Importance of having Breakfast

"Importance of having Breakfast" Breakfast can help prevent strokes, heart attack and sudden death. Advice on not to skip breakfast! Healthy living For those who always skip breakfast, you should stop that habit now! You've heard many times that "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Now, recent research confirms that one of the worst practices you can develop may be avoiding breakfast. Why? Because the frequency of heart attack, sudden death, and stroke peaks between 6:00a.m. and noon, with the highest incidence being between 8: 00a.m. and 10: 00a.m.What mechanism within the body could account for this significant jump in sudden death in the early morning hours? We may have an Answer. Platelet, tiny elements in the blood that keep us from bleeding to Death if we get a cut, can clump together inside our arteries due to cholesterol or laque buildup in the artery lining. It is in the morning hours that platelets become the most activated and tend to form these internal blood clots at the greatest frequency. However, eating even a very light breakfast prevents the morning platelet activation that is associated with heart attacks and strokes. Studies performed at Memorial University in St.Johns, Newfoundland found that eating a light, very low-fat breakfast was critical in modifying the morning platelet activation. Subjects in the study consumed either low-fat or fat-free yogurt, orange juice, fruit, and a source of protein coming from yogurt or fat-free milk. So if you skip breakfast, it's important that you change this practice immediately in light of this research. Develop a simple plan to eat cereal, such as oatmeal or Bran Flakes, along with six ounces of grape juice or orange juice, and perhaps a piece of fruit. This simple plan will keep your platelets from sticking together, keep blood clots from forming, and perhaps head off a potential Heart Attack or stroke. So never ever skip breakfast ..

2 and 3 letters country codes

Country Codes
The 2-letter codes shown below are supplied by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization). It bases its list of country names and abbreviations on the list of names published by the United Nations. The UN also uses uses 3-letter codes, and numerical codes to identify nations, and those are shown below.
Please visit http://bhartiassociates.com/countrycodes.html to get them.

Installing Gnome on Gentoo

[edit]

Installing Gnome

[edit]

Gnome Base

first of all you have to make sure sun-jdk-1.4.2.13 is installed, so before installing gnome, do the following:

emerge =dev-java/sun-jdk-1.4.2.13

there will come a text that says you have to download a file, follow the instructions and do the emerge command again.

emerge -DuN gnome
rc-update add dbus default
rc-update add hald default

• If you are missing either dbus or hald, make sure USE="hal" and see HOWTO gnome-volume-manager. I think it's highly unlikely that you meant to not install this.
  

On a decent system, if you start it before going to bed and wait until work is over the next day, it should be done compiling. If that's too long for you, then check out my page. I've listed there my grp and make.conf.

• If you have difficulties with gstreamer or your gnome session starts with an error about "no audio device found", check this out: TIP Troubleshooting Gstreamer
  
• A couple of times when emerge-ing gnome the merge has failed at merging gtk+. To fix, re-emerge cairo.
  

[edit]

Logging In

In order to log into gnome after installation you will need to do one of the following tasks:

• Text-based Login - Per User Basis - Create your .xinitrc
  

nano -w ~/.xinitrc
xinit
# #OR
# startx

Your .xinitrc might look something like this:

File: ~/.xinitrc

exec gnome-session # startkde # fluxbox & # eterm &

• Graphical Login
  

We need to first install GDM (GNOME Display Manager) so we can login using its pretty interface.

emerge -DuN gdm

If you want extra themes for GDM install this package.

emerge -DuN gdm-themes

We now need to edit the file /etc/rc.conf to tell the system to use GDM instead of XDM.

Edit the following lines in rc.conf:

File: /etc/rc.conf

# DISPLAYMANAGER has moved to /etc/conf.d/xdm XSESSION="Gnome"

File: /etc/conf.d/xdm

DISPLAYMANAGER="gdm"

We need to add XDM to the default runlevel to be able to start GDM when the system boots up.

rc-update add xdm default

If you would like to have GDM startup quicker at boot find the following line.

File: /etc/init.d/xdm

/sbin/telinit a &>/dev/null

Change it to

File: /etc/init.d/xdm

/etc/X11/startDM.sh &>/dev/null

And change XDM from default runlevel to the boot runlevel.

rc-update del xdm && rc-update add xdm boot

NOTE This will load GDM in the middle of booting so you wont be able to see the entire boot process.

If you want to check out GDM without a reboot start it up.

/etc/init.d/xdm start

Or if you already have XDM running restart the service.

/etc/init.d/xdm restart

Fdisk and Format

Understanding and using Fdisk and Format utilities to prepare your hard drive for use

In previous articles we've built an imaginary scenario which helps to explain the complexities of the
subject. This article is no exception!

Imagine you have a large empty room and a large number of books to store in it.
If you put all your books in a huge pile in the centre of the room,
you will have achieved the basic task of storing your books.

You now want to retrieve a specific book to read it. Your task is almost impossible. For the time it takes
to search through the entire pile of books for your specific title, you could have read several others from
cover to cover. Not Good.

Your next step might be to fill the room with shelves to hold the books, so that you can quickly scan
the titles and locate the book you need. Not a great system, but for a reasonable number of books
(say 100 or so) its faster than before and no big deal.

Assuming that you had a good deal more books than 100, you might develop various 'systems' to give you fast
access to the book you're looking for. For example, you might divide your library into sections like
'Comedy', 'Law' or 'Fiction'. You might build an index of all your books and store information on each
book, e.g. the section it is stored in and on which shelf. Within a few minutes of searching,
you will most likely have found your desired book. Perfect.

OK, so what about Fdisk and Format?

The Hard Disk in your PC is its 'library'. When it wants to find information it goes to the Hard Disk and looks
for the information it needs. In the same way that we prepared our 'room' to store our books, A Hard Disk must be
prepared to store data.

Although this is mostly done as a part of the installation of an Operating System like
Microsoft Windows, two programs are also available (although, somewhat hidden) to help a PC Owner configure their
Hard Drives and other storage devices for special reasons. Let's take a closer look at each one...

Fdisk

The Fdisk program is the 'library builder'. It can create and manipulate 'partitions' on your Hard Disk.
Usually, Fdisk is used to create one big partition using all the space on the hard disk - effectively like
having the entire room as one giant library.

Additionally, Fdisk can be used to divide up the space on the Hard Disk. An example of this might be as follows:

In your 'library', you might have some very delicate books that are over 100 years old. You might choose to divide
your room into two sections or 'partitions', one for recent books in good condition, and another for the older books.

As an extreme example, you might do this so that, in the event of a fire in the main part of the library, the older
books will be afforded some protection, since they are stored in another 'room' of the library.

Getting back to PC's, you might like to create a seperate partition on your Hard Disk to store all your important
files in. Fdisk allows you to specify the size of each partition as part of the total capacity of your Hard Disk.

Format

The Format program takes on the role of setting up the 'library' and its 'systems'. Each partition
must be indivdually 'Formatted' before it can be used to store files.

In terms of our 'Library' scenario, Format will fill the room with shelves and setup a system so
that new books can be quickly and easily added in future.

Depending on which version of Microsoft Windows you have, Format will be able to use a selection of systems:

FAT(16)

Usually found on older system FAT16 might be used for small capacity Hard Disks Up to 2GB.
In fact, FAT16 is only able to format to a maximum of 2GB

FAT32

The most common system in use today as it can handle a far greater size of Hard Disk

NTFS

A newer system, previously only used on Servers and high-end systems is now offered in
to the home user in Windows XP and offers the ability to format to a very large capacity Hard Disk,
along with enhanced security features for files stored using this system.

If you have the opportunity to select a system from these to format your Hard Disk, be aware that these system are not
generally forwards-compatible. To clarify this, Operating Systems installed on Hard drives using FAT16 will not be
able to access files on another Hard Drive (or partition) which has been formatted using FAT32 or NTFS.

The same can be said for FAT32 and NTFS. However, FAT32 can read FAT16 and NTFS is clever enough to read both
FAT16 and FAT32.

When the PC wants a particular file from the Hard Drive, it reads the
FAT - File Allocation Table (in other
words, the index) and uses the information it finds to get the file from the appropriate area of the Hard
Disk. Similarly, if it wants to add a new file to the Hard Disk, it will place it in the next suitable
space, then record in the FAT exactly where it left it.

Configuring wireless card in gentoo

Few information before we proceed to make your Gentoo access internet using wi-fi:

1. The default command line text editor in Gentoo is nano.

2. The network cards need to be activated from /etc/init.d

3. Edit the configuration file /etc/conf.d/net

4. To start,stop.restart use /etc/init.d/net.eth0 start/stop/restart

There are currently two ways to configure wireless networking in Gentoo. The first way is by using the options documented in /etc/conf.d/wireless.example to setup a full configuration, which uses iwconfig (located in the "wireless-tools" ebuild). The wireless.example file is well documented and should list everything you need to get started, including information on setting up WEP. Be sure to check this file for variable changes/additions/removals for new versions!

These wireless settings are held in /etc/conf.d/wireless - but could be held in /etc/conf.d/net as well

Here's a sample config for /etc/conf.d/wireless:

File: /etc/conf.d/wireless snippet

key_YOUR-ESSID="s:mywepkey enc open" preferred_aps=( "YOUR-ESSID" )

Replace YOUR-ESSID with your ESSID and mywepkey with your WEP key - if it's needed
. Some cards (or drivers) may need some time to complete the association with the access point. Add something like this, if needed:

File: /etc/conf.d/wireless snippet

sleep_scan_wlan0="1" sleep_associate_wlan0="25"

To troubleshoot the connection, set RC_VERBOSE=yes in /etc/conf.d/rc for more wireless output.

It's possible to run completely different network settings per ESSID connected to - check the /etc/conf.d/wireless.example file for details on how to achieve this.

To connect, first create a link that corresponds to your network inteface in /etc/init.d and then start it:

Code: in /etc/init.d

# cd /etc/init.d # ln -s net.lo net.eth0 # ./net.eth0 start

To start the interface automatically, execute:

Code: /

# rc-update add net.eth0 default

Of course, one can also create a script to connect to your home protected wireless wep connection, for example:

Code: /root/wireless

#!/bin/bash ifconfig eth0 down rmmod ipw2200 modprobe ipw2200 ifconfig eth0 up iwconfig eth0 key E7D6CA05773D038378F5E26748 #change this to your wep key dhcpcd eth0

then make the wireless executable:

Code:

# chmod +x wireless

To use the script just do

Code:

# ./wireless

[edit]

Configuration using wpa_supplicant

The second way of configuring wireless, and in my opinion, the best way, is by using wpa_supplicant. To install, simply emerge wpa_supplicant. Once installed, you can edit the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file by checking out the examples in /usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant-0.4.9/wpa_supplicant.conf.example.gz. This file contains many options, and is well documented, and is a little easier to setup for multiple APs than by using /etc/conf.d/wireless. The bonus in configuring your wireless setup using wpa_supplicant is that it supports all types of encryption currently used: WEP, WPA, and even non-encrypted.

To use wpa_supplicant over iwconfig for wireless configuration, put the following in /etc/conf.d/net:

File: /etc/conf.d/net snippet

modules=( "wpa_supplicant" ) # Users of madwifi add this: wpa_supplicant_ath0="-Dmadwifi" # Users of Intel ipw2100/2200 (Centrino) chips with older kernels add this: wpa_supplicant_ath0="-Dipw" wpa_timeout_ath0=60 # As of kernel 2.6.15 (and probably earlier), centrino users have to use wpa_supplicant_ath0="-Dwext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf" # wpa_supplicant.conf by default now is located in /etc/wpa_supplicant # but yours could be in /etc. wpa_timeout_ath0=60

Note: Replace ath0 as required with wlan0, eth1 etc, and madwifi with ndiswrapper or the correct drivers for your wireless card (see wpa_supplicant --help for a list of drivers).

Note: You will need to comment out any config_ESSID settings, as they do not work in conjunction with wpa_supplicant. If not, you will receive the following hard-to-read error:

Nov 13 06:14:20 yourhost wpa_cli: interface ath0 CONNECTED
Nov 13 06:14:21 yourhost wpa_cli: executing '/etc/init.d/net.ath0 --quiet start' failed

[edit]

FAQ

• Q. How I can connect to several wireless networks at the same time?
  
• A. You can't, at least not with only one wireless card. Just as a single ethernet card cannot be on two (physical) networks at once, a wireless card can only be associated with one wireless network at once. However, with the proper configuration, a card could be configured to intelligently switch between available wireless networks dynamically. wpa_supplicant makes this an easier task than with wireless-tools, but neither is quite as simple as in Windows XP at this time.
  

• Q. I don't have net.wlan0, net.eth1, net.ath0 or similar in /etc/init.d!
  
• A. Read up on Gentoo networking in their handbook:
  

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=8#doc_chap2

Link to net.lo instead of net.eth0 if you are using a current baselayout (>=1.11).

• Q. I'm seeing Wireless extensions not found for $interface - but it's a wireless device!
  
• A. You need to enable wireless-extensions in your kernel.
  

To do this, enable the following config options in /usr/src/linux/.config

Linux Kernel Configuration:

CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y CONFIG_NET_WIRELESS=y

Then recompile your kernel and modules and re-install them
If your driver is external then re-compile and re-install that.
Finally, re-emerge wireless-tools against the new kernel and driver

Split names by using Convert Text to Columns in Microsoft Excel 2003 onwards

Long back I was attending a product launch seminar of Microsoft and heard one speaker saying that we dont use even 10% of commands/facilities/techniques available in Microsoft Office and he was not wrong when I faced a problem of splitting a column having full name of people into two/three columns of first/middle/last names and splitting a column having email addresses into two columns of username and the domain of the email addresses. I was thinking to write a script to do this work but then it was readily available in Microsoft Excel which I came to know after having already spent good time on this problem. Under the tools of Excel, there is a tool called Text to columns which has this power of splitting and does it in seconds. Steps to be followed are:

1. select the complete to-be-split-column
2. Click Text to columns under Tools menu of Excel
3. This gives you two identifiers viz. fixed width or delimited.
4. Because "Space" is a delimiter separating first name from middle name and last name, select delimited. Other delimitors like @ of email addresses come under "other" next to which you are supposed to enter this character @.
5. Make sure that you have already inserted empty columns next to the name/email column so that split results get accomodated.
6. If you select 'Space' as delimiter then just click next and identify the first column in the appropriate place of the dialogue box where first split results get accomodated and rest splits will automatically get accomodated in columns next to first split column.

funniest of my experiences with outlook 2007

Just experienced the funniest of my experiences with outlook 2007. I received an email few days ago about some hotscripts.com website which also had many hyperlinks from this website and unfortunately I did not delete it because I wanted to read it later. Because it was left in my inbox on the top of all other messages whenever I opened Outlook that message was highlighted and outlook 2007 crashed each time. Believing the reason of the crash to be add-ins like Planplus or Jeyo Mobile outlook or watson or windows search, I uninstalled all but nothing worked. Neither I found any clue from anywhere on the internet. This time when outlook opened and I clicked on any other folder than Inbox, it did not crash. I was bailed out of this problem with no visible clue to fix it by a mere selection of a sub-folder of Inbox. Then to know what was causing this irratic behavior, I clicked Inbox back and that message got selected and crashed outlook again. To delete it, I sent an email to this inbox and highlighting this I selected that irratic email as well and deleted that permanently. Now Outlook 2007 is working fine but it was funniest of my experiences with microsoft products.

Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve?

Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they
deserve?

By Professor Richard Wiseman, University of Hertfordshire


A psychologist says he has discovered the answer:

Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people
are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently
experience ill fortune. I placed advertisements in national newspapers
asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.

Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and
over the years, I have interviewed them, monitored their lives and had them
take part in experiments.

The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into
the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behavior are responsible for
much of their good and bad fortune. Take the case of seemingly chance
opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities,
whereas unlucky people do not.

I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to
differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both lucky
and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell
me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message
halfway through the newspaper saying: "Tell the experimenter you have seen
this and win £250."

This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more
than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the
unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.
Unlucky people are generally more tense than lucky people, and this anxiety
disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected.

As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on
looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their
perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look
through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements
and miss other types of jobs.

Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there
rather than just what they are looking for. My research eventually revealed
that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles. They are
skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions
by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via
positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad
luck into good.

Towards the end of the work, I wondered whether these principles could be
used to create good luck. I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month
carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky
person.

Dramatic results These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities,
listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad
luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what
hadhappened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier,
more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all,
luckier.

The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become lucky.
Finally, I had found the elusive "luck factor"
Here are Professor Wiseman's four top tips for becoming lucky:
1) Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right
2) Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine
3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well
4) Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone
call. Luck is very often a self- fulfilling prophecy

Have a Lucky day and work for it.

Problems I am working on

I cannot seem to setup Contribute 4 to talk with my blog on the new blogger format (what has been called blogger beta). Is it compatible and if so, how does one make the setup? I have repeatedly tried the correct user name and password that I use directly with blogger, but with no success.Any help will be greatly appreciated...

Article 16(1) of Indian Constitution

Article 16(1) of Indian Constitution talking of equality to all has been beautifully interpreted by Supreme Court of India that talk of equality has provision of special policies and favor to unequal class of scoiety inherent in itself because it is utopian an idea to talk of equality amongst unequals.

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 for use with Contribute 4

Few days back, I integrated Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 for use with Contribute 4.
Whenever I check-in or check-out a website file using Dreamweaver, I get the popup message: "The file required for Contribute compatibility does not exist on the server. Would you like to turn off Contribute compatibility?" I always say No and the upload/download works ok, but then I got irritated and tried to find its solution in search engines. It was surprising to know that this problem was faced by just one more person(http://www.capitalfederal.com/foros/viewtopic.php?t=28522&sid=1cde2ce3cd7aea13ee57a53ef59f56db) and no one had responded to his question. This led me to find its solution and help if anyone anywhere faces this problem. To get rid of this repetitive and irritative behaviour of Dreamweaver 8, you have to have the website set up with contribute 4 and have you declared the administrator of the website in contribute 4. Once you do that, you will see that contribute does upload few files to the website and these are the files Dreamweaver has been looking for each time a file is uploaded to the server. After setting up the website in contribute, I did see Dreamweaver downloading the page uploaded by contribute and then I was never prompted by the irritating pop-up.

Applying for US VISA in Delhi: Summary of requisite steps

There are four simple steps in the visa application process.

Step 1: Pay the Application Fee & Service Charge
Step 2: Book an Appointment & Complete the Application Forms
Step 3: Attend your Visa Interview
Step 4: Return of Passport by Courier

Step 1:Visa Application Fee & VFS Service Charge
Before you can book a visa interview appointment online, you must go to a designated branch of the HDFC Bank and pay the Visa Application Fee and VFS Service Charge. When you have paid these fees, make sure you obtain a Visa Fee Receipt. Fees & the Ways to Pay:
1. Visa Application Fee: Rs. 4,600. At the HDFC Bank, this fee can be paid in cash or by Demand Draft/HDFC check that favors the “U.S. Embassy – Visa Fees”
2. VFS Service Charge: Rs. 322. At the HDFC Bank, this fee can be paid in cash or by Demand Draft/HDFC Bank check that favors the “HDFC Bank a/c VFS”

Further Instructions & Information:

1. The Visa Application Fee and VFS Service Charge are nonrefundable and must be paid by each applicant
2. When you go to a HDFC Bank, please bring your passport with you or a photocopy of the bio-data page of the applicant's passport if you are assisting an applicant
3. Demand Drafts from co-operative banks will not be accepted
4. Please write your complete name and passport number on the back of each Demand Draft
5. The Visa Fee Receipt is activated two business days from date of issue. Do not attempt to take a visa interview appointment till then
6. The Visa Fee Receipt from HDFC Bank can be used to make an appointment within one year from date of issue
7. The Visa Fee Receipt is deemed utilized once the interview has taken place, and cannot be used to make a subsequent appointment
8. If you lose your Visa Fee Receipt you must pay the fees again and get a new receipt
9. The VFS Service Charge covers on-line or phone-in information, assistance with making appointments and return by courier of passports with new visas
10. If you are an Indian or Bhutanese citizen resident in the U.S., to pay the Visa Application Fee and VFS Service Charge at the HDFC Bank and obtain a Visa Fee Receipt, please fax a copy of your passport’s bio-data page to the person assisting you in India or Bhutan. That person will have to submit the fax to a designated branch of the HDFC Bank, pay the Visa Application Fee and VFS Service Charge and obtain the Visa Fee Receipt

net4india/net4domains sucks

I have always been apprehensive about doing business with net4domains/net4india but somehow or other people get caught in their web and i have to act to rescue them but believe me, dealing with them is a nightmare. They never respond in time. I initiated transfer of a domain on March 2, 2007 out of net4domains and asked them to provide me transfer secret which unlike other registerars they keep it hidden, naturally for a purpose. Not only they took lot of time to provide me the secret but they provided it wrong. It was a tough and threatening talk which did the magic and they provided the secret. I raised a ticket on March 3, 2007 and they have responded now i.e. they took a flat 20 days to respond. Though the domain got transfered to the new registrar but it took 11 days of constant headache. The domain got transfered to the new registrar on March 13, 2007 and net4domains/net4india is responding today with the transfer secret. It sucks!!!
Never ever deal with them.

How to add a second HDD to ubuntu

No wonder, windows is still popular amongst non-techie lot. I started using linux in the early 1997 and till date I feel that there is a lot to be done to make it popular amongst non-techie lot. To experience the ubuntu distribution of linux, my brother installed it for me in one of the machines and after a long gap I thought of using it and attached a hard drive to access its data as it has some issue in windows machines. I could not believe that I almost forgot the commands. Anyway, it was not available elsewhere in a lucid way. The steps mentioned below are required to read a second IDE drive accessible in a commandline Ubuntu.

1. type cd /dev/disk/by-labells followed by 'ls' on the command prompt

2. results of 'ls' will show you hdd1 or hdd2 at the end.

3. create a directory to mount the hdd, mkdir /mnt/secondhdd

4. mount /dev/hdd1 (believing step 2 results in hdd1) /mnt/secondhdd

5. to browse the mount hdd, type cd /mnt/secondhdd