The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Do you feel tense and anxious at work? Do your co-workers and/or boss make you crazy? Is your personal life less than blissful? If so, you’ve got stress. If you’re like most people you’ve sought refuge from this situation by trying a quick fix or two like calling a friend, walking the dog, or going away for the weekend in an attempt to escape it all. While these strategies may serve as temporary diversions, nothing in your life changes when you return to your routine.

Stress is internal, which explains why it can wreak havoc on your health. It feels awful…it’s the sense that you’re not in control. The easiest way to mitigate its effect is to take charge of the one and only thing you have the power to control…YOU, and let go of what you can’t control. The beauty of this recipe is that by taking control of your life, external or outside things will change in response to your internal changes. Here are 10 steps to destress for your present and future:

1. Heal yourself.

Dr. Bruce McEwen, who wrote The End of Stress As We Know It, suggests that eliminating stress comes right from your grandmother’s journal. He says the most effective steps you can take are the simplest: exercise, a healthy diet, regular sleep, moderate to minimal alcohol intake, and no smoking. This, he notes, is the most sophisticated, up to the minute, cutting edge science available!

2. Get organized.

Physical clutter reminds us of things that need to be done and that’s stressful. Remove your physical clutter and you’ll eradicate your mental clutter, plus you’ll feel energized. Please go to http://topten.org/public/AG/AG306.html for a simple organizing solution that will work on any space.

3. Set boundaries.

Boundaries act as a filter to keep you safe from the hurtful behavior of others while allowing in the love, support and nurturing actions we all need. Set your boundaries by: (a) determining what others cannot do to you or in your presence and (b) sharing this information respectfully with anyone who is stepping over one of your boundaries.

4. Take time for yourself.

Put together a list of all the things you love to do but haven’t regularly made time to do. Put your list in priority order and enter the top five to seven items into your daily calendar. Your list may include things as simple as journaling, reading a great book, taking a bubble bath, yoga, etc. You’ll be more successful getting to these activities when you give them a time and place on your calendar.

5. Be positive.

William James, the father of modern psychology said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.” In other words, what you say and what you tell yourself impact the present and create your future. Love yourself and use the power of positive words, pleasing thoughts and affirming beliefs to live the life you want to live.

6. Work in a career you love.

If you’re like most people, you spend the majority of your waking hours at work. You’ll know you’re in the right profession when: you wake up anxious to go to work, you want to do your best daily, and you know your work is important.

7. Surround yourself with a supportive community.

You are who you spend time with. Hang out with people who love and accept you just the way you are, are interested in you (not what you can do for them), lift you up (not wear you down), solve problems quickly, don’t gossip or complain, and know how to have fun. Anything is possible with the right support.

8. Learn to say, “No.”

We’ve all been influenced by people in our life who tell us we should do this or we ought to do that. As a result, we may end up living a life that others have decided for us versus living the life we want. So, the next time you think of something you ought to do or someone else suggests you should do, take a breath and ask yourself if it’s something you want to do. If not, just say, “no” or “no thank you.” When you say no to things you don’t care to do, you are saying yes to you and this will free up your time and energy for the things you choose to do. Bottom line - you’ll be happier.

9. Zap tolerations.

A toleration is something that irritates you and drains your energy because it needs to be done, fixed, removed, or changed. If you’re like most people you may be tolerating 100 or more things! Put together a list of all the things that bug you, e.g. a dripping faucet, money concerns, your weight, shopping and running errands, not enough time, computer files out of control, your hair, a room that needs to be painted, etc. When your list is complete, group like items and see if one solution will eliminate multiple tolerations. For example, if you have piles of clothing in each bedroom, dirty windows and dust bunnies on your floor, hiring a housekeeper will zap all three tolerations. Line up a housekeeper, today. Then, commit to spending a chunk of time each week to zap your other tolerations. If you have a toleration that you don’t have the skill or know-how to fix, consider calling an expert or seek out a skilled professional to trade services with.

10. Get your needs met.

A “need” is not an option, it is something you must have to function fully. It is differentiated from a “want” in that a want is optional. Unmet needs can drive you to distraction and worse. Determine what needs you have that aren’t being met, if any, and then take the appropriate action to get them fulfilled. Example: If you’ve taken a big hit and are going through a career transition, ask a good friend to call you two or three times a week to check in with you and give you support. Other options include calling your own voice mail and leaving supportive messages or hiring a coach who specializes in career transitions. When you acknowledge and satisfy your needs, you will be free to focus on other areas of your life.

If you want to be happier and more successful, focus on the things you have the power to control.

Pam N. Woods is co-author of a bestselling book, Create the Business Breakthrough You Want: Secrets and Strategies from the World’s Greatest Mentors; endorsed by Ken Blanchard and Dr. Stephen Covey. She is a Coach U graduate and President of Smart WorkLife Solutions, a coaching and consulting company devoted to co-creating customized solutions to fit clients business and personal organizing needs. Prior to founding her own firm she had a successful 20+ year career as an insurance executive and Vice President of Human Resources. For more free how-to articles and advice, or to contact Woods, visit http://www.worklifecoach.com.
Copyright 2004 - Pam Woods

Cost of compliance with new FSA regulations can now be reduced

The additional cost of compliance with the new FSA (Financial Services Authority) regulations for insurers can now be contained thanks to Accounting Products (www.cleverdocs.co.uk) enhanced customer relationship/document management software CleverDocs for IFAs.

Accounting Products document management system - CleverDocs for IFAs - has already substantially reduced operating costs for Denyer Insurance by streamlining many of the processes for compliance, sales, customer interaction and document management. Denyer, which pioneered commission-free life, critical illness, pensions and general insurance, sold via the internet, is the first IFA to incorporate the enhanced software. CleverDocs for IFAs helps ensure this by improving productivity across all aspects of an IFA business:
• Compliance
• Business Management
• Relationship Management
• Document Management
• IFA Intelligence

Compliance
Comprehensive client and policy registers
Fact find recording
Terms of business agreement status
Logged communications with providers and clients
Business Management
Financial Services and General Insurance
Commission statements can be retrieved by time and/or providers
Renewal commission forecasting
Commission tracking at IFA, insurer and even client level
Reduced administration
Greater responsiveness
Business Intelligence
Relationship Management
Client policy history and status is available on-line
Authorised agents have access to documents
Automated communications with clients when policy status changes
Standard letters can be created and sent automatically
Document Management
All communications scanned and accessible on line
Documents can be filed against providers, clients and policies
Documents can be filed against any number of clients and policies
Thumbnail view of documents available for quick reference or
Documents can be opened and printed, emailed or faxed from the screen

IFA intelligence
Comprehensive policy register
One or multiple parties to a policy
One or multiple lives to assure
Policy extensions
Key dates available on policy records (Application, Acceptance , On-risk)
Reasons (Letter, Objectives, Risk Attitude)
Policy numbers (internal and provider)
Status policy application with compliance/sales process
Advice and policy history available

From 2005 the new FSA regulations will demand increased transparency and compliance auditability. Simon Hill, Managing Director of Denyer says “while creating a new way of selling insurance, it became apparent that we also had to transact our business in a new way. The cost of dealing with paper has always been a key factor in operating a paper based business. The creation of CleverDocs has allowed us to automate many processes. From an initial interest on our website through to policy acceptance and follow-up we have been able to make the most of our key processes to become paperless and yet retain the feel, as far as clients are concerned, that we are looking after their needs in a traditional manner.”

CleverDocs was created on time, on budget and, after three years’ continuous operation, without a single failure”. He continued “after we implemented CleverDocs and went live, we were able to immediately transact more business and release staff to do more productive work. We also had one place for customer records, quotes, policy documents, e-mails, correspondence etc. With this system in place, everything became accessible at the touch of a button”.

About the author:

Sarah Seddon Marketing/PR Manager for Accounting Products Ltd, telephone: 020 7043 7108
Email sarah.seddon@accountingproducts.co.uk
Main website: www.accountingproducts.co.uk

Simon Hill, Managing Director, Denyer Insurance
Website: www.cleverdic.co.uk

Note to editors: Accounting Products Ltd, founded in 2001, provides specialist and tailored software such as free software for GL, AP, AR, supply chain management, light manufacturing, warehouse management, call centre management, voicemail, voicemail to e-mail, remote worker support, CMS and VoIP. Accounting Products also offers document management systems, bank reconciliation, cash forecasting and control, as well as consulting. Clients include Axa, Mace, UPP and Denyer Insurance.

Free Satellite TV or Cable: Does it Really Matter? By Paul M.
Nelson (765 words)

As the big shots of the satellite TV industry do on-air battle
with the giants of cable tv, you may have already found yourself
wondering. does it really matter? I mean, aren’t we talking
about different techno-roads to the same place here? Six of one,
half dozen of another? For Pete’s sake, I just want to watch the
game!!

I’m going to let the cat out of the bag right away here - I’ve
actually found an unequivocal answer to this very important TV
question: satellite is beating the snot out of cable every day
of the week. Ok, so now that I’ve let you in on my subtle bias,
let me lay out for you why satellite is eating cable’s lunch and
sending the cable guys into boardroom frenzies. (For additional
technical info on the differences between the two
technologies/services, send me an email with “sat vs. cable” in
the subject line to: pm_nels@yahoo.com and I’ll send you the
links you’ll need).

Lets first talk about where they both compete evenly. Both cable
and satellite offer lots and lots of programming-including local
channels. Oops. that apparently is where the similarity ends.

How do they compare in regard to technology and delivery?

With satellite TV, your favorite shows come straight from the
satellite (out in peaceful, quiet space) to your dish/tv. Pretty
simple. The cable company, on the other hand, has to first
acquire the signal from a satellite themselves (surprise!), then
they must snake it through miles of fragile ‘cable’ until it
arrives at your TV. Here’s my point: storms, wayward
construction crews, landscapers, and car accidents among other
things, can all inadvertently knock out your cable. My local
cable company has almost always got a nice disclaimer on their
tech support hotline referring to some weather disaster
resulting in ‘interruption of service’ to some portion of your
region, and that they are working as fast as possible to correct
the problem (and call hold times may be lengthy as a
result-GREAT!).

Here’s the good news for satellite TV customers: there are no
storms, wayward earth movers or landscapers in SPACE! The cold,
hard truth is that cable tv viewers experience MORE service
problems, not fewer (contrary to what those finger-pointing
cable industry advertisements say) than their satellite viewing
counterparts. If you’re not convinced, just poll ten of your
friends or neighbors with cable tv, and then another ten with
satellite and see how many reception and “interruptions of
service” problems they report. I promise you the satellite
customers are far less concerned about “the weather” than their
cable watching neighbors.

You’re also going to get more for less with satellite, hands
down. Most satellite providers offer DVRs (along with free
satellite installation for multiple rooms) as standard
equipment, where most cable companies treat DVR as an upgrade to
nickel and dime you with (along with a list of other fees the
cable industry will get you with) .

And that leads me to the next big issue in the cable-satellite
face off. In a word: competition. Satellite has actually got
some. As a TV consumer, I just love a market economy, don’t you?
Your local cable company competes with the satellite industry,
but not with anyone else. The satellite TV industry is filled
with many small and large wholesalers that must compete with
each other as well as with the cable industry. This creates the
competitive economic conditions among satellite dealers that
allow for things like. that free equipment I mentioned, free
installation, free premiums, etc that cable tv providers just
don’t feel compelled to (or just can’t) offer. Here are just a
couple of representative examples of competitive satellite
providers I work with, that give away the store to gain a
customer:

http://url123.com/znvm3 http://url123.com/znurp

All other factors being equal (and they really are), the TV
battle boils down to technology delivery, and
competition-period. And shrewd consumers are beginning to choose
satellite over cable tv in big numbers, and you can expect to
see this trend causing more and more panic in the cable industry
in the coming years. So to all you cable watchers out there. is
that a thunderstorm moving in on the horizon?…

We live in a post-industrial age where information is the coin of the realm. Knowledge is the most valuable asset that a business owns. For most businesses, that knowledge exists primarily in the heads of the people who work there. For entrepreneurs and sole practitioners, what’s in their head usually is the business. That’s both limiting and dangerous.

Let’s take the example of a successful management consultant. Drawing on her knowledge and experience, she’s able to hire herself out at a substantial hourly rate. The trouble is, every time she wants to make some money she has to trade away some of her time.

What happens when she goes on vacation and is no longer putting in time? Her income goes on vacation too. What happens when she’s sleeping, or when she gets sick, or when she wants to retire? As soon as she stops putting in time, she stops getting money.

Even if she could work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, there is still a limit to how much money she can make simply because she can’t create more time. When you trade time for money, you put an automatic cap on your income potential.

Something else also starts happening to our consultant. The more successful she is, the more her services are in demand, the harder she works. Did you go into business to work long, hard hours for limited reward? I didn’t think so.

Information products create passive streams of revenue, that is, money that flows to you whether you’re working at your desk, lazing on the beach, or snoozing on the couch. How? You create the products once and then sell them over and over again. You make an initial investment of time and money and then reap the benefits in multiples. You can’t do that with time; you can’t sell the same hour twice.

– What Exactly is an Information Product? Quite simply, an information product is any chunk of knowledge that has been recorded in some fashion - whether that be in a print format, an audio format, or a video format - so that it can now be passed on to others.

There are dozens of ways to package and sell information. Some of the most common products are:

• Print books and e-books

• Booklets and special reports

• Manuals and workbooks

• Audio cassettes, CDs, or downloadable audio files

• Videotapes and DVDs

• Teleclasses

• Subscription-based web sites

The key is that you’re taking something intangible - the knowledge in your head - and turning it into something that others can enjoy and use even when you’re not around.

I have sometimes heard information products referred to as “artifacts.” This term, borrowed from the field of archaeology, captures the idea that an information product is something you leave behind for future generations.

Every process you employ to serve your clients, every piece of information you glean from media sources, every past experience you carry with you, every original thought you conjure up is a piece of information that can be recorded and shared. What’s stopping you?

About The Author

© 2003 Juiced Consulting.

Juiced Consulting helps business owners package what they know into information products - such as books, audiotapes and teleclasses - that they can sell to generate new business revenue. For a free newsletter and other resources, visit www.juicedconsulting.com; jtribe@juicedconsulting.com

What?

There is a fascinating story about the “Broken Windows Theory” in a New Yorker magazine article by Malcolm Gladwell (see gladwell.com, June 3, 1996, article titled The Tipping Point). Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo parked a car on a street in Palo Alto, Calif., where it sat untouched for a week. After a week, as a part of the experiment, Zimbardo smashed one of the car’s windows with a sledgehammer. Within a few hours the car was stripped by vandals. Later, Gladwell wrote a book on the topic, also titled The Tipping Point. In the book, he expands on this idea by relating a similar theory developed by criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. Wilson and Kelling applied the same theory to crime-ridden, declining neighborhoods and communities. Wilson, Kelling, Zimbardo and Gladwell all conclude that chaos is contagious. Here’s an excerpt from Gladwell’s book:

“If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes.”

There are many applications for this theory. As a person who wants to stay focused, organized and productive, it teaches you to pay close attention to small bits and piles of clutter so they won’t become big piles of clutter. Like chaos, clutter is contagious.

So What?

It may not seem like a big deal to toss that piece of paper in a stack on the corner of your desk. But stacks turn into piles and piles turn into highly distracting, energy-draining, stress-producing clutter. When things are a mess, you are less likely to care if a few more items are tossed in the piles. If things are in order, you are more likely to keep them that way. In terms of clutter, you do need to sweat the small stuff. And it’s such an easy step if you want to live an organized, clutter-free life.

Now What?

Here is a simple, two-step solution to help minimize or eliminate clutter:

1. Have a designated place to put things.

2. Form the habit of putting things away where they belong…in their place.

The steps work well together. People often do not put things away because they do not know where they belong. In this situation, it is usually easier just to toss it somewhere close by. And tossing things somewhere close by creates clutter. The best first step if you want to get rid of clutter is to designate a place to put things…a permanent home. Draw a sketch of all your desk drawers, file cabinets and other storage places. Decide where everything should go and start forming the habit of putting things away when you are not using them.

Have a place for everything and put everything in its place.

Chris Crouch, president and founder of DME Training and Consulting, is the developer of the GO System. The GO System is a structured training course designed to improve focus, organization and productivity in the workplace and is taught by corporate trainers and professional organizers all over the country. Chris is also author of Getting Organized: Learning How to Focus, Organize and Prioritize and other books that provide practical and easy-to-learn ideas on personal achievement, success and productivity.

Visit http://www.thegosystem.com to learn more about the GO System, to inquire about having Chris speak to your group or organization, to sign up for Chris’ free newsletter providing tips on having a more joyful and productive life, and for additional ideas on improving focus, organization and productive.

To learn about becoming a Certified GO System Trainer, visit http://www.gosystemcertification.com.

Spam is one of the curses of the Internet age. But if the clogging of mail boxes with useless emails was bad enough, unsolicited emails aimed at tricking you into giving your valuable passwords, banking and PIN numbers is the most dangerous variety of email that you will ever encounter. This kind of email is known as “phishing” because the unscrupulous authors of these messages are fishing for valuable information which they can use to capture your online identity.

If you think that you won’t be fooled by such tricks, think again. Phishers commonly send emails which look like they come from respected financial institutions, such as PayPal, Visa, Ebay, America Online. The messages spoof the email address of the institutions and the letters have the proper logos and everything. They look real. The subject message usually has a dire warning: “Your Pay Pal Account (or Ebay, or online bank account) has been suspended.” “Warning: Confirm Your Online Banking Account.” These messages look so real, that 5% of recipients respond to them

Naturally if you have a good amount of money in your PayPal or online banking account, you are going to panic when you receive email like this. The first thing to do is to stay calm. Remember, responsible institutions will never suddenly suspend your account or ask you to give personal information in an insecure manner.

Usually the phishing emails will ask you to enter new information for your account and they will give you urls, asking you to click through and log into your account. The urls in the email will look like the log-in addresses for these institutions, but if you put your mouse over them you will see that the actual web address is different.

If you get any email of this type the second rule is never, never click through and try to log in. If you log in with your user name and password, then phishers have captured your password. If you go on to fill out other information such as: bank account numbers, social security number, mother’s maiden name or driver’s license number then the fraudsters will really have you.

If you are worried about your online account and want to see if it is OK. Then go to the home page of PayPal, Ebay or your bank, and log into your account in the customary way using the usual url, such as https://www.paypal.com rather than with the url in the suspectt email. When you get into your account you will probably see that everything is normal. If your institution indeed has a message for you, you will find it in that safe environment without compromising your security. If you are still in doubt, call up your institution using their toll free customer service numbers.

PayPal also has a security section where they tell you what to look for in fraudulent emails. For example, whenever PayPal sends you an email it will always start off with “Dear Donald Nelson,” in my case, or whatever name you used when you signed up. They will not say “Dear Valued Paypal customer.” So log into the proper areas of your institution and learn as much as you can about security procedures.

The third thing to do is to report suspicious email . We have to put these crooks out of business, and that can only happen if we report fraud whenever we see it. You can get quick service from PayPal by forwarding email of this type to spoof@paypal.com. Usually within an hour you will get a reply telling you whether the email comes from PayPal or not. For other instances of Phishing, you can report them to the Anti Phishing Working Group at www.antiphishing.org. This website, staffed by volunteers, has up to date information about the latest scams and is doing its best to make the Internet safer for us.

Finally, if you have given any information to fraudulent websites move swiftly to protect yourself.

Notify your bank, change your passwords for online accounts, and watch your online accounts for any signs of unusual activity. A good guide with useful and detailed information on what to do if you have given out valuable information can be found at http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs2.html

So, enjoy the Internet but take precautions and protect yourself from any devious phishing message which may land in your mail box.

Copyright 2004

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He has been
working on the Internet since 1995 and is the proprietor of A1-Optimization,
http://www.a1-optimization.com, a firm providing search engine optimization,
copywriting, reciprocal linking, and other web promotion services. He
publishes a monthly ezine, A1-Web Promotion Tips, available at
http://www.a1-optimization.com/newsletter.html

Recently a client of mine was very excited to try downloading music after getting high-speed internet. After several searches for unlimited music download services, she came across a site that was ranked #1 among several user review sites. For $14.99 a year, she could get unlimited free downloads to songs, movies, and more! Sound to good to be true?

More and more complaints have been issued against these types of music download service companies. My client was just another statistic in the practice of fraudulent music download services. When she signed in to her account for the first time, she was directed to several articles on how to burn CD’s and websites such as Yahoo and Google where she could “search” for her own “free” music. She was also charged an additional $17.00 for spyware software that she didn’t order.

We contacted the customer service department on behalf of the client. After being on hold a long while, we were forwarded to the manufacturer of the spyware program that she never agreed to ordering. Further investigation provided us with long lists of reports on this and similar websites offering unlimited “free” downloads. They were selling information that anyone could get for free, and the FTC was on to them.

While several cases are pending, there will never be a way to fully rid the cyber-world of these types of fraudulent service providers. What can you do to protect yourself? Here are some basic rules:

1. Do a little research. Check with online review forums that are reputable and well-known. Don’t respond to a pop-up ad or spam. (The user reviews that ranked this particular service provider as #1 were listed on a site owned by the spyware software company, and the reviews were never real.)

2. Remember that songwriters and performers want to get paid for their songs. If a service is offering unlimited downloads to your PC to burn CD’s, these artist are usually not getting paid. Bigger name services allow unlimited download to MP3 players to be used by one listener only. If you see that newest top 40 hit available for free download to your PC, beware. You may be participating in piracy, a crime punishable with jail time or hefty fines.

3. Read the fine print. All reputable service providers should offer a “try it and see” period to test the waters. If a company states that they don’t offer refunds under any circumstances or charge a fee to reimburse you for unused membership fees, get away fast!

Linsey Knerl is the senior partner of TL Donnelly & Associates, a consumer-friendly information service provider. You may visit their website at http://www.tldonnelly.com to learn more about consumer and small business services available to you. TL Donnelly is committed to “Finding It For You…”

How many of us know exactly how many states there are in pakistan? How many of us know exactly which part of Pakistan are we trying to recapture? I am sure less than 95% of the population in India don’t know the answers
to these questions. Yet the hatred for Pakistan is rife. Who created this hatred? We can rightfully say ‘The British’.

However why are we still continuing to revel in that? Why don’t we take a leaf out of the pages of history and learn from them?

Living in London makes you look at things from a bystander’s perpective. The partititon affected a lot of Pakistanisand
Indian punjabis. Most of them migrated to and fro between the two countries while a sizable sum sought asylum in Britain.
Three - fourth of the indian population in Britain are Punjabis and they are termed as British Indians.

The extreme winters in London donot permit people to walk about in their natinal dress, unlike when I was in Bahrain and
the weather was much more compliant and comfort was the order of the day. In london the face is the only betrayel of culture.
The rest of the body are covered with layers of sweaters, boots, gloves etc shielding the body from the freezing
temperatures.

When I meet a Pakistani or an Indian they look the same. I could easily mistake one for the other. What I am trying to
convey through all thisis the message that was long amiss in my education. We both pakistanis and indians are the SAME in
every aspect. Our countries and weather conditions are the same, thereby making our features similar.

In London most pakistanis and indians nurture the same ‘kwaish’- to return to their motherland. London is not a land for the
weak hearted or weak skinned. Weather and trials faced here are far more numerous than those we encounter in our native land
where we are cocooned by the security of family, job etc. Also being away from home instills in us the craving to go back.

All these years I assumed my thoughts were unique to me, but no.. they are the same to every Pakistani, Indian etc.

Here Pakistanis and indians walk hand in hand, help each other, celebrate in the birth of each others’ offspring, cheer(or jeer) for matches(cricket or football) etc. Here it seems we reunite with the brother we lost.

However do we have to come to another land to realise our folly? Do we have to be a bystander to acknowledge the wrongs of our forefathers?

Yash Chopra’s film Veer Zaara- though poorly scripted had a strong message to convey at the end- a message
that I can only assume was lost on my brothers/ sisters back in India, but which was hammered on the rest of us outside.

Is it too late to reflect and teach our children or shall we have them realise the same through experience?

When even the Blacks and Whites have learned to coexist in peace why are we still nursing our grievances, why are we
throwing salt in our forefathers’ wounds rather than just letting it heal?

Bitu Thomas
Freelance writer

There are so many reasons why your hard disk may crashed:

(1) It may be caused by mechanical or physical problem such as
the spindle motor system failure. This failure is usually caused
by over-heating. The activity light flashing that you see on
your CPU (central processing unit) indicates that its head moves
to different tracks. If this movement fails, it can no longer
read or write data. Remember, a hard disk is a hardware
component, not a software. It is a magnetic device use to store
data, it reads and writes data as it spins.

(2) Failure of logical system (the logical partitioned drives
assigned as C, D, E, F, G) may be caused by and not limited to
corrupt system files, corrupt firmware, registry components and
virus infection. Spywares, adwares & all other malicious files
may also cause your hard disk to crash.

HINTS:

(1) If you see the activity light flashing but the computer does
not boot, the case may be, your files is still intact on the
hard drive but becomes inaccessible — this may be because of
logical system failure. Try booting through a floppy disk or use
the start-up disk that came with the system.

(2) If you don’t see any activity light flashing on the CPU and
that the system can not start up (ofcourse after checking all
power cables are “on”) then it is likely of mechanical problem.
And notice that if the system BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)
can no longer recognize the hard drive, then it is the
physical/mechanical system that failed.

The good news is, usually, in today’s technology on hard disks,
if this problem occurs it normally will alarm you and warn you
before it will totally fails, so you could get that chance to
immediately back up your files. And there are also many data
recovery tools available in the market today. But at times, it
is cheaper to replace the hard drive than to fix it
(unfortunately).

TIPS & TRICKS TO AVOID THIS DISASTER TO HAPPEN:

1. Keep your hard drive healthy by performing defragmentation at
least once a week (others prefers once every two weeks)

2. Run your anti-virus program everyday! Run spyware/adware
removal tool at least once every week (there are many available
free to download). Keep updates with all these tools and
programs too! Turn on your firewall & pop-up blocker, it
protects you from intruders!

3. Remove all unknown emails, clear your bulk and spam emails
immediately.

4. Delete all internet temporary files (including all offline
files)

5. Install all necessary updates on your computer

6. Be very careful in downloading files from different sites
(firmware usually fails because of this)

7. The last but not the list - take “backing-up” your hard drive
on a removable disk or tape as a serious task for you to do at
least everyday or once a week especially if you are using it for
business purposes!

We live in a dimension of duality. Everything has its opposite. You cannot have death without birth, and you cannot have birth without death. When we die to our physical bodies we are born into spirit, and when we’re born into bodies we are experiencing a death from the spiritual. It’s a matter of perspective, but you can’t have one without the other.

Birth is generally considered a joyful event. Since every death is also a birth there should be some joy in death, too, no? And since every birth is also a death, births can be painful and fearful, too. Birth can actually be more of a traumatic event than death. Imagine dying to your life in the spiritual then entering a helpless little body and shooting out of the birth canal. And then you’re stuck in that little helpless body and all your memory is gone.

Dying in the spiritual dimensions is similar to dying in the physical. First, you lose your body then you go through some kind of tunnel-like thing, and then voila! you’re in a different dimension. Death and birth are the same thing! They are the very same thing!

Death and birth are two sides of the very same coin. This polarity is ubiquitous in our reality. Birth/death is going on all the time. The person we were five minutes ago is already dead. They no longer exist! Every single minute of every day we are dying and being born. We birth a new self with each passing minute. All we have to do is look to nature to see the endless birth/death cycles. We cannot birth something unless we die to something. Death is important.

It is the human tendency, however, to think of the phsyical deaths of our bodies when we think about death. This brings up fear, so we start trying to mentally block out death. We no longer see the importance of and beauty of death in its integral part of ongoing life. When we shift our focus away from death, we no longer give it the energy it needs and what happens is we stop birthing as much. Any diminishment in our level of dying leads to a diminishment of birthing. For instance, in order to birth new ideas, we must let some old ideas die.

Birth/death, birth/death, birth/death. They go together. If you try to do without one, then eventually you start doing without the other.

So let’s change the focus and talk about the joys of death excluding death of the physical body. Let’s talk about the joys of death that happen on a daily basis; the little deaths that happen continually. How many times do you die on a daily basis?

What about anger? Say you hold a lot of anger for a particular person. Can you die to that anger? Would that be a good thing? What birth would occur simultaneous with that death?

What about the death of communism? Was that a good death? And what was birthed in conjunction with that death?

What about beliefs? What if you’ve been holding the very same beliefs all your life? Does that prevent the birth of new beliefs and ideas? What happens when you die to a belief?

What about boyfriends and girlfriends? Remember when the relationship was being birthed and how exciting it was? But then you fell into a deep rut where nothing was being birthed anymore, so it seems the only way out is to kill the relationship? How could a more joyful approach to death have saved the relationship? Did the relationship go sour because the two of you stopped dying on a regular basis, thus creating a need for a big death finale for the relationship? Is it the birth of something new that spurs us to die to relationships?

What about jobs? Been working at the same job for 32 years and you’re ready to kill yourself? I would say kill the job instead. Either way, there’s a need for death because there is a need for birth. A new job is easier to get than a new body. So dying to a career can be a positive thing, no?

Can dying to a bad habit bring joy and birth? To get a new attitude about something, do we need to first die to our old attitude? Have a brilliant idea that could make millions? But you won’t die to your beliefs of lack, so the idea never gets birthed? Still holding on to a traumatic event from your childhood? If you won’t let it die, the knowledge and wisdom to be gained from the situation can never be birthed, or realized.

Anytime we hold on to something, we are preventing death, and we miss out on the subsequent birth. And then we end up holding on to something that is dead anyway because it ends up in the past. To stay in the NOW, we are going with the natural birth/death cycle and we experience constant birth, constant death, constant motion, and vibrant life. To be in a state of joy we must be in the NOW. We can’t be in the NOW if we haven’t died to everything in either the past or future. So the very act of being in the NOW is utterly dependent upon death.

Death is present in every layer of our physical existence. How can we replace fear of death with joy of death? If we can do that in our everyday lives how would that change how we finally experience death of the body? And if we fully utilize death during life would that make death of the body unnecessary? Is the death of the body a result of not fully utilizing death on a constant basis during life?

About the Author

Copyright © 2005 by White Feather. White Feather’s five books can be investigated here: http://www.lulu.com/laplumablanca. White Feather is webmaster of http://www.whitefeatherforum.com