The Dbottino Weblog

The Newest Gizmos and Gadgets on the Market:

Ingenuity and technological advances are constantly resulting in new gizmos and gadgets. Gadgets can be both fun and functional and can save the owner time and effort. Below you’ll find descriptions of some of the latest inventions available on the market.

Microsoft Xbox 360

The Microsoft Xbox 360 is one of the latest inventions of video games. Video game lovers everywhere are rejoicing the arrival of the new system. The newest Xbox is still a gamer’s dream, but it is also being marketed as a media center. Not only can the system be used for playing video games, but it can also be used to play DVDs, CDs and MP3s. Digital cameras can be hooked up to it, as well as mp3 players and even personal computers.

Irobot Scooba

Anyone who has scrubbed a dirty floor before, take note of the latest inventions from iRobot! The iRobot Corporation has introduced the Scooba, a floor washing robot. Unlike a mop, which uses dirty water to clean, the Scooba cleans only with clean water. The Scooba is programmed to first pick up things like sand and dirt from the floor, then apply clean water and solution to the floor, scrub the floor and clean up the dirty solution. The tiny Scooba is also able to fit into tight spots that are difficult to reach with a mop. IRobot also makes the Roomba, a robot used in vacuuming the home.

Mobiky Genius

A different type of latest inventions is the Mobiky Genius folding bicycle. This bike was developed in response to difficulties encountered by commuters in maneuvering congested city streets and sidewalks. Because it folds up, the Mobiky Genius is easy to carry up and down stairs and can be easily stored.

Philips Digital Photo Display

Another of the latest inventions is the Philips 7FF1AW 7-inch Digital Photo Display. This gadget is a great way to display all those digital photos sitting on the computer that you’ve been planning to print at some point. The display looks like a picture frame, and you can choose to show a slideshow or display individual pictures. The quality of the display is great, not distorted. Photos can be downloaded from the computer or straight from the camera, and up to 50 photos can be stored on the Digital Photo Display.

Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition

While many people have digital cameras these days, most of the pictures taken with those cameras will never be printed out. It’s just too much of a hassle to copy them onto a disk, take them to the camera shop, upload them and wait. Fortunately, one of the latest inventions from Epson has made printing those pictures much simpler. The Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition is a portable photo printer. You can simply insert the camera’s memory card into the printer, view the photos on a display screen and select the ones you want to print and print them. You can even make changes to the photos, such as adjusting the brightness, before printing. The PictureMate printer produces pictures with much better quality than most digital printers do.

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You never know when disaster might strike. If one happens, the first thing on your agenda as a staffing business owner or manager, after assuring the health and safety of yourself and others will probably be: “How are we going to do business?”

The lifeblood of any staffing business is information. Your client data, orders, assignments, employee information, payroll and billing data, and more. Information that’s locked securely away in your software and systems, unless they are destroyed in some kind of disaster. While you can’t anticipate when or if a disaster might occur, you can prepare for the possibility of such an event.

How do you get started? There are essentially five steps that must take place in order to protect your hardware and software investment from a natural disaster:

• Create a Disaster Recovery Team
• Develop a Disaster Recovery Plan
• Test the Plan
• Communicate the Plan
• Implement the Plan

Let’s break these five steps down one by one to provide more specifics:


Create a Disaster Recovery Team — Disaster preparedness and recovery is a team effort. There must be a group in place that has been briefed on what procedures and protocols to follow should an event take place. This team should be made up members from four organizational components of your firm:

• Information Technology — the team member that is most critical to success
• Operations — your customer liaison
• Administration — the finance side of the business
• Management — Buy in from the top is critical

Each member of the team is important but look to your IT representative to pull the whole plan together and make it work.

Develop a Disaster Recovery Plan — Now that you have pulled together a team, it is time to put your plan down on paper. Remember that your plan should be flexible enough to handle different types of disasters, everything from a simple power outage all the way up to a major incident. The plan should include three phases, which are:

• Preparation phase — what are you going to do before the event to ensure that you are ready?
• Implementation phase — now that the event is upon us, what do we do?
• Post audit phase — now that we have implemented our plan, what needs to change?

Input from all business unit representatives on your team is critical. While building the plan each team member should be considering three basic questions:

• What could my group do to prepare?
• What will we do to keep the business running in the event of a catastrophic situation?
• What dependencies upon other groups do I have, and have I spoken to those people about their ideas, suggestions, and concerns?

You’ll probably want to gather some additional information to assist you in developing a comprehensive plan that’s right for your staffing business. Then, assemble the following information:

• Organization chart showing names and positions
• Staff emergency contact information
• List of suppliers and contact numbers
• List of emergency services and contact numbers
• Operations and Administrative procedures
• Asset inventories
• IT inventories
• IT system specification
• Copies of critical software
• Communication system specification
• Copies of maintenance agreements and service level agreements
• Off-site storage procedures

Test the Plan — Once the plan is developed and documented the next step is to test it with a dry run. This will take a detailed level of coordination among the Disaster Recovery Team members. The idea is to keep this test as realistic as possible. That may mean that it happens in the middle of the night and the group has to assemble and report into the team leader. It is better to test it when you don’t need it instead of finding out at crunch time that there are holes in the plan.

After completing the test, there will surely be some modifications. These changes will be uncovered once the team has a chance to sit back and review each phase of the plan in detail. You should test your plan at least once a year and then update it as needed. Open communication is important to successfully modifying the plan so it will work for your company.

Communicate the Plan — Now that you have a tested plan that you’re confident in, don’t keep it under wraps! Let your entire company know that you have a plan, that a team of representatives from each department was involved in the creation of the plan and that if disaster should strike — you will be ready. There should be a representative from each of your business units that is responsible for communicating the plan to their peers. The plan should be well-documented, including contact information for the primary and secondary stakeholders, and then distributed to the entire company.

Don’t forget that communication of your disaster plan extends to your clients, candidates, and associate employees as well. Letting them know that you have a plan in place gives them the assurance that you’re thinking of the business relationship you have with them and that you will do everything possible to maintain it.

There is an added bonus to this complete and thoughtful level of communication. This will give your staff an increased feeling of confidence and preparedness. It may also encourage your staff to take this ‘plan before you need it’ approach in their daily work lives.

Implement the Plan — When the time comes, don’t panic, implement. You have prepared, documented and tested — now put it into action. Remember, this event wasn’t scheduled, so be as flexible as possible in a time of crisis. You have been proactive in your planning but implementation is a time to also be reactive to the current situation. Also, remember to perform a post audit after the dust settles. Constant evaluation of your plan based on what you learn will ensure that is up to date and as efficient as possible.

Each of these five steps is critical to the success of the overall goal of being prepared. Your company and your situation are unique but the guidelines detailed above offer a blueprint for preparedness should a disaster occur. With a strong plan in place before any disaster, you’ll be able to get your business running with the least possible impact.

SIDEBAR: One staffing firm’s Disaster Recovery Plan.

Hurricane season hit Florida hard in 2004, and Britt Landrum III, Chief Technical Officer of Landrum Staffing Services in Pensacola, knew that he was lucky to have survived without significant damage to his business. He was determined to implement a disaster recovery plan for their information systems so that he would have greater peace of mind in the future.

Britt considered setting up an offsite environment in Pensacola to house another server to support their staffing software for emergency purposes. Exploring his options to this plan, he spoke to his staffing software vendor, VCG, about housing his server in VCG’s state of the art facility in Atlanta.

For his plan to work, Britt needed to have a parallel computer hardware/software environment ready on a moments notice so that his business would experience minimal interruption in the event of a disaster. VCG has a reliable history of hosting multiple environments for their customers, so they were quickly able to come up with a solution tailored for Landrum Staffing’s needs.

VCG’s proposal was elegantly simple. A ’snapshot’ of Landrum’s data (changes to the data made that day) in Florida would be made each evening and then downloaded to the server in Atlanta. The server, the staffing software, and the data would then be instantly available to Landrum’s staff should they need it through a remote connection.

In addition, VCG would take care of all the day-to-day management of the server in Atlanta. VCG would charge a fixed monthly rate for the disaster recovery services, just as they would for an ASP or Managed Services customer.

Britt Landrum was quick to point out that, “VCG’s continuous commitment to our relationship and the way that they support their products were the driving factors behind our partnering with them on this project”, said Britt. “We have a long history with VCG as clients since 1978, and they have always been there to support us when we needed them.”

About VCG, Inc.

Our focus is your success. Since 1976 staffing firms have counted on VCG, Inc. for staffing software solutions that help them improve the productivity and profitability of their operations. Founded by staffing professionals and technologists intimately familiar with the business of staffing, VCG is the staffing industry’s largest and most experienced dedicated staffing software development firm. VCG solutions today power hundreds of successful staffing companies and 12,000-plus staffing professionals throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

For more information regarding VCG, or our WebPAS and StaffSuite products, visit VCG Staffing Software or call 800-318-4983. VCG, C-PAS, StaffSuite, TempWare-V, WebPAS, StaffSuite WorldLink, and WebPAS WorldLink are registered trademarks of VCG Inc.

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David McCullough is Director of Operations for VCG Inc., the most experienced developer of staffing software for the industry.

The next few weeks are going to be rather hectic for me. For various birthdays, anniversaries and the like I am being dragged around the length and breadth of the UK visiting various family members and old friends.

Wonderful as it will be to catch up with some people I haven’t seen in a long time I am not a fan of traveling at all, and so I am dreading all these trips.

On the plus side I have got myself a new toy from mobile.broadbandgenie.co.uk that should help at least make these things a bit more bearable. I have got my hands on one of those mobile broadband dongles. This means I will have access to broadband Internet no matter where I am in the country.

Rather useful I am sure you will agree. It means I can get some work done whilst I am away and whilst I am traveling. It means I can also continue to blog without having to queue up large amounts of blog posts in advance, something I hope you guys appreciate as much as me!

So I’ll let you know how this mobile Internet thing goes, but I have to say I am very excited; I won

Computer is a combination of analog and digital device which is used to compute complex mathematical problems. It is basically a programmable electronic device which performs high speed mathematical and logical operations. The main function of computer is to perform repetitive procedures very quickly and reliably.

The computer can be broadly divided in two sections; one is hardware and the other is software. The hardware is made of electronic circuits and components while the software is the programs required to run the central processing unit or the CPU. Again the hardware is of four type i.e. CPU, input, output and memory device. Now a days looking at the vast uses of computer people are using computer at their offices and at homes for working as well as entertainment purposes.

As we all know that each and every electronic goods need repairing and computer is not excluded from that list. Whenever there is any troubleshoot in this whole procedure the computer seems to function improperly. As a result we need to repair our computer to make it function properly. It is very tedious to repair ones computer and beside that it is also time consuming if the problem is unknown by the repairer. But if anyone has sound information regarding computer repair then it would seem to be rather easier. There are several organizations with trained and qualified technicians to help you out whenever you have problem with your computer. There are also various computer selling organizations who give after sell repairing service completely at free of cost. While there are other computers organizations, which have good computer technicians, provide only repairing service. Each of these companies serves their clients with best technical services. There are also different books or guidelines to provide us various information regarding computer trouble shoot and how to repair them. There are also technical colleges and training institute for technicians to learn more about computer problems and their repairing.

There are computers of various brands such as IBM, HP, Compaq, Dell, Apple etc. in the market and they differ from each other in respect of hardware and software. Therefore their troubleshooting problems also differ from each other. So the technicians should know how to repair these different computers. A good computer technician is required to familiar with various operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Linux, etc. A good technician must also know how to deal with different computer peripherals such as printers, scanners, fax machines, etc.

Here are few troubleshoots of computers which are very common. They are 1) Power Supply Failure, 2) Motherboard Troubleshooting, 3) Hard Drive Failure 4), CD and DVD Drive Troubleshooting, 5) Modem Failure, 6) Sound and Game Card Failure, 7) Peripheral Failure Virus Threats and many more. At first the technician need to do a complete diagnostic checkup. Then he needs follow those Basic Computer Repairing rules to repair a troubleshooting computer successfully. Beside these computer requires regular update, virus cleaning and modifications. At last we can conclude that if computers are maintained and handled properly then we can prevent our computers from various troubleshoots as we all know that ‘prevention is always better than cure’.

Christopher H. Waters writes on many topics. Info on computer repair and computer repair services. Check out Quality Seekers for computer articles.

Braden is quite wrong when he says the initiations to this knowledge began about two thousand years ago. I think that is when some people emboldened by the earlier Pythagorean partial inclusion of the knowledge into Therapeutae systems like the Essenes, started to study it and write something about it. However, the prohibition on sharing this information which is said to have still been a matter of summary execution in the time of Plato, probably started ten thousand years earlier.

Pre-Neolithic Calendars:

The Ishango or other aboriginal message sticks from places like Australia and Africa are not easily comprehended by us in the present. The tools of forensics and hard sciences are not always possible for each author or scholar to fully comprehend but they are great evidences, and I thank god we have them. The megaliths and stelae or other Neolithic Libraries are the subject of serious investigation again. The list of proofs for trans-oceanic travel in the pre-Christian era would take a full book (at least) if only four lines were devoted to each point. The great seafarers of Atlantis or these early colonizers from the Brotherhood deserve to be studied and we can learn a great deal from how they ran their government or society. Unless you wish to take the alien intervention route of ‘easy answers’ to explain the various things we are discussing, you will have to keep working to understand why Empire and women-hating was so important to those wishing domination and control, as the appropriate means of governance.

I will quote Alexander Marshack shortly, his great work on an ancient lunar calendar is just another item that fits my long held perception, that we know so little and assume far too much stupidity for or about our forbears. Frank Parise wrote a reference book on all known calendrical systems a couple of decades ago. It is totally unbiased and lists the facts as they are known. In it he says the Mayan calendar starts at 3114 BC. In any event he lists it various parts from that time forward. I have heard it was prepared in 3564 BC. It certainly is very old and would have taken someone or a culture a long time to get to the point of this highly complex prophetic calendar that was as astronomically correct as early 20th Century calendars.

When Marshack wrote about the Le Placard baton in 1991 he was erring on the side of conservatism by saying it was from at least 15,000 BC. I have seen it dated as old as 35,000 years and the ‘norm’ for its provenance seems to be 30,000 years old. It is an accurate lunar calendar once thought to be mere ‘notation’ and it took twenty years of detailed analysis for Marshack to prove what it really was. In this quote he seems not to know about other things such as the origin of agriculture and language that we have covered. I guess it is hard for ‘experts’ to keep up to date on all the different fields or disciplines. One other real possibility is that he didn’t wish to go against conventional scholarship and the Sumerian or Bible Narrative origin of language and agriculture. Maybe it was his publisher or some other agency that convinced him not to rock the boat.
It is hard to imagine he did not know the work done at the Franchithi Caves that shows HYBRID grains before the Fertile Crescent ordinary grain harvests. Here we have the quote from his book The Roots of Civilization.

“… the unravelling occurred at precisely the moment that young archaeologists in Europe and the United States had begun to publish arguments that notations could not possibly have existed in the Ice Age and that the microscopic method could not be used to ascertain notation. I summarize the ‘decoding’ since it was not dependent on microscopic cross-sectional analysis of single marks but on a determination of the changing strategies involved in a complex sequence of visual, symbolic, problem-solving….

Remember also that this baton was engraved some 5,000 years before agriculture formally ‘began’ in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East and some 10,000 years before the formal ‘beginning’ of writing… “(2)

It is not easy to go against the forces of intellectual lethargy and worse that are backed by tenured professors. We see Marshack putting quotes around ‘began’ and ‘beginning’ and wonder if he knew better. Often the funding for research dries up when something threatening to the paradigm is being discovered. He also wisely addresses the mental processes of Neanderthal and we open another debate.

“By the Mousterian period, Neanderthal man, for instance, was not only engaged in complex adaptation to his environment, but was also engaged in complex ceremony and rite. By the Upper Paleolithic, modern ‘Homo Sapiens’ was capable of representational art and notation. This combined late evidence {He avoids the Berekhat Ram figurine dated to 400,000 years ago which we have covered. In 2004 they have found beaded art at least one fourth that old and claim it is 30,000 years older than the previously thought to be oldest art.} would seem to indicate that quite early the evolving hominid must have had some means of communication or ‘language’, a capacity and skill that evolved as part of the increasingly complex way of life and culture he was structuring. But how much language, and to say what at each stage, has not yet begun to be investigated. It was certainly more complex than can be deduced by analogy and from studies of the primates. In our efforts to understand the notations we must make the effort.” (3)

I say the notations were the forerunner of Ogham which incorporated the ritual and spiritual chant as well as the obvious sign languages that must have come first. Ogham is a sign language of the hands and knuckles; it is evident by looking at the simple diagrams of it. It also had healing and divinatory roots that make up at least 64 different tracts not to mention the 5 dialects. Modern scholars do not know how the quipas of Peru kept poetry on ropes with knots that are reminiscent of Ogham and knuckles. But, when one considers the ‘me-too think’ that is evident in schooling it is no wonder. There were early 20th Century scholars who still promoted Locke’s ‘Tabula Rasa’. Locke said no animal could think or communicate and that this is what separated man from beast at some point in his development. This, of course, dovetailed rather nicely with the Bible and the Babel story. Even Marshack is not mentioning Koko the gorilla or Kansai the chimp. They both know more English and grammar than many seven year olds.

The historians who made us believe the human was a cave dweller who beat women over the head with clubs are still quoted as having something to offer. Almost all Western academia is still infected by the Ussher born gradualistic ascendance through a ‘god-guided’ Christian entity that somehow created ’sins and demons’ and only had one true representative on earth. The scholars in the Church or the accompanying hegemony who developed the Scale of Nature needed to provide their missionaries and mercenaries with justification to destroy all life and art they found. The Incans and Mayans suffered mightily to see their culture destroyed and yet knew it was coming before it happened. It took the Pope until 1524 to decide if the North American Indian even had a soul as crude as the Hottentot. Needless to say who they had at the top of this evil Scale or Chain of Ascended Being; it was that person who was the Lord’s only representative. The same one that liked Cosmas Indicopleustas making all the heavens revolve around him in the Flat Earth theory.

Maybe I am wrong to think there has been an organized and well thought out conspiracy from the moment of the Treaty of Tordesillas and Columbus’ first invasion. Maybe Manifest Destiny is not the kind of rationale that the elite have used against natives and average people throughout history. Probably I do over-emphasize the Hegelian ‘play both ends against the middle’ whenever I see people like Moses being all things to all people. But it certainly deserves serious consideration if one is to learn enough from history to stop these things from happening. I am certain that animals have a soul and the ability to think and communicate. Yogi Ramacharaka of the Yogic Society of Chicago wrote some excellent books at the beginning of the 20th Century in which he said domesticated animals are at a higher spiritual level than many humans living in poverty. In the end I wonder about the soul of Churchians who limit the spirit and awareness of the soul for all their ‘flock’! Jesus said, ‘We are all the children of God’ and God must have people fulfilling his PURPOSE of harmonization here on earth. We all must think and choose for ourselves as we learn from our soul and all the potential of it and humanity – we must not be ‘fool – owers’!

“It was the first thought of prehistorians involved in the late nineteenth-century debate of science against the church that the newly discovered evidence of prehistoric art and ceremony revealed an evolution of man’s ’spiritual’ and ‘religious’ side, as opposed to his developing ‘practical’ or ‘aggressive’ side as indicated by the tools. This philosophic division of man into two or three parts was an attempt to save his unique ’spiritual’ place at the top of the ladder of creation. Man, the argument went, may have ascended biologically during his evolution, but once near the top he had been given, or he had achieved, a ’soul’.” (4)

And you know who the interpreters for this entity that gave us a soul were, don’t you? Marshack goes on to discuss the scientific and other contributions of Father Teilhard de Chardin, which rocked Catholicism. I am very much in agreement with the ‘templates’ of Teilhardism and the need for a ‘Conspiracy of Love’ which he called for, in great earnestness. His influence can be seen in Jean Houston’s Jumptime. This qualitative Intelligent Design is at the root of all my dedication to writing a new history for man to build proper models of behaviour upon.

So I hope I have established enough of the fundamentals for the reader to see the ‘notation’ and symbols on dolmen, menhir, megalith and stelae or other Neolithic Libraries has a lot to offer us; in seeing how we developed as spiritual beings in a long and fruitful growth, we must return to the bosom of. One of the most important aspects is reflected in the degrees of a circle or mapping system that Bradley said academics have ‘no apparent reason’ for the fact of its existence. It is harmonic and it was understood by the builders of the Great Pyramid.

Author of many books that tell us there are reasons that powerful people have sought to keep average people under them rather than share and care. Our history includes times when we were able to co-operate and achieve more as a species (even more than now possibly) and some people kept a little of the more ancient knowledge to themselves.

ICE AGES: – The impact of the ice ages and inter-glacial effects on the rise and fall of ocean levels and the earth readjustments to the departure of the ice cap cannot be over-looked in the human historical picture. Research in the area is far greater than in the recent past and we can learn what might have happened to earlier civilizations on earth. Atlantis is a given name for a civilization that inhabited many islands and coastal regions, in my mind. The idea of one central location makes little sense when one considers such things as Ice Ages and changes in the flow of the Gulf Stream and climate that resulted. Because it lasted for from 30,000 to 100,000 years and may have co-existed with other civilizations rising and falling it is most inauspicious to debate one specific time when it was in Tara or Crete or the Azores or Bimini or even Finias. That seems to be the usual debate among the over 25,000 books written about just this one lost civilization. As long as people don’t integrate all facts they inevitably just come up with theories to fit pet or prevailing concepts. In Gateway to Atlantis, ‘The Search for the source of a lost Civilization’ we see a far better scholar who is doing the right kind of investigation. Mapping of the ocean bottoms and geological understandings as well as studying glacial deposits and tree rings gives a better picture of history than history books.

“In 1960 a scientific paper by Wallace S. Broecker and his colleagues Maurice Ewing and Bruce C. Heezen, of Lamont Geological Observatory at Columbia University, Palisades, New York, appeared in the ‘American Journal of Science’. Entitled ‘Evidence for an Abrupt Change in Climate close to 11,000 years ago’, it advanced the theory that a ‘number of geographically isolated systems suggested that the warming of world-wide climate which occurred at the close of Wisconsin glacial times was extremely abrupt. (3)

By examining sediment cores taken from various deep-sea locations, Broecker and his team were able to demonstrate that around c. 9000 BC. the surface water temperature of the Atlantic Ocean increased by between six and ten degrees centigrade, (4) enough to alter its entire ecosystem. More significantly, it was found that the bottom waters of the Cariaco Trench in the Caribbean Sea, off Venezuela, suddenly stagnated, {The Gulf Stream being sent back south from hitting the land around the Azores when the water level was lower suddenly started warming the Iceland and British Isles regions, again.} showing that an abrupt change in water circulation had taken place coincident to the warming of the oceans. (5) Additionally, the silt deposits washing into the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi Valley abruptly halted and were retained in the delta and valleys, as the waters from the glacier-bound Great Lakes switched direction and began draining through the previously frozen northern outlets. (6) With extreme rapidity, the water levels of these lakes shrank from maximum volume, down to the much lower level they occupy today. (7)

Among the data drawn on by Broecker and his team to make their findings was the work conducted in 1957 by Cesare Emiliani of the Department of Geology at the University of Miami. He found that deep-sea cores displayed clear evidence of an abrupt temperature turn around in 9000 BC. was responsible for the other changes set out by Broecker et al. (8) However, since other cores examined by Emiliani had not shown the same rapid transition, he decided that the anomalous cores lacked vital sediment layers covering a period of several thousand years of ecological history, and so dismissed them as unreliable. (9) Yet Broecker and his colleagues disputed Emiliani’s interpretation of the results. They could find no reason to suppose that key sediment layers could have been lost in the manner suggested. As a consequence, they reinstated Emiliani’s controversial findings as crucial evidence of a major shift in oceanic temperatures around 11,000 years ago. (10)

Although Broecker et al seemed keen to promote a date of c. 9000 BC for the rapid transition from glacial to post-glacial ages, there are indications that this event did not occur until a slightly later period. At least three lake sites in the Great Basin region revealed carbon-14 dates around 8000 BC for a maximum water level shortly ‘before’ they experienced a sudden desiccation after the withdrawal of the ice sheets. (11) In addition to this, marine shells from the St. Lawrence Valley, which provided evidence of an invasion of seawater coincident to a rapid ice retreat, frequently produced dates ‘post’ 9000 BC. (12)

Broecker and his colleagues accepted the presence of these much lower dates and suggested that the whole matter was complicated by the fact that there had been an estimated 200-year resurgence of glacial conditions, known as the Valders re-advance, around the mid-ninth millenium BC. They therefore acknowledged that their own findings might in fact relate to the recession of the ice fields after this time, bringing the dates of their suggested ‘major fluctuation in climate’ and the ’sharp change in oceanic conditions’ down to well below c. 9000 BC. (13)

THE EVIDENCE OF POLLEN SPECTRA

Further evidence that dramatic changes accompanied the transition from glacial to post-glacial ages came from the work of Herbert E. Wright Jnr, of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, (14) and J Gordon Ogden III of the Department of Botany and Bacteriology at the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware. (15) Both examined the pollen spectra range from sediment cores taken from various lake sites in the Great Lakes area and found they provided clear evidence of an abrupt shift in flora at the end of glaciation. The spruce forests that had thrived in the cold harsh climate for many thousands of years were supplanted swiftly, first by pine and then by mixed hardwood forests, such as birch and oak. Deciduous trees, as we know, only thrive in a warmer climate.

The significance of these findings is the acceleration at which this transition took place. In an article for the journal ‘Quaternary Paleoecology’ in 1967, Ogden pointed out that some pollen spectra samples showed a 50 per cent replacement from spruce to pine occurring in just 10 centimetres of sediment. (16) In one sample taken from a site named Glacial Lake Aitken in Minnesota, the transition from 55 per cent to 18 per cent spruce pollen occurred in only 7.6 centimetres of sediment, re- presenting a deposition corresponding to just 170 years. (17) The problem here is that conventional geologists and paleoecologists consider that the transition from glacial to post-glacial ages occurred over several ‘thousand’ years, not just a few hundred {The time it takes for one or two trees to live and die.} years.

These findings so baffled Ogden that he was led to comment: ‘The only mechanism sufficient to produce a change of the kind described here would therefore appear to be a rapid and dramatic change in temperature and/or precipitation approximately 10,000 years ago.’ (18)

What kind of climatic ‘event’ might have been responsible for this ‘rapid and dramatic change in temperature’ {Could this relate to the buttercups found frozen and undigested in Mammoth mouths of the Arctic?} in the American Midwest, sometime around c. 8000 BC? Had it been a consequence of the proposed cometary impact that devastated the western hemisphere during this same epoch?

The knowledge that some 65 million years ago the Cretaceous period had been abruptly brought to a close by just such an impact has softened the most stubborn of minds concerning such a possibility. Broecker himself, in an article written for ‘Scientific American’ in 1983, now accepted that asteroid or comet impacts might be responsible for the instigation and termination of glacial ages. (19)

This is indeed what Emilio Spedicato has suggested as the mechanism behind the revolution in climate and ocean temperature experienced during this period…” (20)

We will return to implications related to this and the work of Mr. Collins throughout this encyclopedia as we develop real history from actual facts rather than the Bible Narrative. It should be evident that these climate changes had significant impacts on society and created a loss of culture and technology in certain areas of the world. There were probably people who took advantage of these spiritual and other perceptions that resulted as well.

Author of Diverse Druids
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine
Guest ‘expert’ at World-Mysteries.com

It might be more fun to talk about those those nifty designer business checks that are helping to solidify your branding efforts at the next staff meeting, but what really should be rolling off your lips if you want to be taken seriously are the words “business continuity and disaster recovery planning”. Nothing is more important to a company than having a comprehensive recoveery plan in place prior to when disaster strikes. The framework for disaster recovery and business continuity planning will be different for every company. But every company needs to have a plan.

If you are unsure of your company’s plan, or if you think there might not even be one, it’s certainly time to ask. If a comprehensive plan is not available, it’s time everyone rolls up their sleeves and creates one. For the businesses continuity planning to be effective everyone in every department should become part of the process. The left hand should know what the right hand is doing. A disaster recovery planner can be very helpful in these meetings. If one is not available, disaster recovery software can be readily found on the internet to guide you through the process.

Once plans for business continuity and disaster recovery have been made, the entire company needs to be educated as to what to do in the event of a disaster. Knowing what to do in the midst of the disaster as well as the days following the disaster can be invaluable. Ask any company that has experienced a disaster, and they will all tell you that disaster recovery planning is vital to maintaining business continuity when the unexpected happens. It could be a tornado, or a virus attacking your database. Whatever the disaster, having a plan prevents chaos. It is worth the time and effort it takes to implement. The consequences are clear… Fail to plan and your plan to fail!

Renee Rich is a success entrepreneur and freelance writer offering guidance and suggestions for small to mid-sized businesses concerned with business continuity, time management, strategic internet marketing, business & money. Her many articles on these topics can be found on this business continuity website. She gives information and tips to help protect your business with proper disaster recovery business continuity planning. This includes, risk assessment, disaster management, and contingency planning. Learn more about Disaster Management today.

Maximizing the life of your hard drive

If I asked you the question: which part of your computer is the most fragile, what would you say? What if I asked: which part is most important to you?
Often, the answer to both of these questions is your Hard Drive.

Your hard drive is likely one the most important things you own. It contains work data, school data, emails, photos, music, movies, tax information, etc… Incidentally, the hard drive is also one of only two moving components in your computer (the other being your optical drive). The following is a list of important maintenance and monitoring techniques you can use to maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data loss.

Hard drives are physically fragile – handle with care
Statistics show that 25% of lost data is due to a failure of a portable drive. (Source: 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results)
Contrary to its seemingly rugged appearance, your hard disk is a very delicate device that writes and reads data using microscopic magnetic particles. Any vibration, shock, and other careless operation may damage your drive and cause or contribute to the possibility of a failure. This is especially relevant for notebook users, as they are most at risk of drive failure due to physical damage, theft, and other causes beyond their control. That’s why we recommend regular backup of notebook hard drives, as often as possible.
Possible solutions include external USB or Firewire drives (although these are prone to the same risks), desktop synchronization, or backup at a data center through the web.

Hard drives write data in a non-linear way forcing it to become fragmented.

When files accumulate on your hard drive, they do not just get written in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes files in small pieces and scatters them over the surface. The fuller your hard drive becomes and the more files you save and delete the worse file fragmentation can be. Hard drive access times increase with fragmentation since your drive must work harder to find all the pieces of the files. The more fragmented your data is, the harder the actuator arm has to work to find each piece of a file.

A case in point: Disk fragmentation is a common problem for users of Outlook Express and database software. Each time outlook saves new mail, it does so in a different physical location from the previous time. This results in extreme fragmentation, causing longer hard drive access times and forcing more strain on the heads. This strain can eventually lead to a head crash, and often that means a virtually unrecoverable drive.Finally, in the event of a total crash, a fragmented drive is much more difficult to recover then a healthy defragged drive.

Luckily, Windows makes it remarkably easy to defrag your hard drive, simply launch the Disk Defragmenter utility (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools), choose which disk or partition you’d like to defragment and set it to work overnight or while you are not actively using your computer. Defragmentation will speed up your computer and ensure a longer life for your hard drive.

A very small power surge can fry a hard drive – use a UPS and turn off your computer when you can

Another little-known fact about the fragility of your hard drive is its susceptibility to electrical failure. An electrical failure can be caused by a power surge, lightening strikes, power brown-outs, incorrect wiring, a faulty or old power supply, and many other factors. If a power surge enters your computer, it may do an unpredictable amount of damage, including destroying your hard drive’s electronics or crashing the heads and possibly resulting in total data loss.
The best way to protect your computer from such dangers is to use a highly rated protected power bar or an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although these devices won’t eliminate the chances of a crash, they will serve as effective protection in most cases. Also, you can minimize the danger of an electrical problem and reduce wear of your hard drive by turning off your computer or using power-save modes whenever possible. It’s a known fact that 100% of drives fail, the question is when will it happen and will you be prepared? Make sure to check out the knowledgebase section of our website for more detailed information on how electrical power affects your computer.

Be SMART, monitor the health of your drive to prevent unexpected crashes

All modern hard drives have a self-monitoring technology called SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology). What most people don’t realize is that the majority of hard drive failures do not have to be unexpected. Most failures occur as a result of long-term problems which can be predicted. By regularly monitoring disk health and performance, you can know about potential hard drive problems before you lose any of your data.

Several excellent utilities are available, including DiskView and Stellar SMART for standard IDE and SATA desktop drives. Also available are tools that monitor the health of SCSI drives and full RAID Array systems. Ariolic Software offers a great utility called ActiveSMART.

The only fool-proof way to prevent data loss is… Backup!

If you only take one of the suggestions here to heart, let it be this one: always back up your important data. After all the monitoring and all the prevention measures are in place, one fact still remains: all hard drives fail. Backing up regularly will ensure that you’re never caught without your critical data. For individuals, the simplest solutions include external portable hard drives, dvd’s, and online storage. For businesses, we recommend renting space at a secure data centre and implementing a disaster recovery plan, regardless of the size of your business.

I hope that the above techniques give you some idea of the importance of hard drive maintenance and provide some insights in how you can protect yourself from data loss.

Alex Bezborodov is the technical writer for Accurate Data Recovery, specializing in data recovery solutions and research.
Let ADR bring your data back to life!

Have you ever wondered what the names are of the devices connected to, and in, your computer? There are many people out there who have never owned a computer or who have a computer but do not know what the proper terms are for the things that come with it. This article explains what those names are and provides a little bit of information about how they function.

Generally, all computers come with a few basic devices. These usually include a Monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and the computer (also known as the tower or case).

Monitor – The monitor is the device that looks similar to a TV. There are many types of monitors but the most common is a 17 inch CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor. A CRT monitor is very similar to your standard TV. There is a new type of monitor that is becoming very popular, it’s called an LCD monitor. An LCD monitor is quite a bit smaller and the quality is somewhat better.

Keyboard – The keyboard is one of the most basic input devices. This is the device that has all the numbers, letters, and symbols that you use to type words on the computer.

Mouse – This is the other most basic input device. It is a small mouse-like device connected to your computer that lets you move the pointer around the screen and click on icons.

Computer – This is the device that houses the “Guts” of your computer. Inside is where all of the magic happens. Generally, inside a computer case you will find a hard drive, system board, RAM, network card, and all the other devices that let you do all of the fun things that computers nowadays let you do.

Printer – This is the device that lets you turn what you see on your computer, into hard copies on paper. There are many types of printers, such as: ink jet, laser, and dot matrix. Some printers also come with built in scanners (to digitize paper documents), fax machines, and photocopiers.

This is just some basic information that has, hopefully, helped you better understand your computer. You may think that most people should already know this but you might be surprised at how many do not.

Dennis d’Entremont is the operator of SaveLoad Video Game Directory and Computers-Made-Easy.com.

8 Ways to get Free Targeted Traffic
By The HitsBam Team
http://www.hitsbam.com

What good is your website if no one knows about it? The reason most webmasters fail within their first year is because they overlook advertising and promotion. Just because you have a perfectly designed website does not mean that people will find it. It is not hard to produce a steady stream of targeted traffic, and it can be absolutely free if you do it right. Below are eight free ways to produce quality targeted traffic for your website.

1. Search Engines
Search Engines are one of the best sources for targeted traffic and potential customers, so search engines should be one of the biggest factors for advertising and promotion. Did you know that most people never click past the first page of search engines? You need to be on the first page of search engines for your targeted keywords to generate targeted traffic. Getting your website to the top of search engines such as Google and Yahoo for free takes special methods called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search Engines Optimization envolves many factors, such as Meta Tags, Inbound Links, <title> tags, keywords, content, and PageRank. Since SEO is such an advanced field, HitsBam has written a completely seperate article entitled A Complete Guide to Search Engine Optimization to get you to the top of search engines for free.

2. Message Boards
Message Boards, or commonly known as forums, are great places to make partnerships with other webmasters and gain targeted traffic. First, create a signature post file with your name and URL so everytime you post a message, people will be interested in your website. Then introduce yourself slowly by posting useful information and answering questions. The more active you become in the forum, the better, because you will be known as an “expert”, which gives you and your website a good reputation. Always remember to obide by the forum’s rules and NEVER spam them with your website. A good signature for a forum would look something like this:

———————————————
Your Name
http://www.yourwebsite.com
“A funny or catchy quote”
———————————————

3. Email Signatures
Imagine that every email you send out is advertising for your website. This can be a reality if you utilize email signatures. Almost every email program or website has this feature. You can use it when sending personal emails, business emails, when you email your clients, in your autoresponder, or any other email that is sent. Email Signatures are perfect to keep people coming back to your website because the signature reminds them that your website exists. Remember to never spam, it just is not worth it. A good email signature would look something like this:

———————————————
Your Name
Your Website Title
http://www.yourwebsite.com
“Your Slogan” or a Short Description
———————————————

4. Content
Content, Content, Content! Search engines are so sophisticated these days that the only real way to get on the top of search engines is to have good keyword-rich content. Not only will you recieve top rankings on search engines, people will actually want to visit your site, especially if the content is for free. You could also post your articles at ezines and websites and leave your link at the bottom. This lets people know that you are knowledgable and that they should visit your website, and it works suprisingly well to generate targeted traffic for free. You can make some real money selling links on your website if you have good content. Some websites with a PageRank of 7 or more sell links for $250+ a month! Don’t forget to place your keywords all over your website and in your articles. The more keywords you incorporate into your content, the better, just make sure it is still an understandable article and not just an article full of keywords.

5. Start A Newsletter
Newsletters can be a great way to keep visitors comming back to your website. It is suggested that you send out a unique issue every week to keep reminding the customers that you are still here, but make sure each issue is different and has something to offer the reader, usually free information. Once you reach about 100 subscribers, the newsletter can become an income generator, as you can sell ad space on it. You can find some great free scripts for your newsletter at www.ACJavascripts.com.

6. Awards
Submitting your site to be chosen for awards is a great way to get people to find your website. If you happen to win a big award that fits the color scheme of your website, you could display it proudly on your front page showing your visitors that the website is reliable and has won awards. You can find out more about how to apply for awards with free software from http://www.market-tek.com/awardsite.html.

7. Free Stuff
Free stuff to offer your visitors is a great way to keep them comming back or to persuade them to buy your products. There are many things you can offer, such as email addresses, games, information, tips and hints, software, ebooks, and the list goes on. You could give away something that would compliment a sale for your product. An example would be to give away free information on how dirty air can cause health problems if you are selling air purifiers.

8. Traffic Swarm
We usually do not support traffic exchange programs and click for traffic programs, but we have found an exception. A program called Traffic Swarm has been one of our biggest targeted traffic producers. It’s unique way of letting the surfer choose what site they want to visit has proven successful and has reflected it’s success to it’s members. They do offer a pro memebership that gives you bonus credits, 2000 credits per month, a featured site link, and much more. HitsBam highly suggests joining this free program.

About the Author

This article was written by HitsBam. For more free articles and other traffic sources, please visit http://www.hitsbam.com.