Sunday, June 28, 2009

The weeks Box office Status

 

1. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” ($201.2 million)
2. “The Proposal” ($18.5 million)
3. “The Hangover” ($17.2 million)
4. “My Sister’s Keeper” ($12 million)
5. “Up” ($13 million)

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is now the proud holder of a five-day box office record of $201.2 million, but Optimus Prime still comes in behind Batman. Poor reviews aren’t keeping audiences away from the latest Michael Bay spectacle, which has continued to exceed expectations and break records every day that it’s in theaters.

“Transformers” had a Saturday haul of $39.5 million, and made an estimated $112 million just this weekend. Combined with its record-breaking Wednesday of $60.6 million, that’s enough to snag it the record of having the second best five-day haul, right behind “The Dark Knight” and its $203.8 million record. The numbers are pretty close though, and don’t be surprised if you hear about a Sunday night finish that knocks “The Dark Knight” down from its spot in the movie history books.

Spurred on by “Transformers,” the rest of the box office did pretty solid business. “The Proposal” benefited from being a popular film without giant robots, holding onto #2 with $18.5 million, bringing it to a tidy $69 million in wedding presents so far. “The Hangover” settled at #3 with $17.3 million, and it hasn’t quite cracked the $200 million glass ceiling set by blockbusters like “Star Trek” and “Up.” The Todd Philips’ comedy has grossed $183.2 million so far, and if it holds steady with these $20 million weekends, it’ll probably join that exclusive $200 million club.

“My Sister’s Keeper” is being considered a bit of a flop. The family drama debuted at #4 with a thin $12 million, meeting only the lowest expectations for New Line/Warner Bros. While studios were wise to offer some counter-programming, would a story about a sick child really have done well in the summer blockbuster season? How could Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin have taken on any of summer’s heroes, let alone the Autobots of “Transformers”?

You can watch free Movies online, You can see movies online.

Michael’s father Joe Jackson appears at BET awards

There was an unexpected but most welcome figure on the red carpet of Los Angeles's Shrine Auditorium for Sunday night's BET Awards: Michael Jackson's father, Joe Jackson.
Sporting a black hat, sunglasses and a dark suit – and set to make an appearance onstage during the three-hour ceremony – the patriarch of the Jackson family told about Michael: "I wish the world had recognized him when he was living. Right now, he's bigger than ever. But I wish he was here to see all this, to hear all this."
The memory of Michael dominated the gala. Host Jamie Foxx made his entrance in a red, leather "Billie Jean" jacket. "No need to be sad. We want to celebrate this black man," said Foxx. "We gonna go through all of Michael Jackson."
The host closed his opening monologue with his rendition of Jackson's signature Moonwalk. "I hope I can make it," said Foxx, adding that it was his first attempt at the fancy footwork since 1983.
Those also scheduled to tip their hats to Michael include Beyoncé, Ne-Yo, Maxwell and Bobby Brown, set to reunite with New Edition to perform a Jackson 5 medley.
Alicia Keys and Wyclef Jean are to receive Humanitarian Awards. Early in the ceremony, LeBron James, picking up his best male athlete trophy, told the crowd, "My heart and prayers go out to the whole Jackson family. What they did for us ... was amazing."

You can watch TV series and watch TV shows online

Plan for your emergencies

The importance of emergency funds has been stressed from time again. A typical popular financial advice suggests that one has to store 3-6 months worth of financial expenses.

More than the emergency fund, what’s important is the emergency plan. If do you have money is the first question, do you have access to that money an important one. So how do you plan for the emergencies? Here are some pointers.

• Have some instant cash at home: This exactly means, have some cash under your mattress. This means that you need access to cash right away for emergencies that do not give you time to stop at the cash machines. We are here talking about paper money. We are not referring to valuables like Gold which might be worth a million bucks but has no value during emergencies.
• Liquid Account: This is the next level of emergency fund. Do not lock all your money into deposits and investments. Have some liquid cash left for emergency and fast withdrawal.
• Credit: Credit cards could be a great savior during emergencies. But it’s not advisable to use them other than real bad emergencies. Make sure you don’t fall into credit card traps.
• Family and friends: Have a good network of family and friends whom you can resort to in case of emergencies. The thumb rule is if you have taken good care of the universe around you, the universe will return the favor when you are in need. Friends and family can provide powerful assistance, but if you don’t need it, don’t take it.

One needs to learn to reduce expenses in the time of emergencies. Proper money management is important during emergencies. You need learn to budget. Budget management is an integral part. You can take help of online money management in this regard.

How to choose a graduations school - some tips

The choice about your graduation school is a critical one. It can determine the direction of your career. Graduate study imparts students with a host of skills that are transferrable to a variety of positions and fields. You should be careful in choosing a graduation schools that offer strength, quality, commitment to supporting its students. So when you are choosing a graduation school, you should consider more than the contents of a course catalog or a student’s handbook.
Here are some tips that you can keep in mind.
• Other than the course catalog, you need to collect University’s catalog, department publication. These handbooks can be more easily kept current, and they may also provide useful information on local resources and culture.
• How many courses are required to complete the degree? What exams are required, and when must they be completed? Is there a thesis option for the MA? What additional qualifications (e.g., languages) are needed? What are the residency requirements?
• How often are the courses listed in the catalog offered? How many are typically offered each semester? Is the curriculum likely to change in the next two years? Which faculty members will be on leave in the next two years? Are there faculty members who are regularly gone? How frequently are there visiting scholars in the department?
• Are all graduate courses open to all students in the department, or are there restrictions? Can you take graduate courses in other departments, to pursue interdisciplinary interests? Must you take a certain number of courses in your own department each semester?
• Once you have entered a program, you should meet with an adviser or faculty member as soon as possible to receive a comprehensive description of your program, including course requirements, exams, deadlines, and expectations for the thesis or dissertation. You should receive a calendar outlining a typical graduate program.
• Consider fully the costs of graduate school and plan carefully, beyond the first year. Graduate student support falls into many categories, from tuition waivers and student employment to dissertation grants. Research into all these.
• You can also check on teaching assistantship. What are the responsibilities of a teaching assistant in the department? What is the average load for a teaching assistant? What is the annual stipend awarded for teaching? Does it include a tuition waiver? Does it include student fees? Do graduate students pay union dues or have other union responsibilities? Does the department award any book allowances? You can check on these points.
• What career placement services are available to graduate students? Do the department and career placement center help you pursue teaching positions at different kinds of institutions? You also need to take into account the percentage of the department's graduate students who were on the job market in the last three to five years and look into what positions they are in right now.
Graduate schools are training grounds for careers both within and beyond academia. Departments and institutions make available and support different kinds of opportunities for practicing the skills necessary for future success. It’s important that as students you make best use of the opportunities and resources given to you. If you fare well in your graduation, you can earn a good job and look at a best online MBA program or an online MBA program alongside with a job.

Sales Lead Management Association Declares October 11-17, 2009 to be National Sales Lead Management Week

June 10, 2009--Los Angeles, CA--James W. Obermayer, co-founder of the Sales Lead Management Association, announced today that SLMA has declared the week of Oct 11-17, 2009 as National Sales Leads Management Week Obermayer stated, “In light of the millions of inquiries which are the result of billions of marketing dollars spent on marketing, this week will be dedicated to the subject of properly managing sales leads.”
SLMA co-founder Mark L. Friedman urges the press to focus on how companies manage sales leads. “This should be a time of on-line seminars and articles, to discuss how inquiries and ROI are measured. If they can make a play and a movie about sales leads (Glengarry Glen Ross) I am sure it is of interest to business leaders.”

Support for National Sales Leads Management Week
Dan McDade, President of, PointClear said “If it has been tough to measure the value of the marketing spend and the percentage of leads accepted and closed is lower than it should be and investments in marketing automation have not paid off, take advantage of “National Sales Lead Management Week” to fix those problems. It starts with stopping unproven marketing programs that resulted in mediocre outcomes. It means closing the loop on leads passed to sales by enforcing pass back or “no lead left behind” efforts that will shed bright light on the lack of lead traction.”
Jim LaBelle, the President of, LEADTRACK said: “The emphasis this week should be to encourage marketing and sales management to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing investments. The recession is not the time to cut back, but to focus our efforts to optimize every precious sales inquiry. The common issue is the lack of a process to manage sales inquiries and measure marketing investments. Without a process it is impossible to measure how the combined effort of sales and marketing contributes to the bottom line.”

SLMA Challenges Corporations
The Sales Lead Management Association challenges marketing and sales officers to create events around lead management. Ideas on how to bring attention to this subject appear on the SLMA website: www.salesleadmgmtassn.com
About the Sales Lead Management Association
The SLMA is an association with the mission of helping companies becomes successful in the critical business process of Managing Sales Leads

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Importance of digital archiving

21st century is aptly called the digital world. Vast majority of the new created materials or information are all digital. As a writer types his thoughts into the digital format, a digital book published which is sold and circulated digitally. Our everyday newspaper is slowly transforming into a epaper medium. Even our personal photos are shot, preserved and circulated digitally over the internet. With digital data and digital information swarming into our everyday life, the biggest challenge today is to maintain these digital objects.

The belief that digital objects can be managed with the same methodologies developed over the years for physical objects is misconstrued. While digital objects are easier to copy, transfer and re-package, they present new risks and challenges, and are not inherently easier to preserve, or give access to, over the long term.
"Digital archiving" is defined as the long-term storage, preservation and access to information that is "born digital" (created and disseminated primarily in electronic form) or for which the digital version is considered to be the primary archive. The concept of digital archiving, digital document solutions and digital publishing solutions are gaining lot of momentum in this digital age, where litigation issues and confirming to industry standards are very critical.

Challenges and issues regarding the long-term viability of and access to digital collections are common to all collecting domains. In doing so, the wider society benefits by being assured that digital records:
• are preserved and protected
• are accessible over the long term
• hold governments and organizations accountable
• meet legal obligations relating to the records.

Patenting and translation

Internet has grown beyond boundaries, languages. It has shortened the intellectual distance between countries and has given rise to the concept of globalization. With the growth of internt, worldwide patent information has also become easily accessible. Since patents are granted for innovations, patents reflect economic growth of a country by illustrating creative activities and displaying the knowledge power of that particular country or region. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to promoting an international intellectual property system, asserts that patent activities reflect up-to-date changes of worldwide industries, and as a consequence, good-quality information is essential in the understanding of current developments (WIPO, 2007h).

With the number of worldwide patent filings on the rise, there is a growing demand for patent translations in order for the patents to be filed in foreign patent systems for patent right protection and international visibility. The similarity between patents and translations is that both contribute to internationalization by the increasing number of worldwide patent filings and the increasing use of international patent systems (Tsai, 2007) such as Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). PCT is a 'simpler, easier, and more cost-effective' (WIPO, 2006b, p. 3) way by filing one international patent in one language. The language used in the application should be acceptable to the receiving office or else translations of the application documents should be provided.

Translating patent documents into one of the publication languages enhances the effectiveness of processing applications in both the international and national phases. You can use language translation software or automated translation program The improved search environments enable patent Offices and International Searching Authorities to easily access patent documentations for patentability evaluation of the invention. Translations of patent application documents further foster visibility by disseminating information to a wider readership throughout the world. The published international application thus serves as both a legal document that specifies rights protected in the Contracting States, and an information source that introduces new technology (Tsai, 2008).

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Online MBA makes sense now

The slowdown can be hard on your career plans and your education plan. Higher education makes your ‘recession proof’. It’s probably the best time to opt for an online MBA degree program.
Recession or the downturn is certainly not here to stay. Do you remember the dot-com collapse? People who lost their jobs took the opportunity to go back to school, retrain, and to broaden their skills. Without exception, people who went through those tough times look back and say that it was, in reality, a great motivator. They diversified their skills and had an opportunity to gain self-confidence, new experience, and a belief in their own abilities. So remember
• Having a degree means more money especially when the economy bounces back.
• Higher levels of education means less unemployment
• You might even impress your boss with your best online MBA program, and he might want to take you back.
• Taking courses prepares you for the future and helps you feel in control of your destiny.
Paying for college and budgeting time both require solid, responsible planning. Your family members will see that you make your education a priority. Perhaps you have to sacrifice now, but it will pay off with big dividends in the future.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Interesting tips to decorate your baby room

As you are anxious expecting your baby, you can make the wait exciting by decorating your baby’s room. You can start off a little early so that you can research well into what will fit your baby’s nursery the best. Here are some tips.
• If you know the sex of the baby, you could go with pink or blue accordingly for the nursery, but if you are not sure about your baby’s sex, its better to go with neutral colors or themes like cartoon characters, animal theme etc.
• Make you don’t keep any tiny pieces or small parts in the room. Make the room totally baby proof. Remember your baby will ultimately come in contact with everything in the room.
• Beddings are also another item that you'll have to choose very carefully. Your baby will spend a lot of time exposed to the material of the bedding, so hypoallergenic and antibacterial properties are a big plus. Choose baby toys that are made of good plastic.
• Your little one won't be staying little forever, so plan your nursery for your baby's development eight to ten years down the road. That means putting in a lot of storage compartments, leaving generous amounts of room and refraining from installing anything that's too permanent.
• Today’s brands of eco-friendly furniture, designer accessories and custom made bedding may not be visually attractive; buy may help your baby’s health. By using eco friendly furniture, you can avoid toxic chemicals that can lead to allergies or skin irritation. You can try organic home decor products.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Father’s Day gift Ideas

An interesting revelation was made during a student’s research about Mothers day and Fathers day. It was found that mother’s day celebrations lasted for about two hours longer than father’s day celebrations. Yet mothers were less satisfied than the fathers about the celebrations. This simply reveals that fathers are easy to satisfy than the mothers.

Other findings of the research were

· in activities and the giving of gifts, families underscored the traditional notions of mothers as nurturers and fathers as providers, even when both parents work outside the home and advocate an equal division of domestic labor

· most of the ways Mother's Day is celebrated—taking Mom out to dinner, releasing her from household chores for the day, and visiting other family members—are tied to the traditional notions of mothers as parents and nurturers

· Fathers, on the other hand, were less likely to be taken out to dinner or to visit family, and their gifts revolved around either work—neckties—or individualistic personal pursuits—golf clubs and fishing rods

· Disappointment was more common among mothers than fathers, with the cause usually family-centered: an inappropriate gift, a fight, a cranky child

Keep these findings in mind an impress your father on the father’s day with an appropriate father’s day gift. You can even check out father’s day sales.

Friday, June 12, 2009

The latest on FICO credit scores

Fair Isaac Corp., maker of the popular FICO credit score, is rolling out its new-and-improved scoring model, dubbed FICO 08, with Equifax Inc.–the second of the three major credit reporting bureaus to start offering the score to lenders.

Some lenders, generally smaller ones who can switch over their systems more quickly, are already using the FICO 08 score with TransUnion LLC, which began offering the score to lenders in January, says Tom Quinn, vice president of global scoring at FICO. Larger lenders will take longer to switch over. No word yet on when Experian Group Ltd.–which has been in litigation with FICO–will join the other two.

But with two of the three major credit bureaus starting to make FICO 08 available to lenders, it’s likely that some consumers could start seeing changes in their FICO scores.
But regardless of whatever version of FICO that lenders are using, there has been a “noticeable movement into lower scores,” given the economic slowdown and rise in delinquencies, says Quinn. The silver lining is that some consumers’ scores are improving as they pay down their balances, avoid applying for new credit and continue to pay their bills as agreed.

You can improve your FICO score by better managing your money. Try bill management or budget calculator.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Survey shows that companies are still struggling with ediscovery practices

A global survey undertaken by HP found that less than half of business decision-makers have a high confidence level in the quality and accessibility of information within their organisations.

Most organizations remain ill-equipped to manage information for electronic discovery requests in a timely and cost-effective manner. This is due to the lack of a proactive strategy, solutions and funding to properly address requests.

When asked which “information-centric” projects they would spend on in the next two years, respondents noted document workflow transformation, records management and e-discovery/compliance.

However, companies are still struggling with these fundamental requirements, primarily because they don’t understand the requirements for responding to ediscovery requests. In addition, they lack the funding for the right technology

More than half of respondents from small and medium-sized businesses cited a lack of understanding of e-discovery requirements as the main reason for not establishing an effective e-discovery strategy. They also noted the lack of a business case.

Of the respondents surveyed, nearly 80 percent recognized a need to address at least three types of electronically stored information with an e-discovery solution: emails (89 percent), office documents (78 percent) and data in databases (72 percent).(2)

As much as 80 percent of content within organizations today is “unstructured,” or information that is not held within a database.

Very few organizations said they would be looking to address multimedia information sources through ediscovery solutions. This raises the question of how organizations would deal with the complexities of an e-discovery request that includes other forms of unstructured content including text messages, video, audio and social media content.

The survey included telephone interviews with 142 business and technology executives in organizations with more than 10,000 employees in the US, UK, Australia and Singapore. Interviews spanned industries such as manufacturing, finance, wholesale, retail, construction and government.

HP also conducted an online survey on the barriers, priorities and requirements associated with establishing an e-discovery strategy. Respondents were predominantly senior executives based in the United States.