Out of the potential features, being easy to use is the main one. The software package could be the most extraordinary you’ve seen – but if you can’t actually use it, it’s worth nothing to you… Your electronic newsletter should matter enough to you that you try out several providers. The next major piece of preparation you’ll need to do is about security. The second thing in line should be hackers. Think about if there is security available for your account. Can individuals just copy-paste your newsletter content or has the software vendor anything in place peventing such things? Is the content secure?

Have you made a business strategy for your digital publication? One part of this strategy will be using networking sites. How will you handle advertisements? These things are not absolutely required for all of your issues, but you will definitely need one that matches your business model. Selling the online newsletter will probably require search engine appropriate content.

Something else to consider are previous issues. Is your electronic newsletter going to be generally accessible? Direct hosting with the supplier likely has a certain amount of sense with a widely available publication. How will you advertise your interactive newsletter? The tech support offered by the provider should be the final consideration. How do you contact them? Emergency response is the next concern. Examine whichever how-to or FAQ sections they have. Such things you should look at before you have problems an emergency, it’ll be a good thing you did! Think carefully when you pick out a magazine’s flash publishing software host. Google the term “Zmags” to find further useful information.

Volt in

Among several synonyms of the word bracket is a very common word–group. There are groups everywhere, at any given point in time and space. This is a direct result of people’s predisposition to label and organize. When a person or things are put in a group, it is therefore put in a bracket.

Despite the word bracket and group being synonyms though, it is not common to use the word bracket to describe a peer group for instance. It sounds funny to say, “This is my peer bracket”.

Therefore, the use of the word bracket must be utilized only with certain groups.

Reproduce and use

We learn multiplication in grade school and incidentally, this may very well be one’s first concrete encounter with the concept of a bracket.

On the blackboard, the teacher will illustrate objects inside a bracket to visually explain the principle of multiplication. In this case, we see objects grouped into brackets. The teacher will separate the same apples into different sub groups and enclose them in a bracket to keep the same apples apart.

Souk for the soul

Outside of the classroom illustrations, a bracket is also used to group things into categories. It is used for instance in Marketing to categorize a target market or in plain words, a group of people who should buy a particular brand.

This is the way for brands to know better than to sell disposable diapers to a teenager whose sole pre-occupation are boys and the latest fashion.

The super sorter

A bracket is then used to divide and group a market to make marketing efforts easier and more focused. So that the group that is most likely to be the buyers are further sorted into brackets of age, gender, socio-economic class, and so forth.

A bracket is very valuable to marketing as this decides the way something is sold and bought. Imagine a world without brackets–everything would be so random and arbitrary.

As first established, it is human nature to label and organize, so much so that it tends to become an obsession. Take beer for instance. There are several types of beer under one umbrella brand. There’s the light beer for people who don’t like the heavy feeling of booze but want the same buzz. Then there’s the beer with the stronger alcoholic content for the hard core drinkers. There’s the diet beer to follow the latest low carbohydrate diet fad. Then there’s the plain regular kind for the plain old regular type folks.

All those types of beer to choose from, thanks to the the bracket.

Let there be light

According to the Bible, in the beginning there was nothing. Then from nothing, came light and we could see everything and then came the need to identify and segregate.

Without labels and categories, all things far and wide would just be the same, with no identifying differences. There will be no need for several types of beer that in the end will just make you drunk no matter what type it is. No need to first divide the same apple illustrations on the board only to multiply them together later.

Thus, the bracket was invented.

However, today the computer revolution in hospitals is well and truly under way, and in the last few years a desire to include medical device data in patient records, computer charting, and computer aided diagnosis has arisen. So, after all these years of medical devices having computer interfaces, there is now a real demand (plus the clinical system vendors working quickly to supply the infrastructure to cater for that demand) surely it’s just a matter of plugging them in and using the data.

However, even though the interfaces have existed for many decades it has not meant that they exist in a mature, usable form. In fact the lack of desire to use them has meant the opposite case. Every medical device computer interface is different – they require different connectors, different cables, and each requires software to be developed to acquire the data. Occasionally the manufacturers supply software (or can provide it on demand), but the software is usually a demonstration on how to develop your own software, and more typically the manufacturer only supplies a document (a protocol) describing the interface. Consequently there exists a vast chasm between what is wanted from medical devices, and what a user can currently achieve.

Almost fifteen years ago there was already awareness of this problem, and work began on a standard to make all devices communicate in a common manner. Initially called the Medical Interface Bus (MIB), it became IEEE 1073 (and now also ISO 11073), and is still an ongoing project. IEEE 1073 is massively comprehensive, but can be broken down into three areas; Physical connections Cabling and the plug and socket are defined. Having the same cable for every medical device would simplify the installation and management of devices immensely. IEEE 1073 goes much further than this though, and considers the practicality and safety of connecting to devices. For example utilizing connectors that attach effectively and securely (the serial port connector on your PC has fiddly screws to attach firmly, and without tightening them it doesn’t take much to knock the cable out), and then defining optical isolation for protecting the patient from electrical risk. Lower Level Protocol The commands for the computer to talk to the device are described in the standard. Clearly an application developer doesn’t want to write new software for every device their application might wish to connect to. Again, the IEEE 1073 goes further than just defining a few commands. The lower level protocol (LLP) defines the ability to detect what device is connected automatically, giving a plug ‘n play capability. The LLP then also allows the computer and device to negotiate the fastest speed to communicate. Upper Level Protocol Once the computers are talking, IEEE 1073 describes how the medical parameters should be described (the nomenclature). This is essential to a truly comprehensive standard, but is also the most challenging area. However, the IEEE are not the only group trying form a nomenclature standard, and so considerations need to be made towards standards such as LOINC and SNOMED.

So, has a decade been enough time to create a standard? Technically the standard seems complete enough to implement, and probably has been for a long while now. However looking at the device market today it would appear it’s not ready, as there aren’t any compliant devices. I’ve encountered some devices that touch on some of the concepts, such as negotiating communication speeds, and have used some of the medical parameter identifiers from the upper level protocol, but each device still required software writing for each specific device. So what’s going on?

What are the barriers to medical device manufacturers adopting this standard?

To start with it’s not clear what version of the standard industry should be using. There’s no obvious grand approved 1.0 version, only a proliferation of drafts, approval of workgroups and ballots and general confusion. There seems to be a distinct lack of tools or examples to guide through not just the learning process, but also an implementation (if you were to attempt one). This leads easily to the reasons most commonly given by device manufacturers as to why they’ve not adopted the standard – too complicated and too expensive. It would seem that IEEE 1073 is trying to be too comprehensive, and is creating barriers to early adopters because of it.

So the future looks bleak for IEEE 1073. Other standards such as HL7 and DICOM have flourished due to market forces creating sophisticated products that need to interoperate. IEEE 1073 differs from these by encompassing more than just digital communication, and including hardware recommendations. Maybe if they concentrated on releasing a complete standard just for the upper and lower level protocols (i.e., only the software recommendations), and then encouraged someone to create the tools to help design and develop the medical device firmware, then smaller companies would use the standard. The groundswell support would lead to more innovative products that require device connectivity. The industry would benefit even if the standard wasn’t taken up in it’s entire form. There has been a huge amount of effort and thought put into the standard by many experienced people, and all device manufacturers should read the implementation details of the standard to avoid their interfaces falling foul of the common pitfalls.

As an endnote, if you’ve checked out who I am and what my company does, you might be wondering why I would be keen to see a standardized medical device interface? At this very moment we are in the beginnings of an explosion in healthcare informatics. Clinical systems are now at affordable prices for large scale take-up, standards like HL7, DICOM etc are easily mature enough for companies to rely on them and create highly sophisticated products. I’m prepared to be part of this wave of innovation, and I’m looking forward to using our device connectivity expertise and create new and exciting products in the future. I’m just happy that my current products are going to give us a headstart while everyone else is still waiting for a standard like IEEE 1073 to be truly taken up.

Presence/Centering

Great presenters have presence and are centered. Many times when I have tried to figure out why one speaker is so compelling while another is good – and pleasant to listen to – I have even said aloud, “The great one has presence.” What does that mean? Great presenters take time to focus, to come completely onto their balanced center. They have rid their minds of all the extraneous thoughts and are completely focused on listeners and the message they are delivering. They forget about themselves and are completely involved in the moment.

Good presenters deliver their message competently, but are slightly off center. We, as listeners, might not realize this, but we sense it. The good speaker may be thinking about what he or she is going to do after the presentation. They may be thinking, “I wonder if they like me. Do I have a piece of spinach in my teeth? Do I look pulled together and professional? Or, does this skirt make me look fat?” The good presenter is close to being on center, but is not completely in the moment.

Tip: take the first few moments on the platform to bring yourself into neutral and focus. The extra silence while you focus with also grab the audience’s attention.

Heart/Passion

Great presenters love their topic(s) and present with passion and a feeling of heart. I have written many times about the importance of being passionate. If you have experienced great speakers, you know that they are speaking from their hearts. They have so much passion for their subject that they pull us, as listeners, right into the middle of their presentation

Good presenters are knowledgeable about their topic(s), but lack the extra enthusiasm and love. This often happens when a good speaker has been asked to present a topic that they know and work with, but don’t really have a passion for. I also know excellent speakers who feel that they need the gigs, so will speak on a topic that is off their usual repertoire. Even when they do a good job (I am writing here about good speakers), the audience will sense that lack of heart and passion.

Tip: either turn down the offer to speak about a topic that you are not passionate about, or do enough preliminary work to find what about that topic you can love and be passionate about.

A Bonus Tip: Great presenters have and tell great stories. Become an excellent storyteller, and you will be “Great.” But, that’s another story!

But yet I found the aesthetics; modern Philosophy participated of the refinement, inflicting pain of the dead shall not rise, only if the truth is not told, my pen speaks of the dignity beyond death, the hero’s of inheritance shall not die, only if I choose to speak in darkness, without recovery of my dignity and those who walk with prophecies that was given by the Almighty God in heaven, but unto those who cultivate with their victorious arms of greed, I shall recite the constitution of justice, but unto my people who lived upon the abomination of man and earth which they defended with their blood; excluding the human God’s who dictate the solitary of un spoken truth. Nevertheless the sensitivity of truth may contaminate the order that has been resolve to an un civilized institution of dead man bureaucracies, I have travel places where no man has gone, subsided by the human death chambers of mind, but yet I conceive my proclamation of educational success through the congestion that the roots shall rise below the porous of the dead roots. In this hierologic prescriptions of those who continue to archive the historical events, consistently to an assertion of the rights of man, and the rights of Nature and events,

I give unto man the blue print of this divesting world, and man who close their eyes to the restitutions of change, yet on this first, and probably last occasion, in this resolution of aesthetics should I embark to see a cause like this rescued from the embroidery of my pen, if I exhort my reevaluations my pen shall become weak, in which I shall obtrude my Sentiments upon the world, I may be sensitize, if I inscribe a piece, whose only merit is the humanity and freedom of its historical lies, sentiments to darkness, shall only submerse the retro active completions of truth, I have principally on this journey under all odds of adjustment to derived them of biblical and historical facts. Beneath a milder sky let peace introduce the genius and arts and the libations of the ancestries, and the integrity without insuring their duration, to invoke passion and let philosophy and science glory in a race of illustrious disciples the prophets’ seminary of spiritual grace.

I’ll hear the voices, the ancestors of yesterday, Virtue’s legacy of tongues Shall sound against genocide of race, Unto I focus on humble, shall not my dignity be inherited as cowardly infirmity, I stand by the instructions of the Almighty God, and Jesus the son of the savior, I take my instructions, with great wisdom of the stroll, Let thy brother stand in accord, let not their supplier of death, shall the sons of Commerce, fear not the wrath, loyalty if not embraced, worse than the midnight Devil, Fear not the marksmen plan.

Suffering through the darkness of UN Recovery, Libation I stand at attention, trying to understand, the darkness that lies upon the earth, Division stronger than the rivers that rise upon mans feet , The blood that runs from my veins, I shall take the lashing of the world, I shall not stand still, I shall run through the trill of fields, where my ancestors built the liberation, I shall run with the torch, sub servant to the lord, crying no victim song, no longer shall I stand still, summoned from the hill of justice the resurrection of change, until I spread the words of the Almighty God. my people to the mountain, when will we break the indoctrination of hatred disregarding all the laws of God, shall we get it right? I herd it on the mountain of recovery, one hand on the clock.

The Universe slowly comes to and end. My native land that lives by the accordance of the devil, after the legacy of our ancestors, multi color rainbow, have we come to a calamity, where man no longer care? The treason that sits upon the doors of our ancestors; The doors slowly closing, silhouetted by Satan, The scars of my hand, whispering the history, thou wisdom, thou love, waves fair well. Thou slave of avarice, that can’t stop the mind.

The cancer of death, betrayal of a lost soul, trying to find self, The cage bird sings no victim song, He look upon the earth, He knows his space of sanctuary, And would not be captured by the beast, Dignity to man, if not kept safe, belligerency, shackles, deny my self of a mind, Ringing the chimes of inner death, Give me dignity are give me death, hatred of a memory, conformity, to another mans pledge. Hear the bellowing sounds rising up from the depths of humanity, Life is death, death is life, crying out to the soul of men words spoken, being placed in discord, words of peace. The soul of a poet, Life after death. You shall embrace the words of ancient times, Through the universal space of mind .The peaceful place of integrity. Perhaps, you will hear the words, of calm, written from the poet within. The toxins of suffering, the sleeping darkness, the soul that rejects the formality of deterring ways.

Love calms the inner peace; I shall live, as my words, spoken with love. Poet after death, my words continue to live on. Darkness has no power off my pen. I live within, the words of a poet, death shall not, stop the spoken words, Life is death, Death is life, Poet the prophet of spoken words.

Spirits of thoughts, the birth of wisdom, Spirituality, understandings, Creations, life, death, love, cries of the earth, God that lives among, us all, the evolution of men, the man, the great tool of civilization, which he stands.

To further clarify my comments about being careful about bartering. There are ways to disclose that you have a relationship with the company. I wrote this article on the subject;

http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Bartering-for-Writing-Articles&id=199533

The best way to disclose your bartering in article writing, would be to disclose in your Byline; Professional Writer or Public Relations or “likes to write about the companies she does business with” or such. Or somewhere in the article describe that you simply loved the sample that the company had provided for the article and “I am keeping it too” or something of this nature. Or, you might disclose the company gave me some coupons, I went there and feel in love with the service and products.

You can either work this into the article or allow it to be understood in your byline that you are in the business of public relations some how. Since many online article submission websites or at least the best ones allow for multiple bylines, the write would be advised to create a new one carefully worded for you bartering and then the sky is the limit.

Just stay away from “BUZZ Marketing” tactics as the FTC considers them to be deceptive and in a way they really are. The person who reads the article has the right to know of your motives. Indeed you will see many of the Home Improvement TV Shows will use products donated for the show and they always disclose it. You can do the same thing without taking away from the article and you really should be thinking here. Stay above board, as it is the best for all concerned. There is a write way and a wrong way. Consider this in 2006.

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

Public Speaking has been ranked as the “number one fear” among thousands of us. The anxiety is overwhelming, you start to sweat profusely, your knees are knocking so hard you might break a kneecap, hands tremble like you dipped them in a fryer full of hot oil, voice starts quivering like someone dumped a bucket of ice water on your head and you can’t remember what it is you are supposed to be talking about. Why? Because you are scared to death.

I want to share with you some tips on overcoming this fear of Public Speaking.

1. Picture yourself doing it, go ahead picture yourself standing in front of all these people saying what it is you are going to be talking about. Picture yourself from start to finish. Begin with walking up to the microphone or podium, all the way thru your speech, and then finally wrapping it up to a successful outcome.

2. Practice, practice, practice…do your speech ‘out loud’ over and over again. Now, do the same thing to a real live person..(just make sure they will be honest with you about your presentation). It’s been said: “Repetition is the mother of all skill”…it really is and you do it everyday in your real life, because you have done the same thing over and over again. You can just about overcome any fear you have by doing it over and over again. Sports are a good example…you see NBA players almost never miss a free throw, PGA players make 20 foot putts, NFL kickers put it thru the uprights. It’s not because they were born with some special skill…it’s because they practiced and practiced and practiced some more. The same holds true for Public Speaking.

3. Whip out the camcorder and tape yourself giving your speech. That way you will be able to see what the audience will be watching and listening to.

4. Get a grip…just before you give your speech, RELAX. Take some slow deep breaths and remind yourself that all these people are here to listen to what you have to say. They don’t know (or really care) what your personal life is like. Honestly, they could care less about anything going on in your personal life that YOU feel is adding to this anxiety.

The more prepared you are, the less anxiety you’ll experience, which in turn, will boost your confidence sky high. Then after you are all “said and done”…you will never look at a can of drano the same way again.

Mark Kessler is a 26 year radio broadcasting veteran and the current stadium voice of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, continues to have numerous Public Speaking engagements across America and is the owner of Public Speaking 411 – a comprehensive free resource on Public Speaking, offering tips and techniques and a wealth of information to help you overcome your fear of Public Speaking.

What you do all depends on what you’ve written as there are different laws for different areas of the writing professions. So since you are dealing with laws, the first thing you’re going to want to do is consult with an entertainment attorney. This is a lawyer who specializes in this area. This is where you have to decide whether or not you want to make a trade off. To get a really good and experienced attorney in entertainment and copyright law, you’re going to have to spend some big bucks. If you’re an up and coming writer, you may not have that much money and won’t be able to afford his services. You may have to settle for someone who doesn’t have as much experience. The trade off here is that someone with less experience is likely to miss something that a more experienced attorney is going to catch. The more complicated the contract, the easier it is for things to slip through the cracks. This is where you have to decide what is more important to you, saving a few bucks or getting the best representation possible.

While you’re looking for and getting an attorney you’re going to want to copyright your work. The copyright laws have changed dramatically over the years to make it easier for artists to get their material copyrighted. If you’re a songwriter you have two avenues to choose from. You can send your material with a small fee to the copyright office in Washington to get your song copyrighted, or you can simply mail a copy of the song either on tape, CD or sheet music to yourself and leave it unopened with the post mark clearly visible. The advantage of sending to Washington is that if a court battle ensues the evidence will probably hold more weight with a judge when rendering his decision. Other areas of writing have their own laws and procedures but they are all very similar to song writing.

One thing you should always do when dealing with a publisher who is interested in your work is to get everything in writing. Verbal contracts can stand up in a court of law but they are harder to win against than a written one. When you do get a contract, make sure you go over every page of it. If there is something you don’t understand, have your lawyer go over it.

One thing you should never do as a writer is sell your work outright. This is something that only a crooked publisher would ask you to do anyway. You could be selling away millions of dollars in royalties if your published work, which is now owned 100% by the publisher, takes off and is a big seller.

By simply following the above tips you’ll be protecting yourself against the possibility of losing a lifetime of earnings.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Writing Tips

Our family lived near the ocean and as a child I loved wandering off the
beach and meandering along the boardwalk. On the back of a faded
photo of a beach outing, my father had written in his unique calligraphic
style, “We removed 13 splinters from Suzy’s feet.” I immediately relived
being carried off in my father’s arms to the first aid station where I
ate enough Tootsie Rolls between wailings to overshadow any negative
aspects of the foot surgery. And I remembered what a terrific swimmer
he was.

I still have my older brother Bobby’s letter sent while he was waiting to
be shipped out from Okinawa to Japan during World War II. The enemy
was unyielding, the invasion force was huge and not many GIs were
expected to survive the first wave on to the beaches. But true to his
nature Bobby didn’t want us to worry. His letter was upbeat with funny
doodles. By the time we received the letter the U.S. had dropped atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki signaling the end of the war. My
brother went to Japan as an occupier, not an invader, and he lived to tell
his story. These intimate moments are the stuff of life that connect us to
each other; they give us a real sense of our own history. For our Iraq and
Afghanistan GI’s, email is a blessing, but without the smell of the
stationery.

Today we live in a no touch world. Send an electronic greeting card or
an email, instant message a friend with all those blah, blah acronyms
on to the next multi-task. We’re too busy for personal notes. It’s so much
easier to be personally disconnected, while remaining impersonally
connected to a faceless impersonal world. Not only has writing by hand
passed into history, sadly there is a definite disconnect between
humans in all areas of life. We complain about the rudeness in our
society, but it is precisely this disconnectnot having to look someone
in the eye or confront them on the phonewhich encourages the
rudeness. Never having to say I’m sorry is b-s. It lets us off the hook of
responsibility for our actions. We’re too busy to be civil; we’re on to the
next multitask.

Speaking of multi-tasking, I saw a commercially successful young
couple on television reveling in the fact that they each work 80 to 100
hours a week. They are so in love with their jobs they never take a
vacation; they’re never without their cell phones and Blackberries. On
trains, planes and automobiles, how many folks do you see that
are not electronically tethered or otherwise digitally occupied? Ask them
what color the flowers are and they cannot tell you.

Consider what humans would look like millennia from now if hearing
and seeing were the only senses that developed. We could “evolve” like
the subject of a science fiction story I read as a child. Absent arms and
legs, the protagonist was an enormous brain with tiny holes for ears and
eyes. That’s a bit of a stretch, but you get my drift. It’s easier to plug in
and zone out rather than deal with the demands of 21st century life.

Technology frees us to sit back and let someone else, or
something else, do what our arms, legs and brains are naturally
programmed to do. Unfortunately, while we are enjoying the remarkable
attributes technology brings into our lives, we are being blindsided by
the scum of society that use technology to lie, cheat, scam or lure our
kids into places we don’t want them to gofor example, pornography. In
an interview with serial killer Ted Bundy just before his execution he
stated that unless society deals with pornography, “lots of kids…are
going to be dead tomorrow.” Bundy told his interviewer that every killer
he knew through the prison grapevine had been influenced in childhood
by pornography. What a chilling thought.

Technology is moving faster than we can imagine. We can only hope
the decades to come will bring more planet friendly ways of living with
each other and our trains, planes and automobiles. Plugging in needn’t
mean zoning out. It’s our responsibility, our duty to be aware, be very
aware of what is happening around us. The more aware we are the
more apt we are to get the government we need and the quality of life
we deserve.

“Simplicity-Courage-Humor-Soul”®

A writer/editor, I work with one client at a time, beginner or pro, for a cost
effective solution to your writing and editing needs. Visit me at
http://www.susanscharfman.com

These interruptions need to be minimized, if possible. Find a place to put on the headphones or be in a quieter than normal environment to get started. Most likely it will mean going into work earlier than normal and snatching 30 minutes or more before the rest of the office arrives. Even one half hour will get you well on your way to being a productive writer.

For myself, I get up very early and head for my computer before the family is awake. I manage to write for an hour everyday before I get into the daily routine. Writing, however, does not always flow the way we need it to. Some days are more difficult than others. Thankfully there are ways to get the creative juices flowing.

If you are worried about the creative part, just remember that creativity is part of being a human and everyone can tap into it, if given the right circumstances.

To get the creative juices flowing, you should do some warm-up exercises. Not the jumping jack variety but ones that nimble the fingers and brain. Here are some simple warm-ups that will take under five minutes to complete.

Step one: Think of a problem that you need to resolve at work.

Step two: Write three words that describe the problem

Step three: Using the three words, and timing yourself for five minutes, write a flow of words that describe the problem in detail. Do not correct typing errors (you can do this by writing by hand as well), just keep writing until the three minutes are up.

By warming-up in this way, you are focusing on the subject and the three descriptors. Since you are familiar with the subject matter, the words start to flow. When you go back and read your work, you will be amazed at how well you did. Just remember, this is a first draft and you should never consider a flow the final work. Send it to an editor to put it in final proof format.

If you feel you are not warmed up enough after five minutes, go back and do another set but this time pick a subject at random with three descriptors and see how well you do. This only takes five minutes and you can write a page about anything within that time frame.

Now that you are all warmed-up, you are ready to start writing your pages

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”. Blueprints for Success – Networking: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprints for Success Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2006. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com.