Top 10 webSites for Designers

http://www.cristianturdera.comCristian TurderaCristian Turdera is a designer and illustrator based in Buenos Aires.
http://www.greenolivemedia.comGreen Olive MediaAtlanta-based design firm Green Olive Media does beautiful work for food industry clients.
http://www.indie-guest.itIndie-guestBeautiful things, sometimes indie and sometimes not, by talented crafters, designers and creatives around the world. Much of the text is in Italian, but there's plenty of eye candy.
http://intermissiondesign.comintermission* designintermission* is a Vancouver-based full-service design studio specializing in interactive design.
http://www.itsalltrue.bizit's all trueThis agency represents a small, but select, group of illustrators.
http://www.mabureau.comMarie-Andree Bureau Design & IllustrationMontreal-based illustrator and designer Marie-Andree Bureau has a style that's perfect for editorial work.
http://www.mecano.caMecanoMecano creates playful strategies for the new digital culture.
http://sabrinadesignproject.blogspot.comSabrina Design ProjectDesigner Sabrina Vega invites other designers to participate in a Design Project where they are asked to "write Sabrina creatively". Website shows replies and artwork from many designers including Milton Glaser and Stefan Sagmeister.
http://bookcoverarchive.comThe Book Cover ArchiveThe Book Cover Archive was created for the appreciation and categorization of excellence in book cover design.
http://www.yellowatelier.comYellow AtelierChapman Tse is a designer from Hong Kong who specializes in character design.

Top 10 website for Students

MSN EncartaThe free MSN Encarta site features more than 4,500 articles pooled from Microsoft Encarta, the award-winning electronic reference library, and comes with dictionaries, maps, fast facts, interactive quizzes, handy homework tools, and more.
RefdeskSince 1995, Refdesk.com, which stands for "reference desk," has served as a one-click springboard to many of the Web's top dictionaries, encyclopedias, calculators, atlases, news headlines, and search engines. The site also includes a handy "homework helper" section that provides help in all subjects to students in every grade.
HowStuffWorksEver wanted to know why earthquakes happen? How CD burners work? What the sun is made of? These questions, and a large amount of others related to computers/electronics, automobiles, science, entertainment, and people, are all answered at this award-winning Web site. Simply type a query into the search window or peruse the topics by category. Extras include free newsletters, surveys, and printable versions of all answers.
Fact MonsterThis site features an almanac, atlas, dictionary and encyclopedia made especially for kids, as well as handy search engine and layout designed for easy fact-finding. Check out fun features such as Biographies of the Presidents, the Geography Hall of Fame, and the Tallest Buildings Slideshow.
Download.comConsider Download.com the ultimate file repository that links to literally tens of thousands of downloadable free or shareware programs. This includes utilities for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux, Internet tools, desktop dictionaries and language translators, Pocket PC and Palm applications, and of course, computer games. Visitors can search by typing in a keyword or by perusing the many sections.
Novelguide.comThe Web's answer to those black- and yellow-striped Cliff Notes is Novelguide.com, a reliable and free source for literary analysis of classic and contemporary books such as Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground. The site offers character profiles, metaphor and theme analysis, and author biographies.
Math.comThis site provides help in a number of mathematics-related subjects, including basic grade-school math, calculus, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and statistics. Practice exercises are automatically graded, plus this free site also features a glossary, calculators, homework tips, math games, and lesson plans for teachers.
FreeTranslationSprechen Sie Deutsch? Perfect for language studies, this handy Web site automatically converts text from one language into another, such as English to Simplified Chinese or French to English. Simply type and paste up to 10,000 characters (about 1,800 words) into the search window and then select the desired language. Alternatively, you can cut and paste a Web URL to convert the entire site.
Shakespeare OnlineThis Web site can be filed in the "where was this when I was a kid?" category. On the aptly named Shakespeare Online site, visitors can read every play or poem from the world's most celebrated writer and, more importantly, make some sense of his works with free analysis, Old English language translations, and famous quotes.
Science Made SimpleScience classes—including the ubiquitous science project—aren't as easy for some to grasp as for others. At Science Made Simple, kids of all ages can get detailed answers to many of science's questions, read current news articles related to science, get ideas on school projects, and take advantage of unit conversion tables. Users can also find out if their school's textbooks pass the test.

Introduction to Oracle Application Server

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) is the industry’s fastest, most complete and integrated Application Server:

-Reduce the cost of deploying, integrating, and monitoring business applications.
-Deploy on Enterprise Grids and cluster commodity hardware to lower hardware and administration costs while increasing system availability.
-Accelerate applications with Web caching on the fastest 100% compliant J2EE server.
-Develop, monitor, and manage standards-based Web services.
-Increase productivity with an enterprise portal.
-Empower better decisions with integrated business intelligence.
-Build applications once for delivery to any device, anywhere.
-Lower support costs with single sign-on facilities.
-Improve security with centralized user provisioning.
-Reduce middleware complexity with a complete and integrated application server.

J2EE, Web Services and Internet Applications

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) provides a productive Application Server environment for developers to develop Internet Applications based on open standards.

-> Oracle HTTP Server includes the following new features and enhancements:

-Based on Apache 1.3.28 to take advantage of latest optimizations and security features
-Log file rotation
-SSL Session renegotiation
-nCipher SSL support
-AJP Port tunneling
-AJP over SSL support between OHS and OC4J

-> Oracle Application Server TopLink includes the following new features and enhancements:

-Full compliance and support for the Oracle Application Server stack
-Productivity enhancements in Mapping Workbench (MW)
*New sessions editior
*Advanced query editor
*Improved support for source management systems
-Additional support Oracle9i DB Features (Hierarchical queries, Hints, and improved LOB support)
-Upgraded Web Client, including Session Console functionality
-Support for WebSphere 5.0 (JTA)

-> Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J) includes the following new features and enhancements:

-J2EE 1.3 support
-JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) support
-Multimedia JSP Tag Library
-Tag Library Descriptor (TLD) caching
-Lightweight JMS support, fully JMS 1.0.2b compatible
-Startup and shutdown classes
-New logging mode

-> Oracle Application Server Web Services includes the following new features and enhancements:

-SOAP headers and API
-SOAP fault support
-Enhanced interoperability
-XML Types, BLOBs, and CLOBs for PL/SQL Web services
-UDDI v2 support

-> Oracle Business Components for Java (BC4J) includes the following new features and enhancements:

-Support for mapping business components to EJB 2.0 local entity beans
-Jakarta Struts support
-Support for application-level security using JAAS
-Runtime performance enhancements

-> Oracle Application Server Forms Services includes the following new features and enhancements:

-Capacity to secure URL parameters
-Runtime Pre-start functionality for Improved startup performance
-Remote tracing from Enterprise Manager
-Enhanced Single Sign-On and Oracle Internet Directory support
-JDK 1.4 support

Portal

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) introduces a number of new features to enhance usability, wizards to enhance developer productivity and flexibility, and portlets to simplify data access.

-> Oracle Application Server Portal includes the following new features and enhancements:

-Declarative data publishing via the OmniPortlet
-Web Clipping to capture public and secure web page content
-Design-time usability enhancements
-Syndication Services to set up subscription channels for content
-Optimized page assembly
-Repository upgrade of the Portal metadata
-Administration, monitoring, and configuration usability improvements

Wireless

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) features a complete and integrated wireless and voice platform, Oracle Application Server Wireless, enabling enterprises to realize their mobile strategy and solutions. Enterprises can extend the reach of their business, reducing costs and increasing productivity through the deployment of wireless browsing applications, voice applications, messaging applications, J2ME applications and notifications.

->Oracle Application Server Wireless includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Multi channel server, including XHTML support
-Multimedia Adaptation Services
-Actionable alerts, location-based alerts
-Location Web services, GPS support
-Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS)
-Wireless Developer Kit
-JDeveloper Wireless Extension
-Web Clipping

For service providers looking to capitalize on mobile Internet opportunities,OracleAS Wireless provides a software platform that radically simplifies and reduces the time to develop, deploy and maintain mobile services. It includes the following new features for service providers:

-Partner integration framework
-Location service drivers for positioning servers
-Messaging service drivers for most common SMS-Cs, MMS-c, pagers
-Multi-channel message delivery gateway
-Built-in MMS-Center
-J2ME development, provisioning and Digital Rights Management (DRM)
-Billing framework for real-time content billing

Caching

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) introduces significant enhancements to Oracle Application Server Web Cache in the areas of performance monitoring, security, caching, invalidation, compression, load balancing, logging, diagnostics, and manageability.

-> Oracle Application Server Web Cache includes the following new features and enhancements:

-Instrumentation for End-user Performance Monitoring
-Support for client-side SSL certificates and nCipher SSL acceleration hardware
-More flexible multi-version caching rules for browser types
-Invalidation search keys and inline invalidation
-Self-describing compression policies
-Support for session binding in a cache cluster
-Improved rollover options for access logs and event logs
-More flexible and complete access log definition
-More verbosity levels for event logging
-Improved remote diagnostic tools
-Reporting on popular cache misses
-Integration with Oracle Process Management and Notification (OPMN)
-Dynamic configuration for select parameters

Business Intelligence

As part of Oracle Business Intelligence solutions, Oracle Appplication Server 10g (9.0.4) provides a complete and integrated infrastructure for self-service, personalized web-based access to information.

-> Oracle Application Server Discoverer includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Java command line tool for EUL maintenance
-Enhanced graphing capabilites
-Enhanced logging, diagnostics and performance metrics
-Optimized performance for queries on complex folders

-> Oracle Application Server Reports includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Workflow integration
-PDF taxonomy
-Dynamic environment switching
-Improved performance/scalability/fault tolerance
-Publish output to WebDAV or FTP servers
-Reports J2EE thin client support

-> Oracle Application Server Personalization includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Improved installation process
-Enhancements to MTR data seeding

E-Business Integration

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) Integration is an enhanced Enterprise Integration platform providing an open, standards-based infrastructure for enterprise application integration (EAI), business-to-business (B2B) collaboration, and web services integration.

-> Oracle Application Server ProcessConnect includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Single integrated tool
-Design and modeling of integration process
-Business activity monitoring with pre-built reports
-Process intelligence
-Comprehensive metadata modeling
-Business Process Management (BPM)
-Integration services, including dictionary management, translation, transformation, validation
-J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) 1.0 standards support
-Oracle Application Server JCA Adapters
-B2B protocol standards support: HTTP/S, SMTP, FTP/S, JMS, SMIME 2.0/3.0. SOAP 1.1, XML, RNIF 1.1/2.0, RosettaNet PIPs, custom
-Trading partner management
-Web services integration
-Enterprise strength deployment infrastructure

Systems Management

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) introduces major enhancements to the management, performance monitoring and diagnostics features of Oracle Application Server, as well as specific enhancements to OC4J administration.
-> Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Server Control includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Centralized port administration
-Centralized log viewing and diagnostics
-Extended Web Cache diagnostics
-OC4J administration enhancements, including management of JMS, configuration and monitoring of message driven beans, and simplified configuration for J2EE data sources

Identity Management

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) introduces Oracle Identity Management, an integrated infrastructure for securing users and applications across the enterprise, and across the suite of Oracle products. It includes the new Oracle Application Server Certificate Authority to create and manage digital certificates.

-> Oracle Internet Directory includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Windows integration
-Flexible directory replication technologies
-Support for Real Application Clusters and other high availability deployments
-Enhanced password policy management
-Improved self-service console
-Support for XML-based (DSML) interface

-> Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Windows native authentication
-Multilevel authentication
-Flexible deployment options

-> Oracle Application Server Certificate Authority includes the following new features and enhancements:
-Create and manage X.509v3 digital certificates
-Simplifies enabling Oracle PKI products (HTTP, SSL)
-Easy to use, Web-based interface
-Automated provisioning with OracleAS Single Sign-On
-Optionally publish certificates to Oracle Internet Directory
-Supports XML-based certificate policy enforcement

High Availability

Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) has significantly enhanced and broadened High Availability solutions across the stack.
Oracle Application Server 10g High Availability includes the following features and enhancements for end-to-end high availability:
-> Facilities for Application High Availability:
Transparent container-managed session state replication for J2EE applications
Java Object Cache available to application developer if more control of replication required
TAF: Transparent Application Failover for database connections
->Middle Tier High Availability:
Death detection and restart of failed processes
Support for database-managed and manually configured Oracle Application Server clusters
Resource provisioning features for Grid Computing
Smart load balancing algorithms for optimal resource utilization in a Grid, including:
Round robin
Random routing
Weight-based and metric-based routing
Local affinity
-> Infrastructure High Availability:
Death Detection and restart of failed processes
Cluster-aware installer
Cold Failover Clusters:
Support for all major cluster vendors
Configuration on shared disk
Support for virtual IP/hostname on active cluster node
Active Failover Clusters:
Active/Active mode support
Infrastructure software installed on each node accessing shared database
Configuration replicated on each node
Disaster Recovery:
Disaster Recovery support for site-to-site failover
Available for both middle tiers and for Infrastructure
Uses Oracle Data Guard for Infrastructure database Disaster Recovery
Rolling Upgrade:
Support for middle tier and Infrastructure rolling upgrade from 9.0.2 to 9.0.4
Minimized planned downtime

Handling Crisis

Better-quality Leadership can let you survive in a Time of Crisis

Leadership is the kind of subject that invariably rises to the top in a time of crisis. Otherwise, it is one of those topics that companies talk a lot about but otherwise don't feel the need to pay much serious attention to. When skies are blue, the business can usually cruise along quite nicely with executives who are likely top operational managers but may or may not also have good leadership attributes.
Think about how executives typically reach senior management positions? The key responsibilities of middle management are to deliver against their operational and functional commitments. Those who perform well in their jobs will generally be promoted to positions of higher responsibility. The selection process will ensure that they have very good operational skills and have experience in managing different kinds of functions in the organization - finance, sales, customer service, HR, manufacturing, logistics - or all of them in the case of good general managers.
Managing a large global organization is very tough and getting tougher given our unpredictable, fast changing, intensely competitive market environment. Being a successful manager in such an environment is truly difficult: you have to constantly improve your products and services to keep up with fast changing technologies and markets; you have to work hard to retain existing customers and attract new ones regardless of how ferocious the competition is; and you must achieve good financial results quarter after quarter, lest you disappoint shareholders and financial analysts, who will then start asking for your head.
But, in highly disruptive times, let alone in a time of crisis, being an excellent manager is not enough. Presumably the company is in crisis because the new disruptive environment is so different from everything that came before. The tried-and-true management disciplines are no longer working. Something else, over and above excellent management is required, namely leadership.
The reason companies are often not able to turn themselves around and survive a serious crisis is not because they don't know what to do, but because the culture of the institution is not able to embrace the needed changes. What they lack is the leadership that through simple words, hard work and sheer passion is able to generate the urgency needed to mobilize people, as well as the sense of confidence needed to attack and solve the complex problems the organization is facing.
Management skills tend to be hard or quantitative in nature. Business and management schools, as well as engineering schools to some extent, do a fairly good job in teaching such concrete skills - technology, analysis, modeling, finance, and logistics, marketing and so on.
Leadership skills, on the other hand, are soft, that is, people-oriented in nature - human capital, market strategy, knowledge, innovation, culture. Some might wonder whether such leadership skills can be taught at all. Perhaps these are skills that you have to be born with.
Humble
To better appreciate why modesty and humility are critical attributes of good leaders, consider their opposite qualities: arrogance, pride and hubris. Hubris is a particularly appropriate term, first used in ancient Greece to describe the overconfident pride and arrogance that gets people, especially the powerful and rich in trouble. The word was frequently used to describe the actions of heroes in Greek tragedy whose disregard of the gods and their laws resulted in their downfall.
Human nature has not changed all that much in the intervening centuries. It is nearly impossible to find people, - especially those whose accomplishments have helped them achieve positions of power, success and wealth - who do not exhibit feelings of arrogance and pride to some degree. But to be a good leader, one has to truly fight hard not to let those feelings take over. Otherwise, they will lead to a distorted view of reality. They might even lead to a disregard of societal laws and norms, much as tragic heroes disregarded the laws of the gods.
Open Thinking
Open thinking that is ready to embrace whatever changes the new disruptive environment brings, is an essential attribute of good leaders
Collaboration skills
Disruptive innovations almost always come from outside a company, whether it is new technologies, products and services, or new competitors, processes and business models. Those innovations are increasingly collaborative and open, the result of people working together in new and integrated ways. Just about every study on innovation has identified the power of collaboration as one of the major forces driving innovation in today's environment.

Public Speaking

It is said that the Fear of Speaking in Public (Glossophobia) is ranked even above fear of death. Why do we find people afraid to speak in public?

Winners : Both events, oration and death, are rightly juxtaposed for various reasons, 1. They don't happen very often in one's life (for more than 75%) 2. They... see more are not often voluntary (for much more than 75%) It is true that most of the people who fear public speaking have not done it enough to overcome the fear and if they did speak in public it was on being seriously goaded. Surely forced labour doesn't yield great results. The genesis of the problem also rests in adolescence/late childhood when the individual is still coming to terms with what (s)he is becoming gradually. In those years the exposure to other's eyes and ears is less desirable at times and that is when most of the public speakers are born or nipped forever. Careful handling in those years by parents and mentors can make all the difference. Gradual exposure starting from safer audience to increasingly unknown public with topics on which the speaker has command leads to good results. For those who can't afford the time machine it helps to, 1. Know the subject thoroughly. 2. Feel one with the audience and make eye contact with those who exude reception. 3. Practice a lot and be prepared to forget it all. 4. Have prompts which can be glanced on to get an idea in case you forget. 5. Learn to dance (not while you are speaking of course) and feel at ease in your body and move gracefully on the stage. 6. Exercise in general and look your personal best at the given hour. I remember to always say to myself that it is the warrior's last dance and it must be done well. A phrase I picked somewhere but again brings oration and denouement close together. I'm sure that people who die more than once start liking death as well.

Roundeners Vs Flatteners

Thomas L. Friedman's seminal work on globalization had its first act set in the Indian IT industry. Is the recent fall from grace of few corporate giants just a symbol of the world becoming round again? Do you feel that the world is flat and that the flatteners will continue pinning the edges of this poster-flat world in spite of the opposing forces like world-wide recession and a dwindling faith in the benefits of globalization? Or is it that flatteners are losing to the 'roundeners'?

Success

The Seven Habits
The chapters are dedicated to each of the habits, which are represented by the following imperatives:
Be Proactive! Here, Covey emphasizes the original sense of the term "proactive" as coined by Victor Frankl. You can either be proactive or reactive when it comes to how you respond to certain things. When you are reactive, you blame other people and circumstances for obstacles or problems. Being proactive means taking responsibility for every aspect of your life. Initiative and taking action will then follow. Covey also argues that man is different from other animals in that he has self-consciousness. He has the ability to detach himself and observe his own self; think about his thoughts. He goes on to say how this attribute enables him: It gives him the power not to be affected by his circumstances. Covey talks about stimulus and response. Between stimulus and response, we have the power of free will to choose our response.
Begin with the End In Mind! This chapter is about setting long-term goals based on "true north" principles. Covey recommends formulating a "Personal Mission Statement" to document one's perception of one's own vision in life. He sees visualization as an important tool to develop this. He also deals with organizational vision statements, which he claims to be more effective if developed and supported by all members of an organization rather than prescribed.
Put First Things First! Here, Covey describes a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at short-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear not to be urgent, but are in fact very important. Delegation is presented as an important part of time management. Successful delegation, according to Covey, focuses on results and benchmarks that are to be agreed upon in advance, rather than prescribed as detailed work plans.
Think Win/Win describes an attitude whereby mutually beneficial solutions are sought that satisfy the needs of oneself, or, in the case of a conflict, both parties involved.
Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. Covey warns that giving out advice before having empathetically understood a person and their situation will likely result in rejection of that advice. Thoroughly reading out your own autobiography will decrease the chance of establishing a working communication.
Synergize describes a way of working in teams. Apply effective problem solving. Apply collaborative decision making. Value differences. Build on divergent strengths. Leverage creative collaboration. Embrace and leverage innovation. It is put forth that when synergy is pursued as a habit, the result of the teamwork will exceed the sum of what each of the members could have achieved on their own. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Sharpen the saw focuses on balanced self-satisfaction: Regain what Covey calls "production capability" by engaging in carefully selected recreational activities. Covey also emphasizes the need to sharpen the mind.

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