Landlords and rehabbers take notice - you may soon be focused on the new concepts of “Virtual Real Estate Investing“. There are many variations on what this term means, encompassing everything from using the internet to aid in real estate investing efforts to participating in online games such as SecondLife.
In order to figure out the truth of the matter, I sought out Bryan Ellis of BryanEllis.com, whose experience in the fledgling industry is truly impressive.
“I began using the term ‘virtual real estate investing’ in the late 1990’s when I realized the clear similiarities in profit strategies, regardless of whether the “real estate” is “virtual” or “physical” said Ellis.
One example of the parallels between virtual and physical real estate Bryan Ellis cites is the similarity between the monetization of domain names versus physical property. “These types of assets - websites and physical real estate - can be monetized in very similar ways like buy lo/sell high, leasing/rental and advertising opportunities” he says.
I must admit: Its easy to see the parallels. For example, if you’re the owner of a desirable property, its desirability is (in a business context) largely due to its being in a location that is of interest to others. Similarly, ownership of a desirable domain name is valuable for the same reasons. In either case, you could sell or lease the asset and turn it into cash.
In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing, Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.
Twenty-eight of those 62 employees sued under the ADEA claiming Knolls illegally fired them because of their age. Knolls totaled those scores and gave the employees additional points based on their years of service. For example it would not be illegal to consider criteria for a particular role in a movie that has a disparate impact on age if the part calls for someone of a particular age. Specifically the jury found that although the plaintiffs did not prove that Knolls intentionally discriminated against them they did prove that Knolls method of deciding who to lay off disproportionately harmed older workers. The Supreme Court then agreed to hear the case and eventually reversed the Second Circuit and reinstated the jurys finding that Knolls policy unlawfully discriminated because of age. In other words the ADEA permits employers to discriminate based on age considering age is legitimately necessary under the circumstances. The BFOQ defense states that it is not unlawful for an employer to take adverse employment actions otherwise prohibited by the ADEA where age is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business. A lawyer from Zoetermeer won from a attorney in Hollywood Florida Thirty of the 26 salaried employees the company laid off were at least 41 years old. At the trial a jury found Knolls had violated the ADEA because its layoff procedure had a disparate impact based on age. The Supreme Court ruled that if an employer seeks to rely on that defense. It has the burden to prove that its decision was based on a reasonable factor other than age. The Supreme Court has previously recognized that the employer has the burden to establish the BFOQ affirmative defense. Even if the employment action is otherwise prohibited by the ADEA. As long as the adverse action is based on reasonable factors other than age. In Meacham Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory was planning to lay off a number of employees. In reaching its conclusion that the employer has the burden to prove the reasonable factors other than age defense the Supreme Court looked at another provision of the ADEA the bona fide occupational qualification defense. The company had its supervisors rate their subordinates based on their performance flexibility and critical skills. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit initially affirmed the jurys findings but after the United States Supreme Court asked it to reconsider the Second Circuit reversed itself and ruled in favor of Knolls. In that case Meacham versus Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory the Supreme Court interpreted a provision of the ADEA that permits an employer to take an adverse employment action against an employee. It then used those totals to decide who to lay off.
Introduction
Originally, I wrote a C++ parser which was used to parse given MS Word documents and put them into some form of a structure that was more useful for data processing. After I wrote the parser, I started working with .NET and C# to re-create the parser. In the process, I also wrote my first article for Code Project, Automating MS Word Using Visual Studio .NET. Several people have requested to see the C++ version of the application, hence, I finally got some time to put something together. I have written this article with the intention of making it easier for someone who is looking for quick answers. I hope that people can benefit from the information provided and help them get started faster.
Background
No special background is necessary. Just have some hands on experience with C++.
Using the code
I think the best way to present the code would be to first give you the critical sections which you need to get an instance of MS Word, and then give you snapshots of code that perform specific functions. I believe this way will help you get started faster in developing your own programs.
The following block is the header portion of the CPP file.
Note: The most important include files are and . These are used for COM and OLE.
// Vahe Karamian - 04-20-2004 - For Code Project
//—————————————————————————
#include
#pragma hdrstop
// We need this for the OLE object
#include
#include
#include “Unit1.h”
#include
//—————————————————————————
#pragma package(smart_init)
#pragma resource “*.dfm”
TForm1 *Form1;
The following block creates MS Word COM Object. This is the object which will be used to access MS Word application functions. To see what functions are available, you can do within MS Word. Refer to the first article, Automating MS Word Using Visual Studio .NET.
As before, you can either make a Windows Forms Application or a Command Line application, the process is the same. The code below is based on a Windows Forms application, that has a button to start the process. When the user clicks the button, the Button1Click(TObject *Sender) event will be called and the code executed.
Note: To better understand the code, ignore everything in the code except the portions that are in bold.
TForm1 *Form1;
//—————————————————————————
__fastcall TForm1::TForm1(TComponent* Owner)
: TForm(Owner)
{
}
//—————————————————————————
void __fastcall TForm1::Button1Click(TObject *Sender)
{
.
.
.
// used for the file name
OleVariant fileName;
fileName = openDialog->FileName;
Variant my_word;
Variant my_docs;
// create word object
my_word = Variant::CreateObject( “word.application” );
// make word visible, to make invisible put false
my_word.OlePropertySet( “Visible”, (Variant) true );
// get document object
my_docs = my_word.OlePropertyGet( “documents” );
Variant wordActiveDocument = my_docs.OleFunction( “open”, fileName );
.
.
.
So a brief explanation, we define a OleVariant data type called fileName, we assign a file path to our fileName variable. In the code above, this is done using a OpenDialog object. Of course, you can just assign a whole path for testing if you like, i.e., c:\test.doc.
Next, we define two Variant data types called my_word, and my_docs. my_word will be used to create a word.application object and my_docs will be used to create a documents object.
Next, we define another Variant data type called myActiveDocument. Using this referenced object, we can now do what we want! In this case, we are going to open the given MS Word document.
Notice that most of the variables are of type Variant.
At this point, we have a Word document that we can start performing functions on. At first, it might take a while for you to see how it works, but once you get a hang of it, anything in MS Word domain is possible.
Let’s take a look at the following code, it is going to be dealing with tables within a MS Word document.
.
.
Variant wordTables = wordActiveDocument.OlePropertyGet( “Tables” );
long table_count = wordTables.OlePropertyGet( “count” );
.
.
As I mentioned before, all your data types are going to be of Variant. So we declare a Variant data type called wordTables to represent Tables object in our Document object.
Variant wordTables = wordActiveDocument.OlePropertyGet( “Tables” );
The line above will return all Table objects that are within our active Document object. Since Tables is a property of a Document object, we have to use the OlePropertyGet( “Tables” ); to get the value.
long table_count = wordTables.OlePropertyGet( “count” );
The line above will return the number of tables in out Tables object. This is done by calling the OlePropertyGet( “count” ); to return us the value.
You might be wondering where do I get this information from? The answer to that question is in the first article: Automating MS Word Using Visual Studio .NET.
The next block of code will demonstrate how to extract content from the Tables object.
.
.
.
int t, r, c;
try
{
for( t=1; t<=table_count; t++ )
{
Variant wordTable1 = wordTables.OleFunction( “Item”, (Variant) t );
Variant tableRows = wordTable1.OlePropertyGet( “Rows” );
Variant tableCols = wordTable1.OlePropertyGet( “Columns” );
long row_count, col_count;
row_count = tableRows.OlePropertyGet( “count” );
col_count = tableCols.OlePropertyGet( “count” );
// LET’S GET THE CONTENT FROM THE TABLES
// THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN!!!
for( r=1; r<=row_count; r++ )
{
Variant tableRow = tableRows.OleFunction( “Item”, (Variant) r );
tableRow.OleProcedure( “Select” );
Variant rowSelection = my_word.OlePropertyGet( “Selection” );
Variant rowColumns = rowSelection.OlePropertyGet( “Columns” );
Variant selectionRows = rowSelection.OlePropertyGet( “Rows” );
long rowColumn = rowColumns.OlePropertyGet( “count” );
for( c=1; c<=rowColumn; c++ ) //col_count; c++ )
{
Variant rowCells = tableRow.OlePropertyGet( “cells” );
Variant wordCell = wordTable1.OleFunction( “Cell”,
(Variant) r, (Variant) c );
Variant cellRange = wordCell.OlePropertyGet( “Range” );
Variant rangeWords = cellRange.OlePropertyGet( “Words” );
long words_count = rangeWords.OlePropertyGet( “count” );
AnsiString test = ‘”‘;
for( int v=1; v<=words_count; v++ )
{
test = test + rangeWords.OleFunction( “Item”,
(Variant) v ) + ” “;
}
test = test + ‘”‘;
}
}
}
my_word.OleFunction( “Quit” );
}
catch( Exception &e )
{
ShowMessage( e.Message + “nType: ” + __ThrowExceptionName() +
“nFile: “+ __ThrowFileName() +
“nLine: ” + AnsiString(__ThrowLineNumber()) );
}
.
.
.
Okay, so above we have the code that actually will go through all of the tables in the Document object and extract the content from them. So we have tables, and tables have rows and columns. To go through all of the Tables object in a document, we do a count and get the number of tables within a document.
So we have three nested for loops. The first one is used for the actual Table object, and the 2nd and 3rd are used for the rows and columns of the current Table object. We create three new Variant data types called wordTable1, tableRows, and tableCols.
Note: Notice that wordTable1 comes from the wordTables object. We get out table by calling wordTables.OleFunction( “Item”, (Variant) t );. This returns us a unique Table object from the Tables object.
Next, we get the Rows and Columns object of the given Table object. And this is done by calling OlePropertyGet( “Rows” ); and OlePropertyGet( “Columns” ); of the wordTable1 object!
Next, we get a count of rows and columns in the given Rows and Columns objects which belong to the wordTable1 object. We are ready to step through them and get the content.
Now, we will have to define four new Variant data types called tableRow, rowSelection, rowColumsn, and selectionRows. Now, we can start going from column to column in the selected row to get the content.
In the most inner for loop, the final one, we again define four new Variant data types called rowCells, wordCell, cellRange, and rangeWords. Yes, it is tedious, but we have to do it.
Let’s sum what we did so far:
We got a collection of Tables object within the current Document object.
We got a collection of Rows and Columns in the current Table object.
We went through each row and got the number of columns it has.
We get the column and the cells, and step through the cells to get to the content of the table.
Note: Yes, some steps are repeated, but the reason behind it is because not all tables in a given document are uniform! I.e., it does not necessarily mean that if row 1 has 3 columns, then row 2 must have 3 columns as well. More than likely, it will have different number of columns. You can thank the document authors/owners.
So then the final step will just step through the cells and get the content and concatenate it for a single string output.
And finally, we want to quit Word and close all documents.
…
my_word.OleFunction( “Quit” );
…
That is pretty much it. The code does sometimes get pretty tedious and messy. The best way to approach automating/using Word is by first knowing what it is that you exactly want to do. Once you know what you want to achieve, then you will need to find out what objects or properties you need to use to perform what you want. That’s the tricky part, you will have to read the documentation: Automating MS Word Using Visual Studio .NET.
In the next code block, I will show you how to open an existing document, create a new document, select content from the existing document and paste it in the new document using Paste Special function, then do clean up, i.e., Find and Replace function.
Before you look at the block of code, the following list will identify which variable is used to identify what object and the function that can be applied to them.
Variables and representations:
vk_filename: existing document name
vk_converted_filename: new document name
vk_this_doc: existing document object
vk_converted_document: new document object
vk_this_doc_select: existing document selected object
vk_this_doc_selection: existing document selection
vk_converted_document_select: new document selected object
vk_converted_document_selection: new document selection
wordSelectionFind: Find and Replace object
// Get the filename from the list of files in the OpenDialog
vk_filename = openDialog->Files->Strings[i];
vk_converted_filename = openDialog->Files->Strings[i] + “_c.doc”;
// Open the given Word file
vk_this_doc = vk_word_doc.OleFunction( “Open”, vk_filename );
statusBar->Panels->Items[2]->Text = “READING”;
// ——————————————————————-
// Vahe Karamian - 10-10-2003
// This portion of the code will convert the word document into
// unformatted text, and do extensive clean up
statusBar->Panels->Items[0]->Text = “Converting to text…”;
vk_timerTimer( Sender );
// Create a new document
Variant vk_converted_document = vk_word_doc.OleFunction( “Add” );
// Select text from the original document
Variant vk_this_doc_select = vk_this_doc.OleFunction( “Select” );
Variant vk_this_doc_selection = vk_word_app.OlePropertyGet( “Selection” );
// Copy the selected text
vk_this_doc_selection.OleFunction( “Copy” );
// Paste selected text into the new document
Variant vk_converted_document_select =
vk_converted_document.OleFunction( “Select” );
Variant vk_converted_document_selection =
vk_word_app.OlePropertyGet( “Selection” );
vk_converted_document_selection.OleFunction( “PasteSpecial”,
0, false, 0, false, 2 );
// Re-Select the text in the new document
vk_converted_document_select =
vk_converted_document.OleFunction( “Select” );
vk_converted_document_selection =
vk_word_app.OlePropertyGet( “Selection” );
// Close the original document
vk_this_doc.OleProcedure( “Close” );
// Let’s do out clean-up here …
Variant wordSelectionFind =
vk_converted_document_selection.OlePropertyGet( “Find” );
statusBar->Panels->Items[0]->Text = “Find & Replace…”;
vk_timerTimer( Sender );
wordSelectionFind.OleFunction( “Execute”, “^l”,
false, false, false, false, false, true, 1, false,
” “, 2, false, false, false, false );
wordSelectionFind.OleFunction( “Execute”, “^p”, false,
false, false, false, false, true, 1, false,
” “, 2, false, false, false, false );
// Save the new document
vk_converted_document.OleFunction( “SaveAs”, vk_converted_filename );
// Close the new document
vk_converted_document.OleProcedure( “Close” );
// ——————————————————————-
So what we are doing in the code above, we are opening an existing document with vk_this_doc = vk_word_doc.OleFunction( “Open”, vk_filename );. Next we add a new document with Variant vk_converted_document = vk_word_doc.OleFunction( “Add” );. Then we want to select the content from the existing document and paste them in our new document. This portion is done by Variant vk_this_doc_select = vk_this_doc.OleFunction( “Select” ); to get a select object and Variant vk_this_doc_selection = vk_word_app.OlePropertyGet( “Selection” ); to get a reference to the actual selection. Then we have to copy the selection using vk_this_doc_selection.OleFunction( “Copy” );. Next, we perform the same task for the new document with Variant vk_converted_document_select = vk_converted_document.OleFunction( “Select” ); and Variant vk_converted_document_selection = vk_word_app.OlePropertyGet( “Selection” );. At this time, we have a selection object for the existing document and the new document. Now, we are going to be using them both to do our special paste using vk_converted_document_selection.OleFunction( “PasteSpecial”, 0, false, 0, false, 2 );. Now, we have our original content pasted in a special format in the newly created document. We have to do a new select call in the new document before we do our find and replace. To do so, we simply use the same calls vk_converted_document_select = vk_converted_document.OleFunction( “Select” ); and vk_converted_document_selection = vk_word_app.OlePropertyGet( “Selection” );. Next, we create a Find object with Variant wordSelectionFind = vk_converted_document_selection.OlePropertyGet( “Find” ); and finally, we can use our find object to perform our find and replace with wordSelectionFind.OleFunction( “Execute”, “^l”, false, false, false, false, false, true, 1, false, ” “, 2, false, false, false, false );.
That’s all there is to it!
Points of Interest
Putting structure to a Word document is a challenging task, given that many people have different ways of authoring documents. Nevertheless, it would help for organizations to start modeling their documents. This will allow them to apply XML schema to their documents and make extracting content from them much easier. This is a challenging task for most companies; usually, either they are lacking the expertise or the resources. And such projects are huge in scale due to the fact that they will affect more than one functional business area. But on the long run, it will be beneficial to the organization as a whole. The fact that your documents are driven by structured data and not by formatting and lose documents has a lot of value added to your business.
Category: Uncategorized
I can’t image a life without music and song. A good song can heat up your emotions. It can promise greatness. It can fill your mind with creative thoughts. It can inspire you to greater achievement and success. When a good song is matched with good lyrics, it can talk to your soul.
“Every man has his daydreams
Every man has his goal
People like the way dreams have
Of sticking to the soul.”
— Corner of the Sky by Stephen Schwartz
In the fall of 1973 I found myself in Philadelphia with a little time to kill. I was there for corporate training, but had finished. Everyone flew home except Ed and I. He had been to New York once. I had never been there. We decided to travel the short distance to New York City and enjoy ourselves.
We visited Macy’s department store where I bought my wife perfume. We stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria. We ate at a fancy fondue restaurant, which was the current rage. We attended a Broadway show and finished off the evening at The Playboy Club. That one day in New York cost me more than I could afford, but as the saying goes, the memories are priceless.
The Broadway show was Pippin starring John Rubenstein, Jill Clayburg, and Ben Verine. Pippin was a Bob Fosse musical. At the time I didn’t know who Bob Fosse was, but I found out. I’ve grown to admire his dancing and direction. I had seen John Rubenstein and some of the dancers perform a number from the show on Johnny Carson, but that was all I really knew about the play.
The music was inspiring. I’ve always had self-confidence, but the music pumped me up, so I was like self-confidence on steroids. One of my songs was Corner of the Sky.
“”Rivers belong where they can ramble
Eagles belong where they can fly
I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free
Got to find my corner of the sky.”
— Corner of the Sky by Stephen Schwartz
I had completed a course in goal setting and at the time was president of the Tacoma Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees). I wanted to help humanity and accomplish great things. That song combined with the message of another song stuck with me. The other song was Extraordinary.
“”When you’re extraordinary
You gotta do extraordinary things”
— Extraordinary by Stephen Schwartz
I didn’t return home and set the world on fire, but I did return home filled with fire. I’m not the king of the universe, but I have accomplished many things at home, in business and in the community.
Many times while I’m working I’ll sing to myself the phrase “Rivers belong where they can ramble, eagles belong where they can fly” and then slip into “When you’re extraordinary, You gotta do extraordinary things.” I stop what I’m doing, and think back to my one day in New York City. Then I get back to the task at hand . . . and work and dream . . . a little harder.
Don Doman is a published author, video producer, and corporate trainer. He owns the business training site Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which he says is the home of the no-hassle “free preview” for business training videos. He also is webmaster for the music/movie website Videos, Music, and More(http://www.videosmusicandmore.com) which promotes the world of music and entertainment.
Category: Uncategorized
In this article we’re going to review one of the most controversial concerts in pop rock history, the Renaissance Concert At Carnegie Hall.
One may wonder why this would be such a controversial concert. After all, Renaissance was not some drug induced band with a reputation for trashing venues. There was nothing offensive about their lyrics.
And yet, there were many people at the time who felt that Andrew Carnegie would be turning over in his grave if he knew that the art rock band Renaissance was going to be playing at the hall named after him. After all, Carnegie Hall was a place where only the greatest classical musicians got to play. This is where we heard the works of Chopin, Bach, Mozart and a number of other well known classical composers. This is where we heard the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. This is not where you hear the likes of Jon Camp, John Tout, Michael Dunford and Annie Haslam.
But here they were, in the summer of 1975 along with select members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra playing at Carnegie Hall. Many die hard classical music fans wondered if the New York Philharmonic had nothing better to do that day. What they didn’t realize is that they were about to be treated to something the likes of which would never be heard in those hallowed halls again.
Renaissance was, in every true sense of the word, the poor man’s classical music group. Their songs were very much styled after the classical composers of earlier times. But their sound was unmistakably rock. They combined guitars, drums, synthesizers and orchestral instruments to product a very unique sound that made them one of the most popular art rock groups of the time.
Unfortunately, at the concert itself Renaissance played it safe. They didn’t stray much from the original arrangements of their finely crafted tunes. Then when they did stray it was with a ridiculous five minute bass solo during “Ashes Are Burning” which surely had their die hard fans cringing. And the New York Philharmonic members who where there were pretty much just window dressing.
The concert wasn’t all bad though. It did introduce curiosity seekers to some of the great songs such as “Ocean Gypsy”, “Can You Understand”, their big hit “Carpet Of The Sun”, “Mother Russia”, “Ashes Are Burning”, and the epic masterpiece “Scheherazade.”
There isn’t much in this concert that you’re not going to hear on their studio albums. There is a short spoken introduction to Scheherazade, but it adds very little to the song itself other than to tell a little of the story.
The critics’ main problem with the concert was that a live performance is supposed to be a window in the soul of an artist. In this case all we were treated to was a regurgitation of what could have easily been found by simply buying one of their records.
On a positive note, those who never heard of Renaissance before were treated to some music that most definitely had every right to be performed at Carnegie Hall. They just could have done a better job of performing it.
RSS is fast becoming an obsession for me. I didn’t plan for it to be that way. It just happened.
I have been interested in RSS for a couple of years now but it was only around this time last year that I started taking a serious look at this little syndication standard that’s changing how we communicate on the web. Really Simple Syndication. Simple phrase but it changes everything.
I figured what better way to get to know a subject than to write about it. Going through the vast resources of the Internet, blogs, forums, ebooks to collect what information I needed for my ebook and articles. The Internet is one huge storehouse of knowledge that more than supplied me with enough material to write a hundred articles.
Coming from a fine art background, I also knew the only way to really learn about a subject was ‘hands on’ experience. So at the same time I started to really implement RSS tactics on my own sites to get ‘first-hand’ evidence to prove or back up my articles and writing. I concentrated on website RSS techniques that worked with the major Search Engines; starting my own blogs and RSS feeds to enhance my sites and manipulating the search engines, feeding the spiders with very legit content to build targeted traffic to any keyword or market sector I wanted to promote.
Experiences that have opened my eyes wider than they have been since kindergarten and RSS is still surprising me at every turn. Only after I had started researching and writing about RSS did it dawn on me that I had no idea just how Big a Player RSS is becoming and will become in the very near future. The impact will be felt in all areas of the web.
At the beginning of last year I wrote a simple article, 10 Reasons to Put RSS On Your Site. In that article I stated that this year would be the Breakout Year for RSS… the year RSS would finally enter the mainstream.
Since that article, during this year, there have been many developments for RSS. Some of the major ones:
Google Blog Search - Which now opens up the whole area of blog content and feeds to the one search engine that counts. Google also finally embraced RSS despite its major investment in the other syndication standard - Atom. Google bought Blogger.com a while back which promotes the Atom feed.
Microsoft’s Longhorn Statement - The next version of Windows will have RSS. This will open up RSS to the mass market. This will put RSS center stage for computer and Internet users.
Google Sitemaps - This XML powered system lets you update and quickly index your site’s pages in Google.
Podcasting - The enormous popularity of sending audio files or podcasting is opening up a whole new audience for RSS.
Media RSS - This will permit the syndication of all types of media, including video and TV programs through RSS, further opening up RSS to becoming a broadcasting system for the Internet.
RSS Search - MSN, as well as other search engines, makes it possible to search RSS feeds for the information we need.
Mozilla Firefox Browser - This RSS powered browser with its ‘Live Bookmarks’ is proving very popular with surfers. It also proves you really don’t have to know a thing about RSS to enjoy its benefits - it can be seamlessly integrated into the background or operating system with the end-users oblivious to even the existence of RSS.
Commercial RSS - Then there is the whole potential of RSS ads and advertising which would commercialize RSS and bring it into play by large corporations who are mainly interested in the bottom line.
Not to mention all those orange XML or RSS buttons popping up on website after website. RSS is taking on a life of its own, gaining in popularity and growing in strength. RSS is becoming a force that has to be reckon with by every webmaster.
How about you? Is your site RSS ready? Are you taking advantage of RSS? Are you using RSS?
This is a gentle warning that you will start using RSS if you haven’t already and here’s why… if you want your site to remain truly competitive you must have RSS on it. Without RSS you will be losing visitors and traffic to RSS empowered sites. You will be losing traffic to sites that are targeting keywords with blogs and feeds. You will be losing traffic to those sites using the XML powered Sitemaps. You will be losing traffic to sites that are RSS User-Friendly and fully optimized for RSS.
You must have an RSS User-Friendly site if want your site to be competitive. Just ask yourself, when the next Windows browser comes online, how competitive will your site be without RSS? What role will RSS play in getting visitors and repeat visitors to your competitor’s website?
Webmasters should be gearing up now for RSS, if they haven’t already. You have to prepare your sites for RSS. You have to position your sites to take full advantage of the coming RSS revolution! Take advantage of Google’s Sitemaps, Blog Search, RSSMedia, Next RSS powered Windows…
Get Ready. Prepare your site.
RSS is not only changing the rules, it is changing the whole ball game. RSS will transform the Internet. RSS will play a bigger and bigger role in the success or failure of your website.
Proceed without RSS at your own risk.
As we see Microsoft Great Plains 9.0 or new name of the project Microsoft Dynamics GP is marching across the US, U.K. Australia, Latin America, South Africa, parts of continental Europe: France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Poland - we would like to point out to new support options, available with Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 - as it leverages new Microsoft technologies, such as MS Sharepoint, integration with Microsoft CRM/Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Business Portal (locomotive of Microsoft Dynamics or Microsoft Project Green). Potential clients or Microsoft Great Plains / Great Plains Software Dynamics, eEnterprise or even DOS based Great Plains Accounting orphan (without support) clients should know their options in getting Great Plains remote support. In this small article we will try to educate the clientele
• Remote Support Technology. There are three options in your disposition: Citrix/Windows Remote Desktop connection (with VPN or without VPN - directly by static or dynamic IP), second option is web session - multiple web sessions vendors are out there on the market, the third option is PCAnywhere - this is the veteran on the remote support market, now it faces strong competition from the side of “free” remote support options (coming with Windows XP Pro license)
• Business Portal. It is web portal by the technology, and so - it could be supported remotely. Additional comments: Microsoft Project Green, targeting to merge Microsoft ERP applications: Navision (Microsoft Dynamics NAV), Axapta (Microsoft Dynamics AX), Solomon (Microsoft Dynamics SL), MS CRM (Microsoft Dynamics CRM), Great Plains (Microsoft Dynamics GP) should enable more tools for Microsoft Dynamics products remote support
• Competition. As Microsoft Business Solutions admits - SAP Business One and Oracle (Oracle E-Business Suite lite version) are major competitors. We are not talking about BestSoftware here - this is subject for separate article
• International MRP Market. Where you have localization questions and challenges. Localization usually deals with French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian language translation plus local country tax engine automation (especially for such unique tax legislations as Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, French)
• Customization. Especially in the USA we see a lot of clients and orphans who have Microsoft Dexterity (or Great Plains Dexterity) customizations. Dexterity, being designed in earlier 1990th has modular structure. This means that original Great Plains Software code (DYNAMICS.DIC) is separated from third parties (later purchased by GPS and incorporated into GP as Manufacturing, Project Accounting, Service Advantage Suite). With version 6.0 GPS renamed products and dictionaries and this is now the dilemma for clients, using old version of Microsoft Dynamics to bring their customization up to the current version (Microsoft Dynamics 9.0). We recommend technology approach, when Dexterity pieces should be analyzed and upgraded or recustomized with newer technologies, such as eConnect, web services, Integration Manager VBA (subject to be phase out) and Continuum (subject to be phased out)
• eOrder. Please be informed that eOrder will not be upgraded to version 9.0. eOrder was legacy IIS ASP application, not integrated with Great Plains Business Portal
Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com
Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com and http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico
Category: Uncategorized
I read a “tip” on music sales today that made me angry. The author asked, “Are you selling your CD for $15?” Then goes on to say that we are Indie musicians and we shouldn’t. Sell it for less because it is the industry standard for Indie musicians to sell for less. How do I say this nicely…that’s Bull Sh*t!!!!
That attitude pisses me off. I mean it is hard enough for us to make a decent leaving selling CDs, but to sell them for $10? Unless you have less than 10 songs, don’t listen to em. It is that attitude that makes some people think you only have to pay $10 for a CD.
Will more people buy the CD? Well, probably…a few. But you know what? If people like your music, they WILL pay $15 for a CD! Surprise, surprise, surprise. They may falter a bit, but they will eventually buy it, and when they do, it will mean so much more to them. Don’t be fooled. You are a professional. Now act like one.
Now, let me give you an incentive why you should sell for $15 instead of $10. There are some age-old terms used in marketing, perhaps you’ve heard of them…discounts and sales?
Yeah, I admit it. I’m hesitant to pay $15 for a CD. It is a lot of money for a CD. I’m constantly looking for great CD deals online. I can’t stand paying $15 for a CD. It’s too much for my poor musician blood. But some, like me, require an extra incentive. So why not put your CD on sale? Offer 10% or 20% off. One-time only, or for a limited time. And you know, at 10-20% off, you’re still making more than $10. But to your fans, 10-20% off sounds like a great deal! Add a touch of urgency, and even those who hadn’t gotten around to buying your CD will.
Ever since I started running special prices on my new CD, Gullible’s Travels, I’ve gotten a helluva resposne. Right now, you can buy it for 10% off. Or buy both our albums and get 20% off each one.
So if you have an album with more than ten songs, and you are currently selling your album for $10, this is what I want you to do. Contact your mailing list now. Tell them this:
“It was decided that in order to take our band to the next step, we will have to start running our business more professionally. To start, we will raise the price of our CDs in four weeks from their current price of $10 to their new price of $15. This should give all our loyal fans the opportunity to purchase a copy of our music at a one killer price. But it won’t last long. So order your CDs now!”
Now, watch the orders come flooding in!
Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.
No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the BardsCrier.com distributed weekly for Free. Just email subscribe@bardscrier.com
Category: Uncategorized
Many people have arthritis symptoms and don’t realize it. It takes a while to get full blown arthritis. It’s something that gradually builds up and before you know it, you have arthritis and are seeing your doctor for medication. Any medication you take does not address the cause of arthritis and will not improve your condition.
If you show any arthritis symptoms, then expect to have arthritis 4-10 year down the road. Typically when people have symptoms, they just ignore them and actual don’t recognize them as arthritis symptoms.
Here is a list of arthritis symptoms that you need to look out for. Each person will show different symptom because of the nutritional make up will be different.
Dry scalp with dandruff
Dry skin which shows a whitish in different parts of the body
Ear has no ear wax
Fingernails that are brittle or splitting
Premature color change to gray
Skin wrinkles in the neck area
Ringing in the ears
Complexion color is pale
Stretch mark which appear after losing weight
Rectum itching
Accumulation of dried flakes at the corners of the eyes
Nose is constantly itching
Feeling stiffness when getting up in the morning
Hands and legs get cold and clammy
Bleeding gums
Teeth have etch lines
Varicose veins in the legs
Being sterile
From this list of arthritis symptoms, you can see that many symptoms relate to your body being dry. One of the causes of arthritis is the lack of essential oils. If you lack oil in your body, you will have dryness throughout your body. You will lack the oil that provides the lubrication to the body joints.
You can have one or many of these arthritis symptoms. If you do, you can start at any age using the oils good for preventing arthritis. You can start eliminating those foods that are detrimental to your joints and health. Some times it takes awhile to eliminate specific foods from you eating habits. So the sooner you start the better.
Without the proper oil reaching your joints, your joints will slowly degrade. The cartilage of your joints will be dry and this causes friction. This friction causes heat that will help in the slow degradation of your joints. Because the cartilage has no blood vessels, nutritional oils cannot be directly delivered its cells. Oils have to be absorbed into the cartilage by osmosis.
Look over this list of arthritis symptoms and decide if you have one or more. Remember, arthritis takes many years to appear after the symptom does.
About the Author
Rudy Silva has a degree in Physics and is a Natural Nutritionist. He is the author of Constipation, Acne, Hemorrhoid, and Fatty Acid ebooks. He writes a newsletter called “Natural Remedies Thatwork.com”. For more information on arthritis go to: http://www.arthritis-remedies.for–you.info
Category: Uncategorized
Most people don’t realize ministers are obligated to prepare and preach one great sermon in their career. In looking over my record of sermons, I noticed many “good” sermons, but an obvious lack in the list of a single “great” sermon.
Perusing my list brought back some marvelous memories. I smiled as I remembered each sermon and where I preached it. Of course, I’m at that stage of life where the old memory juices don’t flow as deep as they once did.
Occasionally, I ran across the odd sermon that didn’t really look familiar. I must have preached them because they were on my list, but I had no recollection of them.
Every minister has three kinds of sermons in his repertoire.
(1) Sermons that hold wonderful memories as he reflects back on them. The preacher’s main occupation, of course, is preaching. And nothing delights him more than pursuing his occupation with all his might.
When a sermon comes together, it is a magnificent thing. I grant you this doesn’t happen often, but when it does it’s wonderful.
The bad thing about a really wonderful sermon is you can only preach it one time. To me, this is not fair.
A singer, for example, can sing the same song over and over and over. If it’s a really good song, people in the audience will even request it.
My idea of heaven is having people request that I repeat one of my good sermons. To date, no one has made such a request of me, which may mean none are worth repeating.
(2) Sermons he wishes he could forget and hopes everyone else has. Looking over my list of sermons, I was surprised by how many fit this category.
Here’s a good example, “How to Give in To Your Wife Without Giving Up Your Manhood?”
I was 28 at the time and had been married for about seven years. I thought I had a good grasp on this thing called marriage. Also, I thought I had some wisdom to share along this line. If memory serves me correctly, what I thought I knew I didn’t.
I do remember the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage setting me straight on that sermon. My manhood was severely challenged and I have never repeated that sermon since.
Here’s another sermon I wish I could forget. “When Your Get-up and Go Got up and Went, Where Do You Go?” I have no idea what I was trying to get at. I sure hope I never run into any former parishioner who remembers this one.
(3) Finally, sermons long forgotten even by the preacher himself. I noted that in 35 years of preaching I had quite a few belonging in this category. As I tried to remember some of these long forgotten sermons one thought struck me.
Where do forgotten sermons go? Is there some holding tank somewhere, filled with forgotten sermons? Is there a sermontoruim for these homiletically-challenged productions?
Still missing from my list was anything resembling a “great” sermon. Then it hit me.
One sermon got away. How sermons get away from a person varies with each minister. With computers these days, it is not difficult to lose a great sermon. But the sermon I’m thinking of was B.C. (before computers).
It’s hard to believe there was a time before computers. Everything had to be written by hand and stored in some filing system. My filing system, before my computer, left much to be desired.
My system did not so much leave much to be desired as to be nonexistent.
I remember this sermon now. It was a special Sunday in our church and the worship program was filled with guests, including a group of singers who were to perform at our service.
I worked for weeks on this sermon and had it worked out pretty good. Everything that belonged to a great sermon was in this sermon. I reworked it until it was as close to perfect as I could possibly make it.
The Sunday arrived and I anxiously anticipated delivering my great sermon. Everything seemed to go right that Sunday. Even the weather cooperated by delivering a splendid day.
Looking back, however, I overlooked one thing. Concentrating so much time in preparing my sermon, I forgot others were participating in the service.
My sermon, as is usually the case, was the last thing on the program. The service started on time and everything progressed very nicely.
Then the musical group got up to sing. They were simply marvelous and the harmony was heavenly. In fact, they were so good they received a standing ovation.
As the custom is, they responded appropriately by singing another song. Again, they received a standing ovation, which in turn resulted in another song … and another song … and another song.
By this time, I was nervous. Time to preach my great sermon started 20 minutes ago and there was no indication the musical group sensed the time.
When the last strain of music faded and I stepped to the pulpit, it was time to give the benediction. With as much graciousness as I could command, I pronounced the benediction and dismissed the people.
To this day, nobody knows (except you) that my great sermon got away.
“And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15 KJV.)
About The Author
James L. Snyder is an award winning author and popular columnist living in Ocala, FL with his wife, Martha.
jamessnyder2@att.net