Learning About ASP and Server-Side Programming This article describes what ASP and server-side technologies are. There is a brief tutorial that walks you through creating your first ASP pages. This article assumes that you are already comfortable with HTML and you’re interested in learning more about other Web technologies. ASP is a Web server scripting language from Microsoft used for embedding dynamic content into HTML Web pages. ASP stands for “Active Server Pages.”

ASP is a server-side scripting language. What distinguishes ASP from something like client-side JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server. This means that the server executes your script and translates the content to HTML before sending it to your Web browser. All of the heavy lifting and computing is done on the server. When a user looks at the source for the Web page created by your ASP file, they have no way of knowing what’s going on behind the scenes—all they see is the end result.

Your users might not know that they can use Excel to analyze data from the various databases in your organization. They can use the powerful analytical tools of Excel on data they previously only viewed or edited within the database user interface. Using these features, they can pull data from your customer database, sales tracking database, product catalog, and HR systems into various sheets in a workbook and perform complex pivot table analysis not possible using the separate applications.This ability is provided by the use of Microsoft Query, an Office application that lives "behind" Excel. You can access Microsoft Query by clicking Data | Get External Data. The Query interface is similar to the Design view of a query in Access. Point Query at a database, and it will allow you to build complex relational queries to pull the necessary data into your worksheet. Now you can build your pivot tables and perform your analysis.

In 2001, Safeware(http://www.safeware.com) estimated that thieves stole over 500,000 laptops for that year but only 15,000 desktop computers. Laptops make the most obvious and enticing targets because of their small size, light weight, and high resale value, so if you’re traveling with a laptop in public, do your best to hide it. Walk through any airport and you’ll see many people carrying their laptops in distinctive black carrying cases, easily recognizable to a thief and nearly impossible to identify by sight if stolen. Instead of carrying your laptop in a case that screams out "Laptop! Steal me!" put it in an ordinary briefcase or backpack, or even in a paper shopping bag to disguise it as a souvenir from an overpriced airport gift shop.

This article describes how to use the Windows XP Encrypting File System (EFS) feature to store files in an encrypted format on your hard disk. Encryption is the process of converting data into a format that cannot be read by others. You can use EFS to automatically encrypt your data when it is stored on the hard disk. The Encrypting File System (EFS) is a file system driver that provides filesystem-level encryption in Microsoft Windows (2000 and later) operating systems, except Windows XP Home Edition, Windows Vista Basic, and Windows Vista Home Premium. The technology enables files to be transparently encrypted on NTFS file systems to protect confidential data from attackers with physical access to the computer.