The Refresh Orlando Heirs

I tried to catch the wind
But instead the wind caught me,
It raised me to great heights before
I landed in a tree.

I tried to catch my shadow
But I failed at all my chances,
For my shadow is quite eloquent
At eluding my advances.

I tried to catch a falling star
But the closer it drew near,
I backed away out of its path
Overcome by awesome fear.

I tried to catch the fairy
Who came to get my tooth,
But instead I learned I wasn’t a
Conniving enough sleuth.

I tried to catch a quaint snowflake
But instead I caught the flu,
Now I’m confined to my bed
For a week or perhaps two.

I tried to “catch you later”
But got badly misdirected.
Called another friend instead
So now you feel rejected.

I tried to catch a nap,
Forty winks or maybe more.
But as soon as I dosed off
You came knocking at my door.

I tried to catch the bus
To get away for a short while;
But just as I neared the door
It pulled off and the driver smiled.

Enough is enough already
It has finally become clear,
I’m not a very good catcher
And I’m not in very good cheer.

So I throw in the quitter’s towel,
Don’t want to catch a thing.
‘Cause I’m tired of always trying
And never catching anything.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach which can be reviewed on her site. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, though delayed in publication, is expected to be available early 2006.

You are welcome to visit AMEN Ministries: Your Soul’s Service Station for reviewing spiritual services being offered, obtain spiritual refreshing and soul edification, browse our newly expanded Stop & Shop Specialty Store or review our recommended books you may want to add to your personal library.

Blessings to all!

Customer relations management (CRM) software systems have been applied to almost every element of business that even remotely interacts with a customer. The original concept of CRM is far different than it is now. Since its beginnings, CRM systems have evolved into what it is today. Its evolution is driven by three elements: technology, integration and process. Recently, there has been a move to add another element to this evolution process: customer-driven CRM.

Technology has always been used to establish better communication with customers. Better communication results in improved marketing, planning, campaign management, forecasting and problem solving. Sometimes this will work to the advantage of the business owner. However, if the information provided by the technology is flawed, the process does not improve the quality of the outcome.

Integrating the data gathered by the technology is the next step in the evolution of the CRM system. Instead of operational silos that hinder customer relations, the organization as a whole takes responsibility for customer satisfaction. It is now easier to respond to sales opportunities, or issues customers may have and take the appropriate actions necessary to rectify the situation.

During the process of the evolution, it is noted that some parts of the system might be outdated or ineffective, and these parts can be eliminated from the process. By doing so, the process can be recreated to fit the need of customers. The results become more predictable and improve effectiveness in serving the customer.

Customer-driven CRM deal with the ever-changing business trends. Today’s customers have changed their needs because of disruptive change in their lives. The uncertainties surrounding the “post September 11 world” have changed the priorities and values of customers. Without knowing exactly what is in a customer’s head, it is very difficult to establish customer relations strategies that serve the needs and expectations of buyers and sellers. The entire CRM software system is designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the seller’s business. This is not an easy task; rather, it is complex and ever changing.

Thinking about a mini DVD camcorder? You’re not alone, it’s a rapidly growing
sector of the camcorder market, with Hitachi, Sony and Panasonic all making more
than one mini dvd camcorder.

These camcorders differ from regular digital video cameras in one important way -
they record video onto mini DVD discs, rather than DV tape. This has a number of
advantages. DVD discs are more robust than tape and won’t get chewed up in the
camera. Although this is thankfully a rare occurance, it scares me every time I here a
strange noise coming from my camcorder, so it’s with bearing in mind.

The second advantage is that DVD discs are random access, compared to tape on
which everything is recorded sequentially. This means that there’s no need to
rewind and fast forward to find the clip you’re after, just select it from the menu.
Some cameras even allow you to perform basic editing functions on-camera. An
additional side-benefit is that a mini DVD camcorder doesn’t have tape heads to get
worn or dirty as happens in regular mini DVD cameras.

And thirdly, you can easily watch your home movies by removing the DVD from the
camera and playing it in practically any DVD player.

However, there are negative factors to. The most siginificant one is that video is
encoded as MPEG-2 on a mini DVD camcorder, as opposed to DV format. This
means that it needs specialist software to edit - you can’t just use your regular
video editing program (unless it specifically supports MPEG-2). And if a Mac user
you’re out of luck, as there are no MPEG-2 editing applications for the Mac.

Also, mini DVD camcorders tend to cost more than similarly specified mini DV
cameras. And the media is also more expensive. However, if you don’t intend
editing your movies and don’t mind the extra cost, a mini dvd camcorder does offer
extraordinary convenience.

Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher of The HDTV Tuner, a site which aims to cut through the confusion
surrounding HDTV and provide surfers with up to date, accurate and easy to read
information on HDTV.

There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for a computer certification exam. However, there are also things you can do to increase your chances of success on exam day during the most important part of the entire process — the time that you’re actually taking the test.

I’ve taken many a certification exam over the years, and helped many others prep for theirs. Here are the five things you must do on exam day to maximize your efforts.

1. Show up on time. Yeah, I know everyone says that. The testing center wants you there 30 minutes early. So why do so many candidates show up late, or in a rush? If you have a morning exam appointment, take the traffic into account. If it’s a part of town you don’t normally drive in during rush hour, you might be surprised at how much traffic you have to go through. Plan ahead.

2. Use the headphones. Most candidates in the room with you understand that they should be quiet. Sadly, not all of them do. Smacking gum, mumbling to themselves (loud enough for you to hear, though), and other little noises can really get on your nerves in what is already a pressure situation. In one particular testing center I use, the door to the testing room has one setting: “Slam”.

Luckily, that center also has a headset hanging at every testing station. Call ahead to see if yours does. Some centers have them but don’t leave them at the testing stations. Wearing headphones during the exam is a great way to increase your powers of concentration. They allow you to block out all noise and annoyances, and do what you came to do — pass the exam.

3. Prepare for the “WHAT…” question. No matter how well-prepared you are, there’s going to be one question on any exam that just stuns you. It might be off-topic, in your opinion. It may be a question that would take 20 of your remaining 25 minutes to answer. It might be a question that you don’t even know how to begin answering. Whatever the reason, it’s the question that has you thinking, “WHAT…” I have talked with candidates who got to such a question and were obviously so thrown off that they didn’t do well on any of the remaining questions, either.

There is only one thing to do in this situation: shrug it off. Compare yourself to a major-league pitcher. If he gives up a home run, he can’t dwell on it. He’s got to face another batter. Cornerbacks in football face the same problem. If they give up a long TD pass, they can’t spend the next 20 minutes thinking about it. They have to shrug it off and be ready for the next play.

Don’t worry about getting a perfect score on the exam. Your concern is passing. If you get a question that seems ridiculous, unsolvable, or out of place, forget about it. It’s done. Move on to the next question and nail it.

4. Finish with a flourish. Ten questions from the end of your exam, take a 15-to-30 second break. You can’t walk around the testing room, but you can stand and stretch. By this point in the exam, candidates tend to be a little mentally tired. Maybe you’re still thinking about the “WHAT…” question. Don’t worry about the questions you’ve already answered — they’re done. Take a deep breath, remember why you’re there — to pass this exam — and sit back down and nail the last ten questions to the wall.

Before you know it, your passing score appears on the screen!

Chris Bryant

CCIE #12933

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (www.thebryantadvantage.com), home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. Video courses and training, binary and subnetting help, and corporate training are also available.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” or “How To Pass The CCNP”, send a request to chris@thebryantadvantage.com today!

There is a nasty little privacy parasite loose on your computer. You get it by visiting web sites with “bugs” on them. Typically served by ad tracking, affiliate tracking and even email tracking companies to measure the effectiveness of their ads, track their visitors and find out when you open their email. Web bugs are tiny, invisible 1 pixel by 1 pixel graphic files that notify a third party web site when a page, an ad or an email is viewed.

Now if you’ve joined an affiliate program through any of the major affiliate tracking companies, you have probably even put these bugs on your own pages without knowing what you’ve done. They come in the HTML code you are given to paste into your page by Commission Junction or LinkShare or BeFree networks and LinkExchange to track your visitors so you can be paid your affiliate commissions.

You’ll see on the link code something like this

This is actually the WebSite101 code for our affiliate link to eHealthInsurance.com and is required by their affiliate program. This is a “good” use of web bugs to track commission payments to affiliates. It allows the host to track exactly what web page was visited by the surfer and when so that affiliate links can be tracked from their source.

The “bad” bugs are those used by ad servers to track which advertisements are viewed by surfers and combine it with other information stored about that surfer at other web sites. There are bugs included in HTML email — those messages that include graphics, fonts and page color in the messages — to see when the email was opened and can even tell where on your hard drive that email is stored, when it was viewed, how long it was open and if the links are clicked on.

“Bad” bugs are used by nefarious sites to collect information from your hard drive and pass it back to their server without your knowledge. This is done in combination with cookies to send information about your surfing habits to third parties, also without your knowledge. For more about cookies visit:

http://WebSite101.com/Privacy_issues.html#cookies

Some of these nasty little critters can even be used from web pages or within your email to install “executable bugs,” which can install a file onto your hard drive to collect information whenever you are online. For example, one such bug can scan a hard drive to send information on every document that contains the word “financial.”

More on Web Bugs…

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5008849.html

Fortunately there is a new software available for Windows users called

Bugnosis which is provided as freeware by the Privacy Foundation.

The software is designed as a browser plug-in to notify you when a page you visit is a security risk, or simply if the page contains web bugs. They are working on a version that will notify you of bugs in your email.

Call the exterminator honey, we’ve got bugs in the PC!

In this small article we will be looking at the new opportunities for Microsoft Small Business Server specialists, but rather look at the global business strategy and possible ways of future ERP modules standardizing and interoperability. This is important to get into consideration for midsize and large corporate business IT decision makers. Let’s look at the chronology and possible future development.

• Great Plains Software acquisition. When Microsoft took leading position on the operating system market and released stable and reliable Windows 2000 Server, the next logical step would be getting into ERP market. Microsoft decided to try midsize market, and the reason is probably this - it is wise to create small accounting as the extension to Microsoft Office, not to purchase existing small application. However if you plan to try midmarket - you better purchase something established with broad client base. Developing midsize package from scratch might deplete all the resources. As the stake on Great Plains was high - Microsoft formed business systems subdivision - Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, later on Great Plains name was taken off and now we see Microsoft Business Solutions.

• Navision Software Acquisition. There are multiple opinions among the MBS partners. Considering the fact that Navision Attain had strong clientele in Europe, and the fact that currently MBS promotes Navision on the majority of emerging markets: East Europe, Russia, Brazil - the point of view that Microsoft got very large pool of clients in Europe and one of the goals of Navision acquisition was geographic expansion.

• Axapta. Navision Software was indeed very robust and it was one of the Danish software “dragons” (in the good sense of this word), the other nice company was MacHanza. We would like here to credit Danish ERP vendors. Axapta was new product on the moment of acquisition and it is rich-functionality ERP and so - a rival to SAP, Oracle Financials, PeopleSoft

• Small Business Manager/Small Business Financials. This was natural way of downsizing the functionality of Great Plains Dynamics/Microsoft Great Plains to gain small business market. Small Business Financials is Great Plains Dexterity written accounting package. You see similar marketing moves from SAP and Oracle sides.

• Small Business Accounting 2006. It took Microsoft about four years to feel itself comfortable on the ERP market before it decided to create its own small business package, targeted to take over market share from QuickBooks, MYOB, PeachTree. Small Business Accounting 2006 is really nice application, which is excellently integrated with Microsoft Office/Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft is right - majority of Windows users spend their computer time in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Excel. And it create accounting application, allowing you to do 50% of work from Microsoft Outlook directly

• Microsoft POS. As you know that there are several thousand small retail businesses in the USA, using just one cash register and these folks have to use a lot of small Retail Management applications, which are competing on this market for a long time. And it is a good momentum to take over this unreliable and turbulent market offering cheap and solid rock solution, working with POS devises. Please, take into account that Microsoft has another high-end Retail Management system - Microsoft RMS, which can automate midsize and huge retail stores and chains.

• Market is taken over? Well - the last flint of Microsoft Small Business Accounting and Microsoft POS give customer an option to stay in Microsoft framework from the company inception till going public as a large corporation. This fact would be very difficult to ignore for such folks out there on the market as BestSoftware, SAP, Oracle, Sun.

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - USA nationwide Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in the following industries: Aerospace & Defence, Logistics & Distribution, Freight forwarding & Transportation, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Wholesale & Retail, Education, Biotechnology, Chemicals, Healthcare, Beverages, Conglomerates, Food & Drugs.

Many people may not understand that in Natural Disasters more people drown than any other type of death. During Hurricanes, the wind kills a few as debris flies into them or knocks something over that they are under.

Indeed Earthquakes take their toll this way too. Volcanoes generally warn us although they do kill people and so do these violent Tornadoes. But most people in Natural Disasters die from drowning, mudslides, storm surges and killer Tsunami Waves. If more people were in better shape, better swimmers then perhaps they might survive better. If more people had floatation devices to wear during Hurricanes there would be many more survivors you see?

Flooding always kills the most number of people statistically so if we want to fight Mother Nature and beat her at her own game and save lives then we will need to find ways to keep humans from drowning. In the 2005 Atlantic Tropical Hurricane Season more people died from drowning from storm surges or flooding than from the wind knocking stuff over or collapsing structures.

Over 10,000 people died during that Hurricane Season and most were in Central America and Mexico due to flooding causing mudslides and washing out whole villages. We need to pay attention to the flooding if we are to save lives in natural disasters you see? Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Fraud is rampant on the internet. It is everywhere that you
look. When you are lurking in newsgroups you will find hundreds
of messages inviting you to spend money here, there and
everywhere. You’ll get email demanding your time, attention,
and, of course, money for something. Surfing the web will turn
up many sites with some incredible offers which, of course, just
happen to require your credit card number - but don’t worry,
they “just need it to validate your age” (or whatever) - DON’T
GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW
IT’S SAFE.

The web is a media of communication. It allows everyone to
communicate with anyone for the price of a computer, phone line
and internet service - and even most of that can be gotten for
free if you try. This is perhaps the most wonderful invention in
the history of man to date for it’s sheer power of getting us
all just to talk to each other, but there are dangers.

In a way, it’s just like any other part of life. However, what
the internet does is to allow you to communicate (and be
communicated with) exceptionally fast. Where else could you surf
a hundred sites, receive 200 emails and examine 250 newsgroup
messages all in one evening?

Some of the schemes that you will need to be on the lookout for
include:

Pyramid schemes galore. These are the things that say “send a
dollar to a bunch of people with your name and address”. They
are all illegal (in spite of what they claim) and unethical. You
will get ripped off and if you partake you are breaking the law.

http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/chain.htm

Startup companies which offer stock or “points” - these are not
frauds, per say, but the vast majority of these will never pay
anything to anyone. For example, many pay-to-surf programs at
their beginning will not pay anything. Instead, you will get
points or stock, with the promise of money down the road if they
(a) go public or (b) get lots of people signed up or whatever.
Beware - you are taking a risk to never get anything.

Credit card fraud - be very careful with your credit card number
on the web. DO NOT EVER send it in email or post it in a
newsgroup. And DO NOT USE YOUR DEBIT CARD FOR ANYTHING ON THE
WEB. That comes directly out of your checking account - you may
get it back from the bank if you can prove fraud, but at least
with a normal credit card you are risking the banks money and
not your own.

Multi-Level Marking (MLM) - I’m sure there are good MLM
companies out there, but they really only tend to benefit those
who get in early. Those on the bottom wind up supporting those
on top, then the whole thing loses steam and falls apart. Of
course, those who do get in early make a lot of money.

http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/mlm.htm

Pay-To-whatever - There are some pay-to-do-something companies
that are legitimate. My experience is that the vast majority of
these have minimal financing, an exceptionally poor business
model and little, if any, likelihood of actually paying anything
to anyone. Usually there is not fraudulent intent - just a lot
of silliness and idiocy.

http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/paidchat.htm
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/paidclick.htm
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/paidemail.htm
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/paidradio.htm
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/paidshop.htm
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/paidsurf.htm
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/paidsurveys.htm

Cons - There are some unbelievable cons out there on the
internet and in the real world. The Nigerian scam is a
particularly nasty example. In this scam, you receive a letter
or email which tries to get you involved in “helping” some
ex-Nigerian official by giving him your bank account number. Get
involved and you will lose money and perhaps more than that.

http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/809areacode.htm
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/donlapre.htm
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/nigerian.htm

Identify Theft - Perhaps the most significant threat on the
internet is identify theft. This is simply the stealing of your
social security number (and other identifying information) with
the intention of using it to obtain credit. Give out your
information to the wrong person and you could find your credit
rating is destroyed.

Sweepstakes - There is no doubt that there are a tremendous
number of contests and sweepstakes which are perfectly valid. I
even personally know of some people who have won. However, many
sweepstakes are thinly veiled attempts to invade your privacy
while making lots of money at the expense of your time. For most
of these, I would not bother. Not exactly fraud, but skating on
thin ice.

http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/sweepstakes.htm

For more information, check out Scams And Frauds
http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/scams.htm

Laptops are common now; most people have them to take to school or when they travel for work. They’re useful and easy to move with. What is also common is to see someone scrambling to find a place to charge a laptop battery. That report due tomorrow may suddenly be lost if you don’t find an outlet within thirty seconds… Or that slideshow you have created (but carelessly forgot to save) may disappear if your laptop battery is not recharged.

As common as laptops are now, it is just as common to see individuals forgetting that the machine needs a little bit of help to run. It does not magically power itself; the battery does not somehow manage to stay full as you work for hours at a time. Yet, many seem to think that their battery does just that. No matter how long they stay hunched over the machine, it will work.

A few times of having the laptop die will cure that fantasy.

The truth is: you must keep your laptop charged. Yes, one of the advantages of having a laptop is that you can take it anywhere; it does not require you to remain plugged into the wall. That still does not mean that you can expect the laptop to run with a low battery. Yes, you can walk around with it; yes, you can wander away from your plug. You still should return, however, when your computer tells you it’s low.

And they do tell you. Laptops feature a symbol at the top of the screen that allows you to see just how much your battery is charged. The lower it drops, the less time you have. This is basic. Anyone will even a small trace of knowledge should know and understand this. Yet, too many people risk losing everything to squeeze out an extra minute on their battery. These are the same people who try to frantically finish a report as opposed to saving and heading to their charger, only to lose the majority of it when the computer quits. And these are the same people who swear they will never do it again, but forget that promise the next time around.

Laptop batteries have short ives. They can fail as quickly as thirty minutes. Some last longer, of course, but the result is still the same: if you are not careful and don’t pay attention, the battery will die. Of course, laptops offer warnings when a battery is low. Often, a small screen will pop up to remind you that the time is almost there. Still, thinking you can simply ignore that screen since you’re busy is not the wisest of moves.

This are basic ideas, and you may be rolling your eyes, wondering who would be so foolish. But it does happen, all-too-often it happens. Because of this, you must make an effort to remember that, as convenient as your laptop is, it is still a machine and therefore needs care. Check your laptop battery and keep it charged.

While studying to pass the BSCI exam and preparing to earn your CCNP certification, you’ll quickly notice that while OSPF and ISIS are both link-state protocols, there are a lot of differences between the two. One major difference is the way the two protocols handle hello packets.

Hello packets are imperative to keeping OSPF and ISIS adjacencies alive. Since they are both link-state protocols, neither of them will send updates at any specified time. Hello packets are the only method by which routers running OSPF and ISIS can see that a neighboring router is still available.

OSPF gives us some great options when it comes to keeping routing table size down via the use of stub and total stub areas, but to OSPF, a hello packet is a hello packet. ISIS routers are capable of sending two different types of hellos - Level 1 and Level 2.

ISIS routers are classified as Level 1 (L1), Level 2 (L2), and Level 1-2 (L1-L2). By default, Cisco routers are L1-L2 routers; this means that every ISIS-enabled interface will send out both L1 and L2 hellos.

If one of the interfaces is forming only an L1 or L2 adjacency, there’s no reason to send out hellos for the other adjacency type. For example, if R1 is forming an L1 adjacency with R2 via its ethernet0 interface, there is no reason to allow the router to transmit L2 hellos. To hardcode a router interface to send only L1 or L2 hellos, use the isis circuit-type command.

R1(config)#interface ethernet0

R1(config-if)#isis circuit-type level-1

Note: To configure this interface to send only L2 hellos, the full command is “isis circuit-type level-2-only”, not just “level-2″.

This configuration would prevent L2 hellos from being transmitted out ethernet0. While this does save router resources and prevents unnecessary bandwidth usage, there is also no way an L2 adjacency can be formed - so double-check your network topology before using this command!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!