Thursday, July 3, 2008
Guitar - Tuning to Perfection
There's an old and tired joke that "guitars are tuned at the factory" - unfortunately, wood bends and warps, strings lose tension and the forces of nature make sure your guitar needs tuning every time you pick it up. Read that last bit again, because the sooner you get into the habit of assessing your guitar's tuning, the more rewarding your playing will be.
It doesn't matter how dazzling you are on guitar, one strike of an unharmonious string will destroy any charisma you had.
The problem is, too many guitarists neglect tuning as though it is some 5 minute job to "get out the way" before you practice or noodle. Get out of this mindset immediately. You need to spend time tuning your guitar to make sure chords all over the neck sound in tune and harmonious.
Unfortunately, fretted instruments made of wood can never be tuned perfectly (sorry, I mislead you slightly with the title there!), but there are quick methods you can use to accurately tune your guitar to the human ear...these are just for introductory purposes...
1) 5th fret method - the classic tuning method which most beginners favour. This method simply involves fretting a string (at the 5th fret, except for the G string) and matching the note with the next open string. Your ear has to be well trained for this to be accurate, and there is an awkward exception involving the B string, which on most guitars needs to be manually adjusted to be in-tune on most chords.
2) Harmonics - tuning harmonics are a quick and accurate way to tune your guitar to itself. It involves creating a resonating harmonic on two strings at a time, and picking out what sounds like a vibrating effect between them. This "wobbling" effect is created when two naturally harmonious intervals are off-kilter, so all you need to do is tune up or down to resolve the vibration into one, straight resonating harmonic. This is a really accurate way to tune, because you're tuning an open string to another open string, rather than a fretted string to an open string which causes natural inaccuracies. You can learn more about creating the harmonic and this great tuning technique at the end of this article.
Tweaking and double checking
3) Comparing note for note, string for string - this is basically where you find a note on your fretboard, and compare it with the same note, or its octave, on another string at another fret. E.g. comparing the G note on the E string at fret 3 with the octave G note on the D string at fret 5 - these two notes should sound the same (but of course, the octave will be higher in pitch). This is seen as a more practical method of "tweaking" your tuning because you're comparing notes on strings that will likely appear simultaneously within chords - therefore, if they're even slightly out of tune with each other, the chord will be ruined. More obviously...
4) Comparing double tones in chords - chords that use 4 or more strings often include double tones (e.g. the root note appears twice in the chord), and open position chords down at the first few frets (e..g E major, G major, C major etc.) double open tones with fretted tones. Try playing the E major open position chord, one of the first chords you will have learned - the A string at fret 2 should be almost perfectly harmonious with the open B string, because they are the same note, just an octave apart. You may find the notes are slightly off, so adjusting will give you a more practical compromise when it comes to tuning for chords.
General good tuning practise
There are several ways to tune your guitar, but it's important that you tweak after you've tuned up (or think you have anyway!)
What I do is use a few tuning methods, like the ones detailed above, because often you'll find you can reach a good compromise between the few methods to really get well-balanced tuning. By well-balanced, I mean that some chords (e.g. full barre chords vs floated chords that mix open strings and fretted strings) will need to be compromised to ensure any chord you play sounds acceptably harmonious.
At first, you don't notice, but as your ear becomes trained, you begin to pick up on nuances in the tuning of your guitar. The key thing to remember is you must spend time tweaking your tuning, no matter which method you use.
Just don't become too obsessed - remember to leave some practice time to actually play some guitar ;o)
Mike Beatham runs a free, easy to follow and growing guitar lessons resource. You can learn more about effective guitar tuning at http://www.audio-guitar-lessons.com.
Independent Music Blossoms on the Internet
Today, the Internet provides unprecedented opportunities for independent music to find an audience. Unsigned bands and solo singers can now build a fan base that will not only listen to their music, but to buy MP3 downloads.
The Internet's Grassroots Movement
It's indisputable that the Web has created a paradigm shift in the way we live our lives. We've come to depend on the Internet for communications, information gathering, shopping, and so much more. With the advent of what is widely known as Web 2.0, the Internet has once again shifted into what could best be summed up by one word: democratization. For example, journalists are no longer affiliated with mainstream media outlets; they're researching, blogging, and breaking some of the top news stories of the day. Experts no longer sit in their ivory towers and publish papers in academic journals; your family members, neighbors, and co-workers are constantly refining the compendium of expertise known as Wikipedia. Throw in MySpace, YouTube, and other social networking sites, and the top-down information structure is tossed out the window, replaced by a bottom-up, grassroots movement.
The Music Industry is Reeling
Nowhere is this revolution more apparent than in the music industry. The Internet hasn't sent the industry rockin' and rollin' - it's sent it reeling. Napster, the progenitor of music sharing on the Web, is now viewed as ancient history, but the insurrection lives on. While iTunes is here to stay, some major record labels continue to resist the opportunities that the Internet provides, instead opting to distribute music only through traditional sources.
During the first part of October, these dinosaurs faced another challenge to their survival when Radiohead released their much-anticipated "In Rainbows" on the band's website. The kicker? Fans could get online downloads for free, or pay as much or as little as they wanted. So much for the business model that the music industry has traditionally employed.
How Independent Music Finds a Voice
Prior to the widespread use of the Internet, musicians and singers had to pound the pavement, sending demos to music labels and radio stations in the hope of breaking through to the big time. Today, however, independent music can take a page from Radiohead's playbook, and speak directly to potential listeners and fans. Indeed, specialized music sites have sprung up to showcase independent music, and to give musicians, performers, artists, and bands a platform for promoting their work. These sites offer MP3 downloads for less than the cost of an iTune, while supporting artists' work by giving them a 50-50 split of the proceeds. This is in start contrast to the deals that music labels give even the hottest bands, which typically receive only about 20 percent of the revenue generated by their music.
The Music Aficionado's Advantage
From the perspective of the music fan, independent music sites are a dream come true. In the music mainstream, a tremendous amount of talent is overlooked by labels in favor of "packaged" acts that are perceived to be revenue generators. Now, thanks to the Internet, music fans from around the world can hear and experience songs that might otherwise never have found an audience.
Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web.Learn more about Independent Music Blossoms or Majon's Music directory.
Breakthrough Chord Structure Makes Playing Piano a Breeze!
Do you know why playing guitar is so much easier than playing piano? It's because guitar players learn how to use chords first. Even before note reading!
They usually learn how to play chords in the first position. Called open position chords, the beginning guitarist quickly learns how to finger this position and can immediately create music. That's why so many people love the guitar and want to learn it!
They don't waste time learning "the masters" or anything like that at all. Nope. It's all contemporary. Unless of course it's classical guitar.
Now why can't those interested in learning piano have the same benefits? After all, it's not like everyone wants to learn how to play Bach or Beethoven.
The good news is you can play piano using only chords. But not just any chords. I'm talking about learning a chord structure that will have you sounding like a professional right away! It's called the Open Position Chord and with it, you'll be able to create your own unique music!
I know it sounds far-fetched. I didn't think I could make my own music either until I discovered this chord position from a book titled "The Four-Way Keyboard System." In it, the author Alan Swain goes into great detail about the benefits of learning this chord structure.
I didn't have to really read what he wrote. I just played it. And I was hooked! Here was something I could learn quite easily. And I could learn it in all 12 keys - just as easily! I had found what I was looking for. A modern sounding chord that would let me improvise with both hands at the piano right away AND sound good doing it!
Most of us know what triads are. This 3-note chord structure has been used to introduce students to chording on the piano. But learning triads isn't necessarily the best place to start. In fact, there really is no good reason to begin your piano studies with triads.
Listen, if your goal is to read music and play kum-ba-ya, then by all means, spend countless hours learning how to read music and play triads. But, if you want to improvise and create your own unique music, I can think of no better chord structure than the open position chord!
Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com now and get a FREE piano lesson!
The New Mask of India
"....the idea is that no society is ever complete, neither are its needs exactly the same as those of other societies." -Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi
Varun (or Victor for work purposes) declares: 'An air-conditioned sweat shop is still a sweatshop. In fact, it is worse because nobody sees the sweat. Nobody sees your brain getting rammed.'
-Chetan Bhagat, One Night @ The Call Centre
Unless we recognize the present low state of our society as contrasted with our ancient progressive civilization, and unless we soon introduce such reforms into our social institutions as are calculated to bring about our regeneration, there will be no salvation for us, the Hindus, as a race. We should try and remove all causes of our degeneration. Whatever encrustations have gathered themselves in the lapse of time round our social fabric, we should carefully scrape them away.
-A. Mahadeva Sastri, The Vedic Law of Marriage
On September 15th, 2006 C. Mann, a representative of the Voices NGO, delivered a lecture at Global College's South Asia Center about how communities throughout India are seemingly benefited by their ability to access the newfound global communications infrastructure. He pressed the idea that traditional India is strengthened through its inclusion into the "global" culture and economy and that the Indian people are empowered through this new system of commerce and, subsequently, thought. It is my assertion that this single "globalized" pattern of living, business, and philosophy, in essence, forms the foundations of a faith in commerce that cannot fit within the cultural bounds of all societies congruously and without drastic social consequence.
It is my understanding that the main theme of C.Mann's lecture was that, in this "modernized" world, all people are drawn into one collective spear of commerce and, by extension, culture. In lieu of this fact, he seemed to heavily imply that all people of the world need to be "wired-in" to global information technologies in order to continue making a living. He went on to assert with confidence that, with this new technological ability, small-scale subsistence farmers will not only be able to sell to places that they have never sold to before but they can also watch Hollywood movies, American sitcoms and professional wrestling on the TV. His position went on to directly state that the adaptation and, in many instances, appropriation of local customs into the common milieu gave strength to the communities from which these traditions arose. His delivery was curt, well-groomed, and with the fervor of someone who had something to sell. But I could not buy it.
Globalization can be defined as a practice of ideology that envelopes all the people of the world into a single frame of economics, consumption, and thought which finds its beacon in the model set forth by the multi-national corporation. The people of the world are now grouped together in two lump sums- the haves and the have-nots- while such inconveniences such as national and cultural lines are disintegrated. What is left is a dominant global mono-culture which revolves around the tidings of capitalistic consumption, exploitation, and expansion. In his summation of C.T. Kurian's work on the subject, Dr. Sakhi Athyal asserts that, ". . . this globe has been integrated by capitalist practices and ideology and has largely removed ideological polarization." The dilution of cultural distinction and polarization is of absolute necessity, as the ideal of this system is the complete restructuring of societies for the construction of commercially fertile ground. The blemishes of cultural variation have no place in the "modernizing" structure, as the formation of the 'two class one culture' system is universally implemented globally. Athyal continues, ". . . in summary India has embraced a market economy, and as a result it has lead to unequal distribution of income and wealth which in turn leads to unequal distribution of power and hence to the exploitation of those with economic power over those who lack sufficient economic power." Globalization is not a process of cultural hegemony but is, conversely, the institution of a world- wide social system that grinds out any pre-standing cultural congruency's in the pursuit of profit. In the words of the famous economist, Milton Friedman, "the corporation cannot be ethical; its only responsibility is to turn a profit." Globalization is the culture of the corporation.
The particular manner of inter-cultural communion that is the hallmark of the globalization process is much less a blending of varying cultures than the imposition of one single cultural frame- the culture of commerce. This particular social order is created and maintained through a belief in monetary acquisition that is tantamount to a faith. In such a system, people, animals, and the environment are degraded to their barest essentials, and are given value judgments base upon how much monetary "worth" they contain. Things of beauty are not appreciated solely as such, but are qualified with remarks of their approximate value. To observe someone going through the rituals of recreational shopping is very similar to that of an individual in the mist of religious rigmarole. Under this commercial belief system, money represents time and time represents life; to make a purchase is to recognize an equivalent portion of your life as related to the object's projected value. To purchase is to sacrifice the life/time that it took to earn the money that was paid for the object. To purchase is to worship life itself. This capitalistic way of viewing the world permeates into all strata of the social fabric and, consequently, into the very psyches of all involved members. Capitalism is not simply an attribute of a society that can be easily separated from the mainstay of the culture; as capitalism is the culture itself. The South Asian Voice asserts that:
India has been lulled by the mantra of "liberalization" and "privatization". This mantra has delivered home appliances and electronic gadgets galore. But it is also time we realize what this mantra has not delivered. It has not delivered a modern infrastructure that keeps pace with growing demands and consumption of a still rapidly growing population. India is now able to satisfy the demand for items of individual consumption. But it seems completely unable to satisfy the demand for items of collective consumption - such as clean air or clean water or a smooth transportation network.
The pressures of this commercial culture upon foreign communities has had the effect of enacting a gross manner of cultural dilution, in which opposing inter-cultural ideas seem to simply cancel each other out or, at most, absorb each other; leaving a pale frame in the place of what was once vibrant color, dare I say- distinction. This is not a melting pot in which the riches of many cultures are joyously mixed together and kept intact, but rather a centrifuge in which a gyroscopic force serves to throw the beauty of cultural distinction out to the periphery, before dissolving it all together. What remains are cultures with no roots, communities without communication, and people with no direction. I am from the United States; I know this corporate culture intimately.
I come to India because it is traditionally a world apart from this commercial culture and I find vicarious substance from the ideal of her people, places, traditions, and cultural distinctions. It seems as if the essence of the traditional Indian social system lays in piety and family role, which appears to be qualities that should completely contradict the individualized, western perspective that breeds excess and consumption. But this seems to be changing due to the recent influx of western companies that must, due to the nature of their business, enact a policy of cultural indoctrination that seems to be ideal fodder for young Indians looking to stake out their own place in the social sphere. This is due to the simple fact that the type of businesses that are currently being brought to India are that which provide information services to people of predominantly western origin. In this particular dichotomy, Indian-ness is not encouraged and is, in fact, covered up with learned "western" forms of behavior and speaking that are pan-inclusively carried out in all aspects of the workplace. As the journalist George Monbiot wrote, "The most marketable skill in India today is the ability to abandon your identity and slip into someone else's." This particular brand of workplace indoctrination is no better exemplified than in the anthropologists Carol Upadhya and Sahana Udupa's documentary satire, "Fun @ Sun."
In this twenty minute video on the workplace environment of Sun Microsystems' Bangalore center, Upadhya and Udupa slyly show how a preparatory "neo-corporate" mind-set is created and maintained throughout all spheres of the workday. It showed scenes of "hunky-dory" celebrations in which employees all gather together in designated locations, laugh at designated prompts, and speak in designated tongues in the name of "fun," interdependence, and corporate trend. On this phenomenon, Makarand Paranjape, an English professor at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University says, ". . . [we are] seeing an attempt to eroticize the [IT] industry, an attempt to make it a culturally exciting place, hip and cool. Of course it's a bit of a fantasy: there is nothing glamorous about call centres; they are dehumanizing, decultured places." This system of deculturation seems to be enforced with a sort of gang mentality in which there is a set social line that is enforced by all involved members rather than a sole "boss" figure. This "same paging" seems to be a tactic of cultural subversion that is as subtle as the industrial revolution was direct; with an end result that is quite the same- programmed, acculturated employees.
The hallmark of this employee programming is found in the fact that there seems to be a set image and way of acting that is projected upon the employees within this new corporate work environment. During a visit to a Dell call center in Bangalore, I was able to make surface observations of this new work culture first hand. Whilst baking beneath bright florescent lights and sitting inside of cubicles, the young workers all wore western clothing, spoke intentionally neutral English (deficient of as much Indian accent as possible), and interacted with each other openly. The average age of an employee was around 22-25 years old, and there were a comparable number of women as men. The walls of the center were lined with posters showing parody scenes of Indians and westerners interacting and doing business together, complete with slogans of workplace solidarity and team work. The dress and disposition of the workers is this environment were very distinct from that of the average Indian and one could easily distinguish an IT/ BPO employee in the streets of an Indian city. I found out that the average salary of an employee in this sector is around $3,000 US a year; which enables them to live the rather extravagant, western-like, lifestyle that goes along with the profession's social image (while at the same time saving the company the cost of hiring westerners at ten times the cost). In an article on the cultural impacts of the IT industry, Amelia Gentleman describes the call center scene as a place where, "thousands of young male and female college graduates spend the night confined in close proximity (breaking down the traditional distance between the sexes), working to US-time in smart, modern offices, adopting alien American identities, performing mindless tasks but earning salaries larger than anything their parents could aspire to."
These particularities form the making of a new sub-culture that will have a great impact on subsequent generations. As an anonymous author put forth in the May 2001 issue of the "South Asian Voice:"
For the IT-literate, job opportunities have been plentiful, and there are also opportunities to live and earn abroad. For the English-speaking upper middle-class, this has come as a boon. With greater access to disposable income, the seduction of consumerism becomes hard to resist, and the demand for unrestricted globalization inevitably follows the attraction for new and ever more advanced consumer goods. This new and more prosperous class of Indian consumers associates India's progress with the availability of the latest automobile models and consumer goods. The local availability of imported European cosmetics and fashions, imported drinks and confectioneries - these have all become important to those who have sufficient disposable income to purchase such items.
The macrocosmic cultural impacts of this newly appropriated "corporateness" are multi-faceted and extend deep into the Indian social environment. It seems as if traditional values and roles are being severed in a single generation and the overlaying, trickle-through impacts are affecting all spheres of South Asian culture. I asked a BPO public relations official, who has made international sales and marketing his career, if he lived a life that was similar to that of his parents. He, of course, told me that he did and that the recent subterfuge of western companies has no great impact on Indian society. But he was paid to tell me this, and the fact that he was in his mid-40's and could not find a marriage partner, in a country where parents arrange their children's marriages at relatively young ages, due to his profession told me a very different story. There seems to be a deeply seeded identity crisis in which India is making believe to itself that it is still Indian while at the same time co-opting the apparent fruits of this neo-colonial mono-culture. How can a culture hold itself up in depth when it needs to adapt its very face to exist in the modern economy? I do not know the answer to this question, but the cultural impacts of this transformation have already made a running tear in the Indian social fabric.
The cultural changes that have resulted from this influx of western technology, employment, and ideals were not more apparent to me than on a visit to a nursing home just outside of India's IT capital, Bangalore. The thought of a nursing home in India is a completely foreign concept as, traditionally, the elderly are taken care of by their children and/ or relatives. But in "modernizing" India the dilution of family role seems to be part of the corporate package; as employees in the IT/BPO sector, due to work requirements and their 'western' acculturation, are oftentimes not able to provide adequate care for their elderly parents. I fell into fertile conversation with one woman whose son was an engineer at a German technology company. She told me that she had to come into the nursing home because her son's mindset did not allow any room for her traditional ways of home rearing. She told me that he was a modern man and attended to modern things and how he thought that his new western ways were superior to that of her time-honed Indian folk wisdom. Her elderly friends to her left and right eagerly agreed with what she was saying and shook their heads in disbelief about the predicament that they found themselves in. She spoke with distain when she said that, "People today make more money but they also spend more. They do not save. They do not listen to the lessons of the old. They have nothing." This seems to be the theme of the elderly everywhere, but this woman was heavily hit by the westernizing wreaking ball, and she knew that her traditional Indian values would not be carried into further generations. The chain of folk knowledge was broken at this juncture and the impacts of such are forever stretching. There is no going back; there can be no retrieval, as soon as the great line of generational knowledge is disrupted, thousands of years of tradition are, proverbially as well as literally, gone in the years.
We are all entering upon a pale, pale plastic world, and with each day new societies are eagerly embracing changes that ultimately dissolve their heritage. The mono-cultural blankness of the western corporation is taking hold everywhere and communities are losing their time-honed distinction and identity as a result. As the American folk musician Robert Blake sings, "Hollywood movies are cultural degradation." The popularizing of a traditional folk song in a Bollywood movie does nothing to preserve the culture from which it arose. Rather, all this accomplishes is the caricaturizing of a deep meaning folk song into a medium that is sellable. When this happens, the tradition is not enhanced but is lost altogether. To put something as pure and heartfelt as a folksong into a chintzy Bollywood jingle is to severe the song from its roots and leave an artificially packaged frame in its place.
There is something in this world more meaningful than price-tags, more solid than the numbers on currency, and more human than television. There is substance beyond the reach of corporations and a human spirit that is indomitable by neo-colonial indoctrination. I recently heard a professor rhetorically ask what the good is of tribal people making jewelry for themselves outside of the realm of commerce, and I must answer with a single word: 'everything.' The standardized corporate modal of commerce and living simply cannot be absorbed by every society of the world without the severe dilution of the attributes that make cultures distinctly themselves. To "modernize" is to leave a culture stripped of substance; to "globalize" is to impose a corporate derived mono-culture upon distinctly unique human societies. If this movement continues unabated we will find that a world paved in pale, blank, strip malls and people who know nothing other than that which is televised is all that will remain.
*Written in the autumn of 2006 in Southern India
Wade P. Shepard is on year eight of his journey around the world. So far he has wandered into the outback of Mongolia, lived in a monastery in Tibet, ate a puppy in China, danced with mystics in India, thought he was a gardener in Ireland, and got really lost in Patagonia. He has now run aground in Morocco, where he is braving the magnificent souqs and wide open landscape. Throughout all of this, he has been working diligently on his travelogue Song of the Open Road and his homepage Vagabond Journey.com
Simple Sales Boosting Techniques
It can often be very difficult to attract new customers and increase the sales of your service or products. Enhancing what you already have and capitalizing on existing customers can dramatically help. Here are a few techniques to enable you to achieve this.
Follow-Up Emails: After making a sale, contact your customer with a "thank you" email and include details of other related services or products you wish to advertise. This could be followed by further "products of interest" emails every couple of months. However, ensure you do not over email your customer, include a link to unsubscribe and cease communication if explicitly requested.
Up Selling: Up selling is a method in sales used to encourage a customer to buy a little extra or to upgrade the final order. These extras will often be small purchases that will involve little consideration from the customer, while the added extra to your company can be enormously profitable. The simplest way achieve this on a website is to advertise a few extra low cost related products or emphasize key benefits of an upgrade at the order stage. For example if you are a designer offering web design, try encouraging your clients to purchase additional hosting or a domain naming extras just before they finalise their final order.
Referrals: Referrals are an effortless way to increase sales, as you are encouraging your customers to endorse your services to friends or family, in order to receive a reward. If you provide your customers with the incentive to receive a 100% refund in return for referring four customers to your website, you will then have received three sales at the cost of one.
Affiliation:Similar to the referral system, you can provide your customers or non-customers with the option to join an affiliate program. The basis of an affiliate program is to provide affiliates with a commission, often a percentage of the sale, earned by selling your product for you. This can multiply your sales, without the expense of marketing.
Resell Rights: There is a large online industry of people who purchase resell rights products in order to promote and resell for profit. The benefit being that they can easily sell a product without the cost or time involved in production. Capitalizing on this by offering an upgraded product with the inclusion of the resell rights could increase your sales, with the additional possibility of further multiple sales from third party customers.
Cross Promotion: Cross promotion is a type of advertising that involves two or more websites, who actively promote each others products or services. Cross promoting with other partners can provide big marketing rewards; sales can effectively grow through a larger pool of customers. For example, if you provide printing services, it may be beneficial to you to cross promote with the products of a graphic design partner.
Coupons and Gift Certificates: When you distribute a sold product to the customer, include a coupon or coupon code. This not only thanks the customer for making the purchase and generates a sense of loyalty reward, but also encourages them to redeem their coupon with another purchase. Alongside this theme you can also sell gift certificates, which will provide revenue from the certificate itself and create sales potential from new customers that claim their product.
Michelle S Roberts, Design2Go
http://www.design2go.net - Affordable Graphic Design
Design2Go work in partnership with new businesses and SMEs to magnify their potential through effective design. Our low prices, high quality design and excellent service make us one of the best value graphic designers online.
See our exceptional value for money, fixed-rate design packages and let us help improve the professional image of your business.
What It Takes To Investigate A Person Through Background Checks
There are many ways to investigate a person and a lot of information that you can gather. Depending on the nature of information you are trying to obtain, different methods apply. Let me illustrate this point. If you are, for example, trying to find out what a person is doing behind his company's back or behind his wife's back, you will be have more success if you were to hire a private investigator. However, if you are trying to do background check on a person, there are more economical and faster ways to do it. This article will focus on how to investigate a person by looking through his or her background information.
In order to start to investigate a person, the purpose of the investigation must be clearly defined. Background check is usually applied in scenarios like pre-employment screening, verification of credentials of business partner, screening for volunteers working with young children and women and even identity theft investigation. These are just some reasons to investigate a person and the information that is relevant for these checks differs from scenario to scenario. That is why the purpose for investigation has to be defined first so as to determine the type of data required.
For pre-employment screening, you will need to first do a Social Security Number or SSN check. This check will help employers to verify the integrity of information given by job applicants. Next thing is to find out if the person has any criminal history. It is advisable to do a criminal history lookup within the state you are in as well as nationwide. Other information to look out for is bankruptcy report and credit report to investigate a person's financial situation which is especially important for new staff dealing with high value company assets and funds.
For verification on credential of business partners, business record will be needed to verify the authenticity of the business or its owner. Information like property record, bankruptcy record and credit report will give you an idea of the person's financial standing. Other checks will include SSN, criminal history record and court records. Having these information will give you a certain level of assurance that the person or company is not a fraud.
For screening on would-be volunteers or healthcare workers, a check on sex offenders record is vital. An individual with history of sex abuse may not be suitable to be allowed to work with young children or women as volunteers or healthcare professionals. Of course, you will need SSN check, criminal history record and credit reports to make the screening complete.
All the records mentioned can be accessed from many government agencies but getting them from different locations can be very time consuming. Fortunately, there are online databases that provide one-stop service for you to obtain necessary information to investigate a person instantly.
George Tho is a webmaster and advisor on investigative services. Read his review on an online service that provides you with all the data you need to investigate a person instantly through his or her background here.
This article is the property of George Tho. It may be republished over the net but links and content must remain unchanged. http://www.ClickbankProductReview.com is an independent internet industry and is not associated with any national or state government or government department. Advice is given as general advice and no liabilities accepted in relation to the provision of this information.
Let the Post Office Come to You - Print Postage Online
Are you tired of having to run out to the post office for stamps? Then you will be glad to know that you can go on the Internet and print the postage you need anytime. Thanks to a couple of useful websites like Stamps.com and the US Postal Service you can do all that you need to get your mail out from home. Just weigh it and put your cost for mailing on it all from your computer. To make it even easier they ever have the option to print out the mailing label at the same time with the postage already on it. That's right you don't have to go out anymore to be able to mail that letter or package, with an Internet connection, printer and some software you are all set.
Sure there may be some cost involved when you use an online service to print the postage, however with the ever rising cost of gasoline you may actually find that it is more economical to do your postage this way.
With the convenience of printing postage online you can ship most anything you wish. One package or ten, it is unlimited in how many you can send. It's like have a post office in your own home or office where you can ship your packages Priority, First Class, Express and even International Mail.
You can get everything that you need from the place you chose to use for your mailing needs. The scale for weighing, labels to print and even discounts on larger mailings to make life a little easier.
Some things can be dropped in the mailbox while others need to be taken to the post office or a drop box to mail properly. Size will be a major factor in this determination. However you will find that you won't be standing in line waiting to purchase postage any longer.
There are numerous benefits to buying stamps online. Time saved is the first thing you have and then there is the fact of the ever increasing fuel costs so it will save you on gas. In today's world the time factor is the most important thing for most; second only to the money saving factor.
Individuals and business alike can benefit from the ability to print postage online. Those that mail a large amount each month will find that they are constantly going out for more stamps. The trips to get stamps alone add up quickly.
With businesses wanting to advertise through the mail to reach a wider customer base the discounts available make bulk mailing more cost efficient for them. No more wasting endless hours at the post office to have a large number of packages sent out to customers. Business also benefit from package pickup services that are available from the post office. A very useful tool! When choosing an online postage provider be sure to become familiar with the website before you print postage online.
Widen your knowledge on Postage Meters at http://www.printingpostage.com - Free information and impartial advice on how to print stamps with the USPS.
