Home Based Internet Business - Mastering The Art
This article puts forward some simple facts that aim to help people succeed in the affiliate home business market. Most people know a little something about the home based internet business sector and many people have tried out one or two programs along the way. However, very few individuals ever make sufficient money to quit the day job and ultimately most give up.
Starting a Successful Work From Home Computer Business
The aim of this article is to highlight a few key criteria that should be followed when seeking out a potentially successful work from home computer business. It is essential that these six areas are researched thoroughly before you take the plunge and join your chosen business. If you follow these guidelines you will be well on your way to building a successful work from home computer business.
The Art of Website Optimization and Promotion
The aim of this article is to show that a large part of the art of website optimization is made up of just a few basic principles. Start researching the field of website optimization today and you will be amazed at how successful your website can be; if you just adhere to these simple principles.
The Importance Of Online Social Networking To Your Internet Business
The aim of this article is to explain exactly what online social networking is, highlight its dramatic worldwide growth and explain why it is an essential tool in the promotion of every home based internet business.
The Addictive Online Games Market
The aim of this article is to highlight the emergence of the addictive online games market and how it has become the fastest growing sector in the whole online entertainment industry.
Online MLM Business - Web Promotion That Works
The aim of this article is to show how using some recognised traffic generation methods and a consistent and regimented weekly work routine, can bring a constant and ever growing flow of organic (free) traffic to your online MLM business.
Internet Based Home Business - The Advantages
This article aims to highlight a number of the advantages that the internet based home business market has over the more traditional work from home opportunities sector. Make sure you do your research and select a good quality online business, learn all you can about the latest traffic generation methods and you will be opening up your new business to an ever growing worldwide audience.
DFW Drive Your Dream Team Building Events Are A Unique Way To Bring Your Team Up To Speed
Open Road Becomes Classroom for Executive Team Builders Courtesy of Dr. Rich Shoen and Dallas Fantasy Car Driving Company
Dan Jellinek Joins PromoCard Services as Director of Business Development
Dan Jellinek has joined PromoCard Services as Director of Business Development. In this role, he will also be responsible for heading up the company's marketing department, managing the sales force, and maintaining relationships with national accounts.
Gwinnett Place Honda Announces 0% APR on Honda Models
Gwinnett Place Honda, one of the leading Honda dealers in Georgia, announces special finance offers featuring 0% APR for 36 months on all Honda models available in stock. For details, contact the dealership or log on to http://www.gphonda.com
World Hunger
April 29 ‘Biofuels frenzy’ hits grain market Michael Mathes, Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON - A “biofuels frenzy” and other misguided policies have led to the global food crisis in which rice consumption is outpacing production, threatening one billion people with malnutrition, experts said today. International agriculture researchers warned that farmers will need to double global food production by 2030 to [...]
April 29
‘Biofuels frenzy’ hits grain market
Michael Mathes, Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON - A “biofuels frenzy” and other misguided policies have led to the global food crisis in which rice consumption is outpacing production, threatening one billion people with malnutrition, experts said today.
International agriculture researchers warned that farmers will need to double global food production by 2030 to meet rising demand and said countries should impose a moratorium on grain-based ethanol and biodiesel to rein in skyrocketing prices for corn, rice, soybeans and wheat.
UN, World Bank create food crisis task force
United Nations agencies and the World Bank joined forces Tuesday to set up a special task force aimed at tackling the world’s growing food crisis. Soaring food prices are contributing to instability and riots across the globe and driving millions more people to live in extreme poverty. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged donors to provide $755 million in emergency funds for the World Food Programme. BBC (4/29) , Reuters (4/29)
April 26
Canada deaf to global food crisis, expert says
Top UN adviser blasts Harper government
(Globe & Mail) NEW YORK, TORONTO — A key adviser to the United Nations has sharply criticized Canada for abandoning its leadership role in international development, and urged the country to step up its level of aid to poorer countries in the face of soaring food prices.
Jeffrey Sachs, one of the world’s best-known economists, accused the Harper government yesterday of adopting an “antagonistic,” and occasionally “mocking,” tone toward the implementation of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, a group of objectives aimed at alleviating problems ranging from poverty to global warming.
(RCI) U.S. ECONOMIST CRITICIZES CANADIAN FOREIGN AID
A key adviser to the United Nations says that Canada is abandoning its global leadership role in foreign development. U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs says that the Conservative Party government has essentially done nothing on crucial international matters such as poverty, hunger, disease, climate change, and foreign assistance. Mr. Sachs adds that his pleas for Canada to take a special role in the global food crisis have been ignored since the former Liberal Party government.
April 25
CANADA TO RESPOND TO WORLD FOOD CRISIS
(RCI) The Canadian Press reports that Canada could double the aid that it contributes to the UN World Food Program in response to the worsening international crisis caused by soaring food prices. An unnamed federal official has told the agency that Bev Oda, the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, will make a “significant” announcement early next week in reaction to an appeal by the UN for help. The source said that the announcement will place Canada’s food aid contribution for 2008 beyond what was given in the previous year. The UN has set a deadline of May 1 for receiving $755 million in emergency food aid pledges. Canada is pledged to provide the WFP with the dollar equivalent of 420,000 metric tonnes of wheat annually. The country has failed to live up to the promise in four of the past eight years but exceeded its commitment in the last two years.
April 22
Placing the Terrorist Threat to the Food Supply in Perspective
(Stratfor) High food prices have sparked a great deal of unrest over the past few weeks. Indeed, the skyrocketing cost of food staples like grain has caused protests involving thousands of people in places such as South Africa, Egypt and Pakistan. These protests turned deadly in Haiti and even led to the ouster of Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis.
With global food supplies already tight, many people have begun once again to think (and perhaps even worry) about threats to the U.S. agricultural system and the impact such threats could have on the U.S. — and global — food supply. In light of this, it is instructive to examine some of these threats and attempt to place them in perspective.
April 18
UN meeting to focus on global food crisis
The United Nations said Friday it will focus on ways to rein in escalating food prices and growing malnutrition when Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN’s agency heads meet in Switzerland April 28-29. “The main subjects on the agenda will be the food crisis and climate change. They will look at means of coordination,” spokeswoman Marie Heuze said of the next installment of the semi-annual meeting. Reuters (4/18)
April 17
The global food crisis is less about shortages than about bad policy, says food expert Raj Patel.
(Newsweek) The escalating crisis of global food shortages and price spikes has been called the result of a perfect storm of conditions. Droughts, the high cost of fuel, rising inflation and the use of crops for biofuels have left many nations of the world struggling to provide access to affordable staple foods like rice or wheat, and unfortunately, there is no end in sight. A new book by University of California, Berkeley, food expert Raj Patel called “Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System” (Melville House) examines how our food goes from the field to our dinner plates. He delivers a blistering indictment of the policies of multinational agribusiness conglomerates and charges that their drive for profit at any cost has left the developing world starving while wealthy countries like the United States are experiencing epidemic obesity rates and related health problems.
April 15
Feeding the Future:Investing in Agriculture
More than 800 million people suffer hunger today. A new global effort has been launched to solve this complex problem and find ways to double food production in 25 to 50 years in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner under the conditions of climate change.
Reinventing Agriculture
By Stephen Leahy
Will today’s markets be able to cope with future food demands?
JOHANNESBURG, Apr 15 (IPS) - The results of a painstaking examination of global agriculture are being formally presented Tuesday with the release of the final report for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).
The assessment has explored how agriculture can be reinvented to feed the world’s expanding population sustainably in an era of multiple challenges — not least those presented by climate change and a growing food crisis that has led to outbreaks of violence in a number of developing countries.
“Increase Agricultural Productivity While Reducing the Environmental Footprint”
Interview with Robert Watson
April 13
World Bank echoes food cost alarm
“We have to put out money where our mouth is now so that we can put food into hungry mouths,” Mr Zoellick said. “It’s as stark as that.”
He called for more aid to provide basic nutrition and for planting crops, and more lending to develop agriculture in the long-term.
He also called on wealthy donor countries to quickly fill the World Food Programme’s $500m (£250m) funding shortfall.
On Saturday, the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, warned of mass starvation and other dire consequences if food prices continue to rise sharply.
See also Global Monitoring Report
April 10
Zoellick urges world leaders to tackle food crisis
World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday called on the international community to step up its efforts to combat soaring food prices and malnutrition, saying the current crisis has significantly set back recent gains against poverty. “We estimate that the effect of this food crisis on poverty reduction worldwide is on the order of seven lost years,” he said. The Washington Times (4/11) , Spiegel Online (4/10)
Rich world must do more to address food crisis: Some of the reasons for the soaring food prices are beyond the control of developed countries, such as the rise of the middle class in China and India. But rich nations are worsening the situation by increasingly using food products for fuel and hence they must do more to address the growing crisis, the paper argues. The New York Times (4/10)
Britain’s Brown urges G8 to tackle global food crisis
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday said the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Japan should act against spiraling food costs that are spreading hunger and unrest around the world. Brown requested, in a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, that the industrial countries that make up G8 look at issues such as the role biofuel may play in pushing up food prices. Google/Agence France-Presse (4/10)
9 April
UNEP chief: Agriculture must move in new direction
United Nations Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner describes the many challenges facing farmers in an interview with the Inter Press Service News Agency. Currently attending a major summit on farming in Johannesburg, South Africa, Steiner here calls for a “broader vision for agriculture.” Inter Press Service (4/9)
6 April
Governments meet to tackle global food crisis
Officials from some 60 governments are meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, this week to discuss what can be done to counter the soaring food prices that are threatening millions of people with hunger. Scientists and others at the conference, hosted by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, are expected to tout a more sustainable model for farming and development.
Towards a New and Improved Green Revolution
By Stephen Leahy
JOHANNESBURG, Apr 6 (IPS) - As food prices soar and hundreds of millions go hungry, experts from around the world will this week present a new approach for ensuring food security, at the intergovernmental plenary for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).
In the past year the price of corn has risen by 31 percent, soybeans by 87 percent and wheat by 130 percent. Global grain stores are currently at their lowest levels ever, with reserves of just 40 days left in the silos. Meanwhile, food production must double in the next 25 to 50 years to feed the additional three billion people expected on the planet by 2050.
The IAASTD brought together more than 400 scientists who examined all current knowledge about agricultural practices and science to find ways to double food production in the next 25 to 50 years and do so sustainably, while helping to lift the poor out of poverty.
The findings of the three-year IAASTD indicate that modern agriculture will have to change radically from the dominant corporate model if the world is to avoid social breakdown and environmental collapse …They concluded that the way to meet these challenges is through combining local and traditional know-how with formal knowledge.
The Clean Energy Scam
(TIME) … by diverting grain and oilseed crops from dinner plates to fuel tanks, biofuels are jacking up world food prices and endangering the hungry. The grain it takes to fill an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year. Harvests are being plucked to fuel our cars instead of ourselves. The U.N.’s World Food Program says it needs $500 million in additional funding and supplies, calling the rising costs for food nothing less than a global emergency. Soaring corn prices have sparked tortilla riots in Mexico City, and skyrocketing flour prices have destabilized Pakistan, which wasn’t exactly tranquil when flour was affordable.
4 April
Rising Grain Prices Panic Developing World
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
(Washington Post Foreign Service) SHANGHAI — A spike in the price of rice and other food staples is triggering consumer panic, including food riots in Yemen and Morocco, and hoarding in Hong Kong.
Governments around the world have taken radical measures in recent weeks to control their countries’ supplies of rice. Egypt last week said it would ban all rice exports for six months. Cambodia has stopped all private-sector exports of rice, and India and Vietnam also have imposed restrictions.
The price of grains — corn, wheat, and rice — has been rising since 2005 under pressure from farmers who would rather plant crops for biofuels than for food, the lack of technological breakthroughs in crop yields, and drought and disease. The sharpest increase has been this year, with the price of Thai rice, a world benchmark, nearly doubling since January, to $760 per metric ton. Some analysts expect that price to reach $1,000 in the next three months.
Tang Min, a former chief economist for the Asian Development Bank, said the price increase is the inevitable consequence of supply and demand. “The world population is increasing, but the increase in the planting of rice has not been as fast,” he said.
Despite efforts by governments to increase public-sector wages and introduce food subsidies, price increases and shortages have led to violent clashes along supply lines, in food distribution centers and at supermarkets.
Food Prices To Rise For Years, Biofuel Firms Say
LONDON - Staple food prices will rise for some years, but should eventually fall to historical averages as harvests increase, biofuel company executives said on Thursday. [Hardly reassuring for the panicking consumers; in fact the tenor of most of the reported remarks from this Outlook 2008 Conference is appallingly coldblooded vis à vis the rising costs of food.]
Soaring demand for better quality food from rapidly industrialising emerging markets such as China, supply shortages, increased demand for biofuels, and a surging appetite for food commodities by investment funds, have combined to push prices of basic foods higher and higher in recent months.
Stephane Delodder, managing partner of Netherlands-based consultancy iFuel Corporate Advisory, told a conference the problem of rising food prices would persist for some years. Market forces should eventually help rebalance supply and demand, especially in markets which are not highly regulated, but this could take some time.
12 March
Ban: World must counter growing hunger problem
As prices for wheat, corn, rice and other food staples have soared in recent months and global food stocks are lower than usual, malnutrition is threatening ever more people around the world, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in The Washington Post. The international community must respond better to this “new face of hunger,” for example by boosting donations to the World Food Programme and strengthening several UN humanitarian programs, he says. The Washington Post (3/12)
NAFTA - a proposal for renewal
April 28, 2008 Thanks to Ron Robertson for forwarding this thoughtful piece that addresses the problems of NAFTA and offers intelligent solutions. We hope that it will ’stir the pot’ and elicit further comments. We have only one question: is it realistic to think that the respective bodies would pass the necessary legislation? We [...]
April 28, 2008
Thanks to Ron Robertson for forwarding this thoughtful piece that addresses the problems of NAFTA and offers intelligent solutions. We hope that it will ’stir the pot’ and elicit further comments. We have only one question: is it realistic to think that the respective bodies would pass the necessary legislation? We fear that the demonstrated voter hostility to NAFTA would overcome any common-sense public policy. But perhaps this could become an Age of Miracles.
Getting a grip on NAFTA
Christopher Jones, Special to the Sun
The U.S. presidential primaries have provoked debate there and in Canada about reopening the North American Free Trade Agreement.
As this political fracas subsides, perhaps calmer heads can prevail to address the more obvious shortcomings in the current approach to Canada-U.S. border and trade relations.
The lack of leadership on NAFTA has created a vacuum that threatens the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world. The arrival of a new administration in Washington could help correct the original failure to develop the supranational institution required to regulate the flow of people and goods between NAFTA member states; to detect, anticipate and respond to emerging commercial, infrastructural, environmental and security challenges, and to resolve disputes in a final and binding
manner.
I propose the creation of a North American Border and Environmental Agency (NABEA).
NAFTA came into force in 1994, creating a free-trade area, providing “national treatment” to each others’ investors, guaranteeing energy access and providing dispute resolution panels with debatable results.
However, in areas relevant to tourism, forestry, agricultural exports and safety, and transportation, the agreement continues to give preference to national policy and domestic bureaucracies.
The result? A prolonged and damaging dispute over softwood lumber; the lengthy exclusion of Canadian cattle from U.S. markets; the imposition of documentation and travel requirements under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) to the detriment of the Canadian tourism sector; the creation of the U.S. Secure Flight Program, which will require Canadian air carriers to submit passenger manifests to the U.S. 72 hours before departure of flights that may not even land in the U.S. (in contradiction of the 1944 Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation and Canadian privacy laws.)
Many of these policies required costly litigation, endless lobby campaigns in Washington, and immense expenditures of Canadian political capital, time and effort over the past 15 years, often to little or no avail.
By contrast, the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community in 1957, mandated a supranational commission made up of member-state appointees whose primary loyalty is to the EEC (now the European Union) and its founding objectives: Harmonious economic development activities; continuous and balanced expansion; increasing stability; rising standard of living, and closer relations between member states. The European Commission plans, integrates and coordinates member-government policies in trade, transport, environment and other fields to the EU’s collective benefit.
To its credit, the EU has also developed and enshrined the Schengen Accords, which permit passport-free travel throughout the EU. Unfortunately, the WHTI, which may well provoke a cumulative loss of $3.2 billion to the Canadian tourism and travel industry between 2005 and 2010, is taking North America in the opposite direction.
Canada and the U.S. already have a few supranational entities, including the International Joint Commission on Boundary Waters, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America, three NAFTA secretariat offices limited to adjudicating trade disputes in a “fair, timely and impartial manner” and a North American Leaders Summit, from which emerged the Security and Prosperity Partnership — a vague, ill-defined process whose status looks uncertain.
While this kind of piecemeal, ad hoc cooperation, and increasingly frequent litigation, may once have been an acceptable means of regulating the relations between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, it clearly no longer is.
There is a compelling case for creating a NABEA. Senior officials would be high-level political appointees of the three member states with prescribed terms of office. The agency would be empowered to make binding decisions in limited areas that would supercede the national laws and regulations of the NAFTA governments.
I propose that it initially be tasked with implementing uniform policies, standards and shared intelligence in relation to: Security, terrorist risks and countermeasures; air and water quality; agricultural standards and safety; consumer product safety; container screening; commercial freight export rules; truck weights and dimensions, and documentation, visa and customs requirements for visitors from both within the NAFTA region and overseas.
Agency staff would be diplomats drawn from foreign affairs, trade, transport and other departments of the three national governments. While even this limited basket of pooled sovereignty will provoke the ire of ardent nationalists, the point is that the dysfunctional reality of business-as-usual, reactive Canadian policy-making and Washington-based advocacy makes this step necessary.
We need visionaries to forge a supranational North American decision-making entity whose mandate is to promote collaboration and the collective economic well-being of the NAFTA states.
Unilateralism is a non-starter in the 21st century. Facilitating the legitimate movement of travellers and dealing with multi-jurisdictional environmental problems requires a coordinated approach by North American governments. Regional interests or insular bureaucracies inhibit solutions consistent with an interdependent world.
If Europeans can arrive at this sort of concerted action despite centuries of conflict, residual enmity, multiple languages and disparities in population size and economic clout, surely it is within our collective ability to do so on this continent.
Christopher Jones is vice-president of public affairs at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.
6 Great Publicity Strategies to Boost Business Sales - Lanada Chanel - Strictly Media, LLC
Publicity! Something every business needs. Knowing how to get good publicity that boosts sales is a key to business longevity. Lanada Chanel of Strictly Media, LLC will share 6 key publicity strategies that can drive sales through the rooftop!
Publicity! Something every business needs. Knowing how to get good publicity that boosts sales is a key to business longevity. Lanada Chanel of Strictly Media, LLC will share 6 key publicity strategies that can drive sales through the rooftop!
Much Accomplished
How does the the Bush Administration define victory? I guess the whole point of the last eight years was to enrich their friends, wreck the economy, create corporate fiefdoms, enact the PNAC plans, pack the courts, eviscerate Congress, upend the electoral system, gut federal agencies, privatize everything and shun accountability. Mission Accomplished!
Superdelegates should take into account Operation Chaos
Update: Obama’s got the majority of the remaining superdelegates, although there’s more than 125 who haven’t been chosen yet. It may make the difference in Indiana.
RIP Albert Hoffman, 102
Oh I recall what I was told. Your dangerous drug was worse than heroin, would cause me to have deformed babies, was a threat to my sanity and to society. I’m pleased to learn what a long, full and satisfying life you had, because you certainly deserved it. What a long, strange trip it was, eh, [...]
John McCain Has a Healthcare Plan
And it demonstrates that dementia is already limiting his capacities. This should be the debate question he is asked repeatedly: do you truly believe your plan will help the 40 million plus Americans who have no coverage today, or were you just goofing on us? Seriously, setting aside all partisanship, it is unbelievably stunning in [...]
Insanity Fare
Hey kids! I bet you heard all about the controversy (dont’cha love the way British people say that word? That and laboratory. But never mind that now.) about Miley Cyrus (whoever the hell she is) and some pictures that Vanity Fair is going to run of her. The pictures are [...]
Improve Your Sales with Auto Responder Improvements
Improve your marketing and sales with some auto responder Improvements. Try some of these:
Improve your marketing and sales with some auto responder Improvements. Try some of these:
1. Publish free reports to send via your auto responder. The reports should be related to your business or web site & contain info, ads and links to your sites. People love getting freebies.
2. Collect vital customer satisfaction information by publishing a survey to send via auto responder to those who sign up on your site in exchange for a free eBook, software or trial period at your membership site. This type of information will help you understand their needs, likes & dislikes better.
3. Instead of answering each customer question that is e-mailed to you, publish “Frequently Ask Questions” and make them available via auto responder to those who sign up. To save time and support headaches.
4. Instead of publishing all of your customer testimonials or endorsements on your website, publish only a few there. And set up an auto responder form that invites visitors to receive a complete list via your. Give them a power-packed list; it’s more effective to include all of them.
Mix and match. Change your auto responder strategy to change your auto responder results!
Increase Web Site Traffic - How to with paid search advertising
If you've tried to increase web site traffic with search engine marketing and search engine optimization but you still aren't seeing the kind of web site traffic that you want to have it might be time to consider investing in some web advertising. There are different options when it comes to web advertising but the styles of web advertising used the most by businesses is and paid search advertising. Paid search advertising is a good option if you've already tried search engine marketing and search engine optimization because your site is already well set up for paid search advertising. Paid search advertising is paying to make sure that a link to your site and a description of site is placed at the very top of a search engine results page.
If you’ve tried to increase web site traffic with search engine marketing and search engine optimization but you still aren’t seeing the kind of web site traffic that you want to have it might be time to consider investing in some web advertising. There are different options when it comes to web advertising but the styles of web advertising used the most by businesses is and paid search advertising. Paid search advertising is a good option if you’ve already tried search engine marketing and search engine optimization because your site is already well set up for paid search advertising. Paid search advertising is paying to make sure that a link to your site and a description of site is placed at the very top of a search engine results page.
This is a smart move because studies have shown that people who are searching for a site will usually click on any one of the first five links at the top of the search engine results page and then they will stop. Consumers almost never click through to the second page of search engine results after doing a search. So paying to make sure that your site is at the top of the search engine results page can be a very effective way to drive traffic to your website. Figuring out how to manage your paid search advertising can be a little difficult if you’re not used to how web advertising works so you’re better off hiring a paid search management company to oversee your paid search advertising. When you’re setting up a paid search to increase web site traffic the keywords and key phrases that you choose need to be chosen carefully. A qualified paid search management company can help you set up your paid search to maximize the time and effort you’ve already put into using search engine marketing and search engine optimization on your website to increase website traffic.
Using paid search to increase web site traffic can be a very cost effective way to get the most of your search engine marketing. Essentially paid search web advertising is just giving your search engine marketing a boost and making sure that people see a link to your site before all your competitors. If your website deals with a popular topic then using paid search web advertising is really like insurance that your site make it onto the first page of the search engine results page.
Why Not have Tea Parties At Your Coffee Shop?
Why not have tea parties at your coffee shop? You already have the elements that will make it work. Chances are your coffee shop serves tea to accommodate those guests that don't like coffee. You will have tables, chairs, and plenty of cups to serve the drinks in. What you may not have are customers that are coming in during the afternoons and this type of arrangement can take care of some of that lag time.
Why not have tea parties at your coffee shop? You already have the elements that will make it work. Chances are your coffee shop serves tea to accommodate those guests that don’t like coffee. You will have tables, chairs, and plenty of cups to serve the drinks in. What you may not have are customers that are coming in during the afternoons and this type of arrangement can take care of some of that lag time.
You can schedule such tea parties one weekday afternoon and many people will make reservations to come. In fact you will likely see some regulars that come in every week. If that is too much for you though you can choose to feature them on Saturday or Sunday afternoon each month. Some parents may approach you to schedule a tea party for their child’s birthday as well.
Some coffee shop owners don’t want to go to a great deal of hassle in order to host these tea parties. There is really no reason though why you would have to go this route. You can keep things simple and still draw a very good crowd to your tea party events. If you wish to host something more elaborate though you certainly can do so. The price of the tea party should reflect this as well as what you offer.
Make sure you advertise the menu for your tea party as well. Guests will want to know if they are only going to get drinks. You may choose to offer that alone with many different types of tea. You can choose to offer sandwiches, desserts, or both to complete the tea party as well. It is important for your guests to know what to expect will be waiting for them when they arrive. (more…)
Torch protestor tries to set himself alight
Chinese students clashed with anti-Beijing demonstrators at the Olympic torch relay today in Seoul, South Korea, throwing rocks and punches at the latest troubled stop on the flame’s round-the-world journey.
Post mortems on Wexford family delayed
Post mortems on the bodies of a family of four found dead after a fire in their home in Co Wexford yesterday have been suspended due to the presence of asbestos at the site of the fire.
Lee out of luck at Wetherby
Graham Lee was out of luck on his return to the saddle after nearly three months on the sidelines.
Father had seven children with captive daughter
A woman has told police that she was held prisoner in a cellar for almost 24 years by her father, who repeatedly raped her and fathered her seven children.
Hamilton 'terrified' for Kovalainen after crash
Lewis Hamilton admitted to being “terrified” for Heikki Kovalainen after catching a glimpse of his McLaren team-mate’s 150mph smash.
Top Five Tips to Business Success by Wholesale Merchant Services Todd McCartney
Wholesale Merchant Services Inc. � In my business I meet and interview a lot of successful home based business owners. I always end my interviews by asking them their five keys to success. The answers are more in common than different. Below I have listed the top five keys to success according to all the amazing business [...]
Villa earn draw in thriller at Goodison
Everton 2 Aston Villa 2
The race to reach the UEFA Cup is set to go to the wire after today's dramatic Goodison Park showdown between the fifth and sixth-placed clubs in the Premier League.
Man injured in Waterford shooting
A man has been shot and injured today in Co Waterford.
Wholesale Merchant Services Todd McCartney, Why Can not Money Buy Happiness
Wholesale Merchant Services Inc. Wholesale Merchant Services, Inc is company well know in USA as Merchant Services. His owner is Todd McCartney who is very respectful and honest person. He is also Executive of Lease Finance Group. The saying “money can’t buy you happiness” was most likely said by someone who was never poor or had [...]
Man 'killed wife then started death blaze'
Two young children died in a fire, apparently started by their father after he murdered their mother, it emerged tonight.
Is This What It Takes To Push OOXML Into The Market?
It is really pretty funny.� The Microsoft-Rules-Forever crowd co-opted the voices of freedom lovers like Rick Jelliffe1 in order to push its next user-enslaving document format, OOXML, over the top.� And with all of the additional attention and the possibility of new doors opening for OOXML, they still feel that they cannot compete with ODF [...]
It is really pretty funny.� The Microsoft-Rules-Forever crowd co-opted the voices of freedom lovers like Rick Jelliffe1 in order to push its next user-enslaving document format, OOXML, over the top.� And with all of the additional attention and the possibility of new doors opening for OOXML, they still feel that they cannot compete with ODF unless they use arm-twisting tactics.
If you disagree, you should take a look at the comments on this ThinkFree blog posting.� Here, let me help you:
We are also considering the ODF support in ThinkFree.
By the way, There is one obstacle for solving the problem…
That is MS Policy for ODF, Because of interoperability with MS Office in ThinkFree,
We still need the MS cooperation that support OOXML,,,
I think you can understand this situation & MS policy strategy…
But we plan to solve this political problems, and also We will make the detour.
How many of the known implementers of the OOXML formats could tell of similar arm-twisting?� Why is it that Microsoft feels that it cannot compete without misusing its huge market share to stifle the growth of more-open alternatives?
I mean, come on now.� With over 90% of the (paid) market for office suites, they have to use untoward arm-twisting to pass OOXML through ISO?� And then, after it passes, they still must use these techniques in order to keep companies like ThinkFree from implementing OOXML's more popular competitor, ODF?� How does Microsoft's vaunted "openness pledge" hold up, given these facts?
How about it, Altova?� Could this be the reason why your products do not support ODF?� I know there is demand, since up to 600 people a day come to this blog looking for the answer to one question: How can I open this ODF file someone sent me?� Are you really willing to give up that many potential opportunities to sell your XML software?� Is implementing OOXML so difficult that you must have MSFT's good will and thus cannot risk satisfying potential customers?
1 One of the bad things about the way Microsoft and its minions misused Rick Jelliffe's influence is that even his good suggestions might be ignored.� And, no David, despite disagreeing with Rick on OOXML, I have not mistreated him.� In fact, I respect him for his expertise in XML-related fields.� I am looking forward to seeing his Schematron in action some day.
XO Rocks!
My XO laptop arrived yesterday, 2008-03-25. I can see already that it is a severe threat to the established hardware vendors, but I could not imagine just how much the XO’s unique software threatens the existing eduware vendors. When MJ was younger, I got the “blaster” learning games. While they were a great improvement over the rote quizzes that characterized a lot [...]
My XO laptop arrived yesterday, 2008-03-25. I can see
already that it is a severe threat to the established
hardware vendors, but I could not imagine just how
much the XO’s unique software threatens the existing
eduware vendors.
When MJ was younger, I got the “blaster” learning
games. While they were a great improvement over the
rote quizzes that characterized a lot of eduware of
the time, he soon saw through the entertaining
graphics to the quiz engine underneath. After that, he
played those learning games no longer.
It used to be that computers in schools were not used
for vocational training. Instead, they were used for
explorational learning with tools like LOGO, as well
as introductory programming in the BASIC and Pascal
languages. Somehow we’ve gone away from actually
letting students learn and toward the kind of
mind-numbing learn-by-rote that formerly only
described memorizing multiplication tables.
Teaching schoolchildren to click a particular set of
menu choices to perform a certain task is a tremendous
waste of time and money. By the time most of them are
in the workplace, the arrangement of those choices
will be different enough that the former student may
need retraining. Instead, we need to teach kids to
think for themselves and to be comfortable exploring
the computer to learn how to perform any specific
task.
About the ‘activities’ or software: I’m trying to
blend exploring into my already cramped schedule, but
I’ve enjoyed the Measurement activity (a moving graph
of the sounds around the unit which could be used as a
fascinating introduction to acoustics, wave theory,
and related topics), watched the Etoys demo, and
opened the TamTam music activities, browsed the Web
with the built-in browser, and opened the chat
activity. I am writing this using the AbiWord-based
Writing activity. It does not yet use ODF, but the real AbiWord (v. 2.4.6) still has problems with the format as well.
I can definitely see how this beats boring quiz games and word processing.
About the laptop itself: the keyboard is definitely
kid-sized, and it occasionally does not catch keys I
press, especially when I start to speed up. The screen
is bright and clear. I can read things at smaller
sizes than I normally can. The wireless picked up
more than double the number of networks than I knew
existed around here.
This thing is so much fun that I really hope that they
bring back Give1 Get 1. I think my family would like several.
Ubuntu 8.04 Upgrade
I just upgraded three computers to Ubuntu 8.04. The process is long, mostly because of the humongous download. The "road dog" took me an extra day, mostly because I was packing for a trip to Ohio and not clicking on dialog boxes. I just noticed that this includes a fix to GNOME's Galeon browser. For the [...]
I just upgraded three computers to Ubuntu 8.04. The process is long, mostly because of the humongous download. The "road dog" took me an extra day, mostly because I was packing for a trip to Ohio and not clicking on dialog boxes.
I just noticed that this includes a fix to GNOME's Galeon browser. For the past two or three months, trying to print would crash the browser. I just tried it out, and it works like a charm.
SQLManager Brings ODF Import/Export To Leading Databases
SQLManager Brings ODF Import/Export To Leading Databases If you have been looking for a way to utilize your ODF documents as input to your DBMS server, or a way to use the output from the [...]
SQLManager Brings ODF Import/Export To Leading Databases
If you have been looking for a way to utilize your ODF documents as
input to your DBMS server, or a way to use the output from the DBMS with
your other ODF-capable�software, take a look at SQLManager.
Their SQL Studio product is available for MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL,
Interbase/Firebird, and Oracle databases. For example, the data export
tool for MySQL is described as "Exporting data to 19 most popular
formats: MS Excel, MS Access, MS Word, RTF, HTML, PDF, XML, TXT, DBF,
CSV, ODF, SYLK, DIF, LaTeX, SQL, Clipboard, and others".
The data import tool says it can "Import from 10 most popular formats:
MS Excel 97-2007, MS Access, XML, DBF, TXT, CSV, MS Word 2007,
OpenDocument Format and HTML" and that it can use SSH and HTTP tunneling
for added security�.
The product does require a Windows�operating system, but can use a local
or remote DBMS server. Pricing information is on
the site. The product also supports MS Office 2007/OOXML formats.
It is always encouraging to see more enterprise-oriented applications supporting ODF. It means that they really are seeing customer interest. It would be a good idea to forward a link to this information to your company CIO. They are frequently in the dark because it suits their contacts at existing software vendors to keep them that way. Hundreds of people come here each day, looking for applications that can open ODF files. If your company does not yet have the capacity to work with ODF files, you are behind the curve. (Thanks to Legal Software Downloads for pointing this one out.)
Linux Journal Shows How To Extract and Parse ODF Files with Python
Extract and Parse ODF Files with Python An ODF file is essentially zipped XML. This article from August 2007 shows how to use Python’s XML tools to get data contained with ODF files. Thanks to Carol Geyer and OASIS for the link! Blogged with the Flock Browser Tags: ODF
Extract and Parse ODF Files with Python
An ODF file is essentially zipped XML. This article from August 2007 shows how to use Python’s XML tools to get data contained with ODF files.
Thanks to Carol Geyer and OASIS for the link!
Tags: ODF
Big G Tells Time
Add time-keeping to the list of things that Google does. I was checking to see whether my Sharp atomic clock had updated to daylight savings time. Instead of using NIST directly, Google had my answer for me. I love Big G! Update: 2008-03-14: MSN/Live also does this, but Yahoo and Ask do not. Also, the clock changed [...]
Add time-keeping to the list of things that Google does. I was checking to see whether my Sharp atomic clock had updated to daylight savings time. Instead of using NIST directly, Google had my answer for me.
I love Big G!
Update: 2008-03-14: MSN/Live also does this, but Yahoo and Ask do not. Also, the clock changed to daylight savings time, only it was a few days late. I guess Sharp didn’t get the memo.
Set New Target: World Liberation
Open source: world domination or world liberation? | The Open Road - The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay - CNET Blogs Matt Asay, VP of Alfresco, brings up an important point in his latest blog posting. Many of us are satisfied with merely growing the number of free / libre and open [...]
Matt Asay, VP of Alfresco, brings up an important point in his latest blog posting. Many of us are satisfied with merely growing the number of free / libre and open source software (FLOSS) users. We are often looking at it as merely a less-expensive way to obtain software, when we need to be thinking about the ideas at the root of it.
The United States was the world’s idol, not just because of our economy and our military, but because of our ideals. The reasons we are no longer so honored have to do with our focus on economic and military (and more recently, “homeland security”) instead of our historic ideals.
A few years ago, competition with FLOSS caused a leading proprietary software company to lobby for software preference based on open standards.
If FLOSS remains true to its ideals, there will always be some who disagree and refuse to use the software, but the continued spread of the software will help bring software freedom to most of the world. And on the heels of software freedom, other areas should also begin to open up.
