Should I Join a YouTube Multichannel Network (MCN)?

Should I Join a YouTube Multichannel Network (MCN)?

One of the best videos explaining everything about MCNs, pros and cons.

Definitely worth watching.

I Tried Three Online Home Design Tools and here's My Verdict

Floorplanner, roomstyler and homestyler.

Image via Flikr ( MSU IPF Facility Information Services)

Designing your home has never been easier thanks to today's online tools. I tested a few of them and ended up liking Floorplanner, Roomstyler and Homestyler the best. Since I was simply testing, I looked for tools that were free. The main criteria for me was :

Ease of use, options available without having to upgrade to their paying version, being able to import an existing floor plan, and being able to add custom-size objects such as furniture.

The tools I tried offered plenty of options and possibilities at no cost. There were limitations too that could be overcome if you upgraded.

Roomstyler was great at first. What bothered me was the fact you can't upload an exisiting floor plan which leaves the user with no option but having to draw the plan herself and of course there is a learning curve that required some time.

Homestyler lets you import an existing floor plan! It looks user-friendly and the images/drawings look top-notch. The same thing goes for Roomstyler.  The big letdown is adding furniture or other objects. You can't really change the size of furniture. So what good is this tool if you can't change the dimensions of objects? Beats me. Other than that it looked ok. But wasn't good enough for me.

Floorplanner

Thank goodness I found Floorplanner. Easy to use and gets the job done fairly quickly with no steep learning curve. The user can import an existing floor plan and he/she will be able to add custom-size furniture and other objects. Their free version will only add one project, but since I'm no Donald Trump that should be ok.

I know there's Roomsketcher, Ikea has an online tool too, but one can only add Ikea objects.

Who Was America's Greatest Photographer?

It's a hard question to answer. Undoubtedly Garry Winogrand was one of the greatest.

Who are Americans? What are the conflicts that make us the people we are? To find the answers to these questions, Garry Winogrand (New York, 1928 Tijuana, 1984) walked the streets of America every day hoping to capture with his Leica anything that could expose the American identity.

"You could say I'm a student of photography, but in reality, I am a student of America," he once said.

The result of his work was everyday scenes that delineate thoroughly the feverish American life of the last half of the 20th century. Businessmen on Wall Street and elegant women on Park Avenue; famous actors and athletes; hippies, rodeos, airports, demonstrations ...





He was born in the Bronx. The son of a tanner and a laundrywoman, he spent his childhood in a humble textile area, Allerton Coops, a communist neighborhood where some buildings were adorned with the soviet hammer and reaping hook.

good place to find podcasts

https://www.podomatic.com/login

http://blogs.wsj.com/wallet/2009/02/17/the-best-personal-finance-podcasts/


keywords google search : finance basics podcast

http://www.wikihow.com/Open-Your-Spiritual-Chakras

http://www.wikihow.com/Open-Your-Spiritual-Chakras

Recommended Tools and Websites Related to SEO and text

Here you'll find some tools and interesting Websites related to SEO and writing text.

A Plagiarism checker (how awesome is that?) :

http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/

An article Rewriter Tool (Can this get any better?):
http://smallseotools.com/article-rewriter/

An interesting website :
http://www.writingforseo.org/

Fashion Bloggers

According to Fashionista.com the fashion personal blog isn't dead. As a matter of fact they claim it's stronger than ever. And they provide a list of the most influential fashion bloggers and some very interesting facts. I never thought much about fashion blogs, I mean I'm a geek for crying out loud, I'm not supposed to look good. But one of my cousins raves about them, so I finally decided to check them out.

I don't thing I'll be starting a fashion blog anytime soon though.



http://fashionista.com/2013/01/influential-fashion-style-bloggers-2013#16

Videoblocks, Audioblocks and Graphicstock

Stock footage

Anyone in need of videos, sounds or images for their video editing or any other multimedia needs for that matter, can find useful stuff in these websites.

Videoblocks provides more than a 100,000 videos that you can use for your productions. provider of Free stock video. Once you pay they offer you unlimited downloads. Before you sign up you can test them for free. Audioblocks is a sister website that provides sounds.

Videoblock is recommended by Todd Wolf and Jared Polin from Froknowsphoto.com. And they used some of the videos for the new Froknowsphoto's Raw Talk intro.

Looking for a netbook or laptop for webdesign and coding...

review..
http://www.cdiscount.com/informatique/netbooks-mini-portables/asus-eeepc-1225b-gry076m/f-107460101-1225bgry076m.html?idOffre=20852927#mpos=4|mp.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/23/reading-before-bed_n_6372828.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

You've heard that using screens before bedtime can mess with your sleep, but new research suggests the problem is even more serious.

Reading from an iPad before bed not only makes it harder to fall asleep, but also impacts how sleepy and alert you are the next day, according to new research fromBrigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, said the findings could impact anyone who uses an eReader, laptop, smartphone, or certain TVs before bed.

The new research supports conclusions from older studies, which have also found that screen time before sleep can be detrimental.

"We know from previous work that light from screens in the evening alters sleepiness and alertness, and suppresses melatonin levels," Dr. Anne-Marie Chang, an associate neuroscientist in BWH’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders who was a co-author on the study, told The Huffington Post via email. "This study shows comprehensive results of a direct comparison between reading with a light-emitting device and reading a printed book and the consequences on sleep."

If you don't want to feel like a zombie during the day, the findings are clear: Read an actual, printed book if you must stimulate your mind before bed, and avoid screens like your life depends on it, because it actually might. Chang said that sleep deficiency -- not getting enough sleep or obtaining poor quality sleep -- has been linked to other health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Chronic suppression of melatonin has also been associated with increased risk of certain cancers, she said.

Needless to say, sleep has its own innate benefits, so cutting it short is a bad idea anyway.

The study ran for two weeks and included 12 participants who read on an iPad for four hours before bed for five days straight, a process that was repeated with printed books. For some, the order was reversed: They started with printed books and moved to iPads.

iPad readers took longer to fall asleep, felt less sleepy at night and had shorter REM sleep compared to the book readers, researchers found. The iPad readers also secreted less melatonin, which helps regulate your sleep. They were also more tired than book readers the following day, even if both got a full eight hours of sleep.

The real-world effects may be even worse than what researchers observed over the course of their study, however. Chang told HuffPost that because iPad users were found to be more alert, people who look at screens before bed may stay up later than the study participants were allowed to, wrecking their sleep even more.

If you absolutely, positively must be on your tablet, phone, or computer before bed for whatever reason, there may be a way to make it safer. Try a filter that blocks blue light -- there's an app for Android that produces this effect, though you'll have to purchasea physical filter for your iOS device. Try F.lux if you're using a computer. Research has shown that blue light makes you more alert and suppresses your melatonin, thus hurting your quality of sleep.

"The best recommendation (although not the most popular) would be to avoid use of light-emitting screens before bedtime," Dr. Chang told HuffPost. "For those who must use computers or other light-emitting devices in the evening, software or other technology that filters out the blue light may help."