You’ve probably heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, that's especially true when you're selling items on eBay. A listing that includes photos is much more likely to sell than a listing that lacks them. So, what do you need to know before you take those all-important snapshots? Consider the following tips.Use good light: Soft, even lighting leaves no shadows on the item you are selling. Sufficient light will ensure that more detail is visible, and it will accentuate the condition of your item. Always avoid direct flash when possible. If you sell a lot of things on eBay, consider investing in a light tent.
Pick plain backgrounds: Try to avoid kitchen floors, beds, or sofas as backgrounds. Their patterns are often busy and distract the viewer from the item you are selling. Instead, use a simple sheet or a plain-colored wall that provides a good contrast to the item you are listing. The result looks a lot more professional.
Use a tripod: If you are shooting indoors, a tripod is a great tool for capturing the sharpest, most detailed photos you can. It allows you to use slower shutter speeds, and it should help eliminate blurry images.
Get in close: Zoom in to your item so that it fills the frame. A closer look will give bidders the best possible view of what you are selling, and will eliminate any doubt over its condition. It also gives you the opportunity to pick out small details on a larger object, such as labels, switches, or accessories.
Vary the angles: Try to take pictures that cover all sides and angles of the object you are selling. The more information that a viewer has about your product, the more likely they are to bid on it.
Focus carefully: Confirm that all parts of the image are in focus. The autofocus capabilities of modern digital cameras are great, but they are not foolproof. If light allows, try an aperture of F8 to ensure that you have sufficient depth of field to achieve sharp focus throughout.
Show the flaws: You might think that admitting flaws will hurt your chances of making a sale, but being up-front about the condition of your product will save you a lot of hassle in the long run. Besides, it is your responsibility as a seller to accurately represent the item you are selling. If your item has scratches, marks, or tears, make sure to document that with a photo so that bidders are aware of what they are buying.
Jumat, 30 September 2011
Bank of America 800 Number
Ever try to navigate the Bank of America 800 number? Or what about CitiBank, Capital One and Chase? All are big name banks, handling accounts, loans and more for individuals all over the world. When you choose a name that allows individuals to believe you are America’s choice for banks, one would thing that navigating the phone line of the Bank of America 800 number would be easy. When it comes to payment the options are relatively simple and quick, however we all know that it can be worse than pulling teeth when it comes to reaching a live person when it comes to customer service. Most companies like Bank of America and Chase have an 800 number you can call, but then you wind up hitting several promps and might not even get to the right department let alone an actual person.he Bank of America 800 number (1-800-432-1000), actually can direct you to a number of different departments within B of A. When you get through, say, “Talk to an associate” when recording begins. Then, listen to the options and speak the department name you would like. If asked to speak a specific reason you are calling, just mumble. You will then be transferred to a live person. It’s really silly what one must go through to get to a “live person” but there are tricks of the trade.
Below are several other Bank of America 800 numbers that may serve your needs. Whether you are trying to reach the Bank of America Home Equity Loan center, securing a Bank of America Home Loan, or the Bank of America Credit Card customer service center than look no further.
Customer Service/Lost or Stolen Credit Card-800.732.9194
Credit Card Activation-800.276.9939
Technical support-800.792.0808
Mobile Banking customer support-800.933.6262
Existing Mortgages-800.669.6607/ New Mortgage Applications-1.866.670.5271
Existing Home Equity Lines of Credit & Loans-800.621.1044
New Home Equity Lines of Credit & Loans-800.779.3894
Corporate Headquarters Operator- 800-900-9000 (press 0 twice)
Bank of America has locations (ie. Banks and ATM’s) throughout the country, so depending on your specific need and your general location, you will want to consider that when calling any Bank of America 800 number.
Corporate Headquarters (Bank of America):
Bank of America Corporate Center,100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28255
One thing to be careful about however is the fact that Bank of America does not disclose that some areas only supply customers with ATM locations. In fact North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Mississippi and finally West Virginia do not even offer Bank of America ATM location, giving some customers no other option than to use the Bank of America 800 number in order to make payments or request information.
By learning how to master the Bank of America 800 number than a customer can be guaranteed no matter where they are in the United States, calling may be easier than actually popping into a bank. Just make sure your not driving when you call the Bank of America 800 number!
Below are several other Bank of America 800 numbers that may serve your needs. Whether you are trying to reach the Bank of America Home Equity Loan center, securing a Bank of America Home Loan, or the Bank of America Credit Card customer service center than look no further.
Customer Service/Lost or Stolen Credit Card-800.732.9194
Credit Card Activation-800.276.9939
Technical support-800.792.0808
Mobile Banking customer support-800.933.6262
Existing Mortgages-800.669.6607/ New Mortgage Applications-1.866.670.5271
Existing Home Equity Lines of Credit & Loans-800.621.1044
New Home Equity Lines of Credit & Loans-800.779.3894
Corporate Headquarters Operator- 800-900-9000 (press 0 twice)
Bank of America has locations (ie. Banks and ATM’s) throughout the country, so depending on your specific need and your general location, you will want to consider that when calling any Bank of America 800 number.
Corporate Headquarters (Bank of America):
Bank of America Corporate Center,100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28255
One thing to be careful about however is the fact that Bank of America does not disclose that some areas only supply customers with ATM locations. In fact North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Mississippi and finally West Virginia do not even offer Bank of America ATM location, giving some customers no other option than to use the Bank of America 800 number in order to make payments or request information.
By learning how to master the Bank of America 800 number than a customer can be guaranteed no matter where they are in the United States, calling may be easier than actually popping into a bank. Just make sure your not driving when you call the Bank of America 800 number!
Rabu, 28 September 2011
A Few Tips, a Trick and a Secret to Fremont Oktoberfest
Every year, guests want to know the tips, tricks and secrets behind Fremont Oktoberfest. Well, here it is my beer-drinking friends. This is the Fremont Oktoberfest tell-all, the behind the scenes, the Fremont Oktoberfest True Hollywood Story – the condensed soup version.
Tip #1: Download the Fremont Oktoberfest iPhone app, presented by the Seattle Times, to plan your Fremont Oktoberfest experience. Customize your tasting experience by alcohol content, style, and brewer, and then share your ratings and tasting notes with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. iPhone app includes event schedule, map, and rate-your-beer feature.
Tip #2: Hit up the Fremont Oktoberfest Village: Free and open to all ages, the Fremont Oktoberfest Village is filled with entertainment, food, and shopping, with two dozen vendors lined up with local wares, artsy crafts, and fall apparel in the Village Market. For the foodies, this festival is an ode to the German bratwurst! Nosh on your favorite, paired up with a block of coveted curly fries, while watching pumpkin goo fly in the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest or cheering on the dogs as they strut their stuff in Sunday’s CityDog Magazine Cover Dog Model Contest.Tip #3: Head straight for the stein! If you want to skip the microbrew tastings and go big, purchase a Non-Tasting Admission to the Fremont Oktoberfest Tasting Garden for $15 and head straight to the Tap House Grill Buxom Beer Garden where “buxom” means big! Sit and sip on your choice of a 14oz brew, ½ liter stein or a 1-liter stein of Bayern Oktoberfest and Bayern Pilsener.
Trick: Start at Beer tent 6: All the newbies head straight to Beer Tent 1. Out smart them and head to Canal Street and work you’re way back!
Secret: Shhhh, don’t tell. When purchasing your tickets online, use promo YODEL to receive 2 additional tasting tokens.
There you have it, a few tips, a trick and a secret from a Fremont Oktoberfest insider. Want more Fremont Oktoberfest tips, tricks or secrets? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for even MORE insider information.
Tip #1: Download the Fremont Oktoberfest iPhone app, presented by the Seattle Times, to plan your Fremont Oktoberfest experience. Customize your tasting experience by alcohol content, style, and brewer, and then share your ratings and tasting notes with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. iPhone app includes event schedule, map, and rate-your-beer feature.
Tip #2: Hit up the Fremont Oktoberfest Village: Free and open to all ages, the Fremont Oktoberfest Village is filled with entertainment, food, and shopping, with two dozen vendors lined up with local wares, artsy crafts, and fall apparel in the Village Market. For the foodies, this festival is an ode to the German bratwurst! Nosh on your favorite, paired up with a block of coveted curly fries, while watching pumpkin goo fly in the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest or cheering on the dogs as they strut their stuff in Sunday’s CityDog Magazine Cover Dog Model Contest.Tip #3: Head straight for the stein! If you want to skip the microbrew tastings and go big, purchase a Non-Tasting Admission to the Fremont Oktoberfest Tasting Garden for $15 and head straight to the Tap House Grill Buxom Beer Garden where “buxom” means big! Sit and sip on your choice of a 14oz brew, ½ liter stein or a 1-liter stein of Bayern Oktoberfest and Bayern Pilsener.
Trick: Start at Beer tent 6: All the newbies head straight to Beer Tent 1. Out smart them and head to Canal Street and work you’re way back!
Secret: Shhhh, don’t tell. When purchasing your tickets online, use promo YODEL to receive 2 additional tasting tokens.
There you have it, a few tips, a trick and a secret from a Fremont Oktoberfest insider. Want more Fremont Oktoberfest tips, tricks or secrets? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for even MORE insider information.
How to Keep Your Summer Glow?
When I saw the thread titled, How to Keep Your Summer Glow?!, I knew I had to blog about it… So how can you make your summer glow last through fall? It’s easy! Just follow these tips:
Stay moisturized.
Apply a gradual tanning lotion every other day.
Exfoliate 2 to 3 times every week.
Add a little sparkle.
You’re probably wondering about tip #4. And for good reason! So what do I mean when I say, “Add a little sparkle?” I mean that you can add shimmery, crushed up eyeshadow to any lotion you like and then smooth it over yourself so it looks super glowy. This is the best way to fake a natural glow. I like to buy really inexpensive drugstore eyeshadow in gold or champagne, crush it up, and then mix it with my favorite body lotion (you can use scented or unscented). I usually do this trick when I’m going to something special—like an event, a date, or any other outing where I want to look extra good. Or if I’m just wearing a short sleeve top, I will put it on my arms and neck to add a little glow. It’s a really great trick because it washes off easily and it doesn’t streak either. Even though it won’t necessarily maintain your tan, it will help draw out your glowy summer skin!
Stay moisturized.
Apply a gradual tanning lotion every other day.
Exfoliate 2 to 3 times every week.
Add a little sparkle.
You’re probably wondering about tip #4. And for good reason! So what do I mean when I say, “Add a little sparkle?” I mean that you can add shimmery, crushed up eyeshadow to any lotion you like and then smooth it over yourself so it looks super glowy. This is the best way to fake a natural glow. I like to buy really inexpensive drugstore eyeshadow in gold or champagne, crush it up, and then mix it with my favorite body lotion (you can use scented or unscented). I usually do this trick when I’m going to something special—like an event, a date, or any other outing where I want to look extra good. Or if I’m just wearing a short sleeve top, I will put it on my arms and neck to add a little glow. It’s a really great trick because it washes off easily and it doesn’t streak either. Even though it won’t necessarily maintain your tan, it will help draw out your glowy summer skin!
Makeup Tips & Tricks To Hide A Big Nose!
If you want to change the shape of your nose without any surgery or operation then makeup can make you hide the big fat nose. Just by using sponge brushes and two or three tones of foundation, you can shade the lines around the nose bridge and nostrils to hide a large nose. Following are makeup tips and tricks to change the shape of the nose.
Makeup tips and tricks to hide big fat nose:
1. Clean the face with the face wash and apply little toner. Makeup blends well on dry skin. It also cleanses the dirt.
2. Apply foundation on the face. Apply same tone of foundation on the entire face to avoid the visibility of demarcation lines.
3. To cover wide or long nose with makeup, apply a lighter shade of makeup on the sides of your nose, starting from the top of your bridge towards the nostrils. If the shade is not looking good, you can also opt for darker shade makeup to hide long or wide nose. Apply an eye shadow which matches with the skin tone. Give strokes with a brush over the sides of your nose. Begin with the widest part of the upper nose and go straight down towards the top of nostrils.
4. To make a long nose look short with makeup, apply a lighter tone dot of concealer with a finger at the top of the nose bridge and then apply either a lighter or darker shade under the base of the nose. Let it blend with the skin colour. You can follow it up with a light brown or tan eye shadow. The darker colours makes the nose look shorter.
5. To avoid a line of demarcation on the nose lines, apply powder on your entire face with more applicastion on the sides of the nose than on top where the eye shadow was just applied. This makeup tip and trick makes the nose look short and sharp.
6. Pick either your eyes or the lips to complete the makeup. For eyes, use black eyeliner and an eye shadow that complements the eye colour. Finish it up with a nude colored shinny lip gloss. It distracts attention from nose to other parts of the face.
Use these tips and tricks to hide big fat nose and make the nose look short and sharp!
Makeup tips and tricks to hide big fat nose:
1. Clean the face with the face wash and apply little toner. Makeup blends well on dry skin. It also cleanses the dirt.
2. Apply foundation on the face. Apply same tone of foundation on the entire face to avoid the visibility of demarcation lines.
3. To cover wide or long nose with makeup, apply a lighter shade of makeup on the sides of your nose, starting from the top of your bridge towards the nostrils. If the shade is not looking good, you can also opt for darker shade makeup to hide long or wide nose. Apply an eye shadow which matches with the skin tone. Give strokes with a brush over the sides of your nose. Begin with the widest part of the upper nose and go straight down towards the top of nostrils.
4. To make a long nose look short with makeup, apply a lighter tone dot of concealer with a finger at the top of the nose bridge and then apply either a lighter or darker shade under the base of the nose. Let it blend with the skin colour. You can follow it up with a light brown or tan eye shadow. The darker colours makes the nose look shorter.
5. To avoid a line of demarcation on the nose lines, apply powder on your entire face with more applicastion on the sides of the nose than on top where the eye shadow was just applied. This makeup tip and trick makes the nose look short and sharp.
6. Pick either your eyes or the lips to complete the makeup. For eyes, use black eyeliner and an eye shadow that complements the eye colour. Finish it up with a nude colored shinny lip gloss. It distracts attention from nose to other parts of the face.
Use these tips and tricks to hide big fat nose and make the nose look short and sharp!
Windows 8: The top tips and tricks
Now that the developer preview of Windows 8 has been in our hands for some time, we felt that it was a proper moment to publish a few tips and tricks that will help you enjoy the operating system as fully as possible. Of course, we are working with such a ‘turned-down’ edition of Windows 8 that most of what the software is capable of is completely obscured. That is a disappointment, but there is still much to learn despite the restrictions in place.
Parts of this post we learned on our own, cradling Windows 8 in our arms and trying to coax out its secrets with love and soft words, but where we lean upon the knowledge of others we cite them. Every article noted in this piece is worth reading. Windows 8 is now part of the Microsoft developer and enthusiast community, so swapping tips is a new, and important part of the daily game.
Before we jump into the body of our topic, if you haven’t had a chance to play with Windows 8 and would like an overview of the software, head here. That link leads to our review and roundup of Windows 8. It is important to note that Windows 8, as we currently have it, will be updated by Microsoft over the coming months. The company promised, that unlike with Windows 7, it would update and improve the developer preview of the operating system, up to the public beta. At that point, Windows 8 should begin to follow exactly the Windows 7 release cycle.
That aside, let’s get into our favorite pointers, tricks, and hacks that Windows 8 has to offer.
Six Shortcuts
Shortcuts are shockingly unusable when the on-screen keyboard is in use. Why? Because often the keyboard is hidden, right when you want to execute a command. Happily, for anyone who is running Windows 8 in a tablet environment, an external keyboard solves the problem.
The following shortcuts are what we came up with after some rather chaotic testing. It is important to note that the list pertains to the computer when it is in ‘touch mode.’ That is to say, these are the shortcuts that work when not on the classic desktop. That would be a different list. These are the new shortcuts that you are going to need, as you go Windows 8.
Windows Key + E: This combination will take you from the touch interface to the classic desktop, and launch Explorer for you. It’s a very quick way to get to a file view that is full-powered.
Windows Key + C: This shortcut will pull out the charms menu and will also bring up the time panel. Note, the charms will not appear on the right if you employ this combination, as Windows 8 does not count your input as touch, and thus does not place the charms in their touch-initiated position.
Windows Key + O: This key combo turns off, and on, screen rotation. It allows you to lock the screen where you want it, thus when reading in bed the darn thing doesn’t rotate. This is the sort of shortcut that makes life far less maddening.
Windows Key + L: This functional little pairing of keys will take you to the lock screen, and pronto. It’s the dead simple way to lock your Windows 8 machine from the touch interface with no effort.
Windows Key + Z: This will bring up the application bar (on the bottom of the screen) in a Metro-style application. If you don’t want to reach up and swipe it with your finger, this is the simple way to pull up the options.
Finally, it should be noted that the combination of the Windows Key + any letter key that is not assigned to a specific function will yield a search that starts with that letter. I suppose that that was put together to ensure that any Windows Key combination had a purpose, thus lessening user confusion.
If you want a list that is comprehensive, and includes every single shortcut that we have found and more, Paul Thurrott has the master tally. Pipe up in the comments if we have missed any that you find to be exceptionally mission-critical.
Mouse Tricks
Running Windows 8, but not on a touch-enabled screen? You are going to be using your mouse in a touch house, so here are a few things to keep your on the straight and narrow:
In a Metro-style application, right clicking raises the app bar.
Your scroll wheel will reveal all open applications (Metro-style).
Hit your cursor onto the left side of the screen to see a thumbnail of your most recently used application.
For semantic zoom, use CTRL + your scroll wheel.
And don’t forget, the shortcut list is a bit different while not in the touch interface, so be careful.
File History
File History is going to be the new best friend of everyone who likes to constantly back up their data. It requires an external storage device of some sort, so that old external hard drive that you have banging around is about to find real use.
The idea is that File History allows for very simple backing up, and very quick restore, thus keeping your data as safe and comfortable as possible. Head to System and Security in the Control Panel and select File History. File History is off by default in Windows 8, as it requires an additional drive to function, as we noted.
Once turned on, you can set how long files should be kept, and how often they should be updated. Even more, you can set it so that certain files and folders are excluded, in case not everything you own is worth, ahem, holding onto. It’s something that could easily be buried among the other Windows 8 features, so we wanted to highlight it.
64-bit Internet Explorer 10
Unlike with Internet Explorer 9 in Windows 7, there are not two separate executables (32 and 64 bit) that you can summon from the start menu. Instead, if you want to run the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer 10, and why not, go to IE10’s Internet options menu, head to the security tab, and click the ‘Enable 64-bit mode’ box. You will have to restart your browser.
Happily, there are options as to when Internet Explorer 10 should run in 64 or 32-bit mode. You can change the mode that Internet Explorer will run based upon what zone is in play. You could, for example, “set 32-bit mode for the Internet zone while using 64-bit mode for your local intranet, or you could use 32-bit mode for trusted sites for maximum compatibility and 64-bit mode for untrusted sites for maximum security.” We love the flexibility.
The Flash Solution: Chrome
While Internet Explorer 10, which you are now running in 64-bit, is a capable browser, Flash does not come included. There is a solution for this: Chrome.
Head to the Chrome page, download the package, install it, and run it. If you are on a tablet, you will notice a problem: you cannot bring up the on-screen keyboard to interact with it. External keyboards to the rescue, as it were.
Chrome does run on the current build of Windows 8. It comes with Flash. If you were having a flashing problem, consider it solved. Provided you have a keyboard. However, Chrome is not written to accept touch input past what it could handle on Windows 7. In other words, using your hands is a rather difficult task.
That is what we have noticed and cared about thus far, but there is surely more out there that we have missed. What is more exciting is what we will learn once Microsoft allows the general market to play with more of the Windows 8 feature set. There is so much that we have not had a chance to actually get our hands onto. Email, for example.
Windows 8’s touch interface has been generally well received, but most seem cautious to praise or condemn the operating system until there is more available for use. Right now trying to judge Windows 8 is akin to declaring a meal perfect or inedible based on the amuse-bouche alone.
The comments are yours for listing neat and useful things that you have found in the software. Get to it!
Parts of this post we learned on our own, cradling Windows 8 in our arms and trying to coax out its secrets with love and soft words, but where we lean upon the knowledge of others we cite them. Every article noted in this piece is worth reading. Windows 8 is now part of the Microsoft developer and enthusiast community, so swapping tips is a new, and important part of the daily game.
Before we jump into the body of our topic, if you haven’t had a chance to play with Windows 8 and would like an overview of the software, head here. That link leads to our review and roundup of Windows 8. It is important to note that Windows 8, as we currently have it, will be updated by Microsoft over the coming months. The company promised, that unlike with Windows 7, it would update and improve the developer preview of the operating system, up to the public beta. At that point, Windows 8 should begin to follow exactly the Windows 7 release cycle.
That aside, let’s get into our favorite pointers, tricks, and hacks that Windows 8 has to offer.
Six Shortcuts
Shortcuts are shockingly unusable when the on-screen keyboard is in use. Why? Because often the keyboard is hidden, right when you want to execute a command. Happily, for anyone who is running Windows 8 in a tablet environment, an external keyboard solves the problem.
The following shortcuts are what we came up with after some rather chaotic testing. It is important to note that the list pertains to the computer when it is in ‘touch mode.’ That is to say, these are the shortcuts that work when not on the classic desktop. That would be a different list. These are the new shortcuts that you are going to need, as you go Windows 8.
Windows Key + E: This combination will take you from the touch interface to the classic desktop, and launch Explorer for you. It’s a very quick way to get to a file view that is full-powered.
Windows Key + C: This shortcut will pull out the charms menu and will also bring up the time panel. Note, the charms will not appear on the right if you employ this combination, as Windows 8 does not count your input as touch, and thus does not place the charms in their touch-initiated position.
Windows Key + O: This key combo turns off, and on, screen rotation. It allows you to lock the screen where you want it, thus when reading in bed the darn thing doesn’t rotate. This is the sort of shortcut that makes life far less maddening.
Windows Key + L: This functional little pairing of keys will take you to the lock screen, and pronto. It’s the dead simple way to lock your Windows 8 machine from the touch interface with no effort.
Windows Key + Z: This will bring up the application bar (on the bottom of the screen) in a Metro-style application. If you don’t want to reach up and swipe it with your finger, this is the simple way to pull up the options.
Finally, it should be noted that the combination of the Windows Key + any letter key that is not assigned to a specific function will yield a search that starts with that letter. I suppose that that was put together to ensure that any Windows Key combination had a purpose, thus lessening user confusion.
If you want a list that is comprehensive, and includes every single shortcut that we have found and more, Paul Thurrott has the master tally. Pipe up in the comments if we have missed any that you find to be exceptionally mission-critical.
Mouse Tricks
Running Windows 8, but not on a touch-enabled screen? You are going to be using your mouse in a touch house, so here are a few things to keep your on the straight and narrow:
In a Metro-style application, right clicking raises the app bar.
Your scroll wheel will reveal all open applications (Metro-style).
Hit your cursor onto the left side of the screen to see a thumbnail of your most recently used application.
For semantic zoom, use CTRL + your scroll wheel.
And don’t forget, the shortcut list is a bit different while not in the touch interface, so be careful.
File History
File History is going to be the new best friend of everyone who likes to constantly back up their data. It requires an external storage device of some sort, so that old external hard drive that you have banging around is about to find real use.
The idea is that File History allows for very simple backing up, and very quick restore, thus keeping your data as safe and comfortable as possible. Head to System and Security in the Control Panel and select File History. File History is off by default in Windows 8, as it requires an additional drive to function, as we noted.
Once turned on, you can set how long files should be kept, and how often they should be updated. Even more, you can set it so that certain files and folders are excluded, in case not everything you own is worth, ahem, holding onto. It’s something that could easily be buried among the other Windows 8 features, so we wanted to highlight it.
64-bit Internet Explorer 10
Unlike with Internet Explorer 9 in Windows 7, there are not two separate executables (32 and 64 bit) that you can summon from the start menu. Instead, if you want to run the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer 10, and why not, go to IE10’s Internet options menu, head to the security tab, and click the ‘Enable 64-bit mode’ box. You will have to restart your browser.
Happily, there are options as to when Internet Explorer 10 should run in 64 or 32-bit mode. You can change the mode that Internet Explorer will run based upon what zone is in play. You could, for example, “set 32-bit mode for the Internet zone while using 64-bit mode for your local intranet, or you could use 32-bit mode for trusted sites for maximum compatibility and 64-bit mode for untrusted sites for maximum security.” We love the flexibility.
The Flash Solution: Chrome
While Internet Explorer 10, which you are now running in 64-bit, is a capable browser, Flash does not come included. There is a solution for this: Chrome.
Head to the Chrome page, download the package, install it, and run it. If you are on a tablet, you will notice a problem: you cannot bring up the on-screen keyboard to interact with it. External keyboards to the rescue, as it were.
Chrome does run on the current build of Windows 8. It comes with Flash. If you were having a flashing problem, consider it solved. Provided you have a keyboard. However, Chrome is not written to accept touch input past what it could handle on Windows 7. In other words, using your hands is a rather difficult task.
That is what we have noticed and cared about thus far, but there is surely more out there that we have missed. What is more exciting is what we will learn once Microsoft allows the general market to play with more of the Windows 8 feature set. There is so much that we have not had a chance to actually get our hands onto. Email, for example.
Windows 8’s touch interface has been generally well received, but most seem cautious to praise or condemn the operating system until there is more available for use. Right now trying to judge Windows 8 is akin to declaring a meal perfect or inedible based on the amuse-bouche alone.
The comments are yours for listing neat and useful things that you have found in the software. Get to it!
ACCLO Tips and Tricks From the Trade
The Association for Chinese Canadian Lawyers in Ontario (ACCLO) hosted a CLE session on September 17, 2011, on “Tips and Tricks from the Trade,” featuring Sean Zhang of Blakes, Jeffrey Lem of Davies, Roslyn Tsao of Epstein Cole LLP, and Madam Justice W. Low of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Notes from the sessions follow.
IP Tips and Tricks
Zhang started out by defining IP law as an intangible personal property often associated with intellectual activity or creation. IP rights are often enforced in courts and vary between jurisdictions. Registration and application terms vary and are often for a limited term.
There are several different types of IP used to protect distinct aspects of products and processes, and can include trade-marks, copyright, patent, industrial design, and trade secrets.
A trade-mark can be a word, slogan, symbol, shape of goods or packaging, colours, or sounds, which are used to distinguish wares and/or services from those of others. Common law rights to trade-mark are acquired through use, which is usually required to obtain registration. An application is required for registration but confers enhanced rights, and can be renewed for successive terms of 15 years.
Copyright is a bundle of rights granted to protect the form of expression, not the idea. The author usually owns the copyright unless it was created during the course of employment, or they assigned the rights in writing. Moral rights to the integrity of the work belong to the author, but may be waived, not assigned. No registration is required for copyright, but the term ends 50 years after the author’s death.
Patents are rights granted by the state to exclude others from making, using, or selling the “claimed invention.” If there is any public disclosure it could destroy the claim to novelty. Some jurisdictions provide a one-year grace period from public disclosure. A patent term starts from granting and ends 20 years from filing, and an application is required before granting which correctly and fully describes the invention. Patents are commonly granted for methods or processes, machines and devices, manufactured articles, and chemical compounds compositions of matter.
A trade secret describes types of confidential information which confers a competitive advantage in business or trade. The Federal Court of Canada ruled in Société Gamma Inc. v. Canada [Secretary of State], (1994), 79 F.T.R. 42, at pg 45 (F.C.T.D.) that a “trade secret” must be something “that is guarded very closely and is of such peculiar value to the owner of the trade secret that harm to him would be presumed by its mere disclosure.”
Industrial design protects the look, not the function, and required registration for protection. Some level of originality is required, and the term ends 10 years from the date of registration. Protected industrial designs may include shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation, or a combination of these, and some level of originality is required.
When advising on a business deal, consider any agreement to ownership of IP or IP rights. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) may protect the novelty of a possible invention or originality of design. Consider any disclosure to an industry partner or customer that could trigger the 12-month grace period for patents or industrial design.
When advising on employment issues document the ownership of IP rights and confidentiality provisions. Record the obligation of the employee or contractor to disclose or transfer IP rights to the employer, and their obligation to assist the employer in obtaining registration or granting of IP rights.
IP deadlines are very rigid and often have disastrous consequences if they’re missed, including a total loss of rights (deemed abandonment) with no remedy, the valuation of which could be substantial (as with the Nortel patents recently). Prosecution deadlines of IP applications vary with different types and the applications.
Real Estate Tips and Tricks
Why does real estate matter? It’s one of the major reasons for malpractice claims, with over 50% of small-firm claims are related to real estate. Lem represents the prosecution side of LawPRO claims, and has seen plenty of disasters. Although 85% of these claims result in a pay-out, this does not necessarily mean that malpractice was not present, simply that proof of causation was absent for ab out half of them.
The primary tip in this area is to document everything in the retainer, outlining the scope of the retainer and the responsibilities that the lawyer is taking on. If the court is allowed to determine the retainer it will invariably be broader than intended. Putting all of this in writing helps avoid ambiguities and prevents clients from retroactively blaming the lawyer for not examining aspects of a real estate transaction.
Clients do not normally perceive this as being a negative thing because it provides realistic expectations and alerts them to areas that may need further attention. Some lawyers go beyond this and state the costs associated with expanding the retainer, allowing clients to choose to take on additional costs with a broader project.
Documentation isn’t always enough though, especially when clients don’t speak English fluently. Lem feels that practicing real estate in any language other than English is a risky proposition. Instead, he suggests lawyers send a letter in their first language outlining basic facts, and explaining that all future correspondences and documents will be in English, stating that it is their responsibility to obtain a translator if needed.
Another practical tip useful in this area is to use a calculator with a print-out. Not only does it help lawyers review figures that were calculated to come up with an amount, but it provides documentation of the calculation used for the records.
Family Law Tips and Tricks
Most people in law school state that the last thing they would want to do is family law due to the exposure to conflict and emotional tensions. Tsao highlighted a few family law issues that could arise for lawyers practicing in other areas.
Tsao warned of keeping a mind out for domestic abuse, but also various forms of financial abuse. These situations can often result in one partner being less forthcoming about information. Although most violence is typically male, it can also be a female abuser.
Checking the status of the children is also very important. If issues arise down the road, it’s important to note that inquiries about their health, status in school, and general well-being was made.
The financial situation of the couple should be established, including any joint accounts and joint lines of credit. In many matrimonial disputes one partner removes all funds from a joint account without notification or consent of the other partner. Purchases on credit cards in both names will still be the responsibility of both partners. Money can be nasty, and a particular source of contention between partners.
Gauging the general tone of the divorce is important because it will signal whether it is amicable and whether action needs to be taken in an immediate fashion.
Before moving out of the house, the implications for custody of children should be considered. Courts like to maintain the status quo. Both partners have right of possession of the matrimonial home, whether they are on the title or not. But a different living arrangement may be necessary if the context is particularly acrimonious, especially if one partner is threatening to call the police to remove the other partner.
Tips from the Bench
Without integrity, a lawyer will not have self-respect or the respect of their peers. Without competence you will have no clients. And without courtesy you will have no friends.
Lawyers today often enter the practice without the benefit of a structured bar admissions course, or the mentoring that used to occur during articles and the early years of practice. Justice Low indicated that one of the hardest parts of practice is managing client expectations.
Some lawyers are good rainmakers. Others are great at research and writing. Some have no difficulty getting on their feet for a motion, or have a great rapport with juries. However, very few lawyers have the luxury of doing only a few tasks that they are good at and they like, requiring lawyers to play all of the instruments in the band.
One thing every lawyer should do is help manage client expectations. Managing client expectations on the front-end helps pay dividends throughout a case. A litigation plan should include expected results, including adverse outcomes. Many litigators commence with their case with little idea of where they want to go. Planning can optimize your likelihood of getting paid, and paid on time.
There are matters that the lawyer should be clearly in control of, and not the client, such as procedures, legal arguments, and litigation strategies. Relinquishing control of those matters undermines the skill that a lawyer has. Far too often counsel are not familiar enough with the facts or the law. Building a case is like building a house. You need a foundation, and plans. Research should be done at the beginning and not the end.
Providing arguments in the form of a factum, whether it’s required or not, does both you and your client a service. Not only does it help organize your arguments, if the judge reserves judgments they will have the materials on hand for review.
Notes from the sessions follow.
IP Tips and Tricks
Zhang started out by defining IP law as an intangible personal property often associated with intellectual activity or creation. IP rights are often enforced in courts and vary between jurisdictions. Registration and application terms vary and are often for a limited term.
There are several different types of IP used to protect distinct aspects of products and processes, and can include trade-marks, copyright, patent, industrial design, and trade secrets.
A trade-mark can be a word, slogan, symbol, shape of goods or packaging, colours, or sounds, which are used to distinguish wares and/or services from those of others. Common law rights to trade-mark are acquired through use, which is usually required to obtain registration. An application is required for registration but confers enhanced rights, and can be renewed for successive terms of 15 years.
Copyright is a bundle of rights granted to protect the form of expression, not the idea. The author usually owns the copyright unless it was created during the course of employment, or they assigned the rights in writing. Moral rights to the integrity of the work belong to the author, but may be waived, not assigned. No registration is required for copyright, but the term ends 50 years after the author’s death.
Patents are rights granted by the state to exclude others from making, using, or selling the “claimed invention.” If there is any public disclosure it could destroy the claim to novelty. Some jurisdictions provide a one-year grace period from public disclosure. A patent term starts from granting and ends 20 years from filing, and an application is required before granting which correctly and fully describes the invention. Patents are commonly granted for methods or processes, machines and devices, manufactured articles, and chemical compounds compositions of matter.
A trade secret describes types of confidential information which confers a competitive advantage in business or trade. The Federal Court of Canada ruled in Société Gamma Inc. v. Canada [Secretary of State], (1994), 79 F.T.R. 42, at pg 45 (F.C.T.D.) that a “trade secret” must be something “that is guarded very closely and is of such peculiar value to the owner of the trade secret that harm to him would be presumed by its mere disclosure.”
Industrial design protects the look, not the function, and required registration for protection. Some level of originality is required, and the term ends 10 years from the date of registration. Protected industrial designs may include shape, configuration, pattern, ornamentation, or a combination of these, and some level of originality is required.
When advising on a business deal, consider any agreement to ownership of IP or IP rights. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) may protect the novelty of a possible invention or originality of design. Consider any disclosure to an industry partner or customer that could trigger the 12-month grace period for patents or industrial design.
When advising on employment issues document the ownership of IP rights and confidentiality provisions. Record the obligation of the employee or contractor to disclose or transfer IP rights to the employer, and their obligation to assist the employer in obtaining registration or granting of IP rights.
IP deadlines are very rigid and often have disastrous consequences if they’re missed, including a total loss of rights (deemed abandonment) with no remedy, the valuation of which could be substantial (as with the Nortel patents recently). Prosecution deadlines of IP applications vary with different types and the applications.
Real Estate Tips and Tricks
Why does real estate matter? It’s one of the major reasons for malpractice claims, with over 50% of small-firm claims are related to real estate. Lem represents the prosecution side of LawPRO claims, and has seen plenty of disasters. Although 85% of these claims result in a pay-out, this does not necessarily mean that malpractice was not present, simply that proof of causation was absent for ab out half of them.
The primary tip in this area is to document everything in the retainer, outlining the scope of the retainer and the responsibilities that the lawyer is taking on. If the court is allowed to determine the retainer it will invariably be broader than intended. Putting all of this in writing helps avoid ambiguities and prevents clients from retroactively blaming the lawyer for not examining aspects of a real estate transaction.
Clients do not normally perceive this as being a negative thing because it provides realistic expectations and alerts them to areas that may need further attention. Some lawyers go beyond this and state the costs associated with expanding the retainer, allowing clients to choose to take on additional costs with a broader project.
Documentation isn’t always enough though, especially when clients don’t speak English fluently. Lem feels that practicing real estate in any language other than English is a risky proposition. Instead, he suggests lawyers send a letter in their first language outlining basic facts, and explaining that all future correspondences and documents will be in English, stating that it is their responsibility to obtain a translator if needed.
Another practical tip useful in this area is to use a calculator with a print-out. Not only does it help lawyers review figures that were calculated to come up with an amount, but it provides documentation of the calculation used for the records.
Family Law Tips and Tricks
Most people in law school state that the last thing they would want to do is family law due to the exposure to conflict and emotional tensions. Tsao highlighted a few family law issues that could arise for lawyers practicing in other areas.
Tsao warned of keeping a mind out for domestic abuse, but also various forms of financial abuse. These situations can often result in one partner being less forthcoming about information. Although most violence is typically male, it can also be a female abuser.
Checking the status of the children is also very important. If issues arise down the road, it’s important to note that inquiries about their health, status in school, and general well-being was made.
The financial situation of the couple should be established, including any joint accounts and joint lines of credit. In many matrimonial disputes one partner removes all funds from a joint account without notification or consent of the other partner. Purchases on credit cards in both names will still be the responsibility of both partners. Money can be nasty, and a particular source of contention between partners.
Gauging the general tone of the divorce is important because it will signal whether it is amicable and whether action needs to be taken in an immediate fashion.
Before moving out of the house, the implications for custody of children should be considered. Courts like to maintain the status quo. Both partners have right of possession of the matrimonial home, whether they are on the title or not. But a different living arrangement may be necessary if the context is particularly acrimonious, especially if one partner is threatening to call the police to remove the other partner.
Tips from the Bench
Without integrity, a lawyer will not have self-respect or the respect of their peers. Without competence you will have no clients. And without courtesy you will have no friends.
Lawyers today often enter the practice without the benefit of a structured bar admissions course, or the mentoring that used to occur during articles and the early years of practice. Justice Low indicated that one of the hardest parts of practice is managing client expectations.
Some lawyers are good rainmakers. Others are great at research and writing. Some have no difficulty getting on their feet for a motion, or have a great rapport with juries. However, very few lawyers have the luxury of doing only a few tasks that they are good at and they like, requiring lawyers to play all of the instruments in the band.
One thing every lawyer should do is help manage client expectations. Managing client expectations on the front-end helps pay dividends throughout a case. A litigation plan should include expected results, including adverse outcomes. Many litigators commence with their case with little idea of where they want to go. Planning can optimize your likelihood of getting paid, and paid on time.
There are matters that the lawyer should be clearly in control of, and not the client, such as procedures, legal arguments, and litigation strategies. Relinquishing control of those matters undermines the skill that a lawyer has. Far too often counsel are not familiar enough with the facts or the law. Building a case is like building a house. You need a foundation, and plans. Research should be done at the beginning and not the end.
Providing arguments in the form of a factum, whether it’s required or not, does both you and your client a service. Not only does it help organize your arguments, if the judge reserves judgments they will have the materials on hand for review.
Facebook Tip: Restore Your Email Notification Settings
Facebook had a busy few weeks. It rolled out a new privacy suite and friends list feature, it redesigned the News Feed and announced new profiles. In the middle of those changes, Facebook also started testing a new feature that overrides all your original email notification settings.
Facebook seems to have had good intentions with this feature. It's acknowledged before that it believes email is a thing of the past, and the new feature does significantly reduce how much email it sends you. Instead of emailing you as your original preferences indicated, Facebook will send you an email once a week with a summary of what happened.
While this feature might be a attractive to some, it does pose a problem: Not only does Facebook automatically opt you in, you no longer immediately know when you have a new friend request, when someone sends you a message, comments on your posts or posts something to your wall.
This could be a concern if you've opened up your profile to Subscriptions, which I've found several problems with, as you will likely want to know who posts what to your wall, when it happens.
New friend requests and new messages are indicated at the top of your Facebook page with a small number, but it's easy to overlook them. If you want to reset your email preferences to your original settings, here's what to do.
[Want more tips, tricks and analysis on Facebook? Check out CIO.com's Facebook Bible.]
First, click the drop-down menu in the top right corner of your Facebook homepage and select Account Settings. Click Notifications on the left-side menu and uncheck the box at the top below Email Frequency.
Below that, you'll see a list of your notifications from today, and past notifications from the week before. Following that section is "All Notifications," where your original notification settings should be saved. Click the Edit button next to each section to view which emails you will receive and tweak them if necessary.
Facebook has added significantly more notification options--and,it appears, has opted you in to all of them. If you do choose to restore your original settings and opt out of the summary emails, be sure to adjust every setting under each group to ensure you're only receiving emails that are important to you.
Facebook seems to have had good intentions with this feature. It's acknowledged before that it believes email is a thing of the past, and the new feature does significantly reduce how much email it sends you. Instead of emailing you as your original preferences indicated, Facebook will send you an email once a week with a summary of what happened.
While this feature might be a attractive to some, it does pose a problem: Not only does Facebook automatically opt you in, you no longer immediately know when you have a new friend request, when someone sends you a message, comments on your posts or posts something to your wall.
This could be a concern if you've opened up your profile to Subscriptions, which I've found several problems with, as you will likely want to know who posts what to your wall, when it happens.
New friend requests and new messages are indicated at the top of your Facebook page with a small number, but it's easy to overlook them. If you want to reset your email preferences to your original settings, here's what to do.
[Want more tips, tricks and analysis on Facebook? Check out CIO.com's Facebook Bible.]
First, click the drop-down menu in the top right corner of your Facebook homepage and select Account Settings. Click Notifications on the left-side menu and uncheck the box at the top below Email Frequency.
Below that, you'll see a list of your notifications from today, and past notifications from the week before. Following that section is "All Notifications," where your original notification settings should be saved. Click the Edit button next to each section to view which emails you will receive and tweak them if necessary.
Facebook has added significantly more notification options--and,it appears, has opted you in to all of them. If you do choose to restore your original settings and opt out of the summary emails, be sure to adjust every setting under each group to ensure you're only receiving emails that are important to you.
Tips From 10 Top Entrepreneurs
This is Part 2 in a series on entrepreneurialism and career changes by Porter Gale, Former VP of Marketing at Virgin America. Part 1 is here.
In the spirit of collaboration (and entrepreneurship), I sent a quick email out to my successful self-employed friends and asked, "What is the best advice you have for business owners?"
Interestingly enough, a large percentage of the responses received were focused on work ethic, finding the best people and treating them right. Below are 10 "success" tips from 10 top entrepreneurs.
1) "Hire slowly, fire fast." --Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay
2) "The Brand is The Amusement Park, the Product is the Souvenir." --Nick Graham, CEO of Fresh Happy People and Founder/Chief Underpants Officer of Joe Boxer
3) "Trust your gut, keep your sense of humor, surround yourself with adult supervision, and know that starting and running a growing business is filled with adversity and challenges. I doubt any successful business was easy." --Lily Kanter, CEO of Serena & Lily
4) "Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn't do." --Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment and former Chief Evangelist of Apple
5) "When you become an entrepreneur you need to understand 'people' are at the heart of your success. The most successful entrepreneurs master the art of dealing with and attracting the right people." --Daren Klum, CEO of CRAM Worldwide
6) "Do business in person, use email for follow-up." --Ido Leffler, Co-founder of Yes To Inc.
7) "I believe a business can thrive with the right attitude towards people. Treat everyone with courtesy (you never know who might be a customer or a conduit to one), think about what your employees need to thrive and work hard (set a standard and an example as the founder), and take time to get to know your banker." --Wendi Norris, Co-Owner of Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern
8) "When tackling a problem, I would rather work with a team of people who don't know they can't solve it rather than with an experienced group that would tell me how difficult it is to get the job done." --Jeff Pulver, Founder of #140conf and Co-founder of Vonage
9) "Problem solving is a joy." --Jodee Rich, CEO of PeopleBrowsr
10) "There is no way to fake hustle." --Gary Vaynerchuk, Co-founder of Vaynermedia
These tips remind me of a program created at Virgin America called ViVa, based on the idea that you should "call someone out on their awesomeness." The premise? Often, it's easy to forget the importance of giving positive feedback and rewarding your team. So today's tip for entrepreneurs is to call at least three people out on their "awesomeness."
You don't have to give them a gold statue of Sir Richard Branson. Giving your recognition of a job well done will probably do the trick. As these tips point out, a little bit of team-building, positive feedback and of course acknowledgment of your team's success can go a very long way.
If you have advice you'd like to share or, alternatively, if you have a job title that tops "Chief Underpants Officer," feel free to tweet it to @portergale. I enjoy hearing from you all each week.
In the spirit of collaboration (and entrepreneurship), I sent a quick email out to my successful self-employed friends and asked, "What is the best advice you have for business owners?"
Interestingly enough, a large percentage of the responses received were focused on work ethic, finding the best people and treating them right. Below are 10 "success" tips from 10 top entrepreneurs.
1) "Hire slowly, fire fast." --Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay
2) "The Brand is The Amusement Park, the Product is the Souvenir." --Nick Graham, CEO of Fresh Happy People and Founder/Chief Underpants Officer of Joe Boxer
3) "Trust your gut, keep your sense of humor, surround yourself with adult supervision, and know that starting and running a growing business is filled with adversity and challenges. I doubt any successful business was easy." --Lily Kanter, CEO of Serena & Lily
4) "Never ask anyone to do something that you wouldn't do." --Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment and former Chief Evangelist of Apple
5) "When you become an entrepreneur you need to understand 'people' are at the heart of your success. The most successful entrepreneurs master the art of dealing with and attracting the right people." --Daren Klum, CEO of CRAM Worldwide
6) "Do business in person, use email for follow-up." --Ido Leffler, Co-founder of Yes To Inc.
7) "I believe a business can thrive with the right attitude towards people. Treat everyone with courtesy (you never know who might be a customer or a conduit to one), think about what your employees need to thrive and work hard (set a standard and an example as the founder), and take time to get to know your banker." --Wendi Norris, Co-Owner of Frey Norris Contemporary & Modern
8) "When tackling a problem, I would rather work with a team of people who don't know they can't solve it rather than with an experienced group that would tell me how difficult it is to get the job done." --Jeff Pulver, Founder of #140conf and Co-founder of Vonage
9) "Problem solving is a joy." --Jodee Rich, CEO of PeopleBrowsr
10) "There is no way to fake hustle." --Gary Vaynerchuk, Co-founder of Vaynermedia
These tips remind me of a program created at Virgin America called ViVa, based on the idea that you should "call someone out on their awesomeness." The premise? Often, it's easy to forget the importance of giving positive feedback and rewarding your team. So today's tip for entrepreneurs is to call at least three people out on their "awesomeness."
You don't have to give them a gold statue of Sir Richard Branson. Giving your recognition of a job well done will probably do the trick. As these tips point out, a little bit of team-building, positive feedback and of course acknowledgment of your team's success can go a very long way.
If you have advice you'd like to share or, alternatively, if you have a job title that tops "Chief Underpants Officer," feel free to tweet it to @portergale. I enjoy hearing from you all each week.
Killer response time for non-overlapping intervals
Assume you have a table where you store non-overlapping intervals using two columns, e.g. IP ranges. IP ranges are simple to represent using integer notation:
CREATE TABLE ip_owner (
owner_id int NOT NULL,
/* some columns */
ip_start_int bigint NOT NULL, /* IP address converted to integer */
ip_end_int bigint NOT NULL, /* IP address converted to integer */
PRIMARY KEY (owner_id),
INDEX ip_range (ip_start_int, ip_end_int)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;
And then you find yourself in a situation where you want to know who, if anyone, owns the IP address X. This can be done using the following query:
SELECT * FROM ip_owner WHERE ip_start_int <= X AND ip_end_int >= X;
MySQL can resolve this using a range scan, but will unfortunately only be able to use the ip_start_int <= X part of the condition as a range as explained here. Thus, the query will either be resolved by range scan if fairly few records have ip_start_int <= X or table scan otherwise. That means unreliable response time because it will be much quicker to query low-valued IPs than high valued IPs. I inserted 1M records into the table before running the queries below:
mysql> /* IP near lower end */
mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3270002832 AND ip_end_int >= 3270002832;
+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | owner_ip | range | ip_range | ip_range | 8 | NULL | 1417 | Using where; Using index |
+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3270002832 AND ip_end_int >= 3270002832;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 1417 | 3270002832 | 3270002833 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
mysql> /* IP near upper end */
mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3272090000 AND ip_end_int >= 3272090000;
+----+-------------+----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | owner_ip | ALL | ip_range | NULL | NULL | NULL | 1048576 | Using where |
+----+-------------+----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3272090000 AND ip_end_int >= 3272090000;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 1045001 | 3272090000 | 3272090001 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (6.63 sec)
mysql> /* IP close to median IP value */
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3271032832 AND ip_end_int >= 3271032832;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 516417 | 3271032832 | 3271032833 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (3.32 sec)
Luckily, we have valuable information we can use to significantly improve the response time:
The intervals are non-overlapping, so there is at most one record matching the conditions
The record we're looking for is the last record in the range of records with ip_start_int <= X. If ordered by ip_start_int in descending order, MySQL will scan the range in reverse order and thus find the record we're interested in first.
Let's use that for something good to get killer response time for any IP:
mysql> /* Apply knowledge */
mysql> /* IP near lower end */
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip FORCE INDEX(ip_range)
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3270002832 AND ip_end_int >= 3270002832
-> ORDER BY ip_start_int DESC
-> LIMIT 1;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 1417 | 3270002832 | 3270002833 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> /* IP close to median IP value */
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip FORCE INDEX(ip_range)
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3271032832 AND ip_end_int >= 3271032832
-> ORDER BY ip_start_int DESC
-> LIMIT 1;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 516417 | 3271032832 | 3271032833 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> /* IP near upper end */
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip FORCE INDEX(ip_range)
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3272090000 AND ip_end_int >= 3272090000
-> ORDER BY ip_start_int DESC
-> LIMIT 1;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 1045001 | 3272090000 | 3272090001 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
This can of course be used for any non-overlapping ranges. Another example is car rental, in which any one car can only be rented by one customer at a time:
CREATE TABLE car_rental (
id int AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
customer_id int NOT NULL,
car_id int NOT NULL,
pickup_date date NOT NULL,
return_date date NOT NULL,
INDEX idx_rent_date (car_id, pickup_date, return_date)
) ;
SELECT *
CREATE TABLE ip_owner (
owner_id int NOT NULL,
/* some columns */
ip_start_int bigint NOT NULL, /* IP address converted to integer */
ip_end_int bigint NOT NULL, /* IP address converted to integer */
PRIMARY KEY (owner_id),
INDEX ip_range (ip_start_int, ip_end_int)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;
And then you find yourself in a situation where you want to know who, if anyone, owns the IP address X. This can be done using the following query:
SELECT * FROM ip_owner WHERE ip_start_int <= X AND ip_end_int >= X;
MySQL can resolve this using a range scan, but will unfortunately only be able to use the ip_start_int <= X part of the condition as a range as explained here. Thus, the query will either be resolved by range scan if fairly few records have ip_start_int <= X or table scan otherwise. That means unreliable response time because it will be much quicker to query low-valued IPs than high valued IPs. I inserted 1M records into the table before running the queries below:
mysql> /* IP near lower end */
mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3270002832 AND ip_end_int >= 3270002832;
+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | owner_ip | range | ip_range | ip_range | 8 | NULL | 1417 | Using where; Using index |
+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3270002832 AND ip_end_int >= 3270002832;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 1417 | 3270002832 | 3270002833 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
mysql> /* IP near upper end */
mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3272090000 AND ip_end_int >= 3272090000;
+----+-------------+----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | owner_ip | ALL | ip_range | NULL | NULL | NULL | 1048576 | Using where |
+----+-------------+----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3272090000 AND ip_end_int >= 3272090000;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 1045001 | 3272090000 | 3272090001 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (6.63 sec)
mysql> /* IP close to median IP value */
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3271032832 AND ip_end_int >= 3271032832;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 516417 | 3271032832 | 3271032833 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (3.32 sec)
Luckily, we have valuable information we can use to significantly improve the response time:
The intervals are non-overlapping, so there is at most one record matching the conditions
The record we're looking for is the last record in the range of records with ip_start_int <= X. If ordered by ip_start_int in descending order, MySQL will scan the range in reverse order and thus find the record we're interested in first.
Let's use that for something good to get killer response time for any IP:
mysql> /* Apply knowledge */
mysql> /* IP near lower end */
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip FORCE INDEX(ip_range)
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3270002832 AND ip_end_int >= 3270002832
-> ORDER BY ip_start_int DESC
-> LIMIT 1;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 1417 | 3270002832 | 3270002833 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> /* IP close to median IP value */
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip FORCE INDEX(ip_range)
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3271032832 AND ip_end_int >= 3271032832
-> ORDER BY ip_start_int DESC
-> LIMIT 1;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 516417 | 3271032832 | 3271032833 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> /* IP near upper end */
mysql> SELECT owner_id, ip_start_int, ip_end_int
-> FROM owner_ip FORCE INDEX(ip_range)
-> WHERE ip_start_int <= 3272090000 AND ip_end_int >= 3272090000
-> ORDER BY ip_start_int DESC
-> LIMIT 1;
+----------+--------------+------------+
| owner_id | ip_start_int | ip_end_int |
+----------+--------------+------------+
| 1045001 | 3272090000 | 3272090001 |
+----------+--------------+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
This can of course be used for any non-overlapping ranges. Another example is car rental, in which any one car can only be rented by one customer at a time:
CREATE TABLE car_rental (
id int AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
customer_id int NOT NULL,
car_id int NOT NULL,
pickup_date date NOT NULL,
return_date date NOT NULL,
INDEX idx_rent_date (car_id, pickup_date, return_date)
) ;
SELECT *
7 Tips for Achieving Active Directory Compliance
In many organizations, Active Directory is a key point of authentication and authorization to important corporate resources. As a result, the user identities stored in Active Directory and the groups they are members of are important points of control and audit for knowing what is being accessed within your organization. The ability to audit and be alerted about changes to Active Directory is a critical part of any organization.
The native auditing with Active Directory can meet some, but not all, of your auditing and compliance needs. In this paper, we provide tips and tricks to make the best use of native Active Directory auditing, as well as guidelines on what auditors and compliance officers look for when it comes to keeping an eye on what’s going on within your Active Directory environment. We also look at some third-party alternatives to native auditing that can greatly enhance your ability to fully report on what’s happening within your Active Directory infrastructure.
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The native auditing with Active Directory can meet some, but not all, of your auditing and compliance needs. In this paper, we provide tips and tricks to make the best use of native Active Directory auditing, as well as guidelines on what auditors and compliance officers look for when it comes to keeping an eye on what’s going on within your Active Directory environment. We also look at some third-party alternatives to native auditing that can greatly enhance your ability to fully report on what’s happening within your Active Directory infrastructure.
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For the hungover, by the hungover
With football season upon us, it's happening more often. You wake up, head pounding, stomach queasy, afraid to look at your phone and it's official: you have acquired a hangover. A hangover varies from person to person but is usually characterized as the unpleasant after-effects of consuming alcohol, which can include nausea, headache, fatigue, vomiting, trouble concentrating, difficulty sleeping, fever and an aversion to anything alcohol-related. Most of you reading this have been there; after a football game, a big test you passed, some holiday or maybe after your 21st birthday at which your friends "iced" you four times. Whatever the case, here you are, feeling bad physically and most likely embarrassed (you performed that favorite showchoir dance of yours, ate three burritos at 3 a.m. or perhaps sent that text message you regret now) and you need to feel better quick.
Seeing as I have only just recently reached legal drinking age and therefore have abstained, I don't have immense personal insight on hangovers, but I have compiled some research and talked to other of-age drinkers to try and shed some (dim) light on the subject.
First things first: you need water. Dehydration is the cornerstone of the hangover, generally contributing to the headache and fatigue. Also, water (or vitamin-rich orange juice or a sports drink) helps flush out any toxins that are still in your body, contributing to your woes. The best beverage for the hangover besides water? Naked Juice Green Goodness. Trust me: all the nutrients in that green liquid (including wheatgrass, kiwi and barley) are your morning-after best friends.
Second, after hydrating you're going to want to make a decision. Do you have class, work or some other time-sensitive obligation? Then you need to move on to damage control tactic number two: food. No responsibilities? You might also want food, but your best bet is to stay horizontal and nap it off. Sleep is the ultimate hangover cure, second only to water. As far as food goes, you should try to eat healthy. Simple foods such as bread, bananas or eggs will be easier on your stomach than something greasy or fried, but I suggest whatever treat pops into your head that doesn't make you nauseated. If you are feeling too queasy for food, don't worry and keep on sippin' that Gatorade, and reach for the Tums; it'll do you good. Something else you might want to try: milk thistle. Apparently this herb helps your body jumpstart its recovery.
A third option is exercise. Raising your metabolic rate and sweating out toxins sounds great in theory, but my experiences show that getting up to run a mile or two while hungover is a very lofty, if not absurd, goal. I suggest oxygen. Sounds silly but your cells need to recover, and how do they function best? Oxygenated. Take a couple deep breaths and hold them for 15 seconds, repeating this occasionally until you feel better. Taking a multivitamin or at least a B vitamin complex is also going to do wonders for replenishing what you lost last night and getting you to a higher level of functioning.
We've all heard an alcoholic beverage the next morning, two Tylenol before bed or a cup of coffee can make you feel better but, unfortunately, this isn't always the case. A beverage such as a Bloody Mary will only fend off symptoms through nutrient-rich tomato juice and actually just prolong the hangover in the long run. Tylenol before bed not only wears off before you wake, but also causes some potentially serious liver damage each time because alcohol increases the side effects (for headaches try Motrin or Advil instead). And coffee? Well it might help your fatigue, but it will only dehydrate you and potentially agitate your stomach further.
Want to avoid the whole mess in the first place? Your best option is to drink as much water as possible while drinking alcohol and afterwards. Nip that dehydration in the bud. Also, being aware of what you drink is influential. Mixing different types of alcohol can lead to a worse hangover than sticking to just one type of drink. You can always not drink at all, the painfully obvious, fool-proof way not to get hungover, but, then again, you knew that already.
Seeing as I have only just recently reached legal drinking age and therefore have abstained, I don't have immense personal insight on hangovers, but I have compiled some research and talked to other of-age drinkers to try and shed some (dim) light on the subject.
First things first: you need water. Dehydration is the cornerstone of the hangover, generally contributing to the headache and fatigue. Also, water (or vitamin-rich orange juice or a sports drink) helps flush out any toxins that are still in your body, contributing to your woes. The best beverage for the hangover besides water? Naked Juice Green Goodness. Trust me: all the nutrients in that green liquid (including wheatgrass, kiwi and barley) are your morning-after best friends.
Second, after hydrating you're going to want to make a decision. Do you have class, work or some other time-sensitive obligation? Then you need to move on to damage control tactic number two: food. No responsibilities? You might also want food, but your best bet is to stay horizontal and nap it off. Sleep is the ultimate hangover cure, second only to water. As far as food goes, you should try to eat healthy. Simple foods such as bread, bananas or eggs will be easier on your stomach than something greasy or fried, but I suggest whatever treat pops into your head that doesn't make you nauseated. If you are feeling too queasy for food, don't worry and keep on sippin' that Gatorade, and reach for the Tums; it'll do you good. Something else you might want to try: milk thistle. Apparently this herb helps your body jumpstart its recovery.
A third option is exercise. Raising your metabolic rate and sweating out toxins sounds great in theory, but my experiences show that getting up to run a mile or two while hungover is a very lofty, if not absurd, goal. I suggest oxygen. Sounds silly but your cells need to recover, and how do they function best? Oxygenated. Take a couple deep breaths and hold them for 15 seconds, repeating this occasionally until you feel better. Taking a multivitamin or at least a B vitamin complex is also going to do wonders for replenishing what you lost last night and getting you to a higher level of functioning.
We've all heard an alcoholic beverage the next morning, two Tylenol before bed or a cup of coffee can make you feel better but, unfortunately, this isn't always the case. A beverage such as a Bloody Mary will only fend off symptoms through nutrient-rich tomato juice and actually just prolong the hangover in the long run. Tylenol before bed not only wears off before you wake, but also causes some potentially serious liver damage each time because alcohol increases the side effects (for headaches try Motrin or Advil instead). And coffee? Well it might help your fatigue, but it will only dehydrate you and potentially agitate your stomach further.
Want to avoid the whole mess in the first place? Your best option is to drink as much water as possible while drinking alcohol and afterwards. Nip that dehydration in the bud. Also, being aware of what you drink is influential. Mixing different types of alcohol can lead to a worse hangover than sticking to just one type of drink. You can always not drink at all, the painfully obvious, fool-proof way not to get hungover, but, then again, you knew that already.
Tips & Tricks: Supreme Commander 2
Inside Mac Games has posted a new article featuring tips and tricks for success in Virtual Programming and Gas Powered Games' Supreme Commander 2. The real time strategy game drops players in the middle of a galactic war between three galactic empires and gives them the chance to command enormous armies from a host of customizable units.
Commanders (ACU): Everyone has a single Armored Command Unit. Not only can they build buildings faster than your worker units, but they also have powerful combative abilities as well. Certain upgrades on each ACU are vital, such as Hunker, Overcharge, Jump Jets and Teleport, allowing them great defense, damage and mobility during fights. Don't be afraid to use your commander heavily, but take great care to protect him for he cannot be rebuilt or resurrected if killed.
Enemy ACUs: Beware of when they die because they go nuclear, unleashing that oh so familiar giant mushroom cloud. It destroys any units or buildings caught in the blast - including your own. Best destroyed from long range or with your ACU to prevent damage to your forces.
Commanders (ACU): Everyone has a single Armored Command Unit. Not only can they build buildings faster than your worker units, but they also have powerful combative abilities as well. Certain upgrades on each ACU are vital, such as Hunker, Overcharge, Jump Jets and Teleport, allowing them great defense, damage and mobility during fights. Don't be afraid to use your commander heavily, but take great care to protect him for he cannot be rebuilt or resurrected if killed.
Enemy ACUs: Beware of when they die because they go nuclear, unleashing that oh so familiar giant mushroom cloud. It destroys any units or buildings caught in the blast - including your own. Best destroyed from long range or with your ACU to prevent damage to your forces.
Minggu, 11 September 2011
Tips and tricks for stain-free teeth
Who doesn’t want a healthy, white smile? Stained, discoloured teeth can age you or make you feel self-conscious. Thankfully, an ounce of prevention goes a long way.
Most types of stains are found on the surface of the tooth. These are called extrinsic stains and the most common culprits are coffee, tea, red wine, tobacco and colas. If you brush after every meal, you can prevent most of these stains from ever happening in the first place. If you’re not able to brush right away, simply rinsing your mouth with water can help.
Changes to your diet can also make a difference. Sticky foods are more likely to adhere to your teeth and cause staining. Avoid these as best you can. Eating more crunchy foods can help prevent other foods from sticking to your teeth.
It helps to be realistic. Start by accepting the fact that your teeth will yellow naturally over time. Many products currently on the market, such as at-home whitening toothpastes and strips, can help lessen the effects of this natural, age-related discoloration. To be safe, select one that has been approved by the Canadian Dental Association (look for the CDA’s seal of recognition). And remember, no matter which whitening system you choose, the results will only be temporary.
Intrinsic stains are tougher. They’re found inside the tooth, under its surface. Causes can include various medications, high fever or even leaching from silver-coloured fillings. Only your dentist can help to treat these.
It’s best to talk to your dentist or orthodontist before attempting stain-removal on your own. The harsh abrasives found in many products can damage your tooth’s enamel, which is a much bigger problem than having discoloured teeth. We can direct you to the safest, most reliable and up-to-date products available.
Most types of stains are found on the surface of the tooth. These are called extrinsic stains and the most common culprits are coffee, tea, red wine, tobacco and colas. If you brush after every meal, you can prevent most of these stains from ever happening in the first place. If you’re not able to brush right away, simply rinsing your mouth with water can help.
Changes to your diet can also make a difference. Sticky foods are more likely to adhere to your teeth and cause staining. Avoid these as best you can. Eating more crunchy foods can help prevent other foods from sticking to your teeth.
It helps to be realistic. Start by accepting the fact that your teeth will yellow naturally over time. Many products currently on the market, such as at-home whitening toothpastes and strips, can help lessen the effects of this natural, age-related discoloration. To be safe, select one that has been approved by the Canadian Dental Association (look for the CDA’s seal of recognition). And remember, no matter which whitening system you choose, the results will only be temporary.
Intrinsic stains are tougher. They’re found inside the tooth, under its surface. Causes can include various medications, high fever or even leaching from silver-coloured fillings. Only your dentist can help to treat these.
It’s best to talk to your dentist or orthodontist before attempting stain-removal on your own. The harsh abrasives found in many products can damage your tooth’s enamel, which is a much bigger problem than having discoloured teeth. We can direct you to the safest, most reliable and up-to-date products available.
Useful Tips And Tricks Concerning Your Wedding Bouquet
Everyone knows that a wedding bouquet should expose a lot of joy, happiness and charm. But, when it comes to picking the ideal flower bouquet, unfortunately there are many impediments that prevent you from fulfilling this task, easily. These impediments are represented either by the fact that the bride isn’t sure what model would be best for the style of her ceremony, or by the fact that her budget does not allow her to find something decent, elegant and glamorous.
But, since we are very good at giving pieces of advice and recommendations, we desire to instruct you on choosing the perfect wedding flowers. Therefore, pay attention at the following lines, and the impediments mentioned above will disappear.
To begin with, let’s discuss the topic concerning the budget of your wedding. If you have problems in respecting it, then you should make compromises at least with: a few wedding elements. One of these elements could be your flower bouquet.
But, since we are very good at giving pieces of advice and recommendations, we desire to instruct you on choosing the perfect wedding flowers. Therefore, pay attention at the following lines, and the impediments mentioned above will disappear.
To begin with, let’s discuss the topic concerning the budget of your wedding. If you have problems in respecting it, then you should make compromises at least with: a few wedding elements. One of these elements could be your flower bouquet.
Thus, you could try getting a discount from the floral designers, or you could shop online by sales, or maybe if you’re lucky enough, one of your friends may have a flower garden, which you were not aware of. So, ask your friends if they could help you with some natural flowers, because they will look great on your wedding day and besides the most important thing is that they will be gratis.
The second problem that will prevent you from easily completing this task would be the style of your wedding ceremony. Actually, you should not buy your wedding bouquet before deciding on your wedding theme, because otherwise everything will seem disorderly and quite messy. So, choose a white bouquet for a traditional ceremony or a colourful one in case you are planning on having an extravagant and exquisite wedding. Don’t worry, it will happen just like the dress, you will know it is yours, the very moment when you will see it!
These being said, the last tip that we would like to offer you is that you should add something personal in this special item. For instance you could add a ribbon or a heart decoration, if you are very romantic, or you could play with the flowers, and combine then in your favourite colours. Thus, you will add that unique touch, which will prevent you from being just like anybody else.
So, forget about the possible impediments, be confident and thus you will buy the perfect flowers!
Rabu, 07 September 2011
handling artifacts, Summer school shows academics
Organized by the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Reading Artifacts Summer Institute is a summer program for graduate students, post-doctoral students, academics and teachers.
The museum has organized the program for the past three years, according to Michel Labrecque, who assists with the program.
“We try to foster museum themes and give the participants a better understanding of what to do with artifacts,” Labrecque said.
The program lets the participants investigate the artifacts and look beyond the object and think about the history and the people who had a part in making it.
“It is about people making connections,” Labrecque said.
The week featured hands-on workshops, group artifact research, presentations and speeches by guest faculty and teaching students the basics when it comes to conservation and cataloging of an historically valuable objects.
“This week opens communications across the country and the world, it also allows scholars to make connections that will hopefully last a long time,” Labrecque said.
Fleming College professor Deb Scott teaches museum management and curatorship at the Peterborough, Ont.-based school and said she attend the program to better learn about preservation so she can take that knowledge back to her students.
“I wanted to learn more about the objects themselves and I have learned so much about the importance of the history behind an object and how an object can tell many stories,” Scott said, adding that she has found the week has opened her mind to look at objects in a much broader context.
She also said she didn’t expect to get quite so much hands-on experience.
Labrecque said in some ways, getting one’s hands a bit dirty is the best way to tell the story of an object. One of the sessions saw the students re-wiring a 1980s-era circuit board under the guidance of two former employees of the Ottawa-based Gandalf Technology.
Scott said they got to hear about the history company.
“We learned the background, which is so important,” Scott said. “When you collect objects, you have to collect more, you have to collect their stories for the object to come to life, and it is important on a whole pile of levels. That is what museums should do, help people connect with objects.”
The museum has organized the program for the past three years, according to Michel Labrecque, who assists with the program.
“We try to foster museum themes and give the participants a better understanding of what to do with artifacts,” Labrecque said.
The program lets the participants investigate the artifacts and look beyond the object and think about the history and the people who had a part in making it.
“It is about people making connections,” Labrecque said.
The week featured hands-on workshops, group artifact research, presentations and speeches by guest faculty and teaching students the basics when it comes to conservation and cataloging of an historically valuable objects.
“This week opens communications across the country and the world, it also allows scholars to make connections that will hopefully last a long time,” Labrecque said.
Fleming College professor Deb Scott teaches museum management and curatorship at the Peterborough, Ont.-based school and said she attend the program to better learn about preservation so she can take that knowledge back to her students.
“I wanted to learn more about the objects themselves and I have learned so much about the importance of the history behind an object and how an object can tell many stories,” Scott said, adding that she has found the week has opened her mind to look at objects in a much broader context.
She also said she didn’t expect to get quite so much hands-on experience.
Labrecque said in some ways, getting one’s hands a bit dirty is the best way to tell the story of an object. One of the sessions saw the students re-wiring a 1980s-era circuit board under the guidance of two former employees of the Ottawa-based Gandalf Technology.
Scott said they got to hear about the history company.
“We learned the background, which is so important,” Scott said. “When you collect objects, you have to collect more, you have to collect their stories for the object to come to life, and it is important on a whole pile of levels. That is what museums should do, help people connect with objects.”
Accessing carrier services menu
This week Daniel gives us a quick demo on how to access your carrier services menu. From here you can easily check your data usage, message count, bill balance, and more!
Smarter Shopping at the supermarket
Before testing Smarter Shopping, I hadn’t heard of Phil Lempert, but the Supermarket Guru, as he’s also known, has been tracking trends and passing on his knowledge to consumers for more than 25 years. Yeah, Lempert knows his stuff, and his smarts are now available for iPhone and iPod Touch in the free app Smarter Shopping.
In Smarter Shopping, users will find a variety of information centered upon grocery store shopping. Aside from a few broken links, my favorite section of the app is "Phil’s Hits & Misses." Updated each Wednesday, Lempert takes five new products and rates them, based on taste, healthfulness and sustainability, among other things. This is a good way to find new foods or to get the real scoop on new items on the supermarket shelves. Smarter Shopping also features video clips for Food News as well as money-saving tips. I found the "Recall" section particularly useful, since there are quite a few notices.
Smarter Shopping also includes a recipe section, a place to store a shopping list, general education for when to buy organic and what produce is in season, based on your GPS location. There’s also a helpful smart substitutions section that provides alternate ingredients should your pantry be missing an item or two. If you’re trying to watch what you eat, the label translator is key for figuring out what those chemicals really do, and Product 101 explains when to use a particular ingredient.
Smarter Shopping’s biggest drawback is its design. It’s not pretty. I could get past its poor UI if this app offered incredible functionality, but it doesn’t rank high in this area either. Tapping into the "Video" section won’t show you all the clips included — instead it serves as an archive of older "Hits & Misses" and "Food News" segments. It also doesn’t include the week’s current clips, so you have to find those on the home screen.
Smarter Shopping deserves high marks for its content — there’s a lot of buried content if you’re willing to put in the time to explore — but a redesign would make this app truly stand out.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
In Smarter Shopping, users will find a variety of information centered upon grocery store shopping. Aside from a few broken links, my favorite section of the app is "Phil’s Hits & Misses." Updated each Wednesday, Lempert takes five new products and rates them, based on taste, healthfulness and sustainability, among other things. This is a good way to find new foods or to get the real scoop on new items on the supermarket shelves. Smarter Shopping also features video clips for Food News as well as money-saving tips. I found the "Recall" section particularly useful, since there are quite a few notices.
Smarter Shopping also includes a recipe section, a place to store a shopping list, general education for when to buy organic and what produce is in season, based on your GPS location. There’s also a helpful smart substitutions section that provides alternate ingredients should your pantry be missing an item or two. If you’re trying to watch what you eat, the label translator is key for figuring out what those chemicals really do, and Product 101 explains when to use a particular ingredient.
Smarter Shopping’s biggest drawback is its design. It’s not pretty. I could get past its poor UI if this app offered incredible functionality, but it doesn’t rank high in this area either. Tapping into the "Video" section won’t show you all the clips included — instead it serves as an archive of older "Hits & Misses" and "Food News" segments. It also doesn’t include the week’s current clips, so you have to find those on the home screen.
Smarter Shopping deserves high marks for its content — there’s a lot of buried content if you’re willing to put in the time to explore — but a redesign would make this app truly stand out.
Download the free Appolicious iPhone app
7 iPad Tips
Looking to get the most out of your iPad? Who isn't?! As if searching for the latest, greatest, free-est apps isn't enough...it's just as important to learn tips and tricks to using your new "toy" more efficiently. I've had my iPad for about a month now - and some days I wonder how I ever lived without it.
Later I'll post about some of my favorite apps (one app has saved me at least an hour a day!) but for now, here are some helpful tips and tricks to using and navigating your iPad.
1. The "Hidden" Apostrophe
If you're in Notes, Pages, or just writing an email, it's often time consuming (and slightly annoying) to locate the apostrophe. Usually, you have to tap the {.?123} button to go to the second screen of the keyboard. But did you know you can just hold the {!} key and a hidden apostrophe option will appear? It's simple to just slide your little finger across it...and voila!
2. Create Folders
Get organized! You can easily create a folder to help organize your apps. Simply tap and hold on any app until it does the "jiggle dance." Then drag that app over another app icon that you wish to share a folder and then release. A folder will be created with those two apps, and you can add additional apps. The folder name will be based on the category of apps it contains, but you can always change it.
3. Control Notifications
"Would you like to receive push notifications from XYZ game?" If you've ever accidently said "yes" to this question then you know how annoying notifications can be! Good news is you can control them. Simply go to Settings, Notifications, and you can set alerts and sounds!
4. Quick Mute
Playing a game as your students walk into the class? Quick! Mute your iPad! I know...this would never happen...teachers don't play games on their iPads between classes (he he). When iPad first launched there was no way to quickly mute the device. Now, however, just press and hold the Volume-Down button.
5. Screen Shots
It's easy to take a screen shot of your iPad. Simply press the Home button and then the Sleep/Wake button. You'll hear the click, your screen will flash, and your new screen shot will be saved in your Photos.
6. Street View in Maps
You may know and love Street View while viewing Google Maps on your computer, but it's not as obvious how to access this on your iPad. The trick is to drop a red pin first then tap on the icon of the person to enter Street View. HINT: When you perform a search, a red pin is automatically dropped in that location.
7. Clear Browsing History
On our computers it's easy to located the "clear history" options in our browsers. We're trained to do it from within the browser itself. On the iPad, however, to clear Safari browser go into Settings then click on Safari. You'll see three options to clear history, cookies, and cache.
Later I'll post about some of my favorite apps (one app has saved me at least an hour a day!) but for now, here are some helpful tips and tricks to using and navigating your iPad.
1. The "Hidden" Apostrophe
If you're in Notes, Pages, or just writing an email, it's often time consuming (and slightly annoying) to locate the apostrophe. Usually, you have to tap the {.?123} button to go to the second screen of the keyboard. But did you know you can just hold the {!} key and a hidden apostrophe option will appear? It's simple to just slide your little finger across it...and voila!
2. Create Folders
Get organized! You can easily create a folder to help organize your apps. Simply tap and hold on any app until it does the "jiggle dance." Then drag that app over another app icon that you wish to share a folder and then release. A folder will be created with those two apps, and you can add additional apps. The folder name will be based on the category of apps it contains, but you can always change it.
3. Control Notifications
"Would you like to receive push notifications from XYZ game?" If you've ever accidently said "yes" to this question then you know how annoying notifications can be! Good news is you can control them. Simply go to Settings, Notifications, and you can set alerts and sounds!
4. Quick Mute
Playing a game as your students walk into the class? Quick! Mute your iPad! I know...this would never happen...teachers don't play games on their iPads between classes (he he). When iPad first launched there was no way to quickly mute the device. Now, however, just press and hold the Volume-Down button.
5. Screen Shots
It's easy to take a screen shot of your iPad. Simply press the Home button and then the Sleep/Wake button. You'll hear the click, your screen will flash, and your new screen shot will be saved in your Photos.
6. Street View in Maps
You may know and love Street View while viewing Google Maps on your computer, but it's not as obvious how to access this on your iPad. The trick is to drop a red pin first then tap on the icon of the person to enter Street View. HINT: When you perform a search, a red pin is automatically dropped in that location.
7. Clear Browsing History
On our computers it's easy to located the "clear history" options in our browsers. We're trained to do it from within the browser itself. On the iPad, however, to clear Safari browser go into Settings then click on Safari. You'll see three options to clear history, cookies, and cache.
tips and tricks to a flawless look
The main goal in foundation application is to achieve a naturally flawless look on the skin. It is important to even out the skin tone, texture, and correct any imperfections; thus enhance a better complexion overall.
There are 3 ways that you can apply foundation on the skin: finger application, sponge application, and brush application.
Finger Application
This is the oldest method for foundation application. To this day, a lot of consumers still choose to use their fingertips to apply foundation.
Pros: The main reason this method is popular is that it is easier to control the level of coverage wanted on the face, and is of course, less expensive.
Cons: The disadvantage is that it is not the most hygienic; bacteria on the hands may clog the pores causing acne on the skin. Also, improper motion while applying the foundation may form lines and wrinkles on the face. Therefore, most professional makeup artists avoid using this method and prefer to use tools to apply makeup.
Bess’s Golden Tips: This method is not highly recommended, but if this is the only method available at the time, be sure to wash your hands and sanitize them thoroughly before you begin application.
DO use your index finger and middle finger together and hold your fingers downwards and pull upwards in an arc motion.
DON’T drag the foundation downwards, pulling and stretching your skin thus forming unwanted lines and wrinkles.
Professional Tricks: To achieve the best result, always start with the forehead and work your way down the cheeks and chin. Apply lightly at first, then add more where you need it.
Bess recommends: With the finger method, it’s best to work with products such as cream, mousse, and foam foundations.
Sponge application
This is the easiest and most accepted tool that most consumers and some makeup artists choose because it provides a smooth foundation application
Pros: Sponges come in many different sizes and shapes for flexible application. This provides freedom of choice for consumers to select their favourite type to work with. The most common sponges are the wedge sponges (triangular) for precision in areas that are hard to reach.
Cons: The disadvantage of using sponges for foundation application is that they tend to absorb too much product, and therefore can be wasteful. Additionally, sponges collect dust and grow bacteria if not washed after use. This is why most cosmetics counters and other professional makeup artists dispose the sponges after one use–also somewhat wasteful.
Bess’s Golden Tips: To makeup beginners out there: in order to reuse the same sponges after each use, for economic and ecological purposes, you must clean your sponge well with soap and water after using it each time.
DO use a method similar to the one used in finger application. Start off by dabbing the sponge with the foundation, then blend it from the centre of the face working outwards. Watch for excessive product accumulated near the hairline–because it is hard to remove foundation from that area, it creates unnatural looking coverage.
DON’T forget to be gentle to your skin even when applying foundation with a sponge. Like applying with your fingertips, try not to pull the skin downwards when you dab the sponge on the skin. You can easily create unwanted lines and wrinkles or enlarged pores, smudges, or erase the foundation already applied.
Professional Tricks: Dampen the sponge for a smoother result and better foundation blending. This can also help erase and smooth out any lines or creases on the skin.
Bess recommends: Sponge application works well with liquid or compact foundation.
Brush Application
This is one of the most professional methods used by makeup artists to apply foundation, but recently, more consumers have been educated on the use of makeup brushes.
Pros: Using makeup brushes is more hygienic, plus it is easier to achieve a flawless finish without mush waste. Additionally, it saves more time because it provides even application and blending, and it works better for larger areas.
Cons: The disadvantage of using brush application for beginners is that it can at first feel harder to control. Also, incorrect application may leave streaks on the skin.
Bess’s Golden Tips: It is best to choose a brush with soft yet firm bristles, so that it won’t irritate the skin during application.
Bess recommends: The common foundation brush has flat bristles made out of synthetic fibres because they do not absorb too much product. There are many kinds of foundation brushes on the market to choose from, and many different ways to use them. See below for tips and tricks to using some common types of brushes: the flat bristle brush, round bristle brush, kabuki brush, and duo fibre brush.
Flat Bristle Brush: crisscross and gentle arch outwards
This is a flat elongated bristle brush with a half-moon rounded tip.
This type of brush can reach all areas of the face, such as the sides of and under the nose, eye area, chin and jaw line. Applying with a ‘crisscross’ motion will help blend the foundation into the skin. Sweeping gently, arching outwards and downwards on the face, can conceal enlarged pores and wrinkles.
Round Bristle Brush: swift motion
This is a new type of foundation brush that many makeup artists like; it has round and firm bristles.
This full and thick brush provides a firm grip and control, and can smooth out small to large areas on the face. It can precisely go into fine details on the face, and conceals any flaws on the skin. Applying with a swift motion will create a smooth look on the skin without leaving streaks on the face.
Mineral Power Kabuki Brush: buffing method
This method uses a Kabuki brush to apply mineral powder foundation on the face. This is one of the new ways to apply mineral foundation.
Simply tip out some mineral powder into the lid, and then twirl the brush to pick up the powder. Tap the brush to remove the excess powder, and then buff it on the skin in a circular motion around the face. This method of application feels really light and comfortable on the skin. As a result, it will give the most natural and lightweight effect with medium coverage and a natural look–as if wearing no foundation at all.
Duo Fibre Brush: buffing method with airbrushed effect
The duo-fiber brush is a large circular brush with duo fibres, unique in that it is made with a blend of goat hair and synthetic fibres.
Use a spatula to take out a small amount of foundation onto a mixing palette, and then dab and twirl the brush onto the palette. Dab and stipple some foundation onto the skin, and then begin buffing. Start with small circular motion around the face. This method will slowly and cautiously spread the foundation and blend into the skin seamlessly. The result is an airbrushed-looking finish with good coverage: a perfectly blended and very natural look.
The ‘buffing method’ is yet another technique to apply foundation, and is by far one of the most popular application methods among professional makeup artists. Because of its lightweight coverage with soft layers and enhancing texture, it creates an airbrushed finish.
source= http://stringmagazine.ca
There are 3 ways that you can apply foundation on the skin: finger application, sponge application, and brush application.
Finger Application
This is the oldest method for foundation application. To this day, a lot of consumers still choose to use their fingertips to apply foundation.
Pros: The main reason this method is popular is that it is easier to control the level of coverage wanted on the face, and is of course, less expensive.
Cons: The disadvantage is that it is not the most hygienic; bacteria on the hands may clog the pores causing acne on the skin. Also, improper motion while applying the foundation may form lines and wrinkles on the face. Therefore, most professional makeup artists avoid using this method and prefer to use tools to apply makeup.
Bess’s Golden Tips: This method is not highly recommended, but if this is the only method available at the time, be sure to wash your hands and sanitize them thoroughly before you begin application.
DO use your index finger and middle finger together and hold your fingers downwards and pull upwards in an arc motion.
DON’T drag the foundation downwards, pulling and stretching your skin thus forming unwanted lines and wrinkles.
Professional Tricks: To achieve the best result, always start with the forehead and work your way down the cheeks and chin. Apply lightly at first, then add more where you need it.
Bess recommends: With the finger method, it’s best to work with products such as cream, mousse, and foam foundations.
Sponge application
This is the easiest and most accepted tool that most consumers and some makeup artists choose because it provides a smooth foundation application
Pros: Sponges come in many different sizes and shapes for flexible application. This provides freedom of choice for consumers to select their favourite type to work with. The most common sponges are the wedge sponges (triangular) for precision in areas that are hard to reach.
Cons: The disadvantage of using sponges for foundation application is that they tend to absorb too much product, and therefore can be wasteful. Additionally, sponges collect dust and grow bacteria if not washed after use. This is why most cosmetics counters and other professional makeup artists dispose the sponges after one use–also somewhat wasteful.
Bess’s Golden Tips: To makeup beginners out there: in order to reuse the same sponges after each use, for economic and ecological purposes, you must clean your sponge well with soap and water after using it each time.
DO use a method similar to the one used in finger application. Start off by dabbing the sponge with the foundation, then blend it from the centre of the face working outwards. Watch for excessive product accumulated near the hairline–because it is hard to remove foundation from that area, it creates unnatural looking coverage.
DON’T forget to be gentle to your skin even when applying foundation with a sponge. Like applying with your fingertips, try not to pull the skin downwards when you dab the sponge on the skin. You can easily create unwanted lines and wrinkles or enlarged pores, smudges, or erase the foundation already applied.
Professional Tricks: Dampen the sponge for a smoother result and better foundation blending. This can also help erase and smooth out any lines or creases on the skin.
Bess recommends: Sponge application works well with liquid or compact foundation.
Brush Application
This is one of the most professional methods used by makeup artists to apply foundation, but recently, more consumers have been educated on the use of makeup brushes.
Pros: Using makeup brushes is more hygienic, plus it is easier to achieve a flawless finish without mush waste. Additionally, it saves more time because it provides even application and blending, and it works better for larger areas.
Cons: The disadvantage of using brush application for beginners is that it can at first feel harder to control. Also, incorrect application may leave streaks on the skin.
Bess’s Golden Tips: It is best to choose a brush with soft yet firm bristles, so that it won’t irritate the skin during application.
Bess recommends: The common foundation brush has flat bristles made out of synthetic fibres because they do not absorb too much product. There are many kinds of foundation brushes on the market to choose from, and many different ways to use them. See below for tips and tricks to using some common types of brushes: the flat bristle brush, round bristle brush, kabuki brush, and duo fibre brush.
Flat Bristle Brush: crisscross and gentle arch outwards
This is a flat elongated bristle brush with a half-moon rounded tip.
This type of brush can reach all areas of the face, such as the sides of and under the nose, eye area, chin and jaw line. Applying with a ‘crisscross’ motion will help blend the foundation into the skin. Sweeping gently, arching outwards and downwards on the face, can conceal enlarged pores and wrinkles.
Round Bristle Brush: swift motion
This is a new type of foundation brush that many makeup artists like; it has round and firm bristles.
This full and thick brush provides a firm grip and control, and can smooth out small to large areas on the face. It can precisely go into fine details on the face, and conceals any flaws on the skin. Applying with a swift motion will create a smooth look on the skin without leaving streaks on the face.
Mineral Power Kabuki Brush: buffing method
This method uses a Kabuki brush to apply mineral powder foundation on the face. This is one of the new ways to apply mineral foundation.
Simply tip out some mineral powder into the lid, and then twirl the brush to pick up the powder. Tap the brush to remove the excess powder, and then buff it on the skin in a circular motion around the face. This method of application feels really light and comfortable on the skin. As a result, it will give the most natural and lightweight effect with medium coverage and a natural look–as if wearing no foundation at all.
Duo Fibre Brush: buffing method with airbrushed effect
The duo-fiber brush is a large circular brush with duo fibres, unique in that it is made with a blend of goat hair and synthetic fibres.
Use a spatula to take out a small amount of foundation onto a mixing palette, and then dab and twirl the brush onto the palette. Dab and stipple some foundation onto the skin, and then begin buffing. Start with small circular motion around the face. This method will slowly and cautiously spread the foundation and blend into the skin seamlessly. The result is an airbrushed-looking finish with good coverage: a perfectly blended and very natural look.
The ‘buffing method’ is yet another technique to apply foundation, and is by far one of the most popular application methods among professional makeup artists. Because of its lightweight coverage with soft layers and enhancing texture, it creates an airbrushed finish.
source= http://stringmagazine.ca
Game Player Resistance 3 Tips and Tricks
If you’re playing the single player campaign of Resistance 3, you will instantly know it will not be a walk in the park. Thanks to the re-introduction of the classic health bar system, there’s a chance you will be on low health and with absolutely no hope of winning a fire fight.
If you find yourself struggling to play Resistance 3 or are an FPS noob, don’t worry as Just Push Start is here to help you out.
Here are some general tips and tricks players can use to overcome Resistance 3′s menancing single player campaign mode.
DON’T RUN-AND-GUN
As aformemtioned, there’s a life bar system in Resistance 3 and no health regeneration whatsoever the first time you play the game. This means players who are used to this feature included in many other recently released video games will have to rethink their old strategies if they want to be able to survive the Chimeran onslaught. If you’re the type of player that loves to sprint ahead and fire at anything you see ala Rambo, you will die instantly as the Chimera are accurate shots and will kill you.
The A.I. in Resistance 3 isn’t dumb so its pays to move around and shoot from a safe distance most of the time to avoid getting shot. Unlike in other games, the A.I. is smart when it comes to its shot accuracy – they are almost as accurate as real-life players even on the “Casual” difficulty. It pays not to stay in one spot as the Chimera love to advance forward when they see an opportunity to completely surround and kill you. Moving around and trying to find higher ground is the best way to ensure you won’t get shot all the time. It’s a strategy that should be employed no matter what difficulty you play Resistance 3.
LOOK OUT FOR HEALTH PACKS
Heatlh packs are littered throughout the entire game and shouldn’t be too hard to miss. They are green and have the same luminosity as Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber in Return of the Jedi. Star Wars fans will know the type of bright green I’m talking about. If there’s a chance on any level you have a chance for a breather, take the time to thoroughly search the vicinity. Look around on the ground or tables that might have health packs lying around. You shouldn’t just run away and get to the next waypoint all the time or you might miss out on some crucial health packs!
The (more dangerous place) to look out for heath packs are on the enemies themselves. Some of the Chimeran soldiers have the heath packs attached on the side of their bodies. Make sure to kill these guys instantly so they will drop the health pack for you to consume.
DON’T BE STINGY WITH YOUR AMMO
Don’t be afraid to use all your ammo on the enemies in Resistance 3. This isn’t the type of game you will need to “save” ammo for later. This is because you can hold more than only two weapons at one time. Not only this but you can grab ammo from various parts of any level in Resistance 3 much like the health packs. Even when there’s a boss, the game is kind enough to supply you with the right ammo and weapon to destroy that boss!
KEEP LOOKNG AT YOUR JOURNALS
Whenever you get a new weapon or enemmy journal, take the time to actually read it. New weapon journals tell you what each weapon can do an its effectiveness it will have on enemies. It also tells you what the primary and secondary fire for each weapon is too. We will write a specific wepaons guide later on Resistance 3 so stay tuned for that later this week.
Reading the enemy journals is even more crucial. The journals provide you with information on the enemies’ weaknesses and even the best wepaon to use against them. Whenever you encounter a new boss in Resistance 3, a new journal should be unlocked for you to view which will therefore show you information on the best weapon to use against the boss. I did this throughout the entire game and it helped me a lot. Even on non-boss enemies, take the time to read the journals – they are a lifesaver.
CALL IN A FRIEND
If you’re really struggling to complete the single-player campaign in Resistance 3, you can always call a friend in to help you out on those really sticky situations. There’s the option to play the game via old-school co-op splitscreen, or online too…
For first time Resistance players, playing the campaign in co-op is a good way to feel how the game plays. It’s also a great way to get through the levels so you can play them again with ease in single player once you know what to do.
If you find yourself struggling to play Resistance 3 or are an FPS noob, don’t worry as Just Push Start is here to help you out.
Here are some general tips and tricks players can use to overcome Resistance 3′s menancing single player campaign mode.
DON’T RUN-AND-GUN
As aformemtioned, there’s a life bar system in Resistance 3 and no health regeneration whatsoever the first time you play the game. This means players who are used to this feature included in many other recently released video games will have to rethink their old strategies if they want to be able to survive the Chimeran onslaught. If you’re the type of player that loves to sprint ahead and fire at anything you see ala Rambo, you will die instantly as the Chimera are accurate shots and will kill you.
The A.I. in Resistance 3 isn’t dumb so its pays to move around and shoot from a safe distance most of the time to avoid getting shot. Unlike in other games, the A.I. is smart when it comes to its shot accuracy – they are almost as accurate as real-life players even on the “Casual” difficulty. It pays not to stay in one spot as the Chimera love to advance forward when they see an opportunity to completely surround and kill you. Moving around and trying to find higher ground is the best way to ensure you won’t get shot all the time. It’s a strategy that should be employed no matter what difficulty you play Resistance 3.
LOOK OUT FOR HEALTH PACKS
Heatlh packs are littered throughout the entire game and shouldn’t be too hard to miss. They are green and have the same luminosity as Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber in Return of the Jedi. Star Wars fans will know the type of bright green I’m talking about. If there’s a chance on any level you have a chance for a breather, take the time to thoroughly search the vicinity. Look around on the ground or tables that might have health packs lying around. You shouldn’t just run away and get to the next waypoint all the time or you might miss out on some crucial health packs!
The (more dangerous place) to look out for heath packs are on the enemies themselves. Some of the Chimeran soldiers have the heath packs attached on the side of their bodies. Make sure to kill these guys instantly so they will drop the health pack for you to consume.
DON’T BE STINGY WITH YOUR AMMO
Don’t be afraid to use all your ammo on the enemies in Resistance 3. This isn’t the type of game you will need to “save” ammo for later. This is because you can hold more than only two weapons at one time. Not only this but you can grab ammo from various parts of any level in Resistance 3 much like the health packs. Even when there’s a boss, the game is kind enough to supply you with the right ammo and weapon to destroy that boss!
KEEP LOOKNG AT YOUR JOURNALS
Whenever you get a new weapon or enemmy journal, take the time to actually read it. New weapon journals tell you what each weapon can do an its effectiveness it will have on enemies. It also tells you what the primary and secondary fire for each weapon is too. We will write a specific wepaons guide later on Resistance 3 so stay tuned for that later this week.
Reading the enemy journals is even more crucial. The journals provide you with information on the enemies’ weaknesses and even the best wepaon to use against them. Whenever you encounter a new boss in Resistance 3, a new journal should be unlocked for you to view which will therefore show you information on the best weapon to use against the boss. I did this throughout the entire game and it helped me a lot. Even on non-boss enemies, take the time to read the journals – they are a lifesaver.
CALL IN A FRIEND
If you’re really struggling to complete the single-player campaign in Resistance 3, you can always call a friend in to help you out on those really sticky situations. There’s the option to play the game via old-school co-op splitscreen, or online too…
For first time Resistance players, playing the campaign in co-op is a good way to feel how the game plays. It’s also a great way to get through the levels so you can play them again with ease in single player once you know what to do.
Selasa, 06 September 2011
How to Walk in Heels
So I decided to go in the Forum a few days ago to get some inspo for new blog ideas and came across a thread titled, Tips and Tricks How-To Walk In Heels, and I thought the topic would be great for a blog post!
Walking in heels isn’t easy. It takes a lot of time and practice. For most, it doesn’t come naturally either. Hopefully with these ten tips I have listed for you below, you’ll be walking in sky-high stilettos in no time!
Buy the right pair. Start off with low wedges or platforms that are comfy and fit well (shoe inserts can be really helpful). Once you’re ready, work your way to stilettos. Also, test-drive heels before you buy them. If heels are too high for you, you’ll never be able to walk in them (even if you’re a pro)! If you’re buying your first pair of heels, make sure they have an ankle or t-strap. It really helps keep your foot on place, especially while you’re learning.
Pretend like you’re walking on your tippy toes! It helped me
Maintain good posture from your head all the way through your spin and keep your neck and head held high!
Stand up and balance your weight and distribute it evenly on each foot. Once you’re balanced, take one step forward. Keep doing this until you don’t have to take breaks in between. Your body will adjust to shifting your weight naturally and you’ll find that walking in heels isn’t so hard!
Watch your step and keep an eye on the type of surface you’re walking on.
Swing your arms as you walk. This will also help keep you balanced.
When you walk in heels, extend and straighten your leg with each step. This will make your seem more graceful and ladylike.
Never, ever tilt your heel back and put your weight on it. Most likely, the heel will snap! And that’s never a good thing…
Be confident! Keep your head up and walk on! If you trip or stumble (we all do), just keep on walking with your head held high.
Most importantly: practice, practice, practice!! After all, practice makes perfect
Walking in heels isn’t easy. It takes a lot of time and practice. For most, it doesn’t come naturally either. Hopefully with these ten tips I have listed for you below, you’ll be walking in sky-high stilettos in no time!
Buy the right pair. Start off with low wedges or platforms that are comfy and fit well (shoe inserts can be really helpful). Once you’re ready, work your way to stilettos. Also, test-drive heels before you buy them. If heels are too high for you, you’ll never be able to walk in them (even if you’re a pro)! If you’re buying your first pair of heels, make sure they have an ankle or t-strap. It really helps keep your foot on place, especially while you’re learning.
Pretend like you’re walking on your tippy toes! It helped me
Maintain good posture from your head all the way through your spin and keep your neck and head held high!
Stand up and balance your weight and distribute it evenly on each foot. Once you’re balanced, take one step forward. Keep doing this until you don’t have to take breaks in between. Your body will adjust to shifting your weight naturally and you’ll find that walking in heels isn’t so hard!
Watch your step and keep an eye on the type of surface you’re walking on.
Swing your arms as you walk. This will also help keep you balanced.
When you walk in heels, extend and straighten your leg with each step. This will make your seem more graceful and ladylike.
Never, ever tilt your heel back and put your weight on it. Most likely, the heel will snap! And that’s never a good thing…
Be confident! Keep your head up and walk on! If you trip or stumble (we all do), just keep on walking with your head held high.
Most importantly: practice, practice, practice!! After all, practice makes perfect
Help For ASIC Design
When considering a new application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design, consider the role analog will play in its deployment. To minimize risk, choose your ASIC development partner carefully. Many times, basic mixed-signal ASIC design skills will be insufficient. Always seek out an analog ASIC partner with the right analog design skills and experience to match the application. Six key points follow.
1. It is easy to integrate complex analog functions into an ASIC. Don’t limit yourself to a mixed-signal ASIC supplier that uses analog blocks from a library. Libraries limit the creativity and functionality that you can integrate. Use a company that has extremely well-experienced analog engineers with a history of invention (patents).
2. Mixed-signal does not mean the same thing as analog. Mixed-signal implies lots of digital and a little analog. Review the offerings of many so-called mixed-signal companies: Analog is more-or-less an afterthought for them. Industrial controls, sensor interfaces, and the like are primarily analog functions. Use analog capability to solve analog problems.
3. You don’t need to be making an iPhone to afford an analog ASIC. After amortizing the tooling and nonrecurring engineering (NRE) costs over the lifetime expected volume, you may be surprised by the real savings you can achieve. Analog integration is easy for experienced companies.
4. Using existing IP from analog cell libraries usually means you must compromise the performance of your product. Refer to rule #1. Libraries contain basic blocks that solve basic problems. If you need an instrumentation amplifier with a precise gain of 97.3 in your ASIC system, forget it if your supplier is using cell libraries. Custom analog design will assure the best end-product solution.
5. If you spend the money for an ASIC, demand product differentiation. Cell libraries are a great way to ensure your product is no better than that of your competition (who probably used the same cell library as supplier). How can you be better?
6. Know when to say “no.” There is an economic balance when defining analog ASICs: a balance between cost and adding too much low-value functionality to the design. A good analog ASIC company will guide you through this carefully. Bigger is not always better.
- Bob Frostholm is director of sales and marketing, JVD Inc., San Jose, Calif.; Edited by Mark T. Hoske, CFE Media, Control Engineering,
Source= www.controleng.com.
1. It is easy to integrate complex analog functions into an ASIC. Don’t limit yourself to a mixed-signal ASIC supplier that uses analog blocks from a library. Libraries limit the creativity and functionality that you can integrate. Use a company that has extremely well-experienced analog engineers with a history of invention (patents).
2. Mixed-signal does not mean the same thing as analog. Mixed-signal implies lots of digital and a little analog. Review the offerings of many so-called mixed-signal companies: Analog is more-or-less an afterthought for them. Industrial controls, sensor interfaces, and the like are primarily analog functions. Use analog capability to solve analog problems.
3. You don’t need to be making an iPhone to afford an analog ASIC. After amortizing the tooling and nonrecurring engineering (NRE) costs over the lifetime expected volume, you may be surprised by the real savings you can achieve. Analog integration is easy for experienced companies.
4. Using existing IP from analog cell libraries usually means you must compromise the performance of your product. Refer to rule #1. Libraries contain basic blocks that solve basic problems. If you need an instrumentation amplifier with a precise gain of 97.3 in your ASIC system, forget it if your supplier is using cell libraries. Custom analog design will assure the best end-product solution.
5. If you spend the money for an ASIC, demand product differentiation. Cell libraries are a great way to ensure your product is no better than that of your competition (who probably used the same cell library as supplier). How can you be better?
6. Know when to say “no.” There is an economic balance when defining analog ASICs: a balance between cost and adding too much low-value functionality to the design. A good analog ASIC company will guide you through this carefully. Bigger is not always better.
- Bob Frostholm is director of sales and marketing, JVD Inc., San Jose, Calif.; Edited by Mark T. Hoske, CFE Media, Control Engineering,
Source= www.controleng.com.
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