How To Tips

12 Tips To Save Petrol

2008-07-23T11:05:00.001+08:00

12 Tips to Save Petrol

1) Pump up your tires.
Keeping your tires inflated is one of the easiest and most important things
Saving petrol means saving money one can do to improve fuel economy. If a
range is recommended by the manufacturer, the higher pressure should be
used to maximize fuel efficiency. Deflated tires run hot and jeopardize
safety. It will also cause the tires to wear out prematurely, affect the
vehicles adversely, and hurt the fuel economy by increasing the rolling
resistance. Tires lose about 1 psi pressure per month due to air loss
caused by the tire hitting holes, bumps and curbs. Therefore, the tires
should be checked at least once a month. Just 1 tire deflated by 2 psi will
result in a 1% increase in fuel consumption.

2) Drive at moderate speed.
Avoiding high speeds on open roads results in safer driving and better fuel
economy. In highway driving, over 50% of the power produced by the engine
is used to overcome aerodynamic drag. Drag and thus fuel consumption
increases rapidly at speeds above 90km/h. On the average, a car uses about
15% more fuel at 100km/h, and 25% more fuel at 110km/h compared to when it
is doing only 90km/h. However, this should not lead one to conclude that
the lower the speed, the better the fuel economy - because it is not. The
fuel consumption of an average car increases sharply at speeds below
50km/h.

3) Clean the air-filter regularly
Clogged air filters increase fuel consumption by restricting airflow to the
engine, and thus should be cleaned/replaced when necessary. Clogged air
filters can increase fuel consumption by up to 10%.

4) Use thinner tires
Tires with thick width will improve the handling of your car. However, it
will also increase your car's fuel consumption. Thicker tires mean more
rolling resistance! , and thus will consume more fuel.

5) Start up the car properly
With today's cars, it is not necessary to prime the engine first by pumping
the accelerator pedal repeatedly. Do not crank the engine excessively This
only wastes fuel. When starting the engine, idle it no more than 30 seconds
to warm it up. An engine will warm up faster on the road. However, avoid
sudden acceleration before the engine has warmed up sufficiently.

6) Drive in high gear (overdrive)
The engine runs most efficiently between around 1,500 and 2,500 rpm. To
maintain these low revs you should change up through the gears as soon as
practical and before the revs reach 2500 rpm. For automatic transmission
cars, you should always switch on your overdrive to help save fuel.
Overdrive will allow your engine to change gears at lower revs. It also
puts your transmission into an "economy" mode and lets it engage the final
"overdrive" gear when cruising to ! keep the rpms extra low, thereby
increasing fuel economy. for more of the below topics please go to : http://mhloke.blogspot.com/)

7) Travel light

8 ) Anticipate traffic ahead

9) Avoid strong acceleration

10) Minimizes aerodynamic drag

11) Don't let your engine idle

12) Use the air-con sparingly

Source: The Pasar Road Shop

Buying guide for external DVD burner

2008-06-30T16:00:00.004+08:00

INTERFACE
External DVD burners connect to your PC differently than internal drives do. While internal burners rely on an IDE or Serial ATA (SATA) interface to connect to your PC, external drives offer USB 2.0 or FireWire connections. Some models (labeled "dual interface") offer both USB and FireWire options.

FORMAT
All new DVD write and rewrite data and video to DVD-R/DVD-RW and DVD+R/DVD+RW formats. DVD-R and DVD+R discs can be written to only once, but they offer high compatibility with drives and set-top DVD players. DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs can be written and erased approximately 1,000 times, but they have compatibility problems with older players, some older drives, and even some current DVD recorders. Most new burners today support both +/- formats. Multiformat drives can also read, write, and rewrite CDs, as well as play DVDs. Some drives can record to DVD-RAM discs, although these models are less common. DVD-RAM discs are used primarily for data storage and backup.

DOUBLE-LAYER SUPPORT
"Double-layer" refers to the technology that allows two recording layers to fit on the single side of a DVD, effectively doubling a disc's storage capacity from 4.7GB to 8.5GB. Though it’s perfect for those who need to archive large amounts of data, double-layer burning currently maxes out at 10x speed. The discs may not play in older stand-alone DVD players, but most new players now support the technology. Also, you'll run across two types of double-layer recording. Most double-layer drives support DVD+R double-layer, but some newer ones also support DVD-R double-layer. Look for drives that support both.

LIGHTSCRIBE AND LABELFLASH
Some external drives support LightScribe or the less-popular Labelflash, technologies that enable you to etch your own label or artwork onto the nondata side of the disc. Write speeds of these drives are often slower, however, and you'll need to use more-expensive LightScribe or Labelflash media.

BLU-RAY
The next generation of DVD uses the Blu-ray format, which delivers high-definition video resolution and dramatically increased storage capabilities: 50GB of data on a single disc (25GB per side). External Blu-ray burners are starting to hit the market, but they are priced far higher than other external DVD drives. We recommend that you wait until the format gains wider acceptance (and lower prices) before buying, unless you have a specific need for that amount of storage (and have a full wallet).

Source: Computer Shopper

Writing speed: For high-volume DVD burning, choose an external DVD burner with a writing speed of 16x.

Interface: Choose an external DVD burner with a USB interface for maximum compatibility. For transferring large files, look for a FireWire interface because it has a higher transfer rate. Just make sure your computer has the appropriate ports for your chosen interface.

Dual layer support: To burn large files like videos or photos, choose an external DVD burner that supports dual layer DVD burning. These discs can burn up to 8.5 GB of data.

Source: PickyGuide

How to choose a hard disk

2008-05-22T16:28:00.000+08:00

How to find the best hard drives and external drives
For desktop PCs, 5,400rpm is the lowest you should consider (and even that only at a push, or when buying an exceedingly large drive), while 7,200rpm tends to be the most common. 10,000rpm drives are slowly becoming more commonplace. Drives are available even faster than these, but they require a different kind of connectivity. Incidentally, laptops tend to have slower drives which consume less power and generate less heat, with the premium laptop hard drives currently spinning at 5,400rpm.

Access time is next, which is as explanatory as it sounds. It's the time taken to get data from the drive to your PC, and this is stated in measurements of milliseconds. Towards the budget end of the market, you'd expect to see drives with 8ms access times, and as you spend more you can realistically expect to bring this down to 5 or 6 - even less if you're really willing to shell out.

Then we need to consider buffer size. This is the amount of cache memory that your drive is equipped with, in which is stored data that the drive reckons the system will request next. Clearly, the bigger the buffer, the more data it can hold and thus potentially it can deliver its data quicker. Budget drives tend to have a 2MB buffer, although 8MB is common too. Opt for the latter if you can, as it can make a noticeable difference.

And so we move on to the inevitable question of capacity. Most people determine their hard drive choices by the amount of data they can hold. If you're snooping round the second hand market, you may still find drives with less than one gigabyte of storage space, but these are of little use with today's bloated software, and wouldn't even hold an installation of Windows XP.

No, it's more sensible to set an absolute minimum of 20GB, and then to buy as much storage as you can realistically afford. For a standard family PC, 80 to 100GB should suffice, while for gamers or those involved in multimedia work, 160GB is a decent choice. However, it may actually work out better to buy two drives with 60-80GB capacity each - check out the information on RAID lower down this guide.

Now we've discussed the inner bits of the drives, we need to focus on how they hook up to your system. We'll start with drives designed to be seated inside your system box. Most drives available, particularly in the budget sector, tend to be either ATA100 or ATA133. The 'ATA' bit stands for Advanced Technology Attachment, and the number relates to the speed it can shift data around - either 100 or 133MB per second.

Some motherboards limit support to ATA100, although ATA133 drives are backwards compatible. Drives that use this standard need quite wide cables, and that can have an impact on airflow in a PC case. To the majority, that won't be a big deal, though.

To those it does bother, then Serial ATA has recently arrived. This is currently the format of choice for power hungry PC users, although the fact that it's in its infancy inevitably means some users will meet teething problems. Basically, Serial ATA - or SATA - can, when properly optimised, move data at up to 1.5GB per second.

A motherboard needs to be SATA compatible for maximum impact, although note that some boards have cheated. This means that while they accept a SATA drive, they channel its data through existing technology rather than supporting it natively, meaning you don't get the benefit of its potential extra bandwidth. What you do get the benefit of, though, is the thin cable required to connect a SATA drive up to a motherboard. That's far friendlier for airflow inside the case. Expect the overwhelming majority of desktop PCs to include SATA as standard within the next eighteen months.

One thing worth keeping an eye out for is RAID, which opens up some interesting options if you have more than one drive. RAID stands for Redundant Array Of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks, and it allows you to group drives together in one of two ways.

The first allows you to group (or 'stripe') together all of your hard disks as one, so your PC sees them as a single entity. This is known as RAID 0. The advantage here is speed. Your machine will take turns addressing each drive, in order to maximise the data cache on each. You can get some healthy performance gains, but the risk is that if one drive goes down, they all go down. That's because no full file is written to any of the drives, instead they each house fragments of files. Still, it's an economical way of getting, for instance, 160GB of storage, as using two 80GB drives will probably be cheaper and faster.

RAID 1, meanwhile, is a backup tool, as each drive becomes a mirror. This slows things down a little, as each file has to be written to each drive, but if one goes down, the other can quickly step into its place.

There are other versions of RAID, such as RAID 5 (which is basically RAID 0 but with the ability to get things going again should a drive fail) and RAID 10 (which mixes in the performance boost of RAID 0 and the backup facility of RAID 1, but requires four drives), but for home use it's likely to be RAID 0 or RAID 1 that you're interested in. Either way, your motherboard should have RAID support if you want to consider this.

While we're talking about technologies that may not appeal to the home user, we should briefly mention SCSI connectivity. SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) is currently the fastest way of getting data between a computer and a hard drive, but you generally have to pay through the nose for it. Note that technologies such as SATA are closing the performance gap fast, too. You'll find SCSI generally in professional environments, as it tends to be employed by the likes of professional video editors and people making the next Toy Story wannabe.

Let's round things up with a look at external options. An external hard drive is generally the same beast that sits inside your machine, but in a nice case with extra connections on it and a higher price tag. In fact, it's often more economical to take an existing drive and buy a special housing unit for it if you want an external drive, as a complete off-the-shelf solution rarely seems to be a bargain.

Being external, the drive has a tougher job getting data into your machine, and thus the price you pay in performance terms is that data transfers are notably slower. Nonetheless, you do gain an effective storage solution that won't go down if the rest of the inner workings of your PC do.

You should be looking for similar specs with an external drive as those described above, with one additional concern. That's the way that the drive hooks up to your PC. FireWire, or IEEE1394, is the fastest method (although it requires your PC to have a FireWire interface on it somewhere), but USB 2.0 will be fast enough for most. Avoid connecting via USB 1.1 if you can, though, as data transfer will be painfully slow.

Also worth a brief mention are other types of drive, such as USB pen drives (also known as flash drives, key drives, etc.). These again work best on the USB 2.0 interface, and are available in capacities of a gigabyte or more. Some make use of actual miniature hard drives, but most use flash memory that is a bit slower, but has no moving parts. Look for additional features such as built-in encryption that can help prevent your personal data falling into the wrong hands.

Hopefully all of that has given you food for thought. It should be said that, while we've outlined many options to you here, few of them will make a huge difference to your PC. Nonetheless, don't ignore them, and try to go down the routes that will give you a boost, such as SATA.

Source: IT Review, UK.

How to choose an LCD Projector

2008-05-22T16:08:00.001+08:00

Buying an LCD projector is not an insignificant investment, so you'll want to think carefully about how you're going to use the projector so you can match the features you need with the best price point. For instance, an LCD projector's brightness is a key buying factor, but if you're not planning to frequently give presentations in large conference rooms or classrooms, you may not need high performance in this area.

These key buying factors will help you choose an LCD projector.

LCD Projector Resolution
SVGA (800 x 600), XGA (1024 x 768), SXGA (1280 x 1024), or UXGA (1600 x 1200)? The higher the projector's resolution, the higher the price. If you will use your LCD projector mainly for PowerPoint presentations, the SVGA resolution will be fine, while XGA is a good choice for displaying numerical data. You'll only need the higher resolution LCD projectors if you need fine details to be accurately displayed.

LCD Projector Brightness
The higher the ANSI lumens rating, the brighter the LCD projector's light output. Projectors of less than 1000 lumens may not put out enough light for your needs. Projectors of 1000-2000 lumens put out enough light for normal business or classroom situations, while projectors of 2000-3000 lumens produce enough light to illuminate images without washout in large conference rooms and classrooms.

LCD Projector Contrast
Projector contrast is expressed as a ratio between the brightest and darkest areas of the image. Look for LCD projectors with contrast ratios of 400:1 or higher so that graphics and video images are clear. You'll want to choose an LCD projector with a very high contrast ratio if you plan to frequently project images with the lights on.

LCD Projector Weight
Projector weight is a portability issue; if you're going to be carrying the projector around a lot, making presentations in different locations, the lighter the better. There are now many LCD projectors available that weigh less than 5 pounds, which can lighten your load considerably if you're a mobile presenter. However, generally, the lighter the projector the more it costs.

LCD Projector Connectivity
When you buy an LCD projector, you'll choose one that connects with the computer you use, of course. But will you always use the same computer? You may need a separate connector cable or adapter in some cases. Check as well to see if the LCD projector has multiple computer ports, in case you want to connect multiple computers or video sources to the projector at the same time.

LCD Projector Lamp Life
Another factor you may want to consider when buying an LCD projector is the listed lamp life, as replacement lamps cost hundreds of dollars. A listed lamp life of 2000 hours is excellent. Some projectors come with mode choices, such as "eco-mode" that allow extended lamp life, and cut down on operating costs.

More reading... here

How to choose a laptop?

2008-03-14T11:24:00.002+08:00

HOW TO CHOOSE A LAPTOP

This article is to help those to know what kind of notebook that they need/want or just to enforce what they have already decided.

These days with just RM3,000 for budget of a new laptop, you can get a decent mobility system for document editing, minor imaging, database reference, and definitely capable of watching VCD's and DVD's. And then for those with budget of RM5'000 could probably get a good (better than average) multimedia system, it probably appeals to gamers or those who need a performance to handle their graphics programs. But it is not just about the bargain & stuff, there are a lot of things you need to know about a laptop before you can truly be fully utilizing it.

To Give You An Idea of Mobility:
Mobility, a word that is growing & ever expanding on the horizon of the 21st century. It is without doubt that more & more people are switching from cumbersome desktop to PDA to notebook. This is especially true when more people are using notebooks as a desktop replacement.

Why Not Last Time?
Ages ago, notebooks are expensives and probably heavy and with performance that users would probably better just using it for business applications like documents editing & database referencing. There was no general WiFi or bluetooth available at that time.

Why Now?
With the advancement of technology, notebooks are equiped with better performance that allows user to do multitude of things without straining their 2.0kg +/- mobile unit. Another plus side is notebooks are getting cheaper due to competiition in the market and the plce of technology advancement. With the ever growing WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, and GPS, more people are opting for mobility as the advantages are mountainous. Data transfer are an ease, one touch gateway to the mega-information-highway, a mobile messaging & email center, video conferencing system, and as many people prefers: a multimedia station on the move. Multiumedia Station means music, games, videos at your fingertips wherever whenever you are. Even CEO's would enjoy games once in awhile.

Why Should You Choose A Laptop?
Should you choose a laptop or notebook as your next computer system to replace the non-mobile, and aging platform desktop? you should and here's why...

* with wireless connectivity poping up here and there, you can be connected at almost anywhere & anytime, stay connected with friends from anywhere.
* your personal mobile business center.
* your movable gaming rig.
* being mobile means you can transport your data / collection / media files / photos / to anywhere & can be viewed anytime at your convenience.
you don't have to suffer viewing any files or sites using a small and tiny screen.
the technology in laptop and notebook has almost catch up desktop PC, therefore it won't be lacking in performance in many aspect.
* it is cool to have a laptop, you are part of the future.
* basically, it is an "all-in-one" station. it is a mobile HDD, DVD player, speakers, webcam, and a LCD screen. Definitely won't trouble you with jungle of wires.

What Should Be Consider First?
Budget and Need, these should be yuour first concern & priority. As many in the world of IT, price usually reflects the performance of a notebook and compromization of your need as well. There are notebooks which range from RM2,500 to RM15,000.

Budget of:
RM2,500 to RM3,500 : low performance, good for & as a business tool.
RM3,500 to RM6,000 : probably can get you a decent medium class notebook that can utilize for business to entertainment to gaming without much compromise. Even good for those who are doing graphics or arts or imaging.
RM6,000 and Above : If it were based on cars, example would be like having a Mitsubishi Evo or Toyota Supra and eve more expensives ones like, Ferrari. Pretty High End, probably for someone who intended to have a desktop replacement notebook with the "OmpHH!".

Notebook are not as easy upgradable as a desktop unit so when you are choosing one, don't just choose/grade/based on your current need but as well as the need in the coming future. Surely you wanted to have a notebook that can last for your need at least 2 years or more (if you are a high performance user), right?

A medium to high performer would most probably to have specifications like below:
- Intel Core2 Duo 2.0Ghz , 667Mhz FSB , 4MB L2 Cache
- 1GB DDR2 Ram
- ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 , 256MB Ram
- 80GB SATA Hard Disk

Specifications of a Laptop:
01.0 - CPU (Central Processing Unit)
02.0 - GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)
03.0 - Screen Type
03.1 - Panel Type
03.2 - Color Depth
03.3
03.4
03.5
03.6
03.7
04.0 - Size & Weight
05.0 - RAM
06.0 - HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
07.0 - Optical Drive
08.0 - Battery & Charger
09.0 - Warranty & Service
10.0 - Misc
11.0 - Laptop Brands

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01.0 - CPU (Central Processing Unit)
This is the heart of the laptop. Currently at the time of writting, the best processor to choose from would be the new Intel Core2 Duo as it boast to have lower power consumption & better performance due to 64bit & a dual processor capability.

Intel motherboard usually comes in two type, the Intel 945GM & Intel 945PM. The 945GM is for laptop that uses integrated graphics while the 945PM uses dedicated graphics.

02.0 - GPU (Graphic Processing Unit)
Please visit this page for more details on GPU: click here

An important note, that is Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating systems draws heavily on the graphics subsystem in a computer. Without an adequate graphics card, you won't get the some of the fanciest new features of the interface. Your graphics card should have at least 128MB of dedicated memory - of course 256MB would be the best.

03.0 - Screen Type
The screen size usually comes in a few standard types such as 12", 14", 15", and 17" inches. The bigger is of course better but it also entails a heavy laptop & higher power consumption. But the difference is, consider that a person who used to a PC who have a 17" screen confortably at 1280 x 720 resolution & decided to get a 12" laptop because of weight & size. Now that person who enjoy a 1280x720 resolution have use the same resolution on a smaller screen unless he reduce the resolution which means lesser desktop space for open windows.

Sometimes, you see the laptop being offered with the LCD screen are like Dell Truelife, Acer GridVista, Toshiba TruBright, Compaq BrightView, Sony XBRITE or as most other laptop brands would offer but yet all same from one technology. These few technologies has one much praise with its high-gloss, sharp contrast finish. It is believe that once you have seen this technology with your own eyes, you will not believe the difference it makes. It is even more impressive for DVD and gaming uses.

These technology is recently introduced anti-reflective LCD screen technology (anti-reflective technology). It was initially introduced to the Japanese market in Fujitsu notebook computers in the beginning of 2003 and later brought to the mainstream via Sony’s marketing of its own XBRITE™ brand. This technology was an instant success because of its super crisp images and its vibrant colors. This new anti-reflective technology has sharper contrast (the difference between the deepest black and lightest white pixels), produces clearer and more colorful images, absorbs most external ambient light and has wider viewing angles than traditional notebook screens. All laptop screens have a polarizer which is a thin sheet of film laminated to the outside layer of glass of the laptop screen used to filter light waves produced by the LCD screen to create an image. The difference between a traditional notebook screen and an anti-reflective notebook screen is the type of polarizer film.

The polarizer of a traditional notebook screen has a rough matte finish. This rough matte finish is not visible to the naked eye. The matte finish causes outer ambient light to disperse or reflect off of the traditional polarizer at different angles which reduces the intensity of the glare reflected directly back to the observer’s eye. This ambient light reflection is reduced in intensity due to the diffusion of light, however, the drawback is the reflection shows up as a large hazy object which obstructs the images on the screen. Other side effects include distorted images, a lower contrast ratio, inferior viewing angles, less vibrant colors and eye fatigue.

The polarizer of an anti-reflective screen has a smooth high-gloss finish which has been chemically-treated. The chemically-treated finish of the polarizer reduces the reflection of external ambient light by absorbing much of the external light instead of dispersing it at different angles. Since the external light is mostly absorbed instead of being reflected at different angles, the polarizer does not need a rough matte finish and therefore a smooth finish can provide crisp, brilliant-colored images with the most direct internally derived light from the LCD.

In general, the observer sees light from two light sources: 1) light produced by the LCD itself and 2) external ambient light which is reflected off the surface of the LCD. The objective of an anti-reflective polarizer is to improve the image quality generated by the LCD while minimizing the reflection of external ambient light.

Benefits of such technology:
- Wider viewing angles
- Reduced eye fatigue
- Crisper images
- Sharp contrast
- Brilliant colors

03.1 - Panel Type
Without other than browsing and research on brands and OEM of the LCD panel, you won't know what type they are using to make the LCD panel. There are a few reknowned LCD panel maker, such as:
LP Display (formerly LG.Philips) famous for their S-IPS
AU Optronics (belongs to Acer)
Chimei Vision (CMV, mostly on low cost LCD Panel)
Samsung (Samsung also the OEM for Dell)

The best of all panel class would be for LP Display S-IPS (Super In Plane Switching) for wide viewing angle and 8-bit color depth. Samsung now do produce 8-bit panel as well but using different technology which is just as good as S-IPS.
The hierarchy goes lower with other brand like AU Optronics and so forth...

03.2 - Color Depth
There's something that most people never realized that despite that you can set your graphic card to reproduce 32-bit True Color, your LCD display might not be displaying the complete set of dynamic range. One of the main reason is the HARDWARE LIMITITION; the LCD panel weren't capable at doing that.

LP Display had produced panel with pixels producing 8-bit of color depth, for a long time. Samsung started to do that a few years back for their high-contrast series panel but uses 6-bit for other higher response rate and smaller panel size for budget range (cut edges). Perhaps you might not notice it when u are on ONE panel at a time, if u walk around IT center displaying a myriads of LCD panel that display one single image using monitor splitter would shows you the different in color depth; 8-bit panel looks much more realistic. But mine you, some crappy monitor spillter or loose cable connection leads to bad output on other LCD panel could be a reason why it looks crappy on an 8-bit panel as well...

03.3 - Response Rate, GtG and T,on-T,
'Ghosting' is the type of UNWANTED motion blur you won't want for your LCD during fast paced action gaming or movies. It's more obvious on a moving bright object over a dark background. You may even test it with your mouse cursor in wide over a desktop in pure black and all icons hidden. To counter this product, the LCD panel TFT (thin film transistor, or small switches) that switches the plane of the LCD pixel must perform a good job in switching fast enough (from ON to OFF or partially at an angle for different tone depth).

Basically, the faster it gets, the lesser ghosting will appear but beware, there are some new marketing ploy and standard to benchmark this. In fact, ghosting itself is more than just about switching time. For this, you really should drop by Tomshardware for an indepth review on LCD panel tech on what truly governs ghosting elimination on LCD panel. Say, if the response rate is 12ms, it means 8ms to turn ON, 4ms to turn OFF. Some provides 6ms/6ms ratio. Depends on which brand, panel and setup, it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. However, the best rule of thumb is to test it out at the shop running a battery test like DVD test, gaming test and dead-pixel test. Now there's something new in gauging this panel is Gray-to-Gray. Their notion is that most pixels on the screen will switches from Gray-to-Gray more often than from Pure White to Pure Black. This specification seems to makes their LCD spec looks more nicer, say like GtG at 2ms !!! Wow... that's quick, again, it's different than Black-to-White ways of gauging, but now they show both spec on the box to avoid or to FURTHER confuse customer.

03.4 - Contrast Ratio
This is the part where a nice display and bad display truly outshines. If you are a CRT user prior to this, you would realized that display on the CRT is much more realistic than LCD. This is partially due to the Contrast Ratio of the panel itself. You may percept Contrast Ratio as part of the color depth as well as how much Colors can your panel reproduce to provide equivalent tone of the Real World. At moment, the ACTUAL contrast ratio is governs by the panel bit-depth. but this can be further boosted with smart backlighting and software tweaking which can boost a panel contrast ratio all the way to 2000:1 (LP Display). Well, it definitely looks pleasing to our eyes but mine you, you can't tell the difference until u test it with some LCD calibrator which most of us won't do unless u are a digital photography manipulator where true to life color reproduction is a must. Some latest technology HDTV LCD TV comes with close to 10,000:1 contrast ratio for wide color gamut. A small contrast ratio display gives you flaky, water color-like image output, which will makes u want to change back to CRT.

03.5 - Native Resolution
Unlike CRT, each LCD got its native resolution, say like for an XGA Panel, it comes standard at 1024x768 resolution but this type of spec is too old to be available in the market this days except for 15" panel. If you like a more modern example, take a 15.4" WSXGA, it has a native resolution of 1680x1080. This can pose an issue/problem to buyers whose graphic card are onboard or low performance GPU where outputting 3D graphics at that resolution will gives serious lag and choppy output.

Then when you are thinking of scaling down to 800x600? the image will go small in the middle like a special edition collector stamps in the middle of an LCD screen. Stretching it to the screen size will also make the image becomes so blocky and pixellated. It is a lot worse that CRT. The best alternative is probably to get a decent screen size like 14" or 15" , not burdening your weight but not too small that you need to squint your eyes everytime.

03.6 - Output Ports: D-SUB (VGA), DVI (DVI-D, DVI-A, DVI-I) or HDMI
Now this part is the type of connectors u use to connect your LCD to your GPU. I believe most GPU comes with a DVI connection and a D-Sub output. But take note on the LCD monitor instead. Most comes standard with a D-Sub cable and a D-Sub port but those that comes with both D-Sub and DVI port might not comes with a DVI cable. The cable you might have to provide it yourself.

More so, with DVI cable, you have to option of tweaking the screen settings from the PC rather than pressing the small function button on the monitor panel UI. Also, some LCD though comes with DVI port, it might be a DVI-A (DVI Analog) port, which means it comes in DVI port format but it's still the same old Analog u get from D-Sub. And they don't give you a cable either. Some better brands or latest design now comes with a DVI-I port which is DVI Integrated where both the pins that responsible for Analog output and Digital output both available to the TMDS controller in the LCD panel. Some bigger and wider LCD panel comes with HDMI port that works with GPU with HDMI output to display HDCP content, say from a BluRay or HD-DVD titles. It's marketing gimmick anyway as there are some successful story of those who were able to playback HDCP content with just D-Sub and CRT.

03.7 - Screen Ratio: Widescreen 16:9/16:10 or Normal Aspect Ratio 4:3
This is a question of choice and tradeoffs. Some say Widescreen is SMALLER than NA ratio. That would depends on where you look and how you measure it. Assume that you are having both a 19" NA and 19"WXGA panel at hand. The WXGA at 16:9 or some 16:10 offers more viewable area than the NA counterpart while viewing 16:9 contents by more than 25% area. Turn it back to view NA content, you find that a WXGA panel is capable of displaying content in a PILLAR-BOXED mode where the content is less than NA panel where the area viewable reduced by more than 30%.

Of course, with a widescreen, you may display 2 A4 size document at the same time but at 19" WXGA, the letters might not be legible. If you are viewing a single page at the display width, you find that the number of lines viewable is a lot less and scrolling is more often though the size of the text increases. A normal CRT user will not get use to this scenario. But a widescreen movie experience would be far more enriching than on a 4:3 screen, because more movies comes in that format, no more letter-boxing. For a worthy widescreen upgrade, gets 22" inches and beyond. For comparison, a 22" WXGA panel HEIGHT (panel height) is same as the 19" NA panel HEIGHT. So there's no loss in the vertical plane but an increase in horizontal plane, good for VISTA with lots of Widgets and SideBar.

03.8 - Dead Pixel Policy
This is the part where you weight the laptop on the brand reputation and sales after service. Though most comes with a Zero Dead Pixel warranty, there are those who implement a minimum of 3 dead pixels (Dell, 5 dead pixels policy) to be accountable for a defect and qualifies for warranty exhange in a certain period of time. So you rate it among brands prior to purchase to have a clear understanding on how the policy works in case the LCD that you've tested finally shows it dead pixel later on.

Dead pixel are those pixel which are not able to reproduce color on the panel, which is a defect and makes your nice screen, well, defect. At least a 1 years minimum warranty period is needed for a reputable brand or more. But user feedback is important too. A 3-year warranted brand might not necessary means that they are more inferior to a 5-year warranted brand, the 5-year part might broke down/dead pixel earlier/more often than the 3-year counterpart.

04.0 - Size & Weight
This section is still under construction.

05.0 - RAM
This section is still under construction.

06.0 - HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
This section is still under construction.

07.0 - Optical Drive
Nowdays, most laptop comes with a COMBO drive standard which is a compliments as a CD burner, CD reader, as well as a DVD reader.

It depends on what you really wanted & how will you utilize your data. If you are those who download tons of stuff & fill up your HDD in a flash, then having a DVD Dual Layer Burner will definitely benefit you as you can store 4.5GB of data on a DVD-R that just cost you less than RM2 per DVD-R. It would also help those who use for business that they would like to store data of their daily or monthly sales.

Burning out your data into a DVD-R or CD-R could be said as much more permanent that storing in the HDD asit is known that the HDD has a limited lifespan.

08.0 - Battery & Charger
Laptop battery comes in two forms, the six-cell and nine-cell. The six-cell on normal usage mode can usually last a person 2-3 hours. Normal usage like wifi-on, listening to songs, chatting through the internet. While a nine-cell will probably give you 3-5 hours.

09.0 - Warranty & Service
Warranty is very important, it sort of gives your laptop an insurance cover just in case anything happens. Most brands offer their warranty 1-2 years but the best warranty available is from Dell with its "3 years complete cover" which covers all except fire, theft, loss, and lightning. It is important to read what the laptop brand warranty covers before you make a purchase so you know what it doesn't cover.

Source: MobilityX

How to Improve Your Finances

2008-03-04T08:27:00.001+08:00

From Zen Habits by Leo

"Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." - Woody Allen
We had the Parent Hacks earlier this week, and I was thinking it would be fun to do the same with finances — ways to trick yourself, to get around obstacles, to boost your accounts, without it hurting.

Improving your finances improves your happiness, in general, so I thought it would be important to share stuff that's worked for me.

I'm in the best financial shape in my life, despite quitting my job and my wife recently quitting hers too. A lot of that is thanks to you guys, the readers, but it's also thanks to frugality, to eliminating debt, to saving as much as I can. To these hacks.

Here's what works for me — please avoid flaming me, as I'm not saying they'll work for everybody. Share your tips and tricks in the comments!

Use cash. Instead of charging things to credit cards or debit cards, use cash for non-bill spending such as eating out, gas, groceries. Spending cash makes the spending more real, and there's an added advantage of knowing when you're out of cash, instead of spending more than you
Small weekly savings transfers. I got this idea from my friend Trent at The Simple Dollar, who automatically deducts $20 a week from his check to savings. I decided that I could live with $40/week without really feeling it — it's a relatively small transfer that I barely notice, and I save about $2,000 a year on top of my larger bi-weekly savings transfers.

Stay home. Going out makes you more likely to spend unnecessarily. You eat at restaurants, go to the mall, stop at the gas station for snacks. It's hard to avoid spending when you're on the road. Instead, stay home, and find free entertainment. It's also a great way to bond with your family.

Don't get catalogs. Or emailed announcements from companies trying to sell you stuff. Their announcements of sales or cool new products make it very tempting to buy something you don't need. Instead, stop the catalogs and emails from ever getting to you in the first place, and you'll spend less.

Keep a 30-day list. If you have an impulse to buy something you don't absolutely need, put it on a 30-day list. You can't buy anything but necessities — everything else goes on the list, with the date that it's added to the list. When the 30 days are up, you can buy it — but most likely, the strong urge to buy it will be gone, and you can evaluate it more calmly.

Cook at home. I know, it seems more difficult than eating out. But it doesn't have to be hard. Throw together a quick stir-fry with frozen veggies and either boneless chicken or (my favorite) tofu with soy sauce or tamari. Make home-made pizza with a ready-made crust, some sauce, cheese and veggies. Put some spices on something and throw it in the oven while you cook some brown rice. Not only is this much cheaper than eating out, but it's healthier.

Exercise. Staying healthy is the best way to avoid costly medical bills later.
Use the envelope system. It's the same idea as using cash for spending, but in addition you use envelopes to split your spending cash into categories. My non-bills categories are groceries, gas and miscellaneous spending. Three envelopes, and when they're empty, I've spent my allotment.

Talk with your SO weekly. It's important that you and your significant other be on the same page. You should have the same financial goals, and from there you should agree on a general spending plan and a policy for impulse buying that won't have either of you wanting to choke the other. Make sure you both know what bills have been paid, what your balances are, etc. A weekly meeting of just 20 minutes accomplishes that. Communication is key.

The spreadsheet tracker hack. There are expensive programs like MS Money, Quicken, and the like that will do amazing things with your financial information. There are even free ones, on your desktop or online, that can do all kinds of things. Trouble is, I don't need all that. All I want is a way to track my money easily, with no other bells and whistles, and a way to access that online so that I can view it from anywhere. The best way I found to do that is through Google Docs and Spreadsheets. I created a simple spreadsheet to track my bank accounts, that does everything I used to do with MS Money. It has the date of each transaction, the title and amount, a little field for memos, and a running balance. What more do I need? Keep it simple. Update: View a sample I put online here.

Pay savings and debt first. When you sit down to pay your bills (I do them all online), make the first bills you pay be your savings transfer and your debt payments. If not, if you pay them last … you'll often end up shortchanging them. But if you pay them first, you'll make sure you still pay your rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries and gas … so you'll just cut back on other spending.

Exercise at home. Some of you will disagree with me on this, which is OK — everyone should do what works for them. But I've saved a lot of money that I used to spend on gyms by just running at the local track or on the roads in my neighborhood, and buying some simple weights and a chin-up bar. I do a lot of body-weight exercises (pushups, Hindu squats, lunges, pullups, dips, etc.) and I don't need a gym for those things.

Cut out cable TV. I'm not saying I don't watch TV — I watch DVDs, so that I'm sure that what I'm watching is something great, rather than the useless stuff you find on TV most of the time. And there's a lot of it online for free if you look. Not a huge savings, but it adds up.

Declutter. By getting rid of all the excess stuff in your home, you not only make your life much simpler and more peaceful, but you make it harder to buy stuff that will just clutter things up again. Once you've simplified your home, you won't want to go back.

Lend and borrow. Give books and clothes and toys you don't need anymore to your friends and family. If you need something, send out an email asking if anyone has it. Chances are, they'll give it to you for free if they don't use it anymore.
Barter. It's a lost art, but lots of people will take your services or goods instead of money, especially if you're friends or at least know each other. Get into the habit of offering to barter, and you'll find yourself saving a lot of money. My website design was done through the barter system, so I saved well over $1,000 there, for example.

Use online savings. I use Emigrant Direct, but IMG Online is also popular, as are a bunch of other online banks. Not only do you earn like twice the interest of a normal bank savings account, but if you don't get the ATM account it's not as easy to withdraw money … making it less likely that you'll get money out on an impulse. Read more at Get Rich Slowly.

Try frugal gift-giving. Giving people gifts is one of the most wonderful traditions, as it shows generosity and caring. Until it becomes commercialized. Then it's just really really expensive. Instead, try giving the gift of spending time with someone. Try giving them something you baked or made yourself. Try giving them services they'd appreciate. It doesn't have to cost a lot to be generous.

Teach your kids about advertising, saving, earning, and gift-giving. If you have kids, educating them about money will save you a lot of money in the long run. If they know about how advertising influences them in tricky ways, they'll be less likely to demand (OK, beg and plead for) the latest fad toys. If they know about saving and earning money, they'll respect the money that you earn, and that you are trying to save. If they know that gift-giving doesn't have to be about spending a lot of money (see above), they won't necessarily want expensive stuff.

Find happiness in life, not spending. Many times people buy stuff because they think (subconsciously perhaps) that it will bring them happiness. They just HAVE to have the latest gadget or shoes or cars. It's so fun! And yet, you buy that stuff, and you're only happy for a day or two at most. Then you just need to buy more. It's a never-ending cycle. Instead, learn to love life. Find joy in nature! In the people around you! In doing something you love! In exercise and meditation! There's so much in life to make us happy, there's no need to find it in spending.

"I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money." - Pablo Picasso

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us or on Digg. I'd appreciate it. :)

How to choose the right bra?

2008-02-29T22:27:00.003+08:00

An estimated 70% of women do not know their proper bra measurements. Without knowing these measurements, it can be very difficult to buy fashionable and well fitting clothes. Many women's clothing items use bra or cup size measurements to distinguish differences in fit, so these measurements can be extremely important. This section will arm you with the knowledge you need for these crucial measurements.

Additionally, a woman's breasts change significantly over time, particularly during and after pregnancy. Weight loss, gain and monthly cycle variations can also have an effect on the fit of your bra. It is advised that you check your bra size once or twice a year or as necessary due to significant weight changes.

Determining your Bra/Band size
(ribcage circumference measurement)

1. Measure around the chest directly under the breast at a constant height with the cloth measuring tape. Add 5 inches to that measurement. This dimension is your bra/band size (If the bra size works out to an ODD number go up one inch to the next EVEN number.) This should equal the circumference around the chest, directly above the breasts/under the arms.

2. Now measure around the chest at the height of the fullest part of the breast. The measuring tape should be held horizontal, flat on your back, and your arms should be down. Make a note of that measurement (only used for comparison) and compare it to the Bra Size from step 1.
Determining your Cup size
(projection of breasts from chest wall)

3. To determine the proper Cup Size, find the difference between step 2 and step 1 (step 2 - step 1.) Use the chart below to determine your Cup Size.

Difference & cup size
Half inch - AA
One inch - A
Two inches - B
Three inches - C
Four inches - D
Five inches - DD or E
Six inches - F
Seven inches - G

Note: 1 inch ~= 2.5 centimeters

Example:
Step 1: Underbust measurement is 37". Add 5 inches. Bra Size is 42.
Step 2: Full bust measurement is 45".
Step 3: 45 - 42 = 3" difference. Cup size is C.
Result: Buy a 42C bra.

Travel & vacation tips

2008-02-13T21:27:00.001+08:00

coming soon...

Financial freedom

2008-02-12T21:31:00.001+08:00

Key to financial freedom...
1. How to cut credit card debt
2. How to save money/budget
3. How to improve your finances?

Natural look makeup

2008-01-11T00:04:00.003+08:00

My fav youtube videos on makeup.

How to manage your allergies better

2007-11-16T09:44:00.000+08:00

It’s not those beautiful roses that make us scratch, sniff and wheeze. It’s the pollen from trees, grasses and low-growing things like ragweed (ah choo!).

Here are some of the things you can do to ease your allergies:
1.Keep windows and doors closed.

2.When you come in from outside, if you’ve been exposed to allergens, take a shower and shampoo your hair. Same for the kids.

3.When allergens are at their peak, stay inside. This site ( http://www.pollen.com ) will tell you how your city is doing, and generally speaking allergens are worse in the mornings.

4.Avoid fans because they circulate the air, especially that ceiling fan over your bed.

5.Get your bedrooms more friendly. Remove anything that collects dust – curtains, drapes, stuffed toys, rugs, books, and, alas, Fido needs to sleep elsewhere. Use blinds and linoleum or tile for flooring. And speaking of Fido, best allergy-friendly choices for a dog are Maltese, bichon frise and poodle. For a cat, the sphinx or the rex. (Source: Dr. Kross, DVM)

6.Avoid places where molds are – basement, lawn mowing and raking leaves, humidifiers, and leaving clothes in the washing machine. Don’t let wet towels lie or hang around. Take care of plumbing and roof leaks immediately. Also beware of mold in refrigerated jams and jelly, and on cured, salty meats like ham, bacon and salami, certain cheeses. Don’t sniff it, just throw it out. Click for more on mold and food.

7. Wash bedding frequently at a temperature of at least 130 degrees F.
Use hypoallergenic covers for mattress, pillows and box springs. (Your bed is full of dust mites).

8. Keep your house and lawn as uninviting to cockroaches and bug as possible. Keep food sanitary and in the garbage, not lying around. Avoid lots of ground cover near the swimming pool. Get rid of paper grocery bags. They can harbor cockroach eggs.

9.Avoid irritants such as scented candles, eucalyptus, perfume, potpourri, chalk dust, newspaper print, tobacco smoke, and markers. Use hypoallergenic makeup and cleaning products.

10.If you’re allergic to a food, avoid it. Also certain foods cross-react with certain pollens to give a double wallop. For example, elm is pollinating in January and February, and milk products should be reduced or eliminated. Check out the list here: http://www.wfaa.com/weather/allergy/allergy7.html .
For more resources, go here: http://www.aaaai.org/patients/topicofthemonth/0201/default.stm .

Copyright©Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach™. I offer coaching around emotional intelligence – relationships, career, transitions, retirement, and personal and professional development. I offer distance learning courses, and an EQ library.

How to organize your bathroom

2007-11-16T09:40:00.000+08:00

When your bathroom cabinets are busting at the seams and your shelves are spilling over, it's time to get organized. Try these four easy organizing steps to bring some order to your chaos.When your bathroom cabinets are busting at the seams and your shelves are spilling over, it's time to get organized. Try these four easy organizing steps to bring some order to your chaos.

1. Clean and Clear
Remove everything from the drawers and cabinets. Toss out all old and unused or out of date products: Make-up, hair care, lotions, medicines (check expiration dates). Remember, "When in doubt, throw it out!" Move your medicines and vitamins to the kitchen. The moisture and heat from the bath will ruin them.

As you sort through things, take the time to evaluate whether or not you really need each item. If you have kept perfume samples, and cosmetics that are the wrong color, now is the time to throw them out or give them away. If you aren't using them why keep them?
Wipe out the cupboards and shelves. Clean off the counter top. Replace the shelf paper on the shelves and in the cabinets if needed.

2. Only the Essentials
The next step is to organize your belongings. Start by putting back only the essential items that you use every day. Put them in locations where they will be easily accessible. Try to store what you can under the sink in plastic bins. If you have the room, give each family member their own plastic bin to store their toiletries.

As you arrange your counter top, try to put out only the things that you will use on a regular basis. If you can get away without anything on the counter, that is even better. There will be less to clean.

If you have decorative items, now is the time to review their relevancy. If you don't really love them, replace them or remove them all together. There is no sense in having things you don't really love in your home; especially if you need to clean them.

3. Making Families
Categorize your shelves and drawers by creating families of like items: shaving products, hair styling, makeup, nails, personal hygiene items, first aid, medicines, etc.

4. Relocate the Excess
Make sure that only items that belong in the bathroom are in the bathroom. Transfer cleaning products to a caddy and store them under the kitchen sink. Store surplus toilet paper, shampoo and seasonal items, such as beach towels, tanning, or sunburn lotions in the hall closet or other location.

4. Storage Ideas
Make use of dead space. Try using any or all of the following organizing ideas: wall mounted cabinets, carts on wheels, hooks on back of door, shower caddies, coat rack, hanging mesh bag for holding children's bath toys, wall mount hair dryer and curling iron, drawer organizers.

Once your bathroom is organized, sit back and admire your work. If you make this an annual project, your bathroom will always be a joy to use. Now go take a bubble bath. You deserve it!

About the Author
Martha Matthews is the Editor of Christian-Homemaking.com, a web site with resources dedicated to Christian homemaking. In addition to her web site, she also has a popular free monthly newsletter for Christian wives called The Wives of Excellence Newsletter.

How to choose perfume

2007-11-16T09:28:00.000+08:00

The choice of fragrances and scents seems to grow wider every day, as manufacturers fight for our attention and try ever harder to distinguish their offerings from the competition. With such a selection to choose from, how does one even begin to know where to start when it comes to buying perfume?

Broadly speaking, all perfumes fall into one of six different categories based on their dominant top notes. Different categories will suit different people or occasions.

Earthy or woody type perfumes evoke smells of the forest, and are usually very refreshing. They often tend to appeal to the older generation, and may make ideal gifts.

Oriental fragrances use strong spicy scents, and are ideal for special social occasions, but be cautious giving them to anyone you don’t know well – these intense perfumes can be a very personal choice.

The so-called “greens” are much lighter than the orientals, and are well suited to more casual wear. Because they make a less dramatic assault on the nose, they are also safer to give as gifts!

Modern “oceanic” fragrances are becoming more and more popular, particularly among younger people who appreciate the intense but often quite unusual scents, which instantly bring to mind seaside scenes. Naturally these are an excellent choice in the warmer months when thoughts turn to holidays.

Spicy fruity perfumes are also a good warm-weather choice, and can be a good all-round choice for the woman who wants to wear something with some traditional base-notes but is a little different to the classic floral scents.

Finally, those classic floral fragrances are suitable for almost everyone and any occasion. But be wary of cheaper brands; this most feminine of all the main groups works best when the ingredients used are of high quality, and that means less expensive brands can smell exactly that.

Ultimately, choosing a fragrance is a very personal choice, and many women prefer to stick with what they know and buy the same thing year after year. But by trying different fragrances from the same group as your favourite smell, you may just discover a new gem.

Copyright©Sara Blackmoore is a relationship councellor, and a freelance writer.

How to prevent acne

2007-11-16T08:48:00.000+08:00

You probably don’t know this yet but product wastes and toxic build up in your system is one of the main reasons why you have acne or why your skin breaks out.

You see, your body has 4 channels of elimination... your bowels, kidneys, lungs, and your skin. Your bowels and kidneys are the primary channels that your body expels product wastes and toxics through. The only time that your body expels product wastes through your lungs and skin is when your bowels and kidneys are overloaded with product wastes and toxics. This can happen when you’re not drinking enough water.

You see, water is the main carrier of nutrients throughout your body and is quite possibly the single most important contributor to healing and preventing acne flare-ups. Drinking enough water will dissolve waste products in your system so it can be easily remove and flush out.

Without enough water, there won’t be much to dissolve these product wastes and toxics... causing it to build up in your system and causing your body to expel these product wastes and toxics through your lungs and skin. And this can and will result in acne breakout.

How much water should you be drinking each day to dissolve product waste and flush out toxins from your body? Although some would say you drink at least 8 glasses of water a day and some would say 3 liters a day or half of your bodyweight in ounces a day. I say, you should drink only enough to see that your urine is mostly clear, which is probably much more than what you’re drinking now.

But I wouldn’t recommend you going overboard because drinking too much water will also flush out electrolyte minerals out of your system (which is not good). So how do you know how much water you should be drinking each day?

Test!

Start by drinking 7 glasses of water a day for the next 2 to 3 days. If you see that your urine is clear then 7 glasses of water a day is what you should be drinking. But remember, you don’t want to go overboard so you may want to try drinking 6 glasses of water a day. If you see that your urine is kind of yellow drinking 6 glasses of water a day then you should stick to 7 glasses of water a day. If not then you should stick with 6 glasses of water a day.

But if you find that 7 glasses of water a day is not enough. Then you should try drinking more glasses of water a day and see the results. What you’re trying to do here is make sure you’re drinking enough water each day. Not too much or too little. Another important thing you should know... You can’t just drink any type of water. There are certain types of water that’s full of toxins (such as tap water).

The 2 types of water I recommend you drink is distilled water and purified water. Distilled water has no minerals, which means if you drink it, it will leach out any unwanted non-organic minerals from your system. But since distilled water has no minerals (it’s just dead water), you will need to drink some purified water to oxygenate your system. However, you do need to drink them separately and drink it on an empty stomach for it to be effective. While water alone will not eliminate your acne it will greatly assist your skin in remaining healthy and that will be one portion of the pie in fighting acne.

Copyright© Houa Yang

How to avoid colds and flu during winter

2007-11-16T08:43:00.000+08:00

For most of us, the worst part about the winter season is that it’s also flu season. Every year, the flu costs Americans approximately $10 billion in lost wages and medical expenditures. Make sure you and your loved ones are taking the proper steps to stay healthy throughout the cooler months.

One of the most effective methods for preventing the spread of disease-causing bacteria and other germs is a simple act most of us perform everyday: washing our hands. What we don’t do is perform this act properly or often enough. Schools are large breeding grounds for cold and flu viruses and studies have shown that children who wash their hands more frequently tend to get sick less often. Practicing good hand-washing habits can provide an effective extra line of defense for you and everyone around you. “Common cold, flu and stomach viruses for example, can live on the fingertips for hours, and they can survive on the surfaces of objects for days,” says Dr. Philip M. Tierno Jr., author of “The Secret Life of Germs” (Pocket Books Nov. 2001). “Bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics, but for the most part viral infections simply have to run their course.” Therefore, the best way to avoid such illnesses is to prevent them from ever occurring.

Dr. Tierno recommends the following hand-washing regimen:
* Effective hand washing requires both soap and water. Merely rinsing the hands with water alone is next to useless
* Wet your hands thoroughly and lather them with soap
* Rub the soapy water all over the hands and fingers for at least 20 to 30 seconds
* Don’t forget to wash under fingernails
* Rinse and repeat

As for frequency, you should wash your hands several times a day, before eating, after using a bathroom facility and after coughing or sneezing on them. After shaking hands with someone, you should avoid touching your face or mouth until an opportunity presents itself to wash up. It also makes sense to wash whenever coming in from outside.

In public bathrooms, you should wash your hands before using the toilet if you have had to touch a doorknob or other surface on the way in. When you wash your hands afterward, use a paper towel or tissue to shut off the faucet and open the door.

Dr. Tierno also recommends the use of tissues over handkerchiefs, which according to him tend to become “germ reservoirs” as we tend to hold on to them even after we’ve used them to blow our noses.

For an added layer of protection, use an anti-bacterial soap containing a germicide such as Triclosan. According to Dr. Tierno, “It seems to me that germicides can be a valuable support to good health, especially for groups who are at extra risk when it comes to infectious diseases.

Children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with depressed immune systems are particularly vulnerable. While germicides are no substitute for conscientious hygiene, they fight bacteria, have no side effects and have not been shown to contribute to increased bacterial resistance.” Even if you don’t fall into one of the higher risk groups, you owe it to others to be more conscious of hand washing to avoid transmitting germs.

Also, habits are best formed early on. If there are any children in your home, take the time to set a good example and teach them how to wash their hands properly.

Courtesy of ARA Content.

How to wash a down comforter

2007-11-16T08:40:00.000+08:00

Few things are as comforting on a cold winter night as a down comforter. Soft and fluffy, down comforters are like a big hug after a long day. If properly cared for, a high-quality down comforter can last for many years. So, what is the proper way to care for down?

Surprisingly, down comforters actually require very little day-to-day care, aside from a little fluffing. Down comforters should be fluffed frequently, preferably every day. They should also be covered with a duvet to protect from spills. If adequately protected, they do not require frequent cleaning. In fact, many down comforter manufacturers recommend that down comforters only be cleaned every few years, though they should be aired out occasionally.

When washing down comforters is necessary, it is best to leave it to a professional cleaner. While down can be dry-cleaned, the results are better if it is instead cleaned with specially designed solutions.

If, however, you prefer to do it yourself, you will need to use an oversized front-loading commercial grade machine. If needed, you can use non-chlorine bleach. Do not use your home machine. It is not designed for cleaning large down comforters. Using it could lead to damaging your comforter—or your machine. After washing down comforters, you should dry them in a large commercial dryer on medium heat. Although this could take several hours, do not try to speed up the process by using high heat. This can burn the comforter. Even on medium heat, it is important to check periodically and make sure the unit is not overheating.

Be patient during the long drying process -- failure to properly dry your down comforter could lead to mildew growth. With proper care and infrequent washing and drying, your down comforter can provide many years of reliable warmth and comfort.

About the author:
Down Comforters Info provides detailed information about various types of down comforters, including goose, luxury, down alternative, and discount down comforters, as well as down comforter covers, and instructions on washing down comforters. Down Comforters Info is the sister site of Waterbed Sheets Web.

7 tips for a healthy pregnancy

2007-11-16T08:33:00.000+08:00

It is always important to take whatever steps you can to be healthy, but while you are pregnant it is even more important: not only do you need to take good care of yourself, you are also profoundly affecting the life of another person – your baby.

Here's 7 tips to help you along the way.

1.If you smoke, one of the most important things you can do is to stop smoking: babies born to mothers who smoke have a lower average birth weight, are more likely to be born prematurely, and are at greater risk of death from sudden infant death syndrome than babies of non-smokers. Sometimes mothers feel having a low birth weight baby could be an advantage as it will make the baby easy to deliver. This is not necessarily the case, as it may lead to an emergency delivery, which can result in all sorts of complications. Even if you are already pregnant, stopping smoking will benefit the baby for the rest of your pregnancy. It is not only the baby who benefits. You are likely to suffer from less morning sickness, experience fewer complications and have a more contented baby after the birth.

2. It is also important to pay attention to your diet. Many women feel they should ‘eat for two’, but research has shown that women only need an extra 200-300 calories a day while pregnant, and you may be eating those extra calories anyway. What is important is to ensure that you get the protein, vitamins and minerals necessary to build another human being. Those extra 200-300 calories should not be squandered on chocolate or crisps, but should be eaten as fruit, vegetables, etc. It is also important to increase your water intake, which will help avoid constipation.

3. It is generally a good idea to take a good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement too. There are now ones specially formulated for pregnant women. Ideally these should be started before you become pregnant, so that you are in the best shape possible for the pregnancy, and then continued throughout your pregnancy. An adequate supply of vitamins and minerals is important right from conception.

For example, a deficiency of one of the B vitamins, folic acid, in the first month of pregnancy may lead to the baby being born with a cleft lip, congenital heart disease or spina bifida. Omega-3 fatty acids (obtained by eating oily fish, flaxseed oil, walnuts, spinach and spirulina, or taken as a supplement) are important for the development of the baby’s eyes and brain. Omega-3 also reduces the risk of premature birth and post-natal depression.

4. Nobody knows how much alcohol it is safe to consume during pregnancy, so many health experts feel it is better to avoid alcohol entirely for the sake of the baby. This can seem hard on the pregnant woman when everyone else is drinking, but it is important to remember that alcohol is a poison for the growing baby, and no caring mother willingly gives her baby poison.

5. Pregnancy is not a time to sit still. Although adequate rest is vitally important, most experts believe that healthy pregnant women should be taking 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day.

6. It is also important to minimise exposure to toxic chemicals while pregnant, so spending a lot of time painting the house and laying new carpets is not a good idea, especially in the early stages of pregnancy when the baby is particularly vulnerable.

7. Many women find pregnancy stressful, and this can be a particularly good time to turn to safe, non-invasive options such as Bach flower remedies, homeopathy, kinesiology and other therapies.

Making a new life is something miraculous. Doing the best you can for that new life starts long before you have the baby in your arms for the first time.

About the author:
Jane Thurnell-Read is an author and researcher on health, allergies and stress. She has written two books for the general public: "Allergy A to Z" and "Health Kinesiology".

How to avoid swelling when pregnant

2007-11-16T08:30:00.000+08:00

Edema, otherwise known as swelling, will affect almost all women at some point during their pregnancy. Swelling or Edema is most often the result of excessive levels of hormones coursing through your body.

Really, the best thing you can do to combat swelling is to drink far more fluid. It may seem counter intuitive, but the more juice and water you drink the less water your body will hold onto and the less puffy you will be. You should be working to drink at least 10 eight ounce glasses of water per day.

Also try to avoid diuretic beverages such as tea and coffee, which contain caffeine. These are more likely to dehydrate you than invigorate you during your pregnancy.

You might also consider wearing some support stockings during your pregnancy. These will not only help combat swelling, but may help prevent or minimize the effects of varicose veins later in pregnancy. Most medical care suppliers carry support hosiery that works well for women during pregnancy. You should look for support hose with a medium grading minimum, meaning they provide firm support. Compression hose can often be purchased online. You can also ask your healthcare provider where you might purchase a pair or two.

About the author:
Article by Beverley Brooke, author of "Ensure a healthy safe pregnancy for you and your baby".

How to prevent varicose veins

2007-11-16T08:23:00.000+08:00

Varicose veins – they can hurt and, well, let’s face it. They’re not exactly pretty, are they? So how can we prevent varicose veins?

While certain factors including age, genetics and whether or not you’re pregnant can play a huge role in whether or not you’ll get varicose veins, there are certain lifestyle changes that can help prevent varicose veins.

Varicose veins are twisted, enlarged veins, especially in the lower legs caused by over-pressured veins. The best cure is prevention. So start standing up straight! Good posture can help prevent varicose veins. Maintaining an ideal body weight will also help you to prevent varicose veins. When we are overweight more pressure is placed on our entire circulatory system, including the veins in the legs.

Something very popular that can contribute to the development of varicose veins is crossing your legs. Next time you sit down remember not to cross your legs, and if your legs are crossed right now un-cross them! You’ll be helping yourself prevent varicose veins.

If you want to prevent varicose veins take it upon yourself to take part in some light exercise each week. Activities such as walking, cycling and swimming help to boost circulation without adding unnecessary pressure to the veins.

Okay, so I know they’re fashionable, but high heels are really bad for you! If you want to prevent varicose veins kick the high heel habit now! Wearing high heels adds a lot of undue stress to your lower legs, which can, in turn, contribute to the cause of varicose veins.

In order to prevent varicose veins you should also avoid wearing clothes that are tight on the crotch, waist and legs, stretch your legs when sitting for long periods of time and wear mild compression pantyhose if you are required to stand for long periods of time.

About the author:
Kate and Phil Wiley run the popular health sites http://www.healthy-shopper.com, Health in 1 http://www.health-in-1.com and Advice on Health http://www.advice-on-health.com

How to take care of jewelry

2007-11-16T08:14:00.000+08:00

Sterling Silver & 14kt Gold: Both will tend to tarnish over time.
- Store all precious metal jewelry in a zip lock bag to protect it. This does not stop the discoloration, but will drastically slow the process.
- Use a polishing cloth as needed for cleaning your jewelry.

Jewelry with semi-precious stones and crystals:
- Store all jewelry with semi-precious stones and crystals in a zip lock bag to protect it.
- Check the instructions on your jewelry cleaning solution prior to placing any items with stones in it to be cleaned. Some stones, such as turquoise, and freshwater pearls cannot be placed in most jewelry cleaning solutions.
- Do not wear your jewelry when you are showering or washing dishes.
- Use caution when wearing lotions and perfumes, for they will discolor gems such as turquoise.

Pearls:
Special care should be taken with pearls. They are much more fragile than most gemstones.
- Use caution when using hairspray and perfumes. Let dry completely before donning your pearls.
- Cleaning pearl jewelry: wipe with a clean dry soft cloth after wearing them.

About the author:
Lisa Jay is a freelance writer and the jewelry designer behind Lantana Designwear. You can sign up for her newsletter to receive information on jewelry, fashion and womens issues.

How to choose web hosting

2007-11-13T18:30:00.000+08:00

Indeed, choosing a right web hosting service for your website is not an easy task especially when there are thousands of web hosting providers all offering almost identical web hosting packages.

Therefore, it is important to know few major considerations even before you start your web hosting search.

Below are three major criteria for web host seeker:

Web hosting features requirement
This is probably the most important consideration to start finding a host for your site.

You need to decide the technical requirements for your website, this including:

a) Server platform and hardware requirements
If you plan to set up a website that uses programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic scripts, Cold Fusion or Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database, in this case, you will need to find a web hosting service that supports Windows platform such as Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers.Likewise, if you plan to use programming languages such as Perl, CGI, SSI, PHP or mySQL database, then any web hosting plans that support Unix/Linux platform should be sufficient to meet your hosting requirements. Once you have these server platform and hardware requirements in mind, you can decide the best web hosting plans for your need.

b) Disk space & Bandwidth requirement
Here is another technical requirement that you need to consider before selecting a web hosting plan, i.e. disk space and bandwidth. If you intend to publish a website that does not have a lot of contents (meaning, web pages), then the disk space requirement may not be a big concern to you. In general, a disk space with 200MB to 500MB should be enough to meet your hosting requirement. In contrast, if you plan to host a website with enormous amount of graphic pictures, mp3 or video files, then you should consider a web hosting plan that provide huge disk space, for example, 500 MB to 1,000 MB. Similarly, the bandwidth requirement will depend on your site traffic estimation.

Obviously, a website that expect to attract high traffic will consume the monthly bandwidth allowance very fast. If so, you will need to find one web hosting service that offer huge bandwidth with 40 GB to 100 GB per month. Depending upon your website requirement, choosing a web hosting service that provide sufficient amount of disk space and bandwidth is crucial consideration to prevent paying extra costs in the future should you overuse the monthly disk space and bandwidth allowance.

c) Other hosting features
While the above requirements are utmost important, there are other hosting features that you have to consider too.

Can web hosting provider support video clips on your website, if you have?

Is the web hosting service compatible with Dreamweaver or FrontPage web authoring tool? Do you plan to set up a virtual store online?

Can the host support the e-commerce features without adding extra cost to your monthly payments?

On top of that, you may also want to find out the number of email accounts provided, number of FTP accounts, web statistic software (analyze your web traffic), type of control panel supported (manage your web hosting account), database and scripting languages supported and etc.

Reliability and scalability
A first-class web hosting provider offers reliable server uptime and fast Internet connection.

You should only choose a web hosting service that guarantee at least 99% server uptime with high-speed Internet backbones using at least OC3 (Optical Carrier) lines (155 Megabits per second) or above instead of T1 or T3 lines. A reliable web hosting provider usually invests heavily on their data center infrastructure with high performance servers, high speed multiple backbones providers with fail-over redundancy, backup power generators and firewall software protection in place to ensure they meet the uptime guarantee specified in the terms of service.

Similarly, you should choose a web hosting service with hardware facilities that designed for scalability, so that they can grow with your business.

For example, if you need to increase more disk space, bandwidth or number of mySQL databases, you should be able to upgrade as needed without any problems. Customer service and supportThe last major consideration in choosing a web hosting service is to find a web hosting providers that offers excellent customer service and support.

You should always search for a web hosting provider that offers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week technical support that fielded with highly experience technicians, so that any web hosting problems will be resolved within a reasonable amount of time.

You may also want to consider to test how responsive is their customer support by sending few inquiry emails to the web hosting provider. In general, any response in less than 24 hours is considered acceptable. It is a sign of poor customer support if they take more than one day to response.

In addition, a web hosting provider with excellent support should also provide multiple support channels, such as toll-free phone support, 24/7 email support, live chat, online knowledgebase, Interactive flash tutorials and FAQ.

Above are few major considerations before you choose your web hosting service.

In addition, how long has the web hosting provider in business and the number of customers that they currently have are also a good indication of the quality of their hosting products as well as the stability of the company. Even though cost of the web hosting service is also important but it should not be your major consideration. Because the price of a web hosting service has been declining over the years due to competition, as a result, the price of most of the web hosting services offering quality hosting features has been converging to less than US$10 per month. If you can't afford less than $10 per month, you probably isn't in the online business for the long haul.

Therefore, price should not be a major deciding factor.On the other hand, it is more important to ensure the web hosting service that you choose is able to meet your website hosting requirements, guarantee your website is always accessible with satisfying speed, provide scalability to grow and expand your website as well as offer excellent customer supports.

How to start internet marketing

2007-11-13T17:24:00.001+08:00

Internet has become very important today. More and more people are relying on the internet to find information and with the advanced technology now, we can even buy products and make payment through the internet.

There has been a tremendous increment in the number of people subscribing to or accessing the internet. Just look at the statistics here! More over, Internet has been shown as the third most popular media for marketing! Thus internet marketing has now become an important strategy to boost your business profit.

So, this site is intentionally created to provide useful information to…
*Those who already had a business whether it is small, medium or even home based business and looking towards getting their business online or on the Internet.
*Those who want to earn money as an internet marketer or affiliates.

HOW TO START YOUR INTERNET MARKETING?

To really be able to market your business online, you should have your own website. You can either build the website yourself if you know how to do it or hiring an expertise to build it. There are also a few website builder tools available in the market now.

Next, you need to search for and secure your preferred domain name with a web host.

Finally, you should promote your website. An online and offline promotion is very important if you really want to get traffic to your website.

Copyright Internet Marketing

How to start internet marketing

2007-11-13T17:24:00.000+08:00

Internet has become very important today. More and more people are relying on the internet to find information and with the advanced technology now, we can even buy products and make payment through the internet.

There has been a tremendous increment in the number of people subscribing to or accessing the internet. Just look at the statistics here! More over, Internet has been shown as the third most popular media for marketing! Thus internet marketing has now become an important strategy to boost your business profit.

So, this site is intentionally created to provide useful information to…
>
Those who already had a business whether it is small, medium or even home based business and looking towards getting their business online or on the Internet.
>
Those who want to earn money as an internet marketer or affiliates.

HOW TO START YOUR INTERNET MARKETING?

To really be able to market your business online, you should have your own website. You can either build the website yourself if you know how to do it or hiring an expertise to build it. There are also a few website builder tools available in the market now.

Next, you need to search for and secure your preferred domain name with a web host.

Finally, you should promote your website. An online and offline promotion is very important if you really want to get traffic to your website.

Copyright Internet Marketing

How to choose a digital camera

2007-11-13T13:57:00.000+08:00

The huge variety of Digital Cameras in the market is a great thing but it is making our buying decision a difficult task. The following buying tips will help you make a better, more educated, focused and rational purchase decision. Please take into acccount that there is no one perfect Digital Camera that contains all the requiered features and sells at a low price too, so it will be a compromise like many others we make in life.

Do You Really Need a Digital Camera?
To answer this compare the price of mid range digital cameras and devide it by the cost of a roll of film. How many rolls of film you need to buy before covering the cost of your digital camera? On average good mid range digital camera cost aprox $ 600. Film will avarage $ 2. you will buy 200 rolls of films before ever covering the cost of your new digital camera.

Think about it, how much time in terms of years would it take to shoot 300 rolls of film X 36 frames? It is almost 11,000 pictures! Shooting ten rolls a year on average would take 30 years to spend $ 600 in terms of rolls of film and if the cost of the camera was only $ 200 then it will take " only " 10 years. Do you start geting the picture here? Don't forget that there is the cost of developing and the cost of the prints, but if you want to get simmilar quality prints as film camera then you will have to send your digital images to a mini lab printer as well.

So please, don't buy into the idea you are saving money here...

It is true though that with the digital camera you print only the best shots you like most and not all 36 pictures, so at some point everything begins to balance out. Another point to consider is that, many people don't print digital images, they store it on their computers or over the internet in digital albums, or they make a presentation with background music, burn it on a DVD disk, and share it with family and friends at their living room on TV. The truth is always somewhere in the middle.

If it is not necessarily cheaper, Does the Digital Cameras give better quality results? The answer is short: NO! experts may even argue that film quality is better.

There is the psychological aspect behind it all. Remember not having to buy film gives you the free feeling of taking as many pictures as you like, with instant satisfaction of seeing results immediately. Secondly,you always have the option to retake shots.

Thirdly, people tend to store or print only the best pictures. The overall result is improvement in our recorded memories, we shoot much more, correct and delete bad ones and store or print only the very best.

In addition, imaging software enables us to even further improve saturation of colors, Compensate for bad exposures, crop, rotate, make a collage from many pictures, add Artistic Graphics Text and style.

To sum it all up, it is not true that the Digital Cameras are saving money, the quality is not higher than Film camera, in general the new better Digital cameras give you more manual control over exposure and shutter speeds. Psychologically we feel relaxed and free to shoot much more pictures. The end result is an overall improvement in recording our live memories.

What Do You Need to Look for in a Digital Camera:

Examine the Camera at a real store:
First I would like to suggest that the whole buying process not be done over the internet even though it is convenient and tempting. In my view it is very important to see the camera, to hold it in your hands, and most importantly to try it and see the results.

The features of many digital cameras look quite similar and it is hard to make a decision merely by feature comparisons . It might be very handsome nice looking camera on the internet but may be it is too small for your big hands? Did you know that some Digital cameras Have up to 3 seconds delay between pushing the button and the actual shutter Movement (Picture taking). In 3 seconds my son is out of the frame already...

One warning, come prepared (after reading this article), listen to the salesman but with a critic ear, as objectivety may be abscured and profit margin goals may be at mind. You don't have to buy at the store, If you like a specific camera now is the time to go to the internet and compare specific model prices. buy only at a reputable and reliable store either virtual or not.

Decide on a Certain Budget and Stick to it:
Photo gear has a lot of wana haves, nice to haves and let me have that one as well, gadgets. most camera manufacturers provide a basic memory card of 16 MB, this will be good for only a few high quality pictures, I strongly recommend you will buy a 128 MB or even better yet 256 MB Memory Card. Since Digital Cameras use LCD screen, batery consumption is much higher than what you are use to in film cameras, it is recommended to invest in a battery charger. Allocate a budget for your camera, but make sure it includes the Camera + Memory Card + Battery charger + case and even consider Wide Angel Converter.

Skin tone:
Test the cameras quality by taking a picture of people, observe the skin tone (face, hands etc'), does the skin tone looks natural to you? Or is it too pale or yellowish? Is it too reddish or pink? Insist on a good natural result.

How Many Mega Pixels?
The very basic " Point & Shoot " models can start with 2 Mega and can give very good results but I recommend you choose 3 mega or even 4 Mega for prints of up to 5 x 7. If you don't need many enlargements it is high quality and sufficient. There are compact models with even 7 Mega pixels but for all practical reasons it is an over kill, I would invest in wider aperture lens and longer range zoom. Don't think if your neighbor bought a 7 Mega camera that his camera is better, It's not.

What Aperture Lens:
The smaller the number the better, it is always marked with "f", for instance aperture range: f2.8 - f4, if it is constant on the entire zoom range, let's say f2.8 on all zoon range - excellent, the longer the zoom range the harder it is to produce a small aperture number, for instance a zoom range of 36mm - 420mm (12 X) if it is f2.8 on all the range it is impressive. a camera with Aperture range of f2 - f3 Very good. Higher aperture than f5 will produce less desirable results.

Zoom Range:(Optical)
The longer the range the better, you can catch a distant object, make nice close ups and portraits, it gives you more accessibility, flexibility and creative options. A long 420 mm (12 X) is excellent range BUT, you need to understand that the longer the zoom range the bigger the amplification of any hand shaking with the camera, therefore it is recommended to hold your breath, be as stable as you can with your hands and body but even better yet to use a Tripod. I would even compromise a bit on the range to be 370 mm (10 X) " only ". Important feature on a long-range zoom is an Anti-Shake or Image stabilizer. These features compensate approximately one f stop or more on movements.

I referred here to Optical zoom, there is a digital zoom in addition but usually the quality of it is very low, some salesmen tend to confuse the customers by multiplying the optical zoom by the digital zoon and claiming the camera to be 12 optical x 4 digital = (48 X)! Ignore such statements, refer just to Optical zoom.

In the old Film cameras a long zoom range meant a very long bulge, in the current modern Digital Cameras it extends less than an inch and stops, all the rest is done internally by the Cameras optics.

Wide Angel:
Most Digital Cameras do not have wide angel! It is one of the their biggest shortcomings, 36 mm or even worse 37 mm is not a wide angel zoom, as a result when taking pictures indoor you will notice you cannot catch a better part of the scene or only part of the room, when shooting outdoor you will notice that only part of the landscape can be included in the frame. Not to worry, there is a solution! Wide Angel Adaptor, it is an add on which is placed over the existing lens. It can be (X 0.75) = 28 mm, it can be (X 0.66) = 24 mm which is excellent. There is an additional charge for adopters as they are produced either by a third party or the original manufacturer of the camera. Adaptors give small Distortions so as a rule of thumb it is much better to have the original manufacturer adaptor as it matches optically much better. There are even Macro ad on Adaptors available.

LCD Screen:
The bigger the better, average size is 1.8", but there are models with 2" and even 2.5", another feature is a swivel (flip-out & twist) LCD screens, you can show your kid His picture in real time, and it can help you take a difficult angel and access shots. The LCD screens have one big problem, that is, under sun light and outdoor conditions it is very difficult to see the picture on them. Therefore, if it has Anti Glare feature it's better. The more pixels the better.

ISO Rating:
This one is important to actually check in the store and observe the results carefully. The wider the range the better, both on the low and high sides of the scale. If it is less than 100 it means you will get very good results in bright day light sunny conditions ( Iso 50 or 80 ), if it is Iso 400 and up it means you will get excellent results on low light conditions. Some of Digital Cameras don't perform well in Iso rating of above 200, (e.g. you will see a lot of noise and snow flakes), this is why I recommended verifying it.

Optics:
The quality of the Glass Optics is Important, some of the Manufacturers wave with their Optics Brands well known producers like:
Leica lens
Carl Zeiss lens
Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens
Nikkor Lens
Canon Lens
Etc’.

Additional points:
Auto Focus - The more points the better - (9 Points is very good).
External Flash option via hot shoe a plus.

Lens Protective Hood - Better Light input + physical protection of the lens.

Who is the Camera manufacturer?
Most of the Digital cameras are designed in Japan, it is very important to choose a reliable producer with strong and experienced knowledge of Cameras, with a large variety of models and commitment to service and excellence. Always think who is the manufacturer, is he coming from the film field, Printers producer, electronics or has he dealt with cameras from day one.

Summary:
The economy of the Digital Camera is not cheaper than Film Cameras.
The overall result of using Digital Camera is improvement in our recorded memories, we shoot much more, correct and delete bad ones and Store only the very best.

Examine and test the Camera at a real store only then compare prices in the Internet, buy only at reputable store.

Decide on a Budget and stick to it, Take into account all the accessories such as bigger memory card of at least 256 MB.

Aperture lens - The smaller the "f" number the better, Range between f2 - f3 is very good, f2.8 across all the zoom range is excellent. Especially if the zoom is long.

Zoom range of (12 X) or (10 X), with Anti Shake or Image Stabilizer is great, Consider adding a Tripod.

Wide angel adaptor is most important (0.75 X) or even better yet (0.66 X), original manufacturer adapters will give you best optical compatibility.

LCD Screen - The bigger the better, Flip out & twist, Anti Glare, High Resolution.

ISO Rating - Preferable range 50 - 800, settle for 80 - 400, Test It!

Optics - well known manufacturers will give you better quality output.

Auto Focus - The more points the better - (9 Points is very good).

External Flash option via hot shoe a big plus.

Lens Protective Hood - Better Light input + physical protection of the lens.

Well-known leader and experienced Camera manufacturer with good service backup.

A list of major camera manufacturers web sites:
Canon USA
Casio-USA
Nikon USA
Fuji-Film-US
Hasselblad
HP-US
Kodak Photo
Konica-Minolta-US
Mamiya
Leica-Camera
Olympus-America
Panasonic-Cameras
Pentax
Samsung-camera-usa
Sigma-Cameras
Sony-US

In my view the best place to look for Information on Digital Cameras Is the DpReview web site at www.dpreview.com. Here you can Read the Latest Digital Camera news, In depth reviews of specific models, Compare side by side cameras, see picture samples, forums with specific Sections of Manufacturers and cameras models. In addition you get final professional

This article can be obtained Free of charge @ www.1st-Photography-World.com.
(C) Copyrights Amit Laufer - 2005

How to burn fat

2007-11-13T13:48:00.000+08:00

Doctors' Proven Weight Loss Secret #1

Let me ask you a personal question. As you read these words, right now-- are you burning fat? If you don't know the answer, you need to know about a simple, inexpensive way to make sure. Every time. Every day. And I'll show you why and how this simple, doctor-proven technique can be your most powerful weapon in your fight against fat. No matter what weight loss program you are currently on, wouldn't you like to know whether your plan is producing results?

Most of us step on the scale, or wait until our clothes fit more loosely, before we really know whether our latest miracle diet pill or plan is working. And as a veteran dieter, you know that can take many days or weeks. But there is a way to know for certain-- within hours-- whether or not you're burning fat.

To see if the food, or the pills, or the exercise is really returning benefits. Immediate benefits. Are you starving? There are really only two ways your body loses weight (by non-surgical means). You are either burning fat, or "burning" muscle. If you are burning muscle, watch out! You have actually begun to starve.

For safe, healthy weight loss, you must preserve your muscle tissue (including heart muscle) and burn fat instead.

Here are the medical facts: any time your body burns fat, chemicals called ketones are produced. Ketones are byproducts of burning fat. Robert C. Atkins, M.D., the famous low-carb diet expert, states it clearly. "When your body releases ketones," says Dr. Atkins, "it is chemical proof that you're consuming your own stored fat." And burning your own stored fat is exactly what you want to do. Dr. Atkins goes further. "If you're not in lipolysis (ketosis), you're in glucosis." It's one or the other, period.

Your body is either burning sugar, from simple and complex carbohydrates you are eating, or burning your own stored fat. Both produce energy. But only one will help you lose weight!

Prove it to yourself
You may have heard about this simple method of testing for ketone release before. But have you actually used it? It really is a marvelous tool to help you see the biological proof of your diet program, quickly and easily.

Ketone test strips are available at any pharmacy. Originally developed as a testing tool for diabetics, they are sold under various brand names, including KetoStix, LipoStix, Keto-Thin, and others. They all work essentially the same way.

The test strips are simple to use. Just place the tab end of the test strip in your first morning urine stream, and note the color change. Match the color to the chart on the bottle, and know immediately whether you are burning fat-- or not.

The beauty is- it’s all about you!

Perhaps the best part of this test method, aside from the ease of use, is that you get to see what is really working for you. Everyone’s body is a little different, and now you can customize your food and supplement intake from specific results of your unique body and metabolism. The other very important benefit of this easy test method is that it can help protect your health.

As stated earlier, loss of muscle can be dangerous, and eventually even fatal. If you are dropping pounds but you are not burning fat, you are risking your health. And the ketone test strips can provide this valuable feedback. To recap Doctors' Proven Weight Loss Secret #1: test for ketones daily.

If the reading is too dark, you can increase carbohydrates to balance into the “trace” to “small” range. If you see too little or no change, decrease your carbs, increase your protein intake. Whether you are low-carb dieting, trying a new fat loss supplement, or starting a new exercise regimen, this simple, inexpensive test method can be the most important tool you have to make sure your program is safe, effective, and actually burning fat.

About the author:
Katrina Kern is an author, women's health counselor, former nurse and Director of Medi-Bolic Weight Loss Clinic. Get more exciting health and fat-loss discoveries, and 10 more Doctors' Proven Weight Loss Secrets, in her free e-book, "How to Absolutely, Positively Know When Your Body is Burning Fat".