Turning Your Business's Brand into a Cult Brand

Cult branding happens when consumers take brand passion to the nth degree. Your business brand becomes a cult brand when consumers adopt the brand as “theirs” rather than identifying it as “yours.”


For as long as brands have existed, there have been cult brands. But in the past, most cult brands were small, underdog brands that attracted I’d-rather-fight-than-switch customers who stood by their brands with pride even when hardly anyone else even knew the brand name.


Today, even the biggest brands inspire cult brand followings by using all or most of the following strategies:



  • Start with a unique brand identity and promise that consumers truly want to be part of. Then, spotlight and stay true to your brand differences and distinctions.



  • Offer products that customers are encouraged to customize in order to adapt the products to their unique consumer preferences, no matter how far-out and unusual.



  • Create a brand experience that’s like no other and that never, ever, falls short of the consumer expectation.



  • Emphasize viral marketing over traditional advertising.



  • Support development of brand fan clubs, Web sites, forums, blogs, events, and any other channel that allows those who know and love your brand to share their opinions.



  • Create, or at least support the formation of, a community of brand fans who personify your brand by displaying it on personalized items, talking about it, and sharing their enthusiasm with others.






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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/turning-your-businesss-brand-into-a-cult-brand.html

Understanding Genital Warts and Herpes

One out of four Americans between the ages of 15 and 55 will contract at least one sexually transmitted disease. The more you know, the more you can prevent this from happening to you. Below, two incurable diseases are discussed.


Genital warts


Nearly two million people in the United States are infected every year with genital warts, which are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). Genital warts are spread through vaginal, anal, and oral intercourse. They can also be passed on to infants during childbirth.


  • Not always able to be seen, the warts are soft and flat; they grow on the genitals, in the urethra, the inner vagina, the anus, or the throat.


  • The warts often itch and, if allowed to grow, can block openings of the vagina, anus, or throat, causing discomfort.


  • Because genital warts are often unseen, they can easily be passed onto sexual partners.


Genital warts can be treated in several ways, including topical medical creams. In cases of either large or persistent warts, other treatments may include surgical removal, freezing using liquid nitrogen, or cauterization by electric needles; however, the warts often recur.


Herpes


Herpes, which is caused by the Herpes simplex virus (HSV), is another incurable STD. With half a million new cases reported each year, anywhere from 5 to 20 million Americans have been infected with this disease. Herpes actually has two forms: herpes-1 and herpes-2, although 1 is most often associated with cold sores and fever blisters "above the waist."


The most common symptoms arise from a rash with clusters of white, blistery sores appearing on the vagina, cervix, penis, mouth, anus, or other parts of the body. This rash can cause pain, itching, burning sensations, swollen glands, fever, headache, and a run-down feeling. These symptoms may return at regular intervals, sometimes caused by stress, menstrual periods, or other reasons that are not well understood.


Most people think that herpes is contagious only when the sores are present, but studies have shown that some people may spread the disease even when they have no sores.


  • During pregnancy, herpes may cause miscarriage or stillbirth, and the disease can be passed on to newborns.


  • If the sores are active during childbirth, there are serious health consequences for the babies. To avoid these consequences, cesarean sections are usually performed when active sores are seen during the time of childbirth.


  • If you have herpes, you should always use a condom when having sex, unless your partner already has the disease.


Although you should always use a condom, you should know that condoms can't entirely protect you from herpes. If the man has the disease, and the only sores are on his penis, then a condom can protect the woman. However, because vaginal secretions may leak over the pelvic area not protected by the condom, the condom does not protect men as much.


Herpes can spread beyond genital contact, including to other parts of the already-infected person's body. If you touch a herpes sore, always wash your hands thoroughly before touching anyone else or any other part of your body.


Be aware that oral herpes can be transmitted by kissing, sharing towels, or drinking from the same glass or cup.


Although herpes has no cure, it is important to see a doctor if you suspect that you have the disease. You should see a doctor both to make sure that herpes really is the cause of the symptoms and to learn how to live with herpes and not spread it to others. If you're the infected person, the doctor can give you a set of rules to follow to help keep you from contaminating others or other parts of your body.










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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-genital-warts-and-herpes.html

How to Match Your Marketing E-Mails to Your Brand

Branding your marketing e-mails helps your audience to immediately recognize and differentiate your e-mails from the unfamiliar e-mails they receive. Keeping your e-mail branding consistent over time allows your recipients to become familiar with you and your e-mails as they receive multiple e-mails from you.


All your business communications should contain consistent branding elements, and your e-mails are no exception. Matching every e-mail to your brand gives your audience confidence and makes your business more memorable every time your audience clicks to access your website or walks into your store and sees the same branding elements.


Design your e-mails to match your brand by



  • Including your logo. Position your logo in the upper left or top center of your e-mail where readers are most likely to see it.


    Using a company logo along with identifiable design elements brands your e-mail and reinforces your company’s image.



  • Echoing your logo colors. If your logo has multiple colors, pull the colors from your logo and use them for the borders, backgrounds, and fonts in your e-mails. If your logo uses only one color, you can use a graphic design program to create a palette of colors that work well with the color in your logo.



  • Using the colors from your website. When readers click from your e-mail to your website, they may hesitate if your website looks different from your e-mail. Design your e-mails using the colors in your website to give visitors a feel of familiarity. For example, if your website uses a gray background with black text, use the same colors for those elements in your e-mails.



  • Matching website offers. If your e-mail includes an offer with a specific design, use the same design elements on your website, especially if you’re directing people to your website to complete a purchase or to read more information about the offer in your e-mail.



  • Being consistent across all media. If you’re posting to social media, sending direct mail, or printing ads to follow up or reinforce your e-mail messages, make sure that those communications match the branding in your e-mails.



  • Choosing fonts that match your brand in your e-mails. Consistent fonts add to the overall look and feel of your e-mails as well as adding emotion behind the text. Keep your fonts consistent in all your communications and use the same fonts for similar visual anchors. For example, if your e-mail contains three articles with three headlines in one column, use the same font for each headline in the column.


    Stick with two or three different fonts in each e-mail to avoid heaping visual distractions on your audience.



  • Making sure your e-mails reflect your business’ personality. Design elements that match your brand can still spell a mismatch with your brand if your e-mails aren’t written with your business’ personality in mind. Show your e-mails to a few trustworthy friends or advisors and ask them to tell you whether your writing style is a good match for your image. If you aren’t a good writer, consider using a copywriter to help you maintain your image using the text of your articles and offers. Tell your copywriter whether you want the text in your e-mail to make your business seem



    • Serious or humorous



    • Professional or casual



    • Formal or friendly



    • Exclusive or universal



    • Urgent or customary



    • Insistent or politely persuasive















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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-match-your-marketing-emails-to-your-brand.html

Shopping for Cheese Online

You can purchase cheese in many places, especially if you live in a large city: specialty cheese shops, grocery stores with cheese shops or counters, and public and farmers’ markets. Online cheese retailers are another option. If you live in a rural area, are physically unable to visit retail shops, dislike dealing with crowds, or are in search of an esoteric cheese, shopping online is a good choice.


Check out the following cheese retailers. Their sites are easy-to-understand and navigate and have comprehensive information. They’re also trustworthy — not just in terms of security, but with regard to the quality of their products and their knowledge of how to correctly pack and ship a cheese:



  • Artisanal (New York City): Artisanal Bistro is a cheese-centric eatery with a modest, but well-curated retail selection of cheeses. Artisanal Premium Cheese Center offers a curriculum of cheese education classes (note that this location doesn’t have a retail outlet).



  • Beechers Handmade Cheese (Seattle): Located in Seattle’s touristy but historic Pike Place Market, you’ll find a small selection of domestic cheeses in this café/retail shop/cheese factory — and you can watch cheese being made through the windows. A second location is now open in New York’s Flatiron District.



  • Cowgirl Creamery (San Francisco and Washington DC): Cowgirl Creamery is an excellent example of the European model (cheeses stacked on counters), with a careful selection of the best artisanal domestic and import cheeses, as well as housemade product.



  • DiBruno Bros (Philadelphia): Bustling and well-stocked with specialty foods, Di Bruno’s four retail locations have excellent cheese selections and the mongers know what they’re doing.



  • Formaggio Kitchen (Boston): This shop has an exhaustive array of artisan cheeses, handwritten signs, and highly educated mongers as well as lots of specialty foods. The original location is in Cambridge, with a second store in the South End.



  • Fromagination (Madison, Wisconsin): Foundedin 2007 by Ken Monteleone, this shop is located in the heart of Madison's Capital Square. With a strong focus on Wisconsin and Midwest cheeses and accompaniments, Fromagination curates a rotating selection of cheeses and food-related items.



  • Murray’s Cheese Shop (New York City): Murray’s is the quintessential cheese shop, with wedges, wheels, and dry goods piled high in all directions. The original shop (now over 60 years old) is in Greenwich Village, where they also offer educational classes. A second location is in Grand Central Station, and the company has also collaborated with Kroger supermarkets and set up Murrays Cheese counters in several states.



  • Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine (Chicago): With three Chicago-based locations, Pastoral offers a great selection of both domestic and imported cheeses as well as a carefully curated wine department and accompaniments for cheese.



  • Zingerman’s (Ann Arbor, Michigan): Fun and delicious are the key words here (just check out Zingerman’s site and catalogue and you’ll see what we mean). The shop has a fabulous deli with an assortment of cheeses, including those from its own creamery, as well as a separate bakehouse and Roadhouse eatery, and a well-stocked mail order business.




Ordering online from a retailer closest to you is best, because you can save money on shipping cost and time.









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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/shopping-for-cheese-online.html

How to Use Startup Keys to Resolve Mac OS X Boot Problems

Mac OS X includes a number of special keys that you can use during the boot process. These keys really come in handy when you need to force your operating system to do something that it normally wouldn’t, such as boot from a CD instead of the hard drive.



  • To boot from a CD or DVD: Restart your Mac while pressing the C key. This is a great way to free your startup volume when you want to test it or optimize it using a commercial utility.



  • To eject a recalcitrant disc that doesn’t show up on the Desktop: Restart Mac OS X and hold down the mouse button, or if you have a late-model Mac, press the Media Eject key as soon as you hear that magnificent startup chord.



  • To force your Mac to boot in Mac OS X: Hold down the X key while restarting or booting the Mac.



  • To display a system boot menu: Hold down the Option key while restarting or booting the Mac, and you can choose which operating system you want to use.



  • To prevent start-up applications from running during login: Hold down the Shift key while you click the Login button on the Login screen. If you don’t see the Login screen during startup, just hold down Shift while Mac OS X boots until the Finder menu appears.






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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-startup-keys-to-resolve-mac-os-x-boot-p.html

Developing Mobile Marketing Websites

PDAs and most smartphones with full web access can promote your website or deliver content such as news, sports, blogs, video, and games. Users can use Wi-Fi or subscribe to a data plan from their cellular providers.


Some 40 million consumers now use some type of mobile device for web surfing; about one-quarter of them have paid for items by using their mobile phones, and 13 million have accessed retail sites. A mobile-friendly site that viewers reach is more likely to lead to conversion, so you must design your site in line with the ways that people use their smartphones.


Viewers can access mobile sites while watching TV, riding in a car (not while driving), or while shopping in a store. They can see TV commercials and determine where to buy products; conduct competitive research to ask a retailer to match another’s price; or search for and download coupons. Increasingly, users are interested in using their mobile phones to scan bar codes and purchase items to avoid long checkout lines.


Most websites designed for use on a full-size screen translate poorly to smaller smartphone or PDA screens. Graphics-heavy sites take too long to download, especially on 3G networks or slower; text-intensive sites are difficult to read; and sites with deep layers of content are often difficult to navigate. Creating a positive experience online, is one key to mobile success.


Having a .mobi top-level domain (TLD) name or mobile platform isn’t necessary in order to create a mobile site. However, purchasing a .mobi TLD (such as http://yourcompany.mobi) via your domain name registrar or using a mobile subdomain designation (such as http://m.yourcompany.com) is a visible cue to your users of your existence as a mobile maven.


Follow the best practices for mobile sites, established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to ensure your success.


Special third-party providers develop dot-mobi sites and can help you plan a wireless marketing campaign. The only limits are your imagination, your budget, and the presence of your target audience.


Unless you’re part of a large corporation or developing an app as a freestanding destination (a game specifically designed for mobile players, for example), you’re better off using a standard mobile platform that runs on all phones. Your programmer can also develop a mobile site by using a cascading style sheet; most phones automatically detect the appropriate version.


Keeping up with version changes for all competing mobile operating systems — such as Android (Google), BlackBerry (RIM), and the Apple iOS — is quite difficult. For most small businesses, the process of developing several custom phone apps for a website is time-consuming and expensive and probably not worth the effort.











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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/developing-mobile-marketing-websites.navId-811455.html

Control Statements and Loops in Objective-C

In programming, as in life, you have to make decisions and act on them. Objective-C provides control statements and loops to help your program take action. You may want to repeat a set of instructions based on some condition or state, for example, or even change the program execution sequence. Here is the basic syntax for Objective-C control statements and loops.


if else


if (condition) {
statement(s) if the condition is true;
}
else {
statement(s) if the condition is not true;
}

for


for (counter; condition; update counter) {
statement(s) to execute while the condition is true;
}

for in


for (Type newVariable in expression ) {
statement(s);
}

or


Type existingVariable ;
for (existingVariable in expression) {
statement(s);
}

Expression is an object that conforms to the NSFastEnumeration protocol.



  • An NSArray and NSSet enumeration is over content.



  • An NSDictionary enumeration is over keys.



  • An NSManagedObjectModel enumeration is over entities.




while


while (condition) { 
statement(s) to execute while the condition is true
}

do while


do {
statement(s) to execute while the condition is true
} while (condition);

Jump statements


return ;

Stop execution and returns to the calling function.

break;

Leave a loop.

continue;

Skip the rest of the loop and start the next iteration.

goto labelName;
...
labelName:

An absolute jump to another point in the program (don’t use it).

exit();

Terminates your program with an exit code.



dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/control-statements-and-loops-in-objectivec.html

How to Customize Sound Settings in Mac OS X Lion


9 of 9 in Series:
The Essentials of Adjusting Settings in Mac OS X Lion





Out of the box, Mac OS X Lion comes with a preset collection of beeps and controls. By using the Sound Preferences pane. By changing settings on each of its three tabs—Sound Effects, Output, and Input—you can change the way your Mac plays and records sound


Three items appear at the bottom of the Mac OS X Lion Sound System Preferences pane, no matter which of the three tabs are active:



  • To make your Mac’s volume louder or softer, use the Output Volume slider. You can also change or mute the volume with the designated volume and mute keys found on most Apple keyboards.



  • Choose the Mute check box to turn off all sound.



  • Click the Show Volume in Menu Bar check box to add a volume control menu to your menu bar.




A shortcut to the Sound System Preferences pane is to press Option while pressing any of the volume keys (usually the F4 and F5 keys on older laptops and keyboards or the F11 and F12 keys on newer laptops and keyboards).


Changing sound effects in Mac OS X Lion


On the Sound Effects tab, choose an alert or beep sound by clicking its name; set its volume by using the Alert Volume slider control.


You can also specify the output device through which sound effects play (if you have more than one device) by choosing it from the Play Sound Effects Through pop-up menu.


The Play User Interface Sound Effects check box turns on sound effects for actions, such as dragging a file to the Trash. The Play Feedback When Volume is Changed check box tells your Mac to beep once for each keypress to increase or decrease volume.


Choosing sound output options in Mac OS X Lion


If you have more than one sound-output device (in addition to the built-in speakers), you can choose it here. The Balance slider makes one stereo speaker louder than the other.


Choosing sound input options in Mac OS X Lion


If you have more than one sound-input device (in addition to the built-in microphone on many Macs or an iSight camera), you can choose which one is the primary input receiver. The Input Volume slider controls the Input Level (how loud input from that device will be), which is displayed as a row of blue dots. If the dots light up all the way to the right side, your input volume is too loud. Ideally, the input level should light up with about three fourths of the little blue dots.




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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-customize-sound-settings-in-mac-os-x-lion.html

Going Public with Public Folders in Outlook 2002

If you use Outlook 2002 on a Microsoft Exchange network, you can use public folders. Public folders are places that a whole group of people can look at and add items to. You can have a public folder for tasks or contacts. You can also create a public folder that contains messages, a lot like your Inbox, except that everybody can add messages and read the same set of messages. This kind of arrangement is often called a bulletin board; you post a message, someone replies to it, a third party then replies to both of you, and so on. It's a method of conducting a group conversation without having all the parties to the conversation available at the same time.


In Outlook, public folders look just like any other folders. A public folder may contain a Contact list that the entire company shares or a Tasks list that an entire department uses. You can set up a public discussion folder for an ongoing group conference about topics of interest to everyone sharing the folder, such as current company news. You can also use a public discussion folder to collect opinions about decisions that have to be made or as an intra-company classified ad system. You can organize as a folder any kind of information that you'd like to exchange among groups of people on your network.


When you click a public folder, you see a list of items that looks like a list of e-mail messages, except that all the messages are addressed to the folder rather than to a person. In a public folder, you can change your view of the items, add items, or reply to items that someone else entered.


Viewing a public folder


Your company may maintain a public folder for an ongoing online discussion about important issues in your business or as a company bulletin board for announcements about activities, benefits, and other news.


To view a public folder, follow these steps:


1. Choose View-->Folder List or click the Folder List button in the toolbar.


The Folder List appears (see Figure 1).




figure

Figure 1: The Folder List with Public Folders.


2. Click the name of the folder you want to see.


The list of items in the folder appears.


You can double-click the title of any item that you see to view the contents of that item.


Adding new items


Many public folders are organized as open discussions in which anyone can put in his or her two cents' worth. All the messages can be read by anybody, so everybody reads and replies to everybody else. If you view a folder and find it's full of messages from different people all replying to one another, you're looking at a discussion folder.


To add new items to a public folder, follow these steps:


1. Choose View-->Folder List or click the Folder List button in the toolbar.


The Folder List appears.


2. Click the name of the folder.


The list of messages in the folder appears.


3. Choose File-->New-->Post in This Folder.


The New Item form appears (see Figure 2).




figure

Figure 2: The New Item form.


4. Type a subject and your message.


5. Click Post.


Now your message is part of the list of items in the folder.


Replying to items in an existing public discussion folder


Good manners and good sense say that if you want to join a discussion, the best thing to do is respond to what the other members of the discussion are saying. But be nice — don't flame. Posting nasty responses to people in an online discussion group is called flaming. Flaming is not well-regarded but also is not uncommon. Flaming creates online conversations that most people don't want to participate in. What good is a discussion when nobody talks? Besides, flaming in the workplace can get you fired. So cool down.


When you're participating in public folder discussions at work, assume that everyone in the company — from the top executives to the newest temp — will read what you've written. Check your spelling, DON'T WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS (IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING), and use discretion in what you say and how you say it. The same rules apply to interoffice e-mail; you don't know who reads what you send.


To reply to items in a public discussion folder:


1. Double-click the item to which you want to reply.


The item opens so that you can read it.


2. Click the Post Reply button in the toolbar.


The Discussion Reply form appears. The text of the message to which you're replying is already posted in the form (see Figure 3).




figure

Figure 3: Use the Discussion Reply form to add your comments to a public discussion.


3. Type your subject and reply.


Your reply appears in a different color than the original text.


4. Click Post.


Your item joins the list of discussion items.


Moving items to a public folder


Not all public folders are discussion folders. Public folders can be designed to hold any type of item. You can share lists of tasks, calendars, or files of other types. You don't have to create a public folder item in the folder where you want the item to end up. You can create a task in your own Tasks list, for example, and then move it to a public task folder.


To move items to a public folder:


1. Right-click the item that you want to move.


A menu appears, as shown in Figure 4.




figure

Figure 4: Getting ready to move an item to a folder.


2. Click Move to Folder.


A dialog box that includes the Folder List appears.


3. Click the folder to which you want to send the item.


The name of the folder you clicked is highlighted.


4. Click OK.


Your item moves to its new folder.


For the public record


icon

You may be using public folders without even knowing it. In Outlook, all folders look the same, whether you create them yourself on your own PC or they're on a corporate network or the Internet. All you really need to know about public folders is that they're public, so anybody who has access to the public folder can see whatever you post to that public folder. You can also create your own public folders; check with your system administrator to see whether you have the rights to create public folders and a place to put them.










dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/going-public-with-public-folders-in-outlook-2002.html

Overview of the Keep Reading (and More) Ribbon on a NOOK Tablet

Regardless of which panel of the NOOK Tablet Home screen you’re consulting, you can access the Keep Reading ribbon at the top, as well as the More menu.


The Keep Reading ribbon lists whatever you were most recently reading. When you first start using your NOOK Tablet there won’t be any books or periodicals to keep reading, because you can’t keep on keeping on with something you haven’t yet begun. The ribbon will somewhat cryptically indicate: Keep Reading: None.


When you go to the Home screen you’ll see the title of your most recent piece of reading right there next to Keep Reading. And then, on the right side of the Keep Reading ribbon, you’ll see the very promising More button.


To open the menu, tap the little down arrow next to More. Here’s what you’ll get:



  • Books. Titles and authors of the three books you most recently opened.



  • Periodicals. Titles and publication dates of the three most recent periodicals you read.



  • Files. Titles and types of the three files you most recently opened in the my Files folder.



  • Netflix. Three recommendations from Netflix streaming video service, along with a link to log in to that service. (If you are already logged in, the menu shows your personal Netflix queue — movies you want to see — and three recommendations from it.)




If you haven’t opened any books, newspapers, periodicals, personal files, documents, or Netflix movies, those categories won’t appear on the menu.











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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/overview-of-the-keep-reading-and-more-ribbon-on-a-.html

Squelching Myths about Weight Loss Surgery

Weight loss surgery is in the news almost daily. You may hear everything from glowing reports of saved lives to horror stories about surgeries gone wrong. No doubt you know people who have had the surgery or you know someone who knows someone who has had the surgery. And like the game of gossip, reports get distorted. Here are some myths about weight loss surgery that you may have heard — and that are ripe for righting.



You'll never regain your weight


Weight loss surgery is only a tool — the amount of weight you lose and how much of that weight loss you maintain is up to you. Most patients do regain some weight — some as much as a 20 to 30 percent, and others even more than that. When you go through weight loss surgery, you have no guarantees that you'll be thin your entire life. But if you eat a healthy diet and follow a good exercise routine, your chances of not regaining weight are greatly improved.



You'll never be hungry


After your weight loss surgery, you will experience hunger — but not right away. Soon after surgery, many patients experience what is described as head hunger, which is like withdrawal symptoms from food. After your body adjusts to eating such small amounts, you'll feel only very mild sensations of hunger for many months.



A year or two or more after your surgery, you'll definitely experience hunger. But unlike before your surgery, you'll only need a small meal to satisfy that hunger. You'll definitely be able to eat more at one sitting than you could eat right after your surgery — but try to eat for only 20 minutes and limit your snacks.



Weight loss surgery is the easy way out


Nothing angers a weight loss surgery patient more than hearing someone say that weight loss surgery is the easy way out. There is nothing easy about it. Consider the following:



  • You have to go through rigorous physical and psychological testing to ensure that you're an appropriate candidate for surgery.

  • You may have to fight with your insurance company so the surgery is covered.

  • You may face complications from the surgery.

  • You have to endure about four weeks of liquids and pureed foods — not fun!

  • You have to learn a whole new way of eating — and there are consequences if you don't follow the rules. You may throw up, suffer dumping syndrome, experience nausea, and get food stuck in your stoma (the opening from your new small pouch to your small intestine) — and that hurts!

  • As your system adjusts to the surgery, you may have a real problem with nausea.

  • You may lose a lot of your hair for a three- to five-month period after the surgery.

  • When you realize that you can no longer use food for comfort, you have to adjust psychologically and find new ways of coping.

You can't get pregnant after weight loss surgery


Many patients have trouble getting pregnant prior to surgery and find that they're very fertile following surgery. This is good news if you want to have children — or it may be bad news if you don't.



Contrary to popular belief, pregnancy following weight loss surgery is very possible. Patients are much less at risk during pregnancy because their other health problems have lessened or disappeared. After your weight is back to normal, and assuming you don't have any other health problems, you can expect to have a normal delivery.



If you're a woman of childbearing age, use two forms of birth control for one year following surgery. During that first year, you aren't eating enough to nourish yourself plus a growing fetus, so you don't want to get pregnant then. Besides, you want to concentrate on your own weight loss during that first year. Better safe than sorry.



You'll be happy after surgery


Unhappy people come in all shapes and sizes. Losing weight does not guarantee happiness. That said, you will find many rewards — both physical and emotional — when you reach a normal weight. You'll have a stronger sense of self-esteem, and your health problems will be much more under control. But weight loss surgery won't solve all your problems, and you don't want to go into it thinking it will.



Weight loss surgery is very risky


Many people associate weight loss surgery with a very high risk of death, but that is just not the reality. The death rate associated with weight loss surgery is considered to be one-half of 1 percent, when an experienced surgeon performs the surgery.



Also consider the health risks of staying morbidly obese. You may be at far greater risk staying that way than you will be having surgery.



You'll have a great body


Following weight loss surgery, you'll lose a lot of weight in the form of fat, but you won't necessarily have a great-looking body. As you lose weight, your skin won't necessarily shrink along with your body, which may leave you with lots of sagging skin. Exercise will tone your muscles and help you lose even more weight, but it will do nothing for your skin. You may need to resort to having plastic surgery to deal with excess skin — this just depends on your own body and how it responds after surgery.



You may not have the perfect body, but you'll be healthy!



Weight loss surgery will save your marriage


Actually, the opposite is true. The divorce rate among couples in which one has had weight loss surgery is higher than the average. Many couples are not able to weather the drastic change that happens when one spouse loses a tremendous amount of weight. Your spouse may become jealous of the new attention that you're receiving. Or you may find that with improved self-esteem, you're no longer willing to endure treatment that you don't find acceptable. Or, with a whole new appearance, your personality may change — and your spouse may not like that new personality.



You have to pay for weight loss surgery yourself


You may have to pay for your own weight loss surgery, but weight loss surgery is often covered by insurance. Even though, in recent years, insurance companies have become more demanding in their screening of patients, the vast majority of surgeries are covered.



If anyone where you work has had weight loss surgery, check with him about what experience he had with insurance coverage. You'll get a sense of what, if anything, you may be up against.



If you have the same insurance company as one of your friends but you aren't on the same plan, your insurance could be entirely different. One company may list the surgery as an exclusion for its employees, while another company that uses the same insurance company may not. Just be sure to talk with your insurance company beforehand so you know what costs, if any, will be involved.










dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/squelching-myths-about-weight-loss-surgery.html

Free WordPress Plugins for Creating a Photo Gallery or Portfolio

Some great WordPress plugins work in tandem with the WordPress gallery feature. Photo galleries enable you to include a gallery or portfolio of visual design work, such as web designers and logo designers. You can display a photo gallery on your WordPress web site in a couple ways. One way is to use the built-in gallery feature in WordPress. The other way is to use a robust photo gallery plugin that allows you to create albums with galleries, for those who need a more complex solution.


Here are a handful of great, free plugins you can find on the WordPress Plugin Directory page and install automatically from within your Dashboard:



  • NextGEN Gallery: This plugin creates sortable photo galleries and offers a display of random and recent thumbnail images in your sidebar through the use of widgets, and more. You can download it from the NextGEN Gallery.



  • Organizer: Use this plugin to organize, rename, resize, and manage files in your image-upload folder. You can download it from the Organizer page.



  • Random Image Widget: This plugin lets you display a random image from your image-upload folder. You can download it from the Random Image Widget page.



  • Mini-Slides: This plugin lets you create inline slideshows from your uploaded images. You can download it from the Mini-Slides page.






dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/free-wordpress-plugins-for-creating-a-photo-galler.html

Network Administration: Root Servers

The core of Domain Naming Service (DNS) comprises the root servers, which are authoritative for the entire Internet. The main function of the root servers is to provide the address of the DNS servers that are responsible for each of the top-level domains. These servers, in turn, can provide the DNS server address for subdomains beneath the top-level domains.


The root servers are a major part of the glue that holds the Internet together. As you can imagine, they’re swamped with requests day and night. A total of 13 root servers are located throughout the world. The following table lists the IP address and location of each of the 13 root servers.

























































































The 13 Root Servers
ServerIP AddressOperatorLocation
A198.41.0.4VeriSign Global Registry ServicesDulles, VA
B192.228.79.201Information Sciences InstituteMarina Del Rey, CA
C192.33.4.12Cogent CommunicationsHerndon, VA and Los Angeles, CA
D128.8.10.90University of MarylandCollege Park, MD
E192.203.230.10NASA Ames Research CenterMountain View, CA
F192.5.5.241Internet Systems ConsortiumPalo Alto, CA; San Jose, CA; New York City; San Francisco;
Madrid; Hong Kong; Los Angeles
G192.112.36.4U.S. DOD Network InformationVienna, VA Center
H128.63.2.53U.S. Army Research LabAberdeen, MD
I192.36.148.17AutonomicaStockholm
J192.58.128.30VeriSign Global Registry ServicesDulles, VA; Mountain View CA; Sterling, VA (two locations);
Seattle, WA; Amsterdam, NL; Atlanta, GA; Los Angeles
K193.0.14.129Reseaux IP Europeens NetworkLondon Coordination Centre
L199.7.83.42IANALos Angeles
M202.12.27.33WIDE ProjectTokyo

DNS servers learn how to reach the root servers by consulting a root hints file that’s located on the server. In the Unix/Linux world, this file is known as named.root and can be found at /etc/named.root. For Windows DNS servers, the file is called cache.dns and can be found in \windows\system32\dns\ or \winnt\system32\dns\, depending on the Windows version. The following listing shows the file itself.


The Named.Root File


;       This file holds the information on root name servers needed to
; initialize cache of Internet domain name servers
; (e.g. reference this file in the "cache . <file>"
; configuration file of BIND domain name servers).
;
; This file is made available by InterNIC
; under anonymous FTP as
; file /domain/named.root
; on server FTP.INTERNIC.NET
; -OR- RS.INTERNIC.NET
;
; last update: Dec 12, 2008
; related version of root zone: 2008121200
;
; formerly NS.INTERNIC.NET
;
. 3600000 IN NS A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 198.41.0.4
A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 AAAA 2001:503:BA3E::2:30
;
; FORMERLY NS1.ISI.EDU
;
. 3600000 NS B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 192.228.79.201
;
; FORMERLY C.PSI.NET
;
. 3600000 NS C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 192.33.4.12
;
; FORMERLY TERP.UMD.EDU
;
. 3600000 NS D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 128.8.10.90
;
; FORMERLY NS.NASA.GOV
;
. 3600000 NS E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 192.203.230.10
;
; FORMERLY NS.ISC.ORG
;
. 3600000 NS F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 192.5.5.241
F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 AAAA 2001:500:2F::F
;
; FORMERLY NS.NIC.DDN.MIL
;
. 3600000 NS G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 192.112.36.4
;
; FORMERLY AOS.ARL.ARMY.MIL
;
. 3600000 NS H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 128.63.2.53
H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 AAAA 2001:500:1::803F:235
;
; FORMERLY NIC.NORDU.NET
;
. 3600000 NS I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 192.36.148.17
;
; OPERATED BY VERISIGN, INC.
;
. 3600000 NS J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 192.58.128.30
J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 AAAA 2001:503:C27::2:30
;
; OPERATED BY RIPE NCC
;
. 3600000 NS K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 193.0.14.129
K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 AAAA 2001:7FD::1
;
; OPERATED BY ICANN
;
. 3600000 NS L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 199.7.83.42
L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 AAAA 2001:500:3::42
;
; OPERATED BY WIDE
;
. 3600000 NS M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 A 202.12.27.33
M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. 3600000 AAAA 2001:DC3::35
; End of File



dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/network-administration-root-servers.html

Training Your Puppy to Meet and Greet Others

A well-socialized puppy makes many friends. Meeting and greeting other dogs, puppies, and people tops her list of priorities. You’ll need to teach your puppy impulse control, or she may dart headlong into traffic or rush an unfriendly candidate.


Gaining control when encountering other dogs


Before you rush up to every dog you see, stop and ask yourself whether the dog is friendly and the people are open to greeting. If you think they are, get control of your puppy to ensure the interaction goes smoothly. Do not approach dogs who are barking, jumping, or out of control.


Before approaching a well-mannered dog, gain control of the situation by following these steps:




  1. If your puppy acts excited, bring her “Back” and encourage her to “Wait.”




  2. Ask the person to wait until your puppy has calmed down to approach you.




  3. After you have your puppy under control, you can permit a greeting by saying “Okay, go play.”




  4. When playtime is over, instruct your puppy to “Follow” and move on.




  5. Use rewards and praise to encourage her to leave the other dog and focus on you.


    Keep working on it. Getting your puppy in control around new dogs can take a while.




Enjoying puppy play dates


If your friend or neighbor has a dog-friendly dog or another puppy and you want to get the dogs together to play, try to organize a first meeting at a neutral location such as an empty playground or field (doing so prevents territorial reactions). When possible, give both dogs freedom to interact on a long line, because choking up on a short leash can prompt containment aggression.


When they first meet, you may see some rough interaction in the form of play or you may witness dominance displays such as growling, mouthing, and mounting. Don’t freak out or choke up on your lead. This behavior is natural, and your interference often prompts a fight.


Stay calm but observe closely. The dogs must determine a hierarchy. After that’s accomplished, they’ll play and have fun on their own. If you’re certain a fight has begun, separate them with the leashes. Don’t handle fighting dogs.


If you’re approached by an off-lead dog, don’t hesitate, don’t look at the dog, and don’t let your puppy look at the dog. Just walk quickly away from the area. Discourage any confrontational attempts your puppy makes. Both of you should avoid eye contact. An off-lead dog defends his territory. However, if you leave without confrontation, he’ll stop the chase.


Introducing your pup to people


Meeting people doesn’t have to be a hair-raising experience. If your puppy is good on the leash, knows her directions, and is friendly, you have what you need to introduce your pooch to strangers.


Before you venture into the social scene, read over the following disclosures:




  • If your puppy is aggressive: If your puppy is having aggression problems, the only person you should introduce your puppy to for now is a trainer or behaviorist with a specialty in aggression rehabilitation. Ask your veterinarian for a recommendation.




  • If your puppy is nervous: If you notice your puppy getting nervous or tense around unfamiliar people, join a class or work under private supervision. Don’t push the issue alone.




  • If you’re insecure: If you don’t believe that you have what it takes to train your puppy, you won’t. Hire some extra help if you need the support.




When debuting your puppy, follow these key rules:




  • Make sure your puppy is familiar and comfortable with the setting before you attempt to introduce her to anyone.




  • Always keep your human feet ahead of doggie paws. Gently tug her back if she forgets, realigning her if she attempts to scoot forward.




  • Tell admirers “We’re in training.” Hopefully, they will respect your efforts and contain their own excitement.




  • Stay more focused on your puppy than the admirer. Tug your puppy back into position if she attempts to break.





dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/training-your-puppy-to-meet-and-greet-others.html

Preventing Your Teen from Picking Up the Smoking Habit

You may be wondering how to approach your teenager about not smoking. Some kids avoid cigarettes like the plague. Some have been on a crusade since childhood to get their parents — you! — to quit smoking. However, adolescence is the time of all kinds of new experiences. Many kids pick up a cigarette out of curiosity, because of peer pressure, or because they've been told not to smoke and they want to rebel.



The best way to prevent your teen from picking up the habit is not to smoke yourself — to set a good example.



Scare tactics, a form of "tough love," work for some teens. Scare tactics that have convinced many teens to shun smoking include seeing people with advanced pulmonary disease and seeing anatomical specimens of cancerous lungs. Granted, you may be challenged to find appropriate visual specimens, but if you search the Internet or call your county medical society, you're likely to find more than you bargained for! Departments of health may be happy to arrange school visits by experts who can tactfully discuss the dismal futures of those who keep smoking. The American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association also have a great deal of information that's accurate, up-to-date, and sobering.



Other teens relate better to a nonjudgmental approach. You might point out that



  • Curiosity and wanting to try new things are normal for teens.

  • Many people experiment with tobacco and other substances at some point in their lives.

  • Many people have learned the truth about smoking the hard way — by getting sick or seeing someone else develop a smoking-related illness.

  • Peer pressure is difficult to face, but being your own person is far cooler than following the crowd and doing something that harms your health, like smoking. Smoking is not cool.

  • Most of the celebrities and other role models whom people look up to take extra-good care of themselves.

  • The future always comes. Living only for the moment comes with a high price. Perhaps your teen can come up with a number of examples where thinking about and planning for tomorrow has already paid off big, such as saving money for something she really wanted or studying for an important exam.

To show your kids that you aren't naive, a self-righteous health nut, or a zealot, be real in your conversations with them. Although they may not act like they do, they want to know about your worries regarding tobacco.



Sit down and talk to your kids about smoking. You may even want to tell them about your own experience with tobacco. You can tell them about others who have tried to quit and struggled. You can explain how addiction works and describe some of the medical consequences of prolonged smoking. Why would anyone want to smoke when they can work out or do other things to make themselves look and feel better?



Asking questions is important, too. Ask your teenager:



  • Have you ever tried cigarettes?

  • Have you ever tried drinking?

  • Do your friends or other people you know smoke?

  • Does anyone you know drink or get high?

  • What do you think about smoking? Do you think it's cool?

  • Why are some people against cigarettes?

Questions about drinking and getting high are especially relevant because most teens who use alcohol and drugs also smoke. Substantial evidence shows that cigarettes are the gateway drug to alcohol, marijuana, and other mind-altering drugs. If your teen consistently denies that he and his friends smoke or drink, extend the conversation a little further. Why hasn't he ever tried a cigarette? Isn't he curious about what it's like? The idea is to get past denial and lip service to health and good habits.



Another key area to explore is self-esteem. One big reason that teens smoke is to pump up their self-esteem and self-confidence. How do your kids feel about themselves? Are they confident, are they assertive, and can they laugh at themselves in a healthy way? Do they have areas of accomplishment that help them feel good about themselves? Do they have many friends? To the extent that teenagers feel shaky about themselves and feel that they need to take extra measures to feel powerful, strong, and effective, they will be swayed by their friends who smoke and by advertising that sells cigarettes as passports to being cool.



Up to two-thirds of high schoolers have tried smoking.










dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/preventing-your-teen-from-picking-up-the-smoking-h.html

Client Print Protocols Supported by Lion Server

You can set up a shared print queue for any printer in Lion Server and the print service in Mac OS X Server can communicate with user client computers with one of three network printing protocols. You set up a print queue with one more of these print protocols:



  • Internet Printing Protocol (IPP): Mac, Windows (XP and later), and Unix/Linux clients can all use IPP to print. When Mac OS X clients print to a non-PostScript printer, they can use the printer’s native driver installed on the client to have access to the printer’s special features. This isn’t available with LPR.



  • Line Printer Remote (LPR): Mac, Windows (XP and later), and Unix/Linux clients can all use LPR to print.



  • Server Message Block (SMB): Windows clients only, including older versions of Windows.




Client computers can use any of these protocols to transfer PostScript print jobs to the server. If you have a printer that uses a proprietary, non-PostScript print driver, it will use IPP to send print job data with.


A USB printer connected to the server Mac is a network printer as far as the client computers are concerned. So although a USB printer doesn’t use a network printing protocol to talk to the server, the clients do use a network printing protocol to send jobs to the server.


If the USB printer is a raster (non-PostScript) inkjet printer, the client computers can use any printing protocol to send a PostScript job to the server. The server converts the PostScript job to what the inkjet printer expects to receive.




dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/client-print-protocols-supported-by-lion-server.html

Eclipse Keyboard Shortcuts

You’ll most likely spend most of your Android development career in the Eclipse IDE. The following table shows a few keyboard shortcuts that can help you save a lot of time.











































ActionKeyboard Shortcut
Create a new file in the current packageAlt+Shift+N
Organize the import statementsCtrl+Shift+O
Navigate to the source definitionF3
Rename an objectAlt+Shift+R
Search through Java filesCtrl+H
Open a particular typeCtrl+Shift+T
Find declarationsCtrl+G
Navigate leftAlt+←
Navigate rightAlt+→








dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/eclipse-keyboard-shortcuts0.html

Spice and Herb Suggestions for Cast-Iron Cooking

The fact that your cast-iron cookware is seasoned doesn’t mean that it imparts any flavor — far from it. However, you can change the taste of a dish you cook in cast iron — or any pot or pan — with herbs and spices. The following list recommends some fun spices and herbs that introduce some extra flavor in the accompanying foods.




  • Allspice: Beef roasts, pork, potato soups, and oyster stews




  • Basil: Beef, pork, fish, shellfish, fried chicken, clam chowder, beef stew, green beans, and squash




  • Chili powder: Shrimp, fried chicken, and beef stew




  • Cinnamon: Ham, pork, stewed chicken, carrots, and sweet potatoes




  • Cloves: Corned beef, ham, fish, roast chicken, baked beans, bean soup, carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes




  • Ginger: Beef roast, chicken, and duck, baked beans, rice dishes, seafood, bean soup, carrots, and squash




  • Nutmeg: Pot roast, fried chicken, beans, and carrots




  • Oregano: Swiss steak, veal, chicken, pheasant, fish, shellfish, and stews




  • Sage: Pork, veal, chicken, turkey, duck, stew, squash, biscuits, and cornbread




  • Thyme: Roasts (all types), clam chowder, stew, carrots, green beans, potatoes, biscuits, and cornbread




Start out using just a little bit of the spice and add more as you go.



dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/spice-and-herb-suggestions-for-castiron-cooking.html

How to Determine a Trust's Schedule of Distributions

As trustee of an estate, you must determine the schedule of beneficiary distributions and be sure that distribution dates are calendared somewhere. The trust instrument may call for fixed amount distributions, a 5/5 provision, trust accounting income distributions, or discretionary distributions.


To determine how much to pay beneficiaries, first look at the trust instrument:



  • Fixed amount distributions: Sometimes, the trust instrument instructs you to pay a set dollar amount on a certain date. For example, a grandparent might set up a trust so that each grandchild receives $1,000 every year as a birthday gift.



  • 5/5 provision: Often, a trust for the benefit of a surviving spouse contains a so-called 5/5 provision, where the surviving spouse may request a distribution of either 5 percent of the assets or $5,000 annually, whichever is greater.



  • Trust accounting income: Far more usual than the fixed amount distribution, though, is a distribution that’s based on the net income of the trust, or trust accounting income. The trust may require all income to be distributed annually, quarterly, or even monthly. If the instrument contains this requirement, you must ensure that payments are made within a reasonable amount of time after the due date.



  • Discretionary distributions: Although it’s by far more frequent for a beneficiary to come to you to ask for money, sometimes you may see a need when the beneficiary doesn’t ask for help. For example, the beneficiary may be struggling financially or may require an expensive medical treatment. Most trusts provide you, the trustee, with the discretion to make additional, unscheduled distributions.




Read your instrument closely to see how much discretion you’re allowed. In the case of discretionary distributions, you’re not limited to distributing only income, but may also make principal distributions if they’re warranted.











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-determine-a-trusts-schedule-of-distribution.html

How to Clip a Web Page on the iPad

In their infinite wisdom, the folks at Apple let you use Safari on your iPad to bestow special privileges on your most frequently visited websites, a process called clipping.


You frequent lots of websites, but some way more than others. You’re constantly online to consult your daily train schedule, for example. You can emphasize these sites not just by bookmarking pages but also by affording them their unique Home screen icons. Apple calls these Web Clips, and creating one is dead simple. Follow these steps:



  1. Open the web page in question and tap the Action icon.



  2. Tap Add to Home Screen.


    Apple creates an icon out of the area of the page that was displayed when you saved the clip, unless the page has its own custom icon.



  3. Type a new name for your Web Clip or leave the one that Apple suggests.



  4. Tap Add.


    The icon appears on your Home screen.




As with any icon, you can remove a Web Clip by pressing and holding its icon until it starts to wiggle. Then tap the X in the corner of the icon and tap Delete. The operation is completed when you press the Home button.











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-clip-a-web-page-on-the-ipad.html

Caring for a Doe and Her New Kid


7 of 8 in Series:
The Essentials of Caring for Pregnant and Nursing Goats





Your goats are likely to be fine giving birth without assistance, but after they kid, there are some things you can do to help the doe and her kid get off to a good start. The first thing to do when a doe is done kidding is to get her a bucket of warm water with a little molasses (about two gallons of water with 1/4-cup molasses) for energy. Then get her some grain and some fresh alfalfa to munch on while her kids learn to walk and nurse, and while you wait for the placenta.


After a doe has kidded, she goes into the third stage of labor: delivery of the placenta. This stage can take up to 12 hours, but usually the doe passes her placenta within an hour or two of kidding. If she has not done so within that time, contact your veterinarian. Dispose of the placenta by burying it deep, composting it, or burning it.


The dam will try to eat her placenta — most mammals do. You can allow her to take a few bites, but watch that she doesn’t choke on it.


Clean the kidding area of soaked straw and feed bags and add fresh straw. If you will be bottle-feeding, milk the doe out (milk all the colostrum out of her udder), heat-treat the colostrum if needed, and feed it to kids or freeze it for emergency.


Newborn kids may complain about being handled, but they need to be warmed and stimulated so they can get up. After the birth of a single kid, or between the births of multiple kids, take these steps with each newborn:



  1. Use a towel to help the dam clean the kid.


    Make sure you uncover the face first and determine whether the kid is breathing. If he isn’t breathing, rub the body to stimulate him; if that doesn’t work, swing him.


    If you are on a CAEV prevention program or plan to raise the kids separately on a bottle, don’t let the dam clean the kid. Instead, wash the kid and put him in a separate box from other newborn kids until each has been washed and dried.



  2. Tie the cord with dental floss and cut it about an inch from the kid’s body.



  3. Dip the cord.


    Pour some iodine into a film can or prescription bottle and hold it over the umbilical cord stump up to the belly. Turn the kid to coat the whole cord. Treating the cord with iodine helps prevent navel ill.



  4. Check the kid for gender, number of teats, and any abnormalities.



  5. Feed the kid.


    Put the kid under the dam if it will be dam-raised. Watch the kid for the next 15 minutes or so. If she has trouble latching on and sucking well, help her out by moving her near the teat or putting the teat in her mouth. Some kids really resist; other little goats latch on and don’t back down.


    Offer a warm bottle with several ounces of heat-treated colostrum if the kids will be bottle-fed.




To heat-treat colostrum, heat it in a jar in a hot water bath to 135 degrees Fahrenheit and hold it at that heat for one hour. Do not let the temperature go higher than 140 degrees or below 130 degrees.




dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/caring-for-a-doe-and-her-new-kid.html

Save Money on the Wedding of Your Dreams

When you’re planning a wedding on a budget, you want to get the best value for your dollar. You aren’t interested in anything that looks cheap; you want your fairytale wedding for less. If you follow these tips, your guests will never imagine that they’ve been invited to a budget wedding:



  • Choose a budget-friendly wedding date and time: Getting married on a weekday, on a Sunday, in the morning, or on a Saturday in November or January will save money on everything from the ceremony and reception venues to the band or DJ you hire.



  • Don’t go overboard on invitations: Buy for the number of households, not the total number of guests. Otherwise, you end up wasting money on unused invitations.



  • Find a less-expensive wedding dress: Search online retailers, borrow a dress, rent a gown, or buy a bridesmaid’s dress in white, cream, or ivory.



  • Create your own wedding playlist: Recorded music is the least expensive way to have the melodies you want for your ceremony. It’s also the easiest way to mix and match the styles and songs that best suit you as a couple. Put the playlist on your MP3 player and check whether you have access to the sound system at your ceremony site.



  • Skip pew or chair decorations: Guests won’t miss them, and you’ll save money.



  • Pick something other than flowers: Ditch the bouquet idea altogether and carry a fan, a small parasol, a loved one’s Bible, a rosary, or even a fancy clutch or evening bag. Or opt for a bouquet made of feathers, crystals, candy, antique buttons, or origami.



  • Serve only beer and wine. This common compromise doesn’t violate any etiquette rules. As a variation, you can serve beer, wine, and a signature drink. This variation gives your guests more drink choices but still keeps expenses down.



  • Do without the wedding cake: You can serve alternative desserts — like cookies, bars, brownies, cheesecake, pies, or tarts — in any number of ways: as a dessert buffet, as centerpieces on your tables, or as butler-passed treats.



  • Forgo favors: You can make a donation to a charity in your guests’ names for less than you’d pay for some favors.











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/save-money-on-the-wedding-of-your-dreams.html

Saving Calories by Substituting Nutritious Foods in Cooking


6 of 10 in Series:
The Essentials of Healthy Weight Loss





Dieters have to brave going into the kitchen and preparing nutritious foods to eat. Cooking and eating low-cal and lowfat, nutritious foods needn’t be difficult. The following table lists a few diet-friendly switches to consider.






































































Calorie-Shaving Switches in Your Food Preparation
Instead OfUseCalories Saved
1 medium white potato1 medium sweet potato100
3 ounces ground beef3 ounces ground turkey meat*100
1 tablespoon mayonnaise1 tablespoon lowfat mayonnaise65
10 fried tortilla chips10 baked tortilla chips20
1 cup whole milk cottage cheese1 cup fat-free or 1% milk64 (fat-free) or 48 (1%)
1 flour tortilla1 corn tortilla50
1 cup whole milk1 cup 1% cottage cheese or ricotta cheese whirled in a
blender
268
1 whole egg2 egg whites46
1/2 cup cream1/2 cup evaporated fat-free milk145
1/2 cup premium ice cream1/2 cup regular ice cream100
3 1/2 ounces tuna in oil1/2 ounces tuna in water80
1/2 cup canned fruit in syrup1/2 cup canned fruit in juice25

*Make sure that you select ground turkey breast meat. When the label says simply “ground turkey,” skin may be included, and that means added fat.


Tired of the same old broiled chicken breast or plain potato? Reach for one of these flavor-makers to spice up your palate:



  • Mustard



  • Hot sauce



  • Chili powder



  • Aged balsamic vinegar



  • Salsa



  • Grated horseradish



  • Wasabi



  • Harisa (Moroccan pepper paste)



  • Pickles




Add 2 tablespoons prepared mustard to 1/2 cup pan drippings (that you have skimmed of their fat) and heat to boiling. You get a velvety sauce without needing to add cream, butter, or flour.




dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/saving-calories-by-substituting-nutritious-foods-i.html

Big Temptations of Wealth Building with Quicken 2012

Most users stumble over a couple of big temptations when trying to commit to financial building with Quicken 2012: Spending extra money instead of saving it and abandoning their investment strategy before reaching the end goal of secure retirement.


Temptation #1: Any good financial planner can tell you how to come up with an extra $100 or even $500 per month. Also, if you really do use Quicken in a disciplined way to manage your financial affairs, you’ll find yourself freeing up money.


You’ll save a little bit of money here, waste a little less over there; pretty soon, you’ll find yourself with a bit of extra cash. But you must have the commitment to save and invest that money. You have to decide to dedicate the next $100 or $500 to investments.


If you do, you don’t have to worry about financial security in retirement. And if you don’t, you should worry. But anyway, that’s the first temptation. When you find some extra money, you need to have the discipline to save and invest those funds. And if you do start to do this, you’ll rather quickly amass thousands of dollars.


Ironically, resisting Temptation #1 leads rather quickly to . . .


Temptation #2: After you collect an extra $5,000 or $25,000 or $50,000 in your portfolio, you need to have the commitment necessary to let that money grow. That seems obvious, of course. But a lot of people don’t do this.


A lot of people, after they amass a nice little pot of money, decide it’s time to abandon a strategy that has worked wonderfully. They decide to buy a bigger house or a boat. Or they change investment strategies, maybe by investing in some friend’s or family member’s new business.


Or they turn their money into a hobby — perhaps deciding that they’re going to use their retirement money to try out this online investing thing or leveraged real estate investing.


It’s your money, of course. You get to do with it whatever you want. But if you really want to build up a nice nest egg for retirement, you need to be committed enough to resist these two big temptations.











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/big-temptations-of-wealth-building-with-quicken-20.html

Know Your eBay Auction Terms

Bolster your buying (and selling) vocabulary with these basic eBay terms:

  • Reserve price: The minimum price a seller is willing to accept for an item up for auction. Setting a reserve is optional, and only the seller knows the reserve price. If the bidding doesn’t exceed the reserve, the seller has the option to keep the item. eBay charges the seller a small fee for this option.
  • Minimum bid: The lowest acceptable bid for an item, set by the seller. This amount must be determined by the seller and is not kept secret. Minimum bid amounts are often different from reserve prices.
  • Multiple Item (Dutch) auction: An auction that allows a seller to put multiple identical items up for sale instead of holding multiple separate auctions. The seller must sell all items at the lowest winning price. You can bid on one, some, or all of the items.
  • BIN (Buy It Now): You have the option of purchasing an item with the BIN option. If you feel the BIN price is a bit more than you want to pay, place a bid at the minimum bid level (or the most you’d like to pay). That way, the BIN option disappears, and you may just win the item at the lower price.
  • Proxy bid: You can decide the most you’re willing to pay for an item and allow eBay’s bidding program to place bids for you while you go on with your life. The proxy bidder ups the ante incrementally to beat out your competition until you’re outbid or win the auction.


dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/know-your-ebay-auction-terms.html

Writing Business Plans: How to Identify Customers and Competitors

A critical part of a successful business plan is identifying your customers and the competition. Solid business plans incorporate research on potential customers and competitors. Begin by asking the following questions, and then apply the tips on how to become a winning business:


Three Customer Questions



  • Who is buying?



  • What do they buy?



  • Why do they buy?




Three Competitor Questions



  • How big are they?



  • Which customers are they after?



  • What is their strategy?




Three Ways to Win



  • Cut costs to the bone



  • Offer something unique



  • Focus on one customer group











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/writing-business-plans-how-to-identify-customers-a.html

Access Economic Reports for Wise Online Investing

Smart online investors closely monitor the health of the economy. They look for any sign the economy is speeding up, slowing down, or going sideways. They rapidly buy or sell stocks if their opinion changes even a little. You can look in countless places for economic indicators, but the key sites are listed here:



  • Conference Board: The Big Daddy of economic prognosticators, the Conference Board site measures everything from manufacturing activity to unemployment claims, from building permits to consumer confidence. Pay special attention to the U.S. leading index, which falls when the measures it monitors predict an economic decline.


    Although the Conference Board’s leading index is widely watched, it’s not always right. Investment pros like to joke that the leading index has predicted six of the last three recessions. For instance, the indicator fell in 1984 and 1987, but the economy didn’t contract either time.



  • U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics: The U.S. government is also in the predicting business, tracking a vast majority of the indicators investors focus on, including the following:



    • The Consumer Price Index



    • The Producer Price Index



    • Employee wages



    • Unemployment





  • U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis: The Bureau of Economic Analysis monitors how fast the economy is growing, generally the gross domestic product, or GDP.



  • The Federal Reserve Board: Investors look long and hard at the Fed because it sets short-term interest rates, which determine how much money is worth.


    Don’t confuse short-term interest rates and long-term interest rates. The Fed sets the short-term rates to steer the economy. When the Fed wants to slow the economy, it tightens credit by raising short-term rates, making it more expensive for companies and people to borrow and spend. It can loosen credit by cutting short-term rates, which boosts the economy.


    Long-term interest rates are set by traders who guess the direction of the economy. The difference between short- and long-term rates is known as the spread.



  • *National Association of Realtors: The National Association of Realtors’ Web site releases closely watched data on both new- and existing-home sales, data that investors can use to get a better sense of the health of the economy as a whole.



  • Yahoo! Finance’s Economic Calendar: Here you can see which reports are coming up each week, what they are, how important they are, and what analysts are expecting. It’s all in one place, too, saving you the trouble of bouncing between all the sites in this list.



  • Economics and Statistics Administration: The Economics and Statistics Administration offers a handy (and free) calendar of important upcoming economic reports. The site also has a free service where alerts of upcoming data releases can be e-mailed to you.






dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/access-economic-reports-for-wise-online-investing.html

Approved Snacks for a Low-Carb Diet

Low-carb snacks are a good choice no matter which diet you're following because they're mostly fruits and vegetables. When choosing a low-carb snack, consider the ones in the following list first:



























A juicy orangeA handful of raisins
A bunch of grapesA big green or red apple
An 8-ounce container of low-fat yogurtRaw vegetables (baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, green beans,
pepper strips, radishes, celery, cucumber) with low-fat salad
dressing
A can of unsweetened applesauce, diced peaches, or mixed
fruit
Sliced turkey rolled up in a lettuce leaf
A glass of skim, 1/2%, or 1% milkBoiled shrimp with zesty cocktail sauce
Dried apricotsSkim-milk mozzarella string cheese








dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/approved-snacks-for-a-lowcarb-diet.html