Hacking has now become Ethical

Hacker is a term that was been associated as something criminal - although the movies have made them into anti-heroes

In most cases, they are a breed of anti-heroes who uses his laptop and illegally gains access to a large network and sometimes tampers with information in this large computer system.

However, thanks to EC-Council (eccouncil.org), the scenario is fast changing.

eccouncil.org have come up with a course or an Ethical Hacking course where they certify individuals in various e-business and security skills on completion of that course.

Now, what is a Certified Ethical Hacker ?

The eccouncil.org defines a Certified Ethical Hacker as an individual who is usually employed with the organization and who can be trusted to undertake an attempt to penetrate networks and or computer systems using the same methods as a Hacker.

Hacking is a felony in the United States and most other countries. When hacking is done legally, it is done as per a contract / agreement between an Ethical Hacker and an organization. The most important aspect is that an Ethical Hacker has the total authorization to probe the target so as to identify flaws in the existing network or security systems.

It's high time I took one - My reputation as the neighborhood-whiz is fast depleting and to make matters worse, my friends are also applying to this course

These are all the areas they cover for their course on Ethical Hacking, which they call the "iClass".

You can select your area of interest and join them for their next available iClass to discover all the benefits of an EC Council certification without the added expense of travel.

The registration is simple and the iclass schedule is trouble-free and the areas of interest include, but are not limited to;

Security Fundamentals
Ethical Hacking
Penetration Testing
Computer Forensics
Disaster Recovery
Secure Coding

A lot of IT Security Professionals have had joined the EC Council and mentioned is the feedback from a few of them - "Its been a great experience to attend this outstanding and informative web course, and the teaching methodology was exceptional." EC Council puts it’s money where it’s mouth is and aren’t afraid to show what they are all about and best of all its on their money !

Now why is Ethical Hacking in so much demand despite the recession now? I can safely say with my limited know-how that there is always a need for security everywhere and that that a hacker job is listed as one among the six highly paying jobs (so why not get a certificate for it ??)

Infact, IT security professionals are the highest-paid and by joining eccouncil.org, they could well be on the way to get paid to be a top "legal" hacker!

To top it all you can be certain that your career in IT Security will not be affected by the current economic meltdown.

Salon Marketing As A Career

Being a marketing man, I have been approached by people sometimes with bizarre queries – in other words, anything related to marketing is directly passed on to my email with a query – can you tell or write me a few words on this subject

One of those subjects was salon marketing. Recently one of my friends, who owns a beauty salon, asked me about the best marketing practices that she can apply for marketing her salon

Although, I have been in marketing for sometime, every time such a question comes up, I am forced to re-strategize from scratch. The question becomes even more difficult when it comes to small businesses.

So here was a new opportunity for me that I could not only advise but get involved as well. It was exciting as well as rewarding financially.

Initially, I thought, how different can it be from mainstream marketing – the fundamentals ought to be the same. Just a difference in approach and organizing. I was right, for the technicalities however, I needed the services of a lady friend, who splurges a huge amount in salons and beauty spas.

She was the ideal specimen

She was in fact more than a help – it is funny the level of know-how the average visitor to the salon or a spa has. With their third visit, they are familiar with most of the techniques and processes involved

And as a final word, I would like to share with you some interesting aspects worth noting with regard to salon and day spa marketing. Obviously there are a lot of important aspects to tell, when it comes to salon marketing, and it is important that these aspects or guidelines be followed. On the other hand, it is important that you develop your own unique style, that is easily recognizable by others

Secondly, always pay attention to your customers and make them feel special. You can do this by linking a complimentary business. In other words, if you have a complementary business such as hair and nail salon, or a fitness center or even a restaurant, link those with your spa or salon and it will help you in increasing number of clients.

So, go on and get started with your new salon marketing business opportunity

Salon Marketing And Industry Statistics

The “spa” or “salon marketing” as a concept is a relatively new form of business that was introduced sometime back. The spa market is expected to have good growth potential and business opportunity prospects for US cosmetics and beauty goods companies.

Beauty salons are personal service businesses that provide cosmetic or other treatments for men and women. A beauty salon, which is often different from a hair salon, focuses generally on face and body treatments, primarily for women, although men’s salons and the men's beauty salon market is slowly increasing.

It is to be noted that almost 50% of beauty salon workers are self-employed, in other words, booth renters, in local terminology. That is to say, most outlets are small stores and a significant percentage of workers work out of their homes or rent space from salons. However, employee turnover in the industry can be as high as 40%. Additionally, the cosmetics market is a highly competitive market in the US, although US manufacturers of cosmetics should keep an eye on the foreign markets so as to cope up with international demand.

More details, demographics and a sample business plan can be obtained from visiting the below link –
http://www.researchwikis.com/Beauty_Salons_Marketing_Research#Background

Market Structure

The information and sources for the salon and spa marketing data have been taken from the US Census, US Department of Commerce, Company and industry websites and the research-wiki site.

According to the Occupational Outlook Quarterly, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, it shows cosmetology as a steadily growing occupation in the U.S. through 2005. However, the Department of Labor also shows Nail Technicians as one of the 11 fastest growing occupations in the U.S. and cosmetologists as number 37 in the top 100 occupations.

Beauty salons average

* 5 stations, with 3 full-time and
* part-time workers.

The industry has seen steady growth since 2000:

* Salons average about 150 weekly visits
* Since 2000, the number of salon workers rose 26%
* Since 2000, the total number of salons is up about 6%
* Almost over 580,000 positions were filled in the year 2002
* Out of this, the experienced workers comprised 75% of the new employment hires and those with less than one year’s experience comprised of the balance 25% of new hires.

Industry statistics:

* 20% of salons are hair salons
* 60% of salons are full-service
* 5% of salons are nail salons (13% of industry workers are manicurists)
* 5% of salons are barber shops
* Average income is close to the U.S. family income average - about US $40,000

Worker segmentation

* 60% of workers are full time
* 30% of workers are part time (< 40 hour workweek)
* 10% are occasional workers (cleaning, etc.)

On an average month, Google reports that approximately

* 200,000 people search online for "beauty salon" in the UK and about 675,000 in the USA
* 200,000 people search for "hair salon" in the UK, 1,225,000 in the USA
* 2,750,000 people search for "spa" in the UK, and about 7,500,000 in the USA

More details, demographics and a sample business plan can be obtained from visiting the below link –
http://www.bplans.com/hair_and_beauty_salon_business_plan/financial_plan_fc.cfm

So, if you don’t have a good marketing plan, you could lose a lot of salon marketing and spa marketing business and you would not even realize it

Safety Tips for Women Traveling Alone

When traveling alone, women are more likely to become victims of violence than are men, so it is important to know how to stay safe. This doesn't mean that women need a male escort in order to travel alone; it simply means that you must be smart about where you go and what you do. Here are a few safety tips for women traveling alone.

Schedule Stops for Gas
When you are traveling alone by car, it is best to plan your route before you ever leave home. It can be dangerous to find yourself in the middle of an all-but-abandoned town and need to stop for gas. Although you can be assaulted or otherwise victimized at any time of day, in any area of the world, you'll be much better off stopping for gas at a lighted convenient store where many people are around. Carry an extra container of gas in your trunk just in case you have an emergency.

Keep the Doors Locked
Also, when traveling alone by car, you should keep your doors locked regardless of our location. The incidence of car jackings continues to rise, and if you stop at a light or a stop sign, an unlocked door is as good as an invitation. Although this isn't foolproof, it will greatly reduce your chances of becoming a victim of carjacking.

Don't Tell Strangers Where You're Staying
Regardless of how nice the guy sitting next to you on the plane might seem, you should never disclose the place in which you will be staying, whether it be a hotel room or a relative's home. If you are asked, politely decline to answer, or tell the other person that you haven't finalized your arrangements yet.

Be Vigilant on Your Way to Your Hotel Room
When staying in a hotel, be on the lookout for anyone who seems to be following you to your room. If this might be the case, walk right past your room and find the nearest exit. You can have a member of hotel management escort you to your room if you are worried. Once you've opened the door, it is easy for a would-be predator to force his way in behind you, leaving you at his mercy. Be careful, as well, when leaving your room for ice or the vending machines. Just be aware of your surroundings.

Plan Your Itinerary
Before you go on vacation or on a business trip, have every step of your itinerary planned. Know where you'll be staying, how you'll rent a car and when you'll need to arrive at meetings. Arrange in advance for a rental car and make sure that you have back-up options should anything go wrong. One of the most dangerous aspects of traveling alone is the possibility for sudden changes or to become stranded.

Pack Light
Another opportunity for a would-be predator occurs when you have too much baggage. Only pack what you can easily carry on your own, and never overload yourself. In all situations, you'll need to be able to move quickly and agilely to avoid potential threats.

Article Coutesy : http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/85936/safety_tips_for_women_traveling_alone.html

Creating The Present

When I think about all the great teachers, material and otherwise, that I have met in my life up to now (and recognizing one’s schools is a great asset), one stands apart.

She surpasses all others in her way. She is the kind of teacher who does not do the work for me. She does not give me all the answers immediately. She waits for them to resonate within, after the living process of comprehension has taken its time, unfolded and bloomed. She reveals only what I am ready to integrate.

She has boundless imagination. Her creativity never ceases to amaze me.

She is the artist we all wish to emulate. She is always changing, so free, and yet so consistent. She is deeply moral. She is considerate and compassionate. She comforts me yet she knows how to reflect undeniably my weaknesses back to me. She is extremely generous and I can tell you that she will take on as many students as would choose her as a teacher. She teaches without judgment, in an all-inclusive vision of oneness. No one is too young, too impetuous, too slow or too old.

She has never been unfair, untrue, ungiving to me or to any of her pupils. She deeply respects her own teachers and shares their wisdom with me. Oh! And her classes can be held anywhere, anytime, and she is always willing, always there, ready to lead me to better understanding. She knows enough to teach me for many lifetimes, yet is very humble. Her intention is truly respectful of my deepest mission and my rhythm.

I can work with her, play with her, pray with her, be silent and rejoice in her. She knows me very well and I am starting to know her a little. Sometimes as grace embraces us, we complete each other’s thoughts. She gives me the opportunity to explore life: thinking and marveling, doing and being, giving and receiving.

She has access to dimensions of my mystery that fascinate me and allow me to live what Goethe expressed so well when he wrote: “The greatest happiness for the person who thinks is to have explored the conceivable and to revere in peace the unknowable.”

Would you like the name of that marvelous teacher? Her phone number, maybe? No need. She is close at hand. Our own Earth Mother, Gaia, Mother Nature, is a teacher ever so wise, unveiling the answers in front of our eyes.

Become conscious now that you are one with this planet. You talk about it. You say, "I have my two feet firmly planted on the ground and yet you don’t seem to understand".

You have disguised her. You have rejected her. You have hidden her under tons of cement, asphalt and plastic. You have forgotten her in favor of gadgets, things often useless that can never bring happiness, peace or love.

And she loves us so much. So, children please make an effort to help her.

Simply become your Self.

Realize that what makes you special is the respect and tender loving care which you bring to all life. Nothing else really counts

Together we must create the present that prepares the future.

Does Everything Have A Reason

Most of us believe in God, but there are a growing number that are fast becoming atheists.

Thank God for that!!

Let’s not confuse being agnostic and being an atheist.

People who are agnostic don’t believe in religion as a mean to reach God, they prefer a more direct path. Most people believe in the big guy above [with due apologies], but in a different way. The problem is in the concept of belief and worship…. Idol Worship, temple, church, monasteries…this is where the argument is

People who believe in a higher power, in a controlling force, in destiny usually tribute every one of their actions to God…. That is sometimes fear and excuse….Mainly because, most of the wrong actions that lead to pain are ONLY because of their own wrong doing and there is NO punishment from above… The wrong doing can also be done as a good deed only to realize later…that was bad…

The flaw is that when you completely give up everything to God that basically means that you have no control over your own actions, over your own sense of morality. This way any action would be justified as an act of the ‘Big Chief’. Pretty much meaning that anyone can get away with murder by believing that the decision was made by the man above. This is not to condemn those good people… but it is just a personal viewpoint….. Just that service is above everything else.

Obviously, all roads lead to the asylum after that.

In the middle of all this, there is a lot of confusion and most of the time it is here where people are completely lost, and thus people like those guys who teach you the Art of Living, and those evangelical priests who make very forceful speeches, make money. They also need a living!!!

They provide you answers to go from the gray to the black and white again.

Belief is something that can’t be taught…. A new born doesn't trust in his own body, until he is cognizant or as you say until his brain is completely in control of it…. that’s all there’s to it.

The logic is pure, and the rationality of thought also, but what atheists fail to explain, is that voice inside. What is that single force that unites us all in so many different ways makes every human similar?

There is something within us which blossoms only when we are cognizant and we have a fuller understanding of ourself. In other words, by believing God is within you, inside you, is the most powerful force on earth, only you might not call it a God.

That kind of belief is true power, a power to achieve any goal.

He ain’t gonna be upset, that’s for sure. Phew.. It gives him an opportunity to take a break!!

Metaphysics and Jnana Yoga

METAPHYSICS AND JNANA YOGA


Coming from the Greek, Metaphysics can be translated as "that which comes after physics, matter, or nature."

Thus Metaphysics is looking for the permanent Reality, the unchanged Beingness, and the stationary Existence as the Base for everything that shows constant change.

The "theorizing" mind gives this being the name God.

The "practical" seeker experiences this being as pure Awareness. The theoretical side of Metaphysics seems to belong now to the academics. And, to be quite fair, they have done an outstanding job and there are now many metaphysical systems and positions.
However, theorizing about pleasure or pain does not give us the actual experience.

That is where Yoga comes in: Yoga is the tool with which we can go all the way if this is our true desire.

With regard to finding balance, our Western approach to healing is still in its nursery stage as we still have a lot more to learn. Often without a chance of healing, pharmaceuticals are the remedies of choice.

Quite a few of these chemicals are known to mask only the symptoms of one disease while producing additional problems with more symptoms that have to be treated by more of these chemicals. This has lead to bizarre pictures of treatment where older people were sometimes digesting up to 50 different prescriptions a day for all kinds of health problems. As a result, some of these people had to be hospitalized while others have died as a result of unwanted side-effects. The constantly growing costs are no more than an observable sign of an imbalance in our health system.

To properly treat a disease it is important to know what is missing or what is out of balance.

Ayurveda, for example, tries to reestablish a balance of the three basic types of the human constitution which are called Kapha, Pitta, and Vata.

Traditional Chinese Medicine seeks to restore the flow of Qi by balancing the Yin and Yang.

Yogis know this supreme energy, called Qi, as Kundalini and Yin and Yang as Ida and Pingala.

Everything in the Universe exists because of the two opposite forces and the universal balancing act. Thus the mixture of positive and negative forces shape everything from the atom to our character and health.

If we desire a warm temperature we have to balance hot and cold. In order to feel healthy we might have to either add or subtract a vitamin, mineral or amino-acid.

Most important is the precise knowledge of what is missing or unbalanced.


In regards to the right vitamin or mineral level, we are now seeing more and more test kits made available which will make it a lot easier in the future to gain this precise knowledge.

In short, all it needs is the genuine interest and a certain amount of courage, even so the fear we encounter on the way is nothing but being afraid to look at our Self. Going back to the origins of the word metaphysics, it is said that it was first used to name untitled manuscripts of Aristotle. It is curious, that most philosophical text books cover an area starting with the Greeks Plato, Aristotle, etc., but leave out earlier philosophies from India.

However, there is enough evidence that the philosophy of the Greek and Iranians was heavily influenced from these earlier philosophies of India. At any rate, at least some of the Greek philosophers had a very clear understanding of Reality-as-such. They agreed with earlier Indian philosophies as well as with Scientists of our time that the world as we perceive it is of an illusionary nature. As Parmenides and Zeno pointed out, only what is Permanent and Unchanging is real. The rest is an illusion either experienced or created by our mind. Paramenides: "Being is, Non-Being is not."

We now know that all matter is energy.

But we also know the we are aware of matter. All we have to do is to find out what Awareness is in its clear state of Being and, believe it or not, all our questions are answered and all our fears are dissolved. To get to this state of Being is the ultimate goal of all genuine spiritual exercise including Yoga. So, intellectual understanding of Beingness, as a result from studying Metaphysics, can lead to intellectual enlightening, while the practice of Yoga can lead to direct knowledge.

A more modern interpretation of Metaphysics includes psychic phenomena in all its variations including parapsychology the scientific investigation of these phenomena.

Beingness, as the nature of God, is expressed when we hear American Natives refer to God as the "Great Spirit". "Jahwe" (JHVH \ Jehovah), the Jewish name for God, translates as "I am who I am".

Beingness, then, is the nature of God, in fact, Beingness is God.

Since God is self-reliant and the world is a manifestation of God's energy, we could call God.

Self-energetic Beingness. From the accounts of the many Saints, Sages, and Self-realized persons, who have encountered this condition of Being, we may add that this condition is a blissful state of Being.

In other words, Jnana Yoga is practical philosophy / metaphysics; it is both theory and practice.

Xanadu Atlantis

A year ago the UAE was fondly regarded by Western governments and bankers as a potential saviour of capitalism.

Last month, as the major economies shed jobs and marked down growth forecasts, a South African billionaire hosted the “party of the decade” to open a vast, pink hotel on the palm-shaped island constructed from poured sand and concrete a short helicopter ride from Dubai's new international airport.

But elsewhere on the island, villa owners were being told that their properties had lost 40 per cent of their value in two months. Construction of another colossal artificial island was quietly being shelved, and speculation grew that Dubai as a whole, for nearly a decade the world's most exuberant symbol of the fruits of globalisation, might have to sell off assets to service its debts.

Recently, the Government of the United Arab Emirates was forced to confront that speculation. The chairman of a committee set up to lead the UAE's response to the global downturn said that Dubai's debts were dwarfed by its assets and that “the Government will step in to assist if needed”. Only that implicit guarantee held fears of a default at bay. The stock market was unimpressed. Having lost nearly two thirds of its value this year it promptly lost another 5 per cent

Whatever said and done is that I like Dubai, but what I like are the people that who make Dubai – how much ever they crap, they make it even better, particularly the English (no harm please, all in good fun)

Listed below is a poem penned by an English friend (who unfortunately didn’t do justice to Samuel Taylor Coolidge’s Xanadu by Kubla Khan )

In Jumeirah did Big Sheikh Mo
A massive great hotel decree
Where streams of sacred sewage ran
Through beaches uninhabitable by man
Down to a polluted sea

So twice five dozen top celebs
Did mingle with the local plebs
And there were fireworks bright with flashing stars
Apparently they could be seen from Mars
The only ones that didn't party or rave
Were some newly captured Pacific dolphin slaves

A sheikh with a kandoora
In a vision once he saw
It was an Abyssinian maid
Overworked and poorly paid

And with fireworks loud and grand
He did build that Dubailand
That massive mall! Those slopes of ice!
And we all thought them very nice

But all should cry, Beware! Beware!
This sandy land is not so fair
And now financial storm clouds grow
It might be time to pack and go
For we on honey-dew hath fed
It's time for some real life instead

Lets face it - superlatives alone cannot shield the Middle East's financial hub from crisis

courtesy : http://justpolitics-cat.blogspot.com/2008/12/xanadu-atlantis.html