Design

Approach the internet with skepticism. It's full of bogus information,
hoaxes and scams, and you'll find a lot of it in your email inbox.

You've probably seen them: emails that have been forwarded countless times warning of
some supposed threat, computer virus, money making scheme, or amazingly
inappropriate or blunt comment by some notable entertainer or politician.

And, of course, the always present request to "forward this to everyone you
know!" or something similar, which you may have done.

They're almost always bogus.

At best they are simply fictitious stories that have been circulating the
internet for years, known as urban legends. At their worst they're hoaxes or
scams designed solely to lighten your wallet, or get you to unwittingly help
someone else lighten theirs.

Put another way: No one is tracking whether or not you forward an email. No
one will give you a coupon or pay you or anyone else for doing so. Boycotting
gasoline for day will have no effect on the price of oil. A particular brand of
cleaning cloth won't kill your pet, plug-in air fresheners won't kill you, and
aspartame isn't going to give you half a dozen diseases.

The list goes on.

One common aspect that they all share is the request, the plea even, that
you forward the email to everyone you can. Some even go so far as to claim you
would be heartless not to!

PLEASE don't do it.

Or, at least be positive that it's legitimate before you do.

And to be clear, if it asks you to "forward this all your friends" it's
probably not legitimate.

How do you tell what's real?

There are many great websites that you can use to find out, but http://www.snopes.com is perhaps the most popular,
timely and comprehensive. A quick search there will frequently tell you not
only what a suspect email is all about, but most importantly whether or not
it's true. All of the examples above can be found there.

Why should you care?

Forwarding hoaxes is a little like filling the inboxes of your friends and
family with garbage; you're at least wasting their time, possibly causing
unnecessary anxiety and in the worst case you could even cause them to fall
victim to a hoax or scam.

We all get more than enough spam and email that you don't want to be sending
email that's likely bogus anyway to all your friends. Do them a favor
and resist the temptation.

Isn't it safer to forward in case it's actually true?

No. As we've seen here it's much more likely that you'd simply be
participating in spreading the hoax. And the alternative is so simple: check it
out first. If it's not worth your time to check it out, then it's not worth
forwarding, simple as that.

And if you're still worried realize that legitimate issues will show up in
the legitimate press. Email is not how the government, news
organizations, and corporations spread important information.

Get more free tech help and advice from Leo Notenboom by visiting http://ask-leo.com With over 30 years of industry experience, including an 18 year career as a software engineer with Microsoft, Leo gives real answers to real questions from ordinary computer users at Ask Leo!

The PMP exam is not an easy exam. It is a 4-hour, 200 question multiple choice exam. Out of these 200 questions you will have to answer 106 correctly in order to pass. However, candidates fail. It happens every week, every day. Yet, knowing that it happens is little or no consolation if the person who fails is you. OK... so you have failed... what can you do now?

Let's start at the beginning. After the exam you will be handed a score report, that doesn't just show that you failed, it also gives you an indication about your proficiency level for each of the six performance domains. There are three possible levels: Proficient, Moderately Proficient, and Below Proficient. Each of the six performance domains contains a different number of questions on the exam you just took and you can now see your proficiency level in each of these domains. That way you can see in which one you probably failed the exam. This is important information for you so that you can prepare properly for next time. Because now that you know where you were not proficient you can better focus your future studies.

If by reviewing your score you believe that there was a mistake, you can challenge the result: The PMP credential program is administered and supervised by the manager of PMI's Certification Program. All challenges are governed by the comprehensive and exclusive rules of the PMI Certification Governance Council's (CGC) Certification Appeal Procedures. This appeal process is the only method to review all decisions made by the PMI Certification Program Department regarding applications, eligibility, examinations, test administration and results, and other application or testing-related certification issues. You may now challenge your result by downloading the appeals procedure from the PMI website and submitting your appeal.

The better option, certainly, is to retake the exam. Since you have not passed the exam on your first attempt you may now re-test up to two more times within your one-year eligibility period by submitting a completed re-examination form and paying the associated re-examination fee (currently $275 for PMI members). I recommend strongly that you immediately re-register and give yourself about one month of time to review all your study materials. During this time you should focus on two primary areas:

First, focus on those performance domains in which you did not receive a proficient score on your card. Those are your problem areas and consequentially those are the ones you should be working on.

Second, sign up for an online exam simulator. While this will cost you some extra money, now is not the time to try and be cheap. Now is the time to practice your exam taking techniques. Before the Olympics every athlete will be practicing their sport again and again. Well, your "sport" is taking the PMP exam. So practice it as often as you possibly can. The best way to do this is through an online exam simulator.

If worst comes to worst and you fail a second and then a third time, then you will have to wait one year from the date of your last test before re-applying and attempting to test again. If your one-year eligibility period expires without having passed the examination you must re-apply for the credential. Re-examination applications can be filed online or on paper.

You will find a lot of details about the exam taking process and re-examination in the PMP Credentials Handbook. You can find it on the PMI website at the following URL:

http://www.pmi.org/PDF/PDC_PMPHandbook.pdf

And what is the best way not to fail? Read the PMBOK Guide at least twice. Have a sound study plan while also taking a lot of sample tests. And you should also use a good PMP preparation workbook or an audio seminar like The PM PrepCast.

Cornelius Fichtner, PMP is an international project manager and noted PMP expert. He is the host of The PM Podcast at http://www.thepmpodcast.com where you can hear his free interviews with project management experts from around the world. His PM PrepCast at http://www.pm-prepcast.com has also helped over 2,000 project managers to prepare for the PMP exam. Please send your comments to pm@pm-prepcast.com

Website Planning

Before creating and uploading a website, it is important to take the time to plan exactly what is needed in the website. Thoroughly considering the audience or target market, as well as defining the purpose and deciding the content will be developed are extremely important.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings, and could be considered a subset of search engine marketing. The term SEO also refers to "search engine optimizers," an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients' sites. Some commentators, and even some SEOs, break down methods used by practitioners into categories such as "white hat SEO" (methods generally approved by search engines, such as building content and improving site quality), or "black hat SEO" (tricks such as cloaking and spamdexing). White hatters say that black hat methods are an attempt to manipulate search rankings unfairly. Black hatters counter that all SEO is an attempt to manipulate rankings, and that the particular methods one uses to rank well are irrelevant.

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Do you know how to innovate? Well it is not a secret really it merely takes a little out of the box thinking and therefore let me discuss a little theory and philosophy behind it. You see in most industries everyone is doing everything basically the same way. Why? Well, because it is one way which works and is a process and a known quantity; that is to say you follow these procedures and these should be the results you will get.

Makes sense right? Well sure, yet eventually everyone is running redline doing it all the same way and then what happens? Well everyone does okay, but no one breaks any speed records. Why? Well they are all going around the same track, under the same weight limits, Hp maximums, using the same tires, same fuel and basically the same cars. Around in circles they go.

Yet if you want to break this chain you need to put wings on that car, forget that track and trade it for a straight runway; hit the afterburners and blow this taco stand. See what I mean? Now the entrepreneurial creative mind maybe the best for innovation, but it does not mean you cannot develop this talent even if you do not think this way right now. Concentrate each day on coming up with at least two original thoughts that no one has ever considered before.

Now, you will not be able to do this every day at first, but if you keep thinking in terms of hyper spacing the norm and using the whole track, eventually you will find you no longer need that track at all; trade it in; blue skies ahead. Consider this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington