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07 Dec 10 How to Read Anything Faster?

Many readers are voracious readers, but still haven’t been able to master speed reading. Many of such readers fear speed reading thinking it does hamper the comprehension and retention level. Initially learning speed reading may take some time, but once you master the art it’s very helpful. Speed reading will help you to read all those which you always wanted to finish but never got time for that. It will increase your productivity. The day you can read 1000 words in a minute, you master the art of speed reading. It will happen only over a period of time and with immense practice. So start the practice now, soon you will master it.

Focus on specific words or sentences

One effective way of speedy reading is not reading the whole of a paragraph, but in bits in pieces. Pick up the important words, phrases and sentences. You can skip conjunctions and elaborations. They don’t carry much significance. Rest will automatically bring the essence.

Know your capability

Figure out your capability and grasping power of words, how fast can you read and understand in a minute. It will help you to know your average standard which you can improvise. Timing yourself will help you to improve every time and motivate you to beat the old score. Check how long it takes for you to finish one page of book. Jot down the speed in a paper. Don’t forget you shouldn’t read it blindly, you need to understand the meaning too.

Take speed reader tests

To gain mastery participate in computer based online or offline speed reader tests. Don’t lie to yourself about the output. Cheating won’t improve your performance. Also measure your comprehension level, to re-assure that you are not merely competing with fast reading but also comprehending the message and retaining the same. It will give you a realistic idea and steady improvement. You can search for such tests on search engines.

Let fingers guide you

Let your fingers scan the text, it will increase your reading speed.

Remove distraction

Make sure you remove distractions like television noise, music, pet’s disturbance, too much of talking and noise in your surroundings. Such distractions won’t give you the picture of your actual speed. Make sure you are at peace and not pre-occupied by tension and thoughts which can hinder your learning.

Speed reading learning is definitely not a child’s play. But consistent efforts do show results.

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19 Sep 09 5 More Ways to Improve Your Writing Part-II

This is the third article in the series that shares tips on writing. I believe there are small, mini steps that you can take every day to make a big change in your writing.

A word a day

Words and sentences are the pillars on which the structures of even gigantic epics are erected. From poems to stories, from drama to prose, from essays to articles, from fictions to non-fictions; everything is constructed from words. I hope I do not need to write more about the importance of words. The more you will learn the better will be your expression. Which word have you learned today?

Practice, practice, and practice

I know it sounds like some NBA or baseball coach shouting at you, but believe me nothing required more practice than writing. Leave writing for a month or two and you will see the significant drop in not only the quality of your work, but also in the way you use words and form sentences. Therefore, it is required of you to practice this craft daily, and keep your pen running and fingers moving on the keyboard.

Brush your Grammar

You must be wondering, why I am donning so many roles today; first I shouted like a sports coach, now I am advising you to read grammar with a stern face known to a school teacher. Let me put it other way. We need to practice grammar to keep ourselves aware of the rules, and grammar rules are nothing just a condensation of best writing practices that has been made standard. A common grammar rule book helps all of us remain on the same plane.

Remove distractions

Writing is not a social activity. It is a lonely journey through the highs of mountains and lows of valleys. This is the journey you have to take alone, and as soon as you get a company your journey is terminated then and there. Remove everything from the place that you are going to use to write. Remove all distractions.

Try different forms of writing

If you write just blog post then try writing press releases or sales letter and vice versa. If you are a fiction writer then write nonfiction. If you write poems, write stories. Change your genre and try your limit.

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30 Dec 08 The Touchscreen revolution has arrived!

Comfort of use is one of the major factors one would consider when buying a gadget or any appliance for that matter. This might also be the main motivation of why tech companies have started moving their devices’ input methods from the traditional keypad or keyboard to the touchscreen.

From a logical point of view, touchscreen devices are more intuitive. Instead of using several keypresses on your phone to navigate to a menu, you can simply touch an icon on the screen to accomplish the same task. In this arena, the iPhone must be the most popular and innovative device, prompting other cellphone manufacturers to follow suit and create their own “touch” phones. Before the iPhone came into the scene, most touchscreen devices made use of a stylus or similar tool to interact with the device. However, they were not as successful as the iPhone in their implementation. The touchscreen was more of a novelty than a tool that one can rely on when using the device, thus the need for a keypad or keyboard to still be attached to the device.

Then came the iPhone. The touchscreen on the iPhone was made the primary input tool. Everything you had do on the iPhone, you can do with the touchscreen. And it wasn’t just a normal touchscreen that was included in the phone. The iPhone also offered multi-touch input. Multi-touch allowed the user to use two or more fingers at the same time to touch the screen and provide a more intuitive way to interact with the phone. You can now zoom in or zoom out a picture with the use of your thumb and index finger with a pinching motion on the screen.

Microsoft also had it’s eye on touchscreen technology for a long time now. In 2007, Microsoft displayed a working version of their Microsoft Surface device which was designed initially to be used for kiosks found at hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. The Microsoft Surface looks like a small table that had an interactive touchscreen for a tabletop. The user can touch the screen, or even just put different objects like cellphones and digital cameras on top of the device to allow the user to gain access to the information on those devices or to transfer data into those devices. It can also detect a glass placed on on top of it, allowing the Surface device to display animation or even display a menu of wine choices. Credit cards can also be placed on top of the Surface device allowing one to pay for their bill without the need to call the waiter.

Touchscreen technology has also reached the gaming console world. With the release of the Nintendo DS, gamers were immersed in an all new gameplay style that was never before experienced in other devices of its kind. This allowed game programmers to design games with more innovation which would be impossible to create with traditional game input mainly in the form of the joystick and buttons.

And this is just the beginning. The number of touchscreen devices are only bound to get larger in the coming years. As demand for such devices have increased considerably this year, more and more companies have started to put forward their own offerings. While Apple still leads the pack in the touchscreen cellphone and media player markets via their iPhone and iTouch products, other cellphone companies are closely behind with their own offerings.

Cellphones you may want to consider when purchasing a touchscreen phone, are:

  • Apple iPhone 3G
  • Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
  • Samsung Omnia SGH-i900
  • HTC Touch HD
  • LG KP500 Cookie

If you are looking for a touchscreen PC on the other hand, you may want to check out the HP TouchSmart. It features multi-touch similar to what the iPhone and Microsoft Surface has. And as demonstrated by Microsoft, it works beautifully well with their upcoming Windows 7 operating system which should replace Windows Vista in the near future.

Truly, the touchscreen revolution in gadgets and devices is nigh! Once the price of the devices come down to levels that are more affordable to the common person, it is not impossible that there will come a time that all devices will have an interactive touchscreen as a standard method for input.

Tags: Apple iPhone 3G, Cellphone Manufacturers, Cellphones, Finger Input, , , , HP TouchSmart, HTC Touch HD, Index Finger, Input Methods, Input Tool, Interactive Touchscreen, Intuitive Input, Intuitive Way, , , Keypresses, Kiosks, LG KP500 Cookie, Logical Point, , Microsoft Surface, , Nintendo DS, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, , Samsung Omnia SGH-i900, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, Thumb, Touch Input, Windows 7, Zoom