The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Spring. It comes every year about this time, (in the Northern hemisphere at least) and with it come the birds, new green shoots and flowers!

So what does spring have to do with manifestation you might ask. Well, let’s delve in a little deeper and see what we can unearth shall we? And to that end, a story is in order.

Once upon a time there was an old man who had no friends. He was very sad because of his lack and often wished that he had even one friend to talk with. One day, while walking in the forest, he came upon a strange beggar sitting under a tree. Frightened, he asked, “What are you doing here?” To which the beggar replied, “I am waiting for my friends.”

Now this mystified the old man because no one except him ever set foot in the forest. So he said, “You are mistaken. There is never anyone here but myself and a few woodland creatures.” Not even looking up from where he was intently gazing at the ground the beggar replied, “My friends live underground and will be here soon.” This frightened the old man even more and just as he was turning the beggar, with a piercing glance, suddenly said, “You have no friends. Do you old man?” Startled and confused the old man staggered back and blurted out, “You are right. But how do you know this?” Completely ignoring the old man’s reply, the beggar thrust out his hand and there the old man saw clutched, two small bulbs covered with dry parchment-like skin and having a few roots springing from the bottom. “What are you up to you crazy beggar!” quavered the old man, resisting an urge to flee. Again ignoring the reply the beggar rose quickly to his feet and pushed the bulbs into the old mans uncomprehending hand. Then he said, “Go home. Plant these in a sunny spot. Water them. And in one year you too shall have friends.” and with that he turned and disappeared silently into the forest.

The old man was now quite frightened and vowing to never again add brandy to his tea in the morning, fled back to his hut on the edge of the forest.

Later, when he was idly going through the pocket of his coat, he found the two bulbs and remembering the crazy old beggar in the forest, thought. “Why not? What have I got to lose?” So he did as the beggar ordered and planted the bulbs carefully in a sunny spot, watered them and then forgot all about them.

One year later, as the old man came home from his morning walk, he suddenly noticed something amazing! There in his yard were two beautiful daffodils! They weren’t very tall but they were tremblingly beautiful in the spring sunshine. One was palest white with an orange center and it smelled heavenly as it swayed in the breeze. The other was the most amazing golden yellow the old man had ever seen and stood proud and erect in the green of his lawn.

Thinking back to that day in the forest, the old man began to smile and as he smiled he understood the beggar’s strange behaviour. For, as he had predicted, the flowers (mans oldest friends) had indeed been dormant under the soil and only now had erupted up to greet the spring and the old man.

A tear of joy rolled down the old man’s wrinkled cheek as he knelt down and gazed at his new friends the daffodils and he vowed never again to feel sorry for himself and to plant seeds of friendship where ever he went.

To this day they say there is an old beggar man who gives daffodils to strangers in the woods and that he smiles and calls them “friend” when he does.

From the Compact Oxford English Dictionary:
manifestation (noun)
a sign or embodiment of something. the materialization of god or spirit.

Manifestation comes from nature.

It is part of Universal law.

It can not be rushed.

It cannot be slowed.

Sometimes we see the results of our efforts to attract that which we desire in mere moments, while at other times it may seem we may never reach our goals. Though, if we look closer, we find that by stating clearly the goal in the first place, we then manifest other goals that in the end serve our higher purpose more closely than the first goal ever would have. Such is the miracle of manifestation and spring, which like bulbs planted in the past, now bears beauty and perfection in the present.

Sasha LeBaron is the author of two books and many articles on the specific techniques and tools of finding your perfect life partner. He lives on the gulf islands of BC, Canada with his perfect life partner and a large fluffy cat. Learn how you can find YOUR perfect life partner in as little as ten minutes per day at http://www.FindYourPerfectLifePartner.com/

Copyright 2006 Otis Cooper

The CD was first introduced into the world by Phillips and the Sony corporation and was to replace the LP.It started rather badly butin 1995 there was a standard being set for the dvd

Cdrom have been around awhile,but as the world grows,so do technology.And we have ended up with a much bigger format called the DVD which stands for Digital Versatile Disk.

This is a high capacity cd size disc basically for multimedia applications.This high quality video and audio format may replace the VHS altogether.

The DVD started as the Digital Video Disc and some technicians may still refer the the disk with this name.DVD discs offer much higher capacity than CDs for high quality video,audio and software

The new DVD use the same format as the CDROM . Cdroms are great formats for recording data but the DVD is best for recording large applications like movies.And they are fast becoming the best choice for storage and computer backup.

The DVD for store up to 17.1 gigabytes of data whereas the cdrom can store up to 700 megabytes.Thats quiet a difference in storage space.

THE TYPES OF DVD DRIVES

Early DVD drives were all dvd-rw compatible made by the dvd forum,a group of manufacturers that started the dvd format together.

The first DVD+RW drives had no capability to write -once DVD media.However,in 2002 Verbatim became the first media maker to offer DVD+RW technology in both the ReWritable and Write-once formats,alright already.

Around In October 2003, Philips and Mitsubishi displayed the new dual-layer DVD recordable technology. The new technology virtually doubles data storage capacity on DVD+R recordable discs from 4.7GB to 8.5GB, while remaining compatible with existing DVD Video players and DVD-ROM drives.

DVD Multi-compliant drives, provide read/write support for all DVD recordable DVD specifications with theDVD-RAM, DVD-R and DVD-RW as well as read/write support for CD-R and CD-RW media.

When the dvd format started there were different versions and there was no guarantee that your recording from one dvd writer would play on another player.

To add to the versions,the DVD-RAM lets you erase specific files and add new ones.You could also write to the dvd up to 1000,000 times became any data degration may occur.

The dvd-rw will only allow you to write to the disk just 1,000 times before data degradation.And the new DVD-Audio format was developed for music and other audio files.

Talk about mass confusion concerning the dvd.While you may not be concerned at all about the technical side of the dvd,it may be to your advantage to learn the basics.Be sure your dvd player and writer will support all format of the dvd.

FEATURES OF THE DIGITAL VERSATILE DISC

The DVD has the same physical dimemsions as the compact disc but is made slightly different.Most DVD hardware will play audio CDs and CDROMs

All formats of the dvd use a common file system named UDF.The DVD come in both recordable and re-writable versions.Let’s briefly mention the different formats of the dvd.

The DVD ROM has the read-only format supporting discs with capacities of from 4.7GB to 17GB and access rates of 600 KBps to 1.3 MBps. Backward- compatible with CD-ROMs.

DVD Video is used for displaying full-length digital movies. DVD-Video players televisions like videocassette players. The Digital-Video format includes a Content Scrambling System (CSS) to prevent users from copying discs.

The DVD audio store audio similar to the CD-Audio format. DVD-Audio is facing stiff competition from a number of other high fidelity audio standards.

The DVD Recordable Disc use the write-once DVD format. DVD-R discs are the DVD counterpart to CD-R discs.

The DVDRAM use a rewritable compact disc format that provides much greater data storage than today’s CD-RW systems. The caddy-mounted discs will initially provide 2.6GB per side on single or double-sided discs.

DVD is the new generation of optical disc storage technology. This is bigger and faster than the CD. DVD aims to encompass home entertainment, computers, and business information with a single digital format.

It has replaced laserdisc, is well on the way to replacing videotape and video game cartridges, and could eventually replace audio CD and CD-ROM. And now the DVD has widespread support from all major electronics companies.

Otis F. Cooper is solely dedicated to boosting the knowledge and confidence of every computer user. Use his informative articles and videos to understand all about the drives in your computer.Learn and see more at www.dvdcrank.com

This Article is Part of a Five Part Series

A significant portion of my professional career has been devoted to behavior analysis and modification. Initially, my success rate was not as high as it currently is because I failed to take into account the underlying temperaments of the subjects and clients. This realization has improved my effectiveness in public educations, corrections counseling and private counseling to an enormous, even immeasurable degree. Although, it is impossible to put the entirety of these findings here, I have managed to distill a few of the major tenets. Most behavior is learned. Whether by design, or by chance, an exhibited behavior has yielded a desirable result at some time.

Consider your arrival home from the market. You are greeted by your cat, which comes to investigate your recent purchases. While you set about opening the can of tuna for the kitty, she entwines herself about your ankles and in the process bumps her head three times against the cabinet. Coincidentally, at this exact moment you place the food in her dish. “Tah-Dah!” You have just witnessed the birth of a “learned behavior.’ Now, every time you prepare to feed the cat, she bumps her head three times on the cabinet. In her mind the two are connected as cause and effect. Of course this is an extreme over simplification, but you may draw your own parallels to human behavior. Systematically repeating an action until you automatically perform the action without consciously thinking about it is the working definition for a habit. This holds true for positive behaviors such as brushing your teeth after meals as well as negative behaviors such as having a smoke after dinner (see for example the classroom procedures of Harry K. Wong and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).

Once a habit is established, it takes at least 2 to 4 weeks of consciously substituting a positive replacement behavior before the bad habit is considered to be “broken.” Behavior can be adapted; personality can adjust to the environment; but underlying temperament can not be changed. Keep these truths in mind when thinking about behavior management. Practically applied this means, placing a choleric temperament in a subservient role will always result in discord and displays of maladaptive behaviors. 5. Temperament, or ones core “self” is not determined by gender, age, ethnicity or economic status. Attempting to modify a maladaptive behavior without taking into account the underlying temperament will only lead to frustration on the part of the individual attempting to change the maladaptive behavior. This is true whether the individual is attempting to change their own behavior or another individual is attempting to modify the behavior of a subject or client. This is one instance in which the adage, “fake it until you make it,” simply does not apply.

Reg Adkins

You developed mechanisms of accommodation, rebellion, and
mimicry to survive growing up in your family. Let’s look at
mimicry.

Mimicking

When you were a child you probably remember swearing to the
universe that when you grew up you’d never, ever treat your
children the way your parents treated you. You’d be different;
you’d be better. You knew it from the core of your being. Right?
So how is it that instead of making your vow come true, all
these years later you’ve ended up copying their very qualities
that you most despised? Welcome to the world of mimicking–the
third mechanism (accommodation and rebellion being the other
two) we sometimes use that’s influenced by guilt toward your
parents and siblings. Why do we use “mimicking”? What are the
reasons behind this behavior? Remember the warning “I hope your
children do to you what you’ve done to me”? You were blamed for
your parents’ suffering, and they wanted you to suffer the same
way at the hands of your children. And so you do. Four reasons
explain why.

MIMICKING: PUNISHMENT AND RELIEF

We become like our parents to punish ourselves and relieve our
guilt for hurting them. If you think you’re responsible for
causing your parents’ unhappiness, suffering, disappointment,
getting out of control, then you deserve to be punished by
having the same faults. Huh? Think of it like this, if you are
unhappy, suffer, are disappointed, or out of control, then you
have paid yourself back for the suffering you caused them. Think
of the biblical expression, “an eye for an eye.” This requires
that a punishment fit the crime exactly. It turns out that your
conscience operates the same way. It requires that you be
punished exactly in the way you’ve made another person suffer;
in this case, your parents or sibling. When your overprotective
parent became frantic with worry when you played sports, you
felt responsible for causing their worry. They screamed with
anxiety, “You’ll break your leg! You’ll get killed!” And how
does your conscience operate? It requires your becoming frantic
with worry when your kids are playing, just as your parents did
with you. There. Now you’ve been punished for your long-ago
offense of causing your parents to feel frantic with worry over
you. Remember the indigenous tribe described in Chapter 1?
Remember how they blamed themselves for earthquakes, floods,
volcanic eruptions, and so on? A child blames him- or herself
when a parent continually acts badly. Later on in life, being
like that parent keeps the grown child from feeling better off
than the parent. This is how our conscience evens the score. If
you blame yourself for the explosive rages your domineering,
overbearing father suffered when you didn’t submit to him, you’d
assume that your independent attitude was responsible. You could
do penance for your guilt toward him by becoming domineering
with others and explosive with your own children. Why is this
“penance”? Because by mimicking your father, you also suffer
when your children act independently of you. Does this sound
self-destructive? It is. Surely, you’d prefer to not fly off the
handle and rail at your children. And just as surely you’d
rather not suffer when they don’t submit to you. But the idea is
that if you caused your parents or siblings to suffer, you
deserve to suffer in the same way. It’s precisely this idea, the
dynamic of self-blame, that’s central to why we behave in ways
that we hate. That explains the first of the four reasons why we
choose to suffer through mimicking our parents’ behavior. Let’s
look at the second reason.

MIMICKING: DON’T FEEL BAD–WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER

If you’ve ever felt bad because you think it’s not fair to be
better off than your parents, you might resort to mimicking to
relieve your bad feelings. At a talk I gave, a woman told me
about her experience with her obese mother. She remembered not
only sitting with her during meals and snacks, but she also
recalled mimicking her mother’s overeating because she thought
that would comfort her mother. Her exact words were, “I felt she
would feel comforted because we were in it together.” What was
she really saying? “Don’t feel bad, Mom, I have the same
[overeating] problem that you have.” That’s the second reason
for mimicking behaviors we hate, what’s the third?

MIMICKING: PUSHING AWAY THE PAIN

For the most part, we all want to forget our unpleasant
experiences of the past and have the bad feelings associated
with them fade away. This done, we can enjoy our present-day
lives. Now factor this in: By mistreating others the way we’ve
been mistreated, we help forget that we suffered at the hands of
our parents. How does that help, you’re probably wondering?
Imagine you’ve gone through something terrible like childhood
abuse. (The victim could have been you or perhaps someone else
in the family.) The result is that you can’t stand thinking
about it, that you want to bury the memory and never
reexperience the pain of it again. The farther removed from it
you get, in physical distance and in time, the safer you feel
and the less likely you are to think about it. What helps you
accomplish this? Being as far removed as possible from your
memories of the traumatic experience. What could be farther away
from that opposite position? To become the one who mistreats,
not the one is mistreated. If as an adult you act possessively
toward your children, you demand underlying loyalty and overt
demonstrations of love the way your parents did with you, it’ll
help you forget the pain you felt when your parent was that way
with you. What pain? Maybe out of loyalty to your possessive
parent, you inhibited your relationships with others. Or maybe
you cut off new relationships because you feared being trapped
by the demands of loyalty you felt all relationships came with.
Either way, you suffer. And now, as an adult, if you dominate
your children, maybe you’ll forget that you yourself submitted
to your own domineering parents. You don’t want to recall
painful memories of having been cheated out of your own
independence. With three reasons for mimicking looked at and
understood, we’re left with one more. Here’s how that one shapes
our world of self-blame.

MIMICKING: WORKING HARD TO IMPROVE THE FLAW

By doing to others what was done to you, you hope to meet people
who can show you how to better cope with the behavior that
harmed you. That’s the basic premise, and it’s a lot to take in
so let’s look at it from another angle. These new people you
meet become role models for you in learning new ways of dealing
with behavior that was painful or difficult for you in the past.
If you think about couples you know, you’ll find that this is
often true. And if you’ve ever wondered why many couples have
extreme opposite personalities that often clash, you now have
the answer to all your wondering. A submissive person, who gives
in easily, is with a domineering partner who tends not to. Why?
Each one is actually learning from the other how to improve on
his or her own shortcoming. These four reasons are why, in
spite of your best intentions, you may have acquired those
qualities of your parents that you hated the most. In the case
of David, a smart businessman who undermined his career success,
you’ll see that he did this because of his father and because he
identified with some of his father’s qualities.

Excerpted from Self-Help for Smarties: Secret Success Codes for
Weight Loss, Love, Career and
Parenting(http://www.penmarin.com/proddetail.asp?prod=Gootnick2&f
rom=2) by Irwin Gootnick, M.D. (Penmarin Books
http://www.penmarin.com, May 2006).

Summary: an introduction to taking proper backups with emphasis
on the data commonly used by artists.

A backup, in computer lingo, refers to making a copy of
important data for the purpose of data recovery. Should the
important data get damaged or lost, a properly made backup will
restore it all. The word “data” refers to anything stored on a
computer system: images, programs, document, videos, etc. Taking
backups of important data can prevent loss of valuable work and
the time needed to recreate it.

In this article we’ll take a look at common backup types and
strategies, data compression, and common backup media types. A
real life backup scenario will illustrate my own backup
procedures. The article will end with general backup tips.

COMMON BACKUP TYPES

The best backup methods rely on simple and time proven
concepts. New or unnecessary technologies are best avoided till
proven reliable and necessary. The simpler the procedure, the
more likely it is to work correctly.

A full-backup consist of making a copy of all important data.
When you copy a folder with important files, from say a hard
drive to a floppy, you actually make a full-backup of those
files. Due to simplicity, this approach is the most reliable of
all backup types. Its main advantage is ease of backup creation
and restoration. The main disadvantage is that the backup will
use as much space as the important data. If the data is large,
the backup process can be very resource intensive in terms of
time and the processing power needed to carry out. Imagine the
time needed to full-backup a digital library consisting of
millions of books. Such operation takes days.

An incremental-backup works differently in that it backs up only
the modified files since the last backup. When using this
method, a full backup is created first and then incremental
backups are run on regular basis. For large amounts of data this
method is often the only practical way to backup. It takes up
less space than a full backup and is less resource intensive to
run. On the other hand, contrary to full backups, incremental
backups need dedicated backup software to keep track of what
files to backup.

Compressing the backup data is a popular option. Such practice
lowers the amount of space needed on the backup media. Although
compression adds an additional layer of complexity, it can be a
good (if relied on wisely) and sometimes necessary solution.

ESSENTIAL BACKUP STRATEGIES

Regardless of the backup type and data, the following backup
strategies should always be followed:

- backup should be taken on a regular basis

- backup should be automatic and need as little human
supervision as possible

- backup should be stored in a safe remote location

- backup should rely on well established hardware and software
technologies

Backup should be taken on a regular basis. The more frequently
the data changes the more often it should be backed-up. For
example, some of my most frequently updated files (website
files, source code, notes, etc.) are backed-up daily. Files that
are less frequently updated are backed-up monthly.

Backup should be automatic. Except for the initial configuration
of the backup program and the occasional supervision, the whole
backup process should be automatic and completely transparent.
That is, the backup should run by itself without causing any
attention unless necessary.

Backup should be stored in a safe remote location. Should the
location of the important data get damaged, destroyed, or
exposed to theft - a remotely stored backup becomes invaluable.
How remote? Disasters like fire, flood, tornado, earthquake,
etc., can cause widespread damage. Ideally a backup should be
stored in a far away enough, minimal risk location.

Backup should rely on well established hardware and software
technologies. Such technologies are typically in widespread use
- thus cheaper and easier to troubleshoot, or get help in the
event of failure. As established technologies become gradually
replaced by new and better ones, so should the backup media and
hardware and, if used, the software to re/store the data. There
is no guarantee that the common backup media of today, like CD
or DVD, will be usable in ten years. The same is true for
software. A good data preservation strategy should include
continual migration of the backup data to mature and well
established technologies of the time.

A BIT ABOUT DATA COMPRESSION

Compression makes data smaller and thus is a popular backup
option. Its main advantage is lower backup cost due to lower
space use. The downside is the time needed to compress the data
and later to uncompress it for restoration.

Many compression formats exist. Each format use some sort of
compression method called an algorithm. There are two types of
data compression algorithms: “lossy” and “lossless”. Lossless
compression reduce the data size without modifying its content.
Lossy compression modify the data content to make it even
smaller than lossless compression.

Some compression formats, like MP3 or JPG, are highly
specialized. They use lossy algorithms and produce very small
file sizes but can only compress a particular type of data.
Other formats, like ZIP or BZIP2, are of general purpose. They
rely on lossless compression algorithms and can work on any
data. However, they will never outdo special purpose formats
like MP3 or JPG. PNG and TIFF are popular image file formats
which support lossless compression.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of lossy compression, JPG, MP3
or any other lossy format degrade the original data to some
extent. In other words, saving an image or music in a lossy file
format will make it different then the original. Usually the
difference, called compression artifacts, is so small that most
of us don’t see or hear it.

For the above reasons, lossy compression should never be used
when saving important data. Only lossless compression is
suitable for that. PNG and TIFF are examples of image file
formats that support lossless compression. Such formats are
ideal for storing hi-resolution master images.

Finally, compression takes time and normally uses all available
processing power. Generally, the better the compression the
slower it is. Some compression algorithms are extremely good at
compressing but also extremely slow. For backup purposes, one
should evaluate common compression formats and set for the most
suitable one.

CONSIDER YOUR NEEDS

Some additional issues need to be considered when designing the
most suitable backup strategy for own use:

- the type of backup files

- if compression is desired, what compression to use and how

- backup storage media

As noted earlier the best backups are simply copies of important
data. Such approach works especially well for artists who rely
on compressed image formats like PNG or TIFF.

Note the difference between “built-in” image compression, done
every time you save an image in a format that supports it, and
compressing the backup data - applied to all backup data
regardless of what it is.

What backup compression to use, and if to use it at all, depends
on the type of backup data. Generally, text files (TXT, HTML,
XML, etc) can be compressed the most of all file types. Images
that have been compressed with their own algorithms (PNG, JPG,
TIFF, etc) can’t later be compressed much if at all. Images
which don’t have own compression (BMP, TGA, etc) can often be
compressed quite a bit, though this depends on the actual image
data.

Thus if most of your important art data consist of images that
are already compressed, there is no need to compress the backup.
Text files on the other hand, can be compressed a lot and save
significant amount of space.

There are a few other things to consider when compressing backup
data. What compression program to use and how to compress the
files.

ZIP is the most commonly used compression format today - it’s
fast and compresses well. It’s been around for a long time and
is universally available. But there are other, less known, good
alternatives. For example, 7ZIP, RAR, and BZIP2 compress
significantly better than ZIP and are only slightly slower.

Finally, how to compress backups. Basically one can either
create a compressed archive of many files, or compress each file
individually. The main disadvantage to creating a compressed
archive is the possibility of loosing all files in the archive
if the archive gets corrupted and can not be recovered. On the
other hand, if files are compressed individually one looses only
one file - should it get corrupted and be unrecoverable.
Additionally, since a compressed file use less space than
uncompressed, it’s less likely to get corrupted. Thus it’s more
safe to compress files individually.

WHICH BACKUP MEDIA TO USE

The commonly used backup media today are hard drives, tapes and
CDs/DVDs. Hard drives are the fastest and often the best option
for large amounts of data. They are also the most expensive and
not very durable. Tapes are slow but can store a lot of data and
can last decades. CDs/DVDs are probably the most common backup
media used today due to its very low cost. Unfortunately, just
like hard drives, most have a relatively short expected life
span of between two to five years. Internet backup solutions are
also becoming a popular backup option.

Reliability is important to consider when choosing the backup
media. How robust is the media and for how long can it retain
the data? The quality of the media plays a significant role
here. All media degrade over time, but some degrade more than
other. Most of the low cost burnable CDs have a life span of
around two years. Higher quality CDs can last up to five. Very
high quality CDs with a gold layer are expected to last decades.
Generally, if the handling and storage conditions are good,
quality media should last at least few years without data loss.
However, unless the best quality media is used, an annual full
backup is probably the safest prevention against data loss due
to media degradation.

A combination of different media may often be the ideal
solution. For example, some of my own backup practices include
using an external hard drive to mirror (update) certain parts of
my computer hard drives. Twice a year I burn all important data
on several DVDs.

I recommend spending some time investigating the most suitable
media and the hardware to operate it. High quality products will
minimize the possibility of backup failure.

THE NECESSITY OF VERIFYING BACKUPS

The most important aspect of taking backups is making sure they
are error free. The backup data may prove useless if corrupted
due to media or other error. It’s good practice to immediately
test the backup for its validity. Errors will be detected and a
new backup can be taken right away. Any respectable backup
program provides an option for data verification. What good is a
backup if its data is corrupted?

A REAL LIFE BACKUP SCENARIO

My most valuable data is my art data, website files, source
code, and various docs. All my hi-resolution work is stored in
either PNG or TIFF. Nearly all my reference images are JPGs.
Thus all my image data can be backed up without the use of
compression and save huge amounts of backup time and space. I do
compress 3d files which don’t use own compression. For that I
use bzip2 with the maximum compression setting. All the
remaining data are basically text files and are compressed
individually using either bzip2 or 7zip. Images and 3d files,
even compressed, can be huge in size. Not surprisingly over 90%
of my backup space is used on art data.

I backup daily, monthly and twice a year. Once a day, the files
which are frequently updated (notes, work in progress images,
source code, website files, email, etc.) are backed up to
another hard drive. This happens during the boot process and
takes a few minutes. Once a month I backup to a CD which also
includes less frequently updated files. A copy of that CD is
stored in a remote location. Twice a year I take full backup and
store it on several DVDs at a friends house. If I work on
something especially important, I store it daily on a CD/DVD or
a USB mem-stick. My most critical data is also regularly
encrypted and stored on a very remote internet host. I wrote a
script to run all these backups automatically. With the
exception of CD/DVD storage, no manual work is involved.

As you can see, a custom backup solution can be quite
sophisticated yet simple to carry out. It can involve a
combination of different media and backup procedures to
optimally satisfy ones needs.

FINAL NOTES

Depending on your needs a dedicated backup software may be a
necessary investment. Make sure to research this carefully.
Usually, products from reputable companies that specialize in
certain solutions are best. There are also many good open source
or free software alternatives.

It’s best to avoid products which rely on proprietary or closed
solutions. For example, a backup software may store the backup
data in an unknown format only supported by this particular
backup software. Avoid that. If the company goes out of business
and the backup software breaks, your backup data may be lost
forever. Look for products that rely on well known, mature, and
ideally open technologies. For example, PNG is an open format
for storing image data. What this means is that the
specification, or blueprint, for that format is publicly
available for anyone to use it. This increases compatibility and
reduces reliance on any specific vendor or product.

Most artists important data consists mainly of images and 3d
files. To save space rely on PNG, TIFF or JPG for bitmap image
formats. Vector images and 3d files can be compressed
individually if needed. A basic backup software that simply
copies specified files or directories to the backup media may be
all that is needed. It’s best to make two sets of the backup
data and store each at different location. One close to home,
like a friends place, or a bank box and the other far away.

Setting up a proper backup strategy may initially require a
significant amount of time and cost money. There is a lot to
research and consider. In the end however, a good backup
procedure will prove an exceptionally valuable investment. As
you read this, your screen could go blank due to a hard drive
crash. All your valuable data - years of work, reference images,
documents, photo albums, 3d files, email, etc., - could be lost
forever. Unless you were prepared and took a backup.

How would you like to increase your monthly website revenue by 25% with only a few hours of work? What if I said that it wouldn’t cost you a dime? It’s hard to believe isn’t it?

I know this claim sounds as though I should be pitching a $200 get-rich-quick scheme in the next couple of paragraphs, but I’m not. The technique I used was free to me, and I’m sharing this information with you free of charge because I’m more excited about this discovery than I can put into words.

What did I do to achieve this jump in revenue? I placed Google Adsense advertising boxes on my website, and in just the first seven days, I generated over $1700 in Adsense revenue. Even better, I didn’t have any decrease in sales from the original source of revenue for these sites - paid memberships to my wholesale information directory.

I’ve known about Adsense for years, but I always thought that it was a system best used by free informational websites needing to generate revenue. My reasoning behind this was that I thought that these ads could possibly bleed traffic from my site and steal potential paying customers. I’m happy to say that I was wrong, and I only wish I would have tested this program earlier to discover how wrong I was.

I am completely surprised by how well these advertisements have paid. They are producing income at a rate of over $20 per thousand impressions. I have done some research on ad placement agencies, and I don’t think that there is an agency online that could sell ads for me at the rate of $20 per thousand impressions, and I know that if I advertised banner space or text link space on my site that I couldn’t sell space at a rate of $20 per thousand impressions.

To put it into perspective, I do a lot of advertising through PPC networks, and my PPC ad spending doesn’t even come close to a rate of $20 per thousand impressions. Google Adsense may well be the most lucrative source of income for website owners seeking to sell ad space on their site, and the results are instant. All you need to do is place the code and let your current visitors click on the link ads.

There are many people on the Internet who sell information products claiming to have the secrets to generating high income through Adsense, but there’s no need to pay to learn how to do this. It’s a very simple system that is easy for anyone to implement. All you need is:

1. A website with quality content
2. An existing traffic source, be it 100 visits a day or 100,000+ visits a day.
3. The ability to read the Google Adsense Program Policies
4. Free page real estate, hopefully in a conspicuous place above the fold

It is that simple; however I cannot stress enough that you read the Google Adsense Program Policies. There are certain types of sites, certain types of pages, and certain types of advertising on and through which Adsense will not allow their ads to be associated. It is each advertiser’s responsibility to know their guidelines and avoid breaking any rule that could put their account and an excellent source of revenue in jeopardy.

Finally, let me stress that these ads should be placed in a conspicuous place. Visit the site linked in the “About the Author” section below for examples. No matter how effectively your site is designed, more people will leave a page without reading below the fold than will continue on to the bottom of the page. For that reason, as you’ll see in my site, I place the ads at the top right of my page, in an area where any visitor to my site can find them.

Adsense is an excellent source of revenue for any website owner. Don’t waste time like I did. Place some ads on your site, and I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the results.

About the Author: Kirk A Larson has worked for over 15 years in business as a writer, personnel manager, and most recently for the last 4 years as a successful entrepreneur. To see examples of an effective Google Adsense campaign, visit The Wholesale Suppliers Registry at http://www.wholesale-suppliers.org

Source: www.isnare.com

So, you’ve decided to fine-tune your PC by using a performance optimizer, but there are hundreds of products available on the market and to find a solution that fits your need can be daunting. In this article, I will explain what performance optimizers are and how they work while suggesting what you should look for when choosing such a utility.

What is a Performance Optimizer?
Performance optimizers are software utilities that allow you to ensure your PC is automatically optimized and its performance maximized. These tools should also allow you to keep your PC running at peak performance. When too many of your resources are being occupied unnecessarily or beyond certain levels that you have established, the software should warn you to take immediate action. Performance optimizers should automatically fine-tune all your resources: hardware (CPU and memory) and your system settings. This will help you enjoy a faster, cleaner and more stable environment that will greatly minimize slowdowns and crashes.

Performance optimizers automatically dig into your hardware and free up valuable resources, remove system hogs that slow your computer down or cause it to crash. By looking at how your CPU is processing the information for all the tasks or processes at hand, these utilities determine the best configuration so that you can make the most of your computer. These tools also look at whether the tasks at hand are accounted for by legitimate programs.

For example, some performance optimizers are able to recognize that the CPU is handling a process that is spyware and should enable you to automatically scan your system and remove such threats. When optimizing memory, performance optimizers look at how your computer is using RAM and how Windows is creating and operating page file (or virtual) memory. By optimizing RAM memory, these tools help your computer avoid creating virtual memory. Moreover, they can also minimize the size of your virtual memory file.

Many performance optimizers, like SpeedUpMyPC, also have warning messages so that if your memory usage reaches a critical level, you could take remedial action. In some cases, these nifty utilities allow you to assign more CPU resources to any particular application that you are running, e.g. a game or a DVD. Performance optimizers use similar logic when optimizing your system settings - for example, they look at orphaned start-up programs bidding you to remove them. They also look for residuals of uninstalled or incorrectly removed programs to make your PC cleaner, safer, and, ultimately, more stable.

What should you look out for when choosing a performance optimizer?
Ideally, the product will be robust and make efficiency gains in the way your CPU handles Windows and all your programs. You must also be able to monitor CPU, memory and hard drive usage to identify possible future bottlenecks and avoid annoying delays and crashes. The software must also optimize your RAM and page file memory while warning you should you be running out of resources. You should have an automatic way of making the most of your computer while minimizing the time it takes to boot. Registry files are also a source of slow-downs and crashes - you will have a faster PC by compacting your registry. Finally, the software must ensure that any harmful or unnecessary background processes such as spyware, adware, key-loggers and viruses do not slowdown your PC and jam its inner workings.

Many products on the market focus on a single aspect of your PC such as optimizing registry files or recovering memory. Although these are important functions and will enhance your computing experience, you will end up buying performance optimizers and using them in conjunction with the other products. My advice, at this stage, is to find a product that does most of the functions and then deepening your investment according to the problem you might have. Only when you feel that you cannot push your PC further should you consider upgrading hardware.

With all this background information, you do not need to google “speeding up my pc” or “performance optimizers”. I usually do three things when buying utilities: (a) find out how they work and what they are supposed to do; (b) see what my preferred tech forum newsletters have to say about them and their recommendations; and, finally (c) read the reviews on the recommended products.

Luckily, this system has worked wonders for me and I have rarely thrown away good money on the software I have in my library.

Kevin James Vella is the Public Relations Manager of Uniblue Systems Ltd (http://www.uniblue.com), a global software developer. Kevin’s passion for writing and ICT has seen him publishing several articles on personal technology, electronic commerce and online marketing.