Types of Hardwood Flooring With DIY Home Improvements | Home ...

Hardwood floors are among the most beautiful and durable of flooring materials. But there are so many kinds it can be difficult to choose one.

The first criterion is whether to elect to get pre-finished or unfinished hardwood.

In days past, unfinished was definitely the way to go. It was easier to select a type of hardwood, install it and stain or finish it with stain or lacquer to optimize appearance and wear.

It was also generally less expensive to get unfinished hardwood flooring, even adding in the cost of staining or lacquering. The price difference was so great that getting unfinished hardwood, then exerting a little effort was a bargain on balance. No more. Unfinished is still often less expensive, but the difference is smaller than in the past.

Pre-finished hardwood has many advantages, too. When re-flooring an existing space, or flooring a new room addition, there?s no smell or mess. Hammer in some planks and you?re done. Ok, it?s not quite that easy. But it?s decidedly easier than sanding, staining and varnishing. It?s definitely gentler on the lungs and eyes.

Which to choose comes down to weighing costs against budget, and the amount of free time and skill or desire you have for this type of project.

But, you still have to select the specific hardwood desired. What?s available? Today, the choices of hardwood are legion. They come from around the world ? Brazil, China, Australia, the U.S. and elsewhere.

Bamboo is one of the more interesting options. Not technically a wood, it?s still woody and very hard, when correctly processed. It has a delicate yellow-brown color that is perfect for certain decorating schemes. It?s also on the lower end of per square foot hardwood flooring prices typically around per sq ft.

On the opposite end of the cost scale is Brazilian Walnut. Running up to per sq ft, this rich-looking hardwood comes in a range of color shades. It may be a lighter brown, resembling the shell of the nut that everyone is familiar with. Or, it may run to darker shades. Though more expensive, it provides an extremely hard surface, which is great for long wear but can make for a more difficult installation.

Mahogany resides in the mid-range of the cost scale, but there?s nothing middling about the look. This is ultra-beautiful hardwood flooring. Reddish-brown, it has a rich, dark grain and will stand up to heavy use for decades.

Red Oak is a favorite with many do-it-yourselfers. It comes in a variety of widths and is available at the lower end of the price scale. Yet it yields an extremely strong and durable surface. Finished properly, it will create a floor that is as beautiful as any.

On the lighter side, both in price and color, several varieties of Ash can cost as little as per square foot. Less hard than other woods, it gives a great knotty look. Rustic Ash is one variation and for rooms where an extremely natural look is desired, this is a good choice.

Several woods, of these types and others, are available in distressed, pre-used and other forms. That gives yet another dimension along which to judge a wood. If you want that old, lived-in look, but still need a wood that will stand up for years and years, this may be the way to go.

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5 top smart watches? Only time will tell

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Since Dick Tracy started calling the station from his wrist, the world has waited for high-tech, computerized watches. In the 1980s, Casio came out with calculator watches, while the 1990s and 2000s saw a number of lame attempts to sync wrist pieces with the PC. Finally, in 2012, we?re starting to see real, useful watches that work with our?phones?and the cloud to help us stay connected, fit and informed. Here are our five favorites so far.

WIMM One Watch ($199)

Where most smart watches are all but useless if they are not actively tethered to a?phone, the WIMM One gets updates via Wi-Fi every hour. With a custom version of Android and its own micro app store, this watch is more than just a handset companion; it's an entirely new platform that's capable of delivering news, weather, social updates and more, directly from the cloud to your wirst.

Unlike competitors that go dark when not in use, the WIMM One's face continues to display the current time, date and temperature, even when it's asleep.

WIMM One App Store Hands-On

I'm Watch ($469 and Up)

The most stylish smart watch around, the Italian I'm Watch comes in a variety of shapes, colors and materials with models ranging?from $469 to $2,299. Good looks aside, the I'm Watch has an extremely robust set of apps that allow you to play music, get email, read social updates and more, just as long as it stays connected to your?phone?via Bluetooth. Because the I'm Watch comes with a built-in microphone and speaker, you can even make calls directly from your wrist.

I'm Watch Wrists On

Sony SmartWatch ($149)

Less expensive than competitors like the I'm Watch and WIMM One, the Sony SmartWatch comes with apps for listening to music, reading emails and browsing social updates. Like the I'm Watch, Sony's wrist piece requires an active Bluetooth connection to a?phone?(Android only) to use these features and its screen goes dark when not in active use. However, unlike its pricey Italian competitor, the SmartWatch shows you the complete text of emails you receive, not just their subject lines. The SmartWatch requires a Bluetooth headset to listen to music or make calls.

Sony SmartWatch Wrists-On

Motorola MotoACTV ($249)

The ultimate watch for runners, the MotoACTV uses GPS to track your run routes, calculate how many calories you burned and then upload your progress to the?cloud. The device also plays music to help you stay motivated.

Review of the Motorola MotoACTV

MetaWatch ($199)

Not quite as snazzy as its competitors, the developer preview-level MetaWatch features a black-and-white screen that does little more than alert you to updates from apps on your?phone?such as email and SMS. However, it has a unique home screen that shows a ton of information, including your number of unread emails and SMS messages, missed call count and weather with icons for clouds. At present, it is available only as a demo kit from Texas Instruments.

MetaWatch Home Page

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educationptsd.org - The Rewards For Employing Search Engine ...

The internet has become so huge right now that proper as well as powerful marketing is the only method to actually get ahead within the web business arena. The net has already made available numerous online business offerings that many people are currently vying for area in the virtual sector. Look at all the thousands of internet marketers that keep appearing each and every year. In case you are among all those flourishing online enterprisers, you need to understand the way to advertise your current site and also your goods to practically be successful. We?re referring to search engine marketing and various equivalent advertising models.

You may have heard about the term search engine optimisation being used over and over in the net. The particular definition is quite apparent in the term itself. Generally, it?s only about making use of the right key term and also keyword phrases to complement someone?s products or services and crank out hits for the site. That signifies that the target market might be able to locate the matches in their queries with the product or service. The easiest way to achieve this is through seo to ensure your products or services turn out on the top to match any client?s research. Plenty of internet businesses make use of the help of the search engine specialist particularly for this purpose. Getting the search engine consultant can definitely make an enormous difference in driving traffic in your internet site as well as targeting the best customers.

The principal task of the search results professional is to execute an integral search phrase evaluation on the web site along with the actual web site?s products and services. He?d subsequently match these types of key terms and also key phrases for your company?s campaign to make sure that you simply emerge on the top or perhaps around one among the best outcomes whenever potential clients perform their searches. Additionally, a good online search engine expert is especially familiar with backlink building techniques as well as social book marking. These techniques are actually designed to make a really useful as well as powerful internet marketing method and also promote your website working with the best techniques. And so don?t go cheap and just use a search engine optimization professional today. A couple of more bucks could indicate future enormous profits for you personally and also your business!

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Keen On? Vivek Wadhwa: Why There Are So Few Black Or Female Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley [TCTV]

Sexism and racism in Silicon Valley. It's a debate that doesn't seem to want to die. On one side are those who believe that Silicon Valley is a genuine meritocracy; on the other, are those who are deeply troubled by the self-evident lack of female and/or black start-up entrepreneurs. And one of the most vocal members of the latter group is the multi-affiliated academic, Vivek Wadhwa, who isn't shy to take on what he calls the "white boy's club" in Silicon Valley. But Wadhwa, who spent his first career as a start-up entrepreneur, is no enemy of Silicon Valley. "It's an amazing place," he told me when we met last week at The Economist's Innovation conference in Berkeley. But what troubles Wadhwa are the smattering of sexists and racists at large venture capitalist firms who, he says, kill the deals that fund minority-led startups. These "arrogant people who think they are gods," he told me, they are the bigots who are undermining the meritocratic foundations of Silicon Valley.

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Alexandra Billings: I Am

There's a difference between a proclamation and a declaration. When you declare, you do that among people. You do that in a space that usually has certain boundaries and sometimes rules. When you proclaim, you do that to the universe. Something changes not only in the thing that's receiving but in the thing that's releasing. It's filled with everything we know and everything we don't know. Proclaiming doesn't take a special kind of person or a special kind of gift; it simply takes breath. Everyone's got that.

My mother warned me when I was first beginning my transition that if I came to her house dressed like Lana Turner, she'd shoot first and disown later. (I came looking like Rita Hayworth.)

My dad told me that for a fake girl, I looked pretty good.

My brother hasn't really spoken to me in about two decades.

I transitioned when I was 19 years old. I knew that if I went to college, if I was trapped in one more tiny space, I'd end up dead. I knew that to be true. So I went off to live my life and try my best to figure out why everyone hated me so much and wanted me dead, and who exactly all these voices were that screeched at me in the middle of the night. I was on a quest, and it was 1980, and there was nowhere for me to go. And then, out of the blue, completely by accident, I met my sisters. I was auditioning for a "talent night" at a club in Chicago called Club Victoria. I assumed "talent night" meant "show us your talent," so I got together with my pal Barb and decided I'd dance and take off some of my clothes and wow the audience with my sexiness. After that fell flat, I realized, as I was downstairs, that the 6-foot-tall showgirls I was dressing with had a very distinct reason for the low, bass-like tonality of their voices: they were all transgender. And that was that. I had found them. They had found me. We found each other, and we never let go.

They raised me, fed me, clothed me, taught me, fought with me, scolded me, birthed me, and berated me. And then, as the plague came, they died, one by one, person by person. Everyone I knew and loved and ate with, and slept with, and cried with, and held, and protected. All died. Every last one of them.

And then it came near me, and it infected me, and I almost died, except I didn't. And then I kept on living, and I still couldn't figure out what it was I was supposed to be doing, exactly. I couldn't figure out how to speak loud and firm enough so that people would hear me, so that I would get what I really wanted, so that I wouldn't feel insignificant or like I was bothering someone. My parents were still miles away, my lovers bored me to tears, and I was sick and tired of lip-synching to other people's music. I wanted my own voice to come out of me, not Streisand's.

I don't happen to think that my life is any less or any more strange or beautiful or maddening than yours. I believe that all of us have a story to tell, and it's just as big as we allow it to be. As I sat on the corner of the bar in the mid 90s, sipping on a Manhattan (a drink I loathed but one that always made me feel like Greer Garson), a tall, lanky man in a business suit waddled up to me and sat down. He smiled and lifted his glass to mine. We toasted, and he stared at me for the longest time.

"Stop staring," I said. "I hate it when people stare at me."

He took a chug of his beer, wiped his lip, and said very straightforwardly to me, "You're an actress who hates when people stare at you? You need to figure that shit out."

That night, after he left my apartment, I walked out onto my balcony and looked up at the Chicago skyline. And I heard the tall, lanky man's voice again: I needed to figure that shit out. That was the shit that I needed to make sense of. And it wasn't as simple as me not wanting attention, or needing approval, or begging for compromise. It wasn't any of that. It was about who and what I was and how I was going to make that clear. So, for the next decade, I searched. I tried it all. I kept going, and I kept living, and I got sick and almost died, and I got married, and I went to fewer and fewer funerals, and slowly, in my life, I became a student. I went from pretending to be a know-it-all to becoming a student of my own life. And once I did that, once I realized that I was never going to figure it all out, or come up with all the answers, or satisfy everyone's curiosity, or appease all the skeptics, I finally, ultimately, took my first, huge breath. I finally opened up wide enough and deep enough to let other people in and allow myself to learn and receive the gifts they had to offer, and I tried not to act like I knew everything. I finally looked up and said that I could be many things and not just one, and that no one had the right to judge me, live through me, or run over me. I asked questions, and I stayed in that place. I found a voice that shook my own soul and seemed to fly through the atmosphere at an enormous speed. I was overtaken by the people who gave me the strength to find that, and I learned how to proclaim. And once that happened, the people and the family and the lovers and the audiences and the students huddled around me and accepted me no matter what. We fought the bullies together, and we cheered the triumphs with grace. And they helped me see that what I'd spent years searching for had always been with me; I'd just never believed it. I never thought I had that much power. Not me. Not ever.

I now know who I am.

But that's all I know. I don't know anything else. I'm a dummy about a lot of stuff, and I couldn't care less. And who I am is a laundry list of people, places, things, and random experiences I've collected in the 50 years I've been on the planet. I am undefinable. I am unattainable. I have found my voice, and I'm never again going to search for what I never really lost in the first place.

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Four Tips For Better Retail Management in Any Type of Retail Store

Operating a retail store can be quite challenging. All the details have to be managed no matter how small. Managing a store without the proper tools in a cost & time effective manner can even become impossible. It is therefore important to take advantage of emerging trends in the retail market to keep your business at par or ahead of your competition. Here are a few tips;-

1.????? Appreciate the importance of integrated retail systems

Using an integrated retail management system can make this task considerably easier. An integrated Retail Management System is a software platform with complementary ?components which can be used in specific areas of the retail business. These include budgeting, point of sale accounting among others. The biggest advantage of having integrated retail system such as iVend Retail is that every component can be accessed at will. With all the components working in tandem, the value the software brings to the business becomes greater than the sum of these components.

2.????? Introduce shopper engagement at POS

At the heart of any successful retail business in the modern world of fierce competition, is shopper engagement. Instead of expecting your shopper to line up behind cash registers, and ?wasting time, you can introduce mobile devices equipped with both credit card and barcode readers. These portable devices improve the customer experience by making it easier for sales associates to engage and satisfy clients. The risk of shoppers getting frustrated by waiting in a long queue is almost eliminated. Most of today?s shoppers are tech savvy and are likely used to the quick execution that online sales are known for. Therefore, they would also expect their local retail shopping experience to be just as fast.

3.????? Have an effective loyalty system

Customer service is essential to any retail system in today?s competitive world. Providing impeccable service to your most valuable customers can help distinguish your business and elevate it above your competition in their eyes. Having effective loyalty management software gives you the power to run you loyalty program effectively. This powerful tool, combined with targeted campaigns and astute customer segmentation can make each member of the program feel that your entire system is designed to cater for their needs. Your retail business will be more focused on developing lasting relationships as well as improving corporate performance.

4.????? Multi-channel retailing

Multi-channel retailing involves delivering customer propositions through multiple channels with a considerable amount of cross integration in information, service and management. This system allows you to reduce costs through effectiveness and efficiency. Separate management of these channels often leads to impairment of customer relations and increase in the costs associated with running each channel separately.

Multi channel retailing channels retailing will also help you improve your customer experience leading to increased loyalty. The customers on the other hand will benefit from the availability of more interaction opportunities as well as an ability to witch from one channel to another will ease. Multi channel retailing also allow you to syndicate product information through companies like eBay, Amazon, among others. This increases the retail prospects available for your business. These market places offer seller portals through which you can manage inventory and product information.

5.????? Take advantage of new innovations in the retail sector

There have been numerous innovations in the retail sector. In order to keep abreast with other businesses, it is important to implement them. One such innovation is iVend Mobile, a Mobile POS system that allows your staff to conduct most sales on the floor, this eliminates lines, reducing the amount of time customers have to wait and helps streamline inventory management.

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