Laptops have come a long way from those boxy, briefcase-sized prototypes you may have grown up with. And while there are still some work-horse models out there built for rugged use and hard-shocks, there are also the sleek, matte --ahem, airy-looking models... airy, geddit?-- that are so thin you could slide them into a large manila folder and they could pass for a year-end accounting report.

So why a laptop?

• You can carry it wherever you need to go. Period.
• You're used to a laptop.
• You're a mobile worker, and you need to have a computer that can go with you as a partner, not a side-kick.
  

At this point, laptops are just portable desk-tops with smaller monitors and a comparatively higher price tag. Student, mainstream, business and gaming, there's a laptop for every need and and every budget ( there are outlets for refurbished ones too, just so you know.)

Netbooks are like the tea-cup chihuahuas of the computing world. Mini-laptops, they're designed to be light-weight (in the most literal sense) tools to help you connect to the Internet and accomplish lightweight (figuratively speaking) tasks like browsing, email, word processing and watching streaming video (Standard netbooks don't come with optical disc drives for CDs/DVD's, those things bring the weight up.) That's it.

To emphasize and summarize: Don't expect these little darlings to do what they're not specced for. Netbooks are secondary computers, with limited capabilities that come locked in with the feather-weight status and the extreme portability. That's why they're called net-books. You connect to the internet, watch a few vids, and do light-duty computing. Period. They're aides, not partners. At least for the moment.

Ahem. To continue: On the outside, there appears to be a lot of variation in netbook models: glossy covers vs. matte, sea-shell configuration, chiclet keyboards vs. traditional, etc. As a group, however, because of the common size and weight constraints they come with basic specs and similar hardware.

So, it's time to get another computer, and you asked around for the latest pointers. Your cubicle-neighbor at work touts the coolness of her netbook when she's working on her novel during lunch breaks -- you can type with one hand and hold your sandwich in the other, how neat is that? -- while your best friend gleefully rubs your face in the awesome powers of his gaming laptop.

Meanwhile, your uncle clucks irritably at all the shiny toys that manufacturers come up with to boost sales, all the while praising the merits of his reliable desk top, the one he's had for years. You know, the one so steady he's only had to upgrade the monitor (and add some RAM, plus fiddle a bit with a more powerful CPU and motherboard, an extra hard disk...) to make watching movies and reading on-line easier. With so many options out there, there's bound to be one for you.

Now, whether you're a first time buyer or a seasoned online- electronic bargain hunter, it's a cinch that you can access all the information you need on-line to make an informed choice about the best computers out there, but this article series isn't about that access.

Well, not entirely, anyway.

This article is about thinking through the process of picking a computer to fit your need. This way, you not only get  to pick the best computer out there, but also the best computer for you. And if anyone else you know is having problems picking a new computer for themselves, you're there to give your improved take on the whole thing. Hold up on the impulse buy, hang onto your credit card, and let's just think things through.

Of these three sayings, the one about the towel captures the gist of this article perfectly. It's when the plan hits the real world that you need to keep a clear head --and your towel close. Whatever life throws at you, when you know where your towel is, you're good to go.

Goals are not plans.
Goals are the end point, plans are what you refer to to guide you there. If the terrain sudden changes on the way to your goal, you need adjust and very probably go off-book. Forcing reality to adjust to your plans is a waste of energy. Accept the situation for what it is, without judgment, and get going. What can you realistically do to deal with the situation and turn it to your advantage? Where's the silver lining?

Plans cannot translate to real life without action.
All the paper and diagrams in the world don't mean squat if you do nothing to bring them to life. Your monthly goals, your yearly tracker? You still have to fill those up, they won't write themselves.

Hitting the right niche is only the start. There's a connection between understanding the context and importance of the niche, and using this understanding to up your likelihood of succeeding, and more importantly, staying in business. Here are a few observations we've amassed on how to recognize and use niches to increase the odds of success in your business's favor.

Niches are the only way to survive in online business. You can't  be all things to all people, that's an unrealistic and downright dumb goal to aspire to. You'd burn out trying. Actually, you'd be setting yourself up to crash and burn.

For example, think of Amazon. Amazon sells practically everything that can be sold (legally) online but Amazon is not its merchandise. From its start as an on-line bookstore, Amazon went on to become the world's biggest on-line retailer, dominating its niche. Think of more popular names. eBay. YouTube. Google. What niches do these brands occupy?

A concept in strength training, we generally understand understand "pushing to failure" to mean pushing out as many reps as possible while using good form, until you reach the point where you can't keep that form. When you fail to keep good form, that's when you know you've pushed enough.  Painful and tiring, pushing to failure is only the first part of the equation, the other half being rest.  Muscle growth and strength gains happen after you push to failure and then rest and recover.

With awareness and intent, it's the same with anything we put ourselves into.

• Keep to good form (best practices, best effort, quality work) while working things out. 
• Gain strength and grow in the aftermath of stressful events, leave yourself time to rest and recover (and learn) from these events.

The important thing to remember is to choose to learn everything we can from the hard work-outs, the hard lessons, when we rest. Don't just walk away with the memory of pain.

JEM has been updated to version 1.0.7.80. This new release addresses a number of issues as well as add a few more cool features as well.

Support for PHP 5.3 - We've updated the JEM codeigniter framework and fix a number of issues to make JEM work on PHP 5.3

Global Discounts - You can now add as many global discount options to JEM. Set a minimum and maximum amount for the total shopping cart amount, and JEM will apply that discount on checkout.

Here's a short marketing tip you might find helpful:

• Cost is what you pay to make stuff.
• Value is what the buyer believes your stuff will give him.
  
• Price is what you set for the stuff you're selling.

Longer version:

Cost is what you pay to make stuff.  Actual labor and service, time, brainpower, materials, and equipment are what you use up to make your product or service. Other costs can include advertising, marketing, research and other things that's covered by overhead. These costs are a given, but their price, on the other hand, varies.

Value is what the stuff brings to the person paying for it. Perception is a major part of the process of setting value to something.  Here are a few questions to get you thinking:

A vital aspect of making your business succeed is making sure your target audience knows who you are, what you can do for them, and how to find you. Enough has been written about advertising, marketing and SEO practices to give us hours of reading time, so this is just a short article on what happens behind the scenes of "getting known".

Building, creating or having an excellent product, or providing a service that the market needs, wants and would pay for is, of course, par for the course, as is having a talent (and the discipline to master it) that is in high demand. Think about the teams that gave us YouTube, or came up with Google Apps. And then think about the people and infrastructure that made it possible for the world to know about these services.

It's not just product and talent, it's letting people know of that product or talent. You have something to sell, you've got to know how to sell it. And how you set up your approach to making yourself known matters.

There's a time for planning and a time for action. But action just to fill the time is mere busy-work. Practicality is the defining line that differentiates busywork from being truly productive. If you want to get Something Done, you have to have solid results in mind when you start, and solid results in hand when you stop.

Practical : the usefulness and applicability of an action. Sure, you saved up for enough money to get new tires, you've been meaning to do so for quite some time, but right now you have a flat. What do you do?

• Based on practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis
• Being likely to be effective and applicable to a real situation; able to be put to use
• Of a person, having skills or knowledge that are practical

Action  - "Something done so as to accomplish a purpose." (emphasis added). So, flat tire. Based on your skills and preparedness, you can change the tire yourself, re-inflate it with a handy tire-inflation kit , call AAA , or call a friend to help you out. When you get home, then you can think about getting the money and going out to buy new tires.

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