Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

June 11, 2014

Key Web Monitoring Services

Filed under: 2014 — Tags: — Ralph C Dreher @ 9:14 AM

Web monitoring plays a critical role in today’s digital world. It gives a lot to the website owner like online reputation, customer satisfaction, revenue, credibility, etc. In this post you will see key web monitoring services like website, URL, transaction, server monitoring, etc.

monitoring serviceWebsite availability monitoring
It is an essential part to be carried out to know the website performance. When your website is added to the tool of monitoring, HTTP and HTTPS requests are sent to your website to check its performance and availability. This helps you to ensure that your website is up and running at peak performance at all times. And you will get immediate notification of its performance or errors or website downtime via emails, SMS or RSS feeds. These reports are sent daily/ weekly through emails.

  • Benefits of website availability monitoring
    • When once you are notified of site’s downtime or any error, you can analyze and find the root cause of the problem. And you can resolve it quickly before your customer reacts and complaints to you.
    • Every minute of site’s downtime equates to loss of revenue. By instant notification, you can resolve issue to the fastest. Hence, by minimizing downtime, minimizes the risk of loss of revenue to your business.
    • It improves the experience of your website’s end user and thereby enhances your organization’s reputation.
  • website monitor Website performance monitoring
    • It monitors the timings of each element happening in your browser.
    • Each element of the HTML page is monitored with respect to style sheets, images, scripts etc.
    • Monitors maximum size of the single page, including its elements like script, images, styles, etc.
    • Loading speed of the each page of the website.
    • Monitors errors in a web page like missing images.
    • Monitors maximum size of the entire page including all the elements of downloaded page.
  • Transaction monitoring
    • Monitors all the transaction of the end users in your browser.
    • Monitors shopping carts, click paths, log in, registration forms, perform content, etc.
    • Generate all the real transaction from the different locations across the world.
    • Monitors and detects the performance issues.
    • You will receive alerts when transactions are not working or slow.
  • Server monitoring
    • It scans the server on networks to identify issues or errors and fix problems before they affect your end user.site monitoring
    • Monitors the performance of your servers to ensure that your website, server and internet connection devices are up and are running.
    • Monitors your server availability from different locations around the world.
    • It monitors response time of the DNS server to find the domain name. And if this response time is longer, then DNS server should be optimized to make it to respond faster.
    • It monitors different protocols like Microsoft SQL server, Web service HTTP, web service HTTPS , PING, FTP, DNS, etc.

 

May 18, 2014

The Working of a Hydraulic Braking System

Filed under: 2014 — Tags: — Ralph C Dreher @ 7:17 AM

A hydraulic brake system is one that uses brake fluid to transfer pressure to the wheels. In this system, when the brake pedal is pressed, force is exerted on the push rod, which in turn pressurizes the brake fluid, which pushes the pads against the rotor disc to stop the vehicle. A hydraulic braking system has the following parts.

  • Master cylinder
    This consists of a cylinder filled with brake fluid, a brake fluid reservoir, one or two pistons, ports from the main cylinder to the brake fluid reservoir and a return spring. The master cylinder receives pressure from the brake lever and conveys it to the hydraulic lines that start from it.
  • Wheel cylinder
    Similar to the master cylinder, the wheel cylinder receives pressure from the brake fluid and pushes the brake caliper pistons against the disc.
  • Brake fluid (or brake oil) pipelines
    These pipelines carry the brake fluid and connect the master cylinder to the wheels cylinder in each wheel.
  • Caliper assembly
    The caliper assembly contains the brake caliper pistons and the rotor disc. The caliper assembly is the component which is actually involved in the process of slowing down the wheel.

Working
When the brake pedal is pressed, the push rod presses the master cylinder’s piston. The piston pressurizes the brake fluid in the cylinder. The fluid moves through the pipelines and reaches the caliper assembly. At the caliper assembly, there are two pistons one on each side of the rotor disc and they are connected to the brake fluid. The brake fluid pressurizes each of the pistons from both the sides, and pushes them towards the rotor disc. Since there is a one way movement of the brake fluid due to the pressure from the brake lever, it is displaced in the brake fluid reservoir. This process leads to a frictional motion between the brake calipers and the rotor disc, and thus braking happens. And when the brake lever is released, the return spring in the master cylinder pushes the master piston to its original position and the displaced brake fluid returns back to the pipelines.

Brake fade
Brake fading is a common disadvantage of the hydraulic braking system. It is caused due to the following reasons:

  • When hydraulic brakes are subjected to heavy work like descending down a steep inclination, they produce a lot of heat. This might, in extreme conditions, vaporize the braking fluid. This causes ineffective or weak pressure in the caliper assembly and thus faded braking.
  • Due to continuous usage, the pads which cause friction over the rotor disc may become soft due to wearing. This also causes ineffective braking. It thus becomes important to check the brake pads regularly, and if necessary, replace it.

May 8, 2014

All That Businesses Need to Know About Inbound Marketing

Filed under: 2014 — Tags: — Ralph C Dreher @ 3:13 AM

Inbound marketing deals with attracting warm leads (potential to turn into sales) in contrast to outbound marketing which deals with cold leads. It mainly uses interesting content to acquire customers. Inbound marketing will be advantageous to companies that have tight marketing budgets. It offers a unique combination of more efficiency at a relatively less expenditure.

Inbound marketing comprises various activities like search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, blogging and social media marketing. SEO deals with working out on your website so that you get better rankings in search results, which is likely to increase online visibility. Content marketing involves various activities like creating useful and unique content, providing articles, white papers, blogs etc. Content is used as a sales pitch to a certain extent by providing value to customers.

Process of inbound marketing
There are different stages in inbound marketing which help in giving a structure to your marketing activities. It involves four to five stages. The first stage is to design a strategy that attracts website traffic, the second is to convert website visitors into leads, the third is to convert leads into sales and the final stage is to measure the results and accordingly redesign the strategy or take corrective actions.

Advantages of inbound marketing
Cost effective
Inbound marketing is completely done online, which offers many chances to reduce your marketing costs. In traditional marketing, targeting specific customers is difficult. But in inbound marketing you can easily target a specific section of customers, so you will spend only on those online users who are more likely to become your customers. As you do not depend on mass media for your marketing activities inbound marketing saves a considerable amount.

Availability of measurement tools
Another most likely advantage of inbound marketing is that you can easily measure the effectiveness of marketing campaign. This means, you can get a clear picture on return on investment. You can measure change in the traffic to your website using analytical tools. Doing these measurements and analysis will help in knowing which marketing activities are working and which are not. This will help in designing new strategies which will further improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your marketing activities.

Interactive communication
With the help of articles, you will be able to attract online users to your website. Once the users feel that the information is helpful they start interacting with you by posting comments, sending mails, etc. When the communication becomes interactive, it is likely to lead to customer engagement which is important to make customers interested in your products. You can also use social media to communicate with customers as they get a chance to directly interact with you. This helps in building good relationships with your customers which is very important in any business.

Value to customers through rich content
The rich information you provide through inbound marketing not just prompts customers to buy your products, but gives them valuable information they are looking for and thus adds value to your service. You provide value to customers and in turn you get benefits in the form of quality leads. By providing good content, you can show your expertise which could make your customers trust you as an expert in your niche.

These advantages show the importance of inbound marketing that not only helps businesses reduce their marketing budgets but provides effective results when implemented properly.
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April 16, 2014

Get to Know Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT)

Filed under: 2014 — Tags: — Ralph C Dreher @ 8:17 AM

Unlike other transmission systems, CVT does not have a set of gears. The common CVT uses a pulley system to transmit rotation. So theoretically, the number of gears a continuous variable transmission system offers is infinity. While riding a vehicle with a CVT system, you would find the transmission to be smooth and you does not feel the gear shift like in automatic and manual systems. There are basically three kinds of CVT systems.
a)Pulley based b) Toroidal and c) Hydrostatic

The pulley-based system
The pulley based system consists of two pulleys, the driving pulley, (also called the driving pulley) and the driven pulley (output pulley). A triangular shaped belt runs around them. The triangular shape is because the pulley groves taper towards the inside and so to have maximum friction.

The distance between the center of the pulleys where the belt makes contact in the groove is known as the pitch radius. When one pulley increases its radius, the other decreases its radius in order to keep the belt tight. So relatively, both the pulleys change their radii resulting in gear shifting. For example, when the pitch radius is small on the driving pulley and large on the driven pulley, the rotational speed of the output pulley decreases and vice-versa. The introduction of metal belts further enhances the performance of the belt. These flexible belts are composed of several (typically nine or 12) thin bands of steel that hold together high-strength, bow-tie-shaped pieces of metal.

Toroidal CVT
Toroidal CVT are very similar to the pulley-based model. There are two discs, one called as the input disc and the other called as the output disc replacing the input and output pulleys of the pulley based system. The discs are cone shaped structures with the tapered ends facing each other, and they have a curved surface. The rollers or wheels are rotating structures fixed to an external axis and are placed between the discs. They act like a gear wheel and transmit rotational force from the input disc to the output disc. The rollers while rotating on the external axis can also tilt themselves between the discs touching different places of the disc offering various speeds of rotation. For example,When the wheels touch the driving disc near the rim, they must contact the driven disc near the center, resulting in an increase in speed and a decrease in torque (i.e., overdrive gear). A simple tilt of the wheels, then, incrementally changes the gear ratio, providing for smooth, nearly instantaneous ratio changes.

Hydrostatic CVTs
Both pulley-based and toroidal models are friction based. But a hydrostatic CVT is a little different because it uses variable-displacement pumps and a hydrostatic motor. The rotational motion of the engine operates a pump and the pump converts this motion into fluid flow. This flow is then converted into rotating motion by a motor on the driven side. This system is usually used along with a planetary gear set as a hybrid system. Hydro-transmissions are good for heavy-performance vehicles which is why they are used in tractors.
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April 15, 2014

Technical features and advantages of a Rotary engine

Filed under: 2014 — Tags: , — Ralph C Dreher @ 9:36 AM

A Rotary engine has a radial configuration and the cylinders are arranged around the crankshaft. In a radial engine, the pistons are connected to the crankshaft with a master-and-articulating-rod assembly. One piston attaches with the crankshaft using a master rod. The remaining pistons attach themselves to rings around the edge of the master rod. The number of the cylinders is always odd, to maintain uniformity in firing order which is important for smoothness.

Advantages
In rotary engines, smoothness is achieved easily than in other engines. Since rotary engines are air-cooled, they are less heavy and thus can be used in battle vehicles. A rotary engine has a comparatively shorter crankshaft, which means less vibration and thus higher durability.

Disadvantages
Since the engine is air cooled, cooling isn’t achieved perfectly. Since all the cylinders are exposed to airflow, it results in drag. Due to it’s bulk size, it also makes difficult pilot looking outside. They also cost a lot to maintain which is undesirable.

Usage
The usage of Rotary engines were limited until the World War II, when it was used in air crafts and tanks. The main reason behind its usage in tanks was that it had a good weight-power ratio and was considered better than the inline engines at the time.

Types
1) Multi-row rotary engine: As the size and requirements of the engine increased, it became necessary to increase the number of rows of the engine. The rows of cylinders are placed next to each other on different planes. However, they are joined to the same stationary crankshaft.

2) Diesel engine: Most rotary engines are built as gasoline engines. Diesel engines were made in 1920s and 1930s due to two advantages. Diesel engines consume less amount of fuel and they have a reduced fire risk.

3) Compressed-air engine: In compressed air rotary engines, air is used in the cylinders instead of fuel. It’s used mostly in model airplanes and gas compressors.

4) The Wankel engine: An engine that works with a similar principle as that of a rotary engine is the Wankel engine. It was developed by Felix Wankel in 1957. Like a piston engine, the Wankel engine also uses the pressure from combustion.

In a rotary engine, the pressure of combustion is held in the space created by a housing and a triangular rotor fixed inside it. Fuel is pumped into one of these chambers and is moved towards the ignition location. It also gets compressed because the housing surrounding it gets narrower. When it gets ignited, the rotor is pushed with force and the next chamber automatically draws in fuel towards compression and ignition. A Wankel engine has the advantage of fewer moving parts but the parts are expensive if they are to be replaced with.
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