In At The Bleep End
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Clear and practical guidance on WEEE compliance for I.T. departments is hard to come by. The following are some questions I asked of the "WEEE Team" and their answers (in blue).
"We are a small/medium sized company who use IT equipment but don't sell it (a Non-household end user).
1. I read that some producers will sell lower cost equipment where the WEEE responsibility is transferred to the buyer. How will we know before we commit to purchase?
The seller can not transfer this responsibility to you without prior agreement. This is a commercial decision whether the buyer wants to deal with the EEE at the end of its life.
2. If we buy new equipment to replace old, do we have to prove this is the case, and that we aren't just taking advantage of the legislation to offload old junk that was lying around? If so, how?
Producers will have obligations for "historical" - that is placed on the market prior to 13 August 2005 and "new" - that is placed on the market after 13 August 2005. Producers are responsible for the collection and treatment of historical WEEE that is being replaced on a like-for-like basis. If old items are pre 13 August 2005 and you are replacing it with new then the Regulations state that the producer has to pay for its recycling. They would not however, be responsible for taking away a old fax machine if you were replacing it with a new PC.
3. If we buy new equipment via online resellers, eg. www.ebuyer.co.uk, how do we indicate at the point of purchase that this is to replace old equipment which will need to be collected? Or do we have to phone the original manufacturer after sale and delivery to say "now, come and get the old PC please"?
Yes, when buying from an internet website, the EEE remains the responsibility of the producer who has to be registered with a producer compliance scheme and will need to have provided the retailer with their registration number to demonstrate their compliance with the Regulations. You will need to contact the producer or their compliance scheme to arrange collection of old EEE.
4. If we need to dispose of but not replace IT kit, how do we go about arranging for collection and treatment? How much is this likely to cost?
If a business end user wishes to discard items of historical EEE without replacing the item it is their responsibility and they are bound by existing the Environmental Protection Act and Duty of Care. You have an obligation to ensure that WEEE is being collected and treated by someone who has a Waste Management Licence. Your council may have details.
{Note: Our local council said they don't have anything in place for dealing with or collecting WEEE at all, then pointed us at a private service charging £50 a time}
5. I read one IT guy saying they had to apply for something like a 'Hazardous Waste Disposal Number'. Is this correct?"
Operators storing, repairing or refurbishing WEEE will need to apply for a Waste Management Licence. Further details of how this applies is covered on the QS 19 of the EA FAQ. More specific questions about WML should be directed to the EA National Consumer Contact Centre tel 08708 506506."
http://sewelldirect.com/connecting-your-pc-to-your-tv.asp
1. Get a video card with TV-out. There are cards with composite (yellow RCA), S-video, and component (red, green and blue RCA) outputs for standard and component high definition TV's.
2. If your TV has a digital HD input (DVI or HDMI), you can connect a DVI video card directly to the digital input.
3. You can also get a PC to TV converter. These are perfect when you don't want to upgrade your video card (especially with laptops, small multimedia PC's or integrated graphics). The PC to TV converter connects the VGA out on your computer to composite, S-video, component or even high definition component. You can also use a wireless PC to TV converter if your computer is in another room or far from your TV.
Remember that running the video out of your computer will only send the video signal and not audio. If you're playing anything with audio, you would still have to use your computer's speakers if you don't send the audio to the TV along with the video. Fortunately, it's not hard to get the audio to your TV.
Computer audio is usually outputted to a 1/8" (3.5mm) jack common on headphones and computer speakers. You can simply run a 1/8" (3.5mm) to the RCA audio on your TV (a common audio interface on TV's). If you don't have a spare headphone or speaker jack on the computer, or if you want a high quality surround sound, you can add a sound card to your computer.
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One of these should do it...
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/57791
SEOmoz | Google Search Engine Ranking Factors
Form Spam: Increasing the Attacker's work function
Why does Access give me 'unspecified error' messages?
Using the FileSystemObject for Web Site Maintenance
Install multiple versions of IE on your PC
Sunday, June 17, 2007
from here...
"IP-Based Desktop Video Conferencing
This method has several drawbacks. The quality of the audio and video will be dependent on how fast the Internet connections are on the sending and receiving ends. Network congestion on the Internet can also contribute to choppy audio and video."
from here...
"Prioritization – In networks with even limited amounts of congestion, it may be necessary to prioritize videoconferencing data through the network switches and routers."
from here...
"Advanced Quality of Service (QoS)
Priority queuing ensures high-priority traffic gets delivered efficiently, even during congestion from high traffic bursts. Companies implementing network telephony or video conferencing, for example, need to be able to prioritize such voice and video traffic and other real-time applications over less latency-sensitive traffic to ensure reliability and quality. The ability to prioritize traffic ensures quality of latency-sensitive services and applications despite increasing traffic loads."
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See also
http://www.siemon.com/uk/white_papers/03-10-29_voice_over_ip.asp
(re: voip but also applies to video conferencing)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
borrowed from here...
http://www.ppcsg.com/mobile/index.php/t90811-10.html?"SUPER v2007 built 22, video converter is already purrrfect for dummies. Just like me.
I just need to select the
Output Container (your desire video format) I choose avi format. once this is selected the followings is automatically by the program.
Output Video Codeo-MP4 (default)
Video scale size-640x480 (need to select your screen resolution).
Aspect4:3, Frame/Sec-25, Bitrate kbps-1008 (all default)
Option-Hi Quality and 48k Audio ticked (your choice to tick it if desire).
Audio Sampling Freq-22050, Channels-2, Bitrate kbps-96 (all default)
After all the above done.
Right click in any program area,
in pop up window,
click on Output
File Saving Management to browse and select location to save your file.
Next,right click again in any program area and select
Add Multimedia File.
Selected video file appears in box below and ensure at far left box is tick.
Look for the
Encode (Active Files) button and click on it.
A pop up window immediately appears,
I use default-DX50-Best with DivX5/DivX6 decoders.
Sit back and relax while it encode.
Note: Trim and Crop not available."
