The LuxMob Info Tags

Michigan - May 20, 2005 - MicroWorld Technologies, Inc. the
leading solutions provider in the area of Anti-virus and Content
security, has announced the launch of its new version of
MailScan Ver. 4.5, the antivirus and content security software
for mail servers.

The new version of MailScan provides additional security
features to allow users to monitor the TCP connections on their
systems, and use enhanced Anti-SPAM control to fight SPAM.

The new security feature interface displays all the active TCP
connections to your computer. It lists information about the
processes, protocols, local addresses, remote addresses and
Process Status on the computer. It allows you to identify any
unauthorized access to your mail server and take effective
counter measures to safeguard your system.

MailScan 4.5 provides the user with real time access to Relay
Blackhole List at <http://www.rbl.org> for IPs of known
Spammers. The site maintains active real-time Blackhole list
that you can use to verify if any IP that connects to your
MailServer is listed as that of a known Spammer, and take
appropriate action.

MailScan 4.5 is the next step in the continuing process to
provide added security to mail servers against virus attacks,
SPAM and other forms of security threats to networks via e-mail.

Mr Govind Rammurthy, CEO, MicroWorld Technologies, Inc. says
“MicroWorld’s MailScan 4.5 with its new features, is a step
forward in strengthening our products to ensure that corporate
gateways are well-protected from ever increasing and smart
Internet intruders. Continuous development has made MailScan one
of the most popular mail gateway security products available in
the markets today.”

During the past decade, I have noticed the prevalence of name changing, as I am sure you have also. Several of the organizations with which I am involved have chosen new and different names that they feel represent them and their missions more descriptively. Companies who were ready for a new start have changed names to reflect a new attitude, direction and/or focus. Some of these changes have made a positive difference, others have just caused confusion.

What we name ourselves, our businesses and/or the way we describe our services can make a huge impact. For example, I teach fitness classes and have discovered that the name of the class can determine how many people try it (of course, just like a business, once you attract them, you must make it so good they want to return). I started teaching a lower body callisthenic class which has turned into a huge success. Rather than naming it “Lower Body Workout,” I feel that the name we chose — “Pain in the Butt” — has helped to attract the large number of participants.

Decide what impression you want to have your name and/or the name of your company make. For example I know many independent professionals who use their own name followed by “and Associates.” This sounds serious and a bit conservative to me. Law firms that in the past have listed many names of the various partners are now shortening their names. A good example is Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue which became Jones Day at the start of 2003.

I chose the name “Creative Keys” for my company because I work in so many different creative areas it covers them. I like the word “Keys” because keys open doors and more, and because my initials are CK it seems easy for people to remember it. Although, I must admit that I sometimes get calls from people needing a set of keys to open a locked door.

When choosing a longer name, consider whether it would work as an acronym. People remember acronyms, especially if they are short and punchy. Our Ohio storytelling group goes by the name of O.O.P.S! which stands for the Ohio Order for the Preservation of Storytelling — a real mouthful. The fun part is that when I am giving a presentation or being introduced for any reason, I always have the emcee mention my involvement with the Ohio Order for the Preservation of Storytelling so that when I get up to the lectern, I say, “O.O.P.S!, that’s another story.” It is not only an attention getter, it is also easy to remember.

Think of all of the easy acronyms: IBM, UPS, FedEx, P & G, MS, to name a few. I do a lot of work with community development corporations and their names are long, so acronyms fit the bill. The Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition is known as CNDC for example. Once you have picked a name with a reasonable, easy-to-remember acronym, you will need to repeat it everywhere until others become used to it - just as they will with any name that is heard often.

Take your time and have fun picking a great name for your business. You want it to last a long while and be remembered easily.

Chris King is a free agent, professional speaker, storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, and fitness instructor. Chris has what she calls a “Portfolio Career” –many careers at the same time. If you wonder if you could handle and love having a “Portfolio Career” you will find a free assessment to take at http://www.creativekeys.net/portfoliocareertest.htm Sign up for her eclectic E-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri, at http://www.freelanceliving.com You will find Chris’ business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz

Alexander Neckam, an Augustinian monk living in the twelfth century, is the earliest English writer on fountains, statuary, and gardens. In his De Naturis Rerum, he describes the herbs, trees, and flowers growing in a noble garden, flanked by flowing water from statuary fountains. His list, however, can hardly apply literally to plants then flourishing in England, for the pomegranates, almonds, dates, oranges, nor lemons mentioned by him could have survived there out of doors, even with the abundant water supplied by the fountains. On the other hand, “the drowsy poppy,” the daffodil, and brank ursin (acanthus), peony, violet, rose, marigold, and lily, are among other flowers he cites, and were likely grown in many gardens, as they are also described in the oldest English herb diaries.

Battle Abbey, the first great monastery in England founded after the Norman Conquest, belonged to the Benedictine order, and was originally called “La Bataille.” William the Conqueror ordered it to be built on the site of the decisive conflict between the Norman and Anglo-Saxon armies, with a series of fountains to honor the ferocity of the battle. The high altar garden statue is said to mark the spot where, in the thick of the fiercest fighting, Harold, the king, was killed and his body found by his betrothed, after nightfall.

A step away from this historic spot, stretching between it and the restored outdoor fountains of the monastery, are some beautiful modern gardens enhanced with large statues laid out by the late Duchess of Cleveland. The stiff, geometrical patterns of the most modernistic statuary, bedded out with geraniums and edged with box, covering the edge of each fountain, produce an effect harmonious with the building, although they are utterly unlike the homely plantations formerly cultivated by the monks. Another attractive garden décor arrangement is the terrace walk of grass through the fountains, and beside the Abbey, with enclosures in the thick wall for seats, where, walking or sitting, one overlooks a wonderful stretch of woodlands and dancing fountains once traversed by William and his army.

Penned for garden-fountains.com by Robert Erickson. Garden-fountains.com is a full service shop for garden fountains, water features, and garden statuary.

Instant messaging (IM) has triumphed in the past 2-3 years among personal Internet users as well as within companies. There are now few school children not in touch with their friends via ICQ, MSN or AOL Messenger — but also stockbrokers, currency dealers, and the IT department are constantly chatting with their most important contacts via Messenger software.

According to a recent Gartner poll, instant messaging is used today in 70% of all companies. According to the Yankee Group, however, only 15-20% of companies operate a solution for IM administration. In the remaining 50%, IM constitutes a huge, rampant infrastructure usage that poses a severe security risk for firms. The same is true for the use of peer-to-peer services, e.g. music exchange services, which have also become pervasive in many organisations, but lack any administrative supervision whatsoever. These Peer to Peer services entail both security and legal risks.

Does my company need instant messaging?

IM is suitable for all areas where quick, immediate contact among a known and manageable group of people is crucial. As with SMS, short messages can be swapped and, for instance, a deal team can finalise and authorise the terms of an offer. Technicians helping a customer on location can send queries back to company headquarters via IM, and obtain immediate answers from customer support specialists, without their queries being buried under an avalanche of emails or suffer from constantly engaged phones. Stockbrokers can also instantly swap the latest market rumours via IM and act upon what they learn.

In companies with more complex and clearly defined workflows and processes, where flexible decision-making and coordination timed to the minute play a lesser role, it is questionable whether instant messaging is beneficial. Private chat sessions, and the constant distraction from larger tasks by incoming instant messages, can bring about a drop in productivity. A derogatory comment made by IM can be just as much of a legal problem as one made by email so there could also be exposure to potential litigation.

However, what is decisive is not the question of whether your company needs IM, as much as the answer that your company very probably already has IM without your knowledge.

If instant messaging has already taken root in a company and is popular, where’s the problem?

Speaking technically, instant messaging tools, similar to peer-to-peer exchanges, function as ‘wild’, non-standard protocols, which mount on HTTP or HTTPS protocols. They are capable of transferring not just active technologies such as scripts and macros but also all kinds of data attachments (word files, zip archives, etc), and thus can transfer all currently known carriers of viruses and worms. Content exchanged via peer-to-peer services also entail a considerable legal risk. A study of Gnutella P2P traffic showed that 47% of requests related to pornography and 97% infringed existing copyright. It is also evident that such content is often infected with viruses. Thus instant messaging and peer-to-peer exchanges pose threats every bit as dangerous as the flow of data into the company from email or web. In contrast, however, IM data flow cannot be controlled by firewalls, simple web filters and URL blockers.

Is my company helpless in the face of instant messaging?

No — the use of special IM and P2P filters allows instant messaging to benefit the company while controlling the security risks that it involves. In order to implement a uniform security policy simply and consistently, the IM filter should preferably be part of a comprehensive, integrated Content Security Management Suite. This enables company, group and user specific configuration of the security profile, and its consistent application to the entire data flow and all standard and ‘wild’ application protocols. A typical ‘policy’ could, for instance, block all IM clients who send requests to unauthorised, public messaging servers, and permit requests only to the company’s own messaging server(s).

It only remains to ask: What are others doing and why do I have to act?

As was also the case with the wave of spam, IM-connected security problems first occurred in the USA. As a result, for instance, Sarbanes Oxley made mandatory the permanent monitoring and protocolling of instant message traffic in all US financial institutions. In current US tenders for content security solutions, the filtering of instant message data flows is a standard requirement. US companies’ were triggered into action by very real breaches of security. Instead of waiting for the wave to break here as it did in the USA, companies in this country should take advantage of the ‘early warning system’ and have their content filtering systems upgraded now – not least because the cost of improving IT security is more than offset by the ensuing increase in productivity.

http://www.SecurityPark.net - The leading online News portal for the Security industry.

There is always a lot of confusion over how to do a proper weight workout so I will try to explain what I think is important. There are five parts to your workout; the warm-up, stretching, weight workout, cool down, and post workout meal.

First when you walk into the gym or basement it is always important to warm up and then stretch. If you think about how you are doing a workout and what kind of stress you are putting on your muscles then you have to be aware of how if they are not warm they can stretch or rip…this is not a good thing.

To do a proper warm up you should probably use all of your muscle groups. Do not warm-up by doing hard cardio for a half hour as this will tire you out for your weight workout. For a warm-up the best machine I have found is an elliptical trainer. An elliptical trainer will allow you to use all of your muscles, is low impact and forces you to focus a little on your balance so you can get focused on what the workout will bring. Only do your muscle warm-up for about 5 to 10 minutes and not at a high intensity but rather medium intensity so you only break a little sweat and get your muscles warm.

Next get water and do some stretching. I am in favor of stretching all of my muscles before a workout not just the muscles that I will be training that day. Find some good stretches and spend another 5 to 10 minutes stretching and focusing on your breathing, you want to be sure to have good oxygen in your system during your weight workout so that you always feel that you energy is up.

Next get a drink again and the start your weight workout. I will not delve into the sets and reps as that can be covered better by itself. During your workout though make sure that you are waiting one to two minutes between sets and taking in water whenever necessary. Your weight lifting portion of your workout should take about 40-60 minutes. To short a workout and you will not have time to really hit your muscles hard enough but at the other extreme if you workout too long you will have to little energy at the end of your workout and you also risk not being able to recover between workouts.

After you finish your weight workout it is a good idea to stretch again as stretching will allow the muscles to stop cramping, increase blood flow throughout the muscle and relax you before you get back into the car. In the past I found that if I did not stretch after my workout then my arms would be shaking when I got behind the wheel of the car to go home (not much better when I got on a bike instead).

It is important to remember that you do not make your gains in the gym; you make strength and mass gains while your body recovers with proper rest and exercise. One of the critical things that you can do diet wise after your workout is to take in lots of carbohydrates to replenish the energy lost during the workout. Some people take Creatine or a Gatorade/sugar drink which can be expensive but if you are trying to replenish your carbs the best thing to take is some sugar in water. Kool aid would be good if you could drink enough but a potato or rice are not good as they will take to long for your body to be able to use the sugar.

About an hour after your workout you can take in some protein, some people try to get in the protein even earlier with some people trying to get in a double sized meal within an hour of the end of the workout. I on the other hand usually can not stomach a large heavy meal that quickly after a workout and am not rich enough to take in a $5 energy drink after every workout.

Follow these simple workouts and you will get better results, have better workouts, recover better, and have a better, healthier time in the gym.

Bill Nadraszky is a lifelong fitness nut. His fitness ramblings can be found at http://www.nadraszky.com/fitness and his fitness site is found at http://health-fitness.xptechsupport.com

Choosing a good Mesothelioma Attorney or Lawyer is important, as they will be able to determine the appropriate level of compensation and other important matters relating specifically to Mesothelioma litigation.

Most Mesothelioma Attorneys and Lawyers offer free consultations and can provide you with information regarding other avenues of support. Mesothelioma Attorneys and Lawyers will also have information about personal injury and wrongful death litigation.

If you, or someone you know has been diagnosed with Mesothelioma, finding the right Mesthelioma Attorney, or Lawyer is essential. Winning your case against personal injury, or wrongful death, as a result of Mesothelioma Cancer, can help you in the recovery process.

Often in cases of Mesothelioma Cancer, patients are not aware of their condition until it is at an advanced stage. It is at this stage that it is essential to seek a doctor’s advice and to seek legal help.

Mesothelioma Cancer is mainly caused through exposure to an Asbestos related substance and this exposure most likely occurred, through non-disclosure by companies, who used an Asbestos related substance.

Your Mesothelioma Attorney, or Lawyer can discuss with you the types of evidence and documentation that might be required in order to pursue litigation. Mesothelioma Attorneys, or Lawyers will take care of all the paperwork and phone calling that might need to be done.

Most Mesothelioma Attorneys, or Lawyers are honest, reliable and compassionate about helping people with Mesothelioma Cancer. This is one factor that helps Mesothelioma Attorneys and Lawyers win their Mesothelioma litigation.

Some of the other reasons that Mesothelioma Attorneys and Lawyer win their Mesothelioma litigation is through their highly qualified skills and education on the topic of Mesothelioma Cancer and its related causes.

It is important that everyone knows their rights in relation to injury and wrongful death and pursues adequate measures to ensure that others are not affected by similar incidents in the future. By pursuing your own, or your loved one’s, Mesothelioma litigation you are not only helping yourself, or your loved one, you are helping others.

If you, or someone you know, has been exposed to an Asbestos related substance in the past, you should be aware of, and look for, the following symptoms; shortness of breath, chest pain, abdominal pain, fever, or other related immune deficiency illnesses.

If you, or someone you know, shows any of these symptoms, you should first contact your, or their, doctor to obtain a proper diagnosis, followed by a prognosis and then contact your, or their, nearest Mesothelioma Attorney, or Lawyer.

About the Author

Learn more about mesothelioma treatment and asbestos litigation go here: http://www.mesothelioma-treatment-center.com/mesothelioma-lawyer-attorney.htm

So, you have a great product or service, yet your web site is not getting the high rankings and traffic you desire from the top search engines like Google and MSN Search.

You’re not alone. This scenario is playing out all across the web, yet there is a simple solution to the problem. Publicity. Publicity is the art of gaining exposure for your web site, product, or service with press releases, articles, and other promotional methods.

A consistent publicity campaign can get you links from some of the best web sites on the Net. These links provide your web site with “Link Popularity” and the Google PageRank numbers you need for high search engine ranking and traffic. Plus, the links themselves can bring you a significant about of targeted traffic.

The Top 5 Tips for Getting Publicity (and Links)

Here are a few of my tips for getting publicity and links on the web sites, AND getting news stories and articles in the newspapers, magazines and Internet radio show sites.

TIP #1: Be Consistent - Stick With It For The Long-Haul

For maximum results, use public relations as a long-term awareness and link-building campaign. This will allow your messages to be delivered to the appropriate audience and generate visibility, traffic and sales for you.

The biggest mistake I see businesses making with publicity, is they’re not consistent at all, only sticking with it for 1, 2, or 3 months. It pays to be consistent is because sometimes you’ll send out a press release and get no response back, no publicity, nothing… In fact, this is when most people quit, when they should realize that publicity is a “numbers game” that generates exposure over the long-run if they would just stick with it.

Plus, if you know where to submit your articles and send your press releases, each one that you write can generate 3-20 or more new publicity hits and new links to your web site! So, send something to the media at least every month, if not every week or two. Stay on track by scheduling your articles and news releases on your marketing calendar.

TIP #2: Offer Great News Ideas and Quality Articles

To maximize your results, don’t send corporate “flack” to the media. “Flack” is blatant advertising disguised as a press release. Instead of wasting the media’s time, be their ally by sending them real news and quality articles that help their audience.

Don’t think you have enough time or ideas for writing articles and press releases? You probably already have the content for 12 press releases or articles without having to write a bunch of new content.

Where is this “hidden” content that’s already written? It’s the content on your web site, and in your white papers, and other marketing materials. Simply “repurpose” and edit this content into announcements, articles, press releases, tip sheets, and other publicity materials.

TIP #3: Expand Your Publicity Campaign By Building A Media List

In the publicity game, your greatest assets are your contacts. Since you know your ideal customer, you can target the web sites, media, and publications that your customers use to get their news and information. Your media list should consist of the following types of media…

• Industry-specific web sites, and e-newsletters

• Internet blogs, discussion forums and discussion lists

• Article syndicators

• Trade publications

• Newspapers

• Magazines

• Radio & TV shows

TIP #4: Distribute Via E-Mail

A 2003 study by the Meta Group revealed that approximately 80% of business people say their e-mail is more valuable than the phone. This applies to media professionals as well, so send your press releases and articles via e-mail. E-mail is f*ree and easy to use, but adhere to these quidelines for e-mail press releases…

• Introduce yourself via e-mail to the media professionals on your list and start building a relationship.

• Use a compelling subject line that is personalized by including their first name.

• Never ever send attachments

• Be sure to format your e-mails in ASCII text file with hard returns at 65 characters. (Use Microsoft NotePad)

• Following up via the telephone will greatly increase your results, but never ask “did you receive my press release?” (The media hate this question since they get hundreds of press releases a day!)

TIP #5: Post Your Articles On Your Web Site And E-Mail Newsletter

Content is King on the Internet, and the search engines love web sites with great niched content. Your articles and news releases are a perfect source of keyword rich text that’s tasty “spider food” for the search engine crawlers. So, post your articles and press releases on your web site to increase your search engine traffic.

But don’t stop there. Send them to your e-mail newsletter subscriber list, you never know who might be on your list who will love your article and link to it!

CONCLUSION:

As the great P.T. Barnum once said… “Without publicity a terrible thing happens… nothing!” Publicity is a great way to build your web site links, visibility, traffic and sales. Use these tips to maximize your publicity campaign’s success.

Promote! Promote! Promote!

About The Author

Article by Matt Hockin, of Interactive Marketing, Inc.

Interactive Marketing, Inc. assists business owners with increasing their growth and profits with cost-effective, high-ROI sales and marketing strategies.

http://www.interactivemarketinginc.com/

The English Vowel SOUNDS

Many learners of English have a distinct accent because they pronounce English with the vowels of their language. They commit this error because the English vowels are “something like” the vowel sounds of their native language, but they are not the same!

It is not enough to listen to radio and TV. Most people will only hear the sounds of their native language and will not learn how to pronounce the different sounds of a new language such as English.

It is useful to use a course with recordings of the language you are learning. A good one - and also economical - can be found at http://www.bookslibros.com/charlesieENGLISH.htm. A larger list of resopurces can be found in: http://www.goodaccent.com/accentbooks.htm

Let’s look at the “pure” vowels that are present in many languages. They are called pure because they have fixed sound, like that of a note of well-tuned musical instrument. These vowels are formed with no interference by the lips, teeth or tongue. It is important to remember that when we speak of the vowels a, e, i, o, u, we are speaking of the vowel sounds, not of the lettersof the alphabet. This is very important to remember in English because the same letter often represents a different sound in the English spelling. We will indicate the sounds by enclosing them in brackets: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, and the letters in quotes: “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”.

In the following section, you can get a quick look at the English vowels that sound “something like” the vowel sounds represented by the letters “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u” in many languages. In the rest of the book, we will look at them with more detail and you will also be able to listen to them pronounced. (For the book but only available in Spanish see: http://www.bookslibros.com/TuCD.htm) We will also look at the other English vowel sounds that are peculiar to English and are NOT found in most other languages.

The following sounds of English are similar (not the same!) to the sounds /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ in your language.

· The English vowel of the word pot is pronounced like the letter “a” in many languages. Learn once and for all that in some words the letter “o” is pronounced like the “a” in your language! That’s just how it is. If you don’t like it, you won’t change the language. It is better to work at your pronunciation from the very beginning.

· The English “e” in the word May.
· The English “i” in the word feet.
· The English “o” in the word goal .
· The English “u” in the word moon

We will start with the five vowel sounds as represented by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. These are the pure vowel sounds that are present in English just as in many other languages.

The first pure vowel SOUND in English (represented by the letter “a” in most languages) is represented by the letter “o” In English. We repeat: you just have to get used to this. For example the English word lot is pronounced as if it were lat in other languages.

You open your mouth wide when you make this sound. This sound show up in the words father, car, top, pot and is the same sound as the Spanish words padre, carro, tapa, pata, or the German Vater, achtung, machen, etc.

This sound is a form of the English vowel sound /o/ (the “short o”) and not of the /a/. Therefore the “o” stands for this sound more often than the “a”. To avoid confusion it is good to use a dictionary that has the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet, the IPA.

Sure, it is always better to listen to a native speaker but sometimes you don’t have one around. For example, when you look up a word in the dictionary you will know how to pronounce it if the dictionary has the IPA symbols.

Get a good dictionary that uses the IPA like the “Longmans Basic Dictionary of American English” or the excellent “Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners” by cutting the appropriate following long URL address and pasting it in your browser:

For the Longmans: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0582332516/ref=ase_launionbookslibr

For the Collins: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0007102011/ref=ase_launionbookslibr

For more on this topic, see: http://www.inglesparalatinos.com

Let’s go on to the other vowels /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ or rather the sounds in English that are represented by these letters.

These sounds in English are not “pure”, as in many other languages, because almost they always end with another sound. They end up with a slight “i” or “u” sound according to which vowel it is. We will see this in more detail. Some teachers say that they have a little “tail” at the end.

If you pronounce the /e/ sound in English without the little “tail” at the end, you will not be pronouncing this sound correctly.

In the musical My Fair Lady, the professor tries to teach the pronunciation of the English /e/ with the phrase, “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain”.

Your mouth is stretched to the sides when you make the /i/ sound. Remember this /i/ sound is seldom spelled with the letter “i” in English.

There is very little “tail” after the sound of the /i/ in English in words such as feet, pea.However, the /i/ is slightly longer than in other languages. So you should exaggerate it and you will be almost right.

If you pronounce the vowel /o/ of the word phone (telephone) the same as the sounds son or ton in many languages (without the “tail”) you will be speaking with a marked accent. The /o/ sound in English is not pure. You have to finish the vowel with the “tail” of a little /u/ sound.

You have to feel your lips move as you pronounce the English /o/. They don’t remain still as in other languages. As you finish the “o” sound your lips make a round shape as if you giving a kiss.

Similarly to the /i/ sound, there is very little “tail” after the English /u/ sound.
You can have a rather good pronunciation by just lengthening the vowel.

Your lips are rounded when you make the /u/ sound.

Summary of the English Vowels

The five basic vowel sounds of many languages are present in English but with the following observations:

1. The vowel that is represented by the letter “a” in many languages, more often appears in words with “o”. This sound is pronounced without change in English. However, the other vowels, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, all are pronounced in a specifically English manner. /e/ and /o/ have marked “tails”. The /i/ ends up in an /i/ sound. And the /o/ finishes with a /u/ sound. The /i/ /u/ do not have tails, but they are lengthened.

2. English spelling has very little to do with the sounds it represents. Or to put in another way, English is not pronounced the way it is spelled.

The /a/ sound is the vowel sound of the English word pot.
The /e/ sound (always with the “tail”) can be spelled many ways: may, weigh, they.

The sound /i/ (a little lengthened) is used in many different ways: feet, pea, field, receive.

The sound /o/ (with its /u/ tail) is represented in the following ways: loan, foe, though, blow, owe.

The sound /u/ (a little lengthened) shows up under in unexpected ways in the English words moon and through.

Strange spelling in English! Right? But the spelling in another question! We will get to it. For the moment, just concentrate on the pronunciation.

One way to remember is to think of how you shape your moth when you speak English. Try to imagine that you are smiling when you finish a word that ends with the /i/ sound. When you finish the word May you stretch your lips.

Similarly, make the effort to think of giving a kiss when you finish a word that ends with the /u/ sound. You finish the sound of the /o/ in the word go by puckering your lips as if you were going to blow out a candle or give a kiss.

Don’t forget! We have been talking of the vowel sounds, not the letters of the alphabet that sometimes represent them. The word toe has the same /o/ sound as the words go, flow, though, and beau. We’ll look at spelling a little more in other parts of the book, “Leer Es Poder” en http://www.bookslibros.com/muestra/muestra_index.htm.

Meanwhile if you read Spanish you can find pages on Ortografía and Pronunciación in http:/www.inglesparalatinos.com. You can also get our boletín in Spanish by going to: http://www.eListas.net/lista/leerespoder/alta

Frank Gerace Ph.D has lived and worked in Latin America on Educational and Communication Projects. He currently teaches English in New York City at La Guardia College/CUNY. He invites parents interested in helping their kids learn Spanish to visit him at: www.bookslibros.com/SpanishForNinos.htm.

Clank clank clank! It should bring a smile to remember those old days when we had to use a typewriter to type business letters and sales correspondence. Overnight, it seems, our typewriters morphed into bullet-speed word processors. Business networking tools have also evolved in recent years to offer us new and improved opportunities to greet and meet new prospects, keep in touch with clients, and to organize our contact lists. Let’s take a look at some of these new and widely used networking tools

A computer is a must for most businesses. Specialized contact management programs assist in several networking areas making prospecting and contact follow up easier. Programs such as ACT!, Goldmine, Maximizer, and Outlook have various features that stores and organizes our contact’s records and can help organize our networking schedules. Personally, I have used ACT! faithfully for the last seven years in business. I simply load the networking contact’s business card information into the ACT! program once I return from a networking event. The next time I need to send that contact a letter or make a call, their contact information instantly appears on my computer screen.

Other tools used by the new-age networker include PDAs- Personal Digital Assistants such as Palm devices. Use these tools to review saved notes containing detailed information about people you network with. It is possible to synchronize the notes and contact records that are stored in some PDAs with the contact software used in your desktop computer. An example would be ACT! This program will update your PDA with the last records installed and the PDA will do the same for your computer It’s as simple as a click of a button! Imagine how you can tighten a relationship by meeting a contact who has forgotten your name, however, with the aid of a PDA, you quickly search for that contact’s name and for a detailed note about who they are. It is also possible to set appointments and check schedules instantly at a networking event with the help of a PDA.

No matter how many space-age gadgets and tools we use to help with our networking, we should be very clear about the significance of one tool in particular. This tool is called trust and it is the core and foundation of networking. Use all of your networking tools to help build trust because without trust, there is really no relationship at all.

Discover and embrace today’s tools that are designed to help networkers become more successful. Use these tools to gain trust so that you can get the most from all of your networking activities!

Mark McGregor is a trainer and consultant for North American corporations and associations. He replaces stress with success. E-mail Mark at mark@KeynoteTrainer.com now for his F+R+E+E electronic newsletter on how to gain more publicity with less stress.. Contract Mark at http://www.KeynoteTrainer.com and phone (905) 297.0805.

You know the procedure by now, you get out of bed, walk downstairs grab a cup of coffee and go and look for what you have in your mail box, the majority of us know that its usually filled with fliers and mailings offering the next best interest rate for home loans….but we usually never even bother to go further by opening the envelope to the details inside.

But! What if on the front it said “What did you neighbors pay for their house? See inside for details..” would you be tempted? I have to put my hands up and say “Yes” I would not because I’m a nosey neighbor but I’d be curious to know what “so and so” down the street sold their house for. Well that’s the new technique you may find from now on if a company called “Donania” has anything to do with it.

Domania is now allowing lenders of home loans access to their data base of home pricing for use in their direct mailings. What does that mean to you, well now instead of just receiving a generic letter with just an interest rate on the front (they found a very poor opening rate for this type of mailing…We all know, most if not all of these offer’s went straight into your trash can.) you now receive a more targeted offer as the lender can quote the house prices in your street, they’ve also found by doing this type of mailing that they now have more people enquiring about home equity loans who never had before, when they realize how much extra equity they now have in their home.

So don’t be surprised to find one in your mail box tomorrow….. and by the way would you be tempted to open it??? be honest… I thought so!

For more information on home equity loans, how to avoid home equity loan scams and how to protect yourself. visit www.allabouthomeequity.com/ for details. Check out our home equity blog at www.allabouthomeequity.com/wordpress-2.0.2/wordpress/