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Code to Use in JavaScript Variable Manipulation Functions

As shown in the following table, you can use these JavaScript statements in your own code to create and modify variables in your JavaScript functions.

Element	Description
var myVar = 0;	Creates a variable with given starting value. Type is determined dynamically.
stringVar = prompt("message")	Sends message to user in a dialog box, retrieves text input from user and stores it in stringVar.
stringVar.length	Returns the length (in characters) of stringVar.
stringVar.toUpperCase(), stringVar.toLowerCase()	Converts stringVar to upper- or lowercase.
stringVar.substring()	Returns a specified subset of stringVar.
stringVar.indexOf()	Returns location of a substring in stringVar (or -1).
parseInt()	Converts string to int.
parseFloat()	Converts string to float.
toString()	Converts any variable to string.
eval()	Evaluates string as JavaScript code.
Math.ceil()	Converts any number to integer by rounding up.
Math.floor()	Converts any number to integer by rounding down.
Math.round()	Converts any number to integer by standard rounding algorithm.
Math.random()	Returns random float between 0 and 1.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/code-to-use-in-javascript-variable-manipulation-fu.html

Exchange-Traded Funds: Better than Brokers

Although most investors are now familiar with exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds remain the most popular investment vehicle of choice by a margin of 12:1.

The reasons for the dominance of mutual funds are several. First, mutual funds have been around a lot longer and so got a good head start.

Second, largely as a corollary to the first reason, most company retirement plans and pension funds still use mutual funds rather than ETFs; as a participant, you have no choice but to go with mutual funds.

And finally, the vast majority of ETFs are index funds, and index funds are not going to become the nation’s favorite investment vehicle anytime soon. They should, but they won’t. People just aren’t that logical.

Index mutual funds, which most closely resemble ETFs, have been in existence since 1976 when Vanguard first rolled out the Index Investment Trust fund. Since that time, Vanguard and other mutual fund companies have created hundreds of index funds tracking every conceivable index.

Yet index funds remain relatively obscure. According to figures from the Investment Company Institute, index mutual funds hold less than 8 percent of all money invested in mutual funds.

Why would anyone want to invest in index funds or index ETFs? After all, the financial professionals who run actively managed mutual funds spend many years and tens of thousands of dollars educating themselves at places with real ivy on the walls, like Harvard and Wharton.

They know all about the economy, the stock market, business trends, and so on. Shouldn’t you cash in on their knowledge by letting them pick the best basket of investments for you?

Good question! Here’s the problem with hiring these financial whizzes, and the reason that index funds or ETFs generally kick their ivy-league butts: When these whizzes from Harvard and Wharton go to market to buy and sell stocks, they are usually buying and selling stock (not directly, but through the markets) from other whizzes who graduated from Harvard and Wharton.

One whiz bets that ABC stock is going down, so he sells. His former classmate bets that ABC stock is going up, so he buys. Which whiz is right? Half the time, it’s the buyer; half the time, it’s the seller. Meanwhile, you pay for all the trading, not to mention the whiz’s handsome salary while all this buying and selling is going on.

Economists have a name for such a market; they call it “efficient.” It means, in general, that there are so many smart people analyzing and dissecting and studying the market that the chances are slim that any one whiz — no matter how whizzical, no matter how thick his Cambridge accent — is going to be able to beat the pack.

That, in a nutshell, is why actively managed mutual funds tend to lag the indexes, usually by a considerable margin.

If you want to read more about why stock-pickers and market-timers almost never beat the indexes, pick up a copy of the seminal A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Princeton economist Burton G. Malkiel. The book, now in something like its 200th edition, is available in paperback from W. W. Norton & Company.

There’s also a website run by something of an indexing fanatic (hey, there are worse things to be) that is packed with articles and studies on the subject. You could spend days reading!

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/exchangetraded-funds-better-than-brokers.html

Give Your Commodities Portfolio a Buzz by Investing in Coffee

As with a number of other commodities, coffee production is dominated by a handful of countries. Brazil has historically been the top producer of coffee in the world and has held this position for several decades. Traditionally, Colombia has held the number two spot, but it’s lost that position to up-and-comers such as Vietnam and Indonesia. Table 19-1 lists the largest coffee-producing countries.

Country	Coffee Production (Thousands of Bags)
Brazil	39,470
Vietnam	18,000
Indonesia	11,380
Colombia	8,500
India	4,827
Ethiopia	4,500
Mexico	4,200
Honduras	3,527
Guatemala	3,500
Uganda	3,000

Source: International Coffee Organization

Large-scale coffee production is measured in bags. One bag of coffee weighs 60 kilograms, or approximately 132 pounds.

If you want to further investigate the ins and outs of the coffee markets,Mark Pendergrast’s excellent book Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World (Basic Books), to help you understand the mechanics of the global coffee trade. You may also want to visit these websites for more information:

International Coffee Organization

National Coffee Association of the USA

Just as choosing the right flavor is important when buying your cup of coffee, knowing the different types of coffees available for investment is crucial. The world’s coffee production is pretty much made up of two types of beans:

Arabica: Arabica coffee is the most widely grown coffee plant in the world, accounting for more than 60 percent of global coffee production. Arabica is grown in countries as diverse as Brazil and Indonesia. It’s the premium coffee bean, adding a richer taste to any brew, and, as a result, is the most expensive coffee bean in the world. Because of its high quality, it serves as the benchmark for coffee prices all over the world.

Robusta: Robusta accounts for about 40 percent of total coffee production. Because it’s easier to grow than Arabica coffee, it’s also less expensive.

You have several ways to invest in coffee production. One way is to buy coffee in the futures markets; the other is to invest in companies that specialize in running gourmet coffee shops.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/give-your-commodities-portfolio-a-buzz-by-investin.html

The Bible’s Ten Commandments

Moses received Israel’s laws from God on Mt. Sinai. Although there were more than 600 laws given (613 according to Jewish tradition), the most notable and significant, inscribed onto two rock tablets by God, are the Ten Commandments:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol.

You shall not lift up the name of the Lord your God in vain.

Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

Honor your father and mother.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness.

You shall not covet.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-bibles-ten-commandments.html

How to Measure Signs of Stress

Recognizing stress symptoms and how often they occur can help you deal with stress. Use the previous two weeks as your time frame and record the occurrence of the following physical and emotional signs of stress. After identifying your stress symptoms and how often they occur, use the stress rating scale to find your score.

Stress Symptom Scale

0 = Never

1 = Sometimes

2 = Often

3 = Very often

____	Fatigue or tiredness	____	Feeling helpless or hopeless
____	Pounding heart	____	Excessive drinking
____	Rapid pulse	____	Excessive smoking
____	Increased perspiration	____	Excessive spending
____	Rapid breathing	____	Excessive drug or medication use
____	Aching neck or shoulders	____	Feeling upset
____	Low back pain	____	Feeling nervous or anxious
____	Gritting teeth or clenching jaw	____	Increased irritability
____	Hives or skin rash	____	Worrisome thoughts
____	Headaches	____	Impatience
____	Cold hands or feet	____	Feelings of depression
____	Tightness in chest	____	Loss of sexual interest
____	Nausea	____	Feeling angry
____	Diarrhea or constipation	____	Sleep difficulties
____	Stomach discomfort	____	Forgetfulness
____	Nail biting	____	Racing or intrusive thoughts
____	Twitches or tics	____	Feeling restless
____	Difficulty swallowing or dry mouth	____	Difficulty concentrating
____	Colds or flu	____	Periods of crying
____	Lack of energy	____	Frequent absences from work
____	Overeating	____	Your total Stress-Symptom Score

Your Stress Rating

Your Score	Your Comparative Rating
0–19	Lower than average
20–39	Average
40–49	Moderately higher than average
50 and above	Much higher than average

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-measure-signs-of-stress.html

How to Find Vista or XP Items in Windows 7

In Windows 7, you may find that the Windows Vista and Windows XP features you know and love have moved or changed. If you’re going from Windows XP straight to Windows 7, here’s what changed:

The menus disappeared! Windows 7 doesn’t show the menus (File, Edit, View, Tools, or Help) in Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer. To bring them back, press the Alt key. And instead of the menus in Paint or WordPad, you get a Ribbon, and that’s it.

The Up navigation button disappeared, too. When you went spelunking through Windows XP folders, you could always click the Up button to move up one level. Windows 7 doesn’t have an Up button. Instead, you can usually click the appropriate right arrow or down arrow to wade through a bunch of folders.

You can’t pick your photos. The Windows XP Photo Import Wizard lets you choose the photos you wanted to import from your camera by selecting little check boxes next to each photo. Windows Live Photo Gallery doesn’t have anything like that.

Finding your computer’s IP address is difficult. In Windows XP, you could easily find the 192.168.xxx.xxx number providing that your PC got hooked up to the network. In Windows 7, you have to click the Network icon (down near the clock), choose Open Network and Sharing Center, and click the Change Adapter Settings link. Right-click the adapter, choose Status, and then click Advanced.

If you’re jumping from Vista to Windows 7, keep these guidelines in mind:

Workgroups don’t mean squat. In Windows XP or Vista, you gave your network a name — a “Workgroup” name. Windows 7 still has workgroups, but they don’t mean much. Instead, Windows 7 offers the powerful HomeGroups sharing method.

Internet Explorer downloads moved. In Windows 7, to see your Downloads folder, choose Start, click your name, and double-click Downloads.

The wizards disappeared. If you go looking for your favorite Windows XP or Vista wizard, chances are very good that you won’t find it: Wizards have fallen out of favor. When in doubt, start with the Windows 7 Action Center by clicking the little flag down near the clock.

The Reliability Monitor remains, although Microsoft moved it to an obscure link in the Windows 7 Action Center.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-find-vista-or-xp-items-in-windows-7.html

Plant-Based Fertilizers for Organic Gardens

Fertilizers made from plants generally have low to moderate N-P-K (Nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium) values, but their nutrients quickly become available in the soil for your plants to use. Some of them even provide an extra dose of trace minerals and micronutrients. The most commonly available plant-based fertilizers include the following:

Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium are the three nutrients plants need in the largest quantities; they're sometimes referred to as the primary nutrients. They each play a critical role in plant growth. Healthy, fertile soil contains these three elements. But if your soil is deficient or if you're growing vegetables, fruits, or other demanding crops, you may want to supplement the soil's nutrients with fertilizers.

Alfalfa meal: Derived from alfalfa plants and pressed into pellet form, alfalfa meal is beneficial for adding nitrogen and potassium (about 2 percent each), as well as trace minerals and natural growth stimulants. Roses in particular seem to like this fertilizer; they benefit from up to 5 cups of alfalfa meal per plant every ten weeks, worked into the surface of the soil. Add some to your compost pile, too, to speed the decomposition process.

Compost: Compost is beneficial mostly for adding organic matter to the soil. Although it supplies some nutrients, its most important roles are enhancing soil life and helping make nutrients available to plants.

Corn gluten meal: Derived from corn, this powder contains 10 percent nitrogen fertilizer. Apply it only to growing plants, because it inhibits the growth of seeds. The manufacturer recommends allowing one to four months after using this product before planting seeds, depending on the soil and weather conditions. Use it on lawns in early spring to green up the perennial grasses and prevent annual weeds like crabgrass from sprouting.

Cottonseed meal: Derived from the seed in cotton bolls, this granular fertilizer is particularly good at supplying nitrogen (6 percent) and potassium (1.5 percent). Look for organic cottonseed meal; traditional cotton crops are sprayed heavily with pesticides, some of which can remain in the seed oils.

Kelp/seaweed: Derived from sea plants, this product comes in liquid, powder, and pellet forms. Although kelp/seaweed fertilizer contains only small amounts of N, P, and K, kelp adds valuable micronutrients, growth hormones, and vitamins that help increase yields, reduce plant stress from drought, and increase frost tolerance. Apply it to the soil or as a foliar spray.

Soybean meal: Derived from soybeans and used in pellet form, soybean meal is prized for its high nitrogen (7 percent) content and is used as a source of phosphorous (2 percent). Like alfalfa meal, it is particularly beneficial to nitrogen-loving plants, such as roses.

Humus: Humus is a stable end product of organic-matter decomposition that's believed to increase microbial activity in soil, improve soil structure, and enhance the root development of plants. Although it doesn't necessarily add nutrients directly, humus may help plants take up the fertilizers you apply. If you add compost to your garden regularly, you're already adding humus.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/plantbased-fertilizers-for-organic-gardens.html

Choose the Correct Photoshop Mode: LAB, Multichannel, Bit Depth

Choose Image→Mode to view image mode choices available in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Selecting the right one for an image is important because each mode offers different capabilities and results.

LAB color

The LAB (Lightness, A channel, and B channel) color mode is used by many high-end color professionals use because of its wide color range. Using LAB, you can make adjustments to luminosity (lightness) without affecting color. In this mode, you can select and change an L (lightness or luminosity) channel without affecting the A channel (green and red) and the B channel (blue and yellow).

LAB mode is also good to use if you’re in a color-managed environment and want to easily move from one color system to another with no loss of color.

Some professionals prefer to sharpen images in LAB mode because they can select just the Lightness channel and choose Filter→Sharpen→Unsharp Mask to sharpen only the gray matter of the image, leaving the color noise-free.

Multichannel

Multichannel is used for many things; you can end up in this mode and not know how you got there. Deleting a channel from an RGB, a CMYK, or a LAB image automatically converts the image to Multichannel mode. This mode supports multiple spot colors.

Bit depth

You have more functionality in 16-bit and even 32-bit mode. Depending on your needs, you may spend most of your time in 8-bit mode, which is more than likely all you need.

Bit depth, or pixel depth or color depth, measures how much color information is available to display or print each pixel in an image. Greater bit depth means more available colors and more accurate color representation in the digital image. In Photoshop, this increase in accuracy also limits some available features, so don’t use it unless you have a specific request or need for it.

To use 16-bit or 32-bit color mode, you also must have a source to provide you with that information, such as a scanner or camera that offers a choice to scan in either mode.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/choose-the-correct-photoshop-mode-lab-multichannel.html

How to Clean and Deodorize Your Carpet

Carpet-cleaning professionals say that the most effective method of keeping carpeting clean — and making it last a long time — is to vacuum it regularly. In fact, they recommend vacuuming three or more times per week, and daily in high-traffic areas.

They also point out that the quality of your vacuum makes a difference. An upright vac does the best job of removing deep-down dirt, but a big canister vac with a beater-bar head is good, too. Whichever you prefer, the motor must be powerful enough to create enough suction to remove the dirt, sand, and debris that is ground into the carpet. If the vac has a beater bar, its brushes should be free of lint, fuzz, and threads. The suction port and hose should be checked regularly for suction-robbing blockages, and the bag should be changed frequently to ease the flow of air through the vac.

Aside from regular vacuuming, the best way to keep your carpet clean and reduce wear is to place welcome mats outside every exterior door, and rugs on the inside to catch any leftover grit before it gets farther into the house. Finally, it really pays to have everyone remove their shoes when they come into the house.

But what do you do when little Nina spills some sticky red juice in the living room? Give her a big hug, tell her that you love her, and then spot-clean! Most of today’s carpets are made with a factory-applied stain guard. So usually, a small amount of water and a drop of vinegar or club soda will get out a stain. Use a clean, white, dry cloth. Don’t scrub — blot.

The most common mistakes people make when they try to spot-clean are over-scrubbing and using too much water. Scrubbing destroys carpet fibers. Excess water gets below the carpet into the pad, which leads to mildew and a funky smell.

Sooner or later, your carpet will need to be cleaned. Most do-it-yourself carpet-cleaning machines use the hot-water extraction method: A hot-water-and-detergent solution is sucked out of a reservoir, sprayed on the carpet, and immediately extracted with a powerful vacuum.

Here are a few tips that will help you be a carpet-cleaning success:

Before you head off to the hardware store to rent a machine, you need to know what your carpet is made of to select the right cleaning solution.

Before you start, test the solution on an out-of-the-way spot to make sure it won’t leave a stain of its own or bleach the color out.

Read the instructions on the machine and on the detergent. Follow them exactly.

Open the windows (or turn on the air conditioning) and use a powerful fan to help speed the drying process. The quicker you get the moisture out of the carpet, the better.

Time, home life (especially cooking), and pets can make carpets stinky. You may not notice anymore, but anyone who comes into the house probably does. If your carpet has picked up a funky smell, you can try a commercial carpet deodorizer or you can go to the pantry and arm yourself with a box of baking soda. Sprinkle it into the carpet, leave it for a few hours, and then vacuum it up.

For less money and a little extra work, you can try sprinkling grated potato (yes, potato!) all over the carpet in question. Let it stand for several hours and then vacuum. If neither of these methods works, stop trying to avoid the inevitable and call a carpet-cleaning company.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-clean-and-deodorize-your-carpet.html

QuickBooks 2012 Backup Tactics

Backing up your QuickBooks 2012 data file is, mostly, just a matter of common sense. That being said, however, here are some ideas about how and when and maybe why you should back up:

Make it easy.

The most important thing you can do regarding QuickBooks data file backup is this: Make backing up easy. This probably means that you consider the online option, but if you do go local, you want to have a high-density, removable storage device that you can use with the computer you use to run QuickBooks.

Some companies use a stick-of-gum sized USB flash drive. You choose what device works best for you, but you definitely want some similar, easy-to-employ storage device. In this case, “easy” means that backing up is more likely to occur.

Back up regularly.

It is recommended that you back up every time you enter transactions into the QuickBooks data file. Obviously, if backing up represents a lot of work, you won’t want to do it. But if you have an easy way to back up and a convenient storage device, you can and should back up regularly. Daily backups are not too often.

Store a backup copy of the QuickBooks data file offsite.

One final important point worth mentioning: Many of the events that may destroy or corrupt your data file are specific to your computer — a hard drive failure, a virus, a user accident, and so forth.

Some of the events that may corrupt or destroy your QuickBooks data file, however, are location-specific. Fire, flood, or theft can cause you to lose the QuickBooks data file and its backup. For this reason, you want to store a copy of the backup offsite.

At the end of the week, for example, you may want to pop the flash drive in your shirt pocket or purse and bring it home. Make sure that if something corrupts or destroys the QuickBooks data file, that same something also doesn’t destroy the backup QuickBooks data file.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/quickbooks-2012-backup-tactics.html

How to Switch Keypads for the TI-Nspire

The TI-Nspire (Touchpad or Clickpad) can operate with two different keypads (not at the same time): the TI-Nspire keypad and a TI-84 Plus Keypad. When the TI-Nspire keypad is installed, you are using TI-Nspire. When the TI-84 Plus Keypad is installed, your handheld device works exactly like any TI-84 Plus Silver Edition device. This means that you actually have two handheld devices!

If a TI-84 Plus Keypad was not included with the purchase of your TI-Nspire, you may be able to acquire one at no additional cost. Log on and complete the online form.

To change the current keypad, follow these steps:

On the back of the device, slide the tab to the right to release the keypad.

Slide the keypad down about 1/4 inch and lift it out to reveal the battery compartment.

Place the new keypad gently in place, leaving about a 1/4-inch gap at the top.

Slide the keypad up toward the display screen, applying enough pressure to snap it into place.

Each time that you change keypads and turn on the unit, you must wait for the new operating system to load (as indicated by a progress bar).

Updating the operating system on your TI-Nspire automatically updates the operating system on the TI-84.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-switch-keypads-for-the-tinspire.html

Quick Tips for Tracking Your Net Worth

Tracking your net worth over a period of time can help you keep a cool head as you work toward building your wealth. By looking at the big picture, you don’t get as discouraged when an investment stumbles, as long as other investments are still gaining in value. Knowing that hitting a bump in the road doesn’t mean you’ll fall short of your destination can help get you back on track to meet your long-term financial goals.

How does this work? Don’t simply complete one net worth statement and call it a day. Here’s how to look at your net worth:

Commit to calculating your net worth periodically.

This can be quarterly, semiannually, or annually. More frequently than quarterly is overkill; less frequently than annually may put you way off course when you do review your position.

Calculate your initial net worth.

The difference between your assets and your liabilities is your net worth, which is what gives you stability in times of financial uncertainty. Your net worth statement summarizes what you own, what you owe, and what would be left if you paid off all debt. Assets include money, investments, the fair market value of your house and furniture, your car, other real estate, and anything else you own.

Liabilities include mortgages, car loans, credit card debt, and any other amounts owing like taxes. Here’s how to determine your net worth:

Net worth = Assets – Liabilities

Re-calculate your net worth at the next calculation period.

Tracking your net worth periodically through the ups and downs in the economic cycle can prevent you from losing sight of your financial progress.

Compare the changes in assets, liabilities, and overall net worth.

Are you getting closer to your goals or farther away from them? Make a point of understanding the general direction of each category. Are your assets lower now because your investments are down with the market? Or are your investments down while the market is up? Are you spending more than you’re earning and depleting your assets to cover your living expenses?

Identify where you have control over improving your financial direction.

Find out whether you’re increasing your assets through saving or decreasing your assets through spending or whether your invested assets are growing at the rate you expect, as well as how you’re doing in your quest to eliminate your debt and taxes.

Plan actions to increase your net worth before the next review period.

Think of your lifetime income and earnings as a pipeline that flows from when you start making money to the last day of your life. Along the way, various faucets in the pipeline open and divert money to pay for needs (such as living expenses, a home purchase, taxes, education, furniture, and transportation) and wants (like big-screen TVs, vacations, a fishing boat, and more).

For items you buy using debt — mortgages, loans, credit card purchases — the faucet opens wider and runs longer because you’re paying not only for the item but also for interest. The result is that you have to either work longer to earn more money to repay the debt or scale back on your goals.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/quick-tips-for-tracking-your-net-worth.html

Droid Bionic: Configure a Web-Based E-Mail Account

You need to configure the Droid Bionic to access any non-Gmail e-mail account. The process is easy for web-based e-mail accounts such as Yahoo! Mail; follow through with these steps to get things set up:

Start the My Accounts app.

The My Accounts app is found on the App menu, which you access by touching the Launcher button to the lower right of the Home screen.

Touch the Add Account button.

If your account type is shown in the list, such as Yahoo! Mail, choose it. Otherwise, choose the Email icon.

You may be prompted to accept the Motorola agreement. Touch the box to place a green check mark by the “I agree”option, and then touch the Next button.

Type the account’s e-mail address.

Type the password for the account.

If you’re using the onscreen keyboard, touch the Done button to dismiss the onscreen keyboard.

If you see the option Automatically Configure Account, ensure that a green check mark appears next to it.

Touch the Next button.

In a few magical moments, the e-mail account is configured and added to the account list.

If you goofed up the account name or password, you’re warned: Try again.

Touch the Done button.

The account is added to the list on the My Accounts screen.

You can repeat the steps to add more web-based e-mail accounts.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/droid-bionic-configure-a-webbased-email-account.html

How to Protect Your Emerging-Market Investments from Corruption

If you’re doing business in another country, which includes investing in an emerging market, get a sense of what you may encounter so that you can behave appropriately and legally. Ways to avoid dangerous corruption traps include:

Do some basic research on the amount of corruption in a country. Transparency International’s reports give you some good perspective on the operating climate in a country. The World Bank’s Doing Business Web site breaks down specific information on the time and procedures involved in running a company. In general, the greater the time and the more processes, the higher the level of corruption.

Ask whether facilitation payments are the norm. If you have a local contact or know people who’ve traveled to the country before, they can give you advice. And ask more than one person, if possible. Facilitation payments aren’t ideal, but they probably aren’t illegal, especially if they involve relatively small amounts of cash or low-value gifts like cigarettes. The more money you pay, the less likely it is that the payment is legal.

Ensure that you know who you’re dealing with. Intellectual property laws aren’t the same everywhere, so you may encounter several companies with the exact same name. Which is which? You may think you have a meeting on-site with a potential supplier, but your contact may have bribed the factory manager for a tour and a meeting in the conference room. Before you sign a contract, verify articles of incorporation, bank accounts, and business references.

If you’re uncomfortable with something, mention it. Don’t fall for the line, “That’s not how we do business here.” Such a statement is often meant to embarrass you into silence. Instead, point out that whatever you’re looking for is how you do business in your country and at your company, and you need help. A legitimate prospective partner will work with you, not shame you.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-protect-your-emergingmarket-investments-fro.html

Debt Repair Kit For Dummies

Common Credit Report Queries for Australians

Credit reports for people in Australia who have a credit history are available from Veda Advantage (PO Box 964, North Sydney NSW 2059). You can get a free copy of your credit report annually; this way, you know in advance what’s in your report and you can also identify any errors it may contain.

Questions most often asked about credit reports include:

What’s in my credit report? The law confines Veda Advantage to only recording your bad points financially. So if you’ve defaulted under a credit contract or, worse, been sued for an unpaid debt, the details will all be in your credit report.

What’s not in my credit report? By law, your report can’t contain any of your personal information, such as your religious beliefs, medical history, ethnic origins, sexual preferences, lifestyle or reputation.

Who has access to my credit report? The report’s purpose is to inform any business that’s considering whether to make credit available to you, about your past credit history. Your credit information is available only to people who are dealing with some aspect of the provision of credit, and is not available to potential employers or insurers.

What can I do about inaccurate information? You can request Veda Advantage or your credit provider to correct mistakes in your credit report. If their response is unsatisfactory, you can complain to the Privacy Commissioner.

Are overdue accounts reported? A record can only be made on your credit report if you’ve been sent a written notice. Ignore this notice at your peril; if you don’t act by contacting the credit provider immediately or by paying the account, you put your credit standing at risk.

What’s a serious credit infringement? This is more than a default; it’s where you have obtained credit by fraud, or when your payments have stopped completely and the credit provider finds it impossible to contact you. The credit provider must attempt to notify you (for example, by sending a letter to your last known address) before reporting the matter to the credit reporting agency.

Avoiding Identity Theft

Identity theft occurs whenever someone uses your personal details to gain some financial advantage, such as taking out a loan in your name. Identity theft is a growing crime in Australia, as well as in other parts of the world. Follow these tips to keep your personal details secure.

Lock your letterbox. A fraudster can use items sent to you in the mail to find out details about you and your accounts. For example, credit-card companies sometimes send credit cards in the mail and follow up with the PIN a couple of days later. The first mailing alerts the fraudster.

Check the flashing light near the card slot at the ATM. A crook can record, or skim, the details of your credit card by attaching a sensor device to or near the slot that receives your card. However, the skimming device often blocks the flashing light that’s a permanent feature of most ATM slots. Check that the flashing light is working before using the ATM.

Keep your computer data secure. If you work with other people, don’t leave passwords sitting on your desk. Ensure the passwords that give access to sensitive information, especially your financial details, are impossible to hack into. Computer hackers have very sophisticated ways of getting into your computer, so regularly upgrade your firewall and spyware protection.

Make your financial transactions online. Handling your finances through the mail can be less safe than over the Web. Get your bills and statements sent to your password-protected computer, rather than have them sent to your mailbox.

Know the risks of having an online presence. Being able to link up with friends and family through the social networking Web site Facebook is a great way to keep in touch. Unfortunately, the crooks quickly learn how to get around Facebook’s security measures, so be careful with what you upload to the site.

Be careful when giving out personal information over the Internet or the phone. Unless you’ve initiated the transaction, don’t give any details. Even if the caller sounds genuine, you can’t be sure of their identity. Ask for their contact details so that you can call back, and even then, don’t simply trust the number you’ve been given.

Don’t reply to unsolicited e-mails that ask for your bank account details. If it’s too good to be true, it usually is! Never give out any personal or financial information; they’re almost certainly scams.

Never click on a link or open an attachment to an email from someone you don’t know and trust. Opening attachments or clicking on links in emails can download malicious software into your computer. Type in the Web address yourself, rather than relying on a link.

Shred the evidence. Get a good home shredder and shred all financial statements that bear account numbers before you put the statements out for recycling. As well as statements for savings accounts, cheque accounts and credit cards, don’t forget all those pre-approved offers for credit that you receive.

Regulating Credit in Australia

National legislation regulating the way in which credit is provided to private individuals in Australia was regulated in 2009. Key points of this legislation are as follows:

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the consumer credit legislation. The state and territory consumer agencies have a supporting role.

All lenders, entities and persons providing assistance for consumer credit dealings (such as mortgage brokers and commercial debt payment assistance firms) must have a licence from ASIC.

All licensees are required to adopt responsible lending practices. They must check that you have the financial ability to meet your obligation to pay a debt such as a mortgage.

Licensees must establish an in-house informal dispute resolution process to handle consumer complaints or queries, and must also belong to an informal external mediation service.

What a Budget Can Do for You

A budget is a plan for spending the income you have, building savings and using credit wisely. In short, a budget allows you to control the direction of your financial future. Here’s a list of things a budget can help you do:

Reach your life’s goals. First figure out what your priorities and goals in life are, then work out a realistic saving and spending plan that helps you achieve those goals.

Calculate how much your regular expenses are. Allocating money for every expense puts you in control of your money, deciding how your money’s used and helping you pay your bills on time. You have the power to make better decisions on how you spend your income.

Know just how much your regular income is. The amount you actually earn after tax may be less than you think. So, unless you change jobs or take a second job, you need to live within your means. By bringing spending in line with income, you ensure you don’t accumulate unmanageable debt and risk your good credit standing.

Prepare for unexpected events. An expected cost, such as a large dental bill, can blow your budget. To lessen the pain, it’s wise to budget for emergencies.

Get and stay out of debt. Because budgeting brings expenses in line with income, your debt level falls. Making regular payments can get you right out of debt.

Build your credit. Pay off the balances on your credit cards, for example, and both your available credit and financial standing go up.

Reduce stress. Gaining control over your finances relieves the constant worry over money, which can cause sleepless nights, reduced productivity at work and, at worst, family breakdown.

Stay healthy. By making provision in your budget for health insurance cover, you can take advantage of health benefits for yourself and your family.

Look forward to retirement. By calculating how much you’ll need when you retire and at what age you’re going to retire, and then putting money into super, retirement need not be something to dread.

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

How to Work with Text on the Palm Pre

With the Palm Pre, you can manipulate text as you would in most other applications. For example, you can select text within text fields, cut and copy it, and paste it elsewhere. You can also do some basic text formatting on the Pre.

To Do This	Do This
Position the cursor.	Tap where you want the cursor to be.
Position the cursor more precisely.	Tap where you want the cursor to be, hold down the Orange key, and move your finger in the direction you want to move the cursor.
Select text.	Hold down the Shift key and move your finger in the direction you want to select text.
Copy text.	Select the text you want to copy, hold one finger on the gesture area, and press the C key.
Cut text.	Select the text you want to cut, hold one finger on the gesture area, and press the X key.
Paste text.	Tap where you want text to be pasted, hold one figure on the gesture area, and press the V key.
Toggle bold text (works only in certain applications).	Press the Sym and B keys.
Toggle italic text (works only in certain applications).	Press the Sym and I keys.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-work-with-text-on-the-palm-pre.html

How to Improve Your eBay Product Photos

3 of 10 in Series:
The Essentials of Preparing and Uploading Your eBay Images

In the competitive world of eBay sales, you want your merchandise to look its best, so that you attract interested buyers to your auction listings. However, pictures don’t always come out of the camera in perfect form. Unnecessary background details and images that are dim or blurry can make you look unprofessional, and may even cause potential bidders to take their business elsewhere.

Here are a few tweaks that you can apply to bring your images into perfection range:

Alter the size: Reduce or increase the size or shape of the image.

Change the orientation: Rotate the image left or right.

Crop the background: Sometimes there’s a little too much background and not enough product. Don’t waste precious bandwidth on extraneous pixels. To crop your image means to cut away the unnecessary part of the picture.

Adjust the brightness and contrast: These two functions usually work together in most photo programs. By giving your picture more brightness, the picture looks brighter (duh). Raising contrast brings out the detail, and lowering it dulls the difference between light and dark.

Sharpen: If your camera was not perfectly in focus when you took the picture, applying a photo-editing program’s sharpening feature can help. If you sharpen too much, however, you can destroy the smoothness of the image.

Keep in mind that if your image needs any more help than these alterations, it’s probably easier and faster to just retake the picture.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-improve-your-ebay-product-photos.html

Select Genealogy Web Sites

Doing genealogy research online means accessing a variety of Web sites. Some Web sites offer news about genealogy tools and techniques, and others serve as message boards where you can post queries. Here's a list of recommendations for a range of purposes:

For news and information about developments in genealogy:
- Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
- Family Tree Magazine

For surname resources:
- Genealogy Resources on the Internet Mailing List
- Roots Surname List search page

To post queries and share genealogical research success:

For United States government resources:
- Citizenship and Naturalization Service (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service)
- Library of Congress
- National Archives and Records Administration

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/select-genealogy-web-sites.navId-323837.html

Common and Uncommon Word 2007 Keyboard Commands

Word 2007 retains many of the keyboard commands and shortcuts of earlier versions and the following table tells you which keys to press to access usual things like a new document and unusual things like a word count:

Usual Commands	Keyboard Shortcut	Unusual Commands	Keyboard Shortcut
Help	F1	Go To	F5
Cancel	Escape	Show/Hide	Ctrl+Shift+8
Go back	Shift+F5	Office Button menu	Alt+F
New document	Ctrl+N	Styles task pane	Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S
Open	Ctrl+O	Print Preview	Ctrl+Alt+I
Print	Ctrl+P	Word count	Ctrl+Shift+G
Close	Ctrl+W	Symbol font	Ctrl+Shift+Q
Quick save	Ctrl+S	Print Layout view	Ctrl+Alf+P
Repeat	Ctrl+Y	Draft (Normal) mode	Ctrl+Alt+N
Find	Ctrl+F	Outline mode	Ctrl+Alt+O
Find and replace	Ctrl+H	Split window	Alt+Ctrl+S
Manual page break	Ctrl+Enter

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/common-and-uncommon-word-2007-keyboard-commands.html

A Quick Guide to Automatic Exposure Modes on Your Nikon D3000

When you're just starting out with digital SLR photography, these fully automatic modes on your D3000 can make life easier. Select the mode you want to use from the dial on top of the camera and then just frame, focus, and shoot. For a little extra help, set the Mode dial to the Guide setting to access your camera's step-by-step guided menus.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/a-quick-guide-to-automatic-exposure-modes-on-your-.html

Stock ETFs: Investment Options Based on Portfolio Size

If there were no trading costs involved with ETFs, then you would always be best off to hold separate ETFs for each stock style, i.e. large growth, large value, and so on.

This approach gives you the opportunity to rebalance once a year. But the profit you expect to reap from that tweak must exceed the transaction costs of making two trades (generally selling shares of the outperforming ETF for the year and adding to the underperformer).

If your portfolio isn’t big enough for the profit of the tweaking to outweigh the cost of the trading, you’re better off with a blend of value and growth. If your portfolio is so small that any tweaking is unlikely to be profitable, invest in a blend of everything. Keep these parameters in mind as you read on.

“Everything” investment options

If you have a portfolio of $10,000 or less, you should either be thinking mutual funds (not ETFs), or you should seek to invest at a brokerage that will not charge you for trading ETFs. Otherwise, the trading costs could eat you alive.

If, however, you are unlikely to do any trading in the next several years, an ETF portfolio may make sense. In that case, consider a simple and all-encompassing “everything” (total ball of wax) ETF for your domestic stock holdings.

Good options in the “everything” domestic stock category include the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Total Market ETF (IYY), the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), and the Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETF (SCHB). Of the three, some investors have a slight preference for the Schwab and the Vanguard choices because of their ultra-low costs (0.06 and 0.07 percent respectively, versus 0.20 percent for the iShares offering).

(Note: There are several “everything” ETFs where you can tap into even broader investments than the entire U.S. stock market.)

Large and small cap blends

If you have more than $10,000 but less than $20,000 or so, and you’re able to invest it and keep it put for a good while, consider splitting up your domestic stock portfolio into large and small cap. In this case, a professional financial manager would likely recommend a diversified small cap blend and a diversified large cap blend.

Good options among the large cap blends would include the Vanguard Large Cap ETF (VV), the Vanguard Mega Cap 300 ETF (MGC), the iShares Russell 1000 ETF (IWB), and the Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF (SCHX).

Large cap growth and value options

If you have a portfolio of more than $20,000, you should split up the large caps into growth and value. Good large growth options would include the Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG), Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (MGK), iShares Morningstar Large Growth ETF (JKE), and the Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF (SCHG).

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/stock-etfs-investment-options-based-on-portfolio-s.html

CSS References and Resources

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) give you more flexibility in your website's formatting and layout, as well as letting you make global changes to all the pages on your site. The following table lists some valuable online resources for more information about CSS.

Name	Description
CSS Tutorial	This W3Schools site provides a complete tutorial and references on how to use all CSS elements.
Cascading Style Sheets Home Page	W3C's CSS home page with links to gobs of information on CSS and how to use it.
Cascading Style Sheets	The Web Design Group to portal information on using CSS.
Dynamic Drive CSS Library	A collection of CSS examples for creating menus, gradients and several other objects.
href="http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/css.html">Learn to work with CSS	Adobe's guide to using CSS with Dreamweaver.
CSS Reference	A complete reference of CSS elements and how to use them.
CSS Examples	This W3Schools site offers multiple examples of creating objects with CSS.
href="http://www.addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/css-cheat-sheet/">CSS Cheat Sheet (V2)	A quick reference guide for CSS, listing selector syntax, properties, units, and other useful bits of information.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/css-references-and-resources.html

How Much Personal Info Should You Give eBay?

2 of 11 in Series:
The Essentials of Joining the eBay Community

Once you’re a full-fledged, officially registered member of the eBay community, you may see an eBay pop-up window giving you the option to provide more information about yourself. These optional questions allow you to fill in your self-portrait for your new pals at eBay.

Keep in mind that although eBay doesn’t share member information with anyone, you don’t have to answer the optional questions if you don’t want to.

eBay asks for this information because the company wants a better picture of who is using its Web site. In marketing mumbo-jumbo, this stuff is called demographics — statistics that characterize a group of people who make up a community. In this case, it’s the eBay community.

The following points show you the optional questions eBay asks. You decide what you feel comfortable divulging and what you want to keep personal. Here is the optional information you can provide:

Sex: Okay, it really asks you to indicate your gender by selecting a Male/Female radio button set. (But starting the sentence off with sex really got your attention, didn’t it?)

Annual household income: eBay states that this info is kept anonymous, but you may find it too personal. If you’re not comfortable with it, skip it.

Your highest completed education level: Again, if this is too personal, leave this area blank.

After selecting your responses from the drop-down box, you can click Submit. Or you can click Answer Later, and the pop-up box will reappear for your response later in your eBay dealings. If you don’t want to answer any of the demographic queries, click Please Don’t Ask Me Again, at the bottom of the pop-up window.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-much-personal-info-should-you-give-ebay.html

Choose Image Resolution for iPad and iPhone

The “wow factor” of the iPhone and iPad is that they’re well suited to displaying beautiful, lifelike images. For the web designer, displaying images correctly on the iPad and iPhone is an undertaking that requires at least a working knowledge of graphics standards, careful planning, and an appreciation of the limitations of mobile displays.

When you save images for the web, most web designers recommend that you save them at a resolution of 72 pixels per inch (better known as ppi). Most computer monitors display no more than 72 ppi, so any resolution higher than that is wasted on the web because it requires your visitors to download more pixels than they can see.

However, if you want to print an image, you want all the pixels you can get, usually at least 200 ppi or higher, which is why most images you see on the web look terrible if you try to print them in a large size.

When you’re designing for the high-resolution iPhone and iPad screens, you may want to increase the number of pixels per inch to better match the resolution of these devices. Remember that the iPad displays 132 ppi; the iPhone 4 displays 326 ppi.

While it’s probably not a good idea to create images with a 326 ppi resolution for use on the Internet, if you want your images to look their best and you don’t mind sacrificing a little download time, you may be happier with the results if you set the resolution of your images to 92 ppi, or even 132 ppi.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/choose-image-resolution-for-ipad-and-iphone.html

Risks of Cloud Computing Governance

IT governance is tightly woven with business goals and policies to ensure that services are optimized for customer expectations. Because IT and business goals are tightly woven in a governance strategy, it is important to look at cloud computing governance from a holistic business perspective.

Each industry has a set of governance principles based on its regulatory and competitive environment and its view of risk. There are different levels of risk. In financial services, certain data practices need to be followed. In software development, there are risks associated with getting the product out in the market on time. The healthcare industry has patient privacy concerns.

Deducing IT risk in cloud computing governance

In the heterogeneous IT environment, IT needs to juggle various tasks: meeting customer expectations, optimizing business goals, recognizing resource constraints, and adhering to rules and requirements. The cloud can further complicate this juggling act because it is yet another resource that IT is responsible for. This means that the governing body is responsible for overseeing the provider relationship.

Of course, the level of involvement and risk around governance might vary with how your organization is using the cloud. For example, the cloud can be used in the following ways, each of which you must evaluate separately determine the level of governance that your company feels comfortable with:

For temporary computing power

As a SaaS model

As a platform to build a service

Cloud computing risk list

Consider these risks as you move into the cloud:

Audit and compliance risks including issues around data jurisdiction, data access control, and maintaining an audit trail.

Security risks including data integrity, data confidentiality, and privacy.

Information risks (outside of security), including protection of intellectual property.

Performance and availability risks, including availability and performance levels that your business requires to successfully operate.

Interoperability risks, which are associated with developing a service that might be composed of multiple services.

Contract risks associated with not reading between the lines of your contract.

Billing risks associated with ensuring that you’re billed correctly and only for the resources you consume.

If you move into the cloud, you need to trust the cloud provider and every other provider that the cloud provider is working with. Currently, there are no professional standards or laws related to cloud computing.

Managing risk can’t be emphasized enough; unlike internal IT governance where all parties work for the same legal entity, the cloud relationship is with an external provider and governance agreements need to be contractually stated.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/risks-of-cloud-computing-governance.html

Write the Right Content for Your Website Résumé

Your goal when writing content for your online résumé is to present a more rounded and colorful picture of your professional career than what can be found on paper. Don’t just copy and paste your résumé text onto a website.

Here are some guidelines for writing web copy:

Title every page. When people land on your home page, they should know instantly that this is an online résumé.

Include headlines to help your reader scan your site quickly. Use at least two levels of meaningful headers: a title (Level 1) and subheads (Level 2 or 3).

Link to other pages on your website. For example, your professional summary may have the call to action, “Contact me.” Link the words contact me directly to your Contact page.

Present one idea per paragraph.

Use bold and italics on key phrases to make scanning easier.

Your résumé website should summarize your résumé on the home page and then offer more detail in the subpages (much like DoYouBuzz does). Following are the pages to include on your résumé website:

Home: Use your home page to make clear that this site is a résumé and to punch up your key selling points. Think of this page as your extended professional summary. A hiring manager should take one glance at your home page and know what you’re all about.

Résumé: Here, outline the elements of your résumé with links to the corresponding subpages. The subpages can go into more detail. Example subpages include:
- Work History
- Education
- Skills
- Volunteerism

Social Networks: If you haven’t found a way to display links to your social networks in other locations — for example, via a static sidebar — you should have a page where people can connect with you.

Contact Me: You can include your contact info as a footer or in a static sidebar throughout your site. However, having a contact page is nice as well. You can use a form that people can fill out directly on the page. Don’t just put your e-mail address there or else you’ll get spammed. Tell people what they can contact you about, such as job inquiries, consulting offers, or questions about your work.

If you just drop your e-mail address on your website, you’re likely to see an increase in spam. To avoid this, try an e-mail masking service like scr.im. Scr.im forces viewers to verify that they’re human and also gives you statistics about how many times your e-mail address has been viewed.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/write-the-right-content-for-your-website-resume.html

NLP Workbook For Dummies (UK Edition)

Whether you’re feeling a flat, down, looking for a boost or a remedy to a hectic lifestyle, Neuro-Linguistic Programming is full of practical tips and tricks which can help you to change and improve the way you view your life and how you live it.

Creating Well-Formed Outcomes in Your Life

You can drive yourself towards want you want to achieve effectively by assessing how your life is currently, and then begin deciding where you want to go and what you want to accomplish – the key to getting there is to weigh up all the aspects surrounding your life goals before settling on them. Follow these steps to get you started on the road to achieving your dream(s):

State your goal in positive terms.

What do I want?

Self-initiate and maintain your goal.

Am I doing this for myself or someone else?

Does my goal depend solely on me?

Ensure your goal is appropriately contextualised.

Where, when, how, and with whom do I want it?

Describe the evidence that will emerge from the procedure.

What will I be doing to get my goal?

How will I know I’m achieving it?

What will I see, hear, and feel when I have it?

Identify the resources you need.

What resources do I have now?

What resources do I need to acquire?

Have I got evidence of achieving my goal before?

What happens if I act ‘as if’ I already have it?

Check that your goal is ecological.

What is the real purpose behind why I want this goal?

What will I lose or gain if I have it?

What will and won’t happen if I get it?

What will and won’t happen if I don’t get it?

Describe the first step.

Reading the Eyes for Personal Insights

Eye movements can give subtle clues about what someone is thinking, feeling, or remembering. Everyone moves their eyes according to which internal mental system they’re using – recognising someone’s eye movement lets you know whether they are thinking in terms of images, sounds, or feelings and movement.

The table and image are based on looking at and assessing how someone’s eyes move in response to a question. In this instance we’ve taken what you would generally see for a right-handed person, if the person is left-handed these signals may be reversed.

When someone is doing this	The eyes are doing this
Remembering a picture (Vr)	Move to the top left
Creating a picture (Vc)	Move to the top right
Remembering a sound or conversation (Ar)	Move horizontally to their left
Imagining what a sound will sound like (Ac)	Move horizontally to their right
Having a conversation with themselves (Ad)	Drop down and to their left
Accessing emotions (K)	Drop down and to their right

(N.B. Kinaesthetic means both movement and emotional experiences.)

Using Your Modalities and Submodalities

Everything you experience is as a result of information that you take in through your senses – visual (what you see), auditory (what you hear), kinaesthetic (touch and feelings), olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste). These are known as modalities. Each modality has its own level of fine-tuning known as submodalities. For example, a picture can be bright or dull, black and white, or in colour; a sound can be loud or soft and so on.

Because submodalities are the basic building blocks of your experiences, they’re crucial tools in managing your mind and your emotions. You may find it useful to keep notes on how you can use submodalities to enhance the good areas in your life or change what isn’t working.

This can be done by assessing the submodalities in negative memories you have and appreciating the qualities of that memory. Being able to associate into and dissociate out of a memory gives you the power and control to understand the intensity behind any feelings you have in response to that situation. Looking at these memories of situations and/or people in an objective, calm and collected way, you can make great personal progress to overcome or just deal better with things that challenge you.

How to Squash Your Limiting Beliefs

Limiting beliefs are those negative little thoughts or judgements that prevent you from being your best self, such as ‘I can’t make friends easily’ or ‘People generally aren’t very nice’. Follow these steps to squash those limiting beliefs and replace them with helpful constructive opinions. This way you can end up seeing them in a different and more positive light.

Think of a limiting belief that you have and make a note of the picture that comes to mind.

Think of a belief that you no longer find true.

This can go along the lines of, ‘I used to believe in Santa’. Look at the picture that is presented by this belief that is no longer true.

Think of a belief that, for you, is an absolute certainty.

Need help? Think of the stars when you’re sitting in a brightly lit metropolis. Even though you can’t see them close to, you know the stars exist and you know the sun will rise in the morning. Then picture the sun rising, or whatever belief you choose.

Think of a belief you’d rather have than the limiting belief you picture in Step 1.

This may be the opposite of your limiting belief, just stated in the positive. ‘I can be fit, healthy, and weigh 140 pounds again.’ And then notice the picture that accompanies your new belief.

Change the submodalities of the limiting belief from Step 1 into those of the belief that is no longer true for you in Step 2.

Change the submodalities of the belief you would rather have from Step 4 into those of the belief which you are absolutely certain of from Step 3.

Remembering the NLP Presuppositions

Neuro-Linguistic Programming provides some basic positive assumptions and constructive convictions about the world. A few are listed here, take a look and try playing with these in your mind to see if any of them speak to you.

The map is not the territory.

People respond according to their map of the territory.

There’s no failure – only feedback.

The meaning of the message is the response it draws out.

If what you’re doing isn’t working, do something different.

The person with the most flexibility influences the outcome of any interaction.

You cannot not communicate.

You already have all the resources you need to achieve your desired outcomes.

Every behaviour has a positive intent.

People are much more than their behaviour.

The mind and body are interlinked and affect each other.

Having choice is better than not having choice.

Modelling successful performance leads to excellence.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/nlp-workbook-for-dummies-cheat-sheet-uk-edition.html

Important Information about Borderline Personality Disorder

Don’t despair if you’re diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BDP). Seeking help and finding the right treatment can be effective. Keep these things in mind about BDP:

Remember that BPD doesn’t define who you are. Try to view your symptoms as your BPD at work — not you.

If you have BPD, realize that you have lots of company. Many millions of people have the same problem.

Understand that treatment for BPD works, but it does take time and effort.

Don’t rely on medications alone for help with your BPD problems — they won’t suffice.

Know that other problems, such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse, often accompany BPD. These problems may require specific treatment in addition to the treatment you receive for BPD.

Try to realize that your therapist is on your side. Your fears of abandonment may cause you to push your therapist away — try to resist.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/important-information-about-borderline-personality.html

Performance Appraisal Technique: Managing by Objectives

One well-regarded and widely used approach to performance appraisal is called management by objectives (MBO). By definition, under this method, you evaluate your employees on the basis of results. MBO is more than performance appraisal — it’s a construct for managing the entire organization. Its breadth includes the organization’s vision, values, strategies, goals, and performance measurement.

MBO begins with managers at the top of the company setting goals. Then managers and employees at each successively lower level develop their own goals. Employees’ goals are designed to support the goals of their own managers. In this way, the entire organization is linked together in the pursuit of objectives.

The focus is on outcomes that are clear, specific, measurable, and supported by action plans, benchmark dates, and deadlines. All aspects of the goal-setting process also apply to
the employees’ personal and developmental goals, such as building their skills or knowledge base.

After employees meet with their managers to establish their goals and action plans, the employees return to work newly energized and focused on specific short-term and longer-term targets. Simultaneously, their managers monitor the employees’ performance, provide coaching and support, remove barriers or help employees overcome them, and make adjustments and course corrections as necessary. The employees’ performance and progress are clear, measured, documented, and transparent every step of the way.

Employees are highly motivated through MBO because they’ve been able to actively participate in the process of setting goals, instead of simply having the goals dumped on them. Their involvement in this type of decision-making helps meet many of their higher-level needs for accomplishment, achievement, recognition, and self-worth.

MBO brings a wide range of advantages to the appraisal process:

It helps build relationships between managers and employees. MBO includes a great deal of contact and communication between managers and their employees, which builds camaraderie, communication, and trust — all key elements in strengthening teamwork.

It fosters a comfortable climate in the workplace. MBO helps build an atmosphere of respect and trust within a given department and beyond.

Because managers work directly with employees to identify and solve problems, MBO improves the quality of decision-making and problem solving.

It’s fair. Employees are evaluated on the basis of their performance and attainment of goals, which is regarded as fair and energizing.

It’s quick and easy. Performance evaluation forms associated with MBO are a breeze to complete. Typically, they spell out each objective as established at the beginning of the cycle, and then provide a space for the manager to summarize the results.

Some MBO forms also include a scale that asks for a numerical assessment of the employees’ success in meeting their goals. These scales guide the managers in the rating process by including specific descriptions of excellent, good, fair, and poor levels of goal attainment.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/performance-appraisal-technique-managing-by-object.html

Patron Saints for the Modern World

Television and airplanes didn’t exist when most saints were alive, but saints are invoked for them nonetheless. Why? Saints often experienced things while they were alive that relate to events or items of today’s world. Here are some examples of saints from hundreds of years ago who experienced tragedies and miracles that are applicable to the modern world:

TV: St. Clare of Assisi (13th century) was sick in bed and saw images of Mass from the chapel on her cell wall, similar to today’s video, although it was 700 years before TV was invented.

Air travel: St. Joseph Cupertino (17th century) would levitate anytime church bells rang or organ music was played. His fellow friars used to tie a string to his leg so he would not float away.

Internet: St. Isidore of Seville (sixth century) compiled the first written database, a 20-volume encyclopedia on everything known at the time, from A to Z.

Radio: St. Gabriel the Archangel broadcast the important news about the Savior when he announced to the Virgin Mary that she was to become the Mother of God’s Son.

Toothaches: St. Apollonia (third century) had all her teeth smashed and removed as part of her martyrdom, so she’s the patron saint of dentists and those who suffer toothaches.

Beer: St. Arnold (seventh century) was an Austrian bishop who served in France and spoke often to his people on the benefits of drinking beer. The local drinking water was filled with lots of contaminants and could make people deathly sick, whereas the beer was prepared in such a way as to kill all harmful bacteria.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/patron-saints-for-the-modern-world.html

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