Essential Manager Tasks: How to Create Online Community Content

If you’re a creative person, you’ll enjoy creating content for your online community. In essence, any method you use to communicate with your members is content. It’s up to you to provide news, updates, and general conversation to your community, and you can do so via several methods:

• Newsletters: Use weekly or monthly newsletters for brand news, updates, and discounts. Newsletters are e-mailed to members who opted in or gave permission to receive them in their e-mail. Newsletters are less conversational than blog posts and other web content, and they don’t allow comments by members. Brands that use newsletters usually do so to drive sales.

  
  



• Blog posts: Brands use blogs for several reasons, the most important of which is to bring in readers who will comment on each day’s contributions. These blog posts become part of the community and ideally drive sales.

  
  

  Blog posts have a more conversational tone than regular news articles, in the hope of stimulating discussion. Though brands often have staff writers, community managers also update blogs with news, anecdotes, and stories related to the community.

  
  



• Videos: Feel free to find fun ways to use video to share with your online community. Provide a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on internally. Introduce and interview staff members. Remember to film footage at conferences and meetups so that members can feel that they were there. Show how your product is being made, or give tutorials on how to use your product. The possibilities for video are endless.

  
  



• Social-networking updates: As community manager, you’re tasked with community outreach via the social networks. All your social-media tools — such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ — are content.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/essential-manager-tasks-how-to-create-online-commu.html

Eliciting and Sustaining Commitment for Your Project

You can’t do your project alone; as project manager, you need your team members to work together to successfully reach the project’s final objectives and goals. Follow these tips to bring enthusiasm and commitment to your project team (and to maintain them throughout your project’s life cycle):

• Clarify project benefits for the organization and for individual team members.

  
  



• Involve team members in the planning process.

  
  



• Help people see that the project plan is feasible.

  
  



• Address issues, concerns, and questions promptly and openly.

  
  



• Provide frequent, meaningful feedback to your team members.

  
  



• Acknowledge people’s contributions.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/eliciting-and-sustaining-commitment-for-your-proje.html

Keeping Food Down during the First Trimester

Some women are unable to gain the amount of weight they need because they vomit or feel nauseated whenever they eat. And if you're not gaining weight as you're supposed to, your healthcare provider may ask you to stop exercising until you begin to gain weight normally.

Although nausea and vomiting are usually limited to the first trimester and tend to occur only in the morning, note the two following not-so-usual characteristics of so-called morning sickness:

• Nausea and vomiting can occur at any time of the day. In fact, some women feel best in the morning and can't tolerate foods at other times of the day.

• For some women, this period of sickness extends beyond the first trimester.

If you're experiencing sickness in the morning or any time of day, try the following tips:

• Eat several small meals throughout the day and have a snack just before bed. If you get too hungry (for example, after going 12 hours between dinner and breakfast), your nausea will likely become unbearable.

• Keep crackers or another nonperishable, nonspicy snack on your nightstand and eat it before you get out of bed in the morning, especially if you tend to feel nauseated as soon as you get out of bed.

• Keep your meals small. Overeating exacerbates the nausea and can also create or worsen heartburn.

• Focus on eating low-fat, high-carb foods and low-fat dairy products. These foods are much easier to digest than fried foods and high-fat, low-carb foods.

• Limit or completely avoid sweet foods, which tend to increase nausea.

• Try eating ginger, which is an ancient remedy for nausea. You can buy it whole in the produce section of your grocery store; you simply peel it, cut it into cubes, and bake or boil it. You can also find it ground in the spice aisle; sprinkle it on pudding, yogurt, or ice cream or add it to a smoothie or milkshake. If you can find ginger ale (such as Vernor's or Canada Dry) in your area, try that or try ginger tea.

• Avoid overdoing fluids with meals. Drinking fluids with your meals can make you feel overly full.

• Take your vitamin on a full stomach, during or just after a meal.

• If you're unable to get much of anything down, experiment with different types of foods at different times of the day, forgetting everything you know about what healthy foods to eat and when to eat them. If you crave a certain type of food, try it — your body may be telling you what it wants. Even if the food you crave doesn't qualify as a "healthy" food, don't worry too much about the quality of your food choices until your nausea and vomiting disappear — getting some calories in you is your most important priority at this point.

• Avoid tight-fitting clothing, especially during exercise.

Keep drinking water, even if you can't keep anything else down. Vomiting quickly dehydrates you, but keeping up your water intake helps keep you from becoming dangerously dehydrated. Also try keeping a cup of ice chips handy and dissolving a few in your mouth every few minutes; this is a good way to hydrate when you're feeling nauseous. The same goes for frozen juice: You just chop it up into pieces and eat it.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/keeping-food-down-during-the-first-trimester.html

Mergers and Acquisitions: Prep before You Buy

A company thinking about making acquisitions just doesn’t wake up one day and close a deal. Successfully undertaking M&A activity takes some planning and preparation.

Determine the appropriate type of acquisition

How much revenue does the target need to have? Does the target need to have a minimum profitability level, and if so, what is it? Are you willing to consider acquiring a money-losing operation? Should the acquired company be a product extension or a new product? Should the acquisition allow you to vertically integrate? These are only a few of the possible questions to consider when choosing a potential acquisition.

Unless you have a clear idea of what you want to buy, you probably won’t successfully close a deal. Many strategic and financial Buyers often take a “show me everything” approach when looking for acquisitions. The odds of finding the right fit are exceedingly low when you haven’t defined the parameters of a right fit.

Get your company’s balance sheet in order

How’s your balance sheet? No, really, be honest. How is it? If your balance sheet is a mess, your company isn’t ready to do deals. Companies able to successfully do deals have strong cash positions and little or no debt. Working capital should be positive, and the current ratio should be at or above the industry norm.

Have the money lined up

Have your sources of cash ready to go before you begin the acquisition process. Sure, a strong balance sheet with lots of cash is very helpful, but an acquirer doesn’t necessarily have to use its own money to fund 100 percent of a deal.

Depending on the acquirer’s situation, a line of credit from a bank, a mezzanine fund (a lender subordinate to the bank loan), and/or a private equity fund may be able to help with the financing.

Although you don’t have to have a private equity fund or mezzanine fund as a financial partner to make an acquisition, failure to line up your sources of financing ahead of time may mean you’re unable to close a deal, resulting in wasted time for both you and Seller. Also, reputations travel because people talk. A Buyer unable to close a deal because of a lack of forethought sullies its reputation.

Set up an acquisition chain of command

In order to successfully complete acquisitions, you need to determine who’s taking what role. If you’re handling the acquisition internally, give team members specific jobs: compiling the target list, making the calls, negotiating and structuring the deals, and so on.

If you’re bringing in an outside firm to perform some or all of these tasks, appoint an internal person to be the main interface with the intermediary. Following this chain of command at all times helps the acquisition process go smoothly and efficiently by eliminating poor communication and duplicate steps.

Designate a specific individual as the deal point-person to have all of the interaction with Seller or Seller’s representative. All requests and questions go through this one person to prevent poor communication, duplicated steps, and a frustrated Seller.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/mergers-and-acquisitions-prep-before-you-buy.html

Why Have Multiple Online Résumés?

You need to have more than one online résumé and not limit yourself to just LinkedIn. Although most recruiters say they’re actively seeking candidates through keyword searches on LinkedIn, LinkedIn may not meet all your unique needs as a job seeker, so don’t let it be the only tool you have in your tool belt.

LinkedIn gives you only one profile

When you apply for a job, you should customize your résumé to that position. Recruiters and hiring managers will look to see whether your résumé is generic or really addresses their organization’s concerns.

But wait! LinkedIn gives you only one résumé. You can’t customize it for multiple jobs. You may be testing the waters in two or more different industries, but LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to cover all your bases.

LinkedIn is visually boring

People’s profiles don’t really differ on LinkedIn. And unless baby blue is your favorite color (it’s apparently the favorite of the LinkedIn designers), you can’t do much to improve the look and feel of your profile. What if you want to upload work samples, scan proof of a certification, or upload several videos?

With the online résumés available from tools such as VisualCV, DoYouBuzz, and Innovate CV, you can change the color, the formatting, and even the type of information you share with great flexibility. This capability can unlock your personal brand and help communicate your personality to the hiring manager.

Your information stays up-to-date with online résumés

With online résumés, you can update your information once, and everyone with the link will always have the most recent version. You don’t have to resend your résumé or worry about outdated info landing your name on a blacklist. If someone wants to share your info with a co-worker, the link he provides will automatically connect to your most recent online résumé.

You’re building a web to catch job opportunities

The more places you have a presence online, the better your chances of being found by the right employer. Having multiple online résumés helps you expand your social media presence. After you create your other online résumés, you can link them all together. LinkedIn allows you to share up to three outside links. And each of your other résumés can link to each other to create a web.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/why-have-multiple-online-resumes.html

Four Affirmations of Shinto

Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, emphasizes living with sincerity and virtue, possible only by an awareness of the divine. The fundamental beliefs in Shinto are the Four Affirmations (affirmations are positive declarations):

• Tradition and the family: Understanding that family is the foundation for preserving traditions

  
  



• Love of nature: Holding nature sacred

  
  



• Ritual purity: Ritual bathing to spiritually and physically cleanse yourselves before entering a shrine to worship the kami. (In addition, festivals are held twice a year to drive out pollutants or impurities.)

  
  



• Matsuri: Worshipping and honoring gods and ancestral spirits

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/four-affirmations-of-shinto.html

Network Setup: Macintosh Configuration

Before you can access the network from your Mac, you must configure your Mac for networking: Activate AppleTalk and assign your network name and password.

Activating AppleTalk

After all the cables are in place, you have to activate AppleTalk. Here’s how:

1. Select the Chooser from the Apple menu.

   
   

   The Chooser is an application for choosing network resources.

   
   



2. Click the Active button.

   
   



3. Close the Chooser.

   
   

Assigning your name and password

After you activate AppleTalk, you're ready to assign an owner name, a password, and a name for your computer. This process allows other network users to access your Mac. Here’s how:

1. Choose the File Sharing control panel from the Apple menu (Apple→Control Panels→File Sharing).

   
   



2. Type your name in the Owner Name field.

   
   



3. Type a password in the Owner Password field.

   
   

   Don’t forget what the password is.

   
   



4. Type a descriptive name for your computer in the Computer Name field.

   
   

   Other network users will know your computer by this name.

   
   



5. Click the Close button.

   
   

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/network-setup-macintosh-configuration.html

Conversion Problems with the Business Website Itself

Business website conversion problems show up in many ways. If you’re drawing the right audience (high pages per visit and time onsite) but users leave without fulfilling the objective you’ve established, you might have trouble with the site itself. Compare the lists of entry and exit pages. If they’re close to the same, your visitors might have trouble with navigation.

Ask your programmer to look at the HTTP error codes and browsers that are used to see whether you’ve designed a site that’s appropriate for users’ browsers, operating systems, monitors, and access speeds.

Check the download time on your site to ensure that entry and catalog pages load quickly. If you have added new features, such as video or animation, without assessing site performance, have your programmer run a link verification program such as Xenu’s Link Sleuth to ensure that links are working and that your site has no orphan pages (pages no one can open).

The programmer can recheck syntax, monitor the display at different resolution sizes, and check browser compatibility.

Experiment with your onsite search function to ensure that it produces complete and relevant results. Then review the checkout process to see whether the pages load quickly and determine whether the process is cumbersome or confusing. Find out whether your site requires registration before purchase or has a broken cart or faulty account login, and find out whether all payment options are working properly.

If the site is functioning correctly, take a look at your text and navigation and ask whether the landing page for a search term or ad takes people directly to the appropriate product or service or strands them on the home page and whether the content quickly answers the question, “What’s on this site for me?”

Did you include calls to action so that users know what to do? How many clicks are required to reach an offer (Buy Now) page? Are directions clear? Does the shopping process meet users’ expectation for speed and ease of use? Test, test, and retest!

Observe people who’ve never used the site as they figure out how to locate information and complete a transaction, whether it’s a sale or an inquiry. Check your onsite search function to see what people are looking for.

If they can’t find what they’re looking for (and what they want fits with what you offer), you might have navigation, content, or product issues. See what happens after you address these concerns.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/conversion-problems-with-the-business-website-itse.navId-811455.html

Making Sure You Comply with Consumer Protection Laws When Collecting Debt

Although debt collection regulations are typically less stringent if you’re collecting your own debts in-house or if you’re collecting business debts, it’s good practice to collect your debts as if every single regulation applies to you. This short list will keep you in compliance with most federal and state consumer protection laws and constitutes a basis for good collection practices.

• Work through the debtor’s lawyer: If a debtor has an attorney, don’t communicate with the debtor directly unless you have written permission to do so.

  
  



• Respect your debtor’s privacy: Avoid communication about your collection with any third parties other than the debtor’s lawyer.

  
  



• Be professional: Never use any abusive language or threats, and don’t harass a debtor.

  
  



• Be honest: Never make any false or misleading statements to a debtor.

  
  



• Be courteous: Make collection calls between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

  
  



• Respect the debtor’s right to dispute your claim: Send the debtor a validation letter within five days of your initial contact.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/making-sure-you-comply-with-consumer-protection-la.html

Tools You Need to Build a Chicken Coop

The tools you need to construct a chicken coop depend on the kind of coop you choose to build and the materials you decide to utilize, but you’ll almost certainly need these building basics:

• Personal safety gear: Don’t forget work gloves, protective goggles, and hearing protection. They’re the most important items in your toolkit.

  
  



• Tape measure: Use a tape measure that’s at least 10 feet long and shows an incremental measurement at least every eighth of an inch.

  
  



• Circular saw: This portable power tool is essential to coop construction. You may choose to also use a miter saw, a table saw, a jigsaw, and a handsaw for various steps, but a circular saw is almost a must-have.

  
  



• Hammer: Select a hammer that you can swing comfortably. Even if you plan on predominantly using screws, you’ll need a hammer for knocking boards into position. For large jobs, consider a pneumatic nailer.

  
  



• Drill: You’ll use a drill most often as a screw gun. If your drill is cordless, have a spare battery charged and ready to go to keep the job moving.

  
  



• Level: You’ll likely find it handy to have more than one level: a pocket-sized torpedo level; a medium, 2-foot model; and a long, 4-foot carpenter’s level.

  
  



• Speed square: You’ll find a speed square indispensable for marking straight lines, laying out and checking angles, and using as a cutting straightedge.

  
  



• Tin snips: Just about every chicken coop on the planet uses some sort of wire mesh somewhere in its design. Tin snips are the best way to cut it.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tools-you-need-to-build-a-chicken-coop.html

How to Get Milk’s Nutrients without Dairy

Like most foods, cow’s milk is made up of a mix of nutrients. You need to get some of these nutrients from your diet whether you drink cow’s milk and eat other dairy products or you decide to go dairy-free and get them from other sources.

Riboflavin

Riboflavin, which also is known as vitamin B2, is responsible for many functions in your body, chief among them helping enzymes initiate certain chemical reactions. Symptoms of a deficiency of riboflavin include a sore tongue, cracked and sore lips and corners of the mouth, and red, itchy eyes.

Dairy products are good sources of riboflavin, but many other sources are available, too. Meats (including organ meats) and eggs are a few examples, but you can opt for healthier choices as well.

Dairy-free sources of riboflavin that are healthiest for you overall include almonds, asparagus, bananas, beans, broccoli, figs, fortified soymilk and breakfast cereals, kale, lentils, mushrooms, peas, seeds, tahini, sweet potatoes, tempeh (a soy food), tofu, and wheat germ.

Vitamin B12

Like riboflavin, you need vitamin B12 for the proper functioning of enzymes that play critical roles in promoting normal metabolism. You need only a teeny-tiny amount of vitamin B12, but that teeny-tiny amount is vitally important. Deficiencies can cause a form of anemia and neuropathy (damage to the nerves in your hands, legs, feet, spinal cord, and brain).

Vitamin B12 is found only in animal products. If you don’t drink milk or eat dairy products, you can get vitamin B12 from meats, seafood or fish, and poultry. If you don’t eat any animal products at all, you can get vitamin B12 from fortified foods, such as vitamin B12–fortified soymilk, rice milk, and breakfast cereals. Or you can take a vitamin B12 supplement.

Assorted other vitamins and minderals

Cow’s milk also contains phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and other vitamins and minerals. All these elements have roles in maintaining your health. Fortunately, you have many ways to get what you need from foods. A variety of diet approaches can work, with or without cow’s milk and other dairy products.

The healthiest foods for humans include fruits, vegetables, whole-grain breads and cereals, beans and peas, and nuts and seeds. These foods contain the substantial amounts of dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, protein, complex carbohydrates, and fats that you need to be healthy. Including a wide variety of these foundation foods in your diet and getting enough calories to meet your energy needs are two ways you can help ensure you’ll get all the nutrition your body needs.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-get-milks-nutrients-without-dairy.html

Monitoring Accounts Receivable and Recording Business Losses

It’s important for businesses to closely monitor Accounts Receivable to minimize the recording of business losses. One of the bookkeeper's crucial responsibilities is to make sure customers pay their bills: Before sending out the monthly bills, you should prepare an Aging Summary Report that lists all customers who owe money to the company and how old each debt is.

Monitoring Accounts Receivable

If you keep the books manually, you collect the necessary information from each customer account. Otherwise, if you keep the books in a computerized accounting system, you can generate this report automatically. Either way, your Aging Summary Report should look similar to this example report:

Aging Summary Report — As of May 1

Customer	Current	31–60 Days	61–90 Days	>90 Days
S. Smith	$84.32	$46.15
J. Doe			$65.78
H. Harris	$89.54
M. Man				$125.35
Totals	$173.86	$46.15	$65.78	$125.35

The Aging Summary Report quickly tells you which customers are behind in their bills. In the case of this example, customers are cut off from future purchases when their payments are more than 60 days late, so J. Doe and M. Man aren’t able to buy on store credit until their bills are paid in full.

Give a copy of your Aging Summary Report to the sales manager so he can alert staff to problem customers. He can also arrange for the appropriate collections procedures. Each business sets up its own collections process, but usually it starts with a phone call, followed by letters, and possibly even legal action, if necessary.

Recording business losses

You may encounter a situation in which your business never gets paid by a customer, even after an aggressive collections process. In this case, you have no choice but to write off the purchase as a bad debt and accept the loss.

Most businesses review their Aging Summary Reports every 6 to 12 months and decide which accounts need to be written off as bad debt. Accounts written off are tracked in a General Ledger account called Bad Debt. The Bad Debt account appears as an expense account on the income statement. When you write off a customer’s account as bad debt, the Bad Debt account increases, and the Accounts Receivable account decreases.

To give you an idea of how you write off an account, assume that one of your customers never pays the amount of $105.75 that is due. Here’s what your journal entry looks like for this bad debt:

Debit	Credit
Bad Debt	$105.75
Accounts Receivable		$105.75

In a computerized accounting system, you enter the information using a customer payment form and allocate the amount due to the Bad Debt expense account.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/monitoring-accounts-receivable-and-recording-busin.html

Mounting Equipment for Solar Panels

4 of 5 in Series:
The Essentials of Photovoltaic Solar Power for Your Home

When you switch to solar power for your home, mounting your photovoltaic (PV) solar panels is of critical importance. First, you need to mount the panels where they'll get maximum sunshine over the course of a year. But the more difficult problem is mounting them with enough integrity that they'll stay put for 25 years or more.

PV modules are temperature sensitive. When the weather gets hot, power output goes down. Systems often output more power on a cold, clear spring day than on a hot, muggy summer day, despite the fact that there's a lot more sunshine on a summer day. Because the modules are temperature sensitive, you need to pay attention to how they're mounted.

Roof-mounted systems

Roof mount PV is by far the most common and comprises around 95 percent of all residential PV systems. Mounting panels onto your roof is the least expensive way to install solar panels. It also raises the panels above ground level so that shade issues, like trees and neighbor's houses, are minimized. Four types of mounting systems are in common use:

• Rack mount: The PV panels are captured by a metal framework specially designed to allow easy attachment and detachment of the panels. The panels are almost always parallel to the roof surface. A wide range of different types of racks are available. In many cases, a particular panel manufacturer will also provide the rack mount specifically for their panels.

  
  



• Stand-off mount: The panels are supported by a frame built above the roof. Unlike the standard rack mount, the angles can be adjusted so that the panels aren't parallel to the roof plane. Stand-off mounts are ugly, but if you don't care about the visual appearance, you can get better production. These types of mounts are generally used for homes that have way too much shade on the southern roof exposure and a sunny northern exposure.

  
  



• Direct mount: The panels are attached directly to the roof. There is no air gap between the roof and the panels, so there is no cooling. Although you save money on the cost of the rack equipment, your system production suffers.

  
  



• Integrated mount: PV panels replace conventional roofing materials and attach directly to the roof's rafters. These are sometimes referred to as BIPV, or Building Integrated PV. You save on the cost of roofing materials, and the visual appearance is nice. If you're retrofitting an existing building, it's not worth it to use integrated mount because of the cost and waste of removing the existing roofing materials and throwing them away. However, if you're building a new home, BIPV may be the best option.

  
  

Ground-mounted systems

If you have enough space available, you can mount your panels in a specially engineered rack structure affixed to the ground. In other cases, roofs are simply too complex, with too many vents and odd angles, to support a large array of solar panels, so ground mount may be the only option.

Ground-mounted systems offer both pros and cons: On the pro side, you can orient the panels directly south, at the optimum tilt angle. This ensures the maximum amount of production over the course of a year. You also won't have to worry about leaks in your roof, and the panels are easier to maintain and change, if the need arises.

On the negative side, ground-mounted systems are more expensive than roof-mount because they require concrete posts and rigid frames. Wind is also more of a problem with ground mount. Ground mount systems require suitable land space, and they look industrial. You'll be putting a big, ugly, visible array somewhere on your property.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/mounting-equipment-for-solar-panels.html

Using an Escrow Service on eBay

Escrow is a service that allows an eBay buyer and seller to protect a transaction by placing the money in the hands of a neutral third party until a specified set of conditions are met. Sellers note in their item descriptions if they're willing to accept escrow. If you're nervous about sending a lot of money to someone you don't really know, consider using an escrow company.

Using an escrow company is worthwhile only if the item you're bidding on is expensive, rare, or fragile, or traveling a long distance. If you're spending less than $200 for the item, think about purchasing insurance from your shipper instead — just in case. Remember, with purchases under $200, you're also protected against fraud through eBay. (You may be protected up to $1,000 if you pay through PayPal.)

eBay has a partnership with Escrow.com to handle eBay auction escrow sales in Canada and the United States. After an auction closes, the buyer sends the payment to the escrow company. After the escrow company receives the money, it e-mails the seller to ship the merchandise. After the buyer receives the item, he or she has an agreed-on period of time to look it over. If everything's okay, the escrow service sends the payment to the seller. If the buyer is unhappy with the item, he or she must ship it back to the seller. When the escrow service receives word from the seller that the item has been returned, the service returns the payment to the buyer (minus the escrow company's handling fee, of course).

Before you start an escrow transaction, make sure that you and the seller agree on these terms (use e-mail to sort it out). Here are three questions about escrow that you should know the answers to before you bid:

• Who pays the escrow fee? (Normally, the buyer does, though sometimes the buyer and seller split the cost.)

• How long is the inspection period? (Routinely, it's two business days after receipt of the merchandise.)

• Who pays for return shipping if the item is rejected? (The buyer, usually.)

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/using-an-escrow-service-on-ebay.html

Accounting for Productivity and Efficiency in Work-Effort Estimates

As a project manager, you'll be accounting for productivity and efficiency with work-effort estimates. You know that being assigned to a project full time doesn’t mean a person can perform project work at peak productivity 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Additional personal and organizational activities reduce the amount of work that people produce.

Therefore, consider each of the following factors when you estimate the number of hours that people need to complete their project assignments:

• Productivity: The results a person produces per unit of time that he spends on an activity. The following factors affect a person’s productivity:

  
  
  
  

  • Knowledge and skills: The raw talent and capability a person has to perform a particular task

    
    
  
  

  • Prior experience: A person’s familiarity with the work and the typical problems of a particular task

    
    
  
  

  • Sense of urgency: A person’s drive to generate the desired results within established time frames (urgency influences a person’s focus and concentration on an activity)

    
    
  
  

  • Ability to switch among several tasks: A person’s level of comfort moving to a second task when he hits a roadblock in his first one so that he doesn’t sit around stewing about his frustrations and wasting time

    
    
  
  

  • The quality and setup of the physical environment: Proximity and arrangement of a person’s furniture and the support equipment he uses; also the availability and condition of the equipment and resources

    
    
  
  
  
  



• Efficiency: The proportion of time a person spends on project work as opposed to organizational tasks that aren’t related to specific projects. The following factors affect a person’s efficiency:

  
  
  
  

  • Non-project-specific professional activities: The time a person spends attending general organization meetings, handling incidental requests, and reading technical journals and periodicals about his field of specialty

    
    
  
  

  • Personal activities: The time a person spends getting a drink of water, going to the restroom, organizing his work area, conducting personal business on the job, and talking about non-work-related topics with coworkers

    
    
  
  
  
  

  The more time a person spends each day on non-project-specific and personal activities, the less time he has to work on his project assignments.

  
  



• Availability: The portion of time a person is at the job as opposed to on leave. Organizational policy regarding employee vacation days, sick days, holidays, personal days, mental health days, administrative leave, and so on define a person’s availability.

  
  

When deciding how many work-hours to budget for a person to do a particular task, adjust the number required at peak performance to allow for actual levels of productivity, efficiency, and availability.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/accounting-for-productivity-and-efficiency-in-work.html

Dairy-Free Maple Nut Spread

A great way to get your day started is using this no-dairy, smooth and not-too-sweet spread, which is similar to cream cheese, on a bagel or slice of toast. This recipe may sound quirky but all of these nondairy ingredients combine to make a creamy, delicious spread. Why wait for breakfast? Try it on graham crackers, and you’ve got a sweet afternoon snack.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Yield: 8 servings (2 cups)

1/3 cup raisins or currants

1/2 cup very hot water

1/2 pound firm tofu

1/4 cup plain or vanilla soy yogurt

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon tahini

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 1-quart baking dish or casserole dish.

   
   



2. Place the raisins or currants in a small bowl and pour the hot water over them. Set them aside to soak for a few minutes while you work on the next step.

   
   



3. Place the tofu, soy yogurt, maple syrup, cinnamon, tahini, vanilla, and flour in a blender or food processor. Blend well, stopping frequently to scrape the sides with a rubber spatula.

   
   

   For a stronger maple flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon maple extract.

   
   



4. Drain the soaked raisins and chop them into small pieces (or give them a whirl in a blender or food processor). Add the raisins and walnuts to the tofu mixture and blend well.

   
   



5. Pour the tofu mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes, or until set. Cool completely before serving. This mixture keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

   
   

Per serving: Calories 143 (46 from Fat); Fat 5g (Saturated 1g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 15mg; Carbohydrate 22g (Dietary Fiber 1g); Protein 4g

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/dairyfree-maple-nut-spread.html

Posting Blinds in Texas Hold'em

In order to start betting in Hold'em, forced bets (known as blinds) are made by the two players immediately clockwise from the dealer button. The person immediately clockwise from the dealer has the small blind, and the next player clockwise has the big blind. Making blind bets is known as posting and this is done before any cards are dealt.

The size of the bets are determined by the limits of the game that you're playing and the small blind is nearly always half of the big blind. So a $2/$4 Limit Hold'em game has a small blind of $1 and a big blind of $2.

Blinds are forced bets. The players in these positions must make these bets or they aren't dealt cards in the hand. These blinds, in turn, force betting action on the table after everyone has been dealt their hole cards.

At a casino, when you first sit down at a Hold'em table, the rules vary as to whether you have to post blinds (even if you're out of the normal blind positions for that hand) in order to be dealt a hand.

In Las Vegas, you're dealt a hand as soon as you sit down and have shown that you meet the table's minimum buy-in. You're not required to post a blind in order to get hole cards. Conversely, in most California card rooms, you're required to post a big blind in order to get your starting hand.

In cases where you're required to post a big blind before you're dealt cards, you're mildly better off just waiting until it would normally be your turn to get the big blind anyway, rather than jumping straight into the hand. Waiting like this keeps you from making an extra forced bet and gives an added bonus of being able to case the players at the table while you aren't actually playing. Dealers are used to this behavior and will probably ask you if you want to sit out (that is, wait until it's your turn to post the big blind).

How soon you post is a fine point, though, that doesn't really make that much difference. If you're itchin' to play, or if you have a very limited amount of time to play, go ahead and jump in. The dealer will tell you whether you're required to post a big blind.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/posting-blinds-in-texas-holdem.html

Dynamic Processors: Compressors/Limiters

The compressor’s job is to compress the dynamic range of the sound being affected. The compressor not only limits how loud a note can be, but also reduces the difference between the loudest and softest notes (it compresses the dynamic range).

The limiter works much like the compressor except it limits the highest level of a sound source. Any signal above the threshold is chopped off rather than compressed, as with the compressor.

Compressors/limiters are used for the following three main purposes (although other purposes certainly exist as well):

• 
  

  To keep transients from creating digital distortion during tracking: This is common with drums that have a very fast attack (initial signal) that can easily overload the recorder (or converters or preamps).

  
  


• 
  

  To even out a performance that shows a high degree of unwanted dynamic variation: You do this during either the mixing or tracking stage. An example is a singer who has poor mic control (moves constantly in front of the mic), and as a result, some recorded passages become loud while others are very quiet.

  
  


• 
  

  To raise the overall apparent level of the music during mastering: For example, listen to a CD recorded ten years ago and one from the last year or so, and you’ll notice that the newer CD sounds louder than the older one.

  
  

The purpose of the various parameters of a compressor are:

• 
  

  Threshold: The threshold setting dictates the level that the compressor starts to act on the signal. This is listed in dB (decibels). This setting is often listed as dB below peak (0dB). In other words, a setting of –6dB means that the compressor starts to act when the signal is 6 decibels below its calibrated 0dB mark. (In digital systems, 0dB is the highest level a signal can go before clipping.)

  
  


• 
  

  Ratio: The ratio is the amount that the compressor affects the signal. The ratio, such as 2:1 for instance, means that for every decibel that the signal goes over the threshold setting, the signal is reduced by a factor of 2. In other words, if a signal goes 1dB over the threshold setting, its output from the compressor is only 1/2dB louder.

  
  

  With ratios above 10:1, your compressor starts to act like a limiter.

  
  


• 
  

  Attack: The attack knob controls how soon the compressor kicks in. The attack is defined in milliseconds (ms), and the lower the number, the faster the attack.

  
  


• 
  

  Release: The release parameter controls how long the compressor continues affecting the signal after it has dropped back below the threshold setting. Like the attack, the release is defined in milliseconds. The lower the number, the faster the release time.

  
  


• 
  

  Gain: The gain knob allows you to adjust the level (volume) of the signal going out of the compressor. This is listed in decibels. Because adding compression generally reduces the overall level of the sound, you use this control to raise the level back to where it was going in.

  
  


• 
  

  Hard knee or soft knee: Most compressors give you the option of choosing between a hard knee and a soft knee (or they do it for you based on the setting that you’ve chosen). Hard knee and soft knee refer to how the compressor behaves as the input signal passes the threshold. They are defined as follows:

  
  


• 
  

  Hard knee applies the compression at an even rate regardless of the level present over the threshold. So if you choose a compression setting of 4:1, the compressor applies this ratio for any signal over the threshold limit. Hard-knee compression is used for instruments like drums, where you need to clamp down on any transients quickly.

  
  


• 
  

  Soft knee, by contrast, applies the compression at a varying rate, depending on the amount the signal is over the threshold setting. A soft knee setting gradually increases the ratio of the compression as the signal crosses the threshold until it hits the level that you set. Soft-knee compression is used on vocals and other instruments where the signal doesn’t have fast peaks.

  
  

Some two-channel compressors have a link function that allows you to connect the two separate channels and control them from one set of controls. Having the two channels linked ensures that you end up with the same settings on both channels. This is useful when you want to compress a stereo signal.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/dynamic-processors-compressorslimiters.html

How to Discover Your Scrapbooking Style

Scrapbooking is more than gathering photos and writing captions, it's an art form that reflects your personal style. Use the tips in the following list to help develop and polish your unique scrapbooking style:

• Take a look at different scrapbooking styles to see which ones you like. You can experiment with many different styles to come up with a look that's all your own.

  
  



• Finding predominant colors in your photographs for a particular album can help you choose the colors you want to use — usually a three-color palette that unifies your layouts.

  
  



• Creating a pleasing layout means imagining that a tic-tac-toe grid is covering your page. Position your most important items over the focal points where the grid lines intersect. That's where your eyes naturally focus.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-discover-your-scrapbooking-style.html

Tracking Business Finances through Timely Bookkeeping

All businesses need to keep a record of their financial transactions in order to assess their financial health, provide status reports to various bodies and to comply with legal regulations. Use these steps as a guide to keeping your books well and truly up to date:

1. Transactions: The purchases or sales of items start the process of bookkeeping.

   
   



2. Journal entries: Enter transactions into the books through journals.

   
   



3. Posting: Post journal entries to the Nominal Ledger.

   
   



4. Trial balance: Test accounts in the Nominal Ledger to see if they’re in balance.

   
   



5. Worksheet: Enter on a worksheet any account adjustments needed after the trial balance.

   
   



6. Adjusting journal entries: Post adjustments from the worksheet to affected accounts in the Nominal Ledger.

   
   



7. Financial statements: Prepare the balance sheet and income statement using the corrected account balances.

   
   



8. Ratios: Use ratios to cross check performance from one accounting period to another. Any major change could signal an error in record keeping if you can’t account for it by a known change in performance.

   
   



9. Closing: Close the books for the revenue and expense accounts, and start the entire cycle again with zero balances in both accounts.

   
   

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tracking-business-finances-through-timely-bookkeep.html

The Droid Bionic as a Reader

Because Droid Bionic comes with two eBook reader apps preinstalled, you can read eBooks on your phone as well. An eBook is an electronic version of a book. The words, formatting, figures, pictures ― all that stuff is simply stored digitally so that you can read it on something called an eBook reader.

• Your Droid Bionic’s preinstalled eBook reader apps are Google Books and the Amazon Kindle app.

  
  



• The advantage of an eBook reader is that you can carry an entire library of books with you without developing back problems.

  
  



• Rather than buy a new book at the airport, consider getting an eBook instead, though you can still read a real book during take-off and landing.

  
  



• Lots of eBooks are free, such as quite a few of the classics including some that aren’t that boring. Current and popular titles cost money, though the cost is often cheaper than the book’s real-world equivalent.

  
  



• Magazine and newspaper subscriptions are also available for eBook readers.

  
  



• You’re not limited to using Google Books and the Amazon Kindle apps as your eBook reader. Other apps are available, including Aldiko, FBReader, Kobo, Laputa, and more. You can locate these eBook readers by perusing the Android Market.

  
  



• Not every title is available as an eBook.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-droid-bionic-as-a-reader.html

Buying the Freshest Beer

To ensure that you always get the most bang for your beer buck, keep these tips in mind when buying beer. Remember that freshness in beer is as important as freshness in bread.

• Don’t buy bottled beer that’s coated in a layer of dust and/or has any flakes, chunks, or floaters in it.

  
  



• Always consume beer from growlers before it goes flat — usually in the first 24 to 36 hours.

  
  



• Look for freshness dates and buy only beer that isn’t past the freshness date.

  
  



• If you have the choice, buy beer that’s refrigerated rather than beer that’s sitting on a shelf.

  
  



• Don’t buy beer that is or has been sitting in the sun.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/buying-the-freshest-beer.html

Making a Business Logo that Matches Your Brand

If you want to try to do design your business's logo yourself, you can enter “do-it-yourself logo creation” into any search engine to obtain lists of logo-generating Web sites and logo development software.

• Typestyle: The typestyle you choose — and the way you arrange the type in your logo — has a tremendous impact on the impression your logo makes. Choose a typestyle that matches the character of your brand and customize the presentation of your name in your logo.

  
  



• Colors: Your logo’s color scheme can become an essential element of your brand identity. Establish a color scheme that differs from the scheme used by your major competitors. Choose a color scheme that reflects your brand character, and matches your brand and the expectations customers have when selecting your offering.

  
  

  The fewer colors you employ, the easier your logo will be to manage. Logos with full-color illustrations or photos require full-color printing — an expensive and time-consuming process that you should adopt only after serious consideration. Plus, the Internet further restricts color options because the Web’s color palette is limited.

  
  

  No matter what color scheme you adopt, be sure your logo works beautifully in plain old black and white. After all, that’s how it will look on your business checks, in photocopies, in many small-format ads, and in numerous low-cost communications that will carry your brand identity far and wide.

  
  



• Shapes and sizes: Most logos need to work well in a horizontal configuration that’s about half as tall as it is wide. Whatever configuration your logo takes, be sure it can reduce down to the size it will appear on a business card, which is where it will appear most frequently. If it becomes blurry or unrecognizable in a small size, redesign it to simplify the elements so that it reads well even in its most minute presentation.

  
  

Look for effective branding in your everyday life. The next time you shop at a national retailer or eat at a chain restaurant, notice if the color scheme on the establishment's logo is also used on the interior decorations — the carpet, the countertops, the paint colors on the walls — or if the font and type style on the logo matches that of the menu. Often times, you'll find that it does. This is branding at work.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/making-a-business-logo-that-matches-your-brand.html

Developing Your Own Fashion Illustration Style

When you first start drawing fashion illustrations, it’s easiest to imitate someone else’s style. But eventually, you need to develop your own signature look. Try these methods on for drawing style:

• Experiment with exaggeration and play with proportions. Draw attention with outrageous hair or go for a minimalist look.

  
  



• Specialize in the clothing types you like best.

  
  



• Study other artists’ work. Borrow design elements from them but don’t copy their style.

  
  



• Keep up on the latest fashion trends. Read magazines, visit websites, and scope out styles at department stores, boutiques, and vintage shops. Perfect the art of people-watching. Watch old movies and find inspiration in costumes from film and stage.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/developing-your-own-fashion-illustration-style.html

Anatomy of an Electric Guitar

An electric guitar is the key component of the rock guitar sound. Take a look at this figure to identify the major parts of a typical electric guitar, and read the chord diagram for finger placement. The tablature, or tab, is represented to show the frets and strings of the guitar.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/anatomy-of-an-electric-guitar0.html

How to Create and Use a Password Reset Disk in Windows

Windows passwords cannot be recovered. Honestly, forget it. If you lose your password, you’re screwed. Write down the password if you tend to forget it. Windows 7 and Windows Vista offer a tool where you can create a Password Reset disk on a thumb drive. Although the tool doesn’t recover your password, it lets you reset it, which lets you back into your account.

Create the Password Reset disk

Here’s the lowdown for creating the Password Reset disk:

1. Plug the USB thumb drive into your PC console.

   
   

   It can be any USB drive, or even a media card. Attach it now.

   
   



2. If an AutoPlay dialog box appears, dismiss it.

   
   



3. Pop up the Start menu and click your account picture icon in the upper-right part of the menu.

   
   

   The User Accounts window appears.

   
   



4. Choose Create a Password Reset Disk.

   
   

   It’s one of the tasks listed on the left side of the window. If you don’t see it, you’re using Windows XP. This utility is only available for Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

   
   



5. Click the Next button to proceed through the wizard.

   
   



6. Choose the storage device for the gizmo you inserted in Step 1.

   
   



7. Click the Next button.

   
   



8. Type your current password.

   
   



9. Click Next.

   
   



10. Click Next.

    
    



11. Click Finish.

    
    



12. You can safely remove the gizmo you inserted back in Step 1 if need be.

    
    

See Video 251 to view a demonstration of a Password Reset disk being created.

Windows creates a teensy file on the USB device. The file is named userkey.psw. It helps you only when you need to use the Password Reset disk.

Reset your password using the Password Reset disk

Follow these steps to reset your Windows password:

1. Try logging in to Windows.

   
   

   The logon prompt is where you use the Password Reset disk.

   
   



2. Choose the link Reset Password.

   
   



3. Ensure that the Password Reset disk is attached to the computer.

   
   



4. Click the Next button.

   
   



5. Choose the drive containing the media used for the Password Reset disk.

   
   



6. Type a new password.

   
   



7. Type the new password again.

   
   



8. Click Next.

   
   



9. Click Finish.

   
   



10. Log in to Windows.

    
    



11. Don’t forget the new password.

    
    

Create a new Password Reset disk immediately, just in case.

• The biggest problem with typing passwords occurs when you accidentally have the Caps Lock key on. Fortunately, Windows reminds you when Caps Lock is set.

  
  



• You must create a new Password Reset disk when you change your password in Windows. After Step 9, though, you may be required to confirm that you’re overwriting the original password backup information.

  
  



• You can use the Password Reset disk for anything in addition to holding the password.

  
  



• You might be able to recover information from your account by using the Windows Recovery Console. You may not be able to recover all your files or restore the password, but it is one thing to try.

  
  



• Avoid using those password-cracking utilities found on the Internet. Sure, some of them work; Windows doesn’t store passwords completely securely. But many password-recovery tools are Trojan horses that will damage your computer or, at minimum, recover a password and then share it with thousands of hackers across the globe. Caveats abundant.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-and-use-a-password-reset-disk-in-win.html

Knowing Your Bonds from Your Shares

You will often hear lots of investors mentioning both shares and bonds in the same breath, but there are plenty of differences. These differences include:

• Shares are permanent, or until the company is taken over or goes bust. Bonds usually have a fixed life, shown on the paperwork you get.

  
  



• Shares pay dividends, which can vary. Bonds pay interest, which should be fixed.

  
  



• Shares give holders a say in the company proportional to their holding. Bondholders, in most circumstances, have no ownership or annual meeting voting rights.

  
  



• Share prices can be very volatile. Bond prices vary less from day to day.

  
  



• Share prices depend on profits. Bondholders have to worry more about credit risk.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/knowing-your-bonds-from-your-shares.html

Basic Questions in French

Knowing how to ask a few basic questions in French can come in very handy when you travel to a French-speaking country and need to know the time or where something is located or just want to get some basic information,

English	French	Pronunciation
Do you speak English?	Est-ce que vous parlez anglais?	ehs-kuh vooh pahr-ley ahN-gleh?
How are you?	Comment allez-vous?	koh-mahN-tah-ley-vooh?
Would you help me please?	Pourriez-vous m’aider?	pooh-ree-ey vooh mey-dey ?
What’s your name?	Comment vous appelez-vous?	koh-mahN vooh-zah-pley-vooh?
What time is it?	Quelle heure est-il ?	kehl uhr eh-teel?
What’s the weather like?	Quel temps fait-il?	kehl tahN feh-teel?
How much does . . . cost?	Combien coûte…?	kohN-byaN kooht. . . ?
Where can I find . . .?	Où est-ce que je peux trouver. . .?	ooh ehs-kuh zhuh puh trooh-vey....?
Where are the bathrooms?	Où sont les toilettes?	ooh sohN ley twah-leht?
Do you have. . . ?	Avez-vous…?	ah-vey vooh. . . ?
Where is. . . ?	Où est…?	ooh eh…?
Could you please speak more slowly?	Pourriez-vous parler plus lentement, s’il vous plaît?	pooh-ree-ey-vooh pahr-ley plew lahNt-mahN, seel vooh pleh?
Could you repeat that, please?	Pourriez-vous répéter, s’il vous plaît?	pooh-ree-ey-vooh rey-pey-tey, seel vooh pleh?

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/basic-questions-in-french.html

How to Use a Rowing Machine

Although rowing is a demanding activity, its low-impact nature makes it a good fit for prenatal exercise.

Experienced rowers make rowing look easy, but when you actually sit down at the machine, you may find that it takes a fair amount of coordination. Here are some tips to fine-tune the motion:

• Think legs, legs, legs. Concentrate on initiating the movement with your butt rather than your lower back. Don’t fully straighten your knees. Even when you’re completely extended, your knees should be a little soft.

  
  



• Don’t round your back. Hunching over is the way to give yourself back pain. Don’t lean all the way back at the end of the stroke, either. You’re in proper position when your upper body is leaning backward about 45 degrees.

  
  



• Pull the handle in a smooth, continuous stroke. Don’t stop at the most stretched-out and bent positions.

  
  

>
dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-a-rowing-machine.html

Dealing with a Ball Hog on Your Basketball Team

A ball hog — a player who hangs onto the ball for extended periods of time and always looks to shoot rather than pass — creates real problems for the entire team. For instance, a ball hog ignores open teammates who have worked to get into position to score, which undermines team morale and kills your sense of unity. As a basketball coach, you have to find a way to deal with this.

If you have a ball hog on your team, you may get frustrated and not know what to do. Here are a couple ways a player can earn the unwanted ball-hog label and actions you can take to help him ditch it:

• He's unaware: Perhaps the youngster isn't aware that he's hanging onto the ball too much. He watches older players who score a lot and wants to emulate them. Maybe he's new to basketball or hasn't been involved in any type of team setting before, and he needs to get accustomed to how sharing the ball makes for a stronger and more effective unit. Go with drills that emphasize passing to help your players break their habit of dribbling and shooting every time down the floor. You can even hold no-dribble scrimmages, where players can only pass and shoot the ball.

• He receives mixed instructions: Perhaps the child receives conflicting instructions from his dad or mom at home. A parent may be telling the child that he's the team's best shooter and that he needs to take more shots. How can you tell? If the child seems to be doing everything differently than how you're instructing the team, do some investigating. Ask the child why he isn't listening to your instructions. Perhaps he didn't understand what you were saying.

If he confesses that he's receiving conflicting instructions, that plops the youngster in confusing territory and forces you to step in. Talk to the child about his responsibility to be a team player and to listen to your instructions, and reinforce to the player's parents that they need to support what you're trying to teach the kids.

If you have a ball hog on your team, take a closer look at your practices, because they may actually be causing some of the problems. During your drills, double check to make sure that you aren't allowing a player to dribble the ball for extended periods of time or to take the majority of the shots. If you notice inequity in your practices, resort to specific types of drills or scrimmages that eliminate opportunities for ball hogs to flourish.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/dealing-with-a-ball-hog-on-your-basketball-team.html

Copyright Infringement and eBay

If you list a potentially infringing item on eBay, you may be infringing on existing copyrights, trademarks, registrations, or the like, which can bring about legal action. Get the idea? eBay prohibits the listing of these items for your protection.

Items that fall under the "potentially infringing" category are generally copyrighted or trademarked items such as software, promotional items, and games. Even using a brand name in your auction as part of a description (known as keyword spamming) may get you into trouble.

Say you have a quilted leather women's purse with a gold chain strap that you describe as a Chanel-style purse. Well you can expect an informational alert from the eBay listing police. Even though you described the item to the best of your ability, it became a potentially infringing item. Your use of the brand name Chanel causes your auction listing to violate the regulation against keyword spamming, which eBay describes as follows:

"Keyword spamming is the practice of adding words, including brand names, which do not directly describe the item you are selling. The addition of these words may not have been intentional, but including them in this manner diverts members to your listing inappropriately."

Think twice before you add brand names to your auction description. Thankfully, the eBay police judge each violation on a case-by-case basis. If your record is clear of prior offenses, you might get away with a reprimand. However, had your violation been more deliberate, you might be suspended.

In addition, in your title, you may not use a brand name along with the words not or like. As in Chanel-like purse or not Chanel. This is also considered a violation of the keyword spamming policy.

Keyword spamming can take many forms. Some merely mislead the prospective bidder, whereas others are legal infringements. A few of the most common are

• Superfluous brand names in the title or item description

  
  



• Using something like "not brand X" in the title or item description

  
  



• Improper trademark usage

  
  



• Lists of keywords

  
  



• Hidden text, for example, white text on a white background or hidden text in HTML code. The white text shows up in the search but is not visible to the naked eye. Sneaky, eh?

  
  



• Drop-down boxes

  
  

Repeating various nontrademarked keywords can get you in trouble as well. eBay permits the use of as many as five synonyms when listing an item for sale. A permissible example of this might be purse, handbag, pocketbook, satchel, and bag. Adding many nontrademarked keywords would cause the auction to come up in more searches.

eBay can't possibly check every auction for authenticity. But to help protect trademarked items, it formed the Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) program. Trademark and copyright owners expend large amounts of energy to develop and maintain control over the quality of their products. If you buy a "designer" purse from a guy on the street for $20, it's probably counterfeit, so don't go selling it on eBay. eBay works with VeRO program members to educate the community about such items. They work also with verified owners of trademarks and copyrights to remove auctions that infringe on their products. If eBay doesn't close a suspicious or blatantly infringing auction, both you and eBay are liable for the violation.

To become a member of the VeRO program, the owners of copyrights and trademarks must supply eBay with proof of ownership. If you are a legitimate owner, and someone on the site has violated your rights, download the Notice of Infringement form.

eBay cooperates with law enforcement. Should you be a violator, they may give your name and street address to a VeRO program member.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/copyright-infringement-and-ebay.html

Select Text in PowerPoint 2007

Editing text in PowerPoint 2007 requires that you first select the text. The following list shows methods for selecting blocks of text on a PowerPoint slide:

• Use the keyboard: Hold down the Shift key while you press any of the arrow keys to move the insertion point.

  
  



• Use the mouse: Point to the beginning of the text that you want to edit and then click and drag over the text. Release the mouse button when you reach the end of the text that you want to select.

  
  

PowerPoint has an automatic word-selection option that tries to guess when you intend to select an entire word. If you use the mouse to select a block of text that spans the space between two words, the selected text jumps to include entire words. You can disable this feature by clicking the PowerPoint Options button on the Office menu. Click the Advanced tab and then deselect the When Selecting, Automatically Select Entire Word check box.

You can use the following tricks to select different amounts of text:

• A single word: To select a single word, point the insertion point anywhere in the word and double-click.

  
  



• An entire paragraph: To select an entire paragraph, point the insertion point anywhere in the paragraph and triple-click.

  
  

After you have selected text, you can edit it in the following ways:

• Delete text: To delete the entire block of text that you’ve selected, press Delete or Backspace.

  
  



• Replace text: To replace an entire block of text, select it and then begin typing. The selected block vanishes and is replaced by the text that you’re typing.

  
  



• Cut, Copy, and Paste: You can use the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands from the Clipboard group with selected text blocks. The following section describes these commands.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/select-text-in-powerpoint-2007.html

Tips for Raising a Jack Russell Terrier

Jack Russell Terriers (JRTs) are lively and loyal companion dogs. Their unique quirks and interesting personality traits make it necessary to pay close attention to certain aspects of choosing and raising a happy, well-adjusted JRT.

When introducing a JRT into your home, keep these tips in mind:

• Choose the puppy or dog that best fits your criteria, based on your family’s needs, desires, and lifestyle.

  
  



• Be sure to get all the paperwork necessary to register your dog when you pick up your puppy. It is much harder to secure these documents after you’ve left the breeder’s house.

  
  



• Unless you’re positive you want to show or breed your JRT, have your dog spayed or neutered to prevent an unwanted litter.

  
  



• Prepare both your children and your existing pets for the arrival of a new puppy or dog. Set “rules of the road” for your children so they know how to handle the new pup. Understand that existing pets may need some time to adjust to the new addition.

  
  



• Keep in mind that not all pets mix well with a JRT. Anything resembling a rodent (such as a rat, rabbit, or guinea pig) or any animal seen in the wild (such as a snake) will be considered prey by your terrier.

  
  



• Puppy-proof your house prior to bringing your JRT home. Many common household items can be dangerous or deadly to your puppy if preventative steps aren’t taken.

  
  

Training your Jack Russell Terrier brings specific challenges:

• Realize that your Jack Russell may take longer to housetrain than other dogs you may have owned. It’s not that they aren’t as smart; they simply have their own agendas and could take six to eight months to accept your program.

  
  



• Setting the pack hierarchy right off the bat is an important part of JRT training. Your terrier needs to know that you’re the top dog. Be careful not to antagonize an overly aggressive dog, however, and realize that setting a superior position doesn’t mean intimidating or abusing your terrier.

  
  



• Obedience training is extremely important for a JRT. All Jack Russells should know the basic commands (sit, down, stay, and come) and should perform them consistently.

  
  



• Obedience training takes patience and practice. This means you must be involved in your terrier’s training and must reward and reinforce the commands on a regular basis.

  
  



• Preventing unwanted behaviors from developing is easier than stopping them after they’re learned.

  
  



• You may encounter some tough behavior challenges when training your JRT. Stay calm, keep your temper firmly in check, and approach the solution with a clear head and plenty of patience and understanding.

  
  

Caring for your Jack Russell Terrier requires good health habits and routine check-ups:

• Choose your veterinarian with the same care you use when choosing your family doctor. Don’t be afraid to ask questions regarding services and fees. Be sure to take your terrier in for his vaccinations and address any medical concerns with your vet.

  
  



• All dogs, including JRTs, require routine health care such as worming, coat-and-dental care, and flea-and-tick control to stay healthy. Don’t neglect these day-to-day health issues.

  
  



• Select a dog food that’s appropriate for your JRT’s age and activity level and stick with it. Changing foods can cause digestive upset in your JRT and can lead to allergies or skin conditions. If you’re not sure what to feed your dog, consult your vet.

  
  



• Older terriers and those with special needs require additional attention and care. Be sure to check with your vet if your terrier falls into this category and discuss options to keep him comfortable and healthy.

  
  



• Give your Jack Russell Terrier plenty of room to run and lots of time and exercise with the family. Your JRT needs your attention and won’t be happy if left alone in the backyard.

  
  



• JRTs love to play and need you to be involved in their exercise. Choose fun activities such as beach excursions, terrier trials, or agility training to keep your family and your terrier interested and exercised.

  
  



• Traveling with your JRT need not be a trying event. Plan ahead and do some basic training prior to your trip. You may find your JRT to be a charming traveling companion.

  
  

Many of the odd things your JRT does are normal for the breed. All Jack Russells are a bit strange!

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tips-for-raising-a-jack-russell-terrier.html

Add New Buddies in iChat on Your MacBook

In iChat, a Buddy is anyone whom you want to chat with from your MacBook, whether the topic is work related or your personal life. iChat keeps track of your Buddies in the Buddy list. You can also add them to your Address Book or use the AIM entry in an Address Book contact to generate a new Buddy identity.

To add a new Buddy, follow these steps:

1. Choose Buddies→Add Buddy, or click the Add Buddy button at the bottom of the iChat window and click Add Buddy from the pop-up menu, or press Command+Shift+A.

   
   



2. To create a Buddy entry from an Address Book contact who has an Instant Messaging username, click the down-arrow button next to the Last Name box to display the Address Book list. Click the entry to select it.

   
   

   As a shortcut, you can also click in the First Name box and then type the person’s first name, or click in the Account Name box and type the person’s Instant Messaging account name.

   
   



3. To add a brand-new person who’s not already in your Address Book, type the person’s Instant Messaging account name.

   
   



4. Click Add to save the Buddy information.

   
   

Even when you add a new Buddy and that name appears in the Buddy list, don’t be surprised if the name actually fades out after a few seconds — that indicates that the person is offline and unavailable. You can also tell when a person is available if her name appears with a green bullet in the Buddy list.

You can also specify a number of actions that iChat should take if a Buddy logs in or out of Instant Messaging, or if a Buddy changes his or her status to Available. To display these actions, click the desired Buddy’s entry in your Buddy list and then press Command+Shift+I (from the menu, click Buddies→Show Info).

Click the Alerts button and then choose the event that should trigger the action from the Event pop-up menu. Select the desired check box to specify whether iChat should play the sound that you select, run an AppleScript, speak an announcement, or animate the iChat icon by “bouncing” it in the Dock.

Click the Address Card button on the Info dialog to enter or edit the person’s

• Real name

  
  



• Nickname

  
  



• E-mail

  
  



• Buddy icon

  
  

Click Show in Address Book, and iChat obligingly creates an entry in your Address Book for your new Buddy. (Apple, you truly rock.)

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/add-new-buddies-in-ichat-on-your-macbook.html