format floppy disk

- Start Windows Explorer, Windows NT Explorer, My Computer.
- Role the right mouse button to snap the drive containing the floppy disk you wish to format, and  then click Format on the menu that appears.
- In the Format dialog box, click the choices you desire to use to format the disk, and then click Start.

 Options that are available:
This will depend on the floppy disk that we are formatting, most disks are now 1.44Mb, it is  best to exit this choice as it is.
FAT or NTFS, FAT is the natural file system for floppies, nevertheless if you take a utility  set up to enable NTFS floppies so choose NTFS, if you are uncertain or FAT is the only alternative then just  leave it on FAT.
 Allocation Unit Size: This should be left on the default unless you have a reason to switch it.
 Volume Label: This is where you can enter a label for your floppy disk, merely typewrite the name into the box, in our case we have called the disk New Disk.
Quick Format: This alternative can be selected if the disk takes antecedently been formatted and you just want to free the data away the disc.
Make an MS-DOS startup disk: This choice can be applied to copy system files over to produce a bootable system disk .
When you have chosen the options that you wish merely click on the Start button.
After snapping Start you will be given a warning informing you that every data on the floppy disk will be deleted, assuming on that point is no data on the floppy that you demand click ok.
Later clicking OK you will see a progress bar and that will be followed by an alert making knowns you about the condition of the format, ie whether it was prosperous or not.
If you desire to format another floppy disk then enter a different volume label and then click the Start button in the format dialog box over again.
When finished click Close button.Your floppy disk is now formatted and can be used to stock your files.

Garlic the Great!

Many uses over many years

Our knowledge of garlic's health benefits dates as far back as ancient Indian and Eastern medicine. Throughout history, garlic has been used as everything from an antibiotic to a tasty cooking ingredient. While many of the people who recognize garlic's health benefits today take it to reduce their cholesterol levels and help to reduce their risk of heart disease, the so-called stinking rose also functions as an antibiotic, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, carminative, expectorant and diuretic. Generally speaking, it is known to stimulate the immune system. Traditional uses have ranged from treatment of asthma and parasites to relief of hemorrhoids, kidney stones and menstrual abnormalities. Externally, it has been applied to skin rashes and abscesses and used to control lice and dandruff. It even has been employed as an aphrodisiac, although, given its characteristically strong odor, its effectiveness in that role seems unlikely.
In modern times, garlic has been associated most closely with high cholesterol and high blood pressure. The conventional medicine establishment has long held that the presence of a high level of cholesterol in the blood is the primary risk factor for heart disease and strokes. High cholesterol also is a factor in impotence and mental sluggishness.

Research confirms the benefits of Garlic

According to the authors of Smart Medicine for Healthier Living-Janet Zand, L.Ac., O.M.D., Allan N. Spreen, M.D., C.N.C. and James B. LaValle, R:Ph., N.D., the body manufactures all of the cholesterol that it needs through the liver. And when there is more cholesterol than the body's mechanisms can cope with, it is deposited on the interior of the blood vessel walls, narrowing them-a condition known as atherosclerosis.
Writing in The Garlic Book, Dr. Stephen Fulder asserts that garlic has been shown to lower the levels of fat and cholesterol in the blood "as effectively as many modern drugs now used for the purpose." Fulder also says that garlic thins the blood, which helps to prevent clots inside the blood vessels, and thus may reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Garlic already is considered a medicine in Germany and Switzerland, where it is used to treat high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. Many sources believe that the herb's power is in the alliin, which is a sulfur-containing version of an amino acid. As explained in Dr Earl Mindell's Garlic, The Miracle Nutrient, alliin helps to boost the levels of HDL cholesterol levels, (also known as the "good cholesterol" because it delivers excess cholesterol to the liver to be destroyed), and simultaneously slows down endogenous cholesterol synthesis, the body's own cholesterol manufacturing process. Mindell states, "Garlic is a terrific `cholesterol buster.' It raises HDL (the good cholesterol), lowers LDL (the bad cholesterol), and reduces triglycerides [an additional fatty substance that is combined with cholesterol in the body's lipoproteins]."

How much garlic is right for me?

The amount of garlic that should be consumed daily to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease still seems to be under some debate, although the average recommended dose is four grams, or one to two cloves daily. As a supplement, 500 mg of garlic three times daily is advised by the authors of Smart Medicine for Healthier Living. A Dutch research study, described in Varro E. Tyler's book, Herbs of Choice, concluded that garlic did, in deed, help lower cholesterol, thin the blood and reduce triglycerides, but only when participants consumed the equivalent of five to 20 cloves of garlic daily. On the other hand, in more recent studies, garlic has proved effective using a smaller dose of about one to two cloves daily.
There are a few reported side effects of garlic. Body odor and bad breath are the most obvious, although there also have been rare reports of an allergy to garlic. Tyler admits that large amounts of garlic "can result in heartburn, flatulence and related gastrointestinal problems." He continues, "Consumption of garlic reduces the clotting time of the blood, which (while aiding in the prevention of strokes) may cause medical problems in certain individuals (such as hemophiliacs)."
There are several ways garlic can be worked into the diet. Fresh garlic may be the simplest and least expensive method; however, this brings on the problem of odor. One way to remedy this is to wrap the clove in a peppermint leaf and swallow it whole. Many people, of course, choose to take garlic supplements, preferably enteric-coated tablets, which, according to Fulder, are capsules that pass through the stomach and release their contents in the small intestine-where they are most helpful and least likely to produce the unpleasant odor.
Finally, Steven Foster, author of Herbs for Your Health, suggests that, if you choose to add cooked garlic to your food, it should be added last. Otherwise, he says, alliin, the compound that makes garlic effective, gradually will vaporize into the air.
Garlic has been an integral part of health and society for centuries. According to Healing Herbal Remedies, one tale tells of how "society's first strike took place when garlic became scarce," and Fulder reveals that "the tomb of King Tutankhamen himself, contained six dried bulbs" of garlic. Is it possible that, when it came to Tut's health, "Mummy" knew best?

Women’s Tennis Players to Watch

As Grand Slam season heats up, tennis fans are wondering if there are any up-and-coming players to watch out for. We’re all familiar with the Serenas, Venuses, Clisterses, and Sharapovas, and there’s a good chance that the winners of the upcoming tournaments will come from this small pool of proven champs, but we never known until the tournaments are over. Here are a few players to watch in the upcoming tournaments:
Agnieszka Radwanska: This 21-year-old Polish player has been turning heads since her Grand Slam debut at the 2007 US Open. Since then, she has made it to the quarter finals on three occasions, and her 2010 season is shaping to be impressive—that is, if she can maintain her consistency and trust her game enough to break down her opponents.
Radwanska has the smarts to set cunning strategies and adjust with the flow of the game, but it is possible to overpower her. Her skill at keeping her emotions in check could get her far this year.
Aravane Rezai: The French Rezai has been around for a few years, but she caught a lot of people’s attention with her defeat of Venus Williams in the final of the 2010 Madrid Open. Thanks to this performance, she has risen to a career-high ranking of 16, and expectations are high for the summer. Her Madrid win was no fluke; she dominated much of the match with forced errors and outright winners.
Analysts have long been saying that her serve could use a little work, but her groundstrokes are glorious. If she can make some final tweaks to her serve before heading into France and London, she could go far.
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez: The Spanish Martinez Sanchez made her breakthrough at this year’s Italian Open, where she upset Francesca Schiavone, Caroline Wozniacki, and Lucie Safarova in the early rounds before similarly defeating Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals, then Jelena Jankovic in the final. This impressive run made her a top-20 player for the first time in her career. Currently sitting at 19, the 27-year-old hopes to reach even greater heights this summer.
Martinez Sanchez’s game differs from most of her competitors. Rather than hugging the baseline, she uses her strong lefty forehand to draw her opponents across the court before hitting a dropshot for the win. Her strong tactical approach could take her far in this year’s remaining tournaments.

Pidgin - Multiple Instant Messenger Service

If like me, you find yourself juggling multiple messenger applications to keep your friends, family and colleagues happy you will be glad to hear about Pidgin.  Formally known as Gaim, Pidgin is an open-source messaging program that allows the simultaneous use of multiple instant messenger services through one application.

Available as a free of charge download from www.pidgin.im, this small program supports 17 networks including favourites AOL, MSN and Yahoo as well some lesser known ones such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu.  Additional chat clients such as Skype and the Facebook Chat tool can be added through the use of freely available third party plugins which are easily located on the Pidgin site.
Once installed, simply select the type of account you want to add (for example a Google Talk account) along with your user name and password.  Any of your contacts from that account that are currently online will automatically appear in the buddies list and you can begin chatting straight away.  Not only does this offer the distinct advantage that you don’t need to switch between several applications if you have contact with friends on multiple networks but it also cuts down on the resource requirements of having multiple chat services running on one machine.
Along with being cross compatible with different networks, the Pidgin application is also available for many different Operating Systems; as well as the obvious Windows version, the developers have provided support for Solaris, SkyOS, Qtopia, UNIX, Linux and even the AmigaOS.
All the standard features you would come to expect such as contact organiser, custom smileys, file transfers and group chats are present.  The only slight criticism that I would have is that it doesn’t support video and voice chat however my assumption is that these protocols are difficult to integrate in to an application that has been designed to be compatible with dozens of networks and half a dozen different Operating Systems.  Hopefully this lack of functionality will be addressed in future releases.
Pidgin is completely customisable; the preferences dialog box provides an area where you can define every conceivable option including the interface, sounds, network connection, chat logging and your default availability status.  In terms of appearance you can also change the font type, size and colour, formatting along with installing new themes which change the appearance of smileys and status icons.  An additional option to install themes in order to change the actual user interface would be welcome as the default interface may be a little dull and unintuitive for some users

Microsoft Office 2010

Despite it being the second most used application on my work computer (behind the Mozilla Firefox browser), it’s still impossible for me to get excited about a new edition of the Microsoft Office suite.

With the final release due in a couple of months, Microsoft have provided a beta test version of Office 2010 that’s free for members of the public to download.  The beta test version will run unhindered until October 2010 at which point users must decide whether they wish to purchase the final release or have it removed from their hard drive.
For the costs involved the majority of home users may still be better off with the free OpenOffice Suite (www.openoffice.org) as it should provide all the features you are likely to need at no cost.  This having been said, the Office Suite has remained a popular flagship product over the years due to business users often requiring a specific function or application only present in the Microsoft offering.  I, for example, use Outlook on a regular basis and haven’t yet found an alternative that suits my needs.
Having not been the biggest fan of Office 2007 (especially the ‘ribbon’ interface discussed in the past) I wasted no time downloading the 64-bit professional version of the beta to put it through its paces.  I have now been using it for a couple of days it does appear notably faster than Office 2007 and certainty incredibly stable.  The speed increase could easily be attributed to the fact that a 64-bit version of the application is now available to run on modern 64-bit computers.
Office Professional 2010 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher.  The home edition (also currently available in beta) includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote.  After the official release, computer manufacturers may choose to bundle new machines with a starter edition of Office which includes just Excel and Word; this version of Office will replace the aging Microsoft Works Suite.
Although the ribbon interface remains, it is certainly a lot clearer than that provided with Office 2007; the confusing Office orb has been replaced with the familiar file menu, there are fewer distracting borders, a neutral colour scheme and most importantly it is customisable to the users individual tastes.  The applications look and behave like a ‘family’ now and have become more intuitive to use as a result of the more refined user interface.
An important new feature due for release in the final version but missing from the beta is the ‘Web Apps’ which will extend the Office functionality to a compatible web browser.  Very similar in form to Google Docs, Office Web Apps allows users to collaborate, edit and share Office documents online.  This is an incredibly important new feature that has no doubt come about due to the success of Google Docs and one that I would like to field test when complete.
This article isn’t long enough to go in to details about minor new features so I will summarise by observing that the changes made from Office 2007 to Office 2010 are evolutionary rather than revolutionary; very much in the same way that Windows 7 was an evolutionary change compared with Vista.  Excluding the Web Apps there is nothing substantially new however the minor improvements are certainly welcome as is the chance to road test a new piece of software completely free of charge for a year.
Users interested in downloading the beta version of Office 2010 should visit www.microsoft.com/office/2010 to get their hands on a copy.

Herbs and Menopause

Women by the millions are headed for a change-THE CHANGE, rather-that not-so-magical moment of a woman's life when her ovaries decide to call it quits. Doctors call it "menopause"; women have other names for the dreaded phenomenon they experience, usually between the ages of 45 and 55.
Traditional western medicine has been restricted in the ways it could support women who come to their doctor with classic menopausal complaints-hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings and memory or concentration difficulties. For these women, the options have been limited to two: 1) hormone replacement therapy with medications containing estrogen and progesterone, the hormones the ovaries quit making at the time of menopause, or 2) live with it.
Today, however, women are demanding more choices-ways they can be more comfortable without having to rely on synthetic hormone therapy. Setting aside traditional medical therapy, natural remedies have become increasingly popular for those women who want to make menopause a smooth but natural transition. In a three-part series of articles, I will discuss the various herbal remedies for menopause and help you make an informed decision about what's best for you.
One of the more popular herbs for menopausal symptoms is black cohosh root, harvested from a shrub-like plant native to parts of Eastern North America. It has been used widely in Europe as a treatment for menopausal hot flashes and is gaining in popularity in the USA. The way black cohosh works to control hot flashes is interesting and worth the discussion. Unfortunately it DOES involve a mostly painless mini-lecture on menopause and why hot flashes occur. So, if you're up for it...
When a woman approaches menopause, her ovaries basically give out and fail to produce the usual amount of estrogen and progesterone, the hormones normally produced cyclically in menstruating women. The brain, sensing the relative lack of female hormones, starts sending out chemical signals in an attempt to entice the ovaries to "pick up the pace a bit" and produce more hormones. These brain chemicals are called Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH). Women in menopause have lots of these hormones in their bodies. Scientists believe that fluctuations in the higher levels of LH in particular are what causes hot flashes.
Enter black cohosh. When taken for menopausal symptoms, the herb attaches itself to some of the same receptors in the body that estrogen does and tricks the brain into thinking it's really estrogen. The LH levels are reduced and hot flashes are improved. Easy, huh?
Well, not exactly. If black cohosh can trick the brain into thinking it's estrogen, does it act like estrogen in other ways? More importantly, does it carry the same risk of stimulating the growth of estrogen-sensitive cancers (like some breast and uterine cancers) as does real estrogen?
While not completely understood scientifically, recent evidence suggests that black cohosh has minimal estrogenic properties. This means that while it attaches to estrogen receptors like estrogen, it doesn't "turn on" those receptors in the same way estrogen would. Other than its effect on the brain's secretion of LH, it is not known to stimulate the uterine lining or do any other of the commonly-known things estrogen does. In other words, part of the body is tricked into thinking black cohosh is estrogen, but not all of it.
So what does all this mean? If science can prove that black cohosh reduces LH levels but doesn't act completely like estrogen, this may be a wonderful option for menopausal women at risk for estrogen-sensitive cancers who otherwise wouldn't be candidates for traditional estrogen replacement therapy. The "jury" is still out on this but I, personally, am quite hopeful that this will be the case.
If you're willing to give black cohosh a try, this is what you need to know before heading to the store to buy some. Look for a reputable brand that gives you the dose of black cohosh as a "standardized extract". The daily dose should be approximately 80 milligrams of standardized extract. Sometimes other herbs are mixed in with the black cohosh and called a "menopausal formula". This is probably fine but as you will learn in subsequent articles, not every herb is as safe or effective as black cohosh and you may be inviting unwelcome side effects. Take it for a month or so and see how you feel. There haven't been any scientific studies on black cohosh beyond 6 months of use so see your healthcare provider if you want to use the herb longer than that.

The Rules of Judo

Because judo is generally thought of as a gentle form of martial arts, many people assume that injuries are rare in the sport. But what we must remember is that, even with its gentleness, judo still involves punching, kicking, and falling, plus plenty of potential for repetitive sports injuries. So even with all that padding that judo competitors wear, it can be a dangerous sport.
The rules of judo focus on keeping injuries from happening, but there are also major elements designed to keep things fair and to ensure that contestants show proper etiquette to one another. With these motivations in mind, let’s look at the main rules of judo.
There are certain restrictions upon what judo competitors can do, including:
• You cannot attempt to intentionally injure another opponent.
• You cannot punch or kick in ways that aren’t permitted in the judo rules.
• You may not strike or touch an opponent’s face.
• You may not wear metallic objects during competition.
• You may not stall the match from moving forward.
• You may not adopt a defensive posture.
• You may not fake attacks, as this incites a counterattack, which goes against judo.
• You may not ignore or subvert orders given by the judo judge.
Players are expected to show a great deal of courtesy to one another and to all in attendance. As such, there is a set of etiquette rules that all competitors must follow. These include:
• Contestants are required to bow to the room before walking onto the mat.
• Before and after competition, contestants must bow to each other.
• Foul language and inappropriate body language are forbidden.
There are two levels of penalties in judo. The shido is given when a contestant has made a minor infringement such as stalling, faking an attack, or adopting a defensive posture. The hansoku make is given when a player either accumulates four shidos or commits a serious infraction such as intentionally inflicting injury on an opponent or punching an opponent’s face.
Players win by scoring an ippon, which is considered “one full point” and decides who wins the match. It’s awarded in a variety of match-ending scenarios, such as when one player throws another on her back. Two waza-ari equal one ippon. The smallest point awarded in judo is a yuko. These are only considered when a match ends in a tie, in which case the player with the most yuko wins.