Magnetic Stripe Reader - A Popular POS Component

Magnetic Stripe Reader & Cards An Essential Tool for Your Business.
Magnetic Stripe Reader is a point-of-sale (POS) device used for interpreting data encoded on a magnetic stripe card.
Millions of magnetic stripe readers, magnetic stripe check readers are installed worldwide. Magnetic stripe reader is used mostly for security and financial transaction purposes. They are also used in financial institutions, retail stores, telecommunication companies, kiosks, gaming, transit, schools, sports and recreation facilities and clubs for identification and transportation purposes.
The magnetic stripe readers are available in different models and sizes. A full size magnetic stripe reader comes with built-in keyboard wedge interface which are able to read credit card information directly into a PC s draft capture program.
A magnetic stripe reader comes in various interface formats - RTTL, RS-232, USB/keyboard and keyboard wedge interfaces.
Magnetic stripe reader and cards are manufactured in accordance to ISO specifications like - ISO 7810, ISO 7811, ISO 7812, ISO 7813, and ISO 4909. These specifications define the physical properties of the card, including size, flexibility, location of the magstripe (magnetic stripe), and magnetic characteristics.
Magstripes come in two varieties: high-coercivity and low-coercivity. High-coercivity magstripes are harder to erase, and therefore are appropriate for cards that are frequently used or that need to have a long life. Low-coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity magstripes. A card reader can read either type of magstripe, but a high-coercivity card writer may write only high-coercivity cards, while a low-coercivity card writer may write only low-coercivity cards.
In most magnetic stripe cards, the magnetic stripe is contained in a plastic-like film. The magnetic stripe is located 0.223 inches (5.66 mm) from the edge of the card, and is 0.375 inches (9.52 mm) wide. The magnetic stripe contains three tracks, each 0.110 inches (2.79 mm) wide. Tracks one and three are typically recorded at 210 bits per inch (8.3 kbit/m), while track two typically has a recording density of 75 bits per inch (3.0 kbit/m). Each track can either contain 7-bit alphanumeric characters, or 5-bit numeric characters.
Magnetic stripe reader(s) are used in very high volumes in the mass transit sector, replacing paper based tickets with either a directly applied magnetic slurry or hot foil stripe. Slurry applied stripe cards are generally less expensive to produce but are perceived to be of lower quality. These cards typically would not comply with the standards for payment and other cards mentioned elsewhere in this article.
Due to frequent use these cards suffer from damages. That s why the digital recording on the stripe is in a very low-density format and often duplicated several times in case part of the stripe becomes damaged.
A magnetic stripe reader works by reading the magnetic tape adhered to credit cards, badges, permits, passes and tokens. The information in the magnetic tape can range from account information, credit information etc. The tape is read by the magnetic stripe reader incorporated into ATMs, identification readers and payment terminals and forwarded to the central data processing services.
An USB magnetic stripe reader can be programmed to divide, rearrange, edit, and validate data. They automatically distinguish AAMVA and CA DMV data formats. They provide exceptional functionality and value in the smallest possible package, and are able to read upto two or three tracks of information with a single swipe in either direction in an easy to use standard-length slot.
Point of sale components provides the best collection of magnetic stripe reader, barcode scanners, barcode printers and decoders, bar code labels, bar code label printers, bar code label software, bar code labels or, we have it.



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Creating SEO friendly URLs

If you own a site, you should know that without a search engine optimization, or SEO, a web site has no value, and is less likely to get indexed by eerie " spiders & quot; search engines, and will ultimately suffer in the ranking. What is the end result? Poor conversions. Your site sure does not deserve such treatment. One way to ensure this is the use of SE-friendly URL-addresses. Search engines can be very picky where addresses and get dizzy when they face a long confusing URL. They prefer to see the URL, which do not have long lines of inquiry. Our intention is to search engines happy.
Static URLs
SE-friendly URL-address URL, are those that are easy to remember for the visitors and just spidered. Dirty URL (dynamic) are a thing of the past and slowly, people realize the importance of clean URL-addresses (static). For example, URL type:
http: / / www.lookatthis.com/2/best-products
gets indexed much faster than
http: / / www.lookatthis.com/2/cgi-bin/gen.pl?id=2& view url = best
A dynamic May deceive search engines, and as a result of your rating will hit low.
URL Length
At basic level, URL, which are friendly SE, are those that are keywords, added to them. Make them as short as possible, as many phrases as possible that are relevant. Do not forget to use keywords that you would like more goals. Web user should find it relevant and easy to enter and should not be too long. Just as the physical address short easy to remember, the same way it must have greater visibility and be easy for visitor remember.
Hyphens in URLs
There is another aspect of good SE-friendly URL-addresses. Do not use to connect to emphasize words and instead use a hyphen. This is the pain of all those typing in the URL and underscores not only that; URL without underscores getting better seen in the search engines. For example, URL, as " SE friendly " will appear only when the user enters that way, and this is clearly not how we type key words when searching. At that time, URL, such as " SE friendly & quot; or " SE-friendly & quot; happens to manifest themselves much better on search engines and provides more visibility.
Use lower case letters Letters
Using URL, also helps. Never before URL-addresses of all upper or hint of capital letters in them. We all know that people do not use the letters when searching for something. Despite the fact that most servers are not sensitive, you would be a problem if they were.
URL Rewrite
If you already have a web site, you will have to rewrite the URL, to cover all these discrepancies. How can we do this? Rewriting URL means the establishment of a system on the server, which will understand and interpret the new format URL. What happens is that we are actually making them dynamic and static. This means that URL, which had previously requested rows will be replaced by a slash and simple layout. There are several free tools that can be used for rewriting URLs.
Conclusion
Having static SE-friendly URL-the address could lead your site on the right track and help in search engine optimization. SE-URL-friendly web site will make you more visible to visitors and enables search engines to find it too easy. Spend time and effort in the creation of SE-friendly URL, and you will see that the results are enormous. You will find your page and moving up a web site restoration high ranking before long. See you on top!



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Buying A New Computer 101: The Basics

Ok if your reading this I m going to asume that you already have a computer but lets face it, in todays computing enviroment the power (speed) of computers doubles about every 18 months. We like to joke that when you get a new computer its obsolete before you can get it out of the box.

You have completed the first step, deciding that you need a new computer, now we must make a vital decision before any others can be made. Do you want a Macintosh or a Windows based computer? In the past Macintosh computers could only run the Macintosh operating system, however with the release fo the Intel chipsets in the new Mac Pro line users can now run either windows or Mac OS X. The basic advantages to buying a mac are: more stable operating system (aka it doesn t crash as often), for all practical pourposes they do not get viruses, adware or spyware, the tech support is very good, you can run Windows XP or Mac OS X and the operating system is very easy to use. Now the advantages of owning a Windows based computer are: cheaper, to be honest this is the honly advantage that I can think of and the main reason they are cheaper is usually because inferior components where used.

I own several computers, two Macs and a PC. I love the macs they are a joy to work with, they never break and I never have to defrag the hard drvie or run a virus scan. The PC I use because I like to play games. It is constantly breaking down adn having problems. It really comes down to this, if you want to play games and you cant instal Windows XP on your mac then buy a PC if you cann install windows on your mac buy a mac. Macs use higher quality components and are more reliable!



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How Can Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Programs Help a Small Business

In today s highly competitive world, medium and small business groups struggle for survival. As usually established with small capital investments, these organizations usually will not have enough money to tackle the massive advertisement campaigns by their large counterparts. The only solution they got to keep their customers and attract new clients is to enhance customer satisfaction through better customer service. The mouth publicity by the satisfied customers is the best advertising tool that these companies got. Offering some great benefits to good customers and creating new plans for infrequent customers can boost, or at least can maintain, the company turnover.
Today, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become the most effective tool for all business organizations to enhance their customer satisfaction. Now, there are so many CRM providers and CRM vendors who offer different customized customer relationship management solutions for all business needs. With CRM, you can purchase a standard pre-customized CRM solution, can purchase an open source CRM solution or can hire a hosted or on demand CRM solution. All leads to one destination, more attractive services to reliable customers.
As told earlier, customer relationship management programs enhance the customer-friendly services of a company or organization. These programs do so by automating all proceedings and procedures. All CRM solutions are primarily large customer databases. These systems store all customer information such as customer s name, address, customer contacting method, customer taste, ability to spend money on products, money spending per visit etc. The specific applications built in these systems integrate the stored data on demand to identify good customers and help to create better service plans for them.
CRM software systems are capable of automating each and every thing involved in a small business. The main features of a CRM solution include sales force automation, data tracking, data integration, data migration, account management, contact management, customer service training, opportunity management, product management, custom reporting, lead assignment, lead routing, calendaring, territory management, task management, quota management, sales forecasting, partner tracing, sales analytics, customization analytics, trouble shooting, etc.
With respect to medium and small sized companies, there are two main CRM options as open source CRM and hosted / on-demand CRM. Open source CRM as the name implies are customizable CRM programs. These programs are available in standard formats, which can be customized according to the company needs. But the problem with this CRM solution is your company must have enough technical knowledge to customize the program. Also there are some pre-customized CRM versions available, but they may be costly or may cause problems in some critical situations.
Hosted CRM or on demand CRM is a web-based application provided by an ASP (Application Service Provider), is an example of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). In this type of CRM solution, all your CRM needs are satisfied by a distant CRM provider. The CRM provider or host will automate all proceedings including data tracking, data migration and data integration. The host will provide the solutions for situations on your demand and will charge a monthly fee for that. Advantages of on demand CRM include reduction in the initial cost essential for installing a CRM system and accessibility from any part of the world at any time. But before signing a contract with any on demand CRM provider, make sure that he uses special data encryption techniques for securing your data. One another thing to be considered is the data integration capacity of the provider.
Today one another alternative, namely open source hosted CRM, which combines the merits of both open source and hosted CRM is becoming rapidly popular. This CRM solution is proven effective in tackling specific situations. For all CRM types, most providers now offer 30 days free trail, making use of these offers can help you to find a good CRM solution for your company.
About the Author
This article has been published by eSalesTrack.com, a US based providers of on-demand CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and other application software such as Sales Force Automation. To learn more about CRM visit CRM Articles.



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