The Gambling Peak

In 1936 an American (Alonzo Church) and a Briton (Alan M. Turing) published independently (as is often the coincidence in science) the basics of a new branch in Mathematics (and logic): computability or recursive functions (later to be developed into Automata Theory).

The authors confined themselves to dealing with computations which involved “effective” or “mechanical” methods for finding results (which could also be expressed as solutions (values) to formulae). These methods were so called because they could, in principle, be performed by simple machines (or human-computers or human-calculators, to use Turing’s unfortunate phrases). The emphasis was on finiteness : a finite number of instructions, a finite number of symbols in each instruction, a finite number of steps to the result. This is why these methods were usable by humans without the aid of an apparatus (with the exception of pencil and paper as memory aids). Moreover: no insight or ingenuity were allowed to “interfere” or to be part of the solution seeking process.

What Church and Turing did was to construct a set of all the functions whose values could be obtained by applying effective or mechanical calculation methods. Turing went further down Church’s road and designed the “Turing Machine” – a machine which can calculate the values of all the functions whose values can be found using effective or mechanical methods. Thus, the program running the TM (=Turing Machine in the rest of this text) was really an effective or mechanical method. For the initiated readers: Church solved the decision-problem for propositional calculus and Turing proved that there is no solution to the decision problem relating to the predicate calculus. Put more simply, it is possible to “prove” the truth value (or the theorem status) of an expression in the propositional calculus – but not in the predicate calculus. Later it was shown that many functions (even in number theory itself) were not recursive, meaning that they could not be solved by a Turing Machine.

No one succeeded to prove that a function must be recursive in order to be effectively calculable. This is (as Post noted) a “working hypothesis” supported by overwhelming evidence. We don’t know of any effectively calculable function which is not recursive, by designing new TMs from existing ones we can obtain new effectively calculable functions from existing ones and TM computability stars in every attempt to understand effective calculability (or these attempts are reducible or equivalent to TM computable functions).

The Turing Machine itself, though abstract, has many “real world” features. It is a blueprint for a computing device with one “ideal” exception: its unbounded memory (the tape is infinite). Despite its hardware appearance (a read/write head which scans a two-dimensional tape inscribed with ones and zeroes, etc.) – it is really a software application, in today’s terminology. It carries out instructions, reads and writes, counts and so on. It is an automaton designed to implement an effective or mechanical method of solving functions (determining the truth value of propositions). If the transition from input to output is deterministic we have a classical automaton – if it is determined by a table of probabilities – we have a probabilistic automaton.

With time and hype, the limitations of TMs were forgotten. No one can say that the Mind is a TM because no one can prove that it is engaged in solving only recursive functions. We can say that TMs can do whatever digital computers are doing – but not that digital computers are TMs by definition. Maybe they are – maybe they are not. We do not know enough about them and about their future.

Moreover, the demand that recursive functions be computable by an UNAIDED human seems to restrict possible equivalents. Inasmuch as computers emulate human computation (Turing did believe so when he helped construct the ACE, at the time the fastest computer in the world) – they are TMs. Functions whose values are calculated by AIDED humans with the contribution of a computer are still recursive. It is when humans are aided by other kinds of instruments that we have a problem. If we use measuring devices to determine the values of a function it does not seem to conform to the definition of a recursive function. So, we can generalize and say that functions whose values are calculated by an AIDED human could be recursive, depending on the apparatus used and on the lack of ingenuity or insight (the latter being, anyhow, a weak, non-rigorous requirement which cannot be formalized).

Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics which describes the microcosm. It is governed by the Schrodinger Equation (SE). This SE is an amalgamation of smaller equations, each with its own space coordinates as variables, each describing a separate physical system. The SE has numerous possible solutions, each pertaining to a possible state of the atom in question. These solutions are in the form of wavefunctions (which depend, again, on the coordinates of the systems and on their associated energies). The wavefunction describes the probability of a particle (originally, the electron) to be inside a small volume of space defined by the aforementioned coordinates. This probability is proportional to the square of the wavefunction. This is a way of saying : “we cannot really predict what will exactly happen to every single particle. However, we can foresee (with a great measure of accuracy) what will happen if to a large population of particles (where will they be found, for instance).”

This is where the first of two major difficulties arose:

To determine what will happen in a specific experiment involving a specific particle and experimental setting – an observation must be made. This means that, in the absence of an observing and measuring human, flanked by all the necessary measurement instrumentation – the outcome of the wavefunction cannot be settled. It just continues to evolve in time, describing a dizzyingly growing repertoire of options. Only a measurement (=the involvement of a human or, at least, a measuring device which can be read by a human) reduces the wavefunction to a single solution, collapses it.

A wavefunction is a function. Its REAL result (the selection in reality of one of its values) is determined by a human, equipped with an apparatus. Is it recursive (TM computable and compatible)? In a way, it is. Its values can be effectively and mechanically computed. The value selected by measurement (thus terminating the propagation of the function and its evolution in time by zeroing its the other terms, bar the one selected) is one of the values which can be determined by an effective-mechanical method. So, how should we treat the measurement? No interpretation of quantum mechanics gives us a satisfactory answer. It seems that a probabilistic automaton which will deal with semi recursive functions will tackle the wavefunction without any discernible difficulties – but a new element must be introduced to account for the measurement and the resulting collapse. Perhaps a “boundary” or a “catastrophic” automaton will do the trick.

The view that the quantum process is computable seems to be further supported by the mathematical techniques which were developed to deal with the application of the Schrodinger equation to a multi-electron system (atoms more complex than hydrogen and helium). The Hartree-Fok method assumes that electrons move independent of each other and of the nucleus. They are allowed to interact only through the average electrical field (which is the charge of the nucleus and the charge distribution of the other electrons). Each electron has its own wavefunction (known as: “orbital”) – which is a rendition of the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

The problem starts with the fact that the electric field is unknown. It depends on the charge distribution of the electrons which, in turn, can be learnt from the wavefunctions. But the solutions of the wavefunctions require a proper knowledge of the field itself!

Thus, the SE is solved by successive approximations. First, a field is guessed, the wavefunctions are calculated, the charge distribution is derived and fed into the same equation in an ITERATIVE process to yield a better approximation of the field. This process is repeated until the final charge and the electrical field distribution agree with the input to the SE.

Recursion and iteration are close cousins. The Hartree-Fok method demonstrates the recursive nature of the functions involved. We can say the SE is a partial differential equation which is solvable (asymptotically) by iterations which can be run on a computer. Whatever computers can do – TMs can do. Therefore, the Hartree-Fok method is effective and mechanical. There is no reason, in principle, why a Quantum Turing Machine could not be constructed to solve SEs or the resulting wavefunctions. Its special nature will set it apart from a classical TM : it will be a probabilistic automaton with catastrophic behaviour or very strong boundary conditions (akin, perhaps, to the mathematics of phase transitions).

Classical TMs (CTMs, Turing called them Logical Computing Machines) are macroscopic, Quantum TMs (QTMs) will be microscopic. Perhaps, while CTMs will deal exclusively with recursive functions (effective or mechanical methods of calculation) – QTMs could deal with half-effective, semi-recursive, probabilistic, catastrophic and other methods of calculations (other types of functions).

The third level is the Universe itself, where all the functions have their values. From the point of view of the Universe (the equivalent of an infinite TM), all the functions are recursive, for all of them there are effective-mechanical methods of solution. The Universe is the domain or set of all the values of all the functions and its very existence guarantees that there are effective and mechanical methods to solve them all. No decision problem can exist on this scale (or all decision problems are positively solved). The Universe is made up only of proven, provable propositions and of theorems. This is a reminder of our finiteness and to say otherwise would, surely, be intellectual vanity.

Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love – Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain – How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, United Press International (UPI) and eBookWeb and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com.

Visit Sam’s Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com

I’ve received several of these warnings from very well
meaning e-friends/associates, so I figured it’s important
enough to pass this information on … the e-mail reads,
“PLEASE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION!!! YOU MAY HAVE A DEADLY VIRUS
ON YOUR COMPUTER … … SULFNBK.EXE — ON JUNE 1,
2001 IT WILL OPEN AND DESTROY YOUR HARD DRIVE. NO ONE KNOWS
WHERE IT CAME FROM AND THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET RID OF IT
… …”

This is a bogus virus warning … don’t delete Sulfnbk.exe!

Sulfnbk.exe is a legitimate Win98 operating system file, so
anyone running Windows 98 will find it. If you’ve fallen
victim to this hoax and deleted this file … visit
http://antivirus.about.com/compute/antivirus/library/weekly/
aa052601a.htm?nk=r1&terms=SULFNBK.EXE or do a web search for
‘Restoring Sulfnbk.exe’.

However! If a Sulfnbk.exe comes attached to an e-mail –
don’t open it — any executable has the potential to be
infected.

“Bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel.” Renata
Adler

About the Author

Kimberly Teed kt@teedsters.com
Kimberly is the editor of PS.update, a weekly e-newsletter
that’s fresh, interesting, fun, thought-provoking, unusual,
or just entertainingly weird — depending on what kind of
mood she’s in psupdate-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

One big mistake of PC owners is the constant seeking for “best antivirus”. There’s no such thing! When you ask for something “best”, be prepared to get very biased recommendations. In fact, every big PC security vendor has its avid advocates and most determined haters alike. Norton and McAfee are just popular examples. There are people who stick with Symantec and will never go for any other solution! Same is with McAfee. These are loyal customers, and we can’t really blame them for some short-sightedness. New players on the growing market of computer security software have to try new marketing methods to attract customers – and free versions are just an example of such tactics. Free is not bad. Actually, in the field of PC security free software can have evident advantages. There are enhanced search and sorting options so any suspicious activity can be easily traced.

Keyloggers, as it is clear from the name of the program, log keystrokes –but that’s not all. They capture everything the user is doing — keystrokes, mouse clicks, files opened and closed, sites visited. A little more sophisticated programs of this kind also capture text from windows and make screenshots (record everything displayed on the screen) – so the information is captured even if the user doesn’t type anything, just opens the views the file. When unsuspecting users visit malicious sites, various nasty applications are downloaded and executed on their computers. Unfortunately, more and more often these applications contain keyloggers–software programs for intercepting data. Data loggers, key loggers and Get Rid Of Internet History are just a few vices which harvest info from your computer. If the malicious software is still on your computer someone is able to read your emails delete your emails or send emails from your account. That is why every computer owner who’s worried about Get Rid Of Internet History needs Winclear.

Online Privacy With Delete Internet History: Get Rid Of Internet History. Or can you just erase the important file that you stored and carry on with your life? You can’t hide from this people even if you put some anti spyware or adware remover they can still penetrate from your personal information. Winclear has been the industry leader in fighting keyloggers and Get Rid Of Internet History for the last 8 years.

Sometimes an important feature of every antivirus or anti-spyware – real-time scanning – is taken off of the free edition. That is the reason why you need Winclear installed onto your computer, is to Get Rid Of Internet History. The average pedophile will victimize between 50-150 children before he comes to the attention of law enforcement. Find out more about Get Rid Of Internet History. Protect your computer security by using Winclear!

If you’ve been using MySQL database to store your important data, it is imperative that you make a backup of your data to prevent any loss of data. This article shows you how to backup and restore data in your MySQL database. This process can also be used if you have to move your data to a new server.

Backing up your database

The quickest and easiest way to backup and restore your database would be to use MySQLDump. If you’ve got shell or telnet access to your server, you can backup MySQL data by issuing the mysqldump command. The syntax for the command is as follows.

mysqldump -u [uname] -p [pass] [dbname] > [backupfile.sql] [uname] – this is your database username [pass]- this is the password for your database [dbname] – the name of your database [backupfile.sql] – the filename for your database backup

To backup your database ‘Customers’ with the username ’sadmin’ and password ‘pass21′ to a file custback.sql, you would issue the command

mysqldump -u sadmin -p pass21 Customers > custback.sql

Issuing this command will backup the database to custback.sql. This file can be copied to a safe location or a backup media and stored. For more information on MySQLDump, you can check out : http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/mysqldump.html

Restoring your database

If you have to re-build your database from scratch, you can easily restore the mysqldump file by issuing the following command. This method will not work if the tables already exist in your database.

mysql – u sadmin -p pass21 Customers < custback.sql

If you need to restore existing databases, you’ll need to use MySQLImport. The syntax for mysqlimport is

mysqlimport [options] database textfile1

To restore your previously created custback.sql dump back to your Customers Database, you’d issue

mysqlimport -u sadmin -p pass21 Customers custback.sql

For more information on MySQLImport, you can check out : http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/mysqlimport.html

Vinu Thomas is a consultant on Webdesign and Internet Technologies. His website is http://www.vinuthomas.com. You can discuss about this article or any PHP/MYSQL related issues in our Discussion Forums: http://www.vinuthomas.com/forum2.html

GoMembers presented trak to an audience of eager session planners and association executives at this year’s Annual CME meeting. This opportunity was used to demonstrate their newest member of the trak line, classtrak. “With classtrak, organizations can expand their capabilities for delivering online education and testing. classtrak provides the opportunity to leverage the Internet and create additional revenue streams for an organization,” explained Tom McGourty, gomembers’ Vice-President of Sales and Marketing. “classtrak is a true one stop shop for e-classroom management,” added McGourty.

The Alliance for Continued Medical Education exposition is an annual meeting that brings together members of the meeting, continuing education and medical industries. This year the over 1500 attendees who were present, representing different sectors of the non-profit and association arena, had the chance to network and learn about new products and technology available in the industry.
For more information on gomembers’ participation at the Alliance for CME and other upcoming gomembers events, please visit our Upcoming Events page.

For more information on gomembers’ solutions, please visit the Products section of our website. www.gomembers.com

For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact gomembers via email at: gomembers-inc@gomembers.com

GoMembers, Inc.
gomembers is a leading provider of software solutions for membership, meetings and management of member-based organizations. gomembers’ software and technology enable its customers to automate a number of enterprise resource planning, member relationship management, transaction processing and member-to-member communications functions in a single software platform with seamless inter-processing of data across all applications.

GoMembers’ membership, meeting, event planning and related solutions are used to improve operating efficiencies, enhance member services and enable interaction with and between members. Meeting and convention planning software products enable customers to coordinate virtually all of the required functions for complete event management. All gomembers’ products are built using the latest technology including Microsoft’s .NET framework.

GoMembers sells its solutions through a direct sales force and provides a wide range of customizations, training and support service to their customers.

Because many of gomembers’ customers organize meetings and conventions on a regular basis, they also offer industry leading prepackaged software products that enable its customers to coordinate virtually all of the required functions relating to meeting and convention planning.

This could be the single most important secret you ever learn about marketing. I know it was for me. I probably heard this particular gem of wisdom a few dozen times over the course of several years before I really 'got' it. And when I did, it changed my life.

This one secret is at the root of *all* marketing success – and failure – whether online or offline. Grasping it will *greatly* accelerate your progress and improve your financial status fast. Ignoring it will guarantee that you stay stuck in a rut. It's that powerful.

It's not what you think. Most people who are attracted to marketing start out by focusing all their energy on learning *techniques*. There's nothing wrong with learning marketing techniques. I'm always looking for new ways to improve my own marketing and – if I'm convinced of the value – I think nothing of jumping on a plane and flying half way around the world just to pick up an extra 'edge' that I didn't have before.

But technique alone is not enough. Not by a long shot.

You can buy every e-Book, purchase every home study course, attend every seminar, fill your home with books, hire the best consultants and coaches, but it's all for nothing if you ignore 'the secret.' In fact, knowing a lot of marketing techniques and not knowing 'the secret' can be downright dangerous to your financial, not to mention your mental, health.

Are your curious yet what 'the secret' is? Good!

Here it is and I hope you burn it into your brain because it will serve you over and over for the rest of your life and it very well could burst the seams of your bank account some day…The most important decision you'll ever make when starting a new business is not what product to sell, not what headline to use, not which super-duper Internet marketing technique to employ…it's this:

“The battle is won or lost on day one…when you pick your MARKET.”

Successful marketing is not so much about the WHAT you market or the HOW you market as it is about WHO you sell to. If you get the WHO right, everything else will fall into place. If you don't, not even the greatest marketing in the world will help you. The 'WHO' is the market you choose to sell to.

And here's the rest of 'the secret'… “Some markets are hard and some markets are easy. If you want to make maximum money in minimum time, go after 'easy' markets.” What do I mean by an 'easy' market?

'Easy' markets have the following three characteristics.

1) Easy to reach.

2) Have a burning 'need' for what you've got.

3) Have demonstrated through their past behavior, an ability and willingness to spend money on the kinds of things you plan to sell.

The closer the market you choose corresponds to this description, the 'easier' your life will be.

The wrong way. Many entrepreneurs – beginners *and* experienced – get tripped up here. They create a product that they're sure the world will love. Or they hear that the Internet is a great marketing medium so invest in creating a super web site.

Both these approaches remind me of the old expression 'putting the cart before the horse.' The fanciest 'cart' on earth – the best product, the slickest web marketing campaign – won't get you anywhere without a good 'horse' to pull it. In contrast, with the right horse, you don't have to worry too much about the cart. Nature will take care of itself.

Richard Sears who started the famous Sears catalog and single-handedly kick-started the direct marketing and mail order industry over 100 years ago put it this way to a colleague once: “If it's the right offer to the right person at the right time, I can write it on the back of an old paper bag in crayon and it will sell.”

That's how important picking the right market is. Now I'm not suggesting that you do your advertising on the back of old paper bags in crayon, but I am suggesting that you radically change your FOCUS.

By all means, continue to study marketing, but – starting right now, today – resolve to put at least half or more of your entrepreneurial time and energy into studying specific MARKETS. And while you're at it, look for 'easy' markets which means:

Groups of people who you can easily reach…who have a burning 'need' for what you sell…and who have already demonstrated the willingness and ability to buy the kinds of things you plan to sell to them.

I call it 'shooting fish in a barrel' marketing.

Copyright © 2005 Dr. Jamie Fettig

Resource box: If you value entertainment over education… the system seminar is not for you. But if you've got brains and guts and you sincerely want to be more than just another member of the 'mediocre Internet marketing majority,' take the FREE Pre-System Training. After just a few lessons you'll see right away if the System is for you or not. The Pre-System Training is a course that stands on its own and over the years, it's helped a lot of people make a lot of money. http://www.bazuji.com/system

DVD recorders are able to be used with a digital telly to record your much-loved sci-fi programmes and videos as well as to watch pre-recorded television. Wonderful image & sound quality, nevertheless the video recording facility means that they are by a long way more costly than Digital Versatile Disc players and furthermore they are also harder to use than Video Cassette Recorders. The selection of recordable configurations available may possibly also add to the confusion.

Having the right connections linking your Digital Versatile Disc recorder & your TV & tape recorder can undeniably make a significant dissimilarity to the general quality of the audio and picture.

One or two connections to consider:

S-video connection: This is the next greatest thing to component video and is an alternative for all Digital Versatile Disc Players that do not encompass component output and TVs that don’t contain component input. You possibly will need another separate cable however the picture difference should be undeniably worth it. Visit the Sound and Vision website and grab yourself Sony DVD Recorder today!

SCART leads: A major sort of connection found in the United Kingdom products is the SCART lead. This holds both audio & video signals. SCART connections are widespread on Digital Versatile Disc players in addition to tellies. Gold protected SCART leads provides a better connection. A SCART connection will undeniably give you a significantly better picture than S-Video will and is close to component benchmark. SCART cables aren’t usually incorporated among players. You possibly will be expected to shell out something like twenty five pounds

Audio connectors: Digital Versatile Disc recorders, predominately the more classy makes, might have loads of audio outputs. Outputs might consist of phono, digital coaxial and digital optical. If you are trying to connect to a different hi-fi system this may well be a very useful attribute to have.

Progressive scan is the hottest catchphrase in the Digital Versatile Disc recorder industry and whilst substantially more dear recorders include it, it can not in reality be used except if you have a digital telly. With it your movie can be refreshed sixty times per second thus helping to make a clear nearly flicker less picture and is far more superior to anything delivered by the abundant of interlaced scanning means.

Web accessibility has so many benefits that I really do wonder why such a large number of websites have such diabolically bad accessibility. One of the main benefits is increased usability, which according to usability guru, Jakob Nielson, can increase the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100% and traffic by 150%.

At which point you must surely be asking, “So if I make my website accessible its usability will increase and I’ll make more money out of it?”. Well, not quite. An accessible website is not automatically more usable but there are many areas of overlap:

1. Descriptive link text

Visually impaired web users can scan web pages by tabbing from link to link and listening to the content of the link text. As such, the link text in an accessible website must always be descriptive of its destination.

Equally, regularly sighted web users don’t read web pages word-for-word, but scan them looking for the information they’re after.

Link text such as ‘Click here’ has poor accessibility and usability as both regularly sighted and visually impaired web users scanning

the paragraph will take no meaning from this link text by itself. Link text that effectively describes its destination is far easier to scan and you can understand the destination of the link without having to read its surrounding words.

2. Prompt text assigned to form input

In order to make forms accessible we need to assign the prompt text to its form item. THis is especially useful when done with checkboxes and radioboxes, as the text becomes clickable too. Checkboxes and radioboxes are small and pernickety for even the steadiest of hands so by increasing the clickable region everyone benefits.

3. Large chunks of information divided up

There are a number of techniques that can be taken to increase the usability for visually impaired users, who have to listen to the information on each page and try to remember it. By structuring information into small, manageable groups, enhanced usability for these users can be achieved.

Methods to accomplish this can include using sub-headings to break up body content, grouping form items with the fieldset command and using lists. Breaking down groups of information is obviously highly useful for sighted web users too, as it greatly enhances our ability to scan the screen quickly.

4. Site map provided

Site maps can be a useful accessibility tool for visually impaired users as they provide a straightforward list of links to the main pages on the site, without any of the fluff in between. Site maps are of course useful for everyone as they provide us with a way of finding pages quickly and help us visualise the structure of the website.

5. Simple and easy language

From an accessibility point of view, this one’s important for people with reading and/or cognitive disabilities and site visitors who’s first language isn’t the one you’re writing in. From a usability point of view, well, it helps everyone. Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and about 25% slower than reading from paper. As such, the easier the style of writing the easier it is for site visitors to absorb your words of wisdom. Wherever possible shorten your sentences. Use, ‘apply’ instead of ‘make an application’ or ‘use’ instead of ‘make use of’.

6. Consistent navigation

Having consistent navigation across pages is also important for maximising accessibility to people with reading and/or cognitive disabilities, but again everyone benefits. Each time you visit a new website it takes you a few seconds to adjust to the unique layout and user interface of that page. Well imagine if you had to do that every time you follow a link to a new page!

By having a consistent interface across a website we can instantly locate the navigation and page content without having to look around for it. In reality, most sites do have consistent navigation across most pages. The main culprit for falling foul of this guideline is the homepage, which some websites structure quite differently to the rest of the site. By having a consistent interface across the entire website we can instantly locate the page content without having to look around for it.

7. No unannounced pop-ups

For web users utilising screen readers pop-ups can be a real accessibility nuisance. Screen readers read out the content of whichever window is on top of the others. Pop-ups display over the top of the main website so will always be read out first. For visually impaired users this can be frustrating as they may not realise that what they’re hearing isn’t the ‘real’ website.

So, pop-ups are bad for accessibility. As for usability, well I’m sure you hate pop-ups as much as I do. Many toolbars, such as the Google toolbar, now come packaged with a pop-up blocker so allow you to surf the web without the irritation of new windows popping up.

8. CSS used for layout

CSS-based sites are generally have a greater ratio of content to HTML code so are more accessible to screen readers and search engines. Websites using CSS for layout can also be made accessible to in-car browsers, WebTV and PDAs. Don’t underestimate the importance of this – in 2008 alone there’ll be an estimated 58 million PDAs sold worldwide (source: http://www.etforecasts.com/pr/pr0603.htm).

As well as improved accessibility, CSS-based websites have one large usability benefit: increased download speed. Broadband isn’t as widespread as you may think. In the UK for example, just one in four web users are hooked up to broadband (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/intc0504.pdf) so improving the download speed of your web pages could provide a great usability advantage over your competitors.

9. Transcripts available for audio

One group of web users with special accessibility needs that doesn’t get much press is hearing impaired users, who need written equivalents for audio content. Providing transcripts is in fact highly beneficial to all users. Many of your site visitors probably can’t be bothered to wait for your 3Mb audio file to download and start playing. They may prefer just a quick outline of what’s contained in the audio content.

By providing a transcript, broken up by sub-headings and with the key terms highlighted, non-disabled site visitors can skim through it and get a general idea of the content. They can then make a more informed decision about if they want to wait for the 3Mb audio file to download.

10. Screen flickering and movement avoided

Some epileptic web users must be careful to avoid screen flicker of between 2 and 55 Hz. Web users with reading and/or cognitive disabilities and those using screen magnifiers will struggle to keep up with scrolling text (if you do have scrolling text be sure to provide a mechanism to stop it).

In addition to being a bad idea for accessibility, neither flickering nor scrolling text are good for usability either. The former can be distracting when you’re trying to read something and you see flashing out the corner of your eye; the latter isn’t good either as you have to wait for the content to slowly appear. When you see scrolling text do you usually bother to stop what you’re doing so you can read it as it gradually materialises? Or do you ignore it?

The other disadvantage of scrolling or changing text is that you might see something you want to click on, but before you know it it’s gone. And now you have to wait 30 seconds for it to re-appear again!

Conclusion

With all this overlap between web usability and web accessibility there’s no excuses for not implementing basic accessibility on to your website. Outside of the ethical argument there are many reasons to make your website accessible, one of the main one being that its usability will be improved. No one can argue with that.

About the Author: This article was written by Trenton Moss. He’s crazy about web usability and accessibility – so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible – http://www.webcredible.co.uk ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone.

Source: www.isnare.com

Checking Domain Name availability

Having decided on a domain name we now need to check its availability before we can register it. All registrars that can register a .name domain name also have a facility for checking its availablity. So to check the availablity of your domain name go to either any of the .name registrars a complete list is available here: http://www.gnr.name/registrarlist.html

Before you Purchase

If you check on one or two of the registrars above you will notice that there can be a great variance in price. The most logical choice is to choose the cheapest. Before you choose you should be aware that on its own a domain name is not of much use so please read on.

Domain names-Email Addresses and Websites.

A domain name is an address. A domain name is not a mailbox or a website! Once you’ve purchased a domain name you need to link it to a website and/or mailbox. So when purchasing a domain name from a registrar you need to find out if it includes any of the following in the price or are they extra.
a) website and/or email forwarding
b) website hosting
c) pop3 mailboxes and/or webmail.

To access email sent to your email address you will either need to forward that email to an existing address or have it sent directly to a mailbox. This was discussed in part 1 available at my websites see below.

Email Forwarding

This is the same technique as is used in standard mail forwarding when you move house. Letters addressed to your old address are forwarded on to your new address. The main difference is that with normal mail the forwarding is usually temporary (i.e. 3-6 months), whereas in email you could do it for as long as you want.
So as an example my new lifetime email address is steve@lifetime.name and I have an existing hotmail account of stevelifetime@hotmail.com. I arrange that any email sent to steve@lifetime.name is forwarded on to stevelifetime@hotmail.com

Mailboxes

Email is stored on a email server in mailboxes. The mailbox is in effect the physical storage equivalent to a physical mailbox for letters. The mailbox is in turn linked to an email address or addresses. It is very common to have email from multiple email addresses forwarded to a single mailbox for storage and access. The address is not the mailbox and the mailbox is not the address, they are different. To read email in your mailbox you need to access the mailbox using appropriate email software

POP3

Almost all email on the internet is currently retrieved using the POP3 Protocol using an email client like Outlook Express, Incredimail, Eudora. Because POP3 is the most common method of retrieving email you often see the term POP3 mailbox being used. With POP3 the email is usually moved from the server and placed on the client machine.

Webmail

This is becoming a very popular way of accessing email using a web browser using the http protocol. With Webmail the email remains on the server and so can be accessed from various client machines. This type of access is ideal for people who travel and need to have email access regardless of location.

POP3 and Webmail

It is also very common that email can be accessed from you mailbox using either webmail, POP3 or both.

Account Management

Whether you are going to use email forwarding, Webmail, POP3 etc you should also take into account how easy the registrar makes it to configure and reconfigure you domain name. Most use a web control panel interface. You should check if there are any extra charges for configuration/reconfiguration. For example let’s assume that you’ve been using email forwarding from steve@lifetimeemail.name to stevelifetime@hotmail.com
and have now decided to use a yahoo account stevelifetime@Yahoo.com. Can you make the change yourself? How easy is it? Do you have to pay extra. These are the things you should be aware of when deciding on a domain registrar.

Using the Registrar to Host your Website/Mailbox

If you currently don’t have a mailbox/ website then I would choose the package from the domain name registrar. I wouldn’t choose to register the domain name with one company and host it with a different one, unless I had already, for some reason, purchased one or the other. The normal practise with lifetime email addresses is to use the domain name registrar to forward the email to an existing mailbox ( your ISP mailbox or hotmail account).

You domain Name and Website

These articles have concentrated on email. However you have purchased a domain name and this name can be used for your website. So not only can you have email at steve@lifetime.name you also can have a website at www.lifetime.name. If you want to learn how to make your own website then http://www.build-your-website.co.uk/ has information and tutorials suitable for beginners.

Part 1 and part 2 are available at http://www.oeupdates.com/email-addresses.html more information on domain names is available at http://www.build-your-website.co.uk/domain-names.htm

Stephen Cope is the Webmaster at several websites. For email articles,advice and information visit www.oeupdates.com. If you want to make your own website then visist www.build-your-website.co.uk.

Forwarding of e-mails is one of the topics I get contacted about the most. And, one which also causes hurt feelings and misunderstandings more than any other topic. Daily, e-mails flow in from onliners asking about a “nice way” of telling someone they care about, relative, friend or associate to not forward attachments, chain e-mails, political commentary or the jokes that are so prevalent online.

Netizens are afraid to ask others to stop and those who are asked to stop, no matter how nicely, get offended and feel as though their thoughtfulness is not appreciated. But let’s think about this a moment. How really thoughtful is it to click the forward arrow, then a bunch of e-mail addresses and hit send? Well, your brain had to “think” about those steps but does that make the effort truly “thoughtful.” I don’t think so…

Here are the 5 Rules of Forwarding E-mails that those who are being truly thoughtful follow. If everyone followed them all the problems associated with forwarded e-mails could be avoided. Sticking to these guidelines will assist both those thinking they are thoughtful and those who don’t want to appear otherwise:

1. Don’t forward anything without editing out all the forwarding >>>>, e-mail addresses, headers and commentary from all the other forwarders. Don’t make folks look amongst all the gobbly-gook to see what it is you thought was worth forwarding. If you must forward, only forward the actual “guts” or content of the e-mail that you are of the opinion is valuable.

2. If you cannot take the time to write a personal comment at the top of your forwarded e-mail to the person you are sending to – then you shouldn’t forward it at all.

3. Think carefully about if what you are forwarding will be of value (accurate information), appreciated (something the recipient needs) or humorous (do they have the same sense of humor as you do) to the person on the other side. Or do you just think it is worthy? If you cannot think of why the person you are forwarding to would like to receive the e-mail – then don’t forward it.

4. It should go without saying that forwarding of chain letters (regardless how noble the topic may seem), virus warnings or anything that says “forward to everyone you know” simply shouldn’t be forwarded because it is plain old B.S. or commentary that many will not appreciate. But I have to say it because folks do so anyway.

5. If you must forward to more than one person, put your e-mail address in the TO: field and all the others you are sending to in the BCC field to protect their e-mail address from being published to those they do not know. This is a serious privacy issue. Again, be sure to take the time to type a nice little comment about why you are forwarding the e-mail to the recipient(s) at the top of your forward.

The above 5 rules will help qualify if an e-mail is worth forwarding and the right way to do so if it is. If one cannot make these extra efforts, then they really have no excuse to get mad or have hurt feelings when asked to stop. And if asked to stop forwarding, don’t get mad; just realize the person on the other side certainly has the right to make that request.

At the end of the day, if you fear hurting someone’s feelings by asking them to stop forwarding you e-mail, know they probably meant well, were really thinking of you, were trying to make a point – ahhh, just hit delete!

About The Author

Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse.

Check out her popular Netiquette site @: http://www.NetManners.com