Tip No.1 – “The Customer is Always Right”

If your business sells wholesale paper products, your customers’ concerns will probably be about the types and sizes of paper products you have available, the costs of each product and whether you have delivery, etc. Some customers are impatient and would like to get their concerns answered immediately. If you put your company profile on the homepage, intolerant customers will likely lose their interest if you present irrelevant stuff right on the first page.

There is a big difference with the thing that you assume the customer likes and the thing the customer actually needs. The first page must bear what your website has to offer; it is what the customer went there for in the first place.

Tip No.2 – Lure them in, then hook them

Sorry to say, there are probably many other websites that offer similar products or services with the ones that you offer. With this tight competition, what can a website owner like you do?

Highlight your edge over the others. Your customer visited your website because they know what they needs. But since many others might be offering the same thing, you should emphasize what benefits they would get from buying your product or availing of your services. If you entice them enough, they’d surely pick you above the rest. Most buyers don’t just look at the actual significance of their purchase, but buy for many other reasons that will tweak their feelings. You need to make them feel that they’d be happier if they buy from you, and not from any other else.

In writing web content, you need to think like a customer. Stand in their shoes for a while so you can understand what might get their attention. If shouting your advantages over competitors is the way to do it, then so be it. But of course, keep it real. You shouldn’t be deceiving your customers!

Tip No.3 – Be Accessible

You’ve done your part. Your website content is perfectly written and it is very effective in providing quality web traffic. Tons of web users are visiting your web site. Your sales should be off the hook but the problem is, there is none.

Probably the problem is your contact availability. Maybe your customers can’t get in touch with you. No matter how much they love your website and its content, there is no way they can avail of your products if you do not tell them how. Your winner content will just be put into waste. Too bad!

Now that you’ve finally concocted the perfect formula to lure the customers in, it is only rightful to not to forget the last but also equally important ingredient for a successful online business; making sure the transactions are made. Give them enough means to contact you to ask questions and place their orders. You could put your email, phone number or even have a ready email form right on the website. The faster they can put into action their interest on your products, the better.

The first few results hat comes up in search engines are the ones that most web searchers click on. Those lower ranked ones that are behind these first ones are rarely visited since most web users don’t bother clicking on pages that have been buried down on the search engine results. Some website owners get the aid of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies to make sure their websites stay on a high ranking if not forever, but for a relatively long span of time. Some hire a web marketing company to this job for them. But if you are doing the SEO work on your own, here are a few helpful techniques that will bring you great search engine rankings.

Area for Improvement No.1: Web content

High search engine rankings have a lot to do with great web content. You should make sure that your great quality web content is also rich in the target keywords that the web users will most probably be using. You may also want to try searching for other similar web sites and observe how they implemented their web content. You may find great ideas that may also work with your own website. You should also remember that keywords are very important ingredients in boosting up any websites search engine rankings, put as much of these in your website.

Area for Improvement No.2: URL

Including the keywords in your web site URL will also help increase your search engine rankings. This technique may never work all the time, but still, a keyword rich URL helps.

Area for Improvement No.3: Search Terms

You should include search texts in words in your web content. You may include graphics or pictures, but be sure that you also add them with alt tags. Search engines can only read texts. So if your search terms were substituted with graphics, these will all be useless for them.

Area for Improvement No.4: Title of the Web Page

You should put a very relevant page title for your website. Appropriate title is very important in increasing your search engine ranking. The titles should be applicable to the content of the certain page that it names. It is also a very good place to put your keywords in, so be sure to include them to make your title as specific as can be.

Make use of these four techniques so you can be guaranteed to have great volume of quality web traffic. It never hurts to try.

Each web page should be unique. Just like every person has their own name, a web page should have its own title that is relevant to its theme. The theme, or keywords in other terms, is the most important topic of the webpage. You should pick a very specific theme for your website so that it would be easier to find amongst the sea of other similar websites in the internet. To test the “visibility” of a certain theme in the web, try entering it on a search engine.

Step 1 – Pick a Great Title

A great web page title means a lot. A great title is something that has been well thought of and is very relevant. It should be a great representation of the theme of the web page. It should be specific and should be able to describe directly the main theme of the page.

Step 2 – Use Proper Tags

Just like the title, the tag is a great tool in search engine optimization. Put only the main theme of the website in the tag on top of the page. Search engines also make use of tags to locate and rank web pages accordingly.

Step 3 – Write Good Web Content

A great content is a coherent body of written word, relevant to the main theme. The keywords should also be intelligently incorporated into the whole of the document. Put as much keywords as the content may permit.

Step 4 – Utilize Incoming Links

One of the first things that will help you is a Google toolbar. Visit Google.com and install one. Having one will let you know the page rank or PR. Having PR will be helpful in establishing links to raise your search engine rankings. Very low rankings can be attributed to unsuccessful building up of incoming links.

To help build your links, submit your website to a directory such as the ODP (dmoz.org) and business.com. A higher PR number from the directory is always better.

Another way to raise the ranking is to buy text links. Text links are sold at different rates. Text links help improve incoming links and increase web traffic. In purchasing a text link, you should only choose text links that are relevant to your main theme. Irrelevant text links will only bring disadvantages to your website in the long run.

Research existing links; try to get listed unto the links of higher ranking sites that fall under the same theme of your website. If you’ve already known the top ranking sites, you can find out the links for these certain sites by typing in Google using the keywords “link:site.com” (site.com being the name of the certain site you want to research)

Step 5 – Make sure incoming links contain your target keywords in the anchor text

Work to make your links to include the keywords as anchor text. This may not always be the case but if you can, try to work them out. Try to make as many links on target as can possibly be made. Some links may even be on to other certain pages of the site and not just the home page.

Conclusion

There are lots of search engine positioning techniques available in the internet. Search engines constantly change the way they rank websites so it will be best to work on the five steps that have been enumerated above. These tools are proven to have been reliable means of boosting search engine ratings.

Especially in establishing links, getting listed in search engines and directories are going to take a lot of time. You’d need to be patient before you can fully see the results of your search engine optimization efforts.

Here are three simple ways on how you can improve your website:

1. Bookmarks are not only for bookworms

As most bookworms would know, a bookmark is like a life saver. An urgent matter might come up and take your attention away from your book, if you have a bookmark handy, you can instantly mark the page that you are on and get back to it when you again have the time. A good thing you can also have it on your website. A bookmarking tool is a link or a logo that will be very handy to you and your online guests. You can put it on your home page, or you may put one on every specific page of your site so your visitors can easily click on it when they want to keep your website in their bookmarks or favorites.  Your web site users need not go back to searching your website from all over the net the next time he wishes to view it.

1. Guide your “treasure hunters” by making a site map

For some websites, the visitors won’t even go beyond the home page if they do not find the website worthwhile and interesting. But if you are fortunate, your web user might like to browse through your site in search for something they need that you might offer. Especially if you have a large website, you do not want your visitor to get lost in it; this is where a site map will come in.

A site map is an important web site tool that bears an outline of all the information that your web site contains. The site map should be accessible from all pages of your web site and should bear links that lead directly to the corresponding location or information that your web site contains. Most web users are not so patient, and this tool will help you not lose their interest, keep them from getting frustrated and save their time.

1. Have an email form ready

If your web users and visitors became interested in your website they’d probably want to contact you and ask a few questions regarding what they just saw from your page. You want your customers to communicate with you easily so you do not want them to have to write emails whenever they need more information from you, the website owner. It is not enough that you put your email address on the website. Putting an email form is more practical.

An email form is a very easy way that your customers can get in touch with you. An email form will contain certain info-required fields like name and email address, and a few more fields where you can ask other information—a very easy way to know more about your visitors. When a visitor fills-up and submits one email form, an email will automatically be generated to your own email account and depending on your availability; you’d be able to respond to any of their concerns and inquiries. Putting up an email form also helps to build up your email list that will help you in disseminating new updates and new products and services to your valued customers. It’s like hitting multiple birds with one stone.

Online Success Obstacle No.1 – The “I am God Syndrome”

God is the only one who is omnipotent (can do everything), omniscient (knows everything) and omnipresent (is everywhere at all times). Knowing this, still many business owners fall into the misconception of believing that they can play “God”. Many business people try to run their business all by themselves; answer the phone, make a sale, run a sales meeting, welcome customers and audit company’s accounts all at the same time. But since you are not God, you most likely will fail in doing everything all at once. Your concentration will be divided and so you can’t give your best if you’re doing everything simultaneously on your own. You would not want to risk your website’s success like that.

The best thing to do is to just stick to doing one or some of the things that you know and can focus on, and leave the rest to the experts. Hire people that are more knowledgeable in areas that you lack expertise like probably web design, website marketing, graphic design and business consultancy. This way you’d be like the captain of a smoothly sailing ship.

Online Success Obstacle No.2 – ‘Build It And They Will Come’

In the early 1990’s, where going online was still all new and just by owning a cool web address or domain name still meant you’d easily be getting all the money and earnings that you wish, they said “Build it and they will come”. For then, it might have worked, but for now, this little word of promotion is not the case anymore.

Many were persuaded by these “Build it and they will come” idea that all these eager entrepreneurs started making their own websites without even understanding from where and how will the profits start pouring in. Because of that, there might as well be more online businesses than there are customers ready to patronize. In putting up a website for your business, you’d be paying for the graphic design, content, domain names, hosting, web design and testing. You need to know how you can gain all of the money that you’ve just invested.

After your web site goes live, you don’t just sit around and wait for your customers to just magically find your online business; you need to market it. Just like how you do it when your business started, you should go through all the publicity measures— advertising, fliers, yellow pages, referrals, networking, cold calls, direct marketing, mail shots, radio slots, events, conventions, product launches, press coverage, etc., if possible. If you don’t promote your web site, they’ll probably be saying the new age’s new statement that goes “Build it and they will say ‘I can’t find it!’”

Online Success Obstacle No.2 – You Have the Wrong Web Promotion Company

You invested money in making your website. You hired experts to create your website content and now you are investing on advertizing it. You need to find the best online marketers to make sure that you’ve put your money in the best place. Listening to word of mouth recommendations might be a nice place to start, but here are guidelines to ask yourself in hiring the best web site marketing company to help you.

• They offer guaranteed results
• They proudly display testimonials of highly-pleased clients on their website.
• Their own web profile is very easy to find in the internet
• They present comprehensive researches that describe how they help other businesses’ success
• They have a venerable performance record in the web marketing field and offer services to several clientele

You may have made the wrong decision at first, but there is always a chance to make things right. Now that you have this information in your hands, if you follow these tips, you will be right on track on your way to online business success.

Many website marketing experts have always sworn by the effectiveness of free classifieds and free traffic exchange programs in increasing web traffic despite a low budget.

Free classified sites are great in attracting quality target markets online. Visitors of these sites enter a certain keyword that defines their search and they’d be instantly redirected to the ad that corresponds with their keywords. So if you put up a keyword rich ad, you’d surely be getting the best online traffic that you deserve. Most of these free classified sites let you upload photos and make URL listings for free. Often, they will let your ad stay for a month and would just have you renew it several times. To also make sure that your ad is on top of the search categories, most classified sites let you to upload new ads every week. All you need to do is make sure that your ad is rich with the right keywords so that you’d benefit f these sites’ search engines. There are many free classified sites out there. Imagine if you’ve placed an ad to ten or more of these classified sites, you’d surely get the online attention that your website needs.

Web marketers also recommend using traffic exchange sites to increase your online publicity. Especially if your product has something to do with online marketing or online advertising. traffic exchange sites are the best option for your business. There are many sites like these in the internet, but if your page really has great substance, quality web traffic will come. Some traffic exchange sites may even help in promoting your website and give offers like free sign-up and surf credit generation through clicking on or visiting other web sites.  Sign-up on more than one of these web sites and spend an hour or so surfing through them. Since these sites are virtually free, enjoy the perks of inviting new visitors in your online business, without having to empty your cash register. If you do not have time to dedicate to surfing traffic exchange sites, some traffic exchange sites even offer promos that let you buy thousands of surf credits at a very low cost.

These two web traffic increasing techniques will not charge you any fee. All that you need to invest in these two strategies are lots of your hard work and time. Any business will never succeed if you do not invest some of your time and attention to it, may it be in online or outside of the cyberspace.

The “Buffet rule” is the reform followed by Obama.  Although even many rich agree that they ought to pay more in taxes.  The middle and lower classes also agree that the rich ought to pay more in order to shoulder a share of the burden of fixing the government finances, along with a widespread belief that they can be asked to do so without much harm.

History suggests that low taxes on the rich encourage investment and growth.  It also suggests that often, when tax rates increase the rich are likely to simply move, taking their money with them.  In the US as of 2007, earnings of the top 1% equalled 74% of all taxes paid.

Reagan, facing the stagnation of the 70s, touted tax cuts as a way to rescue the economy.  In Britain, Thatcher slashed the tax rates on the top marginal income from 83% to 40% from 1979 to 1988.  Canada, Germany, Norway, Russia and many other countries followed suit.  Corporate and capital incomes were later also liberated.

The current debate depends on whether these changes were for the good.  The more a government spends, the more it must tax.  Workers respond to the taxes and take steps to avoid taxation.  This can cause distortions in the functioning of the economy, reducing growth and the economy’s ability to provide a high standard of living to all.

When the rich change their behavior it can distort activity in economies.  The rich may alter their sources of income, change their business strategies or just pack up and ship out.

Imposing higher rates on the rich is not the free lunch that we are promised.  Low level increases in taxation lift revenues, but with a cost from short term growth and efficiency.  If the goal of governments is to close budget gaps, the evidence shows that reforms that close loopholes and broaden the tax base are a more efficient way to bring in more money than just raising taxes on the wealthy.

Source

The author of the Economist article, however, was somewhat surprised by the concern on the part of Ezra over this news.  Housing markets, though currently are in a dire state, are likely to get worse.  Turns out that 11 million homes have negative equity.  In other words, if the owner purchased the home for $500,000, the morgage on the home is for $500,000 but now the home may only be worth $300,000.

In the third quarter of last year, investment in residential homes was at a $329.8 billion annual rate.  This is the lowest it has been, in nominal terms since the first quarter of 1996.  In order for this to be an actual threat to recovery then, residential investment would have to fall significantly lower than this level, which is seemingly impossible to imagine.  With the exception of a catastrophic event, which would pose a significant threat to the American economy, its unlikely that the problems in the housing market could get much worse.

It is possible to imagine these falling housing prices and the compression going on in the economy affecting household consumption, which in turn could have negative effects on the current state.  But many households already began reducing consumption to pay off existing home equity loans and its unlikely that there would be something to cause this to accelerate.

American banks are in much better shape than in 2008 and quite a significant bit of the bad loans in the U.S. have been acknowledged
and are being delt with.  Crisis from somewhere else would be more likely than from the housing woes.  Unfortunately for those caught in the eye of the storm, the housing markets with the worst amounts of negative equity are concentrated in just a few states: Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and California.  Deterioration of neighborhoods and other related foreclosure activity will likely fall on deaf ears, since the problem is no longer a national problem.

Source:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/03/housing_markets

Wyoming

Taxes: No personal or corporate income tax

Best Places to Live and Launch: Cheyenne

Want to know where to find the no. 1 business favoured place in the nation? Well, you can find it in Wyoming! The Tax Foundation, which is a nonpartisan tax analysis organization, had actually concluded that fact. The residents in Wyoming are less than 1 million. It has the smallest population in the country even though there is less than 3 million people from foreign countries come by to visit the place. Specifically, these tourist visit the Yellowstone National Park.

Besides low property taxes, Wyoming also has low cost of living.  Wyoming is a state rich in natural resources like oil, natural gas, coal and mineral trona. These natural resources is what makes the economy of Wyoming stable. Hence, in the year 2000 to 2006, employment in the coal mining industry gained a 36% increased. 38% of the nation’s coal and all trona is made by the state. Besides having the famous Yellowstone park, other leisure and recreational activity places can be found here in Wyoming, like the Grand Teton National Park and so much more.

Cheyenne, which is Wyoming’s biggest city, is doing their best to strengthen their economy. Cheyenne mainly depends on the growing service industry to provide jobs in retail, hospitality, finance and health care. Last July, the world’s most extravagant rodeo was held in Cheyenne, which is known as the Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Nevada

Taxes: No personal or corporate income tax

Best Places to Live and Launch: Reno and Henderson

Nevada’s Desirable tax structure helps to get employees from the states around him. Hence, its population gained a 25% increase from the year 2000 to 2006. Besides not having an income tax, Nevada does not have an inventory tax and has minimum state payroll tax. More than that, this state has low cost of living.

Many citizens gather from and beyond Las Vegas, the state’s biggest city, and Reno, the second biggest city, are both recognized for their gaming and hospitality enterprises. On the otherhand, construction companies were hit hard due to the housing market’s downfall, the increasing population has resulted into a need of various services including new restaurants and bars.

Henderson, a place exterior to Las Vegas, brag about driving health care, education, and finance sectors; it is a good place for business with other big southwest cities. Foreigners gathers in Reno not only for gambling but for outdoor activities as well. As a matter of fact, Lake Tahoe has water sports activity during summer and skiing in winter. In Arcadian areas, mining is the main industry, businesses are gaining from expensive gold and copper.

Florida

Taxes: No personal income tax, but corporate income tax

Best Places to Live and Launch: Gainesville, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Sarasota

This unclouded state’s economy gains its strength from a comprehensive combination of corporations like jobs in aerospace, agriculture, medical technology, software creation, and tourism and leisure.

NASA launch headquarters, also known as Kennedy Space Center, is located in Orlando, Florida. We can find the University of Florida in Gainesville; to be able to manage the growth of business with great technological innovations, the state center for excellence program matches the university research facility with foreign companies. The famous Doral Golf Resort & Spa safeguards the Miami suburb of Doral. There is a PGA championship held there each year.  One of the biggest tourist spot in town is Fort Lauderdale which is also a home for 1.6 million people aging 65 and above. This place has a good weather making it a nice place to stay. Orlando, Florida has a stable flow of foreigner for about 90,000 each year and also has a built in workers with different languages. Employees in this place, together with Florida’s seaside location, give the state a bountiful amount of world trades from North America and Latin America, The Caribbean and other neighbouring countries.

Texas

Taxes: No personal income tax, low business gross receipts tax (sole proprietors and general partnerships are exempt)

Best Places to Live and Launch: Georgetown, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Stafford

The state’s economy depends on a commodious selection of areas, which includes manufacturing, agriculture, and aerospace even though oil petroleum is the main industry of Texas. Manufacturers that makes clothing, chemical products, food, automobiles, computers, etc. like Exxon, Citgo, Dell, Raytheon and Mary Kay are based in Texas.

Currently, the office of the governor has determined six enterprises where Texas plans to advertise forthcoming development: innovative electronics and factories, aerospace and defence, biotechnology and life sciences, Information Technology and computers, oil refineries and chemical products, and energy source. These sectors are gathered by the government through associating enterprises with alliances and private grants, supplying state budgets for studies, and boost job training activities.

Georgetown profits from its distance to Austin, and its proud from its high class of livelihood, with minimum crime rate, parks to stroll with, lakes and golf courses. Factory jobs, huge city surroundings, financial institutions and biotech corporations are provided by Fort Worth and San Antonio. Other than that, Houston suburb Stafford provides various innovative opportunities; thus, this town does not have any tax.

Washington

Taxes: No personal income tax, but a gross-receipts tax on all business income

Best Places to Live and Launch: Bellevue, Bellingham, Olympia, and Spokane

Amazon and Boeing in Washington is an innovative state, thus, it is where Microsoft is based. The main corporations are software creation and improvement, bioscience, aerospace technology and electronics.  This state has a strong agricultural environment: Washington is US best supplier of fruits like apples, pears, cherries, etc. Citizens of this state savor the advantages of compensating no income tax. Thus, businesses does not get off so effortlessly for in return, this state has high tax on goods like petroleum, cigars, and alcoholic beverages. In fact, gas and diesel are taxed 34 cents each gallon.

Usually, citizens of Bellevue gain as much as double the US Median revenue; the town is fast growing and highlights many software improvement corporations including a strong service sector. Picturesque Bellingham provides fun activities such as hiking and boating, and additional employment opportunities in aircraft factories, oil refinery, health care, and telecommunications. Olympia, its principal state, highlights a marine fort and a commercial airport; this town also includes a healthy professional-services sector and growing life sciences industry. The next largest city which is Spokane, Washington, highlights a comprehensive combination of innovative areas such as biotechnology, agriculture, forestry, and manufacturing. The Spokane River divides the city; citizens and foreigners savor recreational activities like kayaking, rock climbing, and hiking by the region’s nearest mountains.

New Hampshire

Taxes: No personal income tax on wages and salaries, but tax on dividends and interest, plus gross receipts tax for businesses

Best Places to Live and Launch: Manchester

In terms of business advancement, New Hampshire takes its place as one of the quickest advancing state. A wide array of diplomatic professionals benefits from New Hampshire’s innovative corporations. New Hampshire has 26 colleges. Included in these institution is the University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth College. Regardless of the advancing numbers of workers, unemployment is lesser than the national rate.

Manchester, New Hampshire’s biggest city is managing its path towards developing telecom and computer program enterprises. Some quickly advancing divisions have health care, retail and hospitality. Even though property taxes is as costly as 3.3% in other cities (Manchester’s is 1.7%), the state’s sales tax is never present. The necessities in this place are cheap – the median value of every family in New Hampshire is approximately $253,200 in comparison with $370,400 just near Massachusetts.

Tennessee

Taxes: No personal income tax on wages and salaries, but taxes on dividends and interest, plus corporate excise tax on net earnings

Best Places to Live and Launch: Nashville

Tennessee has a strong manufacturing section, creating automobiles, chemicals, machinery, and rubber and plastics. To manage development, the state provides different sales tax discharge and tax credits to fresh business establishments, and additional training activities for the growth of a talented employees. Tennessee has the minimal utility costs as well in the nation; however, they have the most expensive sales taxes.

Besides holding the title as the nation’s country music metropolis, Nashville is a base to most leader enterprises like Nissan North America and Bridgestone that has bases and factories in the city. We can also see the famous NFL’s Tennessee Titans in Nashville, same as the Grand Ole Opry. Meanwhile, Nashville and Tennessee’s other huge city, Memphis, provides city accommodation like airports, nightlife, thus the necessities in this place lesser than its surrounding cities.

Today, YouTube announced that its rolling out a new feature that automatically converts all 1080p-quality video uploads into 3D.  The functionality is only available for short-form videos. (Sorry, no full length indie films… yet). You’ll basically be able to toggle the 3D version of the video in the same way that you’d change the video’s quality settings. Of course, you’ll still need a pair of 3D glasses, which everyone should already have after Hollywood’s 3D obsession over the past few years.

The video site first rolled out beta testing for its 3D functionality back in September 2011. Since then, YouTube’s team said it has constantly been at work on enhancing the 2D to 3D  conversion process using several techniques.

In a blog post, YouTube explains those techniques as:

• Using combination of video characteristics — such as color , spatial layout and motion –  to estimate a depth map for each frame of a monoscopic video sequence
• Using machine learning from the growing number of true 3D videos on YouTube to learn video depth characteristics and apply them to in-depth estimation
• Using  generated depth map and the original monoscopic frame to create a stereo 3D left-right pair that a stereo display system needs to display a video as 3D

The real question, however, is why YouTube is bothering with 3D conversion in the first place. Despite its undoubtedly nifty efforts to convert these short videos into 3D, the majority of them are probably going to be on par with the horrible post-conversion 3D of Clash of the Titans (or, as Venture Beat’s Devindra Hardawar pointed out,  Airbender ) — not Avatar.

But hey, in a world that permits James Cameron’s  Titanic to head back into theaters with the 3D treatment, it’s not surprising YouTube is following suit.

Researchers from UC Berkeley were able to reconstruct YouTube videos from viewers’ brain activity — a feat that might one day offer a glimpse into our dreams, memories and even fantasies.

“This is a major leap toward reconstructing internal imagery,” said Jack Gallant, professor of psychology and coauthor of a study published today in Current Biology. “We are opening a window into the movies in our minds.”

Gallant’s coauthors acted as study subjects, watching YouTube videos inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine for several hours at a time. The team then used the brain imaging data to develop a computer model that matched features of the videos — like colors, shapes and movements — with patterns of brain activity.

“Once we had this model built, we could read brain activity for that subject and run it backwards through the model to try to uncover what the viewer saw,” said Gallant.

Subtle changes in blood flow to visual areas of the brain, measured by functional MRI, predicted what was on the screen at the time — whether it was Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau or an airplane. The reconstructed videos are blurry because they layer all the YouTube clips that matched the subject’s brain activity pattern. The result is a haunting, almost dream-like version of the video as seen by the mind’s eye.

The researchers say the technology could one day be used to broadcast imagery — the scenes that play out inside our minds independent from vision.
PHOTO: UC Berkeley researchers use brain imaging, computer modeling to recreate clips.
Courtesy of Shinji Nishimoto
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“If you can decode movies people saw, you might be able to decode things in the brain that are movie-like but have no real-world analog, like dreams,” Gallant said.

The brain activity measured in this study is just a fraction of the activity that lets us see moving images. Other, more complex areas help us interpret the content of those images — distinguish faces from lifeless objects, for example.

“The brain isn’t just one big blob of tissue. It actually consists of dozens, even hundreds of modules, each of which does a different thing,” said Gallant. “We hope to look at more visual modules, and try to build models for every single part of visual system.”

More models, Gallant said, mean better resolution. It also means a ton more data to analyze.

“We need really big computers,” Gallant said.

Shinji Nishimoto, a neuroscientist in Gallant’s lab and the study’s lead author, said the results shed light on how the brain understands and processes visual experiences.

“We need to know how the brain works in naturalistic conditions,” Nishimoto said in a statement. “For that, we need to first understand how the brain works while we are watching movies.”

Whether the technology could also be used to watch people’s dreams or memories — even intentions — depends on how close those abstract visual experiences are to the real thing.

“We simply don’t know at this point. But it’s our next line of research,” said Gallant.

If the technology could be used to broadcast imagery, it could one day allow people who are paralyzed to control their environment by imagining sequences of movements. Already, brain waves recorded through electrodes on the scalp can flip a switch, allowing people with Lou Gehrig’s disease and other paralyzing conditions to choose letters on a computer monitor and communicate.

Gallant and his team are often asked whether the technology could be used in detective work or court cases — an idea that brings to mind the futuristic crime-foiling action in “Minority Report.”

But the potential to watch a person’s memories may not be so far off. Whether such memories could be used in a court of law, however, would be limited not only by the technology but also the nature of memories. After all, Gallant’s website reads, an accurate read-out of a faulty memory only provides misleading information.

Video Here

Its so easy to get your files backed up, and so inexpensive that I recommend if you haven’t done it you do it right now. All that is required is to purchase an external drive, plug it in and drag your important stuff over. If you need help, we can schedule an appointment to get everything setup for you so that you never have to worry about losing those important documents, all of your photos, music files, outlook files, or whatever you have that you are counting on your computer to save for you. Guess what? Its not that safe! Back it up now!

I recently had another appointment with a client that took an hour. I showed her everything that was needed to backup her files and we even setup a normal backup in order to keep her up to date regularly. Serioiusly, now is the time to do this.

Get yourself a 1 or 2TB hard drive for about $100 bucks online. Order it now, do not wait. Your data is not secure and everything can be gone in the blink of an eye. Here are some I would recommend. Again, if you are unsure of which to buy, contact me anytime and I can make a recommendation.

When people think of SEO submission the first thing that usually comes to mind is the use of keywords. Keywords play an important role in your ability to show up in a search engine results page. The first step to website SEO is therefore to research the exacat keywords and key phrases that match your business, product, industry and customers. There are many tools that will allow you to do this, and by utilizing them, you will end up with a clear picture of which words are most popular and which are the hardest to compete for when using advertising. This knowledge will determine which keywords and phrases you need to include on your site.

Keywords need to be used properly and sparingly. The days of dumb search engines are over, and they are difficult to fool today. If a keyword is used too few or too many times in a page it can produce negative results. Using a keyword too sporadically won’t significantly align yourself with that topic or phrase. Using a keyword too heavily will label your site as a SPAM site and will result in you getting penalized by both the search engines and visitors. You need to find a happy medium of keyword inclusion. A keyword density of 2-4% is usually appropriate and will help produce results.

Website Search Engine Optimization includes a lot more than keywords however. One of the most important factors that determines your rank in the search engines is the amount and quality of incoming links to your site. An incoming link is any time that another website has a clickable link leading to one of your web pages. Each link that leads to your site is like a friend vouching for you to the search engines. The higher the reputation the friend has, the more valuable that referral will be.

Finding a steady stream of high quality incoming links can be tough work, but it will ultimately pay you back. People often use article marketing to accomplish this. They create and distribute short articles to various online directories. The bottom of the articles will include a short author’s bio, which includes a link back to your site. This can provide incoming links to help your search engine ranking, it will provide direct traffic from people who click those links and it will help to establish your website’s credibility and authority within your niche as well.

The world of website SEO is constantly changing and growing and is always becoming more competitive. The tips here are only a start that you can hopefully use to help get you and your online business off the ground running. Website Search Engine Optimization is a constant battle, and you will need to continue improving and tweaking your strategy to see the best results. If you start your work by following some of these ideas and principles, your website’s search ranking and hopefully your business should be able to grow quickly.

Mindfu provides Search Engine Optimation services as well as sitemap creating and registration. If you are interested in this service, contact us at info@mindfu.com and we can have you set up and running in no time.

In order for the “crawlers” from Search Engines like Google (or Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask, etc) to find and index your site, you must create a sitemap and register the sitemap with each search engine. This can become complicated since each of the Search Engines have a different interface for submission. You might consider working with an expert in Search Engine optimazation in order to get this done right. The other thing you must remember is that if you make changes to the structure of your site, by adding new pages, changing the names of your pages, or removing pages, you will have to update your sitemap again to make sure the site is indexed correctly and you do not cause any errors for the crawler (spider or bot).

Sitemaps are a useful tool for making sites built in Flash and other non-html languages searchable. Note that because the website’s navigation is built with Flash (Adobe), the initial homepage of a site developed in this way would probably be found by an automated search program (ref: bot) However, the subsequent pages are unlikely to be found without an XML sitemap.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<urlset xmlns=”http://www.example.com/sitemap/0.9“>

<url>

<loc>http://www.example.com</loc>

<lastmod> 2009-09-22</lastmod>

<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>

<priority>0.8</priority>

</url>

<url>

<loc>http://www.example.com/?id=who</loc>

<lastmod> 2009-09-22</lastmod>

<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>

<priority>0.8</priority>

</url>

<url>

<loc>http://www.example.com/?id=what</loc>

<lastmod> 2009-09-22</lastmod>

<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>

<priority>0.5</priority>

</url>

<url>

<loc>http://www.example.com/?id=how</loc>

<lastmod> 2009-09-22</lastmod>

<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>

<priority>0.5</priority>

</url>

</urlset>

Mindfu provides Search Engine Optimation services as well as sitemap creating and registration. If you are interested in this service, contact us at info@mindfu.com and we can have you set up and running in no time.

At the 2010 TED conference, Le gave a presentation on the capabilitis of the Emotiv device. The demonstration showed how the user could control a simulated object. Calling the EPOC a brain computer interface is a little bit generous. With only 14 channels, it’s a fairly simple version of EEG. It is a magnitude cheaper than the more advanced devices, and is able to translate a wide variety of brain activity into computer commands.

In the TED demonstration we are able to see a first time user move a virtual object and make that object disappear using monitored brain activity. The EPOC can be connected to a computer, using a learning algorithm wizard in just a few minutes. Soon commercial BCIs like EPOC will be employed in a wide range of applications, including video games, automated machines, and wheelchairs.

The Seattle Times reported Microsoft stock fell 4 percent to close at $25.01 for a market capitalization of $219.1 billion while Apple stock slipped 0.5 percent to close at $244.11 and a market capitalization of $222.1 billion.

Apple’s tightly knit community, dedication to excellence, and continued success with items such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad have sprung them to the forefront of technology as computing, television and mobile phones converge.

When it comes to sales and profits, Microsoft is still in command, turning a $14.6 billion profit on $58.4 billion in sales last year compared with Apple’s $5.7 billion profit on $36.5 billion in sales.

Summary:
1. If you cannot delete the hidden folder muza or carpet, then kill the explorer.exe using task manager and restart explorer.exe. This will kill the malware instance.
2. Now delete the hidden folders muza or carpet and then delete then autorun.inf as well from your removable drives.
3. Open registry and search for all keys containing sguza.exe or shey.exe and all other probable names here : http://www.prevx.com/filenames/X285138109880396664-X1/SHEY.EXE.html and delete them.
4. Disable autorun and autoplay.(use links section)
5. If at all, the malware still works then it suggests we missed a copy of it. So when you restart your computer, it will be executed again. But all the instances use explorer.exe as a host, so if you want to kill them, restart explorer. But any undeleted registry entry will restart the malware when you restart windows. That doesnt sound good, but we can wait for the AVs to create a tool or reverse engineer it for more details.

New malwares in town. Not much info available on Google.
shell\open\command=muza\\\sguza.exe
shell\open\command=carpet\\\shey.exe

Again my AV failed to recognize a malware, but when I saw autoruns and hidden folders named muza and carpet in my pen drive, I got suspicious. These files and folders are system files, so if you cant see them, then you need to go to Tools->Folder options->View and set the following settings:

enable Show hidden files and folders
Hide protected operating system files.

Malwares often attribute themselves as system and hidden to stay invisible.
Unfortunately Autoruns and Autoplay were enabled by default on my new system. And it popped the option of “action=Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer”. Which could be misleading
as I found the same action in autorun.inf as well. After inspecting the autorun.inf, I believe even if you right click and explore/open its copy gets executed. It has variants in the name of shey.exe and sguza.exe and moves through removable drives. Once its executed you cannot remove the autorun.inf or the hidden folders. I took the help of utility Handle (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx) by Sysinternals to find out which app has opened the Autorun.inf.
Execute Handle.exe using command prompt and output the results to a text file. And search using CTRL-F for autorun.inf.

explorer.exe pid: 540 administrator
6E4: Section \BaseNamedObjects\MSCTF.MarshalInterface.FileMap.ECE.B.NMKKAD
6F0: Section \BaseNamedObjects\MSCTF.Shared.SFM.ECE
6F8: File (RWD) C:\Documents and Settings\lada\My Documents\Downloads
700: File (—) E:\autorun.inf

And as always it was explorer.exe:
which means the malware is using explorer.exe as a host.
I killed and restarted explorer using task manager.

Alternatively we can use Process Explorer (a tool by sysinternals, which is kindof an advanced Task manager) to inspect the explorer.exe and search for SHEY.EXE or other handles and then close them.
Start process explorer and do a CTRL-F search for any handle with the names: SHEY.EXE, SGUZA,EXE, mrpky.exe 194.EXE, 21782259.EXE OR KITA375[1].EXE, OR autorun.inf:

Search for the file names. If found, close those handles.

After you kill the malware instance, using Proc Explorer OR by restarting explorer.exe, you will be able to delete the muzo and carpet and autorun.inf files.

I deleted the autoruns and the hidden folders named muza and carpet.
The next step was to clean the registry. So you search for all occurrences of shey.exe and sguza.exe and delete them. The malware may use some other names as well, which I found here:

http://www.prevx.com/filenames/X285138109880396664-X1/SHEY.EXE.html

I found the malware still running inside the explorer with the name : MRPKY.EXE
This file is located in C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\Application Data

Again searching the registry I found an entry in the WinLogon startups: (You may use Autorun and ProcessExplorer tools from Sysinternals for this)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Taskman with a value of C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\mrpky.exe

So I deleted this registry entry and deleted the mrpky.exe as well. I searched for other names but as of now couldnt find any.

I restarted my system, and I am not seeing any weird behavior as of now. If I insert a pen drive, it doesnt show any autorun.inf. Nor I am seeing any suspicious exe or dll in explorer. (using process explorer)

Thats all for now.

Prevention tips:
Disable autoruns and autoplay for all removable drives. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967715

Update:
For more details about the malware, you can upload the exe on virustotal.com which provides the AV detection results from various Anti Viruses.

Here are the results from the unpacked mrpky.exe:

http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/c887b8c000b422f41a06dc36e0d2a9bf84f114520da0e08cb83dc07005446260-1276933820

Links:
Handle by SysInternals: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx
Turn off autoplay: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967715
VirusTotal: http://www.virustotal.com/

4G is referring to the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. Most phones in the US in 2010 are running on a 3G network. Each time there is an expansion in the fundamental nature of the service, when new features become available, the mobile carriers make the move to the next generation.

4G, refers to a shift to all-IP packet-switched networks, mobile ultra-fast broadband (gigabit speed) access and multi-carrier transmission. This is expected to provide a more comprehensive and secure all-IP based system where facilities such as IP telephony, ultra-broadband Internet access, gaming services and streamed multimedia may be provided to users.

A big problem is that the internet is quickly running out of IP addresses. The current system relies on Network Address Translation (NAT), a method of sharing a limited number of addresses among a larger group of devices. By moving to more complicated IPv6 address system, they will be able to support a larger number of wireless-enabled devices, by increasing the number of IP addresses.

Although countries like Korea and Japan have been using 4G for several years now, the US is expected to be catching up soon. Sprint will probably be the first to roll out 4G features, as they are currently the only 4G Network in the United States.

The VKB looks like a tiny version of the “2001″ monolith – a black, rectangular object about 3″ tall and an inch wide and deep. A silvery metal band runs up the left side and over the top and houses the power switch on its left, the Bluetooth on/off indicator and a small grille next to it. There’s a rubber-capped AC power charger port near the bottom on one side, and a similarly capped reset hole (paperclip required) on the other.

The business side of the VKB is the front, where a slim red window houses a ruby red laser beam that projects a slightly non-standard but full-sized “virtual” QWERTY keyboard on any hard, flat surface. It reminded me of Gort with his visor raised. Below that is a dark plastic window which uses Infrared to intercept your finger movements across the projected keys and transmit them as keystrokes to your computer, Treo or other kinds of handhelds.

The VKB works with many operating systems, and its box contains a 3″ CD full of drivers and manuals, a small printed quick start guide, an AC charger that terminates in two round Euro-style prongs – obviously, these won’t work in North American wall outlets, so an adapter that does is included.

On the bottom of the VKB lives a tiny round feather-touch micro switch. This little button MUST be depressed by the unit’s own weight for the VKB to work, so the it has to stand upright on a hard surface to engage that switch, which doubles as a power-off switch if you simply lift the VKB or tip it over.

I-Tech thoughtfully included a little black snap-shut vinyl pouch to carry the VKB and keep its plastic laser and IR windows from getting scratched, but since its sealed-inside battery is only good for about two hours of continuous use, if you intend to do any serious typing / writing with it, you’ll have to lug along the AC charger anyway. Without the ability to re-charge, if the VKB’s battery runs out of juice, that’s it.

Usability

I first tried out the VKB on my Windows laptop. I have a generic Bluetooth dongle plugged into one of the laptop’s USB ports. It was a little tricky to get the VKB going, but I installed the XP driver and control panel and muddled through; it paired with my laptop, and finally worked. I could type into any open Windows application with it as if using the laptop’s real keyboard.

The VKB’s design absolutely requires that its laser projects the virtual keyboard onto a hard, flat surface, preferably one that’s not catching any bright light or glare, such as sunlight through an open window. No, it won’t project or float a keyboard into thin air. It’d be cool if it did, but its projected keyboard isn’t a Hollywood Sci-Fi hologram. Maybe next decade.

No matter which platform you’re using it with, there’s an OS-specific VKB control panel you must install with which you set its various parameters, including, thankfully, the brightness of the keyboard in three levels. The default “high” brightness level was, to my eyes, way too bright, so I throttled it down to medium, and then to low with its onscreen control panel.

I’m not a Doctor, so I don’t know the medical implications of staring at a laser projection of a keyboard for long periods of time but you should definitely NOT point the laser at your eyes, and the manual warns about this repeatedly.

Considering how expensive a some laptop keyboard can be, (on my Presario, for example, I’d have to send the whole laptop back to HP to get the keyboard replaced, while other brands let you simply unclip and pop out the keyboard to replace it with a new one if need be).. the VKB could make a laptop with some broken or flakey keys usable until you fill the old piggybank with enough coins to get your real keyboard replaced. Then again, since the VKB is just under two hundred bucks, I’d have to wonder why you’d buy one of these instead of just getting your keyboard fixed.

• Warning #1
• Warning #2
• Warning #3
• Skip to Repair Install
• Submitted fixes
• Additional Links

It is extremely important that you backup important data that is not
available from other media sources. This backup should be located on a separate hard drive, CD, DVD, network storage, etc. that will not be affected by the repair install. 

Please check out the warning links before attempting the Repair Install. It is to your advantage you follow the suggestions to prevent data loss and especially if you also have the capability to boot into XP, perform the steps listed in the Warning #1, before proceeding with the repair install.

After completing [if Windows is still accessible] the steps listed to prevent data loss in warning #1 and you did not remedy the no boot situation, you can use an OEM XP Pro or Home, "retail" XP Home or Pro full or upgrade version CD of the same version Home or Pro to perform a Repair Install. OEM Restore disks or hidden restore folders on the hard drive will not work for the Repair Install.

A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied.

A Repair Install will replace files altered by adware and malware, but will not fix an adware, malware problem.

You can use the In place upgrade option to change a Product Key in the event you entered a key that was already activated. The In Place Upgrade also produces the same result as the Repair Install.

Alternate options to Change XP Product Key #18 on the FAQ list.

Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD.

If you get a "Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD." message, if you continue, you will need to apply the SP 2 updates after the repair install completes, plus you will need to take the following steps to keep your system from being immediately infected with a virus.

1. If you connect directly to the internet without a router or hardware firewall, disconnect from the internet by physically removing the connections cable, removing a wireless card, or any other means of internet connection.

2. After the Repair install is completed, enable the XP firewall or install third party firewall software or router before connecting to the internet.

If you get the "Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD.". You should create a slipstreamed copy of your XP CD by using the software and step by steps supplied in the links below.

Slipstream XP

Automatic Updates

If you cannot download Automatic updates after the Repair install , follow the steps in the link below submitted by MS-MVP’s Richard Harper and Ron Martell.

Automatic Updates stops working after a repair install of Windows XP

XP Repair install

Please read carefully and make sure you followed the warning links before initiating the Repair Install. You can print a text version for reference.

1. Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the boot order in the system BIOS so the CD boots before the hard drive. Check your system documentation for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order.
2. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below 

   This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
      Windows XP to run on your computer:

      To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

      To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

      To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

3. Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.
   
   
   do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press  R", (you Do Not want to load Recovery Console).
   I repeat,
   
   do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R". 
4. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.
5. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, END setup. After the reboot read 
   Warning#2!
6. Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot.  Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact.

    If you get files not found during the copying stage.

   Blaster worm warning: Do not immediately activate over the internet when asked, enable the XP firewall before connecting to the internet. You can activate after the firewall is enabled. Control Panel – Network Connections.  Right click the connection you use, Properties and there is a check box on the Advanced page.

   KB 833330 Blaster removal

   What You Should Know About the Sasser Wormand Its Variants

   Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011

7. Reapply updates or service packs applied since initial Windows XP installation.
   Please note that a Repair Install using an Original pre service pack 1 or 2 XP CD used as the install media will remove SP1/SP2 respectively and service packs plus updates issued after the service packs will need to be reapplied. Windows XP Service Pack 1

   Service Pack 2

   An option I highly recommend; is creating a Slipstreamed XP CD with SP1, SP2, etc. .

   Slipstreaming Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) Good

   
   Another Slipstream step by step Better

   AutoStreamer
   mirror link for
   AutoStreamer  Best!!

   
   Step by Step on AutoStreamer

   Printable Repair Install step by step

   XP Repair Install in PDF XPrepairinstall

Warning! #1