This paid review is about Online
Point-of-Sale system by MerchantOS.

A Point-of-Sale system or POS is an indispensable feature in any kind of retail business. Ask any merchant around your area and chances are you will find them using some kind of POS in their business. As time goes by, POS system has evolved from standalone system to web base online system.

MerchantOS online POS system is a product developed by Ivan Stanojevic, Co-Founder and CEO and Justin Laing, Co-Founder and Software Architect. By reading on their about page, I can see that this is a classic example of how a small group of people, from what they need to use everyday, tried to make life more convenient, solving problems by developing a software that they need, and make it big by pushing it as a product for other to use.

From what I read from the MerchantOS website, majority of the merchants that uses the online POS system are bicycle shops. This does not surprise me as one of the co-founder, Ivan used to work in Slough’s bike shop in San Jose and he also rode for the Team San Jose cycling team. By going into a niche market, there will be better chance of survive because you offer what you do best and do not go head-to-head with the big boys which might already captures majority of the market.

Some advantages of using MerchantOS online POS system:

1. All the needed hardware are clearly stated on the hardware page, thus reduce wastage by selecting the correct hardware.
2. Online POS system means you can do transaction entry everywhere provided there is Internet connection.
3. No software needed to install on local system as the POS logics are on the webserver.,
4. Less hustle with licensing and backup.
5. Quick and easy to use.Workers do not need any special skills or knowledge to take full advantage of the online POS as it is developed by someone who has retail experience.

Seems that Ivan and Justin has made it big. As of time of writing, over 82 locations with $25,352,284.87 in sales and 85,332 consumers served. I like the realtime statistics on the main page. You can literally feel the energy and passion of their online POS system. If you are interested on the POS system, a demo page is provided. You can visit the page here.

Few suggestions though, just my personal opinion:

1. Try to attract more merchant from other fields. By using all bicycle shops in you testimonial page, you may give a wrong impression for potential buyers that you are good only in this kind of niche. A mixture of different fields might help.
2. The site looks abit casual for my liking. Make it more corporate like to give the impression that you are a trustworthy company.

This is a sponsored review on CSV Reader, a csv file .Net class used to parse virtually any commonly found delimited data format, CSV files, tab delimited files. Basically this review is useful for programmers in C#, VB.Net, ASP.Net, or any other .Net language and compatible with the 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 .Net frameworks. Basically if you have never heard of any of the programming languages above, you can stop here because you do not need CSV Reader.

Any programmers in his programming work will almost always face the needs to import data from other sources, either other databases or plain text files. To make job easier for us poor programmer, CSV or Comma-separated values is created. Basically here is the layman terms for CSV:

CSV, comma separated values, files are commonly used to transport large amounts of tabular data between either companies or applications that are not directly connected. The files are easily editable using common spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel.

As to how to make use of CSV files more efficiently, we can use CSV Reader who claims that it is an extremely fast and stable .Net class. The advantage is SPEED! Accordig to CSV Reader, data can be parsed in less than half of the time of any other parser it has been benchmarked against. Rough benchmarks on a 2 Ghz processor, parsing common comma separated columns is 20 MB, or 390,000 rows with 5 columns each, almost 2,000,000 cells total, of data parsing per second. That is quite an amazing figure, by any standard. You can also visualize the speed of CSV Reader using the bar chart below:

Beside the chart above, if you need more proof or benchmark of CSV Reader against other similar ways of reading CSV Files, you can refer to the benchmark page. As a programmer myself, selecting and using a proven solution that work is always more time and cost saving than reinventing the wheel. Why make it yourself and spending time cracking your brain when there is a better tool to do the trick. With the list price of $150 if you order by Jun 15th, it is a bargain if it can do as claimed. You can have a look on the example codes too.

The current version of CSV Reader is ver. 4.0, as seen from the change log, we can see that since year 2005, constant changes and new improvements are being included in various subsequence release of ver. 2.0 and ver. 3.0 in year 2006. This shows the commitment from CSV Reader developer and you can be sure that the supports for future enhancement.

Sponsored Post:

If your job requires you to perform multiple repeated actions such as mouse click and keystrokes, you may be interested in getting some tools that can do that for you. And today’s review is about one of the tools, Apis Ceratina.

Apis Ceratina is a Windows application for recording and replaying macros. Save millions of clicks and keystrokes with Apis . Reduce you repetitive tasks to a single mouse click or a keystroke.

Apis Ceratina is a software product by Mavrsoft Company. From what I see from Mavsoft website, seems that Apis Ceratina currently is the only product available on the website. According to the contact page, the company is based on Saint Petersburg, Russia and besides software, they also provide project development service to its clients.

Back to
Apis Ceratina, I am rather curious with the bee maskot and the name of the software. Since there was no explanation on the name chosen, I decided to dig it on Google. Seems that apis has something to do with bees. See Google search result here.

The program itself, Apis Ceratina is a rather useful tool for users who need to perform repeated tasks continuously. Imaging this: Open a text file, select text, copy text inside, switch to another text windows, paste the copied text, save file…. all these can be program using macro in Apis Ceratina.

To get more detailed properties and uses of Apis Ceratina, here is the complete list:

1. Intelligent software to record, replay and schedule keyboard and mouse activities.
2. Auto fill of hundreds of business forms and dialog boxes

Users of Apis Ceratina can utilize hotkey to launch recorded macros, if you wish to launch your macro, you can do so by defining the scope, which you can then define a substring of a window title. Advanced functions such as repeat option, schedule, turbo speed and fast access Apis menu are also available for advanced users.

Best of all, for gamers of online games, such as Conquer Online and others, you can perform many repeated tasks such as hunting, mining and training using Apis Ceratina. It will save gamers countless hours of time for other tasks such as resting and working.

In the conclusion, for $29.95, Apis Ceratina is an affordable choice for a good macro program with so many functions. If you are not sure, why not give them a try by going to their download page.

Windows Backup Or Restore Wizard is a very useful utility that come standard with Windows XP Professional Edition. It is very handy in performing crucial system and data files backup and restoration, prior to any making of important changes.

Here is the step-to-step guide on using Windows Backup Or Restore Wizard.

To Backup

Next select a place to save the backup and a descriptive name for this backup.

To Restore

Finally review ur selection prior to perform the actual restoration.

Windows Backup Or Restoration Wizard is a simple tool for novice to perform files and system setting backup and restore. It lacks the more advanced features but hey, it is free and get the job done.

Windows XP N is a special version of Windows XP.

Windows XP N come out after European Union ordered Microsoft to remove Microsoft Windows Media Player before selling it in Europe. < table>
Link to WIndows XP N

So, does it solve the problem? Well, Yes and No, I would say.

Yes because Microsoft can avoid the hefty daily fine by EU.

No because as people in EU can continue to buy the full version of Microsoft Windows, which does not cost more than the reduced version, Microsoft Window XP N, thus making the whole thing pointless. Korean government has some similar experience with Microsoft too, but they are demanding for Windows Messenger to be removed too.

Here is some words from Microsoft Press Release:

“Originally released to computer makers in January 2005, the latest versions of the XP operating systems without Windows Media Player follow further clarifications from the European Commission. These products will be made available to computer manufacturers on June 15 in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and will be available to other distribution channels, including the retail and volume licensing channels, on July 1. The remaining language versions ??Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish ??will be available to computer makers on July 1 and to other distribution channels on July 15.”

Service Pack 3 Download for Windows XP is a combination of IE7, some security features, anti-phishing technology and some other not-too-major things.

You may not be able to download Windows XP SP3 yet because the news is from a blog by the guys at F-Secure and was mentioned at the Inquirer.

It was also mentioned that Windows XP SP3 will hit the road before Longhorn, which means by the end of 2006, as mentioned by Bill Gates himself at WinHEC.

KB910437 Update for Windows XP is a update that resolve an compatibility issue between Windows XP and its update features, namely Windows Update and Automatic Updates.

The problem is that when you use the Automatic Updates feature, you may face an Access Violation error and after that, you will not be able to perform update downloads.

To download KB910437, click on the logo below.

KB910437 update was discovered and published on 12/12/05 and it only applies to Windows XP with Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2.

After applied the update, you may need to restart your PC to perform the Windows Update, in order to keep your Windows update to date.

KB908519 Security Update For Windows XP (MS006-002) is a patch for vulnerability in Windows XP Embedded Web Fonts that count allow remote code execution in your Windows XP system.

KB908519 security update applies to users of several latest versions of Microsoft Windows. The impact of this remote code execution vulnerability is rated critical by Microsoft, and all Windows users are advised to apply the update immediately.

To download and apply the updates for KB908519, a table has been created to make it easier to find the applicable suitable updates.

Please refer to table below.

Windows Version	Download Update
Windows 2000 SP4
Windows XP SP1/SP2
Windows XP Professional X64 Edition
Windows Server 2003/SP1
Windows Server 2003 for Itanium-based systems
Windows Server X64

KB908519 security update is very important for your Windows system, as it prevents other from gaining unauthorized access to your system and stealing your data.

KB912919 Security Update for Windows XP is the latest security update for Windows XP to cater for its remote code execution security issue.

The remote code execution security bug is affecting almost all version of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Server 2003, Windows XP(with SP1 and SP2) and Windows 2000.

Refer to the table if you need to identify whether your Windows is in the list.

You may have updated KB912919 Security Update for Windows XP if you use the Automatic Windows Update feature in Windows XP.

If you are not, then please follow the step-by step guide below for the update:

• Goto Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs.
  
  

• Make sure to check the “Show updates” box in the upper center of the Add or Remove Programs window.
• Browse to Windows XP - Software Updates -> Security Update for Windows XP(KB912919). If you cannot find the entry, please also make sure to sort the list by Name.
• Once you have found KB912919, just update it to have your system patched.

If you cannot find KB912919 in your Add or Remove programs, then you will have to go find it from Microsoft website and download it.

To make it simple for you, here is the link.

Please make sure you download and patch KB912919 properly, you do not want other to gain access to your computer and mess around with it.

Windows XP Home remote desktop is a very handy feature in Windows XP Home.

Remote desktop is a new technology in Windows XP that is based on Terminal Services technology which was last used in Windows NT and Windows 2000 PCs.

There are two parties involved in Windows XP Home, a remote PC and a client PC.

A remote PC is a PC that is being accessed or controlled, where else a client PC is the PC that is accessing and controlling the remote PC.

A PC with Windows XP Home operating system can only become a client PC, but not a remote PC, wehre else a PC with Windows XP Professional can become both client PC and remote PC.

To initiate a remote desktop session, the remote desktop PC must be configured to allow remote access from other Windows XP PC.

Here is the simple step-by-step guide to help you perform the remote desktop setting in Windows XP.

1. Open Control Panel and go to Remote tab.

   

2. Under Remote Desktop section, make sure to enable “Allow users to connect remotely to his computer” by checking it.
3. By default, all members of the Administrator group can connect even if they are not listed. If you want to allow any other users not under Administrator group, open “Select Remote Users” and put in the user names that you authorize to have remote access right to your Windows XP PC.
4. One thing to check is that for any users\ to connect remotely to this computer, the user account must have password.
5. Windows Firewall will also be automatically configured to allow Remote Desktop connections to this computer.

Since you have configured your Windows XP PC to allow remote access, you can now try to connect to your PC from other PC as a client PC now.