The Blast Alliance

Your BCMSN and CCNP studies will include mastering the details of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). While you learned some of these details in your CCNA studies, quite a bit of it may be new to you. Before going on to the intermediate and advanced STP features, let’s review the root bridge election process and learn how to change these results.

Each switch will have a Bridge ID Priority value, more commonly referred to as a BID. This BID is a combination of a default priority value and the switch’s MAC address, with the priority value listed first. For example, if a Cisco switch has the default priority value of 32,768 and a MAC address of 11-22-33-44-55-66, the BID would be 32768:11-22-33-44-55-66. Therefore, if the switch priority is left at the default, the MAC address is the deciding factor.

Switches are a lot like people – when they first arrive, they announce that they are the center of the universe! Unlike some people, the switches will soon get over it. BPDUs will be exchanged until one switch is elected Root Bridge, and it’s the switch with the lowest BPDU that will end up being the Root Bridge.

If STP is left totally alone, a single switch is going to be the root bridge for every single VLAN in your network. Worse, that single switch is going to be selected because it has a lower MAC address than every other switch, which isn’t exactly the criteria you want to use to select a single root bridge.

The time will definitely come when you want to determine a particular switch to be the root bridge for your VLANs, or when you will want to spread the root bridge workload. For instance, if you have 50 VLANs and five switches, you may want each switch to act as the root bridge for 10 VLANs each. You can make this happen with the spanning-tree vlan root command.

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 ?

forward-time Set the forward delay for the spanning tree

hello-time Set the hello interval for the spanning tree

max-age Set the max age interval for the spanning tree

priority Set the bridge priority for the spanning tree

root Configure switch as root

In this example, we’ve got two switches, and SW1 has been elected the root bridge for VLANs 10, 20, and 30. We’ll use the spanning-tree vlan root command on SW2 to make it the root bridge for VLANs 20 and 30.

SW2(config)#spanning-tree vlan 20 root primary

SW2(config)#spanning-tree vlan 30 root primary

SW2#show spanning vlan 20

VLAN0020

Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee

Root ID Priority 24596

Address 000f.90e2.1300

This bridge is the root

SW2#show spanning vlan 30

VLAN0030

Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee

Root ID Priority 24606

Address 000f.90e2.1300

This bridge is the root

SW 2 is now the root bridge for both VLAN 20 and 30. Notice that the priority value has changed from the default of 32768.

In the next CCNP / BCMSN tutorial, we’ll take a look at more STP features.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP and CCNA tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.
For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNP exam with The Bryant Advantage!

Selling a product within a specific market niche can be a financially rewarding exercise. Niche marketing is on the rise, as savvy marketers recognize the lucrative opportunity presented by smaller, underserved markets. However, in order to successfully exploit its power, one must possess and understand the two keys to successful niche marketing.

Finding the Right Niche

With all the marketing hype online, it’s easy to convince yourself that any niche can be a massive financial winner if targeted. However, this is not true. It is essential to find and isolate particular niches, but you must also be able to “read” them, in order to determine whether or not there is really a strong likelihood that they can be successfully penetrated and exploited.

This requires an understanding of the niche, its demographics and tendencies. For many marketers, this effort is simply too time-consuming and complicated to undertake. Fortunately, services like Easy Niche Products can do the work for the marketer. Easy Niche Product produces ebooks designed for sale within specific niches. They choose the niches they tackle, carefully, first assessing its all aspect of its profit potential.

Finding the Right Project

Simply knowing there is a niche “ripe for the picking” isn’t enough. One must have something to sell to those occupying the niche. This requires creation of a product specifically oriented to appeal to a niche’s population. One of the quickest and efficient means to profiting within a particular market niche is via ebook sales. A marketer simply needs their well-honed sales skills and a quality ebook to sell.

Ebook creation, however, may not be a perfect fit for many marketers. Writing an ebook requires writing skills, a knowledge of the subject matter and the preferences of the niche population, and a great deal of time and energy. May splendid marketers may not take advantage of the great opportunity provided by niche markets because of those concerns. Instead, they should consider purchasing a subscription to Easy Niche Products, which will provide them with the custom ebooks and supporting materials they need to successfully make their mark in the niche. Easy Niche product, located at www.easynicheproduct.com, provides full product packages specifically designed for maximum effectiveness within a niche.

Niche market sales offer tremendous possible rewards to those able to find the right target areas and to supply the right materials. A smart marketer can easily outsource the work associated with these two keys to Easy Niche Product, a subscription service that understands what it takes to make niche marketing work. Easy Niche Product finds the underserved market segments and creates the perfect products for those segments. A quality marketer can then take those products and present them to the niche, knowing that his or her marketing skills will determine the endeavor’s success. Reports from Easy Niche Product subscribers are universally supportive of the program’s ability to arm marketers with all the resources they need to successfully encounter lucrative niches.

Why would anyone want to write for trade journals? Aren’t the topics are dry? Don’t they require specialized knowledge? Not necessarily. You may want to consider trade journals to increase the potential market for your articles – and for the money. Trade publications make up a significant portion of the hidden source of funds for professional writers. Breaking in can be surprisingly easy – when you know the tricks.

What Can You Write?

Use a brainstorming list to begin your search for a specialty. To write for a trade publication, you will need in depth knowledge of a topic. Don’t force yourself to learn the inner workings of gravel mines when you love the elegant designs of classic furniture. Trade publications require professional knowledge of a topic, so make sure it’s a subject you’ll want to spend a lot of time with. Start your list by including things you enjoy and love. Whether you volunteer for a non-profit organization or have a degree in agricultural science, include all of the categories in which you have experience. Some trade publications accept articles of personal experience or interviews with recognized authorities in their field. Include your connections with professionals to make your list more complete. Keep this list handy and add to it regularly.

Where Can You Find Those Trade Journals?
Now that you have a list of specialty areas that you want to be immersed in, you need to find the journals that pay for your information. Almost every profession has a trade journal. The first place for you to look is with a professional organization related to your area of specialty. If you love elegant furniture, than perhaps you should consider “Interior Decorators of America”, “American Furniture Manufacturers”, or “American Pine”.
Join at least one of these major professional organizations. Membership rates are often cheaper for affiliate members (those not practicing professionals in the field). Marketing companies buy the organization’s list and send free publications and resources to members. These items may include “throw-away journals”, free journals paid for by advertising. Even if you join the organization only one time, the professional materials will appear in your mailbox for years. This information will keep you on the cutting edge of your chosen industry.

Online resources are helpful in finding associations, but they include only a few of the possibilities. The most complete resource available is the Encyclopedia of Associations found in your local library. It contains the most complete list of organizations, many of which produce magazines specific to their members. It may take days for you to wade through this tome, but when you find ten journals that correspond to your qualifications, it will be worth the effort.

How Do I Start?

Begin by researching past issues of the magazine. Editors always recommend that potential writers analyze at least six months of back issues and a copy of their writer’s guidelines. This is essential with trade journals. Articles seen in the trades are far different in style than those seen in consumer magazines. Pay attention to the complexity of sentences, commonly used terms, and the assumed knowledge of the readers. Style is often less conversational and more technical than what most people read. Many trade magazines use technical terms that are a foreign language to industry outsiders. Make sure you use their language, or you will sound amateurish.

Make a list of published topics. You want to know what not to do as well as the topics they prefer. Painting and Wallcovering Contractor focuses on the professional painting industry, while Walls and Ceilings focuses on plaster restorers and finishers. There is some crossover, but you increase your chances of selling the interview with the restorer of the Sistine Chapel to Walls and Ceilings because of the focus. In addition, Painting and Wallcovering Contractor likes articles on how-to meet regulatory standards. If you know of a regulation that has not been covered recently, send a query offering to update their readers on the topic.
Trade journals often recycle subjects with fresh information on three to four year cycles. If you can approach old ideas in a new way, you can give them an article that they will buy.

Which Comes First, the Query or the Manuscript?

Query first, but if the editor does not know you then he or she will want to see a complete manuscript before making a commitment. Many writers despise writing on speculation, but in this case they should consider it. Most journals are in desperate need of good writers. They don’t have huge slush piles stacked around the office that your article will have to compete with. As long as you have a topic they can use and can match their style, your article will sell.

Where Can You Find That Professional Knowledge?

Begin with the internet. Online searches enable you to find the title, author, and journal of the article you want, and request a copy of it from your local public or college library. Medical and health topics can be found on Pubmed at www.nih.gov. For other journal searches, contact your local community or college librarian. Without charging you, most libraries will order the article from another library if they don’t have it in their collection. They’ll even call you when it’s ready.

Other useful sources of information include government regulators, local businesses, the business section of the phone directory, and professionals in the industry.

Can You See Your Byline in Trade Journals?

Most full-time professional magazine writers include trade journals in their portfolio. Trade journals need knowledgeable writers who can produce interesting and well-written copy specific to their magazine. Finding these writers is difficult, because most people don’t think writing for trade journals is interesting. You’ll know differently when you see the check in your mailbox. Many trade journals pay $200-$300 for a 1,000-word article, making it well worth the effort to learn to write for this large and diverse market.

Trade journals are not the flashiest places to publish. Your friends may not be amazed by your publication in Pit and Quarry, but as a writer trying to sell work, do not ignore the journals that want to find you.

About the Author

Terri Pilcher edits a FREE weekly e-zine, Writer’s Guidelines Magazine, to help writers get published. She also wrote MONEY Markets 2005: 101 Publishers that Pay Writers in 6 Weeks or Less and edits PowerPen Market Search (2-day FREE trial). Find the e-book and searchable database at www.powerpenmarketsearch.com.

Human innate bonding to ELF – Extremely Low Frequencies of planet Earth will be a problem in space travel for the future. How do we know this? We know because insanity seems to very often coincide with mental illness. And the human beings which travel great distances will be subjected to many other problems such as; radiation, calcium breakdown, Closter phobia, space weather, loneliness, food rationing, lack of sex, stir craziness, etc.

There have been many studies on how to deal with these things. Such as for radiation putting water tanks around the enclosures containing life to prevent much of the radiation penetration. New materials are being explored to prevent break up in the event of severe space weather. Calcium break down has also been studied. Loneliness and stir crazy issues which could lead to severe psychological break downs can be complimented with communication and with VR simulations and have been a problem with the MIR and International Space Stations with regards to personal items and personal space which appears to be innate. Sex could be counteracted by use of both sex crews for long-term travel. Closter phobia seems to be a gene that not all people have a lot and can be screened for, so this risk can also be reduced. But what has not been discussed and I can find no scientific papers on; is the innate planet bonding that could occur and most likely exists within the frequencies of our brains and our being or soul.

Earth’s Frequency is 8.5 Hz, that constant frequency is what our bodieshave been adapted too. Gene Rodenbury showed the Star Trek crews needing to find planets like Earth and this would become their new Utopia. Other science fiction writers have touched on psychology such as Arthur C Clark when in 3001 a space explorer was found floating in space but he was frozen, obviously would have been insane after that period. Cryogenics seem to be the answer for this, but even after the human travelers reach the final destination, will they have issues with the Extremely Low Frequencies of the planet they get to, being different? Will this affect their sanity? When Astronauts come back they have this need to kiss the ground like sailors. Why? What is it about the terra firma that makes this need so important? Sailors at sea would have the same ELF since they are somewhat still attached to the planet. But once you leave the Earths gravitational field, then what?

Deep Space should have many surprises for us, literal freedom from a Planet, which has kept our species locked in for our entire existence. Will the bond of a human being be so strong that the individual member of the human race has posttraumatic loss syndrome? Losing the planet or their home. Not knowing if they can ever return? Will it take two years to break the cycle? Will the brain work right, without the constant ELF or gravity over time? Will it work better? What other functions will be hurt by zero gravity and knowing you may never step back on the planet? Will the brain change its natural energy flow, frequency, what will this change? Changing the flow of thought in the human brain due to the bondage breaking could change much. Perhaps allow the brain to reformat itself and change the way it works or perhaps it might stop thinking correctly or the way it was taught to think.

Can we mimic the ELF inside the space capsule or modify the sounds and beats of electrical impulse to help the astronaut’s system function. But taking into consideration all the sounds of all the motors and frequencies and balancing them out with another beat to counteract the beats so that the difference is within the range of the ELF that the human body likes and feels at peace with, thus satisfying the innate need or a “Planet Fix” to help with the addiction which may innately occur in all of us? And if so can we make a device which we can use in our homes while we sleep or talk on a cell phone to put us at peace while sleeping causing the required estimated REM that the body needs to recoup.

Could the military use this technique to have personnel perform for longer hours without loss of concentration from sleep depravation? Rather than using synthetic drugs or coffee in pilots and those with importance tasks which require much concentration? We see emotional and psychological problems when we take alpha males into confined spaces, same with rats in cages over populated, more crime happens as well as tremendously different sexual behavior in highly populated apartment complexes. Cities with the highest number of people have an even higher percentage of crime and behavioral issues. Now we discuss putting people in space and sending them for lots of years, maybe generations in space, where the original astronauts will perish and the grandkids may actually reach the destination. Or Cryogenics where the astronaut explorers reach the destination after the designers and society and all the people they know have perished. Then we through in the imbalances of the ELF impulses of their home planet and change them with the new planet which will be different.

If you have ever felt meteorites you can see they have different magnetic strengths and therefore different frequencies and this would mean that they came from different places, which had those characteristics. Can a human being adapt to such changes? How will it affect their psyche? In one book by Ben Bova he discusses the psychological problems of a paranoid researcher who sabotages the mission and colony. More thoughts on this, lots of discussions;

http://www.nssc.co.uk/materialseditor/docs…einUniverse.pdf

Although this may sound like a way out thought and unworthy of mention since it appears on the surface to be way out there, I submit to such a notion that we recently found again that we could not take the beast out of the Tiger even with the great Sigfield and Roy at the Mirage. We watch the Western and Middle East culture clashes and we see the problems. Now we are talking about taking people, human beings to foreign worlds, not foreign lands to kill the yellow mans (Springfield Song). We are having problems convincing the people of Africa that without some changes in cultural behavior they will die of AIDS. We cannot even get the Catholic Church or Pope to agree that birth control is the only way to stop some of the millions of children who die every year of malnutrition and starvation. Mankind will not stop killing our own species in wars. It appears we are having a hard time taking the beast out of our own animal. Now we wish to take the animal out of the planet, send him to an artificial environment within an artificial environment? It seems rather obvious that modern man with about 160,000 years minimum of evolution that we know about can suddenly be taken to another world without such a consideration.

http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~bramblet/ant301/fifteen.html

http://www.progressivehumanism.com/intelligence.html

And also if other species visit this planet they will need those things they consider important here. Breaking the bond of the planet is easily done now by way of rocket, we can easily send people to Mars or orbiting the planet and back again. Will their minds function differently and if so which is most probable, will it be for better or worse, will it cause psychosis? We study the mental disorders in this country and others with white papers on every single possibility. If an astronaut is put into a capsule then we must control the frequency pollution or otherwise give them an aluminum foil to make one of those hats?

Actually that was a joke, but you get the point? Perhaps a device can be incorporated into a watch, which sets the frequency at the proper setting for the body to function optimum. With a little genetic mitochondria DNA modification we maybe able to eliminate this issue and allow the human biological system to function at full capacity and the brain to be quite content and alleviate the problems associated with Human-Planet Bond? Soon we will be able to identify life forms nearby by monitoring frequencies know to be present in the brains of different species. If you study the brain waves of people who are in constant contact with different electrical impulses and waves their minds are affected in different ways. Such as use of a cell phone, near the magnetic field or those of us who pass under electrical lines and can feel a frequency change. Some people get buzzing in their ears when too close to electrical voltage or within a small distance of a microwave oven.

All this is real. Yet the constant is the Earth’s own magnetic field and frequency, you take that away from an animal or species and you have thus changed its essence, which could affect the brain in many ways. Maybe even set it free and a wonderful sensation could take place and more powers that are within us will be released. After all the brain is quite large considering our needs for it. It is obviously more powerful than we understand thus we should be studying this more as we decide to embark in exploration and colonization of other planets.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Business on the internet is often referred to as E-Commerce. Some people do business completely through e-commerce. Their customers come from the internet, they do all their communication on the internet, and don’t need a real-world store do do any business.

More commonly, businesses have both a storefront and an internet presence. This is often referred to as limited e-commerce. Think of stores you shop at who also maintain a web presence where they can take orders. This is a good example of limited e-commerce.

Almost any business, from large corporations to individual freelancers, benefit from a web presence. A website is a sign of your professionalism. It can be there just for the information value or, ideally, it can be designed to generate leads. A presence on the web shows that you understand today’s technology and the customer’s need for information. A good website shows customers why they would benefit from working with you.

If you want to be involved in e-commerce, the first start is finding a good e-commerce webhost. With a good host you will be able to set up a site easily and find many options for making your site stand out. It should have auto-responders for your clients, an easy way to make a purchase, and several options for payment. Even if you are only selling one product you want to make it as easy as possible for the customer to buy it.

People turn to the web for almost everything today. If you are not on it, you should be. It’s time to start using e-commerce.

If you’re just starting out in your career as a web designer, you likely have a lot of work left to do before you have an established portfolio. After all, it’s hard to convince potential new customers that you have the talent and skills to create a website if you have no portfolio to show them. You’re caught between a rock and a hard place – you need clients to build a portfolio, and you need a portfolio to gain new clients. On the other end of the business is the solo web designer who has been successful for many years but finds that they can’t keep up with the demand. There’s only so many hours in a day and the unique challenges of designing web sites for other people can be very overwhelming.

What to do?

Web page templates offer a number of solutions which can help both new and experienced web designers alike. For those who don’t know, a web page template is a fully designed web page which contains blank elements that you fill in – such as title, content, etc. There was a time when web page templates were virtually non-existent, but once marketers began to see their potential, so did the demand from the public grow for them. These days you can find them everywhere, ranging from mere pennies to hundreds of dollars each.

The Originality Quandary…..

Now you might be thinking “But they’re not MY designs. There’s just something not right about it…..”. Well, yes, that’s a valid thought. The artist within you is protesting the use of something which was crafted by another designer. You might even feel like you’re violating your own creativity. Pride and ego are powerful forces indeed. But, you also have to remember that you are in business, and sometimes that means making decisions you don’t necessarily like to better the company.

There is another element to this as well – you must never let your own creativity become more important than fulfilling the needs of the customer. This is a huge mistake too many people make. For example, if you think the background should be red, and the customer wants it to be purple, it is something you must respect. While subtle persuasion sometimes works (and that’s another topic altogether), the point is that by focusing on the client’s wants and needs is more important than your ego. They don’t care if you used a template, and most won’t even know what it is anyway – but if they actually like it and want to use it, then why not?

So, just what can web page templates do for you?

1. Save Time

With web page templates, the actual design process is already done. All you need to do is customize it, add content and basically “fill in the blanks”. This is especially useful if you are very busy and want to speed up production when you have a large number of clients to juggle at one time. You may want to make this an option to all new potential clients.

2. Enhance & Build Your Portfolio

Whether you have no portfolio at all or have one bulging with samples of your work, adding templates is a great way to show people that you have the talent to give them what they want. This is particularly important to new web designers who usually have few samples to show clients. By using web page templates, you are building credibility and interest.

3. Providing More Options and Weeding Out Clients

Filling up your website with web page template designs gives potential customers a reason to stay and thus increases their interest in your services. Some people create entire directories of web page templates which clients may browse through to pick and choose which design they would like for their website. This way, they not only see samples of your completed work, they are presented with ideas and choices. This removes all the guesswork in trying to figure out what kind of design your client wants. And we all know how frustrating it can be building a site from scratch, then modifying this or that, tweaking here and there until the client is satisfied. Some clients seem to never be happy. To be blunt – offering templates is a good way to weed out the fussy ones.

4. So What If You’re No Picasso

Maybe you don’t have fancy graphic design skills or courses. Maybe your artistic ability extends no further than drawing a circle which looks more like a depressed square. No problem. With web page templates, most of the work is done for you and the majority of your customers are going to have basic web site needs anyway. If you do get stuck on something, there are 1000’s of tutorials & forums where you can get help. I remember tutoring one young fellow starting out who didn’t even know what meta tags were. But, he was full of ambition and drive and now runs a quite successful web design business of his own using templates as the base of his work. He has happy customers and that’s really what is most important.

5. An Extra Source of Income

You don’t have to use just other people’s templates. You can create your own and may want to consider selling copies to other web designers as a source of extra income. This can be quite profitable if you’re any good at it.

Most web designers I’ve known tend to use both their own web page template designs and ones they purchased from other sources, along with designing some web sites from scratch. Suprisingly, I’ve often been asked BY web designers how to make a web page template. It’s very simple I say…. “Design the graphics and layout of the page and then stop. Don’t add text, don’t add content, don’t customize the logo. There you go – you’ve got a template!”

Things To Consider:

- Not all web page templates are equal. Some use CSS, some don’t. Some are in .psd format, others are in .html format. Before purchasing templates, make sure you know what you’re getting.

- Watch out for stolen templates! Some sites steal web page templates or purchase large collections of templates which supposedly have “resell rights”. It can be hard to spot these stolen copies and most people don’t realize it until it’s too late and they can’t get a refund. Don’t put money in the pockets of these thieves if you can help it. I recently had someone contact me stating that she found my email address in one such collection (I put my contact data in the meta tags of every template) and she had some questions about using the templates, but the person she bought them from was ignoring her. It didn’t take me long to figure things out. I’ve been fighting template thieves for years. Yet again, some moron had hijacked my templates and was trying to sell them as their own. And yet again, my lawyer had his hands full.

- Always read copyright information and terms of use documents before purchasing. Every web page template source has their own set of rules for how their templates can and cannot be used. If in doubt, ask questions.

- Royalty free? Maybe not. While some web page template developers offer you the ability to re-use the same template over and over again without having to pay extra fees, some aren’t so generous. The ideal web page template is one which can be purchased for a one-time fee and used as often as needed. Again, if in doubt, ask questions.

While there is much more I would have loved to include in this article, I’m afraid there just isn’t enough room

On a final note….. Have fun with your web design business, and it will never feel like work.

Carole Nickerson has been designing web page templates since 1998, with over 10,000 developed graphics and templates to her name. Now retired from the template development biz, she focuses her time on sharing her e-business experiences with others. For more information on web page templates and web page design, visit: TheNetter.com

When someone buys a new digital camera for recreational purposes, they rarely look at the type of storage media the camera supports. How important is the storage media, exactly? Well, it’s where your pictures are stored, so it must be pretty important! Someone doesn’t want to be in a another country before they figure out the camera blinks “Memory Low” in red. A new digital camera usually comes with a means of storage, but the storage media is, most of the time, not sufficient enough to hold the slighest amount of pictures. The average stock digital camera may come with 16MB, 32MB, and maybe even 64MB worth of memory media. A memory card with at least 512MB-1GB storage is highly recommended to replace the stock memory card the camera packaging includes. The most common types of digital camera storage media are CompactFlash, Secure Digital, xD Picture, Memory Stick, MicroDrive, and SmartMedia.

Most of the current digital cameras use CompactFlash cards. The two types of CF cards are Type I and Type II(slightly thicker). The Type II CompactFlash card is also known as MicroDrive, which will be discussed further down this storage media list. SanDisk describes their CF cards as “size of a matchbook and only weighs half an ounce”. There is a controller card that allows for faster transfers. These cards are the most popular because of the decent price and the support throughout many digital cameras.

Secure Digital Cards are the smallest digital camera media cards in the storage media market. The cards can store up to 4GB of memory as of now, but new technology will soon increase the max size to 8GB. A high level of protection is guaranteed against illegal copying. This means that Secure Digital Cards offer more data security.

xD Picture Cards can be used in CompactFlash supported cameras with a CompactFlash adapter. The maximum capacity of xD Picture Cards is a gigabyte of space. The cards offer fast read and write capabilities for digital cameras.

Memory Sticks were created by Sony for their Cybershot line of digital cameras. They aren’t supported by brands of digital cameras other than Sony which decreases their digital camera’s support of Memory Sticks severely. Many of Sony’s other products, besides digital cameras, support Memory Sticks. The Playstation Portable(PSP) uses Sony’s Memory Sticks as well as Sony’s Vaio line.

MicroDrives are the hard drives inside of Type II CompactFlash Cards. They have better value and are better priced than flash memory, but flash memory has more space and storage. You may have heard that hard drive MP3 players fail over time due to their moving parts. The same concept can be applied to these cards because they have moving parts as well. This is why you may have heard that MicroDrives are unreliable and low in quality. Many of them would break due to the mishandling of the card.

SmartMedia cards are being replaced by the new flash card technology. The cards are still available, but the modern digital cameras usually don’t support this type of storage media anymore. The card is cheaper than all the other types of storage media mentioned above.

Storage Media for digital cameras is constantly evolving and improving in quality and capacity. Years ago, the maximum storage capacity for an average memory card was 128MB or 256MB at max. They cost way too much, probably 300% more than they cost right now. The prices of digital camera storage media gets lower every year as the technology gets better. The types of storage media provides diversity and choice for the average consumer with a digital camera.

Out in the middle of South Carolina, knee deep in marsh grass and mosquitoes, filmmaker Dayton Colie is making a movie.

He’s using friends and inexperienced actors for a cast, borrowing props and working with a glorified camcorder (he’s shooting on miniDV).

Yet he’s being feted as an important writer/director and people are bending over backwards to help him make him first feature.

Partly it’s because his job sounds glamorous, no matter how big or small his budgets are.

Partly it’s because of the free booze supplied by Palmetto Beer as product placement.

And partly it’s because he’s getting on with the production, not just sitting around and talking about it.

But above all, Dayton gets his way because of his scripts.

Some viewers bemoan the frat boy humor in his screenplays, but most audience members ignore the low budgets, poor sound quality and amateur acting because the films are funny.

He’s been particularly successful at film festivals, where gloomy, worthy tales abound.

“When you go to a festival,” Colie says, “it’s usually pretty dark. Nobody makes short comedies.”

His funny stuff tends to stand out, and he’s currently a forerunner in the Rhode Island Film Festival for a short called Catnap, beating some 2000 fellow entrants.

Even if comedy’s not your bag, it’s important to include an element of fun in your formula.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, this summer’s leanest, meanest box office winners are daft comedies, a fact not lost on script buyers.

One of the most-bought on spec genres is the romantic comedy, because execs know there’s a built in audience for such films; female moviegoers will drag their partners along, just as the fellas will take their dates to see an action flick. (So the pigeonhole-heavy movie studio mantra goes).

Look for ways to observe and reflect on life in a light-hearted way.

Enjoy the way your favorite comedians or sit com stars take a fact of life and poke gentle fun at it.

Think in terms of visual gags – say you’re strolling down the high street – what could happen there that would make you laugh?

Many comedies grow from the things that the writer find funny, and not from an attempt to pander to the audience.

(Mike Myers admits that his Austin Powers blockbusters were little more than a private joke, and he wasn’t sure whether anyone would ‘get’ them.)

Colie’s movie, The New Thing, will be screened in New York and LA, and in sizeable theatres at major theatres.

And because of the time and attention he paid to writing, storyboarding and developing his comedic characters, audiences will be too busy laughing to complain about technical trifles.

If screenwriting is a large-scale, friendly form of storytelling, then what are the stories you recall hearing from your friends?

I’ll bet a few of them will be funny ones.

All over the place there are things that are hot, and can burn us. If we pay close attention to the things that we can do to help, we might not get burned. The thing that burns me the most is water. Well, what can you do about that? Turning the water on and getting burned happens all the time. As soon as we brought home the baby, I went out into the garage and turned the thermostat on the wither heater down to 102 degrees. It is warm, but not hot enough to burn the baby, and its warm enough to take a hot shower and warm enough to clean things. It also saves lots on money on the electric bills. If you have a hot cup of coffee, you should not take it to go in a regulate cup, it will spill and you will get burnt. If you can get a coffee cozy. If you are cooking, do not use metal utensils to stir stuff. Use wood utensils to stir sauces and soups. Because eventually, you will be siring that scuff up and you will want to taste it. One time I remover that I was cooking spaghetti sauce on the stove and stirring it up with a metal fork, the I left the fork in there for a long time and came back to taste it. When I came back to taste it, the sauce was boiling, I grabbed the fork out of the sauce, and gave it a taste. Instantly my lips and tong were singed, and puffed like balloons. I was in extreme pain. Don’t stir hot stuff with metal.

I do on occasion run out of ideas for my column writing. I do this after finishing a huge writing project like a book. I am just plain “written out” and am fresh out of things to say. When this happens, I turn to the news and am rarely disappointed.

This morning, I read a story by Associated Press writer, Carl Hartman, entitled, Smithsonian Finds Scopes Trial Photos. This seemed innocuous. The story, as well as the photos, were… interesting.

What got my “Snit-O-Meter” going was how this reporter, like probably everyone on the face of the earth would report, reported the Scopes Trial as a genuine and bona fide criminal trial that took place.

Would it surprise you to learn that it was not so?

Let me first site two sources you simply must read. The first is an article by Carol Iannone.[1] The second is small book by Phillip E. Johnson, a law graduate of Harvard and The University of Chicago. He was also a law clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren and taught law for thirty years at University of California at Berkley.

In Johnson’s book, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds[2], he says:

“The Scopes Trial was not a serious prosecution but a symbolic confrontation engineered to put the town of Dayton, Tennessee on the map. The Tennessee legislature had funded a new science education program and, to reassure the public that science would not be used to discredit religion, had included as a symbolic measure a clause forbidding the teaching of evolution. The governor, who signed the bill, realizing that any prosecution would be an embarrassment, predicted that the law would not be enforced. The American Civil Liberties Union wanted a test case, however, and advertised for a teacher willing to be a nominal defendant in a staged prosecution.”[3]

This man never had a chance in hell of going to jail or paying a fine for anything. The Scopes Trial was a hoax.

Now I encourage you to seek out these sources and read them. The small book by Johnson can be purchased cheaply at most bookstores and at Amazon.com. Get it and read it!

But my point in writing about this is NOT to unravel the hoax of the Scopes Trial but to pose an issue that I often bring up in my writings and in my newest, yet-to-be-released book, America’s Anti-Mexican Xenophobia (I apologize for that shameless plug for my booknot really! BUY IT!).

It is just beyond the pale that this Associated Press writer would accept, minus the application of a finely tuned “Phony-Baloney Detector”, without question that the Scope’s Trial was a genuine criminal prosecution. I might add the American public as a whole and most scientists as well to that list.

How is it the Scope’s Trial, as well as any other number of ideologically motivated hoaxes (The Gay Agenda movement?) has been accepted and ingrained into the minds of the American people as incontrovertible fact?

Harvard Genetics Professor Richard Lewontin writes of a possible reason (one which I accept as valid):

“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a priori commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. The eminent Kant scholar Lewis Beck used to say that anyone who could believe in God could believe in anything. To appeal to an omnipotent deity is to allow that at any moment the regularities of nature may be ruptured, that miracles may happen.”[4]

Professor Lewontin’s quote is probably the most salient explanation for why the Evolution hypothesis or the “I was born that way” Gay Agenda hypothesis seems so certain to elitist insiders and so uncertain to those outside the elite groups. It is the a priori commitment to an ideology first, then to setting about to “prove” their ideology with evidence. These groups are compelled by their ideological a priori commitment to go about creating methodologies of investigation, to produce their desired outcomes, based not on Critical Thinking Skills (Phony-Baloney Detection) but on ideology.

This is why it is so important NOT to live your life according to untested assumptions! You have to develop a finely tuned and razor sharp Phony-Baloney Detection kit that you will pull out to evaluate everything you hear and readincluding this author’s writings!

Thinking critically is hard work. It takes time and it takes commitment. Nevertheless, please do not doom yourself to living an “a priori” commitment to an ideology first kind of life. Test! Test! Test!

Get busy developing that phony-baloney detection kit today!

In addition, make sure you buy all my books!

[1] http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9702/articles/iannone.html

[2] Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds; by Phillip E. Johnson; Intervarsity Press; copyright @1997

[3] Ibid

[4] The Unraveling of Scientific Materialism; by Phillip E. Johnson; http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9711/articles/johnson.html

Freelance writer, Syndicated Columnist, and book author, Doug Bower, has written a compelling new book titled, AMERICA’S ANTI-MEXICAN XENOPHOBIA. Have you wondered if the Minuteman Project is really on the “up and up”? Have you wondered if they represent all that is good and right with Americaparagons of patriotic virtue? Doug Bower may have the answers you’ve been looking for.

Check out his new book:
http://www.lulu.com/mexicanliving