Organic Farming Principles

Organic farming is much friendlier for the earth and the local economy than massive corporate farming practices. Instead of using chemical-based fertilizers to create a high-yield soil, organic farming uses traditional methods of plowing the soil to break down soil compaction that can reduce water and air getting to the plants’ roots, rotating the crops to prevent crop-specific diseases or pests from building up in the soil, and growing cover crops that naturally add nutrients to the soil.


Organic farming also emphasizes the use of physical, mechanical, or biological controls instead of chemicals to handle weeds, insects, and plant diseases. You can pull weeds by hand or machine, for example, or introduce a beneficial insect to eat a harmful one (for example, ladybugs to eat aphids). The lack of chemicals also eliminates the risk that dangerous substances will run into nearby rivers, streams, and the water table, affecting water quality. In turn, you’re less likely to be eating any chemicals used to keep bugs at bay and the soil fertile.


When it comes to livestock, organic animals are fed only organic feed along with vitamins and minerals. Depending on the animal, there are specific rules about when and for how long the feed needs to be 100 percent organic.


Look for meats labeled pasture-raised or grass-fed, indicating that the animals were raised outdoors on pasture and that their diet consisted of grasses and hay. This diet is much more natural and environmentally supportive than grain-feeding. Some animals (especially chickens and pigs) are fed some grains to ensure that they get the nutrients they need, but the grains can be organically grown.


Growth hormones and antibiotics also are specifically banned in organic food products, although vaccines are allowed. Of course, farmers are allowed — in fact, they’re required — to give medication, including antibiotics, to sick animals to prevent suffering. However, food products that come from the animal involved may not be called organic if the animal has received a medication that’s on the organic-prohibited list.




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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/organic-farming-principles.html

How to Use the Workspace in Photoshop Elements 5

The Photoshop Elements 5 workspace offer a range of tools that help you do everything from zooming in on a photo detail to categorizing and storing it. Here's a look at where you can find workspace tools and menu options:


image0.jpg

Use the tools in the picture to accomplish these tasks and more:



  • Open an image in the Elements Full Edit mode by choosing File, Open.



  • Get information about your image by looking at the status bar. Click the right-pointing arrow to get more details regarding your document.



  • Need to see detail in your image? Zoom into your image by pressing Ctrl+spacebar and clicking. Zoom back out by pressing Alt+spacebar and clicking.



  • Easily switch between open documents by clicking images in the Project Bin.



  • Access panels as needed by choosing them from the Window menu or the Panels Bin.



  • Show files from the Organizer by selecting options in the Show Open Files drop-down menu in the Project Bin.






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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-the-workspace-in-photoshop-elements-5.html

Taking On Board Some Sound Tips for the Cautious Investor

Not everyone wants to jump in at the deep end. If you’re a cautious investor and you think the time is right, you may want to try one or some of the following:



  • A bond fund. Your money goes into fixed-interest securities tied either to governments or companies.



  • A distribution fund. This type of fund focuses on a mix of lower-risk shares, bonds, cash and property.



  • A no-lose fund. You put your money in a special fund, usually for five years. At the end of the specified time, you get your money back without any deduction or, if the index has risen, your original money enhanced by the percentage rise.



  • A tracker fund. This type of fund follows a stock market index such as the FTSE 100 – or the Footsie – up and down. This option is good if you want to invest in shares but have no idea which ones to buy or which fund manager to back. But don’t forget an index can be all over the place!






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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/taking-on-board-some-sound-tips-for-the-cautious-i.html

SharePoint 2010 Development For Dummies

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 comprises a vast array of products, technologies, concepts, and acronyms. To help you wade through the jargon, turn to this quick reference to the SharePoint 2010 development landscape. An introduction to consolidating reports can help you understand the developer’s role in creating useful pages with SharePoint 2010. If you ever get stuck, check out the SharePoint Developer Center.






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Checking Out Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Features


Ask ten different people to define SharePoint 2010 and you’re likely to receive ten different answers, because the Microsoft Office SharePoint 2010 product comprises many different technologies.


The following list can help pinpoint each SharePoint component, where you find it, and its purpose:



  • SharePoint Foundation: SharePoint Foundation is a communication, collaboration, and content-management platform that comes free with the Windows Server operating system.



  • SharePoint Server: SharePoint Server is a software product in its own right that expands the basic communication, collaboration, and content-management capabilities of SharePoint Foundation. SharePoint Server comes in four editions:



    • SharePoint Server for Intranet Standard Edition



    • SharePoint Server for Intranet Enterprise Edition



    • SharePoint Server for Internet Standard Edition



    • SharePoint Server for Internet Enterprise Edition





  • InfoPath Forms Services: This SharePoint 2010 feature enables you to embed InfoPath forms in SharePoint Web sites.



  • Excel Services: This feature enables you to embed Excel documents in a SharePoint Web site.



  • SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Integration: SSRS Integration is an installation option that coordinates the operation of an SSRS server with a SharePoint environment. SSRS reports are contained and managed in SharePoint instead of being sent to a standalone report server.



  • PerformancePoint Services: With this SharePoint 2010 feature, you can develop sites for dashboards and content, including the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and Scorecards used in business intelligence.



  • Business Connectivity Services (BCS): A feature of SharePoint that you can use to connect SharePoint to (and integrate it with) your Line of Business (LOB) systems. Using this feature, you can view and edit the data from your business systems within the SharePoint site. Result: You can use the company portal to make use of the backend system.



  • Sites: A SharePoint Site is nothing more than a Web site with the special capabilities that SharePoint provides, in particular Web-site management and easy integration into other SharePoint Web sites.



  • Document Libraries: A Document Library is a mechanism for storing and managing content within SharePoint, using features such as check-in, check-out, versioning, security, and workflow.



  • Lists: A SharePoint List is simply a list of data arranged in columns and rows, used as the basic way to store SharePoint content.



  • Wikis: A wiki is a specialized Web site that allows community members to update the content of the Web site on the fly. Although wikis are not specific to SharePoint, SharePoint 2010 does offer Wiki functionality as a feature.



  • Blog: A Web log or online journal. In SharePoint, a blog provides a forum for people to exchange communications that can be viewed across the entire organization or Internet. After a blog entry is posted, the content can be augmented with comments and discussions on the blog-entry page. You can get a SharePoint blog up and running in a manner of minutes.



  • Discussion Boards: A familiar method of online discussion, which SharePoint makes usable throughout the organization. People can post questions and replies to be viewed throughout the organization.







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How to Streamline Reports with SharePoint 2010


Reports come in all sizes, shapes, and formats. By putting together a couple of SharePoint 2010 system components, a developer can help simplify a business’s reporting processes for everyone in the organization, whether users need to create or review reports:



  • SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) provides a platform for reporting that’s tightly integrated with the SharePoint platform.



  • SharePoint itself provides end users with a report-development tool — Report Builder — that they can launch right from the SharePoint portal.



  • Reports can be stored and viewed at the appropriate time from the SharePoint portal — in the browser.




Consolidating the reporting function to SharePoint provides one central place that all users can go to access, read, develop, or deposit reports. It’s a self-service approach, and probably the wave of the future: No longer does a report have to morph into a little project with its own complex development cycles; business analysts and technically adept report developers need no longer strain to translate each other’s jargon.


Empowering the users who have the knowledge saves money by reducing project expense. When the business users are empowered with tools that the IT department can govern, it’s win-win for both teams and a cost reduction for the company.


SharePoint provides self-serve reporting not only through Report Builder but also through content management features: Users can check reports in and out, rest assured that there’s only one version they have to deal with; see the report as an expected task in a workflow; and restrict access to the report to keep it secure. The whole process is more coherent from stem to stern.





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Finding Help with SharePoint Developer Center


If you need help developing pages and sites in SharePoint 2010, the SharePoint Developer Center is a one-stop shop. The site includes community forums, videos, whitepapers, and other indispensable developer resources.


The SharePoint Developer Center is a great place to explore if you are just getting started. A number of videos walk through basic issues you will encounter as you begin developing on the SharePoint 2010 platform.


Whenever you find yourself stuck, be sure to visit the forums where a very active bunch of passionate SharePointers will go above and beyond to answer your questions and point you in the right direction. To access the SharePoint Developer Center, point your browser to this URL: msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint





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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/sharepoint-2010-development-for-dummies-cheat-shee.html

Outlook 2010's Mail Home Tab

The Mail Home tab on Outlook 2010's Ribbon contains all the tools you need for daily e-mail messaging tasks as well as for managing the messages you accumulate and retain for reference. The following image shows you what each of Outlook 2010's Mail Home tab buttons does.


image0.jpg







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

A Sample Web Page in HTML

When you're creating Web pages, you use HTML — a lot! The following sample shows the HTML formatting and codes you use to create headings and titles, lists, lines, and images as well as boldface and italicized type, not to mention how to include a link.


<html>
<!-- Text between angle brackets is an HTML tag and is not displayed.
Most tags, such as the HTML and /HTML tags that surround the contents of
a page, come in pairs; some tags, like HR, for a horizontal rule, stand
alone. Comments, such as the text you're reading, are not displayed when
the Web page is shown. The information between the HEAD and /HEAD tags is
not displayed. The information between the BODY and /BODY tags is displayed.-->
<head>
<title>Enter a title, displayed at the top of the window.</title>
</head>
<!-- The information between the BODY and /BODY tags is displayed.-->
<body>
<h1>Enter the main heading, usually the same as the title.</h1>
<p>Be <b>bold</b> in stating your key points. Put them in a list: </p>
<ul>
<li>The first item in your list</li>
<li>The second item; <i>italicize</i> key words</li>
</ul>
<p>Improve your image by including an image. </p>
<p><img src="http://www.mygifs.com/CoverImage.gif" alt="A Great HTML Resource"></p>
<p>Add a link to your favorite <a href="http://www.dummies.com/">Web site</a>.
Break up your page with a horizontal rule or two. </p>
<hr>
<p>Finally, link to <a href="page2.html">another page</a> in your own Web site.</p>
<!-- And add a copyright notice.-->
<p>&#169; Wiley Publishing, 2011</p>
</body>
</html>

All this HTML translates to a Web page that looks something like this:


image0.jpg



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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/a-sample-web-page-in-html.html

Common International Crochet Symbols and Crochet Stitch Abbreviations

Check out the following quick reference guide to the International Crochet Symbols and the abbreviations (in parentheses) for common crochet stitches. Note: The info in brackets describes the version of the crochet stitch that the symbol represents.


image0.jpg


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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/common-international-crochet-symbols-and-crochet-s.html

Finding Records in Your Access 2003 Tables

When you want to track down a particular record, creating a query is overkill. Fortunately, Access 2003 has a quick way to find one specific piece of data in your project's tables and forms: the Find command.



Find is available both on the toolbar and through the main menu. (Choose Edit --> Find. Keyboard-oriented folks out there can press Ctrl+F.) Access 2003 doesn't care which way you fire up the Find command — it works the same from either avenue.



Although the Find command is pretty easy to use on its own, knowing a few tricks makes it do its best work. After you know the Find basics (covered in the next section), you can fine-tune the Find command by using the tips in the section called, "Tuning a search for speed and accuracy," later in this article. That section shows you how to tweak the Find settings for more detailed search missions.



Finding first things first (and next things after that)


Using the Find command is a straightforward task. Here's how it works:



1. Open the table or form you want to search.


Yes, Find works in both datasheet view and with Access forms.


2. Click the field that you want to search.


The Find command searches the current field in all the records of the table, so make sure that you click the right field before starting the Find process. Access 2003 doesn't care which record you click — as long as you hit the right field, Access is happy. (And it's important to keep your software happy!)





3. Start the Find command by clicking the Find toolbar button (the one with the binoculars on it) or choosing Edit --> Find.


The Find and Replace dialog box pops into action.


4. Type the text you're looking for into the Find What box, as shown in Figure 1.


Take a moment to check your spelling before starting the search. Access isn't bright enough to figure out that you actually mean hero when you type zero.



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Figure 1: The Find and Replace dialog box gets ready to do its stuff.

5. Click Find Next to begin your search.


Before you can count to one by eighths, the Find command tracks down the record you want, moves the cursor there, and highlights the matching text. If Find doesn't locate anything, however, it laments its failure in a small dialog box.


6. If Find didn't find what you were looking for:


• a. Click OK to make the dialog box go away.


• b. Make sure that you clicked in the correct field and spelled everything correctly in the Find What box.


• You may also want to check the special Find options covered in the next section to see whether one of them is messing up your search.


• c. Click Find Next again.


What if the first record that Access finds isn't the one you're looking for? Suppose you want the second, third, or the fourteenth John Smith in the table? No problem — that's why the Find and Replace dialog box has a Find Next button. Keep clicking Find Next until Access works its way down to the record you want or tells you that it's giving up the search.





Tuning a search for speed and accuracy


Sometimes, just providing the information in the Find What box isn't enough. Either you find too many records or the ones that match aren't the ones that you want. The best way to reduce the number of wrong matches is to add more details to your search.



Precise adjustment makes the pursuit faster, too.



Access offers several tools for fine-tuning a Find. Open the Find and Replace dialog box by clicking the Find button on the toolbar or by choosing Edit --> Find. The following list describes how to use the various options:



  • Look In: By default, Access looks for matches only in the current field — whichever field you clicked in before starting the Find command. To tell Access to search the entire table instead, change the Look In setting to the Table option, as shown in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: To search the entire table, change the Look In setting.

  • Match: Access makes a few silly assumptions, and this setting is a good example. By default, Match is set to Whole Field, which assumes that you want to find only fields that completely match your search text. The Whole Field setting means that searching for Sam doesn't find fields containing Samuel, Samantha, or Mosam. Not too bright for such an expensive program, is it? Change this behavior by adjusting the Match setting to Any Part of Field, which allows a match anywhere in a field (finding both Samuel and new sample product), or to Start of Field, which recognizes only a match that starts from the beginning of the field. To change this setting, click the down arrow next to the field (see Figure 3) and then make your choice from the drop-down menu that appears.

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Figure 3: Look insideall those little fields by using the Match option.

  • Search: If you're finding too many matches, try limiting your search to one particular portion of the table with the Search option. Search tells the Find command to look either

• At all the records in the table (the default setting)


• Up or Down from the current record


    Clicking a record halfway through the table and then telling Access to search Down from there confines your search to the bottom part of the table.

    Tune your Search settings by clicking the down arrow next to the Search box and choosing the appropriate choice from the drop-down menu.

  • Match Case: Match Case requires that the term you search for be exactly the same as the value stored in the database, including the case of the characters. In other words, if the database contains the oddly capitalized name SmItH, Match Case finds that value only if you search for the name using exactly the same odd capitalization (in this case, SmItH). Match Case works very well when searching your database for names.

  • Search Fields As Formatted: This option instructs Access to look at the formatted version of the field instead of the actual data you typed. Limiting the search in this way is handy when searching dates, stock-keeping unit IDs, or any other field with quite a bit of specialized formatting. Turn on Search Fields As Formatted by clicking the check box next to it. This setting doesn't work with Match Case, so if Match Case is checked, Search Fields As Formatted appears dimmed. In that case, uncheck Match Case to bring back Search Fields As Formatted.

    Most of the time, this option doesn't make much difference in your life. In fact, the only time you probably care about this Find option is when (or if) you search many highly formatted fields.

If your Find command isn't working the way you think it should, check the options in the preceding list. Odds are that one or more of these options aren't set quite right!









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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/finding-records-in-your-access-2003-tables.html

SAP Resources

Before you jump into the vast world of ERP, do your homework. Although the potential rewards are big, you don't want to make the leap alone. Fortunately, help is out there, both in online and human form. For tips, insights, and SAP information, check out some of these great resources:



  • Your SAP account representative: If you are new to the SAP family or do not currently have an SAP account representative, go to www.sap.com/contactsap/directory to locate the closest office.



  • The SAP Web site: For up-to-the-minute information on SAP, check out www.sap.com. The mySAP ERP section can be found in the Solutions area or by visiting www.sap.com/erp; the SAP NetWeaver section (with information on ESA) is at www.sap.com/netweaver.



  • The SAP Developer Network: For information that is slightly more technology-focused, try http://sdn.sap.com (registration necessary).



  • The SAP Community: The SAP community Web site can be found at www.sap.com/community (registration necessary). Here you can browse and watch replays of recent SAP and SAP customer presentations on all aspects of mySAP ERP and ESA, as well as discuss issues in various forums.



  • SAP Events: There are many SAP events, from the elaborate SAPPHIRE conference and SAP TechEd to local events such as The Best of SAP World Tour. All can be found under www.sap.com/events.



  • SAP Partners: Go to www.sap.com/partnersto find out about the myriad of partners that can extend or help you with mySAP ERP.



  • SAP User Groups: Go to www.sapgenie.com/usergroups(not an SAP-owned site) for a list of user groups.











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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/sap-resources.html

Figuring Out What iDVD Is All About

DVD is the medium of choice for movies, having replaced videotape in the last few years. DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc (not digital video disc, which is an older medium that has since bought the farm). The name reinforces the concept that DVD holds anything from video to music to photos and is a versatile medium to use — it is, in fact, the first consumer medium that allows the viewer to interact with the content by using menus to navigate the disc's movies, excerpts, photos, and multiple soundtracks.



DVD authoring is the process of assembling the contents of a DVD and designing the interface — the menus and buttons that allow you to navigate the contents. Authoring used to require expensive digital video and DVD mastering hardware and software and authoring expertise. But with iDVD and a SuperDrive-equipped Mac, you can easily create DVDs to distribute your own videos and presentations.



iDVD is an application that offers tools for creating DVDs that contain menus and buttons to navigate the contents of the discs. iDVD requires a Mac with an Apple SuperDrive, which is a DVD-R (recordable DVD) burner. Besides offering professionally designed menu themes with spectacular special effects, iDVD allows you to grab your photos from iPhoto, import your QuickTime movies from iMovie, and use your music from iTunes.



With iDVD, you can put movies on DVD, of course. But you can add the following features to the DVD besides a menu with a button to play a movie:



  • Mark sections of a movie you create with iMovie as chapters so that viewers can jump to specific sections. Those chapter titles can be automatically turned into a scene menu to access the specific sections of the movie.

  • Add nifty movie menus animated with scenes from the movie. You can define up to 30 menus in one iDVD project, and you can define up to six buttons in a menu that link to submenus, slideshows, or movies.

  • Create a slideshow of your photographs that is accompanied by music. Each slideshow can contain up to 99 images, and a DVD can contain up to 99 slideshows or movies in any combination.

You can fit up to 90 minutes of video on a DVD-R using iDVD, including all still images, backgrounds, and movies. However, if you put more than 60 minutes of video on a DVD-R, the picture quality may suffer because iDVD uses stronger compression with a slower bit rate to fit more than 60 minutes of video on the disc, and both factors reduce overall picture quality. The best approach is to limit each DVD-R to 60 minutes.



DVD is a mass-produced medium, like audio CDs. The discs are read-only — they can't be modified in any way, only viewed. To create even a mass-produced DVD, you have to burn a recordable DVD (DVD-R) with the content. The DVD-R serves as a master to mass-produce the type of DVDs you see in stores. With iDVD, you can burn a DVD-R that you can then use in normal DVD players, and you can also use the DVD-R as a master to provide a service that mass-produces DVDs.



Follow these steps to make a DVD:



1. Import all the content into iDVD.


iDVD enables you to import movies from iMovie projects, QuickTime movies, iPhoto slideshows, and iTunes songs and playlists.


2. Choose a theme for your DVD menus, buttons, and background.


iDVD is supplied with professionally designed themes that you can use to create your own menus and submenus. Themes provide a design that integrates menu elements in a consistent way and makes navigation easier. iDVD allows you to customize these themes into unique menus for your DVDs.


3. Customize the theme with your specific menus, buttons, backgrounds, and content.


After choosing a theme, you assign media elements, such as movies and sounds, to menus, buttons, and backgrounds, to make your DVD project look as professional as a commercial DVD. iDVD gives you a great deal of control over theme elements.


4. Preview and then burn your DVD-R.


iDVD makes previewing the interactive experience of your DVD-R easy, so you don't waste a blank disc on a flawed presentation. You can make changes and adjustments, and preview it again. When you're ready, you can then burn a DVD-R quickly and easily with your SuperDrive-equipped Mac.


You get one chance with a DVD-R — after you burn video to it, you can't rewrite it. Gather everything you want to put on the disc beforehand, so you don't waste a disc.



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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/figuring-out-what-idvd-is-all-about.html

Building More Storage into Your Home

One of the biggest complaints of home owners is the lack of storage; this can be a turn-off to likely buyers who are inspecting your home.


Showcasing your home is all about highlighting the possibilities. Here’s how to make more space for storage:



  • Rooms. Ensure each room in your property has some form of cupboard, cabinet or shelving. Even if the storage isn’t built-in, you can show the room’s potential for fitting in a wardrobe or bookshelf.



  • Roof space. Convert your roof space into an attic with a pull-down ladder and have it on display during open-for-inspection times. Even a crawl-space is somewhere to store old files and other treasures.



  • Shed. If you don’t have a garage, buy a garden shed big enough to fit a few tools and a bike or lawn-mower.











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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/building-more-storage-into-your-home.html

Adjusting Financial Statements for Depreciating Assets

When you close your business’s books for an accounting period, you may need to make some adjustments to the financial statements for depreciating assets. Recording asset depreciation in this way recognizes the use of assets in your business during the accounting period.


The largest noncash expense for most businesses is depreciation. Depreciation is an accounting exercise that reflects the use and aging of assets. Older assets need more maintenance and repair and also need to be replaced eventually. As the depreciation of an asset increases and the value of the asset dwindles, the need for more maintenance or replacement becomes apparent.


The time to actually make this adjustment to the books is when you close the books for an accounting period. (Some businesses record depreciation expenses every month to more accurately match monthly expenses with monthly revenues, but most business owners only worry about depreciation adjustments on a yearly basis, when they prepare their annual financial statements.)


Depreciation doesn’t involve the use of cash. By accumulating depreciation expenses on an asset, you’re reducing the value of the asset as shown on the balance sheet.


Readers of your financial statements can get a good idea of the health of your assets by reviewing accumulated depreciation. If assets are close to being fully depreciated, the report reader knows that you’ll probably need to spend significant funds on replacing or repairing those assets sometime soon. As he evaluates the financial health of the company, he takes that future obligation into consideration before making a decision to loan money to the company or possibly invest in it.


Usually, you calculate depreciation for accounting purposes using the straight-line depreciation method. This method is used to calculate an amount to be depreciated that will be equal each year based on the anticipated useful life of the asset.


As an example, suppose your company purchases a car for business purposes that costs $25,000. You anticipate that the car will have a useful lifespan of five years and will be worth $5,000 after five years. Using the straight-line depreciation method, you subtract $5,000 from the total car cost of $25,000 to find the value of the car during its five-year useful lifespan ($20,000).


Then, you divide $20,000 by 5 to find your depreciation expense for the car ($4,000 per year). When adjusting the assets at the end of each year in the car’s five-year lifespan, your entry to the books should look like this:






















DebitCredit
Depreciation Expense$4,000
Accumulated Depreciation: Vehicles
$4,000
To record depreciation for Vehicles.

This entry increases depreciation expenses, which appear on the income statement. The entry also increases Accumulated Depreciation, which is the use of the asset and appears on the balance sheet under the Vehicles asset line. The Vehicle asset line always shows the value of the asset at the time of purchase.


You can speed up depreciation if you believe that the asset will not be used evenly over its lifespan — namely, that the asset will be used more heavily in the early years of ownership.


If you use a computerized accounting system, you may or may not need to make this adjustment at the end of an accounting period. If your system is set up with an asset management feature, depreciation is automatically calculated, and you don’t have to worry about it. Check with your accountant to verify this before calculating and recording depreciation expenses.




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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/adjusting-financial-statements-for-depreciating-as.html

Making Scanned Documents Searchable and Editable

When you scan a document directly into a PDF file, Acrobat captures all the text and graphics on each page as though they were all just one big graphic image. This is fine as far as it goes, except that it doesn't go very far because you can neither edit nor search the PDF document (because, as far as Acrobat is concerned, the document doesn't contain any text to edit or search, just one humongous graphic). That's where the Paper Capture plug-in in Acrobat 5 for Windows comes into play: You can use it to make a PDF that you can just search or both search and edit.



For some unknown reason, some of the first copies of Acrobat 5 for Windows shipped without the Paper Capture plug-in. If you find that your Tools menu in Acrobat 5 is missing the Paper Capture item, you need to download and install the Paper Capture plug-in from the Adobe Web site. Note that the Paper Capture plug-in has a 50-page document limit. If you need to process PDF documents over 50 pages in length, you need to look into purchasing Adobe Acrobat Capture, a full-blown version of the Paper Capture plug-in that can handle longer documents.



To use Paper Capture, all you have to do is choose Tools --> Paper Capture to open the Paper Capture Plug-In dialog box, select the page or pages to be processed (All Pages, Current Page, or From Page x to y), and then click the OK button; the Paper Capture utility does the rest. As it processes the page or pages in the document that you designated, a Paper Capture Plug-In alert dialog box keeps you informed of its progress in preparing and performing the page recognition. When Paper Capture finishes doing the page recognition, this alert dialog box disappears and you can then save the changes to your PDF document with the File --> Save command.



When doing the page recognition in a PDF document, the Paper Capture plug-in offers you a choice between the following three Output Style options:



  • Formatted Text & Graphics to make the text in the PDF document both editable and searchable. Select this setting if you not only want to be able to find text in the document but also possibly make editing changes to it.

  • Searchable Image (Exact) to make the text in the PDF document searchable but not editable (this is the default setting). Use this setting if you're processing a document that needs to be searchable but should never be edited in any way, such as an executed contract.

  • Searchable Image (Compact) to make the text in the PDF document searchable but not editable and to compress its graphics. Select this setting if you're processing a document whose text requires searching without editing and that also contains a fair number of graphic images that need compressing. When you select this setting, Paper Capture applies JPEG compression to color images and ZIP compression to black-and-white images.

To select a different output style setting, click the Preferences button in the Paper Capture Plug-In dialog box to open the Preferences dialog box. This dialog box not only enables you to select a new output style in the PDF Output Style pop-up menu but also to designate the primary language used in the text in the Primary OCR Language pop-up menu (OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, which is the kind of software that Paper Capture uses to recognize and convert text captured as a graphic into text that can be searched and edited).



If your PDF document contains graphic images, you can tell Paper Capture how much to compress the images by selecting the maximum resolution in the Downsample Images pop-up menu. This menu offers you three options in addition to None (for no compression): Low (300 dpi), Medium (150 dpi), and High (72 dpi). The Low, Medium, and High options refer to the amount of compression applied to the images, and the values 300, 150, and 72 dpi (dots per inch) refer to their resolution and thus their quality. As always, the higher the amount of compression, the smaller the file size and the lower the image quality.



After processing the pages of your PDF document with the Paper Capture plug-in, use the Find feature (Ctrl+F on Windows and Command key+F on the Mac) to search for words or phrases in the text to verify it can be searched. If you used the Formatted Text & Graphics output style in doing the page recognition, you can select the TouchUp Text Tool by clicking its button on the Editing toolbar or by typing T, and then click the I-beam pointer in a line of text to select the line with a bounding box to verify that you can edit the text as well. Always remember to use File --> Save to save the changes made to your document by processing with Paper Capture.










dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/making-scanned-documents-searchable-and-editable.html

Network Server Setup: Final Preparations

Before you begin the actual installation of the network operating system (NOS) and related software and configuration of your server, you should take a few more steps:



  • Clean up the server’s disk by uninstalling any software that you don’t need and removing any old data that is no longer needed. This cleanup is especially important if you're converting a computer that’s been in use as a client computer to a server. You probably don’t need Microsoft Office or a bunch of games on the computer after it becomes a server.



  • Do a complete backup of the computer. Operating system setup programs are almost flawless, so the chances of losing data during installation are minimal. But you still face the chance that something may go wrong.



  • If the computer is connected to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that has a serial or USB connection to the computer, unplug the serial or USB connection. In some cases, this control connection can confuse the operating system’s setup program when it tries to determine which devices are attached to the computer.



  • If the computer has hard drives compressed with DriveSpace or DoubleSpace, uncompress the drives before you begin.



  • Light some votive candles, take two Tylenol, and put on a pot of coffee.






dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/network-server-setup-final-preparations.html

Foods to Choose if You&#8217;re Hypoglycemic

You can help manage your hypoglycemia, often referred to as low blood sugar, by choosing foods that improve your condition. You can enjoy a variety of foods, and the foods in the following list are tasty and healthy:



  • Organic meats (grass-fed, if possible), vegetables, and fruits whenever you can



  • High-quality protein (fish, poultry, lean meat, free-range eggs)



  • Fresh fruits, preferably with a meal or half an hour before. Eat blueberries and raspberries often; stone fruits, such as peaches and nectarines, are also good. You may not be able to tolerate fruit initially. If that’s the case, wait several months before trying again.



  • Fresh vegetables, especially dark, leafy greens, lightly cooked or, as much as possible, raw



  • Raw, unsalted, unseasoned nuts and seeds



  • Alternative sweeteners, such as stevia



  • Filtered water











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/foods-to-choose-if-youre-hypoglycemic.html

Using a Holistic Approach to Counselling

Each person is an individual with different experiences helping form who and where he or she is today. The BEST-I BEST-R model will remind you of this:



  • Body



  • Emotion



  • Sensation



  • Thinking



  • Imagery



  • Behaviour



  • Environment



  • Spirit



  • Time



  • Relationships











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/using-a-holistic-approach-to-counselling.html

Items to Have on Hand during Dog Photo Sessions

Besides all the doggie accouterments you'll need to have on hand, you also need to focus on your accessories to have during dog photography sessions. These aren’t requirements at all, but they may come in handy along the way.



  • Air blower: An air blower is a handy little device with a plastic bulb on one end that shoots out air when it’s compressed. It’s a great tool to clear away dust (or dog hair) from your camera lens!


    Never use compressed cans of air on your photography equipment though, because every once in a while, they have a habit of releasing liquid, which you don’t want to get on your gear.



  • Lens cloth: When photographing dogs, you’re bound to get a wet nose to the camera lens eventually. A lens cloth is a specially designed piece of fabric that won’t scratch that expensive glass.



  • Lens filter: To protect an expensive camera lens from scratches, consider purchasing a clear filter that screws on to the front of your camera lens. It’s way cheaper to replace a scratched filter than a scratched camera lens.



  • Extra batteries: Most digital cameras come with batteries that last many hours before needing to be recharged. If you plan on shooting for an entire day, though, have a charged backup battery in your camera bag.



  • Clothes to get dirty in: Choosing an outfit you don’t mind rolling around on the ground in is especially important if you’re photographing outdoors. You may find yourself having to lie face first in the grass to get certain angles of your pooch.



  • Patience: Patience may not be a tangible accessory you can fit in your camera bag, but patience is one of the single most important traits a dog photographer can possess. This is especially true if your dog happens to be an obedience school dropout. What can we say, school’s not for everyone!



  • Assistant (wrangler/treat dangler): Having a friend or family member available to help out during a photo session makes your experience more enjoyable and allows you to spend more time focusing on your photography than on whether Gottlieb is sitting still.






dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/items-to-have-on-hand-during-dog-photo-sessions.html

Key Business Contract Terms

If you’re dealing with business contracts, you need to be able to speak the language. Some common contract terms you may encounter while doing business are defined in the following list:



  • Boilerplate: Standard contract terms, usually found at the end of the contract, that are important but that do not reflect the essence of the deal. Examples of boilerplate terms include provisions describing notice, governing law, or payment of attorneys’ fees.



  • Breach: A claim by one party to a contract that the other party has failed to perform as required under the contract.



  • Conditions: Provisions in a contract that deal with the certain events happening or not happening. Conditions are like triggers that, when pulled, cause some other part of the contract to come into effect.



  • Consideration: A benefit or right that the parties to a contract exchange with each other in order to form the contract. Consideration can be a promise to do something (such as a promise to pay money or to lease your office space) or a promise not to do something (a promise not to lease your office space to your neighbor’s biggest competitor), but whatever the parties exchange with each other, each party’s consideration must be something of value to it.



  • Damages: A type of remedy for a party’s breach of a valid contract. Damages usually involve an award of money to the injured, non-breaching party.



  • Recitals: Language at the beginning of the contract that describes why the parties are entering into the contract. Recitals are not always legally enforceable, so always repeat significant contract terms in the body of the contract after words such as “the parties agree as follows.”











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/key-business-contract-terms.html

For Seniors: Share Videos and Photos Online

The ability to share photos and videos online is a wonderful way to connect to others. Upload videos or photos to an online sharing site, then share them with your friends and family via e-mail or through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or personal blogs.


There are many video and photo sharing sites online. Most offer some kind of free service plus a more premium service for a fee. Typically, you get to control who can view your photos and whether or not they can comment on them. Popular video and/or photo sharing services include as YouTube, PhotoBucket, DropShots, Flickr, Kodak Gallery, and SmugMug. In addition, you can share images on your social networking page.


Do be cautious about what images or videos you share if your page isn’t totally private. It’s easy to copy images or download videos from the web and distribute them widely, so if you wouldn’t want anybody in your life to see a particular image or video with you in it, don’t post it.


Photo sharing sites often offer related photo services, such as printing photos and using them to create unique gifts such as photo mugs, cell phone skins, photo books, calendars, cards, and more.










dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/for-seniors-share-videos-and-photos-online.html

Analyzing the Mouthfeel and Body of Beer

The tactile aspects of beer evaluation are mouthfeel and body. You can literally feel the beer in your mouth and describe it in familiar physical terms (such as thick and thin). These aspects can be described like this:



  • Mouthfeel: This aspect is the sensory experience of the whole inside of the mouth and throat. You don’t taste cold; you feel it. Finely carbonated beers (with their small bubbles) tend to have a creamy mouthfeel. So a continental lager beer may be effervescent, while a Stout is soft and chewy, but none of these descriptions has anything to do with how the beer tastes. Mouthfeel is how the beer feels (to you — this isn’t about the beer’s self-esteem).



  • Body: In beer competitions, judges use the term body to refer to the weight or thickness of a beer. A light beer is described as light-bodied, an India Pale Ale is considered medium-bodied, and a Doppelbock is full-bodied. Higher carbonation levels help clear the palate and create the impression of a lighter-bodied beer.


    Colorful descriptors, such as wimpy, voluptuous, massive, robust, and chewy, are effective at getting the point across. Obviously, just as with people, one body type isn’t necessarily better than another — thin folks, heavy folks, and everyone in between make the world an interesting place.




Win friends and influence people by using some of the other mouthfeel terms that pros use, such as astringent, crisp, flat, full, gassy, light, sharp, smooth, thin, thick, vinous (winey), viscous, and watery. Phew!











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/analyzing-the-mouthfeel-and-body-of-beer.html

American Football Passing Terms

When discussing the passing game in American football, you use certain words and descriptions. Because passing involves the quarterback throwing the football, many of these terms relate to preventing or trying to prevent a receiver from catching that pass:



  • Deflection: A deflection happens when a defensive player uses his hands or arms to knock down (or deflect) a pass before it reaches the receiver. This act usually occurs near the line of scrimmage when defensive linemen jump, arms raised, into a quarterback’s visual passing lane, hoping to deflect the pass. Deflections can lead to an interception or incompletion.



  • Holding: Holding is the most common penalty called against the offense when it’s attempting to pass. The offense receives a 10-yard penalty (and repeat of down) when any offensive player holds a defensive player by grabbing his jersey or locking his arm onto the defensive player’s arm while that player is trying to sack the quarterback. This penalty is also known as illegal use of the hands, arms, or any part of the body.



  • Illegal forward pass: A quarterback can’t cross the line of scrimmage and throw the ball. This penalty often occurs when the quarterback runs forward, attempting to evade defensive players, and forgets where the line of scrimmage is. The offense is penalized 5 yards from the spot of the foul and loses a down.



  • Intentional grounding: This penalty occurs when a quarterback standing in the pocket deliberately throws the ball out of bounds or into the ground. It can be interpreted in the following three ways, with the first two drastically penalizing the offense:



    • No. 1: The quarterback is attempting to pass from his own end zone and, prior to being tackled, intentionally grounds the ball, throwing it out of bounds or into the ground. The defense is awarded a safety, worth two points, and the offense loses possession of the ball and has to kick the ball from its own 20-yard line. (NFL teams usually kick off from the 30-yard line.)



    • No. 2: The quarterback is trapped more than 10 yards behind his own line of scrimmage and intentionally grounds the ball for fear of being tackled for a loss. This penalty is a loss of down, and the ball is placed at the spot of the foul, which in this case is where the quarterback was standing when he grounded the ball. Otherwise, the intentional grounding penalty calls for loss of down and 10 yards.



    • No. 3: The quarterback steps back from the center and immediately throws the ball into the ground, intentionally grounding it. This play is common when an offense wants to stop the clock because it either wants to preserve its timeouts or is out of timeouts. For this type of intentional grounding, the penalty is simply a loss of a down.





  • Interception: An interception is the act of any defensive player catching a pass. Along with a fumble, an interception is the worst thing that can happen to a quarterback and his team. It’s called a turnover because the defensive team gains possession of the ball and is allowed to run with the ball in an attempt to score.



  • Roughing the passer: This penalty was devised to protect the quarterback from injury. After the ball leaves the quarterback’s hand, any defensive player must attempt to avoid contact with him. Because a defensive player’s momentum may cause him to inadvertently run into the quarterback, he’s allowed to take one step after he realizes that the ball has been released. But if he hits the quarterback on his second step, knowing that the ball is gone, the referee (the official standing near the quarterback) can call roughing. It’s a 15-yard penalty against the defense and an automatic first down.


    This penalty is difficult to call unless the defensive player clearly hits the quarterback well after the quarterback releases the ball. After all, it’s pretty tough for defensive ends, who are usually over 6 feet and weigh 250 pounds, to come to an abrupt stop from a full sprint.



  • Sack: A sack happens when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage by any defensive player.



  • Trapping: Receivers are asked to make a lot of difficult catches, but this one is never allowed. Trapping is when a receiver uses the ground to help him catch a pass that’s thrown on a low trajectory. For an official to not rule a reception a trap, the receiver must make sure either his hands or his arms are between the ball and the ground when he makes a legal catch. Often, this play occurs so quickly, only instant replay can show that the receiver wasn’t in possession of the ball — instead it shows that he trapped it.






dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/american-football-passing-terms.html

Tech Resources for Entrepreneurs

Technology affects practically every entrepreneurial venture, and savvy entrepreneurs know which tech resources to turn to. You use technology to help determine what to sell, how to sell it, where it's selling, and who's buying it. To keep on top of technology, browse these Web sites periodically for helpful information:



  • Wired.com: Find articles on what’s happening in the world of technology.



  • Slashdot.com: See tech information before it hits the newsstands.



  • CNN.com Technology: All of CNN’s great tech resources, including archives of its popular technology TV shows.



  • CNNMoney.com Small Business: Great online articles about businesses that use technology to get ahead.



  • ZDNet: Everything you ever wanted to know about e-commerce, even technical help.



  • CNET: Home of tech news, auctions, hardware and software reviews, helpful hints, Internet tools, and Web building tools.



  • Free Websites Directory: Ratings of free hosts on their reliability, features, ease of use, speed, and size.











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/tech-resources-for-entrepreneurs.html

Canadian Gardening Frost Dates by Region

Canadian gardeners need to know when the growing season in their area begins and ends so they can avoid losing plants to frost. This chart provides frost dates across Canada. To be extra careful, plant or transplant temperature-sensitive plants ten days after the dates below. For more Canadian locations, go to tdc’s FarmGate.











































































LocationLast Frost DateFirst Frost DateTypical Number of Frost-Free Days
St. John’sJune 2October 12132
HalifaxMay 6October 20167
MontrealMay 3October 7157
TorontoMay 9October 6150
WinnipegMay 25September 22120
ReginaMay 21September 10112
CalgaryMay 23September 15115
YellowknifeMay 27September 15111
WhitehorseJune 11August 2575
VancouverMarch 28November 5222
VictoriaMarch 1December 1275



dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/canadian-gardening-frost-dates-by-region.html

What Is Currency Trading?

Currency trading is speculation, pure and simple. The securities you’re speculating with are the currencies of various countries. For that reason, currency trading is both about the dynamics of market speculation, or trading, and the factors that affect the value of currencies. Put them together and you’ve got the largest, most dynamic, and most exciting financial market in the world.


Often called the forex market (or FX market), the foreign exchange market is the crossroads for international capital, the intersection through which global commercial and investment flows have to move. International trade flows, such as when a Swiss electronics company purchases Japanese-made components, were the original basis for the development of the forex markets.


The forex market is unique in many respects:



  • Because the volumes are huge, liquidity is ever present.



  • The forex market operates around the clock six days a week, giving traders access to the market any time they need it.



  • Few trading restrictions exist — no daily trading limits up or down, no restrictions on position sizes, and no requirements on selling a currency pair short.



  • There are anywhere from 15 to 20 different currency pairs — pitting the U.S. dollar (USD) against other countries’ currencies or pitting two non-USD currencies against each other — depending on which forex brokerage you deal with.



  • Most individual traders trade currencies via the Internet through a brokerage firm. Online currency trading is typically done on a margin basis, which allows individual traders to trade in larger amounts by leveraging the amount of margin on deposit.




Speculating is all about taking on financial risk in the hope of making a profit. But it’s not gambling (playing with money even when you know the odds are stacked against you) or investing (minimizing risk and maximizing return, usually over a long time period). Speculating, or active trading, is about taking calculated financial risks to attempt to realize a profitable return, usually over a very short time horizon.




dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-is-currency-trading.html

Singing with Outie Breathing (or, Appoggio)

Your lungs, which are housed within your rib cage, allow the ribs to open as you inhale — and for singers, letting them stay open on the exhale is beneficial. This is also known as outie breathing, or appoggio (that’s Italian for “support” or “lean”). Don’t force your ribs to stay open, but allow them to stay open.


Even if the words force and allow seem similar, they’re different. Forcing the ribs to stay open results in pressure being put on your body and a tight sound.


When you’ve been working with breath for some time and you can easily manage quick, efficient inhalation and have some control over longer exhalation, try the exercise that follows.




  1. Practice flexing open your ribs.


    Stand in front of the mirror and try to open your rib cage. You want to open your ribs on the side of your body, not raise your chest. Watch the movement in your body to make sure that you’re not lifting your chest.


    It may take a few tries before you can figure out how to open the ribs. When you know how to move them, allow the ribs to open as you inhale. The area that you’re trying to move is at the bottom of the rib cage.




  2. Inhale and open your ribs.


    Practice inhaling and allow your ribs to open. If you aim the air at the lowest rib, you can open the ribs without forcing your chest to rise.




  3. Work for a time just allowing your ribs to open when you inhale and to close as you exhale.


    As this becomes easier, allow the ribs to stay open longer on the exhalation.




  4. Inhale and allow your ribs to open.


    Leave the ribs open as you exhale. Take the next breath and allow your abdominal muscles to expand.




  5. Now that your ribs are open and your abdominal muscles are expanded, exhale.


    As you exhale, allow the abs to move in as the ribs stay out.




  6. As you reach the end of your breath, allow the ribs to gradually close or collapse back to their normal position.




  7. Exhale, moving your abs first and then your ribs.




The long-term goal of this exercise is to provide you with the option of opening the ribs as you inhale and letting them close by choice, depending on the length of the phrase you’re singing. Try to keep your ribs open if you have to sing a long phrase. This motion may take a month or more to master. Keep trying.



dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/singing-with-outie-breathing-or-appoggio.html

Decorate Paper Tableware for a Budget&#8211;Smart Christmas


9 of 9 in Series:
The Essentials of Decorating for Your Christmas Party





Don't be afraid to use paper tableware such as plates, cups, and napkins for Christmas entertaining and decorating. Paper goods come in many holiday motifs, but those fancy designs add to the price. Be budget-smart: Buy plain, inexpensive paper items and add a little of your own Christmas style with these fun decorating tips:



  • Embellish paper napkins: Stamp or stencil paper napkins with a Christmas motif to help change the ordinary into something really cool.


    Purchase a large quantity of napkins with your monogram or a Christmas motif from at a wedding or party supply store that does personalized napkins. You can use the napkins for years to come.



  • Decorate paper tablecloths: Decorate your paper tablecloth just as you would any other type of paper. Instead of place cards (which would be odd anyway, because you’re using paper), write directly on the tablecloth for a touch of whimsy. Provide crayons at your table and then encourage your guests to draw before, during, or after dinner.


    Believe it or not, you can iron paper. Just be sure that the paper you’re ironing isn’t plastic backed (it will melt), and that you use your iron on the lowest setting possible with no steam. Gradually increase the temperature of your iron if the creases are not ironing out. Never leave an iron unattended, and make sure you keep the iron moving across the paper!



  • Make vellum table runners: Vellum, a translucent paper, can be bought in large rolls at office supply or architectural drafting supply stores. To make a quick custom table runner, roll paper down the center of your table and trim the edges as desired. Stamp Christmas motifs or designs on the edges of your runner, or grab a paint pen in complementary colors and write along the edges to wish your guests a happy holiday, give them a blessing, or remind them of a favorite quote.



  • Dress up the paper cups: Ribbons, markers, paint, stamps, or attached paper adornments are creative ways to customize paper cups.



  • Make paper place mats: Place mats usually measure 10 x 14 inches. Cut 11-x-17-inch paper down to size, or get creative and use other paper products, such as unique shopping bags, handmade paper, mat board, or poster board. If you like a particular type of paper, but it’s not big enough to make a 10-x-14-inch place mat, you can piece odd-shaped strips of paper together to make the proper size place mat, and then tape them together on the back sides.


    Keep embellishments on your paper place mats to a minimum; your place mats will mainly be used for protecting your surfaces. Decorate the edges with paint, stamps, or stencils, but keep the accents flat so that you won’t have to arrange flatware around any three-dimensional attached pieces.



  • Decorate paperboard food containers: Chinese food containers come in different colors and sizes and are great to have on hand for guests to take home leftovers.


    You can use these containers for party favors, too. Stack gourmet cookies, pile in party mixes, or include nice little personal items like bath salts or small lotions and potions. You can put whatever you want into the containers.


    You can leave them plain, or embellish them with paper cutouts, markers, paints, ribbons, stamps, iron-on monograms, or anything else you can come up with.



  • Use paper portion cups: Paper nut cups can be a party favorite when they hold tiny tummy yummies, such as almonds, peanuts, mints, or chocolate truffles. Plus, they’re sort of retro and cool.














dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/decorate-paper-tableware-for-a-budgetsmart-christm.navId-407119.html

Performing a Cost-Benefit Analysis

Whether you know it as a cost-benefit analysis or a benefit-cost analysis, performing one is critical to any project. When you perform a cost-benefit analysis, you make a comparative assessment of all the benefits you anticipate from your project and all the costs to introduce the project, perform it, and support the changes resulting from it.


Cost-benefit analyses help you to



  • Decide whether to undertake a project or decide which of several projects to undertake.



  • Frame appropriate project objectives.



  • Develop appropriate before and after measures of project success.



  • Prepare estimates of the resources required to perform the project work.




Everything gets a dollar value in a cost-benefit analysis


You can express some anticipated benefits in monetary equivalents (such as reduced operating costs or increased revenue). For other benefits, numerical measures can approximate some, but not all, aspects. If your project is to improve staff morale, for example, you may consider associated benefits to include reduced turnover, increased productivity, fewer absences, and fewer formal grievances. Whenever possible, express benefits and costs in monetary terms to facilitate the assessment of a project’s net value.


Consider costs for all phases of the project. Such costs may be nonrecurring (such as labor, capital investment, and certain operations and services) or recurring (such as changes in personnel, supplies, and materials or maintenance and repair). In addition, consider the following:



  • Potential costs of not doing the project



  • Potential costs if the project fails



  • Opportunity costs (in other words, the potential benefits if you had spent your funds successfully performing a different project)




Cost-benefit analysis: Weighing future values today


The farther into the future you look when performing your analysis, the more important it is to convert your estimates of benefits over costs into today’s dollars. Unfortunately, the farther you look, the less confident you can be of your estimates. For example, you may expect to reap benefits for years from a new computer system, but changing technology may make your new system obsolete after only one year.


Thus, the following two key factors influence the results of a cost-benefit analysis:



  • How far into the future you look to identify benefits



  • On which assumptions you base your analysis




Although you may not want to go out and design a cost-benefit analysis by yourself, you definitely want to see whether your project already has one and, if it does, what the specific results of that analysis were.


The net present value (NPV) is based on the following two premises:



  • Inflation: The purchasing power of a dollar will be less one year from now than it is today. If the rate of inflation is 3 percent for the next 12 months, $1 today will be worth 97 cents just 12 months from today. In other words, 12 months from now, you’ll pay $1 to buy what you paid 97 cents for today.



  • Lost return on investment: If you spend money to perform the project being considered, you’ll forego the future income you could earn by investing it conservatively today. For example, if you put $1 in a bank and receive simple interest at the rate of 3 percent compounded annually, 12 months from today you’ll have $1.03 (assuming zero-percent inflation).




To address these considerations when determining the NPV, you specify the following numbers:



  • Discount rate: The factor that reflects the future value of $1 in today’s dollars, considering the effects of both inflation and lost return on investment



  • Allowable payback period: The length of time for anticipated benefits and estimated costs




In addition to determining the NPV for different discount rates and payback periods, figure the project’s internal rate of return for each payback period.











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/performing-a-costbenefit-analysis.html

Incorporate Christian Prayer into Your Life in Three Weeks

Develop the habit of Christian prayer in just 21 days! Following the schedule in the following steps, you'll be surprised by how much Christian prayer can become part of your life after just three weeks.



  1. Determine the optimal prayer time that you're going to set aside to pray.



  2. Choose a specific location where you know you can be quiet at that time.


    Go to that same place each day at the specific time you've set aside for prayer.



  3. Spend those minutes in prayer.



  4. For those 21 days, stick with it no matter what.


    If you happen to miss a day, don't get down on yourself. Just make sure that you get back into the routine again the following day.











dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/incorporate-christian-prayer-into-your-life-in-thr.html

Organizing Images Automatically with a Photoshop Elements 9 Smart Album

In the Photoshop Elements 9 Organizer, you can perform a search based on a number of different criteria — and ultimately save the searches in a Smart Album. You can, for example, rate images with stars and choose to view all files with three or more stars, or maybe you changed camera models and want to show only the photos taken with your newest camera. You can search a catalog by metadata, location (Windows-only), or another criterion. Furthermore, you can combine searches, first searching for (say) a location and then searching the files within a given date range.


A Smart Album saves not only the search results but also a complex set of search criteria. You create a Smart Album in Photoshop Elements 9 by following these steps:



  1. Open the New menu in the Albums panel and choosing New Smart Album.


    The New Smart Album dialog box opens.



  2. Type a name for your new Smart Album and make selections for the search criteria below the Name text box.



  3. Click OK, and the Smart Album is listed above the albums in the Albums panel.


    After you create a Smart Album, Elements automatically updates the album with photos that meet your search criteria.






dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/organizing-images-automatically-with-a-photoshop-e.html

Choosing Bouquets and Boutonnieres for Your Wedding

The term personal flowers refers not only to the bride's bouquet and groom's boutonniere, but also to all the flowers worn or carried by attendants, family members, or others you wish to honor. Men often have preferences, some quite specific, for the boutonniere they sport on their wedding day. For brides, though, the flowers they carry as they walk towards married life are the ultimate — and very visible — accompaniment to their wedding dress.



Specify exactly where you want the florist to deliver your personal flowers and that you want them all labeled to avoid even the slightest chance that an usher may try to pin the flower girl's posy to his lapel.



Bride and attendants


At the beginning of the twentieth century, brides and bridesmaids carried such elaborate bouquets that the women practically needed a wheelbarrow to transport them down the aisle. Bouquets can be striking but never distracting; you want all eyes on the carrier, not on her bouquet. As an accessory, the bouquet should complement the dress as well as the size and shape of the wearer. Bridesmaids' bouquets need not be dwarf versions of the bride's, but can be mini works of art in themselves.



Antique lace, organza, or wired ribbon wrapped around the stems finish a bouquet beautifully, but with some cost. One of our favorite looks is having each bridesmaid carry a different vibrantly colored bouquet finished with matching ribbon streamers.



For years, people considered only one styleof bouquet to be appropriate for formal weddings: all white roses, stephanotis, and lily of the valley. This idea is no longer the case. At even extremely formal ceremonies, brides now carry a variety of flowers, colors, and shapes.



Flowers, however dazzling and pure, can cause you grief if they aren't prepared with meticulous care. Before handing them to attendants, ask someone to check them to make sure they're dry and that any stamens that might stain dresses have been removed.



Hold your bouquet by placing your elbows at your hipbones and grasping the stems or handle with both hands in front of your belly button. You should be able to do this while linking your arm with one person, unless you choose a pageant or presentation bouquet, which you must cradle in both arms. In other words, who is walking you down the aisle and how you walk together affects the kind of bouquet you can comfortably carry. See Figure 1 for some examples of bouquet types.



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Figure 1: A bouquet's shape and style are as important as the kind of flowers it contains.

  • Biedermeier: Tightly composed concentric circles of individual colors, wired into a lace collar or other holder.

  • Cascade or shower: Classic, elaborate shape with ivy and long-stemmed flowers that are wired or pulled out to droop gracefully in a waterfall effect.

  • Composite: A flower constructed of hundreds of real petals wired together to look like one enormous flower.

  • Crescent: Composed of one full flower and a flowering stem, often orchids, wired together to form a slender handle that you can hold in one hand. Designed as either a full crescent, a half circle with a central flower and blossoms emanating from two sides, or as a semicrescent, which has only one trailing stem.

  • Nosegays: Round bouquets (16 or 18 inches in diameter) composed of flowers, greenery, and occasionally sprigs of herbs, all wired or tied together.

  • Posies: Smaller versions of nosegays. Ribbons and silk flowers are often integrated into them.

  • Presentation: The pageant bouquet — long-stemmed flowers cradled in your arms.

  • Tossing: A bouquet used for tossing so you can save the actual wedding bouquet for posterity. No need to duplicate the original; the tossing bouquet can be entirely different.

  • Tussy mussy: From the Victorian era, a posy in a small metal hand-held vase. Some have attached ring chains for easy carrying.

Instead of a bouquet, consider using fewer flowers in these innovative ways:



  • An heirloom prayer book accessorized with flowers

  • A single long-stemmed flower such as a calla lily, rose, or Casablanca lily

  • A wreath of flowers worn in the hair

  • A hat adorned with fresh flowers

  • A comb, barrette, or headband covered in lace, ribbon, and flowers

  • A border of flowers on your veil or hem of your dress

Mothers, stepmothers, fathers' girlfriends, and others


Say "corsage" and many women think "blue hair," not to mention pinholes in their fancy silk frock. Alternatives exist, including tussy mussies (ornate Victorian bouquet holders), flowers pinned to a handbag, or a floral bracelet, much like a minigarland — not to be confused with wrist corsages, which can be as dowdy as the pinned version. Some florists now use magnets to hold corsages in place on a dress. Ask your florist for this option if a pinned-on corsage is a must-have.



Grooms, ushers, stepfathers, mothers' boyfriends, and others


No longer the standard-issue white senior-prom carnation, the groom's boutonniere may be the same as one of the flowers in the bride's bouquet — as if plucked from there. The ones he chooses for his ushers and other gentlemen he wants to honor should reflect his personal style and be appropriate for their outfits. These flowers should neither brown around the edges nor wilt in the heat and should be hardy enough to withstand hours of hugs.



A few replacements for trite lapel pins:



  • Cornflowers

  • Acorns

  • Vibrant-colored roses set with a sprig of herbs

  • Berries backed by a galax leaf

  • Variegated ivy, fern, and pine

  • A stem of hydrangea

Also, having the stems wrapped with spiffy ribbon in an unexpected color or design can turn a mundane boutonniere into something dapper.



Men should wear boutonnieres on their left side and pin them on the underside of the lapel so that no part of the pin shows.



Order extra boutonnieres because they're relatively inexpensive and one or two may not survive ham-fisted attempts at pinning or may get crushed by well-wishers. Besides, it's good to have extras for any forgotten menfolk.



Little touches for little people


When dealing with flower children (or any children, for that matter), keep accessories in proportion to the child's size. You don't want your flower girl to look like an ungainly flowering plant moving down the aisle. Some simple floral alternatives to the traditional flower basket include



  • Circlet: A ribbon or twig band accented with blossoms and worn on girls' heads.

  • Garland: Birch vines covered with smilax and flowers and carried in tandem by two or three very young children. This arrangement looks adorable and also keeps them together.

  • Hoop: Made of vine strung with flowers and carried like a tambourine.

  • Pomander: AStyrofoam ball, covered in lace and tulle and trimmed with floral heads, which hangs on the wrist (see Figure 1).

Fresh petals can be slippery. If you wish to follow children strewing petals from baskets, show them how to sprinkle them, alternating sides of the path rather than straight down the danger zone.



The ring bearer's main accessory is the ring pillow, which may be sewn of luxurious fabrics such as satin, silk, velvet, or organza. These pillows are sometimes embroidered or trimmed with silk, natural flowers, or ornate tassels. The rings are tied on with attached ribbons. As special as the pillow is, the ring bearer may be more interested in wearing a boutonniere identical to that of the ushers. The ring pillow should never have the real rings on it. To protect the child's ego, attach fake rings and have the best man make a display of untying them. The real rings are, of course, safe with the best man and maid of honor.









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Overcoming Dyslexia For Dummies

If you think your child may have dyslexia, look for the warning signs so you can have a physician make a proper diagnosis. You can minimize the effects of dyslexia by using a variety of teaching techniques that involve memorization, rhyming, phonics, and multisensory training to help your child learn to read and write.






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Spotting Dyslexia Warning Signs


A dyslexic person, although bright in many areas, struggles long-term with written (and sometimes spoken) words. A psychologist can identify that your child is dyslexic by a variety symptoms but you should lookout for warning signs that include the following:



  • Lack of interest in letters and words at a young age.



  • Inability to identify rhyming words (like hat, pat, and fat) and word patterns (like Bill, bear, bun, bed, and ball, all beginning with “buh”) at an early age.



  • Difficulty remembering names of familiar objects, numbers, colors, and shapes at an early age.



  • Inability to remember sequences of numbers (like 911 in an emergency) or letters (like the alphabet) or fast facts (like multiplication tables).



  • Extreme difficulty with reading. A dyslexic child may leave out little words (like of), misread small everyday words (like they) even though he reads some harder words, read similar-looking words instead of actual words (like was for saw and horse for house), read words that are similar in meaning instead of actual words (reading little for small or lovely for pretty), and read words that make no sense but have one or two letters that are in the actual word (like tall instead of lot because both words have l and t in them). A dyslexic child might, for example, read “There were a lot of roses growing all around Jane’s house” as “There was a tall flowers growing around Jane’s horse.”



  • Extreme difficulty with spelling. A dyslexic child may transpose letters (aleiv instead of alive), leave out letters (aliv), add letters (alieve), and reverse letters (typically b and d). He may also write words phonetically (exactly as he hears them), producing spellings like becuz, wur, and thay.







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Engaging Dyslexics in Memorizing, Visualizing, and Rhyming


Because dyslexia makes it hard to remember how words are put together, rhyming and visualization strategies — like turning letters into lively, more concrete characters — are great tools for jogging the memory and helping dyslexics remember word formation. To help your child master many words and fix them better in the mind, try these strategies:



  • Help your child with short-vowel sounds by having him draw images into the vowels while saying their short sounds. For example, he can create an apple out of a; draw an egg inside the top part of e; convert a pen with a blob of ink on top into i; change o into an octopus; and draw an arrowhead on each of the two top ends of u so it represents up.



  • Help your child read and spell words like late, hole, and cute by showing him the Bossy e rule: When e is on the end of a short word, it bosses the earlier vowel into saying its name (but stays silent itself).



  • Help your child read and spell long-vowel words like meet, neat, nail, and boat by teaching him this rule: “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking (and says its name).”







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Practicing Phonics for Dyslexia


Phonics is not only the backbone of learning to read (and the thing that identifies dyslexics the most) it’s a key teaching method in dyslexia programs. Phonics shows children that letters and groups of letters represent speech sounds. A dyslexic child needs to firmly grasp phonics to discover order in words that otherwise seem like jumbled letters. Try this sequence of four simple strategies to help systematically guide your child through phonics:



  • Emphasize single-letter sounds (rather than names) to your child. Play games like “I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘buh’ or ‘cuh’.” Ask your child to tell you words to continue a word pattern like Bill, bear, bun, bed, and ball (all beginning with “buh”).



  • Read rhymes and rhyming stories to your child, and sing rhyming songs so you prime her for identifying word families like pan, fan, man, can, and tan.



  • When you introduce written words to your child, start with a simple two-letter word like at and show her how she can add letters to at to build a whole at word family (bat, mat, cat, sat, fat). Make this activity more fun, and easy to repeat, by having your child use a book-sized whiteboard and marker pens. Even better, have two sets of boards and markers so you can do the same activity and you don’t interfere with your child’s board!



  • Any time your child learns a word from which she could build a word family, build that family with her. Start her off with three-letter word families like big, pig, fig, and wig; build up to middle-level families like chop, stop, flop, and shop; and help her really think about tricky word families like would, should, and could, and fight, might, fright, tight, sight, and flight.







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Using Multisensory Learning for Dyslexia


Dyslexics respond well to multisensory methods of learning which use a hands-on approach engaging a few senses together at the same time. Help your child combat dyslexia with multisensory learning at home by playing a lot of hands-on and physical games, fit drawing and model-making into homework, and saying out loud the words she reads and writes. Also, when your child begins to learn letters and words have them:



  • draw their shapes in different mediums, like sugar and pudding



  • trace over them on unusual textures, like sandpaper



  • construct 3D models of letters out of modeling clay







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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/overcoming-dyslexia-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html?cid=RSS_DUMMIES2_CONTENT