Benefits of Learning Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is one of the most commonly used business applications used worldwide today. Learning Microsoft Excel can be an investment that benefits many people both personally and professionally. If you have ever wondered how learning Excel can help you in your life or career, or even just been curious about all the things Excel has to offer, you will want to read this article. After you read about the benefits of getting up to speed with Excel you will have a better idea of how it might relate to your own situation.

Excel Helps With Organization

One of the primary benefits of a spreadsheet application like Excel is that it can help you stay organized in a very hectic world. In your personal life you can use the power and simplicity of Excel to create checklists and budgets of every type. You may have a weekly list of tasks that you want to make sure to do each week, or even just use Excel to compose a grocery or shopping list. Of course because Excel is so powerful with manipulating numbers, it is an ideal tool for managing your personal household budget, and planning for big expenses like retirement or even your next vacation abroad.

Excel is Great for Monitoring Financial Performance

The primary purpose of Excel is for use as a business tool. As such, it is well suited for monitoring financial performance of all kinds over time. Regardless of what your function is in your company, chances are Excel has a potential benefit for you. Sales managers can use Excel to track their employees' performance versus their goals and quotas. Marketing managers can monitor the performance and ROI of their media budgets, and of course accountants can monitor and track the financial transactions and performance of the company as a whole.

Learning Excel Can Provide Career Advantages

It is probably obvious, but having knowledge of Excel can give you a significant boost in your career. Most traditional office jobs these days require at least some rudimentary knowledge of Microsoft Excel. Being able to use spreadsheets efficiently brings value to your employer that helps justify your salary, and maybe even an increase! In addition, having skills with this great tool can give you an instant advantage against your fellow employees who are competing for the same promotions and advancement you are.

As you can see, learning how to use spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel can have a powerful effect on many facets of your life. From staying organized at home, to performing important business functions at work, this is a great tool for almost anyone who needs a little extra efficiency in their world.

Financial Education 101 - For Sovereign Wealth and Emergency Financial Preparedness

It is similar. As a culture and a society we have not been very well financially educated. At times it is important to cut through all the confusion and get down to the basics of financial knowledge and financial security to help lead us into sovereign wealth. Do you know the old saying, "a dollar just does not buy what it used to", well, keep that in mind as you read this article.

The question was posed to me, "How does the value of a dollar relate to a declining economy?" And the simple answer to that is, "what can it by you?" It's all about PURCHASING POWER. Think commodities, the simple things that make your life easier. The oil that makes the gas that drives your car. The food ingredients to the meals that fuel your body. The materials used to dress you and your family.

Now if you have ever held stocks, more definitively, a stock which has split, you get double the amount of shares, although each share only has half of its buying power. For instance, if you have 100 shares at $ 100 dollars, and it splits, well then suddenly you have 200 shares at $ 50. It's the same with the value of the dollar or any other fiat currency.

There are essentially 2 reasons why the value of a fiat currency (aka the dollar) will lose its value.

1. The amount of dollars increases in circulation (ex- the federal reserve printing money out of thin area often to cover outstanding debts to other countries - think China)
2. A decreasing demand for that said fiat currency (ex- the United States dollar, when steeped in so much debt, other countries or loaner's lose faith on ever being paid back, will stop buying into it - think China)

So now, say that the same example happened with the dollar as did the stock in our above example of a stock split. Either supply doubles or demand gets cut in half, and the value of our dollar is cut in half. Now when you want to go out and fuel your car, feed your family, or cloth yourself ... you dollar will only buy half as much as before, so "a dollar just does not buy what it used to." This is an important basic of knowledge to keep in mind when planning for your financial security, especially when speaking of growing sovereign wealth and planning for emergency financial security.

Opportunity Cost: Making Gold In WoW

Today I would like to talk about something that not many people consider when making gold in WoW, opportunity cost. For the serious gold maker, or someone just starting out this can be important. Just as in real life, businesses must make decisions about their assets and inventories related to opportunity cost, so must you as a wow gold maker. The effects of opportunity costs essentially come down to risk versus reward.

A popular strategy of many players is to stockpile goods for the next patch so they can cash in and make tens of thousands of gold in a few days. While this is an effective strategy and one that can make you a ton of gold there is something that not many of these players consider, opportunity cost.

For every item you stockpile there is a risk that inherently comes with holding that item. That risk is the amount of demand behind the item in the future, which is unknown. Maybe people will not want it as much as you predict so you sat on a stack of items for a month and they did not pay off for you at all.That's why its riskier than playing the market at the current time, because at this point in time you can accurately gauge demand for certain items, while in the future you can not.

You need to consider the possible return of your gold now, versus later. Maybe you invest a bunch of your gold into pyrite ore in order to make a killing once you can prospect it for epic gems. Let's say this happens 2 months from now once patch 4.3 comes out just as a random example. So you have 1000g to invest in pyrite ore and you buy as much as you can with it. Then you wait 2 months doing nothing since you have no gold. After the 2 months you can sell the prospect epic gems for 4000g. That's 4x what you invested, although you had to wait 2 months for it and got nothing during that down time. Not only that but you faced the risk that epic gems did not come out in patch 4.3, as well as the fact that you may not be able to accurately gauge demand for them.

Now consider a different scenario. You spend 1000g on pyrite ore and prospect it, or transform it into items for people to use. After a week you make 1500g, 1.5x what you originally spent. Assuming you invest the 1000g each week and come back with 500g in net profit at the end of the week after 8 weeks you will have made 4000g not including the initial 1000g investment.

Either way you make the same amount of gold, however the second method is far less risky than the other. This is because you are spreading your earnings out and learning a consistent cashflow over time, instead of large lump sum payments. Not only that but it is far easier to predict what your current demand for any product is right now than at a time in the future when demand may be completely unknown.

While both methods are viable for making gold it can be much less risky to have a consistent stream of gold running into your hands versus investing everything into potential future profits that you can get by stockpiling materials.

Samsung Internet TV

Users of Samsung's Internet TV platform can now benefit from video-on-demand thanks to DIVA TV, a provider of cross-platform digital content focusing on popular movies. The first countries to benefit from this collaboration include Germany, Switzerland and the UK. DIVA TV expects to extend this service further very soon, to reach other territories including the US in months to come.
Users of this platform in Germany, Switzerland and the UK will be first to benefit from DIVA TV, with the company optimistic of extending the partnership to cover other territories, including the US, in the coming months.

DIVA TV's library of content allows users to easily find the programs that they are looking for or to discover new programs that they will like, without their having to browse their way through hundreds of titles that do not particularly interest them. Now that hand-picked entertainment is becoming the norm, it is only natural that this is the next step for this platform as well. Those already owning it in the selected countries will soon be able to enjoy this next-step technology.

Users can also enjoy Day and Date and free content thanks to DIVA TV. Plus, the DIVA TV catalog keeps topping up their library with new movie releases, in genres such as action, comedy, thrillers, popular TV shows and more. Now folks can enjoy TVoD (TV on Demand) thanks to the DIVA TV widget. Current titles available are supplemented with certain related movies and shows offered as free aVoD content as well.

There are many types of movies that will be offered through this service. Some of the movie types include a vast library of popular films, classic movies and hot Hollywood favorites. The library of content will be constantly refurbished with new offerings to keep things current and evolving. This way customers do not need to keep seeing repeat content but have a selection of new movies at all times. The current estimate is that about 10% of the library's content will be replaced each month with fresh content, and each title will stay in the library for at least 3 months to ensure that most users get an opportunity to see it.

One of the other interesting aspects of the DIVA TV widget is that is brings users some unique minority content, catering to various ethnic groups and expat communities. This includes the best of Turkish, Russian and Arabic films and drama series currently available, in an effort to reach an even wider audience.

DIVA was founded in 2007 and has quickly become a prominent provider of entertainment content including films, TV shows and short-format content. Its primary roles is in providing video-on-demand platforms and connected devices around the world. With a focus on award-winning films, classic pictures and specialty-genre content, DIVA finds that its main customers are over-the-top platforms, IPTV operators and device manufacturers in Asia, Europe, Middle East and the USA.

Samsung's Internet TV platform is well-suited for DIVA content, and users of Samsung HDTVs are all set to start enjoying high-quality content on demand. The platform has taken entertainment to a new level with its ability to bring a world of choice content right to your TV, all browsed easily at the touch of a few buttons from the comfort of your home.

How Business Angels Source Investment Opportunities

Businesses are starting up everyday but many remain starved of the vital funding and help they need to grow. Business angels are expected to help plug the gap but what methods do angel investors use to find the businesses that they choose to invest in?

It is not especially hard to find things these days. In the 21st century pretty much everything you need to know about established businesses and the people who own them can usually be found online.

Just tap in a combination of either an individual name and company name or address and in seconds - unless that business is cut off from civilization based in deep in the tropical rainforests of Borneo - you will soon find what you are looking for.

But what if business is a start-up or seed stage business? And one that has yet to set up a website, with an owner who has little or no online coverage. For all the potential angel investor knows, that business might as well exist beneeth the canopy of some remote rainforest.

The problem then for business angels - who are a fairly secretive bunch - is finding the right opportunities out there, somewhere. This is no easy task when all the usual methods of finding information simply do not work.

One possibility is to join a business group on networking websites such as LinkedIn. You'll find a stream of pitches from people all over the world asking for financial backing. Here you have the opposite problem, some of these may turn out to offer a great opportunity, but you would need to devote a great deal of your time sorting through the online jungle to discover whether they are genuine.

The trouble is being faced with too many opportunities or too few.

You might also try backing someone you know. But if you do not know anyone starting up a business anytime soon you would trust to make good use of your cash, the best way to find opportunities is to join a network.

Before you go ahead though it might be worth finding out how the network sources its investment opportunities. After all the websites and online business groups that have sprung up in recent years the method your average business angel network uses to find businesses may surprise you.

A recent report by the UK's Department of Business Innovation and Skills found that the most common method for recruiting entrepreneurs and business propositions used by business angel networks in the UK was not through the Internet, websites or even through events - the most common method by some distance remains good old-fashioned word of mouth, with referrals from banks also featuring highly.

Even more surprisingly websites and information fairs rank third and fourth and articles in the press did not feature at all. This tells us a lot about the way business angel investment works in the UK. Aside all the hype about speed funding events taking place around the country and a few notable successes, business angel investing is still rather informal compared to VC investing. Often it is a case of who you know including a high proportion of friends and family and old fashioned networking.

Many entrepreneurs who do not know a business angel are likely to miss out on potentially valuable funding and advice for their business as a result and the business angels themselves will miss out on a potentially lucrative opportunity. After a number of business angel groups becoming established in the UK in recent years, the sector remains low key.

Those involved in the promotion of business angel investing need to promote them more broadly and raise awareness of what they have to offer. There should be more transparency surrounding investment failures as well as successes so that those individuals who want to invest can navigate their way through the jungle with more confidence and advertise what they have to offer to those start-up enterprises vital to the recovery.

How to Get a Mobile Phone Repaired

Mobile phones have become quite a part of our lives. We require a phone quite frequently, whether we are at work or at home. If your phone stops functioning, that becomes a cause of serious concern. The first thing that you should do is to send it for repair work at a mobile phone repair shop.

Every manufacture has its own repair station. They have technicians available who figure out the problem and hand over the repaired phone to you.

These days, with the growing demand of cell phones, the manufactures are bound to manufacture them in large numbers. It is quite possible that some handsets might have a manufacturing default in the process. If you have bought a handset with such a fault, then it is replaced by the manufacturer immediately.

Generally all the handsets come with a 1 year warranty period, if the damage is caused in this period, then it is repaired free of cost. Any physical damage is not included in this.

If the fault occurs after the expiry of warranty, then you have to pay for any repairs. Apart from the cost of the damaged part, you also have to bear the service charges. It is always better to ask the total cost of repair beforehand because sometimes this cost is more than the cost of a new handset.

So instead of paying the same amount, you can get a new handset for yourself. You can also get it repaired from a local repair shop. Local dealers charge comparatively lower fees.

Some Ways Of Repairing Your Phone Yourself

If your phone gets drenched in water, then remove the battery immediately and place it in a cool dry place so that the battery is not damaged. Do not use the phone if it gets heated up regularly after talking for some time. Instead go to the mobile phone repair station and inform them about the same. Your phone might be faulty and it might explode if used repeatedly.

You should also take care while downloading something from the internet or through the Bluetooth technology. You might download viruses which can harm your cell phone by deleting the contacts and corrupting all other files. Some viruses can damage the whole software and you have to get the software installed again. Therefore you should download only from known and trusted sources.

If your phone gets damaged, then don't panic. You can apply any of these measures, if they don't work, then take your mobile for repair to a mobile phone repair shop.

Nokia E72 - A True Business-Class Phone

The latest Nokia E72 is yet another BlackBerry-style device from the handset manufacturing giant and it seems that Nokia wants to keep milking the growing demand for such smart-devices in the market. The E72 is a follow up on the E71which was released last year and it comes with few upgradaes like enhanced software and an improved camera. This one comes with a 2.36 inches TFT screen of 320 x 240 pixels resolution along with a full QWERTY keypad. The keypad appears to be good with distinct keys and should aid texting messages and mails. The phone integrates with email clients and business systems such as Microsoft Exchange apart from mailing applications like Hotmail and Gmail. Messages can be sent and received in the form of SMS, MMS, Email and IM. Also included are an optical trackpad and an accelerometer sensor that facilitates UI auto-rotate.

The Nokia E72 is a Symbian S60 device and it runs on a 600 MHz processor from ARM that ensures high speed and response time. Apart from the 128MB RAM, the device incorporates an internal memory of 250MB storage which can be easily expanded to 16GB by using external microSD cards. The phone-book in this handset can store unlimited contact entries and fields and also keeps records for dialed, received as well as missed calls for an entire month. This Class32 GPRS device comes along with a built-in WAP 2.0 / xHTML, HTML web browser that allows the users to access mobile Internet. Wi-Fi allows the device to access any local area network or to synchronize with a laptop or a PC, while Bluetooth assists in convenient data sharing between compatible devices.

Most interestingly, the Nokia E72 also includes a 5 mega pixel camera with a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels and features like auto-focus and LED flash. The music player which can cope with MP3, WMA, WAV, RA, AAC and M4A file formats turns out to be really versatile. The music can be restored either in the speaker-phone or on any standard headphone which can be plugged in the propitious 3.5 mm audio jack. The video player on the other hand can play WMV, RV, MP4 and 3GP. And the entertainment does not stop there-a stereo FM radio with RDS feature is also included so that users get to listen to their favorite radio stations.

On the inside, the Nokia N72 is just a quad-band GSM phone that also supports tri-band 3G network. 3G enables high speed data download through HSDPA at the rate of 10.2Mbps. Released in October, 2009, this handset is currently available in interesting color schemes of Zodiac Black, Metal Gray and Topaz Brown. Other important and useful features that have been added in this ensemble include Digital compass, Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF), Flash Lite v3.0, Push to talk, Voice command / dial, Organizer and Nokia Maps 3.0 application. The standard Li-Po 1500 mAh battery turns out to be really efficient with a talk time of 6 hours and a standby time of up to 576 hours while using the device in 3G service. Considering the fact that the previous E-Series models- E71 and E63 have gone down pretty well with the people, we can only expect that the E72 does good business.