I’ve been learning through the world’s best selling chess software recently that teaches chess strategy.
I can see why Chessmaster is the world’s best selling chess software as there is so much included in the software package. In particular, I like the tutorials which have helped me improve my game a lot.
When I first started using Chessmaster my rating was about 850 and now it’s gone up to 1100, not a huge leap but I’m pleased with this as I only play for fun, with maybe 1 game played per week and a couple of tutorials completed. It is always great to learn something new.
If you’ve never played chess before or can’t remember the rules, Chessmaster will walk you through the rules of how to move each piece. In fact, if you are anything but an advanced player, I’d recommend starting at the very beginning and learning about each piece, as a few golden nuggets of information are contained within these beginner tutorials.
There are many advanced tutorials on chess strategy presented by grandmasters, so many in fact that it will take weeks to go through and absorb the information. One of the grandmasters, Josh Waitzkin, takes you through attacking chess moves. His new book ‘The Art of Learning’ is fascinating too, as after mastering chess he went on to become a world champion in martial arts. Two dramatically different activities, which shows that he really does understand the art of learning.
After learning more about chess strategy within Chessmaster the whole board started to look totally different, as I began to look at controlling the centre of the board, pawn chains, assessing whether a game will be closed or open, attacking on several fronts and a whole host of other subtle strategies the game became much more interesting to me.
You can play a range of different opponents, computer generated but each having a certain unique style of play. A number of classic chess games are analysed and a whole host of opening moves are examined. You can take part in tournaments with time limits or play online or against friends.
Chessmaster is great value for money, as you get so much for the price that you pay for this software. The chess strategies that I’ve learnt have made playing chess more fun as I can see things that previously I was blind to.
Since I was very young I’ve been scared of heights, and there’s a good reason why too, as it involves witnessing the aftermath of a man falling off a cliff.
When I was around  6 years old I was taken on holiday to a beach which I can’t remember the name of, it may have been Swanage or Weymouth in England but I can’t be sure. Anyway, this is what I remember that put the fear of heights into me to this day . . .
I remember sitting on the beach with my mother and hearing ambulances in the distance at the other end of the beach. People were wandering over to a crowd that had gathered in the distance. So, being naturally curious we wandered over to where the crowd was gathered. As we wandered over we could see an ambulance at the top of the cliff leave and make its way to the local hospital.
When we caught up with the crowd we made our way to the front to see what had happened and I heard a man explaining to my mother that a man had been climbing the rough cliff face for fun and had slipped and fallen off. My mother then asked if the climber would be okay, but the man shook his head slowly and said “I doubt it as he cracked his head open badly.”
There was a rock pool at the base of the cliff face and it was red, full of blood from the accident, with some blood trailing across the sand. It is an image that has stuck in my mind until this day.
That’s why I’m afraid of heights. I put an article up recently titled ‘What would happen if you jumped off a skyscraper‘ which is a crazy title, but it goes into the specifics of what a fall from a height involves.
In particular, I don’t like the fact that when you are falling it is irreversible, and time would no doubt slow down in the fall as your life flashes before you. Falling off a cliff and heading toward sharp rocks would be an unimaginable nightmare.
I once went to Disney World in Florida and tried to conquer my fear of heights. Normally I hate roller coasters, but I worked my way up from the smallest roller coaster to the biggest roller coaster, I let go of the bar and had my hands up in the air in the end. I went on the ‘Tower of Terror’ which is a lift/elevator that plummets to the ground and a ridiculously high water slide.
I thought I had conquered my fear of heights after my visit to Disney World, but the facts of what it must be like to fall from a height and the image of the bloody rock pool linger in my mind. It took just a few months for my fear of heights to reach its peak again.
appcomrade.com is not responsible for any stupid or non-stupid actions that result or don’t result from your reading of this article.
If you use the internet then you have probably come across parkouring videos sometime in your life. If you’re like me though, then you have probably got really obsessed with these videos and didn’t stop watching them for weeks on end.
Again, if you’re like me, then you probably thought to yourself “How hard could this really be?” and then went outside to have a try at parkouring. You either injured yourself, or disappointed yourself when you found out how impossible even basic parkour tricks are.
This article is aimed at explaining what parkour is to the absolute newbies as well as explaining how to get started to the regular newbies. Let’s begin.
What is Parkour?
Parkour is the art of getting from point a to point b in as little time as possible. It’s about pushing your body to the limits to overcome obstacles quickly and efficiently. Parkour is not about doing dangerous things that you’re not comfortable with or haven’t practiced throughly. It is also not about doing back-flips off everything just because you can. There are plenty of reasons (such as competitions and making cool videos) that would require a traceur to do unnecessary flips. However, if you’re learning parkour to get from point a to point b, those things never matter.
Vocab:
Parkour: Freerunning art that gets you from point a to point b. Can be a hobby, a sport or a master-criminal get-away plan.
Traceur: A male that practices parkour or knows how to parkour.
Traceuse: A female that practices parkour or knows how to parkour.
Getting Started With Parkouring
Before you start parkouring you should condition your body to above average athletic abilities. You should be able to run 2 miles in under 14 minutes as well as being above average in calisthenics. Calisthenics is a form of exercise that uses the body as a weight and varies from pull ups to hand-stand push ups. Calisthenics will build up your muscles in the places you need them for parkouring and not in the places you need them for huge muscle.
Even something as simple as running up a wall and climbing it is really difficult if you don’t have above average athletic abilities. Also since parkouring is freerunning, running is a major prerequisite. If you can’t run 2 miles in under 14 minutes you will not be able to run up walls and use your body efficiently and effectively. Â To be successful at parkour you need to adopt a Jason Statham attitude to maintaining your body:
But weight lifting just for the sake of heaving iron? Pointless, says Statham. “Muscle-men grow on trees. They can tense their muscles and look good in a mirror. So what? I’m more interested in practical strength that’s going to help me run, jump, twist, punch.” – Menshealth.com
So Statham uses plyometric exercises which involve jump training and exerting maximum force out of your muscles in a short time; and you should too. With calisthenics, plyometrics and cardio work you will be on your way to becoming a good traceur. You won’t even need much effort to learn parkouring if you’ve already put effort into building your body.
If you try parkouring and are not above-average in your athletic abilities it might take you a couple of months to perfect your freerunning capabilities. However, if you start freerunning and you’re already in an amazing shape, you could probably perfect your freerunning within a couple of weeks or less. If you were going to become a basketball player you could do it even if you were 10 pounds over weight, but being above-average won’t hurt.
YouTube YouTube YouTube
I don’t need to tell you anything more. There are hundreds of popular videos on YouTube that will teach you anything from running and rolling (yes there are videos on the basics of running), to advanced things like wall runs that end in back-flips. Just search for “Parkour tutorial” or “Parkour lesson” and you will get everything you need to learn. Obviously, don’t do anything you’re not comfortable doing.
Parkour Parks
Many cities in the U.S. and Europe have parkour parks that are ready for you to start using. A lot of traceurs have hate for these parks because they are “not the real thing.” Bollocks. People used to hate Tony Hawk because he was a park skater and he didn’t skate in the streets like all the other “thug-skaters.” Look at Tony Hawk now.
The point is this: You can learn how to parkour anywhere you can find walls and obstacles. You certainly don’t need to pay to get into a small concrete parkour park. However, it’s not the park you’re paying for. Many of these parks have special group or individuals lessons that teach you how to parkour. Not to mention that they have special trampolines and equipment that conditions you to back-flips and other dangerous things you shouldn’t try on your own.
If you’re hard and tough then go parkour in the streets. Maybe you’ll get arrested and maybe people will look at you like an idiot. If you’re a rational person that has no idea where to start with parkouring, then just go to a nearby park. It’s that simple.
By using MicroList you can find any topic and create a list about anything you wish. For example: you could create a list of the top cities you want to visit before dying or your top five movies. These lists can then be used by other people on MicroList, and they can create their own personal list of the best movies and so forth.
Lists can also be shared on Facebook and Twitter so that people not on MicroList can still see your list preferences.
Mission Accomplished
MicroList also has a trending feature that lets you see trending lists. Not to mention that there is a “Direct List” section MicroList has that lets you share lists with only friends on MicroList, and not every user online.
Another great feature that Microlist offers is the percentage of answers people create for each list. This percentage allows you to see what’s most popular on MicroList and what people think should go into each list.
Room to improve
This app’s user interface could be improved. The profile page for example has hard to read links. Black on red just doesn’t work very well. Other than that, I haven’t notice any glitches or shortcomings with MicroList.
Conclusion
If you like creating lists and sharing them with your friends then there is no reason not to get this app. It’s free and available for anyone to start using right away.
Cortisol, released in response to stress. It also suppresses the immune system.
I recently came across some great techniques in stress management that made me stop and think.
Let’s face it, some things in our lives that are stressful to us we can change, and some things we can’t.
The things that we can’t change sometimes grate on us and wear us down. I know that I, like everyone else, have various situations or awkward people that stress me out but I’m unable to alter the situation or the person’s approach. Then, I stumbled across an interesting way to deal with stress beyond our control.
The stress management technique for dealing with things out of our control that grabbed my attention was the ‘four As’ technique and here it is:
* Avoid – Alter -Accept – Adapt
Avoid
So, if you don’t need the stress that’s taking place in your life, can you avoid it? Let’s say reading about crime in the newspaper is stressing you out, you may ask yourself “Do I really need to read about every crime?”
Alter
Let’s suppose that you can’t avoid the stressful situation. Perhaps someone is stressing you out at work because they are being constantly negative. Perhaps you can steer the conversation around to more positive subjects.
Accept
Sometimes the only way to be at peace with incoming stress is to just accept it if you really can’t change anything. If you have a medical condition that’s unavoidable for instance, it may be time to just sit down and spend some time accepting the situation.
Adapt
If you accept something, that doesn’t mean you can’t adapt to the situation. If you have noisy neighbours for instance you can wear earplugs, listen to music with headphones or sound proof your bedroom.
Do you know of any other good stress management techniques for survival in a sometimes manic world? If you have any interesting stress management tips, please post them below.
Domain names are all the buzz these days, but most people donâ??t know much about them.
You may have heard of generic top level domains (or simply gTLDs). This is just techie jargon for domain extensions like the everyday .comâ??s or .orgâ??s. gTLDs also include a host of other options like .mil or .museum which are restricted to sites who can offer proof that their services are related to the extension at hand. There are dozens of other extensions showing up in this level of domains including .app or .info which are becoming increasingly popular.
The next type of domain extensions that we will be focusing on are country coded, also known as ccTLDs. These offer endings specific to various countries. Whereas gTLDs have three or more letter endings, all official ccTLDs have a two letter suffix.
For example:
.cn – China
.us – United States
.it – Italy
.mx – Mexico
The first country coded domains were registered in the late 80s, but it was only recently that they became more commonplace on the web. These domains have opened up more possibilities for some creative names, think of all the possibilities with Italyâ??s extension – more on this later!
Now that you have a simple understanding the two primary types of top level domains, which one should you be focused on for your own personal or business website? The choice may be more important than you realize. Picking an international domain can be great, especially if you want to be ranked higher in that specific country. If you are a Canadian firm picking a Russian extension, you might need some more creative marketing to get to the top of relevant search results. Another issue with ccTLDs has been utilizing search engine optimization properly. Most tricks are much more effective with gTLDs.
Why should I register a country coded domain?
The primary benefit of going with a country specific extension is to target a specific audience. Your site will appear higher on all local searches just based on its domain. To maximize exposure, you may want to register multiple domains with various target countries and write your site in various languages. Country coded domains show your clients from the first blink of their cursor that your services and products are available in their area, and, perhaps more importantly – that you care.
For creative purposes
Country coded domains also let the creative people out there have some serious fun with their domain names. If you donâ??t believe me, check this out. You donâ??t have to get that wacky to make a catchy domain though. There are already some massively popular pages like About.me which use ccTLDs to come up with a catchy domain name. If you market your brand heavily, web placement will be more than OK with a cool name like this. Imagine a fashion company with a name like Wear.it! The possibilities here are great for any forward thinking company, and you can save a lot of money by going this route as well!
How do I obtain a ccTLD?
Just about any site where you can register new top level domains can get you hooked up with a ccTLD – just make sure it is an ICANN-accredited registrar (there are hundreds, donâ??t worry). For the most part, ccTLDs are open to anyone in the world regardless of your country of origin- however you will occasionally run into some international extensions that have some restrictions. You will probably find that ccTLDs are far cheaper than most of the decent .com addresses left on the board as well. Not to mention, you can normally register exactly what you want – whereas on the .com level, every three and four letter combination has been completely used up.
Featured images:
Guest author Marianne Ross is an online marketing enthusiast who spends most of her time online and loves to share her thoughts and articles on various channels in topics related to business, social media, marketing and SEO. If you have any question to ask from her, feel free to leave a comment below.
Ever since starting a blog on my website, Adsense has been throwing some strange adverts my way.
I decided to click into ‘Kevin’s blog’ from my website just to see if my posts were showing up okay and was surprised by the advert on the right hand side of my posts linked to a website called stickynumbers.com with a rather alluring picture accompanying the link. I found this strange as I’ve been blogging about falling from heights and about bupropion recently and dating doesn’t seem to fit in with recent topics, at all.
I closed down the website in my browser and revisited it out of interest. This time when I clicked on ‘Kevin’s blog’ an ‘Asian dating’ advert came up, with the asian people looking strangely western – some even having blonde hair and having green eyes.
Then I tried again and another dating agency advert popped up with chiselled-chinned guys and a few pics of what looked like public school educated, woollen jumper wearing people, with fixed smiles. Yeah, you know the type 😉 They usually hang around boats or museums and drink root beer.
What algorithm connects ‘Kevin’s blog’ with dating agencies? What the ‘truck’ is going on??? It’s almost as if a guy starting a personal blog is automatically plonked into the ‘desperate’ category.
Those links aren’t tempting me at all because I’m happy, but if Adsense caught onto the fact that I like crispy chips with curry sauce, chicken pie with gravy dripping all over it and sumptuous 100% beef sausages from a real butcher, wrapped in crispy bacon with chillies placed inside sausages to diffuse with the whole sausage whilst in the cooker to give a nice bite to the meal. If they put up an advert with this image on it – then I might be tempted to click on the advert links. In fact, you couldn’t stop me from clicking on the links if they were like this lol . . .
The adage that security means peace of mind holds true in many ways, including location.
To achieve this in an increasingly insecure world, people have constructed buildings and infrastructures that will protect them against perceived —real or imaginary— external threats, man-made or natural. Among the most secure places on earth are the following:
Data Fortress, Switzerland.
Built into a mountain of the Swiss Alps, the data fortress, owned by Mount 10 Company, is protected by a thousand closed-circuit television cameras and motion sensors that are monitored continuously 24 hours every day, by armed men and heavy gates of metal. It is self-contained with emergency power generators, bomb-proof areas, sabotage-free cooling system for its machines, and climate control to protect the sensitive digital data kept there. Its best security feature is its inaccessibility, being reachable only via a guarded helipad and runway for private aircraft.
The Mormon Church Granite Facility.
Similar to the above is the Mormon Church records facility built 600 feet into granite mountain near Salt Lake City, Utah. It houses the Churchâ??s documents and records including microfilms in climate-controlled chambers accessible only through a concrete bunker and 12-ton metal door impervious even to tank fire. Office spaces, shipping/delivery areas, and other facilities are also housed within.
Saddam Husseinâ??s Bunker.
Located 100 feet below the ground in Baghdad, the bunker is protected by five-foot thick walls, six-foot ceiling of concrete reinforced by steel, steel doors that are three-ton heavy and also has two escape tunnels. Proof of its invincibility is that it survived 20 cruise missile and seven bunker-destroyer bomb attacks during the Gulf War. However, it did not survive looting by its own Iraqi guards and was stripped clean.
British Burlington Bunker.
Britain built this 35-acre underground bunker during the Cold War primarily to house its government should a nuclear attack occur. It contained a communications room with switchboard and exchange plus broadcasting facilities, and to help relieve tension, a pub in the usual style of the period. The bunker was kept secret â??known only to those with highest security clearance– until declassified in the latter â??80â??s.
The PINDAR Bunker.
Below the Ministry of Defence Headquarters in London is the PINDAR bunker, designed to house Britainâ??s joint operations leadership and staff in a nuclear attack or serious civil disturbance. Bomb-proof doors will protect the people inside the bunker which also contains accommodations, food preparations, and communications facilities including a broadcasting system, video conferencing capabilities and a situation room. The bunker is also protected from electromagnetic penetration from a nuclear blast.
The facilities mentioned above were designed to protect its inhabitants from most kinds of danger conceivable at the time of their construction. However, as manâ??s ingenuity for safety and security grows, the technology of destruction continues to develop, creating new security threats that then engender reciprocal protection methods. Thus, each is caught in a vicious circle that has no end, until man stops seeking dominance and forbears aggression against his fellows. Only then shall each individual feel secure and live a life free from fear.
This article was written by George from Box-it Central. George enjoys spending his time blogging, listening to music and cycling. When not at work or in front of the computer you can usually find him mountain biking round the local countryside.
Economists usually state that consumerism is good. But is it? . . .
Recently I read ‘The 100 Thing Challenge’ which was basically about a guy who tried to live with only 100 things, and the subject of consumerism got me thinking and taking a close look at my own habits.
Just how much stuff do we really need? I already have more books than I can possibly read in a lifetime and more stuff that I don’t use, than the stuff that I do use. I actually started to try to lessen the amount of things I have collected around 2 years ago, but I’m still struggling to reduce the amount of stuff that I have.
I’ve heard that in America people are now renting storage compartments to store their extra stuff in. We are bombarded with advertisements and have peer pressure at whatever age to go out and update to the latest gadget or the latest car model. I once read a quote saying that:
We buy stuff we don’t really need, to impress people we don’t really like.
I’ve forgotten where I read that quote but it is very true when it comes to most people’s desire to get a designer handbag, the next phone model up or a new number plate on a brand-spanking new car.
Most economists say that consumerism is good for the economy obviously, but what if everyone just bought what they needed and didn’t upgrade to the latest phone model or car until they really needed to? Well, there would be less demand for products and there would be less of a need for people to work such long hours. We would have less of a wage, but then again we wouldn’t be buying loads of stuff and being fed advertisements every minute. Our lives wouldn’t be such a manic rush too.
One thing I’m trying to do is to only buy things to replace things that need replacing now. I will buy quality goods instead of many normal quality things. As an example, I now have Doc Martins to replace my old shoes, but instead of having loads of shoes I will only have 1 or 2 pairs of quality Doc Martin shoes, which will last a long time. The money that I save from not buying so many things I can now inject into a few quality goods.
That’s not to say that I won’t be just buying brand name goods, as I find that a lot of brand name goods are overhyped and the money that you spend goes on their advertisement costs. No, what I’m talking about is when you pick up a product and really feel and know that it’s a quality product.
For instance, I find that motorbike shops have excellent quality clothing, as the clothing is usually designed to withstand ripping up to a point in a motorbike accident.
If there wasn’t consumerism fever, set on fire by constant bombardments of advertisements, companies would be trying to specialise in quality rather than quantity. Western culture in particular almost worships consumerism, with people going out shopping as a ‘therapy’. People buy something to make themselves feel happier, then realise that the advertisers’ claims of the product changing their life are not true, so their mood goes down, then they have to go back out and buy something else to find false happiness.
Parents often bribe their children to study hard with ‘stuff’ and even bargain for good behaviour if it means that the children get more ‘stuff’.
So, I for one am going to ignore all the hype that ‘consumerism is good’ and try and duck out of the madness as much as I can by buying less goods and looking for quality instead of quantity. It’s impossible to completely avoid consumerism, but if you are aware of its influence you can at least react in a way that suits you and not advertisers or economists.
I’ve been learning through the world’s best selling chess software recently that teaches chess strategy.
Features
Mission Accomplished
Room to improve
Conclusion
Ever since starting a blog on my website, Adsense has been throwing some strange adverts my way.
The adage that security means peace of mind holds true in many ways, including location.
Economists usually state that consumerism is good. But is it? . . .
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