I’ve been involved with lots of crisis situations in technology. Usually it’s because a server has failed or there is some problem with performance. Often the situation is high profile and I’ve been under pressure, along with others to come up with a solution as quickly as possible. This has resulted in me working long hours, all night, even multiple days at times in order to get through the issues.Recently we had a situation here at the ranch where a horse got caught in barbed wire. Luckily my wife and I were outside and saw it quickly, racing to cut the horse loose and bandage up his leg while calling the vet. Actually two of our kids helped and the horse survived to live another day. That was a true crisis and for awhile I thought we were going to have him die as we were standing there.

This crisis occurred late one night, about 7:45pm, and we were not ready for it. I guess you are never ready, but once the vet arrived, there were kids that needed to go to bed, I still had work to do, and so my wife and I split up. I took care of the house, settling things down while she and our boarder handled the vet and the horse. Eventually I got back out there to check on things, but we split up again when she drove our boarder home, a 45 minute or so event, while I went to sleep. Someone had to get up in 5 or so hours to get kids moving again and it ended up being me.

When I was involved in a technology crisis in my younger days, especially if I was the expert, I wanted to be there from start to finish. I wanted to participate and be a part of the solution.

And I wanted to learn.

That last part was a big reason my skills developer as a DBA since you learn quite a bit in times of trouble. However I also realize now that I over worked myself at times, and some of the mistakes made as the hours wore on were my fault, due to my own fatigue.

Over the years I’ve had the occasion to manage a few crisis situations where I was in charge or one of the managers overseeing the issues and not a technician. One of the things I learned early was that the rest of the business must continue to function, even as we are solving an issue. There is still work to be done and there will be things that need to be handled the next day. I couldn’t have everyone work all night and skip coming in the next day.

Depending on the size and scope of the issue, I would immediately start planning on splitting my staff, having some leave early, or as soon as possible, and prepare for a later shift or just to pick up the next day. There were a series of chronic issues that occurred and we knew would take 12, 24, or more hours to resolve and so we would immediately send someone home when the issue occurred, with the idea they would come back in the middle of the night or early the next morning.

Crisis management is a skill in and of itself, and it’s important to understand that all hands on deck doesn’t necessarily mean all hands sitting in a circle around someone typing on a keyboard. Life goes on, even when there’s a major crisis and you have to plan for that. Spread the load around, choose different people to handle different jobs, and ensure that you think beyond just this moment.

One of my favorite quotes seems to sum this up: “Hope for the best, plan for the worst” - Jack Reacher

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* What makes Text Link Ads unique?
Text Link Ads are unique because they are static html links that can drive targeted traffic and help your link popularity which is a top factor in organic search engine rankings.
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Text Link Ads are priced at a flat rate per month per link. You prepay for a 30 day run of your ad. Your ad will never be turned off if it gets too many impressions or clicks. Our pricing algorithm factors in a website’s: traffic, theme, ad position, and link popularity when setting the flat ad rate per month.
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Most links are placed within 48 hours of the order being received. New ads require our publisher to review and accept the ad. The 30 day billing period will not begin until your ad is actually live.
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A website’s “Alexa” ranking is a general indicator of the amount of traffic a website receives. The lower the number the more traffic that site receives, ie Yahoo.com is #1, Ebay.com is #8. More information on Alexa here.
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More people are choosing investment plans than ever before. With the rising cost of living and the growing insecurity about the availability of many retirement funds, many individuals are looking to investment plans to begin a nest egg or to make some additional money via investment without having to spend a lot of time purchasing stocks and bonds.

Investment plans allow individuals to simply purchase a specific amount of stocks, bonds, or indices on a regular repeating basis, cutting out a large part of the hassle while allowing for some of the main advantages of investment.

If you’ve been considering an investment plan but aren’t completely sure what they might entail, the following information might help you to decide whether or not an investment plan is the right investment option for you.

The Mechanics of an Investment Plan

Basically, an investment plan is a method of making multiple investments over time at regular set intervals. The funds for the investment are taken from a cheque, savings, or money market account automatically, and are used to purchase stocks or bonds that you have decided upon beforehand. In most cases you can change the amount, frequency, or purchased stocks or bonds of the automatic investments at any time, though depending upon the broker through whom you’re doing the investments you may be subject to fees or penalties especially if changing details relatively close to the next investment date. Most online investment firms offer investment plans that you can change at any time free of charge.

Deciding How Much to Invest

When deciding how much to invest each cycle with an investment plan, you should take care not to overextend your funds and bring yourself up short. Make sure that the amount that you choose is available and that you’ll have it to spare each time your investment comes up… it can be difficult to plan for events in the future, and just because you have a surplus now doesn’t mean that you won’t find money running tight a few investment cycles from now.

If you feel that you’re reaching a point where you won’t be able to afford your regular investment, go ahead and reduce the investment amount or put a hold on the next scheduled investment… better to put less in than short yourself afterwards.

Choosing What to Invest In

Making the decision of which stocks and bonds to invest in can take some time, but it’s worth it… this is your money that you’re dealing with, and you shouldn’t invest it without putting some thought and research into your decisions. Find stocks or bonds that have performed well over time, and that are likely to continue doing so… they may be expensive at times, but you aren’t making your total investment all at once so it doesn’t matter as much.

Don’t be afraid to add new stocks or bonds to your plan later, either… this can help to diversify your portfolio.

Deciding On an Investment Interval

You also need to decide how often you wish to make your investments… this will largely depend upon the cycle of your paycheques and your monthly bills and expenses. You may decide to invest once per month, after everything has been paid, or you might want to invest a little from every paycheque.

The more often you invest, the lower the amount of each investment can be… after all, two or four small investments per month might end up purchasing more than one larger one.

Decide on what works best for your lifestyle, and modify it as needed later if it doesn’t seem to work out for you.

What is “Pay-Per Click”? “Pay-Per Click”, is an easy to understand advertising strategy. There are around 300 million searches at major search engines everyday. This causes 80% of internet traffic. Placing your websites on these search engines is very important in reaching as many potential customers as possible. But in order to be seen and clicked most frequently, your website should be viewed at the top most of the search list. Most people only reach up to the third page of a search engine so the lower your rank, the lesser the chance you will be clicked. In “Pay-Per Click” advertising, you pay to be always visible on the internet. You select keywords or key phrases about your website, and the highest bidder ranks the best. There is no upfront cost. You only pay after a visitor clicks your link. This is why it is called “Pay-Per Click”.

Everyday millions of people around the world click on Pay-Per Click Advertising Campaign. With the booming internet industry and the ever growing online business, an ad of virtually anybody on the planet can be seen on the internet anywhere in the world.

The “Pay-Per Click” advertising campaign is the premier growth area in online marketing. Last year, an estimated $741.2 million was spent on “Pay-Per Click” advertising. The usual search engine optimization can take weeks or even months to produce results. “Pay-Per Click” advertising can attract customers at an instant. Why? Because, this cutting edge ad campaign can be placed on any website and can be viewed by potential online customers, anywhere, anytime and all the time. The only challenge is placing the ads on proper websites that will attract possible customers for a specific product or services.

“Pay-Per Click” advertising campaign attracts the right consumers at the shortest possible time. This is the most cost effective way of marketing products or services. You can also monitor the customers who visit your site, what they are looking for and what they are buying. With the right creativity on using the right search-phrases, we can direct the right people who are willing to do business with us.

“Pay-Per Click” advertising can easily be managed 24 hours per day and 7 days a week through the internet. This allows you improve the campaign strategy by effectively responding to the activities of both customers and competitors.

So what are you waiting for? “Pay-Per Click” now and let your business take the fast route to success.

12 Practical Uses of GPS for Everyday People

GPS or Global Positioning Systems is a term that most commonly conjures up images of vehicle navigation systems, space-age satellite technology, and interactive maps for outdoors-types and sportsmen. But the reality is that there are far more applications of Global Positioning Systems beyond GPS vehicle tracking or map navigation that everyday people like us can benefit from. All it takes is a bit of creativity, and some trial and error. Here are a few of the many possibilities that can benefit you right now in your busy and hectic life.

1. Know where your children are using services from companies like uLocate Communications.

2. Keep track of elderly members of your family, so that they don’t wander off alone.

3. Plan a road trip around interesting points of interests, landmarks, campsites, diners, etc, and hear fewer “Are we there yets?”- and of course get the most out of that expensive gas.

4. Get emergency road side assistance at a touch of a button from your vehicle, so you can get help exactly where and when you need it.

5. Keep a visual journal and bookmark collection of your favorite hot spots, sceneries, and points of interests, that may not be listed in any travel guide (You can create your own mini travel guides and memories).

6. Find lost pets easily using collars with built-in GPS, better than running around in your pajamas hollering like a maniac.

7. Feel safer with cellular phone 911 calls, so emergency personnel can pinpoint your location once you make an emergency call. Please double check your carrier service to see that it has GPS features and get a primer on how it works if possible.

8. Get to your interview, or any important time sensitive destination or engagement, faster by finding shortcuts and correct directions.

9. Find a good Italian restaurant near your movie theatre on the fly.

10. Track your luggage, laptops, and anything of importance while traveling.

11. Track and find family, friends in a crowded concert, graduation, or any social gathering.

12. When going on a vacation, feel free to separate from group for a while to venture on your own based on your own interests and find them later on with your GPS enabled device- even in an unfamiliar place.

Our ability to use GPS so far is limited by the relatively poor connection to the satellite feeds when we are indoors in buildings, homes, or behind anything that could obstruct the GPS connection. However with the investment and development in a new satellite network called Galileo which should be completed in the near future, these problems should be eliminated drastically. Despite these problems, GPS still offers a world of benefits as mentioned earlier, and with any technology, it will only get better.

In addition to more practical usage applications, GPS will make a great educational and fun gift for your loved one’s and friends as well. Consider just two of the many creative and educational uses of GPS:

1. Stay physically active and fit by playing RayGun! A locational based cell phone game based on GPS technology.

2. Become more cultured, make global friends, and learn about the world playing GeoCache, a global GPS based treasure hunt.

With many affordable feature-rich models to satisfy anyone’s preferences and budgets, now is as good a time as any to learn more about GPS technologies, which are surely to become more assimilated into the mainstream within the decade. One day we will take these things for granted just like we do now for the internet and cell phones. The key is to dive in, without paralyzing yourself with the overwhelming array of choices in the GPS market, and enjoying some truly amazing technology.

Bux makes money

How does it work?
You view websites in 30 second sessions via the “Surf Ads” page. Once the 30 seconds is up, you’ll either get a green tick sign or a red ‘X’. The green tick sign means you’ve earned $0.01 and as premium member $0.0125 for the visit and the ‘X’ means you have not earned money for the visit. You’ll get red X’s when you have more than one website from the “Surf Ads” page open. When this happens, you get no credit.

Can other people in my household join?
They must have a valid unique e-mail address and valid unique PayPal address/account to register with our program. As far as cheating goes, our software detects users who create fictitious accounts and use the same computer so if someone else in your household wants to join and will legitimately use their account; you shouldn’t be flagged for abuse.

Can I have more than one account?
No. There is no need to maintain more than one account. If you’ve lost your login information, you can request to have it sent to your e-mail address. If you are caught with more then one account open (we have a very strict auditing process before payments are sent) your account(s) will be terminated, your ip address(es) will be banned and you will not receive any earnings.

My network, school or ISP all use the same or randomly used IP addresses, can I join?
Yes, this is fine. The same general rule applies from the previous question.

How much money can I make?
We pay you $0.01 for each website you visit and $0.01 for each website your referrals visit. As premium member $0.0125 for each website you visit and $0.0125 for each website your referrals visit. There is no limit in the amount of websites you visit or referrals that you obtain. Your earning possibilities are virtually endless.

How do I refer others?
Use your unique referral code found within the user area “My Stats”.

How can I cancel my account?
Inactive accounts are automatically cancelled after certain time.

Why I have to click twice to see the green tick?
Check your antivirus, antispyware/adware programs, your browser settings for cookies and java script acceptance. If this doesn’t work, try cleaning your cache or reboot your computer.

Why I have not received my welcome email or password request?
You need to make sure that mail from the bux.to domain is not being blocked, Try adding “mail@bux.to” to your address book.

I can’t see any ads!
If you see no ad links on the “Surf Ads” page but you DO see stats on the right hand side then you need to disable all antivirus and antispyware/adware programs. If this doesn’t work, try cleaning your cache, temp files, cookies, etc. If you’re still having problems after all of that, try changing or updating your browser.

My stats aren’t updating!
This is either because your browser is saving the page in it’s cache or you’re not waiting for the dollar sign to appear after the timer is complete. Try cleaning your cache, temp files, cookies, etc. If you’re still having problems after all of that, try changing or updating your browser.

I keep getting “Invalid verification code entered.” when I try to register or login!
First, make sure you are correctly typing in the verification code. If you are typing in the correct code and still having problems then it’s something to do with your browser caching the previously used session image. Try cleaning your cache, temp files, cookies, etc. If you’re still having problems after all of that, try changing or updating your browser.

How often are the statistics updated?
Stats are updated immediately.

How do I get paid?
If you have at least $10.00 accumulated, you can click on your account balance within your stats area and it will submit your request. Currently, we only make payments via PayPal. We will soon be using other methods of payment.

When do I get paid?
You can request for payment once you’re account balance is at least $10.00. Your payment will be processed and issued via PayPal within 30 business days. You can only request one payment at the time.

What is PayPal?
PayPal is the payment processing solution that we use to pay members. Your PayPal address is the e-mail address you use to register with PayPal. You can get a free PayPal account at http://paypal.com.

Why did I get paid less then what I was owed?
If you have a business account with PayPal, they charge a 2.9% transfer fee plus an additional $0.30 base fee when you receive funds.

Advertiser FAQ

How does the advertising work?
When you order an advertising package, we first approve the site and then insert it on the “Surf Ads” page. All new ad entries appear at the top of the list. We only charge you for unique visits that our members generate. All outside visits are free. For instance, you may order 1,000 visits but you may receive 1,300 or more visits because of non-members checking out the “Surf Ads” page. You’re essentially getting more for your money.

Are my visits guaranteed?
Yes. We guarantee that you will receive at least the amount of traffic that you ordered.

Is each visit unique from the last?
Each visit is unique on a scale of 24 hours. Meaning, you will only be charged for the same visitor once per 24 hours. On the “Surf Ads” page, the “Member Visits” counts the unique visits from members and the “Outside Visits” counts each page hit from non-members.

Are there any restrictions?
Your ad cannot promote adult content or illegal activity. We also do not accept sites that use frame breakers.

Why did my ad end so quickly?
Smaller purchases like the 100 and 500 visit ads usually expire within 2-5 minutes. Sometimes even sooner. Bux.to generally has 1,000-5,000 users online at a time.

How do you calculate the prices?
Simple. We charge $1.99 per 100 unique member visits. That price includes a 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee to cover the PayPal costs.

Why I have not received my Ad status email?
You need to make sure that mail from the bux.to domain is not being blocked, Try adding “mail@bux.to” to your address book.

Felt is the oldest form of fabric known to humankind. It is obtained through the interlocking of wool, fur, or some hair fibers under conditions of heat, moisture, and pressure. This raw wool is first carded and then dyed into different colors as desired in different forms for the final product. Felt products are purely made by shaping the raw wool with soap and water and human hand pressure, no chemicals are used during this process. Thus shaped product is dried under the sun. Due to its unique manufacturing process, any desired shape can be created.
As the felt products are relatively simple to make, lot of under privileged women have become involved in this industry. This in turn has helped in improving their living standard and empowered them.