2008-05-23

H.G. Wells Dream

Having fallen asleep in the late afternoon today, I awoke recalling another reading dream, this time of having read a part of a book about a mariner who was involved in the taking of another ship at sea. It was written in a style which seemed somewhat archaic, and certainly not a style my own. I recall mention of two publishing company names, H.G. Publishing and Wells Publishing. I woke up and went to wikipedia to see if I could determine if H.G. Wells had ever had a publishing company by either of those names, or ever written a story, fictional or no, of a sailor in a hostile takeover of another vessel. I could not at first reading confirm either of these possibilities.

2008-05-19

Charting Your Success:
Using time and income percentage charts to plan for future business development


How are you spending your time in your business-working day? How much of your total income are you earning from each of your different streams of income? How much of your total income do you want to be earning from each stream of income next year? These are some of the questions I ask my website clients to help them get a better sense of their dreams and visions, and to help them manifest their dreams and visions, especially in their website design.

I draw four circles, “pie charts”, and ask them to fill in the “wedges”. I suggest that these “pie charts” may also be helpful for you to manifest your dreams and visions. Draw four circles (“pies”) for your business. The first chart represents the hours of your working day. Draw wedges for the percentage of time you spend working on each of your streams of income, each product or service you provide. Now, in the second circle, draw the chart of your working day a year from now as you envision it. How much time do you want to be spending on each segment of your business?

The next two circles represent money. In the third chart, draw wedges to represent what percentage of income you derive from each stream of income. Now, in the fourth circle, draw your ideal percentages, what you would like to accomplish a year from now.

For example, you may be spending ¾ of your time providing products, and ¼ providing services. You may discover that your income derives ¾ from services, and ¼ from products. The results may surprise you when you look at them in this way. Now consider your charts for how you want to be spending your time and earning your income a year from now. You will see that if you hope to derive 90% of your income from products a year from now, for example, you need to shift now how much time you are investing in that stream of income.

I hope you’ve found this brief article helpful… you can find more advice on building your business and your web-based business at my website,
http://danshaw.com/dan-shaw-writer.php
especially
Comparing Potential Profitability
And including
• Top Ways to Make More Money on the Web
• Comprehensive website analysis
• How much will it cost?
• Comprehensive website analysis and recommendations
• Most Essential Computer Security: Do this first
• Web Site Submissions
• What kind of internet business are you?
• How to Get Your Website Built for Cheap
• Knowing what to ask for
• Make changes to your site yourself
• Best Practices Agreement between Web Services Provider & Client

2008-05-16

waters in perpetuity

I see my life now
As a waterway
Partially and somewhat badly charted
Sometimes seemingly vast
Other times apparently constricted
Am I carried by the current
Do I struggle to make headway
Only rarely have I climbed
To headlands where the view reveals
I do not know how deep
I do not know where I am going
Often I have met fellow travelers
Often they have muddied my waters
Poisoned even
Tiny actions stir ripples into infinity
Rarely on occasion
The sirens have sung sweetly
Have lured me to a place of serenity
A few crucial mentors have cast in their pebbles
Their influence has calmed the waters in perpetuity
They will always be remembered
Though they may know it never
I am ever grateful
Their influence has given meaning
Given order and mapped a path
Through rapids
To pools of calm





===========================
DanShaw.com

2008-05-13

Manage Your Passwords Effectively

You will be storing your vital personal and business-financial information on the web and possibly others’ data as well; it is vital to manage this vital and sensitive information effectively, so here are a few tips on password data; How to and not to: store, choose, use, transmit, share, change, and destroy passwords and other vital computer data.

Store
• Create a file to collect passwords and to cut-and-paste from, but do NOT title it “passwords”.
• Dedicate a binder to vital computer data, but again, label the binder something other than “passwords”.

Choose effective-secure passwords
• Do not use a password more than once.
• Do not use a dictionary word.
• Use at least six characters.
• Use a random combination of upper and lower case characters, both alphabetical and numbers.
• Avoid using characters that are hard to distinguish, namely, “l” (lower case L) & “1”, and “O” (zero) & “0” (upper case “o”).
• Use a password generator:
https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm
Each time anyone views this page, it generates truly random strings of characters. Choose a set at least 6 characters that that you like, preferably one relatively easy to remember or type.
• Use that’s hard to remember, with a way to remember it.
One good way to do this is to think of a book title, such as “The 5 Merry Fisher-men, by Henry Humboldt”. Your password might be t5MFmbHH. It’s not quite “random,” but it is (relatively) secure.
• If you will be taking orders by credit card on the web, your exposure and liability is vast and could be expensive; you will want to learn more and take every precaution, including, possibly, getting insurance and legal advice. (This is not legal advice!)


Transmit and share

• Do not transmit your passwords online.
• Do not share your password.
• Especially, do not share a password between more than one secure, vital financial or email account and any other.
• If necessary to share a password between you and your webmaster, administrator, programmer, or client, give this information by voice, face to face, on the phone, or in writing only, not by e-mail.

Change
• Change your passwords at least annually, all at a set, calendared date, such as new years.
• Change your passwords when the person you have shared them with is done.
Use
• Do not use your passwords on a public computer or in an unsecured wireless hot-spot such as an internet cafĂ©.

Destroy
• Keep all sensitive data in one electronic file and one print file per person. You may want to keep an additional set off-site, away from the office, at home; or, if you work at home, consider having a ‘back-up person’ who will keep an extra copy of your personal and / or business data secure off-site.
• Shred print data when it is no longer useful.
• Overwriting old data, then deleting it, may be more effective than ‘just deleting’ it for most people, since ‘deleted’ data is often retrievable by experts unless the entire hard drive itself has actually been re-written.
• Do not throw away or give away old computers (i.e., hard drives) unless an expert makes certain that all the data is destroyed.
5/13/2008 4:00:16 PM

2008-05-03

Dan Shaw’s Video FAQ’s

Why does my YouTube look blurry?

There are at least two reasons:
1. Click the little rectangle icon on the bottom right of the YouTube window, and the video resizes; it looks sharper in the smaller version.
2. YouTube streams huge amount of video data. One way they can do that is to compress the data.

What kind of video do I need for YouTube?
YouTube accepts files up to 10 minutes long in a variety of formats. They prefer to receive Apple Quicktime .mov files. For posting longer videos, option include Google. (This is true even though Google owns YouTube as of this writing, August 2007.)

What are all these video formats?
Windows has a video viewer built in, Windows Media Viewer, which uses .wmv files. Apple’s Quicktime also works on PCs. To download Quicktime free, go to Apple.com and click on downloads. There are several other formats, including Flash, .mpeg, and MP4. (Before downloading software, you may want to set a restore point. See: Essential Security Steps.)

Hi-Definition: Who can see it?!
You’ll need to view the video from a DVD on a Hi-Def TV to see all the glorious detail. Otherwise, unless you’re in a theater, or watching Hi-Def TV filmed and produced in Hi-Def (such as NFL and National Geographic Channel) and then broadcast from a Hi-Def Tower to a Hi-Def antennae (in a major metropolitan area), you’re not seeing Hi-Def. Typical computer monitors don’t display Hi-Def.

What do I do with my video once it’s on YouTube?
Promote it! Tell people about it, link to it from or embed it into your website, develop a YouTube account, post it at other video sharing sites, such as Revver, and Livelink. You may want to submit your video (on CD) to your local community access cable TV station. Make copies of your DVD and give them away and / or sell them!

How can I see my film?
Go to
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=heliad&p=r



What do I do when I get my CD?
View it on a computer using Quicktime. When you insert the CD, Windows should automatically open a dialogue asking what you want to do. Select “View in folders”. You should see now 2 files (at least). They are the same video in two different formats. If you have Quicktime installed already, you’ll see the Quicktime .mov file as an icon with a blue “Q” and the word “movie”. (If you have difficulty, go to Apple.com and download the newest version.) Windows PC users doubleclick on the .wmv file.
If you have asked to approve your video, then please do so promptly. If you need any changes made, be sure to email me the specifics. It is vital to post videos as soon as possible.
I may also send you a final version of your video on DVD in Hi-Def, for viewing in a DVD player on Hi-def and standard TV’s.
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel!
I’d Rather be a Hammer AND a Nail

Ask yourself continually: What is my heart’s desire? What is my goal, objective? What are my dreams and visions? What do I want to accomplish? Where do I want to be in 5 years? Ten years? These desires, by whatever name, must be acted upon. These millions of small words and deeds must are the tactics that require a coordinated, orchestrated strategy. How unlikely are our dreams and visions to come true without a thoroughly-conceived and deliberate schedule of planned actions. Some people are visionaries, masters of dreams and visions. Other people are masters of the details. Few people are capable of effectively combining and bridging this polarity, but that ability to bridge is vital and urgent to the accomplishments to the achievement of not just a better reality, but a wholly transformed reality. One cannot really master either polarity without being a master of both, and we must strive continually to strengthen our weaknesses, toward a multi-dimensional equilibrium. This transformed state of balanced thinking and acting means an enlightened state of action-planning and planning-action.