Getting used to using your keyboard exclusively and leaving your mouse behind will make you much more efficient at performing any task on any Windows system. I use the following keyboard shortcuts every day:
Windows key + R = Run menu
This is usually followed by:
cmd = Command Prompt
iexplore + "web address" = Internet Explorer
compmgmt.msc = Computer Management
dhcpmgmt.msc = DHCP Management
dnsmgmt.msc = DNS Management
services.msc = Services
eventvwr = Event Viewer
dsa.msc = Active Directory Users and Computers
dssite.msc = Active Directory Sites and Services
Windows key + E = Explorer
ALT + Tab = Switch between windows
ALT, Space, X = Maximize window
CTRL + Shift + Esc = Task Manager
Windows key + Break = System properties
Windows key + F = Search
Windows key + D = Hide/Display all windows
CTRL + C = copy
CTRL + X = cut
CTRL + V = paste
Also don't forget about the "Right-click" key next to the right Windows key on your keyboard. Using the arrows and that key can get just about anything done once you've opened up any program.
Keyboard Shortcuts
[Alt] and [Esc] Switch between running applications
[Alt] and letter Select menu item by underlined letter
[Ctrl] and [Esc] Open Program Menu
[Ctrl] and [F4] Close active document or group windows (does not work with some applications)
[Alt] and [F4] Quit active application or close current window
[Alt] and [-] Open Control menu for active document
Ctrl] Lft., Rt. arrow Move cursor forward or back one word
Ctrl] Up, Down arrow Move cursor forward or back one paragraph
[F1] Open Help for active application
Windows+M Minimize all open windows
Shift+Windows+M Undo minimize all open windows
Windows+F1 Open Windows Help
Windows+Tab Cycle through the Taskbar buttons
Windows+Break Open the System Properties dialog box
acessability shortcuts
Right SHIFT for eight seconds........ Switch FilterKeys on and off.
Left ALT +left SHIFT +PRINT SCREEN....... Switch High Contrast on and off.
Left ALT +left SHIFT +NUM LOCK....... Switch MouseKeys on and off.
SHIFT....... five times Switch StickyKeys on and off.
NUM LOCK...... for five seconds Switch ToggleKeys on and off.
explorer shortcuts
END....... Display the bottom of the active window.
HOME....... Display the top of the active window.
NUM LOCK+ASTERISK....... on numeric keypad (*) Display all subfolders under the selected folder.
NUM LOCK+PLUS SIGN....... on numeric keypad (+) Display the contents of the selected folder.
NUM LOCK+MINUS SIGN....... on numeric keypad (-) Collapse the selected folder.
LEFT ARROW...... Collapse current selection if it's expanded, or select parent folder.
RIGHT ARROW....... Display current selection if it's collapsed, or select first subfolder.
Type the following commands in your Run Box (Windows Key + R) or Start Run
devmgmt.msc = Device Manager
msinfo32 = System Information
cleanmgr = Disk Cleanup
ntbackup = Backup or Restore Wizard (Windows Backup Utility)
mmc = Microsoft Management Console
excel = Microsoft Excel (If Installed)
msaccess = Microsoft Access (If Installed)
powerpnt = Microsoft PowerPoint (If Installed)
winword = Microsoft Word (If Installed)
frontpg = Microsoft FrontPage (If Installed)
notepad = Notepad
wordpad = WordPad
calc = Calculator
msmsgs = Windows Messenger
mspaint = Microsoft Paint
wmplayer = Windows Media Player
rstrui = System Restore
netscp6 = Netscape 6.x
netscp = Netscape 7.x
netscape = Netscape 4.x
waol = America Online
control = Opens the Control Panel
control printers = Opens the Printers Dialog
Youtube.com is video sharing community where you can watch almost all kind of videos (non adult) online. Many of Users want to download videos from Youtube. They try and download the video in .Flv format which do not have good quality. So, Here I am going to share a list of websites which will help you to convert Youtube videos online in High Qulity and in Different formats. Using these useful links, you can even download only Mp3 audio file of a Youtube video. These Websites Convert Youtube videos online. You only have to Copy-Paste Youtube Video URL.
Vixy.Net
Vixy.Net is a website which provides you facility to convert YouTube Videos to AVI, Mov, Mp4, 3GP, and Mp3 Audio Files. That is really cool and Free service.
ListenToYouTube.Com
Listentoyoutube.com makes you able to download Youtube Videos files as Mp3 Audio. That is also good for downloading only audio files from Youtube.
Vidtomp3.com
Vidtomp3.com also works like listentoyoutube.com. You Just paste the URL of youtube video and this website converts that video file into a Mp3 Audio file. You just download that file and enjoy.
VConversion.com
Vconversion.com is a online video converter website which convert Youtube Videos to .mpg , .wmv , .3gp , .mov , .mp4 , .wav and .mp3 . That is also good website to download youtube video in different formats.
Zamzar.com/url
This is a good website which makes you able to download Youtube Videos in almost ALL Formats. This website also converts those files which you have in your computer.
ConvertDirect.com
Convertdirect.com also have facility to convert Youtube Videos online. You can convert Youtube Video to DivX, Xvid, Mp3 Audio, Mov, Mp4, 3gp, AAC, Mp1, Mp2, WMA, WMV.
CathVideo.com
This Website also have facility to convert Youtube Videos online. You can convert Youtube Video to DivX, Xvid, Mp3 Audio, Mov, Mp4, 3gp, AAC, Mp1, Mp2, WMA, WMV. The Main thing is that, You can download HQ Videos also from Youtube.
MovAvi.com
MovAvi.com Not only converts Videos from Youtube but also provides you facility to convert videos from you computer. You can convert Youtube Video to DivX, Xvid, Mp3 Audio, Mov, Mp4, 3gp, Mpeg, WMA, WMV
ConvertMyTube.com
Just another website to convert youtube videos into .mpg , .wmv , .3gp , .mov , .mp4 , .wav and .mp3
CatchYouTube.com
This website helps you to convert and download Youtube Videos online into different formats like .mpg , .mov , .dvd , .mp4 , .3gp , mp3 .wav and .flv
I hope this post helped you to find better sources of converting youtube videos online. If you know any of website which helps to convert videos online.
Vixy.Net
Vixy.Net is a website which provides you facility to convert YouTube Videos to AVI, Mov, Mp4, 3GP, and Mp3 Audio Files. That is really cool and Free service.
ListenToYouTube.Com
Listentoyoutube.com makes you able to download Youtube Videos files as Mp3 Audio. That is also good for downloading only audio files from Youtube.
Vidtomp3.com
Vidtomp3.com also works like listentoyoutube.com. You Just paste the URL of youtube video and this website converts that video file into a Mp3 Audio file. You just download that file and enjoy.
VConversion.com
Vconversion.com is a online video converter website which convert Youtube Videos to .mpg , .wmv , .3gp , .mov , .mp4 , .wav and .mp3 . That is also good website to download youtube video in different formats.
Zamzar.com/url
This is a good website which makes you able to download Youtube Videos in almost ALL Formats. This website also converts those files which you have in your computer.
ConvertDirect.com
Convertdirect.com also have facility to convert Youtube Videos online. You can convert Youtube Video to DivX, Xvid, Mp3 Audio, Mov, Mp4, 3gp, AAC, Mp1, Mp2, WMA, WMV.
CathVideo.com
This Website also have facility to convert Youtube Videos online. You can convert Youtube Video to DivX, Xvid, Mp3 Audio, Mov, Mp4, 3gp, AAC, Mp1, Mp2, WMA, WMV. The Main thing is that, You can download HQ Videos also from Youtube.
MovAvi.com
MovAvi.com Not only converts Videos from Youtube but also provides you facility to convert videos from you computer. You can convert Youtube Video to DivX, Xvid, Mp3 Audio, Mov, Mp4, 3gp, Mpeg, WMA, WMV
ConvertMyTube.com
Just another website to convert youtube videos into .mpg , .wmv , .3gp , .mov , .mp4 , .wav and .mp3
CatchYouTube.com
This website helps you to convert and download Youtube Videos online into different formats like .mpg , .mov , .dvd , .mp4 , .3gp , mp3 .wav and .flv
I hope this post helped you to find better sources of converting youtube videos online. If you know any of website which helps to convert videos online.
I think every one is going to answer - Yes. And a very common belief is that add lot of most searched keywords in the meta tags of your web pages and see your site skyrocketing. But it feels highly frustrating when this magic proves of no avail. Remember, Meta tags alone don't do a magic in getting better placed in the search pages. These Meta tags sure help you to describe your web pages to a search engine and gain a better place in its results. But at the same time they help search engine too to prevent indexing of improper web pages. Which may have good weight keywords in their meta tags but having no relationship with the contents of the page.
Meta tags are the blocks which contain information about the contents of your web page and they exist into the head area of your web page. They are basically meant to communicate with the search engine. Most of the Meta tags are visible to the search engine only and not the visitor on your web page. But, Title tag is one which is visible to the search engine and the visitor as well. Most importantly, it attracts the search engine and the visitor very aggressively. Most search engines consider this tag as the primary information about the site and also an human visitor sees this information as the first thing on top left corner of the browser. Moreover, when one bookmarks the site, the text in this tag appears in the bookmarks list.
In this article, I have tried to focus mainly on 'Title Meta Tag' that how a good Title Meta Tag can render a great help in optimization of a website.
What is the significance of Meta Title Tag?
Amongst the three major Meta tags (Meta Title Tag, Meta Keywords Tag, Meta Description Tag) the Title Tag is one which is given the most weight by search engines' algorithms. In fact, this tag should be written so that it should give the idea about your site instantly. A perfect written Title tag can generate quick and appreciable traffic to your site. The text written in this tag appears as clickable text in the search engine result page (SERP) and if it is really meaningful and conveys most about the web page, more clickthroughs will be the result.
This small example explains the function of Meta Title tag better. Suppose I need to visit San Francisco and need a road map of the city and go to a book store to find the same. There are lot of books on tourism and travel with different titles but my attention will go to a title which says something like "Latest Road Map of San Francisco" rather than a title "All about San Francisco". May be the second book contains better information about the subject I am looking for. But the title of first one speaks exactly about what I need. This how a better title gains priority over the other because of the contents of its title. This is exactly what happens with search engine. It picks the most matching title with the query and places in its result page as clickable text.
Should the Company name appear in Title Tag
Well, I would say sure if your company is really a big entity like IBM, Microsoft or Cisco or some well know brand like Sony, Phillips etc. Because people may want to search for those companies or brands with their names. But in normal cases it should not be so.
Suppose, your company is "Larry Tours and Travels" in San Francisco. Instead of writing "Welcome to the home of Larry Tours and Travels" in the title tag it would be better to write something like "tour operators, travel agents, car rental, bay area tours, san Francisco tours - Larry Tours and Travel". Do a good research to find best keywords and phrases which describe your site best. My suggestion is that the length of the title tag should be between 15 to 20 words making it attractive enough that it looks interesting to the person searching for your business and he clicks through.
Few tips for writing good Title tags.
Try including the content relevant keywords in the title tag. This would help placing your site better in search engine result page (SERP) when someone searches those keywords.
Also do not use repeating keywords and phrases in your title tag because this may be treated as spamming by search engines and they may affect your ranking.
Either don't include your company name in the title tag or add it after few most relevant keywords, phrases into the title tag.
Write different title tags for each web page of your website instead of writing a common title page for the complete site. Make sure that each title tag has relevance with the contents of that web page where it appears.
Try to keep the length of your title tag small (between 15 to 20 words). Some search engines allow small title tags only and truncate the extra part of the longer ones which at times may render your title tag completely meaningless.
I would say that write very meaningful, impressive title tag they are a really powerful can be best tool to optimize your site. The title tag has most dominant role while the search engines make their decision about the theme of the website. When a search for keywords is conducted, the Title tag is given heavy consideration by most search engine algorithms. As I said earlier, since each page in your website is unique so it needs a different Title tag.
So, writing relevant and meaningful title tag is something which may achieve high rankings in search engine result pages (SERP) and result high clickthroughs to your site. The Meta Keywords Tag and Meta Description Tag also need to be taken care of and optimized equally in addition to that of Meta Title Tag to secure a place at the top of the search engines and in convincing a search engine that your site's contents are more relevant than that of your competitor's.
Meta tags are the blocks which contain information about the contents of your web page and they exist into the head area of your web page. They are basically meant to communicate with the search engine. Most of the Meta tags are visible to the search engine only and not the visitor on your web page. But, Title tag is one which is visible to the search engine and the visitor as well. Most importantly, it attracts the search engine and the visitor very aggressively. Most search engines consider this tag as the primary information about the site and also an human visitor sees this information as the first thing on top left corner of the browser. Moreover, when one bookmarks the site, the text in this tag appears in the bookmarks list.
In this article, I have tried to focus mainly on 'Title Meta Tag' that how a good Title Meta Tag can render a great help in optimization of a website.
What is the significance of Meta Title Tag?
Amongst the three major Meta tags (Meta Title Tag, Meta Keywords Tag, Meta Description Tag) the Title Tag is one which is given the most weight by search engines' algorithms. In fact, this tag should be written so that it should give the idea about your site instantly. A perfect written Title tag can generate quick and appreciable traffic to your site. The text written in this tag appears as clickable text in the search engine result page (SERP) and if it is really meaningful and conveys most about the web page, more clickthroughs will be the result.
This small example explains the function of Meta Title tag better. Suppose I need to visit San Francisco and need a road map of the city and go to a book store to find the same. There are lot of books on tourism and travel with different titles but my attention will go to a title which says something like "Latest Road Map of San Francisco" rather than a title "All about San Francisco". May be the second book contains better information about the subject I am looking for. But the title of first one speaks exactly about what I need. This how a better title gains priority over the other because of the contents of its title. This is exactly what happens with search engine. It picks the most matching title with the query and places in its result page as clickable text.
Should the Company name appear in Title Tag
Well, I would say sure if your company is really a big entity like IBM, Microsoft or Cisco or some well know brand like Sony, Phillips etc. Because people may want to search for those companies or brands with their names. But in normal cases it should not be so.
Suppose, your company is "Larry Tours and Travels" in San Francisco. Instead of writing "Welcome to the home of Larry Tours and Travels" in the title tag it would be better to write something like "tour operators, travel agents, car rental, bay area tours, san Francisco tours - Larry Tours and Travel". Do a good research to find best keywords and phrases which describe your site best. My suggestion is that the length of the title tag should be between 15 to 20 words making it attractive enough that it looks interesting to the person searching for your business and he clicks through.
Few tips for writing good Title tags.
Try including the content relevant keywords in the title tag. This would help placing your site better in search engine result page (SERP) when someone searches those keywords.
Also do not use repeating keywords and phrases in your title tag because this may be treated as spamming by search engines and they may affect your ranking.
Either don't include your company name in the title tag or add it after few most relevant keywords, phrases into the title tag.
Write different title tags for each web page of your website instead of writing a common title page for the complete site. Make sure that each title tag has relevance with the contents of that web page where it appears.
Try to keep the length of your title tag small (between 15 to 20 words). Some search engines allow small title tags only and truncate the extra part of the longer ones which at times may render your title tag completely meaningless.
I would say that write very meaningful, impressive title tag they are a really powerful can be best tool to optimize your site. The title tag has most dominant role while the search engines make their decision about the theme of the website. When a search for keywords is conducted, the Title tag is given heavy consideration by most search engine algorithms. As I said earlier, since each page in your website is unique so it needs a different Title tag.
So, writing relevant and meaningful title tag is something which may achieve high rankings in search engine result pages (SERP) and result high clickthroughs to your site. The Meta Keywords Tag and Meta Description Tag also need to be taken care of and optimized equally in addition to that of Meta Title Tag to secure a place at the top of the search engines and in convincing a search engine that your site's contents are more relevant than that of your competitor's.
Document actions
Open a presentation CTRL+O
New presentation CTRL+N
Save As F12
Save CTRL+S
Print CTRL+P
Help F1
Presentation actions
Begin slide show F5
Next slide ENTER or
Down arrow key
Previous slide BACKSPACE or
Up arrow key
Activate pen tool CTRL+P
Erase pen strokes E
Deactivate pen tool CTRL+A
Show/Hide black screen B
Show/Hide white screen W
Show/Hide pointer & button A
End slide show ESC
Action Keystroke
Formatting
Select all CTRL+A
Copy CTRL+C
Cut CTRL+X
Paste CTRL+V
Undo CTRL+Z
Redo CTRL+Y
Bold CTRL+B
Italics CTRL+I
Underline CTRL+U
Left justified CTRL+L
Center justified CTRL+E
Right justified CTRL+R
Promote list item ALT+SHIFT+Left arrow
Demote list item ALT+SHIFT+Right arrow or TAB
Editing
Find CTRL+F
Replace CTRL+H
Insert hyperlink CTRL+K
New slide CTRL+M
Spell checker F7
Macros ALT+F8
Open a presentation CTRL+O
New presentation CTRL+N
Save As F12
Save CTRL+S
Print CTRL+P
Help F1
Presentation actions
Begin slide show F5
Next slide ENTER or
Down arrow key
Previous slide BACKSPACE or
Up arrow key
Activate pen tool CTRL+P
Erase pen strokes E
Deactivate pen tool CTRL+A
Show/Hide black screen B
Show/Hide white screen W
Show/Hide pointer & button A
End slide show ESC
Action Keystroke
Formatting
Select all CTRL+A
Copy CTRL+C
Cut CTRL+X
Paste CTRL+V
Undo CTRL+Z
Redo CTRL+Y
Bold CTRL+B
Italics CTRL+I
Underline CTRL+U
Left justified CTRL+L
Center justified CTRL+E
Right justified CTRL+R
Promote list item ALT+SHIFT+Left arrow
Demote list item ALT+SHIFT+Right arrow or TAB
Editing
Find CTRL+F
Replace CTRL+H
Insert hyperlink CTRL+K
New slide CTRL+M
Spell checker F7
Macros ALT+F8
The portable storage industry for computers has a fair number of players in the market, and Toshiba is among one of the more notable names. This time round, the Toshiba Storage Device Division (SDD) has introduced its latest next generation USB 2.0 portable hard drive that not only totes your data, but it helps keep them safe and sound thanks to a complete system backup, password-protected encryption for added security and enhanced software features. For folks who want a worry-free non-enterprise, comprehensive and easy-to-use solution for their precious data, they won’t go wrong with Toshiba’s latest offerings.
Each of these new brightly colored easy-to-use portable hard drives from Toshiba help do away with the complexity of computer backup, thanks software specifically written for both Windows and Mac environments. Windows users will be pleased to know that Toshiba is the first storage manufacturer who has thrown in the NTI BackupNow EZ software that enables users to perform a complete system backup with but a click of the mouse button. In addition, should anything untoward happen to your data, the NTI BackupNow EZ allows the user to restore the complete system. Yes, this works as well even if Windows is unable to start. Not only that, the software is able to scan a user’s system and provide personalized recommendations on the best coverage for files, folders and the entire computer just in case one doesn’t know where to start.
As for those who are loyal to the Mac platform, Toshiba’s new backup drives will be equipped with NTI Shadow 4 for Mac, allowing users easy identification of files and folders to back up, alongside the selection of a convenient schedule for storage. Apart from that, Toshiba’s external hard drives can also play nice with Apple’s Time Machine right out of the box. You can choose from 320GB and 500GB capacities that will retail for $119.99 and $149.99, respectively.
You always wanted to promote your website but how? It's difficult haan! wouldn't you like a website which promotes your website for free with no hassle, without any costs, and specially without using up most of your time. Well! Its not so difficult any more. You've got the right place. Just include your website on TopWebsList.com listing and watch your website traffic grow at a surprising rate, get a lot more users on your website, and finally save a lot of cash for free advertising. This all can be done only to register your website @ TopWebsList.com
TopWebsList.com is the latest most easiest and fastest way to market your website. One of its main targets is to help users promote their website. You can simply get started in 2 minutes.
Just to help website owners this service is completely FREE. With its easy-to-use, user friendly interface, users can promote their website banner on TopWebsList.com
So why not join TopWebsList.com today and start gaining an incredible amount of traffic and start advertising your website all for ABSOLUTELY FREE.
Click here to include your website at TopWebsList.com
TopWebsList.com is the latest most easiest and fastest way to market your website. One of its main targets is to help users promote their website. You can simply get started in 2 minutes.
Just to help website owners this service is completely FREE. With its easy-to-use, user friendly interface, users can promote their website banner on TopWebsList.com
So why not join TopWebsList.com today and start gaining an incredible amount of traffic and start advertising your website all for ABSOLUTELY FREE.
Click here to include your website at TopWebsList.com
Make studying a part of your everyday school routine and don't be limited to 'cramming' for exams and tests.
1. Establish a routine
Set aside a particular time each day for study and revision and stick to it.
2. Create a study environment
This should be away from interruptions and household noise, such as the television. Ensure there is adequate lighting and ventilation, a comfortable chair and appropriate desk.
3. Set a timetable
With a timetable you can plan to cover all your subjects in an organised way, allotting the appropriate time for each without becoming overwhelmed.
4. Look after yourself
Drink plenty of fluids, especially water, and eat healthy foods. Keep sugary foods to a minimum. Make sure you get enough sleep each night. Regular physical exercise makes you feel great, boosts your energy and helps you relax. So try to keep up regular sporting activities or at least fit in some regular exercise as often as you can.
5. Reward yourself for studying
Watch your favourite television program, spend time with your friends, walk to the park and play sport throughout the week.
6. Have variety in your study program
Study different subjects each day and do different types of work and revision in each study session.
7. Avoid interrupting your concentration
Have all the appropriate materials with you before you start a session of study to minimise distractions.
8. Test yourself on what you have studied
Ask your parents or family members to quiz you on what you have learnt, use draft questions from books, past assessments or major exam papers.
9. Don't panic at exam time
If you have followed a study routine and have been revising your class work, there should be no need to worry. Try to keep yourself calm, positive and confident.
10. Ask your teachers for guidance
Especially if you're having trouble - whether it's grasping a new concept or understanding something you learnt earlier in the year. They will be happy to help
1. Establish a routine
Set aside a particular time each day for study and revision and stick to it.
2. Create a study environment
This should be away from interruptions and household noise, such as the television. Ensure there is adequate lighting and ventilation, a comfortable chair and appropriate desk.
3. Set a timetable
With a timetable you can plan to cover all your subjects in an organised way, allotting the appropriate time for each without becoming overwhelmed.
4. Look after yourself
Drink plenty of fluids, especially water, and eat healthy foods. Keep sugary foods to a minimum. Make sure you get enough sleep each night. Regular physical exercise makes you feel great, boosts your energy and helps you relax. So try to keep up regular sporting activities or at least fit in some regular exercise as often as you can.
5. Reward yourself for studying
Watch your favourite television program, spend time with your friends, walk to the park and play sport throughout the week.
6. Have variety in your study program
Study different subjects each day and do different types of work and revision in each study session.
7. Avoid interrupting your concentration
Have all the appropriate materials with you before you start a session of study to minimise distractions.
8. Test yourself on what you have studied
Ask your parents or family members to quiz you on what you have learnt, use draft questions from books, past assessments or major exam papers.
9. Don't panic at exam time
If you have followed a study routine and have been revising your class work, there should be no need to worry. Try to keep yourself calm, positive and confident.
10. Ask your teachers for guidance
Especially if you're having trouble - whether it's grasping a new concept or understanding something you learnt earlier in the year. They will be happy to help
1:Explicit Phrase:
Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing. Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
Example: "internet marketing"
2:Exclude Words:
Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising. To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.
Example Search: internet marketing -advertising
3:Site Specific Search:
Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.
Example: "internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com
4:Similar Words and Synonyms:
Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.
Example: "internet marketing" ~professional
5:Specific Document Types:
If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:". For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.
Example: "internet marketing" filetype
pt
6:This OR That:
By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).
Example: internet marketing OR advertising
7:Phone Listing:
Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know how it is. If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.
Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).
8:Area Code Lookup:
If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.
Example: 617
9:Numeric Ranges:
This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip. Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers. You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods. This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.
Example: president 1940..1950
10:Stock (Ticker Symbol):
Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.
Example: GOOG
11:Calculator:
The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.
Example: 48512 * 1.02
12:Word Definitions:
If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.
Example: definelethora
Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing. Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
Example: "internet marketing"
2:Exclude Words:
Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising. To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.
Example Search: internet marketing -advertising
3:Site Specific Search:
Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.
Example: "internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com
4:Similar Words and Synonyms:
Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.
Example: "internet marketing" ~professional
5:Specific Document Types:
If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:". For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.
Example: "internet marketing" filetype
pt6:This OR That:
By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).
Example: internet marketing OR advertising
7:Phone Listing:
Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know how it is. If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.
Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).
8:Area Code Lookup:
If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.
Example: 617
9:Numeric Ranges:
This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip. Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers. You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods. This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.
Example: president 1940..1950
10:Stock (Ticker Symbol):
Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.
Example: GOOG
11:Calculator:
The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.
Example: 48512 * 1.02
12:Word Definitions:
If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.
Example: define
lethora
ALT+1 Adjust zoom to 50 percent
ALT+2 Adjust zoom to 100 percent
ALT+3 Adjust zoom to 200 percent
ALT+ENTER Display the video in full mode
ALT+F Go to media player File Menu
ALT+T Go to media player Tools Menu
ALT+V Go to media player View Menu
ALT+P Go to media player Play Menu
ALT+F4 Use to close media player
CTRL+1 Display media player in full mode
CTRL+2 Display media player in skin mode
CTRL+B Use to play the previous item in media player
CTRL+F Use to play the next item in media player
CTRL+E Use to Eject CD or DVD from CD or DVD drive
CTRL+P Use to Play or Pause the item in media player
CTRL+T Use to Repeat the items in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+B Use to Rewind a file in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+F Use to Fast Forward a file in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+S Use to play items slower than a normal speed
CTRL+SHIFT+ G Use to play items faster than a normal speed
CTRL+SHIFT+ N Use to play items at normal speed in media player
F8 Use to mute the volume in media player
F9 Use to decrease the volume in media player
F10 Use to increase the volume in media player
ENTER or SPACEBAR Use to play an item
ALT+2 Adjust zoom to 100 percent
ALT+3 Adjust zoom to 200 percent
ALT+ENTER Display the video in full mode
ALT+F Go to media player File Menu
ALT+T Go to media player Tools Menu
ALT+V Go to media player View Menu
ALT+P Go to media player Play Menu
ALT+F4 Use to close media player
CTRL+1 Display media player in full mode
CTRL+2 Display media player in skin mode
CTRL+B Use to play the previous item in media player
CTRL+F Use to play the next item in media player
CTRL+E Use to Eject CD or DVD from CD or DVD drive
CTRL+P Use to Play or Pause the item in media player
CTRL+T Use to Repeat the items in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+B Use to Rewind a file in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+F Use to Fast Forward a file in media player
CTRL+SHIFT+S Use to play items slower than a normal speed
CTRL+SHIFT+ G Use to play items faster than a normal speed
CTRL+SHIFT+ N Use to play items at normal speed in media player
F8 Use to mute the volume in media player
F9 Use to decrease the volume in media player
F10 Use to increase the volume in media player
ENTER or SPACEBAR Use to play an item
computer is running slow/hangs/takes time to boot :
This problem can be caused by any of the below possibilities.
1. HDD is short on availabel disk space
2. Many software programs have been installed/uninstalled leaving behind bad files and/or confusing the
3. software.
4. The Data maybe corrupted.
5. Computer(that is your processor) is overheating.
6. Bad Hardware.
Below are some my favorite steps for Microsoft Windows that should help speed up the computer or determine why the computer is running slow.
1. If you have a hard disk drive that is 2GB or smaller, ensure that there is at least 200MB of hard disk drive space free. If you have a hard drive larger than this size, verify that there is at least 500MB of free hard disk space. This available space allows the computer to have room for the swap file to increase in size as well as room for temporary files.
2. Run Scandisk or something equivalent to help ensure that there is nothing physically wrong with the computer hard disk drive.
3. Run Defrag to help ensure that data is arranged in the best possible order.
4. Remove or disable any TSRs or programs that automatically start each time the computer boots.
5. Verify that the device manager has no conflicts, but if conflicts are present, resolve them.
6. If you are using Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 and do not plan on running any MS-DOS programs from MS-DOS, click Start / Run / type command and press enter. In the MS-DOS window type cd\ to get to C:\> then type "ren autoexec.bat autoexec.ch" and "ren config.sys config.ch". This will rename your autoexec.bat and config.sys and help make sure memory is being optimized through Windows.
7. If you have Windows XP try deleting all files in the prefetch directory. These are prefetch files and can lower sytem resources if loading programs no longer being used. See our prefetch definition for additional information about prefetch.
8. Try running through the basic troubleshooting steps for your operating system. Make sure your computer nd processor is not overheating, excessive heat can cause a significant decrease in computer performance some processors will even lower the speed of the processor automatically to help compensate for the heat related issues.
9. Scan for viruses , yur pc might be infected
10. Finally, if none of the above solutions resolve your issues, it is recommended that you either reinstall Windows or erase everything and then start over.
This problem can be caused by any of the below possibilities.
1. HDD is short on availabel disk space
2. Many software programs have been installed/uninstalled leaving behind bad files and/or confusing the
3. software.
4. The Data maybe corrupted.
5. Computer(that is your processor) is overheating.
6. Bad Hardware.
Below are some my favorite steps for Microsoft Windows that should help speed up the computer or determine why the computer is running slow.
1. If you have a hard disk drive that is 2GB or smaller, ensure that there is at least 200MB of hard disk drive space free. If you have a hard drive larger than this size, verify that there is at least 500MB of free hard disk space. This available space allows the computer to have room for the swap file to increase in size as well as room for temporary files.
2. Run Scandisk or something equivalent to help ensure that there is nothing physically wrong with the computer hard disk drive.
3. Run Defrag to help ensure that data is arranged in the best possible order.
4. Remove or disable any TSRs or programs that automatically start each time the computer boots.
5. Verify that the device manager has no conflicts, but if conflicts are present, resolve them.
6. If you are using Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 and do not plan on running any MS-DOS programs from MS-DOS, click Start / Run / type command and press enter. In the MS-DOS window type cd\ to get to C:\> then type "ren autoexec.bat autoexec.ch" and "ren config.sys config.ch". This will rename your autoexec.bat and config.sys and help make sure memory is being optimized through Windows.
7. If you have Windows XP try deleting all files in the prefetch directory. These are prefetch files and can lower sytem resources if loading programs no longer being used. See our prefetch definition for additional information about prefetch.
8. Try running through the basic troubleshooting steps for your operating system. Make sure your computer nd processor is not overheating, excessive heat can cause a significant decrease in computer performance some processors will even lower the speed of the processor automatically to help compensate for the heat related issues.
9. Scan for viruses , yur pc might be infected
10. Finally, if none of the above solutions resolve your issues, it is recommended that you either reinstall Windows or erase everything and then start over.
computer is running slow/hangs/takes time to boot :
This problem can be caused by any of the below possibilities.
1. HDD is short on availabel disk space
2. Many software programs have been installed/uninstalled leaving behind bad files and/or confusing the
3. software.
4. The Data maybe corrupted.
5. Computer(that is your processor) is overheating.
6. Bad Hardware.
Below are some my favorite steps for Microsoft Windows that should help speed up the computer or determine why the computer is running slow.
1. If you have a hard disk drive that is 2GB or smaller, ensure that there is at least 200MB of hard disk drive space free. If you have a hard drive larger than this size, verify that there is at least 500MB of free hard disk space. This available space allows the computer to have room for the swap file to increase in size as well as room for temporary files.
2. Run Scandisk or something equivalent to help ensure that there is nothing physically wrong with the computer hard disk drive.
3. Run Defrag to help ensure that data is arranged in the best possible order.
4. Remove or disable any TSRs or programs that automatically start each time the computer boots.
5. Verify that the device manager has no conflicts, but if conflicts are present, resolve them.
6. If you are using Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 and do not plan on running any MS-DOS programs from MS-DOS, click Start / Run / type command and press enter. In the MS-DOS window type cd\ to get to C:\> then type "ren autoexec.bat autoexec.ch" and "ren config.sys config.ch". This will rename your autoexec.bat and config.sys and help make sure memory is being optimized through Windows.
7. If you have Windows XP try deleting all files in the prefetch directory. These are prefetch files and can lower sytem resources if loading programs no longer being used. See our prefetch definition for additional information about prefetch.
8. Try running through the basic troubleshooting steps for your operating system. Make sure your computer nd processor is not overheating, excessive heat can cause a significant decrease in computer performance some processors will even lower the speed of the processor automatically to help compensate for the heat related issues.
9. Scan for viruses , yur pc might be infected
10. Finally, if none of the above solutions resolve your issues, it is recommended that you either reinstall Windows or erase everything and then start over.
This problem can be caused by any of the below possibilities.
1. HDD is short on availabel disk space
2. Many software programs have been installed/uninstalled leaving behind bad files and/or confusing the
3. software.
4. The Data maybe corrupted.
5. Computer(that is your processor) is overheating.
6. Bad Hardware.
Below are some my favorite steps for Microsoft Windows that should help speed up the computer or determine why the computer is running slow.
1. If you have a hard disk drive that is 2GB or smaller, ensure that there is at least 200MB of hard disk drive space free. If you have a hard drive larger than this size, verify that there is at least 500MB of free hard disk space. This available space allows the computer to have room for the swap file to increase in size as well as room for temporary files.
2. Run Scandisk or something equivalent to help ensure that there is nothing physically wrong with the computer hard disk drive.
3. Run Defrag to help ensure that data is arranged in the best possible order.
4. Remove or disable any TSRs or programs that automatically start each time the computer boots.
5. Verify that the device manager has no conflicts, but if conflicts are present, resolve them.
6. If you are using Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 and do not plan on running any MS-DOS programs from MS-DOS, click Start / Run / type command and press enter. In the MS-DOS window type cd\ to get to C:\> then type "ren autoexec.bat autoexec.ch" and "ren config.sys config.ch". This will rename your autoexec.bat and config.sys and help make sure memory is being optimized through Windows.
7. If you have Windows XP try deleting all files in the prefetch directory. These are prefetch files and can lower sytem resources if loading programs no longer being used. See our prefetch definition for additional information about prefetch.
8. Try running through the basic troubleshooting steps for your operating system. Make sure your computer nd processor is not overheating, excessive heat can cause a significant decrease in computer performance some processors will even lower the speed of the processor automatically to help compensate for the heat related issues.
9. Scan for viruses , yur pc might be infected
10. Finally, if none of the above solutions resolve your issues, it is recommended that you either reinstall Windows or erase everything and then start over.
Of all the objects in the universe, the human brain is the most complex: There are as many neurons in the brain as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy. So it is no surprise that, *despite the glow from recent advances in the science of the brain and mind, we still find ourselves squinting in the dark somewhat. But we are at least beginning to grasp the crucial mysteries of neuroscience and starting to make headway in addressing them. Even partial answers to these 10 questions could restructure our understanding of the roughly three-pound mass of gray and white matter that defines who we are.
1. How is information coded in neural activity?
Neurons, the specialized cells of the brain, can produce brief spikes of voltage in their outer membranes. These electrical pulses travel along specialized extensions called axons to cause the release of chemical signals elsewhere in the brain. The binary, all-or-nothing spikes appear to carry information about the world: What do I see? Am I hungry? Which way should I turn? But what is the code of these millisecond bits of voltage? Spikes may mean different things at different places and times in the brain. In parts of the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), the rate of spiking often correlates with clearly definable external features, like the presence of a color or a face. In the peripheral nervous system, more spikes indicates more heat, a louder sound, or a stronger muscle contraction.
As we delve deeper into the brain, however, we find populations of neurons involved in more complex phenomena, like reminiscence, value judgments, simulation of possible futures, the desire for a mate, and so on—and here the signals become difficult to decrypt. The challenge is something like popping the cover off a computer, measuring a few transistors chattering between high and low voltage, and trying to guess the content of the Web page being surfed.
It is likely that mental information is stored not in single cells but in populations of cells and patterns of their activity. However, it is currently not clear how to know which neurons belong to a particular group; worse still, current technologies (like sticking fine electrodes directly into the brain) are not well suited to measuring several thousand neurons at once. Nor is it simple to monitor the connections of even one neuron: A typical neuron in the cortex receives input from some 10,000 other neurons.
Although traveling bursts of voltage can carry signals across the brain quickly, those electrical spikes may not be the only—or even the main—way that information is carried in nervous systems. *Forward-looking studies are examining other possible information couriers: glial cells (poorly understood brain cells that are 10 times as common as neurons), other kinds of signaling mechanisms between cells (such as newly discovered gases and peptides), and the biochemical cascades that take place inside cells.
2. How are memories stored and retrieved?
When you learn a new fact, like someone’s name, there are physical changes in the structure of your brain. But we don’t yet comprehend exactly what those changes are, how they are orchestrated across vast seas of synapses and neurons, how they embody knowledge, or how they are read out decades later for retrieval.
One complication is that there are many kinds of memories. The brain seems to distinguish short-term memory (remembering a phone number just long enough to dial it) from long-term memory (what you did on your last birthday). Within long-term memory, declarative memories (like names and facts) are distinct from non*declarative memories (riding a bicycle, being affected by a subliminal message), and within these general categories are numerous subtypes. Different brain structures seem to support different kinds of learning and memory; brain damage can lead to the loss of one type without disturbing the others.
Nonetheless, similar molecular mechanisms may be at work in these memory types. Almost all theories of memory propose that memory storage depends on synapses, the tiny connections between brain cells. When two cells are active at the same time, the connection between them strengthens; when they are not active at the same time, the connection weakens. Out of such synaptic changes emerges an association. Experience can, for example, fortify the connections between the smell of coffee, its taste, its color, and the feel of its warmth. Since the populations of neurons connected with each of these sensations are typically activated at the same time, the connections between them can cause all the sensory associations of coffee to be triggered by the smell alone.
But looking only at associations—and strengthened connections between neurons—may not be enough to explain memory. The great secret of memory is that it mostly encodes the relationships between things more than the details of the things themselves. When you memorize a melody, you encode the relationships between the notes, not the notes per se, which is why you can easily sing the song in a different key.
Memory retrieval is even more mysterious than storage. When I ask if you know Alex Ritchie, the answer is immediately obvious to you, and there is no good theory to explain how memory retrieval can happen so quickly. Moreover, the act of retrieval can destabilize the memory. When you recall a past event, the memory becomes temporarily susceptible to erasure. Some intriguing recent experiments show it is possible to chemically block memories from reforming during that window, suggesting new ethical questions that require careful consideration.
3. What does the baseline activity in the brain represent?
Neuroscientists have mostly studied changes in brain activity that correlate with stimuli we can present in the laboratory, such as a picture, a touch, or a sound. But the activity of the brain at rest—its “baseline” activity—may prove to be the most important aspect of our mental lives. The awake, resting brain uses 20 percent of the body’s total oxygen, even though it makes up only 2 percent of the body’s mass. Some of the baseline activity may represent the brain restructuring knowledge in the background, simulating future states and events, or manipulating memories. Most things we care about—reminiscences, emotions, drives, plans, and so on—can occur with no external stimulus and no overt output that can be measured.
One clue about baseline activity comes from neuroimaging experiments, which show that activity decreases in some brain areas just before a person performs a goal-directed task. The areas that decrease are the same regardless of the details of the task, hinting that these areas may run baseline programs during downtime, much as your computer might run a disk-defragmenting program only while the resources are not needed elsewhere.
In the traditional view of perception, information from the outside world pours into the senses, works its way through the brain, and makes itself consciously seen, heard, and felt. But many scientists are coming to think that sensory input may merely revise ongoing internal activity in the brain. Note, for example, that sensory input is superfluous for perception: When your eyes are closed during dreaming, you still enjoy rich visual experience. The awake state may be essentially the same as the dreaming state, only partially anchored by external stimuli. In this view, your conscious life is an awake dream.
4. How do brains simulate the future?
When a fire chief encounters a new blaze, he quickly makes predictions about how to best position his men. Running such simulations of the future—without the risk and expense of actually attempting them—allows “our hypotheses to die in our stead,” as philosopher Karl Popper put it. For this reason, the emulation of possible futures is one of the key businesses that intelligent brains invest in.
Yet we know little about how the brain’s future simulator works because traditional neuroscience technologies are best suited for correlating brain activity with explicit behaviors, not mental emulations. One idea suggests that the brain’s resources are devoted not only to processing stimuli and reacting to them (watching a ball come at you) but also to constructing an internal model of that outside world and extracting rules for how things tend to behave (knowing how balls move through the air). Internal models may play a role not only in motor acts, like catching, but also in perception. For example, vision draws on significant amounts of information in the brain, not just on input from the retina. Many neuroscientists have suggested over the past few decades that perception arises not simply by building up bits of data through a hierarchy but rather by matching incoming sensory data against internally generated expectations.
But how does a system learn to make good predictions about the world? It may be that memory exists only for this purpose. This is not a new idea: Two millennia ago, Aristotle and Galen emphasized memory as a tool in making successful predictions for the future. Even your memories about your life may come to be understood as a special subtype of emulation, one that is pinned down and thus likely to flow in a certain direction.
5. What are emotions?
We often talk about brains as information-processing systems, but any account of the brain that lacks an account of emotions, motivations, fears, and hopes is incomplete. Emotions are measurable physical responses to salient stimuli: the increased heartbeat and perspiration that accompany fear, the freezing response of a rat in the presence of a cat, or the extra muscle tension that accompanies anger. Feelings, on the other hand, are the subjective experiences that sometimes accompany these processes: the sensations of happiness, envy, sadness, and so on. Emotions seem to employ largely unconscious machinery—for example, brain areas involved in emotion will respond to angry faces that are briefly presented and then rapidly masked, even when subjects are unaware of having seen the face. Across cultures the expression of basic emotions is remarkably similar, and as Darwin observed, it is also similar across all mammals. There are even strong similarities in physiological responses among humans, reptiles, and birds when showing fear, anger, or parental love.
Modern views propose that emotions are brain states that quickly assign value to outcomes and provide a simple plan of action. Thus, emotion can be viewed as a type of computation, a rapid, automatic summary that initiates appropriate actions. When a bear is galloping toward you, the rising fear directs your brain to do the right things (determining an escape route) instead of all the other things it could be doing (rounding out your grocery list). When it comes to perception, you can spot an object more quickly if it is, say, a spider rather than a roll of tape. In the realm of memory, emotional events are laid down differently by a parallel memory system involving a brain area called the amygdala.
One goal of emotional neuroscience is to understand the nature of the many disorders of emotion, depression being the most common and costly. Impulsive aggression and violence are also thought to be consequences of faulty emotion regulation.
6. What is intelligence?
Intelligence comes in many forms, but it is not known what intelligence—in any of its guises—means biologically. How do billions of neurons work together to manipulate knowledge, simulate novel situations, and erase inconsequential information? What happens when two concepts “fit” together and you suddenly see a solution to a problem? What happens in your brain when it suddenly dawns on you that the killer in the movie is actually the unsuspected wife? Do intelligent people store knowledge in a way that is more distilled, more varied, or more easily retrievable?
We all grew up with the near-future promise of smart robots, but today we have little better than the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. What went wrong? There are two camps for explaining the weak performance of artificial intelligence: Either we do not know enough of the fundamental principles of brain function, or we have not simulated enough neurons working together. If the latter is true, that’s good news: Computation gets cheaper and faster each year, so we should not be far from enjoying life with Asimovian robots who can effectively tend our households. Yet most neuroscientists recognize how distant we are from that dream. Currently, our robots are little more intelligent than sea slugs, and even after decades of clever research, they can barely distinguish figures from a background at the skill level of an infant.
Recent experiments explore the possible relationship of intelligence to the capacity of short-term memory, the ability to quickly resolve cognitive conflict, or the ability to store stronger associations between facts; the results are not yet conclusive. Many other possibilities—better restructuring of stored information, more parallel processing, or superior emulation of possible futures—have not yet been probed by experiments.
Intelligence may not be underpinned by a single mechanism or a single neural area. Whatever intelligence is, it lies at the heart of what is special about Homo sapiens. Other species are hardwired to solve particular problems, while our ability to abstract allows us to solve an open-ended series of problems. This means that studies of intelligence in mice and monkeys may be barking up the wrong family tree.
7. How is time represented in the brain?
Hundred-yard dashes begin with a gunshot rather than a strobe light because your brain can react more quickly to a bang than to a flash. Yet as soon as we get outside the realm of motor reactions and into the realm of perception (what you report that you saw and heard), the story changes. When it comes to awareness, the brain goes through a good deal of trouble to synchronize incoming signals that are processed at very different speeds.
For example, snap your fingers in front of you. Although your auditory system processes information about the snap about 30 milliseconds faster than your visual system, the sight of your fingers and the sound of the snap seem simultaneous. Your brain is employing fancy editing tricks to make simultaneous events in the world feel simultaneous to you, even when the different senses processing the information would individually swear otherwise.
For a simple example of how your brain plays tricks with time, look in the mirror at your left eye. Now shift your gaze to your right eye. Your eye movements take time, of course, but you do not see your eyes move. It is as if the world instantly made the transition from one view to the next. What happened to that little gap in time? For that matter, what happens to the 80 milliseconds of darkness you should see every time you blink your eyes? Bottom line: Your notion of the smooth passage of time is a construction of the brain. Clarifying the picture of how the brain normally solves timing problems should give insight into what happens when temporal calibration goes wrong, as may happen in the brains of people with dyslexia. Sensory inputs that are out of sync also contribute to the risk of falls in elderly patients.
8. Why do brains sleep and dream?
One of the most astonishing aspects of our lives is that we spend a third of our time in the strange world of sleep. Newborn babies spend about twice that. It is inordinately difficult to remain awake for more than a full day-night cycle. In humans, continuous wakefulness of the nervous system results in mental derangement; rats deprived of sleep for 10 days die. All mammals sleep, reptiles and birds sleep, and voluntary breathers like dolphins sleep with one brain hemisphere dormant at a time. The evolutionary trend is clear, but the function of sleep is not.
The universality of sleep, even though it comes at the cost of time and leaves the sleeper relatively defenseless, suggests a deep importance. There is no universally agreed-upon answer, but there are at least three popular (and nonexclusive) guesses. The first is that sleep is restorative, saving and replenishing the body’s energy stores. However, the high neural activity during sleep suggests there is more to the story. A second theory proposes that sleep allows the brain to run simulations of fighting, problem solving, and other key actions before testing them out in the real world. A third theory—the one that enjoys the most evidence—is that sleep plays a critical role in learning and consolidating memories and in forgetting inconsequential details. In other words, sleep allows the brain to store away the important stuff and take out the neural trash.
Recently, the spotlight has focused on REM sleep as the most important phase for locking memories into long-term encoding. In one study, rats were trained to scurry around a track for a food reward. The researchers recorded activity in the neurons known as place cells, which showed distinct patterns of activity depending upon the rats’ location on the track. Later, while the rats dropped off into REM sleep, the recordings continued. During this sleep, the rats’ place cells often repeated the exact same pattern of activity that was seen when the animals ran. The correlation was so close, the researchers claimed, that as the animal “dreamed,” they could reconstruct where it would be on the track if it had been awake—and whether the animal was dreaming of running or standing still. The emerging idea is that information replayed during sleep might determine which events we remember later. Sleep, in this view, is akin to an off-line practice session. In several recent experiments, human subjects performing difficult tasks improved their scores between sessions on consecutive days, but not between sessions on the same day, implicating sleep in the learning process.
Understanding how sleeping and dreaming are changed by *trauma, drugs, and disease—and how we might modulate our need for sleep—is a rich field to harvest for future clues.
9. How do the specialized systems of the brain integrate with one another?
To the naked eye, no part of the brain’s surface looks terribly different from any other part. But when we measure activity, we find that different types of information lurk in each region of the neural territory. Within vision, for example, separate areas process motion, edges, faces, and colors. The territory of the adult brain is as fractured as a map of the countries of the world.
Now that neuroscientists have a reasonable idea of how that territory is divided, we find ourselves looking at a strange assortment of brain networks involved with smell, hunger, pain, goal setting, temperature, prediction, and hundreds of other tasks. Despite their disparate functions, these systems seem to work together seamlessly. There are almost no good ideas about how this occurs.
Nor is it understood how the brain coordinates its systems so rapidly. The slow speed of spikes (they travel about one foot per second in axons that lack the insulating sheathing called myelin) is one hundred-millionth the speed of signal transmission in digital computers. Yet a human can recognize a friend almost instantaneously, while digital computers are slow—and usually unsuccessful—at face recognition. How can an organ with such slow parts operate so quickly? The usual answer is that the brain is a parallel processor, running many operations at the same time. This is almost certainly true, but what slows down parallel-processing digital computers is the next stage of operations, where results need to be compared and decided upon. Brains are amazingly fast at this. So while the brain’s ability to do parallel processing is impressive, its ability to rapidly synthesize those parallel processes into a single, behavior-guiding output is at least as significant. An animal running must go left or right around a tree; it cannot do both.
There is no special anatomical location in the brain where information from all the different systems converges; rather, the specialized areas all interconnect with one another, forming a network of parallel and recurring links. Somehow, our integrated image of the world emerges from this complex labyrinthine network of brain structures. Surprisingly little study has been done on large, loopy networks like the ones in the brain—probably in part because it is easier to think about brains as tidy assembly lines than as dynamic networks.
1. How is information coded in neural activity?
Neurons, the specialized cells of the brain, can produce brief spikes of voltage in their outer membranes. These electrical pulses travel along specialized extensions called axons to cause the release of chemical signals elsewhere in the brain. The binary, all-or-nothing spikes appear to carry information about the world: What do I see? Am I hungry? Which way should I turn? But what is the code of these millisecond bits of voltage? Spikes may mean different things at different places and times in the brain. In parts of the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), the rate of spiking often correlates with clearly definable external features, like the presence of a color or a face. In the peripheral nervous system, more spikes indicates more heat, a louder sound, or a stronger muscle contraction.
As we delve deeper into the brain, however, we find populations of neurons involved in more complex phenomena, like reminiscence, value judgments, simulation of possible futures, the desire for a mate, and so on—and here the signals become difficult to decrypt. The challenge is something like popping the cover off a computer, measuring a few transistors chattering between high and low voltage, and trying to guess the content of the Web page being surfed.
It is likely that mental information is stored not in single cells but in populations of cells and patterns of their activity. However, it is currently not clear how to know which neurons belong to a particular group; worse still, current technologies (like sticking fine electrodes directly into the brain) are not well suited to measuring several thousand neurons at once. Nor is it simple to monitor the connections of even one neuron: A typical neuron in the cortex receives input from some 10,000 other neurons.
Although traveling bursts of voltage can carry signals across the brain quickly, those electrical spikes may not be the only—or even the main—way that information is carried in nervous systems. *Forward-looking studies are examining other possible information couriers: glial cells (poorly understood brain cells that are 10 times as common as neurons), other kinds of signaling mechanisms between cells (such as newly discovered gases and peptides), and the biochemical cascades that take place inside cells.
2. How are memories stored and retrieved?
When you learn a new fact, like someone’s name, there are physical changes in the structure of your brain. But we don’t yet comprehend exactly what those changes are, how they are orchestrated across vast seas of synapses and neurons, how they embody knowledge, or how they are read out decades later for retrieval.
One complication is that there are many kinds of memories. The brain seems to distinguish short-term memory (remembering a phone number just long enough to dial it) from long-term memory (what you did on your last birthday). Within long-term memory, declarative memories (like names and facts) are distinct from non*declarative memories (riding a bicycle, being affected by a subliminal message), and within these general categories are numerous subtypes. Different brain structures seem to support different kinds of learning and memory; brain damage can lead to the loss of one type without disturbing the others.
Nonetheless, similar molecular mechanisms may be at work in these memory types. Almost all theories of memory propose that memory storage depends on synapses, the tiny connections between brain cells. When two cells are active at the same time, the connection between them strengthens; when they are not active at the same time, the connection weakens. Out of such synaptic changes emerges an association. Experience can, for example, fortify the connections between the smell of coffee, its taste, its color, and the feel of its warmth. Since the populations of neurons connected with each of these sensations are typically activated at the same time, the connections between them can cause all the sensory associations of coffee to be triggered by the smell alone.
But looking only at associations—and strengthened connections between neurons—may not be enough to explain memory. The great secret of memory is that it mostly encodes the relationships between things more than the details of the things themselves. When you memorize a melody, you encode the relationships between the notes, not the notes per se, which is why you can easily sing the song in a different key.
Memory retrieval is even more mysterious than storage. When I ask if you know Alex Ritchie, the answer is immediately obvious to you, and there is no good theory to explain how memory retrieval can happen so quickly. Moreover, the act of retrieval can destabilize the memory. When you recall a past event, the memory becomes temporarily susceptible to erasure. Some intriguing recent experiments show it is possible to chemically block memories from reforming during that window, suggesting new ethical questions that require careful consideration.
3. What does the baseline activity in the brain represent?
Neuroscientists have mostly studied changes in brain activity that correlate with stimuli we can present in the laboratory, such as a picture, a touch, or a sound. But the activity of the brain at rest—its “baseline” activity—may prove to be the most important aspect of our mental lives. The awake, resting brain uses 20 percent of the body’s total oxygen, even though it makes up only 2 percent of the body’s mass. Some of the baseline activity may represent the brain restructuring knowledge in the background, simulating future states and events, or manipulating memories. Most things we care about—reminiscences, emotions, drives, plans, and so on—can occur with no external stimulus and no overt output that can be measured.
One clue about baseline activity comes from neuroimaging experiments, which show that activity decreases in some brain areas just before a person performs a goal-directed task. The areas that decrease are the same regardless of the details of the task, hinting that these areas may run baseline programs during downtime, much as your computer might run a disk-defragmenting program only while the resources are not needed elsewhere.
In the traditional view of perception, information from the outside world pours into the senses, works its way through the brain, and makes itself consciously seen, heard, and felt. But many scientists are coming to think that sensory input may merely revise ongoing internal activity in the brain. Note, for example, that sensory input is superfluous for perception: When your eyes are closed during dreaming, you still enjoy rich visual experience. The awake state may be essentially the same as the dreaming state, only partially anchored by external stimuli. In this view, your conscious life is an awake dream.
4. How do brains simulate the future?
When a fire chief encounters a new blaze, he quickly makes predictions about how to best position his men. Running such simulations of the future—without the risk and expense of actually attempting them—allows “our hypotheses to die in our stead,” as philosopher Karl Popper put it. For this reason, the emulation of possible futures is one of the key businesses that intelligent brains invest in.
Yet we know little about how the brain’s future simulator works because traditional neuroscience technologies are best suited for correlating brain activity with explicit behaviors, not mental emulations. One idea suggests that the brain’s resources are devoted not only to processing stimuli and reacting to them (watching a ball come at you) but also to constructing an internal model of that outside world and extracting rules for how things tend to behave (knowing how balls move through the air). Internal models may play a role not only in motor acts, like catching, but also in perception. For example, vision draws on significant amounts of information in the brain, not just on input from the retina. Many neuroscientists have suggested over the past few decades that perception arises not simply by building up bits of data through a hierarchy but rather by matching incoming sensory data against internally generated expectations.
But how does a system learn to make good predictions about the world? It may be that memory exists only for this purpose. This is not a new idea: Two millennia ago, Aristotle and Galen emphasized memory as a tool in making successful predictions for the future. Even your memories about your life may come to be understood as a special subtype of emulation, one that is pinned down and thus likely to flow in a certain direction.
5. What are emotions?
We often talk about brains as information-processing systems, but any account of the brain that lacks an account of emotions, motivations, fears, and hopes is incomplete. Emotions are measurable physical responses to salient stimuli: the increased heartbeat and perspiration that accompany fear, the freezing response of a rat in the presence of a cat, or the extra muscle tension that accompanies anger. Feelings, on the other hand, are the subjective experiences that sometimes accompany these processes: the sensations of happiness, envy, sadness, and so on. Emotions seem to employ largely unconscious machinery—for example, brain areas involved in emotion will respond to angry faces that are briefly presented and then rapidly masked, even when subjects are unaware of having seen the face. Across cultures the expression of basic emotions is remarkably similar, and as Darwin observed, it is also similar across all mammals. There are even strong similarities in physiological responses among humans, reptiles, and birds when showing fear, anger, or parental love.
Modern views propose that emotions are brain states that quickly assign value to outcomes and provide a simple plan of action. Thus, emotion can be viewed as a type of computation, a rapid, automatic summary that initiates appropriate actions. When a bear is galloping toward you, the rising fear directs your brain to do the right things (determining an escape route) instead of all the other things it could be doing (rounding out your grocery list). When it comes to perception, you can spot an object more quickly if it is, say, a spider rather than a roll of tape. In the realm of memory, emotional events are laid down differently by a parallel memory system involving a brain area called the amygdala.
One goal of emotional neuroscience is to understand the nature of the many disorders of emotion, depression being the most common and costly. Impulsive aggression and violence are also thought to be consequences of faulty emotion regulation.
6. What is intelligence?
Intelligence comes in many forms, but it is not known what intelligence—in any of its guises—means biologically. How do billions of neurons work together to manipulate knowledge, simulate novel situations, and erase inconsequential information? What happens when two concepts “fit” together and you suddenly see a solution to a problem? What happens in your brain when it suddenly dawns on you that the killer in the movie is actually the unsuspected wife? Do intelligent people store knowledge in a way that is more distilled, more varied, or more easily retrievable?
We all grew up with the near-future promise of smart robots, but today we have little better than the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. What went wrong? There are two camps for explaining the weak performance of artificial intelligence: Either we do not know enough of the fundamental principles of brain function, or we have not simulated enough neurons working together. If the latter is true, that’s good news: Computation gets cheaper and faster each year, so we should not be far from enjoying life with Asimovian robots who can effectively tend our households. Yet most neuroscientists recognize how distant we are from that dream. Currently, our robots are little more intelligent than sea slugs, and even after decades of clever research, they can barely distinguish figures from a background at the skill level of an infant.
Recent experiments explore the possible relationship of intelligence to the capacity of short-term memory, the ability to quickly resolve cognitive conflict, or the ability to store stronger associations between facts; the results are not yet conclusive. Many other possibilities—better restructuring of stored information, more parallel processing, or superior emulation of possible futures—have not yet been probed by experiments.
Intelligence may not be underpinned by a single mechanism or a single neural area. Whatever intelligence is, it lies at the heart of what is special about Homo sapiens. Other species are hardwired to solve particular problems, while our ability to abstract allows us to solve an open-ended series of problems. This means that studies of intelligence in mice and monkeys may be barking up the wrong family tree.
7. How is time represented in the brain?
Hundred-yard dashes begin with a gunshot rather than a strobe light because your brain can react more quickly to a bang than to a flash. Yet as soon as we get outside the realm of motor reactions and into the realm of perception (what you report that you saw and heard), the story changes. When it comes to awareness, the brain goes through a good deal of trouble to synchronize incoming signals that are processed at very different speeds.
For example, snap your fingers in front of you. Although your auditory system processes information about the snap about 30 milliseconds faster than your visual system, the sight of your fingers and the sound of the snap seem simultaneous. Your brain is employing fancy editing tricks to make simultaneous events in the world feel simultaneous to you, even when the different senses processing the information would individually swear otherwise.
For a simple example of how your brain plays tricks with time, look in the mirror at your left eye. Now shift your gaze to your right eye. Your eye movements take time, of course, but you do not see your eyes move. It is as if the world instantly made the transition from one view to the next. What happened to that little gap in time? For that matter, what happens to the 80 milliseconds of darkness you should see every time you blink your eyes? Bottom line: Your notion of the smooth passage of time is a construction of the brain. Clarifying the picture of how the brain normally solves timing problems should give insight into what happens when temporal calibration goes wrong, as may happen in the brains of people with dyslexia. Sensory inputs that are out of sync also contribute to the risk of falls in elderly patients.
8. Why do brains sleep and dream?
One of the most astonishing aspects of our lives is that we spend a third of our time in the strange world of sleep. Newborn babies spend about twice that. It is inordinately difficult to remain awake for more than a full day-night cycle. In humans, continuous wakefulness of the nervous system results in mental derangement; rats deprived of sleep for 10 days die. All mammals sleep, reptiles and birds sleep, and voluntary breathers like dolphins sleep with one brain hemisphere dormant at a time. The evolutionary trend is clear, but the function of sleep is not.
The universality of sleep, even though it comes at the cost of time and leaves the sleeper relatively defenseless, suggests a deep importance. There is no universally agreed-upon answer, but there are at least three popular (and nonexclusive) guesses. The first is that sleep is restorative, saving and replenishing the body’s energy stores. However, the high neural activity during sleep suggests there is more to the story. A second theory proposes that sleep allows the brain to run simulations of fighting, problem solving, and other key actions before testing them out in the real world. A third theory—the one that enjoys the most evidence—is that sleep plays a critical role in learning and consolidating memories and in forgetting inconsequential details. In other words, sleep allows the brain to store away the important stuff and take out the neural trash.
Recently, the spotlight has focused on REM sleep as the most important phase for locking memories into long-term encoding. In one study, rats were trained to scurry around a track for a food reward. The researchers recorded activity in the neurons known as place cells, which showed distinct patterns of activity depending upon the rats’ location on the track. Later, while the rats dropped off into REM sleep, the recordings continued. During this sleep, the rats’ place cells often repeated the exact same pattern of activity that was seen when the animals ran. The correlation was so close, the researchers claimed, that as the animal “dreamed,” they could reconstruct where it would be on the track if it had been awake—and whether the animal was dreaming of running or standing still. The emerging idea is that information replayed during sleep might determine which events we remember later. Sleep, in this view, is akin to an off-line practice session. In several recent experiments, human subjects performing difficult tasks improved their scores between sessions on consecutive days, but not between sessions on the same day, implicating sleep in the learning process.
Understanding how sleeping and dreaming are changed by *trauma, drugs, and disease—and how we might modulate our need for sleep—is a rich field to harvest for future clues.
9. How do the specialized systems of the brain integrate with one another?
To the naked eye, no part of the brain’s surface looks terribly different from any other part. But when we measure activity, we find that different types of information lurk in each region of the neural territory. Within vision, for example, separate areas process motion, edges, faces, and colors. The territory of the adult brain is as fractured as a map of the countries of the world.
Now that neuroscientists have a reasonable idea of how that territory is divided, we find ourselves looking at a strange assortment of brain networks involved with smell, hunger, pain, goal setting, temperature, prediction, and hundreds of other tasks. Despite their disparate functions, these systems seem to work together seamlessly. There are almost no good ideas about how this occurs.
Nor is it understood how the brain coordinates its systems so rapidly. The slow speed of spikes (they travel about one foot per second in axons that lack the insulating sheathing called myelin) is one hundred-millionth the speed of signal transmission in digital computers. Yet a human can recognize a friend almost instantaneously, while digital computers are slow—and usually unsuccessful—at face recognition. How can an organ with such slow parts operate so quickly? The usual answer is that the brain is a parallel processor, running many operations at the same time. This is almost certainly true, but what slows down parallel-processing digital computers is the next stage of operations, where results need to be compared and decided upon. Brains are amazingly fast at this. So while the brain’s ability to do parallel processing is impressive, its ability to rapidly synthesize those parallel processes into a single, behavior-guiding output is at least as significant. An animal running must go left or right around a tree; it cannot do both.
There is no special anatomical location in the brain where information from all the different systems converges; rather, the specialized areas all interconnect with one another, forming a network of parallel and recurring links. Somehow, our integrated image of the world emerges from this complex labyrinthine network of brain structures. Surprisingly little study has been done on large, loopy networks like the ones in the brain—probably in part because it is easier to think about brains as tidy assembly lines than as dynamic networks.
10. What is consciousness?
Think back to your first kiss. The experience of it may pop into your head instantly. Where was that memory before you became conscious of it? How was it stored in your brain before and after it came into consciousness? What is the difference between those states
An explanation of consciousness is one of the major unsolved problems of modern science. It may not turn out to be a single phenomenon; nonetheless, by way of a preliminary target, let’s think of it as the thing that flickers on when you wake up in the morning that was not there, in the exact same brain hardware, moments before.
Neuroscientists believe that consciousness emerges from the material stuff of the brain primarily because even very small changes to your brain (say, by drugs or disease) can powerfully alter your subjective experiences. The heart of the problem is that we do not yet know how to engineer pieces and parts such that the resulting machine has the kind of private subjective experience that you and I take for granted. If I give you all the Tinkertoys in the world and tell you to hook them up so that they form a conscious machine, good luck. We don’t have a theory yet of how to do this; we don’t even know what the theory will look like.
One of the traditional challenges to consciousness research is studying it experimentally. It is probable that at any moment some active neuronal processes correlate with consciousness, while others do not. The first challenge is to determine the difference between them. Some clever experiments are making at least a little headway. In one of these, subjects see an image of a house in one eye and, simultaneously, an image of a cow in the other. Instead of perceiving a house-cow mixture, people perceive only one of them. Then, after some random amount of time, they will believe they’re seeing the other, and they will continue to switch slowly back and forth. Yet nothing about the visual stimulus changes; only the conscious experience changes. This test allows investigators to probe which properties of neuronal activity correlate with the changes in subjective experience.
The mechanisms underlying consciousness could reside at any of a variety of physical levels: molecular, cellular, circuit, pathway, or some organizational level not yet described. The mechanisms might also be a product of interactions between these levels. One compelling but still speculative notion is that the massive feedback circuitry of the brain is essential to the production of consciousness.
In the near term, scientists are working to identify the areas of the brain that correlate with consciousness. Then comes the next step: understanding why they correlate. This is the so-called hard problem of neuroscience, and it lies at the outer limit of what material explanations will say about the experience of being human.
From Discovery Magazine
Think back to your first kiss. The experience of it may pop into your head instantly. Where was that memory before you became conscious of it? How was it stored in your brain before and after it came into consciousness? What is the difference between those states
An explanation of consciousness is one of the major unsolved problems of modern science. It may not turn out to be a single phenomenon; nonetheless, by way of a preliminary target, let’s think of it as the thing that flickers on when you wake up in the morning that was not there, in the exact same brain hardware, moments before.
Neuroscientists believe that consciousness emerges from the material stuff of the brain primarily because even very small changes to your brain (say, by drugs or disease) can powerfully alter your subjective experiences. The heart of the problem is that we do not yet know how to engineer pieces and parts such that the resulting machine has the kind of private subjective experience that you and I take for granted. If I give you all the Tinkertoys in the world and tell you to hook them up so that they form a conscious machine, good luck. We don’t have a theory yet of how to do this; we don’t even know what the theory will look like.
One of the traditional challenges to consciousness research is studying it experimentally. It is probable that at any moment some active neuronal processes correlate with consciousness, while others do not. The first challenge is to determine the difference between them. Some clever experiments are making at least a little headway. In one of these, subjects see an image of a house in one eye and, simultaneously, an image of a cow in the other. Instead of perceiving a house-cow mixture, people perceive only one of them. Then, after some random amount of time, they will believe they’re seeing the other, and they will continue to switch slowly back and forth. Yet nothing about the visual stimulus changes; only the conscious experience changes. This test allows investigators to probe which properties of neuronal activity correlate with the changes in subjective experience.
The mechanisms underlying consciousness could reside at any of a variety of physical levels: molecular, cellular, circuit, pathway, or some organizational level not yet described. The mechanisms might also be a product of interactions between these levels. One compelling but still speculative notion is that the massive feedback circuitry of the brain is essential to the production of consciousness.
In the near term, scientists are working to identify the areas of the brain that correlate with consciousness. Then comes the next step: understanding why they correlate. This is the so-called hard problem of neuroscience, and it lies at the outer limit of what material explanations will say about the experience of being human.
From Discovery Magazine
There are certain programs that Windows will start every time you
boot up your system, and during the startup phase, they're all
competing for a slice of your CPU speed. Extra or unwanted items
in the startup list will definitely increase your startup time, perhaps
by several minutes. Some common examples are things related to
AOL, RealPlayer, Napster, instant messengers, and video managers.
If you're not sure about an item, no big deal. You can turn it off,
restart your PC, and see if everything seems to work. If not, you can
always go back and re-enable an item in the Startup list. This tip
alone should speed up your start-up by 250%. Here are is what
you have to do:
1. Go to Start button Run
2. Type "msconfig", without quotations
3. Hit enter key or click the OK button
4. A System Configuration Utility window will show up
5. Click the Startup tab
6. In the Startup tab you will see several boxes and some of them
will selected (checked). All you have to do is to uncheck
extra items that are of no use. If you run an antivirus
program it is not recommended to uncheck it.
7. After making you choices press the OK button, you will be
prompted to restart computer to apply changes.
8. After restarting your computer a dialogue will be displayed.
You can check the option for not showing this dialogue every
time your PC reboots.
XP Speed Secret #2: Remove Spyware, Adware,
and Malware
Have you scanned your system for spyware, adware and other
unwanted pests? 1 of 6 computers has some sort of Spyware or
Malware! They dramatically slow down your computer because they
use resources to generate popup ads, send spam, and often
interfere with the operation of good programs.
If you haven’t scanned recently, we recommend a free scan from a
good anti-spyware program. We prefer to use stand-alone, high
quality anti-spyware programs like XoftSpy Pro, which give us the
ability to scan and repair these problems in seconds.
FINAL NOTE: Recent testing has shown that stand-alone programs
do a much better job than the “all-in-one” packages (eg. Norton
Internet Security) at detecting spyware, adware, and malware.
XP Speed Secret #4: Speed-Up File Browsing
You may have noticed that every time you open “My Computer” to
browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows
XP automatically searches for network files and printers every time
you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing
speed significantly:
1. Double-click on My Computer
2. Click the Tools menu
3. Select Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and
printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click OK
8. Reboot your computer
boot up your system, and during the startup phase, they're all
competing for a slice of your CPU speed. Extra or unwanted items
in the startup list will definitely increase your startup time, perhaps
by several minutes. Some common examples are things related to
AOL, RealPlayer, Napster, instant messengers, and video managers.
If you're not sure about an item, no big deal. You can turn it off,
restart your PC, and see if everything seems to work. If not, you can
always go back and re-enable an item in the Startup list. This tip
alone should speed up your start-up by 250%. Here are is what
you have to do:
1. Go to Start button Run
2. Type "msconfig", without quotations
3. Hit enter key or click the OK button
4. A System Configuration Utility window will show up
5. Click the Startup tab
6. In the Startup tab you will see several boxes and some of them
will selected (checked). All you have to do is to uncheck
extra items that are of no use. If you run an antivirus
program it is not recommended to uncheck it.
7. After making you choices press the OK button, you will be
prompted to restart computer to apply changes.
8. After restarting your computer a dialogue will be displayed.
You can check the option for not showing this dialogue every
time your PC reboots.
XP Speed Secret #2: Remove Spyware, Adware,
and Malware
Have you scanned your system for spyware, adware and other
unwanted pests? 1 of 6 computers has some sort of Spyware or
Malware! They dramatically slow down your computer because they
use resources to generate popup ads, send spam, and often
interfere with the operation of good programs.
If you haven’t scanned recently, we recommend a free scan from a
good anti-spyware program. We prefer to use stand-alone, high
quality anti-spyware programs like XoftSpy Pro, which give us the
ability to scan and repair these problems in seconds.
FINAL NOTE: Recent testing has shown that stand-alone programs
do a much better job than the “all-in-one” packages (eg. Norton
Internet Security) at detecting spyware, adware, and malware.
XP Speed Secret #4: Speed-Up File Browsing
You may have noticed that every time you open “My Computer” to
browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows
XP automatically searches for network files and printers every time
you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing
speed significantly:
1. Double-click on My Computer
2. Click the Tools menu
3. Select Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and
printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click OK
8. Reboot your computer
Meanings Of Some Country Name Created Manually Hope You Will Enjoy This
H O L L A N D
Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies.
I T A L Y
I Trust And Love You.
L I B Y A
Love Is Beautiful; You Also.
F R A N C E
Friendships Remain And Never Can End.
C H I N A
Come Here ...I Need Affection.
B U R M A
Between Us, Remember Me Always.
N E P A L
Never Ever Part As Lovers.
I N D I A
I Nearly Died In Adoration.
K E N Y A
Keep Everything Nice, Yet Arousing.
C A N A D A
Cute And Naughty Action that Developed into Attraction
K O R E A
Keep Optimistic Regardless of Every adversity.
E G Y P T
Everything's Great, You Pretty Thing
M A N I L A
May All Nights Inspire Love Always.
P E R U
Phorget (Forget) Everyone... Remember Us.
T H A I L A N D
Totally Happy. Always In Love And Never Dull.
H O L L A N D
Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies.
I T A L Y
I Trust And Love You.
L I B Y A
Love Is Beautiful; You Also.
F R A N C E
Friendships Remain And Never Can End.
C H I N A
Come Here ...I Need Affection.
B U R M A
Between Us, Remember Me Always.
N E P A L
Never Ever Part As Lovers.
I N D I A
I Nearly Died In Adoration.
K E N Y A
Keep Everything Nice, Yet Arousing.
C A N A D A
Cute And Naughty Action that Developed into Attraction
K O R E A
Keep Optimistic Regardless of Every adversity.
E G Y P T
Everything's Great, You Pretty Thing
M A N I L A
May All Nights Inspire Love Always.
P E R U
Phorget (Forget) Everyone... Remember Us.
T H A I L A N D
Totally Happy. Always In Love And Never Dull.
1. Make a plan on paper first – nothing fancy and just use a pencil. Included in this plan is Keyword research. Don’t skimp here because this sets the direction and you don’t want to waste your time. I have and it’s not pleasing.
2. Commit to quality in every case – don’t swerve from this, no matter what!
3. Try to stay with your own original content. You can have content written for you but again – try to stay with original work as much as you can
4. Study On-page optimization - it’s not a science degree, you’ll pick it up quickly
5. Also study Off-page optimization (this is important). Spend some time doing this until you understand it
6. Understand back linking – this is a must and is strongly related to the point I mentioned above. Reciprocal linking is OK but no where near as important as back linking
7. Learn all about Anchor Text - also essential for back linking value and search engine positioning
8. Don’t spend too much time on the aesthetics. There’s a lot to be said for a pleasant looking site but your audience will be more than pleased with quality content and the ease of moving around your site
9. Make it easy for people to promote your site with Tags, Inform A Friend links, Add To Favorites button, Link To Me, articles, reports etc.
10. Be honest, Don’t try the cheating way. I have heard of someone who built a site over 2 years and then experimented with Black Hat software and now he’s off the air (sandboxed) for possibly 6 months and then he’ll be observed for a long time to come with that site. 2 years of hard work down the gurgler (for 6 months).
2. Commit to quality in every case – don’t swerve from this, no matter what!
3. Try to stay with your own original content. You can have content written for you but again – try to stay with original work as much as you can
4. Study On-page optimization - it’s not a science degree, you’ll pick it up quickly
5. Also study Off-page optimization (this is important). Spend some time doing this until you understand it
6. Understand back linking – this is a must and is strongly related to the point I mentioned above. Reciprocal linking is OK but no where near as important as back linking
7. Learn all about Anchor Text - also essential for back linking value and search engine positioning
8. Don’t spend too much time on the aesthetics. There’s a lot to be said for a pleasant looking site but your audience will be more than pleased with quality content and the ease of moving around your site
9. Make it easy for people to promote your site with Tags, Inform A Friend links, Add To Favorites button, Link To Me, articles, reports etc.
10. Be honest, Don’t try the cheating way. I have heard of someone who built a site over 2 years and then experimented with Black Hat software and now he’s off the air (sandboxed) for possibly 6 months and then he’ll be observed for a long time to come with that site. 2 years of hard work down the gurgler (for 6 months).
Default reduce memory usage using firefox
You may have noticed that sometimes Firefox becomes quite slow because it uses caching to increase the speed of browsing while you click the back button. This actually results in using more memory. You can disable it
1. Start Firefox and type "about:config" and hit enter.
2. In the Filter column enter “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers” and instead of the -1 setting, change it to 0 and hit Enter.
3. Restart your browser, now as soon as you start go to a particular site and then just check the Firefox memory usage, you’ll note the Difference.
You may have noticed that sometimes Firefox becomes quite slow because it uses caching to increase the speed of browsing while you click the back button. This actually results in using more memory. You can disable it
1. Start Firefox and type "about:config" and hit enter.
2. In the Filter column enter “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers” and instead of the -1 setting, change it to 0 and hit Enter.
3. Restart your browser, now as soon as you start go to a particular site and then just check the Firefox memory usage, you’ll note the Difference.
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* Networking - share data with your colleagues over a network.
* Design your billing system on the database structure level.
* Free if you want - Excel Invoice Manager includes a completely free invoice template, which can be used stand alone to create and calculate invoices.
* And many more...
Homepage - www.office-kit.com
Easy Download
Features:
* Bill your customers without leaving Microsoft Office.
* Create invoices in true what-you-see-is-what-you-get invoice template.
* Manage customers, products, invoices and payments easily.
* One software, unlimited number of companies and databases.
* Design your own invoice templates with familiar Excel tools.
* No Office macros at all.
* Networking - share data with your colleagues over a network.
* Design your billing system on the database structure level.
* Free if you want - Excel Invoice Manager includes a completely free invoice template, which can be used stand alone to create and calculate invoices.
* And many more...
Homepage - www.office-kit.com
Easy Download
Multi-Language Qur'an Software. Full Arabic/English with Quranic Commentary, transliteration, index, glossary (over 500 words), and full search. Supports plug-in Qur'an Translations allowing translations into multiple languages. Qur'an verses can be compared in any installed language. Other languages that can be downloaded and installed include: French, German, Spanish, Malay, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Tamil, Hausa, Turkish, and Indonesian. Eight other English translations are also available. Now features, Computer Generated Mushaf pages of the original Sacred Arabic text,
Download
Download
Apply the following trick to detect that your friend is invisible or offline.
1.) Start a new chat with the intended user.
2.) Set the chat to off the record so that it doesn’t get logged to the gmail account.
3.) Send a message to the user. If the user is online and invisible, the message will be delivered.
4.) If the user is offline, you will get an error message indicating that the user is offline.
Reply With Quote
1.) Start a new chat with the intended user.
2.) Set the chat to off the record so that it doesn’t get logged to the gmail account.
3.) Send a message to the user. If the user is online and invisible, the message will be delivered.
4.) If the user is offline, you will get an error message indicating that the user is offline.
Reply With Quote
Here’s a list of other common mistakes to avoid…
Common Mistake 1:
Launching a re-design of your website without measuring the effect it has on your conversions.
Common Mistake 2:
Abandoning pay-per-click (PPC) advertising because it’s getting too expensive, and concentrating on search engine optimization (SEO) instead. (By doing this, you’re refusing to acknowledge that your company is getting pushed out of the marketplace.)
Common Mistake 3:
Signing up to extremely-expensive testing software before you understand how to design high-converting web pages.
Common Mistake 4:
Guessing which webpages to concentrate your efforts on.
Common Mistake 5:
Assuming you’ll get the best results by testing millions of variations of your webpages.
Common Mistake 6:
Designing tests that don’t teach you anything.
Common Mistake 7:
Designing tests that have the wrong goals – for example ignoring offline orders or measuring click-throughs. Ultimately, your main goal is to maximize your profit-per-visitor. Which is what we specialize in.
Common Mistake 8:
Misinterpreting the results of a test, and promoting the wrong page. (This is surprisingly easy to do.)
Common Mistake 1:
Launching a re-design of your website without measuring the effect it has on your conversions.
Common Mistake 2:
Abandoning pay-per-click (PPC) advertising because it’s getting too expensive, and concentrating on search engine optimization (SEO) instead. (By doing this, you’re refusing to acknowledge that your company is getting pushed out of the marketplace.)
Common Mistake 3:
Signing up to extremely-expensive testing software before you understand how to design high-converting web pages.
Common Mistake 4:
Guessing which webpages to concentrate your efforts on.
Common Mistake 5:
Assuming you’ll get the best results by testing millions of variations of your webpages.
Common Mistake 6:
Designing tests that don’t teach you anything.
Common Mistake 7:
Designing tests that have the wrong goals – for example ignoring offline orders or measuring click-throughs. Ultimately, your main goal is to maximize your profit-per-visitor. Which is what we specialize in.
Common Mistake 8:
Misinterpreting the results of a test, and promoting the wrong page. (This is surprisingly easy to do.)
8 Useful SEO TechniquesEvery Webmaster Should KnowBy Titus Hoskins (c) 2008Every webmaster should have some basic understanding of these simple SEO techniques if they want to achieve Top Rankings for their site. The more you know about these Search Engine Optimization techniques; the better your web pages will fare in the different search engines, especially [...]
8 Useful SEO Techniques
Every Webmaster Should Know
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008
Every webmaster should have some basic understanding of these simple SEO techniques if they want to achieve Top Rankings for their site. The more you know about these Search Engine Optimization techniques; the better your web pages will fare in the different search engines, especially Google.
Optimizing your pages for the search engines should be your main priority because conquering and dominating your chosen keywords is often cited as one of the major determining factors in the success of your online site or business. You must have a rudimentary grasp of how SEO can work for you and your site.
These simple SEO Tips will help you understand the basics and help you reach your online goals.
1. Title Tag
The Title Tag is located at the top of your html page and it tells the search engines what your page is about. When you open your page in a browser these are the words at the very top of the screen. Despite its simplicity, the title tag is crucial to ‘on-page optimization’; it should include your main keywords and it should be 63 characters or less if you want your title to appear in full on Google.
Many SEO experts create web pages in a three-prong approach. They place the title in:
- the title tag - on the webpage itself - and in the URL for that page
Sometimes they will just pick the main keywords from the title and place them in the anchor url instead. For example: www.yourwebsite.com/keywords.html
2. Meta Description Tag
The Meta Tag contains the description for your web page. Your description will show up in all the search engines so you have to be careful to write precisely and objectively. It should be about 140 characters or around 20 words. Make sure to include your keywords but don’t spam - don’t repeat your keywords more than twice - using variations is helpful.
Keep in mind, successful webmasters make their descriptions stand out from the crowd and entice the surfer to click their link. It is also the first contact with your potential visitor or prospect so make a good first impression.
3. Anchor Tag or URL
The anchor tag is used to form links within websites or from site to site. This tag should have your title or the main keywords from your page title to be the most effective.
Anchor text is also important to know - these are the underlined, clickable text or words in a link.
anchor text
If you want to check Google for all web pages containing your keywords in the anchor tags.
Just type into Google Search: allinanchor:yourkeywords
4. Finding Backlinks
One of the keys to higher rankings is building quality links from relevant, related quality sites. The search engines, especially Google, count each link as a “vote” for your site or content. Many experts suggest you include your main keywords in the anchor text of these inbound links in order to rank high.
If you want to find the number of backlinks your site has.
Just type into Google Search: link:yourURL
and it will give you the number of backlinks you have.
Google doesn’t give you all your existing backlinks, so you can try Yahoo! to find a more exact number.
Just open Yahoo! and type in: linkdomain:yourURL
5. Checking Indexed Pages
If is very important for you to know what content the search engines have indexed from your site. You can also check to see how your links are displayed and to see if any titles or descriptions are missing from your pages.
You can see how many of your pages are indexed in Google by using the site command.
Just type into Google Search: site:yourURL
Another way to look at your pages in Google is to type in “http://yoursite” and “www.yoursite” with the quotation marks to see the exact number of listings for each.
6. Checking Google Cache
You can also check to see the Google Cache of your site by using the cache command. You will also discover when it was last retrieved.
Just type into Google Search: cache:yourURL
7. Finding Associated Keywords
Keywords are the heart of the Internet, you must dominate the search engines for your chosen keywords if you are to succeed online. So make sure you have your main keywords in the Meta Keyword Tag on your page. Many experts suggest you place your page’s main keywords in the first and last 25 words on that page.
You must also be able to find and use variations of your keywords to completely conquer your targeted niche. To find what other keywords Google has associated with your main keywords, just use the tilde ~ command to find associated phrases in Google.
Just type into Google search: ~keywords
Variations will be highlighted in bold print.
8. Finding Titled Keywords
If you want to find competing sites that have your keywords in the title just use the allintitle command.
Just type into Google search: allintitle:yourkeywords
In summary, if used consistently, these basic SEO techniques should help improve your rankings and keep you in the picture with regards to your standings in the search engines. Your site’s stats or raw traffic logs will also confirm the rise or fall of your keyword rankings. You must have complete knowledge of both your site and your keywords in the search engines, especially Google. Since Google will deliver most of your quality traffic, you must optimize for it and be aware of what is happening to your site and keywords within Google. This is yet another example where knowledge equals success.
About The Author
The author, a former artist and teacher, is now a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: BizwareMagic or MarketingToolGuide
2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
8 Useful SEO Techniques
Every Webmaster Should Know
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2008
Every webmaster should have some basic understanding of these simple SEO techniques if they want to achieve Top Rankings for their site. The more you know about these Search Engine Optimization techniques; the better your web pages will fare in the different search engines, especially Google.
Optimizing your pages for the search engines should be your main priority because conquering and dominating your chosen keywords is often cited as one of the major determining factors in the success of your online site or business. You must have a rudimentary grasp of how SEO can work for you and your site.
These simple SEO Tips will help you understand the basics and help you reach your online goals.
1. Title Tag
The Title Tag is located at the top of your html page and it tells the search engines what your page is about. When you open your page in a browser these are the words at the very top of the screen. Despite its simplicity, the title tag is crucial to ‘on-page optimization’; it should include your main keywords and it should be 63 characters or less if you want your title to appear in full on Google.
Many SEO experts create web pages in a three-prong approach. They place the title in:
- the title tag - on the webpage itself - and in the URL for that page
Sometimes they will just pick the main keywords from the title and place them in the anchor url instead. For example: www.yourwebsite.com/keywords.html
2. Meta Description Tag
The Meta Tag contains the description for your web page. Your description will show up in all the search engines so you have to be careful to write precisely and objectively. It should be about 140 characters or around 20 words. Make sure to include your keywords but don’t spam - don’t repeat your keywords more than twice - using variations is helpful.
Keep in mind, successful webmasters make their descriptions stand out from the crowd and entice the surfer to click their link. It is also the first contact with your potential visitor or prospect so make a good first impression.
3. Anchor Tag or URL
The anchor tag is used to form links within websites or from site to site. This tag should have your title or the main keywords from your page title to be the most effective.
Anchor text is also important to know - these are the underlined, clickable text or words in a link.
anchor text
If you want to check Google for all web pages containing your keywords in the anchor tags.
Just type into Google Search: allinanchor:yourkeywords
4. Finding Backlinks
One of the keys to higher rankings is building quality links from relevant, related quality sites. The search engines, especially Google, count each link as a “vote” for your site or content. Many experts suggest you include your main keywords in the anchor text of these inbound links in order to rank high.
If you want to find the number of backlinks your site has.
Just type into Google Search: link:yourURL
and it will give you the number of backlinks you have.
Google doesn’t give you all your existing backlinks, so you can try Yahoo! to find a more exact number.
Just open Yahoo! and type in: linkdomain:yourURL
5. Checking Indexed Pages
If is very important for you to know what content the search engines have indexed from your site. You can also check to see how your links are displayed and to see if any titles or descriptions are missing from your pages.
You can see how many of your pages are indexed in Google by using the site command.
Just type into Google Search: site:yourURL
Another way to look at your pages in Google is to type in “http://yoursite” and “www.yoursite” with the quotation marks to see the exact number of listings for each.
6. Checking Google Cache
You can also check to see the Google Cache of your site by using the cache command. You will also discover when it was last retrieved.
Just type into Google Search: cache:yourURL
7. Finding Associated Keywords
Keywords are the heart of the Internet, you must dominate the search engines for your chosen keywords if you are to succeed online. So make sure you have your main keywords in the Meta Keyword Tag on your page. Many experts suggest you place your page’s main keywords in the first and last 25 words on that page.
You must also be able to find and use variations of your keywords to completely conquer your targeted niche. To find what other keywords Google has associated with your main keywords, just use the tilde ~ command to find associated phrases in Google.
Just type into Google search: ~keywords
Variations will be highlighted in bold print.
8. Finding Titled Keywords
If you want to find competing sites that have your keywords in the title just use the allintitle command.
Just type into Google search: allintitle:yourkeywords
In summary, if used consistently, these basic SEO techniques should help improve your rankings and keep you in the picture with regards to your standings in the search engines. Your site’s stats or raw traffic logs will also confirm the rise or fall of your keyword rankings. You must have complete knowledge of both your site and your keywords in the search engines, especially Google. Since Google will deliver most of your quality traffic, you must optimize for it and be aware of what is happening to your site and keywords within Google. This is yet another example where knowledge equals success.
About The Author
The author, a former artist and teacher, is now a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest web marketing tools try: BizwareMagic or MarketingToolGuide
2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
Do you want to grab real-time video or image?
Video Capture Master is a hot piece of application designed to suit your needs. With it you can effortlessly record video and image from Webcam, TV Tuner card, digital video, digital camera and other capture devices in real time. It integrates the ability to control your DV camera or other devices, which supports device control from Video Capture Master. With it you can set each capture device's properties, record real-time video, preview recorded files, watch TV if TV Tuner is installed, add water mark or texts on video or image, and much more. Besides, it supports video and audio recording and is simple to choose codec. The captured video files can be saved as AVI (using any compression codec) format.
Size: 3.5mb
Download
I will list 8 Free WEB2.0 Widget/Addons For Your Website Or Blog -
One of the great things about free Widget/Addons is that it can easily help you promote your websites & blogs without doing any thing, The visitors doing all and it helps with spiders (SE's).
We will start of by the latest buzz, Twitter!
1: You can add twitter button so peoples can easily go to your page and add you to their followers list.
LINK: http://twittercounter.com/pages/buttons/
Installation: Enter the user name & generate the code, simply put it inside your website or blog.
------
2: Ever wished to know what's going on inside your website/blog in real time? Where are the visitors hanging? RadarURL is for you:
Real time radar statistics for your website
* Real time online user statistics
* See at what time your site have most visitors
* See which pages they have visited most
* Real time tracking Widgets
Link: http://radarurl.com
Installation: You'll see the code in the home page, Simply put it inside your website and that's it.
------
3: Any one here didn't heard about digg? Every old webmaster/blogger know how digg can drive traffic and help with search engines, When setting up their widget you are allowing the visitors to vote, By a natural way you get traffic & index just by that.
Link: http://digg.com/tools/integrate
Installation: Just chose your button style and set the code onto your website/blog.
------
4: Are ya feeling lucky, punk? Blogger Feeling Lucky Widget (Random Post) great to letting the spiders know about older posts
Link: http://phydeauxredux.googlepages.com...ing-Lucky.html
Installation: Set the code onto your website/blog
------
5: AddThis, Every one know it - Yet still new webmasters coming every day so this is for you.
It is a widget that help your visitors to add your web pages or posts to their social networks, bookmarking and news.
Link: http://addthis.com/web-button-select
Installation: Chose your widget button and get the code.
------
6: FeedBurner, Allowing to the visitors to subscribe easily to your feed/rss page.
Link: http://Feedburner.com
Installation: Connect with Google account and "Claim" it.
------
7: Need some pools ? polldaddy.com allows you to create stunning pools so it will fit every website.
Link: http://polldaddy.com/
Installation: Signup and follow the instructions.
------
8: Chat with visitors on
your web site now!
Link: http://www.hab.la/
Installation: Signup and follow the instructions.
That's it for now, Feel free to suggest more so I can make a new post later with new widgets/ideas.
All above widgets/addons are free and most of them wont even need to register with email
One of the great things about free Widget/Addons is that it can easily help you promote your websites & blogs without doing any thing, The visitors doing all and it helps with spiders (SE's).
We will start of by the latest buzz, Twitter!
1: You can add twitter button so peoples can easily go to your page and add you to their followers list.
LINK: http://twittercounter.com/pages/buttons/
Installation: Enter the user name & generate the code, simply put it inside your website or blog.
------
2: Ever wished to know what's going on inside your website/blog in real time? Where are the visitors hanging? RadarURL is for you:
Real time radar statistics for your website
* Real time online user statistics
* See at what time your site have most visitors
* See which pages they have visited most
* Real time tracking Widgets
Link: http://radarurl.com
Installation: You'll see the code in the home page, Simply put it inside your website and that's it.
------
3: Any one here didn't heard about digg? Every old webmaster/blogger know how digg can drive traffic and help with search engines, When setting up their widget you are allowing the visitors to vote, By a natural way you get traffic & index just by that.
Link: http://digg.com/tools/integrate
Installation: Just chose your button style and set the code onto your website/blog.
------
4: Are ya feeling lucky, punk? Blogger Feeling Lucky Widget (Random Post) great to letting the spiders know about older posts
Link: http://phydeauxredux.googlepages.com...ing-Lucky.html
Installation: Set the code onto your website/blog
------
5: AddThis, Every one know it - Yet still new webmasters coming every day so this is for you.
It is a widget that help your visitors to add your web pages or posts to their social networks, bookmarking and news.
Link: http://addthis.com/web-button-select
Installation: Chose your widget button and get the code.
------
6: FeedBurner, Allowing to the visitors to subscribe easily to your feed/rss page.
Link: http://Feedburner.com
Installation: Connect with Google account and "Claim" it.
------
7: Need some pools ? polldaddy.com allows you to create stunning pools so it will fit every website.
Link: http://polldaddy.com/
Installation: Signup and follow the instructions.
------
8: Chat with visitors on
your web site now!
Link: http://www.hab.la/
Installation: Signup and follow the instructions.
That's it for now, Feel free to suggest more so I can make a new post later with new widgets/ideas.
All above widgets/addons are free and most of them wont even need to register with email
Where do you rank on the World Wide Web? It's not enough to have a website; you have to get ranked on the first page to get noticed. Otherwise, holding your position at number 28,432 on Google isn't going to do you much good. Chëck out some easy ways to improve your page rank and get yourself noticed.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) ensures that your website copy is written and structured in a way that improves chances that your website will be found when someone performs a search. For example, if your company sells insurance, you'd use words or phrases such as life insurance, insurance quote, insurance agent, or home insurance.
Content
Write articles that grab the interest of readers right now. Include case studies and whitepapers on your site that will give your visitors a reason to always come back. Or even chëck out what's going on in the news and be there first to report changes that impact your industry. For example, if you sell mortgagës, be the first one to report the drop in mortgagë rates. You'll generate a lot of traffíc and íncrease your ranking. Remember, time is of the essence. If you find out something new and hot, you should write about it before your competition does!
Search engine spiders are looking for sites that are periodically updated with rich content. Do not offër content that isn't useful. Some people try to place content that is rich in keywords but doesn't offër the incoming traffíc anything beneficial. Low traffíc will equal lower rankings with top search engines. The idea behind rich content with specific keywords is that because you keep posting content, soon you will be ranked within the search engines for specific words. So, when I post articles about the different insurance rates and options, etc.; when an on-line visitor is searching for this info they will land on your site and may become potential clients.
Content must be used to provide new and interesting information that your reader wants to know about, offër helpful tips, or solve a problem. This content will get you link-backs which are excellent for driving traffíc. You can also post articles through authentic submission sites, and that will also generate a lot of traffíc. Many companies publish with different online magazines etc., not only to prove their expertise but also to gain more traffíc linking to their sites.
Offer Resources
Offër resources that will help your reader. For instance, if you are an insurance agent, and you want to attract new clients, offër a comparison chart of all the insurance agencies in the area so your user can make an objective decision. At first, it seems like the insurance company is driving business away that way. Not so. If you offër your users resources that benefit them, they will come back for more when they are searching again.
Link It Up
Linking to other websites is a great way to íncrease your page ranking. Linking to other websites raises credibility in the eyes of the search engines. Who should you link to? Provide links to websites that offër a similar product or service as you do, or websites that are industry related. A spa can link to its beauty suppliers, for example. Ask them if they will provide a link to your website, and remember to offër to link to theirs in return. You can also submít articles to directories or credible article submission websites to gain links. Good articles and resources will get you bookmarked and potentially linked to by other users.
Include a Site Map
Generate a site map that links to every page in your site. Search engines like pages that can be accessed easily, so make sure your important pages remain in the first or second level.
Make Changes
Every month or two go back and update or make changes to your website. If you let it become stale, the search engines will toss you out like yesterday's news. Update it to generate new interest. Another great way is to add a daily blog. This will ensure that your content is updated daily and stays fresh.
Live Bookmarks
Updates happen all the time. A live bookmark keeps track of updates and lets you know that information has changed, rather than you checking to see if websites have made additions. By providing live bookmarks, you are increasing your traffíc and ranking because people will come back to you sooner, and more often.
RSS Feeds
Create an RSS Feed. RSS or Rich Site Syndication is a file format used by publishers to make their content available to others in a format that is universal. RSS is a way to publish content and update it in real time. This gives the user the opportuníty access information through an RSS reader.
Targeted Headlines
A clear, targeted headline will nudge your ranking a little higher. Use large text and words that relate to your website. For example, if you are a content developer, you could write a headline like: "Ten Quick Tips For Killer Copy.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) ensures that your website copy is written and structured in a way that improves chances that your website will be found when someone performs a search. For example, if your company sells insurance, you'd use words or phrases such as life insurance, insurance quote, insurance agent, or home insurance.
Content
Write articles that grab the interest of readers right now. Include case studies and whitepapers on your site that will give your visitors a reason to always come back. Or even chëck out what's going on in the news and be there first to report changes that impact your industry. For example, if you sell mortgagës, be the first one to report the drop in mortgagë rates. You'll generate a lot of traffíc and íncrease your ranking. Remember, time is of the essence. If you find out something new and hot, you should write about it before your competition does!
Search engine spiders are looking for sites that are periodically updated with rich content. Do not offër content that isn't useful. Some people try to place content that is rich in keywords but doesn't offër the incoming traffíc anything beneficial. Low traffíc will equal lower rankings with top search engines. The idea behind rich content with specific keywords is that because you keep posting content, soon you will be ranked within the search engines for specific words. So, when I post articles about the different insurance rates and options, etc.; when an on-line visitor is searching for this info they will land on your site and may become potential clients.
Content must be used to provide new and interesting information that your reader wants to know about, offër helpful tips, or solve a problem. This content will get you link-backs which are excellent for driving traffíc. You can also post articles through authentic submission sites, and that will also generate a lot of traffíc. Many companies publish with different online magazines etc., not only to prove their expertise but also to gain more traffíc linking to their sites.
Offer Resources
Offër resources that will help your reader. For instance, if you are an insurance agent, and you want to attract new clients, offër a comparison chart of all the insurance agencies in the area so your user can make an objective decision. At first, it seems like the insurance company is driving business away that way. Not so. If you offër your users resources that benefit them, they will come back for more when they are searching again.
Link It Up
Linking to other websites is a great way to íncrease your page ranking. Linking to other websites raises credibility in the eyes of the search engines. Who should you link to? Provide links to websites that offër a similar product or service as you do, or websites that are industry related. A spa can link to its beauty suppliers, for example. Ask them if they will provide a link to your website, and remember to offër to link to theirs in return. You can also submít articles to directories or credible article submission websites to gain links. Good articles and resources will get you bookmarked and potentially linked to by other users.
Include a Site Map
Generate a site map that links to every page in your site. Search engines like pages that can be accessed easily, so make sure your important pages remain in the first or second level.
Make Changes
Every month or two go back and update or make changes to your website. If you let it become stale, the search engines will toss you out like yesterday's news. Update it to generate new interest. Another great way is to add a daily blog. This will ensure that your content is updated daily and stays fresh.
Live Bookmarks
Updates happen all the time. A live bookmark keeps track of updates and lets you know that information has changed, rather than you checking to see if websites have made additions. By providing live bookmarks, you are increasing your traffíc and ranking because people will come back to you sooner, and more often.
RSS Feeds
Create an RSS Feed. RSS or Rich Site Syndication is a file format used by publishers to make their content available to others in a format that is universal. RSS is a way to publish content and update it in real time. This gives the user the opportuníty access information through an RSS reader.
Targeted Headlines
A clear, targeted headline will nudge your ranking a little higher. Use large text and words that relate to your website. For example, if you are a content developer, you could write a headline like: "Ten Quick Tips For Killer Copy.
tWindows Vista includes an option to back up documents, photos and several other file types automatically, on a schedule you select. However, you can’t select to backup your entire PC on a regular basis by default.
If you have a NAS drive or 2nd hard drive, it would be ideal to be able to automatically backup your computer should the worse happen. Thankfully, you can use the command line interface and the “Task Scheduler” to create an automated backup solution without any other software. This will only work with Ultimate, Business or Enterprise editions of Vista in Administrator mode.
To begin, load the Task Scheduler by starting taskschd.msc from the run box (press WINDOWS KEY + R to load this):
Once the Task Scheduler has loaded, click Create Basic Task:
Now, enter a name and an optional description for your automated backup script:
You can now choose the intervals at which you want your backup to run (weekly or monthly would be sensible, depending on how often you need backups). Click Next when you are done:
Select a time of day for the script to start based on your interval selection, then click Next:
Now, select Start a Program and click Next:
For the “Program/Script” box, enter the following command:
wbadmin
Then, the following arguments to the next box:
start backup -allcritical -backuptarget:d: -include:c: -quiet
This example argument assumes you are backing up the entire C: and storing the backup on the D:. You can chance the storage paths by editing the values above. Once you are done, click Next:
This final screen lets you confirm the backup script details. If everything appears correct, click OK:
When the script starts, a command box similar to the one below will load. This will show you the progress of the backup and close automatically once complete. All of the backups will be stored in a “WindowsImageBackup” folder on the backup drive you selected, should you need to restore the computer using the Vista installation disk:
If you have a NAS drive or 2nd hard drive, it would be ideal to be able to automatically backup your computer should the worse happen. Thankfully, you can use the command line interface and the “Task Scheduler” to create an automated backup solution without any other software. This will only work with Ultimate, Business or Enterprise editions of Vista in Administrator mode.
To begin, load the Task Scheduler by starting taskschd.msc from the run box (press WINDOWS KEY + R to load this):
Once the Task Scheduler has loaded, click Create Basic Task:
Now, enter a name and an optional description for your automated backup script:
You can now choose the intervals at which you want your backup to run (weekly or monthly would be sensible, depending on how often you need backups). Click Next when you are done:
Select a time of day for the script to start based on your interval selection, then click Next:
Now, select Start a Program and click Next:
For the “Program/Script” box, enter the following command:
wbadmin
Then, the following arguments to the next box:
start backup -allcritical -backuptarget:d: -include:c: -quiet
This example argument assumes you are backing up the entire C: and storing the backup on the D:. You can chance the storage paths by editing the values above. Once you are done, click Next:
This final screen lets you confirm the backup script details. If everything appears correct, click OK:
When the script starts, a command box similar to the one below will load. This will show you the progress of the backup and close automatically once complete. All of the backups will be stored in a “WindowsImageBackup” folder on the backup drive you selected, should you need to restore the computer using the Vista installation disk:
MAGIC #1
An Individual discovered that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON". This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable... At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!
TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE " CON " FOLDER
MAGIC #2
For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want.
4.) Close it, and re-open it.
Is it just a really weird bug? :-??
MAGIC #3
Microsoft crazy facts
This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable... At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!
It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself...
Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
and then press ENTER
Then see the magic......
An Individual discovered that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON". This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable... At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!
TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE " CON " FOLDER
MAGIC #2
For those of you using Windows, do the following:
1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want.
4.) Close it, and re-open it.
Is it just a really weird bug? :-??
MAGIC #3
Microsoft crazy facts
This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable... At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!
It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself...
Open Microsoft Word and type
=rand (200, 99)
and then press ENTER
Then see the magic......
Drive Space Indicator v5.3.4.1
Drive Space Indicator changes the icons in My Computer for the drives that are attached the computer. Each drive has a progress bar indicating how full the drive is. The default Icon Theme is the Vista theme. Courtsey of the Configuration GUI, update interval, drive trays, shortcut management, changing the Icon Theme, as well as many different options are available.
Program Requirements:
- Windows 2000, XP or 2003 . Tested on XP.
- Shell Hardware Detection service needs to be running.
- WMI needs to be installed in order to detect hardware PNP Device.
Download
Click Start-->Run-->Regedit.
Now goto HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer
Add a new DWORD value: Edit Menu> New> DWORD
Name the value as NoDrives and press Enter
Double-click on this value, check the decimal point, and prior the drive that you want to hide, bring one of the following fields in the Value data:
For drive A type 1, drive B type 2 ,Drive C type 4 .
To hide multiple drives, just to the data sum corresponding to each drive. To hide all drives, enter the value 134217727
Confirm the changes and restart your PC.
Now goto HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer
Add a new DWORD value: Edit Menu> New> DWORD
Name the value as NoDrives and press Enter
Double-click on this value, check the decimal point, and prior the drive that you want to hide, bring one of the following fields in the Value data:
For drive A type 1, drive B type 2 ,Drive C type 4 .
To hide multiple drives, just to the data sum corresponding to each drive. To hide all drives, enter the value 134217727
Confirm the changes and restart your PC.
Ranking on YahooLike most other search engines, Yahoo ranking relies on a difficult analysis program that evaluates the relevance of your web site content to search queries. Yahoo reads the text of your web site, its titles and descriptions, its sources, associated links and other distinctive document elements and after that decides the rank of [...]
Ranking on Yahoo
Like most other search engines, Yahoo ranking relies on a difficult analysis program that evaluates the relevance of your web site content to search queries. Yahoo reads the text of your web site, its titles and descriptions, its sources, associated links and other distinctive document elements and after that decides the rank of your web site on Yahoo.ÂÂ*Guidelines to Get TOP Ranking on YahooBelow are some guidelines that can really help you achieve top yahoo rankings:ÂÂ*
Ranking on Yahoo
Like most other search engines, Yahoo ranking relies on a difficult analysis program that evaluates the relevance of your web site content to search queries. Yahoo reads the text of your web site, its titles and descriptions, its sources, associated links and other distinctive document elements and after that decides the rank of your web site on Yahoo.ÂÂ*Guidelines to Get TOP Ranking on YahooBelow are some guidelines that can really help you achieve top yahoo rankings:ÂÂ*
- Always Develop Fresh & Unique Content
- Remember to Use Meta tags
- Don’t Forget The HTML
- Did You Heard Everyone Shouting “Links, Links, Linksâ€Â
Aiseesoft Total Video Converter is the Best Video Converter software that created to help you convert video to MP4/MKV/WMV/AVI and other popular formats such as: MP4, H.264, AVI, MP3, WMV, WMA, FLV, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, 3GP, 3GPP, VOB, DivX, Mov, RM, RMVB, M4A, AAC, WAV, etc with high speed and excellent sound/image quality. In addition, the Best Video Converter can also extract audio from video file and convert them to M4A, MP3, AC3, AAC, WMA, WAV, OGG as you want.
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