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1. For children who have difficulty with orthographic coding, it may be helpful to tape an alphabet line to the corner of their desk for easy reference.

2. Students with graphomotor problems should be given extended time to complete written assignments and/or a reduction in the volume of written output. For example, if the exercise given is to correctly capitalize and punctuate sentences or a passage, these should be provided to the student in typed form so that he/she has to only correct the work, rather than write it and then correct it. Also, if the assignment is to answer the questions at the end of the chapter in social studies, the student should be required only to write the answers, not both questions and answers. Additionally, he/she should be allowed to state answers in short phrases. In other words, if the subject matter being assessed is knowledge of information presented in the social studies chapter, it is this that should be assessed, not how competent the student is with the physical act of writing, or how much writing interferes with his/her ability to demonstrate his/her knowledge of social studies.

3. Children with handwriting difficulties may need to be given the opportunity to provide oral answers to exercises, quizzes, and tests.

4. Learning to type is helpful for these students. Writing assignments should be done in stages. Initially, the child would focus only on generating ideas. Next, he/she would organize his/her ideas. Finally, the student would attend to spelling and mechanical and grammatical rules. There are computer software programs available with spell and grammar checks.

5. Students with graphomotor problems may need to be provided with information presented on the board or on overheads in written form, such as teacher-prepared handouts or Xerox copies of other students’ notes.

6. Children with handwriting problems should be provided with written outlines so that they do not have to organize lectures or class materials themselves. This becomes particularly important in junior high grades.

7. Parents should be given the opportunity to purchase an extra set of textbooks for the purpose of highlighting, particularly for content area subjects. Also, notes may be made on Post-Its and then the Post-Its could be attached to a larger sheet.

8. It is often necessary to use alternative grading systems for children with graphomotor problems. One grade would be given for overall appearance and mechanics of writing, and the second for content.

9. When writing reports, it may be helpful for the student to identify his/her own errors and to correct these after learning specific strategies to do so. He/she would then list his/her most frequent errors in a workbook and refer to this list when self-correcting.

10. It should be stressed to school personnel that slow work habits are often a result of graphomotor difficulties and do not reflect deficits in motivation.

11. Electronic devices, such as the Franklin Speaking Spelling Ace may be helpful for students with handwriting problems.

Dr. Thorne is the clinical director at the Center for Development and Learning, a nonprofit organization that specializes in the development and dissemination of research, knowledge, and best practices that impact teaching and learning.

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Cell phone specials can be found just about anywhere. Most people carry a cell phone with them and rely on it for a number of reasons. Cell phones are used for business reasons, staying in touch with friends and family and even carried with a single purpose, which is to have it available in the case of an emergency. At some point, everyone needs to consider purchasing a new cell phone. Luckily, if you know where to look, you can take advantage of cell phone specials.

Many wireless companies know that a great marketing program should include an incentive that consumers won’t be able to resist. Not only should their cellular plans be competitive as well as attractive, they need to be able to offer something no one else will offer their customers.

Most cell phone dealers have begun to offer cell phone specials when a customer signs up for one of their service plans. Sometimes the customer will receive an extremely discounted cell phone and some will even be able to get theirs for free.

If a customer only requires a small amount of minutes per month for their wireless cell phone plan, they can take advantage of a prepaid wireless cell phone plan. This kind of cell phone special allows the customer to make an initial purchase that includes a very nice cell phone along with a small amount of starter minutes. They can then prepay for the number of minutes they want per month after that with this kind of cell phone special.

Not all cell phone specials are good deals. It is always a good idea to shop around for the best cell phone specials. You can find great cell phone specials on the Internet, at local wireless cellular stores and even at large chain superstores.

Tip:

Before you purchase your cell phone, make sure that you understand what “anytime minutes” are. What anytime minutes are, is they allow you to talk on your cell phone during the day or night. Therefore, a plan with 1000 anytime minutes costs more (because you get more minutes) than a plan with 500 anytime minutes. So if you talk 800 to 1000 minutes a month don’t get a 500 anytime minutes plan.

Most cell phone users know they pay for the calls they make, however what some of them don’t know is, they also pay for the calls that they receive! So make sure you give out your phone number only to people want calling you. That way you make sure your minutes are not wasted.

About The Author: Kevin Lynch is the owner of Going Cellular website, which has tons of resources with a variety of information, news, blogs and more.

Is it true the ipod video (fifth gen ipod) will hold a charge for up to 20 hours? Let’s see!

First of all the legal fine print on Apple’s iPod page explicitly refers to the 60 Gb iPod Video only being able to play (hold a charge in the battery) up to 20 hours. I would bet with all of its legal woes on the horizon this claim from Apple that the “new iPod boasts up to 20 hours of battery life, five hours more than before” is legally valid in a controlled test environment.

But consumers don’t live in a controlled test environment, which is why I would not be surprised if your new ipod video (fifth gen ipod) will NOT hold a charge for 20 hours.

The legal keyword here is “up to”. So even if the battery lasts an hour Apple is legally covered!

On the new 5th Generation iPod battery performance has to now be measured with: music playback, photo playback, and video playback (on iPod screen or through a TV).

Apple claims that the new 30GB iPod will play music for 14 hours, photo and music slideshows for 3 hours, and iPod on-screen video for 2 hours. In a iLounge test they found that the new iPod Video played music for 15 hours and 30 minutes, photo slideshows for 2 hours and 32 minutes, on-iPod video for 2 hours and 10 minutes, and iPod-to-TV video for 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Apple also claims that the new 60GB iPod will play music for 20 hours, photo and music slideshows for 4 hours, and video for 3 hours. Again in In a iLounge test they found that the new iPod Video played music for 19 hours, 50 minutes, but exceeded Apple’s photo and video claims, playing a music photo slideshow for 4 hours, 47 minutes, iPod-screen video for 3 hours, 23 minutes, and on-TV video for a hefty 5 hours and 24 minutes.

But everyone may experience slightly different battery life play times. For example here is a situation from a user quoted from the Apple fourms:

“It is clear that when you use the click wheel a lot, you assume that your battery life gets smaller quickly. I had a problem with my ipod 5G 30Gb battery life : Firstly, I charged it (as soon as i received it) until the plug icon appeared on the screen (1h 30mn) . Then I listened music ’til it was fully discharged. The battery life was approximately 8hrs. Then, this battery life decreased to 5hrs last day. I called Applecare ; the guy told me to restore my ipod, then to let it discharge fully, and to refill it for 4 hrs even if the plug icon appear on the ipod screen. After that, I synchronized ipod to itunes and let it play allnight long to see the battery life now. It played music with default settings during 15hrs ’til it shut down. These are the Apple specifications for that ipod. My problem wasn’t the battery, but the battery life calibration, which has not been done as it should.”

The reality is all batteries including batteries designed specifically for iPods (regardless of generation) have a certain amount of capacity and once the full amount of the capacity has been used then your battery will stop working. This is the normal function of battery designs.

In fact consider this taken from Apple iPod Warranty Care: “Your one year warranty includes replacement coverage for a defective battery. You can extend your coverage to two years with AppleCare Protection Plan. During the second year, Apple will replace the battery if it drops below 50% of its original capacity. If it is out of warranty, Apple offers a battery replacement for $59, plus $6.95 shipping. Apple disposes your battery in an environmentally-friendly manner.” So basically Apple is correctly telling you that your battery will die with time and use. No questions about that; and that Apple is telling you that your battery replacement plan will cost you a total of $59, plus $6.95 shipping. Folks: Before you pay that amount go to BatteryShip.com and replace your battery for far less!

The admittance by Apple that your ipod battery will dies is based on real limitations of the battery’s internal design.

Before I discuss the limitations of the battery’s internal design there are external limitations that reduce the playtime of your iPod Video - personal usage. Yes running your iPod Video, even under normal usage, will reduce your iPod Video’s playtime. Personal usage has way too many variables to describe here but in short - the way you use your iPod will determine, in part, how long your iPod battery will last.

Now on to the techincal internal battery design limitations…

Battery Capacity

The more the better (and more expensive), however there are a number technical limiations that force the iPod Video battery to cap off at where it is at.

A key requirement to know is the necessary battery capacity and runtime. This will define the overall physical size of the battery. Apple chose to ignore this rule and due to its desire to make the iPod as small as possible forced battery manufacturers to comply to the physical space limitations first instead of the runtime specifications. It traded capacity for space.

Capacity and runtime is measured in Amperes. Amps - or A - is an abbreviation of Ampere, a 19th century French scientist who was a pioneer in electricity research. Amps measure the volume of electrons passing through a wire in a one second. The electrical current is measured in amperes, where 1 ampere is the flow of 62,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrons per second!

Amp hours - or Ah - measures capacity. Amp hours is what is ultimately important to consumers as it is the capacity or amp hours that tells us how long we can expect a battery to deliver a charge before it runs out. As with all metric measurements, Amps can be divided into smaller (or larger) units by adding a prefix, in this case by adding an “m” to the amp hour we are renaming the amp hour to milli amp hour: mAh; (1Ah = 1000 mAh).

In addition when we consider the design capacity we must determine the chemical needed to insure that the necessary runtime will be met. Lithium is used because of its electrochemical properties. Lithium is part of the alkali family of metals a group of highly reactive metals. Li reacts steadily with water. In addition the per unit volume of lithium packs the greatest energy density and weight available for this grouping of reactive metals.

iPod batteries that have a chemistry design of either lithium ion or lithium polymer will over time regardless of usage will experience power loss to the point of non-functioning. In fact contained within your ipod battery is a design and chemistry make-up that impacts your battery life far more than your usage activity and there is no amount of conditioning you can do to prevent the ultimate power loss of your ipod battery.

Here is another situation from a user quoted from the Apple fourms:

“Recently, my iPod battery didnt seem to be lasting anywheres near 18 hours, so I tested it, and after about 4 hours the meter was still 3/4 of the way full, so i did the math and figure it was fine. My question is though, is it normal for the iPod to loose quite a bit of battery power without turning it on, because i lost about 1/8 of the life without using it for the past two days.”

The reason why this occurred is due to elevated self-discharge as we will see below but let’s first continue on our discussion.

We know that batteries are rated by their voltage, their mAh, and of course the chemicals contained within. These three technical facts about your battery give some insight into the actual life of (energy stored within) your battery. But the length of time an ipod battery can operate is not linear to the amount of energy stored in the battery.

In fact their are four ongoing problems with your ipod battery that affects performance and the extended battery life of your ipod. They are: declining capacity, increasing internal resistance, elevated self-discharge, and premature voltage cut-off on discharge.

These are more complex issues that are beyond user control and are wholly contained within your ipod battery and within your ipod itself! As we will see these issues (declining capacity, increasing internal resistance, elevated self-discharge, and premature voltage cut-off on discharge) do more to cause iPod Battery Degradation and iPod Power Loss than your typical iPod owner could ever do.

Declining Capacity

Declining capacity is when the amount of charge a battery can hold gradually decreases due to usage, aging, and with some chemistry, lack of maintenance. iPod batteries are specified to deliver about 100 percent capacity when new but after usage and aging and lack of conditioning a pda battery’s capacity will drop. This is normal. If you are using an ipod battery (or any lithium-ion or lithium-polymer battery) when your battery’s capacity reaches 60% to 70% the pda battery will need to be replaced. Standard industry practice will warranty a battery above 80%. Below 80% typically means you have used the practical life of a battery. Thus the threshold by which a battery can be returned under warranty is typically 80%.

Loss of Charge Acceptance

The loss of charge acceptance of the Li ion/polymer batteries is due to cell oxidation. Cell oxidation is when the cells of the battery lose their electrons. This is a normal process of the battery charge creation process. In fact every time you use your ipod battery a loss of charge acceptance occurs (the charge loss allows your battery to power your ipod). Capacity loss is permanent. Li ion/polymer batteries cannot be restored with cycling or any other external means. The capacity loss is permanent because the metals used in the cells run for a specific time only and are being consumed during their service life.

Internal Resistance

Internal resistance, known as impedance, determines the performance and runtime of a battery. It is a measure of opposition to a sinusoidal electric current. A high internal resistance curtails the flow of energy from the battery to a pda device. The aging of the battery cells contributes, primarily, to the increase in resistance, not usage. Expect a typical life span of a Li ion/polymer battery to be one to three years, whether it is used or not. The internal resistance of the Li ion batteries cannot be improved with cycling (recharging). Cell oxidation, which causes high resistance, is non-reversible and is the ultimate cause of battery failure (energy may still be present in the battery, but it can no longer be delivered due to poor conductivity).

Elevated Self-Discharge

All batteries have an inherent self-discharge. The self-discharge on nickel-based batteries is 10 to 15 percent of its capacity in the first 24 hours after charge, followed by 10 to 15 percent every month thereafter. Li ion battery’s self-discharges about five percent in the first 24 hours and one to two percent thereafter. At higher temperatures, the self-discharge on all battery chemistries increases. The self-discharge of a battery increases with age and usage. Once a battery exhibits high self-discharge, little can be done to reverse the effect.

Premature Voltage Cut-Off

Some iPods do not fully utilize the low-end voltage spectrum of an ipod battery. The ipod device itself cuts off before the designated end-of-discharge voltage is reached and battery power remains unused. For example, a ipod that is powered with a single-cell Li ion battery and is designed to cut-off at 3.7V may actually cut-off at 3.3V. Obviously the full potential of the battery and the device is lost (not utilized). Why? It could be something with elevated internal resistance and iPod operations at warm ambient temperatures. iPods that load the battery with current bursts are more receptive to premature voltage cut-off than analog equipment. High cut-off voltage is mostly equipment related, not battery.

So to sum up will your iPod Video play up to 20 hours - yes. Will it play for 20 hours straight - more than likely - no. So what do you do - accept it or don’t buy the iPod.

Dan Hagopian of Batteryship.com authored this article. http://www.Batteryship.com offers PDA Battery Replacement Kits with tools and instructions for iPod battery, iPAQ battery, Clie battery, Palm Battery, Axim battery, Treos, and Blackberries

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You may choose a Nokia cell phone for its rich features and brand reputation. However all of the features in the world aren’t worth anything if you lose power.
Here are a few popular choices from Nokia’s range of cell phone batteries

BLC-2: Ultra Extended Li-Ion Battery (950mAh)
This one battery fits 23 models of Nokia cell phones and at a price of approximately $60.00. Models that suit this battery are : -
Models:6800, 6651, 6010, 3595, 3590, 3589i, 3588i, 3587i, 3586i, 3585i, 3585, 3570, 3560, 3520, 3395, 3390, 3360, 2260, 1261, 1260, 1221
Capacity: 1000 mAh.
Talk Time: 5.5 hours.
Standby Time : Up to 10 days
Approximate price: $60.00

BL-5C: Extended 850 mAh Li-Ion
Models: 7610, 6822, 6820, 6682, 6670, 6620, 6600, 6230, 6030, 3660, 3650, 3620, 3600, 3120, 3100, 2600, 2285, 2270, 1100
Capacity: 850 mAh
Talk time: 6 hours
Standby time: Up to 17 days
Approximate price: $ 50

BLD-3: Extended 760 mAh Li-Ion Battery
Models 7250i, 7210, 6610, 6585, 6560, 6225, 6200, 3300, 3205, 3200
Capacity: 760 mAh
Talk time: 4 hours
Standby time: Up to 12 days
Approximate price: $50.00

BLC-1: Standard Li-Ion Battery (825mAh)
Models 6010, 3595, 3590, 3588i, 3587i, 3586i, 3585, 3570, 3560, 3520, 2260, 1260
Capacity: 825mAh
Talk time: 6.5 hours
Standby time: Up to 9 days
Approximate price: $ 50.00

BL-4C: Extended 720 mAh Li-Ion Battery
Models 7270, 6170, 6102, 6101, 6100, 5100, 2651
Capacity: 825mAh
Talk time: 4 hours
Standby time: Up to 270 hours
Approximate Price: $50.00
Nokia

Robert is a Freelance Writer For Cellularbatts.com. They Specialize In All Kinds of Cell Phone Battery. No Matter What Kind Of Battery You Are Looking For Whether It Be A Samsung Cell Phone Battery, Or A Motorola Cell Phone Battery You Can Find it Here.

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Have you heard of the Permanent Cruise Ships? It is pretty cool and you can buy a condo on the ship, which is in perpetual motion, with every thing on it. Food, restaurants, activities and your own built in condo, and the whole thing continually travels the world to ports of interests and exotic locations. Does that sound cool or what?

There are a couple of companies doing this now. Some sell condo timeshares and you can go for six months. Other sell condos you are required to permanently live in or sell. Is it expensive? No not really considering the costs of a normal cruise ship vacation. Many residents go for two-years then allow the condo to appreciate and then sell it? It is the perfect get away from the World way to live. You will be living with people who are fed up with the rat race just like you. You will see the world and the sea, without joining the Navy. Over a two-year period you have traveled around the world.

Do the ships avoid Typhoons and Hurricanes? Yes, indeed they do, as they have just as much to lose as you do and they are not going to risk a billion dollar ship in extreme weather. For those who have done this, they report back that it is the smartest thing they have ever done and are so glad to have done it. Some love it so much they want to stay onboard the rest of their lives. What do you think, would you consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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Even if the Property Index is only a newcomer concern, starting their business only in March of 2007, they have achieved expert status very quickly. On closer look, they’re a quite easy concern focusing entirely on proposing guidance to anyone proposing to rent, buy, etc. real estate across the globe. They promise to be of assistance to you to find smack what’s desired quickly plus, obviously, unproblematically.

Realty can easily be found in the most popular regions of the world in our times, one of the most called for areas being real property available in Portugal. It’s dead easy to tick off the superb properties for sale in Portugal, one reason for picking land here being a combination of the houses and apartments on the market and the sensational chance to live amid this keen and effervescent populace. It is one of the truly fashionable areas in our times, and considering the lovely landscape and great sunshine surrounding you, who could be wrong? Realty in Portugal is steeped in history, this realm of the world has long been home to many sophisticated cultures.

If you are looking to buy property abroad try Property Index, specialists in overseas property.

About 25 years ago there’d be merely a tiny number of English who are looking for properties in Portugal. Just ask any person who has relocated to Portugal and they’ll certainly back this up. Most people would view it as a trend and others view it as a more or less an addiction… Customers interested in moving over here will range from young urban professionals keen on a challenge to the elderly planning on relaxation and enjoyment. There could be issues when buying properties abroad — you’ll have to cope with hundreds of actions to count in whether planning, inspecting or finalising. If you miss out on just a single minor action that is certain to trigger huge issues plus, of course, even more importantly, monetary loss.

As is to be presumed with this well-liked location, properties might well be high priced in this destination and that’s basically a consequence of the growing buyer demand. Notwithstanding the patron presently is spoilt in an area boasting such a happy vista. It patently has almost everything homebuyers may feasibly require, and plenty more.

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The fairy tale existance of Google is starting to experience shockwaves.

So, what’s the source of these shockwaves? Click fraud. As my readers know, I’ve written several articles on the subject of click fraud, suggesting that since it’s the market leader, Google should take a more proactive approach with the problem of click fraud.

Until now, Google has been mostly quiet about the subject, issuing this single statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission:

“We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members.”

So, why isn’t Google doing more about click fraud? In one of my articles, I theorized that with the amount of money involved, it’s actually more cost effective for Google to issue an occasional refund to its advertisers, than to develop technology to eliminate click fraud.

That theory was echoed in a recent article, in which the author wrote:

“Google’s primary defense against click fraud has been to refund advertisers their money if they complain and Google sees evidence that fraudulent clicks have occured. The problem with this is that the burden of proof is on the advertiser … and Google knows that most advertisers will not take the time to argue. Therefore, Google has a financial incentive not to deal with click fraud on their own. It not only costs them to deal with the problem but if they do find a solution to stopping click fraud … it will cost Google much more when they don’t get paid for 20 percent or more of their clicks.”

However, all of that may be about to change. At an investor conference last Wednesday, Google CFO George Reyes stated:

“I think something has to be done about this really, really quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business model.”

My question is this: What took Google so long to come to that realization? It’s not like click fraud just magically appeared yesterday. The media has been reporting on the problem for at least the last 3 years.

Smug in its ivory tower, did Google think the problem was just going to go away by itself? Or was it waiting for Overture or one of the smaller pay-per-click companies to solve the problem, so it wouldn’t have to deal with it?

These are troubling questions, to say the least. Even more troubling is Google’s passive approach to a serious problem, which in my opinion has been reprehensible.

It should be interesting to see what Google’s next move is. Google CFO George Reyes statement notwithstanding, I’ll believe Google is serious about eliminating click fraud, when I finally see it!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer,
publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be
reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net
Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net

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