In todays modern world it seems that if you are looking for a greenhouse or a playhouse, the easiest way to purchase is online, but perhaps you are missing out on seeing them in the flesh?

Where you find greenhouses for sale there will often be other buildings for sale such as sheds and playhouses.  Playhouses are ideal if you have children.  They will keep themselves amused for hours and hours in the garden.

There are lots of different ones to choose from.  Some have an upper level with stairs they can climb up and down with windows and doors.  These look attractive in the garden especially if you plant some flowers around them.

They are also ideal for tidying up all the kids outside toys which can be stored in the playhouse to keep them safe and clean.

Tags: gardening, greenhouses

What makes the biggest difference in XXI century is the access to the information.  Life never was so easy. I still remember heavy encyclopaedias that we were buying in 1980s as the only one source of basic information. It was impossible to follow every new edition so it was obvious that very often information was not accurate.  I think during this decade people have changed the way they are actually using it. At begin Internet was for me a source of information and the way to communicate with people around the world.  Right now the information is not limited to news about what is happening on the world. The information that they are looking now is mostly based on personal experience of others.

It becomes very popular to shop by internet and people tend to spend more money for online shopping every day.  But both internet shopping fans and sceptics are searching for information and opinions what to buy, where to buy and for how much to buy.  More popular are becoming websites where consumers are sharing their experience about each product’s pros and cons. In many cases this behaviour will prevent money loss and disappointment.  Experience based reviews will allow to select the most desirable product with all features that customers are looking for.  We can say that internet creates unlimited market where people can buy and sell almost anything.  There are not price limits on products that we can find online.  You can buy and sell gold, cars or even houses.  Access to information also makes internet environment safer and more consumers friendly. But on another hand we should think about the content of information we are sharing.  Nowadays the biggest concern is protection of personal data. What is happening with all names, addresses telephone numbers and bank transfer details and if they are not sold to create more profit?

Tags: Internet growth

A month or so ago, my granny asked me to ‘teach’ her how to use the internet.  She is a woman of 84 but she is extremely active and likes to stay up to speed with things.  A couple of years ago she asked me to show her how to use a computer as she wanted to write some short stories.  That was pretty difficult but she finally got to grips with using MS Word and after that we just couldn’t get her off the computer.  She often asked me about ‘that internet thing’ but I decided to try and keep it simple.  That was all well and good until one of her friends from her local knitting club told her she could get some free knitting patterns and play bridge online! That definitely sparked her interest as they are her two favourite pastimes.

I showed her the basics of using a web browser and using google to find what she was looking for.  I also told her to be really careful about being scammed and told her under no circumstances to give any personal details away without me ‘vetting’ it first for her.  I set her up a new email address, bookmarked some sites I thought she might be interested in and let her get on with it.  Two days later I gave her a ring to see how she was getting on and she was absolutely loving it! She had been on her computer every spare moment she had and was really enjoying looking all sorts of things up.  She even told me it was mind blowing! Then she told me she wanted to buy her cat a cheap cat litter cabinet so I made arrangements to visit her the following weekend although I wasn’t entirely sure what this particular item was.  When I went round she showed me this product and told me she wanted to purchase it as the local pet shop didn’t have the one she wanted after she had seen a particular model online.  I showed her how to find the cheapest prices and also how to make sure the shop was genuine and safe to use.  She was really chuffed but I had to tell her not to make any more purchases unless I was with her so I could show her a few more times to make sure she wasn’t scammed.

Well, we went through the process a few more times now every time I ring her to see if she is okay she tells me she has bought even more stuff online!  I’m really please she has taken to it so well and even more pleased she hasn’t got ripped off.  She spends so much time online now looking for bargains that I think she will be showing me a thing or two pretty soon!

In a light-hearted, conversational way, Live Wire explores the ways that women can become confident and self-sufficient in selecting and using computer equipment, connecting to the larger networked community, and using computer savvy as a powerful career tool.

Introduction
Why I write this column, why women need more help than men, why it matters in the workplace and in setting policy

Scaling Your Attitude Barriers to Success
Letterman-style “Top 18″ list of why women avoid computing – and Live Wire’s counter-arguments. A kind of computing “Mad’s Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.”

Exposed: The Secret Language of Computers
How to see through intimidating geek-talk and learn to master technical language by following your curiosity, striving for accuracy, and practice, practice, practice.

Savvy Strategies for PC Problems
Coping with PC meltdowns. Why and how to make a computer inventory, a log book and wiring diagrams, and where and how to find troubleshooters (and thank them).

So Many PCs and Nothing to Ware
Building a versatile digital “wardrobe” through the same shopping techniques that fetch clothes. Buying a computer system, peripherals and accessories – from pricing to RAM.

Daring-Do for Digital Daughters
How even less-computer-savvy mothers can help their daughters learn to be fearless with computers – with tips on a great science project that’ll have you ripping a PC apart.

Lost in Cyberspace? How to Find Yourself
An overview of cyberspace, explaining the Internet and its role in circulating digitized information around the world. A few words on the larger digital revolution, too.

Home, Sweet Home Page: Women on the Internet
Why marketers and advertisers are going after women online – and guidelines to help women navigate on the World Wide Web, explaining the addressing system and more.

Computer Toys R Us vs. Them
How multimedia companies think boys and girls play different games, and why it’s so hard to find good CD-ROMs for girls that don’t stress either violence or popularity with boys.

Eeek! An E-Mail
Why electronic mail is just so great … as long as you mind your manners. A review of what it does, how it works, and ways to use it more effectively.

Computer Comedy To-Nite
Jokes circulating on the Internet still depict men as techno-warriors; women as techno-bimbos. Live Wire asks, is this fair? Is this funny? A deeper look at humor’s meaning.

I’m Sorry, We Have to Operate
The low-down on operating systems, the PC’s nervous system/backbone/vital organs. What multi-tasking means; how graphic interfaces help; and Mac/DOS/Windows wars.

Betty Holberton: Programmed to Succeed
The story of Betty Holberton and five other women who became the world’s first programmers during World War II. In a world without keyboards, GUIs or compilers, they made the first electronic computer (the ENIAC) work. Note: The author interviewed Holberton on camera, in an AAUW “Women on the Go” episode aired on Fairfax Cable, Fairfax VA in October 1997.

The Wages of Computing
Live Wire puts her money where her mouth is, spilling the results of a major nationwide salary survey of information-systems professionals, from database people to CIOs.

Human Factors
A sampler of ideas and findings from the world of human-computer interaction, a topic that resurfaced when “Deep Blue” trounced chess champ Gary Kasparov. What do computers have to teach us about our humanity? Can they be more humane?

Private Parts
A timely look at the increasingly troubling subject of computer privacy. How to shield your private information from prying eyes, especially on newly interlocked networks.

Security Guards
The sequel to “Private Parts” reviews ways to keep your information assets under lock and key – figuratively and literally. Passwords, data protection and backups, and more.

Designed to a Fault
A Q&A with Prof. Ben Shneiderman, head of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland – College Park, offers perspective on why computers are more complicated than they have to be and the need for an activist consumer movement.

PCs: The Hope and the Hype
Part 2 of the Shneiderman interview looks into what’s good and bad in computer trends: overblown “intelligent agents” and voice-recognition technologies, the advent of the World Wide Web and more.

Local Heroines – Part 1
Leaders of the National Capital Chapter of the Association for Women in Computing talk about how and why they got started in their careers; the challenges they’ve faced in the computing industry; and the rewards that they get from their work.

Local Heroines – Part 2
Part 2 of leaders of the National Capital Chapter of the Association for Women in Computing.

Nowadays, the computer industry is looking for more competent and reliable workers in the field. Gender is truly one issue when it comes to performance, but how do we really know who is better? For us women, we always make it a point to make things better and more concise. Finding entry level jobs for a woman in the computer industry can be very tricky at first.

The first thing that you should keep in mind is to know your strengths and capabilities. Be aware of what you can do and what you cannot do. In order for you to excel in your chosen field, you need to be at your best. Though it is a fact that most computer repair jobs are done by men because of physical actions that is needed to perform the job, as time goes by, everything that can be done by men can also be done by women. Women can also perform power testing on micro chips, replacement of peripherals, and the actual assembly of the computer, and even networking. Schools are treating every student fairly and gender is not a hindrance for you to learn everything that you need to know.

Practice and practice more. With public acceptance of computer duties being done by the female gender, we need to make the society proud by working on our best to provide support and service. This way, reliability will also be noted for us women.

Today, entry level jobs are available for all genders. With the right skills and the competent attitude, women need not to worry about getting the job that they wanted even if it’s a “man’s job”.  Be confident with your skills and make them notice you as an asset in this growing industry. It is also known that a woman’s patience is the key towards providing seamless technical support to our society. Let nothing bother you, and reach for your goals. Continue studying the field, and be the most competent class in this society.

Tags: careers, computers, entry level jobs, jobs, women's issues

Cordyceps is a mushroom that has been used as a herbal medicine all over the world. Science has had the ability to analyze this mushroom to determine the numerous benefits it offers to human beings. It is said to restore the normal, functioning of the body and stimulate the immune system.

Recent research that was done on Cordyceps shows that it improves the sport practice and regulates the body pressure. Clinical tests that were performed by live wire communications shows that it increases the flow of blood. It enhances the energy levels in animals. This is why recent scientific assessment of Cordyceps suggests that it enhances the overall body functions.

However, there are some facts that were that show that this herbal drug increases the level of the natural killers in the body. This is why only small portion is required in the body. In most cases, it reduces fatigue this is why athletes mostly prefer it. It increases on the energy production in the body as well as the supply of oxygen.

Live wire communications have also proven that Cordyceps reduces the sores on the muscles therefore enhancing their recovery. This is mostly present with the athlete. Apart from its medicinal use, it has so many other benefits in human beings. This is because it has had an impact on so many lives of men and women. It increases fertility and alleviates the respiratory illness, which include asthma and bronchitis is.
Live wire communications have assessed the effect of this drug on women and men. They have shown numerous benefits, which could even include having the capability to treat cancer. Nevertheless, this supplement is not suitable for every one, this includes pregnant women and even those who are breastfeeding or have other immune diseases.

If your work happens to be in the sales, then, this job is quite challenging especially if you are now in great turmoil on how to meet your sales quota for the month. You would even do the most extraordinary marketing strategy just to move heaven and earth in order to make that sale. In any profession, either you are a newbie in web designing who is just starting to learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop free download tutorials or a sales agent honing his/her skills through a call training course, you have to put your heart and mind in achieving your goal to become an efficient worker.

If you are just a newbie in the sales industry, here are 4 factors that could either make or break your sales record from your prospective buyers to a more remarkable sales report.

• Proper timing

There is always an appropriate time to make a sales call to any prospective client. People belonging to the sales team are always briefed of what would be the best call time of the day. Making a sales call in the latter part of the evening is very unprofessional and is viewed as a waste of time to most sales people because this is the time when most people are already in bed, ready for their well-rested sleep and it isn’t ideal to disturb them in the middle of the night.

• Determine your reason for the call

Before you make that sales call to your prospective buyer, prepare the outline of what you have to say, the positive feedback of other satisfied clients who availed your product or service and lastly be sure to tap the right market. For sure, you don’t want to receive a cold answer “No” if you made a sales call to a wrong client not needing your product or service.

• Direct motivation

It takes a fully-motivated sales agent to convince even the hard to please target consumer. Time is very important to any sales person and it is for this reason that adequate training in marketing and sales handling are given to them before they do their main task of making a sales call to their potential buyers. In order for them to convince any client, he/she as a sales agent should fully believe in the product/service that is being offered, for their convincing power to become genuine.

• Preparedness

Enough sales training and preparation is given to most sales people to ensure that when they do accept the responsibility of the work, they are fully equipped with enough knowledge and selling tactics for them to close a deal and have a sale at the end of each sales call.

Be driven to succeed on whatever career you hold. Carry on.

Most of us kind of think that what we use the internet is strictly private between us and the keyboard.  However I’m afraid this is simply not the case – unfortunately there are many others who are interested in what we do online for a variety of reasons.    Have you ever wondered how adverts seem to follow you around the internet – stalking you from your online news sites across to Facebook and Linkedin.

Express an interest in a product and your likely to have adverts for that product stalking you across the internet.  For instance I recently clicked on an advert for a particular brand of cosmetics – eye shadow if you’re interested.  Now every other site I visit seems to have little adverts for that product displayed on their website.  Coincidence or am I being stalked by an electronic cosmetics salesman.

Of course the answer is that my behavior online (and yours) is being monitored consistently, the data is tracked and stored on our computers and the web servers we visit.  Meanwhile a new breed of ‘data companies’ are storing all this data for primarily commercial reasons and building up a digital you profile for sale to the highest bidder.

Some may not care about this, we are after all a land of entrepreneurs and our society is built on commerce.  But have you ever thought that and entire list of every web site you have visited over the last two years is actually stored and available.  That’s absolutely every web site – logged and recorded – stored in the logs of your ISP.   That’s an awful lot of data and an awful lot of privacy issues.   If there’s any aspect of your life you’d like to keep private then I suggest you don’t visit related web sites – what do you mean to late??

There are ways of keeping more of your data private, there are a whole raft of websites which will show you you the latest anonymous surfing news and products.  It’s not just a male, geeky products – there is a real issue with how the internet is developing and how much data is being gathered and stored about each and every one of us!

Long before US men got more seriously into the game with the launch of Major League Soccer (the MLS) and an improved international team the women of the US were displaying a strong passion and skill for the sport. In fact the US Womens Soccer team is one of the best in the world. therefore it is not surprising that a great many women across the country play soccer, and play it both indoors and out.

One of the keys to getting a great performance for an indoor soccer player is finding (and then wearing) the right indoor soccer shoes. and instead of spending hours in the mall trying to find the right pair many women are heading online to buy their indoor soccer shoes instead.

One of the most popular destinations for these online purchases is Lady Footlocker, the womens only division of the popular sporting goods outlet. Zappos also carry a decent selection of indoor soccer shoes and their very generous returns policy means that if you do make a sizing mistake exchanging your new indoor soccer shoes will not be too difficult.

Sizing is one of the reasons that some women prefer to buy their indoor soccer shoes off rather than online though. A pair of heels that are a little too tight can usually be tolerated (especially if they are really fabulous ones) but an ill fighting pair of indoor soccer shoes can be a nightmare.

Some sites do offer sizing help though and also feature reviews from previous customers who asked to describe the fit and how well it corresponded to a certain size number. That means that if five people said that a size 8 pair of indoor soccer shoes ran too big you at least know that you may need a size smaller and can adjust your shopping based on that information.

Looking out for Pizza Hut coupons is a great way to save money on a meal that almost everyone in the family can enjoy. The next time you head there though you might want to keep these amazing Pizza Hut trivia facts in mind:

•  The very first Pizza Hut opened in Kansas in 1958 by two brothers using $600 they borrowed from their mother.
• In 2011 there were almost 6,000 Pizza Hut restaurants in the USA. In addition there are another 4,000 spread out across one hundred other countries.
• Pizza Hut in Japan serves one of the most indulgent (and calorie laden) fast food dishes in the world. Called the Double Roll it is essentially a cheese pizza but it has bacon wrapped sausages all along the crust, and mini hamburger patties on top of mushrooms, soy beans, corn, paprika, garlic chips, green peppers, and pepperoni. As for cheese, it has mozzarella, cheddar and parmigiana. and all of this adds up to a huge 646 calories per slice.

Tags: pizza hut coupons

Did you know that the field of occupational therapy is dominated by women?  A shocking 90% of occupational therapists are female!  Not only that, but occupational therapy is one of the fields that is booming during the economic downturn.

If you’re a female looking for a solid future carer, you might want to consider attending one of the nation’s occupational therapy schools and receiving either your bachelor’s or master’s in occupational therapy.  A typical occupational therapist earns over $65,000 a year with a bachelor’s degree and up to six figures with a master’s.  More.com, a popular online women’s magazine, even listed occupational therapy as one of the top 10 careers for women who want a career and a life, and they reiterated the fact that occupational therapy is a field with solid future growth potential.

Here at Live Wire, we love to promote the idea of women using the Internet to fuel their future careers.  If you’re looking for a career that you can love and will fit into your lifestyle, we encourage you to fire up your Internet browser and do some research on occupational therapy schools and careers today.  You may very well find your dream career!

While these days most women are just as comfortable with computers as man, there remains a subset of the female population – particularly older women – who did not grow up with computers.   Sometimes these women find themselves at a disadvantage when dealing with certain modern technologies.

If there is a woman in your life that absolutely refuses to use a computer or smart phone, and you’d like to help her gain familiarity with modern technologies, there is an innocent way to aid her.  Today some of the best refrigerators on the market come with a lot of built-in technology.

Certain fridge freezers – such as the Samsung FR4289 – basically come with a small computer and screen within the freeze door.  While not cheap, these appliances are a great way to help the technology shy start to realize some of the benefits today’s innovations have to offer.

Even the most conservative grandmother will find it handy to have an up to date weather report on their refrigerators ‘screen’.  Once you show them that you can display recipes there from the internet, even a true Luddite will start to see the opportunities.

By providing technophobes with a useful exposure to technology in a familiar setting, you can help them overcome their fear of the unknown.  Once Aunt Gertie has started taking advantage of a computer in the kitchen, don’t be surprised to see her starting to embrace email and the like.

Yes, she will still be living in the 1990s.  But that is a big step up from the 1970s!  You can train her in the joys of Facebook and Twitter a little later on – take it one step at a time to avoid overwhelming her.

With easily accessible user friendly computing available even in refrigerators today, there is no reason for anyone to not experience the benefits computers have to offer.

When it comes to using a computer whether it be for casual use or as a means to earn a living there is no reason women shouldn’t be treated as equals to men. In the day and age of mobile computer technology everybody has the possibility to own and make use of computers in everyday life and this is exactly what is happening more and more. Mobile technology such as tablet pc’s and android phones will make it possible for women to do even more with their day whether it be organizing nights out, finding holidays, shopping for food or selecting that perfect pair of designer shoes.

The actual discussion of women and computers is one that is a non starter nowadays, we are just as capable as anybody else and no we don’t just think mobile Internet is only good for updating the Facebook status (although I love being able to add pictures on nights out instantly) or my Twitter account, we also see the possibilities that this technology can bring.

Most people turn to affiliate marketing as an alternative way to earn money and work from home. It refers to hiring an seo agency and getting a commission out of every sale or successful transaction. What are the secrets to being successful in this business? Is it true that one can earn through this method or is it just a waste of time?

All over the world, more people are showing proof that they are able to make a living through promoting products and services from another company. What they do in order to become successful is not a secret at all. It is just sometimes hidden in plain sight and we tend to overlook it and focus on other not-so-important aspects of doing the business.

Although the income potential is big, we would be ready to start with something small. Most people make a mistake by concentrating on hitting the numbers instead of quality. Thus, they use mediocre promotional materials with no conversion value at all. What happens is that they focus on attracting a lot of visitors, but are not successful in convincing those visitors to buy what they are selling.

An excellent sales pitch, matched by a personal approach towards promoting an internet marketing company can sometimes spell the difference. After making a few sales through a well-thought of sales page, it can now be easy to take the second step and attract more customers to visit your page. By focusing on quality before quantity, commissions are most likely to come in.

Tags: Marketing

Here is some interesting information of how women & men use the Internet that I’ve got from an e-mail back and forth with Chicago SEO Services.

• Women under 30 actually use the Internet more than men under 30, however, according to Chicago SEO Services, the two groups use the Internet very differently. For instance women are really active on their e-mail accounts, they do more personal e-mailing, sharing of interesting content with friends and loved ones, a wide range of topics of personal interest is being shared by the women via e-mail. In contrast men mostly tend to use their e-mail for organizational and work purposes.
• The usage of the Internet by men over 30 significantly outweighs the usage of Internet by women over 30. However, the percentage of women using the Internet is growing at a significant pace and is likely to outgrow the number of men using the Internet within the next few years. The average time spent on the Internet by a woman is already greater than the average time spent on the Internet by a man.
• While women are just as likely to shop online and purchase actual goods as men, they aren’t as likely to pay for digital items, pay bills or participate in buying stocks online or similar activities.
• As for searching for information online women are generally interested in more narrow range of topics than men. Men use the search engines in savvier manner, run more aggressive queries, run more narrowing queries to find the specific information they need, while women are more likely to go for more generic queries.
• Women are more likely to participate in online support groups, go more in-depth by participating in e-mail discussions on the subject, they’re more likely to share the information they find useful or interesting over e-mail or on social media platforms.
• Information on health, recipes, arts and crafts, babies and children are some of the topics that generate more interest from women than men.
• Men are more likely to download music, pay for music and videos, listen to online radios and watch online TV shows.

In conclusion, here are some top 10 sites that women tend to be more interested in.

Here are the top 10 categories of interest for women:

• Portals
• Services
• Corporate Presence
• Searching &  Navigation
• Entertainment
• Conversational Media
• Promotional Servers
• Social Networking
• Directories & Resources
• Information & News

Here are the top 10 shopping sites for women:

• Amazon
• Wal-Mart
• Apple.com WW
• Target
• NETFLIX
• Yahoo! Shopping
• HewlettPackard
• Shopzilla
• Google Shopping
• Nextag
• BestBuy

Snoring is something that we all at some point in our lives have to deal with, however for some people it is a nightly ordeal; causing them to get bad sleep along with their partners.   In many cases the snoring is caused from a condition known as sleep apnea.  This ailment is easily cured for most people and if you think you have this condition don’t waste any time getting a proper sleep test.  A sleep test will show you if your snoring is due to apnea.  Most of the times it is, in that case oral appliance therapy has become a very successful treatment option that many people are exercising.

Tags: sleep apnea

The internet is a great resource for quality information literally at everyone’s fingertips.  The problem is that not all of this information is accurate or true and must be taken with a grain of salt, especially when you are talking about financial matters.  One such matter than is very clouded by information on the internet is the debt relief industry.  So many companies fill the internet with junk for the sole purpose of getting more customers regardless of whether they are actually able to help these folks or not.  Most people nowadays are aware of the dangers of the internet but under no circumstance should you offer up personal financial info unless you know you are dealing with a safe and trusted organization.

Tags: debt relief, money

In this day and age, there is lots of evidence that women are equal to men in most any work place. They have made strides in every direction and as more and more enter the work force, everything is evening out between the sexes.

The Internet and computers are one place that this is especially so because men have absolutely no advantage when it comes to online businesses. In the online world, who you are can be hidden if you want and so no one would know if you are a man or a woman anyway. Additionally, social media is something that has exploded over the last couple of years and women have the upper hand in that.

Today’s young women go to college and fully expect to get a job. They aren’t paying those big bucks to learn how to be a homemaker. Jobs for college students can be found in all areas but the new one is the online world. There are lots of online jobs you can get, either part time or full time, that are great for college students who have bills to pay. Women are equally qualified for all these jobs and they are going after them too.

Companies are hiring for all sorts of Internet related jobs as they realize that a strong online presence is needed to compete in today’s business world. Women have every bit as much opportunity as men to get those jobs and it is great for those that are driven to get them. There are few excuses for women in the online world: just go out see what is available and then go after it!

Tags: jobs for college students, women and the Internet

Firstly, I don’t want to start an argument but the first electronic computer was not the ENIAC. The first computer was built at Bletchley Park in the UK during World War II and was used to crack the German’s secret codes. Its existence was kept secret long after the end of the war, thereby allowing others to claim first place, although for some strange reason the technology was shared with the Americans.

Anyway, this site is about computer confidence for women. As a woman in my sixties who has built and runs several websites – take a look at my site selling personalised christening gifts – I find it a little odd and a trifle offensive that someone seems to think there is a need for such a site as this. I don’t want to come across as a grumpy old woman, but why does anyone think women as a breed are wary of using computers? Figures show that the majority of ‘silver surfers’ are women. Alright, women do most of the shopping and the internet is increasingly being used to shop, but one doesn’t have to be a geek to use a computer. It would take a crowbar to separate the modern generation (both sexes) from their computers, so I assume the suggested computer phobia affects the older generation; but statistics suggest women as users are well represented. I couldn’t sell my personalised christening gifts without my website, and most of the customers buying the christening gifts are women. Maybe this site should be aimed at men?

I’m not sure that any industry has been helped more by the advent of computers, bloggers and the internet as has wine, or at least wine consumers.

Not many people outside of a wine of the month club owner know that most wine is actually purchased by women and a higher and higher percentage of them are spending time online either reading blogs, or checking prices before making purchases.

Women are notorious for spending more time making informed decisions then men (when is the last time your husband used, or cut a coupon) so the internet and the bevy of information is a perfect combination, especially for a topic such as wine which needs a lot of information because of a huge number of wineries and the fact that each vintage varies dramatically from prior offerings.

There is a serious shortfall in the amount of women entering the design and computing sector. There is also a serious inbalance in the percentage of women taking up engineering jobs. Both these sectors require people who are gifted intellectually; and thus there is no physical impediment in women taking up positions such as software design engineer, computer programmer, electrode design engineer and so on. What is holding women back is a culture that tends to regard women as unsuitable for highly skilled and highly paid jobs. We all admire women doctors, female corporate leaders, female artists etc. but we are apt to see these successful women as the exception tio the rule rather than the norm.

As regards computer skills people are apt to aim low. Of course it is essential to be able to grasp the basics of such important programs as Word, Excel and Powerpoint. But these are not skiills of the highest order: they are not going to lead on to jobs where a woman can become an industry leader. Rather these are more clerical programs and as such people who use them are destined to do jobs with poor renumeration rates.

If, as a woman you are interested in computers and you want to be a software enginner then you should study computer programs such as C, C++. Javascript and so on. If you want to enter the field of aerospace design then you must learn Unigraphics and Siemens NX  systems. If you want to design websites then you must master Adobe tools and HTML.

The important thing is to aim high with your computer skill ambitions. If not, you will become nothing more then a high tech clerk.

Tags: aiming high, computer skills

Ladies, have you ever had trouble recalling the name of a great movie you once saw that you wanted to share with your friends? I know I have!  The good news is that modern technology makes it a lot easier to research this type of thing.

I’m sure you are all familiar with Internet search engines, but what you may not be aware of is just how versatile they are!  Let us imagine you cannot remember a movies name, but you can remember the general plot and/or some of the actors involved.

As an example I will use an RV movie I once saw. I do not remember the title, but I do remember a couple of things.  The first thing I remember is that it starred Robin Williams, so that is one serach term I can use.  A second thing I recall is that the movie is about a vacation the family featured in the film took. 

Using these clues I can type ’robin williams vacation’ into a search engine and lo and behold, the first result that comes back references the movie I was looking for – it was called RV.

Search engine technology is good at piecing together snippets of information that we recall to provide data that we can’t quite remember.  As long as you have a computer handy you can access these useful tools whenever you need to!

Tags: researching movies online

Until a few years ago, the idea of a female winemaker was almost crazy.  Only around 5% of commercially active wineries as of a decade ago, had female winemakers.

Things have changed.

The next generation of winemakers is largely trained at UC Davis and their famous viticulture program.  63% of their current graduating class are women. There was a time that you could hardly give a wine gift to a feminist friend, because it was hard to find a bottle made by a female winemaker.

Over 30% of all Napa Valley winemaking jobs are now held by women.

The highest paid winemaker in the world currently is Helen Turley, who takes a percentage of sales to help struggling wineries (or at least those struggling, but still with great vineyard locations).

Yes, things have changed and if the wine industry is capable of change-all things seem possible!

Tags: wine, winery, wine gift

There was after an occasion when women were considerably marginalized in a very community that is intensely slanted toward mens’ wants and concerns. Whilst cases involving discrimination towards women continue to be fairly prevalent, there has been several progress made in the mission to have women far more greatly linked to a variety of facets in the community. This is particularly visible all over the net, the place that the democratization of the collective internet experience provides women a more prominent function compared to what they already have appreciated otherwise.

Running a blog is certainly one distinct region where women are ultimately capable to stay competition with the guys. You’ll find thousands associated websites on-line at a minute, and they are made up of numerous prospective customers. World wide web trend such as blogging, site-building and web design template are made even wealthier with the better engagement with women. It is in this sphere that women have made their existence sensed in social networks are constantly filled with women bloggers. Regardless, women have taken writing a blog greatly, and they make-up a sizable area of the users list of many social network sites.

Right now, women bloggers regularly slug it out along with guy bloggers upon the net for sharing viewers that’s once centered primarily on guys. The influence from the large numbers of women bloggers cannot be rejected any more, which is surrounding the web marketing and advertising world in manners which you cannot observed before. Any company prepare an online marketing approach that will forgets to handle females should be the company’s negative aspect. As web design templates seen recently, lots of readers who currently use the social networking sites are generally women. This specific understanding is made increasingly that most of the women manage the family expenses.

Tags: Equality

Many of us take for granted the importance of being able to use a computer, although this article is about women it is relevant to guys out there as well. Think of your ideal job and it is highly likely that being computer literate is there on the list of requirements. Now if you sit in the group that regard themselves as computer illiterate then the thought of using a computer, or even possibly any kind of technology, may actually terrify you! But fear not as there are courses and programmes you can take that can get you up to scratch in no time. Even using a computer at home to browse the web and maybe doing a little shopping using E-Lites coupon codes can help improve your skills no end. So don’t despair as there are many things you can do to get you computer literate in no time at all.

No I’m not talking about becoming an Internet freedom fighter and smashing down the Great Chinese Firewall.  In fact my inspiration for this post is a little more sedate, I started missing my favorite TV soap!

I’ve lived in New York for two years now and love it hear, but as with any Ex-Pat there are things you always miss from your home country.  For me there’s a selection of food items (mostly very mundane), my family and friends of course and then watching television shows without advertising breaks.  In fact I don’t watch much TV here but I really do miss my weekly fix of a show called Eastenders.

Now you’d think it would be no problem to watch things like this in the high tech world we live in, after all the BBC broadcast all their content online.  But alas that’s not enough because if you’ve ever tried using the BBC Iplayer application outside Britain you’ll find you just get blocked.  The reasons behind this are probably financial but to be honest I’m not entirely sure, but I did know that if someone stops you doing something online – then somebody else has probably figured out how to circumvent that!

Fortunately it’s true. I did my intial research on the subject and found this post – how to get a UK IP address.  This is actually all you need, a simple way to make the BBC think you are based in the United Kingdom when you connect.  This is actually very easy as the article above illustrates, you connect trhough a third party server based in Britain. From then the whole wonderful world of commercial free BBC media is open to you.  You can actually now subscribe directly but this is only available on the Ipad currently.  That’s one piece of technology I have so far resisted and I’m not paying $400 for a TV show.

So give it a try, once you figure it out you can access other sites.  If you’re learning French for example – try out M6 replay which broadcasts lots of US shows in French. All you need to do is connect via a French server this time to bypass the block.

Tags: uk ip address, proxy server, Iplayer, M6 Replay

Information technology or IT is one of the fastest growing sectors in the American economy. The United States Department of Labor estimates that by 2018 there will be 1.4 million new computer-related jobs that will need filling. IT job opportunities are growing at a faster rate than any other  type of job. And yet women are leaving the IT field at a staggering rate. This has lead to such organizations as National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) to further examine this trend and to find ways of removing the barriers that stop women enjoying successful careers in IT.

Despite the growing number of vacancies in the IT world there has been a steady decline in the number of women enrolling for computer courses at university.  In 2008 women held 57% of the jobs in all professional work areas except for IT where the number was only 25% – down from 36% in 1991.

Clearly women are missing out on a big opportunity to boost their incomes and to take their fair share of jobs in the IT related industries. Not only will women miss out in the future but so will America. It is believed by many analysts that there won’t be enough credible candidates to fill all the IT jobs predicted by 2018.

This means more IT jobs will be outsourced in the future. America has always been keen to keep business and employment opportunities in the States but the modern trend of cutting costs by outsourcing will inevitably lead to many well paid IT jobs being outsourced to foreign countries. It is likely that as internet connections in Manila in the Philippines, Bombay in India, Thongsala in Koh Phangan, as well as African cities and Southern American cities continue to get faster so America will bleed jobs to the world. This is both good news and bad news. America will eventually lose its supremacy in the IT field despite having Google and Silicon Valley, but perhaps women from other countries will take up the opportunities that clearly American women are reluctant to grasp.

Tags: IT job opportunities., women in IT in America

It is essential for professional women to learn computer literacy. Nowadays the term ‘literacy’ disguises the fact that there are many programs that are used in the work place. For general office work there are word and excel. For presentations there is powerpoint; and, for design applications there is the entire Adobe suite to master. That is not all: there are also computer languages such as C and C++, as well as HTML, PHP and javascript that are all essential in the online world.

It is not just women that are lacking in many of these computer skills, it is most of the population. The good thing about computers is that they are entirely knowledge based. There is no physical dimension to computers, such as for example a career in the armed forces, that places women at a disadvantage.

The only problem with a career in computers is that the sedentary lifestyle can ruin your posture and give you a bad back. Staring at a computer screen can ruin your eyesight. That is why it is a good idea to take a holiday once in a while to get away from your desk, unwind and just relax.

The hot new destination in Thailand is Koh Phangan. Previously a hippy hang-out, the Thai island has had a recent make-over and is now one of the most exclusive tourist destinations in Thailand. Such 5 star hotels as Anantara Rasananda, Santhiya and Panviman offer great service and luxury accommodation that matches anything on Koh Samui, but in a pristine natural environment with a gorgeous unspoiled beach that goes beyond anything available in Koh Samui.

While enjoying the beauty of such beaches as Thong Nai Pan Noi you can treat yourself to a Thai massage, herbal sauna or other spa treatment. It will do wonders for your cramped and hurting body and prepare you for getting back in the office with renewed vigor and determination to out-perform your male colleagues.

Tags: equality of computer work, resort in Koh Phangan, Santhiya

There are still surprisingly few women online in the developing world. In India, famed for its internet gurus, there are only 100 million people online, in Brazil about 60 million people and in Russia about 60 million people. Considering the huge populations in these countries the numbers are very small.

The reason for these small figures for people online is to do with infrastructure. Many areas in developing countries have little telephone wire coverage. Also computers remain prohibitively expensive.

This could all change with mobile phone technology. Even the poorest often have access to a cell phone or mobile phone. 3G technology and smart phone technology means that more people can in the future go online via their mobile phones. It is estimated that in the next few years there could be over a billion new people online. Many of these people will be women.

Where in developing countries men had the advantage economically because of physical strength, this could all change in the future. Women can compete economically with men online. Indeed it is often the case that women in developing countries out earn men on the internet. This is due to content outsourcing. Women in India, the Philippines and elsewhere can stay at home and look after the family as well as work online.

In Thailand many of the owners of internet cafes are women. In places like Thongsala in Koh Phangan and Chaweng in Koh Samui many of the women making money through the internet are women.

Finally, as the importance of the intellectual economy increases it is access to information that will be the key to success. The more women that go online the more chance a country will have of being competitive in the future.

Tags: developing countries, women online

The ENIAC-the world’s first electronic computer-weighed 30 tons, filled a 30-by-50-foot room, and was programmed by women. Come again? It’s true. Although our heads are filled with images of computing as a man’s world, and my history books are filled with pictures of men as the field’s creative geniuses, during World War II, Rosie the Riveter was joined in non-traditional labor by Betty the Programmer-and also Jean, Marlyn, Ruth, Kay and Frances. Together, these six women went where no one-woman or man-had gone before, using hardware and human logic to tell a vast machine just what to do.

In March, I interviewed two of these pioneers for a cable TV program called, “On the Go with the AAUW,” which will air on Fairfax Cable later this year. [The AAUW is the American Association of University Women.] Betty Snyder Holberton and Jean Bartik were attending a meeting of the Association of Women in Computing, a national group that in Arlington, Va. presented Holberton with the 1997 Augusta Ada Lovelace^* Award, its highest award for excellence. Because Holberton’s story speaks volumes about women in computing, I thought I’d relate it this month.

Betty Snyder, born during World War I, was very good in math. Even so, on her first day at the University of Pennsylvania, her math professor said she should stay home raising children. Instead, she studied journalism because its curriculum let her go far afield. It was also one of the few majors open to women. A quirk of history opened doors for Betty when, in World War II, the U.S. government sought help from women, given that the men were off fighting and the work viewed (perhaps because women did it) as clerical. “Computors,” who were mostly women, performed the massive and tedious computations that guided ballistics trajectories. In other words, they used their mathematical prowess to help the army make its mark on Axis powers.

Even with math whizzes working the numbers, the war effort demanded more speed. By early 1946, Snyder, along with Jean (Jennings) Bartik, Marlyn (Wescoff) Meltzer, Ruth (Lichterman) Teitelbaum, Kay (McNulty) Antonelli, and Frances (Bilas) Spence, all classed by the U.S. government as “subprofessionals,” figured out how to “program” the freshly unveiled ENIAC to do the job. At first they worked only from wiring diagrams, viewed as security risks and kept from the computer room. Once admitted, they sometimes had to straighten up the mess that engineers left overnight (some things never change).

Despite the obstacles, the women succeeded; even the test run was flawless. Use of the ENIAC cut calculation time from about 20 hours down to 30 seconds-about half the time of a projectile’s flight. After the demonstration, said The Wall Street Journal last year, “the men went out for a celebratory dinner. The programmers went home.”

I’m not sure I could understand how the ENIAC worked, let alone explain it to you. What I do know is this: Holberton and her colleagues figured out how to make it happen with a machine that could fill a small ballroom, in a world without Windows, keyboards or CD-ROMs. Reported The Wall Street Journal, “Running the ENIAC required setting dozens of dials and plugging a ganglia of heavy black cables into the face of the machine, a different configuration for every problem.”

In short, it was just yards and yards of intricately linked on-off switches, about 18,000 vacuum tubes, and them. Yet, in textbooks, these brainy women are merely lumped in a nameless group, a footnote in the shadow of the equally brilliant and fully credited men who created the machine itself.

Live Wire is vexed. Even the stodgy Wall Street Journal reported that the first programmers’ legacy “is confined mainly to Movietone footage and sepia photos-women standing alongside the machine, as if modeling a Frigidaire.” Why is that? In part, hardware until recently stole the thunder in computing. Also in part, three of the women married ENIAC engineers, “making them,” as the Journal pointed out, “wives first in the eyes of the history makers.”

But the feisty members of the First Programmers’ Club didn’t let that stop them. Betty Snyder Holberton enjoyed an extremely influential career-she helped develop the UNIVAC (the first commercially available computer), and worked at Remington Rand, the Applied Mathematics Laboratory, the David Taylor Model Basin, and the National Bureau of Standards. Holberton shaped UNIVAC hardware and was responsible for much of the first model’s software, which the U.S. Census bureau used to process 1950 data. Her work pointed the way for Admiral Grace Murray Hopper to develop the earliest compiler-a way of translating programming commands from the high-level languages we use to instructions that machines can understand. Hopper, by the way, described Holberton as being the best programmer she had ever known.

Holberton also helped to design and standardize the COBOL and FORTRAN languages, which may sound Greek to you but actually represent two critically important programming languages. Her work at the standards bureau helped to ensure that computers could communicate with one another worldwide, regardless of any one manufacturer’s dictates.

You can visit the retired ENIAC at the Smithsonian. Betty Holberton and Jean Bartik, however, are still going strong-and so is their legacy. In our interviews, these outspoken women stressed the importance of the life of the mind. Their confidence in their intellect, in the face of discouraging discrimination, helped them to succeed and to put their stamp on the information age. At a time when we worry more than ever about how girls fare in math and computing, we can tell them the story of the first programmers, valuable models of spirit, determination and drive.

^* Lovelace, the daughter of George, Lord Byron, was a skilled mathematician who in the first half of the 19th century developed the basic ideas of programming.