Gift Baskets

Do you need some gifts to give to your loved ones as a token for your love? Or are you going to attend a party and need something for the host? Finding the right gift can be a big problem if you are in the wrong place. Try looking your preferred gift in GiftTree where you can find almost any gift that you want.

If you go to the site you can check out the gifts provided there by choosing according the occasion or type. The site offered many gifts for special occasions such as anniversary, birthday, congratulations, corporate, funeral, get well, new baby, romantic, sympathy, thank you and thinking of you. If you are in a limited budget you could also choose the gift according the price range. Choose the gift that suits you by their types including gift baskets, wine gift baskets, flower, personalized gifts, etc. Choosing any of those options will give you a list of gifts that are available on the site. Continue if you have found the gift. Place the number of quantity you wish to buy and then add them to your shopping cart.

The site currently accepts online payment through PayPal or credit cards. To help you find the right gifts GiftTree provided several ways of contacting them. You can directly chat with one of their customer service agents. If you want to contact them by phone you can use this number: 800.379.4065 on Monday 5:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Saturday 6:00 AM - 3:00 PM and Sunday 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM.

The Importance of Play

by: Judy Hansen

For children, play is naturally enjoyable. And since it is their active engagement in things that interest them, play should be child-led, or at least child-inspired, for it to remain relevant and meaningful to them. Children at play are happily lost in themselves; they are in their own realm of wonder, exploration, and adventure, pulling parents in at times with a frequent “Let’s play, mom!” as an open invitation into that world.

As early as infancy, children immerse themselves in play activities with the purpose of making sense of the world around them. Play gives children the opportunity to learn and experience things themselves, which is vital for their development. Although peek-a-boo games seem pointless to adults, tots are awed by the surprise that awaits them as they see the suddenly emerging faces of people they love.

(Stages of Play)

During toddlerhood, children experience a motor-growth spurt that equips them to solitarily fiddle with anything they can get their hands on – be it a construction toy or the box from where it came.

Toddlers also love breaking into song, wiggling and jiggling to tunes, and imitating finger plays they are commonly exposed to.

Preschoolers begin extending their play to involve others, whether they bring others in at any stage of their game or they plan their game and its players’ way ahead. Their physical and motor skills allow them to widen their lay arena, from dramatic play to table games to outdoor pursuits.

School-age children start appreciating organized play – such as innovated songs and rhymes, games with rules, relays and other physical activities, sports and projects that they can accomplish over a certain time frame.

Play Perks:

Why the big fuss about playing? Play benefits the child in ways that might be a tad difficult for adults to imagine.

1. Play brings pure and utter joy.

A toddler who jumps into an empty box and runs around the house ‘driving a car’ shows the sheer happiness that play brings him or her. When children are asked what they did in school and they answer ‘play,’ it is a clear sign that these kids remember a feeling of genuine joy that is captured in this four-letter word.

2. Play fosters socio-emotional learning.

What does a ten-month-old baby who shrieks at the sight of her stuffed toy have in common with a ten-year-old boy who plays basketball with his friends? They both deal with their confidence as they choose to embark on their play activities. At the same time, they are displaying their independence in the decisions that they make. These two children are also internalizing social rules in their respective play situations: the baby waits patiently for her stuffed toy to appear, while the school-age child has to contend with an impending loss in a ball game.

3. Play hones physical and motor development.

Play often involves the use of the senses, the body, and the extremities. When children play, they exercise their bodies for physical strength, fluidity of movement, balance and coordination.

Perceptual-motor ability, or the capacity to coordinate what you perceive with how you move, is an essential skill that preschoolers need to develop. A three-year-old who is engrossed in digging, scooping, and pouring sand into a container must match his or her perception of the space in front of him or her with actual hand movements, so that he or she can successfully fulfill the motor activity.

4. Play facilitates cognitive learning.

Play is vital to the intellectual development of a child. We live in a symbolic world in which people need to decode words, actions, and numbers.

For young children, symbols do not naturally mean anything because they are just arbitrary representations of actual objects. The role of play is for the child to understand better cognitive concepts in ways that are enjoyable, real, concrete, and meaningful to them. For instance, through play, a child is able to comprehend that the equation 3 + 2 = 5 means ‘putting together’ his toy cars by lining them up in his makeshift parking lot. When he combines 2 triangles to make a square during block play, or writes down his score is a bowling game, the child is displaying what he knows about shapes and numbers.

Through play, the child is constructing his or her worldview by constantly working and reworking his understanding of concepts.

5. Play enhances language development.

Toddlers who are still grappling with words need to be immersed in oral language so they can imitate what they hear. They benefit from songs and rhymes that provide the basis for understanding how language works.

When these tots are playing with toys, adults model to them how language is used to label objects or describe an event. At play, preschoolers use language to interact, communicate ideas, and likewise learn from dialogues with more mature members of society.

6. Play encourages creativity.

Barney the dinosaur was right about using imagination to make things happen. A lump of Play-Doh suddenly turns into spaghetti with meat sauce and cheese; a small towel transforms into a cape that completes a superhero’s wardrobe; and a tin can serves as a drum that accompanies an aspiring rock artist. Play opens an entire avenue for children to express themselves, show what they know and how they feel, and to create their own masterpieces.

7. Play provides bonding opportunities.

Play is an important factor in child development. It provides for interaction, experimentation, and moral development. Here are some ways by which parents can encourage and support their children’s playtime.

- Let your child be the player-leader. Let children initiate their activity, set their own theme, choose the parameters where the play will take place. Play becomes a venue for children to express their feelings and be in control.

- Help them help themselves. When your 5-year-old asks for help, say, figuring out how to piece a puzzle together, stop yourself from coming to her rescue and first ask your child questions that allow him or her to help himself or herself. Say, “Where do you think this piece should go?” Afterward, commend his or her success.

- Play attention. Once you make a commitment to play with your child, watch for the following signals: Does he or she want you to actively play a part in the activity? Does he or she need encouragement? Is he or she tired or hungry? Does he or she need to take a break?

- Have a play plan. If you seem to have little time for playing with your child, consider using self-care chores to have fun with him or her. Also, get support from other people in your household, like older siblings, household help, or the child’s grandparents, so that they understand why play is important and how they should continue to encourage it.

Jensen Precast

Building a good construction needs a very stable and strong foundation. The foundation part of your construction has to be ensured using the best concrete so it would not break easily. Do you know that the technology of making a good concrete has evolved continuously over the last decade? You need to apply this new technology to be certain that your construction can hold up against earthquake, wind and other things. Jensen Precast is the one of the world's largest Precast Concrete companies. Since its foundation in 1968 it has emerged as a leading company in the concrete industry.

There are several reasons why you should choose their product. Jensen Precast always hires people who have lots of experiences and knowledge in concrete industry. It also applies the latest technology and able to receive order in large quantities. They have 13 inventories across California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii. Thus you can have your product delivered to you in no time by choosing the nearest inventory. There is an Engineering Department which can assist you in designing or choosing the best product for your project. Jensen Precast products have been used in a wide range of areas including highway construction, telecommunications, wastewater, sanitary, gas and many more. Check out their Precast Concrete Septic Tanks where you can see the difference with same product from other companies. Building is much safer if you use concrete from Jensen Precast.

Hosting In The Modern Day Of Cyberspace

by: Jon Caldwell

So what has hosting have to offer? A lot. Hosting is more than just a website that contains a bunch of words and graphics that are designed similar to printed posters to be appealing to the eyes. Hosting is a virtual business and identification card to which can be found using the world of cyberspace. Many people are located in cyberspace today, using it as the main means of communications and advanced business undertakings. It has totally evolved into something that has given companies and organizations an overall facelift on what strategic management is all about.

With the growing competitiveness of most business ventures today, various new strategies have been taking place today. Among them is the investment in technology and easily, it is website hosting and technological tools connected with building awareness overt the web that has been the new tool for efficient business management ventures. A lot of local businesses in your region exist, and while most would spend millions in making ads to help carry out their various awareness building plans for products, services and overall corporate existence.

The best thing about hosting is the fact that they are not expensive compared to the usual tri-media services we hear about today. Practically anyone can resort to this type of support. It doesn’t need much overhead costs. All it needs is a good host and a good web administrator to get the jobs done. There are also a lot of companies who offer this as a package to which a simple sign-up can prove to be beneficial in their search for a more profitable venture that can be easily identified in the congested consumer market the world has today.

Hosting goes in line with proper domain name selection. These two are the key essentials in making the entire resort a beneficial one. Bandwidths, storage space, scripts, discount deals, packaged deals and of course customer and technical support are the key areas of interest to which a client will always look at prior to anything else. People will always seek the best value for their money and they have an abundant list of providers to which they can be able to do so.

Building identity and finding their place on the web may sound easy, but it needs proper selection and study before choosing the best hosting solution service offered by companies such as House of Hancock. Whatever the final choice may be, the only concern that people would have in mind is the fact that they are after establishing their business with the help of hosting technology over the Internet and broaden their target market as well. With the Internet audience, this is a reality that they can sure to benefit from.

Nothing beats having your own host when you use email hosting services for your company. Adding that branding mark of having the company name in dotcom fashion really makes an impact when people present themselves or communicate with other companies. It really creates quite an impression considering that we are in the age were emails and websites are now at the forefront of building branding over the Internet today.

That is not all. Consider the fact that emails allow most people to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world if the recipient also has an email to use. Considering our modern age of communications, the chances of that party having their own email hosting provider is a practically a given. Emails have made it more economical and logical for people who converse and transact business without having to worry about escalating telephone bills like the early days.

LIghtning GPS

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology since its founding in the late 80s has received wide appreciations for its much functionality. By using a GPS Tracking system you can monitor your kids or loved ones whereabouts, help you to track your employee’s position in delivering your product to its consumers, guide foreigners in your town to find their destination or help authorities in tracking crime suspect. With these much applications, it is no surprise that many companies offered their service in providing the technology.

If you are considering in applying GPS Tracking system to your company then you should choose carefully the hardware and software. Lightning GPS offers you the most advance technology out there today. It combines GPS system, wireless communication and the internet to its solutions. Thus provides you with the easiest yet sophisticated piece of technology. It features a feature-rich automated vehicle location system as its main core application. A GPS receiver is placed in the vehicle and the location information will be transmitted through the wireless communication to its data center. This communication system used is the same as our mobile cellular network.

GPS Tracking system offered by Lightning GPS is intended to give you these five practical applications, including: performance monitoring, schedule adherence, safety and security, improved communication and increased productivity/financial savings. With all these great advantages, you should consider using Lightning GPS solutions as your choice of GPS technology. Join many satisfied clients and read their testimonials on the site.

Top iPod Classic Accessories

by: R James Cook

The popularity of Apple's iPod has spawned a huge industry of iPod accessories. There is such a wide variety to choose from, it can be hard to decide which ones are important to look at and which ones are pointless fluff. Here's a look at the five iPod classic accessories that every iPod owner needs to consider.

Case

The first iPod classic accessory that every owner should purchase is a protective case. A case is especially important if you travel with your iPod, and if you shove it in your pocket or purse with your keys you're just asking for trouble without a case. The finish of the iPod classic is especially vulnerable to the dings and dents of everyday life. A protective case will keep your iPod looking pristine, and helps keep dust and dirt away from the vulnerable electronics inside.

Screen Protector

Almost as important as a case is a screen protector. Most cases do not cover the screen, because users want to be able to see the screen without taking it out of the case. A screen protector will protect the screen, which is even more vulnerable to scratches than the metal body. And a scratch across the screen is even more annoying than a scratch across the body, because you'll be looking right at it every time you look at the screen. Like the case, if you move your iPod classic around a lot, a screen protector is a valuable iPod classic accessory that will keep your iPod looking good.

Charger

An iPod with a dead battery is basically a paperweight. An extra charger or two is an iPod classic accessory worth having, both for convenience and to reduce the chance of running out of juice. Having an extra charger means you can charge your iPod at home and in the office, and you won't run out of power in the middle of the day. If you spend a lot of time in the car and listen to your iPod while driving (through speakers or an iTrip, please don't use headphones while driving), a car charger that plugs into the lighter jack will ensure that you have music the whole way.

Cables

Cables are another necessary iPod classic accessory. With just about every computer peripheral now using a USB connection, free USB ports may be at a premium on your computer. Fear not, because you can get a cable that lets you connect your iPod to your computer's FireWire port instead. Also, if you have iTunes installed on your computer at the office as well as your home computer, an extra sync cable will save you from having to transport the cable back and forth. There are also cables available that let you connect your iPod to your home stereo.

Speakers

Speakers are one of the most popular iPod classic accessories, and therefore come in a wide variety. Most speakers plug into the headphone jack, and are either battery powered or plugged into a wall outlet. There are also speakers that the iPod classic can dock with, which will have the added benefit of charging the unit while it's playing. Many of these speaker docking stations come with a remote, so you can skip songs and adjust the volume without going over to the unit. Speakers will generally give better sound than headphones, and will allow you to share your music with everyone in the room. If you're looking for portability, go with the battery-powered speakers. Otherwise, AC-powered speakers will sound better and can have the added functionality of being a docking station.

The wide variety of iPod classic accessories available can be overwhelming. Now, you've been given the information that should help you to decide on what accessories you need, and what ones you can avoid.

Ceiling Fans

If you are living in a country with hot climate for a half year such as Indonesia you might want to find a way to get rid of the hot weather. You can do this by installing air conditioner in your home or office. But the cost for an air conditioning unit is quite expensive not to mention the use of it has an affect in global warming. Another good alternative is by installing ceiling fans in every room. With these fans you won't feel hot as well as helping our world to fight global warming.

There are many online stores on the internet where you can find ceiling fans but none can be compared to Farrey's for its experience in this area. Farrey's started as a small general store which has survived through many challenges. Now Farrey's specialized in selling lighting and bathroom fixtures. Fans which are provided at Farrey's are made by popular manufacturers such as Casablanca, Craftmade, Ellington, Fanimation, Hunter Fan Company, Luceplan, Matthews Fans, Minka Aire, Modern Fan Company, Monte Carlo, NuTone, Quorum and Westinghouse. You can go to the online site and shop by either the brand or style. Find the fan which suits your application by using the search tool provided on the site. There is also a customization system where you can configure and order the perfect fan for you with all its accessories.

If you have a specific type or brand of ceiling that you like then you can shop the product directly on the site. For example if you like craftmade fans then you should check out these products: Civic, Contemporary Flushmount, Cosmos Unipack, Kira, etc. Or if you are into the latest trend you ought to browse the modern ceiling fans collections that will guarantee to make your house more beautiful. Go to Farrey's right now and shop any ceiling fans that you need.

Promote Your Business Free Online

by: Tsuyoshi Suzuki

It is rather interesting that most people do not take free online marketing tools seriously. With the free marketing tools that I am going to list and explain here, you can create a whole online marketing strategy that will generate the amount of traffic needed for your website to start generating sales. If you have ever wanted to discover how you can use the BEST online marketing tactic to promote your Web Site for free, now it's your chance to learn the amazing tactic that I'm using on a regular basis to generate tons of instant visitors to my Web Site(s).

Free online marketing strategy you can create full aggressive campaigns to generate traffic and sales without having to spend any money. These are just a few free Internet marketing methods that can increase your web traffic by leaps and bounds if you spend the time to implement and manage them. Are there any free systems that work? Yes, I’m please to say that there are and I’d like to introduce you to free marketing methods that really work and that you can implement on your own.

This is not to tell you that you are better off only focusing on plain free Internet marketing techniques. As you read this discussion of some of the free and near-free marketing techniques available today, you may want to consider trying them for yourself. Anybody planning an online marketing campaign should look very carefully at the so-called free marketing tools and options, the effectiveness of some of the techniques will surprise them.

Instead of all the headaches and extra work that has to go into mini sites, many smart online entrepreneurs use free marketing articles. Much of the free online marketing is just a big waste of time, and often generates a ton of mail soliciting YOUR business. One of the best ways to get free web site marketing is to get your web site’s link, with title and description, placed on other websites.

Another way people use these free methods are to embed their affiliate links and product links into them so that readers will click on them and thus get more website traffic to their websites and make money when these get converted into sales. Another benefit of online marketing articles is that it helps to generate more links and traffic to your website. The power of article marketing is obvious, and if you are a website owner, you should certainly be using it to drive free targeted traffic to your website.

One of the best and most powerful ways to drive targeted traffic to your website and to make sales is through Article Marketing. The next way to drive free targeted traffic to your website is to include a link to your site and small ‘hook’ in your signature. Each article you have published is excellent advertising for your website as at the end of your article you will have printed an 'about the author' section (also called bylines), this advertises you and your website and builds free traffic to your site and credibility for you if your articles are of good quality.

Remember: People (customers and employees) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + Brand (who you are) = Marketing Success. Online marketing articles are one of the best ways to market your business on the internet.

Professionals Training

To run a good company or business you need to have the right people on the right place. Those people you hire also have to be professional, not only on their daily job but also their skills. If you happen to be in the U.K. then PTP is a good place for you to get professionals training for your staffs. PTP provides practical training in many courses such as sales, marketing, customer care, management, personal development, finance & planning. Check out the communication skills training which is very useful to enhance your staff in communicating with customers or among themselves.

PTP has fifteen years of experience in training people. There are several reasons why people keep coming back to the company. Training is done in small groups thus trainers who have practical working experience can meet the needs of the trainee. The training session is made very practical and interactive to make it interesting and guarantee will not bored you. You can read clients testimonials including big names like Astrazeneca, BAE Systems, Barclays, BHP Bilton, BOC Group, Capita Group, HSBC, Legal & General, Next and Tesco.

To make it simpler for you to choose the training you need PTP offers a program called U-Choose. By using the program you can choose from over 150 courses provided by PTP. The training can be held in 52 venues across the U.K. A minimum of at least two delegates will guarantee that the course can go on. But remember you must book the dates of the course six weeks in advance. It is really simple, isn't it? Training with the professionals will develop your staffs even further thus a step closer towards the company's goals. So whenever you need a good training trust PTP to run it for you because PTP is the best training companies in the U.K.

Beware of this Domain Appraisal Scam

by: Brian Holland

I recently received several e mails from domain sellers who had fallen victim to a domain appraisal scam. The scam starts with a mail the seller receives concerning a domain they own and the scammer showing interest in buying it.

The scammers find information about their targets on Ebay and on Whois.

In the first mail they tell you that they are a new player wanting to invest money in the domain market as a side business and inquire how much you want for the domain.

Next step is the mail in which they accept your asking price for the domain. The scammers tell you that they want you to get the domain appraised as they don’t want to make a bad investment. The scammers want the appraisal from a certain manual appraisal website which they believe to be a good one, ofcourse this appraisal website is part of the scam. This appraisal website gives a highly inflated appraisal value and asks a high fee for it ( up to over a hundred dollars) as they know you need the appraisal to sell the domain.

The end of this story is that once you have mailed your appraisal you never hear from your buyers again. leaving you one hundred dollars poorer and an absolutely useless appraisal richer. This is a very cunningly operated scam and to show you how such a scam mail looks i give you a real example of such an email below.

Email 1:

Hello,

We ‘ve found your domain name listed for sale..

If you are still interested in selling please send your quote and I will

consider it with my partners.

Main direction of our business is software development and technical

support.

Domain names is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are

going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices since we have a large

database of clients interested in good domains.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,


Email 2:

You want 13,500 USD. Ok.

Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?

If it’s just the name it’s ok. A web site is not necessary.

Have you had your domains appraised already? Can you show me your valuation certificates? As far as I know it’s a common practice to show appraisal of domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.

Without an appraisal I risk to overpay. In other words I won’t be able to make a profit on reselling this name. It’s very important for you and me to know the current market value of your domains.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging an appraisal company with REAL manual service. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate auto-generated appraisals. I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I trust. To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies in a forum. (they now give you a link of a forum you have to check out)

Just check this posting.

If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. I also hope you can give me 10 discount of the appraised value.

After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.

How do you prefer to get paid: Escrow.com, PayPal.com check or wire?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.



So if you ever get an email like this, you know what to do. Scrap it. Just remember this wise saying that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Women's Clothes

If we talk about women then you also have to talk about fashion. They are like fire and smoke which can not be separated. The most important thing in women's fashion is clothes. Women's clothes have evolved from time to time and have always adjusted to the latest trend. Speaking about clothes especially for women then you should check ShopWiki to see the latest model.

For women who still need guidance of choosing the right clothes then ShopWiki is the best place for you to be. Check out the latest trend in women's fashion and shop with ShopWiki for the cheapest and most complete collection. ShopWiki is not just about shopping but also gives good advice on choosing the best clothes to wear based on the occasion. See more details in the Women's Summer Style Guide.

Some women also have their favorite designers. ShopWiki also provides the collections of famous designers such as Mark Jacobs or Juicy Couture. Check the Women's Clothing Designers section for a complete list of designers which are listed in alphabetical order. Women who are carrying a baby can also look for the latest design of maternity clothes in the special size requirements section. In my experience it was really hard to find clothes for my wife when she was pregnant. So this category will really help for mothers who are expecting their babies. Wait no more and look no further, ShopWiki is the best place for you to find your desired clothes.

Video Streaming – Who Needs Television?

by: Scott Lindsay

It was a satisfying feeling when I happened upon a website recently that told me that a band I have always enjoyed are back together after they disbanded a few years ago.

This group had been performing for 30 years to capacity crowds. Then came their farewell concert tour and everyone thought they would only hear about this group in the context of history and decade specific countdown shows.

Today two of the original members are touring on a limited basis. The overall feel of the band is a little different than the original band, but it is compelling enough to reconnect with the career of this new, yet classic, band.

How do I know this? Did I read about it?

No! This information came in the form of a fifteen-minute video stream with the two principle artists in the band. They spoke candidly about the reformation of the group and the new simplified sound and direction. They spoke of the emotional difficulties they experienced when the group went their separate ways and how a one time performance promised by the duo set the stage for a new album, tour and renewed life for this respected band. Stats counters indicated I wasn’t alone in my enthusiasm for this new career wrinkle.

Video streams react to an on-demand generation. You can visit the websites of news organizations and watch video streams of the news you want to see. In some cases this is viewed as an extension to television news coverage, but for some this is an on-demand replacement for television newscasts. Even newspapers are responding to the on demand world and placing supporting video streaming on their websites for those interested in a more personal take on the morning news.

Forbes.com and a host of other websites provide comprehensive news coverage through video streaming and their marketing strategy is to let it be known that this coverage is news on demand and online. These companies are not seeking terrestrial stations to send their video streams to, they are relying consistently on online video streams – and their success continues to grow.

News reporters who once had a place on terrestrial television are now finding uncommon success in online news reporting. Elaborate sets are designed (or created through the use of green screens). These online video streams bring the same newsmakers you might find on regular television into your home and on your time.

Many of these video streams are made possible through the sale of typical video advertising that precedes the actual video clip, which makes the end product free to the online user.

The growth of video streams is impacting national and international news, business forecasts, entertainment and music.

What may be the most surprising is those who may have wanted to share information via television in the past are now more than content to take their message directly to the people and allow them to watch at their convenience. Many are wondering why they would want to make video available any other way.

Many visual consumers are inclined to agree with the sentiment.

House Plans

If you are a constructor and planning to build new houses then you probably need house plans to build them the right way. Without having a good house plan you will lose time or materials. This could really affect the budget of your work. Finding the best house plan is also not an easy thing to accomplish. You need a well respected company so you can trust them to give you the best plan.

HousePlansAndMore.com is a good place to start looking for your home plans. HousePlansAndMore.com is a division of HDA, Inc. which specialized in developing custom home plans for home centers and their customers. It is established in 1983 thus has a wide experience and well respected in this area. Check out the site and provide some basic information such as the square feet, bedrooms and bathrooms, maximum budget and the dimension of the house to get the estimated cost of building the house you want. You can also choose the category of the plan you want and you will be given the list of already made plans. An interesting category is the log home plans. I have always wanted to build something like this for my getaway from my busy daily or just for vacation with my family.

It is a hard thing to achieve when you want to build your dream house without a proper planning. You could end up losing much more than you should have with a good house plan in hand. HousePlansAndMore.com is a good way to build the house you want with all planning made prior the building process itself.

Web Accessibility a Universal Goal!

by: Mr. Nidal A. Bousaleh

Over the last decay, an increase number of research were conducted to determine ways Information Technology can assist in meeting special needs to ensure universal accessibility. Findings to date suggest that by being more knowledgeable about accessibility issues, Web designers and developers are able to accommodate end users with special needs.

As we enter the knowledge age, it is no longer acceptable that people with limited or no vision are on their own when it comes to accessing the web, nor those with mobility problems are on their own when it comes to use a hardware. To ignore

website accessibility raises moral, business, and legal issues. It is morally wrong to discriminate

against disabled people on the web simply through lack of thought, consideration, or awareness. Many business web sites designed without considering accessibility issues result in loss of revenue. Some countries, such as the US, UK, and Australia has introduced legislation that requires organizations to adhere to accessibility issues.

In June 1999, the Disability Discrimination Act (1999) has been used to fight for access rights in

Australia. The 2000 Olympic Site Games, jointly developed by Sydney Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and IBM was found inaccessible to the blind users, and SOCOG was fined A$ 20,000 [1].

The purpose of this paper is raising awareness among web designers and developers, to achieve universal web accessibility goal. The paper looks at the disability issues and the existing assistive technologies or methods used by disabled users to assist them in accessing the web.

Afterwards, the paper reviews guidelines for good web site design, and provides analysis for designing an accessible website. Furthermore, the paper highlights on the challenges and gaps in the web accessibility area.

Literature Review:

Two years ago, a Conference was held in ‘London’ and attended by representatives of commerce, industry, government, and the IT Sector aiming to raise awareness of the potential benefits of assistive technology to disabled users. The outstanding number of speakers highlighted through number of cases how technology can transfer lives. ‘Sue Bassoon’ a Business Development Manager at IBM said: “IBM’s goal is to have a speech recognition system as good as the human ear by 2010” [2].

The objectives of this literature is two folds: (1) explain how a particular disability (e.g.

visual impairment, mobility restriction, hearing impairment) can impede the use of the web, and what can be done to accommodate special needs; and (2) show how web designers and developers can construct accessible web sites to end users with disabilities, such as visual or hearing impairment.

(1) Disability Issues

The section begins with a descriptive part concerning disabled user functional limitation

and dependence on assistive technologies.

A- Vision Issues:

A web user who has no sight (totally blind) is likely to use the screen reader technology to reads a load the content of the web page. Other web users, with partial or poor sight need to be able to enlarge the text on web page using a screen magnifier.

B- Mobility Issues:

A web user may have mobility problems as a result of an accident or disease such as:(loss of limb, Injury, or aging process). The technologies used by users with mobility problems are:

- Sticky Keys: For users with one finger typing.

- Filter Keys: Ignores repeated strokes for people with hand tremors.

- Mouse Keys: Permits moving pointer with numeric keypad.

- Serial Key: Permits access to alternatives for mouse and keyboard functions such as Foot Mouse.

- Eye gaze: A video camera that racks eye movement as the user look at an on screen keyboard. It is customizable as how long a key must be looked at to be recorded. When system has identified the key looked at the symbol appears and the user look at next key.

C- Hearing Issues:

A web user may be deaf or experiencing problems with hearing due to the natural aging process. To assist those users the audio or video need to be translated to the ASL (American Sign Language) language of the deaf, in which certain signs represent words.

(2) Design for Accessibility

In the above section, the paper provided readers with a general knowledge about disability issues, disabled users, and the existing assistive technologies. This section is intended for web designers and developers, because it provides them with tips and guidelines on ways to design a good and accessible website. There are two main aspects

to take into account:

I- Look and Feel

Web designers need to present a user friendly interface that addresses specific ability needs. The designer should be able to describe ways disabled users interact with a website, and how they move through the pages and how they achieve their goals. Below, are helpful tips that designers need to consider when designing an accessible website.

- Web Designers & Developers; should follow the four principles of visual organization in the process of designing a website which are: Proximity, Alignment, Consistency, and Contrast.

- Web Designers & Developers; must avoid using HTML tables to control the layout, instead use style sheets.

- Web Designers & Developers; should use legible fonts, and font size to allow disabled users to easily change them from the browser interface.

- Avoid poor color contrast in your design, and do not use color for meaningful description.

- Avoid the use of animation, and flash which may affect users with photosensitive epilepsy.

- Avoid using Frames because it can pose problems for technology used by some disabled users.

- Try not to use graphics for menu and button forms.

- Avoid hiding menu items (using DHTML or applets)

II- Content

Web designers should organize content in a way that can provide ease of use and simplicity. Below, are helpful tips that designers need to consider when designing an accessible website:

- Use a clear language, and write short sentences.

For example, a web page should provide blind users with a short summary of what they can find. A Search Functionality is important because a blind person can’t scan the page, and will generally trust first result he/she receives.

- Add Accessible tags and attributes by using rich set of tags to enhance accessibility. For instance, an ALT tag is used to provide a text equivalent for images within a website. The

ALT text description is what the screen reader or talking browser will read to the blind users .

- Use clear link descriptions, and include links that a user can click to skip repetitive regions of the page.

- Ensure the pages are usable when scripts, applets, or style sheets are turned off or not

supported.

- All audio and video content should contain captions, transcription, and descriptive information.

Analysis:

It is estimated that 20% of the population has some kind of disability. The internet opens

a new window of opportunity and independence to disabled users from reading news to banking to conducting business. For example, by using the screen reader technology a blind user can listen to the latest newspaper published electronically. Similarly, a user with mobility problem who can not go out shopping to buy a newspaper, nor use a

keyboard or mouse independently, can rather use the eye tracking software that allow people to use a computer with nothing more than eye movement.

Nowadays, organizations are asking designers to make their web sites accessible and for

good reasons. First of all, the more people who can use a site, the more potential it can

generate. Online stores, in particular have a great deal to gain, since many people with

functional limitation problems, find it much easier to shop online. Most Web designers

are not personally opposed to the concept of making web sites accessible to people with

disabilities. In fact most accessibility errors on web sites are the result of ignorance. A large proportion of web designers and developers have simply never thought about accessibility issues. A small proportion of web designers (4%) do not understand the needs of users with disabilities; another (46%) understand some of the needs of users with disabilities. While only (26%) of designers understand most of the needs of users

with disabilities and can accommodate them [3].

The Challenges and Gaps of Web Accessibility:

In this section, we highlight the challenges and the requirements posed by user needs, to

access the web. We argue the need for a new approach to address accessibility issues, and

include it in each and every web project life cycle.We recognize that the vast majority of disabled users face challenges when accessing the web. Why is this? Is it the lack of technical solutions to meet their needs – absolutely not! You will hear today that there are new technological solutions to address even most extreme form of disability. Is it cost?

Again it is not! Some technical solutions, cost nothing at all, and already exist in software. So, What then? Is it that web applications are being developed that present challenges to accessible design? Is it lack of knowledge and skills to meet their needs?

There does seem a general lack of awareness of web accessibility issues. Web Designers and Developers, need to have a better approach to tackle the problem in each phase of the web development process. For example, during the requirement analysis phase a web developer must define the target audience of the site, and should take into account people with a combination of disabilities. In addition to this, during prototyping phase a web designer must have the knowledge to accommodate end users with special needs, and also the skills to meet their expectations.

Moreover, testing the web site using different

technologies is critical for a successful web site, to ensure it meets the accessibility

standards and user requirements [4].

Therefore, in each phase of the web development process, accessibility plays an important role. Accessibility and Usability should be completely embedded in web design and development cycles from beginning to end.

The future looks bright for web accessibility. It promises to educate web designers and developers about accessibility issues, through training courses offered at universities.

Conclusion:

The Internet offers independence and freedom. But, this independence and freedom is limited to certain users. Many websites are not created with accessibility issues in mind.

Whether it is the Web Designer lack of knowledge or ignorance, they exclude a segment of users that in many ways benefit from the internet [5].

In short, designing accessible websites does not require an enormous effort or time. It simply, requires commitment, and accountability, to achieve a universal goal.

Reference:

[1] Duckworth D. (2003).Web Accessibility in Australia. Retrieved June 18, 2005, from

http://www.tonneten.net/mt/blog/archieves/000024.htm

[2] Conference (2003). IT – The Universal Enabler, London. Retrieved May 28, 2005

from http://www.stcsig.org

[3]Web Accessibility Survey (2003). Retrieved June 24, 2005 from

http://cita.rehab.uiuc.eduu/survey/2002-2003-web-practices.html

[4] Volpon A. (2002). The Life cycle ofWeb Accessibility. Retrieved June 24, 2005 from

http://www.evolt.org/article/The_Lifecycle_of_Web_Accessibility/20/50376/

[5] Bohman P. (2003). Introduction to Web Accessibility. Retrieved June 24, 2005 from

http://www.webaim.org/intro

[6]Mertz D. (2000). Tips: Design for accessible Web sites. Retrieved June 22, 2005 from

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/w-mertz.htm

Geneva Roth

For start up companies who lack of funding they should consider using the help of Geneva Roth Ventures (GRV). GRV works closely with Online Lenders Alliance (OLA) to help new businesses in their financial aspect. For your information GRV is not a collection agency. Although they have had some bad publications in the past, it has not stopped them in helping new business to emerge and support them financially. They don't just provide service in online lending but also some other useful services such as technology development, consultative and intuitive business design and management services.

Through the help of GRV your company will be a quality company. GRV also cooperates with CFEF (Community Financial Education Foundation) to give financial help to companies or individuals who need them. Businesses which failed to blossom were generally caused by their lack of finance education. Their unawareness of this important and most fundamental aspect had caused them dearly thus closing their business altogether. So if you are starting a new business and need a professional guidance then GRV is the right place for you to seek them. Check out the site for more information or use their online form to get their advice instantly. Or if you want to speak directly to one of their representatives then you can reach them at this number: 913.825.1200 or fax to: 913.825.1208.

Top 10 Tips for Internationalization

by: Adam Asnes

There are two kinds of software internationalization you can refer to - built in to the product from the start, and performed on existing code. The kind of internationalization (i18n) this article invokes isn’t the sort that’s designed into a product right from conception. That is less common, though the pull of global markets is changing that tide. Few application development teams have historically had the opportunity to incorporate world market foresight. They had to produce a product to market for the most immediate business requirements. So then most internationalization happens on existing code because someone sells something, a global company buys another company, or a strategic initiative has taken form. Suddenly there is a new requirement for software to work in any number of new languages and locales. Business requirements drive technical schedules first, rather than involving a creative path of inventing new cool functionality or products from the ground up.

I’m tempted to just write Don’t Panic, carry a towel and avoid Vogon poetry - and while you’re at it, Unicode’s pretty good stuff. I’m being flippant because internationalization efforts tend to each have their own unique challenges when you get into the details. I’ll instead provide this article as a series of i18n process tips that apply across the board. In general Internationalization (i18n) is messy, full of exceptions, and generally not considered optimally from a development perspective. Maybe that should be tip one.

Tip One: Internationalization is ugly. Expect that from the start. You are reverse engineering basic logic of how your software inputs, stores, retrieves, transforms and displays data. You are adding user interaction functionality that your product wasn’t originally designed to do. It’s rarely just about embedded strings. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. It’s a lot of work. In some cases you can run into weird stuff from areas such as compilers, middleware, database connectivity, and even low level operating system issues.

Tip Two: Get the big picture questions handled quickly. That is, what are the high level requirements, how much time do you have, how much time do you need and how much budget can you get? Be prepared to ask for what you need in the CFO’s or CEO’s language.

Tip Three: Remember what’s driving this - Revenue. Internationalizing a complex application is a big new requirement. Don’t underestimate. Being late will cause delays in revenue, stall marketing and sales investments and make you very unpopular. Do it poorly and rushed, and your product will be shabby for the very new customers you seek.

Tip Four: Do some good research or get help identifying requirements. For instance, consider language only as one aspect of a locale. English is a language. Yet England is a different locale, with different expected behavior than the States. Consider numerical formats, dates, times, postal addresses, phone numbers, paper size, currencies and more. Then add the specifics that your application may need, like any possible customizations of workflow, locale selection and more. Consider what the optimal character encoding implementation strategy is for your computer platforms, application tiers, programming languages, database requirements, etc.

Tip Five: Get some good code intelligence. Tools like our Globalyzer software let you comb through your source and identify all kinds of internationalization issues right up front. It’s way better to get a good inventory of what you need to inspect and change, rather than hunting through your myriad lines of code trying to anticipate all kinds of variable conditions using grep, and then trial and error your way through the boatloads of issues you’ll miss.

We are just adding a new capability to Globalyzer called Diagnostics. It will give you summary information internationalization readiness and issues found in your code. It’s fully functional even with just a trial Globalyzer license. No excuses, it’s free to use all you want.

Tip Six: Prepare for nests of difficulties depending upon your programming language(s), database and third party products. Programming languages rate differently in terms of difficulty to internationalize. For instance C and C++ are harder, with many hundreds of potential issues, compared to Java and C#, which have quite a bit of internationalization baked in. But Java and C# don’t internationalize themselves. You have to use their frameworks, which are very capable. The good thing is that when a programming language has well designed internationalization capability, the work goes faster.

Tip Seven: Third party products can cause some challenges. They are not always built for your new internationalization needs. For instance, a couple of years ago we worked on a product that used a third party product for displaying animations in a kid’s game. At first glance, you wouldn’t think it would be an issue, as there was no text being processed or displayed. But when we looked at things more closely, user name and file path info was being passed into the animation tool, which in this case could very well involve wide characters (e.g. Chinese). But the particular version of the animation product, could not support this and so it would always crash. The fix took time and some inventiveness.

Another example involved a third party product that generated a spreadsheet view. While data within the cells was handling Kanji just fine, tabs were corrupting. The third party product provider had declared their product Unicode compliant, but in practice it wasn’t done all the way through. The choice became to find a better third party product to replace this one, or get the spreadsheet provider to fix their product -which they may or may not want to do on your schedule.

Tip Eight: Remember your i18n fundamentals. Don’t embed strings or concatenate them. Watch out for sorting. A and Z are not the beginning and end of all alphabets - some languages don’t use the concept of alphabets. Don’t hardcode fonts. Remember your interface Geometry will need to expand. Use functions, methods or classes that adapt to locale needs. Use Locale adapting sorting (i.e. java.text.Collator class in Java) or let your database perform sorting for you whenever possible.

You can automate aspects of repetitive like string externalization using Globalyzer. It makes that tedious job go much faster.

Tip Nine: Account for merging code with parallel feature developments. This can be tricky, as your new feature development cycles could be quite different from your internationalization milestones. In most cases, be prepared to branch the code for internationalization efforts.

Tip Ten: Use Pseudo Localization (PseudoJudo in Globalyzer) to perform many internationalization functional tests before your localize. That means you add pad characters from target locales to the beginning and end of strings, and stretch the whole string based on target requirements. You’ll then be able to see how those strings behave in your display and moving through application tiers, without your engineers needing to understand the target language.

Bonus Tip Eleven: Plan for QA to take longer than it did when your app was just monolingual. Remember, you have internationalization functional testing and bug fixing, with new testing cases, and then, should you be localizing, you have linguistic testing.

Rehab Information

Drug addiction has been one of the reasons why teenager death toll arises in the last decade. Teenagers are known for their vulnerability in finding their true self. They tend to follow the latest trend. So when some of their friends use drug they soon followed them and became addicted. But this addiction can be treated through drug rehab. Some of the rehabilitation sources in the internet are profit oriented. Thus finding a good drug rehabilitation center which is free is a bit hard. Rehab Info is a site which is non-profit oriented and has good resources on drug treatment.

The site which was founded in 2006 is dedicated in educating the reader of how to treat drug addiction. Some of us might know someone who is an addict or probably have loved ones who are into drugs. If you are among those persons then this site is intended for you. But Rehab Info is not just about drug treatment it can also be a good source of information for other forms of addiction such as alcohol or vicodin. According to the site alcohol research has had an enormous attention in the last few years. Some new methods have been introduced for alcohol rehabilitation process. Holistic is an alcohol rehab method which was lacking support a few years back but now can be found as the leading method used in many treatment centers.

Many people entered a vicodin rehab center for the wrong reason. They were not willing to admit they are addicted to drug. Thus the problem will not just go away after they have finished the course. But with years of experience in treating vicodin, the treatment center can differentiate a drug addiction with vicodin addiction. Find all those useful information you need on Rehab Info to treat your friends or loved ones.

10 Creative Uses for Ecards

by: Chris Robertson

Ecards were once only sent for fun and as special greeting cards, but now online users are finding many creative ways to maximize the benefits of ecards. Ecards are practical, easy to send, and even free or very low priced. So what exactly are ecards? Ecard is another word for "electronic card" and describes any digital postcard or greeting card that is sent by e-mail.

While many e-card services are free, some providers offer custom e-cards for a small fee. Both free e-cards and paid e-cards are created online using sophisticated, interactive graphic software. Let's explore 10 creative ways to use e-cards.

1. E-card Memos for Companies

Companies once delivered memos in print or by fax, but today many are turning to the use of e-mail, especially those with an intranet system in place. Employees each have their own company e-mail. E-cards can be used to send out creative memos to employees. These creative ecard memos can boost morale, remind employees of an event, instruct employees on a daily task, or even give praise for a job well done. The good news is employers can customize the ecards and send them to all employees at once or to only a select few.

2. Birthday E-cards

Birthday e-cards are great for sharing a surprise "Happy Birthday" message to your friend or loved one. You can create a custom e-card for their birthday based on their personality and you can even set the date for the e-card to be sent on their birthday in advance so you won't forget! Birthday e-card messages can be personal, humorous, lovely, or romantic. They can even play music.

3. E-cards for Weddings and Anniversaries

For weddings and anniversaries, there are a number of e-cards to fit your style. These can be sent on the wedding day to the bride or groom as a relaxing gesture. They can be customized with unique themes to reflect the type of relationship enjoyed by the couple. Anniversary ecards can be customized with the date of the wedding and number of years married.

4. E-cards for Holidays

Holiday e-cards can be customized with themes for Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving Day, Halloween, and so forth. You can find musical ecards that play Christmas songs or romantic Valentine's Day themes. For Halloween, send a spooky one! For Thanksgiving Day, send a "thankful" ecard with fall colors, pilgrims, turkeys, or harvest themes.

5. Mother's or Father's Day E-cards

For Mother's and Father's Day, customize e-cards with your own photos. You can also create e-cards with your own special designs. If you sign on for paid e-card services, your recipient will be able to print the card as a keepsake. If you have kids, get them involved in creating these special keepsake ecards.

6. E-cards for Kids

With adult supervision, kids can create e-cards of their own with puzzles, special effects, images, and photos. They can send these to their grandparents or other relatives, or even to their friends. Puzzle ecards are usually included in paid packages, but there are also many special effects and images to choose from with free e-card services.

7. Invitational E-cards

E-cards can also be used in place of mailed invitation cards. You can send printable e-cards to invite friends and loved ones to birthday parties, holiday parties, weddings, company parties, summer grill-outs, and other special functions. They're much cheaper than mailing out invitations, and you can always mail a few to those who don't use e-mail.

8. Friendship E-cards

Send an e-card just to say a quick "hello" to your friends. You can send notes of encouragement, funny ecards, and a variety of themed e-cards to let them know you're thinking of them. Some of the themes to choose from include animals, congratulations, friendship, missing you, love, flowers, cute animations, destinations, landscapes, and many others.

9. Note of Thanks by E-card

E-cards can also be used to send a note of thanks to friends or loved ones. Perhaps you received a gift and want to return thanks. You can also create e-cards as a "thank you" note to clients if you own an Internet business or a business with e-mail contacts.

10. New Baby E-cards

E-cards also come with great themes for new babies. Send a boy or girl themed e-card or unique themes such as animals with their younglings or storks carrying a baby. You can write a message of congratulations to the new mother and customize the card with love.

With e-cards, you can send messages quickly through e-mail for almost any occasion. Best of all, you'll save time and money. You won't have to spend countless hours writing out cards and envelopes. You won't have to pay for postage, and you'll avoid numerous trips to the post office! Free e-cards and paid services are definitely worthwhile for greeting cards, messages, memos, and more!

On-Site Shredder

Keeping your company's confidential data in papers is a bit risky. The data could be read by people who don't have the appropriate access to it or could be lost in accidents such as fire, flood or earthquakes. But some companies still use this traditional way to keep their data. They probably think that it would cost a lot if you implement an IT solution to hold your data. So if you are keeping your data in papers then when you don't need it you should destroy or shred the papers. If you happen to be in Houston then you should contact On-Site Shredder which is a reliable Shredding Houston company.

There are many shredding companies out there but there are reasons for choosing On-Site Shredder as your Houston Document Destruction company. Unlike other companies which use the conventional shredding tools, On-Site Shredder uses the most enhanced technology which can destroy your papers to bit and pieces literally. Thus your top secret data is safe. This is really important as there are many cases where the shredded paper can be put back together and the data written on it can be read again. The biggest advantage that you will have by using its service is that the shredding process will be carried out on site. It will save you time as well as money of course. So if you have any confidential papers need to be destroyed in a quick and safe way you should consider using On-Site Shredder's service. Call now through this toll free number 866-584-0670 to get your free quote or send an email to info@shreddinghouston.net. On Site Shredder is the most trusted and reliable Houston Paper Shredding company for you.

4 Things Affiliate Marketers Need

by: Tabitha Palmer

Here's my response, along with some information on what it takes to be successful as an affiliate marketer and tips on how to make affiliate marketing work for you as an online home business. You may not think that having a home business provides as much security, but you won't get laid off and you won't be called back into the office, and you should almost always get along with the Boss. In my mind, all of this makes the idea of starting a home business all the more appealing. There are thousands of work at home jobs and home business opportunities on the Internet.

After a LOT of research, as well as plenty of trial and error, I have learned some very important things to look for in home businesses, work at home jobs, affiliate programs and all the other types of work at home business opportunities. My preferred niche is in affiliate marketing, this vs. traditional marketing is by far easier and more lucrative in the long run. You can build a higher residual and passive income this way. My opinion, of course, but try it out for yourself and see that I know what I am talking about.

Useful Tips

1) Starting a successful online business begins with research.

Look into every aspect of your business, Are you going to need inventory, storage, up front money? Websites, domains, and hosts are very important factors in research! The wrong web host and you are doomed from the beginning*. Write it all down so you can look back from time to time. Research your niche, by that I mean what kind of business would best suit you and your needs. What are you good at? Think about this question before you go any further and write down your answers so you can research them.

2) Websites, domains, and web hosts are crucial in your success.

Like I said above*, Most Internet businesses, that have a drive to succeed, focus all of their time and resources on building a great site, and then trying to drive tons of traffic to that site. I recommend staying away from Free web hosting for a business , Most free hosting has drawbacks such as they reserve the right to place ads of all kinds on your site, this looks very unprofessional and will make you lose business in the long run, so beware, free isn’t always good. Check out reviews on the host of your choice to make sure they have good credibility standards on the internet. I personally recommend Host 4 Profit as they have always had great customer service, and they, to my knowledge, are rarely if ever down like some hosts I’ve ran across in the past. Anyway, research this one immensely.

3) One of the biggest key factors in building a successful online business is traffic. Only after you have chosen the right name and host for your business should you move to this step. There are many Free ways to get traffic on the web; Articles, blogs, free advertising sites there are plenty of, traffic exchanges like Traffic Swarm, Traffic G, etc. Making sure you get enough backlinks to your site makes the Big difference. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN will not pick you up if they can’t find you. Make your website available to be found by getting your link on everything you can, but always staying within the rules of advertising, otherwise you do more damage than good to your business. If you have NO traffic, you have NO sales. No sales equals No Business. You see the effect here.

4) Perseverance, it’s not something you can find online it’s something you have to find within. I know you’re thinking now why did I put that in there. Perseverance is what you will need most when you start and try to maintain an affiliate marketing online business. When you work at home you get to set your own hours and granted you can even work while still in your PJ’s but at home there are constant distractions to stop you from staying on task. Someone will stop by, the kids will start fighting, emergencies arise, the phone never stops ringing, etc… You name it, it will be sure to happen. This is why perseverance is in my top 10 tips to maintain a successful online business. You must make it a point every night before going to bed to make a ‘to do’ list for the next day concerning your business. This strategy has helped me most of all and it keeps me on task.

Quote of the Day:
"Any Statement made after the phrase 'I AM' has power, whether positive or negative, it will have power"

To Your Success and Happiness In your NEW Life!

American Heritage Data

To have a successful business you need to have strong marketing strategies. One of the strategies that you could apply is by actively calling your targeted customers. Thus a good business almost always has a telemarketing department which needs to be proactive in order to get more customers. But a telemarketing department will be of no use without a list of customers to call. It needs to have an accurate marketing list. If you want to get the list of customers by yourself it would be a real waste of money and time. You should just find a good list company on the internet.

American Heritage Data is on of the most respected list companies throughout the years. What is so special about this company that makes it highly regarded? It is because they are really consistent with their five points of excellence which include integrity, quality, reliability, service and advice. The people in the company are not salesmen but rather advisors. The database provided by the company is updated daily through its daily feeds thus making it the most dynamic list on the internet. To date the database consists of nearly 100 million records of consumer and business with really comprehensive and complete details for each record. Some of the lists provided include mortgage mailing list, insurance list, business list, political list, etc. Call each person in the mailing leads to increase your business sales. If you are interested then go to the site now and get an instant quote to access the list. You can also contact the site directly and talk to an advisor through this number (888)916-3282.

Software Localization

by: Gary Muddyman

Software localization: Beyond translation of a product's User Interface.

Effective software localization requires a thorough understanding of not only string translation and adaptation, but also of local cultural issues and barriers to entry as well as the linguistic requirements of the market you are trying to reach.

Conversisglobal.com specializes in localized delivery of multi-tier, enterprise applications. We can implement our solutions directly into your development environment, without disabling code or content. Our expert team can meet all of your software localization needs including localization of UI, on-line help and all collaterals and documentation.

Some of our technology solutions include:

* Localization Kits provide clients with the information they need to localize their products while guiding them through the localization process. From project management, software testing, to documentation support, the kits save time and reduce the number of project queries.

* The Conversisglobal.com Bug Manager is a Web-based bug management tool designed to cost effectively manage debugging software undergoing translation and localization for foreign markets.

The end result is a cost-effective and turnkey approach to adapting your software for the local market.

The List Company

One of the hardest things if you have just started a new company is to find customers. Not just ordinary customers but you want to target customers who will fit with the product or service you are trying to offer. You need a good strategy to find them. You can't just rely on advertising. You need to proactive by calling the targeted customers. You need to have a customers marketing list where you have information such as phone number and the person's psychographic behaviors. Thus you can directly call your customers and offer them your product or service.

The List Company is a consumer mailing list company which contain database of business and consumers. The database is probably on of the largest as it includes around 14 million US businesses and a total of 300 million US consumers. This is why The List Company has been respected through all of the years. The list provided by the company is really perfect and accurate. Thus when The US Government, The Fortune 500, and other major international financial institutions need a list of consumers they turn to The List Company.

A success marketing campaign really depends on targeting the consumers. A consumers which is accurate is simply a must have. Without it you will be lost in the world of confusion of which people to call and which you don't have to call. For people who are into property you can also look for list brokers on the database own by the company. If you are building a new marketing campaign then rush to the site and get a quote of the list instantly. You can reach the site at this toll free number (877)547-8261 or simply put in your telephone number and have a list analyst call you promptly.

The Affiliate Roadmap to Success

by: Bjorn Brands

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to start making money online, consider joining one of the Web's free affiliate programs.

There are endless free to join affiliate programs available on the 'Net — in any category you might be interested in.

And joining an affiliate program is without a doubt the easiest way to start earning an online income.

Here's how it works

You become an affiliate for another company's product by joining their free affiliate program. Then you promote their products or services on your website. Anytime someone you refer buys something from them, YOU get paid a commission.

And the best part is that it doesn't cost you anything to get started!

Most good affiliate programs will offer you free resources to help you promote their products effectively. Things like banner ads, salescopy, or product photos that in many cases have already been tested and proven to work.

You simply download them and use them on your website.

Why are they willing to do this?

Well, the better YOU are at promoting their products, the more visitors and sales THEY'LL receive. So everybody wins!

You're helping them get customers that they might not have been able to get otherwise. And you earn money for doing so!

The amount of money you can earn from affiliate sales will depend on a number of factors:

Commission amount. Companies will offer anywhere from 5% up to 50% of a product's sale price — a BIG difference.

Price point of product or service. A higher price point means a higher dollar amount for you, depending on the commission. This should be balanced with the commission amount.

Potential volume of sales you can make. Some highly specialized products can sell far more infrequently than others, limiting the number of sales you can make in a given time period.

How effective you are at promoting their products. The amount of time and effort you're willing to put into promotion is a HUGE factor. Techniques like building an opt-in list and using email marketing to build relationships with your site visitors can catapult your earning potential.

There are a number of ways to find free affiliate programs. But if you're just getting started, you might want to check out affiliate directories like AssociatePrograms.com and AffiliatesDirectory.com. They provide lists of credible free to join affiliate programs that have been pre-screened.

You can also sift through websites that sell products you're interested in. They'll tell you if they have a program they can join.

As an affiliate, you earn a commission for any sales made by people who click through from your website and purchase an affiliate product. So making money with website affiliate programs is dependent on maximizing the number of sales your site visitors make.

And in order to maximize sales, your website needs traffic -- and lots of it!

Here are some techniques that will help you send visitors to your website:

Achieve a high ranking in the search engines.

Make sure your website includes keywords that target your particular market. When the search engine "spiders" come to index your site, they'll boost your site higher in the rankings for those keywords. Ideally, you want your site to show up on the first or second page of search results.

Write short articles that will be distributed all over the Web.

All that's required is about 400 words on a subject related to the product you are promoting. Include your byline and a link to your website at the bottom of each article, then submit them to free article directories, like EzineArticles.com.

When other site owners who are looking for content for their own sites republish your article, your name -- and site link -- will be propagated all over the 'Net.

Buy pay-per-click traffic.

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Complete Overview of Linux

by: Matthew Gebhardt

This article will discuss the differences between the Linux and Windows operating software’s; we discuss some of the pro’s and con’s of each system.

Let us first start out with a general overview of the Linux operating system. Linux at its most basic form is a computer kernel. The Kernel is the underlying computer code, used to communicate with hardware, and other system software, it also runs all of the basic functions of the computer.

The Linux Kernel is an operating system, which runs on a wide variety of hardware and for a variety of purposes. Linux is capable of running on devices as simple as a wrist watch, or a cell phone, but it can also run on a home computer using, for example Intel, or AMD processors, and its even capable of running on high end servers using Sun Sparc CPU’s or IBM power PC processors. Some Linux distro’s can only run one processor, while others can run many at once.

Common uses for Linux include that of a home desktop computing system, or more commonly for a server application, such as use as a web server, or mail server. You can even use Linux as a dedicated firewall to help protect other machines that are on the same network.

A programmer student named Linus Torvalds first made Linux as a variant of the Unix operating system in 1991. Linus Torvalds made Linux open source with the GNU (GPL) (General Public License), so other programmers could download the source code free of charge and alter it any way they see fit. Thousands of coders throughout the world began downloading and altering the source code of Linux, applying patches, and bug fixes, and other improvements, to make the OS better and better. Over the years Linux has gone from a simple text based clone of Unix, to a powerful operating software, with full-featured desktop environments, and unprecedented portability, and a variety of uses. Most of the original Unix code has also been gradually written out of Linux over the years.

As a result of Linux being open source software, there is no one version of Linux; instead there are many different versions or distributions of Linux, that are suited for a variety of different users and task. Some Distributions of Linux include Gentoo, and Slackware, which due to the lack of a complete graphical environment is best, suited for Linux experts, programmers, and other users that know their way around a command prompt. Distributions that lack a graphical environment are best suited for older computers lacking the processing power necessary to process graphics, or for computers performing processor intensive task, where it is desirable to have all of the system resources focused on the task at hand, rather than wasting resources by processing graphics. Other Linux distributions aim at making the computing experience as easy as possible. Distributions such as Ubuntu, or Linspire make Linux far easier to use, by offering full-featured graphical environments that help eliminate the need for a command prompt. Of course the downside of ease of use is less configurability, and wasted system resources on graphics processing. Other distributions such as Suse try to find a common ground between ease of use and configurability.

“Linux has two parts, they include the Kernel mentioned previously, and in most circumstances it will also include a graphical user interface, which runs atop the Kernel” reference #3. In most cases the user will communicate with the computer via the graphical user interface.

(ref #6) Some of the more common graphical environments that can run on Linux include the following. The KDE GUI (Graphical user interface). Matthias Ettrich developed KDE in 1996. He wanted a GUI for the Unix desktop that would make all of the applications look and feel alike. He also wanted a desktop environment for Unix that would be easier to use than the ones available at the time. KDE is a free open source project, with millions of coders working on it throughout the world, but it also has some commercial support from companies such as Novell, Troltech, and Mandriva. KDE aims to make an easy to use desktop environment without sacrificing configurability. Windows users might note that KDE has a similar look to Windows. Another popular GUI is (ref #7) GNOME. GNOME puts a heavy emphasis on simplicity, and user ability. Much like KDE GNOME is open source and is free to download. One notable feature of GNOME is the fact that it supports many different languages; GNOME supports over 100 different languages. Gnome is license under the LGPL license (lesser general public license). The license allows applications written for GNOME to use a much wider set of licenses, including some commercial applications. The name GNOME stands for GNU Network object model environment. GNOME’s look and feel is similar to that of other desktop environments. Fluxbox is another example of a Linux GUI. With less of an emphasis on ease of use and eye candy, Fluxbox aims to be a very lightweight, and a more efficient user of system resources. The interface has only a taskbar and a menu bar, which is accessed by right clicking over the desktop. Fluxbox is most popular for use with older computers that have a limited abundance of system resources.

Although most Linux distributions offer a graphical environment, to simplify the user experience, they all also offer a way for more technically involved users to directly communicate with the Kernel via a shell or command line. The command line allows you to run the computer without a GUI, by executing commands from a text-based interface. An advantage of using the command prompt is it uses less system resources and enables your computer to focus more of its energy on the task at hand. Examples of commands include the cd command for changing your directory, or the halt command for shutting down your system, or the reboot command for restarting the computer ect.

Now that we are more familiar with the Linux operating system, we can note the many ways in which Linux differs from the worlds most popular OS, Microsoft Windows. From this point forward we will discuss some of the more prominent ways in which Linux deferrers from Windows.

For starters there is only one company that releases a Windows operating system, and that company is Microsoft. All versions of Windows, weather Windows XP Home, Business, or Vista, all updates, security patches, and service patches for Windows comes from Microsoft. With Linux on the other hand there is not one company that releases it. Linux has millions of coders and companies throughout the world, volunteering their time to work on patches, updates, newer versions, and software applications. Although some companies, charge for TECH support, and others charge for their distribution of Linux, by packaging it with non-free software, you will always be able to get the Linux Kernel for free, and you can get full-featured Linux desktops with all the necessary applications for general use, for free as well. The vendors that charge money for their distribution of Linux are also required to release a free version in order to comply with the GPL License agreement. With Microsoft Windows on the other hand you have to pay Microsoft for the software, and you will also have to pay for most of the applications that you will use.

Windows and Linux also differ on TECH support issues. Windows is backed by the Microsoft Corporation, which means that if you have an issue with any of their products the company should resolve it. For example if Microsoft Windows is not working right, then you should be able to call Microsoft and make use of their TECH support to fix the issue. TECH support is usually included with the purchase of the product for a certain amount of time, maybe a two year period, and from there on you may be charged for the service. Although IBM backs their Linux products, for the most part if you use Linux you are on your own. If you have a problem with Ubuntu Linux you cannot call Ubuntu and expect any help. Despite the lack of professional help, you can however receive good TECH advice, from the thousands or millions of Linux forums that are on the web. You ca also get great help from social networking sites such as Myspace, by posting questions in the many Linux groups. You can usually receive responses for your questions in a matter of hours form many qualified people.

Configurability is another key difference between the two operating software’s. Although Windows offers its control panel to help users configure the computer to their liking, it does not match the configuring options that Linux provides especially if you are a real TECH savvy user. In Linux the Kernel is open source, so if you have the know how, you can modify it in virtually any way that you see fit. Also Linux offers a variety of Graphical environments to further suit your needs. As mentioned earlier Linux is capable of running full-featured graphical environments like KDE, or more lightweight and resource friendly GUI’s like Fluxbox, or Blackbox, to suit users with older computers. There are also versions of Linux that are designed to emulate the Windows look and feel as closely as possible. Distributions such as Linspire are best suited for users that are migrating over from the Windows world. There are also distributions that include no graphical environment at all to better suit users that need to squeeze out all of the computing power that they can get for various computing activities, and for users that are more advanced than others. All of this configurability can be problematic sometimes, as you will have to make a decision on which desktop is right for you, and to make things easier on yourself you will need to only install applications that are native to your distribution and graphical environment.

(ref #1) The cost effectiveness of Linux is another way it separates itself from Windows. For home use Linux is cheap and in most cases completely free, while Windows varies in cost depending on which version you buy. With Linux most of the applications will also be free, however for Windows in the majority of cases you are suppose to pay for the applications. For most cases, with Linux there is no need to enter a product activation key when performing an installation, you are free to install it on as many computers as you’d like. With Windows you are only allowed to install it on one computer and Microsoft uses product activation software to enforce this rule. When installing Window’s you must enter a product activation key, which will expire after so many uses. If you wish too, you can purchase Linux from a variety of vendors, which will include a boxed set of CDs, Manuals, and TECH support for around 40-130$. Of course If you purchase a high-end version of Linux used for servers it may cost any where from 400$- 2000$. “In 2002 computer world magazine quoted the chief technology architect at Merrill Lynch in New York, as saying “the cost of running Linux is typically a tenth of the cost of running Unix or Windows alternatively.” (ref#1)

(ref #1) Installation of Windows is generally easier, than installing Linux. “With Windows XP there are three main ways to install. There is a clean install, in which you install Windows on a blank hard drive. There is also an upgrade install, in which you start with an older version of Windows and “upgrade” to a newer one. An advantage of upgrading is that all of the files on the older system should remain intact throughout the process. You can also perform a repair install, in which case you are installing the same version of Windows on top of itself in order to fix a damaged version of Windows. There is also a recovery, which Technically is not an install; it is used to restore a copy of Windows back to its factory settings. The disadvantage of recovering Windows is the fact that you will loose all of your data, which resides on the damaged copy of Windows.” (ref#1) Also with Windows you can rest assured that your hardware will most likely be supported by the operating software, although this is not much of a problem with Linux you cant be sure if Linux will support all of your hardware. With Linux installation varies greatly from Distro to Distro. You may be presented with a graphical installer or it may be a text-based installer, these variations make Linux a bit more difficult and unpredictable to install than is Windows, (although the difficulty is disappearing). You may perform a clean install of Linux or dual boot it, to co-exist with another operation software. With Linux rather than having to buy an upgrade Cd, you can install updates by downloading and then installing them while your desktop is running. With Linux it is also not necessary to reboot your computer after most upgrades, It is only necessary to reboot after an upgrade to the kernel. It is also possible to run Linux without ever needing to install it on a hard drive; there are many distributions of Linux that will allow you to run it straight off of a live cd. The advantage of this is that you do not need to alter your system in order to

try Linux. You can run Linux off of the CD so you do not have to damage your Windows partition. Other advantages include the ability to rescue a broken Linux system. If your Linux computer will not boot, then you may insert a live cd and boot off it, so you can repair the damaged version of Linux. Also you may use a Linux live cd to recover files from a damaged Windows computer that will no longer boot up. Since Linux is capable of reading NTFS files you may copy files form a Windows computer to a USB flash drive or floppy drive ect.

Another major difference between Linux and Windows is the applications that you will use with either OS. Windows includes a much wider abundance of commercially backed applications than does Linux. It is much easier to find the software that you are looking for with Windows than it is with Linux, because so many software vendors make their products compatible with Windows only. With Linux you will for the most part be forced to let go of the familiar applications that you have grown accustomed to with Windows, in favor of lesser-known open source apps that are made for Linux. Applications such as Microsoft office, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Adobe Creative suite, and chat clients such as MSN messenger, do not work natively with Linux. Although with Linux you can get Microsoft office and Adobe creative suite to work using software from codeWeavers called cross Over Office. Instead of using these applications you will need to use Linux apps such as open office, The Gimp Image Editor, The ThunderBird email client, Instead of the MSN messenger you can use the GAIM messenger, and you can use Firefox as your web browser. Also with Linux it can be difficult to install software even if it is made for Linux. This is due to the fact that Linux has so many different versions. Software that is made to install on one version probably will require some configuration in order to install on another version. An example would be if you were trying to install software that was made for the KDE graphical environment, on the GNOME GUI, This app would not easily install on the GNOME GUI, and would require some configuring on your part to successfully install it.

The type of hard ware that Linux and windows runs on also causes them to differ. Linux will run on many different hardware platforms, from Intel and AMD chips, to computers running IBM power Pc processors. Linux will run on the slowest 386 machines to the biggest mainframes on the planet, newer versions of Windows will not run on the same amount of hardware as Linux. Linux can even be configured to run on apples, Ipod’s, or smart phones. A disadvantage of Linux is when it comes to using hardware devices such as Printers, Scanners, or Digital camera’s. Where as the driver software for these devices will often be easily available for Windows, with Linux you are for the most part left on your own to find drivers for these devices. Most Linux users will find comfort in the fact that drivers for the latest hardware are constantly being written by coders throughout the world and are usually very quickly made available.

(ref #1) One of the most notable differences between the two operating software’s is Windows legendary problems with malicious code, known as Viruses and Spy ware. Viruses, Spy-ware and a general lack of security are the biggest problems facing the Windows community. Under Windows Viruses and Spy-ware have the ability to execute themselves with little or no input from the user. This makes guarding against them a constant concern for any Windows user. Windows users are forced to employ third party anti virus software to help limit the possibility of the computer being rendered useless by malicious code. Anti virus software often has the negative side effect of hogging system resources, thus slowing down your entire computer, also most anti virus software requires that you pay a subscription service, and that you constantly download updates in order to stay ahead of the intruders. With Linux on the other hand problems with viruses are practically non-existent, and in reality you do not even need virus protection for your Linux machine. One reason why Viruses and Spy-ware are not a problem for Linux is simply due to the fact that there are far fewer being made for Linux. A more important reason is that running a virus on a Linux machine is more difficult and requires a lot more input from the user. With Windows you may accidentally run and execute a virus, by opening an email attachment, or by double clicking on a file that contains malicious code. However with Linux a virus would need to run in the terminal, which requires the user to give the file execute permissions, and then open it in the terminal. And in order to cause any real damage to the system the user would have to log in as root, by typing a user name and password before running the virus. Foe example to run a virus that is embedded in an email attachment the user would have to, open the attachment, then save it, then right click the file and chose properties form the menu, in properties they can give it execute permissions, they would then be able to

open the file in the terminal to run the virus. And even then the user would only be able to damage his or her home folder, all other users data will be left untouched, and all root system files would also remain untouched, because Linux would require a root password to make changes to these files. The only way the user can damage the whole computer would be if he or she logged in as root user by providing the root user name and password to the terminal before running the virus. Unlike Windows in Linux an executable file cannot run automatically, It needs to be given execute permissions manually this significantly improves security. In Linux the only realistic reason you would need virus protection is if you share files with Windows users, and that is to protect them not you, so you are not to accidentally pass a virus to the Windows computer that you are sharing files with.

The above was a general over view of some differences between the Windows operating system, and Linux. To recap we started with the fact that Windows has only one vendor that releases the software, while Linux comes from millions of different coders throughout the world. We also commented on the fact that the Linux Kernel and much of the applications used with it are completely free of charge, where as with windows you are forced to pay for most of the software. Unlike Widows Linux is often lacking in professional Tech support, and Linux users are often left on their own to solve Technical issues. Linux users can either pay for Tech support or rely on the many Linux Forums and groups available on the Internet. Due to the fact that the kernel is open source, Linux has a huge advantage over Windows in configurability. You can configure Linux to run almost any way you see fit by manipulating the Kernel. Installing the Windows Operating software and applications is easier due to the fact that it has a universal installer. Also finding applications for Windows is easier because of its popularity most apps are available for Windows only, and are made easily available. Linux will run on a greater variety of hard ware than does Windows, from mainframe super computers running multiple IBM Power PC Chips, to a small laptop running an AMD processor. And of course the biggest difference in this writer’s opinion is the fact that Linux does not suffer from an onslaught of Viruses and other malicious code, unlike Windows which is plagued by countless number of malicious code that can easily destroy your system if not properly guarded against.

In conclusion we will conclude that the Linux OS really is the superior software. Other than a few minor nuisances, linux out performs Windows in most categories. The fact that Linux is more secure is the tipping point, that tilts the scales in the favor of Linux. Windows simply suffers from far to many security vulnerabilities for it to be considered the better over all desktop environment.

References

http://www.michaelhorowitz.com/Linux.vs.Windows.html Reference #1

http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2004/10/27/linux-more-secure-than-windows-says-study Reference #2

http://www.linux.com/whatislinux/ reference number 3

http://www.linux.org/info/

Reference #4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux%5Fkernel Reference #5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE Reference #6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME Reference #7