Business Cards | Postcards

Top 5 Gadgets That Made Life Different Since They Arrived

from: http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/10/sony-kills-walkman.html

1.  Sony Walkman

 

It’s amazing how handhelds have evolved over the decades. Perhaps the earliest portable gadgets were portable radio transistors that served for community broadcasts and military camps, until the famed lightweight and pocket-sized Sony Walkman™ hit the roads during the 1970s as the first commercially available portable audio cassette.

 

                                                       From:  http://www.ogormans.co.uk

2.  Sony Discman

 

The first CD-based Sony Walkman was released in 1984 and was initially called Discman. But with the Walkman trade name being more popular, it was soon used to refer to the subsequent products.

 

As the compact disc gained popularity in the 1980's, cassette players sold less especially in the Japan and Korea. The market became more interested in portable digital gadgets and manufacturers strived to innovate and experiment with various technologies that allowed built-in storage and retrieval drives besides the broadcast and playback features of the portable players.

 

    From: http://ramilcvaliente.blogspot.com

3. MPMan MP3 Player

 

In 1997, MPMan developed the MP3 format which is a MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 encoding used for compression of data. This allowed higher storage capacity for portable devices and even higher quality audio playback.

 

Although the MPMan MP3 player was not a popular brand, it was actually the precedent of today’s iPod.

                                                from: http://www.pcmag.com
4. Apple’s IPod

 

Apple's Steve Jobs incites of iPod™ as "a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go." Amazingly, this ultra-portable superslim pocket gadget stores up to 5GB or about 1,000 CD-quality songs and has a rechargable battery life of about 10 hours of nonstop music playing of various sound formats.

 

Making the most of MP3 technology, iPod broke into the street scene and slid right into almost everybody’s pockets.

 

5. Touchscreen handhelds

 

Uh-ah…it’s not Apple who made the first ever plausible touchscreen device in our world of gadgets, it was actually Hewlett-Packard who in today’s market dominates the world of printing.

 

HP-150™ wasn’t a touchscreen in the strict sense, being a CRT that had devices for infrared sensoring of non-transparent objects. The innovations later led to the creation of one of the best inventions as of yet: touchscreen handhelds like the iPad & numerous assortments of phones.

 

Sources:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/WalkmanTPS-L2.jpg

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcROSSKKyTxl0WmVGwsYmmaKRpOuvXzbPsfNu4tloHJqSbXoxJ_M

http://www.pvp4u.com/images/iriverTI_IMP%201100_avportablemediaplayer.jpg

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/who-invented-the-mp3-player.html

http://images.apple.com/ipod/home/images/productbrowser/ipodclassic.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Hp150_touchscreen_20081129.jpg/220px-Hp150_touchscreen_20081129.jpg

How to File Paper Documents Guide for Beginners

Setting up a system for your files does not only let you find what you need faster, having less clutter also makes it easier for you to move around in your workstation with things going to their proper places all the time.

 

Choosing a type and size

 

If you are continually filing varied documents, fastened folders and ring binder folders can be a great option, especially loose large ring binders, as they make it easy to add documents to the collection even if they are of different sizes.

 

 

If you are simply compiling a predetermined set, smaller ring binders and slide folders would be the better option. Then, if you have half-sheets and quarters of pages, you can also make use of pocketed business folders. These kind of folders are specially designed to keep the paper in place but loose enough for easy retrieval by not requiring any special attachments or bindings for the pages.

 

You can also sort your files according to paper size if you don’t like looking at uneven folder spreads. Pocket folders are ideal for periodic forms that you need to fill out and are only replenished from time to time, or you might as well keep them in an envelope so they don’t fall off each time you pull out that particular collection of files.

 

Piling up folders of the same kind and size also adds to an orderly and uniform appearance.

 

Naming the folders

 

Labeling folders with a call name always makes it easier to find documents. Remember to name each folder appropriately and to put only related documents in there. Later, the names of the folder you created can be used as basis for filing them alphanumerically or by subject.

 

Sorting by Color

 

Other than the paper size and alpha numeric schemes for document filing, using a uniform color scheme or a varied but unified scheme, can largely increase your efficiency and productivity at work. It also makes your files visual and therefore even withouth having read the labels yet, sorting files with a color coding system helps you to find documents faster.

 

If you don’t have too many drawers or cabinets available, you can just sort out your documents using neat business folders. There are many different types which are available, and you can just select according to your preference.

Why Print Ads Are Still Better for Marketing Small Businesses

Halfway through, it might appear that today’s current business models and consumer trends are leaning more into the high-technology-powered advertising. Almost everyone is putting up online stores and company pages, and you probably already have one for your business too. There’s nothing bad there, many companies actually find it effective.

 

But let’s take one premise here that’s like a two-edged sword in the world of business. It’s an old piece of advice, but my grandfather who was as much my  business coach instilled in me one core principle to anchor on: “When you go catching fish, you can either put up a bait at the end of a rod and wait for fish to bite it up, or you can pump a boat and low down a net to get them where they are.”

 

Let’s face it, while majority of the world is up on the internet, there are still many people who prefer not to step into, if not that they have not yet the opportunity to be, a part of the virtual realm. So consider it well, if your business is of global reach like some Fortune 500, hit it big with an full-functional online system; if you’re on the local bench, invest in marketing brochures, flyers, put up a banner, or hook up with your community radio. You might be amazed with how your sales traffic turn up.

5 Ways to Protect Your Mortgage

Owning a home in this uncertain, troubled economic environment can be pretty scary. Even a sudden illness or accident that leaves you pretty much unable to work could affect your ability to make your mortgage payments.

 

Here are five strategies that could protect your mortgage in times of unprecedented economic disaster.

• Have an emergency fund. This is the simplest and the best thing you can do to get you prepared in times of financial difficulty. The general rule is you should save at least 3 to 6 months of your expenses.

 

• Your mortgage should be less than you can afford. It certainly makes sense to get less. You will be able to keep up with the payments even in difficult times.

 

• Refinance your mortgage. Refinancing brings down your monthly payments. Start this as early as you can so you can use your extra funds in saving s instead.

 

• Avail a job-loss mortgage insurance. Tons of banks and insurers offer this. Be advised though that this is not a permanent solution since the insurance only covers the minimum payments required to keep your mortgage from being foreclosed. Again, nothing beats a well-funded emergency fund.

 

• Is your lender open to late payments? If you can’t pay your mortgage in time, you can actually work out a new payment schedule with your lender, without the fees. Do an online research on your lender’s policies and see if you can have yourself more time.

Minimizing Clutter at Work

I have a very challenging work and deadlines to beat are pretty inevitable. I do a lot of paper works and so my workstation is messed with papers here and there. This spring time is a new beginning for me. This means that I need to start doing things right and that includes de-cluttering my space.

My gotta-wannas:

1. Remove the thrash in the workstation;

2. Classify documents which are done and those that are yet to be processed;

3. Label pre-classified documents;

4. Remove the unnecessary decorations/displays;

5. Don’t overdo decorating your space;

6. Bring home those personal things which are not necessary;

7. Minimize space by rearranging supplies and equipment;

8. Use racks and organizers to keep documents;

9. Keep the supplies which are not yet needed; and most importantly

10. Clean surroundings of the work station.

Social Media: A Good Business Tool

Social Media proves to be one of the best business tools ever created. It brings new dynamics into the traditional business processes of marketing, promotion, and sales. Through its effective use, It can allow you to quickly communicate your message to your target audience as well as the entire online community, increase company and product awareness, and generate income through online sales.

Social media sites are the best way to get feedback, create demand, get attention, build brand loyalty, establish a community, provide support, get clients, monitor trends, forge relationships, develop authority, raise funds, get publicity, watch the competition and most importantly: forge relationships.


There are tons of social networking sites available on the web. Facebook.com for example, allows you to create your very own company page, pages for your products with almost infinite amounts of customization due to constant upgrades provided by the developers.

Poster Designer Tips for Marketing Campaigns

Designing can be pretty tough, even for good graphic designers. You must be armed with the right tools and information in order to create a good design that suits your needs.

1.    Know its purpose. Take into account the following questions: Who is your target audience? What is the message you are trying to communicate? What are you trying to accomplish?

2.    Gather and organize information. After identifying its purpose, you must start gathering the necessary information. Then coordinate with the designer (if you have one) in organizing the information gathered, starting with the most important and moving onto the least.

3.    Start designing. (Or, hire an expert you know.) Come up with a design that looks pulled through. Elements can be aligned, repeated, or contrasted with a focal point that arouses interest. Strive for an interplay of balance, scale and perspective in the combination of graphic colors and the font face, size, color, and orientation of the texts.

Fonts and Typography All Over the Web

As a designer, I work a lot with fonts. Choosing the right font to match the layout and the foregrounds and backgrounds can sometimes take a fraction of time. Especially when dealing with fractals behind the text, color becomes a major consideration.

 

There are also fonts that don't seem to fit into what the overall design is telling so aside from just choosing what is legible, it has to coordinate with the rest of the elements in the set.

 

Good thing there are places over the web where font selections become handy for free:

Type Goodness

Letter Playground

I Love Typography

We Love Typography

The Fate of Business Cards: Do You Know What Happened to Yours?

I think I’ve been slacking off as of late so let’s get down right into business from here on today.

Let’s talk about business cards and how well are they doing their job for you.

Let’s face it, not everyone you hand your business card to takes it according to its purpose.

A large majority would:
•    leave it on the conference table;
•    store in the pocket and find it after laundry;
•    use it as a scratch paper for leaving notes for the secretary /taking someone’s phone number;
•    throw it straight to the bin “as is” or crumpled.

Bad right? If that’s what’s happening to your cards, something must not be correct.
Here’s what you can do:
•    re-assess your card content and design;
•    choose a quality material;
•    learn the proper way of handing and receiving business cards;
•    lead on your associate with a subtle prompt to call you back for coffee or sports bonding time.

Giant African Snails: Pests in America, Heroes in Japan Radiation Scare

 

While Giant African Snails are generally considered pests for being destructive to crops and wild flowers,  chronic parasite carriers, and are illegal to keep as pets in the United States,* in scientific laboratories such as those in Russia and Japan, African Giant Snails are deemed useful as ecological indicators of toxicity levels in their immediate environment.

With the threats of radiation and other toxic pollution in the Fukushima prefecture, scientists are making use of at least four Giant African Snails to determine how far the damages to the ecological system has been so far, if there has been any yet.

Aside from their natural abilities to detect pollution and digress away from the area where toxicity levels are high, laboratory instrumentation such as digital sensors are also to be attached to each of the snails released in strategic locations of the reactor plant and the nearby area. If any of the snails should die out, the snail will undergo an autopsy and will be studied in the laboratory for further conclusions about the prevailing conditions in the area.