Act On Tips

There is one thing to be said about Henderson, Nevada; they love their volunteers. Many cities thrive on the local residents volunteering for certain events throughout the year. But when you go to Henderson, Nevada and you see how much time their citizens devote to their community, you can only be amazed. The citizens of Henderson, Nevada devotes hours and hours to helping their city grow to be not only successful but also ecologically responsible and culturally adequate.

If you are new to Henderson, Nevada and are not sure exactly where you would like to donate your time, you can always think about donating it to a great cause; Project Green. Project Green is a project that is focused on re-establishing a specific area of land in Henderson, Nevada to its natural state of being. The whole idea is to save at least one piece of the natural environment of the area, as the rest of the city is growing up and out rapidly.

Project Green can use volunteers to do many things. If you like to get your hands dirty and get into your work, you can always be a part of the actual development of the land. You can plant, clean, or help with the land tasks. If you would rather not get too physical in your work, or if you are not able to participate physically, you can always choose to volunteer your time to help coordinate the project. You may be responsible for getting the other volunteers together or for getting information on the project out to the public.

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Hidden underneath your cash flow statement, there exists a ticking time bomb called depreciation. Depreciation cost is the cost of accounting for the purchase of your long-term assets. Long term asset is defined as assets which can be used for more than one year such as: computers, furniture, vehicles, machinery on your plants and so forth. Meanwhile, assets with short life span are treated as expense for the current accounting period. This short term asset may include stationary, fuel purchase, rent and so forth.

It is important to differentiate between the two types of assets. Worldcom went into trouble for treating short-term expense as long-term assets. In the short-term, this accounting act will boost Worldcom’s short-term profits and cash flow from operations. Dishonesty? Yes. Nowadays, companies find a less than obvious way of boosting their short-term profit. They do this by depreciating their assets in a very long long time. When you depreciate your assets for ten years instead of five years, you would cut your annual depreciation cost by half, which will boost your net income for the current year. As investors, you should be wary of companies stretching their depreciation cost to many many years. I do not endorse nor despise the examples presented underneath but it is your responsibility to check whether your investment carries this time-bomb depreciation cost..

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA). Most of you are probably familiar with this cable giant. Comcast is the dominant cable provider in the nation. For the fiscal year 2005, the company incur a $ 4.8 Billion of depreciation cost. How about long-term assets? The following are the list of depreciable assets:
Property Plant Equipment: $ 18.7 Billion
Goodwill: $ 14.2 Billion
Intangible Assets: $ 54.3 Billion

Total depreciable long term assets stood at $ 87.2 Billion in December 2005. At current pace, Comcast will finish depreciating its long term assets eighteen years from now! This assumes no new capital expenditure. The cold hard truth is that the companies spend $ 3.62 Billion of capital expenditure during the same period.

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO). This networking company was acquiring many small companies for the past decade. So, it is worth a look to see how fast it is depreciating its long term assets. Last fiscal year, the company recorded a $ 1.44 Billion of depreciation cost. Meanwhile, here are its depreciable long term assets:
Property Plant Equipment: $ 3.48 Billion
Goodwill: $ 9.19 Billion
Intangible Asset: $ 2.36 Billion

Total depreciable asset stood at $ 15.03 Billion. At the current rate, Cisco can depreciate these entire asset ten years from now, not as bad as Comcast.

Dow Chemical Co. (DOW). As one of the largest owner of chemical plants, Dow would take a long time to depreciate its long term assets, right? Wrong. For fiscal year 2005, Dow incurred a depreciation cost of $ 2.08 Billion. Meanwhile, its total depreciable long term assets are at $ 17.1 Billion. This gives it a ‘mere’ 8.2 years to depreciate all its assets. Dow assumes that the plant lifetime is around 8.2 years. This implies that even if Dow plant is still running ten years from now, it has already been expensed for and Dow can regard the plant cost as ‘free’.

Intel Corp. (INTC). The world largest microprocessor company ran multiple plants around the world with significant investment dollars. Therefore, it is worth knowing how long it took to depreciate its assets. For fiscal year 2005, Intel incurred depreciation cost of $ 4.59 Billion while depreciable long term assets stood at $ 21.49 Billion. This implies that Intel will account all of its long term assets within ( $ 21.49 Billion / $ 4.59 Billion ) 4.68 years, a better ratio than the rest of the companies so far.

Earthlink Inc. (ELNK). This internet provider is second to AOL in terms of dial-up subscribers. For fiscal year 2005, it incurred a $ 47.1 Million of depreciation cost. Meanwhile, total depreciable long-term asset stood at $ 190 Million, giving Earthlink 4.03 years to fully depreciate its long term asset.

Comcast stretch its depreciation cost to 18 years while Intel and Earthlink took a mere four years to expense its long-term assets. Which one would you prefer? If these are identical companies, I would choose the shorter time period. Even companies with huge chemical plants such as Dow Chemical took only 8.2 years to fully depreciate its cost. Now, investors should be wary of companies stretching their depreciable assets. I do not discourage you from investing in Comcast here. Just want to remind you to do your homework. Another example would be Time Warner Inc. (TWX). It would take the company 15 years to depreciate all its long term assets. How about Tribune Co. (TRB)? It would take the company 45 long years to depreciate all of its long term assets. Be aware and do your own due diligence.

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We all know the general rules of the gym: don’t drop the weights, wipe your sweat off the machines when you’re done, etc. But do you know all about the more “colorful”, lesser known rules of the gym?

NOTE: These rules are JOKES! If you ever see any of these rules posted at any gym you ever go to, please take a picture for me!

1. Don’t blow your nose in the water fountain.

This is a crude habit and can contribute to the spread of colds and viruses. Besides, that’s what the gym towels are for…

2. No smoking on the cardio machines.

Those little circular spots are water-bottle holders, not ashtrays. If you need a cigarette that badly when you’re working out, tape one to the pulldown bar and take a drag on it as a reward for each rep you do.

3. When spotting someone on bench press, be sure to wipe your face first.

You are not a stalactite, and dripping sweat into someone’s eye is not a good way to make friends.

4. If you choose to wear cologne or perfume to the gym, please don’t marinate in it.

If the person on the stair machine next to you lights up a cigarette, you could both be seriously injured.

5. Those stands that have all the weight plates on them should not be used for holding your donuts.

Your donuts will end up with a terrible metallic taste that even the coffee in your water bottle won’t be able to get out of your mouth.

6. The Crunch Machine is not a vending machine for candy bars.

Please don’t try to put money into this machine. It’s for working your abdominals. You will never, EVER get a Nestle’s Crunch bar out of it.

7. Even though the gym has stair machines, it is not required by law to have elevator machines.

Please stop asking about this at the reception desk.

8. Pick up after your dog when you walk him on the treadmill.

No explanation necessary.

9. If you have a habit of spraying spit when you lift, ensure there is no one in your target area.

It’s bad enough that the mirrors by the squat rack look like a St. Bernard shook himself in front of them.

10. Do not give yourself C.P.R. when doing bench presses.

Bouncing the bar heavily off your ribcage instead of pressing it properly may cause damage to the bar and voids the warranty on the bench. Besides that, you don’t want your spotter feeling as though he’s dribbling a barbell down the court do you?

11. Beer and/or liquor in your water bottle are prohibited.

Unless, of course, you bring enough for everybody. This also goes for mochaccinos, frappaccinos, and anything with an umbrella in it.

12. Use the rowing machine at your own risk.

If it sinks, there are no lifeguards on duty.

Following these rules to the best of your ability will ensure a pleasant exercise experience for everyone.

Thank you.

About The Author

Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness, and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook “The Best Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of” at http://www.thebestexercises.com or visit http://www.fitstep.com. You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.

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A sequel to the 1994 movie Stargate, Stargate SG-1 is one of the premiere science-fiction series on television. First airing in July 1997, the show has been nominated for 7 Emmys and 23 Saturn Awards. The brainchild of creator Dean Devlin, producer of such Hollywood blockbusters as Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000), Stargate SG-1 chronicles the further adventures of the Stargate Command (SGC) as Earth and its citizens advance forward into a new era of space exploration in the aftermath of Dr. Daniel Jackson’s discovery of the galaxy’s numerous stargates…

Stargate SG-1 follows the exploits of the SG-1 Unit (i.e. the “explorer” unit) of Stargate Command. When a new code is broken that reveals the location of stargates throughout the galaxy, Earth and its inhabitants are given the ability to travel through time to any point they wish instantaneously. Earth’s military sends out stargate (SG) teams to scour the universe for new technologies, new planets, and methods of defense against the oppressive Goa’uld. Brigadier General Jonathan “Jack” O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) is the commanding officer of SG-1. He’s accompanied by Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), the brilliant professor whose investigations originally helped uncover the existence of the stargates, and fellow teammates Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Teal’c (Christopher Judge). Together, they face numerous obstacles as they attempt to uncover the many mysteries of the universe…

The Stargate SG-1 (Season 2) DVD features a number of exciting episodes including the season premiere “The Serpent’s Lair” in which the SG-1 team is trapped on Klorel’s ship when Apophis’ ship also enters the solar system. It appears Earth is doomed until the SG-1 are freed by Master Bra’tac who ignores an order to kill them. Now a new strategy must be developed in order to prevent Earth’s annihilation… Other notable episodes from Season 2 include “Need” in which Daniel rescues SG-1 from the mines, while amidst internal struggles, he begins to resemble someone other than the man they know, and “Bane” in which Teal’c is bitten by a mysterious insect that makes him sick and carries him to the brink of death…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Stargate SG-1 (Season 2) DVD:

Episode 23 (The Serpent’s Lair) Air Date: 06-26-1998
Episode 24 (In the Line of Duty) Air Date: 07-03-1998
Episode 25 (Prisoners) Air Date: 07-10-1998
Episode 26 (The Gamekeeper) Air Date: 07-17-1998
Episode 27 (Need) Air Date: 07-24-1998
Episode 28 (Thor’s Chariot) Air Date: 07-31-1998
Episode 29 (Message in a Bottle) Air Date: 08-07-1998
Episode 30 (Family) Air Date: 08-14-1998
Episode 31 (Secrets) Air Date: 08-21-1998
Episode 32 (Bane) Air Date: 09-25-1998
Episode 33 (The Tok’ra: Part 1) Air Date: 10-02-1998
Episode 34 (The Tok’ra: Part 2) Air Date: 10-09-1998
Episode 35 (Spirits) Air Date: 10-23-1998
Episode 36 (Touchstone) Air Date: 10-30-1998
Episode 37 (The Fifth Race) Air Date: 01-22-1999
Episode 38 (A Matter of Time) Air Date: 01-29-1999
Episode 39 (Holiday) Air Date: 02-05-1999
Episode 40 (Serpent’s Song) Air Date: 02-12-1999
Episode 41 (One False Step) Air Date: 02-19-1999
Episode 42 (Show and Tell) Air Date: 02-26-1999
Episode 43 (1969) Air Date: 03-05-1999
Episode 44 (Out of Mind) Air Date: 03-12-1999

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Stargate SG-1 (Season 2) DVD.

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According to Stephen Carson, Executive Vice-President of
Visibility Corporation, “The ETO business process begins with
the Request-for-Proposal. The preliminary work leading to the
proposal generation is considerable and requires the interaction
of many departments such as, internal engineering, estimating,
sales, design, and production. Together they need to effectively
collaborate to generate a substantial, yet cost effective
proposal and quote. The project timeframe can be 6-8 months for
proposal generation and production may extend beyond a year.”

Engineer-to-Order Manufacturers face several key challenges that
distinguish them from repetitive manufacturers including:

* Complex engineering design changes

* Lengthy pre-proposal design work

* Considerable engineering collaboration

* Inadequate cost capture

* Poor tool sets for analyzing project profitability

Many ETO manufacturers current MRP system consists of
traditional standard cost, period-based accounting and did not
provide for the administration of costly, complex, multi-year
projects. Without improvement on the front end process and
accurate collection of project costs, there is little hope for
profitable growth.

Visibility Corporation (www.visibility.com) is a leading
developer and supplier of business software solutions designed
for the unique needs of project-based, engineer-to-order and
to-order manufacturers. Visibility’s Enterprise Application
solutions help midsize manufacturers of complex products operate
their businesses effectively.

VISIBILITY.net is an integrated ERP solution and more. Offering
unparalleled functionality and integrated workflow, this
browser-based solution cost effectively delivers the power of
.NET-based Web services for use with either a Microsoft SQL
Server or Oracle® database. Conducting business any place, any
time, any where is a reality, deployable with unprecedented
flexibility.

Visibility www.visibility.com Jaclyn Aldrich 978-694-8000

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If you’re planning to attend a NASCAR race, then you can probably expect to spend a day at the track. There’s nothing worse than being unprepared for any outing, so consider a small checklist to make the day a fun-filled event.

• Be sure to wear comfortable shoes because you will be doing a lot of walking. On a normal day, fans can expect to be at the track for a minimum of five to six hours and, depending on your seat location, there are stairs to climb and you will definitely want to have a comfortable pair of walking shoes.

• Always bring a small umbrella or rain poncho - just incase those storm clouds decide to roll in during race time. If this should happen, the race will likely be stopped until the rain passes over and the track is dried. You’ll want to be dry while you wait for the race to resume. Purchase the smallest umbrella possible and tuck it in a purse or a pocket. There’s no need to carry a large, bulky umbrella around all day - especially if it ultimately isn’t needed. As a race fan, you’re always hoping for a sunny day, but it’s good to be prepared. If there’s a chill in the air, bring a light jacket.
• Remember to bring plenty of drinking water. Bottled water is ideal, convenient and really hits the spot on a hot summer day. Keep in mind that racetracks are large and, as mentioned previously, there is a lot of walking involved. From the time that you arrive, climb the stands and find your seat, fans are looking at a potential 30 minute walk or more. Avoid the temptation to poor the water over your head and save it for drinking.
• A snack is always a good thing to have on hand during raceday. Who wants to leave their seat when a hunger pain hits? Save yourself the time and pack a sandwich or candy bar from home. Don’t forget the hand sanitizer or soap, too!
• Keeping in mind that attending a live event is different than a televised event is essential. Many of the luxuries of watching at home, on television, are absent at a live event. Sitting in the stands will leave you without the commentary, so consider a scanner and headphones. A list of driver frequencies are available at most tracks, which will enable you to hear the spotter and driver communicate with one another during the race.
• Be sure to bring a camera and several rolls of film. If you’re using a digital camera, be sure that you have several brand new back-up batteries incase yours runs down through the course of the day.

Before you close that suitcase, there’s just a few more small items to remember. If you have a pit pass, bring along a small notebook for autographs. Consider bringing some cash, but not too much, for a visit to the many souvenir trailers lined outside the track. A final check should reveal that you’ve packed a pair of sunglasses and, if you’re seated high in the stands, grab a pair of binoculars and bring the action up close. After all, if a race isn’t close - what’s the point? Have fun.

Bob is with EZ Ticket Search - providing premium seating in the secondary market to NASCAR, sports, concerts and broadway events. Visit my blog http://www.eventoutlet.com to read more NASCAR articles.

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Take the chance to treat your feet and skip teetering on sky high stiletto boots and treat yourself to a super hot pair of tall Ugg boots !

The hottest trend by far is wearing these comfortable and gorgeous Australian beauties with skirts to show off a bit of much needed femininity during the harsh cold weather months.

Whether you show a bit of leg with a super short mini, opt for a more conservative knee length wool skirt with the kick pleats that are all the rage this season, or decide on a sleek long skirt with plenty of swing, tall Ugg boots are just the footwear with which to accessorize your outfit.

Since tall Ugg boots come in a variety of colors, consider purchasing an outrageous pair to punctuate any outfit.

You may need to search online websites for these alternative colors, as they are often difficult to find in stores.

Do not be discouraged!

There are plenty of these fashion forward selections to be found, you just may need to look in the correct places and do a bit of homework.

Also, these virtual stores that occupy fronts in cyberspace my offer you the best price on a pair of the sought after Australian footwear.

Regardless if you are a self aware fashion addict or an individual who prefers a more classic style, do not pass up a pair of this footwear from the land down under!

Whether you need to scour your local shoe shops or venture into cyberspace for online shopping, you certainly will not regret purchasing a pair of these super hot and trendy shoes.

Get the Comfort for Your Feet That You Deserve and Discover the Comfort of Aussie Ugg Boots!

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Of the three main airports in the New York City area the best one by far is the one in New Jersey. Getting to the airport is quite easy from most places, and there is usually plenty of good Newark Airport parking available too. But sometimes things can get really complicated so you are really better off if you reserve a spot at one of the big lots in the area that has that feature.

When you are rushing to your plane the last thing you need is to be told the lot you pulled up to is full, or worse yet, it’s not full, but it’s incredibly crowded. When that happens you pull in and go up and down the aisles looking for a spot while they are starting the boarding announcement for your flight.

Reserve a spot in advance and you can drive right up without the worries. Most of the lots that reserve in advance are valet-only, and that’s even quicker, but you don’t have to pay top dollar to reserve a spot. Park 2 Go and Corporate Airport Parking both allow you to reserve and then self park, which is the best and cheapest way to go. One last word of advice though, resist the temptation to leave your car in just a random hotel parking lot in the area because they will tow you away within 24 hours. You aren’t the only one with this idea, so this is a good way to have to pay impound fees when you fly back home.

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Search engine marketing (SEM) can deliver large numbers of
qualified prospects and the most cost-effective marketing
vehicle for driving qualified traffic to your website. Search
Engine Marketing is the first solution in the industry, helping
you to optimize your site’s relevancy and visibility to improve
your search ranking options.

A comprehensive search engine marketing campaign should also aim
to persuade prospects to take the specific actions you want them
to take.

The following group of search engine marketing services is
available to help you exceed your online marketing goals:

Natural Search Engine Optimization. This is also known as
organic search engine optimization. A specialized process that
involves analyzing your websites’ underlying code, architecture
and visible content and making enhancements so that the location
is returned more prominently in the natural search result of
spider- based search engines.

You also have to evaluate and update continuously your natural
search engine optimization methodology to keep up with the ever-
changing search algorithms used by the major search properties
and to keep pace with any changes made to your website as new
pages are added or updated.

Natural search engine optimization includes:

* Search Engine Submissions. Present the pages of your site so
that they will be included in the indexes of the major search
engines and returned prominently when customers and qualified
prospects doubted keywords that relate to your website’s
offering.

* Directory Submissions. Submit key sections of your website to
appear within the four major online directories.

* Keyword Research. Find out which keywords and phrases will
bring the most qualified traffic to your website.

* Website Content Enhancement. To make your site more appealing
to search engines you should develop and enhance your website’s
content and navigational structure.

* Website Competitive Intelligence. Be able to detect what your
competitors are doing and find out how you are going to position
yourself against them

* Website Conversion Auditism. Determine the obstacles that your
website poses to visitors that try to perform a “conversion
action” (buy, register, download, request more information,
etc.). Be able to learn how to build momentum toward conversion

* Link Popularity Enhancement. It helps increase and improves
the quantity and quality of external websites that link to pages
on your site in order to improve your site’s visibility within
search engines.

Pay Per Click Advertising Management. A search engine marketing
that requires you to pay a fee every time someone click’s your
websites from the ad that you placed on the search engine
results. The more you bid to pay per click for a specific
keyword and more effective, the higher your website will rank in
the paid search results.

Paid Inclusion Management. A critical component of your
comprehensive search engine marketing strategy.

Web Analytics. Use to measure and maximize the results by
breaking down the website statistics to a smooth level and
organizing the data into practical categories.

International Search Engine Optimization. Ensures that your
website achieves outstanding visibility within foreign search
properties.

Having a success search engine marketing, websites should be
designed nicely and wonderful. But the most important thing,
people should visit your site. No matter how beautiful it is
with all the bells and whistles it will be useless if you’re
site is not being visited. The more visitors you have the higher
possibility of securing orders and getting more clients and the
higher chances for the search engine marketing success.

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Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very generic accounting application out of the box and has multiple modules to address specific horizontal or vertical market requirements. At the same time Great Plains, now being moved on MS SQL Server platform allows you to deploy standard tools to customize and fit to these requirements, when you don’t need rich custom functionality, just few touches. In this small article let’s take a look at finance industry.

Bonds and Loans. If you are issuing these documents - you probably already have production system in place. What is often seen - this loans tracking system is not integrated with accounting application. Another case - loan tracking system may required manual interest recording, especially when client is state agency working in state subsidized programs, such as loans to farmers or small inland townships

• Customer Link. In Microsoft Great Plains borrowers are usually customers in the Accounts Receivables module (RM00101 table - customer master). To link customer with loans you can have simple Dexterity or web application/extension to be opened from customer maintenance screen. This custom application will show you all the loans associated with this borrower/customer

• Interest/Principal invoices. In Great Plains you naturally use Receivables Management invoices for this purpose. The first step would be manual entry, based on the interest/principal portion, recorded in the above tracking system.

• Automatic Interest Calculation. Yes - you could associate loan with repayment schema and program it in the formula. The easiest way is to have this implemented as Stored Procedure in MS SQL Server company database. Using SQL Exec statement you can build formula on the fly, considering multiple case scenarios and calculations.

• Reporting. Reporting could be based on both sources - Microsoft Great Plains customer records and loan tracking database, even if the last one sits in different platform, such as Microsoft Access. You can create so-called linked server to MS Access in MS SQL Server Enterprise Manager and use OPENROWSET construction to pull the data from heterogeneous sources. Feel free to use popular tools, such as Crystal Reports - you usually base your Crystal Report on SQL view or stored procedure (the second one allows you to use parameters and build temp tables in the body of your stored procs). If you are building web-application you can incorporate Crystal Report in it or deploy html publishing directly with your result set.

• Tools. Consider these tools first: direct web publishing from Great Plains Company database - use C# or VB.Net with ADO.Net classes; Great Plains Modifier with VBA - if you are VBA or VB programmer - you can create masterpieces here, if you need GP tables structure - Tools->Resource Description->Tables; direct SQL Programming - you can create custom SQL views or stored procedures in company and DYNAMICS databases; Great Plains Dexterity - this tool requires Dexterity knowledge and you should probably contract consultant or programmer to spec out this customization and do the job.

Good luck with implementation and customization and if you have issues or concerns - we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com

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