My 2¢ Worth

re you of my generation? Do you remember when computers filled whole rooms and no one had their own personal computer?

emember when a window was something you looked out of and hated to clean? When a ram was a sort of goat?

hen I was a teenager, Meg was my girlfriend's name and I had a gig playing guitar on weekends.

 filled out an application for employment and occasionally watched a program on TV. I used profanity and was therefore known as a cursor. My mother had a keyboard on her piano and my father had a CD in a bank.

y Grandfather lost his memory with age. We compressed our garbage and had hard drives up North in the summer. A bit was something you put in a horse's mouth.

og on meant adding wood to the fire. A mouse pad was where a mouse lived and a backup happened to your commode. Cut you did with a pocket knife. Paste you did with glue. A web was a spider's home and a virus was the flu. If you unzipped anything in public, it meant a stiff jail sentence. If you had a 3 inch Floppy, you hoped nobody found out!

've had several computer crashes. Thankfully, nobody was injured...

Feature Article

Finding Your Home Business Niche

by: Stone Evans Home Business

When some folks begin to think about a business of their own, they know in that very moment what kind they are going to start. Then, there are the rest of us...

Knowing that we want to have a business of our own is not enough. Many of us have struggled with the important question of what type of enterprise we would like to start.

Franchises offer a simple pre-packaged money making idea, but the cost of a franchise often makes it a prohibitive option to most folks who contemplate going out on their own.

For those who do not have a million dollars to buy a McDonalds franchise, we must look to other ideas for our own business.

There are literally hundreds of lucrative home business ideas for you to choose from, which will suit every type of personality and all levels of financing. From selling information on the Internet as a infopreneur, to growing delicious gourmet mushrooms for sale to restaurants and catering companies; there is a pile of money to be made by filling a need, for these and a host of other necessary services.

Of course, actually liking what you do, will have a lot to do with the success of your new venture, so be sure to pick a home business that you'll enjoy running and that will keep you motivated.

For example, if you're a math whiz, an accounting or income tax service might be the ideal home business for you to start. Perhaps writing is your forte and you'd like to start your own home based copywriting service or advertising agency. Each of these businesses can be run successfully--and profitably from the comfort of your own home.

Academia might not be your cup of tea, but maybe you are good with your hands — having a creative genius where crafts are concerned. Craft items are red-hot sellers at swap meets, country fairs and world wide over the Internet, and they can provide you with solid profits. If crafts don't interest you, then why not start a laundry service with pick-up and delivery, or a shopping service for shut-in's--even a companion service or granny sitter or a doctor shuttle service; any of which, could be much in demand, in and around your neighborhood or community.

When brainstorming new ideas for your future home business, keep in mind the soul of any successful endeavor is providing a product or service that others will actually purchase in quantities. Satisfy the needs of your target market, and your target market will keep you and your home based business healthy, happy and profitable.

Below are some suggestions for home business ideas that might help you decide on a suitable venture in which to invest.

Multi-level-marketing (mlm), floral/plant service for offices and hospitals, pooper-scooper service, dog walking service, answering service, vending machine service, gift basket service, homemade soap maker, mobile windshield repair service, mobile tire repair service, income tax specialist, researcher, freelance writer, business card and letterhead designer, courier, shut-in/shuttle service, landscaping service, tree trimming service, wood crafter, carpenter, crafts and crafting supplies, pool cleaning service, plants/nursery starts, growing herbs, growing mushrooms, garage sale and swap meet vendor, proofreader, private investigator, typing service, interior decorator/designer, website design, wedding consultant, hot lunch/snack vendor at local courthouses, pet sitting service, pet grooming service, Internet entrepreneur, paralegal, gourmet catering service, new media production, mobile cosmetic technician, mobile nail technician, mobile hair stylist, aerobics instructor, personal fitness trainer, advertising consultant, companion service, small printing service.

Ideas, ideas; hopefully the above ideas will give you some fresh ideas of your own to mull over. A spring board if you will, on which to dive into your own chosen home business.

When you work from home, any business you start has the potential to explode into a perpetual gold mine! It just depends on how much your home business is in demand around your community or on the Internet. Your home business might start slow and steady, regularly picking up clients as you become more established. On the other hand, your chosen home business may take off like wildfire, quickly becoming too hot for you to handle by yourself (well done!). This is the time to enlist the help of willing family members to help you out in your time of need, which will make your business into a friendly, family concern. This will also help family members better understand your business and get a grasp on the mechanics of profit.

Good luck in all your decisions and have fun with your home business, which ever one you choose, and don't forget to enjoy your newfound freedom!

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Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory where you can find everything you'll ever need to start, run and grow a home based business at: www.Home-Business.com

Nested Blockquotes

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<blockquote<> blockquote> Text </blockquote< /blockquote>

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Second Article

Avoid Digital Imaging Blunders

by: Edward Valentine Edward T. Valentine

I don’t claim to be the world’s greatest digital photographer, or to know all there is to know about printing images that look like they came straight from a professional photo lab.

What I do know is that since I’ve had a digital camera I have wasted an enormous amount of expensive paper - and ink - through a variety of blunders. In the hopes that I can help you avoid the aggravation, and the expense, of my mistakes today I share with you some of what I have learned about printing digital images.

First, you’re only going to get the best images your camera can offer - and the quality of digital cameras is all over the map. A 4-megapixel camera with a powerful zoom is going to yield more quality images, especially outdoors, than a 2-megapixel camera with limited zoom capability.

No matter what the specs on your camera, be sure to go into your setup program and choose the highest resolution your camera will offer. The lower resolution settings may be acceptable if you are only planning to post photos on a Web site, but not for printing.

When you save an image you plan to print, again save it at the highest possible resolution. By default, most imaging programs will save photos at 72 dots per inch (dpi). This is the setting used most often for photos on Web sites, and yields acceptable results there. Try printing a 72-dpi image on a sheet of quality photo paper, however, and you wind up with a wasted sheet of paper.

Save photos to be printed at the highest possible resolution, then set your printer to the highest resolution it allows. This will greatly slow the printing process, but you are most likely not after speed. You are after photos that will turn into memories, and for those you can wait a tad longer.

One more note about saving photos. When you save pictures to your computer, by default the pictures are going to save at a very large and unusable size like 16 inches by 22 inches. This, of course, is impractical and will eat up valuable space on your hard drive. Always resize images to a manageable size such as 3 X 5 or smaller before you save them.

When it comes to paper, there are many different types and sizes. Make sure you use quality photo paper, and I would lean toward recommending whatever paper brand is manufactured specifically for your printer. Many smaller papers, such as 4 X 6 papers, can come with tabs on one end. Read the instructions that came with your paper to make sure you are placing the paper in the machine facing in the correct direction. You don’t want to waste sheets of quality paper just because you inserted it in your printer backwards or upside down.

Speaking of different size papers, I sometimes find it frustrating to get the precise print I want when I use the smaller papers. To save money, use 8 X 10 papers and print multiple images on the same sheet. Use regular paper and set your printer to grayscale while you experiment with this option.

Inkjet printers generally include black, color and tri-color or photo cartridges. Make sure you are using the correct cartridges for the job at hand. I don’t know how many times I have started to print a photo and realized I hadn’t swapped the back cartridge out for the photo cartridge. Conversely, there have been times I have printed black and white text documents without remembering to remove the photo cartridge.

**************

Ed Valentine's technology tips have been published nationally, and he currently writes a twice-monthly technology column. He also writes about family issues, particularly special needs children.

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