FeeL the FeeL

Calendar 2011

2011-12-14T01:46:00.000-08:00

Friends, am planning to Print & Distribute Calendar 2012 with my clicks......

Let me know if you need it... First copy would be Free of cost...
If you require more than one, you need to pay for the extra copies alone.
Will happily get it done for you guys.

Email me : inbarajan@gmail.com your orders and address !!

Chennai TAMIL

2011-11-23T03:32:00.001-08:00

“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” -Benjamin Spock

2011-10-10T23:02:00.000-07:00

Recently I’ve been grappling with some major decisions about what to do professionally going forward. There are a number of roads that I can take, as there generally are for all of us. I’ve been looking for every possible reason to find an answer outside myself.

I’ve considered what people want from me. I’ve considered what’s the path of least resistance. I’ve considered what would be the most immediately lucrative. But what I didn’t ask myself until recently is what I really want.

This is the question we need to answer at any given time, and then we need to trust that what we’re feeling pulled to do is what’s actually right for us. We need to believe that we know the best course, even if we don’t yet know the way, and then give ourselves permission to take it.

If you also need to make a major decision, take a little time today to peel away the layers of what you think you should do. Let go of everything that’s suffocating what you know inside to be true. And then allow yourself to access it, without fears or judgments.

Simply sit with what you know. Then take that into the world and follow it. Miraculous things can happen when we decide to trust ourselves.

Perception

2011-09-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

THE SITUATION

In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a coldJanuary morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces forabout 60 minutes.

During that time, approximately 2,000 people went throughthe station, most of them on their way to work.

After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed thatthere was a musician playing.

He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, andthen he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threwmoney in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him,then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him alonghurriedly.

The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but themother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the wholetime.

This action was repeated by several other children, butevery parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stoppedand listened for a short while.

About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normalpace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticedand no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this,but the violinist was JoshuaBell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.

He played one ofthe most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 milliondollars.

Two days before,Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each tosit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito inthe D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of asocial experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:

*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour,do we perceive beauty?

*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could bethis:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one ofthe best musicians in the world,

playing some of the finest music ever written, with oneof the most beautiful instruments ever made . . ..

How many other things are we missing as we rush throughlife?

Enjoy life NOW .. it has an expiry date!

2011-08-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

Content is KING !

“People don’t read, especially when it comes to web and mobile” – I said that!

Content is important:

Content adds value
Content is part of the user experience

With ‘Mobile First’ design philosophy coming into power, content is increasingly gaining importance, but ironically much of the mobile first design philosophy fails due to one big reason: CONTENT. Content failure is not a new phenomenon and can be seen even in web specific designs. If, we address the root cause of the problem, it can be attributed to difference in user behavior towards content for website and mobile.
Keeping this in mind, here are some guidelines to create effective digital content. These guidelines are applicable for both mobile and web content strategy:

1. If the first 160 characters of content do not sound meaningful, rest of content cannot be useful!
With the ever reducing attention span of readers, you need to ensure that the audience is impressed with the first 160 characters of content you write. If an idea cannot be told succinctly there will be no one listening to it, and if there is no one listening, the idea is useless. Hence, it makes more sense to put in all the skills and make those first 160 characters impressive!

2. If everything is useful, then everything is useless. True or False?
True. If you think that all the content is useful for a website’s target audience, then you are surely mistaken. We usually tend to fill in so much content that everything seems to be useless and the user tends to drift away.

3. Use scan-able keywords
Every user opens a site with something in mind. If that something is not scan-able or searchable, it is highly unlikely that the user will stay for more.

4. Start with conclusions and recommendations
‘Inverted pyramid’ style of writing is the key for good content on web and mobile. People want to know quickly about everything; no one has time to read a novel

5. Attention grabbing headings, meaningful subheadings
Headings are used to grab attention and sub-headings are used to further utilize that attention span. Keeping the sub-heading simple without jargons and to the point, helps to gain the reader’s trust as well. Jargon, complex terms, clever lines are meant for the main heading. Keep them out of the rest of the content!

6. A picture is worth 1000 words, but we don’t want 1000 words. Do we?
The intention is to keep it simple, neat and easy to download. A picture may seem to be the best option for visual appeal and representation of an idea, but it increases the size of the content. With download speeds varying unpredictably, pictures sometimes are a blot to user experience.

2011-08-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

Comedy - Comedy - Comedy !

2011-07-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

8 great questions to answer before starting a web design project

Without question, a new website is a big investment in effort and money. If you want to kick the project off in the best way, here are eight questions you should already be able to answer at the initial meeting with your web designer.

1. Why are you building this website?

All too often a web redesign is planned because the site “just feels old” or “it’s not working as well it should for us.” But what do you mean by that? Why are you really going to all this effort? How does your web strategy align with your overall business goals?

Possible answers might include:

We want to grow advertising revenue, so we need to increase our page views.
As a not-for-profit, we rely on donations. We want to increase the number and size of donations we receive online.
The site should become a “lead generation machine” for our business, and should also help convert leads into customers.
Our mission is to raise awareness about the issues that are important to us, so our primary online goal is to increase the influence and reach of our organization.

Your answer(s) will directly affect your website’s design strategy.

2. Who will use the website?

Your web designer will likely spend time reviewing the kinds of people who come to your site, so as to better understand your visitors’ needs and habits. It’s very important to structure your website to entice your visitors to take the specific actions you want them to take.

One method is to create user personas, which represent the types of people you’ve identified as having some specific interest in your organization. Before your web design kickoff meeting, segment your site visitors into representative “types”:

What are their goals and aspirations? Their key issues?
What media do they read, watch and listen to (magazines, TV, music, books, websites, blogs)?
Is it possible to segment your site visitors by gender? Age? Income? Geography? Education level?
Are your visitors technologically sophisticated? Are they early adopters?
Are they on social networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn? Are there other more targeted communities (online or offline) where your visitors can be found?
What words or phrases (lingo) do they tend to use? What sorts of imagery or language appeals to them?

Think about what you want each user persona to believe or learn about your organization. What actions do you want them to take?

3. Where is the content?

As web standards maven Jeffrey Zeldman quipped, “Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.”

Is your content ready? In part? If not, who will create it? How quickly and frequently can new content be developed?

Do you have a “content matrix”, which can simply be a spreadsheet that lists every piece of potential content on your site, along with where it will be located and who will be its owner?

You may consider developing content specific for each of your user personas.

Beyond just text, do you also have photos or video you want to include? Are there “non-web page” elements you might think to include, like white papers, e-books or webinars?

In their best-selling book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die“, Chip and Dan Heath describe six attributes that make for great (online) content:

Simplicity — Prioritize what ideas you want to get across. By trying to prioritize everything, nothing is a priority.
Unexpectedness — Use surprise to grab people’s attention.
Concreteness — Avoid speaking in abstractions.
Credibility — Is your content believable?
Emotions — Tap into emotion rather than just intellect.
Stories — We get people to act on our ideas by telling stories.

4. Which keywords are important for search engine optimization?

We all want to show up #1 in Google search results for relevant search terms. Before you start writing your content, it’s critical to identify the keywords you want to optimize your site for.

Good search engine optimization starts by putting yourself in the shoes of somebody actually looking for the kinds of products or services you are selling. Brainstorm the keywords that you think would bring you the best traffic, not necessarily the most traffic. If you are an attorney, trying to optimize on the keyword “lawyer” is pretty pointless. Currently, that keyword brings back 404,000,000 results. Anybody who promises you they can get you a first page ranking for such a generic term is going to have some trouble delivering without resorting to black magic and legal grey areas.

It’s much more relevant to optimize for something like “real estate attorney new york city” (assuming you are a real estate attorney in New York City). Also, any traffic you get on that term is much more likely to actually become a paying client, since clearly this was a visitor searching for something quite specific.

Your web designer should be able to help you create a more robust keyword plan, but it’s enormously helpful to start the process having already brainstormed a dozen or so relevant keyword phrases.

5. Do you have an established brand identity?

Some organizations have done a tremendous job of creating a brand identity and visual identity system. A website design for such organizations is a relatively straightforward process.

However, without a strong grounding in an established brand identity, web design becomes more ad hoc, frequently resulting in extra guesswork, increased cost, and poorer results.

Sometimes when we’re first starting with a new client, they tell us that they are going to be a fantastic client because “the sky’s the limit.” They tell us that they have no preconceived notions about how the design might go. There are few constraints.

We quickly explain that, while exciting, this provides a larger challenge. First, before we start doing any actual web design, we first have to engage in, at the very least, a short branding exercise to develop a design palette. Without the constraints of an agreed-upon design palette there is just too much uncertainty, and getting to any kind of consensus on the final design becomes much more difficult. In addition, creating a “Brand Book” (a document that defines the guidelines for all design work for the organization) enforces a design consistency throughout all marketing materials.

If you don’t have an established Brand Book, Creative Brief, or similar document, at the very least it’s helpful to walk into the kickoff meeting knowing your:

Logo and tagline – Do you have a final one that you’re happy with? Does it need any change?
Color palette – What is your primary color? Do you know its Pantone or hex value? What are your secondary or accent colors?
Fonts – Do you have a set of standard fonts? There are best practices for web fonts that are not always entirely in sync with standard corporate fonts (for example, conventional wisdom would suggest that body text is preferably sans-serif). Will this be a big problem?

Your web designer will walk you through all of this, plus a number of more advanced design issues. However, your project will get off to a smoother start if you already have some of these answers ready.

6. Are you prepared to invest in the site post-launch?

Even as you first get started, it’s important to understand that there will be lots to do post-launch, including:

Create and post new content
Analyze what’s working and not working
Testing (A/B)
Optimize the site based on what you learn
Add new features
Participate in social media
Build inbound links
Support promotions and offers
Distribute email newsletters
Etc., etc., etc.

We addressed this in a former blog post, “A Website Is a Process, Not a Project“:

“It’s fine for a company to fund an initial web build-out in a capital budget, but companies are really sabotaging their web investments if they don’t put together significant operational budgets for the constant changes and improvements that a compelling and effective website requires.”

7. What is your competition doing?

Make a list of your competition, or others that do something similar to you. Check out their websites.

What do you like about them? Hate?

What features would you like to mimic?

Does every single one of your competitors use some shade of blue as a primary color? Do you want to do the same? Or would you prefer to differentiate yourself?

If you’re a bit more technologically inclined, it’s also useful to create a spreadsheet of your competition, tracking metrics such as their Alexa ranking, their blog URL, the number of pages in Google’s index, the keywords they’ve optimized for (if any), and the number of inbound links to their websites.

If you’re unsure how to do this, your web designer should be able to get this information for you.

8. Have you reviewed your analytics?

Google Analytics is a free website analytics package that seems to be ubiquitous. Most of our clients use it as a way to track important information about their website traffic. As a starting point for your web design kickoff meeting, at the very least you should know:

Where is current traffic coming from? (Social Media? Ads? Google? Blogs?)
Which content is the most popular?
Are your site visitors sophisticated technologically? You can get a sense of this by looking at metrics such as browser version and screen resolution. For example, if a significant percentage of your website audience is still using Internet Explorer 6.0, you do not have a technologically sophisticated audience.

2011-07-19T07:42:00.001-07:00

9 intranet content types that add value to your organisation

Everyone knows that intranets are a great way to collect and distribute information and content throughout an organisation. But exactly what types of content should the intranet be used for and how does this content add value to an organisation?

Research from the Worldwide Intranet Challenge (WIC) has shown that those intranets that make it easier for people to do their jobs are the most valuable.

Indeed, how an organisation does things is what separates one organisation from another. It is a critical ingredient to success. Does a bank manager call you back to discuss your loan application or does she send you a computer generated letter? Does an inquiry about your phone bill result in you being offered additional services or do you simply receive an answer to your question? Do you add one slice of tomato or two to that cheeseburger?

Every organisation has hundreds, maybe thousands, of decisions to make about the way it operates. These decisions combine together to comprise business activities and policies and ultimately determine whether an organisation succeeds or not. And the most efficient way for these practices to be dispersed across an organisation – particularly organisations with many employees - is through the intranet.

An effective intranet can be viewed as the ‘brains’ of an entire organisation – it describes how an organisation functions and ensures that all employees are ‘singing from the same hymn book’.

Bearing this in mind, the following list of 9 intranet content types will help your staff carry out business tasks more effectively (8 of them at least!). Use this checklist to make sure your intranet is capturing and delivering content that will add value to your organisation.

1. How to

This type of content describes how the different business tasks within an organisation are performed. Examples include how to process a sales order, how to invoice a customer, how to identify new customers, how to order a new laptop and thousands of other possibilities.

On most intranets this is a collection of web pages, policies and procedures. New organisations will create a lot of this type of intranet content as new tasks are identified and created. For existing organisations, this content is updated and changed as new processes, systems, practices, innovations, ideas, products and services are introduced.

Potentially all staff may be the creators and also the end users of this content. The value of this type of content to an organisation is that it ‘de-skills’ many tasks and spreads the knowledge throughout an organisation, effectively making it less expensive and more efficient for organisations to operate as more staff are able to complete more tasks more quickly and more consistently.

2. Forms, templates, tools, applications

This is content that supports the ‘How to...’ content. Examples may include templates, websites, online forms and web applications. This can help staff complete tasks more quickly and accurately, eg. a template (or online form preferably) for claiming expenses ensures that this task is done consistently and correctly with a minimum of hassle to the staff member.

3. Re-usable documents

This consists of documents that can be modified and then re-used again. Examples include sales proposals, funding requests, project plans and presentations. This can be a great time saver for many organisations and can also improve the quality of the document.

Imagine that you have a 100 page sales proposal that you have already done for an organisation previously (which was successful!). It is much easier to re-use and modify this sales proposal for a new client than to start again from scratch.

4. Structured content

This includes content that has a consistent structure and has many occurrences of the same item. Examples include staff lists, customer lists, service and product lists, business unit descriptions and other ad hoc lists (eg. list of recommended training venues). This type of content will also support the ‘How to...’ content and can be added and updated on an almost continuous basis, potentially by all staff.

The more items and the more comprehensive the information, the more useful this content will be. Imagine that before meeting a customer, you are able to read a description of the customer that is the sum of all knowledge of everyone in the organisation.

5. News, blogs, staff status updates

This is content that staff may or may not choose to read. It is not critical for the completion of a task but will highlight areas of the business that are important to staff. This content may be managed by a central group such as the communications team and may be used help spread the culture and values of the organisation as well as helping to engage employees. Examples of this type of content include news stories that highlight other categories of content, eg. a change in the way a task is done, staff profiles, a new customer, a successful proposal bid or a relevant external news story.

6. Reference material

This can includes case studies, white papers, other research and articles that can help your organisation in some way. It is content that does not change and can also help support ‘How to...’ content. This type of content helps develop the skills of staff and can also improve business processes. For example, you may read an article about using social media more effectively for marketing and this may change your marketing processes as a result. This type of content can be added to over time, potentially by all staff.

7. Collaboration, discussion

This is content that is ‘under development’ or ‘in-progress’. It requires less governance than the other content types and typically does not require ‘approval’ or ‘sign-off’. It may include documents you are working on with other people, new product ideas, suggestions, discussion forums, project sites and other general purpose team sites.

Collaboration areas may be used on a daily basis. Output from collaboration type content may eventually find its way to the other content types. For example, if you post a discussion question about the best place to run a workshop in New York, the resulting answer would be logically placed as ‘structured content’ in a list of ‘Workshop Venues’. In future, if a staff member is looking for a place to run a workshop in New York, rather than reading a discussion topic which could potentially have dozens of comments, they can simply refer to the ‘workshop list’ (which will be referenced from a task called ‘Conduct a workshop’).

8. Reports, performance measures

This includes content that provides feedback about how the organisation is performing – in other words, how effectively tasks are being performed. This may include the share price, customer satisfaction levels, sales figures and a host of other key performance indicators.

9. Archive, records

This content is anything that is kept simply for historical purposes (for example old product descriptions or details of staff who have left). By default, some intranets end up acting as an archive, however this is not the best place for this type of content. Over time, the more content that is added to the intranet, the less effective searching becomes and the less trusting staff are of the content. Imagine a staff list where most of the staff have left! The intranet should be a place where staff can access current, accurate and relevant information.

Alternative approaches to records management and archiving are more appropriate.

2011-07-13T06:03:00.000-07:00

Types of Web Hosting Services

There are various types of web hosting services available to host your website. Depending on your needs, you could choose from one of several web hosting solutions and therefore it is important to research and evaluate the services to pick the correct one.

There are a variety of web hosting service options which companies and individuals may choose from, in fact the choices are sometimes overwhelming.

1. Shared Hosting
2. Dedicated Server Hosting
3. Virtual Private Server (VPS)
4. Cloud Hosting
5. Reseller Hosting
6. Colocation Web Hosting
7. Free Web Hosting

1. SHARED HOSTING :

In a shared hosting environment, One’s website is setup on the same server machine as many other websites. This includes sharing the physical server and the software applications within the server such as HDD, memory or CPU. Shared hosting services are affordable because the cost to operate the server is shared between you and these other owners.

Shared Hosting is affordable but you must be sure that the hosting package you web hosting company is providing you actually supports what you need, scripting languages, applications, control panel etc.

Advantage:

The main being price – they are usually the cheapest and most affordable solutions for an online presence. Since the company hosts tens of websites on one server, they are able to pass the savings to the consumer. Performance could be a downside, but with hardware getting cheaper and software getting better, this aspect might not be relevant for everyone.

Disadvantage:

The biggest disadvantage of a shared hosting account is that you’re at the mercy of the other sites on your server. A really popular site may adversely affect the performance of your own site. On the other hand, if you’re the most popular site on the server, you get to use a super server for a very low price.

2. DEDICATED SERVER :

This is a service where each and every customer is assigned an entire server without having to share it with any other clients. The customer can also host more than one website on this server. The customer here is totally responsible for managing his own webpage. This is a more reliable form of hosting that shared hosting. This allows for faster performance, as you have all the server’s resources entirely, without sharing with other website owners. However, this also means that you will be responsible for the cost of server operation entirely. This is a good choice for websites that requires a lot of system resources, or need a higher level of security.

Advantage:

When you purchase a dedicated hosting package, you have access to the complete server. Dedicated packages are usually tailored to the amount of bandwidth, memory, and hard drive space that you might need and they allow for CPU intensive applications to operate without hindering other sites or being conflicted.

Disadvantage:

The extra functionality and control does come at a higher monetary cost – dedicated hosting solutions are more expensive than the virtual options. But they are providing you with a lot more in terms of resources. Most dedicated hosting packages will involve some sort of a setup fee as it is more time consuming to setup a complete server than it is to create a hosting account in a shared environment.

3. VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVER (VPS) :

Virtual private servers share one physical server but acts like multiple, separate servers. Basically VPS hosting is like a shared hosting with few main differences. In shared hosting you will share your resources but in VPS, every user share the same server with many users but each user has a small operation system that can be rebooted and managed independently. A VPS is a stepping stone between shared hosting and getting your own dedicated machine.

In a Virtual Private Server you share system resources like the CPU and RAM with other users but the resources are allocated in such a way that you cannot tell that the system has anyone else on it, much like a dedicated server. So resources are usually setup in such a way that each hosting client is only allowed to use an allocated percent, meaning that resources assigned to you will always available to you. Each virtual server looks and acts like a dedicated server.

Advantages:

VPS hosting is able to bring many advantages including the ability to install any software that you want as well as being able to host your websites in your own space without the worry of being affected by any other users or websites that are hosted on the same server as you; the price of VPS hosting is also attractive to many who are in need of a dedicated server, but are unable to afford one. VPS Hosting also provides better uptime than shared web hosting

Disadvantages:

Though VPS hosting might have numerous advantages, there could be a few flaws. The maintenance problem of a virtual server is the main disadvantage as each of it has its own operating system. Hence maintenance gets tough. Responsibility of security, updates and maintenance lies with the web. Hence it becomes quite difficult. Secondly, certain web hosts fail to provide the actual resource they promised. Since most of the servers do not use its full resources, it becomes difficult to handle such operations at a peak level.

Another main disadvantage of VPS hosting is the fact that in some cases the CPU of the main server is not equally shared between all the hosted VPS, meaning that it is open to compromise from rogue VPS, and if done correctly a rogue VPS could easily bring down the whole node if it ends up using too much of the CPU.

4. CLOUD HOSTING :

Cloud Hosting refers to a fairly new hosting technology that lets hundreds of individual servers work together so that it looks like one giant server. The idea is that as the need grows, the hosting company can just add more commodity hardware to make an ever larger grid or cloud.

Cloud Hosting is a dedicated, high performance, analytic database cluster that is open to businesses, on a pay-per-use, for a monthly fee. The key feature is that you will never pay for more storage and bandwidth than you need because of the flexibility.

Advantages:

Cloud computing does give a company a lot of flexibility for growth. With cloud computing you can set up servers as you need them to help deal with sudden bursts in your business. A company can quickly expand their cloud infrastructure by adding more servers or adding more networks to meet their new business needs. This is great for start-ups that are not sure what the future holds or where their company will be in a couple of months. If, all of a sudden, business starts to take off for you company, cloud computing can keep up with your company’s growth faster than a dedicated server.

Disadvantages:

As your website start to generate more traffic, the more bandwidth your business starts to eat up and the more space it will require. Your monthly bill can start to grow and with a payment method that is not constant, it can become overwhelming quite quickly. You will also need to depend on third-party to safeguard the security and privacy of data and information

5. RESELLER HOSTING :

Reseller web host services allow the clients to become web hosts. One gets a large amount of space and bandwidth that can be divided up among as many sites as the user wants to put on his account. A reseller account is placed on the same server with other reseller accounts, just like with shared hosting but there are fewer accounts. Most of the resellers are web consultant, web developers and web designers.

Advantages:

The first advantage of reseller hosting is the amount of server resources that are available to you. Even if you decide not to resell the hosting service, you can use these server resources to operate your own web sites and save money in the process. However, unlike other web hosting plans, reseller hosting gives you the ability to allocate these server resources to your clients seamlessly. In fact, it even gives you the tools needed to build a web hosting site, create client accounts, designate hosting plans and even bill your customers on a scheduled basis.

Another benefit of reseller hosting is that it offers a great deal of flexibility to the reseller to allocate their server resources to their clients seamlessly. For this reason, instead of getting them from the original web hosting company itself, there are more and more webmasters choose their solutions from web hosting resellers today.

Disadvantage:

In the reseller hosting, you have to share the server with many others. Thus your website would suffer from problems like slow traffic time and might face downtime sometimes. It might result in you losing the customers and business too.

As your website is hosted on a shared server, therefore you are prone to security problems as there can be many hacker sites also hosted in the same server who might want to damage your server. You might find a spammer to use up the bandwidth and you losing the business.

Reseller hosting accounts only provide limited IP addresses with which you can host your clients’ websites. Some clients may request multiple IP addresses, in which case you would need to provide justification.

6. COLOCATION WEB HOSTING :

In this type of hosting, you will purchase your own server and have it housed at a web host’s facilities. Similar to dedicated webhosting service, but the user owns the collocated machine. The webhosting company offers the physical space for the server and takes care of the Internet connection and electricity. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client’s machine. In most cases for colocation, the customers have their own administrator visiting the data center to do any hardware upgrades, apart of remote administration for software.

Advantages:

The biggest advantage of colocation is the cost of bandwidth and associated resources. You have full control over the hardware and system part. Most of these facilities maintain redundant systems and multiple backbones to enable incredibly fast internet connections. In most cases, the monthly fee for a colocation service is significantly cheaper than a dedicated. You’ll have physical access to your server should you need to perform upgrades or administrative tasks that require your physical presence. This is not the case with most managed server hosts.

Disadvantages:

The biggest drawback to colocation is perhaps that a center that’s both reliable and convenient is hard to find. If you have a staff of your own to manage the systems, you want to find a facility that is relatively close to your business to reduce travel time when upgrades need to be made. Colocation centers are typically built in large cities near major network hubs. If your business is far from such a place, colocation can be impractical. This is a factor that somewhat limits geographic options.

Even though the bandwidth may be cheaper in some circumstances, spikes in bandwidth can drastically increase your costs. Collocation also requires far more startup capital than a managed hosting solution.

If you’re business and staffs are far from the collocation center, management can be a challenge. You may have to pay extra for the colocation center to manage your equipment for you.

7. FREE WEB HOSTING :

As the old saying goes, “There is no free lunch”. The same goes for web hosting but if you can live with with limited web space, banners, popups, and other restrictions you can get certainly find “free” hosting.

Free web hosting can be a good choice when you just want to build a non-critical website for fun. Very often in a free hosting environment, connection speed is slow, website can be down frequently, and advertising banners is automatically added to your website. Some companies require you to purchase your domain name to receive free hosting services from them, while others offer you a free subdomain under them, such as [yourname.webhost.com]. Be careful as you will not be able to transfer these free subdomains.

Advantage:

The main advantage associated with free web hosting services is that there is no cost. In this day and age, with the economy the way it is, most everyone is searching out ways to save money. Choosing a free host, over a host that costs, is one way for website owners to do just that!

Another advantage associated with free web hosting is that most free providers also provide their customers with pre-made website layouts that are really easy to use. Most people will choose free web hosting for personal web pages, and often do not have the knowledge to set up a site where they must use software programs in order to design their site. Free web hosts are great choices for these website owners.

Disadvantage:

With free hosts be prepared to see your website online for the least period of time. The downtime of your website will be never ending if you are using free hosting. There is less space available and the band width is also low. You do not get multiple email accounts for managing your website with free web hosting service. Many times, very little storage is provided. There will be too many advertisements in your website. The chances of being spammed and hacked are always high with a free web hosting company. A free web hosting company truly proves the statement you get what you pay for. You pay nothing so you get nothing in return.

Search Engines does not index such website. Directory does not allow such website. Ad sense is normally not available on such website. It means if you want to earn money through internet, then this is another major disadvantage.

Finally, one of the biggest disadvantages associated with free web host servers is the fact that many of them do not offer customer service of any kind. This means if you have problems or difficulty with your website, there will be no one available to address the problem. It is very rare you will even be notified as to down town.

2011-06-17T02:18:00.001-07:00

AVAN IVAN REVIEW

Bala known for his sharp, decisive screenplays & also for his ability to handle any kind of scripts. He adds value to the script by choosing the exact cast & crew. This time he goes with Vishal & Arya, hopefully this will be his fifth success in a row.

Story:
Movie begins with the trade mark scenes of Bala. Both Arya & Vishal are the brothers with same father but different Mother's. Both doesnt maintain the good releationship on each other. There will more ego rifts between two & that makes the movie more humourous.

The Ego clashes b/w Kumbudren sami(Arya) & Walter Vannangamudi(Vishal) will carry us to the interval in a simple way. GM Kumar who acts as a Jammen is an one big plus for the humour scenes. Arya, Vishal & GM Kumar are outstanding in their timing comedies between them and its a perfect one to watch.

Ambika plays the role of Vishal's mother and Jaya Prabha plays the role of Arya's mother. Both the family will come together due to a incident which happens at a interval block.
Post Interval, RK will be introduce as villain. Then comes some serious things will happen around at the beginning of Climax. What happened to Arya & Vishal?? The climax answers all. Surya plays a cameo in the movie where he comes for a public meeting & he will explains his Agaram foundation & its operations.

Performance:
Vishal, who is an hero for the masses earlier have choosen the script where he comes as transgender here with Squint eyes and he delivers his best. Can see his effort in each & every scene of the movie. And for the first tym he comes out with this genre. Avan Ivan certainly a landmark for Vishal.
Arya as an younger brother in the film has did his best with his comedies & his dialogues are added flavour to the movie. Should appreciate bala for his casting sense, he can make any one to act like Sivaji or Kamal. Yuvan's songs & back ground scores adds value to the movie. The Vishal's intro BGM is Yuvan's treat to the masses. Avana Pathi Nan pada poren & Oru malayoram songs are one of the best from him. Suresh Urs's editing is slick and neat.
Janani Iyer who is the new comer did the justice role as innocent police constable and he is the pair for Vishal. Another lady lead role of the movie is Madhu Shalini who is the pair of Arya also did her role well.
However on the flip side, some dragging moments in second half could have been avoided. On the whole, it was an different experience watching a different film.

Verdict:
This is certainly not the kind of movie that you can munch popcorn through. Hats off Bala and team and three cheers to Vishal.

2011-06-17T00:16:00.000-07:00

Best Practices for Ranking #1

Curiously, though perhaps not entirely surprisingly to experienced SEOs, the truth is that on-page optimization doesn't necessarily rank first in the quest for top rankings. In fact, a list that walks through the process of actually getting that first position would look something more like:

Accessibility - content engines can't see or access cannot even be indexed; thus crawl-ability is foremost on this list.
Content - you need to have compelling, high quality material that not only attracts interest, but compels visitors to share the information. Virality of content is possibly the most important/valuable factor in the ranking equation because it will produce the highest link conversion rate (the ratio of those who visit to those who link after viewing).
Basic On-Page Elements - getting the keyword targeting right in the most important elements (titles, URLs, internal links) provides a big boost in the potential ability of a page to perform well.
User Experience - the usability, user interface and overall experience provided by a website strongly influences the links and citations it earns as well as the conversion rate and browse rate of the traffic that visits.
Marketing - I like to say that "great content is no substitute for great marketing." A terrific marketing machine or powerful campaign has the power to attract far more links than content may "deserve," and though this might seem unfair, it's a principle on which all of capitalism has functioned for the last few hundred years. Spreading the word is often just as important (or more so) than being right, being honest or being valuable (just look at the political spectrum).
Advanced/Thorough On-Page Optimization - applying all of the above with careful attention to detail certainly isn't useless, but it is, for better or worse, at the bottom of this list for a reason; in our experience, it doesn't add as much value as the other techniques described.

2011-06-07T04:46:00.000-07:00

10 Photography Tips from a Self-Taught Photographer

I’ve been taking pictures ever since. However, I’ve switched to a digital camera now. Today, I’ve had my work published in fashion magazines, I’ve done a few photo shoots, and I cover some of my city’s best nightlife events.

Now, I won’t pretend I’m an expert — or that I know everything there is to know about photography — because I am not, and who does?

However, being self-taught helped me learn some valuable lessons the hard, painful, torturous way and therefore, guaranteed that I never forget them. I’d like to share some of those lessons with you.

For those of you who are just starting out, or would like to take their photography to the next level, hopefully, this set of tips will help you in one way or another.

Though most of you are designers and digital artists, a popular additional profession for creatives is photography because it’s handy in many situations. For example, instead of relying on stock photos, you can take your own photos and infuse them into your work.

1. Read Your Camera’s Manual

I’m not the first to say this, and I won’t be the last. It’s because reading your camera’s manual is that important. The first camera I bought was a used camera and it didn’t come with a user’s manual. After I saw the first few rolls of film I had developed, it made me wish that it did.

By the time I got my second camera, I was really getting serious with photography. And although I was at a point where I thought I was familiar with the workings of most cameras, I still sat down and read the 300+ page user’s manual that came with it. Cover to cover. And when I was done, I read it again.

You might be thinking you’re too good for the user’s manual. But let me tell you, reading your manual is important for a couple of reasons:

You need to become familiar with every aspect of your camera.
The more familiar you are with your camera, the sooner it will get out of your way.

The last thing you want to do when taking photos is to have to fiddle around with your camera when you should be composing your shot or studying your subject. Not only will you look foolish, but you will most likely kill your photo before you even get a chance to take it.

2. Find Something to Shoot

There’s no point in having a camera if you have nothing to shoot. You will waste a lot of time and energy trying to make sense of the hundreds of dollars you spent on your fancy new camera if you don’t have a subject.

The beauty of photography is that it has a certain urgency associated with it. No photo gets taken without the need for it. The moment comes, you have your camera, and you make a decision to press on the shutter release. That’s the nature of photography. The photo is contingent upon a need for it.

Even if you create the need (e.g., fashion shoots, culinary photography, actively going out into the world to take photos), what you’re actually doing is actively creating the conditions in which photos must be taken. You create those conditions. It is an active choice for the photographer.

The act of finding your subject is important. Your subject says more about you than you think.

Your subject tells people that you were there and that’s what you saw and that’s what you chose to take a picture of. As a photographer, you not only record moments in a story, you record moments in your story. Your photos place you in space and time and, to some extent, you become your subject.

3. The Camera is Just a Camera

Sure it’s made of super cool materials like magnesium and glass and plastic. It has so many buttons and dials and doodads and thingamabobs. It may seem like your camera is some kind of super gadget ready to be sent into space, able to do magnificent, unfathomable things; but really, it’s just a lightproof box with a hole on the front.

No matter how technologically advanced a camera is, it still needs a photographer setting its dials, pressing its buttons, and pointing it at something interesting.

Actually, come to think of it, NASA did send out a couple of cameras into space called Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Those actually were technologically advanced enough to be sent into space, and yet they still needed instructions from people here on Earth.

What I’m really hinting at is that the camera doesn’t make the photographer. It doesn’t matter if you use a plastic toy camera you found in the discount bin at your local store or if you use a super expensive professional grade, nuclear-powered DSLR that also works as a beacon for your mothership.

The bottom line is, when a person looks at a picture, and that picture is judged to be good or bad, they’re not judging the equipment you used. They’ll be judging the photographer who took it.

The principles of photography haven’t changed that drastically since it first emerged in the 1860’s. It’s still about controlling how much light is allowed to pass through a lens and onto a recording medium. And yet, there’s still that misconception that the technology is what’s responsible for good photography. The technology was just the spark. The flame is kept alive by the photographer.

4. Learn About Exposure

Exposure, simply speaking, is the combination of three main variables that control the amount of light that is allowed to interact with your camera’s sensor or film. These are:

Shutter speed
Aperture
Film speed (or ISO)

The right combination of these variables is at the heart and soul of every photograph that has ever been taken.

However, exposure is an infinitely nuanced topic that belies its seeming simplicity. Entire libraries have been written about the subject of exposure and even more books are being written on the subject as you read this.

That’s because most photographers who have even a modicum of experience under their belt will have their own opinions about the subject and all of them are right (or wrong, depending on whom you ask).

Even I, with barely a couple of years of professional experience, have my own opinions about exposure (hint: it’s magic!).

Therefore, my suggestion is to find a way of understanding the fundamentals of proper exposure and learn it on your own terms until you are able to apply it to how you personally take photos.

Read a book, take a class, or learn it with a friend. In any case, you must learn how to expose properly so that you know which rules to break and how to break them for your own purposes.

The technical aspects of photography — the parts detached from the “artistry” and the aesthetics of photography — is a broad pool of knowledge filled with numbers and meters and measurements and science and rules. And while there is a purpose to all that knowledge, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will all apply to your own work as a photographer.

5. Learn Composition

Learning to compose a shot isn’t merely about framing your subject within the four corners of your viewfinder (although it is that also). Composition (at least to me) has a lot to do with emotion, motion, feel, color, and a million other variables.

You can take all the photography classes in the world. You can do everything right. You can follow all the rules about taking a good photo. However, if something is not right in your photo, then something is just not right. If the photo looks good, then it’s good. The photo doesn’t lie.

Therefore, my suggestion is to learn the fundamentals of composition (e.g. the rule of thirds, etc.) and find a way to adapt it to your own work. Know it, understand it, and then use/abuse what you need to make your work great.

6. Take Your Time

With the way cameras work these days, it’s easy to get caught up in the notion that photography is about catching a fleeting moment. Even camera manufacturers sometimes highlight this notion in some of their ad campaigns.

This is misleading for a couple of reasons. First, a moment is only fleeting when you’re not ready for it. Secondly, as a photographer with a purpose, your job is to always be ready.

There’s an old saying that photojournalists use that says, “f/8 and be there.” This means that you set your aperture at f/8 — which is considered by many to be a magical f-stop in which most of your frame will be in sharp focus — and that you are there in the scene.

Now, being there isn’t just a geographic distinction. I’ve also taken it to mean that it is about being mentally, emotionally, and psychologically there. It means taking your time setting up the shot or taking your time preparing yourself.

When you’re there and you are ready for that so-called “fleeting moment,” then time is no longer a factor. The act of taking a photo no longer is a product of luck, but rather, an act of will.

Even those “lucky” shots that some photographers will tell you about aren’t really lucky shots if you think about it. They were there, they had the presence of mind to know what they wanted out of their photo, and they made an active decision to take a shot.

This is one of the most painful lessons I learned. I used to rush when taking photos, thinking that I wasn’t going to have enough light during an outdoor shoot or I felt pressured because so many people were waiting on me. I was chasing after that “fleeting moment.” The resulting pictures were always underwhelming.

I’ve rushed through enough photo shoots to know that even if you feel you have very little time to get the shot you need (e.g., when the sun is about to go down, etc.), you actually have more time than you need if you slow yourself down and think about what you’re doing and what you want.

It only takes a split second to actually press that button, which is why you can spare a few minutes to set up and get ready for the shot you want to take.

7. Turn Around

This is something I learned when I first started taking photos. I was so focused on what was in front of me that I missed out on everything else that surrounded me.

One disadvantage of photography (or endearing characteristic, depending on how you look at it) is that it forces the photographer to see our boundless, 3-dimensional world, through a rather limited, 2-dimensional box. This is enough of a challenge that sometimes that’s all we’re focused on doing and we miss out on everything else.

So when you’re staring through your viewfinder just itching to take that perfect shot, take a moment and look around you. You never know what you might find.

8. Smile

When you think about it, a camera is a very threatening object to a lot of people. That’s because cameras represent the possibility of an invasion of privacy.

The camera captures people’s actions, candid moments, and things people might not always want recorded. In other words, in front of and around a camera, people often feel vulnerable and exposed.

The camera doesn’t discriminate. It does not censor itself. It captures everything you put in front of its lens. That’s why it’s up to the photographer to make their subjects and those around him feel at ease in the presence of his camera.

One way of doing this is to smile sincerely at your subjects and those around you.

I take a lot of photos of people I don’t know. Now, I’m a nice guy. I’m funny and I’m always up for an interesting conversation. But most people I meet and take pictures of don’t know that about me at first glance. Add a camera into that equation and it makes for a lot of awkward moments.

That’s why, in these situations, a smile goes a long way. It shows you’re friendly and that you won’t abuse the privilege of taking people’s pictures.

Even on photo shoots with paid models whose job is to be in front of a camera, a smile, and keeping them at ease, helps with having a more relaxed and pleasant photo shoot.

9. Join a Club or Shoot with Someone

I’ve never had the opportunity to shoot with someone else. It’s not something I’ve sought to do personally. However, I can definitely see the appeal of shooting with like-minded individuals.

We all have different experiences when it comes to photography, sharing those experiences with someone else can be very enriching and mutually rewarding. Just like in a class environment, we often learn more through discussion and other people’s experiences than if we had studied alone.

10. Keep Shooting

The last thing I’ll say is to just keep shooting. Nothing beats experience. You can take all the photography courses you want, read every book about photography, talk about it, and read terribly long-winded articles like this one, but nothing will help you take better photos than just going out there and doing it and learning your own personal lessons.

The more you shoot, the better you’ll be at taking photos and the more insight you will gain into how you can improve.

Sure, there are fundamentals in photography. There are rules and guidelines to being an effective photographer. But going out there and just shooting is the only way to master them.

And once you’ve mastered and understood those fundamentals, you’ll be better equipped to bend or break them when you find yourself needing to create something truly unique and good.

What are your experiences with photography? Do you have your own tips or insights you’d like to share?

2011-06-07T03:44:00.000-07:00

Learn from ignorance

Joy and sorrow, day and night are inevitable. Sorrow or sadness is the offspring of ignorance.

Ignorance is symbolised by darkness. Darkness has its own importance, without darkness, without night, the circadian rhythm of life will go for a toss. Biological systems will lose their balance; so to make your life perfect, to maintain complete equilibrium, night or darkness is essential. Therefore, if sadness comes, it's there for a purpose. When night comes, it has a purpose and the purpose is to strike a balance. If you don't sleep for two or three days nothing would work properly in your system. Ignorance is there and it is a very important part of the game. Ignorance exists because of Divine will.

You have to change your attitude towards happiness and sadness; try not to see sadness with a negative attitude and don't see happiness in an extremely positive light. When you are sad, it only proves that there is a lack of understanding of something. With your misunderstanding you are creating that atmosphere of sadness; you are attaching too much importance to a situation or too little, so you are creating sadness with your lack of understanding.

How to get rid of sadness? Get rid of that attitude which creates divisions and says, "This is very good and that is very bad; this is day, this is night". In reality, day and night are not two, they are one, sadness and happiness are not two; they are one. Death and life are not two they are one, but we have to evolve to perceive that.

Cultivate understanding, consciousness, knowledge and awareness of life, and these can awaken in you a healthy system to help you learn to deal with every situation with perfect balance. We are enslaved by our senses; we tend to lead an impulsive life. Use the senses, but don't let them overwhelm you.

When you experience sadness, it could help you to look within, take you deeper inside, it sharpens your perception. Sorrow comes to give you possibilities of betterment in life. Sometimes you see people become happy and they lose their balance, or become too sad and lose their balance. Such situations bring with them joy or sorrow, we have to learn how to treat them, how to deal with them. They come to help us evolve; they have a purpose. It is time to progress and with that learning attitude, deal with both situations; then joy and sorrow will both help you and give you something constructive.

2011-06-07T03:39:00.000-07:00

Go on, be positive!

The state of your mental health says a lot about your life. Experts say that people who focus more on positive thinking and have positive attitudes not only enjoy life more but also lead healthier lives. Optimists are said to deal with pain and hardship better than their pessimistic counterparts. Remember your body reacts to your thoughts, feelings and actions. So if you're in a bad mood, your body will respond in a similar manner. While keeping yourself fit by eating right and managing stress is alright, positive thinking goes a long way in ensuring good health.

If you're feeling unwell and tell yourself that you're coming down with a bug, chances are that it will come true. Your mind is more powerful than you think. Stop thinking that you are going to fall sick or will take time to recover from a sickness. Experts call this the placebo effect - a placebo is treatment that provides whatsoever no medical gain except making the patient believe that it is helping them get better. Several patients report relief from their problems although they haven't actually received any medicine.

Thinking positive may not come naturally to everyone. To make that change you need to make a conscious effort. Whenever you find yourself getting negative thoughts, stop them. Start thinking of a happy event or memory that will cheer you.

Make positive statements. Instead of thinking or saying, "I can't do this or this is impossible", state positive affirmations - I will give this my best shot or I have so many things to be grateful about," sends out positive vibes.

Down in the dumps or feeling out of sorts with an illness? Visualisation is a great technique that will actually help you feel better. Imagine yourself healthy and happy. When you visualise your thoughts, they send out positive signals to your brain making you feel better.

Positive emotions like humour, friendship and love are known to supercharge your health. Experts have long since asserted that laughter is great for you. Life is full of humour if you stop and experience it. Watch funny movies or TV shows, read books and jokes that make you smile, meet people who make you laugh. Laughter increases creativity, reduces pain, and even accelerates healing.

Catch up with friends. With the hectic lives we lead, we often forget how relaxing and calming meeting a friend can be. Good friendships are important so make sure you surround yourself with genuine ones. Having close buddies help you recuperate faster from sickness.

Social service and volunteering boosts feelings of compassion, which in turn make you a better person. When you help someone, you also help yourself. There are several orphanages, old age homes, mentally and physically challenged centres and animal shelters that need you to spend time with people and animals living there. You don't need to go there every week. Go once in a while and notice the difference.

When you spend a certain amount of time in prayer, and spiritual beliefs, you send positive vibrations your side. Have faith and it will go a long way in being a faithful companion. Prayer and meditation are good ways to connect to your spiritual side.

2011-05-19T00:46:00.000-07:00

Helvetica Font - Free Download.

Today, more people than ever before are looking for the difficult to find helvetica TTF free download....... Helvetica is one of the most popular typefaces of all time. It was designed by Max Miedinger in 1957 for the Haas foundry of Switzerland (the name is derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland).

Helvetica remains one of the most popular fonts on the Internet as well as on many forms of documentation. This is because it is very much a plain looking font, but with a little touch of style, such as the small twist at the bottom of the lowercase "t", or the shorter curved ends at the bottom of letters like lowercase "j" and "y". Helvetica font is used on most public signs and on the majority of public documents and periodicals across the world.

---> Helvetica - Downloand

--->Vista Fonts (calibri, cambria, candara, consolas, constantia, corbel)

40 Excellent Logos Created with Helvetica
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/40-excellent-logos-created-with-helvetica/

It’s over fifty years old, it’s the most widely used font ever, and it has recently become the subject of its own movie. We’re talking about the world’s most recognizable font: Helvetica. Its relevance in design through the years and even today seems unbeatable.

The appeal for a distinctive, professional and timeless typeface has never dwindled and it keeps gaining more followers day by day. Love it or hate it, with its multitude of styles and versions, Helvetica is here to stay.

From airlines, to car companies to the largest software company, Helvetica’s use in logos throughout the world remains as strong as ever. In this article we’ll take a look at 40 excellent logos created using Helvetica.

2011-05-18T05:11:00.000-07:00

‘I have a dream’ – Martin Luther King, Jr

“So do the 270 million uneducated children in our country. They dream of standing on their own feet and touching the sky. However, they are chained down by poverty and their dreams remain a distant mirage. Education is every child’s fundamental right. Yet, for want of monetary backing, these children are deprived of the most basic necessity. Poverty is the river that separates them from their dreams, and we want to open up the bridge of knowledge. Education is the most precious gift anyone can give or receive, and that the children deserve to be more than mere thumb impressions.“

Educate & Emancipate is a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization that is working to provide quality education to under privileged children in India. Educate & Emancipate was founded in 2007 to provide education for the extremely under-privileged and deserving youngsters in the city of Bangalore and Chennai. Since then the organization has grown in scope.
Educate & Emancipate’s team consists of a group of spirited youngsters from a wide range of backgrounds such as professionals, students, corporates, social activists and media personnel.

Our efforts are focused on the following:
1. Students should not opt out of education for the want of money.
2. Proper mentorship and quality education should be made accessible to the poorest of poor.

http://educate-emancipate.com/

Vision - EDUCATE & EMANCIPATE CHARITABLE TRUST

Educate & Emancipate was founded on the firm belief that education is a fundamental right of every child in this country and that talent should not be wasted just because someone is born into unfortunate conditions.

We also believe that it is the duty of every citizen of this country to look after each other and that it is only through that way we can uplift the millions of unfortunate people who were born into poverty and misery.

Facilitation of a favorable environment for education and growth is the key to producing tomorrow’s world leaders. Educate & Emancipate believes that the desired changes in the lives of children will come only when more and more privileged people start participating proactively in finding a solution.

Therefore, our vision is to facilitate quality education for every deserving child in this country and in the process aid the growth and development of the country.

http://educate-emancipate.com/

2011-05-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

ASAP, BTW, TBD, VIP... Let us help you crack the code

Do you sometimes come across abbreviations in e-mails or letters, which you don’t understand? Ever wondered what they mean?

Abbreviations: we all use them, merrily sprinkling our e-mails and even phone conversations with these little clusters of capital letters, assuming everyone knows what we’re talking about. But what do they actually stand for? And are we really using them correctly?

Here’s a helpful list, to shine a light on the subject. (Some of the abbreviations, marked *, are also used in everyday speech.)

a/c: account (“Re. the American a/c, …”)
AGM*: annual general meeting (“TBD at next AGM in March,” pron. “ay-gee-em”)
AOB: any other business (usually at the end of a meeting agenda)
approx.: approximately (“Delivery takes approx. 4 days.”)
asap*: as soon as possible (“Pls do this asap,” pron. “ay-ess-ay-pee”)
asst: assortment (“Please send asst of products.”)
atm: at the moment (“Can’t decide atm – will let you know.”)
attn: for the attention of (written at the top of letters/faxes etc.: “Attn: Mr Jones”)

b/c: because (“Have to cancel meeting b/c Mr Jones unwell.”)
btw: by the way (“Btw, how was your holiday?”)

cc*: copy to (“I’ll put him on cc,” pron. “see-see”)
cd: could (“Cd you please get in touch with our sales dept?”)
CEO*: chief executive officer (“She’s our CEO,” pron. “see-ee-oh”)
cf: compare with (“Cf January orders.”)
CIO*: chief information officer (“Mr Jones is our CIO,” pron. “see-eye-oh”)
c/o: care of (usually written over an address. “Please send it c/o Mr Jones.”)
cob: close of business (“It should be ready today cob.”)
cod: cash on delivery (“Please pay cod.”)
crm: customer relationship management (“The company has excellent crm.”)
cv*: curriculum vitae (“Please send your cv with your application,” pron. “see-vee”)

dept: department (“He’s in the sales dept.”)
devt: development (“January saw good devt.”)
diff: difference (“Please specify diff. between products A and B.”)

e.g.*: for example (“Different depts., e.g. marketing, sales,” pron. “ee-gee”)
EGM: extraordinary general meeting (“TBD at an EGM,” pron. “ee-gee-em”)
encl.: enclosed (“Pls find attachment encl.”)
eob: end of business (“Please finish by eob.”)
eod: end of day (“To do by eod.”)
esp.: especially (“This is esp. interesting.”)
ETA: estimated time of arrival (“ETA two o’clock.”)
et al: and everyone else (“Mr Jones, Mr Brown et al.”)
etc. (et cetera): and the rest (“Marketing, sales etc.”)

FAQ: frequently asked questions (“Here are some FAQs.”)
fig: figures (“Here are sales figs for 2010.”)
FOB: freight on board (“This will be sent FOB.”)
fwd: forwarded (“Pls fwd to Mr Jones.”)
FYA: for your attention (at top of document)

HQ*: headquarters (“See you at HQ,” pron. “aitch-queue”)
hr: hour (“It will take approx. 2 hrs.”)

Here’s a helpful list which we hope will help you. Some of the abbreviations, marked *, are also used in everyday speech.

i.e.*: that is (“We will do it by eob, i.e. 5:30 pm,” pron. “eye-ee”)
incl.: including (“Pls send it incl. new propsal asap.”)
info.: information (“Thanks in advance for the info.”)
IOU*: I owe you (“We will send an IOU,” pron. “I owe you”)

K*: a thousand (“It will cost around 3K,” pron. “three-kay”)

m: million (“It will cost $6m.”)
max*.: maximum (“It will cost $3K max.”)
MD*: managing director (“He’s our MD,” pron. “em-dee”)
min*.: minimum (“It will cost 3K min.”)

n/a: not applicable (“This is n/a in this context.”)
NB: please note (at foot of document, “NB: Holidays this year are cancelled.”)
no.: number (“Pls advise no. of deliveries.”)

p.a.: per year (“How much p.a.?”)
pd: paid (“This invoice was pd in December.”)
pfi*: pay for inclusion (paying to have web pages included in a search engine’s database and updated; pron. “pee-eff-eye”)
pls: please (“Pls advise.”)
ppc*: pay per click (way of charging for publication of advertisements on the Internet; pron. “pee-pee-see”)
ppi*: pay per impression (where advertiser pays for each display of their advertisement – usually a banner; pron. “pee-pee-eye”)
pps*: pay per sale (where a commission is paid for each sale, usually a % of the sale; pron. “pee-pee-ess”)
pto: please turn over (at foot of page)
p.w.: per week (“How many p.w.?”)

qtr: quarter (“How many per qtr?”)
qty: quantity (“Pls advise re. qty.”)

r&d: research and development (“Need to do some R&D.”)
re.: with reference to (“Pls advise re. qty.”)
roi: return on investment (“What will the ROI be?”)
RSVP: please reply (in invitation)

sae: stamped addressed envelope (“Pls send sae.”)
SE: seach engine (searchable database of pages on the web)
SEO: search engine optimisation (“An SEO” is the person who carries out the optimisation)

TBA: to be announced (“This news TBA at next week’s AGM.”)
TBD: to be determined (“Exact date still TBD.”)
thx: thanks (“Thx for your mail.”)
TCO: total cost of ownership (“Pls estimate TCO.”)

USP: unique selling point/proposition (“Sounds great! What’s the USP?”)

vs.: against (abbreviated form of “versus”, “This is us vs. them.”)
VAT*: value added tax (“Pls advise price incl. VAT,” pron. “vee-ay-tea”)
VIP*: very important person (“They are VIPs,” pron. “vee-eye-peas”)

w/: with (“He will be w/ Mr Jones.”)
wd: would (“Wd you mind writing to Mr Jones?”)
w/o: without (“Will you be there w/o Mr Jones?”)

ytd: year to date (“Pls give sales figs for ytd asap.”)

24/7*: non-stop – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (“We’re available 24/7,” pron. “twenty-four seven”)

2011-05-17T05:56:00.000-07:00

What more can i Say ??? Guess this is called Unconditional LOVE ??

http://www.rajinifans.com/latest-news/page-7?rId=1627&tasks=views

Comments

A Sureshkuumar from London - UK 4 hours from now

Please take better care of your health in future. God bless you Super Star

Prasanna from Chennai - India 1 hour from now

Thalava Please take complete rest until you get well. Your health is not only important to you, it is very much important to us. we all pray God for your health.

saravanan from bangalore - INDIA 1 hour from now

thalaivaa get well soon

HARI FROM CHENNAI AYANAVARM from CHENNAI - INIDNA 7 minutes ago

தலைவா உங்களயும்,எங்களையும், கஷ்டபடுத்தியவங்க யாரு நல்லா இருக்க மாட்டாங்க, உங்கமேல எல்லாறும் உயிரையே வெச்சுறுக்கோம், தலைவா ராணா வேண்டாம், எங்களுக்கு நிங்கதான் வேணும், தயவு செய்து ஒய்வு எடுங்கள், ஆண்டவன் எப்பவும் உங்க துனையுடன் இருப்பான், கொஞ்சம் கவனமா இருக்கனும், அரசியலில் தோற்றவர்கள் செய்கின்ற சதி போல் தெரிகிறது தலைவா நிங்கள் யரையும் நம்பாதிர்கள், ஆண்டவனை வேண்டுகிரேன்

Ashwin from chennai - india 21 minutes ago

தலைவா!!! நீஙக திரூம்ப வருவிஙக..ஆன்டவன் இருகான்..உஙக‌ நல்ல மனசுக்கு ஒன்னும் ஆகாது

selva from riyadh - k.s.a 26 minutes ago

thalaiva comeback soon.........

m.saravanan from tiruppur - india 51 minutes ago

thaliva nee enugeruthalam nallam udan vala ella vallla erivanai due thi keran

karthick from chennai - india 1 hour ago

தலைவர் ரஜினி மீண்டு வருவார்!

Prema from Johor - Malaysia 2 hours ago

Dear friends, don worry superstar will get well soon

Thinagaran from Johor - Malaysia 2 hours ago

I pray for a speedy recover of our superstar Rajini

rahul from hyderabad - india 3 hours ago

rajini is god he is comeback strong for his crores of fans worldwide

rahul from hyderabad - india 3 hours ago

rajini is god

Sam from Chennai - India 5 hours ago

அவர் நல்ல மனசுக்கு ஒன்னும் ஆகாது.

prasanth from jaffna - sri lanka 5 hours ago

plese rajani patthe thapla aana newskala para

suresh kumar.s from vellore - India 6 hours ago

We are all praying to god for speedy recovery and energetic health of Thalaivar Super star.Crores of Fans are with u .Long live super star,Kadavul ullam kondavare Endrum Ungalai nesikum anbu ullangal Rajinifans Team Gandhi Road,Vellore:632004

Ramesh from Bangalore - India 6 hours ago

pls All pray for our thalaivar and stop smoke who r all smoking. its big request for all..................

Parthipan from Thiruvarur - India 7 hours ago

Thalaiva va thalaiva kannill nier valiya ungalai patriya news parkirean thaanga mudiyavillai viraivil neengl nearil thondra vendum.

k s abdul kader from dammam - kadayanallur 12 hours ago

இரைவனே என் கண்னிரை நிர் ஆக்குகிரேன் என் தலைவன் உயிர் வாள வைக்க இன்று உன்னிடம் கை ஏந்தினேன் இரைவா பாண்னி இரண்டு கன்களிலே ஒண்று இரண்டு மலர்ந்தலும் எண்னிரண்டு கண்களில் இன்ப ஒளி உண்டாகும் உள்ளமதில் உள்ளவரை அள்ளித்தரும் நல்லவரை விண் உலகம் வா எண்ரல் இந்த மாண் உலகம் எண் ஆகும் ஆண்டவானே ஆண்டவானே ஆண்டவானே மேகங்கள் கண்கலங்கும் மிண்னால் வ்ந்து துடிதுடிக்கும் வாணக்மே உருகதே வள்ளல் முகம் பாறமல் உள்ளமதில் உள்ளவரை அள்ளி தரும் நல்லவரை நீ வாளவை இறைவா இறைவா

A.RAJKUMAR from chennai - India 12 hours ago

He will become alright by SAI kruba

mani from madurai - tamil nadu 13 hours ago

ulagam ulla varai thalaivar irupar

venkat from trichy - india 14 hours ago

thalaiva ni raagavendravin maru uruvam........ elunthu va un kan asaivirkku katthi eruppathu tamilagam mattum ellai ulagam muluvathum than.........

renjith kumar from dubai - u a e 15 hours ago

we are all praying for you. all people in the world waiting for rana my rajini sirdo not worry god is great

renjith kumar from dubai - u a e 15 hours ago

ம்ய் கொட் உங்லககெ இந்த உலகம் முயுவன ப்ரயர் பன்ட்ரெ உங்லெக் ஒனும் அகத் என் டெஇவமெ என் உயிரில் உல்ல கத் தன் நேஙெ

Aravindan from Chennai - India 15 hours ago

I wish my thalaivar SUPER STAR RAJNIKANTH to get recover soon. Let we all pray to Shri Raghavendirar swamy and Babaji for his betterment of his health conditions.

Balaji from Chennai - India 15 hours ago

Wishing you a speedy recovery Rajni Sir. Kindly make a 1 min TV speech in any of the TV channels and it will stop all rumours. Like to see you back in Rana Soon

Selva from singapore - Singapore 17 hours ago

i pray to god , my guru was get will soon

krishna sushila from seremban - malaysia 19 hours ago

HARI FROM CHENNAI AYANAVARAM from CHENNAI - INDIAN 19 hours ago

தலைவா என்னால எந்தவேலையும் சரியா செய்ய முடியல, மனசு வேதனையா இருக்கு தலைவா! நிங்க ஒரு வார்தயாவது தொலைகாட்சியில் பேசுங்க, தயவுசெய்து பேசுங்க, கடவுளை வேண்டுகிரேன் தலைவர் உடல் நிலை சிராக வேண்டும் என்று,

megaladevi from tanjore - india 19 hours ago

thalaiva va. unakaka kathirukirom sekiram elunthu va ne nalamudan varuvai unakaka engal makalir kulu sarbaka andavanai vendukirom

rajini mani from kumbakonam - tamilnadu 19 hours ago

ANDAVA ENTHAN UDALLIL NOIGALAI KODU AANAL ENGAL THEVATHUKU ENTHA NOIGALUM KODUKATHE

Comments(42)

yuvaraj from chennai - india 20 hours ago

sir come fast peoples are all waitting sir

yuvaraj from chennai - india 20 hours ago

god is great rajini is great rana rana va na

Balaji from Chennai - India 20 hours ago

Hi sir I wish U to get recovered soon Please give a press report so that all msgs like that will vanish in a moment. I hope U do so soon. We need U.

Gomathi from chennai - india 21 hours ago

I pray to god that very soon rajini should be hospitalized and get back soon to us.

P.SURESHBABU from CHENNAI - INDIA 21 hours ago

Dear Mr.Rajini sir, we pray for you take a full rest sir, do not smoke sir please this in my humbel request sir ( GOD TAKE ANYTHING FROM MY BODY BUT SAVE MY SUPER STAR MR.RAJINIKANTH)

Sridhar from chennai - India 22 hours ago

Please dont send the fake messages to all the superstar will be get well very soon we are very intersted to see his next movie Rana

kamaraj from chennai - india 22 hours ago

dear rajini sir neengal nalla paadiya thirumpi poorna sugathudan varanum endru rasigalal mattu alla & tamil nadu & india pepole ellorum ungalukka pray pannukiragal. come soon with ur whole spirt. we are waiting for u.

parthiban from vellore - india 22 hours ago

தலைவா வா உடனே மிக்க நலத்துடன்

kamaraj from chennai - india 22 hours ago

dear rajini sir we pray for u. get well soon. god bless u

Alex from Colombo - Sri Lanka 22 hours ago

thalaivar will be fine

2011-05-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

IBN LIVE: News Goofs up !

2011-04-16T02:17:00.000-07:00

எந்த துன்பம் கண்டும் அஞ்சாதே!

சின்னஞ்சிறு குழந்தையே! நீ எப்போதும் ஓடியாடி மகிழ்ச்சியோடு விளையாடி மகிழ்வாய். ஒரு பொழுதும் ஓய்ந்து சோம்பித் திரியாதே. மற்ற குழந்தைகளிடம் கூடி விளையாடிட கற்றுக் கொள். உன்னுடன் பழகிடும் எந்த நண்பரையும், தோழியையும் சுடுசொற்களால் திட்டும் பழக்கமிருந்தால் அதை அடியோடு விட்டு விடு.

நீ பார்க்கும் ஒவ்வொன்றிலும் பாடம் கற்றுக் கொள். குருவியைப் போல் திரிந்து விளையாடு. வண்ணப் பறவைகளைக் கண்டு மனமகிழ்ச்சி கொள். கோழி, காகம் ஆகியவற்றுக்கு இரக்கத்துடன் உணவிட்டு அன்பு செய். பால் தரும் பசு நமக்காக தன் வாழ்வினைத் தருவதை உணர்வாய். நன்றியுள்ள நாய் நமக்கு உற்ற தோழனாகும். பொய் சொல்லுவதால் கேடு பல உண்டாகும். அந்த பழக்கத்தை விட்டு விடு. யார் ஒருவரையும் அவர் இல்லாத போது இழிவாகப் பேசாதே. இப்படி புறம் பேசுதல் நல்லவர்க்கு அடையாளமாகாது. எத்தகைய துன்பம் நேர்ந்தாலும் நீ அஞ்சாதே. நல்லவனுக்குத் தெய்வம் உறுதுணையாக இருக்கும். ஒரு நாளும் நமக்கு தீங்குண்டாகாது. எல்லா உயிர்களிடத்திலும் அன்பு செய்ய கற்றுக் கொள். உண்மையன்றி வேறு தெய்வமில்லை. நெஞ் சம் வைரம் போன்று உறுதியுடையதாக இருக்க வேண் டும். இதுவே வாழும் முறையாகும்.

Invisible Lens' photostream

2011-03-31T00:16:00.001-07:00

Invisible Lens' photostream on Flickr.

2011-03-21T05:49:00.000-07:00

10-Week Walking Regimen

WEEK 1

• Walk for 15 – 30 minutes at a comfortable pace, depending on your ability. Warm up for 5 minutes at an easy walking pace before doing a 5-minute easy stretching routine. Resume walking at a comfortable pace, then end up with another 5 minutes of gentle stretching routine.

• Take a rest on the 7th day. Your body needs to rest and rebuild itself.

WEEK 2

• Increase your walking time by 5 - 10 minutes for this week. Do the same routine.

• Rest on the 7th day.

WEEK 3 – WEEK 10

• Increase your walking time by 5 - 10 minutes every week until you are now capable of walking for an hour each time. The health benefits of walking can be maximized if you sustain a 30 – 60 minute walk a day.

• Remember to rest on the 7th day of each week.

2011-03-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

7 Common Walking Mistakes You Should Avoid

Walking is one of the important milestones which come by the first birthday and since then various changes and modifications take place on the gait pattern (the way you walk). Other than being a means of locomotion, walking is also a good form of low impact, less intense aerobic exercise. Most of us make certain mistakes while walking, which can have an unwanted impact on our health. It is very important to opt for correct techniques of walking to get the maximum benefits without any injury.

Here are the most common walking mistakes to be avoided:

Over-striding: Stride length, in simple words, refers to the length of each step taken while walking, running or jogging. We all have our own characteristic stride length. When you try to walk faster than your standard speed, you might try to increase your stride length because of which you might develop poor posture and hurt your back. Therefore instead of taking bigger steps, go for shorter and quicker ones!

Wrong Foot Gear: Choosing the wrong footwear will not only make your walk uncomfortable, but it will also make you prone to injury. Your walking shoes should be lightweight and should have a flexible sole to allow good freedom of motion by permitting your foot to roll through each step from heel to toe. Choose those shoes that fit you! If you walk for 30 minutes or more, then choose shoes larger than your dress shoes as your feet may swell when you walk for a long period of time. Prolonged walking with tight shoes can cause pain and cramping while loose shoes can make "push-off" (application of pressure for the purpose of moving) difficult.

Wrong Clothing: Improper clothing can interfere with your thermoregulation (the ability of your body to keep its temperature within certain boundaries even if the temperature of the surrounding environment is pretty different) and can eventually affect your walking efficiency. Choose clothing according to environmental conditions. For example, in a hot climate, wear fabrics like climacool or coolmax which will allow the sweat to evaporate away from the body. Wearing dark clothing while walking at night can make you susceptible to accidents. For safety purpose, wear reflector stripes or night glow badges.

Foot Slap: Foot slap occurs when at heel strike (i.e., when the heel makes contact with the floor), the forefoot slaps the ground (which means that you land flat footed) instead of rolling through from heel to toe. This can lead to pain in your shins. Foot slap can be due to weak dorsiflexors i.e. weak shins, heavy shoes, stiff shoes (inflexible sole) etc. In order to avoid foot slap, wear lightweight shoes with a flexible sole and low heel. Strengthen your shin by performing toe raises. To perform toe raises, stand on the ledge of a step with your heels hanging over the edge. Now, dip the heels down, then raise them high. Repeat 10 times. This is a simple, yet an effective way of strengthening your shins. You can also do heel walking (walking slowing, with small stride length, on your heels with your toes raised as high as possible) for 20 to 30 seconds to strengthen your shins.

Lack of Arm Swing: Normally while walking, arm swinging occurs in order to counterbalance the leg motion. Arm swinging can also aid in gaining the momentum, thereby helping you to walk at a faster speed. Lack of arm swing can put a lot of stress on your back. So, make sure to swing your arms back and forth opposite to the direction of leg motion.

Incorrect Posture: Improper postures like head down, leaning forward etc. are very commonly observed and these can lead to problems like neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain and breathing difficulty. So whenever you intend to walk, stand straight and feel like being tall! Do not arch your back. Pull your stomach in, keep your buttocks tight and maintain the natural curves of the spine to prevent undue stress.

Over-training: The zeal to burn calories in order to lose weight makes many people to walk beyond their capacity. They soon begin to feel tired and irritable, and pains and aches start popping up their ugly heads. Under such a situation, it is better to take a break and to refresh yourself. You must listen to your body and wait for it to recover. This is the best possible way to get ready for the next walking session!

Walking is a fun and it is a form of recreation during moments of leisure. You might take a great deal of interest in this form of physical activity, but wrong postures and incorrect walking techniques can nullify your efforts. You might also suffer from injuries which can act as obstacles for your fitness routine. So, adopting the correct techniques of walking is very essential in order to continue with your regular walks!

2011-03-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

How to Walk Properly?

It is very important in life to do things in the right manner. An ineffective attempt made, takes you nowhere, except for causing frustration, due to not having achieved the desired result. Health fitness cannot be achieved magically and this fact applies to every smallest aspect associated with fitness. Like, for weight loss, say if you choose walking as your main workout type, then it becomes vital to ensure that you are following a proper walking style.

Walking is one of the best things you can do for your health. It's good for your heart, blood pressure and weight management. When you're walking to get or stay fit, your form, pace, and breathing is especially important. Mastering a good walking technique takes some time. But with practice, it will become second nature and will help you increase and maintain your pace comfortably. Here are some tips to get you started:

Keep your eyes focused forward, not up or down. Don't look down when walking; look ahead (especially when walking up hills).

Chin should be pointed down and pulled in slightly to maintain a neutral neck position, which will prevent neck pain by properly supporting your head.

Keep your shoulders back, down and relaxed. Bend your arms at the elbow at a 90-degree angle and swing them toward the center of your body. Be careful not to cross the center line of your body or bend your arms at more than 90 degrees. Swinging your arms properly will give you a better aerobic workout, burn more calories, and engage more muscles throughout your torso.

The back should be straight as you walk, allowing for its natural curves. You shouldn't be leaning backwards or forwards. But, a slight forward lean on hill climbs is acceptable.

Your chest should be slightly lifted. Breathe deeply, expanding your stomach, and try to breathe in rhythm with your steps.

Keep your belly button gently sucked in toward your spine. This will keep your abdominal muscles activated, which is a great workout for your tummy and it helps to protect your lower back from injury.

Your heel should hit the ground first. Take shorter, rather than longer, steps. More frequent short steps will give you a better workout and be easier on your joints.

By closely following the technique and form described, you can significantly improve your performance. It can help enhance the benefits you receive from walking. These benefits are:

Increased efficiency
Better use of energy supplies
Decreased risk of injury
Increased comfort
Faster times
Increased calorie burn
Increased muscle conditioning
Body shaping

Following fitness walking tips goes a long way in ensuring that you'll not fall prey to chronic body pains, poor posture problem, beauty related issues like double chin and potbelly. When you'll be away from the clutches of the above-mentioned problems, you'll tend to feel more active and enthusiastic about carrying out your day-to-day routine activities.

2011-03-21T04:31:00.000-07:00

12 Tips to Motivate Yourself to Walk

Key to any walking program or for that matter any fitness program is Motivation. It is a fuel for weight loss. And just like any other program, maintaining a regular walking routine can be difficult once the initial newness wears off. Putting one foot after another, day in and day out, can get a bit monotonous. The monotony can have an adverse result on your fitness program.

So what do you do when your pace starts to slacken and boredom sets in? You motivate yourself! And here is how:

Choose different routes: The same old route can get a bit dreary. Explore a new route every now and then. If the environment is enjoyable, miles just fly by. By focusing on your surroundings you may even forget that you're exercising.

Count your steps: Ever heard of 10,000 steps per day plan? You can actually start counting the number of steps that you take and you will probably forget the exercising boredom. Sure you can use a pedometer, but you can also engross yourself in the activity while you are out walking. You can then compare the steps counted with the steps recorded in your pedometer.

Wear a pedometer: Several studies show that wearing a pedometer and having a daily step goal can boost your activity level. It can be a powerful reminder that every step counts, and soon you will be finding ways to add steps to your day.

Get a partner: Find a walking buddy to keep you motivated. Having a friend waiting for you to take a walk gets you out there day after day. Even the discussions, jokes, and tea afterward are great for relaxing. You can even walk with your dog.

Remind yourself of the benefits: Nothing will charge you more than reminding the benefits of walking. And there are so many of them.

Helps in weight loss
Lowers your blood pressure
Strengthens your bones and joints
Reduces the risk of heart disease
Reduces risk of diabetes, & the list just goes on!

Maintain a walking journal: Bring a bit of professionalism in your walking routine. Set a goal and plan a strategy to achieve it. Track your walking minutes, steps, or kilometers in a journal or even in an online log and analyze it every month. You will find yourself out walking just to make those numbers add up.

Choose the best time: Choosing the time that works best for you is an important step to ensure a successful walking program and stay motivated. Some people walk in the morning to get ready for the day. Some people walk during lunch hour because they hate mornings. Others walk in the evening or after dinner to relieve tension and relax. If you don't have full 30 to 40 minutes to walk, then break the 30 minutes down into several shorter walks.

Reward yourself: If you achieve your goals, reward yourself with something interesting. New clothes, new walking shoes or even a movie; whatever works best for you.

Walk on the treadmill: When you are absolutely bored to walk outside, jump on the treadmill. You can watch TV or talk to your buddies on the phone and the miles would just add up.

Establish your motivation in your walking activity and you will stay persistent in walking toward a healthy body. The important thing is to set the goals, keep walking and keep shedding those pounds!

2011-03-20T23:42:00.000-07:00

The Do-It-Now Habit

Do you feel overworked? Do you have too much to do? Are you not making the progress you want to be making toward your goals?

Why can some people produce twice as much as others? For example, Jane not only handles three kids, but works 30 hours per week and runs a small business from her home office. Jane's house is always clean and she prepares delicious, healthy meals for her family.

Jill, on the other hand, has one daughter, makes no money, has no time to do her housework and prefers pizza delivery dinners.

Both Jane and Jill are good mothers, but why are they so different? Why is Jane so efficient?

To be more like Jane and less Jill, break two bad habits and form one good habit.

Two Bad Habits

1. The first bad habit is to look at a piece of work you are supposed to do -- a task, a program, a communication, an assignment or - and put it aside to do later.

Instead of acting, you read it, digest it, think about doing it, consider the problems, sigh, and put it down to do later. Nothing is accomplished. A total waste of time.

2. The second bad habit is taking a piece of work, look at it and refer it to someone else. Even though it's your job, you try to get someone else to do it. The other person eventually sends it back to you. A total waste of your time AND the other person's time.

One Good Habit

"Do it Now."

"One of the best ways to cut your work in half is not to do it twice."

"If you do every piece of work that comes your way WHEN it comes your way and not after a while, if you always take the initiative and take action, not refer it, you never get any traffic back . . . "

"In short, the way to get rid of traffic is to do it, not to refer it; anything referred has to be read by you again, digested again, and handled again; so never refer traffic, just do it so it's done."

"So if you are truly a lover of ease, the sort of person who yawns comfortably and wears holes in heels resting them on desks, if your true ambition is one long bout of spring fever, then you'll do as I suggest and handle everything that comes your way when it comes and not later; and you'll never refer anything to anybody that you yourself can do promptly."

"Do it when you see it and do it yourself." -- L. Ron Hubbard

For example, the government sends you a tax form asking you for some financial information. You take ten minutes to understand what is required and realize it's quite simple. You notice it's not due for two months, but instead of tossing it in your desk to do later, you take another ten minutes to find the information, fill out the form and drop it in the mail.

If you wait to fill out the form later, you have had to spend another ten minutes to understand it again. Perhaps you look at the form every few days, think it over and decide to wait. You might even forget do fill out the form and then waste even more time trying to understand why the government is charging you a $250 late fee.

As another example, you notice your car tire is a little low and you fill it right now. If you wait, you get a flat tire while driving to work. You are not only two hours late for work, you have to buy a new tire.

More examples:

Your food explodes in the microwave? You clean it up now.

Your boss asks for a report? You write it and turn it in now.

Your group needs a decision from you? You make it now.

When you jump and do things at your first opportunity, you stay in better control of your job and your life while earning hours of extra time to use however you wish.

How to Form the Do-It-Now Habit

The best time to get into a do-it-now habit is, of course, RIGHT NOW!

1. Take a stack of papers, task or any kind of cluttered mess that you need to handle.

2. Take the first item.

3. Deal with it, handle it, do it now.

". . . take the initiative and take action. . . ."

4. If you find it hard to do it now, remember the reward. If you get your work done in half the time, how will you spend the OTHER half of your time? Earning more money? Starting new projects? Having more fun? The choice is yours.

Give it a try.

Now!

2011-03-04T06:34:00.001-08:00

100 Things I’ve Learned About Photography

Since I found photography two and a half years ago I have learned different things which I would like to share with you today. These lessons have made me richer and I hope that you will find them refreshing and inspiring on your journey with the camera, too.

1. Never do photography to become a rock-star.
2. Enjoy what you are shooting.
3. Prepare well for your shooting, realizing that your battery isn’t charge when you’re setting up for that sunrise shoot is too late!
4. Always take one warm garment more than you actually need with you
5. Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions while you are shooting
6. Set goals you can achieve
7. Write tips about photography, because writing is also learning
8. Never go shooting without a tripod
9. Be pleased with the little prosperities
10. Build relationships with potential photo buddies
11. Watch the place you want to shoot first with your heart then with the camera
12. Always stay calm
13. Know that you tend to overestimate yourself
14. Perspective is the killer
15. Dedicate yourself to photography, but never browbeat yourself too much
16. Take part in a photography community
17. Keep your camera clean
18. Never compare yourself to others in a better or worse context
19. Find your own style of photography
20. Try to compose more and to hit the shutter less
21. Seek out and learn to accept critique on your images
22. Do something different to recover creativity
23. Get inspiration from the work of other photographers
24. Criticize honestly but respectfully
25. Get feedback from your lady
26. Don’t copy other photographer’s style
27. Be bold
28. Take care of the golden ratio
29. 10mm rocks!
30. Take selfportraits
31. Read books about photography
32. To give a landscapephotograph the extra boost, integrate a person (maybe yourself)
33. Every shooting situation is different than you expect
34. Pay attention to s-curves and lines
35. Always shoot in RAW
36. Keep your sensor clean, so you can save some work cleaning your image in post production
37. Discover the things you think are beautiful
38. It takes time to become a good photographer
39. The best equipment is that what you have now
40. You can’t take photographs of everything
41. Break the rules of photography knowingly, but not your camera
42. Pay attention to the different way that light falls on different parts of your scene
43. The eye moves to the point of contrast
44. Clouds increase the atmosphere of a landscape
45. Start a photoblog
46. Accept praise and say “thank you”
47. ‘Nice Shot’ is not a very useful comment to write
48. ‘Amazing!’ isn’t useful either. Try to describe specifically what you like or don’t like about an image.
49. You are not your camera
50. Ask a question at the end of your comment on a photo to get a ping-pong conversation with the photographer
51. Do a review of your archives on a regular basis, the longer you photograph – the more diamonds are hidden there
52. Always clarify what the eyecatcher (focal point) will be in your image
53. No image is better than a bad one
54. Everyone has to start little
55. Your opinion about photography is important!
56. Leave a funny but thoughtful comment
57. Speak about your experiences with your photo buddies
58. Limit your photograph to the substance
59. Participate in Photocontests
60. Post processing = Optimizing your image to the best result
61. Shoot exposure latitudes as often as possible
62. Use photomatix as seldom as possible, HDR’s always have a synthetic flavor
63. Always remember what brought you to photography
64. Never shoot a person who doensn’t want to be photographed
65. Always turn arround, sometimes the better image is behind you
66. It’s who’s behind the camera, not the camera
67. Mistakes are allowed! The more mistakes you make, the more you learn!
68. If you have an idea and immediately you think : No, this is not going to work – Do it anyway. When in doubt – always shoot.
69. Understand and look to your histogramm while shooting. It delivers very important information about your image
70. Know your camera, because searching the menu button in the night is time you don’t want to waste
71. Shoot as often as possible
72. Believe in yourself
73. Don’t be afraid of getting dirty
74. Pay attention to qualitiy in your image
75. Your photographs are a personal map of your psyche
76. Re-check your ISO-Settings. It’s aweful to detect the wrong settings on your screen.
77. Be thankful for long and thoughtful comments on your images
78. Never trust your LCD. Normally it is brighter and sharper as the original image.
79. Provide for enough disc space, because it’s cheap and you will need it.
80. Learn to enjoy beautful moments when you don’t have a camera with you.
81. Always arrive at least half an hour earlier before sunrise / sundown, composing in a hurry is a bad thing.
82. Try to amplify your mental and physical limits. Takes some extra shots when you think “it’s enough”
83. Pay attention to structures in the sky and wait until they fit into structures in the foreground
84. Visit the same place as often as possible. Light never shows the same mountain.
85. Print your images in big size. You will love it.
86. Calibrate your monitor. Working with a monitor that is not accurate is like being together with someone you can’t trust. It always ends badly.
87. Don’t think about what others may say about your image. If you like it, it’s worth publishing.
88. Never address reproaches to yourself. Learn from your mistakes and look forward, not backward.
89. Fight your laziness ! Creativitiy comes after discipline.
90. Ask yourself : What do you want to express in your images ?
91. Always try to think outside the box, collect new ideas about photographs you could do and ask yourself : Why not?
92. Search for a mentor.
93. Photography is never a waste of time.
94. Every community has it’s downsides. Don’t leave it out of an emotional response.
95. There will always be people who will not like what you are doing.
96. Henri Cartier-Bresson was right when he said that “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
97. A better camera doesn’t guarantee better images.
98. Always have printing in mind when you postprocess your images.
99. Photography is fair : You gain publicity with the quality of your images. Unless the images are stolen, there is no way of cheating yourself higher.
100. Write a 100 things list

2011-03-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

அண்ணாமலை

ஒரிஜினல் கதை தான் உங்களுக்கு தெரியுமே. குடிசை ரஜினியும் பங்களா சரத்பாபுவும் சின்ன வயசுலேந்து நண்பர்கள். ராதாரவி ரஜினியோட இடத்தை ஏமாத்தி வாங்கி அங்க ஹோட்டல் கட்டிடறார். இருந்த வீட்டை இடிச்சிட்டதால ரஜினி கோவப்பட்டு, சரத்பாபு கூட்டத்தையும் ஏழையாக்கி நடுத்தெருவுல நிக்க வெக்கறேன்னு சபதம் போட்டு ஜெயிச்சும் காட்டறாரு. கடைசில சரத்பாபுவை மன்னிச்சு அவரோட பங்களாவை திருப்பி குடுத்துடறாரு.

குடிசைல இருந்தாலும் ரஜினி நிம்மதியா இருப்பாரு. அப்ப சரத்பாபுவும் சந்தோஷமா தான் இருப்பாரு. ரஜினி சவால் விட்ட பிறகு, காட்டுத்தனமா வேலை செய்வாரு.. பால் பண்ணை வெச்சு.. பயங்கரமா பிசினஸை டெவலப் பண்ணி, கன்னாபின்னான்னு பிஸியாயிடுவாரு. அதுவும் ஒரே பாட்டுல.கதை சூப்பர் கதை தான். படமும் சூப்பர் ஹிட்டு தான். இருந்தாலும்....
காதலிச்சு கல்யாணம் பண்ணிகிட்ட குஷ்புவோட பேசக்கூட நேரம் இருக்காது. ஜனகராஜ் கூட அரட்டையடிக்க டைம் இருக்காது... ஆசையா வெச்சிருந்த சைக்கிளை ஓட்ட முடியாது.. அம்மா மனோரமாகிட்ட கலகலப்பா இருக்க முடியாது.. பிஸி.. பிஸி.. பிஸி.. அவரோட நோக்கம் எல்லாம் சவால்ல ஜெயிக்கணுங்கறது தான்.. அவரு வாழ்க்கைல கிட்டத்தட்ட 20 வருஷம் இதுலயே போயிடும்.. அப்பவும் சரத்பாபு தன் ஹோட்டல் பிஸினஸை பாத்துகிட்டு , வசதியா தான் இருப்பாரு.
ரஜினி அவ்ளோ கஷ்டப்பட்டு, சரத்பாபுவோட பதவி, பங்களா எல்லாத்தையும் பறிச்சிடுவாரு. உடனே சரத்பாபு மனசு திருந்திடுவாரு. ரஜினி ஹீரோவாச்சே.. திருந்தின நண்பனுக்கு சொத்தை திருப்பி குடுத்துடுவாரு..!
என் டவுட்டு என்னான்னா... ரஜினி பெரிசா நினைக்கற தன் நிம்மதி, சந்தோஷம் எல்லாத்தையும் தொலைச்சிடறாரு. சரத்பாபுவை பொறுத்தவரை ஒரே ஒரு நாள் தான் கஷ்டம். பங்களாவும் கைக்கு வந்துடுது, ரஜினியும் சம்மந்தி ஆயிடறாரு.
இதுல யாரு புத்திசாலி ? ரஜினியா இல்லை சரத்பாபுவா?
குடும்பம், சந்தோஷம், நிம்மதி எல்லாத்தையும் இழந்து 20 வருஷ வாழ்க்கைய போக்கடிச்சு ரஜினி சவால்ல ஜெயிச்சதா காட்டினதுக்கு பதிலா, ரஜினி வழக்கம் போல சந்தோஷமா, நிம்மதியா நண்பர்கள் / குடும்பத்து ஆளுங்களோட உதவியோட, சேர்ந்துகிட்டு அதே மாதிரி போராடி பணமும் பதவியும் ஜெயிச்சு, சரத்பாபு / ராதாரவியை தோற்கடிக்கற மாதிரி காட்டியிருந்தா இன்னும் பெட்டரா இருந்திருக்கும்.. ரஜினி கேரக்டர் மேல இன்ன்ன்ன்னும் மரியாதை கூடியிருக்கும் அப்டீன்னு நான் நினைக்கறேன்.
நீங்க கேட்டதால தான் இந்த 'கதைய மாத்தி'னேன். மத்தபடி ஒரிஜினல் 'அண்ணாமலை' என்னோட ஆல் டைம் ஃபேவரைட்.

2011-02-21T00:41:00.000-08:00

Homeshop18 - Stealing Money from Customers

To me Homeshop18 is nothing but a company which tries innovative ways to steal money from us. When i had called the customer care, each time i got different status of the product.

http://wisetechie.com/blog/2007/09/11/homeshop-18-shopping-review/

http://www.consumercomplaints.in/bycompany/homeshop18-a18172.html

http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/homeshop18-c525315.html

http://www.consumercomplaints.in/bycompany/home-shop-18-a35419.html

http://www.consumercourt.in/online-shopping/6173-complaint-against-home-shop-18-a.html

http://www.indiaconsumerforum.org/?p=3477

http://www.icomplaints.in/defected-product-given-to-a-customer-by-homeshop18-0289.html

Homeshop18 Stands for :(
Bad Shopping experience.
False Promises & Misleading !
Non Delivery of product !
Non Refund - Even after cancellation !

My request to all peoples who reading this complaint, please please dont purchase any product from Homeshop18 website or channel. I am very disappointed of this kind of ghastly service. This is my first shopping on home shop 18 & got this kind of nastiest experience.
Keep away from these guys !!