Another very sorry run. Compare this to the same route a week ago:

Motion Based and Google Earth

Emails down, websites are down, sharepoint is down, and qwest can't even get me to the right department within 30 minutes? YOU SUCK QWEST!!!! Update 3 hours!!! I gave up!

Your a phone company that can't use your own phones!!!

 After 40 minutes they transfered me to Network Solutions which doesn't host our DNS they are only the registrant! This is bullshit!!! So now I have to start over.

After 3 hours and 30,000 in lost services and money because of downtime, I'm removing all of my Qwest services and moving them to Network Solution who is the register and says they can have the dns up in 3 hours where qwest took 3 hours to just tell me the problem, one problem, and couldn't tell me what department does DNS management.

3 weeks ago my personal business dsl was turned off for 1 week after Qwest promised it would be back on after an hour. A manager promised he'd have it all fixed. A week later it was still down, all of our email, websites everything including Direct Tv. We cancelled our Qwest and Direct TV accounts and had to pay $200 cancel fee with direct tv because of Qwest say anything do nothing customer service.

Direct tv was canceled because in december we did the combined billing where Qwest does the billing. Our TV was still off during that week as well because of qwest!!

I'm prety pissed off right now after hours and hours of bill shit!!!! so there will be lots of errors in spelling and english, deal with it!

Recent research suggests that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from donor countries do not provide better targeted or more efficient aid than state-run development agencies. They do not seem to even try to outperform the latter by focussing on the neediest or by working in particularly difficult environments.

[ By Peter Nunnenkamp ]
It is easy to lament the stinginess and selfishness of official donors, as Kishore Mahbubani did in D+C/E+Z 2/2008. Those donors provide critics with the data needed to expose the flaws of official development assistance (ODA). It is different with non-governmental organisations (NGOs). NGO aid is certainly relevant, but its allocation has hardly been mapped, let alone explained. The main reason is that sufficiently detailed data are hard to come by. After all, NGOs probably do not want critical analysis to tarnish their image of being superior donors.

NGOs are often believed to provide well-targeted aid. They are said to be particularly close to the poor, as many of them directly cooperate with local target groups, circumventing recipient governments with a reputation of corruption. Accordingly, the argument goes, they are better aligned to poor people’s needs, and suffer from less leakage. Moreover, it is said that NGO aid is less distorted by donor governments’ commercial and political interests, such as export promotion or political alliances.

Donor governments seem to share that favourable view. To a large extent, they channel ODA through NGOs. In some donor countries, the share of such ODA is as high as 20 %. The total of aid granted by NGOs from OECD nations amounted to almost $ 15 billion per annum in 2005 and 2006. That sum exceeded bilateral ODA from every individual donor country except for the USA.

Some critics, however, suspect that the case for NGO aid largely rests on ideological grounds. The view that NGOs have a clear focus on the poor first came under attack in the 1990s. Critics believe that NGOs probably prefer the quiet life of implementing their national governments’ agendas to risking failure in attempts to outperform state agencies. This seems all the more likely as some NGOs financially depend on official “backdonors”.

The cases of Sweden and Switzerland

Such criticism is hardly supported by empirical research so far; and that is something it has in common with the wide-spread faith in high NGO performance. NGOs only rarely support scholars who collect data. Doing research on German NGOs, for instance, therefore tends to be frustrating. By contrast, two relatively small donors – Sweden and Switzerland – offer reasonable data to compare NGOs and state agencies by analysing the following three questions:
– Do NGOs focus more strongly than ODA on those countries where need is most pressing?
– Do NGOs engage in particular where the policy environment is difficult, so government-to-government transfers are unlikely to work?
– Do NGOs behave more altruistically than state aid agencies, which may be pursuing hidden agendas?

Research done at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in cooperation with the KOF Swiss Economic Institute in Zurich and the Radboud University in Nijmegen has led to only preliminary results so far, but they do reinforce the sceptics’ view on NGO aid. The answer to the first question is clearly “no” if one judges recipients’ need for aid by average per-capita incomes. The increase in Swiss NGO aid for countries with lower average income, for instance, was slightly less pronounced than the increase in Swiss ODA. In striking contrast to Swedish ODA, Swedish NGOs completely ignored the income position of recipients, spreading their aid almost equally over low and middle-income countries. The poorest 25 % only received 27 % of Swedish NGO funds, whereas the wealthiest 25 % received 22 %. The picture is more favourable for Swiss NGOs if need is measured in terms of absolute poverty (share of the population living on less than one or two dollars per day). Swedish NGOs hardly differ from state agencies in this respect.

As for institutional environments, we found interesting differences between Sweden and Switzerland, but they did not follow the NGO-government divide. Both Swedish and Swiss NGOs tended to mirror their governments. This is in conflict with advice by the World Bank which is echoed in many policy documents both at UN and national levels. Accordingly, official donors should focus on better governed countries in order to render ODA more effective, whereas NGOs should become active predominantly where governance is bad. Just like the state-run agencies, Swedish NGOs were not particularly active in challenging settings. Swiss NGOs did allocate more funds to countries with weak institutions – but so did the Swiss government. It thus seems that Swiss NGOs were accommodating government policy rather than trying to excel in places where governance was particularly troubled.

As for donor countries’ own interests, neither Swedish nor Swiss NGOs seemed to be pursuing any hidden agenda. The notable exception was that Swiss NGOs resembled their government in providing more aid to countries that voted in line with Switzerland at the UN. Switzerland’s neutrality may be at the root of this finding; both the government and NGOs may feel that developing countries that take a similar stance deserve support. On the other hand, countries with commercial relevance to both Sweden and Switzerland, for instance as export markets, did not get significantly more NGO aid. Once again, however, NGO performance did not differ much from their governments’. Comparisons among OECD countries typically show that Sweden and Switzerland belong in the “altruistic” camp of countries that do not use ODA to promote exports.

NGOs based in various OECD countries

NGOs may have better chances to excel in less altruistic donor countries. OECD nations that are known for more self-searching development policies include big donors like France, the USA and Japan. To assess NGO aid tentatively for a broader donor sample, our Dutch co-author, Dirk-Jan Koch, collected data on some 60 OECD-based NGOs. Together, these NGOs spent $ 5.7 billion on aid to almost all recipient countries in 2005. That was nearly as much as the four Scandinavian countries spent on ODA that year.

One may, of course, doubt the representativeness of the sample. Moreover, the data only refer to one year. Nonetheless, it is striking that the aid allocation of the seven German NGOs included in the sample was actually biased against poorer countries. Brazil and South Africa were among the top-10 recipients of German NGO aid in absolute terms, even though the per-capita income of both countries ranged in the highest quartile. The top-10 with respect to aid per capita included four countries in the upper income half (Botswana, Cape Verde, Namibia and Swaziland). The whole group of 60 NGOs granted more aid to needier countries, however.

The impact of local institutions on NGO aid from all OECD countries together remained inconclusive. It seems that many NGOs were torn between favouring better governed countries and allocating aid in accordance with the comparative advantage NGOs might have in working under difficult local conditions.

NGOs from all donor countries taken together have a strong tendency to replicate the aid allocation of official backdonors. This indicates the limits to autonomous decision-making of NGOs that depend on government funds. Moreover, NGOs tend follow their peers, probably in order to control risks by hiding in the crowd. In any case, NGO aid is clustered, and NGOs are deepening the divide between so-called donor darlings and aid orphans.

Conclusion

All in all, our findings point to NGO aid not being a panacea for providing better-targeted aid and boosting aid effectiveness. In contrast to what one might expect, NGOs seem to prefer to keep a low profile. They did not try to distinguish themselves from state aid agencies by outperforming the latter in terms of focus on the neediest, or by entering uncharted waters where ODA is likely to fail.

The preliminary nature of the findings reported in this short account of ongoing research must be stressed. Future research will have to look into what exactly is driving NGOs to replicate both official donors and peers. It must also be understood to what extent NGOs that rely strongly on official backdonors behave differently from those that are truly independent. To assess these matters, it would certainly help if NGOs became more transparent and opened their books to research.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/65/petition-for-howard-dean-to-resign-as-dnc-chair

The un-installation is complete. It's the worst bit of bloatware I've encountered since Windows itself. It took ages to install, it took ages to update, and when it prompted me to reboot, it took ages to log on afterwards.

I don't have that many startup programs, and those that insist that they've got to be running come rain or shine are prevented from doing so, therefore there had to be only one reason for the PC's sluggish performance - Norton!

So, I've gone back to AVG. It's still free (as in beer), but it's a hell of a lot smaller and, let's face it, I've been running it without any problems for about six years now. How is it the old saying goes? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

I had backed up my layout the last time I changed like every other time, in case something would happen and I could restore it right away. Except that the last 2 backups are worth nothing and I found that out the very hard way.

I was deleting something and was not really paying attention to what I was doing and messed up my layout. I tried several things to fix it and I was not getting anywhere so I turned to my backup. "File corrupted". Wha? How could it be corrupted? Tried the backup prior to that one. Same thing. So right now, my blog looks retarded, with a layout that I used 3 years ago.

But when I come to think about it, it's not such a bad thing. Since I am so disgusted and tired of that place, that means I will focus more here, to the chagrin of some JS users who find it tedious coming here. Sorry my friends, but I have taken too much abuse from people that I paid for terrible performance and service. What a joke...

Till then...

We attend courses to learn how to do strategy, project manage and apply six sigma approaches. We read HBR and BRW, and a range of popular fiction. We might learn woodworking, French or Ancient Asian History. We have coaches and trainers - for business success, stress management, physical fitness, or life goals.

BUT how often do we focus on communication skills?

I have been a fan of Kerry Patterson's book Crucial Conversations for a long time. It presents a sure fire way to hold those conversations in work and life where the outcome is important; how to ensure both sides come away feeling good and motivated.

She has recently released another book, Crucial Confrontations, which explores ways to mindfully confront real issues in the work place and at home. Confrontations are usually triggered by broken promises - "you said that you would do that, and you didn't. I was relying on you." The book assists us to discuss the issues with staff, partners, friends or children using techniques that, again, avoid anger and recriminations yet ensures open and frank discussions.

Top performers do not avoid difficult conversations. They build performance through their ability to tackle issues as they arise.

Mayor Adrian Fenty of Washington embraced a Herculean challenge when he convinced lawmakers to give him direct control of the city’s corrupt and dysfunctional school system. The mayor and his new schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, are working hard to reassure nervous parents and to get the schools up and running for the new year. But remaking the schools will inevitably mean dismantling a central bureaucracy that has shown a disturbing talent for subverting reform while failing the city and its children in every conceivable way.

Washington has long been infamous for having the worst performing big-city system in the country. But The Washington Post exposed the scope of the problem earlier this summer in an eye-opening series. According to The Post, the city ranks first in terms of the budget share devoted to administration and last in spending on teachers and instruction. The imbalance is particularly disturbing, given that the District’s children fare worse at school than children in other big cities.

Read it all at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/opinion/04tues2.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Related:
http://johnibii.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/leadership-accountability-and-the-media/

Below is a response to one of my articles discussing the power of What The Bleep and The Secret. Brandon Neuman questions the credibility of this belief:

Neuman wrote: -

your thoughts can form your life as much as a positive outlook. there is no science behind this and no credibal people agreeing with this. it is just about self-esteem and committment. if the movies help you the amazing. but if you have a mind of your own, realize the fiction when ya see it

George Helou said 1 week ago:

There is no science behind this? This is what you are aware of, but millions of people disagree. So its really a debate of differing points of view and I find your view, from decades of personal experience, disempowering and stifling to the spirit. Please make comments that leave room for what you do not know and what you have not read.

Regarding there being no science behind it. It depends on whether you speak to scientists who have ventured into the subatomic realm - the place where all things are created from. The ‘credible’ scientists you may be referring to still assume the observer has nothing to do with the environment. This classical paradigm has never been proven. All the experimental anomolies and disease remissions go unanswered under this model.

Then there is what I experience which backs up what I believe. This is the real challenge. when I have glimpses of the future before they happen, then moments later they play out like the movie I saw previously, quantum physics explains this while classical physics is ready to lock me up for having delusions.

One empowers me into knowing I can perceive future potentials I have created and choose to change them.

The other ridicules me and tells me I am crazy under their one theory of decoherence.

What science should I embrace since they both have logical arguments?
Always the one that empowers me. Why? Because I live and love life to the fullest knowing I matter and I am able to create a great life and not make do with the one dished out to me by fate or other people's opinions and beliefs.

Your opinion has been shaped by the classical paradigm as mine was too - a popular world view for hundreds of years. But its 70 years outdated. Even E=mc sq. proves solid mass is in fact not solid, its energy vibrating at a particular frequency. This proves everything is energy and the Double Slit experiment by Thomas Young proves that the act of observing/measuring the building blocks of all life (sub atomic particles) changes their form and behaviour.

Since these tiny particles make up the building blocks of everything, but what you seek to believe in becomes your reality. So you ask me realise fiction when I see it - such a limited and outdated request.

These are the people who you are suggesting are not credible who are all saying the same thing: -

Albert Einstein
Max Planck
Thomas Young
David Bohm
Louis de Broglie
Erwin Schrodinger
Dr Deepak Chopra
Dr Fred Alan Wolf
Dr Candice Pert
Dr Bruce Lipton
Gregg Braden
and thousands more…

I see more proof everyday around me and through personal experience to know that What The Bleep and The Secret are simply communicating what was always the truth.

http://www.mindpowercoach.com.au/

George Helou told me – and my wife – about his MindPower and we both subscribed. In fact, we’ve also completed a second progressive course. The second time around increased the power exponentially.

Although the School of Enlightenment is always my primary source of life development, I found the MindPower program to be a highly effective adjunct in establishing a step-by-step process of building brain configuration to propel me into lasting change.

On the morning of writing this testimonial, I visited my Gold Coast chiropractor for our three-monthly tune-up. An intuitive person, she said “You’re about to embark on new directions this year.” I agreed that I had more than one new plan. Then she muscle-tested me. Impressed, she said: “Your brain stem is undergoing fabulous change.” True again.

Later on, she remarked to my wife and to me: “I found no resistance in your spines to the adjustments I wanted to make. It was easy.”

No need to wonder why it was easy: the brain has a direct bearing on the spine’s wellness, and that radiates into the rest of the body – the organs, tissue and so on. My wife’s and my wellness and energy levels passed with flying colours.

George’s bio-feedback cards also regularly come up trumps for my well-being.

The MindPower Program and its brainwave training has enhanced all that I’ve done at that school I mentioned earlier. Even if you are not directly interested in enlightenment, the benefits of MindPower as a primary source of brain development will be long-lasting if you apply yourself to the training.

Anyway, the work’s all been done for you. All you have to do is turn up at your computer and focus.

Am I well off? We already were in a material sense. But there’s more.

The idea of millions of dollars appeals as a game of life and we’re well on our way. We originally paid cash for our mini-mansion on a beautiful mountain in Queensland’s South-Eastern Hinterland and now we relax with a glass each of red in the evening - with the extra knowledge that once your brain is programmed for wealth, wellness and superior associative, rather than linear, thinking, how can you be anything else but joyful?

We’ll never again allow ourselves to be convinced of anything that doesn’t involve the finest things that life has to offer.

Mark Twain said that the regrets of your life come from what you didn’t do rather than the mistakes you made from what you did.

Talk to George - who I now consider a colleague - and I think you’ll find you won’t be making a mistake if you let him convince you of the merits of what he has to offer. His supportive expertise and brainpower should stand you in good stead.

In our experience George is a man of principle and going on our knowledge of him we don’t believe that’s about to change.

Nowadays the quality of my decision-making - and my focus - is almost immeasurable. I am a much more forgiving person because I’m ending my inner conflicts and sense of lack. The MindPowerCoach.com organization is one of the few top line entities I’ve come across and I heartily recommend it.

I also recommend George Helou’s capacity to commit himself to his job, to remain up-to-date with Future Now technology, and his willingness to pass on that knowledge to the people who put their trust in his skills.

http://www.mindpowercoach.com.au/

A side note-

I have recieved more than one email stating that after installing this BIOS update your system may no longer boot into Windows. I have not personally seen this issue. However, I have had difficulty in the past when attempting to update the BIOS using the Winflash utility -- to the extent that my system was effectively 'bricked' and had to be sent to HP for warranty repair.

Typically, a BIOS flash can cause a PC not to boot into Windows if one of the following settings is reverted to default after being changed... or simply changes: APIC mode, ACPI settings, Power Management (S1/S3/s1&s3), and Cool & Quiet. If you are one of the ones affected by this update check these settings first.

My experience with laptops has been the following. As a general rule, **do not** update your BIOS unless your system is specifically affected by the issue that the new BIOS addresses, *especially* if your notebook is no longer under warranty. I have found through my own experiences that flashing the BIOS on a laptop is much more troublesome (and problematic) than doing so on a desktop. There are several more "technical" reasons for this, but the one I will hammer home here is this one: Most laptops do not have a stand-alone OS disk that does anything less than a complete re-format and fresh install of Windows (plus associated "bloatware") and will not do a repair install.

I have said my piece and you've been warned. Now here's the link:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-43144-1&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=453185&os=228&lang=en

Happy Flashing ;)

Killersneak, of DNA drivers was kind enough to respond to my post and lend me some assistance on this issue. He was nice enough to re-release a reworked Catalyst 4.6.6.8 Beta. It has some memory optimizations specifically for the xpress 200m. I have always liked his drivers, and run them on more than one system.

You can access the forum post and the Beta driver link from here:

http://www.dna-drivers.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=1508

After installing his drivers, I did notice a performance substancial improvement, but nothing that can make KOTOR or any of the other OpenGL apps remotely usable. Killersneak did do a fantastic job, however, as performance improvements can be measured to be anywhere from 100-200 percent better in certain tests. Unfortunately for the xpress 200m, a one to two hundred percent increase is only about 1-2 additional frames per second. Given how bad the frame rates are, the performance gains need to be in the 1000s of percent range to make any real difference. I went into this fairly convinced that this is entirely a hardware limitation (aka Video FIRMWARE problem), but I wanted that final nail in the proverbial coffin.

Just to give you a notion of what kind of improvement is needed here, take the 1-2 frames per second performance we get now as a baseline. At 1fps. 100% better is 2fps. 1000% better = 10fps. 2000% better = 20fps = barely playable) On average an optimized driver can improve performance but definately not at the level that is needed here. This proves beyond most measure of doubt, that no amount of software optimizations or tweaks can help this problem. This means if it looks, smells, and walks like a duck... it is, well, a duck. Duck, in this case, meaning a Hardware issue.

Feel free to download the driver, some OpenGL benchmarking programs and give it a whirl for yourself. I have come to the conclusion that this is without a doubt, a video firmware issue. However, even with this amount of proof I doubt HP, or any other hardware manufacturer, will do much about it.

We are excited to introduce you to the amazing MindPower Program, which is based on solid modern scientific research, clinical results and will be facilitated by George Helou, a certified MindPower coach in Australia from September 2006!

From 35 years of brain pioneering research and development, this program is now assisting people attain the actual brainwaves of millionaires, geniuses as well as elite business and sports performers.The program understands how our combination of brainwaves creates our unique thought patterns and mental capabilities which control our feelings and actions. Change your brainwaves ... and you can supercharge how you think ... and literally re-create your own mental potential!

You will see how the use of an EEG (electroencephalogram) machine records your brainwave activity and shows the difference once you have completed some of the brainwave entrainment exercises! Building a career or business can happen a lot easier and quicker than we think once we address the source that generates the thoughts that are responsible for our success or failure causing actions!

Once you naturally emit the brainwaves of elite performers, you naturally have rewired your neural pathways and networks to generate new thoughts and feelings that propel you into acting on all the things that will help you achieve your goals without trying and hoping. You will no longer have to try to succeed and hope you are making the right decisions. You will naturally and passionately do the things necessary that will accelerate your progress towards achieving your goals.

The developer of this MindPower has worked with Pentagon Officials, the Presidential Commission, Silicon Valley Executives, Hollywood personalities and ordinary people who then became extraordinary. Her business clients have included, IBM, Apple and many other Fortunate 500 companies. Are you interested in the following benefits when it comes to making informed decisions about your success? These benefits will immediately impact your life upon participating in the MindPower program and I know this first hand!

MindPower Benefits

1. Develop LASER-SHARP mental focus – Enjoy the exhilarating experience of being able to overcome any distractions ... and calmly focus your mind on a single thought, question or goal. Our brain generates a minimum of 5W of electrical energy. A laser, which is focused energy, can burn through metal! What can you achieve with laser sharp focus?

2. Discover your TRUE POTENTIALS – The deeper levels of your mind contain a clear record of everything you've experienced or learned in your entire lifetime. Conscious access to this resource will change your potential ... forever!

3. Tap into your NATURAL GENIUS –The scientific proof is in ... genius comes in many different "packages," and each person inherently has their own version. You WILL discover your unique natural genius, and learn how to further develop it!

4. Unleash your TRUE MIND POWER – The methods behind this AMP MIND POWER Program are solidly built on proven achievement-producing techniques. You will delight and amaze yourself as you begin to tap into your TRUE mind power.

5. Experience GENIUS-LEVEL INTUITION – Intuition is built on the ability to hear and trust the messages of your higher mind. Your ability to tap into your intuition will immediately begin to expand!

6. Become a MASTER OF STRESS – Stress is an inevitable part of modern life. But it is also the source of life-destroying mental and physical disorders. You will master a remarkable IMMEDIATE AND POWERFUL stress management technique.

What is required from you?

First – YOU MUST have already come to the realization that there’s something missing in your success-seeking strategy ... an important ingredient you’ve somehow not been exposed to. And you must be ready to go to work to fill that hole with something real!

Second – YOU MUST be open and ready for something radically different ... for a training program that will challenge your old belief systems, and set your life on an entirely new path.

Third – YOU MUST be willing to apply yourself. We can’t just open your skull and pour this in. You will have daily exercises to do, and you can’t expect results unless you DO the work!

Fourth – YOU MUST be willing and eager to supply us with honest feedback regarding your experiences during the program ... including what works best for you, and where you are having difficulties.

Fifth – Recognise the enormous value from a 3 month program that helps you develop the most important apparatus you have; your Mind! The benefits will be priceless.

What Next?

Register your interest to be notified of our information nights where you will learn a lot more about why and how this program works, view a short film and have all of your questions answered. You will even be speaking with real people who will share their experiences, having completed the program and are now living amazingly different and rewarding lives.

For more information about how to dramatically increase your personal mind power in Australia go to www.mindpowercoach.com.au or email george@mindpowercoach.com.au

So get ready for some amazing information about depression that will help you not only learn effective and meaningful ways of managing it, but also learn how to use it as an incredible tool for constructive and productive change.

Depression Definition

Depression is best defined as a state of low vitality and force. It has been further adapted to describing the emotional state of someone who is unhappy and feeling hopelessness. Western society has transformed the descriptive term into a label. It is now commonly known as a psychiatric disorder with symptoms like “persistent feelings of hopelessness,” “dejection”, “poor concentration,” “lack of energy,” some degrees of insomnia and a total withdrawal from action. (Encarta® World English Dictionary)

So what was simply a description of a persistent undesirable feeling became a psychiatric label that isolated the experience as a condition. As a result, this prevented us from understanding the causes beyond the simplistic assumption that the person was unhappy or unsatisfied with their circumstances.

It’s important to note upfront that no professional attention was given to the possibility that their circumstances may be a product of misguided beliefs and perceptions that are changeable through knowledge and understanding. Furthermore, anti-depressants have become the biggest selling drug in the World. Prozac has become a common household name. A friend of mine is a pharmacist in Perth Australia and he estimates that 1 in 8 of his clients are on anti-depressants.

When we break down the word into its meaningful syllables, we begin to understand the function of depression: -
DE - PRESS means literally, “to cease to press.”
DE - PRESSED means literally, “ceasing to be pressed.”

So who is doing the pressing and what is being pressed? There are two questions that will take us down an incredibly enlightening path about how the state of depression can be turned from a destructive to an empowering experience.

It is understood that constant pressure in our lives is likely to make us feel like we are being pressed against circumstances that are stressful and emotionally draining. When we are repeatedly trying to solve problems and these problems persist, we can end up feeling defeated and deflated: the result being, we de-press from our efforts.

It’s like we press ourself against the situation with our way of perceiving based on our beliefs/ideas/communication skills and when nothing happens we de-press. The act of depressing in effect is the experience of our energy levels dropping so that we no longer have the will or means (i.e. energy) to express our perception.

We know when we are depressed because we become disinterested and emotionally cut off from the situation: we literally lose our ability to empathise or care while we are in the depressed state; our physiology slumps as if our batteries have died. Even breathing can be an effort as we become unmotivated and disinterested with everything around us.

As we are pressed into life we find it hurts too much so there seems to be a self-administered state of depressing from that pain. Anyone who suffers depression understands that when you are truly depressed you do not care about anything because it hurts too much.

Moving Out of Depression
There are a few ways we seem to move out of our depression.

1. The first is through the pressure of family, friends and colleagues who give you reasons to feel your state is unacceptable. Guilt becomes the emotional motivator to press you back into your situation.

2. The second way we get out of our depression is through prescribed drugs that chemically imbalance the brain. This drugged state helps us perceive our life without as much draining emotions. Our highs and lows are evened out to the extent that both negativity AND positivity no longer affect us.

3. The third way we get out of depression is by finding solutions to our problems that inspire us. As soon as this is accomplished our energy levels are ignited and our optimism influences our perception. The glass is perceived as half full rather than half empty.

4. The final and most tragic way is through suicide. Contrary to a popular assumption that people commit suicide when they a deeply depressed: this is simply not the case. The belief of suicide goes against the very definition of what depression is, i.e. a total withdrawal from caring and action. Therefore, we find, a suicidal state of mind neither cares for life, the idea of ending it nor being bothered about doing anything about it.

The best explanation so far for what causes suicide is when a person comes out of their depression and realises that they are being pressed against the predictable set of circumstances that have hurt them deeply. In this situation the emotional pain is so overwhelming it overrides all common sense perspective and makes them see only ONE WAY out of their desperately painful situation.

Here is the cycle chain of choices we can observe for someone who experiences frequent bouts of deep depression:

Experience persistently stressful situations –> DE - PRESS –>FEEL GUILTY for abandoning their environment –>RE – PRESS into their persistently stressful situation –> DE–PRESS –> so on.
OR
After you depress; Consume Anti-Depressants –> RE PRESS into your same situation –> NO LONGER feel highly negative or positive emotions –> potentially experience side affects of the long-term usage of drugs –> Health deteriorates –> Cease DRUGS –> Repeat DEPRESSION CYCLE.
OR
After you depress –> Use this space to create inspiring Solutions –> RE-PRESS into your environment with a new perspective and approach that improves your experiences –> No longer a need to depress because of the same circumstances.
OR
After you repress from a long-term cycle with no solutions –> end life –> Depression ceases.

IMPORTANT NOTE: -
We are not advocating suicide. Nor are we advising you to seek anti-depressants or cease what your doctor has subscribed. We are bringing you information that we hope will open your awareness to the constructive, self-enlightening pathway out of depression. The effectiveness of medication combined with self empowering knowledge could create a balanced approach to managing the challenges of depression.

Carefully prescribed medication from an accredited professional could deliver a much needed reprieve bridge from the fear driven thoughts that distract us away from the information and tools that would help us evolve through the difficult times. This reprieve allows us time to focus on the knowledge and understanding that would facilitate change of perception, build confidence and self esteem.

The Metaphysical Definition
Lets explore the idea of changing our perception/mind because this sits at the centre of how depression is meant to serve our needs. Whenever we are wrong about something we come to a point where we acknowledge it, which is the start of the process of evolving our perceptions. At that point our mind is changed from seeing something as wrong to seeing something as the exact opposite.

Many times we have misunderstood people and misinterpreted situations to finally have a realisation that helps us finally understand it. We all have had these “aha!” moments yet we do not take the overall experience to help us become more open-minded and better able to explore new perspectives. So, what prevents us from going further into new thought constructs?

We find in psychology the idea of “schematism,” which describes the human tendency to want to arrange ideas in accordance with preconceived ones. In other words, once we have a belief about how something is or works an overwhelming amount of information would have to present itself to contradict our belief before we are willing to change it.

On the other hand, schematism is not a negative state; it is also positive where many great beliefs can make one immune from manipulation. Great beliefs also empower and uplift our self-esteem, and great beliefs support our self-worth and deserving of greatness!

The essential biofeedback mechanism of depression says that whatever beliefs you hold are undermining your self worth which is why you have been de-pressed from expressing them.
“He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Yet, we do not seek to understand alternate beliefs because we have been taught to defend our point of view first. We have become so good at it we have learned to defend the most limited points of view. You only have to look at many opposing views of our so-called global leaders causing genocide to see the dangers that come with having rigid belief systems.

High Intelligence
So what does it mean to have, not simply intelligence, but “high intelligence” where we not only acknowledge problems but also challenge and change our beliefs and assumptions until we have expanded our perception to a level that instantly can recognise the solutions? It means genius, but it is also normal! Albert Einstein recognized that aspect of our intelligence when he said: “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it”.

The idea of being stuck in your existing line of thinking means you cannot see things differently in order to change your circumstances. So becoming depressed is a metamorphic catalyst for evolving how we think and respond to our existing set of circumstances. In order to evolve, we are meant to contemplate our existing way of thinking in our current environment.

The powerful Quantum Evolver Process is to contemplate a different state of perceiving which is aligned with experiences we desire rather than arguing for our existing way of thinking that has not solved our problems and is most likely contributing to them. Anyone can request the Quantum Evolver Process for the complimentary beta test to see how they can take their next step of self evolution at: contactus@quantumevolver.com.

Even if you’re not depressed we activate the process of becoming depressed, which many call meditation, so you can master it! It goes way beyond the Western view that treats depression like a condition or mental disease where the degree of negativity and judgment placed on the individual who is depressed is enormous. This is why the majority of those that experience persistent bouts of depression feel inadequate, confused, guilty, frightened and judged for retreating away from what hurts them.

Furthermore, the individual receives very little guidance in identifying the parts of his or her belief systems that are contributing to the problem. Drugs and suicide have been growing exponentially for the past 30 years and thus seem to be part of the problem.

The Magic of Depression
One of the symptoms of depression is frequently falling into tranced states, suspended in a non-judging, highly neutral space. It is this state that allows the ability to bring the left and right brain together so that we can benefit from BOTH creativity and logic.

A reason why we do not draw great inspiring and effective solutions from this space is because we become caught in a toxic cocktail of emotions that move us away from that neutral space. Feeling guilty for not being productive, feeling resentful for the lack of understanding from our family and friends as well as the anti-depressants which press us right back into the very circumstances we would rather not experience. It’s almost as if the drugs help us put up with what we do not want!

The magic of depression comes into play when we can be in a depressed state (meditative state) without judgment, guilt, resentment or anxiety.Would you like to know more about depression? Please let us know! We welcome your questions and can point you to a drug-free solution.

You can also visit our website and access YOUR BEAUTIFUL MIND articles (4 parts) - http://www.mindpowercoach.com.au Sign up FREE and access the library of free articles.

Author: George Helou - MindPower Coach, www.mindpowercoach.com.au

Many Mind Power programs make claims that it is they that will change you – they are and will always be wrong! Anyone who says they have something that will make you successful by making millions and finding love is either ignorantly or intentionly misleading you.

When you are ready to change, the first decent program that presents itself will help you – but YOU always do the changing and must always take the credit! Pointing to a program that was your catalyst is great, but it must be understood as the catalyst that provided opportunities for you to do the changing.

This is the type of self empowerment mentality that will bring about your evolution and make it sustainable and why? Because you will never give your power to anyone else leaving you powerless to achieve the success that only you are responsible and able to achieve.

Before you do any program, I want you to understand the most important thing that most programs never address is: -

Why their program may not work for you!

The reason is very simple, yet very powerful. It is about our addictions to our emotions. We are all addicted to our emotions. The proof is we keep experiencing the same undesirable emotions that are wired to learned limited beliefs.

When you seek to change and do not “FEEL” like it, it’s the emotional addiction to the same old way of thinking, feeling and being that is your challenge. There are literally trillions of cells that make up the human body that consistently call on peptides to attach to the receptor sites on the membrane of the cell. Each peptide is an emotion that is a particular receptor site. (Refer to Dr. Candice Pert’s book Molecules of Emotion and Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment for more information.

The latest DVD The Secret is nothing short of inspirational. I have watched it 3 times and have ensured my family, friends and clients are watching it. SO far they all love it. But this great DVD like so many other great educational programs do not address the reason why even knowing 'the secret(s)' still does not change your life.

What does this mean to you?

If you are used to being angry, your cells will send signals calling to be fed by peptides made up of amino acids. The difference is, the anger receptor sites are going to call on to be fed by the anger peptide that is the only peptide that can fit perfectly into the anger receptor site on the cell. This means, your brain will be asked to find a reason to be angry.

How does this work?

1. You think of something in your past that makes you angry. For no reason at all, you find yourself thinking about someone that betrayed you.
2. You anticipate something negative this is most likely to repeat itself that makes you angry.
3. You in fact interpret and make assumptions on existing events and the assumptions of people in such a way that makes you feel angry.
4. You attract situations with your focus that causes you to be angry. If you understand the power of perception and its effect on your reality, then you can imagine what role the body has in asking for experiences to feed it emotions it is accustomed to.

How do you break free?

Well knowing about it reduces the anxiety when you literally experience the cold turkey period that comes from detoxing from any chemical addiction and emotions are biochemical drugs that are much more powerful than any pharmeceutical drug. That restless, feverish and uncertain period that intensifies to the point of inner panic well known in those coming off an addiction to hard drugs is just as relevant when we abstain from feeding a particular emotion. With knowledge, you can turn this bad pain into good pain and new peptides and new receptor sites aligned with joyful experiences can instantanously replace the old addiction if you can ride the cold turkey period.

The metamorphosis from a way of being that has caused limited success to another way of being that brings a whole new way of living is an uncomfortable journey because we are indeed moving out of a comfort zone; but learning what rewards await the caterpillar as a butterfly is the difference between munching and crawling on coarse green leaves and flying over fields of multi coloured flowers and sucking on delicate yellow pollen.

How many all too familiar people, behaviour and emotional pain repeats in our lives that feel like the same old green leaves?
When we understand that success on the other side of change can literally be that drastically different, we are motivated and the pain becomes a process that is manageable. The birth of a new life is painful, yet the anticpation and knowledge of whats to come makes the pain manageable. Yet with fear of the unknown comes a locking up of the body and inflexibility. Elasticity is diminished and hence pain is more likely to feel like we are breaking apart.

To change or not to change

To change; Great Knowledge + Pain from transformation = Master of the journey to a desirable destiny with new emotional experiences.

Not to change; High Stress + Pain from resistance = Stagnation and emotional entropy.

The True Limitation

If you want a program that is proven and not hyped beyond its genuine capabilities, then you must know the true limitations of that program. That limitation is your addiction to being the same. Notice how much we are willing to put up with before we finally are ready to change, realising that no one has the answers but ourselves?

Have you caught yourself thinking or saying, “I do not know why I did that? – I did know better!” Its called emotional addiction that drives our decisions that defy rational and logical behaviour. The only reason we do not find success is because we constantly feel like doing the things that keep us away from realising that success. Constant decision making compounds into a destiny we do not desire, but are addicted to!

Ready to do the work?

Fall in love with a destiny you want to the point where nothing on the planet can come between you and that destiny. Are you ready for that? Have you imagined that destiny enough to excite you?

Have you made the DECISION that you are going to have it and there are no excuses or obstacles that are every going to be insurmountable?

The true test is how you feel about the obstacles. Do you feel they are too many or do you feel like they are simply a short term inconvenience and you constantly are inspired to think creatively, insightfully and decisively to act on solutions without delay?

If you are in that place, then you are indeed ready to do the work for lasting and rewarding change and most reputable mind power programs will allow you to work true magic into your life. I know because I have lived with and without making that vital 'decision'.

How much pain are you willing to live with before you make that 'decision'?

Written by George Helou
Certified AMP MindPower™ Coach
http://www.mindpowercoach.com.au

It is specifically dedicated to the HP Pavilion dv6000 series and it's compaq equivalent, the R4000 series. I urge anyone who owns these (or other HP/Compaq models) who suffer this issue to join up. At some point soon a petition will be started. I am currently shopping my technical findings to as "reputable" of a source as I can. I have even debated sending my findings off to Tom's Hardware to see if maybe they'll bite on it.

There are some newer lines of AMD Turion laptops that are shipping with Xpress 200m graphics that are apparently running KOTOR, Quake, and other OpenGL 1.4 (or above) apps the way they should be. I even tested this theory on a new Compaq Presario floor model at Circuit City. I asked my friend who works there if I could install the Quake 4 Demo on it and run a few tests -- after educating him about my problem. I proceeded to do this... and sure enough the Demo ran. Granted this was not great performance... but hell even 15-20 fps is still 14x better than what I'm getting now. I was quite amazed yet frustrated at the same time.

 I began to dig further.

From what I've found certain runs of the ATI Xpress 200m chips came with Video Firmwares that are somewhat "bugged" and do not allow for proper OpenGL performance. These chips offload most of the Vertex and T&L operations to the CPU and brings it (no matter its speed) to its knees. For the record, my chip identifier is "0x5955", with a BIOS version of VER008.025l.004.0000.

I did not note the BIOS identifer on this floor model I tested, but did look around HP's website for some other information relevant to this issue...

Many of the newer Compaq and HP Laptop models have a revised BIOS downloadable. This BIOS lists in its fixes that it "Resolves a Video Firmware Issue". Unfortunately, my model of laptop is not supported by this download. The link to it is this: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&os=228&product=1818493&lang=en&softwareitem=ob-39058-1

If anyone can who is having this issue, please send me your BIOS identifiers so I can compile a list of chips that have this problem versus chips that do not. I plan on re-opening the ticket with HP in an attempt to get them to release a new video firmware for the HP zv6000 (mine) and Compaq M2000 (my wife's) line of laptops.

I purchased an HP laptop back in November of last year that has the ati radeon xpress 200m graphics IGP chip with 128MB of dedicated (sideport) video memory. A friend of mine has a laptop with an integrated intel gfx chip, which supposedly is not even 1/2 of what the 200m is and he can play KOTOR and other OpenGL games such as Quake4 just fine.. albeit on lower settings. As with everyone else who has this problem with the 200m, my laptop plays these (OpenGL) games at about 1-4 fps. The character models are very distorted (blacked out eyes, real jagged edges)... , just plays like absolute doodoo. I have tried everything... omega drivers, old drivers, new drivers... nada so far.

LucasArts says they do not "officially" support the 200m because it didn't exist at the time of release. Neither was the x1900xt, but it runs KOTOR1&2 just fine. I don't believe supportability by lucasarts to be the problem.

At this point, apparently ATI does not support this model anymore either. The newest CCC does not recognize the 200m, nor do the IGP/Mobo drivers. Please understand that very few manufacturers release drivers for their products beyond the initial release... due to the average (very short) life cylce of a laptop model.

Here is what I've researched:

In terms of testing theory on this being a OpenGL driver support issue here is a bit of information to substanciate what I've theorized.

In addition to KOTOR 1&2 not running right, I downloaded and installed the Quake4 demo on my laptop and tried it out. Needless to say I did not get very far. It plays about exactly like KOTOR does, which is somewhere in the range of 1-4 frames per second. Another test I did, was use OpenGL while watching a raw video in Adobe After Effects. It just remained stuck on the first frame. I then looked about the internet for a freeware OpenGL benchmarking program... found and downloaded a couple with the same type of result. Stuttering, at or around 1-4 frames per second during certain tests...overall just very piss poor performance.

Before you dismiss this as a hardware issue know that in terms of DirectX performance, this card does fairly well. I play FF11, WoW, and AOE3 fairly regularly on this laptop and although the performance is not great -- it is more than playable. Unlike anything that uses OpenGL.

Here are my laptop specs:
HP Pavilion zv6270us
Athlon64 3500+ 1GB ddr333 128MB dedicated video on Xpress 200m 100GB Hard Disk

A side note:
There are several, and I mean *several* threads on the internet pertaining to the 200m and OpenGL issues. One only needs to google on "xpress 200m" and then kotor, opengl, after effects. Here is a link to one such forum...

http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.jspa?threadID=49342&tstart=0

Please do not respond with "the 200m is not a gaming card", I already know this. However, at the time (2005) if you wanted an AMD-based laptop the Xpress 200m was the *only* choice in the retail sector.

I would be more than happy to provide any and all benchmarking results and/or system specs if they would be of help to you. Attached is the log from a freeware opengl benchmark called oglbench. At times the frame rate dropped as low as .44 fps. That's insane!

Back in November of 2005 I bought a HP zv6270us laptop. A truly awesome machine. Athlon64 3500+, 1Gig ram, 100GB of HDD space, built-in everything but the kitchen sink, and a ATI mobility radeon xpress 200m with 128MB of dedicated Video memory (this made me salivate if I recall.) A friend of mine has a laptop with an integrated intel gfx chip, which supposedly is not even 1/2 of what the 200m is and he can play KOTOR1 & 2 just fine. As with everyone else, my laptop plays these games at about 1-2fps. The character models are very distorted (blacked out eyes, real jagged edges)... all in  all, just plays like absolute doodoo. I have tried everything... omega drivers, old drivers, new drivers... nada. Kind of sad actually.
After doing a lot of thorough research and testing to try and get KOTOR1 & 2 to run I finally gave up. I will begin with what it is not before going into what he problem really is. ...

 Lucasarts has said that they do not support any gfx chips that use shared memory. I've seen people with integrated intel and SiS chips run the KOTOR series fine. They don't support it... but it doesn't mean it doesn't work. Besides, in my particular case I do not have shared memory... its dedicated. But the 200m has the same issue regardless of the type of memory... (I've tried both) therefore it is not a shared memory issue.

  The 200m chip is, more or less, an x300 chip with half the pipes. (2 instead of 4 I believe) Even so, while running many directx games it performs at or near what one of my old desktops ran with a 9600SE a couple of years back... which is just slightly better than a 9000. So as a baseline I say the 200m is right at or very near +/- the performance of a 9600SE. A friend of mine played through and beat KOTOR 1 with an old radeon 7200... which is inferior to the 9000 which is in turn inferior to the 9600se/200m. So using that comparison, the 200m should play (at least) KOTOR 1 just fine. By no means am I saying that the 200m is a great chip... but it can impress when tweaked properly. I play WoW and FF11 on it quite frequently and it does fine. So... if it can play games that demand more hardware than KOTOR... it's not a lack of gfx power on the 200m's part that is causing this issue either. 

Now you know what it's not... on to what it IS...
The problem has to do with the driver and it's (lack of) OpenGL performance. This is 100% a driver issue. The 200m handles most directx games just fine. But it has very VERY piss poor OpenGL performance. There are several OpenGL games besides the KOTOR series that run at the same 1-3fps. Adobe After Effects is unusable with this card when you use the OpenGL interface... so are many other gfx related apps as well. This chip cimply chokes hard on anything that uses OpenGL. Unfortunately, the Omega drivers do not address OpenGL related issues on the 200m so the ONLY way this gets fixed is if ATI fixes this issue by fixing the drivers to properly support OpenGL on these chips.... ...However, ATI does not officially support this gfx chip on their website. The newest Catalyst drivers do not support the 200m, nor do the IGP drivers support this either. The offical word from ATI is to contact the system manufacturer for updated drivers... which in my case the last update was 12/2005... which puts me somewhere near S-O-L. As most people who buy laptops know, manufacturers sunset their products so fast driver updates are rarely available other than the ones that were originally available with the system. It puzzles me to think that ATI has effectively turned their back on this chip. Brand new laptops (I saw an ad for a new Asus brand with a Turion64 X2 due out very soon) are being built with these chips. There are a lot of these chips out on the market, and more are being sold everyday... but yet ATI refuses to support it.

To that I say WTF... it makes no sense. 

So there you have it. Driver issue + No driver support through ATI = we be f***d  

There are a few alternatives though. You could attempt to find newer drivers for this chip through various manufacturer's websites. Asus, MSI... more or less any manufacturer that uses A64/200m combinations. You could get lucky... although so far I haven't... but yet again I really haven't looked too much. I have also heard rumors (although unconfirmed) that notebooks that use A64 chips (HPs especially) that run the performance crippled ddr333, notice a quite substancial improvement in gfx performance with the 200m by switching the memory to ddr400... if your notebook mobo supports it. Whether this would help with KOTOR or not... I do not know. I have some laptop parts on order (1gig ddr400 and a 7200rpm drive) and although I did not order these parts to fix this issue specifically... if it does help I will update this post.