Till NOW!

For the last several weeks I have been doing research on Hydroponics and Aquaponics.

Why?

I’m currently an backyard organic gardener researching ways to help produce more yields quicker for profit. We have limited backyard space, so we are looking to utilize the space with have with updated gardening techniques and discovered aquaponics.

When doing my research, I have come to the conclusion that aquaponics is more of a complete eco system that will take little effort to maintain once it is up an running.

Like most I went to my local garden supply houses, search the web and watched many videos. Then I came across this ebook that I had to purchase, click here to see the ebook.
This ebook was what I was looking for to help me get started with how to build an aquaponics system. Check it out the ebook by clicking here and let me know what you think by placing a comment below.

BTW if you do not know what aquaponics is, here is a description to help you get a better understanding of aquaponics.

Aquaponics /ˈækwəˈpɒnɨks/ is the symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment.

Aquatic animal effluent (for example fish waste) accumulates in water as a by-product of keeping them in a closed system or tank (for example a recirculating aquaculture system). The effluent-rich water becomes high in plant nutrients but this is correspondingly toxic to the aquatic animal.

Plants are grown in a way (for example a hydroponic system) that enables them to utilize the nutrient-rich water. The plants take up the nutrients, reducing or eliminating the water’s toxicity for the aquatic animal.

The water, now clean, is returned to the aquatic animal environment and the cycle continues. Aquaponics systems do not discharge or exchange water. The systems rely on the relationship between the aquatic animals and the plants to maintain the environment. Water is only added to replace water loss from absorption by the plants, evaporation into the air, or the removal of biomass from the system.

Aquaponic systems vary in size from small indoor units to large commercial units. They can use fresh or salt water depending on the type of aquatic animal and vegetation.

Remember to get the how to build your own aquaponics system by checking it out the ebook I recommend, click here to purchase the ebook

• Date: April 19th, 2010
• Author: Jason Hiner
• Category: CIO Jury, Social Networking, Social media, TWiT
• Tags: CIO, Information Technology, Social Media
• Special Reports » See more posts on: TechRepublic CIO Jury

A new report shows that 6.8% of all Internet visits in businesses are going to Facebook. Still, TechRepublic’s CIO Jury says IT shouldn’t block social media.

On April 16, TechRepublic polled its 100-member panel of U.S. IT executives and asked, “Should IT block social networking sites?” The jury, made up of the first 12 respondents, came through with eight “No” votes and four “Yes” votes.

TechRepublic’s CIO Jury is based on the original CIO Jury concept developed by Silicon.com, where you can find lively opinions from IT leaders based in the UK.

This verdict probably surprises most of you — it certainly surprised me — since IT tends to have a reputation for preferring the command-and-control environment of the 1990s, before consumer technologies and Web 2.0 invaded the workplace.

However, there are definitely some nuances to our CIO panel rejecting the idea of filtering social media sites. There’s still a pretty big group of IT leaders who prefer to completely filter all of these sites. And, even among the ones who don’t want to totally filter it, many of them believe in some selective filtering.

The proponents of filtering believe that there’s little to no business value to any of the social media sites, and therefore blocking them is a no-brainer.

“They are predominantly used for non-business activities,” said Matthew Metcalfe, Director of IS for Northwest Exterminating.

“We block all social networking sites. There is no company or work related value in these sites whatsoever,” said Dave Schartel, Director of IT for Home Health Care Management.

“It amounts to misuse of the public’s resources. We’re a public corporation,” said Tim Stiles, CIO of Bremerton Housing Authority.

James Riner, CIO of R & R Images, said, “The risks, both security and perceptual, are far too great to allow unfettered access [to social networking sites] to all employees.  Only those whose job focus is social marketing should be accessing such sites during business hours or from business-owned resources.”

So here’s where it starts to get interesting. Even some of those who believe in blocking think there should be some exceptions, and even some of those who think blocking everything is not the answer believe that some blocking is necessary.

“IT should, by default, block social networking sites,” said Jeff Canon, CIO of Fire and Life Safety America. “IT should create a framework to manage access and work with business line managers in determining the risk and business need. For example, it may make sense for the sales team to access Linkedin. It could also make sense for the marketing and promotions department to access Facebook or Twitter. It probably does not make sense for an accounts payable clerk to have access to Facebook. Another recent survey found that some employees in their sample used social networking sites as much as two hours a day at work. Within that same sample, 87% of those using Facebook said they had no clear business reason for accessing the network.”

John Gracyalny, Director of IT for SafeAmerica Credit Union, said, “It should be done on a user-by-user basis. At our shop we have deployed a black box to control Internet use. Staff are limited to a specific ‘white list’ of sites that pertain to their job function, as defined by their department head, and all other sites are blocked. Mid-managers generally have more latitude, and execs have no restrictions other than global HR-type filters, (e.g. we block porn sites to the entire organization). Two staff members have no restrictions based on their job function, but their usages reports must be reviewed and approved both by their department head and myself on a monthly basis.”

However, Lance Taylor-Warren, CIO of H.A.W.C. Community Health Centers, brought up one of the challenges IT faces once it starts doing selective filtering. He said, “Yes, social networking sites should be blocked for personal use, but if a company is using it for business use it makes it very hard to keep them separate. This will continue to be a problem that IT staff will face for the forseeable future.”

Michael Spears, CIO of the NCCI, argued against this type of blocking as a general policy. He said, “Absent applications that raise security concerns, you need to manage productivity by managing – not through security. Let’s not treat this like the advent of the phone or the internet. ”

Another naysayer of blocking, Jerry Justice, IT Director of SS&G Financial Services, said, “No. We must monitor and adapt security models to a Web 2.0 world.”

Scott Lowe, CIO of Westminster College, added, “No to blocking, but there should be a ‘reasonable use’ policy in place.”

Chris Zalegowski, Director of IT for DEKA Research & Development, suggested a more specific approach: “I think you should find out first what the percentage is in your company (and equate that to dollars and/or lost time). Looking at an estimated national average is not a call to action to block the site but it should be reviewed internally. If you find out the average employee is spending an overabundance amount of time on social networking sites (and/or there is proven productivity loss), then yes blocking the site should be a consideration. If your company uses these sites as a marketing tool or customer interaction tool, then blocking it becomes harder to warrant.”

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By: VeganVerve in Solar Power

The majority of discussions relating to solar energy are usually regarding large solar farms being created and corporations installing solar panels. However, individual households installing solar panels are also a large part of the solar energy sector. A new report by the Solar Energy Industries Association points to the growth of the home solar energy sector.

2009 was expected to be a less than stellar year for solar energy, especially for home ownership, due to the recession. However, the newly released report found that home ownership of solar panels increased significantly in 2009.

The president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, Rhone Resch, stated: “Despite the Great Recession of 2009, the U.S. solar industry had a winning year and posted strong growth numbers. We expect 2010 to be a breakout year for the U.S. solar industry.”

According to the report, home solar installments produced 156 megawatts of electricity in 2009. This is a significant increase, a doubling to be exact, from the 78 megawatts produced in 2008. The reason the sector grew so readily in 2009 is considered due to lower photovoltaic systems’ cost in addition to increased federal tax credits.

The cost of photovoltaic modules has decreased approximately 40 percent since the midway mark of 2008. In addition to the lowered cost, greater incentives were given by the U.S. government. The previous tax credit cap of $2,000 for solar installations was ended and was instead changed to 30 percent of all solar installation costs.

Overall, the states in the United States that have the most home installations are California, New Jersey, Florida, Arizona and Colorado.

February 19, 2010 by smsninjas.com

Great article from mobilemarketer.com

By Dan Butcher, MobileMarketer.com

February 5, 2010

Mobile is taking online to the cleaners

Digital marketing research firm InsightExpress found that mobile ad campaign norms were four-and-a-half to five times more effective than online norms.

The Mobile InsightNorms study measured unaided awareness, aided awareness, ad awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent. The study included a comparison of mobile media types and verticals to the effect of online advertising, and these findings continue to show the power of mobile as an advertising channel.

“Mobile continues to prove that it is an effective advertising medium,” said Joy Liuzzo, senior director of marketing and mobile research at InsightExpress, Stamford, CT. “Now, when we’re able to look at performance by the type of mobile advertising technology, we understand the strength even more.

“Far from being a one-trick pony, mobile is effective in rich environments like mobile video, minimal environments like SMS and the area in between covered by mobile display,” she said. “Add to this the findings that all verticals are seeing mobile impacts greater than online campaigns and the arguments for not adding mobile to a media plan fall away.”

InsightExpress is a provider of digital marketing research specializing in the measurement of advertising effectiveness across online, mobile and other media.

Mobile vs. online
The study used norms developed in online ad testing as a benchmark to draw conclusions around the performance of advertising on mobile devices.

InsightExpress compared mobile and online using InsightNorms, the company’s normative database containing more than 1,000 online ad effectiveness campaigns and 100-plus mobile ad effectiveness campaigns.

Mobile InsightNorms are based on InsightExpress’ flagship mobile brand effectiveness platform, Mobile AdInsights, which employs a test/control design to measure the brand impact of mobile advertising campaigns.

Ms. Liuzzo said that online campaigns continue to offer exceptional reach, flexibility and variety.

However, the high levels of engagement, the explosion in technical capabilities, low levels of clutter and the novelty of mobile advertising all likely contribute to increased brand impact, according to InsightExpress.

A comparison of three different mobile media types—mobile Internet, SMS and mobile video—revealed that the mobile Internet is the current powerhouse.

Mobile Internet campaigns resulted in increases of 9 percentage points for unaided awareness, 9 percentage points for aided awareness and 24 percentage points for ad awareness.

SMS is also effective at increasing upper level purchase funnel metrics such as awareness measures.

SMS campaigns generated increases of 5 percentage points for unaided awareness, 10 percentage points for aided awareness and 18 percentage points for ad awareness.

Mobile video is still emerging, but shows campaign impact on par with SMS across most key brand metrics.

This channel drove especially strong results against brand favorability.

With an increase of 13 percentage points, compared to 12 percentage points for Mobile Internet and 7 percentage points for SMS, mobile video is demonstrating promise as a way to move the important brand favorability measure.

The analysis next examined mobile brand metric norms by vertical—consumer packaged goods, entertainment, automotive, travel, technology and retail—to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the campaigns, once again comparing mobile norms to online norms.

Per the study:

Mobile CPG purchase intent effect is three times higher than online CPG purchase intent.

Mobile entertainment purchase intent effect is four times higher than online entertainment intent.

Mobile travel purchase intent effect is five times higher than online travel purchase intent.

Mobile technology purchase intent effect is seven times higher than online technology purchase intent.

Mobile automotive purchase intent effect is four times higher than online automotive purchase intent.

Mobile retail purchase intent effect is eight times higher than online retail purchase intent.

“This has more to do with how retail is performing online,” Ms. Liuzzo said. “What this tells me is that retail campaigns should absolutely be including mobile as part of their strategy to reinforce their online efforts.”

Ms. Liuzzo said that the effect that mobile campaigns have on key brand metrics proves that mobile continues to move quickly from supporting player to co-starring role in the digital advertising universe.

All about engagement and context
Mobile advertising’s greater effectiveness when compared to online advertising is due to several factors.

Mobile has the advantage over online when it comes to the engagement people have with the device and the environment the ads are being served in.

“We’ve discussed for a while now our findings about how engaged people are with activities on their mobile device, oftentimes more engaged than when they are doing these same activities on their computer,” Ms. Liuzzo said.

“The environment, or context, the ad is displayed in weighs in with a lack of clutter on the page, typically only one ad in sight at a time, and ad units that are proportionally larger to the screen,” she said. “These two elements merge into one powerful medium for advertising.”

While it may not have been reflected across the board in their 2009 mobile spends, brands and agencies are aware of this trend.

“In conversations we’ve had, brands and agencies tell us they are using these results to educate up their clients, their bosses,” Ms. Liuzzo said.

“Mobile is also being brought up sooner in the strategy-planning process, leading to more integrated campaign efforts and quite honestly, better mobile and online results,” she said.

Staff Reporter Dan Butcher covers ad networks, banking and payments, carrier networks, manufacturers, and software and technology. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

Remember when a business having a website was unique? Remember how the companies that jumped on board early with the Internet staked a claim and earned their fortunes? Remember how quickly new technology such as the fax machine, email, and teleconferences became integrated into daily business life?

Mobile is the next new technology, and it is coming quickly. Around the world, Japan, Korea, and Spain are several years ahead of us in adopting and using mobile devices in daily life. A fascinating book about this is Digital Korea by Tomi T Ahonen and Jim O’Reilly (futuretext, 2007). Businesses in Asia and Europe are already moving forward in the new marketing era.

While the development and use of mobile technology is still in its formative stages here in North America, there is still time to be one of the first businesses to take advantage of this new technology. But there is no time to wait if you want to take advantage of using this powerful new marketing tool.

What Is Mobile Marketing Anyway?

Businesses and their brands can reap big rewards from mobile marketing if it’s done right. When mobile marketing is done right, you can reach your customers via mobile with a message they actually want from you. You can deliver a message to your customers that they are actually waiting for but might not know it yet. And the real kicker is that your customers will reach out and even ask you for a message.

But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Perhaps I should explain what mobile marketing is not. Contrary to what many consumers worry about (and what shady opportunists fantasize about), mobile marketing is not a barrage of unwanted text messages sent to the cell phone of someone who may not want, need, or have any connection with the business sending the messages. That’s just spam.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) defines mobile marketing as: “The use of wireless media (primarily cellular phones and PDAs) as an integrated content delivery and direct response vehicle within a cross media marketing program.”

My definition of mobile marketing is a bit different: Mobile marketing connects businesses and each of their customers (through their mobile devices) at the right time and at the right place with the right message and requires the customer’s explicit permission and/or active interaction. Based on this definition, marketing to groups who may or may not be interested in receiving your message is not smart mobile marketing. Instead, smart mobile marketing is all about reaching your customers or potential customers one at a time in a way that adds value to their day. You’ve undoubtedly noticed that the basic foundation of my definition is permission.

Mobile marketing will never work as an invasive marketing method and should not be undertaken in that way under any circumstances. It’s likely to backfire every time. When mobile is used as a marketing tool, it must be done with explicit permission by the end user or it will fail. Any mobile outreach that is done without permission not only impacts the business doing it, but it also casts a negative light on the entire industry. (Clearly, this does not eliminate mobile web advertising because anyone who goes online, even with a mobile device, naturally assumes that advertising will be interwoven with content somewhere.)

Busy women will undoubtedly be the next big market opening up to mobile marketing. Many of them are already part of the under-3D crowd and/ or the corporate data plan market, but the use of mobile to keep components (business, family, personal, and kids) in their busy lives organized will quickly drive this market to the forefront. Who needs the convenience of mobile more than a busy woman wearing many hats during the day? One thing that keeps them from being a more active market is the shortage of mobile web sites and other mobile services dedicated to their needs. If you can be among the first to help this market with mobile, you can reap great rewards. Don’t forget that women are the primary buying force in America and reaching this powerful group via mobile could certainly prove worthwhile.

Don’t expect this market to stay underserved for long. There are companies like SMSNinjas are taking the Indianapolis market by storm. They provide a five digit short code along with a 2-9 digit keyword to clients in the Indianapolis area. Get more information from SMSNinjas by texting smsninjas to 41513.

Most people use it for this purpose and will accept most any non threatening friend request that comes along. But the question you need to ask yourself is, the next time you accept that new friend on any of these social networks……….. is……..That friend you just accepted a federal agent spying on your innocent activity?

According to PCWorld.com’s latest article dated March 16, 2010 title Your Next Facebook ‘Friend’ Could be a Federal Agent.

Ouch that is a one scary thought even when you are a law abiding citizen.

According to this article (which I highly suggest you review this article) and I quote “According to the 33-page presentation (PDF), which was obtained by the EFF through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, federal agents can use social networking sites to gather valuable information from and about suspects.

Article posted March 16, 2010, Author: Sarah Jacobsson

Article link: to PCWorld.com

No matter if you’re using a #10 envelop of a postcard mailing attack or a sophisticated designed promo piece, mail gets attention and generates results you CAN measure.

But that is only the very beginning of direct mail and the power it can give. Direct mail is also a powerful driver for results across the marketing spectrum. Got a web site? Direct mail can drive more people to it. Got a brick and mortar location? Direct mail can guide people to and through the doors. Going to an expo, direct mail can bring customers to your booth.

And when the dust settles for every dollar spent on direct mail it generates $15.60 according to the Direct Marketing Association. But put it together with other marketing channels and it can light up the board! Time and time again studies show that sending a printed mailing piece drives additional sales on a company’s web site some as much as 96% per research by Vovici EFM)

IN a marketing world where you need to be everywhere at once to insure your customers see you and find you, online, at home in the office, providing information that gets your brand noticed and considered, that it takes an extensive set of tools online and offline to ensure that your brand is seen and there when the buying decision is being made, and that by integrating the other marketing tools into your arsenal it only increases your ability to make the sale and dive up revenue.

Article by Howard Larson

If you do not have a USB drive ((Thumb / Flash / Key / Jump / Memory / Pen) are alternative names you might hear others call it) you might be getting left behind.  I personally use my flash drive daily to move data from my computers at home to class room computers.

USB drives come in all shapes and storage sizes. The sizes start from as small as a few MB (megabytes) all the way up to 256GB (Gigabytes). Remember the larger the storage capacity the more you will pay. With that being said, 2-4GB have plenty of space to take care of a normal persons needs.

If you are interested in purchasing you or anyone else, Amazon has an amazing assortment or styles and sizes. You can find one of the drives and tech gear I personally use on my Amazon “Tech Gear” banner on this blog. Feel free to browse and check it out.

I also came across an article in Tech Republic on “10 Cool Things You can do with a USB drive” that I would like to share with you.

By Greg Shultz
Transporting your data is probably the most common use for a USB flash drive. But there’s a world of other things you can do with these handy pocket-size drives. Here are 10 ways you can use that USB flash drive to do more than simply just move data.

1: Run portable applications
In addition to storing your data, you can run portable applications from a USB flash drive. For example, OpenOffice, which is a complete office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and database, is available as a portable application. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are also available as portable applications. When you combine the office suite with the ability to surf the Web and check email, you’ll be able to take your most vital computing applications with you wherever you go — right in your pocket.
If that’s not enough, you can choose other applications to install on your USB flash drive from PortableApps.com (Figure A). You can even install an entire prepackaged suite of applications that includes such things as an audio player, games, an antivirus utility, and a handy menu system.

2: Boot an operating system
If you want to do more than just run your own applications, you might want to consider booting an entire operating system from your USB flash drive. You can boot either Windows or Linux from a USB flash drive; however, the process is not an exact science and you may be in for a technical adventure.
Fortunately, there are some guides you can follow. To learn how to boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive, see the article Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP. To learn how to boot a version of Linux from a USB flash drive, see the article Puppy Linux teaches an old dog new tricks.

3: Connect to a wireless network
If you have a wireless network, you can use the Wireless Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP or the Windows Connect Now (WCN) feature built into Vista to save wireless network configuration information to a USB flash drive. You can then use your drive to quickly and easily connect another computer or a WCN-compatible device, such as a router or printer, to your wireless network. To learn more about using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard, see the Help And Support Center, which is accessible from Windows XP’s Start menu. To learn more about using the Windows Connect Now feature, see Windows Help And Support, which is accessible from Windows Vista’s Start menu.

4: Create a password reset disk
A password reset disk can really come in handy if you forget the password to your user account on a Windows system that is not a part of a domain. If you find yourself in that situation, you can use the password reset disk to reset your password and quickly get back into your user account. In Windows Vista, you can use USB flash drive rather than a floppy disk as a password reset disk (Figure B). For details on how to do so, see the article Create a Vista password reset disk using a USB flash drive.

5: Boost performance
If you’re running Windows Vista, you can use a USB flash drive to speed up your system with the ReadyBoost technology. ReadyBoost can use the storage space on a USB Flash drive as an additional memory cache to aid the memory cache on your hard disk. And because flash memory is more responsive than a hard disk, with its physical moving parts, the memory cache provided by ReadyBoost can significantly improve system responsiveness.
Using ReadyBoost is easy. You just insert your USB flash drive into your Vista system and follow the onscreen prompts to configure and use ReadyBoost. If you want more details, check out the article How SuperFetch and ReadyBoost work together.

6: Manage it
If all you really want to do with your USB flash drive is transport data, and you’re running Windows XP, you can do so more efficiently with the Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager (Figure C). Once you have installed this manager, you can easily copy files to and from your drive, back up and restore the entire flash drive to and from your hard disk, change the drive label, and even create an autorun.inf file to launch Drive Manager automatically when you plug in the drive. To learn more about and download the USB Flash Drive Manager visit the Microsoft TechNet Magazine site.

7: Use it as an MP3 player
Would you like to be listening to music when you’re using a computer at the office, but you don’t have an MP3 player? If so, you can use a USB flash drive as an MP3 player along with Windows Media Player and a set of headphones. Just copy your MP3 files to your USB flash drive, plug it into your computer, and direct Windows Media Player to build a library of the songs on your drive. You can use all of Windows Media Player’s playback features, such as playlists and favorites, to easily customize your music listening experience. And best of all, you won’t have to worry about running low on battery power.

8: Password-protect it
If you use a USB flash drive to transport sensitive data that you would prefer to protect from prying eyes, should you lose the drive, Rohos Mini Drive (Figure D) can safeguard that data. This security tool allows you to create a secret partition on the drive and then password-protect/encrypt that partition, thus protecting any documents you copy to that partition via the utility’s file manager. You can download and read a review of Rohos Mini Drive at CNET Download.com.

9: Run a Web site from it
If you are a Web developer, you may be interested to know that with Server2Go, you can easily run a Web server that supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl right from a USB flash drive. You can use Server2Go right out of the box without any installation. It runs on all versions of Windows, supports most common browsers, and is completely free. To a developer, the benefits of having a portable Web server on a USB drive are numerous. For example, imagine being able to carry a live Web site demo into a sales pitch meeting. For more information about this package, visit the Server2Go site.

10: Lock your PC
Have you ever seen a movie in which a person in some secret government installation simply inserts and removes a card to log in and log out of a PC? If you thought that idea was cool, you’ll definitely want to investigate Predator (Figure E). Once installed and configured, this little freeware utility will allow you to turn a USB flash drive into a key you can use to lock and unlock your computer.
While the USB flash drive is connected to your computer, everything works as it normally would. Once you remove the USB flash drive, your computer is locked down — the keyboard and mouse are disabled and the screen darkens. To unlock your computer, you just plug in the USB flash drive and the computer will be unlocked and you can begin using it.

To learn more about advantages of USB devices, get the PDF and see the source info.