Election Signs

Every time I switch my TV on, all I hear are the upcoming presidential elections. I like the thrill of elections every four years as they give me something to think about. I cannot wait to be able to vote again. I am aware of the fact that it takes a lot of effort to prepare presidential elections. A lot of money goes into it. For example, people responsible for organizing elections have to make sure that they have at least one campaign sign near each place where voters can come to cast a vote. The reason I believe that there should be signs everywhere near places where people can come to cast their votes is that there usually seems to be a lot of confusion when it comes to such places. Voters might have absolutely no idea where to go to vote. I believe that knowing where to do it should be always clear to everybody. What is more, political campaign signs are a great way of getting the word out about a candidate. How else are voters are going to know with whom they deal? In short, political candidates depend on the distribution of political as well as campaign signs to get people interested in their platforms.

Boot Screen in Windows Vista

The standard boot screen in Windows Vista is not very appealing, at least according to a lot of people, but the good news is that you can change it. You can change it to a customized one, but in this article I wanted to show how to change it to a hidden one which is included with your Vista installation. While there might not be any practical reason to change your boot screen, if you are looking at your monitor each time your computers is booting, why not change the screen to something less boring and more exciting? All you have to do is to go to your start menu search box -> type msconfig -> click the Boot tab -> check the �No GUI boot� checkbox. After restarting your computer, you should see a brand new boot screen.

Posted in Blogging, Business Edit How About Getting Rid of Your Vehicle?

I know that it might be hard for you to imagine life without your car. If you use your car frequently, this might mean that you really need it. If you use your car occasionally, I would like to encourage you to get rid of your car. How much money do you spend each month on fuel, premiums, or car repairs? I bet that you spend a lot, even if you do not use your car every day. You still need to pay your premiums even if you do not use your car every day. Your insurance company does not care how often you use your car. You can always use public transportation to get to some places. The whole experience does not have to be as bad as you might think it to be. You can always ask your family or friends for a lift or you can even ask to lend you their car if you really need to get somewhere fast.

Designing a web template

Designing a web template requires a lot of time and creativity. That is why I appreciate websites that have very nice templates. Some people and companies also like other sites templates to the degree that they are copying their design. While I understand that they might like a particular template, I do not think that this means they have the right to simply copy it. In case of not very popular websites probably nobody will notice. However, if a large company decides to do it, there might be some serious repercussions, including a court battle. Over the years, I read about such stories and it amazes me that people still think that there is no chance that they will get caught stealing unique templates. I think it is a lot better idea to use one of the free templates available, and later slightly modify it so that it suits our needs.

Starting to Use Excel

Every one of us does some things for the first time. For many people Excel is a piece of cake, but there are many people who did not have any contact with it yet. To start your Excel (provided of course that you have it installed) click on the Start menu from the bottom left corner of your screen. A menu after that will pop up. Go to Programs and then look for Microsoft Excel. Once you found it, highlight it and click on it once to open it. Now you are in the spreadsheet. I know that the grid might look intimidating in the beginning, but do not worry, you will get used to it soon. I will continue writing posts about Excel, so do not worry.

Surfing While at Work

The problem with working in an office is that you might not always be busy. And when a worker is not busy, he might be tempted to start looking for something to do, like surfing the Web, or writing emails. There are many people who just surf the Internet for fun during work, or use their email for other purposes then strictly work. According to the study conducted by AMA (American Management Association) among three hundred companies US companies more than a quarter of employees were fired because of misusing email, and every third worker has been let go for not using the Internet properly at work. Whereas accessing pornographic sites during working hours was the main reason for being fired for misusing the Internet, simply surfing the Web was the reason one third of the employees lost their employment. Office workers are also being downsized for the misuses of emails, mostly because of the inappropriate language used in correspondence. Twenty five percent of bosses said that they fired their staff because of excessive personal use of email.

I think that it is quite apparent that a worker should not access pornographic websites, or other sites considered to be offensive. When it comes to emails avoiding using vulgar language is another thing that employees should remember about. Workers should also realize that in order to have everything under control many companies monitor their Internet connections, and as a matter of fact, it has been said that 66% of companies monitor their Internet connections. In many cases companies do not even have to notify employees that their activity at the computer is monitored. Every employee should remember that and try to represent their company in the best way possible. Employees should also try to use their time effectively because they are usually paid on a per hour basis. Of course, employees also deserve privacy to some degree, so monitoring Internet connections may not be the best way to motivate employees to work more efficiently.

4 Ways to Spot Fake Page Rank Websites

First of all, Page Rank is Google�s ranking algorithm that calculates the importance of webpages on the Internet. In order to get a high PR, a site has to have high PR websites linking to it that are relevant to the topic of the site, and are not blacklisted by Google. The PR scale is from 0 to 10, with 3 being respectable, 6 impressive, and 10 almost impossible to achieve. It is a widely used way to determine a website�s value when deciding to buy a site, exchanging links with it, or in any other circumstances. Since it is so widely used, sometimes the consequences of being tricked by a fake PR can be drastic, like in a case of buying an expensive website. However there are ways to identify fake Page Rank, depending on circumstances:

1. Visit this PR checking tool (checkpagerank.net) to determine if the PR is valid. Among other things, it checks whether a site uses a 301 or 302 redirect that points from their site to another site with a high Pagerank. Such redirect can be used to fake a site�s PR by displaying PR of another website, instead of its own. PR displayed in toolbars is not always real, as it can be tricked by redirecting.

2. Check the number of backlinks on the smartpagerank.com site. If there are none or only few backlinks from low PR sites and the sites appears to have a high PR, it might indicate that something suspicious is going on. Use the backlinks analyzer for detailed information.

3. Check the number of indexed pages by checking out smartpagerank.com. If there are no pages it means that the domain has probably dropped/expired recently, or that it is blacklisted by Google. If there are only a few links and the site has a high PR, you should be cautious as well.

4. Use the WayBackMachine tool (archive.org/index.php) to see how the site looked like in the past. If it was a completely different website, it might mean that it recently switched owners. If the topic of the new website is different as well, there is a risk that the PR will drop. That is because Google only counts links relevant to the topic to determine PR.

Hosting a Blog on Your Own Domain

This time I would like to write about advantages and disadvantages of blogs hosted on your own domain name:
-You will have to pay for the domain name and for hosting your domain. This can amount to approximately $150 per year, but it varies depending on which hosting plan you will choose.
-If your blog is hosted on Blogspot you can incorporate AdSense, but Google will take part of the profit. However, you will not need to share your profit with Google if you decide to have your own domain.
-Other bloggers might show more respect towards bloggers who have their blog hosted on their own domain. That is because they might assume that such a blogger is more serious about blogging.
-If you have your own domain, you have a lot higher possibility to fully customize your blog. However, it might require some html and php knowledge. Make sure you learn some basic html before you decide to host your own blog.

I will leave you to make your own conclusions about hosting, because it really depends on circumstances. Overall, if you are really serious about blogging you may eventually decide to host your blog on your own domain.

Laptop and Docking Stations

Docking Stations provide a simplified way of connecting a laptop to computer peripherals. Docking stations for laptops are not something that is new on the market. Laptops were generally designed for mobile use. It means we should be able to use them while traveling, at school, or college. As a matter of fact, this is one of the biggest advantages of laptops. If you are a laptop owner yourself, and you like traveling a lot, then you will enjoy having a docking station. A docking station can be connected to a mouse, speakers, network cable, second monitor, and any other accessories that might be useful. Later, you can simply connect your laptop to the docking station, without the need to disconnect all of the devices and then connect them again. Basically, you can just pop the laptop in and out as needed, instead of hooking up 5 connections. I believe that in the future more and more people will have laptops instead of desktops. That is because engineers will be able to design smaller computer components eliminating the need of owning a desktop computer. However, until that happens, desktop computers will continue to be the most popular types of computers.

Balance

One of the questions I have been asking myself recently is how to keep the balance between resting, working and having fun. I am one of those people who enjoy participating in various activities. I might also be a workaholic, but it is already a different story. I noticed that I feel better after having a good night�s sleep. This means that I need to sleep well in order to feel good. Now the question is how much sleep do I really need and how many hours should I reserve for some other fun activities. I must admit that very often I am tempted to stay up late even though I know that I should go to sleep. I never pull all nighters as I am not one of such people who can stay up very late.