The Secrets of Poker

Have you been in a magic show? Do you feel the desire to be one of those people who can do magic and can impress a lot of people? Do you know what it takes to be one of the famous players who can do some tricks while playing their favorite game poker? Do you want to know what the basics in learning some poker tricks are? This section will help you explore and unveil the secrets of poker tricks.

Poker tricks are common attractions in casinos and gambling facilities that cater actual games of poker. Many professional poker players are eager to learn poker tricks to impress or create new image with their co-players. Learning some of these tricks will also make the experience of players in Texas Hold 'em poker more exciting and more memorable. In addition, being expert in poker tricks also allow players to enjoy the spare time that they usually spend while waiting for the next set of cards to be distributed.

There are different kinds of tricks that poker players can make. These are the chip tricks, card stunts, shuffles and flourishes. Players will enjoy learning these tricks with the help of Web sites that provide instructions and videos about how the tricks will be employed. The videos will teach players the steps involved in performing some of the most popular poker tricks.

The most basic factor that players should consider is to know the materials that they will need to successfully perform the trick. When performing chip tricks, players are advised to have two set of chips that have different colors. Having two sets of chips will help them determine whether they have successfully performed the trick or not.

Another important thing that they should consider is the length of time that they have allotted to practice or master their skill in conducting a particular chip trick. Learning how to perform the trick is easy but mastering it is the hard part. Players are advised to continue practicing the trick before they perform it to be sure that they will not be humiliated in front of other gamblers.

Once again, those who are really eager to learn how to perform the different poker tricks should surf the Internet for there are sites that contain comprehensive instructions that would help them successfully conduct the tricks. Performing poker tricks are helpful to avoid boredom during dull moments in actual poker games. Hence, being knowledgeable about these tricks will also make a player more popular to other poker gamblers.

Maintenance Tips for your Motorcycle

Bearings Maintenance
by: Seamus Dolly

Since Murphy or whoever it was, took credit for the round wheel, rolling technology has changed somewhat.

Today, friction whether static or dynamic, is reliant on bearings to reduce motor or engine load. What is sometimes overlooked is the inherent features and design of a bearings to reduce temperature where it is not necessary.

The basic requirement is to reduce contacting surface areas.

More extreme requirements are to reduce vibration, reduce allotted space required to house such a bearing, and extend their life.

Needle roller bearings are used where the load is spread length ways, and a typical or common application would be the “big end” bearings of motorcycles.

Plain bearings are still used in the big ends, of cars and most other crankshaft scenarios. The principle behind a plain bearing is that the thinner a material is, the harder it is to compress or displace it.

Plain bearings, often called bushings, can be “steel backed” with a relatively thin coating of white metal applied to the bearing contact surface. This would be the common type in the automotive big end applications, and should a piece of offensive hard material contaminate the oil, it can be safely embedded within the white metal. Should it be small enough then it is not an issue.

More plain bearings can be of a bronze base with impurities cast or sintered into them. The purpose is to absorb oil or lubricant before application, and become “self-lubricating, for a limited time anyway.

Many years before the industrial revolution, bearings were made from anything available that was considered appropriate. Timber, sometimes from apple trees but not in any way exclusive to them, have been used in windmills and water mills.

Indeed, stone bushings were not unusual.

You’ve heard of the more expensive watches been said to contain “X number of Jewels”? The purpose of such jewels was to reduce friction and associated loads. This would be a loose example of metal to stone contact.

Thrust bearings are designed to work through a different axis, and may be ball-type, cylindrical roller type or a combination of both. Taper roller bearings are an example.

High temperature bearings have in-built allowance for expansion, or to put it another way; they have more clearance.

High-speed bearings often have “cages” made from non-metallic materials. Typically, this material is tufnol or plastic.

Incidentally, in low-speed, combustion-risk situations, the cages can be made from brass as well. This is to help reduce any incidence of “sparking” between the balls/rollers and the cage itself. The reason for a cage in the first place, is to maintain distance between rollers/balls, because it is only in the cases of high low to space ratios, where no space is needed that cages are unnecessary and these are low speed applications.

Other low speed bearing/plain bushings are also “steel backed” with a coating of P.T.F.E. or other plastic on them. Again, this is to give some self lubrication properties, as well as to reduce friction.

P.T.F.E. happens to be excellent, as it has a low coefficient of friction.

Bearing failure is primarily due to misalignment and contamination. Of course, there are many variables, such as instances where undue load/other mechanical failure happens to be the case.

A common cause of failure in the case of automotives, is lack of oil or insufficient oil pressure.

Absence of proper cooling, generally, will bring excessive loads.

Bearing failure is all too often due to improper installation or fitting practices. Indeed, bearings can be “on the way out” almost immediately.

Induction coil heaters are readily available from manufacturers to ease the fitting operation, and spare the bearings undue trauma.

Mechanical shock from abuse with a hammer has destroyed many new bearings and they are destined to fail, as little actual work will verify. Indeed, I’ve seen a case where a six-year old machine was overdue some maintenance, and got new bearing fitted six times in six months. It would have been best to leave it overdue; such was the fitting skill of the men involved.

Even without the hammer, contamination while fitting, poses massive problems. Allowing foreign bodies to migrate into the bearing will have a detrimental effect.

Once fitted even, contaminants from its oil/grease/air supply can make running conditions unbearable. Clean lubricants and environments are the answer, and in the specific case of oil; clean filters, lines and the oil itself, will provide an up-time saving.


Cleaning and Lubricating Motorcycle Chain
By Yogesh Sarkar

Chain is an essential part of a motorcycle and keeping it clean and lubricated ensures that you have a trouble free smooth ride, at the same time it helps increase the life of the chain as well.

Cleaning the Chain

While there are various ways of cleaning your motorcycles chain as well lubricating it, I prefer to use the good old kerosene (if not available then petrol) to clean the chain. A small brush dipped in kerosene cleans out most of the sludge. Although it is a bit time consuming, but it usually does the trick and leaves a thoroughly cleaned chain.

However if you wish to clean the chain even more thoroughly then the best option is to remove the chain, dip it in a pot filled with kerosene and then clean it with the help of a brush. After the chain is cleaned, wipe it with a clean lint free cloth and let it hang for half an hour to dry up properly.

Lubricating the Chain

For lubricating the chain I prefer to use 90w gear oil, it is thick enough to stick to the chain properly and usually is good enough to keep the chain lubricated for roughly 1500-2000kms if the chain cover is on.

Once again the best way to lubricate the chain is to remove the chain and dip it in a pot filled with 90w oil, this way the oil penetrates all the parts of the chain. Let the chain remain inside the oil filled pot for 10minutes and then hang it for half an hour to ensure excess oil drips out (put a pot under it else the you will be left with a lubricated floor). After the excess oil has dripped out, put the chain back on and ensure you put chain lock back on properly.

If you do not wish to go in to the trouble of lubricating the chain in the above mentioned manner, then you can simply apply the oil to the chain with the help of a brush. While applying oil ensure you put a coat of oil on each side of the chain to lubricate the chain thoroughly and ensure rusting doesn’t take place.

2 stroke oil: You can also use 2t oil to lubricate the chain in the event you are unable to find 90w gear oil. However the 2t oil is only good enough for 400-500kms if the chain cover is on.

WD 40: WD 40 can also be used to clean as well as lubricate the chain; it is usually easier then above mentioned option. However it is an expensive affair and requires quite a lot of WD 40 spray to clean and lubricate the entire chain.

Chain lubes: There are chain cleaner cum chain lube spray available in the market from Motul and cleans and lubricates the chain at the same time, also it is quite easy to apply since it is only a spray. However it is quite expensive to use it on a regular basis.

Chain Cover: Removing chain cover reduces the life of the chain drastically especially in monsoon months. If you have removed the chain cover then inspect the chain on regular intervals for signs of dirt and also keep on the look out for the chain noise as a hint that chain needs to be adjusted and/or cleaned.


How to Change a Spark Plug

By David Demetre

As befits one of the most vital parts of your vehicle's engine, your spark plugs require replacement every 24 months or 30,000 miles to maintain optimal fuel economy and engine performance. You can save some money by doing it yourself.

The interval varies depending on your vehicle’s make and model. A vehicle equipped with the newer platinum-tipped spark plugs can go as far as 100,000 miles before plugs require replacement. Replacing your own spark plugs is relatively easy, as you’ll see from the instructions listed below.

The first thing you’ll want to do is gather all the tools you'll need. Of course, you’ll start with a set of new spark plugs. Add a 3/8” drive spark plug socket, extension and ratchet driver, a spark plug gap gauge, and a brush or rag and set aside some time.

Now we’re all ready to gap your spark plugs. Correct spark plug gaps can be found on the engine specifications decal underneath the hood. It’s a good practice to stick with the brand of plugs originally installed in your car at the factory. For Ford products they are Motorcraft, in General Motors products they are AC Delco; Chrysler products use Champion. Refer to a parts guide to find the correct spark plugs, or ask the salesperson in your local auto parts store.

Okay, let's get to work.

Never change your spark plugs without the engine being cold. Wait two hours after driving to let it cool off. Grasp the plug wire by the boot, give the wire a twist and cautiously pull the spark plug wire out of the end of the spark plug. Don’t pull the wires themselves or you may damage them. TIP: changing the plugs one helps avoid mixing up the spark plug wires.

Use either a bicycle tire pump or an air compressor and pump a few bursts of air to rid the spark plug area of dirt, dust or gravel. Alternatively, clean off the old plug and the area around it with a rag or small brush. These steps help prevent any foreign material from falling down into the cylinder when the plug is removed.

Remove the plug by turning it counterclockwise with a spark plug socket and ratchet. Spark plug sockets have rubber linings that prevent damaging the plug’s ceramic case. Crack it loose, spin it out until it’s off the threads, and take it out by hand.

OK, time to set the gap of the new plug with a spark plug gap gauge (Remember the proper gap is specified on the engine specs decal underside of the hood). You can buy a gap gauge at your auto parts store. Slide the correct thickness wire or feeler between the inner and outer electrodes at the tip of the plug. The feeler will slide between the electrodes with a slight drag when the plugs are properly gapped. If the gap isn’t right, slightly bend the outer electrode until you achieve the right gap. Ensure the outer electrode is inline over the inner electrode.

Next, have a look at the cylinder head threads. Are they in good condition, clean, and free of dirt? New spark plug should freely screw into the cylinder head by hand. Any binding of the plug is an indication of debris or damage in the thread. TIP: lube the plug threads with a little grease or spray lubricant before you install them, this will make for an easier removal at your next spark plug change.

Insert the new plug into the spark plug hole by hand and turn it clockwise until it's snug. After finger tightening the plug, firmly torque it with your spark plug wrench/socket. Be careful not to over-tighten the plugs.

Reattach the correct plug wire to the new plug with a twist on the boot until it's firmly seated on top of the plug. You should feel and hear a click as the wire positively clamps onto the spark plug.

Repeat all the steps for the other plugs. Even taking your time this job will probably take you less than an hour. And that’s it for another two years or 30,000 miles!

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Perfect Tips During Your Job Interview

1. PREPARATION FOR THE INTERVIEW

• Be physically and mentally prepared. Decide what to wear days before the interview. Being well-groomed and having a good appearance is essential. Have a good night's sleep, eat a healthy meal and allow plenty of travel time.
• Be on time. Before the day of the interview, make sure where the interview would be held. Take time to find out where the location of the interview is days before the actual interview. Keep in mind to leave enough time for your journey.
• Be proactive. Do research on the organization by reviewing its corporate profile and by reading some relevant information through websites and print materials. Find out the specifics of the job you are applying for and try to prepare some questions about the company - its culture, goals and mission.
• Be your best self. Spend time researching about yourself. Review your past experiences and accomplishments that may fit the needs of the company. Being able to have a grasp of your talents, skills and experiences would enable you to communicate the contributions you can make for the company.
• Be Positive. By being well-prepared, you eliminate nervousness. Just enjoy the interview and be enthusiastic when responding to the interviewer's questions. Confidence and a pleasant disposition brings out the positive energy in you.

2. THE INTERVIEW

• Relax and be yourself.
• Remember to turn off your cell phone before the start of the interview.
• Some first impression gestures are handshakes, eye contact, warm smiles, good posture and a confident introduction of self.
• If there are two or more interviewers, be sure to address all the interviewers in the room when answering the questions.
• Take time to think before you answer questions. A well-thought answer is always better than a rushed one. Try to give complete answers as much as possible and if you do not understand the question, ask for clarification.
• Use concrete experiences to illustrate important information about yourself.
• Avoid using poor or slang language to impress the interviewer. Use familiar but concise words during the interview.
• Show interest during an interview by striking a good balance between speaking and listening.
• Be honest. Answer the questions truthfully and be fair to yourself.
• Make sure to highlight your good points. This would enable the interviewer to asses your performance at work and your potentials to be an effective employee.
• When being asked about your weaknesses and failures, mention how you were able to handle the difficult situation, share the lessons you learned and the improvements you would take to convert certain weaknesses to strengths.
• Don't act desperate by telling the interviewer you are willing to take any job offered.
• If you have some points that you weren't able to discuss towards the end of the interview, take the initiative to mention a couple of things you want the interviewer to know about you.
• Before leaving an interview, ask the interviewer what the next steps would be. Know what to expect and when to hear from them.

3. AFTER THE INTERVIEW

• Thank the interviewer for the time spent with you.
• Make some notes regarding the things you learned about the company. These may be helpful for your next sets of interviews.
• Make a follow-up call to know your status and your succeeding interviews.

Learn How To Improve Your Singing Voice Instantly

All of us have to sing at some point, even if it's just a simple 'Happy Birthday'. Use these simple tips and techniques to improve your voice and your confidence.

1. Keep your arms slightly away from your body. Clasp your hands out in front of you or bring your arms to your sides and a bit forward, raising them about 6 inches in a flexible, relaxed fashion. This will allow your ribcage to fully expand and your lungs to fill to capacity. More air allows you to project your voice more strongly and clearly.

2. Keep your feet about shoulders' width apart. If you like, one foot can be further forward than the other. Make sure you're solidly balanced, but still flexible. Slightly bend your knees. If you must sing while sitting, make sure both feet are flat on the floor, with 12 inches or so between them, and that you're sitting up straight, but not stiffly.

3. Relax! Tension destroys vocal tone. Try not to let your shoulders hunch up and keep your neck from tensing. Don't force your chest up and out when you breath in. This will actually constrict your air flow. Stay in motion, however slightly. This will relax your body and your tone will sound more natural. Try gently swaying from side to side with the rhythm. You'll look better, too!

4. When you inhale, push your stomach out. This will allow you to more completely fill your lungs. As you exhale, bring your stomach slowly in, using the muscles of your diaphram (which is just under your ribcage) to control your tone.

5. If you have to hit a high note or you hear yourself singing flat (that is, if your notes are a tiny bit too low), raise your arms a little higher and smile slightly. For very high notes, try closing your eyes and turning your face up slightly.

6. Conversely, if you start to sing sharp (a tiny bit too high), bring your arms down a little lower and open your mouth slightly wider by dropping your lower jaw. Don't dip your chin towards your neck, however, as this will cause your air flow to become constricted, which will show up in your voice.

7. Find your natural volumn. Many people sing too softly, out of shyness or embarassment. This keeps them from being able to support a good tone. Others sing as loudly as possible, which can result in sharp or flat notes, as well as body tension. Singing at your natural volumn should feel good, not forced or constricted.

8. Find your best tone. Tone is strongly affected by your state of mind. You may find that you sound better when you imitate someone else, like an opera singer, pop diva or rock star. Have fun experimenting and don't hold back! You may be surprised at just how good you can sound.

9. Enjoy yourself! If you take all these tips to heart, singing could become a habit.

How to Make a Cobra With Your Hands

Steps

1. 

   
   Put your hands together as if you were praying.
2. Fold both of your ring fingers so that they touch your knuckles.
   

   
   

3. Bring your pointer finger (or index finger) behind your middle fingers. Stop after this step if you want to make a dog.

Put the fingers that the arrows are pointing to behind your ring fingers.

4. Move your pinkies down into the "mouth" of the cobra to act as the tongue.

Bring your pinkies down into the mouth of the cobra.

The pinkies will rest in this area.

5. Move the thumbs to act as the cobra's mouth.

Hissssss...

Tips

If your fingers aren't very flexible this might be a little tricky for you.

Math Tricks!!!

Here is a math trick so unbelievable that it will
Stump you.

1. Grab a calculator. (You won't be able to do this
One in your head)
2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number
(NOT the area code)
3. Multiply by 80
4. Add 1
5. Multiply by 250
6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number
7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again
8. Subtract 250
9. Divide number by 2

Do you recognize the answer? Search Math Tricks.

PowerPoint Tips & Tricks

Save Your Fonts with Your Presentation

If you're preparing a presentation that you plan to distribute to others, be sure that you check this option by clicking on the Tools button in the File/Save As dialog box. This will work for most TrueType fonts on the Windows platform.

Saving Your Toolbar Configurations

If you like to customize your UI, move toolbars around, configure toolbars, etc, then you'll want to know that all this information is stored in c:\windows\application data\microsoft\powerpoint\ppt.pcb

By copying this file, you can move your customizations to other machines.

Displaying Keyboard Shortcuts in Tool Tips

If you'd like to see the available keyboard shortcuts for menus, commands, and toolbar buttons, go to Tools/Customize, click on the Options tab, and click on "show shortcut keys in screen tips".

Getting Rid of Short Menus

Forgetting user reaction to this feature when it was introduced in Word years ago, the Office team decided to try it again. Unfortunately, it's still annoying. To see all of your options when you click on menus, go to Tools/Customize, click on the Options tab, and uncheck "menus show recently used commands".

Preview Fonts in the Toolbar

If you'd like to see previews of the actual fonts in the font selection of the formatting toolbar, go to Tools/Customize, click on the Options tab, and click "List font names in their font", click Close.

Making Auto-Fit Text Stop Auto-Fitting

Turn this feature off by going to Tools/Options, click on the Edit tab, and uncheck "autofit text to text placeholder", click OK.

Getting Rid of Tri-Pane View

Unfortunately there is no way to permanently avoid this improvement, but you can quickly get rid of it by holding down the CTRL key when you click on the Slide View button.

Using Ctrl-Drag to Copy

You can quickly make a copy of any object by holding down the CTRL key while you drag on the object. You will then "drag off" a new copy.

Making Slides Print Correctly

PowerPoint has certain defaults to determine how it prints each object on the page. You can see over-ride these defaults. Go to View/Black and White; this will show you a gray-scale preview of how your slide will print. To change the print settings for any given object, right-click on it, then click "Black and White", and then choose the appropriate print option for that object. Master objects can be selected by going to the Master page View.

Preview Slide Show Effects

While editing a presentation, hold down the CTRL key while clicking the slide show view button; this will open a tiny preview window showing that slide in slide show mode.

Setting the Default Text Style

If you want to change the style of the text that appears when you type things that aren't the title or the slide body, do the following:
Make sure no objects are selected.
From the Format menu, select Font. Make all the changes that you want there, and click OK.
From that point on, new text will be created in that style.

To Set the formatting for the title or slide body objects, go to the Slide Master and format these objects on the master.

Using Different Backgrounds within one Presentation

Users of PowerPoint 2000 and lower will only have two background designs automatically supplied with the Masters (counting both the Slide Master and the Title Master). However, you can have any design you want on any slide. From the Format menu, select Background. Check the box that says "omit background items" and this will make the slide ignore the Slide Master's design. You are now free to add whatever design you want to this slide. If you want to do this to many slides at once, go to the Slide Sorter, select the slides, and then use the Format menu command. Remember though that if you choose to do something like put a photographic background on many of your slides instead of doing it once on the Master, that your file size may increase dramatically.

PowerPoint 2002 supports multiple background masters.

Using More than One Guide

If you like using guides, but wish there were more, you can create additional Guides by simply holding down the CTRL key while dragging on an existing Guide. This will create a new guide. To get rid of guides, just drag them off the edge of the slide.

Using Guides to Measure

Make the Guides visible by using View/Guides. Then, hold down the SHIFT key while you click-and-hold a guide; the tooltip for the guide will display 0:00. As you move the guide, the distance the guide covers from the beginning of the drag will be displayed in the units of your ruler. In this way you can measure distances between objects, place guides at specific places, etc.

Creating Pages with Slides and Descriptive Text

If you want to create printable pages that have notes or descriptive text associated with each slide, PowerPoint has a feature designed to do just this called Notes Pages, or Speaker's Notes (depending on which version you're using). To view the Notes page for any slide, go to the View menu and select Notes Pages. You will see an image of your slide there, and a placeholder for adding your script, notes, or any other text you wish. You can cut-and-paste text from Word here if you like. To print these pages, bring up the Print dialog, and at the bottom of the dialog where it says "Print What:", select Notes Pages. These pages were originally designed to be used as audience hand outs (with space for the audience to take notes) but were also used by many as speaker's notes: the text block would have the script of the presentation, to be used by the speaker, or for sales binders to educated sales people.

Making Presentation Files Smaller

Prior to PowerPoint 97, there was no internal file compression code inside of PowerPoint, and files could get pretty big quickly. The most common cause of large files is the addition of large bitmaps. PowerPoint 97 compresses these bitmaps, but previous versions do not. To keep your presentations as small as you can, try reducing the resolution of your bitmaps, which will bring their size down tremendously. For viewing on screen, the bitmaps don't need to be more than 96 dpi; they won't print nicely until they're up around 150 or higher, but the screen always displays at 96 dpi, so if the primary viewing medium is the screen, there's no point in having the bitmaps be a higher resolution. Also, the bitmap format can make a big difference to your file sizes. JPEG and PNG both have good internal compression code. GIF has some, but not as good as JPEG. BMP files are the largest; TIFF files will also be very large.

Sometimes, as you're working on a presentation, you'll notice that the file seems to get bigger for no reason. To get rid of this "bloating", save the file using "File/Save As" and give the file a new name. This can reduce the file size up to 50%.

Building Presentations for Distribution to Others

If you're making a PowerPoint presentation that you intend to distribute to lots of different people, here are some important things to watch out for that will cause problems:

1. Stick with the fonts that come installed with Windows; Fancy fonts that appear on your machine will cause problems if everyone else doesn't have them.

2. Avoid embedding sounds and videos: these will not go from Mac to Windows gracefully, and you have to be very careful about how you insert the files in order to get them to "travel" properly. See the FAQ section for more information on this.

3. Try looking at the presentation on a different platform (Mac vs Windows); be prepared for some visual changes in your file--the version or platform may not support some of the features you've put in, so be sure to sanity check your file on several different machines and versions BEFORE you distribute it!

Easily Changing from Caps to Lower Case (or Vice Versa)

If you have text that is in the wrong case, select the text, and then click Shift+F3 until it changes to the case style that you like. Clicking Shift+F3 toggles the text case between ALL CAPS, lower case, and Initial Capital styles. You'll be surprised how often you use this once you get the hang of it!

Nudging Objects

You can use the arrow keys to move objects very small distances. This is a big win for those laptop users who no longer have mice. Select the object, then use your arrow keys. Each press of the key will move the object on "grid unit" (1/12th of an inch, don't ask why); if you hold down the ALT key while nudging, or if you have the grid turned off, you can move the objects one pixel at a time.

Saving Across Multiple Diskettes

From the File menu, select Pack and Go. This wizard will compress your PowerPoint presentation and copy the file onto as many floppies as are necessary. Be sure to format a bunch of floppies BEFORE you start the process, and make sure they are empty. This feature requires PowerPoint 95 or higher.

Subliminal Messages

These can be pretty hysterical in the right circumstances. Create a text object. With the text object selected, click on the Animation Effects button on the tool bar (the one that looks like a yellow star), and then click on the "flash once" button. Go to slide show and see the message quickly flash and then disappear.

Editing Drawings

Anything you draw with the pencil tool, you can edit. To get the object into "points mode", either double-click on the object, or select it then hit the Enter key. You will then see points at every vertex, which you can move. You can add points by holding down the shift key and clicking, you can subtract points by holding down the ALT key while clicking, and you can of course just drag points around.

Soft Shadows

You can create "soft" shadows for square or round objects that sit on a solid color background. Make a copy of the object, then change its fill to be shaded from black to the background color, with the shading set with black going from the center out to the background color at the edges. Make this object about 150% bigger than the original object, and put it behind the object. This will give you the effect of "soft" shadows.

Selecting Small Objects

Hit the ESCAPE key to insure that nothing is current selected, then repeatedly hit the TAB key, which will toggle you through a selection of all of the objects on a slide. This is useful for selecting very small objects, or objects that are covered up by other larger objects.

PowerPoint System Requirements

Mac PowerPoint 1.0 Original Macintosh or better System 1.0 or higher 512K RAM
Mac PowerPoint 2.0 Original Macintosh or better System 4.1 or higher 1 MB RAM	Windows PowerPoint 2.0 286 PC or higher Windows 3.0 1 MB RAM
Mac PowerPoint 3.0 Macintosh Plus or better System 7 or higher 4 MB RAM	Windows PowerPoint 3.0 286 PC or higher Windows 3.1 2 MB RAM
Mac PowerPoint 4.0 68020 Mac or better System 7 or higher 8 MB RAM	Windows PowerPoint 4.0 386 PC or higher Windows 3.1 8 MB RAM
	Windows PowerPoint 95 (7.0) 386 DX PC or higher Windows 95 6 MB RAM
Mac PowerPoint 98 (8.0) PowerPC or better 16 MB RAM	Windows PowerPoint 97 (8.0) 486 PC or higher 8 MB RAM
Mac PowerPoint 2001 (9.0) Power PC or better, at least 120 MHz 48 MB RAM minimum Mac OS 8.5 or higher	Windows PowerPoint 2000 (9.0) Pentium, 75 MHz+ Windows 95 or higher 20 MB RAM
	Windows PowerPoint 2002 (10.0) Pentium III processor Windows 98 or higher 40 MB Ram

How to LOOK good. Best Grooming Tips for Men.

Men now spend more time on the way they look. How men present themselves
at work, in their social and home lives has become so much more
important.
Here are 8 top ways to look cool and feel more confident.

Here's How:

1. Good skin care is easy. Soap or lotion and moisturising are the
two main ways you can improve the look of your skin. Pick a
moisturiser with sun protection because sun damage is the main
factor that ages skin. Vitamin E thelps to revitalize your skin.
Skin products that include retinol help minimize fine lines and
help prevent wrinkles to a degree.

2. Acne. There are now lots of creams, soaps, cleansers, and
medications to treat spots and acne treatments for men. Try a
medicated soap, a cream to apply to the spots and a concealer.
Change products if they are not working.
Don't put up with bad acne. Go to your family doctor if that does
not work. He or she will probably treat you or refer you to a
specialist in dermatologist. Antibiotics and specialised creams
will help to get rid of them. Your confidence will improve 100%.

3. Body odor. A bit of body smell can be a turn on, huge amounts of
acrid stench are a definite no-no. Wash and shower as often as
necessary. Anti perspirants and deodorants help regulate odor and
sweat.

4. Get a good hair cut. Spend out; often the more expensive salons
tend to keep up to date with fashion trends and products and can
offer hair care that makes the most of what you have. Use a
shampoo that is appropriate for your hair type and makes your hair
look good.

If you want to change your hair color the best way is to get it
done professionally. Badly done color changes can say many
negative things about you as a person, unless of course bizarre is
good for your ?alternative? image.

5. Hair styles often need products for the best results. Waxes, gels,
sprays, mousses and volumizers can help keep hair styles to stay
looking good.

Balding hair looks best short, very short. No combing long hair
over the top of a balding head.

6. A balanced diet containing fresh vegetables and fruit is good. It
keeps you healthy and improves skin and hair. Try limiting your
fast food intake. Dietary food supplements and vitamins can help
when a normal healthy diet is not possible or if you become
deficient in some way.

7. Get enough exercise. Use everyday opportunities to avoid a
sedentary life. Walk rather than take the elevator. Avoid using
your car for very short journeys. Joining a gym or sports club
will encourage you to exercise. It can be very good for the social
life too, a good way to meet new people.

8. Clothing. Keep it clean, smart and trendy!
Oral hygeine: Keep teeth clean, visit the dentist, use a mouth wash.
Nails: keep them trimmed, clean and don't bite them.
Socks and underwear- change at least daily.

Top 7 Tips to Make Your Thesis Project Better

Thesis project is a kind of a paper that gives you an opportunity to assert
yourself as a personality and a young researcher. In order to use this
opportunity, you should know how to make your thesis unique and
exclusive.

Do not allow your reader to get bored.

Try to be interesting. Your thesis committee would definitely like to see an absolutely
new vision of the problem in your thesis project. It is better to attract the
reader’s attention by making a catchy title of your thesis project;

Use details and examples of your personal experience.
A good thesis project is the one based on personal research conducted.
So, conduct several interviews to explain how your conversation with the experts or
witnesses influenced your vision of the problem under consideration;

Be brief. Diffusion always affects badly. Too long sentences in
your thesis project can confuse your reader, giving him/her no
opportunity to understand what you mean.
Short sentences are easier to perceive, they are more exact, since related only
to the topic of your thesis project;

Avoid repetition.

Use links.
Remember that a good link between the sentences of your thesis project results
from the natural emergence of your thoughts. Do not misuse the repetitions in
the text of your thesis project as well;

Use Active voice. Exceeding use of Passive voice makes your narration blush and arid;
Follow your thoughts.
It is important for your sentences to convey one idea.
Keep it in your mind; Check and proofread.
It is the first step to improve your thesis project.
Cut all odd sentences and make your thesis project perfect.
Follow the tips presented, and you will certainly make your thesis project better.

Security experts rate the world's most dangerous exploits

Criminal hackers continue to penetrate many more company networks
than most administrators care to admit, according to two security
experts who offered a list of the most effective exploits used to gain
entry.
Topping the list is an attack dubbed super-flexible pivoting. It
abuses Linux machines connected to a network's DMZ, or demilitarized
zone, to bypass corporate firewalls and access sensitive resources on
an internal network. The technique has already been used to steal vast
amounts of data, including "millions of credit cards," said Ed Skoudis,
a senior security consultant for InGuardians, a security company that
frequently responds to major network breaches.
"If the bad guy can get control of one of your DMZ machines, he
doesn't need to make inbound connections there anymore," Skoudis said
during a panel at the RSA security conference. "Instead, he can make
outbound connections that effectively give him inbound access on your
internal network."
Another powerful exploit Skoudis is seeing frequently is the
evolution of an attack known as pass the hash, which is used to
penetrate Windows servers. Windows authentication works by checking a
user's cryptographic hash, rather than password. Attackers can steal
the hash by exploiting a simple unpatched browser or application
vulnerability and then injecting it into the memory of the Windows box.
Although pass the hash has been around for a decade, the attacks
have remained successful. That's in part thanks to a proliferation of
software that streamlines the exploit.
Skoudis was joined by Johannes Ullrich, the CTO of the SANS Internet
Storm Center. Together, they presented their list of the world's most
dangerous new attack techniques and ways organizations can protect
themselves against them.
"The real big problem here is user education," Ullrich told a
standing-room audience. "And user education is more than going to the
user and saying don't click on it. User education also means getting
your own house in order."
Too many organizations are still failing to patch applications such
as Adobe's Flash and Reader, he added. In other cases, they aren't
teaching employees how to avoid social-engineering attacks on social
networking sites and elsewhere.

Other dangerous exploits include:
Advances in wireless attacks, such as those that hack a client
machine and then use it to connect to an access point tied to a
corporate network. Interestingly, this is easier to do with Windows
Vista and Windows 7 than their predecessors, Skoudis said.
Attacks that take advantage of shortcomings in SSL, or secure
sockets layer. The most glaring are SSL's focus on failed connections
rather than those that are successful and the number of banks that
still use non-SSL login pages.
Attacks against unprotected VoIP, or voice over IP, systems. Since
the beginning of the year, there have been some 5,000 scans of port
5060 every day. That's about five times the rate as in all of 2008,
said Ullrich, who monitors internet activity using half a million
sensors across the globe. The take-away is that admins should assume they've already been hacked.
"I believe that a determined but not necessarily well-funded
attacker can pretty much break into any organization," Skoudis said.
"If you think it's less than 50 percent, I think you need to look a
little more carefully."

How to Teach a Dog Tricks

Dogs are man's best friend, and they wish to please us. This can mean behaving and doing what they are asked to do. "Sit" and "stay" are good for well-behaved dogs, but tricks like "shake," "roll over" and "play dead" are also fun.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step1

Give treats. Dogs react to food. Give small treats to reinforce good behavior as you teach a dog tricks. As they learn, take away the treats a little at a time until they are obeying commands without food.

Step2

Repeat the action. Repetition is key when you teach a dog tricks. They need consistency to understand what action they are being asked to perform, and repeating the action solidifies the learned behavior.

Step3

Work with the dog every day. Training has to be done on a regular basis in order for the information to stick with the dog. Taking time every day will ensure that the tricks that have been learned in the past will continue.

Step4

Use a clicker. Food is a good option, but seeing as dogs process information with their sense of hearing and smell more than humans, using a clicker to train is helpful. They can be purchased at any pet store. To properly use a clicker to teach a dog tricks you must familiarize the dog with the sound and follow it with the command. You can still use treats as a reward, but the clicker can be the main training tool.

Step5

Use verbal and physical commands. Dogs can associate a word and a hand motion with different actions. When you tell the dog to roll over with your words and hands, it will help them to comprehend what is being asked of them.

Hog/Pig Raising Tips

In almost every rural household in the Philippines, hog raising is a very popular enterprise such that there is a proliferation of backyard producers, which dominates the swine industry.

Other than providing a secondary source of income for small families, hog raising is a fast growing home based business in the Philippines which has the potential for high profits in a relatively short period of time.

Selection Criteria for Hogs

When selecting breeder sows on the basis of physical appearance, consider the following:

• The gilt should have well-developed udder with a minimum of six pairs of properly spaced function teats. A sow with poor udder development is likely to have poor milking capacity.
• Choose those which do not have inverted teats for such teats are inherited and do not secrete milk.
• A long body is more desirable in sows because it provides more space for udder development.
• The body should have uniform width from front to rear.
• Good development of the ham, loin and shoulder is required of a breeding animal.
• Must have sound and well-placed feet and legs. Animals with medium short feet and short upright pasterns are preferable.
• Make it a point to select the biggest animals within a litter.
• Female breeders should come from a litter of eight or more good-sized piglets with high survivability.
• Do not keep gilts that come from sows in which agalactia (failure to secrete milk) have been observed.
• Select vigorous and hardy pigs from a healthy litter in a herd raised under good swine sanitation. Do not keep gilts or boars or breed from litters that have physical abnormalities. These may be inherited.

Most of the factors discussed in connection with a selection of gilt or sow also apply in the selection of a boar. However, the following pointers should also be considered:

• Masculinity, both in appearance and action, should predominate in the make-up of any boar.
• The primary sex organs should be clearly visible and be well developed. Select only those boars whose testicles are of equal size.

However, it is best to select a boar that has been proven and tested to overcome the defects of the herd. Minor defects in the boar may be ignored provided that they are not present among the sows.

Generally, boars should be four to six months old at the time of selection.

Housing

Hog houses must be constructed properly to ensure maximum performance of the pigs. A good hog house may not improve the health conditions of the animals but a poor one will certainly increase disease problems easily.

For a small or backyard operations, cheap and locally available materials may be used such as bamboo and nipa.

Hog houses should be constructed on a slightly sloping and well-drained area so that it will not become too muddy and convenient to work in.

Permanent hog houses should have concrete floors for easy cleaning and to minimize the occurrence of parasites and diseases. Concrete floors must not be too rough to cause foot and leg problems nor too smooth to be slippery when wet.

Facilities and Equipment

Provide the pig house with the proper equipment such as feeders and drinking troughs. Feeders and water troughs are best made of concrete although other materials may be used. Some people use discarded automobile or truck tires cut in halves.

In bigger operations, farrowing stalls are important to reduce piglet mortality due to crushing of piglets.

Heat lamps or electric brooders are needed for survival of newborn pigs. In places where the use of heat lamps is not possible, a box lined with old sacks or thickly bedded straw, rice hull or saw dust can keep the pigs warm and comfortable.

Marketing

Marketing is the last job done on growing-finishing pigs. Choosing a market is one of the important decisions a hog producer must make before sale of slaughter hogs. The market selected may affect income and profitability.

Prices vary among markets. Marketing costs, such as selling charges, transportation, also vary. Shrinkage or the difference between the original weight of livestock and that after it has been prepared for market, will also affect the price. Consequently, hog producers need to be aware of alternative markets and to choose the one which yields the greatest net return.

Hogs are marketed when they reach at least 80 kg, which would usually take around five to six months to achieve. Marketable hogs may be sold to middlemen who usually act as buying or selling agents, direct to meat processors without the intervention of a middleman, or in auction markets where animals are sold to the buyers who offer the highest acceptable price per kilo liveweight or per head.

When a large number of hogs will be marketed, the producer must observe proper shipment and transport handling to minimize losses due to shrinkage, bruises, injuries and possible deaths. Here are some tips:

• When transporting hogs, separate the large animals from small pigs by a partition.
• Provide loading facilities for easier and proper loading of pigs.
• If necessary provide beddings of sand or saw dust. When the weather is hot, wet down the beddings before loading to keep the pigs cool and comfortable.
• Do not overload or under-load the truck.
• Do not excite or over-heat hogs. Give the hogs enough rest and leave them undisturbed until they are butchered.
• Do not overfeed hogs before transport to avoid suffocation or vomiting.

Risks and Rewards

Swine production has many advantages:

1. Swine convert feed to meat more efficiently than cattle or chicken do
2. Swine are prolific, commonly producing two litters per year and from six to twelve pigs per litter.
3. Swine excel in yield of useable carcass compared to other animals that produce red meat. Dressing yield is from 65 to 80 percent for swine.
4. Hogs can convert some wastes and by-products into meat. Examples are garden waste and some types of garbage. (Garbage such as food and garden scraps should be cooked before being fed to hogs to help prevent the spread of disease.)
5. Very little labor is required.
6. It is possible to get by with a small investment for buildings and equipment.
7. Returns come quickly. A gilt (young female swine) may be bred at eight months, and the pigs are ready for slaughter six months after farrowing.
8. Hogs are an excellent source of home-processed meats. This is due to their ease of dressing and to the superior curing and keeping qualities of pork.

But then there are also drawbacks:

1. A hog’s diet must rely more heavily on concentrates, which are expensive, than on roughage, which is cheaper.
2. Production requires fairly careful management to achieve good results.
3. Swine are very susceptible to numerous diseases and parasites.

source: Miko Santos of sunstar.com.ph

How to build a home made wifi antenna

Many of you have probably already seen this on The Screensavers, but we wanted to test this out for ourselves.
The whole concept came from this website here: Freeantennas.com

The idea is to boost the output from your wireless access point. The design is based on a Deep Dish Cylindrical Parabolic.



This is what you'll need: some construction paper, scissors, a glue stick, aluminum foil and the antenna template. You can get the template HERE.

Now the template was a bit big for my needs so i resized the two pictures down to 75 % in paintshop and then printed them out.



First i trimmed off the excess paper of the template to fit the construction paper i happened to have. I then glued the template on to the construction paper using the glue stick. This is to give the antenna some strength.



Using the scissors i cut out the template now stuck to the construction paper and followed the pattern's lines that needed to be cut.



Next i cut the six slits out of the rectangle piece and the glued the aluminum foil onto it. After gluing and wrapping the rectangle part in foil, i used the slits i cut before to cut through the aluminum. Continue reading here

How to Make a Mango Float

If you have a couple of mangoes, graham crackers and condensada or sweetened creamer, you are ready for this. Mango Floats are easy to make. They are delicious, too! Why not try?
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Ingredients

* Mangoes
* Graham Crackers
* Cream
* Condensada or Sweetened Creamer

Steps

1. Prepare the bowl.
2. Mix the cream and condensada.
3. Slice the mangoes into thin and small slices.
4. Put a layer of graham crackers at the bottom.
5. Spread a layer of the cream.
6. Put a layer of mango slices.
7. Repeat the last three steps until its almost to the top.
8. Add a final layer of cream.
9. Crush graham crackers and put them on the top.
10. Put it in the freezer or refrigerator.
11. Make sure it is cold when served.
12. Enjoy!


Tips

* Don't make the mango slices too small!
* Make sure you have enough mangoes.

Warnings

* Don't crush your hands!
* It tastes awful if not chilled.
* Children must do this with at least an adult helping them.


Things You'll Need

* A bowl that's flat at bottom and rectangular
* Mixing spoons
* A knife
* Something to crush with.

NASA talks little green men with Vatican

It's a good time to be a Catholic and a cosmologist. Heretic stake burnings are at an all-time low, and the Vatican has even warmed to the idea of ETs out there in the infinite expanse.

So, it was a notably un-charred and still-communicated Father George Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory, who stopped by NASA's Ames Research Center Thursday night to chat about the possibility of life on other plants.

The verdict's still out of course, pending solid evidence or otherworldly visitation, but Coyne seems extremely open to the possibility. It's a fertile universe after all.

Coyne was joined NASA Ames Center astrobiologist Lynn Rothschild at an evening discussion for the Commonwealth Club and the Yale Club of Silicon Valley. Curiously enough, Coyne spent his time talking about the possibilities of life outside of Earth while Rothschild focused on its limits.

The trick with most space-bound concerns is that the universe is so extremely large and old. About 159,302,326 times as old as Golden Girls' Bea Arthur, in fact. So, to put the entire final frontier into perspective, Coyne preferred to condense the universe's timeline into something a bit more manageable.

Suppose we took our 13.7 billion-year-old universe and condensed it to the age of a single year, illustrated Coyne. If the big bang occurs January 1, it's not until September 4 that life on Earth begins. Dinosaurs debut on Christmas day and the first humans don't arrive until 11:58 pm. In that same minute, Jesus is born, said Coyne. One minute later, Galileo observes a heliocentric galaxy and spends his last years under house arrest by orders of the Inquisition.

"The age of the universe is so large in comparison to any history we have, this is what happens when we make it comprehensible to us," said Coyne.

"I've never met a humble or modest astronomer, but we should be," cracks Coyne. "We've been studying a universe that's a year old, and we've been doing it for one second with modern science. So if we don't know everything, give us a bit more time."

But if the Jesuit priest believes extraterrestrials could be out there, where does God fit in? Do little green men read little green Bibles? Will Earth ever get missionaries from the Church of Laser-day Saints?

Going back to his one-day universe model, Coyne again must shrug his shoulders. "All our religious traditions — all I hold dear — God has been speaking to us for two seconds. So, if there's intelligent life, if God did speak to them, I don't have the slightest idea. I haven't absorbed what God has said to us in the last two seconds."

Coyne isn't one to shy away from scientific certainty when there's evidence to go on. Although he left his 30-year post at the Vatican with honors, the American Jesuit priest is believed to have been removed after repeatedly contradicting Pope Benedict XVI's endorsement of the "intelligent design" hypothesis.

The question of whether life outside Earth can exist is made more difficult by the fact that we don't know how life here jumped the gap* from inorganic chemicals to Paris Hilton.

Rothschild outlined some of the prerequisites we know about for life as we know it: a healthy amount of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, as well as a solvent to work the biochemistry like liquid water. Then we need to worry about the proper PH value, salinity, desiccation, chemical extremes, pressure, and radiation.

Then there's time. "We have no idea how long it takes for life to arrive," said Rothschild. "Life by definition is very complex, so we have this feeling that it takes an enormous amount of time -- but it could be simple."

"We do not know yet the jump from the conditions of life and life itself," concurred Coyne. "We don't know the origins for life under our own feet."

Coyne says his faith and science don't need to be contradictory terms. "There is a measure of faith in science," he said. For example, "I trust the age of the universe is 14 billion years when I do my science."

"But the truth is not democratic," Coyne continued. "There's an interplay of being skeptical, but you can't do anything if you're skeptical about everything."

Rapidshare is definitely the best source of file direct-downloads and a quick-access online file depository in the Web.

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How to make Vodka

One of the most popular drinks of all, Vodka never fails to lift spirits with it strong taste. It can be consumed neat as well as mixed with juices and other ingredients to make popular cocktails like Screwdriver, Greyhounds, Bloody Mary, etc. It sometimes becomes a bit difficult to go to a pub or a club to get your favorite vodka. Good news for all those who have enough time and patience with them! Vodka can be easily made at home, though it requires certain equipments, loads of patience and ample time. It is recommended that those who know how to distill alcoholic beverages should make vodka at home as improper distillation may cause irreversible damage to the health. If that is not the case, you must take help from a professional or an expert.

Easy Homemade Vodka Recipe

* Cleanliness is of utmost importance while preparing vodka at home. Even a miniscule foreign particle can spoil the flavor of the vodka you are preparing. Clean your equipments with a mixture of water and bleach. Make sure every corner is carefully cleaned and thereafter dried.
* Next, you need to produce a mash. Take your carbohydrates like sugar, potatoes, grain, etc. and convert them into alcohol molecules. It is best to consult a cook book for getting the exact proportion and ingredients for a particular type of vodka. For instance, to make a mash out of grain, mix it with purified or distilled water and heat it. Then add some yeast to it and let it settle (preferably one or two weeks). You need to use the best water while creating a mash, like distilled or purified.
* Now comes the distillation process. Put the mash in the boiling chamber and start heating it. Due to the heat, the alcohol will evaporate and the vapors will move through the cooling tubes and get collected in the collection chamber. The key to get clearer and smoother vodka is by distilling it more than two times.
* Remember to discard the first and the last 50 milliliters of the beverage you collect. This is supposed to be very bad alcohol and can cause some very serious health problems if ingested. It is also known to cause even blindness due to its toxicity. Don’t ever ingest the first or the last vodka.
* The next step would be that of filtration. This process will remove the roughness of the vodka and make it smoother. Vodka is usually filtered through activated carbon filtration. Usually, high quality vodka goes through as many as seven filtrations. Take a funnel, place some cotton in the bottom and stick some activated carbon to it. Now slowly pour the distilled vodka through it, into a bottle. Repeat as many times as possible.
* What you collect in the bottle is definitely filtered vodka but this vodka is very strong. Thus, dilution is necessary to make it fit for drinking. Take pure water or distilled water to dilute it in a ratio of 3:4. Your vodka is ready. For adding flavor, you can add fresh berries, peppers, horseradish, orange rind or vanilla bean to the vodka. Let it settle for some 10 days after which the vodka will acquire that flavor.

Get smart about skills today for tomorrow's jobs

Commentary - Over the next five years, the United States is expected to help lead the way in the development of smart systems that will address some of the world's most pressing issues.

For example, we can expect to see new systems that will control carbon emissions and optimize automobile traffic in major cities; track food moving through the global supply chain; capture and deliver solar and wind energy; and better monitor and improve the quality of health care.

While this future sounds exciting, getting there will require today's high school and college students to develop a unique skill-set never seen before. This is why governments, industry and academia are now collaborating to develop 21st century skills for the workforce – an area that literally combines critical thinking, creativity, and innovation with leadership, global awareness, and technology literacy - to help students get prepared for the jobs of tomorrow.

If you’re a student or a parent of a student looking at a career in practically any industry, or even a professional just starting off, here are some key trends you need to know about skills to help you chart a course toward the coming job market.

First, it’s not all about IT: The most highly sought-after U.S. workers will not be comprised of programmers, coders or operations workers. Instead, they’ll be project leaders, enterprise architects, systems analysts and business process engineers – jobs that embody the notion of 21st century skills.

Those who understand business principles and add value through IT are going to be essential in this new professional landscape. For example, Jason Freedman, a student entrepreneur who designed a Facebook application called Open Vote that enables peers to poll each other, was successful in launching the company only because he understood both the business model and the technology behind the application.

Using input from his peers, he envisions ways in which he can help enterprises or policymakers make important decisions such as the roll-out of an affordable electric car or new ways to tackle energy demands.

No matter if you or your student are in an MBA program, learning graphic design or pursuing an engineering degree, choose courses designed to help you forecast trends, understand business concepts, think creatively and communicate well with others. Seek out internships with companies that offer exposure to these skills. These skills might come in handy when you’re asked to model a scenario in which solar technology has to be scaled to power 5th Avenue’s fashion industry.

Get acquainted with the area of project management and process design. With multiple parties, vendors and teams involved in the projects of the future, tomorrow’s workers will have to know how to manage projects involving a variety of sources and locations.

Using your skills, you might then assemble a global team of engineers to design your prototype that would be used as a proof of technology to obtain additional research and matching funds to bring the project to fruition.

For example, in implementing a new service for the retail industry using RFID tags to help shoppers find, say, a clutch that exactly matches a wedding dress, you could be designing a process that brings together RFID technology suppliers, mobile phone vendors and a chain’s outlets.

Finally, there are technology skills that will remain in demand, especially when paired with the aforementioned skills. These skill areas include: mainframe systems analysis, design and auditing; IT security planning and management; data and storage administration; Web application development and business intelligence operations, such as data warehousing and data mining.

Even if you’re not going for an IT degree, there are plenty of other ways to get these skills. Students can now tap into internet resources available through IBM and others that provide tools, tips and tutorials on all of these topics, as well as collaborative learning communities that help share and build knowledge.

Getting smart about your skills today, which must include a balance of deep technical skill and an interdisciplinary approach to business, will help you find that dream job tomorrow.

By KevinFaughnan @ ZDnet News

HOW TO MAKE MOIST BANANA CAKE

Tips For Making Banana Cake

• Choose the correct banana.

To have a great-tasting banana cake, choose an overripe banana with plenty of black specks. It has more sugar content, which softens the texture of the cake. An underripe banana will give a bitter taste (mapakla). Lacatan, latundan, and bongolan from Davao are the best types to use. Market vendors would benefit from making overripe bananas into muffins, bread, and cookies instead of throwing them away.

• Use molasses.

Molasses, the remaining syrup found in sugarcane juice, is used in this recipe to make the cake softer, and give it an aromatic smell and nice golden color. Molasses is strong in flavor and blending it with other ingredients will make it more appetizing.

• Use oatmeal.

Aside from being a healthy ingredient (oatmeal reduces cholesterol), oatmeal will help keep the cake moist for days (even for cookies and brownies) because it has almost no gluten content. For hamburger, oatmeal makes the patties softer and moist.

Moist Banana Cake

4 whole eggs (about 1 cup eggs)
1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup fresh milk
1 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups overripe banana (bongolan, lacatan or latundan)

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F or 175°C.

Line a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with wax paper.

Beat in a bowl with a hand mixer at high speed or heavy-duty mixer for two minutes the eggs, granulated and brown sugar, molasses, salt, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Turn the mixer to low, and add milk and cooking oil. Mix for a few seconds to blend. Add flour and oatmeal, and mix until there is no more visible trace of flour. Add the mashed bananas. Increase the speed to high, and mix for another 30 seconds.

Pour the batter and spread on the lined pan. Bake for 70 minutes or until a cake tester or barbecue stick inserted in the cake center comes out clean. Cool in a pan, then loosen out and invert. Remove the wax paper.

You can also bake the batter in 24 paper-lined 2-1/2-inch muffin pans for 20 to 25 minutes.

Chef Erns’ Top 5 Banana Cakes

There is only one entry in this week’s list of top banana cake: the Baguio Country Club banana cake. The highest quality in taste, this dessert will be moist even if refrigerated for days. I’ve tried many other kinds of banana cake, but this is the best.