Articles by Ugur Akinci, PhD
There are some great island vacation options available for hard-working professionals who'd like nothing better than kick back and relax in style.
Whether you'd like to attend evening parties in formal wear or stroll at the beach just in faded jeans, organic cotton t-shirts and sandals, here are seven excellent choices...
Summer is here. Whether you dress up in fashion jeans or full figured clothes, there is always more than one way to make a sharp fashion statement and be in your element.
Here are seven suggestions...
Regardless of your fashion choice, whether you are wrapped in cool island clothing or just stepped out of a fashion clothing store, give organic cotton a serious thought. Here are 7 reasons why...
If you're to make a single change in the way you market your services as a freelance technical writer, it should be to get on the Twitter - in case you still haven't.
Twitter is a free social networking service through which you can exchange 140-character messages with the whole world at a lightning speed. Be a "twitter" on "Twitter" this year. That's the newest and fastest way to stay in touch both with your fellow technical writers and your prospective employers.
If you are just starting out on your professional career or thinking to make a career change, you might want to use this 9-point check list to see if technical writing would be a correct choice for you. Read on and test yourself...
I hope you're on Twitter already. It's a great social networking service through which you can market your technical writing and documentation services with great efficiency.
You can increase the effectiveness of your Twitter account by custom designing a new background instead of the default background that your Twitter account comes with. A great majority of professional marketers use their own custom-designed backgrounds for higher impact and more referred traffic to their business sites.
Here are the steps to design a new background for your Twitter page...
Here is a short and random list of companies that regularly look for technical writers:
Software, hardware, networking companies, security access equipment manufacturers, medical manufacturers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, all government agencies, publishers and advertisement agencies, military installations and agencies, all Fortune 500 corporations, all non-profits, Internet and web companies, all international organizations like the United Nations or NATO, any company that manufactures anything, all real estate and mortgage companies, financial institutions and brokerage houses, etc.
Someone quipped "if it ain´t boring then it ain´t tech writing." That's harsh but there is some truth in it too. Technical writing is certainly not about flowery descriptions, emotional rhetoric and linguistic pyrotechnics at all.
If you like explaining hard-to-understand processes and concepts in a plain language and with a consistent vocabulary, if you like simplifying complex processes and make them easily accessible, then you´ll enjoy technical writing while saying goodbye to your financial worries.
Not only the average tech writer in the United States made over $62K in 2007 but those working within a corporate environment enjoyed a rich benefits package as well.
Just like the engineers and the managers they work with, most tech writers enjoy medical insurance for themselves and their families, paid leaves and vacations, 401K and sometimes even retirement plans, dental and vision coverage, reimbursement of college-credit classes, etc.
The demand for technical writers is generally strong across many industries and geographic regions in the United States, Canada, Europe and in emerging Asian niches like Bangalore, India.
Sometimes things do not go as planned in life. People come and go, things change, and a career that has once sparkled may just start to sag in the middle and fray over the edges.
So what do you do? Just sulk in your corner and play the blues?
That´s certainly one alternative and the easiest one. But not the best or the only alternative for sure.
A good strategy in situations like that is to move sideways… to shift laterally to something that is both related to what you´re currently doing but different from it in some way.
When the economy turns bad, many people are unprepared and feel they need a job right away to pay their bills. This pressure one puts on them selves comes through in both their interview dialogue and actions. Therefore, they tend to be perceived as an inadequate candidate.
"Stay calm - realize that the world is not coming to an end. This country has seen dozens of recessions and, in the end, we always find ourselves fiscally stronger."
"Reliability - One of the first things I look at is how long the candidate has stayed at each particular job. When candidates tend to bounce around from job to job, my clients are less likely to consider them a viable option."
You can write a perfect press release in 4 simple steps:
1. The TITLE
2. The CONTACT INFO block
3. The BODY
4. The "ABOUT" footer
There are many business executives and managers who love their cats and dogs so much that they can't stand to be separated from their loving animal friends, even on a business trip. If you are traveling with you pet, here are 3 golden tips for a comfortable travel experience...
Some of the 39 state-licensed mortgage servicing companies in New Hampshire have become the focus of homeowner complaints within the last year. This simmering issue may come to a full boil as more NH consumers decry these fees and press for a change in legislation to give them much needed protection. But until then, the arbitration of the state Banking Department seems to be the main recourse the consumers have at their disposal.
Business travelers should get ready for higher T&E expenses, according to the "2007 Hotel Survey" released on February 14th by Hogg Robinson Group of UK which studied the hotel rates in 50 cities across the world.
Here is a review of the top 10 web sites that provide great and timely tips for business travelers...
Waiting in between flights at the airports with nothing to do is boring. Thus it is very tempting to snap open your laptop and hook up with the "Free Wi-Fi" network you see advertised in many airports these days.
But should you? How do you know the "free" wi-fi network you are connecting to is not a dangerous scam that can cost you a lot of sleepless night?
If you are a business traveler used to traveling with more than one carry-on bags or overweight check-in luggage, prepared to include a new travel and entertainment (T&E) expense item in your expense report – extra bags.
There is an urgent the need for corporations to have multi-policy and multi-project T&E software that can flag individual expense items which violate specific policies assigned to specific projects. T&E software that can accept faxed receipts directly, scan them electronically and then attach the security-tagged images to the individual expense reports would go a long way to catch, document and discourage corrupt T&E practices.
Discount ticket and hotel booking sites like Priceline are excellent to keep the travel and entertainment expenses under control. Yet how does one decide which travel or booking service to use? How do you know how good they are? Wouldn´t it be great if there were forums where former users discussed and shared their experiences with such services and passed around useful tips and practices?
Seems like the sub-prime mortgage crisis has hit the Granite State at full force and the next two years will be critical for the New Hampshire homeowners before it gets any better.
All businesses are cyclical in nature. Given the traditional vitality of small businesses in New Hampshire and the consumer loyalty with which a lot of Granite State businesses have been awarded for decades in the past, those mom and pop stores that can weather this storm will again be glad they are doing business in New Hampshire.
The companies are therefore trying to cut down their business travel expenses without, however, sacrificing anything from the way they file, manage and report their data. If anything, they are asking for more granularity, modularity and control without increasing their IT overhead. So here is what the ideal T&E software of the future should look like to cater to an increasingly choosy and sophisticated clientèle base...
The global market turbulence triggered by the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the USA has started to change the landscape of corporate business travel. The first victim might very well be the Travel Management Companies (TMC) that cannot accommodate the new corporate travel choices, according to a new FTSE Index Company study.
Leisure travel is facing new pressures in this economically tough times but business travel is a different story. Businessmen and women still travel as they did before because they must. To attend important meetings, get training, and sign up new clients they still have to travel on a regular basis.
93% of the businessmen and women in a study conducted by American Express Business Travel said they either traveled the same (53%) in 2007 as in 2006, or even more (40%).
Here are some web sites that provide timely information on flight delays and other kinds of critical flight-related information.
Here are some tips for hosting a business conference for your field representatives, associates or prospective (or existing) clients.
There are programs around the country that would allow you to use a portion of your monthly rent as credit towards the downpayment on or the additional closing costs of your new home purchase.
There is obviously a pre-qualification process, like all such programs do have. But it's a rather innova...
An ideal Travel and Entertainment expense and management system should be able to assign different types of accesses to individuals with different roles.
In traditional software design the distinction between a regular "user" and an "administrator" is well established and respected. However, that...
Electronic Records Management (ERM) is an important part of every business enterprise in this day and age of strict compliance regulations.
Every business process must be documented in such a way that the related information should be processed and stored safely, referenced and indexed with uniqu...
Buying a new home and then moving to the new address requires taking care of many details. Here is a checklist:
Close your old bank accounts if you are moving to a state where your bank does not have a branch. Open new accounts where you live. Make sure to leave a forwarding address with your old...
Although it's impossible to protect your home and valuables 100% against thieves, there are still things you can do to make their jobs harder.
Join a Neighborhood Watch program. If you don't have one, start one in your neighborhood. Check with your local police department for a program kit. Such ...
Fixer-uppers are properties that can be improved considerably with some repair. They are usually not in best shape but that's also their attraction and the reason why they're sold cheaper than comparable properties in the same neighborhood.
Fixer-uppers are especially ideal for people with carpe...
Here are more practical suggestions to get your home ready for the new buyers:
If you have a small front yard, plant flowers with cool colors like blue or green. They will make your yard look larger than it is.
Clean all your bathroom tiles. Leave no moldy caulk in between them.
Wipe out al...
If you're not a first-time home buyer, the chances are you're also trying to sell your existing home.
You can increase the curb appeal of your house by taking care of the following easy maintenance items:
Replace your external light fixtures if they look old and dirty.
Replace your old mailbo...
Currently we are in a "buyer's market." That's true.
But it still does not mean that if you do not have the prerequisite funds you'd be welcomed into the home of your dreams. Bluntly put, it still takes money to buy a house.
Most such buyers end up renting an apartment and bide their time for...
Nursing is one of the most exciting and in-demand jobs in America today. In terms of the variety of career options it offers, it's second to no other profession. Here are some of the subject areas in which a nurse can specialize today:
AMBULATORY CARE NURSES are needed to help outpatients who t...
Here are some of the main titles in nursing, each reflecting a different set of responsibilities and educational requirements:
* Nurse Practitioner (NP)
* Director of Nursing (DON)
* Registered Nurse (RN)
* Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)
* Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN)
...
Most people work a life time so that when they retire they can travel around the world.
Registered nurses who work on cruise ships pray they don't retire so that they can continue traveling around the world. Theirs is one of the most sought after traveling nurse jobs.
What kind of qualities a ...
When does a master's degree become worthy of being called a "doctorate"? And when does a doctorate mean something other than a "traditional Ph.D."?
Such questions are argued back and forth within the healthcare community these days as some university officials are facing increasing pressures to i...
Sarbanes and Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX or "Sarbox") has mandated stringent auditing requirements for public companies across America. The Act aims to prevent lax documentation and auditing fiascoes that can (and did) bring down important public corporations, with untold damage to the economy and the sh...
System security is a must when you’re taking advantage of Software as a Service (SaaS) products.
No matter how good an SaaS solution is, if it’s hackable then obviously it’s no good.
But how about the physical security of your data?
Where does the Saas company keep your data?
Have yo...
Data security has been considered the "soft underbelly" of the Software as a Service (SaaS) business software delivery model. That's true in theory.
However, when we look at the practice, we see a somewhat different picture.
Why?
Because there are a lot of SaaS companies out there that h...
Goldman Sachs has described Software as a Service (SaaS) model as ” one of the most important trends in software at present, and will become pervasive over the next several years,” as reported by Barron’s.
Totally upbeat about the future of SaaS, Goldman Sachs continued: “We expect SaaS to expa...
Travel expenses generally represent the second or third largest controllable expense category in most companies. The reason may be due to fact that you have to spend money in order make money.
The question is how do you control spending?
Most companies have written policies about their own c...
Remember the days when you had to purchase or license your software and then install it on your server after making sure that you've met all the software, OS and hardware compatibility requirements? (Ahh, those requirements!...)
Remember how a week later you had to call your IT person and make s...
Nursing must be the only profession in the United States right now where you can pack up your bags, jump on a plane, and move out with confidence to pretty much any city you like across the nation. The chances are, not only your well-paying job, but even your well-decorated (and free!) house or apar...
1) Stick to a firm schedule. You can publish your newsletter on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. But whichever frequency you choose, publish and deliver your print or ezine newsletter regularly. Haphazard and sporadic newsletters create an image of amateurism.
2) Keep your news...
1) Wear a pair of sandals, loafers or strapless shoes. Your shoes should be problem-free enough to take them out quickly at airport security check points and then to put them back on equally quickly once you pass the metal detector and body search. Avoid boots with long straps and multiple buckles. ...
1) Select a single central image to provide a visual summary of your core subject at one look. For example, if you have a site to promote your screenplays, use the image of a writer working at her keyboard, or pages of a script flying over the famous HOLLYWOOD sign, etc.
2) Select a color palette...
808 million people traveled internationally in 2005. Americans made almost 62 million trips abroad in 2004, which translate to about 1 in every 5 U.S. residents.
With the increasing number of people traveling internationally, the risk of diseases carried across national boundaries also increases....
... you probably are since MySpace currently has 194 MILLION registered members.
Did you know that there are only four countries in the world (China, India, United States, Indonesia) with more than 194 million citizens?
That is, if MySpace was a country it would be the fifth largest in the w...
A “character arc,” that is, the changes a character goes through during the 2 hours of a movie, is one of the most tricky aspects of screenwriting.
You miss it, and you have in your hands a flat piece of narrative, a dull chain of events without a human-emotional core. Such movies do not move us...
The retiring generation of baby boomers need more and not less nursing services. Yet when a cohort of retirees join a local population usually there is a time lag before enough number of nurses can graduate from local programs or can be recruited from the outside. That timing lag also contributes to...
Nurses are in more demand than ever. That's good news as far as nurses and those still in the nursing programs are concerned. But not so for the hospitals and health care facilities scrambling to hire new qualified nurses of all specialties.
The weak links in the "nursing supply chain" start from...
A new national study of 1,039 nurses conducted by The American Nurses Association (ANA) highlighted the possible reasons behind most of the injectable medication errors in our hospitals (as covered in another article).
One “solution” adopted by some nurses to prevent such errors is to pre-label t...
One advantage of robot-performed surgery with high-energy radiation is that they can remove tumors contained in a given area or close to critical body parts like the spinal cord with high precision and reduce the side effects (like fatigue) for the patients. But other types of cancers still require ...
Three insect-like robotic arms reaching into the chest cavity of the patient lying on the surgery table hum quietly while… the surgeon is sitting in a nearby remote-control booth, carefully directing the delicate operation from a distance with a 3-D precision that was not possible before…
Or, he...
Another “health automation” area in which machines are rapidly replacing human labor is the transportation of various goods around a hospital to the nursing stations. It is a thankless and physically demanding job that needs to be taken care of, day-in day-out.
Perhaps robots will save our nurse...
More and more hospitals in the developed world are employing robots in surgery, including Japan, for example. Iseikai Hospital in Osaka and Nagoya Kyouritsu Hospital in Nagoya are just two Japanese hospitals that use these labor-saving surgical automation systems.
However, despite their success ...
The results of a new national study should come as no surprise to any seasoned nurse or healthcare worker. The study has found out that a great majority of the injectable medication errors arise from mislabeling of the safety syringes used in hospitals and medical facilities.
The study which surv...
A new study of 1,039 nurses across the United States conducted by The American Nurses Association (ANA) and sponsored by ANA and Inviro Medical Devices has the following clear message: most injectable medication errors at hospitals arise from the difficulty of reading the gradation marks on syringes...
Multi Level marketing (MLM) has been the mainstay of American marketing for over a century now.
Millions of men and women who refused to join a corporation for a paycheck but instead wanted to take some realistic and calculated chances with their abilities and reach for a much higher income leve...
(WARNING: Plot points are revealed.)
Starring: Judi Dench (as Barbara Covett), Cate Blanchett (as Sheba Hart)
Director: Richard Eyre
Writer: Patrick Marber (from a novel by Zoe Heller)
This is like watching Katherine Hepburn against Liz Taylor when they were both in their prime. Two sup...
Starring: Jude Law (Will Francis), Juliette Binoche (Amira), Robin Wright Penn (Liv), Martin Freeman (Sandy), Ray Winstone (Bruno Fella), Vera Farmiga (Oana), Rafi Gavron (Miro), Poppy Rogers (Bea)
Directed by: Anthony Minghella
Written by: Anthony Minghella
A fascinating movie, written w...
Since I watch a lot of movies, sometimes I see fascinating parallels and similarities between different films, both in terms of general themes and specific plot points.
In some cases, they are different movies by the same director and the THEMATIC similarities are understandable.
Take Woody ...
A film is such an organic entity. It could have great actors, great script, and a creative director, but yet it still might not click the way it's supposed to.
One important factor is the “background” of similar works that we can't help but compare it with. “Citizen Kane” is fine as a classic bu...
During his June 2007 Harvard Commencement Address, Bill Gates pointed out to an important factor of our daily lives that keeps many people from getting more involved in local and global issues:
COMPLEXITY...
I agree with Gates that most things in our lives are so complex that most of us e...
I love Austin, Texas. That's where I've attended college as an undergraduate (UT) a long time ago. Got good memories in that town. When I left Austin it was a small "college town" of around 100,000. Nor I believe its population is approaching one million, together with its far-flung suburbs.
Her...
Sometimes I get an undeniably strong sense that the “Past” and the “Future” do not really exist.
The last time it happened I was looking at an old photograph of my mother, taken when she was probably in her late twenties. It was a lovely small photo, printed on thick textured paper and scalloped...
Did you know that David Chase, the genius behind The Sopranos series, has reportedly visualized that shocking very last scene [the screen going black for 10 seconds] a full three years ago? He carried that ending with him for three years. He must have realized the power of configuring his ending wel...
The esteemed screen writer and two-time Oscar winner William Goldman is famous for his dictum “In Hollywood, nobody knows anything.”
So, I'm not going to claim that what I'm going to say is the sole truth of screen writing. But it is what I have learned from 40 years of movie watching, reading ...
Writing the block-buster action thriller has a frequently-used Hollywood formula that really works.
Every such movie has a HERO but you'd miss the boat if you think a perfect hero is the key to commercial success.
Start with a truly monstrous VILLAIN, and not with the hero. Period. Without a v...
Soon we will be pushing flash movies, coupons, MP3 files, good-old text and god knows what else to our cell phones by pointing their tiny built-in cameras to a QR Code, taking a snapshot, and then pressing the SEND button.
A QR (from "Quick Response") Code can store a dozen to a few hundred times...
Do you rent your property or home? Make sure to always have your rental contract checked by an attorney in order not to be sorry later.
Even though it is good practice to always consult an attorney, knowing in advance what to ask saves both you and your attorney precious time in drafting a "Deed ...
Baltimore, Maryland is a grand old city that according to some has seen much better days in the past. True, some neighborhoods of the city are not "ideal tourist attractions," shall we say. But there is still plenty to do and see in Baltimore for the whole family on most weekends.
1) Inner Harbor...
Running a "split test" is a great functionality if you are using an autoresponder to manage your web forms and rewarding your visitors with instant downloads.
Imagine you have a subscription or registration box on your web site.
Let's say 1% of those who visit your web site are actually signin...
(WARNING: This review contains plot spoilers.)
This is yet another film in which Denzel Washington is playing a law-and-order character (Detective Keith Frazier in "Inside Man (2006)"; dirty cop Alonzo Harris in "Training Day (2001)"; and gumshoe Easy Rawlins in "Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)").
...
As I'm writing these words, DELL has decided to ship some of its new models with Linux Operating System. They have selected UBUNTU's 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" distribution of Linux. (Windows has OS releases or versions like XP or Vista; Linux has "distributions" like Fedora, Redhat, Ubuntu and many others....
Chinese society is undergoing a change much forceful than Mao’s Revolution. It’s an irreversible pedal-to-the-metal race from China’s regimented rural past to its explosive capitalist future.
On the one hand there are still hundreds of millions of rural folks who are not quite up to speed and not...
Sometimes the fact of global warming gets a short shrift due to the more politically-charged discussion on whether it is caused naturally by, for example, an unusual cycle of sun flares, or human activity.
I think the latter question will never be settled to the satisfaction of all parties invol...
The new United Nations report on global warming confirms what we already knew: the picture does not look good. The link between human activity and global warming is confirmed yet again by the largest international organization on earth.
The numbers and the time we have to counter the slide vary f...
Starting copy in mid-action is a time-honored technique used by many successful fiction writers to open the first chapter of a novel with a "bang."
The idea is to grab the reader by the lapels and pull her into the story. It works. You can apply the same technique to commercial copy as well.
F...
One of the most discussed methods to counter global warming is carbon capping and charging carbon dioxide emitters a fee to invest in carbon-absorbing technologies. Planting more trees with the monies collected is a frequently mentioned "solution", the efficacy of which still remains to be proven.
...
For over ten years I've thought about the fascinating question of the relationship between a story plot and characters in a screenplay.
At long last I believe I solved the puzzle to my own satisfaction. I think my answer to a large degree resolves the issue of whether the "story" or the "charact...
The question comes up from time to time:
"How long an online sales letter should be?"
People new to direct marketing are a bit reluctant to send long letters for fear of "boring" their prospective customers. And that sounds like a valid point indeed in this day and age of soundbites, short Yo...
You'll increase your web site traffic faster if you use clean and short sentences.
Remember: less is more.
Eliminate all hackneyed expressions from your prose for some snappy copy.
Examples:
Ring the bell in order to get service.
BETTER: Ring the bell to get service.
------------...
You can construct an almost infinite variety of calculators right inside your Microsoft EXCEL spreadsheet application.
Here is how you can build your own 10-year compounding interest financial calculator that would help you to see, for example, how much your $100 will grow at x percent of interes...
There are two basic approaches to slowing down global warming through reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere:
1) Cap the maximum amount of carbon dioxide that different industries can release and then compensate for the carbon emissions by creating new carbon-absorbing technologi...
1. After a bumpy and scary flight, you land in a sunny airport. Your loved ones meet and ask you how the flight was. And you grin and reply: “Oh, it was great! It was just fine.”
2. You are praying at a temple of the Lord with very few in attendance. You start your prayer with much bitterness and...
Stock options, move over and make room for “carbon credits” please.
Technically speaking, “carbon credits” (CC) are not true “derivatives” of course since, unlike stock options, they do not have a classic “underlying asset” or “instrument.” The “asset” in question here is nothing more than the ab...
I have designed quite a few web sites within the last ten years and worked as a consultant on many more.
The world of web design has changed dramatically since the '90s. It has been a short but exhilarating and bumpy ride from those pre-CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) days when we did not hesitate t...
My local Sears store may get sued one of these days because it is still printing the full credit card numbers on their sales receipts.
According to the U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which went into effect on December 4, 2006, the retailers are not allowed to print their ...
I love French cinema for its fresh and non-formulaic approach to human reality. This film directed by Patrice Leconte and written by Jérôme Tonnerre studies an unusual twist on an old theme – what happens when two strangers meet by accident and develop a relationship that none of them quite expected...
This world is a thicket of conflict and the only way to go through it in peace is through kindness.
Why are we not kind, in general, during our daily lives?
Why are we so busy trying to find the next "beep"-word to hurl at our “opponent”? Who is an “opponent” and why?
We were all born sof...
Donating an old or little-used vehicle to charity is a win-win idea.
You win because not only you get rid of a burden for which you pay insurance and registration fees (plus, property tax if you are living in a state like Virginia), but you also earn the right to deduct it from your income tax.
...
You'd better have a firm grip on the contemporary American slang if you are a screenwriter drafting the sequel to "Easy Rider."
But if you are a business writer working in this globalized market place of ours, get into the habit of writing without any local cultural references. Otherwise you may ...