Showing posts for January 2005
7X Flavoring
Mix oils together in a cup. Add gum arabic, mix with a spoon. Add water and mix well. I used my trusty Braun mixer for this step, mixing for 4-5 minutes. You can also transfer to a blender for this step. Can be kept in a sealed glass jar in the fridge or at room temperature.It is common for people to worry about their privacy. The companies around us like to compile as much data on us as they can and this is too much for some people. What advertising company really needs to know that you have just spent 1 hour on-line looking at digital cameras?
This is where anonymous surfing comes in. It allows you to browse websites privately and anonymously. There are 2 different types of privacy:
Appearing anonymous to a website you are browsing
Appearing anonymous to people who can watch your internet connection
People do not surf anonymously just to stop advertising companies from finding out information about them. They can also use anonymity as a way to keep their private life away from their employers, the government or annoying family members.
An interesting case from anonymity is when there is a chance of political persecution. In Iran, anonymous surfing is used to avoid being executed in street executions.
Anonymous surfing works by utilising a proxy server between the website and the user. This means the web browser communicates through the proxy server to the website.
The website only knows the details about the proxy server and does not know any details about your connection with the proxy server. As the proxy server knows about your connection, it is wise to select a proxy server you willing to trust.
There are 3 ways that a proxy server can be used to surf anonymously:
The first thing a good proxy server will do is create a SSL or TLS connection to you. With this, it is harder for a third party to observe what you are doing on the internet and monitor your usage.
While browsing the net you can use a few protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. Make sure that your proxy supports all the required protocols that you use.
As you are using an anonymous proxy to protect your anonymity, you do not want anyone to be recording where you are going. Make sure that the proxy you are using does not keep logs and does not record any of your details.
The Compact Disk (CD) over the last 10 years has become one of the most convenient, and most used ways to store music, and also many other types of information. It has been a major development in newer technologies like the DVD and has changed the way we deal with information.
In this report I will cover the History of the Compact Disk, the way a compact disk is made, the parts of a compact disk player and the way a CD works with the CD player.
1877 - Thomas A. Edison invented the phonograph, one of the first machines to reproduce sound. The phonograph played tinfoil cylinders rather than discs, but it would give others in the future, ideas to create similar devices.
1884 - Emil Berliner, a German developer working in Washington, D.C. developed the first usable disk recording technology that could "press" records. This was a big step forward as previously sound that was recorded could not be copied.
1917 Albert Einstein created theories about the process that makes lasers possible called "Stimulated Emission" (a very complex process where One photon interacting with an excited atom results in two photons being emitted.)
1947 - Magnetic tape recorders entered the US Market
1958 - The laser was invented, based on theory by Albert Einstein
1969 - The idea of creating a CD was conceived by Klass Compaan, a physicist that worked at Phillips Research. The main part of the idea, a lot like the record, was being able to use a master template as a mould to create disks for photographic or video images. This could be done in less time than it took to create other types of media and the resulting disk could hold much more information.
1970 - Klass Compaan became partners with another Phillips researcher, Pete Kramer. They spent the next two years investigating how practical such a system was.
1972 - Two years after starting to investigate how practical the system was, they completed a glass disk prototype and determined that a laser will be needed to read the information.
Later that year and in the following years, Phillips developers took this idea and expanded on it with the idea that an audio disk done by similar means. Phillips soon developed the first audio compact disk prototype.
1978 - Phillips soon ran into problems with the development of the compact disk and decided to collaborate on the idea with Sony. There were soon suggestions that world wide standards should be made for similar compact disk like prototypes.
Latter that year, more decisions about the Compact Disk were made, with PolyGram (a division of Phillips) deciding that polycarbonate would be the best material for Compact Disks, that the data should start on the inside of the disk and spiral out, and that the Diameter should be 115 mm. The type of laser to be used was also selected.
1979 - Prototype Compact Disk systems were soon demonstrated in Europe and Japan and with the Phillips and Sony collaboration going ahead, more standards were made. Phillips and Sony decide to set the standard sampling rate of the CD to 44.1 kHz, to have 16 bit audio, and the maximum playing time to be just over 74 minutes.
As the current disk diameter did not allow enough room for these specifications, the disk diameter was changed to 120 mm.
1981 - With the announcement of Phillips and Sony's CD standard, they decided to end their collaboration so they can work on their individual products. Also during 1981, Sharp started to mass produce semiconductor lasers.
1982 - Sony and Phillips with in one year had a product ready to go, and soon released the CD to the public
In the years after 1982, the Compact Disk continued to climb in popularity. Soon there were many devices that used the CD. CD-ROMs were used to store computer files, Cars were fitted with CD players, and portable CD players were sold.
In the last ten years, the idea of the Compact Disk has been taken further with recordable CDs. Even the new "DVDs" use technology that was originally developed for CDs.
The largest part of Compact Disk is the clear polycarbonate base of the plastic disk. When a typical Compact Disk is being made, a polycarbonate plastic is injected into a pre made mould. This mould is used to create very small bumps over the top surface of the CD. As the CD is read with a laser from the bottom, the bumps appear to the CD player as pits.
When the plastic base is set, a thin aluminium layer is spread to cover the top of the CD. This aluminium layer is used to reflect the light when the light hits a pit or flat region (where there is no pit).
The next layer that is applied to the top of the Compact Disk is a thin acrylic layer to protect the disk, followed by a label.
The advantage that the method of creating Compact Disks has over previous methods of creating audio storage is that the injection (or stamping) of the plastic also puts the data onto the disk. Previous, tape based devices had to be recorded onto once the tape was made.
The series of pits that were placed on the CD when it was created, spiral from the inside to the outside in once continuous track. The spiralling track is about 1.6 microns away from itself.
A typical pit that is on this data track is about 0.83 to 3.56 microns long, about 125 microns deep and 0.5 microns wide.
To give an indication on how small these bumps are, there are one million microns in a meter and a human hair is about 75 microns wide. Because they are so small, they refract the light and give the CD a rainbow effect.
The drive motor is the actual motor that spins the disk. This motor must be precise and be able to spin the CD between 500 and 200 RPMs. The reason that it needs to be able to vary the CDs spin speed is that the track must pass over the laser at a constant speed. When laser moves towards the edge, the length of track that it takes to go around the CD increases, meaning a lower speed is needed. A laser track mechanism is used to move the laser from the inside of the disk to the outside. It is precise enough to move the laser over the track and make micron sized adjustments.
A laser and lens are used to focus light onto the CD. When the laser is focused onto the pits, the beam goes through the polycarbonate layer and reflects off the aluminium layer.
The pits reflect the light in such a way the electronics equipment can pick up the difference between a pit and an area on the disk without a pit. This series of pits and non-pits can be interpreted by light sensitive equipment and translated in a series of ones and zero called binary.
The problem with putting analogue data onto a digital storage medium like a CD is that when the data is read from the CD, the information is in binary. Unlike a normal analogue sound signals that at any one time can be a multitude of values, binary is a one or a zero. It is because of this that it would not be possible to transfer all the analogue information on a CD this way. Instead, at a steady rate, the value of the analogue signal has been stored to the CD. This rate is called the sampling rate and in the case of the CD, it is 44.1 kHz.
When this sampled value that has been stored on the CD is read, it still only has a sampled value. With the use of a Digital to analogue converter, the sampled rate is converted back in an analogue signal. As not all the information was sampled, the resulting line becomes less curved. As the sampling rate is increased, the rate of error or lost information is reduced.
Basically, a floppy disk drive reads and writes data to a small, circular piece of metal-coated plastic
Although floppy disks have been used for over 20 years, a normal floppy disk is about 1.44MB in size. This is 450 times smaller than a CD, and it is because of this that the floppy disk is nearly unused now.
Also because of their design, dust can stop the disk operating and it is because of this that CDs are more reliable than floppy disks.
CD recordable or CD-R is similar to the CD, but can be written to once by a CD-R drive. This means that more people can write CDs and larger files can be swapped between computers.
The CD-RW is similar to the CD-R, but as well as being able to write to the disk multiple times, the CD can also be wiped. This means that files can be corrected and changed on the disk.
The amount of times that a CD-RW can be wiped, depends on the quality and can vary greatly.
Today, the Industrial Revolution transforms musical machines.
The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series
about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose
ingenuity created them.
The word French horn is a slang term for a long hunting horn
that's been bent into a coil. The proper word, in any language, is
simply horn. And it traces straight back to the first animal-horns that
played only one pitch.
Animal horns had mutated into a huge array of wind instruments by 1600, but most were still straight tubes, flared toward one end. A lot of hunting and military horn-playing was done on horseback, so horns stayed short and high-pitched. Then horn-makers started bending instruments to make them more compact.
In no time, longer horns with richer tones appeared fully coiled. Horns were suddenly being bent about in remarkably complex ways. A French horn is really just a Swiss Alpenhorn. Of course, a 15-foot Alpenhorn will no more fit into an orchestra pit than it will on a horse. So the orchestra brasses took on a wild profusion of forms. Some became real plumbers' nightmares.
Horn players have always used their lips to vary pitches. Players then and now set up different standing waves by changing the set of their mouths. But that alone gives a limited range of pitches. Music, like machinery, underwent a great change during the Industrial Revolution. That Revolution also produced Beethoven and the demand for orchestras with a far greater range of sound. In the decade before Beethoven's death, French horns took on sophisticated valving just as the new steam engines had. Valves let players splice small lengths of tubing into the coils so horns would play naturally in more convenient keys.
By the 20th century you could buy a double horn -- a pair of horns, in different keys, coiled together with a single mouthpiece anda single bell. With one of these, a player is secure in the upper registers while he keeps the nice tone quality of the lower notes.
French horns now come in a thousand variations: single, double, and even triple horns are made in four keys or combinations of keys. Three kinds of valving, many coil arrangements, extra valves, and different bore sizes! Choosing a horn poses a startling combinatorial problem.
Mechanical sophistication was the outcome of the Industrial Revolution, and it touched the whole orchestra. The modern piano emerged, with enormously complex mechanisms and a structure that reflected the new iron bridges.
Today, musical instruments are wed to 20th-century electronics, yet the ideal is the same. The technology of every age has been used to enhance the beauty of natural sounds -- blown animal horns and reeds, resonant cavities, and vibrating strings.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.
There are many bonuses to having a digital camera:
When it comes to buying a digital camera, there are some features to consider that help you take better photos.
Resolution |
16 MB Card |
64 MB Card |
128 MB Card |
1 Mega pixel |
45 |
82 |
365 |
2 Mega pixels |
17 |
70 |
140 |
3 Mega pixels |
13 |
53 |
106 |
4 Mega pixels |
6 |
20 |
40 |
Certain body language may be exhibited for reasons other than sexual attraction. For example, a certain posture or attitude may be struck out of habit, for the sake of comfort or because of nervousness. real body reversers will learn how to interpretate correctly the various signals. In other words: don't start getting too hot if a girl gives you the "shoulder look", may be you'r just a pain in her neck.
The palms of the hands face each other and the fingertips touch, forming a shape rather like a church steeple. This is a characteristic gesture that people make, usually while seated, when feeling especially confident during a conversation. There are several variants:
Both elbows rest on a table or desk and the forearms are raised,so that the steepling fingers point upwards (Academics, Doctors, Lawyers while delivering an 'expert' opinion).
Both elbows rest on the arms of a chair or the tops of the steepler's thighs, with the forearm pointing forwards and the fingertips steepling between the thighs or knees. Most women steeple this way: in their laps if seated, at waist level if standing.
The hands steeple while hidden under a table, for instance. This tends to occur when an individual wants to hide his or her confident feelings. Poker players may betray that they have a good hand like this.
When sitting, the steepler places the arms in the low steepling position and the hands in the lap. The fingers of one hand clasp the back of the other, which is CLOSED, and forming a fist, its knuckles opressed into the upper hand's palm. This is a far ùmore subtle indication of confidence than the full steepling gestures.
Crossing the arms in front of the body is an almost instinctive attempt to protect the heart and lungs against threat (Remember "the contrary position" as well: the 'hands behind the back' walkabout by teachers or police on foot patrol, holding the head high and both hands clasped behind the back has a precise meaning: this leaves the body vulnerable front area unprotected and signals a combination of superiority and self-assurance).
Both arms are folded across the chest with one forearm crossing the other, so that one hand rests on an upper arm and the other arm is tucked between elbow and chest. We tend to do this whenever we feel slightly anxious, for instance standing in a crowded lift or in a queue.
Introduction
In-Camera Editing
Shooting to Edit
Post-Production
Just How Difficult is Editing?
Editing is Really Just Copying...
Manual Editing
Edit Controllers
Edit Control
Real-Time Counter
Synchro-Edit
Accuracy
Time code
Generation Loss
Making Additional Tapes
Videotape Formats
Maximizing Quality
Color Correction, Video Processing, and Enhancement
Effects and More
Digital Video
Resources
Video production, once the province of the privileged few, is now in the hands of everyone. In the U.S. alone, there were more than 25 million camcorders at the end of 1995 and over 3 million more are sold yearly. There were approximately 67 million camcorders worldwide (EIA estimates).
With all those camcorders, one might expect to see a lot of fine home video productions. Yet, most camcorder tapes stay on the shelf, unwatched because their quality and pace are not what their owners would like.
But things are changing. With the advent of new, easy to use video editing, processing, and titling equipment, it's possible to transform home videos into polished productions that rival professional productions.
This application note describes the basics of video editing, with or without a special edit controller.
The term "editing" is often used in two slightly different ways. Sometimes it refers to the process of selecting and re-recording just the good footage, eliminating the bad. Sometimes the term is used for the whole post-production process, including titling, effects, etc.
It is possible to shoot a production so that what ends up on the original tape is your finished production. This is called "in-camera" editing. While this sounds like a straightforward way to achieve quality results, in practice it is extremely difficult because you must shoot in the production order and each time something goes wrong, you need to carefully position the tape at the end of the previous scene. In-camera editing interferes with the spontaneity of the events you are taping. Changes after the fact are out of the question and unless you are very, very careful, the final result will probably contain several goofs.
A more effective way to shoot events is to "shoot to edit" by filming as events unfold. When you shoot to edit, you never back the tape up -- you simply reshoot the scene, until you are happy with it. You leave bad scenes and mistakes on the tape, to be removed later, in the editing step.
When you shoot to edit, follow these hints from the pros, to make editing easier later:
Once all the raw footage is "in the can," you can convert the scenes into a polished, professional production. This step is called "editing," or "post-production," or simply, "post." While the shoot is the visible part of the job, professionals typically spend twice as long (or more) editing as they did shooting! On a professional set, you will often hear the phrase, "We'll fix it in post."
Before the advent of modern electronic editing devices, editing was a job best left to professionals or highly motivated amateurs. But today, simple editing can be done by just about everyone and with a little patience, even beginners can learn to make fairly elaborate productions, complete with titles, graphics, fades, wipes, and special effects. The best editing equipment will work with anyone's camcorder and VCR, minimizing the amount of new equipment you'll need.
Unlike film, it is impractical to edit videotape by cutting and splicing. Videotapes are edited by copying selected scenes from the original tape to a new, blank tape. Titles, graphics, and special effects can be added as the scenes are copied.
Editing can be done manually, which has the advantage of requiring no additional equipment beyond the camcorder and a VCR, or automatically, which offers better results and greater speed, precision, and convenience.
It is possible to edit videotapes manually, without the benefit of any editing equipment. To do this, you would connect a playback VCR to a recording VCR, view the tape, write down the location of each scene of interest, and then copy each scene to a blank tape, one by one.
Commonly called "crash" editing, this method works reasonably well for simple productions and doesn't require the purchase of additional equipment. However, placing scenes accurately every time is difficult and requires great skill. If you miss, you may have to redo many scenes. Sometimes the transitions between scenes jump and contain "snow." Crash editing also lacks special effects, titles, and graphics unless you purchase additional gear.
To do crash editing, simply connect the output of the camcorder to the input of the VCR using the separate AUDIO and VIDEO jacks and matching cables. Connect VIDEO and AUDIO OUT on the camcorder to the VIDEO and AUDIO IN jacks on the VCR. You will need to set the VCR input switch so that the VCR is recording the signal presented on the IN jacks, rather than recording a TV channel. The VCR's manual may describe how to do that, probably in a section that discusses copying tapes.
Professionals also edit by copying select scenes from a player to a recorder, but with an additional wrinkle: They use an edit controller between the two machines. It controls the recording process so the scenes are neatly and crisply recorded on the final tape, in the correct order, without jumps or snow between scenes. It also facilitates revisions so that a simple change doesn't require that the entire production be re-made.
Edit controllers are now available to the home market and they are surprisingly inexpensive and amazingly sophisticated. They range in price from $200 to $1000, typically. Watch out for units that are called "editors" but really just fade the video while you control the decks -- a true editor controls the player, the recorder, or both.
To use an edit controller, you use it to play the original tape, moving the tape to find all the good scenes. You "mark" each scene by pressing a button at the scene's start point and another button at the scene's end. When you have marked all the good scenes, you put a blank tape in the recorder, start recording and pause the recorder. You press a button on the edit controller and it takes over. It finds and plays each scene on the original tape. When the scene arrives, it triggers the recorder to leave pause and begin recording. When the scene ends, it pauses the recorder and causes the player to find the next scene. This process continues until all the good scenes have been copied and the bad scenes have been left behind.
An edit controller will adapt to your equipment, making the necessary adjustments depending on the editing features you have. For instance, if you have a basic camcorder, you will be able to edit just one scene at a time. Advanced editing features, such as edit control and timecode (described below) make editing more automatic and faster, if the edit controller supports them.
Some camcorders have a feature called "edit control." This is a very useful feature for automatic editing. It allows the edit controller to control the camcorder (or play-VCR) and to determine the position of the tape (the tape counter number). That information flows between the controller and he camcorder via a wired connection. Two edit control methods are most common in consumer gear: Control-L, or LANC, is common in 8-mm and Hi8 camcorders and VCRs, especially those from Sony and Canon. Panasonic 5-pin edit control, also called Control-M, is used in a few high-end Panasonic VCRs and camcorders.
Control-S, provided on a few units, is a simpler control method and is not adequate for video editing.
VCRs and camcorders display tape position using either hours:minutes:seconds (e.g. 1:13:45) or an arbitrary number (such as 3997). A display that shows the actual time is called a "real-time counter" display. Edit controllers that use an edit control connection often require that the play VCR or camcorder also have a real-time counter.
A few VCRs and camcorders are equipped with limited built-in editing capabilities based on "synchro-edit," a simple control wire used directly from the player to the recorder. Desired scenes are marked using the player. The player finds and plays those scenes, triggering the recorder to record them.
Synchro-edit is found on certain models and is generally not compatible between manufacturers -- the player and recorder must be designed to work together. Most synchro-edit systems are limited in the number of scenes they can hold and accuracy can be limited. The advantage of synchro-edit is that it is simple and, if your camcorder and VCR are equipped with the feature, requires no additional equipment.
Professional equipment is "frame-accurate," meaning that edits are accurate to the exact video frame (there are 30 frames per second). Pros can even cut single frames together. True frame accuracy and single frame editing are not practical on ANY home, or even semi-pro, system, regardless of what you may be told, because the cheapest VCR that can record a single frame or achieve absolute frame accuracy costs several thousand dollars.
But you can come pretty close to frame accuracy at home. The precision of a home system depends on the camcorder and VCR, as well as on the edit controller. With some equipment, consistent accuracy within 2-3 frames is quite achievable. Most equipment can easily be accurate to within a second or two and with care, you can likely see accuracy to within a few tenths of a second.
In general, you should design your productions with a somewhat more relaxed pace than you see on some of the lightning-quick music videos or commercials. Even if your equipment can do precision edits, keep in mind that they take a lot more care and a lot more time.
Broadcasters know that whatever they shoot will be edited. With this advance knowledge, they use recorders that write a special, invisible "time code" on the tape. It digitally numbers every video frame. Although you can't see timecode, the editing equipment in the studio can and the editing staff uses it to accurately pinpoint the start and end of each scene, and to specify the order the scenes will have in the final production.
Until recently, manufacturers of amateur video equipment felt there was no need to put this capability in their equipment. Top-end camcorders are now beginning to feature timecode and the better edit controllers can use it to make productions extremely accurate. Most popular are Sony's RC timecode and SMPTE-VITC. Timecode is much more common in European and Japanese models, apparently because the manufacturers feel foreign video consumers are more sophisticated.
The post-production step involves re-recording the original tape. Sometimes, you may want to further modify the resulting tape, recording it once more. A "second-generation" tape is a copy of the original. "Third-generation" is a copy of a second-generation tape.
Each time you copy a tape, some quality is lost. Enhancers can, in some cases, reduce the loss slightly, but it is best to keep copying to a minimum. Second-generation tapes using good home equipment is quite acceptable but third-generation is marginal. The best editing equipment produces second-generation results.
Once you have made the perfect final production, you may want to make another for someone else. The obvious way to do this is to copy the final production but the resulting copy will be of poorer quality than the original because it will be at best a copy of a copy.
Automatic edit controllers offer an advantage: After the final production is complete, the automatic assembly process can be immediately repeated, with just the press of a button. The second tape is exactly the same as the first, meaning that the tape you send to Grandma is just as good as the one you keep for yourself.
Special hint for pros: Always give your customer two copies of the final production. Tell the customer that they can keep the second one for a nominal fee (say half or a third of what the first one cost) and if they decide not to, they can simply return it to you. The customer will invariably decide to give the second copy to someone or find another use for it, and you have increased your sale. This is an age-old technique from professional photographers, who routinely would have an extra "test print" they would offer to the customer.
If you need to make more than a few copies, have the tapes mass copied by a professional duplication house. Their equipment is considerably better than anything you can buy at home and will deliver better copies. If quality is of paramount importance to you, professional duplication is worth considering even if you need only one or a few copies.
All tape formats can be edited and it is possible to edit between formats. You can even mix formats. For example, you could combine scenes from a VHS-C tape with scenes from a Hi8 tape, all edited to a new VHS tape.
Here are some hints for getting the best possible video quality.
It is possible to electronically alter the video signal as you record it on the new tape using color correctors and video processors. These tools can rescue marginal tapes or they can be used to add wild and crazy effects to the video.
A color corrector alters the overall color of the video. It can boost the color in washed-our video, reduce overly bright colors, and repair incorrect white balance. It can also change the the mood of a scene and can create special effects. The best color correctors have separate controls for each of the three primary television colors (red, green, and blue). They should also offer full range controls for dramatic effects. For example, you could remove all the color from the picture and add a sepia (brownish) tint to make the scene look like an old fashioned photo; or shift everything to blue and darken to simulate night time.
A video processor can brighten or darken the video and change its contrast.
A good enhancer will do two things: increase sharpness or reduce the grainy look created by video noise. Enhancers will generally do little to improve video that's already very good and they can't do much for really poor quality video. But they can improve video that's somewhere in the middle, such as copies of videotapes.
You can add a stunning array of video effects as you edit, ranging from simple colorization, to selective colorizing, posterization, mosaic, and more. Video mixers ($1200 and up) can combine the video from two sources (two VCRs, for instance) so you can dissolve or wipe from one picture to another, inset one picture in another, etc. High-end effects units can do much of what you see on television.
Look for digital video technology in the better units. These units translate the video signal into digital numbers. Computer-type circuits make the magic happen and the result is translated back into video so that it can be recorded. Digital units can offer better quality and more features for the price, combined with greater reliability. They also don't change performance over temperature and time.
Manufacturers of editing equipment include Videonics, Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Future Video, Sima, Ambico, Canon, and Radio Shack.
Video editing is regularly covered in magazines such as Camcorder, Videomaker, and Video.
Before a job interview, do you peruse magazines or review prepared notes? When the meeting begins, do you wait to be told where to sit or choose your own chair? And do you give passionately expressive or carefully controlled responses?
In each of these instances, your body language speaks volumes about how you'd perform at a company. In fact, some experts say nonverbal cues are more important than verbal ones. According to these studies, body language comprises 55% of the force of any response, whereas the verbal content only provides 7%, and "paralanguage," or the intonation, pauses and sighs given when answering, represents 38% of the emphasis.
Jo-Ann Vega, president of JV Career and Human Resources Consulting Services in Nyack, N.Y., says body language is so important that it frequently torpedoes what we say.
"Our nonverbal messages often contradict what we say in words," says Ms. Vega. "When we send mixed messages or our verbal messages don't jibe with our body statements, our credibility can crumble because most smart interviewers believe the nonverbal."
Laid-off managers are a case in point. They're often so traumatized by their terminations that they appear downcast, even when discussing their strengths, says Ms. Vega. Difficult questions can throw them off balance, and their anxiety may cause them to fidget or become overly rigid, she says.
Since nonverbal communication is more eloquent, honest and accurate than verbal communication, such actions reveal your inner confidence. While words can deceive -- many people don't mean what they say or say what they mean -- body language is subconscious. Since it's more spontaneous and less controlled, it shows our true feelings and attitudes.
Still, most people discount the importance of nonverbal communication because their education and training placed more emphasis on spoken words. To become more adept at interpreting and using body language, heighten your awareness of nonverbal signals and learn to trust your "gut" instinct. Then, when interviewing, use the following tips to accentuate body language that stresses professionalism and performance.
Realize that you're being judged as soon as you arrive at the company. Set the right tone by being early, then use the extra time to compose yourself. When waiting for interviewers, don't open your briefcase to review notes you've prepared. Instead, glance through available magazines or literature in the waiting area.
This creates the impression that you're relaxed before stressful events, and helps you project confidence during the critical early moments of the interview.
If a receptionist or secretary indicates that the interviewer is ready to see you, enter his or her office as though you belonged. Knocking on the door, or opening it and peeking in, shows hesitation, which may be interpreted as a lack of confidence.
Greet your interviewer with a firm, sincere handshake. More than a few candidates have betrayed their nervousness by extending limp, clammy palms, and shaking hands weakly.
Don't start talking immediately, fumble with your briefcase or dive into a chair. If you aren't invited to sit, choose a chair across from or aside the interviewer's desk. Avoid soft lounge chairs or couches, which can prevent you from rising easily. And don't ask if and where you should sit.
If your interviewer receives a phone call during the meeting, select and review material from your briefcase to give him or her a sense of privacy. Don't show annoyance about the interruption or offer to leave the office. Many interviewers purposely take calls to determine if you'll react adversely to office disruptions.
Like anyone else, interviewers become uncomfortable if their personal space, or preferred distance from others, is invaded. Extraverted interviewers prefer a "social zone" of between 18 and 48 inches from their bodies, while introverts need more space.
Try to gauge interviewers' preferred distance by their seating arrangements. Move closer only if they seem skeptical about what you're saying. Other attempts to seem "friendly" by moving closer are likely to be threatening. For instance, some interviewers deliberately "interrogate" applicants by sitting or standing closer than they prefer.
When emphasizing key points, project sincerity and confidence by leaning forward, maintaining eye contact and using expressive gestures. Leaning back and looking down may be interpreted as a lack of confidence.
How you say something often is more meaningful than what you say. Use a natural tone and don't deviate from your normal speaking rate, volume, rhythm, pitch, breathiness or resonance. Secure applicants have relaxed, warm and well-modulated voices that match their feelings, allowing them to appropriately express excitement, enthusiasm and interest during conversations.
Conversely, insecure candidates can't control their voice pitch and volume. They have weak, soft, hesitant or tremulous voices, and clear their throats, use "uhs" and "ums" or other nervous mannerisms excessively. Others mask their insecurity by speaking in complex, involved sentences.
Candidates with secure self-esteem alter their facial expressions to match their message, rather than perpetually wearing the same one. They smile when saying something friendly, and maintain good eye contact, which signifies openness and honesty.
Less-assured candidates don't maintain eye contact, act shy or ashamed or smile at inappropriate times. They may appear downcast or pleading, or drop their eyes and heads, giving them an untrustworthy appearance.
Be cognizant of interviewers' expressions as well. If they don't maintain eye contact, it may mean they're anxious, irritated, disinterested or that they want the conversation to end. An interviewer who looks up may be uncomfortable, trying to remember something or doesn't believe your answer.
Don't overdo eye contact with interviewers, however. A gaze that lasts longer than seven to 10 seconds can cause discomfort or anxiety. Also, don't stare at interviewers during long silences, since it only increases the tension.
Even if you're motionless, your posture communicates a message. Managers who put their feet up on desks and their hands behind their heads are saying that they feel confident, dominant or superior, a soldier standing at attention is showing deference to authority and a subordinate who stands rigidly with hands on hips signals defiance or dislike.
Confident applicants have relaxed, balanced postures. They hold their bodies upright, walk freely with their arms swinging and take determined strides. Less-assured candidates, on the other hand, have rigid or stooped postures, drag or shuffle their feet when walking and take short, choppy strides.
Strive for posture that's as free and natural as your speaking style, but don't be too controlled or rehearsed, says Ms. Vega, who advises applicants to "let some of the passion out." When your movements are in sync with your words, you'll seem confident, expressive and controlled.
Hiring managers also use gestures to convey specific messages. Nodding signifies approval and encourages applicants to continue talking, while leaning forward shows they're interested. Folded arms, crossed legs, picking imaginary lint from clothing or running their fingers along their noses are signs that an interviewer disagrees with you. Thumb twiddling, finger drumming and other fidgeting mannerisms mean the interviewer isn't paying attention.
Guard against using similar gestures or betraying your nervousness by clenching or wringing your hands. Other actions that convey stress include holding your legs or arms tensely, perching on the edge of a chair or playing with a watch or ring.
One caveat: Don't imagine a hidden meaning in every gesture. For example, if an interviewer rubs her nose while you're speaking, she may just have an itchy nose. Try to gauge the situation when seeking the meaning to a mannerism. Most experts look for clues in groups of gestures, not random ones.
Nevertheless, communicating the right nonverbal signals can help you convey an enthusiastic, positive and confident attitude during job interviews. And learning to read interviewers' cues can improve your prospects as well.
Murphy's Law.If anything can go wrong, it will. There are hundreds of corollaries to this law, all pointing out that too often we do not "expect the unexpected." Murphy's law is a sobering reminder for us to control our assumptions about how every part of our plan, solution, or idea will work out. Named (possibly but uncertainly) after Ed Murphy, 1949. Corollaries of note include nothing is ever as simple as it seems, and everything takes longer than you expect.
The Hawthorne Effect. The attention paid to people when a problem solver offers them a solution or benefit can have a greater positive effect than the solution itself. The psychological happiness produced by the fact that the solver "cares about" the person with a problem can produce increased motivation, production, health, and so on. Therefore, the solution itself may not be the cause (or the entire cause) of the positive results. (Compare the Placebo Effect.)
The Placebo Effect. A placebo is a harmless pill (usually made of sugar or starch). During the testing of new medicines, one group of people is given the medicine under test, while the other group is given a placebo, so that no one knows who is getting the real medicine and who is getting essentially nothing. The first amazing fact in the placebo effect is that sixty percent of those taking the placebos report feeling better. The second amazing fact is that this holds true even when the people are told they are taking a dummy pill.
Occam's Razor. Entities ought not to be multiplied except from necessity. The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions or presenting the lowest level of complexity is most likely to be the correct one. In other words, when two or more explanations satisfy all the requirements for a satisfactory explanation of the same set of phenomena, the simpler explanation is the right one. This "law" was proposed by William of Occam (also spelled Ockham), a fourteenth-century English philosopher. It isn't always correct, but it's a useful idea.
The Peter Principle. In every hierarchy, whether it be government or business, each employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence; every post tends to be filled by an employee incompetent to execute his duties. The idea is that when people perform a job well, they will be promoted out of that job and up to a more complex or difficult one. Eventually, they rise to a job of such complexity or demand that they can no longer do a great, or even competent, job, so they are no longer promoted. They stay at the level where they are no longer competent. This "law" was partly intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but there is a distressing amount of truth to it. (A corollary is that work is accomplished by those who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.
Parkinson's Law. Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. If a project is given six months for completion, it will require six months to finish. If the same project is given two years for completion, it will require two years to finish. Two factors are responsible for this phenomenon. First, when a deadline appears to be far off, people work more slowly and put tasks for that project farther down their priority lists. Second, when a large amount of time is available, people will do more inessential things on a project than when less time is available. Most projects are so defined that many non-required tasks could be performed or not performed, depending on the available time.
In any project, activity increases exponentially as the deadline nears, because human beings have a tendency to procrastinate and do most of the work near the deadline. The solution to this problem is to set multiple deadlines for segments or parts of a given project, to assure that the project advances in a sane and timely way. Deadlines are very valuable for producing results. Any project assigned without a deadline is likely never to be completed.
Parkinson's Second Law is that expenditure rises to meet income, and Parkinson's New Law is that the printed word expands to fill the space available for it. The same might be said for television news, management levels, and a whole host of other entities. Named after professor C. Northcote Parkinson of the University of Malaya, 1955.
The Pareto Principle. This is also known as the 20/80 rule or the rule of the vital few and trivial many. The principle is that the vital few are responsible for the majority of effect or importance: 20% of the company's salesmen are responsible for 80% of sales; 20% of a company's customers provide 80% of the product volume; only 20% of the problems on a long problem list are responsible for 80% of the difficulty; and so on. The percentages are not intended to be real--ina given case, 13% of the employees may make 87% of the phone calls, etc. The idea is to realize that a small core--of people, problems, ideas, products, events--are responsible for the majority of effect or importance. If you know, for example, that 20% of a grocery store's product items provide 80% of the store's sales or profits, you might want to set up a mini-market that carries just that 20% inventory.
Remember that the Pareto Principle works in reverse, too. If 20% of what you do accounts for 80% of the impact your work will have on civilization, then 80% of what you do accounts for only 20% of the impact. This principle was named after its enunciator, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923).
The Rule of Redundant Systems. Every critical system should have a redundant backup system. When failure of a system would cause serious harm, there should be available some substitute means of performing that system's functions. In airliners, for example, there are sometimes triple redundancy control systems: three separate systems operate the control surfaces of the aircraft. A new high-speed train will have three braking systems: one electric, one hydraulic, and one compressed air. In business, a redundant accounting system might be employed, such as computer and paper, disk mirroring (where data is written to two different storage devices) and so on. In a family situation, redundant communications channels may exist: regular family talks, refrigerator notes, special retreat time, after dinner problem solving. Another area where redundant communication channels is desirable is in business. If the company newsletter fails, there is a staff meeting also. If the memo is forgotten, there is a phone call as well. The Rule of Redundant Systems is not intended to excuse sloppy or defective systems by using the excuse that there is always a backup; rather, the redundant system is there in case the primary excellent system should fail.
The Zeigarnik Effect. This is the desire to complete one task before beginning another. There is a pronounced psychological need in most of us for completion: we do not like to drop one project in midstream and begin another. This effect explains why some people especially resist interruptions, why some people work after hours to finish a task before going home, and why some people have difficulty simultaneously handling multiple, protracted projects. This completion need can be handled by structuring tasks around natural interruptions like breaks, lunch, quitting time, and so forth, and by training yourself to view interruptions or task-switching as acceptable and normal.
The Contrast Principle. In the perception of two items or events, one right after the other, if the second item or event is quite different from the first, we will tend to see the second as much different than it really is. If we talk to a nice person after talking to a nasty person, the nice person will seem even nicer. Similarly, researchers discovered that after looking at photographs of beautiful people, test subjects rated their spouses as less attractive than before looking at the photos. After reviewing a failure or bad suggestion, a success or good suggestion will appear to be much better than it really is.
The Contrast Principle can have a profound effect in problem solving and decision making because the idea or decision that arrives right after a bad idea or decision will tend to be overrated.
Cognitive Dissonance. This is an uncomfortable psychological state or feeling occurring when someone experiences two incompatible beliefs or thoughts. In such a case, there is a powerful tendency to resolve the conflict by rationalizing or altering one's view of one or both of the beliefs. A striking example would be the shock you would feel upon learning that someone you love dearly has just murdered someone. The dissonance set up by such a situation would have a tendency to be resolved: The murdered person must have deserved it; or I'm sure it was an accident; or I never really loved my beloved anyway. Note that the tendency is to change things so that the beliefs are compatible.
Hearing about crime often causes people dissonance--between their belief in justice and morality and the events that occur. When a woman is raped, dissonance is set up because such things should not happen. Therefore, the woman must have done something to "deserve" it: she should not have dressed that way; what was she doing in that part of town at that time of night?; why did she have her window open, anyway? and so on.
Note this kind of thinking: my idea was rejected; but it was a good idea; good ideas are not rejected by honest people; therefore the boss is crooked, paid off, or playing favorites, etc.
The Principle of Perceptual Consistency. We tend to pigeon-hole people, things, and circumstances into simple, generalized entities. Once we have done that, we tend to perceive new information about those things as supporting our generalizations. We also tend to generalize from our impressions about one trait or circumstance of a person or situation. For example, good looking people are usually judged by others to be more intelligent and capable than they really are while unattractive people are judged to be less intelligent and capable than they really are, simply because of this generalized transference. And once a person has been tagged as intelligent or unintelligent, subsequent events surrounding that person will tend to be perceived as reinforcing that generalization. If, for example, Person A has been judged to be an excellent problem solver, idea X will be judged excellent if he enunciates it. But if Person B, who has been judged a poor problem solver, enunciates idea X, the idea will be judged as poor.
If several people are watching a game on television and one person says, "Look what a klutz Williams is," everyone will begin to interpret many of Williams' actions as klutzy. If, on the other hand, the person had said, "Look how efficiently Williams moves," everyone watching will begin to interpret many of Williams' moves in a positive way.
The net effect of this principle is that much time and evidence will be required for us to change our view of a person or situation. Before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, much evidence was discovered that a surprise attack was imminent but top military leaders refused to credit it because they already "knew" that no such attack was coming.
This perceptual consistency principle explains why people wearing ties appear to be more important and intelligent than those without them. Similarly, women wearing glasses are viewed as being more intelligent than those wearing (invisible) contact lenses.
The Turnpike Effect. The availability and unforeseen utility of a resource leads to greater use than was predicted. In the past, builders of highways projected use of the new roads based on historical flow over existing roads. But every highway that was built was very soon used much more than predicted. When people discovered the existence of the highway and the ease of travel that was now possible, they used it much more than they did the old roads to the same places. Similarly, when any new resource is made available, whether computer terminals in the library, free meals on skid row, a new airport, piles of scratch paper near a phone, a company ombudsman or other resource person, a telephone answering machine, all of these resources will most likely be used more than would be predicted by researchers doing surveys about the need or desirability for such a resource.
Thus, the statement, "We don't get many calls for such an item [or service]," doesn't necessarily mean that the item or service wouldn't be used if it were available. We see something and we want it or use it. You may want to take the turnpike effect into account when you plan for the usage of some service or resource you are developing. One rule of thumb is to add at least 15% to your predicted demand.
The turnpike effect explains why there is such an aggressive struggle to get consumer goods on store shelves. Manufacturers are willing to pay individual stores thousands of dollars for shelf space to get their products in front of the consumers' noses. Similarly, the books that are in the stores get read more than the ones that have to be special ordered. Perhaps a brief way to express the turnpike effect is to say that availability shapes demand.
The Reason Why Factor
Or "I'll do almost anything if there's a reason..."
A study done at Harvard University demonstrated that when we ask someone to do a favor for us, we'll do much better when we have a reason. This is self-evident.
However, what the study proved was that the actual reason itself wasn't important.
Here's the experiment. The researcher went to the front of a line at a Xerox machine and said, "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I cut in front?" 60% of the people were gracious enough to allow it.
The message was then modified to, "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I cut in front because I'm in a rush?" Now 94% of the people studied allowed it. A huge lift but there was a good reason, right?
The experiment could have ended there, but they took it one step further. Now the researcher said "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I cut in front because I have to make some copies?"
93% still allowed it -- even though no real reason was given.
The study concluded that the trigger feature was the word "because" and that once people heard it, the vast majority simply nodded their heads and allowed the person to cut in without even thinking about the words that followed.
So what are some of the trigger features in direct marketing?
To start with, there are trigger words. As you might image, free" and "new" are two of the most important ones. But remember that people tend to look at things before they read them (actually, that's when they decide if they'll read them.) So the words shouldn't be buried in copy, but rather jump off the page.
The word "because" may be a trigger in direct mail as well. Too many direct mail packages drone on about features and benefits, without ever proving them. However, if you can cite a feature and a benefit and then support it -- chances are, it will be much more believable. And that may improve your response.
There are also visual trigger features, such as star-bursts, underlined words and other techniques that draw the eye. The presence of a coupon is also one, when it comes to advertising. Research has determined that advertising with coupons get 13% higher readership than advertising without coupons -- regardless of what the coupon says.
I think it's because the coupon alerts the reader that "there's something here for me" or even "it's not just an ad -- they're offering to send me something!" that is responsible for this lift. So if your advertising does not include a prominent coupon, maybe it would be wise to put one in.
The Perceptual Contrast Principle
Or, "Why Bait and Switch usually doesn't work."
There's an old joke where a man approaches another one on the street and invites him to buy an elephant for $500.
"Are you crazy? What would I do with an elephant?" the second man protests. "Where would I keep it? I live in a small flat..."
"All right, all right..." says the first man, "How about two elephants for $500?"
The second man says, "Now you're talking..."
You may smile because everyone wants a bargain, or everyone wants to feel special, but there is another important principle at work here, and that's Perceptual Contrast.
What that means is that we perceive things differently when they are presented one after another.
In direct marketing, one of the ways it is used effectively is by up selling. One of my clients produces a catalogue of office forms, business cards and other paper products. When someone calls in an order, the telemarketer is instructed to tell them the difference between their order and the next size up.
For example, you call in to order 1000 business cards. The telemarketer says, "Okay, that will be $79. By the way, did you know you can get another 1000 cards for only $29? Would you like to increase your order?"
They are successful in up selling more than half of all customers -- who would balk at the new total price ($108) but bite at the small increment of $29 over the larger first price of $79.
Another way it might work is in fund-raising. By asking for a larger donation first, you might be more successful in getting people to make a smaller donation. And good news -- the smaller donation could be the one you would have asked for in the first place.
The Perceptual contrast principle flies in the face of the typical sales "Bait and Switch" technique. This involves getting people into a store or car dealership by featuring an incredibly low price, and then selling them something more expensive.
Tests in the States have proven that the opposite works much better. By first showing someone a very expensive item (say a $500 sweater) it becomes much easier to sell them a more reasonably priced one.
The Obligation Factor
Or "We have to send them a gift...they sent us one"
What do you think is the strongest motivation for sending out Christmas and holiday cards?
Yes, it's out of the goodness of your heart. And, of course, you want to share your warm wishes with your family and friends. I would never suggest any other reason.
But what about those people you never see anymore? Or even those who you don't really think of as friends or colleagues? And how about those people who -- you have to admit -- you don't even know why their names are on your list?
Psychologists did a study a few years ago where a researcher sent out cards to absolute strangers, picked at random from the telephone book. The response was amazing -- dozens of people sent back cards, even though they had never heard of the person.
When someone does something for you -- you are almost compelled to do something for them.
This, of course, is a noble trait, and much of civilization has been built on this principle. But, as direct marketers, how can we use this to our advantage?
Fund-raising companies already know the power of this principle. That's why, in the States, they will often include a small gift in their solicitation package. It could be name and address labels, it could be a small selection of greeting cards -- anything to make you feel obligated to return the favor.
Other companies send out samples of their product, such as a pen imprinted with your name on it, or a small address book. This works for two reasons: First, it is a gift and it does make you feel obligated in some small way. Second, it is very, very hard to reject something with your name on it.
The obligation principle is also effective when it is used to provide a free trial of a product. Once you've used something, and benefited from it, you are much more likely to buy it.
So, if you can do someone a favor -- even a small one -- they will be much more likely to respond to your direct mail package.
The Consistency Factor
Or "What kind of person do you think I am?"
Dean Rieck cited a California study in the March issue of Direct Marketing magazine. They asked people to put a large billboard-type sign on their front lawn that said, "Drive Carefully." Only 17% agreed to it -- which shouldn't surprise you.
They then went to a second group of similar homeowners and made the same request -- and a whopping 76% agreed to it.
What made the difference?
The second group had already been approached two weeks earlier by other researchers, who had asked them to place a tiny 3-inch sign saying "Be a Safe driver" in their windows. Almost everyone agreed to this reasonable request.
But when they did, something changed inside them. The second group now saw themselves as "concerned citizens" and "people who care enough about driver safety to take a stand." Also, they believed that's how other people saw them.
So, when they were approached again, over three-quarters of them agreed to something unreasonable just to be and appear consistent.
How this might work in direct marketing is by using an assumptive close. In other words, you might not ask people to respond, you might say something like this.
"You've proven to be an excellent judge of collectible art in the past. Your purchase of our last item has already shown to be a wise investment. That is why I know that you will want to reserve this new..."
This principle can be used even more powerfully in telemarketing.
Many companies have discovered that they can increase response when they start off the call by asking "How are you feeling this evening?" or "How are you doing today?"
They usually get a polite, friendly answer -- and dramatically improve their response.
The theory behind this tactic is that people who have just said that they are doing fine will consequently find it awkward -- and inconsistent -- to be rude (and hang up on the caller) or stingy (and refuse to help).
But then, they went further. They conducted a study where the telemarketer didn't start with a question, but rather a warm and friendly comment. So instead of asking, "How are you this evening?" the telemarketer said, "I hope you are feeling well this evening."
It was less than half as successful.
By the way, I think it was not only the consistency factor, but also the principle of involving the person.
The Authority Figure
Or "I'm not sure, but they must know what they're talking about..."
You may remember this famous TV commercial.
It opened on a well-known personality, who confided, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV." He then went on to extol the virtues of an over-the-counter headache pill.
The campaign was extremely successful. After all, who wouldn't want a headache pill recommended by...um, an actor?
We're all looking for authority figures who can tell us what to do. In particular, we want authority figures who are on our side, who can take us "into the tent" and share some insider secrets with us.
The way we can use this principle in direct marketing is by providing those authority figures for our prospects. These can be testimonials, client lists, awards or certifications, or even case-histories.
There's also another way. My colleague, Nancy Harhut, who is an extremely talented creative director for the Mullin agency, once said, "General advertising always uses celebrity presenters. Why can't direct marketers have somebody famous sign the letter?"
Wouldn't you like to get a letter from Tiger Woods?
The Scarcity Principle
Or, "The last one? I don't care what it is... I've got to have it!"
The Collectibles companies have known about this principle for years. They intentionally limit the number of plates or statues they sell, because they know it will increase response.
But the principle can apply to just about any product or service. I tested a package for a new client several years ago, where we tried to get people to attend a high-level seminar. Our goal was to get as many people as possible (the goal of most seminars). We averaged about 12 people, and the client was satisfied.
But I wasn't.
I created a very similar package with one change. We limited the number of participants to 18 -- "to ensure personal attention" and we encouraged people to reserve their place as soon as possible. Our new average number of attendees was 18, and we even had a waiting list.
The Special Consideration
"Make me feel special, and I'll follow you anywhere."
One of my clients is Brink's Home Security. They wanted to sell a deluxe system to people who lived in more expensive house.
The outer envelope I designed for them said, "This mailing will go to only 1 out of every 5,000 homes. Here's why yours is one of them..."
If you can make your prospects feel special; if you can make them believe that they're getting some extra consideration; they will respond at much higher rates.
And if you can make your customers feel special, you will never have to worry about prospects.
So do you have to be a psychiatrist to create effective direct mail? Maybe not, but a good understanding of what motivates people and how to use it to your advantage, will certainly increase response.
Besides, our time is up.
Parts reprinted with permission from http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebok3a.htm and http://www.alanrosenspan.com
Being able to read "nonverbal communication"-body language-is essential in business dealings. Problem is, we usually interpret a smile or lack of eye contact through an emotional screen, not a scientific one. Sometimes a smile is a sign of happiness-and sometimes it's a flash of contempt. Here is what modern communications science has to say about the myths of body language.
Most people call it "body language"-the clues to the meaning and intent of communication from others that we get from gesture, facial expression, posture-everything that isn't spoken. The experts call it "nonverbal communication," but it amounts to the same thing: a second source of human communication that is often more reliable or essential to understanding what is really going on than the words themselves.
Or is it? Accurate knowledge of body language is essential for success in interpersonal relations, whether in the business world or in personal life. However, much of our understanding is instinctive-and a good deal of it is wrong, according to modern communications research. What follows are some of the hardier myths, and the reality behind them.
1. A liar can't look you straight in the eye. There is a persistent belief that people with shifty eyes are probably lying. As Paul Ekman says in his classic work, Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage, "When we asked people how they would tell if someone were lying, squirming and shifty eyes were the winners. [But] clues that everyone knows about, that involve behavior that can be readily inhibited, won't be very reliable if the stakes are high and the liar does not want to be caught."
Ekman goes on to argue against attributing too much meaning to such behavior for two reasons. First of all, although this kind of nonverbal communication most reliably signals the presence of some kind of emotion, that emotion may or may not mean that someone is lying. Nervousness can, for example, manifest itself as shifty eyes. But there are many reasons for nervousness. To understand what the behavior means, you still have to interpret the emotion.
Second, Ekman has found that one group in particular excels at making eye contact that appears very sincere: pathological liars. Hence, it is not safe to rely on eye contact as a measure of sincerity or truthfulness.2. When meeting someone, the more eye contact, the better. This long-held belief is the inverse of the idea that shifty-eyed people are liars. The result is an unfortunate tendency for people making initial contact-as in a job interview, for example-to stare fixedly at the other human. This behavior is just as likely to make the interviewer uncomfortable as not. Most of us are comfortable with eye contact lasting a few seconds, but any eye contact that persists longer than that can make us nervous. We assume that there is something else going on-an attempt to initiate flirtatious behavior, perhaps. Indeed, studies on flirting show that prolonged eye contact is an early step in the process.
3. Putting your hands behind your back is a power gesture. For years presentation coaches have taught people to put their hands behind their backs in what is sometimes called the "Prince Charles" stance, in the mistaken belief that the heir to the British throne is a good model for strong body language. Since he's a prince, the thinking goes, and he stands that way a lot, it must be powerful.
Actually, the research shows that most people find the gesture untrustworthy-if we can't see what your hands are doing, we're suspicious. So if your goal is to increase trust in any given situation, don't put your hands behind your back.4. "Steepling" your fingers shows that you're intellectual. Again, this technique is one that has been taught by many speech coaches. A good deal of research over the years correlates hand gestures toward the lower part of the face with thinking-stroking the chin, propping the chin in the hand, putting a finger on the cheek. If thinking is a sign of intellectualism, we should presumably be demonstrating this trait by indulging in a lot of hand-to-face contact.
The experts distinguish between "emblems," which are gestures with specific meanings in certain cultures, and gestures, which are intended to assist meaning but lack specific content. An example of an emblem is the hand sign that indicates "OK" in the United States. The same emblem has an obscene meaning in some Mediterranean countries.
An example of a gesture is the waving of hands we all indulge in when searching for a word. Steepling falls somewhere in between; it is a gesture without any specific meaning, but it is more deliberate than a mere waving of the hands. The best that can be said about it is that it may signal intellectual pretensions on the part of the communicator!5. High-status people demonstrate their dominance of others by touching them. Another widely accepted belief is that powerful people in society-often men-show their dominance over others by touching them in a variety of ways. In fact, the research shows that in almost all cases, lower-status people initiate touch. And women initiate touch more often than men do.
In his book The Right Touch: Understanding and Using the Language of Physical Contact, Stanley E. Jones describes a study of a public health organization: "The group studied was a detoxification clinic, a place where alcoholism is treated. This was an ideal setting in which to study status, sex roles, and touching.… [The] findings showed two clear trends. First, women on the average initiated more touches to men than vice versa. Second, touching tended to flow upwards, not downwards, in the hierarchy."6. People smile when they're happy. People smile for all sorts of reasons, only one of which is to signal happiness. Ekman describes many kinds of smiles, from the "felt" or true smile to the fear smile, the contempt smile, the dampened smile, the miserable smile, and a number of others. Daniel McNeill, author of The Face: A Natural History, says, "Smiling is innate and appears in infants almost from birth....The first smiles appear two to twelve hours after birth and seem void of content. Infants simply issue them, and they help parents bond. We respond; they don't know what they're doing. The second phase of smiling begins sometime between the fifth week and fourth month. It is the "social smile," in which the infant smiles while fixing its gaze on a person's face."
Whatever their origin or motivation, smiles have a powerful effect on us humans. As McNeill points out, "Though courtroom judges are equally likely to find smilers and nonsmilers guilty, they give smilers lighter penalties, a phenomenon called the 'smile-leniency effect.'"
7. Voices rise when speakers are angry. Again, nonverbal communication reliably signals the presence of emotion, but not the specific emotion. A rising voice is associated with a variety of emotions, including anger, but also nervousness, fear, excitement, hysteria, and others. You must always consider the communicator and the context carefully. Experts like Ekman warn that unless you have a good understanding of someone's basic communication patterns, you will have little hope in accurately deciphering the person's less routine signals.
"The best-documented vocal sign of emotion is pitch," says Ekman. And yet he also says, "While most of us believe that the sound of the voice tells us what emotion a person feels, scientists studying the voice are still not certain."8. You can't trust a fast-talking salesman. The belief that speed and deception go together is a widespread and enduring one. From the rapid patter of Professor Hill in The Music Man to the absurdly fast speech of the FedEx guy in the TV commercial from a few years back, we react strongly-and suspiciously-to fast talk. People talk at an average rate of 125 to 225 words per minute; at the upper end of that range listeners typically find themselves beginning to resist the speaker. However, as Ekman says, the opposite is greater cause for suspicion. Speech that is slow, because it is laced with pauses, is a more reliable indicator of deception than the opposite.
"The most common vocal deception clues are pauses," says Ekman. "The pauses may be too long or too frequent. Hesitating at the start of a speaking turn, particularly if the hesitation occurs when someone is responding to a question, may arouse suspicion. So may shorter pauses during the course of speaking if they occur often enough. Speech errors may also be a deception clue. These include nonwords, such as 'ah,' 'aaa,' and 'uhh'; repetitions, such as 'I, I, I mean I really...'; and partial words, such as ‘I rea-really liked it.'
"These vocal clues to deceit-speech errors and pauses-can occur for two related reasons. The liar may not have worked out her line ahead of time. If she did not expect to lie, or if she was prepared to lie but didn't anticipate a particular question, she may hesitate or make speech errors. But these can also occur when the line is well prepared. High detection apprehension may cause the prepared liar to stumble or forget her line."
Most of the research into nonverbal communications shows that people are not very good at masking their feelings. Emotions do leak out regularly, in many ways. And yet, the research also shows that most of us are not as good at decoding those emotions as we would like to think. Young people are significantly worse at both signaling emotions and reading them. Although we do learn as we grow older, we should remain wary; in the end, body language conveys important but unreliable clues about the intent of the communicator. The more information you can get about the clues you are trying to decode, the more likely you will be to decode them correctly.
We do not fully understand why we sleep, but think that it restores the bodies energy supplies that have been depleted during the day. It is the time when the body does most of its repair work and when the body releases growth hormones in children. The required amount of sleep varies from person to person, but most need around about 8 hours.
It is all in the name; PHProxy is a proxy that is programmed in PHP. PHProxy is a web-based circumventor that can be easily installed on any PHP-enabled webserver in order to allow users to browse through the webserver itself as a proxy. PHProxy retrieves websites requested by the users and modifies their code so that all links in the requested websites point back through the PHProxy. In this way, users can browse through the PHProxy in order to bypass Internet censorship.
PHProxy is highly configurable:
The PHProxy script is provided free at Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/poxy/), but if you just want to use it, there are many sites that let you.
Finding a site that allows you access to this script, is quite simple. We can use Google to look for sites with pages contain the name of this script:
You might have to try a few sites before you find one that is working.
Don't
settle for topical solutions to increasing your self-worth. True
self-confidence isn't an overnight acquisition. It takes dedication to
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PHP (now a recursive acronym for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor", but originally "Personal Home Page Tools",) is a widely used open-source programming language used primarily for server-side applications, to develop dynamic web content. It can be seen as an open source alternative to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) system and to CGI/Perl system.
Its ease of use and similarity with the most common structured programming languages, most notably C and Perl, allows most experienced programmers to start developing complex applications with a minimal learning curve. It also enables experienced developers to get involved with dynamic web content applications without having to learn a whole new set of functions and practices.
One of the more attractive parts of PHP is that it is more than just a scripting language. Thanks to its modular design, PHP can also be used to develop GUI applications, and it can be used from the command line just as Perl or Python can be.
PHP allows, among other things, easy interaction with a large number of relational database systems (Oracle, DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.), while maintaining a simple and straightforward syntax. PHP runs on every major operating system, including Unix, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X and can interact with all major web servers. The official PHP website contains extensive online documentation. The Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) architecture has become very popular in the industry as a way of cheaply deploying reliable, scalable, and secure web applications.
PHP was originally designed as a wrapper around Perl by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994 to display his resume information and collect some data, such as how many hits it was generating. Others first used "Personal Home Page Tools" in 1995, which Lerdorf had combined with his own Form Interpreter to create PHP/FI. Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans, two Israeli developers of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology rewrote the parser in 1997, forming the basis of PHP 3. They also changed the name to its current recursive form. After months in beta, the development team officially released PHP/FI 2 in November 1997. Public testing of PHP 3 began immediately and the official launch came in June 1998. Suraski and Gutmans started a new rewrite of PHP's core, producing the Zend engine in 1999. In May 2000, PHP 4 powered by the Zend Engine was released. Development continues toward PHP 5 with Zend Engine 2.78.
PHP is one of the most popular server-side scripting systems on the Web. It's been widely adopted since the release of version 4, which was the first version powered by the powerful Zend Engine from Zend Technologies.
According to Netcraft's April 2002 survey, PHP is now the most-deployed server-side scripting language, running on around 9 million of the 37 million domains in their survey. This is confirmed by PHP.net's own figures, which show PHP usage measured on a per-domain basis growing at around 5% per month. In May 2003, almost 13 million domains were using PHP, based on the same source. [1]
However, PHP is not the most commonly used tool if measurements are made on a per-page basis. Another estimate in March 2002, based on searching for Web pages by their suffix, places PHP in second place at 30% of measured pages, behind 48% using Microsoft's ASP, but also shows PHP growing rapidly in market share. However, this method is notoriously inaccurate for measuring PHP popularity as some PHP systems dispense with the file names, using only directories, while other sites tend to dispense with the .php extension.
Due to PHP's popularity, a new breed of programmers has emerged who are only familiar with PHP, which in turn forced open the door towards a command line interface for PHP, along with support for GUI functions, such as Gtk or ncurses support. This is a major step for PHP, because it represents its adoption as a genuine programming language (i.e. running autonomously on a stand-alone machine, as opposed to its original purpose of serving web pages to client machines from a server).
Parts or all of this document has been reprinted from http://www.wikipedia.org.
Pricing is one of the four major components of marketing. Psychological pricing forms one of the key elements of demand pricing wherein the consumer demand is the main focus. The price and quality relationship that governs the central theme of the consumer market relationship is surrounded by uncertainty and gives the consumer the perception that higher the price, better the quality.
The science of pricing is an art in itself. Rounding off the figures may be good for basic maths but never in business. The art of setting prices for articles has been an ever challenging task in business. Keeping in mind the changing economy, heavy competition in the market and consumer affordability, the trick of pricing an article has been more on a psychological evaluation of the consumer. Pricing is usually done by keeping with industry standards. But in order to sell their products after a baseline or whole sale price has been fixed, individual business organizations have most often dealt with pricing in terms of smaller denominations such as cents and pennies.
While quoting the universal example of $9.95 or 9.99 being more attractive to consumers as compared to $10, this psychology seems to hold in business world wide. The main reason for this is that people tend to see the first figure in dollars as compared to the cents. $9 is cheaper than $10, and the cents don't figure in the perception. While shopping, consumers tend to overlook small differences in cents but go by the dollar value. And funnily, the highest single odd digit is the most psychologically favoured and 9 is that most fortunate figure of acceptance. However one cannot rule out the fact that the cents are totally ignored by the customer but the ignorance is at the subconscious level and is partial. Also the use of odd figures has a background in that it was used to curb theft by employees by way of forcing them to give change and enter the amount in the cash register a practice that was originally put forth way back in 1875 by the publisher of Chicago daily news, Melville E. Stone.
Another most popular way of attracting consumers has been introductory offers. Suppose a new toothpaste is released in market, it often sells better when its accompanied by a free sample, a toothbrush or even 25% extra toothpaste. And more so when the actual price is quoted and struck off, with a new pricing quoted in a different colour alongside to attract the consumer. Often in these cases the consumer has this inherent feeling that he is getting more for a lesser price. Sometimes he also compares another similar priced similar product with the one available on discount to satisfy himself that he is certainly getting more for the price quoted.
When an article comes to shelf with a certain price, consumers most often never question how and why it was priced. If a group of articles is priced at say in the range of $20s, the price is taken for granted and the evaluation and comparison of prices is limited to that range only even if the product may be of lower or higher value of that price. However, when the price of the same set is increased after a certain period, the consumers do not appreciate it. The tactic of increasing the price by 20% and giving a 10% discount on the same article is perceived better than just an increase in price. "Buy one take one free" is another pricing tactic to attract buyers although the offer maybe for a limited period of time. Definitely such articles sell fastest.
By increasing the price of a product by a few cents, a company can earn profit as there seems to be no complaints from the consumer as the price hovers around a key threshold point and minor increase is accepted. Consumer sensitivity in pricing can be found when the consumers have no other product to compare with or when the product is exclusive and unique. Even in such cases, when the product is bundled with a few other accessories, the aspect of consumer emotion is very much aroused and they sell better.
Above all, when a customer is satisfied, both the company and the customer are profited. But then the response to the concept of psychology pricing has always been mixed. As long as the customer is not cheated, the concept is of advantage to sellers.
CGI Proxy is a free script that is on many web pages and is a HTTP or FTP proxy. What this means is that through CGI Proxy, you can access any website that the server running it can. For example, some organizations may block the URL "http://www.hotornot.com" with their firewall, but by using CGI Proxy you can get around this blockage.
As well as providing a method to access blocked web pages, CGI Proxy can also provide some degree of anonymity. Although it is not fail proof, it can stop the website you are viewing from knowing more about you.
When an HTML resource is retrieved, it's modified so that all links in it point back through the same proxy, including images, form submissions, and everything else. Once you're using the proxy, you can browse normally and (almost) forget it's there.
The CGI Proxy script is provided free at jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/, but if you just want to use it, there are many sites that let you.
Finding a site that allows you access to this script, is quite simple. As the filename of the script is normally nph-proxy.pl or nph-proxy.cgi, we can use Google to look for sites with pages matching this filename:
Another way of finding sites that allows you access to this script, is to search for the phrase "start using cgiproxy"
You will find that the first page might be no long active, blocked or require a subscription. Just go to the next page of results and you will soon find a page offering use of CGI Proxy or that links to another page offering access to CGI Proxy.
Learning music by ear is done by repeatedly listening to other musicians and then attempting to recreate what one hears. This is how people learn music in any musical tradition in which there is no complete musical notation. Many people in cultures which do have notation still learn by ear, and ear training, often through a musicianship course at a music conservatory or college, is common practice among those who use notation extensively.
In the West learning by ear is associated with traditional and folk music, but many classical music forms throughout the world lack notation, and have therefore been passed from generation to generation by ear.
The Suzuki method of teaching music focuses on playing by ear from a very young age. In his book "Teaching from the Balance Point," Edward Kreitman, a US based Suzuki Teacher, clearly distinguishes "learning by ear" as a separate, completely different process from "learning by rote".
It is important to note that learning music by ear is quite different from playing music by ear: playing music by ear is a rare talent which few people possess, to listen to a musical work once and play it in its entirety, correctly.
There are three ways of inserting style information:
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External style sheets are the best method when you want the style to be applied to many pages. With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire web site by changing one external style sheet file. Each HTML document that you want to apply these styles to must contain a link to the style sheet using the <link> tag inside the <head></head> section:
<head>
...
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="mystyle.css" />
</head>
The browser will read the style definitions from the file mystyle.css, and format the HTML document accordingly.
An external style sheet can be written in any text editor and saved with a .css extension.
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An internal style sheet should be used when a single document has a unique style. You define internal styles in the <head></head> section by using the <style> tag, like this:
<head>
...
<style type="text/css">
body {background-image: url(images/back40.gif);}
hr {background: #ffffff;color: 0000ff;}
p {margin-left: 20px;}
</style>
</head>
The browser will now read the style definitions, and format the document according to it. If the document also contains a link to an external style sheet, the internal style declarations will over-ride any similar declarations within the external sheet.
This can be helful when you wish to re-adjust the style of a single page - for example, alter the padding on the body tag.
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An inline style loses many of the advantages of style sheets by mixing content with presentation.
Therefore, you should use this method sparingly, such as when a style is to be applied to a single occurrence of an element.
To use inline styles, you use the style attribute in the relevant tag. The style attribute can contain any CSS property. The example below shows how to change the font-style and the left margin of a paragraph:
<p style="font-style: italic; margin-left: 20px;">
This is a paragraph
</p>
Inline style will overide both internal and external style declarations.
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If some properties have been set for the same selector in different style sheets, the final value will be inherited according to the rules of Cascading Style
For example, an external style sheet has these properties for the h3 selector:
h3 {text-align: left; font-style: italic; font-size: 200%;}
And an internal style sheet has these properties for the h3 selector:
h3 {text-align: right; font-size: 100%;}
And an inline style declaration reads:
<h3 style="font-size: 80%;">...</h3>
The final values will be:
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Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instrument and began playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking out the notes as they went along. And even after these musicians master their instruments or a particular song, playing by ear still plays a large role. Many pop and rock bands don't play or write their songs based on sheet music, they figure the songs out by playing by ear. It's even common among non-musicians. Ever sit down a piano and mindlessly pick out the tune to "Mary Had a Little Lamb"? What about grabbing a guitar and suddenly finding yourself playing the opening licks to "Smoke on the Water"? That's playing by ear. You're able to play part of the song just because you've heard it so often.
Since music is basically composed of 3 elements – melody, rhythm, and harmony, it is logical that there are also 3 basic steps to learning to play music by ear:
Tunes move higher and lower – up and down – as the song progresses. Being aware of that movement is the first step. Once you mentally define the parameters of the melody, you can then begin to hone in on picking it out on your instrument. As an example, think of “Joy To The World”. We’ve all sung it a zillion times, but have you ever noticed that the melody moves down exactly 8 steps (an octave), then gradually moves back up in increments, then repeats the down movement, etc. The entire melody is contained within those 8 notes, so you now know the parameters of the song and can begin to pick out the melody intelligently.
The second element of music is harmony, and you can harmonize any melody just by matching the supporting chords to that melody. For example, if the melody is a “G”, you can harmonize that melody by using a chord with G in it, such as the G chord (G, B, D), the C chord (C, E, G), or the Em chord (E, G, B), or the Eb chord (Eb, G, Bb) and so forth. By using your ear to guide you, you can learn to harmonize the melody of most any song using matching chords.
This is usually the easiest part, since most people “feel” the beat and don’t have to do any mental gymnastics to come up with an appropriate rhythm for a song. But for those of us that might be “rhythmically challenged”, just by knowing that there are basically two meters available – duple meter and triple meter -- that can be combined in infinite combinations, we can give the song either a “3” feeling (likea waltz or a jazz waltz) or a “4” feeling (like swing or a march or a ballad).
Playing by ear is a valuable technique for many musicians; learning songs based solely on hearing them is a great way to understand song and chord structure. In fact, a great number of rock and pop musicians learned to play their instruments this way. Instead of picking up a book or taking lessons, they concentrated on figuring out the notes and rhythms to a song until it was mastered. Then they moved on to another song. And another.
Gradually, they learned their instrument just by playing by ear -- and in the process learned how to effectively structure a song in that particular genre. Playing by ear is also beneficial in helping a musician develop his or her own style; sure, they'll at first mimic the style of the song they're imitating, but the amalgamation of the music that they're playing by ear will help them create something distinctive, something indicative of them only.
