Simple Ways to Overcome Procrastination - Part 1

"How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'."  ~   Martin Luther

"A year from now you may wish you had started today."   ~   Karen Lamb

Procrastination is probably one of the most common problems people have in their day to day life. So find a procrastination solution that works for you.

Here are five of them. Try them out and see which one or ones that fit you the best.

1. Do the hardest thing first.

What this means is simply to do the hardest and most important task of the day first thing in the morning. A good start in the morning lifts your spirits and creates a positive momentum for the rest of the day. That often creates a pretty productive day.

2. How do you eat an elephant?

Don't try to take it all in one big bite. It becomes overwhelming which leads to procrastination. Split a task into small actionable steps. Then just focus on the first step and nothing else. Just do that one until it's done. Then move on to the next step.

3. Recognize that there is more pain in procrastinating than not.

If you have procrastinated a lot you might have discovered that you procrastinate to avoid doing something that is boring, hard etc. You want to avoid that pain. But after having some experience with procrastination you'll probably realise that procrastination itself causes your more pain than actually just doing what you were supposed to. Realising the true amount of pain in the two choices will make it easier to get things done.

4. Make a small deal with yourself.

Promise yourself that you'll work on something for just 5 minutes. After those 5 minutes you can do something else if you want to. But make a note in your schedule for when you will come back to the task and work another 5 minutes on it. No matter how unpleasant a task may be, you can often talk yourself into working 5 minutes on it.

I've found this one to be effective to make a dent in those tasks you have put off for a longer while. Because many times you will just continue working after those 5 minutes have passed. It is the first few minutes of getting started that is the hardest part.

5. Use my three step method for doing something even when you don't feel like it.

Mundane or routine tasks can be a bit boring. Maybe you have a lot or emails to reply to or phone calls to make. Batch them - do them all in row - to get them done quicker.

To Be Continued ....

Hit the GYM to get out of smoking addiction !!

HIT the GYM will help female smokers to curb their nicotine cravings.

Ladies, addicted to smoking? Well, hitting the gym may be a solution. Moderate exercise can help women smokers curb their nicotine cravings, but only for the time being.

"Exercise may be a useful strategy, but it has to be done frequently enough and consistently enough because the effects that it has diminish over time" said David Williams of Brown University, who led a study for treating women smokers by exercise.

Sixty female smokers signed in for a eight-week regimen of smoking cessation treatment, reports the journal Addictive Behaviours. Half were assigned to the exercise group, in which they briskly walked on a treadmill at the study centre for 50 minutes three times a week.

The other half in the control group watched 30-minute health and wellness videos three times a week. For each group, the researchers asked them about their mood and cigarette cravings immediately before and after each session. They also asked them again when they reached their next destination after each exercise or wellness session.

The researchers found that, relative to participants in the control group, those who exercised were more likely to experience improved mood and decreased cigarette cravings, but that these effects dissipated by the time of their next exercise session.

Source : TOI

SAS v/s SCSI drives - Part 2

      

SAS is scalable 

What truly sets SAS apart from its I/O counterparts is its scalability benefits. In fact, SAS infrastructure offers scalability to the market that was once unthinkable, offering potential development of hundreds of disk drives in a single domain. IT managers have increasingly looked to SATA for nearline storage applications, and SAS have a boon to SATA disk drives in the enterprise market. It is true that SATA II has introduces SATA port multipliers into the mix and that these devices certainly improve the expandability of SATA. Is that enhanced expandability sufficient for the ever-increasing demand of the enterprise market? Although port multipliers are available for 4-, 8-, and even 16-drive connectivity, they cannot be linked together, thereby limiting their expendability for larger drive topologies.   

Performance scalability is equally as important to the enterprise market as drive scalability and once again SAS answers the call. As mentioned earlier, since SAS is a point-to-point topology, performance is much more scalable as opposed to a shared bus interface such as Ultra320 SCSI. With 3Gb/s of dedicated bandwidth for each target device, I/O performance scale with each additional drive added to the topology. 

Conclusion

As the thirst for more storage capacity continues to grow, greater requirement are placed on the I/O interfaces to satiate that thirst. SAS was specially engineered for that purpose. Its deployment flexibility in supporting differing classes of disk drives for both online and nearline storage makes SAS infrastructure even more compelling for the evolution of information Lifecycle Management and the implementation of tiered storage architectures. The scalability of both performance and capacity strengthens SAS technology as the I/O interface of choice to meet the constantly increasing demands of present and future interface storage application.

Concluded

SAS v/s SCSI drives - Part 1

SAS: Scalability at a Whole New Level

Video on demand, Tivo, On-line gaming, Digital photography and Videogaphy, Video and audio editing,. E-mail archives new SEC and federal regulations (SEC banes17a-4, Sarbanes- Oxley, HIPAA, etc.) - The increasing need for storage capacity continues down a seemingly endless path, and the timing for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) couldn’t have been scripted any better. SAS introduces greater storage scalability and the ability to access that storage faster than ever before.  

SCSI is Good

Same time back the dominant disk drive interface in the enterprise server and direct-attach storage market was Ultra320 SCSI, a parallel SCSI speed bump that has now end in innovation. As was then announced by the SCSI Trade Association, the next evolution of SCSI technology beyond Ultra320 is SAS. While Ultra320 SCSI offered many benefits over its available I/O interfaces and has served the market well, its physical limitations leave something to be desired as data center clamor for even greater capacity and higher bandwidth, Parallel SCSI is limited to 15 target devices per bus, and a shared bus at that. 

Although it has low-voltage differential, SCSI bus is specified to be up to 12 meter in length. A heavily SCSI bus is, in actuality, much shorter. Since its shared bus, the theoretical maximum throughput is 320MB/s, regarding of the number of disk drives attached on that bus. 

SAS is better

SAS introduces a new inflation point in I/O storage technology. Its point-to-point architecture provides dedicated links for each end device at 3Gb/s (6Gb/s full duplex). With those dedicated links, a single I/O or drive failure won’t result in a hung bus that prevents the user from accessing the other disk drives as may occur with parallel SCSI. Furthermore, SAS dual-ported disk drive allows connection to more than one host controller, eliminating single-point of failure. Also the ability to aggregate into wide ports adds yet another level of reliability unseen in previous SCSI generation.

To Be Continued....

Basic Cooking Techniques: How to Grill - Part 2

Basic Cooking Techniques: How to Grill 

So what do we need to know to grill right every time? There are three rules:

1. Cover the grill. 

You wouldn’t bake in the oven with the door open. An open grill takes much longer to cook food because the heat dissipates and the fire is in constant need of adjustment. Sure, pit masters at cook-offs leave their grills open some of the time; but for a home cook with hungry kids and friends to feed, it just makes more sense to conserve the heat and get dinner on the table. 

Besides, a closed grill gets more smoky flavor into everything.

2. Don’t fuss. 

Ever seen someone standing over a grill, flipping the food this way and that with shocking abandon? There’s no reason for it. You want the heat to caramelize those proteins and sugars — so leave the food alone over the fire.

3. Clean the grate. 

You wouldn’t cook in a skillet that hasn’t been cleaned. And the best time to clean the grate is after you’ve finished grilling. When you’re done, close the lid, keep the fire going for 5 or 6 minutes, and let it burn off any extraneous bits of this and that on the grate — then give the very hot grate a good scrape with a wire brush so you’re good to go next time you’re ready to grill.

Concluded

Source : Weight Watchers

Basic Cooking Techniques: How to Grill - Part 1

Basic Cooking Techniques: How to Grill 

Summertime and the grillin’ is easy. The barbecuing, too — although in cheffy parlance, grilling  is quite different from barbecuing. When you grill, you cook foods directly over medium or high heat. That’s what most of us do on a grill.

When you barbecue, by contrast, you cook food over “indirect,” low or medium heat — that is, to the side of a lower heat source, not directly over it. We’ll have a lot more to say about that 

method in next month’s column.

For now, let’s concentrate on grilling. First a little background: Grilling works because the high heat caramelizes the external proteins and sugars naturally found in food. When heated, these complicated chemical compounds begin to shake and vibrate, tossing out all sorts of simpler compounds which are in fact the very things most of experience us as flavor.

The grill’s intense sear, therefore, causes lots of chemical breakdown — and thus, lots of flavor. No wonder we all love to grill.

A Grill’s Heat

Although not as exacting as an oven’s, a grill has three basic levels of heat:

• High Heat: 500°F
• Medium Heat: 400°F
• Low Heat: 300°F

These temperatures are guidelines; not rocket-science but mere approximations.

Experienced grillers test their grills by “feeling” the heat. If you want to do the same, place your open palm 5 inches above the grill grate. The fire is . . .

• High if you have to move your hand in 2 seconds
• Medium if you have to move your hand in 5 seconds
• Low if you have to move your hand in 10 seconds

To Be Continued ....

Source : Weight Watchers

Measures Before Practising Yoga !

WHAT MEASURES SHOULD ONE TAKE BEFORE PRACTISING YOGA?




~ Yoga should be done on an empty stomach.



~ One should be in a relaxed state of mind.



~ Its advisable to practice yoga after taking a bath.




~ There should be a gap of at least three hours after attending to lunch.




~ There should be a gap of at least one hour after doing yoga practice for taking solid meal.




~ If one is practicing yoga in the morning, he/she should take one glass of water so that excretion is facilitated.







Source : TOI

Take Control of Your Diabetes !

You can prevent problems by:

Quitting Smoking. Smoking raises your blood sugar level…making it harder to control your diabetes.

Getting a hemoglobin A1C test (long-term blood sugar control test) every 3-6 months.

Following your meal plan. As your doctor or dietitian has suggested, you should eat lots of different 

foods that are high in fiber but low in fat and salt, and watch how much you are eating.

Having your blood pressure measured each doctor’s visit. Blood pressure control reduces your risk of heart disease, stroke and other diseases.

Being active. Exercising every day can help you reach a healthy weight. Talk to your doctor before you start an exercise program.

Ten New Uses for Lemon !

"Lemon juice is the strongest food acid in our kitchens, strong enough to make life unbearable for most bacteria," says Robert Wolke, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of What Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel, Further Adventures in Kitchen Science (W. W. Norton, $26). 

Use Lemon to : 

1.   Sanitize a chopping block. Run a slice of lemon over the surface to disinfect. 

2.   Eliminate the browning that occurs when food sits out too long. 

      Sprinkle apple or pear slices with lemon juice before serving, 

      or squeeze a bit into guacamole and give it a stir. 

3.   Remove tough food stains from plastic and light-colored wooden cutting boards. 

      Slice a lemon in half, squeeze the juice onto the soiled surface, rub, 

      and let sit for 20 minutes. Rinse with water. 

4.   Fade tea stains on cloth. Dilute lemon juice with an equal amount of water. 

      Use an eyedropper or a Q-tip to make sure the juice targets the stain. 

      Thoroughly flush with cool water. 

5.   Decorate on the cheap. Fill a glass bowl with lemons for a sunny centerpiece. 

      Or display a row of them along a windowsill. 

6.   Relieve a sore throat. Cut a lemon in half. 

      Skewer one half over a medium flame on a gas stove or an electric burner set on high

      and roast until the peel turns golden brown. Let cool slightly, then mix the juice 

      with 1 teaspoon of honey. Swallow the mixture. 

7.   Whiten fingernails. Rub a wedge on the surface of your nails. 

8.   Shine the interior of copper cookware. Sprinkle a lemon wedge with salt, then scrub. 

9.   Brighten laundry whites. Add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the wash cycle of a normal-size load. 

10. Remove soft cheese or other sticky foods from a grater. 

       Rub both sides of the grater with the pulp side of a cut lemon. 

Some GMAIL features you should know - Part 3

8. Using Multiple Accounts - II

You got to send an immediate official mail from your Official Account, and you are checking your personal emails. Don't worry, Gmail takes care of this too!

Sending a mail from a different email id's without Signing in & out again! How cool! This is an extension to the Multiple Accounts – I, with a different mail service running on a different port for your outgoing mails of your secondary mail.

Under Settings-> Accounts, we can easily authenticate our secondary mails and enable this service.

Now if we compose a mail, we get an option in the From: Field along with the name given in the Mail. We Select and Send ! Simple ! Saves a lot of time.

9. Making multiple Gmail Ids from one Gmail id!

A lesser known feature of Gmail, you can add "tags" or "keywords" to your email id by writing them after adding a + at the end of your id. The mails will still be sent to your original id, but with a different "To:" Address.

For example, for all my old DPS VK batch mates, I could give them the id as: gundeepbindra+DPS@gmail.com. I'll actually be using gundeepbindra@gmail.com to access these mails, but can easily make filters to organize the mails my old friends sent on this id!

Similarly I can have gundeep+Urgent@gmail.com which I could give to only a few close friends (And make a filter to Star all mails To: gundeep+Urgent@gmail.com). Also, Gmail doesn't recognize the number/position of "." used in a gmail id. So all mails sent to gun.deep@gmail.com, g.undeep@gmail.com g.u.n.d.e.e.p@gmail.com are sent to the same id: gundeep@gmail.com!

10. Keyboard Shortcuts

Throw that mouse away. And if you are also a Laptop user, you HAVE to use this feature !

For Example: Use gi – to get to your inbox , c – to compose ..etc.,

Plus a new Gmail Labs feature to customize the keyboard shortcuts too if the default ones were not enough!

1.    Login to GMail

2.    Click on Settings in the upper-right

3.    Select "Keyboard shortcuts on"

< Note: You will need a Standard 101/102-Key or Natural PS/2 Keyboard to use the shortcuts>

Source : Gundeep Bindra, SRM University, New Delhi, India, 

Some GMAIL features you should know - Part 1

1. Archive, don't delete!


This is all about the nice habit of archiving your mails. Archiving just means moving mail out of your inbox and storing it for safekeeping. Your messages will be waiting for you when you click “All Mail” or search for them. One never knows when one might need the mail one deletes.


2. Enable those arrows!


For those who get irritated by those annoying forwards, here's a solution! Once you enable, "personal level indicators", view the arrow next to the messages in your inbox as it will tell you if an email was addressed to you, a group, or a mailing list that you're on.


A single arrow ("›") is automatically placed next to the emails sent to you and others, and double arrows ("»") next to the emails that are sent just to you.




3. Labels, labels and more labels!


When you have such a huge inbox, how about taking out some time and organizing it? Let's say I want to keep all mails related to "Google Alerts" in a particular folder Label is equivalent to Folder. On the left-side, just add another Label (say "GAlerts"). Now check all mails related to it and from the drop-down menu, choose Apply Label. "GAlerts". Done! If you have loads of them, color code them by choosing the Label Style from the drop down!


Manually selecting mails for each Label isn't the best way. Read more about Filters and find a better way out!


4. *Star* It!


About adding Stars to special mails, and using SuperStars is an extension of Gmail's starring system from Gmail Labs to spice them up! Adds new star designs to better differentiate important emails. After enabling Superstars, simply click on the star icon repeatedly to rotate through new star options.




To Be Continued .....

What Women Want in Relation - Part 2

WHAT WOMEN WANT IN RELATIONSHIPS IS REALLY QUITE SIMPLE

Dinner. 

• Of the homemade variety. You may not be good at cooking and you may not know how to boil water. 
• But greeting us at the door after a long day with fish sticks (or whatever you can wrastle up) makes us swoon, 
• because it shows that you've been thinking about us and our hectic day.

Communication. 

• Women are vocal creatures. We know you love us, but it's nice to hear you say it, too. 
• We can also be insecure. We wish we weren't, but the reality is that we often notice our wobbly thighs and forget about our gorgeous eyes. So let us know when you think we're hot. Tell us we're beautiful. It helps us feel good. 
• Plus, when we feel sexy we're more likely to act sexy. Words of appreciation aren't half-bad either. Tell us you love the lasagna we made.
• Thank us for driving the kids to school. 
• Notice that we cleaned the bathtub. It doesn't have to be over the top, 
• Just let us know that you see the effort we put in, and you're grateful.

Consistency. 

• This doesn't mean be boring and predictable. It means that we know you will (usually, no one is perfect!) give us the love and support we need.
• Knowing that you're coming at this with the same desires and energy as we are goes a long way to making us feel secure.

  

Engagement. 

• Of the mental kind, not the "I'm getting married in the morning" kind. You don't have to like everything we like (we might be a little concerned if you do), but showing interest in our passions, be it career-related, a sport or a hobby, goes a long way. 
• Listen when we talk to you. We're not speaking just so we can hear our own voice; we want to connect with you and this is one valuable way we do this. 
• This also means paying attention to the little things. Whether it's the name of your best friend's husband or the fact that you hate Nicolas Cage movies, it's the little things you remember about us that's so endearing.

  

Humor and Humility. 

• These two tend to go hand in hand. This doesn't mean that you have to crack jokes or entertain us, but just being able to laugh at yourself is enough. 
• Guys who take themselves too seriously bring everyone down.

Concluded

What Women Want in Relation - Part 1

WHAT WOMEN WANT IN RELATIONSHIPS IS REALLY QUITE SIMPLE

Respect 

• Show us through your actions that you respect our opinions, careers, interests, friends, bodies and minds. 
• You don't have to agree with all that we say or do, but try to honor our opinions as valuable contributions. 
• Follow the golden rule and treat us as you would like to be treated: Be honest, fair, kind, and considerate.

Sex.

• Yes, we love sex. But, remember that there are four bases to cover in the bedroom, not just one. 
• Try stopping at each base instead of being so focused on the home run believe us, we'll thank you for it! 
• Likewise, remember small physical touches like massages. 
• One can never, ever, have too many shoulder rubs. 
• And scratching our heads is pretty great, too.

 Romance. 

• Just because we're staying in doesn't mean the evening can't be romantic. 
• Light a few candles and see where the night leads. 
• Treat us like your girlfriend, even after we become your wife. 
• Date nights, making out in the car, kissing like when we first started dating, all of the things that made us 
• fall in love with you don't have to stop just because now there are bills to pay, a house to be cleaned, 
• and kids that need to get bathed. 
• Bring home flowers for no reason. Even the a small bouquets from the supermarket are enough to make us smile.

Time. 

• We understand relationships can't be all wine and roses; simply making the time to be with us and treating us like your top priority
• Say "love" more than all the fancy gifts and lovely letters ever could. This includes helping around the house. 
• The realities of a 21st-century relationship are that both partners probably work. If you happen to get home before we do, why not take vacuum the living room or throw in a load of laundry? If you take the garbage out without being asked, chances are you'll be getting a big smooch when you come back.

To Be Continued.....

Tips to improve FUEL EFFICIENCY - Part 3

Air Filter

One of the most common reasons for a drop in fuel efficiency is a dirty intake filter. This will decrease the amount of air entering the cylinders of the engine resulting in incomplete combustion. Check the filter regularly to ensure that it is clean.

Spark Plugs

Ensure your spark plugs are in good condition. Renew the plugs and wires at intervals specified by the owners’ manual. This will keep all cylinders firing properly resulting in higher efficiency.

Lube Oil

Change the lube oil at intervals specified by the owners’ manual. Use the recommended oil only especially in newer cars. Use of an engine flush before changing the oil will help to get rid of a lot of the dirt that collects in the engine that a normal oil change will not remove. On older engines it is advisable to use an oil treatment agent. This basically thickens the oil which creates a better seal between the piston and the liner, preventing blow past and consequent loss of combustion pressure, resulting in higher fuel efficiency.

Exhausts alter fuel efficiency

Most cars have special sizes for the exhaust. When cars are reasonably old the silencers has to be changed. The garage people always try to fit a size that they have in the garage itself, which might not be the exact size recommended for the car. The wrong size a bigger or smaller silencer size effects on the MPG of the car and the HP of the car. It may be cheaper to put another size than your recommended size for your car but on the long run it will cost you in many ways, especially on fuel consumption. Always put the recommended size of the exhaust that is indicated in your car manual because the car company knows how to optimize the performance of your car.

Concluded

Tips to improve FUEL EFFICIENCY - Part 2

Tyres effect fuel efficiency

It is estimated that about 50% of tyres on the road are under inflated. Aside from increasing the rate of wear, this wastes fuel and decreased your Fuel efficiency. Check your tyre pressures every fortnight. Worn tyres will Also decrease fuel efficiency (and your safety!), so check the tread regularly. If you are replacing tyres then consider some of the newer 'Eco' tyres that are designed specifically to increase fuel efficiency.

Car Windows

Driving with your windows open drastically reduces your fuel efficiency, far more so than putting the air conditioning on when motor way driving. So in those hot summers(?) preferably keep the windows shut, and the air conditioning on if you want to keep cool. Of course the air conditioning decreases fuel efficiency too, so try not to over use it.

Invest in a new fuel efficient car

New cars come in all shapes and sizes, but it is possible to pick a new car that can greatly reduce your fuel bill, and your fuel emissions. Size matters. Choose an economical car - small cars use far more fuel efficient and produce lower emissions than large cars. Drive the most fuel-efficient car that meets your needs. Compare models and classes. Even similarly sized cars can vary in fuel efficiency by up to 45%. Consider diesel engines (with a particulate trap), and LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) fuelled cars - all have lower CO2 emissions than standard petrol cars. Consider 'hybrid' vehicles - they combine a conventional engine with an electric motor and battery. These offer reduced fuel consumption and CO2 with potentially lower emissions of all pollutants.

Diesel Engines

If you are going to buy a diesel, ensure it is a new 'common rail' type, as these are approximately 10% more efficient than older diesels. Also replace (or clean if applicable) air cleaner elements as often as is required by your vehicles servicing schedule.

Regular Maintenance maintains fuel efficiency

To Be Continued ....

Tips to improve FUEL EFFICIENCY - Part 1

Here are some very good tips on improving your vehicle's Fuel Economy / Increase Fuel Efficiency / Mileage. With increasing fuel prices it is becoming more and more prudent to use them.

Use your gears wisely.

Driving in the highest gear possible without labouring the engine is a fuel-efficient way of driving. A vehicle travelling at 60kmph in third gear uses 25 percent more fuel than at the same speed in fifth gear.

Drive smoothly

Think ahead! By applying light throttle and avoiding heavy braking, you can reduce both fuel consumption and wear and tear. Try to predict traffic at junctions and when in queuing to avoid accelerating and then braking. Research suggests driving techniques can influence car fuel efficiency by as much as 30 percent.

Switch off your engine

There are two schools of thought on this one. Switching your engine off for short periods of time can actually increase fuel consumption, as it requires more fuel to get the engine started. Also your catalytic converter will no longer be running at full temperature and so your car will be less efficient, increasing the amount of pollution you cause. However if you are stopped for more than a few minutes then your car will simply burn less fuel with the engine stopped.

Drive off promptly to prevent wasting fuel

Don't leave your engine running when you first start up. Drive off straight away if you can, but drive gently until the engine has reached its normal operating temperature. This doesn't increase fuel efficiency as such, but it does mean your engine is switched on for less time.

Lighten your load

Think carefully about what you need on a journey. if you do not need something, do not pack it. Remove roof racks if not needed. Remember that the lighter the load, the lower the fuel consumption, and emissions, and the higher the fuel efficiency. 

To Be Continued.....

Suit Up Smartly !

Ways how you can make that suit look stylish, yet professional :

Of late, the concept of dress codes have gone for a toss, thanks to the introduction of casual clothing in the workplace. But even then, there are some offices, especially corporate, where business suits are still a must for / women. Here are ways how you can make that suit look stylish, yet professional.

1. MIX AND MATCH :

It is not necessary that you have to match your suit with the shirt & trousers. Wear a suit that is of a different color ( of the same family ) as that of your bottom and shirt.

2. SOFTEN YOUR LOOK :

Don't wear that formal shirt below your suit, instead go for a fashionable top.

3. TIE IT UP :

Use a belt and cinch your suit with it to accentuate your waistline ( if you have an hour glass figure ).

4. ACCESSORISE :

use a bold bracelet or other accessories like a large satchel to add that element of style to your otherwise mundane look.

Source : Variety, TOI.