Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
How to Play Angry Birds
Do You Play Angry Birds?? Yes / No
Angry Birds is a very widely known smartphone application game that has been downloaded over 50 million times across platforms. Here's how to play this famous game.
Taken from WikiHow
Angry Birds is a very widely known smartphone application game that has been downloaded over 50 million times across platforms. Here's how to play this famous game.
- 1The goal in each level is to get rid of the pigs. Pigs are usually blocked by wood, glass, stone or another material arranged into creative structures. Use the birds to get rid of the obstacles and pigs.
- 2Start by pulling back the slingshot with your finger. Moving it up or down will determine how high or low the bird flies. The further back you pull the slingshot is how far or short the bird flies.
- 3Lift your finger off from the screen when you're ready. The bird should bump into an obstacle and cause some damage to it. Repeat this process until all the pigs are gone or you've used up all your birds.
- 4You pass a level once you get rid of all the pigs.if you don'tpass the level on your first try you can easily try again.
- 5There are different kinds of birds and they create different results when launched. (You have to launch the birds first before tapping.)
- Red bird: The most ordinary bird; doesn't have any special effects.
- Blue bird: Tap the screen and it becomes three mini birds. This bird is best for breaking glass.
- Yellow bird: Tap the screen and it goes very fast. This bird works best on wood.
- Black bird: Tap the screen and it explodes instantly. Let it hit an obstacle and after a short time delay it will explode. This bird works best on stone.
- White bird: Tap the screen and it will drop an explosive egg. The corpse, if done right, will fly off and potentially cause additional damage. This bird also works best on stone.
- Green bird: Tap the screen and it will fly back. This bird is similar to a boomerang.
- Big Brother bird: Similar to the red bird, but bigger in size and more powerful.
- Mighty eagle: Press the button at the top of the screen & a sardine can appears. Launch the sardines and The mighty Eagle will appear. You have to pay for this feature and once you use it on an unsolved level you have to wait another hour before using it on the next level. You will not get any stars for using this.
- 6There are six different groups of levels in the game. Complete a group of levels and unlock another group of levels in the game. In the Angry Bird seasons version there are six groups of levels. You can also get Angry Birds Rio which has two groups of levels.
- 7Once you finish the whole episode (made of 2 or 3 groups of levels), the game will encourage you to try to get all three stars in levels. This can take quite a while; there are guides out there (especially on Youtube) that can be of great help.
Taken from WikiHow
Friday, October 7, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
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Friday, April 1, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
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Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
How to Use Pills to Prevent HIV
CDC: HIV Prevention Pills Only for Men Having Sex With Men
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
Jan. 27, 2011 -- The CDC has issued early recommendations for the use of AIDS drugs to prevent HIV infection of men who have high-risk sex with men.
The preliminary guidelines follow last November's groundbreaking report that daily use of the AIDS drug Truvada lowers men's risk of HIV infection. This strategy, called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, can cut HIV risk by as much as 92% in men who take the pill every day.
But there's a catch. Several catches. For example:
Truvada has to be taken every day, not just prior to sex.Truvada, like all HIV drugs, has side effects.Drug-resistant virus develops in men who begin PrEP when already infected with HIV.PrEP does not prevent other dangerous sexually transmitted diseases.Truvada is expensive. Since PrEP is not an FDA-approved use of the drug, insurance may not cover the cost.U.S. public health agencies are developing PrEP guidelines. But since the news is out -- and men already are asking their doctors whether PrEP is right for them -- the CDC today issued preliminary guidelines.
Since PrEP was tested only in men (and male-to-female transgendered women), PrEP should be given only to biological males. Men eligible for PrEP should be at high risk of HIV infection -- that is, they should frequently change sexual partners or have concurrent partners in a region with high HIV prevalence.
Here's the CDC's basic advice:
PrEP should be offered only to HIV-negative men at high risk of HIV infection.PrEP should be just one part of a comprehensive prevention plan.PrEP must include regular HIV testing.Providers offering PrEP must regularly monitor patient adherence, drug side effects, and HIV risk behaviors.The only PrEP drug regimen tested is once-daily Truvada; other anti-HIV drugs should not be substituted.Before starting PrEP:
Test for HIV, including a sensitive test for recent infection if there are any symptoms of acute HIV infection.Check for normal kidney function.Test for hepatitis B infection.Test for sexually transmitted diseases.When starting PrEP:
Take one Truvada tablet every day.Providers should prescribe no more than a 90-day supply, renewable only when HIV testing is negative.Providers should offer counseling on reducing HIV risk behavior and on Truvada adherence.Providers should offer condoms.During PrEP:
HIV testing should be done every two to three months.Test regularly for sexually transmitted diseases.Providers should perform regular lab tests to evaluate Truvada side effects.When PrEP is discontinued:
Test for HIV.If HIV test is positive, evaluate whether virus is drug-resistant.If HIV test is negative, men should be referred to appropriate HIV prevention services.The CDC's full preliminary PrEP guidelines appear in the Jan. 28 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Jan. 28, 2011; vol 60: pp 65-68.©2011 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
How to break bad habits
To stop yourself from gossiping, focus your conversations on sharing your experiences or rehashing current events.Plan short-and long-term goals and reward yourself when you reach themList the advantages and disadvantages of keeping -- or changing -- your habitDon't beat yourself up if you fall back into your old ways
Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE!
Copyright © 2010 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
(RealSimple.com) -- Middle-School flashback: You're slouched in your chair, biting your nails and yakking to Susan about Katie -- that is, until Mrs. Anderson yells, "Girls!"
Fast-forward to last night: You're slouched at your kitchen counter, frowning at your chewed cuticles and yakking on your cell phone to Susan about Katie. Where's Mrs. Anderson now?
Bad habits afflict us all. But whether your particular fixation is merely annoying, wastes time or could actually hurt someone (like poor, long-suffering Katie), there are tricks and techniques to nip it in the bud. Of course, serious habitual behaviors might require years -- and even some bona fide therapy sessions -- to break.
But psychiatrists, psychologists, and cognitive therapists agree that recognition is the first step. So you're already on the road to recovery and a lifetime of good posture, manicures and trusting friendships.
RealSimple.com: 5 things worth admitting to
The habit: fidgeting
Why you do it: You have excess energy, perhaps from the surge in adrenaline caused by consuming too much caffeine or sugar, and it has to come out somehow. Just ask that pen you keep clicking.
How to stop: If you're a large-triple-mocha drinker, cut back. To control energy peaks and troughs, it's also important to get enough exercise and sleep. And try converting the movement of your hands and legs into isometric exercises: Put your hands in your lap and concentrate on gently pushing your palms together. For your legs, place both feet flat on the floor and then push down. Do these exercises until the need to fidget subsides.
The habit: smacking gum
Why you do it: It's another oral fixation that serves as a security blanket when you're nervous or anxious.
How to stop: The fastest and most effective solution? Switch to hard candy. But if you really don't want to give up gum, have a friend stop you every time she hears you doing it. Then keep smacking long enough to hear yourself and recognize what an irritating sound it is. You might be embarrassed enough to stop.
The habit: running late
Why you do it: The nice reason? You're a pleaser and an overdoer, packing too much in. Not so nice? Deep down, you may think your time is more important than the time of those waiting. Either way, you lack some essential time-management skills.
How to stop: When someone asks you to do something, don't accept right away. Say you'll get back to him, then decide whether you have the time. Also, figure out which tasks always seem to make you late. Maybe it's drying your hair in the morning: Time yourself to see how long it takes, then allot enough time in your routine.
Tricks: Set your watch five minutes fast and build in time for unexpected delays. And always call ahead if you're running late. Not only is it gracious but the shame of making repeated calls might also be the incentive you need to be punctual.
The habit: procrastination
Why you do it: It's a strategy for managing the anxiety of having to complete a task.
How to stop: Recognize that when you procrastinate, others may think you don't care about the job, and that's worse than completing something less than perfectly. One trick to get you started: Make a check out to an organization you despise and give it to a friend to hold. If you don't finish the self-assigned task by a certain date, have her mail the check. If you make yourself accountable for the consequences, it will motivate you to wrap up the task.
The habit: slouching
Why you do it: You may have slouched when growing up because you were self-conscious or taller than others or developed breasts before your peers, and the posture stuck. Or you might just be tired.
How to top: Take dance lessons, Pilates, or yoga to strengthen the abdominals and upper-back muscles. A simple shoulder-shrug exercise -- think of touching your shoulders to your earlobes -- is an even easier way to combat slouching. Do 10 rotations forward and 10 rotations back, says Phil Haberstro, executive director of the National Association for Health and Fitness, in Buffalo. "This will raise consciousness of posture and help remind you to stand and sit tall," he says. "Regular physical activity helps combat the mental and physical fatigue that can contribute to slouching."
RealSimple.com: How to bounce back from a bad first impression
The habit: disorganization
Why you do it: You may be a visual processor. You like to be surrounded by a mess because it's stimulating -- and it reminds you to do your work. But it backfires, since you waste time searching for things.
How to stop: Separate papers into a pile you need to do and a pile you can think about doing. Use folders or boxes in different colors. "One of my clients has 12 clipboards hung up in her office: six for current projects and six for those she may get to later," says Lynn Cutts, a Colorado-based certified life coach. "She's still being visually stimulated, but her stuff is organized." Set up a system that works for you, and start with basic steps, like putting your keys in the same place every day.
The habit: name-dropping
Why you do it: You feel insignificant and want to be perceived as more special than others around you. You think people will be impressed with you if you're associated with a particular person. In addition to that, name-dropping can serve as a form of intimidation. "It's a kind of one-upmanship," says life Cutts.
How to stop: Listen to yourself! Would you want to stick around and hear all this? Remind yourself that you don't need to resort to mentioning names as a way of increasing your value.
If you can't resist dropping a name or two, do so in a non-self-promoting way or with humor. Do it to share information, as opposed to putting someone down or making yourself look more important. And make sure to tell the full story, even if it's "Oh, I passed Harrison Ford on the street. He didn't actually speak to me, but he did glance in my direction."
The habit: nail biting
Why you do it: You use it to derive comfort and relieve stress. "Nail biting could be the adult version of thumb sucking," says Alan Strathman, associate professor of social psychology at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
How to stop: First, note when you bite your nails, and then substitute another action. Keep a stress ball on your desk, or even play with Silly Putty the next time your fingers start tickling your teeth. You can also try wearing synthetic nails or painting your natural nails with a polish that has a foul taste. Or get a manicure. You'll look good, and after paying for the service, you'll think twice about ruining the results.
The habit: whining
Why you do it: You don't feel confident that you have the power to request something. As a kid, you probably whined when you didn't get what you wanted, and it paid off -- then.
How to stop: As an adult, you're in for a big surprise if you think you'll get the same results. If your husband or friends say you're a whiner, take note. Simply state what you want by making a direct request. For example, instead of ruining an evening out by complaining that you got stuck at a table next to the kitchen, politely ask the waiter to reseat you.
Remember: Most people will develop a resistance to whiners. "We rebel against the behavior because we recognize that giving in will only reinforce it," says Strathman.
RealSimple.com: Weird symptoms, explained
The habit: gossiping
Why you do it: You try to take the focus off your flaws by exposing those of others. But a person who gossips by habit doesn't truly believe she's good enough on her own.
How to stop: Focus your conversation on sharing your experiences, such as discovering a new restaurant or your latest vacation. Brush up on current events, music, or sports. This will give you something else to discuss besides other people.
Plus, you never know who is listening in on your conversation. If you're complaining about your coworker, be aware that her best friend might be the woman directly behind you on the train. Keep in mind that gossiping makes you seem untrustworthy. You may even lose friends and professional contacts when people realize you're a gossip.
The habit: perfectionism
Why you do it: Mom and Dad, who were probably perfectionists, had high expectations. ("Only a B, Mary?") You define yourself by what you do, yet nothing gets done.
How to stop: Train yourself to care less. Deliberately do a poor job when performing a small chore -- one that has no professional or personal impact, like doing the dishes or making the bed. "You'll see the consequences aren't so dire," says Cutts. Set time limits for tasks, and use an alarm. There will be no room in the schedule for that "one more thing" to make it perfect.
Finally, just for fun, do something at which you don't excel. If you're a shower diva (but know you're no Streisand), try singing lessons. Or play a weekend sport with a team that judiciously ignores the score.
Five steps for changing any bad habit
These tips come courtesy of Cherry Pedrick, coauthor of "The Habit Change Workbook" ($16, amazon.com).
• Know when your habit shows up. Identify habit-prone situations. Record how often and where it presents itself.
• Know the consequences. List the advantages and disadvantages of keeping -- or changing -- your habit.
• Know an alternative behavior. Develop a competing response that you can employ instead of falling back on your habit.
• Know your goals. Make a plan with short-and long-term goals, and reward yourself when you reach them.
• Know you're human. Don't beat yourself up if you fall back into your old ways. This is a natural part of change.Get a FREE TRIAL issue of Real Simple - CLICK HERE!
Copyright © 2010 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
How to crack Asian business culture
Learn the local rules of business first and more practical advice on expanding your company's footprint in China, Japan and South Korea.
By Katherine Ryder, contributor
The future may well lie with the United States, as President Obama reiterated during his State of the Union speech earlier this week, but that doesn't change the fact that many U.S. executives are still grappling with how to do business with an empowered Asia.
Maxims about how to succeed in Asia are everywhere -- but judging by the high failure rate of U.S. companies in Asia, there is clearly more to the game than delivering your business card with two hands. Now U.S. and European business schools are seizing on the demand for good information about Asia, putting greater emphasis on educating future executives about Asian business culture.
Michael Witt, a professor of Asian business and comparative management at the Singapore campus of INSEAD business school, and an Associate in Research at Harvard's Reischauer Institute, is at the forefront of an emerging field called "Comparative Business Systems." Witt doesn't focus solely on macroeconomic trends, but rather teaches MBA and EMBA students how to capitalize on opportunities by understanding the differences between workforces in different Asian markets.
And the differences, he says, are stark. "Everyone is playing ball," Witt says, "but they're playing very different games."
It all comes down to understanding how people think. "Culture is not how you pick up the chopsticks," says Witt. "It's how you make sense of the world." In other words, the ways in which people interpret facts have a huge impact on how decisions are made and how businesses are run. One way to evaluate culture is to consider how business leaders view the role of the firm in their economy.
In Witt's latest research, he asked senior executives in both the U.S. and Asian countries why their firms exist. Most Americans answered quickly that firms exist to "create shareholder value" -- a mantra in the U.S. business world at least since the early 1980s. But across Asian countries, Witt found, the answer to this simple question varies widely. How top management in China understand their world, for instance, differs starkly from the views of their counterparts in Japan. "When firms partner with each other, they are thinking about what the other side wants," says Witt. "We're adding a key piece of information: it depends on the country."
China
Private firms in China exist to provide shareholder value -- like their U.S. counterparts -- but only for people at the very top. The function of the firm in the private sector in China is mainly about generating family wealth. Most of China's new class of millionaires comes from profitable family-owned businesses. Thus, the idea of most of these businesses is to squeeze as much as possible out of the workers for the benefit of the owner, which is why many large Chinese companies are governed more hierarchically than their Western counterparts.
What foreign firms need to think about carefully when buying or partnering with a private Chinese firm is whether highly valued products are being created. "If you're thinking about taking over a Chinese company," says Witt, "you need to think about what you're really acquiring once the family is out of there."
Executives in state-owned enterprises, which are ubiquitous in China, have their own set of rules and incentives. These firms are considered the strategic tools of the state, and managers often view their positions as steps in their career within the communist party. The overriding objective for many of these managers, Witt says, is to supply resources and compete in global markets in order to propel the country's economic reemergence.
International competitors operating in China should know that they won't be operating on a level playing field, says Witt. Additionally, the dynamics for starting a business in China are completely different from what Western business people might expect. A company might not make quality products, but state assistance helps them in all sorts of ways.
One risk of partnering with Chinese firms, Witt says, is that they might attempt "to find out how you do it and take your business from you in the long-term." Danone's (GDPNF) foray into China ended in 2009 after its partnership with the multi-billion dollar beverage company Wahaha dissolved into an ongoing public brawl, with Danone accusing Wahaha of operating parallel businesses selling virtually identical products.
General Motors (GM), by contrast, has fared quite well in China. The firm is the first carmaker to sell more than two million cars in China and its success is due largely to local partnerships. The company just signed another deal with its Chinese partner, SAIC, to work together to crack India's market. As the once-struggling carmaker knows very well, despite the rocky experiences of some Western firms, the most dangerous thing about dealing with China can be refusing to deal with it at all.
Japan
Like in China, the purpose of the Japanese firm is not solely to maximize shareholder value -- but Japanese firms commonly assume a more family-like focus and strive first and foremost to take care of their employees. This is often a major constraint for foreign firms considering operations in Japan -- given the labor practices often don't mesh well with those of Western counterparts. Many Japanese firms entering a merger insist on retaining their entire workforce as a condition of sale. Companies think of themselves as serving society. "I interviewed someone who said, 'The first thing we need to wonder about is why does society permit our company to exist?'" says Witt.
This focus often translates to weak shareholder rights. Japanese firms provide benefits to employees like stable employment and a good livelihood, but this practice can be a major deterrent for foreign firms. "If you acquire a Japanese firm," says Witt, "you'll find it to be extremely resilient to any changes you would introduce." Firms will make decisions in order to avoid mass layoffs, he says, since questions about staffing levels are built around the assumption that employees will stay with a company for life.
This distinct corporate culture stems from the fact that many of Japan's firms, like Mitsui, trace their existence back hundreds of years. "For a manager, the most important thing is not to improve the business during one's time," remarked one of the executives Witt interviewed in his research. "Rather, I think it is extremely important that when one passes things on to the next manager, to what extent the firm is one whose shape is accepted by society and that one can ensure the permanence of the firm."
Although Japanese firms may enjoy an acceptable return on sales -- and some, like Honda (HMC), Canon (CAJ), and Toyota (TM), may rise to global prominence -- Western business people commonly find themselves surprised by the assumptions of Japanese executives.
South Korea
South Korea, according to a number of corporate executives, resembles Europe more closely than it resembles either Japan or China. The South Korean executive's primary rationale for the existence of corporations is the generation of profit, says Witt. Yet very much like China, the East Asian country boasts its own graveyard of Western companies who have tried to enter the market and failed.
Any Western executive considering work in South Korea should know first and foremost that South Korean labor unions are some of the fiercest in Asia. "When the unions are on strike, it's basically war," says Witt. In 2009, the World Economic Forum cited the difficulty of hiring and firing employees as the reason that Korea dropped so dramatically in its business competitiveness rankings.
Both Carrefour and Wal-Mart (WMT) were unable to strike a balance with union demands and left South Korea in 2006. The top management of both firms hailed either from France or the U.S., and industry-watchers say neither company successfully built a trusting relationship with Korea's unions.
The main thing to understand about a South Korean firm, Witt says, is that it has an eye towards its three major stakeholders -- employees, shareholders, and society. (Samsung's former motto, for instance, is: "We do business for the sake of nation building.") If a foreign firm isn't able to strike a balance and please all three stakeholders, then doing business in South Korea can be extremely difficult.
Also on Fortune.com:
Japan downgrade: The beginning of the end?
A harsh light on Apple's supply chain
The strong case for global optimism
Monday, January 24, 2011
Book review: How to live by Sarah Bakewell
Michel de Montaigne, the 16th-century French nobleman, was the first person to write an account of his thoughts in the first person.
Montaigne lived in the Dordogne; he was a local politician at a time of civil war and religious strife. One day he had a riding accident and nearly died. He became obsessed with death. Then he realised that you can never experience your own death. What a relief! Later, he wrote, superbly, about more or less everything, and Bakewell, in this book, which was shortlisted in for last year's Costa Biography award, is excellent at teasing out why he was able to do so.
Gang of Smart Mini-Copters Learns How to Build Stuff [VIDEO ]
Look out everyone, because there's a gang of miniature, four-rotor electric helicopters that's figured out how to work together and build a simple structure. This could be just the beginning of what they can do.
Those clever programmers at the GRASP (General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception) Lab at the University of Pennsylvania have made these quadrotor helicopters autonomous, teaching them how to work together while building things. Heck, most people can't do that.
The robot builders simply tell the copters which structure to build, and then, according to a GRASP technician, the quadrotors cooperatively "figure out the assembly plan and then build it." The flying bots even have the ability to go for another attempt if the magnetic parts don't snap together quite right.
Even though the clever programmers have created simple modules for the helicopters to construct, nevertheless, this is the first glimpse of cooperative flying robot construction on a larger scale. Imagine if these mini copters were scaled up to 100 times their size, putting together skyscrapers, bridges, or the components of Skynet.
Experimentation with these brainy choppers has been going on for a long time. When we saw videos of the quadrotors performing autonomous feats early last year, we were immediately impressed. They were downright aggressive, flying through thin slots and moving hoops with spectacular precision. A few months later, they got even more sophisticated. Now, they're getting downright scary.
What about it, readers? Should we be afraid yet?
[Via Hacked Gadgets]
How to become TV5 Willing Willie studio audience
We are receiving a lot of emails and comments from the previous post entitled Willie Revillame Wiling Wili Kami New Variety Show on TV5 asking how to watch Willing Willie live in studio.
In response to your request, here’s how to become TV5 Willing Willie studio audience.
For bookings and reservation. Look For Martin and call 355-5530 from 12:30-2:30pm Mon-Fri You may send your email to willingwillie@ymail.com and ask them how to become a studio audienceor Fill up the application available HereWilling Willie is an early evening variety gameshow broadcast by TV5. The show is airing weekdays from Monday to Friday (6:30pm to 9:00pm after Aksyon News) and Saturdays (5:00pm to 7:30pm after 5Maxx Movies).
For the latest updates on Willing Willie, visit their Twitter account at @WWTV5
Willing Willie is located at #730 Quirino Highway, San Bartolome, Novaliches, Quezon City.
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How to Delegate Authority
The old adage that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself doesn't belong in the modern workplace. Workers today can't afford to try tackling every task on their own if they hope to keep up with the pace of business. Under these circumstances, being a good delegator is not only helpful, but necessary.
"A lot of leaders can't get to this point because they either don't know how to or they're afraid of delegating. Maybe they think it will take too long to train someone effectively, or if they delegate too much, they'll have nothing left to do," BNET explains. "And often the more competent they are, the harder it is to delegate. They're afraid the work won't get done at all, or more likely, it won't be done according to their high standards."
It can be difficult to cede responsibility to someone else, but learning to do so is the first step toward effective delegation. It's important to remember that even when handing duties over to an employee, final authority for a given project rests with the manager.
"Delegation is not abdication. The manager still has the ultimate accountability for the assignment. That's why it is important for you to establish appropriate controls and checkpoints to monitor progress," small business guide Directory Journal notes. "Besides, managers should give delegatees the appropriate authority to act along with clear expectations including any boundaries or criteria. The manager, however, should try to avoid prescribing HOW the assignment should be completed."
Avoiding micromanagement is crucial when delegating appropriately. Hovering over an employee and trying to control their work through every step of the process is not an efficient use of time or energy, and may actually impede progress on the assignment. Instead, checking in after an agreed upon interval, such as at the mid-point of the project, can be a much more effective way of monitoring performance.
"If, at that point, you find the person or team way off base, you may be tempted to micromanage the remainder of the project or task," Bloomberg BusinessWeek says. "Don't. Instead, reassess whether you made a crystal clear request and whether your people are capable and motivated. If you need to clarify your task then do so. If your people are not capable and motivated, then reassign the task."
For those new to delegating or leaders who have trouble passing on responsibilities, delegating effectively can seem daunting. But it's a manageable process when broken down into a clear set of steps. Career development firm MindTools offers the following tips for delegating properly:
Clearly articulate goals and boundaries. Employees should know the desired outcome for the project and have the end goal in mind. They should also be told the constraints and limits in the project in terms of lines of authority and when to take initiative versus asking for guidance or permission.Include people in the process. Whenever possible, it helps to empower employees to decide which tasks should be delegated to them and when it should happen.Match responsibility with authority. A greater amount of delegated responsibility should come with a corresponding level of authority to make decisions. However, remember that the final accountability rests with the manager.Delegate to the lowest possible level. The people closest to the work are best suited for handling it because they have intimate knowledge of the day-to-day requirements needed to accomplish the task.Provide support. To improve the odds of success, maintain ongoing communication with team members, periodically monitor progress and be open to answering questions, as well as sharing credit for the work.Focus on results. Pay closer attention to what is accomplished than how the work is done. Your way of doing things may not be the only way — or the best way — of reaching the goal.Avoid reverse delegation. If a mistake is made, don't let an employee shift the blame back onto you. Instead, look for solutions from the people directly involved in the work.Build commitment. Motivate workers by emphasizing how their project will affect the company's success or open up new opportunities for the future. Remember to provide recognition whenever it is due.Maintain control. Don't forget about your involvement in the assignment. Discuss and establish clear deadlines, set a schedule for checking in, be sure to review all completed work and make adjustments to the plan when needed."Managers delegate work not to just relieve their workload, but to allow the employees they supervise to grow professionally. Effective delegation is a two-way discussion and understanding," Career Know-How explains. "Use effective delegation to benefit both yourself and the person to whom you delegate."
Earlier
Why Workaholics Make Bad Workers
How to Kick the Micromanaging Habit
Not Enough Hours in the Day?
Resources
How to Become an Efficient Delegator
by Jay Steinfeld
BNET, July 21, 2010
How to Delegate Effectively
by Hasan
Directory Journal, June 23, 2007
How to Delegate Effectively
by Rod Kurtz
Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Jan. 18, 2007
Successful Delegation
MindTools
How to Delegate Effectively
by Gregory P. Smith
Career Know-How
How to Get Smart About Weight Loss
SUNDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- By this point, New Year's resolutions might be a dim memory -- which makes it a good time for fine-tuning, especially for those who resolved to lose weight.
Brittany Glassett, a registered dietitian with Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver, suggests using what she calls the "SMART" system to create goals for yourself -- with "smart" being an acronym for goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.
In the area of specificity, for example, don't just plan to "eat better." Make a specific goal, such as eating fast food three fewer times a month.
Write down your goals and focus on just one or two at a time to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Then keep working on those one or two goals until you've made a change, remembering that it takes about three weeks to adopt a new habit.
Glassett also suggests thinking about mini-goals. Instead of saying you'll lose 50 pounds, consider losing 5 pounds over the next four weeks.
And get support from family and friends: Let them know about your goals and tell them to hold you accountable.
Glassett also has created a list of what she calls six small changes that make a big difference:
Eat more whole grains, which contain heart-healthy fiber along with vitamins and minerals. Fiber can help you stay full between meals.Add color to your plate through such foods as fruits and vegetables. Try putting three colors on the plate that aren't white, cream or yellow.Don't skip meals. And consider having smaller meals every three or four hours rather than bigger ones less often. Cut down on soda, juice and high-calorie coffee drinks, which are full of empty calories. Replace vegetable oil with canola oil and olive oil, which are better for your heart.Keep a food diary, if only for a couple days a week. Studies have shown that people who keep track of what they eat have more success losing weight and keeping it off.More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more on what it takes to lose weight.
How to spend $1,000 on your Verizon iPhone without even trying
Verizon customers will be able to switch to an iPhone 4, but it might get costly.The costs of switching to an iPhone on Verizon could add upRecent Verizon phone buyers would get a $200 rebate, but could lose the iPhone discount
Early-termination fees, new data plans could also pile onEditor's note: Amy Gahran writes about mobile tech for CNN.com. She is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and media consultant whose blog, Contentious.com, explores how people communicate in the online age.
(CNN) -- Now that Verizon is about to start selling the iPhone 4, there's a lot of buyer's remorse in the air.
Over the recent holiday season, many people purchased Android, BlackBerry, and other smartphone models from Verizon.
In an apparent attempt to ease (or perhaps capitalize on) customer grousing, Verizon is offering to reduce the cost of switching to its iPhone 4. On Tuesday, Boy Genius Report noted that Verizon's iPhone 4 FAQ page now includes this item:
Q: I just purchased a new smartphone during the holiday season, but if I knew that iPhone 4 was going to be available soon I would have waited. What are my options now?
A: Current Verizon customers who purchased and activated new smartphones, feature phones or certified pre-owned phones between Nov. 26, 2010, and Jan. 10 2011, are eligible to receive up to a $200 Visa debit card when they purchase an iPhone 4 at full retail price by Feb. 28, 2011 and return their existing phone. Note: This offer is only available on consumer accounts with five lines or less, who are purchasing iPhone 4 through Verizon Wireless retail stores, telesales, or through verizonwireless.com.
So, what's the "full retail price?" According to Verizon Wireless, iPhone 4 prices start at $200 for the 16GB model. But that's the subsidized promotional price that comes with a new two-year contract.
Farther down in the FAQ, they note that the "iPhone 4 will also be available for purchase at full retail price: $649.99 for the 16GB model, and $749.99 for the 32GB model."
That's a pretty steep price tag. I doubt many customers would think getting a $200 rebate would sufficiently offset that expense.
But for any smartphone, the cost for the device is only the beginning. Data plan costs -- and their associated terms, limitations, and extra fees -- constitute most of what users pay over the life of the phone.
So far, Verizon has not revealed prices and terms for data plans for its iPhone 4. If some of the carrier's existing plans for other smartphones are applied to the iPhone 4, then it's likely that customers already on those plans would just be able to swap their phones.
However, if you'd need to switch to a new plan in order to use the iPhone 4, it's unclear whether early termination fees would apply. These can run as high as several hundred dollars, especially for recently purchased phones.
Verizon's advanced devices page notes that its early termination fees can run up to $350. Generally, early termination fees are higher the sooner after purchase that you cancel a contract -- which would be the case for Verizon smartphones purchased over the period covered by this rebate.
You could sell your current Verizon smartphone on eBay or Craigslist, and probably get more than $200 for it. But you'd still be stuck with your existing Verizon contract, which you may or may not be able to use with a Verizon iPhone4. And Verizon's $200 trade-in rebate requires that you return your old phone. So unless you sell your current phone for well over $200, this probably wouldn't be a good deal.
So here's the bottom line:
Say you bought a Motorola Droid Pro from Verizon on Dec. 24, 2010. You paid $180 for this device after a $100 mail-in rebate (which means that right now you're probably still waiting to receive that rebate debit card, even if you remembered to file the paperwork promptly).
But you really, really want a Verizon iPhone 4. So you select a package of talk, text, and data service that, with fees and taxes, ends up costing about $110 per month for 24 months.
When Verizon's iPhone 4 comes out, you swap in your phone and wait to get your $200 rebate card. In the meantime you're $650 out of pocket on the new phone.
If you're lucky, the iPhone 4 plan will cost no more than your current plan. But if you have to cancel your old contract and get a new one, you might have to pay another $350 for early termination.
So that's $930 in total device costs, minus $300 in total rebates due, for $630 in net device costs. Plus a possible ETF penalty of $350. That brings the total potential iPhone 4 swap cost to $980. And meanwhile, you're paying $110 per month or so for service. (The economics could be better for Verizon customers with family plans.)
Bottom line is: that $200 rebate probably won't really make this switch cheap, or even affordable, for most Verizon customers. Some people will still do it, of course -- and the phone-swap rebate might be enough to nudge some people over the edge into iPhone territory.
But I'm sure they'll still grouse about it.
The opinions expressed in this post are solely those of Amy Gahran. Thanks to Lisa Williams of Placeblogger for suggesting this headline.Sunday, January 23, 2011
How to Update a Camera's Firmware
Much of your digital camera, including its sensor, LCD screen, lens, buffer, and autofocus, is controlled by microprocessors running firmware. Firmware is essentially the operating system of a digital camera, whether it's a point-and-shoot or a DSLR. And just as a trip to Software Update can give you downloads that fix OS or software glitches and add functionality, some camera manufacturers polish the user experience after a camera has been released with firmware updates.
Firmware updates are not always necessary. If you find an update for your camera, but it doesn't have any bug fixes and the added features don't apply to you (such as a new language you don't speak), you may want to skip the upgrade altogether. But more often these updates fix bugs or add cool new features and improvements. For example, the latest Sony NEX 5 firmware update makes major updates to the user interface, allows the softkey function to be customized for quick settings access in creative exposure modes, gives the camera 3D Sweep Panorama abilities, and adds autofocus support for fourteen Sony SSM and SAM lenses.
Step 1: Set an update schedule
It is a good practice to check for updates right after buying a new camera, and then check again three or four times a year. Unfortunately, camera manufacturers don't usually put resources into developing firmware for older models, so once your camera is two generations old you can check less frequently. But don't give up completely--the Canon Rebel XS, a 2008 beginner's DSLR model that has seen 7 Canon DLSR brothers released since, received a firmware update as recently as October 2010.
Step 2: Find the Firmware Page for Your Camera
Though many point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras allow firmware updates, not all cameras display the current version in the same place. Generally, the information is buried in the settings menu, the last option among the date setting and LCD brightness. Instructions for finding the firmware version number for individual camera models can be found in the manufacturer's update instructions.
Step 3: Find the firmware page for your camera
Once you have this information, the next step is to check the camera manufacturer's support and downloads site. Browse or do a keyword search for the camera model, and the download links and install instructions should be simple to find. To help you find the latest firmware versions for your model, we've compiled a list of the download pages for 12 major camera brands. Firmware updates are sometimes located in Drivers, Downloads, or Software sections.
Canon
Nikon
Olympus (Download the Olympus Digital Camera Updater application)
Sony
Panasonic (Or go to this one-page index of Panasonic firmware updates)
Kodak
Pentax
Casio
FujiFilm
Samsung
Leica
Sigma
Step 4: Read directions and take precautions
It is extremely important to read the exact update directions for your camera carefully, as the process varies from camera to camera, is usually permanent, and if something goes wrong it cannot be easily fixed. This shouldn't discourage camera owners from updating their cameras, as the process is safe when directions are followed to the letter.
To ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible there are a couple common safety measures you can take: Always make sure to have fresh batteries in the camera and do not turn it off during the update--if this power-hungry process is interrupted, the dead batteries could equal a dead camera that will need to be serviced. And make sure you use the recommended equipment such as specific memory cards or particular brands of USB cords.
Step 5: Install the firmware
Some manufacturers make the firmware update process really simple. For example, Olympus owners can download the Olympus Digital Camera Updater application, which will automatically check a connected camera for outdated firmware and walk the user step-by-step through the update.
For most brands, however, you have to do a bit more work. The exact process varies depending on your camera brand and model, and each manufacturer provides detailed instructions on their site explaining exactly what to do when you locate an update for your camera.
The typical update process goes something like this: A compressed file or installation application that contains the firmware update (or updates, if it comes in two parts) specific to your camera is download to your computer. After downloading, the firmware can be dropped onto the top level of a blank, freshly formatted memory card. Next, eject the card from card reader, insert it into the camera, and follow the directions for initiating the update from the camera's menu.
With some brands the camera can be plugged in with a USB cord and the firmware updated directly from your computer. The camera companies that provide an updater application use this method.
If you are not comfortable updating your own firmware, or if something goes wrong during the update process, take the camera to an authorized dealer or contact customer service for your brand.
For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright © 2010 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.
Friday, January 21, 2011
How to buy Starbucks coffee with your iPhone
Starbucks introduced a new app for iPhone and BlackBerry today allowing users to pay for coffee via smartphone. And with a location (let’s be honest, more like four or five) in our neighborhood, we decided to try it out.
The only things you’re required to have are a Starbucks gift card and account. You’re able to sign up for an account on your phone, but consider yourselves warned, it’s not a fun process. We all know apps aren’t great data entry tools, and this one is no exception. It unfortunately wasn’t an option during the test run, so head here and do it beforehand if you plan on using the app.
We also had an issue finding the coffee shop’s location. It could’ve easily been a 3G glitch, but one of the baristas mentioned that its particular locale is sometimes difficult to find via GPS, and manually finding the address proved challenging. After a second run, we were able to pay remotely. It really is as simple as it claims to be: you register your gift card (or cards), tap for purchases, and let the barista scan it after you order. What we’re uncertain of is why this is so much easier than handing over a debit or credit card. Other than the seconds and fraction of human interaction it shaves off, the experience seems pretty comparable.
But for those times when you’ve got nothing but your phone and a craving for caffeine, the Starbucks Mobile App has you covered.
How to Find the Best Late-Winter Deals
The holidays might be over, but shoppers are still searching for the best deals in the aftermath of a furious shopping season. As stores restock inventory, many of them will have markdown sales to clear the store of surplus stock from the holiday season.
Markdowns do not necessarily mean the best product for your dollar, but research can help you pick between the bargains and the throwaways. Here are a few tips for discount shopping that will have you prepared for any future purchase:
Purchase seasonal items after the season. Now is the perfect time to pick up deeply discounted holiday items like wreaths, ornaments, lights, and other holiday related items. Stores stocked up and now they need to liquidate as much of the product as possible since space is always a premium. It's not uncommon for you to find things slashed by 50 percent, 75 percent, or even 90 percent as the days go on. A few years ago we picked up the bulk of our Christmas tree ornaments at deep discount from retailers like Michael's and Macy's.
Monitor online deals. Online retailers want to continue the momentum from the holiday season by pumping out a solid stream of good deals, many of which will be available online. Online buying has become very popular because it allows you to compare prices, stores, brands, without having to leave your home. You can keep track of bargains being offered, and keep it in mind for future, since some stores offer competitive pricing. There are also deal sites that offer coupons or cash back rewards.
Avoid the bandwagon. Buying items when they are in high demand guarantees it'll be hard to find a bargain. This is basically the corollary to the first tip! Try to buy flowers and jewelry around Valentine's Day and you're guaranteed to pay full retail price, because everyone else is. Your only recourse is to either shop very early, if it can be stored easily, or shop after the season. Also, shopping for these items months before the holidays means you can avoid the skirmish at the store.
[Visit the U.S. News My Money blog for the best money advice from around the web.]
Be at the right place at the right time. The time of year plays an important role in items for sale, which can be helpful knowledge for any shopper. For example, the day of the week plays a role in airline ticket prices. Tuesday evening through Thursday are the best days to buy tickets, and scheduling flights out on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday will help with lower prices. As we begin to enter Spring, items such as winter gear, lawn mowers, and computers tend to have bargain prices.
Remember coupons. Finally, before you make any purchase, especially one online, look for a coupon. You can usually secure significant savings by doing a little Google search for coupons and promotion codes or going to a big aggregator like RetailMeNot.com. Vendors often have coupons for dollars off or free shipping, both of which can save you a few dollars on your purchase. If you take a few minutes, you never know what you'll find. It's easily one of the best return on your times you'll ever have and you'll feel clever finding it.
While bargains are never guaranteed, these tips will help shoppers begin the search for future purchases. Also, knowing these tips means you can avoid Black Friday and other popular shopping days, which encourage large crowds and more frustration. Make your new years resolution to shop like a professional.
Jim Wang writes about personal finance at Bargaineering.com. When he's not tackling money issues, he's usually looking forward to his next vacation and writing about it at Wanderlust Journey.
Taken from
Thursday, January 20, 2011
How to Tailor Your Resume for an Employer
With five candidates for every job, competition is fierce. Your online profile affects your chances to win interviews, but your resume is still the most crucial element of your job-search strategy. And tailoring your resume for each specific employer is one way to make sure you’ll stand out.
Here are five tips to help you figure out how to appeal to your targeted employers:
1. Study organizations’ websites. Companies spend a lot of time, effort, and money compiling their public relations profiles for visitors. Look for repeated words and phrases, taglines, and hints about their philosophical approaches. Some employers include videos or testimonials from employees to illustrate their corporate culture.
[See 10 Ways to Use Social Media in Your Job Search.]
What can you learn?
Is the company leadership-focused? Team-oriented? Do they value diversity? Is community service important? What are their goals? Do they specify problems they solve? What buzzwords appear multiple times on the sites? Studying the company’s official online presence offers a window for you to determine a) if the job is a good fit and b) how to market yourself for the position.
Mirror some of their language and values in your resume. For example, if the company highlights their commitment to community service, showcase volunteer activities on your resume. Also include keywords they use to describe themselves and their employees.
[See How to Rock Your Next Job Interview.]
2. Review LinkedIn profiles with your target job title. Look for key skills to include in your materials. Review information from employees working for similar organizations for suggestions of the type of work, skills, and accomplishments you should highlight to land interviews.
3. Identify your industry’s national and local conferences. Does your field have a go-to conference where big players offer insights and advice? Visit the conference sites, read speaker bios, and review session descriptions. Pick out the field’s “pain points,”—the problems they’re trying to solve—based on their conference topics. Address these issues and detail your relevant accomplishments on your resume.
4. Study job descriptions. Use Linkup.com, Indeed.com, Monster.com, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn’s jobs, and company sites to research job descriptions.(Look at job descriptions even if those positions aren’t geographically desirable. As long as the description appeals to you, you can use it to improve your resume.
[For more career advice, visit U.S. News Careers, or find us on Facebook or Twitter.]
Identify the buzzwords, key phrases, and re-appearing information. Does everyone mention cross-functional teams? Include it on your resume. Is there a particular software package your industry mentions in every job description? You need to know it, list it, and be able to illustrate how you used it.
5. Talk to people. Conduct informational meetings with people who work in your target field and ask what skills they use, what problems they face, and the types of qualities their organizations seek. Use the data you gather to enhance your resume. Targeting your resume with information to appeal to your next employer will give you the upper hand in a competitive market.
Miriam Salpeter is a job search and social media consultant, career coach, author, speaker, resume writer and owner of Keppie Careers. She teaches job seekers and entrepreneurs how to incorporate social media tools along with traditional strategies to empower their success. Connect with her via Twitter @Keppie_Careers.
How to Travel Affordably in Retirement
Many of us look forward to retirement as a time when we can enjoy a bit more travel. The trick for those of us on a fixed income is how to seize more adventure for less money.
You don’t have to be retired to know how to stretch a travel dollar. Sujai Kumar lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Three years ago, on his way to India, he spent the night in London before his flight out the next day. While he has many friends there he could have crashed with, he decided to stay with a perfect stranger because he wanted to give CouchSurfing a try. He stayed in the guest room of a lovely flat in Greenwich. The next day his hostess took him for a stroll around the neighborhood and over to Blackheath Village, where they enjoyed a nice lunch together before his flight out that afternoon.
[See 5 Ways to Keep Retirement Exciting.]
Since that trip, Sujai has enjoyed over a dozen couch surfing stays and entertained nearly two dozen visitors in his home, through the CouchSurfing.org website. Despite the name, he has only once slept on an actual couch. Usually he has a bed, and most often his own room, although bunk beds in a hallway were once his accommodation. Now he says, “I can’t imagine staying in a hotel anymore unless I absolutely have to.” He loves the glimpse he gets of the local culture from actually living with locals instead of in a sterile hotel room.
One of his favorite experiences so far was spending three nights with a family in Iceland. When they bundled up their one-year-old and put him in his carriage for a nap outside on the covered porch, he learned that this is a typical napping place for the babies of Iceland, something he never would have gleaned staying in a hotel. He now counts his hosts among his friends. They are working on plans to visit him in Scotland.
[See 10 Reasons Retirement Makes You Feel Younger.]
If you don’t mind staying in other people’s homes, but you’d rather not stay while they are actually there, perhaps a home exchange is more your style. We’ve had nearly a dozen successful home trades over the past couple of years. We’ve swapped twice for the same elegant studio near New York City’s Columbus Circle. The bed, in a former closet, was a tight but quiet alternative to the previous week’s stay in a more spacious one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side. While we did have more room in the first apartment, the rumble of the Lexington Avenue subway line, which ran directly beneath the apartment, jostled us to sleep each night.
Our favorite stay was in a 200-year-old farmhouse in Brattleboro, Vt. We went from the hustle and bustle of New York, to the quiet calm of sipping our evening glass of wine, pool-side, as we gazed past the thick of maple trees out over the Connecticut river. After a couple of visits by the resident mouse, we learned that we needed to store our food securely in cabinets, not right out on the kitchen counters.
Even if you are not comfortable hosting guests in your home, you can still find deals living like a local. Airbnb.com offers inexpensive rentals of rooms like couch surfing, or whole apartments and houses like home exchange, but you won’t have to use your home as currency.
[See 5 Tips for Affordable Travel in Retirement.]
Don’t despair if a more traditional hotel room is where you prefer to rest your head. There are plenty of last-minute vacation packages available to travelers who are flexible with their dates, and that means most retirees. Many hotels offer package deals through discount travel agents, to fill up vacant rooms or to generate business for new resorts. I eagerly await weekly emails from discount travel agents such as Travelzoo and Travel by Jen, which let me know of hotel, resort, and cruise deals when I’m ready to get out of town on a moment’s notice.
Couch surfing and home exchanging take a fair amount of time. You may have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the right match, and you should spend some time getting to know your travel partners before handing over the keys to your home. Taking advantage of last-minute travel deals requires a fair amount of flexibility. You’ll have to be pretty spontaneous to enjoy the lowest rates. But in retirement you’ve got all the time in the world to plan, and the freedom to come and go as you please. So, why not enjoy a few extra adventures.
Sydney Lagier is a former certified public accountant. Since retiring in 2008 at the age of 44, she has been writing about the transition from productive member of society to gal of leisure at her blog, Retirement: A Full-Time Job.
How to Eat Well in Athens - Choice Tables
I know: I’ve been a victim of it. Athenian after Athenian has tugged me out to this or that sleekly designed room with boldly geometric plates upon which intricately stacked food teeters. And I have wondered where the pleasures of grilled octopus might be hiding, and what had happened to the simplicity at the heart of Greece’s best cooking, which needn’t suffer from any inferiority complex at all.
So on a recent trip to Athens I set my own narrow parameters, my own traditional terms. I would eat nothing that didn’t have easily discernible Greek roots. I would go nowhere that belonged to the Cosmopolitan Hodgepodge school of precious international cooking. Rather than chasing the new, I would revel in the old; the longer the restaurants had been around, the better. They had stood the test of time.
My approach was relatively inexpensive and seemed fitting for a moment of economic retrenchment in a blessed, cursed, bailed-out country. I put comfort ahead of dazzle. And it led to some excellent eating.
Margaro
I remember the moment I fell in love with the restaurant Margaro. Five minutes after sitting down at a barely set table with a flimsy paper covering, I looked up to see a wrinkly, square-shaped old woman lifting a whole red mullet, about seven inches long, to her lips and eating it as if it were an ear of corn. That’s my kind of gusto.
At Margaro you get mullet, because that’s what everyone does and that’s nearly all there is. A shiny menu attached to our table by a rope — as if someone might steal it! — mentioned a few other fish, but a server told my companion and me that he could and would summarize the night’s options himself. We could have mullet, shrimp or langoustine. That was it.
We asked for a platter that included everything, and inquired about a Greek salad, for pacing and roughage. They had one, with a brick of salty feta and dark-hued olive oil, and it pleased without wowing us.
But the shrimp, langoustine and especially mullet were fantastic. Pretty much all that happens to them on their journey from larder to table is that they are dusted with flour and salt and thoroughly dunked in very hot oil. They emerge from it crunchy, like piscine French fries. They’re served whole, and while we used our fingers for bits of the crustaceans, we confined ourselves to utensils for the mullet, each one good for maybe six bites. We tore through nearly a dozen of them.
Afterward we ate halvah, a tahini-flavored delicacy that, at Margaro, has the consistency and taste of cookie dough. It was wonderful — and the lone dessert available.
There’s a crude, irresistible poetry to how pared down this taverna is. It is located on a random street in the port city of Piraeus, which is to Athens somewhat as Brooklyn is to Manhattan: a component of the bigger metropolis, stripped of some of the glitz and quickly reached by subway. Those flimsy table coverings are held in place by what look like steroidal paper clips. The white wine — only one generic kind — is served in metal pitchers. And there’s nothing that really qualifies as décor on the vast, covered front porch, which is where the crowd, mostly older folk, eats.
With exuberance they chatter and chew as a breeze blows toward the kitchen and platter after platter of red mullet is carried out of it. That’s nearly the whole of the spectacle, and it’s more than enough.
Margaro, Hatzikyriakou 126, Piraeus; (30-210) 4514226. Dinner for two, with wine, is about 45 euros or about $58 at $1.31 to the euro.
Doris
Just as no one who goes to Margaro misses the mullet, no one who visits Doris skips the loukoumades, which are technically doughnuts, but so superior to others that being lumped in with them is a hideous injustice. They defy culinary gravity in their impossibly airy crispness — or maybe it’s a shockingly crispy airiness. Either way they’re a textural miracle, and a taste revelation.
To get to Doris you burrow into a crammed central Athens neighborhood of narrow, slanting streets. The atmosphere is both functional and festive: a cafe of sorts up front, a big dining room behind it, a garden to the side, high ceilings, yellow and pink walls. The menu is scrawled in Greek on an enormous chalkboard, but you don’t have to understand it because most of the food is displayed in big pans and dishes — a lineup of the hoariest classics, which might also be called clichés. Moussaka, sagonaki, stuffed tomatoes: all of it is here.
And most of it is well prepared. I recommend skipping the Greek pasta dishes (dry) but making sure to have the grilled green peppers filled with cheese, which are superb. Get a bunch of stuff and pass it around. That’s what the Greek regulars here do.
taken from : http://www.nytimes.com
How to celebrate MLK Jr. Day in NYC
Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Here are some public events in New York City on Monday marking the occasion. The events are free except where indicated.
BROOKLYN
Brooklyn Academy of Music Tribute:
Begins at 10:30 a.m., BAM Opera House, 30 Lafayette St., Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100. Keynote speaker is Walter Mosley. Music by the Persuasions and the Reverence Timothy Write Memorial Choir of the Grace Tabernacle Christian Center. There is a community art exhibition and a screening of "Neshoba: The Prince of Freedom," an award-winning documentary about a town in Mississippi 40 years after the murders of three civil rights workers.
*
Art and Videos for Children
11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Brooklyn Children's Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave., (718) 735-4400, admission $7.50 per person, under 1 free
11:30 a.m., a short DVD presentation of the "I Have A Dream Speech."
1:30 p.m., Coretta Scott King dance tribute, the Pinnacle Praise Dancers celebrate through poetry and dance.
2:30, Interactive show looks at the historic and present-day struggles for freedom, social justice and human rights
3 p.m., make art using African Adinkra symbols of hope, love and friendship to take home.
*
Free Concert
6 p.m., seating begins at 5:30 p.m., first-come, first-served basis, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, at Brooklyn College campus, 2900 Campus Road
BRONX
Interfaith Service
10 a.m., Trinity Baptist Church, 808 E. 224th Street, Bronx, 718.590.3989. In conjunction with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., the service will honor the legacy of Dr. King and celebrate the national community service theme, "Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On ... Not A Day Off"
*
Children's Programs
9 a.m. - 5 p.m., St. Mary's Recreation Center (in St. Mary's Playground) St. Ann's Ave. and 145th St., (718) 402-5155. Video images and audio presentation of two of King's famous speeches will be on display.
12 p.m. - 3 p.m., Owen Dolen Golden Age Center (in Owen F. Dolen Park), 1400 East Tremont Ave., (718) 822-4282,
Children can listen to the "I Have a Dream" speech, watch a documentary about King's life and discuss the country's history and future.
MANHATTAN
Raising Citizens: Martin Luther King, Jr. Festival
10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Children's Museum of Manhattan, 212 W. 83rd St. between Broadway and Amsterdam, (212) 721-1234, admission: $10. Kids can celebrate the city's diversity by creating collages of what they see in their neighborhood and learn what some teens are doing to make the world a better place. At 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., the world famous Harlem Gospel Choir will perform.
*
Walking Tours in Central Park
10 a.m., annual tour by eighth-graders from the Manhattan Country School, Strawberry Fields at Central Park West and 72nd St. The students will lead a tour and stop in several places to give speeches on the theme, "We Have Another Dream: Civil Rights in the 21st Century."
*
12 - 1 p.m., Seneca Village Tour, inside the park at the southeast corner of 85th St. and Central Park West, (212) 772-0210. Seneca Village was Manhattan's first known community of African-American property owners, on land that would become Central Park. Learn about the history of the village, the property owners, and what New York City was like at the time.
*
Artists Celebrate Dr. King
6:30 p.m., Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th St., (212) 864-5400
Jazz musician Craig Harris and ensemble performs parts of "God's Trombones," illuminating the teachings of black preachers. Choreographer Bridget Moore's "Remembrance of Things Past" combines one of King's most important speeches with dance and video. Vocalists Neshama Carlebach and members of the Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir sing African-American spirituals.
Emceed by Ruth Messinger, with a keynote address by the Rev. Dr. Suzan D. Johnson Cook.
QUEENS
King Documentary Screening
3 p.m., Museum of the Moving Image, 3601 35th Ave., Astoria
King: A Filmed Record ... Montgomery To Memphis
This tribute documentary uses archival footage of King's life, from the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott to his assassination in 1968, intercut with dramatic readings and interviews by friends and admirers, including Ruby Dee, James Earl Jones, Paul Newman, Harry Belafonte, and more. Made in 1970, 185 minutes.
STATEN ISLAND
Children's Service
10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Unitarian Church of Staten Island, 312 Fillmore St., (718) 447-2204. A service and creative activities aimed at kids aged 7 to 13 will honor King. The church will screen the feature film "Selma, Lord, Selma," about an Alabama girl inspired by King. Lunch and snacks will be served. Participants are encouraged to donate to a food drive.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
How to Choose a Wireless Provider and Smartphone
How do you choose the right smartphone? What if you get a great smartphone, but the network it is on is flaky, unreliable, and constantly drops calls? What if you choose an awesome wireless provider, but can't get the smartphone you really want? The following process will help you find the right combination of wireless provider and smartphone that works best for you.
Let me begin by saying that I abhor device exclusivity. I understand that there are technical differences between the GSM and CDMA networks, and that compatibility is dictated to some degree by those limitations. But, I don't believe users should have to switch wireless providers to get the smartphone they want, or that some customers should be prohibited from choosing specific smartphones based on the strength or weakness of a given provider in their area.
In a perfect world, you would be able to independently determine which wireless provider works best for your needs, and then choose which smartphone you want without being limited to the smartphones offered by the provider you chose. But, for now--at least in the United States--that is not the way it works.
Given that device exclusivity does exist for most smartphones, what is the best approach for choosing a wireless provider and a smartphone that can perform the various functions you need it to without making you want to smash it on the pavement? I believe if you follow these steps--in order--you will have a more satisfying experience all around.
Signal Strength
By signal strength, I mean signal strength for you. One of the things that gets quickly lost in the zealous debate over which provider is "best" is that they all have dead zones and gaps in coverage. Just because Verizon has the strongest signal or fastest network performance for your cousin in Topeka doesn't mean that it will be the best network for you in Albuquerque.
You should also consider the entire range you might use the smartphone in. Obviously, you want to have strong network coverage at your home, and at your place of work--the combination of the two probably make up the majority of your waking hours. But, also consider where else you might go frequently and make sure your provider of choice has got you covered. The bottom line is that without an adequate network and decent signal strength your smartphone is a glorified MP3 player, so this is really the most important part of the decision.
Globe Trotter
For the world travelers among us, the question of network availability and signal strength has to be applied on a more global level. If you also travel overseas frequently, a GSM-based provider like AT&T or T-Mobile might make more sense because GSM is a more universally accepted wireless standard than CDMA. If there is a specific region or country that you visit frequently, make sure your choice of wireless provider and smartphone will still be functional there.
Price and Perks
Assuming you have multiple wireless providers capable of meeting your needs in terms of coverage and signal strength, the next thing to consider is the cost. Verizon still offers an unlimited data plan, but AT&T claims that 98 percent of its customers use less than 2GB of data per month, and nearly two-thirds use less than 200MB of data per month, so perhaps buying an unlimited data plan is just expensive overkill.
AT&T has rollover minutes, but only on large voice packages where it is significantly less likely you will ever go over your monthly allocation and dip into the rollover pool--so again it may be a case of expensive overkill for the illusion of a service you won't really use.
When it comes to cost, Sprint seems to be the better of the available choices. Sprint offers a $99 unlimited everything package, and generally allows the use of capable smartphones as Wi-Fi hotspots and other features like tethering without nickel and diming like Verizon and AT&T tend to do.
Make sure you consider all of the ways you might want to use your smartphone--as a phone, surfing the Web, texting, e-mail, streaming video, etc.--and calculate the total package for each wireless provider to figure out which works best for you.
The Smartphone Itself
At this point, either you have made a decision on the wireless provider, in which case you can simply choose from the available smartphones to pick the one that meets your needs and be done. If you are still undecided between multiple wireless providers, you can review the smartphone options at each one and select the wireless provider that has the smartphone you prefer.
Truthfully, the smartphone itself is not nearly as important as the wireless provider. There is no point in having a great smartphone on a network that doesn't work. And--frankly--the high end smartphones are relatively comparable. If you choose Sprint you won't be able to get an iPhone (yet), but you can get the EVO Shift. If you elect Verizon as your wireless provider, you can't get the Samsung Epic 4G, but you can get the Droid X or the iPhone.
You get the idea. I understand some people are very passionate about specific smartphones, but on paper the high end devices are all relatively comparable, and the difference between an iPhone, a BlackBerry Torch, a Droid 2, or a Samsung Focus are not nearly as critical to the functionality and overall smartphone experience as the network it runs on.
How to Choose Color
Choosing the right colors is crucial when you are designing a kitchen, be it for cabinetry, tile, flooring or even hardware. When reviewing cabinet options, for example, not only should you be looking at whether you want a raised or flat panel door style, a durable surface on both the inside and outside, as well as an efficient layout to fully accommodate your client's needs, but you should also be really “fussy” about selecting the perfect hue, shade, tint and/or tone. Creating the right color combination is critical and can mean the difference between a space that is ho-hum and one that is stunning.
Following are some important ideas to keep in mind when designing your new kitchen:
1. If you decide you want two colors for your kitchen cabinetry—one for the wall or perimeter units and another for the island, for example—make sure they’re different enough from each other that your selections look intentional. If not, the result will look like you tried to match the colors and failed.
2. Choose hardware that stands out from the cabinets. A white porcelain knob on a white cabinet will get lost visually, whereas a rubbed bronze knob on the same white cabinets will give you more style.
3. Also, keep in mind the color of your faucet when selecting your hardware. Although they don’t have to be exactly the same, they should be colors/finishes that will work together.
4. Often the hardware on your cabinets is an opportunity to add a little sparkle in the room. For the understated kitchen without a lot of colors or textures, a cut-glass-style knob or a colorful door knob can be the perfect jewelry to accessorize the design.
5. Create a backsplash that lightens your workspace. Going darker will darken work areas and work surfaces, thus requiring more task lighting, while paler colors will add brightness by reflecting light onto countertops.
6. A hard-working component of any kitchen, the kitchen sink demands a color/finish that is as appealing as it is functional. Keep in mind that a sink in a lighter tone or even stainless steel tends to appear clean and bright whereas darker options may blend in with the countertops but will lose that feeling of cleanliness.
7. Take time to evaluate and examine your work surface selection before placing an order. Some people may find a black, shiny countertop hard on their eyes and feel more comfortable living with and working on one in a medium or lighter color.
8. When choosing an island work surface, either opt for a color that differs noticeably from that of the perimeter countertops or go with a completely different material. As an example, you might specify granite for your built-in cabinets and then contrast it with a beautiful wood surface on the island. 
For visual interest, differentiate the island countertop from that of the perimeter cabinetry by selecting a contrasting color or material. Photo courtesy of Amy Wax, Your Color Source Studios.
9. However, if you do use wood for your island countertop, avoid choosing one in the same color as the cabinetry below. A dark wood or black island might work better with a lighter wood top and vice versa.
10. Finally, the color of the walls of your kitchen should contrast with that of your cabinets. To really show off the cabinets, make sure they stand out against the color of the room.
Hopefully, you’ll find these color ideas useful. People frequently select a function or style they like when designing their kitchen without remembering that selecting the right color, or depth of color, can make or break a kitchen design.
—Amy Wax is an architectural color consultant and principal of Your Color Source Studios in Montclair, NJ. She is the recipient of a 2010 Benjamin Moore Hue Award for Residential Exteriors and VP of the International Association of Color Consultants of North America( IACC-NA). Wax also served on Benjamin Moore’s first Residential Advisory Council, and her book, Can’t Fail Color Schemes, published by Creative Homeowner, has been recognized with several awards. Her latest is Can’t Fail Color Schemes: Kitchens & Baths.
How to Cope With Stomach Flu Symptoms
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 12 (HealthDay News) -- If you get the stomach flu (also known as viral gastroenteritis), there are a number of things you can do to cope with the illness, an expert suggests.
"This virus causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, fever, and head and muscle aches. Although the virus itself most often is not a serious health threat, it can cause serious complications like dehydration, which can be especially dangerous for young children and older adults," Dr. Christopher Zipp, a family physician at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's School of Osteopathic Medicine, said in a university news release.
Zipp offered the following tips for coping with stomach flu:
Avoid dehydration by consuming plenty of fluids. The best choices are water or half-strength juices. It's best to avoid sodas or sports drinks, but they can be given to people who can't tolerate the recommended fluids.Relieve body aches and fever by taking over-the-counter, non-aspirin pain relievers such as acetaminophen, as directed.Rest as much as possible.Take steps to prevent spread of the virus. Throw away used tissues immediately and wash your hands often. Soiled bed linens or clothes should be washed separately from other laundry.Make sure you're fully recovered before heading back to work or school. People with the stomach flu can still be contagious for up to 72 hours after they feel better."Keep in mind that this illness is caused by a virus. Antibiotics, which work against bacterial infections, will not help you to recover," Zipp explained.
"Most people will begin to feel better after a couple of days, but don't hesitate to contact your physician if you or a family member experiences extreme symptoms, such as uncontrolled vomiting or a high fever that persists and does not respond to over-the-counter medications," he added.
-- Robert Preidt 
Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, news release, Jan. 7, 2011
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