Improve Your Memory

Objective:
Learn how to memorize any string of numbers.  Ace tests and exams by easily memorizing hundreds of dates or strings of digits (key coureses include social studies, art history, etc.).  Also never forget your bank account information--even memorize your credit card number!

Improve Your Memory
As shown below, you first memorize the letter sounds that correspond to the numbers 1-9 in the Red box.  Then use the freeware software and tips on the next page to come up with objects that represent the numbers you would like to remember. In this example, I have converted the number 7215017 into a Candlestick.

 

Source: http://wwweudaigroup.com/memorytest/memorypage1.html

Unplugged Forbes Editor in Tears After Two Days

Top 10 Ways to Build Muscle Mass Fast

 

    "Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."

 

- Arnold H. Glasow

 

1. Pursue Progressive Overload.

 

The law of progressive overload simply says that you must increase the amount of reps or the weight lifted every single workout (or as close to this as humanly possible) in order to ignite muscle growth.

 

2. Perform 8-12 reps.

 

3. Perform 6-9 sets.

 

Yes just 6-9 sets per body part. If you are working out with good form this is all you need to stimulate muscle growth. You want to keep your workouts under 45 minutes to avoid the release of hormones that actually break your muscle tissue down (catabolic hormones). Luckily, you can easily accomplish this by performing a maximum of 9 sets per body part.

 

4. Eat Eat Eat.

 

A good bodybuilding diet will allow you to grow without adding fat at the same time.

 

5. Increase the Amount of Protein in your Diet.

 

Lean Mass Weight (Kg) x 2.75 = Daily Protein Requirement

Your lean weight is your total body weight minus the amount of fat you are carrying. You will need to know your body fat percentage for this.

 

6. Eat Fat.

 

A Low-Fat diet is not desirable in bodybuilding. Eating fat increases the amount of anabolic (muscle building) hormones in your body. These are:

1. Testosterone
2. Growth Hormone
3. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1)

 

 

7. Make Sure you Drink Enough Water.

 

You should shoot for around 12 x 8 ounce glasses of water per day. Remember you can include your protein shakes towards your daily water intake.

 

8. Avoid Too Much Cardio.

 

Cardiovascular work will rob you of muscle gains. Yes if your goal is to lose fat you should do cardio but make sure it is:

(a) Performed immediately after your weight training

(b) 'High Intensity Interval Training' form of cardio for a maximum of 20 minutes.

The reason that too much cardio isn't desirable when your goal is to build muscle is that too much cardio releases catabolic hormones in the body, breaking down your muscle tissue; obviously this is counter-productive.

 

9. Sleep.

 

10. Relax.

 

Being stressed out results in a catabolic (muscle breakdown) environment in the body. One such hormone is cortisol. Remember that a calm, relaxed person builds more muscle than the hot-head :) (assuming all other factors are equal).

 

Source: http://ririanproject.com/2008/03/18/top-10-ways-to-build-muscle-mass-fast/

How to Improve your Discipline?

And it was when one of my Martial Arts Teacher told me: "You always have an excuse for whatever happens to you" that everything clicked and I finally could see myself in the mirror and see that the only one who I was cheating was I and no one else.

 

Discipline like anything else is something you learn and you really need to start small in order to not get frustrated, once you work over your own "I can" scale then you will be able to do some amazing feats. Do not try to be a Shaolin Monk tomorrow :)

 

Start Small

 

Small things are great things to get disciplined.

 

Let say you have planed to clean your house on Saturday, nothing spectacular right? But then, a couple of friends call you to invite you to a party on Friday, you go and party all night! … you come home and sleep almost all Saturday, it's 5:00pm , What will you do? Will you move your house cleaning plan to Sunday? Or will you start your cleaning on Saturday?

Discipline starts even before, if you knew you would clean your house on Saturday then why did you stay so long partying on Friday?

 

I am hearing your excuses now: "Life is one and you have to enjoy it, I enjoy going to party and not cleaning my house"…

 

Let me tell you one thing, even though you might not be aware, you are surely doing the same thing in other aspects of your life. You are just evading your plans and responsibilities in exchange for entertainment, leisure and pleasure.

 

You are just a pawn of your desires, fears and greed and the only way to get rid of that is to be strict with yourself and follow your plans for the day.

 

Deepak Chopra in one of his books wrote that once you set your objective or your goal you have to release it, in other words, forget it, he gives as an example those moments in which you are trying to remember the name of someone and you are trying very hard to make it come to your memory even though you have this feeling that you have it "on the tip of your tongue", but at the very moment that you decide not to try to remember it anymore or "give up", the name almost instantly comes up and you remember it.

 

It is kind of illogical; to forget or to give up your goals but in some way that is how it works.

 

In other words, if you are so focused on the end result, you won't have as much fun in training and the chances of you reaching your time goals diminish greatly.

 

The main question each athlete has to ask themselves to enjoy the process of training is "how can I make this more enjoyable?" Enjoyable doesn't necessarily mean fun. I like words like challenging, uplifting, encouraging, satisfying, fulfilling, outstanding, achievement. These are the feelings you want to get from your training and often it's just a matter of perspective. These are the feelings that lead to a successful process."

 

This experience revealed me the next big secret: The Universal law of "What you give you shall receive".

 

Always remember this: "A candle looses nothing by lighting another candle".

 

Credits: http://success-is-in-you.com/

"The New York Times": Foreign Affairs

          "When we were young kids growing up in America, we were
           Told to eat our vegetables at dinner and not leave them.
           Mothers said, think of the starving children in India
           And finish the dinner.'


          And now I tell my children:
           'Finish your homework. Think of the children in India
           Who would make you starve, if you don't.'?"

Rising up to Mount Everest

Edmund Hillary who was the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest with Tenzing Norgay, had failed thrice earlier. Later at a party hosted in his honor in New Zealand, he looked at the portrait of Mount Everest and said: "Mount Everest has a problem. The problem is, it cannot grow more than about 29,000 feet, whereas I have the ability to grow in my ability to climb Everest".

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary

100+ Resources for Web Developers

Code

Photo Credit: Josh Lewis

1. Little Boxes
CSS Templates for various page layouts

2. Snipplr
Collection of code snippets - JavaScript, HTML, PHP, CSS, Ruby, Objective C

3. AJAX, DHTML and JavaScript Libraries
An extensive list with over 60 Ajax, Javascript and DHTML Libraries - with detailed descriptions.

4. Javascript Framework
Easy Ajax and DOM manipulation for dynamic Web applications

5. AJAX Javascript Solutions for Professional Coding
Over 90 useful AJAX-based techniques you should always have ready to hand

6. DHTML and AJAX samples
Nice looking simple downloadable DHTML and AJAX code

7. AJAX Patterns
A Wiki of reusable AJAX code, and huge AJAX resource

8. Mozilla Developer Center - AJAX
Mozilla's offering on AJAX

9. CSS Typeset
Interactive CSS generator

10. Open Source Directory
An archive of the Web's best Open Source software, applications and references.

11. .htaccess Creator
Online tool to create .htaccess files

12. PHP Form
Create HTML Forms in seconds and get the code

13. Best Solutions for Images
30 scripts of impressive slideshows, lightboxes and galleries you can use for effective presentations of your images.

14. Lightbox
Lightbox is a simple unobtrusive script used to overlay images on a page

15. Design patterns and tips
101 Design Patterns and Tips for Developers

16. Spanky Corners
Creates CSS and GIF images for rounded corners

17. Nifty Corners Cube
Rounded corners with no images

18. How to redirect a Web page the right way
Don't lose PageRank! Steven Hargrove gives you the code to redirect using htaccess, Mod_Rewrite, IIS, ColdFusion, ASP, Java, Perl, Ruby and PHP

Cool Online Tools

19. Pipe Bytes
Send files of any size through any Web browser. No software to install, private and the recipient can start downloading while you're still uploading

20. PHP FTP Synchronizer
Free program to update your website from local files

21. Dummy Text Generator
Generate text by number of paragraphs, words, bytes or lists

22. UTF-8 decoder
Unicode Decoder

23. CSS Tidy
Open source CSS parser and optimizer

24. HTML Tidy
Open source utility for tidying up HTML

25. FireFTP
Free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox

26. FileZilla
Free FTP client and FTP server

27. Dust-Me Selectors
Firefox extension that finds unused CSS selectors

28. ColorZilla
Get a color reading from any point within Firefox

29. FireFox IE Tab
Run IE inside Firefox

30. Font Sizer
Let visitors change the font size on your site. XHTML, CSS, and PHP source available

31. Recaptcha
Captcha helps prevent automated abuse of your site, ensuring only humans perform certain actions; free

32. Super Screenshot
Take a full sized screenshot of any Web page

33. Web Site Thumbnails
Get thumbnails of any Web site

34. Back Orifice
A remote admin system that enables a user to control a computer over a network

35. CoPilot
Remote control another computer – free on weekends, otherwise $5 for 24 hours

Documentation and Reference

36. Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications
The ultimate AJAX introduction

37. Cheat Sheet Round Up
Your one stop shop for all cheat sheets including: Actionscript, Ajax, Apache, ASCII, ASP, C#, CSS, CVS, C++, Django, Firefox, Google, HTML/XHTML, Java, JavaScript, LaTeX, MySQL, Perl, Photoshop, GIMP, PHP, Python, Regular Expressions, Ruby, Unix, Linux, Weblogs, Windows, XML.

38. Quick reference
Searches for references on C, C++, CSS, HTML, HTML DOM, Java, JavaScript, MySQL, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby

39. Got API
Easily search sites for API documentation

40. CSS Basics
Cascading Style Sheets made easy

41. The Ultimate CSS Resource

42. RSS Specifications
The authority on RSS - from Harvard

43. RSS Best Design Practices and Icons
All things RSS including free icons

44. Go To and Learn
Free video tutorials on Flash

45. Optimize Your PHP code
40 Tips to optimize your PHP code

46. Optimizing MYSQL queries
10 Tips to optimize MYSQL queries

47. How to Create a Dynamic BlogRoll
Using Feedjumbler - it takes 5 minutes

Testing

48. CSS Validation
At W3C

49. HTML/XHTML Validation
At W3C

50. HTML Validator
Firefox extension to validate your HTML (as used within http://validator.w3.org/)

51. Link Checker
Checks for broken links in your HTML pages

52. Firebug
Edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any Web page

53. Gray Bit
Online testing tool; convert a full color page into grayscale to visually test contrast

54. Cross Browser Compatibility Testing
Check your site with multiple browsers on a single machine

55. Screen Sizer
Check out your site in different screen sizes

56. Feed Validator
If you've ever noticed invalid characters or XML markup in content items, check your feed for validity problems.

Windows

57. Windows Unlocker
Tells you the application that is stopping you from deleting a file

58. Windows Dependency Walker
See which DLLs are required for Windows applications

59. Pending Moves
Show files will be updated when you next restart Windows

60. Process Explorer
View active processes – Task Manager on steroids

61. Process Monitor
Monitors file system, registry and process/thread activity

62. Regulazy
Visual regular expression builder

63. WinDirStat
Display size of files and folders graphically

64. wget for Windows
Gets a HTML resource (HTML, image, document, javascript, css etc)

65. WinSnap
Takes a snap shot of your screen ($19.90)

Converters

66. Convert HTML to RSS
Generate an RSS feed for almost any Web page.

67. Binary to Base64
Create data streams for embedding images (or any type of file) in (X)HTML, CSS and XML

68. HTML To JS/PHP/Perl Converter
This tool will convert normal HTML code to a script based language such as JavaScript, PHP or Perl

69. Text to Voice
Create an MP3 of a voice reading your text

70. Free PDF online conversion
Converts various files (DOC, PUB, RTF, XLS, PPT, HTML, JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, WMF, EMF, GIF etc.), to PDF online, then e-mails you the PDF

71. Web 2 PDF
Allow your visitors to create PDFs of any Web page

72. Text to Hex converter
Write your name in hex

Graphics

73. YotoPhoto
Search engine for royalty free images (over 250,000 indexed)

74. Background Image maker - http://lab.rails2u.com/bgmaker/
Create background images online with this quick and easy tool

75. Iconaholic
Lots of great free icons

76. Animated GIFs
Generate and preview animated GIFs, then download

77. 216 Color Webmasters Palette
Web Safe colors for webmasters

78. ASCII Art
The original Web Art

79. ASCII Generator

80. Image to ASCII
Convert images and text to ASCII

81. GIMP
GNU Image Manipulation Program

82. Inkscape
Open Source vector graphics editor, similar to Illustrator and CorelDraw

83. Create Web 2.0 Badges (image –png)
Ajax lessons show you how to create a shiny Web 2.0 badge in eight easy steps

84. Color Scheme Generator

Site Analytics

85. Who is the Owner?
Find out who owns a Web site quickly

86. Google Banned Tool
Quick way to find out whether your URL is in Google's banned database

87. Crazy Egg
Variety of products to see what people are doing on your site using a heatmap or just plain hard data. Pricing plans start with free accounts that let you track up to 5000 visits per month and four pages, up to Pro an offering for $99 per month that lets you track 250,000 visits per month.

88. SiteScan
A free way to ensure that your website is configured properly for Google Analytics.

89. Reinvigorate's Snoop
Real Time Web Analytics - free for PC and Mac. Greater flexibility than Google Analytics

90. PopURI
At-a-glance link popularity of any site based on its ranking (Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Technorati etc.), social bookmarks (del.icio.us, etc), subscribers (Bloglines, etc) and more

91. Quantcast
Demographics for your site

92. Social Meter
Scans popular social websites to analyze your social popularity

WordPress

93. How to create a WordPress theme
A 16 part series on how to build a WordPress theme from whoa to go

94. Highlight Author Comments
Matt Cutts shows you how to change the color of your own comments so they stand out. For WordPress

95. 100 High Quality and Free WordPress Themes
Smashing Magazine has downloaded, installed, and tested hundreds of themes; these are their top 100 picks. Whether you are after design inspiration or coding solutions, this is the place to start

Online Storage

96. Omnidrive
Up to 1GB Free, no file size limit but 128 bit SSL encryption only available for PRO accounts

97. Box
Up to 1GB Free storage but monthly bandwidth restricted to 10GB, file size restricted to 10MB

98. Media Max
25 GB Free, Download 1 GB per month, File size restricted to 10MB

Miscellaneous

99. Map-o-net
Shows you where you lie in the structure of IP addresses

100. Domain Hacks
Helps you find domains which are the combination of unusual TLD, directories and subdomains. For instance, http://l.id can be registered (from Indonesia)

101. Scratch – programming for kids
Want your little person taking over the family web development business? Let them play with Scratch. Developed by MIT

102. Internet World Stats
Comprehensive statistics about the Internet and Web

103. Feed Journal
The next generation newspaper, FeedJournal turns your RSS feeds into a newspaper formatted PDF so you can print it out and read it anywhere - free

Fun Stuff

You've made it this far - so a little silliness for your viewing pleasure - enjoy!

104. Music using ONLY sounds from Windows XP and 98! (approx. 2 mins)

105. Mac Parody (approx. 3 mins)

106. Ze Frank's Punctuation Substitution (approx. 2 mins)

107. Wes Borg-Internet Help Desk Live (approx. 6 mins)

108. BlueScreen of Death Screen Saver v3.2

Source: http://blog-well.com/2008/03/04/100-resources-for-web-developers/

This one from designer Nuno Teixeira is certainly more attention grabbing than most, even if it isn't any more realistic. Dubbed the "iMac iView," the main distinguishing feature here is obviously the curved screen, which isn't actually all that far out there, but still a ways from becoming anywhere near commonplace. As if that wasn't enough, the concept also boasts a second screen on the rear, and webcams on both the front and back.

 

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/29/curved-imac-concept-bends-beyond-the-realm-of-plausibility/

Source: http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2008/02/29/curved-imac-has-your-back/

Management Secrets From Inside GE

Here's what it really takes to thrive at one of America's most demanding—and profitable—companies

 

Few companies can boast the performance of General Electric, one of the world's most consistently profitable enterprises. One of the top reasons is talent. GE recruits the brightest minds it can find and relentlessly cultivates its leaders, training them at its legendary in-house management school, known as Crotonville (for its location north of New York City). In addition to world-class CEOs like Jeff Immelt and his predecessor, Jack Welch, the GE system has produced numerous executives who have left to run other well-known companies. Jim McNerny of Boeing, Chrysler's Bob Nardelli, and Dave Calhoun of the Nielsen Co., for instance, are three GE alumni.

 

In 20 years at GE, where I was Welch's speechwriter, I learned a lot of key lessons—the kind they don't necessarily teach at business school. GE is notorious for demanding performance from its managers, weeding out those who don't deliver—and handsomely rewarding those who do. If I were to give a 10-minute management course, here's what I'd emphasize:

 

High energy = high hopes. There are some reasonably successful companies that don't require high amperage to do reasonably well. If you're comfortable in that kind of environment, fine. But I wouldn't want to work at such a company—or buy its stock. At a high-energy company like GE, the people who succeed cultivate a Type A personality, even if their shrinks or cardiologists object. Low energy, by contrast, equals low expectations. Welch once said this about a senior manager: "Yeah, he's good and he's smart, but he's low energy. I have to call him up and get him started on everything, or nothing ever happens." At GE, that's a wave goodbye.

 

Patience is a liability. There's continual tension in many companies between the demand for short-term results and the need for a long-term strategy. Feel you can't do both? The answer at GE: Yes, you can do both, and if you can't, we'll get somebody who can. Conversation over—along with your career, if you don't deliver. The top management at GE has no patience for either-ors. Anybody who asks management which is the higher priority—results today or performance tomorrow—gets "loser" stamped all over him.

 

Micromanage, meddle, and smell the latrines. It's essential to leave your management perch every day and mingle with the minions who ultimately determine the fortunes of your company. If a customer has a complaint—no matter how small (or how arrogant the complainer)—take the heat yourself over the phone or in person, to understand why you're failing him and losing business. Got a quality problem with one of your product lines? Hang out on the factory floor and listen to sweaty, angry people in overalls explain what they think the problem is. Part of your operation is losing customers? Spend an afternoon listening to the "grunts" who hate losing as much as you do and often have invaluable insights about why it is happening.

 

Substitute action for clichés. Don't call it a "deep dive" if all you do is get a tour from a plant manager and walk around in your suit wearing a hard hat and goggles. You'll look ridiculous—and never find out what's really going on Do you "delegate" for real, expending the effort to fully understand what your subordinates are doing? Or simply tick off bullet points assembled by staff? If your "leadership" consists of narrating PowerPoint slides points you only vaguely grasp, people will know it—both up and down the chain. Some of the more horrific career catastrophes I observed at GE involved unfortunates who walked into a conference room to brief senior leadership, with a flimsy feel for the substance of the briefings they thought would get them by. Instead, it was goodbye.

 

Change just to change. Stay on the edge, and never let yourself get too comfortable, no matter how well you're doing. There may come a day when you hear your colleagues in engineering, finance, or some other division having an animated conversation that you don't really understand. Queasiness and alarm should strike. You need to get back into the conversation quickly, no matter how much work it takes. The epitaph "unable to change" hangs over more career graves than any other.

At one of GE's annual meetings, Jack Welch told his top 500 managers, "If you are the same today as you were three years ago, you're out of it. If you're not going to be a lot different this year than you were last year, you stink. Don't let anyone say, 'Good old Harry. He hasn't changed a bit in the last five years.' "

 

It happened to me. I was late to adopt E-mail, late to use PowerPoint (which I still hate), late to understand E-business. After Welch retired in 2001, I unwittingly began to wear a label that said "dinosaur." It led me out of the company a bit earlier than I had intended. So do an honest inventory of the skills in your portfolio, and ask if you're keeping up at the speed of change. If not, get on it!

 

Bill Lane is the author of Jacked Up: the Inside Story of How Jack Welch Talked GE Into Becoming the World's Greatest Company.

 

Source: http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/careers/2008/01/25/management-secrets-from-inside-ge.html