The core reason to be a freelancer is that one does not have to commit to full working hours that will destroy the joy of working and possibly putting personal life at stake. As a freelancer you can decide your own working hours and show up to work in your pajamas. You don’t have to endure the colleague who yells into the phone or to be paranoid that your boss will catch you reading gossip blogs.

Image credit

However freelancing can be a lonely existence. You might find yourself not leaving the house for days and stalking everyone in your chat list just to feel humane. This is when co-working comes into play.

What’s Co-working exactly?

Co-working is essentially the best of both worlds. This concept consists of you renting a work space for a period of time at an office where other people do the same. You and other co-workers are not employed by the same company, working on different projects yet you work side by side with the others creating an ideal working environment. You still get to punch in and out as you please and you are not under the watchful eye of your boss but in the very same time, you get a change of environment and engage in watercooler talk. You may spare your friends in your chat list now.

Why co-working?

It’s a way to break up the isolation of working on your own. Here are three incentives that make co-working a whirl:

Image credit

1. Inspiration

You don’t want to end up like Jack in “The Shining” – Jack Nicholson’s novelist character holed himself up in a remote haunted hotel to focus on writing, and he eventually went haywire, churning out “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” over and over.

Co-working allows you to get out of the house and soak in the world from perspective other than your four walls. You might discover different phenomenon just by stepping away from your familiar surroundings. And those co-workers of yours can make excellent guinea pigs to try out your ideas before turning them in to clients.

2. Networking

Co-workers come from all different fields. That person at the desk next to you could be a potential new client or to provide a lead. Always bring your business cards and chat up the co-workers who filtered in and out. Freelancers can benefits by having each other’s back.

3. Fewer distractions

Some people – no matter how good they are at their job – just weren’t cut out for working from home full time. Whether it’s a leaf blower outside, a demanding puppy or Oprah on the television, distractions can destroy your aim at meeting a deadline. Remember your 9-to-5 days? You tackled your tasks so you could get out of the office and head home. Therefore by going to a co-working space, it can provide the atmosphere you need to buckle down.

Co-working is not the same from space to space. In fact, co-working doesn’t solely take place in office spaces – sometimes people co-work at cafes providing a refreshing environment to work.

Want a Co-working space yes?

An excellent resource for learning more about this topic is the Coworking wiki. From there you can shop for co-working spaces in your area, read and contribute to a blog as well as learn how to start your own co-working space.

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Some important questions you might want to consider before kicking off a co-working space:

1. Agreement on rules and regulations between co-workers

It is utmost important to have all the co-workers discuss and finalize what and where is the comfortable meeting point or a co-working space will not work out.

For example:

• Can I make phone calls or is talking discourage?
• Is the noise level too much or too little for my comfort?
• Setup and facility.
• Is the co working space open for 24 hours, or does it have fix operating hours?

2. Can I get a tax write-off for renting a co-working space?

It is possible as long as it is done right and fulfill all the criteria for a write-off tax requirement. Better if the one consult an accountant.

• A co-working space were to take place at different location every time without a fix location, then it is impossible to have a tax write-off. Phone bills may be possible however it must be prove that phone were use for business. For a freelancer it might be a challenge.
• A a co-working space were to take place on a fix location, in a building then it is considered as an office. Write-off is definitely possible for things like phone bills, office rental and numbers of computers expenditure.

3. Cost of participating in a co-working space

Needless to say this is the downside of fixed co-working space. Face it, you are not in your house and that cost money therefore freelancer must take the cost into account and decide which type of co-working space offered is affordable.

Conclusion

Co-working is a concept specifically constructed for freelancers and it is now an urban practice given more and more people prefer freelancer’s way of life. It sets a freedom for a labourer when and where to work but with limitation. This benefits employers because humans tends to deliver better quality of work when they are happy.

(bellefoong)

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It’s hard to believe that two years have passed since the Chrome browser first hit the web. In that time, Chrome has come to control more than 7.5% of the worldwide browser market, according to Net Marketshare. Sure, Internet Explorer and Firefox hold 60.4% and 22.9% respectively, but if one considers that after 10 years, Opera holds less than 2.4%, then it’s fairly impressive.

Now, on its second birthday, Google has released a stable build of Chrome version 6. Heralding itself as “The Modern Browser,” Chrome 6 does indeed boast a number of improvements, but as with previous updates, the focus remains on speed and simplicity.

Like its previous release this summer, the new version has Adobe Flash built in. The important thing here, however, is its handling of HTML5, which remains topnotch.

With the increasing prevalence of HTML5, it’s hard to imagine a world where Chrome’s browser share does not continue to grow.

More About: adobe, adobe flash, chrome, chrome 6, Firefox, Google, HTML5, internet explorer, opera, webkit
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Next week, Apple will launch Game Center for the iPhone and the iPod touch. The app and platform will allow video game players to track one another’s achievements, create multiplayer matches and discover new games.

The features are comparable to those found in Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network and Steam — online gaming services used by Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC gamers, respectively. Third parties have implemented similar features for iPhone games using their own networks, but the Apple Game Center will be built into the tools it gives to developers of iOS apps, securing an edge over the existing networks.

Game Center will be one of many new features included in iOS 4.1, a new version of the iPhone and iPod touch operating system. Apple unveiled that and several other entertainment-related products at a live event today, including an updated iPod touch with the same screen and processor found in the iPhone 4.

Video game developer Epic Games joined Steve Jobs on stage to demonstrate a graphically impressive 3D game tentatively titled Project Sword that utilizes both the new hardware and the Game Center service. When one player invited another to join him in a one-on-one battle, the invitee received a push notification informing him of the challenge. He tapped accept and moments later was squaring off against his friend over the network.

Game Center will be free on all iOS devices. iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch will launch sometime next week, but the iPad version (iOS 4.2) won’t arrive until November.

Screenshots

More About: achievements, apple, apple game center, game center, games, gaming, iOS, ios 4.1, ios 4.2, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, multiplayer, online gaming, social gaming, video games, XBox live

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Apple’s Steve Jobs has taken the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to make a slew of announcements related to iOS, Apple TV, iTunes and the iPod. First though, he dropped some big stats on the state of the iOS ecosystem.

According to Jobs, Apple has sold more than 120 million iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. This is up from 100 million devices just three months ago. What may be more impressive is that Apple is activating 230,000 new iOS device every single day. That’s more than the number that Google touted in May of 100,000 Android device activations daily (though that number has likely grown significantly higher since then).

Unsurprisingly, the app store is also on fire. Jobs announced that 6.5 billion apps have been downloaded from the app store, and the pace of downloads is now at 200 apps per second. 25,000 of the applications in the app store are now iPad apps.

Apple’s retail stores are also growing. There are now 300 Apple stores in the world, including new ones in Shanghai and Paris.

More About: app store, apple, iOS
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PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 31 Aug 2010

8/30/10, Los Angeles, California — Superstar Manny Pacquiao arrives in Los Angeles Monday night for his big Tuesday press conference in Beverly Hills, Ca. On November 13, at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Pacquiao takes on three-time world champion Antonio Margarito. Pacquiao vs Margarito is promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions and Cowboys Stadium. The Pacquiao vs Margarito telecast will be available live on HBO Pay Per View. — Photo Credit: Chris Farina – Top Rank.

excerpt

View original post on: philboxing.com

Today, Google will begin rolling out Priority Inbox for Gmail, a new feature for managing massive amounts of e-mail. Your inbox will never be the same again.

Priority Inbox is Google’s attempt to solve the e-mail woes of
power users. At its core, the feature is an algorithm; Priority Inbox uses information such as keywords, the people you e-mail the most and your e-mail habits to select the most pressing e-mails in your inbox. Those e-mails are brought to the top of your Gmail and marked as important so you deal with them first.

Priority Inbox is also an adaptive algorithm. Marking items as important or unimportant teaches the system what types of messages you deem the most urgent. You can also use Gmail’s filters to automatically mark certain messages as important (for example, from your boss or your spouse),

The new feature appears as a new menu item just above the “Inbox” link. Instead of indicating how many unread e-mails you have in your inbox, Priority Inbox only displays how many priority e-mails still require your attention. These appear at the top of Gmail as “Important and unread.”

The second layer of the new layout is your starred e-mails. These messages appear in their own section under the Priority Inbox. The goal is to get users to star important e-mails they have read but for whatever reason still need in their inboxes. Under the “Starred” section is “Everything else,” which contains the rest of your unarchived inbox.

The Impact of the Priority Inbox

We can see why. We’ve had the chance to test out Priority Inbox for the last few days and discuss the new feature with Gmail Product Director Keith Coleman, and we’re impressed. Our inboxes get filled with hundreds of e-mails daily, but only a few of them require our immediate attention. Even with dozens of Gmail filters, important messages often get lost in the pile, leading to lost opportunities or missed meetings.

Priority Inbox, while not perfect, is a dramatic step toward solving that problem. Important messages bubble to the top, while e-mails that still require attention can sit in the Starred section until they’re addressed. It basically takes the feature and adds a smart algorithm for cherry picking the threads that require your attention.

Coleman says that the company has been working on the feature for 18 months, but the original version of Gmail had something similar to this before it launched, but was removed because it simply wasn’t ready for mass consumption.

Now it is refined enough for use by all. What do you think of Priority Inbox? Let us know in the comments.

More About: e-mail, gmail,
Gmail Priority Inbox,
Google,
Priority Inbox

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Watch out MTV, the music video has just got a new gold standard. Indie band Arcade Fire has released a vid for the song “We Used to Wait” off of their new album, The Suburbs, and it’s basically one big ball of HTML5/Google Maps/musical goodness.

The video was announced today on the
Official Google Blog, which details exactly what elements went into its creation. Dubbed “The Wilderness Downtown” (an undertaking created by writer/director
Chris Milk) the video is a new kind of musical experience, reminiscent of — but much more advanced than — hypertext storytelling of old.

Basically, you surf over to
“The Wilderness Downtown” page using Google Chrome (don’t use Safari, the program will murder your browser), and type in the address of your childhood home when prompted. If Google Maps has enough footage of home sweet home, you’ll be pulled into a multi-browser movie of your own making.

The experience of watching this highly personalized video is not easily described, but basically the story of childhood ending as time rapidly slips away becomes your own as trees shoot up out of nowhere on your old street, culminating in an opportunity to write a letter to a younger you. Check it out when you have a moment to really watch the whole thing, sans any other browsers.

HTML5 + Music = Awesomeness

“In addition to timed-playback, synchronized effects and custom windows sizes for the video and animated content, this video also features custom rendered maps directly from the Google Maps API,” Christina told me. “Using SVG, the drawing application, for the postcard aspect of the video adds an interactive and personal touch.”

“More than just a one-off proof of concept, the end project (the video) shows just what is possible with HTML5 and emerging web standards,” she added.

Using Social Media to Score a Number-One Album

After the album dropped on August 3, the band teamed up with Vevo, YouTube and American Express to put on a
live-streamed show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The stream attracted 3.7 million viewers, according to Google, and boasted a ton of interactive features: “Choose Your Cam,” which will let the audience control their viewing experience by switching between the director’s stream and the second camera, as well as a projection of fan-provided images, all depicting childhood suburbs. Also, bonus, Terry Gilliam — of Brazil fame — directed the live stream.

In addition to this show, Amazon also partnered with Merge records — the band’s indie, North Carolina-based label — to offer The Suburbs at a discounted price of $3.99 during the week of release, helping the band sell 156,000 copies in the U.S. by August 11, and score the number-one spot on Billboard’s album chart, according to
The New York Times. (The album is currently at
number seven on the Billboard chart.)

The live stream — as well as all the buzz around the album — soon attracted the attention of Twitter, who reached out to Merge and the band to ask if they’d like to participate in the micro-blogging service’s new
@earlybird program, a Twitter account designed to tweet out special deals from selected advertisers. Twitter launched the deal — a CD discounted to $7.99 — on August 12 to coincide with the band’s appearance on The Daily Show.

“We knew that Arcade Fire had a big Twitter following already and we’re always trying to get new followers, and Arcade Fire is one of our biggest bands, so we thought this was a great time to try to branch out our fan base and the band’s fan base,” says Lindsey Kronmiller, who does online/radio/video promotions for Merge.

Although the band (curiously enough) did not tweet about it, the record label garnered a pretty good amount of attention for the deal, which was Twitter’s first @EarlyBird promotion around a band. (Some criticized Merge for hawking CDs rather than records or MP3s, but given Merge’s free domestic shipping policy, records would have been extremely expensive to ship, and since Amazon had already had a digital deal, it seemed best to go with a physical product.)

Like
The National before them — who, despite
the leak of their new album High Violet, nabbed the number three spot on the Billboard Top 200 chart after one week of sales, thanks in part to a Vevo live stream — Arcade Fire has managed to catapult themselves into the public eye via the web.

Yes, they’re not exactly underground when it comes to popularity, but on a scale of your cousin’s ironic polka band to Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire are not exactly fameballs, either. Yes, the album has gained this level of attention because it was hotly anticipated and, well, good, but the band has managed to attract much more praise by tapping into relevant channels — channels where fans both new and old reside. Much like the now-fabled
Old Spice Guy campaign, Arcade Fire and Merge’s use of social media is sure to be a model for album releases to come.

Now, enough business talk — check out “The Wilderness Downtown” post haste.

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arcade-fire,chrome,earlybird,Google,music,twitter,vevo,video,
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Minimal art is known for its simplicity in both form and content, where individual expression is isolated in order to achieve effective minimal art. Minimal Art emerged as a movement in the 1950s and continued all throughout the 1960′s and 1970′s. And now we see it flourishing all over the art industries, especially the graphic design industry.

The purpose of Minimalism is basically to allow the viewers or the audience to experience the artwork more intensely without all the distractions of the composition, the theme, the organization and so on.

In this article, we will take a closer look at minimal graphic design that has been implemented on desktop wallpapers. And because we all like to customize our personal computers, below are 60 awesome minimalistic wallpapers just for you to download and perhaps even get a little inspiration to create your own!

One Thing Minimal Wallpaper. Includes 1024×640 resolution. (by RMNMD)

Wooden Noir Wallpaper Pack. Includes 17 resolutions from 640×480 to 2560×1600, including iPhone wallpapers. (by Shod4n)

Cloud Minimal. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Jan Krogh)

Dust. (by Deus Nova)

Attaaack. Includes 1680×1050 resolution. (by McLetDown)

My Favorite Book. Includes 6576×4192 resolution. (by Matt Lowden)

IANE. Includes 3 resolutions: 1280×800, 1680×1050, and 1920×1200. (by Imrik)

Pure Wall. Includes 11 different resolutions with iPad and iPhone versions. (by Heskin Radiophonic)

Type Veteran. Includes 1920×1358 resolution. (by Radu Ceuca)

Calmness. Includes 6 different resolutions from 1920×1200 to 1280×800. (by Akmal Ibn Marmoh)

InDaClub. Includes 2 resolutions 1900×1200 and 1680×1050, as well as a free 150×150 .PSD pattern. (by Fred Perry)

Flower Creature. Includes 1680×1050 resolution. (by SilkyLauper)

Plus. Includes 1920×1080 resolution. (by Adam Leung)

Elegance. Includes 8 resolutions from 1280×800 to 1920×1200 with iPad and iPhone versions. (by Adrian)

Soccer Field. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Sondre Stensbol)

Also Calm. Includes 3 resolutions with widescreen, HTC Desire and iPhone versions. (by Mattias)

Helvetica Wallpaper. Includes 1900×1200 resolution. (by Jeremy Paillotin)

Bluri. Includes 14 resolutions with iPhone versions. (by Kris)

Snacks. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Jess Neil)

Peace of Mind Minimal Wallpaper. Includes 1024×640 resolution. (by RMNMD)

AMustacheMen. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Jonathan Amoroso)

The Egg Chair. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by David Vineis)

Way Far Out. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Nikos Giannakopoulos)

Spark. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Nabhan Abdullatif)

Gumy Bokeh. Includes 8 different resolutions with iPhone versions. (by Philip Illgen)

Pacmate. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Yegor)

Coco. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Michelle Jinx)

Charlies Shirt. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Rodrigo Muniz)

Precise. Includes 2 resolutions 1920×1200 and 1920×1080. (by Manav Bahl)

Ace Spades. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Michael Burrows)

My Screen is Clean. Includes 2560×1600 and 1920×1200 resolutions with 6 colors. (by Matan B)

Follow The Leader. Includes 2048×1536 resolution. (by Jorge de la Mata)

You Cannot Pass. Includes 1024×768 resolution. (by Sebastian)

Be A Rebel. Includes 1024×768 resolution. (by Sam)

The Best Ideas. Includes 3 resolutions 1920×1080, 1680×1050, and 1440×900. (by Shahrukh)

Wallpaper Focus White. Includes 1680×1050 resolution. (by Kasukedo Gonpori)

Grapefruit. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Jeremy Sallee)

Web 2.0. Includes 2 resolutions 1920×1200 with the iPhone version. (by David B.)

Design Is…. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Goergen)

He’s A Pixel. Includes 1280×1024 resolution. (by Vladislav Perge)

I Love Minimalism Wallpaper. Includes 1680×1050 resolution. (by Chris)

Minimal Joker. Includes 1600×1200 resolution. (by Andre Garrido)

Hot Vs. Cold. Includes 4 different resolutions with an iPhone version. (by Umar Irshad)

Vivid 2. Includes 9 different resolutions. (by Alex L.)

Naer Wallpaper. Includes 5 different resolutions. (by Gravideo Interactive)

Plastic Exploding Circle 01. Includes 1440×900 resolution. (by Graphic Nothing)

Big Idea. Includes 11 different resolutions with iPhone version. (by Big-SB)

iGalax. Includes 3 different resolutions. (by JackieTran)

Helvetica Grunge. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Oliver Wilke)

Loading Wallpaper. Includes many resolutions with 7 different colors. (by Umar Irshad)

On A Clean Slate. Includes 4 different resolution. (by Krisha)

Link It Up. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Justin Page)

My Desktop Is Simple. Includes 1600×1200 resolution. (by CajeFM)

Lightbox Love. Includes 2560×1600 resolutions. (by Rohan Nanavati)

Bear Wallpaper. Includes 8 different resolutions with iPhone version. (by Michelle Jinx)

Once You Pop. Includes 2560×1600 resolutions. (by TruminHaus)

1972. Includes many different resolutions with iPhone version. (by Nikola Lazarevic)

Lemonade Was Popular. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Scott Tolinski)

Hatch. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Daniel Pessoa DamnOmatic)

Sleepy Jean. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Somalia Jamall)

References and More Wallpapers

• SimpleDesktops.Com
• DeviantART | Minimalistic Wallpapers
• Wallpaperism Group on DeviantART
• Minimalist-Wallpaper Group on DeviantART
• Customizers Group on DeviantART
• FMB (Flickr Minimalism Best) Group on Flickr

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Using Terminal

1. First download thunderbird here

2. Open your terminal applications>accessories>terminal

3. Extract the file tar xjvf thunderbird-3.1.2.tar.bz2

4. it will ask for a password:  provide your password

5.move your thunderbird files to /usr/local

the command in terminal is: sudo mv /path/to/thunderbird /usr/local/

>–other option would be open your nautilus (alt+F2 then type gksu nautilus then hit run it will ask for a password, just provide your password then hit enter) it will open your nautilus file browser, go to filesystem, locate the folder usr then open, go to local. Right click and create a folder called “thunderbird”.

Open another browser locate your thunderbird extracted file then copy all files to the folder you created in /usr/local/thunderbird

To make your thunderbird executable do the command in your terminal (one line)

sudo ln -s /usr/local/thunderbird/thunderbird /usr/local/bin/thunderbird

Now we will add thunderbird to our menu, type in your terminal “alacarte”. In Main Menu under “Menus” click Internet, click the “New Item” button.

In Launcher Properties make sure that you have the following:

type: Application

Name: thunderbird (any name you want)

Command: thunderbird or click on browse, locate “/usr/local/thunderbird/thunderbird”

(“Mostly if you’ll just type thunderbird under command you will get and error “Failed to execute child process “thunderbird” (Permission denied) I suggest to use the browse option”)

Comment: (“any comment you want”)

Hit close button.

——————————–

Not happy with the new thunderbird ? Heres how to remove using  terminal

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/thunderbird/
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/thunderbird

Everything has been thought in the wordPress theme for you to change your blog into an elegant and classy one easily. In whitePress you can add your widgets to the footer and the sidebar easily with four special widgets. You can show your statistics in the header by setting your twitter username and feedburner URI from the whitePress administration panel.

Demo: http://onlywp.com/demo/whitePress/
Download: http://onlywp.com/

Joomlafan Box – designer and webmaster resources share-center

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