Your big idea for a small business will gradually develop into the exact replica of what you imagined when you came up with the idea. The reality for many business owners is that the first idea only serves as the kernel for the one that will eventually fly.

Some Business articles are availble here:

* Common Startup Mistakes
* Creating Your Marketing Plan
* Developing a Business Idea
* Setting Goals for Your Business
* Fundamentals of a Successful Direct Mail Campaign
* Effective Competitive Analysis
* Keeping Health Insurance Costs in Check
* Low Cost Benefits for Small Businesses
* Resources for Women Entrepreneurs
* Making Women/Minority-Owned Status Work for Your Business




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Typetester is an online application, that can be pretty useful when you need to check or choose a font for your website. You can easily set up a typeface with the most of the options applicable for the screen type, including the colors of the text and the background.

Fonts from users system are pulled into a web page. However, if your browser doesnt support this feature for whatever reason, the application will degrade accordingly, but unfortunately, you will have to type-in font names letter by letter.
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Google is launching a new advertising model that generates revenue when visitors buy an item rather than just clicking on an advertisement.

It is an extension to its current pay-per-click programme Google Adsense, which allows website publishers to display dvertisements from Google and receive revenue when visitors click on the ads.

The new conscept is based on a cost-per-action(CPA) model where the Website owners will only receive money when visitors complete a specific action determined by the advertiser, such as by purchasing an item or signing up for a service.

Google is increasingly having problems with click fraud with its Adsense programme, where a person or automated script clicks on advertisements for financial gain. The search giant has recently settled a lawsuit for $90m. A cost-per-action model is less vulnerable to such Click fraud, since users need to perform a specific task.

"These ads will not compete with contextually targeted ads. Instead, they will show across a separate Content Referral network," said Google.

The move puts Google in direct competition with already established player like ValueClick which owns affiliate network Commission Junction.


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Microsoft announce availability of Microsoft Office add-in that enables easy access to Creative Commons copyright licenses.

Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office is a free Add-In for Microsoft Office Online that will enable users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint to easily select Creative Commons licenses directly from within the application itself.

We are delighted to work with Creative Commons to bring fresh and collaborative thinking on copyright licensing to authors and artists of all kinds, said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft. We are honored that creative thinkers everywhere choose to use Microsoft tools to give shape to their ideas. We are committed to removing barriers to the sharing of ideas across borders and cultures, and are offering this copyright tool in that spirit.

The goal of Creative Commons is to provide authors and artists with simple tools to mark their creative work with the freedom they intend it to carry, said Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of Creative Commons. We’re incredibly excited to work with Microsoft to make that ability easily available to the hundreds of millions of users of Microsoft Office.

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Skype the global communications company and Packard Bell, a leader in home PC brands in Europe has together launched worlds first notebook computer to feature a one touch Skype calling button.


Packard Bell EasyNote Skype Edition notebook makes Skype more accessible and even easier to use. The Skype calling button is located next to the integrated webcam on the upper bevel of the 14-inch widescreen display. By pressing the button the user can answer incoming calls or open the Skype application to make a call. The notebook was also designed to be optimized with Intel dual-core processors. The EasyNote Skype Edition features built-in broadband and wireless connectivity, and an original Packard Bell design. Pre-loaded Skype software and the Skype button are just a couple of the many features available on this innovative notebook.

Packard Bell and Skype began their strategic partnership two years ago when Packard Bell was one of the first computer makers to pre-load the Skype software on its PCs. It was an important move for Skype, as it boosted its ability to reach a large consumer audience by associating itself with one of Europes most popular and trusted consumer PC brands.

EasyNote Skype Edition – Availability & Pricing The Packard Bell EasyNote Skype Edition will be available in European retail outlets from August, starting at an estimated street price of $1100. Availability varies according to country.


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NewsGator has released a plugin for Yahoo Messenger. You can now view RSS feed titles in the instant messaging platform and when you clicked on a link, a little window slides open to show the content from the link.

NewsGators editors search hundreds of thousands of RSS feeds to find you the coolest video and audio podcasts and the most interesting stories from around the web, so you can view them right within your Yahoo Messenger with Voice.




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Stardoll is an online celebrity dress up and community site for everyone who likes fashion and want to dressup their favourite celebrities. Most of the visitors to this site are young girls between 7 and 17.

Stardoll offers visitors more than 320 dolls and tens of thousands of garments and accessories and there are new dolls created every week.

Since its inception Stardoll has gained popularity with girls young and old from over 190 countries. Relying solely on "word-of-mouth", the company has built a global membership base exceeding 900,000 and attracts more than one million unique visitors a month.

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Google and Adobe has come with multi-year distribution agreement in which Adobe will Distribute the Google Toolbar with Adobes Macromedia Shockwave Player and other Adobe Products in the Future.


The Macromedia Shockwave Player has already been downloaded more than 300 million times till date, given that Google has now the potential to reach an even larger pool of users for its Google toolbar. If you also consider that the player is installed on 55% of Internet enabled desktops, its clear why Google was so attracted to team up with Adobe to distribute its Google toolbar.

The Google Toolbar is a free download that adds a Google search box to a Web browser, so users can access Google search capabilities from any Website. The Toolbar also includes innovative features that make browsing more efficient -- such as instant suggestions as you type in the search box, a spellchecker, and a pop-up blocker. Users can also personalize the Toolbar by adding buttons for their favorite sites.


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Skype is offering its U.S based users one hour of free international calling to landline phones in 30 countries around the world. Until June 30, 2006, U.S. based Skype users new to SkypeOut, can make up to 60 minutes of free calls to landline phones in countries including Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Skype is working with both RadioShack Corporation and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States to provide U.S. service members and their families with Skype™ starter packs, so they can make voice calls at no charge from one Skype account to another, anywhere in the world where computers have broadband Internet connections.


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Google Pages the Free Web hosting service from Google was being used by hackers to steal money from visitors using a Trojan Horse.

Websense warned that a Trojan horse is being hosted on a site with the same IP address as the Google Pages Web site.

The site is hosted on the same IP address as the main http://www.googlepages.com site. The file is packed with ASPack and is a banking Trojan Horse which is designed to steal banking credentials upon visiting pre-defined financial institutions sites.

The Trojan appears to have been noticed before its authors have managed to launch an attack, Websense said. The company has not yet detected e-mails or IM links leading back to the Trojan, which is designed to steal bank details relating to certain financial institutions.

The Trojan, also known as a "keylogger" for its ability to record keystrokes, is programmed to know when a user visits a bank site, and to then activate the keystroke recording function, said Ross Paul, a senior product manager at Websense.


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A recent study shows that Microsoft employees preffer to use Google to search the Internet, bloggers.

Hitchcock posted Google Analytics statistics on visitors to his Web site. Of the users originating from Microsofts domain who reached his site via a search engine, 80 percent came through Google and Only 20 percent used a MSN search engine.

VisitorVille Intelligence, has also come up with similar figures. According to it, 66.3 percent of Microsoft users use Google for searches and Only 19.6 percent use MSN, 10.2 percent went to Yahoo to search.

Google visitors, 100 percent used their own search engine while 64 percent of Yahoo personnel used its own portal search engine.
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Windows Live Messenger offers free Video Conferencing, interactive gaming, and integration with other Microsoft Live services.

Live Messenger Video quality is better than available latest version of Skype 2.0. And one concern for most regular Microsoft Messenger users will be the tight integration of contacts between various Live properties, including Live Mail and Hotmail, as well as the ease with which Outlook users can add contacts to the Live platform.



Voice only calling remains available as well, using the Windows Live Call with the Verizon Web Calling service.

MSN Instant Games Clubhouse a simple interactive gaming via IM is a subscription service with a large variety of games available. You can try out most of them with a free trial, and if you find it good you can subscribe for around $5/month or $15/year.


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Things has gone worse for Vonage after its initial public offering and a class action lawsuit by its shareholder, now Verizon has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) company.

Vonage acknowledged the lawsuit on the Investor Relations portion of its website:

Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG), a leading provider of broadband telephone services announced today that it has been served with a patent infringement lawsuit, along with its wholly owned subsidiary, Vonage America, Inc., filed by Verizon Services Corp. and Verizon Laboratories, Inc. relating to voice over the internet (VoIP) technology.

As a leading developer of VoIP technology, Vonage respects the valid intellectual property rights of others. Vonage believes that its services have been developed with its own proprietary technology and technology licensed from third parties and intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit. Vonage has not previously been notified by Verizon regarding the seven patents identified in the lawsuit and has engaged its outside intellectual property counsel to investigate the matter.

Verizon will have to get in line to sue Vonage, though. Vonage is already facing a patent infringement from Sprint Nextel and a class action suit from shareholders alleging the company misled investors prior to the sale of its IPO.



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VITO has comeup with two cool applications VITO Theme Editor and VITO Screen Capture for managing your Pocket PC. These applications needs to be installed on Windows 2000/XP descktop computers and also needs Windows Mobile 2003 or Windows Mobile 5.0 on your Pocket PC in order to fuction.

VITO Theme Editor is a powerful tool to customize your Pocket PC by creating new themes. It also allows you to change the color of every interface item and background picture on the Today screen or in the start menu. This even allows you to easily change parts of interface and simultaneously watch the changes to the image. Every step you take while creating a new theme is accompanied by onscreen help prompts.



VITO Screen Capture is another useful utility for making screenshots of your Pocket PC or a Smartphone from the desktop PC. Its main advantage is its simplicity all you do is just connect your device to the desktop computer and VITO Screen Capture automatically detects(ActiveSync) your Pocket PC or Smartphone. With one click it captures the Pocket PC screen image and the screenshot is immediately displayed on the desktop PC which you can save as a bitmap image or copied to the clipboard.



How to Get dvd movies on your pocket pc



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