Mars Attacks - More Often Than You Think!
Okay, before you think that I'm just another "alien freak", let me say that I don't mean that little green men from the red planet are on the warpath. The sort of "attack" that I'm referring to has to do with the very noticeable effects in your life whenever the planet Mars forms an "aspect" to one of the factors in your birth chart.
Have you ever had one of those days where you seemed
restless, perhaps even nervous, when you were impatient with others, when you couldn't sleep at night... and there didn't seem to be any obvious reason for your agitated state? Well, then you may well have been experiencing what is known to astrologers as a "Mars transit".
As you may already know, a birth chart is a map of the exact (to the degree and minute of arc) planetary positions on the date (and at the time and place) of your birth. One of the main techniques that we astrologers use to make predictions about the tendencies of a person's future is that of the so-called "transits". A transit occurs when a planet on a specific day/time (for example, right now) is passing over a degree of the zodiac that is in a specific angle to one of the important factors in your birth chart. Let's get more concrete. Suppose you were born on November 8 1955, at 9:48 am EST (as I was). The Sun in your birth chart is (as seen from the earth) in 15 degrees, 25 minutes of the sign Scorpio. Now, on Nov 6, 2005, the planet Mars is in 15 degrees Taurus: exactly 180 degrees from "your" Sun. An 180 angle is known as an "opposition", and is but one of the various aspects used in astrological work.
In order to interpret such an aspect, several things must be considered:
- The planet making the aspect (in this case, Mars)
- The planet (or other factor) in the birth chart receiving
the aspect (the Sun, in our example)
- The Nature of the aspect (in this case, of the opposition).
- Other considerations, such as the signs and houses these
planets occupy, other aspects that are present among the
factors in the birth chart, etc.
In our example, we'll simplify. An opposition is regarded as an aspect of tension, and often represents a challenge we have to face. As I write these lines, the planet Mars is in opposition to my Sun, and has been for several days - and I sure have noticed it! I've been busier than usual, teaching my students, working on different Internet projects, and have generally not had much time to just sit back and relax. This is often the case when Mars is in aspect to your Sun.
Also typical of Mars is, on occasion, accidents, or
experiencing pain of some sort. Well, a few days ago, one of my back teeth began to hurt. My dentist had warned me it was going to give me trouble some day (it already has several fillings in it), and I'm afraid that day has arrived. A toothache is a painful thing to have, as I'm sure many of you know, and in just a half hour, I'll be leaving for the dentist's to see whether the tooth can be saved, or must be extracted. In any case, the inevitable unpleasantness/pain associated with undergoing dental work is also typical of a Mars transit.
Nervousness, impatience and impulsiveness often occur under a Mars transit, so if you're experiencing such a time, I suggest you try to relax, take your time, drive more slowly than usual... for when under the influence of Mars, we tend to get ahead of ourselves, and this can, depending on the circumstances, lead to an increased risk of accidents.
How can you know when a Mars transit will be affecting you? Well, just about any good astrology program allows you to calculate transits. Our own "Omnicycles" program lets you do both your birth chart and transits (in graph form) for the weeks/months when Mars will be showing its influence most strongly in your future. There are also some astrology sites that let you calculate the positions of the planets for different time periods: use seach terms such as "astrology", "on-line ephemeris" (put this one in quotes), and "aspect" in Google to find sites that offer such a service.
Despite the occasional upsets that Mars transits can bring you, I should also mention the positive side. During these times, you will have more energy, and will no doubt be able to get a lot more done in your work, studies, etc. Take advantage of this trend: if you feel so "worked up" that you don't know what to do with all that excess energy, maybe it would be a good time to paint the porch, indulge in your favorite sport, or work it off in some other way. Just resist the temptation to do too much, or to tax your strength to the limit: be active, but don't take any unnecessary risks.
Since Mars can, in its worst manifestation, represent
violence, we can be pretty sure of one thing - If those little green men from that neighbouring red planet ever DO decide to attack and wipe us all out, it will probably happen when Mars is in a rather bad aspect to the Earth!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
You Must Be an Artist
...Meet this solemn question with a strong, simple I must, then build your life in
accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most
indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse."-Rilke
We are, all of us, meant to create. We are creat-ures, thus it is evident in the world
around us that as a spider spins a web, a bird builds a nest, humans are possessed
of a spiritual and biological mandate to spin and build a world of beauty and
function. The human distinction is the ability to make symbols. Symbolism is the art
of investing the world around us with meaning by expressing the invisible or
intangible through visible or sensuous representation. This is the simplest, the least
unsettling definition of art and creativity. From this definition, we have come to
believe and to thoroughly accept without question that art belongs to those who
paint the paintings, write the words, and mold the clay, into those representations
of the intangible and the invisible. Art has therefore been divided into those who do
and those who dont.
The reinstatement of art into every one of our lives, both in our ability to receive
and to recreate it, is to return to living with meaning. Creativity is, like evolution,
like all growth and change, an irrepressible force in nature. Thus far, only humans
have attempted to turn away from this call, and a case can be made that it is this
turning away that is the cause of so much of our pain, suffering, and longing. This
suffering, however, is the result of confusion and misdirection, not hapless
circumstance.
Art, like science, philosophy, and civility, is our best defense against the
insupportable weight of all that we dont know. If we could disperse the weight
among us citizen artists, come up with a more inclusive outlook, we could lighten
the formidable load of ignorance. In the broadest sense, art is a response in
whatever form it takes--an expression of the love and beauty and terror as it is
given to us through the visible bounty of Naturethat pulls us further out of the
mire. Creativity is anything that fosters that indwelling spirit, any creation or activity
that advances the progression of the unimpedable energy of growth that is life. The
replication of that love and beauty, the balm that soothes the terror, or the release
provided by the recognition of that terror, is our task, is the way of art and
creativity, a whole-some response to existence.
Whether you are a fireman, a pathologist, a babysitter, or a banker, you must be an
artist. Must be means, first of all, the recognition of this as your identity, as in, Oh,
you must be an artist... Secondly, must be makes it imperative. You must respond
to the dignity evolving out of creaturehood toward a greater man, toward God, and
remain fearless as well as awe-struck by the vast implications. In the meeting of this
challenge, you will be recognized by a light in the eye of those you encounter, as
extraordinary.
The commitment to creativity, like any other commitment, will become an integral,
necessary, part of our life once we realize that not only does our art spring from and
define the core of, yes, our own identities, but more importantly, that it is an
expression of that which is greater than ourselves. Thus who we are becomes linked
with the world, and it is given meaning and purpose by what we do with this link.
Creativity is the purveyor of meaning.
We begin with a sense that there is something within us that must act and express.
We begin by going beyond the sadness we have experienced at having this
something repressed, discouraged, buried. We begin with the thin person with the
fat body, the sober, healthy being underneath the addicts skin, the lover inside our
neglected hearts. We begin with the hope and the longing of the creative force
within ourselves.
...Meet this solemn question with a strong, simple I must, then build your life in
accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most
indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse."-Rilke
We are, all of us, meant to create. We are creat-ures, thus it is evident in the world
around us that as a spider spins a web, a bird builds a nest, humans are possessed
of a spiritual and biological mandate to spin and build a world of beauty and
function. The human distinction is the ability to make symbols. Symbolism is the art
of investing the world around us with meaning by expressing the invisible or
intangible through visible or sensuous representation. This is the simplest, the least
unsettling definition of art and creativity. From this definition, we have come to
believe and to thoroughly accept without question that art belongs to those who
paint the paintings, write the words, and mold the clay, into those representations
of the intangible and the invisible. Art has therefore been divided into those who do
and those who dont.
The reinstatement of art into every one of our lives, both in our ability to receive
and to recreate it, is to return to living with meaning. Creativity is, like evolution,
like all growth and change, an irrepressible force in nature. Thus far, only humans
have attempted to turn away from this call, and a case can be made that it is this
turning away that is the cause of so much of our pain, suffering, and longing. This
suffering, however, is the result of confusion and misdirection, not hapless
circumstance.
Art, like science, philosophy, and civility, is our best defense against the
insupportable weight of all that we dont know. If we could disperse the weight
among us citizen artists, come up with a more inclusive outlook, we could lighten
the formidable load of ignorance. In the broadest sense, art is a response in
whatever form it takes--an expression of the love and beauty and terror as it is
given to us through the visible bounty of Naturethat pulls us further out of the
mire. Creativity is anything that fosters that indwelling spirit, any creation or activity
that advances the progression of the unimpedable energy of growth that is life. The
replication of that love and beauty, the balm that soothes the terror, or the release
provided by the recognition of that terror, is our task, is the way of art and
creativity, a whole-some response to existence.
Whether you are a fireman, a pathologist, a babysitter, or a banker, you must be an
artist. Must be means, first of all, the recognition of this as your identity, as in, Oh,
you must be an artist... Secondly, must be makes it imperative. You must respond
to the dignity evolving out of creaturehood toward a greater man, toward God, and
remain fearless as well as awe-struck by the vast implications. In the meeting of this
challenge, you will be recognized by a light in the eye of those you encounter, as
extraordinary.
The commitment to creativity, like any other commitment, will become an integral,
necessary, part of our life once we realize that not only does our art spring from and
define the core of, yes, our own identities, but more importantly, that it is an
expression of that which is greater than ourselves. Thus who we are becomes linked
with the world, and it is given meaning and purpose by what we do with this link.
Creativity is the purveyor of meaning.
We begin with a sense that there is something within us that must act and express.
We begin by going beyond the sadness we have experienced at having this
something repressed, discouraged, buried. We begin with the thin person with the
fat body, the sober, healthy being underneath the addicts skin, the lover inside our
neglected hearts. We begin with the hope and the longing of the creative force
within ourselves.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Dump that Overhead Projector!
What is it about overhead projectors that causes us to become lousy communicators? Why do our speeches or presentations lose much of their steam when we use overheads?
Well, for starters, we often give more attention to the overheads than the audience. It can't be helped. After all, we have to pick up the right overhead, separate it from the next one, get it on the projector properly, check it out on the screen, and so on.
While doing those things, we're taking our eyes off the audience. At the same time, the audience spends a lot of time looking at the screen, rather than at us. And, nothing detracts from good communication like loss of eye contact with the audience.
We're also taking our mind off the audience. Instead, we're focusing our thoughts on the technical issues involved in showing the overhead, including our explanations of the visuals.
Then there's the amount of material. Almost every time I see a speech with overheads, I see way too much content. One of the best lessons I've learned in several years at Toastmasters is that less is more. Don't try to explain everything to your audience, just pick one small sliver of an issue and explain it well - a speech is not a book or a written article!
And, then there's the simple fact that the projector gets between you and the audience. There's noise and the size of the projector, which mean a projector can be a more powerful presence at the front of the room than you.
Perhaps there should be a 12-step program for getting over overhead projectors. While they're unlikely be an addiction, they can be a crutch, one that allows us to make presentations without adequate thought or preparation.
Personally, I like the idea of giving up overheads and projectors altogether. A colleague recently asked if we should use overheads when we do some upcoming presentations together. I expressed my opinion firmly. Need I say what that was?
If you're not ready to give them up, use your overheads in a supporting role. Don't ask them to carry a substantial part of the message; you should deliver the message, and the overheads should reinforce what you say.
For example, if your presentation involves numerical information, a simple bar or line graph might help the audience get the point. Or, if you're talking about a sequence of events and their order is critical, a numbered list might help.
But the best bet may be to go without. Before the presentation, think hard about the message or messages you want to convey. Boil them down into no more than three points, and then look for stories, analogies, metaphors, and anything else that will illustrate and reinforce each point. Try to create mental images with words, like good radio ads.
In summary, overhead projectors put serious communication barriers between speakers and audiences. Get rid of them. You'll be glad you did - and your audience will, too.
What is it about overhead projectors that causes us to become lousy communicators? Why do our speeches or presentations lose much of their steam when we use overheads?
Well, for starters, we often give more attention to the overheads than the audience. It can't be helped. After all, we have to pick up the right overhead, separate it from the next one, get it on the projector properly, check it out on the screen, and so on.
While doing those things, we're taking our eyes off the audience. At the same time, the audience spends a lot of time looking at the screen, rather than at us. And, nothing detracts from good communication like loss of eye contact with the audience.
We're also taking our mind off the audience. Instead, we're focusing our thoughts on the technical issues involved in showing the overhead, including our explanations of the visuals.
Then there's the amount of material. Almost every time I see a speech with overheads, I see way too much content. One of the best lessons I've learned in several years at Toastmasters is that less is more. Don't try to explain everything to your audience, just pick one small sliver of an issue and explain it well - a speech is not a book or a written article!
And, then there's the simple fact that the projector gets between you and the audience. There's noise and the size of the projector, which mean a projector can be a more powerful presence at the front of the room than you.
Perhaps there should be a 12-step program for getting over overhead projectors. While they're unlikely be an addiction, they can be a crutch, one that allows us to make presentations without adequate thought or preparation.
Personally, I like the idea of giving up overheads and projectors altogether. A colleague recently asked if we should use overheads when we do some upcoming presentations together. I expressed my opinion firmly. Need I say what that was?
If you're not ready to give them up, use your overheads in a supporting role. Don't ask them to carry a substantial part of the message; you should deliver the message, and the overheads should reinforce what you say.
For example, if your presentation involves numerical information, a simple bar or line graph might help the audience get the point. Or, if you're talking about a sequence of events and their order is critical, a numbered list might help.
But the best bet may be to go without. Before the presentation, think hard about the message or messages you want to convey. Boil them down into no more than three points, and then look for stories, analogies, metaphors, and anything else that will illustrate and reinforce each point. Try to create mental images with words, like good radio ads.
In summary, overhead projectors put serious communication barriers between speakers and audiences. Get rid of them. You'll be glad you did - and your audience will, too.
What Is Lean Healthcare?
Have you heard of Lean Healthcare? I am sure many of you have and that quite a
few havent. The concept of lean healthcare has been adopted from manufacturers.
The idea of lean manufacturing and lean service are most visibly displayed by
Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota has so refined and developed the techniques
that organizations around the world are using their ideas to improve their own
organization and are benchmarking against Toyota.
Lean healthcare is basically reducing waste in the delivery of service both directly to
the patient and to internal customers, such as human resource services to
employees. For instance, lean techniques help eliminate duplicated procedures,
such as a nurse taking the blood pressure of a patient and then the doctor doing the
same a few minutes later. It also makes sure that all of the necessary tools and
products are in an examination room when needed. It is beyond the scope of this
article to fully describe lean healthcare; many books have been written about it. In
fact, the American Society of Quality in their online bookstore has several titles,
including Lean-Six Sigma for Healthcare. I would like to define a few techniques
found in lean healthcare to illustrate its value, though.
One of the most commonly used tools is Value Stream Mapping. VSM displays in a
physical graph the process from beginning to end of the delivery of a service or
procedure in order to identify wasted effort or steps that dont add value to the
results. For instance, in the April 2005 issue of Quality Progress the article Lean Six
Sigma Reduces Medication Errors presents the process by which a team of nurses
and pharmacists in a hospital setting reduced the waiting time and errors in the
delivery of medication from the pharmacy to the patient. By the use of VSM and
other statistical techniques, the error rate was reduced from 0.33% to 0.14% in 5
months and a savings of $550,000 was realized.
Lean healthcare emphasizes tapping employees knowledge to improve processes.
Leaders of an organization empower employees to present ideas for improvement
and then enact promising ones in order to save time, money and improve patient
health and satisfaction. One such technique for empowering employees is the
kaizen. This is a meeting of staff to quickly generate solutions to a process which
has been identified as needing improvement; the team members are representatives
of those actually involved in the process. A kaizen event is marked as a brief,
intense effort to solve such a problem. It may take several hours or a day or two.
The work time lost of the members of the kaizen is more than offset by the
outcomes of the meeting.
Lean healthcare is driven by the identified needs of the patient or customer. For
instance, waiting time is deemed waste. A patient having to wait more than a day or
two to see a doctor for an office appointment is waste. Many in healthcare think
that this is a problem which is almost impossible to solve. It isnt. Solutions to this
problem have been described in several articles of Family Practice Management, a
publication of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The ideas are easily
adopted to sites which arent primary care physician practices.
Lean identifies the best techniques and strategies to deliver quality care and then
makes them standard operating procedure. In fact, it is a good idea to write a
manual of the best processes in order that any employee can reference at any time
and also in order to use it as a training tool for new employees.
I would like to urge you to look deeper into the ideas of lean healthcare. There are
many publications describing it, as the ASQ publication mentioned earlier. The April
2006 issue of Family Practice Management has a great article for lean in the doctors
office; it can be found for free online. Your efforts in implementing lean techniques
will be rewarding to both you and your patients.
Have you heard of Lean Healthcare? I am sure many of you have and that quite a
few havent. The concept of lean healthcare has been adopted from manufacturers.
The idea of lean manufacturing and lean service are most visibly displayed by
Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota has so refined and developed the techniques
that organizations around the world are using their ideas to improve their own
organization and are benchmarking against Toyota.
Lean healthcare is basically reducing waste in the delivery of service both directly to
the patient and to internal customers, such as human resource services to
employees. For instance, lean techniques help eliminate duplicated procedures,
such as a nurse taking the blood pressure of a patient and then the doctor doing the
same a few minutes later. It also makes sure that all of the necessary tools and
products are in an examination room when needed. It is beyond the scope of this
article to fully describe lean healthcare; many books have been written about it. In
fact, the American Society of Quality in their online bookstore has several titles,
including Lean-Six Sigma for Healthcare. I would like to define a few techniques
found in lean healthcare to illustrate its value, though.
One of the most commonly used tools is Value Stream Mapping. VSM displays in a
physical graph the process from beginning to end of the delivery of a service or
procedure in order to identify wasted effort or steps that dont add value to the
results. For instance, in the April 2005 issue of Quality Progress the article Lean Six
Sigma Reduces Medication Errors presents the process by which a team of nurses
and pharmacists in a hospital setting reduced the waiting time and errors in the
delivery of medication from the pharmacy to the patient. By the use of VSM and
other statistical techniques, the error rate was reduced from 0.33% to 0.14% in 5
months and a savings of $550,000 was realized.
Lean healthcare emphasizes tapping employees knowledge to improve processes.
Leaders of an organization empower employees to present ideas for improvement
and then enact promising ones in order to save time, money and improve patient
health and satisfaction. One such technique for empowering employees is the
kaizen. This is a meeting of staff to quickly generate solutions to a process which
has been identified as needing improvement; the team members are representatives
of those actually involved in the process. A kaizen event is marked as a brief,
intense effort to solve such a problem. It may take several hours or a day or two.
The work time lost of the members of the kaizen is more than offset by the
outcomes of the meeting.
Lean healthcare is driven by the identified needs of the patient or customer. For
instance, waiting time is deemed waste. A patient having to wait more than a day or
two to see a doctor for an office appointment is waste. Many in healthcare think
that this is a problem which is almost impossible to solve. It isnt. Solutions to this
problem have been described in several articles of Family Practice Management, a
publication of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The ideas are easily
adopted to sites which arent primary care physician practices.
Lean identifies the best techniques and strategies to deliver quality care and then
makes them standard operating procedure. In fact, it is a good idea to write a
manual of the best processes in order that any employee can reference at any time
and also in order to use it as a training tool for new employees.
I would like to urge you to look deeper into the ideas of lean healthcare. There are
many publications describing it, as the ASQ publication mentioned earlier. The April
2006 issue of Family Practice Management has a great article for lean in the doctors
office; it can be found for free online. Your efforts in implementing lean techniques
will be rewarding to both you and your patients.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression
There is no easy way to define exactly what editors, publishers, PR managers, non-profit directors, advertising executives, and other industry professionals want from writers. There are no written guidelines, standard requirements, or official specifications that apply to writing jobs across the board... Every employer has special expectations and each writing position demands different skills. In an attempt to gather helpful hints for writers seeking to land a job in one of the many career fields mentioned in my previous article Finding Your Niche at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5746.asp I talked to some professionals, who have experience hiring writers and/or advising college students as they begin to look for work. Creativity counts, according to a few sources.
"It begins with your resume, cover letter and/or clips," says T.S. Minns, a professor of Mass Communications, who has taught for more than 20 years at several colleges on the East Coast. "Originality makes a difference. The - less is more - concept that applies to writing in general - also applies to your resume and cover letter," Minns says. "Editors don't have time, nor do they want to read lengthy letters full of extra words that fail to add to anything worthwhile or meaningful." Lisa Zeicher, a former managing editor for a few publications in the Pennsylvania area, agrees. "Choose your words carefully,"' Zeicher says. "Edit your resume and cover letter in the same way you edit your work. Eliminate unnecessary content. Make it concise and convincing." Zeicher compares it to writing a news article with "a hook" - the ever important first graph - that should grab your reader and make her want to keep reading. "You probably have a minute or two to capture an editor's attention," Zeicher says. "You must give your prospective employer a reason to continue scanning your cover letter and resume." That is the first step, Minns says. "If you fail to accomplish that first step, you will never get to the second step - the interview itself,'' he says.
Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of the Free Ezine for Writers featuring news, reviews, and continuously updated links to the best resources for writers online like - freelancing & jobs, markets & publishers, literary agents, classes & contests, and more... Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art157.asp
There is no easy way to define exactly what editors, publishers, PR managers, non-profit directors, advertising executives, and other industry professionals want from writers. There are no written guidelines, standard requirements, or official specifications that apply to writing jobs across the board... Every employer has special expectations and each writing position demands different skills. In an attempt to gather helpful hints for writers seeking to land a job in one of the many career fields mentioned in my previous article Finding Your Niche at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5746.asp I talked to some professionals, who have experience hiring writers and/or advising college students as they begin to look for work. Creativity counts, according to a few sources.
"It begins with your resume, cover letter and/or clips," says T.S. Minns, a professor of Mass Communications, who has taught for more than 20 years at several colleges on the East Coast. "Originality makes a difference. The - less is more - concept that applies to writing in general - also applies to your resume and cover letter," Minns says. "Editors don't have time, nor do they want to read lengthy letters full of extra words that fail to add to anything worthwhile or meaningful." Lisa Zeicher, a former managing editor for a few publications in the Pennsylvania area, agrees. "Choose your words carefully,"' Zeicher says. "Edit your resume and cover letter in the same way you edit your work. Eliminate unnecessary content. Make it concise and convincing." Zeicher compares it to writing a news article with "a hook" - the ever important first graph - that should grab your reader and make her want to keep reading. "You probably have a minute or two to capture an editor's attention," Zeicher says. "You must give your prospective employer a reason to continue scanning your cover letter and resume." That is the first step, Minns says. "If you fail to accomplish that first step, you will never get to the second step - the interview itself,'' he says.
Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of the Free Ezine for Writers featuring news, reviews, and continuously updated links to the best resources for writers online like - freelancing & jobs, markets & publishers, literary agents, classes & contests, and more... Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art157.asp
Can You Use Customers' Names Too Many Times?
When I worked in guest services at The Ritz Carlton, I noticed some employees had a tendency to overuse guests' names. Unfortunately, after a certain point, it worked in reverse. (Especially in conversations under 7 minutes)
Name overkill doesn't just happen in the hotel industry - it's everywhere. Sure, we know people love to hear their names more than any word in the dictionary. But there comes a point where customers are thinking to themselves, "Alright, I got it. You know my name. That's enough!"
Each point on this graph represents a single moment when a customer hears his name in a short (about 7 minute) transaction. Here's how it makes him feel:
A, nada - "They didn't even use my name once. I don't feel valued."
B, once - "Ahhh...the cashier said 'Mr. Lynch.' Man, you gotta love this store."
C, twice - "Whoa! Two times! This salesman has a great memory. Now that's what I call service!"
D, thrice - "Alright (mild chuckle) - I got it. You know my name. Thank you very much."
E, four times - "No, seriously, you don't have to keep using my name. The first two times were enough."
F, five times - "This is ridiculous. And annoying. I no longer believe you are sincere. And now I've become uncomfortable. Please go away."
Next time you walk into a store, hotel or place of business in which you have a short transaction, keep your ears open. Count how many times they say your name. Then you be the judge. Ask yourself: Did they say it too much?
When I worked in guest services at The Ritz Carlton, I noticed some employees had a tendency to overuse guests' names. Unfortunately, after a certain point, it worked in reverse. (Especially in conversations under 7 minutes)
Name overkill doesn't just happen in the hotel industry - it's everywhere. Sure, we know people love to hear their names more than any word in the dictionary. But there comes a point where customers are thinking to themselves, "Alright, I got it. You know my name. That's enough!"
Each point on this graph represents a single moment when a customer hears his name in a short (about 7 minute) transaction. Here's how it makes him feel:
A, nada - "They didn't even use my name once. I don't feel valued."
B, once - "Ahhh...the cashier said 'Mr. Lynch.' Man, you gotta love this store."
C, twice - "Whoa! Two times! This salesman has a great memory. Now that's what I call service!"
D, thrice - "Alright (mild chuckle) - I got it. You know my name. Thank you very much."
E, four times - "No, seriously, you don't have to keep using my name. The first two times were enough."
F, five times - "This is ridiculous. And annoying. I no longer believe you are sincere. And now I've become uncomfortable. Please go away."
Next time you walk into a store, hotel or place of business in which you have a short transaction, keep your ears open. Count how many times they say your name. Then you be the judge. Ask yourself: Did they say it too much?
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Read This Article If You Want To Protect Your Home
Every family wishes to protect their domicile and it is more than just a home where people like, it is much more than that and the need to protect your living space and territory is an innate characteristic of the species. Humans are a territorial animal like other higher mammals; we see in the wild the Great Apes, bands of chimpanzees even dens of Lions protecting their territories from predators.
Even at a time in this present period where we have few if any predators, we seem to have held this need to protect our homes. In fact we enlist government to do this and in trade we all agree to live by certain rule in trade the government protecting us. Yet they really do not protect our homes, after all there is no with the exception of some criminals and looters who might threaten our homes. In fact about the only real threats to our homes come from the government in imminent domain actions or lawyers suing us using the very law we agree to live within? Interesting isnt it?
Then there is Mother Nature namely; rain, flooding, snow, wildfires, locusts, Earthquakes or the wind from a Tornado or Hurricane. But even there we trust the government to tell us how to build thru building codes, such as no shingle roofs near forest fire prone regions, stronger foundations in known Earthquake areas and of course the government also provides storm drain rules for the 100-year flood to developers of virgin real estate.
But even with all these rules and regulations, nothing is guaranteed and you need to also consider what you can do to protect yourself. I suggest you draw out your house on some graph paper and take a look at every possible risk from mold and rats to rain and snow. Think of anything that could happen and the simple things you can do in the potential eventuality of such event. There are little things you can do, which do not cost much and as you do research you will learn more about what you can do to protect your home. Think on this.
Every family wishes to protect their domicile and it is more than just a home where people like, it is much more than that and the need to protect your living space and territory is an innate characteristic of the species. Humans are a territorial animal like other higher mammals; we see in the wild the Great Apes, bands of chimpanzees even dens of Lions protecting their territories from predators.
Even at a time in this present period where we have few if any predators, we seem to have held this need to protect our homes. In fact we enlist government to do this and in trade we all agree to live by certain rule in trade the government protecting us. Yet they really do not protect our homes, after all there is no with the exception of some criminals and looters who might threaten our homes. In fact about the only real threats to our homes come from the government in imminent domain actions or lawyers suing us using the very law we agree to live within? Interesting isnt it?
Then there is Mother Nature namely; rain, flooding, snow, wildfires, locusts, Earthquakes or the wind from a Tornado or Hurricane. But even there we trust the government to tell us how to build thru building codes, such as no shingle roofs near forest fire prone regions, stronger foundations in known Earthquake areas and of course the government also provides storm drain rules for the 100-year flood to developers of virgin real estate.
But even with all these rules and regulations, nothing is guaranteed and you need to also consider what you can do to protect yourself. I suggest you draw out your house on some graph paper and take a look at every possible risk from mold and rats to rain and snow. Think of anything that could happen and the simple things you can do in the potential eventuality of such event. There are little things you can do, which do not cost much and as you do research you will learn more about what you can do to protect your home. Think on this.
Career Success: Take Charge of Your Career
People react very differently to the waves of change that suddenly flood the work and marketplace. Some, who feel confused or unsettled struggle to keep their heads above water gasping for air. By contrast, others, who may not even like or agree with the changes, nevertheless accept them, get on with their lives and swim forcefully to their new destination. The following three tactics will help you mobilize your resources to take charge of their careers.
Fuel the Fire In Your Heart.
Live your life and career with intention. The key to sustained peak performance is discovering who you are, what you want in life, and then confidently pursue it. Remember, if you dont have your own mission or purpose get one, or otherwise, all you can do is sign up for someone elses. Remember, if you dont know where youre going, how will you know that youve arrived?
Start by develop a career line. Prepare a graph that outlines your career highs and lows from your first job to the present. What kinds of activities were you involved in during your highs - during your lows? Continue this getting to know yourself process by locating your inner energy source. What really gets the juices flowing for you? Is it challenge? Helping other? Being creative? Having authority? Making an impact? Whatever motivates you, write it on a card and look at it every morning.
During times of change and uncertainty, you must realize that its often your outlook or your attitudes--- what you bring to work, not what work brings to you---that determines your career success. Can you look at whats happening in the workplace and not take it personally? Can you accept the luck of the draw and move on? Can you bounce back on your own rather than allow yourself to wallow in negative emotions? You must learn to accommodate adversity. It can either break or build character. Which is it doing for you?
Forget Being the Lone Ranger.
Are you familiar with the saying: Its not what you know, .but who you know. Well in todays changing work world, the new saying is: Its not only what you know, its not only who you know, but, as important, its who knows you and your work.
First thing to do is to inventory your network. List all the key people in your career world. Are your contacts mostly within your area? Or are there linkages into different departments, divisions, subsidiaries? What about outside your company? What kinds of relationships do you have? Hi and Good by? Or Hi! What have you been doing? Develop relationships with a whole array of people. Its your ticket to career advancement and success.
Know and be known. Work groups or teams, not hierarchies, are now doing the real work in todays workplace. How are you going to find out about the latest hot project? How are key people going to know about you and your talents? An active network is the most effective tool fin this age of uncertainty. Realize that contacts are the bread of career life. In times of change, information and relationships are a source of power.
Dont Just Stand There, Do Something.
Recognize a successful career in not a spectator sport. Opportunities do not just get placed on your desk. Organizations will no longer provide you with clearly defined career paths. Dont be an absentee landlord and neglect your personal career management. Know what you want and actively seek it out. Take charge of your career. Remember, if you dont control your own destiny, no one else will.
Start by doing a career check up. Ask yourself: Where am I? Where do I want to go? What are some paths to get me there? What are possible barriers? What are my supports? What resources am I going to need? How will I get these resources? Failure to take charge of your career leaves you a victim of your own neglect and the changing workplace.
Always have several options in your back pocket. Focus on career contingency planning. Do you have a Plan A, a Plan B, and even a Plan C? What conditions could possibly change in your job; your company; or your industry? Do you have a clear idea where you could jump if unexpected roadblocks arise? Where else can you apply your skills and showcase your talents? A successful career is not fixed in stone, but is fluid and subject to change.
Remember, the Name of the Game Is Action.
Make sure your career goals are not stranded on a island called: Someday Ill........... If you want something, dont just think or talk about it. Figure out a way to make it happen. Set specific goals. Develop action plans. Have realistic timetables. Find the resources you need. Keep alive in todays rough seas and begin preparing for tomorrows raging waters.
People react very differently to the waves of change that suddenly flood the work and marketplace. Some, who feel confused or unsettled struggle to keep their heads above water gasping for air. By contrast, others, who may not even like or agree with the changes, nevertheless accept them, get on with their lives and swim forcefully to their new destination. The following three tactics will help you mobilize your resources to take charge of their careers.
Fuel the Fire In Your Heart.
Live your life and career with intention. The key to sustained peak performance is discovering who you are, what you want in life, and then confidently pursue it. Remember, if you dont have your own mission or purpose get one, or otherwise, all you can do is sign up for someone elses. Remember, if you dont know where youre going, how will you know that youve arrived?
Start by develop a career line. Prepare a graph that outlines your career highs and lows from your first job to the present. What kinds of activities were you involved in during your highs - during your lows? Continue this getting to know yourself process by locating your inner energy source. What really gets the juices flowing for you? Is it challenge? Helping other? Being creative? Having authority? Making an impact? Whatever motivates you, write it on a card and look at it every morning.
During times of change and uncertainty, you must realize that its often your outlook or your attitudes--- what you bring to work, not what work brings to you---that determines your career success. Can you look at whats happening in the workplace and not take it personally? Can you accept the luck of the draw and move on? Can you bounce back on your own rather than allow yourself to wallow in negative emotions? You must learn to accommodate adversity. It can either break or build character. Which is it doing for you?
Forget Being the Lone Ranger.
Are you familiar with the saying: Its not what you know, .but who you know. Well in todays changing work world, the new saying is: Its not only what you know, its not only who you know, but, as important, its who knows you and your work.
First thing to do is to inventory your network. List all the key people in your career world. Are your contacts mostly within your area? Or are there linkages into different departments, divisions, subsidiaries? What about outside your company? What kinds of relationships do you have? Hi and Good by? Or Hi! What have you been doing? Develop relationships with a whole array of people. Its your ticket to career advancement and success.
Know and be known. Work groups or teams, not hierarchies, are now doing the real work in todays workplace. How are you going to find out about the latest hot project? How are key people going to know about you and your talents? An active network is the most effective tool fin this age of uncertainty. Realize that contacts are the bread of career life. In times of change, information and relationships are a source of power.
Dont Just Stand There, Do Something.
Recognize a successful career in not a spectator sport. Opportunities do not just get placed on your desk. Organizations will no longer provide you with clearly defined career paths. Dont be an absentee landlord and neglect your personal career management. Know what you want and actively seek it out. Take charge of your career. Remember, if you dont control your own destiny, no one else will.
Start by doing a career check up. Ask yourself: Where am I? Where do I want to go? What are some paths to get me there? What are possible barriers? What are my supports? What resources am I going to need? How will I get these resources? Failure to take charge of your career leaves you a victim of your own neglect and the changing workplace.
Always have several options in your back pocket. Focus on career contingency planning. Do you have a Plan A, a Plan B, and even a Plan C? What conditions could possibly change in your job; your company; or your industry? Do you have a clear idea where you could jump if unexpected roadblocks arise? Where else can you apply your skills and showcase your talents? A successful career is not fixed in stone, but is fluid and subject to change.
Remember, the Name of the Game Is Action.
Make sure your career goals are not stranded on a island called: Someday Ill........... If you want something, dont just think or talk about it. Figure out a way to make it happen. Set specific goals. Develop action plans. Have realistic timetables. Find the resources you need. Keep alive in todays rough seas and begin preparing for tomorrows raging waters.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Mars Attacks - More Often Than You Think!
Okay, before you think that I'm just another "alien freak", let me say that I don't mean that little green men from the red planet are on the warpath. The sort of "attack" that I'm referring to has to do with the very noticeable effects in your life whenever the planet Mars forms an "aspect" to one of the factors in your birth chart.
Have you ever had one of those days where you seemed
restless, perhaps even nervous, when you were impatient with others, when you couldn't sleep at night... and there didn't seem to be any obvious reason for your agitated state? Well, then you may well have been experiencing what is known to astrologers as a "Mars transit".
As you may already know, a birth chart is a map of the exact (to the degree and minute of arc) planetary positions on the date (and at the time and place) of your birth. One of the main techniques that we astrologers use to make predictions about the tendencies of a person's future is that of the so-called "transits". A transit occurs when a planet on a specific day/time (for example, right now) is passing over a degree of the zodiac that is in a specific angle to one of the important factors in your birth chart. Let's get more concrete. Suppose you were born on November 8 1955, at 9:48 am EST (as I was). The Sun in your birth chart is (as seen from the earth) in 15 degrees, 25 minutes of the sign Scorpio. Now, on Nov 6, 2005, the planet Mars is in 15 degrees Taurus: exactly 180 degrees from "your" Sun. An 180 angle is known as an "opposition", and is but one of the various aspects used in astrological work.
In order to interpret such an aspect, several things must be considered:
- The planet making the aspect (in this case, Mars)
- The planet (or other factor) in the birth chart receiving
the aspect (the Sun, in our example)
- The Nature of the aspect (in this case, of the opposition).
- Other considerations, such as the signs and houses these
planets occupy, other aspects that are present among the
factors in the birth chart, etc.
In our example, we'll simplify. An opposition is regarded as an aspect of tension, and often represents a challenge we have to face. As I write these lines, the planet Mars is in opposition to my Sun, and has been for several days - and I sure have noticed it! I've been busier than usual, teaching my students, working on different Internet projects, and have generally not had much time to just sit back and relax. This is often the case when Mars is in aspect to your Sun.
Also typical of Mars is, on occasion, accidents, or
experiencing pain of some sort. Well, a few days ago, one of my back teeth began to hurt. My dentist had warned me it was going to give me trouble some day (it already has several fillings in it), and I'm afraid that day has arrived. A toothache is a painful thing to have, as I'm sure many of you know, and in just a half hour, I'll be leaving for the dentist's to see whether the tooth can be saved, or must be extracted. In any case, the inevitable unpleasantness/pain associated with undergoing dental work is also typical of a Mars transit.
Nervousness, impatience and impulsiveness often occur under a Mars transit, so if you're experiencing such a time, I suggest you try to relax, take your time, drive more slowly than usual... for when under the influence of Mars, we tend to get ahead of ourselves, and this can, depending on the circumstances, lead to an increased risk of accidents.
How can you know when a Mars transit will be affecting you? Well, just about any good astrology program allows you to calculate transits. Our own "Omnicycles" program lets you do both your birth chart and transits (in graph form) for the weeks/months when Mars will be showing its influence most strongly in your future. There are also some astrology sites that let you calculate the positions of the planets for different time periods: use seach terms such as "astrology", "on-line ephemeris" (put this one in quotes), and "aspect" in Google to find sites that offer such a service.
Despite the occasional upsets that Mars transits can bring you, I should also mention the positive side. During these times, you will have more energy, and will no doubt be able to get a lot more done in your work, studies, etc. Take advantage of this trend: if you feel so "worked up" that you don't know what to do with all that excess energy, maybe it would be a good time to paint the porch, indulge in your favorite sport, or work it off in some other way. Just resist the temptation to do too much, or to tax your strength to the limit: be active, but don't take any unnecessary risks.
Since Mars can, in its worst manifestation, represent
violence, we can be pretty sure of one thing - If those little green men from that neighbouring red planet ever DO decide to attack and wipe us all out, it will probably happen when Mars is in a rather bad aspect to the Earth!
Okay, before you think that I'm just another "alien freak", let me say that I don't mean that little green men from the red planet are on the warpath. The sort of "attack" that I'm referring to has to do with the very noticeable effects in your life whenever the planet Mars forms an "aspect" to one of the factors in your birth chart.
Have you ever had one of those days where you seemed
restless, perhaps even nervous, when you were impatient with others, when you couldn't sleep at night... and there didn't seem to be any obvious reason for your agitated state? Well, then you may well have been experiencing what is known to astrologers as a "Mars transit".
As you may already know, a birth chart is a map of the exact (to the degree and minute of arc) planetary positions on the date (and at the time and place) of your birth. One of the main techniques that we astrologers use to make predictions about the tendencies of a person's future is that of the so-called "transits". A transit occurs when a planet on a specific day/time (for example, right now) is passing over a degree of the zodiac that is in a specific angle to one of the important factors in your birth chart. Let's get more concrete. Suppose you were born on November 8 1955, at 9:48 am EST (as I was). The Sun in your birth chart is (as seen from the earth) in 15 degrees, 25 minutes of the sign Scorpio. Now, on Nov 6, 2005, the planet Mars is in 15 degrees Taurus: exactly 180 degrees from "your" Sun. An 180 angle is known as an "opposition", and is but one of the various aspects used in astrological work.
In order to interpret such an aspect, several things must be considered:
- The planet making the aspect (in this case, Mars)
- The planet (or other factor) in the birth chart receiving
the aspect (the Sun, in our example)
- The Nature of the aspect (in this case, of the opposition).
- Other considerations, such as the signs and houses these
planets occupy, other aspects that are present among the
factors in the birth chart, etc.
In our example, we'll simplify. An opposition is regarded as an aspect of tension, and often represents a challenge we have to face. As I write these lines, the planet Mars is in opposition to my Sun, and has been for several days - and I sure have noticed it! I've been busier than usual, teaching my students, working on different Internet projects, and have generally not had much time to just sit back and relax. This is often the case when Mars is in aspect to your Sun.
Also typical of Mars is, on occasion, accidents, or
experiencing pain of some sort. Well, a few days ago, one of my back teeth began to hurt. My dentist had warned me it was going to give me trouble some day (it already has several fillings in it), and I'm afraid that day has arrived. A toothache is a painful thing to have, as I'm sure many of you know, and in just a half hour, I'll be leaving for the dentist's to see whether the tooth can be saved, or must be extracted. In any case, the inevitable unpleasantness/pain associated with undergoing dental work is also typical of a Mars transit.
Nervousness, impatience and impulsiveness often occur under a Mars transit, so if you're experiencing such a time, I suggest you try to relax, take your time, drive more slowly than usual... for when under the influence of Mars, we tend to get ahead of ourselves, and this can, depending on the circumstances, lead to an increased risk of accidents.
How can you know when a Mars transit will be affecting you? Well, just about any good astrology program allows you to calculate transits. Our own "Omnicycles" program lets you do both your birth chart and transits (in graph form) for the weeks/months when Mars will be showing its influence most strongly in your future. There are also some astrology sites that let you calculate the positions of the planets for different time periods: use seach terms such as "astrology", "on-line ephemeris" (put this one in quotes), and "aspect" in Google to find sites that offer such a service.
Despite the occasional upsets that Mars transits can bring you, I should also mention the positive side. During these times, you will have more energy, and will no doubt be able to get a lot more done in your work, studies, etc. Take advantage of this trend: if you feel so "worked up" that you don't know what to do with all that excess energy, maybe it would be a good time to paint the porch, indulge in your favorite sport, or work it off in some other way. Just resist the temptation to do too much, or to tax your strength to the limit: be active, but don't take any unnecessary risks.
Since Mars can, in its worst manifestation, represent
violence, we can be pretty sure of one thing - If those little green men from that neighbouring red planet ever DO decide to attack and wipe us all out, it will probably happen when Mars is in a rather bad aspect to the Earth!
Record Voice Using a Microphone Connected to PC with FlexiMusic Wave Editor
A. Installing the Program
FlexiMusic Wave Editor is an audio editor for Microsoft Windows. It serves as a wave editor, audio editor, sound editor, player, recorder and converter.
First, get FlexiMusic Wave Editor, if you don't already have it.
Go to: http://www.fleximusic.com/ and click on the download link of FlexiMusic Wave Editor for Windows.
Next, run the downloaded file "FlexiMusic_WaveEditor_Setup.exe" to install the program. FlexiMusic Wave Editor shortcut will appear under your Programs menu.
B. Record Audio
Step 01: Run the FlexiMusic Wave Editor by clicking on the Start button > All Programs > FlexiMusic > FlexiMusic Wave Editor
Step 02: Click File > New or New tool button to create a new file. Choose the format as 44100Hz, 16 bits, Stereo.
Step 03: Click on the screen once to select the position where you would insert the recorded wave sound.
Step 04: Prepare your own script in a plain paper and keep it ready for reading.
Step 05: Click on the Record tool button. This will open the FlexiMusic Wave Editor Record Audio window.
Step 06: Before Recording your voice, Make sure that Microphone is selected.
A. Click "Recording Source" button to open the Recording Control dialog box.
B. Choose Microphone using Select option. Adjust the recording volume for the highest possible performance. Make sure the volume is not too low.
Step 07: As soon as you wish to start recording click "Start" button in Record Audio window of FlexiMusic Wave Editor.
Step 08: Speak loudly and clearly into the microphone.
Step 09: You can pause the process of recording by clicking the "Pause" button at any time you want and then resume it by clicking the "Continue" button.
Step 10: Click on the "Stop" button.
Step 11: Click "Done" button to insert the recording into the file at the position you previously selected.
Step 12: Click on the "Save" button (or File > Save as) from the tool button. Name your file "abc" and save in .wav format and save it to hard disk in any known folder (e.g., C:\FlexiMusic\Work\abc.wav).
B. Play Audio
Step 13: Play Recording. Click "Play" button.
Step 14: You find a flat line with little or no sound at all, while the higher waveforms represents sound. Remove the silence at the beginning and ending of recording.
Step 15: Select the silence part accurately by zooming 1:1. Click on the View menu from the FlexiMusic Wave Editor Toolbar. Select View 1:1.
Adjust the select position by dragging the selection bar left and right.
Step 16: Choose Delete from Edit Menu or click on the "Delete" button.
Step 17: Selecting Part of a Sound
The Selected part, or selection is the highlighted part of the sound graph between two vertical select bars. The vertical selection bars are yellow lines located at left side and right side of the graph. You can use "click-and-drag" selection method, which forces you to change both start and end points.
Step 18: You can also adjust the volume of your voice recording or add some effects to the voice. When adjusting the volume, it's important that you don't let the wave graphic go beyond the window top or bottom. This will exceed the limits of the wave envelope, and result in clipping, which is basically distorted sound.
Step 19: Play the changes by choosing "Play" on the tool button.
Step 20: Click on the "Save" button or ( File > Save As from the toolbar. Type the filename and save the file.
A. Installing the Program
FlexiMusic Wave Editor is an audio editor for Microsoft Windows. It serves as a wave editor, audio editor, sound editor, player, recorder and converter.
First, get FlexiMusic Wave Editor, if you don't already have it.
Go to: http://www.fleximusic.com/ and click on the download link of FlexiMusic Wave Editor for Windows.
Next, run the downloaded file "FlexiMusic_WaveEditor_Setup.exe" to install the program. FlexiMusic Wave Editor shortcut will appear under your Programs menu.
B. Record Audio
Step 01: Run the FlexiMusic Wave Editor by clicking on the Start button > All Programs > FlexiMusic > FlexiMusic Wave Editor
Step 02: Click File > New or New tool button to create a new file. Choose the format as 44100Hz, 16 bits, Stereo.
Step 03: Click on the screen once to select the position where you would insert the recorded wave sound.
Step 04: Prepare your own script in a plain paper and keep it ready for reading.
Step 05: Click on the Record tool button. This will open the FlexiMusic Wave Editor Record Audio window.
Step 06: Before Recording your voice, Make sure that Microphone is selected.
A. Click "Recording Source" button to open the Recording Control dialog box.
B. Choose Microphone using Select option. Adjust the recording volume for the highest possible performance. Make sure the volume is not too low.
Step 07: As soon as you wish to start recording click "Start" button in Record Audio window of FlexiMusic Wave Editor.
Step 08: Speak loudly and clearly into the microphone.
Step 09: You can pause the process of recording by clicking the "Pause" button at any time you want and then resume it by clicking the "Continue" button.
Step 10: Click on the "Stop" button.
Step 11: Click "Done" button to insert the recording into the file at the position you previously selected.
Step 12: Click on the "Save" button (or File > Save as) from the tool button. Name your file "abc" and save in .wav format and save it to hard disk in any known folder (e.g., C:\FlexiMusic\Work\abc.wav).
B. Play Audio
Step 13: Play Recording. Click "Play" button.
Step 14: You find a flat line with little or no sound at all, while the higher waveforms represents sound. Remove the silence at the beginning and ending of recording.
Step 15: Select the silence part accurately by zooming 1:1. Click on the View menu from the FlexiMusic Wave Editor Toolbar. Select View 1:1.
Adjust the select position by dragging the selection bar left and right.
Step 16: Choose Delete from Edit Menu or click on the "Delete" button.
Step 17: Selecting Part of a Sound
The Selected part, or selection is the highlighted part of the sound graph between two vertical select bars. The vertical selection bars are yellow lines located at left side and right side of the graph. You can use "click-and-drag" selection method, which forces you to change both start and end points.
Step 18: You can also adjust the volume of your voice recording or add some effects to the voice. When adjusting the volume, it's important that you don't let the wave graphic go beyond the window top or bottom. This will exceed the limits of the wave envelope, and result in clipping, which is basically distorted sound.
Step 19: Play the changes by choosing "Play" on the tool button.
Step 20: Click on the "Save" button or ( File > Save As from the toolbar. Type the filename and save the file.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Tips on Starting a Powerpoint Presentation
So you plan to start on a powerpoint presentation. Before starting on the presentation, you have to make some preparations. You have to first organize your presentation. You can do this by making an outline of the major points of the presentation, and all their supporting details. Make sure you have captured the most important information for your powerpoint presentation, and think of how the viewer can learn the most youre your powerpoint presentation
When making your powerpoint presentation, plan it in such a way that the vital information can be put on the slides, in printed form as a handout and is explainable to the viewers. This is because a person tends to store information for a longer time if they hear it three or more times. Be as clear and concise as possible in your presentation. Work on your points until you get exactly what you want the audience to get from your presentation.
Now, to start on the making of the powerpoint presentation. To quickly start a powerpoint presentation, you have to click any powerpoint presentation file (.ppt) and select the Show icon from the shortcut menu it displays. Another alternative to starting the powerpoint presentation is to save the presentation as a slide show by selecting the File, Save As icons, and then selecting powerpoint show from the Save As Type box. If you save the powerpoint presentation to your desktop, you just have to double click on that particular file icon for it to start the show. When creating a design or background for the powerpoint presentation, make sure you use a light background and dark text for printed ones. For the shown ones, use dark background with a light text. It is not advisable to use more than one background in a presentation as it only gets the viewer distracted from the message.
When creating the powerpoint presentation, do not get carried away. The information you are giving through the presentation is the important thing, and not showing off what you and powerpoint can do! Avoid centering the bulleted lists or texts in the presentation, as it thus gets confusing to read. Keep the matter left justified, unless you have a good reason to not to do so in the presentation. You have to also avoid centering graphics, unless the graphic is a chart or graph, and the main subject of the slide. Remember, clip art focuses on the making of points and not on distracting them from the presentation. Avoid using all caps in the presentation; capitalizing the first letter of each word is good in the title of slides, and suggests a more formal format than having only the first letter of the first word capitalized. The size of the font of the presentation depends on the size of the room. Usually, it is no smaller than 14 pt.
On embarking on making a powerpoint presentation, you have to first organize all clip arts, graphs and charts that you may need in the presentation of your ideas. If need be, you can convert your ideas into a digital form so that it can be imported into powerpoint. Keep all supplemental materials you may need to refer to and hand out to the audience during the presentation. Now you can start on the powerpoint presentation!
So you plan to start on a powerpoint presentation. Before starting on the presentation, you have to make some preparations. You have to first organize your presentation. You can do this by making an outline of the major points of the presentation, and all their supporting details. Make sure you have captured the most important information for your powerpoint presentation, and think of how the viewer can learn the most youre your powerpoint presentation
When making your powerpoint presentation, plan it in such a way that the vital information can be put on the slides, in printed form as a handout and is explainable to the viewers. This is because a person tends to store information for a longer time if they hear it three or more times. Be as clear and concise as possible in your presentation. Work on your points until you get exactly what you want the audience to get from your presentation.
Now, to start on the making of the powerpoint presentation. To quickly start a powerpoint presentation, you have to click any powerpoint presentation file (.ppt) and select the Show icon from the shortcut menu it displays. Another alternative to starting the powerpoint presentation is to save the presentation as a slide show by selecting the File, Save As icons, and then selecting powerpoint show from the Save As Type box. If you save the powerpoint presentation to your desktop, you just have to double click on that particular file icon for it to start the show. When creating a design or background for the powerpoint presentation, make sure you use a light background and dark text for printed ones. For the shown ones, use dark background with a light text. It is not advisable to use more than one background in a presentation as it only gets the viewer distracted from the message.
When creating the powerpoint presentation, do not get carried away. The information you are giving through the presentation is the important thing, and not showing off what you and powerpoint can do! Avoid centering the bulleted lists or texts in the presentation, as it thus gets confusing to read. Keep the matter left justified, unless you have a good reason to not to do so in the presentation. You have to also avoid centering graphics, unless the graphic is a chart or graph, and the main subject of the slide. Remember, clip art focuses on the making of points and not on distracting them from the presentation. Avoid using all caps in the presentation; capitalizing the first letter of each word is good in the title of slides, and suggests a more formal format than having only the first letter of the first word capitalized. The size of the font of the presentation depends on the size of the room. Usually, it is no smaller than 14 pt.
On embarking on making a powerpoint presentation, you have to first organize all clip arts, graphs and charts that you may need in the presentation of your ideas. If need be, you can convert your ideas into a digital form so that it can be imported into powerpoint. Keep all supplemental materials you may need to refer to and hand out to the audience during the presentation. Now you can start on the powerpoint presentation!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Interpreting an EKG
EKGs can assist doctors in diagnosing and determining any current or past heart abnormalities and are often a regular screening for those with heart disease. Through electrodes attached at various strategic body points, the EKG machine records the electrical impulses of the heart. The results of the impulses are displayed on a computer monitor and then printed onto graph paper. The attending physician or EKG technician interprets your heart health by reading the graphed EKG image.
EKGs are a critical tool for medical professionals to diagnose and treat heart ailments. The EKG reading of your heart is compared to the reading of a standard/normal heart in order to get an idea of your heart function. Abnormalities in the heart rate, heart rhythm or contractions and relaxations can signal the presence of past heart attacks, heart disease or coronary artery disease. If any of these symptoms are present, your doctor will refer you for further testing.
There are literally dozens of different methods for interpreting EKGs but most begin with a search for recurring patterns. One of the first things EKG technicians look for is heart rate. Electrodes are used to stimulate the heart into contracting and then relaxing. The first spike in the reading (the P spike) represents the impulses from the upper chamber of the heart. A flatter line called the PR interval represents a bridge between the contracting and relaxing of the atria. Each EKG has various other spikes and dips representing heart electrical waves; each spike or dip is referred to by an alphabetic letter.
Most normal hearts have a pattern with a slightly varying rhythm. This is called sinus arrhythmia and is considered normal and healthy. The absence of sinus arrhythmia may indicate other problems with the heart. In EKG interpretation, the lack of sinus arrhythmia has been seen to predict the occurrence of sudden death from heart attack or heart failure. The results of an EKG may become the basis for additional treatment. Your doctor will decide if further evaluation is needed. EKG technicians are highly trained and skilled medical professionals; many physicians consider these technicians to be the first authority in interpreting the EKG results.
Please Note: Professional EKG readings require a great amount of training and education. Since many methods exist to interpret these readings, it is often difficult for non-medical people to understand the terminology. If you are having an EKG performed, your technician will be glad to answer any questions regarding the EKG reading. If you notice something that seems abnormal to you, the technician may be able to calm your fears and by explaining the results in layman's terms.
EKGs can assist doctors in diagnosing and determining any current or past heart abnormalities and are often a regular screening for those with heart disease. Through electrodes attached at various strategic body points, the EKG machine records the electrical impulses of the heart. The results of the impulses are displayed on a computer monitor and then printed onto graph paper. The attending physician or EKG technician interprets your heart health by reading the graphed EKG image.
EKGs are a critical tool for medical professionals to diagnose and treat heart ailments. The EKG reading of your heart is compared to the reading of a standard/normal heart in order to get an idea of your heart function. Abnormalities in the heart rate, heart rhythm or contractions and relaxations can signal the presence of past heart attacks, heart disease or coronary artery disease. If any of these symptoms are present, your doctor will refer you for further testing.
There are literally dozens of different methods for interpreting EKGs but most begin with a search for recurring patterns. One of the first things EKG technicians look for is heart rate. Electrodes are used to stimulate the heart into contracting and then relaxing. The first spike in the reading (the P spike) represents the impulses from the upper chamber of the heart. A flatter line called the PR interval represents a bridge between the contracting and relaxing of the atria. Each EKG has various other spikes and dips representing heart electrical waves; each spike or dip is referred to by an alphabetic letter.
Most normal hearts have a pattern with a slightly varying rhythm. This is called sinus arrhythmia and is considered normal and healthy. The absence of sinus arrhythmia may indicate other problems with the heart. In EKG interpretation, the lack of sinus arrhythmia has been seen to predict the occurrence of sudden death from heart attack or heart failure. The results of an EKG may become the basis for additional treatment. Your doctor will decide if further evaluation is needed. EKG technicians are highly trained and skilled medical professionals; many physicians consider these technicians to be the first authority in interpreting the EKG results.
Please Note: Professional EKG readings require a great amount of training and education. Since many methods exist to interpret these readings, it is often difficult for non-medical people to understand the terminology. If you are having an EKG performed, your technician will be glad to answer any questions regarding the EKG reading. If you notice something that seems abnormal to you, the technician may be able to calm your fears and by explaining the results in layman's terms.
Your Flash Meter is Your Best Friend
Electronic flash is the preferred lighting medium for professional
photographers. They come with strength ratings, color balance figures and watt second figures. But when all is set up and ready, the only number that will lead to a perfect exposure is the one on the flash meter.
Every flash tube has a signature and the output varies with time and the number of flashes that it has produced. The older it is, the weaker the flash and the more yellow in the light. Reflectors also change characteristics by becoming dirty or by varying the distance from the tube.
Cameras and lenses also affect the final effective exposure in the image file. The fewest artifacts are visible when the lowest ISO rating is used in the camera. Use the flash meter to set the power level on the main light to the F stop you are using, i.e.: F11. Then meter the hair and back light to the same F stop. The fill should read two stops weaker than the main. Using an 18% gray card, make a test exposure and read the histogram. The gray card should spike about in the middle of the graph. If it is to the left or right of center, adjust the ISO setting on the meter to correspond to the center of the histogram.
It is best to check the average flash intensity at the subject location before starting the first session of the day. An occasional check during a busy day will ensure that the exposures are dead on for every session. Perfect exposures are necessary to produce good skin tones and natural contrast in your portraits. There are enough challenges going on in a portrait shoot without worrying about exposures in your digital images.
Electronic flash is the preferred lighting medium for professional
photographers. They come with strength ratings, color balance figures and watt second figures. But when all is set up and ready, the only number that will lead to a perfect exposure is the one on the flash meter.
Every flash tube has a signature and the output varies with time and the number of flashes that it has produced. The older it is, the weaker the flash and the more yellow in the light. Reflectors also change characteristics by becoming dirty or by varying the distance from the tube.
Cameras and lenses also affect the final effective exposure in the image file. The fewest artifacts are visible when the lowest ISO rating is used in the camera. Use the flash meter to set the power level on the main light to the F stop you are using, i.e.: F11. Then meter the hair and back light to the same F stop. The fill should read two stops weaker than the main. Using an 18% gray card, make a test exposure and read the histogram. The gray card should spike about in the middle of the graph. If it is to the left or right of center, adjust the ISO setting on the meter to correspond to the center of the histogram.
It is best to check the average flash intensity at the subject location before starting the first session of the day. An occasional check during a busy day will ensure that the exposures are dead on for every session. Perfect exposures are necessary to produce good skin tones and natural contrast in your portraits. There are enough challenges going on in a portrait shoot without worrying about exposures in your digital images.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Tips on Starting a Powerpoint Presentation
So you plan to start on a powerpoint presentation. Before starting on the presentation, you have to make some preparations. You have to first organize your presentation. You can do this by making an outline of the major points of the presentation, and all their supporting details. Make sure you have captured the most important information for your powerpoint presentation, and think of how the viewer can learn the most youre your powerpoint presentation
When making your powerpoint presentation, plan it in such a way that the vital information can be put on the slides, in printed form as a handout and is explainable to the viewers. This is because a person tends to store information for a longer time if they hear it three or more times. Be as clear and concise as possible in your presentation. Work on your points until you get exactly what you want the audience to get from your presentation.
Now, to start on the making of the powerpoint presentation. To quickly start a powerpoint presentation, you have to click any powerpoint presentation file (.ppt) and select the Show icon from the shortcut menu it displays. Another alternative to starting the powerpoint presentation is to save the presentation as a slide show by selecting the File, Save As icons, and then selecting powerpoint show from the Save As Type box. If you save the powerpoint presentation to your desktop, you just have to double click on that particular file icon for it to start the show. When creating a design or background for the powerpoint presentation, make sure you use a light background and dark text for printed ones. For the shown ones, use dark background with a light text. It is not advisable to use more than one background in a presentation as it only gets the viewer distracted from the message.
When creating the powerpoint presentation, do not get carried away. The information you are giving through the presentation is the important thing, and not showing off what you and powerpoint can do! Avoid centering the bulleted lists or texts in the presentation, as it thus gets confusing to read. Keep the matter left justified, unless you have a good reason to not to do so in the presentation. You have to also avoid centering graphics, unless the graphic is a chart or graph, and the main subject of the slide. Remember, clip art focuses on the making of points and not on distracting them from the presentation. Avoid using all caps in the presentation; capitalizing the first letter of each word is good in the title of slides, and suggests a more formal format than having only the first letter of the first word capitalized. The size of the font of the presentation depends on the size of the room. Usually, it is no smaller than 14 pt.
On embarking on making a powerpoint presentation, you have to first organize all clip arts, graphs and charts that you may need in the presentation of your ideas. If need be, you can convert your ideas into a digital form so that it can be imported into powerpoint. Keep all supplemental materials you may need to refer to and hand out to the audience during the presentation. Now you can start on the powerpoint presentation!
So you plan to start on a powerpoint presentation. Before starting on the presentation, you have to make some preparations. You have to first organize your presentation. You can do this by making an outline of the major points of the presentation, and all their supporting details. Make sure you have captured the most important information for your powerpoint presentation, and think of how the viewer can learn the most youre your powerpoint presentation
When making your powerpoint presentation, plan it in such a way that the vital information can be put on the slides, in printed form as a handout and is explainable to the viewers. This is because a person tends to store information for a longer time if they hear it three or more times. Be as clear and concise as possible in your presentation. Work on your points until you get exactly what you want the audience to get from your presentation.
Now, to start on the making of the powerpoint presentation. To quickly start a powerpoint presentation, you have to click any powerpoint presentation file (.ppt) and select the Show icon from the shortcut menu it displays. Another alternative to starting the powerpoint presentation is to save the presentation as a slide show by selecting the File, Save As icons, and then selecting powerpoint show from the Save As Type box. If you save the powerpoint presentation to your desktop, you just have to double click on that particular file icon for it to start the show. When creating a design or background for the powerpoint presentation, make sure you use a light background and dark text for printed ones. For the shown ones, use dark background with a light text. It is not advisable to use more than one background in a presentation as it only gets the viewer distracted from the message.
When creating the powerpoint presentation, do not get carried away. The information you are giving through the presentation is the important thing, and not showing off what you and powerpoint can do! Avoid centering the bulleted lists or texts in the presentation, as it thus gets confusing to read. Keep the matter left justified, unless you have a good reason to not to do so in the presentation. You have to also avoid centering graphics, unless the graphic is a chart or graph, and the main subject of the slide. Remember, clip art focuses on the making of points and not on distracting them from the presentation. Avoid using all caps in the presentation; capitalizing the first letter of each word is good in the title of slides, and suggests a more formal format than having only the first letter of the first word capitalized. The size of the font of the presentation depends on the size of the room. Usually, it is no smaller than 14 pt.
On embarking on making a powerpoint presentation, you have to first organize all clip arts, graphs and charts that you may need in the presentation of your ideas. If need be, you can convert your ideas into a digital form so that it can be imported into powerpoint. Keep all supplemental materials you may need to refer to and hand out to the audience during the presentation. Now you can start on the powerpoint presentation!
Tips on Starting a Powerpoint Presentation
So you plan to start on a powerpoint presentation. Before starting on the presentation, you have to make some preparations. You have to first organize your presentation. You can do this by making an outline of the major points of the presentation, and all their supporting details. Make sure you have captured the most important information for your powerpoint presentation, and think of how the viewer can learn the most youre your powerpoint presentation
When making your powerpoint presentation, plan it in such a way that the vital information can be put on the slides, in printed form as a handout and is explainable to the viewers. This is because a person tends to store information for a longer time if they hear it three or more times. Be as clear and concise as possible in your presentation. Work on your points until you get exactly what you want the audience to get from your presentation.
Now, to start on the making of the powerpoint presentation. To quickly start a powerpoint presentation, you have to click any powerpoint presentation file (.ppt) and select the Show icon from the shortcut menu it displays. Another alternative to starting the powerpoint presentation is to save the presentation as a slide show by selecting the File, Save As icons, and then selecting powerpoint show from the Save As Type box. If you save the powerpoint presentation to your desktop, you just have to double click on that particular file icon for it to start the show. When creating a design or background for the powerpoint presentation, make sure you use a light background and dark text for printed ones. For the shown ones, use dark background with a light text. It is not advisable to use more than one background in a presentation as it only gets the viewer distracted from the message.
When creating the powerpoint presentation, do not get carried away. The information you are giving through the presentation is the important thing, and not showing off what you and powerpoint can do! Avoid centering the bulleted lists or texts in the presentation, as it thus gets confusing to read. Keep the matter left justified, unless you have a good reason to not to do so in the presentation. You have to also avoid centering graphics, unless the graphic is a chart or graph, and the main subject of the slide. Remember, clip art focuses on the making of points and not on distracting them from the presentation. Avoid using all caps in the presentation; capitalizing the first letter of each word is good in the title of slides, and suggests a more formal format than having only the first letter of the first word capitalized. The size of the font of the presentation depends on the size of the room. Usually, it is no smaller than 14 pt.
On embarking on making a powerpoint presentation, you have to first organize all clip arts, graphs and charts that you may need in the presentation of your ideas. If need be, you can convert your ideas into a digital form so that it can be imported into powerpoint. Keep all supplemental materials you may need to refer to and hand out to the audience during the presentation. Now you can start on the powerpoint presentation!
So you plan to start on a powerpoint presentation. Before starting on the presentation, you have to make some preparations. You have to first organize your presentation. You can do this by making an outline of the major points of the presentation, and all their supporting details. Make sure you have captured the most important information for your powerpoint presentation, and think of how the viewer can learn the most youre your powerpoint presentation
When making your powerpoint presentation, plan it in such a way that the vital information can be put on the slides, in printed form as a handout and is explainable to the viewers. This is because a person tends to store information for a longer time if they hear it three or more times. Be as clear and concise as possible in your presentation. Work on your points until you get exactly what you want the audience to get from your presentation.
Now, to start on the making of the powerpoint presentation. To quickly start a powerpoint presentation, you have to click any powerpoint presentation file (.ppt) and select the Show icon from the shortcut menu it displays. Another alternative to starting the powerpoint presentation is to save the presentation as a slide show by selecting the File, Save As icons, and then selecting powerpoint show from the Save As Type box. If you save the powerpoint presentation to your desktop, you just have to double click on that particular file icon for it to start the show. When creating a design or background for the powerpoint presentation, make sure you use a light background and dark text for printed ones. For the shown ones, use dark background with a light text. It is not advisable to use more than one background in a presentation as it only gets the viewer distracted from the message.
When creating the powerpoint presentation, do not get carried away. The information you are giving through the presentation is the important thing, and not showing off what you and powerpoint can do! Avoid centering the bulleted lists or texts in the presentation, as it thus gets confusing to read. Keep the matter left justified, unless you have a good reason to not to do so in the presentation. You have to also avoid centering graphics, unless the graphic is a chart or graph, and the main subject of the slide. Remember, clip art focuses on the making of points and not on distracting them from the presentation. Avoid using all caps in the presentation; capitalizing the first letter of each word is good in the title of slides, and suggests a more formal format than having only the first letter of the first word capitalized. The size of the font of the presentation depends on the size of the room. Usually, it is no smaller than 14 pt.
On embarking on making a powerpoint presentation, you have to first organize all clip arts, graphs and charts that you may need in the presentation of your ideas. If need be, you can convert your ideas into a digital form so that it can be imported into powerpoint. Keep all supplemental materials you may need to refer to and hand out to the audience during the presentation. Now you can start on the powerpoint presentation!
Monday, July 23, 2007
Using Visual Basic in Technical Applications
Visual Basic is the best software programming language for developing technical applications, and it is the easiest one to learn. Sure, you can also use it to design fancy Internet sites, business applications, the most advanced database systems, and distributed transactions. For industrial and technical applications, however, Visual Basic is better than anything else. In this article I will try presenting few of the reasons behind my affirmations.
First of all, Visual Basic comes with an exceptional graphic interface, which is definitely the easiest one to work with. For those who know how to do it, Visual Basic does everything Visual C++ does, only ten to twenty times faster and easier. It takes just few minutes to insert a label or a red line to display the dynamic value of a technical parameter. Of course, some graphic controls are very complex, but you do not necessarily need them. The most important controls in technical applications are: labels, text-boxes, buttons, MSFlexGrid, then lines, rectangles and circles. This is all! You do not need fancy graphics. Using only the few basic controls I summarized you can design the most powerful technical applications today, in the entire World.
When we control hardware the most important is to process data as bytes and bits. In C and C++ we use pointers to break integers into bytes, or to concatenate bytes into integers and doubles. In Visual Basic we use mathematical operations on bytes, and results are exactly the same. In order to process individual bits we use masks and bit-shifting in C and C++. In visual Basic we also use masks, and we replace bit-shifting with mathematical operations. Few are aware Visual Basic has incredibly rich libraries of mathematical functions, and they are optimized for very fast calculations. You can easily discover logic and statistical functions, sine, log, exp, and all other mathematical goodies that bring happiness and sunshine in our lives.
Now, many readers will object saying Visual Basic is limited to Windows PC OS (Operating System). No doubts about that, but we are talking here about 80% of the World market! What more would you expect? The next step in PC development is what we name today Tablet PC, and Windows has a good grip on that one with Windows Mobile OS. Even on the PDA market (Peripheral Device Adaptors) Windows CE is one of the best OS available. Besides, all software applications are written for Windows PC first of all, and before everything else.
Right! Now, lets detail a little this issue of controlling hardware using Visual Basic. The first thing to do is, design your intelligent hardware module using, say dsPIC30F3011 or even dsPIC30F4011. If you have no idea how to do it, this is perfect, and you do not have to worry about it. Once you have your nice little piece of hardware working, you will have to write an intelligent firmware program to give it life. Again, I suspect you do not know how to write firmware in C for Microchip dsPIC microcontrollers, but this is just fine--trust me with this one. I can guarantee you will become an expert in hardware and firmware in about 60 days--this is, considering you want to, and you do invest little, minimal efforts for this.
Next, it should take you a couple of weeks to learn how to write a Visual Basic application to talk to your hardware module. Hardware and firmware working together collect field data from peripherals, and they send it to your Visual Basic application. Wow! Your intelligent Visual Basic application is going to display analog field data dynamically, on a Graph Trace control--and you will know how to design this one--just like on an oscilloscope screen. You can store your processed data in binary files on PC; you can send commands to and from your hardware module; and you process field data as bits and bytes, mathematically, the way it pleases you most! To end, you can send the entire binary file to hardware and back, or even to an Internet site.
You are asking, probably, how you are going to do all those wonders. This is truly easy! Just visit my home website, and discover there a tutorial book about learning hardware, firmware, and software design. This is no joke, and the book I refer to is the best one you can find in the entire World today. It is just beyond belief! Find and read Table of Contents and the introductory chapters, and you will learn everything you want to know about it. Next, it is up to you, but my advice is, do not toss away precious, useful information, because you are going to need it one day. Knowledge it is never sufficient or too much.
Visual Basic is the best software programming language for developing technical applications, and it is the easiest one to learn. Sure, you can also use it to design fancy Internet sites, business applications, the most advanced database systems, and distributed transactions. For industrial and technical applications, however, Visual Basic is better than anything else. In this article I will try presenting few of the reasons behind my affirmations.
First of all, Visual Basic comes with an exceptional graphic interface, which is definitely the easiest one to work with. For those who know how to do it, Visual Basic does everything Visual C++ does, only ten to twenty times faster and easier. It takes just few minutes to insert a label or a red line to display the dynamic value of a technical parameter. Of course, some graphic controls are very complex, but you do not necessarily need them. The most important controls in technical applications are: labels, text-boxes, buttons, MSFlexGrid, then lines, rectangles and circles. This is all! You do not need fancy graphics. Using only the few basic controls I summarized you can design the most powerful technical applications today, in the entire World.
When we control hardware the most important is to process data as bytes and bits. In C and C++ we use pointers to break integers into bytes, or to concatenate bytes into integers and doubles. In Visual Basic we use mathematical operations on bytes, and results are exactly the same. In order to process individual bits we use masks and bit-shifting in C and C++. In visual Basic we also use masks, and we replace bit-shifting with mathematical operations. Few are aware Visual Basic has incredibly rich libraries of mathematical functions, and they are optimized for very fast calculations. You can easily discover logic and statistical functions, sine, log, exp, and all other mathematical goodies that bring happiness and sunshine in our lives.
Now, many readers will object saying Visual Basic is limited to Windows PC OS (Operating System). No doubts about that, but we are talking here about 80% of the World market! What more would you expect? The next step in PC development is what we name today Tablet PC, and Windows has a good grip on that one with Windows Mobile OS. Even on the PDA market (Peripheral Device Adaptors) Windows CE is one of the best OS available. Besides, all software applications are written for Windows PC first of all, and before everything else.
Right! Now, lets detail a little this issue of controlling hardware using Visual Basic. The first thing to do is, design your intelligent hardware module using, say dsPIC30F3011 or even dsPIC30F4011. If you have no idea how to do it, this is perfect, and you do not have to worry about it. Once you have your nice little piece of hardware working, you will have to write an intelligent firmware program to give it life. Again, I suspect you do not know how to write firmware in C for Microchip dsPIC microcontrollers, but this is just fine--trust me with this one. I can guarantee you will become an expert in hardware and firmware in about 60 days--this is, considering you want to, and you do invest little, minimal efforts for this.
Next, it should take you a couple of weeks to learn how to write a Visual Basic application to talk to your hardware module. Hardware and firmware working together collect field data from peripherals, and they send it to your Visual Basic application. Wow! Your intelligent Visual Basic application is going to display analog field data dynamically, on a Graph Trace control--and you will know how to design this one--just like on an oscilloscope screen. You can store your processed data in binary files on PC; you can send commands to and from your hardware module; and you process field data as bits and bytes, mathematically, the way it pleases you most! To end, you can send the entire binary file to hardware and back, or even to an Internet site.
You are asking, probably, how you are going to do all those wonders. This is truly easy! Just visit my home website, and discover there a tutorial book about learning hardware, firmware, and software design. This is no joke, and the book I refer to is the best one you can find in the entire World today. It is just beyond belief! Find and read Table of Contents and the introductory chapters, and you will learn everything you want to know about it. Next, it is up to you, but my advice is, do not toss away precious, useful information, because you are going to need it one day. Knowledge it is never sufficient or too much.
How to Use Graphs and Charts in Your Business Plan
Many people ask how many graphs or charts they should have in their business plans. As with most other business planning questions, the answer is it depends. This article discusses the key factors influencing the number of graphs and charts to include in your business plan.
To begin, the key point to consider in developing your business plan is the time restraints of your audience. If your audience is a retired angel investor, he may have few obligations and can spend an hour reviewing your business plan. However, the more likely scenario is that a venture capitalist, corporate investor or loan officer will review your plan while sitting at a desk topped with fifty other business plans. As such, it is critical that your plan conveys its key points quickly and easily this is where graphs or charts come in.
In determining whether to use a graph or chart, consider the old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words. The point here is that the picture should save a thousand words. That is, the graph or chart should supplement the text; it should not be explained ad naseum in the text, or that defeats its purpose. Likewise, the graph or chart must be relevant and support the text, rather than detract from it.
In addition to respecting the time constraints of the audience, the business plan must respect the audiences energy level. That is, after reading seven business plans, an investor is likely to skip a page with 400 words of straight text. Even if no charts are applicable to support the page, Growthink suggests using appropriate spacing and/or callout boxes (e.g., key text phrases highlighted in boxes) to make the page more readable.
Clearly, technical drawings and operational designs need to be visually presented in the business plan. Without them, huge volumes of text are often needed to explain relatively simple processes. Importantly, when the text references these charts, the charts should be easily accessible. That is, the chart should be on the same page as the text, rather than forcing the audience to continually turn to an appendix. If the chart is referenced on numerous pages, each page should show the piece of the chart that reflects the text, with the full chart appearing only once in the plan.
Finally, if the business plan is being presented to one or few investors, the amount of graphs and charts should reflect the wants, needs and sophistication of those few readers. For instance, if the plan is being presented only to strategic investors who understand the market, more graphs may be appropriate to convey information for which these investors already have background knowledge.
Conversely, always keep in mind that the plan is not a slide presentation, and too many graphs and charts may position the company as one that is too lazy to complete the process of developing a formal business plan.
To summarize, the amount of charts and graphs used in the business plan must reflect the audience for the plan; an audience that is usually time and energy constrained. The charts and graphs must complement the text, enable the audience to quickly and easily digest the information, and as always, interest the audience in taking the next step (e.g., scheduling an in-person meeting) in the investment process.
Many people ask how many graphs or charts they should have in their business plans. As with most other business planning questions, the answer is it depends. This article discusses the key factors influencing the number of graphs and charts to include in your business plan.
To begin, the key point to consider in developing your business plan is the time restraints of your audience. If your audience is a retired angel investor, he may have few obligations and can spend an hour reviewing your business plan. However, the more likely scenario is that a venture capitalist, corporate investor or loan officer will review your plan while sitting at a desk topped with fifty other business plans. As such, it is critical that your plan conveys its key points quickly and easily this is where graphs or charts come in.
In determining whether to use a graph or chart, consider the old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words. The point here is that the picture should save a thousand words. That is, the graph or chart should supplement the text; it should not be explained ad naseum in the text, or that defeats its purpose. Likewise, the graph or chart must be relevant and support the text, rather than detract from it.
In addition to respecting the time constraints of the audience, the business plan must respect the audiences energy level. That is, after reading seven business plans, an investor is likely to skip a page with 400 words of straight text. Even if no charts are applicable to support the page, Growthink suggests using appropriate spacing and/or callout boxes (e.g., key text phrases highlighted in boxes) to make the page more readable.
Clearly, technical drawings and operational designs need to be visually presented in the business plan. Without them, huge volumes of text are often needed to explain relatively simple processes. Importantly, when the text references these charts, the charts should be easily accessible. That is, the chart should be on the same page as the text, rather than forcing the audience to continually turn to an appendix. If the chart is referenced on numerous pages, each page should show the piece of the chart that reflects the text, with the full chart appearing only once in the plan.
Finally, if the business plan is being presented to one or few investors, the amount of graphs and charts should reflect the wants, needs and sophistication of those few readers. For instance, if the plan is being presented only to strategic investors who understand the market, more graphs may be appropriate to convey information for which these investors already have background knowledge.
Conversely, always keep in mind that the plan is not a slide presentation, and too many graphs and charts may position the company as one that is too lazy to complete the process of developing a formal business plan.
To summarize, the amount of charts and graphs used in the business plan must reflect the audience for the plan; an audience that is usually time and energy constrained. The charts and graphs must complement the text, enable the audience to quickly and easily digest the information, and as always, interest the audience in taking the next step (e.g., scheduling an in-person meeting) in the investment process.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Save Your Money, Don't Give to Charity Scammers
**If it's Spam, it's a Scam!- If it sounds too good, if it shows up in your bulk folder or your spam folder - don't touch it, just delete it
**Check out the charity- You can find some charity info at the BBB site www.give.org
** There is no deadline to give- Take you time. Charities don't have deadlines, but scammers do to stay under the radar. Tell them you will think about it. If they use high pressure tactics, they aren't worth it and more than likely aren't legit.
**Ask Questions- Found out the location of the charity, how much of the money is for Administration use and how will the money be used for the needs. If 50% or more of your donation goes to executives salaries, administrative cost and fundraising, skip them.
**Get information in Writing- Have them send you a brochure, a graph of their previous divisions of money, and their 990 tax form information that they file with the government.
Charities are required to provide Form 990 information on request (This excludes churches, synagogues and other places of worship. Don't be fooled by their 'tax-ID number' these are only needed to for employer verification.
**Check out all charities for Police and Fire Departments- Check them out first, get the name, address and phone number to contact them back and do follow up.
**Get a Receipt- Preferably one with the charity name on it. A paper trail is always a good thing.
** Don't donate with cash- Again the paper trail idea, check or credit card is best.
**Be protective with information- Don't give information out over the phone like credit cards or personal information, unless you have checked them out or dealt with them before.
**Get the exact name of the organization- Many have names similar to legit organizations. They may change the wording slightly to throw you off.
**Contact the authorities- Police and or FBI can be contacted, have as much information as you can with you to give them. Even recording a call can be helpful if you get regular calls, make sure it is allowed in your state or if you have to let them know you are recording them.
The BEST way to give to charities is to contact them after you have done your own research. Don't let the scammers scare you off, Please do give of yourself, time or money. Print out or email these tips to others who may not be aware.
**If it's Spam, it's a Scam!- If it sounds too good, if it shows up in your bulk folder or your spam folder - don't touch it, just delete it
**Check out the charity- You can find some charity info at the BBB site www.give.org
** There is no deadline to give- Take you time. Charities don't have deadlines, but scammers do to stay under the radar. Tell them you will think about it. If they use high pressure tactics, they aren't worth it and more than likely aren't legit.
**Ask Questions- Found out the location of the charity, how much of the money is for Administration use and how will the money be used for the needs. If 50% or more of your donation goes to executives salaries, administrative cost and fundraising, skip them.
**Get information in Writing- Have them send you a brochure, a graph of their previous divisions of money, and their 990 tax form information that they file with the government.
Charities are required to provide Form 990 information on request (This excludes churches, synagogues and other places of worship. Don't be fooled by their 'tax-ID number' these are only needed to for employer verification.
**Check out all charities for Police and Fire Departments- Check them out first, get the name, address and phone number to contact them back and do follow up.
**Get a Receipt- Preferably one with the charity name on it. A paper trail is always a good thing.
** Don't donate with cash- Again the paper trail idea, check or credit card is best.
**Be protective with information- Don't give information out over the phone like credit cards or personal information, unless you have checked them out or dealt with them before.
**Get the exact name of the organization- Many have names similar to legit organizations. They may change the wording slightly to throw you off.
**Contact the authorities- Police and or FBI can be contacted, have as much information as you can with you to give them. Even recording a call can be helpful if you get regular calls, make sure it is allowed in your state or if you have to let them know you are recording them.
The BEST way to give to charities is to contact them after you have done your own research. Don't let the scammers scare you off, Please do give of yourself, time or money. Print out or email these tips to others who may not be aware.
Landscaping...How Does Your Garden grow
The landscaping of the exterior areas around your house should be as personal in taste as your interior decoration.
A driveway and garden are usually the first impressions a visitor has of your home. They should always be as trim and well cared for as your house itself.
Naturally, landscaping, like most things, depends on individual taste. Some people prefer a wild, natural look in gardens and outdoor areas. Others prefer the clipped hedges, planned walks, planting and ordered flower borders of the stylized English garden.
Before planning your landscape, check the zoning regulations of your community, if you live in the city. This must be the first step, as many zoning laws determine the limitations on the height of trees, shrubs and other foilage, and their placement. Interior and corner lots often differ in these respects.
The cost of landscaping varies with each house, as does the planning. The location of the house on the property, the size, shape and elaborateness of areas planned for trees, shrubs, lawn and flowers are of course the controlling factors. The larger, more intricate garden naturally cost more than a smaller area.
Here are some good basic pointers to remember when planning your landscaping.
Privacy - Shrubs, bushes, a cluster of trees can serve as screens from adjoining properties, walks, roads and create a park like effect at the same time. Clever landscaping of a patio, terrace or swimming pool adds to their usability and attractiveness, also provides perfect privacy.
Integration - A driveway should be fully blended with the foilage to create an attractive first impression of your property. The proportion of trees, grass, shrubs, bushes and flowers should be carefully balanced with concrete, graveled, asphalt or flagstone driveways to dispense with a paved, sidewalk effect.
Shade - A single, large tree may be a joy to look at, but make sure it does not obscure the house or shade it too much. Plant a tree or cluster of trees at the edge of the lawn, so that you get the most benefit from the shade on hot days. Make sure the trees do not overhang swimming pools or sun patios, and obscure the sun. Also bear in mind that trees near a pool mean falling leaves and debris to clean out of the water constantly.
Levels - A garden on flat land can be planted with little regard to change in grade (level). Some land is not totally flat, so do not overlook grading problems in your plans. However, a garden that has more than one level is more interesting and much more effective designs can be achieved. But, naturally, the cost are higher.
Drainage - If you are designing your own garden before calling in a landscaper, remember to settle the drainage problems first, or discuss it with the expert. You don't want puddles, ruined turf or plants, so settle the drainage system in the beginning.
Basic Planting - Once your design is complete, you have two courses you can follow in the planting plan. If your budget allows you to do the whole planting job at once, the sequence should be as follows: plant trees and shrubs first, then sod or seed your lawn. Should it be neccessary to carry your landscaping over a period of years, plant lawn first, add trees, shrubs and flowers later when you can afford it.
Plans - Your garden requires landscape plans, just as the interior of your home. If you have definite ideas about what you want, and the effect you wish to achieve, draw up some rough plans on graph paper. Then you can discuss the project fully with the landscaper. If you are an amateur gardener and wish to do your landscaping yourself, you will not need a set of plans to determine each area of your property.
The landscaping of the exterior areas around your house should be as personal in taste as your interior decoration.
A driveway and garden are usually the first impressions a visitor has of your home. They should always be as trim and well cared for as your house itself.
Naturally, landscaping, like most things, depends on individual taste. Some people prefer a wild, natural look in gardens and outdoor areas. Others prefer the clipped hedges, planned walks, planting and ordered flower borders of the stylized English garden.
Before planning your landscape, check the zoning regulations of your community, if you live in the city. This must be the first step, as many zoning laws determine the limitations on the height of trees, shrubs and other foilage, and their placement. Interior and corner lots often differ in these respects.
The cost of landscaping varies with each house, as does the planning. The location of the house on the property, the size, shape and elaborateness of areas planned for trees, shrubs, lawn and flowers are of course the controlling factors. The larger, more intricate garden naturally cost more than a smaller area.
Here are some good basic pointers to remember when planning your landscaping.
Privacy - Shrubs, bushes, a cluster of trees can serve as screens from adjoining properties, walks, roads and create a park like effect at the same time. Clever landscaping of a patio, terrace or swimming pool adds to their usability and attractiveness, also provides perfect privacy.
Integration - A driveway should be fully blended with the foilage to create an attractive first impression of your property. The proportion of trees, grass, shrubs, bushes and flowers should be carefully balanced with concrete, graveled, asphalt or flagstone driveways to dispense with a paved, sidewalk effect.
Shade - A single, large tree may be a joy to look at, but make sure it does not obscure the house or shade it too much. Plant a tree or cluster of trees at the edge of the lawn, so that you get the most benefit from the shade on hot days. Make sure the trees do not overhang swimming pools or sun patios, and obscure the sun. Also bear in mind that trees near a pool mean falling leaves and debris to clean out of the water constantly.
Levels - A garden on flat land can be planted with little regard to change in grade (level). Some land is not totally flat, so do not overlook grading problems in your plans. However, a garden that has more than one level is more interesting and much more effective designs can be achieved. But, naturally, the cost are higher.
Drainage - If you are designing your own garden before calling in a landscaper, remember to settle the drainage problems first, or discuss it with the expert. You don't want puddles, ruined turf or plants, so settle the drainage system in the beginning.
Basic Planting - Once your design is complete, you have two courses you can follow in the planting plan. If your budget allows you to do the whole planting job at once, the sequence should be as follows: plant trees and shrubs first, then sod or seed your lawn. Should it be neccessary to carry your landscaping over a period of years, plant lawn first, add trees, shrubs and flowers later when you can afford it.
Plans - Your garden requires landscape plans, just as the interior of your home. If you have definite ideas about what you want, and the effect you wish to achieve, draw up some rough plans on graph paper. Then you can discuss the project fully with the landscaper. If you are an amateur gardener and wish to do your landscaping yourself, you will not need a set of plans to determine each area of your property.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Scrapbook Ideas for Your Baby Album - Part 1
A scrapbook album of your baby's first year is one of the most special albums you'll ever complete. There are so many magical memories, beginning with the pregnancy itself and continuing right through your baby's first birthday. Below are a number of scrapbook page ideas to help you capture those precious moments.
Title Page
A great way to start the album is by matting a 5"x7" or 8"x10" of your baby's hospital photo on the first page. Then add the baby's name and birthdate as the title and subtitle respectively. This makes a very simple yet very beautiful page.
Baby on the Way
How did you celebrate the news that your baby was on the way? Maybe it was a quiet dinner just for you and your husband or a gathering with family and friends. Either way, remember to include some pictures of the celebration. Capture peoples' reactions to the annoucement in photos. In addition, you may even want to take a picture of the pregnancy test showing the positive results.
The Ultrasound
If you had multiple ultrasounds during your pregnancy, include pictures from different points in time so you can see how your baby was growing. You may also want to include one that shows the graph of the heartbeat. In addition to journaling about the ultrasound pictures, this is a great place to journal about any nicknames you may have had for your baby before it was born.
The Belly
Starting at three months, when the pregnancy "bulge" is just barely noticeable, have someone take a monthly side-view picture of you. Pose in front of the same background each time so that the pictures are consistent. Try to fit all of the photos on one page (or a two-page spread), so you can really appreciate the month-by-month progression.
The Nursery
Include photos of the nursery all ready and waiting for baby; take pictures from different angles to show everything in the room. Be sure to include pictures of anything that has special meaning such as a bassinet that has been in the family for multiple generations, a special blanket made by Grandma, etc. Also, if you have one, include a photo to show what the room was before it became a nursery.
Welcome Baby
Those first pictures taken of your baby after the birth are some of the most precious ones you'll ever have. Rememer to include your baby being weighed, having his/her footprints done, being examined, getting a bath, etc. You can put memorabilia such as the footprint card, bassinet name tag and baby id bracelet on these pages. Include key information/statistics in your journaling - baby's full name, date, day, time, weight, length, details about your labor, name of the doctor/midwife, etc.
Mom, Dad and Baby
It's wonderful to have a page with pictures of just the three of you - Mom, Dad and Baby - and then include siblings, grandparents, etc. on other pages. Journal about how you felt upon meeting your baby for the first time, whether your baby resembled anyone in the family, how your baby reacted to hearing your voice, etc.
The Rest of the Clan
Once you have a page or two of Mom, Dad and Baby photos, it's time to include the siblings if your baby has any. Capture how excited they are to meet their new baby brother/sister and how proud they are to be big brothers/big sisters. This is also a great page to put any little cards, drawings, etc. that siblings may have made to welcome your new baby.
Visitors at the Hospital
Your new baby is sure to have many visitors at the hospital such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and more. Include a picture of each one holding the baby and write an interesting fact and/or anecdote about each person in your journaling. Also, you may want to include pictures of the doctor/midwife who delivered your baby, the labor nurse and/or the doula.
Going Home
Going home from the hospital is a big event! On this page you can include pictures of leaving the hospital, a photo of the outside of the hospital, and the birth announcement. Journal about who took you and the baby home, what the weather was like for your baby's first time ever outside, what he/she was wearing for a "going home" outfit, and what he/she did during the car ride home.
The New Family
It's nice to have a couple of pages showing the new family settling in at home over those first few days. Be sure to include a picture of everyone (Mom, Dad, siblings) with the new baby, plus a picture of the whole family. Put some of the flowers and balloons received as gifts in the background of the pictures to add a special touch. This is a great place to journal about how the family dynamic changes when the new little one joins the clan.
Visitors at Home
In addition to having photos of the visitors that came to meet your baby at the hospital, you'll also want to have pictures of the visitors at your home. Again, include a picture of each one holding the baby and write an interesting fact and/or anecdote about each person in your journaling.
Siblings
If your baby has siblings, you can make a separate page for each sibling with lots of photos of the big brother/big sister with the new baby. Depending on how old the sibling is, he/she may be able to help you create the album page by arranging photos, picking out embellishments and providing input for the journaling (e.g., what is the best thing about being a big brother/big sister).
Heritage
If your baby is lucky enough to meet his/her great-grandparents, have a page or two with pictures of them holding the baby. Ask the great-grandparents to share some of their most cherished childhood memories so you can include them in your journaling. When your baby is older, he/she can read their stories to get a glimpse of childhoods long ago.
For additional ideas, please read part two of this article entitled "Scrapbook Ideas for Your Baby Album - Part 2."
A scrapbook album of your baby's first year is one of the most special albums you'll ever complete. There are so many magical memories, beginning with the pregnancy itself and continuing right through your baby's first birthday. Below are a number of scrapbook page ideas to help you capture those precious moments.
Title Page
A great way to start the album is by matting a 5"x7" or 8"x10" of your baby's hospital photo on the first page. Then add the baby's name and birthdate as the title and subtitle respectively. This makes a very simple yet very beautiful page.
Baby on the Way
How did you celebrate the news that your baby was on the way? Maybe it was a quiet dinner just for you and your husband or a gathering with family and friends. Either way, remember to include some pictures of the celebration. Capture peoples' reactions to the annoucement in photos. In addition, you may even want to take a picture of the pregnancy test showing the positive results.
The Ultrasound
If you had multiple ultrasounds during your pregnancy, include pictures from different points in time so you can see how your baby was growing. You may also want to include one that shows the graph of the heartbeat. In addition to journaling about the ultrasound pictures, this is a great place to journal about any nicknames you may have had for your baby before it was born.
The Belly
Starting at three months, when the pregnancy "bulge" is just barely noticeable, have someone take a monthly side-view picture of you. Pose in front of the same background each time so that the pictures are consistent. Try to fit all of the photos on one page (or a two-page spread), so you can really appreciate the month-by-month progression.
The Nursery
Include photos of the nursery all ready and waiting for baby; take pictures from different angles to show everything in the room. Be sure to include pictures of anything that has special meaning such as a bassinet that has been in the family for multiple generations, a special blanket made by Grandma, etc. Also, if you have one, include a photo to show what the room was before it became a nursery.
Welcome Baby
Those first pictures taken of your baby after the birth are some of the most precious ones you'll ever have. Rememer to include your baby being weighed, having his/her footprints done, being examined, getting a bath, etc. You can put memorabilia such as the footprint card, bassinet name tag and baby id bracelet on these pages. Include key information/statistics in your journaling - baby's full name, date, day, time, weight, length, details about your labor, name of the doctor/midwife, etc.
Mom, Dad and Baby
It's wonderful to have a page with pictures of just the three of you - Mom, Dad and Baby - and then include siblings, grandparents, etc. on other pages. Journal about how you felt upon meeting your baby for the first time, whether your baby resembled anyone in the family, how your baby reacted to hearing your voice, etc.
The Rest of the Clan
Once you have a page or two of Mom, Dad and Baby photos, it's time to include the siblings if your baby has any. Capture how excited they are to meet their new baby brother/sister and how proud they are to be big brothers/big sisters. This is also a great page to put any little cards, drawings, etc. that siblings may have made to welcome your new baby.
Visitors at the Hospital
Your new baby is sure to have many visitors at the hospital such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and more. Include a picture of each one holding the baby and write an interesting fact and/or anecdote about each person in your journaling. Also, you may want to include pictures of the doctor/midwife who delivered your baby, the labor nurse and/or the doula.
Going Home
Going home from the hospital is a big event! On this page you can include pictures of leaving the hospital, a photo of the outside of the hospital, and the birth announcement. Journal about who took you and the baby home, what the weather was like for your baby's first time ever outside, what he/she was wearing for a "going home" outfit, and what he/she did during the car ride home.
The New Family
It's nice to have a couple of pages showing the new family settling in at home over those first few days. Be sure to include a picture of everyone (Mom, Dad, siblings) with the new baby, plus a picture of the whole family. Put some of the flowers and balloons received as gifts in the background of the pictures to add a special touch. This is a great place to journal about how the family dynamic changes when the new little one joins the clan.
Visitors at Home
In addition to having photos of the visitors that came to meet your baby at the hospital, you'll also want to have pictures of the visitors at your home. Again, include a picture of each one holding the baby and write an interesting fact and/or anecdote about each person in your journaling.
Siblings
If your baby has siblings, you can make a separate page for each sibling with lots of photos of the big brother/big sister with the new baby. Depending on how old the sibling is, he/she may be able to help you create the album page by arranging photos, picking out embellishments and providing input for the journaling (e.g., what is the best thing about being a big brother/big sister).
Heritage
If your baby is lucky enough to meet his/her great-grandparents, have a page or two with pictures of them holding the baby. Ask the great-grandparents to share some of their most cherished childhood memories so you can include them in your journaling. When your baby is older, he/she can read their stories to get a glimpse of childhoods long ago.
For additional ideas, please read part two of this article entitled "Scrapbook Ideas for Your Baby Album - Part 2."
Specific Measurable Results
Want to make an immediate and dramatic increase in the overall performance of your company? Try creating a set of Specific Measurable Results (SMR) for each department or functional unit.
Specific Measurable Results? Of course, your sales force has them. It's safe to say there are few companies in the world that do not use sales quotas. Not only do sales people use quotas to track their output, they often have targets which measure their activity. "How many, by when" is a familiar phrase. Top sales people monitor how many calls they make to prospects each week. The also track calls made to existing customers, how many letters they send, how many "closes", and so on. If a sales person isn't bringing in the promised business, management can examine his or her activity to see what area might need work.
What about the other players on your sales team - the technical representatives, the sales associates? Do they have specific, measurable results they've agreed to produce? What about your other departments? What about development? Customer Service? Finance? Marketing? Administration? What are they accountable for? Do they have SMR's to produce within a set time frame?
Critical Success Tip: Every department can be measured to improve its performance. Determine what you want to have a functional area do more of - what are the key activities - and find a way to measure them. Then tie each measurement, each "how many" to a set time frame, a "by when".
Say for instance, you want to improve customer service. One point to measure would be their response time to customer problems. How? Set time targets for complaint resolution, and agree on a "by when" those targets will be reached. Or, track the percentage of re-orders, and target that. Sales Associates? Measure how fast proposals are produced.
Tech Reps? Target the number of demonstrations to clients each week. Marketing? Measure how many leads are generated per month, or product awareness, or press mentions. Product development? Measure variance from your development timeline. You can even track Accounting. Target the number of days after close of business when the trial balance and month-end results are available.
Critical Success Tip: To make sure each Specific Measure has its desired effect, the SMR should be the product of a negotiation, with all sides agreeing to what is being measured, how many, and by when. Then, put it in writing.
Use moving averages to see trends. Moving averages smooth out the highs and lows, eliminating any week's jitters. Instead of comparing this week to last week, compare this week's moving average to last week's. Is the moving average going up or down? Also, compare this week's statistics to the moving average.
Critical Success Tip: Graph everything. Every statistic which is important enough to measure should be seen on a graph. Many companies relate more powerfully to a picture than to a set of numbers. Create graphs with one line to indicate past performance - say last year, one line to indicate your intended (target) performance and one line to indicate your actual performance. You can also graph the moving averages.
How do SMR's work their magic?
People like clear objectives. They want to know what is expected of them. SMR's provide easy to understand, unambiguous indicators of what constitutes "a good job". SMR's tell people what to focus on, and they provide a framework to think about the question "how can I succeed?"
People go wherever their attention is. Did you ever look at someone in the car next to you while you were driving, and find yourself swerving into their lane? That's because our brains are wired to always follow our attention. SMR's concentrate your team's attention wherever it needs to be.
SMRs tell you which areas need work. If there is a "gap" between intended and actual results, highlighting this gap with numbers and graphs gives your team a window on figuring out what needs to be corrected to stay on course.
Critical Success Tip: Be sure you are measuring the right things. Remember, your team will go wherever their attention is! And, if you fail to institute a measure for a key area, poor performance in that area may be overlooked. Always check that your SMR's are taking you where you want to go.
Extraordinary Performance from Statistics? SMRs provide a way to turn performance up. It's much easier to create more of something, once you know what you already have. It's almost impossible if you don't.
Want to make an immediate and dramatic increase in the overall performance of your company? Try creating a set of Specific Measurable Results (SMR) for each department or functional unit.
Specific Measurable Results? Of course, your sales force has them. It's safe to say there are few companies in the world that do not use sales quotas. Not only do sales people use quotas to track their output, they often have targets which measure their activity. "How many, by when" is a familiar phrase. Top sales people monitor how many calls they make to prospects each week. The also track calls made to existing customers, how many letters they send, how many "closes", and so on. If a sales person isn't bringing in the promised business, management can examine his or her activity to see what area might need work.
What about the other players on your sales team - the technical representatives, the sales associates? Do they have specific, measurable results they've agreed to produce? What about your other departments? What about development? Customer Service? Finance? Marketing? Administration? What are they accountable for? Do they have SMR's to produce within a set time frame?
Critical Success Tip: Every department can be measured to improve its performance. Determine what you want to have a functional area do more of - what are the key activities - and find a way to measure them. Then tie each measurement, each "how many" to a set time frame, a "by when".
Say for instance, you want to improve customer service. One point to measure would be their response time to customer problems. How? Set time targets for complaint resolution, and agree on a "by when" those targets will be reached. Or, track the percentage of re-orders, and target that. Sales Associates? Measure how fast proposals are produced.
Tech Reps? Target the number of demonstrations to clients each week. Marketing? Measure how many leads are generated per month, or product awareness, or press mentions. Product development? Measure variance from your development timeline. You can even track Accounting. Target the number of days after close of business when the trial balance and month-end results are available.
Critical Success Tip: To make sure each Specific Measure has its desired effect, the SMR should be the product of a negotiation, with all sides agreeing to what is being measured, how many, and by when. Then, put it in writing.
Use moving averages to see trends. Moving averages smooth out the highs and lows, eliminating any week's jitters. Instead of comparing this week to last week, compare this week's moving average to last week's. Is the moving average going up or down? Also, compare this week's statistics to the moving average.
Critical Success Tip: Graph everything. Every statistic which is important enough to measure should be seen on a graph. Many companies relate more powerfully to a picture than to a set of numbers. Create graphs with one line to indicate past performance - say last year, one line to indicate your intended (target) performance and one line to indicate your actual performance. You can also graph the moving averages.
How do SMR's work their magic?
People like clear objectives. They want to know what is expected of them. SMR's provide easy to understand, unambiguous indicators of what constitutes "a good job". SMR's tell people what to focus on, and they provide a framework to think about the question "how can I succeed?"
People go wherever their attention is. Did you ever look at someone in the car next to you while you were driving, and find yourself swerving into their lane? That's because our brains are wired to always follow our attention. SMR's concentrate your team's attention wherever it needs to be.
SMRs tell you which areas need work. If there is a "gap" between intended and actual results, highlighting this gap with numbers and graphs gives your team a window on figuring out what needs to be corrected to stay on course.
Critical Success Tip: Be sure you are measuring the right things. Remember, your team will go wherever their attention is! And, if you fail to institute a measure for a key area, poor performance in that area may be overlooked. Always check that your SMR's are taking you where you want to go.
Extraordinary Performance from Statistics? SMRs provide a way to turn performance up. It's much easier to create more of something, once you know what you already have. It's almost impossible if you don't.
Friday, July 20, 2007
How Are Share Prices Measured And Why Do They Change?
In Australian, the state of the stock market is judged by the S&P/ASX 200 Composite Index, which recently replaced the All Ordinaries Index, normally known as the All Ords. The American equivalent of the S&P/ASX 200 Composite Index is the Dow Jones Index.
The S&P/ASX 200 Composite Index is a measure of 200 of the largest and most frequently traded stocks on the Australian share market. Measuring their rise and fall allows us to have a fairly accurate reading of how the Australian market as a whole is faring.
Each major share market around the world has its own index to help investors rate how the market is faring, plus a number of sub indices such as the industrial index, a gold index or a resources index, that measure particular sectors.
Definite forces shape share prices. An understanding of these forces can do more than help you formulate an investment strategy - it will also help you see how events can shape everything from the unemployment rate to interest rates.
Following are a few of the factors that affect the price of a share:
* Supply and demand
* A company's financial health
* The industry's financial health
* Economic trends
And always remember, two of the main factors that drive the share market are greed and fear. This is sometimes referred to as the Lemming Syndrome - when the market has a hiccup, all the inexperienced traders nose-dive off the cliff after each other in panic. And when a stock is hot, all the Lemmings buy it up in their droves, regardless of how expensive it becomes.
Smart and experienced traders don't follow the Lemmings. They have their share trading strategy that they stick to, and they also know that a falling market can sometimes be the best time to make money.
Of course, no one is immune to arrogance and stupidity, so there are no perfect strategies because there are no perfect people. All you can hope for is to do the best you can within your capabilities. That's why a solid trading education is so vital - without it, you are operating on hunches and intuition and that's almost certainly a guarantee of failure.
Here's a fun exercise for you to try. Monitor the share market results and see what happens when major events occur, such as natural disasters, or financial successes for major companies, or strong economic growth. You can usually draw a graph showing a strong correlation between events in the world and how they effect the share market - it's quite canny.
In fact, if you like your history and are up for some research, go back and look at old share market results and see where they rise or fall as a result of external forces. Wars, famine, corruption and so forth can all be tied into market fluctuations.
At the end of the day, the lesson to learn is that the share market is driven by people, and as I mentioned above, people are not perfect. Greed and fear can effect any and all of us at some stage. In our examples, you just get to see it played out over a larger scale. Really makes you think about how 'funny' we human beings are...
Don't be a Lemming! Get yourself a solid trading education, develop a solid trading strategy, and don't let your ego run away from you, and your chances of success increase dramatically compared to the Lemmings...
In Australian, the state of the stock market is judged by the S&P/ASX 200 Composite Index, which recently replaced the All Ordinaries Index, normally known as the All Ords. The American equivalent of the S&P/ASX 200 Composite Index is the Dow Jones Index.
The S&P/ASX 200 Composite Index is a measure of 200 of the largest and most frequently traded stocks on the Australian share market. Measuring their rise and fall allows us to have a fairly accurate reading of how the Australian market as a whole is faring.
Each major share market around the world has its own index to help investors rate how the market is faring, plus a number of sub indices such as the industrial index, a gold index or a resources index, that measure particular sectors.
Definite forces shape share prices. An understanding of these forces can do more than help you formulate an investment strategy - it will also help you see how events can shape everything from the unemployment rate to interest rates.
Following are a few of the factors that affect the price of a share:
* Supply and demand
* A company's financial health
* The industry's financial health
* Economic trends
And always remember, two of the main factors that drive the share market are greed and fear. This is sometimes referred to as the Lemming Syndrome - when the market has a hiccup, all the inexperienced traders nose-dive off the cliff after each other in panic. And when a stock is hot, all the Lemmings buy it up in their droves, regardless of how expensive it becomes.
Smart and experienced traders don't follow the Lemmings. They have their share trading strategy that they stick to, and they also know that a falling market can sometimes be the best time to make money.
Of course, no one is immune to arrogance and stupidity, so there are no perfect strategies because there are no perfect people. All you can hope for is to do the best you can within your capabilities. That's why a solid trading education is so vital - without it, you are operating on hunches and intuition and that's almost certainly a guarantee of failure.
Here's a fun exercise for you to try. Monitor the share market results and see what happens when major events occur, such as natural disasters, or financial successes for major companies, or strong economic growth. You can usually draw a graph showing a strong correlation between events in the world and how they effect the share market - it's quite canny.
In fact, if you like your history and are up for some research, go back and look at old share market results and see where they rise or fall as a result of external forces. Wars, famine, corruption and so forth can all be tied into market fluctuations.
At the end of the day, the lesson to learn is that the share market is driven by people, and as I mentioned above, people are not perfect. Greed and fear can effect any and all of us at some stage. In our examples, you just get to see it played out over a larger scale. Really makes you think about how 'funny' we human beings are...
Don't be a Lemming! Get yourself a solid trading education, develop a solid trading strategy, and don't let your ego run away from you, and your chances of success increase dramatically compared to the Lemmings...
Developing Learning Activities And Simulations In E-Learning Content
What turns your best dress into a showstopper? Accessories. And what turns your online course content into dazzlingly useful learning content? Learning Activities. What is a Learning Activity? In e-learning content development, we use all forms of questions for test and quizzes:
1. Multiple correct, which presents a number of choices as answers to a particular question. There may be more than one answer to this question. The students chooses all answers that are correct.
2. Single correct, which presents multiple choices as answers to a particular questions. One answer of the possible choices is correct.
3. Item matching, in which there is one column of possible answers that relate to another column of questions. Item matching is commonly used for matching the correct term to the definition.
4. Fill-in-the-blank, in which the students enters the correct word or words that complete a sentence.
5. True/false, in which the student answers whether a statement is true or false.
6. Short answer, in which the student enters a one to two sentence answer to a question.
7. Essay, in which the student responds to a question with a page (or more) long response.
All of these question types are useful for testing knowledge gained from taking a course, as well as testing the level of knowledge prior to a course. In addition, such questions are useful in the course itself as learning checks. The learning check enables the student to determine whether he understands the material. Most companies consider these questions to be adequate learning activities. However, learning activities can be much more. Learning activities that are simulations can involve the student and give him a safe environment in which to practice skills gained through the course. .
Learning Activities are interactive activities that help to explain concepts and involve the student with hands-on learning. This may include all forms of drag and drop questions (one to one correlation, many to one correlation) as well as interactive ordering of graphics or text, and finally, simulations.
An IDC article and survey, Technology-Based Simulations: Cloning the Work Environment for More Effective Learning, June 2004 by Michael Brennan, states, "By 2008 the use of simulations will quadruple.... Simulations provide a parallel universe in which employees hone their skills... Innovative companies have realized this, and others will follow."
Simulations are currently the most expensive learning activity. Simulations must be individually designed and programmed. For example, suppose you have a sales course in which you are testing the sales students retention of the message that the company wishes to deliver to its customers. You could do a question workshop: several questions that give situations requiring an action in multiple correct or single correct formats. Another, more entertaining, method would be to have the sales person run through a scenario in which he indicates what he would do to sell his product. The learning activity indicates whether the customer would buy this product based on those actions. This feedback could be indicated by a graph indicating customer readiness to buy. It could also be complimented by video, in which the customer appears aggravated when the sales person gives his message incorrectly and pleased when the sales person gives his message correctly.
Online courses are taken privately and at the students convenience. If the student requires several attempts with a particular scenario, praise the student for continued effort and eventual competency.
Adding humor to simulations and learning activities is essential yet can be controversial. As the simulation developer or content developer, you do not want to add any humor that could be perceived as offensive, sexist or worse, unfunny. To extend our sales example, when the sales person is unsuccessful at selling his product in the learning activity, you would not want your customer video or simple animation of the customer to offend the sales person. Yet you want him to laugh and try again. Perhaps the customer morosely shaking his head and leaving the room, with text indicating how the sales call went dreadfully south would be acceptable and could be done in a humorous fashion. You would not want this animation to be disturbing the customer should not shake his fist and yell for a restraining order against the sales person, for example.
In the past, I participated in designing a simulation of patient anesthesia. The computer program consisted of a patient on the operating room table and two dials that the student could turn. One dial administered oxygen, the other dial administered anesthetic. The patients parameters could change (height, weight, age). As the student administered the anesthesia, a graph showed the patients stats. If you administered too much anesthesia the patient would die! It was a great simulation, but scary. The death knell of the patient was accompanied by funeral music. . Ouch!
On the other hand, sometimes we encounter simulations and learning activities that add nothing to the content or the course. They are superfluous, added to maintain interest. You must be very careful in these instances. If you want to add something to maintain interest, it should still be useful and explore some aspect of the topic. A Flash movie of interesting fractals may be colorful and fun - useless in a course that is not about fractals, art or Flash. For example, suppose you are teaching contractual document details. You can still relate the content of the course to a learning activity in which the student must put the correct elements from a list into three different types of contracts. As dry as you may think detailing the elements of a contract might be, if you add audio that indicates whether the addition was right or wrong, you can keep your students interest. Wrong! can be contrasted with Oh, not that element, it does not belong said in a beautiful feminine voice. The second response can add a smile and cause the student to remember how the contractual elements are added to a contract. A booming male voice that states, You sir, are correct! can bring that same acknowledgement.
In conclusion, questions and quizzes while useful are not the end of interactivity. We need to provide the means for simulations inside online courses to provide the hands on learning that students need. Through clever activities that allow seeing the consequences of your actions on the simulation model, we can provide activities that enable retention of material and practice. If these activities lead the student to greater understanding, we have provided not only an entertaining activity but also great value for our online courses.
What turns your best dress into a showstopper? Accessories. And what turns your online course content into dazzlingly useful learning content? Learning Activities. What is a Learning Activity? In e-learning content development, we use all forms of questions for test and quizzes:
1. Multiple correct, which presents a number of choices as answers to a particular question. There may be more than one answer to this question. The students chooses all answers that are correct.
2. Single correct, which presents multiple choices as answers to a particular questions. One answer of the possible choices is correct.
3. Item matching, in which there is one column of possible answers that relate to another column of questions. Item matching is commonly used for matching the correct term to the definition.
4. Fill-in-the-blank, in which the students enters the correct word or words that complete a sentence.
5. True/false, in which the student answers whether a statement is true or false.
6. Short answer, in which the student enters a one to two sentence answer to a question.
7. Essay, in which the student responds to a question with a page (or more) long response.
All of these question types are useful for testing knowledge gained from taking a course, as well as testing the level of knowledge prior to a course. In addition, such questions are useful in the course itself as learning checks. The learning check enables the student to determine whether he understands the material. Most companies consider these questions to be adequate learning activities. However, learning activities can be much more. Learning activities that are simulations can involve the student and give him a safe environment in which to practice skills gained through the course. .
Learning Activities are interactive activities that help to explain concepts and involve the student with hands-on learning. This may include all forms of drag and drop questions (one to one correlation, many to one correlation) as well as interactive ordering of graphics or text, and finally, simulations.
An IDC article and survey, Technology-Based Simulations: Cloning the Work Environment for More Effective Learning, June 2004 by Michael Brennan, states, "By 2008 the use of simulations will quadruple.... Simulations provide a parallel universe in which employees hone their skills... Innovative companies have realized this, and others will follow."
Simulations are currently the most expensive learning activity. Simulations must be individually designed and programmed. For example, suppose you have a sales course in which you are testing the sales students retention of the message that the company wishes to deliver to its customers. You could do a question workshop: several questions that give situations requiring an action in multiple correct or single correct formats. Another, more entertaining, method would be to have the sales person run through a scenario in which he indicates what he would do to sell his product. The learning activity indicates whether the customer would buy this product based on those actions. This feedback could be indicated by a graph indicating customer readiness to buy. It could also be complimented by video, in which the customer appears aggravated when the sales person gives his message incorrectly and pleased when the sales person gives his message correctly.
Online courses are taken privately and at the students convenience. If the student requires several attempts with a particular scenario, praise the student for continued effort and eventual competency.
Adding humor to simulations and learning activities is essential yet can be controversial. As the simulation developer or content developer, you do not want to add any humor that could be perceived as offensive, sexist or worse, unfunny. To extend our sales example, when the sales person is unsuccessful at selling his product in the learning activity, you would not want your customer video or simple animation of the customer to offend the sales person. Yet you want him to laugh and try again. Perhaps the customer morosely shaking his head and leaving the room, with text indicating how the sales call went dreadfully south would be acceptable and could be done in a humorous fashion. You would not want this animation to be disturbing the customer should not shake his fist and yell for a restraining order against the sales person, for example.
In the past, I participated in designing a simulation of patient anesthesia. The computer program consisted of a patient on the operating room table and two dials that the student could turn. One dial administered oxygen, the other dial administered anesthetic. The patients parameters could change (height, weight, age). As the student administered the anesthesia, a graph showed the patients stats. If you administered too much anesthesia the patient would die! It was a great simulation, but scary. The death knell of the patient was accompanied by funeral music. . Ouch!
On the other hand, sometimes we encounter simulations and learning activities that add nothing to the content or the course. They are superfluous, added to maintain interest. You must be very careful in these instances. If you want to add something to maintain interest, it should still be useful and explore some aspect of the topic. A Flash movie of interesting fractals may be colorful and fun - useless in a course that is not about fractals, art or Flash. For example, suppose you are teaching contractual document details. You can still relate the content of the course to a learning activity in which the student must put the correct elements from a list into three different types of contracts. As dry as you may think detailing the elements of a contract might be, if you add audio that indicates whether the addition was right or wrong, you can keep your students interest. Wrong! can be contrasted with Oh, not that element, it does not belong said in a beautiful feminine voice. The second response can add a smile and cause the student to remember how the contractual elements are added to a contract. A booming male voice that states, You sir, are correct! can bring that same acknowledgement.
In conclusion, questions and quizzes while useful are not the end of interactivity. We need to provide the means for simulations inside online courses to provide the hands on learning that students need. Through clever activities that allow seeing the consequences of your actions on the simulation model, we can provide activities that enable retention of material and practice. If these activities lead the student to greater understanding, we have provided not only an entertaining activity but also great value for our online courses.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Low Voltage Outdoor Lighting
Once the design and type of outdoor lighting fixture is selected, the next important question is voltage. Outdoor light fixtures are available in either 12-volt or 120-volt versions and for houses the best deal is low voltage outdoor lighting. These are easier to install as the system runs on harmless 12-volt current with light weight wiring laid on the ground or buried just below surface. The 120-volt system on other hand is same as used in interior of house and requires precautions and handling. The advantage of high voltage outdoor lighting is that it is permanent using buried conduit whereas the low voltage outdoor lighting is that is easily damaged due to superficial placement of wires.
With expenses climbing the graph we need economical trimmings. A saving advantage of low-voltage outdoor lighting is that one does not need a professional for installation. The money saved can be spent on high-quality fixtures and landscaping. Some low voltage light fixtures work on solar energy and once charged work when sensors activate the lights on sunset.
Another advantage of low voltage outdoor lighting is that smaller and compact fixtures are flexible and can be activated by timers, motion detection or switches. This is an advantage as compared with high or regular voltage lighting fixtures that require conduits and labor to fix wiring. The size and design of low voltage outdoor lighting fixtures help add to the aesthetics of surrounding. The reason they can be safely hidden or placed in nooks and corners, waterfalls, bushes or exterior of buildings and residences. The drawback is that to highlight a particular area more fixtures are needed. Quality also matters in that if inexpensive crack and corrode due to extreme temperature or corrosion. The inconvenience ends here as low voltage outdoor lighting once installed requires minimum attention. Nevertheless a perfectionist or cleanliness freak would like to coat sockets with silicon - based lubricants once a year, clean accumulating debris in up-lifting fixtures and replace dead lamps to avoid unused voltage.
Low voltage outdoor lighting is aesthetically safe, economical and energy efficient with performance comparable to a 120 volt system.
Once the design and type of outdoor lighting fixture is selected, the next important question is voltage. Outdoor light fixtures are available in either 12-volt or 120-volt versions and for houses the best deal is low voltage outdoor lighting. These are easier to install as the system runs on harmless 12-volt current with light weight wiring laid on the ground or buried just below surface. The 120-volt system on other hand is same as used in interior of house and requires precautions and handling. The advantage of high voltage outdoor lighting is that it is permanent using buried conduit whereas the low voltage outdoor lighting is that is easily damaged due to superficial placement of wires.
With expenses climbing the graph we need economical trimmings. A saving advantage of low-voltage outdoor lighting is that one does not need a professional for installation. The money saved can be spent on high-quality fixtures and landscaping. Some low voltage light fixtures work on solar energy and once charged work when sensors activate the lights on sunset.
Another advantage of low voltage outdoor lighting is that smaller and compact fixtures are flexible and can be activated by timers, motion detection or switches. This is an advantage as compared with high or regular voltage lighting fixtures that require conduits and labor to fix wiring. The size and design of low voltage outdoor lighting fixtures help add to the aesthetics of surrounding. The reason they can be safely hidden or placed in nooks and corners, waterfalls, bushes or exterior of buildings and residences. The drawback is that to highlight a particular area more fixtures are needed. Quality also matters in that if inexpensive crack and corrode due to extreme temperature or corrosion. The inconvenience ends here as low voltage outdoor lighting once installed requires minimum attention. Nevertheless a perfectionist or cleanliness freak would like to coat sockets with silicon - based lubricants once a year, clean accumulating debris in up-lifting fixtures and replace dead lamps to avoid unused voltage.
Low voltage outdoor lighting is aesthetically safe, economical and energy efficient with performance comparable to a 120 volt system.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
History of the Computer; Analog or Digital?
In 'History of the Computer - the emergence of Electronics', we saw how the development of Radar during the second world war led to an understanding of pulse technology. At the same time methods were refined for the calculations required for the ballistic trajectories. From these beginnings, the digital computer was developed.
What is meant by 'Analog' and 'Digital'? A couple of examples will explain the difference. An analog is something which is analogous, obviously, but you may know that an analogous process or function is one that is equivalent, or very similar to another one. An analogy is often used to explain, or to assist the understanding of, some new feature in terms that are understood.
For example a home electric circuit for house wiring to operate a lamp. The supply is controlled by a circuit breaker, when it is available at the outlet where the lamp is plugged. This can be compared to plumbing, where the water supply is controlled by a valve or tap on entering the home, then pipes carry the water to the kitchen, where the supply can be turned on or off by a tap or faucet, and is immediately available. The rate of flow of the water can be controlled, which is analogous to a dimmer on the lamp.
The analogy is not absolutely the same, but aids in the understanding of the electricity supply by someone who knows the plumbing system.
Digital, concerning digits or numbers, refers to the use of numbers to represent all things. As an example, a digital watch uses numbers to indicate the time. The numbers on the face of traditional watch are distributed around the dial, so that the hands pointing to them are analogous to the passage of time. For example the minute hand pointing straight down, half way through the circle of the clock, represents the passing of half an hour. If the hour hand is pointing to the number 3, this indicates 3 hours of the 12 for a complete circuit. When we learnt to tell the time we knew that this was half past three. The digital watch however says 3:30.
Closer to our topic, we can consider the evolution of the gramophone record. The vinyl LP was the standard medium for music recording and playing from the 1950s, tape recordings were also developed in parallel. Both these media use a modulation system, where the amplitude, or strength, of the modulation is proportional, or analogous, to the loudness of the original live singing or playing. This music had been converted by a microphone into an variable electrical signal, analogous to the sound.
With the invention in the 1980s of the Compact Disc, digital techniques were employed to represent the changes in sound levels, by using a sampling pulse to monitor the loudness of the sound. This sampling pulse is used at a high frequency, so that it is not audible, and traces the progress of the sound. The principle is analogous to the movie camera where a sequence of still pictures are shown at a rate of 32 frames per second, so that they appear to show a moving picture. Similarly a tv uses a frame rate of 50 or 60 per second (strictly speaking 25 0r 30 interlaced).
The big advantage of a digital recording and reproduction system (amplifiers etc are also digital) is that, due to the nature of the high frequency pulses, it is possible to copy them exactly when transferring from one medium to another, for example copying a from cd track to compilation cd. With an analogue system there are losses in every transfer, so that a recording on a cassette tape copied from a vinyl lp via a home stereo is noticeably poorer quality than the original.
A computer can also be analog or digital, though the digital type have vastly outgrown the analog. An analog computer might be used in research work, where, for instance a record may be made on a moving chart of the temperature and humidity in a room being air conditioned by a new design air conditioner, the chart could also be a display on screen. Either way, the graph is an analog representation of the temperature and pressure.
Early electronic controls in aircraft were run by a form of analog computer, the amount the ailerons moved was proportional to the movement of the joystick, but not directly proportional. A calculation was performed, which depended on the speed and height of the aircraft, and other factors. The electronic 'boxes' involved linear amplifiers and variable response circuits, all fed by sensors from the flight controls etc.
In 'History of the Computer - the emergence of Electronics', we saw how the development of Radar during the second world war led to an understanding of pulse technology. At the same time methods were refined for the calculations required for the ballistic trajectories. From these beginnings, the digital computer was developed.
What is meant by 'Analog' and 'Digital'? A couple of examples will explain the difference. An analog is something which is analogous, obviously, but you may know that an analogous process or function is one that is equivalent, or very similar to another one. An analogy is often used to explain, or to assist the understanding of, some new feature in terms that are understood.
For example a home electric circuit for house wiring to operate a lamp. The supply is controlled by a circuit breaker, when it is available at the outlet where the lamp is plugged. This can be compared to plumbing, where the water supply is controlled by a valve or tap on entering the home, then pipes carry the water to the kitchen, where the supply can be turned on or off by a tap or faucet, and is immediately available. The rate of flow of the water can be controlled, which is analogous to a dimmer on the lamp.
The analogy is not absolutely the same, but aids in the understanding of the electricity supply by someone who knows the plumbing system.
Digital, concerning digits or numbers, refers to the use of numbers to represent all things. As an example, a digital watch uses numbers to indicate the time. The numbers on the face of traditional watch are distributed around the dial, so that the hands pointing to them are analogous to the passage of time. For example the minute hand pointing straight down, half way through the circle of the clock, represents the passing of half an hour. If the hour hand is pointing to the number 3, this indicates 3 hours of the 12 for a complete circuit. When we learnt to tell the time we knew that this was half past three. The digital watch however says 3:30.
Closer to our topic, we can consider the evolution of the gramophone record. The vinyl LP was the standard medium for music recording and playing from the 1950s, tape recordings were also developed in parallel. Both these media use a modulation system, where the amplitude, or strength, of the modulation is proportional, or analogous, to the loudness of the original live singing or playing. This music had been converted by a microphone into an variable electrical signal, analogous to the sound.
With the invention in the 1980s of the Compact Disc, digital techniques were employed to represent the changes in sound levels, by using a sampling pulse to monitor the loudness of the sound. This sampling pulse is used at a high frequency, so that it is not audible, and traces the progress of the sound. The principle is analogous to the movie camera where a sequence of still pictures are shown at a rate of 32 frames per second, so that they appear to show a moving picture. Similarly a tv uses a frame rate of 50 or 60 per second (strictly speaking 25 0r 30 interlaced).
The big advantage of a digital recording and reproduction system (amplifiers etc are also digital) is that, due to the nature of the high frequency pulses, it is possible to copy them exactly when transferring from one medium to another, for example copying a from cd track to compilation cd. With an analogue system there are losses in every transfer, so that a recording on a cassette tape copied from a vinyl lp via a home stereo is noticeably poorer quality than the original.
A computer can also be analog or digital, though the digital type have vastly outgrown the analog. An analog computer might be used in research work, where, for instance a record may be made on a moving chart of the temperature and humidity in a room being air conditioned by a new design air conditioner, the chart could also be a display on screen. Either way, the graph is an analog representation of the temperature and pressure.
Early electronic controls in aircraft were run by a form of analog computer, the amount the ailerons moved was proportional to the movement of the joystick, but not directly proportional. A calculation was performed, which depended on the speed and height of the aircraft, and other factors. The electronic 'boxes' involved linear amplifiers and variable response circuits, all fed by sensors from the flight controls etc.
Is Candy Corn Actually Good For Kids? Do The Math And See
Does all the sugar in candy corn have you wondering whether or not it is good for your kids? In some ways, it just might be. Candy corn could possibly boost thinking skills and improve grades! After letting them eat their fill, have your kids use the candy corn for some math lessons.
On a very basic level, the orange, yellow, and white triangles can help teach colors and shapes. Mix them with some M&M's for a sorting exercise for little fingers. Have children arrange them together to make new shapes.
Need something a little more challenging? Try using the little candies for board game markers. Candy corn bingo is fun - with the numbers on the grid providing answers to equations and the candies marking the spots. Kids can graph different amounts of candy corn. Making spinners from cardboard with the arrows shaped like candy corn can provide another fun way of working with numbers.
Have you ever noticed that the little pieces - if turned on their sides - look like "greater than" or "less than" signs? Kids may enjoy unequal equations much more if they are using candy for the answers.
And what about some story problems? Tommy has 14 pieces of candy corn. If he steals his sister's 8 pieces, how many will he have in all? Since the story problem is quite versatile, candy corn is still helpful when the degree of difficulty is stretched a little. Maybe the kids should find the square root of the number of pieces of candy corn that Tommy has. Or maybe Tommy's stash of candy corn is going to grow exponentially over the entire month of October! Lucky Tommy.
How much does each individual piece of candy corn cost? That is a great math/life question. Which store offers the best price? Try weighing the candy corn - or maybe try weighing the children after they have eaten a few bags of it!
An enormous jar full of candy corn provides a great guessing/estimating game. And the jar will be award to the person with the closest answer. There is some mathematical way of making a fairly accurate guess. Is the prize worth the trouble of revisiting some old high school formulas?
Some geometry students might enjoy the Internet Math Challenge from the University of Idaho. The problem involves pretending the piece of candy is a perfect cone and reconfiguring its color's dimensions. Then again, maybe "enjoy" is too strong a word.
Math and candy corn unite in the world of fiction. Check out the books Who Brought the Candy Corn? by Judy Ann Brown and The Candy Corn Contest by Patricia Reilly Giff for some interesting reading as well as exercises in logic.
Talk about brain food! Perhaps candy corn will become the poster candy for educators everywhere. Not likely. But, hopefully, adding a little tasteful fun to a math lesson may encourage thinking and learning. It might also give the old excuse "the dog ate my homework" a little more credence.
Does all the sugar in candy corn have you wondering whether or not it is good for your kids? In some ways, it just might be. Candy corn could possibly boost thinking skills and improve grades! After letting them eat their fill, have your kids use the candy corn for some math lessons.
On a very basic level, the orange, yellow, and white triangles can help teach colors and shapes. Mix them with some M&M's for a sorting exercise for little fingers. Have children arrange them together to make new shapes.
Need something a little more challenging? Try using the little candies for board game markers. Candy corn bingo is fun - with the numbers on the grid providing answers to equations and the candies marking the spots. Kids can graph different amounts of candy corn. Making spinners from cardboard with the arrows shaped like candy corn can provide another fun way of working with numbers.
Have you ever noticed that the little pieces - if turned on their sides - look like "greater than" or "less than" signs? Kids may enjoy unequal equations much more if they are using candy for the answers.
And what about some story problems? Tommy has 14 pieces of candy corn. If he steals his sister's 8 pieces, how many will he have in all? Since the story problem is quite versatile, candy corn is still helpful when the degree of difficulty is stretched a little. Maybe the kids should find the square root of the number of pieces of candy corn that Tommy has. Or maybe Tommy's stash of candy corn is going to grow exponentially over the entire month of October! Lucky Tommy.
How much does each individual piece of candy corn cost? That is a great math/life question. Which store offers the best price? Try weighing the candy corn - or maybe try weighing the children after they have eaten a few bags of it!
An enormous jar full of candy corn provides a great guessing/estimating game. And the jar will be award to the person with the closest answer. There is some mathematical way of making a fairly accurate guess. Is the prize worth the trouble of revisiting some old high school formulas?
Some geometry students might enjoy the Internet Math Challenge from the University of Idaho. The problem involves pretending the piece of candy is a perfect cone and reconfiguring its color's dimensions. Then again, maybe "enjoy" is too strong a word.
Math and candy corn unite in the world of fiction. Check out the books Who Brought the Candy Corn? by Judy Ann Brown and The Candy Corn Contest by Patricia Reilly Giff for some interesting reading as well as exercises in logic.
Talk about brain food! Perhaps candy corn will become the poster candy for educators everywhere. Not likely. But, hopefully, adding a little tasteful fun to a math lesson may encourage thinking and learning. It might also give the old excuse "the dog ate my homework" a little more credence.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Use Shelves And Storage Units To Conquer All That Stuff!
(NC)Stuff! Stuff! Stuff everywhere! The clutter starts to overwhelm. However, life can by simplified and clutter tamed with a few organizational hints and a good shelving or storage system.
Planning. Determine the purpose and style of the unit. Will it be for display or storage? Units come in varying depths and lengths. Identify a location. Ample room for access once the unit is installed is important. Measure the space and determine how many shelves or what size of storage unit will be needed - what depth and how far apart shelves should be to accommodate the largest and smallest items in your collection.
Design. Blending various elements and breaking up long lines can make your work more interesting. Try arranging shelves around an important photo or piece of art. Get creative with graph paper and design something pleasing and functional.
Purchasing. Take your final ideas to the local hardware or home center. Everything needed should be readily available. Ask the store's professionals for help optimizing your design.
Layout. Save rework by doing layout prior to installation. Begin by identifying wall studs for secure placement of your system. The easiest way to locate studs is with an electronic stud finder, such as the Zircon StudSensor Pro SL-AC. It finds studs without guesswork and includes a new WireWarning safety feature so you won't accidentally nail or drill into live AC voltage.
Level and Plumb Installation. This is the final key to success. Anchor the system to the middle of each stud along the wall, checking to be sure that it is plumb (vertically straight) on the wall. Then make sure the slots are leveled precisely. One of the easiest ways to do that is with the new Zircon iLine that generates plumb and level lines in all four directions. This simple and affordable tool turns a once complicated task into child's play.
Final Touches. With the foundation of the unit level and plumb, all that's left is to position the shelves. Then create interest by personalizing the shelves with mementos and other items that add to the dcor as well as storage space.
For more information about Zircon's StudSensor Pro SL-AC, iLine, and other cutting-edge, electronic hand tools, check out the website at www.zircon.com or call 800-245-9265.
- News Canada
(NC)Stuff! Stuff! Stuff everywhere! The clutter starts to overwhelm. However, life can by simplified and clutter tamed with a few organizational hints and a good shelving or storage system.
Planning. Determine the purpose and style of the unit. Will it be for display or storage? Units come in varying depths and lengths. Identify a location. Ample room for access once the unit is installed is important. Measure the space and determine how many shelves or what size of storage unit will be needed - what depth and how far apart shelves should be to accommodate the largest and smallest items in your collection.
Design. Blending various elements and breaking up long lines can make your work more interesting. Try arranging shelves around an important photo or piece of art. Get creative with graph paper and design something pleasing and functional.
Purchasing. Take your final ideas to the local hardware or home center. Everything needed should be readily available. Ask the store's professionals for help optimizing your design.
Layout. Save rework by doing layout prior to installation. Begin by identifying wall studs for secure placement of your system. The easiest way to locate studs is with an electronic stud finder, such as the Zircon StudSensor Pro SL-AC. It finds studs without guesswork and includes a new WireWarning safety feature so you won't accidentally nail or drill into live AC voltage.
Level and Plumb Installation. This is the final key to success. Anchor the system to the middle of each stud along the wall, checking to be sure that it is plumb (vertically straight) on the wall. Then make sure the slots are leveled precisely. One of the easiest ways to do that is with the new Zircon iLine that generates plumb and level lines in all four directions. This simple and affordable tool turns a once complicated task into child's play.
Final Touches. With the foundation of the unit level and plumb, all that's left is to position the shelves. Then create interest by personalizing the shelves with mementos and other items that add to the dcor as well as storage space.
For more information about Zircon's StudSensor Pro SL-AC, iLine, and other cutting-edge, electronic hand tools, check out the website at www.zircon.com or call 800-245-9265.
- News Canada
Building or Decorating Your Home Requires House Plans
There are some things to consider when creating plans for your home. There are two situations that call for plans or blue prints, either you are building a new home or decorating your present home. The types of plans required for either situation will vary depending on the extent of your project.
When building a new home, there are several things you will want to consider carefully. The most obvious is where you are going to build your house. The climate will affect where you build. You wouldnt build an icehouse in the middle of the desert. You will want to determine what material you will want to use. Brick, wood, and cement are popular. In the southern states clay adobe houses are the norm. In the north and other areas brick, wood, and stone are options. The climate will influence this choice as well. In areas where there is cold weather brick and cement are used because they absorb and retain heat. In the south wood frame houses are built. The size of your lot will determine the size and type of house you want. You couldnt build a mansion on say a quarter of an acre. On the other hand a one bedroom, single floor home would look strange on a lot that is two acres or bigger. Whether your home has a basement could be important and that would depend on where you live.
If you are lucky to have a basement, it can house the laundry room and your gym equipment or be a playroom/guest room.
Now that you know where and what type of climate you will be building in it is time to think about the plans. Blueprints are or have been used to draw a linear picture of the house as you see it. Now however there are computer programs that will allow you to build your house in 3-D. There are also web sites online that will also allow you to build your house and see it in 3-D. Not only that but some sites will allow you to place your furniture. There are several kinds of technical drawings that are used to create plans for a new home. There are site plans that address coding issues, landscaping, location specifics, drainage (land contours), trees, set backs, and property lines. A floor plan is a design plan of the house, the layout of the rooms, and where the windows and doors. Another type of plan is building sections, which is a cross section of the house. It helps determine any issues, visualize your finished house and floor plans using section marks. Wall sections show the construction of one exterior wall where sections are indicated with section marks. Exterior Elevations include such features as porches and decks. They also show furniture, window and door locations, eave heights and roofing. Interior elevations show the lighting layout and ceiling conditions. Porches are another very interesting option; they can be enclosed, go all the way around the house. They can also be half-enclosed and half-open. They can be reminders of times past. A huge porch reminds me of my aunts farm years ago. Porches are great for extending family time and conversation while still being protected from the weather.
Decisions to be made are the size of each room, the number of rooms and the number of floors to be built. Will there be a basement or a fireplace, and where is the house going to sit on the lot. You could have a front yard or the house could be in the front of the lot with a yard in the back. You could also put it right in the center and have land all around.
The next consideration is whether you will have a contractor draw up the plans which will be an expense, or you can do them yourself. To do them yourself you will need a pencil or pen, scissors, a measuring tape, and graph paper with 1/4-inch boxes.
You will draw rooms to scale; one box per foot is good. Measure your rooms, doors, windows, heat and air cooling appliances. Draw the outlines of the rooms according to scale.
Measure your furniture (you only need to worry about length and width here) next and take another piece of graph paper. Draw out lines of your furniture, label them and cut them out. Use these pieces to set up the rooms. When you find an arrangement you like, you can make a more permanent drawing. On another sheet of graph paper draw a box for each wall. Scale your windows, doors, built-ins and other features.
Picking a floor plan is a process of answering some very important questions. Will this place be big enough or too big in a few years? Does your design fit in with the houses in the neighborhood? Does the design of the house fit in with the lot size and shape? Will the windows provide the best view and what windows will catch the sunlight in the morning and afternoon? Will changes need to be made or can changes even be considered? Are the rooms that will be used most of the time of adequate size? Expanding your house size could mean you need to sacrifice amenities or storage space. Do you have specialty rooms such as a craft room, an office, or a gym? An office can double as a guestroom. The trend now is toward creating a family area where there is room for each to do his/her own hobby or to be together watching movies or playing games. When all the decisions are made and the plans are all drawn you will be ready to build.
Suppose now, that you are purchasing an already built home or renting an apartment. Plans can be done in these situations as well. Most places will offer a floor plan for you to look at with the measurements of the space in the rooms. If this is not available you can draw your own plan.
You would need the same materials and the plan is fixed, you are limited to what is already there. Draw the outlines of each room according to scale. Take another sheet of graph paper and draw the outlines of your furniture. Label them and cut them out. You can move these pieces around till you find an arrangement you like. You might be limited with your television set because the outside antenna is in a certain spot.
Take another piece of graph paper and draw the wall sections of each room noting the windows, doors, and any heating or cooling appliance might be situated. You will have already placed your furniture so you will have a good idea of what your new home will look like. You can now decorate according to your tastes. In a rental home however, you might not be able to change wall colors or in rare cases hang pictures.
Planning for your home can be very exciting. You could be buying new furniture but you might want to consider the color of the carpets or the floors when you are choosing your pieces. A blue couch on a brown carpet does not exactly match. When planning for your home whether you buy or rent should be done carefully. Keep in mind your preferences, your limitations and if you are building, local zoning ordinances.
There are some things to consider when creating plans for your home. There are two situations that call for plans or blue prints, either you are building a new home or decorating your present home. The types of plans required for either situation will vary depending on the extent of your project.
When building a new home, there are several things you will want to consider carefully. The most obvious is where you are going to build your house. The climate will affect where you build. You wouldnt build an icehouse in the middle of the desert. You will want to determine what material you will want to use. Brick, wood, and cement are popular. In the southern states clay adobe houses are the norm. In the north and other areas brick, wood, and stone are options. The climate will influence this choice as well. In areas where there is cold weather brick and cement are used because they absorb and retain heat. In the south wood frame houses are built. The size of your lot will determine the size and type of house you want. You couldnt build a mansion on say a quarter of an acre. On the other hand a one bedroom, single floor home would look strange on a lot that is two acres or bigger. Whether your home has a basement could be important and that would depend on where you live.
If you are lucky to have a basement, it can house the laundry room and your gym equipment or be a playroom/guest room.
Now that you know where and what type of climate you will be building in it is time to think about the plans. Blueprints are or have been used to draw a linear picture of the house as you see it. Now however there are computer programs that will allow you to build your house in 3-D. There are also web sites online that will also allow you to build your house and see it in 3-D. Not only that but some sites will allow you to place your furniture. There are several kinds of technical drawings that are used to create plans for a new home. There are site plans that address coding issues, landscaping, location specifics, drainage (land contours), trees, set backs, and property lines. A floor plan is a design plan of the house, the layout of the rooms, and where the windows and doors. Another type of plan is building sections, which is a cross section of the house. It helps determine any issues, visualize your finished house and floor plans using section marks. Wall sections show the construction of one exterior wall where sections are indicated with section marks. Exterior Elevations include such features as porches and decks. They also show furniture, window and door locations, eave heights and roofing. Interior elevations show the lighting layout and ceiling conditions. Porches are another very interesting option; they can be enclosed, go all the way around the house. They can also be half-enclosed and half-open. They can be reminders of times past. A huge porch reminds me of my aunts farm years ago. Porches are great for extending family time and conversation while still being protected from the weather.
Decisions to be made are the size of each room, the number of rooms and the number of floors to be built. Will there be a basement or a fireplace, and where is the house going to sit on the lot. You could have a front yard or the house could be in the front of the lot with a yard in the back. You could also put it right in the center and have land all around.
The next consideration is whether you will have a contractor draw up the plans which will be an expense, or you can do them yourself. To do them yourself you will need a pencil or pen, scissors, a measuring tape, and graph paper with 1/4-inch boxes.
You will draw rooms to scale; one box per foot is good. Measure your rooms, doors, windows, heat and air cooling appliances. Draw the outlines of the rooms according to scale.
Measure your furniture (you only need to worry about length and width here) next and take another piece of graph paper. Draw out lines of your furniture, label them and cut them out. Use these pieces to set up the rooms. When you find an arrangement you like, you can make a more permanent drawing. On another sheet of graph paper draw a box for each wall. Scale your windows, doors, built-ins and other features.
Picking a floor plan is a process of answering some very important questions. Will this place be big enough or too big in a few years? Does your design fit in with the houses in the neighborhood? Does the design of the house fit in with the lot size and shape? Will the windows provide the best view and what windows will catch the sunlight in the morning and afternoon? Will changes need to be made or can changes even be considered? Are the rooms that will be used most of the time of adequate size? Expanding your house size could mean you need to sacrifice amenities or storage space. Do you have specialty rooms such as a craft room, an office, or a gym? An office can double as a guestroom. The trend now is toward creating a family area where there is room for each to do his/her own hobby or to be together watching movies or playing games. When all the decisions are made and the plans are all drawn you will be ready to build.
Suppose now, that you are purchasing an already built home or renting an apartment. Plans can be done in these situations as well. Most places will offer a floor plan for you to look at with the measurements of the space in the rooms. If this is not available you can draw your own plan.
You would need the same materials and the plan is fixed, you are limited to what is already there. Draw the outlines of each room according to scale. Take another sheet of graph paper and draw the outlines of your furniture. Label them and cut them out. You can move these pieces around till you find an arrangement you like. You might be limited with your television set because the outside antenna is in a certain spot.
Take another piece of graph paper and draw the wall sections of each room noting the windows, doors, and any heating or cooling appliance might be situated. You will have already placed your furniture so you will have a good idea of what your new home will look like. You can now decorate according to your tastes. In a rental home however, you might not be able to change wall colors or in rare cases hang pictures.
Planning for your home can be very exciting. You could be buying new furniture but you might want to consider the color of the carpets or the floors when you are choosing your pieces. A blue couch on a brown carpet does not exactly match. When planning for your home whether you buy or rent should be done carefully. Keep in mind your preferences, your limitations and if you are building, local zoning ordinances.
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