the “Octopus Bleep”, and the reader will display the amount deducted and the remaining balance of the card. A higher pitched sound will be emitted if the card is not accepted, i.e. if the stored value is insufficient (below -HK$35), or if the reader was unable to read the card (owing to interference or the card being removed too quickly). Concession users are also acknowledged by a higher pitched beep on all forms of transport barring the MTR, which plays three note in succession. MTR and KCR systems note the entry point of a user when a card is swiped, and will deduct the appropriate amount when the user swipes their card again at the exit point.

Value can be added to the card using “add-value machines” located at all stations in the MTR and KCR networks, or with the help of cashiers at supermarkets, convenience stores and MTR and KCR service centres.

As Octopus cards do not require physical contact with readers, and can be read from up to a few centimetres away through common materials such as cotton or leather; visitors to Hong Kong may find it strange to see people holding their wallets, handbags, backpacks or jackets on or near readers. As with the other products, you may even see people waving their cellphone, watch or even a keychain over the Octopus reader.

The card can be used to pay fares or to make purchases for nearly all Hong Kong transportation systems, and at many stores in the city, most notably, 7-Eleven, McDonald’s, convenience stores, other fast food restaurants and Starbucks coffee shops. A large number of vending machines and self-service kiosks in Hong Kong accept Octopus as payment; these range from beverage vending machines to payphones and photo-booths — they can even be used to purchase travel insurance (for HK$10 per person, from the Bank of East Asia). Ricoh, Minolta and Fuji Xerox offer photocopiers that support payment by Octopus.

An anonymous on-loan Octopus card can store a maximum of HK$1,000, and has a deposit value of HK$50. The maximum negative value on a card is HK$35; this feature is implemented to allow cardholders to use a card with an insufficient value to make one last trip — even if the balance on the card is only at, say, HK$0.10 (the maximum cost of a trip on any of the rail networks except the Airport Express and first class of the KCR East Rail is HK$34.8, for an East Rail trip from East Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon to Lo Wu on the border with mainland China at Shenzhen).

History

The MTR network adopted a system of recirculated magnetic plastic cards when it started operations in 1979. These cards were either used as single journey tickets or as stored value tickets. The KCRC adopted the same magnetic cards in 1984, and the stored value version was renamed Common Stored Value Tickets.
In 1989, the Common Stored Value Tickets system was extended to KMB buses providing a feeder service to MTR/KCRC stations and to Citybus, and was also extended to a limited number of non-transport applications, such as payments at photobooths and for fast food vouchers.

MTR eventually decided to adopt more advanced technologies, and in 1993 announced that it would move towards using contactless smartcards. To gain wider acceptance, MTR and KCRC invited three other major franchised transport operators in Hong Kong, namely KMB, Citybus and the Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry to form a joint venture company in 1994, known as Creative Star Limited (renamed Octopus Cards Limited in January 2002). (The only major public transport operator at the time not to join was China Motor Bus, which pulled out of public transport altogether in 1998, in favour of its property development business, and had all of its bus routes transferred to NWFB).

The Octopus system was launched after three years of trials on September 1, 1997. Initially for use on services offered by the five joint venture partners, it was quickly extended to other transport services. In 2000, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted a deposit-taking company license to the operator, removing previous restrictions that prohibited Octopus from generating more than 15% of its turnover from non-transit related functions.

In January 2001, a new shareholders’ agreement was signed and the shares of Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry in the operator was transferred to NWFB and New World First Ferry. In conjunction with the privatisation of its parent company, MTR Corporation, Octopus Cards Limited was also transformed from its previous non-profit making status to a profit making enterprise.

On June 29, 2003, the Octopus card found another application when the Hong Kong Government started to replace all its 18,000 parking meters with a new Octopus card operated system. The replacement was completed on November 21, 2004. A number of government facilities including public swimming pools and sports facilities also adopted the Octopus system at around the same time.

In November 2003, Octopus Cards Limited secured a HK$200 million (USD 25.64 million) contract to help provide contactless smartcard technology in The Netherlands’ system, combining the fare collection system of all its public transport companies – starting with rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, bus and tramway operator Connexxion, public transport companies of Rotterdam (RET) and Amsterdam (GVB) and the tram system in The Hague (HTM).

Comparison with Other Electronic Cash Systems

Mondex specifically cited the widespread popularity of Octopus as the reason for withdrawing from the Hong Kong market in 2002. This is despite the fact that they launched their cards one year before the Octopus (in 1996), and had the backing of two of Hong Kong’s biggest banks, HSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank. Academic studies suggest that the biggest cause was the lack of a compelling reason on the commuters’ part to adopt the Mondex system, unlike Octopus, which had the solid backing of public transport companies and hence commuters and other travellers using their service. An additional drawback was that Mondex cards required 5 seconds to process, compared with 0.3 seconds for a “touch and go” Octopus card. 84% of respondents in a University of Auckland survey attributed the success of Octopus to quick service.

Octopus cards are also anonymous. Lack of anonymity is one of the reasons cited for the failure of many cash cards, such as VisaCash, which has the backing of two of Hong Kong’s biggest banks, Bank of China and Standard Chartered Bank.

Moneybookers is a UK-based fund-transfer company, resembling PayPal. Moneybookers is a tool that allows people to send and receive money via e-mail. Users can send money from a credit card, or transfer money to and from a bank account.

The moneybookers.com domain was created 18 June 2001. As of August 2005, they claim over one million users and over 700 million processed transactions. Moneybookers is a subsidiary of Gatcombe Park Ventures Limited.
Moneybookers can be used to donate to the Wikimedia Foundation.

As of August 2005, Moneybookers accepts the following currencies:

• Australian dollar
• Baht
• Canadian dollar
• Danish krone
• Euro
• Forint
• Hong Kong dollar
• Koruna (both Czech and Slovak)
• Kroon
• Lat
• Lev
• New Taiwan dollar
• New Zealand dollar
• Norwegian krone
• Pound sterling
• Rand
• Ringgit
• Shekel
• Singapore dollar
• South Korean won
• Swedish krona
• Swiss franc
• Tolar
• US dollar
• Yen
• Z?oty

Electronic commerce (e-commerce or eCommerce) is composed mainly of the distribution, purchase, sale, marketing, services and products or services via electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.

The industry of information technology could see it as an application of electronic commerce for business transactions. It can involve electronic funds transfer, management of the supply chain, emarketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, automated inventory management systems, automated data collection systems. It is often use electronic communications technology such as Internet, extranet, email, ebooks, databases, and mobile phones. According to Forrester Research (as cited in Kessler, 2003), electronic commerce generated sales worth U.S. $ 12.2 million in 2003.

History of eCommerce
The meaning of the term “electronic commerce” has changed over time. Originally, “electronic commerce” meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, usually using technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI, introduced in late 1970) to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically .

Later, it came to include activities more precisely termed “Web commerce” – the purchase of goods and services via the World Wide Web via secure servers (note HTTPS, a special server protocol which encrypts data confidential orders for customer protection) with eshopping carts and with electronic pay services, such as credit card payment authorizations.

When the Web first known among the general public in 1994, many journalists and experts predict that electronic commerce will soon become an important economic sector. However, it took nearly four years for security protocols like HTTPS to become sufficiently developed and widely deployed (during the browser wars of this period). Subsequently, between 1998 and 2000, a significant number of companies in the United States and Western Europe developed rudimentary Web sites.

Although a large number of “pure ecommerce” companies disappeared during the dot-com collapse in 2000 and 2001, many “brick and mortar” retailers recognized that such companies had identified valuable niche markets and began to add capabilities e-commerce to their Web sites. For example, after the collapse of the online retailer Webvan, two traditional supermarket chains, Albertsons and Safeway, both started e-commerce subsidiaries through which consumers can order groceries online.

Since 2005, electronic commerce has become well established in major cities across much of North America, Western Europe, East and some Asian countries like South Korea. However, e-commerce is still emerging slowly in some industrialized countries like Australia, and is virtually nonexistent in many Third World countries.

Key Factors for eCommerce Success
Several factors have a role in the success of any e-commerce company. They may include:

• To provide value to customers. Vendors can achieve this by offering a product or product line that attracts potential customers at a competitive price, as in non-electronic commerce.
• Providing service and performance. Offering a sensible, user-friendly shopping experience, like a flesh-and-blood retailer, may in some way to achieving these goals.
• Providing an attractive website. The tasteful use of color, graphics, animation, photos, fonts, and white space can help percentage of success in this regard.
• To provide an incentive for customers to purchase and return to their homes. Sales promotions to this end may include coupons, special offers and discounts. Cross-linked websites and advertising affiliate programs can also help.
• Providing personal attention. Personalized Web sites, purchase suggestions and special offers can be customized some of the ways to substitute for face-to-face human interaction found in a traditional point of sale.
• To provide a sense of community. Chat rooms, discussion boards, soliciting customer input, loyalty schemes and affinity programs can help in this regard.
• Facilitate the reliability and security. Parallel servers, hardware redundancy, fail-safe technology, information encryption and firewalls can enhance this requirement.
• Provide a 360-degree view of the customer relationship, defined as ensuring that all employees, suppliers and partners have a complete picture, and the same view of the customer. However, customers may not appreciate the big brother experience.
• Possess the total customer experience. E-tailers foster this by treating any contact with a customer as part of a total experience, an experience that becomes synonymous with the brand.
• Streamlining business processes, possibly through re-engineering and information technology.
• Letting customers help themselves. Provision of a self-service site, easy to use, without assistance, can help in this regard.
• Helping customers do their job of consuming. E-tailers shopping and online directories can provide such assistance through an extensive search for comparative information and good facilities. Provide services and information component of the safety and health reviews can help e-tailers to define the customers of employment.
• Building a sound commercial business model. If this key success factor had appeared in textbooks in 2000, many of the dot.coms might not have gone bust.
• Electronic Engineering in the value chain that one focuses on a “limited” number of core competencies – the opposite of a one-stop shop. (Electronic stores can appear either specialist or generalist, although scheduled).
• Operating at or near the forefront of technology and staying there as technology changes (but remembering that the fundamentals of commerce remain indifferent to technology).
• The creation of an adequate monitoring and agility to respond quickly to changes in the economic, social and physical environment.

The term Internet fraud refers to any type of fraud that uses e-mail, Web sites, chat rooms or message boards to submit fraudulent claims to potential victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions or to transmit the proceeds of a fraud to financial institutions or other related arrangements.

Overview
Internet fraud is committed in several ways. The FBI has people assigned to combat this type of fraud, according to its figures, U.S. business losses due to Internet fraud in 2003 exceeded U.S. $ 500 million. In some cases, fictitious merchants post excellent prices for goods and never deliver. However, this type of fraud is minuscule compared to criminals using stolen credit card information to purchase goods and services.

Geographical Origin
In some cases of Internet fraud originating in the U.S., but a significant proportion of organized Internet fraud seems to come from Africa, especially Nigeria, and, sometimes, Ghana and Egypt. Some originate in Eastern Europe, particularly Romania, and in Southwest Asia. For some reason, many fraudulent orders that seem to come from Belgium, Amsterdam in Holland, from Palestine, and Malmo in Sweden. Lately, some fraudulent orders seem to originate in China.

Popular Products
Fraudsters seem to prefer small and valuable products such as watches, jewelry, laptop computers, digital cameras, and ink cartridges.

Mon€o branded as (MON€O), is an electronic purse system available on French bank cards to allow small purchases to be made without cash. The system is aimed at small retailers such as bakeries and cafés and intended for purchases of less than €30.

The card is inserted into a handheld Moneo reader by the merchant who enters the transaction amount for the customer. The customer then confirms the purchase by pushing a button on the keypad, the exact amount debited from the card within a few seconds.

In addition to the multipurpose bank card version, anonymous cards are available for the use of people without bank accounts, such as children and tourists. Supported by all French banks, Moneo was trialed in Brittany in 2002, and from 2004 Moneo is being added to most French Bankcards as they are replaced.

Visa Cash is a smart card electronic cash system owned by VISA. Tested in various locations worldwide, including Leeds, UK in 1997, the system works via a ‘chip’ embedded in a bank card, and looks similar to the so-called ‘Chip and PIN’ cards issued in inter alia France and the UK.

The card is ‘loaded’ with cash via specialised ATM machines, and the cash can later be ’spent’ by inserting the card into the retailer’s card-reader and pressing a button to confirm the amount. Neither PIN entry nor a signature is required, which makes for a speedy transaction.

Other competing cashless payment systems for micro-payments (small amounts) include Mondex. A more successful smart card electronic cash system is the Octopus card system in Hong Kong.

E-gold is a gold digital currency and online payment system operated by e-gold Ltd since 1996 that allows the transfer of money between e-gold account holders. It is also a way to invest in gold and precious metals. A little under 2.4 million e-gold accounts in existence today.

The e-gold payment system offers a variety of currencies, e-metals “, namely e-gold, e-silver, e-platinum and palladium-e, which represents a claim gold, silver, platinum and palladium, respectively. Among them, e-gold is by far the most popular e-metal in the system. Users May take physical delivery of the precious metal on the payment of additional fees. However, most Users allow the operator to retain possession of the metal. or e-transactions are completed electronically, usually on the Internet, and they always pay by the weight of metal, even if denominated in another way.

Even if the e-gold does not advocate a particular political agenda, for example, freedom does Dollar, e-gold can be seen as a libertarian money because it is not subject to government policy in the same manner as the Federal Reserve changes the value of the dollar.

Convenience
Credit card egold is seen by proponents as an alternative to traditional forms of payment, which in some cases (especially in online transactions), may be less effective or more costly. The e-gold system (and other digital currencies), provides a system where transactions clear instantly. This is in contrast to checks or credit card transactions which when used could take days for funds to be deducted from an account. Also, unlike other on-line payment systems such as PayPal, there are no distinctions between commercial and non e-gold accounts. As such, all e-gold accounts carry the same fees and have the same capacity to receive and transmit e-gold holdings.

Asset Protection
Proponents of the e-gold system contend that e-gold assets are protected against inflation, devaluation and other economic risks inherent in Fiat currencies. These risks include what are perceived by e-gold that the promoters of actions by national governments and central banks that diminish the value of assets held in currencies Fiat. In addition, many proponents of e-gold system believe that e-gold offers a truly international and decentralized which is the currency vis-à-vis central bank of a country or territory.
There is also no way to reverse transactions, even in cases of self or error unauthorized passer (see below). e-gold employment conditions stipulate that all passwords are final and e-gold can not be held liable for any spending. In this regard, an e-gold spend more akin to a cash transaction while PayPal transfers, for example, could be considered more similar to credit card transactions.

Disadvantages
Compared to other systems like PayPal, the process of buying e-gold can be confusing to someone unfamiliar with e-gold system. Unlike some operators of digital currency, e-gold Ltd. does not sell digital currency directly to the user. Instead, many third parties to sell services to exchange e-metal in exchange for money for a percentage of transaction fees. Conversely, these exchanges suppliers to sell fiat currency in exchange for an e-metal, for a percentage of transaction fees. In this way, e-metals can be converted back and forth to a variety of Fiat currencies of various countries. The amount of a currency or e-metal necessary to complete a transaction is determined by the then current price of the metal compared to the value of the currency.

Security and Fraud
As an online service, e-gold is vulnerable to various threats, including phishing (for example, fake e-mails asking for login information) and spyware. Recently, a Trojan horse specially created compromised “dozens” to “low hundreds.” e-gold accounts. Although the Trojans usually in silence save the login information of the user unsuspecting, the Trojan horse in question (Win32.Grams) emptied the accounts themselves by transferring the contents (probably) to ‘attacking the account.

e-gold has also been known to the medium of choice for online with many con artists. Pyramid and fraudulent investment programs are commonplace. This is apparently due (at least in part) to e-gold maintaining its policy of irreversibility of e-gold transactions.

Many e-gold exchange providers also require a high level of identification, in many cases, the same level if not higher than most banks. In comparison, processors such as PayPal and StormPay allow users to easily create accounts and only to request identification to increase maximum daily spend limit.

Backup
e-gold, according to e-gold site, “100% backed by gold” There is no way of knowing whether the e-gold Ltd. has real gold in the currency back in e-gold system. e-gold is to maintain an “examiner”, a web page with updated statistics on liabilities and the total amount of each precious metal in its operations. While developers generally ensure that rather, critics remain skeptical.

In addition, since all e-gold is backed by a physical basis, it is subject to price fluctuations that occur naturally on this product. This can be a major problem if there is a sudden increase in the supply of gold and you’re holding or e-currency, the value of your currency just fallen, you’ve lost money. This may, however, in both directions. Proponents of e-gold system would say that the risk of sharp fluctuation of prices is low compared to the perceived risk of fluctuations in currency value between fiat currencies.