Archive for October, 2008
October 31, 2008 at 10:56 am · Filed under Uncategorized
As Christmas approaches we often find ourselves browsing the big name highstreet shop’s websites for ideas of what to buy our friends, families and lovers. Sometimes we find something and tell ourselves to keep it in mind for when we visit the shop in person but then when the time arises we simply forget.
Now with websites like Red Save there’s an easy way to remember to buy the presents and that’s to order them there and then online. Not only is it easier and there’s less risk of you forgetting what the gift was, but it’s also a lot cheaper with savings of £5 to £10 on a lot of products.
Take the Kodak 7 inch touch screen digital photo frame for example. This new technology will be flying off the shelves this Christmas and at Redsave.com they’re giving a £20 discount off their own retail price so that more of their customers can afford it. This website also has a maximum delivery charge of £3.95 and all orders are dispatched within 24 hours of the order being made so as well as good value you receive quick and cheap service too!
It’s remarkable what you can find online if you look carefully enough and at RedSave.com everything is there for browsing. In fact, it’s displayed in such a way that you don’t need to search at all and all of your Christmas shopping can be done without even having to get up and put your shoes on!
October 31, 2008 at 10:47 am · Filed under Uncategorized
The IT and IS community is huge. There are many different fields in the IT and IS communities just like a state has different cities. Since IT and IS are vast, there are many different job titles, not all of them make sense and this is what makes it confusing as to what type of job to apply for and who to hire.
I will attempt to give the Human Resource (HR) folks tips on hiring IT and IS personnel, what HR should not assume, why HR should not think that a certification is a deciding factor in hiring someone, and bring to light some of the unrealistic qualifications I have seen on job boards.
First thing is to ask an existing Information Technology (IT) or Information Systems (IS) employee to review the resume! They have a better understanding on whether or not the applicant can perform the job. If you have no IT or IS employees, find a consultant in one of the two communities – try a company that has an IT or IS department.
Try to remember these simple tips:
-Ask which field within IT or IS the applicant is experienced or interested in
-Most object-oriented programmers can pick up another object-oriented programming language in no time – just like assembly language programmers can pick up another assembly language in no time
-Most graphic designers can learn another graphic software in no time
-Don’t assume that a network technician can design or develop your website (or want to)
-Don’t assume that a web designer or web developer can also take on network technician duties
-Don’t assume that a web designer is a web developer and vice versa – although it happens often
Just because an applicant has a certification does not mean a hill of beans. A lot of time, all this means is that the applicant could afford to take the test. There are many people out there who can do the job you have available. To hire someone just because of the certification is not only decreasing your chances of finding the right applicant, but you are excluding quite a number of people who can accomplish your mission. Don’t get me wrong about certifications though, these people have more than likely studied hard to get them, but still, it should not be your deciding factor in hiring someone. How many of you have hired someone because the applicant had a certification only to wish you had not done so?
I’ve noticed that a great deal of companies are looking for SENIORS in every field. Well, you can’t go on forever getting SENIORS if you don’t start hiring some ENTRY LEVEL folks. Pretty soon, these SENIORS will have to retire, which will leave your company in a world of trouble later down the road. Don’t assume that just because the applicant does not have commercial experience or just graduated from college, they do not have potential. Looking at some of the job postings, some companies are not paying enough to employ SENIORS anyway!
If someone is self-taught, why do you feel they are less likely to accomplish your company’s mission? Think about it: these people have motivation and determination to reach their goals. Isn’t this what you really want, someone with determination and motivation? Think about it.
Another thing, do you think you will find someone with 10 years of XP Professional experience? NOT!!! XP Pro has not existed this long!!! Do you really think that you will find someone with “no more than 2 years” of programming experience, but can program in 15 different programming languages? Whaaaa? I think you get my point. Be realistic in your qualifications – you may find more potential or qualified candidates for your open jobs.
In a nutshell, do your homework and think a bit deeper before you “don’t” place that call for an interview or close the door in someone’s face because they have experience, but no certification. Think about how you felt when you graduated. Think realistically before you write unrealistic job descriptions or job postings. I guarantee that if HR will keep this article in mind, it will make their jobs much easier and help some hard working unemployed folks out too.
October 31, 2008 at 12:27 am · Filed under Uncategorized
After a six-month implementation Gehring L.P. went live on Encompix, the nation’s leading ETO (Engineer-to-Order) ERP system. The implementation or champion team was comprised of eight representatives from each department, including both end-users and managers. As with most successful implementations, the president was heavily involved and committed to the project’s success.
Established in 1976, Gehring L.P. launched its North American operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The 50,000 square foot facility provides a full service machine tool operation, engineering and assembly of custom precision honing machines, comprehensive research and development services, contract honing services, tooling re-work services, a highly skilled team of service technicians, spare parts and in-house manufacturing of super-abrasives by another Gehring Group member, Diato L.P.
Adrian Mitrea was the project manager for the Encompix implementation. According to Mitrea, “We are seeing a streamlining of our processes with better communication between departments. Our people can see the whole process and not just their piece. They now understand the effect their work has on downstream operations, and we now have the discipline to make things happen the right way. This is a direct result of having a single, integrated system.”
Encompix (www.encompix.com) has filled the manufacturing software requirements of Engineer-to-Order companies since 1992. The company name reflects the commitment to developing business application solutions that encompass the complex areas of project-based and job-based manufacturing. Encompix provides ETO manufacturers with a competitive advantage by improving bottom line results.
According to TR Cutler, spokesperson for the ETO Institute (www.etoinstitute.org), “This Gehring implementation is indicative of the type of efficiency process many ETO manufacturers are completing to stay competitive in a global economy.” Encompix www.encompix.com Roger Meloy 513-733-0066
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October 30, 2008 at 5:12 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Commercial dog food is available in dry, semi dry and wet (canned). The difference between dry and canned dog food is the water content they leave the water in the canned and bake it out of the dry. Although commercial dog food is a great convenience for busy caregivers, it is not the best food to give dogs with seizures. Grocery store brands are sometimes are even worse in quality. Efforts have been made to rate the quality of dog food ingredients, but commercial dog food is typically created with meat and by products that are not suitable for human consumption or that we will eat. Some people argue that dogs have thrived off of leftovers and scraps from their human owners for thousands of years and that commercial dog foods (which have only been available for the past century) contain poor-quality meats, additives, and other ingredients dogs should not ingest, or that commercial dog food is not nutritionally sufficient enough for their dogs. More than that, it has been suggested that commercial dog food is hazardous to pets and there have been particular concerns regarding melamine and associated chemicals in commercial dog food. Many world-renowned vets and dog care experts maintain that a dog who is fed commercial dog food experiences a serious threat of failing prematurely. By the time any symptoms are noticeable, it’s regularly too late to stop an agonizing death excluding by lethal shot. This is extreme, but certainly most authorities on the subject agree that commercial dog food is not always the best, healthiest option. Dog food ingredients can differ considerably, just as human food ingredients can. You can feed natural dog foods that use human grade ingredients – improving the quality of the dog food ingredients obviously improves the health of your dog. The ideal diet for your dog is a homemade diet, but if you are concerned about the time involved in the preparation, do find out what dog food ingredients are in your dog’s food – because the right dog food ingredients can have long lasting effects on your pet’s health, well-being, longevity, and quality of life.
October 29, 2008 at 10:17 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Internet access in China
It was difficult getting internet access in China a mere 6 years ago. Corporate leased line were difficult to apply for, hotels had no internet access, dial-ups were extremely unreliable, xDSL or cable were largely unavailable and cybercafes largely denied foreigners access.
Today, China is one of the easiest country in Asia to make internet accessible to businesses, homes, travellers and students.
If you are a business traveller or tourist, you will be pleasantly surprised that almost all hotels, down to 3 stars hotels, even in more remote cities offer broadband internet access in their hotel rooms. Most rooms will have an ethernet port for you to hook up to the hotel’s broadband. Access is mostly automatically DHCP with dynamic IPs but in certain hotels, you may need to call the reception to allow access from your room.
You can also visit a cybercafe or ‘wang ba’ as they are known in China. Cybercafes are everywhere in China and can be a dingy 5 computer setup to large cybercafes with hundreds and hundreds of computers. Most cybercafes in China are patronized by young people whose sole purpose are computer games or online-chatting. These youngsters can spend days in the cybercafes without going home. If you find them too noisy for your liking, you can even request for a private VIP room to surf in peace and comfort!
As a foreigner, you will need to show your passport before you can be allowed access to a cybercafe. In many provinces, the local law requires your picture to be taken and your particulars submitted to a central database. The cybercafes are pretty strict about this or they are liable to have their operating licences taken away. Cybercafes are lucrative businesses in China and you can be sure that they implement the required laws most strictly!
One of the problem that you may face in a public cybercafe is that all the log-in procedures and computer operating systems will only be in Chinese even in the touristy areas. Hence, you will need the cybercafe operator assistance before you can eventually start answering all your Hotmails and Gmails.
If you like visiting coffee cafes, you will also find that many of the newer cafes offer internet points for you to plug in your laptop. Most of the time, usage is free. At this point of time, wireless internet access does not seem to be entirely popular as compared to wire access in these cafes.
If you are running a business, getting a corporate lease line or xDSL broadband is a breeze with very competitive ISP fighting for your business. Monthly charges are low and access speed is decent. In fact, many newer office buildings offer broadband access as part of the rental deal and you need not apply seperately to the ISP.
Home users are well taken care of as well. Many new apartment also comes with broadband access or you can apply to the ISPs directly. Charges for monthly sDSL broadband can be as low as US12.
Control of the internet
China is one of the countries with strict internet laws. Having said that, internet usage in China is very, very high for both business and social use. Because personal computers are still expensive by China’s income standard, most people access the internet from cybercafes or from offices.
All websites hosted in China needs to be a approved by a government unit. One of the first thing you will notice in China is that domestic sites are blazingly fast but foreign hosted sites tend to be very slow. This is due to foreign sites having to go through a proxy as well as a bottleneck on China’s limited conduit out to the international internet pipes.
Many foreign sites such as CNN, Falungong, Playboy and other sites deem sensitive to China’s society are blocked.
Web applications and development in China are often of a high standard. Many domestic sites such as Alibaba and Sohu has made it to the very competitive top internet arenas. Many web development companies from Taiwan, South Korea and even the USA has also made China their development base for their web applications as China offers a large pool of competitive and high qualified web developers.
October 29, 2008 at 2:20 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Lendo um artigo que o autor comentava o seu dia em um mundo dominado por CP/Ms, Unixes e Macintoshes. Problemas com as suas diversas verses e mquinas que agora so peas de museu, ser que esse seria um mundo melhor?
O Mundo da Informtica, tem evoludo devido ao interesse, muitas vezes monopolista da Microsoft, sem essa empresa, no teramos o que hoje temos em capacidade de processamento, integrao de ambiente operacional e principalmente disponibilidade de recursos.
Durante um certo momento, a Microsoft libertou o mercado, devido a forma que ela conseguiu licenciar o MS-DOS junto a IBM. Até aquele momento, Hardware e Software eram parte integrantes de patentes e por sua seqncia, de propriedade dos fabricantes.
Talvez por erro ou por falta de viso, a IBM no patenteou o barramento do seu IBM PC/XT, o que possibilitou a criao dos mais diversos cartes de expanso, que fez movimentar um mercado antes inexistente. A IBM tentou com o IBM PS2, dominar o mercado, quando lanou e patenteou o seu novo barramento, o Micro Channel, que realmente era uma coisa maravilhosa, mas para voc desenvolver algum carto, voc precisaria pagar para a IBM royalties.
A Apple, sempre foi uma empresa monopolista, o Apple Macintosh, foi totalmente patenteado, e por isso, no haviam muitos equipamentos periféricos ou cartes de expanso, bem como o seu sistema operacional era um tanto obscuro.
Em um mundo totalmente monopolizado, o IBM PC e o MS-DOS da Microsoft, formaram uma verdadeira dupla dinmica, que deu e continua dando o que falar, bem como oportunidade a uma inimaginvel indstria de tecnologias hoje existente no mundo.
Lembro-me de algumas biografias, livros e documentrios que falam da criao desses impérios acidentais, que na realidade foram conjunturas de falta de viso das grande empresas da época, ao no conseguir imaginar um mundo com micro computadores. J a Microsoft, pensava e sempre pensou, que em um futuro, todos teremos computadores em casa e esse sempre foi o seu norte.
Muitas empresas seguiram a viso da Microsoft, como a Ltus, Novell, Word Perfect, Wordstar, Borland entre outras, cresceram e chegaram a ter a sua parcela no mercado mundial.
Ontem, hoje e sempre, teremos um mercado marcado por cifras em Bilhes, valores que no conseguimos imaginar e muito menos calcular. um mercado altamente competitivo, onde a cada momento aparecer uma empresa interessada em ter a sua fatia desse mercado crescente e bilionrio.
Por isso que no consigo ver um mundo sem a Microsoft, talvez em um futuro poderemos ver, mas isso é assunto para outro post.
October 25, 2008 at 8:31 am · Filed under Gambling Wheel
Connect two of man’s predominating pursuits and you’ll track down something called a web based sportsbook. Can you imagine anything that could feasibly be more resourceful. Imagine a band of admirers cheering to support a given favored club, and more often than not stakes are sure to be reckoned besides the noise. So keen to participate in of the excitement, on-lookers routinely seek to anticipate who is most likely to win the coming race. Put together, all of this is set to turn into a chummy little race called web based sportsbook.
Yes, it may easily sound habit forming, but on the contrary – sportsbook gambling is essentially just an entertainment and to team up with fellow sports aficionados. Here, you can bet a a minute amount of moolah and regardless enjoy yourself. Here are a number of basics to help everyone get started sportsbook gambling.
If you want to bet, we would advise you search for a web based sportsbook, which is a place that takes web based sportsbook. In the U.S.A., there are no less than four states where to go for sportsbook gambling legally, but informally you can try it essentially anywhere assuming you can discover a bookie and you’re legally of age. On the list of track-and-field events you’ll have a choice of risking some money on are pro including college level football as well as basketball, pro hockey and baseball, including bets on both horse and dog racing. You will have the option of placing wagers on the comprehensive score of a competition, when a given party will be defeated, and even if a coin toss in a competition comes out heads or tails.
The odds makers depend on the maths to help you guess which club you feel is most likely is most likely to win. First thing you’ll find the chances, or lead in points given to a a inferior party that is presumed to be beaten by x number points. We’ll be able to choose between innumerable categories of bets– straight, parlays i.e. combined bets on multiple sports events, and plenty more, the straight bets being the dominating one in sportsbook gambling.
So do give it a runover, and enjoy the recreation all at once. Only see to it that you won’t get overwhelmed and expend your entire social security checks on a caprice. Because else you’ll probably be caught struck by remorse for life. Learn the best keyword sports wagering strategy from other live players.
October 25, 2008 at 12:30 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Prepaid cell phone means you pay in advance for your monthly anytime minutes that you will be using. It has the flexibility and freedom to stay in touch while also staying within your budget, especially for the students. It’s good choice only for occasional use since they are more expensive than monthly billed cell phone plans. Nevertheless, it eliminates the need for constant calls to customer service representatives to determine the number of minutes remaining in a monthly plan. Many first time cellular users regret not using pre paid cellular phone services.
Prepaid cell phones are the best solution for someone with poor or no credit history. It allows you the freedom to have a cell phone but with none of the hassles – no credit check, no contracts and things like that. It still has a lot of options that a regular plan do; such as, account activities, transaction, airtime balancewhich shows how many minutes you use, how many minutes are left and when you need to purchase and redeem more airtime, so you control your costs.
Prepaid cell phones are usually good as the minutes that are unused rolls over to the following month. Surveys indicate that there are currently fifty five thousands new cellular phone activations a day. So when you shop and compare prepaid cellular phone services, make sure you find a plan that matches your calling pattern.
About the author:
Mike Yeager
Publisher
http://www.a1-cell-phones-4u.com
October 24, 2008 at 3:44 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The Superultramodern Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (in short, The Superultramodern Principia) mainly combines The NSTP (Non – Spatial Thinking Process) Theory and Conmathematics (Conceptual Mathematics). It also entails some other ideas of Dr Kedar Joshi like ‘If reason itself is flawed’, Great flaws in modern/ultramodern physics, The nature of science, mathematics, and philosophy, Superultramodern universal communism, etc. Its chief purpose is to lay down the foundations of Superultramodern science (physics, mathematical science, and philosophy).
So far philosophers/scientists have argued too much regarding the nature of mind, self, space, time, and, in general, reality. Now they should understand that the truth on these matters might be known not through too much thinking and debate, but through more or less self-evident propositions, straightforward reasoning, and possibilities. Either, if they are smart enough, they would appreciate it or dismiss it and thus fail to see the light forever.
- Dr Kedar Joshi, BSc MA DSc DA, PBSSI
Cambridge, UK.
About the Author
The Founder and President of ‘British Superultramodern Scientific Institution’ (BSSI).
http://superultramodern.blogspot.com
October 24, 2008 at 5:13 am · Filed under Uncategorized
“You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing – that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”
Richard Feynman, Physicist and 1965 Nobel Prize laureate (1918-1988)
“You have all I dare say heard of the animal spirits and how they are transfused from father to son etcetera etcetera – well you may take my word that nine parts in ten of a man’s sense or his nonsense, his successes and miscarriages in this world depend on their motions and activities, and the different tracks and trains you put them into, so that when they are once set a-going, whether right or wrong, away they go cluttering like hey-go-mad.”
Lawrence Sterne (1713-1758), “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” (1759)
I. Overview
II. Personality Disorders
III. The Biochemistry and Genetics of Mental Health
IV. The Variance of Mental Disease
V. Mental Disorders and the Social Order
VI. Mental Ailment as a Useful Metaphor
VII. The Insanity Defense
I. Overview
Someone is considered mentally “ill” if:
His conduct rigidly and consistently deviates from the typical, average behaviour of all other people in his culture and society that fit his profile (whether this conventional behaviour is moral or rational is immaterial), or
His judgment and grasp of objective, physical reality is impaired, and
His conduct is not a matter of choice but is innate and irresistible, and
His behavior causes him or others discomfort, and is
Dysfunctional, self-defeating, and self-destructive even by his own yardsticks.
Descriptive criteria aside, what is the essence of mental disorders? Are they merely physiological disorders of the brain, or, more precisely of its chemistry? If so, can they be cured by restoring the balance of substances and secretions in that mysterious organ? And, once equilibrium is reinstated – is the illness “gone” or is it still lurking there, “under wraps”, waiting to erupt? Are psychiatric problems inherited, rooted in faulty genes (though amplified by environmental factors) – or brought on by abusive or wrong nurturance?
These questions are the domain of the “medical” school of mental health.
Others cling to the spiritual view of the human psyche. They believe that mental ailments amount to the metaphysical discomposure of an unknown medium – the soul. Theirs is a holistic approach, taking in the patient in his or her entirety, as well as his milieu.
The members of the functional school regard mental health disorders as perturbations in the proper, statistically “normal”, behaviours and manifestations of “healthy” individuals, or as dysfunctions. The “sick” individual – ill at ease with himself (ego-dystonic) or making others unhappy (deviant) – is “mended” when rendered functional again by the prevailing standards of his social and cultural frame of reference.
In a way, the three schools are akin to the trio of blind men who render disparate descriptions of the very same elephant. Still, they share not only their subject matter – but, to a counter intuitively large degree, a faulty methodology.
As the renowned anti-psychiatrist, Thomas Szasz, of the State University of New York, notes in his article “The Lying Truths of Psychiatry”, mental health scholars, regardless of academic predilection, infer the etiology of mental disorders from the success or failure of treatment modalities.
This form of “reverse engineering” of scientific models is not unknown in other fields of science, nor is it unacceptable if the experiments meet the criteria of the scientific method. The theory must be all-inclusive (anamnetic), consistent, falsifiable, logically compatible, monovalent, and parsimonious. Psychological “theories” – even the “medical” ones (the role of serotonin and dopamine in mood disorders, for instance) – are usually none of these things.
The outcome is a bewildering array of ever-shifting mental health “diagnoses” expressly centred around Western civilisation and its standards (example: the ethical objection to suicide). Neurosis, a historically fundamental “condition” vanished after 1980. Homosexuality, according to the American Psychiatric Association, was a pathology prior to 1973. Seven years later, narcissism was declared a “personality disorder”, almost seven decades after it was first described by Freud.
II. Personality Disorders
Indeed, personality disorders are an excellent example of the kaleidoscopic landscape of “objective” psychiatry.
The classification of Axis II personality disorders – deeply ingrained, maladaptive, lifelong behavior patterns – in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition, text revision [American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV-TR, Washington, 2000] – or the DSM-IV-TR for short – has come under sustained and serious criticism from its inception in 1952, in the first edition of the DSM.
The DSM IV-TR adopts a categorical approach, postulating that personality disorders are “qualitatively distinct clinical syndromes” (p. 689). This is widely doubted. Even the distinction made between “normal” and “disordered” personalities is increasingly being rejected. The “diagnostic thresholds” between normal and abnormal are either absent or weakly supported.
The polythetic form of the DSM’s Diagnostic Criteria – only a subset of the criteria is adequate grounds for a diagnosis – generates unacceptable diagnostic heterogeneity. In other words, people diagnosed with the same personality disorder may share only one criterion or none.
The DSM fails to clarify the exact relationship between Axis II and Axis I disorders and the way chronic childhood and developmental problems interact with personality disorders.
The differential diagnoses are vague and the personality disorders are insufficiently demarcated. The result is excessive co-morbidity (multiple Axis II diagnoses).
The DSM contains little discussion of what distinguishes normal character (personality), personality traits, or personality style (Millon) – from personality disorders.
A dearth of documented clinical experience regarding both the disorders themselves and the utility of various treatment modalities.
Numerous personality disorders are “not otherwise specified” – a catchall, basket “category”.
Cultural bias is evident in certain disorders (such as the Antisocial and the Schizotypal).
The emergence of dimensional alternatives to the categorical approach is acknowledged in the DSM-IV-TR itself:
“An alternative to the categorical approach is the dimensional perspective that Personality Disorders represent maladaptive variants of personality traits that merge imperceptibly into normality and into one another” (p.689)
The following issues – long neglected in the DSM – are likely to be tackled in future editions as well as in current research. But their omission from official discourse hitherto is both startling and telling:
The longitudinal course of the disorder(s) and their temporal stability from early childhood onwards;
The genetic and biological underpinnings of personality disorder(s);
The development of personality psychopathology during childhood and its emergence in adolescence;
The interactions between physical health and disease and personality disorders;
The effectiveness of various treatments – talk therapies as well as psychopharmacology.
III. The Biochemistry and Genetics of Mental Health
Certain mental health afflictions are either correlated with a statistically abnormal biochemical activity in the brain – or are ameliorated with medication. Yet the two facts are not ineludibly facets of the same underlying phenomenon. In other words, that a given medicine reduces or abolishes certain symptoms does not necessarily mean they were caused by the processes or substances affected by the drug administered. Causation is only one of many possible connections and chains of events.
To designate a pattern of behaviour as a mental health disorder is a value judgment, or at best a statistical observation. Such designation is effected regardless of the facts of brain science. Moreover, correlation is not causation. Deviant brain or body biochemistry (once called “polluted animal spirits”) do exist – but are they truly the roots of mental perversion? Nor is it clear which triggers what: do the aberrant neurochemistry or biochemistry cause mental illness – or the other way around?
(continued)
About the Author
Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love – Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain – How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory Bellaonline, and Suite101 .
Visit Sam’s Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com
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