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General Motors will build electric cars for the Indian market

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:46:00 +0000

GM (General Motors) announced to make electric cars for the Indian market on September 24, 2009 manufactured by the Reva Indian car company, specializing in this segment, in order to market them in China.

The executive director of GM's arm in India, Karl Slym, explained that this initiative is taken "in line with the government targets to reduce dependence on fossil fuels". He also said that, "we will work closely with the Indian central government and regional authorities in India to develop infrastructure for electric vehicles and provide financial benefits to the consumers".

President of General Motor's international operations, Nick Reilly described electric cars as "an area of growth in the global auto industry" and hoped that cooperation with General Motors Reva will serve to "accelerate their progress and changing needs in many parts of the world".

For Reilly, these cars represent "the best long term solution to provide sustainable private transport".

Reva Company launched its first electric car model in 2001.

GM's announcement comes just a day after Ford said that in early 2010, we will launch first small utility car to the Indian market, officially named as Ford Figo. Ford also said that our new Figo will target the Indian market.

Both initiatives focus on the segment of small commercial vehicles. Auto companies are in agreement with these initiatives because the Indian car market has a large number of users willing to make a payment for having a car, but the cost should not be very high.

The most notable example of these types of initiatives of vehicles in this segment is the Tata Nano, which also known as the "world's cheapest car" (with low-end model starting from rupees 1 lakh.

The Indian automobile industry has been among the hardest hit by the international financial crisis, especially during the first few months, with a significant decline in auto sales because of the lack of liquidity and lending, so these initiatives by global players like Ford and GM will boost the sales of the Indian car sector.

Bad Things About Voice Over IP (VOIP) - Issues to Be Aware Of

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:43:00 +0000

VOIP The Dark Secret, Buyer Beware.

Every time I turn around I see another advertisement for the Voice Over Internet Protocol.

Most of the phones supplied by the Cable companies and also independent’s such as say Vonage are known as VOIP phones.

In a past life I did a lot of IP related work and what bothers me is when they sell these services, and do nto tell you of any potential problems. It's all roses and fireworks for great things that are cheap. I do not see any disclaimers or warnings.

How it works:

If all the VOIP traffic stays within a properly configured network like say a Road Runner network and you call another person on Road Runner network, it’s highly likely that Road Runner has implement something called Quality of Service (QOS). This helps prioritize traffic and help make sure the VOIP packets get to were they are supposed to go.

What can go wrong:

To the best of my knowledge the IP portion of VOIP – does not have a provision or means to provide QOS . The issue lies that any “call” placed to someone over the plain internet therefore gets delivered on a “best effort” type of delivery scheme. So it depends on how busy the net is at that time and how good the quality of the network is that the packets are traveling over. I call it “cross your fingers” delivery. I have used VOIP myself but never for anything critical.

What is Reality:

If you make calls primarily to other users on the same network and that service provider is reliable then VOIP could work for you. If you consider the phone mission critical and a “must work” 100% of the time, I’d seriously question using VOIP.

I refuse to let my own parents or in-laws switch to these services. It’s hard because they see them as cheaper, and that’s pushed on them and it’s an attractive option to them to save costs. Unfortunately costs savings are pushed but no downsides are often mentioned.

There are a few other downsides to VOIP:

Faxing can be tricky and if you have a security system, it may not be happen with a VOIP connection. There exist work arounds for these scenarios but they may not be elegant.

My Conclusion:

My personal experience is the call quality ranges vastly from day to day and call to call. I personally still do not see VOIP as a reliable replacement for the phone companies land line service.

If you want VOIP, choose carefully weigh your options and decide. Well chosen and implemented correctly VOIP can be functional. A poor VOIP provider and ISP combo can be a nightmare.

Educated yourself, choose carefully and be skeptical.

VOIP Links

VoIP Cons - VoIP Drawbacks and Pitfalls
VoIP Cons are an issue, although VoIP has great pros. While VoIP's benefits outnumber its disadvantages, you should be aware of the VoIP pitfalls as a user, so that you have a better VoIP experience.

Build Your Own Cheap VOIP Phone Connection

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:40:00 +0000

Build Your Own Cheap VOIP Phone Connection.

Some Background:

I have written on another hub that I’m not a big fan of VOIP and that is true. VOIP is however not totally bad, it does have it’s place. One great use I have found for a VOIP setup is that it can offer you a very low cost way to add another phone line to your home or business if you have a existing broadband internet connection.

So what’s the secret to constructing a cheap VOIP phone. First of all, do not link yourself with one of the popular services. I do not use Vonage or AT&T or for that matter any large vendor, I built it all myself.

I was curious as to how far the VOIP world had progressed from days long ago. I had my fingers in VOIP many years ago when just the VOIP boards were thousands of dollars. Back then it was definitely NOT a usable consumer product. I was quite pleased to see that many vendors now offered VOIP ATA’s (Analog Terminal Adapters, the box that turns a analog telephone to digital packets that can traverse the internet and get to whomever you are calling). I was even more surprised to find out that there are several great web sites on the matter and that the ATA’s are quite cheap, a wide selection under 100.00.

VOIP utilize something called SI. SIP’s formal non abbreviated name is the “Session Initiation Protocol”. SIP is what is known as a “signaling protocol” this enables things like instant messaging, SMS, conferencing and finally telephones to communicate on the internet. There are also other things that go along with it like “codec’s” to do most of the work. I’m not going to go into technical details here as the purpose of this hubpage is to make a cheap IP phone setup, not understand voice protocols and analog to digital conversion schemes.

HERE IS HOW I BUILT MINE:

I’ll provide links in the links section at the bottom of the hub rather than in the article to hopefully make it easier to read.

Buy the right Analog Terminal Adapters (ATA):

Since most ATA’s are “locked” to a specific carrier.. much like your AT&T cell phone is locked to the AT&T network and it can’t be used on Verizon’s network. The ATA is the same, if you have one and it’s locked to say “Vonage” then it’s useless unless you have the unlock password or they will give you the password , it’s a useless device for the purposes here.

You can however get a unlocked ATA very easily. Simply go to Voxilla.com , I suggest the Linksys PAP2T it works well for me and has the capability to have 2 phones plugged into it. I very much like my Linksys ATAT but pick your own ATA of choice, the voxilla store and techtoast This is the device you will plug into your router and then you plug your phone into the ATA. Voxilla.com is one option.. I chose to buy my ATA from a place called TECHTOAST. They shipped it quickly and it works great.

Have a reliable and speedy Internet connection:

Dialup will not work, I’d recommend a cable connection or higher speed DSL connection. To have a usable VOIP connection you have to have a broadband internet connect that’s reasonably fast and reliable. The 384 kbps DSL connections may possibly work but it’s going to likely sound like your talking through tin cans and be horrible in quality.

Find a VOIP Vendor:

You need to decide on what I will call for conversations sake a “SIP carrier”. This is the “Vonage” replacement in my home built VOIP system. After much searching and comparison. I chose a place called sipphone.com.
I registered for an account and then also bought a “Callin” number for my area. This allows people to call you and sipphone can route calls to that number. Translated to English, this call-in number makes your new IP phone ring at your house. You can also buy call out credits for I believe $10.00 dollar increments and they expire in 180 days from purchase , the rates are low around 2.0 cents for calls to Australia for example. Better than a calling card I think, no call setup charges and no long strings of numbers to dial, you just call direct. They offer free voicemail and a few other features. It’s pretty simple and works for my needs.

Couple of notes on Sipphone.com
The Sipphone account is free, no monthly cost. The cost is only in the call out number $36.00 per year and callout credits (you choose) plus the cost of the ATA (about $60.00) If it’s not for you Voxilla has a HUGE selection to compare, it took me several weeks to decide on sipphone . I used Voxilla’s comparison tool, the problems I had in picking vendors was that it was very hard to compare apples to apples, most often I found myself comparing apples to oranges that why it took a long time. This is an important choice, but you can change it easily if you make a mistake. The change might cost you some money but switching is possible. I have not switched but I expect I will at some point in the future. I’m reasonably happy with sipphone, but be warned support is via a forum or ticket system and they are not quick. My experience is to not expect a quick turn around, expect days not minutes. I have had a few outages but not many and this line is not mission critical to me. A few new vendors may even appear on ads on this hub, it might be worth checking those out, that’s how I initially found sipphone.

Start the Ball Rolling:

Once you have chosen the SIP vendor and have a account etc. I’d order the ATA from your place of choice as I indicated above. While you wait for your ATA, register on voxilla.com for a account as well as sipphone.com if they are your vendor of choice. Once you get your ATA. Now we need to configure the ATA to work with the SIPHONE vendor. This is were Voxilla comes in very handy, but you need to have an account. They have some pretty slick configuration utilities , they call it the configuration wizard, I’ll provide a link below. Log into your Voxilla account and look the one up for the PAP2t , have your account information all handy from sipphone and start the configuration process. I’m not going to give detailed instructions here, as the permutations of configuration are endless. I also can’t really help if it does not work. Mine worked minus a few glitches right out of the box

There are things that can make this a real challenge . Asymmetric Firewalls can cause a stun server to not function correctly and you may have to statically assign a IP address to the ATA and port forward the required ports to the internet back and forth. I do this all the time. I used to configure Cisco switches for large corporate networks so this is not intimidating to me but to a average user port forwarding can be a nightmare. Maybe that’s the subject of another hub, but it ‘a dry subject to anyone other than a networking techie. I suggest if the option comes up to use a “Stun” server. This will hopefully prevent you from having to play the port forwarding game. Sipphone provides that information for your account.

Try a Call:

Plug your phone into the phone port you configured on the ATA, and try to call yourself from another line, I did and it works like magic. It’s a great line to publish on flyers, ads, business forms, etc. The call-in number lasts for 1 year for 36.00 (there are shorter term agreements) but if you get too much spam on that number ditch it after a year (or your term you agreed to ) and get a new number from Sipphone.

Current Status:

My setup has been pretty stable. I do not use this line for anything critical. I’d by no means use this as my main line unless I had no other choice. I have heard that Sipphone has an unusual purchase out credit scheme. It appears they hand check all first time call out credits to help avoid fraud and this can take some time to approve so plan ahead say a week. Once the first purchase goes through all others after that should have no issues according to the post I have read. I have not tried this as I indicated I have no need to dial out on the phone at this time. Overall I have a cheap phone that runs over my existing internet connection. So if you look at the cost for me.

· ATA purchase (one time ) $60.00
· Sipphone.com call out number $36.00
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total cost $96.00 for year one and that includes the ATA cost.

If I assume all that ATA cost is placed in the first year use next year all I have is a callout renewal at 36.00 That’s $3.00 a month for a valid number, not bad.

The Warning:

Your mileage may vary and this has technical challenges that could be pretty complicated, it’s also not for folks who are not technical in my opinion. But if your at all inclined or curious and do not care if you lose a few dollars on equipment and services if it does not work give it a shot.

Try this at you own risk and I can’t/won’t provide tech support. I simply provided what works for me and I decided to share. Hopefully you can use this information or a permutation to get something running up cheap for yourself. Happy VOIP’ng.

VOIP LINKS

Welcome to Linksys.com
Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the global leader in Wireless and Ethernet networking for consumer and SOHO users. Linksys is dedicated to making networking easy and affordable for its customers, offering innovative, awar
VoIP Device Configuration Wizards
This FREE service allows you to easily configure analog terminal adapters and IP phones from four different device manufacturers with more than 20 different
TechToast: Our Specials!
VoIP, Security, Surveillance, Telephony, Audio/Video, Network Equipment, and much more--just the best names in electronics at the hottest prices.
SIPphone - Call worldwide over your Internet connection with any phone
Gizmo Project provides low cost international calling and free calls to users on Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live users and SIP networks.
Voxilla

How to Become a Cell Phone Tester Before They’re Released to the Public

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:39:00 +0000

Do you love new gadgets? Do you enjoy getting the latest mobile phone that is available and trying out all of the new applications that it can access? This can get to be a pretty expensive hobby since new phones are constantly being released and most of the newest releases aren’t cheap. One great way to enjoy your love of new phone technology without sacrificing your entire budget to new phones is to learn how to become a cell phone tester.

What is a Cell Phone Tester?

A cell phone tester is someone who gets to test out mobile phones, mobile phone applications and new features on mobile phones before these are actually released to the public. A cell phone tester may get paid to do this work. More likely, this person will be volunteering in exchange for the chance to test out phones that aren’t yet available to the general public. In either case, the cell phone tester will have to test out the new product or features in a timely manner and will have to report on the results of the testing in some form or other to the people who have hired the tester. These reports may be written or verbal and may be formal or informal.

How to Become a Cell Phone Tester

It isn’t very easy to become a cell phone tester because of the fact that there are limited positions available for this type of job and there are a lot of people out there who would like to do it. However, it is possible to become a cell phone tester if you know where to look for this type of work.

Some of the things that you might do to become a cell phone tester include:

• Check the websites of the cell phone companies and handset makers that you like most. Each individual company may issues announcements on websites, job board and blogs that let the public know that they are interested in hiring cell phone testers. These posts will provide information on the exact details of applying for the job. The amount of testing work that you get will likely be limited since you’re working with only one company but you’ll get to try out the products that you are likely to like the most.

• Get a job with a cell phone company. A lot of those companies don’t advertise those jobs because they have in-house staff doing the testing. These are people who do other jobs for the company (such as customer service) but who also do some of the company’s cell phone testing. If you’re willing to work for a cell phone company then it’s a good way to get the opportunity to do cell phone testing for that same company.

• Attend mobile phone conventions and do some networking. Many of the people who get work as cell phone testers get that work because they know someone who knows someone. Get in with the right people by networking at mobile phone events and then put the word out there among your network that you’re looking to work as a cell phone tester.

• Check technology job boards. It’s rare but every once in awhile you will see a job come up for the position of cell phone tester. Common job boards (such as Monster and MySpace jobs) are a good place to look if this is something that you’re serious about trying to do. Keep an eye out on the jobs and gigs announcements on sites like Craigslist as well because beta testers are often advertised for on those sites. And check out mobile phone forums for the occasional company post about this.

• Apply to work as a writer / reviewer for mobile phone blogs, websites and magazines. Major mobile phone blogs and websites get access to a lot of the new mobile technology before it’s been officially released to the public. Their reviewers get paid to check out the newest mobile phones and mobile phone features and to write up their opinion about them for the sites. These jobs are hard to get and it’s best if you have experience as a tech writer but this is a great way to get work as a cell phone tester (and even get paid to do it!)

• Start your own mobile phone blog. This takes some time and patience but it’s one way that the average person can start getting a foot in the door to test mobile phones. Basically you’ll start your own mobile phone blog and report on the latest phone news. If you can develop this blog to the point where it is a high-quality blog then you can contact mobile phone companies and ask about the possibility of testing new phones in exchange for writing about them on your blog. People who are interested in unique phones from smaller companies and startups may be able to have some success with this approach.

Becoming a cell phone tester requires a combination of persistence and luck. An avid interest in mobile phones and a general passion for getting truly involved with the industry will assist you in getting closer to the opportunities that are available for testing out phones and phone features before they are released to the general public. Keep on putting the word out there that this is something that you’re interested in and there’s a good chance that some sort of chance to do this will come around.

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Help Me Land a Blogging Job

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:36:00 +0000

There's a new contest in town, and I'm reaching out to all my fans, readers and friends here on HubPages for help!

Nature Made has launched a talent search recently, in search of a Good Mood blogger. (Now why are you laughing? Are you sayin I'm not always in a good mood? What do you mean I'm sarcastic? Hush now. This is serious business).

They are looking for someone with a passion for sharing mood boosting tips and advice, a good attitude and a little inspiration. It's a six month gig, paying $5,000 a month. Yes, seriously!

Hey, now.That's right up my alley. If you have read some of my work here at HubPages, such as Mommy Meltdown, Bounce, A Skype Dream or 5 Ways to Apologize, then you know I have a way of taking things that would bring me (or you) down and seeing the bright side, the light side, the sunny side up side.

So what do I need? I need your vote. The applicants with the most votes will make it to the next level, but I can't do it on my own! I need to show that I am loved. How about showing me a little love?

Pick Me! Pick Me!

So please take a minute to go vote for me at Sam-E and help me get to the next round of this contest! It only takes a minute! The first phase of the contest is based completely on votes, but for the applicants who make it to the next level (only the top 20) they will have to create a video and submit a writing sample. Friends will be able to vote, but a panel of judges will have the final say over the outcome.

Your help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

And, if for some reason you decide to get in there and enter yourself because you are a shiny happy person (in need of $5,000 a month), then I wish you much luck! Really, I do! ;)

FireTune - speed optimizer for Mozilla Firefox.

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:35:00 +0000

FireTune is freeware utility from TotalIdea software to improve the speed of MozillaFirefox.Browsing speed can be rapidly increased with other many options within the browser.

But rather this is One click Optimization with FireTune.This not only tweaks the values of delay,pipelining but also some innermost configurations to improve it's peek performance.

FireTune supports Firefox v1.x,2.x,3.x.This not only optimizes but also synchronize Firefox performance with Computer speed so as to prevent the browser from sudden crash that can be due to over processor speed or memory utilized by the browser.

It has 6 options ranges from Fast/Slow Computer with Faster/Slower connections so as to suitable for all low as well as high performance computers.Just select your Browser profile and Click Tune it button to optimize

Third Party Cell Phone Vendor

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:34:00 +0000

Why Buy a Cell Phone from a Third Party Vendor?

Cellular telephones have been engrained in today's society. The number of people using cellular technology today is higher than ever and is still climbing. In November 2007 it was estimated that over 83% of the US population had a cell phone. Cell phones have popped up in popularity due to their convenience. Today's phones offer more features than early computers did and can truly be a one-stop resource center for a busy person's daily activities (calendar, contacts, email, web browsing, music player, GPS, even television).

As convenient as cell phones are, what is not convenient is the way that most cellular service providers treat their customers. If your phone breaks or your lose it, providers are eager to prey on your weak state by charging you exorbitant amounts of money for a new phone, a new contract, or to get out of your old contract. That same phone that was free when you signed a two-year agreement is now $250.00 at full retail price, and the representative isn't willing to listen to you about cutting some sort of deal.

This is one example of a time when it pays (literally and figuratively) to have the option of shopping with a third party cell phone provider. Typically, these companies only sell phones and don't deal with contracts or activation costs or anything like that. You simply buy a phone from them and activate it on whatever network you belong to. No new contract is required. There's not an additional activation fee. You activate the new phone and continue on as if nothing ever happened.

What kind of Phones do Third Parties Sell?

Typically, third party cell phone vendors sell phones that are used, refurbished, and/or unlocked. A brief explanation of each of these terms follows:

Used: A used cell phone is exactly what it sounds like. This phone belonged to somebody at one point in time and was used as their cellular device for a period of time that is usually unknown. You'll find a variety of phones in a variety of positions - from barely used phones that look brand new to phones that have seen better days. If you're looking at used phones, be sure to buy one that is for your network/cellular service provider. Most used phones only work on one network, unless they have been "unlocked" (see below).

Refurbished: Refurbished phones are phones that were returned or found to be defective in some small way and were sent back to the factory for repairs. At the factory, any glitches were fixed and the phone was sent back out in "like new" condition. Like used phones, refurbished cell phones are typically only capable of working on one, maybe two, networks. However, refurbished phones are unlike used phones in that they are fresh from the factory. It is assumed that all problems with the phone have been taken care of and the phone should operate on par with brand new phones of the same model.

Unlocked: An unlocked cell phone is a phone that was designed to operate on one cellular network but has been altered to be able to operate on multiple networks. Unlocked phones can be found in New, Used, or Refurbished condition. The advantage of buying an unlocked phone is that they are more versatile than unlocked phones. To activate an unlocked phone on a particular network, all you need is a SIM card for that network. Therefore, if your old phone dies, you can simply take the SIM card out and put it into a new unlocked phone. The new phone will be activated on your network and you will be able to go on with your day as if nothing happend - even things like your contacts will be transferred from one phone to another. This is also beneficial when travelling internationally. Instead of paying a lot of money on expensive international calls, you can purchase a prepaid SIM card in your destination country and operate on the network over there as if you are still at home.

How to Describe Yourself - Your Positive & Effective Qualities

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:32:00 +0000

Why being able to describe yourself & others is helpful

Being able to describe yourself and others accurately is something we usually have to learn. This seems to be especially true in most western cultures where being honest about our skills, qualities and attributes can be confused with being arrogant, "blowing your own trumpet" and being excessively self indulgent.

(Below you will find a list of around 180 adjectives to help you describe yourself.)

I know from my experience of facilitating confidence and self esteem programs, that when participants are asked to state just five of their best qualities a hushed embarrassment fills the room. "I don't know," is the most common response. Conversely, we're all a lot better at listing our faults and failings and can get onto that task without any difficulty! It's like most of us haven't even dared to think about the question, "What's good about me?" - if that's you, then it's even more important that you read on.

Well ask yourself now! "What's good about you?"

How many descriptive words can you come up with? Knowing how to describe yourself is something that comes in very useful especially on resumes, job aplications and in job interviews. On top of that many of us now use dating websites, forums and have profile pages on various websites that ask us to describe ourselves or provide a bio. An added bonus to knowing how to describe our positive qualitities, is that it helps us combat all the negative talk that goes on in our heads - the voice that continually tells us what and where we're going wrong.

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Why "good" is not so good

If you are a leader, manager or teacher

One of things that an effective leader will do is help others to identify their positive qualities, because people that feel good about themselves, will be better team members. Instead of using the word "good" all of the time think about a more descriptive adjective you could use. How about, "the way you got round that problem was really creative", or, "you're a brilliant mediator - the team works so much more effectively when you are around."

If you are a parent

As parents it's our job to help our children recognise their unique personal attributes. Again, being a "good girl" (or boy) is not very descriptive and will not do much to add to your child's self knowledge, sense of identity or confidence. One of the reasons most of us are so poor at describing our own positive traits is because our parents did not help us identify them. Next time you are thinking of praising your child, why not consider if there is a better word you could use instead of "good".

If you were looking for information on how to describe yourself physically then I'm sorry because you won't find that here. What we're going to do is get to the nitty gritty of who you are and help you find the words to describe yours and others unique qualities.

Words to describe yourself

Because we could all identify with 90% of these adjectives in some situation or other, I'd suggested picking 10 - 15 words that describe how you are most of the time, regardless of the situation. It might be helpful to think about who are you when you are on your own, doing your own thing? There will be very few other people who will identify the exact same combination because we are all different.

Honest

Assertive

Attentive

Direct

Broad-minded

Committed

Conscientious

Dynamic

Hard Worker

Persistent

Mature

Methodical

Motivated

Objective

Tenacious

Sociable

Friendly

Realistic

Reliable

Resourceful

Respectful

Responsible

Creative

Confident

Traditional

Trustworthy

Unconventional

Unique

Ecclectic

Inventive

Exciting

Thoughtful

Powerful

Practical

Proactive

Productive

Professional

Quality

Quick

Balanced

Achiever

Knowledgeable

Leader

Literate

Logical

Initiator

Original

Outgoing

Particular

Patient

Active

Positive

Consistent

Compassionate

Incredible

Independent

With Integrity

Mediator

Emotional

Cheerful

Forgiving

Sensuous

Generous

Sporty

Devoted

Candid

Rebellious

Cooperative

Industrious

Interesting

Racy

Meditative

Understanding

Quirky

Quixotic

Optimistic

Accomplished

Adept

Analytical

Articulate

Artistic

Self Disciplined

Contraversial

Individual

Tolerant

Naive

Green

Unselfish

Sophisticated

Stable

Strong

Successful

Tactful

Talented

Team Player

Fun

Intelligent

Changeable

Passionate

Intense

Intuitive

Upbeat

Vibrant

Funny

Constructive

Customer-oriented

Dependable

Direct

Loyal

Curious

Competitive

Political

Social Consciousness

Modest

Courageous

Enthusiastic

Enterprising

Entrepreneurial

Facilitator

Focused

Genuine

Open Minded

Wise

Sensitive

Sense of Humor

Sensible

Sincere

Skilled

Solid

Communicative

Helpful

Fast

Responsible

Results-driven

Results-oriented

Self-reliant

Organised

Knowledgeable

Logical

Personable

Pleasant

Flexible

Adaptable

Persuasive

Perceptive

Insightful

Trustworthy

Easy going

Good listener

Imaginative

Warm

Ambitious

Diplomatic

Leader

What's good about me?

These are the words I think best describe me:

perceptive
down to earth
open minded
knowledgeable
logical
analytical
tenacious
quick learner
genuine
warm
inventive
rebellious
direct
generous
insightful

Your list of positive qualities

So how did you get on? How does it feel to identify your positive qualities? Good I hope!

If you thought of any other positive descriptive words then please leave them in a comment below so that I can add them to the list.

Remember to bookmark this list in case you need to come back to it - you never know when you will be required to tell someone who you are or what's good about someone else.

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World’s Longest River – World’s Largest River – and World’s Deepest River

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:31:00 +0000

The Nile River

The world’s longest river is the Nile. At 6650 kilometres long, it’s no doubt the longest river in the world. All through the earliest civilisation of man, the NileRiver has been entirely the source of water for civilization of man since the ancient times. The Nile has two main tributaries - the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile starts from the Great Lakes region of East and Central Africa through Lake Victoria. The Blue Nile originates from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. The Blue Nile carries with it a lot of fertile soil from soil erosion which turns out to be very fertile for farming in Egypt. The two tributaries, Blue Nile and the White Nile, meet in Khartoum in Sudan.

The Nile River, at 6650 kilometres long, is no doubt the longest river in the world. Image credit: Wikipedia

Compare Nile with Mississippi – Missouri River

From Khartoum, the River Nile flow through quietly through the desert and in to Egypt where Egyptian makes use of its water by farming. Aswan (in Egypt), is one of the driest inhabited places on planet earth. People have been able to inhibit and live successful life in Aswan just because of the waters of the Nile. It is in Egypt that people have been able to make better use of the NileRiver since the ancient time. If one looks at the location of nearly all towns and popular historical sites in Egypt, they are all along the banks of the NileRiver. The Nile finally empty into Mediterranean Sea through the Nile delta.

Perhaps one may want to compare the Mississippi – Missouri River at 6275 kilometres long and Amazon River at 6400 kilometres long with Nile’s 6650 kilometres. And the world's most sacred river, river Jordan, is 251 kilometers long.

And on a serious note, River Jordan is currently one of the world's most endangered and polluted river due to differences between Israel and neighboring Arab states.

Amazon River - the worlds largest River (not longest) at a width of about 40 kilometres. Image Credit: Wikipedia

The Amazon River - World's Largest River

The Amazon River is the world’s largest River (not longest) at a width of about 40 kilometres during the rainy seasons but about 10 kilometres wide when not flooded. The lenth of the Amazon River is 6400 kilometres. The Amazon River has so much water that it account for no less than 20% of all the world’s water that flows into the oceans on its own. The depth of the Amazon River is as much as 40 metres during the rainy seasons.

From the more than 1100 tributaries, the main tributaries of the Amazon River are Maranon, Japura, Rio Negro Ucayali, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, Xingu, Tocantins Iquitos, Manaus and Belem do Para. The main Amazon River flows mostly through Brazil and Peru but its tributaries are also to be found in Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

Golden Dart Frog - an extremely poisonous frog on earth found in Amazon rain forest.

Curious creatures at Amazon Rain Forest

There are many species of animals to be found in Amazon River. The most curious animals in Amazon are the candiru which are parasitic freshwater catfish which are known to enter the urethra of those who urinates on the Amazon River or those who bath there. Another curious creature to be found on the Amazon rain forest (around the Pacific coast of Colombia) is the Golden Dart Frog which is the most poisonous frog on earth. Its poison is used in poisoning arrows by the local people there. The largest snake, the anaconda snake is to be found in the waters of Amazon basin.

Congo River, in Africa, is the worlds deepest river. The river has depths of about 250 metres. Its length is 4700 km

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The Congo River - World’s Deepest River

The Congo River (read Zaire River), in Africa, is the world’s deepest river. The river has depths of about 250 metres. Its length is 4700 km. This river is very similar to Amazon River in the sense that it’s the second largest river in terms of water volume and that the river flows through the second largest rain forest in the world. The water catchments area of the Congo River basin lie in both north and south of Equator making its flow very stable as there is always at least some tributaries experiencing a rainy season at any one time.

The sources of the Congo River are in the highlands and mountains to be found in the Eastern Africa Rift Valley. The main tributaries of the Congo River include the following rivers: Inkisi River, Nzadi River, Nsele River, Bombo River, Kwa River, Fimi River, Lukenie River, Kwango River, Sankuru River, Likouala River, Sangha River, Ubangi River, Giri River, Uele River, Mbomou River, Lomami River, Luvua River, Luapula River and Chambeshi River.

^{The Author’s page is designed to help beginners and average readers make some money as an extra income to supplement what they may be earning elsewhere - details of which you can find in My Page, if you will.}

Hot Jobs in High Demand 2009 - 2016

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:29:00 +0000

Nearly 2.8 Million Jobs Available

As of this date 07/25/09, there are listed at least 2,767, 632 American jobs appearing on Internet sites that include job search engines, recruiters' sites, and employers' individual websites.

For information on the leading industries hiring from 2009 - 2012, see the article at What Industries are Hiring the Most Workers?

The top actually-listed jobs for July 2009 are presented below.

Jobs listings rose to July '08 with travel and vacations increasing, then fell after the 2008 Christmas and Holiday Season. Job listings increased to February '09 and leveled out, but continued to fluctuate around that level. Some states continued to experience increases in job listings in certain cites and regions. Texas is a good example of such exonomic health.

Josb listings rose to July '08, fell after the 2008 Christmas and Holiday Season, then increased to February '09 and leveled out, but increased in certain states and job titles.

Top 15 Job Listings in America, Summer 2009

Physical Therapists
Occupational Therapists
Assistant Managers - Retail, food service, and others
Tax Professionals/Tax Preparers
Independent Beauty Consultants (other than AVON)
AVON Independent Sales Representatives
Sales Associates
Salespersons
Sales Managers
Registered Nurses (RNs)
Retail Sales Consultants
Physicians/Doctors in Family Practice
Restaurant General Managers
Sales Representatives
Assistant General Managers

These top job listings are preseneted in a color coded table below that empahsizes the three (3) leading industries captured by all 15 job titles.

Search for jobs in your area or any state or city to which you want to relocate at Indeed.com.

DEMAND FOR SALES RELATED- POSITIONS DURING MID-SUMMER MAY BE PARTIALLY CREDITED TO THE YEARLY INCREASE IN TOURISM & TRAVEL THAT BEINGS RETAIL DOLLARS OUT. SALES OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT & PHARMACEUTICALS MAY ALSO REPRESENT A SIZEABLE PORTION OF DEMAND.

Four Industry Sectors Contain the Most Jobs

The most jobs listings are in categories that involves SALES. The second greatest number of job openings are listed in Healthcare, with the third highest being in Management of some sort, whether Retail, Food Service, or some other industry. The last entry is a single listing category for tax preparation that would include Accounting Professions. Forensic Accounting is becoming a growing industry sector in the 21st Century in light of several financial scandals in the nation and the need to better control finances and eleiminate waste..

In 2009, an increase in tax preparation services occured, because of such events and problematic or overwhelming situations as 1) ammended tax returns for larger deductions and refunds, 2) catch-up of unfiled tax returns, and 3) tax audits and related matters.

Top Cities for Each Top Job Listing

The current cities in which the significantly largest number of Top Jobs are listed include:

Physical Therapists - San Antonio, Texas & Jacksonville, Florida (tie)
Occupational Therapists - Memphis, Tennesee & Jacksonville, Florida (tie)
Assistant Managers - New York City
Tax Professionals - New York City
Independent Beauty Consultants - New York City
Avon ISRs - New York City and Anchorage Alaska (tie)
Sales Associates - New York City, Houston
Salespersons - same as above
Sales Managers - New York City, Houston, Chicago
Registered Nurses (RNs) - San Antonio and Houston, Texas
Retail Sales Consultants - New York City and Houston
Physican or Doctor - New York City; Dallas and Houston, Texas: 1) Family Practice, 2) Internal Medicine.
Restaurant General Managers - Houston & San Antonio, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; Los Angeles, California; Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sales Representatives - New York City, Chicago, Houston; Charlotte, NC; Atlanta, Georgia.
Assistant Managers - New York City, Houston, Wasington DC, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, others.

COMPARISONS

A few of the jobs listed in the Top 15 Actual Job Listings appear on either of the US Federal projections for employment trends to 2016. Registered Nurses (RNs) is the notable example.

Federal Projections for "Most Job Openings" Expected to 2016

Registered Nurses (RNs)
Retail Salespersons
Customer Service Representatives
All Food Preparation & Service
Office Clerks
Personal & Home Care Aides
Home Health Aides (HHAs)
Postsecondary Teachers
Janitors and Cleaners, except Housekeepers
Nursing Aides & Orderlies
Bookkeeping, Accounting, And Auditing Clerks
Waitstaff
Child Care Workers
Executive Secretaries & Administrative Assistants
Computer Software Applications Engineers

[Three titles appear on both lists.]

Federal Projections of Fastest Growing Jobs to 2016

Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts
Personal and Home Care Aides
Home Health Aides (HHAs)
Computer Software Applications Engineers
Veterinary Techs
Personal Financial Advisors
Makeup Artists - Theatrical and Performance Arts, including media.
Medical Assistants
Veterinarians
Counselors for Substance Abuse & Behavioral Disorders
Skin Care Specialists - included medical.
Financial Analysts
Social and Human Service Assistants
Gaming Surveillance Officers and Gaming Investigators
Physical Therapist Assistants

Why Projections Change

Employment trends and actual job listings differ by state and by metropolitan area within the US States.

Federal projections for future jobs are produced by government statisticians and analysts for a decade at a time, such as 2004 - 2014 and 2006 - 2016 and there is some time overlap as well as differences in job projections that arise with the emergence of new industries and new occupations. Some jobs essentially go out of existence and new jobs are offered as technologies advance.

Overlapping decades provides a background for adjusting trends to other important factors that may include increasing or decreasing populations and other elements. The Recession 2008 - 2009 had some affects upon job listing trends, as did the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. Employment trends can change rapidly and it is wise to read business and employment projection news.

An example of changes between two decades of projections can be seen in an article that adresses the Best Places to Move In Tennessee.

The State of Texas experienced a small increase in Unemployment rate overall in June, 2009, but several cities remained at around only 5-6% while the nation topped over 10% unemployment during the same time. See a market-by-market review at Texas Job Markets.

What Jobs are In Demand 2009 - 2016? in the News

Gerdau, Tam Rise on Demand After Rio Olympics Victory (Update1)Bloomberg10 hours ago
Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s planned $11 billion in infrastructure spending for Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic Games may increase demand for steel products from Gerdau SA , boost passenger traffic at Tam SA and fuel purchases at Dufry South America Ltd stores.
Jackson Community College respiratory program helping some train for new careersThe Jackson Citizen Patriot23 hours ago
Erik Holladay | Jackson Citizen PatriotSarah Parker, 32, of Napoleon checks Bonnie Harper’s heart rate as she is given her treatment for respiratory problems. Parker is part of Jackson Community College’s respiratory program.There are some employees who walk around Allegiance...
Demand for health professionals poised for growthAustin American-Statesman6 days ago
Research by the Capital Area Workforce Board has resulted in a list of its targeted occupations in Austin, showing the professions that are projected to be in demand in the near future in Travis County.

Medical Tourism - A Growing Niche Market

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:11:00 +0000

Medical Tourism Goes Back to Roman Times

The term Medical Tourism refers to traveling to another a foreign country for medical care.

In times past traveling abroad for medical care was limited to wealthy people in regions where the type of medical care needed was not available locally. This usually involved wealthy people in poor or less developed countries traveling to places, such as Switzerland, Great Britain or the United States, to obtain care that was either unavailable at home or where the quality of local providers was very low.

Switzerland has an especially long history of medical tourism according to SWIXMED a Swiss firm that arranges care in Swiss clinics for international patients. On their homepage SWIXMED notes that as far back as the Roman Empire wealthy citizens of the Empire would travel to spas in the Swiss Alps to bathe in the hot mineral springs there in the belief that soaking in these waters would cure arthritis and other ills.

While Switzerland was not the only nation to have mineral springs, the number of such springs relative to the country's small size resulted in these springs making a noticeable contribution to the nation's economy. In addition, like similar springs in other nations, these areas became tourist hubs catering to wealthy tourists (about the only kind of tourist in times past) seeking to improve their health. Since the motivation for these tourists was improved health, it is only natural that a medical services industry would develop in these areas.

Traveling Abroad When Needed Care is Unavailable at Home

The growth of medical care has gone hand in hand with economic development. An abundance of wealthy visitors to its mineral springs obviously provided the Swiss with both the means and incentive to develop its medical care industry. A steady stream of wealthy clients willing and able to pay for medical services served to both induce doctors and other medical practitioners to relocate to Switzerland in order to improve their own economic prospects as well as to induce locals to enter the industry thus helping to make Switzerland a big provider of medical services.

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In other nations, economic growth led to increasing demand for medical services by ever larger segments of the population. Throughout history, the poor, who until recently comprised almost the entire population of every land, had a difficult enough time obtaining enough food to survive. Starvation has historically been the major killer with sickness and disease being a random variable that could not be avoided by most of those who were struck by illness.

However, in areas where economic growth took hold and food became more plentiful, starvation became less of a threat while rising wealth meant that more resources could be devoted to fighting disease and more people could afford to pay for disease treatment and prevention. For people in these wealthier nations good medical care was now available at home.

For who live in wealthier nations, there should no longer be a need to travel abroad for medical care. However, ironically, wealthier nations are now the main sources of demand for medical tourism while poorer nations, especially Asian nations with rapidly growing economies, are the main destinations for medical tourists.

Three main forces are driving this demand by those in wealthier nations to seek medical services abroad. These are:

- Lower cost care in Asian nations.

- Need for services not available at home due to legal restrictions

- Denial of services in home nation due to managed care programs

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Seeking Low Cost Services Abroad

One result of economic growth in the post World War II era and the associated Cold War motivated economic aid to the, then poor, nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America has been the beginnings of a middle class in these former Third World nations and the professional education that many middle class youth in these Third World nations received in the United States, Europe and, to some extent, the former Soviet Union.

The result was a large number of doctors and other professional medical personnel returning to their home countries after receiving an education and often working for a number of years in North America or Western Europe.

Poverty among the local population limited demand for the services of these returning professionals and this, coupled with their foreign training and experience, encouraged them to begin offering their services to foreigners. One of the biggest attractions was their ability to provide their services at the much lower local rates. In addition to the lower cost of living in these countries which results in lower relative wages, currency exchange rates also add to the differential in cost between the overseas providers and foreign patients.

Destinations in Asia and other places have become popular for Americans who either lack medical insurance or seek elective procedures not covered by insurance because of the cost savings. There are also some managed care providers (organizations that work with employers to help keep medical and insurance expenses down for employers) that have started, at the request of the employer or other third party payer, referring patients abroad for medical services because of the huge cost differences in these cases. Some concern has been raised about this from a few patients and consumer groups as, unlike most forms of medical tourism, the patients in these cases have little or no say in the decision to be sent abroad for the service.

In the case of the United States, a number of people living in Southwestern cities, like Tucson, Arizona where I live, which are within easy driving distance of the Mexican border, often go across the border for minor ailments and especially routine dental care due to the much lower cost of these services. Many of the doctors and dentists providing these services received their training from schools in the U.S.

Ironically, many upper middle class Mexicans living near the U.S. border come to places like Tucson for routine medical and dental care in the belief that the quality is better.

In recent years there has been an increase in Americans going to Canada and Mexico for prescription drugs. This used to be illegal but the rules were relaxed a number of years ago to allow people with legal prescriptions to have them filled abroad. There is now a big business with Canadian pharmacies filling mail order prescriptions for U.S. citizens.

The United States is both home to major prescription drug companies as well as being by far the largest market for U.S. and foreign pharmacutical companies. Before any prescription drug can be sold in the United States it must first undergo a review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a process that usually takes years to complete and millions of dollars in expense before being approved.

This expensive FDA review is usually given as the major reason for charging more for prescription drugs in the U.S. than in other nations. I don't know what the price differential is now, but a little over a decade ago I accompanied a friend to Nogales, Mexico shortly after the U.S. dropped its prohibition on individuals having prescriptions filled abroad.
He wanted to compare the price of an arthritis drug for his wife which was produced by a leading British pharmaceutical company. He brought with him an empty bottle that had contained a 30 day supply of the medication and which had been purchased in Tucson for $32.00.

Walking into a pharmacy in Nogales, Mexico, he showed the bottle to the pharmacist who immediately produced a full bottle of the medication which was an exact duplicate except for the wording which was in Spanish but said the same thing and was printed in the same font. The price was also different - the cost in Mexico was $2.50.

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In addition to the cost of FDA approval and the pharmacuitical industry's practice of differential pricing between nations, other regulations in the U.S. also served to drive up prices. Shortly before accompanying my friend to the pharmacy in Mexico I had called the Arizona state agency responsible for licensing pharmacists in Arizona. I was assisting a student who had been laid off by a factory closing on the U.S. side of the border in Nogales, Arizona and who was completing an English language program to prepare him for a position in the larger economy.

This student had dropped out of a Mexican medical school years before just prior to graduation and was now considering putting the pharmacology training he had received while studying to be a medical doctor to use in becoming a pharmacist.

The lady in the licensing division told me that, in order to take the exam to be a licensed pharmacist in Arizona, one had to have graduated from a recognized school of pharmacy. Only three schools in the world met Arizona's high standards and, not surprisingly, all three were located in Arizona (I believe that this rideculous rule has since been dropped).

One of the factors driving up medical costs in the U.S. is the practice of states creating and supporting cartels which unduly limit the number of people who can provide medical services within their borders - even a physician with a world-wide reputation and licensed in his or her home state, more than likely cannot legally perform medical services in another state without first going to the time and expense of meeting bureaucratic rules designed solely to protect local practictioners from outside competition.

Legal Restrictions on Medical Care

The practice of medicine tends to be heavily regulated by governments in most nations. As a result there are some procedures and treatments which are legal and available in most nations but severely restricted or illegal in other nations.

The above mentioned FDA approval process in the United States often results in new drugs and treatments being illegal in the U.S. but legal elsewhere. The goal of such laws and regulations is usually the protection of the nation's citizens from what are perceived to be untried and / or unsafe treatments and procedures.

While supporters of such protective policies are quick to point out estimates of the number of lives saved from blocking unsafe procedures, critics point out that unkonown numbers of lives are lost to disease during the approval process and these figures should be factored into the considerations about the overall effectiveness of these laws and regulations.

One of the best known cases of going abroad for a banned treatment was actor Steve McQueen's decision to travel to Mexico for a controversial cancer treatment, which was banned in the U.S., involving a drug called Laetrile in the 1980s.

While the treatment McQueen received in a Mexican clinic failed to cure the cancer that ultimately took his life, he is still admired for continuing to fight for his life despite government regulations.

Denial of Medical Services by Managed Care Programs

The great appeal of free markets is the fact that free markets give people the freedom to manage their own lives and make their own choices.

Unfortunately, the growth of the nanny state in recent years in both the public and private sectors has curtailed the freedom of many adults to exercise full control over their lives. In exchange for the security implied by the promise to provide services regardless of the ability to pay people give up the right to make their own decisions in such areas. In these cases the cynical version of the Golden Rule - he who has the gold, rules - applies.

The area where this is most common in the advanced economies of the Western World is in the area of medical care where service is more often than not provided by the government or, especially in the United States, insurance provided by private employers. In both cases there is a disconnect between the party paying, in this case the government or employer, and the party receiving the service (the patient).

The goal of managed care, whether provided by a government agency or a private company hired by an employer, is to protect the interests of both the one paying for the service (tax payers in the case of government, employers in the case of private sector) and the patient. In the case of government programs the patient, who is a tax paying citizen who has paid into the system with his or her taxes, naturally wants the best care available and in whatever quantity needed to cure them.

The same goes for patients covered by an employer provided program which is basically a service provided in lieu of additional cash income (and the income tax plays a critical role here in that, because of tax savings, a greater amount of the in kind service - medical coverage - can be provided at a lower cost than if paid in cash which is taxable).

To protect taxpayers or employers from skyrocketing medical costs as patients demand service without limits, those managing care are forced to ration and deny certain treatments and procedures that they consider to be unreasonable.

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Denials by managed care providers is probably the major force behind the current growth in medical tourism. People who are denied care outright or who are forced to wait years for needed services, can exercise the option of going abroad and purchasing the care themselves.

It is not uncommon for Canadians, despite the 2005 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada which ruled that "Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,..." (a ruling which technically only applied to the Province of Quebec but has been looked upon as a challenge to the entire Canadian system of socialized medicine) to bypass their government run system and travel to the United States for treatments either denied by the Canadian system or require life threatening waits for service. It is also becoming increasingly common for Americans to seek treatment abroad when insurance companies refuse to pay for desired treatments.

Future of Medical Tourism

Rising incomes and increasing government involvement in health care ensure that Medical Tourism will continue to exist and grow.

Health is a big determinent in the quality and length of life. Economic growth and rising living standards result in both an increase in health care services and an increase in people's ability to take advantages of the increased and improved services.

While government medling in the economy in general and in the health care area in particular in various countries result in limiting peoples' freedom to choose the care they want and need in those nations, market forces in other nations create opportunities to get around the policies of one's own nation and seek the care needed from abroad.

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Steve McQueen's death 25 years ago this month ended a bizarre drama in which he surreptitiously traveled to Mexico for an unorthodox cancer treatment.
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By Ron Johnson, M.D., F.A.C.S., Chief Medical Officer, Satori World Medical Travel for medical care outside of the US for the purpose of
Medical Tourism | Corporate, Employer, Individual Medical Travel Programs | IndUShealth
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Swixmed: Healthcare In Switzerland
Swiss hospitals make use of leading-edge treatments and technologies and are furnished with the latest medical equipment. Patients profit from the incomparable quality and range of the medical clinics.

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I have certainly seen my share of doctors over the past year since my cancer diagnosis and I have learned the importance not only of effective communication, but of being your own advocate. - 2 weeks ago
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The term Medical Tourism refers to traveling to another a foreign country for medical care. - 7 days ago
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Medical Tourism in the News

Proton beam therapy could bring millions in revenue to Flint area with medical tourismThe Flint Journal3 days ago
FLINT, Michigan — Could medical tourism be the next new wave for reshaping Flint’s economy? Industry experts say it’s too soon to tell what ripple effects will come from McLaren Health Care’s new proton therapy center slated to open sometime around...
Penang expands market for medical tourismThe Star4 days ago
PENANG is set to become a world-renowned medical tourism hub with Europe, the United States and Papua New Guinea emerging as new potential markets.
Formosa Medical Travel adds three Taiwan hospitals to its medical tourism networkNews-Medical-Net5 days ago
Formosa Medical Travel, a medical tourism facilitation company headquartered in Taipei, has entered into agreements with three of Taiwan’s leading hospitals, with the assistance of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, and Changhua Christian Hospital are the three newest members of Formosa Medical Travel’s ...

Make Your Own Virtual Pet

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:41:00 +0000

Tamagotchis, Neopets, N-Gage Creebies... some of these are more or less popular than others, but they are all types of virtual pets that can provide hours of fun, engagement, and satisfaction. When you can't have a pet that you physically have to take for a walk or feed, you can enjoy the company and loyalty of a virtual pet anytime.

There are a wealth of different virtual pet communities in which you can create a pet. Make sure you choose the one that's right for you, based on its different features and characteristics. They each have specialties, though many of them share a lot of the same features. Take some time to look at each one separately.

Be sure before you create or adopt a pet that you can dedicate enough time to its care and well being. Oftentimes the way you treat your pet will greatly determine how it develops and what kind of pet it will be. Show it love and it will be a great friend for you!

Marapets

N-Gage Creebies - Virtual pets on your Nokia phone!

Create your pet!

Even though each virtual pet community is different, many of them share the same features that engage visitors and keep them coming back for more.

A choice of a pet: There are often many different virtual pets to choose from. There are usually dogs and cats and other common pets, but sometimes there are hamsters, horses, birds, llamas, fish, snakes, and even creatures that hardly resemble actual animals. Sometimes you can create your own pet, while at other times you can adopt pets that already exist, that may have been neglected or were created by the virtual pet community.

For instance, with Neopets, you have many characteristics to choose from for your pet. Sometimes a pet with certain characteristics may be suggested for you, but these are the traits to choose for your pet:

Species - 42 different virtual pets (unless if there are special edition ones available)
Color - It can be green, yellow, blue, or red
Name - Anything between 3 and 20 characters long... be nice with it!
Gender
Location - Choose whether it likes to live in a forest, sea, river, jungle, town, city, mountain, or wilderness
Hobby - Does it like to gather food, explore the land, make friends, hunt for treasure, bully others, or read and learn?
Greeting - Does it greet others by acting friendly, smiling sweetly, approaching with caution, stand its grown, run away, insult from afar, attack if the other is weaker, or try to make friends?
Stats - It is equally great in strength, defense, and movement? Does it have greater strength and least movement? Does it have greatest defense? Each species has a few different sets of stats to choose from. Also, your pet will always have changing health (Neopet health is on a scale from 1 to 9); mood; hunger level; age; and level. You can even create more than one pet... just make sure you don't neglect the one you already have!

Points and Cash: You are given points and cash often once you join a virtual pet community. You can use these to buy items or improve the well being of your pet. Depending on the community, you can earn points by playing games or battling pets, and get cash by selling old items you don't want anymore.

With Marapets, you can earn different kinds of currency by completing certain types of tasks; earn Marapoints (MP) by playing games, chatting on the forums, completing quests, and randomly exploring the site; earn Baspinar Points (BP) by battling pets; and earn Restock Points (RP) by restocking items from most of the shops in the different parts of Marada, the land of Marapets.

Just be active in the many parts of the virtual pet community to earn as many points as possible. But be careful because sometimes something unexpected may happen to your points or cash... like having them be stolen by community pests!

You can also deposit and withdraw points and/or cash from the banks available in the community. Use them for safekeeping, as you can with a safety deposit box as well.

Items: There is basically any type of item you can imagine, with such random objects like exploding coconuts, wings of flame, and Shenkuu Performer Wardobe. They can be categorized in groups like New Items, Most Popular Items, and Items No One Would Ever Want To Buy, Seriously (these are featured on Neopets).

Once you have your virtual pet, you are often granted with complimentary items for your pet. With Neopets, you are given a new player's guide; a Newbie Pack with objects like toys, food, books or weapons; Neopoints; and Neocash. With your cash, you can buy more items for your pet. In some communities, like with Marapets and Rescreatu pets, you can trade your items as well.

Don't forget about dressing up your new virtual pet! This is something a lot of people have fun with. With Neopets, once you've created your virtual pet, you can customize it in a few ways:

View and sort items - Choose which items it can wear in its closet, or see what it already is wearing. Sort items by species (items only wearable by your pet's species), zone (the area the item is worn in, such as hat or shoes), or rarity (the value of rarity assigned to the item).
Apply the item - Put it on your pet!
Remove the item - Take it off your pet.
Save your work - You can save the different outfit combinations once you've created them.
Get more items - Go shopping for more things for your pet!

There are often different shops for you to visit and purchase items for your pet. In Neopia - the land of Neopets - there are different stores, lodges, and other facilities, even banks and restaurants! Neopia comprises of Neopia Central, Neopian Bazaar, and Neopian Plaza, each with different places to shop.You can also go to auctions to purchase more items, or trading posts. Use your cash at all of these places!

Finally, you can even make a home for your virtual pet! In Neopia, you can apply for a plot of land and begin construction after your application is approved. Purchase furniture and other items for your pet's home after it's done! Also, with Marapets, you can stash your items in an attic so it doesn't have to carry all of them with it all the time. You can even make sure your pet's attic or home has a security system.

Battles: This is something that is growing in different virtual pet communities. You can battle Neopets, Marapets, Cyopets and more. In Neopia, there are different battledomes in which to battle. You can target and choose who to battle based on their stats (played, won, lost, drawn, score, difficulty level, etc.). Check your own stats and equipment before you start to make sure it's a good idea to battle.

Games: Each virtual pet community has a variety of games to play for points. With Neopets, the games are categorized into groups like board games, card games, sports, educational, adventure, arcade classic, for kids, showcase games, top games, strategy, quiz games, word games, puzzles, multiplayer, luck/chance, and most challenging. Choose which type of game to play based on your skills to win more points!

Clubs: Many virtual pet communities have lots of clubs for you and your pet to join. With Marapets, users create clubs that anyone can be a part of; some include Fuzzy Friends, Battlers Union, Marapark, Marapets Institute of Art, Marapets Gold Members, and more.

Forums and Message Boards: Peruse the forums or explore the message boards to learn more about the virtual pet community you have become a part of, make friends, enter contests or shows, purchase or trade items, give ideas or suggestions, join groups, or go on a quest and discover new places. Just make sure that you don't violate the rules of the boards or forums or, in some cases, your account may be permanently frozen!

News: Be sure to visit this section in order to stay abreast of the newest developments in your virtual pet community. See who won battles, what new items are available, and what other nw features have been added in the different parts of the community. With Neopets, they have different news sections, including Latest News, New in NC Mall, New Games, The Neopian Times, Contests and Spotlights, and Coming Soon. Use the News section to get a one-up on others and stay on top of the latest things.

Donations: Sometimes you can up your status or earn more points or cash by giving real money, which the virtual pet sponsor will consider a donation to the community. Be careful which community you donate to, and make sure it seems legitimate enough to give your payment information.

Other Features: Some communities have certain features that others may not. Neopets has a Neovision section where you can watch short videos from other Web sites or ones that people submitted, trailers, an more; enter a contest or look through the archives. Also, you can check out the weather in Neopia or look at the Neopedia to make sure you understand the terms involved in exploring Neopia.

Easy decoration with hotkeys on GoPets!

Why is content important in website development?

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:38:00 +0000

Importance of website content!

Content is definitely the key to website success! With much thought, deciding to share my website success secrets is very courteous and risky. All over the Internet, people are searching for ideas to improve and increase their websites. They are speeding around and searching for that certain website tip that will make them succeed. Many people overlook the importance of content to their websites. They are looking at all the link exchange sites, affiliate banners, sending out email blasts and completely rushing into the whole web site development process without stopping, seeing and using the obvious techniques. Website competition is way to high at this point to be doing what everyone else is. Many beginner website owners, including myself have made and or learned from this mistake. Your website needs content! That is as blunt as I can be about it.

For those of you who do provide great text and information in your website, then that is wonderful. Just keep those fingers typing and your mind working. The more quality information you provide via your site, the better your website will be. This article will tell you the reasoning behind quality content and it's importance. Notice how I stated "quality content"? Quality content is important because you want your readers to like what they read when they are directed to your website.

Why make a website for your business?

Why make a website for your business?
Do you have a business and want to see if making a website will benefit you? Not only will a website benefit you, it will definitely help your business or company. Do you feel stumped on how to start your...

Content helps increase page rank!

Content helps increase your chances at a higher page rank. Once again, I am going to add quality in front of content. Quality content increases higher search engine page rank. From experience and many site reviews, content plays a major role in where you are ranked. I am going to use google as an example because they are now considered to be the top search engine. If you want your website to be ranked high in google results, you need to provide helpful and informative content to your website. Google indexes every body's websites and web pages eventually. They are looking for the best information to provide to their search topic results. Who wants to go to a website that has many website photos, graphics and or designs but no content? People use the Internet to search for helpful how to's, instructions, research results, facts and information.

A large majority of Internet user's are searching to learn. With that said, if you want your website to be ranked higher then your competitors, build strong and quality content. Teach those who are searching for your information. Choose a website topic that you have much knowledge about and write your heart out. Please keep in mind that their are other factors that also help your page rank. If you are serious about making a successful website, add quality text and do more research on web site development. I will provide helpful links below if you need more tips on website building. You will have access to seo tips, page rank, how to make your website popular, how to make a cheap website a success, what pages are needed for your site and much more!

Help with your website!

Help with your website!
Do you need help with your officelive website?, free tips and advise on building a basic website, help with website plan and design. Build your free website now. Build a website for your business or for fun.

How to make money online without having to pay!

How to make money online without having to pay?
Build a free website to start off making money online. Many website hosts offer free websites to their customers. You will need to have a free website, blog, and or web page for these money making ideas to...

How to make a cheap website a success?

How to Make a Cheap Website a Success | eHow.com
How to Make a Cheap Website a Success. For all of you that want a website, but think that it is too hard to build and succeed with. ...I will share some basic steps for you to take.

25 Funny Facebook Status Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 03:25:00 +0000

I have to admit it, to my eternal shame, I have actually sat in front of facebook and spent a good five minutes trying to think of something funny to say..... and then failed miserably, so turned to google for assistance. I also know, through doing so, that some of my friends have done this too. At least it seems that thousands of other people also lack the creativity gene and to make up for my failings, I present to you the 50 funniest Facebook status / status's / statuses / stati....?!? All of these status updates are genuinely real, but for the benefit of this article, my subjects need to have a names, so lets call them Dave and Katie - just to place that little bit of extra emphasis my complete lack of creativity. It's not really appropriate to give people's real names, but the 'Daves' were male, and the 'Katies' were female.......

The Funny Status Updates......

Dave feels like getting some work done...and so he is sitting down until the feeling passes.

Katie used to play sports. Then she realized you can buy trophies. Now she's good at everything.

Dave is color blind and trying to solve a rubiks cube... This could take a while...

Katie dreams of a better world...where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned :0)

Dave says my computer just beat me at chess...but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

Katie is cle'a]ni.ng he'r ke]yb29oa;rd

Dave is wondering why his daughter's diaper holds no where near the 22-37 pounds it promises.

Katie is proud of herself. She finished a jigsaw puzzle in 6 months and the box said 2-4 years.

Dave doesn't suffer from insanity... he enjoys every minute of it.

Katie ║▌║█║▌║▌││║▌║█║▌│║▌║█║▌║▌││║▌║ *ZAP* *BEEP* Price: $7.95

Dave is wondering where noah kept woodpeckers on his ark

Katie thinks that if your relationship status says, "It's complicated" that you should stop kidding yourself and change it to "Single"

Dave before you use the bathroom in someones house make sure you check they have toilet paper!!

Online Social Networking Sites

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:23:00 +0000

I had two choices while writing this article: hunt down every online social networking site on the Internet and provide links but give little information about each, or provide more information about a decent selection of popular sites. I originally opted for the second choice, but then I thought of a third: review the more popular sites, and provide a link and a more abbreviated description for each of the rest. The result is the list below, which is only the first part of a larger collection of categorized sites.

If you know of any other online networking sites not included in the list at the end of this post, please leave a comment so I can add them. Thanks!

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Bebo

Bebo is a nicely designed site that offers online social networking where friends share information and explore different forms of entertainment. Their are a lot of cool applications that expand what you can do when you're in the Bebo environment, which means you'll probably want to have high speed internet service if you're a member. These include the BeFunky Cartoonizer that allows you to turn photos into cartoons; iLike, which lets you add music and videos to your profile; the ability to make song dedications to friends and participate in a music challenge; and much more. At the moment, this site is more popular in the U.K. than the U.S., but it can be used by anyone.

Bebo in the News

I get depressed when people try to pull me down: BeboHindustan Times19 hours ago
After Wanted , composer duo Sajid-Wajid returns with the music of another Salman Khan starrer, Main Aurr Mrs Khanna . The album cannot be considered a sure-shot hit but is decent in parts.
Dad angry as Amrit gives Flying kiss to Bebo!New Kerala4 days ago
A weird incident recently took place on the sets of Star Plus's Bebo, where Amrit aka Anuj Sachdeva was taken aback when Bebo's father misunderstood him, and started yelling at the poor actor!

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Capazoo

Capazoo is unusual in that it combines online social networking with the ability to earn "zoops," which can be converted into cash at the rate of $0.01 per zoop. You earn zoops by getting "tips" from other users for your videos, music, photos, profiles and more; when you invite friends to join you at Capazoo; and for other member activities.

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Facebook music video overview

Facebook

Facebook advertises itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you." What that means in practical terms is that it is aon online social network that allows you to upload photos, publish notes, get news from friends, post videos in a profile, tag friends and join a network to see people who live, study, or work around you. Facebook is much like MySpace, but in my opinion, it's easier to navigate and better looking.

Facebook in the news

Facebook Gives Birth to the RetrosexualTime Magazine5 hours ago
Thanks to Facebook, more people are hooking up with long-lost crushes. Some are better off lost
ASPCA uses Facebook to find suspect in beating of Yorkshire terrierNew York Daily News3 hours ago
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says it tracked down a man accused of breaking a dog's leg by finding him through his Facebook page.

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	Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America Price: $13.38 List Price: $27.00
	Me, MySpace, and I: Parenting the Net Generation Price: $9.98 List Price: $16.95

MySpace

MySpace touts that it's a great online venue to meet your friends' friends. And if your friends' friends are in bands or are celebrities, you'd have an even greater chance of finding them there. But plenty of other people use MySpace too. It's a happening online social network, even though it's not a very elegant environment. As of this writing, MySpace had just added ringtones, news and an Impact section, which focuses on giving back by helping the environment, getting involved in politics or donating either money or time to nonprofit organizations.

MySpace in the news

MYSPACE THINKS OF THE CHILDRENCleveland Scene2 days ago
The poster for Thursday’s Doro concert at Peabody’s was too hot for MySpace.
Hitwise: Facebook's 'Connect' pushed it past MySpaceCNET3 days ago
The traffic firm noticed a clear uptick in U.S. Facebook growth after the site launched Facebook Connect in full, and that's when it passed MySpace in traffic.

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	Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time Price: $13.44 List Price: $24.95
	The Twitter Book Price: $13.19 List Price: $19.99
	Twitter For Dummies Price: $12.12 List Price: $21.99

Twitter

Twitter is an online social network that allows people to stay connected through the exchange of quick bursts of information. Some use Twitter as a cute time-waster on their sites orblogs, but it can actually be used to transmit useful information, too, such as letting everyone know when you're busy. You also can use it to network by exploring your "block" to see who has been using Twitter at the same time as you. And there's an application that allows you to use Twitter within your Facebook acount, as well as many other third-party apps created by Twitter fans.

Twitter in the news

Politicians turning to TwitterTulsa World1 second ago
A growing number of state agencies and politicians are using the social networking site known as Twitter to get their message out.
The Buzz | All atweet over McCaskillâ��s Twitter useThe Kansas City Star39 minutes ago
Tweet revenge Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of Congress’ most prolific Twitter users, inadvertently got her colleague Michael Bennet of Colorado in some trouble with liberal Denver blogger David Sirota.

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Yuwie

Yuwie features most of the same online networking features as the other sites on this page, but there's one big difference: they pay their users to generate traffic. Granted, you have to generate a lot of traffic to get paid, but that's possible if you sign up people underneath you and have some patience. But Yuwie earnings aren't entirely based on the efforts of other people. They pay you for your own page views as well.

View the Yuwie introductory video

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Additional Online Social Networking Sites

The following are more social networking sites that fall within the general category. If I left off one of your favorites, please leave me a comment below and I'll add it.

43 Things Tag-based site centered around goals and life dreams
BlackPlanet The place to connect for African Americans
Faceparty Networking for British teens (must be over 16) and young adults
Friendster International social networking for people 18 and over
hi5 International social networking for young people
Jaiku This Google-owned site allows people to share their "activity streams" with friends, and is enabled for use on mobile phones

MEETin General networking backed by live regional events where you can meet your online friends in person
Meetup General networking that allows you to meet people in your city who share the same interests
My Opera General networking that allows blogging, photo sharing, etc. online and by mobile phone
myYearbook An online yearbook that grows with you as you get older
orkut This general social networking brought to you by the folks at Google is most popular in India and Brazil
Passado This London-based site claims to have Europe's largest social networking community
Searchles Offers searching, networking and social bookmarking in one place
Tagged Provides social networking for teenagers, especially high school students
Tribe.net Social networking that connects people in local communities
Yahoo! Mash Yahoo's social networking site is in beta at the time of this writing and requires an invitation

Team Motivation
Sometimes we seek out others on social networking sites for inspiration and to get us motivated. The link above features short snippets of motivational advice, guaranteed to get you going!

Please see future posts for the rest of the sites, which will be linked from this page. They include the following categories: books and reading, bloggingcommunities, social bookmarking, business, photo/video sharing andmiscellaneous.

50 Keywords which pay $2 - $10 per click (Adsense)

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:19:00 +0000

Make More Money from Adsense!

For most people on hubpages google adsense is the main way that they earn money from the writing that they publish. If you want to maximise the amount of money that you are making from the work that you do creating hubs to publish on hubpages by increasing your google adsense earnings then the most important thing that you absolutely have to do is to pick the right keywords.

Keywords are important words on a web page which are taken to represent the overall content of that page. It is important to choose the right keywords so that people will be able to find your hubs (or blogs or websites as the same principles apply), but it is also very important if you want to make money from adsense that you create pages that are associated with keywords that advertisers are willing to pay highly for.

Your keywords should be included in the title and url of your page, and on hubpages should be included as tags, and if possible you should include them roughly every 100 words throughout the text (but not more because you may get labelled as a keyword spammer).

I know that one of the most difficult of all the things that you have to do when you are trying to make money online is to find topics to write about that have good potential to make you some money, so I hope that this hub helps to give you some inspiration.

50 High Paying Keywords

Here is my list of 50 high paying keywords that will make you good money if you write about them. Everything included her will pay out an average of at least $2 per click (according to this months stats from google, although things may change - I can't help that), and the very bet of the bunch will be highlighted as a 'STAR FIND' and the exact amount is given. The top one is just 3 cents off $10.

Mom gift ideas
romantic gift ideas
personlized gift ideas
corporate gift ideas STAR FIND - $4.01
gift ideas for dad
gift ideas for mom
gifts for mothers
valentines day gift ideas
gift baskets for him STAR FIND - $4.35
valentine gift ideas
mobile phones
cellular phone
best mobile phone
perpaid cell phones STAR FIND - $5.01
new mobile phone
cell phone battery
mobile phone plans STAR FIND - $6.16
cell phone offers BEST STAR FIND! - $9.97
latest mobile phones STAR FIND - $5.94
cheap cellular phones STAR FIND - $4.19
travel bargains
internet bargains
computer bargains
airfare bargains
tv bargains
car bargains
bargain cruises
last mintue cruise bargains STAR FIND - $4.31
discount deals
special offers
jewelry shopping STAR FIND - $4.23
web shopping STAR FIND - $5.56
computer shopping
television shopping STAR FIND - $4.82
grocery shopping online
shopping statistics
gem shopping STAR FIND - $4.96
shopping card
internet shopping
secure shopping STAR FIND - $4.44
business strategy
business planning STAR FIND - $5.34
business plan STAR FIND - $4.01
starting your own business STAR FIND - $5.79
business writing
starting a cleaning business
starting an internet business
starting a small business STAR FIND - $6.26
business technology STAR FIND - $8.03
busines strategies STAR FIND - $4.48

IMPORTANT - How to make money with these keywords

It is important to remember that these are keywords for you to target high paying advertising so that you can make money fromyour hubs / websites, and not the keywords that you should be using to try to get into the search results and get visitors to see your content. Getting into the google search results for any of the keywords above would be very difficult indeed.

Let me give you an example - according to my list 'gem shopping' pays $4.96 per click, so if you can get people to visit a page based around this you can potentially make some really big money from it. But there is a hell of a lot of competition for it, so how can you get any traffic? It's actually simple, you create a page which includes this major keyword in a longer keyword chain, such as 'astrological gem shopping'. You now have something specific to write about, a good chance of getting some niche traffic, and yet you can still take advantage of the high payout!

Finding High Paying Keywords Yourself

Rather than relying on my little list the best things that you can do is to get a bit of keyword research done yourself. Although you can't always rely on it 100% for giving you accurate stats for search traffic volume, the google keyword tool fromAdwords is a great way to find out how much advertisers are paying for various keywords so that you can make sure that all of your hubs and webpages have the best possible chance to make you good money.

squidoo-html

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:18:00 +0000

What is Squidoo?
That's a free social networking systembased on ads and affiliate links like Google, Amazon, eBay. Here, everyone can build lenses on topic of interest or what one knows best, for example cooking, music, films. The more popular lens is,the better is its lensrank. The popularity depends on person's ability to develop the lens's idea and to affiliate it. Lensmaker can build as many lenses as he/she wishes - it is not limited. Just a good idea is needed and the earnings could be from some $ to some thousands of $ a year.

Lensmakers on Squidoo start getting the first earnings in approximately 2 months period. After updating the lens, the earnings get bigger and can reach the amount of about 1000$ a month. It's worth trying.

Squidoo has already nearly 1,000,000 hand built lenses.
Squidoo earning system
The earning is not constant and depends on Squidoo's profit.
the better lensrank is, the bigger the earnings. Passive lenses get about 0,08$.

Also, additional percent is given for purchases made from your lenses where recommended products from Amazon or eBay systems could be set.

Squidoo gets profit from ads and divides it this way:
-5% donates to charity;
-45% covers overhead and stuff;
-50% goes to lensmakers.

Squidoo sends the earned money to paypal account.
Get started
-open an account in paypal (be sure the email is the same as registered in squidoo);
-build a lens;
-increase the lensrank.
Squidoo prohibits
-exchange visits and rank;
-plagiarize the content (you can use the information from open domain sites, for example Wikipedia);
-create lenses about gambling, pharmacy, illegal software and alike.

optimizing your webpage for google adsense

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:11:00 +0000

When I first started writing here at hubpages, I had no idea about anything. Nothing. I had never written a word online and did not know who to believe about making money online – or about making money with google adsense which is the most prolific form of advertising revenue on the internet.

One thing that never occurred to me was that the placement of text capsules and photo capsules would dictate the placement of certain adzones. The positioning of the ads in relation to the content is one of the keys. Hubpages usues YieldBuild, an ad optimization software that, as far as I can tell, does an extremely good job of choosing the ad type and placing it in the best position. The layout I choose includes two blocks of text and one photograph, allowing the ads a range of positions available. I use the exact same layout on my own blogs and have found this to be optimum.

Content

It is always a toss-up between getting ad clicks and satisfying a reader’s needs. You can’t have it both ways. I see an awful lot of people on the hubpages forums asking why they are not getting any clicks.

Simple – your content either does not suit the range of ads available – for example if you have just written a hub about your experiences as a snail farmer – you are unlikely to have many appropriate advertisers.

Or – you gave the reader exactly what they were looking for and they have no need to click on any ads. As an example – my recipe hubs. I have found these to be very low paying and generate low amounts of ad clicks. Why? Because is someone came in looking for a hamburger recipe – that is exactly what they got –the best hamburger recipe on the planet. They have no need to click on any ads.

So – if you want ad clicks – you need to tease a reader and then give them a reason to click on an ad. At one point I seriously considered deleting half my recipe hubs. The half with the recipe instructions……… Just kidding.

Keywords and subject

Your pages need content related to keywords that advertisers will pay for. Simple really. Write about a given subject, add the keywords to both your text and the tags – then give them nearly, but not quite enough information – you will generate more clicks.

Facebook Farm Town Review

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:06:00 +0000

Farm Town

If you have not tried FacebookFarmTown yet, then you are missing out on a fun and addicting game. I have had many people tell me that they signed up for a Facebook account for the Farm Townapplication. I have created a Facebook account to give the game a try. At first, I thought it was a little boring. However, after about an hour of playing the game, I was hooked. If you have not played it, you should. It is 100% free.

Starting FarmTown

To start playing Farm Town, you have to first, create a Facebook account. Then, you go to applications on your home page and click on the Farm Town link. When you first load the game, you have a small bit of the farm already created for you. You want to invite all of your friends that you have found on Facebook to be your neighbors. Then you find the tools on the bottom of the screen and start plowing and harvesting.

Farm Town Plowing

You will need to begin plowing your farm in order to plant seeds. You look at the bottom of the screen and use the plow tool to do this. Try to plow your spots straight in a row.

Farm Town Planting Seeds

The next thing you need to do is plant seeds to grow so that they can be harvested. You click on the store icon at the bottom of the screen to purchase seeds. You have certain seeds available to you in the beginning, and then you can buy more as you advance levels. The way you advance levels is by selling your harvested crops at the market or harvesting and plowing for other people.

Farm Town Harvesting

After a period of time, you will be able to harvest your crops. It will tell you when you purchase your seeds how many hours or days that it takes for the harvest to be available. When you click on your farm and the farm is ready for harvesting, you pick the harvesting tool at the bottom of the screen and harvest and store your crops. Then you go to the market and sell them.

Farm Town Store

You can purchase many items from the Farm Town store. First, you click the icon at the bottom of the screen and go to the store. Then you buy the items that you have earned enough money to buy. You unlock different items as you advance through the game. Here is a list of the item categories available at the store:
Seeds
Trees
Buildings
Animals
Fences
Paths
Ponds
Other

Farm Town Trophies

After you reach certain milestones on Farm Town, you receive trophies. There are 14 trophies available for you to earn. They are all based o your neighbor status, such as; popular, influential, socialite neighbor and other achievements. This is just a little extra incentive to add more goals to the game.

Farm Town Neighbors

You can advance in Farm Town by going to your neighbors properties and doing things when you receive an invite to do this. When ever you are prompted to help at your neighbor’s farm, you click yes and receive 15 coins each time you do this.

Farm Town Marketplace

You can go to Farm Town market place to sell your harvested crops and to find work to earn more money to buy things for your farm. When you go there you will see a lot of people begging for jobs. If you are looking for work, you type in the chat bar that you need to work. You can earn coins for plowing and harvesting other farmer’s fields. Once you get picked to harvest or plow, you just click the invitation and go there and earn your coins. You can also offer to pay people to harvest and plow you farm.

Farm Town Inn

Farm Town Inn is a place where people hangout and chat. You can go here by clicking on the map and then clicking the icon for the Farm Town Inn. You can also buy land and make your farm bigger. You do this by clicking on the map and going to the Realtor office.

Farm Town Summary

In summary, I have to give Farm Town a 10 out of 10 score. I love the game and it is very addictive. If you play farm town already then you know this. If you do not, you should try it. It is totally free and very entertaining. I hope you enjoyed my review. If you play or start to play Farm Town, send me an invite through my email here and we will be neighbors. I need some more neighbors.

Useful Facebook Tricks People May Not Know About

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:54:00 +0000

I was talking to some people about Facebook and I realized that not many people take the time to figure out or even enjoy tinkering with its options like I do. So I decided to write an article about some Facebook tricks that I've discovered so far. You might find them useful.

#1. Decluttering Your Homepage

If you're like me, then you hate it when your homepage gets cluttered with all the junk activity of your friends playing games on facebook. You know what I mean. Those "So and so robbed Don Purtino's mafia in Mafia Wars" or "Blah caught a Scavenger mouse in MouseHunt". No offense to those who play these games, I'm sure they're lots of fun, but the rest of us don't want our homepage to be filled with these stories that we can't see our friends' important activities amidst all the clutter.

Here's the good news: You can configure your homepage so it doesn't display these stories anymore! If you hover your mouse on a story on your homepage, a Hide tab will appear on its upper right corner. Click on it and you are given two options: (1) Hide the person publishing the story or (2) Hide the application the story is from. I usually hide the application. In our examples above, that would be: Hide Mafia Wars and Hide MouseHunt. Voila! You will never see Mafia Wars and MouseHunt on your homepage again! Nice, huh?

If you ever change your mind and decide you want to see stories from the application back on your homepage, simply click on Edit Options at the bottom right corner of the news feeds on your homepage, select the application you want and click Add To News Feeds. But I doubt if you'll ever do that.

Homepage filters

Create or delete filters on facebook homepage

#2. Using Homepage Filters

See those options at the top left side of your homepage? Those are filters. If you've segregated your friends into lists, you'll see the friends lists names there, too. Click on one to view the activities of the people in that particular friends list only. I, for example, have grouped my facebook friends into Family, PCGS Classmates, SHS-G Classmates, etc. If I want to know what my old high school classmates are doing on facebook, I click on the PCGS Classmates filter on my homepage and only the recent activities of my classmates from PCGS show up.

To go back to viewing the activities of all your friends, click on News Feed at the top of the filters.

It's also easy to create or reorder filters. To create filters if you haven't grouped your friends yet, click Create. Type in the name of your filter and add some friends to it. To reorder, click on More at the bottom and drag the filters around. Just so you know, only the items above the double line show up by default when you visit your homepage. If you want to delete filters, click Create, select the filter you want to delete and click Delete This List. Remember to save your changes!

Customizing Facebook contact information privacy settings

#3. Customizing Info Privacy

When I first started out on Facebook, I had decided to add to my friends list only people that I knew personally, so I filled out all the details in my Info tab. Then I started getting friend requests from online acquaintances or even strangers and I realized I couldn't display certain contact information to these people. As I was about to delete the info, I realized that you can customize privacy settings for each individual item in your Contact Information. Here's how:

Click the Info tab on your profile.
Hover your mouse over the Contact Information portion.
Click on the Edit button that appears on its upper right corner.
Click on the padlock icon next to each item and select Customize.
Select Some Friends and choose only the friends or networks that you want to allow. You can even put exceptions.

Another way to do this is to hover your mouse over Settings (beside Logout), then click on Privacy Settings. There you can control your privacy settings for your Profile, Search, News Feed and Wall, and Applications.

#4. Cleaning Up Your Wall

Has your wall ever gotten hijacked by notifications such as "Blah started the quiz: Dr. Phil's Personality Test" then "Blah completed the quiz: Dr. Phil's Personality Test with the result The Vain, Self-Centered Leader" followed by a big story stating the same thing. Get rid of the duplicates by clicking on the Remove button that appears to its right when you hover on it! I've seen so many walls overrun by these useless notifications. I also remove the notifications that appear on my wall when I change some information on my profile. I like things neat and organized. (Which is why I hate that the current Facebook rearranges posts on my wall every now and then instead of following a chronological order.)

#5. Tagging People In Notes

Have you ever wondered if anybody bothers to read your notes on Facebook? It's like, nobody comments. And you wonder if your friends know you ever wrote it? That's happened to me, and I've realized that it's probably because my friends' homepages are so cluttered with the aforementioned junk that they didn't notice the note I wrote. So now I tag the people for whom the note was intended.

Well, strictly speaking, you only tag people in a note when you've mentioned them or written about them in it (just like you tag people in pictures and videos when they are in it), but I guess we can stretch the tag function a little. When you tag a person in a note, picture, or video, it appears on their wall so they have no chance of missing it. Unless they never look at their wall, which is pretty much impossible.

How do you tag people in notes, you ask? Easy. When you write a new note, you'll find "Tag people in this note" to the right of the title. When you type people's names into the blank, they appear under "In this note" and you've tagged them. When you publish the note, it will appear on their walls.

#6. Writing Notes

Okay, I assumed in #5 that you know how to make notes. For those who don't or have no idea what notes are, they're like mini-blogs where you can write anything for your friends to read. Where do you find the option to write a note, you ask? Well, by default it is bookmarked on the lowest portion of your profile. It's the icon that looks like a page on a spring-bound notebook. (Hover your mouse over the icons until you find "Notes".) When you click it you're taken to your friends' notes by default. There's a "Write a new note" button on the upper right corner. That's what you're looking for if you want to start a new note.

To view notes you've already written, click My Notes. Or you can click on your Notes tab in your profile. The "Notes about me" portion contains all the notes in which you are tagged.

How do you play Farmville on Facebook?

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:53:00 +0000

I see a lot of people find it addicting. How do you play, why is it fun, what are some tips?

Although there was a lot of useful stuff on my Google Homepage, I didn’t want everything that was there, so I deleted some of it. Using my mouse, I c

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:50:00 +0000

Over the years I’ve been fascinated with caricatures! My friend, who is a decent artist, drew a ‘Judge Dredd’ type caricature of me when I was a teenager and I’ve always wanted to be able to reproduce this! Unfortunately, I have about as much artistic talent as my cat!

My interest in this never waned though, and over the years I’ve used programs like Photoshop to ‘mess around’ with my own face with varying results! Imagine my surprise and delight when I found a way to do this online!

Introduction

There are many sites on the web offering you the chance to change your face into a cartoon, however most of them seem to either be too difficult, or want to charge you for the privilege. The one I found, not only is free, but is very easy to use!

Befunky is one of the easiest photo-manipulation sites I have found. There are many things you can do to a photo on this site; the one I'll concentrate is on turning your photo into a cartoon.

There are some sites that offer free software downloads, and generally you get to use the software for a couple of weeks before having to register. Additionally, some of the professional art / photo programs such as PhotoShop or Corel Draw offer far more sophisticated solutions for producing cartoons / effects from photos.

The method detailed below can be used on most cartoon producing programs - I go into the specifics of one site, but the method is generally the same on all sites and it's really down to your own personal choice.

See all 8 photos

Step 1 - getting started.

Click the ‘Get Started Now’ button – nothing complicated here, you’re simply browsing away from the main introductory screen and heading over to the real ‘meat’ of the process.

Step 2 - select an application.

For this example I chose the application Cartoonizer, but you have the following options:

Cartoonizer
Warholizer
Charcola
Patriotic
Inkify
Line Artopia
Stenciler
Sunburst
Scribbler

At this time it doesn't really matter what you choose as you can change the application later one.

Step 3 - the photo.

You have several options on how to load or 'take' a photo; click the icon of your choice for more options:

Upload from computer
Upload via Webcam
Upload from URL

All methods are simple - my preference is uploading from the computer, but using a hosting site like Flickr also works well.

Step 4 - crop and rotate.

You can either edit your picture prior to uploading, or use the in-built tools that allow you to do rudimentary cropping and editing. The tools are easy and intuitive.

Alternatively, you can simply skip editing by clicking 'Skip Editing'

Step 5 - funkify.

This is where the majic begins; befunky takes the picture you uploaded an applies the 'application' that you selected in Step 2 - as mentioned before, you know have the ability to change the application - most of the applications have sub-settings that can be changed for different looks.

If you're happy with the results of the 'cartoon' then you can go directly to Step 8.

Step 6 - playing with the applications.

I decided I wasn't quite happy with the cartoon so I decided to change the picture in two ways:

I selected the apllication 'Line Artopia' using the icons on the left. This gave it a more 'artsy' kind of feel.
I then changed the type of 'Line Artopia' by selecting the second icon from the left on the 'Outline your Life' icons on the top of the screen - this changed the picture subtly; far more to my liking.

Step 7 - and there's more.

There is a lot more than you can do to the photo. Click onthe Goodies icon at the bottom and you have a whole bunch of different things you can do:

add speech bubbles
add arrows
fun stuff
borders
etc.

For the example I added some weird elves - I removed them later prior to saving! But it is fun!!!

Step 8 - all done?

Once you have a final product that you are happy with, and cannot funkify it any more then you are ready to save the picture. You have a couple of options:

Share - you can send an email to all your friends with a copy of the picture.
Save - allows you to save the final picture to your local hard drive.

Step 9 - voila!

That's it - you're done! This free site is extremely addictive and fun; it's actually surprisingly powerful too and you'll be amazed by the fun pictures you can produce using this site.

The final picture will have a 'befunky' border, but you can simply cut and paste this away.

Enjoy - here's my final picture!

The main website:

BeFunky.com - Photo effects with one click, Turn your photos into artwork.
Photo effects for your photos. Cartoon, sketch, stencil, pop-art

Other Sites:

Photoshop Cartoon Vector
One of the most interesting things which you can do in adobe photoshop cs3 or cs4 is that of making a cartoon vector. Basically, the process involves choosing a nice picture of anything or anybody including...
Turn A Photo Into A Cartoon Animation
If you want to turn a photo into a cartoon animation, then you are lucky because a lot of software are available nowadays to help you in doing this. You may want to learn how to use a cartoon animation...
Free download - turn yourself into a cartoon.
Before downloading always read the end user agreement. This will download a toolbar to your browser.

Google Homepage USA

noreply@blogger.com (inoow) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:42:00 +0000

Now, I’m not completely helpless when it comes to the computer, but I have never given any thought to customizing my Google Homepage. I knew that iGoogle existed – it’s all over the internet - but I didn’t really know what it was, nor did I care. I thought it would be too hard or at least too much trouble to bother with. Well, I finally tried it today and guess what – it was actually really easy!

My friend lives in Great Britain, so he had Google Homepage UK. Naturally, I’d be using the American version. I started out by going to the regular, classic Google page and used “personalize Google Homepage USA” (without quotes) as my search term. I was expecting that I’d have to do a lot of reading. Knowing me, I would likely give up the second it looked like it was going to be too involved or take forever. Luckily, the search brought up the exact page and link on the Big G’s blog for me to get started.

The first thing I noticed was that I had tons of options. I thought, “Okay, here we go, now it’s going to get complicated. I’m only going to try this once and if it doesn’t work – forget it.” I started with themes. There was a vast selection, including beaches, palm trees, space, dots, the earth – just tons of different ones and they were all nice. You can add ones you custom make yourself but hey, I hadn’t even figured out how to use the stock ones yet.

Once I settled on the theme that I wanted, I clicked “Add this one” and boom it was there, along with a pre-set layout. I was very surprised to see that my Google Homepage already had my hubs and blog entries listed, all without me telling it to. I don’t know how it did that, but I assume it tied in everything that was attached to the email address that I signed in with. There was also a clock, weather widget, news feed and a few more items on the page that I could choose to keep or delete. This was getting interesting.

After familiarizing myself with the layout, I found that I can change my theme if I want to, just by clicking a button on the upper right. Maybe someday, I’ll figure out how to make and add a custom one. Right now though, I’m excited at how good my personalized Google Homepage is looking. There are so many ways that I can pretty it up and have everything just the way I like it. If only other things in life were like that!

Although there was a lot of useful stuff on my Google Homepage, I didn’t want everything that was there, so I deleted some of it. Using my mouse, I clicked and dragged the widgets around until I had them just how I wanted them. Then, I used the “Add stuff” button that I found beside “Change theme” to see what else I could have. There were tons of enticing things like Google Docs, Gmail, games, a to-do list and Google Map Search. It didn’t matter what I was looking for, I found it there. I chose one of the games and Google Talk for starters. It was kind of sad to see that there was no more room on the page for the other cool stuff that was available. I really wanted to have a photo widget and Music Mash, too.

So, as I sat admiring my handiwork, I happened to notice something on the upper left of my screen. I don’t know why I hadn’t seen it before, I guess I was having too much fun. Anyway, it was an “Add tab” button, which gave me another page. Great! I didn’t hesitate to click, name the tab (called it Fun Stuff) and add the photo and music widgets that I wanted. I was actually beginning to love my personalized Google Homepage.

As much as I’m enjoying what I’ve created so far, I’m sure that I’ll continue to change and update it because it’s so easy to do so. That’s just another great feature of iGoogle, I’ve learned.

Today, I’m going to brag to my friend who has the Google Homepage UK and try to convince another friend, Teresa, that she needs to pimp her Google Homepage Malaysia. Once she catches up, the three of us can party - all from our Google Homepage.

Google Homepage USA
My good friend Misha has a hub on this topic too. :)