Advertising on Facebook

The self-service pay per click (PPC) ads on Facebook are structured similarly to PPC or CPM (cost per thousand impressions) campaigns at Bing/Yahoo! and Google — with three major differences.

First, all targeting is demographic or geographic rather than by context or search term. In other words, you can identify a target market by area of interest, location, or demographic feature, but not as a result of a search. Second, the ads have quite a low CTR, less than that of banner ads. Finally, you can incorporate an image into your ads.

You may want to think about using the ads for branding rather than for sales. Or, use the Facebook Ads for Pages feature to drive traffic to your Facebook fan page. (This is the one place where a Facebook URL is an acceptable landing page for a paid ad.) These engagement ads come with a built-in call to action to Like your page without the user ever leaving the ad.

Of course, you should cross-link Facebook with your website, blog, newsletter, and other social media pages. Use chicklets and Share buttons. Whenever possible, cross-post as well, especially between your blog, Twitter, and Facebook wall.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/advertising-on-facebook.navId-811455.html

Point-of-Sale Program Success: Secret Shoppers

A great way to keep cashiers on their toes and asking shoppers to support your cause at the register is secret shoppers. You’ve probably heard of secret shoppers. These hired guns masquerade as everyday shoppers to find out more about what a business is doing well and what needs improvement.

Some of the companies you work with may already have secret shoppers that you can use to monitor the program. You may also use really good volunteers or your own staff.

If you use staff or volunteers, here’s a suggestion to make it more fun for the employees they’re scrutinizing. Arm your secret shoppers with small prizes and gifts for the cashiers that are doing a great job asking shoppers to support your cause.

The secret shoppers get in checkout lines like any other shopper, but when the cashiers ask them to donate to you cause, they inform them who they are. They thank the cashiers for their support and give them a small reward, such as a t-shirt or a $5 gift card to a coffee shop.

This reward is your way of saying thank you! Make a big deal of it, letting the cashiers around them know they’re being rewarded for their efforts. Also, tell their manager that they’re doing a great job selling the program.

Of course, not every cashier will ask the secret shopper to support the cause. You have a couple options if they aren’t asked:

• Tell them they just missed out on a chance to win a great prize! Then take a moment to tell the cashier about your cause and how important this program is to your mission.

  
  

  Above all, stay positive. Shaming and humiliating the employee won’t work. It will have the opposite effect. Don’t give the employee a really good reason not to support the program.

  
  



• Your secret shopper could pass through the checkout line without saying anything and then make a beeline for the manager to talk about getting employees to solicit shoppers. Remember, managers are key. If you had a particularly bad experience with a cashier, share it with the manager, not the employee.

  
  

  The manager is in a position to be critical of his staff, if needed. You’re not. Again, even with the manager, stay positive and don’t harp on him about his staff’s performance.

  
  

These managers and cashiers are volunteering their effort and support for your program. Regardless of what corporate is telling them, they have a choice of whether to give it their full effort, or a half-hearted one.

Do you want your influence to be positive or negative? As the saying goes, you’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/pointofsale-program-success-secret-shoppers.html

What It Means to Become a Pattern Day Trader

5 of 11 in Series:
The Essentials of Getting Started with Day Trading

Many day traders lose money, and those losses can be magnified by the use of leverage strategies (trading with borrowed money), meaning that they can lose more money than they have in the quest for larger profits. If the customer who lost the money can’t pay up, then the broker is on the hook. If too many customers lose money beyond what the broker can absorb, then the losses ripple through the financial system, and that’s not good.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has a long list of rules that its member firms have to meet in order to stay in business. One, known as NASD Rule 2520, deals specifically with day traders. It sets the minimum account size and margin requirements for those who fit the definition of day traders, and here's a hint: The requirements are stricter for day trading than for other types of accounts, to reflect the greater risk.

FINRA defines day trading as the buying or selling of the same security on the same day in a margin account (that is, using borrowed money). Execute four or more of those day trades within five business days, and you are a pattern day trader, unless those trades were 6 percent or less of all the trades you made over those five days.

The National Futures Association does not have a special definition of day trading because futures trades by their very nature are short term.

Here’s why it matters: If you're a pattern day trader, you can have a margin of 25% in your account, which means you can borrow 75% of the cost of the securities that you're trading. Most customers are only allowed to borrow 50%. That’s because pattern day traders almost always close out their positions overnight, so there is less risk to the firm of having the loan outstanding. However, you have to have a margin account if you're a pattern day trader. This means you have to sign an agreement saying that you understand the risks of borrowing money, including that you may have to repay more than is in your account and that your broker can sell securities out from under you to ensure you pay what is owed.

Under Rule 2520, you have to have at least $25,000 in your brokerage account. If you have losses that take your account below that, you have to come up with more money before your broker will allow you to continue day trading. You can’t plead your case because the broker has to comply with the law. In fact, if you don’t make the deposits necessary to bring your account up to at least $25,000 and at least 25 percent of the amount of money you’ve borrowed within five business days, you have to trade on a cash basis (no borrowing), assuming the firm will even let you trade.

The rules set by FINRA and other self-regulatory organizations are minimum requirements. Brokerage firms are free to set higher limits for account size and borrowing, and many do so in order to manage their own risks better.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-it-means-to-become-a-pattern-day-trader.html

M&A Due Diligence: Insurance, Lawsuits, and Government Paperwork

A Buyer wants to purchase a business that is safe from unnecessary risks. During the M&A process of due diligence, he should check on the Seller’s insurance, lawsuit history, and government paperwork filings.

M&A due diligence: Insurance

Insurance — that is to say, risk management — is another important factor for any Buyer. Understanding the costs of insuring Seller’s business is important, of course, but so is understanding the underlying risks associated with the business. Insurance info for due diligence may include the following:

• The company’s insurance policies, which may include general liability, personal and real property, product liability, errors and omissions, directors and officers, and worker’s compensation.

  
  



• Schedule of insurance claims

  
  



• Listing of areas of self-insurance

  
  



• Listing and description of any outstanding premium adjustments

  
  

Buyers may be able to get better insurance rates after the deal closes; larger companies are often able to warrant preferred pricing from insurance carriers.

M&A due diligence: Litigation history

Understanding Seller’s history with lawsuits, both as a defendant and plaintiff, is another must-know due diligence area for any Buyer. The following list lays out some important litigation info:

• All litigation, arbitration, and other proceedings to which the company is a party

  
  



• Listing of all pending or threatened claims, lawsuits, arbitrations, or investigations (including investigations by any governmental authority)

  
  



• Description of settlements of litigation, arbitration, and other proceedings

  
  



• Bankruptcy proceedings in which the company is a creditor or otherwise interested

  
  



• All orders, injunctions, judgments, or decrees of any court or regulatory body applicable to the company

  
  



• All agreements in which the company agrees to indemnify or hold harmless another person or entity for claims against that person or entity

  
  



• Schedule of any litigation involving an officer or director of the company concerning bankruptcy, crimes, securities law, or business

  
  

M&A due diligence: Governmental filings

Depending on the industry and the nature of Seller’s business, a slew of government filings and paperwork are a part of due diligence. These documents include

• Any governmental licenses, permits, and authorizations

  
  



• All filings to any national, state, or local governmental agency or authority, including the SEC, the IRS, the FDA, and the INS, to name just a very few

  
  



• Any complaints, investigations, or other informal or formal proceeding by or before a governmental agency or authority and involving the company

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/ma-due-diligence-insurance-lawsuits-and-government.html

Comparing Cloud Computing Services-Led Technology Companies

5 of 17 in Series:
The Essentials of Services in Cloud Computing

The services components (internal or partners) of services-led technology vendors have developed best practices over thousands of engagements and all this experience is brought to the forefront of each company’s cloud computing strategy.

If your company lacks internal expertise on clouds and needs to implement a specialized set of solutions, a services-led engagement might be a good approach for you. In addition, a services company may have direct experience in your industry that may save you time.

The vendors in this category all have

• Large customer bases

  
  



• Years of experience working with customers on implementations

  
  



• Service teams working with customers to answer the tough questions around security, governance, cost, and business objectives

  
  



• Enough size to develop a partner ecosystem to deliver on a comprehensive vision for private, public, and hybrid clouds across services, software, hardware, and storage

  
  



• A lot of their own sophisticated technology to use in private clouds (maybe servers, storage systems, service management software, service oriented architecture frameworks and services, security software, and middleware)

  
  

IBM for cloud computing

With many of its large enterprise customers determined to transform their data centers to become more efficient, IBM has already done a lot of private and hybrid cloud implementations. While the majority of IBM’s initial efforts have been directed toward packaging private and hybrid solutions for enterprise data centers, in the longer term you may expect to see a much broader strategy that includes all aspects of the cloud, including public clouds for SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS. IBM has created a centralized cloud computing organization with a goal of creating offerings that encompass software, hardware, and services.

A key element of the IBM private and hybrid cloud strategy is to offer solutions based on varying customer-driven workloads. These solutions are organized together as IBM Smart Business Cloud. IBM private and public cloud strategies offer solutions based on varying customer-centric workloads.

Cloud computing with Hewlett-Packard

HP has been working on cloudlike implementations with its customers since 2001. These implementations have typically included consulting and integration support and have leveraged HP’s extensive collection of technology management products.

Based on experiences in these customer engagements, HP has put a special emphasis on helping customers who want to create hybrid cloud environments. The company is leveraging its extensive services teams (including the EDS division) to help educate and lead their customers down an appropriate path to the cloud. EDS has significant experience with vertical market-managed services (hosted services specialized for different industries) and HP will leverage this knowledge and intellectual property (IP) in its evolving cloud strategy.

EMC and cloud computing

EMC has developed a shared vision for the private cloud along with its key partners like VMware, Cisco, and AT&T. This group sees lots of opportunity in providing technology and services to companies looking for a better approach to managing IT infrastructure.

And although some companies may use private clouds as an entry point and then transition to public clouds, EMC sees the private cloud as much more than just a staging ground for public clouds. EMC and partners want to help you create a flexible set of IT resources by federating your private clouds with external infrastructures provided by third-party providers.

Not surprisingly, EMC’s contribution is concentrated on providing storage, backup, archiving, and security (from RSA) to support the data centers in a private cloud environment. When all IT resources (servers, network, and storage) are pooled in the virtualized data center model, many things need to change.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/comparing-cloud-computing-servicesled-technology-c.html

Best Diabetes Web Sites for Canadians

Finding dependable, reliable Canadian diabetes resources online can be a challenge. One minute you’re looking at the Canadian Diabetes Association Web site, the next you’re looking at Uncle Bob’s Instant Diabetes Cure. Here’s a trio of trusted Canadian sites that will provide you with helpful information.

• Dr. Ian Blumer’s site: This site offers general information and advice about diabetes, tips, new developments, and answers to questions.

  
  



• The Canadian Diabetes Association: This site looks at diabetes issues from a Canadian perspective. Particularly helpful is the listing of resources available in your provide or territory or even within your community.

  
  



• Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada: Here you can find out the latest information about government programs that emphasize finding a cure for diabetes.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/best-diabetes-web-sites-for-canadians.html

How to Find a Trainer for Your Labrador Retriever

If you’re considering hiring a dog trainer because your Labrador Retriever just isn’t behaving the way you expect, use these guidelines to find a good trainer who uses positive methods and can help you establish effective communication with your Lab:

• Ask for recommendations from friends, neighbors, and relatives who have friendly, well-behaved dogs.

  
  



• Ask the opinion of pet professionals, such as veterinarians, vet techs, groomers, boarding kennel managers, humane societies, and rescue groups.

  
  



• Call the Association of Pet Dog Trainers at 1-800-PET-DOGS to ask for the names of dog trainers and canine behavior consultants who use positive training methods, such as lure-and-reward and clicker training.

  
  



• Expect a good dog trainer/canine behavior consultant to understand how dogs learn and to communicate with you — in terms you understand — about how to manage and train your Lab.

  
  



• Ask about experience and ask for references. And check them! A good dog trainer/canine behavior consultant will have extensive experience educating owners and their pets.

  
  



• Ask about correction styles. A good dog trainer/canine behavior consultant doesn’t advocate or use physical punishment (shock collars, choke chains, prong collars, leash jerks, or hitting).

  
  



• Expect fun! A good dog trainer/canine behavior consultant gives you the feeling that training will be fun for you and your Labrador!

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-find-a-trainer-for-your-labrador-retriever.html

How to Trade Exchange-Traded Funds Like a Pro

If you’re familiar with trading stocks, you already know how to trade exchange-traded funds (ETFs). If you aren’t, don’t sweat it. Although there are all kinds of fancy trades you could make, the two most basic kinds of trades are market orders and limit orders.

A market order to buy tells the broker that you want to buy. Period. After the order is placed, you will have bought your ETF shares . . . at whatever price someone out there was willing to sell you those shares.

A limit order to buy asks you to name a price above which you walk away and go home. No purchase will be made. (A limit order to sell asks you to name a price below which you will not sell. No sale will be made.)

Market orders are fairly easy. As long as you are buying a domestic ETF that isn’t too exotic; as long as you aren’t trading when the market is going crazy; as long as you aren’t trading right when the market opens or closes (9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Manhattan time weekdays); you should be just fine.

A limit order may be a better option if you are placing a purchase for an ETF where the “bid” and the “ask” price may differ by more than a few pennies (indicating the middlemen are out to get you), or where there may be more than a negligible difference between the market price of the ETF and the net asset value of the securities it is holding.

This would include foreign-stock ETFs, junk-bond ETFs, and any other ETFs that trade not that many shares — especially on a day when the market seems jumpy. The risk with limit orders is that you may not get your price, and so the order may not go through.

To execute a limit order without risk that you’ll miss out on your purchase, place the order slightly above the last sale. If your ETF’s last sale was for $10 a share, you may offer $10.01. If you’re buying 100 shares, you may have just blown a whole dollar, but you’ll have your purchase in hand.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-trade-exchangetraded-funds-like-a-pro.html

Mobile Commerce: Identify Target Customers for Your Online Store

In mobile commerce, identifying target customers is one of the most valuable tasks to complete before creating your website store. Target customers are those most likely to spend money on your products; and designing your website based on their needs is critical for closing the sale. So don’t just try to visualize who your target customers are — put yourself in their shoes. Where are they, and what are they doing when they come to your site on an iPhone or iPad?

People who are going to spend money while browsing a store on their mobile devices are likely in one of these five situations:

• They’re looking for a special deal while they’re out and about. For example, a couple on a date just found out that the restaurant they planned on eating at is closed and the movie they wanted to watch is sold out. So they do a GPS-enabled search and find that your place is within two blocks and will have their food waiting by the time they arrive.

  
  



• They’re in a critical situation. They absolutely need to buy your product and close the deal as soon as possible. For example, diehard sports fans may have just received your text alert that an entire section of seats to the Super Bowl has just become available. The tickets are selling fast and probably will be gone by the time they can rush home — unless they can place a bid on your site this instant via their mobile phones.

  
  



• They’re shopping on impulse: Maybe they’ve trudged through snowdrifts past your billboard advertising tropical cruises for the last month. Today, the bus splashed them with a wave of freezing slush and muck. Shivering in their seats, they pull out their phones and punch in your travel agency’s web address.

  
  



• They’re in-store bargain-hunters. Retailers are starting to notice that shoppers are whipping out their mobile phones and punching in product names and details to make sure that they’re getting the best deal.

  
  



• They're bored and killing time. Stuck in detention, a group of 15-year-olds decide to see what the new super-exclusive designer sneakers you just got in look like and how many chores they may have to do to earn themselves a new pair.

  
  

In each case, immediacy is one of the driving factors behind customers making a purchase with their iPhones. People buy things for all sorts of reasons, but when it comes to mobile commerce, a lot boils down to just being in the right place, at the right time, with the right offer.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/mobile-commerce-identify-target-customers-for-your.html

How to Use the Calculator in Windows XP

You can use the calculator in Windows XP to calculate anything you would on a regular calculator. You can add, subtract, divide, multiply, and even perform more complicated calculations using the calculator in Windows XP. Just follow these steps to quickly access, open, and use the Windows calculator.

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Choose Start→All Programs→Accessories→Calculator.

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You can enter numbers and symbols in a few different ways in the calculator. Type numbers and symbols on your keyboard, and they appear in the entry box of the calculator. Press Enter to perform the calculation. Click numbers or symbols on the calculator display and click the = button to perform the calculation.

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Use one of two options when you're done with the calculator.

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When you don’t need the calculator anymore you can either click the Minimize button to shrink the window in case you need the calculator later, or you can click the Close button to completely close the window.

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You can enter calculations by using only keyboard entries. For example, to divide 22 by 2, type 22/2, and then press Enter. Use the plus, minus, and asterisk (multiply) symbols in this same way.

If you’re the scientific type, try displaying the scientific calculator by choosing View→Scientific. Now you can play with things that are Greek to most of us, like cosines, logarithms, and pi. With the Scientific view displayed, additional choices become available on the View menu, such as changing from decimal to binary or degrees to radians. Math geeks, rejoice!

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-the-calculator-in-windows-xp.html

Determine Financial Goals before Investing in Hedge Funds

Before you invest in a hedge fund, you need to answer two key questions: When do you need your money and what do you need your money for?

Your answers influence the risk you can take, the return you need to shoot for, the asset classes that are open to you, and how much time you can allocate toward the investment.

Generally speaking, investable money falls into three categories:

• Temporary (or short-term) funds that you’ll need in a year. Hedge funds charge high fees. Because fund managers need time to earn these fees, they want money that investors can set aside for long periods.

  
  



• Matched assets that you invest to meet a specific liability, like a college education. Whether a hedge fund is an appropriate match for an upcoming financial need depends in large part on the risk profile of the hedge fund.

  
  

  An absolute-return fund, which is designed to have low risk and a steady, low return, is usually a good match with an intermediate-term obligation, for money that you don’t need until after you meet any lockup periods on the fund. Directional funds, which pursue high-risk strategies in exchange for higher expected returns, are a better match for financial needs that reach far into the future.

  
  



• Permanent funds that you invest for such a long term that, for all practical purposes, you’ll never spend them. Instead investors plan to spend only the income generated from the investments’ interest and dividends. They can then reinvest the capital gains so that the initial amounts invested get larger, which causes the amount of income that the investments can generate to grow.

  
  

  Permanent funds are often great investment candidates for hedge funds. Most hedge funds are designed to generate steady capital gains, and they limit withdrawals, so your fund’s money should build up over time.

  
  

Keep in mind that few managers structure hedge funds to generate income, so if producing income is one of your key investment objectives, you should allocate your funds to other types of investments, like bonds or dividend-paying stocks.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/determine-financial-goals-before-investing-in-hedg.html

Is a Golden Retriever Right for You?

Golden Retrievers have a high-profile status in the media, but they aren't for everyone. This is a sporting breed, and these high-energy dogs require training. Golden Retrievers, however, are easily trained and love to learn, so training could and should be a fun but very busy experience.

Following are some reasons that may make you think twice about life with a Golden Retriever:

• Hair, hair, everywhere. The Golden Retriever has what's called a double coat, which means that he has a soft downy undercoat to insulate him from the cold and heat and a longer outer coat of guard hairs. These hairy critters shed their downy undercoat in huge quantities every spring and drip a little dog hair all over the house all year long. The resulting clouds of dog down all over the house can make you tear out your hair as well.

Brushing will help keep that nuisance dog hair to a minimum. Daily brushing is best — twice weekly is a must. If you use a professional groomer, expect to pay $15 to $25 per grooming session. Being pretty has a price.

• Goldens need space, and lots of it, both in-house and out. A yard is a must, and good fencing is preferred. If you want to live with a Golden Retriever, make sure that you have room for one. These big sprawling fellows easily occupy at least one couch cushion or easy chair. Everything's big, including their muddy paw prints on your kitchen floor and their nose prints on the window. That happy Golden tail can easily clear your coffee table.

• Daily dose of exercise. A normal Golden usually creates a little happy chaos, which is part of its irresistible appeal. These spirited dogs have a great sense of humor and love to retrieve, play, chase, and chew. They need exercise to expend all that sporting energy, or they will entertain themselves in typical canine fashion. (Think destruction!)

The typical Golden Retriever household usually has few ragged chew marks on the chair legs, dog toys strewn about the living room, piles of shredded sticks in the backyard, and one or two large sticks at the front or back door, the ones he delivered to you as his special prize.

Your Golden will not exercise without you. You are his incentive to romp and play. Daily walks and jogs, Frisbee games, and bumper chasing (those large, hot-dog shaped canvas or plastic retrieving objects sold in pet stores for retrieve-a-holic dogs) can help keep your Golden tired and content.

• Wherever you go, I go: If you're on the go and never home and he's alone most of the day, your Golden will be stressed and most unhappy. That's not fair to the dog and may be disastrous for you. Goldens need to be with people, and an isolated and lonely Golden can easily suffer from separation anxiety, which will lead to destructive behavior. It's a natural canine stress reliever.

If you're an active family who loves the outdoor life and plan to take your Golden to soccer practice and baseball games, then the two of you are probably a good match

• On guard . . . not! If you're looking for a guard dog, investigate another breed. Most Goldens are complete love sponges who would happily lick the boots of an intruder. You can encourage them to bark at people who approach your house, but you can't — and shouldn't — teach them to intimidate or bite. Their very size may deter a home invader, but anyone familiar with a Golden's love-'em-all attitude knows that a scratch behind Golden ears means instant friendship.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/is-a-golden-retriever-right-for-you.html

Halloween Decorating Safety Tips

3 of 12 in Series:
The Essentials of Halloween Parties

Decorating for Halloween can bring out creativity in everyone, but many elements of Halloween decorating can pose hazards to unsuspecting visitors. Here are a few safety tips to keep handy when preparing for Halloween:

• Clean up your mess: Do your pumpkin carving on absorbent newspaper and scoop those pumpkinseeds and slimy innards into a bowl.

  
  



• Say “No, no,” to knives: Don’t let your children handle sharp carving knives and keep an eye on them while you’re carving. If possible, purchase specific tools that are geared just for pumpkin carving (for your safety, too!). If the kids really want to participate in the carving, you can let them make the pattern or poke the pumpkin flesh in after you’ve done the carving.

  
  



• Reconsider the candles: If you’re going to have many children around, nix the candles. It’s just too much of a fire hazard. Buy a bunch of glow sticks readily available at any party supply or discount store and place them inside your jack-o’-lanterns. They cast an eerie green glow and are safe all around.

  
  



• Pay attention: Never leave a candle anywhere unattended, and never leave burning candles where children (or people who act like children) can reach them or accidentally knock them over.

  
  



• Blazing fires aren’t allowed: Keep a fire extinguisher handy. You never know when a gourd will go up in smoke (no, dear, that’s not a special effect).

  
  



• Secure the perimeters: Make sure that all props hanging, dangling, draped, staked, or set are steadily secured. Where there will be foot traffic, tape down loose wires with duct tape. You don’t want people to trip. And check these places often during the course of the evening for any loose edges that need retaping.

  
  



• Follow the package directions: If a package of lights says that they’re only for indoor use, don’t string them outside. Read the fog machine directions. Take every precaution when it comes to decorating with materials you’re not familiar with.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/halloween-decorating-safety-tips.html

Unofficial and Approved Online Community Events

If you can’t host meetups in different locales, not all is lost. Online community members can still host their own meetups in their own areas with or without your involvement.

If community members approach you about bringing your meetup to their area or hosting their own meetup, consider giving your blessing. Talk with your team and your superiors to see whether they’re okay with lending the brand name to an outside meetup.

This situation is kind of tricky, because you don’t want your brand’s name associated with drunken affairs. For brand-sanctioned events, you may want to provide an official application, on which members have to let you know as many details about the event as possible.

If your brand would rather not get involved in community events, you can still give your blessing to meetups within the community. Make it clear that the brand isn’t sanctioning the event, however, and that the organizers can’t use your signage or anything else that would hold the brand liable for an accident or other incident.

Many online communities hold their own unofficial meetups and tweetups, where members pay for their food and drinks out of their own pockets. You shouldn’t discourage these meetups because if members want to get together, they’re going to do it with or without your blessing.

If they have your blessing, even for an unofficial event, they’ll still have a good feeling about the brand. If the brand discourages meetups and tweetups, however, members may feel that they’re being stifled or censored. Anything you can do on behalf of the brand to encourage community harmony and support is always helpful.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/unofficial-and-approved-online-community-events.navId-323004.html

For Seniors: Access an Online Program Through Your Laptop

Online programs are complete applications that you can access with your laptop, from anywhere you have Internet access. The benefits of online programs are obvious — you save hard drive space on your laptop (because you don't have to install the program there, or the files you create with that program) and you can easily share files.

Today, many programs are being made available online so you never have to install them on your laptop hard drive to use them. This makes it easy to access them from any computer (and not just your particular laptop). In addition, online programs allow you to store your files online as well — which means you can work on your files from anywhere.

A couple of online software sources that are popular today are Google Docs and Office Live. Both allow you to upload and share documents, as well as edit the documents online. Both these services allow you to create word-processed documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Google Docs also lets you create forms and drawings, while Office Live lets you also create One Note notebooks. One Note is a great tool for researching as you can cut and paste text into it, along with links that show the online source of the information.

Most online applications have a bit more limited functionality than their offline counterparts, (if any). However, online applications easily work with documents created in most other programs and they’re free!

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/for-seniors-access-an-online-program-through-your-.navId-406864.html

Return on Equity Financial Ratio and QuickBooks 2012

The return on equity financial ratio is one of several profitability ratios you can use along with QuickBooks 2012 to analyze your profitability. The return on equity financial ratio expresses a firm’s net income as a percentage of its owner’s equity or shareholders’ equity (shareholders' and owner’s equity are the same thing).

The formula, which is deceptively simple, is as follows:

net income/owner’s equity

In the case of the example business described in the following tables, the net income equals $50,000, and the owner’s equity equals $200,000.

A Simple Balance Sheet

Assets
Cash	$25,000
Inventory	25,000
Current assets	$50,000
Fixed assets (net)	270,000
Total assets	$320,000
Liabilities
Accounts payable	$20,000
Loan payable	100,000
Owner’s equity
S. Nelson, capital	200,000
Total liabilities and owner’s equity	$320,000

A Simple Income Statement

Sales revenue	$150,000
Less: Cost of goods sold	30,000
Gross margin	$120,000
Rent	5,000
Wages	50,000
Supplies	5,000
Total operating expenses	60,000
Operating income	60,000
Interest expense	(10,000)
Net income	$50,000

This firm’s return on equity, therefore, can be calculated by using the following formula:

$50,000/$200,000

This formula returns the value of 0.25, which means that this firm’s return on equity is 25 percent — a number that’s probably pretty good.

No guideline exists for what is and is not an acceptable return on equity.

• The return on equity ratio that you calculate needs to be at least as good as you deserve. If you are investing money in your business, you deserve a return on that money. And that return needs to be reasonable compared with your other alternatives.

  
  

  If you can go out and invest money in a stock market mutual fund and get 10 percent, you shouldn’t be investing in things that deliver a return of less than 10 percent.

  
  

  Therefore, if you want to earn a 20 percent return on the money that you’ve invested in your own firm (by the way, a 20 percent return is a very reasonable return for a small business), you want to make sure that your return on equity (after you get going) exceeds this minimum return.

  
  



• The return on equity ratio hints at the sustainable growth rate that your firm can manage. Sustainable growth is the growth rate that your business can sustain over a long period of time: three years, five years, ten years, and so on.

  
  

  If you don’t take money out of the business (other than your salary) and you reinvest the return on equity that the business generates, the return on equity ratio equals your sustainable growth.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/return-on-equity-financial-ratio-and-quickbooks-20.html

Eating to Satisfy Emotional Needs

From the time your mother handed you a cookie to quiet your crying, food may have become more than a way to provide nutrition. It’s a way to nourish your soul as well. Dieting to lose weight can bring up emotional issues for many people.

Regardless of your weight and whether you realize it — you eat for different reasons. You may eat to celebrate, to calm, to feel comfort or joy, or when times are darkest, perhaps you eat to relieve loneliness and boredom. How you feel about yourself and your body is likely to be enmeshed in your relationship with food. Shame and guilt may also play a role in your range of emotions that affect how you deal with food.

The first step to discovering how emotions affect your eating is to understand your relationship with food. Answer the questions in the following table as honestly as you can. Think about how frequently each question is true for you and put a check mark in the box that corresponds to your answers: sometimes, often, always, and never. By analyzing your responses, you can better understand your triggers — your strengths.

Are You an Emotional Eater?

Do you . . .	Sometimes	Often	Always	Never
Eat even when you’re not hungry?
Crave certain foods and have trouble controlling the amounts of them that you eat?
Always clean your plate?
Find yourself in the kitchen or at the snack machine when faced with a difficult task?
Eat when you’re stressed, angry, lonely, or tired?
Splurge on favorite foods when you’re alone?
Feel guilty or unworthy when you eat foods that you think you shouldn’t — especially high-calorie foods, such as fried items or desserts?

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/eating-to-satisfy-emotional-needs.html

Volunteering on Vacation

You may not be able to change the world during a week’s vacation, but you can change a little corner of it. Volunteering your vacation time puts your green living principles front and center. Whether you help build a house, assist in a remote archeological dig, comb beaches for signs of endangered species, or clear trails in a storm-damaged park, you’ll return from your vacation knowing that what you’ve done has made a difference in the world. And there’s a very good chance that you’ll also gain new skills and new friends at the same time.

Knowing what to expect

You really need to do your research before committing to a volunteer vacation. In many cases, you share fairly basic accommodations with other volunteers in anything from tents to dormitories to local homes. You also should fully understand the level of physical strength or stamina that may be required. Mentoring journalism students, for example, may require specialized knowledge but little in the way of brute strength. If you’re building rock retaining walls to protect against coastal erosion, however, you shouldn’t be surprised when someone points to a rock and asks you to “lift!”

Find out how much assistance you’ll receive in getting to the volunteer site: In many cases, you travel with other volunteers; in others, you travel alone. Either way, you’ll likely be met at a transportation hub near your destination by organizers who take you the rest of the way. Organizers may provide cooked meals for you on-site, or you may be responsible for some or all of your own meals. Knowing these details can help to ensure that your expectations are realistic — and met.

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Credit: Purestock>

Volunteering your vacation can be hard work, but very rewarding.

Most organized volunteer vacation opportunities ask you to pay for your trip, including transportation, accommodation, and meals. Some organizations also ask for a monetary donation as a portion of the trip fee in order to further their work; they may ask you to provide this yourself, or you may have the option of fundraising at home before you head out on your vacation.

Check your federal tax regulations: In the United States and Canada, charitable donations can be tax-deductible, so it’s possible that at least a portion of your trip cost could be deducted from your taxes.

Finding volunteer opportunities

If you already support a cause or a nonprofit organization, that’s a natural place to ask about volunteer vacations. Otherwise, an Internet search on volunteer vacations will produce hundreds of options. (Try narrowing down the overwhelming results by refining your search with a geographic destination or a skill; for example, you may want volunteer vacations Nicaragua or volunteer vacations trail building.) These organizations also can help:

• Charity Guide

  
  



• Earthwatch Institute

  
  



• Global Volunteers

  
  



• Habitat for Humanity

  
  



• Wilderness Volunteers

  
  



• World Volunteers

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/volunteering-on-vacation.html

Understanding Wine Labels

Every bottle of wine must have a label, and that label must provide certain information about the wine. Some of the information on a wine label is required by the country where the wine is made. Other items of information are required by the country where the wine is sold. When the requirements are different in the two places, life can get very, very complicated for label writers!

The forward and backward of wine labels

Many wine bottles have two labels. The front label names the wine and grabs your eye as you walk down the aisle, and the back label gives you a little more information, ranging from reallyhelpful suggestions like "this wine tastes delicious with food" to oh-so-useful data such as "this wine has a total acidity of 6.02 and a pH of 3.34."

The U.S. requires certain information to appear on the front label of all wine bottles — basic stuff, such as the alcohol content, the type of wine (usually red table wine or white table wine), and the country of origin — but they don't define front label. So sometimes producers put all that information on the smaller of two labels and call that one the front label. Then the producers place another larger, colorful, dramatically eye-catching label — with little more than the name of the wine on it — on the back of the bottle. Guess which way the back label ends up facing when the bottle is placed on the shelf?

The mandatory sentence

The federal government mandates that certain items of information appear on labels of wines sold in the U.S. (see Figure 1). Such items are generally referred to as the mandatory. These include

• A brand name

• Indication of class or type (table wine, dessert wine, or sparkling wine)

• The percentage of alcohol by volume (unless it is implicit in the class; for example, the statement "table wine" implies an alcohol content of less than 14 percent)

• Name and address of the bottler

• Net contents (expressed in milliliters; the standard wine bottle is 750 ml, which is 25.6 ounces)

• The phrase Contains Sulfites (with very, very few exceptions)

• The government warning

Figure 1: The label of an American varietal wine.

Label definitions

Here's some other terms you may find on the label of your favorite bottle of wine.

• Vintage year: The year in which the grapes for a particular wine were harvested.

• Reserve: Indicates that a wine has received extra aging at the winery before release.

• Estate-bottled: States that the company the bottled the wine also grew the grapes.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-wine-labels.html

Sizing Up the AutoCAD 2005 Status Bar

The status bar appears at the bottom of the AutoCAD screen. The status bar displays and enables you to change several important settings that affect how you draw and edit in the current drawing. Some of these settings won't make complete sense until you've used the AutoCAD commands that they influence, but here's a brief description:

• Coordinates of the cursor: The cursor coordinates readout displays the current X,Y,Z location of the cursor in the drawing area, with respect to the origin point (whose coordinates are 0,0,0). It's a bit like having a GPS (Global Positioning System) device in your drawing.

If the coordinates in the lower-left corner of the screen are grayed out, then coordinate tracking is turned off. Click the coordinates so that they appear in dark lettering that changes when you move the cursor in the drawing area.

• SNAP, GRID, and ORTHO mode buttons: These three buttons control three of AutoCAD's tools for ensuring precision drawing and editing:

• Snap constrains the cursor to regularly spaced hot spots, enabling you to draw objects a fixed distance apart more easily.

• Grid displays a series of regularly spaced dots, which serve as a distance reference.

• Ortho constrains the cursor to horizontal and vertical relative movement, which makes drawing orthogonal (straight horizontal and vertical) lines easy.

• POLAR tracking mode button: Polar tracking causes the cursor to prefer certain angles when you draw and edit objects. By default, the preferred angles are multiples of 90 degrees, but you can specify other angle increments, such as 45 or 30 degrees. Clicking the POLAR button toggles polar tracking on or off. Ortho and polar tracking are mutually exclusive — turning on one mode disables the other.

• Running Object Snap (OSNAP) and Object Snap Tracking (OTRACK) buttons: Object snap is another AutoCAD tool for ensuring precision drawing and editing. You use object snaps to grab points on existing objects — for example, the endpoint of a line or the center of a circle.

• When you turn on running object snap, AutoCAD continues to hunt for object snap points.

• When you turn on object snap tracking,AutoCAD hunts in a more sophisticated way for points that are derived from object snap points.

AutoCAD LT doesn't include the object snap tracking feature, so you won't see an OTRACK button on its status bar.

• Lineweight (LWT) display mode button: One of the properties that you can assign to objects in AutoCAD is lineweight — the thickness that lines appear when you plot the drawing. This button controls whether you see the lineweights on the screen. (This button doesn't control whether lineweights appear on plots; that's a separate setting in the Plot dialog box.)

• MODEL/PAPER space button: The drawing area is composed of overlapping tabbed areas labeled Model, Layout1, and Layout2 by default. The Model tab displays a part of the drawing called model space, where you create most of your drawing. Each of the remaining tabs displays a paper space layout, where you can compose a plottable view with a title block. A completed layout will include one or more viewports, which reveal some or all the objects in model space at a particular scale.

The MODEL/PAPER status bar button (not to be confused with the Model tab) comes into play after you click one of the paper space layout tabs. The MODEL/PAPER button provides a means for moving the cursor between model and paper space while remaining in the particular layout.

• When the MODEL/PAPER button says MODEL, drawing and editing operations take place in model space, inside a viewport.

• When the button says PAPER, drawing and editing operations take place in paper space on the current layout.

• Maximize/Minimize Viewport button (paper space layouts only): When you're looking at one of the Layout tabs instead of the Model tab, the status bar displays an additional Maximize Viewport button. Click this button to expand the current paper space viewport so that it fills the entire drawing area. Click the button — now called Minimize Viewport — again to restore the viewport to its normal size.

• Communication Center: This button opens a dialog box containing recent AutoCAD-related headlines that Autodesk thinks you may find useful. The headlines are grouped into categories called channels: Live Update Maintenance Patches, Articles and Tips, Product Support Information, and so on. Each headline is a link to a Web page with more information, such as how to download a software update or fix a problem. Click the Settings button to select channels you see in the Communication Center window.

• Manage Xrefs: You won't see this combination button and notification symbol until you open a drawing that contains xrefs (external DWG files that are incorporated into the current drawing).

• Status Bar Menu: When you click the easy-to-miss downward-pointing arrow near the right edge of the status bar, you open a menu with options for toggling off or on each status bar button. Now you can decorate your status bar to your taste.

You can open dialog boxes for configuring many of the status bar button functions by right-clicking the status bar button and choosing Settings.

A button's appearance shows whether the setting is turned on or off. Depressed, or down, means on; raised, or up, means off. If you're unclear whether a setting is on or off, click its button; its mode will change and the new setting will be reflected on the command line — <Osnap off>, for example. Click again to restore the previous setting.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/sizing-up-the-autocad-2005-status-bar.html

E-Mailing an Office XP File without Opening Outlook 2002

You can e-mail any Office document from the Office application itself, without opening the Outlook 2002 e-mail module. Just follow these steps:

1. In the application that created it, open an Office document that you want to send.

Actually, you don't even have to open the document, unless you wish to make changes to it before you send it. Just right-click on the document file in Windows Explorer or on the desktop and follow the rest of these steps.

2. Choose File-->Send To-->Mail Recipient (As Attachment).

A New Message form appears, displaying an icon for the file in the text box to indicate that the file is attached to the message.

3. Type the subject of the file and the name of the person to whom you're sending the file.

If you want to add comments to your message, type them in the text box where the icon for the file is.

4. Click Send a Copy.

Your message goes to the Outbox. If you send your files by modem, you also have to switch to Outlook and press F5 to dial your e-mail service.

Word 2002 actually gives you two ways to send someone a file by e-mail. The method in the preceding step list sends the Word file as an attachment to a message. If you choose File-->Send To-->Mail Recipient, not as an attachment, Word sends the document as the body of your e-mail message. That's better when you're sending the message to someone in your office who uses all the same hardware and software as you do, but not when you send a message to a person over the Internet (sometimes the other person's computer makes a mess of the message if you send it from Word). As a general rule, send Word documents as attachments to people outside the office.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/emailing-an-office-xp-file-without-opening-outlook.html

Keeping Records with the Outlook 2007 Journal

The Journal in Outlook 2007 can be enormously helpful, whether you choose to use it regularly or rarely. You don't have to limit yourself to recording documents or Outlook items. You can keep track of conversations, customer inquiries, or any other transaction in which chronology matters. If you set the Journal for automatic entries, you can ignore it until you need to see what it recorded. You can also play starship captain and record everything you do.

Sometimes, when you want to find a document or a record of a conversation, you don't remember what you called the document or where you stored it, but you do remember when you created or received the item. In that situation, you can go to the Journal and check the date in which you remember dealing with the item and find what you need to know.

Making Journal entries by doing nothing

What's the easiest way to make entries in the Journal? Do nothing. After it's turned on, the Journal automatically records any document you create, edit, or print in any Microsoft Office application. The Journal also automatically tracks email messages, meeting requests and responses, and task requests and responses.

There's a catch: You have to tell Outlook that you want automatic Journal recording turned on. (All right, so you do have to do something.) Fortunately, if you haven't activated the Journal's automatic recording feature, Outlook asks you whether you want to turn the feature on every time you click the Journal icon.

To turn on the Journal's automatic recording feature, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools --> Options.

The Options dialog box appears.

2. Click the Journal Options button.

The Journal Options dialog box appears, offering check boxes for all the types of activities you can record automatically — and the names of all the people for whom you can automatically record transactions such as email.

3. Click the check box for items and files you want to automatically record and for contacts about whom you want information recorded.

The list of people in the For These Contacts box is the same as the list of people in your Contacts List.

When you add names to your Contacts List in the Contacts module, those names aren't set for automatic recording in the Journal. If you want the Journal to keep track of them, then you have two ways to tell it so:

• Check the name(s) in the Journal Options dialog box.

• Open the Contact record, click the Journal tab, and check Automatically Record Journal Entries for These Contacts.

4. Click OK.

The Journal promptly begins automatically recording the items and files you selected for the contacts you named.

Recording an Outlook item in the Journal manually

If you don't want to clutter your Journal by recording everything automatically, you can enter selected items manually — just drag them to the Journal icon. For example, you may not want to record every transaction with a prospective client until you're certain you're doing business with that client. You can drag relevant email messages to the Journal and retain a record of serious inquiries. When you actually start doing business with a new client, you can set up automatic recording.

To manually record items in the Journal, follow these steps:

1. Choose Go --> Folder List (or press Ctrl+6).

The Folder List, which includes a small icon for the Journal, appears in the top half of the Navigation Pane.

2. Drag the item you want to record (such as an email message) to the Journal icon in the Folder List.

The Journal Entry form appears. At the bottom of the form, you see an icon representing the item you're recording, along with the item's name.

3. Fill in the information you want to record.

You don't have to record anything. The text box at the bottom of the screen gives you space for making a note to yourself, if you want to use it.

4. Click Save and Close.

The item you recorded is entered in the Journal.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/keeping-records-with-the-outlook-2007-journal.html

Free Blog Templates

Google Blogger helps you with the basics of creating your own blog, but you want your blog to reflect your personality, don’t you? Well, templates that you can use and adapt as your creativity dictates can be the launching pad for a blog site that is uniquely you. The links here take you to Web sites that provide blog templates free of charge:

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  eBlogTemplates

  
  


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  BTemplates

  
  


• 
  

  Blogger Buster

  
  


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  BloggerStyles

  
  


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  Pyzam

  
  


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  Jackbook

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/free-blog-templates.html

Training a Puppy Not to Jump on You

Training a puppy not to jump on you when you get home requires discipline — from you. First, you need to understand why a puppy jumps. Eye contact is a top method of canine communication. Our eyes are above theirs, so to greet us properly, dogs jump up to meet our eyes. The first time this happens, a hug follows. "Isn't that cute?" After about the tenth jump, it's not so cute, and you gently push the pup away. But to a dog, pushing means confrontational play. The puppy jumps higher and harder the next time. So you try a little toe stepping, paw grabbing, and yelling — all with the same effect. Your dog thinks jumping is very interactive and very fun.

Dogs that jump need to learn the four-paw rule — they will not receive any attention, at all, until all four paws are on the floor.

The best way to remedy jumping when you arrive home is to ignore your pup. Try it for a week. Don't give in!

• Come home and ignore your dog until he's given up the jumping vigil.

• Keep a basket of balls or squeaky toys by the door. When you come in, toss one on the ground to refocus your dog's energy.

• If your dog's crated, don't let him out until he's calm.

If you have a big puppy or a super persistent jumper, you have two options: Fill a plant mister with 50 percent vinegar and water to spray a boundary in between your bodies, or put on an overcoat to protect yourself, and calmly look away. Whether it takes 2 minutes or 20, go about your business until your dog calms down.

If you have kids, tell them to "look for rain" by crossing their arms in front of their chest and looking to the sky. You do the same. Don't look down until the coast is clear. Consistency is key. If one family member follows the program but the others encourage jumping, your dog will jump-test all visitors.

If your dog still insists on jumping, keep a lead (short or long) attached to her collar. When she jumps, grasp the lead and snap her sideways quickly as you continue to ignore her (give no eye contact, body language, or verbal corrections).

Puppies mimic their leaders' energy levels. If you come home to an excited dog and you get excited, you're sending the message that his excitement is acceptable. Instead, come in calmly and wait to greet your puppy until he's settled down, too. Then get a toy and play with him.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/training-a-puppy-not-to-jump-on-you.html

How to Find Contingent Liabilities

All auditors must know what a contingent liability is and how to handle it, but suppose your audit client doesn’t tell you it has contingent liabilities? What can you do to protect the good name of your CPA firm by finding all reportable contingent liabilities and producing a correct audit report? Here are the steps you should take to ensure due diligence regarding contingent liabilities.

• Check with the client’s outside counsel: Your client should send a legal letter to its independent attorney (who is retained by the company, as opposed to being employed by the company) to obtain or corroborate information about any pending litigation, tax assessments, and warranty claims. A legal letter is similar to a confirmation because it asks for information from an independent third party to verify assertions made by your audit client. (In this case, you’re also trying to sniff out any contingent liabilities your client may have failed to mention.) Your client’s management prepares the letter, but you provide the guidelines for the type of information requested.

  
  

  Here are some of the types of information you ask your client to get from its attorney:

  
  
  
  

  • A list and progress report of any pending or eminent litigation to which the attorney has given substantial attention.

    
    
  
  

  • A description of agreed-upon materiality levels. For example, the attorney reports only on litigation whose potential awards are over a certain dollar amount.

    
    
  
  

  • A list of other claims, such as warranties or guarantees, that management believes are probable or reasonably possible to have a bad negative outcome for the client, plus a request that the attorney comment if her opinion of the claims differs from management’s opinion.

    
    
  
  
  
  

  You can discover a lot about your audit client simply by doing an Internet search. Product warranty issues and pending lawsuits often make the news.

  
  



• Search for tax assessments or guarantees: When you’re looking for tax assessments or guarantees, start by taking these two steps:

  
  
  
  

  • Examine the meeting minutes of the board of directors: Reading the minutes of the board of directors is part of many of your business and financial processes audit procedures. See if the minutes show that the board approved guaranteeing any loans. If so, examine the facts and circumstances around the guarantee. Make note of any guarantee that has the potential to be a contingent liability, and query your client’s management about it. For example, maybe you notice in the newspaper’s business section that the business whose loan your audit client has guaranteed is considering filing for bankruptcy.

    
    
  
  

  • Review correspondence from governmental agencies: Ask your client to provide any notices or letters from all governmental agencies — federal, state, and local — to see whether any potential tax deficiencies exist. If the government agency has already assessed additional tax (or is in the process of doing so), talk with client management personnel to see whether they plan to appeal the proposed assessment. Discuss the circumstances with your audit team leader to get his opinion regarding whether this event should be reported or disclosed.

    
    
  
  
  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-find-contingent-liabilities.html

Dynamic Music Compression Settings for Vocals

Because music compressors are used and abused so frequently in home recording, it might be helpful for you to have some basic settings for vocals to get you started. This will hopefully save you the headache of ruining a few tracks before you get the hang of this powerful tool.

Lead vocals

Some recording engineers think compression is a must for vocals. It evens out the often-erratic levels that a singer can produce and tames transients that can cause digital distortion. You can use compression on vocals to just even out the performance and to create an effect.

If you use a compressor to even out a vocal performance, you don’t want to hear the compressor working. Instead, you just want to catch the occasional extremely loud transient that would cause clipping.

A good compression setting has a fast attack to catch the stray transient, a quick release so that the compression doesn’t color the sound of the singer, and a low ratio so that when the compressor does go on, it smoothes out the vocals without squashing them. Typical settings may look like this:

• Threshold: –8dB

  
  



• Ratio: 1.5:1–2:1

  
  



• Attack: <1 ms

  
  



• Release: About 40 ms

  
  



• Gain: Adjust so that the output level matches the input level. You don’t need much added gain.

  
  

If you want to use a compressor that pumps and breathes — that is, one that you can really hear working — or if you want to bring the vocals way up front in the mix, try using the following settings. These settings put the vocals “in your face,” as recording engineers say:

• Threshold: –2dB

  
  



• Ratio: 4:1–6:1

  
  



• Attack: <1 ms

  
  



• Release: About 40 ms

  
  



• Gain: Adjust so that the output level matches the input level. You need to add a fair amount of gain at this setting.

  
  

As you can see, the two parameters that you adjust the most are the threshold and ratio. Experiment with these settings and check the effects of them by toggling between the affected and unaffected sound (use the Bypass switch on your compressor).

Backup vocals

What about compressor settings for backup vocals, you may ask? Try a setting that’s midway between the invisible compressions and the pumping and breathing compressions. Such a setting brings your background vocals forward slightly. Your settings may look like this:

• Threshold: –4dB

  
  



• Ratio: 2:1–3:1

  
  



• Attack: <1 ms

  
  



• Release: About 40 ms

  
  



• Gain: Adjust so that the output level matches the input level. You don’t need to add too much gain.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/dynamic-music-compression-settings-for-vocals.html

Woodworking For Dummies

Woodworking brings together nature, human, and technology to produce long lasting pieces of function and art. A great piece of woodworking begins with knowing how to choose the right type and piece of wood. Then, following a step-by-step process helps you craft a successful piece every time.

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How to Buy Wood for Woodworking

Whether you see woodworking as an art or a craft, your finished piece begins with a great piece of wood. As a woodworker, buying wood can be a challenging experience. You have to think about a lot of details such as the grade and cut of the wood and the way it's sized. The following sections help you make sense of these details.

Take a pencil, measuring tape, scrap paper, small block plane (to check out the color and grain) and a calculator to the lumberyard and write down all the dimensions and total board feet for each board. This way you can double-check the salesperson's calculations and make sure you aren't overcharged.

Wood grades

Wood grades refer to the number and severity of the defects in a board. The following list explains the different wood grades, according to the National Hardwood Lumber Association (or NHLA for short).

• Firsts: Very few, if any, noticeable defects.

  
  



• Seconds: The occasional knot or other surface defect. Firsts and seconds are often grouped together and referred to as FAS (firsts and seconds). These are the grades you want for furniture building.

  
  



• Selects: A few more defects, but nothing so big or frequent that it can't be cut out. Avoid this grade for fine furniture, though, because it adds more work to the process.

  
  



• Four grades of Common (#1, #2, #3a, #3b): Too many defects to use for furniture.

  
  

Types of wood cuts

How wood is cut affects its quality. The following list explains the types of cuts:

• Plain-sawn: The most common boards at your lumberyard. They have growth rings that run less than 30 degrees against the face of the board. The face grain looks somewhat circular and wavy.

  
  



• Rift-sawn: These boards have growths rings that meet the face between 30 and 60 degrees. Rift-sawn boards have a straight grain pattern as opposed to the circular pattern of the plain-sawn boards. They're also more stable and more expensive than plain-sawn wood.

  
  



• Quarter-sawn: These boards have growth rings not less than 60 degrees from their face and a straight grain pattern with a flake or ribbon-like figure in the wood. Quarter-sawn boards are more stable and expensive than the other types of boards and you can only find them in a few species of wood, such as white oak.

  
  

Wood defects

It's okay to buy wood with knots, splits, cracks, and checks. These defects affect only a small area of the board (if they exist over the majority of the board, don't buy it), so you can plan your cuts around them. Avoid boards with warps, twists, or bows. It takes a lot of time to flatten a board that has one of these defects. To test for these defects, place one end of the board on the floor and hold the other end to your eye. The board should be straight and true. If not, leave it there.

Sizing up the wood

Wood is sold two ways: dimensional and by the board foot:

• Dimensional wood is smooth on all four sides, cut to precise widths and thicknesses, and is sold by the linear foot or the board.

  
  



• Wood sold by the board foot may or may not be smooth on all sides and only one edge may be square. A board foot is a board that is 1 inch thick (called 4/4) by 12 inches wide by 1 foot long. To figure out how many board feet are in a piece of wood, multiply its length (measured in feet), width, and thickness (measured in inches) and divide this number by 12.

  
  

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Steps in the Woodworking Process

Woodworking is painstaking and rewarding work. Following a plan helps ensure that your woodworking project comes out the way you envisioned. The following list sets out the steps to follow to build a piece of furniture (or any project for that matter):

1. Read the plans.

   
   

   Familiarize yourself with the plans and procedures before you buy or cut any wood. Make sure the project is something you can handle.

   
   



2. Check and double-check the materials list.

   
   

   Organize the list so that you can efficiently get the supplies you need before you cut a board.

   
   



3. Plan your cut list.

   
   

   Go through all your wood and lay out where each cut is going to go. Choose the most appropriate part of the board for each part of the project. For instance, choose matching tabletop pieces for grain patterns and color consistency. Also, plan your cuts so that you do the minimum of saw adjustments (do all the crosscuts first and then all the rip cuts, for example).

   
   



4. Pre-mill all the boards to get straight and flat pieces.

   
   

   This goes hand in hand with the cut list planning procedure in Step 3.

   
   



5. Mill the boards to their final dimensions.

   
   

   This involves planing and jointing the boards.

   
   



6. Cut the joints.

   
   



7. Dry fit the assemblies to make sure everything fits properly.

   
   

   Make sure that your assemblies and subassemblies fit together properly before you add any glue. You also want to use this step to practice the assembly procedure. Repeat the procedure until you can do it smoothly and efficiently.

   
   



8. Glue the assembly and clamp it.

   
   

   Work quickly and pull each joint fully together before moving on. This minimizes the possibility of joint freeze-up. When clamping, be careful not to use too much pressure. Use just enough force to pull the joints together. You don’t want to squeeze all the glue out.

   
   



9. Square the parts.

   
   

   Tabletops should be perfectly flat and other assemblies should be perfectly square. Use a straightedge to check for flatness and a tape measure (measuring diagonally across the assembly) to check for square.

   
   



10. Clean up.

    
    

    Put the assembly aside where it won’t get bumped and clean up all the glue seepage before it dries.

    
    



11. Take a break.

    
    

    You’ve earned it.

    
    

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/woodworking-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

Tips to Buying the Right Property

Although everyone’s requirements are very different when it comes to buying property, here are a few general rules to bear in mind when searching for your property:

• Be clear in your mind about what you want before arranging to view any properties.

  
  



• Research the area carefully, particularly if you aren’t familiar with it.

  
  



• Don’t let the agent or seller rush you into a decision. Take your time and trust your instinct.

  
  



• Ask yourself whether you can envision yourself living in the property. You should get a feel for this as soon as you walk through the door. If you aren’t sure, keep looking.

  
  



• Ask the sellers about the neighbours and whether they have had any problems with them. If they’ve made a complaint about the neighbours, they’re legally obliged to tell you if you ask.

  
  



• Time the commute to work and the school run at the time of day you’re likely to make these journeys.

  
  



• Visit the property after dark. If troublemakers are hanging around on street corners, you may not feel safe walking home late at night.

  
  



• Commission a survey. If you don’t, you may miss serious structural problems that are expensive to rectify after you’ve bought the property.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tips-to-buying-the-right-property.html