Thursday, May 31, 2007

Online Education Environment.

Students who have just completed their high school are after all students-ignorance is their bliss.

They all firmly believe that the experience and environment of a day scholar is far superior to a distance education student’s.

Yes, I too completed my Master of Education through distance education. But those were earlier days when the Internet was unheard of. Look at today’s Internet what it offers in the area of communication. Incredible!

If that is not so, then why will 19000 students from as many as 56 countries attend Capella University online? Capella University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), Ncahlc.org.

Every faculty member of Capella is a PhD degree holder with rich teaching experience. For them online education is a commitment and aspiring students at Capella are rewarded with excellent teaching and a very friendly online environment.

Recently, Sara Orem, a full time faculty of Capella has released her book on “Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change’. This is about approaching the students on a psychological basis, making deep enquiries about their positive side and thus enabling them to perform at their studies like never before.

This blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Altamonte Springs.

Taking up several assignments on Orlando, Disney World made it necessary for me to kepp myself up to date on theme parks and hotels in Orlando.

I happen to read several blogs on the topic and Blogs maintained by Senteinal.com are some the best mainly because residents of various counties only maintain these blogs so a touch localized authenticity can be sensed in these blogs.

Any new attraction that comes up is blogged. Any new hotel or resort that is opened is also wrote about.

Read this for example found in Altamonte community blog:
"The City of Altamonte Springs and Wharton Smith Construction Group will host a movie in the park this Friday, June 1st at Uptown Altamonte. Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller and Robin Williams, will be shown 9:00-11:00 p.m. on multiple screens around Crane's Roost Lake."

See, just before two days the movie is scheduled to be screen is also featured.

Impending travelers to Orlando should bookmark this.

Red alert on link exchange.

I thought so and in fact I was expecting to read some blog post somewhere on the danger of stuffing with links in our blogs in a short period.

Any search engine will become suspicious if it finds an abundance of external links on our blog pointing to sites that are irrelevant to our blog's topic. This can be easily construed as a reciprocal link exchange which is not all advisable.

I read a blog post entitled, "Google Flags on Link Exchange speed"

The blogger quotes Matt Cutts on his personal blog mattcutts.com/blog/ when Matt describing one case said that due to big link migration Google's flag was triggered and this flag had to be manually removed.

He further adds that," The link building experience of DesktopMoney Ltd team shows that staying under 100 links per week with professional link exchange automating solutions is more than safe".

I think I can hear the alarm bells. What about you.


Friday, May 25, 2007

What is a Karatmeter?

Generally any word that ends with a ‘meter’ can be perceived as a device to test something or to measure something.

The Karatmeter is a scientific device which uses X-rays to give an exact reading of the purity of gold in just three minutes.

But will it disfigure the gold?

No. Definitely not. It is an accurate, non-destructive means of testing the purity of gold, and gives the customer an unmatched benefit when buying or selling gold. Using this technique, the precise percentage by weight (of karat) in a solid piece of jewellery can be determined in just a few minutes.

But when you buy gold bars from Monex Deposit Company, you never need to use karatmeter to test the purity of the gold because they are more authentic then any sort of gold purity testing.

If you buy any precious metals like gold, silver or platinum from Monex, it means you have bought them at their purest form. For nearly 3 decades they have serving the Americans precious metals investment needs.

Check out their new website and read many experts’ analysis of bullion market in it.

Search Business Opportunities.

This can be a good platform for internet business opportunities seekers across the world.
There are plenty of categories to choose from as per individual skills and aptitude.

Allbizopps.com is a big directory of business opportunities that are categories under various headings such as real estate, travel, apparel, publishing and so on.

Being an academician, I looked up the education category to see if I could pass on something to you. In the field of Education and financial aid consulting. HOPE Career Center offers a business opportunity of helping others by providing education and financial aid information including scholarships, funding assistance, career planning, college planning for college bound students.

I feel this is good avenue with scope for improvement and expansion.

A wedding around the corner.

I don't know about other countries but in India, a wedding around the corner means fun, frolic and festivities.

Relatives will start arriving a week earlier to help us prepare hundreds of things that include food, dress materials, decorations, reception arrangements and the list is endless.

In spite of all the meticulous planning, something may be left out and one such thing is the wedding photographer. Last minute search in the fellow pages will result a total stranger who will know nothing about our custom.

I just happen to look for a directory of wedding photographer and found one called A bride.
An easy to navigate website that lists Photographers, videographers, Jewelers, reception arrangements like bands, florists and so on.

But this directory is for citizens of Ireland only.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

New security solutions from Symark.

Do you know that HP-UX was the first Unix to use access control lists for file access permissions rather than the standard Unix permissions system? HP-UX was also among the first Unix systems to include a built-in logical volume manager.

In computer security, Privileged Access can be the ultimate protection against hacking for the latest HP Integrity Servers and the HP-UX 11i v3 Operating System.

In the recent press release of Symark Software, Bob Farber, COO of Symark Software said, “Because enterprises around the world run mission-critical financial, human resources and other applications on UNIX and Linux systems, it is vital that they have a comprehensive access control mechanism in place.”

Hosting service providers when they upgrade their IT environments with HP’s new offerings, can protect their costly servers with Symark’s PowerBroker and PowerPassword-UME solutions will facilitate the secure deployment of HP Integrity servers and the HP-UX 11i v3 operating system by restricting and monitoring access to proprietary information and systems.

An access control list is a list of permissions allocated to a specific operation.. Mostly the list admin decides the level of access to each person that is designated to perform a specific task.

A key issue in the definition of any ACL-based security model is the question of how access control lists are edited. For each object, who can modify the object's ACL, and what changes are allowed?

This is resolved with Symark’s PowerBroker and PowerPassword-UME identity management and access control solutions combine best-of-breed functionality with ease-of-use to limit access to information and systems based on pre-defined policies and privileges.

Dollar value vs Rupee value.

Is it time to sing "Humpty Dumpty had a great fall?".
-Read in a local daily

The steep downward line on the forex market graph that shows the US$ value steadily losing ground against Indian Rupee. Is it a fact that Rupee is gaining value or US$ losing value across the globe. A point to ponder for finance analyzers.

Yes, I don't have a head for these international wrangles but I know for sure that my earning by blogging is declining in value. If I get paid $5 per post, paypal gives nearly Rs.1.15 less that the official rate per dollar and not to forget the $5 paypal fee for check withdrawal.

Even though I am an Indian, I pray for a reversal in forex market. Anybody with me?

Monday, May 21, 2007

Signature generator.

I believe in the effectiveness of signature marketing.

I used to click on signatures found in forum posts and emails. If I do that, I assume many will do the same. In fact, I have received several backinks to my blog mainly from my signatures that use on forums.

Here is a website that generates beautiful signatures with just a click.
Visit Need a sig

I am yet to try their service as nowadays I am not participating much in forums. In fact I have nothing to promote so nothing to make a signature.

They have more than 1500 styles of signature in different colors.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

So, yahoo is redesigning mybloglog.

But why should they think of redesigning mybloglog.com.

With the existing design itself, mybloglog.com is the most popular bloggers community. Personally, I owe so much to them for providing terrific opportunities to interact with bloggers, exchange links and so on.

I read in a blog of a mybloglog member about this news of bringing some changes and I wish to quote here a sentence from that blog post.
"They will also be looking for a way to easily turn off presence so that users can hide the fact that they visited a certain site."

I thought this is main reason for bloggers to exchange visits; why should they change it?

Read the full news here:Tech Crunch

Oh well, they(yahoo) are the masters after all.

Adsense inside your posts are effective.

Recently, I stumbled on to a free WP blog provider that are widget ready.
In that, I was able to place the Google adsense inside my posts that are placed at random. The widget made it possible.

Unfortunately, that blog provider changed his language and I had to remove my blog. Since then, I was searching for a blog post that elaborated on this technique and I found one today.

Veeravalli has clearly explained how to insert Google adsense in the blog post and he has also given an example how it will look like.

I think the Google ads get more visibility when they are part of your blog posts and the advertiser should be happy seeing this.

Thank you Veeravalli!

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Unlimited access for 7 days.

If you think, you can have a vacation in Disney World for two or three days, then think again after seeing the list of places to see that are given below:

Disneyquest,

Downtown Disney Pleasure Island,

Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach Water Parks,

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure,

Arabian Nights,

Medieval Times,

Pirates Dinner Adventure

Well, the list is much bigger than this but this is shown only as an example.

Ok, I suppose you have revised your travel now?

Make it a 7 day outing and I can direct to you a website from where you can buy Universal Studios Tickets which give you unlimited access for 7 days to the Theme Parks and the Universal Orlando Resort.

With this, you are also given free admission for CityWalk on all these 7 days.

All these will cost you only $105.16. What a bargain!

Orlandofuntickets.com offers such great discount deals for all of us and they are the best in the hospitality industry in Orlando.

Read below some of their credentials for your satisfaction:

  • They are licensed and bonded with the State of Florida
    * They are a Florida Seller of Travel
    * They are rated by Dunn and Bradstreet
    * They are an officially contracted wholesaler for Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World
    * Member of the Better Business Bureau

Pay just one visit to their website and you are sure to never look for another Orlando travel site.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Peakhurst church

St Abraam and St Mikhail Al-Behairy Coptic Orthodox Church is located on Forest Road in the southern suburb of Peakhurst.

Strawberry and Memorial Day Weekend Festivals

Eckert's will be hosting our annual Strawberry Festival at the Belleville farm on Saturday May 19th and Sunday May 20th and our Memorial Day Weekend Festival on Saturday May 26th, Sunday May 27th, and Monday May 28th. Festivites will be held from 10 am to 5 pm.

Enjoy carnival rides and face painting, festival foods, live entertainment, cooking demonstrations, and delicious strawberry treats from our bakery and our Old Fashion Custard Shop, and so much more! It's the most fun in the country for the entire family!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Peakhurst Heights, park

Gannons Park in the southern suburb of Peakhurst.

Strawberry Season is Here!!!


Strawberry lovers will be delighted to hear that a good portion of our strawberries survived the harsh freeze in early April. Eckert's homegrown strawberries are now for sale in Eckert's Country Store and will offer Pick-Your-Own strawberries during some days in May.

There is nothing like a big, red, juicy strawberry, fresh off an Eckert vine. Eckert's has been growing strawberries at the Belleville farm for over 50 years. Strawberry season is the first fruit season of the year. This year, Pick-Your-Own Strawberries will be open to the public Thursday May 10th, Friday May 11th, Saturday May 12th, Sunday May 13th, Thursday May 17th, and Friday May 18th. The cost to pick your own berries is $1.99/lb and is open from 8 am until 6 pm. To recieve the mos current crop information, visitors are encouraged to check the Harvest Hotline at www.eckerts.com/hotline.htm or at 1-800-745-0513 x. 1, before coming out to the Belleville Farm.

If you do not wish to pick-your-own, Eckert's Country Store will have plenty of freshly picked homegrown strawberries available for purchase, as well as many delicious strawberry treats available in the both the bakery and the Old Fashion Custard Shop.

Here are a few tips for buying and picking the best strawberries:
1. Try to pick early in the morning when the fruit is still cool.
2. Gently twist the berry off the stem - don't pull!
3. Choose strawberries that are as red as possible.
4. Avoid strawberries that are mashed or that have mold.
5. Smaller berries will be the freshest and the most flavorful.
6. Excessive handling will deteriorate these fragile berries.
7. Refrigerate unwashed stawberries in the coldest part of your refrigerator.
8. Rinse strawberries in a colander right before eating, but do not soak berries!
9. ENJOY!!!

When Measuring Strawberries
1 1/2 pounds = 2 pints or 1 quart
1 pint = 3 1/4 cup whole berries
1 pint = 2 1/4 cup sliced berries

Monday, May 7, 2007

Academicians social network

This is a new type of virtual classroom where teachers and students create their profile and interact with each other.

I have a genuine fascination in networking websites which has some definite purpose.

Teachers:

Create your teaching profile and have your presence on web Teach conveniently from home in a virtual classroom. Set your teaching rates and work for yourself

Students:

Find the best online teachers as well as in your local area. Learn conveniently from home via Internet Hold live discussions with your friends, classmates and build your learning network

WiZiQ is an educational community on the web, connecting teachers and learners.
Teachers and learners can build their profile, form learning networks and connect with members via virtual classroom thus breaking the barriers of distance.

Thank you WizIq.

Unlimited email space from Yahoo.

First it was Gmail to give the largest email space for free for its users.

Then, Rediff mail advertised that they are giving unlimited email storage. They even advertised on Indian Television channels. People were taken aback, spammers salivated and bulk mailers celebrated at this news.

I had one email id with Rediff long back, allowed it to lapse due to poor user interface.

The latest news is that Yahoo is likely give unlimited email storage for its users during this month.
For me, even 1GB is more than sufficient. I have not even used it so far beyond 6% of it.

I like yahoo the best mainly for its instant delivery.

Source:http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-03-28-n67.html

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Yes, mine is a small company.

But being small need not mean that I can’t think big-right?

I am a positive person, always looking ahead. I don’t look sideways (competitors) and notice what they are doing. This is my plus point.


That is why I am staying ahead of others in my office’s infrastructure. Just two days before, I installed VoIP Small Business Phone Systems, the latest gadget in the communication system.


I was humbled by the suggestion made by my resident representative in another city. He declares himself as a techno savvy. He only pointed me at the direction of xpandercommunications.com that specializes in small business phone systems for companies looking to improve and explore new technologies such as Voice over IP (VoIP).


I won’t go in to the full features of my VoIP but I will share a secret with you. You will be forced to save on your monthly telephone bill because of their unlimited free service & support as well as improved long distance and international calling plans.

No printer to print your digital photos?

After buying a costly, hitech digital camera, I went on a clicking spree during friend's daughter wedding in March.

But to print them all, I faced a hurdle. The reliable HP printer refused to co-operate with me. Of late, it hates me I suppose in spite of me doing a few poojas for it.(smile). I think by this time, it knows my intention of the poojas and started scorning me for that!

What to do, those are the whims and fancies of electronic machines that we have to put up with.
A friend of mine came to my rescue by suggesting that I approach an online printing service named Snap Fish.

Incidentally Snapfish.com is a HP portal with more than 26 million members and one billion unique photos stored online. With snapfish, we can share, print and store our photo memories at the lowest prices - online or off.

"Snapfish offers professionally-developed digital camera prints as low as 10¢, film developing for just $2.99 per roll, free online photo sharing, unlimited online photo storage, free editing tools and software, wireless imaging services, and more than 80 personalized photo products, ranging from calendars, mugs and mouse pads, to boxer shorts, dog leashes and teddy bears."

Go ahead and become an affiliate of Snap Fish and earn some free prints!

TV on the web.

I am the last person to watch TV on the web as I rarely watch it on the television set that is occupying huge space in my reception.

Well, what a nuisance it is with constant cacophony and stupid advertisements!

I am inspired to write about 'Joost', a service that allows you to watch TV on the web when I read about in Vinay's space.

Vinay chooses interesting subjects about internet and web tools apart from his love for Dubai.

Ok, ok, let me come back to Joost that is creating plenty of buzz and even Mashable wrote about it a couple of times already.

I heard that you require an invitation from an existing 'Jooster'(?) to sign up and download their software.

Restricted bandwith users! Be ware of Joost's high consumption of your internet usage. If you have unlimited usage only, you should opt for Joost.


More rush expected in Orlando!

This is my prediction because of the latest news that Disney has launched a website for youth that has plenty of games, videos and widgets and they call it Disney Xtreme Digital (XD).

To avoid disappointment, it is definitely advisable to carefully plan your upcoming holiday in Orlando and book the best of Vacation homes in Orlando now itself and avail huge discounts.

When I say ‘huge discounts’ I mean it literally; for example you can book a 5-Day Park Hopper ticket for less than you would pay at the Disney gate for a 3-Day Park Hopper pass. All you have to do is book a stay at one of their participating hotels or vacation homes and let Orlandovacation.com handle the rest for your family.

Just think it over again. If you purchase now, you can choose from any of these
Orlandovacation.com’s participating properties:

Hotel Royal Plaza inside Disney World,

Best Western inside Disney World,

Radisson Worldgate Resort & Convention Center,

Sheraton World Resort,

5-star Omni ChampionsGate Resort,


If your family is big, you can also select to stay in Orlandovacation.com’s vacation home & condo communities that offer fully furnished ‘pool homes’ among other types of condominiums. The amenities that are available in the vacation resorts match 5 star standards.

Orlandovacation.com is the best bargain you can think of!

Campus hangover in cyberspace.

The Indian colleges campus enters cyberspace. The most welcome change for students of India is the launching of a social networking website exclusively for students of India.

The person behind this is none other than Kavita Iyer, an ex-yahoo employee. She has teamed up with Sanjay Aggarwal and Sushma Abburi and all the three are alumni of IIT, New Delhi.

Aptly named Mingle Box, it has already captured the attention big media and several have reported about this mega website and I came to know that advertisers are clamoring for the best ad spots on this website.

The Web 2.0 and wiki are a great combination where you and I can create content, share audio, video and what not with just a few clicks. Social networking is the life of the day without which, the entire population of internet will go crazy it seems.

I saw students of several colleges and Universities have already started their online communities in Mingle Box.

This is going to be very huge folks, so huge that it may soon overshadow even 'Facebook and HI5'. My grandson, who is now spending most of his vacation on Mingle Box is studying in one of the famous colleges in Madras.

Your free contact form for personal use.

This free service is truly amazing and can solve all our SPAM problems.

It is our never ending problem of getting bombarded with rubbish emails from just about everyone in the cyberspace with an email id.

This headache is solved thanks to Contactify that provides us an URL in place of our email id. We can give this to any one, place it on our website or blog without revealing our email id.

So our email id is totally hidden to the entire world. Senders will be asked to key in the word(CAPTCHA) before hitting the 'Send' button.

The url looks like this: http://contactify.com/xyzxy

I just created one for me which took only one minute including the activation process. Man, what a great relief this can give to all of us.

Thank you Mashable for letting me know about this fantastic service.