Decompression Sickness

One the earliest and most well-reported cases of DCS, or Decompression Sickness, was encountered during the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Workers spent long hours in caissons, compressed-air filled chambers underwater near the supports of the bridge. When they surfaced, they experienced joint pain, abdominal cramps and sometimes death. The condition came to be known as 'caissons disease'.

Home Networking - Troubleshooting a Home Network

Troubleshooting a network can take myriad forms. But most problems tend to repeat themselves. The first step is usually distinguishing between a software problem and a hardware problem. Unless you have specific reasons to question some other aspect, start troubleshooting by checking the hardware on your network. One of those reasons might be that you've just installed some new software that affected network settings.

Home Networking - Setting Up and Using a Shared Printer

One of the reasons many home network builders go through the expense and effort in the first place is to share a printer. If someone splurges several hundred to several thousand dollars for a color laser printer, they don't want to shell out that money for each computer in the home. Fortunately, sharing a printer in a Windows-based home network is easy. It isn't much more difficult in Linux.

Home Networking - Security Issues and Guidelines

Home networks are less expensive and easier to set up than ever. But sometimes the knowledge needed for building them isn't accompanied by guidelines on how to secure them. In some cases, those guidelines are simply ignored. In either case, that's a data disaster waiting to happen.

It's certainly possible to be paranoid about security. That excessive concern is just that, excessive. But a certain amount of caution is wise, not paranoid. Security is like medical insurance. You don't need it often, but when you do you'll need it badly. If you don't have it, the consequences can be severe.

Communication Gear for Divers

Thanks to advances in electronics and military applications there are now several devices available for divers to communicate under the surface. These can range from very modest to enormously expensive, but every diver can judge for him or herself whether the cost is worth it.

Before buying any equipment, every diver should memorize and practice hand signals with his or her diving partners. Equipment can malfunction, underwater obstructions can reduce their effectiveness and the old-fashioned methods remain cheap and reliable. But if you can afford it, adding the benefits offered by today's technology can increase the safety of your dive by optimizing your communication.