Student loan scheme changes (again)

We’re starving, but thank God student loans are interest free” – students
A student loan scheme bill passed last week will reduce the burden of debt for some borrowers and “simplifies the administration” of the scheme, claim Tertiary Education Minister Michael Cullen and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.

In a release, the ministers said: “The changes bring the student loan scheme rules into line with the aims of interest-free loans, one of which is to reduce barriers to the return of skilled New Zealanders.”

The changes include:

•A ‘repayment holiday’ for up to three years for borrowers overseas. Borrowers will not have to make repayments but their loans will still attract interest.
•Extension of interest-free loans to full-time undergraduates studying overseas
•Interest-free loans for borrowers overseas working in certain areas of volunteer or charitable work
•A reduction of the late-payment penalty from 2% to 1.5% per month
Data-matching between Inland Revenue and the New Zealand Customs Service to determine whether a borrower is eligible for an interest-free loan, is based in New Zealand or overseas, and is resident or non-residen

Higher education in Brazil

The World Bank has made substantial improvement in its environmental performance since 1987.

Access to education for the poor in Europe

http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=V54KTRJBRvMC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=student+loan+scheme&source=bl&ots=VZAjEMFSmB&sig=Ib0gXcpFyJAt-N4CQN37h3Dwuog&hl=en&ei=WnclSuD6K5GNkAWg-LTXBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPP1,M1

Welcome...to the Student Loans Company

The Student Loans Company (SLC) is a UK public sector organisation established to provide financial services, in terms of loans and grants, to over one million students annually, in colleges and universities across the four education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Our other key responsibility is the administration of the collection of repayments, from over two million customers no longer in higher education.

This website provides easy access to key information about the Company and its operation.


Change to Interest Rates for Income Contingent Loans
Interest on ICR loans has been reduced to 1.5% effective from the 6th March 2009 until further notice. Further information can be found on the Student Loan Repayment Website
Change to interest rate for Academic Year 2009 /2010
Further information can be found on the Student Loan Repayment Website

with the thanks
http://www.slc.co.uk/

World Of Cables

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HDMI/HDMI-1 HDMI MALE(19 PIN) / HDMI MALE (19 PIN) MAGNET

HDMI/HDMI-2 HDMI 19PINM/HDMI 19PINM,6FT/10FT/15FT

HDMI/HDMI-3 HDMI MALE(19 PIN) / HDMI MALE (19 PIN) MAGNET

HDMI/HDMI-4 HDMI MALE(19 PIN) / HDMI MALE (19 PIN) MAGNET

HDMI/HDMI-5 HDMI MALE(19 PIN) / HDMI MALE (19 PIN) MAGNET

HDMI/HDMI-6 HDMI MALE(19 PIN) / HDMI MALE (19 PIN)

JS-ADAPTER-1 DVI 24+1M/24+5F+HD15F

JS-ADAPTER-2 ADAPTER 2*HDMI HDMI19PINM/HDMI19PINM

Latest USB's

Photo: Item No.: Specification

USB-BT-01 BLUETOOTH USB 2.0 DONGLE; BLUETOOTH V1.2/2.0 COMPLIANT; BLUETOOTH V2.0+EDR; WORKING DISTANCE 0-100M

USB-BT-02 BLUETOOTH USB 2.0 DONGLE;BLUETOOTH V1.2/2.0 COMPLIANT;BLUETOOTH V2.0+EDR;WORKING DISTANCE 0-100M

USB-BT-03 BLUETOOTH USB 2.0 DONGLE;BLUETOOTH V2.0 COMPLIANT;WORKING DISTANCE 0-100M

USB-BT-04 MINI BLUETOOTH USB 2.0 DONGLE.WORKING DISTANCE 0-100M

USB-BT-05 MINI BLUETOOTH USB 2.0 DONGLE ,WORKING DISTANCE 0-100M

USB-BT-06 Features: ¡¤Full speed USB interface, compliant with USB 1.1 ¡¤Bluetooth version1.2 compliant. Bluetooth qualified. ¡¤Complete 2.4GHz radio transceiver and baseband. ¡¤Bluetooth class 2 operation (up to 20 meter range). ¡¤High-performance surface mount antenna. ¡¤On-board flash memory. ¡¤support Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP

History of Computers

The development of the modern day computer was the result of advances in technologies and man's need to quantify. Papyrus helped early man to record language and numbers. The abacus was one of the first counting machines. .
Some of the earlier mechanical counting machines lacked the technology to make the design work. For instance, some had parts made of wood prior to metal manipulation and manufacturing. Imagine the wear on wooden gears. This history of computers site includes the names of early pioneers of math and computing and links to related sites about the History of Computers, for further study. This site would be a good Web adjunct to accompany any book on the History of Computers or Introduction to Computers. The "H" Section includes a link to the History of the Web Beginning at CERN which includes Bibliography and Related Links. Hitmill.com strives to always include related links for a broader educational experience. The material was originally divided into Part 1 & Part 2

More About Hard Disk

When the power to a PC is switched off, the contents of memory are lost. It is the PC's hard disk that serves as a non-volatile, bulk storage medium and as the repository for a user's documents, files and applications. It's astonishing to recall that back in 1954, when IBM first invented the hard disk, capacity was a mere 5MB stored across fifty 24in platters. 25 years later Seagate Technology introduced the first hard disk drive for personal computers, boasting a capacity of up to 40MB and data transfer rate of 625 KBps using the MFM encoding method. A later version of the company's ST506 interface increased both capacity and speed and switched to the RLL encoding method. It's equally hard to believe that as recently as the late 1980s 100MB of hard disk space was considered generous. Today, this would be totally inadequate, hardly enough to install the operating system alone, let alone a huge application such as Microsoft Office.

The PC's upgradeability has led software companies to believe that it doesn't matter how large their applications are. As a result, the average size of the hard disk rose from 100MB to 1.2GB in just a few years and by the start of the new millennium a typical desktop hard drive stored 18GB across three 3.5in platters. Thankfully, as capacity has gone up prices have come down, improved areal density levels being the dominant reason for the reduction in price per megabyte.

It's not just the size of hard disks that has increased. The performance of fixed disk media has also evolved considerably. When the Intel Triton chipset arrived, EIDE PIO mode 4 was born and hard disk performance soared to new heights, allowing users to experience high-performance and high-capacity data storage without having to pay a premium for a SCSI-based system.

What is Hard Disk and its Functions

In any computer system the hard disk is considered as the secondary memory device that is used for the primary data storage. The primary memory is obviously the RAM. But as the RAM is the primary memory it cannot be used for the purpose of the permanent data storage. Hence a secondary memory device is necessarily needed for the purpose of the data storage in any computer system. Apart from hard disk drive the tape storage media can also be used as the secondary storage device. But the hard disk drive is the most popularly used secondary memory device. The main reason for this is the access speed and the reliability of the data it can offer. In the case of the tape drives the access speed is much low and the data transfer is comparatively low than the hard disk drive.

Since the primary memory that is the RAM is a non volatile memory hence it cannot be used as the permanent memory storage device. Hence the hard disk or the need for as a secondary memory device is needed in any computer. The primary function of the primary memory is to load the programs so that the CPU – Central Processing Unit can easily and speedily access and execute the instructions. The primary memory can only boot the computer system; but it the hard disk drive that is responsible for the loading and the proper functioning of any operating system. The operating system is a necessary for the computers to run to the expectations of the user. Hence the hard disk is a must for the loading of the hard disk drive. The importance of the primary memory is that it is a compulsion that is necessary for the start up of the computer. A computer can start up even with out a hard disk. But since there is no operating system that is present in the computer hence it is not possible to load the operating system. The computer will display a message usually in such a situation stating that “Disk Boot Failure”.

The information that is required to boot a computer is stored in the hard disk boot sector. Also the importance of the hard disk drive is to store the backup of the data or any information that is created by the user. Apart from the hard disk drives the other storage devices like the optical disks that are the CD ROM, DVD ROM etc can be used for the purpose of the backup of the data or user information. The floppy disks can also be used for the backup of the data. The hard disk specification should also match the expectations of the computers; that is the storage capacity and access speed.

The internal organization of the any hard disk drive consists of the following four parts primarily. They are as listed below: the Platters, the Head Arm, the Chassis, and also the Head Actuator. The hard disk drives are also available in two different types that is the internal and also the external hard disk drives. The internal hard disk drives are used for the storage of the data in the computer case. There are not portable and usually are inside the case. The external hard disk drives are portable can be connected to other computer systems as well. There is a hard casing over the hard disk.

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Pakistan's Leading Computer Store
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Camera

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Processors

Processors
Intel® desktop processors deliver superb computing power, performance, and reliability at home and at work. Our notebook processors let you work and play in places you never thought possible. Our server and workstation processors provide enhanced scalability, power, and performance for robust multi-processing environments. And our embedded and communications processors combine outstanding performance with scalable, power-efficient processing for a wide range of embedded applications.
Motherboard Components
If you open your computer's case, the motherboard is the flat, rectangular piece of circuit board to which everything seems to connect to for one reason or another. It contains the following key components:
• A microprocessor "socket" which defines what kind of central processing unit the motherboard uses;
• A chipset which forms the computer's logic system. It is usually composed of two parts called bridges (a "north" bridge and its opposite, "south" bridge), which connects the CPU to the rest of the system;
• A Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) chip which controls the most basic function of a computer, and how to repair it; and
• A real-time clock which is a battery-operated chip which maintains the system's time, and other basic functions.
The motherboard also has slots or ports for the attachment of various peripherals or support system/hardware. There is an Accelerated Graphics Port, which is used exclusively for video cards; Integrated Drive Electronics, which provides the interfaces for the hard disk drives ; Memory or RAM cards; and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), which provides electronic connections for video capture cards and network cards, among others.
How a Motherboard Works
The most important thing to remember about the motherboard is that it is a printed circuit board which provides all the connections, pathways and "lines" connecting the different components of the computer to each other - specifically, the Central Processing Unit or CPU, which is where (as its name implies) all the "processing" is going on to everything else.
The CPU or "chip" (the most popular of which is Intel's Pentium series) is an assembly of transistors and other devices (Pentium IV has over 4 million transistors) which perform or processes myriad programmed tasks.
The CPU rests in a "socket" on the motherboard which is connected to the other components through the board's printed circuits. The most important connections are to the chipsets - especially the northbridge chipset which is connected to the main computer memory (hard disk and RAM), while the southbridge set is connected to the peripherals - video and audio cards, IDE controllers, etc.
Aside from these, the most important element of the motherboard is the BIOS chip - which performs key functions like checking power supply, the hard disk drive, operating system, etc. before the computer actually starts "booting up". Turning on the computer automatically starts the BIOS chip up to perform its diagnostic functions, after which it powers up the CPU which - in its turn - starts powering up the other peripherals (hard disk, operating system, video and audio, etc.).
This is why the motherboard is the key component of the computer. It is, in effect, the "housing" for the CPU - the place where the latter resides and from which commands, instructions, and power course through before being sent out to other components