Month: April 2007

Parking Karma in Johannesburg

Posted on By thomas

The traffic in Joburg gets worse every year. In one sense its a very positive sign because there is a lot more money floating around although much of it is in the form of credit. Anyway I first learned about parking karma from David DeAngelo in one of many programs on dating and success in life. And more recently one of the teachers from The Secret also mentioned it. So I started incorporating it into my daily thoughts. Until today I could never tell if it was working or not. However, today I went to Southgate mall to deposit a cheque, and practically the entire parking lot was full.

So I drove around some of the cars turning away from the entrance. And as I looked around I remembered that I sent out the message to the Universe to open a parking for me close to the entrance. So instead of looking for a parking spot further away I just turned and drove towards the entrance. Two cars pulled out and the parking lot were almost immediately filled. A few seconds later another opened and this one was mine.

So if you want to start exploring how visualisation really works this is one simple experiment you can start doing today. Steve Pavlina has convinced me that we do in fact life in a subjective universe where our consciousness when seen as a interconnected whole allows us to manifest thoughts into our reality.

 

18 Tips to Safe Surfing on the Net

Posted on By thomas

In response to recent national and local headlines concerning child online safety, PCPandora.com launches “18 Tips to Safe Surfing” and Pandora’s Blog. Both serve as resources to parents looking for ideas and effective ways to keep their kids safe on the Internet.

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 16, 2007 — In response to recent national and local headlines concerning child online safety, PCPandora.com launches “18 Tips to Safe Surfing” and Pandora’s Blog. Both serve as resources to parents looking for ideas and effective ways to keep their kids safe on the Internet.

Three recent events have brought the issue of online child safety to the headlines once again:

it’s a place where we will talk about current news surrounding the issue. We want parents to share their stories, chime in on our thoughts… and maybe even find answers.
1. In March, a federal court judge in Philadelphia blocked the 1998 Child Online Protection Act… 2. Soon thereafter, Project Safe Childhood launched the educational “Think Before You Post” campaign… And 3. A couple weeks after that, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) rejected the application for an official redlight district “.xxx” Internet domain.

In addition, stories of Internet predators being caught by undercover agents, and local/state government-hosted seminars being held in communities across the US also make daily headlines. For example, recently, 28 men were arrested over one weekend in Florida, and a Pennsylvania man was sentenced for having sexual relations with the 14-year old Connecticut girl he met on MySpace.

Now more than ever, the message is clear: it is 100% parents’ responsibility to safeguard their child’s Internet activities.

In response to the plethora of recent news surrounding online child safety, Pandora Corporation, makers of PC Pandora, have posted 18 Tips to Safe Surfing on their website. In addition, the company has started Pandora’s Blog, the focus of which is to provide an open forum for discussion of current news concerning child online safety.

“We want to be a resource for parents,” says co-founder James Leasure, “a place where they can come to discuss issues, get tips, educate themselves and find answers. Online safety is an important topic, now more so than ever — and it’s up to parents to make sure we succeed.”

The company pulled tips from all over the web, added a bit of common sense, and gave them a home in one place on their website.

“Simple solutions like start early, talk to your kids, be the boss of your PC, establish rules… they may all seem to be no-brainers, but you would be surprised at the number of parents that overlook these basic guidelines,” says Leasure.

With Pandora’s Blog, the company hopes to keep the issue of online safety at the forefront of America’s parents’ minds. Leasure says, “it’s a place where we will talk about current news surrounding the issue. We want parents to share their stories, chime in on our thoughts… and maybe even find answers.”

He adds that, “progress is being made everyday, and more people are aware now of the dangers that lurk online — but we still have a long road to travel.”

The company’s monitoring software, PC Pandora, serves as a valuable tool in monitoring children’s activities online. Executive members are available for comment; copies of software, images, and video are also available for help in story development.

Some Alarming Stats Concerning Kids’ Online Activity:
· According to 2006’s Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later report, approximately one in seven youth online (10 to 17-years-old) received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet.
· The same report found that 34% had an unwanted exposure to sexual material – pictures of naked people or people having sex. 27% of the youth who encountered unwanted sexual material told a parent or guardian. But if the encounter was defined as distressing – episodes that made them feel very or extremely upset or afraid – 42% told a parent or guardian.
· According to a 2006 survey, by Cox Communications in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, teens have been exposed to the Internet’s accompanying potential risks:
–71% reported receiving messages online from someone they don’t know
–45% have been asked for personal information by someone they don’t know
–30% have considered meeting someone that they’ve only talked to online
–14% have actually met a person face-to-face they they’ve only spoken to over the Internet
· 71% of all parents stop monitoring their child’s use of the Internet after the child turns 14, not knowing that 72% of all Internet-related missing children are 15 years of age or older. – Dist. Attny, Cnty of Los Angeles

About PC Pandora: Pandora Corporation was formed with one goal – to help our customers monitor, control and protect their families and themselves online. First released in 2005, PC Pandora has been constantly upgraded to industry-leading specifications and has received accolades from users, reviewers and even school districts and law enforcement agencies, who use the program to help in the day-to-day supervision of the children and citizens they are charged with protecting. With the release of Windows Vista-compatible version 4.2 and a newly upgraded interactive website, PC Pandora has vaulted into a leadership position by boasting a combination of features that unparalleled in the monitoring industry. The company website devotes space to helping parents with 18 Tips to Safe Surfing and the new Pandora’s Blog, where current news in the world of online safety are discussed regularly.

 

Toastmasters Body Language speech

Posted on By thomas

On Tuesday evening I won the Best Preprepared Speech (2nd time) for my C&L 5 Body Language speech at my Toastmasters club. This was weird because I chose to speak about the basics of body language and the objective of the speech was to demonstrate body language.

Some of the basics that I covered were:

1. When you arrive at a new venue pause when you enter the room. Allow people to notice you. This is an extremely powerful statement especially in a bar or nightclub. You must pause for several seconds about 10 to really allow the room to become aware of you. When you do this you will experience society pressure in your subconscious. Ignore that breath and walk through the centre of the room. Whether you realise this or not you have just demonstrated using only body language to be a very confident man. Much more confident than most guys in bars and clubs. Most of the women will have noticed and be more open to speaking to you later on when you approach them. Some may even come up to you after you have positioned yourself somewhere visible.

2. When you are walking always push your shoulders back. So whenever you are out always remember to do this. You will automatically push your chest out. And this reminds me of that feeling of a gorilla clobbering it’s chest. It’s really something that gives you the best possible posture for walking and standing up. Your back will be straight and this is also healthy for your spine.

3. When you are sitting down try to take up as much space as possible. For women it’s acceptable to cross their legs but for men it’s not recommended. So when you are in a public place…say at a fancy lounge, chances are they will have sofa’s. Sit down in the middle of the sofa stretch out your arms over the back and spread your legs like you own the place. This sends a very loud and clear message of your alpha male status.

Lastly Tracey Cox is her many books on body language states the most common mistake people make in dating situations is trying to read the other person’s body language. You should instead focus on the body language signals you are sending. This is the one thing you have completely control over. So don’t forget this fundamental lesson. Focus on your own body language and your non-verbal communication will increase in impact.

Research has shown that 60% of communication is non-verbal. Another 33% is voice tone. And only seven percent, that’s 7% is the actual words we speak. And when you realise how superior women are to ready body language. As a guy this is a crucial area for all men to improve.

 

How strange the tale of a ordinary man loosing control

Posted on By thomas

Stranger Than Fiction Will FerrellStranger Than Fiction starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah.

This is story of ordinary man who becomes involved in an extraordinary tale. Will Ferrell in a dramatic turn, plays Harold Crick, an IRS Agent who lives a monotonous and mundane life. But one day starts hearing the voice of a women with an British accent narrating his life. He really wakes up to the reality of the situation when the narrator says that he will die. After seeking some help from a psychologist and eventually a literature professor, Jules Hilbert, played by the ever brilliant Dustin Hoffman, he begins to explore a life he only dreamed of living. And as with all the best stories there is a love story at the epicentre of this tale.

Maggie Gyllenhaal plays the contemptuous and rowdy Ana Pascal, a direct opposite of Harold Crick. She tempts him, teases him and confronts him. They begin a love affair that drives Harold’s life into new territory. Because he actually begins to care about his life. He enjoys is now because he is living his dreams. And he is having an adventure.

Some of the best moments in this film is when Professor Hilbert instructs him to determine certain outcomes. Like whether he is in a comedy or a tragedy. And also whether he is in control of the plot or the writer/narrator. And while he spends the whole day in his house, not even going to the bathroom or answering the phone, the dreaded answer is revealed. A crane smashes through his living room as the complex is about to be demolished. The conclusion – it turns out the writer is in control and Harold has to accept his destiny.

There is moments of madness, moments of laughter, and moments of angst coupled with beautiful cinematography in this film. And it reminded me so much of Truman Show with Jim Carrey.

Anyway this is a film that stretches the imagination just a little bit. You may discover you are in fact the writer of your own destiny. So like Harold Crick take action. Don’t wait until it’s to late. After all you are going to live the rest of your life in the future.

 

Growing impact of MXit and chat rooms on adults

Posted on By thomas

There is a growing impact of MXit and chat rooms on adults in South Africa. You can read about the previous article reported on this website from the Sunday Times about a “sorid sex scare” here.

A married woman went behind her husband’s back and she chatted to strangers on MXit. She ended up having sex with an under age boy and subsequently claimed it was rape. In my opinion this is the only way she can justify her actions. Loneliness and depression cause people to do irrational things. But that does not justify any actions. And the first step to recovery is take accept full responsibility for your own actions. This growing impact of chat rooms and anonymous messaging in chat rooms is going to have a greater impact on relationships in the future. These incidents reported in the news media is just the tip of the iceberg.

Read the full article “MXit affair destroyed my life” on Weekend Post website here.

Incoming search terms:

 

Have you spoken to Mr Deity today?

Posted on By thomas

Who is Mr Deity? Your friendly neighborhood omnipotent, omnipresent God or as Dr John Demartini says, Grand Organised Designer. This hilarious send-up was created by Brian Keith Dalton.

This is one of those shows popping up on Youtube along with the likes of Chad Vader, that has the potential for mainstream success. In fact Brian’s goal is to turn this into a weekly sitcom and is currently negotiating with some tv networks. I really find it amazing how much wit and intelligence these 5 minute webisodes contain. Without explaining more about Mr Deity I include a clip of the very first one to get you started…

 

Online public relations and top keywords

Posted on By thomas

The Web will go down as one of the greatest equalisers in history. It allows small companies or even solo entrepreneurs like myself to compete with large and established companies. NETucation generates all it’s publicity through sending emails to over 500 journalists in South Africa. These journalists include everyone from newspapers, magazines, radio, television and online media.

No matter how big or small your company consider monitoring your public relations profile using Google News Alerts. I’ve been monitoring my own publicity and other important keywords that pop up in the news media using these alerts for the last few years. And it has proved to be one of the most effective ways of keeping track of what’s important to me.

Keywords are a mainstay of searching and search engines. And with the various specialised search engines now available the basic principles applies. So whether you are searching for websites, blogs, news articles or images certain keywords and tags are more effective. One of the best ways to determine those keywords is to use certain tools that ranks popular keywords.

The first one I used was the still free Overture Keyword Selector Tool. There is also the Google AdWord Keyword Tool which does not give the same kind of information but helps to determine trends. The best however is Wordtracker, a commercial service and by far the best.

Anyway Wordtracker offers a superb newsletter. And this month published a superb article on optimising press releases with top keywords for news aggregators like Google News and Yahoo! News.

 

SEO All-stars Rank Top 10 Algorythm Factors

Posted on By thomas

This is based on a project by Rand Fishken, founder of SEOMoz where he pulled together 37 of the greatest minds in the Search Engine Optimization business. You may also be interested in this excellent podcast interview on Marketing Voices with him.

Google Algorithm’s Top 10  (Assumed) Positive Factors

1.    Keyword Use In Title Tags –  “Notice number one – that you have HTML title tags that reflect the key terms you want your page to be found for. That’s been the advice since I first starting writing about SEO back in 1996. Eleven years later – and even in the age of it’s all about links — it remains the top ranked tip by so many experts. – Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land.

2.    Global Link Popularity of Site (The overall link weight/authority as measured by links from any and all sites across the web – both link quality and quantity) – “Think of a web page as a town. If a city has freeways, airports, train stations, bus shelters and a port, that’s a good indicator that it is an important hub. That orphaned web page with no links pointing to it? It may as well be a hidden tribe of Amazons that no one has discovered.” – Lucas Ng (a.k.a. shor), Fairfax Digital online marketing analyst.

3. Anchor Text of Inbound Link – “Anchor text of the inbound link is one of the most concise assessments another person can make about what your site/page is ‘about’.” – Mike McDonald, WebProNews

4. Link Popularity within Site’s Internal Link Structure (Refers to the number and importance of internal links pointing to the target page) – “As mentioned on my blog, you can pulse a page’s rankings by including and excluding links to it from your home page.” – Russ Jones, Virante CTO.

5. Age of Site (Not the date of original registration of the domain, but rather the launch of indexable content seen by the search engines) – “We have seen new sites flourish as long as they have a clear connection to the ‘parent’ site that has already gained trust.” – Chris Boggs, Search Engine Land Associate Editor.

6. Topical Relevance of Inbound Links To Site (The subject-specific relationship between the sites/pages linking to the target page and the target keyword) – “We seem to have moved from analysis of simply anchor text, to including surrounding text and probably even page theme.” – Caveman, SEO/SEM Consultant.

7. Link Popularity of Site In Topical Community (The link weight/authority of the target website amongst its topical peers in the online world) – ” I’ve seen one of my sites goes from #39 to #1 right after I got 1 link… from the #1 spot on the keyword I was trying to get” – Guillaume Bouchard, CEO NVI Solutions.

8. Keyword Use in Body Text (Using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page) – “If you are writing about ‘dogs’ then you should naturally use keywords related to ‘dogs’ within your content. If you don’t have keywords within your content it can become hard to rank for those terms.” – Neil Patel, Pronet Advertising.

9. Global Link Popularity of Linking Site – “This is why people bought PageRank 7 site links for lots more than PageRank 6 links. The links were very valuable, and the information on how strong they were was very valuable (this is why it’s also very hard to GET an accurate read on anymore without an SEO shaman). – Todd Malicoat, Stuntdubl SEO Consulting.

10. Rate of New Inbound Links to Site (The frequency and timing of external sites linking to given domain) – “I don’t think getting fifty links overnight will kill you. Especially if those links are bringing traffic and from quality sites. Getting 100K links overnight and having no visitors or search queries as a result smells abit fishy no matter how you look at it.” – Rae Hoffman, Principal, Sugarrae SEO Consulting.

Read the full article here…

 

The Mind Never Becomes Tired, But Sometimes It Becomes Bored with the “FOOD” It Gets

Posted on By thomas

Napoleon Hill Foundation
Computer experts use the acronym GIGO- garbage in, garbage out-to illustrate the fact that the computer can process only the information it is given. The same is true with your mind. If you feed it healthful, nourishing “food,” it will grow strong and agile, but if you restrict it to a regular diet of mental “junk food,” your mind will become unhealthy, negative, and unproductive. It will return to you what you put into it. Feed your mind a balanced, nourishing diet. Study information from a variety of fields to help you keep up with the latest trends. You may find that the best ideas for your business come from a totally unrelated area.If you like this you may enjoy subscribing to the Napoleon Hill Thought of the Day here.