Support - Frequently Asked Questions
The best way to start off is to write down your message.
Your message is the most important part of the production.
After writing down your message, write beside each statement
the image your have in your head when you are reading that
statement . Remember that the imagery can be still
life or animated, recorded with a camera or created
graphically.
Once you have the images matched with the narrative, time
each part and write the duration in seconds next to each
paragraph or statement. Now you've got something:
What's said, what's seen and how long each element lasts in
seconds.
Email IMC Studios
your "working script" and we'll get you a price quote
for your production. Be sure to include your contact
information in case we're confused by something you've
written or have further questions.
Of course, we'll be glad to create all of this for you if
need be. Please reference
Scripting for more information.
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Or, What is Domain Registration, Domain Hosting and web
design, and what do you charge for them?
We have two basic ways to deal with the Internet:
Self Service and Managed Service. Either
way is great, but you need to be aware of the differences so
you can pick the right service for your business.
Self Service costs are lower, but you've got to weigh in
the amount of time you'll need to work on your site to get
it going. Of course, we'll give you some great tools
and a telephone support number, but you still have to "read
and implement". If that sounds like a little much,
then you need Managed Services.
In the IMC Studios Managed Service model, we find out
what you need and build it for you. You've got much
less of your time involved in the production process and
little to no manpower committed to oversight and maintenance
of domain names, servers, pages, etc.
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IMC Studios is open 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, Monday through
Friday. Weekends and evenings are by appointment only.
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First off, Search Engines search the web constantly for
new content, so your web site WILL be gobbled up and added
to their enormous databases.
What most people mean when they ask this question is "how
do I get to the TOP of the Search Engines?" Ah now,
that's different.
You could spend some serious blood, sweat and tears
continuously modifying your site to get above the next guy,
or you can work directly with the Search Engine owners.
I have tried both. I prefer the latter. You need
Google AdWords You set the budget and the search
words for your site. Google sets the price per click.
Fairly easy to set up, very effective and budget friendly
(why do you think Google is so phenomenally rich?).
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Yes. None of the writable formats are fully compatible
with each other or even with existing drives and players. In
other words, a DVD+R/RW drive can't write a DVD-R or DVD-RW
disc, and vice versa (unless it's a combo drive that writes
both formats). As time goes by the different formats are
becoming more compatible and more intermixed. A player with
the DVD Forum's DVD Multi is guaranteed to read DVD-R,
DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM discs, and a DVD Multi recorder can
record using all three formats. Some new "super combo"
drives can record in both plus and dash format, and a few
"super multi" drives can record all 5 disc types (DVD-R,
DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM).
In addition, not all players and drives can read recorded
discs. The basic problem is that recordable discs have
different reflectivity than pressed discs (the pre-recorded
kind you buy in a store -- see
5 ), and
not all players have been correctly designed to read them.
There are compatibility lists at
CustomFlix ,
DVDMadeEasy ,
DVDRHelp ,
YesVideo.com ,
HomeMovie.com , and
Apple
that indicate player compatibility with DVD-R and DVD-RW
discs.
DVDplusRW.org maintains a list of DVD+RW compatible
players and
drives . (Note: test results vary depending on media
quality, handling, writing conditions, player tolerances,
and so on. The indications of compatibility in these lists
are often anecdotal in nature and are only general
guidelines.) Very roughly, DVD-R and DVD+R discs work in
about 85% of existing drives and players, while DVD-RW and
DVD+RW discs work in around 70%. The situation is steadily
improving. In another few years compatibility problems will
mostly be behind us, just as with CD-R (did you know that
early CD-Rs had all kinds of compatibility problems?).
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Spiders and parasites. Welcome to the new world of
electronic junk mail, better known as SPAM. Spiders
are programs that "crawl" (search) the web, parsing
(separating) a web into its component parts (text, graphics
and tags) and rummages through them to find email addresses.
If your email address is on a website, sooner or later it
ends up in someone's list. Mail servers as part of the
normal operation must respond to mail account "checks" by
other mail services (or those acting as an imposter) to
email address verification requests. Far and away, if
the address is quickly acquired, the culprit is a parasite.
Parasites are programs which run in the background to gather
information from your computer and send it to remote
servers. Most parasites are acquired by "internet
curiosity" (clicking on that "Get Me Now!" flashing window
for instance). Don't lose your street smarts on the
Internet. Nothing is FREE! Check CLOSELY in the
application installation for statements regarding privacy of
your information. DON'T install "free goodies" on your
machine and you're one step closer to keeping the parasites
(and their inevitable SPAM landslide) out of your computer.
REMEMBER: EVERYTHING you view on the Internet is DOWNLOADED
to your machine. EVERYTHING! I can't tell you
the number of times I've heard a user say, "I've been all
over the Internet, but I haven't downloaded anything!"
Wrong, wrong, wrong. IMC Studios recommends and
installs AVG 8.0 or greater for home and Small Business
Networking, and Microsoft Forefront for medium to Enterprise
size networks.
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"Download Trojans" and "Browser Hijackers" are computer
programs in the family of applications known as "parasites".
Traditionally, parasites have differed from "viruses"
because they attempt to only "live off their hosts",
stealing personal information but intentionally trying to
"stay under the radar" when it came to system damage, but
I've experienced a new breed of parasites that are blurring
the line between the themselves and viruses. Recently,
removing parasites has also damaged the Windows Login System
and literally made it impossible to use the system. This is
a new dangerous twist in parasite behavior.
Parasites are acquired via the Internet, it's that
simple. And like head lice, once one of you lets them on
your network, unless you take precautions, you all will have
them (most of the email parasites immediately scan your
email address books and attempt to start up a mail service
of their own on your computer to send the parasite to all
your contacts). One of the biggest threats to your network
security is when the user intentionally requests the
Internet-based information by accepting a download request
or opening an email. Most parasites are installed by
users seeking "freebies" on the Internet.
You should take precautions to scan every email that you
receive by Norton Antivirus PRIOR to passing it to Outlook
for display to the user. Norton will generally alarm BEFORE
the email arrives in the Inbox in Outlook or is even opened.
The virus scanner compares the message content or attachment
to a list of known viruses (someone around 50,000 known
threats at any one time), but it is important to note that
this list is not exhaustive. There is a finite time between
the discovery of a new malicious program (parasites or
viruses) and the time it is analyzed, understood, and a
"signature" of the virus is sent back to your computer's
list of known viruses (also known as "updating your virus
signatures"). During this time, systems are vunerable to
this new attack, and we rely on Norton's "Active Protection"
that looks at application activities (like attempting to
delete all your data) and stops these programs from
operating. This is why it's so important for Norton Active
Protection not to be disabled.
Finally, the last lines of defense are good user work
practices in handling the Internet and Internet email.
Please be VERY wary of free downloads. Precision Time,
iWon, Search Assistant, HotBar, Date Manager, and many, many
similar free utilities come laden with parasites. The
best practice is just not to load them. In fact, the best
practice is not to modify the machine in any way without
first truly evaluating the TCO (the "Total Cost of
Ownership"). These free utilities almost always cost hours
of downtime and configuration difficulties, not to mention
being the flagship means of stealing personal identification
information for the purposes of false identification and
credit card theft. In a time of war, we certainly don't want
to be contributing to the bad guys having entry into our
country physically or electronically. If you really need the
functionality of these "free" utilities, contact us to
evaluate the application PRIOR to installing it. Some free
programs have great track records (Ad Aware for example).
Most, however, do not. Often, there is an inexpensive
alternative that provides all the functionality and none of
the parasites.
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There are also stronger Anti-Spam Solutions--even paid
services--for the removal of Spam.
You may want to try a software-based solution first, but
know that IMC Studios can provide hardware devices and
hosted services if you really believe its becoming a problem
(most for as little as $2/month/account).
There are also discussions of more serious legal
requirements for identification of the sending party by
ISPs. Tell your local politician your views.
Microsoft is proceeding forward with Unified Communications,
where presence and identity become much more prominent in
the discussion.
The hardware and software solutions are either
"learning-based", "trap-based" or hybrid, and there are
"pre-delivery" and "post-delivery" systems.
The learning based applications attempt to "learn" what
offends you and identify mail of that type after delivery to
the mailbox.
The trap-based applications use robotic internet email
accounts to receive and analyze email for viruses, parasites
and spam while still residing in the mail server.
Hybrid applications use a combination of remote databases
with lists of offenders and learning options.
IMC Studios has options for larger email databases and
heavier Spam traffic. For more information,
contact us.
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