Blue Surge

Archive for December, 2008

Although first used in Finland, cultures throughout the world use saunas for a variety of (purposes|uses}, from healthful relaxation, to it’s use as one of the traditional social gathering places. In fact, the US is fairly different by not having an established sauna; ‘tradition’.

In fact, the most commonly seen sauna in the US is at a gym or spa, but in Finland the use of a sauna is so common that you will find a private sauna in almost every home in the country. Many other countries consider sauna baths a rather normal and usual event, of no more importance than a long, hot bath. This is why saunas are also so abundant in many European and Asian countries.

In many areas throughout the globe, the sauna experience figures prominently into the social life of most of the countrymen. Eastern European countries such as Estonia, Russia, and Latvia have enjoyed the benefits of saunas for many centuries. Some also have strict single-sex customs regarding the use of saunas, and one of these countries with very firm rules and traditions in this regard is Russia.

Many other countries have both single sex and co-ed sauna areas for patrons to enjoy. The countries of Japan and Thailand are two countries that feel a sauna is very therapeutic and beneficial to everyone’s health and happiness. Thailand and Japan also have saunas that are both co-ed and single sex in nature.

There are some countries, with frostier climates, like Finland where sauna-goers often take breaks from the intense heat and humidity of the sauna to go outside and either roll in the snow or take a dunk in icy lake waters. The general mood in a sauna in any of these countries can be boiserous, with loud joking and socializing by all the participants.

The countries of Germany and Austria have a different style and the people consider the sauna to be a place of peace and meditation. There is a strict social etiquette that dictates quiet and no clothing at all times while in the sauna. German saunas often have ‘Aufguss’ sessions in which a worker will use a large towel to help move hot air throughout the sauna. Visitors may not enter or leave once a session starts, because this would release some of the heat to out of the suana and it would be distracting. The majority of sauna-goers in these countries are adults, although in Switzerland, one is very likely to encounter families with young kids.

All of the European sauna customs include a cooling-down period that immediately follows a soothing sauna visit. This cool down is considered healthy and can be accomplished with a dunk in a lake, a cold shower or bath, or even a vigorous run outside through the snow.

A Latin American version of the sauna, called a temazcal is very much loved throughout much of Central America. In these countries, individual families will own a sauna, and it is considered an individual, rather than a group, activity. Tradition dictates that a person should use the sauna only at night so they can enjoy the cool air at night when they leave the restriction of the sauna.

Asian cultures often have public saunas, which in many instances serve essentially as public bathhouses for the population as a whole. In Japan, sauna (sento) use has declined, as more and more people are able to purchase homes with large private baths or saunas.

In the United States, one does not see any kind of strict sauna culture. Health clubs, recreational facilities, or hotels may have a sauna and this is usually limited to members of the same sex. Swimsuits are most commonly seen, but the use of the sauna in America really has no particular social rules associated with it.

Before You Hire or Buy Portable Air Conditioning, it will help if you understand how to find the perfect match for your needs.

There are 4 principle types of Portable Air Conditioners available, each environment requiring Portable Air Conditioning is different and therefore careful consideration needs to be made prior to choosing the best Air Conditioning Solution.

The basic choice can be made from one of the following:

1. Evaporative coolers (swamp coolers)
2. Portable Exhaust tube Air Conditioning
3. Portable Split type Air Conditioning units (refrigerant)
4. Portable Split type Air Conditioning units (water cooled)

What should I consider before choosing a portable air conditioner?

The most important factor to consider the amount of cooling duty that is required for the area to be properly cooled. The amount of cooling duty required (measured in BTU or kW) will be impacted by several issues. i.e. size of area, number of people populating the area, numbers of items that generate heat e.g. PC, photocopiers, fax machines etc. Also the number of windows and the direction of the sun, i.e. buildings with south facing windows will require more cooling duty. Calculating the correct level of Air Conditioning duty required is important the correct decision can save hire costs and deliver the perfect cooling solution.

Different factors can reduce the effectiveness of portable air conditioners. Here are a few solutions that might increase or decrease BTU’s if you suspect the effectiveness of your portable air conditioner is going to be altered by an outside factor:

Portable Air Conditioners

The type of Portable Air Conditioner you choose may depend greatly on where you intend to exhaust it. Exhaust tube Air Conditioners remove the heat produced by the refrigeration circuit via exhaust tubes. Ideally the exhaust tube is Directed out of an adjacent window, however in some circumstances the heat can be removed via a suitable ceiling void or into other unused space. Each model and size of Exhaust Tube Air Conditioner is capable of different performance.

Evaporative coolers

Evaporative coolers (also called swamp, desert, or air coolers) are devices that cool air through the simple evaporation of water. They differ from refrigeration or absorption air conditioning, which use the vapor-compression or absorption refrigeration cycles. In the United States, small-scale evaporative coolers are called swamp coolers by some users due to the humid air conditions produced. The name sump cooler is also used. Air washers and wet cooling towers utilize the same principles as evaporative coolers, but are optimized for purposes other than air cooling.

Evaporative cooling is especially well suited for climates where the air is hot and humidity is low. For example, in the United States, the western/mountain states are good locations, with swamp coolers very prevalent in cities like Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, El Paso and Phoenix, where sufficient water is available. Evaporative air conditioning is also popular and well suited to the southern (temperate) part of Australia. In dry climates, the installation and operating cost of an evaporative cooler can be much lower than refrigerate air conditioning, often by 80% or so. But evaporative cooling and vapor-compression air conditioning are sometimes used in combination to yield optimal performance. Some evaporative coolers may also serve as humidifiers in the heating season.

These days a website is not an indulgence any more, but an absolute necessity. Your website is your image that you show to the world. Even the most humdrum business run from a garage can present a professional image and project a first-class company to the world. In other words, if you want to be seen as a expert company you need to make sure that your website projects that image.

In the same way that sales people of a big department store or a business selling B2B (business to business) products and services should always be personable and attractive, your website should be of equally high standards since your website creates the first impression of your company.

The time and cost that you lavish on your web design is therefore important. It is not to say that you should pay an overrated, overpriced advertising company thousands or millions to design your site, but on the other hand, please do not leave the job in the hands of your 15 year old nephew who has been building PCs since he was barely out of his nappies. Being ‘good with computers’ does not necessarily equate to ‘being able to design a good website’.

So where do you find good website design companies? Trawling the Internet does help, obviously, but here are a couple of essential tips:

- Speak to someone in the company in person. Does the person that you speak to know what he is talking about or is he merely the salesman?

- If possible, visit them. What do their offices look like, is it a one man operation or are there other staff on board? Remember, a one-man show is all very well but you need to be sure that there is backup in case the one man gets very busy, goes on holiday or is run over by a bus!

- And lastly, but not least – look at their portfolio. Do you like the look of the websites that they have designed? Is there a wide enough variety in the type of websites that they build? If their sites all look the same there is a big chance that they have their own internal templates that they just cut and paste from – nothing wrong with that in principle since it improves the web development time, but that does mean that they might lack in enough expertise to manage something more complex.

My next door neighbour, Clare, is what you would call a ‘big’ girl. She loves her fast food, chocolates, biscuits, crisps ….in fact just about anything that adds the pounds and kilos to her weight. And to make matters worse, she hardly ever walks anywhere but prefers to drive instead.

So it’s not surprising that about 3 months ago, she felt that her weight was getting out of control and she needed to do something about it.

Did she take up jogging? Or go down to our local gym? Nope – she decided to buy a Wii console!

She claimed that because the Wii had some new-fangled controls that didn’t just involve pressing buttons like other games consoles, but that actually required you to put in some effort to play games, then she’d lose weight.

Needless to say, her husband and I were not convinced and thought that this was just another one of Clare’s mad ideas (that she does have a reputation for coming out with!).

With her Wii console, she also got something called a Wii Fit that looked like one of those step blocks used in gyms for step aerobics. Clare said that this connected to the Wii console and came with a Keep Fit game that had her doing various exercises every day.

The software also kept a record of her weight, body-mass index and improvements in her performance of doing the exercise schedules.

Clare stuck to her new “exercise regime” and I would often pop round for a chat in the afternoon and find her red-faced and breathless from having just completed on of her sessions.

And the result?

Well, in the past month, she’s lost an impressive 14lbs (6.4 kilos for those of you who’ve gone metric) and it’s very noticeable. We are all impressed (even though she does keep saying “I told you so”). You can find the Wii Fit for sale on eBay at bargain prices. I’m definitely going to get one to get fitter and in shape.

Overcoming Dyslexia

It is the same with any kind of new technology, with time ever growing number of consumers begin to have access to these services. Certainly the great example of this is the cell phone number reverse lookup. There was a time when the only a select few were allowed access to this technology because of the cost and difficulty with collecting this sort of information. Those who possessed the information were the local public libraries and services like 911.

But these days situation is changed; information technology has grown more sophisticated and at the present it is easier than ever to know not just the phone number of the person who has been calling you, but you can discover much of that individuals private information as well. This can sound almost incredible, but the truth is that reverse phone numbers lookup is here and here to stay.

Every cellular phone these days is already ready with everything you need if you want to identify the number of people calling you. So unless they go through some very difficult steps to make sure that their private info is difficult to obtain, getting the cell phone number of a person can enable you to get lots of useful information concerning them or the person to whom the phone is registered to.

The kinds of information you are able to discover regarding a person varies from number to number. Lots of people succeed in pulling forth nearly all of the information they could ever want just by typing in the entire ten digit phone number; information like the precise name and phone bill mailing address.

Now and again there does arise the type of occasion when reverse lookup directory can not offer you and information. This sort of thing occurs because of the fact that this specific cell phone is a part of the prepaid service; these sort of cell phone numbers change owners so often it is virtually hopeless to trace all the people using them.

Maybe you have a cell phone number that you want to find out who the owner is? Or maybe you just have some number and would like to carry out a cell phone reverse number lookup to check if it is a cell phone or a regular phone? Whatever your reasons may be, the services of a cell phone reverse number lookup site could be of great value to you.

The Garmin Nuvi 880 GPS Navigation System offers a lengthy variety of features and functions that boost it to the top tier for any individual who wants a top quality GPS system. The unit is partially voice-activated and can also be run by using the touch screen. The Garmin Nuvi 880 is one of the best GPS systems that can be bought today.

Features

The Garmin Nuvi 880 provides quite a few capabilities that make it one of the top GPS systems available. The system arrives armed with wireless capabilities, giving you the chance to communicate through the cell phone as you drive. There are two front speakers positioned on the system so that you can understand the person you are talking to easily.

The Nuvi 880 also includes voice recognition capabilities. This hands-free design is perfect for going down traffic-loaded freeways and in cities where you need to keep all of your attention on the traffic. The FM radio transmitter is also an included benefit and you can add real time traffic condition updates if you want them.

Traffic news flashes are spoken through your sound system so if you are hearing an MP3 on your Garmin Nuvi 880, your music will be interrupted so you can understand the directions. This helps give you confidence that you should not go past your turn and that current driving directins will automatically be ready for you.

The Garmin Nuvi 880 Automotive GPS Navigator also provides easy-to-understand directions using the street names instead of distances. The voice system is hassle-free to use and understand, especially since all you will need to do is input the final stop and home address to get started.

Charging Your Nuvi 880

You Nuvi 880 is easily removable so that you can carry it with you. The battery will hold a charge without an outside power source for as much as five hours. To charge your Nuvi 880 you can plug it into a cigarette lighter adaptor, your USB cable, or a garden-variety wall socket adaptor.

Adding Maps

The Garmin Nuvi 880 GPS Navigation System is prepared with maps of North America built in but you may get extra maps when you wish to by downloading the ones you want from the company website. If you are traveling to a foreign country then you may also wish to purchase a travel guide for the location you are visiting. The travel guide can assist you in finding interesting sites in the country and help you get to inns, gasoline and other practical necessities.

You can keep your popular eateries and ships in the system, too. This makes it possible for you to easily find your favorite foods and items in a new place.

Finding Parking

If you have a difficult time finding your car after you have parked, you will enjoy using the setting that remembers your parking spot. This great setting is automatically included on your Garmin 880.

For many, tea is a very serious thing. You’d be suprised if you check that you can find one tea blog after another. Drinkers of the hot liquid tout the benefits of green tea, oolong tea, black tea, and white tea… to name a few. Of course there are many different brands and strengths to be considered.

There are those that not only drink the stuff, but collect all the various kinds, even those they do not personally like to drink. I guess that is no different than those that collect baseball cards, dolls, coins, etc… that collect them for their value or general interest. Along with the collecting of and appreciating tea, there are teacup and saucer collectors. All manner of shapes, sizes, and imbued valuable materials like gold, platinum, and silver can be found. Painstaking effort is often the norm in creating hand-crafted works of art designed to be held daintily at a tea party, or displayed on a shelf.

As you might guess, much rare and interesting information can be found on any given tea blog you might happen to read. Occasionally, great links to deals with good prices can be found at these sites. So for those regular teas you might drink, checking these sites can be a worthwhile use of time. Although there has been debate over high temperature drinks being bad for the digesitve system, you may have trouble ripping the cup out of many a dedicated and even addicted tea drinker’s grip on their flowered teacup.

*Disclaimer: the above is not medical advice and should be considered as entertainment only.

Anxiety Attack

The people of the united kingdom really are very much looking forward to being able the London Olympic 2012 games which will take place as this is going to be one of the best things ever to have happened to London. They will have all of the world’s most famous athletes and Olympians coming to London to showcase their talents and we the world over will be expecting to see some of the most enthralling events and performances.

We know that anything that we can do to keep our bodies moving is considered good as we at times get too complacent with sitting at the computer all day and not moving around as much as we should do. Doing sports such as what we will see in the olympics is certainly one thing we can all do to keep fit and many have found that learning to dance salsa has been the perfect way for them. Dancing salsa is wonderful for those who are established dancers and after one perseveres and decides to take on Cuban salsa or even the style of salsa termed as mambo or even LA salsa – we see that it can do a lot to help our general health and well being. Remember that getting to grips with the dance salsa steps is key.

As Salsa is a great way to keep fit and to make sure that our bodies are functioning, we can also choose to take a memorable vacation and maybe after visiting the London Olympics we can choose to visit Cornwall and Devon as this is one of the most beautiful places to visit throughout the whole of the UK.

I’ve been on a hunt for the perfect off-site backup service.  I’ve looked at using my web servers and rsync, tried various cheap services like iDrive and SwapDrive, and finally found OPENRSM CloudBackup. This is a review of the backup functionality. I’m going to save the network drive features for a later article.

First, the bottom line. The software is free, and that’s good for lifetime updates and unlimited installs that share a single account. They only charge $4.00 and have a feature list that’s enterprise grade. So, if your going to back up a 80GB of data we can anticipate a little less than $10 for the  cost.

OPENRSM CloudBackup is the online backup tool you simply have to have. The ability to do block-level updates and upload resume are both key to cutting down bandwidth costs. And since you can use the same account to backup all your Windows, MAC, and Linux computers this is a no brainer.

First, the fact that OPENRSM CloudBackup has to be active so that it can backup your data. It will wake your computer from sleep, but if your user is not logged in or OPENRSM CloudBackup is not running, the backup will be delayed or skipped. It does run as a Linux Daemon, a Windows Service, and an OSX Daemon so overall that’s not bad. Also, as with any online backup service, it only goes as fast as your internet connection.

There is a bandwidth control, so you can throttle back on upload and/or download speeds according to your desires. Everything else is simply great. You can create multiple backup jobs, choose the files you want to back up, set up rules and schedules.  Some of the extended features are retention of previous file versions and optionally removing files deleted on the local system.

For my first month of backups, I expected a bill of around $30. And it didn’t cost anything extra at all (I only had 32GB once I remembered to delete my temporary files folders). Considering that this is including a first-time upload that I won’t have in subsequent months, that was a pleasant suprise. I have loads of images and home movies, so it’s great to get those backed up off-site in addition to my regular backups.

A feature that is often overlooked is that OPENRSM CloudBackup uses 256 bit AES Encryption. That’s what alot of government entities have to keep files safe and it’s about as powerful a method as you’ll find for online backup. This means that worrying about your data being stolen is a thing of the past. That’s just so cool it’s hot. And when you use it on multiple computers, it keeps each computers data totally seperated. And if you have to restore, just make sure to use the same system name on the rebuilt machine and CloudBackup will do the rest.

I’ve been so pleased with OPENRSM CloudBackup as an application and a service. When doing backups, CPU usage has been minimal, and on my cable modem, web and email speeds haven’t been noticably different at all, if any.  And if I need to it’s no problem to pause and resume my Internet backups.

The ability to use this on OS X, Windows and Linux has proven to be a godsend, allowing me to keep the number of solutions needed to maintain my home network and development projects low.

New bedding will not change the world.  But it may very well change your sense of happiness when you’re in your home. After all your home should be as comfortable and cozy for everyone in the family as you can make it.  A new fresh set of bed linen on the bed whether it’s Egyptian cotton, sateen or just regular cotton may help you feel more rested, calm and ready to take on your day.

A properly selected pillow will help you wake up feeling good and energetic as well, no matter if you prefer a feather and down pillow or the temper pedic ones, as long as they align your neck and spine correctly, they’re doing their job. Any well-made comforters of quality materials that keep you warm but don’t suffocate you and let the moisture escape from around your body while you’re sleeping are undoubtedly a good investment in your personal well-being.

Your baby absolutely deserves and needs safe, soft, cozy and snuggly bedding against their skin. And if you want to decorate their nursery with some really cute, innovative baby bedding then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that — it can actually really be fun. Have a couple extra blankets on hand when you’re out on the go with them and want to keep them a bit warmer. Whether its a fleece or cotton blanket, it will provide your baby with a safe warm feeling.  Your older children only want to have fun. They need lots of it and a bedroom that features colorful kids bedding characters that they love — whether they’re puppies or truck or trains, your kids will absolutely have a blast spending time playing and dreaming in that wonderful bedroom fantasy land you’ve created for them.  No, bedding really doesn’t change the world, but it may just make you feel more comfortable in it.