HowTo Pedia

How not to lift a car

2008-02-05T17:14:00.000+02:00

This is what happens when idiots attempt to lift a car on a hill with out the break on.

This is how not to lift a car - Watch more free videos

How to Handle Illegal Interview Questions

2008-02-05T16:59:00.000+02:00

The interview is going along smoothly. You're psyched that "this may be the one." And then it happens. Out of nowhere. "Are you considering having children?" Or, "How long has your family been in this country?" Or, "Your people place a high value on that, don't they?" Or, "You've done amazingly well for someone in a wheelchair."

On the surface they seem innocent enough. And most of the time, they are truly asked in innocence. Yet the structure and format of the question may be entirely illegal. So you've just been hit with an illegal question. What do you do? How do you respond?

First of all, it's important to understand the difference between an illegal question and a criminally-liable question. Even though a question or comment may have been stated in an illegal form, it does not necessarily mean that a crime has been committed. There is a difference between criminal liability and civil liability. For there to be criminal liability, it typically requires establishing a motive or intent. And most illegal questions are asked in ignorance, not intending malice. Yet there can still be civil recourse, even when there was no criminal motive or intent.

In our politically correct society, we are often ready to cry "foul" at the slightest deviation from the accepted norm. But the reality is that most illegal interview questions are asked in true innocence. Or, better stated, in true ignorance. Ignorance of the law, ignorance of what questions are proper, ignorance of how the information could be used by others in a discriminatory way.

Ironically, most illegal questions are asked when the untrained interviewer is trying to be more friendly and asks a seemingly innocent question about your personal life or family background. Therefore, any attempt by the candidate to "assert their constitutional rights" will merely throw up the defense shields and put an end to mutual consideration. Warning lights go on, sirens sound, and the interviewer begins backing down from what may have been an otherwise very encouraging position.

So what is the proper response? The answer is up to you, but my recommendation is to follow one of two courses of action: answer in brief and move on to a new topic area, or ignore the question altogether and redirect the discussion toward a new topic area. The interviewer may even recognize the personal misstep and appreciate your willingness to put it aside and go on.

Unless the question is blatant--and yes, blatant discrimination does still take place--your best option is to move on to other things. But if it is blatant and offensive, you have every right to terminate the interview and walk out.

While laws vary from state to state, there are some definite taboo areas with regard to interview questions that employers should be avoiding. Following are some of the basic subject areas and questions that if asked during the course of the interview, might be viewed as illegal questions being asked with the intention to discriminate:

Questions related to location of birthplace, nationality, ancestry, or descent of applicant, applicant's spouse, or parents.
(Example: Pasquale--Is that a Spanish name?)

Questions related to your sex or marital status.
(Example: Is that your maiden name?)

Questions related to race or color.
(Example: Are you considered to be part of a minority group?)

Questions related to religion or religious days observed.
(Example: Does your religion prevent you from working weekends or holidays?)

Questions related to physical disabilities or handicaps.
(Example: Do you have any use of your legs at all?)

Questions related to health or medical history.
(Example: Do you have any pre-existing health conditions?)

Questions related to pregnancy, birth control, and child care.
(Example: Are you planning on having children?)

It should be noted that just because an illegal question has been asked does not necessarily mean a crime has been committed. Just because the question has asked does not establish intent. It is up to a court of law to determine whether the question or any resulting information was used in a discriminatory manner.

How to Record Skype Conversations

2008-02-05T16:56:00.000+02:00

Skype is probably the most widely used Internet Phone service for conducting telephonic interviews, panel discussions, conference calls, recording podcasts or plain voice chatting. To date over 190 million people have downloaded the Skype program.

Though Skype doesn't provide native support for recording voice conversations yet, you can easily record Skype Call Sessions using third-party add-ons or hardware devices or even with software that already exists on your computer. The Skype Phone calls are recorded to regular audio files like MP3, WAV or Windows Media which can edited and shared with friends like regular media files.

How to record Skype Calls ?
Let's look at some of the more popular Skype add-ons and resources here for recording Skype Calls and SkypeCasts:

Skype Recording Options for Windows

KishKish SAM
KishKish SAM Skype plug-in records Skype conversations automatically once the incoming Skype call is answered by you. In an Outgoing Skype call you will need to wait until the call is answered by the other party. The voice recording can be stopped or resumed at any time during the call. [$15.95] [Download]

PowerGramo Recorder for Skype
PowerGramo Free version is a good option if the Skype conversation involves only two persons. The Skype call can be of any duration and will be recorded in the OGG or WAV format. The por version supports Multiple-call people conference recording. PowerGramo will work on older versions of Skype include Skype 1.1 [Free/$19.95] [Download]

HotRecorder for VoIP
Hot Recorder for VoIP is a popular Skype Call recording plugin for the PC. Not just Skype, you can use HotRecorder to record voice conversations from any IM client including Google Talk, AOL AIM, Net2Phone, Yahoo! Messenger or Firefly. The audio recordings can be saved to WAV, OGG or MP3 files. The HotRecorder Voicemail feauture will automatically answer Skype conversations for you. [$14.95] [Download]

Pamela 2.0 Professional
While the basic version of Pamela is free and supports voice and video answering machine, the Pro version supports skype voice recording and can also record Skypecasts, Skype Video and Skype Chats. You can also make a local playable copy of your Skype Voicemail with Pamela Skype addon. Pamela also generates HTML template code for posting the recorded Skype audio and video calls as podcasts or blog entries. [$24.95] [Download]

Total Recorder for Skype
Total Recorder is designed for capturing any streaming audio-video content from the web. Total Recorder records streaming audio directly from systems like Real Player, Windows Media Player, QuickTime and WinAmp. The previous versions of TotalRecorder had issues with recording Skype sessions and CPU usage but they are all sorted now. TotalRecorder is a favorite with Skype users. The resulting recordings may be saved as wav, wma, mp3 or Ogg Vorbis audio files. [$17.95] [Download]

MixCast Live
Designed for podcasters to record interviews over Skype. Not sure if it is supported anymore. [$12.00] [Download]

Skylook Business/Home for Microsoft Outlook
Skylook Business or Home version installs a Skype toolbar in Outlook from can directly place Skype calls to your Outlook contacts and record Skype calls as MP3. Skylook also adds Skype answering machine feature and Voice Mail features to Outlook inbox. The audio files can be saved just like your other email messages. Skylook will also also record Skype IM Chats straight into Outlook as other mailbox items. [$49.95/$34.95][Download]

PrettyMay
PrettyMay is another voice recording add-on popular among Skype users. PrettyMay is absolutely free though the maximum recording time is limited to 30 minutes. PrettyMay can record both Skype incoming calls and outgoing calls in either .wav or .mp3 audio formats. [Free] [Download]

Recording Skype Calls on a Mac

If you are a Mac User, Audio Hijack or WireTrap Pro are probably the best options to record Skype Calls or Skypecast.

Using a technique called Hijacking, Audio Hijack Pro will allow you to record any application's audio including Skype, podcasts, vidcasts, DVDs or sound from streaming internet audio-video. While Audio Hijack only records the audio, Audio Hijack Pro comes with effects to enhance the audio. Supports audio recording for Skype Voice Chats and iChat. [$16/$32] [Download]

WireTrap Pro is from the developers of Snapz Pro, which is a very popular screencasting app on Mac. Like Audio Hijack, Wire Trap can record audio from any running applications, as well as from any microphone, line-in, headset or radioSHARK. WireTap Pro will save your digital recordings in the either .mp3, AAC, QuickTime, and AIFF file formats. [$19.00] [Download]

Ecamm Call Recorder is an add-on for Skype which automatically transforms your Skype calls into QuickTime movies. Call Recorder can be used for recording remote lessons, interviews and podcasts. Calls are saved as QuickTime movies with the local and remote side of the conversation on different tracks. [$12.95] [Download]

Hardware Options for Recording Skype Call Sessions

The AU-600 Skype Gateway which allows you to make/receive Skype calls from your existing corded, cordless or cellular phone can also be used to record Skype conversation. You can choose to either record all calls automatically, or you can begin and stop recording during a call, directly from your phone's keypad. Call recordings are saved as .wav files on your computer. Requires Windows. [$53.95]

Flash Phone F3K is another Skype device from Mplat that has a flash memory card and a USB sound card. The device can be plugged to the USB port of any machine and let you make VoIP calls using Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger but not Yahoo! Messenger. FlashPhone comes with Voice recorder and an answering machine. Also see FlashPhone F1K for Skype [$24.90]

Other alternatives to recording Skype Calls

Build your own Skype Recorder

A PDF document titled "Skype + Podcast Recorder = SkypeCaster" has instructions to building your own Skype recording studio using Windows Sound Recorder and Virtual Audio Cable, a Windows WDM multimedia driver. The author uses this to record Podcasts using Skype. You can also use this approach with Audacity or Adobe Audition for recording and editing the quality of voice. VAC needs no audio card; it is a "virtual audio card" itself. You need two instances of Skype running on the same computer. See screenshots. [Skype Journal]

Another Do-It-Yourself approach to record Skype Conversations is explained by TDavid. It requires two computers (Skype Recorder and Skype Client), one has Skype running and the other one with line-in capability. Connect one end of male computer to LINE-IN on second computer and attach to the speaker out on the computer that is running Skype. Now on the second computer, set record properties to LINE-IN. How to record a Skype conversation

How to create your own YouTube site

2008-02-05T16:54:00.000+02:00

Have you ever wanted to know how you can create your own video hosting site allowing users to upload video, automatically convert it to FLV, and display it for the world to see? A recent post at Daniel's Random Mutterings (DRM - how clever) explains exactly how to do this with open source tools. Using a Djano CMS system, FFMpeg for the FLV encoding, FLVtools2 for writing meta information, and FlowPlayer for embedding the SWF file you'll have everything you need to get started. The code is pretty straight forward and a great starting point. Now go forth and create your new video distribution empire.

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How to Get Rid of Annoying Co-Workers

2008-02-05T16:51:00.000+02:00

This guy has discovered the perfect way to to piss off and get rid of your annoying co-workers in one simple move.

How to Get Rid of Annoying Co-Workers - Watch more free videos

How to Use a Condom - Do's and Don'ts

2008-02-05T16:45:00.000+02:00

DO's:

DO use only latex or polyurethane (plastic) condoms.
DO keep condoms in a cool, dry place.
DO put the condom on an erect (hard) penis before there is any contact with a partner's genitals.
DO use plenty of water-based lubricant (like KY Jelly® or Astroglide®) with latex condoms. This reduces friction and helps prevent the condom from tearing.
DO squeeze the air out of the tip of the condom when rolling it over the erect penis. This allows room for the semen (cum).
DO hold the condom in place at the base of the penis before withdrawing (pulling out) after sex.
DO throw the condom away after it's been used.

DON'Ts:

DON'T use out of date condoms. Check the expiration date carefully. Old condoms can be dry, brittle or weakened and can break more easily.
DON'T unroll the condom before putting it on the erect penis.
DON'T leave condoms in hot places like your wallet or in your car.
DON'T use oil-based products, like baby or cooking oils, hand lotion or petroleum jelly (like Vaseline®) as lubricants with latex condoms. The oil quickly weakens latex and can cause condoms to break.
DON'T use your fingernails or teeth when opening a condom wrapper. It's very easy to tear the condom inside. If you do tear a condom while opening the wrapper, throw that condom away and get a new one.
DON'T reuse a condom. Always use a new condom for each kind of sex you have.
DON'T regularly use lubricants with spermicide called nonoxynol-9 ("N-9") as they may cause skin irritation or tiny abrasions that make the genital skin more susceptible to STDs.

How to Use Gmail as a Business Diary and More Tips

2008-02-05T16:38:00.000+02:00

Turn Gmail into a Business Diary

Knowledge workers attend lots of meetings. We also have tons of loose bits of information that need collecting during the day. It all needs to be processed. To jog our memory, we take notes. Most of the time this is with pen and paper - unless your culture is laptop/Tablet PC friendly. Many aren't. I use David Allen's GTD system and now buckle it into Gmail as my sole collection bucket.

I long for a searchable record of my meetings and important notes. This has led me to experiment with numerous systems over the years. Ideally, I want my data available 24/7 from any computer or mobile device. Even better, I wanted it organized by date with a list of my meetings on top - e.g. like a paper-based business diary. If you combine an online calendar with Gmail, you can make this a snap.

We have an Exchange Server at work. I use it for group scheduling but I also keep it in sync with Google Calendar. GCal and other systems like it can send your daily agenda to you via email. Mine arrives precisely at 4:38 every morning, often just before I get up. Using Gmail's filters/labels I automatically have these tagged Diary.

Once the message arrives, I keep it in my inbox all day. Then, as take notes, I reply to the email, but change the address to my own. Then as the day goes on, I keep adding to the conversation thread with replies to myself. These all get threaded as a single conversation.

It gets better. If I am on the go, I will write down the notes in a Moleskine and then call my Jott or Callwave number in between meetings. These arrive in my inbox too (either as text or an audio file). Later, when I am back at my computer I append the note to another reply to me and archive the entire conversation thread. Finally, at week's end I go through all seven notes as part of my weekly review. (The fIgure below is from a weekend - when the review is conducted.)

Annotate Books as You Read Them

I buy a lot of books and audiobooks. Almost all of them are about business or sports. I draw lessons from every single one and I want a way to capture it all. Once again, Gmail is a lifesaver here. This technique builds on the one prior.

Using the Google Toolbar trick outlined in Gmail PNC Part I, I find the book on Amazon.com and send my self a snippet of the title, author and summary to steverubel+secretword@gmail.com. I automatically label these "booknotes" using Gmail's filters. Then as I go, I simply keep replying to myself with the notes I want to keep on the book. These all get archived as a conversation for later search/retrieval.

Get Critical Information When You Need It

Let's say there's a traffic jam on the highway you drive home everyday. Or worse, there's a tornado or even God-forbid a tsunami on the way. You'd want to know about it I bet. You can instantly by combining Gmail with GTalk, some RSS feeds and Feedcrier.

I have Gmail and thus the embedded Google Talk client open constantly when I am at my computer. When I am on the go, I run Google Talk and/or the Gmail for Mobile application (unless I am on a plane). However, I don't miss critical information thanks to Gmail/Gtalk. The key is that it needs to live in an RSS feed.

For example, I pump local severe weather alerts from the National Weather Service into Feedcrier, which sends pings through IM. The premium version of the service will even send these to you when you're offline. You can also do the same with Yahoo Traffic feeds or tsunami alerts.

Turn Gmail Into a Searchable River of News Reader

I use the Google RSS Reader. However, I check Gmail more frequently. Again, this is even more true when I am on the go running from meeting to meeting.

I keep a group of my favorite feeds in a GReader folder called "Faves." You can browse them here. This special aggregation page has its own RSS feed. I take that feed and run it into RSSfwd, which will send you feeds to your email account. Another good service is R-Mail.

As the feeds arrive, they get labeled "Feeds" and archived. However, RSSfwd has a handy threading feature that keeps all of these posts together as a single Gmail conversation. The result is a giant river of news in Gmail! Even better, if I drop and add feeds to my Faves group, I don't have to re-import them into RSSfwd plus they're completely searchable. This technique will also work if you share your feeds with Newsgator Online too.

What hacks work for you? Share them in the comments.

How to Find Your Creative Zen

2008-02-05T16:35:00.000+02:00

Have you ever entered a Zen-like state of productivity? You know, where your thoughts and execution seem to operate in perfect harmony with one another? It’s a place where you are literally thinking less and accomplishing more, and I’m sure that given the choice, most of you would choose to live on that edge rather than simply experience it every once in a while.

In reality, these Zen-like states are not nearly as unpredictable or as unattainable as you might think. In most cases, they occur as natural fallout from a well-constructed creative process. If you want to live on that free-flowing edge, then you must learn how to force your brain through the sequence of triggers that will result in your own cognitive Zen.

Understanding Your Brain

Ever read an instruction manual?

I’m sure you’ve noticed, then, that the process described therein was stepwise in nature. By design, we humans are quite comfortable with processes like this — we can easily move from step one, to step two, and so on.

It just makes sense.

Instructions, steps, order, and reason are all characteristics of the left brain. They are sensible, practical, and in many cases, obvious.

We’re so accustomed to going through life in a regimented, left-brain-dominated fashion that we seldom realize there’s an entire half of our brain being left out of the equation.

The Zen-like state feels so harmonious because that’s exactly what it is — it’s a method of operation that results from a balance between left and right brain function.

Your left brain is able to follow a process seamlessly, but the problem is that it cannot divine this process on its own. This, of course, is where the right brain comes into play.

The right brain provides the creative direction, while the left brain takes orders and executes them. If you want to operate in the Zen zone, then you’re going to have to balance right and left brain activity in order to find that harmonious flow.

What you need is a good, right brain workout, and I’m not about to leave you hanging!

The Rhythm of the Cerebrum

You can fool your lazy right brain into action by exercising it. One activity that really seems to strike a chord with bloggers (and writers in general, for that matter) is stream-of-consciousness writing.

The premise here is simple: open up a secondary blog or blank word processing document, and commence typing!

As thoughts and ideas pop into your head, record them as fast as you possibly can. Hell, they don’t even have to make sense — in all likelihood, you’ll jump between topics so fast that you’ll look like Frogger trying to cross the road.

Remember, your right brain is the hub of creative thought, so if that side of your brain is controlling the writing, you’ll know because you won’t really be able to perseverate on one aspect of your central topic for too long. In fact, you probably won’t even have a central topic.

Your right brain tends to see the entire picture at once, and as a result, it cannot extrapolate minor details in an orderly fashion. If your writing comes out looking pretty refined and cogent, then that’s a good indicator that your left brain is trying to stick its nose where it doesn’t belong.

The bottom line is that your goal is simply to unleash the creative chaos in the right brain, temporarily freeing it from the suffocating bully that is your left brain.

Your left brain can’t handle the randomized signals coming from your right brain, but the fact is, Zen won’t happen without ‘em!

Everybody likes results…

For the past few days, I’ve been experimenting with stream-of-consciousness writing, and I’ve gotta tell ya that I’m really feeling this. If you’ve been reading pearsonified for any length of time, then you probably know that I rarely recommend you take a specific course of action…But in this case, I think I’m going to have to make an exception.

It really works. It’s like stretching before a workout.

You think a sprinter would go into a race without limbering up first?

Try loosening up with 15 minutes of this stuff in the morning, and just watch as your mental signals clear up and untangle themselves.

I swear you’ll have to go to confessional because you’ll be doing so much Zenning!

How to Get Elected President

2008-02-05T16:34:00.000+02:00

I wouldn’t want to be president. I worry enough about being assassinated for what I write on this blog. There’s no point in making it worse. But that doesn’t stop me from thinking about how I would run my campaign.

If I ran for president, I’d have to get past the country’s distaste for atheists. That’s a big problem. I would handle it by manipulating the media with a sound bite so catchy the pundits would have no choice but to repeat it until it started to sound sensible. I’d hold a press conference and say that ONLY an atheist should be president, in the same way you want a eunuch to guard your harem. (That’s the sound bite. It’s like catnip for pundits.)

I would suggest that a truly religious president might try to convert your children to his religion, either overtly or by example. In this election alone, you have a Mormon, a Baptist or two, and if Bloomberg enters, a Jew. Moreover, a scary percentage of the South believes Obama is a Muslim. I’d play the fear card.

After my eunuch sound bite got everyone’s attention, I would soften the message to “Only an atheist can guarantee religious freedom for all by favoring none.” That argument makes no sense whatsoever, but it would be persuasive nonetheless.

Next, I would promise to maintain all social benefits for anyone who is already over sixty. That would guarantee me the senior citizen vote. Obviously it is not a campaign promise I would have much chance of keeping, but that’s a problem for later. And I would portray all the other candidates as a risk to senior citizens.

Younger voters might have a problem with my complete lack of political experience. I would deal with that by announcing in advance my picks for cabinet, Vice President, Chief of Staff, and other key positions. I would simply pick the most popular and/or qualified people in the world, such as Oprah, Colin Powell, and Warren Buffet. All of those people would immediately denounce me and deny interest in the jobs, obviously. But I would tell the voters they are only saying that because I am not yet the president. When the president asks someone to serve the country, they tend to say yes. And if any of them do eventually say no, for now they are a good example of who I would pick for those sorts of jobs. I would point out that the other candidates will be appointing worthless political cronies, as always.

I would promise that my approach to social issues would mirror the majority opinion. Unlike the other candidates, I would not try to hold your family hostage to my personal views. I would argue that a president’s role in social issues is to guarantee the minority doesn’t oppress the majority, not to impose my own biases. If someone has a pet social issue, I would tell them to convince the majority of the country, not me.

For international issues, I would promise to follow the advice of the most qualified experts in each field. And I would dismiss any specific policy questions as “hypothetical questions” that only an idiot would answer. I would portray the other candidates as either liars or reckless for not naming their future advisors in advance, and not committing to listening to people who know more than they do.

Do I have your vote?

How to Give Up Coffee

2008-02-05T16:21:00.000+02:00

Caffeine is the modern drug of choice in the work world, easily accessible, socially acceptable, readily affordable, and of course perfectly legal. As for the health effects, I’ve read evidence both for good and ill, so right now I don’t fall strongly on either side. One thing is clear though — caffeine is addictive. And this addictive nature is what leans me towards the negative side.

As a teenager I often drank sodas; cola was my favorite. I never drank coffee as a teenager, and I rarely drank it in college. But when I got into programming PC games, I’d sometimes drink coffee every day for months at a time. But I’d always eventually break the habit and have no caffeine for months at a time too. It was sort of cyclical.

Then I read the book Pour Your Heart Into It by Howard Schultz, which is the story of Starbucks (Schultz is the CEO). Schultz made gourmet coffee sound so good, that I embarked on a Starbucks kick for a while and tried all different kinds of gourmet coffees, espressos, soy lattes, etc. I know not all coffee drinkers like Starbucks (my mom surely doesn’t), but I still think their coffee is among the best. Another favorite of mine was Lion Coffee from Hawaii. I bought a nice espresso maker and used it to make my own soy cappucinos (I avoid all dairy products).

I really grew to like the taste of different gourmet coffees, which were much better than the swill I used to drink in college. But it was so easy to fall into a pattern of addiction, drinking coffee out of habit instead of only when I actually wanted some. Today I still drink coffee on occasion, but that’s the exception. Most of the time I don’t consume any caffeine for weeks or months at a time. I found it fairly easy to break the habit. Here are a couple ways to do it:

Method 1: Coffee to Herbal Tea

First, switch from coffee to tea. You still get the caffeine from tea, but not as much. Enjoy some good quality tea — not Lipton! I particular like Earl Grey and Green Tea. I found this easy to do right away. But if you find it too hard to switch so abruptly, then make the transition over a period of weeks equal to the number of cups of coffee you drink each day. For example, if you drink 4 cups of coffee a day, then switch to 3c coffee / 1c tea for the first week, then go 2c/2c for the second week, then 1c/3c, and finally 0c/4c for the fourth week.

Next, make the transition from regular tea to caffeine-free (not decaffeinated) herbal tea. Herbal tea isn’t really tea, but it’s close. Celestial Seasonings offers a wide variety of flavors. I recommend getting a variety pack to see which kinds you like. You can do the switch abruptly, or use the gradual method above. Now you’re caffeine free.

Method 2: Coffee to Grain Coffee

Switch from coffee to grain coffee. Grain coffee is to coffee as herbal tea is to tea, and grain coffee is naturally caffeine-free. Grain coffee isn’t real coffee, but it’s a ground mixture of things like grains, nuts, dried fruit, and natural flavors that you can put into a regular drip coffee maker and make something that looks and tastes similar to coffee. Some grain coffees I tried were very bitter and well… disgusting. After trying a few different types, I found one I really liked: Teeccino. I buy it at Whole Foods. This has the best taste of all the ones I’ve tried, and it comes in a variety of flavors: vanilla nut, java, hazelnut, chocolate mint, almond amaretto, etc. Sometimes I mix different flavors together to make interesting concoctions. While I still usually prefer the rich taste of a good cup of Sumatra coffee, this stuff isn’t too bad. It tastes similar to coffee, but it has a unique flavor of its own, and it’s not acidic like coffee is. I typically mix a little Rice Dream (rice milk) into each cup to make it creamier.

A great way to transition to grain coffee is to mix it with regular coffee as you scoop the dry grounds into your coffee filter. So if you use 4 scoops of ground coffee normally, then try 3 scoops of coffee with 1 scoop of grain coffee for the first week, and continue to transition gradually as in the first method above.

Part of the addiction of coffee drinking is having a warm beverage, so the two methods above focus on that. I really like having something warm to drink, especially during the winter. I even have a small mug warmer on my desk. I usually alternate for weeks at a time between Teecino and herbal tea. Today I’ve already had two cups of Vanilla Nut Teeccino.

I suppose you could try a similar process if you’re addicted to soda by transitioning to something else like water or juice, but I’ve never found it hard to give up soda.

I don’t recommend decaffeinated coffee or tea because known carcinogens are used in the decaffeination process, and decaffeinated drinks are still highly acidic. From what I’ve read on this, I’d say you’re better off with caffeine.

When you give up caffeine, you’re likely to experience withdrawal symptoms. If I’m doing 4c coffee a day and then go cold turkey, I get headaches and backaches, and generally my emotions are out of whack for several days. But I still personally prefer to transition quickly rather than gradually. I’d rather just get the withdrawal over with.

Why Give Up Coffee at All?

I can’t ignore the energy boost and mental acceleration that comes from caffeine. But I do notice negative side effects when I drink coffee. Caffeine seems to make part of my brain overactive and another part underactive. I become really good at doing things, but very bad at prioritizing what needs to be done. If I drink a lot of coffee, I’ll often spend hours doing a bunch of low priority tasks, and I find that other unproductive habits are more likely to be done excessively. I become like a rat in a treadmill, doing more and more but not accomplishing what really matters. I find it very hard to focus on the big picture from a holistic whole-brain standpoint if I’ve consumed caffeine.

I also feel that caffeine blocks too much of my intuition and creativity. I miss subtle sensory input, and my thinking becomes too linear. Sometimes linear thinking is OK though. If I have a lot of menial tasks to complete, and I already have a clear to-do list to follow, drinking a cup of coffee can get me through them quickly. But if I have to sit down and do high-level work like developing my next quarterly plan, caffeine will make a mess of my thought process and dramatically reduce my ability to concentrate. My mind races too much on caffeine; it’s hard to stay focused on just one thing.

Additionally, caffeine definitely disrupts my sleep habits. Even if I have a cup of coffee in the morning and none for the rest of the day, I don’t sleep as well. I wake up in the middle of the night, or it’s hard for me to get out of bed in the morning. When I consume no caffeine, I sleep more restfully and wake up easily. I also don’t experience so much midday sleepiness.

And lastly caffeine makes me feel hotter than usual, including while I sleep. I need to turn the air conditioner up to feel comfortable, so that’s another hidden cost.

There’s also a nice page on Teeccino’s site about the top reasons to be caffeine-free.

I’m not saying you need to give up coffee entirely, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to remain addicted to it throughout the year, especially if you experience a drop in intution, creativity, and holistic thinking as I do. If you find it becoming an addiction, try one of the methods above to transition to a coffee substitute like herbal tea or grain coffee. Then you still get to enjoy a warm beverage without the negative side effects. I think it’s easer when you have a substitute for coffee instead of having to do completely without, but this won’t be necessary for everyone.

How To Complain To The Spammer's Provider

2008-02-05T16:19:00.000+02:00

The first step is finding out who to complain to. This can be a little bit complicated. There is often little point in complaining to the guilty party themself in most cases; complain to whoever is providing them with internet access. However, if you aren't sure, and think there is a significant chance that the sender is really ignorant, rather than disobedient, of email norms, you might try complaining to the sender.

Finding out who to complain to can be broken down into several steps. The first one is determining the domain name the spammers are using. One good place is if the body of the message includes an email address to reply to or a web page to look at. This will often be via a different provider than the one used to send the spam, but many providers forbid either use of their services by spammers.

To find out where the spam originates, tell your mail reader to display all the headers and look at the "Received" lines. Then read the Received lines from top to bottom. For example:

To: kingdon@legit.com
Received: from relay.yoyolink.net (ns2.yoyo.com [127.10.58.3]) by legit.com with SMTP id WAA12684 for ; Thu, 21 Nov 1996 22:28:08 -0800
Received: from forged.example.com (slime.spammer.com [10.71.84.44]) by relay.yoyolink.net (8.8.3/8.8.3) with SMTP id GAA02044 for ; Fri, 22 Nov 1996 01:23:46 -0500

Your own site (legit.com) got this message from ns2.yoyo.com, which in turn got it from slime.spammer.com. Intermediate sites, such as yoyo.com in this example, may simply be sites which allow anyone to forward mail using their mailer. Don't assume they are connected with the spammer or the spammer's provider, but you might want to let them know their system is being used for this purpose. You can ignore all the stuff about with and id and so on.

With experience, and/or by consulting various sources, you will learn more about Received lines, and the ways that they can vary. But the basic principle is still to read them from top to bottom, and to understand that each computer which handled the message added one or more Receieved lines. Thus each Received line may originate from your site, the spammer's site, or somewhere in between.

Once you have a suspect domain name, try to find out what kind of organization has that name. One way is to look on the various anti-spam web sites, newsgroups, and other resources. If the site has a reputation as a site which does a good job of fighting spam, you complain to them. If it is a site which is known to not respond to complaints, despite persistent and repeated attempts, you complain to their upstream provider (see section on traceroute below).

You can see if an entity has a web page by taking the domain name and add "www." to the start (use of "www." is just a convention, but it is a widely followed one). If you see a page with content similar to the email spam you received, you've probably identified the bad guys (however most, but not all, spammers are too lazy to write a web page). If you see a page telling you about internet access services and other types of legitimate business, you've probably identified the proper party to complain to.

If you have identified the offending site and you want to find who their upstream provider is, use the "traceroute" tool. You need to give it the machine name to trace to, for example slime.spammer.com in the above example. If traceroute is accessible to you on your local system, simply invoke "traceroute slime.spammer.com". If not, there are many web->traceroute gateways; searching for "traceroute" in one of the internet search engines should find one. Either way, the output from traceroute will look something like this:

traceroute to slime.spammer.com (127.126.32.23), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1  siamese.legit.com (127.39.1.134)  206 ms  177 ms  198 ms
2  persian.legit.com (127.39.1.129)  203 ms  191 ms  188 ms
4  SR1.gotham-city.major.net (127.39.100.73)  174 ms  190 ms  208 ms
5  core4.gomorrah.major.net (127.39.33.133)  180 ms  182 ms  159 ms
6  retrolink-gw.gomorrah.major.net (127.157.77.25)  169 ms  185 ms  189 ms
7  router1.retrolink.net (127.70.1.122)  469 ms  365 ms  239 ms
8  spammer-gw.retrolink.net (127.70.1.122)  429 ms  242 ms  239 ms
9  slime.spammer.com (127.70.3.98)  519 ms  275 ms  309 ms

This means that to get from your site (or the site hosting the web->traceroute gateway) to slime.spammer.com, data first passes through legit.com, then major.net, then retrolink.net, and finally to spammer.com. So if spammer.com is the guilty party then normally you would complain to retrolink.net. If you have reason to believe that retrolink.net is uncooperative then you could escalate by complaining to major.net. This should be done only after repeated attempts to persuade retrolink have been unsuccessful. Even sites with good spam control policies will occasionally get a spammer, so the mere fact that you have received one spam, or a handful of unrelated spams, is not by itself sufficient reason to escalate.

If you are unsure about whether you are complaining to the right party, it is good to say this in your complaint, and ask the complainee to forward the message to the appropriate party if need be. In general, especially if you are unsure, you should err on the side of complaining to only one site, and not involving sites with a distant relationship to the spammer. Help give spam-fighting a good name among providers.

You can find the email address to complain to by first seeing if the organization in question has a web page with a contact address. Generally you want the network abuse address if there is one, or if not try to figure out what the closest choice is. An alternative is the complaint forwarding service at abuse.net. If none of these seem feasible, you can always try postmaster@. According to the internet standard RFC822 (STD 11), all sites are supposed to have such a mailbox.

Be polite. This is very important--you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. A good generic wording is "This is unsolicited, undesired email. Please take appropriate actions to stop it, or see http://spam.abuse.net/ for how/why you should" or take a look at a sample complaint letter. You might want to tailor your message if you have more knowledge of the provider's position on spam. Keep in mind that the people who read the abuse alias are not there to be abused, they're there to stop the abuse.

Include the full headers of the message you are complaining about, if possible. In most mail readers there is a special command to display all the headers. Make especially sure you include the Received headers - the provider can take no action without them.

After you send your complaint you probably won't get any response. But this doesn't necessarily mean that the provider has taken no action; often when there is a spammer at their site they are overwhelmed with complaints and find it difficult to acknowledge each one.

If you do get a response (such as "this would appear to violate our terms of service and we're looking into it" or "we have terminated the account of the spammer"), either send back a thank you or not, at your option. There is something to be said for letting the providers know that we appreciate their actions, but on the other hand these people get a lot of e-mail about spam complaints and it might be preferable not to increase the volume.

How to help someone use a computer

2008-02-05T16:09:00.000+02:00

Computer people are fine human beings, but they do a lot of harm in the ways they "help" other people with their computer problems. Now that we're trying to get everyone online, I thought it might be helpful to write down everything I've been taught about helping people use computers.

First you have to tell yourself some things:

Nobody is born knowing this stuff.
You've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner.
If it's not obvious to them, it's not obvious.
A computer is a means to an end. The person you're helping probably cares mostly about the end. This is reasonable.
Their knowledge of the computer is grounded in what they can do and see -- "when I do this, it does that". They need to develop a deeper understanding, but this can only happen slowly -- and not through abstract theory but through the real, concrete situations they encounter in their work.
Beginners face a language problem: they can't ask questions because they don't know what the words mean, they can't know what the words mean until they can successfully use the system, and they can't successfully use the system because they can't ask questions.
You are the voice of authority. Your words can wound.
Computers often present their users with textual messages, but the users often don't read them.
By the time they ask you for help, they've probably tried several things. As a result, their computer might be in a strange state. This is natural.
They might be afraid that you're going to blame them for the problem.
The best way to learn is through apprenticeship -- that is, by doing some real task together with someone who has a different set of skills.
Your primary goal is not to solve their problem. Your primary goal is to help them become one notch more capable of solving their problem on their own. So it's okay if they take notes.
Most user interfaces are terrible. When people make mistakes it's usually the fault of the interface. You've forgotten how many ways you've learned to adapt to bad interfaces.
Knowledge lives in communities, not individuals. A computer user who's part of a community of computer users will have an easier time than one who isn't.

Having convinced yourself of these things, you are more likely to follow some important rules:

Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction.
Find out what they're really trying to do. Is there another way to go about it?
Maybe they can't tell you what they've done or what happened. In this case you can ask them what they are trying to do and say, "Show me how you do that".
Attend to the symbolism of the interaction. Try to squat down so your eyes are just below the level of theirs. When they're looking at the computer, look at the computer. When they're looking at you, look back at them.
When they do something wrong, don't say "no" or "that's wrong". They'll often respond by doing something else that's wrong. Instead, just tell them what to do and why.
Try not to ask yes-or-no questions. Nobody wants to look foolish, so their answer is likely to be a guess. "Did you attach to the file server?" will get you less information than "What did you do after you turned the computer on?".
Explain your thinking. Don't make it mysterious. If something is true, show them how they can see it's true. When you don't know, say "I don't know". When you're guessing, say "let's try ... because ...". Resist the temptation to appear all-knowing. Help them learn to think the problem through.
Be aware of how abstract your language is. "Get into the editor" is abstract and "press this key" is concrete. Don't say anything unless you intend for them to understand it. Keep adjusting your language downward towards concrete units until they start to get it, then slowly adjust back up towards greater abstraction so long as they're following you. When formulating a take-home lesson ("when it does this and that, you should try such-and-such"), check once again that you're using language of the right degree of abstraction for this user right now.
Tell them to really read the messages, such as errors, that the computer generates.
Whenever they start to blame themselves, respond by blaming the computer. Then keep on blaming the computer, no matter how many times it takes, in a calm, authoritative tone of voice. If you need to show off, show off your ability to criticize bad design. When they get nailed by a false assumption about the computer's behavior, tell them their assumption was reasonable. Tell *yourself* that it was reasonable.
Take a long-term view. Who do users in this community get help from? If you focus on building that person's skills, the skills will diffuse to everyone else.
Never do something for someone that they are capable of doing for themselves.
Don't say "it's in the manual". (You knew that.)

HOW TO SLEEP WELL

2008-02-05T16:07:00.000+02:00

Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to sleep. Tossing and turning. Your mind is racing, going over everything that happened today. Night noises keep you awake. What can you do? There ARE things you can do! Read on and learn some new tricks to sleep well. These tips are also known as "Sleep Hygiene."

Sleep only when sleepy

This reduces the time you are awake in bed.

If you can't fall asleep within 20 minutes, get up and do something boring until you feel sleepy

Sit quietly in the dark or read the warranty on your refrigerator. Don't expose yourself to bright light while you are up. The light gives cues to your brain that it is time to wake up.

Don't take naps

This will ensure you are tired at bedtime. If you just can't make it through the day without a nap, sleep less than one hour, before 3 pm.

Get up and go to bed the same time every day

Even on weekends! When your sleep cycle has a regular rhythm, you will feel better.

Refrain from exercise at least 4 hours before bedtime

Regular exercise is recommended to help you sleep well, but the timing of the workout is important. Exercising in the morning or early afternoon will not interfere with sleep.

Develop sleep rituals

It is important to give your body cues that it is time to slow down and sleep. Listen to relaxing music, read something soothing for 15 minutes, have a cup of caffeine free tea, do relaxation exercises.

Only use your bed for sleeping

Refrain from using your bed to watch TV, pay bills, do work or reading. So when you go to bed your body knows it is time to sleep. Sex is the only exception.

Stay away from caffeine, nicotine and alcohol at least 4-6 hours before bed

Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that interfere with your ability to fall asleep. Coffee, tea, cola, cocoa, chocolate and some prescription and non-prescription drugs contain caffeine. Cigarettes and some drugs contain nicotine. Alcohol may seem to help you sleep in the beginning as it slows brain activity, but you will end end up having fragmented sleep.

Have a light snack before bed

If your stomach is too empty, that can interfere with sleep. However, if you eat a heavy meal before bedtime, that can interfere as well. Dairy products and turkey contain tryptophan, which acts as a natural sleep inducer. Tryptophan is probably why a warm glass of milk is sometimes recommended.

Take a hot bath 90 minutes before bedtime

A hot bath will raise your body temperature, but it is the drop in body temperature that may leave you feeling sleepy. Read about the study done on body temperature below.

Trouble Sleeping? Chill Out! - A press release from the journal Sleep about the significance in body temperature before sleep

Make sure your bed and bedroom are quiet and comfortable

A hot room can be uncomfortable. A cooler room along with enough blankets to stay warm is recommended. If light in the early morning bothers you, get a blackout shade or wear a slumber mask. If noise bothers you, wear earplugs or get a "white noise" machine.

Use sunlight to set your biological clock

As soon as you get up in the morning, go outside and turn your face to the sun for 15 minutes.

How to get traffic for your blog

2008-02-05T16:06:00.000+02:00

Use lists.
Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
Break news.
Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
Announce news.
Write short, pithy posts.
Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
Write long, definitive posts.
Write about your kids.
Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
Coin a term or two.
Do email interviews with the well-known.
Answer your email.
Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
Be anonymous.
Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
Post your photos on flickr.
Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
Point to useful but little-known resources.
Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
Write about Google.
Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
Run no ads.
Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
Write about blogging.
Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
Be patient.
Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
Write in English.
Better, write in Chinese.
Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
Don't be boring.
Write stuff that people want to read and share.

Feel free to post your own ideas (satirical or otherwise) in the comments below.

How to Choose a Search Engine or Directory

2008-02-05T15:53:00.000+02:00

Fields & File Types
If you want to search for...	Choose...
Audio/Music	AllTheWeb \| AltaVista \| Dogpile \| Fazzle \| FindSounds.com \| Lycos Music \| Lycos Multimedia Search \| Singingfish \| Soundsnap
Date last modified	AllTheWeb Advanced Search \| AltaVista Advanced Web Search \| Ask.com Advanced Search \| Exalead Advanced Search \| Google Advanced Search \| Yahoo Advanced Web Search
Domain/Site/URL	AllTheWeb Advanced Search \| AltaVista Advanced Web Search \| AOL Advanced Search \| Ask.com Advanced Search \| Google Advanced Search \| MSN Search Search Builder \| SearchEdu.com \| WhoNu \| Yahoo Advanced Web Search
File Format	AllTheWeb Advanced Web Search \| AltaVista Advanced Web Search \| AOL Advanced Search \| Exalead Advanced Search \| WhoNu \| Yahoo Advanced Web Search
Geographic location	Ask.com Advanced Search \| Exalead Advanced Search \| Lycos Advanced Search \| Yahoo Advanced Web Search
Images	AllTheWeb \| AltaVista \| The Amazing Picture Machine \| Ask.com Images \| Dogpile \| Fazzle \| Google Image Search \| IceRocket \| Ixquick \| Mamma \| Picsearch \| Pixsy \| Retrivr \| Snap \| Tiltomo \| WhoNu
Language	AllTheWeb Advanced Web Search \| AOL Advanced Search \| Ask.com Advanced Search \| Exalead Advanced Search \| Google Language Tools \| iBoogie Advanced Web Search \| Yahoo Advanced Web Search
Multimedia & video	All TheWeb \| AltaVista \| Blinx \| ClipBlast \| Dogpile \| Fazzle \| Search For Video \| Singingfish \| Yahoo Video Search \| Zuula
Page Title/URL	AOL Advanced Search \| Fazzle \| Google Advanced Search \| Yahoo Advanced Web Search
Search logic
If you want to use...	Choose...
Boolean operators	Dogpile \| Google [OR only] \| Ixquick
Full Boolean logic with parentheses e.g., behavior and (cats or felines)	AlltheWeb Advanced Search \| AltaVista Advanced Web Search \| Exalead \| Ixquick \| Live Search
Implied Boolean +/-	Most search engines offer this option
Boolean logic using search form terminology	Most advanced search options offer this, including: AllTheWeb Advanced Search \| AltaVista Advanced Web Search AOL Advanced Search \| Ask.com Advanced Search \| Exalead \| Google Advanced Search \| IceRocket Advanced Search \| Yahoo Advanced Web Search
Proximity searching	Exalead \| Google [by default] \| Ixquick
Search options
If you want..	Choose...
Alternative search terms	SurfWax
A user fill-in search form	Many search engines offer this, including: AlltheWeb Advanced Web Search \| AltaVista Advanced Web Search \| AOL Search Advanced Search \| Ask.com Advanced Search \| Google Advanced Search \| IceRocket Advanced Search \| Yahoo Advanced Web Search
Search for documents similar to those in existing results	Google
Truncation	Exalead \| Ixquick
Live human guides	ChaCha
Your search stated in plain English	Ask.com \| Brainboost \| Hakia \| Ixquick \| Live Search
Translation of pages retrieved as search results, or any text or Web page, to and from selected languages	Babel Fish
An exact phrase within quotations	Most search engines offer this option
An exact phrase from a template choice	Many search templates offer this. For example: AllTheWeb Advanced Search \| AltaVista Advanced Web Search \| Fazzle \| Google Advanced Search \| IceRocket Advanced Search
Multiple search tools searched simultaneously with duplicate records removed	Chubba \| Clusty \| Copernic \| Don Busca \| Fazzle \| FindForward \| Ixquick \| Mamma \| Query Server \| SurfWax \| Yooci \| more...
Search Results
If you want...	Choose...
Results based on linking, i.e., number of links from highly rated Web pages	A9 \| Alexa Web Search \| AltaVista \| Ask.com \| Google \| Google Web Directory [Many search engines use this technology as part of their results ranking strategy]
Results clustered by concept and/or type of site (often laid out as a "horizontal" list of topics in addition to a single vertical list of results)	Accumo \| Ask.com \| Clusty \| Don Busca \| Exalead \| iBoogie \| metaEUREEKA \| Kartoo \| KillerInfo \| KoolTorch \| Mooter \| Quintura \| Search.com \| Ujiko \| Yahoo! Mindset
Results influenced by searcher behavavior or ratings	Eurekster Swickis \| Sproose \| Trexy \| URL.com
Option to search on related topics	AllTheWeb \| Dogpile \| Factbites \| Search.com \| WhoNu
Results in graphical/visual format	Kartoo \| KoolTorch \| Mnemomap \| Mooter \| Quintura \| Ujiko \| Webbrain
Results with thumbnail images of retrieved sites	Don Busca \| Exalead \| IceRocket \| PageBull \| Snap
Search alerts	AllTh.at \| Google Alert \| Swamii \| TracerLock
Queries stored by the search service for repeat searches	Copernic
Search results appear as you type	Google Suggest \| Slurk \| Snap \| SurfWax LookAhead (RSS feeds)
Specialty Searches
If you want to search...	Choose...
The Deep Web (not generally covered by search spiders)	Visit a topic-specific engine, e.g., PubMed, or try to locate one using a general search engine.
Blogs	Ask.com \| Blogdigger \| Bloglines \| BlogPulse \| Clusty \| Globe of Blogs \| Google Blog Search \| IceRocket \| Keotag \| Sphere \| Technorati \| WhoNu \| Yahoo News Search \| Zuula
Files in FTP sites (text, multimedia, software, etc.)	Ftpsearchengines.com
Library materials	WorldCat
News (multiple sources searched simultaneously)	AlltheWeb: News \| AltaVista - News \| Congoo News \| FindNews.org \| Google News Alerts \| InfoGrid \| NewsNow \| Pandia Newsfinder \| RocketNews \| SurfWax News Accumulator \| Topix.com \| The WorldNews Network
Podcasts	Pluggd \| Podanza \| Podcast.net \| Podcast Search Service \| PODZINGER \| WhoNu \| Yahoo Podcasts
RSS feeds	Chordata \| RSSfeeds.com \| SurfWax LookAhead \| Syndic8.com
Saved Web pages	Furl \| Spurl.net
Scholarly materials, e.g,. books, articles, etc.	Google Book Search \| Google Scholar \| Live Search Books \| Windows Live Search Academic
Search trails, e.g., paths taken from search results to selected pages	Trexy
Site analysis	GoLexa
Usenet newsgroup postings	Google Groups
Web events	FindWebEvents.com
Your own customized search engine	Eurekster Swicki \| Google Custom Search Engine \| Rollyo
Reference sources (dictionaries, encyclopedias, e-mail and address lookups, calculators, quotations, news, government info, statistics etc.)	Reference Collection (U Albany Libraries)
Professionally maintained directories	About \| Academic Info \| BUBL LINK \| INFOMINE \| Librarians' Internet Index \| Intute \| The Scout Archives \| Virtual Learning Resources Center \| more...
Directories maintained by volunteers	JoeAnt \| Open Directory Project (DMOZ)

How to Protect Kids' Privacy Online

2008-02-05T15:50:00.000+02:00

Whether playing, shopping, studying or just surfing, today's kids are taking advantage of all that the web has to offer. But when it comes to their personal information online, who's in charge? In an effort to put parents in the catbird seat, the Federal Trade Commission has established new rules for website operators to make sure that kids' privacy is protected while they're online. These rules are part of the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Here's a look at what the law requires, starting April 21, 2000.

Website Operators Must:

Post their privacy policy.
Websites directed to children or that knowingly collect information from kids under 13 must post a notice of their information collection practices that includes:

types of personal information they collect from kids-for example, name, home address, email address or hobbies.
how the site will use the information-for example, to market to the child who supplied the information, to notify contest winners or to make the information available through a child's participation in a chat room.
whether personal information is forwarded to advertisers or other third parties.
a contact at the site.

Get parental consent.
In many cases, a site must obtain parental consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information about a child.

Consent is not required when a site is collecting an email address to:

respond to a one-time request from the child.
provide notice to the parent.
ensure the safety of the child or the site.
end a newsletter or other information on a regular basis as long as the site notifies a parent and gives them a chance to say no to the arrangement.

Parents Should:

Look for a privacy policy on any website directed to children.
The policy must be available through a link on the website's homepage and at each area where personal information is collected from kids. Websites for general audiences that have a children's section must post the notice on the homepages of the section for kids.

Read the policy closely to learn the kinds of personal information being collected, how it will be used, and whether it will be passed on to third parties. If you find a website that doesn't post basic protections for children's personal information, ask for details about their information collection practices.

Decide whether to give consent.
Giving consent authorizes the website to collect personal information from your child. You can give consent and still say no to having your child's information passed along to a third party.

Your consent isn't necessary if the website is collecting your child's email address simply to respond to a one-time request for information.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

How To Not Get Sued for File Sharing

2008-02-05T15:45:00.000+02:00

As of July 2006, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued over 20,000 music fans for file sharing in just under three years. In 2004, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) joined this misguided, anti-consumer crusade. Filing lawsuits against anonymous "Doe" defendants, the RIAA and MPAA seek to uncover the identities of P2P users and force them to pay thousands of dollars in settlements. Many innocent individuals are being caught in the crossfire.

While there is no way to know exactly what the RIAA and MPAA are going to do or who they are going to sue, users of publicly-accessible P2P networks can take the following steps to reduce their chances of being sued:

Either:

Make sure there are no potentially infringing files in your shared folder. This would ordinarily mean that your shared folder contains only files 1) that are in the public domain, 2) for which you have permission to share, or 3) that are made available under pro-sharing licenses, such as the Creative Commons license or other open media licenses, and
Remove all potentially misleading file names that might be confused with the name of an RIAA artist or song (e.g., "Usher" or "Madonna") from your shared folder

Or:

Disable the "sharing" or "uploading" features on your P2P application, if your application allows it (see below).
We hate this option -- it blocks your non-infringing sharing, and it doesn't get us any closer to a real solution that gets artists paid while making file sharing legal. But, at the moment, it does appear that turning off sharing will reduce your chances of becoming a lawsuit target.
This can usually be accomplished in the "Options" or "Preferences" of your P2P application by removing all shared directories and sometimes setting an explicit option not to share files or to allow zero uploads. The specific method will vary depending on your P2P application, but looking at a few examples can give you the general idea.
EFF suggests (but cannot guarantee) the following links for instructions (you can also try Google searches for ("turn off sharing"+the software's name):
- University of Chicago's resources: http://security.uchicago.edu/peer-to-peer/no_fileshare.shtml
- Duke University resources: http://www.oit.duke.edu/helpdesk/filesharing/steps.html

Note: Not all clients allow you to turn off "sharing."
If you use software such as BitTorrent and eDonkey (as well as related clients like Azureus and eMule, respectively), you will automatically be uploading whatever you are currently downloading. In eDonkey, these files may appear in search results and thus become visible to the MPAA and RIAA. In BitTorrent, you must connect to a BitTorrent "tracker" to download a file, and your Internet address is visible to anyone else -- including the MPAA or RIAA -- connected to that tracker. In these instances, you may be at greater risk.

Additional Considerations:

Operating a public BitTorrent tracker that connects users to infringing material may put you at greater risk of being sued.The risk appears to increase with the number of connected users, the number of infringing files associated with the tracker, and the apparent availability to the general public. If you run a public tracker, being vigilant in removing potentially unauthorized files is advised. The RIAA has targeted subpoenas at users who allow their computers to be "Supernodes" on the FastTrack P2P System (used, for instance, by KaZaA or KaZaA Lite). In order to further reduce the risk of having your ISP subpoenaed or of being sued yourself, we recommend that you make sure your computer is not being used as a Supernode. To learn more about Supernodes and how to make sure your computer is not one, look here: Disabling the Supernode function with KaZaA (PDF 331k).

The RIAA and MPAA have sued college students for using publicly-accessible file sharing networks, including systems like i2hub. However, with one particularly notable exception, the RIAA and MPAA have not targeted users downloading or uploading music over closed, college campus intranets -- in other words, students sharing with other students at the same school over the school's own network. Tracking intranet infringements is practically more difficult, though not necessarily impossible.

Similarly, the RIAA and MPAA have not targeted file sharing through instant messaging systems, closed networks such as WASTE (http://waste.sourceforge.net/), and other sharing tools in which users can limit access by third-parties.

What if I've Already Been Sued?

If you receive notice that your ISP has been subpoenaed for your name and address or if you have already been sued, consider contacting EFF or www.subpoenadefense.org, where you can find information about how to defend your privacy and a list of attorneys willing to help. Contact your ISP and ask the people there to notify you immediately if they receive a subpoena seeking your identity.

These links may provide helpful information:

How the RIAA Litigation Process Works [offsite]
Directory of Lawyers Defending RIAA Lawsuits [off-site]
RIAA v. The People: Four Years Later [PDF]
Parental Liability for Copyright Infringement by Minor Children [PDF 76k] November 1, 2005
Typical Claims and Counterlcaims in Peer to Peer Litigation [PDF]
Bankruptcy Memo
A Motion to Ask the Court to Require the Record Companies to Sue You in Your Local Courts

If you receive a cease and desist letter from the RIAA, consider contacting Chilling Effects, where EFF and several law school clinics are creating a gallery of cease and desist letters along with basic information about the claims being made and your rights online.

How to Write a Better Weblog

2008-02-05T15:44:00.000+02:00

by Dennis A. Mahoney

There’s been a recent retread of the weblogging phenomenon following a few articles at PC Mag, Time, and The Morning News. After posting my own short list of things that ought to be banned from weblogs, I realized that a list of things to be encouraged would be more useful. Some people are new to weblogging. Others want to raise the bar. In the end, everybody wants better sites, and some of these suggestions might help.

The bulk of this advice focuses on writing, which is generally at the heart of weblogs. All of them are obvious yet often ignored, to the detriment of both the readers and the writers. They’re aimed at people trying to improve the general appeal of their weblogs, but folks writing privately for friends and family might also find them useful. We’ll begin with an example.

Professional vs. Amateur

The professional writer writes:

New York is magnificent in spring.

The amateur writer writes:

I know this is a cliché nowadays, especially after 9/11, but I live in New York, which is much cleaner and safer now because of Giuliani, who really ought to be president after handling the crisis so well, and I know I’ve had some issues in the past with the mayor’s handling of the NYPD in regard to African Americans and his war against art involving sacred religious icons and feces (hello!? freedom of expression!?), but when all is said and done, New York, as maybe the best example of the ‘melting pot’ etc. etc., is a great city, especially when it starts getting warmer and people go outside more, like around March or April.

The amateur reads the professional and cannot bear the understatement. The professional reads the amateur, gives up after the word “nowadays,” and decides that he/she has been video–gamed to idiocy; the amateurs are hopeless; this new wave will be the last.

Not true. Amateurs are writing as they’ve always written. Self-consciousness, self-doubt, awkwardness, and overcompensation are perennial hallmarks of the beginning writer. The reason today’s amateurs seem more profoundly un–profound could be a simple matter of exposure.

There used to be impenetrable gatekeepers. Now, CNN roundtables, documentaries, independent films, MTV, and the web—which has no gatekeepers in most countries—are broadcasting every poorly crafted phrase and half–cooked idea imaginable. Patience, readers. All is not lost.

Great writing can’t be taught, but atrocious writing is entirely preventable.

The Rules

There are, in fact, rules—even online. Rules are not restrictions. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, rhythm, focus, syntax, and structure aren’t especially romantic terms, until you get to know them. Writers want to make sense. They want to move the reader. It ain’t never gonna happen if you got busted paragraphs, mistaken punctuation and, bad rhythm, not to mention kreative spelling: see? Clarity is key. Learn the rules. Break ’em later.

The best rules can’t be stated, but you can learn them by reading excellent writing. Develop an ear. If you know what works, you’ll start to emulate it. Conversely, it’s good to study truly horrendous language, stuff that makes you embarrassed for those responsible. You’ll find yourself mortally afraid of—and automatically avoiding—the same mistakes in your own writing. Hemingway said, “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built–in shock–proof shit-detector.” (They’re cheap if you haven’t already got one.) This is especially important for web writers, most of whom are publishing without the benefit of editors.

Declarative sentences are good. Web readers demand pith.

Bold statements are dangerous, but they won’t kill you. Timidity will—or at least your traffic. Everyone has a hazy opinion or two. The writer’s goal is clarity. Vague feelings or ideas don’t have to be vaguely written. Imagine two sites with similar descriptions of an indescribable sensation. Which would you remember:

A: “Her physical affections made his world feel somehow different and indescribably alive.”

B: “She kissed him with her tongue until the leaves on the trees, the soles of his shoes, and even his thoughts, felt like happy tongues.”

First–person point of view is not the only point of view. I should be necessary, or else avoided. This is not to condemn first person, but to suggest that it needn’t be the default choice. If first-person perfectly suits your subject matter, use it. But maybe second– or third–person is more effective. Consider your options.

The advice “write only what you know” increases the likelihood that you will know the same things forever.

Offer Something New

And are you attempting to produce quality material, or just killing time? If you’re killing time, O.K., but don’t be startled when your audience is small and no one links to you. Instead of publishing disconnected diversions (by the way, look at this, check it out, here you go, really cool), connect the dots or offer a full opinion.

Better yet, take The Nick Hornby Challenge. In High Fidelity, the narrator is described as a professional critic. He’s good at it. Music criticism is what he does. Then he starts an independent label and produces a record made by a couple of talented, shoplifting skate punks in order to, as his girlfriend says, “put something new into the world.”

The web is a tremendous hodgepodge of media. There are sites about books, sites about music, and sites about sites. Plenty of weblogs center on consuming and critiquing other people’s work, and all this recycling and redistribution has its place—a very important place that we’ll make note of later on. But why not make something new? Instead of linking to a few articles every day, write one. Instead of showcasing and discussing the latest designs, design something. You’ve got this absolutely batty opportunity of instant global publishing. Publish! The world is your oyster!

Amuse Your Readers

If you want to share an anecdote or story from your life, pretend the readers weren’t there. Because they weren’t. “You had to be there” never makes a joke funny.

Readers crave your anecdotes and stories. They really do. So give ‘em the whole megillah. Instead of, “The party was a riot!” or “I’m depressed today,” carefully explain why. Elaborate. Parties and depression are perfectly good writing subjects. The Great Gatsby, for instance, has plenty of both.

Anything makes a good subject, as long as you take your time and crystallize the details, tying them together and actually telling a story, rather than offering a simple list of facts. Do readers really want to know how miserable you are? Yes. But they’re going to want details, the precise odor of your room, why you haven’t showered in a week, or how exactly somebody broke your heart. One–liners won’t suffice.

At the same time, you don’t want to over–explain yourself. Understatement can be thunderous, or humorous, or heartbreaking. Or all three.

Have a sense of humor. Everything is funny. Being gay is funny. Being straight is funny. Being American is funny. It’s OK to laugh at things. Making light of serious situations or emotions doesn’t have to be disrespectful or hurtful. And just because something is funny doesn’t mean it has to be light. Example: “When the kidnapper called the blind woman, he told her that she’d never see her son again.” Some of the best humor is heavy.

Being a writer is funny. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Have a thick skin. If your site gets singled out for attack by some malicious web devil, relax. You’ve gone public and you have to expect both rational and irrational criticism. Listen, people rag on Shakespeare all the time. If you’re a genuine talent, there’ll be plenty of people complimenting your efforts. If someone has a bona fide gripe with something you’ve produced, pay attention—it’s worth considering. If someone has a petty gripe or simply gets nasty, let it go. Get back to producing your site. If novelists spent their time responding to negative reviews, we’d be fresh out of novels.

Beyond Wired

One popular complaint about weblogs is that they all link to the same sites, over and over and over. Sometimes that’s true and sometimes it isn’t. But if you do find yourself linking to a Wired article that’s already been noted on ten other sites, you might consider finding something else.

Sharing great discoveries is largely why weblogging got so hot and sultry in the first place. Big, heavily funded sites weren’t acknowledging the grace notes and hidden talents of the web, so it was up to webloggers. For some webloggers, it still is. Wired doesn’t need your help as much as undiscovered sites, which may be offering equally good (or better) material.

Successful Weblogging

Producing a successful weblog, however you define that, is tough. Instead of money, fame, and Jacuzzis full of sexy nude readers, you’ll probably feel like you’re shouting in outer space. And you probably will be. In 1994, you could hook a thousand readers if you wrote about the mold underneath your refrigerator. Now, you’re lucky to get a hundred regulars, even if your work is excellent.

No matter what your audience size, you ought to write as if your readership consisted of paid subscribers whose subscriptions were perpetually about to expire. There’s no need to pander. Compel them to re–subscribe.

As the beginning of this article noted, a big audience isn’t everybody’s goal, and most of these suggestions are intended for people working to expand their readership. As for actually achieving that expansion, it’s back to the hard sell.

The days when simply having a website equated to visibility are over. The average person doesn’t even know to look for weblogs. When someone does, there’s an array of choices so endless that finding your site will largely be a stroke of luck.

Links and word of mouth can go a long way, but don’t expect a big following right off the bat. You might never get a following. More than ever, you’d better be doing this to satisfy yourself, because it could be your only reward. But if your goal is to satisfy readers, satisfying yourself is a good start.

How to turn your blog in to an OpenID

2008-02-05T15:38:00.000+02:00

Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the same account to log in to multiple sites and applications, without having to trust them all with your password? Wouldn’t it be even better if you could do this without having to hand ownership of your online identity over to some monolithic third party? (I’m looking at you, Windows Live ID.)

The good news is, you can! OpenID is a decentralised authentication system invented by LiveJournal but now being developed as an open standard under the careful mentorship of the Apache Software Foundation. Anyone can create an OpenID, and the number of sites which let you log in with one is growing by the day.

An OpenID is simply a URL. My OpenID is simonwillison.net, the address of my weblog. I can use it to sign in to any site that supports OpenID, and because I’m the only person with control over my weblog’s homepage I’m the only person who can use that identity.

If you want your own OpenID (and you should), here’s how to get one.

1. Sign up with an OpenID provider

OpenID is decentralised, which means that anyone can set themselves up as an OpenID provider. You can run your own server if you want to (phpMyID is one way of doing that) but there are a number of free services that will host an ID for you. Those include:

LiveJournal. They invented it, and if you have a LiveJournal account you already have an OpenID—it’s the URL of your journal. I’m swillison.livejournal.com.
Vox—Six Apart’s sexy new social network thang. I’m simon.vox.com.
VeriSign Labs, who have done some excellent work around OpenID and run a provider as part of their Personal Identity Provider service. I’m swillison.pip.verisignlabs.com.
MyOpenID, run by JanRain, authors of the most widely used OpenID libraries. I’m swillison.myopenid.com.

If you already have an account with Vox or LiveJournal you can skip straight to step 2. If not, pick the provider that you trust the most and create an account there. This isn’t a permanent decision: you can move provider at any time without losing your account, provided you follow step 2.

2. Point your own site at your new OpenID

Here comes the magic. Having picked your provider and created an OpenID there, edit the HTML of your weblog’s homepage (or indeed whichever URL you want to use as your personal OpenID) and add the following to the document :

Replace the openid.delegate href with the OpenID at your provider, and the openid.server href with that provider’s OpenID server. You can find the server by viewing source on your OpenID page there, or by using this table:

OpenID Provider	Server URL
LiveJournal	http://www.livejournal.com/openid/server.bml
Vox	http://www.vox.com/services/openid/server
VeriSign	https://pip.verisignlabs.com/server
MyOpenID	http://www.myopenid.com/server

This delegation mechanism is key to OpenID’s status as a truly decentralised authentication system. If you decide you no longer trust your identity provider you can switch to another one by just editing a couple of lines of HTML—your OpenID will stay the same.

3. Log in to something!

Now that you have an OpenID, you can use it to log in to all sorts of sites. Find their OpenID login form and enter your new OpenID—that’s the URL of your weblog. You will be redirected to a page on your identity provider which will either ask you to log in or ask you to authorize the site to use your identity. Click “Yes” and you’ll be sent back to the original site and magically logged in—no password required.

I’ve been collecting a list of sites that allow you to log in using OpenID under the openidconsumer tag; sites you may have heard of include Ma.gnolia, Zooomr and Wikitravel.

How to write the perfect resume

2008-02-05T15:34:00.000+02:00

Write a resume that generates results.

Writing a great resume does not necessarily mean you should follow the rules you hear through the grapevine. It does not have to be one page or follow a specific resume format. Every resume is a one-of-a-kind marketing communication. It should be appropriate to your situation and do exactly what you want it to do. Instead of a bunch of rules and tips, we are going to cut to the chase in this brief guide and offer you the most basic principles of writing a highly effective resume.

This guide is especially for people looking for a job in the United States. In the U.S., the rules of job hunting are much more relaxed than they are in Europe and Asia. You can do a lot more active personal marketing here. You may have to tone down our advice a few notches and follow the traditional, conservative format accepted in your field if you live elsewhere or are in law, academia or a technical engineering, computer or scientific field. But even when your presentation must fit a narrow set of rules, you can still use the principles we will present to make your presentation more effective than your competition's.

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD

The good news is that, with a little extra effort, you can create a resume that makes you stand out as a superior candidate for a job you are seeking. Not one resume in a hundred follows the principles that stir the interest of prospective employers. So, even if you face fierce competition, with a well written resume you should be invited to interview more often than many people more qualified than you.

The bad news is that your present resume is probably much more inadequate than you now realize. You will have to learn how to think and write in a style that will be completely new to you.

To understand what I mean, let's take a look at the purpose of your resume. Why do you have a resume in the first place? What is it supposed to do for you?

Here's an imaginary scenario. You apply for a job that seems absolutely perfect for you. You send your resume with a cover letter to the prospective employer. Plenty of other people think the job sounds great too and apply for the job. A few days later, the employer is staring at a pile of several hundred resumes. Several hundred? you ask. Isn't that an inflated number? Not really. A job offer often attracts between 100 and 1000 resumes these days, so you are facing a great deal of competition.

Back to the fantasy and the prospective employer staring at the huge stack of resumes: This person isn't any more excited about going through this pile of dry, boring documents than you would be. But they have to do it, so they dig in. After a few minutes, they are getting sleepy. They are not really focusing any more. Then, they run across your resume. As soon as they start reading it, they perk up. The more they read, the more interested, awake and turned on they become.

Most resumes in the pile have only gotten a quick glance. But yours gets read, from beginning to end. Then, it gets put on top of the tiny pile of resumes that make the first cut. These are the people who will be asked in to interview. In this mini resume writing guide, what we hope to do is to give you the basic tools to take this out of the realm of fantasy and into your everyday life.

THE NUMBER ONE PURPOSE OF A RESUME The resume is a tool with one specific purpose: to win an interview. If it does what the fantasy resume did, it works. If it doesn't, it isn't an effective resume. A resume is an advertisement, nothing more, nothing less.

A great resume doesn't just tell them what you have done but makes the same assertion that all good ads do: If you buy this product, you will get these specific, direct benefits. It presents you in the best light. It convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be successful in this new position or career.

It is so pleasing to the eye that the reader is enticed to pick it up and read it. It "whets the appetite," stimulates interest in meeting you and learning more about you. It inspires the prospective employer to pick up the phone and ask you to come in for an interview.

OTHER POSSIBLE REASONS TO HAVE A RESUME

To pass the employer's screening process (requisite educational level, number years' experience, etc.), to give basic facts which might favorably influence the employer (companies worked for, political affiliations, racial minority, etc.). To provide contact information: an up-to-date address and a telephone number (a telephone number which will always be answered during business hours).
To establish you as a professional person with high standards and excellent writing skills, based on the fact that the resume is so well done (clear, well-organized, well-written, well-designed, of the highest professional grades of printing and paper). For persons in the art, advertising, marketing, or writing professions, the resume can serve as a sample of their skills.
To have something to give to potential employers, your job-hunting contacts and professional references, to provide background information, to give out in "informational interviews" with the request for a critique (a concrete creative way to cultivate the support of this new person), to send a contact as an excuse for follow-up contact, and to keep in your briefcase to give to people you meet casually - as another form of "business card."
To use as a covering piece or addendum to another form of job application, as part of a grant or contract proposal, as an accompaniment to graduate school or other application.
To put in an employer's personnel files.
To help you clarify your direction, qualifications, and strengths, boost your confidence, or to start the process of commiting to a job or career change.

WHAT IT ISN'T

It is a mistake to think of your resume as a history of your past, as a personal statement or as some sort of self expression. Sure, most of the content of any resume is focused on your job history. But write from the intention to create interest, to persuade the employer to call you. If you write with that goal, your final product will be very different than if you write to inform or catalog your job history.

Most people write a resume because everyone knows that you have to have one to get a job. They write their resume grudgingly, to fulfill this obligation. Writing the resume is only slightly above filling out income tax forms in the hierarchy of worldly delights. If you realize that a great resume can be your ticket to getting exactly the job you want, you may be able to muster some genuine enthusiasm for creating a real masterpiece, rather than the feeble products most people turn out.

WHAT IF I'M NOT SURE OF MY JOB TARGET?

If you are hunting for a job but are not sure you are on a career path that is perfect for you, you are probably going to wind up doing something that doesn't fit you very well, that you are not going to find fulfilling, and that you will most likely leave within five years. Doesn't sound like much of a life to me. How about you? Are you willing to keep putting up with pinning your fate on the random turnings of the wheel?

How To Encrypt Bit Torrent Traffic

2008-02-05T15:29:00.000+02:00

More and more ISP’s are limiting and throttling BitTorrent traffic on their networks. By throttling BitTorrent traffic the speed of BitTorrent downloads decrease, and high speed downloads are out of the question.

The list of ISP’s that limit BitTorrent traffic, or plan to do so is growing every day, and according to the BBC, the ‘bandwidth war’ has begun.

Are you not sure if your traffic is being throttled Check the list of bad ISP’s.

But there is a solution. Encrypting your torrents will prevent throttling ISP’s from shaping your traffic. I will explain how to enable encryption in Azureus, uTorrent, and Bitcomet, the three most popular torrent clients.

What does encryption Do?

The RC4 encryption obfuscates not only the header but the entire stream. This means that it’s very hard for your ISP to detect that the traffic you are generating comes from BitTorrent.

Note that RC4 uses more CPU time than the plain encryption or no encryption. It is however harder to identify for traffic shaping devices

How can I do this?

This is different for all clients; check the setting for your favorite client below.

Azureus

1. Go to: Tools > Options > Connection > Transport Encryption

2. Check the ‘require encrypted transport’ box.

3. Choose RC4 in the ‘minimum encryption’ dropdown box

note that RC4 uses more CPU time than the plain encryption or no encryption. It is however harder to identify for traffic shaping devices
4. You can choose to tick the ‘Allow non-encrypted outgoing connections if encrypted connection attempt fails’ box. This will ensure compatibility with clients that are not using encryption. However, it makes it easier for your ISP to detect BitTorrent traffic. I recommend that you try to tick this box first. If you are still not getting proper speeds untick it

5. Tick the ‘Allow non-encrypted incoming connections’ box

That’s it, your BitTorrent traffic is encrypted now.

Bitcomet

1. Go to: Options > Preferences > Advanced > Connection

2. Go to: ‘Protocol encryption’ You can choose between ‘auto detect’ and ‘always’. Auto detect will give you more connections but offers less protection against traffic shapers.

I would recommend to try auto detect first, if that doesn’t increase your speeds you need to switch to always

That’s it, your BitTorrent traffic is encrypted now.

uTorrent

1. Go to: Options > Preferences > BitTorrent

2. Go to ‘Protocol encryption’, you can choose between ‘enabled’ and ‘forced’. ‘Enabled’ will give you more connections but offers less protection against traffic shapers.

I would recommend to try ‘enabled’ first, if that doesn’t increase your speeds you need to swich to ‘forced’.

3. Ticking ‘Allow legacy incoming connections’ allows non ecrypted clients to connect to you. This improves compatibility between clients but makes you more vulnerable to traffic shapers.

I would recommend to tick this box, but if that doesn’t increase your speeds, untick it!

That’s it, your BitTorrent traffic is encrypted now.

Good luck and happy torrenting

How to Get Out of Debt

2008-02-05T15:27:00.000+02:00

The average American household has around $9,200 in credit card debt. And it's not just struggling young families who are saddled with debt; those hoping to retire are borrowing more than ever. As hard as it may seem to dig yourself out of debt, it is possible. To alleviate and ultimately pay off the debt in your life, you must be disciplined, but it is even more crucial to design a plan that you can actually follow. Our How to Get Out of Debt guide will lead you through the necessary steps to become debt-free and stay that way.

Step 1: How Much Debt Are you Actually In?

Total up all your debt. (Creative commons photo by Beau Wade)

Though you might pay the same bills every month, we often lose track of our total amount of debt because it's too painful to face in the aggregate.

Collect all the bills you receive in one month. (Don't forget any payments you make online or that are automatically deducted from your account.)
Add them up.
Use the debt calculator created by CNN Money to figure out how long it will take you to pay off your debt at your current rate.
- - A debt of $6600 (the 2007 American average), at an interest rate of 16% and with monthly minimum payments of 2% would take almost 30 years to pay off, during which time you'll have paid a whopping $11,173.50 in interest.
Make a chart that shows what interest rates you are paying on each of these loans and what the total amount owed is.
Be honest. Denial is a huge part of being in debt. Realize that your total amount owed is a number you will need to wrestle with, not ignore.
Being open with your spouse about debt (especially at the start of the relationship) will also alleviate financial arguments down the line.

Step 2: If You Don't Use it, You Can't Abuse It

Using cash instead of credit cards makes your money harder to part with. (Creative commons photo by Open Democracy)

While mortgage payments and student loans are considered justifiable loans (they're also tax deductible), credit card debt can be avoided, or at least minimized. Going cold turkey on the credit cards is the only way to stop amassing new debt that will continue to extend your payments.

Use cash. Watching dollars leave your hands and go into someone else's can help you "feel the pain" of spending in a more tangible way than using a credit card can do.
Try taking out a certain amount of cash every week that fits your budget. When you're out of money, you stop spending.
Rely as much as you can on your debit card for any items that cost more than you are willing to carry in your wallet. If you have enough in your account, that is.
Try keeping your credit card(s) in a drawer at home. That way, you'll be forced to think about big purchases before going home to retrieve your card.
Some experts recommend keeping credit cards in even harder to access places, like "a safe-deposit box, maybe, or frozen in a block of ice."
When the holidays roll around, try withdrawing the amount of money you've budgeted on each person in your family in cash. Clip each person's gift money together with a paperclip and a note with his/her name on it, and spend only that much.
The hard truth of credit card debt is that we get into it because we want things we can't afford and somehow talk ourselves into using credit cards thinking that we will either have enough money at the end of the month to pay off our purchases, or we're simply impatient and can't wait to save up for the new, new thing.
The bottom-line is that if you want to get out (and stay out) of debt, particularly of the credit card variety, don't buy what you can't afford.

Get Out of Debt

Step 3: Consolidate

Organize your debt to pay balances with the highest interest rates first.

Research all the contracts you are under with any credit cards or other loans and determine your interest rates on each account. You may have this information in the chart you made in Step 1.
When you start your payment plan, you'll want to pay off balances with the highest interest rates first to save more in the long run.

How Many Cards?

Cut back on your total number of credit cards. (Creative commons photo by Mike)

First ask yourself, how many credit cards do I have?
Don't forget to include department store cards, which often charge a very high interest rate (around 20% or more!) or gas cards.
Also figure out how much you pay to keep those cards. With so many offers for no-annual-fee cards, you should get terrific benefits from an annual fee card in order to justify keeping it.
Don't be tempted by discount offers from department store cards or same-as-cash financing unless you know you can make payments in full.
Most Americans have between 10 and 15 credit cards. Some have as many as 45 or 50.
While there is no perfect number of cards, it is generally recommended that individuals:

- 1. Have no more than one favorite-store credit card. These cards usually come with high interest rates and no benefits to your credit score because they are so easily obtained.
  2. 2 to 6 credit cards is a generally a good number.
  3. Of those, you should probably have a MasterCard, Visa, and/or an American Express card, since these are the most frequently accepted cards.
  4. For cards you can usually pay off every month, find programs that will give you air miles or other bonuses so you are actually getting a benefit from your credit card.
  5. But do be careful closing accounts, because this could have a negative effect on your credit score.

Transfer Balances to Your Lowest Interest Rate Cards

Examine what card charges you the highest interest rate.
Transfer balances from the highest interest rate card to the card(s) with the lowest interest rate(s).
Consider opening an account that offers you a 0% APR introductory period, or another very low rate.
But be sure to check the fine print: if associated fees are high, you could be paying as much as you would have in interest on the other card. And make sure you aren't heavily penalized for one late payment.
And make sure to avoid a card that doesn't jump to a very high APR in only a few months.

NOTE: Remember that applying for new credit cards will affect your credit score. If you don't think you have very good credit and are unlikely to be approved for a new card, it's not worth it.

Request a Lower Rate

If you can't transfer balances or open a new card, at least try to get your credit card company to lower your current rate.
Because it is advantageous for credit card companies to keep their customers (especially those with high balances they pay over time—this is how the credit card companies make all their money), many are likely to lower your rate if you threaten to close your account.
If you have trouble getting your rate lowered, ask to speak with a supervisor. Again threaten to move your balance to a competitor's card.
If you have a credit score of 750, you should be able to get a rate of 10% or under.
Even if you can't get your rate lowered, you might convince a card carrier to waive your annual fee.

Step 4: Pay Up

The more of your debt you can pay down, the quicker it will disappear, and with a lower overall cost to you.

Pay More Than the Minimum

Pay as much as you can every month—not just the minimum balance. If you've drawn up a budget, you should be able to figure out exactly how much you can afford to pay each month.
Go back to your debt calculator to see the difference you can make by paying more than the minimum.
- - Remember your $6600 debt at 16% interest? Paying the minimum balance (2%) would get you out of debt in 30 years after making over $13,000 in interest payments. If you doubled your minimum payment, you'd be out of debt in 2 years and seven months, and you will have paid only $1351 in interest!
To pay down debt systematically, pay as much as you can toward your highest interest rate card while paying the minimum balance on other, lower rate cards. Once that is paid off, pay as much as you can towards the next highest interest rate card while paying the minimum balance on other cards, and so on.

FACT:A $1000 purchase paid back at 2% per month (the average minimum payment term) on a card charging 18% interest will ultimately cost $1803.

Don't Be Late!

Late payment fees not only add up (they usually range from $30-$50 per late fee), but lateness can also allow your credit card company to raise your rate.
You'll also have less bargaining power when you try to lower your rate if you've made late payments.

Make it Automatic

Consider setting up automatic payments so you never make late payments and can't wimp out when your bill arrives.
With student loan payments you often get a reduction in your interest rate if you sign up for auto-pay.
If your employer offers the service, have money taken directly from your paycheck and deposited into a savings account. Then use that amount to pay down debt. You usually won't miss money taken out ahead of time.

Find Extra Money to Pay Down Debt

What's your "Latte Factor"? (Creative commons photo by Steve Webel)

Determine your "Latte Factor." If you took the $10 a day you spend on coffee (or magazines, cigarettes, etc.) and use it to pay down your debt instead, in one year you'd be able to pay $3600 to creditors.
Write down everything you spend for a week (or a month if you have the discipline) and analyze your expenses. Anything that isn't a necessity could be re-channeled to paying down debt. Do you (or your waistline) really need that daily muffin? Some extraneous expenses you could probably switch up or live without:
- - Expensive coffee: try brewing it at home to save hundreds of dollars a year.
  - Magazines at the newsstand: buy a subscription to slash the cover price on any periodicals you buy more than a couple times a year. Better yet, read them at the library.
  - Takeout lunch: make and bring your lunch from home. You'll save money and calories.
  - Bottled water: buy a water bottle you like and fill it with ice and water from your tap. Not only is this a huge money saver, but it's hugely better for the environment.
  - New hardcover books: wait for them to come out in paperback. Or buy them used just as easily on Amazon.
  - See more money-saving tips in Mahalo's How to Save Money and How to Curb Your Spending.
If cutting back on discretionary spending isn't getting you too far, try to reduce household expenses: can you use fewer minutes on your cell phone? Refinance your mortgage? Lower your energy bill?
Use any windfalls you receive to make additional payments.
Don't use all your extra money to pay off your mortgage if you have other debt. Mortgages usually have lower interest rates, and your payments are tax deductible up to the first $1 million.
Use your savings to pay down debt. If your savings account is only earning you 1-2% in interest (which is average), it makes no sense to have that money sitting around while you're paying 15-16% interest on your debt.
- Yes, it's good to have a small cushion for emergencies, but use whatever savings you can part with to pay off debt.
And when you pay down debt, when it's time for the next big purchase, you will qualify for a lower interest rate because you have improved your credit score.

Step 5: Form Good Spending Habits

Every little bit helps! (Creative commons photo by Nic McPhee)

Overspending got you into this mess, right? Learning to restrict your spending and to focus on saving is the ultimate solution to getting, and staying, out of debt.

Think about what you buy before you buy it. Can you really afford it? Do you truly need it? Is there a less expensive alternative that won't compromise your enjoyment of the product?
Stick with your budget.
If you find yourself straying from the budget, try writing down all your expenses for a period of time. Sometimes just seeing them on paper makes you realize what you can live without. It's not so different from dieters writing down everything they eat for a month and realizing that the afternoon cookie isn't doing them any favors.
Request credit reports regularly to see where you're at (and to ensure you haven't suffered identity theft). Seeing areas you can improve may motivate you to keep paying down debt and curb spending.
It may sound trite, but enjoy the little things. If you had to put a price on your experiences, it would probably be safe to say that time spent with family or the perfect day at the beach are "worth" a lot more to you than that new sweater. Keep this in mind when contemplating the things you think you want in life.

Step 6: Seek Out Help

If you just can't go it alone, it may be time to seek out a debt counselor.

Find an agency that is a member of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) or the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies (AICCCA), the two most respected associations of credit counseling services.
When contacting a potential debt counselor, make sure to ask about associated fees and exactly how they will be billed.
If you work with a debt counselor, he will likely determine a set amount for you to pay each month, which he will then distribute to your various debts.
Debt counseling services are a good last resort for those who just can't discipline themselves to make proper payments to their various debts.
Just make sure you aren't paying more in the long run by using one of these services, or that if you are, it is an amount you feel is reasonable for the service provided.
You might also seek out a debt support group to get help from those in a similar situation.

Resources for How to Get Out of Debt

Money Magazine: Resolution 3: Get Out of Debt
Oprah.com: Oprah's Debt Diet
CNN Money: Controlling Debt
CNN Money: Debt Calculator
Kiplinger.com: Tame Your Credit Card Debt
Bankrate: Credit Card Basics
Bankrate: Organize Credit Card Debt
Lending Tree: Getting Out of Debt
Business Week: Credit Card Survival Guide
Business Week: Breaking the Cycle of Bad Credit
Market Watch: Plastic Peril: Three big credit dangers that can trip up your shopping
Los Angeles Times: Digging Out of a Credit Card Trap
NPR: Marketplace Report: Credit Card Debt
MSN Money: How Many Credit Cards is Too Many?
AARP: Do You Have Too Much Debt?
Suze Orman: Managing Debt
U.S. News: How to Pay Off Multiple Debts
Forbes.com: Escaping Credit Card Debt
About.com: You Can Get Out of Debt
San Jose Mercury News: Put Your Credit Cards Away for the Holidays
iVillage: Debt Support Group

Debt Stories

USA Today: Retirees Up Against Debt
Boston.com: Colleges Are in Cahoots with Credit Card Companies on Campus
Business Week: 30 and Broke
Business Week: Will Consumer Credit Feel the Crunch?
The New York Times: "For Richer or Poorer, to Our Visa Limit" (July 13, 2003)
The Consumerist: Credit Cards Ensnare Naive College Freshmen

How to Choose the Right Tax Forms

2008-02-05T15:21:00.000+02:00

Half the battle of doing your tax return is being sure that you have the right forms in front of you. While everyone will use some version of the 1040, you may need to use several different schedules or forms if you want to file for an extension, itemize deductions or report supplemental income and losses. The following guide will walk you through some of the most commonly-used forms and help you determine which version of the 1040 you should be using.

How to Choose the Correct Forms

(Screenshot by Mahalo)

If you're having a pro or an online service like TurboTax prepare your return, you won't need to download any forms from the IRS or pick them up at the library. In fact, these services will automatically determine which forms you need to file. If you're going the paper and pencil route, however, you're on your own. Here's a rundown of the basic IRS forms to get you started:

Form 1040

Everyone must fill out a 1040, 1040EZ or 1040A. This is where you calculate and report your taxable income. Which version of the 1040 you fill out will depend on a few different factors:

1040: The most commonly used form, and the one you'll likely be using. You must use this form if your taxable income is more than $100,000 or you plan on itemizing your deductions. You should also use this form if you have self-employment income. ^[1]
1040EZ: Use the 1040EZ if you have no dependents, are under 65 and not blind, earned less than $100,000 last year and do not itemize your deductions. ^[2]
1040A: Use the 1040A if your taxable income is less than $100,000 and do not itemize deductions, but do have some adjustments such as a retirement contribution or child tax credit. ^[3]

Consult IRS Tax Topic: Which Form - 1040, 104A or 1040EZ? (352) for more information.

Additional Commonly-Used Tax Forms

(Screenshot by Mahalo)

Depending on your income and how you've acquired it, you may need to fill out one of the following forms. For a complete list of forms, visit the Forms and Publications page of the IRS website.

Schedule A: For Itemized Deductions, Mortgage Interest, etc.
Schedule B: Report Taxable Interest or Dividends in Excess of $1,500
Schedule C or C-EZ: Report Profit or Loss from a Business
Schedule D: Report Capital Gains and Losses, Sales from Stock, etc.
Schedule E: Report Supplemental Income and Losses
Schedule SE: Calculate Self-Employment Tax
Form 1040V: Voucher for Submitting Payments by Mail

IRS forms and publications are available at your local library and via the IRS website.

State Income Tax Forms

Don't forget that you're not just filing a federal income tax return; you need to file your state income tax return as well. To find the correct tax return forms for your state, visit your official state tax authority's website.

TurboTax and Kiplinger have aggregated links to every state's site here.

The IRS also maintains a guide to every state's important tax-related sites here.

IRS Resources

IRS Forms

Resources for How to Choose the Right Tax Forms

IRS: Taxpayer Advocate
AARP: Tax-Aide
MetLife: Doing Your Taxes
The Motley Fool: Tax Center
Bankrate.com: 2008 Tax Guide
MSN Money: Tax Center
Yahoo! Finance: Taxes: Articles, Calculators and Tools
Jackson Hewitt: Tax Resource Center
SmartMoney.com: Tax Guide

How to find healthy airport food

2008-02-05T15:16:00.000+02:00

While waiting for a flight recently at Reagan National Airport, Katherine Tallmadge found herself checking out pre-packaged nut mixes, which are loaded with healthy fats but can contain as much as 1,200 calories per bag. The registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association knew that boredom was driving her impulse to eat, but she still struggled to resist temptation.

"I had to shake myself out of it," says Tallmadge, who is also the author of "Diet Simple: Shed Pounds Without Even Trying".

Adding to fliers' airport boredom—and likely poor food choices--is the growing percentage of delayed flights. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, delays have been increasing since 2004. Then 16.1 percent of U.S. flights were delayed; in 2005 it was 17.4 percent; 2006 was 19.6 percent; and 2007 was 20.5 percent.

Fliers also have fewer choices on board: Many major airlines have stopped serving free meals and have instead replaced them with pre-packaged, nutrient-deficient snacks. What's more, travelers face the daunting challenge of navigating outlets offering calorie-dense comfort food that dot terminals nationwide.

It is possible, however, to adopt a healthy approach at the airport. Airport management companies have taken note of a growing consumer demand for fresh and nutritious menu options. Heeding customer preferences can be especially lucrative in the airport concession market. According to the Airport Revenue News 2007 Fact Book, fliers spent $3.2 billion on food and beverages in 2006. Management companies are also increasingly catering to business travelers who expense meals and want gourmet, brand name experiences. With the variety now available at most airports nationwide, even the most harried traveler can satiate his or her appetite without going for the double-cheese hamburger.

Choosing right
Many airport food courts have a decided advantage over the customer: A choice must be made from a small selection. The options improve at a major airport like Chicago O'Hare, which features eateries ranging from Panda Express to Starbucks to Goose Island Beer, but small- or medium-sized city airports often suffer from limited variety.

Regardless of the available choices, it's easy to fall back on the familiar. That might include a Quarter Pounder with cheese at McDonald's, a chocolate chip muffin at Dunkin' Donuts or buffalo wings with bleu cheese dressing at Chili's.

While indulging in one of these items may alleviate stress related to flying or seem like a fun way to kick off a vacation, your waistline might beg to differ. A better strategy? Take a few minutes to look at the menu and order a healthy alternative. Joan Salge Blake, a nutrition professor at Boston University and author of "Nutrition & You", says that at McDonald's that might be the grilled chicken classic sandwich with BBQ sauce instead of mayonnaise; at Dunkin' Donuts it’s a multigrain bagel; and at Chili's, a good choice is the "guiltless" salmon with sides of black beans and steamed vegetables.

Gourmet choices
Experts say this is a good start. Yet to really eat well while on the road, one might want to avoid fast-food outlets all together and instead head to an increasing number of spots offering fresher options.

Atousa Ghoreichi, senior director of marketing in North America for HMSHost, a company that operates brand-name and company-created concessions in more than 100 airport locations worldwide, says that the company's customer research has shown a demand for "bolder tastes," "fusion of flavors" and "fresh and flavorful fare."

Paul Sancya / AP

The healthiest option at Ben & Jerry's: A half-cup serving of low-fat Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt, 170 calories, three grams of fat, 65 milligrams of sodium, and 32 grams of carbohydrates.

To meet this need, HMSHost has designed eateries like La Tapenade at the Chicago O'Hare airport. This Mediterranean café features homemade chutneys, hummus, fire-roasted vegetables, high-quality cheeses and grilled meats.

The company has also forged partnerships with celebrity chefs to open restaurants in airports, including one with Todd English, who set up outposts of his Bonfire steakhouse at JFK and Boston Logan airports. The menu draws on Argentinean, European and American steakhouse styles and features crab-meat nachos, a Kobe beef burger and tapas.

"We're taking gourmet food and making it almost artistic," Ghoreichi says. "[The customer] could be in an airport environment but we want to make it feel like the market or city center."

When there are few options beyond potato chips and pretzels, Tallmadge suggests arriving at the airport with a full stomach. "A ravenous person is out of control and won't make as good choices," she says. Additionally, fliers should stick to salads, sandwiches, yogurt and fresh fruit as opposed to pizzas, hamburgers and hot dogs.

How To Solve Sudoku

2008-02-05T15:08:00.000+02:00

This guide will show you how to solve sudoku puzzles in three steps.

Sudoku puzzles can be intimidating and difficult to solve, but with a proper strategy, focusing on elimination, you can finish a Sudoku puzzle in mere minutes.

The first step to solving Sudoku puzzles is to try and assign numbers to cells using the 9 big squares. Every number between 1 and 9 must appear once in every big square. There is no real “proper” spot to start a Sudoku puzzle; it is all really up to you. Personally, I like to begin with the centre row. Consider the centre row of the following puzzle (which has been rated at a difficulty of medium):

There are two threes in the first two squares. However, there is no three in the last square. Upon further inspection, it can be determined that since the two 3s are in two different rows, it leaves only the empty box in the middle row for the final 3 to fit. If the 3 is placed in any of the other empty cells, there ends up being two 3s in one of the rows. Once you have started, it is not uncommon for a large chain reaction to begin. Using this method you will often be able to solve at least ¼ of a puzzle just with this one step! It’s also quite common for all one number to be found all nine times required, just in this step. Using this method, complete any possible cells in the puzzle.

(In future diagrams, numbers determined using this method will be coloured in blue.)

The next step involves looking at each of the nine individual squares, and to try and find as many numbers as possible knowing that every number between 1 and 9 can only appear once in every square. After step one, you should have at least one or two squares with only a couple (perhaps two or three) empty cells remaining. It is most definitely worth trying to see if any, and perhaps even all of these squares could somehow be filled in. To do this, I find it is easiest to begin with the box containing the fewest number of empty cells. In our example, after step one, the following numbers are found in the leftmost square of the middle row:

4, 2, 7,
6, 5, 8,
3

There are only two cells in this square that do not yet have numbers assigned to them. The numbers missing are 1 and 9. This means one of the two cells will definitely contain a 1, and whichever one remains will contain the 9.

Now to figure out which number goes into which slot. The empty cells are both in the same row, so looking at the numbers in the row do not help us. We are going to solve this by looking at the numbers in the columns in which each cell is located. The column of the first empty cell contains only a 2, a 4, a 6 and an 8. This information cannot help us solve the puzzle, as we need either a 1 or a 9 in either column. The column of the second cell, however, contains an 8, a 1, a 2, a 5 and a 4. Since there is a 1 in this column, the empty cell we are looking at cannot contain a 1, as that would make two 1s in a single column. This means the 9 must fit in that cell, and the 1 fits into the cell next to it. That puzzle is now solved! Here is a diagram displaying the method used to solve this square.

Continue with this method until you have added as many numbers as you can into squares. This step is extremely useful, and, like the previous step, begins a chain reaction. You are most definitely encouraged to use the numbers you have already solved in this step to continue the step. Once this step is completed, the majority of the puzzle should be finished. In fact, if you are lucky and have a good eye, certain puzzles can be finished at the end of this step. In future diagrams, numbers assigned using this method will be coloured in red.

The final step is by very far the easiest, as there should, by now, be almost nothing of the puzzle left to complete. The example puzzle could be completed in step 2, as was mentioned above, but I specifically left certain cells blank in order to be able to demonstrate step 3. Here is how our puzzle looks:

As you can tell, it is nearly completed. We are now going to complete the puzzle by filling in the individual rows and columns. Every number between 1 and 9 must fit into each row or column once. Knowing this, we are going to solve the remainder by the process of elimination. Consider the column the furthest to the left. There are two cells remaining, into which the numbers 3 and 9 must fit. The row in which the bottom cell is contains a 9. This means the three must fit into this cell, and the 9 into the top cell. Now we have solved a column!

Use this method to complete the puzzle. Once you are finished, you should have something that looks like this:

Congratulations, you have successfully solved a Sudoku puzzle!

How to Enable Cookies

2008-02-05T15:07:00.000+02:00

To enable cookies, follow the instructions below for the browser version you are using.

Mozilla Firefox (1.0 final release and earlier)

Go to the "Tools" menu.

Select "Options".

Select the "Privacy" icon in the left panel.

Check the box corresponding to "Allow sites to set cookies".

Click "OK" to save changes.

Netscape 7.1/Mozilla 5.0

Select "Preferences" from the Edit menu.

Click on the arrow next to "Privacy & Security" in the scrolling window to expand.

Under "Privacy & Security", select "Cookies."

Select "Enable all cookies".

Click "OK".

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+

Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.

Click on the "Privacy" tab.

Click the "Default" button (or manually slide the bar down to "Medium") under "Settings".

Click "OK".

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x

Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu.

Click on the "Security" tab.

Click the "Custom Level" button.

Scroll down to the "Cookies" section.

To enable:

Set "Allow cookies that are stored on your computer" to "Enable".
Set "Allow per-session cookies" to "Enable".

Click "OK".

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x

Select "Internet Options" from the View menu.

Click on the "Advanced" tab.

Scroll down to find "Cookies" within the "Security" section.

To enable:

Select "Always accept cookies".

Click "OK".

Netscape Communicator 4.x

Select "Preferences" from the Edit menu.

Find the "Cookies" section in the "Advanced" category.

To enable:

Select "Accept all cookies" (or "Enable all cookies").

Click "OK".

How to Track Down Anyone Online

2008-02-05T15:04:00.000+02:00

When you're trying to find someone online, Google's not the only game in town. In the last two years, a handful of new people search engines have come onto the scene that offer better ways to pinpoint people info by name, handle, location, or place of employment. While there's still no killer, one-stop people search, there are more ways than ever to track down a long-lost friend, stalk an ex, or screen a potential date or employee. The next time you wonder, "What ever happened to so-and-so?" you've got a few power people search tools to turn to.

Note: Stalking is serious business. When we say 'stalk,' we're exaggerating, not recommending.

Find Phone Numbers and Addresses with ZabaSearch

Look up anyone's home address(es) and phone numbers at ZabaSearch, a creepily-comprehensive people search engine that will freak you out when you search on your own name but save your ass when you desperately need a former coworker's phone number. ZabaSearch's index includes listed and unlisted numbers and addresses (though the founders say all the info is public record.)

Search the "Deep Web" with Pipl

My favorite new search engine of the bunch, Pipl digs up information about a person Google often misses, supposedly by searching the "deep web" (or "invisible web.") Pipl returns an impressive number of results for most people who use their "real" names online, including personal web pages, press mentions, MySpace pages, and Amazon wishlists. You can also narrow your search for common names by entering city, state and country, too.

Search Several Social Sites at Once with Wink

So the person you're looking for likely has a Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, or Xanga account? Instead of searching each service individually, enter their full name or screen name, plus other identifying information like interests and location at Wink to do a one-hit comprehensive search of all those services at once.

Get Employment Results at ZoomInfo

Job-centric search engine ZoomInfo aggregates people and company information in one place to help candidates find the right job, but its people search tool also turns up information about corporate types especially well. ZoomInfo's information listings on people, culled from the web, include people's employment history and current job title, whether or not they're looking for a job. Search by a person's full name at ZoomInfo, and when you get too many results, filter them by geography (U.S. and Canada only.)

Find More than College Students at Facebook

Incessant notifications, Beacon, and zombies aside, one of Facebook's greatest utilities is finding people online, and it's not just for students anymore. Chances are your grandmother set up a Facebook account this year, so all those annoying emails might be worth tracking down your best friend when you were 9 years old who moved to Florida on Facebook.

Practice Your Google-fu for Better People Results

Okay, fine, you can't talk finding people online without mentioning the big G. For internet superstars you'll get great results by just typing his/her name into Google's search box, but for civilians, common names or names with double meanings, a few advanced Google techniques can help narrow down the field of results.

Enclose the first and last name of the person you're searching for in quotes when you enter it into the search box (like "John Smith").
Include other relevant words, like the person's profession, employer, location, or screen name, too (like banker or Austin, Texas.)
If the person you're searching for is likely to appear on a particular web site—like a school—search only that site using the site:URL operator (like site:ucla.edu "John Smith").
To look up people by face, search for them on Google Images to get a quick visual—especially useful for people with common names, or to determine the gender of a name you never heard before.

Get Context-Menu Access to People Search Engines with the Who Is This Person? Firefox extension

Finally, if you run across folks online you want to know more about often, search a ton of engines for someone's name with the Who Is This Person? Firefox extension. Simply highlight the name on any web page and look 'em up on Wink, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Facebook, Google News, Technorati, Yahoo Person Search, Spock, WikiYou, ZoomInfo, IMDB, MySpace and other engines from the Who Is This Person? context menu item.

For more online sleuthing resources, check out Wendy's great tutorial on searching public records online. To make yourself more findable? Have a say in what Google says about you. Also, many of these services let you "claim" your name and add information to your results. Do a search for your own name and click the link that says, in effect, "Is this you?"

Does the current crop of people search engines make you want to change your name, fail you entirely, or help you get in touch? Let us know what you think in the comments.

How to Organize your Graduate Degree Thesis

2008-02-05T14:58:00.000+02:00

Introduction

This note describes how to organize the written thesis which is the central element of your graduate degree. To know how to organize the thesis document, you first have to understand what graduate-level research is all about, so that is covered too. In other words, this note should be helpful when you are just getting started in your graduate program, as well as later when you start to write your thesis.

What Graduate Research is All About

The distinguishing mark of graduate research is an original contribution to knowledge. The thesis is a formal document whose sole purpose is to prove that you have made an original contribution to knowledge. Failure to prove that you have made such a contribution generally leads to failure.

To this end, your thesis must show two important things:

you have identified a worthwhile problem or question which has not been previously answered,
you have solved the problem or answered the question.

Your contribution to knowledge generally lies in your solution or answer.

What the Graduate Thesis is All About

Because the purpose of the graduate thesis is to prove that you have made an original and useful contribution to knowledge, the examiners read your thesis to find the answers to the following questions:

what is this student's research question?
is it a good question? (has it been answered before? is it a useful question to work on?)
did the student convince me that the question was adequately answered?
has the student made an adequate contribution to knowledge?

A very clear statement of the question is essential to proving that you have made an original and worthwhile contribution to knowledge. To prove the originality and value of your contribution, you must present a thorough review of the existing literature on the subject, and on closely related subjects. Then, by making direct reference to your literature review, you must demonstrate that your question (a) has not been previously answered, and (b) is worth answering. Describing how you answered the question is usually easier to write about, since you have been intimately involved in the details over the course of your graduate work.

If your thesis does not provide adequate answers to the few questions listed above, you will likely be faced with a requirement for major revisions or you may fail your thesis defence outright. For this reason, the generic thesis skeleton given below is designed to highlight the answers to those questions with appropriate thesis organization and section titles. The generic thesis skeleton can be used for any thesis. While some professors may prefer a different organization, the essential elements in any thesis will be the same. Some further notes follow the skeleton.

Always remember that a thesis is a formal document: every item must be in the appropriate place, and repetition of material in different places should be eliminated.

A Generic Thesis Skeleton

1. Introduction

This is a general introduction to what the thesis is all about -- it is not just a description of the contents of each section. Briefly summarize the question (you will be stating the question in detail later), some of the reasons why it is a worthwhile question, and perhaps give an overview of your main results. This is a birds-eye view of the answers to the main questions answered in the thesis (see above).

2. Background Information (optional)

A brief section giving background information may be necessary, especially if your work spans two or more traditional fields. That means that your readers may not have any experience with some of the material needed to follow your thesis, so you need to give it to them. A different title than that given above is usually better; e.g., "A Brief Review of Frammis Algebra."

3. Review of the State of the Art

Here you review the state of the art relevant to your thesis. Again, a different title is probably appropriate; e.g., "State of the Art in Zylon Algorithms." The idea is to present (critical analysis comes a little bit later) the major ideas in the state of the art right up to, but not including, your own personal brilliant ideas.

You organize this section by idea, and not by author or by publication. For example if there have been three important main approaches to Zylon Algorithms to date, you might organize subsections around these three approaches, if necessary:

3.1 Iterative Approximation of Zylons
3.2 Statistical Weighting of Zylons
3.3 Graph-Theoretic Approaches to Zylon Manipulation

4. Research Question or Problem Statement

Engineering theses tend to refer to a "problem" to be solved where other disciplines talk in terms of a "question" to be answered. In either case, this section has three main parts:

1. a concise statement of the question that your thesis tackles
2. justification, by direct reference to section 3, that your question is previously unanswered
3. discussion of why it is worthwhile to answer this question.

Item 2 above is where you analyze the information which you presented in Section 3. For example, maybe your problem is to "develop a Zylon algorithm capable of handling very large scale problems in reasonable time" (you would further describe what you mean by "large scale" and "reasonable time" in the problem statement). Now in your analysis of the state of the art you would show how each class of current approaches fails (i.e. can handle only small problems, or takes too much time). In the last part of this section you would explain why having a large-scale fast Zylon algorithm is useful; e.g., by describing applications where it can be used.

Since this is one of the sections that the readers are definitely looking for, highlight it by using the word "problem" or "question" in the title: e.g. "Research Question" or "Problem Statement", or maybe something more specific such as "The Large-Scale Zylon Algorithm Problem."

5. Describing How You Solved the Problem or Answered the Question

This part of the thesis is much more free-form. It may have one or several sections and subsections. But it all has only one purpose: to convince the examiners that you answered the question or solved the problem that you set for yourself in Section 4. So show what you did that is relevant to answering the question or solving the problem: if there were blind alleys and dead ends, do not include these, unless specifically relevant to the demonstration that you answered the thesis question.

6. Conclusions

You generally cover three things in the Conclusions section, and each of these usually merits a separate subsection:

1. Conclusions
2. Summary of Contributions
3. Future Research

Conclusions are not a rambling summary of the thesis: they are short, concise statements of the inferences that you have made because of your work. It helps to organize these as short numbered paragraphs, ordered from most to least important. All conclusions should be directly related to the research question stated in Section 4. Examples:

1. The problem stated in Section 4 has been solved: as shown in Sections ? to ??, an algorithm capable of handling large-scale Zylon problems in reasonable time has been developed.

2. The principal mechanism needed in the improved Zylon algorithm is the Grooty mechanism.

3. Etc.

The Summary of Contributions will be much sought and carefully read by the examiners. Here you list the contributions of new knowledge that your thesis makes. Of course, the thesis itself must substantiate any claims made here. There is often some overlap with the Conclusions, but that's okay. Concise numbered paragraphs are again best. Organize from most to least important. Examples:

1. Developed a much quicker algorithm for large-scale Zylon problems.

2. Demonstrated the first use of the Grooty mechanism for Zylon calculations.

3. Etc.

The Future Research subsection is included so that researchers picking up this work in future have the benefit of the ideas that you generated while you were working on the project. Again, concise numbered paragraphs are usually best.

7. References

The list of references is closely tied to the review of the state of the art given in section 3. Most examiners scan your list of references looking for the important works in the field, so make sure they are listed and referred to in section 3. Truth be known, most examiners also look for their own publications if they are in the topic area of the thesis, so list these too. Besides, reading your examiner's papers usually gives you a clue as to the type of questions they are likely to ask.

All references given must be referred to in the main body of the thesis. Note the difference from a Bibliography, which may include works that are not directly referenced in the thesis. Organize the list of references either alphabetically by author surname (preferred), or by order of citation in the thesis.

8. Appendices

What goes in the appendices? Any material which impedes the smooth development of your presentation, but which is important to justify the results of a thesis. Generally it is material that is of too nitty-gritty a level of detail for inclusion in the main body of the thesis, but which should be available for perusal by the examiners to convince them sufficiently. Examples include program listings, immense tables of data, lengthy mathematical proofs or derivations, etc.

Comments on the Skeleton

Again, the thesis is a formal document designed to address the examiner's two main questions. Sections 3 and 4 show that you have chosen a good problem, and section 5 shows that you solved it. Sections 1 and 2 lead the reader into the problem, and section 6 highlights the main knowledge generated by the whole exercise.

Note also that everything that others did is carefully separated from everything that you did. Knowing who did what is important to the examiners. Section 4, the problem statement, is the obvious dividing line. That's the main reason for putting it in the middle in this formal document.

Getting Started

The best way to get started on your thesis is to prepare an extended outline. You begin by making up the Table of Contents, listing each section and subsection that you propose to include. For each section and subsection, write a brief point-form description of the contents of that section. The entire outline might be 2 to 5 pages long. Now you and your thesis supervisor should carefully review this outline: is there unnecessary material (i.e. not directly related to the problem statement)? Then remove. Is there missing material? Then add. It is much less painful and more time-efficient to make such decisions early, during the outline phase, rather than after you've already done a lot of writing which has to be thrown away.

How Long Does it Take to Write a Thesis?

Longer than you think. Even after the research itself is all done -- models built, calculations complete -- it is wise to allow at least one complete term for writing the thesis. It's not the physical act of typing that takes so long, it's the fact that writing the thesis requires the complete organization of your arguments and results. It's during this formalization of your results into a well-organized thesis document capable of withstanding the scrutiny of expert examiners that you discover weaknesses. It's fixing those weaknesses that takes time.

This is also probably the first time that your supervisor has seen the formal expression of concepts that may have been approved previously in an informal manner. Now is when you discover any misunderstandings or shortcomings in the informal agreements. It takes time to fix these. Students for whom english is not the mother tongue may have difficulty in getting ideas across, so that numerous revisions are required. And, truth be known, supervisors are sometimes not quick at reviewing and returning drafts.

Bottom line: leave yourself enough time. A rush job has painful consequences at the defence.

Tips

Always keep the reader's backgrounds in mind. Who is your audience? How much can you reasonably expect them to know about the subject before picking up your thesis? Usually they are pretty knowledgeable about the general problem, but they haven't been intimately involved with the details over the last couple of years like you have: spell difficult new concepts out clearly. It sometimes helps to mentally picture a real person that you know who has the appropriate background, and to imagine that you are explaining your ideas directly to that person.

Don't make the readers work too hard! This is fundamentally important. You know what few questions the examiners need answers for (see above). Choose section titles and wordings to clearly give them this information. The harder they have to work to ferret out your problem, your defence of the problem, your answer to the problem, your conclusions and contributions, the worse mood they will be in, and the more likely that your thesis will need major revisions.

A corollary of the above: it's impossible to be too clear! Spell things out carefully, highlight important parts by appropriate titles etc. There's a huge amount of information in a thesis: make sure you direct the readers to the answers to the important questions.

Remember that a thesis is not a story: it usually doesn't follow the chronology of things that you tried. It's a formal document designed to answer only a few major questions.

Avoid using phrases like "Clearly, this is the case..." or "Obviously, it follows that ..."; these imply that, if the readers don't understand, then they must be stupid. They might not have understood because you explained it poorly.

Avoid red flags, claims (like "software is the most important part of a computer system") that are really only your personal opinion and not substantiated by the literature or the solution you have presented. Examiners like to pick on sentences like that and ask questions like, "Can you demonstrate that software is the most important part of a computer system?"

A Note on Computer Programs and Other Prototypes

The purpose of your thesis is to clearly document an original contribution to knowledge. You may develop computer programs, prototypes, or other tools as a means of proving your points, but remember, the thesis is not about the tool, it is about the contribution to knowledge. Tools such as computer programs are fine and useful products, but you can't get an advanced degree just for the tool. You must use the tool to demonstrate that you have made an original contribution to knowledge; e.g., through its use, or ideas it embodies.

Master's vs. PhD Thesis

There are different expectations for Master's theses and for Doctoral theses. This difference is not in format but in the significance and level of discovery as evidenced by the problem to be solved and the summary of contributions; a Doctoral thesis necessarily requires a more difficult problem to be solved, and consequently more substantial contributions.

The contribution to knowledge of a Master's thesis can be in the nature of an incremental improvement in an area of knowledge, or the application of known techniques in a new area. The Ph.D. must be a substantial and innovative contribution to knowledge.

How to Kiss

2008-02-05T14:56:00.000+02:00

A kiss is one of the most intimate and sensuous things you can experience with another person. Fortunately, while there’s no “right” way to kiss, many people experience anxiety about kissing or don’t know how to ask for a kiss. Fear not! Whether you’re getting ready for your first kiss, or you’re an experienced kisser and just want to improve your game for your first kiss with a new partner, you’ve come to the right place.

Steps

Be kissable. Use lip balm, especially if your lips tend to get dry and chapped. soft lips are simply more inviting. Most importantly, nobody wants to kiss someone with a stinky mouth, so carry some breath mints or gum with you, especially if you’re going out on a date. Breath mints are preferable, because you can use them in a pinch and not have to worry about getting rid of them.
# Also be sure to stay well hydrated; a dry mouth usually will smell worse. Of course, make sure you don’t have anything stuck in your teeth, either.
Test the waters. Pay attention to signals that the other person is into you and is ready for a kiss. Does he or she seem comfortable touching you? Do they brush up against you or frequently enter your personal space with playful, innocent touches? Has the subject of kissing come up in conversation? If you haven’t noticed any of these signals, but the person does seem “into you,” try discreetly and innocently breaking the touch barrier (guys will generally be very receptive to this, many girls will not) or bringing up kissing when you’re talking. The key is to be subtle and to watch the other person’s reaction.
Wait for the right moment. There’s usually no hurry for a kiss, especially a first kiss with someone, so be patient and wait until the mood is right. Some good times are at a romantic movie after or during an on screen kiss, walking in the moonlight, or during a particularly intimate conversation. Wait until the two of you are alone so that the other person will feel more comfortable and so that nobody will see if your attempt to kiss is rejected.
Get permission for the kiss. You usually don’t have to ask if you can kiss someone, but you do need to make sure your partner is willing to kiss you. The easiest way, of course, is to ask, but it just makes things awkward so don't . Ask “May I kiss you?” or say “I’d like to kiss you,” and lean in right away. Many girls (and guys) don't want to be asked: they prefer that you be confident enough to take a risk and just go for it. One way to do so is to stop whatever you’re doing and silently look into the person’s eyes for a moment or two. If your partner's eyes drift down to your lips that’s a pretty good sign that he or she is ready for a kiss—chances are the reaction may be subtler, however. Another good way to get permission is to just lean in and try to kiss the person or gently pull him/her toward you for a kiss. If the person pulls away at any time, he or she is not ready for a kiss.
Approach for the kiss. Approach slowly and smoothly. Depending on your starting position you may need only to turn your head, or you may need to lean in a bit. You may want to use your hands to gently urge your partner’s body or head into position—you just want to guide his or her movement a little, you don’t want to forcibly move any part of his or her body or hold your partner in an uncomfortable position—but in general you just want to position yourself correctly and let your partner meet you. As you near your partner’s lips, maintain eye contact. You may want to close your eyes after your lips meet to heighten the sensuality of the kiss (and to avoid staring at the pores on his or her face).
Kiss gently. There are many kinds of kisses, from quick pecks to sweet, passionate kisses. There’s a time and place for all of these, but your first kiss with someone should be gentle and romantic. Don’t press your mouth onto your partner’s--just let your lips meet--and don’t try to push your tongue into his or her mouth. A soft, closed-mouth-to-closed-mouth kiss is perfect. Break the kiss for a moment, keeping your head close to your partner’s, and if your partner moves to kiss you back or seems to like it and doesn’t pull away, go in for another, longer, but still gentle, kiss.
Make the kiss the reason for the kiss. A lot of people (mostly men) seem to treat kisses as nothing more than a prelude to something else, and will try to quickly move into French kissing or start putting their hands in inappropriate places. Good kissers concentrate on the kiss, and they kiss, at least seemingly, expecting nothing more. Enjoy the experience, and don’t move too fast.
Let your partner participate in the kiss. Good kissing requires give-and-take, so read your partner’s body language and pay attention to clues (sighs or moans) that tell you you’re doing something he or she likes. Let your partner kiss you back, and move with him or her as long as you’re comfortable with what he or she is doing.
Breathe. If you’re kissing for an extended period, it’s easy to forget to breathe. Gasping, however, or turning blue is not romantic. Take small breaths through your nose as you kiss. You do not forget how to breathe!
Use your hands. While you should keep your hands polite, especially on a first kiss, you don’t necessarily want them just dangling at your sides. Embrace your partner, cup his or her face very gently in your hands, or run your hands through his or her hair. Another turn on for the first kiss is to gently caress their shoulder while you kiss. It shows you are comfortable with him/her. Don't forget your manners!

Tips

Be polite and patient. Don't expect a kiss on the first date. If you act polite, your partner might go out with you again and then you might get a kiss once he or she is more comfortable with you. That said, as you get a little older, people become more comfortable with kissing and it’s polite to gently try to kiss your partner if your date has gone well. If you don’t, he or she might think you’re not interested. Just keep in mind that trying to kiss someone is not the same as expecting to kiss someone. If your partner isn’t into it, politely respect that.
Experiment. Over time, you’ll want to try a variety of different kisses for different moods and times. Change it up to keep things interesting. For more information see the related wikiHow on how to French Kiss and how to Kiss Passionately.
There are a lot of fish in the sea. You may get turned down a lot, but don’t take it personally.
Learn from your mistakes if you can - sometimes the timing is bad or the approach too forceful - and approach your next opportunity confidently.
Make sure your hair is out of your face.
If you have glasses, be careful not to poke their eyes out by accident or anything. Take contacts into consideration if you have them, if not, just, be, careful.
BE IN THE MOMENT. You will not kiss as well if your mind is somewhere else. For example, when kissing, try to avoid thoughts like "What is he/she thinking about?", "Do I look okay tonight?", or anything else. Basically try not to be too self-conscious, or have ANY thoughts outside the kiss if you can help it. Instead, concentrate on the way the other person's lips feel against yours.
PAY ATTENTION. Are their lips/tongue moving slower or faster than yours? Go with it. Respond in a way similar to the way they are kissing you. Of course there is room for you to be experimental, but you need to make a connection first. Unless whoever you're kissing is just totally soulless, you can have a good kiss with just about any one. The key is to feel it. When both people approach a kiss with this mentality the moment can be absolutely amazing.
Don't always try to "pretty up." The girl/guy loves you for the way you are, and you don't have to look different and pretty up for them, don't load up on make-up. Just be yourself.
It's okay to be nervous, but when you think there is a right time, do not wait for him/her to make the move first, take action, if you know that person is into you, they will take it.
If they turn away and don't accept your gesture, wait, if they know you're into them, they will know that you can wait patiently for another time of touching.
never open your eyes. just let it happen. close your eyes and enjoy it. because the person might have open his or her eyes too, which will lead to an akwardness.
If your partner slips their tounge into your mouth and you dont feel comfortable with it, just gently push their tounge back into their mouth with your tounge.

Warnings

Do not force anything! If someone indicates that they don’t want to be kissed, don’t persist. Maybe try again some other day if things are going well.
Kissing is not supposed to be aggressive, and it's definitely not a contest of who can get their tongue the farthest into their partner's mouth.
Don't kiss a guy or girl who has a disease or cold sores in their mouth, that will hurt you in the future!
No slobber! No one likes needing to wipe their mouth after a good-bye kiss.
Don't move to open-mouthed too soon. Let the other person give you signals.

Things You'll Need

Mints or Gum
Lip Balm or Lip Gloss for women
Partner
Self-confidence

How to Avoid Speed Camera and Red-Light Camera Tickets

2008-02-05T14:49:00.000+02:00

Drivers have long complained that they have received a speeding ticket in the mail when they were not actually speeding. Now there is plenty of evidence that those complaints are valid according to recent studies and media reports. CNBC reported today that one company has developed a simple way for innocent drivers to protect themselves from inaccurate traffic cameras.

Major cities around the world continue to install red-light cameras and radar speed cameras even though problems with the units continue to mount, and recent studies clearly show the cameras cannot be relied on.

A report on Feb. 18 on CNBC by reporter Jane Wells showed one company that has found a way to help innocent drivers who were victims of faulty cameras and got speeding or red-light tickets. David Bresnahan, spokesman for the company, is an expert on the problem that has angered drivers on six continents.

“The cameras on red lights have been proven to actually cause accidents, and the speed cameras have been proven to be giving out tickets to people who do not deserve them. The current scandal in Australia is just the latest of many stories about faulty cameras,” said Bresnahan.

Bus drivers in Sydney, Australia are threatening to go on strike over a faulty speed camera giving them expensive speeding tickets. Drivers of the buses were shown on TV 7 trying their best to break the speed limit, but they could not come close. Despite the fact that the buses have a built in device that prevents them from going over the speed limit, the cameras sent them tickets claiming they were speeding 20 kph over the limit or more.

“This is similar to other events that have happened with these cameras around the world. Courts have often forced cities to not only refund questionable tickets, but they have also made them pay very hefty penalties and compensation to those who were wrongly ticketed,” said Bresnahan.

PhotoBlocker (tm) has been created to give drivers a chance to protect themselves against tickets they do not deserve.

“An innocent driver who gets one of these inaccurate tickets faces the challenge of time off from work, perhaps hiring a lawyer, and trying to find a way to prove the camera is wrong. That task is so intimidating that most people just pay the fine and move on with life. PhotoBlocker (tm) is the best defense so that doesn’t happen again,” said Bresnahan.

http://thatprguy.com/images/SpeedCameraPhoto.JPG

CNBC showed this photo on the air which is an actual speed camera photo taken by police and shows the effect of PhotoBlocker (tm). The spray makes the plate unreadable in flash photos.

Wells stated on CNBC that a diligent effort was made to contact many police departments, and none of them were able to prove that PhotoBlocker (tm) did not work or that it was illegal.

In his interview on CNBC, Bresnahan said that PhotoBlocker is an example of finding a need and filling it.

“This is a simple, inexpensive spray can. Just spray it on your license plate and that’s it. It puts a clear coating on the plate that does not obstruct in any way your ability to see the plate with the naked eye. However, when a red-light or speed camera takes a picture the flash causes the plate to be unreadable in the picture. If they cannot read the plate they cannot send you a ticket, and you are not stuck with the problem of proving you are innocent,” explained Bresnahan.

Studies that were presented in Washington, D.C. by researchers Forrest Council and Bhagwant Persaud, conclude that rear-endings have gone up nearly 15 percent after cameras were installed in seven cities, with injuries from such accidents up 24 percent, according to a report in the New York Times. Motorists who are worried about getting tickets from the traffic-light cameras hit the breaks when the light turns yellow and get rear-ended, according to the report.

Tests conducted in England determined that the average speed camera is off by at least 5 mph. A driver traveling the correct speed could receive a ticket in the mail, which motorists have complained about for years but did not have proof until now.

“The 5 mph error margin and the Australian bus incident brings into question how many innocent motorists have been ticketed and have no ability to defend themselves. In fact, it brings every single speed camera in the world into question,” said Bresnahan.

Bresnahan says PhotoBlocker (tm) is not intended for those who want to break the law. He claims it is only intended to help innocent drivers avoid the inconvenience and expense of receiving a ticket that is not deserved.

PhotoBlocker has been the subject of reports on CNBC and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, NewsMax.com, WorldNetDaily.com, NBC, CBS, ABC News, Tech TV, Norwegian TV, Dutch TV, Washington Times, UK’s Daily Mail and many, many more. To date conclusive tests were conducted by the Denver Police Department, Dutch Police, Fox News, Swedish TV, Australian TV, British TV and others on six continents.

How to Lose Weight Fast

2008-02-05T14:35:00.000+02:00

Do you want to lose some weight as quickly as possible? There are many different ways to lose weight fast, and choosing a healthy weight loss regimen can be very rewarding. These short simple steps will show you how to lose weight relatively fast.

Difficulty: Moderate

Steps

Step One

Get your attitude in check. A positive outlook is a great start to shedding the amount of weight you want to lose. Keep this in mind throughout the process.

Step Two

Look into gyms in the area if you haven’t already and select one that looks like a place you’d like to work out. Most gyms offer a free trial membership so you can see if that gym is the place for you.

Step Three

Begin a regiment of intense cardio at least twice a week for at least 45 minutes as well as a weight training program three times a week. This is a very important step as exercise is the key to weight loss.

Step Four

Research different diet options. There are a variety of options online as well as in magazines and commercials. The Special K Challenge is a popular diet option, as well as the Atkins program.

Step Five

Select a diet based on your needs and specifications. It’s important to pick a diet you are sure you can live with, because if you hate the diet it will be all to easy to quit. Programs like Jenny Craig are relatively stringent in their requirements. Some programs are also expensive and require you to buy specialized foods. The South Beach diet program is a relatively inexpensive program that is very popular.

Step Six

Stick with your diet and workout regiment. It takes time for weight loss to become visible and apparent. Good luck.

Tips & Warnings

Ask a nutritionist for advice on different dieting techniques to help make your decision.
Pay attention to magazines. Sometimes they have excellent coupons for diet-related products in them.
Be careful if you decide to take any type of supplement.
Don’t be unhealthy in your dieting decision. Quick weight loss can be dangerous and is usually just a short-term result.