M&A Transition: How to Cull Products and Services

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all guide for combining or culling products and services after an M&A deal. Buyers go through countless considerations when deciding whether and what to combine, cut, or keep.

One of the first steps is often to compare the acquired products to the parent company’s products. Remember your rationale for making the acquisition: If you bought the company in order to pick up new products, you’ll likely keep integration of products to a minimum.

However, if you bought the company to increase your market share or to obtain new customers or geographies, you may want to take a long, hard look at the product mix of the parent company and the acquired company and determine if all the products fit your go-forward plan.

Here are a few criteria you may use to compare and contrast the mix of products created by your acquisition:

• Financial performance: Products that aren’t profitable enough or even lose money may be worth cutting. Depending on your situation, you may be better suited utilizing the resources (employees, money, time, office space, and so on) to sell a product that generates a higher profit.

  
  



• Quality: You may choose to eliminate products (existing or acquired) deemed to be low quality. Now that you have the added revenue from the acquired company, you may be able to finally pull the trigger on getting rid of some of your product line’s dogs.

  
  



• Market overlap: If the parent company’s and acquired company’s products compete against each other, you likely need to make some decisions about shutting down or integrating these products to avoid overlap.

  
  

  Some options here include slapping the acquired product’s brand name on the parent company’s product or vice versa if one product has good brand recognition (see the following bullet). Or maybe you keep the product with higher sales and/or profits.

  
  



• Fame: Using the strongest brand name (be it from the acquired company or the parent company) for all of the products in the combined company may be a good strategy. A household name can go a long way to increase market share.

  
  



• Strategy: Do all the acquired products fit with your strategy? If not, you may elect to shut down or sell off products that don’t fit the go-forward strategy of the parent company.

  
  



• Housecleaning: This rationale may be rather simplistic, but after the deal is done you may simply have too many products, such that some of them have to go.

  
  

In addition to improving the product mix of the parent company and the acquired company, you may rationalize sourcing — that is, reduce the number of vendors supplying the acquired company and/or parent company. The idea behind rationalizing is that you expect better pricing, terms, and service by conducting more business with a vendor.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/ma-transition-how-to-cull-products-and-services.html

How to Use Soft and Hard Returns in Word 2010

You can use both hard and soft returns in Word 2010. Both kinds of returns move the insertion pointer to the line below the one you've been typing on. But Word's different types of returns let you decide whether a new line starts a new paragraph.

• 
  

  Hard return: Pressing the Enter key in Word ends a paragraph. It’s officially known as typing a hard return. Yes, it’s a return even though the key is known as Enter on a PC. The problem with the hard return is that it adds a bit of “air” after a paragraph. That’s a good thing; you should have air around paragraphs in a document.

  
  


• 
  

  Soft return: Those times when you don’t want air, when you need to put lines of text close together, you use a soft return. The soft return, or line break, is used primarily in titles and headings; when you have a long title and need to split it up between two lines, you press Shift+Enter to insert the soft return.

  
  

For example, use a soft return when typing a title and subtitle:

1. 
   

   In a Word document, type the line "Enjoying the Ballet."

   
   


2. 
   

   Press Shift+Enter.

   
   

   A new line starts.

   
   


3. 
   

   Continue typing "A Guide for Husbands and Boyfriends."

   
   

   The soft return keeps the title text together (in the same paragraph), but on separate lines.

   
   

You should also use the soft return when typing an address, either on an envelope or in a letter. If you try typing the lines of an address and pressing Enter after each line, you see more space between the lines, which isn’t what you want. Nope, that soft return can sure come in handy.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-soft-and-hard-returns-in-word-2010.html

Working with Your Cause Marketing Partner

It’s important to work closely with your company partner throughout the point-of-sale process. You need to make sure that you work with the right people and that you have a timeline for what needs to be executed and when. You also need a plan for including a partner in the approval process.

• Working with operations people. To recruit the partner for the program, you’ve probably worked directly with the CEO or the marketing team. Now you need to learn to work with the operations people behind the scenes who will make your program happen. These back-office workers busy themselves with shipping and fulfillment, dealing with managers in the stores, and making sure that everything is running smoothly.

  
  

  These people are not minions or office help to be commanded or disregarded! They’re valuable, critical people who can be important allies in motivating managers and ensuring that stores are well supplied for your program. Alienate them at your own risk!

  
  



• Creating a timeline for executing your program. A timeline is invaluable in keeping everyone on task and in the loop. Your timeline doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but it should include deadlines for when materials are due, when creative design needs to be approved, when things will go to print, and when deliveries are expected.

  
  

  Keeping the timeline updated means keeping your partner updated on the latest changes and developments. Trust us, they’ll appreciate it, and your program will be better with it.

  
  



• Including partners in the approval process. Make sure that your partner approves the design of the pinup, especially if he’s including a coupon. An error on a coupon could lead to lost revenue for your partner, an expensive reprinting for you, or both!

  
  

  Haste really does make waste here. Give yourself, your printer, and your partner plenty of time to review the proof for the pinup before it goes to print. The key here is attention to detail and flexibility.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/working-with-your-cause-marketing-partner.html

Find the Best Companies for Your Cause Marketing Campaign

To find a partner company, start by working with your innermost circle and contact your cause's current supporters and donors. Because they know you better than anyone else, they can open doors to other prospects. They are your No. 1 resource!

Here are the best ways to work with your supporters:

• 
  

  You need to know your supporters’ contacts as well as they do. A common mistake is showing up at a board meeting and asking attendees to write down everyone they know that could help you. Besides having a poor memory, people will leave out the contacts they are even the slightest bit hesitant about contacting on your behalf.

  
  

  A better approach is to continuously research your supporters and know who their best contacts are so that you can speak to them directly about helping you. “I know that you do a fair amount of business with XYZ Corporation. Do you think you could introduce us to the CEO so we could talk to her about cause marketing?”

  
  


• 
  

  Make it easy for your supporters to help you. Most people are sincere in their desire to help, but if you ask too much of them, they won’t. While the level of help you’ll need from your supporters will vary depending on the prospect, the goal should be to have them just open doors.

  
  

  Once they see how easy it is to help you and how well you represent your cause and your supporters, they’ll be more inclined to do it again.

  
  

Educating your supporters on what cause marketing is is critical. Make sure that they know you’re not just asking them to call their friends to make a donation. Cause marketing isn’t philanthropy. Cause marketing is win-win. It helps the cause and the business. Be sure that they’re clear on how cause marketing is different from giving.

After you contact your supporters, move on to your second circle and reconnect with your past business contacts and/or vendors. Regardless of whether a company is a partner or not, a good cause marketing prospect is a good prospect forever.

Keep in touch with former partners, especially when there is a new cause marketing program on the horizon. If you work for a big hospital or organization, you have vendors you can contact. They understand your mission better than anyone and benefit if your organization continues to grow.

Vendors (companies that a company or your organization buys its supplies or services from) can include the vendors of your current supporters and donors, too, so don’t hesitate to work their circles as well.

Also, remember to explore your outer circle through social media and traditional means. You’ve worked hard to keep up on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Make sure that you’re using them to connect with prospects when possible.

It can also be helpful to attend networking events, read business journals and pay attention to who’s advertising in your local newspaper and on television and radio. Companies that value getting people to notice them will appreciate the awareness that cause marketing offers.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/find-the-best-companies-for-your-cause-marketing-c.html

How to Straighten a Digital Photo in Your Image Editor

Select the Straighten tool (or the similar tool in your program).

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The options below the menu bar change.

>
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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-straighten-a-digital-photo-in-your-image-ed.pageCd-storyboard,pageNum-3.html

Basic Network Building Blocks

All networks, large or small, require specialized network hardware to make them work. Small or large, all networks are built from the following basic building blocks:

• Client computers: The computers that end users use to access the resources of the network. Client computers are typically computers located on users’ desks. They usually run a desktop version of Windows such as Windows 7, Vista, or XP. Client computers are sometimes referred to as workstations.

  
  



• Server computers: Computers that provide shared resources, such as disk storage and printers, as well as network services, such as e-mail and Internet access. Server computers typically run a specialized network operating system along with special software to provide network services.

  
  



• Network interface: An interface — sometimes called a network port — that’s installed in a computer to enable the computer to communicate over a network. Almost all network interfaces implement a networking standard called Ethernet.

  
  

  A network interface is sometimes called a NIC, which stands for network interface card, because in the early days of networking you actually had to install a separate circuit card in the computer to provide a network interface. Nowadays, nearly all computers come with network interfaces built in as an integral part of the computer’s motherboard.

  
  



• Cable: Computers in a network are usually physically connected to each other using cable. Although several types of cable have been popular over the years, most networks today use a type of cable called twisted-pair, also known by its official designation 10BaseT.

  
  

  Twisted-pair cable is also sometimes referred to as Cat-5 or Cat-6 cable. These terms refer to the standards that determine the maximum speed with which the cable can carry data, Cat-6 being rated for more speed than Cat-5.

  
  

  Twisted-pair cable can also be referred to simply as copper, to distinguish it from fiber-optic cable which is used for the highest-speed network connections. Fiber-optic cable uses strands of glass to transmit light signals at very high speeds.

  
  



• Switches: Network cable usually doesn’t connect computers directly to each other. Instead, each computer is connected by cable to a device known as a switch. The switch, in turn, connects to the rest of the network. Each switch contains a certain number of ports, typically 8 or 16. Thus, you can use an eight-port switch to connect up to eight computers. Switches can be connected to each other to build larger networks.

  
  



• Wireless networks: In many networks, cables and switches are making way for wireless network connections, which enable computers to communicate via radio signals. In a wireless network, radio transmitters and receivers take the place of cables.

  
  

  The main advantage of wireless networking is its flexibility. With a wireless network, you don’t have to run cables through walls or ceilings, and your client computers can be located anywhere within range of the network broadcast. The main disadvantage of wireless networking is that it’s inherently less secure than a cabled network.

  
  



• Network software: Although network hardware is essential, what really makes a network work is software. A whole bunch of software has to be set up just right in order to get a network working. Server computers typically use a special network operating system (also known as a NOS) in order to function efficiently, and client computers need to have their network settings configured properly in order to access the network.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/basic-network-building-blocks.html

Office 2011 for Mac: Using PowerPoint’s Slide Master View

Office 2011 for Mac has a slew of handy PowerPoint features. Use Slide Master view to add, remove, arrange, and format elements on your Slide Master and Slide Layouts. A Slide Master and each Slide Layout can be given its own name (right-click the respective thumbnails, and choose Rename Slide Master or Rename Layout).

Applying Theme Colors and Fonts in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

The Slide Master tab of the Ribbon begins with the Themes group. If you want your master or layout to follow a Theme Color or Font scheme, choose these options in the Themes group:

• 
  

  Colors: Displays a pop-up menu listing all Theme Color sets.

  
  


• 
  

  Fonts: Displays a pop-up menu of Theme Font sets.

  
  

You can apply direct formatting to objects by selecting them and then formatting them by means of options within the Ribbon tabs or conventional menus.

Adding a new set of masters in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

A presentation is not limited to a single Slide Master. To add a new Slide Master, click the New Master button in the Slide Master group on the Slide Master tab of the Ribbon. The new master appears with a default set of Slide Layouts beneath the default Slide Master. Scroll down the thumbnails pane to see this complete set of unformatted masters. If you format the new Slide Master, the formatting affects the new Slide Layouts, but not your other Slide Masters or their Slide Layouts.

Drag layouts and masters up and down in the left pane to reorder them.

Choosing Slide Master Elements in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

By default, a Slide Master has one each of the following elements (placeholders): Title, Date and Time, Footer, Slide Number, and Body. The idea is that you select an element and then position and format it so that the formatting cascades to the master's Slide Layouts and any slides that use those layouts. In the Edit Master group of the Slide Master tab of the Ribbon, click the Master Elements button while viewing the Slide Master. You will see that the Master Elements are all on by default, and are grayed out because you would normally leave them on. These placeholders on a Master Slide are replicated when you add a new Slide Layout.

Don't click the Delete button in the Slide Master group of the Slide Master tab to delete a slide element — that button deletes the entire Slide Master or Slide Layout. Of course if you have just one Slide Master in your presentation, that button will be grayed out.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/office-2011-for-mac-using-powerpoints-slide-master.html

The Nikon J1 Digital Camera Layout

Here’s a guide to the buttons, dials, and other external controls on your Nikon J1 camera. The lens shown in the camera below is the Nikon 1 10–30mm model; other lenses may vary.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-nikon-j1-digital-camera-layout.html

Pinpointing the Importance of Clinical Trials

Research studies in all fields of medicine are known as clinical trials. These studies are conducted with an eye to the future, in hopes of finding safer or more effective methods to screen for, prevent, diagnose, or treat a variety of diseases.

Realizing the scope of cancer trials

Just how many clinical trials on cancer are there? Here's some perspective: In June 2004, more than 25,000 cancer specialists attended the conference for the American Society of Clinical Oncologists. At that conference, participants could learn about the results of 3,700 different cancer research studies.

These studies — and others in related fields — are conducted on many fronts. For example, many cancer research studies address the following areas:

• New techniques for screening for, diagnosing, or staging cancer

• New anticancer drugs

• New methods of surgery

• New approaches to radiation therapy

• New combinations of standard treatments

• New technologies, such as gene therapy

Tests are carried out according to standard procedures used to evaluate new drugs and methods of treatment. Powerful treatments in use today for breast cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer, and childhood cancers all began in clinical trials. The results of clinical trials have allowed many people with cancer to live longer, and these scientific tests also have pointed the way to future research.

Understanding the development of clinical trials

A clinical trial is not the first step in the development of a new drug or treatment. In fact, it is one of the last. Research and development generally begins in a scientific laboratory. After extensive testing, scientists may test a promising drug or technique on animals. Later, a small number of volunteers willing to undergo experimental treatments takes part in studies. Based on the results of these studies, drugs and treatments that have been shown to be effective are made available for larger clinical trials.

According to the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, cancer clinical trials include research at three different phases, each designed to answer different questions about the new treatment or technique.

The first two phases generally are made available only to a limited number of patients who are not benefiting from standard treatment.

Here are the three phases of research:

• Phase I: This is the first step in testing a new treatment on humans. Researchers may study whether the best way to give a new treatment is by mouth, IV drip, or injection. They may try to determine the best dose and how many times a drug or treatment should be given each day. They also watch for harmful side effects.

• Phase II: Trials conducted in Phase II determine whether the new treatment has an anticancer effect. For instance, does the treatment shrink tumors? What types of tumors does it shrink? Does it improve the results of blood tests for some cancers but not others?

• Phase III: After a treatment has demonstrated promising results in Phases I and II, Phase III studies compare the results of people taking standard treatments for specific cancers in specific stages with people taking the new treatment. Researchers all over the country conduct Phase III clinical trials, and thousands of people take part.

In Phase III clinical trials, participants are assigned at random to receive either the new treatment or a standard cancer treatment. Participants in clinical trials are divided into the two groups to help avoid bias. In this instance, bias is defined as an effect on the results of the study due to personal choices. In most cases, the treatment group receives the drug or method being tested, and the control group receives a time-tested standard treatment for cancer. All patients, of course, are carefully monitored.

In single blind studies, participants are unaware of which group they are in. In double blind studies — which are not done in the majority of cases — neither the participant nor the doctor knows whether the participant is in the experimental group or the control group (the group receiving standard treatment). These studies are designed to protect against bias, because participants (and their doctors) may act differently if they know whether they are taking the experimental drug or receiving standard treatment.

Comparing the results of two different treatments for the same type of cancer allows researchers to document the study results and show which treatment is more effective and has fewer side effects.

A small number of clinical trials involve the use of placebos for participants in the control group. Placebos are pills or injections that look like the drug or substance being tested but contain no drug. Everyone participating is informed if placebos are in use. Again, most clinical trials do not use placebos, and only if a patient agrees to participate in a placebo-controlled clinical trial can she receive a placebo.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/pinpointing-the-importance-of-clinical-trials.html

Shopping for Extra Hard Drive Space for Your Mac

One way to optimize the way Mac OS X Snow Leopard runs is to ensure that you have sufficient hard space. Here’s a list of guidelines to keep handy while you’re shopping for a new internal or external hard drive:

• Faster is indeed better. You’ll pay more for a 10,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) drive than a slower 5,400 or 7,200 rpm drive, but the extra cash is worth it. Faster drives can transfer more data to your Mac in less time, especially if you’re replacing your Mac’s internal Serial ATA drive.

  
  

  Faster drives are especially important for storing digital video.

  
  



• Serial ATA and EIDE drives are different. If you’re replacing your internal drive, you have to get the same type of drive that you already have: EIDE or Serial ATA. (EIDE is a common parallel ATA standard hard drive used in PCs and older Macs.) Again, System Profiler can tell you which type of drive your Mac is currently using.

  
  



• Avoid used or refurbished drives. Hard drives are one of the few components in your computer that still have a large number of moving parts. Therefore, buying a used drive isn’t a good idea unless it’s priced very low.

  
  

  Because the prices on new hard drives are constantly dropping, make sure that you check on the price for a new, faster drive of the same capacity before you buy that bargain used drive.

  
  



• Pick FireWire over USB. Compared with a FireWire connection, a USB 2.0 external hard drive is less efficient and slightly slower. Because most Macs with USB ports also have FireWire ports, make very sure that you buy a FireWire drive! (If your Mac has USB 2.0 ports, which will show up in System Profiler as well, you can buy a USB 2.0 drive without being embarrassed. Or invest in a drive that has both FireWire and USB 2.0 connectors!)

  
  



• Watch the size of the drive when buying internal drives. Most SATA (Serial ATA) and EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics) drives are standard half-height 3.5-inch units, but check to make sure that you’re not investing in a laptop drive, unless, of course, you’re upgrading a laptop.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/shopping-for-extra-hard-drive-space-for-your-mac.html

The Essentials of Using a Kindle

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How to Bookmark and Highlight Content on the Kindle

Amazon’s Kindle 2 makes it easy to bookmark and highlight content. In an effort to make reading books and other content on a Kindle as much like reading a regular book as possible, Amazon wants you to [more…]

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Taking Notes and Cutting Clippings on Your Kindle

Not all e-books that you download will be read for pleasure. If you're studying text on your Kindle, it can be helpful to highlight specific phrases or insert your own notes. The Kindle 2 and Kindle DX [more…]

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Find Free E-Books to Read on Your Kindle

A growing number of sources offer free e-books in a Kindle-friendly format. Amazon.com is far from the only place where you can find e-books for you Kindle, although it is the best-stocked e-book store [more…]

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How to Subscribe to Magazines and Newspapers on Your Kindle 2

Reading a newspaper or magazine on a Kindle 2 is different from what you’re used to. It doesn’t take long to get used to not having to flip pages, though. You can navigate a periodical by moving from page [more…]

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Let Your Kindle Read to You with Text-to-Speech

If you can’t read a book because you’re driving or for some other reason, both the second-generation Kindle and the Kindle DX have an "experimental" feature that converts any text to speech and reads it [more…]

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Listening to MP3 Music Files on Your Kindle

Amazon's Kindle e-book reader is, above all else, a portable device; you can take it anywhere and read anything from your digital library. But not every place you go is conducive to reading. Trying to [more…]

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Firing Up Kindle's Basic Web Browser

Think of Kindle's Basic Web as a slimmed-down, stripped-down version of full-featured Web browsers. Basic Web does the basics: it connects to Web sites, lets you click links, and displays images. However [more…]

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Navigating the Kindle's Basic Web Browser

The Kindle 2 and Kindle DX come with an application called Basic Web. As the name implies, Basic Web is a type of Web browser, but not a full-featured Web browser, so it doesn’t do a lot of the sophisticated [more…]

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Where to Get More Help with Your Kindle

It isn’t always easy to find the support you need for a computer or operating system. But the Kindle is another matter. If your Kindle is acting up (or if you just want to find out more about how it works [more…]

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-essentials-of-using-a-kindle.html

How to Play Media with QuickTime

Playback with QuickTime begins as you might suspect — by clicking the Play button. While a file is playing, the Play button toggles to a Pause button. Click that button to pause playback, which toggles the button back to Play.

Clicking the buttons with double arrows on them advances the playback head at high speed in the direction of the arrows. (Click once to advance at 2x speed; click again to increase the speed.). If the file has audio in it, you hear the playback at high speed, which sounds like an episode of those helium-inhaling Chipmunks. Despite its comical sound, it’s helpful for quickly scanning through a file.

You can also advance through the file by dragging the playback head — an action called scrubbing — in either direction. Scrubbing is permissible while the file is playing or when it’s stopped. When you drag the playback head, however, you miss out on the high-speed sound and video that you would get if you used the buttons.

To adjust the volume of a movie, simply move the volume slider left or right. To mute the volume, click the speaker icon to the left of the volume slider.

You can control playback by using the keyboard as well.

Common Playback Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcut	What It Does
Spacebar	Starts or stops the player
Left/right arrow	Advances the playback head (either one frame at a time or in slow motion)
Option+Up/down arrow	Sets the volume to Maximum and Minimum, respectively
Up/down arrow	Increases/decreases the volume of the current movie

Sometimes you might want to play a piece of media more than once. In these situations, you need to loop the playback. To force a movie to loop, choose View→Loop or press Command+L. Press Command+L again to turn off looping.

To see more information about the files that you’re playing, ask the expert: QuickTime Player. To view basic information about a movie, choose Window→Show Movie Inspector or press Command+I. The resulting window displays the following data:

• Source: Location of the file

  
  



• Format: Compressor and dimensions of the file

  
  



• FPS: Preferred rate of playback in frames per second (fps), shown only for video

  
  



• Data Size: Size of the file

  
  



• Data Rate: Preferred rate of playback (in bits per second)

  
  



• Current Time: Position of the playback head (in units of time)

  
  



• Current Size: Actual movie dimensions

  
  

These bits and pieces of information are read-only — you can’t change them from the Movie Inspector window.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-play-media-with-quicktime.navId-323204.html

How to Reinforce Changes in an Organization

No one said change was easy, but a good leader can make it easier. Changing an organization means changing brains, too — and brain change is a challenge. If you meet resistance to change with your employees, don’t be discouraged. Instead, use your leadership skills to make the change smoother and “stickier.”

When current employees must change their way of thinking in order to meet new goals and challenges, resistance may be part of the process. Overriding old networks takes time and practice. The more emotional the new networks are, the stronger they are and the more easily they replace old ones. Motivation and commitment to the new networks also speeds up the process.

In order to reinforce the changes that have taken place from redesigning brains, you need to do the following:

• Apply new learning: Although some employees may be a little reluctant to implement what they have learned, doing so is a necessary step to rid them of the old habits and instill the new ones. The changes work best if employees apply their new learning immediately. Expect them to need coaching, which can be supplied by your trainer or by other employees who have had more training in the area.

  
  



• Integrate the changes: Make sure that employees at all levels in the department integrate the new way of doing things. The emotional message is “we’re all in this together.” Employees are more likely to help each other if everyone is at similar levels of performance and working on the same strategies, programs, or techniques.

  
  



• Hold employees accountable: After a few weeks of repetition, the new networks in employees’ brains can make smooth connections. At that time, you can start holding employees accountable for utilizing their training. The method you use to measure the level of responsibility that the employees have achieved can vary according to the kind of training they received. It may be a change in profit, productivity, or proficiency. If you find that you aren’t getting the results you expected, you and your employees and perhaps the trainer need to examine where the responsibility lies.

  
  



• Celebrate change: Whether you celebrate onsite or off, recognition and praise are part of keeping employees’ emotional connection to the changes strong.

  
  

As you reinforce the new learning, follow the progress of your employees. Doing so assists with the steps described above. You may want to do these three things:

1. Collect feedback from your newly retrained employees.

   
   
   
   

   • Provide surveys.

     
     
   
   

   • Have team meetings.

     
     
   
   

   • Speak to team leaders.

     
     
   
   
   
   



2. Use this information to identify problems.

   
   
   
   

   • Look for lack of motivation.

     
     
   
   

   • Check stress levels.

     
     
   
   

   • Identify employees resistant to changes.

     
     
   
   
   
   



3. Fix the problems.

   
   
   
   

   • Speak with anyone who may be resistant.

     
     
   
   

   • Correct misconceptions.

     
     
   
   

   • Recognize individual successes.

     
     
   
   
   
   

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-reinforce-changes-in-an-organization.html

How to Import Video Clips into iMovie

iMovie is a great way to create your own movies from your Mac, but it won't do the filming for you. You have to import the video you record with a digital video camera or camcorder. Here’s the drill if your clips are on your FireWire-equipped mini-DV camcorder:

1. Plug the proper cable into your Mac.

   
   



2. Set the DV camcorder to VTR (or VCR) mode.

   
   

   Some camcorders call this Play mode.

   
   



3. Click the Camera Import button.

   
   

   iMovie opens a new window.

   
   



4. Click the Camera pop-up menu (at the bottom of the Import window) and select your DV camcorder.

   
   

   Playback controls appear under the Camera Import window, mirroring the controls on your DV camcorder. This allows you to control the unit from iMovie. Keen! You also get Import All and Import Checked buttons as a bonus.

   
   

   To capture video from your iSight camera, click the Video Size pop-up menu to choose the dimensions of the clip; then click Capture. On the sheet that appears, choose the location where the video will be saved, and choose whether to add this video to an existing event or create a new event. Click Capture to start recording, and click Stop when your video is complete.

   
   



5. To import selected clips from your DV camcorder, set the Automatic/Manual switch to Manual.

   
   

   To import all clips, set the Automatic/Manual switch to Automatic, and click Import All.

   
   



6. Click the check boxes next to the clips.

   
   



7. Click the Import Checked button.

   
   



8. Click the Save To pop-up menu and choose the drive that should store your clips.

   
   

   You can choose to add the new clips to an existing Event or create a new Event.

   
   



9. Click OK and admire your handiwork.

   
   

   iMovie begins transferring the footage to your Mac and automatically adds the imported clips to your Event Library.

   
   

If your clips are already on your hard drive, rest assured that iMovie can import them, including those in high-definition video (HDV) format. iMovie also recognizes a number of other video formats.

Video Formats Supported by iMovie

File Type	Description
DV	Standard 4:3 digital video
DV Widescreen	Widescreen 16:9 digital video
MOV	QuickTime movies
HDV & AVCHD	High-definition (popularly called widescreen) digital video, in 720p and 1080i
MPEG-2	Digital video format used for DVD movies
MPEG-4	A popular format for streaming Internet and wireless digital video

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-import-video-clips-into-imovie.html

LinkedIn Job Searching Strategies

When you’re looking for a job, there are a lot of potential ways you can include LinkedIn as part of your overall job search, beyond the direct task of searching their jobs database listings and e-mailing a job request to your immediate network. For example you can use your LinkedIn connections or use LinkedIn to help you find specific positions.

A job search should be treated as a full-time job. Some of these strategies involve a long-term commitment and might not instantly result in multiple offers.

One of the biggest benefits of LinkedIn is being able to answer the question, “Who do my contacts know?” It’s important to think of LinkedIn as not only the sum of your first-degree immediate connections, but also as your extended network of second- and third-degree network members that your colleagues can help connect you with for information, referrals, and hopefully, a new career.

Therefore, keep these second- and third-degree network members in mind so you can best leverage your connections to achieve progress. Keep these points in mind when you’re working on your job search using LinkedIn:

• Change the Sorted By option to Degrees Away from You, or Degrees and Recommendations: When searching for the right contacts (such as recruiters, headhunters, or company or job specialists), be sure to change the Sorted By option from Keyword Relevance to another option based on Degrees. This allows you to see which members of your extended network should be at the top of your list.

  
  



• Ask for referrals whenever possible: Exchange information first and then work your way up to request a referral.

  
  



• Get your friends involved: Let your immediate network know about your goals so they can recommend the right people for you to talk to, and hopefully, they’ll generate the right Introductions for you as well.

  
  

If you’re looking for a specific job, one way to approach your job search is to ask this question: Who out there could possibly know more about the job you’re interested in than those folks doing that job right now? The answer to that question is no one.

This means one source of help should be people with the same (or very similar) job title or responsibilities. Although these people might not have hiring authority, they can help give you the right perspective, share the right insider tips about what the job truly entails, and let you know what skills or background the hiring manager considered when they were hired.

Because these people are already employed and not your direct competition, they’re more likely to offer help and advice. They have practical knowledge of what it takes to do that job and what qualities will best help someone succeed in that position. When you’re ready to implement this strategy, just keep these points in mind:

• Perform an advanced search for people with a similar job title as the one you’re applying for. Put the job title in either the keywords section or the title section.

  
  



• Narrow and clarify your search by industry. For example, Project Manager of Software Development is much different than Project Manager for the Construction industry. Pick multiple industries if they are similar enough.

  
  



• When you find someone who has the job title you’d like to have, see whether they're interested in meeting for an informational interview. Asking outright for a job lead will most likely not result in anything positive.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/linkedin-job-searching-strategies.html

QuickBooks 2012 Pro and Premier in a Multi-User Environment

QuickBooks Pro and Premier 2012 allow you to set up several passwords for the QuickBooks data file. What’s really neat about this is that you can tell QuickBooks to limit certain users and passwords to do only certain things.

The business owner, for example, may have a password that allows her to do anything. But a new accounting clerk, for example, may have a password that only allows him to record bills into the system.

To set up additional users and passwords in QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier 2012 editions, follow these steps:

1. Choose the Company→Set Up Users and Passwords→Set Up Users command.

   
   

   QuickBooks displays the User List dialog box, which identifies any users for whom QuickBooks access has been set up and who is currently logged on to the system.

   
   



2. Tell QuickBooks that you want to add a user by clicking the Add User button.

   
   

   QuickBooks displays the first Set Up User Password and Access dialog box.

   
   



3. Identify the user and supply a password.

   
   

   Give each user for whom you are setting up a password a username by entering a short name — perhaps the user’s first name — into the User Name box. After you identify the user, you enter the user’s password into both the Password text box and the Confirm Password text box.

   
   



4. Click Next to continue and then indicate whether you want to limit access for the new user.

   
   

   When QuickBooks displays the second Set Up User Password and Access dialog box, indicate whether you want to limit access and rights for the user. If you do want to limit access and rights (rights are simply the things that the user can do), select the Selected Areas of QuickBooks radio button.

   
   

   If you want the user to be able to do anything, select the All Areas of QuickBooks radio button. If you indicate that the new user should have access to all areas of QuickBooks, you’re done setting up the user password. You can skip the remaining steps.

   
   



5. Click Next to continue and then describe access to sales and accounts receivable information and tasks.

   
   

   After you complete Step 4, QuickBooks displays the third Set Up User Password and Access dialog box. This is the first of ten dialog boxes that walk you through an interview asking detailed questions about what kind of access each user should have to a particular area.

   
   



6. Click Next and then describe the purchases and accounts payable rights.

   
   

   After you complete Step 5 by clicking Next, QuickBooks displays the fourth Set Up User Password and Access dialog box, which allows you to specify what access this new user has in the purchases and accounts payable areas. You can select the No Access, Full Access or Selective Access radio button and one of the Selective Access subsidiary buttons.

   
   



7. Click Next and then describe the remaining user rights and access.

   
   

   When you click the Next button shown on the bottom of each version of the Set Up User Password and Access dialog box, QuickBooks displays several other versions of the dialog box that QuickBooks uses to query you about user rights and access.

   
   

   You limit rights in each of these other areas in the same way that you do for the sales and accounts receivable and purchases and accounts payable areas. Just be thoughtful as you go through and limit the capability of the user. You want users to have the rights necessary to do their job, but you don’t want to give them any more rights than they need.

   
   



8. Specify whether the user can change or delete transactions.

   
   

   After you’ve stepped through roughly a half-dozen versions of the Set Up User Password and Access dialog boxes that ask about specific areas of accounting, QuickBooks displays the Changing or Deleting Transactions version of the Set Up User Password and Access dialog box. In general, you want to limit a user’s capabilities to change or delete transactions.

   
   



9. Click Next and then review your rights decisions.

   
   

   After you click Next, QuickBooks displays the final version of the Set Up User Password and Access dialog box. It identifies the user rights that you assigned or allowed. You can use this dialog box to review the rights that someone has. If you realize you’ve incorrectly assigned rights, click the Back button to move back through the dialog boxes to where you made a mistake.

   
   



10. After you finish with the review of user rights and access, click Finish.

    
    

    From this point forward, the new user will be able to use QuickBooks; however, his or her rights are limited to what you specified.

    
    

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/quickbooks-2012-pro-and-premier-in-a-multiuser-env.html

Choose an Easy E-mail Marketing Provider

E-mail marketing is easy, but it does take some time. The two easiest to use e-mail marketing service providers are iContact.com and MailChimp. You could send out your own e-mails for free from your own mom blogging account, but you can quickly run into problems if you don’t know what you’re doing.

The CAN-Spam act was put in place in 2003 to prevent companies from spamming and establish best-practice standards. If you aren’t doing everything right, your e-mails could end up in everyone’s spam filter — or, worse, get your domain banned from being able to e-mail altogether.

Using an e-mail marketing provider will help you ensure that your newsletters are both effective and legal under the CAN-Spam requirements. Another reason to use an e-mail marketing provider is that it has the technology to send out large amounts of e-mails at one time, and is whitelisted by Internet service providers so that you don’t have to worry about getting banned.

Both iContact.com and MailChimp offer a product that’s easy enough for beginners to use at an affordable price. They also have a free option for beginners.

iContact.com offers great advanced features plus plenty of tech support. MailChimp has slightly fewer general e-mail marketing features but has a reputation for being extra easy to use. Because these companies are similar and always adding new features, go to both of their websites, compare the two, and go with whichever you’re most comfortable with.

If you really plan on doing a lot of e-mail marketing in the future, and anticipate it being a big part of your business, go with a more sophisticated e-mail marketing provider. The one that’s most often used is AWeber.

AWeber isn’t quite as easy to use, but it offers options for nearly unlimited custom website integration with its application programming interface (API). Also, at the time of writing, AWeber is more affordable than iContact.com or Constant Contact.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/choose-an-easy-email-marketing-provider.html

How to Cut, Copy, and Paste in Excel 2010

You can use the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands to move or copy information in an Excel 2010 worksheet. These commands use the Office Clipboard as a kind of electronic halfway house where the information you cut or copy remains until you decide to paste it somewhere. Because of this Clipboard arrangement, you can use these commands to move or copy information to any other worksheet open in Excel or even to other programs running in Windows (such as a Word document).

Moving a cell selection

To move a cell selection with Cut and Paste, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells containing data you want to move.

   
   



2. Click the Cut button in the Clipboard group on the Home tab (the button with the scissors icon).

   
   

   Alternatively, press Ctrl+X. The program surrounds the cell selection with a marquee and displays the following message on the Status bar: Select destination and press ENTER or choose Paste.

   
   



3. Move the cell cursor to, or click the cell in the upper-left corner of the destination range.

   
   

   When you indicate the destination range, you don't have to select a range of blank cells that matches the shape and size of the cell selection you're moving. Excel only needs to know the location of the cell in the upper-left corner of the destination range.

   
   



4. Press Enter or Ctrl+V to complete the move operation.

   
   

   Alternatively, you can click the Paste button in the Clipboard group on the Home tab. The cell contents disappear from where they began and reappear in their new location.

   
   

Copying a cell selection

Copying a cell selection with the Copy and Paste commands follows a nearly identical procedure to the one you use with the Cut and Paste commands. After selecting the range to copy, you click the Copy button on the Home tab or press Ctrl+C.

An advantage to copying a selection with the Copy and Paste commands and the Clipboard is that you can paste the information multiple times. Just make sure that, instead of pressing Enter to complete the first copy operation, you click the Paste button on the Home tab of the Ribbon or press Ctrl+V. After you select the first cell of the next range where you want the selection copied, choose the Paste command again. When you make the last copy, press Enter. If you forget and choose Paste, you can remove the marquee around the original cell range by pressing the Esc key.

Right after you click the Paste button on the Home tab or press Ctrl+V to paste cell entries that you copy (not cut), Excel displays a Paste Options button with its own drop-down button at the end of the pasted range. Click the button to see options that you can select to modify the paste operation. For example, you can select Formatting Only to copy only the formatting, or select Keep Source Column Widths to also copy the column widths.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-cut-copy-and-paste-in-excel-2010.html

How to Assess Control Risk When Performing an Audit

During your risk-assessment procedures before you begin an audit, you interview members of the company and observe how they do their jobs to make your assessment of control risk. Company management is ultimately responsible for the financial statements. The internal controls set in place by the company have the goal of producing accurate and effective reporting.

Here are some examples of control activities and the specific procedures that should be in place in an adequate control environment:

• Segregation of duties: In particular, this applies to authorization, custody, and recordkeeping. For example, the person who requests an order of computer components shouldn’t be the person who authorizes the request. The physical custody of the computer components after receipt should be the task of a third employee. The business should also have yet another employee keeping files of the related purchase orders and paid invoices.

  
  



• Adequate documents and records: The company must maintain source documents like purchase orders, paid invoices, and customer invoices in a proper filing system. A classic documentation control is using prenumbered documents and saving voided documents. If you spot a missing invoice number with no void information, you know right off the bat that the company may have sales that haven’t hit its financial records.

  
  



• Physical control of assets and records: This includes providing safe and secure locations for the assets, tagging furniture and equipment, and having backup procedures for records should they be misplaced or lost in a fire or flood.

  
  

  Not quite sure what it means to tag a piece of furniture? Businesses with good internal controls have a unique label on each piece of furniture and equipment they own and a record of where each label is placed. Every year, someone goes around to see if any tagged assets are missing.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-assess-control-risk-when-performing-an-audi.html

Prepare RAW Photos for Conversion to HDR

Converting Raw photos for high dynamic range photography requires a different mindset than traditional digital photo processing, which aims to create the best looking photo possible. Here are a few differences:

• 
  

  Don’t mess with exposure. The point of bracketed photos is to have different exposures, so it’s best to leave this alone unless you’re converting a single Raw photo to exposure brackets.

  
  


• 
  

  Don’t rescue detail from highlights or shadows. HDR takes care of this in tone mapping.

  
  


• 
  

  Avoid dynamic range adjustments. Some Raw editors have dynamic range adjustments that play with shadow and highlight detail, bringing them together. This defeats the purpose of HDR.

  
  


• 
  

  Be careful about making color and tone changes. If you must make color and tone changes (for practical or artistic reasons), be consistent unless you’re experimenting with color variations between brackets.

  
  


• 
  

  Fix white balance if necessary. You can delay fixing the white balance, but if you prefer, fix it now. White balance corrections compensate for different lighting that can impart a colored tint to your photos or turn what should be white to a shade of gray.

  
  


• 
  

  Don’t over-sharpen. Sharpening bracketed photos is often an important part of getting a good, sharp result in HDR. Don’t overdo it, though, or artifacts will be magnified in HDR.

  
  

Be careful of making changes that make tone mapping harder and increase the level of noise or artifacts in your images. Trust the HDR part of the process to do what it’s supposed to do (enhance details, contrast, and control exposure) while using the Raw editor’s strengths to convert Raw photos.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/prepare-raw-photos-for-conversion-to-hdr.html

Astrology Houses and What They Rule

Twelve is a big number in astrology — 12 astrological signs are influenced by 12 planetary bodies, and an astrological birth chart includes 12 houses. Each of these 12 houses affects specific areas of your life, and their position on your birth chart and their relationships to other areas of your chart can have an impact on your horoscope. The following table lists each house’s areas of influence:

House	Area of Influence
First House	Appearance, outward personality
Second House	Money, possessions, values
Third House	Communication, immediate environment, brothers and sisters
Fourth House	Home, parents, roots, circumstances at the end of life
Fifth House	Romance, children, creativity, fun
Sixth House	Work, health, service
Seventh House	Marriage and other partnerships
Eighth House	Sex, death, regeneration, other people’s money
Ninth House	Higher education, travel, religion, philosophy, publishing, law
Tenth House	Career, status, reputation
Eleventh House	Friends, groups, goals, aspirations
Twelfth House	Seclusion, secrets, spirituality, self-sabotage, institutions

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/astrology-houses-and-what-they-rule.html

How Cloud Data Centers Compare to Traditional Data Centers

Before making any decisions about moving your data center to a cloud, you need to take the time to consider how cloud data centers compare to traditional data centers. Because of the high costs of infrastructure and administration, data centers are often one of the first business areas that companies consider switching to a cloud service.

If you’re tasked with planning your cloud strategy, how do you do what’s best for your organization? The first step is to simply find a cloud services provider, analyze how much it charges for the services you need, and compare it to the costs of your own data center. However, it is important to remember that it's unlikely that you'll find a single cloud service that does everything you're doing in your data center.

Ultimately, cloud services are attractive because the cost is likely to be far lower than providing the same service from your traditional data center.

Traditional Corporate Data Center	Cloud Data Center
Thousands of different applications	Few applications (maybe even just one)
Mixed hardware environment	Homogeneous hardware environment
Multiple management tools	Standardized management tools
Frequent application patching and updating	Minimal application patching and updating
Complex workloads	Simple workloads
Multiple software architectures	Single standard software architecture

Looking at the table, it becomes clear that the cloud data center is much simpler to organize and operate and, because it is simple, it scales well. In other words, the larger you make it, the lower the costs per user are.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-cloud-data-centers-compare-to-traditional-data.html

Where to Find Authentication Services for eBay Collectibles

If you are selling (or buying) on eBay, you need a way to authenticate your collectibles. Some companies provide the service of authenticating or authenticating and grading (determining an item's value based on condition and legitimacy). To have these services performed on items you'd like to sell on eBay, you'll have to send the actual items to the service and pay a fee.

Following are a few excellent sites for grading coins:

• Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS)

  
  



• American Numismatic Association Certification Service (AMNACS)

  
  



• Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America (NGCA)

  
  

Stamp collectors (or those who have just inherited a collection from Uncle Steve) can get their stamps "expertized" (authenticated) by the American Philatelic Society.

For comic books, Comics Guaranty, LLC (CGC) will seal (enclose in plastic to preserve the quality) and grade your treasured comics.

Sports cards and sports memorabilia have a bunch of authentication services. If you received your autograph or memorabilia directly from the player or team, you can provide personal assurance of its authenticity. Having the item authenticated may or may not get you a higher price at eBay. Try these sites:

• Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA): Offers eBay users a discount.

  
  



• Beckett Grading Services: A respected source of lots of great information.

  
  



• Sportscards Guaranty: Reviews and grades cards and encapsulates them in tamper-resistant plastic holders.

  
  

The best way to find a good authenticator in your field is to search the items at eBay and find the most prominent authenticator listed in the descriptions. For example, note that in the coins area, certain grading services' coins get higher bids than those from other services. You can also go to an Internet search engine (Google or Yahoo!) and type the keywords coin grading (for coins). You'll come up with a host of choices; use your good sense to see which one suits your needs.

Remember that not all items need to be officially authenticated. Official authentication does add value to the item, but if you're an expert on your items, you can comfortably rate them on your own in your auctions. People will know from your description whether you're a specialist (or at least whether you really know your stuff). Your feedback will also work for you by letting prospective bidders or buyers know that your merchandise from past sales has been top-drawer.

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/where-to-find-authentication-services-for-ebay-col.html

How to Upgrade Pre-2010 Mac Mini to Run Lion Server

If you are going to put your pre-2010 Mac mini into service as a Lion Server, you may need to upgrade RAM and hard drive capacity. Contrary to popular opinion, the Mac mini is upgradeable.

Replacing an older Mac mini’s 5,400-rpm drive with a 7,200-rpm drive not only gives you faster performance, but also can triple the amount of storage. Be aware that when you do this job, the Mac mini runs hotter, and the internal fan runs more frequently.

Although the pre-2010 Mac minis are officially not user-serviceable, you can open them to upgrade RAM and the hard drive. Replacing the hard drive on the older, pre-2010 is actually easier than in the new models.

The main thing to figure out is how to open it. Although there are no doors, once you know how to open the device, it takes less than a minute. You need a 1-inch-wide putty knife; it’s helpful to bevel one side of the putty knife with some sandpaper first. Then follow these steps:

1. Place the Mac mini upside down on a towel.

   
   



2. Position the knife blade where the outer casing meets the inner plastic housing and then press down firmly until the putty knife slips in about half an inch.

   
   



3. Push the handle of the putty knife outward and down to release the internal plastic tabs, working your way around the unit until the base is free from the cover.

   
   

   The hard drive is located at the bottom of the internal plastic frame that also holds the DVD drive and the fan.

   
   



4. Remove the frame by removing three small screws that hold it to the base.

   
   



5. Unplug the small cable for the fan.

   
   



6. Pull the base straight up, unplugging an interconnect board in the frame from a connector in the base.

   
   



7. With the frame removed, turn the mini upside down.

   
   

   You find the hard drive attached with four screws.

   
   



8. Upgrade the RAM.

   
   

   You find two slots on the base, connected to the motherboard.

   
   

For an illustrated step-by-step guide to taking apart and updating the Mac mini, see Mac Mini Hacks & Mods For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). The photos and directions are of the older PowerPC Mac mini, but the basic layout is the same as in the 2007–2009 Intel Mac mini models.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-upgrade-pre2010-mac-mini-to-run-lion-server.html

Using WordPress RSS Feeds with Your Social Media Accounts

RSS feed technology is an important part of publishing content on a WordPress blog or website. RSS doesn’t only give your readers an option to subscribe to syndicated content from your website. Website publishers are also involved in other social networks in and around the web that use the RSS feed from their sites to publish, market, and help other Internet browsers discover their content, including

• Twitter: This popular social media network is full of would-be visitors to websites. Tools, allow you to publish new WordPress blog posts and content to your Twitter stream, as well. This is a powerful marketing tool that many site owners use.

  
  



• Facebook: This is another extremely popular social media community that allows you to automatically publish your WordPress blog and website content into your Facebook profile, which puts your content in front of hundreds of eyes within the network.

  
  

Additionally, WordPress has a handy widget that allows you to display content from an RSS feed of your choice on your website.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/using-wordpress-rss-feeds-with-your-social-media-a.html

Taking the Document Object Model (DOM) Approach to XML Documents

>

Figure 1: A tree representing the document in Listing 1.

A treatise on trees

There are a few things you'll discover by staring at the tree in Figure 1.

• Some nodes are children of other nodes.

For example, the Member node is a child of the AnchovyLoversClub node. That's because, in Listing 1, the Member element is nested inside the AncoverLoversClub element.

In a similar way, the Standing node is a child of the Member node. This family analogy goes on and on. The Member node is the parent of the Standing node, and the AncoverLoversClub is the parent of the Member node.

• The entire document is a node.

This is an important point, and it's easy to forget. In Listing 1, the document's root element is AnchovyLoversClub. But in Figure 1, the name AnchovyLoversClub isn't at the top of the tree. Instead, the word #document is at the top of the tree.

A DOM tree's topmost node represents an entire XML document. Errors occur when programmers think that the document's root element starts the tree. (It doesn't.)

• Comments and pieces of text are nodes.

In Figure 1, the comment <!--AnchovyLoversClub.xml --> is a child node of the document node. That's because, in Listing 1, the comment is part of the document. The comment isn't nested inside any of the document's elements.

Once again, we play genealogy. We say that the #document node has two children — a comment node and an AnchovyLoversClub node. These two nodes — the comment and the AnchovyLoversClub — are called siblings.

Also in Figure 1, the text Founder, President, Secretary, Publicity Manager is part of a node. In Listing 1, the text Founder, President, Secretary, Publicity Manager is inside the Standing element. So, in Figure 1, this text node is a child of the Standing node.

• Even ignorable text is part of a node.

According to Figure 1, the AnchovyLoversClub node has three direct child nodes — two nodes labeled #text, and another node labeled Member. That's because, as far as DOM is concerned, the AnchovyLoversClub node has three things in it.

<AnchovyLoversClub>

carriage return and three blanks

Member element

carriage return

</AnchovyLoversClub>

The situation is illustrated in Figure 2.

>

>

Figure 2: Two text nodes in Listing 1.

The three children of the Member node — two pieces of whitespace and one Standing element — are all siblings.

Now, notice the dots and the [cr] in Figures 1 and 2. In the tree diagram, a dot represents a blank space, and [cr] represents a carriage return. With DOM, all the ignorable whitespace between the AnchovyLoversClub start tag and the Member start tag forms a node. Starting with the angle bracket that terminates the AnchovyLoversClub start tag, you go to the next line, and then you have three blank spaces before the angle bracket that opens the Member start tag. All that stuff is a DOM node.

• End tags aren't nodes.

With SAX, you may be thinking in terms of starting the Member element, and later ending the Member element. In DOM, you don't think this way. Instead, you visit the Member element just once. Within that visit, you visit the Standing element and some text. DOM has no method corresponding to the SAX endElement method.

>
dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/taking-the-document-object-model-dom-approach-to-x.html

Understanding Graph API &#8212; or Facebook Development &#8212; Syntax

Understanding the basic syntax of Facebook's Graph API is all you need to get started in Facebook development. Graph API's simple syntax is this:

• Domain: This will always be https://graph.facebook.com/

  
  



• Object: This can be any object on Facebook. You can choose a user name or id of an object. This can be a user, a Page, an event, a post — any single item on Facebook with an ID should work in this field.

  
  



• Connection: After the object, you may specify elements of that object you would like to retrieve. This can be a feed or friends list, for example. Use metadata=1 as a parameter to learn what connections are available to the object you are accessing.

  
  



• Parameters: Here you can specify specific parameters to return nuanced data from Facebook. Use the fields parameter, for instance, to designate what fields should be returned.

  
  

Now type these sample Graph API calls into your browser. You will quickly learn how easy it is to get started using Graph API!:

• https://graph.facebook.com/dummiesbook — Returns data about this book's Facebook Page.

  
  



• https://graph.facebook.com/dummiesbook/feed — Returns the feed (in paged format) for this book's Facebook Page.

  
  



• https://graph.facebook.com/dummiesbook/picture — Returns the picture for this book's Facebook Page.

  
  



• https://graph.facebook.com/http://staynalive.com — Returns data about my blog, as a Facebook Page.

  
  



• https://graph.facebook.com/dummiesbook?metadata=1 — By specifying metadata=1, meta data will be returned specifying what connections are available for me to access about this book's Facebook Page.

  
  

dummies

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-graph-api-or-facebook-development-sy.navId-407021.html

Learn to Take Great Photos of Birds

The best way to get great digital photographs of any birds is to study them. Spend more time shooting and less time driving to places where you think birds might be, by studying and taking the guesswork out of your digital photography.

This list gives ideas of where and how to research habits of birds and where to find them in your area:

• The local chapter of the Audubon Society: Enter your zip code in the text box in the Audubon Near You section of the Audubon Society home page. You may also find that your local camera club has avid bird photographers as members.

  
  



• Magazines: You can find information in magazines like Outdoor Photographer.

  
  



• Your portable device or iPhone: You can purchase Audubon field guide applications for the iPhone, iPod, iPad or Android at Audubon Guides. Another popular application for the iPhone, iPad, iPod or Android is iBird.

  
  



• A good resource book: Go to a website like Amazon.com and search for the name of your state, followed by birds. In many instances, you’ll see a couple of books. For most states, you’ll find a guide entitled Field Guide to Birds of [Name of a State]. Authoritative ornithology books tell you the migration habits, mating season, and other valuable information for a species of bird.

  
  

  The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds is an excellent resource. The book contains pictures of birds and information about each species, and it lists the geographic range of each species presented. The book comes in two versions: one for eastern North America and one for Western North America.

  
  



• Online resources: You can find lots of information about wading birds online. Look at local Audubon Society websites. Try doing a search for “Wading Birds” preceded by the name of your state.

  
  

  Knowing the sounds a bird makes will make it easier for you to locate it and get the picture. Find a plethora of information about birds as well as hear recordings of the sounds they make at WhatBird.

  
  



• A mentor or shooting buddy: No matter what kind of photography you’re into, you can find a mentor in a camera club or befriend a photographer who’s shooting in the same area as you are. Most photographers are friendly and gladly share information — about techniques and hotspots for getting great photos — with their fellow photographers.

  
  

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/learn-to-take-great-photos-of-birds.html

How to Keep a Beehive in the Spring

9 of 10 in Series:
The Essentials of Beekeeping Schedules

Spring is one of the busiest times of year for bees (and beekeepers). It’s the season when new colonies are started, and established colonies come back to life.

As days get longer and milder, the established hive comes alive, exploding in population. The queen steadily lays more and more eggs, ultimately reaching her greatest rate of egg laying. The drones begin reappearing, and hive activity starts hopping. The nectar and pollen begin coming into the hive thick and fast.

Your spring beekeeping to-do list

Beekeepers face many chores in the springtime, evaluating the status of their colonies and helping their bees get into shape for summer months. Some of those chores include

• Conducting an early bird inspection: Colonies should be given a quick inspection as early in the spring as possible. The exact timing depends upon your location (earlier in warmer zones, later in colder zones).

  
  

  If the weather is cold enough that you need a heavy overcoat, it’s too cold to inspect the bees.

  
  



• Determining whether your bees made it through the winter: Do you see the cluster? The clustered bees should be fairly high in the upper deep hive body. If you don’t see them, can you hear the cluster? Tapping the side of the hive and putting your ear against it, listen for a hum or buzzing.

  
  



• Checking to make sure that you have a queen: Look down between some of the frames. (Do you see any brood?) That’s a good sign that the queen is present. To get a better look, you may need to carefully remove a frame from the center of the top deep.

  
  



• Checking to ensure the bees still have food: Looking down between the frames, see if you spot any honey. Honey is capped with white cappings (tan cappings are the brood). If you see honey, that’s great. If not, you must begin emergency feeding your bees.

  
  



• Medicating and feeding the colony: A few weeks before the first blossoms appear, you need to begin medicating and feeding your bees (regardless of whether they still have honey).

  
  



• Reversing your hive bodies.

  
  



• Anticipating colony growth: Don’t wait until your hive is “boiling” with bees. Later in the spring, before the colony becomes too crowded, create more room for the bees by adding a queen excluder and honey supers. Be sure that you remove the feeder and discontinue all medication at this time.

  
  



• Watching out for indications of swarming: Inspect the hive periodically and look for swarm cells.

  
  

Your springtime commitment for your hive

Spring is just about the busiest time for the beekeeper. You can anticipate spending eight to 12 hours tending to your bees.

Administering spring medication

Although you probably don’t need to medicate your bees during their first season (reputable bee suppliers should have already medicated the bees), you’ll definitely want to consider medication in the spring of your colony’s second season. Remember to stop all medication treatments five to six weeks before adding honey supers to the colony to prevent contamination of the honey that you want to harvest.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-keep-a-beehive-in-the-spring.html