What to Look for When Choosing a Japanese Translator
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
In the modern world of globalization, your company must deal with many languages and customs. So what do you look for when hiring a translator?
Localization, it means understanding the culture and adjusting the sales copy for it. Betty Crocker once designed a cake mix to be used in rice cookers. The company was targeting housewives in Japan. The venture was a total failure. You see, the Japanese hold rice as sacred and feared that baking cakes in the same machine that produced rice would somehow affect the rice.
On another note, I once did some work for a Japanese company that was proud of the horse oil in a cosmetic product they wanted to market in America. American people love horses they don’t want to wear them. Which leads me to my next point…
Translators should always translate into their native language because that way they can make sure that everything is culturally correct–something you can’t get just by be fluent in a foreign language.
Translator should either be living in their home countries or have strong ties to their home country. Why you ask? Well languages are living and thus subject to constant change… Do you really want your translator using the equivalent of 1950’s language on your sales copy? Well then swell.
Generally, translators specialize in an area matched to their education. That means that you should choose a translator based on their field of expertise. A medical doctor will probably not be a great translator for a legal contract and so on.
When choosing a translator, it pays to make an informed decision. Basically, you’re betting your company’s whole future on the ability of the translator to perform…not just translating the words but making sure they are appropriate for the target audience. So to summarize, here is what you need to look for:
*Translate towards their mother tongue.
*Your translator should live (or have very strong ties to) in their native country.
*The translator should be an expert in your company’s market.
If you remember those three facts, you’ll be ahead of the competition when looking for a translator.
Amazing, Affordable and Simple LCD Monitor Repair Tutorial
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
The LCD Monitor Repair Guide will take you through everything you need to know about LCD Monitor Repair. From absolute beginner level right through to being a professional troubleshooter. Visit the LCD Monitor Website for more information.
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You will learn from which websites to order LCD Monitor lamps. Which websites to order LCD spare parts. Which websites to buy LCD Monitor components and where you can download free LCD Monitor schematic diagrams.
A wealth of information that comes from years of research. The number of times you will refer back to this E-book year after year will prove it’s value. You will not find this in any bookstore.
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This amazing, affordable E-book is unlike anything else out there. A step-by-step blueprint for guiding you how to easily repair LCD Monitors. Written by a professional electronic repairer and LCD Monitor instructor.
Our Kind of Leader
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I watched an incredible leader at work the other day. And I’m still touched by the experience.
I was catching a flight from Dallas to Atlanta, as I was in the middle of a weeklong business trip. It was the end of the day, and everyone on the plane was ready to get home. You could see it in their eyes. I had just settled into reading a magazine I’d been carrying with me for four days, when I saw a gentleman come out of the first class cabin to talk to the woman sitting in front of me.
He was probably 35 years old, and he had this gentle way about him. He was carrying his cell phone on his waist and holding the earpiece in his hand. You could tell he had a lot going on in his life — he just had that look — but you wouldn’t know it by his presence. Not at all.
It turns out this woman works for him, and he wanted to know how she was planning to get home once the plane landed. She told him her husband was picking her up at the airport.
The coolest thing happened that caused me to stop reading and listen in on their conversation. He said, “Why don’t I drop you off? I have a car service waiting for me when we land, and it’ll save your husband a trip through that horrible traffic. You’ve worked so hard on this trip for me. Its the least I can do.”
He proceeded to ask her if she had a cell phone, and when she said her battery was dead, he immediately called the husband on his phone. You should have seen her face during all this. He was making her feel like a queen, and she was touched by his kindness. And yes, so was I.
When was the last time you witnessed a gracious leader in action? This guy went out of his way to take care of his employee. Of course I have no idea if she just closed a huge account or if she saved a disheartened customer. Heres what I do know: This is a leader who really cares about his people.
Its one thing to talk about taking care of your team, but its quite another to actually do it. When was the last time you went out of your way to do something kind for one of your staff members? Ah yes, I know. Its been a long time. Thats the real problem in our crazed, fast-paced world. We forget to invest the energy to let people know how much we honor and appreciate them.
I’m guilty of this more times than I care to admit. I sometimes get so charged up to delegate off a task that I fail to ask my staff how they’re doing in their lives. Instead, I jump right into the projects that have to be completed. (Go on, you can admit you do the same thing.) There are times when my calendar is so jammed; I cut off conversations to rush off to something else. (Yeah, like you’ve never done that before.) Other times I forget to say thank you for a job well done. Or give a special something just to say how much I appreciate their effort because I’m already off focused on something else. (Sounds familiar?)
You know, this behavior can be found in long-term marriages as well as showing up with your team. When you’re with someone every single day, it’s easy to take him or her for granted. Its easy to think you’ll make it up to them when things aren’t so hectic or busy. The next thing you know they’re leaving for something better, and you wonder why.
What this guy reminded me of was how powerful a kind gesture can be. Its not often that the little things matter the most, but rather the little things we fail to do.
Let this guy I told you about be an example of the type of leader you can be. Then e-mail and tell me about it. I want to hear your stories of success!
Marine GPS
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Marine GPS systems have become most boaters best friend. Depending on the reasons you need Marine GPS Navigation, they can make it easy to find your way back to shore in unknown waters, navigate at night, and find large fish or avoid debris.
The History of Marine GPS:
It has been just for a short while that marines utilize the help of star charting and latitude/longitude numbering in their navigation. Most of the needs for Marine GPS navigation were not met by such inaccurate system. Good thing the GPS came with its 12 to 24 operational satellites open for everyone. The satellite can send signals and give accurate latitude/longitude locations that can be useful for navigation and other direction locating purposes.
Marine GPS Navigation Systems-Purpose
Marine GPS can be used to easily chart a course, especially when its dark or when you are lost in an unfamiliar body of water. You can easily locate your way back to the land using the device. The device is also useful at times when a tropical storm is on the way while you are sailing at sea because this device can locate tidal zones or other dangerous obstructions which gives you the chance to get alternate route for your safety.
Marine GPS-Future
The marine GPS systems continue to get more sophisticated, and come in hand-held models, all the way up to marine GPS navigation lap top computers. Depending on the functions you want, you can find a marine GPS that can do whatever you want it to, when it comes to navigation, topography in foreign water bodies, or take it hiking and camping with you, if it is a hand-held portable marine GPS. Some of the larger cruisers and yachts use it to auto-pilot a ship, and navigate back to port in the dark of night.
The Right Choice of Marine GPS
There are many things to consider when choosing the right Marine GPS device. You should determine the reason why you would need one. Research for it carefully and check all the other functions available in the device which can be helpful for you in other ways aside from marine navigation. Consider also the necessary accessories and add-ons that you might need when you use the Marine GPS. There are affordable devices that you can buy for simple fishing or navigation purposes, but if you are planning for a more extensive navigation, choose the expensive one with more functionality.
Marine GPS navigation systems have gotten to be almost a requirement for all types of water navigation, and finding a marine GPS unit is easy at retailers, but especially online, where the choices are unlimited. As more manufacturers have gotten into the GPS systems, even cell phones are GPS capable now. Its all a matter of the number of functions you need for what you are going to be doing, when it comes to marine GPS navigation.
Garmin Sat Nav
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
By now you and millions of others are probably familiar with a Garmin holiday commercial that was a big hit recently. The commercial is centered on a driver who has been out shopping for gifts and has become lost in the process. As he drives through unfamiliar territory he encounters different Christmas characters along the way. In the background there is a chorus singing the Garmin jingle. The message is fun but serious at the same time. There are dangers on the road and you never know who, or what, you may encounter if you happen to lose your way.
Today being lost is a thing of the past and people are thrilled get their directions from their Garmin Sat Nav. These high tech devices are the highest ranking products in the car navigation industry, and for good reason. A Garmin Sat Nuv is a highly reliable instrument that is easy and fun to use. Consumers can choose one of the many different models that contains the exact features and options they are looking for. When you have a Garmin Sat Nav to rely upon you will be eager to drive to the other side of town or the other side of the country because you will have no fear of getting lost.
Garmin Sat Nav dates back to 1989 when a small group of workers decided that vertical integration was a useful concept that would bring them success. This term meant that they would handle the design, construction and marketing of the products from start to finish. In less than 20 years the Garmin Company became a thriving enterprise with over 7000 full time employees.
What is the big appeal of a Garmin Sat Nav? Customer satisfaction is a top goal of the Garmin Company and they keep this in mind when they design any of their products. All of the Garmin Sat Nav models are user friendly with easy to read menus. The Garmin Sat Nav is also designed for practical use and is remarkably durable. Consumers are also pleased with the sleek, modern lines that make any Garmin Sat Nav an attractive dashboard accessory.
There are numerous GPS functions that are used to make the Garmin Sat Nav an indispensable driving accessory. Users can be updated about any traffic holdups or accidents and given rerouting information instantly. There are split screen functions to use and the text to speech feature makes sure your hands are always free to do the driving.
How people are using Garmin Sat Nav nowadays? You turn on your Garmin and it simply asks you Where to? With the speech recognition software you can go anywhere you want without taking your hands off of the wheel. That leaves the floor open to helping you go wherever you want whenever you want. People also use Garmin devices in aviation, boating and even hiking in the woods!
What the future of Garmin Sat Nav devices may reveal is still to be seen but there are numerous scenarios where the technology will be useful. The company has seen its products become best sellers for automobiles, but this is just the beginning. Today hand held phones and other mobile devices are a booming market and Garmin Sat Nav will be making a big impact here in much the same manner as they did with cars only a few years ago.
While Garmin might take a huge chunk of the cell phone GPS market in the future, it is clear that right now the Garmin devices are hands down more sleek and practical than anything on the market today. If you want to know where you are going, then a Garmin Sat Nav device is the way to go.
The world’s oldest profession should be the worlds newest industry
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Streetwalking is very old, from even before the days of the Bible, and is still around today. Streetwalking is considered by some to be a legitimate business and not a crime, and these people argue that it should be decriminalized, especially since efforts to stop streetwalking have failed. But many other people don’t agree, and think that streetwalking is exploitation and inherently bad and should never be legalized. Countries like the Netherlands and Germany agree with the first view, and have legalized streetwalking, while countries like the US still consider it a crime.
Those that wish to decriminalize streetwalking have a variety of explanations. These are several of the reasons they list in favor of legalized streetwalking:
1. If everyone involved in the streetwalking is consenting and an adult, then there is no problem. If we strip away everything, it comes down to the fact that streetwalking is just another example of a service industry where people pay for a service. People who have issues with streetwalking are imposing their moral standards on others.
2. We are not supposed to show prejudice against people because we don’t like what they do for a job, but when the government steps in and arrests and fines people, that is exactly what they are doing.
3. If we decriminalize streetwalking, we can make people accountable and keep records. We will be able to better keep children out of streetwalking and help those who were coerced into being streetwalkers.
4. By creating laws for streetwalking, if someone breaks them, we can find out and prosecute them. There will be consequences for anyone who mistreats their streetwalkers.
5. Legalizing streetwalking will help sex workers gain the rights they deserve and protection from rape, violence and abuse.
6. The economy can only prosper from streetwalking, with the new tax revenue and jobs that it will create.
7. Current streetwalking laws violate an individuals privacy by imposing regulations on the private behavior of consenting adults.
8. Legalizing streetwalking will allow the government to restrict streetwalking to certain areas and keep it there.
9. By legalizing streetwalking, we can take streetwalking out of the hands of criminals.
10. Health concerns such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including AIDS, can be dealt with and contained appropriately. Streetwalkers can be required to submit to periodic testing and taught how to have safe sex, and thus slow down or eradicate the spread of STDs.
11. We cannot stop streetwalking, as seen through various failed attempts to do so. Our next best hope is to legalize it.
Motivation or Inspiration
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I just got off the phone with one of my clients, and Karen was frustrated. Again.
It seems no matter what she does, her employees just aren’t responding to her. At the beginning of the year, her entire team agreed to go for the big goal. You know, one of those goals you would just love to hit if everything went exactly as planned. And Karen was jazzed about trying to achieve something so big. She believed they had a good chance of hitting the mark.
But this month shes facing a huge challenge. Her team has hit the wall. I know you’re saying to yourself, So what? We all hit the wall from time to time. You’re right. We do. But its in those moments of breakdowns where real leadership shows up.
Karen was calling because nothing she was doing was working. She told me: “I try to motivate my people, and all they do is roll their eyes at me.” Thats the problem. Karen was trying to motivate her team to perform. A bad move.
I often see leaders looking outside their staff to stimulate better results. You try to do anything that will get your staff to perform. So you offer a big reward if the goals are met. Play motivational tapes. Hold high-energy meetings. But nothing you do works.
Why doesn’t it? Because motivating your people is the old way of operating. This is the New Economy. You need to inspire your people instead of motivating them.
Theres a big difference between motivation and inspiration. Motivation is an external force that pushes, kicks, and forces your team to get things done. As leader, you are the one who has to take on the continuous task of finding ways to get your team interested and focused on the task. In my world, thats way too much work for anyone to take on. Its exhausting, frustrating, and just plain annoying.
Inspiration, on the other hand, is an inner drive that keeps you moving. Its passion on fire. Being inspired stirs your soul. It stimulates our thinking. When youre inspired, you naturally do the things you need to do. You dont need someone or something else to get you moving. You just do it because its what you want - not because you were forced into it.
Motivation carries with it a lot of pain. Inspiration is effortless. And as a leader, you want to inspire your team to perform, not be responsible for kicking them in the butt to get moving.
How do you shift from motivating your team to helping them tap into their own inspiration? Heres an idea to get you thinking in the right direction.
Find out what they really want.
One of the best ways to find inspiration is to spend time figuring out why your staff WANTS to perform their jobs. That doesn’t mean you guess at their reasons or assume you know. (You’re probably wrong anyway.) Find out about who your people really are. Sit down and talk to your team individually. Why are they working? What is it about the work that excites them? What accomplishments will make them feel amazingly successful at work? What buttons do they need pushed in order to really go for it?
Once you know what inspires your team individually, you can use that to inspire them - no, not by cattle prodding them but by reminding them how great they’ll feel when they accomplish something big for the right reasons - their reasons.
The truth is motivation is all about the other person. Not too many people will work at 110 percent just to please the boss. Inspiration, on the other hand, is about them. Make sure you’re helping them see whats in it for them.
Its time to stop being like Karen and beating your head against the wall. The next time you sigh and ask yourself, How on earth am I going to motivate these folks? step back and ask yourself a better question. Focus on inspiration. Your staff will thank you. And so will your bottom line.
Learn To Dance - Foster Creativity in Learning Dance
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
It is wise to choose a dance school that encourages creativity. Dance is a very creative art form and as such brings out this element in a performer. When students take dance lessons their own inner creativity starts to blossom. When you look for a dance school for your child you should keep this fact in mind.
A child sometimes uses dancing as a way of expressing themselves and they need a school that helps them to be creative. This is an art form that is in itself a creative form of art.
There a various ways a school can foster creativity:
Games: The teacher can create a lesson that would make students enjoy dancing. Games can often make dancing very enjoyable and at the same time the students will learn something from it. Students would look forward to lessons when they include games and enjoy learning many new skills.
Competitions: a little competition is good because it gives the students an incentive to learn more and perfect their skills. This needs to be low keyed with an element of fun mixed into the competition. It is up to the creativity of the teacher to make sure that this does not stress the young students and everybody is a winner.
Acting: Dance often uses acting, in the form of a mime, to tell a story or to display emotion. Mime is enjoyed by children and teaches them about creativity and feeling. They can then transfer this into their dance.
How does fostering creativity in this way help your child?
Motivation: motivating students will help them learn quickly. Students need motivation in order for them to focus on the task and learning is much easier for them when they are being motivated.
Concentration: Young children have a short concentration span and need varieties of different learning media to keep them focused. This will help them to learn better and remember what they have learned. It will also teach them concentration skills that they can use throughout their lives.
Stopping boredom: Another problem with younger students is that they are easily bored. Bringing a good selection of different ways to learn will prevent this from happening and result in them learning more. When their interest is kept alive they will look forward to their dance lessons.
Take the time to meet the teachers of any dance school you consider. Good teachers welcome this sort of thing because they are confident in their own abilities and want to show that. Your children may want to visit the teachers first, too. It makes sense, since they will be spending a lot of time with their new coaches and mentors.
Steps to Building a DIY Wind Turbine
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
It’s not always easy to save on your energy costs, particularly if your home needs to power a lot of different appliances. However, doing nothing about the situation will leave you paying far more for energy than you may need to.
If you can’t do much to reduce your home’s overall power usage, then you can take a different approach: using alternative sources of energy rather than paying for electrical power drawn from a utility company. Solar energy is good, but it is expensive to purchase the necessary supplies. However, you can set up and start using wind power for a much lower cost - you can even build your own wind turbine.
Like other DIY projects, building a DIY wind turbine is quite simple and if you have the necessary materials, you can just create a working one in just a few seconds. As long as you live in a rural area or a non-urban spot, you should have great savings with the wind turbine. You can even go as far as making multiple wind turbines to generate even more renewable power.
First you need to understand the three main components of a wind turbine. A wind turbine has rotors, an electrical generator for powering up the device, and the structural support to keep the device protected. The better the quality of your components, the more effective your wind turbine will be.
You can often find these (or equivalent) parts at a scrapyard. These parts are also available online at various websites, on eBay and at local retailers. You can usually find these parts at a relatively low price if you shop around.
Constructing a wind turbine is basically the same as constructing other basic pieces of machinery. If you gotten into machinery before and found it boring, you should have a better time with this one because you know that you are constructing a device that will save you tons of money in the long run. Having that motivation in making your own wind turbine is important so never think about how difficult it is.
All you need to do really is to conduct searches online for information that shares steps and plans on building a wind turbine. Many of the guides require a small fee to acquire so make sure you do a background check on any site that sells wind turbine guides. If it is legitimate, the small fee is more than worth it since you can use it to build additional wind turbines in the future.
There are some free sources as well including online videos that better demonstrate the ways in constructing a wind turbine that really works. Once you found a few guides and understood them all, you can get creative and build your own custom designs which you can use or sell to others that want wind power.
Wind energy is a great resource to take advantage of because its renewable and clean. It can also be very effective if you build it right and if you have many turbines in use.
Thriving on Discontinuous Change
April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
IBM’s 2008 Global CEO Study finds that organizations are being bombarded by change, and many are struggling to keep up. Executives see significant change ahead, but the gap between expected change and the ability to manage it has almost tripled since the last Global Study in 2006.
The question is: How do we create the kind of organization that not only adapts quickly to current trends, but is aggressive about shaping and leading change?
There are two kinds of change-incremental and discontinuous-that are taking place simultaneously and constantly in business organizations around the world. Incremental change is the process of continuous improvement-what the Japanese refer to as “kaizen.” Discontinuous change is the kind of large-scale transformation that turns organizations inside out and upside down.
If managing incremental change can be compared to encouraging a group of joggers to gradually pick up the pace, then leading discontinuous change is like getting those same joggers to leap off a cliff and build their parachutes on the way down.
Incremental change fits the Newtonian framework of a linear, progressive, and predictable world. There is an unmistakable logic behind incremental change that makes it easy to communicate and relatively easy for people to adopt. Best of all, it uses current practices as a baseline for the systematic improvement of a product, service, or system. And people like the fact that they can base their future success on their past performance.
But much of the change our organizations are facing today is not incremental. It is discontinuous. It is restructuring, reengineering, transformation. It is these actions-and others-that challenge our most deeply held beliefs about the past. Discontinuous change confronts the entire organization with the possibility that the very roles, actions, and attitudes that were most responsible for past success will be insufficient, and perhaps even detrimental, in the future. And that concept is difficult to communicate and much harder for people to adopt.
No one likes to contemplate letting go of the skills and behaviors that “got us here.” As individuals, we become psychologically attached to the status quo because it is familiar and comfortable. But even more difficult than fighting off the inertia of comfort, we find it hard to let go of the past because it is there that we’ve experienced personal success.
Understandably, people like the experience of mastery; it’s basic human psychology. But unfortunately, its not an attitude that helps us move forward. Although “knowledge is power” may have been an accurate assumption in the past, the reality of today’s high-speed business environment is that information and skills become outdated faster than the current fashion. In this climate, employees are valued primarily for how quickly they can learn, unlearn, and relearn.
One of the greatest challenges for anyone who wants to become change adept is to identify those practices and attitudes that need to be unlearned in order to more quickly adopt new behaviors.
Here are a few questions to consider:
- What do I do best? (What skills and abilities am I most proud of?)
- Which current skills, abilities, and attitudes will continue to make me successful in the future?
- How does feeling competent stop me from doing things differently? (Where are the “comfort zones” that I’m most reluctant to leave?)
- What new skills do I need to learn to stay valuable to the organization?
What do I need to unlearn? (Which skills are becoming obsolete? What practices-attitudes, behaviors, work routines, etc.-that worked for me in the past are no longer valid?)
Leaders who help their team thrive on discontinuous change begin by identifying those skills and behaviors that they themselves need to learn and unlearn. Then they address the topic openly: they talk about their own problems with letting go of past competencies, they empathize with the feelings of awkwardness that come with leaving the “comfort zone,” and they are candid about why they decided to leave some behaviors in the past in order to better serve the future. Then they massage damaged egos by applauding the team members efforts.