How to motivate yourself at anytime?

Have you been putting something off?
You know how it goes. One part of your brain says -

“Stop procrastinating. Just get on with it. Finish it!”
But then another part screams-

“But I don’t want to!”
It may not be anything major, but the task keeps niggling at the back of your mind. It can leave you feeling unsettled, slightly annoyed and stressed.
Here’s the thing: you can’t be fully at peace until you complete the task. Why? Because the Ziegarnik effect is in full swing. The Ziegarnik effect is the tendency we have to worry about something we have started and haven’t yet finished.
But if you can just get it done, your brain will breathe a sigh of relief. You will feel lighter. Chances are you will have turbocharged energy levels too.
As Jack Canfield states in his book “The Success Principles” –

“the quicker you move through [your] incompletes, the clearer your mind will be and the more “attention units” you’ll have to dedicate to those things that can really make a difference in your life”.

At the very least, you’ll feel some relief as you go to cross the task off your ‘To do’ list.
So here are some ways to motivate yourself at anytime to complete tasks and projects you keep putting off-
Consider how life will be better

Whatever the task is – no matter how painful and boring – consider all the good things that will come once it’s finished.
Perhaps you will feel more energized as a result of being one step closer towards achieving a long term goal.
The benefit could simply be that you no longer feel bogged down by it. You can reclaim a little more peace of mind and energy for other new and exciting projects.
Scare yourself into action
A little fear can be a good source of motivation.
So ask yourself the question –

What is the cost (financial, social and emotional) of continuing to put this task off?

You need to be careful with this strategy. Please don’t freak out. We all know that freaking out never helps. Too much fear can lead to paralysis.
But there’s no point keeping your head in the sand and ignoring the consequences of never doing the task.
I want you to be in action. So be real with yourself – get clear on what the cost will be to your life and others.
If this is too hard to imagine, then think of the last time you put off doing something. How much fun was that? Were you happy with the end result? Chances are things could have been better and less stressful.

Nail your feet to the floor
If you need to complete a task at your desk, imagine that your feet are nailed to the floor and your pants are glued to your chair. You can’t leave your desk until you finish the task.
To do this requires self discipline, focus and strength. You need to be ruthless with yourself – finish the task and then you can experience complete freedom from your desk and chair.
Get your dopamine firing

To help you finish a particularly boring task, you need to get your dopamine firing. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the expectation of pleasurable experiences.
Now typically when your brain thinks of doing a boring project, dopamine isn’t released. The gates to your dopamine are firmly closed.
So how can you open up your dopamine floodgates?
By simply combining the task with some upbeat music that you really enjoy, people who you enjoy spending time with or your favourite café (go and order your favourite drink).
Triggering dopamine can help you to get tasks done and dusted. It helps the process be less painful too.
Identify why you can’t or won’t do it
Often we don’t take action on a task because we are stopped by mental barriers.
How do you tackle a mental barrier?
Take some time (say 2 – 5 minutes) to explore what is stopping you from taking action.
In my experience, when people get stopped it usually comes down to one of three things–
1. Lack of clarity – “I don’t know where to start”
2. Sense of overwhelm – “Argh! I feel overwhelmed by the size of the task”
3. Lack of skill/knowledge – “Help! I don’t know how to do this!”
Here’s how you can tackle each mental barrier –
The solution to lack of clarity

If you don’t know where to start, then start anywhere. Preferably, start with what is most appealing and interesting for you.
If you have to write an essay, don’t feel like you need to start with the first sentence. Start anywhere. Some writing is better than no writing. Just remember, you can’t edit a blank document. You need something to work with.
The solution to overwhelm
If you feel overwhelmed by the size of the task, break it down into really small bite size chunks. Ask yourself –
“What is the smallest action step I can take that will move me towards completing this task?”

You need to make things actionable for your brain. For instance, “pick up textbook” or “Find article on mindfulness and self control”. If the task is fuzzy or ill-defined, chances are you won’t do it.
The solution to not knowing how to do something
Finally, if you’re stopped because you don’t know how to do something – google it or ask someone who knows. You can save a lot of time and energy by doing this.
In the early days of doing my PhD I would spend hours (sometimes days) frustratingly reading books, trying to figure out how to do certain things for my research project. When I’d go meet with my supervisor, the issue would usually be resolved in a couple of minutes!
Your time is a finite resource so make the most of it.
Start before you feel ready
“I’ll just read one more article before I start writing this essay” or “I’m not motivated to start now but tomorrow things may be different” – does this sound familiar?
The reality is you are never going to feel ready or motivated to start doing some tasks. You just need to start.

As productivity coaches Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner state in their Nature article “Waiting for the motivation fairy” –

“You have to start before you feel ready; then you’ll feel more motivated, and then you’ll take more action”

 Source: Link

10 Amazing Lessons from Albert Einstein

Source of Image: Link

1 - Follow Your Curiosity

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

What piques your curiosity? I am curious as to what causes one person to succeed while another person fails; this is why I’ve spent years studying success. What are you most curious about? The pursuit of your curiosity is the secret to your success.

2 - Perseverance is Priceless

“It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer.”

Through perseverance the turtle reached the ark. Are you willing to persevere until you get to your intended destination? They say the entire value of the postage stamp consist in its ability to stick to something until it gets there. Be like the postage stamp; finish the race that you’ve started!

3 - Focus on the Present

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

My father always says you cannot ride two horses at the same time. I like to say, you can do anything, but not everything. Learn to be present where you are; give your all to whatever you’re currently doing.

Focused energy is power, and it’s the difference between success and failure.

4 - The Imagination is Powerful

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Are you using your imagination daily? Einstein said the imagination is more important than knowledge! Your imagination pre-plays your future. Einstein went on to say, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” Are you exercising your “imagination muscles” daily, don’t let something as powerful as your imagination lie dormant.

5 - Make Mistakes

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

Never be afraid of making a mistake. A mistake is not a failure. Mistakes can make you better, smarter and faster, if you utilize them properly. Discover the power of making mistakes. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, if you want to succeed, triple the amount of mistakes that you make.

6 - Live in the Moment

“I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.”

The only way to properly address your future is to be as present as possible “in the present.”

You cannot “presently” change yesterday or tomorrow, so it’s of supreme importance that you dedicate all of your efforts to “right now.” It’s the only time that matters, it’s the only time there is.

7 - Create Value

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

Don’t waste your time trying to be successful, spend your time creating value. If you’re valuable, then you will attract success.

Discover the talents and gifts that you possess, learn how to offer those talents and gifts in a way that most benefits others.

Labor to be valuable and success will chase you down.

8 - Don’t Expect Different Results

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You can’t keep doing the same thing everyday and expect different results. In other words, you can’t keep doing the same workout routine and expect to look differently. In order for your life to change, you must change, to the degree that you change your actions and your thinking is to the degree that your life will change.

9 - Knowledge Comes From Experience

“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

Knowledge comes from experience. You can discuss a task, but discussion will only give you a philosophical understanding of it; you must experience the task first hand to “know it.” What’s the lesson? Get experience! Don’t spend your time hiding behind speculative information, go out there and do it, and you will have gained priceless knowledge.

10 - Learn the Rules and Then Play Better

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

To put it all in simple terms, there are two things that you must do. The first thing you must do is to learn the rules of the game that you’re playing. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s vital. Secondly, you must commit to play the game better than anyone else. If you can do these two things, success will be yours!

Source: Link

The Google Interview

"...Despite Google’s terrible track record so far for being organized and getting things done, I was still excited. I was so excited, I unfortunately could not sleep the night prior.
I drive to Google’s campus and wait about 30 minutes. The person I was supposed to meet went on a trip and did not tell me except via an automatic email that I received after emailing him asking “Where are you?” The recruiter comes along as backup and finds me, and takes me to my first interview. She asks me if I am ready, if I have used Google products before, and ensures that I will do just fine on the interviews as long as I am confident.

Interview #1: Maps and Sets

The first interviewer came and was 15 minutes late, but did get started right away. He asked me the following question

Create a data structure that has fast insertion, removal, membership testing, and random selection.

I poke around for a little bit and end up writing a chart of three or four elementary data structures, outlining the time complexities of each operation, but I suspected there was something better, which was confirmed by the interviewer’s push to see if I could develop something better. So next I try to mix the best attributes of one data structure with another. After some thinking, I finally got the details hammered out and mixed a hash table and a vector to produce something that has amortized constant everything. I felt victorious, especially since it is something I had to discover on the fly. For those interested, the code is here.

Interview #2: Servers and Data

The next interviewer came in, and he totally crushed me. I’m not even sure if I remember the question correctly.

If you have n servers that take requests, and server Si can take a request every ti seconds, and you need to distribute requests to them as efficiently as possible, how do you do it?

I fumbled around a lot, trying to create an efficient loop, modding a timer and switching to the machine that needed the request. Then he asked how I’d add more machines at runtime, and I turned this loop with fixed time points into a data structure that associated ti to Si. The interviewer thought this was completely unsatisfactory, and said “I wanted you to use a priority queue. We will just move to another question.” I felt pretty bad about this, but he asked another question.

If you have n machines with a 10 GB string of characters on each, how do you find the most common character?

I got this one I thought. Just ask for a distribution of each character from each machine, send the tables to a master machine which added them up and found the character with the highest frequency. Then he asked questions like “If we make the network faster, does it make sense to send over all the data to one machine?” I respond “no”, and explain that it would actually degrade performance. Finally, toward the end, he asked

Now suppose you are in the middle of Africa, each machine is on an Edge network, and each packet between the machines costs $1.00. Write a solution that minimizes the cost.

There was only 5 or 10 so minutes left, but I thought that maybe I could incrementally determine the maximum. I started off by saying that each machine calculates a frequency table, but instead of sending the whole table, the master machine asks for the most common. I start describing very roughly the algorithm for doing this, but I don’t think I was getting the details and corner cases right. Time was very pressured, and the interviewer expressed dissatisfaction with what I’ve done. “Time’s up. Maybe you can ask your friend there what the answer is.” My friend was one of the people who recommended me and took me to lunch. He didn’t know the answer off the top of his head either.
I felt a bit unhappy with my performance, but thought that I got far enough that I must have did at least okay. I ate lunch with two of the people I know at Google, and one of them looked at my “docket” and exclaimed “this question is illegal.” He didn’t tell me which one but he wrote something down and gave it back to me. We finished lunch talking about language runtimes, Lisp, and Go.

Interview #3: Trees

This was probably the most straightforward interview. It started off with a discussion about languages. What’s good about C? What’s bad about it? What languages solve those problems? What languages introduce new ones? I mostly discussed type safety and memory safety, two things that I deal with most often in industrial code.
Then he moved for a technical question. I’m not sure if I remember the question accurately, though.

Given a list of pairs (a,b) where a is the number of a node and b is its parent, construct a tree and return the root.

There may have been a third value c, but I fail to remember what it was if it even was.
I blazed through this. I wrote the code down to do so correctly and quickly the first time, and the interviewer actually said “I probably should not have asked a Lisp programmer about trees.” We spent the rest of the time (there was a lot of it) talking about Google and his position. I was particularly keen to figure out if he and his peers were solving tough problems or if most of the work was just tedium. I at least got an indication that he enjoyed what he did, but my question wasn’t really answered. Interview ended, and I felt good again.

Interview #4: Intervals and Regexen

I get to my next interview, performed by a very nice man with a quiet, Russian accent. He asked me the following question, though he asked it more cryptically than I write:

If you have a set of n disjoint, sorted intervals I=⋃nk=1[ak,bk], and you have an interval I′=[x,y], compute I∪I′.

I’d worked with interval arithmetic before, and so I was in somewhat familiar territory. I quickly noted all of the possible cases, and proceeded to implement a solution that was actually more general than what the interviewer asked. I instead wrote a solution for the problem of computing I efficiently given I1,…,In+1. It is a very easy generalization, and the interviewer saw that I think. Simplifying the union took no extra space and only took linear time, which was a sharp lower bound because we have to examine each possibly-overlapping interval at least once. The code for this is here.
He then proceeded to ask me questions about regular expressions, then asked me to write the regular expression for a variety of things.

Write a regular expression for floating point numbers.

I went through it, and even talked about what the DFA would look like, and describe why it would be very efficient to match.
I was even happier. Maybe lunch had helped! I thought this interview was a roaring success. We even had plenty of time to talk about Google and other things.

Interview #5: Dynamic Programming

The last interview was mostly okay.

Given a set of Lego bricks of height 1, 2, 3, and 4, each colored differently, write a program to compute the number of ways of constructing a tower of height n≥1.

This wasn’t a foreign question. Very quickly, I wrote down the typical exponential solution; just recursively count. It looks almost exactly like Fibonacci, but with four branches instead of two. I said it could be made a lot better, and computed in linear time. Here, I choked up a bit. I’ve done this a million times before. I started writing the iterative solution in Scheme, but I wasn’t getting the base cases quite right. I had to write out a few of the iterations, and after all that, I finally wrote it down, relieved. It felt almost scary, to forget something so trivial. The interviewer asked me if I could think of another way, and I couldn’t. Then he wrote down a 4-by-4 square matrix, and I basically completed his sentence: “Oh yes, of course, a particular right triangular matrix that you project onto the first dimension by right-multiplying by a unit vector after doing binary exponentiation to n, just like Fibonacci.” I wrote down quickly using mathematical notation what the binary exponentiation looks like and what the projection looks like. He agreed, and we sat down and chatted some...."

Source: Link

The 15 best blogging and publishing platforms on the Internet today. Which one is for you?

Reading the signs a couple of years ago it was easy to assume that the art of blogging was set to die a painful death at the hands of social networks like Facebook and Twitter and others. While social has changed how we communicate online, blogging remains a core part of things.
In fact, the truth is that there’s never been a better time to blog. Social networks help build audiences and deliver content to readers, and more established blogs and websites often link to or aggregate smaller sites, sending swarms of viewers to read articles — The Daily Mail aside.
So, whether you’re a blogger returning from a break, seeking a new home or are looking to write online for the first time, here’s our guide to what blogging platforms are out there.

WordPress: WordPress.com and WordPress.org

WordPress has two options: a freemium hosted service that provides .wordpress.com domains — e.g. jonrussell.wordpress.com (but you can still pay to use your own domain) — and includes limited customization. Or the completey free .org version which allows for you to host WordPress on your own servers with much more control, edit themes to your hearts content, hack code and add as many WordPress plugins as you wish.
It is, in simple terms, the daddy of blogging. The platform powers almost 19 percent of the Web and has been downloaded more than 45 million times.
One of the platform’s core strengths is its community of creatives, who have produced thousands of customizations and tweaks allowing WordPress users to add sophisticated and powerful plug-ins (features) to their blogs, or dress it up in a new layout or design.
Pros: Customization, customization, customization!
Cons: Vast array of options can be complicated for less-experienced users — tread carefully.
Verdict: Still the best option out there. WordPress is especially useful for companies or those looking to develop (or have someone else develop) a sophisticated website.

Blogger: Blogger.com

Google’s take on blogging is Blogger, an easy-to-use and free platform that requires only a Gmail/Google account to get started.
Blogger blogs can be customized with new backgrounds and layouts easily. Unsurprisingly, the platform is hardwired into Google’s AdSense advertising program (which might make the average blogger enough money for a cup of coffee each month) and other Google services like Google+ (for comments) and Feedburner (for RSS distribution) are easily configured.
Pros: Easy to use and get started.
Cons: Not particularly sophisticated and tied to Google — which killed off Google Reader, lest we forget.
Verdict: Less popular in this era, but Blogger is often the place where many, including this author, began writing online. Its customization options pale in comparison compared to others, and the layout looks a little dated when held against newer platforms.

Tumblr: Tumblr.com

The cool kid on the blogging block, Tumblr was arguably the first mainstream service to combine blogging and social media…leading eventually to Yahoo stumping up $1.1 billion to buy it.
Tumblr has a strong community of users, much like Twitter or Facebook, thanks to the ease in which other users’ content can be reblogged to your Tumblr account. That makes it a different kind of platform to the likes of WordPress, and users — particularly of the younger generation — tend to turn to Tumblr blogs to curate items that they like rather than produce their own content.
More benefits: Tumblr supports custom domain names and is ludicrously easy to use from mobile, including photo uploads.
Pros: Owned by Yahoo — Tumblr was almost out of money when Yahoo swooped in to buy it.
Cons: Owned by Yahoo — Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has hinted that ads could make their way to Tumblr blogs.
Verdict: More of a social network than a blog, but a good option if you seek something quick and easy. Indeed, we’re noticing increasing numbers of companies that keep Tumblr blogs, often separately to their main blogs.

Medium: Medium.com

If blogs were bars, Medium is probably the hippest place to be seen at right now. Not only was it started by Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone, but has a ‘social layer’ — which includes a feature letting users edit and annotate other people’s work, while it obviously integrates well with Twitter.
Medium is cool but there are some key differences compared to other platforms. For one thing, its features are rigid while the way it links to other content on its network can frustrate writers enough to leave. Twitter has been called the global town square and, in that context, Medium a side room away from the 140-character shouting and chaos where people try to work over interesting topics in more detail.
The service isn’t yet open to all, but Medium has long been seeding invites and existing users can ask friends to contribute, which signs them up to the service. The company also appears to also dish out invites based on conversations it sees on Twitter.
Pros: A great place to showcase your content to a (potentially) large audience.
Cons: Lack of customization and some content discovery issues, for writers.
Verdict: Medium is well worth trying, but many of the folks that write there use it as a secondary or tertiary blog.

Svbtle: Svbtle.com

The blogging platform from designer Dustin Curtis has, in my opinion, the slickest user experience of any blogging platform out there. (Speaking as someone who has a Svbtle blog.)
The user interface feels like a doodle pad or to-do list, making it a place where I can easily jot down thoughts and come up/develop ideas, while it runs in Markdown.
Just looking at the layout that readers see shows the elegance and thought behind the site. Svbtle does allow prospective users to apply to join, you can make your case via the email address listed on the site.
Pros: Beautifully designed.
Cons: Open to a selective number of users. Interestingly, it doesn’t include a commenting system — perhaps a pro and con.
Verdict: A delightful blogging platform that is only available for a few at this point, though the Svbtle website says it will be open to all soon.

Quora: Quora.com

You might be surprised to see popular question and answer site Quora feature here, but it added user blogs back in January 2012.
As a platform for showcasing knowledge, bloggers that are seeking to tell stories or impart wisdom about particular topics may find Quora useful. Posts can be categorized using Quora tags — to make them searchable — and, with a little luck and the right content, they can become visible and widely shared.
However, there’s no personalization and Quora is very much a place to showcase writing and knowledge rather than be your ‘home’ on the Web.
Pros: Strong community that soaks up new and interesting content.
Cons: Lacks personalization and ‘homely’ feel of a personal blog.
Verdict: Quora blogs are interesting for influencers, those seeking to elevate their status or others wanting to tap into the Quora community. That makes it better suited as a secondary of tertiary blog.

Postach.io: Postach.io

Popular note-taking app Evernote lets you share content written within its platform, but it’s not really a blog. That’s where Postach.io comes into play.
The blogging service slots into Evernote, allowing you to write posts right from the service using a dedicated notebook and set keywords like ‘published’, ‘page’ or ‘avatar’. More than just writing content from Evernote, Postach.io hooks into comment engine Disqus, supports Google Analytics, allows for custom domains, social sharing and — interestingly — Markdown.
The service is currently in beta but those features, plus a decent selection of customizable themes, gives Postach.io a Posterous-like, easy-blogging feel.
Pros: Light-weight and easy to use.
Con: Limited customization.
Verdict: A relatively new arrival on the blogging scene, courtesy of Evernote’s community of third-party apps and services, this is worth considering for jotting down quick thoughts or multimedia-rich posts.

Google+: Plus.google.com

Is Google+ a social network? Well, Google says it isn’t — the company believes it’s somewhat broader than that — and a range of the service’s top users write blog like content there, often generating seeing impressive engagement. TNW contributor Robert Scoble has, for example, cut back on his blog in favor of “betting my future” on Google+.
Ultimately Google+ is not a blog, but it is a place where you can blog if you want to tap into a community to drive engagement. These days most content is shared to social media, so why not start it on social media? That’s up to you.
Pros: Google+ has a strong community, despite the reports.
Cons: Not a blog platform so no customization or other features.
Verdict: Good enough for some people, so not to be dismissed as an option.

Facebook Notes: Facebook.com/notes

At the risk of treating all social networks as blogs, something we’ve no intention of doing here, Facebook has been added because its Notes feature is, essentially, a blog platform.
Connected to the world’s largest social network, Facebook Notes allows you to pen posts with all the basic features, such as images, URLs, block quotes, etc. While it won’t win awards for design and sophistication, it’s a simple way to get the message out — especially if you’re a person with an established following on Facebook.
Pros: 1.1 billion people user Facebook each month.
Cons: There’s a lot more to the Web than just Facebook.
Verdict: We’ve got enough of Facebook already, particularly when there are a plethora of services dedicated to providing a dedicated blogging experience, rather than adding it as a mere feature.

SETT: Sett.com

SETT is a new, community-focused blogging platform that promises engagement. Similar in style to Medium and Svbtle, it claims it can help writers get 98 percent more comments — on average — and a lot more attention, just based on its community of users.
The platform allows readers to follow blogs, find similar posts and bloggers, communicate with each other — there’s even a ‘room’ where readers can discuss topics from a blog. The site is clearly focused on engagement, promising to help cultivate an audience and community for its bloggers.
Pros: Boasts impressive engagement and opportunities to find audiences.
Cons: Still in its early days, and without the features of other platforms.
Verdict: This promising platform may be worth investigating as a means to help establish an audience, but we can’t help but feel that there’s only so many guarantees you can make for engagement. Ultimately, good content drives readers and audiences.

Ghost: Tryghost.org

Ghost is an open-sourced blogging platform that successfully graduated from Kickstarter in May 2013 having raising near $200,000 — well above its modest $25,000 goal.
For now, the service is only open to those who backed it on Kickstarter, but the company says it will be available to the public “around the end of summer 2013,” which is not too long to wait.
The platform has garnered much praise across the Web for its elegance and its team promises to “inspire” bloggers with a fully customizable system, including “the full Ghost software with all bells, whistles, themes, plugins, and some extras that are only available with us,” responsive design, “revolutionary” dashboard, and more.
Pros: Brings a fresh style and new approach.
Cons: Not available right now, while finer details — including price — are still be to communicated.
Verdict: Ghost has rightly got a lot of people excited and it promises to bring new impetus to blogging. We’ll have to wait for more details, however.

Squarespace: Squarespace.com

Squarespace is a blogging platform that is popular with business users. Developing and hosting blogs is just one part, and it can be used to create and manage a range of websites, such as e-commerce sites.
Unlike most of the others, there is no free option, bar a 14-day trial, with sites priced upwards of $8 per month via an annual plan. That plan encompasses all elements of your blog or website, however, including cloud-based hosting and maintenance.
Pros: Wholly comprehensive set of features and services, gorgeously designed.
Cons: Pricey and perhaps better suited to creating a business website, than anything specifically blog focused
Verdict: A must-consider if you’re a business, but other options will be better if you’re setting up a blog or site on a smaller scale.

Typepad: Typepad.com

Another blogging old-timer, TypePad has been about since the word ‘blog’ began. Today, a blog on Typepad costs upwards upwards of $8.95 per month, which includes a set of designs, unlimited storage and customer service.
Typepad emphasizes its reliability, and certainly the platform has always been a more ‘out-of-the-box’ service that is easier to use, but less customizable and powerful than WordPress.
Pros: Easy to set up and use.
Cons: Not free and contains limitations.
Verdict: Typepad still has its users, including cult blogger Seth Godin, but other options have greater freedom, including your own custom domain name.

Posthaven: Posthaven.com

Posthaven arose from the shutdown of Posterous, which finally disappeared off the Web this year under the ownership of Twitter.
The service costs $5 per month and essentially replicates the Posterous ‘light-blogging’ experience, allowing posts and multimedia to be easily and quickly published. The Posthaven team promises it will never be acquired or go offline, two things that hit users of Posterous hard.
Pros: Not in danger of going offline.
Cons: Still in its infancy and adding some features other services already offer.
Verdict: A good option for those who loved Posterous and are prepared to invest in their blogging, in the knowledge that paying for a service provides security for the future.
UPDATE — We’ve added LinkedIn

LinkedIn Influencers: Linkedin.com/today/influencers

The Web’s top business social networking service launched blogs for ‘Influencers’ back in October 2012, signing up 150 prominent business leaders, including the likes of Richard Branson and President Obama.
Unfortunately, the chances are that those reading this almost certainly don’t qualify for a LinkedIn blog — this is for the real Internet 1 percenters. Given the way that LinkedIn is increasingly turning its social network into a communication platform for users and businesses, it remains entirely possible that blogs could become available to rest of us in time. But don’t count on it.
Pro: Platform for a few privileged few.
Cons: Platform for a few privileged few.
Verdict: Not an option for the regular Internet Joe just yet.
– –
Finally, let’s pour one out for the fallen heroes of the blogging revolution.
Posterous: Posterous’ days always seemed numbered when it was acquired by Twitter in March 2012 in a deal that appeared to have been done to get hold of the developer talent behind the site. That fateful day confirming its closure came in February, and Posterous left the Internet on April 30 2013.
Xanga: One-time blogging pioneer Xanga remains on life-support after a campaign to raise $60,000 just passed the target. The company is collecting contributions until the end of August, after which it will relaunch. Perhaps our obituary is a little premature?
LiveJournal: Not dead just yet, but this former blockbuster is now a community-based social network owned by a Russian media company.

Source: Link 

Danger: Bottled Water

DANGER!!!!

LET EVERYONE WHO HAS A WIFE/GIRLFRIEND/ DAUGHTER/ FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES.
KNOW PLEASE!

Bottled water in your car is very dangerous!
On the Ellen show, Sheryl Crow said that this is what caused her
breast cancer. It has been identified as the most common cause
of the high levels of dioxin in breast cancer tissue..

Sheryl Crow’s oncologist told her: women should not drink bottled
water that has been left in a car. The heat reacts with the chemicals
in the plastic of the bottle which releases dioxin into the water.
Dioxin is a toxin increasingly found in breast cancer tissue. So please
be careful and do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.

Pass this on to all the women in your life. This information is the kind
we need to know that just might save us! Use a stainless steel canteen
or a glass bottle instead of plastic!

This information is also being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center … No plastic containers in microwaves. No plastic water
bottles in freezers. No plastic wrap in microwaves.

Dioxin chemical causes cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to cells in our bodies. Don’t freeze plastic bottles with water
in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently the Wellness
Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain
this health hazard.

He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we
should not be heating food in the microwave using plastic containers…..
This especially applies to foods that contain fat.

He said that the combination of fat, high heat and plastic releases dioxin
into the food.

Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Pyrex or ceramiccontainers
for heating food… You get the same result, but without the dioxin.. So,
such things as TV dinners, instant soups, etc., should be removed from
their containers and heated in something else.

Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s safer to
use tempered glass, such as Pyrex, etc.

He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants
moved away from the styrene foam containers to paper. The dioxin
problem is one of the reasons….

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Cling film, is just as
dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave.
As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually
melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with
a paper towel instead.

This is an article that should be share to anyone important in your life!


More in ==>> Leave me alone please <<==

Check out why you should never drink bottled water! #4 is shocking!http://bit.ly/1bJt2Lz

Android vs. iPhone: Which Should You Buy?

The world is full of great rivalries, and for smartphones, there are no exceptions. The iPhone vs.Android debate is a staple within the tech community; most users will loyally (and outspokenly) tell you why their respective devices, and theirs only, are the far superior choices.

SEE ALSO: Kindle vs. Nook: Which E-Reader Should You Gift?

But what if you haven't decided? Maybe you're impartial to both. Maybe you're still clutching yourNokia brick. Or maybe you just don't care.

In any case, we've highlighted components of both phones to help you decide which brand is right for you. It boils down to minor preferences: Would you rather have an operating systemthat's open-source? Or a more compact device likely to get top apps sooner? Et cetera.

Different strokes for different folks, really. Take a look and tell us in the comments which one you prefer — but please, be gentle.

1. Android: Open-Source Operating System

Unique to Android phones is its powerful open-source operating system, which is the most popular in the world, according to data by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. The system lets manufacturers, carriers, independent developers and savvy consumers modify content and fix bugs — all via the code Google releases under a free software permit called the Apache License.

The freely amendable OS opens up the potential for cool system projects, too, likeCyanogenmod, Paranoid Android and MIUI. It also allows developers to distribute and sideload content outside the constraints of the Google Play store.

2. iOS: Apps

Image: iTunes and Google Play

Apps, on the other hand, are a different story. For years, iOS lead the way with highest number of available apps, but now the numbers seem to be changing. An Apple press release from June, 2013 says the iTunes Store has more than 900,000 apps; and a Google spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that the Play Store has more than 975,000.

The quality of the apps is obviously a subjective argument, and loyal users of both will argue why and how their platforms do them better. What's not as subjective is availability. iOS inarguably gets apps sooner — it took months for Android to access Instagram and Vine, after all. While Android may be catching up, Apple still secures more big-name apps before any other platform.

3. Android: App Flexibility

On the flip side, Android offers more flexibility with its apps by allowing Firefox, Opera andChrome to run, a capability that isn't permitted through iOS.

4. Android: Data-Sharing

Something often overlooked in Android, as highlighted by Computerworld, is a system-wide sharing function called "intents." The feature lets you pass data — text, photos, links — in between your apps. To use it, tap and hold your finger on a sentence (say, from an email) and click the "Share" icon, which pulls up a list of apps that allow the function, like Gmail or Dropbox. From there, it's as simple as dragging the text, or whatever else you've selected, into the app of your choice.

Because of Android's open-source OS, any developer can program his or her app to correspond with the internal data-sharing. It may seem minuscule, but it makes tasks like sharing photos or Google searches undoubtably quicker.

5. iOS: Portability

When it comes to size, iPhones are smaller and easier to carry than most Android phones. TheiPhone 5, the tallest to date, is 4.87 inches tall and 3.95 ounces, compared to the HTC One's 5.41 inches and 5 ounces. The Samsung Galaxy S4 measures in at 5.38 inches in height and 4.59 ounces.

On the other hand, rumors are circulating that Apple may debut a bigger phone come September, the time of year it typically unveils new iPhones.

6. iOS: Consistency

One perk to not having an open-sourced system is consistency across devices. Small actions, such as turning on Wi-Fi, vary from the Nexus 4 to the Galaxy S4 to the HTC One — again, a result of different interfaces. The tradeoff, though, is that it gives you the potential to customize.

Most of Apple's functions remain homogenous across devices — there's really only one way to do something on the iPhone. Once you're in the "ecosystem," so to speak, you only need to remember one login password to sync your photos, music and other files across each device using iCloud.

Some argue the open-source method, particularly when it comes to the raw quality of its mobile devices, is Android's double-edged sword: a stellar operating system that lacks a steady phone.Slate's Farhad Manjoo writes:

"These phones have the potential to be really wonderful machines, even as great as Apple’s flagship phone. But then, at the last second, the phone makers and the world’s cellular carriers snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They ruin the phones’ potential with unnecessary features and apps that lower the devices’ battery life, uglify their home screens, and make everything you want to do extra annoying."

If you're someone who lives and dies by your Gmail account or Google+, however, Android's strong ties with its properties might make for a better (and smoother) fit.

It's a tough conclusion to draw. What made you choose your phone, and are you happy with that decision? What would it take for you to make the switch?

Source: http://mashable.com/2013/07/24/android-vs-iphone/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=rss

Travel Guide: Islamic Research Center at Daejeon, South Korea

This is the building of Islamic Research Center (IRC) at Daejeon, near KAIST University

Problem: Recently, i have visited KAIST univeristy and i was having problem to find a Masjid (Prayer room) and Halal food there.
Purpose: Guide the Muslims to find prayer room and halal food at Daejeon nearby KAIST Univeristy

Agenda:

• Travel Information - BUS
• Important Places
• KAIST University
• Islamic Research Center
• Halal Food Shops/Restaurants
• Shopping
• Homeplus
• EMart
• Contact Information

Traveling to/from Daejeon by BUS
There are two bus terminals at Daejeon near KAIST University

1. Yeosong Bus Terminal (closer to KAIST, limited routes to other cities)
2. Khuseouk Bus Terminal (Little far round about 1 hour bus drive from KAIST, It has many routes to other cities, It is preferred because there is possibility that you may not find your city route at first bus terminal)

At Khuseouk Bus Terminal

Location Information:

KAIST Univeristy at Daejeon:
Google MAP - KAIST

IRC:
Islamic Research Center at Daejeon Near KAIST University, South Korea
Google MAP - IRC 

Halal Food (Pizza Shop - Yaenal):
Halal Pizza Shop Near KAIST University and Islamic Research Center at Daejeon
Google MAP - Halal Pizza

Halal Food (Restaurants):
There are two other restaurants (Ali baba and New Taj) near by this pizza shop which also provide halal food. New Taj is little bit expensive than Ali-Baba restaurant. 

Taj Restaurant

Ali-Baba Restaurant

Nearby Shopping Places:

Homeplus

EMART

Both places are just opposite to IRC and KAIST University.

Contact Information:

KAIST Muslim Students:

• Sajid Abbas - Food in-charge at IRC (010-6870-7860)
• Arslan (010-3040-3443)

Others (management at IRC)

• 010-5828-6893
• 010-2286-2683