Add Pagest To Your Passport Fast – “How To” Tutorial

Posted in Uncategorized on January 21st, 2012 by Admin

When you are in need of traveling and your travel document has only a few pages left, adding a few others must be considered. You should do this if you travel frequently and thus you need new or urgent passport books. This will call for finding the easiest way to add pages to American passport fast.

Adding pages

If this document has fewer pages left, you need to look for a way to get additional ones added, particularly when you have to leave your country or travel within the shortest time possible. Therefore, you can decide to apply for the document manually since the whole procedure usually takes a total of four to six weeks. Applying for the document in time will reduce the problems of failing to travel at the stipulated time.

Documents

Before requesting or applying for extra space for this travel document, make sure that it is valid. Therefore, you should always bear in mind that the document has to be valid to be able to get additional pages added. If the document is valid, you can resume the application process for the document. However, after applying for the document, ensure that you mail the document along with the existing travel document to the given address.

Personal Details

First, completing the form requires that you submit your personal details. This calls for you to make sure that you give details of your sex, phone numbers, address, birthplace and birth certificate. While listing the phone contact details, you may also need to provide an emergency phone contact. Also, indicate the date the form was completed.

Costs

As for the charges, if you are using the normal routine, you are not supposed to pay extra fees for this service to be rendered. You should also note that when you need such a document immediately, you can go for the expedited travel documents which, in turn, will require you to pay extra fees. These types of travel documents are processed faster allowing you to travel in about two weeks time.

Help

You can also look for a travel agency in your location for further information. Here you will be able to complete the forms with the help of an expert. He or she will give advice on what information to give for your request to be granted without any delay. In addition, you should also remember to include the social security number and the PIN number.

Expedited Processing

Should you be in need of quick processing, you can opt to go for an online agency for the process to be hastened. Online agencies take care of a lot of needs for a frequent traveler. You can do all this in the office or in the house, which makes it the most convenient method because you are not spending on transportation costs to and from the agency office. Look into getting a same day US passport.

Seeking Pot Counseling To Get Over Dependency

Posted in Uncategorized on January 20th, 2012 by Admin

Regardless of the legal status of marijuana, it has remained a popular choice of drug since the early 1960s. With regular use, there is an increase in the potential for addiction as a result of sought-after properties such as lowered inhibition and increased relaxation. Many users do not acknowledge the serious effects of this substance, which include memory loss, distorted perception, poor motor abilities and fluctuating heart rhythms where recovery should be sought through effective marijuana counseling.

Most Used

Recent statistics have indicated that the illicit drug remains the most commonly used mind altering substance in the United States. Some the signs of dependency to this drug include increased tolerance and severe mood swings. These symptoms indicate an individual’s need for help where this drug is concerned. This is also the cases when it is used over an extended period in large doses. Mild to heavy use includes the symptoms of increased anxiety, sleep disturbance and fluctuations in appetite upon withdrawal.

Dependency

Dependency is characterized by an increase in craving for the substance during periods of abstinence with fluctuation in mood. Research has found that adults who use the drug more than once a week are at increased risk for developing dependence. Almost all of these individuals have met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for dependence and substance abuse and would benefit from appropriate treatment.

Effects

When services for effective treatment are not sought, there is an increase in debilitating symptoms such as memory impairment, lack of motivation and poor concentration filtering into relationships, employment and financial aspects of life. Many users do not perceive themselves to having a problem with the drug because of its highly addictive psychological and physical properties. The result is the need to address cognitive and behavioral triggers through appropriate intervention.

Counseling

Counseling services are geared towards assisting substance abusers with recovery during increased tolerance and intense withdrawal. Tolerance occurs when there is an increased need to ingest a higher amount of the drug to experience the same level of intoxication. During the rehabilitative process, the relationship formed with the counselor is the most important for successful outcomes.

Relationships

The counselor and abuser relationship forms the foundation for treatment as an effort for the professional to assist the individual in the process of change. During the recovery process, a counselor will work with the abuser in developing a treatment plan tailored to the needs of the patient. Every session is steered to focus on the root causes of the problem and identification of potential triggers in the environment, which may lead to continued substance use.

One-on-One

Initial sessions with a detox counselor focus on one-on-one interaction. During this period, trust is established and the user is provided with tools to incorporate into daily life for a successful recovery. The most important aspect of sessions is the relationship between the abuser and counselor.

Overflow adds cover flow effect to iOS dock (Jailbreak only)

Posted in IPhone App Programming on January 19th, 2012 by Admin

While we don’t officially condone jailbreaking we still want to bring you the latest news from the jailbreak community.

Thanks to App Store and jailbreak developer Adam Bell iOS owners can now bring the much beloved Cover Flow effect to their docks. The tweak Overflow works with Infinidock and Springtomize in order to allow you to easily scroll through docked apps like album covers in the iPod player.

What is interesting about this tweak is that it changes the whole User Interface of the iPhone, while this has been common on Android phones for a while it is just now that developers are starting to change the UI of the iPhone.

In order to be able to use Overflow you need to install several tweaks as mentioned above, first you need a tweak that allows more than 4 apps in the dock, for this Infinitidock works just as expected. Once you start adding apps to your dock you will realize that Overflow is a pretty cool way to scroll through the list of apps.

Overflow is available in Cydia for .99.

Here is a video of Overflow in action:


Mobile Orchard

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How Heroin Addiction In Vietnam And Your Productivity Habits Are Identical

Posted in Video Game Programming on January 19th, 2012 by Admin

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Journal entry – January 15. 99.5% of people.

“I’ve failed my New Year’s Resolution . I wish I could do better. I just don’t have enough willpower.”

Have you ever set a goal you didn’t achieve? Ever tried a New Year’s Resolution that didn’t stick?

What separates the 0.5% from the 99.5%? What makes some people succeed in building new, sustainable habits—-but almost everyone else fail?

I’m going to reveal to you surprising research about habit change–what influences success, what causes failure, and specifically, what you should do to build a successful new habit.

But first, I’m going to share with you a personal story, where I discovered the power of context on habit change

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit” – Aristotle

How living in a cave turned me into a blogger

October, 2011. I decided to hike for 28 days into the wilderness with no backpack, no tent, no sleeping bag.

Actually, let’s go back further. Sophomore year, college. I never could get an assignment done on time. I had to request late days often. I would procrastinate on every assignment, leaving me with a required all-night study session on the day before the assignment was due.

I took my advisor’s advice and visited a psychiatry clinic. I was diagnosed with ADHD. Now I had a name for my problem. I had pills. I thought that they would magically make me focus on getting my work done.

Boy was I mistaken.

Instead of focusing on finishing my work, the pills did the opposite: they made me hard-core focus on distractions. Now, I would Skype chat with 8 windows open, wasting my focus on unnecessary tasks.

The pills were making me focus on whatever I was doing. In this case, I was simply focusing on the wrong thing.

Back now to the wilderness. I’d been trying to start my blog for over two years, but I could never get words written on the page. My empty blog sat online, since 2008, just waiting for me to feed it content.

I blamed it on ADHD. I blamed it on being busy. 

But in October, 2011, I was in a cave with just a little bit of food, a pen, and a moleskine. No distractions, no facebook, no notifications—just a pen, paper, and a grove of prickly pear cactii.

I woke up on the first day at sunrise when a mouse startled me by walking by my face. I got out of bed, walked outside, drank some water, and sat down by the river with my Moleskine and pen.

The words just flowed. I didn’t have a clock so I can only measure the amount of time I wrote with the sun: I wrote from sunrise till sunset. For 4 days. Almost 3000 words a day, over 1.5 months of blog content in four days.

And now that I’m back in society, with a computer (that allows me to type 10x faster) I barely manage to write 500 words a day.

Why? It’s a function of context.

How heroin addicts in Vietnam and your productivity habits are the same

Everyone knows the horrible effects of heroin addiction. Once someone starts taking heroin, it’s almost impossible to quit—and those who form a recurring habit will likely never quit.

So why didn’t heroin-using Vietnam vets relapse when they returned to the USA?

A study from the Washington School of Medicine concluded that very few heroin-using veteran relapsed when they returned to the USA—and those who did were most likely to have been illicit drug users before ever arriving in Vietnam. These vets weren’t addicted to the chemicals in heroin—they were addicted to the experience of heroin in a specific, situational context.

In the same vein, you think that you are in control of what you do. You think that when you fail, it’s a failure of your willpower.

But the fact is, you don’t even realize the influence your environment has on you. Did you know that obesity spreads through a network of friends? Happiness also spreads throughout a social network. Your situation determines your choices as much, or more, than your own personal choices and willpower.

“So how can I use this to improve my habits?”

You now know that your context influences who you are. So you need to make a choice—are you willing to create systems that will help you achieve your goals, or will you mindlessly try to make things happen that just don’t work?

Here are a few of the best methods for improving your context.

  1. Make better friends- You MUST associate yourself with people who help you achieve your goals. Everyone has had a depressed friend or family member, who makes you more depressed the more time you spend with them.You are the average of your five closest friends. So make sure that the people you associate with are helping you get closer to your goals, rather than pushing you away from them.
  2. Automate systems to increase productive time – It’s easy to say you ‘should save more money.’ But it’s much, much harder to force yourself to send money to your savings account every month. Why not automate it, so that your bank account automatically deposits money in your savings account/IRA every month?Some other systems that I’ve created – Hiring a virtual assistant to call me and remind me to do my tasks. Hiring others to do my work for me, so I can focus on specializing on important tasks. Hiring a personal trainer to force me to go to the gym.
  3. Work on projects/goal with a partner – Life isn’t a solitary thing. The best businesses have cofounders, and if you are working alone, you are fighting a losing battle. In anything, it’s better to have a partner.
  4. Use 30 day habits, and Tiny Habit mechanisms, to make new habits stick – My old professor from Stanford, B.J. Fogg, runs the Captology Lab, which researches behavior change using digital tech. He now runs a program called TinyHabits—a method to develop any new habit. Any new habit takes three steps:
    1) Make it tiny – Any habit must be incredibly small. Floss one tooth. Walk for 3 minutes. nothing more. Once you get started, it’s easy to continue—so just make yourself start
    2) Find a spot – Your new habit must go somewhere in your existing routine. Trigger it by forcing yourself to do something right after finishing something else. After brushing, floss one tooth. After lunch, walk for three minutes. Etc. This is called ‘anchoring’
    3) Train the cycle – If it’s a very small habit (i.e. you followed step 1), then you simply need to start executing to make it automatic. If you are finding this too difficult, go back to step one and make the habit simpler.

You are basically training your body to associate the existing habit (the anchor) with a new habit. Thus, continuously do the small habit, until it becomes natural. Then you can try running more, or flossing your whole mouth.

Read this article by BJ Fogg for a more in-depth explanation.

To hack a better life, you need to build good habits. Follow the steps above, and build an awesome life.

How Heroin Addiction In Vietnam And Your Productivity Habits Are Identical is a post from: Hack The System


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Take Advantage Of The System-A Free Travel Hacking Report

Posted in Video Game Programming on January 16th, 2012 by Admin

If I spent as much time working as I do trying to find ways to beat the system, I’d be a millionaire by now.

Fortunately for you, I’ve done all the hard work. I know how to fly around the world for free, without spending a dime on tickets. I know how to find offices in every country of the world. I know how to become a famous DJ in just 90 days.

And for some reason, others seem to want to know the same.

So I’ve created an ebook for you called “Taking Advantage Of The System.” It’s only 10 pages long, but it’s action packed with specific steps to

1) Get a free roundtrip plane ticket, anywhere in the world.
2) Get free office space in almost every single country you could imagine.

All you have to do is sign up below, and I’ll send it to you instantly.

And hey! If you could share this page on facebook, I’ll love you forever.

Check out some emails I’ve already gotten related to it:

awesome guide, I’m really digging it. Clear, well written, and actionable.

Hey man, the ebook was awesome, thank you so much. I’ll pass it on!

Take Advantage Of The System-A Free Travel Hacking Report is a post from: ManeeshSethi.com – Lifestyle Design, SEO, and Living the Digital Nomad Life


ManeeshSethi.com – Lifestyle Design, SEO, and Living the Digital Nomad Life

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How To Find Hard Hat For Sale

Posted in Uncategorized on January 15th, 2012 by Admin

In the field of construction, it is mandatory for employees to wear protective clothing and equipment while on the job. This equipment is specially designed to protect the individual from injury head to toe. There is always the chance on the construction site to have falling debris or for someone to have a collision with an object and be injured. It is most important to keep the head protected from injury. Safety equipment and clothing is available on the Internet and is very affordable. To do a search, simply look for hardhat for sale and you will have several sites at your fingertips.

Safety Gear

The safety clothing is a very competitive industry and therefore can offer consumers a wide variety of manufacturer brands. Make sure to search the most well known suppliers to compare product and price. Keep in mind that a reputable brand adheres to ANSI standards and labeling will show that. The ANSI label ensures that you are buying quality made safety helmets.

Hard Hats

There are several types of safety helmets that provide different protection. Making sure that you understand the various kinds of hats available and what kind of protection they offer is very important. There are hats that protect the individual from electrical shock or impact and ones that protect from both. There are also safety helmets that protect the head from a top impact by reducing the force of falling objects.

Class

The level of protection that the safety gear provides is designated by class and type. The Type I and Type II indicates the level of protection from impact. The Class indicates the kind of voltage protection the helmet offers. There are three classes, A, B, and C. The A class protects against high voltage while B protects against low voltage. The C class helmet has no electrical shock protection.

Array Of Colors

The hats come in a variety of colors that include orange, green, yellow, pink, black, and white. Typically, each color is used to identify in which department the employees work. They are used to differentiate between management and staff. For example, those individuals who wear the white helmets might be managers, inspectors wear orange, the workers have on yellow and visitors might sport a pink helmet.

Custom Printing

Along with color-coding specific positions, the company might choose to have their insignia or slogan printed on the safety helmets. Customizing the items is a proven way to improve company visibility. This is also a way of personalizing the helmets that will help in promoting and marketing.

Attachments

There are a number of different accessories available to increase the safety of the helmets. The add-ons will improve the way the hat functions and improve the level of protection. These extras include face shields, liners, earmuffs, and lights.

General-purpose Automatic Memoization for Recursive Functions in C++11

Posted in C++ on January 14th, 2012 by Admin

Memoization is a widely known optimization technique used primarily to speed up computer programs by having function calls avoid repeating the calculation of results for previously processed inputs. Repeated calculations are avoided by reusing previously computed results, which must be cached such that look-up is faster than recomputing.

Consider a simple fibonacci program

unsigned long fibonacci(unsigned n){  return (n < 2) ? n :  fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2);}

This algorithm is a frustratingly slow way of computing the Nth fibonacci number (N starting at 0). It does a lot of redundant recomputations. But the beauty of this program is that it is really simple. To speed it up without changing its logic significantly, we could use memoization.

Using some clever C++11 techniques, it is possible to memoize this function, which looks like below.

unsigned long fibonacci(unsigned n){  return (n < 2) ? n :       memoized_recursion(fibonacci)(n - 1) +       memoized_recursion(fibonacci)(n - 2);} 

To solve this problem, I took inspiration from this post on automatic memoization. I’ll go in lot more detail here including recursive functions and memory management. Here we go!

The memoize function I’m using is slightly different than that of the post above.

template <typename ReturnType, typename... Args>std::function<ReturnType (Args...)>memoize(ReturnType (*func) (Args...)){  auto cache = std::make_shared<std::map<std::tuple<Args...>, ReturnType>>();  return ([=](Args... args) mutable  {          std::tuple<Args...> t(args...);          if (cache->find(t) == cache->end())              (*cache)[t] = func(args...);          return (*cache)[t];  });}

Function memoize accepts a pointer to a free function, wraps it in a lambda, and turns the lambda into a std::function. Returning a a std::function is a common C++11 idiom of returning a lambda from a function that creates it. The implementation of the lambda is pretty straight forward if you are familiar with C++11 variadic templates. It creates a tuple of arguments and checks if it exists in the cache. In that case, the stored result is returned instead of recomputing it. The cache used for mapping arguments to the return value, is allocated dynamically. A std::shared_ptr manages the memory. The lambda copies the std::shared_ptr by value. As long as there is at least one std::function alive, the cache will remain intact.

Memoized functions may be called from different places. It is quite cumbersome to pass the memoized function everywhere it is called. There should be a way to look up a memoized version of the function without loosing the state. So our next step is to make the same memoized function available from anywhere in the program. We need a map of function pointer to a memorized std::function. Specifically, we need a std::unordered_map for fast lookup.

template <typename F_ret, typename...  F_args>std::function<F_ret (F_args...)>memoized_recursion(F_ret (*func)(F_args...)){  typedef std::function<F_ret (F_args...)> FunctionType;  static std::unordered_map<decltype(func), FunctionType> functor_map;

  if(functor_map.find(func) == functor_map.end())    functor_map[func] = memoize(func);

  return functor_map[func];}

Here I introduce “memoized_recursion” function that our recursive fibonacci function is calling. It has a static std::unordered_map. It simply looks up the memorized std::function based on the function pointer value. If it does not find one, it creates it and stores it for subsequent access. Function pointers are unique; so there are no collisions possible. Here is how to call it.

memorized_recursion(fibonacci)(10);

The solution is not finished yet though. Memoization obviously builds up state very fast. If many functions are memoized with a large number of parameters, the state grows explosively. There must be some way to reclaim the memory.

Remember that the memoized state grows in the lambda. The dynamically allocated map stores the cache for corresponding function. We need to access the object that is hidden inside a lambda. Lambda has a compiler-defined type and only thing you can do with it is call it. So how would we clear the cache it is building up?

The answer is surprisingly simple! Just assign the memoizer (the lambda) with another default initialized memoizer.

We already have memoize function, which returns a default initialized memoizer. We simply assign the new one in place of the old one. Here’s how the new memoized_recursion looks like

enum class Cache : unsigned int { NO_RECLAIM, RECLAIM };

template <typename F_ret, typename... F_args>std::function<F_ret (F_args...)>memoized_recursion(F_ret (*func)(F_args...), Cache c = Cache::NO_RECLAIM){  typedef std::function<F_ret (F_args...)> FunctionType;  static std::unordered_map<decltype(func), FunctionType> functor_map;

  if(Cache::RECLAIM == c)    return functor_map[func] = memoize(func);

  if(functor_map.find(func) == functor_map.end())    functor_map[func] = memoize(func);

  return functor_map[func];}

I’m using strongly typed enums to pass programmer’s intent to clear the cache. Here is how you call it.

memoized_recursion(fibonacci, Cache::RECLAIM);

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed it.


C++ Truths

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Protected: Hack The System Podcast: Welcome to Episode 1 with Jonathan Mead

Posted in Video Game Programming on January 14th, 2012 by Admin

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Protected: Hack The System Podcast: Welcome to Episode 1 with Jonathan Mead is a post from: ManeeshSethi.com – Lifestyle Design, SEO, and Living the Digital Nomad Life


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Video Tutorial – Creating iPhone App Design Templates Part 1

Posted in IPhone App Programming on January 13th, 2012 by Admin

Here is a series of videos that teaches you how to design an iPhone App. The app takes its inspiration from the Flipboard App for iPhone.

I will use some design resources from iPhone App Design Templates found on the Newsreader theme which you can find on App Design Vault.

At the end of this post, I will give you a link to download the final project but before then, let’s find out how to design stunning apps.
Let’s get started!.

Video 1 – iPhone Design Template – Introduction

In this video, I will walk you through the final outcome of this project and what we are trying to achieve.

Video 2 – How to Design the Cover Screen

In this video, you will learn how to add design elements to a UIViewController and how to layout the elements so they look good on the screen.

Video 3 – How to Design Custom Views in a UIViewController

In this video, you will learn how to design the three sub-views you see on the Home screen and how to add them to the main view while configuring them to have different parameters.

Watch out for Part 2

Thanks for watching the first part in this tutorial series. Part 2 will be coming up shortly so make sure you are subscribed to the Mobile Orchard feed.

If you want to download the sample project for this tutorial, you can do so here. If you have got any questions, meet me in the comment section :-)


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Mobile app development services market reached $US 20.5 billion in 2011

Posted in IPhone App Programming on January 12th, 2012 by Admin

According to the guys at research2guidance, research specialists, “the market for mobile application development services, including application creation, management, distribution and extension services, has reached $US 20.5 billion vs. $US 6.8 billion in app downloads in 2011″. In other words the development market surpassed the content market by the factor of 3. As can be seen in the chart below:

According to the report released by research2guidance currently most app project revenue is generated from “classical” app creation services (concept creation, design and coding), whereas new service types like app libraries, white label solutions and multi platform app development tools have become more and more popular.

Another interesting fact is that the prices for application development services differ depending on which region the developers are located in, while UK developers charge $US 626 per day, developers from India  charge, on average, $US 138 per working day.

For those of you interested there is a sample of the report released by research2guidance, the sample can be found here.

 


Mobile Orchard

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