Yearly Archives: 2012

Motivation for losing weight
Image from: zirconicusson / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Losing weight, especially a substantial amount, can be one of the hardest things to do.

If youâ??re doing so at an older age, youâ??ll have already settled into habits and patterns of behaviours over a lifetime, which could amount to several decades of doing things.

This can be eating the same meals, in the same quantities and at the same times of the day. Youâ??ll have probably fallen into these eating habits because of the way your life commitments and responsibilities are arranged, with looking after kids, work, pets and other factors which dictate how you spend your time. Itâ??s also become apparent that kids are falling into habits as well according to recent news reports on childhood obesity.

Motivation is the key to sticking to a diet plan and often when people fail, itâ??s because theyâ??re not motivated enough to dedicate themselves fully to this cause. A bit like when people speak of an addict needing to hit rock bottom before they can quit, someone who is fat or obese needs that push so they feel like they have to see it through the whole way. Here are a few tips:

1: Visit Your GP

Many go so long with bad habits because they donâ??t realise the damage they are doing to themselves internally. In some cases, unfortunately this can have dangerous and even fatal results when they do become apparent, in the form of heart attacks or a diagnosis of diabetes, cancer etc. If you catch a health problem early as itâ??s beginning to snowball, you can easily go about changing this before it becomes a bigger problem that might one day require surgery, if youâ??re lucky. Having a professional tell you whatâ??s going on inside you with data and scan results is a very harsh reality but one that works with the scare-factor.

2: Buy a Gym Membership

You can get a very good workout at home using stairs, things you can find around the house to weight lift or simply performing pushups and situps yourself. However, the reason why so many choose a gym membership is because psychologically, paying the premium price means they want to get the most value out of it possible. The availability of a trainer, professional equipment and working out in a group are all positives that help, but for the thrifty amongst us, the pretty penny youâ??ll spend per year will force you to get everything you can out of it. You may even find yourself going more so each time you do, it will work out as costing you less per visit. In the same vein, research and invest in a bulk shop of additional vitamins like cinnamon supplements or zinc tablets beforehand; this way, theyâ??re there when you need them and it becomes second-nature to include them in your diet, rather than having to top up every few days.

3: Photo-time

Usually, itâ??s in photos when we realise how much weight we may have put on, especially if we look at an older photo when we were slimmer. Itâ??s a good way to confront yourself if youâ??ve been in denial about your recent eating habits and lifestyle. While you should by no means obsess about your image, putting more photos of you when you were slimmer around your home can be a good motivating tool when it comes to those after-dinner fridge raids. Alternatively, you can put up a pic or change your desktop to an image of a dress or piece of clothing you would like to fit into, so you have an end goal.

4: Plan Your Shopping

Many fail on their healthy food plans when they donâ??t plan ahead and shop on an impulse. Usually this occurs when hungry and everything looks good for a quick fix. So take a day on the weekend, when youâ??re more relaxed to do your shop so you can take the time to see what is available and how best to shop. Use a boring moment, like waiting for a bus or sitting in a slow meeting at work to plan your list, so you have a meal for each evening that is appetising and somewhat different. This also applies to lunch and breakfast, so you arenâ??t tempted by high calorie meal deals when on the go, seem convenient.

5: Set Something You Want To Accomplish

Those with an end date in mind tend to do better than those who one day just decide to lose weight without forethought. The reason that groups like Weight Watchers work, is that there are goals to strive to, which are broken down and just about manageable but with still being challenging. Afterall, what constitutes a success for you? If you donâ??t lose weight one week, youâ??re likely to make excuses for that. This way youâ??re on a path to get somewhere by a certain time. If you book yourself for a competition, like a marathon or an event you want to look great for, then you have something to motivate you to work that extra bit harder, and expectations of you from other people.

URL Image: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6204/6042784835_c9f9890984.jpg

Paul tries to keep in shape himself, but goes through cycles. When special events are coming up, he makes a conscious effort to set himself a plan and has come up with a few tricks that have motivated him in the past and he swears by. His work with a client, promoting a number of natural remedies like mistletoe, and cinnamon for weight loss, has actually assisted him in this.

Finding Peace

Image from: Teddy Bear[picnic] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is it necessary to go to the Himalayas to achieve inner peace?

The Himalayas are a large range of mountains in Asia, stretching from Pakistan and through Nepal and Bhutan ending in India. Many people travel to the Himalayas for it’s world renowned beauty and tranquility. Whether they choose to spend their time relaxing or trekking over this famous mountain range one thing everyone can agree on is the feeling of peacefulness which resounds throughout this rocky landscape.

More than just being peaceful, the Himalayas are an important source of human life on earth. Some of the Earths major river systems begin in these mountains. Stretching into 18 countries, the combined population of these rivers’ drainage basins is 3 billion. The rivers which begin in the Himalayas feed life for half the people on Earth!

Religion is also an important part of this mountain ranges story, and also an important part of inner peace for many people. The Hindus refer to the Himalayas as devatma, which means ‘God-souled’. In the Hindu religion the Himalayas is a deity itself.

Buddhism has it’s own form known as Himalayan Buddhism which collectively refers to all the Buddhist schools in Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. Whilst for Sikhs a city in Punjab, in the lower courses of the Himalayas, named Andapur Sahib is important. For the Sikhs it is a holy city and one of their most important sacred places.

It has been said that: “To see the Himalayan mounts is to wash the soul of all the sin accumulated in a lifetime” and it is true, the Himalayas bring life back to its basic essentials. Time spent here is essentially pastoral and idyllic in small villages nestled on slopes with houses made from clay and wood.

There are many travel options available for people to travel to the Himalayas and the countries they inhabit. They are easily accessible from the southern plains via both bus and airplane.

Pakistan

Pakistan is home to some of the most beautiful areas in the Himalayas. Especially popular amongst experienced travellers and trekkers, local law allows tourists to travel with a local guide along many routes. However, due to the need for a guide this is one of the more expensive parts of the Himalayas to trek in.

India

Popular amongst tourists, India offers beautiful forested mountains. Areas of note are Ladakh, which includes many important sites and fantastic trekking. Himachal Pradesh is also a tourist hotspot, known for it’s sights such as the Kullu Valley also known as ‘Valley of the Gods’.

Nepal

Perhaps the most famous country for Himalayan holidays, there is much to do here. Whether it is seeing sights, more trekking or taking part in the many adventure sports opportunities. It is possible to trek in Nepal for up to a month staying somewhere near every night, and bring only a couple of changes of clothes and a sleeping bag.

Though travelling to the Himalayas may not be essential to achieving inner peace, it is safe to conclude that with its idyllic lifestyle, wide open spaces and unparalleled beauty it is a noteworthy stop on the road to it.

This post was contributed by shaktihimalaya.com

Himalayas Video With Music

Should you outsource work?
Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What follows is a rough guide to outsourcing work and why it is a smart idea to outsource your work in relevant areas.

Whether you have a small project, small business or a large commercial business, the decision to outsource work may be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make.

First of all, let me tell you of my experience in outsourcing work. I run a website, produce apps and I’m currently producing an indie movie. I only started outsourcing work about a year ago and in that year I have gained experience on the mostly ups, and sometimes downs of outsourcing. This article is subjective and is written off of the back of the experiences I’ve had personally in outsourcing work.

I won’t beat around the bush here. I was once like many other people producing projects and was thinking: ‘I’ll never find anyone who would be willing to put the work in and enthusiasm that I do on specific tasks within a project.’ Well, I was wrong, because that all changed  when I started to give outsourcing a tentative try, to the present day where I am now outsourcing a lot of tasks. I’ve outsourced graphics, research, articles, videos and a whole host of other project components.

Here is a list of the positive aspects of outsourcing . . .

A Win/Win Situation

In response to my old way of thinking that no-one would be as energetic and enthusiastic in completing a task within a given project as I was, working on my personal project. Well, the business or self employed service provider is working on a project him or herself too . . . I’ll repeat that key phrase here. . .they are usually building a project themselves. They are trying to build the best service possible and want you to be happy, just as you probably are. You can outsource work to speed up your project and they in turn add you as a happy client if they do a great job. They then build up their business and cultivate word of mouth contacts, gain experience, build a portfolio and become trusted specialists to boot.

For example, let’s say you hire an up and coming web designer. He does a great job and you are happy with his work. In turn he gains profit and reinvests it into his business project. You also recommend this business or person to friends or contacts. Your website is also featured in a portfolio in that web designer’s array of completed works. Whose project benefits the most? The answer is that both of your projects are mutually benefited. It’s a win/win situation!

Specialisation

Let’s look at the outsourcing to a talented web designer scenario. Well, it’s real for me right now because I have teamed up with a good web designer  – Octavian Ristea at Laeta Designs to redesign an app promotion and landing page. Could I design this website on my own? Yes, with a considerable amount of time spent going around a time-consuming learning curve that would seriously eat up my time. Plus, an experienced web designer has had more experience than me and will come up with ideas that would take me ages to think up.

A specialist will be faster too. In fact, an experienced web designer will be up to 5 times faster than I would be with my limited experience in constructing websites regularly.

You Can Choose Your Team

How often have you been asked at an interview this hackneyed corporate question: “Are you a team player. Can you work as a team?” How many people answer “No, I prefer working on my own without interference.” The answer is that no-one, unless they have poor social skills would answer in this way. Instead, we give the hackneyed reply . . . “Yes, I work well as a team and on my own too.” Yawn. It is one of the dumbest questions I’ve ever been asked and it is so automated and impractical. Of course we can work well in a team if the team is a great team. If it’s a dysfunctional team it can be a nightmare!

Here’s the beauty of outsourcing . . . you can build a  really cracking team right from the start. You can look for like-minded people and really create that corporate hackneyed phrase ‘synergy’ fly in the real world, with real results.

As well as your team being built, the person doing business with you, however large or small has added you to their team too! That’s real teamwork, not a corporate mismatch through automated-like interview selection, eventually patching a team together who are stabbing each other in the back to race up the corporate ladder, due to deliberate attempts by corporations to get ‘team members’ in competition with each other – disguised with such hackneyed titles such as ‘Employee of the month” or “Tops seller” with even a grade added such as “Level 1 achiever” etc, etc.

It’s fun!

When you’ve found specialists and built a solid, real relationship with your partners you can really enjoy talking to like-minded people who have enthusiasm and their interests are following a close line parallel to your interests. You are helping each other in various ways and you make real friends. This is in stark contrast to the 1000 Facebook friends who would not even attend your own funeral, let alone notice that you’ve even kicked the bucket.

When you make a connection with someone like-minded and are working on a project together, which is mutually beneficial, it can be really fun. In fact, you can learn a lot from each other in the process.

Outsourcing for small businesses

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Make Real Connections

That’s right, you can make real connections. Have you ever watched one of those sales guys or girls handing out business cards whilst drinking free coffee and cookies at a trade show or business convention. Revisit the convention next year and the chances are you will see the same sales reps doing the same exact thing. Yes, they drum up some business and link their employers with services. But you have an advantage, you are not linking up with people via some 3rd party employer. You are linking up 1 to 1. In fact, a smarter approach, instead of handing business cards out at events would be to ask yourself “How can I help this person? And how can we help each other?” If a workable answer comes forth, approach them personally, as this is better than handing out 100 business cards, with %99 percent of the business cards being thrown in the bin.

I have never printed out business cards and never intend to either. In my view it is better to buy a beer for someone you can actually help and write down your email address or Facebook URL on a napkin whilst having a laugh and give it to them personally. First of all, if they feel the same way they will contact you for sure. If they have any doubts they will not. You will also have a genuine personal relationship with them and they know you as a person, which is a lot stronger than being just a ‘contact’.

You may raise the question . . . yes, but they are not real friends as you both mutually need something. Well, this concept falls short in a number of areas. If you give your phone number to a hot girl/guy, is it because you don’t want anything? No. Your are interested in a relationship with them if you find them attractive. Would you hand your phone number over to a girl/guy who doesn’t keep up their personal hygiene? No. You are both looking for someone to share experiences with, to swap ideas, get a feel good factor going.

In any scenario you have to bring something to the table. Be it mutual friendship, a relationship or even an interest in mutually swapping points of view. That’s real life. Outside of your 9 to 5 job, that’s reality, you don’t waste time unless you can both grow from a friendship or relationship or even a business relationship. In fact, even if relationships start out to be a business project, if you make a connection and become a friend, well . . . that’s a win/win/win situation because you can help each other on projects, plus both enjoy a friendship and productive working relationship at the same time.

You Are Already Outsourcing (whether you are aware of it or not)

You may think . . . I’m new to this outsourcing thing, but are you? When you take your car in for a service, could you do it yourself? Of course you could change the oil, check the fluid levels and maybe even change the break pads and steam clean your engine if you put your mind to it. All you have to do is research how to do this, buy a steam cleaning machine, some brake pads, fluids and oil and off you go. But, what do you do – you outsource the work as you don’t have time.

When you go to a local cafe and order a coffee and a sandwich. Part of the treat here is that you are paying for the privilege of relaxing. You don’t have to make the coffee or butter the sandwich, someone is doing it for you and their business is benefiting as a result. What about when you are on holiday and use the laundry service. Same thing again.

Disadvantages of outsourcing . . .

You’ll get the odd disappointing result of a service or a task. That’s life. Cross them off of your list and move on to finding the right team members.

People/services change. Sometimes, someone who you have been working with for a while may change, or take a different route in life. Never mind, remain friends and enjoy the ride while it lasts. You may even hook up again in an area where you are both working on in the future. People move on and you are not tied to each other, so give your team space and they will in turn give you space to take different tangents in life.

Delivery times: Sometimes there will be a late delivery as you are not in control of the process. I would outsource only work where there is not a stressful delivery date looming. If you want more control on delivery dates for a task within a project, either specify a delivery date way before you actually need it, or employ staff where you can control the process.

In Conclusion

So, in a nutshell, it may be worth looking at other areas of your work/business that could benefit from outsourcing. It is a circle that is ongoing . . . some people outsource to you, as in when I do app reviews on this site, and sometimes you will outsource to others.

Above all, it’s fun! Enjoy the ride.

 

Article by Kevin Baker

 

 

With Apple steadily taking over the world in a Skynet-style assembly line of ever more intelligent inventions, itâ??s about time the app world did something absolutely mind-boggling.

Here are some of the greatest apps that the world just isnâ??t ready for.

Image source

1)      Drunken text translator.

Everyone sends texts when theyâ??ve had one too many. Whether something to do with boozeâ??s profound properties of dispelling social awkwardness or just for something to do when the DJ plays a rubbish song, more texts are sent  during a night out than at any other time (probably). It also just so happens that the majority of texts that are sent during this period of merriment are unintelligible ramblings.

Enter the drunken text translator!

No more page-long nonsense essays from a philosophical friend after a few pints.

No more midnight hieroglyph deciphering, trying to figure out whether the girl you like wants you to meet her after her night out or sheâ??s just thrown up on her hamster.

Just a smart little app that turns â??fihihfw2 3 ffef1!â?? into the intended â??party at mine at 8!â??

Good times. Enjoy, freshers.

2)      In-Law Preventer

Next up is the fabled mother-in-law tracker.

Men and women the world over have been subjected to in-laws since the beginning of time. With the rapid progress of technology it shouldnâ??t be too long into the future before we can pin point their exact location and promptly, with no fuss at all apart from pulling the kids out of school and setting the house alarm, fly to the other side of the world. No more Sunday gatherings.

The best thing is we can do all of this at the same time, thanks to our iPhones.

3)      iPhone ATM

Third on our list is a real money-spinner.  What if there was a cash withdrawal app?

Weâ??ve all had those made dashes to the ATM when weâ??ve been found a bit short on an outing. What if we could get the money from our phones? There would be no more disgruntled queues at those â??£1.75 to get your own moneyâ?? cash machines, and no more people in the local Spar buying packs of chewing gum in order to get cash back. What a world to live in!

The only problem is where the paper comes from, but Iâ??m not a scientist and Iâ??m sure they can figure it out.

4)      The Single Radar

Fourth on our list is perhaps the biggest time-saver of them all and needs little to no explanation. It would also be handy for all those people going back to (or starting at) university in a few weeks.

Itâ??s called The Single Radar.

Itâ??s a sort of low-level electromagnetic pulse which spreads out and gathers data on a certain area.

Itâ??ll tell you immediately and discreetly when it has finished its scan with a vibrating alert. Electrical impulses emanate from your chosen gadget, recording the emotions and brain chemistry of everyone within a certain radius, giving an informed response on whoâ??s taken, whoâ??s not and who wishes they were.

This will give you a distinct advantage over the extrovert macho types in tight t-shirts.

Not so ethical, but oh so convenient.

This would sell out at universities everywhere.

But, for many reasons, should probably never see the light of day. Fingers crossed you’ll soon be able to purchase such a fantasy app on a site like Alert Electical

Thereâ??s an app for basically everything, but itâ??s time to go to the next level. Itâ??s time to make an app which takes care of all those menial tasks you canâ??t be bothered with, a bit like those little dinosaurs on The Flintstones which they used as both rubbish bins and combs.

That said, we should probably just enjoy our harmless apps like Accuweather and Sounddrop before all Apple technology becomes self-aware and tries to kill us.

Anyway, what are some of the apps youâ??d like to see invented?

Sam Beddall is an enthusiastic blogger with a passion for technology and futuristic gadgets. He often writes for Alert Electrical and also spends his time writing film and music reviews, when not engaged on the Xbox.

Image by Dmitry Karpychev

War is hell. As something so unrelentingly horrifying, it also brings out the most human parts of some people.

The most badass, the funniest, the most incredible and the weirdest; It all comes out during a war, and these are some of the best quotes from the soldiers who fought in them.

Jack Womer Meets Winston Churchill

I thought to myself, ‘Should I shoot this son of a gun? I don’t care if he is Prime Minister, I don’t want him d-d’ing on me!’

The best thing about this quote is actually what comes next.

He was so close to me I could see he needed to be circumcised…but he didn’t know what was in that haystack!

An ordinary soldier having that much dirt on a prime minister without the guy even being aware of his presence? Yep, that’s a camouflage win.

Maybe all men should have disguised themselves as haystacks during World War II.

Simo Häyhä

I only did my duty, and what I was told to do, as well as I could.

The modesty of this statement is astounding.

Simo Häyhä, as a sniper, is credited with over five hundred confirmed kills in 100 days. The Red Army tried everything from counter-sniping to artillery to dislodge him.

He was eventually injured by a lucky explosive bullet to the face, but the damage had been done. He recovered (naturally. What, you think missing half his face could stop him?) and the war was over by the time he was up and about again.

“Mad” Jack Churchill

If it wasn’t for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years.

“Mad” Jack Churchill went into battle in the 20th century A.D. armed with a longbow and broadsword. Between that and this quote, that’s all you need to know about “Mad” Jack Churchill.

 Gen. (Ret.) Colin Powell

I walked over to the jeep, where a grimy, weary-looking sergeant saluted me and put out his hand. It was Elvis Presley.

The levelling power of war is astonishing. Rather than opt for a cushy life behind the lines, or a glamorous job to boost his profile, Elvis Presley worked his way to being an NCO, and by all accounts worked very hard.

 Giuseppe Garibaldi

Obbedisco!

This one word, meaning “I obey!”, has come to signify everything important about being a soldier. It is about duty, honour, service and sacrifice, and to be summed up in one word is quite impressive.

Everything from scrubbing latrines to armed forces kit insurance to the terrifying nature of war is encapsulated right here. Whatever happens, the soldier obeys.

 Know Any Other Amazing Soldier Quotes?

The record of soldiers performing incredible deeds and saying incredible things by no means ends at the Second World War, nor does it begin with Garibaldi. Just think of Caesar or Alexander, and all kinds of amazing, timeless quotes spring to mind.

If you can think of any other amazing quotes from real soldiers, please share them in the comments!

James Duval is interested in tech, gaming, business and finance. He writes posts for JBI, who arrange niche insurance packages.

Is The Deep Web Dangerous?

Image: Sira Anamwong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Anonymity. This core fundamental foundation of the Deep Web is what makes it both enticing and dangerous.

Because of the secretive nature of Deep Web, little is known about it. In a study conducted by the University of California, Berkeley in 2001, it is speculated that the Deep Web consists of about 7,500 terabytes of information and detected 300,000 deep web websites in 2004. But these figures are often misleading or inaccurate as people who are into Deep Web are experts at going into â??stealth modesâ? in order to evade detection.

This alone should serve as a warning sign to the uninitiated to stay away from it. There is a big difference between a person wanting anonymity when he is giving away a large donation to charity and wanting anonymity when he is being a trader of child pornography or weapons.

Information and transactions that could land you in jail abound in the Deep Web. In fact, it is a multi billion industry. In a study done by Nhicholas Cristin titled, â??Traveling the Silk Road: A measurement analysis of a large anonymous online Marketplace,â? the Deep Webâ??s cyber marketplace Silk Road has a total revenue of about USD 1.9 million. And this is mostly from selling drugs.

Silk Road is Deep Webâ??s version of the visible webâ??s eBay. It virtually allows anything to be sold on its marketplace with only the following restrictions,â? Do not list anything whoâ??s (sic) purpose is to harm or defraud, such as stolen items or info, stolen credit cards, counterfeit currency, personal info, assassinations, and weapons of any kind. Do not list anything related to pedophilia.â? But this is only good for Silk Road, whose top 3 sellers are weed, drugs and prescriptions. The weapons are sold under Silk Roadâ??s sister site, The Armory.

And Silk Road and Armory are not the only marketplace in the Deep Web. There are other large marketplaces like the Black Market Reloaded and the General Store. There are countless more, if you know your way around.

However, Deep Web is not only the venue for the sale or exchange of illegal goods. According to techpp.com,â??Under the Surface Web we donâ??t find only the activity of hackers, drug dealers, assassins, government agents, terrorists, perverts or FBI agents but thereâ??s also valuable information coming from: scientists, astronomers, physicists, sociologists and even revolutionaries.â?

 

Victim of the Deep Web

Image: Surachai / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Anonymity makes it possible for these individuals to engage in activities that would otherwise have landed them in jail. However, it also goes without saying that the FBI, CIA and other government agencies are trying their best to crack down these criminals. To quote an article in idependent.ie e titled, Wayne Doyle: Welcome to the Deep Web … a world of gun-running, sex trafficking and assassins for hire, â??Itâ??s not a case of just typing into Google and logging in, the deep web is complex and dangerous for those who canâ??t operate down there anonymously.â? People who go into the Deep Web know that the FBI, CIA and other government agencies put up â??bogusâ? sites for their entrapment operations.

A naive, regular person trying to go down the Deep Web is fodder for the monsters down there.

Author Bio: Adam Fridman is the founder of Telemarketingservice.com. He also writes for his company blog on the benefits of outsourcing telemarketing services to telemarketing companies.

 Click here if you want to know how to access the deep web.

Deep Web Overview Video 

Google Homepage 1998-1999

Google Homepage 1998-1999

Last June, Google announced that it has 310 million active Google Chrome users who are typing 60 billion words. It has further declared that googling saves 13 years worth of time everyday.

In a short span of 16 years, Google influenced changes in the way we communicate and seek information. The American Dialect Society chose the term to google as the most useful word in 2002. In 2006, both the Oxford English Dictionary and the Webster Collegiate Dictionary added the term in their list of words. Googling, on the other hand, was first used by Googleâ??s co-founder Larry Page on July 8, 1998 when he wrote on a mailing list, â??Have fun and keep googling!â?

But, would you believe, we would have been using backrubbing instead of googling if Googleâ??s founders stuck to the original name they gave to Google? During 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were then both PhD students at Stanford University in California when they created Google as a research project. Google was originally called â??BackRubâ? because this search engine checked backlinks to approximate the significance of a website as opposed to counting the number of times the search terms appeared on the page, which was how the then conventional search engines ranked search results. Googleâ??s founders termed this new way of determining a websiteâ??s relevance as PageRank.

The name Google was actually derived from â??googol,â? which mathematically means 1.0 x 10 100. They chose the term to imply that their new search engine aims to provide enormous amounts of information for people. And that is what Google has been doing since then.

Just a mere 4 years from its founding, Google started to make lasting significant steps to becoming the Google we know today. It forged a partnership with Yahoo! to become their default search provider. It was also in this year that the first 10 language versions of Google were released, adding 3 more languages four months later, upping the total language to 15. Google AdWords was also launched and the Google Toolbar released.

In 2001, Image Search was launched which gave us access to 250 million images. The following year, Google News was launched with 4,000 news sources. Froogle was laso launched (the original name for Google Product Search) which allowed us to search for items to purchase. 2003 was the year that Google took in Blogger and opened the world to bloggers. Year 2004 saw the expansion of Google Print Program (the predecessor of Google Book Search) through digital scanning partnerships with major libraries.

Google Maps and Google Earth went live in 2005 and have become unstoppable since. Google Earth became a key tool for rescue teams of Hurricane Katrina. Eventually, Google organized the Google Crisis Response which, “seeks to make critical information more accessible around natural disasters and humanitarian crises.” using Google resources and tools such as Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Person Finder, and Google Fusion Tables. 2005 was also the year that Google Analytics was launched to measure the impact of websites and marketing campaigns.

Another key even in Google was its acquisition of YouTube in 2006. As the popularity of broadcasting yourself rose, major personalities joined the bandwagon. The Queen of England went online with her channel in 2007, Obama launched an official Whitehouse Channel on his inauguration day, and even the Pope has his won channel.

2009 was the year that Google officially announced the development of Google Chrome OS. The following year, Google introduced Nexus One, Googleâ??s smartphone. In 2011, Google Earth reaches the one billion download mark.

With all these breakthroughs in the past, what else is there for the future? Google calls it Project Glass. And again, just like the other things Google did, it is bound to change the way we communicate and seek information. More exciting times ahead!

Author Bio: Adam Fridman is the founder of Idea2result. He also writes for his company blog on how telemarketing companies can help effectively tackle your telemarketing service activities!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

How Big Is The Internet?

This is not an easy question to answer. At the rate the internet is growing, if I say a figure now, it may not be true a few seconds later.

Further, there are several methods of estimating at how large the internet is. Ever heard of petabyte or yottabyte? For someone who is not into the complex mathematics of the internet, even understanding the terms may be difficult, or even hard to imagine.

This is an attempt to answer the question in a way that ordinary folks can understand. Letâ??s begin with defining internet. Internet is a short form for internetwork. Wikipedia defines it as, â??a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (often called TCP/IP, although not all applications use TCP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support email.â?

Simply, you have one computer connecting to a group, and the group connecting to other groups. So can we know how big the internet is by counting the number of people using the internet? Internetworldstats.com released its latest figures on this last December 31, 2011 and according to its figures, there 2.3 billion people who are online out of the 6.9 billion people on Earth. That is 32.7 % of Earthâ??s population or 1 in 3 Earthlings use the internet. There is approximately 7.9 new internet user every second worldwide.

However, we cannot limit the size of the internet based on its users alone. We know for a fact that the flow of information is a great factor in terms of quantifying the size of the internet. And just how much information is out there? Health-information-technology.net states that there are about 1 trillion pages on the internet. If each web page is printed, with each page being 8.5â? x 11,â? health-information-technology estimates that, â??Together, all those printed sheets would paper the entire 2.85 million rentable square feet of space in the Empire State Building a full 2.1 million times! That’s equivalent to covering the entire state of Alaska nearly 2,000 times, which is also enough to constitute a new solar system with 3 earths and 40 moons!â?

If you try to quantify the internet in terms of the data being generated, the figures are quite staggering. According to Cisco, â??the world is on pace to generate 1.3 zettabytes of data by 2015. Thatâ??s four times the amount created in 2011 and itâ??s the equivalent of â??more than 38 million DVDs streamed in an hour.â?

With the rapid growth of data being generated in the internet, Cisco is now telling us what comes after the terabyte, which are the petabyte (1,000 terabytes), Exabyte (1,000 petabytes), zettabyte (1,000 exabytes), yottabyte (1,000 zetabytes).

So how big is the internet? Itâ??s gigantically big!

 

Author Bio: Adam Fridman is the founder of Idea2result. He also writes for his company blog on how businesses can successfully develop telemarketing services campaigns!

Do Macs Need Virus Protection?

Image: Idea Go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

For Windows users, installing an anti-virus is a standard operating procedure. Dealing with viruses, dodging them, and harboring virus paranoia almost feels like these things are being bundled with the operating system.

I should know. Iâ??ve been a Windows user all my life. Iâ??ve switched from one anti-virus to another, whichever has the best reviews, just to feel secure. And I have even taken the precaution of backing up my data into an external hard disk, just to be sure. Am I just naturally paranoid? Or is my fear a result of a massive scheme of anti-virus companies to make me feel threatened so they could cash in on their anti-virus products?

But why is it that it seems that only Windows users display this kind of behavior? If installing an anti-virus is a matter of standard operating procedure for Windows users, for Mac users, it is a matter of debate.

I once asked my Mac user husband why he didnâ??t install an anti-virus, his reply was simply, â??because Macs donâ??t get infected with viruses.â?

Why do Mac users feel this confident about the invulnerability of their Macs? Is it because Apple touts this superiority over viruses right there on their website? In Appleâ??s webpage, on their page about Why Youâ??ll Love a Mac, it states that, â??We designed OS X with powerful, advanced technologies that work together to constantly scrutinize, encrypt, update, and ultimately keep your Mac safer. For example, it thwarts hackers through a technique called â??sandboxingâ? â?? restricting what actions programs can perform on your Mac, what files they can access, and what other programs they can launch. Sandboxing is just one of the many ways OS X protects you and your data. Other security features include Library Randomization, which prevents malicious commands from finding their targets, and Execute Disable, which protects the memory in your Mac from attacks.â? It even boasts of Gatekeeper which, â??helps protect you from downloading and installing malicious software on your Mac, no matter where your apps come from. And it gives you even more control over which apps you install.â?

But the seemingly invulnerability of Mac against viruses was shattered in April this year when Dr. Web, a Russian anti-virus vendor, conducted a research and determined that there were 550,000 Macs that were infected by the Trojan virus BackDoor.Flashback.

This generated a buzz amongst Mac users on whether they should begin installing anti-virus software. And though many Mac loyalists still believe that Apple would find the means to take care of keeping their Macs safe, like it did when the malware MacDefender attacked users, some are now experiencing the vulnerability that Windows users have been feeling for years.

And most users of anti-virus are quick to tell Mac users to install one. Anti-virus companies are also saying that Mac users may be more susceptible to virus attacks because they lack the experience of dodging viruses. While Windows users would be more careful in clicking that â??anti-virus scan,â? it may not even cross the mind of Mac users that this â??anti-virus scanâ? will instead install a virus. Further, as more people begin to master Macâ??s OS X, chances are, the number of viruses will also increase.

So do you need virus protection for your Mac? Yes you do. Presently, Mac may have provided updates to stop BackDoor.Flashback, but this goes to show that Mac is no longer as invulnerable as it was during the precious years.

Author Bio: Adam Fridman looks after the online marketing of TitleLoanPlace.com. It helps you get cash with car title loans online easily after instant approval!

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