The Benefits of Mahjong Games

Mahjong games owe their origin to China and they are played through use of tiles. It was not until in the 1920's that its popularity in countries such as the US begun. It is an intelligence game and requires a high sense of concentration. While it is a difficult game to master and learn, once a player gets the idea behind it, it becomes easy to excel in a limitless manner. Ordinarily, these require four players and while this is the case, there are variations. There are several benefits associated with it and some of these are as highlighted below.

Treatment of Dementia
Mahjong games can be classed as cognitive games and researchers claim that it has the ability of treating dementia. It requires a high sense of concentration, planning, calculating skills and memory and as such, a player's memory is always sharpened. Those people who play these games have the ability of developing cognitive measures and these effects last for a long duration if for any reason, they skip playing for a month.

Improvement of Cognitive Abilities
A large number of seniors suffer from dementia at one point in their life and by indulging in this they have a better chance of ensuring that this does not happen. This is because it sharpens memory skills and aids in keeping the mind sharp. In essence, they work in the same way as crossword puzzles. It also improves the player's ability to react to different types of situations and this increases the capacity of making fast decisions. When this is employed in the right manner, it also translates to improved living skills among individuals suffering from dementia.

Social Outlet
This is seen as an ideal social outlet for people from all groups and especially seniors. Socialization is important for this group and because of the benefits mentioned earlier, this gives them the chance to enjoy this end. Whether they choose to play from a senior's home or a nursing center, it serves the same purpose and this is seen as a major boost.

Multi-age
People from different age groups can enjoy the benefits associated with this sport. Children for instance, can learn how to play online. Due to the level of concentration it demands, it is seen as an ideal educational option for kids. What is more, it is seen as an ideal way of having fun while at the same time developing cognitive skills for this age group. In order to enjoy Mahjong games, one has to be calculating, strategic and lucky as well.

Asus to Launch An Aluminum Skin Netbook

What are the benefits of having a netbook with aluminum skin? Nothing, except that aluminum is chameleon-like, that is, they can take on the color of their surroundings, from the trees and the birds and the bees. And when the aluminum skin is colored deep red, dark blue and metal gray, the colors become more astounding.

For netbook fans who think these laptop mini-me's could go a lot further in terms of style, you'll be glad to know that Asus is set to launch (at the time of this writing) the Asus Eee PC 1002HAE, a 10- inch netbook that is refreshingly more elegant looking than its predecessors. This netbook model is dressed up in different aluminum colors: deep red, dark blue and metal gray.

Apart from the stylish chassis, Asus also enhances the power by using a 1.66GHx N280 Atom CPU instead of the 1.6GHz N270 in the N270 Atom CPU. Everything else about this netbook is the same as other models in the Asus Eee PC line. The 1002HAE netbook has a 10-inch (1024 x 600) LED-backlit display, 1GB of RAM and 160GB hard-disk drive, which is not bad.

It is also built with wireless Draft-N support, a card reader, and a 1.3MP webcam. This mini laptop weighs in at 1.2kg and measures 264 x 181 x 27.6mm. Thus far, Asus has only talked about releasing the model in Japan. However, the company is expected to release it in the United States and Europe thereafter. The Asus Eee PC 1002HAE sells for 49,800 Yen, or $ 502.

Broker Joint Venture Deals - 16 Fast and Easy Ways to Make Money

A Joint Venture (JV) is also known as 'business deal' , 'strategic alliance' , or 'strategic partnership' . Probably the simplest definition is that Joint venture is a win-win strategic partnership between two or more businesses or individuals who agree to leverage each other's resources in order to achieve common economic objectives. Resources could be in the form of technology, relationships, access to existing customers, expertise, knowledge, credibility, employees, facilities, finance, etc.

Examples of Easy, Profitable and Simple Joint Venture Deals

Here are just a few examples of JV deals you can broker:

1. Tollgating
2. Reciprocal Arrangements
3. Sharing Resources
4. Promotional Partnerships
5. Create Profit Centers for Businesses

Let's look at each one in more detail.

Method # 1: Tollgating

Tollgating simply means finding a group of people with a high enough demand and connecting them with the source of supply. You then stand between them (like a tollgate collector) and collect money as buyers go through the tollgate. This method is also known as "Triangulation."

Examples of Tollgating:

1. Let's say that in your local area, there's an Association of Architects. Say they have at least 50 members and they socialize weekly. If you're able to persuade them to meet once a week at a specific restaurant or hotel, you can arrange a deal with the restaurant / hotel owner to give you a percentage of their weekly bill.

2. Another way you can tollgate is by finding successful businesses. There are businesses out there who are actually turning customers away because they are unable to meet the demand. Get them to pass the leads to you. Then you can direct these leads to another business who will do all the work. You then collect commissions for every converted lead.

3. Locate someone with a product to sell, and find someone who owns a list of customers who have a strong desire for the product in question. Get the list owner to endorse the product, and you collect commission from every sale made.

4. When a business goes bankrupt, make money by locating someone who is willing to: buy the old inventory, buy the old phone number in order to convert incoming callers, buy the database of customers, fulfill pending orders, take over the lease, etc.

Method # 2: Reciprocal Arrangements

This is a I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine sort of arrangement.

The fact is that each business has strengths and weaknesses, and many business owners do not know how to compensate for their weaknesses, thus producing problems. But a smart JV broker like you can address this by partnering up businesses with complementary qualities so that together they are stronger and more profitable.

Examples of Reciprocal Arrangements:

1. Barter - a magazine may agree to let a restaurant pay for a month's worth of advertising by letting the magazine's key staff to eat for free for a set period of time; a marketing consultant may agree to help a fitness professional generate more leads in exchange for personal training.

2. Connect two businesses with products / services that complement each other. Get them to tap into each others customer base by getting them to continuously endorse / promote each others goods to their own customers. For example, you can arrange for a beauty spa to promote a health club down the road (and vice versa); or encourage a hair salon to "reward" their loyal customers with gift certificates from a restaurant, so driving potentially lifetime customers to the restaurant. In all cases, you collect a commission from any resulting sales.

Method # 3: Sharing Existing Resources

You can leverage existing resources that are underutilized and make money in the process.
Examples of Sharing Resources:

1. You can launch a jewelry designer's career by arranging to have her creations displayed along with the goods in a posh retail shop selling designer handbags. The jewelry designer does not pay any rent, but she pays a commission to you and the retail shop owner every time she makes a sale.

2. You can make passive income by finding student tenants for landlords in your local area. You can semi-automate the process by giving a list of local accommodations to a person working in the Admissions Office of major Universities / schools in your area and ask them to actively help the student applicants find accommodations. Make sure to reward your contacts, of course.

3. Licensing - If you have (or know someone with) a system, intellectual resources, or any non-perishable intangibles that other people are willing to pay for, you can simply grant them rights to use these resources in exchange for a small fee . You can license a software, hard to get information, a useful research finding, a specialist equipment, etc. Bob Serling has a wealth of resources about licensing.

4. Piggybacking - you can take advantage of an existing infrastructure easily. For example, you can insert your promotional leaflet in the envelopes of a National direct mailing company who already mails 100,000 letters a month to their existing subscribers. Agree to give them a percentage of your profits.

Method # 4: Promotional Partnerships

Are you (or do you know) someone who is an expert salesperson / marketer? You can team up with someone who has a product / service to sell but is clueless about how to sell it.

1. Become an Agent - You can help book speakers, bands, entertainers, artists, performers, etc. and get paid a healthy commission.

2. Affiliate Marketing - You can market / sell other people's products and gain a commission for every sale made. If you do not want to do the selling, you can get someone else to do it for you. You can also look for businesses with no affiliates, set up their affiliate program, recruit the affiliates, let them do all the selling and marketing, and then you just collect a small commission.

Method # 5: Creating Profit Centers for Existing Businesses

It's a fact that many people who are in business do not know how to gain a steady stream of buyers continuously.

1. Bundling- You can add a complimentary product or service to an existing one with already existing distribution routes, and collect responsibilities. For example, most real estate agents can make more money and serve their customers even more if they also recommend services like removals, interior design, plumbing, electrical, plastering, etc. to every person they sell a house to. But most real estate agents do not know this, so you can set up this arrangement and profit.

2. Encourage restaurants to sell Advertising spaces and get paid by finding advertisers. Restaurants can earn money by displaying ads on their bathrooms, at the back of their menu, on their wide screen TVs, or even on their announcement boards.

3. Do you live in an area where there are no 24-hour Dentists / restaurants / bakeries / liquor store / entertainment centers? You can arrange a deal where a business owner agreements to allow someone else to use their existing facilities at times when they are usually closed in return for rent money or a percentage of the profits.

4. Talk to an offline business who have no clue about online marketing. Strike a deal where you use online marketing methods to promote the business, and get paid commission for any resulting sales. You can easily do this deal with Experts and Gurus - people who have a wealth of information inside their heads, but they lack knowledge how to turn their expertise into information products and sell them online. You can act as their online publisher (or JV with an existing online publisher) and take a piece of the profits.

In Conclusion

Being a Joint Venture broker can be very easy and rewarding if only you know how to listen to other people's needs. To be successful all you need to do is solve problems by leveraging already existing resources and establishing trustworthy relationships. You do not need a product or business of your own. You do not need to be an expert, you do not need any experience, you can be 18 years old or 80 years old, you can have a PhD or you can be a high school drop out - it does not matter.

How To Install Ruby on Rails Mysql2 Gem on Windows 10

If you cannot install the MYSQL2 gem in Windows, you need to download the C-Header files from MYSQL. Unlike other gems, MYSQL2 requires direct linking into some of the native build files provided by the library. Unless you have MYSQL installed already, it means you need to download - and reference - this library from the Internet.

The problem is that since the MYSQL2 gem requires certain files to help it connect to the Internet, the gem uses these to at build. The error you'll receive will mention "Failed to build native extensions". This means your Windows system did not have the header files required for the gem to be installed correctly.

The way to resolve this is to first log onto the MYSQL website and look for "C-Connector". This is basically the "driver" for MYSQL, allowing Windows to call a number of pre-compiled functions to help it communicate with local or external MYSQL installations. The purpose of this download is to ensure your computer has the necessary files to install the gem.

Once you have found the MYSQL C-Connector file, you need to download it to your hard drive. From this, unzip the file and place its contents on your hard drive. You must put it in a path which has no spaces, otherwise the installation reference will break. A path such as C:/downloads/mysql-c-connector/files will work fine. Please note you do NOT need to install this - only download the zipped archive, we can remove it after the gem has been installed.

If you have downloaded and placed the files on your hard drive, you need to then install the gem again. To do this, you should load up CMD and type the following command "gem install mysql2 --platform=ruby -- '--with-mysql-dir="C:mysql-connector-path"'".

This command will reference the newly installed MYSQL C-Connector library files which Ruby requires to build the gem. If you've downloaded / installed it correctly, this should allow Ruby to install the required files etc. If successful, the cmd will explain the gem has been installed; if not, it will likely be that you have either downloaded the incorrect files OR you have not got another necessary library installed on your system.

Since Windows comes with no external libraries, it's necessary to install any required from the Internet. This is one of the reasons most people don't like developing with Windows - ultimately, if you're able to download the correct header files, you should be fine.

Pay As You Go Mobile Phones Ensure Freedom From Monthly Bills

While searching for a mobile phone deal, there are various choice s available with the consumers. But various limitations can exist for them. If you do not want to pay heavy bills at the end of the month and want to get the freedom of network while traveling, then pay as you go mobile is the best way to stay in touch.

For people who travel a lot, it might seem like a problem that roaming charges are to be meted out by him every time he goes to a new place. Therefore with this kind of service, he can easily switch the network to a local operator to save his roaming charges.

Also, the consumer can use the utilities that are available with the phone only after paying for them. He has to pay first and then later on when his phone has been credited with the spent amount, he can use the features and services offered and keep his expenditures in control. This way he can save himself from the heavy monthly bills that sometimes go out of hand as you do not know the usage that you have done.

Very advanced handsets are available with this scheme where you pay as you go. Renowned brands like Sony, Ericsson, LG, Samsung etc offer handsets with these services. Also various other benefits are available with the handsets like free text messages, free talk time, free services etc. Go online to get these services as there are many other offers clubbed and also the costs are very low with a wide range of handsets to choose from.

Availing pay as you go mobile deals does not require the operators to check any credits; no commitments are required from the consumers. You experience complete freedom as far as your networks and expenditures are concerned.

Experience the Virtual World of Games With the Cheap DVDs Online

Technology with its share in every field, gaming field is not an exception for this. With the advanced graphics technologies users are no longer playing those old time games like Mario or Dave in their computers now. Recently there has been a lot of activities are going around the gaming industries to make the industry better and better every day. Lots of technological requirements are there for nowdays games. You can not run a 2009 game on PC with a Pentium 4 processors, the game developers will list their requirements for the PC's to run their games while the time of developing itself. Not only the hardware plays an important role in the requirement but also the software's like Direct X and some other video drivers are also important while going for the advanced games.

Games are of many types like console games, online games, PC games, mobile games etc. The mobile games and online games are less popular than their competitors like PC games and console games. The reason is because of the graphics used in the mobile games and online games. But with the console games and PC games the graphics technology is in an extreme position now. You will never feel like you are playing a game anymore with these advanced games. These games will give you the feeling that you are a character in the games. Also the virtual world in these games has changed the minds of lot of teenagers to live in a world like those in the games. These games are not available in the CD "s anymore. Because most of the games are of large sizes which will need a DVD.These DVD's are sold in the game shops, shopping complexes or even you can book the game DVD's through online also.

Let's have a little discussion about the advantages of buying a DVD through online websites. Nowadays you do not have to wait in a queue or in the shops for buying a Game DVD from the shops. Everything is possible today with a click of your mouse.With a internet connection on your homes you can buy almost anything in the world with a click. The game DVDS are not personal purchases anymore, you can send them for any of your friend's birthday or anniversaries as almost all of them are playing these games in their homes. The important things considered before going shopping is that the website you are going to make a purchase is trustful or not, finding the legal ones are difficult process here. So try to have verbal connection with the sellers before going for a sale. Once you have a verbal conversation with the dealer you can easily understand the nature of the dealer.

Compare Nokia N93 and Samsung E900 - Cool Outside, Tough Inside

Nokia and Samsung are the big daddies in the mobile market. Both the companies have great market share all over the world. Over the years, Nokia and Samsung have bought some feature rich handsets to woo the customers. Response has been amazing! While Nokia is known for its performance and user friendliness, Samsung is famous for its class and exclusivity. Nokia N93 and Samsung E900 are two cool mobile phones which are going great guns nowdays. These two handsets are not mere mobile phones, they are power- machines.

First come to the Nokia N93. The Nokia N93 is a 3G smartphone from Nokia's unique N-Series range. The handset is a great instrument for those avid photographers who love to record everything happening in day to day life activities. The phone houses a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Optics Tessar lens. Additional features like autofocus, flash and 20 x digital zoom provide the extra support to make your photos and videos more appealing. The phone is loaded with Real Player Media Player as well as a built-in music player. The music player supports a large number of files such as MP3, AAC, AAC +, eAAC + and WMA. Other features include direct TV connection, stereo FM radio, visual radio, voice commands, voice recorder, voice dialing, handsfree speaker, push-to-talk, Nokia XpressPrint, Nokia XpressShare, Nokia Premiere Elements 2.0, Photoshop Album Starter Edition , Bluetooth, Pop Port, EDGE, USB, Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map, RSS feeds etc.

The Samsung E900 is also a feature rich phone equipped with a smooth slider opening mechanism. The handset comes with touch sensitive keys with light display. The bright and clear 262k color TFT screen supports a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Camera feature is acceptable with a built-in 2 megapixel camera with 4 x digital zoom and flash. MPEG4 and H263 videos can also be recorded with the phone. Like the Nokia N93, the Samsung E900 also features direct TV output. Another key feature in the phone is its document viewer which helps you view Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF. The integrated music player plays some terrific music for you. Connectivity is superb through Bluetooth and Mini USB. Among other noticeable features may be made of WAP, GPRS, Apple iTunes compatibility, handsfree speakerphone, voice memo, Quad Band support etc.