5 Reasons that Ebooks are Effective Communication Tools

5 Reasons that Ebooks are Effective Communication Tools

by: Jim Estill

Ebooks are effective means of communicating.  They allow you to express your ideas in a unique way that will reach many people.  I have recently become an ebook convert, and I want to share with you the reasons that ebooks are the latest successful communication trend.1.  As Technology Advances, Communication Advances. We live in a digital age.  The popularity of blogs shows the influence that the internet has had on our communications.  Communication theorists have argued that communication has developed from one-to-one (with pre-printing letters and books), to one-to-many (with the advent of the printing press) to many-to-many (with the internet).  You no longer have to be a Harvard professor or famous novelist to reach many people: you can write an ebook and share it with many people.  This democratization of knowledge is a step forward in the evolution of communication. 2.  Convenience. Because of the technology behind ebooks, they are immensely convenient.  They can be accessed from anywhere.  They can be stored, shared, or deleted as you want.  You can browse through an ebook while you are at your desk to see if you want to read the book.  You can even use the find or search function to find pertinent parts of the book.   Ebooks often contain hyperlinks that direct you to the sources of their information.  This is like having interactive footnotes in a book.  The hyperlinks in ebooks also make it easier for you find information that is cross-referenced within each volume. Another convenient aspect of ebooks is their size.  Frequently, ebooks are shorter than published hard-copy books.  This means that the information is distilled, and easier to access than if you had to search through a printed book. 3.  Empowering the Author. If you were to try to publish a book, or even an article, through traditional publishing modes, you would have to deal with rejections, editors, and restrictions that each press has.  With an ebook, you are free to make your choices about how you want to publish your material, and what material gets published.  This kind of artistic integrity has all but vanished from the print-publishing industry.   Ebooks allow authors to self-publish without investing too much capital.  If you choose to self-publish a printed book, you will have many costs to consider in your overhead.  Publishing an e-book can be a relatively inexpensive experience. 4.  The Environment. Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized written communication.  Gutenberg’s invention, however, was not environmentally friendly.  Ebooks, as electronic forms of communications, help to conserve our planet’s natural resources.  You can write as much as you want and not worry about the forests that are being cut down to share your ideas when you choose to write an e-book. 5.  Your Readership. This article lists many reasons that ebooks are convenient and effective for you, the author.  The affordable cost, the artistic integrity, and the powerful new technologies are exciting things for you as an author.  However, your readers will also thank you when you choose an ebook.  The convenience of access is easier than with a hard-copy book, and as discussed earlier, the information within the book is easier to access. So, the next time you are considering writing, consider writing an ebook.  The next time you want something to read, consider reading an ebook.  There is an entire market of books out there waiting to be written, and waiting to be read.  Are you ready to join the frontiers of communication?

Computer Franchises: Choosing the Right One for You

Computer Franchises: Choosing the Right One for You

by: Joshua Feinberg

Computer franchises can be found everywhere in the country. Because risks are a part of investment in computer franchises, you want to make sure you consider all factors to make sure you are completely prepared for all the challenges.Things To Consider When Purchasing A Franchise A lot of people falsely think that buying computer franchises guarantees a winning business situation. But before you make the decision to buy, you need to consider important things like the demand for your produce and service, the competition you will face, whether you are able to run the business, the popularity of the name and the growth opportunity for the company. These important factors will determine whether computer franchises are your best bet. Factors Of Demand And Competition Demand for your product or service is the single most important factor to think about when considering computer franchises, and thankfully expert computer services are in high demand most everywhere. Computer businesses can run year round and have the capability to attract repeat customers. Look for a location that does not already have a lot of computer businesses and where there aren’t already franchises like the one you’re buying. Running Computer Franchises Buying computer franchises is not risk free, and sometimes the business will fail. Ask yourself if you will be able to manage marketing, advertising or any other elements without a full-time person designated to these areas, in case you have to cut personnel. Answers to these important questions will determine if you are ready to operate computer franchises. What’s In The Name? The main reason to buy computer franchises is name recognition. If the company has a long and quality track record, good training programs and support systems it is probably worth your money, even if the franchise fee is very high. Growth If the franchise you purchase is growing quickly, name recognition will be even better, and you will attract more customers. All this is great news unless you’re understaffed. Make sure the company will be able to support you and the growth of your business. Copyright MMI-MMVII, Computer Consulting Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Accessibility of the Web with a Computer Game

Accessibility of the Web with a Computer Game

by: Robert Bell

Images on the Web present a major accessibility issue for the visually impaired, mainly because the majority of them do not have proper captions. This paper addresses the problem of attaching proper explanatory text descriptions to arbitrary images on the Web. To this end, we introduce Phetch, an enjoyable computer game that collectsexplanatory descriptions of images. People play the game because it is fun, and as a side effect of game play wecollect valuable information. Given any image from the World Wide Web, Phetch can output a correct annotationfor it. The collected data can be applied towards significantly improving Web accessibility. In addition toimproving accessibility, Phetch is an example of a new class of games that provide entertainment in exchange forhuman processing power. In essence, we solve a typical computer vision problem with HCI tools alone.The Web is not built for the blind. Only a small fraction of major corporate websites are fully accessible to the disabled, let alone those of smaller organizations or individuals . However, millions of blind people surf the Web every day, and Internet use by those with disabilities grows at twice the rate of the non-disabled . One of the major accessibility problems is the lack of descriptive captions for images. Visually impaired individuals commonly surf the Web using “screen readers,” programs that convert the text of a webpage into synthesized speech. Although screen readers are helpful, they cannot determine the contents of images on the Web that do not have descriptive captions. Unfortunately the vast majority of images are not accompanied by proper captions and therefore are inaccessible to the blind (as we show below, less than 25% of the images on the Web have an HTML ALT caption). Today, it is the responsibility of Web designers to caption images. We want to take this responsibility off their hands. We set our goal to assign proper descriptions to arbitrary images. A “proper” description is correct if it makes sense with respect to the image, and sufficient if it gives enough information about its contents. Rather than designing a computer vision algorithm that generates natural language descriptions for arbitrary images (a feat still far from attainable), we opt for harnessing humans. It is common knowledge that humans have little difficulty in describing the contents of images, although typically they do not find this task particularly engaging. On the other hand, many people would spend a considerable amount of time involved in an activity they consider “fun.” Thus, like the ESP Game, we achieve our goal by working around the problem, and creating a fun game that produces the data we aim to collect. We therefore introduce Phetch, a game which, as a side effect, generates explanatory sentences for randomly chosen images. As with the ESP Game, we show that if our game is played as much as other popular online games, we can assign captions to all images on the Web in a matter of months. Using the output of the game, we mention how to build a system to improve the accessibility of the Web. Design of a Useful Game A traditional algorithm is a series of steps that may be taken to solve a problem. We consider Phetch as a kind of algorithm. Analogous to one, Phetch has well-defined input and output: an arbitrary image from the Web and its proper description, respectively. Because it is designed as a game, Phetch needs to be proven enjoyable. We do so by showing usage statistics of a oneweek trial period. Because it is designed to collect a  specific kind of data, Phetch’s output needs to be proven both correct and sufficient. We prove this through a specifically designed experiment.

Are Free Online Dating Sites Worth Your Time?

Are Free Online Dating Sites Worth Your Time?

by: David Kamau

It used to be that there is no such thing as free lunch. Then along came the internet and free became almost an automatic expectation.The expectation of free stuff has but pervaded the internet, online dating included. Add to this that some people- including some of whom should know better- cannot quite distinguish between a true internet dating site and a chat room. Whatever happened to “you get what you pay for”? So, do free dating sites exist? If so, are they worth your time? The answer to the first question is yes. But wait, not so fast. There is a price to pay. To answer the second question, I will ask you this; how much is your time worth? Or should I ask, how much is time spent on finding your soul-mate worth? You see, while it may seem enticing to use a free dating site, you could end up investing so much time that it will cancel out at best. Most likely it will not be worth it. You will find yourself spending lots of time on poor quality websites that don’t work efficiently. Read frustration and agitation. And this is just for starters. Next is safety. Background checks and/or verification are most likely inexistent on free sites as they just will not spend much time or (duh?) money on this. What this means is that you will most likely be contacting a person who is not whom they claim to be. Read potential disaster. In contrast, a paid dating site usually requires the use of a credit card, or other verifiable form of payment. This leaves a trail that can back to the subscriber. A person who can be traced is less likely to engage in crooked activity.   Another important thing is quality. If the site is not making money from subscriptions, it must be getting its revenue from somewhere. The most likely source is advertising. Prepare to be bombarded with ads, pop-ups and offers. Most Spy ware and Trojan infections sneak into a computer through “free” services and downloads. Caliber of potential prospects also matters. What kind of person will not commit a few dollars to finding the perfect mate? You can be sure that many lowlifes, losers and practical jokers will find a haven in free sites. Is a wonder that most online dating nightmare stories seem to originate from free chat rooms? In contrast, a person who is willing to pay a subscription fee is already demonstrating commitment, and can be taken seriously. Finally, free sites will be likely to cut corners in order to keep operating costs as low as possible. This means that features will be limited. You will also get very little useful information about your prospects. Site improvements will be few and far between if any at all. The bottom-line still is: you get what you pay for. If you want quality you must be willing to make the commitment. If in doubt get a free trial membership with a reputable dating site, then decide if it is what you want. If so, go with it. If not, move on.