Are You Overworking? 7 Important Steps To Avoid Burnout

Do you have a good work-life balance right now? Do you spend a good amount of your time working? Do you feel like you have a lot of things to do but you can’t seem to finish them? Has it been a long time since you had a break or a vacation?

If you answered yes to any of the questions, there’s a good chance you’re prone to burnout. That’s especially so if (a) you’re a workaholic or (b) you constantly receive (and accept) more work than you can handle. The upside is the increased work exposure helps you gain experience and develop your skills. The downside is, you neglect your mental well being, relationships, and health. Prolonged periods of working without rest wears you out, without you even realizing it. Before you know it, your productivity is waning, you feel tired more easily and you are on the verge of breakdown. [read]

How to Massively Increase Your Reading Comprehension

What was the last great non-fiction book that you read? What one book was so good, that after you finished it, you promised yourself that you were going to read it again?

One more question, how many books on your bookshelf do you have, that you told yourself you were going to reread because there was more you wanted to get out of it?

I will go first, my answer is 38 books. I currently have 38 books on my bookshelf, that were so good that I told myself I would read them again. Since I average a little less than two books a week, that’s about six months of reading material that I have already read before. [read]

Going Native: New Pro Tools HD Native, Your DAW, and Low-Latency Performance

For some time, the move has seemed inevitable – even more so as the rumor mill started echoing with suggestions that a native release was coming. But now, it’s happened: Pro Tools HD will now run without HD DSP hardware. And that’s not all — you can also use the same hardware with your existing DAW of choice, for users of software like Cubase and Logic.

There’s a price tag attached, though. This remains what for many would be a high-end solution. At US$3495 retail and up, it’s not competition for buying a basic interface card and Cubase. Think, instead, a more affordable and flexible way to equip studio rigs, and some potentially serious competition for vendors like Apogee, especially since you can use any DAW you want.

Just to say that again: Avid is making a version of Pro Tools HD that runs on the CPU and supports any DAW on Windows 7 or Mac OS X Snow Leopard and higher. [read]

Meet Pro Tools Native [Avid]

In the third big product announcement this year, AVID has unveiled Pro Tools Native, a product aimed at filling the gap where LE leaves off and Pro Tools HD DSP starts. The new platform has more in common with HD DSP than LE, boasting a redesigned mix engine and greater access to the higher end features of Pro Tools at a fraction of the cost. Pro Tools Native consists of Pro Tools 8.5 (Snow Leopard and Windows 7) and a single PCIe card sporting two Digilink connectors each offering 32 channels.

The Pro Tools Native system offers: [READ]

How To Replace Your Landline With Google Voice

Even if you hold your laptop up to your face like a flip phone, talking into your computer is lame. You want to use Google Voice like a real phone—with buttons and stuff. We’ll tell you how.

Getting Started

If you don’t have it already, you’re going to need a Google Voice account. It’s easy. If you live in the US, you can get a Google Voice number right here, right now, for free. Do it. Now, each method we’ll detail will need some minor setup on the Google Voice side of things, so get to know it a little bit. The main setting you’ll be monkeying with is getting Google Voice to forward calls to the right number. Basically:

• Log onto Google Voice
• Hit the Settings button in the upper right hand corner.
• Click on “Add another phone”, and punch in whatever number you want.
• GV will call that number to confirm.

[read]

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser falls below 50% of worldwide market

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser falls below 50% of worldwide market for first time

Boston, USA and Dublin, Ireland; Tuesday, 5th October 2010:Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser has fallen below 50% of the worldwide market for the first time according to StatCounter. The company’s research arm, StatCounter Global Stats finds that Microsoft IE fell to 49.87% in September followed by Firefox with 31.5%. Google’s Chrome continues to increase market share at an impressive rate and has more than tripled from 3.69% in September 2009 to 11.54% in September this year.

“This is certainly a milestone in the Internet browser wars,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “Just two years ago IE dominated the worldwide market with 67%.” [read]

A Graphic Guide to Facebook Portraits

Everyone is aware of how significantly Facebook has impacted modern technologies such as online communication, information aggregation, and boyfriend stalking. Less noticed, but just as profound, is its influence on art. Just as refinements in mirror crafting led to an increase in self portrait production during the Renaissance, Facebook’s steady, unrelenting invasion of every crevice in the civilized world has led to a new renaissance in portraiture, notable for its creation by people who wouldn’t know good art if it friend requested them. [read]

Acuvue Grows Teens Audience on Facebook After E-mail Lags

New York –The performance of Acuvue’s e-mail database has been lagging in recent years for teen-oriented marketing, so it’s turning more attention to Facebook.

“Our open rates were falling into the sewer,” said Royce Carvalho, associate product director for the Johnson & Johnson brand, during an Advertising Week event on Friday. “And our click-through rates were not great as well.”

Since January, Carvalho said his contact lenses brand’s Facebook “likers” have jumped from about 10,000 to 41,000. He added that converting e-mail subscribers to its page on the social site has been a big part of that lift.

“We have the Facebook [button] at the bottom of every e-mail,” he said. “Nobody has to click to open a newsfeed. It’s a lot easier to engage with [the consumers].”

6 essential iPad apps for business travellers

UK Prime Minister David Cameron owns one, White House staff use them and Apple can’t make them fast enough. No matter where you sit on the pro-/anti-Apple fence, the signs are clear: iPads are in, netbooks are out, and the tablet story has only just begun. Apple’s always-improving tablet may not yet quite provide all the utility a business traveller needs, but we know many will choose to carry an iPad rather than a laptop on their next trip all the same. Here’s six essential apps for business travellers. [read]

Ten horrifying display ad placements

At a recent roundtable event I attended, a topic that came up briefly was that of the danger of using blind networks to advertise, as this can result in display ads appearing alongside content that can be contradictory – or even damaging – to the brand or product.

Although this wasn’t the topic of the table, which was focused primarily upon the convergence and optimisation of online advertising, it got me thinking about the examples I’ve seen floating around the internet where poor placement has resulted in a cringeworthy visual. (Judging by where the majority of these ads have been seen, advertising on news sites can be a risky business…)

By my own admission, some of the examples I’ve pulled out have been around for a bit, and all are terribly tongue-in-cheek. So consider this a warning: If easily offended, don’t read any further. For those who can appreciate a bit of black humour and can understand the importance of carefully planned and placed media, read on.