Opulent Lagniappe

A Flying Start

2009-02-13T00:28:00.000-05:00

Amidst all the downsides of the economy, every single citizen is thriving to retain their career and develop the business and thereby improving the nation’s economy. And for people who are switching their jobs to business because of their job’s insecurity have exceptionally creative ideas with their new business. When speaking about starting a new business, there arouses a number of hurdles and a flourished business depends on how we handle these hurdles. At this time of economic circumstances, the investment or capital would be the biggest hurdle, but not anymore. Merchant Advisors’ Working Capital will give your business a flying start. Visit their site onlinecheck.com for further details and to apply online right now.

Information Good Marketers Need

2009-02-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

We’ve all heard the saying, “garbage in, garbage out.” It’s the same when marketing your business. Understanding your market provides you with a valuable base of insights into your business, your competitors, and your customers. It will provide you with both a fact base and key insights that will drive the major tasks of choosing your target market, defining your brand, setting your objectives, and in setting strategies and tactics to make your plan happen.

TIP: Look for what you need, not what you can find. There is a swamp of information out there. Most of it is not helpful for marketing your business. The best marketers determine what they need to find before they start looking.

Here are some key pieces of information many businesses should start with:
Sales
• Size of market
• Market growth
• Market share versus key competitors over time
• Product and service usage habits
Awareness and Attitudes
• Brand awareness and shifts over time
• Brand perceptions and shifts over time
Distribution
• Industry and company channels
Pricing
• Estimated cost and pricing structure of your company and competitors
• Price elasticity of your products
Market Trends
• Current and future trends that affect demand
Competitors
• Strengths and weaknesses (product, company, distribution, pricing,
communication)
• Marketing and advertising spending
• Brand positionings of key competitors
• Key competitive strategies
Culture
• Company history
• Consumer language and customs
• Company rituals

Most of the information you will need is publicly available. This may seem surprising to you, if you don’t purchase expensive market share data from a provider. For most companies, a walk through the store, a studied look at the marketing of your competitors, a read through your competitors’ annual reports, a Google search, and studying trade journals, along with industry articles in business publications, will offer a pretty good foundation for understanding key issues in the market. Let’s say you have a new brand of bottled water you want to market. A visit to the shelf of Wal-Mart can tell you a lot. You can roughly estimate market share from the product facings on the shelf. You can see what size assortment consumers are purchasing and what pricing strategies they are using. You can see which new products are being launched as a clue to where the category may be going. Simply observing how consumers are shopping the category can be enlightening. Do they stand in front of the aisle for minutes studying the category, or do they go right for the brand they want and leave? Good marketers spend a lot of time studying the environment in which their customers choose and use their products and services. Toyota’s product development engineers spent years observing the behaviors of truck owners before successfully entering this large segment with their Toyota Tundra.

Shoes From Jildor

2009-02-12T13:04:00.002-05:00

Unlike old times, the current trend of fashion completely relies on Uniqueness. In fact, it’s a fact that everyone has their own taste and likings. It isn’t quite easy for you to find the perfect pair of shoes that has your favorite design, color and also doesn’t cost you much. You have to run through a lot of shops to find your favorite pair. Contradictorily, Jildor, ever since its establishment in 1949, has been the one stop solution for shopping shoes. Though the key reason of their success is providing Quality Shoes, what I’ve personally found interesting is the range of shoes available at Jildor like Aquatalia by Marvin K, Chloe, Franco Sarto, Givenchy etc. You can possible get anything from Ash to Vic Matie at Jildor.

My personal favorite being Aquatalia, I’d like to remind you of the varieties in this brand particularly. And combined with the offer price of Jildor, these shoes are worth every penny. The other brands which is capable of providing some eye catchy shoes are Ugg and Franco Sarto. The site is now offering free ground shipping on all orders involving ugg Australia Women’s shoes. Better hurry up and avail this opportunity, to do the coolest shopping of shoes you’ve done so far.

How They See Credit History - Part II

2009-02-10T01:42:00.000-05:00

Employers review consumers’ credit histories for a number of reasons. They may assume that if a consumer is bad at managing money, he may also be bad at managing other aspects of his life, including work life. Also, some employers worry that someone with serious fi nancial problems may be more tempted to steal on the job, especially if he is responsible for a lot of money. Finally, employers know that money troubles can affect an employee’s ability to focus on job responsibilities. For example, money troubles often disrupt marriages, lead people to drink too much or do illegal drugs, cause depression, and make employees more prone to illness.

In addition to or instead of reviewing your credit history, some employers may order an investigative report on you. This kind of report provides a lot of information about your personal life, including subjective information obtained from interviews with people who know you. Investigative reports and your legal rights when an employer wants to order an investigative report on you are discussed later in this blog.

Landlords and rental agents look at credit histories to help them screen rental applicants. Most landlords don’t want to rent to people with a history of late payments or whom a previous landlord has evicted. In addition to the information they obtain from your credit report, some landlords also use residential and tenant reports generated by other national agencies. These other kinds of reports are discussed later in this blog.
Collection agencies look at your credit history to help them collect a past-due debt that you may owe. For example, a collection agency may look at your credit history to fi nd out where you live.
Individuals and businesses with a money judgment against you as a result of a lawsuit might look at your credit history to obtain information that may help them collect on the judgment or decide if they should try to collect.
Potential investors, loan servicers, and current insurers may look at your credit history to help them assess whether you are likely to live up to a credit obligation you already have with them.
State and local child support enforcement agencies may look at your credit history to get information about your employment history in order to garnish your wages or to find out where you live.
Other government agencies may look at your credit history to help determine your eligibility for a license or for government benefi ts when they are legally required to take into account your fi nancial status. Also, government agencies—the FBI, for example—that are authorized to conduct investigations related to counterterrorism can look at your credit history, if they provide the CRA with the legally required written certifi cation, or if a court orders the release of that information.
Utilities may look at your credit history to help them decide how large a deposit you may have to pay to obtain new service.

Others who can look at your credit history include the following:

Any business or individual that obtains an order from the court granting permission to look at the information. The court order may relate to a lawsuit you initiated or that was filed against you.
Anyone that obtains a subpoena as a result of a federal grand jury hearing entitling it to review the information.Anyone who has your written permission to look at your credit history.
Anyone with a “legitimate business need” to review your credit information in connection with a business transaction that you initiated, or to determine whether you continue to meet the terms of an existing account. Some businesses give a broad interpretation to the term legitimate business need in order to gain access to your credit record information.

Customizing Your Interface - Office '07

2009-02-05T07:51:00.000-05:00

You cannot alter the appearance of your ribbons. However, there are plenty of ways to customize your Office applications. For example, you can customize the buttons that appear on the Quick Access toolbar. From here, you can add and remove buttons for all the commands you like. To do this, select the down arrow next to the toolbar that allows you to choose from the following options:

■ Minimize the Ribbon—this enables you to keep your ribbon tabs visible, while allowing you a little more room at the top of your screen. The ribbons reappear if you select the ribbon tab.

■ Show below the Ribbon—the Quick Access toolbar grows as you add buttons to it, but you might not want it all the way at the top of your document. You can give it a bit more space to expand if you put it below the ribbon.

■ More Commands—takes you directly to the Customize Settings window, which enables you to add more commands to your toolbar.

BioNics

2009-02-02T22:17:00.000-05:00

Formed from the words biology and electronic, the word bionics is defined as the replacement or enhancement of organs or other body parts by mechanical versions. Bionic implants differ from mere prostheses because they mimic the original function very closely, maybe even surpassing it. At the 2005 annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, Andrew Schwartz from the University of Pittsburgh described a study in which a monkey fed itself using a robotic arm, electronically linked to its brain. The monkey was able to learn to control the arm, using ninety-six electrodes—each thinner than a human hair— attached to the monkey’s motor cortex, a region of the brain responsible for voluntary movement. One day, this research may lead to permanent artificial prostheses for those who have lost a limb. Furthermore, it will increase the mobility and dexterity of those suffering from spinal cord injuries or nervous system disorders. Trials in humans are anticipated by 2009.

The biggest hurdle to this research is the buildup of biological material on the electrodes. This type of corrosion causes the signal to and from the brain to degrade over time. On average, the electrodes in a monkey’s brain last only six months. Future research will unveil more biologically compatible materials, as well as devices that transmit signals without wires. These new materials or devices will enable the jump to human studies. Other developments previously thought to be in the realm of sci-fi are already a reality. Such developments include the Flexfoot (a carbon-fiber prosthesis) and the knee joint that the Canadian runner, Earl Connors, is using to run the 100-meter in 12.61 seconds with an above-the-knee amputation. In addition, researchers from the University of Southern California and the Doheny Retina Institute presented data on the first six patients implanted with a retinal prosthesis, more popularly referred to as an artificial retina. After the surgery, patients were able to localize the position or count the number of high-contrast objects and to discriminate simple shapes and spatial orientation. Although the results were not perfect, they shed light on the hope for future research. Various trials are underway now. Cochlear implants (bionic ears) are surgically implanted, electronic devices that provide a sense of sound to people who are profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound; instead, it works by directly stimulating auditory nerves inside the ear with electrical impulses. Cochlear implants restore the hearing of adults to a level allowing normal conversation, the use of the telephone, and even understanding with a limited amount of background noise. As electronics continue to grow smaller, the quality of cochlear implants continues to improve. Future research will increase the number of electrodes on the array and improve the software. Tomorrow’s recipients may be able to hear at levels superior to that of the general population. However, other research in deafness may render the cochlear implant obsolete if a biological cure is developed.

Most viable therapies for kidney failure are based on the use of stem cells. However, bionic kidneys are in the works. Early experiments with dogs that had kidney failure demonstrated the possible effectiveness of a bio-artificial kidney and paved the way for the first use in ten kidney patients in an intensive care unit. Recently, a phase II clinical trial evaluated the device in 58 critically ill patients on dialysis. The results were impressive, but need to be confirmed in a larger study. This next phase of research is expected to take two to four years. The goal of future research in bionics is to prolong life and promote well-being. These are honorable goals indeed, but sports medicine professionals have to wonder about the possibility of the six-million-dollar man.These available devices, along with other devices in the pipeline, serve to provide hope.

The Big Show

2009-01-27T21:55:00.000-05:00

Now that you’ve come to know that most of your customers are not stopping by your shop not because they don’t like your shop or they’ve found something better than yours but just because they feel comfortable shopping online and you are NOT available online, you would’ve decided to take your business online and will be thinking of a ‘Hassle-Free’ method to set up your business online. ‘Interspire’ is an ecommerce software that is built keeping in mind Marketer’s ease in web site set up and customers ‘Ease-Of-Use’ and ‘Secure’ shopping. And this ecommerce software integrates with popular payment and shipping providers. Visit interspire.com for further details on this product.

Differentiate Your Business From the Competition

2009-01-27T11:54:00.000-05:00

Your next job is to describe how your business differs from the competition’s strong and weak points. Again, remember to carefully look at your business from the customer’s perspective. If you’re not sure how your pricing policies compare to the competition, here are some guidelines. Most people associate high prices with high quality and extra service, while they associate low prices with low or average quality and minimum service. Make sure you provide extra quality and service if your prices are higher than your competition— or make sure that your prices are lower if your quality is average and your service is minimum. Check your assumptions by making a price survey of the competition. Remember that customers may take for granted that you have the same strong points as the competition; if so, you can leave those out of your description. Customers hope that you do not share the same weak points as the competition. But if you do share some weak points, it is probably a good idea to mention the ones you have in common.

The Job Match

2009-01-26T16:21:00.000-05:00

It’s an undeniable fact that the current recession has a big impact upon our financial status. But that doesn’t mean we have to change our career – many of you in the Information Technology field might assume that you have to find yourselves a new career for living, but to speak the truth, it’s not so. The hunger for professionals with knowledge in the field of I.T is still in demand but of course the demand for these It Jobs is not like the past, it’s a bit condensed. Visit realmatch.com to collect more information regarding your future in the field of I.T and to find yourselves a matching job in the I.T field.

Analyzing Sales Information of Your Products and Services - Part II

2009-01-26T14:29:00.000-05:00

By examining the sales growth and relative importance of your complete product line, you establish a consistent way to continually manage your product portfolio. Years ago, the Boston Consulting group developed a matrix for looking at a product portfolio, called the BCG growth-share matrix, which is still very useful today. Their matrix places products along two axes: market growth rate and relative market share. If you have a product with dominant market share in a high-growth market, it is one of your stars and it should be well supported. On the other hand, products with a weak share of market in a low-growth market are called your dogs and should be divested. The question marks are the products with a small share in a growing category. These should be watched carefully and evaluated with respect to the opportunities to grow share. The cash cows are the products in a slow-growth market that have a large market share. Cash cows are typically “milked” for cash.

TIP
The holy grail of every for-profit business is to generate profitable growth; therefore, it’s important to try to discover the profit pools in your business.

As you manage your product portfolio, don’t forget about tracking the profitability of your products. Successful companies place additional resources against products with the most company profitability. U-Haul had a very successful overall business. While they did not derive much profit from their truck rentals, they made a bundle on the sales of boxes and moving incidentals. Feed and grow the areas of your business that matter most. For long-term sustainability, your profitability will need to be comparable with your competitors’. If your key competitors and the industry have higher gross margins or operating profits, determine what you need to do to bring profitability more in line with the industry. Combine profitability insights with top-line sales insights. Success for most businesses comes from managing a smart combination of both top-line sales and profitability. If you manage only for sales growth, you could still end up losing money. If you manage only for profitability, you could starve your brand and shrink your business to a very profitable margin—with no sales and no new customers. For example, you might look at situations in which you have lower sales and market share but very high profits. In this case, it might be preferable to try to increase market share by lowering margin dollars and operating profits. A slight adjustment in profitability might result in a large increase in demand for your product, ultimately resulting in more margin dollars and more total profits. Big companies will run sophisticated elasticity studies on price and margins. Guided by intuition, most companies experiment their way into the optimal mix of sales and profitability.

TIP
Look beyond simple sales trends. Explore the underlying usage habits of your customers and those of your industry.

Sales trends tell you a lot about customer preferences. However, there is another level of analysis that will provide you with important insights when you start developing strategy—product and service usage habits. Your products are purchased for specific reasons, some may be the same as competitive offerings and some may be very different. Famous Footwear customers spend very little time in the store relative to the DSW shopper. The two retailers share many of the customers, yet they shop each retailer for vastly different reasons and occasions. DSW is about the thrill of the hunt and Famous Footwear is about the thrill of the find. The DSW customer shops the store for herself and often considers her experience there as recreational shopping. The Famous Footwear shopping occasion is primarily a family shopping trip, often with kids along. Here ease, success, and the ability to get in and out in a reasonable amount of time are paramount. Now think about automobiles. All cars get people from Point A to B, but the use and occasion reasons vary by brand. The use differences between Jeep, Lexus, and Smart (from Daimler AG) vehicles are obvious. Understanding the usage or occasion differences of your customers will allow you to develop product, service, and communication strategies that relate directly to why your customers choose you over other competitors. As a result, you will be reinforcing your brand differences and help to create an even more meaningful brand experience.

Ray Of Light

2009-01-26T12:23:00.001-05:00

No, it’s not a “yet another article” about the Madonna’s Hit Album. I’ve entitled this article “Ray of Light” believing that this article could bring in a financial security to you at the present situation. The present financial crisis has many of us lost their jobs leaving us to the solution of self-employment. But to select the one that has a bright future is going to be a tedious process. Among the several others passive income ways, Network Marketing seems to have a potential to help millions of Americans to get back to their regular life. Visit pronetworkmarketing.net to know more about network marketing business and to get started in earning through network marketing.

Sales Projection

2009-01-24T02:49:00.000-05:00

The best part of a business plan is the discussion of sales projections, because it gives you a sense of the support you’ll have to provide if you plan to introduce a new product. Note the effort they put into developing a logical sales revenue forecast. Since most new products introduced into the marketplace do not sell well enough to produce a profit, investors and lenders want to see solid data to support a claim that your product will be different. Also, they plan for two different products using the same technology. The first is aimed at the commercial market and is reasonably costly; the second targets the consumer market and carries a somewhat lower price. The founders of DAY INTERNATIONAL, INC., believe that a successful business needs more than one product to survive. While there are some exceptions to that rule, diversification can achieve powerful benefits if one product meets resistance in the marketplace.

Shoebuy Coupon Codes And More . . .

2009-01-23T02:40:00.002-05:00

From the beginning the range of shoes available at shoebuy.com has made me a frequent visitor to that site, if not for buying at least for knowing the latest trend in the fashion. We’ve got everything here, from Birkenstock to Reebok. But instead of getting mesmerized by the collection and paying the full cost – you can think for a while and get loads of discount with Shoebuy coupon codes and even free shipping at times. All you have to do is visit Banbona.com and look out for Shoebuy coupons (of course they do have lots ‘n’ lots of coupon codes). You can get discounts upto 15% and free shipping easily just by entering these regularly updated coupon codes. After seeing the date of this post, don’t judge that the coupon codes would’ve expired by this time – at banbona.com all the coupon codes are updated regularly. Visit the site to get your daily updated coupon code for shoebuy :)

Travels 'n' Stays

2009-01-21T00:09:00.000-05:00

Most travel agency sites, such as Travelocity, will be more than happy to help you find many modes of transportation in addition to flights. However, when you are driving or traveling by train or ferry, you may need some more specialized information and attention. If you plan on driving, there are numerous sites, such as the various map sites (MapQuest, Yahoo! Local, and Maporama, for example), that will provide you with itineraries, directions, travel times, and other information. If you are taking a train or ferry, you will need timetables, information on accommodations, and other details that can often be found more easily on the Web than anywhere else.

If you haven’t noticed, cruises are “hot” (or “cool,” or de rigueur, if you please) these days. But take it from someone who was a skeptic: If you haven’t been on a cruise yet, chances are extremely good that by the time you return home from your first one, you will be planning another. As with almost any hot topic, there are lots of hot Web sites for cruises. Again, the general online travel agency sites will be helpful, but they will provide considerable detail on using those sites specifically for cruises and also will cover a number of other sites and resources available for planning (and taking) a cruise. “Cruises,” of course, can mean a lot more than a vacation aboard a gigantic (but wonderful) 1,000-foot-long floating resort. It can also mean a cruise down the Danube, a week on a barge in France, or a trip aboard a paddle wheeler on the Mississippi.

Travel tastes and pocketbooks lend to a wide range of options for lodging and dining. Here again, the Web offers a lot of resources that are apparent and a lot more that are less apparent but that can help you find just what you are looking for at just the right price. From campsites to hostels to luxury hotels, the Internet can provide not just reservation services, but also background information that will ensure your choice is the best one. For accommodations, you can check out photos of a hotel and find out what previous guests have to say about their stay before you make reservations. For restaurants, you can often read reviews, view the menu ahead of time, and make lunch or dinner reservations online.

Saving Money, Saving Time . . .

2009-01-19T22:26:00.000-05:00

Free, Simple, Smart – this is the motto of AutoInsuranceQuotes.com; they’ve been thriving to provide the best possible auto insurance quotes for drivers by taking a few minutes of yours. Getting to know the best possible auto insurance quotes from the long list of auto insurance providers has become a tedious job these days. But with autoinsurancequote, all you have to do is just filling up a form that is required by their agent to find you the auto insurance quote that suits you the best, according to your needs and save few hours of your tight schedule. For further details visit autoinsurancequotes.com or contact 1-877-556-9288 and ask their trained staffs to assist you.

Background Screening Companies

2009-01-18T23:51:00.000-05:00

These companies provide consumer background check reports to employers. An employer may order such a report about you when you apply for a job. Also, your currrent employer may order one when you apply for a promotion. Insurance companies sometimes order background check reports as well. Background check reports can include a wide range of information, including your credit record information, information about your education, your work history, state licenses, driving record, medical history, whether you ever fi led a workers compensation claim, whether you have a criminal record or have been incarcerated, the results of any drug testing you may have submitted to, and basic information about your military history, such as your rank, duty assignments, salary, recognitions, and your current status in the military.

Given the sensitive nature of the information in background check reports, an employer cannot order one on you without first obtaining your written permission. (The same restriction applies to insurance companies.) The employer must provide you with a special form to sign that is separate from any job application you are asked to fill out and from any other job-related paperwork you may be given. Also, if the employer wants the report to include your medical records, your high school and/or college transcripts, financial aid records, and/or information about any disciplinary actions your school may have taken against you, the employer must ask you to sign additional consent forms. The FCRA does not obligate the employer to tell you ahead of time which company will run your background check.

If an employer decides not to hire you because of information in your background check report (or if it decides to take some other adverse employment-related action against you), it must provide you with notice of its decision prior to making it offi cial, together with a copy f the report it reviewed, and information about your rights under the FCRA. Once the employer takes the adverse action, it must notify you of that fact and provide you with the name of the background screening company, as well as its address and phone number, and inform you of your right to dispute any information in your background screening report that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

Working The Classic Way

2009-01-16T22:19:00.002-05:00

It’s quite common for us to upgrade to the latest versions of the application software that we use. Of course there used to be lots of improvements in these latest versions not to mention those improvements in eye candy graphics. Despite all these advantages, sometimes there are some basic ergonomic issues like hassled user interface.

The Microsoft Office suite had been very popular ever since its 32-bit release of Office ’97. With every upgrade they make, there were a lot of core office users who got benefited by the developments in the Office suite. These developments in fact made their work easier, a lot easier. Their latest release ’07 has got some major improvements. But they have made a bold decision by replacing the classic menu for the ribbon UI. My personal experience with office ’07 had been terrible. Reason – I couldn’t find all those classic menu items in my new ribbon UI. Even if I find one after searching online, I couldn’t get used to it – it slowed down my process a lot. And I guess, you feel the same way while using Office 2007, at least for those who use the Office suite at their work.

Addintools’ Classic Menu for Office 2007 is our solution to put our concentration on the job itself rather than the “Ribbon UI”. The Classic Menu for Microsoft Office from Addintools is just like a widget for your browser – but it comes in very handy. The total file size is less than 4 MB and is extremely easy to install and use. And of course, they have a given an option to enable the menus and toolbar. Visit addintools.com to know more about this product and purchase the license.

Perform research online

2009-01-15T18:24:00.000-05:00

Would you like to research stock quotes, find definitions to complex words and even search for encyclopedia entries? You can do all this and more by using MS Excel.

In the ‘Research’ pane that appears to the right of your worksheet, the word will appear in the ‘Search for’ field.

Use the dropdown list below the Search field to select your source for the definition. For example, stock quotes are pulled down from MSN Money, and company profiles from Gale
Click on the green arrow to start searching for the definition
Excel automatically pulls up the definition of the term without relying on a desktop dictionary or visiting a website
Research Pane also allows you to translate a word into different languages by choosing ‘Translation’.

What Are Credit Reporting Agencies?

2009-01-14T02:15:00.000-05:00

Credit reporting agencies, also known as credit bureaus, are in the business of collecting and maintaining information on how well you (and nearly every other American consumer) manage your credit accounts. This information, which is a sort of fi nancial report card, is referred to as your credit history, credit file, credit report, or credit record. The CRAs sell this information to creditors, employers, insurance companies, government agencies, and others who use it to make important decisions about you. Your credit record information is also used to calculate your credit score, a three-digit number that predicts how well you’re likely to manage your credit in the future. Increasingly, businesses are using this number rather than the actual information in your credit fi les to make decisions about you and to defi ne the terms of your relationship with them. The forthcoming posts gives you more insight into credit scores.

Three corporate giants dominate the consumer credit reporting industry: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Smaller local and regional CRAs are affi liated with one of the “big three.” According to the Consumer Data Information Association, the national credit reporting trade organization, the CRAs maintain 200 million consumer credit fi les, collect 4.5 billion pieces of consumer data every month, and generate one-billion credit reports annually.

Exitotoxins

2009-01-13T06:47:00.000-05:00

The multinational food industry, which has an unrivalled reputation for shamelessness, has disguised processed free glutamic acid (MSG) in the food ingredient ‘citric acid’. It sounds benign, doesn’t it? Believe me, it is not, as it has the same effect on excitotoxin-susceptible people as does MSG, HVP and aspartame. Citric acid, which is widely used, is not produced, as one might imagine, from citrus fruit, but from the fermentation of crude sugars. During processing, the remaining protein is hydrolyzed, and this creates processed free glutamic acid. When combined with protein in the diet, even more of this dangerous neurotoxin is produced.
The widely-used amino acid, cysteine, is an excitotoxin. It is sometimes used in supplements as well, so please check labels. As if all this were not bad enough, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an antimicrobial spray called Sanova for use on meat, vegetables and fruit. They are now trying to get approval to use it on all processed foods! Labelling is not required. I have not as yet been able to ascertain if this product is going to be permitted in Australia, but if experience is any guide, it will be. Australia, to our detriment, is a hand-maiden of the US, and our politicians slavishly copy all the bad things they do – and few of the good.
The soy, which is another of my pet hates, naturally contains glutamate and glutamine, which are excitotoxins. Further, soymilk often has HVP added to improve the flavour. Kombu, miso and soy sauce all contain HVP. A natural food distributor sent a flyer trying to allay consumer fears of MSG by saying that HVP is a natural source of “bound glutamate”, and not dangerous. - This is not true
There are ways to neutralise some of the harmful effects of excitotoxins: anti-oxidant vitamins and minerals, the branched chained amino acids, zinc and magnesium glyconate and magnesium lactate (but not magnesium aspartate, which is an excitotoxin) offer some protection. This does not mean you have a licence to consume these deadly toxins. Please inspect your home and bravely rid it of all products that list HVP, MSG, aspartame, and any other artificial sweeteners. Then, think carefully about manufactured foods that don’t list these chemicals, but are vague about exact ingredients. I suggest that you box the whole shameful mess and send them off to your health minister and tell him or her to eat them as punishment for allowing them in our food supply.

iPhone Mania: The Real Deal

2009-01-12T10:32:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time coming. For those of you who are in a hurry to get a confirmation on the prices, the iPhone is priced at as low as $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB version. This means you get it without being bound to any contract or postpaid plan. You can use it with a prepaid or postpaid SIM card, and pick absolutely any plan you like. AT&T annonuced special pricing plans for iPhone users, which even preexisting customers can switch to by sending an SMS. Alternatively, you can choose a special data plan to add on to your existing prepaid or postpaid tariff. AT&T has just a data plan with capped downloads, and a fee for every extra KB. This makes downloads a little cheaper than with regular plans, but what I really need is a scheme with unlimited data transfer.

The Real Deal

First off, let's talk about the design. The new iPhone 3G, though essentially the same format as the last iPhone, with exactly the same 480 x 320-pixel, 3.5-inch screen and identical button placement, is a major improvement over the first-gen iPhone. Gone is the shiny steel, in favor of a new black plastic backplate (or white, an option on the 16GB version). It certainly looks better now than earlier (though the white version seemed a bit tacky at first glance). The back is slightly curved around the edges, which makes it seem narrower than it really is, and gives it a sleek feel and better grip.

There are a total of ten different antennas in the iPhone 3G (four for GSM, three for 3G, and one each for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS), so the switch to a plastic back was needed to ensure all those signals get through without any problem. All buttons on the phone sides are made of metal now, unlike the plastic volume up / down and ringer switch on the original. Also, the 3.5mm headphones socket now sits fully flush on the top, not recessed as it was in the first-gen iPhone, so you can use any aftermarket (read "better") headphones you want with it. As for the other bits in the box, Apple includes a tiny charger which lets you plug in the USB sync cable and charge the iPhone from a wall socket. Sadly, no dock is shipped with the iPhone 3G, so you'll have to spend a bit extra if you want to flaunt the phone on your desk. The box also includes a SIM removal tool and a cleaning cloth (desperately needed), other than some small documentation. Now for the functional bits: since there is no 3G available yet in our area, I was only able to test the battery life with GSM talktime, Wi-Fi browsing, and music playback. I tested with Bluetooth off, the display brightness set to high (with the auto dimming sensor enabled), and the bundled headphones at 85% volume. I got a good 3 hours of talk time, almost 2hours 30 minutes of heavy Wi-Fi browsing, and another 1 hour 30 minutes of mixed music and video playback in a single charge from the phone, all while running two email accounts (one push, one pull) in the background. That is indeed better than the original iPhone, and honestly, quite good for a phone of this caliber. Other improvements include louder and better incoming voice quality, and two tiny but surprisingly loud ringer speakers at the bottom of the phone. Now, let's dive down into the software. Visually, the iPhone 2.0 software is only a minor upgrade. You can now have between multiple pages in the menu to accommodate the expanding number of applications, and a new iPhone App Store icon has been added.

Trine Studios' SOM

2009-01-09T11:16:00.000-05:00

Streets of Mumbai is an exciting multiplayer racing game which features real Indian cars, roads and buildings.

One of the most striking features of SOM is that, the tracks are exact replicas of different parts of the City. For instance, there are tracks showing Marine drive, Nariman point, Gateway of India, Malabar hill, the docks and so on. Developers at Trine have actually gone around and taken pictures all over Mumbai for the best model possible. In addition to that, Google Maps too, has been used as a reference for mapping. The initial release of the game will comprise nine twin tracks which means, eighteen tracks in all. These tracks will range from Worli till the end of South Mumbai. Since, Trine is located at Malad, SOM has a complete map of the area. Now aren’t they being partial with that? But they’ve totally redeemed themselves by building the Bandra-Worli sea link, when in reality, the sea link is still under construction.

Updates and upgrades

Every month there’s a new track going to be released, which means a new area being added to the game. The player can simply download the track from Trine’s website—for free—and install it on the computer. It automatically gets integrated into the game. Trine is developing SOM for consoles with enhanced graphics because consoles have superior GPU power than a standard graphics card. The release is likely to be somewhere in the last quarter this year.
The next build will release somewhere during the summer of next year. That one will be a complete compilation of all the tracks integrated in one package making it a complete virtual city.

Know Yourself

2009-01-08T07:16:00.002-05:00

Up to this point in my life, I have kept separate the issue of how we identify a person’s character traits from the issue of how we decide which of those traits are virtues or vices. Common wisdom in contemporary moral theory includes a strong distinction between moral traits, such as benevolence or vanity, and non-moral ones, such as wittiness or gullibility. But in order get yourself a free judgment of your own personality, you can visit learnmyself.com and do a personality test to know about your character. This personality test consists of few question – a “Quick” Session will be for around 3-6 mins and “Advanced” session will be for around 6-12 mins. And of course the precision of this test entirely depends on the truthfulness of your answers. The bonus feature of this personality test is being absolutely free for any number of tests. Along with the personality test, you can also check your Stress, Motivation, Depression, Kids IQ and you can even find your soul mate relevant or completely opposite to your trait.

Streets of Mumbai - Gameplay and performance

2009-01-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

Gameplay:
The game has four segments of cars to choose from namely; small, mid, luxury and SUVs. With the virtual-point system, you can unlock cars and also buy a variety of paints, spoilers, rims, lights, skirts and a plethora of other accessories. The most exciting part of the game is the hidden spots. When you go though certain hidden areas; you unlock “super charged” cars that are designed by the game developers especially for SOM. Stunts are a special feature in the game and to add to the adrenaline rush, you also get points depending on the success rate of your stunts. For instance, there’s a track which has a dock yard, where the car has to jump over two ships stationed at the docks.

Performance:
The game offers a good amount of details and true-to-life elements. The graphics can’t be compared to the latest high-end games such as Crysis and NFS. For the simple reason that, SOM is mainly intended for mainstreammachines, but if you have a graphics card then you’re in for a treat. The minimum system requirements for SOM are a DirectX 9-enabled machine, an Intel Pentium IV 2.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM, a graphics card with minimum 256 MB RAM.

Rising Star

2009-01-06T12:03:00.000-05:00

Long had been my love for social games and its even growing bigger. And the reason for that is the addition of new games on the block. If you are in facebook you might’ve already known about the famous game “The Hatchery” developed by Kramaley Games Ltd – it has drawn over half million players since its release. The good news is that the developers Kramaley is thriving to bring in more facebook games so as to completely purge out the boredom out of you. The new games include ‘Metropolis’, ‘Dark Ages’, ‘Mafia Cities’ etc – each one of them is innovative in its kind. Inspite being a newest game on the block, ‘Mafia Cities’ is gaining its popularity day by day. But of course, my personal favorite being “The Hatchery” and the best part of Kramaley is that not only they bring in new games out of their creativity but also give support and updates to their older games – this helps a lot for a hatchery fan like me. So what are you waiting for – log in into facebook and play your favorite Kramaley.