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Kids & Healthy Eating
Mar 18th
What parent doesn’t want their kids to eat healthier? We’ve all had to bribe, cajole, threaten and manipulate our children at least once, but wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to stoop to such heavy handed tactics? Here are some tips to help you out.
Start early! Don’t wait until it’s too late and your child’s already ruined by sweets and treats. Once they’ve tasted ice cream, it’s harder to get them to eat broccoli. And if you’ve waited too long then you’ll just have to be strong and realize your kids might not like you for a few days.
Make sure you have a good variety of healthy foods available to your children. This prevents them from latching on to one food or one food group. Sure they’ll still have their favorites, but a variety of vegetables and fruits will help them to get used to all of their varied tastes.
Try combing foods they like with foods they don’t. For example, stir-frying onions with zucchini, broccoli, carrots, and snow peas isn’t as bad as sitting down to a whole plate of broccoli. It also helps to make sure the pieces are small enough so your child gets some carrots with her zucchini.
Be strong! This is very important for teaching a child to eat what’s good for them. Tell them that this is what we’re having for dinner and there’s nothing else for them to eat. They’ll get hungry enough to eat what’s served them if there are no other options available.
Which reminds me. Don’t bring any food in the house that isn’t part of a healthy food plan. That’s right! No snacks, cookies, sweetened cereals, pastries, treats – whatever – are permitted. This might seem harsh, but you have to decide who you’re raising; healthy, smart kids who don’t get sick or fat or sick kids with learning disabilities who grow up to suffer degenerative diseases.
Stay away from people hell-bent on corrupting your children with candy and treats. It’s amazing to me how so many well-meaning people like a bank teller or a relative offer my children lollipops or cookies. Teach your children to smile and politely say,
“No thank you.” And if it’s a relative that’s always offering your child a treat, then ask them to stop or stop visiting them (a third option is to make them take care of your kid during his sugar buzz and subsequent crash – they’ll never do it again).
Here’s another free tip for kids and healthy eating that might fall into the harsh category, but if you think about it seriously you’ll see how important it is. Don’t let your kids watch commercial TV. Yes! You read this correctly. The majority of the ads on TV are about food and getting your children to eat these unhealthy foods. TV commercials are the nutritional education for 95% of the population and virtually nothing advertised on TV has any nutrition in it. You’ll see a huge decrease in your child’s food cravings when you turn off the tube.
And finally, the most important tip of all is for you to set a great example. How can you expect your children to eat fish, vegetables and whole wheat bread when you don’t? How can you get them to give up ice cream when you won’t? They look to you as a role model so you might as well live like one because if you don’t, then you have no right to complain about their poor eating habits, obesity, ADHD and the time you have to take off work to care for a sick child.
Can I Have A Picture Of What You Are Selling?
Mar 16th
EBay is the most popular shopping destination in the Internet. You can find all kinds of goods being sold in the site. However, shopping at eBay is different from shopping at a physical store where the shopper can have the chance of seeing, touching and feeling the product. At eBay, shoppers buy their product without actually seeing them. Placing a description of the product is not good enough. If the shopper just bases his or her imagination merely on the description given, he or she may end up having a wrong picture of the product in his or her mind. Sometimes, interpretation of words varies and thus, the right picture may not appear in the minds of all those who read the description in words. If the bidder has a wrong idea of the product and bought the product, the outcome would be undesirable.
It is important that sellers provide a picture of the product they are selling in their listing in eBay. The picture will show the interested bidders how the product really looks like. In this way, the bidders will have the opportunity to see what exactly they will be getting if their bid is successful. For certain products, you may need to show multiple pictures of the product from different angles in order to give the bidder a better idea of it. If you are selling a used product which has some defects, you need to show some pictures of the defects. This would give the bidder a better idea of the actual condition of the product.
Pictures can also serve as evidence of what the buyer will be getting. When the buyer receives the product, he or she can compare it with the one shown in the picture. If the product he or she receives is different in any way from the picture, he or she can raise it up to the seller and perhaps, obtain a refund. Having a picture in the listing will also benefit the seller as well. It will save him or her much time from having to answer more queries about the product. After looking at the picture, the bidders will have fewer questions to ask.
The inclusion of pictures will help to improve the presentation of your product. You can even consider using special lightings while taking the picture to give your pictures a more professional look. This will help you to be more successful in your eBay business.
Nowadays, with the fast advancement in technology, digital cameras are inexpensive and easy to get. Buying a digital camera to take pictures of your products and post them in eBay is worth the investment. With a digital camera, you do not need to wait until you finish a roll of film to post your product for auction. You can simply plug the digital camera into your computer and transfer the image to your account any time. Furthermore, besides using your digital camera for eBay business, you can also use it for your own activities, such as family functions, friends’ gatherings, travels, etc.
In order to sell successfully in eBay, providing a picture of the product in each listing is important. The picture will not only give the bidder a better idea of what the product looks like, it also help to enhance the presentation of the product. It is worth the effort doing it. For more information on eBay , you can go to the eBay store.
The Male Manager and Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
Mar 14th
As a male it is not easy writing about PMS. There are many females, especially those local to the Bay Area, that would say ‘don’t even try!’ There are some that would say things like ‘men have their own PMS and menopause’. And so on.
But just because a topic is a difficult one does not mean that it should be avoided. And over the years I have seen PMS become a workplace issue. My thoughts and observations come strictly from a business perspective and not from a personal bias. For the record, my mother, my sister and my wife are all women.
If my comments are viewed as simplistic please consider that my comments are by a male for male managers. I have not personally encountered problems with female managers addressing a PMS issue with female employees although I am certain that it has occurred. Female managers, as well as female employees, are much more open to addressing PMS as a workplace issue.
It has been my experience that PMS is different for each woman — some women feel there is no such thing, some are incapacitated and others have a ‘good month and then a bad month’. PMS involves a ‘cycle of life’ and this cycle can be very different from woman to woman.
Even the medical community is not in agreement about PMS. Is PMS a monthly form of disability? Should employers recognize PMS and plan their schedules and workflow around it? Is PMS something that is private and something that is ‘no business’ of the employer? I have heard many different opinions. Unfortunately for male managers, no one has developed a workable ‘PMS strategy’ in the workplace.
PMS in the workplace comes in three basic forms with negative implications: absenteeism, reduced productivity and disruptions. Male managers often do not consider that PMS may be an issue. When I am speaking with a male manager, and the discussion involves a female employee’s absenteeism, loss of production or disruptions, one of the questions I ask is ‘how often do these problems occur?’ This is a question I ask about all employees — male or female. The male manager will think, pull out statistics, scratch his head and say ‘about once a month around this time.’ And not even consider that PMS may be involved.
When I bring up this possibility the male manager’s typical response is avoidance — it can’t be, we can’t talk about it, we don’t want to know about it, etc. The problem with avoidance is that it provides no rationale for absenteeism, low production or disruptions. If a female employee does have a PMS problem and management will not acknowledge that problem then the employee can be assessed as being lazy, not interested or a troublemaker. This is not fair to the female employee.
How a male manager addresses PMS is the real question. One thing is clear — avoidance is not the solution. From the workplace perspective the avoidance of PMS is a male problem. Females tend to speak about PMS much more openly — even to males. Males often ‘don’t want to talk about that.’
What is a male manager to do? As with most management issues the answer is conditional and situational. There is no formula. However, I have seen some methods to resolve the avoidance problem.
Depending on the situation, a female employee or female manager can be of great help. Having a female speak about PMS to another female employee is not so much a ‘woman thing’ as it is a ‘man thing’. Care has to be taken here about confidentiality and other ethical management issues. When a male manager acknowledges the problem but feels helpless the first thing I ask is — is there another female that can help?
Once the problem is acknowledged the solution is much easier. Managers can reassign workload, give time off, give compensatory time off, etc. This can also be done when teams manage themselves. Again, the real negatives occur when the problem cannot be acknowledged.
There are no easy answers. Like most difficult problems awareness is the first step — simply creating awareness can bring improved results. For businesses trying to become more ‘human organizations’ it is important to consider human needs. PMS is part of the life cycle — not just a ‘female’ problem. For the male manager, it is important to realize female employees deserve the consideration!
A Brief Overview of Diabetes
Mar 11th
Chances are, you or someone you know has diabetes, a condition in which the body is unable to regulate blood sugar on its own. According to the American Diabetes Association, there are 20.8 million children and adults in the U.S. or 7 percent of the population, who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, unfortunately, 6.2 million people (or nearly one-third) are unaware that they have the disease.
Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, which is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Although both genetics and environmental factors such as obesity and lack of exercise appear to play a role, the actual cause of diabetes remains a mystery.
In most cases, diabetes does not strike until adulthood. People who get little exercise and are overweight are at an increased risk of developing what is known as Type 2 diabetes (Type 1 diabetes is detected on childbirth). The good news is that due to science research and developments in treatment, it is easier than ever to live with it.
Since with diabetes, the body is unable to produce or properly use insulin, sugar and fat remain in the blood, causing fatigue, frequent urination, excessive thirst and irritability. The disease can drastically affect a person’s day-to-day life, as he or she might experience difficulties in concentrating, which can affect work performance, or may suffer from anxiety and/or depression. Left untreated, diabetes can lead to organ and nerve damage and increase a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke and blindness.
The key to managing diabetes is keeping your blood sugar levels stable. You can do this by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and keeping your weight in check, but, in order to succeed, you may also need insulin injections. Studies show that patients who keep their blood sugar levels close to normal may experience fewer diabetes-related complications and lead healthier lives. But experts indicate that the sooner you get your blood sugar under control, the better you will be.
Thus, you should work with your doctor to create a treatment plan that is right for you. If you need insulin, tell your doctor how often you exercise and eat and what your usual diet contains or what times you eat. Also mention which medications and vitamins you take, if any. This will help your doctor determine what type of insulin is best for you and what your dosage should be. Keep in mind that your insulin dosage will likely be adjusted many times until the best level for your case is reached, but you will soon be on the road to feeling like yourself again if you follow doctors’ advice and keep your diet healthy, you exercise regularly and you maintain a constant sleeping pattern.
Grid Computing
Mar 8th
Most industries today have become so dynamic that organisations have to consistently seek and adapt to change, in order to survive and prosper. Factors like more diversified customer preferences, technological advances, increased competitive threats and an intensified global economy are among the forces inducing change. Organisations need to become more adaptable embracing Charles Darwin’s view that “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is the most adaptable to change”.
A survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in March 2004 shows that 47% of the CEO’s of the US’s fastest growing companies believe that their most critical success factor is having flexible strategies to respond to accelerating business changes. However, many recently implemented Information Systems still tend to ignore this need for flexibility and at times are hard to scale and customise, thereby limiting the ability of an enterprise to react fast to its evolving business needs.
In the last two decades we constantly experienced a dramatic change in the way we store and process digital information. Every few years there has been an industry breakpoint; an important new computing concept that changed radically the way computers are used and Information Systems are implemented. Examples include graphical and more user-friendly interfaces, the clientserver concept and the Internet. Such factors have somehow aided and contributed to position computers as a necessary commodity. Additionally, with the constant drop in the cost of hardware, and better and cheaper network bandwidth, computers have become even more ubiquitous. The Internet has evolved tremendously and is today considered as probably the most effective communication medium. Whilst technology tends to evolve in a non-linear fashion, Moore’s Law has ensured that processing power has been increasing exponentially.
Though this is contributing to easier hoarding and dissemination of information, ICT professionals today still face tough challenges. ICT budgets grew rapidly in the late 90′s in anticipation of the Y2K problem. In these last years many ICT departments have been even asked to cut their budgets while they were expected to continue providing an appropriate information infrastructure so as to enable the organisations to augment their products and possibly gain a competitive edge. Hardware replacement cycles are perceived to have increased. Generally speaking, ICT budgets did not grow in these last years in line with the computational needs of the organisations; whilst workloads are still increasing, the capacities to handle them are not.
In some cases increasing a firm’s computational needs might end up in a lot of computational power which is not appropriately utilised. Why? Consider for example the utilization of a server machine. Most of the time its real processing capacity is not used at all. However maybe sometimes because a large and long process is executed or the number of connected users temporarily increase, the server might endup experiencing a processing overload. It has been estimated that on average a desktop computer uses only about 5% to 8% of its processing power (EuropeanCeo, 2005). Whilst, as Hendry (2004) reports, load balancing can aid in the distribution of processing and communication activity, similar servers that experience spikes in processor usage are barely used for the rest of the day and eventually end up with a large amount of unused computing capacity.
So the inevitable questions are, is it really feasible to increase and upgrade the firm’s single source of computational power if most of the time the existing processing power is not being used? How can we ensure that a firm’s computational resources are well balanced and allocated, so as to minimise wastage and eventually, justify any further investment in the ICT infrastructure?
The basic concept that gives insight to the answer to these questions extends back to the 70′s when the notion of distributed computing was born. Today, we are seeing increasing interest among business communities in what is termed as, Grid Computing.
Definition
World-renowned organisations are promoting the Grid in a big way and several definitions can be found. It has become a fashionable term. Dr. Ian Foster, a professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Distributed Systems Lab at Argonne National Laboratory, a pioneer in Grid Computing, provided his definition for the layman as being the “technology to enable the sharing of computing resources across institutional boundaries”. Research firm, Gartner, Inc., defines grid computing as a way to solve computing tasks using resources that are shared by more than one owner and coordinated to solve more than one problem.
The concept of Grid Computing was initially popular among academics, research and scientific communities. It was used for functions that required a substantial amount of computing power. However in these last years, an increasing number of organisations are early adopting and trying to reap benefits from this technology.
There are numerous examples where Grid computing has been applied. Among the research communities, Oxford University is using Grid technology to analyse 3.5 billion molecules to work out their cancer fighting potential. Same is being done by Stanford University in order to analyse the role protein plays in keeping people healthy. The search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project is another example. Here, volunteers download and install a free program so as to process and analyse massive amounts of data in search of evidence of possible radio transmissions from extraterrestrial life. When tallying up all the processing power that these PC’s provide, it’s like having one big supercomputer. Grid technologies also played a major role in identifying the world’s largest known prime number. This was part of the Marsenne project where scientists identified the 43rd Marsenne Prime 230,402,457-1. – a figure that contains 9,152,052 digits.
Business Applicability
Within business communities, the Grid concept is far more popular among large corporations. Baum, the publishing editor for Oracle Corporation, states that these corporations are initially attracted by the amount of savings that the technology can provide. Mainstay Partners conducted an ROI study to evaluate the enterprise grid technology platforms currently in use at seven participating companies. It was concluded that the adaptation of grid technology yielded an average of 43 percent savings in hardware cost. Much of the savings were credited to the shift from a large symmetric multiprocessor server to a number of lower cost servers. With the use of Grid technology the latter setup delivered similar or at times even more computational power than the larger system, however with fewer costs. Baum’s report adds that the grids within these companies were being used for a variety of applications, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), decision support, customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management (SCM).
Still, companies that operate in the financial services industry, drug discoveries and weather modeling are initially more prone to benefit from Grid technologies, as they are involved in complex scientific and mathematical calculations and therefore require an added amount of computational power. So are companies that tend to process large amounts of data for their business intelligence activities. However, organisations are increasingly being enticed to adopt Grid technologies even for their transactional based systems, given that Grids may further facilitate storage space Issues.
Challenges faced by Grid Computing
IDC, the market intelligence and advisory services firm, are referring to Grid computing as the fifth generation of computing, after client-server and multi-tier (Table 1).
Yet, according to IDC, the technology still needs to be ‘normalised’ and has to overcome various challenges. IDC believes that these concerns, in some cases, are more perception than reality, and as organisations gain more experience with this distributed approach, their concerns will be laid to rest.
Additionally, a research conducted by the 451 Group shows that software licensing, security and bandwidth matters are among the things that can disturb grid rollouts.
Conclusion
Whilst Grid computing still needs to find broad acceptance in the commercial space, yet, market analysts state that the technology is here to stay. As Tom Hawk, the general manager of Grid computing for IBM says, “The Web is about sharing information. The grid is about sharing resources”.
What You Must Do Before You Hire a Web Designer
Mar 7th
If you’re planning on hiring a Web design firm or freelancer to build you a new business website, then you ought to read this article before you make the hire. One key concept that many would-be entrepreneurs and business people miss is understanding market needs in advance. In other words, many people make the mistake of developing a product or service before they know if there is a need for it in the marketplace. This can be extended to websites as well.
Since a website is an extension of your business, and in many cases the only representation of your business, be sure you know there is a need for your business before you invest time and money building one. If you’re re-vamping an existing site, be sure you understand in advance what the new site ought to have to better serve your market. Don’t build a website before you nail down exactly what you want it to do for you in advance. What is its purpose and how is it going to help you achieve your business goals?
There are four main questions you need to answer before you begin your search for a Web designer to do website creation for you. If you’re not armed with the answers to these questions in advance, you’re going to waste your time and money, experience unneeded grief and possibly risk creating a complete dud.
I recommend that you create a document that has the answers to these questions in it, along with a rough outline of the features you want to include in your website. I’ll call this your Website Plan Document.
By having your Website Plan Document in hand at the onset of your search, you’ll be able to narrow down the field of possible Web designers to hire and you’ll have something to give your prospective vendors to help them come up with an accurate proposal and an itemized price quote. This way, you’ll be able to compare their price quotes better since they’ll all be bidding on the same specifications.
Another reason this is important to do is that without it you may end up having to pay the Web vendor you choose to create this document as part of the proposal, so you’ll save money by doing it yourself.
Here are the first two questions I ask any potential client when they seek out my business to help them build a website:
- What will be the site’s goals and purpose?
- Who will be your website’s audience?
These are the two most important questions you need to answer before you do anything else. The last two questions are also important to determine in advance:
- What is your budget?
- What is your timeframe?
Record your answers to these four questions in your Website Plan Document. Now let’s look more closely at these questions.
Question 1: What will be the site’s goals and main purpose?
The first item to write down in your Website Plan Document is your site’s goals and purpose. If you’re hiring a Web vendor (a freelancer or firm) to build your own new website or if you’ve been tasked by a superior to hire someone to build one or revamp an existing one, here are the questions you need to answer:
1. Why do we need a website?
2. What are the ways in which this website is going to make us more money?
3. How will it make our business run better, faster and/or more cheaply?
4. What are the results we expect to get out of it?
Question 2: Who will be the website’s audience?
The second vital question to answer and record in your new Website Plan Document helps you focus on your primary market. It may seem like an obvious step, but you’d be surprised how many people miss it. The Web is the greatest marketing medium ever invented and is far more than just another marketing medium.
Marketing is all about your audience and message. Your audience is made up of people who will be most likely to visit your website, prospective buyers and people who you want to visit your site. If you mistakenly market to the wrong audience, then your message will be ineffective.
However, if you know exactly who will be visiting your website, then you can have a site made that fits your audience perfectly. You accomplish this by offering features, functionality, navigation, look-and-feel and messaging that is ideal for your specific audience.
Question 3: What is your budget?
Know the upper ceiling that you or your organization is willing to pay before you hire a Web design firm. This is the top amount you will pay to have the site completed, functional and live on the internet. Pricing in the Web design industry is all over the map, so you’re going to have to do your homework on this one. I suggest you go to some forums and ask what others have paid for a comparable website. Or ask people you know who own sites.
Bear in mind, many different things make up a website, and each feature can be priced differently. Here are the main things you will pay for in a website:
- The graphic design, or the creation of the look-and-feel
- Graphics creation or digital photo manipulation
- Existing clip art or photograph licensing
- The copy writing and proofreading
- The programming of functionality, i.e. forms, ecommerce, forum software, databases, content management software, etc.
- Domain name
- Hosting
- Navigation code
- Information architecture (the organization of the site’s information)
- Putting it all together
- Posting it live in the Web
Anyone giving you pricing ought to itemize it so you can compare specific services across vendors.
Here are the typical ways in which Web designers charge:
- By the project
- By the hour
- By the page and or feature
- Any combination of the above
Question 4: What is your Timeline/Deadline?
The reason you want to have a firm budget and deadline in place before you hire anyone is because this will weed out vendors who can’t comply and will help stop you from getting overcharged or strung along. Your goal is to agree in advance what they will charge you and how long it will take, so at the end they don’t surprise you with a larger bill or tell you it’s going to take another two months to finish. Determine in advance when you need it done by. Be flexible, but state your absolute deadline in advance and make sure it is in the contract.
If you are going to hire a Web design firm or freelancer to build you a new business website, you must think through things in advance. For instance, ask yourself what you want your future website to do for you, how it’s going to improve your bottom line, how you want it to look and feel, what functionality you want, and how much time and money you want to spend on its creation. And you should do this all before you even start your search. By doing this, you will save yourself a lot of time, money and grief.
What’s The Best Computer and Why
Mar 6th
You might be surprised at the answer. Through the years I have been asked this question many times. People understandably would like to know the answer before spending their money. Many think that the only answer is in the big names that they have heard. And it’s no wonder these same companies have spent millions promoting their names.
What would make up the best computer? In my opinion it should have a minimum of these qualities. Be reliable, easy to upgrade, parts readily available, easy to work on and long lasting. The only one that meets all these requirements is the generic computer that is built by you or a computer dealer.
Computers are different than almost any other product. You probably wouldn’t want to build your own car for example. But early on manufacturers began supplying Cases motherboards and the rest of the parts to build a computer. So an industry sprang up and some bigger companies plus local dealers built computer to your specifications. These had many advantages the main one being that you could find parts anywhere at reasonable prices.
What sometimes happens for example is say a motherboard goes bad. Because of the way the major manufacturers computer is built a generic or another manufacturers won’t fit this has nothing to do with the electronics it’s a mechanical thing it physically won’t fit or screw holes won’t line up. Now the generic motherboard might run $80.00 to $100.00 while the major manufacturers could be $250.00 to $300.00 or more. After paying that much for parts plus the labor many are thrown in the junk rather than fixing. The same goes for power supplies. Many times the off the shelf power supplies won’t work in these computers. They will make you pay dearly and many times the power supply will need to be special ordered from the major manufacturer.
In other respects I think the computers are about equal. Taking into account that almost all of the parts in the major Brands are made by the same companies that make the generic parts. In selecting your generic computer do some research in is quality of product. What desktop computers will last, and which ones would not? What are the highest quality components? Does the company offering you desktop computer deals provide good warranties? Finding a cheap computer is less exciting when you find out that that computer is a lemon. The fact is that desktop computer deals are not real deals if you get a machine that doesn’t last out of them.
Our discussion has only covered desktops and the pc. The apple computer is a different story and isn’t covered here. Laptops are another story also and I will cover these in another article. If you were to ask almost any computer dealer I think most would agree with what I have said.
Lately the majors have started to make their computers more compatible. Maybe they have begun to see the light. In the mean time I hope you will consider buying your computer from your local dealer or repair shop.
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