Benefits of Online Résumés for Your Job Search

You need more than your paper résumé to stand out from the crowd. By displaying your skills, qualifications, and abilities, a résumé used to indicate whether you could do a particular job or not. But now that most jobs are knowledge jobs and business is so much more complicated than pushing buttons, employers need more rounded information on candidates.

With social media, you have an opportunity to not only clarify whether you can do the job but also help a hiring manager determine your motivation level and whether you’d be a good fit for the company long before you reach the interview stage. In fact, if you’ve run your job search right by using the many social media tools available, you may hear a hiring manager say at the first interview, “I feel like I already know you.”

Here are some of the benefits of supplementing a paper résumé with an online version:

• You remain in control of the document. If you make a change in one location, everyone reading that document can see the update. For example, if you get a promotion, you just have to update your online résumé to let other people know about it, rather than send out multiple copies of an updated hard-copy résumé.

  
  



• You can show your current value, rather than just your past. In other words, you can customize your online résumé to include more details about how you can help the company or hiring manager deal with a current issue or problem. You can also incorporate video, images, and color into your résumé to demonstrate your professionalism.

  
  



• You can show some personality. Because you’re breaking away from the tired-out paper résumé format, you have much more flexibility to show your true colors. You can create a strong first impression as a likable guy or gal who’s always motivated to do well at every undertaking.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/benefits-of-online-resumes-for-your-job-search.html

The Role of a Computer Forensics Investigator

As part of the legal system, a computer forensics investigator helps build a case for or against a person or company accused of wrongdoing. Jobs that a computer forensics investigator might take on include those in the following list:

• Examine the prosecution's or opposing counsel's e-evidence for alternative interpretations. The allegation that a defendant manipulated accounting software might not be supportable by the e-evidence that has been collected.

  
  



• Assess the strength of the e-evidence against a suspect. Sometimes the client and the accused need to know what the prosecution knows in order to decide whether taking a plea deal is the right choice. Pleading guilty carries less jail time than being found guilty.

  
  



• Scrutinize expert reports for inconsistencies, omissions, exaggerations, and other loopholes. Check these documents carefully to see whether you can find mistakes.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-role-of-a-computer-forensics-investigator.html

How to Use the “That” Command in NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking treats the command “that” differently depending upon when it is spoken. For example, when you use capitalization, spacing, and hyphenation commands (what Dragon refers to as dictation commands), such as Cap That, the word that refers to what you just spoke — text that’s still being worked on by the NaturallySpeaking engine.

When you use formatting commands, however, the word that no longer refers to the text you just spoke. It refers only to whatever you have selected. Or, if you haven’t selected anything, the command affects the formatting for whatever you dictate next.

So, for instance, if you dictate, “Haste makes waste” and then (not stopping to select anything) say, “Bold That,” nothing happens to the text you dictated. However, if you continue, saying, “but a stitch in time saves nine,” that text appears bold. The command simply turned on bold style. The result looks like this:

Haste makes waste but a stitch in time saves nine.

The difference in the meaning of that sounds like a complicated distinction to remember, but the truth is actually simple. When you say "Bold That," "Italicize That," "Underline That," or any of the paragraph alignment commands, NaturallySpeaking presses the command key (for example, Ctrl+B for Bold) assigned to that format.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-the-147that148-command-in-naturallyspea.html

Emerging-Market Stock ETFs

The recent astonishing returns of emerging market stocks and ETFs are due in good part to sharp increases in the prices of commodities, such as oil, which come largely from these nations. But commodity prices fluctuate greatly. And political unrest, corruption, and overpopulation, as well as serious environmental challenges, plague many of these countries.

On the other hand, emerging market stocks are perhaps still (despite their recent rise) underpriced. Many emerging economies seem especially strong. And — perhaps most importantly — these countries have young populations. Children tend to grow up to be workers, consumers, and perhaps even investors. Future growth seems almost assured.

Vanguard MSCI Emerging Market ETF (VWO)

Indexed to: The MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which tracks roughly 900 companies in 23 emerging market nations

Expense ratio: 0.22 percent

Top five country holdings: China, Brazil, Korea, Taiwan, South Africa

There’s no better way to capture the potential growth of emerging market stocks than through VWO. The cost is the lowest in the pack, and the diversity of investments is more than adequate.

BLDRS Emerging Markets 50 ADR (ADRE)

Indexed to: The Bank of New York Mellon Emerging Markets 50 ADR Index, a market-weighted basket of 50 emerging market–based ADRs

Expense ratio: 0.30 percent

Top five country holdings: Brazil, China, Taiwan, South Korea, India

Yeah, 50 companies falls way short of Vanguard’s 900, but 50 companies is still enough to give you pretty good diversification. This ETF is a great way to tap into emerging markets, but the Vanguard fund is still the better option. Note that there is some overlap in the countries represented by this fund and the BLDRS Asia fund.

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM)

Indexed to: MSCI Emerging Markets Index, a basket of approximately 800 companies in 20 emerging market nations

Expense ratio: 0.69 percent

Top five country holdings: China, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, South Africa

Good fund. Good company. Good index. But there is a major drawback: it is more than twice the price of the other options in this area.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/emergingmarket-stock-etfs.html

Control Paragraph Spacing in NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking automatically does some word, sentence, and paragraph spacing. You can control that spacing, or add space of your own. Understanding a letter or other document depends not only on the words but on the spaces between the words as well. Getting your document spaced out is relatively easy.

NaturallySpeaking has two commands that you can say to create the space that divides paragraphs: “New Paragraph” and “New Line.” What’s the difference?

• “New Paragraph” puts a blank line between paragraphs. It is like pressing the Enter key twice: It inserts two paragraph marks (invisible) into your text. It also makes sure that the first word of the next sentence is capitalized.

  
  



• “New Line” does not put a blank line between paragraphs. It is like pressing the Enter key once. The next line isn’t capitalized unless you ended the last line with a period, question mark, or exclamation point.

  
  

Dragon’s way of doing the "New Paragraph" command might cause a problem for you if you are going to use any kind of paragraph formatting (such as bullets or, in Word, paragraph spacing). It’s better to use the "New Line" command instead. Otherwise, in many instances, you double the effect of the paragraph formatting: You get two bullets or twice the spacing you intended, for example.

What if you want to actually type the words “new paragraph” instead of creating a new paragraph? Put a pause between the two words: “new” [pause] “paragraph.”

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/control-paragraph-spacing-in-naturallyspeaking.html

How to Price Your Etsy Merchandise

When you begin selling items in your Etsy shop, you may wonder how to determine how much your customers should pay for them. If you hope to run a profitable Etsy shop, you need to get comfortable with doing a little math, especially when it comes to pricing your pieces. But don't freak out! All you have to learn are two very simple formulas:

• (Materials + Labor + Overhead) x 2 = Wholesale price

  
  



• Wholesale price x 2 = Retail price

  
  

Offering products at different price points (using the preceding formulas) is a great way to increase your customer base. For example, say that you specialize in ceramics. In that case, you may make ceramic mugs to sell at a lower price point; simple, medium-size bowls to sell at a slightly higher price point; and ornate platters to sell at a premium price point. This structure enables you to reach a larger range of potential buyers, which may help you increase your overall sales.

Calculating the cost of materials

When calculating your cost for materials, include the price of every little component in your piece. For example, suppose that you sell handmade puppy plush toys for babies. Your material cost for each pup may include the following:

• Fabric

  
  



• Label

  
  



• Rickrack

  
  



• Stuffing

  
  



• Thread

  
  

When you calculate the costs of your materials, you need to consider only the price of what you used to produce one piece. For example, if you bought 3 yards of fabric when purchasing your supplies, for a total of $12, but you used only a third of that fabric to produce a single pup, you want to divide what you paid for the fabric by 3, to calculate your material cost for the fabric — here, $4.

Figuring labor costs

Calculating your labor costs requires you to first set an hourly rate for your time. Be sure to pay yourself a fair wage — one that accounts for the skill required to craft your piece. Also, think about how much you want or need to make for your time. (This consideration is especially important if you're looking to quit your day job.) Many professional crafters go with a rate in the neighborhood of $12 to $20 per hour.

If you're just starting out, you may opt for a lower hourly rate. You can give yourself periodic raises as your skills improve.

Armed with your hourly rate, you're ready to work out your labor costs. These costs must take into account the time it takes to do the following:

• Design a piece

  
  



• Shop for supplies for the piece

  
  



• Construct the piece

  
  



• Photograph the piece

  
  



• Create the item listing for the piece, including composing the item title and description

  
  



• Package and ship the item

  
  

If you clear more than $400 per year with your Etsy shop, you need to pay taxes on it — probably at a rate of about 30 percent.

Adding up overhead

In addition to calculating your costs for materials and labor, you want to account for your overhead. Your overhead may encompass the following:

• Tools and equipment used in the manufacture of your products

  
  



• Office supplies

  
  



• Packaging supplies

  
  



• Utilities (for example, your Internet connection, electricity used to power your sewing machine, and so on)

  
  



• Etsy fees

  
  



• PayPal fees

  
  

These costs don't include shipping. Be sure to calculate those costs separately and pass them along to the buyer.

In the formula provided, after adding your costs for materials, labor, and overhead, you multiply the sum by 2. That "times two" is your profit. It's what you invest back in your business. If your sewing machine breaks, the "times two" is what you use to buy a new one. If you decide to expand your product line, that "times two" is where you find the capital you need to grow. Or you may just use your "times two" revenue to build a nice nest egg for your business or a fund to fall back on if times get tough.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-price-your-etsy-merchandise.html

How to Convert Existing Non-Digital Content to Digital

4 of 8 in Series:
The Essentials of Accessing Digital Content for Home Theaters

You can convert non-digital content (like LPs and videotapes) into computer-friendly digital content. Changing stuff from non-digital to digital means you can enjoy your collections of movies, songs, and photographs in your home theater.

There’s nothing wrong with using analog source devices (such as VCRs, cassette decks, and turntables) to get this content into your home theater, but many like to go all digital. Here's why:

• Digital media is typically more durable than analog media. LP records scratch and tapes break and wear out, but digital files can be played over and over without degradation.

  
  



• Digital media is physically space efficient. You can cram a lot of video, music, and photos onto a small computer hard drive and then put the bulky tapes, records, and cassettes away.

  
  



• Digital media is more convenient. Instead of pulling out a tape, you can simply browse for that video on a computer interface and instantly start playing it (and pause, rewind, and skip around more easily, too!).

  
  

If your content is not yet digitized — it’s still on VHS tapes, paper photographs, photo negatives, cassette tapes, and so on — you might want to digitize it. Here are some options to consider:

• Photos: Although you can use any scanner to scan your photos into an electronic file, you might want to use a scanner designed to scan old photos and negatives. Check out Nikon’s CoolScan family of slide and film scanners. You feed your negatives and slides into the scanner, and the system converts them into digital files. You can get cheaper scanners, but you get what you pay for. Spend the money and get the best you can get — there’s a reason you are scanning all these pictures to begin with, so do it right.

  
  



• Movies: If you have shelves of VHS home movies you need to convert to DVD, you can usually get by with a PC, a VCR, a device that converts the VCR’s analog signals into digital, and some editing software to make sure everything is just right. Pinnacle Systems offers an easy-to-use range of products just for transferring tapes. Its top-of-the-line Digital Video Creator 150 comes with the hardware and software to do the conversion. If you don’t have a DVD burner in your home theater, you can get an add-on burner that will connect to your PC.

  
  

  Mac users might consider Elgato’s EyeTV system, which does most of the same things that Digital Video Creator 150 does, only on the Apple Mac OS. Check it out at Elgato.

  
  



• Music: If you have shoeboxes full of old cassettes and peach crates full of vinyl LPs, these too can be converted to digital. You don’t need any special hardware — just your old turntable or tape player. Grab a cable with two RCA plugs at one end and a mini 1/8-inch stereo plug at the other, which you can get at RadioShack. Connect the RCA plugs to the Tape Out jacks on your preamplifier or receiver and connect the other end to the Line In jack on your PC sound card. Then you load equalization/sound processing software, such as Nero 9, turn on your source player, and the software will clean up your vinyl and cassette recordings, lifting out any annoying scratches and pops along the way. If you want, it will break the long taped recording into smaller music files so you can have each song isolated on the CD. When it’s ready, it will help you burn the results to CD.

  
  

  An option for folks with tons of old LPs is to invest in the ION TTUSB. This is an actual turntable (with all of the equalization/processing software built in) that plugs in to your PCs USB port and converts vinyl to MP3.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-convert-existing-nondigital-content-to-digi.html

Save a Flash CS5 Document

Always save a new Adobe Flash Creative Suite 5 document after you make significant changes or additions to it, and always save (though it isn’t necessary) a new Flash CS5 document immediately after you create it.

To save a document, choose File→Save. Enter a name for the file and choose a location on your hard drive to save it. You can save Flash work files in .fla format or the new .xfl file format.

You may need at some point to save a copy of your document under a new name, to either create an alternative version or perhaps make it compatible with an older version of Flash. Flash CS5 can save .fla files in CS4 format to make it compatible with the previous version of Flash.

Flash CS4 can’t open .xfl or Flash CS5–format .fla files. To share a file with someone using Flash CS4, choose File→Save As→Flash CS4 Document (*.fla).

To save a copy of your document under a new name, choose File→Save As. Choose a location on your hard drive and enter a new filename. The drop-down list at the bottom of the Save As dialog box lets you choose in which version of Flash to save the file. For example, you can save files one version earlier into Flash CS4 format.

If you used previous versions of Flash, you probably noticed that Flash CS5 features a new file format: .xfl. Thus new, uncompressed file format results in a project folder containing a number of .xml files and any original assets (such as images and audio files) that you may have imported into your project’s library.

Because of this open file format, resources in your project can be exchanged with and opened in other applications. The XFL file format opens up the possibility of Flash files eventually being editable in other applications.

The traditional FLA file format combines all your project’s vital information and resource files into a single file, making it more portable but less likely to exchange with other applications. You don’t have direct access to assets you’ve imported into your project; for most purposes, however, the standard FLA file format is suitable, especially if Flash CS5 Professional is your sole editor for Flash applications.

Saving a document in an older version of Flash may make some newer features unavailable. Avoid saving files in an older file format unless you absolutely need to make them available to an older version of Flash.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/save-a-flash-cs5-document.html

Securing Your Wireless Network

Having adequate security should always be a priority when setting up a wireless network. Follow these tips to make sure no one can steal your Internet connection, or access your computers.

• Change the administrative password to your router. This password is usually found in the Security menu.

  
  



• Use WPA2 encryption with a pre-shared key. You can find this in the wireless setup menu.

  
  



• Choose a pre-shared key that has some numbers and capital letters. The key should be at least 6 characters long.

  
  



• Don’t use the default SSID. This is also in the wireless setup menu.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/securing-your-wireless-network.html

What Benefits to Offer Your Employees

Offer desirable employee benefits if you want your business to retain its employees. Although a full range of employee benefits from your business aren't required, you may need to do so to attract and retain employees.

In general, your company should offer benefits choices to its employees because people’s needs are different:

• Insurance: Perhaps the most sought-after and common benefit — and the most expensive — is health insurance:

  
  
  
  

  • Fee-for-service plans: Reimburse members (employees and dependents), regardless of what doctor or hospital they go to.

    
    
  
  

  • Managed care programs (including HMOs): Focus on preventive health and are generally less expensive for both employee and employer, but your employees are limited as to which practitioners and facilities they can visit to receive maximum benefits.

    
    
  
  
  
  

  In addition to health insurance, you may provide dental insurance and vision care.

  
  



• Retirement plans: Include traditional pensions and 401(k)s:

  
  
  
  

  • Pensions: Fixed benefit amounts with one company. Today, many employers offer more flexible retirement benefits (which can move with an employee to a new job), such as 401(k) plans.

    
    
  
  

  • 401(k) plans: If your company provides 401(k) plans, employees have their own accounts and can take the money with them when they switch companies. They can contribute as much as 15 percent of their income into the fund.

    
    
  
  
  
  



• Time off: Even if you’re paying your employees a salary, you can’t expect them to work every day of the year. Pay employees for holidays, vacations, sick days, and personal days.

  
  



• Leaves: A leave of absence occurs when an employee is off work for a specific amount of time, usually without pay, but is still employed by the company. When the leave ends, the employee returns to his or her old position.

  
  



• Childcare assistance: Because of changing family dynamics, more and more families have two working parents or only one parent. Many businesses are assisting employees with childcare with offers such as care referral sources and contracted daycare.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-benefits-to-offer-your-employees.html

Network Security: Intrusion Prevention and Intrusion Detection

Network administrators should implement intrusion-detection systems (IDS) and intrusion-prevention systems (IPS) to provide a network-wide security strategy. IDS and IPS both offer a similar suite of options. In fact, you can think of IPS as an extension of IDS because an IPS system actively disconnects devices or connections that are deemed as being used for an intrusion.

IDS devices can be network-based devices, running as appliances or separate servers running software, which is performing the IDS role, but they can also be installed on client or network computers. The later is often referred to as host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS).

These devices can reside inside your network, behind your firewall, detecting abnormalities there, and/or they can be placed outside your firewall. When they are outside your firewall, they are typically targeted for the same attacks that run against the firewall, thereby alerting you to attacks being run against your firewall.

Cisco offers several options for IDS and IPS systems and offers these as standalone systems or as add-ons for your existing security products. The following are two such options:

• 
  

  Cisco ASA Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module

  
  


• 
  

  Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Intrusion Detection System (IDSM-2) Module

  
  

IDS and IPS have several methods for working with detection. Similar to viruses on your network, intrusions and attacks have features that are recorded as a signature or behavior. So when the IPS system sees this type of data or behavior, the IPS system can swing into action.

Suspicious behavior can also trigger these systems. This behavior can include a remote system attempting to ping every address on your subnet in sequential order, and other activity that is considered to be abnormal. When the IPS system sees this activity, the IPS can be configured to blacklist or block the source device, either indefinitely or for a period of time.

The other way these systems can identify suspicious traffic on your network is to have them run in a Learning mode for a period of time. Over the course of weeks, they can classify regular traffic patterns on your network and then limit traffic to those established patterns.

If you introduce new software to your network, you may need to manually add appropriate rules or run a learning period and then put the system back into Prevention mode. This necessity is even true of the host-based systems because they update their rules from the management or policy server that is running on the network.

These systems help prevent the spread of Day Zero attacks, which are new viruses or network attacks that are different from all the previous network intrusions. Because these Day Zero attacks are new, you do not have a specific signature for the attack; but the attack still needs to perform the same suspicious behaviors, which can be detected and blocked.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/network-security-intrusion-prevention-and-detectio.html

Reasons Why You May Want to Change Your Will

Your will is a living document. Although a will’s intent is to provide for what happens to your estate after you have died, your will needs to change as your life changes. Don’t make the mistake of putting your will away and forgetting about it. You must make sure that the details of your will reflect changes in your life.

If the change to your will is triggered by an emotional event, such as being angry with a family member and wanting to write them out of the will, take time to clear your head before you act.

The reasons you need to change your will vary. The following are typical reasons to change a will:

• After a marriage. You need to include your new spouse in your estate plan.

  
  



• After a divorce. You most likely want to change what you planned on leaving to your ex-spouse.

  
  



• After your spouse’s death. If you left a significant portion of your estate to your spouse in your will, you need to update your will.

  
  



• After the death of one of your heirs or dependents. If an heir dies before you do, you need to update your will to reflect a new recipient.

  
  



• After you experience a significant change in your estate’s value. For example your stock holdings may go way up (or way down!).

  
  



• After any other change in your life that causes you to reevaluate to whom you want to leave something. For example, you become passionate about a specific cause and decide that you want to leave a large portion of your estate to some charity that champions that cause.

  
  

You can change your will in one of two ways:

• You can create an entirely new will that supersedes your current will. Creating an entirely new will is relatively straightforward, especially in these days of computer files and printers. (Your attorney doesn’t need to have an entirely new will typed from scratch like in the old pre-personal computer days).

  
  



• You can change or delete specific parts or add new parts to your current will. You can add, change, or delete specific parts of your current will without creating an entirely new will through a form called a codicil. A codicil is a separate document that adds to your original will. When should you use a codicil?

  
  
  
  

  • When your original will is very long and you want to make only a few, minor changes.

    
    
  
  

  • When your competency at the time of executing the codicil may be challenged. If someone does successfully argue that you were losing your grip in later years, the codicil may be overturned without affecting the will itself.

    
    
  
  
  
  

Because a codicil needs to clearly reference a specific portion of your will that it’s amending, ask your attorney to prepare any codicils rather than trying to do them yourself, no matter how simple it may seem to just write or type a couple of lines of text. If you mess up, your codicil most likely won’t be valid.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/reasons-why-you-may-want-to-change-your-will.html

Design for a Mobile iPhone & iPad Audience

No matter which device you target in your designs, the first element to consider is your audience. When an audience is using an iPhone, you can safely assume that they’re mobile and quite likely on the move — they may even be lost on their way to find your location.

Although the iPad is more commonly used at home or in an office, the iPad is a mobile device, and iPad users, especially those with the 3G models, are increasingly carrying their devices around with them.

Keep in mind the following key issues as you design for an audience on the go:

• The need for information is often urgent: Many people resort to the mobile web because they have to, because they’re lost or late, or because they can win a bar bet if they know who won the 1987 Super Bowl.

  
  



• Screen real estate is limited: iPhone sites should be designed to fit on small screens, and designs for both devices should make it easy to find important information, like your address and a map to your location, quickly.

  
  



• Users are often distracted: Having to navigate road or foot traffic while reading content on a screen is just one distraction that may compete for your users' attention.

  
  



• 3G connections may be affected by low bandwidth: Limit the size of images and text so that pages load quickly, even at slow connection speeds. Remember, even 3G devices often connect at much slower speeds, especially when people are on the move.

  
  



• The interface has limitations: Links and other navigational options should be big and easy to click with a (fat) finger.

  
  



• Processing power and memory are limited: Large files and scripts that require fast processors don’t execute efficiently over 3G or slower connections.

  
  



• Factors like time and place affect user actions: Don’t forget that users’ actions are likely to be affected by their locations, the time of day, and even the weather (whether it’s raining, for example). Be sure to include location-specific information, such as maps and directions.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/design-for-a-mobile-iphone-ipad-audience.html

Paying Attention to Profit in Your Small Business

Your small business is designed to make a profit — even if you’re not making one yet. Managing the financial aspects of profit requires special skills and powers of recognition. The following list offers tips on what to pay attention to:

• 
  

  Cash flow accounting doesn’t tell you profit for the period, and accrual-basis profit accounting doesn’t tell you cash flow for the period. Credit sales are recorded as revenue before cash is received. Some expenses are recorded before cash is paid, and some are recorded after cash is spent. Depreciation expense is not a cash outlay in the period. Never confuse profit and cash flow. You need to look at your P&L report for your profit, and you need to look at your Statement of Cash Flows for your cash flow.

  
  


• 
  

  Read the preceding tip again! Deep down in your psyche you probably believe that profit equals cash flow. You may want to believe this, but it ain’t so. Make certain that you have a firm grip on what cash flow is — and isn’t.

  
  


• 
  

  Use a compact profit model for decision-making analysis. The P&L report is indispensable for controlling profit performance, but this profit performance report is too bulky for decision-making analysis. A compact profit model is better. The P&L statement is like a high-end digital SLR camera; a profit model is like a pocket-size digital camera that you carry around with you and is good enough for most uses.

  
  


• 
  

  Seemingly small changes in profit factors can cause staggering differences. A small slippage in the ratio of margin on sales revenue can have a devastating impact on profit. A slight boost in sales price or a relatively modest increase in sales volume can yield a remarkable gain in profit. Small changes mean a lot.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/paying-attention-to-profit-in-your-small-business.html

What Goes in a Medicine Cabinet?

A well-stocked medicine cabinet is essential for anyone living on their own. Your medicine cabinet or first-aid kit should always contain some basic pharmaceutical supplies, even if you happen to have a 24-hour drug store right up the block. And for those not so fortunate, the list should be a bit more extensive because for some reason, the middle of the night seems an especially popular time for medical emergencies.

• Cuts: If you're bleeding you need two things: something to stop the bleeding and something to disinfect the cut. A box of bandages in assorted sizes should take care of most cuts and scrapes while an antiseptic, such as hydrogen peroxide or an antibacterial cream will allow you to disinfect the area. Have some cotton pads on hand for applying liquid disinfectants.

  
  

  If you take part in a lot of active sports, or are just clumsy, some larger bandages along with some medical tape will help you out when a larger surface than a finger needs tending to.

  
  



• Fever, swelling, headaches: Aspirin and other pain relievers like Acetaminophen (Tylenol) or Ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin) are well known for making a headache bearable, but they can also help with pain in other parts of your body as well as to reduce fever and swelling. Don't guess if you have a fever but consult that thermometer you bought for just that purpose.

  
  

  If you know you're going to be sore from some activity, take the pain reliever before you start. And when taking Ibuprofen, always have some food with it.

  
  



• Colds and coughs: If a cold or cough is keeping you up, you'll be glad you have some cold medicine on hand. If you're stuffed up, you'll want something that contains a decongestant. Cough medicine controls the urge to cough while a cough drop will stop that annoying tickle. For sore throats, you'll want a lozenge that's made to calm down the pain.

  
  



• Allergies: Allergies can take many forms, from causing you to blow and sneeze to making your eyes water or your skin break out. An antihistamine (such as Benadryl) can handle all those symptoms. For itchy eyes you may also need eye drops, and it's a good idea to have an eye cup on hand in case you get something in your eye that needs to be washed out.

  
  



• Stomachaches and other digestive ailments: Too much stomach acid can be very painful, but if you have some antacid on hand, in chewable tablets or liquid form, you can stop the burning in its tracks. If you're feeling nauseous, a product like Pepto-Bismol can relieve the problem, though if you can't stop throwing up, go to an emergency room. If diarrhea is your problem, Imodium or Kaopectate can help. If the condition continues, you could become severely dehydrated, and again a trip to the emergency room is indicated.

  
  



• Nail problems: A broken nail or hang nail won't kill you but they can be so annoying. Having a nail clipper and nail file on hand can bring you instant relief and is so much more effective than your teeth.

  
  



• Tooth problems: Also under the annoying label is when some food gets stuck between your teeth. Even if you don't listen to your dentist and floss daily, having some dental floss on hand will save your tongue from a lot of needless prodding. And while a toothache will eventually have to be taken care of by a dentist, a product that numbs the area, like Ambesol, will provide temporary relief to get you through the night.

  
  

Many pharmaceutical products have a limited shelf life so at least once a year go over your supply, throw out anything that has expired and buy a replacement.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-goes-in-a-medicine-cabinet.html

PowerShares Sector ETFs

PowerShares has about 50 domestic and a dozen international sector funds. The ETFs offered in this line are actively managed, with a broker picking the stocks. PowerShares industry sector offerings include the following:

U.S. Sector Fund Name	Ticker
PowerShares Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome	PBE
PowerShares Dynamic Building & Construction	PKB
PowerShares Dynamic Energy & Exploration	PXE
PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage	PBJ
PowerShares Dynamic Hardware & Consumer Electronics	PHW
PowerShares Dynamic Insurance	PIC
PowerShares Dynamic Leisure & Entertainment	PEJ
PowerShares Dynamic Media	PBS
PowerShares Dynamic Networking	PXQ
PowerShares Dynamic Oil & Gas Services	PXJ
PowerShares Dynamic Pharmaceuticals	PJP
PowerShares Dynamic Retail	PMR
PowerShares Dynamic Semiconductors	PSI
PowerShares Dynamic Software	PSJ
PowerShares Dynamic Telecommunications & Wireless	PTE
PowerShares Dynamic Utilities	PUI
PowerShares Lux Nanotech	PXN
PowerShares Aerospace & Defense	PPA
PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy	PBW
PowerShares Water Resources	PHO

Global Sector Fund Name	Ticker
PowerShares Global Coal Portfolio	PKOL
PowerShares Global Nuclear Energy	PKN
Powershares Global Steel Portfolio	PSTL
PowerShares Global Wind Energy Portfolio	PWND

On the down side, PowerShares charges 0.60 percent for its domestic offerings and 0.75 percent for its global funds: That’s a whole lot more than most of the competition is charging or would dare charge.

The funds are also “dynamic,” which means that the indexes they track are actively managed (someone somewhere is picking stocks). Many investors would see that as a plus. However, it means added expense (both up front and behind the scenes) and a possible loss of tax efficiency. On the upside, however, PowerShares’ selection of industry groupings, in both their U.S. and global offerings, has been innovative, to say the least.

Although it’s not a good idea to build an entire portfolio of PowerShares sector ETFs, if you’re looking to sprinkle some noncorrelating holdings into an otherwise well-diversified portfolio, PowerShares may have something to offer.

Especially intriguing are the WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW) and the Water Resources ETF (PHO). Investing in companies that provide alternative fuels and the filtration and delivery of drinking water respectively, these two ETFs, so far, seem to have sweetly low correlations to the broad market.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/powershares-sector-etfs.html

Tips for a Successful One-Person or SOHO Business Plan

To succeed as a self-employed person or SOHO business owner, you need to possess certain key strengths — qualities that not everyone has. You need to be able to accomplish several things that are absolutely critical to a one-person businesses success.

• Commit to doing one thing well: How many self-employed people have you met who shuffle through a stack of business cards as they explain the many ventures they’re into, personifying the old line “jack-of-all-trades, master of none.”

  
  



• Establish pricing, billing, and collection policies: From the get-go, you need to know what you’ll charge and how you’ll collect. Whether you’re selling time or products, your pricing must be competitive, an accurate reflection of the value of your offering, and high enough to cover your production costs plus an adequate amount of profit to your business.

  
  



• Run your business like a business, not like an adjunct of your personal checkbook or a hobby that you pursue in your spare time: Small-business start-ups are often born at the kitchen table. But to succeed, you need to turn your idea into a formal business structure — complete with a designated work space, a dedicated business bank account, and a written business plan that includes financial projections and reporting systems to keep your business on track.

  
  

When you work for yourself, no one else tells you when to start or when to knock off for the day. You have no salary cap, no performance reviews, no corporate politics, and no supervisors.

On the other hand, solo careerists usually work longer and harder than salaried employees and require more self-discipline. And, although they don’t answer to bosses per se, they do deal with clients, who sometimes make tough bosses look easy in comparison.

If you work for yourself, you get to

• Be your own boss

  
  



• Determine your own schedule

  
  



• Control your own economic fate

  
  



• Choose the kinds of work you want to do

  
  

But you don’t get

• A regular paycheck

  
  



• Employer-provided benefits

  
  



• Unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation

  
  



• Protection under labor laws

  
  

Getting your one-person business off to a strong start is hardly like rocket science if — and this is a big if — you plan in advance and stick to your decisions.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tips-for-a-successful-oneperson-or-soho-business-0.html

Translating Marathon and Other Race Lengths

Training for a marathon means training to run 26.2 miles. You may want to run other races, as well, many of which measured in kilometers. Read on to see what all those lengths mean in miles and kilometers:

• *Marathon: 26.2 miles

  
  



• *30K: 18.6 miles

  
  



• *25K: 15.5 miles

  
  



• *Half-marathon: 13.1 miles

  
  



• *20K: 12.4 miles

  
  



• *15K: 9.3 miles

  
  



• *10K (or 10,000 meters): 6.2 miles

  
  



• *5K (or 5,000 meters): 3.1 miles

  
  



• *1,600 meters: 1 mile (4 times around a track)

  
  



• *1,500 meters: .93 miles (3 3/4 times around a track)

  
  



• *800 meters: 1/2 mile (2 times around a track)

  
  



• *400 meters: 1/4 mile (1 time around a track)

  
  



• *200 meters: 1/8 mile (1/2 time around a track)

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/translating-marathon-and-other-race-lengths.html

What Is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is the next stage in the Internet's evolution, providing the means through which everything — from computing power to computing infrastructure, applications, business processes to personal collaboration — can be delivered to you as a service wherever and whenever you need.

The “cloud” in cloud computing can be defined as the set of hardware, networks, storage, services, and interfaces that combine to deliver aspects of computing as a service. Cloud services include the delivery of software, infrastructure, and storage over the Internet (either as separate components or a complete platform) based on user demand. (See Cloud Computing Models for the lowdown on the way clouds are used.)

Cloud computing has four essential characteristics: elasticity and the ability to scale up and down, self-service provisioning and automatic deprovisioning, application programming interfaces (APIs), billing and metering of service usage in a pay-as-you-go model. (Cloud Computing Characteristics discusses these elements in detail.) This flexibility is what is attracting individuals and businesses to move to the cloud.

The world of the cloud has lots of participants:

• The end user who doesn’t have to know anything about the underlying technology.

  
  


• 
  

  Business management who needs to take responsibility for the governance of data or services living in a cloud. Cloud service providers must provide a predictable and guaranteed service level and security to all their constituents. (Find out what providers have to consider in Cloud Computing Issues.)

  
  



• The cloud service provider who is responsible for IT assets and maintenance.

  
  

Cloud computing is offered in different forms: public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds, which combine both public and private. (You can get a sense of the differences among these kinds of clouds in Deploying Public, Private, or Hybrids Clouds.)

Cloud computing can completely change the way companies use technology to service customers, partners, and suppliers. Some businesses, such as Google and Amazon, already have most of their IT resources in the cloud. They have found that it can eliminate many of the complex constraints from the traditional computing environment, including space, time, power, and cost.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-is-cloud-computing.html

Tips for Building Your Etsy Brand

An important step when trying to grow your Etsy business is creating a brand. Although your logo is part of your brand (more on that in a moment), the brand itself is a much broader concept. You can think of your brand as the image you want to project for your business. Your brand is what you're known for.

Before you begin building your brand, you need to pin down a few key pieces of information:

• The brand promise: Pinpointing your brand promise means determining what you're really selling. What does your brand promise to do? You're not selling handmade aromatherapy candles; you're selling unparalleled relaxation. That's your brand promise.

  
  



• The target market: To tailor your brand, determine whether your target customer is male or female, young or old, and single or married. Also try to establish where you target market lives, how much disposable income they have, and what level of education they have obtained.

  
  



• The competition: Identify who your competition is, what they offer, and how their products are similar to yours. This assessment can help you position your own brand in such a way that you gain an advantage.

  
  



• The brand personality: Think of your brand as being like a person. This personality creates an emotional connection with your target market. You convey your brand's personality through visual elements, such as your logo, and through its voice — that is, your tagline, item descriptions, shop announcements, and even Etsy convos.

  
  



• The unique selling proposition (USP): Every good brand has at least one characteristic that makes it different from everything else on the market. If you sell aromatherapy candle, for example, maybe your candles burn longer than other candles, or smell different, or come in super-pretty jars. Whatever special quality your candles have, that's their USP.

  
  

Do you recognize the phrase "You deserve a break today"? What about "Just do it," "Don't leave home without it," "The quicker picker-upper," or "Time to make the doughnuts"? If so, then you know the power of a tagline. Part of building your brand is composing a tagline of your own. A good tagline

• Is short, concise, specific, and (ideally) clever: The longer the tagline, the more likely people are to lose interest in it.

  
  



• Speaks to your target market: If your target market is 20-something hipsters, your tagline shouldn't use language that your grandmother favors.

  
  



• Reflects your brand's personality: If your brand is quirky, you don't want a stuffy tagline!

  
  



• Hints at your brand promise and its USP: Take the tagline for M&M's, for example: "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands" suggests that M&M's are not only super tasty, but also not messy.

  
  

Keep some points in mind as you develop your logo:

• Consider your colors: Different colors evoke different emotions and convey different ideas. For example, if you specialize in custom motorcycle gear, a baby-pink logo might not be the way to go.

  
  



• Make sure you're sending the right message: Your logo's visual style communicates something about your brand. For example, if your logo has a minimalist style, it suggests that your brand does, too. Be sure that your logo sends the message you want.

  
  



• Be original: Although it's certainly fine to look to other brands and logos for inspiration, don't try to copy — especially if the logo in question is a competitor's.

  
  

If you're not comfortable developing your logo, don't hesitate to get help. If you're on a strict budget, why not ask a friend with an artistic bent for help? Alternatively, try bartering with a professional designer.

Consider using your logo as your Etsy avatar. That way, anytime you comment in a forum or send a convo, other Etsyites see your logo.

The key to branding is infusing it in everything you do. Express your brand by using your tagline and logo on your business cards, letterhead, envelopes, postcards, packaging, and other promotional materials. Your brand also needs to permeate your Etsy shop by appearing in your shop banner and avatar. You can even communicate your brand by using your tagline and logo on your Facebook page and Twitter profile.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tips-for-building-your-etsy-brand.html

Understanding and Managing Risk in Your Project

1 of 9 in Series:
The Essentials of Managing Risk in Your Project

To manage projects effectively you need to be able to recognize and manage risk. Risk is the possibility that you may not achieve your product, schedule, or resource targets because something unexpected occurs or something planned doesn’t occur. All projects have some degree of risk because predicting the future with certainty is impossible. However, project risk is greater

• The longer your project lasts

  
  



• The longer the time is between preparing your project plan and starting the work

  
  



• The less experience you, your organization, or your team members have with similar projects

  
  



• The newer your project’s technology is

  
  

In other words, anything that can cause you either to fall short of or to exceed your established project targets, if it occurs, is considered a risk. While some approaches for analyzing and responding to both types of risks are similar, this chapter presents approaches for identifying, evaluating, and managing negative risks. In this chapter, the term risk always refers to a negative risk or threat, unless otherwise noted.

Risk management is the process of identifying possible risks, assessing their potential consequences, and then developing and implementing plans for minimizing any negative effects. Risk management can’t eliminate risks, but it offers the best chance for successfully accomplishing your project despite the uncertainties of a changing environment.

So how can you address your project’s risks? Take the following steps to determine, evaluate, and manage the risks that may affect your project:

1. Identify risks.

   
   

   Determine which aspects of your plan or project environment may change.

   
   



2. Assess the potential effects of those risks on your project.

   
   

   Consider what can happen if those aspects don’t work out the way you envision.

   
   



3. Develop plans for mitigating the effects of the risks.

   
   

   Decide how you can protect your project from the consequences of risks.

   
   



4. Monitor the status of your project’s risks throughout performance.

   
   

   Determine whether existing risks are still present, whether the likelihood of these risks is increasing or decreasing, and whether new risks are arising.

   
   



5. Inform key audiences of all risks involved with your project.

   
   

   Explain the status and potential effect of all project risks — from the initial concept to the project’s completion.

   
   

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-and-managing-risk-in-your-project.html

Applications to Help You Find a Lost Galaxy Tab

Someday you may lose your Samsung Galaxy Tab. It might be for a panic-filled few seconds, or it might be for forever. The hardware solution is to weld a heavy object to the Tab, such as a bowling ball or furnace, yet that kind of defeats the entire mobile/wireless paradigm. The software solution is to use a cell phone locator service.

Even though the Samsung Galaxy Tab isn’t a cell phone, you can use the same apps that cell phones use to help find a wayward Galaxy Tab. Those apps use the cellular signal as well as the Galaxy Tab’s GPS to help locate a missing gizmo.

Many apps available on the Android Market can help locate your Samsung Galaxy Tab. Here are some suggestions:

• Plan B from Lookout Mobile Security

  
  



• Norton Mobile Security

  
  



• Security Pro

  
  

Most of these services require that you set up a web page account to assist in locating your Samsung Galaxy Tab. They also enable services that send updates to the Internet. The updates assist in tracking your Galaxy Tab, in case it becomes lost or is stolen.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/applications-to-help-you-find-a-lost-galaxy-tab.html

How Facebook Impacts Member’s Lives

Facebook doesn’t replace real friendships — it supplements them. You can still communicate and share information with your friends without Facebook; however, it’s easier and faster to do it with Facebook. Here are some of the ways to use Facebook in your life.

• Keeping in touch with summer friends: For thousands of high school students, the best-friends-for-the-summer — who had a tendency to fade away as school and life took over — are now a thing of the past. Camp friends immediately become Facebook friends, and on Facebook, no one gets lost. Plus, it's easy to share the memories of a fun summer via Facebook Photos

  
  



• Preparing to head off to school: Whether they’re dropping off a child or an older sister or heading off themselves, people remember some form of anxiety, nervousness, or blinding fear of the unknown. Who were these people in the hallway or sharing the bathroom? Who was this so-called roommate?

  
  

  Now, college students go off to school having been introduced to their future dorm mates, roommates, and residence assistants via Facebook. Students can list their residences and easily pick out the people they’ll most likely meet on the first day, thus dulling the fear that they won’t know anyone.

  
  



• Going on blind dates: Ever been a matchmaker? Ever been embarrassed because you didn’t realize just how picky your friend was until after the date? Enter Facebook. Now, “He’s smart, funny, has a great job, lots of cool hobbies, a nice family, and nice friends” can be condensed into a Facebook message with a shared timeline. From there, both parties can decide based on the timelines — looks, interests, or the combination of all the information — whether they want to go on a date.

  
  



• Meeting people in your new city or town: When you move, whether across the country or across the world, Facebook makes it easier to connect with local people who share your interests.

  
  



• Reconnecting with old friends: No matter why you lost touch, finding people is easy on Facebook. Many recent graduates exclaim that going to a reunion is unnecessary. They already know what everyone is doing five years later; you found out from Facebook. But even for the not-so-young alums, the Find Classmates and Find Coworkers features provide a direct line to search anyone who’s on Facebook that you remember from way back (or not so way back) when.

  
  



• Keeping up with family: Facebook Photos and Video applications are two of the best ways to easily and quickly share your life with family. Because you can upload photos so quickly, they can feel as though they are present.

  
  



• Finding a job: Although finding the right job hasn’t gotten any easier with Facebook, a lot of the intermediate steps have. Asking your friends for their friends’ info is as easy as writing a note. Better yet, scan through your friends’ networks to see whether any of them are working at companies that interest you. After you receive some names, send them a Facebook message (or e-mail, whichever is most appropriate) to set up the requisite “informational coffee date.”

  
  



• Facebook for freedom: If you were watching news articles about the “Arab Spring” sweeping through the Middle East in early 2011, you would have heard frequent references to Facebook and Twitter. Young people in Egypt did a lot of their communication and coordination through Facebook. Although Facebook wasn’t the source for the revolution, it was an invaluable tool in making it successful (and helping people stay in touch with family across the world who might be at risk of violence).

  
  



• Announcing major life events: Facebook has become the fastest way to spread a wedding announcement to extended friend groups. Of course, people still call their parents and their closest friends, but everyone can find out and share in the happiness via News Feed. Congratulatory timeline posts ensue, as do copious numbers of photos with the ring tagged front and center.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-facebook-impacts-members-lives.html

Carrying Out Your Pay Per Click Marketing Plan

After you’ve decided to carry out a pay per click (PPC) marketing campaign, you need to decide where to spend your PPC budget. Given that Google provided almost 65 percent of all searches in April 2011 (according to comScore) while Bing and Yahoo! controlled another 14 and 16 percent, respectively, your PPC campaign will probably include Google and perhaps one or both of the others.

Choose your PPC venue based on where your target audience searches. According to Alexa, Google, which draws one-third of its search base internationally, has the fewest young users and the fewest without a college education.

Considering that most users are likely to browse from the workplace, Google has been an essential pathway to reach B2B customers. In the future, LinkedIn is likely to compete for this audience. The Yahoo! user profile is quite similar to Google’s, though more Yahoo! users are likely to browse from home.

The oldest demographic of users prefers Bing, which has the best conversion rates for older users, especially those over 55. Concentrated in the United States, other components of Bing’s audience are more likely to browse from school, be less well educated, and have a lower income (both of which correlate to being in school).

Although Google generates more online sales revenue than any other search engine (at least partly because of its vastly larger user base), Bing has, anecdotally, a higher conversion rate for retail and travel purchases.

Your best bet is to try the same ads and search terms on all three search engines — Bing, Yahoo!, and Google — to see which ones work better for you.

Watch your own traffic statistics and the results of your search engine optimization (SEO). The source of visitors and the terms they use for a natural search provide invaluable information about the best tactics for your PPC campaign.

PPC features change often. Now that Bing is running PPC for both itself and Yahoo!, their combined operation has become more like Google’s. Check both Google AdWords and Bing/Yahoo! Search Marketing regularly for updates.

Google offers its own chart-comparison features at Google Adwords comparison, or you can review the differences summarized in the table titled “Search Marketing Comparison of Google AdWords and Bing/Yahoo!” in Dummies.com/Webmarketing.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/carrying-out-your-pay-per-click-marketing-plan.navId-811455.html

How to Monitor Network Operations with Junos OS

Self-monitoring allows continuous feedback, capturing network-wide on down to highly granular views into device operations. This capability not only can alert you to issues, but also enables you to save a great deal of time when diagnosing network problems, as needed details are already available. You won’t lose precious troubleshooting minutes just to gather basic data that you need to analyze what the problem might be.

You can use these tools to automate network monitoring in the Junos OS:

• Real-time performance monitoring (RPM): Measures the performance of traffic as it travels between network devices so that you can continuously monitor its delay. The RPM probes can collect round-trip time minimums, averages, maximums, jitter, and other data on both a per-destination and per-application basis.

  
  



• Flow accounting: Provides a method for collecting traffic flow statistics, enabling operations teams to track utilization of links for capacity planning, security analysis, fault isolation, billing, and more. You can gather statistics on an individual physical device, logical device, interface, or subinterface.

  
  



• Health monitor: Notifies your network management system (NMS) when something requires attention. Health monitor extends the Remote Network Monitoring (RMON) alarm infrastructure of Junos OS (with minimum user configuration requirements) by providing predefined monitoring of the operating system processes and device hardware — for example, file system usage, CPU usage, and memory usage.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-monitor-network-operations-with-junos-os.html

Color Printer Profiles and Photoshop Elements 10

The final leg in a color-managed workflow within Photoshop Elements 10 is to convert color from your color workspace profile to your printer’s color profile. Basically, this conversion means that the colors you see on your monitor in your current workspace are accurately converted to the color that can be reproduced by your printer.

To print accurate color, a color profile designed for your printer and the paper you use needs to be installed on your computer.

You can manage color in Photoshop Elements in three ways when it comes time to print your files:

• Printer Manages Colors. This method permits your desktop color printer to decide which profile to use when you print your photo. Your printer makes this decision according to the paper you select.

  
  

  If you choose Epson Premium Glossy Photo Paper, for example, your printer chooses the profile that goes along with that particular paper. If you choose another paper, your printer chooses a different color profile. This method is all automatic, and color profile selection is made when you print your file.

  
  



• Photoshop Elements Manages Color. When you make this choice, color management is taken out of the hands of your printer and is controlled by Elements. You must choose a color profile after making this choice. If color profiles are installed by your printer, you can choose a color profile from the list of profiles that match your printer and the paper source.

  
  



• No Color Management. You use this choice if you have a color profile embedded in one of your pictures. You’ll probably rarely use this option. Unless you know how to embed profiles or receive files with embedded profiles from other users, don’t make this choice in the Print dialog box. Very few Elements users work with files with embedded profiles.

  
  

Each of these three options requires you to decide how color is managed. You make choices about whether to color-manage your output. These selections are unique to the Print dialog box and more specifically to the More Options dialog box for your individual printer.

Color profiles are also dependent upon the ink being used, and refilling cartridges with generic ink can (in some cases) result in colors shifting. Similarly, if the nozzles aren't clean and delivering ink consistently, you may see very strange results.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/color-printer-profiles-and-photoshop-elements-10.html

Table Cell Color in Adobe CS5 Dreamweaver

You can change colors of a single cell, multiple cells, or an entire row in Adobe Creative Suite 5 (Adobe CS5) Dreamweaver. You can use either standard HTML attributes or use CSS rules to apply color to any portion of a table, but the easiest way is to use the Property inspector to assign a background color.

1. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac) anywhere within a cell to select that cell.

   
   

   You can continue to add cells to your selection by keeping the key pressed and clicking more cells.

   
   



2. In the Property inspector, make sure that HTML view is selected (click the HTML tab on the left edge of the panel) and locate the Bg Color Picker.

   
   



3. Assign color to cells by following one of these methods:

   
   
   
   

   • Click the swatch to the right of Bg and select a color from the Color Picker that appears. Remember that you can choose from additional color models by clicking the palette menu in the upper right corner of the Color Picker.

     
     
   
   

   • If you know the hexadecimal number of your color, you can type it in the text field next to the Bg color swatch.

     
     
   
   

   • Select a color from any element you can see onscreen by clicking the color fill box to the right of Bg and then moving the Eyedropper tool over any color on your screen that you want the cell color to pick up. Click when the color appears in the Color Picker preview window.

     
     
   
   
   
   



4. The color is applied as a background to the selected cells.

   
   

In addition to using the Property inspector, you can include background color settings in a new CSS rule and apply them to an entire table, cell, or row with the Property inspector.

1. Create a CSS Class rule from either the Property inspector or the CSS Styles pane.

   
   



2. Under the Background category in the CSS Rule Definition dialog box, assign a color to the Background color property and then click OK.

   
   



3. Select the table or cell you want to apply the new Class style to.

   
   



4. Assign the class by using the Class drop-down list in the Property inspector.

   
   

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/table-cell-color-in-adobe-cs5-dreamweaver.html

Avoid Dangerous Herbs

Here are some of the more common herbs to be wary of, including a couple that can “worke eternal sleepe.” If you choose to grow these herbs, be sure to carefully label each herb and plant them away from culinary herbs and edible crops. Avoid planting them if you have pets or young children that may be tempted to nibble them.

• Aconite (Aconitum spp.): This herb, also known as monkshood and wolfsbane, deserves a skull-and-crossbones; it’s highly poisonous.

  
  



• Comfrey (Symphytum officinale): Don't take internally. Laboratory research indicates that comfrey, even in low concentrations, is carcinogenic in rats.

  
  



• Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna): In folklore, this one is a favorite ingredient of witches’ brews. The common name says it all.

  
  



• Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea): The source of a powerful heart medication, foxglove can cause convulsions and even death if used improperly.

  
  



• Hellebore: Both American false hellebore (Veratrum viride) and black hellebore (Helleborus niger) are dangerous characters; they are major-league skin irritants and can be fatal if ingested.

  
  



• Hemlock (Contium maculatum): Also known as poison hemlock. Think nausea, paralysis, and death.

  
  



• Pokeweed (Phytolacca spp.): All parts of mature plants, including their pretty purple berries, are toxic.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/avoid-dangerous-herbs.html

Remembering That We Are Responsible for Our Feelings

We are each responsible for our own feelings. People react in different ways to the same events, so our reactions are not inevitable – they are the result of our history and tendencies. Other people do not make us feel particular emotions (although they may intend or try to).

Think of a recent emotional reaction that you didn’t like and reflect on it:

• If you had a different reaction what kind of person would you be?

  
  



• If you had a different reaction (think of one or two) how would the other person react to you and then what would happen?

  
  



• Trace your original emotional reaction back to the earliest experience of it that you can remember and write about that event and ask yourself the previous two questions again.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/remembering-that-we-are-responsible-for-our-feelin.html

How to Estimate Portion Sizes for a Low-Carb Diet

A low-carb diet relies on knowing portion sizes to help you eat the proper quantities of the proper foods. To determine the number of low-carb servings you're eating, you need to estimate portion sizes. You may be surprised to see that normal portion sizes are a lot smaller than you think, as the comparisons in the following table show:

Measurement	Size
1/2 cup	About the size of a cupcake wrapper
1 cup	About the size of a tight fist or a tennis ball
1 medium fruit	About the size of a tight fist or tennis ball
1 medium potato	About the size of a computer mouse
1 ounce cheese	About the size of your thumb or a pair of dice
3 ounces meat	About the size of the palm of a woman's hand or a deck of cards
2 tablespoons reduced-fat salad dressing	About the size of a Ping-Pong ball
1 teaspoon oil or butter	About the size of the tip of a thumb

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-estimate-portion-sizes-for-a-lowcarb-diet.navId-323468.html

Zero-Based Budgeting with QuickBooks 2012

Zero-based budgeting is a very useful and common budgeting tactic that you should get to know before working with QuickBooks 2012. Zero-based budgeting is the opposite of top-line budgeting. A zero-based budget works from the bottom up.

A zero-based budget starts with individual revenue, expense, asset, liability, and owner’s equity accounts. It examines a specific account — postage expense, for example — and then tries to apply common sense and logic for coming up with a good postage expense budget amount.

For example, the budgeter may guess that the firm will send out 1,000 letters over the year and that the average postage per letter will equal $0.50. In this case, the zero-based budgeting approach determines that postage expense for the coming year will probably equal $500. The zero-based budgeter calculates this amount by taking 1,000 letters and multiplying this amount by $0.50 postage cost per letter.

The advantage of zero-based budgeting is that it tends to fix poorly figured, previously budgeted amounts. It doesn’t simply perpetuate bad budgeting decisions of the past. New budgeted amounts are based on the application of common sense and simple arithmetic; the combination of these two items often produces pretty good numbers. That’s really cool.

Another neat feature of zero-based budgeting is that it makes people who benefit from or use some budgeted amount responsible for that budgeted amount. For example, if some manager spent $50,000 on travel expense last year, top-line budgeting states that she gets to spend $50,000 this year.

Zero-line budgeting, in contrast, makes the manager prove through the application of common sense and simple arithmetic that $50,000 of travel expense is reasonable for this year.

However, zero-based budgeting isn’t perfect; it possesses a weakness in that it’s easy for budgeters to forget numbers or make calculation errors. Previously, the example was used of a budgeter guessing that postage expense for the coming year will be $500. That estimate comes from a guess about the number of letters sent for a year (1,000) and an estimate of the average postage expense spent on each letter ($0.50).

If either of those numbers is wrong, or if (heaven forbid) the budgeter incorrectly multiplies the one number by the other, the postage expense budget number is wrong. If the budgeter is budgeting hundreds or even thousands of budgeted amounts, she will undoubtedly make a few errors in the process. And she probably won’t be able to fix or find those errors because of the volume of budgeted amounts.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/zerobased-budgeting-with-quickbooks-2012.html

M&A Culture Transition: Degree of Urgency

For most M&A deals, culture is the biggest issue. No two companies have the same business culture, and geographic differences can exacerbate those cultural discrepancies. A common cultural difference that often pops up as two companies attempt to integrate is urgency — in other words, the speed at which people accomplish tasks.

Large, urban areas tend to have a greater sense of urgency about completing tasks. They get things done today. Rural areas often have a slower pace and are more accustomed to taking care of jobs tomorrow; those people may greet your query about an uncompleted task with a befuddled “Oh, you were serious about that?”

Another element in the today-versus-tomorrow issue may lie outside geographical boundaries, in the difference between ownership styles. Owners of privately held companies often aren’t as forceful or assertive as owners or executives of larger, public companies.

The laid-back culture of the pre-sale owner may be diametrically opposed to the high-charged, over-caffeinated culture of the new owner, and this difference can cause miscommunication and problems.

If faced with an acquired staff’s more laid-back view of urgency, don’t be surprised by an initial blasé attitude. But stick to your guns. Don’t change your expectations. People will figure out quickly that the new owner expects things done differently, namely today.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/ma-culture-transition-degree-of-urgency.html

Damaging Food Additives You're Likely to Find in Your Groceries

In total, food companies add 2,800 substances to their products in an effort to save a buck, boost sales, and ensure that their food will last on the store shelves for a very long time. Many of the toxins that are intentionally added to processed foods are dangerous or detrimental to consumers' health.

Here's a snapshot of what you may find in your food:

• Aspartame: One of the more toxic substances we are exposed to nearly every day, aspartame is a blend of toxic chemicals that’s used as a sugar substitute in processed foods. You can find it in everything from diet soft drinks to chewing gum. It took the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 16 years to approve aspartame, and now millions of pounds of it are added to our food each year.

  
  

  Aspartame can act as an excitotoxin — a chemical that causes nerve cells to fire rapidly. Some studies have shown that excitotoxins cause nerve cells to fire so unusually fast that they do themselves irreparable harm.

  
  

  This substance can cause dizziness, visual impairment, disorientation, muscle aches, numbness, and more. At 86 degrees Fahrenheit, aspartame breaks down into wood alcohol, formaldehyde, and then formic acid — all toxic. Some women also report that aspartame worsens the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

  
  

  Aspartame is often used as a sugar substitute in so-called “diet foods,” even though no conclusive evidence links aspartame (or any other sugar substitute, for that matter) to weight loss.

  
  



• BHT: You don’t need to know the long chemical name that is abbreviated as BHT, but you do need to know that it’s a common additive in many processed foods. In many ways the jury is still out on BHT, but the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is an arm of the World Health Organization, considers BHT to be a possible carcinogen.

  
  



• High fructose corn syrup: This is a big one. High fructose corn syrup has become the primary sweetener in all kinds of foods, from soft drinks to cereals. You’d have a hard time walking more than a foot down any grocery store aisle before running into a food that includes it.

  
  

  Unfortunately, high fructose corn syrup contains mercury, which is one of the worst toxins for humans. This chemical form of fructose has also been linked to tooth decay, migraines, diabetes, obesity, and cancer.

  
  



• Monosodium glutamate (MSG): A huge range of processed foods include MSG — an additive that enhances food taste. MSG is an excitotoxin that can cause symptoms like nausea, cramps, dizziness, rash, heart palpitations, numbness, and even mood swings and confusion.

  
  



• Olestra: Olestra is essentially a fake fat. It’s used in place of fat in processed foods to make the nutritional information look a little better for people who are trying to lose a few pounds (although no evidence proves it can help with dieting).

  
  

  How does it work? Simple: Olestra molecules are too big for our digestive systems to absorb, so this substance just moves on down the line instead of ending up in our bodies like normal fats. But here’s the problem: You must have some real fats in your diet for you to absorb key vitamins like A, D, E, and K, not to mention carotenoids (nutrients that protect us from cancer).

  
  



• Sodium benzoate: This substance is a food preservative and a common additive in soft drinks. Also known as benzoic acid, it is thought to form benzene in soft drinks, especially when it can combine with vitamin C. Benzene is a very nasty toxin and a known carcinogen.

  
  



• Splenda: Splenda is another artificial sweetener that can cause toxic effects. It’s made by adding chlorine to a natural sugar. The result is a material in the same chemical family as DDT and chlordane — two extremely toxic substances. Studies conducted on animals have shown Splenda to cause swelling and damage to the liver in moderate doses, as well as tumors in some animals.

  
  

When food additives are evaluated to figure out how toxic they can be for the human body, they’re tested one at a time. This is a real problem because just like most other toxic situations, the combination of two or more food additives can multiply the toxic effects of all the additives. In other words, the food additive combo can be more toxic than the sum of its parts!

For example, if certain blue food colorings are added to MSG, the toxic effect is seven times as potent as it would be if the additives were kept separate. And remember than many processed foods contain several additives, so it’s not uncommon to find a toxic mix in a single product.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/damaging-food-additives-youre-likely-to-find-in-yo.html