Use Your Strategic Plan to Foster Your Competitive Advantages

Developing competitive advantages and strategic plans isn’t always easy or straightforward. For many, a competitive advantage is developed by nurturing a strength over time. This process turns the activity or intangible asset into something that’s difficult to copy. If you have a strength that can help you break away from your competition, spend your energy and resources to develop it further.

Here are some great ways to break away from the pack:

• Consistency: One of the hardest and best advantages is the ability to deliver the same product or service time after time after time. To do so, a company must have rock-solid processes that deliver consistency no matter what.

  
  

  Think about Starbucks. Everyone says you can get the same cup of coffee in San Francisco as you can in Chang Mai, Thailand, and it’s true. Starbucks delivers high-quality service with consistency time after time, which is an amazing core competency.

  
  

  In the product world, this consistency tends to be easier, but in the service world, people are involved every step of the way. And by nature, businesses are inconsistent. Putting consistency into your delivery can be a solid core competency. The consistency of Starbucks lets it introduce new products to deliver coffee to the consumer.

  
  



• Brand development: Growing and developing your brand over time can be a core competency worth more than all the past years’ marketing budgets combined. Developing your brand happens by reinforcing your image in the marketplace through everything you do.

  
  

  Think Kleenex. You don’t say, “Hand me a soft facial tissue”; you say, “Hand me a Kleenex,” even if the brand is something else. Coca-cola is similar. Many people refer to all soda products as Coke. Those brands have become the product type they represent.

  
  



• Depth of knowledge: Consider how much knowledge you gain in your business year after year, sometimes called tribal knowledge. The longer you’re in business, the more that tribal knowledge grows. But it only feeds on itself if you capture your experiences in a systematic way. Just as employees can be a key strength, they can also be a key weakness if they move on without leaving the knowledge with the tribe.

  
  



• Continued innovation and improvement: Some organizations excel at innovation whereas others struggle. Innovation is the ability to develop products and services that your market wants better and faster than your competitors.

  
  

  Intuit, with its Quicken and QuickBooks products, is a company that fosters continuous improvement based on customer feedback. Improvement for improvement’s sake is a black hole. Quicken product sales show how this core competency can be worth the time it takes to develop it. Intuit’s software success allows it to cross sell mortgages and other financial services to the customer base.

  
  



• Longevity: The pure staying power of a company over time can be a testament to its strength. Nurturing longevity is difficult but something that can be leveraged if you have it. Family businesses are great examples of firms that can use their market history as a core competency.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/use-your-strategic-plan-to-foster-your-competitive.html

M&A Due Diligence: Debt and Taxes

Buyers, unsurprisingly, want to ensure that the finances are as they expected when they proposed the M&A deal. The following are the areas that the Buyer should thoroughly examine as part of due diligence:

M&A due diligence: Debt and financial dealings

A wise Buyer needs to fully understand the Seller’s financial dealings for two basic reasons. First, Buyer wants to know what she’s getting herself into. In other words, are any hidden or unforeseen problems with a creditor on the horizon? Second, she wants to understand the company’s ability to garner financing. Required information may include

• The rundown of all promissory notes, commercial paper, loan or credit agreements, letters of credit, and financial surety/performance bonds or similar credit support devices

  
  



• Listing of all security agreements, pledge agreements, mortgages, and other agreements where another company has a claim to Seller’s assets

  
  



• Listing of any compliance certificates, including borrowing base certificates and covenant compliance calculations

  
  



• Schedule and details of any existing defaults under credit arrangements and any events that, with the giving of notice or the passage of time, will become such a default

  
  

Buyers should retain a capable and experienced accounting and auditing firm to conduct a thorough investigation of Seller’s financial dealings.

M&A due diligence: Taxes

Not surprisingly, taxes are a major concern for any Buyer. Taxes run the gamut from income taxes to payroll taxes to sales taxes. Paying taxes drives everyone mad; not paying taxes may send you to jail! The following list outlines tax information Buyers should review during due diligence:

• All federal, state, local, and foreign tax returns

  
  



• State sales tax returns

  
  



• All employment tax filings

  
  



• Real estate and property tax filings

  
  



• Copies of any tax liens

  
  



• Listing and description of any pending or threatened disputes regarding tax matters

  
  

Nonpayment of any kind of tax is serious, of course, but Buyers should be especially on guard for a Seller who has not made FICA payments. Nonpayment of payroll taxes is a major warning sign for any Buyer: When a company stops making FICA payments, the owners or executives can face jail time.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/ma-due-diligence-debt-and-taxes.html

How to Prevent Internal Fraud: Dividing Staff Responsibilities

Your primary protection against internal fraud in your business is properly dividing staff responsibilities when the flow of business cash is involved. Many business people start their operations by carefully hiring people they think they can trust. Unfortunately, those who have learned the truth are the ones who put too much trust in just one employee.

Basically, you should never have one person handle more than one of the following tasks:

• Bookkeeping: Involves reviewing and entering all transactions into the company’s books. The bookkeeper makes sure that transactions are accurate, valid, appropriate, and have the proper authorization.

  
  

  For example, if a transaction requires paying a vendor, the bookkeeper makes sure the charges are accurate and that someone with proper authority has approved the payment. The bookkeeper can review documentation of cash receipts and the overnight deposits taken to the bank, but he or she shouldn’t be the person who actually makes the deposit.

  
  

  Also, if the bookkeeper is responsible for handling payments from external parties, such as customers or vendors, he or she shouldn’t be the one to enter those transactions in the books.

  
  



• Authorization: Involves being the manager or managers delegated to authorize expenditures for their departments. You may decide that transactions over a certain amount must have two or more authorizations before checks can be sent to pay a bill.

  
  

  Authorization levels should be clearly spelled out and followed by all, even the owner or president of the company. As owner, you set the tone for how the rest of the office operates; if you take shortcuts, you set a bad example and undermine the system you put in place.

  
  



• Money-handling: Involves direct contact with incoming cash or revenue, whether check, credit card, or store credit transactions, as well as outgoing cash flow. The person who handles money directly, such as a cashier, shouldn’t be the one who prepares and makes bank deposits.

  
  

  Likewise, the person writing checks to pay company bills shouldn’t be authorized to sign those checks; to be safe, one person should prepare the checks based on authorized documentation, and a second person should sign those checks after reviewing the authorized documentation.

  
  

  When setting up your cash-handling systems, try to think like an embezzler to figure out ways someone could take advantage of a system.

  
  



• Financial report preparation and analysis: Involves the actual preparation of the financial reports and any analysis of those reports. Financial reports should be prepared by someone who’s not involved in the day-to-day entering of transactions in the books.

  
  

  For most small businesses, the bookkeeper turns over the raw reports from the computerized accounting system to an outside accountant who reviews the materials and prepares the financial reports. In addition, he or she does a financial analysis of the business activity results for the previous accounting period.

  
  

If you are just starting up a small business, you may not have enough staff to separate all these duties. Until you do have that capability, be sure to stay heavily involved in the inflow and outflow of cash in your business by following these guidelines:

• Open your business’s bank statements every month, and keep a close watch on the transactions. Someone else can be given the responsibility to prove out the statement, but you should still keep an eye on the transactions listed.

  
  



• Periodically look at your business check voucher system to be sure there aren’t missing checks. A bookkeeper who knows you periodically check the books is less likely to find an opportunity for theft or embezzlement. If you find that a check or page of checks is missing, act quickly to find out if the checks were used legitimately. If you can’t find the answer, call your bank and put a stop on the missing check numbers.

  
  



• Periodically observe cash handling by your cashiers and managers to be sure they’re following the rules you’ve established. It’s known as management by walking around — the more often you’re out there, the less likely you are to be a victim of employee theft and fraud.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-prevent-internal-fraud-dividing-staff-respo.html

Dealing with Multiple Gamers on Xbox

Each member of your family can have his or her own profile on the Xbox 360. This way, players can keep their own scores, game saves, and Xbox Live information separate.

Players can't share an Xbox Live Gold account at the same time. If you want to play on Xbox Live at the same time, you probably need more Gold accounts (unless you're playing a game that allows multiple players on the same home console).

Adding profiles

To create a new profile, press the Guide button in the middle of the controller to bring up a Navigation blade that contains

• Your gamer score

• Your message center

• A music interface that lets you play background music

You can get to this system navigation blade at any time — whether you're playing a game, watching a DVD, or listening to music — by pressing the Xbox 360 Guide button in the middle of the controller.

To create a new Xbox 360 profile, follow these steps:

1. Press X.

You're prompted to confirm your decision to sign out at the Sign Out blade.

2. At the confirmation screen, you can select either

• Yes, sign out (this completes the sign out process)

• No, don't sign out (this returns you to the Xbox 360 Dashboard)

After confirming that you want to sign out, return to the Guide navigation page, where you can

• Sign in again with any of the profiles that will automatically be found on the hard drive

• Create New Profile

• Recover a gamertag from Xbox Live

If you've created a profile with an associated Xbox Live account and you lose that profile, you might need to recover it. You might lose a profile if you're carrying it on a memory unit, for example.

3. Use the left analog stick (or direction pad) to scroll down to the Create Gamer Profile option and then press A.

The Select a Device blade appears, where you can

• Select your hard drive (if you have one attached)

• Select your memory unit (if you have one attached)

This is where the gamer profile is saved.

4. Scroll to your chosen storage device and press A.

The gamer profile blade appears.

5. Type a name for the new profile and then select Done.

6. Press A to get to the Save Gamer Profile screen.

On the Save Gamer Profile screen, you can also

• Join Xbox Live.

• Customize the profile.

7. Choose Done and press A.

The new Gamer Profile is saved.

Switching profiles

You can switch your offline and Xbox Live profiles on your Xbox 360 at any time. Follow these steps:

1. Press the Guide button in the middle of the controller.

This opens your profile blade, where you can view your current profile gamer score, see which friends are online, and set personal settings.

2. Press X to switch your profile.

You will be asked if you want to sign out; signing out will lose any unsaved progress in the game you are playing. You have two options:

• Yes, sign out

• No, don't sign out

3. Use the left analog stick or direction pad to scroll up to "Yes, sign out" and then press A.

4. Select Sign In at the top of the blade and press A.

The Sign In screen lists the gamer profiles saved on your Xbox 360.

You can also use the Guide screen to

• Create New Profile

• Recover Gamertag from Xbox Live

• Select Personal Settings

5. Use the left analog stick or direction pad to scroll to the profile you want to use and then press A.

At this screen you can also

• Press Y to create a new profile

• Press X to recover a gamertag

You will be signed in with that profile's settings.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/dealing-with-multiple-gamers-on-xbox.html

Confirming That Your Dream Career Won't Be a Nightmare

A career idea has captured your attention. You know something about this potential career from visiting Web sites, doing informational interviews, and reading about the work, but you still don't know whether it's the right career for you. Now is the best time to test the waters to discover all you can about the work you're considering.

Taking a relevant class or two

Early in your exploration, look for a short course that can give you a taste of your potential career. Your goal is not to get fully trained in the field at this point, but to explore whether the field is a good fit for you.

Pick up class schedules for local community colleges, universities with local satellite campuses, and specialty schools in your area or search the Internet for online courses or teleclasses.

As you take the course, notice whether you feel excited by the material or bored. If you're excited, pay special attention to what aspects of the course intrigue you most. If you're bored, is it because the class is too elementary or because the topic isn't as interesting as you thought? Is there a related topic that might be more interesting?

If you run across a full-degree or certification program, make note of it but don't commit to it — even if it looks like a perfect match. Starting a training program before you've confirmed your direction limits your career investigation and your future career choices.

Searching for online sources of information

As you search the Internet for informative Web sites about your target career, keep your eyes open for relevant online newsletters, discussion boards, and blogs that can tell you more about your possible career and profession.

Each of these resources is free and takes just a moment of your time to read. In return, you gain access to hot topics within the field, key events for professionals like yourself, crucial issues that may impact how you work, new techniques and perspectives you can incorporate into your work, and key players in the field.

Immersing yourself in trade journals

Reading a trade journal gives you a window into the priorities, politics, profession-specific language, and humor associated with the industry or profession. If elements of these areas are counter to your interests, pay attention! Now is the time to become aware of a lack of fit if there is one.

Your reading also gives you a synopsis of current and past events, upcoming special events, and key issues that are impacting the profession. Gaining an accurate understanding of the state of the profession is crucial to your ultimate comfort as you step into the career.

Interacting with people in the field

As you consider becoming an active member of a profession, find ways to interact with others in the profession. Locate a local chapter of a key professional association. Attending these meetings allows you to get a sense of how it feels to be in the company of those in your target profession. You can learn a lot by listening, observing, and interacting with others in the community. In the process, you enrich your understanding of the career, begin building a thriving network, learn from more experienced members, hear about local job leads, and enhance your visibility within the profession.

Attending a professional conference

A professional conference can be a great place to get a sense of a profession while building your skills. As you review conference brochures that come across your desk at work, evaluate how the conference could give you a better understanding of your target career. This opportunity is especially likely if your new career is related to your current position.

If your target career isn't related to your current career, your inbox probably isn't going to deliver the information you need to find a conference that's relevant to your target career. Instead, turn to trade journals, association Web sites, professional discussion groups, or your informational interview contacts to identify possible conferences that meet your needs. Keep your eye out for regional conferences as well as national or international opportunities.

Observing someone on the job

Watching someone interacting with clients, co-workers, suppliers, and management and doing the tasks you might perform gives you a great opportunity to evaluate how well that potential career fits you and your needs.

Before you ask your contacts if you can shadow them for a couple hours or a day, think through what you hope to gain from the experience. Make a list of what you want to look for during the observation. Build in time at the beginning of the appointment to determine the length of your observation time, whether you can take notes about what you see, and the appropriate time to ask questions — for example, on the spot or during a break.

Getting hands-on experience

To get some hands-on experience with your new profession (and strengthen job-relevant skills while you're at it), search for a way to work on a project that's relevant to you. You might consider volunteering to work on a relevant project or committee within a nonprofit, taking a part-time job, getting an internship, or helping a friend with a project. This extra project doesn't necessarily need to be a long-term commitment. Your goal is to see how it feels to engage in this sort of work.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/confirming-that-your-dream-career-wont-be-a-nightm.html

How to Access Common File Commands in Excel 2007

Excel 2007 is an excellent tool for building spreadsheets, or worksheets as Excel calls them. Excel 2007 offers hot keys as well as the command Ribbon introduced in Office 2007 to help you create a new spreadsheet, open an old one, save changes to the one you’re working in, or accomplish any command typically available in a File menu. The following table tells you how to access the most common file functions:

Hot Key	Excel Ribbon Command	Function
Alt+F,N	Microsoft Office Button | New	Displays the New Workbook dialog box, where you can open a blank workbook or one from a template
Alt+F,O	Microsoft Office Button | Open	Displays the Open dialog box, where you can select a new Excel workbook to open for editing or printing
Alt+F,S	Microsoft Office Button | Save	Saves changes to a workbook. When you first select this command for a new workbook, Excel displays the Save As dialog box
Alt+F,A	Microsoft Office Button | Save As	Display the Save As dialog box where you can modify the filename, location where the file is saved, and format that the file is saved in
Alt+F,P	Microsoft Office Button | Print	Displays the Print dialog box to send the current worksheet, workbook, or cell selection to the printer
Alt+F,D	Microsoft Office Button | Send	Sends the current workbook as an e-mail attachment or fax it using Internet Fax
Alt+F,C	Microsoft Office Button | Close	Closes the current workbook without exiting Excel
Alt+F,I	Microsoft Office Button | Excel Options	Displays the Excel Options dialog box where you can change default program settings and modify the buttons on the Quick Access toolbar
Alt+F,X	Microsoft Office Button | Exit Excel	Quits the Excel program and closes all open workbooks after prompting you to save them

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-access-common-file-commands-in-excel-2007.html

Network Administration: Disaster Types

One of the first steps in developing a business continuity plan (BCP) is to assess the risk of the various types of disasters that may affect your organization. Weigh the likelihood of a disaster happening with the severity of the impact that the disaster would have.

Environmental disasters

Environmental disasters are what most people think of first when they think of disaster recovery for networks. Some types of environmental disasters are regional. Others can happen pretty much anywhere.

• Fire: Fire is probably the first disaster that most people think of when they consider disaster planning. Fires can be caused by unsafe conditions; carelessness, such as electrical wiring that isn’t up to code; natural causes, such as lightning strikes; or arson.

  
  



• Earthquakes: Not only can earthquakes cause structural damage to your building, but they can also disrupt the delivery of key services and utilities, such as water and power. Serious earthquakes are rare and unpredictable, but some areas experience them with more regularity than others. If your business is located in an area known for earthquakes, your BCP should consider how your company would deal with a devastating earthquake.

  
  



• Weather: Weather disasters can cause major disruption to your business. Moderate weather may close transportation systems so that your employees can’t get to work. Severe weather may damage your building or interrupt delivery of services, such as electricity and water.

  
  



• Water: Flooding can wreak havoc with electrical equipment, such as computers. If floodwaters get into your computer room, chances are good that the computer equipment will be totally destroyed. Flooding can be caused not only by bad weather but also by burst pipes or malfunctioning sprinklers.

  
  



• Lightning: Lightning storms can cause electrical damage to your computer and other electronic equipment from lightning strikes as well as surges in the local power supply.

  
  

Deliberate disasters

Some disasters are the result of deliberate actions by others. For example

• Intentional damage: Vandalism or arson may damage or destroy your facilities or your computer systems. The vandalism or arson may be targeted at you specifically, by a disgruntled employee or customer, or it may be random. Either way, the effect is the same.

  
  

  Don’t neglect the possibility of sabotage. A disgruntled employee who gets hold of an administrator’s account and password can do all sorts of nasty things to your network.

  
  



• Theft: Theft is always a possibility. You may come to work someday to find that your servers or other computer equipment have been stolen.

  
  



• Terrorism: No matter where you live in the world, the possibility of a terrorist attack is real.

  
  

Disruption of services

You may not realize just how much your business depends on the delivery of services and utilities. A BCP should take into consideration how you will deal with the loss of certain services:

• No juice: Electrical power is crucial for computers and other types of equipment. Electrical outages are not uncommon, but the technology to deal with them is readily available. UPS (uninterruptible power supply) equipment is reliable and inexpensive.

  
  



• No communications: Communication connections can be disrupted by many causes. For example, road construction can cut through the phone lines, completely cutting off our phone services, including Internet connections.

  
  



• No water: An interruption in the water supply may not shut down your computers, but it can disrupt your business by forcing you to close your facility until the water supply is reestablished.

  
  

Equipment failure

Modern companies depend on many different types of equipment for their daily operations. The failure of any of these key systems can disrupt business until the systems are repaired:

• Computer equipment failure can obviously affect business operations.

  
  



• Air-conditioning systems are crucial to regulate temperatures, especially in computer rooms. Computer equipment can be damaged if the temperature climbs too high.

  
  



• Elevators, automatic doors, and other equipment may also be necessary for your business.

  
  

Other disaster

You should assess many other potential disasters. Here are just a few:

• Labor disputes

  
  



• Loss of key staff because of resignation, injury, sickness, or death

  
  



• Workplace violence

  
  



• Public health issues, such as epidemics, mold infestations, and so on

  
  



• Loss of a key supplier

  
  



• Nearby disaster, such as a fire or police action across the street that results in your business being temporarily blocked off

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/network-administration-disaster-types.html

How to Save Money with a Destination Wedding

6 of 10 in Series:
The Essentials of Budget Weddings

To most people, having a destination wedding means going to Mexico or the Caribbean. These are certainly popular wedding destinations, and they can be cost-effective. But you can have a destination wedding virtually anywhere. Consider a Great Camp in the Adirondacks, a ski lodge in Aspen, a golf resort in Arizona, or even a glitzy Vegas wedding.

What’s the appeal of traveling long distances to a site you’ll likely book without ever visiting in person and trusting the arrangements to a coordinator you’ve never met? Two words: romance and value. What better way to celebrate your own personal fairy tale than against the exotic backdrop of majestic mountains or azure seas? And if you can get both your wedding and your honeymoon for the price of one, what’s not to like?

Destination weddings sound great, but you have to remember that there are trade-offs to a romantic and cost-effective destination wedding. Consider the following:

• Financial and time constraints likely will severely curtail your guest list; many of your friends and relatives simply won’t have the money or time to attend your wedding.

  
  



• If you like to be in charge of arrangements, trying to pull all the details together from hundreds or thousands of miles away can be frustrating and time-consuming.

  
  



• If you imagine hosting an American-style wedding and reception in a foreign country, you’ll probably be disappointed in the results (or appalled at the extra expense).

  
  

Destination Weddings For Dummies by Susan Breslow Sardone takes you step by step through planning a destination wedding virtually anywhere in the world on nearly any budget. Like any wedding, a destination event can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars. But you can save a ton of money by shopping around and being flexible with your time frame.

As destination weddings become more popular, venues fill up faster and faster; many are booked more than a year in advance. To get the venue you want for the dates you want, start your search early — ideally 12 to 18 months before your wedding.

If you have your heart set on a destination that fills up quickly and is more expensive than you’d like, schedule your wedding for the off-season to save money. For example, airfares and hotel rates are at their highest in the Caribbean from November to April, but both often are steeply discounted after April 15. In Las Vegas, March and October are the months when conventions descend on Sin City, jacking up airfares and hotel rates.

Resorts and cruises that specialize in destination weddings often give decent discounts when you reserve a minimum number of rooms for your guests. Add those discounts to the destination’s slow period, and you can reap significant savings over high-season prices.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-save-money-with-a-destination-wedding.html

Calculating the Open Rate for Your E-Mail Marketing Campaign

Open rate is one of the e-mail marketing industry’s most misleading terms. It actually measures the number of specific interactions with an e-mail server after the e-mail is sent expressed as a percentage of non-bounce total. Your e-mail isn’t counted as an open until one of the following interactions occurs:

• The recipient enables the images in your e-mail to display either in the preview pane or in a full view of the e-mail.

  
  



• The recipient clicks a link in the e-mail.

  
  

E-mail marketing programs (EMPs) calculate open rate by taking the number of tracked opens and dividing it by your non-bounce total; you can do the same:

1. 1.Divide the total number of tracked opens by the non-bounce total to get opens per e-mail assumed delivered.

   
   

   For example, if 80 of 100 e-mails you send don’t bounce, and 20 of them are tracked as opened, you received 0.25 opens per e-mail.

   
   



2. Multiply the number of opens per e-mail by 100 to get the open rate as a percentage.

   
   

   For example, the open rate for 0.25 opens per e-mail is 25 percent.

   
   

You calculate your open rate by using your non-bounce rate instead of the total e-mails sent because your open rate indicates the strength of your e-mail’s identity and content apart from the strength of your deliverability. Because e-mails that aren’t delivered can’t possibly be opened, they’re excluded from your open-rate calculation.

Because the default setting on most e-mail programs is to block images until the user clicks to enable them, some people scan through e-mails without enabling images at all. In such cases, the true number of e-mails that your audience views is probably higher than your e-mail tracking report’s open rate indicates.

Plain, text-only e-mails without any links or images are not trackable unless your audience replies to them directly. EMPs insert a blank image in every e-mail to ensure that open tracking is possible. It’s another great reason to use an EMP for your marketing e-mails.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/calculating-the-open-rate-for-your-email-marketing.html

Bookkeeping and Its Basic Purpose

2 of 12 in Series:
The Essentials of Accounting Basics

Bookkeeping, when done properly, gives you an excellent gauge of how well your business is doing. Bookkeeping also provides financial information throughout the year so you can test the success of your business strategies and make course corrections to ensure that you reach your year-end profit goals.

Bookkeeping can become your best system for managing your financial assets and testing your business strategies, so don’t shortchange it. Take the time to develop your bookkeeping system with your accountant before you even open your business’s doors and make your first sale.

Choosing your accounting method

The two basic accounting methods you have to choose from are cash-basis accounting (also called just cash accounting) and accrual accounting. The key difference between these two accounting methods is the point at which you record sales and purchases in your books:

• If you use cash accounting, you record transactions only when cash changes hands. For example, you don’t record a purchase from a vendor until you actually lay out the cash to the vendor.

  
  



• If you use accrual accounting, you record a transaction when it’s completed, even if cash doesn’t change hands. For example, you record a purchase from a vendor when you receive the products, and you also record the future debt in an account called Accounts Payable.

  
  

Understanding assets, liabilities, and equity

Every business has three key financial parts that must be kept in balance:

• Assets include everything the company owns, such as cash, inventory, buildings, equipment, and vehicles.

  
  



• Liabilities include everything the company owes to others, such as vendor bills, credit card balances, and bank loans.

  
  



• Equity includes the claims owners have on the assets based on their portion of ownership in the company.

  
  

The formula for keeping your books in balance involves these three elements:

Assets = Liabilities + Equity

Introducing debits and credits

To keep the books for your business, you need to revise your thinking about two common financial terms: debits and credits. Most non-bookkeepers and non-accountants think of debits as subtractions from their bank accounts. The opposite is true with credits — people usually see these as additions to their accounts, in most cases in the form of refunds or corrections in favor of the account holders.

Debits and credits are totally different animals in the world of bookkeeping. Because keeping the books involves a method called double-entry bookkeeping, you have to make a least two entries — a debit and a credit — into your bookkeeping system for every transaction. Whether that debit or credit adds or subtracts from an account depends solely upon the type of account.

You can’t just enter transactions in the books willy-nilly. You need to know where exactly those transactions fit into the larger bookkeeping system. That’s where your Chart of Accounts comes in; it’s essentially a list of all the accounts your business has and what types of transactions go into each one.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/bookkeeping-and-its-basic-purpose.html

Explore Current Stem Cell Treatments

Scientists have been working with human adult stem cells — the stem cells found in specific tissues — for more than 40 years, compared to only a dozen years for human embryonic stem cells. As a result, the only stem cell treatments that have been proven to work well so far involve tissue stem cells, mainly those found in bone marrow and skin.

Researchers are sketching out all kinds of possible uses for stem cells on the drawing boards, and some of these potential uses are in or preparing to enter clinical trials — experiments to see whether these treatments really work in people. So far, though, the only proven stem cell therapies are for burns and blood disorders; everything else is experimental or theoretical, at least for the moment (no matter what you may read in ads or marketing brochures).

Transplanting bone marrow

Bone marrow transplants have been used since the 1950s to treat leukemia and other blood disorders. Bone marrow is the spongy material found in the center of your bones. Bone marrow, which resides mainly in the large bones like the hip bone and shoulder blade, holds caches of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells that can give rise to all the cell types in the blood:

• Red blood cells, which pick up oxygen from the lungs and distribute it to the body’s tissues, and take carbon dioxide and other waste products from the tissues and return them to the lungs for expulsion.

  
  



• White blood cells, which roam through the bloodstream looking for and attacking foreign invaders like bacteria.

  
  



• Platelets, which induce the blood to clot.

  
  

Doctors use bone marrow transplants to replace the blood and immune systems of patients with certain blood cancers or other disorders. Transplanted blood-forming stem cells “home in” to the bone marrow and, once settled, begin rebuilding the patient’s supply of blood cells. Depending on the disease and the method used to harvest blood-forming stem cells, the stem cells begin producing new blood cells within 10 days to 6 weeks.

Healing burns with skin grafts

Skin grafts have been used for centuries, although no one knew exactly why they worked until fairly recently. Skin is particularly rich in stem cells because so much skin is lost through normal wear and tear; you shed thousands, or even millions, of dead skin cells every day. In mild cuts and burns, these stem cells work to repair the damaged tissue. In severe burns, though, the stem cells in the burn area are destroyed, so doctors have to take skin from an undamaged area.

The main obstacle in skin grafts is that, currently, only the burn patient’s own skin works reliably. If doctors try to use skin from another person, the patient’s immune system eventually rejects the graft. Scientists are working on ways to grow skin that’s genetically compatible with the patient so that, even if the patient doesn’t have enough undamaged skin to use, the burns can still be treated effectively.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/explore-current-stem-cell-treatments.html

Examining Keys to a Successful Yoga Practice

Yoga practice success may seem daunting, but remembering some key tips helps you succeed from the get-go. These keys help you examine your Yoga needs so you can enjoy the most successful Yoga practice possible.

• Be clear about your goals. Decide exactly what you want to accomplish (such as flexibility, fitness, better health, inner peace, and so on).

  
  



• Make a realistic commitment. Promising yourself you’ll practice for an hour every day sounds great, but it doesn’t do you any good if you can’t reasonably maintain that schedule. Just 15 minutes a day is a great start.

  
  



• Get your physician’s approval. If you have a health challenge or are pregnant, be sure to consult a physician before embarking on a Yoga exercise program. Make sure your physician is basically sympathetic to exercise and is reasonably familiar with Yoga so that you can be sure you’re getting the best — and most relevant — advice.

  
  



• Enjoy gentle Yoga. You don’t need to be competitive with yourself or anyone else. Allow Yoga to gently unfold the potential of your body and your mind. Don’t overdo exercising. Keep the enjoyment factor high.

  
  



• Keep a practice journal. Chronicle your experience with Yoga, and periodically read through your journal to see the progress you have made. Progress is the best motivator.

  
  



• Create a support system for yourself. You can always find strength in numbers. Find other people who enjoy Yoga so that you can motivate and inspire each other. If you prefer to practice on your own at home, you may still want to consider participating in a Yoga class occasionally, if only to get feedback or find encouragement.

  
  



• Vary your program periodically. Even the best program can get boring. Prevent your enthusiasm from flagging by changing your exercise routine occasionally.

  
  



• Educate yourself. Continue to educate yourself about Yoga. Education helps to make your Yoga practice more meaningful. Many good books and magazines are available on the subject. Take the time to read and study; you’ll be pleasantly surprised about the depth you can discover in Yoga.

  
  



• Be a Yoga enthusiast, but not a bore. By all means, be enthusiastic about your Yoga practice, but know that not everyone shares your enthusiasm, including the dearest members of your family. Yoga’s positive effect on your body and mind is the best advertising, so let those effects speak for themselves rather than annoying your family and friends with constant talk of Yoga.

  
  



• Focus on a personal role model. Everyone needs ideals. You don’t need to worship a hero, but being able to look up to someone who, in your eyes, has succeeded and whom you find inspiring is always a good idea. Keep your role model(s) always vivid in your mind.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/examining-keys-to-a-successful-yoga-practice.html

Network Data: Incremental and Differential Backups

When backing up all your data every day is not practical you will have to start being selective about your data backups and schedules, thus incremental and differential backups.

Incremental backups

An incremental backup backs up only those files that were modified since the last time you did a backup. Incremental backups are a lot faster than full backups because your network users probably modify only a small portion of the files on the server in any given day.

As a result, if a full backup takes three tapes, you can probably fit an entire week’s worth of incremental backups on a single tape.

When an incremental backup copies each file, it resets the file’s archive bit. That way, the file will be backed up again before your next normal backup only when a user modifies the file again.

Here are some thoughts about using incremental backups:

• The easiest way to use incremental backups is the following:

  
  
  
  

  • A normal backup every Monday

    
    

    If your full backup takes more than 12 hours, you may want to do it on Friday so that it can run over the weekend.

    
    
  
  

  • An incremental backup on each remaining normal business day (for example, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday)

    
    
  
  
  
  



• When you use incremental backups, the complete backup consists of the full backup tapes and all the incremental backup tapes that you’ve made since you did the full backup.

  
  

  If the hard drive crashes and you have to restore the data onto a new drive, you first restore Monday’s normal backup and then you restore each of the subsequent incremental backups.

  
  



• Incremental backups complicate restoring individual files because the most recent copy of the file may be on the full backup tape or on any of the incremental backups.

  
  

  Backup programs keep track of the location of the most recent version of each file in order to simplify the process.

  
  



• When you use incremental backups, you can choose whether you want to

  
  
  
  

  • Store each incremental backup on its own tape.

    
    
  
  

  • Append each backup to the end of an existing tape.

    
    
  
  
  
  

Differential backups

A differential backup is similar to an incremental backup except that it doesn’t reset the archive bit when files are backed up. As a result, each differential backup represents the difference between the last normal backup and the current state of the hard drive.

To do a full restore from a differential backup, you first restore the last normal backup and then you restore the most recent differential backup.

For example, suppose that you do a normal backup on Monday and differential backups on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then your hard drive crashes Friday morning. On Friday afternoon, you install a new hard drive. To restore the data, you first restore the normal backup from Monday. Then, you restore the differential backup from Thursday. The Tuesday and Wednesday differential backups aren’t needed.

The main difference between incremental and differential backups is that

• Incremental backups result in smaller and faster backups.

  
  



• Differential backups are easier to restore.

  
  

  If your users often ask you to restore individual files, consider using differential backups.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/network-data-incremental-and-differential-backups.html

How to Troubleshoot Flip Video Battery Problems

Learning how to turn your Flip Video camera on and off isn’t quite enough if you run into problems with your battery and its charge. Once you can manage the charging, recharging, and power-related behavior of your Flip camera, you’ll be on your way to mastering Flip camera functions.

Here’s a list of the top ten facts pertaining to Flip battery issues:

• Flashing battery symbol: When you see this symbol on the display screen, your battery power is too low and needs to be recharged. If you don’t recharge, the camcorder will eventually turn itself off as the battery diminishes.

  
  



• Time to fully charge: Fully charging your Flip’s rechargeable battery by plugging it into your computer’s USB port can takes from 3 to 6 hours. Fully charging your Flip by using an optional power adapter can take roughly 2 to 3.5 hours.

  
  

  Recharging your Flip camera by plugging it into your computer’s USB port can take longer if you’re running the FlipShare program, or another program that may be accessing your Flip camera, such as iMovie on the Mac, or Windows Live Movie Maker on a Windows PC. To speed up recharge time, quit FlipShare if you aren’t working with it.

  
  



• Unplugging after charging: Although you can leave your Flip plugged in to your computer after a full charge, unplugging your camera after it’s fully charged can help lengthen the lifespan of your Flip’s rechargeable battery.

  
  



• Partial battery discharge: Flip models that come with rechargeable batteries use lithium ion-type batteries, which means you can partially recharge your Flip’s batteries anytime without the full charge or discharge cycle that older nickel-based batteries required to last long and provide maximum performance.

  
  



• When your Flip’s battery is fully charged, you can expect the following battery life:

  
  
  
  

  • Mino, MinoHD, or SlideHD models: Up to 2 hours

    
    
  
  

  • UltraHD model: Up to 2.5 hours

    
    
  
  

  • Ultra model: Up to 4.5 hours (when using the optional AA rechargeable battery pack, sold separately)

    
    
  
  
  
  



• Standby time: Standby time for fully charged rechargeable battery Flip models is generally up to three months before the camera’s battery begins to discharge. However, it’s not unusual to find the rechargeable battery completely depleted after three months of non-usage because of gradual (and normal) dissipation over time.

  
  



• Charging symbol: When recharging your Flip Ultra HD or Ultra (with optional rechargeable battery pack), the flashing battery charging symbol appears on your camera’s screen. If you’re using standard, nonrechargeable AA batteries with your Ultra HD or Ultra camera, the word Connected appears on the camera’s screen.

  
  



• Auto shutdown: To conserve battery life, your Flip camera automatically shuts off after 90 to 120 seconds of inactivity, depending on your particular model.

  
  



• Charging device temperature: Your Flip might feel warm or hot to the touch when it’s recharging, and the screen might periodically display the message, “It’s getting hot. Charging paused.”

  
  

  Your Flip does this automatically as a safety measure, pausing to allow the rechargeable battery to cool before it resumes charging. However, if you see the message, “Charging paused. Check battery pack,” unplug your Flip from your computer or power charger and contact Flip technical support for assistance (phone: 1-888-222-6689; Web site: www.theflip.com/support).

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-troubleshoot-flip-video-battery-problems.html

Access 2007 All-In-One For Dummies

Working in Access 2007 is easier once you understand running the Access 2007 window and using tools to help manage your data and answer your questions.

>

>

The Microsoft Office Access 2007 Window

After you open Access 2007, and pass the Getting Started window, you’ll find these buttons, bars, and ribbons in the Access 2007 regular window to help organize, create and protect your data.

>

>

File Button: Create a database or open an existing one

>

>

Quick Access Toolbar: Each one has its own ribbon of commands and things you can do. The toolbar changes depending on what you're doing at the moment.

>

>

Ribbon: Stuff you can do right now. Each Quick Access Toolbar item has its own ribbon. Point to any icon for info and instructions.

>

>

Shutter Bar: Also called the Object list. Organizes stuff in your database.

>

>

Security Bar: Protects you from unknown macros and code. Click Enable Content if you trust the source. Click Trust Center to make it back off.




>

>

>

Helpful Tools in Access 2007

If you’re working in Microsoft Office Access 2007 and you need help, use these tools to find and sort specific information, manage your data, and answer general help questions:

>

>

Screen Tips: Point to any item (touch it with the tip of the mouse pointer) to see its name and description.

>

>

Right-click any object's name to see stuff you can do with it.

>

>

Click any triangle arrow like the one in the circle to see a drop-down menu. Click any double arrow, like « and » to show and hide things.

>

>

Help: Click any question mark for help.




>

>
dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/access-2007-allinone-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

Maintaining Your Shares Investment Portfolio

Investing in shares is a long-term commitment. Although you don’t need to be sitting in front of your computer all day, once you’ve got a well-constructed share portfolio underway, you need to monitor the sharemarket and keep an eye on what’s happening with your stocks.

• Keep a long-term perspective. Monitor your portfolio to see how your shares are doing. spending hours each day in front of your computer screen looking at your portfolio could tempt you into trading for no sound reason.

  
  



• You never go broke taking a profit. If you believe that one of your shares has risen so far that a fall is imminent, take a profit. You don’t have to sell all of the holding. Take out your original investment and leave all the gain still riding on the share.

  
  



• Don’t panic when the market falls. Occasional falls in the prices of your shares are inevitable; their effects are usually short term. If you’re a long-term investor who is using the sharemarket to build wealth over decades, short-term fluctuations on the sharemarket are irrelevant

  
  



• Don’t worry about capital losses. A capital loss occurs only when you sell your shares. Until then, the loss is only a calculation on paper. If you’re confident in your shares, hang on to them.

  
  



• Don’t let tax considerations determine your strategy. The sole reason for investing in growth assets is to get capital growth. Don’t hang on to profitable shares just to avoid paying capital gains tax. Focus on the pleasing fact that you’ve made a capital gain, not on the tax. If you do sell and take a capital loss, the consolation is that you can use it at tax time to offset against some of your capital gains.

  
  



• You can’t outsmart the market by timing trades in and out of shares. You won’t get it right anywhere near often enough, and the transaction costs eat into your returns. Be an investor not a trader.

  
  



• Remember that a diversified portfolio is a safer one. When you buy different assets, you minimise your overall risk. Your goal in diversifying is to benefit from the performance of different assets that are usually not synchronised. If shares are performing poorly, property or bonds may be performing well. You should include at least one other asset class with shares to diversify your investments.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/maintaining-your-shares-investment-portfolio.html

How to Configure a Cisco Network

Like all networks, a Cisco network needs to be properly configured. To do so, you need to know the configuration modes to use when configuring your network. You also should know how to configure an interface, configure a switch management interface, and configure an interface to use DHCP for your Cisco network.

Configuration modes for Cisco networking

When moving around in the Cisco IOS, you will see many prompts. These prompts change as you move from one configuration mode to another. Here is a summary of the major configuration modes:

• User EXEC mode: When you connect to a Cisco device the default configuration mode is user exec mode. With user exec mode you can view the settings on the device but not make any changes. You know you are in User EXEC mode because the IOS prompt displays a ">".

  
  



• Privileged EXEC mode: In order to make changes to the device you must navigate to Privileged EXEC mode where you may be required to input a password. Privileged EXEC mode displays with a "#" in the prompt.

  
  



• Global Configuration mode: Global Configuration mode is where you go to make global changes to the router such as the hostname. To navigate to Global Configuration mode from Privileged EXEC mode you type "configure terminal" or "conf t" where you will be placed at the "(config)#" prompt.

  
  



• Sub Prompts: There are a number of different sub prompts from Global Configuration mode you can navigate to such as the interface prompts to modify settings on a specific interface, or the line prompts to modify the different ports on the device.

  
  

Configure an interface for Cisco networking

When working with routers in particular, but also when dealing the management interface on switches, you will often need to configure network interfaces which will either match physical interface ports or virtual interfaces in the form of a virtual LAN (VLAN) interface (when dealing with switches).

For your router interfaces the following example will set speed, duplex and IP configuration information for the interface FastEthernet 0/0 (notice the interface reference as slot/port). In the case of the router, the interface is enabled using the no shutdown command in the final step; interfaces on switches are enabled by default.

Router1>enable
Router1#configure terminal
Router1(config)#interface FastEthernet0/0
Router1(config-if)#description Private LAN
Router1(config-if)#speed 100
Router1(config-if)#duplex full
Router1(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
Router1(config-if)#no shutdown

Configure a switch management interface for Cisco networking

For your switches, to enable an IP address on your management interface, you will use something similar to this example. In this example, management is being performed over VLAN 1 - the default VLAN.

Switch1>enable
Switch1#configure terminal
Switch1#interface VLAN 1
Switch1(config-if)#ip address 192.168.1.241 255.255.255.0

Configure an interface to use DHCP for Cisco networking

If you want to configure either a router or switch to retrieve its IP configuration information from a network Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, then you can commands like the following example.

Router1>enable
Router1#configure terminal
Router1(config)#interface FastEthernet0/0
Router1(config-if)#ip dhcp

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-configure-a-cisco-network.html

Outlook 2010's Contacts Home Tab

Outlook 2010's Contacts is more than just a list of names and e-mail addresses. You can take advantage of the Contacts Home tab on the Outlook 2010 Ribbon to create new contacts, to arrange the way you view the contacts you have, or to create e-mail messages or mail merge documents.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/outlook-2010s-contacts-home-tab.html

Optimizing Business Website Pages

Unless you’re part of a huge company, optimize your business website only for the search engine your audience is most likely to use. If you already have a site, check your traffic statistics to see which engine generates the most traffic.

Search engines usually specify their preferences on advice pages for webmasters. Follow these tips for keyword placement to prime your pages:

• Use keywords in your page URLs. For example, use www.dummies.com/web-marketing rather than dummies.com/123456.

  
  



• Use keywords as terms in the navigation. This advice doesn't help if your navigation consists of graphical elements.

  
  



• Include the same four primary keywords you selected for optimization in the first paragraph of text for that page. It’s the only paragraph that most search engines scan.

  
  



• Use the same four keywords in the ALT tags. These tags appear in the form of a small text box whenever a user hovers the mouse pointer over a graphic or photo. Descriptive ALT tags make websites accessible for the visually impaired, but you can usually work in one or more of your terms.

  
  



• Use keywords as part of the link text rather than the phrase Click here. Doing so not only improves search ranking but also makes the text more readable.

  
  



• Some search engines use cues from the HTML code to distinguish text that appears in headlines or subheads; they're usually a different size or color, or both. If keywords appear in HTML headings at the H1 (main) or H2 (subhead) level, you might get “extra credit” in some engines.

  
  



• Have your developer put meta tags at the top of the source code. Make it easy for search engines to find what they’re looking for.

  
  



• Text should be the first page content that search engines see. If a photograph appears to the left or right or above the first paragraph of text on the screen, have your developer rearrange the source code so that the text appears first in the code.

  
  

Don’t sacrifice human readability and comprehension when trying to use search terms. People buy — search engines don’t. Because you're probably the person responsible for reviewing, if not writing, the copy, you're responsible for assessing keyword use. Your developer usually doesn’t get involved, though an SEO company certainly will.

You might read about keyword density or keyword ratio. These terms refer to the percentage of keywords versus the total text on the page. As long as you avoid nasty techniques such as keyword stuffing (the excessive use of keywords on a page), you should be okay

If the keyword ratio approaches 20 to 25 percent, most search engines become suspicious. You don’t have to measure! It’s next to impossible to write text densely stuffed with keywords that also makes sense to a human being. If you write good copy, you’re fine.

Avoid using black hat techniques, such as magic pixels (links, measuring 1 x 1 pixels, that aren’t visible onscreen) or invisible text (consisting of keywords written in the same color as the background). These techniques will get you dropped from search engines. If you write an informative website that’s useful to people, you don’t need black magic for SEO. You’ll have all the magic you need.

Bing uses its own technology to index the web. In the past, its algorithm didn’t seem as accurate or as fast as other search engines and tended to reward home pages in the results. Recently, Bing claims to have made changes to improve its indexing speed and to produce more relevant results for users.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/optimizing-business-website-pages.navId-811455.html

How to Use the Text-to-Speech Feature in NaturallySpeaking

The Dragon NaturallySpeaking text-to-speech feature is a great piece of wizardry. While not perfect, it can help your PC do a reasonable job of turning text into speech. It might even be disconcerting if it sounded like a real person. Are you ready for that?

Text-to-speech isn’t limited to proofreading. It’s a general-purpose tool for listening to documents. For instance, you could play a document by copying it into the NaturallySpeaking window. A visually impaired person could do the whole job with the verbal copying and window-switching commands.

One reason for using text-to-speech is to help proofread your text. But which is better for proofreading — playback of your own voice or reading it with text-to-speech?

Many people find that playing back their own speech is the best way to find errors. With playback, you hear the correct text and spot errors with your eyes. Because you’re comparing the original dictation to the resulting text, playing back tends to be a more accurate way of proofreading.

If you’re an auditory learner, however — for instance, if you find you pay better attention to the spoken word than to the written word — you might try text-to-speech read back. With the reading back, you hear the text that NaturallySpeaking wrote and mentally judge whether that was what you intended.

You aren’t presented with your original dictation, just the NaturallySpeaking interpretation. A second advantage of reading it back is that it works even if you edit text manually; playback can’t handle manual edits.

To start Read, select some text in the NaturallySpeaking window (using the mouse, the keyboard, or a voice command). Then click the Read icon in the DragonBar extras section or speak the verbal command, “Read That.”

Read verbal commands are the same as Playback verbal commands, except instead of saying “Play,” you say “Read.” Here are the verbal commands:

• Read That (referring to text you have selected)

  
  



• Read That Back (same as Read That)

  
  



• Read Line

  
  



• Read Paragraph

  
  



• Read Document

  
  



• Read Window

  
  



• Read Screen

  
  



• Read Up To Here (where “here” is wherever your typing cursor is)

  
  



• Read Down From Here

  
  

You can stop reading back in the NaturallySpeaking window by pressing the Esc key. If you hear a NaturallySpeaking error during read-back, first stop the read-back, and then select the erroneous text any way you like (with your mouse and keyboard or a verbal command).

With text selected, launch the Correction menu box in any of the usual ways, including pressing the minus key on the numeric keypad, clicking Correction on the DragonBar, or saying, “Correct That.”

If you hear an error that you (not NaturallySpeaking) made, stop reading back first by pressing the Esc key. Then, select and edit your text any way you like (by speech or by using the keyboard and mouse).

Want to fine-tune the voice to speak as fast or slow as you like? Want to spend some fun time just playing with all the voices available? You can adjust the speed, volume, and pitch attributes of text-to-speech. Choose Tools→Options, and then click the Playback/Text-To-Speech tab on the Options dialog box that appears.

The dialog box sports three sliding adjustments, one for each attribute. Drag the slider to the right for higher speed, volume, or pitch or to the left for lower values. To test the sound at your chosen settings, click the Read Text button. NaturallySpeaking will read the text in the Preview window.

To return the values to their original settings, click the Restore Defaults button. Click the OK button when you’re done. (“British English Jane” and “American English Jennifer” don’t allow pitch adjustments.)

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-the-texttospeech-feature-in-naturallysp.html

Questions to Ask the Alcohol Control Board before Shopping for a Bar

If you’re interesting in running a bar, you’re going to have to get to know your local alcohol control board so you know what you can and can’t do when it comes to serving alcoholic beverages. Ask your state alcohol control board representative these important questions while shopping for your bar or bar location:

• What kind of liquor license do I need? What’s the fee? How often do I renew it?

  
  



• Where do I display the liquor license in my bar?

  
  



• How many licenses are issued in the town?

  
  



• What are the grounds for license revocation?

  
  



• What are the restrictions on my hours of operations?

  
  



• Can I serve food? Do I have to serve food?

  
  



• Do I need another license for food? What’s the fee?

  
  



• Do I need another license for music? What’s the fee?

  
  



• What are the smoking laws I must abide by?

  
  



• Can I open on Sundays? What time?

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/questions-to-ask-the-alcohol-control-board-before-.html

How Money Supply Affects Commodity Tendencies

As a general rule, futures prices respond to inflation. Some, such as gold, tend to rise; others, such as the U.S. dollar, tend to fall. Here are the basics of money supply/commodity tendencies:

• Metals, agricultural products, oil, and livestock contracts generally tend to rise along with money supply.

  
  



• Generally, bond prices fall, and interest rates or bond yields rise in response to inflation.

  
  



• Stock index futures are more variable in their relationship with the money supply, but eventually, they tend to rise when interest rates are falling, and they tend to fall when interest rates reach a high enough level.

  
  



• Currencies tend to fall with inflation.

  
  

In a global economy, many of these dynamics occur simultaneously or in close proximity to each other, which is why an understanding of the global economy is more important when trading futures than when trading individual stocks.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-money-supply-affects-commodity-tendencies.html

Taking Tablet PC for a Spin

Figure 1: If you don't want to see this window, tap in the Do Not Show Me This Again box.

If the window of tutorials doesn't appear, it probably means you've turned the computer on before and checked the option to not show the window again.

Meet your Tablet PC pen

Your Tablet PC comes with a special EMR (electric-magnetic resonance) pen, designed to input handwriting and commands into your computer.

Don't use any other kind of pen to touch your screen — in fact, put your regular old pen well out of reach so you don't grab it and begin scratching away at your screen by mistake. You would do serious and expensive damage to your Tablet PC.

You'll find that other objects, including your hand or finger, won't input anything into Tablet PC. That means that you can rest your wrist on the screen as you write, safe in the knowledge that you won't be making stray entries. But it also means that without the pen, you're stuck. Don't lose it, or you've basically lost your ability to write on your screen until you get another one from the manufacturer.

Jewelry alert: Although your watch won't write any input, it could scratch the screen. Be sure to prevent your jewelry (rings, watches, and bracelets) from doing any damage when you write on-screen.

You use your pen to tap things on your screen just as you click things with a mouse button. Start by tapping the close button to close the Tutorial window if it appeared when you turned on the computer.

Tap the Input Panel icon (it's just to the right of the Start menu on the Windows taskbar). The Input Panel appears. If the Writing Pad tab isn't displayed, tap on it with your pen to view it (as shown in Figure 2).

>

Figure 2: This screen is typical of a combination keyboard-and-writing-pad input device.

Putting pen to tablet

You use the Input Panel Writing Pad to write text with your pen that you then insert into an open document in an application, such as Word or Excel.

For now, practice writing your first sentences with WordPad by following these steps:

1. Choose Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> WordPad.

The WordPad program opens.

2. With your insertion point in the blank WordPad document, write the following text on the writing line in the Writing Pad (press your Tablet PC pen firmly but gently):

Welcome to Tablet PC.

After a moment, your handwritten entry appears in the WordPad document. Depending on how neat your handwriting is, you should see the words you wrote turned into text.

3. Tap the arrow on the Send button in the Writing Panel and select Send as Ink.

4. Tap the Enter button on the Writing Pad keypad.

5. Write the following text in the Writing Panel:

Enjoy writing with your pen.

After a moment, your handwriting appears in the document (as Figure 3 shows).

>

Figure 1-6: You can use text and handwriting entries in a single document.

This is one of the ways you can enter handwritten input into documents.

Spinning your display

Besides being able to write on your screen, one of the coolest features of Tablet PC is the ability to change the orientation of the computer's display. This enables you to hold the unit differently depending on the setting. For example, you may prefer a landscape orientation when you have a writing surface and want a more PC-like screen appearance; or, you may prefer a portrait orientation if you have to hold the tablet to work on it — for example, if you're working in an airport waiting area. Holding the tablet in portrait orientation enables you to hold it easily with one arm, which is generally more comfortable for longer periods of time — more like holding a legal pad.

Some Tablet PCs allow you to spin your orientation in any of four ways, 90 degrees at a time. Others allow only one landscape and one portrait orientation. The method of changing orientation also differs from model to model. The Motion M1200 Tablet PC, for example, provides a button on its face; you rotate the screen 90 degrees with each press. The Acer TravelMate 100, on the other hand, requires that you press a function key on the unit, as well as an arrow key, to move between landscape and portrait orientation.

If you have applied a lower screen-resolution setting, such as 800 x 680, most models don't allow you to use the display-orientation feature. Simply choose Control Panel --> Display and change the resolution.

To try this, you'll have to refer to your user manual for display orientation. When you've found the method to use, try it out to change from the default landscape to the portrait orientation.

The Motion M1200 Tablet PC automatically changes its screen orientation if you rotate the tablet while it's in its docking cradle. Cool!

>
dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/taking-tablet-pc-for-a-spin.html

Understanding Final Cut Pro HD

Final Cut Pro HD offers the most painless and inexpensive way to edit high-quality HD projects. In essence, Final Cut Pro HD makes working with HD as flexible and convenient as working with standard-definition DV video, and that's a huge accomplishment, considering how unwieldy HD video has been to work with.

HD stands for high definition, and it's a video format (or a collection of related formats) that offers two major improvements over the everyday, old-school NTSC video (also known as standard-definition video) that has been the standard for decades:

• Improved image quality

• Wide-screen aspect ratio

The way things were

To appreciate Final Cut Pro HD, you should understand how earlier versions of Final Cut worked with HD video (the difference is the same as the difference between night and day). Final Cut has been HD-compatible since Version 3, but that compatibility required you to have some serious hardware. For instance, back then, your Mac needed a third-party capture card (which cost between $2,000 and $4,000) that could connect to HD videotape decks, capture digital video from HD tapes, and then play that HD video smoothly in Final Cut. To store all the digital video, you also needed a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), which is a collection of very large, very fast hard drives that work as though they're a single huge hard drive. A typical HD-friendly RAID has 3-1/2 terabytes of storage (a terabyte equals roughly 1,000 gigabytes) and costs about $11,000. And, because HD video could consume as much as 9.6 gigabytes per minute, even a big RAID could comfortably store only about five hours of video!

What's more, a true HD system wouldn't be complete without an HD preview monitor — a high-end HD television that's matched to professional standards and lets you see the footage you're editing just as your audience would on an HD set. These types of preview monitors can cost around $20,000!

Finally, even with all this expensive gear, Final Cut could not create real-time previews of many (if any) of the effects you may apply to your HD video. If you wanted to do lots of fancy transitions or montages of moving imagery or color-correction effects, you would have to painstakingly render them to see how they would look, make changes, re-render, make more changes, re-render, and so on.

In other words, using earlier versions of Final Cut Pro to edit HD was an expensive and potentially tedious proposition!

Final Cut Pro HD makes HD easy

Final Cut Pro HD has changed everything about working in HD — as long as you're willing to work with the new HD format, DVCPRO HD, developed by Panasonic. DVCPRO HD is basically regular HD video that has been compressed (like a JPEG picture is compressed, or, more accurately, like DV video is compressed. That compression is the key: It means that HD video requires much less data to describe than uncompressed HD — for instance, the compressed HD needs only as much as 840 megabytes per minute rather than uncompressed HD, at as much as 9.6 gigabytes per minute — but the compression doesn't appreciably affect the quality of the HD imagery. In other words, you still enjoy super-crisp-looking HD video!

Because DVCPRO HD doesn't require as much data as uncompressed HD, it's easy to manage and offers a number of benefits when you're editing, such as the ones described in this list:

• It uses non-RAID disk drives: Because a smaller amount of data is describing DVCPRO HD video, you don't need to have a RAID hard drive to store the data or play it smoothly. You still need a fast hard drive to work with DVCPRO HD, though — for exampkle, a 7200 RPM Serial ATA drive that works with Apple G5 desktop computers — but that's a far cry from a RAID, which can run several thousands of dollars. If you want your Mac to store lots of HD video, or if you plan to work on projects that merge lots of different HD video clips so that they have to play at one time (as with a montage or picture-in-picture tricks), a RAID may still be handy, but not necessary.

• You see real-time previews of effects: Because DVCPRO HD video requires less data, thanks to its compression, Final Cut Pro can generate real-time previews of effects such as transitions, color corrections, picture-in-picture effects, and other image manipulations. When Final Cut is running on a fast Mac, like a dual CPU G5 PowerMac, it can offer the same level of real-time effects as though it were working with DV video!

• No HD capture card is required: DVCPRO HD video also lets you skip buying an expensive capture card to capture HD video. You can use a simple FireWire cable to connect a DVCPRO HD videotape deck to your Mac (the same kind of FireWire cable you use to connect your DV camera), and that's all you need!

Thanks to this smaller size, you can use a much more standard Mac, with non-RAID drives, to work with HD and enjoy real-time previews of effects!

Here's a bonus: Final Cut Pro HD lets you use an Apple Cinema Display as an HD preview monitor so that you can watch your HD edits on a true HD screen, and not on the small Final Cut Viewer and Canvas windows. Sure, a 23-inch Cinema Display isn't exactly cheap ($1,999 at the time this article was written), but it's much cheaper than buying a professional HD preview monitor. In addition, it gives you much of the same functionality (professionals will still want to use a conventional HD preview monitor for doing ultra precise color correction, but many projects can live without it, and even if you can't, you can always take your project to a top-tier color-correction specialist right before you're finished). If you want to use a Cinema Display as a preview display for HD, choose View --> Video Playback --> Digital Desktop Cinema Preview.

DVCPRO HD has one "gotcha": It doesn't support the 1080 24p flavor of HD. DVCPRO HD can work in both 720p or 1080i, but if you want 1080 24p (for instance, if you ever want to make a movie that could be theatrically distributed, which the 24p format is best qualified for), you have to bring it into Final Cut as uncompressed HD video. You need an HD capture card and fast RAID drives to work with it, and you don't enjoy real-time previews of many effects. On the bright side, Final Cut does support a 24 frames-per-second version of the 720p HD format, so you can use this as a fallback option if 24 frames-per-second playback is very important to you (though you won't get the super-crisp picture resolution of the 1080i 24p format).

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-final-cut-pro-hd.html